#damian now gets to see what bruce was like

[lazycats-stuff]

What about Bruce"sneaking out" to go on date with the reader. His son's obviously follow him to see what their father is up to. When they realize that he's going on a date, they tease him the next day because 'the playboy is settling down'

Oh yeah. That would happen. Also, Robert Pattinson is hot. Like, sir, who gave you the right to be this beautiful?! Ah...

Summary: Bruce is ready to settle down.

Warnings: talks about Bruce's sexuality, boys following Bruce, teasing, Bruce has no will to deal with them.

Bruce Wayne is a very known playboy. That was a fact that no one could dispute. But the playboy was slowly getting ready to settle down, but he didn't want anyone to know just yet. He knew that his playboy history would bite him in the ass, but hey, he could try something at least.

With someone called (Y/N) (L/N). Bruce met the man by accident at work and has really liked him so he decided to shoot his shot with the man. (Y/N) knew of the playboy persona and history with many men and women and that threw him off.

Bruce knew that (Y/N) would be suspicious because of his playboy persona. That was going to happen, but Bruce wasn't going to let this chance go to waste. Bruce promised (Y/N) that he wasn't like the media made him out to be.

(Y/N) didn't quite believe it, but Bruce was patient. He was going to win (Y/N) over one way or another. Slowly but surely he would make him say yes. He would show (Y/N) that he wasn't what the media portrayed him to be.

So he started with some flowers first. A few bouquets to start off with. Then something that he heard (Y/N) talk about while they talked. He wanted to make sure that (Y/N) knew that he was an attentive and observant partner.

(Y/N) said yes eventually and Bruce was over the moon. He told (Y/N) they would be going to go to a really fancy restaurant, all expenses paid by Bruce. His own words.

Bruce finished tying his tie as he looked at himself in the mirror. He opted for a classic black suit. Classics are often great and there was no need to try to overdo things. It's important that he remains true to yourself.

The only issue in this entire thing?

His boys. Don't get him wrong, he loves his boys to no end and Bruce would never change anything about them. But... There is a slight problem about them teasing him about all of this. They are chaotic boys who love him in their own way, but they would tease the hell out of him for this date.

Sneaking out was the only option.

After that, Bruce slowly made his way to the garage, getting into his car where flowers and a watch were waiting as presents. He made sure no one followed him before leaving.

Oh he was so wrong for that train of thought.

Jason frowned in thought as he watched Bruce drive away. He knew that Bruce has been secretive about something for a little while now, but he didn't know what. The boys agreed with that sentiment and decided to check where and what Bruce was going.

So they put the tracker on his car and have decided to follow him to the place where he was. They have an entire sting operation when it comes to that. They were raised by the best detective in the world. Not to mention, they were trained by Bruce in all the ways to be sneaky.

So, after 20 minutes, Dick took one of the cars with tinted windows and they all squeezed in there, just ready to stalk their father. They were concerned, sue them. Jason and Dick where at the front, while Jason was navigating Dick through the city until they parked across the street from the restaurant.

Tim hacked into the cameras inside the restaurant and the four watched the footage of Bruce and (Y/N). Both when they came into the restaurant and now.

" Father bought flowers and a watch? Since when playboys do that? It looks like it has meaning. " Damian questioned out loud and everyone shrugged.

Then came the kiss on the cheek from Bruce to (Y/N) and everyone was even more shocked.

" What the fuck? " Jason voiced out and Dick smacked the back of his head for the cursing. " Hey! "

Tim shushed them all as he turned the footage to the live one. " They seem very cozy with one another... " Tim noted and everyone seemed to agree.

" The playboy is finally settling down. " Jason joked, laughing quietly.

It was a weird thought, to think that Bruce has decided to settle down like a normal person and not like a playboy... Is Bruce really serious about this relationship?

" Do we think that B is finally settling? " Dick asked and none of them were sure of the answer.

" I mean, he is always nice to his lovers and what not. Always trying to seduce... But he seems... Gentle? " Tim said as he zoomed in and everyone was now a bit more confused.

" So... He is settling down... The old man is settling down... Holy shit. Pigs can fly it seems. " Jason mumbled and everyone had agreed about it. For the first time in years, they have all agreed on something.

" The playboy of Gotham is settling down. What a time to be alive. " Dick joked and Tim huffed as he kept watching the live footage.

" It seems that the guy is into Bruce too... " Tim noted and Damian looked out the window for a moment.

" I didn't know that father is bisexual. " Damian noted, but there was no malice in his voice, just pure curiosity about his father as he leaned closer

" I mean, people of all genders hit on him so... Him being bisexual isn't an issue... I think it flatters him to a certain degree. "

" Oh, the lovebirds are holding hands. Oh my. " Jason noted as he craned his head to get a better look at the footage on the tablet.

" Is it just me or is B smiling more honestly? Like he isn't being pressured? " Dick asked and that was a new thing.

" I think that this confirms it. Bruce Thomas Wayne is settling down. The playboy is settling down. " Tim said, clearly shocked. " We need a background check on this guy. " Tim added and everyone agreed.

What if he was a gold digger? They couldn't have that. Bruce may have an eye out for such people and could see them from a mile away, so they may have trusted Bruce, but you never know. It's better to be safe then sorry.

" So we are doing a check on the man? " Jason asked to confirm it and everyone nodded.

" Oh yeah. The face is all that we need for a check. " Tim confirmed. Again, better safe then sorry.

" I think we can go back home before Bruce sees us here. " Dick said as he started the car again and started driving back to the manor.

" I'm not sure about you all, but I'm teasing the hell out of B tomorrow. " Jason said and they all laughed. Besides Damian, who simply smirked in his own Al Ghul way.

They'll have so much fun tomorrow.

All of the boys ventured down to the kitchen where Bruce was. The boys were all smirks as the entered, Bruce not noticing the expressions as his back was turned back to them.

There were a few good morning exchanged and they all took their coffees and sat down.

" Where were you yesterday B? " Dick started and Jason smirked behind his coffee cup. This was going to be a complete and utter shit show.

" I had some League matters to see through. " Bruce lied and Jason took the lead now.

" In one of the fanciest restaurants in Gotham? " Jason said and Bruce froze.

" What? "

" You were on a date and we know it. " Tim said, sipping his coffee peacefully as Bruce exploded inside.

" The playboy is settling down. " Damian added and Bruce let out a long sigh.

" Not now. "

" Look old man, it's all good. It's nice that the biggest playboy in the tri state area is retiring and finally settling down. " Jason chimed in.

" Don't tell me you are doing a background check? " Bruce asked, fearing the answer already.

" Nooo... " Jason drawled out.

" I'm going to work. Bye. " Bruce said as he left with his cup of coffee.

" Oh how nice B! It's nice to see you leave the playboy persona behind! " Jason yelled after Bruce and all the boys were all smirks as Bruce left.

" We won't let this go. " Damian said and they all nodded.

They won't let go for shit.

[askdamijon]

Welcome to the Ask Damijon Blog!!

Before you run to the inbox, let's lay down some ground work.

Damian is 21 and Jon is 18, meaning that Jon was never aged up. Damian is currently living with Bruce and is going to school for illustration while patrolling as Robin during the night. Jon has just graduated and is taking a year off since he has little to no idea what he wants to do with the rest of his life. They are both hopelessly crushing on each other but is oblivious that the other also has a crush on them.

Rules/Guidelines

Nothing too sexual. Let's keep it PG 13 but with more cussing.

Address the character(s) you're asking. For example; "Hey Damian,...." Or "What does Jon think about this?" etc.

You aren't limited to just asking Damian or Jon, you can ask anyone in the DCU

Please keep it on the topic of Damijon, don't ask like, what's Flash's favourite ice cream flavour?

Please be patient, I'm working on a couple of other projects right now so if need be I might put this on the back burner.

I'll edit the rules and guidelines how I see fit if things get out of hand.

Have Fun!

[wixenburr]

Saw some ppl talking about Reverse Robins and i had thoughts

Talking abt u guys @eldritchdreamss @brucewaynehater101

Why kill Tim when you could kill baby Jason? What I want is for all of them to keep their own backstories and personalities (Developed in line with the story of course) So ofc i had to write a 1,000 word brainrot abt it.

(Also i'll only be going over the main 4 batbros for now i will add more later but these guys are the ones im most passionate about so here we go)

Damian

Let Damian come in, desperate to be of use and be worthy of his father, only for a softer, less jaded bruce (since jason hasnt died yet) to help him open up his heart and let him act as a kid. With no competition for so long, I imagine he and Bruce get along very well while he works with him. Yeah, they need to work on the no killing deal and Damian's... i guess impulse control? But i think it would be easier with very intensely focused reparenting; no distractions of other kids you know? No favoring or anything.

I see Damian growing up as a stoic, jaded adult. He's had a rough life. Maybe he sticks with the vigilante business. but I really love headcanons where he gets out of it, and focuses on something calmer, like his art. (I do appreciate and love the veterinarian Damian AUs, but im going for FULL calmness, you know? And doctor/vet work is Not calm lol)

So yeah, maybe he grows a real passion for heroism, maybe he doesn't? Maybe he goes on to be an artist and that's just what he does. Bro is ready to settle down as a scarred, veteran trophy husband and i adore him for that.

(Sorry lol i just love Damian and i love the idea of him growing out of both of his parent's legacies. Let him live his own life!!! He fights so so hard for at least 15 years. ALL 15 years of his life. He deserves to have some peace.)

Tim

Tim i think would need a much different story to join the Batfam. He still starts out as a stalker who follows batman and. . . . . . . Redimar (meaning Redemption iykyk (I just spend 17min researching names rip)) at night, takes photos, etc... Since Damian doesn't die, maybe he finds Tim? and like, tim is like 11 and Damian is 17 or 18. He's started going out as Redimar less and less, not that B really minds? In fact hes probably happy for his son so...

But then Damian finds Tim, and now he has to keep going out because he can't let this kid get himself killed like this. He would hold himself accountable since hes the only reason Tim keeps going out so much- also i imagine Tim follows Redimar more than Batman.

Cue a classic Tim Joining The Batfam plotline. They get to know each other better, get a grasp on Tim's situation, Damian finally introduces Tim to Bruce... (Probably something like Dami: "Father, this is my new brother. Timothy, say hello to Father," Tim: "Hello, Father," Dami: "Perfect." Bruce: "*falls off the batchair*)

Anyway, so, Tim ends up kinda just merging with the Waynes. They start training him, its all good and nice, and Tim makes his own little hero team unlike Damian, which is actually pretty interesting here; its Tim who made the first young hero team. Damian only ever had Jon (Superboy 1 in this!!) and he finds Young Just Us and becomes a great leader and its all fine and dandy.

