#definitely for cass and for steph i think. it just. batfam song. yeah.

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

in other news, Last Hope by Paramore is on all three of my Batboys playlists that I currently have

[jasontoddsreanimatedcorpse]

trying to assign a crawlers song to dick so i can write a fic for him and either im projecting or this man has too many issues bc bruh i cannot decide

[brucewaynehater101]

adding to my last ask, the rest of the album is so similar to the Batfam

Loves like Ghosts - Batcat or BruTalia

Until the Night Turns - Dick (the vibes esp)

Dead Man’s Hand - Jason

-> pretty obvious why 💀. I see it as Jason talking abt his old self with the “tired of a life that never felt like his” line

Hurricane (Johnnie’s theme) - Dick, Jason, and Steph(Cass)

-> I mostly saw it as Stephcass but there were definitely lyrics that applied to Dick (thrill) and Jason (dying lol)

La Bella Fleur Sauvage - DickBabs

The World Ender - Steph (with the romantic lines being shaded between Cass and Gotham) or Jason (with the romantic lines being completely abour Gotham)

-> I feel like it fits Jason better bc it’s literlaky abour being back from the grave but alas

Meet Me in the Woods - Tim(Bern)

The Yawning Grave - ALFRED AND BRUCE ALFRESH AND BRUCE. This is so important to me omg

Cursed - where “she” is Gotham and the speaker is any of the Batfam (sans Cass I think)

Way out There - Damian (“I’m just wearing old bones from those who came first”) (“you” being Dick) or StephCass from Cass’s pov

The Night We Met - the BatSiblings (sans Duke bc he wasn’t adopted yet) during Bruce’s death

There weren’t any I could connect to Duke specifically but yeah 😞

Loves Like Ghost definitely gives of Talia to Bruce vibes. The lyrics of "what ain't living can never really die. You don't want me baby please don't lie. Oh but if you're leaving, I gotta know why." "And if I can't have you then no one ever will." "Baby in my eyes you do no wrong. I don't feel it till it hurts sometimes. So go on baby hurt me tonight."

Until the Night Turns is a cool song. Perhaps you would elaborate more on why you think it fits Dick? The vibes are pretty on, but jot too sure about the lyrics.

Dead Man's Hand does fit Jason. "Sure as hell he was dead as they come and he was already starting to smell. Just a kid with his hair slicked back and a knife tucked into his belt. Was he unforgiven or just tired of living a life that never felt like his?" "I know I'm dead but I don't wanna lie in a grave out here where the coyote's cry. I stared right into the endless void and I ain't going back if I got any choice. I know how to live, I don't know how to die and there ain't no thrills in the afterlife."

Hurricane. I do think that all of the batkids are adrenaline junkies but I do see how the lyrics fit those ones especially.

La Bella Fleur Savage - Google says Fleur means both flower and resilience. I can see how that fits Babs and how the song resembles her love with Dick.

The World Ender - I love this song for Steph. She deserves to get her revenge. She did kind of die with Black Mask, but she didn't really do a revenge thing like Jason. On the other hand she "won't ever feel the embrace of the grave" because she revived before being buried.

Meet Me in the Woods - I see how this is TimBern especially because Bernard isn't in the vigilante business (so he won't really understand what Tim's been through).

The Yawning Grave - Alfred warning Bruce not to become Batman, of its dangers, of the likelihood of him dying, fits so well. He told him when he was a kid, but Bruce still went down with this path

Cursed - I agree that Cass isn't tied to Gotham like the others. If "she" was Gotham, that does fit the others. I raise you, though. What if "she" was their mission or vigilantism? That then fits all of them.

Way out There - Oof. That definitely fits Damian and I love that analysis of him.

The Night We Met - I agree, however, there's a tik tok that has an animation of this song. It absolutely kills my soul every time I see it. It has Bruce singing this about Jason: "I had all," Jason as Robin, "and then most of you," Jason dying, "some and," Jason's grave, "now none of you," Jason as Red Hood. "Take me back to the night we met." The tire jacking night.

We definitely need some Duke songs out there. If anyone has any songs that fit Duke, feel free to comment or reblog with them!!!!

[infinity-or-oblivion]

so my loa batkids au has gained a little traction and i’ve hit a bit of a wall when it comes to writing new stuff so here’s an infodump to hopefully kill my writers block xoxoxo

first of all, jason. my forever number one blorbo. there’s a bit of a role reversal here because compared to all the rest of them, jason arguably had it the easiest. like we’re not going to compare traumas but an argument could be made. i honestly don’t remember if i mentioned it at all in the actual series yet, but the story i have for jason is that his childhood with willis and catherine was about the same as canon/commonly accepted fanon, meaning he was homeless around nine years old. however, instead of living on the streets for years, it was only a few months tops before meeting bruce.

and bruce! this is very fun to me, but basically i was thinking that if he didn’t raise dick, then why couldn’t this version of bruce be younger? so bruce becomes batman in his early twenties, which is also around the time that he visits the league of assassins for training and damian is conceived. (for a little more about that, here) and bruce is roughly 25 when he finds a tiny 9-10 year old jason trying to steal his tires. just imagine that it’s so fucking adorable and heartbreaking ANYWAYS bruce, despite being overall a disaster, doesn’t let a malnourished 10 year old out to fight crime right away, so there’s a couple years between when jason first meets bruce and when he becomes a child soldier yayyyy!!!! but legit, it makes a lot of difference to jason, because you know how canon!jason has some self-esteem issues (for lack of a better term) around bruce not really loving him/seeing him as a son because bruce started training him as robin (and as dick’s replacement) immediately after adopting him- you know that whole thing? yeah well here, despite jason actually offering to help bruce as a vigilante, this bruce is like hell nah you’re literally ten years old and the size of a six year old no way, and those few years in between really stick in jason’s mind as solid proof that bruce really does love him, not for what use he can provide, but simply as a son. also being the only child definitely helps with that

