#so if jason tries to prevent something from happening

[oifaaa]

does.. does batman still.. happen??

if batman DOES still happen, does batman come across a little Jason Todd and go. aha! I can fix whatever made Old!Jason Like That by adopting this sad little child?

DOES TINY!JASON DIE AGAIN??

I think I'm going with the kind of time travel were it's like no matter how many things you change some things in certain universes are just gonna happen no matter how hard you try to avoid them and I think Bruce becoming batman is one of those things but Jason dying isn't

[bee-a-garbage-shipper]

Red Robin gets hit with a love spell during battle that knocks him out and will make him fall in love with the first person he sees when he wakes up.

The Bats takes him back to the Cave and while they wait for Bruce to get Zatanna or some other magic user to come help break the spell they all agree Red Hood should be who Red Robin sees and he can deal with a lovestruck Red Robin.

Since he'd be the one best able to handle that without the awkwardness of being his ex.

(Steph is his ex, Dick is in Bludhaven, Cass is in Hong Kong and Duke has a girlfriend. Which leaves Bruce. (He refused.) Barbara. (She laughed.) Or Damian. (Everyone agreed it was best not to.) So, Jason is what's left.)

Only, when Tim wakes up and sees Jason, he doesn't act any differently. He just gets up and demands a mission report and tries to go about business as usual, much to everyone's confusion.

(And to the disappointment of Stephanie, who had her phone out ready to record.)

They explain the love spell and wonder why nothing happened and Tim just says that obviously it didn't work and to not worry too much about it.

The spell did work it's just that Tim was already in love with Jason so nothing actually changed outwardly.

Bruce manages to get Zatanna there a few days later and examines Tim, and is also confused because there's definitely a love spell on him and there's no reason it shouldn't be working. To prevent her from looking further into it and making a big deal, Tim, in private, hints at why there might not be any effects.

Zatanna gets it and agrees to remove the spell and say that it just wasn't that strong after all.

Everybody seems to accept that explanation and move on, except for Jason, who knows Tim is hiding something and he's determined to find out what.

(Bruce also realizes that something is up but wants to respect Tim's privacy.)

Inspired by This SuperBat Post with some edits for JayTim.

[sunflowergirl522]

Girlfriend?

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Reader

Summary: The gang finds out Eddie has a girlfriend after he almost dies in the upside down and you come in and fix everything. A shameless fix it fic

Word Count: 1891

“You’re gonna have to look after those little sheep for me okay?”

“No you’re gonna do that yourself!” Dustin cries as he looks down at the man he looked up to laying in his arms.

“Tell me you’ll look after them.”

“I’m gonna look after them.” He can barely get the words out. “But you’re gonna be right there with me, you hear me.”

“Listen I need you to tell my girlfriend I love her, she needs to know that I was still thinking about her in the end.” Dustin can barely register the sentence going into even more shock when he brings up having a girlfriend.

“Your girlfriend?” The thought of Eddie having someone back home gives Dustin a newfound strength as he stands up and carries most of Eddie's weight on his shoulder he propped his friend on. “You’re getting through this, and you’re going to tell her yourself.”

“Even if I make it to the trailer you’ll never be able to get me through the portal. Just promise me you’ll tell her, I’m sure she’s on her way back after the voicemail I left her.” He lets out a chuckle, regardless of how much pain he’s in, at how he’s imagining you leaving your grandma's house in a huff. You were always so adorable when you were angry.

Steve, Nancy, and Robin meet Dustin at Eddie’s trailer and start freaking out immediately at the state Eddie’s in. He can barely pay attention to them slowly feeling his world go dark and fear starts to grip him tightly. He doesn’t even notice when Dustin hands him off to Steve before getting something to climb back in with. He only snaps back into it when Steve slaps him across the face to wake him up.

“What the hell man!” 

“Good, you're still alive. I’m sending him through!” Steve yells to Robin and Nancy through the portal before starting to lift Eddie up. “You’re heavier than you look Munson.” The girls try to catch him but he still falls onto the mattress and groans in pain.

“Shit, careful I’m delicate.”

“This assholes definitely going to be fine.” Steve helps Nancy start to get Eddie’s jacket off once he’s through and looks at Robin and Dustin. “Go get washcloths and some cold water so we can try to keep him awake while we clean him up.”

The cold water and alcohol they pour into his bites helps to bring him away from the brink of death. It’s not too long before he’s able to stand on his own while the others clean his wounds better than just dumping stuff in them. Nancy acts as everyone's nurse as she switches between Eddie and Steve and Dustin while Robin stays by Eddie’s side to make sure he doesn’t start fading on them again.

When the door to his trailer slams open everyone's attention goes to it. They’re expecting it to be the cops or some of Jason's friends so they’re shocked when a fuming girl storms in.

“Edward Joseph Munson! What the fuck is going on?!” You freeze when you take in the scene in front of you. Your eyes widen at the injured teens spread out around the living room before locking eyes with Eddie. Yours softening as you see the state that he’s in. “Eddie? Baby what happened to you?” You're breathless as you take in his still slightly bloody torso and the wound on his neck.

“Sweetheart, what are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?!” Your anger comes back and you start to make your way towards him. “Did you think you could leave me a message like that and I wouldn’t drive all the way home?” 

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Nancy steps in your way to prevent you from getting any closer to Eddie. That just infuriates you more, what’s this girl think she’s doing preventing you from getting to your boyfriend.

“I’m Eddie’s girlfriend. Who are you?” Her eyes go wide and her mouth opens and closes as she tries to find words.

“Girlfriend?” Steve and Robin speak at the same time and look at eachother with wide eyes. Meanwhile you just push past the girl in front of you.

“Jesus christ Eds you’re gonna need stitches.” You inspect the wounds on his sides, hands tentatively touching his skin. “You still have that sewing kit I left here?” He nods still shocked that you’re here when just moments ago he thought he’d never see you again. When you go to grab it from his room Dustin smiles and looks at Eddie.

“I like her.”

“Yeah me too.” Eddie can’t help but smile when he sees you coming back from his room already starting to rummage through the bag.

“What are you smiling at?”

“You.”

“Did they already clean these?” You roll your eyes and ignore his response as you pull a chair out and sit next to him. Eddie nods down at you watching as you start to thread your needle.

“Woah what are you doing?” Robin asks, rushing closer to the two of you.

“Stitching up my boyfriend, what does it look like?” Eddie flinches as you start your work. “Don’t worry I’ve cleaned him up enough after bar fights to know what I’m doing.”

“She’s gonna be my own personal nurse once she’s done with school.” The way he stares down at you with lovestruck eyes leaves everyone silent again. 

“Hi, I’m Dustin.” He limps over to sit next to you and extends his hand.

“Hi Dustin, I’m Y/n. I’d shake your hand if I wasn’t preoccupied.” You glance at him out of the corner of your eye.

“Right, right.”

“It’s nice to meet you though, Eddie’s told me a lot about you. Says you’re like the little brother he never had.” 

You and Dustin fall into comfortable conversation while you work, the others observing and trying to get a hold of Lucas, Max, or Erica. You tell Dustin about how you were in school with Eddie and you started dating sophomore year after you asked him to teach you how to play DnD so you could play with your cousins. You had never joined Hellfire club but you would constantly sit in on their campaigns. You tell him about how he was supposed to graduate with you originally and how he failed the next year because he spent too much time visiting you instead of going to school. And then Dustin told you about how he met Eddie and all the fun times they’ve had before explaining what’s been going on and why Eddie’s so injured.

“Yeah, that explains why doofus here left me a message telling me how much he loves me and that if he doesn’t make it to take good care of his baby.”

“You have a kid?” 

“God no, he meant his guitar.”

“Baby you should’ve seen me in there, I put on the most metal show of my life! Finally got to play Master of Puppets.”

“Did you finally perfect it?” You can’t hide your excitement about it and he nods at you. “You’ll have to play it for me when you’re all healed up.” With that you finish closing up his other wound and back up from him.

“You’re not gonna kiss them better Sweetheart?”

“I’m still mad at you Edward, you had me scared half to death.”

“Edward?” Steve snickers after hearing Eddie's full name for the first time, not having been paying attention when you yelled it earlier.

“Shut it Harrington.” 

“Who are you guys again?” You turn to face the three young adults across the room from you.

“I’m Robin. This is Nancy and Steve, we're sorta friends with Eddie, mainly Dustins though.”

“Well thank you guys for taking care of him, sorry I was so rude when I first got here. I was just worried about him.”

“It’s cool.” It’s then that Lucas and Erica burst into the trailer.

“Jesus Sinclair what happened to you?”

“Max is in the hospital, they don’t know if she’s gonna make it, we need to go.” Lucas says in a rush the same time Erica answers ‘Jason.’ As everyone piles into Steve's car you hang back with Eddie and Dustin pauses and glances between the others and you guys.

“Hey, what do we do about Eddie?”

“I have an idea about that actually. Do you guys think you could drop us off wherever he stashed his van?”

They don’t see or hear from either of you for two days. After getting dropped off at the van you rushed him into it before hopping in the driver's seat and heading to your grandmas so he could shower and get some clean clothes on before resting while you figure out exactly how to go about your plan. Once eddie was rested enough up you’d drive back to Hawkins with him and tell the police a lie about how he’s been helping you take care of your ill grandma so he hasn’t even been in town to commit these murders. You’d then bring up how Jason never liked him and he knew most of the victims so it made sense for him to be the real murderer and to frame Eddie. You had only been in contact once with Dustin with him telling you that Jason died during the ‘earthquake’ and that he had attacked Lucas. So that could help play into your plan, you asked him if Lucas would be alright with hinting that Jason was the one to attack Max and haven’t spoken to him since.

“Hey, don’t be nervous, it's all going to work out okay?” You grab one of Eddie's hands as he drives into Hawkins. You could tell he was getting lost in his head.

“What if they just bring you down with me?”

“They won’t, you have an airtight alibi now so you aren’t even going down. My grandma said she’d even vouch for you being there if they need to ask her because she loves you and knows you could never do something like that.” You kiss his cheek when he pulls into the police station parking lot. “Just relax Eddie bear. Let me make it all better.” 

“Eddie!” Dustin yelled running towards him when he spots the two of you in the school's gym.

“Careful Henderson, I’m still injured.” He holds Dustin back when he goes to hug him.

“Did it work?” The younger kid looks over at you with curious eyes.

“Like a charm. Really we have Lucas to thank for that though, if he wouldn’t have been on board with the whole lying to the cops thing I don’t know if they ever would’ve eaten up the whole Jason theory the way they did. There should be a report about it on the news soon.”

“Eddie? Y/n?” Wayne drops his bag when he spots his nephew. “Thank God you’re okay.” He tears up as he pulls Eddie into a hug and you let go of his hand so he can properly hold him back knowing that he’s going to get emotional too. When the two of them part, Wayne looks over at you. “C’mere.” He pulls you into a hug too before whispering in your ear. “Thank you for taking care of my boy.”

“I always will, you know that.”

Eddie Taglist: @starbxcks​

[incorrectbatfam]

The time travel fix it trope but it's Alfred. It's been Alfred for a long long time.

Ok but imagine:

Alfred tries to fix things by going back to the day at the movie theater and preventing Thomas and Martha's deaths. He thinks that should be it, that should make everything okay because it was the root of all the problems, right?

He then returns to the present. Thomas, Martha, and Bruce are all older. Bruce is now in charge of Wayne Enterprises. The Manor is always bustling with galas, dinner parties, and visits from important guests and business partners. Alfred goes back to his job as the butler, but after a while, he realizes what he's done.

With Thomas and Martha alive, Bruce has no reason to become Batman. Without Batman, Dick Grayson grows up floating from one foster home to the next until he aged out and was left to his own devices. Jason Todd manages to claw his way out the gutter but he's a completely different person. Tim Drake begrudgingly follows his parents' footsteps and becomes another fake smile on the cover of a magazine. Barbara Gordon pursues an ordinary job that she doesn't like. Stephanie Brown, Duke Thomas, and Cassandra Cain are all lost in the conversation. Damian Wayne never existed. Crime and villainy are rampant but Bruce is safe and far removed. There's no Justice League. No Titans or Young Justice or Birds of Prey. No batfamily. No warmth.

So Alfred goes back. He travels back to when his first iteration was going to save Thomas and Martha, and he stops himself. The Waynes are murdered in that alleyway and it breaks Alfred's heart all over again, but it's the only way to set things straight. Or so he hopes.

Holding his breath, he goes back to the present-day Manor. Of course, the first person he sees is Bruce and of course Bruce immediately picks up that something happened because he is, after all, the World's Greatest Detective. Alfred ignores him and, to his relief, finds the Batcave entrance in the clock.

Dick and Tim are going through a set of cold cases that Tim thinks might be interconnected. Steph is recounting her fight to the Riddler to Cass and Babs. Jason is holding something out of Damian's reach and Duke is giving Damian a little boost. Kate and Bette are helping each other wipe clay off their uniforms while Harper and Cullen test a prototype taser on a dummy. Luke is calibrating his armor. Helena is sharpening her arrows. Selina is opening a fortune cookie from their post-patrol takeout. Ace and Titus are fighting over a chew toy while the cat naps on the keyboard.

They're all there.

Bruce catches up and asks, "Alfred, is something wrong?"

Alfred shakes it off and composes himself. "Not at all, Master Bruce. Why do you ask?"

"Just making sure," Bruce says before he goes and joins the family.

Alfred's family.

Not perfect, but whole.

Just the way it should be.

[aezuria]

*ੈ✎ two boys (one to kiss your neck and one to bring you breakfast)

note: guys this wasnt supposed to be my first work here but it came to me the easiest 😔😔 song title is bike dream by rostum 😍this isnt like the meaning of the song tho dw

content: leo valdez x reader, jason x reader; dating hcs

*ੈ LEO VALDEZ

loves affectionately and openly

he'll peck your lips in front of everyone without a care in the world, as if after he's had a taste of your touch, he can't go a second without it (he'd probably make out with you if you let him)

he follows you everywhere, even trying to go with you while you shower (he'll never go inside the actual shower unless you want to)

"leo, as much as i love you, no. not today at least!"

"i'll just sit on the toilet seat, i swear! and i can talk about all my cool inventions!"

