#im slowly going insane take me back to gotham

[dceased-system]

Brother

Miss him sometimes

[surpriserose]

i cant get over how fucking fascist the dark knight rises is which like...i knew going in it would be if only because its based on frank millers the dark knight comics (and also no mans land???) And frank miller is the biggest piece of shit in comics whos not alan moore or garth ennis but christ i think nolan managed to go even more mask off

Okay grain of salt im not the biggest comics guy i just read the good stuff sylvie sends me so im not as knowledgeable about comic stuff but i stay silly anyways im gonna go character by character thats easiest for me

So batmans barely here except to become disabled and then practically heal overnight so very cool point number one 😐 but half of the movie hes stuck in the scary pit prison (because the Lazarus pit is too silly for nolan) with all the arab guys who didnt get whitewashed and its so boring and it sucks and only white people made it out of the pit ever basically who gives a shit it sucks honestly the only reason im mentioning this is because i honestly forgot bane wasnt the main character about an hour in because like? He should be? and ill get to that

Joseph gordon levitt is there and his character has a name and i do just want to call him joseph gordon levitt instead but thats long as fuck and hes robin so im just gonna call him robin even though he sucks ass. the whole point of his character is to be the good cop to gordons bad cop but it doesnt really work because thats a shitty fucking thing you see in media all the time because they always just go for the its just some bad apples approach look at this good apple dont you love apples approach but honestly nolans deepthroating the boot so much its even worse here. and yeah dudes robin but hes like.... nolans oc as robin because thank god i dont want dick in this movie (which would bring the whitewashing count up to 4 characters) or god forbid jason todd but i think its really telling how even robin in this universe has to be a fucking cop instead of like any of the disadvantaged kids bruce actually takes in like yeah this robin is still an orphan but thats way less important to the narrative and to nolan than being a cop.

gordons also barely here and i dont give a shit about him i wish he died i mean i always wish he died because hes a cop he is THE cop in every batman piece of media (except when he was jack the ripper one time or something?) and why even the most benign batman media is copaganda because theyre fucking besties. really i just want to talk about one scene before I get to the bulk of this post bane. late in the fucking almost THREE HOUR LONG MOVIE theres a scene where gordon is rallying the cops and goes to some cops door and hes like "why did you let your wife answer the door dont you know whats going on out there?" as if women are being raped on the streets of gotham which we never even see a fucking hint of??? the actual main issues affecting gotham at the moment are food issues and even thats not a problem because aid is getting in slowly and thats actually how gordon gets MORE FUCKING COPS into the city its insane and im gonna come back to this again with bane but while we're talking about the misogny -

-lets talk about catwoman who just kind of exists doing the catwoman thing of oh im on batmans side but not really and im on banes side but not really and it sucks but lets start with the misogyny before i talk about catwomans spineless centrism. when catwoman is caught by joseph gordon levitt shes taken to prison and the cops specifically point out shes taken to a mens prison (?????) because of the new laws because shes such a risk that a maximum security womens prison cant hold her but a mens prison can because womens prisons are all knitting circles i guess. This is really just an excuse so she can be in the prison that bane stages a prison break on (based) and come back for the climax and also have a hashtag girlboss moment where she does a sexy flip attack against a man threatening to sexually assault her which is just so classy nolan. and i want to fucking point out that this is blackgate prison which in most batman media is ALREADY FUCKING COED this shit was so unnecessary and gross and i just...its still pissing me off obviously so lets get to catwomans shitty fucking robin hood shit and why robin hood narratives are rarely ever radical. yes stealing from the rich and giving to the poor is cool but here and in most narratives its really only cool because its..one person or a small group. A society wide redistribution of wealth? out of the question thats too scary just go back to helping one kid steal an apple lady and hating that bane is literally crashing wall street (based) and breaking into rich peoples homes and bringing them to sentencing trials for crimes against humanity (based). Catwoman will have no part of that thank you and will instead just kind of...hang out until batman gets back.

side note what the fuck is up with the timeline in this movie batman gets his back broken and taken to the pit which is located in....an "ancient part of the world" the batman wiki tells me which holy shit okay the racism continues forever. but batman is not in gotham and again his back is literally BROKEN until it gets healed because he....was hoisted into a standing position with a rope? and idk how long that takes whether its months or a day because the movie seems to suggest both???

okay lets talk about talia al ghul and ras al ghul really quick before i get to based bane. Ill start by saying they're really fucking whitewashed like probably the worst example ive ever seen? Talia (or miranda tate as she's called for most of the movie) is played by a white french actress and Ra's al ghul is played by white irish actor and racist liam neeson. Because the comics are also racist ras al ghul never is really given a clear country of origin besides vaguely arabic slash east asian partially because hes so old but also again the racism but hes certainly not white again...because of the racism. and neither is talia who is only slightly less vaguely chinese and arabic. nolan gives even less of a shit than most batman writers though which is a high bar. talia was so boring and poorly written i barely remember her but they gave her half hearted attempts at environmentalism (incremental and done by begging the rich for everything though of course) before saying oh its actually because she and bane want to blow gotham up with a bomb which...god its all so stupid i honestly forget the bomb shit exists because it makes no sense and seems to have a detonation timer of 24 hours which again is why i literally have no idea what the timeline is. this shit is so stupid and unnecessary except to be the secret reason banes populist revolution of gotham (based) is actually bad but its so fucking tacked on even beyond most reasons why communist characters in media eat a baby to show theyre actually bad and so is communism because communists love neutron bombs.

BANE TIME! I'll also start out by pointing out that bane is whitewashed since hes supposed to be from a fictional south american slash caribbean island prison which......man. He's just tom hardy here though. Lets keep talking about communists eating a baby so theyre bad now. I think this is a trope people associate more with the mcu which is fair the falcon and the winter soldier pulled some shit because of course it did but i think we should consider the dark knight rises as a prime example instead. Not the originator since anti communism didn't start with nolan although i wish i could blame him for that too. Banes list of crimes batman has to stop him for are killing cia agents (based), crashing the stock market which he didn't even kill anyone at (not as based as he could have been), stage a prison break as previously mentioned (based), revealing police corruption (based), forming a militia to govern gotham while theres a transition of power from the rich and the police to the people (based), killing a bunch of cops (based), exploding some of gotham including all but one of the bridges out of the city (really just a strategic decision since hes about to have the american military on his ass and needs to counter that), and blowing up the pittsburgh steelers (extremely based). hey why is this guy the villain again? hey why does gotham have a wall street now why is this such a big deal is it possibly because the occupy wall street protests happened before during and after production of the movie? no that certainly couldnt be the case theres no way nolan would hate peaceful protests and create a movie where god forbid they werent peaceful and cops were instead treated like they treat protestors so we feel bad for them instead of people who are literally sick and tired of their labor being exploited by capitalism for the benefit of the rich. like jesus christ this movie is so blatantly fascist explaining the plot should have anyone going hey wait a minute. and you may say im biased in favor of bane as a communist but jesus christ are you seeing the shit nolan is pulling im being even handed in comparison i mean the fucking climax is batman showing up to rally the cops against bane and the mostly citizens militia of gotham like jesus fucking christ. banes not even a fucking dictator hes literally just some guy in most of the scenes after gotham is taken back by the people hes not even the guy sentencing and killing the rich and the police thats scarecrow! hes just on the sides like everyone else. and while im on scarecrow (jonathan crane hes not called scarecrow in the movie but he is that judge guy) nolan treats it as unreasonable that these are not hearings to determine the guilt of the police and the rich they protect because the people have already determined that theyre guilty but they just fucking are by definition. you dont get rich under capitalism by working hard you get rich by exploiting hundreds of thousands or millions of people out of their labor and livelihoods these people are fucking guilty even if they havent killed anyone with their own hands. but because bane does kill people on screen we're supposed to think hes worse but he only kills rich people and cops and the pittsburgh steelers!!!! like holy shit i hate this fucking movie i hate christopher nolan

[hotrobins]

touch me if you dare || jason todd

Summary: Jason and fem!reader starts a friends-with-benefits relationship after a dirty joke.

Content: Smut with a little fluff and innocence kink.

Word count: 1646

Half-hour had passed since Jason came back from Bruce's office and he was still rage trembling. He didn't want to say what they discussed, he just deep breathed while driving, his knuckles white.

You knew him since you started working in the Gotham Public Library two years ago, but the talking that led to this friendship was still pretty recent. Today you were going to an aquarium inauguration but when his father called and said that there were urgent matters to discuss, you insisted that he should go and you would wait in the car, so Jason changed the route to the Wayne's Building.

Clearly he regret that decision now, because he stormed from there without a word and drove you to your apartment in silence, only breaking the silence to apologize to you once. When you arrived tho, he didnt unlock the car doors.

There you were, wanting to help him calm down but not knowing how since he didnt want to open up, not knowing if its better just say good night as clue to remember him to let you go, or you should invite him in.

You looked at him at your side, one hand at the steering wheel, the other clenched in a fist on his tight. Jason's eyes were closed and you allowed yourself to admire him aside your worries about his emotional state.

Jason was beautiful in hard angles and undertones. In the first couple months in the library, you were still fresh with the thinking that readers were a solid type, and every day you were surprised to see a boy like him enter and spend the late afternoon with his nose in a book. Now, being his friend, you knew Jason were a bookworm, but looking at him still took your breath. In this moment specially, with his muscles compressed, the semblance hard and that big hand against a bigger tight, something right down your belly woke.

He let out a light chuckle and you looked up to his face, panicked.

"Liking the view?" He said with amusement. The right side of his mouth doing that thing and leaving a dimple to show.

You ignored the ask and focused on the desert street in front of you, for sure blushing a deep red. You still could feel his gaze on your body.

As the seconds passed, the atmosphere in the car began to change again, and you knew his playfull smile hadnt hit deep in his demeanor.

"There's something I can do?" You said on a low tone.

"May you give me a blowjob?" He blurted, releasing a deep laugh. "Never heard of a man with bad humor while having his dick sucked." He was trying to change the air between you two, too.

"Yeah, i wouldnt mind." You said at once without thinking, and Jason couldn't hold back another laugh, this time a real one.

You should feel glad that he found you funny, but in that moment you discovered you were serious. "What? To be honest, I wouldnt not only mind it, but would really delight myself with it." You said with the most sensual voice you could make, adjusting yourself in the seat to see him better.

Now he was serious too, his blue eyes with dilated pupils holding yours. You couldn't maintain the glase as his adam apple went down as he swallowed dry, putting a lock of hair behind your ear.

"So touch me if you dare, darling."

It was all it took. Without another moment pass he opened his belt and lowered his jeans enough for you too see he was already half hard. As you took his cook in your hand, you wondered if you looked too desesperate, but when he sighed immediately and leanead comfortably on the car seat allowing you to touch with him better, you forgot to care if he could feel it was the first time you ever did it.

You started slowly, pulping him up and down, learning the texture, touching some veins that pulsed lightly, seeing as his tip disappeared and appeared again a little more wet every time, slobbering your hand and then the rest of his cock. The view of it was driving you insane to taste it, so as you began to bend down Jason let out a quiet moan, feeling your hot breath so close to his tip but not on him yet. You looked up as gave it a tentative lick, and the way his eyelids fluttler before opening to look at you, god, you felt it.

You were right, Jason tasted more amazing than you have imagined, and soon you were not only licking the tip but were with all his dick inside your mouth, touching it as you could with your tongue as one of your hands rubbed the rest of him and the other massaged his balls. You couldn't get enough of feeling the taste of him and his moans, now less contained, only gave you more confidence to keep going.

The lack of pratical knowledge didn't troubled you anymore cause the way Jason where breathing hard only proved you were doing the thing right, even if it was in a slow pace.

"Fuck.." He said in surprise when you started playing with only his tip, circling it with your tongue.

His hips sometimes buckled up and you kissed his dick, putting it all in your mouth and letting it out with a pop, before giving special attention to the tip again.

"Enough with the tease darlin-" You went all way down again and tried to move your tongue, but it was too much and you gagged.

"Easy, easy.." He touched your cheek while you recovered your breath with your head leaning in his covered tight, your right hand never stoping the light caresses in his cock.

He was looking at you in a strange way and you desesperate needed to change the focus of his attention so you closed your fist firmly.

Jason moaned with eyes finally closing again, and you started once more your ministrations. The taste of him and the sensation of his hips bucking involuntary where too good for you and you moaned too, the vibration making him take part of your hair in his hand. You looked up to see a question in his half open blue eyes, the answer were another moan of you.

You started rubbing him vigorously while you sucked his tip, the hand on your hair not forcing you down but not letting you go either, and Jason's moans were becoming more frequent. He was close.

He loosed the grip on you reluctantly "I'm.. I'm going to.. You should.."

But you do not moved away, you put his dick all down your mouth until it touched your throat, and even if his cock didnt fit entirely, you tried. Your gag reflexes send him over the edge.

