#puts together the timeline to realize there was a Robin between Dick and Tim

[mzminola]

On the one hand, I love divorced Jack & Janet Drake where Jack is per canon and so for contrast Janet is supportive of Tim being Robin.

On the other hand, I want an AU where Janet lived instead of Jack, and she's more empathetic and observant than Jack, but even busier so we can still have Tim running around as Robin for several years without being caught--

And when Janet does find out she storms Wayne Manor like Jack did in canon and actually fucking shoots Bruce.

[hintofelation99]

Hi! I love your posts and want to ask your opinion on something. Who do you think in the batfam has the most and the least common sense of a normal person? If you can, can you also list how they are arranged? Thank you!

Ooohhh, this is a fun one! In my mind all bats lack common sense. Like obviously they're hella smart, after all they are a family of detectives, they just aren't very bright.

Here's a quick rundown (least to most): Tim and Dick tie for first place, both lack common sense in just in completely different ways. Then Damian (mostly cause of the whole 'being raised by league of assassins' thing), Bruce, Cass (controversial ik), Steph, Jason, Duke, Babs, and last on the list is obvs Alfred. (Kate is probs between Cass and Steph, but I've only really seen her in the DCAMU and need to get to know her better).

And Ima add a 'keep reading' cause this is gonna get long.

Tim:

Tim is one of the smartest in the family. He deduced Batman's identity as a child, majorly fucked up the League of Assassins, and has been honored (I say this v sarcastically just btw) with Ra's creepy obsession. He's smart, plain and simple. However, when it comes to just day to day survival and being loved, goddamn that boy is dumb.

He regularly mixes energy drinks and coffee. Sometimes he even mixes energy drinks, alcohol, and coffee.

In his mind warnings are optional. "Tim, did you just sniff that drano?" "Yeah, why?" "IT LITERALLY SAYS DO NOT SMELL" "Oops"

He regularly tests shit on himself. "Why is Tim on the floor?" "He mixed joker venom and fear gas to see what would happen" "HE WHAT"

Also if you try to compliment him or tell him you love him he will find a way to misunderstand. "Tim, I love you and you are an amazing son." "I don't know who this Tim is but he sounds great" "It- it's you, literally you. Timothy Jackson Drake." "I'm a bit confused, I didn't know you knew two Timothy Jackson Drakes. You should really introduce us."

Dick:

Dick in many ways is a total himbo. He's a complete sweetheart, super supportive, and very ditzy. His ditzy-ness directly correlates to how relaxed he is. Chilling in the manor? Peak himbo. A mission in space? Absolute genius and amazing leader. Just took down a bunch of thugs? Slowly reverting into dopey boi. He always has the ability to be super analytical, smart, and big brain, but he likes being whimsical and even airheaded. And that's not a bad thing, it's just him taking mental breaks, being lighthearted.

"YOU PUT DIESEL IN YOUR CAR?" "...Yeah, in my defense the nozzles look basically the same" "They're different colors?! Also the diesel nozzle doesn't even fit into your gas tank, how did you get it in?" "I'm a good pourer."

He always responds to the word dick and it always confuses him. "God Ra's is such a dick!" "What?" "Ra's is a dick" "I'm not Ra's!" "Wha- no! I mean penis dick!" "Ohhhh, yeah he is a penis dick"

Once Dick is safe he reverts into himbo pretty quickly, even after stressful situations. "Hey Wally?" "Yes babe?" "I forgot how to change my lock screen again" "Dick, you just hacked into an alien spaceship not even an hour ago??" "What's that have to do with anything?"

Damian:

Damian lacks common sense from growing up with the League of Assassins. He's an amazing warrior and super analytical but casual human interaction alludes him. He is getting better though, so eventually he'll be lower on the list than Steph. But for now he's a senseless bby.

The first time someone tried to give him high five he assumed it was an attack and flipped them. Same with a fist bump.

This is complete canon but his original treatment of Alfred, his brothers, and, well, everyone. Like bby boy please read the room.

His ego can easily override common sense. Like he wouldn't jump off a bridge if everyone else was doing it, but if someone said he couldn't he'd immediately swan dive off that bridge.

Bruce:

For the world's greatest detective he can be a major dumb bitch sometimes. Some of it's growing up rich and some is being so wrapped up in his 'crusade for justice' that he just misses basic shit.

One time he walked in on Roy and Jason making out, the next day he saw them cuddling, then they mentioned moving in together. It took him three months to realize that they're dating.

He doesn't understand coupons, like at all. Jason has tried to explain them but Bruce just gets even more confused.

Bruce tried to make coffee once. He literally just poured coffee beans in water and microwaved it. He was surprised when it didn't taste good.

Cass:

Cass is similar to Damian in she lacks common sense from an unconventional upbringing. However she's learning way faster than Damian and depending on where in the timeline you're looking she might have more common sense than Babs.

Basic things like lines, turn taking, and speaking when spoken to aren't innate to her. Like, she knows and understands them, but often forgets about them.

There are many times that she blurs the line between civilian and vigilante because she'll do something that looks v stupid and dangerous for a civilian. The thing is she never notices when she does this.

One time she was in a restaurant and there was a cockroach on the wall across the room (cause Gotham) and instead of getting up and killing it like a normal person she threw her steak knife and impaled it.

Steph:

Steph is probably lacks common sense the most conventional yet slightly concerning way. She lacks common sense in the same way a cartoon character or sitcom character would. Like it's sorta realistic but at the same time damn bby girl why are you such a disaster??

She will do anything on a dare. Anything. There is a rule against daring Steph to do things while in the manor or on patrol.

Every time she hears someone say Red Robin she yells yum. This has gotten both her and RR shot.

Steph is v lucky that 1) she's a badass and 2) the batfam loves her because she annoys absolutely everyone just for shits and giggles and the only reason she hasn't been murdered is that Cass scares everyone.

Jason:

All common sense is lost when dramas at stake. Say what you will but Jason is the (second) biggest drama queen in the family. Also he, like most bats, lacks a sense of self preservation which leads to shit common sense.

He tried to steal Batman's tires.

Sometimes he listens to music during patrol and tries to hit people/shoot on beat. This has lead to stab wounds.

Jason loves to loudly quote classic literature while on stake outs. This is a problem for obvious reasons.

Duke:

Ok this is around the time you get to average common sense levels. But he still runs around Gotham beating people up in tights (or kevlar) so he doesn't get full points. Also he's still not Babs level common sense. One area Duke lacks common sense in is how to deal with the Batfam (which is v understandable tbh)

One time Duke was joking around with Jason and decided to steal a roll off of Damian's plate. This ended in blood.

Other than lacking Batfam common sense, most of his poor judgement moments are less notable but still concerning.

For example the time he challenged Dick to a hot dog eating contest then went on a roller coaster.

Babs:

Other than being a vigilante Babs almost has normal human common sense. However being a vigilante has negative side effects on ones common sense.

While Babs' sleep schedule isn't as bad as Tim's it's not a whole lot better. She's stayed up 72 consecutive hours multiple times.

She has accidentally poured coffee onto her computer instead of into a coffee mug.

One time she drank an entire gallon of milk before realizing it was a month expired.

Alfred:

Most assume that working for Bruce Wayne is a sign of him lacking common sense. But nah, it's him knowing, understanding, and challenging his own limits. Also it's him being a charitable human being. Like he has enough common sense to go around and tbh it's the only thing keeping the family alive.

"Master Bruce, you may not use Elmer's Glue All to close a wound."

"Master Dick I would encourage you not to teach Master Duke acrobatics on the glass coffee table."

"Miss Stephanie I would not advise trying to consume an entire jar of peanut butter in one sitting, and no, I do not care if Master Jason dared you to."

Tada, there's the list! Sorry that was probably a lot longer than anyone wanted, but I enjoy talking about how ditzy the batfam is. Like they're all geniuses but at the same time they're just sooooo dumb.

[blackroserelina]

Old discord Idea I had

So I talked with people on discord a long time ago with this idea. I don’t remember who the people are but I forgot to post it on here. so here it is.

So I Had an idea not sure how it will work but this is it. Marinette and Dick are bio siblings and Mari is quite a few years younger than Dick. When their parents die they end up being separated Mari gets adopted by the Dupain-Chengs and Bruce takes in Dick. They agree to stay in contact somehow (mail, email, text, etc.). A few years later Mari became Ladybug is when Dick will notes her looking more stressed and tired. Dick would worry but Mari would wave it off as her new duty as class president and her getting more commissions. He would believe her but at the same time knows it isn't the full truth.

He finally will decide to find out what is going on when he starts seeing the same look in her eyes that the rest of his family has the look of someone who has seen too much. But he gets blocked every time he tries to find out what is going on and when he decides to just go to Pairs to see what's going on he finds out that there is a travel bane and can't go and not only that it seems the zeta tubes in and around Pairs are offline somehow.

 maybe Mari gets taken in by Tom and Sabine because of Gina? Like, she's friends with Haley or something, and she would've taken Dick too but he wanted to stay in Gotham to see justice done.

he goes to Tim or Barbara or both of them when he couldn't get in and find anything. I would believe he would have a better relationship with Jason than in cannon in the beginning since (I hope) he wouldn't blame Jason for taking Robin from him. Since he has Mari there to set him straight. 

but do you think he would go to one of them if he couldn't find anything on his own? and when they do you think that they would inform the rest of the family of what is happening in Pairs. what would Dick do when he finds out Mari is being bullied in school? would he be angry worried or something else?

I think Dick would definitely go to the others for help. He might start by asking Bruce about it, but if the JL shut off the zeta tubes I suspect Bruce will be like "sorry, I can bring your sister here but you can't go to her", and maybe he pitches that to Mari and she says she can't leave her commissions of something. So then Dick will go to his sibs, and he'll start doing stuff secretly, and I think that his sibs would help him. He might even enlist other friends/supers he knows, depending on what timeline you're using. And like. I'm pretty sure between him and his friends he'll find a way to sneak into Paris.

Is the travel ban just for supers or is it civilians too?

It would be for supers and any meta. I think that any metas in Pairs would have to leave till Hawkmoth is dealt with.

So what I'm hearing is that Dick could do something similar to what he did in YJ, and put together a circus act, and then he and anyone he decides to bring with him could sneak into France with Haley's or something...

ya, that could work and Mari could go to it without knowing Dick will be there. what if when Dick is there he sees an Akuma fight and during the fight Ladybug does something that makes Dick realizes who she is.

Maybe a type of flip or something with her yoyo that was their Mom's special move on the trapeze?

That would work! I mean, Tim pegged Dick as a Grayson by his quadruple somersault, Dick could def peg Mari over something similar. Especially if he was already kinda sus about the haunted look in her eyes and her obvious increase in stress.

ya, he would be sus but every time he would try to make the connection something would make it not fully connect and the veil that keep him from finding out would finally lift when he sees the flip that only a Grayson would know how to do and he would be questioning why he didn't make the connection sooner because he knows that she was somehow involved. maybe he thought she was one of the backup heroes. but now he can see how obvious Ladybug is his sister from what he has seen from her over the years this has been happening.

Later, when he finally gets the full story from her, all he can think is "fucking magic bullshit"

But would Bruce eventually find out what Dick did and what would he do? I can see Dick offering his and his friends to help Mari.

I think Bruce would find out eventually, but he would know that there's no way he could go to Paris safely. He's got too much anger for that to be safe. So instead he tries to get Dick to come back, and Dick is like "absolutely not", so then Bruce contacts Ladybug, and is like, "I'm sorry, but a bunch of young heroes violated your ban," but by that point, Dick and his friends have already talked to Mari and so she's like, "Thanks for the heads up Batman, but I already know and we've talked, they're fine."

ooo what would Dick do to Chat when he finds out how he treats her. always flirting and harassing her on and off the job.

I think for the sake of not getting akumatized he'd try not to get angry about it. Maybe start by saying, "Hey, look dude, you need to back off. What you're doing isn't okay, and this is why." And if that doesn't work he'll start running interference, just being in the way and third-wheeling. Whether or not Chat knows that Dick is LB's brother or if he thinks this new random hero is a rival, well, that's up to you. But I think that the minute Hawkmoth is done with Dick is gonna stop holding back, and if Chat's still harassing LB by then Dick's just gonna let him have it.

ya, I can see Dick doing that. I can't decide if Mari would let them be their hero selves in Pairs or if she would have them use a miraculous since no hero is supposed to be in Pairs besides miraculous users and if she does give them who gets what. (maybe he takes Tim with him. Idk if anyone else because the only other person I can think of that doesn't have powers is Roy and Idk if he would be good to take or not don't know much about him.)

Artemis could go, Tim and Steph could go, Roy...maybe? Like, it would depend on when he went, honestly, and I'm not sure there's a good time. Also, his storyline is a crazy mess because of timelines.

Zatanna could probably sneak in? Like, she's a magic user, yes, but that won't show up on any kind of test the Parisian authorities might run. And if they're already breaking the rules, well...  Also Z likes Dick and would therefore be willing to help however she could.

Zatanna could just portal in with her magic if there's not something blocking it

True! There might be tho if the JL shut off zeta tubes. They might have gotten Constantine to do something to contain magic.

Zatanna canonly has stronger magic than Constantine as far as I'm aware so he might not be able to do anything to stop her if the JL did get him to do something

Yes, Zatana is stronger, but Constantine has a wider range of skills Bc he goes further into dark magic

It would depend on how old Z is, I think. Idk the ages, but if she's a teenager I think Constantine would beat her just by experience.

Dick is already Nightwing

Oooo. In that case, Zatanna will probably be old enough to actually be in the JL, so in that case, she could maybe help Dick and his team disguise themselves or something but she probably wouldn't be able to actually go with that, that would mean going rogue.

[bigskydreaming]

You're asked to choose one and only one or DC's future stops existing immediately. your choices:

1. Jason Todd the anti-hero who seldom works with only a couple of the bats he doesn't hate, for example Dick and Cass VS. Jason Todd who came back with healed body but broken spirit, folded back into the Gotham gang and learns to be part of the society again.

2. Tim Drake who makes all of his mistakes as canon but realizes he's been wrong and apologizes to people VS. Tim Drake back in his first iteration, a cute little brother character who is a reader insert and a fun teenager.

3. JayKyle VS DickKyle.

4. Jason Todd with a sword VS. Damian Wayne with a sword.

5. Chris Kent VS. Jon kent.

Okay but which DC future? Its omniversal future? Its hypertime future? Its multiversal future? Its Elseworlds future? Its dark multiverse future? Mwahahaha your threat is useless because the sheer wtf of DC's continuities, timelines and conflicting declarations of what to even call their multiomnihyperverse makes it impossible to target simply A future! DC's overly unnecessarily complicated nature renders it functionally immortal and impossible to ever truly destroy, take that Darkseid.

I mean. But anyway. Whatevs:

1) I honestly do prefer the idea of Jason someday fully reuniting/reintigrating into the Batfam as a whole, because fuck it, the found family I'm here for is the one where they actually act like a family....I just think it takes actual work to get to that point and I get irey when people are like we're here! We found it! And its like meanwhile, abusive dynamics still abound. Mmm. No thank you. But even though I've been on a huge Jason and Dick and Cass kick for like, forever, I do still aim for him having a dynamic of his own with the rest of the family.

Like the thing is, I hate playing the favorites card in families, and I think the emphasis on so and so being Bruce's favorite child or so and so being this kid's favorite sibling, etc, like it really does feel like to the detriment of the whole family, because once you start validating the idea of favorites, ESPECIALLY in a found family that is CONTINUOUSLY growing....I think you're kinda shooting yourself in the foot because you're kinda creating a situation where either no future new additions to the family can EVER be Bruce or one of the kids' 'favorite' or else you're innately positing that said fave status is conditional and even a current fave of Bruce or a sibling can be bumped down the ladder by the addition of a later arrival....

Which is LITERALLY the entire essence of the eternal conflict between Dick and Damian and Tim fans. Its not even that Damian is Dick's favorite, allegedly, its that prior to Damian's very EXISTENCE, fans felt comfortable declaring Tim unilaterally to be Dick's 'favorite'.....and then all it took was the addition of a single family member who had specific NEEDS in regards to Dick's attention and focus, largely because of his age and needing a legal guardian while Tim was old enough to literally jet set around the world on his own.....and like, everything went up in flames in large corners of fandom.

So I'm just like, death to the fave family member myth, its just incredibly counter productive to the idea of found family as a whole especially when it usually only exists to prop up a preferred character as better than others via the proof of see, these other characters say he's their fave or whatever...but also like, its not even necessary?

Because the thing is, you can have Jason reintegrated into the whole family overall, and still prioritize your personal narrative FOCUS on characters you like more than others, like say Dick and Cass.....because of course its natural for even people in the same family to have entirely different DYNAMICS with different family members....and these dynamics don't have to come with a ranking system in order to prioritize which ones you just focus on more in a story. Because its not necessarily that Dick has to be Jason's fave brother, y'know, just for Jason to prefer spending time with Dick simply because he's more comfortable with him due to knowing him longer or being more secure in the idea that Dick doesn't judge him based on their greater shared history.

This doesn't mean that Jason doesn't care for his other siblings, that he can't have strong dynamics with them as well, its just about finding a reason for why these two specifically might be in a story without the others that doesn't demand putting a definitive ranking on which one Jason considers his FAVE. Just like Damian doesn't have to be Dick's FAVE just for them to have the super close canon relationship they have, even relative to the other siblings, because there's everything needed in canon already to establish that the mere fact of Dick essentially RAISING Damian for a year, and being the first one in the family to really take a chance on Damian, like, this lends itself naturally to them maybe more naturally gravitating towards each other than other siblings due to comfort level and familiarity, etc, but it doesn't have to be like....oh but yeah, I just like Damian more than you, Tim, y'know?

So my answer on this one is a total cop out of both, both is good. Jason totally reintegrated back into the family, but with dynamics that still lend themselves fairly easily towards story lineups where its just him running missions with Dick or Duke or any other one or two specific family members even if for no other reason than they gel together best in the field, y'know?

2) Hmm. I honestly really do love and miss 90s Tim Drake and just....don't see him in a lot of what I read these days. I'm like no, why did he have to go, he was doing so well! BUT I'm also on a big accountability kick, and like, I'm so steeped in fics where Dick GROVELS for forgiveness for every little slight he's ever done real or imagined, with every character but Tim in particular, so its like.....I'm not gonna lie, I really have a preference these days for seeing stuff where its literally anyone actually owning up to shit they've done to Dick and apologizing or groveling or making it to HIM, like, completely unconditionally. In the same manner we usually see Dick apologizing, glossing over any reasons he might have had for doing what he did or feeling the way he did, and saying oh it doesn't matter, putting the entirety of his focus on what HE did and why it was wrong no matter what and he's sorry.....that's what I would kill to see from more fics, just in reverse.