(maybe you'll change your mind?)

has to have a hand on you at all times

even a pinky will do for him

he loves holding pinkies actually, he thinks its so cute

will make you pinky promise not to snitch on him when he blurts out a new prank idea in the works

loves overexaggerating gentlemanly acts?? for the sillies

like he'll bow down to a 90 degree angle and swoop an arm out while the other kisses your hand

opens the car door for you like an escort

"for you, milady!" and does a cheeky little wink as he bows

he loves it when you play along like a rich noble from the 1800s

showers you with the metal work he does

he'll make you cute little rings and necklaces if you like jewelry

or metal flowers that'll never wilt

or something more practical, like a switchblade if you like those

either wakes up at 5am or sleeps in until noon there is no in between

or maybe he stays up until 5am because one time you caught him slipping out of bed to finish up the gift he was making you

"leo? what are you doing up?" you rub your eyes sleepily as you catch him at his desk, the lamp you gifted him glowing dimly

he startles and shoves (gently) the scraps of metal you see behind his arm

he grins sheepishly and rests his hand on his fist, positioning himself so you wouldn't see what he was making

"uh.. nothing! just finishing something!" he doesn't lie per se, but he'd rather not tell you the whole truth just yet (he loves how your face lights up when he presents another gift to you)

being the half-asleep mess you are, you didn't notice much

"alright.. just go to sleep soon, okay?" you yawn and turn back around to head back to bed.

"will do!" he whisper-shouts after you and sighs to himself in relief once you leave. close call!

you find a warm blanket preventing you from getting up the next morning, which just happened to be leo, his arms wrapped around your waist as if you were a pillow

a few more hours of sleep can't hurt, right?

*ੈ JASON GRACE

he's a bit shy to love

doesn't really do pda, but he'll hold your hand lotsss

if you guys started dating but didn't announce it, no one would catch on until they see you and jason holding hands (that took a lot of courage on his end btw)

after that he was a bit more open about it

i feel like he's kind of awkward at first

he tried to sneak up behind you one time and hug you but you turned around too soon and accidentally rammed your head into his chin

he tried to play it off because he's too cool to be embarrassed (his face was bright red)

can and will pick you up

it all started when you guys were running from monsters but your leg was injured so you couldn't move that fast and he literally just swooped you up bridal style and RAN

ran like the wind, even (haha guys pls laugh)

literally sprinting even as he carries a whole person like you were nothing

you fell in love (again)

he found out you like it when he does that so he'll do it randomly

"so then i said-" you were cut off with a yelp as jason picked you up off the bed and carried you in his arms, swinging you gently with a smile on his face

you pause in your storytelling, blinking at him as you grow increasingly flustered

he merely nods at you, saying, "keep going, i'm listening."

OH MY GOODNESS

tried to do reps with you after but you kept laughing

acts of service is so him

when you complain about it being too hot, he'll send a cool breeze your way

if you ask him if he did that, he'll play dumb

it was sweltering outside, the summer heat even worse as the both of you hiked up a trail

"gods, it's so hot!" you complained, taking a long swig of your water

jason hummed his agreement, and shortly after you felt a weird breeze out of nowhere

you pause, eyeing the demigod in front of you

"jason?"

"yeah?"

"did you do that?" you prod at his back teasingly, the smile evident in your voice

"i have no idea what you're talking about."

[kimjun]

𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 | Jason Todd x reader

Jason always called after missions, it was something common for you. You were arranging the clothes for your baby who was sleeping in the middle of the bed.Your phone rang, smiling you saw Jason's name, you quickly answered it.

"Love"

Jason's lips spread into a soft smile when he heard your voice on the other end of the line, he was so happy that you answered, sometimes you took a while to answer because you were busy taking care of the baby, always doing something that prevented you from responding quickly.

"Are you okay, love? Getting some sleep?"

Ever since the baby was born, sleeping was something you couldn't do very often, not because the baby cried, but because of the fear that something would happen while you slept.

"It's okay, I miss you… We missed you, say hi to baby daddy"Jason can hear the baby's whimpers.

"Sleeping is still a problem, but we'll figure it out… Are you okay, love?"

Jason almost laughs, he's on the floor with bullet holes all over his body, he doesn't know how he can talk to you without looking like he's dying.

He was watching the stars while talking on his cell phone, he is happy that you answered, he was hoping to have one last call with you. Because he's not coming home.

"Baby, I love you, stay safe, okay?"Jason tries to hide his tears, the thought that he won't see you or your baby grow up hurts more than the bullets in his body.

"I love you too, stay safe and come back to us"

Jason smiles.

"Bruce is waiting for you at the mansion, stay there for a while please, I need to hang up baby, I love you."

Jason hung up.

—I am really sorry honey.

The last breath came out.

[spidernuggets]

Jason Todd x Reader

"Where are you going? Look, the Titans needs us-"

"Fuck them, Rose. Fuck all of you"

"Jason, please! Where are you gonna go?? We can figure something out!"

When Jason left with Rose out of Gotham City, you were heartbroken. You kept a one-sided love hidden, thinking it would be too selfish to confess your feelings to him while he's in an unstable state of self hatred. But when Dick revealed that he killed Deathstroke's son just moments after you managed to get Jason to step away from the ledge, you almost let your secret slip when Jason was swiftly packing his things as you begged him to stay.

"Figure what out, Y/N? Huh? Why are you even staying? Almost everyone is leaving anyway, and Dick is just a liar," Jason argued, stuffing his duffle bag with whatever clothes he could find.

"Because the Titans are the only family I have! At least Gar is staying. But you don't have to leave, Jay"

"And why shouldn't I? There's nothing for me here. Everyone hates me, hell, even you probably hate me. You only got me off the roof out of pity"

"That's not true, Jason."

"Then why else would you?!"

"Because I-" You quickly stop yourself, knowing things would only become worse if your feelings were revealed. So you took a deep breath and took a second to calmed down.

"Because you're my friend, Jay. One of the best friends I ever had. And I don't want you to leave," you say quietly.

Jason stared at you for a couple of seconds before taking your hand in his. "Then come with us. You don't have to do everything Dick tells you to anymore, no more lies, no more half truths."

You sighed, "I can't."

"Why not?"

"Yeah, I don't think I like the idea of third wheeling you and Rose," you try to joke, but your heart actually aching at the thought. "But seriously, I don't think leaving is a good idea, especially with Deathstroke around. And being alone with his daughter, I mean-"

"Wait, what you don't trust her or something?" Jason interrupts you, taking slight offence.

"I'm just saying to be cautious, Jason. I mean, Deathstroke already kidnapped you once and-"

"And what? You think Rose is working with him? Jesus Christ, and I thought I was fucked up," He scoffs. "Y'know, Rose admired that I made it out alive from her dad. I managed to make it out alive, and you still think I'm weak?"

"Jason, I never said that!-"

"Nah, fuck this, you're just like everyone else here," Jason says, zipping his bag close and storming out the room.

"Jason!" You tried calling out, just for him to ignore.

-

"What, was it part of Daddy's training to fuck me this whole time?!" Jason yells at Rose. "I'm done with this shit," he says, grabbing his bag, starting to leave the home the two raided.

Rose quickly grabbed onto his arm to prevent him from leaving.

"Look, none of this was supposed to happen. It just did," she tries to tell him, but he ignores her, tearing his arm away from her grip.

"Get the fuck off me." He cries, and as if by reflex, Rose strikes a punch at him, blood quickly falling down his now broken nose.

"C'mon! Fight me! You know you want to!" She says in desperation.

Jason sends a cold stare. "Are we done?" She doesn't reply, tears building up in her eye. "We're done," he says, walking towards the door as Rose cries.

"Where are you going? Look the Titans needs us!" She calls out to him as he reaches the door.

"Fuck them, Rose. Fuck all of you," he replies, finally walking out the door with only one thing on his mind.

You.

He hailed the first cab he could find, telling the driver to head back to Gotham City.

All he could think about was how stupid he was to you. You were right, and he just left you like you were nothing. You saved him, and he treated you like dirt. You said he was your friend, and he abandoned you.

He rushed out the taxi after paying the driver, running up to the small apartment you were living at. You spent most of your time in Titan's Tower, but went back to your place when you wanted to be fully alone.

Your apartment was only big enough for one person, granted there were ants here and there, and a little mould growing in some places, but you saw it as your own place.

Jason knocked on your door three times, followed by a call of your name. He knocked again, a little louder, and a little more desperate. What if you weren't home? He couldn't go back to Titans Tower, he wasn't ready to see everyone else.

When no one answered, his shoulders slumped, and was about to walk away.

But your door opened, and you appeared on the other side, rubbing your red eyes with a fluffy blanket draped over your shoulders and your hair running wild as it was tangled and bunched all over the place.

"Jesus, who died," you say groggily, having not registered who knocked on your door.

Jason's eyes brightened as he returned to the front of your door.

"Y/n.." He softly called out. You stopped rubbing your eyes as you looked up at him, eyes widening as you couldn't believe Jason was standing right in front of you.

"Jason.." You replied, not knowing what to say. "How have you- uhm.. D'you wanna come in?" You awkwardly offered, Jason nodding as you stepped aside for him to walk in.

You directed him towards the couch. "Uh.. do you want something to drink or..."

"No." Jason quickly replies. "I- I just needa talk to you."

You nod, walking over to sit beside him on the couch.

"So.."

"I'm sorry," he says, looking at you with those glassy eyes. "You were right. Rose was spying on me, working with Deathstroke, you were right. I should've listened to you, I should've stayed. Just- just say I told you so and-"

You interrupted Jason by lunging towards him, blanket falling off as you wrapped your arms around him. "I'm so glad you're back," you said, your voice muffled.

Jason sits there in shock, slowly wrapping his arms around your middle. "You- You're not mad?"

You pull away, "Why would I be mad?" You ask, hands boldly reaching up to hold his face.

"Why wouldn't you be! I treated you like shit! I didn't listen to you, then I just left! How could not hate me?" He says in an outburst.

All you do is sigh and look away.

"What? What is it?" Jason asks.

"It's because I love you, Jay," you finally confess. Jason's eyes widened and was left speechless. All he could do was lean closer as his gaze shift down to your lips.

You lightly chuckle as you olace a hand against his chest to stop him.

"Stop. You're only doing that because of guilt," You say.

But Jason shakes his head. "No. No, I don't believe I am," he replies. "You've no idea how much I wanted this. Ever since you joined the team, I promise you."

You sighed. "Listen, you just parted ways with Rose, I don't actually think you-"

"A chance," he interrupts. "Give me a chance to show you how much I care for you. How much I feel the same for you. Take you out on dates, give you flowers, whatever. Just a chance, and if you still don't believe it, fine, I leave you be. But a chance is all I beg for."

You look down at your fiddling fingers, eyebrows furrowed, wondering whether or not he's telling the truth.

"One chance," you say. "One chance and one chance only. If you screw this up, then that's that."

Yeah I didn't really know how to finish it off, like I had the idea for the start but didn't know how to make the rest of the story so its pretty shit, but at the same time, its 2am so whatevah

Jason smiles, bringing you in for a tight embrace. "You won't regret it, I promise you, mama."

[mysadcorner]

Hey there! Can I ask for being ex's with Jason Todd and he broke up with reader because he thought she would be better off/safer without him, but now he wants her back hcss

Jason Todd Breakup Headcanons

-Credit to the gifs owner - Please be specific about characters wanted in requests -

Masterlist Navigation

Jason would have to take a lot of time to think about breaking up with you before he does it, and he certainly doesn't want to. But his constant thoughts of you getting into danger or being hurt like he was because of his lifestyle he can't think of another option in order to keep you safe.

When he does break up with you he tries his best to stay emotionless and will keep all emotion in until he's walked away from you and you can't see him if he can. He wants to break things off as clean as possible, and in doing this emotionally he can hopefully prevent you from trying to make him stay.

Jason instantly has regret about what he did and leaving you but he sticks to his decision as he feels like it's to late to turn back. He's believed he was doing the right thing for a long time and doesn't want to instantly ruin the plan he's decided on just to potentially put you in danger for a longer amount of time.

The regret eats him alive and he's in pain because of the break up for an incredibly long time, it may even be something he never recovers from. However, he firmly believes that you're a lot safer now without him and hopes you're doing well without him putting your life at risk.

He's so angry and stressed about the breakup that he forces himself into crime fighting binges and constantly puts himself in danger to get in as many fights as he can whilst getting rid of crime in Gotham at the same time. By doing this Jason is able to get out everything the breakup has been fuelling inside of him while also making Gotham a safer place for you to live in, even if he can't be with you.

After doing this for so long he realises that these feelings won't go away and that he can't cope without you. You calmed him and humbled him during the times he was ready to go on rampages and he realises that without you he'll only cause more terror and damage in the city than good, which is the opposite to what he wanted from his actions.

Jason will start to watch you from a distance in order to get closer to you again without directly putting you in danger again. He's desperate to see you with his own eyes and the idea of something happening to you without him knowing further pushes him to watch over you and protect you without you potentially realising that he's there.

If you've moved on from Jason he'd be absolutely heartbroken and consumed by his own anger. He'd act out and would potentially put himself in many life threatening situations just to distract himself, and he'll get seriously hurt as a result. People he's close to would try to intervene, but to Jason it would be too late to change anything and may even result in behaviour stemming from his Arkham Knight days.

If you don't move on and you're just as hurt by the breakup as he is then he'll be incredibly upset by it. He would instantly realise how much of a mistake it was to leave you, especially in the way that he did it, so he makes it his new goal to make you happy again and ensure your safety by being close to you as much as he can rather than keeping his distance.

He'd approach you on a quiet night when he doesn't have much crime to deal with and would try to sit you down for a long conversation where he's honest and open with you. He'd be severely upset and emotional during the conversation but his main point would be apologising to you and asking for another chance if you'd give it to him.

[torscrawls]

The Suspicious Wayne Family

Summary:

“Well, several of them have come back from the dead so I just had to check it out for myself!”

Tim felt himself go cold. “…How do you know that?”

“Ghosts take note if someone manages to come back from the dead, you know?” Phantom leaned in and lowered his voice as if sharing an embarrassing secret, “It’s a terrible faux pas.”

Phantom comes to Tim with some concerns about the Wayne family. Tim really isn’t ready to deal with this.

Words: 2 023

Can be read on AO3!

-

“Augh!” Phantom groaned as he slumped across Tim’s desk in the Watchtower, utterly ignoring the fact that Tim was very much in the middle of work.

Tim, used to several dramatic siblings without any concept of personal space, simply sighed and tried to shove him off the desk. “Can you go be dramatic somewhere else? Some people are actually trying to get some work done.”

Phantom ignored him as he fused himself halfway into the desk, preventing Tim from depositing him onto the floor, much to Tim’s annoyance. Instead, Phantom groaned and splayed his arms wider, completely blocking Tim’s view of the screen. “You wouldn’t believe what just happened!”

Tim heaved a deep sigh as he gave up on work for now, leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and asked, “Alright, I’ll bite. What happened?”