He come hard on you, throwing cum directly down your throat as his hips trembled. He could feel you trying to breathe and swallow his seed and control your gagling at same time and it made him want to fuck your mouth for real.

When you pulled off, you didn't think twice before licking his dick again, making sure that there wasn't any trace of his cum behind. Only then you got up and straightened yourself in the seat.

You didn't looked at him nor give him the chance to speak first, the realization of what happened coming hard.

"Look, I don't usually treat my male friends like this so don't judge me. Im not a slut, really, to be honest i have never done this before so.. And no, i retire what i said, there's not such thing as a slutty woman okay? We should do what we want without feeling guilty by society and-" Jason took your hand on his.

"Wait a moment." He said caressing your hand with his tumb. "You said you never did it before? Give head?"

You looked at him, there were not judgment, only curiosity and respect in Jason's face.

"I'm.. I shouldnt have said it but, yeah. If it wasnt obvious and you already knew, now you know." There was shame on your shoulders even if he wasnt being judgmental and seemed to have appreciated the moments before.

His eyes never left yours as he thought in silence, the atmosphere between you changing again.

"I never kissed either so it's not a big deal i gave you head because you joke about it, we should forget it.. Can you please unlock the door now?"

He put his hand on your waist to stop you from reach the panel, you had to look on his face, now just centimeters from yours. His breath were a mix of something and spearmint.

"You don't think I should claim your first kiss too? I mean.." His voice were low, controlled.

"I just.. your.. you know.."

"Yeah, i know darling. I want to taste it on you."

You closed your eyes and it was his clue. He closed the space between you two, using the hand on your waist to put your body closer. His lips were soft and his posture controlled, but you could feel how he was trying not to push your limits, how his tongue wanted enter your mouth and call it his. You were breathless, you didn't though it would be like this. So much with so little. Your heart pounded and when you opened your eyes and you saw you had leanead on his chest, both hands on his strong shoulders.

He had a half smile in his lips, the dimple a moment to show in its glory.

"It's starting to rain Jason." You managed to say.

"Yeah, and I'm only starting to kiss you for tonight.." He bended in your direction again, never taking his eyes from your lips.

[dented-nado]

Well since you specifically asked: Twiddler

“Yah I like Eddie but he’s straight // BAD LUCK, HUH?”

“No he’s not”

“NO IM NOT??”

Shenanigans

I’m dying right now, the ol’ Harv(ey) stubbornly thinks that Edward fucking Nygma is s  t r a  I g ht love it.  Still one of my fave convos we’ve ever had.

==================

Eddie’s POV

 =====================

It had been about a year since he had joined the sort of halfway home that Bruce Wayne had opened up for Ex-Rogues. However Eddie was somewhat convinced the billionaire he now realized had been Batman the whole time (pfft, he totally could have figured that out… he just… hadn’t…) rather liked having he, Harley, and Harv(ey) as a sort of odd band of roommates. And well… a literal mansion wasn’t a bad place to stay in by any stretch of the imagination.

He certainly had expected (and been quietly and not so quietly jealous) that because Harv(ey) and Bruce had apparently been close as far back as when they were children, Wayne would certainly be ecstatic to have Two-Face hanging around. He still was a little bit taken a back that well… anyone would want him around.

But he really was trying to reform. Maybe part of it was because the routine had gotten boring and he’d started finding more quiet and less destructive games and puzzles more entertaining these days. Besides, he realized he could have more fun with such things when he wasn’t being hauled back to Arkham because he’d taken things a little too far so often.

That being said, he had a new focus, a new goal.

And that was the previously mentioned Harv(ey) Dent. The giant, the absolute unit that towered over him.

Two souls for the price of one. Harvey was quietly intelligent (though sometimes a little bit delightfully oblivious), kind, and soft. Then Harv, he was bold, had a wonderfully fun fashion sense, and had a gravelly voice that admittedly caused Eddie’s mind to pull a blank at times.

They were a man that could have half their face burned to a crisp with acid and still be the only man that had been in Arkham (in Edward’s opinion) that could really get it.

He still remembered the first time “two-face” had been escorted into Arkham, the sight of them had knocked the wind right out of him, completely stopped his plotting for his next attempt to outsmart Batman.

Sure, perhaps he had heard and sort of seen images of Harvey Dent, the famous distract attorney that had been nicknamed Gotham’s “white knight” on the tiny, crappy TV they were occasionally allowed to watch when they were let out of their cells. But that never did him justice.

Seeing him here? Up close?

What a man. A handsome man, carved by angels and blessed by the devil

Now if only he could get Harv(ey) Dent to notice him.

Since that day he’d tried time and time again under the hope that maybe just maybe… this giant of a man would consider a relationship of sorts.

He tried to impress them with his vast intellect, sitting close to him and going off about any fact or subject he happened to know. He then tried to drill Harvey about his knowledge as a lawyer (which he thought also might just be interesting to know). They were certainly a good listener… and Harvey warmed up to talking about legal jargon and the pains of law school with Eddie eventually.

He was able to talk to Harv about their mutual love of fun patterns and bright colors and agreed that anyone who dissed it just didn’t understand fashion. He also realized soon that Harv loved to talk when he was acknowledged, and Eddie was more than happy to encourage him to and lightly swoon at that voice.

However, they were still only on a ‘good pals’ basis.

Which maybe Eddie could have accepted, except he caught Harvey staring at him at times, smiling slightly whenever Eddie would talk about what interested him. And Harv, he had gotten Harv to laugh a few times.

There was something there, he knew it, but for some reason he couldn’t puzzle out, Dent wasn’t acting on it.

It continued to this day. Harley had suggested to Edward he simply outright tell Harv(ey) Dent he was interested in them. But that wasn’t fun or interesting, and certainly not as romantic as Eddie would like.

So, after years of frustration now, he decided he’d go to the one person who had known Harv(ey) Dent their whole life for advice.

 ============

Bruce’s POV

============

“So, that’s my dilemma.”  Edward finished, pushing up his glasses in a very matter-of-fact way.

Bruce sighed. The only person who had ever rivaled his own stubbornness and… stupidity when it came to others having an romantic interest in them, was in fact Harv(ey) Dent. This would no doubt be difficult.

He wasn’t even sure how he managed to get into a relationship with Clark and Diana, so he wasn’t sure how much of a help he’d be trying to get Harv(ey) and Eddie to pair up.

“I’m decently sure he’s interested in you.” He replied.

“I’m quite sure too, however nothing I do seems to get them to do anything.” Eddie expressed, looking completely exasperated.

“hrrn....” Bruce grumbled thoughtfully. “What have you tried so far?”

“Well… I’ve given them gifts, flowers seemed like a sure-fire method- yet he seemed to somehow take them as a platonic gift.”

Bruce stared at Eddie for a long moment. “Who gives flowers platonically?”

Eddie shrugged.

Bruce sighed. “Dammit Harvey… Harv…” He mumbled under his breath. “I could try talking to them, get some better idea of what’s going on their head, could be Harvey and Harv keep arguing on how they want to respond.” He suggested.

Eddie nodded thoughtfully. “That may be the case, that is a possibility I had not considered… thank you for your assistance batma….. ah… Bruce…” He corrected with a slight grin.

Bruce half smiled back.

Batman was on the case.

====

“So… Harv…. Harvey…” Bruce began wandering over to where they were sitting.

They were seemingly switching between drinking a hot coffee and a Frappuccino.

Harvey had complained more than once that because of their disagreements Harv ended up making them consume way too much sugar. Too much caffeine in this case it seemed.

Their eyes flicked over to him.

“Hi Bruce.”

“What’s up Pretty Boy?”

Bruce sat down across from them. “Eddie seems to be interested in you.”

Never hurt to be blunt with a lawyer.

Harvey snorted. “That’d be nice… he is really cute but…”

“I’m sure Eddie is straight, just our luck, right?”

Bruce had never been so shocked in all his life.

Straight?

Eddie…

Straight?! E d  d I  e.

Str a I ght, Edward Nygma E Nygam s t ra ight

The two concepts being put together caused a complete error in Bruce’s mind that was slowly beginning to fry.

Who could possibly conclude that Edward was s t r aight?

The riddler…. The riddler who for a while greeted Batman like he was lowkey interested in a literal love-hate relationship

Edward

Str a I ght.

“Are you… fucking kidding me?” Bruce ended up stammering before he even realized it. “He’s not… at all!”

Harvey blinked at him a few times in surprise.

“What do you mean?”

Bruce gaped at them. They couldn’t be serious.

“Harvey… I… Harv… he… he’s not exactly subtle about it. In fact he’s very open, very much out and proud, flaming even. I’m sure he’d agree.”

Harvey looked at Bruce through squinted eyes. “Are you sure Bruce?”

“Sure, maybe he’s a bit more flashy than your average guy, but that doesn’t mean gay.” Harv added with a shrug.

“He calls you handsome at least 3 times a day.” Bruce said still staring at Harv(ey) like they were absolutely insane.

“Lots of people do.”

“Have you ever seen him even flirt with any women??” Bruce asked in disbelief.

“No but… well there’s always been more men in Arkham, and when do you even have time for that?”

Bruce was somewhere in-between wanting to laugh at them and slap them.

“He’s given you flowers.”

“Pretty sure he’s just being friendly.”

“Friendly…” Bruce wheezed.

This conversation was taking years off his life at this point. He shook his head and texted Edward.

“Get in here (the living room downstairs) It’s important”

Edward slid in and sat peppily down on the couch with Bruce within a few minutes, causing Harv(ey) to look between Eddie and Bruce in confusion.

“You rang Mr. Wayne~?” Eddie asked with a cheeky grin as he leaned his head against his hand.

“You know what these men just said to me?” Bruce began folding his hands together.

“Bruce nooo…” Harvey pleaded.

“No no, I think he should know.” Bruce insisted.

Eddie raised his eyebrows comically high. “Well don’t keep me waiting, what’s the tea?”

Bruce cleared his throat. “They said… they’re sure you’re straight.”

Eddie stared at Bruce for a minute, eyes widening.

“Me?” He asked completely baffled.

Bruce nodded.

Eddie threw back his head and laughed until his face turned red and he had trouble breathing.

Harv(ey) looked on stiffly, feeling as if they had made a mistake somewhere as the dawning realization slapped them in the face.

 ============

Harv(ey)’s POV

===================

It was bad enough they had put themselves in denial so far they had missed out starting something with the small bean-pole riddle-man much earlier…

But now because they had convinced themselves Eddie was straight and therefore could have no interest in them… Eddie and Bruce were refusing to let them live it down.

And Bruce seemed to have gotten literally everyone in on the joke. Anyone Bruce hadn’t told between his partners and his massive family, Eddie had told.

Harley had begun kissing Ivy in front of them while they both traded off saying “no homo tho” between kisses until Harv(ey) groaned and left the room in a huff, leaving them both laughing maniacally.

Eddie had begun dramatically entering a room with a flourish announcing “Ladies and Gentlemen, Guys, Gals, and Non-binary pals, the straightest man alive has arrived, you may all start the party.”

Even when they first slept together, Edward had started quietly laughing and mumbling about “how straight, and very much not gay at all this occurrence was.”

Bruce hadn’t been able to look at them in weeks without breaking out into a full on belly laugh at his expense, mumbling something along the lines of “The Riddler, st r a I ght, good lord...”

On one hand they were happy Bruce was laughing more but god dammit…

They felt a bit dumb about it to say the least.

“How did we ever think Eddie was straight?” Harvey thought to himself.

“I don’t fucking know. I really… really… don’t.”                                                                                          

Well… maybe giving everyone a little levity while still being able to date a cute red-head that seemed to know the strangest facts about almost everything that they could enjoy listening to him babble about for hours happily…. Was all worth it. Even if they were embarrassed by their comically stupid brand of denile.

[prettylittlebrownskingyal]

hey sunshine! im sure you've got a ton of requests and truly no pressure at all take your time if you want to do this at all, BUT, could you write about the reader who's either part of the gotham pd or something, like shes' part of the law, and she keeps running into the play-by-his-own-rules-gun-slinging red hood and they don't like each other at all.... or so they says ;)

Note: I really tried for this one but somehow I couldn’t produce anything cohesive. So here are five scenes that I couldn’t weave together but really wanted to.

“Listen here detective— and this is an order— you will not get in his way. Do you understand me?”

Jim Gordon pushed his glasses back up the hooked slope of his nose and fixed you with a no-nonsense glare.

The cold rooftop was chilled under the frigid night wind of Gotham yet you’re whole body burned with obdurate anger. An insane and infantile like voice at the back of your mind urged you to stomp and pout for not getting your way.

You would comply to it if it weren’t for the fact that you’d already been complacent several times during the week and Gordon had elected to ignore each instance. Now though, he had no choice but to put his foot down and somehow that made you want to bend the rules even more.

“But what about—”

“Batman trusts him and I trust Batman.”