Because so often even in the all too rare fics where we DO see other characters apologizing to Dick for shit, its watered down with Dick volunteering that oh he messed up too, it was a two way street, and its like no! This is Pettiness Hours! I want the unconditional apologies! Give me the groveling! From anyone, I don't care at this point, lol, just show me characters actually PUTTING IN THE WORK to make it up to Dick for harm they've caused him, even if completely unintentionally or via neglecting his feelings or considering the repercussions their actions or words would have on him. Aaaaaaand, frankly, Tim's a good place to start there, because of how one sided all the takes on their conflicts have been for so many years. I mean, if people need a place to start, Batman and Robin Eternal gets enough praise it can't be pretended that people in fandom don't know that story exists, so how about some stories where Tim says he's fucking sorry for punching Dick in issue #4 or #5 of that one, and it was uncalled for and he was clearly just looking for an excuse to unleash some more of his resentment and upset for the Spyral/Forever Evil stuff, and family deciding that its totally okay to punch Dick whenever they're mad at him and need to work off some aggression so they can then finally forgive him (for now) is a trend that needs to die in a fire post-haste? I mean just as an example.

But the thing that kills me about fanfic trends is like....the sameness of so much of it. There's SO much room for variety and diverse takes, and like....I don't actually hate Tim! I'm just cranky because of the imbalanced nature of most content out there for literal years at this point. Push the pendulum BACK in the other direction, create some balance by showing the flip side of things.....and that leaves a lot more room for me and others of like minds to then be more amenable to - and even interested in - other stories that don't scratch this particular itch, but don't need to, because other stories are doing the scratching by then, y'know?

And THEN like, at that point, I would be ALL FOR more stories that are just callbacks to classic 90s Tim who I adore, with his skateboarding and his EARNESTNESS and his go-get-em spirit and also the gumption. All the gumption. I like that Tim. I do miss that Tim. But like, for the moment, like, I want accountable Tim because I am tiiiiiiiired of groveling Dick and tbh at this point its not enough for me to just see people move past putting Dick in that position and just have mutually respective and doting brothers Dick and Tim having adventures together......nah, first I want some reciprocation. Ngl. Gimme the apologies for actual mistakes actually made.

3) DickKyle. Easy question, c'mon, you gotta know that. LOL. ;)

But yeah, I've been shipping these two off their like, two shared pages from way back in the Obsidian Age story years before Jason even returned, let alone was in Countdown together with Kyle, so like, its no contest. I don't mind JayKyle, I certainly prefer it to JayRoy tbh, but there's not a ton of appeal in it for me, particularly in how its usually depicted, because like....the entire basis of JayKyle is that they DO have stories together and spent a whole year worth of weekly issues traveling the multiverse together in Countdown.....but there's like, practically no trace of their actual dynamics from that series or any specifics of literally any issue from that entire comic in most fics I’ve read, so its like.....idk, it tends to come across as more generic, not in the sense that it cant still be interesting, but more in the sense that it feels like just someone paired with Jason just because history between them EXISTS without any interest in exploring what that history actually IS....and at that point, its like, well there's no reason TO prioritize that ship over DickKyle for me personally, when like, I have a shit ton of headcanon reasons for why those two in a pairing specifically. *Shrugs* My logic. Its not for everyone, but it works for me.

4) Jason with a sword or Damian with a sword? I don't understand the question. Both. Both is good. All the characters should have swords. Swords are awesome.

5) Chris Kent vs Jon Kent - oof. I adore Jon, I really do. I love his dynamic with Damian, I love a lot of their specific stories, the parallels between them as friends and Bruce and Clark as friends....its all very bien. But I gotta give this one to Chris, because I'm always gonna have a soft spot for him because I'm a sucker for all abused kid heroes, and I just miss that funky little dude so much. There's so many stories we didn't get with him and were just ripe for the picking, but nooooo, DC's like lol you can't have nice things, here we just rebooted the entire multiverse and now Clark and Lois never adopted the son of Clark's worst Kryptonian rival and raised him with tender love and care awww does that make you sad, were you invested in him, WELL TOO BAD, HE'S GONE NOW AND BASICALLY NEVER EXISTED, NOW GIVE US YOUR MONEY ANYWAY MWAHAHAHAHAH.

Yeah. I'm still not over that. Probably will never be tbh, so I with great grudge-bearing do affirm that I'm gonna go with Chris on this one and like, he is a Priority for me and I'm still very keen on the idea of him and Duke being besties for random reasons that might not make sense to anyone but me, but eh, whatever.

[thecanadianowl]

Batman: Death in the Family Review (SPOILERS)

 This is going to be long.

I originally had no interest in watching this mainly because it's based off a story where its only significance is Jason's death. The thing that won me over was the "choose your adventure" type which is an interesting style to do for this particular event. The three main selections are Jason cheats death, Robin dies and Batman saves Robin. Of those 3, only 1 of them was the most interesting. But before I do that, let me go over why the other 2 were disappointing.

 Robin dies choice is basically a rehash of the Under the Red Hood animated movie only its shortened and narrated by Bruce as he is speaking to Clark Kent at a diner. All it is a repeat of shit we knew. Bruce blames himself for the path he set Jason on and Clark giving a hopeful message of finding Jason. All this choice does is add an extended ending.

Robin cheats death one puts Jason having gone through surgery, having his skin grafted and stitched up from the explosion. The trauma and pain has Jason resent Bruce for the life he been put into and basically becomes Hush. He goes after criminals (btw decapitating Nygma, waay too much) which gets the attention of of Talia Al Ghul where she proposes an alliance with Jason while also taking in baby Damian under his tutelage. The problem isnt the story itself bit that it had so much potential. Seriously it could have been Batman:Hush as well as seeing where this conflict between Bruce and Jason will end now that Talia and Damian are in the equation. Btw Talia fans, this is probably the only ending with the character you are gonna like.

Batman saves Robin okay this is the one with multiple choices involved and goes down interesting paths for some of them. So Batman saves Robin but in doing so, he dies and Robin lives, and Nightwing becomes Batman (cool I guess, too bad they never gave him any dialogue). The first choice given is whether Jason chases/arrests the Joker or Kills him.

Kill Joker option where Jason is at a Diner and talks with this stranger who is revealed to be Joker who is now given up being the Joker because “his” Batman is gone. He recites the ‘2 inmates escape an asylum’ joke that he said in the Killing Joke allowing for Jason to put it together and kill him right there in front of 2 cops who are also in the diner.Immediately after you are given the choice to turn yourself in or run. The run option is the one that matters because Jason becomes Red Robin and begins his killing spree. Which Btw is just recycled footage they used in the Robin cheats death option just with the Red Robin edited over Hush. Really? Was budget that low? But what makes this ending good is that RR is later pinned down by Two Face and given the clean/scratched coin option, Jason is saved by Tim Drake (with a taser) and is reminded of Batman’s code and its importance not only to himself but to the people of Gotham. In doing so Jason stops killing and takes Tim in as a sidekick: BatKid. Seriously, that is the name you chose? Why not have Jason be Nightwing (which he was for short while, albeit to ruin Dick’s reputation) and Tim be Robin? Batkid :Great name for a kid’s Make-A -Wish dream, not so great if you want to use it in more serious context . This is one of the better endings as Jason becomes a better person in the end and the type of hero Bruce would have wanted but at the same time shows that Jason’s past habits were hard to get rid of especially with his father gone.

Arrest Joker has Jason become Redhood to lure Joker out in public. When he does that and unveils his true identity to him, the Joker brags about how he created him and how his rage has lead him down a murderous path, reinforcing the jokers belief of "one bad day". The next decision to be made is whether Jason should kill Joker or not. This decision ultimately has no impact as both decision lead to the same concluding decision set. I chose to kill him because let's be honestly this the path set by Jason really compliments the 2 choice options you have to make in the final one. Where Jason is confronted by Talia with a resurrected Batman who only says “Zur-en-arrh” trying to get Jason to join them but later results in a fight.

Okay there is a lot to unpack here. First: Did Grant Morrison write this? I’m asking because of how he has written Talia during his run on Batman (and how it upsets a lot of fans). You would think Talia knowing first hand what the effects of the Lazarus pit are, would she actually risk it turning the man she loves into a husk of his former self? Yes she would want Bruce to join her on their crusade against the corruption of the modern world but not if it meant Bruce wasn’t in a rational state of mind. Secondly, of all the possible Batman personas/iterations why this one?

I know they give some sort of reason near the end, but it just seemed so out of nowhere. Maybe I am looking too much into this, but if they were going to go this route, I feel like it would have been cooler to see Bruce in the Knightfall suit or have him wear a similar Batsuit that Damian wore in Batman 666.

And thirdly, you would think a fight between Jason and Bruce (where the roles are reversed, sorta) would be the most epic shit ever, but it doesn’t even last a minute it ends with either Bruce getting stabbed or knocked out (depending on which you choose). Before I go with why I think letting Bruce live is the better ending, I would like to say that when Jason kills him, Bruce sets off a bomb killing all three of them and the final shot  of Jason’s corpse is very reminiscence of that comic cover of Jason caught in the explosion. I thought it was cool.

Now the reason why, I liked the save ending (and find it to be the definitive ending for this movie)   is that Jason gives up being Redhood and works with Babs, Dick and Alfred in helping Bruce gain back his sanity.  This  ending encompasses all that was needed for Jason’s arc from becoming Redhood, to killing Joker, to his realization how wrong his methods were to being part of the Batfamily again and finally to save his father. It encompasses the idea that being Batman is more than just pain and suffering, its about hope and being able to become a better person, that your pain/anger doesn’t define who you are/can be.

Overall, I feel that this movie is a disappointing as both a prequel/sequel to Under the Red Hood. Unless you are a huge fan of Jason Todd, wait for a sale or when they release this in a collection with their other movies. The letdown for me is that certain choices have better writing than others and supporting characters aren’t used to their full potential. That being said, the idea of having different choices and giving the audience the chance to explore each of them. I hope they do this with other pivotal moments in DC’s history.

Also do the writers hate Black Mask? I get he isn’t the most popular Bat-villain but damn Sionis gets the short end of the stick in every timeline especially in the first ending of Robin Cheating death, it was so ridiculous that it is borderline hilarious

[kid-crashed]

Jon Kent and Damian Wayne in the Young Justice Animated Series

It’s been a good long while since Young Justice: Outsiders came out, so I feel like I can finally write about this without worrying about tagging spoilers and ruining lives or something. This is something I thought about the second this episode aired, and I’ve been waiting to write it. So here it goes!

Young Justice: Outsiders was obviously exciting for many reasons, but some of the most excitement came from introductions of well beloved characters, such as Jason Todd and Damian Wayne (seen in Episode 6) and Jon Kent (seen in Episode 9). Anyone who follows Super Sons already knows that this is a massive deal, because it establishes that Damian and Jon both exist in the same animated timeline for the very first time, as well as it being Jon’s animated debut.

While I’m obviously extremely excited for the possibility of a Super Sons animated moment, it got me thinking. The screen shots above show that Damian and Jon are both infants, likely somewhere around one (1) year old. This is completely different from the three (3) year age difference we’re used to, and while this difference might not seem like that big of a deal to some people, it has the capacity to completely change their character dynamics.

Let’s start by looking at Damian:

We all know Damian’s backstory by now; raised in the League of Assassins by Ra’s and Talia Al Ghul, until he was ten (10) years old, when he moved to Gotham to live with Bruce Wayne. It was at this point that he became Robin. This is a pretty concrete point in Damian’s character, and is very unlikely to change. At some point in the YJ series, he needs to become Robin. But lets take a minute to think about what kind of person he was at that age: arrogant, violent, stubborn, and desperately trying to prove his worth to a father he just met. At this point, he was a killer, and regularly fought with just about every member of the Batfam, Bruce and Dick in particular, as he tried to break the habits he’d been brought up with. 

In the context of YJ, we can assume that Dick would at some point bring Damian along to join the Team, but the question is, at what age? Damian joining almost immediately fits pretty well with how quickly he was introduced to the Teen Titans. But, at that age, he was hardly a team player. It wasn’t until he was about thirteen (13) that he really started developing actual friendships. However, the age Damian joins the Team - in my opinion at least - would depend very heavily on when the other “Next Generation” heroes join. 

This brings us to Jon:

Jon is known for being the complete antithesis to Damian. Rather than being raised to be a loyal machine, he was raised to be a loyal friend. Jon is a character who puts family first, and thinks of his friends as family. He’s truly a breath of childish fresh air in an industry that loves feeding us doom and gloom. While he is beloved by the majority of the fanbase, other characters were very apprehensive about him when he first got into the hero business at ten (10) years old; not-so-coincidentally, the same age as Damian. 

However, Jon is also the character in DC comics with the most amount of pressure on him. You imagine being the son of Superman for a moment, and growing up knowing that every single person you meet expects you to one day take over that title. Do you think you’d be able to handle that? Let alone at ten years old? I certainly can’t. Yet it seems like Jon doesn’t actually realize just how heavy that weight on his shoulders is.

While Supers are known for being power houses, and every team seems to want one, Jon was a kid, and very new to his abilities. He was unpolished; constantly making mistakes, misjudging his own strength, overshooting his speed and flight, and who could possibly forget when he lost control Manchester Black, or when he went full Super Nova and nearly killed the Teen Titans? It became very clear at the end of the first Super Sons run that Damian was actually the only other young hero that trusted Jon, which is why they continued to function as the newest take on a dynamic duo. 

How does this all come back to Young Justice: Outsiders? Well it’s actually very simple. All of that mistrust that characters were going to have in Jon was immediately erased the second the series did this:

Right here is the next generation of the Team. We all know it, and unlike previous heroes, this is the first generation that’s growing up together. Unlike every other iteration of the Justice League, Teen Titans, Young Justice, and literally every other team you can think of, these kids are all going to grow up watching each other’s powers come in. They’re going to know each other’s weaknesses and flaws, from weekly play dates, birthday parties, and any other hero-family get-together; some of them might even end up going to the same schools in this universe. Yes, Jon is the youngest out of them, but that just means that every single one of these kiddos is going to watch him grow up, knowing that S on his chest will always be there.

Let’s think about what we know about Jon again. He’s charismatic, funny, loyal and true, and has this uncanny ability to be able to talk to literally anyone, regardless of who the are, where they’re from, or what circumstance he’s in. You know what those traits line up perfectly with? A natural born leader. 

Growing up in this environment, where all these super kids play all the time, it’s so easy to imagine Jon growing up and being this larger than life personality that everyone just naturally seems to listen to. Jon would be the kid coming up with new games to play, and teaching them to everyone else. He would be one of the team captains when they play kickball, soccer, or any other sport. He would be genuinely interested in everyone’s hobbies and skills. He would be the one everyone turns to when they need someone to talk to. If someone’s unsure about him, chances are they’ll just do what everyone does; take one look at that S on his chest and just start listening. 

The series progresses. There’s another time skip, and Damian and Jon are now both ten years old, taking on their respective superhero mantels for the first time. As all young heroes in this series eventually do, they join the Team. Perhaps around the same time, perhaps Damian joins a few months before hand, or vice versa. But that doesn’t matter, because the effect will be exactly the same.

Damian is harsh. He’s vindictive, and unemphatic; the exact opposite of what everyone expects a Robin to be. He refuses to take orders, and is very clearly trying to fight his was to the top of the food chain. Plus, he comes right in and kicks Tim Drake out of the Robin title, someone who could very likely be the current leader. Chances are, everyone would hate Damian from the get-go. Meanwhile, everyone would be looking forward to the day Jon joins. They all knew he would. It was just a matter of time. 

Rather than being introduced to each other with a clear difference in experience like in the comics, Jon and Damian are now on relatively even playing fields because they’re the same age. Damian would have more combat skills, but Jon’s already an integral part of the group, and he’s a fast learner. Obviously they would but heads, likely even more than they did in Supers Sons. 

One of the biggest debates we see in every single season of YJ is “Ok, but who’s in charge?” This would undoubtedly come up as Damian flat out refuses that listen to any leadership if he doesn’t deem them worthy. Even at ten (10) years old, he would likely be fighting for that position of head honcho, because at this point in his life, Damian’s driving forces are his ego and his ambition. Unfortunately for him, at ten (10) years old, with that personality, and after having just left the League of Assassins, he’s completely untrustworthy. 

Jon on the other hand is a perfect candidate for eventual leader. Everyone would have followed Kon, the Superboy before him, to the ends of the Earth. Superman led the Justice League at one point, plus he’s, you know, Superman. Here we’ve got that legend’s kid, with all the makings to eventually take over the whole operation. He’s young, and pretty green, but chances are every single person on the team would have it in the back of their minds that this kid was born to lead. 

The biggest problem? Jon has a tendency to crack under pressure, and second guess himself. There is a chance that Damian rushing to be in charge would force Jon to be pushed forward far too quickly, long before he’s ready. Meanwhile, Damian’s smart as sin. No one on the Team would be able to deny that Damian’s a perfect strategist, who analyses and memorizes every skill set and strength of the people he has to work with. He can come up with a flawless plan at the drop of a hat. Meanwhile, Jon would be the kind of person to lead with his heart, and build morale on a foundation of morals and trust.

That’s going to be the conflict between Damian and Jon in Young Justice because of how they were introduced in the series, and with their lack of age gap. Damian doesn’t have the time to grow and gain everyone’s trust before Jon becomes Superboy, where as Jon wouldn’t have the chance to learn before getting pushed into leadership positions he isn’t ready for. They’re likely going to but heads even more than before, and right now, there’s no way to tell if they will ever be able to achieve the friendship they have in the comics, or if they’ll be stuck as rivals.

Is it too early to make assumptions? Yeah. Probably. Who knows what the writers have planned. But I don’t think there’s any way to doubt the conflict they just created for themselves.

[themandylion]

I started writing this up as an addition to @cryptocism’s post about Janet Drake but it wandered off in another direction so new post it is!

This outlines pretty much all my own feelings about Jack and Janet Drake and how they’re characterized in canon vs. fanon (namely: being absent from the comic was convenient to the storyline and it was only later people started to think “Gee, doesn’t that make the Drakes neglectful/bad parents?”).

I also think it’s interesting to note that the storyline in which we see the most of Janet (the flashback in A Lonely Place of Dying) is also one in which the Drake family is present for and observes a very traumatic event (specifically, John and Mary Grayson falling to their deaths). While I doubt it was the writers’ intention at the time, it could easily be used as an explanation for Jack and Janet’s absent behavior later in Tim’s life—whether a person realizes it or not, witnessing such a traumatic event can have long-lasting repercussions on one’s psyche (look at Tim and his obsession with Dick/Robin/Batman that definitely came about at least in part as a result of his having seen the Graysons die). If Jack and Janet refused to acknowledge they were affected by this even just as much as their son was, it could be an explanation for later tension in their marriage as well as a shift in their approach to parenting. In the flashback, they’re shown as normal parents, taking their kid to the circus for the first time. There’s a bit of tension between them, but they’re involved and trying to make the experience a fun and happy one for Tim.

