#everyone else being pretty and everything and then tim looking tired and miserable <3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bigskydreaming · 4 years

Text

Making this its own post because replying to the ask got so weirdly formatted I can’t even. Oh tumblr. You work so well.

@themessofthecentury asked:

jsksjf my tumblr notifs are bugging and i didnt see your post but!!! The patron Saint of Robins?? I am much intrigue!!

(This is from this ask game, just....gotten to late, lololol. And I still have more I’m getting to, no worries. Just had a rough couple days is all, laid me up a bit.)

Okay, so The Patron Saint of Robins is kinda like the situation at the end of Grayson, except also not at all. And actually this is one of my older WIPs, and according to Scrivener I started it in 2015 afhislfhalhfalf, so it really has nothing to do with that. Also, its Young Justice-verse, but for two specific reasons:

1) YJ-verse is my go-to for Good Dad Bruce Wayne, when I don’t want to actually tackle the issues I have with his and his kids’ dynamic in comic book canon. I don’t carry over things like the adoption issue or the Robin succession into YJ fics, as I don’t think there’s anything that suggests they’re ever a specific issue in YJ and I don’t feel a need to make them one. So pretty much anything and everything I write in YJ goes with the backstory that Dick’s already adopted by Season One, and he’s the one to grant each later Robin permission to use the mantle, with no conflict over that, and more of a pre-Crisis transition to Nightwing than the post-Crisis firing from Robin. And this fic inherently needs Good Dad Bruce Wayne to work, lol.

2) I needed Klarion the Witch-Boy. Who of course exists in comic book canon, but is muuuuuch different there, and I just needed him to be a little demonic evil shithead, who sets everything in motion to get payback on the heroes for thwarting the Light in Season One, and he targets Robin due to being the oft-cited ‘first of the baby brat heroes’ and the ‘heart of the cape community.’

You don’t really need to be familiar with YJ canon at all for this one, as it goes sharply AU from after Season One, and only faintly and vaguely references specific events from that season. And I use my own YJ-ized version of the Titans as much as the actual YJ Team.

So basically, the plot of this one is to take revenge on the heroes for spoiling his game in Season One, Klarion plays a new game, by putting a chaos curse on Robin. It essentially erases him from peoples’ memories, though he’s perfectly able to make new ones. If he re-introduces himself to someone ask Dick Grayson, for instance, they don’t suddenly remember who Dick Grayson is or was, but they don’t forget about him again from that point onward, its like they meet him for the first time as a stranger.

But the curse part of things is only Batman can break it and restore everyone’s memories of Dick and his actual history, and only by identifying him for who he really is. And Dick can’t be part of breaking his own curse or else it seals it and makes it permanent and unbreakable forever.

Which of course leaves Dick completely miserable at first, understandably, and Bruce (and everyone else Dick knows, to varying different degrees) feeling some kind of loss but with no idea what it is they think or feel that they’re missing. Dick makes some half-hearted attempts at starting a new life for himself in Gotham, and in the process befriends a street kid named Jason Todd, though Dick introduces himself to Jason with just the name Robin.

The way the curse operates is it restitches together peoples’ memories to cover up the gaps where memories of him would go. So for instance, even though Jason never knew Dick before the curse, he was familiar with Batman and Robin just as much as any Gothammite was.....but due to the curse, the name Robin, upon meeting Dick, had no special meaning to him or anyone else. As far as he knew, Batman had always operated on his own in Gotham, the first teen superhero was that Speedy kid in Star City, etc. So when Jason first meets Dick, he just thinks he’s some dude whose name happens to be Robin.

Eventually, because Dick’s been kinda torturing himself by spying on Bruce just to ‘keep an eye on him’ and still watch his back, and he’s recognized by now that Bruce is mourning his loss without even knowing that he’s missing something....so Dick, who has also kinda come to see Jason as a little brother figure due to watching out for him as well....decides to kill two birds with one stone, unfortunate pun not intended. (Jason doesn’t die in this one, lol). Basically, Dick puts in motion the chain of events that lead Jason to stealing Batman’s tires, because he doesn’t know EXACTLY what Bruce will do but he knows it’ll get his attention in a big way and Bruce will take it from there.

One thing leads to another, Jason ends up living with Bruce and when eventually he wants to be trained by Bruce so he can do what he does and protect kids like he used to be.....when asked to pick a name....Jason names himself after the guy who always looked out for him, and who led to him being found by Bruce in the first place. He doesn’t know that his friend ‘Robin’ steered him towards those tires deliberately, just to bring him and Bruce into contact, but he does credit him with making the suggestion that ‘inadvertently’ (as far as he knows) enabled his and Bruce’s introduction, and so he names himself in honor of the boy who helped him and who he tried to track down again to similarly help, after Bruce adopted him, but was never able to find again.

Over the years, Dick also ends up steering Tim, Cass, Duke and Damian to Bruce in different ways than comic book canon (Steph and Babs’ debuts remain their own, as family adjacent but not family specifically) and thus is integral to the forming of the Batfam and has a connection with them even before the curse ultimately ends up broken and he’s able to reclaim his full identity. And each of them end up Robin at least briefly, like Steph is never Robin in this AU, and sticks with Spoiler, whereas Cass IS briefly Robin before becoming Batgirl after Babs. I did this for a few different reasons...

One, I really like that Cass is never Robin in main continuity as it creates a different dynamic between her and Dick than most of their siblings have, BUT I’ve always been curious to play around what Cass-as-Robin might even be like, just for an AU. Two, part of the Black Bat and Batgirl but never Robin sequence of mantles for Cass in the comic book continuity is like.....although it doesn’t get explored nearly enough, Babs was as much a kind of mother figure for Cass as Bruce was a father figure, despite Babs’ young age. So it makes more sense for Cass to stick more to just Bat-mantles than to ever be a Robin in the comic books. But in YJ, Babs is even younger, and just way too young to have the specific kind of dynamic that leads to that in the comic books, so its not as unreasonable IMO for her to have a different dynamic in her early days in the family here, before becoming closer with Babs and taking up the Batgirl mantle after she moves on to become Oracle.

And then also, and this is also the primary reason for making Duke a Robin briefly, before Damian is old enough....I got hung up on the title and it just didn’t work as well if it was Robins + Cass and Duke, lololol. See, in addition to helping steer the family into the points of introduction that make them a family, over the years he also acts as like, a guardian angel figure to the various family members, looking out for them and interceding in times of extreme danger, like when Jason is almost killed by the Joker. He’s always in disguise, but the kids eventually compare notes and realize there’s a singular figure behind each of their introductions to Bruce and the guy swooping out of nowhere to save their behinds whenever they’re most in danger, and Jason eventually connects this back to the guy who apparently NOT so coincidentally suggested he go after the Batmobile’s tires that fateful night, and the kids end up jokingly/not-so-jokingly referring to this figure as the Patron Saint of Robins. (Shout-out to the occasional mentions/allusions of Jason’s Catholicism).