Tim and Damian get along well. Damian is the sage older brother whos kinda distant, but only because he has such high emotional walls (but secretly a softy). He is very much like Bruce- nope, nevermind, hes definitely worse than Bruce in this AU, since Bruce is depicted as being much more agreeable before Jason's death, you know? So yeah, Damian is the emotionally constipated bitch in the fam and we love him for that. But hey!! Tim does manage to get through his walls! And Bruce does sometimes too!! (Tho i imagine Bruce and Damian's relationship to be very.. idk let me try to expalain. Dami: "Father." Bruce: "Son :)" Dami: "Tt." Bruce: *nods* "Hrn." Dami: "Hmph." Bruce: "Hm.") DO U PICK UP WHAT IM PUTTING DOWN--- lmfao. They hardly need words.

Tim ends up growing up very very capable. Once his parents die, he gets a little jaded, but hes still Tim. He and Damian become kind of an... ice prince duo? If you get what I mean. But Tim is the one whos actually the ice prince, Damian is secretly a HUGE softie. He is Delicate and Tim protects him lmfao.

Jason

Jason comes along like he does in canon. Has the same backstory. Tries to steal the Batmobile's wheels. Tim is sleeping over at Damian's flat for the night, so its just Bruce. They bond. Shit happens. Jason joins the fam.

I don't imagine them not getting along, but they don't immediately hit it off either. Jason is wary of all of them for a time, but he ends up warming up to Damian pretty fast after realizing what a softie he is. He pokes fun at Damian and Damian just freaking takes it lmao. Hes an adult he cannot be disturbed. Bro has seen too much and he finds Jason adorable. (Dami: "You were never this cute, Timothy." <- he is lying. Tim: *offended* "What the fu- flip!?" Jason: "Lmao Tim just say fuck." Dami: *deadpan stare* Tim: "JASON NO DONT SAY THE FUCK WORD-") ahem.

anywho and then Jason dies rip skill issue ratio.

The whole batfam is heartbroken. Genuinely shattered. Jason was a light in their lives. Not that they were WITHOUT any light, but Jason was the epitome of a sunshine child.

It's been too long since Damian has killed someone. Bro's god oodles and oodles of trauma. He can't bring himself to kill the Joker.

but Tim can.

It's a whole dramatic thing; Damian feels awful that he made his- now only- little brother kill. Bruce is hella upset but feels responsible for not seeing how badly both of his kids were handling the death of their brother. Tim goes a little off the deep end.

Things turn out.... okay. sort of. but not really. Tim changes his hero name to Red Cardinal. He feels pretty lost. Maybe he stumbles into Ra's al Ghul or smthn idk maybe smthn happens there perhaps. Maybe Damian has to put on Redimar again and rescue him? But its less of a rescue and more of a "Stop joining the dark side Tim jesus christ-" (and it does work).

They go home. Tim gets a boyfriend or two. Damian falls into his art. Bruce is throwing himself into work. They're all kind of a mess, but they keep moving.

and then

Dick

(lmao that sounded wrong)

ahem; and then the circus comes to town. The batfam- well, Tim, Damian, and Bruce- all decide to get together to do something fun. Take the opportunities given, yk? So they go to the circus together.

Wham bam rip the falling Flying Graysons.

They see Dick, breaking apart, and they know they have to do something. Bruce is the first to move. Then Tim. Damian is the last.

It's pretty quick getting Dick home, since Bruce is already a foster parent cuz of Tim yk. So Dick doesn't have to suffer in Juvie at all really. But that doesn't change the fact that he is ANGRY.

Dick is SO angry. he wants to kill the person who murdered his parents. He knows what he saw.

The fam of course do their best to investigate. Mostly Tim, who feels unworthy of being around an innocent little kid after his whole.... villain era, i suppose lol. (ofc Dick thinks Tim doesnt like him lol misunderstanding arc GO)

The whole "Dick accepts that justice is better than murder kinda maybe FOR NOW" storyline happens, and Dick becomes the conniving, bright, little Robin we all know and love. (Thinking of the Young Justice Cartoon Robin (but not the characters- just Dick's character) aaaand

Womp womp GUESS WHOS BACK

Jason's Back

but i'll leave that for later.

[batarella]

Bruce's Bathtime - Batfamily Sitcom

Bruce's mistake was thinking he could have a peaceful night in the bath on his day off when his manor is full of kids who share one brain.

A/N: HELLO EVERYONE I LOVE YOU AND IM SORRY I DISAPPEARED BUT I WANTED TO WRITE SOMETHING SWEET FOR YOU TO ENJOY. THIS IS HEAVILY INSPIRED BY "BATH" BY SAM AND MICKEY ON YOUTUBE.

WORDS: 1.7K

WARNINGS: NONE. IT'S WHOLESOME AND SWEET.

MASTERLIST

——-

Crime rates were always at an all-time low in time for the Superbowl.

Which meant Batman gets a day off. Duke was the only one on patrol that night. Alfred spent half an hour convincing him not to spend the night at the cave.

“Master Bruce, the bath has been drawn and I’ve taken the liberty of using the expensive lavender bath salts so you would not like to waste it.”

“You’re right, Alfred. I’m a billionaire and I find the fifty-dollar lavender salts a waste to not use.”

“Just get in the bath, Master Wayne. Just thirty minutes of quiet shall do you good. I’ve set an alarm.”

Since when did Bruce start working for him?

He did as told anyway. Bruce closed the bathroom door and stripped off his clothes to get in the tub. There were so many callouses in his body, he barely felt just how burning the temperature was.

It was just a minute in there when the first knock woke him from drifting off.

“Bruce?”

What the hell is Dick doing out of Bludhaven? “What?”

“Is the music room haunted?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“I heard something inside.”

“Instruments tend to do that.”

“I did a headcount of everyone in the manor and everyone is accounted for except Duke who you sent out for patrol so I doubt it’s anyone but a ghost,” Dick said.

“Get out.”

“But I’m not even inside the bathroom.”

“Go away.”

“What if it’s not a ghost? What if it’s a spy?”

“The manor has more advanced security systems than the Pentagon, Dick.”

“That’s not a good point of comparison.”

Bruce closed his eyes and let the steam slow his rising blood pleasure.

“Just check the room. Could have been the wind.”

“I’m too scared.”

This man was almost thirty and was still giving Bruce the same amount of aneurysms as when he was eight.

“Ask Alfred to check for you.”

“Okay.”

He heard fading footsteps and let them lull him into sleep. He set his large arms onto the sides of the tub, sinking his mouth under the water.

“Father,” a voice said from out the door followed by three soft knocks by a small hand.

“What, Damian?”

“I need you to sign this letter from the school headmaster.”

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

He doubted that.

“It’s for a parent-teacher conference.”

Bruce let the silence answer for him until Damian gave in.

“Someone attacked me in class.”

“Damian-“

“Okay, I threw the first punch but he taunted me first about how I was small for my age but I said that I’m of perfect size for my age and that I’m simply too smart to be crowded into elementary school children when my intellect belongs to that of a senior and then he asked what I was doing here and not in 5th grade and I said what was he doing here and not in 5th grade and he spat at me and now his nose is broken and they want you to cover the medical bills.”

Christ.

“Maybe you don’t have to pay it. You can call them yourself. You’re Bruce Wayne. You can get away with anything.”

“I can, but you’re not Bruce Wayne, so you have to deal with it.”

“Can you just sign this, Father?”

“Fine.”

Damian walked in, fanning the steam off his face and covering his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see his own father naked, then handed him the letter to sign it.

“Make sure your handwriting is the same as when I forged it.”

His eyes could not have rolled further back into his skull.

The boy walked out, just two seconds before the next set of voices made him wish the gunman shot him in the head four decades ago and not just his parents.

“Bruce, could you tell Jason he’s not the only one who died and come back to life and that his robin costume doesn’t deserve to have to top display in the Batcave anymore especially since he’s here?” Tim said.

Jason’s voice was even more obnoxious. “I died first, asshole and no one else would have died if it weren’t for me so clearly, you should thank me. And my rebranding was better. You’re still technically a robin since, you know, it’s the other half of your name, so you don’t deserve to be memorialized.”

“You don’t deserve to be memorialized at all when you’re alive and not a memory. You’re not even the first robin.”

“You’re not the first anything.”

“I’m the first at a lot of things.”

“Replacement.”

“Glorified zombie.”

Bruce grabbed the cucumbers Alfred had laid out on the table next to him just so his eyes wouldn’t burst out in blood at how much he wanted to scream.

“Ask Alfred what to do,” Bruce said.

“Alfred is with Dick in the music room to look for ghosts. We need an answer now.”

“What do you even want me to do?”

“Tim threw my robin costume piled up with all their robin costumes when clearly, it should be in the display case,” Jason said. “And Tim wants to move my motorbike out of the cave.”

“You have so many motorbikes, would it hurt you to move just one?”

“No.”

“Bruce!”

Bruce counted to ten. “No.”

“No to what?”

“Everything.”

“You don’t even know what you’re saying no to.”

“I could not care any less.”

“Can we please come in?”

“No, I’m naked.”

“We’ve seen you naked.”

“Not on purpose.”

Jesus fucking Christ. “Fine. Fine. We’ll get glass cases for both of you and we’ll pretend it’s a shrine as if you’re still dead. Happy?”

“Not from dying but sure,” said Tim.

“What about the motorbikes?”

“Put it outside,” said Bruce.

“Are you sure? What if someone sees?”

“Do whatever. Throw out the T-Rex in the cave for all I care.”

“Also, I need access to the batcomputers,” Jason said.

“For what?”

“Everyone else has access except me.”

“That’s for a reason, Jason.”

“Pretty please.”

“Get out.”

It took another five minutes of the two yapping at the other side of the door before it finally quieted down.

Then his phone started ringing. Duke.

That was when his blood pressure really started to spike.

“Duke? Is everything alright? What’s wrong?” he said to the phone.

“Me?” said Duke. “Oh yeah everything’s great! Not much crime when everyone’s watching the halftime show.”

“Then why’d you call?”

“Can I use the batmobile?”

Fuck a duck. “For what?”

“The streets are empty and you said I could drive it when there isn’t traffic.”

He hung up and threw the phone into the water before Duke could say anything else.

He had five minutes of quiet this time. Then Steph was at the door. “Bruce!”

An aneurysm. One of these days, he might actually have one.

“What now?”

“Can I change rooms?”

“Why?”

“Dick said there’s a ghost in the music room and my room is like five feet away and I don’t think I can sleep there anymore.”

“You slept there last night and everything is fine.”

“Ghosts can be quiet, Bruce, it doesn’t mean they’re not there. And you’ve made a lot of enemies, so I won’t be surprised if anyone’s settled in to haunt you.”

You’d think he wasn’t in a house full of vigilantes who fight the city’s most dangerous criminals.

“I haven’t killed anyone, Stephanie. I keep all my enemies alive.”

“What if it’s not your enemy? They don’t have to hate you to haunt you. Can I please just change rooms?”