(Batman #441 | A Lonely Place of Dying: Part 3 of 5.)

Heck, if anything, Janet is shown as being the parent who is more concerned/empathetic in regards to Tim’s feelings than Jack, who makes some sexist remarks that boil down to girls being delicate and boys being better able to handle “loud and rowdy” things. This disagreement regarding how to raise Tim—Jack’s ‘boys will be boys’ attitude that resurfaces over and over again in the Robin series when he pushes/encourages Tim to get involved in sports one way or another vs. Janet’s concern (“I’m a mother. I worry.”) over his emotional/mental development—could easily have been exacerbated by Tim’s reaction to witnessing the Graysons’ deaths. Tim mentions that he had nightmares about that night for years afterwards—something I’m sure Jack Drake with his belief that boys aren’t frightened as easily as girls had a hard time coping with.

A fun thing to note: In the current post-Flashpoint timeline, this whole sequence of events plays out differently. In New 52, it’s shown that both Jack and Janet are loving, supportive parents who are active in their son’s life (they go to gymnastic competitions to cheer him on) and whom Tim cares about deeply (he arranges to put them in his own personally crafted form of witness protection when his actions put their safety at risk). Later on in Rebirth, it’s revealed that DC has taken Tim’s backstory of having been at Haly’s Circus that night and instead given it to Jason Todd. Obviously, this was more a case of DC editorial once again yanking things from Tim’s long and rich character history and gifting them to their favorites than anything else, but when viewed in a larger context it leaves me wondering just how much influence that night had on the Drake family as a whole. Pre-Flashpoint Drakes went to Haly’s and at least one member felt the repercussions for years afterwards, while post-Flashpoint Drakes never went and not only stayed together but went on to be supportive, apparently caring parents all the way into Tim’s teens.

[sqoiler]

⭐

time slip! i’m gonna do what i did for spoilerverse and put the whole fic under the cut and comment on it. have fun :)

for a while now, maybe even a few years, i’ve been thinking about how steph started being robin at the oldest age (besides maybe duke) and how perhaps, if the robins got together, she would be looked to as the leader as she’s the oldest, and how surreal that would be for her as robin, who probably knows/suspects bruce is only keeping her as bait for tim, who probably realizes that she has low amounts of experience and such. i just thought it’d be interesting, and one day i actually sat down and wrote the thing. 

There is a time vortex, and a malfunction, and in the end there are six people on top of the Wayne Enterprises building.

They look at each other in shock and take in the matching outfits, the red and yellow and green. All of them have some idea what’s going on, who they’re seeing, except the youngest (who is really the oldest).

don’t remember what i was thinking when i decided not to explicitly name the robins in this fic, besides the fact that when i write i distinguish between someone being in costume vs not in costume by using their codename or real name

“Wait,” he says, his eyes wide. “There are more Robins?”

i think baby dick was too startled to be pissed, but if he were older he would’ve been angry about there being more robins...it is his mantel, after all

“There must’ve been something that altered time,” says the third Robin, who is clever. He is not yet wearing the red and black costume of mourning, and when he looks at the group around him, he only knows the second and first Robins by name. “It’s the only explanation.”

if tim HAD known steph, he never would’ve let her be in charge. also i think he would’ve been angry that she was robin. 

“Of course,” the fifth Robin huffs, exasperated. Unlike his brother, he recognizes everyone except the sixth, and he wishes he didn’t. Under his mask, his eyes rocket skyward. “Just my luck to be stuck with you imbeciles.”

“Awfully judgemental, aren’t you?” the third Robin notes.

“I have a 4.0 GPA,” the second Robin says. “I don’t think I’m stupid.”

All of the Robins stare at him. This is unexpected.

@ bruce post-jason’s death: talk about your son more!!! tim and steph know NOTHING about him and all damian & duke know is red hood!

“Okay, I’ll admit I don’t know what’s going on,” the sixth Robin says. “I’m barely even a real Robin, I’ve only met Batman like...twice.”

“Why are you in the costume, then?” the fourth Robin asks, her arms crossed. She’s afraid, a little, and nervous to be in the presence of all these other Robins. She doesn’t like that she’s the only girl.

“It’s complicated,” the sixth Robin says. The other Robin accepts that at face value.

“How do we know the order?” the second Robin asks. “I mean, I know I’m second, and he’s first.” He points at the first Robin. “And apparently, after us you guys put on some real pants.”

“It’s a traditional acrobatic outfit,” the first Robin protests, and the second says, “I know, I’m just yanking your chain.”

“I’m the third,” the third says.

“I’m next,” the fourth says, tossing her ponytail and trying to be brave. She knows the first and third Robins, although not this young.

“I suppose I am forced to admit I am not the last Robin,” the fifth one says, glaring at the sixth, who shrugs and says, “Again, I’m not like, a real Robin.”

“What purpose did that exercise serve?” the fifth Robin hisses.

“Well, we need a leader,” the second Robin says. “But I guess it doesn’t matter who’s technically oldest, just who’s actually oldest.”

imagine if they asked dick to be in charge cause he’s “technically” oldest. he’s eleven.

“Why should the oldest--” the fifth Robin starts to protest, but all of these Robins are young, and to young people, the oldest is in charge.

They look at each other.

“Don’t look at me,” the sixth Robin says.

“I’m eleven,” the first Robin says. The fifth blinks.

“I’m twelve,” he admits, staring at his mentor as if just realizing that the first Robin is a child.

“Thirteen,” the third says. “But I’m almost fourteen.”

“And I’m actually fourteen,” the second Robin admits easily. The ones after him wince at this casual admittance of his age, at the reveal of this ticking time bomb they know will go off only too soon.

😬

The fourth Robin’s eyes widen. Oh no, she thinks. Oh no.

The others are looking at her expectantly, and she clears her throat.

“I’m sixteen,” she whispers, her voice hollow, and the others nod.

“I’m only fifteen, anyway,” the sixth Robin says, evidently relieved, and the second one says, “Girl Robin is in charge, then.”

“I beg of you to reconsider,” the fifth Robin says, and something in the way his voice snarls makes the fourth Robin’s fists clench. She looks around at them, determined. They are all looking to her.

steph: freaked out but always determined to annoy damian, even when she doesn’t know him yet

“Fine,” she says. “I’ll be in charge. Our first order of business is to figure out who’s timeline we’re really in. The easiest way would be to ask Oracle.”

“Who’s Oracle?” the first Robin asks, eyes wide.

“Don’t worry about that,” the fourth Robin says. “Everyone who can, try to get in touch.”

She touches her own ear, and the third and fifth mimic the gesture.

duke doesn’t have a comm yet, otherwise he also would’ve called oracle, because i do what i want with canon, and that includes keeping babs as oracle

Oracle does not answer any of them.

“Okay,” the fourth Robin says. “Let’s find a newspaper. What year is it?”

She points to the first Robin.

“2005,” he says. She points to the second.

“2012,” he says.

“2014,” the third Robin says.

“2017,” the fifth says.

“2018,” the sixth says. The fourth nods.

“Alright,” she says. “And I’m from 2015. Everyone remember? Okay. Let’s go find a newspaper.”

i didn’t want to go into it, but i feel like both tim and damian might’ve freaked out, since they both just found out that the person who is robin right after them is robin literally next year, so something *happens* to them to make them not robin. luckily for tim and damian in specific, but it’s not death or injury preventing either of them from being robin, and in fact damian is STILL robin when duke becomes robin. 

They leap from the rooftop together. The fourth Robin watches the sixth, since he said he’s new, but he has a grapple, and he can use it. They don’t go straight down, just away from Wayne Towers, and towards somewhere they can be inconspicuous. The fourth Robin is aware that she’s in the lead, and she realizes they could just go back to the Manor, that would solve their problem of what year it was.

But no, instead she casts her gaze instinctively to the spot in the sky where the signal gleams, and it’s not there. She falters and stops at the next rooftop.

i feel like when you’re patroling under the bat, you like to look at the batsignal. makes u feel safe.

“This isn’t a newspaper,” the fifth Robin snarks once everyone else has stopped.

“Was the signal on?” she asks, and the others exchange a look. “Answer me!”

“Yes,” the third says.

“Yes,” the second says.

“Yes,” the sixth says.

“Yes,” the first says.

“Yes,” the fifth admits.

“Look,” the fourth says, and she points at the sky where the signal isn’t. “Someone turned it off. No matter what year we’re in, someone turned it off.”

The others exchange looks, although none of them know each other, not as Robin, anyway. The fourth Robin remembers that she does know the third Robin, but she thinks she’s the only exception.

“We’re going to GCPD,” she says. “We have to see why they turned the signal off.”

“What about the newspapers?” the first Robin asks. “We still don’t know what year it is.”

“If the person who messed with time turned off the signal, than we can confront them,” the fourth Robin says.

“There could be a newspaper on the way, anyway,” the second Robin reasons.

“Or something else to clue us in,” the third says.

“Exactly,” the fourth Robin says. “Let’s go.”

Surprisingly, the others don’t really argue, and the fourth Robin leads the way.

In front of the Batsignal, there are six shapes. They are standing in a perfect circle, the same distance apart. One is shorter than the others. The fourth Robin squints at them from her spot behind the signal, the others crowded around her.

“Which is which?” the sixth Robin whispers.

The fourth Robin gets up and goes to the back of the signal. The others follow her, even the stubborn fifth Robin.

She signals, and the second Robin flips the switch and turns the light on.

The six Batmen turn, five dropping into a matching fighting position and the sixth into a different one.

batman!dick, watching the bruces drop into the same fighting stance: hahaha what the fuck

“You all had better be time-displaced Batmen, otherwise we’re gonna be really mad ,” the fourth Robin calls, flipping herself up to stand on top of the signal. The second and third Robins point the light at the Batmen instead of the sky.

in my head, whatever the robins were doing with the signals was super badass. don’t know if that came across too well, though.

“Spoiler?” the Batman who seems to be in charge says. He must be the oldest, although the fourth Robin thinks it’s weird that he would call her Spoiler when she’s not that anymore.

robin!steph thinks she’s given up spoiler forever, which i think is kind of sad, somehow. of course, she also hasn’t thought about the fact that she’s obviously not robin in the future, so she must be *someone*, but maybe she thinks in the future she’s dead? i don’t know.

“Wrong,” she says, crossing her arms. She’s behind the light, and they can’t see her. “Boys, be ready.”

“How many are there?” in-charge Batman says.

“Six,” another Batman says. Even from here, the fourth Robin can tell he’s a younger one. “There’s six of us, why wouldn’t there be six of them.”

“Chum,” a different Batman says, holding out his hand. “Come here.” The fourth Robin hears movement behind her and she holds out a hand.

this batman speaking is dick’s batman. he’s the only one who’s 100% sure of which sidekick of his is in the shadows, because he only has one sidekick.

“We don’t know that this isn’t a trick,” she says. “How do we know you’re who you say you are?”

“Do you want your secret identities?” the different-Batman says. The other Batmen glare at him.

“Come on, Rob,” the third Robin says. “We should be able to identify our own Batmen.”

we always hear dick or tim being called “rob”, and there was something about the idea of steph being called it that i thought was really cute.

“The Batmen could certainly identify their own Robins,” the second Robin says. The fourth Robin sees four of the six Batmen flinch at the sound of his voice. “I mean, come on, we all have different costumes.”

batman #1: who is speaking

batman #2: oh yay, jason!

batman #3 & 4: oh my god my son...alive again

batman #5 & 6: oh a BABY......an infant......................untouched by death...

“Ours are the same,” the first says, gesturing at the second. The fourth Robin looks away from them and back to the Batmen.

“I already know my Batman,” the fifth Robin drawls. “I am fairly sure this isn’t a trick.”

damian honey that’s cheating yours is the only batman that’s not bruce. speaking of that, though, how are you, emotionally? to you your dad is dead and look, there’s five of him, one of them confirming that your father will return from the dead!

“Are you saying there’s six Robins back there?” the different-Batman says, sounding like he might laugh. There’s something familiar about him, the fourth Robin decides. Definitely not Bruce, but familiar.

should batman!dick remember this encounter, and as a matter of fact should bruces’ 2-6 remember this encounter? yes. do they? absolutely not.

“Hm,” one of the Batmen says.

“There’s more than one Robin?” a Batman asks, and the fourth Robin knows which one that is.

bruce #1: what the fuucckkk

“I mean, they seem time-displaced,” she says, and the fifth Robin scoffs.

“To hell with this,” he says, and he breaks out of the gaggle below the signal and steps into the light, heading straight for the different-Batman.

“Language,” the different-Batman says, laughing for real this time, and the fourth Robin wonders why he would be different but the sixth Batman is still Bruce.

“Fine,” she says. “Find your Batman, or whatever.”

The others listen to her, and leave the shadows. One of the Batmen puts his hand on the sixth Robin’s shoulder and guides him away. The first Batman permits the first Robin to hug him.

The various Batman stare at the second Robin, except the one who claims him as the correct time. The second Robin doesn’t seem to notice.

The last two Batmen stare at the third Robin, and the fourth feels a little sick. They’re only one year different, after all, and she knows she wasn’t the first choice of a Robin.

She jumps from the signal but stays near it, watching their showdown and staying by herself.

“What’s going on?” the sixth Robin asks her, dragging his Batman behind him.

“He hates me,” she says, gesturing.

“I mean….you’re Robin, aren’t you? He probably doesn’t hate you,” the sixth Robin says.

“I made him make me Robin,” the fourth Robin says. “He didn’t chose me.”

“He doesn’t hate you,” the sixth Batman says unexpectedly. “I had a lot of issues, back then.”

“And you don’t still?” the fourth Robin asks him, raising her eyebrow.

“A fair point,” the sixth Batman says, and Robin’s mouth drops. He never agrees with her! “Close your mouth, Robin.”

this single conversation was probably more validating for steph than her entire robin run. because bruce kinda sucks.

She does, and she looks back at the Tim Trio. The third Robin seems to have claimed his Batman, and the other one is kind of watching her talk to the sixth Batman and Robin.

“You were always one of the best,” the sixth Batman says, his voice soft and weirdly tender.

LET!! BRUCE!! COMPLIMENT!! STEPH!!!

“Better than Tim?” she asks instead of addressing that, grinning.

“Go to your own Batman,” the sixth Batman says.

“That’s not a no,” the fourth Robin sing-songs, but she listens anyway, and goes over to the only Batman by himself.

“Fifth Batman is staring at second Robin still,” she says. “Embarrassing.”

“Actually, he’s looking at you,” her Batman says, and when the fourth Robin turns to see if that’s true, the fifth Batman has changed his gaze to look at the first Robin, instead. Some dots attempt to connect in Robin’s head, but she ignores them because that makes no sense.

steph knows cass should be batman instead of dick, but she refuses to think about the implications of dick, of all people, being batman.

“Sure he was,” she says instead. “Whatever. Let’s go home.”

dick was, indeed, looking at steph. he knows her currently as batgirl and never saw her as robin....he noticed that she was in charge and was kind of puzzling things out, regarding his opinion of her.

The sixth Batman is in charge of the Batmen, since he’s oldest, and the Robins follow their Batmen. The Time-Turner is from 2018, but accidentally transported them all back to 2005. He apologizes profusely upon seeing six Batmen and Robins, and everyone goes back home.

tbh i got to this paragraph and was like “wait fuck how did the time travel happen” and then i very quickly made a villain and very quickly brought them home. you’ll notice, when i write, i do my very best to avoid writing fight scenes. 

After Steph’s shower, she goes out into the cave in leggings and a t-shirt so someone can drive her back home.

“Why don’t you stay tonight,” Bruce says, also freshly showered, and Steph blinks after him. He only lets her stay if she’s injured!

“Sure!” she says, and she follows him up into the Manor and to the hall with all the bedrooms. Before she goes into the guest room that she always uses, he clears his throat.

“What you did today,” Bruce starts. “I mean. You were in charge?”

“Yes,” she says slowly. “They wanted the oldest to be in charge. It was Jason’s idea.”

Bruce flinches at the mention of his dead son, and then reaches out a hand to put on her shoulder.

“I’m...proud of you,” he says, his voice a little strangled, and she stares at him, wide-eyed, until he releases her and goes to his own room, shutting the door firmly behind him.

[screams]

gonna be real with you guys, i wrote...half? more than half? of this fic but in batman!dick’s perspective, cause i thought it’d be #neat to read. sad thing is, i don’t remember what doc i started writing it on, and i don’t remember why i stopped, though i must’ve had a reason.

[jaybirbmoved]

Jason Todd’s Age

So, as of DC Rebirth, Jason is supposedly twenty years old. 

Of course on my blog I like to dismiss most of the finer canon details while keeping the story lines, filling them in with my own shit, because I can. I know their ages keep getting changed and the timeline is made shorter and shorter because they want to keep Bruce like, 40 years old forever, but that’s stupid too (if you want him to be spry and young you could just point to all the mystical bullshit he’s been involved in as a reason why he’s not age while his kids are, but whatever). 

On my blog, there are the ages I generally use: Dick is 25-ish, Jason is between 20-22, Tim is 17-19, and Damian who has actually been shown celebrating birthdays is between 10-13 depending on the comic. As blog default I make Jason chronologically 23, and I periodically update his ‘birth year’ to keep up with that, which... should probably remove that altogether because the comics are so all over the place there’s no point in giving any of them a year of birth.

Anyways, back to the main point of this.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that there’s no way in hell that Jason would/could look his actual age. DC insists on trying to cram ten years worth of storyline into a three year period, but since Jason was brought back into the main comic continuity in 2010, a lot has happened. I call bullshit on him having been Robin, died, come back, taken over Gotham’s criminal underground, formed two separate teams and had half a dozen clashes with the family before getting on good terms with them again, been part of Batman Inc, all in less than six years, that’s just fucking dumb. 

Even ignoring the fact that my personal canon for him a mash up of Post-Crisis origins and the current New-52/Rebirth continuity, it wouldn’t make sense for Jason to be 20. For starters, Post-Crisis Jason Todd died when he was 15, this is undisputed due to it being mentioned a few times. It says he 

According to his death certificate, it was April during Death In The Family (assuming Bruce didn’t take a while to forge a cover story for his death and he actually was killed earlier than that). Jason’s birthday is in August, meaning he died roughly four months before his sixteenth birthday. According to the end of Under The Hood, Superboy’s punch altered reality and Jason woke up in his coffin six months after his death. For the sake of argument, we’ll say it was exactly six months.