This statement was a question of loyalty, neatly packaged in the Commissioner’s stern drawl. He trusted the caped crusader and his bat-lings with the safety of the city, to doubt that trust was almost as bad as outrightly questioning his authority.

That was something you never, ever wished to do. But the ‘him’ in question— the ‘him’ that had been parading around the city in a hood the colour of blood, the ‘him’ that crawled under your skin and irritated every atom in your body— that ‘him’ almost made you beg to differ.

“I don’t trust him.”

Gordon sighed. He shook his head and softened his gaze as he met your eyes. “He hasn’t messed up yet. Why not give him a chance?”

“I—”

“Oh,” came a heavy, almost robotic voice from behind you. “Are you guys talking about me?”

The Red Hood was propped casually against the side of the bat-signal, helmeted head cocked to the side and gloved fingers sliding over the safety of one of his guns.

“Detective, we’ll finish this discussion later. Go home.”

Your gall deflated, with a pursed lip and defiant eye roll you stalked by the negligent idiot that had— in the space of seven days— become the biggest thorn in your side.

In the absence of Batman, Nightwing and Robin, the city’s safety fell under the jurisdiction of the Red Hood and his guns. While he was adamant that he’d turned a new leaf, something about him made your skin prickle with the likelihood of peril.

Every passing day, the hooded vigilante had staked claim on every crime scene you were assigned to. He was quick and defiant and he had every no-good low life already tied down and ready for arrest by the time you showed up. No matter how fast you sped towards the scene, he was always there first. It was irritating beyond measure and no matter what you did, you couldn’t shake the image of him out of your head.

Though you’d never admit it, a needling little part of you was jealous. It was a putrid, green stain that ran over your skin like spilt ink and soured your demeanour towards him.

****

“Nice garters,” you snipped. Here he was again, wiping a blood stain off his knuckles with a dirty scrap of fabric, two hogtied thugs sitting unconscious behind him.

“Always knew you had a thing for my thighs, doll.”

“Call me that again and I’ll castrate you.”

He dropped his voice an octave, “Kinky, I like it.”

“I hate you.”

“Really? We haven’t even dated yet.”

You pinched the bridge of your nose and counted to ten. When you cracked an eye open and found the urge to punch him still lingering in your stomach, you took a deep breath a counted to twenty.

“Just tell me what you found and then get out of my sight.”

“Maroni’s boys, drugs and money” he listed each thing off on long fingers. “Their boss clearly has plans for something because this is the third time this week we’ve busted them.”

“You think these are just miniature- trojan horses?”

“Sure, we can call it that.” You could hear the smile in the voice as he answered. “I’ll find out what they're up to and take care of it.”

“No. Absolutely not,” you protested.

“Look rookie, I get it. You want to serve justice and all that, but you’ve only been on this force for— what? a year— you can’t just waltz in here and expect to take down the mob.”

“Watch me.”

“No, absolutely not,” he parroted. Through the modulator he used, it sounded more like a warning. “Now, unless you want to be violently murdered. Stay out of this. I promise you that I’ll get the job done.”

****

The call on a hostage situation came near the break of dawn, and of course with your luck, the only available person to save the helpless citizens is the last asshole you wanted to lay eyes on.

“I know what I’m doing,” he said, shrugging off the careful instructions you’d been offering to him.

“And I’m not disputing that. I’m simply making a suggestion.”

He spat a laugh snidely. “Do you know who I am?”

You’ve got your hands on your hips, head cocked to the side and mouth pulled over bared teeth; you’re ready to chew him up and spit him out for being difficult.

“Look here bird boy.” You stepped forward again, and he took a step back, waist hitting concrete. “I don’t care who you are, but if you’re not careful tonight, a lot of people could die. Gordon— for some reason—  trusts you, and I trust him. So don’t screw up.”

With that, you whipped around and left him standing alone on the slick pavement.

“Thanks for the tip rookie!”

If you flipped him the bird and ran away, no one needed to know.

*****

Your campaign into Maroni and his agenda landed you into a few sticky situations. You wiggled your way out of them just fine, taking down as many of his men as you could each time. But just like the Hood had said, each attempt to solve the case placed a big target on your back and made it more and more dangerous for you to do your job. You could almost hear his dumb robot voice chiming “I told you so,” as you stared death in the face.

You frowned as he untied the ropes binding your wrists together, anxiously awaiting his unbearable ribbing.

“What the hell did I say, rookie?” is what you got instead. The genuine concern in his tone threw you off guard.

“I don’t recall. The auto-tune thingy really makes it hard for me to take you seriously.”

He slid to the side to give you room to stand, heavy boots thudding against the rickety floors as he stepped over the piles of passed out bodies around him.

“You could have died.”

“Yeah but I didn’t”

He heaved a breathy sigh that made a grating sound through the hood. “You’re never going to listen to me are you?”

*****

“Normal people don’t take bullets for other people!” You swung a balled fist at his face, rage a boiling, furious pit in your stomach that threatened to overflow as your hand met one of his gloved ones.

“Normal people are usually thankful when they're saved from being shot,” he countered. “And are you insane? You’ll break your wrist.”

“What do you know about normal, masked man?” you spat. “Lose the hood and take a punch like a normal man.”

“Fine.”

He clicked a button and the front of the helmet opened with a hiss to reveal a picture of tawny skin, a mess of dark hair and a pink mouth pulled into a smirk. A domino mask shielded his eyes, but there was no doubt in your mind that if you pulled it away, you’d find amusement there at the sharp catch in your breath.

“Well,” you started, trying to cover up the sound of your own pounding heart. “You’re uglier than I’d thought you’d be.”

The smirk morphed into a smile the displayed pearly white bunny teeth and a dimple. Suddenly your irritation with the Red Hood grew as the threat of infatuation dangled right there on his stupid face.

“Is that the reason for the uptick in your pulse, rookie?”

With the hand he had wrapped around your wrist, he gives a firm squeeze down onto your veins with his forefingers. There, the rapid pump of blood under your skin was a dead give away.

“You really piss me off, you know.”

“I know.” He laughed and with the slight shake of his head, a little white curl of hair feel down across his forehead and sparked the urge to play with his hair beneath your fingers. “You’re cute when you’re angry.”

“Shut up.”

Being this close to him felt like playing with fire. But the more you inhaled his cologne, the more you focused on the hand on your skin or the tiny scar on his lip-- the more you were willing to burn.

Slowly, surely deliberately, he uttered the words; “Make. Me.”

You kissed him before he could kiss you, straining as you went up on your toes and wrapped your arms around his neck. As he slid the hand on your wrist up to your arm and then to your neck to pull you closer, you threaded your fingers through that endearing little curl of white hair and tugged.

“I win.”

[gothamdetected-a]

an idiot’s guide to the wayne family.

now complete with new diagrams! i wish i wash kidding, ive really made a diagram to help illustrate this.

[ follow the link here for actual visible quality. thanks tumblr.]

some points to make quickly -

• this is not complete. there were probably more siblings and wives and children, but i just focused on the main lineage i could piece together from DC knowledge

• apologies for the lack of knowledge on the women in the family past the last century. this is unfortunately common in real life too, as women were not landowners etc, and without a marriage certificate they basically don’t show up on records. dc happily talk about the male line but not about the wives and daughters so :/

• the dates are fairly made up, and especially at the bottom are just me twisting things to fit my own personal canon

• and finally, i just wanted to say that while this is pieced together from what DC have told us, there are a lot of holes that i have filled with headcanons. not all of this is canon. sometimes i just want to give a person a cool life that dc are too cowardly to do.

so, although this varies by “earth”, i have tried to combine the various histories given for pre- and post-52 waynes into a full comprehensible timeline. i’ve probably failed, but this is what i’m sticking with.   

to start with we’re supposed to believe that there was a norse guy calling himself the Bat-Man, running around in the 10th century killing frost giants. is it plausible? yes. is it exaggerated? most definitely. am i wiping it from existence because it was one issue in a faintly terrible run that has technically been retconned anyway? absolutely. ignoring that makes the earliest recorded ancestor of the wayne family a man called gawayne de weyne, a french crusader in the 14th century. on some earths he’s called lancelot wayne (too on the nose) or harold wayne (thanks i hate it), so im personally going to retcon that and just say gawayne is it. also because i love the etymological aspect of the name beginning as de weyne in old high french and it slowly changing through out the centuries. gawayne, also sometimes written as gevain, was one of the knights sent to retrieve the holy grail, but, as knights tended to do, he died. sorry gawayne. the weirdest part about all of this is that he asked for his heart to be embalmed, and there’s a plot line revolving around this (batman: scottish connection). now i’m not saying that madness runs in the family, but the waynes absolutely do not get a good head start in history. 

gawayne must have had at least one surviving heir who goes on to have babies etc etc, and eventually we get to the 16th century, and the next instance of the waynes. specifically, contarf wayne. which, i have to say, super dumb name. if i ever have a kid, im calling it contarf. so it’s now the 1500s and the waynes have somehow become scottish, probably from getting given land after crusading and that. apparently gawayne was aknight of the scottish court, despite being french, which actually happened a lot back then. literally the only notable thing contarf does with his life is build castle wayne, and i swear these people are all born with both madness and a flair for the dramatic. yes at some point bruce does go to this gloomy scottish castle where it’s always rainy and stormy and fits right on in, so that’s terrifying.

around a hundred years later nathaniel wayne tries to emigrate across to the “new world”. nathaniel likes witchhunting, and has come over to what will one day be the US following a witch fleeing from england - annie. annie who he may have dated. annie who may be pregnant with his child. good on you nathaniel, that’s a healthy relationship you’ve got right there. after the baby is delivered, he finds her and. you know, people were not kind of witches back then, so she dies. and with her dying breath, curses nathaniel and all his descendants. which includes her OWN BABY (super punk move), and one day bruce wayne. this curse manifests in very few of the extant waynes surviving beyond 40, often going mad, and absolutely tuning on each other. nathaniel’s particular grisly end comes when his is the fateful colony that ends up in what-will-one-day-be-gotham (see my idiots guide to gotham for more juicy details), releasing the deacon blackfire from his little cave and ending up missing, presumed dead. (definitely dead). this is the start of the “waynes probably should avoid gotham” saga. spoiler alert - they don’t. 

somewhere in the interluding 100 years, a branch of the waynes do actually successfully make it over into the americas. 2 brothers, caleb and thomas simon wayne, reach the east coast from britain, and go their separate ways. caleb joins a convoy heading out west, leading a wagon train, and, as so many pioneers do, he also dies, while trying to make this trip. but caleb really isnt the interesting brother here (sorry man), because what thomas gets up to is far more exciting. he settles in, lo and behold, the newly formed town of gotham, and for some strange reason (probably because all the waynes are fairly nuts, as we’ve established at this point) decides to give devil-worshipping a go. maybe its fucking curse. maybe its something in the water. maybe its maybelline. but whatever it is, thomas wayne tries to summon and ensnare the demon barbatos by killing some innocents, in a wild, but understandable, attempt to gain immortality. he doesn’t succeed. or does he. it half works - instead of summoning the bat-demon (yes the same bat-demon that the founding fathers later summon and also trap beneath gotham) he gets one of darkseid’s hyper-dimensional bounty hunters, and some how, through some space age magic, the energy of this event corrupts him into agelessness/slowed ageing, we’re not totally sure. later dear old tom pops back up as the villainous dr simon hurt, and literally fights his own descendant. DC give no fucks. 

after the whole corrupting not-magic thing, but before he disappears, thomas/simon impregnates one of his cult’s disciples. a lot. (is this why the waynes can look 30 at 50? more on this at 10) and between 1747 and 1771 (because immortal people also have immortal sperm apparently), she bears him 3 sons. probably some daughters too but again, who cares about that. not DC, that’s for damn sure. these sons are all absolutely fucking insane, just like daddy dearest. the eldest, who is LITERALLY known as “mad” anthony wayne, is said to be the spitting image of bruce, which is confirmed through some time travelling bs that we’re not going to think about. anthony and horatio wayne, the middle brother, both sign up to fight in the revolutionary war. unfortunately THE CURSE STRIKES AGAIN and horatio perishes while burning british ships. anthony goes on to becomes a brigadier general, serving directly under george washington and pulls some crazy good strategies that help to kick the british out of new jersey, earning his nickname of “mad” anthony, because only someone fucking nuts could come up with these plans, and pull them off. the youngest brother darius wayne is only 4 when the war breaks out, and is therefore too Babey to fight, but does later become notable for being the man to start construction on wayne manor. in 1795, using the money inherited from his brother horatio on his death, he hires an architect nathan van derm, to begin planning and building. sadly darius will never see it completed, with funds dwindling and his older brother’s death, eventually darius takes his own life. 

not to worry, he leaves behind 2 sons - herkimer and charles wayne. literally herkimer’s only notable feature is that he fights in the war of 1812. sorry my guy, DC hate you. charles, on the other hand, is a businessman, who manages the failing company his father had left behind and starts to grow the wayne fortune. charles buys more land surrounding the manor, as well as a lot of general gotham real estate, and is the man accrediting for starting wayne enterprises as a series of several small business, ranging from merchant trading to land ownership to mining, in 1845. however charlie contracts tuberculosis at the ripe old age of 62 and shuffles off the mortal coil. 