“Move wherever you want. I don’t care.”

“Can I move to the bedroom at the west wing?”

“That’s mine,” Bruce said.

“You have a bedroom? I thought you never slept.”

“Fine. Take it. Just get out.”

“Really?” Steph squealed. “The master bedroom. Sweet!”

It took less than five seconds before the next reason for his headache started pounding at the door.

“Bruce! Jason is trying to hack into the batcomputer!”

“I did not!”

“He did!”

“The World’s Greatest Detective is just mad I guessed his password on the second try.”

Bruce sank into the water, drowning their yapping until it had blurred out. He held his breath for seven minutes straight. He could die. That wouldn’t be the worst thing. Just when it was finally quiet, again, Bruce rose up and found Damian sitting on the toilet.

He continued to look unbothered even when he looked at Bruce straight in the eye.

“Do you mind?”

“I’d like to use this toilet.”

“There’s fifteen bathrooms in the manor, Damian.”

“I like this one.”

“I understand I have not spent as much time with you, but this is not what your tutors mean by father-son bonding.”

“Oh no, don’t worry. I don’t mean to bond with you. I just like this toilet.”

“Fine. Please. Take your time.”

He did take his time. Damian sat there for a whole five minutes and pulled out a book.

“I wasn’t being serious. Get out of here.”

“Relax, father. It’s your day off.”

Bruce eyelids fluttered closed and he refused to open them until his son left the bathroom.

The next knock made a blood vessel pop. “Bruce. It’s me Barb. So sorry to bother you but I found another group of conspiracy theorists on the TikTok who made a list of billionaires who have never been seen in the same room as Batman and you’re the front liner of that list. I know you told me to never engage with these things but it’s at fifty million views right now and they’re making edits of you as Batman.”

“Make more bot accounts and pin it on Elon.”

“On it,” said Barbara. “So sorry to have disturbed you!”

He’s going to have a talk with Alfred to block off the whole floor the next time he draws these baths.

“Bruce?” It was Cass. “I hope it’s alright if I take Steph’s room. I took the liberty of putting a speaker in the music room so Dick would tell everyone there was a ghost in the manor and Steph would move out.”

The alarm went off. His thirty minutes were up.

 One of these days, Bruce might finally break his no-kill rule, and it won’t be for the Joker.

---

A/N: I MISSED ALL OF YOU ASSHOLES AND I HOPE THIS WON'T BE THE LAST

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[humblefryingpan]

Sometimes I forget how angry people get about ships that aren't harmful 😅

Tim Drake is canonly bi and he has a boyfriend. People ship him with his ex girlfriend. Both of those ships are completely fine, I think timbern is cute and I don't ship timsteph but I get they were together a while and people like them.

That being said I made a poll to see which Tim ship is most popular (I enjoy seeing what people think yk, it's entertaining) and Steph was one of the options but so was Bernard and someone rebloged it saying if timsteph didn't win it would be misogyny?

Neither of them are winning btw lol, connor is which is its own weirdly controversial thing

The thing is-

Timsteph isn't a bad ship. They were together a while, they were cute. Lots of people grew up with timsteph and like them.

Timbern isn't a bad ship. Just because Tim's dating a guy now doesn't mean he hates Steph or anything, he just moved on (and so did Steph!) and he's bisexual, he isn't just suddenly gay. They're cute too, and it's nice to see representation.

Timkon also isn't a bad ship. They're close friends which is the base to a good relationship, if they got together it'd also be good.

You know what is a bad ship? Tim and Jason. Or Damian, or Dick, or Bruce. And yet I see more people mad about shipping Tim with his boyfriend or his ex girlfriend or his best friend than I see people mad about shipping him with his siblings and his dad.

[batsbirdsandspeedstersohmy]

Some thoughts I have on cute story line/au

Wally and dick are dating took them forever to actually admit they got feeling for each other even if everyone else alrighty knew.

Wally is the flash berry is still alive and the flash. They kind of both are at the same time. No it's not confusing unless your arent from key stone or central city. If your from bludhaven you are to scared to ask due to seeing Nightwing and flash kissing. If your from anywhere else then you are probably confused.

Bruce gets lost in the time line

Dick unfortunately has to take up the mantle of Batman

Wally doesn't like that but support his boyfriend in any and everyway he can.

Dick moved back into the manner makes Damian Robin and works closely with him. Wally just about spends every night there even if he isn't living there technically. Since his name is on their old apartment and they don't fully want to lose it yet.

Dick and Damian become close. And thus Wally and Damian become close.

Damian starts seeing them as his parents. Calling them dad in different languages they don't know

Dick has an idea of what's Damian is doing. He knows his Damian even if they don't say it. Dick and wally refers to Damian as their kid.

Wally and Dick go to all meet the parents and Damian art shows and just every and anything they can. Damian will not say it but he is glad to have them there. He gets so upset if anything wrong happens cause he doesn't want them to think he not good enough anymore.

Wally and Dick get engaged Damian knew it was happening. He when with Dick to help pick out the rings. Well he when with Dick to help look at rings and get an idea of style. then waited as Wayne enterprises made something that would work for a speedster. He also inspected the ring very closely to make sure the people who made it didn't mess up.

Bruce comes back

Damian thinks he has to go back with Bruce and Wally and Dick won't want him anymore. Bruce of course thinks he is entitled to Damian. Wally and Dick are heart broken but think its best if Damian stays with Bruce.

Everyone but Bruce cry

Bruce is a bad parent and doesn't see Damian as anything but the killing machine he was trian to be and how he was right when he was dropping off at Bruce door step a few years ago.

Damian is the ring bearer for the wedding of course and hoes with them on wedding planning.

Alfred hates how Bruce is not showing love and how excited Damian is when Dick and wally come over. And how sad he gets as soon as they leave.

Alfred prints out adoption paperwork for what feels like the millionth time and instead of giving to Bruce puts in Dick pile of papers.

Wally and Dick almost cry when they find it and fill out what is their part. They take Damian out for ice cream. And ask Damian if he wants to be with them. Damian of course says yes and how their his dads and please don't leave him again.

They go back and start packing up stuff and go to the bat cave to get Bruce to sign the papers.

Bruce says no he will not and that they baby Damian and he needs to be watched carefully. Dick and Wally are going to get killed if they trust Damian so easily. And he will not let them take him.

Dick and wally are so upset dick gets mad. And yells at Bruce about how he been gone and Damian been hurt so much by him. Wally ends up being like Bruce you have 3 days otherwise we are taking this to court and taking our child back the hard way.

Damian doesnt understand why he can't go with them now. Wally unfortunately understands that it looks worse if they kidnap Damian by taking him now. They promised it only going to be a little bit and they get him very soon.

Damian spends the next three days packing up everything when he not busy. Alfred brings him boxes. Bruce tried to unpack things saying he not going anywhere. Alfred starts moving the boxes to a safe space that Bruce can't get to. But isn't Dick and Wally's place.

Bruce doesn't sign the papers

They go to court Dick and Wally get a lawyer for themselves and one for Damian. Bruce says it stupid for Damian to have his own one. And it's actually Dick and wally having two.

The judge ends up picking Damian a new lawyer and whoever wins have to pay for Damian's.

A lot of Damian's teachers are called in. Damian art teacher is one of the ones who help a lot. She brings up a project about their family tree and how Bruce and Talia are on there. But also Wally and Dick are on it. And Damian has put himself under them but arrows to Bruce and Talia with blood parents.

Talia ends up showing up. Which no one really knows how she knew what was happening. She says wants her son with Bruce that's why she drop him off at his place. (To train with the Batman)

I need to go to bed about 40 minute ago I'll come back and finish my thoughts

[nerdpoe]

Stop Having a Concussion and Get us Home!

Tim works as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. Tim has a secretary, and then he has another one to help her because holy shit, the amount of crap Tam puts up with is insane and she needs an assistant of her own.

Tim's second secretary is one Danny Fenton.

Tim, Tam, and Danny are the last ones in Wayne Enterprises, as the building had to be evacuated due to Superman being mind-controlled and targeting major corporations.

Superman targets Wayne Enterprises.

Tim looks out the window as he his secretaries make their way towards the emergency exit, and there he is.

Floating there.

Staring at him.

Tim swears he can see his Uncle Clark sobbing as his eyes heat up.

Then Danny grabs him, yanks him into the stairwell, and just as the building starts to crumble around them, shoves both Tim and Tam into a glowing green portal.

Danny takes a blow to the head.

They land on a floating island, in a swirling vortex of green, and the one who got them there is unconscious on the ground with a nasty headwound.

Meanwhile, after the Justice League manages to snap Superman out of it, the man throws himself at Batmans feet and just...sobs.

Breaks.

They get the story in bits and pieces.

Tim was in the building, still. The burning, twisted wreckage of Wayne Enterprises.

And Clark can't hear his heartbeat anymore.

@simplestoryteller

[starlooove]

Dick drops Damian off at Joey’s to babysit and Damian is so pressed on the car ride there. Like first of all he doesn’t NEED a babysitter and even if he did why can’t he just go with Dick? Dick is so hateful, he preaches all that bullshit about love and tolerance and care for family but now that Damian needs him he’s abandoning him??? To a STRANGER?! Dick will rue this day, the day of his ultimate BETRAYAL.

Dick goes to pick Damian up and he refuses to leave.

[precursorgod]

all i want is third robin steph and owlmaster tim

[inamindfarfaraway]

My Excessively Detailed, Heavily Opinionated Catwoman Comics Timeline (Major Spoilers)

Backstory

Selina Kyle is born in the East End in Gotham, in the area’s typical poverty, to Cuban immigrant Maria and Irish American Brian. Maria is a loving and protective parent, if troubled and sometimes emotionally distant. She loves cats and in some stories explicitly keeps several at home, preferring them to humans. Brian is your classic abusive alcoholic archetype with a side of racism - he isn’t confirmed to have physically abused his daughters, but he is verbally aggressive toward them and Maria is shown to make a point to send them away when his anger is peaking. He also regularly mistreats her, including in front of their daughters, and generally has no observable love for his family.

Yes, I said daughters, plural. Selina has a little sister named Maggie. (Their exact age difference is never specified, but it’s probably about two or three years. Maggie is drawn noticeably smaller when they’re kids. In one flashback she has toddler proportions when Selina is clearly older than that. Also, her hair colour oscillates between ginger, light brown and blonde, and her eyes are usually brown, but sometimes blue.) The two are polar opposites. Where Selina’s idealism rapidly degrades, Maggie’s persists; where Selina sharpens her edges and puts up emotional walls, Maggie openly seeks love and validation; where Selina lashes out at the world and looks out for herself, Maggie is kind, selfless and pacifistic. It’s easy to conclude that Maggie gets to be softer because her big sister is growing up too fast for her. Basically, they’re both put through early childhood trauma, and as Maggie puts in in the Relentless storyline, “[they] both survived [it] in entirely different ways” and both “thought [their own] way was right” for years.