(that little detail of jason and bruce’s relationship is slightly inspired by minimum height requirement, which is absolute batfam gold btw)

okay so. slight pet peeve of mine is in aus where dick isn’t the first robin, the legacy is still called robin for whatever reason (lookin at you reverse robins aus) because!!!!! how dare you erase mary and john grayson’s importance!!!!! (look there’s more nuance to it than that i know but. to put it simply it feels like flying graysons erasure to me) so in this au, jason can’t possibly be called robin. the real robin has been missing for roughly seven years at this point

and listen. i tried to be creative and come up with something cool and original for jason’s vigilante name i really did, but apparently i used all of my naming talent on nighthawk (fucking love that name for dick it’s so fantastic) so we just have bluejay. womp womp

also! on my list of things to expand on: main timeline stephanie!!! i’ve had an absolute blast making myself cry while writing every heart sings a song, incomplete and those who wish to sing always find a song, but spoiler steph will always be my babygirl. and duke!!!! i have not written barely anything for duke in this universe but believe me i have some Thoughts. perhaps even Ideas. basically a lot of steph&duke and steph&babs and steph&duke&babs because i love my little underrated trio

also just more babs in general, because like. i’ve had so many tiny little snippets of cass and babs and their sweet little relationship just sitting in my notes for literal years now that i really just need to organize and expand into their own fic. and yet. i have not done that. but rest assured cass&babs are very very important to me

such is the curse of female fanfic writers: always destined to fixate more on the male poor little meow meows than the female bad bitches. seriously what the fuck is up with that guys i don’t get it why does this happen

[anothertimdrakestan]

Batfam On A Road Trip HC

req: “Batfam on a road trip? It’s been on my mind for like a week-”

oh god it’s probably so chaotic... and like distinctly dangerous???

also this is my car AU where there’s infinite rows of seats in the car until I’m done.

we’ve got Bruce driving - even though Damian, Dick, Tim, Jason, AND Steph all tried to get behind the wheel but after last years incident the only people allowed to drive are Bruce and Duke but Duke doesn’t like driving with his siblings bouncing off the damn walls.

Speaking of Duke, mans snagged himself a window seat SO FAST it would make your head spin. He likes to sit next to Damian (who got put in the middle because he’s the smallest) and they share earbuds and Duke’s phone which is loaded with like 128 hours of songs. Against popular belief, Damian is actually good at sharing when it’s not with one of his more “obnoxious” siblings and he and Duke get along really well - they also have the same music taste. Duke changes between queue-ing songs, staring out the window making little stories in his head, and watching Damian draw. He occasionally is tasked with holding the sharp objects smuggled into the car after they’re discovered by Bruce as he’s the second most responsible (after Cass).

Speaking of the most responsible sibling, Cass somehow got shotgun next to Bruce. This is because she’s the only who makes him not want to throw himself out of the car and she’s a pretty good navigator. So, as she tries to moderate the back of the car she also is in charge of agreeing on pit stops and coffee breaks which works well because Cass is fair and no one can be an asshole to her. On the first road trip Cass discovered a Wendy’s Frosty and now she will usually write at least one Wendy’s stop into the trip - no one complains except Tim who is forbidden from ordering the spicy nuggets after last years incident.

Tim, the one notorious for threatening to throw himself out of the car most often, is sat in the far back. He someone gets a row to himself under the guise of “sleeping” when in reality he spends the trip typing away on his laptop, chugging monster energy drinks, and occasionally trying to make Dick bark like a dog through some kind of sleep-manipulation he read about one night at 2am. It involves him whispering in his ear and usually ends up making the whole car uncomfortable, except Jason who thinks it’s the funniest shit ever. However, after the incident his back seat gets thoroughly checked by Bruce for stowaways every pitstop, but he’d never store a secret in the same place twice...

We move to Jason! Who sits next to Steph. They’re the snack distributors. Known for throwing popcorn in the other’s mouths but it usually ends up being thrown at Bruce, Damian, or both. Jason is a champ at fruit roll up eating competitions. He claims it’s because his tongue is so strong from eating... nevermind. Jason is surprisingly organized about the snacks, and frequently restocks (with Bruce’s credit card of course) on pit stops. Jason likes to complain early into the trip but by the end he’s telling the most fun stories, singing the loudest, and causing the most trouble. His and Steph’s row is definitely the most fun. But he’s still on the list with Bruce after helping Tim become a world class smuggler during the trip that shall not be named.

Steph is the family interpreter. She shares messages from the back to the front and vice versa. She’s known for saying the back row is hungry when it was in fact her but everyone loves her for her honesty. She’s the first to ask for a leg stretch break, and the one who puts on good songs after Dick has had the aux for too long. She’s basically the lorax of the batfam road trip. She usually makes the snack packs that are distributed throughout the car and is known for memorizing everyone’s favorites to optimize the best snacks. Steph actually wasn’t in the car for the great incident, she often questions what happened but only knows what Dick quietly whispered to her, something about feeding nuggets to a foreign passenger...