the oldest of his sons, charles lincoln wayne, also known as charles junior, does 2 things - begins construction on the wayne manor again in 1855 after purchasing it back from jerome k. van derm, the destitute son of the original architect, who had been living in the bones of the construcion, and uses a considerable portion of his inheritance to build the gotham botanical gardens in 1870. the next son, winslow wayne, is another enigma - the only thing mentioned about him in the comics is that he fought alongside teddy roosevelt, which i’m guessing is in the spanish-american war. but the youngest two brothers, joshua thomas and solomon zebadiah wayne are the real spicy pair. not only do they tackle the bat infestation on the manor grounds, but the pair work to change the federal system of america - joshua, when he’s not managing the wayne companies, is an abolitionist who engages in secret missions to free slaves by getting them across the border into canada, and solomon, the vaguely more sensible of the two, becomes a judge, attempting to be as fair and incorruptible as possible. sadly joshua is killed due to his slave smuggling antics (THE CURRSSEE), and this sends solomon slightly nuts, and causes him to contract the architect cyrus pinkney, who is even more nuts, to basically. build gotham. these two men are the reason 97% of buildings have gargoyles on them. 

solomon has only 1 child before he dies, who fortunately, grows up to be a very shrewd businessman capable of growing wayne ent even through with the advent of shipping and rail sectors. this man, alan wayne, constructs the original wayne tower in 1888, and it completely swamps the gotham skyline. he also marries catherine van derm, the great granddaughter of the original architect of wayne manor, and finally manage to complete and move in to the building in 1895, exactly 100 years after the project was started. for a while they are very happy, and catherine falls pregnant. but this darn curse just won’t leave these wayne boys alone, and in 1897, catherine dies giving birth to their son, kenneth wayne. a year later, lost and traumatised and going insane thinking about his wife’s death alan wayne mysteriously disappears (read as: fell down a well and was maybe or maybe not tortured and killed by the court of owls). 

kenneth wayne, raised as virtually an orphan, turns out to have his papa’s business management skills, and, foreseeing america's impending industrialisation in the 20s and 30s, makes some risky moves that pay off, including the advent of wayne chemicals, and wayne ent expands yet again. kenneth, like the recurring pattern that you can see here, dies fairly early due to WW2 however, leaving his wife laura to care for their 4 sons AND the company, which she does like a boss ass bitch. seriously, women barely had the vote and she was already a titan of industry and raising 4 teenage boys like. massive props to you babe. these boys are

ishmael wayne, a whaler who is an incredible parody of captain ahab and also dies trying to catch a white whale, elwood wayne, who goes and reclaims what is now called waynemoor castle in scotland, living there until his death, silas wayne, who may or may not be a thief posing as a wayne because the real silas died, AND at long last, patrick wayne - bruce’s granpappy, who founded the wayne tech arm of the company at 20 years old, aiding the war effort, and where this stupidly long post ends, because there is 0 point in me recounting the lives of thomas, bruce, or any of his children. everyone knows them. could i write more about thomas’ siblings and the kanes and how they tie in? yes. but this post is like 2100 words long and i want to sleep at some point today so this will have to do askjdbjsdhgf

[chac-ozai]

Intent to Kill (Bruce Wayne x John Doe)

My first telltale batman ficlet! Vigilante Joker may be back behind Arkham’s bars, but the friendship he and Bruce cultivated could not be broken. Bruce comes to visit his best buddy in the asylum, but nothing could prepare him for what he finds. Tags: Angst, hurt/comfort, slow burn, drug use

~

They weren't expecting him at all. Not many would consider Arkham asylum one of the finer attractions outside of Gotham, and even less would consider it a place where Bruce Wayne would frequent nearly twice a week. Paparazzi had a way of sniffing out every little detail in Bruce's life no matter how well he kept himself out of the public eye; ever since the public fiasco he'd endured with Waller, Cobblepot.

These visits, they made him feel sane. Bruce thought it was funny somehow, that he'd be parking his cherry-red coupe at Arkam's gates, a stark contrast against the hallowness of it's faded masonry. Feeling sane, at an insane asylum. Bruce had to smile, he couldn't contain it, thinking of the absurdity of his life and where his comforts lie.

He knew exactly where his friend stayed, the sound of his footsteps greeted with the dull roar of groaning, screaming. The Male ward was particularly active today it sounds, he hoped John wasn't too annoyed by it. Bruce fiddled with the gift he'd brought in his breast pocket, tucked away safely along with a small packet of Skittles. Anything he could do to make his friend's day he'd do, Bruce thought.

“Mr. Wayne!OH, I, huh, uh-” Hall C6's orderly looked shocked to see the billionaire's intimidating form standing in the doorway- “Visiting hours are cut short today, unfortunately. There's been an incident we have half of our staff cleaning up.” He looked nervous, moreso than a standard Arkham orderly should look.

“Incident? I'd ask, but considering your confidentiality, but-” Bruce peeked over the man's shoulders and spied upon John's door, locked tight. “I'm sure you can find the time and place for me? If only just for a few minutes.” Bruce's winning smile somehow couldn't get through to him, and apparently neither did his cash once the first attempt had gone under.

“I'm sorry Mr. Wayne, I'm under strict orders from Doctor Erickson, I can't let you in.”

“Well you could at least tell me if John Doe's okay?” Bruce felt annoyed, something very easy for him to feel these days. Pressure was building up between his temples and not getting his way was something rare.

“You said it yourself, confidentiality.” The orderly began the process of slowly closing the door on Bruce, a massive hand reaching out and holding it open. Bruce could hear a particularly intense, one-sided argument coming from a patient's room nearby, a garbled wail punctuating the air.

“You're avoiding the question. What's your name? Can I get a name?” Mr. Wayne's voice dropped-

“Larry. Why?”

“Can I speak to Dr. Erickson, Larry? How much is it going to cost for just a chat?”

“...” Larry looked at Bruce thumbing through his wallet, his mind harkening to the recent tax hike he'd endured this week. “I'll bring her right over, if you just give me a moment.” Larry took the 3 fresh hundreds and pocketed them, his lumbering self disappearing down the hall. When Larry returned, the familiar face of Dr. Erickson put Bruce in an immediate sense of dread.

“I just want to talk to John. Please.” Bruce implored. When he got a no, that's when he'd had enough of the standoff- “You do understand the more you turn me away and avoid my questions, the more suspicious I'm becoming. If this visit is going to be a problem, I can always take a visit to Mayor Dunham and see about lightening my monthly donations.”

“Mr. Wayne, you do understand this is highly illegal, what you're asking. Mr. Doe can't take visitors right n-”

“And why not?”

“He's asleep.”

“Let me through.” Bruce demanded, something wasn't right- The workers had made no attempt to physically restrain Wayne as he strode past them, something of an exasperated sigh coming from the Doctor.

“John!” Bruce stood at his door, the little paper notetag with his name on it affixed into his eyes. “John, it's me, Bruce.”

No answer. Bruce rapped his bare knuckles on the slot of the door and Dr. Erickson began to sweat.

“You see, he's asleep. Why don't you just come back tomorrow?”

“Open the door.”

You just couldn't say no to a man like Bruce. Erickson was past the point of calling security, he only gave the solemn nod to the orderly to unlock the bolt of John's door. Bruce's steady heartbeat almost fell out of rhythm when the room inside was still lit, the walls barren and bleak.

“John.” Bruce inched his way inside, untrusting of his friend's state. John, while normally bouncing off the walls in excitement to see his best friend, was as far from himself Bruce had ever seen. On the bed he lay sprawled, his cheap blanket barely covering a leg. Fuck, he looked dead until Bruce saw the uneven rise and fall of his chest.

“Hey, John!” Bruce fell to his knee beside the bed, reaching out and placing a warm hand on his forearm. He was clammy, but only a moment went by before John's eyes fluttered open, gazing wearily at Bruce's chest before laying half-lidded.

“What's wrong with him?” Wayne's anger spiked, peeking back in alarm at the doctor, who held fast to his stethoscope around his neck. Bruce knelt by John's bed and shook his shoulder, and what came out of his mouth shattered something inside Bruce- A hauntingly low moan, ending in a gargle. His eyes failed to focus on Bruce's face even though John knew his best buddy was there.

“Mr. Wayne-”

“John! Shit, get up! What happened to him?!” Bruce called out, two fingers placed beneath his jawline and felt his pulse, slow but steady. He tried to pull John up to sit but the man fell limp, Bruce seeing the pinpoints of his pupils inside his listless eyes. He knew right away what had happened- He placed John back down onto his bed and about-faced, rage in his eyes-

“Have you been overdosing him on sedatives?!” Bruce yelled “How many drugs do you have in him right now?! And you just leave him locked in his room unattended?!”

“Mr. Wayne! John had a violent outburst earlier today, we had no choice but to tranquilize him.”

“No shit he had a violent outburst! He's a sick man, what gives you the right to put him into a coma?  What drugs do you have him on?! Let me see the charts.”

“Bruce,”

“If I don't get those reports, I'm filing a lawsuit that you cannot possibly win. What's it going to be? Your job, or his chart?”

“..I'll fetch them.” Erickson shuffled out, looking grim. Bruce practically dove to John's bedside and placed a hand under his head, trying in vain to lift it and inspect his face. His mouth hung open and saliva seeped freely across his cheek and into Bruce's hand.

“Ah, John.” Bruce groaned “I can't believe this shit.”

“Bbrruh..” John tried to speak, Bruce hushing him and flashing him a very fake smile.

“You're going to be alright. You can hear me, right?”

John gave no response. Bruce climbed into the bed and sat, cradling John's head in the crook of his elbow, turning his head as not to choke on his saliva. Bruce glared daggers at the orderly-

“You do realize you could have killed him.”

“He attacked three patients, we only followed protocol.”

“Yeah, protocol, and what is that? Pump them full of drugs and hope they don't wake up? That sounds like an easy way to get rid of a problem.”

“Mr. Wayne.” Erickson returned and felt his heart drop at the sight of John laying prone across the billionaire's lap. He handed the report over on shaking hands, knowing his career was on the line-

“Give me that.” Bruce's eyes scanned the first page of many beneath it. “Already I'm seeing malpractice. What's this, you haven't been taking his vitals in between his doses. Midazolam IM induction, Diazepam IM, Clozapine, Pentobarbitol?! And you just gave this to him all at the same time?!”

No response. Bruce looked down at John and saw that he was trying to open his eyes- he wasn't dying, but Bruce wasn't going to accept anything like this. The bat inside him wanted to beat everyone who did this to a bloody pulp, this was a fate worse than death for his best friend. His heart broke all the while he grew more frightening, placing John back on the bed while he waved the chart in the doctor's face.

“Is this how you handle your patients here?! Another milliliter and my friend could have been dead in his cell for hours and you wouldn't have even known!” Bruce's cheeks where red in fury, he shoved the doctor and the orderly out of the room, standing in the doorway as a barrier between them and John.

“I'm going to go over every page of these records, and I'm going to unleash hell on this hospital in ways you can't even imagine.” Bruce, taking control, slammed the door to the cell and approached John's bed, his throat tightening at the pitiful sight.

“Here I am, buddy. I'm not going anywhere.”

“Mhh.” John tried to squeak out, his eyes heavily glazed in his attempt to look up at Bruce. The larger man couldn't contain himself, he had everything inside him needing to climb into that bed beside him and embrace his friend.

“I've got you, John.” Bruce tries to comfort him, picking up the lanky man and nestling himself right at his side, letting John's pale arm lay across his chest. Jesus, he was cold as ice. Bruce placed his friend's head against his chest, an arm around his shoulder holding him steady as he shared his warmth.

“Is that alright? You comfortable?” What the hell was he supposed to say? Bruce was overwhelmed, hugging his friend tight to his side as he placed the clipboard on his stomach, thumbing back the page to yesterday's report.

The amount of drugs they'd put him on was insane. Bruce wasn't a medical doctor but he knew most of these drugs, powerful antipsychotics and anticonvulsants. The amount of benzos they pumped him full of the past few days was legitimately cruel, it could have taken a horse down. Bruce felt a warm wetness on his chest, John's eyes where open but he was drooling freely onto his shirt, something Bruce entirely ignored.

He saw something there, 2 days ago and recorded at 12:15pm, John had apparently received a dose of flumazenil in an apparent “emergency” noted in the chart. So it was true, they had been overdosing John.... Bruce's heart ached. He cradled John a little closer and felt the noise in his chest better than he heard it. Wayne's memory flashed back to the crazy times they had, how Bruce had used him despite his sincere desire to save him. He really does like John, he is a good friend, no matter how sick he is.