Age is still never specified, but Selina is consistently described as ‘just a girl’ when Maria kills herself. The girls find her in the blood-filled bathtub. This moment will be recalled repeatedly, including in full-on traumatic flashbacks, and is agreed to kinda be Selina’s ‘equivalent’ in defining traumatic childhood events to Bruce’s night in Crime Alley.

Selina has been doing gymnastics since she was a little kid, BTW, supported by Maria. It’s said to be all she was still interested in once her mother died.

Brian’s parenting does not improve now he’s a single parent. The time of his death is another thing disagreed upon: in the Kyle sisters-centric Catwoman origin story Her Sister’s Keeper, he dies two months before the plot when both his daughters are adults, the news of which shocks Selina but she doesn’t seem to particularly mourn him for what a great guy he was. However, later tellings quietly retcon this to him dying ‘not long after’ Maria (the constant imprecision is very annoying to me. Give me numbers, dammit!).

Either way, just a few years after Maria’s death, the girls end up orphans and homeless. Selina goes to Sprang Juvenile Hall because Gotham’s social safety net is fantastic, but rather than let Maggie be cast to the winds of chance, before she’s locked up she takes Maggie to a children’s home run by actually good people - nuns - and abandons her there. Why doesn’t she stay and grow up there too? Well, given her intense self-hatred, bad luck and how throughout their interactions she puts Maggie before herself, I read this as her not believing she deserves it and/or believing she’d ruin any happiness she had, and Maggie had with her present, due to her supposed inherent badness. That’s just my interpretation, but I think it makes the most sense. So Maggie has a much healthier, happier and more stable late childhood and adolescence. She becomes a nun herself called Sister Magdeline, in fact. And always feeds the stray cats outside the convent.

Meanwhile, Selina is abused in juvie until she breaks out at thirteen and lives on the streets. Namely Alleytown, a slum between the East End and Old Gotham. She starts her career as a thief and swindler here, in the Alleytown Kids gang run by Mama Fortuna, who lets them stay in her house, nicknamed the Nest, and teaches them to use people’s underestimation of kids against them. Selina takes to crime like a cat to hunting, earning the woman’s respect. She befriends a fellow kid there, Sylvia Sinclair. But Mama Fortuna takes all the kids’ loot for herself and makes them do her chores and dirty work, so Selina and Sylvia run away together.

A pimp named Stan hires Selina as as sex worker. You get three guesses if he’s an abusive bastard; the first two don’t count. Sylvia likewise becomes a sex worker, and when they have their first times at fourteen, Sylvia volunteers to go first. Selina has no idea how to comfort or help her in the wake of this extremely traumatic experience, so she just… doesn’t. Unbeknownst to her, Sylvia holds a grudge over this. They’re pulled apart quickly after that by the chaos of the streets. Years later, Selina fails Sylvia again when she ditches her to get arrested during a diamond heist Sylvia asked for her help with. Sylvia goes to prison.

When Selina’s seventeen, she meets thirteen-year-old homeless girl Holly Robinson (whose hair oscillates between blonde, red and strawberry blonde because again, comic books are as consistent as Greek mythology). Holly’s turned to sex work too after running away from her abusive junkie parents, leaving her older brother behind. She’s at that moment being assaulted by a cop. Selina punches him out and rescues her, taking her under her wing. This is the first time Holly realizes that she doesn’t have to passively accept whatever cruelty life subjects her to, and she becomes Selina’s sidekick and little sister figure. Selina canonically has strong Big Sister Energy.

Comics Timeline

Her Sister’s Keeper. Selina learns martial arts from Wildcat and becomes Catwoman, inspired by the early appearances of Batman, initially to get her revenge on Stan. (Her age is vague, but a cop guesses that she’s sixteen or seventeen and Holly looks like a young teen, so she’s probably in her late teens to early twenties. Except Maggie is a fully fledged nun, and you need to be eighteen for that. Damn comic book chronology. Maybe Selina and Holly look younger than they is because of their chronic childhood malnutrition stunting their growth?) She reunites with Maggie, Stan captures Maggie to hurt her, Selina technically doesn’t murder him but does in spirit, Holly also gets beaten up by a cop, Batman is just trying to do his job and the Batcat ship is born in what else but a fight where she neatly summarizes their stage one relationship with a kiss immediately followed by a scratch. It all escalates into a whole debacle. Selina ultimately comes to three conclusions: 1. she’s gonna be a badass thief now; 2. Batman is hot and they’re into each other, but he’s a little too much like a cop for her to trust him; and 3. she’s willing to take the risks of her lifestyle, but not to let her loved ones get hurt, and so sends Holly to live with Maggie in the convent. That last one is important! Though Selina is habitually selfish in practical terms, she also will always want better for those she loves and has a responsibility/guilt complex about needing to protect them from harm. Her foundational self-concept is to some degree inherently a Bad Person, therefore pushing people away from her is her idea of doing what’s best for them. Almost every time someone she cares about gets hurt by a villain’s own actions or something else beyond her control, she believes it’s her fault! When she cares, she cares so much!

Ahem. I have strong feelings about this character. She has broken into my head and is stealing my time and mental energy.

HSK is Catwoman Volume 1. For a long time after this we’ve got the classic status quo. She’s the best thief in the world. She steals from the rich and gives to herself, mostly, to the point that she becomes a self-made socialite with fabulous outfits. She and Batman have their on-and-off enemies-and-lovers relationship, or alternatively, they speedrun enemies-to-lovers arcs and back again over and over. Sometimes as a socialite she flirts and has flings with Bruce Wayne, who’s nice, but her real love is Batman! (Cut to Bruce and Clark commiserating in a bar that their crushes have dumped them for themselves in a costume.) Occasionally she and Bats dare to dream of something more serious and committed between them, but his strict moral code and her amorality and both their intimacy and trust issues keep getting in the way. Go to therapy, you two. Please.

Volume 2 gives Catwoman her own rogues’ gallery. This includes bitter copycat rival She-Cat, who Selina rejected as a friend when they knew each other as orphan kids and must now deal with as an enemy; the scientist Cyber-Cat who uses shiny feline power armour and gets just a tiny little bit obsessed with the thief who humiliated her despite it; and Hellhound, her former classmate at a martial arts dojo with an ego even greater than his actual skill. Selina’s also presumed dead for a few years at the end because comics. The list of comic book characters who have never been truly, functionally or presumed dead is getting worryingly short…

I will summarize its major events, but before you read any further, I implore you to read Ed Brubaker’s run of Volume 3 (2002) if you have the time. Please. It is the Catwoman run. Brubaker is the best writer the character has ever had and - the abomination that was Selina and Slam being a couple notwithstanding - his writing is overall some of the best DC’s ever had in my opinion. Just read it if you want to know who Selina Kyle is and what she’s about.

I’m serious. I’ll wait.

Okay! Offscreen in the years before Volume 3, Maggie and Holly leave the convent and Gotham and part ways. Maggie fit in great there until an apparent crisis of faith, but Holly never felt like she fully belonged in that world and this feeling of discontentment only worsens. Maggie gets a degree in psychology, falls in love with a good man named Simon and settles into a comfortable life of domestic bliss. Holly in contrast spirals downward, returning to sex work on the streets and doing heroin.

Volume 3 proper starts with the story Catwoman: Anodyne. A series of murders of working girls gives Selina a blast from the past and makes her take a look at herself in her penthouse with her collection of lavish ball gowns and jewels. She realizes that she’s lost sight of her roots of standing up for people like herself and Holly against corruption and abuse. So she reinvents her Catwoman identity to be an antiheroic vigilante actively championing social justice, particularly focused on the East End. Respect. Because as this story’s events remind her, the cops don’t care about the poor and marginalized like sex workers. Private investigator Slam Bradley is her contact in legal crime solving, rather than a police officer, and he consistently disdains cops. Obviously she still steals, but it’s less of her defining characteristic. She’s more generous with the spoils too. For example, she funds Bruce’s charity projects. Stealing with no noble ulterior motive is presented less as empowerment from now on and more as a self-destructive compulsion, a symptom of her unhealthy, trauma-based survivalist mindset that she’s trying to escape.

Her change of heart improves her relationship with Batman. They get to know each other’s secret identities. The more cooperative Batcat, with the added intimacy and domesticity of Brucelina, is pretty much the Batman franchise OTP with Brutalia having petered out. I don’t want to get into ship wars, but at present canon, ever fickle mistress that it is, does largely lean my way.

Selina reunites with Holly in Anodyne, Holly only a few months off heroin. She starts pretending to be homeless, truly acting as Catwoman’s eyes and ears on the East End streets, and later becomes the new leader of the Alleytown Kids. She’s also a lesbian and has a girlfriend named Karon (whose hair is finally a consistent colour - purple). Selina tracks down and reunites her with her long-lost brother Davey in a nice roadtrip story. In One Year Later, the timeline in which Selina and Bruce have Helena Wayne, she succeeds the Catwoman mantle when Selina quits to be a more devoted mother. And in the buildup to Infinite Crisis, she befriends the antihero Harley Quinn and lives with her for some time.

Speaking of Harley Quinn, Selina has close friendships with her fellow morally flexible badass women, Harley and Poison Ivy. They collectively form the Gotham City Sirens. Their comic run of the same name brings this to the fore with them sharing a home and on paper all going straight. (They don’t, obviously). Bruce actually encourages these bonds because Selina keeps the other two in check and their friendship brings out their inner altruism; he knows Selina will side with him if Harley and Ivy, traditionally outright villains, fall too far into the darker shades of grey. The three still hurt each other, all having their own issues and different worldviews, but overall they’re a heartwarming, fun, awesome trio.

Selina trains Stephanie Brown as rookie Spoiler for a bit. Another interesting relationship given how similar Selina and Steph’s childhoods were that writers refuse to explore, because DC doesn’t let us have nice things. At least not for long.

Leslie Thompkins is another good friend of Selina, supporting her in helping the East End community.

But wait! Did you think DC would be satisfied with the amount of pain these characters have already gone through? Hell no! Catwoman: Relentless, chronologically before Gotham City Sirens, is a great big kick in the teeth. Buckle up. Selina’s been a significant thorn in Black Mask’s side, stealing $28 million from him in diamonds to fund an East End Community Centre, and he wants to make her pay for it with interest. He blows up the centre and kidnaps first Simon, then Maggie. Sylvia comes back into Selina’s life leading the Alleytown Kids (before Holly does it, sorry if my ordering is confusing) and seemingly is a friend and ally. But it’s revealed that due to her animosity toward her she’s been working for Black Mask the whole time and luring her into a trap. She was the one who told him her secret identity, enabling him to do all of this. Meanwhile, Black Mask is holding Maggie hostage. How does he hurt her to hurt Selina? Well, he tortures and murders her husband in front of her, cuts his eyes out and makes her eat them. Under-fucking-standably, Maggie’s sanity is… broken. Holly, who naturally also gets captured and tortured, ends up shooting Sylvia to save Selina’s life. Not just wilfully allowing her to die, actively shooting her. Selina also basically breaks her no-killing rule here. She kicks Black Mask off his balcony, then stands right in front of him and watches him slowly lose his grip on the ledge he caught in disgust while he begs her to help him. So that’s cool. But she and the people she loves are very, very hurt and traumatized, and she blames herself for all of it for trusting Sylvia and not being able to protect them.