They never tell Bruce about this figure (at least before Bruce starts to put together clues on his own), because they all figured out that for whatever reason, this person despite wanting them all to meet Bruce seems to want to avoid Bruce himself, and they kinda want to respect that as a kind of payback for his help, and also like....Bruce, even a kinder, gentler Bruce, is still Bruce. And when Bruce is gonna Bruce, that means Batparanoia. And all of them for various reasons DO trust that this guy has nothing but good intentions towards them, and so they don’t want to like....ruin or tarnish the positivity they associate with his intercession in their lives with paranoia or treating him like a bad guy. Which ultimately is really just smoke and mirrors for saying that he’s kinda a ‘just for them’ secret. Its a Robin thing.

(Until its not).

Because meanwhile, Dick, in between meeting the various Batfam members and pulling strings and looking out for them from the shadows, at first travels the world looking for ways to break his curse. But when ultimately its clear that the only way to break it is the loophole built into it already, Bruce identifying him for who he really is, but without Dick doing anything to steer him towards the answer, Dick settles into a new hero identity as Nightwing, and forms the Teen Titans, a public group of young superheroes (minus Roy and Wally, unfortunately, but still with Donna, Garth, Raven, Kory, ignoring season 3 Vic and also Terra because AU redemption arc what what, etc). And the Teen Titans avoid both the Young Justice Team and the Justlce League with EXTREME measures, much to the other heroes’ confusion and aggravation, because in the early days of the Titans, in a moment of what he’d term weakness, on one of his ‘bad days,’ Dick tells them enough of his story that they’re able to put together a good sense of what happened and who he really is by reading between the lines and what he leaves unsaid....

BUT as a result, all end up extremely committed to not mixing and mingling casually with the rest of the cape community because they don’t want to risk dropping any hints about the guy under Nightwing’s mask, in case that might count as steering Batman towards clues and seal the curse for good. So I have a lot of fun with having the Titans just nope out of the scene the second the bad guys are defeated even when they have to team up with other heroes, leaving the other heroes confused as hell and trying not to be all ‘WHY DON’T YOU LIKE US??”

Anyway, so yeah, that’s the gist of this one, lol. With it of course following the eventual plot that like...the Batfam starts to Detect and put things together.

ANYWHO!

Snippet

Damian versus Klarion: Round One

“Aww, its adorable that you think you’re in my league,” the Witch-Boy cooed in an absolute mockery of sympathy. Damian bristled, but before he could do anything more than that, he was faced with a much more pressing matter as reality completely lost its mind.

The walls of the cavern fell away in an instant, only to be replaced with a whirling dervish of winds all around them, as if they now stood in the center of a cyclone that bled red and silver and black. It shrieked and wailed in a chorus of voices just on the other side of being comprehensible, a symphony of the damned that set every nerve in Damian’s body aflame with a primal instinct to get out, to find silence, to be anywhere but here.

He’d barely staggered a step backwards when the ground erupted beneath him, splitting apart into jagged obsidian shards that bobbed precariously in the sea of magma barely glimpsed through cracks now spiderwebbing their way across the floor. Spears of lightning burst upwards through them, stabbing impossibly at the heavens rather than raining down from them. They hissed and crackled as they flickered like forked serpent tongues of electric violet and black. The forks becoming branches, the pillars of sky-shattering light transforming into the trunks of great trees that grew upwards and outward, weaving a canopy overhead. One that wept violently red leaves that fell gently to the ground, only to hiss and bubble like acid once they did.

“See, normally this is when I’d hit someone with a little razzle-dazzle like this,” Klarion called out over the song of madness he’d created, as it crooned and careened wildly all around them. He snapped his fingers, and in the span of a second it all ceased. Reality reaffirmed itself, and all was right with the world once more…except now the two of them stood at the end of a hallway in Wayne Manor.

Damian stumbled, the sudden reappearance of firm ground paradoxically being the thing to challenge his balance. The demon boy standing beside him crooked his thumb and forefinger in the semblance of a gun, the smile pasted across his face one of wickedly gleeful malice.

“But you, kiddo, you’re special. Cuz there’s nothing I could do to you now that could top what I’ve already done, so why try when I can just savor the moment instead?”

“What are you babbling about?” Damian demanded roughly. In the wake of what the Witch-Boy had just conjured up with nothing more than a gesture, he was keenly aware of how flimsy a shield his bravado made. He just had absolutely no idea what else to fall back on.

Klarion only threw back his head and laughed though, skipping merrily down the hall as he did.

“I know something you don’t know,” he sing-songed and Damian lost what little grasp of his patience he’d managed to hang onto.

“You overestimate my need for an answer. Attempt to intimidate me all you wish, but I have no desire to indulge your little game any further.”

Klarion jerked to a stop and spun around, his face screwed into a childish pout. He stomped his foot, petulance personified. “I’m not intimidating you anymore, I’m gloating! Ugh, you’re so stupid! They’re completely different, how can you not tell?”

Every light in the hallway flickered and fizzed abruptly. The walls wavered, bubbled, momentarily molten as if made of wax.

Again Damian was reminded just how mercurial this being he was faced with was, and how dangerous. Perhaps, as Father would say, this was not the time to indulge his own instinctive inclinations. Or as Todd would put it, just because you’re already fucked, that’s no reason to fuck yourself over more than you have to.

Crude as his older brother was, there was occasional merit to his…pithiness. Not that he would be admitting that any time soon, of course.

“Fine. What is it you wish to gloat about then?” Damian grated out. The appeasement, such as it was, tried its best to stick in his throat before finally clawing its way free. But at least it proved worth the effort when the godling’s mood reverted back to impishness as readily as with the flip of a switch.

“Well. Its like this, you see.” Klarion said. He dragged it out as he folded both legs underneath him to sit cross-legged in the air, plopping his head into his hands. “I did a baaaaaaaaaaaaad, bad thing to your family, a loooooong time ago. And none of you have done anything about it, because you don’t even know! Isn’t that funny? Doesn’t matter how big a hero Daddy Bats is if he doesn’t even know what needs saving huh? Little Catch-22 there, you might say.”

“Yes. Quite hysterical,” Damian said dryly. “So what is it you claim to have done then?”

The Witch-Boy just sat there, regarding him with amusement, and the seconds marched on into minutes. Damian’s skin crawled. Prickling with impatience and possibly something…more. He wasn’t quite ready to name it anxiety or something as melodramatic as all that yet. In fact, he’d rather not put a name to it at all, but today did not appear to be a day for configuring things to his liking.

Klarion’s wicked grin grew as if sensing his thoughts, though to the best of his knowledge (and Damian did quickly ransack the library of his memory just to be sure) there was no indication telepathy was included among the Chaos Lord’s many, many powers. And still that detestable smile stretched slowly wider all the same, in perfect synchronization with the rising tide of Damian’s unease. Perhaps the Witch-Boy’s file was in need of annotation.

“How many doors would you say are in this hallway?”

“What? Seven.” Damian snapped out his answer, annoyed by the non sequitur. Not to mention baffled. Was it too much to expect even a semblance of linear thought from the Chaos brat?

“Are you suuuuuuure?” The Witch-Boy stretched his query out obnoxiously. “Maybe you should count again. Just for kicks and giggles.”