This means he woke up on October 26th, roughly 2.10 months after he was supposed to turn sixteen. During that time, he obviously couldn’t mentally or physically age while dead. He spends about a year comatose, a little under a year as a homeless amnesiac after waking up from the coma, and then another year with Talia as she tries to get him to recover from his brain injury. Chronologically he would have been around 18 when Talia shoved him into the Lazarus Pit, which seems about right. So minus the six months he spent dead, that means he’s about seventeen and a half physically speaking, and still 15 mentally/emotionally due to his development being stunted by trauma.

Now, we know the Lazarus Pit can cure diseases, heal injuries, and also resurrect the dead. However, it was mainly used by Ra’s Al Ghul, before learning of it’s full abilities, to de-age him, hence being considered the origins of the ‘fountain of youth’ in the DC universe. Apparently, the longer you stay in the younger you get (also if a young and healthy person went into the Pit they would die and/or be driven insane).

Given Talia literally shoved him in because she was pressed for time and needed to heal him and get out before Ra’s flipped his shit (and BOY did he ever), I would say Jason was submerged for 30 seconds to 1 minute. This is just guessing on my part. But if less than five minutes can make Ra’s go from being in his seventies to his mid-twenties, I’d say it’s fairly plausible for Jason to have gone into the Pit as a 17/18 year old and come out looking fifteen or sixteen.

Which, if you look at flashbacks of New 52 Jason after Talia has healed him (or restored from the dead in that continuity) he looks far too young to be 19 as he supposedly was then. Here’s some images of him from RHATO, when he was training with the mystical cult the All-Caste, whom Talia left him with.

He looks like he’s a goddamn fourteen year old on steroids.

For simplicity sake, although he is chronologically 18 years old at this point, the Lazarus Pit + not age while dead has left him physically at 15-16, with his mental age around the same because, again, he had brain damage and no opportunity to mature while dead/comatose/catatonic.

He spends a couple years mimicking Batman’s world tour to learn martial arts and disciplines, eventually returning to Gotham as the Red Hood when he’s… 19? 20? They never actually say since comic books like foggy timelines. Yet despite being a grown man now, he’s still physically in his late teens. Here’s Jason when confronting Batman in UtH, holding Joker hostage and ready to kill him.

Flash forward a couple years later in real time (unknown amount of time in-universe) where he’s now more or less on amicable terms with the Bat family, even if they aren’t all lovey-dovey and Sunday night dinners together. If Damian is at least 12-13 (he’s had a birthday recently in the comics) and Tim is 18-19. that puts Jason at about 22-23.

But he looks like he could be a college sophomore.

^ Set recently, during Red Hood and the Outlaws Rebirth.

But yeah, while Jason’s mind has more or less recovered from all the trauma he’s been through - mostly thanks to working through pretty much every single moment of his past that he can remember with his therapist​, Jason no longer has that emotionally stunted/underdeveloped mind that he did after waking from the dead.

However, he still spent 6 months dead during the time most boys typically have their final growth spurt, and was then submerged in a youth-restoring chemical bath.

I’d say though he’s chronologically in his mid-twenties at this point, to other people Jason would have the physical appearance of a 20 year old. So he is physically the age that DC claims, but in terms of how many years it’s been since he was born, he’s 23, for anyone confused about why there’s different ages in his bio.

[yeaaabudddy]

Hiding

Ship: Jason Todd x Reader (Y/N)

Type: Fluff

Requested: Yes, by anon

Words: 2 622

Notes: A bit of making out if that makes you uncomfy. I hope you it is good enough, if you want me to write something else just let me know!

-

You don’t know how it really occurred, it all happened pretty fast. You and Tim are really good friends, you always come over to his house to make sure that he’s still alive and well. You guys became great friends during school because you ended up accidentally stumbling upon Tim changing into a Robin costume in the school when a bunch of gunned men started infiltrating it.

You were walking in the hallway when you saw a man with a huge gun, turning into the hallway you were in and you panicked, opening the closest door to you so you can hide and stumbled upon Tim changing in an empty classroom.

You were too shocked by the fact that you might die that you totally didn't register the fact that Tim, the guy who always ends up accidentally falling asleep in your classes, is Robin.

That’s how you became friends, you realized how overwhelmed he was and you would always make sure he’s okay because he was helping the city, you thought you could help him just a little if he was doing so much.

Also, you had a frightening talk with Batman, him making sure that you won’t give up the fact that you knew who Robin’s identity was.

You then realized that Batman was Bruce Wayne when Dick Grayson came rushing into the cave without a mask on.

Two Wayne kids were superheroes? That was not a coincidence. Plus you could totally imagine it, the amount of money he had to be able to make a whole expensive cave with expensive weapons and gear.

You then started coming around to the manor more often, you realized that the intimidating mansion wasn’t intimidating. It was just quiet and lonely.

Sometimes everyone was present in the manor and sometimes there were only a few members. You realized that the family needed a bit of fun. They were just too uptight.

After a few months, they all got used to you coming around and making food and just blasting music.

You had met Jason after a week of coming around. He came into the manor to see a bright looking home that felt… warm? He looked around confused at why the lights seemed warm, why the house looked smaller and why he could hear laughing.

He walked into the kitchen to see a girl he’s never seen before, wearing an apron and chatting with Alfred. Tim and Dick were sitting on the dining table with a plate of cookies between them.

His attention turned back to you when he heard you laugh when Alfred made a joke. Your laugh brightening the dark that was lined around the area. At first, Jason was annoyed.

Who are you? Why are you laughing like you’re talking to longtime friends? Why is everyone not questioning this and why is Dick just smiling and enjoying cookies?

Did he drop into an alternate universe? He questioned reality for a second, not understanding what he was seeing.

Did the Flash do something? He shouldn’t be able to know though if something changed in the timeline.

He was only gone a few days…

“Um…” His voice broke the weirdly happy atmosphere in the kitchen. Everyone turned to look at him standing in the doorway with a confused expression.

“Jason, You’re back!” Dick acknowledged him, nodding at his brother. Tim just looked at him briefly before going back to whatever case he was working on.

“Jason… is it?” You ask him, smiling and Jason just nods in response. You finally met the whole family. “By process of elimination, I guess you’re Red Hood then.”

Jason’s eyes widened in response, his eyes immediately whipping to his brothers who were sitting on the dining table, munching on cookies and not even phased.

“Is this real?” His hand went to his head, how can so many things change in a few days. He wants everything to go back to how it was.

It was too warm, too bright for him.

“What the fuck is going on?” Jason’s voice was a bit rough this time, wanting an actual answer and not just blank faces of his brother.

“Master Jason, calm down. This is Tim’s friend, Y/N. She’s come over for the past week to help out around the manor.” Jason scoffed at the information.

“Tim’s friend?” He looked at Tim who was just ignoring the whole situation that was unfolding. “Guess you just figured it out yourself then?”

You were not phased by Jason’s reaction, you grabbed a cup and poured in some coffee.

“Yup, want some?” You held up the coffee cup to beside your face, smiling like you were in an advertisement.

“There’s something in there, isn’t there? You’ve taken control over the whole family. Oh my gosh, why me?” Jason’s voice groaned out in frustration.

“Jason, just sit down” Dick groaned at his brother’s dramatic self.

“Shut up, Dick.”

“I swear I’m not a villain.” You put your hands up in surrender.

“How do I know that?” Jason squinted his eyes at you in suspicion.

“Uh… you can test the coffee?” You offered, not really knowing how to prove to him you haven’t done anything wrong but skip class.

Jason just laughed at the offer. “Test the coffee?”

“I don’t know! I literally just figured out Tim was Robin, I don’t know how this stuff works.” You defended yourself.

“Jason, chill. We’re all conscious and aware. Y/N just came around and started helping us out a bit.” Dick explained for you as Tim was clocked out, what a great friend he was.

That day was the start of it all. Jason was still very suspicious of you, he never ate or drank anything you made no matter how much Alfred yelled at him and how much you tried to hide your frown.

You guys eventually became acquainted after Jason realized that you were literally a normal girl. It took some time but eventually, he warmed up.

A few years had passed from that moment, a lot had happened. You realized that you wanted to help them out more as they were putting their all into making sure that everyone in this city was safe.

There were so many scares as many more dangerous villains came around. You started going to university to get a medical degree because the whole team hurt themselves too much and don’t have proper help or a proper doctor.

They have all the expensive hospital supplies but only Alfred really uses it on the others because the boys are too tired to patch themselves and others or are passed out.

You ended helping in the batcave with patching up the members and it scared you because you were depended on to help them. It was you or no one else though so you decided you needed to help as you wouldn't let them die.

Since you were Tim’s friend as you were only a year older than him, you spent most of your time with him. You were close to everyone else but you realized Tim needed the most help with his 24/7 sleep deprived state.

There was one person you never managed to get too close to and that was Jason Todd.

You did try but the atmosphere always felt awkward around you for some reason. Well actually, you know why.

It was no secret that Jason Todd was HOT. The whole family was but Jason was just in his own way so attractive to you. Since you were so close to Dick and Tim, they felt like brothers to you but Jason didn’t come around often, usually in his own team and apartment so you didn’t see him as much anyway.

When he did come over though, it was always a sight for you. Dick noticed the way both of you stared at each other and he couldn’t stand the sexual tension between you guys. Tim obviously didn’t notice even if it was happening right in front of him.

When you both ended up getting together Dick, Bruce, Alfred, and even Damian thanked the heavens. The tension between you guys was getting to them and they instantly knew when you guys got together because the awkwardness was suddenly gone.

You guys didn’t say anything to them but they all ended up seeing you together randomly in random corners of the manor like you were trying to hide but didn’t actually care enough to properly do it.

Tim obviously still hadn’t gotten a hint and no one told him, you were a bit nervous to tell him that you were dating his brother. They didn’t have the best relationship but it wasn’t the worst so you didn’t know how he would take it.

You kept it ‘hidden’ for now, it wasn’t like you really needed to hide it though because Tim had no suspicion especially when it came to stuff he didn't really care about.

“Jason, do you think we should tell Tim? It’s been a month.” You felt guilty even though you weren’t exactly hiding anymore. You guys just weren’t into much PDA around the family so it’s not like you were particularly keeping it from him it but you still thought you should tell Tim yourself.

“Screw him, you can tell him tomorrow. Right now I just want to spend time with you.” Jason pulled you closer to him with his hands that were wrapped around your waist. His grip strong as he put his face closer to yours, your noses brushing together.

You giggled at the sensation, you bring your mouth closer to his. Jason smiled at your laugh, the sound always making his heart beat a bit faster.

“Alright but I’m telling him tomorrow.” You kiss him slowly, his lips feeling so good against yours. You bound your arms around his neck, one hand brushing through his gorgeous hair.

Jason’s arms made their way down your body as he tried to speed up the movement of your lips together. You pull apart from him to catch your breath and he makes his way to your neck.

You crane your neck to give him more space for the lewd kisses Jason was planting on your neck. His hands went down to your ass, massaging it in his big hands making you groan against him.

You brought his face back to your own and kissed him again, rushing this time to feel him again.

Jason’s hands make their way down, bending to accommodate for the height difference. The force of his hands on your thighs always surprised you because of how Jason easily picked you up.

You clench your arms around his neck as he forces you up. You cross your ankles behind his waist, continuing to kiss him.

Jason prodded your mouth with his tongue, asking you silently to open up which you allowed. His tongue makes his way into your warm mouth, exploring it.

You always thought Jason would be pretty rough with his kisses and actions but he was pretty soft unless he had a bad day, of course.

Jason pushed you against the living room wall, his mouth leaving your lips. He kissed along a trail making his way down back to your neck to leave some marks, making you moan at the feeling. His hand made his way to your face and run through your hair and moving it away from your neck.

You were so into Jason at the moment as he softly bit onto your neck and kissed all over it that you barely heard a nudge against the glass table. The noise echoed around the dimly lit room making you both stop.

You and Jason turn to look at the cause of the noise, seeing the culprit standing right next to the glass coffee table.

Tim stood there in his Red Robin suit, mouth agape staring at you both. You noticed the open window, realizing he probably came through from there for a particular reason.

“Um…” Tim didn’t know if he was hallucinating because he had his 20th coffee or this was a weird dream.

“Tim!” You squealed, realizing what position he was seeing you and Jason in. You wanted Tim to find out but not like this, you wanted to tell him yourself.

You tried to get down from your position but Jason had a tough grip on your thighs that were holding you up against him and the wall. You slapped his hand, the stinging sensation catching his attention and he looked back at you.

He loosened his grip when he realized what you wanted and you made your way down to the ground, parting yourself from Jason and fixing up your messed up shirt and hair.

“Uh-” you don’t understand what to say in the moment, how to explain it to him.

“You and… Jason?” His face looked in disgust at the prospect of you and him together. Jason glared at Tim who stood still in his place.

“Hey, watch it.” Jason said to Tim in response to the disgust he held when he said his name.

“Please, she’s like my sister and you’re… you. It’s weird!” Tim said, making a face.

“I wanted to tell you! I was going to tell you tomorrow!” You tried to defend the both of you.

“Oh my gosh, how long?” Tim’s eyes widened at the aspect that you’ve been going out for a while and him not picking it up. He wasn’t always the best with figuring out relationships and he definitely didn’t expect you and Jason to get together.

“Only a month!” You respond, quickly.

“Ugh, I wish I could cleanse my mind. I really wish I didn’t have to see that.” Tim covered his eyes with his gloved hands.

“Speaking of that… why are you here?” Jason asked, his face annoyed at the aspect of being interrupted by none other than Tim.

“Bruce was looking for you, he had called your phone but you weren’t picking up. There was a case he needed your hands on so he sent me.” Tim explained his reasoning as to why he broke into his apartment.

Jason checked his phone that was in his back pocket, seeing the missed calls lined up in his notification bar.

“I would leave but I kind of gotta leave with you to make sure you’re coming. Big Bat’s orders.” He looked between the two of you, implying that you couldn’t continue on whatever you were doing.

Jason groaned, even more annoyed at the fact that he has to leave you. “You guys have the best timing.” Jason fixed up his suit and picked up his helmet and wore it. The guns on the dining table being put into various parts of his suit and he turned to you.

“You’ll probably end up in the cave anyways but…” Jason looked at Tim who was still rooted in his spot and rolled his eyes under his mask. He leaned towards you, close to your ear. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“Gross!” Tim fake gagged as he realized what Jason was whispering to you.

“Oh shut up, you interrupted our time!” Jason shot back, making his way to the window.

“I didn’t know!” Tim shouted at him, following behind him. They both left through the window, leaving you alone to clean up a bit and leave the apartment as well and make yourself to the cave.

You knew if most of the crew was out right now, people would most likely come back with injuries. At least Tim knew now, so you don’t feel the guilt of hiding something from him. You hope that this might help with the relationship between Tim and Jason a bit.

-

Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave me a message about this fic or just to talk!

[aconitemare]

[jaydick-flashfic: atonement] Vitality Begun

AO3

For @jaydick-flashfic

Summary: But Dick didn’t know at the time that his job was more than playing bait and doing high-kicks. It was to mollify Bruce, keep him grounded. Human. Remind him of how fragile life is, how careful he has to be to walk his line. And Jason — brave, bold, invincible Jason — wasn’t up for that task. He shouldn’t have had to be at fifteen, young enough to think he’ll live forever and strong enough to fool Bruce.

A timeline in snapshots of Dick processing Jason's death.

Dick stumbles into his room at 3am to one new message on his answering machine. The number is Bruce’s personal. Dick presses play like ripping off a bandaid, stripping off his Nightwing suit as he moves towards his closetspace. He’s already rehearsing his excuse for not attending the funeral, the excuse he came up with after the invitation, the excuse he’ll deliver to Bruce when he has to call him back.

He sits on the edge of his bed and slips off his boots. The answering machine announces static, pure and void. He unzips the suit down his back, patiently waiting, and then removes his gloves too. He can detect faint breaths on the other line. Dick peels off his mask last. Bruce suddenly hitches on an intake of breath; Dick pauses, mask balanced between his fingers, for the words to follow.

Instead the line goes dead. Something in the click of the phone, the robotic No New Messages, turns Dick’s stomach icy cold.

Dick glides his thumb over the smooth material of his shiny black mask. He likes his Nightwing costume, the little thrill it still sends him to be his own man, his own hero, but it can’t compete with the sheer pride he felt first donning that simple domino with the yellow cape. Being Robin had meant the world to him.

It meant the world to Jason, too, Dick knows. He wonders if he was still wearing that simple domino when Bruce dug him out of the rubble last week. Dick begins to shake. He recognizes the symptoms of panic taking over his body, helpless to stop them. He puts in the effort anyway, reminding himself of the futility of grief and the importance of moving on. He tries to even his breathing and a sob bursts from his throat.

He hears his own strangled cry like sighting an animal through the scope of a rifle and instantly thinks of his incredible vulnerability, of the open wound making home in his chest. And once the thought is there, he may as well be a child who, upon scraping their knee, slowly realizes their blood it outside their body and trembles after stunned delay. That is to say, once the thought is there, Dick can’t stop the next cry or the quick, shallow breaths that claw for air without taking any in.

He collapses onto his side in the fetal position. He’s curling deeper and deeper in on himself as if eventually he might turn inside out and hide all this external weakness, tuck in these quivering limbs and wet eyes so the world can’t find the delicate, fleshy, human parts of him and hurt them further.

He can’t get Jason’s face out from behind his eyes. He’s seared there like a second sight. Jason smiles then, smiles like he did last Dick saw him, and Dick screams.

He has no memory of falling asleep. He must have lay there like a blister on his bed for hours, just oozing and repulsive, an open sore. It’s night again when his eyes open. He can’t breathe through his nose anymore. Jason is behind his eyes still but Dick doesn’t let him smile now. He puts his suit back on instead. He glues on his mask, fingers barely touching anything, feeling nothing, and heads out the Titan Tower like a ghost in search of another haunt. He slips through his teammates, untouchable, as they hold out their hands only for him to pass through them, leaving them in shivers.

The guilt arrives later in gentle waves. This is fortunate because it allows Dick to process his emotions like toes edging into cool waters. Dick cannot afford to go into shock, nor does he have the freedom to drown as much as he craves it sometimes. The days since Jason’s funeral pass by in a state of half-reality. He hasn’t heard from Bruce after that silent voicemail. Initially Dick is grateful for this, sure that the only conversation they could have would be one of mutual accusation and blame. They were shaky before Jason and downright volatile during the new Robin’s reign — but they nonetheless had Jason in common. Now they have nothing.

Dick doesn’t even realize he misses Bruce until he’s on the phone with Alfred and hears Bruce in the background. Dick ends the call earlier than he really wants, but it’s too late; Bruce’s voice is trapped in his ears, calling him home.

Dick follows the urge. He envisions Bruce welcoming his back with open arms. The image is so warm Dick can even sort of quell the anger has thrummed beneath the skin of their interactions for over a year. His homecoming does not pan out so neatly as he hopes.