Dick, the storyteller, the terrible-music-meister, the road trip organizer himself, sits on the other side of Damian. He was the one who purposefully cleared everyone’s schedule for the weekend and who roughly planned the route. Dick works closely with Cass to make sure they’re going the right way and he also mediates all fights that occur during the trip, and trust that there are a lot. Dick is known for being restless and often throws his head out the window on the freeway “just to feel something” his quote not mine. Dick is incharge of taking all dangerous items off Damian (and sometimes Tim’s) person before the trip and he was in the most trouble when the intruders were found during last years incident. But he took it with stride and promised Bruce this year would be better!

Damian, the deeply unhappy middle seater, can be found drawing and pretending he can’t hear Grayson blabbing on about “this crazy adventure he had as Robin so sooo long ago”. Damian is known for pouting through the first stop but after he’s had some quiet time he can actually be seen with the corners of his mouth upturned- especially if they drive past farms during the trip (Cass tries extra hard to make sure they do). Damian also had been known to try to run away during stops so he’s kind of heavily watched by Bruce and Dick. Luckily, his place in the middle seat means he’s far enough away from Tim to be “bothered by his mere presence” which is a significant win and close enough to Duke and Cass to keep him sane.

We are in fact missing two main people: Babs and Alfred. These two opt to stay home, getting the much deserved break they need. They like to have tea parties, cleaning extravaganzas, and (though they won’t admit it) the occasional dance break in the batcave when no one’s looking. They like to take the batmobile to get food and their guilty pleasure is watching rom-coms on the giant screen in the batcave while eating “trashy takeaways” as Alfred so eloquently calls them. These two have the best time, but if anyone asks they were simple awaiting the rest of their families return.

That’s how I think it’d go down! Overall I think it would be chaotic but not as bad as one might think, they are family after all : )

Oh wait, I forget, there are two more stowaways...

Bart and Kon are silent, Kon mostly flies above but occasionally slips into the trunk to rest with Bart. Bart easily slips into the trunk and is quite literally gone in a flash if Bruce ever suspects anything. Just because Tim can’t hand feed him nuggets doesn’t mean the boy isn’t read for road trip part two! He just hopes Kon made a flying stop at tacobell because he’s getting kinda hungry...

“Timmmm are we there yet?”

“DID I JUST HEAR WHAT I THINK I DID TIM”

“oh my god I finally experienced the great incident but now part two!”

“hi Steph! Yeah I’m here! Sorry Brucie, but yeah, can you pass me a twizzler?”

“HOW DID YOU DO THIS AGAIN TIM I SWEAR TO-”

yup, now that’s a batfam road trip : )

[batfam-rewrites]

Batfam During Quarantine: Training Day

Thanks so much for the amount of love the last post got!I’m sorry it took me so long to post this next one, school and other stuff started to get in the way, so to make up for it I added a surprise arc at the end. I might start doing theses in chunks to save time and fill in any gaps where I don’t post as much because of school. Not so sure yet but it’s just an idea. I hope that if you read this you enjoyed it! I am going to try and post more frequently now that I’m almost caught up with my school work.

Damian: Good morning Tim! I made you breakfast.

Tim: What do you know? Why are you calling me Tim?

Cassandra: Plus three large hot cups of coffee.

Tim: What’s going on? Why are you guys acting so weird?

Cassandra: No reason. Just want to be nice.

Tim: Nope. That’s not it. What did you guys do.

Jason: Done making Tim’s bed! I’m off to steam his suit!

Tim: WHAT THE SHIT IS GOING ON???

Cassandra, Damian, and Jason: *in unison* We just want to be nice. *all three surround him in a big hug*

Tim: THIS IS SO WEIRD!

Dick: *walks into the breakfast room* Morning Tim! How’s it going?

Tim: NO! ALL OF YOU LEAVE ME ALONE! *storms out of the breakfast room*

Dick: What did you do to Tim?

Jason: We have no idea.

Damian: The dude is losing it.

Dick: *gets face to face with Cassandra* Cass, do you have something to say?

Cassandra: We woke up early and decided to be nice to Tim for no reason.

Dick: You guys are evil. Go have your fun.

All three run out of the room.

Jason: TIM LET US LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Daily Briefing

Dick: Hey, Babs doesn’t know your here. I don’t want her to get jealous or something so could you please join the zoom call from another room.

Helena: Sure, I understand, lover.

Dick: No, we aren’t going through that again.

Helena: I make no promises.

Tim: You know you’re going to be in deep shit when Barbara finds out, right?

Dick: I’m in deep shit anyway.

Tim: Very true.

Dick: *begins the zoom call* Hey everyone, so if you can’t tell, Huntress has arrived to help out. Now, to everyone at the manor I created a schedule for when to work out. They should be completed before patrol. For those of you at home, I trust that you made your own.

Barbara: Yep!

Kate: Please, I’ve been training much harder than most of you guys since I was 6.

Harper: Yeah, sorta did. Not able to do much because I’m not at the cave.

Dick: That actually leads me to my next point. Harper I made a schedule for you because Bruce, Alfred, Selina, and I found a way to have Cullen inside the mansion without him finding out who Batman really is. Cullen already knows the alter egos of Red Robin, Spoiler, Orphan, and Nightwing. Everyone else is a question mark, so we will allow you to enter the mansion. When Cullen is around, we all will have to restrain from talking about our vigilante work. Have everything ready by next week. Once you arrive you’ll have to quarantine in your room for two weeks.

Harper: Awesome!