Damian throttled back each and every retort attempting to spring to his lips, stuffing them back down and cramming a lid on everything he most dearly wished to say to this most vexing of…shitheads. Once again, it appeared as though nothing less than Todd’s preferred form of nomenclature would suffice. Wonderful. On top of everything else Damian had to deal with today, he seemed to be finding common ground with the man all over the place. Was there no end to the indignities he must suffer?

But marshaling his own formidable willpower, Damian took a deep breath and indulged the Chaos Lord, glancing his eyes down the length of the hallway and counting out each doorway one by one. There was his own room of course, with Cassandra’s to the right of his, and the room Brown used when staying over to the right of hers. That was three. Then there was Thomas directly across from his own room, with Drake to his right and Todd just beyond that, with Father’s room at the very end of the hall, his master suite staggered and with no direct opposite like the others. Seven.

Except all of a sudden there was a door directly opposite his father’s. For a total of eight.

Damian’s brow furrowed in consternation. The faint whispers of uncertainty already seeded throughout him bore fruit, ripening into poisonous stabbings of doubt.

“That’s not real,” he stated with as much conviction as he could muster.

The Witch-Boy’s smile only grew wider still. “Isn’t it, though?”

“There’s never been a door there before,” Damian persisted, striding confidently down the hall towards it. The Chaos Lord flitted ahead of him, inverting til he was upside down and skipping merrily once more, though this time from the ceiling.

“Or has it been there all along?” He sing-songed some more.

“I would think we might have noticed if it had been,” Damian growled.

“Yes, you’d think, wouldn’t you? You are all supposed to be a family of detectives, I thought. Makes you wonder…if you could miss this, what else might you have failed to notice?”

Damian snarled to himself and did his best to shut out the demon boy’s prattling. He quickened his strides, eating up the length of the hallway in his haste to reach its end. He wasn’t sure what opening the door would prove, let alone what bewilderment the godling had conjured on its other side, but it appeared the only end to this game of his was through it, so let there be an end to it already.

And yet, for all his certainty - or best facsimile of it - he couldn’t help but pause once he reached the door in question. His hand hovered within reach of its brass knob, but some instinct, some…caution, held him at bay. As much as he wanted to dismiss all this as just one more of the Chaos Lord’s inane charades, there was a tension in the air that felt too weighty to be the product of just magical conjuring. Something more was in play here. Real forces were at work. His father might disdain magic, but Damian had been around enough of it himself to know when true power had been raised. And the span of empty space between his hand and this hither-to-unseen doorknob held more of it than Damian had felt throughout all the mad warpings Klarion had made of reality thus far.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Klarion asked from somewhere overhead. His voice, usually pitched to carry, was so soft for a moment Damian mistook it for his own inner doubts. “Some doors are easier to open than to close again, you know.”

Even knowing the goading for what it was couldn’t stop Damian then, and with a simple breath to fortify himself, he reached for the knob, spun it once, and shoved the door open all in a single sharp movement.

The Witch-Boy giggled up above.

The door swung wide, a forceful arc that should have revealed anything and everything within it all at once; the better to react quickly to whatever that might be. Fine in principle, perfect in execution, but thwarted by one small detail:

There was nothing on the other side.

And not in the sense of it being just an empty room, but true nothingness. A pitch-black abyss darker than the deepest night, yawning forth from the doorway in a vast, impenetrable shroud. Nor was anything hidden in the darkness, Damian knew, even if just intuitively. He could feel it, that he stood on the edge of an impossible cliff, that there was nothing beyond this threshold but an aching chasm of emptiness and loss. The surety of it hung in the air, thick and heavy, a miasma that seeped through to his side of the doorway and clung to him like the moisture of a fog beads upon the skin.

Klarion’s head suddenly popped up alongside him, hovering just over his shoulder.

Albeit still upside down.

“Well that doesn’t seem right,” he mused, tapping at his lips with a forefinger. “What do you suppose is meant to be in there?”

The last of Damian’s brittle patience shattered.

“Enough! What is the meaning of all this, demon? Speak plainly, for once in your miserable existence!”

His self-preservation instincts and the reminder of just who it was he was shouting at kicked in too little too late, but he wouldn’t take his exasperated fury back even if he could. He was who he was after all. But fortunately, that described the Witch-Boy just as accurately, and rather take offense or perceive any actual threat from Damian’s rage, the Chaos Lord just shrieked with laughter and sprung backwards. He flipped right side up, still hovering in mid-air, and clapped his hands with glee.

“Oh, I should have done this ages ago,” Klarion sang out. “Why, you’re almost as fun as he used to be. Back before he got all droll and serious, that is. He’s no fun at all anymore, nothing like this. Never wants to play, always just running back to his tower with that little bitch of a demoness.”

His face soured like he’d just sucked on a lemon. But rather than stop there, his countenance kept morphing into an increasingly savage scowl, the longer he ranted. The hallway was suddenly sweltering, baking with unseen heat that twisted the air into shimmering ribbons. The small horns sprouting from his forehead burst into scimitars of flame that cut through those ribbons and set them similarly ablaze.

“Always putting on airs like she’s some kind of royalty, just because her Daddy Dearest put the fear into a few peasants back in the day,” the Witch-Boy snarled viciously. “As if that’s enough to put her on par with the likes of me. No one is the likes of me. NO ONE!”

Reality itself quaked with the force of his shout. White-blue flames spat forth and crescendoed down the length of the corridor, splashing against its walls and searing them to a crisp. Damian braced himself for all the good it would do, keenly aware of the void still gaping hungrily behind his back, but before the fire could become an actual danger to him as well, all was quiet once more.

Silence hung in the air much like the demon boy, poised yet motionless. Suspended. Waiting.

And then Klarion simply inhaled and brushed his hands down the front of his garments, smoothing out the wrinkles as he reclaimed his calm. The corridor restored itself to its former self, curtains of vintage reality unrolling from the ceiling to the floor as though papering over the damage. Damian felt rather than saw when the portal behind him swung shut and was replaced with the expanse of ivory paint and ornate sconces he was used to seeing in its place.

“I am one of a kind, after all,” Klarion finally remarked. It was a casual drawl offered forth almost off-handedly, as if more a reminder to himself than uttered for anyone else’s sake. He used one hand to spell out letters in the air. They appeared and vanished again in bursts of fireworks and fluorescent flame. “U-N-I-Q-U-E.”

“As I, apparently, am not,” Damian said, seizing upon the Chaos Lord’s restored calm and good cheer. “Who is this ‘he’ you mentioned? If I’m to be pitted against him as entertainment in your eyes, might I at least know his name?”

“Nuh-uh-uh,” the Witch-Boy scolded. He wagged his finger at Damian. “No spoilers. That’s not how the game is played.”

Keenly aware of the boy’s power once more, Damian gritted his teeth and pressed on. “Well, if there are to be rules, shouldn’t I at least know what those are?”

Klarion sucked in a deep breath, drawing himself up along with his inhalation as though preparing for some great speech…and instead just toppling backward, flopping onto an extravagant fainting couch that suddenly appeared beneath him, though similarly floating in the air.