For one, Bruce is not at the Manor when Dick arrives. Alfred made a copy of the keys Bruce took from him the day he was fired, and he knows Bruce knows Alfred did that, but it still feels uncomfortable using this mockery of trust, this replacement of something Dick was never supposed to lose. When he steps inside the house, he honestly wishes it felt more nostalgic. But Wayne Manor is like a cardboard cut-out of his childhood. There are no pictures of Dick or Jason, Alfred or Bruce — no stains he can attribute to a youthful memory. It is impersonal in the living room as it is in the ballroom or any number of Brucie Wayne’s public halls.

Dick should have called ahead and made sure Bruce would be around. Yet that’s not what family does — right? Admittedly, Dick’s knowledge of familial etiquette comes mainly from second-hand experiences with Wally. So Dick adopts the “fake it til ya’ make it” method, thinking perhaps if they act like family, they’ll become one. He wonders, wandering around the many rooms until he finds Alfred, if Wally ever enters his home when it’s empty and feels like he’s breaking and entering.

Dick sighs in relief when he finally encounters the one other living being at Wayne Manor. Alfred pulls him into a tight embrace that stretches on and on, trying to catching to Dick’s grief and contain it all in the space between their arms.

Dick cries into Alfred’s slender shoulders, gulping in his sandalwood scent with scrambling, desperate breaths. He knows he blubbers Jason’s name a few times, but it’s more than that. It’s everything Dick has lost, from his parents to Bruce to Robin to Jason. He cries because he’s lonely and angry and scared that Bruce might not always be right after all, and if Bruce can be wrong then Dick can’t be confident he’s doing right either. He cries because he knows he’s not alone in his tragedy yet he clings to loneliness anyway, pushing away friends even as he lectures them on trust and support on the field. He cries because even though Alfred is here for him more than anyone else, he still wishes it was Bruce or his parents holding him together.

Mostly, Dick cries because he can.

When Bruce does return, Dick has been sleeping in his old bedroom for three days. It’s the only warm room in the house and even though logically the Manor is vast enough to not warrant freeing up unused space, Dick is grateful that Bruce preserved his little corner. Alfred has kept it dust-free and aired out, so it’s exactly the way Dick last left it in a huff a year ago. The Flying Graysons flyer, the FIFA poster, prints from his favorite martial arts movies, photobooth pictures of him and Koriand’r…

Dick’s life was never simple, but it was simpler. He lifts the corner of a newspaper cut-out taped above his desk, slipping a thumb beneath the thin paper to better examine the one color image nestled among grainy black ink. The Teen Titans grin for their first post-mission photo-op.

Dick smiles back at them. His eyes well up, as they’ve been doing a lot the past three days, and Dick barely keeps the tears from touching his cheeks. He’s in the privacy of his bedroom yet he has this strange compulsion to save his tears as if he might need them later and they’ll all be gone.

Dick hopes to meet Bruce in the kitchen or in some other neutral, non-Bat territory. Unfortunately Bruce immediately stows himself away in the cave and Dick doesn’t have the patience to wait him out.

They hurt each other again and pretend it’s all about Jason even though they both know — or, at least, Dick knows — it’s everything between them. They draw emotional blood and can’t seem to stop reopening the wounds. The blood never clots, just pools and pools until there’s a stream and then a river and then an ocean between them.

This time, though, Dick doesn’t give up and run away. This time, Bruce doesn’t close the door. Some days they help each other heal. Other days, they hit where it hurts. But then they heal again, slowly, stubbornly, bridging the rift. It takes them a while, doesn’t happen in the course of a night or a month or even a year — but they learn to stop picking at the scabs, which helps.

 Tim also helps. Dick is hesitant initially, but Tim comes like a punctuation mark to a sentence that’s run on too long. His reclamation of Robin takes the weight off Dick’s shoulders to be something he’s not anymore. And Tim soothes Bruce in a way Dick just couldn’t after Jason. And if he’s being honest, being there to bless the passage of the mantle makes the experience a whole lot less painful than when Dick had just run into another him on Gotham streets. Tim respects Dick, appreciates his expertise despite not really needing it unlike Jason. Bruce even starts putting pictures up around the house. It’s a fragile, tentative thing, delicate and exciting as a newborn, but their family has its first heartbeat.

 Bruce and Dick celebrate Jason’s birthday on their own with as much physical distance as they can get between each other. Dick knows it’s wrong, that this is no way to honor a Robin, but the only people Dick knows who knew Jason personally are Alfred and Bruce. Alfred belongs with Bruce on this day, and Bruce — Dick still blames him. He doesn’t think he’ll ever fully forgive Bruce, so it’s best Dick keep away right now. He doesn’t trust himself not to undo all their progress.

So Jason remains a private ache in Dick’s heart, a lonely memory that rears its head every now and then to wrap its arms around him and hold him back from the rest of the world. Dick celebrates Jason by keeping busy. He doesn’t sleep, just finds petty trouble on the streets and makes mountains out of molehill missions. He imagines Jason by his side by accident a few times. He wonders what kind of man Jason would have become. If he still would’ve smiled with reckless sincerity and radiant light.

He thinks about Jason’s smile the most. The truth is that Dick knows it’s not just Bruce’s fault. Dick practically wiped his hands clean of the two. He knew Bruce was exploiting Jason, pushing him onto the field too early, and Dick let it happen out of spite. Because Bruce didn’t want Dick’s opinion and Dick maybe wanted them both to suffer for it. To realize Bruce’s mistake the hard way. Because he trusted bruce to never have to learn. He really, really trusted Bruce — and that’s where Dick begins to blame him all over again.

Even though Dick let it happen. But Dick didn’t know at the time that his job was more than playing bait and doing high-kicks. It was to mollify Bruce, keep him grounded. Human. Remind him of how fragile life is, how careful he has to be to walk his line. And Jason — brave, bold, invincible Jason — wasn’t up for that task. He shouldn’t have had to be at fifteen, young enough to think he’ll live forever and strong enough to fool Bruce.

Dick collapses thirty-six hours after Jason’s birthday, falls asleep in his shitty Bludhaven apartment to the knowledge he let him die. He wakes up, drool on his face, evening BPD shift alarm blaring. Dick turns it off and blinks blearily at his sun-soaked curtains. He shoves Jason’s smile out of his head and promises to be less angry — to never again let his emotions endanger others. It’s a promise that will guide his future actions, solidify his forever partnership with Bruce, and make him an impeccable leader, a forgiving friend, and a smooth liar.

His need for control becomes a sort of lifestyle, but Dick fancies it’s half the reason people like him so much. He is a beacon of forgiveness and second chances, always up for a joke at the worst of times. His good moods aren’t interrupted by extreme lows anymore; he keeps himself in check.

Dick thinks he might actually be a better person because of Jason. Of course, he feels like a real asshole for thinking it. He shouldn’t be able to come out the other side of Jason’s death a happier person.

“It’s not that you’re happier because Jason is gone,” Dinah once tells him during the Titans’ obligatory biannual therapy session. Dick shifts uncomfortably in the giant cushy chair. He avoids eye contact, which he apologizes for but Dinah assures him it’s about his comfort. So Dick looks everywhere but at her. “It’s that you’ve learned to handle your emotional responses better. You said you try not to hold onto anger so you can be there for people, right?”

Dick shrugs because Dinah makes it sound more righteous than it feels. Then he nods, the barest tilt of his chin signaling she’s right.

“Then think of this as your form of atonement.”

“To Jason?”

“Yes.”

Dick observes the tiny dots of suede on the chair’s arm. He shakes his head. “It can’t be. It’s too late for me to make things right with him. He’s not any better for me deciding to be a decent person now.”

He hears Dinah set her pencil down on her notepad. His eyes shift towards her feet in almost recognition of her.

“Sometimes,” she says softly, “it’s enough to be better for a person, regardless of if they know you are.”

Dick’s eyes shut and he breathes in deeply. He thinks, it’s going to have to be enough, isn’t it? and then exhales, pushing the thought out from his body. He lets it fill the room so later he can close the door and leave Jason behind for the day.

[daledoesdrafts-blog]

Tim Drake’s Timeline (WIP)

I’ve been going through Batman and Robin comics trying to figure out how Bruce and Tim’s timelines fit into each other. The easiest way to do that is to list the Batman/Robin comics in chronological order, with a brief explanation of why they’re significant.

1. Batman: Year One - The start of Bruce’s career as Batman. 2.  Batman: Zero Year/Dark City/Savage City - Batman takes on the Red Hood gang (which presumably results in the creation of Joker) and meets the Riddler for the first time. 3. Batman: The Man Who Laughs - Batman encounters Joker for the first time. 4. Batman: Haunted Knight - A good introduction to Scarecrow and Mad Hatter as characters. 5. Batman: The Long Halloween - Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face. 6. Batman: Dark Victory - Dick Grayson becomes Robin. Tim Drake is in the circus audience when Dick’s parents are murdered by mobsters. 7. Robin: Year One - Dick Grayson takes on Killer Moth, Two-Face, Firefly, and others. 8. Batgirl: Year One - Barbara Gordon becomes Batgirl after proving herself to Batman. 9. Batman: Tales of the Demon - Introduces Ra’s al Ghul as a character. 10. Batman: Son of the Demon - Damian Wayne is conceived. 11. Nightwing: Year One - Bruce fire Dick as Robin, and Dick becomes Nightwing. (Somewhere in here Jason Todd becomes the second Robin.) 12. Batman: The Killing Joke - Barbara Gordon is shot through the spine by Joker. She’s paralyzed from the waist down, but still helps Batman as the computer hacker, Oracle. 13. Batman: A Death in the Family - Joker kills Jason Todd. 14. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth - Joker takes over Arkham Asylum. The story shows Batman during the dark phase of his career where he’s mourning Jason’s death. 15. Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying - Tim Drake becomes the third Robin. 16. Robin: Reborn - Tim travels overseas to be trained by Lady Shiva, and takes on one of Batman’s old enemies, King Snake. The encounter teaches him how to fight without the use of his eyes. 17. Robin: Triumphant - Tim strikes up an alliance with Huntress to fight King Snake again. While Batman is away overseas, Tim manages to defeat Joker single-handed. 18. Batman: Knightfall - After breaking many of Batman’s villains out of Arkham Asylum, Bane watches as each fight wears Bruce down before finally breaking his back. Bruce appoints Jean Paul Valley (aka Azrael) as Batman. Jean Paul doesn’t believe he needs a Robin, and ostracizes Tim. 19. Robin: Solo - Tim takes on the villains Jean Paul can’t be bothered with, forming an alliance with Stephanie Brown (aka Spoiler). Together, they take down Stephanie’s father, the Cluemaster. 20. Robin: Turning Point - Tim and Dick team up to fight the villains Jean Paul ignores. 21. Batman: Knightquest - Jean Paul brings down more of Batman’s villains, becoming more violent and eventually killing Abattoir. Bruce returns to Gotham to take back the mantle of the Bat. 22. Batman: Knightsend - Bruce defeats Jean Paul. While he trains to regain the strength he had as Batman, he appoints Dick as Batman. Tim and Dick fight Two-Face, giving Dick the chance to confront a mistake he made while facing the villain as Robin. Bruce returns when he’s prepared to be Batman again. 23. Batman by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones - takes place directly after Knightsend and shows Bruce struggling with his identity as Batman. 24. Robin: War of the Dragons - an Asian gang war breaks out in Gotham, resulting in Bruce and Tim fighting King Snake again. Bruce scolds Tim for putting too much trust in Huntress. 25. Batman: Contagion - a deadly strain of the Ebola virus hits Gotham and Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Huntress, a reformed Azrael, and Catwoman team up to stop it. 26. Batman: Legacy - another strain of the virus emerges, this one controlled by Ra’s al Ghul. 27. Batman: Cataclysm - already damaged by the virus, Gotham is further crippled by a deadly earthquake. 28. Batman: No Man’s Land -  Gotham becomes a lawless wasteland that is divided into territories held by its most powerful figures. Cassandra Cain appears as Batgirl. 29. Robin: Unmasked! - After finding his costume, Tim Drake’s father requests that he retire as Robin. Stephanie Brown becomes the fourth Robin, but is later fired by Batman after she disobeys one of his orders. A romance develops between Tim and Stephanie. 30. Batman: War Games - Stephanie Brown returns to her career as Spoiler. Tim Drake breaks his promise to his father and becomes Robin again. Stephanie is “killed.” 31. Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood - Tim Drake trains Cassandra Cain to be the second Batgirl. 32. Batman: Hush - Batman goes up against Hush, aka Thomas Elliot, once a friend of the Wayne family. 33. Batman: Under the Hood - Jason Todd returns as Red Hood after being resurrected by Ra’s al Ghul. 34. Identity Crisis - Tim Drake’s father is killed by Captain Boomerang. 35. Robin: To Kill a Bird - Tim moves to Bludhaven while mourning the deaths of Stephanie and his father. 36. Infinite Crisis - Tim’s friend, Superboy, dies. Tim changes his costume from red and green to red and black to honor his friend’s memory. 37. Robin: Wanted - Bruce adopts Tim as his son. Tim is framed for Cassandra Cain’s murder and has to find a way to clear his name. Later, it’s revealed that Cassandra snapped after discovering that she had a sister that her father loved while he abused Cassandra. This lead her to join the League of Assassins in the attempt to murder her father. Tim is hurt by her betrayal after they formed such a strong friendship. Tim is also forced into a temporary alliance with Captain Boomerang Jr., the son of his father’s killer, in order to find and disable a nuclear bomb hidden by Joker. A wannabe superhero, Dodge, begins interfering with Tim’s crime fighting, insisting that Robin needs a sidekick. 38. Robin: Teenage Wasteland - It’s revealed that Dodge has the ability to teleport via a special belt, but when the belt is damaged by a stray bullet, Dodge falls into a coma. Later, his body goes missing after he absorbs the belt’s teleportation powers. He vows he’ll get revenge on Robin, who he blames for his condition, and sells deadly metahuman drugs to Cassandra Cain. 39. Robin: The Big Leagues - After assembling a gang of metahumans, Dodge takes over a hospital, demanding the police hand Robin over to him. There’s a disagreement among the gang, however, as to whether or not Robin should be killed or just “taught a lesson.” Dodge ends up taking down the rest of the gang before fading into nothingness, and Robin hails him as “the real hero.” After a series of murders, Tim finds himself becoming increasingly moody and violent as Robin, and realizes that it’s the anniversary of his father’s death. He swears that he’ll no longer use his father’s death as an excuse for violence. 40. Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul - Ra’s al Ghul’s disciples attempt to restore him by transferring his mind into a new body--Damian Wayne’s.  41. Robin: Violent Tendencies - Stephanie Brown returns as Spoiler and helps Tim take down a vigilante known as Violet. 42. Batman: R.I.P. -  43. Final Crisis - Bruce Wayne “dies.” 44. Robin: Search for a Hero -  45. Batman: Battle for the Cowl - Dick Grayson becomes Batman and “fires” Tim as Robin. Damian Wayne takes Tim’s place as the fifth Robin. Stephanie Brown becomes Batgirl, and Tim becomes Red Robin. 46. Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin series -  47. Red Robin: The Grail - Convinced that Bruce is still alive, Tim launches a quest to acquire solid evidence that he’s right. In order to gain that evidence, however, he’ll have to work alongside the agents of Ra’s al Ghul. During his search, Tim discovers a cave in which an ancient Bat-symbol is painted on the wall. 48. Red Robin: Collision - Continues Tim’s search for evidence that Bruce is still alive. After a betrayal by Ra’s, Tim vows to take down the entire League of Assassins from within. 49. Batman: The Black Mirror - Dick Grayson’s solo adventures as Batman, where he goes up against Joker, Great White Shark, and Barbara Gordon’s sociopathic step-brother, James Gordon, Jr. 50. Red Robin: The Hit List -  51. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne -  52. Red Robin: 7 Days of Death -  (Somewhere in between here Red Robin is presumed dead. Tim Drake effectively retires from crime fighting, allowing everyone--including the Bat Family--to believe he’s dead.) 53. Future's End - When a supercomputer from the future known as Brother Eye threatens the present day, Terry McGinnis (aka Batman Beyond) is sent back in time to kill its designer. However, Brother Eye uses the bodies of Joker and Bruce Wayne to create a cyborg that kills Terry before he can complete his task. Because Tim Drake is touching the Batsuit at the time, he’s temporally displaced into Terry’s future, where he becomes the new Batman Beyond. 54. Batman Beyond: Brave New Worlds - Tim goes up against the cyborg versions of Earth’s greatest heroes and teams up with an older Barbara Gordon to take down Brother Eye. 55. Batman Beyond: City of Yesterday - Still stranded in the future, Tim follows Terry’s brother Matt to the ruins of Metropolis after they discover the last Green Lantern power ring. With it, Matt hopes to resurrect Earth’s fallen heroes. 56. Batman Beyond: Wired for Death - One of Terry’s old nemeses, Rewire, shows up in Neo-Gotham. The problem is, the original Rewire is dead. As they uncover this new Rewire’s identity, secrets about Bruce Wayne’s past are revealed. Eventually, it’s revealed that after Brother Eye was defeated, Terry McGinnis showed up in Neo-Gotham alive, but confused as to his identity. This made him easy prey for Spellbinder, who brainwashed Terry into believing he was Rewire. After defeating Spellbinder and reversing the brainwashing, Tim’s temporal displacement ends, leaving the reader to speculate as to whether he was returned to a timeline in which Brother Eye no longer exists, or if he simply faded into nothingness. (Note: the current run of Batman comics depicts a future Tim Drake as having become Batman, but eventually turning to guns and killing criminals as a vigilante known as Savior. It’s made pretty clear, however, that this is an alternate universe Tim Drake and not the same one described above.)

[zombiesbecrazy]

Five Times With Feeling - Part 5/5

Summary: It wasn’t like Barbara had never watched Buffy without Dick, but it definitely wasn’t the same without his running commentary beside her.

Or four times Dick and Barbara watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer together and one time they didn’t.

Written for @batfamcontentwar ​‘s #halloweencontentwar

ao3  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Part 5 - After the Crime Syndicate

“What you watching, Red?”

Jason’s voice interrupted Barbara’s train of thought as she stared at the screen, trying to find what she was looking for. She looked up to see Jason and Tim come into the room, carrying soft drinks and bowls of snacks. “Nice shirt, by the way.”

Barbara smiled and looked down at her grey and blue Nightwing t-shirt. Dick had bought it for her one day a few months ago when they had been wandering around downtown, trying to decide on a place to have lunch.  He had seen it in the window of one of those touristy shops that a local Gothamite wouldn’t normally be caught dead in, full of knick knacks and cheap souvenirs. He had dragged her inside, saying that she definitely needed a shirt of her favourite vigilante and feigned the appropriate amount of indignation when she said that she didn’t see any Black Canary memorabilia anywhere in the shop. He bought it for her anyway, grumbling about not being able to compete with the fishnets.  