Maggie has to live in a mental hospital after Relentless, trapped in an unresponsive catatonic state. What happens to her afterward… well… yet again, comics can’t give a straight answer. Blackest Night, that big crossover event with with loads of dead characters being revived as evil Black Lanterns, has Black Mask return to life and kidnap her to hurt Selina again, only for the Sirens to rescue her. But Maggie runs away and the chronologically later Gotham City Sirens run picks that thread up with her being homeless and now believing Selina is possessed by a cat demon and that’s why her life is full of sin, misfortune and general bad things. In the course of seeking to exorcise her, she gets possessed herself by an apparent (though suspiciously harmful and violent) genuine angel who not only causes her hallucinations that make her delusion look true, but gives her supernatural powers and possesses Harley too at one point. Maggie turns into the Christian extremist antivillain Sister Zero determined to ‘save’ her sister’s soul whether that keeps it in the mortal plane or not. It’s very weird. The nature and goals of the ‘angel’ are literally never explained, and that itself isn’t necessarily bad, but… I personally don’t like or agree with that direction, the whole thing just comes out of nowhere for me and I think the sisters have had enough angst and division already. I haven’t seen Sister Zero appear outside that series. The ongoing Volume 5 ignores all of that and begins with her still hospitalized and catatonic, having been so long enough that her straight bob has grown to be shoulder-length and curly. This run immediately follows the failed wedding fiasco in Tom King’s Batman run that I know a lot of fans, myself included, disdain and disregard. Here Maggie gradually improves. She’s taken to live with Selina to save her from villainous scheming. She regains her speech, she’s happy, she makes peace with Selina being Catwoman and the risks and pragmatism it entails. However, by issue #35 another villain, Christian fundamentalist assassin Father Valley, nearly kills Maggie just because of her association with Selina, and both sisters are pretty damn sick of people doing that. Maggie also wants to live on her own and reassert her independence. So she leaves Gotham and isn’t planning to come back, last time I checked.

During the time where Dick is Batman, we’re introduced to (vaguely aged, of course) adolescent Kitrina Falcone, the youngest child of the notorious Falcone crime family. She’s raised by her abusive, negligent uncle Mario. She spends a lot of time on the streets to avoid him, running jobs for criminals like the Penguin and getting prodigiously skilled at theft, breaking in and out of places, escaping restraints and mapmaking. Catwoman is her hero. Selina meanwhile wants to get ahead in an evolving crime scene, so she infiltrates the Falcone home and steals Kitrina’s maps of the new Black Mask’s territory alongside other valuables. The family accuse Kitrina of helping her and try to murder her. Lovely. She escapes sleeping with the fishes, confronts Selina and impresses her by escaping her and stealing her maps back. A familial bond forms between them and Kitrina is reborn as Catgirl! Catwoman’s very own Robin equivalent on the frontline. We joke about Bruce’s pattern of taking in traumatized young boys with nowhere else to go, but Selina has exactly the same pattern with that type of girl. I guess after she left one behind in Maggie, in repentance she’s proceeded to open her heart to every new one she comes across. Bruce is a massive hypocrite and disapproves of Kitrina being endangered like this, even though he’s permitted multiple Robins and Batgirls by now, and wants her to go to a boarding school upstate and improve her life the mundane way. Kitrina nearly dies one too many times and she and Selina concede that as hypocritical as it is, his argument holds water. Kitrina promises to return, though. A promise DC has yet to uphold!

Volume 4 confirms that Selina Kyle is canonically bisexual! She has a romance with Eiko Hasigawa, a Yakuza heiress and admirer of hers who takes up the Catwoman mantle while Selina temporarily operates as a crime kingpin. But in a good way. It’s complicated. No wonder she hangs out with Harley and Ivy as much as Bruce…

Volume 5 has Selina declare herself the ‘queen of Alleytown’ and take over the Nest, rebranding the Alleytown Kids the Alleytown Strays and teaching them to protect and provide for themselves with genuine care unlike her predecessors except Holly. It’s nice. But a lot of shit goes down involving Selina matching wits and trading blows with villains like the aforementioned Father Valley, the Penguin, the Riddler, and more! There are always more! The issues in the Fear State crossover overarching storyline are the climax, wherein the corrupt mayor and GCDP put Alleytown under siege at the same time as the villains’ overlapping schemes, and the Token Good Cop supporting character Hadley is killed for trying to help Selina. Alleytown is in ruins, but Selina sees it’s always been the people that are truly important, not the place. The people of this neighbourhood, her people, will endure. Deciding that mentoring them in professional crime is actually kinda counterproductive to giving the Strays better lives in the long term, she ‘abdicates’ her throne and gives the Nest to them as a safe haven in issue #39, the conclusion of Ram V’s run. Oh, and special attention is placed on one member of the Strays, a teenage girl known only by her nickname Shoes, and connected to the assassin Cheshire *SPOILERS* because she’s her and Arsenal’s long-lost presumed dead daughter Lian Harper. I personally disagree with this entire concept, but oh well. That makes four traumatized adolescent girl protégés from broken homes plus one token biologically related family member. Selina, you really are Bruce’s match.

[deadsetobsessions]

Damian Wayne was like a duckling. A violent, stab-happy, danger-prone duckling, yes, but a duckling all the same. Which means when Danny almost got stabbed by a sleepy, instinct driven Damian, he was able to wave it off with a laugh. Damian, on the other hand, stared in horror at the butter knife firmly lodged in Danny’s arm.

“PENNYWORTH!” Danny jerked back at Damian’s scream. “RICHARD! FATHER!”

God damn, the kid had a pair of lungs on him. Danny’s wince was interpreted as pain to Damian, who gently grabbed his injured arm and started to pull him towards the kitchen’s marble island.

Danny blinked, non plussed as his hearing picked up a thundering of feet as the present family members scrambled towards Damian’s distress call.

“Wait, Damian, I’m fine. It’s-”

“You have been impaled, you imbecile! Had it been any of the other simpletons, they would have-!”

“Ouch.” Danny put his other hand in mock hurt over his slow-beating heart. He literally doesn’t care about the butter knife. He’s just impressed there was enough force in there to impale him. “Are you calling me names now? After- gasp- stabbing me?”

Before Damian could reply, the beginnings of regret, remorse, and guilt on his face, Alfred, Dick, and Bruce burst into the kitchen.

“What happened?!”

“My word, master Danny!”

“What is it?!”

“I’m fine. It’s like a small stab. Not even a big stab. I’m good.”

Dick paled, seeing Danny’s arm clutched in Damian’s hand.

“That’s- that’s a knife. In your arm. How is that ‘fine’?!”

“What happened.” Bruce asked Damian, gently removing Danny’s arm from Damian’s death clutch.

“I- I did not mean to,” Damian starts, guilt coloring his voice.

“He didn’t,” Danny cuts in. “I startled him and got stabbed for being dumb. I won’t fault him for having a defense mechanism like that, ancient knows what I might do if you guys startled me.”

The awkward silence that settled at his words made Danny twitch awkwardly.

“Uh, so, can I add this knife to my collection? Even if I didn’t get mugged?”

“Danny.”

“Bruce.” Danny stared stubbornly back. With his uninsured hand, he patted Damian on the head. He was going to enjoy the fluffiness before Damian’s guilt was no longer enough to hold him back from snapping at Danny’s hand like a grumpy alligator. Bruce loses, obviously. He’s a teenager who was also an ex-vigilante. Batman’s got nothing on a determined halfa.

“Master Danny, I must insist you refrain from getting stabbed. There is only so much gauze and antiseptic cream in the house.” Alfred returned- huh, when did he leave?- with a med kit.

Danny called bullshit because he knows there’s a whole ass medical bay beneath the manor.

“Sorry.”

“No need to apologize.” Alfred said, promptly beginning the extraction of the butter knife.

“Are you okay?” Dick asked, hovering worriedly. “He- are you…?”

Damian was allowing Danny to ruffle his hair, so…

“Yep, I’m good. This isn’t even on my top thirty most painful stabbings,” and it really wasn’t. That honor was given to the GIW and that one time Jazz accidentally stabbed him with her earrings. “That was pretty impressive, actually. It’s like, a butter knife. The other ones had pointy ends.”

“Do not clump me with those pathetic wastes of spaces. I am naturally superior and would… would never harm you on purpose.” Damian said, getting quiet at the end like he was trying to plead to Danny to believe him.

“Of course not. But- if you want help me keep the knife, you can hit me with a mug, it would technically be a mugging.”

The pun got the desired effect. Damian leaned away with a disgruntled look and Dick stopped hovering as close in order to let out a small cackle.

“Done.”

“You should go get changed, kiddo. We’re going to see Tim’s photography at the Gotham Gallery today.”

“Oh, for real?” Danny patted Damian’s fluffy hair one last time, pushing away from the counter. “Oh, I’ll clean up here first and-”

“That will not be necessary,” Alfred scolded, a mop somehow already in his hands. “Please see to it you are prepared for the day.”

“Thanks, Alfred. Can I keep the knife.”

“Very well.”

“Sweet. See you guys later?” Danny pranced off after seeing the nods.

——

“He’s… he got stabbed a lot. Before us, I mean.” Dick tapped a furious rhythm onto the counter. “Not that we’ve stabbed him until now but even once is concerning for a civilian.”

“He was used to it.” Bruce replied.

“Perhaps we should join Todd in his endeavor and ensure that his worthless tormentors are permanently out of the picture.”

“God, he said top thirty. He was counting.”

Damian silently withdrew a kitchen knife.

“No murder with my quality chef’s knives, Master Damian.”

“Tt.”

“Master Jason follows the same rules. Now, out of the kitchen. I may be old, but I remember the last time master Bruce and master Dick stepped foot in here and I will not have a repeat.”

[nabtime]

Better Watch Out

Danny had just started to feel like he was settling in with the Waynes. It had been... not ideal circumstances that brought him to the family in the first place, so getting used to not having to deal with all that mess was the first hurdle. The second being getting used to dealing with an entirely new- if more pleasant, mess. The Waynes, and Gotham by extension, were- to put it lightly- fucking crazy. He wasn't in Amity anymore and however much he'd thought it was the weirdest place on the planet before- he was absolutely rethinking that now. Where he had been one hero against a handful of villains, Gotham had a whole brigade of vigilantes against an army of villains. And they were... Bat-themed. For the most part. He'd yet to meet any of them, so he hadn't gotten the chance to ask what all that was about.