“I can’t recall at the moment.” His now-faint voice drifted up from where he lay buried amid a mountain of pillows. “I’ve had a terribly exhausting day. But you’re supposed to be a detective, remember? Go…I don’t know. Detect things.”

He flapped an arm at Damian dismissively, and then crooked a finger into a twirling motion that set his divan to spinning in lazy circles.

“Isn’t life grand?” Klarion sighed fondly. “With all its twists and turns, its eddies and swirls. I mean, take the two of us. Scant hours ago, we were mortal enemies, and just look at us now.”

The Witch-Boy lazily rolled his head to the side as the couch drifted to bring him face-to-face with Damian. His lips spread wide in that malevolent, wicked grin of his once again, but somehow it managed to be even wider than any he’d shown off before. His eyes blazed with a hellish inner light, and his voice, when next he spoke, dropped deep into a demonic register. A bass that boomed forth and set Damian’s very bones to rattling.

“Ain’t we got fun?”

53 notes · View notes

ellana-ravenwood · 6 years

Text

Never piss off a magician - Bruce Wayne x Reader!Batmom

Well, this idea made me laugh when I thought about it, and after a shitty week, I wanted to write something that was...kinda funny (though it probably isn’t). So I put on a side all my angsty stories (and lord I have a lot of those) and just wrote...this. Hope you’ll like it, as usual, feedbacks are very appreciated. Ok. Here :

You can find my masterlist here : @ella-ravenwood-archives

__________________________________________________

Note to self : never piss off a magician.

Because when you do, you end up in a situation like yours right now.

A rather...delicate one.

The kind that makes you swear a lot and regret your actions...Well, come to think of it, it was probably kind of the point of this little punishment.

If only...if only you hadn’t got into an argument with Zatanna Zatara.

************

Two hours earlier, 5 am, Justice League’s Watchtower :

You were already quite annoyed to start with.

1. You didn’t got much sleep.

2. Back on earth, Alfred called you earlier in the day to say that Tim got suspended from school for a week because he punched another student who was apparently bullying Damian because of his “skin color” (you weren’t mad at Tim, on the contrary you were proud, you were mad at the situation, at the school’s reaction, at that kid who dared to bully your boy, at the fact that if Damian wasn’t the one to punch said kid, it meant that he was feeling pretty crappy...).

3. Your day had been awful, fighting on Mars creatures that were trying to take over the Universe. AGAIN. That was twice this month. And of course it was yours and Bruce’s time to keep an eye on the Worlds that night.

4. You definitely didn’t have enough sleep.

5. Your day before that had been awful anyway, full of fake smiles and acting like you didn’t see paparazzis stalking you. It was your day off (ONE, you had ONE day off each months), couldn’t they leave you alone ? No. No they couldn’t. And the picture of you getting your lunch dumped all over your clothes by a clumsy waiter would be the head cover of people magazine the next day.

6. Your motorcycle wouldn’t start that morning, engine problems. It had just been serviced and you were furious...Even more when you parked your car in the middle of Gotham (you should know better) and came back to slashed tires.

7. YOU. DIDN’T. SLEEP. ENOUGH. THIS. PAST. WEEK.

8. Bruce forbid you to drink one more cup of coffee (you had drunk about fifteen litters that night so...it was reasonable really), and when you told him he wasn’t the boss of you he simply stated that yes, it was true...while keeping any kind of caffeinated drinks out of your reach (quite literally really, as he kept grabbing it from your hand and just raised his arm, so you couldn’t take it back..).

And now, because of that coffee incident and other silly things that were rather unimportant really, you and Bruce were arguing.

So when Zatanna came to you to ask if you could help her with something about her father (you couldn’t even remember what it was exactly, and felt bad afterward, knowing how anything about her father was probably extremely important to her...Come to think of it, you guys probably deserved her “wrath”), you didn’t receive her...well.

Bruce was annoying you and annoyed at you, and you guys were being children, sitting ten feet apart from each other, arms crossed, nose in the air (physical representation of your annoyance), glaring at each other from the corner of your eyes.

Zatanna came to you, and you turned to her in a swift move full of agression (destined to Bruce but....eh, poor magician was “collateral damage” at that point).

She could see you weren’t even listening to her, and barely even paid attention to her presence as you kept eying Bruce angrily.

Zatanna already saw you two get mad at each other for stupid reasons, and then get very petty about everything until the both of you couldn’t even remember the subject of your discord and apologized.

She always thought it was cute how, after a small fight between the two of you, and after the “petty/childish” phase, you both looked miserable. The magician particularly liked Bruce’s puppy eyes, a look she’d never thought she would see on the mighty Batman’s face. Yes, you would both be miserable until you finally made up...the make out session that always ensured though, made everyone in the vicinity highly uncomfortable.

Zatanna knew you wouldn’t help her today, not while being so pissed off, but, you see...Today, she too, wasn’t really in a good mood.

She had a terrible week. Terrible. And finally, some good news were coming her way. About her father. So of course she rushed to the Watchtower, knowing you and Bruce were there, knowing the two of you would be able to help her !

And here she found you, not even taking a look at her.

In retrospect, she regrets a few words she said, and she regrets doing what she did...but on the moment ? Oh it was just delightful !

So sure, she probably shouldn’t have told you two that you were selfish bastards whose problems were mundane and idiotic, but in that instant, it just sounded right.

Of course, she knew that both of you were the least selfish of them all. On the contrary, you were giving too much of your life to “the cause”. And she knew your actual problems were far from mundane and idiotic, she knew it wasn’t easy being part of the “Batfamily”, that it was a lot of pressure and worries and sadness (but also of support and love). She knew she was being a bit unfair...

But in that moment, as you and your husband were being children because of something as stupid as “coffee” (there were probably other reasons, you were both tired and had long days and...eh, Zatanna didn’t care at that time), and didn’t even listen to a single word she said...Well, the magician kinda lost her cool.

She went on a speech about how you were both ridiculous, and didn’t let you the time to retaliate as she just tapped her fingers, grumbled a few words, and left the room fuming, on to the nearest zeta tube.

It took you you about ten seconds to realize what happened.

Just the time to process Zatanna’s speech, realize she was right, and turn to each other to apologize and suggest the idea to go after and...

When you turned around, you were faced with yourself.

When Bruce turned around, he was faced with himself.

Oh. Ok.

Zatanna, in her anger, had just...switched your bodies ?

************

As you were looking at yourself, completely stunned, you realized a few things.

First, you were really short compared to him.

Second, you looked quite dumb with a surprised expression on your face.

Third, this was a disaster. If what you thought happened actually happened, if you weren’t going crazy...Then it was an absolute disaster.

You raised “your” hand in front of your face and..yes. No doubt. They roamed your body enough for you to recognize Bruce’s hands instantly. You were, somehow, in his body...

You were freaking out a bit.

Bruce was too.

First, because you were really short. Or was he tall ? He didn’t know but it was very unnerving to, for the first time in his adult life, have to twist his neck to look at someone.