Phantom immediately perked up. “Thanks for asking! You see, I was minding my own business—”

“Getting up to your usual shit,” Tim muttered under his breath as he sipped his coffee.

Phantom ignored him as he continued, “—when I ran across this huge house and there was this guy inside, which I know isn’t that strange by itself. But! He was reaaal big, and he had this white strip in his hair, which, I know, is a bit hypocritical for me to comment on, but this guy looked like such a try-hard—but anyway, he just attacked me on sight! With guns! Sure, they were regular guns, not ecto ones, so you know, I was fine, but still! So rude!”

Tim choked on his coffee. A huge and angry guy in a big house with white in his hair? That sounded awfully familiar… Hadn’t Jason mentioned that he would drop by the mansion today? Tim coughed to clear his throat and then managed a weak, “That’s… weird.”

Ah. So that’s what Damian had meant when he called in a disturbance in the air earlier. They hadn’t believed him since the cameras hadn’t picked anything up, but if it had been a ghost… Maybe he owed his little brother an excuse. Not that he would ever admit that to said little brother, but still. And that also meant that Phantom had definitely been in the Wayne mansion.

Tim sucked in a deep breath. “That’s definitely worrying.” Phantom didn’t need to know that he wasn't talking about him getting attacked by a sword. Why the fuck had Phantom been at their house?!

Phantom nodded with a laugh. “Right? We didn't even know each other yet! Usually people don’t attack me with a sword until I’ve at least introduced myself first. Or, well, not always, but I can usually at least figure out why they attack me, you know?”

Tim didn’t know and decided not to comment on that worrying statement, instead focusing on gathering information instead. Familiar territory and all that. “What were you even doing in a random big house in the first place?”

“Not just any house!” Phantom wagged his finger. “They’re the Waynes! Which, okay, I didn’t really know a lot about them but my friend said that they are famous or something. And I believe her! The house was like a mansion!”

“Alright,” Tim allowed, congratulating himself on how unbothered he sounded as he parsed through Phantom’s excited rambling. “Why were you in the Wayne mansion, then?”

“Well, several of them have come back from the dead so I just had to check it out for myself!”

Tim felt himself go cold. “…How do you know that?”

“Ghosts take note if someone manages to come back from the dead, you know?” Phantom leaned in and lowered his voice as if sharing an embarrassing secret, “It’s a terrible faux pas.”

“Right. Of course.”

“Yeah!” Phantom nodded before pausing with a frown. “Wait. How do you know that they have died?”

“Of course I do. I’m a detective in Gotham and they are well-known in the city.”

“Hmmm…” Phantom trailed off, and Tim was tensing up in preparation for an argument, but then the ghost perked up as if remembering something. “And Bruce! Bruce Wayne! I’m pretty sure he trains his kids to be like child soldiers or something. Maybe he even uses them as his minions in secret evil schemes!”

Tim felt himself start to sweat. “Let’s—let’s talk to Batman about this.”

“The Gigabat? Why?”

“He might know the best approach.” Might know any approach, cause Tim certainly didn't.

“Alright. Sure,” Phantom agreed easily and followed as Tim hurried out into the corridor, seemingly blissfully unaware of the panic he had caused.

How on earth had they been noted by ghosts without knowing about it? How had Phantom managed to stumble upon this information? If had managed to find the mansion, what else had he managed to put together…? Had he seen the cave?

Tim pushed upon the door to Bruce’s office and walked in as confidently as he could manage at the moment. “B? Phantom has some… concerns he wants to bring up.”

Bruce had turned away from his screens as they entered the room, no doubt ready to admonish them for disturbing him, but something in Tim’s voice must have tipped him off that something was going on because he turned fully towards them and simply demanded, “What is it?”

Phantom didn’t waste any time before bluntly stating, “I think we should investigate the Wayne family. I think they might be a crime syndicate, possibly even supervillains.”

It wasn’t often that Tim saw Bruce at a loss for words. Tim couldn’t blame him as he himself had to restrain himself not to visibly wince at Phantom’s words.

Phantom on the other hand seemed not to notice as he continued, “I thought you would like to know, what with them being in Gotham and all? Really, I’m surprised you didn’t know about them already.”

“Why would you assume they are supervillains?” Bruce asked and Tim was impressed by how calm he sounded.

“Oh, well, you know… The kids all have obvious combat training, the house is riddled with weapons, and the family seems awfully involved with all the major catastrophes in Gotham as well as all the major villains,” Phantom said casually before pausing as he tapped a finger to his lips in thought and adding as an afterthought, “and, of course, because of the secret lair beneath the mansion.”

Well, that answered Tim’s earlier question whether he had seen the Batcave or not. He was very grateful for Bruce and his frankly terrifying poker face as the older man just said, “That’s quite the list…”

Phantom beamed. “Thank you!”

“And why did you start investigating them?”

“Well, on top of all the gossiping grannies mobbing me in the Zone to talk about the young men using the afterlife like some sort of revolving door, I know a thing or two about evil billionaires with hidden identities and Bruce Wayne just screams secrets, you know?”

Bruce didn’t answer, Tim just stared. Phantom clapped his hands, “So. When are we starting the investigation?”

Bruce shook his head, took a deep breath and said, “We’re not investigating them.”

Phantom looked surprised for a split second before raising a single eyebrow, “Is it because he’s so rich? Oh! Is that why you have so many expensive gadgets?”

“What.”

“I mean, that’s why you want to look the other way, right? Because he pays you?” Phantom turned wide eyes on Tim. “All of you?”

Bruce simply stared as Tim managed a weak, “No?” Even if, technically, he was getting paid by Bruce Wayne.

Phantom leaned in closer to Tim and whispered. “Do you guys need help? I’ve beaten up billionaires before, I can do it again.”

“Thanks? But no thanks. Please don’t beat up Bruce Wayne.”

Phantom gasped, turning back to Bruce with way too much delight in his eyes. “It’s consensual? Wait. Does that mean he's your sugar daddy?!”

“This conversation is over.”

“What?! Why?”

“You can’t come in here with baseless assumptions about civilians and expect me to play along.”

“Alright. Not your sugar daddy, I get it,” Phantom said with a wink towards Tim, “But I thought you guys would want to at least look into it a bit more?”

“They Waynes are not a problem,” Bruce all but growled out.

Phantom raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?” The words said as a challenge but Tim could see no anger or annoyance in Phantom’s expression, hear nothing but glee in his voice. It was as if he didn’t want Bruce to really look into them, as if he was just looking to rile him up.

Something about the whole situation made Tim pause.

It was a bit strange that Phantom came to them with this, wasn't it? He had no reason to think that they were connected to the Waynes by more than the city they lived in. He usually did his own thing, and he had done that by going to the mansion at first, hadn't he? So what had changed? Why had he decided to involve Tim?

The glee, the probing questions, the way he slowly revealed more information… It was almost as if he—

“Wait a second. You know!”

Phantom burst out laughing. “Finally! Ancients, I thought you would see through me in like one second flat!”

Tim punched him in the arm. “You’re such an ass! I can’t believe you!” Phantom just kept on cackling.

Unsurprisingly, Bruce seemed to catch on pretty quickly as he stood up from his chair, looming over Phantom threateningly. Or trying to, as Phantom was still floating a good few feet in the air. “And you figured this out from other ghosts?”

Phantom snorted and wiped at his eyes. “Mostly. Contrary to popular belief, the dead do talk. But I wouldn’t worry too much about it, not many of them ever visit the Human Realm and I can guarantee that they have no idea who you are. They are not up to date when it comes to human affairs.”

Bruce frowned and Tim immediately recognized his patented brooding face. “That’s a security risk I hadn’t considered.”

It must have hurt him to admit it, but Tim couldn’t really take any joy in it; he was right there with him. Tim groaned as he dragged a hand through his hair. “Aren’t they supposed to not tell any secrets?!”

Phantom laughed, shaking his head. “Oh, they very much do.”

“Well, considering a certain someone, I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise,” Tim said with a pointed look at Phantom.

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!” Phantom exclaimed in mock anger. “Have you guys considered not dying? I mean, man, I thought I had a problem with staying alive.”

Bruce cut them off with a no-nonsense, “You will not tell anyone about this.”

Phantom mimed zipping his lips shut. “Silent as the grave.” Then he pursed them in thought before adding, “On one condition.”

Tim saw the way Bruce tensed and couldn’t help the way he himself also tensed with anticipation. Phantom could ask for anything.

“What?” Bruce asked bitingly.

“I want some of those cookies that were in the oven. They smelled amaaaazing!”

Bruce silently turned back to his monitor, not gracing that with an answer. Tim grabbed a hold of Phantom’s—thankfully currently corporeal—arm and dragged him from the room as he said, “I’m sure Alfred would love to give you some cookies. You can come over for dinner and we can talk.” Tim paused and then continued, “And you can explain what’s going on to Jason and Damian. I’m sure they’re both freaking out.”

“Non-living dinner?” Phantom asked hopefully and the bizarre question almost made Tim stop walking.

“Yeah? Alfred usually cooks it first.”

“Sure, but, you know, does it stay dead?”

“Yes?” Tim asked with equal parts incredulity and dread.

“Alright!” Phantom beamed. “Count me in!”

Tim had a feeling that he had just made a grave mistake.

[confused-wanderer]

TW: mentions of touch-starvation, brief mention of thoughts of suicide (just one line, nobody actually dies)

Hug me

Cass was new. New to life, new to everything. But she was fluent in the langue of the body, and could always hear it whispering away their secrets to anyone that could hear them. And that was only Cass.

Now she’s in front of a child whose posture screams for comfort, on the verge of a breakdown. It screams for warmth. It screams two words:

HUG ME

Cass doesn’t move - simply stares at him from a distance, watching and waiting. But then Steph is behind her, and nudges Cass aside before crouching in front of the child and opening her arms up. The child shrinks, flinching and folding into himself with choked sobs, and Cass listens to Steph kindly asking the kid for permission to let her in, telling him he’ll be safe and warm and she’ll listen to him. She tells him he’ll be safe, and whispers to his heart to trust her.

Cass watches this all happen without a single word being spoken. Afterwards, Steph asks Cass why she didn’t do anything. Cass can hear the question that she never says though:

You’ve stayed with us, you’ve seen our family comfort people in distress, and you know this kid needed it. So why didn’t you do anything?

Unfortunately, Steph couldn’t notice the silent question Cass is begging her to answer.

Why was this kid different from their family?

The family where Nightwing tries to hide by hugging himself, fingers closing around whatever he was sitting on to prevent himself from launching himself at a family member. How Jason refuses to be close to them, because every step he takes towards them Cass can hear him screaming that he desperately wants a hug. That he wants someone to offer, and he wants them to hug him even when he half-heartedly threatens to shoot them if they don’t let go. Cass is convinced he’d then turn the trigger onto himself if they did.

The way Bruce suddenly curls in on himself like a child, arms tightening around each other in a desperate attempt to console himself. And Tim does the same. As does Damian. As does Stephanie, as does Barbara, and the list goes on and on. They were all in pain too. But nobody ever did anything, and Cass thought that that was how you dealt with pain.

But the longer Stephanie tries to explain to her how one must help those in pain, the longer she sees Nightwing refuse to leave a single family member struggling if he notices, the longer she sees Jason spend nights in alleys so the kids can rest easy knowing they’re safe, the longer she sees Tim hesitantly stay with a teen so she won’t be alone, or Damian always making sure all the strays he’s collected never have a wound untreated, she realises something that sends a chill down her spine.

Her family was eerily good with words. With languages they’d been taught over the years. But they still did not know each other’s language of pain. They weren’t ignorant, Cass realises. They were deaf.

And so nobody could ever hear each other’s heart break. Nobody could hear the deafening noise of each other’s body chattering from the coldness of loneliness.

Nobody, except Cass.

[stealingyourbones]

Jason’s body isn’t meant to exist in the mortal plane. His existence is an affront to reality. It started a year or so after being revived. Jason’s body is wracked with pain as his body flickers with unearthly static, his soul rebelling against being in the wrong plane of existence. The first episode lasted only a second or two but it felt like hours. After that night, the episodes of glitching back in and out of reality became more and more frequent. Jason tried his best to prevent any and all confrontations with his family. He didn't want to worry them that he was slowly dying. His spirit forcibly trying to go back to the afterlife when all he wanted to do was stay alive.

The episodes happen every week now and last a minute or more. Each one saps Jason of all of his energy and strength. Jason spends many days just staring, eyes unfocused towards the ceiling, and just wishing for hours on end for the pain to stop.

—

Danny first saw the boy around three years ago. A teenager with a white streak in his hair kneeling on a nonexistent surface and clutching his head. His mouth was open to yell but Danny couldn't hear his scream. The figure flickered in and out of existence like jarbled tv static for only a moment before he vanished.

Danny tried to figure out ways to locate the man but came up with nothing. He put the issue behind him as his new title of Ghost King required almost all of his available free time. For two years he has spotted the screaming man flickering in and out in the Ghost Zone. The man has been appearing more frequently now. He wears different clothes each time, sometimes wearing a strange red helmet, but his position is still the exact same: Curled in a ball, hands clutching his head, and mouth open in a silent scream. Each time he would flicker in and out of existence before vanishing back to where he originally came from. 

Danny didn’t know what to do, he never saw anything like this before and felt helpless. He contacted Frostbite who couldn't find any previous examples of this happening in the Ghost Zone. Contacting Clockwork the man just smiled and told Danny that everything is happening exactly the way it should.

One episode of the screaming man changed everything. He appeared directly next to Danny. The man was without his helmet, he was dripping sweat and his eyes were glazed over in pain. Danny acted on impulse and knelt down to the man to rest a hand on his shoulder to ground him. 

The second Danny touched the man’s shoulder he cried out in agony as he felt the mans pain as if it was his own. God, he’s seen this person for the past three years and did nothing as this man suffered to this extent? Through the pain, Danny promised himself that he would do everything in his power to help this man. Focusing on the man's spirit, He could feel the man’s soul pulling him back towards the mortal realm. Danny latched onto the man's soul and let it carry him to the man's physical form.

—

Jason was fully dissociating from the pure agony his body was consumed with. His skin flickering and distorting and twisting out of place, his vision filled with nauseating swirls of greens and purples. It was always the same colors, why was it always the same damn colors?!

Suddenly, the pain became a background hum. It was still excruciating but Jason had gained a frighteningly high pain tolerance over the last three years. 

Jason felt something on his shoulder and noticed a figure in his house moments before the wave of exhaustion from dealing with the episode hit him like a brick: A man in extremely detailed battle armor with a long flowing cape behind him stood hunched over him, grasping his shoulder in a vice grip. Iridescent white hair flowing in a nonexistent wind and face contorted in agony as he flickered in and out of existence. The man had taken his burden. 