None of that was the point though. The point was that Danny had only recently stopped feeling like a fish out of water around his new foster family, and now the Holidays were coming. The Holidays that always served to put him in a sour mood. The Holidays that made him more prone to lash out and snap at those that didn't deserve it. The Holidays that, despite being Jewish by heritage, Bruce seemed oddly enthusiastic about celebrating.

(It reminded him, painfully, of Sam. He'd yet to be able to see here since everything went down and he missed her and Tucker something fierce. Which was maybe also putting him in a bad mood.)

So you really couldn't blame him for feeling a little tense about the whole situation. Not only were the Christmas decorations that smothered the Manor making him grouchy, but his grouchiness was also making a guilty pit form in his stomach. He was a moody teenager and adding trauma on top of that didn't help how caustic he could be- and adding fear on top of that made it all the worse. What if he saw Dick in his Santa hat, grinning and innocent, and he snapped? What if he saw Damian, stoic but loving, give Titus a shiny red bow-tie collar for the season and he made a caustic comment that went too far? What if he saw Bruce so much as smile at him while standing near the giant tree in the foyer and he saw green?

What if he ruined Christmas? Again? For people that didn't deserve it? Again? What if he hurt the people he cared about that had only ever shown him care and consideration? Again?

So Danny was just a bit tense. A bit on edge. And he was trying. Oh Ancients was he trying. To not be such a little bitch about all the Christmas stuff. But he had a limit. Bruce, being the rich socialite that seemed far too enthusiastic about family-centered holidays, did not have a limit. Every inch of the manor was covered in tinsel and holly and blinking lights and fake snow. Every spare moment was filled with different siblings being coerced into doing cheesy holiday activities, with Danny being the only one to attend every single one of them. (Cutting down a Christmas tree with Jason. Buying presents at the mall with Tim. Decorating while hanging from the chandelier with Dick. Caroling very badly with Stephanie. Making snow angels with Cass. Watching Christmas movies with Duke.) And he attended them all with a barely restrained snarl and a badly bitten tongue. The one time, one time, he'd told Bruce no- the guilt had eaten him alive (and dead) at seeing the man melt into the most pathetic kicked-puppy look he'd ever seen.

No grown man should ever be able to do that with his face. Danny never wanted to see that again.

In return, though, he had to face the Horrors.

The latest Horror being the worst he'd ever faced to date. A Horror that he thought he'd never have to face. He thought he'd slipped past this particular one by aging out. He was too old for this. He shouldn't be there. Damian, scowling and eyes filled with murderous intent, shouldn't be there. Dick and Bruce seemed to both be having the time of their lives. It was far too disturbing- and the continuous blasting of Christmas music and the overheated crush of a restless crowd only made it worse.

They were in line to see Santa at the mall.

It made his skin crawl. He was fifteen! Damian, the poor bastard, was also fifteen!

He could practically feel Ghostwriter laughing his ass off at his predicament. This was worse than getting stuck in a rhyming Christmas cautionary tale. He would 100% rather be stuck in one of Ghostwriter's cheesy poems than be stuck in the stupidly long line to see the fake mall Santa that probably didn't want to be there just as much as Danny.

But Bruce looked so fucking happy. Genuinely happy.

It was something he'd noticed early on about his foster dad. He smiled a lot and smiled big, but he rarely ever meant it. Now, Danny wasn't usually one to notice things like that. He got pretty wrapped up in his own problems and just- didn't have the skill to notice these things. Usually. But, well, being ghostly gave him a bit of an advantage. He could get a pretty good read on a person's emotions, regardless of what expression they wore. If he felt close enough to them. Frostbite had compared it to, like, family pack bonding. And he really, really didn't want to think about that further (why had it never worked for his parents? why did he feel so close to Bruce so quickly? why?) But, more importantly, he could tell that while Bruce smiled a lot, he rarely meant it.

But whenever Danny or his foster sibling begrudgingly participated in "family holiday activities" he smiled and he meant it. Bruce, fundamentally, was a sad man. Always grieving something. But here and now? In line to see his teenage children visit fucking Santa in the mall? He was smiling from ear to ear and his emotions, for once, matched. Yeah, there was a hint of mischief there, but it was overwhelmed by the giddy joy and excitement.

A suspicious amount of excitement... Like he was expecting something.

And then Bruce was leaning down between him and Damian and with a bright grin, he muttered, "I have a surprise for the both of you."

And even Dick, who had not stopped taking a stupid amount of pictures the entire time, paused to look at Bruce curiously.

"As I've told you both before," he said, looking over at Dick and back to Damian, "I know the real Santa. Met him a few times, saved Christmas with him a few others, and he owed me a favor for the last misadventure we had. So, I asked him to be here, for this one afternoon, for you guys."

Danny barely caught a glimpse of Dick rolling his eyes in the background. Oh, okay, so this was bullshit that has long been established. Nothing new on his account. That was something at least.

"Father," Damian interrupted with scorn and a promise of violence in his voice, "you are aware that this- Santa Claus creature- is fictitious, are you not?"

"Damian, chum," Bruce responded carefully, sincerely saddened, "why would you say that about an old family friend?"

And, poor Damian, looked two parts baffled and three parts murderous. Nonplussed and unable to even fathom a response to his father. He just stared the man down.

Dick huffed in exasperation behind them. "C'mon, B. Will you let that go already?"

Bruce furrowed his brows, eyes already taking on that faint sheen of kicked-puppiness, and looked back up at his eldest. "You don't believe me, Dickie? After all these years?"

Dick responded with a flat stare. Danny kind of wished he had popcorn for this moment. It was like witnessing a mild car crash. Nobody got hurt and it was still wicked to see parts flying everywhere. There was even a chance of things catching fire. Man was he glad he could just watch.

"Danny?" Bruce pleaded, turning to him with those sad, sad eyes. "Do you believe me, chum?"

And fuck how was he supposed to respond to that?

"I have it on good authority," he said, thinking of yearly fight, after fight, after fight, "that his existence is very hotly debated in the scientific community."

He could feel the questioning stares from Damian and Dick but he refused to look away from the innocently tilted head of his unfortunate foster father.

"Is that a yes?" and he sounded so sincerely hopeful. He couldn't crush the man's spirit. He couldn't.

But he also refused to lie and say he believed in Santa. At fifteen.

He clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth, but eventually replied. "It's a hotly debated topic."

And Bruce just smiled that empty smile and patted his shoulder. "Thanks, chum."

He, again, ignored Damian and Dick's stares. If he looked at them, he'd break. If he so much as made partial eye-contact, he was gonna fucking lose it.

"Oh look! We're almost at the front!"

Danny was living his worst life. Officially. This was the bad time-line. Dan's future didn't even come close. He was going to go mega evil any second now and kill everyone in the vicinity and then himself. This wasn't happening and it wasn't real and Santa Claus can't hurt him because he isn't real.

But Bruce, the saddest man in history, utterly and sincerely believed that he was.

So Danny was going to sit on some random old dude's lap and pretend to care about what he wanted for Christmas and whether or not he'd been a good boy this year and he was going to force a smile the entire time and his soul might shrivel up and die all the way inside, but at least Bruce would be happy.

What the fuck kind of afterlife was he living.

And then it was their turn and Danny was forced to go up first because the alternative was Damian committing homicide in the middle of the mall while Dick and Bruce cheerily took pictures.

Okay. Just sit down. Spit out answers to any inane questions. Pose for picture. And leave. Simple and easy and completely unbearable. But- for Bruce- he would bear it.

But, damn it all, a chill went down his spine as he approached.

No. Absolutely not.

There was no way. But he examined the man sitting in the chair and the more he saw the more the sinking pit in his stomach grew. Full thick beard of snow white hair. Brown eyes filled with smug mischief and magnanimity. Thick red velvet jacket made for trapping in heat in extreme cold weather, lined with white fur that looked suspiciously close to trim on cloaks he'd seen in the Far Frozen. A not-quite-ghostly-not-quite-magic-but-something-in-between aura he often got around Gods and Ancients.

Fuck, but Bruce actually knew the real bonafide Santa Fucking Claus.

What, and he means this with a great amount of emotion, the fuck.

He sat down in a stupor and the man just placidly smiled at him, a twinkle in his eye letting him know that he knew Danny was currently experiencing new stages of grief not yet known to man and was just gonna let him ride it out. How nice of him. Because of course he was being nice. He was Santa.

Fuck.

He looked up at the man. Ghost. God. Whatever. And for a good moment that's all either of them did. Just. Stared.

Sorry, Santa, Danny's brain has suddenly gone on vacation. 404 not found. Please leave a message after the tone. Error. Sorry, there's nothing there. Please try again.

After a few agonizing moments he asked, "how? Do you know Bruce?"

And Santa laughed at him, the sound working its way into his bones and filling him with a warmth he hadn't felt in a long time. It tasted just a bit like egg nog. Gross.

"Well," the man started, voice deep and rich like a good cup of hot chocolate, (whatthefuckwhathtefuck). "Why wouldn't I know a man like Bruce? Honorable, righteous, and very skilled. One of the best the Justice League has, if I'm being honest."

And then Danny's brain stopped completely. Because there was no fucking way Santa (FUCK) was implying what he thought he was implying.

But it all made so much sense now. His ears were ringing suddenly and the world was greying out but he was Seeing the Light.

"-nny?" Santa (FUCK!!) was saying. "Are you alright? Want to tell me what you want for Christmas now?"

"Hm," he said airily, still not all the way there, "I'm good, thanks."

And then he slid off the man's lap and walked back to his foster family in a daze. And he looked at Bruce (BATMAN!! FUCK!!!) and he slid a slow hand down his face, attempting to take the skin off it in the process.

"You alright, Danny man?" Dick asked, only half paying attention while he gleefully snapped pictures of a sullen Damian barely restraining himself from committing violence while stubbornly standing next to Santa instead of sitting on his lap.

"That's the real Santa, Bruce is Batman, and I'm half-dead," he replied bluntly.

Dick fumbled his phone in response and Bruce merely raised his eyebrows.

"That's an odd start to a 'three guys walk into a bar' joke there, chum," he said amiably. And Danny wouldn't have noticed the tension in his voice if he weren't ghostly. But he was and unfortunately for them all, it was now everyone's problem.

"Not a joke," he said. "I'll explain the dead part later but Santa outed you on accident."

"Okay, no," Dick interrupted, "we are not leaving the dead part for later, Danny, what the fuck."

"Listen," he said flatly, slapping his hands on either side of Dick's face and smooshing it to convey his seriousness while he spoke. "Santa is real, he's a God, and he's sitting right there." He emphasized with a sweeping wave of his arm in the direction Damian was stomping back towards them from. "We're leaving the dead part for later."