Second, he looked so stupid with that surprised look on his face ! Like a giant dork or something...

Third, this was a disaster. An absolute disaster.

It was rather easy to guess that Zatanna was the reason this happened, and when he’d finally get over the fact that he had a pair of boobs (boobs that, by the way, he loved very much... his favorite pair of boobs in the universes... yours...oh this was so weird), he’d start to look for her but for now...

This was just an absolute disaster.

Why on this day particularly ?!

It took you guys a good twenty minutes to get over it.

The next hour was spent trying to find Zatanna, but the woman knew how to go incognito...She was actually probably in another dimension by now, and would most likely come back only when she was calmed down.

In the meantime, you had an important day coming up.

Because of course, a couple of terrible days couldn’t be topped with a third one to best them all, could it ?!

Today, both you and Bruce had such a busy schedule and...oh God...you couldn’t do this, you couldn’t do this !

-It’s going to be ok, my love.

You barely register your own voice saying that. Only, you’re pretty sure you didn’t say anything...Oh, right, Bruce did. Because he was in your body.

You were starting to hyperventilate.

You had a fleeting thought about how strange it must look. The Batman hyperventilating and freaking the hell out.

You finally realized that Bruce was trying to comfort you when you felt a pair of weak arms (at least weaker than usual) circle around your waist and...your waist ?

Usually his arms would grab around your shoulders, one of his hand would entangles itself in your hair. And his head wouldn’t be somewhere in the middle of your chest, but on top of yours and...RIGHT ! WHY DID YOU KEEP FORGETTING THAT YOU JUST EXCHANGED BODY ?!

Bruce felt extremely weird, hugging “you” like so. The last person he hugged like that, with his head so low on their body, and his arms around their waist...was his mother. You were really short. Or was he really tall ?

But no matter his height, he always was able to calm you down and with a deep breath, you regain your countenance and look down at him.

-What are we going to do my Broosh ?

And oh it was so odd, to hear his own voice coming out of his own mouth, and yet, knowing it was you...He was starting to have a headache.

************

The only solution you guys had right now, was to go home.

The day ahead of the both of you was too important to linger in the Watchtower. To escape it by staying up there.

When Flash and Wonder Woman came to take your place to watch over the Worlds, you tried so hard to act as if nothing happened, knowing that if anyone else in the league knew what happened, they’d never let it go, and it would be a great source of jokes and such for them.

But Diana couldn’t help but notice that Bruce was walking in a...strangely effeminate way today. And that he smiled at her widely, while usually it was his wife who would...but then, when she looked upon you, you just stared and nodded sternly. Did she do something to offend you ?

And Flash, as he was checking you out (partly cause he thought you were very hot, and partly because annoying the bat was one of his favorite past time) couldn’t help but notice that your husband didn’t get any reaction to it. No glare, no angry look or slap on the back of Barry’s head...That was weird. And you ? You didn’t even smile or anything, you just...glared at him ! What the Hell ?

************

The zeta tube brought you back to the Batcave, and you were both greeted by the entire family. Good, it meant they could give you insights about what to do next !

It was 7:30 am, and the first meeting Bruce had to attend was in about two hours. There was time to...stop freaking out, right ?

You stumbled a bit out of the zeta tube, not really use to having such long limbs ! And went towards your sons.

You saw, out of the corner of your eyes, Bruce getting out of the tube too, and almost falling...not used to have such short legs, he thought the floor was way closer than it really was.

You didn’t even think about it when you almost run towards your boys and hug them. You first took Dick in your arms. You heard him gasp but he hugged you back.

Jason pushed you away, a weird look on his face (the only times he would hug his father was in very desperate times...like one of them was close to death or...something...they just weren’t huggers much alright ? The only person Jason hugged gladly was you). You didn’t even register it, as you kissed his temple, and his eyes went wide with shock.

Tim let go of his cup of coffees as your huge frame smashed against him, and kinda froze. What was happening ? Why was his dad hugging him ? Like that ? Out of the blue ? He would usually only hug him when he was sick, or if he felt worthless or...just not like that !

Damian hissed, as you took him in your arms. Genuinely hissed, and said :

-Oh father, you’re crushing me !

...Father ? Oh but right. You needed to stop forgetting the fact that you were in your husband’s body right now !!

And here you were, looking at them by bending your neck down (except for Jason who was as tall as you), feeling weird because you never looked at them from that height. They were all looking at you, surprise in their eyes.

Well, they did just think their father was hugging them just like that, which never really happened (again, he only hugged them when they needed it...while you hugged them whenever you needed it, which was often).

Jason had his hand on his temple, where you kissed him, and was looking at you as if you just had lost your mind. Only his mom kissed him there !

It’s only when Bruce arrived, and he just kinda nodded at them awkwardly, that they knew something was up. What, their dad was hugging them and their mom was just kinda nodding at them ?

It’s as if you guys switched body or something, and...

OH MY GOD !

************

Your sons laughed for a bout thirty minutes. Straight.

Whenever they seemed to calm down, they would look at their father, at how he stood on one feet just like their mother would usually. Then they would look at their mother, feet firmly planted in the floor, like their father would usually and...they would laugh again.

There was just something extremely funny in the fact that their parents exchanged bodies. Especially in the way they’d poise themselves and...

Thirty minutes. Straight.

By the time they finally calmed down, Alfred was in the bat cave with breakfast and...he instantly realized something was wrong.

It was all in the way you both stood. He guessed what had happened. Oh dear lord.

Your retelling of the story didn’t really surprise him.

Your sons were starting to laugh again when you got annoyed and told them to go get ready for school and leave them to handle things ! With a “yes da...mom !” they left the bat cave, laughing hysterically.

Alfred just rolled his eyes at the two of you, giving you a disappointed look. But he did not say anything else. What were there to say ? You both knew you messed up.

And so, always so pragmatic, he just started to tell you guys today’s schedule, underlining the fact that, since none of you knew where Zatanna was...you’d have to deal with it. The sass in those last words was too strong, even for you.

************

-And remember, we don’t actually need that deal with their corporation, they need us more than we do, and they know it. What they don’t know, is that Batman needs an eye on their finances and I’ll be able to access them only if we strike such a deal because it seems even Tim is unable to hack their system, so I actually need that deal, but they don’t know, they think we don’t, and that they need us more than we do, and therefor they’ll try to overcompensate by being extremely high and mighty, and making themselves...

Bruce’s words flew over your head, as you were trying not to freak out again.

You were often helping out at Wayne Inc, hell, you worked there every day but...not with those slimy possible “business partner” Bruce met every day.

No. You were usually down in the lab with Lucius, thinking of new gadgets for the Bat or just about things that could help the city. Or you were taking care of meeting employees that had requests about things, sometimes you even just sat at Bruce’s desk doing his paperwork, or writing your next book or...anything really, even taking care of stock markets, but meeting those guys, those vultures who always wanted to be associated with the great Bruce Wayne.

Even though your husband was telling you that deal wasn’t really important for the company, that you just needed it for the Bat and therefor could give them whatever they demanded...you were on the verge of passing out.