Dick: Today there has actually been no crime in Gotham City, so far, so we’ll take a day off, but if something comes up, cases will be assigned as they normally are. So everyone, after training, feel free to relax but be ready in case something pops up.

Dick and Jason

Dick: *turns on his training playlist, first song being “Devil in I” from Slipknot*

Jason: You know what, if this is the kind of stuff you have on your playlist, I might actually enjoy training with you!

Dick: I have 357 songs on here.

Jason: Damn!

Dick: What did you expect, I listen to every genre!

Jason: Really! I should actually start listening whenever people talk.

Dick: Remember that next time Bruce yells at you for shooting someone.

Jason: I’m just saying, if I mistake someone’s knee cap for their head, is it really that bad?

Dick: *laughs* Yes!

The two stretch a bit before moving on to pommel horse.

Dick: Figured you’d want to get this out of the way first.

Jason: Fuck you!

Dick: Just think of the music, and not falling.

Jason: *goes for a loop on pommel horse and bangs his legs against the pommels and falls* AHHHHHHH!

Dick: Maybe I should take pommels off first?

Jason: That’s an option? Then yes, please do so!

Dick: *quickly takes of the pommels then goes for a magyar, a triple russian, flare, spindle, press handstand one and a half piro, and flawlessly sticks his dismount*

Jason: Show off.

Duke and Damian

Dick and Jason had been training for an hour and fifteen minutes before Duke and Damian walked in. After stretching, the two began to spar.

Dick: Duke! You made a mistake when choosing your partner.

Jason: Nah! My boy Duke will show Dami who’s the boss.

Duke: I honestly like my chances!

Damian: Good Thomas, your over confidence will be your doom!

The two begin to fight. Damian dives right for Duke, rolling out and uses his momentum to go for a front flip and kick Duke in the chest, however Duke evades Damian’s strike and trips him after Damian lands.  Damian gets back up though, thrashing at Duke. Duke dodges each strike and finally jabs Damian in the gut a few times and kicks him in the chest. That would be the only fight out of the three they had that Duke won. 

Afterwards, Dick began to teach him the basics on both high bar. Duke was able to catch on very quickly and by the end of his training on high bar he was learning how to do kips and flyaways. Dick and Duke also decided to tumble together so Duke could learn the basics and some advanced skills too.

Damian spent the rest of his time trying to out do Jason. When Jason was using 100 lb weights, Damian would use 120′s. When Jason ran 5 miles, Damian ran 6. 

Jason: Dami, you’re going to be extremely sore. Take it easy.

Damian: Easy? *huff* Let me *huff* remind you that *huff* I was also trained *huff* by the League *huff* of Assassins. *runs to the garbage to throw up* I am superior *huff* than all of *huff* you in every way.

Jason: Okay bud. Well, I’m about to spar with Dick.

Damian: I’ll fight Grayson, too. *jogs up to Dick while moaning in pain* *huff* Fight me Grayson. *huff*

Dick: I’m not going to fight you. You look like you’ll pass out.

Damian: I’m *huff* fine.

Dick: Throw a punch at me like you normally would without groaning in pain.

Damian: *starts to punch but his fist his Dick like a soft tap* Ahhhhhh.

Dick: Go rest, take an ice bath, eat a lot of fruits, and drink a lot of water.

Damian: Okay, *huff* but only because *huff* you said so.

Dick and Jason then started to fight and after they concluded, Dick took the trash bag that Damian hurled in and tossed it out. An hour later Duke concluded his workout.

Cassandra and Julia

Cassandra: Woooo! Are you ready?

Julia: Your enthusiasm is a little bit concerning.

Cassandra: Yeah, but just deal with it.

Since she arrived to the mansion Julia has not let herself stop her routine. She has been training as much as she has been since her days in Britain's Special Reconnaissance Regiment. However as soon as she saw Cassandra doing freestanding handstand push-ups while doing an inverted crunch, she knew she had to up her game.

Cassandra just ignored the list Dick gave her for the most part and did the craziest exercises she could think of. When she started strength conditioning, she ran to the still rings and tried to do what she saw Dick doing once. She tried an azarian to an iron cross but immediately fell through the rings. it took her twenty minutes but she finally made it to the iron cross and rolled backwards into a planche. An hour later she finish conditioning and waited for Julia to finish so the two could spar.

Julia: Okay, you ready? *walking over from the treadmill*

Cassandra: More than ready! Lets do this! *she started bouncing on her toes like a boxer*

Cassandra won all three fights within a matter of minutes. Julia almost had a chance in the second one where Cassandra lost her balance, but she reacted too slow as Cassandra regained it and knocked Julia to the floor.

Selina and Helena

Selina focused more on her agility during her cardio workout than anything else. I mean, it’s definitely something that she takes pride in so why wouldn’t she?

Helena: Hey, can I ask you a question? *throwing punches toward Selina*

Selina: Sure! *dodges each strike, jumps off the wall, and dives over Helena’s head*

Helena: What’s the situation between Dick and Barbara? *grabs Selina’s torso and slams her body down*

Selina: Oof. *gets back up from the floor and sits down with Helena* Don’t think of it. Dick is all sad that he has to stay at the mansion without Barbara. I wouldn’t even try to approach Dick about the situation because he’ll act even more weird then when you arrived.

Helena: That explains this morning.

Selina: What happened?

Helena: I said hey and he replied with “Hey, what’s up, gir......friend, lady. Girl who is a friend and a lady. Saved it.” Then, just for fun, I pinched his ass and he jumped up and screamed. 