The last thing Jason saw before his eyes closed was a glowing crown of dark energy glowing an eerie green light atop his head. Something about it radiated a sense of safety and protection. 

He didn't know who this figure was but he knew that for the first time in two years, he had hope.

[dairy-farmer]

DamiTim idea.

When Damian joins the family he never tries to hurt or kill Tim. In fact, he is distant and polite to him at all times. He develops a brotherly antagonistic relationship with Jason and the father figure relationship with Dick, but he goes out of his way to not form any kind of real relationship with Tim. He calls him Drake, never invites him to hang out or spend time one-on-one like he does occasionally with Jason or Dick or Cass, and in fact they rarely talk to each other at all.

Tim, and the rest of the family, aren't sure what to make of it. On the one hand, the fact that Damian treats Tim with the kind of distant politeness you would a casual acquaintance or co-worker isn't exactly great. But on the other hand, considering he was raised by assassins and Jason tried to kill Tim a couple times when they first met, it's honestly better than most of them were expecting. But the main issue is that Damian always make sure that people are very clear on the fact that he and Tim are not brothers. Not rudely, not maliciously, but firmly nonetheless.

If people comment about the two of them being brothers, Damian's usual response is something along the lines of 'While did indeed taken and adopt Drake, The two of us do not have anything resembling a familial relationship, which I am quite happy about."

It probably would have been more concerning if it had a negative effect on their night job, but it doesn't. Damian has never complained about Tim's ability to do his job, has never hesitated to be his backup or come to his aide. He just doesn't seem interested in having a personal relationship with him.

Until!

The day Damian turns 18 the whole family has gathered at the manor for a family breakfast before getting ready for a big celebratory gala in the evening. Damian is the last to arrive, and politely greets everyone like normal, before he turns and smiles at Tim with a "Good morning, Timothy. You're looking well." Before continue on as if nothing has happened. Everyone is pretty shocked, but considering everything that has to be done by the evening no one really gets a chance to talk about it.

Later, at the gala, once all the guests have arrived and food and drinks are being consumed, Damian gets everyone's attention to give a speech; he thinks the guest for attending, thanks everyone for the gifts and their kind wishes, and then turns to Tim.

Very formally he asks Tim if he would do him the honor of accepting his offer of courtship, with an eye towards eventual marriage. Shocked silence, followed immediately by a sea of loud voices: guest gossiping, Dick and Bruce basically screaming "WHAT?!?" at the top of their lungs, and Tim just completely frozen and shock and bewilderment.

After all the guests are quickly shooed home there is a family meeting where everyone tries to figure out what the fuck is going on, at which point they finally learned the reason behind Damian's odd treatment of Tim.

Before showing up and joining the family Damian had made sure to read up on every piece of information about the family that Ra's and The League had, in order to familiarize himself with everyone and plan his integration. That was when he came across Tim's file and he fell in love instantly. Not only was Tim absolutely lovely in appearance, but he was highly skilled in combat and vigilante related skills, as well as a wide variety of civilian skills, as well as being friendly, helpful, and intelligent. Damian had been worried about Tim developing familial/sibling feelings for him, which would make it quite difficult to convince Tim to court and marry him. He was also aware that some people, particularly in high society and the media might take issue with them being legally related via Bruce's adoption, as well as the age gap.

So in order to deal with all those issues Damian decided the best course of action would be to keep a polite distance from Tim in order to prevent any family feelings from developing, while waiting to come of age and making sure it was well known that he did not viewed Tim as a brother in any way. Now that he has of age, of course, Damian is planning to pull out all the stops in order to make Tim his.

Over the next few weeks he showers Tim with gifts; and not just normal romantic gifts like flowers and chocolate and jewelry. Every single gift is painstakingly selected to cater to Tim's interests and tastes: flavorful and elegant coffees and teas from around the world, professional high grade photography equipment, autographed and exclusive superhero and skateboarding merchandise, as well as smaller gifts and trinkets. Damian spends a lot of time with Tim, who was confused and slightly reluctant at first, but was quickly won over by Damian's thoughtfulness and attention to detail.

It takes less than 6 months for the two of them to announce their engagement. The ceremony is lovely, they are deeply in love, and then they spent the entire honeymoon fucking nasty. Damian worships and destroys Tim's body in turns, with a level of skill that Tim is incredibly confused about since he knows for a fact that Damian has never dated anyone (which he now knows is because Damian was in love with him). At the end of their two-week honeymoon, it's pretty much a guarantee that Tim is pregnant.

👀👀👀👀👀 damian planning from the get go to make tim his wife and officially courting him as soon as he was able to!!!

and despite the initial distance between him and tim damian manages to close it in a matter of months because unlike so many people, damian genuinely had an avid interest in tim and payed close attention to the things he enjoyed and liked which was why tim ended up returning his feelings!!🥺🥺🥺

[fxckadoodledoomunson]

Repercussion |One-Shot|

Summary: Your stepsister is always seeking male attention. But when she flirts with Eddie, repercussions occur after someone tries to put her in her place.

Warning: swearing, angst to fluff, Al makes an appearance, blood, groping.

Out of all men in Hawkins, why did your mother have to marry the mayor of Hawkins? Answer…money.

Thankfully, you had already moved out by the time your mother remarried.

You had decided to move to Forest Hills with your father. He didn’t earn much from his job, but he was happy, especially as he worked with your neighbour, Wayne, who lived with his nephew and your crush, Eddie. One of the benefits of living with your father was, not only having a great vegetable garden, thanks to your father using electro-culture, but you also got to see your crush, as he gave you lifts to school, although you were too shy to initiate a conversation with him, especially if he was picking up someone else from the Hellfire club. Another bonus living with your father was that you had your own room, so you didn’t have to share a room with your stepsister, Kimberley.

You didn’t spend much time with her, but when you did, she would constantly flirt with guys, even the ones who are already taken.

One time, you went out for a meal with your mother and stepfamily, as well as the Harringtons.

All through the meal, Kimberley kept batting her eyelashes at Steve, and constantly flirted with him.

Whenever he tried to talk to you about similar interests, she would interrupt by letting out an obnoxious laugh, before continuing to flirt with him, which made you roll your eyes, and him uncomfortable.

Another time, during cheer practice, she kept showing off in front of the basketball team, especially Jason. She even kept flirting with him, whilst feeling his biceps in front of his girlfriend, Chrissy.

You only found out about it when you met the head cheerleader one day to lend her your notes for English class.

Often, you two would interact.

You knew that Chrissy was a sweetheart, but there had been times that she had needed to rant. You were happy to listen to her, especially as you both bonded over having a shitty mothers. But that day, it was Kimberley who got to her. “I don’t want to do it,” she began to rant. “But if she keeps it up, I’ll have no choice but to kick her off the squad. She’s not only flirting with my boyfriend, but she’s also distracting the other guys, and preventing us from practicing.”

You were glad that you never passed a cheer tryout, otherwise you would’ve had to witness the embarrassment of seeing your stepsister constantly showing up the rest of the squad.

“I’ll talk to her,” you assured Chrissy. “I can’t promise anything, but hopefully it’ll make her think twice.”

You didn’t think that she would get worse, but you were proofed wrong. A day or so later, you were coming back from dropping off some vegetables to your mother’s elderly neighbour when you spotted a familiar van.

“Why’s Eddie here?” You quietly asked yourself. “I hope something hasn’t happened to dad.”

You quickly crossed the street, when you witnessed Kimberley coming out of the house.

“Oh, Eddie,” she exclaimed with an obnoxious smile on her face. “I’m so glad that you’re here. It just won’t start.”

“Please tell me she’s not…” you began to groan to yourself.

Suddenly, Kimberley noticed you, and started putting on a fake sweet voice, as she greeted you, “Oh hey sis!”

You wanted to gag at the sound of her voice, but when Eddie turned around, and greeted you whilst smiling, you couldn’t help but wave at him. However, you noticed that it wasn’t his usual happy smile, but a weak smile.

“She called me to ask if I could check her car,” Eddie explained. You wondered how she managed to get his number.

You were going inside to put the vegetables away when Kimberley called out, “Fetch me a drink on your way through.”

You huffed as you stopped to turn and asked her, “What’s the magic word?”

Instead of saying please, she hissed, “Now.”

Before going inside, you asked Eddie if he wanted a drink too. He nodded, as he replied, “Thanks.”

You turned and went inside, unaware that Eddie took a quick glance at you before focusing on the car, while Kimberley was twirling her hair, as she tried to grab his attention.

You were walking to the kitchen when you saw your mother lying on the couch, gossiping with her friend on the phone. You decided to not greet her, as she probably wouldn’t have taken notice of you anyway.

After putting the vegetables in the refrigerator, you started grabbing a couple of cans of cola from the counter, heading back outside when you witnessed Kimberley leaning close to Eddie, who was too busy checking the car to notice. You watched her flirting with him and attempting to feel his bicep underneath his Dio shirt, as he tried to evade her. You couldn’t help but feel jealous, but also at the same time, you didn’t want Eddie being treated like a piece of meat.

Abruptly, you cleared your throat, gaining their attention.

“There’s cough drops inside,” Kimberley sharply said.

“Actually, I need a word with you about something,” you replied. “Girls stuff.”

“Oh,” she exclaimed. She turned to Eddie and said in a high pitched voice, “I’ll be back.”

She winked at him, as she giggled before following you back into the house. You turned to find Eddie sigh with relief as he continued to check the car.

After you went inside, she began to ask, “So, what is it? Need advice on fashion?Because no offence, but you need a new wardrobe, and maybe use make-“

“What’s your intentions with Eddie?” You interrupted.

“My…intentions?”

“Yes, did you really ask him here to fix your car, or did you want more male attention?”

Kimberley gasped, feeling offended. “There’s nothing wrong with getting male attention.”

“There is if it’s going to affect people’s relationships. Steve’s an exception, as he’s still single. But, I mean, there’s Chrissy’s boyfriend, Jason. If you’re not careful, Chrissy will kick you off the squad-“

“For what?!”

“Let’s see…for flirting with him in front of her, and for showing up the rest of the cheerleaders-“

“Oh please!” She cackled.

“Look! One of these days, your attention seeking will get you in trouble.”

There was a moment of silence, as you both glared at each other. You had hoped that she would think about you said, and not keep seeking attention. But instead, she scoffed, “Oh my god…you like Eddie. That’s why you’re telling me this, isn’t it?”

You opened your mouth to speak, but Kimberley beat you to it. “You’re jealous.”

“Jealousy’s got nothing to do with it,” you quickly told her. It was half a truth. On one hand, you were a little jealous, but on the other hand, you didn’t want Eddie being used for someone else’s gain. “He’s my neighbour, not to mention that his uncle’s my dad’s friend,” you told her. “And the last thing I want is for him to get hurt-“

Suddenly, Kimberley stalked towards you, and snatched the cans out of your hands, evilly smirking.

“Relax, I’m not gonna date him,” she spat. “I just wanna score free weed.”

As Kimberley stomped out of the house, you silently gasped, feeling more angry at your stepsister.

“I won’t let you do that to him, missy,” you growled, as you followed her.

You stepped out of the house, not acknowledging your mother, as you caught Kimberley flirting with Eddie whilst touching him up.

You were about to say something when you witnessed something unexpected…

“Will you stop it?!” Eddie yelled, as he moved away from a petrified Kimberley.

You stood there, astonished at the sight of Eddie putting her in her place.

“Just because I’m a freak to everyone, doesn’t mean that I’m also a fucking plaything!”

You glanced at him with concern, as you were about to speak when he abruptly turned around and got in his van. After starting up his vehicle, Eddie reversed out of the driveway, before speeding off.

You turned to a trembling Kimberley, asking her, “Kim…are you-?”

You winced, as Kimberley started wailing. She swiftly turned around and ran inside, calling for her father.

As soon as you got back to Forest Hills, you went to check on Eddie. You knocked on his front door, but there was no answer. You called his name, whilst knocking again.

When he still didn’t respond, you ran to the other end of the trailer, and called out again, as you knocked on the back door. You were about to knock on his window when you heard music playing from his room. Only it wasn’t metal music, but Chicago blues.

The only time he would play was when…

“Oh shit,” you muttered, realising what day it was.

You remembered that it was the day his mother, Elizabeth died. He never told you that. You only heard it from a conversation between your father and Wayne.

You were unsure about whether or not to knock again, or just leave him be when you suddenly noticed a truck approaching the trailer. You knew that it wasn’t Wayne’s, but you weren’t sure who it belonged to.

As soon as the owner of the truck came out, you thought that he looked familiar. “Hey there!” The older man greeted you, before asking, “Is Wayne home?”

“I think he’s out,” you replied, as you noticed a plastic bag in his hand. “Are you a friend?”

The man chuckled, before replying, as he stuck his hand out, “No, I’m his brother, Al.”

The more you looked at him, the more you thought of how much Eddie looked like him. However, from what you’ve heard, Al wasn’t a good man. You crossed your arms, not wanting to shake his hand.

Taking the hint, Al lowered his hand, as he asked, “I take it Eddie’s in? I just-“

Al had stopped talking, as the music stopped playing and the back door swung open, making you jump.

A teary eyed Eddie stepped out, with anger in his face. “What do you want?!” He angrily asked his father.

“Can’t a man see his son-?” Al began to ask, whilst chuckling when Eddie yelled, as he stomped towards the older man, “What?! The son you keep fucking abandoning?! Why did you have to come back, and today of all days?! Got some more shitty schemes for me to get caught in?!”

“I wanted to see you,” Al calmly replied, as he lifted the heavy plastic bag. “And I thought I can cook us some spaghetti, and maybe talk-“

“Fuck your spaghetti! And fuck you!” Eddie shouted, as he smacked the bag out of his father’s hand, breaking a jar and couple of beer bottles. “You’re not welcome here!”

You swiftly ran, as Eddie continued to scold his father. You then grabbed Eddie’s arm, begging him to calm down when he abruptly pushed you out of the way, causing you fall to the ground.

You heard a gruffly voice call your name, as you winced, trying to sit yourself up when you felt a pair of hands on your shoulders. You turned to find Wayne squatting down beside you, steadying you. “Let me see your hand,” he told you, whilst gently grabbing your bloodied hand with small shards of glass sticking out.

Eddie’s face softened, realising what he had done. “Take her inside,” he heard his uncle say. Doing what Wayne had instructed, Eddie, along with his uncle, lifted you up to your feet, before Eddie took you inside, whilst gently taking your arm, while Wayne told his brother to leave.