-Bruce, what if I blow it all up ?

He smiles gently at you (and it’s really weird, seeing this expression on your face, it seems like you’re just speaking to your conscience and...oh this all situation was giving you a headache). With your voice, he says :

-My love, you won’t. And worst case scenario, you somehow do and then I’ll try to strike another deal, or Tim will just have to try harder on hacking their system or...We’ll figure something out. We always do.

-But what if I make a huge fool of myself or something...

-Those people already think I’m kind of a fool you know. It’s part of the game.

-But...

-(Y/N), it’ll be fine. Promise. I should be the worried one...I don’t know what I’ll tell your reader if they ask me something about your next books ! I don’t know what I’ll write if they ask me to sign their books !!!

You smile at your husband fondly and...it’s...kind of unpractical, to reach for his small frame in the car...how the hell does he do it, to always be able to touch you ? He was so tall and massive, how could he also be so quick on his feet and so flexible ?!

You try to reach for his hand and instead touch his (or your ?) thigh awkwardly. You try to plant a kiss on his cheek and instead bump your nose on his skull and kinda kiss his hair and...Ugh.

He can’t help but chuckle a bit, and though it’s very odd for him to extend his body up towards “you”, he’s the one that plants a kiss on your cheek, trying to ignore the fact that he just basically kissed himself.

-Everything will be just fine.

You both say, as to reassure the other one.

************

Everything was not just fine.

There you were, in the meeting room at Wayne Inc bureaus, at the end of the table, nervously pulling on your tie as you waited for Bruce’s future business partner to come in.

You thank Caroline, Bruce’s secretary (you got very jealous once, when you saw her rearrange Bruce’s tie...until he told you that she was probably more interested in you than she was in him, being a lesbian...oh. Oh, cool, and actually flattering, as she did had a small crush on you), as she gives you a cup of coffee.

You down it in two seconds, ignoring the burn in “your” mouth, and she looks at you weirdly, probably not used to see her boss unnerved like so.

Especially not for such a small fish as Higgins’ company, the guys that were coming in today...

And here they were. Coming in as if they owned the place.

Your husband was right. They knew they needed Wayne Inc more than you really did, but instead of acting like so, instead of trying to win Bruce...they were being despicable assholes.

Of course, it didn’t quite seem like so, but to you, who saw tons of those guys lurking around your husband...it was obvious.

Their fake compliments, and the light in their eyes...They despised Bruce. They were jealous of him. After all, he had it all, and more than them. And now, he was basically buying them.

It infuriated you, how you could visibly see they thought Bruce was an idiot, just a rich kid who didn’t really know what he was doing...or else, why would he give them such a great deal while they needed him more than them ?

You couldn’t take it anymore. You couldn't just look at those men taking advantage of the man you love, you couldn’t just look at them thinking those horrible thing about your Bruce, especially since you knew they were oh so wrong. You just couldn’t bear their toxicity.

So far, you let them drive the car, you let them change the deal to their advantage, knowing Bruce wanted their finances for his nightly activities but..You just couldn’t anymore.

The words kind of poured out of your mouth by themselves. As the owner of Higgins’ company, Michael Higgins, was going on yet another rant about how poor people in Gotham were the source of every problems in this town (which stroke a nerve in you, as you used to be one of those “poor people”, growing up in the Narrow, poorest and most dangerous neighborhood in GC), you cut him off and says :

-Alright Mike, let’s cut the chase. I’ve had enough of your little games, let’s talk business.

You can see “Mike” and his sons face suddenly loosing their fake smiles. Only for a few seconds though. Instantly, it was back on their face. Eh, maybe that Wayne kid had more guts than they thought ?

You knew that sometimes, Bruce, tired of everything, would just agree with any terms his business partner would give him, as long as it didn’t hurt his company. It was just easier you know, you understood him. Sometimes he would give really good deals to small family owned company because he liked them, or because he thought they deserved it...but the Higgins weren’t such people.

And you couldn’t stand them thinking he was weak and stupid. So you say :

-I was thinking about our little deal and realized...It won’t do. I went through the numbers again. I looked at all the graphs and...things.

You saw Bruce argue enough to perfectly imitate his serious tone, but you were no business expert. You hoped you sounded sure of your words enough, and mentally face palmed you for that “graphs and...things”.

-I realized that truly, you guys need us more than we do you. Your numbers are going down. In a year, you’ll beg for us to buy your shares. While if we associate with you now, we’ll be able to get you back on track and win more than ever. So...I don’t think I’ll be as generous as I said I would.

“Mike” Higgins narrows his eyes at you and says, his voice dry :

-I don’t understand Bruce. We had a deal. We...

-I’m going to be honest with you Mike. I don’t like your tone. I don’t like the way you look at me, as if I was just another dumb kid. As if I was just an idiot who’d give you profit.

-I assure you I don...

-I don’t like how you’re trying to take advantage of my generosity. How you through other inexistant cost in the bag to make me pay more. It’s not like that amount of money would impact my finances much...but I don’t like to be use, and especially not by a shark like you.

You don’t even know where it comes from...But it’s there. You play the Higgins like damn fiddles. You make them sign what you want them to sign. A way better deal for Wayne Inc that what was originally planned.

Mike Higgins eyes change when he looks back at you. It’s not full of irony and supposedly superiority. Oh no. It’s...humbler. Good.

Maybe you should trample a little more in the “business” side of the work ? ...Eh. No. This was all too exhausting, this arguing and fake smiles and...yes. No. Bruce was way better at that than you. Besides, you weren’t too sure that using your natural sass and sarcasm was such a good idea.

There was humbleness in Higgins’ eyes, but also a sort of...something else. Something dangerous. God you hoped you didn’t blow things up. Uh.

...You wondered, as you were signing papers to struck the deal, how he was doing.

************

How did you do it ?! He couldn’t understand.

Those stilettos were...impossible to walk with ! And this dress, so uncomfortable and he felt so naked and he kept trying to put it back in place and oh it was just so awful.

He caught a glimpse of “himself” in a mirror and yes, sure, you looked damn hot (it kinda turned him on...in the oddest way possible right now), but this was all so difficult ! And yet you’d always walk gracefully around, in this ridiculous attire (though it looked amazing on you, of course).

He cursed three hundred times during that short walk from the car to the book shop where you were suppose to sign your books today. He glared a bit at Alfred, who couldn’t help but laugh kinda discreetly, as he saw his “Master Bruce” try to walk.

He sat down and as the first person came to him and told him how he loved your book...he remembered he had to smile.

It was so exhausting, to be you ! As Bruce Wayne, he just had to smile and wave and say some charming/witty thing to cameras. As you he had to...act smart.

He was a smart man of course, but would always act lightheartedly in public. Nonchalantly. While you ? You had a reputation to be sassy and sarcastic and smart and talented...he was just a rich philanthropist who’d crack a few stupid jokes to make other rich dudes laugh ! He wasn’t the amazing writer you were !