It had been a good day.

Now the shirt seemed like an appropriate homage to Dick on what felt like one of the worst days of her life. It had been a few hours since his funeral and she couldn’t bring herself to leave the manor. She could have gone home but didn’t want to have to give Frankie or Alysia half truths about how she was feeling or a full rundown of their relationship history, so she stayed put. She had wandered around the manor for a bit, consciously avoiding Dick’s old room on the third floor at all costs, and now found herself in the family room, curled up on the couch under what looked like a handmade quilt, queuing up Netflix.

“I was going to watch some Buffy, but I wasn’t expecting you two to stay after the service. We can find something else if you want.”

“No, it’s perfect.” Jason plopped himself down on the couch beside her. Tim nodded and sat down on the other side of him. “Love that show.”

“Really?”

“Of course. I love a good resurrected character.” He settled a bowl of popcorn between them and stretched his legs out onto the coffee table in front of him. “The lady died twice and was still a badass. I respect that.”

Tim laughed softly, “Definitely has you beat, Jay.” Jason punched him a little harder than necessary in the shoulder, but Tim continued on, giving Barbara a smile across the couch. “Good choice for tonight. Dick made me watch this show when I started as Robin. It helped me unwind after patrolling.”

“Me too.” said Jason, “I learned how to do kip-ups from watching Buffy when I couldn’t get it figured out on my own. Bruce was pissed that he had spent weeks trying to teach me such a basic move and I could suddenly do it on my own after watching one episode with Dick.”

They looked at Barbara, who was a little surprised by these revelations. She hadn’t realized that Dick had passed on their obsession. “I made him start watching it with me. Every week since season two. First time we watched it together was in this room before a patrol.”

“So it’s your fault that we know all the words to Once More With Feeling?” said Jason, with a laugh threatening to break through his voice.

“One hundred percent. I’m glad to know that I’ve been such an influential figure on the television viewing preferences of Robins.” Barbara waved at the TV with the remote. “Anyone have an episode request?”

No one said anything for a few moments until Tim quietly asked, “What was Dick’s favourite?”

Barbara smiled and scrolled through the episode list on the screen and selected The Zeppo, catching Jason rolling his eyes.  “What? He liked Xander’s random side adventures. Plus, Jimmy Olson references.” Tim giggled and Jason grumbled something about Replacement but Barbara couldn’t tell if he was talking about Tim or the Xander body double episode. “It was either this one or Becoming and I don’t think I can handle that one right now. He was a sucker for the heartbreaking episodes too.”

Too damn close to home.

She hit play and sank back into the couch. It wasn’t like she had never watched Buffy without Dick, but it definitely wasn’t the same without his running commentary beside her.  When the theme song started playing, she felt something that could only be described as her heart imploding, until she felt a hand rest on top of her own.  She looked over and saw Jason’s sad smile as he rubbed her hand, and then at Tim, who had shifted to rest his head on Jason’s shoulder, eyes staring at the screen. Barbara readjusted her position to lean against Jason as well, getting more comfortable, and shifted the blanket so it was covering all three of them. It was nice, watching together like that.

Dick would have loved it.

Barbara didn’t have to look towards the door to know that Bruce was leaning against the frame watching her. She had heard him in the hallway earlier in the evening, checking in on the three of them, but not interrupting. Jason and Tim had just left, having watched five episodes with her (including a mandatory sing along), but they were planning on patrolling together that night and were headed out to the city.  Television was a great distraction, but while he hadn’t said it in a straight forward way, Jason wanted to grieve through violence and Tim hadn’t disagreed.

Netflix was still rolling, but she was no longer paying any attention.

“You could have watched with us.”

“I prefer Angel.”

“You would.  Creature of the night with a preference for wearing black, sticking to the shadows and always walking dramatically through double doors.”

Bruce hummed in response and entered the dim room.  He looked towards the screen that had continued onto the next episode in silence, and then sat down next to her.  He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his legs, face in his hands.  She had known the man beside her close to half of her life, but this was the first time that she thought that he looked old.  Weary and moving a little slower than usual.  And definitely like he had been repeatedly punched in the face recently. She wasn’t surprised, especially today and especially after the year he had, but she didn’t like to see it.  This was Bruce Wayne. The Batman. He was what held the city together day and night and was supposed to be indestructible.  

Until he lost one of the few things that was still holding him together.

He turned to look at her and those intense eyes burned into hers. “You were his favourite person, you know.”

She hit mute on the TV and shook her head slightly, “I think Damian would have disagreed with you about that.” The words slipped out before she could stop them and she slapped her hand to her mouth.  She couldn’t believe how stupid she was to mention Damian on today of all days; on the day that he buried his second son in as many months. It was something that they had all been tip toeing around knowing that Bruce had not been dealing well with Damian’s death well at all.  She didn’t want to think about what was going to happen now that Dick’s funeral was over.

“Perhaps.” His voice sounded emotionless and Barbara couldn’t tell if that was because it was trying to detach himself to hold onto some semblance of strength or if he was just exhausted and didn’t have any feelings left right now. She knew he wasn’t the stone wall that people often accuse him of being; he just couldn’t always express it the way that other’s thought he should. He cared so much that it sometimes just came out ‘wrong’.

Sadness sometimes just looked like anger in the wrong clothes.

Barbara shifted so that her position mirrored his and leaned in a little closer, but still far enough apart that they weren’t touching. “I also think you are selling yourself short in the ranking of Dick’s people.”

“I was his guardian, not his friend.”

“If he were here Dick would be arguing that you were both.”

She knew she was right and she hoped that Bruce knew that too, even if he wouldn’t admit it.  She had been there to see the evolution of their relationship and she knew that it was a mixture of father and son, brothers, partners, friends and colleagues.  Sometimes it was the combination of those dynamics that caused friction (to the point of explosion), but they always would be there for each other when it really mattered. Even in the end, it was Bruce that Dick had wanted with him, not anyone else.

“Maybe, unless we were having one of our bad weeks.  But he loved you Barbara. Since the beginning. That love changed as you grew up but you were always what you needed to be for each other. Dick’s heart always led his actions, for better or for worse. It was always going to lead him back to you.” Bruce swallowed and rubbed his eyes.  He just looked like the stress of it all was burying him. “Magnetic pull.”

“We weren’t together.”

“Doesn’t change anything I said.”

“Maybe if I had gone with him to Chicago we wouldn’t been sitting here now. If I had just followed him there…” That had been running through her mind a lot for the past few days. Maybe if she had been there in Chicago, he wouldn’t have come back. Something might have stopped him from being captured by the Crime Syndicate and then this whole mess could have been avoided. She had heard enough about timelines from speedsters over the years to know that just one change could alter lives dramatically.

Thinking about fate was an overwhelming thing when you were already depressed.

“Neither of you were ready for that.”

“He told you?”

“Most things. Not sure he always realized how much he told me. Chatterbox.” He gave the smallest of shrugs, “He talked. I listened.”

“And grunted.” He grunted at her in response and they both smiled a little at each other. “I don’t really blame myself.  I just wish we made different choices sometimes. I wonder how we ended up here.”

“Don’t we all.”  Bruce was looking at a row of photos that were on the bookcase against the wall. All of the photos in this room were pictures of the family that Bruce had built rather than the one that he had been born into. Nearly all of them had Dick in them - by himself, or group shots with Bruce, Alfred, Jason, Tim or Damian, and she saw herself in a few as well.  The one that Barbara had always found herself drawn to was one from when Dick must have been about nine years old, getting a piggyback ride from Bruce.  It looked like a candid shot, probably taken by Alfred, and Bruce was grinning over his shoulder to look at Dick, who was clearly roaring with laughter.  There was something about it that was just so Dick.

Barbara placed her hand on Bruce’s forearm. “He loved you, too.”

“I know. Probably more than he should.”

“You were his dad.”

“I wasn’t. Not really.”

“You were in every way that mattered.  At least to him.” She brushed her fingers lightly against his arm and his eyes snapped back to hers and there was something there that she just couldn’t place. “He told me so many times that he was lucky that he had the chance to have two amazing fathers, when some kids don’t even get one. He was shattered when we thought you were dead. That he had lost another father.” He cast his eyes back to the floor, without Barbara having figured out what he was thinking about. “He’d do anything for you. You know that.”

“I’m gravely aware of that.”

It was one of those times that she had had over the years that she got the feeling that while she was talking to Bruce, they were having two drastically different conversations. Sometimes she called him on it, sometimes she looked into it later, but this felt like one of the few times that she was just going to let it rest. She didn’t need to know what Bruce was actually talking about if he wasn’t going to volunteer the information. Not today.

“Are you going out tonight?”

“No.” Batgirl and Barbara both needed a night off, which is why she hadn’t gone out with Tim and Jason. Her mind wasn’t in the game and she couldn’t afford to make a mistake in the field and get hurt. “Do you mind if I stay here?”

“Not if you don’t mind some company. I’m staying in too. It’s my pick now, though.” Barbara reached over to the end table and pulled out a bag of M&M’s and tossed them to Bruce. He grinned at her and grabbed the remote, hit a few buttons and the screen changed, and Barbara burst out laughing as words started scrolling on the screen.

Dick’s other viewing obsession was apparently up next for tonight.

“You may have got him hooked on Buffy, but I introduced him to Star Wars first. And he dressed up as Luke Skywalker for Halloween three years in a row. I win.”

“Dick was the best of us. We all got to win.”

[bigskydreaming]

Hi! I'm new to your blog but found a few posts that were about a JayTom ship, and I was wondering who Tom was? And also you've mentioned in a couple of posts the idea of Jason having a lineup of Titans in his age range and you talked about the Ray and Damage in one. Do you have a whole lineup in mind for them and if so, is there a post on that somewhere?

LOL man, I really need to start pulling all my posts about JayTom and Jay’s lineup of Titans together for some kind of a masterlist, so thanks for the reminder haha. Like, I saw this ask and thought of various posts to point you towards but ugh, I don’t know where any of them are.

Anyway, so. The Tom of JayTom. Aka my ideal ship for Robin!Jason in the series of one-shots about an AU where Jason doesn’t go to Ethiopia in ADITF and thus never dies, that’s kinda grown out of that of a one-shot I started as a writing commission a couple months ago, if anyone else remembers that….the one that was like ‘what if Jason called Dick after the Garzonas incident and Dick sided with Jason’…that one. 

Which then snowballed into ‘well, then I could give Jason his own lineup of Titans who are in the same age range as like a younger gen learning from Dick’s generations of Titans but still older than Tim’s generation of YJ and then eventual Titans.’

Sigh. Oh, me. Right! So! Anyway! Tom in JayTom is Thomas Bronson, the son of JSA member Ted Grant, aka Wildcat. 

Tom and Jason have never ever interacted in canon as far as I know, as I don’t think Tom’s ever appeared outside of JSA and Jason never appeared in that book either before or after his death. BUT by the magic of winging it and Canon Has Not Definitively Contradicted Me, I think the two of them are feasibly in the same age range, so I’m going with them both being fifteen when they meet here.

Tom’s a scrappy, street smart, attitude throwing teenager with daddy issues of his own, lol, thanks to Ted’s general non-existence in his life, for most of it….and he’s also tiny, like, 5′6″ and 135 lbs even at the end of his teenage years. LMAO, I honestly don’t remember, but I think that might be the whole basis of this ship for me, or where it originated. Like, I happened across Tom’s stats as listed on one of the DC wiki sites, and was like, lol oh, he and Robin!Jason could be pint-sized punks together! And then from there, I had the inevitable thought “okay but now make them gay” and then from there I fell into my usual trap of “oh no, it was supposed to be a joke but now I’m taking it seriously and seriously pondering how it could seriously work.”

And then from there it consumed my brain and devoured my life. I swear, it was Dick/Kyle all over again. Ugh, my brain is so problematic.

So anyway, this is Tom:

He’s a werepanther, he can shapeshift into a panther form to fight, which brings up an interesting facet of his character and something I think could be really fun to play off Jason and his own issues…because Tom hates fighting. HATES it. Will run from a fight at any given opportunity rather than engage….but its not because he’s a coward, or doesn’t have heroic instincts of his own, and its not even because he’s not GOOD at fighting.

Its that he’s scared of himself, and scared of hurting whoever he’s fighting…at least more than he means to. Because he has trouble controlling his shift when in fights. His panther form just comes out in response to his own amped up levels of aggression. The fight or flight response for him is actually more like “flight or turn into a raging whirlwind of clawed and fanged fury that can’t stop won’t stop until he’s definitively won his fight….which by extension, usually means his opponent is currently bleeding out on the ground from a few dozen deep claw marks because Panther!Tom’s claws and fangs are SHARP.”

Now pair this fear of his own power with Tom’s natural belligerence and problems with authority at certain points in his life, AND his desire to follow in his hero father’s footsteps as well as his resentment and giving himself grief every time he realizes he even has that desire, because he doesn’t owe his deadbeat dad shit and can’t stand that he nevertheless admires him in a lot of ways and still feels a desire to prove himself to him…

Then pair him up with Jason during his Robin years, going through similar issues and emotions as well as a comparable dynamic with Bruce as him not dying in Ethiopia nevertheless changes nothing about the two of them likely clashing more and more over their views on how to deal with criminals and the appropriate levels of aggression when dealing with them….

And that right there, IMO, is super strong potential for a dynamic couple with a lot in common and yet occasional clashes of their own due to different opinions on which direction to go in so as to address those shared issues…but who likely would never hesitate for a second before backing each other up and presenting a united front against anyone else who tried to give one or the other shit for any reason whatsoever.

Also, I have vastly amused myself with the thought (and the occasional post here and there) of Ted and Bruce continually glowering at each other and blaming each other’s son for being a bad influence on their son, who has never done anything wrong in their life ever, CLEARLY (even if Bruce had actually just grounded Jason the day before. Whatever. Ted doesn’t need to know that).

Anyway, so that’s the JayTom I reference now and then. I’ve always maintained that Jason could really benefit from having a stronger support system of friends distinct to him and not sharing similar dynamics with any of his siblings, so then I was like, well if Jay doesn’t die, and I have him and Dick closer in this AU than they’re usually written as being, plausibly Jason would spend a lot of time at the Tower to get away from Bruce and his own fights with him. 

With Dick being more than able to relate to trouble dealing with Bruce and thus happy to lend a sympathetic ear….and eventually maybe express to Bruce that it might do them both some good for Jason to make more friends his own age and have some normal routines that took him out of the house and Gotham enough that he and Bruce don’t constantly feel like they’re breathing down each other’s necks and keeping tension a constant thing between them. A little space now and then could benefit them both, give them chances to cool off after their fights and actually MISS each other before readdressing the issues.

So then I could see the Titans kinda sending out invitations/recruiting various teen heroes around Jason’s age that they’d all maybe had their eyes on for awhile as kids who could benefit from the same kind of team unity/group support that helped them so much when they were that age just a few years ago themselves.

Which leads me to where I am now which is….I still haven’t settled on a solid lineup, because I came up with too many choices, lol. Basically, my parameters were I wanted characters who could feasibly be said to be in the same age range as Jason and Tom, and didn’t have super strong associations with any other characters that would create any kind of conflict with them being on a Titans team at this point in the timeline instead. And because I’m all about my thematics, I wanted them all to have certain root issues in common that they could all bond over and actually, y’know, support each other with and through. 

(The same way I think Dick’s generation of Titans actually has certain distinct themes and issues that almost all of them share and can relate to in varying ways, which I think has a lot to do with how quickly and fully they all bonded and why they created such lasting friendships and teams between them. But that’s a whole other post, lol.)

So the central shared issues I decided to focus on for Jason’s age group of Titans were: teen/young heroes from abusive homes or runaways, ones with issues and fears stemming from and regarding their own powers or tempers, etc, and misfits who were regarded warily by other or older heroes and considered potentially able to end up on either side of the hero/villain line in the sand.

Which Dick’s generation of Titans, which of course includes Raven, Kory, etc, would not be in agreement with that last part, and thus be all the more likely to recruit these specific teen heroes and be like nyah, nyah, watch how with our help and oh yeah, SUPPORT, they all become the best damn heroes that ever did heroically hero. Suck it, JLA-holes!

(And then Donna would be like, not you Diana, you know we’re cool, its just I gotta do the team solidarity thing and Dick, Garth and Roy are still being Displeased with their mentors/dads at the moment, and also we’re all kinda ticked you guys stole Wally. Btw, we’re stealing the new Green Lantern kid, because Revenge and stuff. He’s ours now, you snooze, you lose).

 So, Jason’s lineup of Titans will consist of some of the following, I’m just not 100% sure which yet, because I have to whittle down the list.

1) Jason (nominally mentored by Dick, but the latter just calls it an excuse for brother bonding time and neither of them make much reference ever to having any kind of actual mentor/protégé relationship like I see the rest of Jay’s lineup having. Plus, Jason unique from the rest already has a mentor in Bruce anyway, so his situation and reasons for being part of this team aren’t quite the same from the others, especially as one of my reasons for this AU was always addressing the issues I have with Bruce’s parenting before the canon event point of Jason’s death, and like…..so like, Bruce does get better once Dick calls out some of his shit with Jason based on his own experiences with Bruce and then later Jason returns the favor by calling out Bruce for taking Dick for granted and no longer putting in the same effort connecting with his eldest and being an actual PARENT to him like he used to).

2) Tom Bronson/Tomcat (who else would act as his personal mentor other than Gar aka Beast Boy aka Changeling, the shapeshifter extraordinaire?)

3) Grant Emerson/Damage (recruited by Roy and his personal protégéand likely BFFs with Jason IMO, as I think their temperaments are complete opposites but Grant’s the kind of kid who would roll his eyes and dolefully follow his troublemaking best friend Jay into likely danger, because his power to blow things up really comes in handy with the kind of scrapes Jason gets himself into and this in turn is a really handy thing to point out in the aftermath of pulling Jason’s butt out of a scrape and then gloating but in the totally mature and “I’m much too nice to actually be gloating, you must be mistaken about what’s happening here” manner in which I see that going down. And in terms of the parameters I mentioned, Grant grew up bounced around abusive foster homes, is watched like a hawk by various groups and heroes because of the huge catastrophic potential of his powers, which he has his own fears about, and also he has no idea who his parents are either, and I imagine him and Jason going on a ‘find out who our real parents are roadtrip’ after graduation or something).

4) Ray Terrill/The Ray (potentially recruited by Kory and her personal protégé. He was briefly a member of Tim’s Young Justice team, but part of the reason he was never that close with the other members was he was a little bit older, just a couple years or so, but enough to put him squarely in Jason’s age range. Also comes from an abusive home, and spent the majority of his childhood living in complete darkness because his asshole uncle told him he had the same powers as his father which meant sunlight would be harmful to him and make him dangerous to be around. When in reality, like his dad, Ray’s powers are fueled by sunlight and he’s like a living solar battery, keeping him afraid to leave the dark was just meant to keep him passive and powerless. Even knowing his uncle lied now, Ray still has long had fears about his own powers, unable to totally shake the fears his uncle instilled in him).