After Wayne had plucked out the shards of glass and cleaned your hand at the dining table, he started bandaging it up, making sure that it wasn’t too tight for you, while Eddie was sitting on the couch, chewing on his fingernails, feeling guilty of pushing you out of the way.

“All done,” Wayne said, finishing up your bandage.

You thanked him, as he took the bowl off the table, emptying it in the sink. Suddenly, you heard Eddie sniffle.

“I’m sorry,” you heard him whimper, causing you to turn to see tears running down his cheeks.

Wayne sympathetically glanced at him, as Eddie covered his face with his hands, sobbing uncontrollably when you slowly got up and cautiously walked towards him, before kneeling in front of him.

He continued to sob, repeating his apology, claiming that it was his fault when you gently grabbed on his wrists, lowering his hands down, revealing his puffy eyes.

“Listen to me,” you softly said. “It wasn’t your fault-“

“It was!” Eddie sobbed. “I was so angry, and-“

“And you’re missing your mum, right?”

Eddie’s face softened. You two weren’t close, so he was unsure how you knew about his mother. Wayne was sure that you must’ve overheard his conversation with your father about Eddie and his mother.

“You’re missing your mum, and you just wanted to remember her in your own way today. And I guess it didn’t help with your dad coming, and also with what happened with Kimberley, did it?”

Eddie silently gazed at you, when Wayne asked, “What happened with Kimberley?”

Eddie was about to confess to yelling at her when you said, “Just being her usual annoying self. Nothing to worry about.”

Eddie gaped, hearing you cover for him.

Wayne hummed, before announcing, whilst checking his watch, “Well, I’ll make dinner, before I get to work. How about I… make your mom’s favourite?”

Eddie turned to his uncle and nodded, thanking him. Wayne then asked you if you wanted to join them.

You turned to Eddie, who nodded at you, hinting at you to join them. “Yes please,” you replied to Wayne, as you shifted your attention back to him. “Do you need a hand?”

Suddenly, Eddie lightly chuckled, making you turn to him, as he asked, “You’ve just suffered an injury and you still want to help?”

“I’m sure there’s something I can do,” you retorted, as you got to your feet, and abruptly planted a kiss on his forehead, which left him shell shocked. You turned around, and scrunched up your face, realising what you had done.

During dinner, you and Eddie were silent, even when Wayne tried holding a conversation with you both. You gazed awkwardly at Eddie, as he looked down at his plate. But as soon as he lifted his head up, you quickly looked down at yours. Eddie sighed, as he looked at you, thinking about the kiss you gave him earlier. After Wayne went to work, the two of you just stayed in the trailer in silence. You sat on the couch, twiddling your thumbs, as you watched Eddie grab his packet of Camel’s from the kitchen counter and stood in the back doorway, lighting up his cigarette.

You watched him take a couple of puffs, figuring what to say. I’m sorry for kissing you, you thought of what to say. Well, for kissing your forehead…No, maybe not go straight to it…Maybe-

“Hey!” You heard Eddie speak, prompting you sit upright.

“Yes?” Your voice cracked.

You thought he was going to ask you to leave, but instead, he asked, as he walked back to the kitchen, “Do you want something to drink?”

You wanted to say something, but you hesitated for a moment, before quickly getting up on your feet, as you told him, deciding to leave him be, “Uh..Actually, I should be going home. I don’t want to bother-“

“Stay,” Eddie interjected, as you felt his hand grabbing your uninjured hand, prompting you to turn to face him.

“You…You want me to stay?” You meekly asked, receiving a nod from him.

“To be honest, I don’t wanna be on my own, especially if my dad comes back.”

There was a moment of silence, before you suggested, “Well, why don’t we go back to mine? You can bring that record you were playing earlier with you, if you want to.”

Eddie silently gazed at you for a few seconds, before replying, “Give me a minute?”

You nodded, as he turned around and jogged to his room.

All through the evening, you and Eddie were in sitting on your living room floor, silently listening to his Muddy Waters record.

You continued to listen when you heard Eddie call your name.

“Yes?” You asked.

Eddie was staring at your floor, before shifting his attention to you, asking, “How…did you know about…my mom?”

You sighed, before explaining, “I…overheard my dad and Wayne talking the other day. Wayne wanted a day off today, but their boss wouldn’t let him, as they were short staffed.”

Eddie remembered that Wayne mentioned it before after he suggested to his uncle that they could do something for his mother.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on them,” you told him, you nervously gazed at him. “I don’t want you to think I was a creep or something.”

Eddie silently gazed back at you, before giving you a smile, replying, “It’s okay, I know you’re not.”

You smiled back with relief, as you both continued to listen to the record when the telephone rang.

“I better get that,” you said, as you got up and walked towards the telephone on the wall. “It might be my dad.”

After picking up, you answered, “Hello?”

“Hi Honey, it’s me.”

It was your mother.

You rolled your eyes, as she continued to speak, “Just letting you know that we’re all going out for a meal at Enzo’s at eight, so don’t be late.”

“Actually, I’ve already eaten, so…”

“Your sister’s still upset about what happened earlier with that Munson boy, and she needed cheering up-”

“Wait, sorry,” you interrupted, squeezing your eyes shut, feeling your blood boiling. “She’s upset because of Eddie?!”

“Yes, and she needed-“

“So, you’re basically just rewarding her for groping him and making him uncomfortable!”

Eddie watched you attentively, as you scoffed, while you were hearing your mother scolding you.

“How can you be so hateful towards your sister? Think how she feels-?!”

“Firstly, she’s my stepsister, as in, not blood related,” you interjected. “Secondly, how about you think about how Eddie must’ve felt being treated like a piece of meat?!”

Eddie gaped, hearing you defending him.

“Just because you married for money, doesn’t mean that your husband and his daughter get special treatment-!”

Before you could say anymore, you were cut off by your mother.

You angrily slammed the phone into the receiver, as you shut your eyes and turned around, growling. You then opened your eyes, realising that Eddie was standing in front of you.

“You okay?” Eddie asked, as he slowly approached you.

You scoffed, before replying, “Well, let’s just say, I think I just got myself disowned by my mother.”

“All because of Kimberley?”

There was a moment of silence, before Eddie spoke up, “I better go and apologise to her.”

“What?” You exclaimed. “Why?! You’ve done nothing wrong. She’s the one who groped you.”

“Yeah…but-“

“But nothing! I warned her, I fucking warned her! I told her if she wasn’t careful, her attention seeking would get her in trouble.”

You went to sit on the sofa, as you continued to rant, “She even confessed that she just wanted to score free weed from you, and I couldn’t bear to let her use someone I really like for her personal gain-“

“Wait!” Eddie interjected, as he sat down next to you. “You…like me?”

You smacked your palm into your forehead, realising that you had blurted out your feelings for Eddie.

As you lowered your head, avoiding his gaze, you mumbled, as you shut your eyes, “This wasn’t how I wanted you to find out.”

You took a deep breath, before confessing, “Although we’re not close and don’t talk often, I do like you…but I do understand that you don’t like me back, so, I’m not expecting-“

You stopped talking as you heard the sofa squeak, as Eddie got up. You were expecting him to grab his record and leave. Instead, you a kiss planted on your forehead. You opened your eyes, finding Eddie kneeling in front of you, smiling.

You watched him get up with your eyebrows furrowed, as he held out his hand, asking you, “Wanna dance?”

“What?” You asked, feeling confused.

“Do you wanna dance?”

You gazed at him and nodded, as you took his hand. He then pulled you close, as you both slow danced.

You rested your head against his chest, as you continued to dance when you heard Eddie say softly, “You know…I should’ve known that you liked me after you kissed me.”

You furrowed your brows, as you mumbled, “I only kissed your forehead.”

Eddie chuckled, accidentally squeezing your injured hand, making wince.

“Sorry,” Eddie profusely apologised.

“It’s okay,” you replied when Eddie lifted your hand and kissed your knuckle, making you giggle.

He then lowered your hand, as he asked, “Can I kiss you?”

You silently nodded, smiling, prompting him to give you a tender kiss on the lips, before he wrapped his arms around you, as you both continued to slow dance.

All through the night, the two of you talked until you both fell asleep on the sofa.

As for Kimberley, you and Chrissy made her, not only apologise to Eddie for groping him and to the fellow cheerleaders for wasting their time, but also confess to her father and your mother about Eddie, if she wanted to stay on the squad.

[feywildfox]

drowned dogs and chain fences

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)

Relationships: Roy Harper & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd

Characters: Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Roy Harper

Additional Tags: #Dead Dove: Do Not Eat #Character Death #Violence #Blood and Gore #Trauma #Traumatized Jason Todd #Heavy Angst #Resurrected Jason Todd #You Have Been Warned

Word count: 1,587

Summary:

How do you forgive someone who let you die? Who buried you, six feet deep in the regret and grief of a lost child - and yet let your killer live. The person who expects you to greet them with a smile and open arms. Who's very visage inspires hatred and rage so great it leaves you breathless. How do you forgive? Jason can't. He doesn't know anyone who could I.E. jason todd has done a lot in his life. he's also been through some supremely traumatic things and has a perfectly valid reason for being an antihero who kills. changing that example of what happens when batman's "morals" cost the life of someone he supposedly cares about is boring. so here we are.

Chapter 1: fumes of tomorrow

Jason Todd is fine. He's fine. Really, he's totally okay. He hates Bruce Wayne, but it's fine. He's surviving. Maybe he's even healing or something dumb like "Accepting and moving on from his trauma" and whatever other shit Tim would say.

Tim annoys him, but Jason can vaguely see the good intent behind it. Damien is a complete ass though, and Jason likes that more. The ‘family’, if one could call whatever it is that, surrounds him sometimes. They care, or at the least pretend to. But Jason doesn't really care. He could do without Tim, or Damien, or Stephanie, or any of them. Especially Bruce, the self-righteous asshole.

Well. Except for Dick. Probably.

It's the whole reason, almost, for the changes; the rubber bullets and the restrained violence. It's all for Dick. It was the only way Dick would even look at him, much less talk. Years of restrictions, preventing himself from punishing those who deserved it. Evil just allowed to walk free because Batman didn't like doing what was needed.

And Dick, loosely, followed that. He couldn't truly understand what it was like.

The gasping pain, the dull ache that spread after the sharp crack of broken bone. The blood clogging his lungs, drowning in it the way one drowned at sea. It's the break of finally, really and truly begging for his life. For Bruce to save him like everyone else. To be rescued and carried away, to be loved in your moments of pain.

The hero never comes, in this one. It's the story of Jason's life.

So really, none of them understand. Dick doesn't, but he tried. Still tries, even if his affections and attentions are conditional. Jason is a beaten dog tied to his master, and he will crawl back eventually. Bruce just doesn't understand it's not he who is the master. 

Maybe he'll never understand. Jason wishes he would. Bruce wont stop trying and it drives him nuts.

How do you forgive someone who let you die? Who buried you, six feet deep in the regret and grief of a lost child - and yet let your killer live. The person who expects you to greet them with a smile and open arms. Who's very visage inspires hatred and rage so great it leaves you breathless. How do you forgive? 

Jason can't. He doesn't know anyone who could.

(Maybe Superman, they guy is as close to a saint in patience as one can get.)

Jason's rage bloomed with his rebirth, and his morals broke in that filthy alley full of trash. The innocence and willingness to keep his hands "clean" stayed buried when he clawed his way out of the dirt above his coffin. The hole filled in with slushy mud, cold sleet steeped in Gotham's chemicals rinsed the silt from his mouth, wetted his lips anew, and Jason Todd knew he wasn't the same person anymore. He died that day, and part of him stayed dead. No one understands what that's like.

He doesn't think he'll meet anyone who does.

Jason can live with that, as long as Dick is there. Rose too. She is a flower that blooms once a year, but is still someone who he knows he can lean on; though Jason's a stubborn bastard and doesn't do it often. Artemis is similar, though more adamant about keeping in touch. It's a small group, and maybe even Kori counts, after Dick had reintroduced them. 

Roy has been his biggest supporter, truly. Even when Jason was lost in the depths of his soul, the madness of dying and coming back but not like the Jason before - Roy was there. Bandages after one to many syndicate beatdowns, antibiotics to fight infections, even his support when Jason gave his rage more fuel. The deaths of the gang members feeding it like gasoline. Roy was there to watch his back. Always has that stupid shit-eating grin and the most asinine of quips. Roy is always there.

They're his family. That's all that matters to Jason. He would do anything, has done things, to try and keep them safe, happy. Jason would sooner gnaw off his arm than let one come to true harm. 

Which frankly, is a herculean task with their line of work.

It's all okay though. He's meeting Roy and Dick for coffee, even though the two are genial and that's it. It's one of those rare sunny days in Gotham, the cloud cover light enough that blue sky is crackling through light grey. Weak winter light soaks into his upturned face, and Jason breathes the fumes of a rotten city. He gives a twitch of lips that might constitute a smile.

The coffee shop is across the street, he can see Roy sitting in the back corner next to the kitchen door. He's drinking what Jason knows to be the most outrageous coffee order he can think of, that he's sure to hear about when he makes it in. The windows are bar-free in this nicer part of Gotham. The part that gets the money to rebuild more than others. It's why he picked it. Somewhere totally unlikely for him to be. A hidden-in-plain-sight sort of deal. He won't be caught dead in this sort of place. Makes it perfect to get out of the house for a few hours, meet up, and pretend to relax.

The crosswalk light flickers half-heartedly and he begins to move. The windows dimly reflect the sun. His eyes dart around for a second, but end up back on Roy. Jason always keeps tabs on his family.

The door next to Roy opens as Jason makes it halfway across the street. He meets the eyes of the server that steps out, pale skinny legs awkward under the skirt of the uniform. Something sparks in his head, recognition that he can't place. The face mask the worker wears is a lurid purple, and the shit-brown eyes above it dart manically around after they meet his. It makes Jason's pulse race. It hits him moments too late.

No. His heart jumps to his throat, he shoves the person in front of him to the side but there's nothing he can do as the nightmare of his fantasies pulls a gun from the apron he's wearing, and then Roy slumps, dead.

The flash is so bright, a supernova of red mist as the side of Roy's face disappears. The patrons start screaming, running, Jason can't get inside. There's mad cackling as the spectre of his death does a pirouette and shoots indiscriminately, breaking windows and hitting pedestrians. A car screeches to a stop outside - lime green 1960s VW Bug his mind categorizes - and the Joker clambers over broken glass and bodies as Jason finally, finally, makes it inside. 

He's torn, the raging sea inside quelled by the feral need to protect, to lick the wounds of his family and make sure Roy is alright. That wins out, and once again the Joker gets away. The man waggles his fingers at Jason, blowing a pantomime of a kiss goodbye. 