Fortunately, he was (secretly) a massive fanboy of your books and knew everything by heart, so answering people’s questions was easier than he thought. He would even tease a little bit by hinting at a few things that would happen in future books (you’d often write in bed, and he would read above your shoulder when you were too focus to notice...so he knew a few spoilers).

But it was stil...exhausting.

This wasn’t the worst though.

Around 3 pm, the signing was done and he thought he did an alright job being you, though he’s pretty sure a few times people were a bit weirded out by how he sat or things like that, as it was very unlike you...Oh well.

He went with his...eeerh, your publisher to grab a cup of coffee, and that’s when he ran into multiple dickheads.

Being yours, he knew you were very attractive, and that this...”aura” was floating around you. You weren’t the most beautiful woman on earth (though he thought you were, by far), but no matter what, you always turned head when you walked because there was just something highly charming about you.

It always attracted the worst assholes ever.

But Bruce never realized how many times a day you actually got catcalled.

So many inappropriate comments were thrown at you, so many men (and women) looked at you as if you were a piece of meat...it made Bruce angrier than ever.

He almost punched a man twice your size that called you “sugar”, but then realized it was probably unwise...besides, goddamn paparazzis were following him ! And damn escaping on stilettos was difficult...

He had to remind himself, later in the day, to give you the respect you deserved. To tell you how beautiful you were in a way that wasn’t so...disgusting.

He glared at more people that day, than he ever did in his life (which says a lot)...and somehow, his glare weren’t really working like when he was glaring as Bruce Wayne ! And he didn’t know how to do your famous “Batmom Glare”...

************

You were waiting outside of Wayne Inc bureaus, arms crossed, jumping from one foot to the other, unaware of the fact that this was a strange behavior for the famous Bruce Wayne.

People kept looking at you weird, and it’s only way later, that you realized he must have looked ridiculous, doing the thing you would usually do with your own body...

And when Bruce arrived, walking like a soldier on high heels, you realized that...Yeah, anyone who would know and look at you long enough would guess quickly that something was up.

He stopped in front of you and, even though you spend the entire day pretending to be each other, it was still kind of awkward to reach for the other one. You were still bothered by his gigantic frame, and he didn’t know how to...hug or...kiss you...

You ended up bringing him flush against your body way too brutally (which made you appreciate his usual tenderness...he was so damn strong and yet so gentle with you !), which you were sure would leave bruises on your body, and he kinda...fell into your arms, helpless.

It was very weird for him, to be tossed around that easily.

You apologized profusely, and his voice sounded weird to your ears...you gave it inflections it usually didn’t have.

As you were walking toward the car, you realized paparazzis were there and...it would have been weird if you guys didn’t walk side by side somehow. The last thing you wanted was for them to publish an article about how your marriage wasn’t going well and publish pictures of you walking not hand in hand or something...Bruce always held you against him, when you walked in the street...

But you just couldn’t seem to...be able to do that. Logistics were a bit tough. You kept putting “your” arm awkwardly across his shoulder, and he just kinda leaned into you tripping over in his shoes.

Finally, you just settled down for just holding hands, hoping no one noticed your weird...Dance. But people didn’t really pay attention.

Finally in the car, you sigh and close your eyes. What an exhausting day.

He sighs too, and you can feel his eyes (yours) on you. You open one eye and look at him, still weirded out by the fact that it’s “you” you see.

You open your arms and...finally something that is natural. Doesn’t matter wether your big or small, it’s still working. And sure it’s not as great as usual, not feeling him all around you but...still.

He lays his head on your chest and you hold him against you, your fingers running through his unusually long hair.

You hear him sigh in content and he says :

-I feel weirdly safe right now.

You laugh out loud and nod. Yup. In Bruce Wayne’s arms, it’s impossible to feel unsafe haha.

But you wish you were in your body, and he was laying on you with his. You wish he coould engulf you under him, you wish you could feel his weight...and he wish he could feel you wrap around him, flushed against him. Though it was rather nice to be the small one for once...

************

Your sons were insufferable. They kept taking pictures and laughing about everything you did...Oh the leverage they had, with the pictures of their father crossed legged and doing his nails and such...

They were becoming so damn awful that you decided to do the only thing you knew for sure was going to drive them away...kiss Bruce.

Or...Kiss yourself ?

It was a bit weird. But not that bad really.

You almost broke your own nose by bending down to yourself, or to Bruce (oh the headache wouldn’t go away !), and almost got him off the stool he was sitting on by being a bit too brusque.

But when you finally reached his lips, it’s as if you guys never changed bodies. And sure it was strange to feel him so small, and to feel long hair, and...well it was still a bit odd...but you were still kissing the love of your life.

You just made sure to not open your eyes. It would have been too weird.

Your sons ran out faster than they ever did, followed by Alfred who just rolled his eyes some more. Even when you switched bodies, you couldn’t keep off of each other for an entire day.

************

Eaten from the inside by remorse, Zatanna arrived in the bat cave via the zeta tube there around 8 pm.

She hoped to God nothing bad happened. That you were still alive.

She didn’t really know what to expect, and probably the worst scenarios running through her mind didn’t happen but...She couldn’t help it.

She hated being angry and taking her anger out on others (though you kinda deserved it really). Besides, she remembered that you had an important book signing that day, and he...oh God what if she ruined your lives with that silly and petty prank ?!

She arrived in the bat cave, making your sons jump, asking where you guys were in a frenzy...Your boys and Alfred told her you were in your bedroom, and had no time to elaborate or anything before Zatanna rushed out.

She knew the manor. She was a good family friend...oh my God no. She was a terrible family friend. As she ran up the stairs toward the master bedroom, she just knew she ruined your life.

It was just 8pm, and you guys were already asleep ? What happened ? Terrible things for sure.

Especially since usually at that time, Bruce would get ready to go out as Batman, and you’d take your place behind the bat computer !

God. She ruined your lives. Just because of a silly argument. She was a terrible person...

She almost destroyed the door to you bedroom, opening it way too violently and...

Oh. Of course, she couldn’t know it was Bruce’s night off. And yours too.

But knowing the two of you, she should have guessed that you would make the best out of this situation...After all, both of you were too smart for your own good !

She closed the door hurriedly, her cheeks red and her eyes wide.

You didn’t even notice her.

Your sons arrive, running, and take her away quickly. They couldn’t stay there any longer, hearing those...awful sounds...coming out...of your bedroom...

Tomorrow.

Zatanna would fix the situation tomorrow.

For now, she’d let you...enjoy that change she made, she would try to forget what she just saw, and tomorrow...Tomorrow she would switch your souls back in your own bodies.

Tomorrow. When you’ll be done...exploring the possibilities of having, quite literally, each others’ bodies.

_________________________________________

Yeah so...Here we go. I wrote this in half an hour, while waiting for tires to be changed on my car, and I was angry at the time, and very tired. So sorry for any typos or...if it’s very meh/bad (the end is shit). Hope you liked it anyway. Thanks for reading. Really. And blahblahblah.

1K notes · View notes

themoneybuff-blog · 5 years

Text

Could Waking Up an Hour Earlier Change Your Life?