“I'm going to get you out of here. I promise, John.” Bruce tells his buddy, patting his shoulder. John's hand grasped at his collared shirt in response and all Wayne wanted to do was mourn. It wasn't truly his fault John is back in Arkham, but thinking of his father and what he'd done to these desperate souls, he knew he could change things.

John had to get out of here, every tortured individual in here deserves better, no matter how dangerous they are. Bruce's heart was filled with a sensation of justice, but it wasn't Batman's work...it was his own. The camera affixed on him be damned, Bruce leaned in and kissed the top of John's head in a vain attempt at something, whatever it took to get to fix this.

[dawnoftime21]

Word on the Street (Jerome Valeska x reader) smut

Summary: You and Jerome had been best friends and inseparable ever since you two had been in Arkham, you two had both been taken out of the Asylum by Theo Galavan. You didn’t trust him and warned Jerome to be careful but he didn’t, resulting in his death but you find out through word on the street that Jerome is back.

Warnings: smut,oral (Jerome receiving), Daddy kink, Dom! reader, Sub!Jerome

You walked down the cold, dark streets of Gotham, heading down an alleyway to get home as quickly as possible. No one really recognized you as an Arkham escapee, you never murdered anyone but you sure as hell were crazy and violent, very capable of murder but never having to do it. Making your way toward the end of the alley you hear to people talking.

“He’s returned! The king has returned!”

“Jerome will change the world! They’ll be down at our feet soon enough”

You stopped dead in your tracks.. Jerome?…Jerome was back?… No no no, he’s dead he can’t be back that’s just crazy!

You rushed toward the men, eager to find out more, you stopped in front of them and they gave you a glare that just screamed insanity.. you couldn’t but smile softly at it knowing Jerome had that same fire in his eyes.

“Excuse me, you said that Jerome was back..are you speaking of Jerome…Valeska?” You said hesitantly, not wanting to say his name. They instantly brightened up and smiled wide.