Jason lets out a guttural scream, lost in the pandemonium around him.

The booth is red. The floor is red. The bodies that aren't Roys stain his shoes with death. It smells like viscera and iron, heavy on his tongue.

It's - it's a dream. One of his many nightmares he just needs to wake the fuck up from. Roy will pop up and laugh at him, the coffee spilled on the table drip drip drip dripping down his lap a lament on his tongue as he orders a new one.

Roy doesn't get up.

Exposed orbital bone peaks between jagged edges of flesh, grey matter and brain more mush than formed organ. Jason reaches a shaking hand to the - the body? Roy is dead.

A shake to the shoulder only achieves a limp arm sliding onto the seat. His left hand sits on the table, brown button up wet and dark. There's a ring on his hand Jason has never seen before. It's shiny, new. The band is silver. Jason wants to puke.

“Roy. Roy? Wake up. Did Dick put you up to this?” His voice is hoarse and rough. The blunt edge of panic is close to the surface. Jason's face is cold. Something drips down his chin. He ignores it.

The cuff of his cream turtleneck he'd stolen from Dick’s closet is pink. He grips Roy's soaked shoulder, tries to move him sitting up. The thing-that-should-be-Roy flops over, red hair in disarray, solitary eye unseeing. A garbled whine gets caught in Jason's throat. 

The distant sirens scream, circling ever closer. Figures that Gotham cops would actually show up here. 

A crunch behind him in the suddenly realized silence has Jason whirling, drawing the hidden gun. Roy is dead roy is dead hesdeaddeadead Protect hesDEAD -

It's Dick.

Or, rather, Nightwing. The blue bird stands starkly against the black, barrel of the gun firmly pressed to the center.

Dick - Nightwing - has his hands firmly up by his head, and Jason realizes that he's being talked to. The droning in his ears slowly turns to words.

“- it's me, you know me. We need to go, okay? I know you don't want to leave him but the cops are almost here,” the muttered ‘for once’ drags a gasping chuckle out of his mouth.

The gun wavers. Jason should see it coming but - hesdeadandtheworldiswrong - Nightwing is just fast enough to catch an off-kilter Jason off guard, and the world goes black.

[gothicprep]

some interesting twitter discussion i encountered today, piggybacking off a tiktok screenshot of an either late-teens girl or early 20-something woman saying "i wish i could be friends with boys the way that boys are friends with boys". the guy side of twitter chimes in, basically saying that whenever they had women express this to them, they reacted poorly to stuff that's pretty common in guy group friendships. the woman side of twitter is screenshotting these and saying shit like "ack, for all this talk of male loneliness, isn't it interesting how these guys talk about friendship in a way that's antisocial and boorish!"

it's always really something to see conversations like this happen, because it's a very clear expression of someone not being familiar with the social nuances in a setting they haven't really spent time in. and on top of that, it being so alien to them that they don't even realize they're wearing this lack of experience on their sleeve.

this is hard to put into words and there are probably a few things i'm missing here, but in my experiences of being the only woman in a friend group, Guys Being Dudes social culture involves a lot of giving each other shit, but not in a way that's mean. it's more like a signal that indicates you being a part of the same group. it's not like there aren't any generic insults that fly like "hey, you dipshit", but what's more common are insults that show you're paying attention – "hey, you dipshit that's always tripping over because you don't know how to tie your own shoes." it shows you actually notice what that person is like lol. and that person has the right to come back at you, and it's kind of a give and take. it's a game. there are bad dynamics that can sometimes come out of this, where someone is picking on someone else too much and there are awkward dominance displays going on. but for the most part, it's mostly just clowning around.

and – not always, obviously – this stuff drives a lot of women nuts. and as you get older, you move away from acting like this around people who will be bothered with it, because out of the context of a friend group, it's rude. but "we give each other shit for fun, and that's how we know that we're friends" has a lot of connecting power under the right circumstances.

there's a scene in "jackass: forever" where jason acuna is staked to the ground and a vulture is picking cuts of meat off his body, and the bird pecks him and he starts spasming and kicking (it's been known to happen when you get pecked by a bird with a giant beak). and one of the guys off screen is like, "don't kick the bird, dude" and acuna says, "i'm not kicking the bird!" but he's mad that someone would suggests that he would kick the bird. he understands that the bird is an outsider. the bird isn't in on the joke! nobody wants to be mean to the bird here. it's all about what's happening to acuna. this is obviously a pretty extreme version of the thing i'm talking about but, eh, it works for my purposes.

and it's not like it stays this juvenile forever. you grow up. life happens. but having this foundation in a friend group of 5+ doesn't prevent you from talking about life stuff together. even if this type of camaraderie doesn't make a lot of sense to you on the surface, that doesn't mean it's not tried and true. and, tbh, i get the sense that a lot of the men who struggle with pervasive feelings of loneliness probably *aren't* part of a group dynamic like this.

[heartthumpnovel]

Heart Thump: Chapter 6

“Seeking Answers”

Word count: 11493

Finally I get to release this chapter! :'D It's a long one but it's literally my favorite so far as we finally get to see and find out what he heck is going on with Jason, or at-least the hook of his issues.

cw: A little bit of cursing

Last chapter: Carrying the World

Next chapter: Growing Pains

---

“Let go of me this very instant- YEUGH!” Jason squealed as his leather loafers had failed to get traction on the smooth concrete floor. He slipped about as he tried to pull away from Motor’s iron grip, trying to get away from his ridiculous rambling. Motor, however, had different ideas. He barely even looked at Ellie, who at this point was begging Motor to stop dragging Jason and was desperately trying to give any sort of explanation as to what happened in the conference room.

Ellie’s tongue tied itself in knots trying to explain Jason’s colossal affliction. It shouldn’t have been possible, but twice now she had seen him grow before her very eyes. And not in any way a human might be able to, like through exercise or aging, but… magically. It was far too surreal for her to put into words.

“It’s- it’s not what you think, it was just… Uh… An allergic reaction? Yeah…” Ellie sputtered out as Motor hustled Jason with a harsh jolt to prevent the squirming weasel from getting away from a confrontation.

"Motor, for Pete's sake, stop that!" She took the next course of action, stepping in front of the angry bull, causing him to halt in his tracks with a fed-up Brit still in his clasp.

Motor stared down at Ellie with a huff and pointed down at Jason, maintaining his furious eye contact with the sweating blonde. "I know what I saw back there," grumbled Motor in an accusatory voice. "I can't believe you two would seriously think I'm that dumb! You just can't leave me out of something cool like this!"

In the middle of the verbal onslaught, Jason was able to speak his mind. "Mate, this isn't some fantastical adventure! It's a disease!"

Motor responded with a dismissive "That's what you think." before sidestepping Ellie and reaching for the janitor's closet. Despite Jason's pleading Motor managed to get the door open with a sharp tug.

They stumbled into the pitch dark room, and Jason had to right himself when he was thrown upon a cold, sleek surface. He fumbled around, trying to get out of the dark void he had been trapped in. He tried to stand back up, however, right as he did, the room flooded with a bright, unnatural light that blinded his eyes.Flinching in pain, he covered his eyes with his hands.

 "Really, man?" The sound of Ellie's exasperated sigh convinced him to move his hands, and…

[Image Description: Jason is sitting at a counter within Motor's nerd domain. AKA, the janitor's closet with figurines, unkempt posters and his low-end gaming rig. It's obvious Motor is a fan of giant monster movies.]

A touch disappointed that out of everyone who might have been a kaiju, it was Jason, but excited nonetheless, he stared down at the terrified man. Ellie broke the silence, clapping her hands together while wearing a forced grin. "Soooo," she began, the air thick with tension, "Since we have the privacy and time, let's figure this out!"

Jason's eyes, filled with dread, turned to his best friend as he tried to find a reasonable explanation, but all he could feel was anxiety and panic, unsure what he should say. Before he could speak his mind, Motor slammed his hands on his lap, interjecting. “So are you actually an alien or what?”

Jason’s frown couldn’t have been more sour if he had drunk the world’s most expired milk. “I… excuse me a wha-” Before Jason could even express his shock at Motor’s audacity,  Motor interfered with a not-so-polite point to Jason’s chest, leaning over his comparatively small figure. “ARE. YOU. AN. ALIEN?” Motor repeated, more aggressively than the last time. 

The completely normal (barring growth spurts) human, who was definitely born on Earth, felt indignation and fear at the same time. He never liked how Motor jumped to nonsensical conclusions like that.

Feeling like a cat reeling from an overly inquisitive dog, Jason leaned back and pushed Motor’s hand away. “NO! Dear lord! Are you actually stoned right now!?” Jason yelled out, now more rustled than scared. 

Motor gave a slight smug grin, “Not at work.” He responded before Ellie had the chance to lightly push Motor at least a good few inches away but Motor kept egging on the theories with a grin that was too excited. 

"It's painfully obvious, you know!" Motor's words flowed unabated, his momentum building like a runaway train, "You practically radiate anxiety in social situations. I've never once witnessed you attempt to get behind the wheel of a car, and let's not even talk about how you obsessively scrub every inch of your desk, even though you wiped it down just a couple of hours ago on your break- Let me repeat, ON YOUR BREAK.” 

Motor was on a roll and nothing was stopping him at this point.

"Or, here's a wild thought," Motor continued, a mischievous glint in his eye, as he playfully scratched the tip of his work-in-progress beard. He pivoted towards one of his cherished movie posters, his finger tracing the outline of a colossal adversary. 

"Maybe, just maybe, you're actually a kaiju!" He emphasized the word with dramatic flair. "Picture it: 'Godzilla Vs Office Accountant.' Yeah, real box office gold right there." A wry grin crept across Motor's face, his amusement  growing more evident. He turned back to face Jason, who seemed less than amused, but Motor was undeterred, his excitement now matching that of a child who had just discovered their parents' unlocked phone with access to their credit card.

"Oh, hold on a second! What if, bear with me, you're this super crafty alien, all incognito as an ordinary office accountant? But here's the kicker: You've mastered the art of acting so brilliantly that you've actually forgotten you're an alien! And wait for it, your grand mission is to conquer the world and subject humanity to your rule... all while engaging in epic battles against a monkey!" 

With a flourish, a finger playfully booped the tip of Jason's nose, the idea seemingly too amusing to ignore. "And who knows, maybe you've got, like, a trio of heads tucked away somewhere secretly—"

"Motor." Jason interrupted the janitor's ramble in the most bitter tone that it had silenced him and the once confident index finger rolled cowardly back into Motor’s palm.

Jason's cheeks were burning red and it wasn't from ‘the love’ either. Feeling absolutely offended- Jason straightened his spine with a demeanor only an angered parent would have painted across his face as his fists were clenched up. 

"You've got to be kidding me. While I'm grappling with a crisis, you're off daydreaming about stupid movies?? This is no laughing matter, Motor! It's... it's infuriating!" His words erupted in a loud burst of fury, his hands sliding down his face in exasperation. As he sank back into his chair, Jason's emotional state shifted from rage to a more subdued sadness.

 Crumbling into a shivering ball, not being able to comprehend that this was happening to him and more importantly how. He could still feel the walls of that conference room squishing him in a tight hold and feeling like he had no air to breathe. Jason could have possibly suffocated if Ellie didn’t come into work.  

He couldn’t hold his tidal wave of feelings any longer and his eyes watered up- he tried to brush the tears away but it only made a couple more tears flow. Ellie noticed a small sniffle and immediately wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him tightly. She occasionally ran her hand through the stubble on the back of his neck to comfort him. Jason remained silent, his fingers tightly gripping the fabric of his pants. 

Ellie whispered, "Hey, hey..You're in a safe place... it's okay," even though she didn't completely believe it herself. She didn't know what was happening, and it was stressful trying to comprehend the situation. However, she knew that her best friend needed her at that moment.

Motor stood there- frazzled and when he actually stopped to think for five seconds he realized he did a huge woopsy. This particular woopsy just re-hashed an experience a lot of people would call traumatic. The janitor rubbed his forehead while following it with a deep sigh. His shoulders withering away like his excitement, he decided to speak up after several minutes.

"Look, I... I'm really sorry," he stammered, his fingertips guiltily tapping against each other. "I wasn't trying to make light of this. It's just... well, you know how my mouth likes to run without thinking." Ellie, having momentarily disengaged from the hug, cast a quizzical glance back at Motor, her raised eyebrow an unspoken question. Jason wondered if that was the extent of the apology they could expect from him. Motor pressed on, his words more measured this time. "This isn't an everyday thing, you know? It's incredible, and there are people out there who'd give anything to be able to do what you can.” A flicker of his trademark dorky smile emerged, although this time he tried to be sensitive to Jason’s feelings about his gigantism. 

Ellie and Jason cautiously pulled away from each other, with Ellie approving of Motor’s rather geeky nature. She knew that Motor tended to speak before reevaluating his thoughts, but it wasn't usually mean-spirited (at least not towards his friends). Motor could recognize when he said something that was screwed up... a minute or two after the fact. It's a work in progress.

Jason used his suit sleeve to wipe his tears off his face and tried his best to speak up again, but the congestion in his throat made it difficult for him to find his voice. Ellie decided to speak for him, and for everyone in the room for that matter, as Motor was still reeling from the awkward tension that had just passed a few seconds ago.

“So… what do we do now?” Ellie spoke up as her hands started to settle onto the chemical shelves with a shaking in her left leg. Jason looked over at her expecting an answer but Ellie was delivering the same gaze at him. Jason let out a sigh and buried his face in his hands as he slumped over in his chair. His mind felt like a high-speed race car hurtling towards a catastrophic crash - the anxiety of his reality being shattered colliding with the realization that his normal life was over.

“Can we pretend this never happened?” Jason suggested as he started to show his face again- only to be stared down at in disbelief by both of his coworkers. 

Motor shook his head with a sigh. "Jason, you can't just ignore-"

"I know, I know..." Jason melted back into his chair in defeat as he turned to Ellie. "I honestly don't know how to comprehend what's happening to me, let alone begin thinking about what I should do..." 

His hand clasped his chest, which at the moment felt like it wanted to explode from all the stress weighing him down. Something didn't feel right, and it wasn't the normal anxiety he had to deal with for seventy percent of his life. This was some other monster that had shown up on the front porch of his mind, standing eerily still in silence. It was lurking in the grass menacingly, waiting to strike at the perfect signal. What was that signal? Was there a signal at all? With the deadpan look Jason had on his face, Motor cued in that Jason was spacing out. It was time to bring up a daring plan he was constructing while the two were fretting over what to do about the situation. Motor didn't want to impede on Jason again, otherwise they would have more bones to pick. Instead, he waited until the coast was clear to bring up a suggestion that would save a lot of time and worry. “Hey,  why don’t we try to trigger the growth spurt intentionally? That’d be a quick way to figure out what the hell is happening.”  Motor spoke up. 