Selina: You’re playing with fire, I don’t blame you for pinching his ass though.

Helena: Hold on, it gets better. After that I leaned towards him and he started leaning over the table and asked, what’s wrong lover. He then stepped to the side and said “Nothing, nothing.” and started walking backwards saying “coolcoolcool” until he reached the door.

Selina: Why bother messing with his head?

Helena: Because it’s fun. Plus I still feel like there is something there. 

Selina: Very well. Now that you have that out of your system let’s head to the showers.

Helena: You won’t tell Dick, right?

Selina: What you just told me is between you and Dick. I will not interfere in any way.

Stephanie and Tim

Tim: *walks in tired as hell* Hey Steph. You ready?

Stephanie: Yeah!

Tim: Alright. Cool.

Both Stephanie and Tim go to do their separate training regimes. Tim however, being extremely tired started to move very slow during his workout. Halfway through his work out he stepped out to grab a five hour energy shot and started flying through his conditioning list that Dick made. 

Tim: You ready to spar? *jumping around like a rabbit, then lands sideways, falling to the floor only to get back up*

Stephanie: *looking at Tim like he’s a crackhead* No, I think we should skip the sparring match today.

Tim: No, come on let’s go! *grabs Stephanie's wrist and drags her over to the sparring arena*

Stephanie: Tim your going to hurt yourself. Instead of sparring let’s take a nap.

Tim: Come on, sleeping is for people who have don’t have tragic backstories. Let’s fight!

Tim tries to throw a few quick jabs but Stephanie quickly sweeps Tim’s legs causing him to fall. Stephanie Runs forward pointing her fist at his throat.

Tim: Owww! That’s abuse! You abused myself! Why are you mean?!

Stephanie: Tim, when was the last time you slept?

Tim: Ummmmm........... Tuesday?

Stephanie: Okay, training is over, go let yourself rest.

Tim: Pffft. I’ll sleep when I’m dead. 

Stephanie: Okay. *text Dick* Hey Dick, we have a code yellow.

Dick: *text back* On my way up.

Tim: You know I like to live by the words of the Beastie Boys anyway. No sleep ‘til Brooklyn, and because I have never been to Brooklyn, I am not obligated to sleep.

Stephanie: You have a problem!

Tim: No, *points his finger dramatically at Stephanie*  you have a problem.

Dick: *walks in* Hey Tim, I have a case I want to work on with you.

Tim: *to Stephanie* See, now I can’t sleep.

Dick: We’ll take the Batmobile.

*3 hours later*

Dick: Okay, we just entered Brooklyn. Now go to sleep!

Tim: No fair, you tricked my brain.

Dick: SLEEEEEEEEP!

Tim: NO!

Dick: Why are you staying up all night?

Tim: Because, I don’t want anything to change! *starts sobbing*

Dick: It’s okay, you’re alright. *pulls over to the side of the road*

Tim: No I’m not. Everything is changing and I don’t want it to. I don’t want to fall out of my habits because what about when things get back to normal. Then we have to build those habits again, and what if while we are readjusting someone dies because we weren’t ready. Plus, there is so much stress with helping Bruce keep his company from falling, trying to finish my homework, training, and patrolling the nights where there is more activity. 

Dick: *embraces Tim in his arms* Look change is going to happen whether we like it or not. It’s not what happens that shapes who we are but how we react to the changes that occur in our lives that do. The world is never going to be the same after this pandemic is over, so you could either adapt, or repeat your mistakes. It’s okay to not be okay. You are not alone, you have all of us at the mansion to talk to. Another thing that you have to keep in mind is that people are going to die. We both knew that the moment we signed up, and sometimes there is nothing we can do about it. All we can do is learn from what happened to stop it from happening again. You also need to get some sleep. I know you are under a lot of stress right now, not going to lie, but you have it worse than all of us right now, but how do you expect to save others if you won’t take care of yourself. 

Tim: *starts calming down*

Dick: I’ll talk to Bruce tonight to see if he could cut you some slack. I’ll find a way to help out too now that we aren’t patrolling as much. Just make sure to take care of yourself.

Tim: Okay.

Dick: Smart, toit.

Tim: Stop it Peralta. *begins to laugh*

Dick: *laughs pretty hard* Now get some rest, I’ll wake you up when we get back to Gotham.

Tim: Okay. I guess.

Black Mask, Hush, Two-Face, and Jason Bard

The night was very silent as Roman Sionis looked upon Gotham from the building. It was quiet, empty, peaceful, and disturbing. Hush walked into the room, followed by Harvey Dent and Jason Bard.

Black Mask: Congratulations, you found your way here.

Jason Bard: You’re pretty easy to find when you want to be.

Black Mask: Or is it because no one else is on the street other then your snitches.

Jason Bard:......

Hush: You called us here. What do you want?

Black Mask: Look out at the city. Tell me what do you see.

The three men walk forward towards the window.

Two-Face: Fear.

Hush: Silence.

Jason Bard: Caution, and paranoia.

Black Mask: You are all correct, but you missed one thing.

Two-Face: Stop playing games! What do you want us to see?

Black Mask: Opportunity.

[thatblondeperson]

Hi! I'm the girl who recommended "All I've Ever Known" from Hadestown from your most recent chapter, which, by the way, completely blew me away.

I wish I could send some of my own TimSteph thoughts/writing towards you, though I haven't done much. You are an excellent writer and I love your interpretations of both characters. They're so perfect together.