“Of course! Who else?!” One of them yelled I’m utter excitement,

“He’s having a carnival at the South end of town! I heard he’s going to kill Bruce Wayne” he says softly not wanting anyone walking by to hear anything of this. You quickly thanked the men and quickly ran off toward the South side of town, that had to be the longest you’ve ever ran it had to have been a good 45 minutes or maybe even longer but you knew you needed to see Jerome.

~~~~~

You rushed into the carnival scenery around you, people with makeup resembling that of a clown only way more darker and unsettling. Citizens of Gotham being used for twisted games like getting shot with guns, and getting darts thrown at them as they were surrounded by balloons. It was quite impressive actually, how something so family friendly could be twisted into a game of murder and revenge.

Exploring deeper into the madness around you, you come across a crowd surrounding a stage, with a cannon and beside it…there he was, your other half… Your best friend, Jerome Valeska, you had always wanted the title of being more than his best friend but Jerome had always protested saying he wanted you safe from those out to get him.. hmm, who knew he had a soft spot. You focused on him, barley even realizing that Bruce Wayne, his greatest enemy was right there handcuffed to a pole, you couldn’t help but giggle, he wanted him dead more than anything in the world, you never understood why but you’d support him. He was different, you were far in the back but, you couldn’t help but notice that he has small pieces of metal in his face… Staples?, Did he have his face stapled back on? What the fuck went down?

You were brought out of your trance by gunshots, causing you to jump and look around frantically, your eyes landing on Detective James Gordon and Harvey Bullock, well this is just my luck huh, you look back at the stage to see that not only is Jerome gone but so is Bruce Wayne. You look around to see Bruce run into the House of Mirrors, you quickly go after him.

“Bruuuuuce?” You coo softly, cautiously walking and looking at the mirrors around, spotting Bruce in every reflection, you turn around and see the real one right in front of you. “I’ll distract him while you run, alright? I have some business to take care of with him” You tilted your head as you heard a new pair of foot steps enter the maze, Bruce notices and runs out, breathing a quick thank you before doing so. Oh no need to thank me Brucey, next time I’ll let him kill you, you think to yourself walking deeper into the maze.

“I know you’re in here Bruce!” Jerome growls, soon coming into your view through the mirror, you smirk wildly. Let the fun begin!

“I’m sorry sweetheart but Bruce can’t come right now, he’s long gone,” you purr, causing Jerome to grow angry at the news Bruce had escaped, but also amazed to hear your voice again after so long.

“You let him go?!” Jerome shouts, not phasing you.. God you loved it when he got angry. You bite your lip as you feel a heat stir up between your legs.

“Indeed I did, I needed to talk to you, you left me Jerome!” You pout trying to sound as innocent as possible. Jerome looks around trying to find the real you and not one of your many reflections.

“I was so lonely without you… Daddy,” These words stunned him, he’d never been very intimate with you but boy did he wish he had, you hear his breath hitch a bit as he feels himself harden and his pants tighten.

“Where are you?” He growls, causing a giggle to escape your lips. Brushing off his question, you continue on.

“I spent so many nights thinking about you, deep inside of my while I touched myself,” you reach a hand between your legs and up your skirt, sliding your fingers of and down your folds, teasing yourself as you make eye contact with his reflection, “thinking about you fucking me raw, using me however you ever so please.” You moan out as you spot his eyes cloud over with lust.

“______. Get over here. NOW!” He roars as he sees you playing with your clit, moaning and whimpering at your own touch. You walk to face him, slowly bringing your fingers to his lips.

“Suck.” You demand coldly, he didn’t hesitate and placed your fingers between his lips, sucking and licking them like he had wanted to taste you all his life. You remove your fingers and smirk. “Sadly that’s the only taste you’ll be getting of me” you purr, getting on your knees and palming him through his white ring master pants, you hear a deep moan, almost a growl escape his mouth, causing you to palm him harder.

“D-Don’t tease me” he manages to get out through his shaky breaths. “Hmm, what’s the magic word Daddy?” You coo as you undo his pants ever so slowly, loving to see him wrapped around your finger.

“Oh God please _____!” His voice raises slightly, sounding desperate. You giggle and swirl your tongue around his head, causing him to shudder at the sudden contact.

“Good boy” you quickly take him into your mouth needy for him, bobbing your head at a fast pace and hollowing your cheeks to suck him harder.

“S-Shit, oh my god _____. Just like that fuck!” He moans, running his fingers through your hair, gripping it tightly and gently pulling, earning a moan from you. You continue on and massage his sack, looking up at him and seeing his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

“I-Im gonna cum baby, fuck!” His thoughts get interrupted as cums down your throat, you smirk in satisfaction and swallow him.

“Mmm yummy” you giggle, standing and kissing him hungrily, he kisses back more forcefully and pushing you back into one of the mirrors causing it to shatter around the two of you. Fuck you needed him all of him, mind, body and soul.

“Fuck me Daddy, take me… All of me” you moan out softly as your lips separate. He doesn’t hesitate and wraps your leg around his waist, ripping your panties off and shoving himself inside of you…all of him. You cry out loudly, not only at how much he was filling you and stretching your neglected cunt but because of how long you’ve wanted this and you’ve finally got your wish.

“fuck you’re so tight baby” he mumbles against your neck, as he pounds in out of you. You take your arms out your shirt and bra, pulling them down your stomach, exposing your breasts. With no hesitation he attacks them, sucking your nipple and massaging the other breast, “Daddy o-oh fuck” you whimper out as his teeth sink into your sensitive nipple, causing them to harden even more. He moves his hand down to your clit, rubbing it in small circles.

“H-Harder, fuck me harder” you whimper so much need in your voice, he couldn’t help but give you what you wanted. He quickened his pace, fucking you like an animal. His lips meet yours and your mouth opens without any second thought, allowing his tongue to explore. You gasp as he hits your g-spot, “Right there daddy! Oh fuck I’m gonna cum!” You cry out, tugging on his hair roughly, “Hold it baby girl, I’m almost there” he grunts at the pain of you tugging at his ginger locks. He had wanted this for so long, he wanted you, he wanted you by his side through all the chaos but he pushed you away, he wasn’t going to let you go this time, not ever again. “I-I can’t hold it, you feel so fucking good” you whine, the knot in your stomach tightening to a point where you can’t stand it, “Cum for me baby, cum for Daddy” his purrs into your ear, picking up his pace, this sends you over the edge, you felt like you were exploding. “Jerome!!” You scream out in pure ecstasy, tightening around his dick like you never wanted it to leave, you soon feel his warm cum inside of you as grunts your name into your ear, your tight cunt milking him dry. You rest your forehead against his as you two pant.

“Don’t you ever leave me again Jerome Valeska, or so help me you will be my first murder victim” you pant out, seriousness in your voice as your hand makes its way up to his cheek, allowing your thumb to caress it softly.

“And if you ever let Bruce Wayne get away again, I’ll have no choice but to kill you too” he pants back, kissing you softly.

You kiss back and giggle, “You have yourself a deal Mr.Valeska”

You guys get torn out of your thoughts by the shouts James Gordon “Come out Jerome! We have the place surrounded!” He calls out, you smirk and get dressed.

“I got this baby” you kiss his lips and take one of the glass shards, cutting your cheek softly but enough to need stitches, he looks at you confused and you stumble out toward Gordon, faking cries.

“He…He went that way,” you cry between sobs pointing toward a patch of woods near by, “I tried to stop him from hurting Bruce but he attacked me and…and cut me, then ran” you sniffle as they all make a run for the woods. You walk back into the House of Mirrors and grabs Jerome’s hand “We gotta get out of here before they come back, I told them you went to the wood,” you state running with him towards the exit, he stops and kissing you softly.

“What would I do without you, doll??

[imgoldielikehawn]

Once Mine Always Mine  Part 8

Rating/ Mature (Smut, Death, Violence, Mental Illness, Abuse)

Pairing/ Jared Letos Joker X WOC 

Word Count/ 1,868

Master List  and Part 7

AN/ Well I know its been absloutley forever I hope you enjoy this! its one of my off the wall projects but I love a rotten love story.. what can I say? LOL feedback is appreciated! 

Forever Tag List: @sparklemichele​ @readsalot73​ @oddsnendsfanfics​ @titty-teetee​ @lupy22​ @kenzieam​ @harleycativy​ @laketaj24​ @beltz2016​ @beltzboys2015-blog​ @galaxygimger1234​ @asadmelon​ @wilddrabble @captstefanbrandt @yessscolbybrock​ @oneday-i-will-fight-luke17​ @jdroman5432​ 

Joker Tags: @harleycativy​ @ariwolff14​

PAST

  Pulling up to the club I left strict instructions for the girls on how to proceed for the night and then got back in my car. The drive to my warehouse wasn’t far and I knew I would need a few things before I left.

My heels clicked as they hit the concreate ground on the way to the door. First things first I thought as the guard let me through the metal door. “Time to do away with this hair color.”

 “Did you bring what I asked?” I turned to Misha.

 “Yeah boss. Its in the kitchen.” She gestured to the room down the hall and I followed her down to the large open kitchen. It was empty except for the basic kitchen amenities and a few chairs. I dropped down into the one closest to the sink. The whole time Misha was bleaching my hair I watched in awe as my hair went from black to almost white to green. She took her time coming and blow drying my hair as she finished up.

 When I  myself in the mirror she held up for me I was shocked and pleased with the drastic change. I grabbed my weapons and keys and then I remembered that this hair changed called for an outfit change too. I decided on a purple leather dress and knee high boots.

 “Misha bring the car around.” I said grinning. I looked in the mirror one last time before applying my MAC Lipstick and heading out the door.

 We pulled up to an enormous house and Misha parked out front, it didn’t take long for my door to be opened and I followed the valet up to the large house where he escorted me into the siting room just inside the door. I hugged my green fur close to my body to combat the chill. The man led me to an office where he showed me to a seat and brought me a small glass of brandy.

 “The Master will be with you shortly.” He said before bowing out of the room. In a few moments a second door opened and the Mayor of this shit town walked in to the room.

 “Audrey, its been a long time since I’ve seen you, how are things?” He asked before pouring himself a glass and going to stand by the window.

 “Things are the same father, thank you for asking.” I took a swing of my drink and set it down onto the glass table.

 My father and I had never quite gotten along but he did love all the money my club brought in. We’d always had a sour relationship because we were exactly the same. When I was two years old my mother was killed in the crossfire of one of my fathers business meetings and I had never quite forgiven him for it. He’s since then remarried to an awful woman and we hardly had contact after I turned 18.

 “I really didn’t come here to chat father, I came on business. As you know I've had some uncomfortable dealings with the Joker these last few months.” I stood from my seat.

 “Ah, yes I had heard that. Has everything been settled. I cant stand unwanted chaos and as long as that clown is kept at bay my life remains unaffected.” He shook his head and frowned.

 The thought that my father allowed all the bad in the city to happen as long as his pockets remained full disgusted me. I knew my criminal genes came from somewhere but he was a monster all his own.

 “He made me an offer I could not refuse daddy, so I sold him the club.” I said this casually knowing just how much this news would rattle my father. It wasn’t true but he need not know that. I watched as he sputtered and chocked on his brandy. He turned several shades of red as he coughed and before he could catch his breath I reached for the gun tucked into my fur coat.

  “You know its your fault mother died, then you married that awful woman and hardly batted an eye at mothers death. So I propose a toast.” I bent down and used my free hand to grab my glass from the table and raised it to eye level.

 “Audrey… what-t are you..” My father stammered with wide eyes as I raised the pistol to my temple.

 “I SAID I PROPOSE A FUCKING TOAST!” I yelled a grin spread across my face as I watched my father shakily raised his glass while stammering and pleading with me to put the gun down.

 “To my mother, the woman I loved and the woman you killed!” I laughed and tossed back the drink. I pulled back the hammer and took a few steps closer to my father

So I could get a closer look as he fell apart.

 “Goodnight Father..” I licked my lips and moved my finger to the trigger.

 “NO NO NO NO AUDREY PLESE DON’T DO THIS! WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE IT UP!” He screamed hysterically.

 “I thought you’d never ask” I frowned.

 “BANG!” The shot rang out and my fathers blood splattered my face and chest.

        PRESENT

   We got out of the tumbler and took the elevator to the main level of the house. I had a few scrapes and bruises from where The Jokers hands had dug in and the glass had cut my skin. My first instinct was to turn to Bruce but he was already gone. I sighed and sought solace in a nice warm shower. The water ran over my shoulders and sore skin, I could feel myself relaxing and the weight of the day seemed to melt from my shoulders; however, that meant my thoughts were swimming with the scenes between me and Mistah J and it didn’t take long for the voices to speak up as well.

  “We told you he was looking for you, worried sick he was! You stupid girl!” They snapped.

  “No, he didn’t want us I was sure of it. Stop talking!” I whined back.

 “Look what you’ve done! Gone and told Mistah J that we loved someone else!” Their voices curled around my brain like a noose.

 “I do love someone else! I wanna be with Bruce I don’t wanna be crazy for Mistah J anymore I want to be normal! Just go away!” I sobbed desperately

 “You know the rulessssss once Property of Mistah J, Always Property of Mistah J!” The voices in my head laughed in unison as I sobbed outwardly.

 After my shower I crawled into bed and lie still looking at the ceiling thoughtfully. Was this to be my life? Forever trapped in between who I want to be and who I am. Would there ever come a day when I spent more moment living in the present than fretting over the past?

Would the voices ever quiet? And my least favorite question; would I return to The Joker?……….

   PAST

  I didn’t go looking for The Joker after I killed my father but it did not take long for him to find me.

 I was standing in the bathroom at my penthouse washing the blood off my face when I heard a commotion coming from the living room. So I rushed to see what was going on snatching my gun from the sink.

  ”WELL WELL WELL! If it isn't the insane AUDREY COLT!” The Joker exclaimed.

 “What are you doing here Mistah J?” I said firmly and maintaining my distance.

 “IM here for you of course Doll! You did it! I cant believe you killed the Mayor of Gotham and all for little ol ME ME ME!” He stepped forward and flung out his gold coattails.

 “Step right up and claim your prize!” He held his pale tattooed hand out towards me and I watched his icy eyes glisten with malice.

 “Mistah J.” I said in a tone barely above a whisper.

 “Come here Doll, NOW!” He snapped whilst reaching forward and snatching my hand. I lifted my gun and he grinned wildly.

 “You gonna shoot daddy? Deja Vu!!!!” He laughed tossing my gun away.

 I was frozen. I didn’t know what to do or more importantly what he would do next.

 “You’re so good…” He pulled me against him and then stared at me closely. His cold hands roamed my body as though he was assessing merchandise instead of holding a human being. “Why’d you dye your hair! I hate it!” He sneered before running his hands gently through my green curls.

 “EVERYONE GET OUT!” He yelled and let off a single shot causing his henchmen and mine to scatter.

 When the room was empty besides us two he reached behind me and lowered the zipper to my purple leather dress and my skin responded to his cool touch. He turned me around slowly and continued to lower the zipper until it reached the end. I swear I could hear him gasp at my black Lace Bra and thong. My pooled around my feet and I felt his pistol in my back beckoning me to step forward and out of it.

 “Mistah J..” I said into the quiet room. He turned me back around and cupped my chin like he used to.

 “Don’t be scared Doll, Daddys not going to hurt you. I'm going to make you feel good.” He was so close to my face that I could smell his intoxicating cologne and minty breath. He placed a rough and possessive kiss against my lips and ran his tongue against my bottom lip. I parted my lips and moaned as he explored my mouth.

 His cool fingertips circled my nipple until it became a hardened bud. He pulled out a small knife with a green and purple blade and my eyes met his as he slid the blade under the center of my bra and sliced in easily in half. My breasts exposed causing my face and neck to flush with warmth. He sheathed the knife and slipped his hands in between my thighs.

 “You’re soooo wet for me doll… After I fuck you… you’ll belong to me.” He whispered deeply as he began to work my throbbing clit.

 “I already am…” I breathed. My mind was gone and there was no turning back.

 “Oh Audrey… you haven't seen a fucking thing yet……” He chuckled.

[darkgothamnights]

My one and only (joker x reader fluff)