Ellie was the first to leap as her eyes lit up and a grin finally came back to her face with Jason lagging behind in the enthusiasm department. "That does sound like the next move- if we could figure out the trigger, we could get a bigger understanding of this… thing!" Ellie chirped as she stood back up. 

“I don’t know about that..” Jason said, “What if… something terrible happens? We know nothing about this thing.” His best friend just had to interject however by throwing a supportive hand on Jason’s shoulder.

"But we have to identify the root cause of this before we can even attempt to solve it, Jason," Ellie declared heroically, as she rose to her feet with a clenched fist, determined to help her friend. 

"Plus, we all finish work at the same time today! AH! We could go to the park and observe with our own eyes!" Motor gave a silent but resolute thumbs up in agreement. However, Jason could only mutter incoherent objections, as he had no other options aside from letting it happen again unintentionally. They couldn't be certain that the next time it happened wouldn't spell the end of Jason's normal life, both metaphorically and literally, as it could potentially be fatal.

“It’s settled I suppose.”                                                                   ---

Anyone could tell they were in the Pacific Northwest by the stunning, long-standing forests, emanating the earthy scent of life from the towering pine trees and the thriving wildlife, surrounded by a breathtaking environment. The region's misty weather, which is almost like a year-long depression, only adds to the fascination of the area. 

Nonetheless, it is undeniably beautiful and definitely worth a road trip, even for those who aren't looking to spend time with their regular ol' nuclear family, visiting tourist traps or finding a place to get weed without being chased down by the authorities.

Sometimes it was just three people in a red worse-for-wear pick up truck that proudly showed off its bumper stickers of a t-Rex eating a stick-man family and proudly displaying a blue-white-pink flag design on the back that was in the shape of a middle finger. The engine had a heart of gold though as it was running like a champion and the speakers on the inside were playing the screams of metal-heads just fine at an ear bursting level.

The driver of the vehicle tried to focus on the road, but he couldn't help stealing glances at his strange coworker in the backseat. The way Jason was zoning out was quite intriguing, and it was difficult to resist the temptation to keep looking at him. Thankfully, his passenger, who was sitting in the front seat, kept reminding him to pay attention to the road and not to be rude by staring at Jason. The driver huffed every time, as he was eagerly anticipating the growth to happen.

Jason’s right hand was fiddling with the edges of his retail brand blazer’s sleeve that was spread upon the rest of the back seat. His eyes were busy drifting off at the pine trees moving quickly past them. He found it kind of hard to properly process his thoughts as they had constantly been canceled by the boiling anxiety in his chest. All he could feel was this light sensation running throughout his skin that had a mild tingling that Jason hadn't noticed before. 

He moved his fingers from his jacket to the edge of his left collarbone and placed his fingers around his artery to gauge his heart rate. His heart pumped with stress, and it was so pronounced that he couldn't tell if he needed to make an appointment with his doctor or not. If he did go to the doctor, what was he supposed to tell them? That he had the same syndrome as Goliath? Jason deeply sighed as his fingers trailed down from his throat and landed on his lap. He directed his attention to the trees moving quickly past, and noticed that signs of civilization were long gone. The only thing out there were roads that would lead deeper into the woods.

Jolts to the truck’s wheels shocked Jason out of his dazed state as Motor veered off onto a gravel path that led deeper into the forests of Washington. How far was Motor planning to drive? Ellie grabbed onto the side of her seat as her hair nearly blinded her eyes. It was like they were all being tossed around like quarters in a washing machine. “Do we really have to be out this far Motor, geeze!!” Ellie exclaimed as she tried to look over the nonchalant driver acting as if they were on perfectly smooth concrete. His head slightly tilted up and took a millisecond glance in her direction as paying attention to the road was important after all. 

“Trust me Ellie, we are going to need the space. Besides, no one is gonna be out here around this time of year.” Motor responded as his gaze was searching around for a spot to park in the middle of the wilderness. Motor wanted to make sure to not set his precious baby under a bunch of birds that would take any opportunity to defecate on anyone’s prized possessions. 

Both of Jason’s hands planted on the window as he took a longer look outside, narrowing his eyes slightly in disbelief. 

“I don’t know if I really want to do this anymore.” Jason finally spoke up as the truck’s engine cut off. Ellie looked over from behind the passenger seat while Motor was unbuckling and throwing his seat belt out of the way.

 “You’re completely valid in the way you feel, but we did just drive all the way out here already,” Ellie then unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door to follow Motor outside. “Plus, we're here to support you in case anything goes wrong ya know?” 

Ellie slammed the door shut before Jason could protest with a “But, Ellie, a lot of things can and will go wrong.” He let out a harsh sigh and rubbed his forehead before eventually unbuckling and getting out of the truck.

Jason trailed behind his friends as they searched for a clearing with enough space to test his newfound curse, which Ellie referred to as his "ability". Motor was still tossing out theories about Kaiju or something related to old gods. Meanwhile, Jason remained silent, dreading that he was in the middle of all these conversations. Was the desire to not be seen a feeling that the kids called "a mood"? Well, Jason thought it should be.

“Yeah but come on wouldn’t it not be cool if Jason was the next in line in the Josta- OH HEY- this place looks perfect!” Motor shouted as they set foot into a sprawling clearing that wasn’t being occupied by too much flora or living animals that weren’t bugs. 

The dying grass here sank into the ground, having been trampled time and time again by deer. It looked like the place could hold a small circus if it wasn’t so remote. If it wasn’t obvious enough, this little area was perfect for testing out magical growing powers. 

Once Jason was politely persuaded, looking very mopey with his arms folded, to enter the middle of said clearing to start the test. The three of them were curious on how to actually start investigating this strange quirk of his. Jason stood there as his eyes tracked Ellie pacing around with a finger to her chin as she tapped lightly on her lips.

 “Let’s see… Do you have any inkling of what triggers it?” Ellie asked as she looked over to Jason as he was scratching behind his head as his eyes stared down at his loafers. Maybe it was a certain phrase that he said, though he was skeptical if he could even remember a lot of the things he said, especially since his perception of time had been skewed from fainting so much.  

Now that he thought about it,  he really should go see his doctor about that. In the meantime he started to hesitantly speak words that he could remember saying in the last couple of days. Jason shut his eyes and he quickly spat out random words he could recall saying before the initial incident. 

“No!” “Smashed!”

“Aaagain??” “Excuse me?”

“Oh dear lord- GIANT POWERS: ACTIVATE!!???”

With that last statement, Jason let out a desperate screech, like a squealing rabbit being pulled from its den. He nearly jumped out of his own skin, unsure if it would be enough to demonstrate his point. He held the flinched pose for a couple of seconds before Motor's dying laughter made him fold his arms in shame. “This is stupid.”

“Ooookkaay- Maybe it’s not that,” Ellie slid in as she knelt down, looking around in the umber pine needles and through the evergreens for inspiration.

She smiled as she looked back at her friends. 

“We at least got voice activation off the list! Yay, progress!” She clapped her hands together and stood back up. Motor on the other hand made camp on a nearby rock as Ellie patted the shamed Brit on the shoulder. 

“Jason. Think. What exactly were you doing and feeling when the growth occurred?” Ellie did a light finger snap in his direction to motivate him. The flustered man spat out vowels and rubbed the back of his head. 

“I-I don’t know?? I mean I guess the first time I was just talking to you while drinking at the water cooler and- uh. When I was just sitting at my desk alone just thinking about stuff!....stuff.” Jason’s tirade ended as he felt like he might have spoken about too much, especially in front of Motor, who at this point was just trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard. 

Before Motor made a not PG-13 suggestion, Ellie intervened and suggested conducting a pacer test to see if Jason's heart rate had any correlation to his abilities. Setting up the course was fairly simple, as they used rocks as markers and made sure there were no obstacles for Jason to stumble over.

Thus began the trial of running back and forth for what felt like forever to Jason, who didn’t take exercising that seriously in his early twenties. Watching the poor sight unfold told a story of sitting in a cheap office chair for the majority of his 9-5 work week, and while his natural metabolism kept him skinny- it definitely didn’t do him any favors in the muscle department.

His face quickly reddened as sweat poured from his forehead and soaked through his shirt. He loosened his tie, which was beginning to feel like a noose around his neck. Despite his efforts, he didn't make it to the tenth lap before collapsing, and Ellie had to step in to catch him before he stumbled over his ill-fitting shoes. Gasping for air, Jason instinctively moved his fingers to his neck, trying to steady his racing heart.

 "One hundred and fifty…," he managed to sputter out between coughs. "That's as high as... as it's going to get for me..." Ellie gently guided him to the ground and patted his back. 

"You okay, dude?" she asked, concern etched in her voice. Jason looked up at her, his breaths coming in ragged gasps. 

"Do I look taller?" he asked, his words punctuated by wheezes. 

Ellie looked at him incredulously. "No," she replied, kicking herself for not bringing a full water bottle. "Motor, do you have any water in your truck?" she asked, looking up at him. Motor was holding up his phone which was recording the entire scene. From concern to ticked off, Ellie motioned him over and communicated a silent ‘stop recording camera man and help us’. He quickly pocketed his phone and retrieved a can of water from the truck, offering it to Jason.

“Got seltzer water, that works right?” 

Jason fell over with a groan. 

---

Something wasn't right. Ellie's eyes narrowed as she pondered a potential connection between the events. They weren't getting all the answers here, and Ellie was determined to uncover them, even if it was the last thing she did. She leaned against a trunk, observing Jason as he downed his fourth can of dark cherry seltzer.

"Are you planning on leaving any for the rest of us?" Motor interjected irritably. Holding the box of seltzer in his hands, he loomed over the sweaty and disheveled Jason. After a few gulps, Jason withdrew the can from his lips and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Gasping for breath, he weakly responded.

"Sorry, I feel like death right now." Jason turned the can in front of him, sneering at the ingredients. "I can't believe you drink this stuff. It's sticky and gross." He handed the can over to Motor. 

"You're sticky and gross," Motor retorted, crushing the can in his hand and turning it into an aluminum ball. After telling Motor to shove off, Jason rose to his feet and returned to Ellie. Feeling more disgusted than taller at that point, he questioned how much more of this paranoia-inducing gym class he could endure. That’s when an empty seltzer nearly smacked Jason’s shoulder. Thankfully the can didn’t make it’s target as Jason flinched out of the way with a screech. “AHHHHH- !” Jason let out a loud scream and clutched his chest, glaring at Motor with a deep squint. "What was that for?!" he yelled in fury, stomping his feet. Motor, on the other hand, seemed unfazed and simply scratched the stubble of his baby beard. 

"Looks like it isn't a defense mechanism," he commented with a sly smirk. Jason rolled his eyes so hard that they might as well have been watching his brain.

Brushing his hair back and promptly fixing it back into its black and sleek professional bangs, Jason grunted in frustration facing away from his friends and into the far reaching woods.

This was starting to feel less scary and anxiety-inducing, but everything was becoming ridiculous, including himself. Jason took a deep breath in frustration, "Look guys, I know you want to help, but I don't think we're going to have any breakthroughs," he spoke, avoiding eye contact with his concerned friends. This was just something he didn't want to deal with anymore. Exhausted, he pressed his palms against his cheeks and closed his eyes, pushing his glasses up from the bridge of his nose to the bristle of his bangs. 

"We should just pack up and go home."

“But Jason,” Ellie spoke in a saddening tone that ended her sentence in a cold whimper, “Aren’t you afraid it’s going to happen again?” She approached him as leaves crunched under her shoes. She reached out to him- but, Jason’s eyes darted at her hand and jerked his shoulder away softly, still not willing to look her in the eye.

"I... I don't want to think about it, let alone try to intentionally bring back that god-awful feeling," Jason clenched his face, his voice trailing off as he avoided looking at Ellie. He was certain she was utterly disgusted to discover that Jason was a coward, but he was more than just a timid man.

"You don't understand. That feeling was so terrible, yet... I couldn't help but... enjoy it a little?" Ellie lowered her hand and tilted her head, her dark brown eyes fixed on him in confusion. She could only utter a confused syllable before falling silent. The absence of words intensified Jason's anxiety, and he turned around briefly to face her, his voice cracking.

"Not power hungry or sensual! Honest! Just before all that growth nonsense, I felt... elated and happy, and my heart was racing," his trembling fingers ran through his disheveled hair, tentatively parting the strands. "It felt like, for the first time in my life," Jason took a deep breath, "That’d I wouldn’t have to worry about anything." he concluded with a sigh. 

In that moment, he couldn't look any more broken as he witnessed his best friend of fourteen years struggling to understand him. 

Jason closed his eyes in bitterness, feeling even more repulsed for admitting that, for a brief moment, he had felt lighter than air despite the potential danger he could have caused.

“I’m- I’m crazy aren’t I-” “No. You’re not.”

Jason's eyes darted back to Ellie, who had a new expression on her face. She looked at him with enthusiasm, her mouth slightly open as her fingers touched the bottom left of her chin. A smile slowly formed on her lips, and life seemed to return to her as she gently grabbed the sides of Jason's shoulders.

 “That’s it!” Ellie exclaimed as her eyes had a twinkle of discovery. Jason couldn’t help but be confused about what in the world Ellie discovered. Before he could ask what she mean’t, he suddenly couldn’t see anything at all and felt fingers cover his eyes and a small shove spun him around. There was barely any resistance on Jason’s part- however he was still confused.

 “What in the blazes are you doing??” Jason responded as he couldn’t fight away Ellie’s fingers pressing his glasses on his face. 

“Trust me on this,” Ellie responded calmly, “Close your eyes, we’re practicing mindfulness”. Doing a double take, Jason stalled for a second before defaulting into what Ellie wanted him to do. ‘Surely she has a plan’ Jason thought to himself as he willingly closed his eyes. ‘Right?...’  

Motor on the other hand was watching this all go down with a very skewed frown on his face. He never really was big on this therapy stuff, and he really had no idea where Ellie was going with it. 

"Is this really a good time for a therapy session, sis?" Motor quipped, causing Ellie to shoot a quick glance at him and swat her hand in his direction with a scowl. She then turned back to Jason and patted his shoulders, causing them to jolt slightly.

"Alright, buddy, how do you feel about our friend Natasha?" Ellie asked casually, with a smirk on her face. Jason's shoulders immediately tensed up and a shiver ran up his spine, replacing his melancholy with shock and annoyance. He almost turned to look at Ellie, but her firm grip on his shoulders prevented him from doing so. He tried to cover up his shock with a quick lie, as he didn't want to reveal his secret to Motor, who would surely gloat about it. Plus, he couldn't see the relevance of Natasha to the whole giant situation.