5) Todd Rice/Obsidian (potentially recruited by Raven and her personal protégé. He and his twin sister Jenny-Lynn Hayden are probably a bit older than the rest of this team, but their ages aren’t definitively linked to any points in the DC timeline, so there’s no real conflict between handwaving them as aged down to be right around the same ages as the others. Todd and Jenny-Lynn are the twin children of original Green Lantern Alan Scott aka Sentinel, and the DC villainness Thorn. They grew up in separate foster homes though with Alan unaware of their existence for most of their childhoods. Todd’s childhood was notoriously rough, with him having several abusive foster parents. He’s canonically gay and mentally ill/neurodivergent, which several of his foster homes targeted him for. In addition, his shadow powers are tied to a dark dimension that’s said to prey on his mental state and led to occasional times where he’s been a villain briefly, and at all times his powers are regarded fearfully by most people and with him shunned and avoided because of them. All of which I think makes Raven an ideal mentor for him).

6) Jenny-Lynn Hayden/Jade (Todd’s twin sister, even though they didn’t grow up together for the most part. Honestly, she doesn’t share in a lot of the issues the rest of the team prospects do, and had a relatively good childhood before her powers developed and she found her brother and they started operating as heroes together. But upon learning who her brother and dad are, she’s always been committed to growing closer with them, so I think anywhere Todd goes in this AU, she’d definitely follow, and its not like the team can’t benefit from a heavy hitter like her, let alone more girls. Not totally sure who I picture as most mentoring her in specific, probably because I don’t see her as being recruited per se, so much as just going with Todd when recruited….but I’m thinking maybe Garth, actually. Garth has a lot of range and versatility with his powers and magic, which makes him ideal for mentoring someone who not only has the same powers as a Green Lantern, limited only by her imagination…..but who also might benefit from being mentored by someone who ISN’T a Green Lantern because she doesn’t share their traditional weaknesses and thus she’d be best off training with someone whose own techniques and instincts aren’t geared around weaknesses that are literally irrelevant to her powerset).

7) Courtney Mason/Anima (A metahuman runaway who was almost sacrificed by a cult before her powers kicked in….she’s also right in the same age range as Ray, Grant and Jason, and has briefly been a member of a couple Titans lineups but never for long and usually only for big event stories. But she fits the runaway/rough home environment parameter as well as fear of her own powers….she absorbs life energy from people and animals and can potentially kill them by draining too much. She also has a separate power that’s basically a connection to an other-dimensional spirit called the Animus that she can summon forth and unleash on her enemies. I’m thinking she’d make a good recruit/protégé for Jericho actually, for a number of reasons).

8) Cynthia Reynolds/Fantasia (? Maybe? Not sure yet. Not her actual codename, but her actual codename is a slur, so I’m def gonna make up a new one, I just haven’t 100% settled on what it is yet. Suck it, DC. She’s most known for being a member of Justice League Detroit along with Steel, Vibe and the Ray, but she’s the right age range to end up recruited to be a Titan here instead, like Ray. Also is a runaway from an abusive home, and often deals with mistrust and suspicion due to her illusion powers. Perfect recruit/protégé for Lilith, IMO).

9) Cisco Ramone/Vibe (Also created as a teenage hero to be part of the Justice League Detroit lineup, which makes him the right age range and he’s another runaway. The nature of his powers makes him a good fit to be a recruit/protégéof Mal Duncan/Herald).

10) Amy Allen/Bombshell (Totally self-indulgent on my part given that I basically would ignore the vast majority of her storylines and writing, which I think suck. She was in the Titans stories revolving around Tim’s generation of the team, but she was always stated to be a few years older than the rest, like in her late teens when the majority were probably sixteen, so I think she’s a good fit for this age range. Also had a crappy home life and parents, and her powers are hugely destructive in certain applications…she basically has the same powerset as Captain Atom, though she’s never had any kind of official mentor or sidekick relationship with him. Also, I think Captain Atom is an asshat and a dillhole and he sucks, but I do like his powers, so reinterpreting Amy as a character who doesn’t suck and playing around with her powers instead is solid decision making on my part and renders Captain Atom irrelevant now. I think I shall kill him. Because I can do that. Anyway, I think she doesn’t need him as a mentor but could make a good recruit/protégé for Leonid/Red Star).

11) Carla Moretti/Cinder (Odd choice, given that she’s only ever really been used as a villainous member of Deathstroke’s anti-Titans team and was easily in her twenties at the time. Pyrokinetic who happily makes bonfires out of her enemies but written with zero attempts at nuance, like a total one note villain framed as having long since abandoned her own humanity….which bugged the crap out of me, as she was given a super angsty backstory of childhood sexual abuse and that’s just ‘why she’s like this’ and I have a deep seeded loathing for asshole writers writing survivors as villains and just blaming their casual homicidal ways on their abuse while serving up said villains to just be punching bags or dominoes for the heroes to knock down on their way to the Boss Fight. So I do have inclinations towards making an actual Titan out of her, like with Amy, because surprise surprise, both these characters being written shittily and one note was the work of the same writer, shocking. So I’d just handwave her down to the right age range and have her recruited/mentored by Donna, probably…more due to me thinking Donna would be the best person to help her deal with stuff because she’s mastered the art of avoiding avoidance via having Dick Grayson as a BFF. So with them its not really because Carla needs mentoring with her powers specifically. Idk, Carla anyway you slice it I think has a lot of rage, and Donna knows what to do with that. Written right, Donna’s not a character who judges or shames a victim or survivor for being angry…she gets angry with them, and helps them find options for what to do with that now.) 

12) Hero Cruz (Lesser known Titan, has a device called the Dial H device that lets him turn into a different hero with different powers depending on the setting he puts it on. Basically Ben 10, but Hero came first. Doesn’t really fit most of the parameters, other than being around the right age range, and not even sure who would make a good mentor for him though I wanna say Vic, but not totally decided yet. Mostly I just like him and think he’s underused, so whatever).

There’s also a few other candidates that I have mostly ruled out but not totally. I thought about using the aged up version of Chris Kent, and just introduce him earlier than he showed up in canon. And then Kara/Supergirl could be his mentor because I kinda handwave her into Dick’s generation of Titans anyway, even though it was the alien Matrix version of Linda Danvers that was the only Supergirl ever on the team. Whatever. She should have been a Titan all along anyway. But also Chris would fit the team well as he had an abusive childhood as well, at his dad General Zod’s hands, and again, I just like the character. 

Thought of including Virgil Hawkins/Static too, even though I think he’s closer to Tim’s age range. And again, just another character I’m a fan of and think is underused, but he would definitely be an odd man out in this group because like….he comes from a happy, healthy, loving home and family, and he loves his powers. So he would constantly be just like nodding his head along while his teammates talk and like ugh that sucks, but 10/10 absolutely can not relate, my parents are awesome.  Same with Natasha Irons/Steel, who really would have to be handwaved to even be in the right age range, and again has a happy loving home environment and a superhero uncle of her own so its not like she needs a Titan mentor…..but I kinda wanna see Karen Beecher/Bumblebee take her under her wing anyway, and have them be science nerds together.

Also pretty much the only reason I ruled out Connor Hawke too, as he doesn’t really match the rest of the team in any of the parameters except for feasibly being right at the upper edge of the same age range. But again, I just love the character. 

So I’m probably gonna end up throwing at least one of these other characters in there anyway, lol. I do know myself).

Anyway. So that’s Jason’s lineup of Titans, or at least the candidates as they exist bouncing around in my head now. Also, they’re pretty much Team “Everyone is Gay Except For When They’re Bi.” Which, granted, is basically how I view Dick’s generation of Titans, but with them I have to be like Make It So, in my brain, whereas with this group like….canon’s actually done the work for me for the most part lol. Ray is gay, Todd Rice is gay, Courtney is bi, Hero is gay. And I can’t actually find anything confirmed Tom was stated to be gay somewhere in canon, but I SWEAR he was, like, ugh this is bugging me.

But anyway. That’s that about all of that.

[nightwing-ing-it]

I feel you on worrying about the Dick and Damian relationship. It was ignored for a long time after Bruce came back (in favor of downplaying Dick's importance in order to automatically make Bruce Damian's #1 relationship without the buildup) and is only now getting consistent attention. I just hope what happened to Tim and Dick's bond never happens to them. How the heck did they go from being best siblings/best friends to being so distant these days (oh wait, fandom says that wasn't real Tim.)

Speaking of Jason, how are you liking his relationships with Bruce and Dick these days? Even though there are some nitpicks about Jason’s development I still think his moments with Dick were cute in NW 15 (never thought I’d see the day where you could argue Dick and Jason seem closer to each other then Dick currently is with Tim. In this way, it feels like the end times).

^_^ hello! 1st off I really liked the Batman and Robin with Bruce and Damian. Everyone who wants to know why people like Damian now should read that title. And Bruce is still Bruce but also very much a dad in that title which is interesting (and then Damian died and all that).

They did downplay Dick and Damians relationship because they wanted to focus on Bruce and Damian but you could tell Damian and Dick were still close and that was sweet.  I think even the writers didn’t know what was going to be said to be canon and noncanon really from pre52 so it was probably hard for them to really address Dick and Damians relationship. (like when did Dick go back to Nightwing and Damian start to partner up with Bruce? that part of the timeline is still vague and probably always will be). But again Dick and Damian are obviously still really close in new52.

Next I want to say that YES TIM! I think the main problem with new52 Tim (and everyone says this I know) is his origin story!  It kind of erases a lot of what makes Tim TIM.  I’m not going to go into details because Tim fans all know this but basically the relationship between Tim and Dick in new52 were again very very undefined!  new52 Tim spent so little time with Bruce that who knows if he and Dick were close?! new52 Tim is certainly not as close with Bruce as pre52 Tim was!  new52 Tim basically does his own thing! Who knows if Tim knows Dick as well as pre52 Tim did? He probably doesn’t!  A lot of their bonding was through being leaders of the Teen Titans and working together but Tim was just CREATING the Teen Titans himself in new52!! and without Dick at all! The Titans with Dick are only being done now in Rebirth and now Tims not around so they literally don’t have that connection they used to have in pre52!!! :(

But I don’t think they’re not close at all.  I think it’s just very vague. Tim did show up in Dick’s dream in Nightwing and I was SO TOUCHED. I hope DC can show us Tim and Dick with that great relationship they had in pre52.  I would love that.  Tim used to go to Dick for advice and just want to hang out with him and they were so cute when they were together.

Honestly I want to say I agree with fandom that new52 Tim is not Tim! He’s not the Tim I love!!  But at the same time I don’t hate new52 Tim.  He’s still sorta Tim and I still have a soft spot for him.  He’s trying his best… lol

Finally we’re onto Jason!  I like Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth.  I like where Jason is headed.  He’s a lot, A LOT, softer in new52 than pre52 but I also feel that is where pre52 Jason was going to head anyways so its fine (convergence everyone) and it’s not like you couldn’t see something soft in him pre52 (if that makes sense).  I believe in Jason’s redemption!

Jason’s relationship with Dick seems to be pretty decent right now actually.  One thing I noticed with Jason is that right now he’s over being angry at his siblings for a problem that is between him and Bruce.  Like when he came back from the dead he was initially so mad that he attacked Tim and the other batfam right?  But now Tim and Jason are closer because Jason got over it and Tim forgave him.  

Similarly with Dick, I don’t think there has to be words between them about it really. Jason is showing he can be part of the family and Jason was there for the family during times where Dick couldn’t be (because he was faking his death), and Dick never really pushed Jason out.  Dick was always the one who said that they could help Jason and Dick respected Jason’s talent even when Jason was running around killing people.  Also I think Jason has to see by now that Bruce and Dicks relationship isn’t AS perfect as he had thought it was and that helps a lot too. 

Now Jason with Bruce.  Jason is also learning that Bruce is a person, a really flawed person who’s trying his best, and that Bruce’s judgement is not everything in the world.  Like when Bruce was grieving over Damian and treated Jason badly Jason did get mad but in the end he walked away because he realized the problem wasn’t about him and Bruce, it was Just Bruce in grief.  At that time he realized that he didn’t deserve to be treated like that but there was no point in hurting Bruce either so he walked away.  I loved that.  

Also when Jason told Bruce ‘why because my name’s not Dick Grayson?’ it was hilarious to me because yeah Bruce has clear ‘favoritism’ when it comes to trusting Dick versus Jason.  But Jason doesn’t bring that into his and Dick’s relationship because its not Dick’s fault!  It was something him and Bruce needed to work out! ��And then Bruce was good to Jason in RHATO and trusted him!!  So in RHATO right now Bruce and Jason’s relationship is so much better than before.  

In my eyes it’s because Jason is willing to give in a little to Bruce’s demands now that he’s not as mad about his death and in Jason’s head Bruce isn’t on a pedestal anymore, Bruce is a family member, Jason values Bruce as his family but if Bruce doesn’t approve it’s not the end of the world for him anymore!  And Bruce isn’t his only family member, Jason cares about the rest of the family too!  He’s grown up so much in new52/rebirth and I’m really proud of him lol.

Overall this is how I’m feeling about them right now.  

I think Rebirth is doing pretty good.

The only thing I wish for would be that the timeline masters fix Tim’s origins, fix Tim’s relationship with Bruce and Dick, and put Tim’s team back together, namely Bart, Conner, and Cassie!

[yeaaabudddy]

A Little Crossover (3/4)

Ship: Peter Parker x Batsis!Reader (Y/N)

Characters: Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Reader (S/H/N), Bruce Wayne (Batman), Dick Grayson (Nightwing), Jason Todd (Red Hood), Tim Drake (Red Robin), and Damian Wayne (Robin)

Type: slight angst, fluff

Requested: Yes, by @wolfiemichele and @comicsgirlimagines

Words: 5 638

Notes: I wrote... too much. Don’t think too much about the timeline lmao it might not completely match homecoming.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

-

Peter lived his life as a student. He went to all his classes, not skipping any no matter what he saw on the streets. Peter had stopped messaging and calling you because you were related to his superhero side.

It wasn’t true because he had seen you without your costume more than he saw you in it but he knew that if he talked to you, you would manage to bring up Spider-Man and he didn’t want to hear it. He was scared.

Ned supported him through it, advising him to at least message you to let you know but Peter knew that if he gave in once, he would go all in because he missed you.

You did call him and message asking if he’s alright. You lived in a different city so you were scared as you couldn’t even see him, couldn’t confirm if he was even alive.

You wanted to make your way down to Queens just to check up on him but you knew that none of your family would let you.

You managed to find Ned’s profile listed in Peter’s friends list on Facebook. You were nervous about messaging him as he was Peter’s friend but you were desperate to see if he was okay especially since the last time you saw him, he was so distressed and was crying.

You ended up messaging him, asking if he was alright because he came to you crying and you haven’t heard from him. Ned responded back saying that he was alright, doing okay and that you should just give him some time.

You respected the decision, knowing that Peter was still not okay and it hurt that he cut you out completely from his life, seeing how easy it was for Peter to just stop. 

After a little over a month of not hearing from him, you gave up on him reaching back out to you. You saw from his social medias on him and Ned hanging out, him being happy and you thought maybe the hero life wasn’t for him.

It made you sad that he thought of you as only his superhero friend and not an actual friend but you decided not to dwell on that.

You realized how much time you had now that you don’t talk to Peter as often and instead you put your effort into your patrolling or trying to find happiness in your friends from school.

You frowned sometimes when you looked at your phone seeing all the unanswered texts from Peter but you decided not to let it get the best of you.

Peter was having fun so how could you be the downer in his new life. You didn’t know if Peter would come back to being Spider-Man and even though you wanted to wait for him, you know you shouldn’t wait for a boy who cut you out of his life with no hesitation.

You didn’t have the heart to delete your conversations or anything still hoping that Peter will text you even though you knew it wouldn’t happen.

You moved on then, went on with your life and the experience with Peter made you realize that friends could be a great thing to have in your life. You decided to spend more time with friends in your classes and became closer to them.

You hoped that you could stop thinking about Peter after the amount of time has passed. One of your closest friends you had made, Megan, had noticed you frown at your phone early on in your friendship.

You finally were able to confide into someone about the situation of Peter (not fully because of your secret identities). She told you that it’s okay to still have some feelings for him as you were talking with each other for a while and were really close.

There wasn’t really any closure between you two it was just an abrupt ending and your feelings that you felt towards him didn’t fully develop because he was gone before you could even think about it.

You pushed it to the back of your mind though, not wanting to care anymore.

“Y/N!” Megan called out to you, taking your hand to drag you to the lunch room.

“What’s going on?” You asked confused at the ruckus going on around you, everyone cheering and standing up and no teacher was stopping it.

“People are getting asked to homecoming.” Your eyes widen in surprise at the fact that the dance was coming around the corner.

“Why are they making a huge a deal for homecoming, shouldn’t they wait for prom?” You questioned but Megan just rolled her eyes at the question.

“You always try and downplay these things. Come on, have fun! It’s cute, romantic!” Your friend squealed at the aspect of getting asked out like that but it just made you cringe a bit.

Public proposals are just asking for disasters. You would hate if someone asked you like that because you felt like you would have to say yes.

“I don’t find it that romantic…” You mumbled under your breath and Megan glared at you, hearing your statement.

“Shush, I’m trying to watch.” You stretch your neck to see what was going on and saw a homemade poster covered in colour and glitter held by a young boy, asking the girl in front of him to homecoming.

She looked in happiness at the scene in front of her, nodding her head and going to hug him. It was cute, you’ll admit. Still unnecessary.

People clapped around at the success and you joined in, not wanting to be a total downer but immediately made your way to an empty table. You take off your backpack just wanting to eat after wasting 10 minutes of your lunch in the mess of school dances.

Megan and some of your other friends joined after a bit with their own food, chatting with each other. You overhear some of their conversations as you eat, most of them having to do with homecoming.

“If someone asks you, do you think you’ll say yes?” Megan turned to you, talking to you separately. You look at her as you try to finish chewing your sandwich.

“Depends on the person.” You shrug, not really wanting to think about it. You didn’t really want to go to homecoming, it wasn’t really like you to go to a dance and it’s been a while since you went.

You don’t know if it’s your thing, all the music and dancing and maybe if you had someone to go with you would change your mind but it seems like a pretty boring concept.

“I hope for our sake, someone does.” You just roll your eyes, Megan has asked you so many times to just tag along, If you don’t get asked and she doesn't either, to just go with her because she wants you there.

“Are you still waiting for Conner to ask you?” You smirk at her blushing state. Her and Conner have been in a grey area for a while as they both care for each other but aren’t admitting it to the other that they like them.