Getting enough exercise has always been an issue for me, mostly because I think working out is so incredibly boring. I love the initial rush I get when I hop on my elliptical or take a brisk walk through the neighborhood, but I always wind up counting down the seconds until Ive satisfied my goal for the day whatever it is. The humdrum of repetitive movement is bad enough, but I also struggle to find the time. Not only do I have two kids ages 7 and 9, but I work full-time and I have groceries to buy, meals to make, and a home to take care of. We also have piano lessons, gymnastics classes, and an array of school activities to plan for each week. I love my life, but its also exhausting. My husband and I have tried several strategies to get a workout in each day. For a while, we tried getting up at 6:30 a.m. before the kids get up at 7 a.m., but we would get out of our routine quickly if one of us overslept. We also tried doing our exercise videos in the late afternoon for a while, but we were always so distracted. After all, its hard to crank out a T-25 video when the kids are home and asking 300 questions the entire time. The obvious answer here is one Ive fought against for as long as I can remember getting up even earlier. If I could just get out of bed long before everyone else does, I would have plenty of time for exercise without my kids asking for things or any other distractions. Why I Started Getting Up Earlier Earlier this year, I decided that I had finally had it with constantly failing to achieve my goals. While I have never been one to get out of bed super early, I started setting the alarm for 5:55 a.m. Thats not so early that it makes me miserable, but it gives me plenty of time to drink some coffee and do 25 minutes on my Bowflex M3 Max Trainer. And, my oh my, what a difference this has made! Now that I have the hang of getting up early, I have no excuse not to work out. I never feel rushed or distracted, and I am in much better physical and mental shape. I also feel like Im in a much better mood and much more prepared to handle whatever life throws my way. Simply put, the change has been amazing! The thing is, this isnt really all that surprising. Ive read countless articles about the virtues of rising early for years, and many successful people swear by this practice. For example, Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly gets up at 3:45 a.m., and Ellevest CEO Sallie Krawcheck gets up at 4 a.m. Plenty of other successful early risers have been profiled in publications like Business Insider and Forbes, and the story is usually the same. People who get a lot done believe that getting up earlier gives them more time and more mental energy to be successful. And, while a lot of people believe that staying up late can also help them gain more free time, getting up early is usually the more advantageous option. Either strategy can give you more hours in the day, but financial advisor and life coach Natalie Bacon says that waking up early is way more helpful for a few reasons including the fact that you generally dont have what she calls decision fatigue in the mornings. Your brain is ready to go and isnt tired, she says. Even if youre a night person, you still run the risk of being more exhausted at the end of the day because youvebeen making decisions all day long. How Getting Up One Hour Earlier Can Improve Your Life If youre someone who wishes you had more hours in the day and more time to get things done, you may be wondering if getting up early is the answer youve been looking for. Here are a few reasons you may want to set your alarm clock an hour earlier from now on. You can live more intentionally. Bacon says that getting up can give you the time and space to be the creator of your life instead of responding, reacting, and putting out fires. When you wake up as late as possible, youre constantly having to rush to solve problems and prepare for the day, whereas getting up earlier can help you plan your day more intentionally. While Bacon works full-time as a life coach now, she used to work on her side hustle on top of her full-time financial planning job. Instead of burning the midnight oil to get things done, Bacon said she would wake up at 4 a.m. to brainstorm for her new business. This way, I knew that I got it done no matter what. Nothing could interfere with it, she said. Getting up early helped her be more intentional in this case because she was prioritizing her goals instead of waiting to see if she had time for them later in the day. You can work toward big goals or your own peace of mind. Most of us have something we wish we could accomplish, whether thats exercising more, learning a new language, or pursuing higher education. While it can be difficult to find time to accomplish anything when youre working and raising a family, getting up early can buy you the time to work on these goals a little bit at a time. Bacon also said that morning time is excellent for self-care that you cant find time for during regular daytime hours. If youre not working on a business goal, you can wake up early to read, journal, meditate, or pray basically anything that improves your state of mind or makes you happier. A morning routine with specific habits, even if theyre small, can compound over time to have a huge positive impact on your life, she says. You could finally get in shape. I already mentioned how I get up early for the sole purpose of drinking coffee and working out. For me, early morning is really the only time I can exercise consistently and without interruption. And since I sit at a computer all day long, I have to work out. Todd Mitchem, who is a life coach, speaker, and the author of You Disrupted: Seizing the Life You Want by Shaking, Breaking, and Challenging Everything, says that its pretty common for fitness-minded people to use their mornings to take care of their health. And really, mornings may be the only time for people like me (who have to force themselves to work out) to make it happen. If you have a busy family, the early morning is often the only quiet time in the house for you to take care of you without distractions, he says. The rest of the day and evening is usually jam-packed with family time and errands, and it is way too easy to put exercise off. But most people dont face these challenges when they work out first thing. How to Wake Up Early When You Dont Want to While I never like the sound of an alarm clock and especially not at 5:55 a.m. Ive gotten used to hopping out of bed without hitting the snooze button once. Im a coffee junkie, so I just set my coffee maker to start brewing early and remind myself that a warm cup of my favorite beverage is waiting for me downstairs. That may not work for everyone, but it does work for me. Mitchem says that if youre struggling to wake up early, you can start small and set the alarm clock back slowly over time. For example, you could start by waking up just 15 minutes earlier for a few weeks. From there, you could set your alarm back another 15 minutes slowly until youre getting up at the exact hour you desire. Also remember that you dont have to wake up at 4 a.m., like some CEOs do, to have more free time. A schedule of waking up just 15 minutes earlier each day, for example, will gain you over an hour in just the first week without wrecking your life in the process, said Mitchem. Bacon also says that, if youre someone whos always struggling to get out of bed until the last minute, you may need to focus on reorganizing your life so you can go to bed earlier. Getting up early starts the night before, she says. You need to consciously choose to go to bed early enough that you feel good about getting up early. That might mean cutting yourThe Walking Deadbinge off earlier than normal or getting in bed and turning off the lights instead of scrolling Facebook on your phone. It may also mean going to bed even if other members of your household are awake, which isnt always easy. You may even need to let yourself be exhausted for a while to give your body time to reset to a new sleeping schedule. If you get up early several days in a row, for example, it should start getting easier to go to bed at a decent hour. The Bottom Line If you wish you had more time and cant seem to meet your goals, getting out of bed earlier might be exactly what you need. Whether you dial back the alarm 15 minutes or an hour, that extra time could help you have the time to accomplish simple tasks, take better care of your health, or simply relax and enjoy some peace and quiet for once. But, dont take my word for it. Try getting up an hour earlier for a week to see how it feels. Schlepping out of bed at the crack of dawn may not be easy, but you may find that its worth it. Holly Johnson is an award-winning personal finance writer and the author ofZero Down Your Debt. Johnson shares her obsession with frugality, budgeting, and travel atClubThrifty.com. Related Stories: https://www.thesimpledollar.com/could-waking-up-an-hour-earlier-change-your-life/

0 notes

themoneybuff-blog · 5 years

Text

Could Waking Up an Hour Earlier Change Your Life?

0 notes