1. Do you have any fanfics concerning them coming after this one?

2. You have no idea how much it kills me that I have to wait 7 days to read another chapter. This fic should be CANON and no, I'm not joking.

3. Also, I recommend listening to Mr. Blue. It reminded me of Chapter 9 (was it?) when Steph said she was worried about Tim's mental health.

4. You said in Chapter 11 that you had a soft spot for Steph playing piano (that happened) and there would be more of "fun" Tim. Is it coming soon?

5. Have you seen Marcus To's art of TimSteph? They're so cute.

Again, so sorry for the long questions/responses. I just love TimSteph, which is weird, considering I'm not THAT big of a shipper and I'm more of a book fan than a comic book fan. I actually preferred DickKory when I got into the Batfam comics, and I still have them ranked high, but over time, these two grew on me. It was like, "Ooh, these guys are great BFFs! They can't get any better--"

Then I realized that they were dating, and the more and more I thought about it, THE MORE AND MORE IT MADE SENSE. I COULD WRITE A 10-PAGED PAPER ON WHY THEY WORK SOOOO WELL.

But IncoherentBabblings beat me to it with her incredible post on "Why TimSteph is Nice," and it's one of my favorite posts ever.

Hey hey!! Sorry, busy couple days at work!

I am so happy that you've been enjoying the fic!! I listened to the song and it's so so sweet!! I totally get the TimSteph vibes from it, where it's just the two of them clinging to each other in the face of everything else.

If you ever post anything lmk! I'm always happy to see more TimSteph content! You are too kind about my writing! I am just happy that I'm finishing my first multichapter fic like this. Never finished a big project before, honestly never thought it would happen.

1. I have a whole to-do list of little projects, god knows when anyone will see those. I'm drafting little things now that I'm winding down from FMWBTY. I am gonna be doing a collab project with @incoherentbabblings but we are just in the planning stages so far.

As far as with this fic, I would love to do a sequel to write the relationship more on this timeline, but we'll see! There's a lot more I'd like to cover, idk if it would be as long of a project. I do want to utilize Cass and Damian though, I want to bring them in since Cass is such an important person to Steph, and I'd love to see some forced bonding hilarity between Tim and Damian with Tim playing nice out of respect for Steph lol

2. lololol yeah I though a week would be a good amount of time in between chapters. It's better than waiting for me to write the chapters, I promise. I made my first draft of this thing in 2019!

3. I will listen to that too! It's on the list!

4. I use "fun" in an odd way. I'm trying to have Tim relax around Steph and act like himself again. He's kinda been battered by a lot of shit over the years, so he's kinda receded in on himself. I will drag him out a bit, but that's where a sequel would also be fun. Let him be a jokey, lovey dovey boyfriend for Steph.

5. Love Marcus! Hope to be able to commission a TimSteph piece from him someday. I do wish that she was drawn with more wavy, kind of untamed hair, since I just like the idea that Steph has this super thick hair. But his art is literally always stunning, such clean line work and I like that he doesn't draw the men too bulky, and that the women aren't oversexualized.

Long questions are fine! I think a lot of us started with DickKory in the form of RobStar in the Teen Titans TV show, that was definitely one of my first major ships, and it was a painfully wonderful slowburn. Wonder where I latched onto that trope? 🤣🤣🤣

Idk when I hopped onto TimSteph. I think I just latched on after I started reading Tim because their dynamic was so fun and sweet. And then fandom, cuz when I joined there weren't so many antis and Steph haters. Truly sad to see now.

Thank you thank you THANK YOU for all your support!! I definitely plan to keep writing TimSteph while I still have ideas! ❤💜

[dottie-wan-kenobi]

A @batfam-christmas-stocking fic written for @solarcelest!! happy holidays <3

----

Picking Damian up from school isn’t something Tim can truthfully say sounds fun. It’s even worse seeing as Damian, grounded after going on patrol with four broken fingers and despite being told to stay home, is without a phone and has no idea it’s Tim coming today instead of Alfred. He��s taken the same car Alfred always uses, though, so he figures it’ll be fine up until the kid gets in and sees Tim.

He waits out the ungodly 30 minutes for the bell to ring playing games on his phone. Alfred had said to go even earlier if he wanted a good spot, but he’d waited until what felt like the last second. He didn’t get a great spot but Damian should still be able to see the car fine.

Eventually, Damian steps out of the school. Tim sets down his phone to watch, curious what Damian is like around people other than their family members and other heroes. He knows Dick, Steph, Duke, and maybe even Cass have seen that side of the kid, but Tim never has.

The other kids swarm out around him. He’s alone, dressed in his stiff school uniform. He looks up, and for a moment, his face is smooth and relaxed, none of the angry little wrinkles Tim is used to seeing. He looks…relieved, maybe. Tired. Happy the school day is over.

Yeah, Tim gets that.

He turns the engine once Damian spots the car and makes his way over with a lightness in his step. It’s honestly kind of cute, but Tim isn’t about to admit that to anyone.

Halfway there, another kid stops Damian as he walks by her, physically moving into his path. She’s taller and probably older, and she looks familiar to Tim in a way he’s come to realize means he must know her older sibling.

For a few minutes, they talk, and though Tim can read lips, they’re too far away, at a bad angle. He can read their body language just fine, though. Whatever she’s saying, it’s pissing Damian off.