It had been years since you and joker had seen each other and if it was up to you it would be even more years, but the world doesn't always work like that. You had left your son adam with your friend angela, she took you in when joker kicked you out, so you could go on a date. Angela was always saying how you should move on with your love life, to be honest you couldnt you loved him plus you were a little scared to. Joker wasnt just crazy he was insane, and you knew just what he was capable of. thats why he and adam could never meet, as you and your date said good bye an odd black truck slowly drove by which had you on edge. But you said nothing as you rushed your way into your shared apartment, "angie, Adam im home" you called out no answer. Your mind raced and you were in full panic mode, searching the whole apartment you found nothing, until you opened your bedroom door. Your heart stopped as you saw him, "joker?" how did he find you what did he do with adam. "Joker where are they," you asked a lot more bite in your tone than you wanted "what did you do with adam" your hands started shaking nervously. joker just chuckled smiling that same devilish smile that caught your attention that day, "he's safe with angie, ill take you there to see him myself," you let out a sigh of relief "once I'm done with you" joker stood to his feet. memories of when you two were last alone flashed through your mind instinctively you took a few steps back, but joker didnt like that he growled as he pulled you closer. "you know sweetheart, you will always belong to me" he said as he kissed your cheek sending an electric shock through your veins. You tried to fight him off but he wouldn't let you, "joker where's my son" you said trying to push him away. Joker just held on tighter chuckling at your struggles to keep him away, "my son is fine" he snarled "angies taking care of him, but before we go see him we have unfinished business". joker looked at you the animal you saw so many years ago had now died, you had never seen him so desperate and sincere. thats when you stopped fighting as he placed your hand on his cheek, looking in his eyes you could see a twinge of fear something you had never seen there before. "Princess i know that what happened that night was....i just wanted you... it was" you stood there speechless, "is the king of gotham nervous?" You asked a teasing smirk on your face as he chuckled. Instead of talking he just pulled out a small box with a diamond ring in it, you gasped as he said just one word "stay" his eyes begging you to say yes.

Mun: here's part two i thought you lovelies might need some fluff after that angst, part three on its way soon 😁 but does joker get what he wants

[jokerish-darkish-mindish]

One Night

Request: heyy so im basically a nobody but can you do an imgine where y/n is Rick’s little sister and she falls in love with the joker? btw i love your imagines 😍😍😍 - by @dani-leto

|Okay, so I’m soooo freaking sorry for being sooo late. But I’m back, with new ideas and new content!! My Tumblr will change a little. From now on I will write not only about Joker but about Jared Leto and whole 30 Seconds to Mars. BUT this blog will be based on Joker, while my Wattpad (@Emu_ki) will be based on Jared..  So feel free to go check my stories there.! Love you dolls!! Let me know what you think about this one ;)|

“Why you are so late??!” A loud man voice reached you from the living room just after you entered the house.

It was 2 am. You came back after a party. You took off your black high heels and checked pretty messy (h/c) hair. “Maybe I didn’t need to come back home huh!?” You replied getting pretty pissed off.

You were already 19 years old and still everybody acts like you are ‘the little girl’. “You MUST to get home!” The voice replied getting closer to you. Rick showed up. “But let’s be realistic, my little kid is sleeping and this kind of time is heaven for me and June and with your night life it can be ruined…” he said while leaning next to the wall. He was chewing a Pb&J sandwich. “Then why aren’t you sleeping too?” You narrowed your eyes and walked to your room.

Right after graduation you asked Rick for a place to live. He was your older brother. You weren’t sure about his answer.. He had wonderful family life with June and it was too much to ask, but you had to. For your surprise he agreed and now you had your own room in his house.

Yeah, life with a small kid wasn’t easy, but you had to help. For some time at least.. You loved to go out with friends, it was your addiction. You always had so much fun, the night vibes always pull your mood up, drinking and smoking got you relaxing, but it wasn’t very often just because it wasn’t the right way to spend your money. Every night there were new places, new faces.

Last nigh wasn’t an exception. You and couple of your other girl friends went to one of the ‘greatest’ club of all. And that was a huge mistake, after 1hr you had to leave that place, just because that place sucked at giving the great atmosphare. Well at least you had an opportunity to meet a guy. Rick would be go insane if he would know that you danced with The King of crime…

You lay down onto your bed with your clothes and smiled. You still could sense his aroma. You closed your eyes and once again you saw that wonderful man, a real gentleman. His green hair, pale skin, red lips, silver smile.

That night he gently approached you by the bar. He gently placed his hand around your waist after taking a shot of alchohol with you. He face structure and deep eyes just took over you. There was no big chit chats going, he just offered to dance together, you accepted not only from a fear about being dead, but from the curiosity of being so close to such infamous criminal. Your body was touching his  while you both took over the dance stage. Your friends were looking at you with fear but non of them were brave enough to free you from is grip.

After a dance he kissed your cheek super soft “We’ll meet again baby doll” he whispered before leaving. And now you are blushing as hell in your bed. You closed your eyes and it took only a few seconds to fall asleep.

Next morning you woke up when the sunlight touched your face. You sat on your bed and yawned while looking around the room. You quickly dressed up and opened your room’s  door and almost bumped into a Rick. “Good morning” He laughed at your sleepy face expression. “You got a single letter.” Your eyes got wider both of you knew, nobody sends you any kind of letters. “Morning morning” you quickly took your letter and without ceremonies opened the envelope. Rick was interested too but as soon as you saw the first word you quickly closed the bedroom’s door and sat on the carpet.

“Morning, doll face…  I forgot to ask your name. 

Indeed… You are that military boy’s lil sis, huh?? This ain’t that fun, darling..

Now, let’s keep it in secret bunny, I will see you very soon…

Everything is planed, I know you want is as much as I do…”

J.

Your jaw dropped, so many questions were in your head it started to hurt  little. “Very soon?” You whispered and looked at your window. What have you done, one single dance probably changed your whole life. Maybe he is faking it? No, it’s a lame joke for the Joker. Then you read it once again.. MINE. You read bolder letters.. His.. No, it wasn’t a joke. You took a deep breath and threw that envelope to a garbage bin and went downstairs. You ignored  Rick’s questions and nagging about a secret lover. You just continued to live a normal life, somehow..

- 1 week later -

One week without secret envelopes, messages or something different. Just before you leaving the house for some shopping with friends June stopped you. “Y/N?.. Look, I found it this morning in front of your bedroom door.” June held a purple rose. She said bedroom door?! No, how? “Bedroom?!” You repeated and took that rose from your hands. June fixed her glassed  “Maybe you dropped it somehow before bed time?” You tried to come up with logic reason, but sadly no ideas came up, so you continued with June’s idea. “Ah yeah, probably, thank you” You smiled and left the house. A rose, INSIDE?..  You head was spinning, he was inside.. It has to be Joker’s, obviously it’s his…

- 2 weeks later -

Another week without any mysterious gifts or letters. It was a Friday evening. You were sitting on your bed reading some sort of book about psychology. Every single type of different psychopathy made you more and more interested. You looked at the phone it was already 1am. You put the book on the night stand and got under the blanket. You took a deep breath and closed your eyes.

After some time a loud scream woke you up. For a second you thought it was just in your dream. But a woman screamed once again and her scream was followed with gun shots. You quickly stood up and slowly opened your bedroom door. You slightly peaked out and looked down the hallway.

Rick was holding his gun, pointing to the front door. "Daaaaarling!!! My sweet Y/N..." Voice came from outside "Please tell your sweet military boy to put down the gun!! I just missed my kitten" You recognised the voice after a long and loud laugh. It was Joker. At this point you felt weak and super confused. 

June looked at you "H-how does he know your name!?!" She was shocked but not as much as you were. Joker knocked at the door couple of times "excuse me.. but is it safe now??" He asked while giggling. "Sweetie, should I use my guns?!" He continued shouting from outside.

"N-no, he will kill you!" You walked out of the bedroom talking to June and Rick. You were coming closer to door when Rick grabbed your hand "Hell no you are NOT going to see him!" He shouted while gripping your hand harshly. "June, go get the baby and hide!" He commanded and looked directly into your e/c eyes. "I'm not letting you go with that psycho" he said loudly.

Then there was a knock once again "Sweet sweet Y/N, I will count to ten.." You got scared about the mind in your head seeing bloody Rick or June with a kid in her hands. "He. Will. Fucking. Kill. You" You said seriously. You weren't sure about what was happening around. Heart was shouting to go and hug that monster while your brains told differently. You shook your head and hugged Rick tightly "I will come back" You whispered and reached the doors.

"I won't let you go without a fight!" He shouted and he was right. It was stupid for him to let his younger sister simply leave his house in the middle of the night with this unstable serial killer. As soon as you opened the doors he started to shoot at Joker goons without a break. One of the goons shot into his hand and made him drop the gun. After that with a strong hit he knocked Rick down.

"10 seconds boss" a goon said and Joker quickly ran next to you. He moved his hand around your waist. "Let's go princess" he purred and was about to leave with you. At some point you really wanted to go, have some different life but you knew it was stupid and insane to do this with the Joker himself. You looked at the Rick a little bit scared then looked into those icy blue eyes of Joker and let him lead you to his car. You made a choice by your heart.

Even if it was a mistake, you had to try it out. You followed the Joker and sat next to him. You had no other choice actually, he was probably planing to kill everyone if you were going to reject his offer. And now you are sitting next to the most dangerous man in the whole Gotham only in your pyjamas. His hand was around you. "Welcome darling." He purred once again making you blush. 

Now you were in the new family. Untraditional family. But it was a new beginning. You looked back at the house. Your eyes got teary a little but Jared made you face him "I hope you liked my purple rose"...

He changed the subject...

He probably will change you too.. 

 "Sorry Rick, I fell for this monster..."

[drawingsanddrabbles]

Joke’s On You

Betaed by @ilovebeingintroverted

Chapter Eight: Red Hood and the Outlaws

so this is the second to last chappie of this story guys (not to worry--there will be a sequel and that thing that you think is a plot hole is setup for the sequel i swear im not just trying to get rid of him)

links

“Are you guys insane?” Tim asked as Cassie flew while carrying him. Bart ran below them, Conner flew by Cassie’s side.

“If it’ll shut you up, then yes. Where’s your place?” Cassie asked.

“I missed my rent so they probably dropped my stuff. Which… is bad, my weapons and laptop were there. But seriously guys? Cass-can you put me down for a second?”

“Nope. The Bats probably already know, don’t want to give them the advantage.” Conner said cheerfully.

Tim rolled his eyes. “You’ve met my family, right? This will do nothing. They’re going to go all out if you don’t put me back like, fifteen minutes ago.”

“Well then we’d better skedaddle.” Conner said.

Tim rolled his eyes. The last thing he expected was for Cassie to cry out before both of them began to plummet to the ground. Bart ran up a building and caught Tim in his arms, skidding across the roof. Conner swooped down to get Cassie before flying back up to the roof. Cassie mumbled something and pulled something out of her arm.

“Fu-fuck.” She garbled. “That do-es n-not look go-od.” She held up the dart looking at it with narrowed eyes, before she crumbled to the ground. Conner caught her and looked at Tim and Bart.

“Is that your family?” Kon asked.

Tim shook his head. He looked around, scanning the rooftops carefully. “No.”

He saw it. “Get down!” He ducked, watching as the bullets whizzed over his head and embedded themselves into the edge of the roof. Kon frowned and curled around an unconscious Cassie, shielding her with his TTK.

“What was that?” Bart cried.

“That was the League of Assassins. Get out of here.” Tim hissed.

“We’re not leaving you!”

Tim peeked out over the edge of the roof and did a quick scan. They were gone. Shit. Ra’s had finally caught up to him. “I said go. I’ll deal with this.”

“No-!”

“Tim Drake, time to come home.” Someone said. Tim whipped around. Two men and one woman, they all held guns and Tim could tell they had other weapons on their bodies. Huh. He recognized them.

“He is home.” Kon snapped. “Who the hell are you?”

Pru grinned, taking out a gun. “We’re the bloody recovery team, much to our displeasure.”

“Don’t-“ Tim began.

“You’re hard to find, Red Hood. Master ain’t happy.”

“Well,” Kon growled, “your master can suck my-“

Conner was interrupted by Tim, who had seen Pru grab for her gun. It was like someone was controlling him, he just… moved. Tim grabbed the gun away from the assassin, bashing his elbow into Pru’s nose. Pru cried out, releasing the weapon to clutch her bleeding nose and Z and Owens went for their own guns. Tim didn’t prefer guns, but since his time back he’d learned how to use them. Instinctively he raised his gun and shot at the assassins. The trio dove out of the way of the wave of bullets that Tim let loose.

Bart began to run and Owens shot after him, nearly hitting multiple times. Caught up in dodging the projectiles Bart was unable to help Tim when Z attacked. Kon tried but Pru took out a blade, one hand covering her gushing nose, and Kon let his aura rise. Pru cut through it with her knife narrowly missing Kon’s skin as he stumbled backwards from the surprise of the assassin bypassing his TTK. Crap, that meant that the knife was magic. Kon would actually have to fight and he would have to protect a still unconscious Cassie.

Tim was on his own against Z. Tim disarmed the gun in his hand mechanically, dodging Z’s spray of bullets. Tim kicked Z’s legs out from under him and wrestled the gun away from him, hands doing things that Tim couldn’t stop them from doing. They disassembled Z’s weapon and Tim hissed as Z stuck a knife into Tim’s arm. Tim stumbled away from the assassin and wrenched the blade from his arm. Somewhere in Tim’s mind the pain from his back and the pain from his cut mingled until he wasn’t sure which was which, just that he was in pain. Well, what else was new?

Tim ignored the pain. He ignored the blood that dripped down his arm in a steady stream. He ignored his friends fighting besides him. He just fought. This fight between him and Z, all the while Z was pleading with him, telling him that Z would win, that Tim knew that, that if Tim just surrendered then Z could take him back to the Master. The Master would be forgiving for Tim’s insolence when he ran away. Tim blocked out the words, blocked out sounds and just fought. He didn’t fight as well as Bruce, he didn’t fight as well as Damian, he didn’t fight as well as Ra’s. He couldn’t be one of them, not here, not now. No, he had to be all of them. He had to be better.

Tim noticed when he speared Z through the chest, somewhere in the darkest reaches of his mind he noticed and he tried to stop himself. Z fell to the ground, a shocked look on his face. Tim tried to stop, he tried to hurt or maim but that part of him, that part that Tim thought Ra’s must have awakened somehow, it drove him to his next victim. With a swift slash of his knife he cut through Owen’s neck, blood spurting over his face. Bart sat in defensive position on the roof, eyes wide, mouth open. Owens’s blood burst from him as his corpse fell to the ground with a thud. Tim then was going at Pru, he didn’t even know he was doing it.

The British killer shouted profanities, as she tried to avoid Tim’s attacks. Conner was much in the same position as Bart, all he could do was watch as his best friend murdered two people, working on his third. Pru cursed Tim and she cursed Ra’s for training him this way and all the while Tim couldn’t understand what he was doing, and why he couldn’t stop. Tim backed the woman up to the edge of the roof and with one last lunge Pru was shoved off of the building. Tim heard the splat, looking over to make sure she’d died was unnecessary.

Tim stood at the edge of that roof, chest heaving. His body locked into that position and all he saw was red. For what seemed like forever he thought he was trapped in his own body, unable to make himself feel grief or remorse (they were trying to kill you they would have killed you friends but this was… wrong this was all wrong!), he couldn’t even make himself put that goddamned knife down.

“Tim?” Bart asked, breaking whatever spell Tim felt like he had been under. A flood of sensation, a flood of feeling. Tim dropped the knife like it was diseased (it was he was sure it was) and wiped Owens’s blood from his eyes and mouth. “Tim, are you okay?”

Tim shook his head. He really wasn’t.

He looked at the bodies around him. Z, Owens, and… these people. They’d worked with him during his time with the League. They’d fought back to back. Tim had just killed them and he didn’t feel right. He just didn’t. They were trying to kill you. His right arm (the one that Z had stabbed) felt like lead. It fell limp at his side and he bit back the pain that coursed through his body.

He bent down next to Z, searching his body.