You just wanted to push them into a room and get them to confess because it was so obvious but you’ll let them figure it out themselves.

By the end of the day you managed to hear and witness more people asking others to homecoming and you don’t know if you’re jealous or not. You never really thought about it, so preoccupied with other things that when you got asked when you were at your locker.

Jack, a guy from your physics class had strolled up to you while you put any books you don’t need to take home, back into your locker.

“Hey, Y/N.” He smiled at you, his smile bright and kind.

“Hey, Jack. What’s up?” You casually ask him, confused as to why he was talking to you. You’ve seen him a couple of times around school and obviously in class but you guys haven’t talked more than needed for projects and homework.

“Well, homecoming is soon and I was thinking… maybe you’ll go with me?” He was nervous and it showed on his face and you almost took pity on him for that. You turned to look at him, closing your locker.

“Uh... “ You thought about it for a second and before you could even think about it, you saw Megan in the corner of your eye pointing at Jack and glaring at you, knowing that she was yelling at you to accept his offer.

“That sounds fun!” You smile at him, his face breaking out into a smile at your acceptance. You felt bad you took long to answer as he was starting to become anxious in his place.

“I’ll see you tomorrow in class then! I got the tickets, so don’t worry about that!” You smile at his enthusiasm, it reminding you of someone else…

“‘I’ll see you.” Jack nods at you and leaves you to yourself and Megan comes over to you.

“Damn you got asked before us all!” She pouted, you didn’t even want to go that bad and you were asked right away. “I shouldn’t be surprised cause... Well, you’re you. Now that you got a guy, you’re going to come to my house to get ready!”

You just realized how much work this was actually going to be.

-

Time passed fast with you (and no, there was still no response from Peter). The dance was tonight and everyone was feeling the atmosphere for the special day. Some girls were skipping the school day to spend it together, getting ready.

Otherwise, it was a normal day for you but you know that Megan would be expecting you over at her house right after school.

When you told your family that you’ll be a bit late to your assigned patrol because of the dance, they teased you endlessly at the aspect of you going to the event.

“Didn't think you were that type of girl.” Damian had offhandedly said, making you realize that maybe you should start doing more stuff like this just to see if you’ll like it.

They also asked if you had a date of course but you didn’t let up the poor boy’s name. You wanted this to be as normal as possible and you don't need your siblings stalking you because you’re going to a dance with a boy.

“Y/N the dress I picked out for you is so pretty! Don’t worry about the colour, I made sure that it wouldn’t be too bright.” You smiled in appreciation, you didn't know much about how to shop for dresses, the thought stressing you out so you asked Megan for a favour. She texted you a few options that you approved of and chose from them.

“Thanks, Megan.” This all felt so normal for you that it was crazy. Maybe Peter was right that you should enjoy being a teenager but you would never give up your night life of saving people no matter what.

Megan’s mom picked you and your friends up after school, taking you guys to her house. The excited chattering going around you in the car, the radio was turned up to a pop song and everything was too normal for you that it felt weird.

Something just felt off and maybe it’s because you’re not on edge about every single thing right now which is out of character for you.

It is a school dance so what if something happens during it? Your thoughts were running wild with ideas like that because no good moments for heroes were always good. You knew that you weren’t going to be destined with happy moments when you became a hero and so this is just out of your league.

You were getting ready, looking at all your friends being carefree while living in Gotham. They got each other ready and were just laughing saying their hopes for the night.

Conner did end up asking Megan to homecoming so she was shining the brightest of them all.

She took out your royal blue dress that she picked out for you, making you change and get your makeup done. You were all ready.

Since your school had uniforms, these were the only times you got to wear nice clothes to school.

You met up with Jack who was standing in his suit in front of the building with two tickets. You were glad that you knew Jack was nice enough to not leave you hanging, you would be totally bummed if he stood you up (you did buy a ticket just in case).

“You look really pretty.” The boy looked at you with wide eyes. It was no secret that you were pretty but he hadn’t seen you outside of uniform in person.

“Thanks, you look really good too!” He held out his hand to get you to link your arms with him, entering the gym together. Things were looking pretty good at the dance.

You were actually feeling happy as your friends hung close and you even met with some of Jack’s close friends. It was a fun night together, you weren’t with him the whole time, joining your friends in a group dance but you felt like a regular teen.

The worry in your heart didn’t cease but it did calm down a bit at the aspect that maybe today would be nice.

You sat on a chair at the tables off the side of the gym, exhausted by the amount of energy everyone else has. Jack joined you shortly after noticing you, leaving his friends to talk to you.

“Hope you had fun today, I know we don’t know each other that well… but It was nice to get to know you.” You just felt glad that Jack didn’t turn out to be a hidden asshole, you’ve dealt with enough stupid boys for a lifetime.

“Thanks, I’m just glad you weren’t like half the guys in our grade.” Jack just laughed at your ‘compliment’. He can’t believe that you actually agreed to go out with him especially with how you never took notice of him unless you were partnered up by the teacher.

Both of your thoughts were cut off when your phone buzzed. You look towards the table where you rested it against. The screen brightening up to reveal a name you don’t know if you’re happy to see.

The words flashing “PETER P.” across the screen. You stared at your phone in shock not knowing if what you were seeing was real. He ignores you for around a month and a half and then suddenly calls you when you’re actually happy.

Jack notices you pause and that you made no effort to answer your phone.

“Are you okay?” He takes a glance at your phone noticing the name on your screen, not knowing a Peter P in this school. He knew none of your brothers also had the name Peter so he wasn’t sure who it was.

“Yeah, no problem.” You flipped your phone over to hide the name from your sight. You know that ignoring him might be a bad idea but how could he just ruin this moment for you. You were in no mood to get back to the dance and you didn’t want to go home this early.

“Boy troubles?” Jack questioned, his face showing curiosity on your reaction to getting the phone call.

“Something like that, I guess.” You confirmed his suspicion. Your mood had physically dropped and he could tell that you wouldn’t want to dance anymore so he decided maybe you needed some help.

“If you want some boy advice who better to ask than a boy.” He motioned to himself and laid back a bit in his chair. You turned to him as you realized he asked for you to confide in him and you were tempted to.

Here you are trusting another boy but you have an urge to actually get his advice. It was something about how he gave you a great night in a while and that he felt genuine.

You sighed as you gave up and he also realized, straightening himself up.

“Alright, you asked.” Your phone had rung one more time after the initial call and then stopped, not attempting again and your heart was very heavy as you knew that you could’ve heard Peter’s voice for the first time in almost 2 months. You also knew that if you fought with him on the phone then your night would be completely ruined.

“Why are guys so…”

“Dumb? Oblivious?” He offered as he noticed you struggling with your emotions.

“Frustrating!”

“Ah!” He clapped his hand in realization. “How could I miss that one. You do seem very frustrated with him, would you mind telling me what he did?”

“Ghosted me for almost two months and then called me when I’m finally having a good time.” You grumbled loud enough for him to hear it still feeling pathetic for caring.

“Wow.” His eyes widened in response to what you told him. His eyes mouth going dry at what to say to you.

“Yeah, I know. I’m pathetic. He didn’t care to message me for two months and here I am, still caring.” You rest your head on your hand, leaning against the table in shame.

“No, we’re all human. We can’t really control our emotions, you’re not pathetic. Whoever that dude is, is really stupid for ghosting you.” He tried to comfort you but you still weren’t feeling it.

“Okay, I’m going to tell you something. Guys… we don’t know what we’re doing sometimes. We can be idiots but that doesn’t give us an excuse to get away with everything because you don’t deserve to be ignored like that.” You look at him as he ranted out what he thought.

“Maybe… you should call him and hear him out. Decide after you speak to him if you want to cut him off or keep him, get some closure for yourself if anything.”

You nodded at him, feeling like that was probably the best option for you.

“Yeah, I should do that… maybe tomorrow. I don’t want to ruin today with all that.” You smile at him and he smiles back in appreciation.

“You wanna dance then, end the night happy?” He got up and offered you his hand. You took it and he pulled you to the dance floor, allowing you another moment of happiness before you leave and go back home to get yourself ready for patrol.

You just got into your room, your body full of sweat from being around so many people in a confined space. You hope your patrol will go well because you wanted just this one day.

Your dress still intact but your heels were thrown off across your room. You heard a noise in your room and at first you thought it was just an accident with the creaky floorboards but it happened again and with more pressure.

You look toward your closed window, making your way to it and opening the curtains for inspection. As soon as the drapes pulled back, you saw someone you didn’t think you’d see for a while.

The homemade Spider-Man suit was still on his body like the last time you saw him. You gape in surprise at the appearance of Peter without his mask, bloodied up and looking at you, pleading.

You quickly open the window, letting him before you could even think about it. His state stressed you out as he looked like he took a tough beating.

“Peter? Oh my gosh, what happened?” You helped him inside as he struggled. You held his body up as he fell against yours.

“I got him.” He mumbled as his eyes closed a bit, you put him on your bed, he naturally laid down in exhaustion. You went and got a first aid kit you had in your bathroom and came back to see him mumbling to himself.

“Peter, sit up.” You helped him get up and sit up on your bed so you could tend to his wounds.

“I got the bird guy, h-he was going to steal Mr. Stark’s stuff and I stopped him.” He told you as you cleaned his wounds, him wincing in response but still talking.

“D-do you think he’ll be proud of me?” Peter asked you as you put some bandaids over smaller wounds and wrapped up his bigger ones.

You gave Peter a soft smile in reassurance knowing that he was too tired to really understand what he’s doing.

“Yeah, Peter. I think he will.” You laid him down on your bed as you realized he was falling asleep. You heavily sigh as you look at him about to sleep trying to search him for his phone, hoping that he had it hidden somewhere but got no luck.

“By the way, you look really pretty.” He told you before completely passing out. You look at him and don’t know how to feel but you decide to swallow it all, making sure to tell Ned yourself that he was okay and alive before leaving the room and going to sleep next door.

-

Peter woke up to see a young boy staring at him, he sat up and looked around realizing he was in your room, remembering that he came last night after fighting Liz’s dad.

“Who are you?” The boy’s voice brought Peter’s attention back to him and then he realized this was probably your younger brother, Damian.

“U-um, I’m Peter. I-i’m friends with your sister.” Peter was nervous as he knew how protective your brothers were over you and how Damian felt a bit rough on the outside but according to you, he just needed love.

“You don’t go to her school though.” He pointed out, calling Peter out.

“Uh, j-just her friend from… uh-.” Peter was cut off by the door to your room opening and he prayed it was you.

His prayers went answered as your face popped in through the door and you rolled your eyes as you saw Damian.

“Damian, it’s okay. I know him.” Damian just nodded and prepared to leave before you stopped him again. “Also, don’t tell the rest. Please.” You pout at him, trying to persuade him.

Damian just looks blankly at you but you knew he gave in. “It’s none of my business.” Damian left and you smiled, thankful.

You turned back to Peter who was now sitting up in your bed, your smile dropping slightly off your face but still there. Peter’s heart dropped as you held up a facade around him, not showing how you were feeling.

He knew he was an ass by not talking to you for months and he doesn’t even know why he decided to come over to your house last night instead of going to Ned or going home.

“I’m sorry,” Peter said to you to break the silence in the room that felt too heavy being that it was you two.

“How are your injuries?” You ask, ignoring his apology for now because you don’t know what you’re feeling. You knew you were sad but seeing him made you feel a bit angry and you don’t know why.

“T-they’re fine.” Peter frowns at the fact you ignored his apology but he knew he couldn’t leave your place without at least trying to patch things up between you two. You went to look at his bandaged wounds, unraveling some of the gauze to replace it or if the wound was fully healed, to take it off. “Look Y/N I-.”

“Peter.” You cut him off, wrapping up a deeper wound on his arm. Peter sat quietly waiting for you to talk, not wanting to make you mad. “I don’t know what you want me to say, that it’s okay?” You fussed over his injuries a bit more, putting more force as you wrapped up other parts of his arms.

“I just want to apologize.” Peter grit his teeth as you repatched up the old wounds with no mercy. His body did still feels sore from the amount of times he got hurt yesterday but he didn’t bother commenting on it.

“No explanation?” You huffed out, annoyed at how he wasn’t giving you anything else.

“I mean… I needed a break.” You turn to glare at him, looking him wanting to yell at him.

“That’s not what I’m talking about. The month and a half where you just ignored me, didn't even tell me that you were okay. You just left crying and then I didn’t hear from you again.” You keep your voice calm but you can feel your anger catch up to you.

“I had to ask Ned if you were okay because you wouldn’t answer me.” You calm yourself down as you knew you were getting visibly upset.

“You don’t owe me anything, I know. It’s just… I thought we were more than that.” You confess to him, looking away to put back all your first aid supplies. He grabbed your arm stopping you from getting up.

“We were- are!” Peter knew that his excuse of ignoring you is stupid but he didn’t want to lose you completely.

“Yeah, sure.” You scoffed, rolling your eyes. Peter’s hand still had a tough grip on your arm, keeping you in place no matter how much you tried to wiggle out.

“No, I swear! I-I...” Peter stumbled over his words not really knowing what to say to get you to not kick him out. Peter sighed, realizing he needed to tell you.

“The reason why I ghosted you was because I was scared…” You look at him confused as to why he would be scared of you. “I was scared because I knew that if I talked to you I would give into trying to be Spider-Man again and I wasn’t ready for that.”

“Peter, you know I wouldn’t force you to do anything. Yeah, I didn’t completely agree with you giving up Spider-Man but I told you it was okay to take a break.”

“I know and I’m sorry it’s just I feel like you wouldn’t like me if I wasn’t Spider-Man, if I didn’t have the other side of me that we always talked about.” You realized that he was just scared that you wouldn’t like him just being Peter.

“Peter… you know that I don’t think that at all. When I talk to you, I want to talk to Peter, not Spider-Man. Yeah, he’s cool but he’s not all there is to you. You have a lot more going for you than Spider-Man.” You reassure him, his hand had let go of your arm by now and you got up to put your kit away before sitting next to Peter.

“It’s just that you’re so cool and pretty and I feel like I wasn’t enough for you.” He looked at his hands, shy at his confession. His hands tapping against his knees slightly annoying you.

“I would never think you were not enough if you weren’t Spider-Man.” You let him know what he wanted to hear without walking around it. Peter knew that Liz liked him for who he was because she didn't know about Spider-Man but you were a different story.

You were someone who could do no wrong and is someone just out of his league. He couldn’t even compare to you. You were pretty, smart, funny, and you save so many people a day. Since he gave up being Spider-Man, he thought that he would give you up to because what else would you find interesting in him?

But here you were, telling him that Peter Parker was enough for you.

“Really?”

“I swear.” You put your hand on top of his that was still tapping against his knees. You wanted Peter to completely understand you this time.

He looked at you, taken aback by the feeling of your hand against his. He started feeling nervous under your gaze. His eyes looking all over your face, lingering at your lips for a half a second longer and you caught it.

“Y/N, I-” Peter’s mouth went dry at the aspect of saying something to you about how he felt even though you just became friends again but he didn't want to waste this chance.

You cut him off by bringing your face closer to his, your hand going to hold his face.

“Is this okay?” You ask, hoping that he knew what you were alluding to. Peter looked frozen in his spot, his eyes dropping to your lips and back to your eyes frantically making you a bit nervous at the delay.

He just nods after a few seconds of you waiting and you connect your lips with his right away. Maybe it was the fact that it’s been so long since you saw Peter that your feelings for him felt clear after the tiny break. You realized that Peter wasn’t being a dick to be a dick it was just that he needed reassurance and didn’t mean to hurt you.

He was just figuring stuff out so you couldn’t be mad at him for trying to understand his life even if it did hurt you and you don’t like crawling back to people but you knew how sincere Peter is because he let you into his worries, telling you he was insecure of himself.

You can’t blame him for being a teenager, you were also guilty of not having everything figured out.

Peter immediately responded to your kiss, your hand caressed his face as your lips moved together and his hand made its way to your waist slightly rubbing it. His lips felt so soft and even though they were slightly bruised up and chapped, it just felt right. Your hand went up to his hair slightly to feel the soft curls in your hand.

You pull apart because you realized that you shouldn’t put too much pressure on his injury. Peter followed you as you pulled apart, wanting more but you knew that he might start bleeding again.

“Peter, your injury.” You managed to mumble out, pushing his chest slightly because you were getting tempted to continue as well.

Peter just pouted with slightly swollen lips but then came back to reality, realizing he was here in your room and not in Queens.

“Uh- I should probably text May.” Peter patted his suit to see where he put his phone but you shook year head.

“I texted Ned that you were here last night, I told him to tell your aunt about you not coming home.”

“Oh, thanks.” Peter smiled in relief at the fact he won’t get a lecture after getting home.

“I-i uh, I don’t want to leave this unspoken but- I, I really like you.” Peter managed to calm himself down enough to tell you, he knows that you just kissed him but the thought of you actually saying that you liked him felt unreal.

“Kind of figured with the kissing but… I like you too.” You felt shy as you confessed your feelings and Peter smiled brightly at you at the fact that you guys were not just friends anymore.

He didn’t think he would be able to tell you that he liked you, he thought you were on a different level than him. Hearing you say that you liked him made him feel so giddy. The time on your clock shines bright in the corner of his eye making him realize that he did have to get home (sadly).

“I have to-” Peter hesitantly said while pointing to your window, not wanting to leave you right after you both confessed to each other.

“I get it, just… make sure to actually text me this time.” You joked, really hoping that you will get a message after he leaves. Peter winced at the comment, looking guilty again.

“About that, I’m sorry.” You just laughed at him, he was such a cutie you don’t know how you were ever mad at him.

“It’s okay, Peter. I already forgave you! Don’t worry, I’ll talk to you later then.”

“Do you think I should change?” Peter looked down at his outfit and you laughed at the suit. Peter smiling at the sound of hearing your laugh so full after so long of missing you.

“Yeah, I think you should. I have some of Tim’s sweats, he never knows they’re missing. You can wear that and this sweater.” You pulled out some clothes from your closet. You did tend to take some of your brother’s old clothing as they were pretty comfy and nice to sleep in.

Peter thanked you and just put the clothing on top of what he was wearing, you ordered a cab for him to take making sure to slip some money into the pocket of his sweats so he doesn’t worry about the cost.

“I ordered a cab for you so you better take it, it’d be too obvious if your swing around in that. Money’s in your right pocket.” Before Peter could decline, you pushed him towards your window and he started making his way out. His face showing he wasn’t happy about you paying for him but you didn't care.

“I swear I’ll text you as soon as I’m home.” Peter reassured you, making sure you knew he wasn’t going to leave you like that again.

“I can’t wait.” You both smile at each other. Peter climbed down and sneakily exited the manor area.

You can’t believe the past few hours of your life actually happened… You and Peter kissed.

-

So I do have another part for this, if you guys want it just let me know!