For a brief moment, Tim entertains the idea of getting out of the car and going to get Damian himself. Rescue him from whatever is going on here, that’s making his face turn red and his fists to clench. But he knows it wouldn’t be appreciated, and honestly can’t blame Damian for that—Tim wouldn’t have wanted that either. It’s embarrassing, having to have an older sibling come and save you from bullies. If that’s even what’s happening here.

He decides to watch, and if it seems like any tears are going to be shed on either side, or fists are about to start flying, he’ll intervene.

In the end, Damian gets away from the girl, roughly pushing past her, and storms over to the car without Tim having to do anything.

Damian opens the door, flings his backpack in, and follows just as roughly. He closes the door and buckles up without looking over even once, then says, “Alfred, I— Timothy ?”

“Sup,” Tim says awkwardly. He isn’t expecting this to go well, and maybe he should preemptively try to not piss Damian off, but he can’t help it. He’s still getting used to being the kind of big brother Dick is, and so far, it’s been far easier with Duke than Damian. They get along better these days, but that isn’t saying much, really.

“Where is Alfred?” Damian demands.

“He had to take Duke to see his therapist and asked me to come get you. You strapped?”

“You can clearly see that I am.” Yup, definitely pissed.

“Just making sure!” Tim sighs and pulls out of the space, joining the long line of people also trying to leave the roundabout-like parking lot. After a few minutes of tense silence, they’ve barely made it half way out. Tim taps his fingers on the steering wheel. “How long does this usually take?”

“If you had gotten a better spot,” Damian says, mutinously glaring out the window, his arms crossed tight against his chest, “then we could have been gone already.”

Don’t argue with him, Tim, he tells himself. He’s just a kid. School is stressful, even without potential bullying. Don’t argue.

“ I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you can’t even do that right .”

“Look, Dami,” Tim says, much too loud. He has to force himself to lower his voice, but it’s too late—he can already see Damian clenching his jaw in the mirror. “I was just trying to help by coming here, okay? Otherwise, you would’ve been called out of school early, and had to sit around for an hour while Duke was—”

“That would have been preferable to being stuck here with you!”

Damian’s voice rings out just as Tim gets out on the road, and for a moment, neither of them speak.

“Damian.”

“This is unacceptable! Alfred is the one to pick me up. I don’t want anyone else. Just Alfred. And certainly not you . Why couldn’t it have been Richard? Or Stephanie?”

“Dick’s in New York with the Titans, and Steph is in class right now,” Tim says, fingers tight on the wheel. He’s glad Damian isn’t slinging insulting nicknames around yet, but that doesn’t make it any easier to hear.

“Tt. So of course you’re all that’s left.”

“Yeah, it looks like it.”

They go back to glaring out their respective windows. As they take the winding road back to Bristol, Tim weighs the merits of attempting to figure out what happened. It’ll probably only upset Damian further, but dammit, Dick would ask. Jason would, too. Cass would’ve already figured out what was eating Damian without having to ask, but she would do it anyway. Open up the communication lines, Tim’s therapist and Alfred and Clark all say.

Slowly, he asks, “Is this tantrum because of what that girl was saying to you?”

“I am not having a tantrum, and it doesn’t matter what that wench said!”

“Right, so you’re shouting at me because you’re totally cool, calm, and collected and not at all upset?”

“Yes,” Damian seethes. “Congratulations on noticing the obvious.”

“If I was stating the obvious, I would say that whatever she said upset you and then the disruption of your routine made it worse, and now you’re taking it out on me because I’m the most convenient target.”

“I am not upset!”

“Fine, okay,” Tim gives in. Pushing isn’t going to help. “You’re not upset. Whatever.”

“No, I am not.” Damian pauses, and then he bursts, “ It doesn’t matter what she said, anyway, because all it was was a bunch of drivel about how Father only took me in to look good to the society people, just another one of his charity cases . But that’s not true! I know it’s not! Father cares about me and he took me in because he is my father and it was the right thing to do, not because of...that. That’s ridiculous and wrong!”

Oh. Oh, shit. Poor kid, Tim thinks. He was bullied, too, and he knows how much it hurts. Fuck, he needs to find out who this girl is so he can figure out a way to get her to leave Damian the fuck alone. Jason will help.

“And I wanted to talk to Alfred about it, because he…has a good sense of how to parse these things, how to react to them in a way that is befitting of someone like me ,” Damian says, diplomatic and on the verge of tears. “But instead, I am forced to talk to you, as if you could be of any aid at all!”

“I used to get bullied,” Tim offers. “I know something about how it feels. And you’re right, none of that is true. It’s all elitist, racist bullshit that she’s probably copying from her parents who are jealous Bruce has more money than them.”

“Of course it is. I know that. I don’t need you to pathetically try and comfort me, Timothy.”

Tim forces a sigh down before it can get out. No, Damian doesn’t need him, and would probably be much better off with Alfred, Dick, or Steph. But right now, he’s only got Tim, and clearly this talking thing is working out. “I know.”

They’re getting close to home, but he still turns on the radio to a song he knows Damian likes. At least it gives them both a reason not to keep talking.

[reddhoodie]

Game Night (Batfam Drabble)

A/N: The prompt for this one was ‘chains’. I may have stretched it a little? Eh.

**

*

*

    Dick drops into his Bludhaven apartment from the window. His entire body aches and his head is swimming with exhaustion. It's nearly four in the morning, and Nightwing had a hard night.

    He peels off his suit and heads for the bathroom to patch himself up. He's not hurt badly, but he has some cuts and scrapes that could do with a little cleaning up.