“Tim, Tim man what just happened?” Conner asked, handing Cassie to Bart who propped her up against his side.

He needed- He needed to find it. His hands ran down Z’s corpse checking for any hidden pockets. Here! Tim pulled out a small vial and tossed it to Bart. “Smelling salts.” He told the speedster, nodding to their Amazonian friend. Bart immediately waved the vial under Cassie’s nose and Cassie took a second to slowly get her bearings.

“What the hell happened here?” She asked.

Bart nodded to his other two friends, the ex-dead one of the two still bent down by the black-skinned corpse. “Tim happened.”

“What the fuck was that, Tim? Are you just going to ignore me after massacring three people?” Kon cried.

Tim should have told them. They never would have broken him out if they’d known. This was Tim’s fault, all his fault (it always was). “I’ll explain later.” Tim told Kon, coming up with the object of his body search of Z.

He held the small microphone to his mouth. “Gotham is off limits. I am off limits. Let me go.” He dropped the microphone and crushed it beneath his bare foot.

Tim turned to his three friends. Each of them clearly concerned though he could tell, no matter how hard they tried to hide it, they were horrified too. “I have a lot to tell you.”

“I have a lot to tell you.”  Batman told his co-workers. Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash stood in the Batcave, each as clueless about the intentions behind the sentence as the next. The original crew Teen Titans stood by Batman and his protégées. Oracle sat at the computer, and Nightwing leaned against the dashboard.

“You… might want to sit down.” Robin suggested.

That was… concerning.

“What’s going on Batsy?” The Flash asked. Batman turned to Oracle and nodded to her. She typed something into the computer and pulled up a blurry picture of a man in a jacket and a red helmet.

Superman cocked an eyebrow. “So?”

“He calls himself the Red Hood.” Batman explained. “He showed up a few days ago as a vigilante. At least that’s what he seemed to be.”

“Is it just me or does anyone else find it ironic that the city with the most vigilantes has a self-professed Anti-Social Head Vigilante?” The Flash asked. Batman narrowed his eyes and Flash shut his mouth.

“Recently the Riddler was causing mayhem in downtown Gotham, when we arrived to apprehend him the Red Hood was there. In the midst of battle a bomb went off, the Red Hood had curled himself around Robin, probably saving his life, however he caused harm to himself so after the Riddler was subdued we brought him here to be operated on in private.”

“Is… there a point to this story?” Wonder Woman asked.

Batman glared at her but continued. “When he first appeared we did not know his identity. Now we do.” He nodded to Oracle again. She pulled up the DNA test and waited for the three other heroes’ responses.

“Seriously?” Superman asked after a pause for the trio to process.

“How?” Flash cried.

“Great Hera…”

“Which brings us to the reason you three are here,” Batman continued, “we found out who had brought him back. Ra’s Al Ghul, and he sent some of his assassins after the Red Hood in the wake of… what we assume is his escape.”

“What does that have to do with us?”

Batman looked at Nightwing who tensed. “We felt it appropriate to tell Timothy’s friends. Your own sidekicks.” The ex-Robin said.

The Flash’s face fell. “You didn’t…” He whispered.

“Are you insane?” Superman cried. “You told them before us?”

“We see now that that was a mistake.” Batman agreed.

“Mistake? Bruce you have met our charges, right? Bruce, are you fucking insane? What did they do?” It was weird to hear Superman swear.

“Come see for yourself.” Nightwing invited. He led the three heroes to the cell window where a new gaping hole had appeared in the opposite wall.

“What-what is this?” Wonder Woman asked.

“This is Tim’s old recovery chamber.”

“You locked your not-dead kid in a cell?” Superman breathed, horrified.

“The current problem is the large hole which your protégées created.” Batman insisted.

“Yeah. Sure.” Superman glared at Batman with a look that said ‘we’ll talk about that later.’

Flash leaned heavily back against the wall behind him. Eyes wide behind a mask. “Oh my god. Bart’s all on his own.” He glanced at the others. “I mean, he’s not but you guys have met Bart. Him? And… Tim? He’ll do anything Tim’ll tell him to do, and by the look of it you’re not very excited about him coming back. And assassins?” Flash rubbed his hands over his mask.

“We are all worried for our charges, Flash, I am sure Cassandra will take care of Bartholomew.”

“Oh Rao.” Superman whispered. “Conner.”

Flamebird’s eyes widened and he was at his father’s side, hand on his back. “Dad, he’ll be okay. It won’t be like last time.”

“Last time…?” Batman asked.

Flamebird shot the Caped Crusader a glare. “Like you care.”

“Jon…” Nightwing tried.

Superman looked like he was going to cry, so Flamebird enlightened the Batman. “Superboy didn’t take Robin’s death well. None of his friends did, but for Kon it was… bad.”

“It was bad for all of them.” Batman said softly. “All of us.  But now, with them in Gotham, I need your help. We know Timothy’s new plan, we know what he wants to do. We need your help. And if Tim’s plan goes through you might want to be first on the ground, you’ll want to convince them to make a plea bargain.”

“Plea bargain? Bats, what is Tim planning?”

Batman grimaced.

Selina wondered when the warmth would come. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the Gotham cold, it was impossible not to, but a little warmth on these chilly nights would be nice. She ran her fingers over the small envelope in her hands. The Batlight shown in the sky. It was almost a fixed structure there despite the Batman not even being in the city at times. But he was here tonight.

And he wasn’t alone.

“Miss Kyle.” The Batman greeted. Selina smiled and turned around. Wonder Woman, The Flash, Superman, and all of his little birds.

“I do wish you wouldn’t use my real name near strangers, dear.”

She could tell the other Justice League heroes were uncomfortable with her, though the kids seemed used to the flirtation. “Catwoman, why have you called me?”

Selina looked down at the letter between her hands. She handed it over to the Batman. “This was sent to me. I won’t be going, not my style, but I still received an invitation. I thought you should know.”

Batman looked at the envelope before opening it to read the message inside. “So, why the reunion?” she asked.

“Family business.” Nightwing said.

“You know, I haven’t seen the Red Hood on the street recently…  Is that because of you?”

“Yes.”

“So you know.” She stated.

Batman looked up at that. “You know?”

“I’ve known for a while, Batman. He-he came to me. He said something like this might happen. He said you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“I wouldn’t have.”

“He was friends with Superboy, Kid Flash, and Wonder Girl. Right?”

No one responded.

Batman’s face barely even twitched when he finished the letter. “Thank you for this, Selina.”

“Anytime, love. But next time? Don’t bring your friends and we’ll have some fun.” She winked at Batman and she heard a muffled laugh from the Flash.

Batman smirked. She loved that smirk, it only appeared every so often but when it did… “See you later, Selina.”

Selina blew him a kiss and then jumped off the roof, feeling the Gotham cold rake her skin. What she wouldn’t give for it to be warm again.

“Listen, we aren’t going to hurt you.” Tim said softly. Tamara Fox continued to stare wide-eyed at her new house-guests. Then she screamed. Bart was on her in a second, securing his hand over her mouth.

“Tamara, Tam! We aren’t going to hurt you!” Tim hissed when the muffled screaming stopped. “Kid Flash will let go of your mouth if you won’t scream, okay? We just need to crash here tonight.” Tamara said something which was obscured by Bart’s hand. Tim nodded and Bart dropped his hand.

“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” She asked petulantly.

“Excuse me?”

“I’d recognize that face anywhere, you’re Tim Drake.”

She was the first person to have recognized him. “You… what?”

“I mean, you’re clearly older and your voice is deeper, but you’re clearly Tim Drake. You have the same eyes and way of moving… I should know, videos and pictures of you are almost all that’s used for stock photos around Wayne Enterprises. That motivational video you were in to promote work proficiency? On repeat in Dad’s labs.”

Tim felt his face heat. “That’s still used?”

“Yeah. Your voice cracks in it,” he heard Kon snort behind him, “sometimes Bruce Wayne just stands in front of it and watches it. So why are you alive again? With… um, superheroes and breaking into my house?”

“Uh…” Tim didn’t really know what to say.

Tamara raised her eyebrows, waiting for an answer. “Well…?”

“It’s a long story, Tam. But it’ll all be over soon, okay?”

“Tim-“ Bart interrupted. Cassie hit him for using Tim’s real name and he looked at her sheepishly. “What? She already knows.”

“Am I the only one fazed by the fact that Tim Drake is both alive and for some reason friends with Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and Superboy?” Tam asked insistently.

“We’ve been over it already. Like Tim said, long story. But right now we have something to do, we’ll be gone by tomorrow.” Cassie explained.

“Again, really sorry about this.” Tim apologized.

Tam frowned but wiggled herself out of Bart’s grasp. She walked over to her kitchen and took out a glass from the cabinet. She filled it with water from the tap and watched the four vigilantes carefully. “What do you need?” She finally asked.

Tim was never more grateful for Tam than then. For a moment everything seemed almost more than perfect. He was alive. He was with his friends. He had help and people who wanted to help him and best of all he was going to finish what he wanted to do. What he had to do. Everything would soon be right. Soon be perfect.

“Well I’m starving!” Moment over.

Not that he could blame Bart, the poor kid probably hadn’t eaten in an hour.

Tam smiled. “Sure, food’s in the-“ there was a whoosh and in a second all of Tam’s drawers and cabinets were open and Bart had made a sandwich definitely too big for his mouth, “-pantry.” Tam’s mouth dropped open as she stared at the remains of her kitchen and the speedster on the floor stuffing his mouth with sandwich.

“Does… um, does he do that often?” Tam asked.

The other three vigilantes nodded.

“Good thing you’re only staying one night. Otherwise I’ll be broke. What about the rest of you? Do you guys need anything?”

“No, thank you Tam.”  Tim declined. Conner and Cassie did too.

Cassie gave Tim a meaningful look. “Besides, we need to talk.” She added.

Tam shrugged. “Me casa es su casa, I guess. You can use the bedroom if you need privacy.”

Tim, Cassie, and Conner moved to Tam’s bedroom. Bart glanced up as the three left the room and dashed over, bringing his food with him. He sat on Tam’s bed and munched cheerfully.

“So what’s the game plan, Tim?” Conner asked.

Tim rubbed his hands together and began to pace. He hadn’t really thought about it before. By looking at his friends’ faces it was clear they hadn’t either. They’d broken him out of his cell with no plan, because they believed he had one. They always knew he had a plan. Now he had to figure one out, quickly. He didn’t have any equipment anymore, he had been stripped of it when Alfred operated on him. He needed weapons, he couldn’t get any good guns on this short notice but he could always use a staff. Staffs were his better weapon anyway. He needed some type of costume too. He couldn’t work on building anything, didn’t have the time. No, he needed something he could throw on and use. A sweatshirt maybe… he looked down at his clothes.

And pants. Real pants would be nice too.

“Tim?” Cassie asked.

“Huh?” Tim asked, breaking from his thoughts.

“What’s next?”

“Next we get me some clothes and some Advil. And after that, we kill the Joker.”

“You can turn back, at any time, at any moment.” Batman told his partners. “If it gets too dangerous, Robin, I want you to go back to the Cave.”

“Nah.” Robin said. “What good would a Robin be if he listened to Batman?” Batman glared at his partner and Batgirl nudged him fondly.

“He has a point.” She said.

Batman turned to Wonder Woman. “At least your protégé respects your decisions.”

“Batman, if she did we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Yeah B, chill a little.” Oracle said from the comms.

If Batman could glare at Oracle he would have. It was odd to Clark, the way that Batman seemed so angry when he clearly wasn’t. He loved banter with his kids, and he cherished working with them. Even if he never said it himself. Clark missed that. And Clark worried.

Tim had been Kon’s best friend. They’d always talked, they’d had sleepovers. Ma had made him pie. He’d slept on Clark’s extra mattress and the two of them had huddled together on his couch. They’d had popcorn fights and had left empty soda bottles on his floor. Clark had come home to his Metropolis apartment to see a cheesy horror flick burning on his TV screen and two teenagers curled up together on his couch. Kon had been drooling.

Kon used to listen for his heartbeat.

One night, at his grave Kon had talked to Clark about it. He told Clark how he would always listen to Tim’s heartbeat when they were in battle. The simple sound was very calming. It was pleasing.

Kon had missed Tim’s heartbeat disappearing. He hadn’t even known to worry. 

Kon blamed himself for Tim’s death.

Clark worried about him. He knew Kon would die for Tim, he wondered if Tim knew that too.

Speaking of heartbeats to listen to, Clark tuned into Bruce’s. It beat like a hummingbird, feather light and fast. He checked the others, Barry’s was similar to Bruce but it was heavier like footsteps trampling down a hall. Then there was Diana, strong and steady just like her. Jon, his beautiful son Jon who’s heart beat with worry, with adrenaline. He shifted over to Lois who was safe in her apartment in Metropolis, she should be asleep but she wasn’t. Her heart beat with the hint caffeine. Lana was sleeping like a normal person. Pete was… oh. Oh. Clark quickly changed subjects, that was something he didn’t want to hear. He listened to Jimmy, who was also sleeping.

Wait a second… Ma and Pa sounded like…

Clark.

Clark please come back,

Something’s happened. A spaceship.

Clark hurry!

“I have to go.” Clark said abruptly. Batman looked at his friend quizzically. Or as quizzically as Bruce ever looked with the cowl.

“Is everything… alright, Superman?”

“N-no I have to go.” Ma and Pa were begging for him.

“What, there’s something more important that saving Kon?” Flamebird cried.

“Right now, yes. I-I have to go. Jon, take care of Kon for me, please. I-please.” Clark whispered. Jon nodded slowly, angrily. He’d explain to Jon later.  Jon would understand. Clark took off. Hopefully everything would go well.

Clark closed his eyes, he didn’t need them to fly back to Smallville he could fly home on instinct, and he listened, as Kon used to so often, for Tim’s heartbeat.

“Red looks good on you.” Conner said as he helped Tim put a numbing ointment on his back. Tim was staring at the red sweatshirt that Tam had managed to acquire when they asked her to go out and get him pants and a shirt. It was soft and the sensation felt nice against his hands. It was plain red which was good because if they failed they would need to hide and be unidentifiable.

Tim grinned, then winced from the cold substance. Conner applied it more gently. “It’s our colors.” He said.

“Huh?” Kon asked confused.

“Red and black.” Tim said, rubbing a hand over the (black) pants that Tamara had bought for him. “Our colors.”

“You wore gold, black, and green last time we worked together.”

“Yeah, but I always liked the red.” Red Hood.  Kon didn’t respond. His large hands kneaded carefully into Tim’s back. “So can they be our colors?”

“Yeah.” He could hear the Kryptonian’s smile. “Of course.”

Callused hands on a marred back. Soft like snow and warm like smile. Tim closed his eyes, cold gel clung to his back. He felt comfortable. He felt safe. For the first time in a long while he felt safe.

And it would all end. All of it.  Again.

Well there went the mood.

“I missed you, you know.”

“I know.”

“A lot. I thought-“ There was a shudder of breath and Kon’s hands stopped moving. “-you don’t know what it was like, Tim. Going to your funeral. Missing your death because,” he choked on a sob, “because I didn’t check in on you.”

Tim turned around to see tears dripping down his friend’s face. Tim touched Kon’s tanned cheek, swiping the droplets away. “Hey. It’s not your fault. It was never your fault.”

Kon wept silently, eyes open and full of tears. “It is.” He whispered.

“You. Couldn’t. Have. Known.” Tim told him. “You couldn’t have. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry, Kon. I really am.”

“Tim, do you know what it’s like? To have your best friend die? To leave you alone? Tim, do you know what I tried to do?”

“No.” But he could imagine. Tim didn’t know what he would have done if it had been Kon who had died.

Kon shook his head, pulling away from Tim. He rubbed at his slightly red eyes. “C’mon turn around, we have places to be.” He mumbled.

“Do-do you want to talk about this?”

“I’m fine, Tim.”

Clearly he wasn’t, but Tim didn’t want to push. So he turned back around and let Kon finish numbing the pain in his back. When he was done Tim pulled on the sweatshirt and pulled up the hood.

The two of them walked back into the main room and Tam handed Tim his weapon—a bo staff she’d found in a BatStash of weapons at a Wayne Enterprises facility. He swung it a few times, it was too light for his taste, but it would do.

“So what now?” Bart asked.

“Depends, did you get what I asked for?” Tim responded.

Bart nodded and handed the dark domino mask to him. “Theshortchickwhogaveittometoldmetothankyouagain. Saidthatifyouwantedtobuytwoyoumustreallybeafan. Guess she doesn’t knowhuh?”

Tim grinned and put it on his face. He turned to his friends with a flourish (thank god for Advil and numbing cream, his pain was blissfully subdued). “How do I look?”

Cassie raised an eyebrow. “Like the Red Hood actually makes sense as a name now.”

“Yeah, dude.” Kon said with a soft smile, all tears forgotten. “A helmet is not a hood.”

“It was supposed to be ironic.” Tim said, rolling his eyes behind white lenses.

“Well it was stupid.”

Tim narrowed his eyes at his friends who froze. Including Bart. “What?” He asked startled.

“You,” Cassie looked at Bart who finished the sentence for her.

“You looked like you used to. With,” he waved at his own face, “the mask and everything.”

Oh.

“Well, let’s go kick some ass like we used to.” Tim said. His friends laughed and they were off.