"What is all this about? Dead part? What is going on?" Damian demanded in rapid succession, growing more aggressive and persistent with each question.

Danny, already on his last fucking nerve, was gonna lose it. For real.

"Apparently," Dick drawled, disbelief and an unfair amount of derision in his tone, "that's the real Santa, he told Danny B was Batman, and Danny's now saying he's dead."

"What-"

Damian did not get to finish his sentence because that was the exact moment Danny finally snapped. Every bit of pent up tension and hostility, every bit of restrained Holiday fueled fury he'd been bottling up. Unleashed all at once because Dick decided to be an asshole about not believing him.

Danny snatched one of the giant plastic candy canes that lined the aisle of the queue to see Mall (but actually Real) Santa and gave a good swing in Dick's direction. Dick who had unfairly good reflexes and was able to dodge by jumping over the swing and landing back neatly on his feat.

"Danny?!" he cried, incredulous.

But Danny was no longer listening. Only reveling in the wild swinging of the candy cane and attempting to land a hit on Dick for being an absolute dick and finally unleashing hell upon the world and specifically his asshole foster brother. And maybe he put a little bit more ghostly strength in his last swing than he meant to, because when he finally made contact- he heard a pained off as Dick went down hard.

"Danny, please," he wheezed from the soft bank of fake snow he'd fallen into, "it's Christmas."

He screeched and continued his assault. "It's December 10th!"

And then, promptly; Bruce wrangled the candy cane from Danny's grasp, Damian pulled Dick from the floor, and they were all calmly escorted from the mall and asked politely to never return.

Danny really, truly, hated Christmas. And it looked like that wasn't going to change any time soon.

[confessedlyfannish]

DP x DC Writing Prompt #5

Damian does not glance back at Bruce when he knocks on the door. Instead they both wait in silence.

After a moment, the door opens.

"Hello," Jasmine, Jazz, Fenton greets politely, unsurprised to find the Waynes on her doorstep. Damian's expression grows ever darker at this revelation.

"Hello Ms. Fenton, are your parents home?" Bruce asks, placing a firm hand on Damian's shoulder, to ground as much as to restrain. To his credit he does not shake it off.

"No, they're out of town for a conference," the eighteen year-old says, opening the door wider. "But I think you'd better come in."

Bruce would normally decline, but Ms. Fenton is a legal adult and he has already, even unknowingly, waited 16 years. Damian makes the choice for him, striding past the threshold.

"Please take a seat," Jazz says as she leads them to the living room. She ignores Damian's swinging head as he takes in the home. It is deceptively large, a 90s style house filled with modern furniture. The walls are bright, with purple and green accents that would normally feel garish but somehow work. The stairs leading to the second floor are lined with family photos that Bruce yearns to take a closer look at. "Can I get you anything? Coffee? Water?"

"No, that's alright, thank you," Bruce says, taking a seat on the long plush couch. A men's windbreaker lies haphazardly thrown across one of the arms. A closed container of Oreo cookies sit on the coffee table next to a physics textbook open to chapter 16, half covered in highlighter and filled with sticky notes. There's a child's painting framed next to the tv, a handprint made to look like a thanksgiving turkey in bright blue.

For the home of experimental scientists, it is cozy and well lived-in.

Damian repeatedly glances at the stairs through the doorway.

Bruce clears his throat. "We were hoping to--"

"I've texted--oh, I'm sorry," Jazz says, having spoken at the same time. Bruce gestures for her to go on.

"I've contacted Danny, he should be here soon. He was out with some friends." Jazz explains. As she hadn't pulled out a phone in their presence, Bruce can only deduce they have some sort of camera at their front door. This also explains Ms. Fenton's complete lack of surprise at their appearance.

"So you know who we are." Damian says, the first words he's spoken since they arrived at the house and the longest sentence he's spoken since they arrived in Amity Park.

"I do," Jazz says, calm in the face of Damian's clearly simmering anger. Bruce trusts him not to attack Ms. Fenton, but he still watches him carefully.

"He told you about me," Damian says. It is the same question, but it is also not.

"He did," Jazz says.

Damian swallows. "I see," he grits out.

Jazz's neutrality slips and her face softens in sympathy. "Damian," she starts hesitantly, but before she can say anything else the front door opens.

A moment later Bruce's son walks through the doorway, and Damian is on him.

This is what Bruce hoped to prevent, but despite his numerous checks of Damian's luggage his son has still managed to smuggle a small dagger, which he now produces and swings in a calculated arc at Daniel Fenton's jugular.

Danny dodges cleanly, and dodges every swipe thereafter in a manner that speaks to continued practice long after his time at the League. Damian is a perfect product of his training, but it is up against Danny his flaws come to light. He is just as good as he always was, but Danny is better.

In a matter of seconds Damian grows frustrated and sloppy in his attacks, completely atypical for him. Danny takes Damian out at the knees and pins him down with one arm, pressing his face into the carpet.

"Calm down," he orders. His voice is deeper than Damian's at sixteen to his twelve, the accent that still traces Damian's words completely gone from his speech. Damian growls and thrusts his head back into Danny's face, meeting it with a sharp thunk. He rolls up as Danny recoils, putting distance between them. Danny glares at him from several steps away, hand to his forehead. Damian tosses the dagger into his other hand as he charges, and to Bruce's surprise Danny does nothing more than turn his face to the side, allowing Damian to draw a sharp line down his cheek.

Damian stops dead in his tracks.

"Are you done?" Danny asks, blood beginning to pool at the seam of the cut.

Damian's expression is stricken, eyes stuck on the blood starting to drip down his brother's face.

"I said, are you done, Damian?" Danny asks. His voice is cold.

Damian hears him this time, and he flushes red. "I--you--"

Danny sighs. He looks at Jazz, whose expression is back to carefully controlled.

"Are you alright?" he asks her. She nods.

"You left me," Damian accuses, standing there holding his bloody dagger limply.

Danny turns back to him, raising an eyebrow.

"You left me," Damian repeats louder, rapidly blinking.

"Yes. I did." Danny provides no excuse nor any explanation. His stance is unyielding.

Damian's eyes bounce wildly, shifting to Jazz and Danny slides smoothly in front of her, protectively. He looks at Damian warily, not as if he is his brother, but as if he is a danger. Damian flinches.

Hope is the last to die, Bruce thinks, watching as that last bit of hope Damian had is extinguished, the knowledge working its way through every inch of his body like ice in his veins. His eyes darken. He turns and runs from the room, the front door slamming shut not a moment later.

Jazz stands up, pulling a few tissues from the box on the coffee table. She presses them to Danny's face, cupping his cheek until he holds it himself. "I'm going to go get the first aid kit," she says gently. It is a thinly veiled excuse to leave them alone, and Bruce is grateful for it as she heads for the stairs.

They both wait until her footsteps have faded, taking each other in. Bruce looks at his mother's eyes and the sharp turn of Talia's nose. Damian's everything, four years older.

"You shouldn't have come here," Danny says, throwing himself on the armchair Jazz has just vacated.

"You know who I am," Bruce says carefully.

Danny glares. "I've kept your secret. She nor my parents know."

"I know," Bruce says. "That's not what I meant. You know who I am. And who I pretend to be. So you know I am familiar with masks."

"And?" Danny asks, looking vaguely bored.

"And so I can recognize when someone is wearing one. Damian will too, once he's calmed down."

Danny's expression sharpens. "No, he won't. Because you are going to go to back to whatever bed and breakfast you're staying in, pack up, hop in your private jet and fly him back to Gotham immediately before the League realizes you've gone. If they haven't already," he mutters.

"This is about the League then," Bruce says. "Do you not believe I can protect you?"

"I don't need your protection," Danny snaps, and watches Bruce actively extrapolate with a dawning resignation. "So this is the World's Greatest Detective at work," he says, slumping bonelessly into his chair, the first teenager-y thing he's done.

"Damian's in danger from the League," Bruce says. Danny glares from his slump. It's almost cute. "And as long as the League doesn't know about you, he's safe."

"Draw your own conclusions," Danny says, baring his teeth. Damian often makes the same face. "As long as you leave."

"I can protect him. I can protect you both," Bruce says. "Let me help you."

Danny closes his eyes. He centers his breathing in an exercise someone has clearly walked him through in the past. Bruce would bet money on the adoptive sister waiting patiently upstairs.

"Mr. Wayne. You are not my father," he says. "My trust in you extends to the point that I left Damian in your care, but that is where it ends. And that was when it was sanctioned by the League. By coming here you have endangered those sanctions."

Bruce disregards the sting, doubling down on his analysis. Talia had left Damian with Bruce well after Danny had left the League. But Danny speaks as if the decision had been his.

Or perhaps, Bruce realizes, it is not that Danny decided upon it, but that Danny allowed it to continue.

Bruce takes a second to review what Oracle had gone over with him before they left for Amity. Daniel Fenton had by all accounts, since leaving the League, lived a fairly normal life. His adoptive parents were eccentric scientists dabbling in the occult but their findings that bordered pseudoscience circulated a very niche community of like-minded eccentrics. The bulk of their income came from alternative energy, a more viable source of study that they'd veered harder into in the past year or so, a government contract with the EPA currently in the works. This had in part funded a vacation to an all-inclusive resort the family had taken that past summer.

Danny received average grades in school, above average in science and mathematics, declining sharply in his freshman year and sophomore year before evening out around the second semester. He had gotten into fights repeatedly with one student in particular, suspended for two weeks following an incident that resulted in a the student receiving a black eye. Teachers reported him to be highly intelligent but distracted and removed. They had recommended he be evaluated for an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. He had no social media. He had missed multiple picture days. The ones he had attended he was sneezing, or a blur of movement, even going so far as to fall off his stool, legs flailing. Bruce had drank up every last one as Barbara had waited patiently.

A normal life. A family vacation to Bermuda. Average grades.

His freshman year, distracted and removed. The same year Damian had arrived at Bruce's home. Masks upon masks.

"You have informants within the League," Bruce says. Danny, to his credit, has no discernible tell. But there is no other explanation. "What will you do, if they find out you are alive?"

"That is none of your concern," Danny says, but he might as well be saying whatever I have to.

He never stopped practicing, after all.

"If they go after Damian, it is my concern."

"And that is why you need to take Damian back to Gotham before they do." Danny says. "I will take care of it."

Damian had barely spoken since he had realized Danyal was alive. But Bruce had seen the reverence in his eyes as he looked at the file.

"الوريث الصحيح" he had murmured. The rightful heir.

"You are proposing going after the entirety of the League with no backup," Bruce says. "Even if you think they won't kill you, you won't win either."

"Maybe they will," Danny says lightly. "Kill me. That would also work."

Bruce inhales sharply. "Danny," he starts.