    On his way past the side table in the living room, he spots a new notification on his phone just fading as the phone goes back into sleep mode.

    The family knows how to contact him when he's on patrol if it was an emergency. It can't be anything all that important, but he's curious anyway and taps the screen to brighten it again.

    Tim sent you a snap! is on the screen, repeated several times. The most recent is from only a couple of minutes ago.

    Still only halfway out of his suit Dick unlocks the phone to check what's going on. If Tim's sending him Snaps at 3:47 in the morning he can only imagine what kind of chaos is unfolding at the manor.

    The first snap is a video from much earlier in the evening. Bruce is sitting at the dining room table, a black plastic band around his head and a card stuck in the front, facing out.

    "[Steph and Cass convinced him to do game night with us]" The caption on the video reads.

    "Am I a person?" Bruce is asking, the rest of the table out of the frame.

    "Yes." Tim answers, while the rest of the people at the table loudly answer 'no'.

    The video slowly zooms in on the word 'bra' printed on the card on Bruce's head.

    The next snap is from only a few minutes later, another video, and shaky like Tim is trying to stifle his laughter. Bruce still has the card on his head and is frowning suspiciously at the camera.

    "[world's greatest detective]"

    "Am I a common household item?" He asks.

    "Yes!" The others respond while the video shakes a little more.

    "Am I useful for stopping nosebleeds?"

    Tim makes a choking sound and the phone falls out of his hand.

    Dick laughs also, unplugging his phone and walking with it into the bathroom. He rests the phone on the sink and wets a cloth to clean his injuries. Hearing everyone's voices, even just on a short video, makes him feel a little bit less sore.

    The next snap is yet another video, and he can see more of the table this time. Instead of just Bruce, now he can see Jason leaning on the table and munching on a cookie, crumbs dropping to the tablecloth. Cassandra is to his right, leaning back in her chair giggling. Stephanie is to the right of the camera so he can only see her arms, but her voice is loud and clear like she's right up next to Tim. Alfred mills about in the background, shaking his head but smiling.

    The video is focused on Damian. He's frowning, eyes slightly squinted the way they get when he's deep in thought. 'Jail' is written on the card.

    "[I'm dyin g]"

    "Do people go here on purpose?" He asks, frowning, green eyes darting from person to person.

    "Sometimes." Jason comments, dribbling more crumbs when he speaks.

    "Have I been here?"

    "Not yet." Tim answers.

    With everyone laughing, Dick can almost ignore the burning pain in his arm while he carefully scrubs dirt and unknown street grime out of a cut.

    Cass is next. Her card says 'Africa'.

    "[she beat the record]"

    "Is there a song about my place?"

    "Yes!"

    "Is it on Stephanie's running playlist?"

    "Uh, yeah." Stephanie's voice answers.

    "I'm Africa?"

    The family cheers.

    Dick cheers too, much more quietly, however.

    Through the next videos he watches Jason try to guess 'waffle iron', Stephanie and 'The Lion King', and Tim and 'arcade'. Alfred even gets a turn and almost beats Cass' record in figuring out 'Chicago'. Just when Dick thinks it's ended, he gets to the most recent snap.

    The screen is black like the photo was taken with the phone laying down on the table. All there is to see is the caption.

    "[your turn- call me]"

    He sighs, wishing he'd seen these earlier. But then he notices the timestamp. Only two minutes before he got home. Curious, he texts Tim to see if they're still up and playing.

    Instead of a text back, his phone starts to ring. It's Tim on facetime, and Dick hurriedly moves to a place with better lighting.

    He answers it and is greeting by Tim's face. Stephanie leans into the view and sticks her tongue out at him. They both look exhausted but seem almost giddy.

    "Hi guys, you should be in bed." Dick greets.

    "Bed is for squares." Tim snorts.

    "And armchairs are for rhombuses." Stephanie agrees, sending her and Tim into a wild laughing fit.

    "Yeah, you guys should definitely go to bed." Dick laughs.

    Tim wipes tears from his eyes. "We couldn't go to bed without you getting your turn. Now c'mon we have a card out for you."

    "Who else is still up?"

    Tim turns the phone so Dick can see the table. Cass is in her spot still, carefully building a house out of the other game cards. Jason is in his seat as well, turned slightly to his left so he can prop his feet up in the chair Damian had been in. "Bruce and Damian are quitters. Now c'mon, guess."

    Dick smiles, rubs at his eyes while they burn with sleepiness. "All right, am I a person?"

    Dick intends to get his answer quickly so he can say goodnight and everyone can go to bed, but it ends up being much, much tougher than he had assumed. Especially when he can't help but doubt the accuracy of the answers he's getting. They're all tired and laughing at nonsense.

    It's approaching four thirty when he starts to get less amused and more fed-up.

    Cass is leaning against Jason's side, and Jason has his head resting on hers. Stephanie and Tim have descended into giggling almost constantly at nothing apparent to him.

    "I don't know, Tim. What am I?"

    Tim yawns. "No Dick, you have to guess."

    Dick sighs, then suddenly recognizes a new noise. Humming. Tim glances up just as Dick recognizes the song.

    "Baby tell me why, why you do, do me wroooong..." Jason mumbles under his breath while still pretending to be asleep.

    "Am I Nick Jonas?" Dick asks.

    "Cheater!" Stephanie cries, pointing at Jason.

    "Go to bed, you guys."

    Tim and Stephanie are still yelling at Jason when Dick hangs up. He stands up, stretches, yawns, rubs at his eyes, and heads to his bedroom.