"Go home, Mr. Wayne," Danny says, pushing himself up with one hand. The other still clutches the wad of tissue to his cheek, partially soaked with blood. "Go take care of your son."

"I'll go," Bruce says, "I'll take him to the Watchtower. And then I'll come back."

"Mr. Wayne-"

"I should've come for you," Bruce interrupts. "Sixteen years ago. I should've come for you."

Danny's brow furrows. "You had no idea I existed."

"But if I had. I would've come. I never would've left you there. And now that I know, I am not leaving you now."

For the first time Bruce watches Danny be completely caught off guard. He openly gapes at Bruce.

"You would've died," Danny lands on, voice thin. "They would've killed you."

"Unlike you, I would've brought backup." Bruce says, mimicking Danny's lightness.

He's lying. Sixteen years ago he would've thrown himself at the League to save his newborn son without a plan, without a thought beyond rescuing his baby.

Danny barks out a laugh. "You would've laid siege to Nanda Parbat with The Big Blue Boy Scout?" he looks wistful. "That would've been rad."

Bruce sees his opening. "Danny," he stands, eye to eye with his son. "Let me help you."

Danny evaluates him. "The Batman," he says softly. "I didn't want you to come, then. I didn't need one more person I had to prove myself to. All I wanted was to live amongst the stars, in the quiet of the cosmos."

"You want to be an astronaut," Bruce says. At Danny's cocked head, he says without shame, "I read your essay on personal heroes. You wrote about Edward White. Ad Astra Per Aspera."

Danny smiles slightly, sadly. "It is a rough road."

"You can be whatever you want to be," Bruce says. "I won't stand in your way."

"Even if I want to be Danny Fenton?" he asks.

"Even then."

Danny sighs. "I don't need your help Bruce," he says. "No," he says as Bruce opens his mouth. He pulls the wad of tissues away from his cheek. Underneath the splotches of dried blood the gash in his face has cleanly knit itself together, a faint white line now all that remains.

"I don't need your help," he says clearly. He holds a palm forward, and a green fire grows from its center, until the flames are licking delicately up his fingers.

"I know The Batman does not kill. But I am not a Robin. I am something else entirely," Danny says, his eyes reflecting the green of the flames. Or not, as he looks up at Bruce, his eyes green all on their own. They are sad. This is why he stayed away, Bruce realizes. Not out of fear. Danny is not afraid. Danny is tired.

But for his brother, Danny will wake up.

"And If the League takes one step towards Damian, I will raze them to the ground."

[hopeless--light]

Dp x Dc Why do I hear boss music?

Drabble or ficlet? Who knows I thought of this and would like to write a short dp x dc

The Joker was walking around gleefully he had escaped Arkham yet again but he hadn't done anything yet. Tim was on strict watching duty to see if he can catch Joker in a scheme before he did anything. Everyone else was either off-world, Jason and Dick, or in the middle of busting a trafficking ring, Bruce and Damian. So the Joker was still a high enough priority to keep an eye on but they didn't have the men to spare to take him back.

Tim knew he was being extra stealthy he did not want to become the next Robin victim he had enough clown trauma thank you very much. But he still swore the maniac had turned towards him with a creepy ass smile he always wears. But after an hour of just mindless wandering in the dark, the Joker had yet to do anything. That was until he turned down an alley toward a kid wearing headphones.

Now who wore soundproof headphones while wandering a back alley in the Gotham? Tim could only assume a tourist on top of the kid was prime adoption bait with black hair and pretty glowing blue eyes. Wait glowing? Tim couldn't tell properly from his vantage point on the roof across the street but it really did look like his eyes were glowing blue. And the Joker had noticed too, Shit the Joker was after a defenseless pretty meta. It's just a plus he had black hair and blue eyes, Joker knew Batman had an adoption type.

Time watched in slow motion as the Joker smiled at him and then reached for the teen. The Joker ripped the soundproof headphones off and Tim was hauling ass only stumbling when he heard boss music?

Danny was the final boss.

It started off as a joke between Sam, Tucker, and him, he was the ghost king after all so that means he was technically the final boss. If this were a game he would be the final showdown for heroes to protect the world. Pariah Dark was literally his final boss and he took that mantle up.

So what did the trio do they made a playlist of all their final boss music whether it was video games or movies and played it anytime Danny was visiting them, as he was now in Gotham working on his college degree. But what Danny never would admit is he genuinely enjoyed that playlist and listened to it when he was trying to amp himself up for what future project he needed to work on. Like now he was wandering the streets trying to get inspiration on his final project for class while listening to some boss music to stir up adrenaline.

Sometimes he forgot he was in the most crime-ridden town and that technically he was a meta so color him surprised when he was amping himself up this Freakshow wannabe ripped his headphones off. Not cool. But the worst part was the cord coming off his phone blasting the music. Now he can get away with listening to boss music but he will forever cringe at what started playing when those headphones were yanked away.

Meglovania

[nerdpoe]

Danny's found a way to dodge GIW trackers, as well as his parents. Their equipment hunts ghosts, ghosts run on emotion; so as long as he keeps his under a tight lid and doesn't feel anything ever, they won't be able to track him.

It works!

He's able to run from them, and goes as far as New Jersey. The plan was to stow away on a ship, and go to literally any country that wasn't America. He goes to Gotham, which hosts the one harbor he knows where no one will ask any questions.

But because of how weird he acted (completely emotionless during a Joker attack), he was fingered by police immediately.

He's handed over to CPP. CPP doesn't know what to do with a teen literally so traumatized that they don't show any emotion at all, ever. He keeps just...walking out of his placements. Just leaves without a sound.

Luckily, he's always caught, due to those placement houses having quiet alarms and him refusing to run.

They call the one foster parent they know who does.

Bruce Wayne takes in the strange, nameless kid who refuses to talk.

On paper, they gave him the filler name of 'John Doe', for lack of anything better to do.

Bruce does everything he can to make the newest arrival feel at home. Damian, for as territorial as he is, actually breaks out of his shell sooner than expected just to try to get the new kid to speak. To emote. To do something. Duke tries the open approach, then tries the 'no one will ever know, everyone thinks I'm an innocent goody-two-shoes' approach. Nada.

Tim even tries to trick him into talking, but nothing works.

Enter Dick; Dick heard about Bruce's new ward, about the situation, and decided to see if he could get the kid to open up.

Danny though. Danny's in trouble.

The Wayne Manor is weirdly secure, and he can't just walk away like he did his other placements. He can't use ghost powers or the GIW and his parents will immediately know where he is.

He really, really wants to take Bruce up on his offer and just spend the day relaxing. Respond to Damian's attempts to provoke him. Overshare about space facts with Tim.

But most of all, he really, desperately wants to get in a Pun Competition with Dick. He wants to laugh at Dick's jokes, and learn coolass gymnastic tricks!

But he can't!

If he relaxes with Bruce, he'll be content, which is an emotion. If he argues with Damian, he'll get annoyed, which is an emotion. If he sneaks out with Duke and breaks the rules, he'll get happy, which, again, emotion. If he overshares with Tim, he'll get excited, which is, yet again, an emotion!

The worst sin of all, he can't even show proper appreciation of the food the Butler keeps making him!

And now there's even more people coming over!

There's a quiet girl who keeps reading his body language and trying to get him to dance ballet, a blonde girl who keeps trying to kidnap him to take him to BatBurger, a guy with a stripe of white who wants to take him to a shooting range, and it just...he really, really wants to!

He wants to do all these cool things with them!

But he fucking can't!

[gay-dorito-dust]

Would they or would they not catch you…

Dick: yes. 100% yes but he’s -no pun intended- a little bit of a teasing dick about it.

He will catch you but then act as though he’s going to drop you by loosening his grip, making you scream out of surprise and cling onto him tighter, all the while beaming that bright and beautiful smile of his as though he wasn’t about to willingly let you fall flat on your ass on multiple occasions.

‘I fucking hate you!’ You whined, smacking Dick on the bicep.

‘Oh do you now?’ Dick inquires as he slowly begins to losses his grip on you, smirking.

‘Did I say hate you? I meant love you, a lot! Please don’t drop me.’ You cried as you tightened your grip on his neck whilst struggling to keep your feet from touching the floor. ‘Awww I love you too gorgeous.’ Dick coos as he pressed kisses into your face as you could only glare at the cheeky bastard.

You hate him sometimes but you weren’t going to complain about the affection you were being given. So you guess you’ll suffer for now.

Side note: he might even try and see if you can catch him. 💀

Jason: He will catch you but makes it a big deal whenever he can. He loves holding you in his arms.

He could keep you in his arms forever if he could but knew that he can’t, so he settles for going about his day carrying you throughout the apartment instead.

‘You can put down any day now.’ You’d tell him but that only makes Jason tighten his grip on you as he moved in his makeshift library for a book to read.

‘No.’ He simply replied, scouring the many book titles in front of him in the hopes that one might speak to him. You pout. ‘What do you mean no?’ Jason then looks at you and says. ‘No means no. As in no I will not put you down because I do as I like and will not be told otherwise, so the cutie currently in my arms has to deal with it.’ He then smiles as he presses a kiss to your forehead before looking back towards the bookshelves.

You end up falling asleep in his arms and Jason couldn’t help but smile at how cute you were, even if you did look like the living dead.

Damian: says no but will in fact catch you without hesitation.

However if you do try to tease him about it, then he will drop you without a second thought. ‘You can catch yourself next time.’ He would say as he walks away, leaving you with a bruised ass. Titus -who saw the whole thing- would come up to you to make sure you weren’t genuinely hurt and encourage you to get up by nudging you with his head.

Don’t test him because he will do it and then act like the whole thing didn’t happen if you were to bring it up.

‘Dick.’ You’d say as you stood up.

‘I heard that.’ He’d call back, his voice echoing off the walls. ‘You were meant to.’ You reply. ‘And at least Titus came to check up on me to see if I wasn’t hurt.’ You’d add while scratching Titus behind the ear.

Needless to say you were more cautious when choosing Damian to catch you. However he does apologise for dropping you on your ass by gifting you something he himself drew by hand; He secretly doesn’t like it when you’re upset with him and will do anything to rectify it.

What a sweetheart.

Bruce: he’s too use to you pulling this type of shit that it’s basically muscle memory for him to catch you as you’re running towards him, all with a straight face mind you.

Be grateful because he risked a much needed bowl of Mulligatawny soup just to catch you in his arms, but then again the kisses you bombard his cheek is more than reward enough, a small almost missable smile appears on his lips as he then proceeds to carry you for the rest of the day as “punishment.”

( this only occurs when Bruce is feeling particularly affectionate or playful)

Much to your batkids -Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, Duke, Cass and Steph- dismay. They’d want to use this as blackmail, but they know that it will backfire as you’ll probably hang the photo on a wall somewhere in the manor, reminding them of how disgustingly their parents can be when given the opportunity.