“Wh-what are you talking about?! She’s our friend and an upstanding manager, You should know that Ellie,” Jason sputtered out before crossing his arms, “And that- that’s not appropriate to say.” 

This was going to be a low blow Ellie was about to commit, but in the end, it was going to be for his own good. She gestured her hands over Jason’s eyes so that they went back to being closed and it was followed with a tsk. “It’s okay to be honest here, Nobody else is around for miles," Ellie reassured him, patting his back gently. She took a step back, her arms wrapping around her own back as she tilted her head. "I know you trust me." 

Jason’s head lowered-- he could feel the confused and shocked stare of Motor, who at this point was starting to burn a hard glare at Jason hoping that he wasn’t about to say something that had his best friend involved. Hairs rose on Jason’s neck as he lowered his hand to the ground, keeping his eyes closed in fear that he’d accidentally meet Motor’s seething gaze. 

“You’re screwing with me.” Motor spat out, his glare now full-on directed at Jason, who was probably about to say something he didn't want to hear. Jason became a stuttering mess, keeping his eyes glued shut and not daring to look back at the angry bull behind him, who was huffing and puffing and ready to give him a good slap.

“Ok-okay I might have made my statement a little bit- misleading. I uh- I really like her in a different way,” Jason sputtered, finding that closing his eyes made him a lot braver, even brave enough to turn around to face his companions. 

However, his nervousness wasn't unfounded, as he could feel his heart pounding rapidly in his chest, and a chilling sensation running through his skin like a bad rash. Well, not really bad. In fact, it felt good having this tingling sensation slowly making its way from his chest to the edges of his fingertips. It only grew stronger the more he talked. “I mean, not just in a friendly way. Granted, she's an amazing friend and I don't want to expect anything in the romantic department, but..."

Warmth radiated from his chest from just thinking about talking about her. The heat from his center suddenly pushed through his limbs and ended at his fingertips. It felt as though pure dopamine was coursing through his veins, and his arms wrapped around himself in a tight hug as his lips curled into an anticipatory smile.

"She's just amazing, you know? It feels like we can be so open with each other, and man alive, I haven't met anyone who can get me to smile during a dreadful shift like she can, She's just hilarious." Jason continued, not waiting for a response as the words spilled out of him. 

The more he talked, the easier it became, and confessing his actual thoughts made him feel more alive than he had in a while. His palms grew warm against his cheeks as he pressed his hands onto his face out of slight embarrassment, unable to contain his excitement.

That wasn’t going to stop him droning on, “Not to mention she’s drop dead gorgeous like, I haven’t noticed before but you know how pretty her dim wine eyes are? I didn’t even know that eye color was even possible, right?” His fingers were becoming tangled in his hair with his peepers still glued shut to avoid seeing the expressions his friends were probably making. 

His words were met with a staring silence, but right then he could have given a heartfelt speech to a whole stadium of people as the butterflies soaring through his stomach preoccupied his thoughts.

In the moment he didn’t care about shame, and though a light breeze was making goosebumps rise on his skin, the warmth he felt inside was doing him just fine. A light buzzing felt all over his skin made him feel lighter than air. He continued to fill the empty void in conversations with mere rambling, “And her hands are so soft~ Have to wonder what lotion she uses but, I really want to hold them all day no-- all week!” 

“Uhm- J-jason??” A small voice peeked from the rambling. “Okay granted- that sounds creepy I'll admit. Though it’s just how I really feel about her. She’s a comforting and deep presence that I can’t ignore anymore and that’s..” Jason attempted to continue the conversation by himself.

“Holy shit…” Another small but disgruntled voice spoke as a shadow started to drape itself across the trees, causing most of the wildlife to screech and run for their lives. 

“Well. Yeah a problem. I know. That’s why I haven’t told anyone because if word got out I actually felt it would ruin our..” Before Jason’s tone could fall harder, he was rightly interrupted. 

“JASON OPEN YOUR EYES!!” Screamed a voice- not just any voice. Ellie’s voice. She would never raise her voice like that under any circumstances unless…

Jason's eyelids opened in astonishment. The wind tousled his wispy coal hair as he took in the breathtaking scene before him. Above, the sky stretched endlessly, adorned with gray clouds that seemed to go on for miles. They formed a captivating backdrop to the rolling hills of the distant forest, while even the city's man-made structures appeared remarkably close despite their supposed distance. It felt as though a brisk ten-minute jog would be enough to reach them, defying the time it took to get here.

In fact, he could even make out the faint outline of the Space Needle's peak from his current vantage point. However, this momentary awe was quickly overshadowed by the realization that he wasn't standing on a tourist platform but rather in the midst of nature just moments ago. 

A sinking feeling settled in his stomach as he observed the peculiar chest-high pointed shrubs surrounding him. Initially appearing alien, they gradually became familiar. The distinct scent of pine gave them away as the same trees that had towered over them before he closed his eyes. What made it even stranger was the inability to distinguish individual pine needles anymore, as they seemed to merge into one prickly yet pleasantly fragrant blob.

If Jason didn't know any better, he would have thought he had been taken to an uncanny, miniature version of a golf course as a cruel and extravagant prank. The trees appeared tightly packed and diminutive compared to their previous grandeur, but they swayed in the breeze just as they always had. There was no denying that everything around him had shrunk.

Either that, or he’s gotten bigger.

His throat tightened, and he swallowed hard, keeping his gaze level with the shrunken plant life. He was reluctant to look down, fearing the unsettling sight that awaited him. Each breath felt labored and heavy as he found himself inhaling rapidly. The once exhilarating rush of romantic feelings had now been replaced by sheer terror.

“Jason..?” A very hesitant Ellie spoke as she backed up from the gigantic leather loafers and ankles. Ellie wasn’t sure if she could reach out to him. He was so far away yet- an overwhelming presence that even made her stomach flip. She didn’t want to be afraid of Jason especially since he looked like he was scared out of his mind himself but she couldn’t help the feeling of being around a body that was so big and more importantly, unstable. 

Ellie’s traitorous brain decided this would be a great time to visualize the times when Jason had a fifty percent chance of knocking his head against a bus station pole or clumsily tripping over literally nothing, resulting in nothing more than minor embarrassment. Those incidents would pale in comparison to what blunders Jason could cause being as tall as he is now. As her feet instinctively moved, quietly retreating, Ellie couldn't help but question whether she wanted him to hear her.

Shortly after, Ellie realized that he had indeed heard her, Jason’s head darted downwards after what felt like a lifetime of not looking down. His gentle hazel eyes, filled with tears, locked onto the two of them with a mix of emotions, his face contorted in an expression of awkward despair. His eyebrows shot up, and his jaw slackened in shock. Jason couldn’t believe what he was seeing but, there it was- the proof was right in front of him. 

Both frozen in fear, neither of them dared to make a sudden move, terrified of the potential consequences that could arise from even the slightest misstep. However, their hesitations didn’t matter as Jason's legs began to tingle, the blood rushing to his head causing a loss of sensation, and his weakened heart unable to withstand the pressure. 

Slowly, his colossal form buckled under its own weight, a wave of panic coursing through his mind. Feebly, he managed to utter a series of pleading "nos," accompanied by a desperate shake of his head. With a sinking realization, Jason's heightened senses anticipated what was about to happen, understanding his lack of control in the face of it. What he could do however- was to make sure he wasn’t falling on top of his friends. 

Jason had leaned back, twisted his feet to the side and let gravity do the work. 

"WOAH- Wait, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Motor's voice pierced through the air, a mix of shock and alarm. However, his protest was abruptly cut short by a violent upheaval that sent him sprawling onto the forest floor, his unruly curls mingling with the nearby vegetation. Annoyance etched across his face as he realized his beloved hoodie had become a canvas for dirt, courtesy of his impromptu encounter with the forest floor and an unfortunate stump.

The beanstalk had fallen.

Meanwhile, Ellie's luck prevailed as she found herself caught in the embrace of a sturdy tree, her arms wrapped tightly around a lower branch. Momentary whiplash left her disoriented, temporarily obscuring Motor's colorful stream of expletives. Tentatively, she turned her gaze back toward the spot where Jason's imposing legs had once stood, only to be met with the sight of him partially kneeling on the ground, his trembling arm straining to support his immense weight.

Jason traced a finger on his own face before he pulled it forwards to look at his twitching hands as he retracted them. Still buzzing from the blood rushing to his head he had his last thought of wondering if he was still dreaming this entire week; however, by now it would be less believable to think that his imagination was making this all up than him blowing up into a giant.

 He lost focus on his hand as he heard loud and clear swearing from the bushes. Darting his glaze over to his now miniature coworkers, he couldn’t believe how different the pair looked. Even big ol’ Motor, who normally stood a good few feet over him, and was definitely eating his wheaties as that man could probably take on a horse despite his loafing habits at work, was as big as an incredibly accurate figurine. Their features blended in and Jason could only tell it was them by the fact that they’re the only people there, and by the color of their clothing and hair. He saw Ellie start helping Motor up and pulling him to his feet with a good tug that just seemed so full of effort for such a small being. Their eyes meet once again with a small startle coming from Ellie seeing the monolith iris start tracking her again.

 Jason grimaced pitifully and spoke out without thinking about it. Now his talking wouldn’t bother anyone unless they had something against the British but this time his voice boomed, “Ellie, I’m not gonna hurt you!” Both Motor and Ellie covered their ears with Motor being really angry or really excited- he couldn’t decide either way. 

“Try lowering your voice a tad won’t ya?!” Motor retorted, “It’s going to wake up a whole ass city! That’s...kinda sick, though.” Jason immediately covered his mouth with his free hand, a pained expression on his face, hating that he had to go ahead and make things worse by talking. Ellie hesitantly drew closer. She slowly pulled her hands away from her ears to hold them together in an uncomfortable embrace; as if she was demonstrating reluctance to confirm something. 

Motor on the other hand was in awe- Never in a lifetime he’d thought he’d get to see a real life giant,let alone knowing the guy himself. Before Motor could go up and start doing a frantic inspection Jason removed his hand from his mouth and raised it in front of the two as he shook his head adamantly, and started talking at his usual volume, but his tongue caught him and continued speaking in urgent whispers. 

“NO- oh no- sorry! No no no no, That’s close enough you two,” He spoke in the lowest voice he could just so he didn’t further destroy their ear drums. “I… I don’t want to hurt you both… again.” His arm got tired so he lowered himself down on his forearm and leaned back. This was all around pretty terrible, Jason would admit to himself, he wondered how he was even capable of doing this, and what event caused this transformation in the first place. “Jason,” Ellie finally spoke up softly, staring downwards at the ground as she fiddled with her rings on her pointer finger. Rummaging through her head on what would be the best way to say what she needed to say but, it only looked like being straight forward was the only way to go. 

“This is going to sound so weird but,... I think.. I think it’s your crush on Nat that’s causing this.” She looked up sympathetically at the giant who had a vacant look in his eyes as if her words were bouncing off of his ears, yet it all sank in as his blank face sagged into a frown, with eyes becoming more watery as the idea repeated in his mind. He shook his head, but this time it was languid.

 “That.. that can’t be,” He whimpered, for a moment his voice rose an octave “That’s ridiculous!... That’s ridiculous…” He wanted to unhear that sentence, but deep down he knew that Ellie was right.

 She usually was. 

[Image Description: Jason, putting his hand over his mouth, is in complete disbelief while Ellie looks at him with concern.]

“Oh. Oh, no.” 

Out of all the ailments in the world it just had to be specifically that one didn’t it? He would have taken yelling silly catch phrases or being physically injured over the truth. His jaw dropped and he grew distant from Ellie’s counseling. She tried her hardest to give her best friend reasons to not panic; it didn’t help much. 

Motor wasn’t much help as he folded his arms with a gruff, “Man that’s lame.” He spoke without thinking but caught his tongue when Ellie darted back a glare he only wished he could unsee. “But uh- uhh… Being a kaiju is cool I guess.” No amount of backtracking was going to matter to Jason- he was just enveloped in his thoughts. 

Thoughts of wondering what he did to deserve this curse; he wasn’t a bad person, was he? He never intended to hurt people, he was polite to all he’s met, paid his taxes and even donated to every charity post he saw on social media even if that meant he’d have toast for dinner. The only sin he remembered committing was falling head-over-heels in love with someone who could lose their whole career if they reciprocated, and who he wouldn't be able to make happy in the long run.

Oh. 

Jason laid himself on the ground with only his arm to support his head. He groaned before making a small glance at his friends who went silent at the sudden movement, he buried his giant face into his free arm and curled up. Murmuring a request that was promptly followed by a deep sigh; “Can I have a minute, Please?”

Ellie and Motor gave each other knowing looks before Motor started to gently pull Ellie away as she didn’t take any action to walk away from her grieving friend.

 “Alright, see ya in a few,” Motor said as he glanced back to see Jason laying there, who was using his legs to cover his face. The last thing Ellie saw when she turned away was a glimpse of a very sad pile of giant limbs pulling together that had grown silent. 

Several meters away from the clearing, they both kept walking until they were out of sight and made sure that Jason couldn’t hear them if they kept a low conversation- knowing that man’s eardrums had to have been blessed enough to be able to hear a needle drop in the middle of highway traffic. Ellie finally released a tense sigh and started to rub her arms vigorously as she tried to relieve all that pent up stress.

 “Man… Maybe I shouldn’t have said that,” Ellie confessed as she looked up to Motor with sad eyes that peaked through her blonde hair. “I just really, reaaally wanted to help but…” Motor shrugged his shoulders as he decided that one tree he was conveniently next to was a great place to lean on. 

Giving her a quizzical look, Motor asked, “Wasn’t that your plan? Like, that was the entire point of this experiment, L.” Ellie paused her hair ruffling to dart her eyes right back at Motor. 

“Yeah but- Oh my gods he’s HUGE,” she raised her hands upwards in a grand gesture, “I thought he’d be a few inches taller, Not a few meters taller!” Ellie yelped out as her shoulders crept back into herself in shame. 

“That was more than a few meters Ellie-” he commented. “SHUT. You know what I mean…” she replied.

Whimpering under her breath trying to mask her words unsuccessfully, “This is my fault - I Completely messed everything up... I’m so stupid.”

 Motor wasn’t going to let her get away with that one. “Come on, don’t put yourself down like that- aren’t you supposed to be a counselor after finals or something?” he interjected. “A psychiatrist,” Ellie gave a quick correction, “Though I guess you have a point there.” She rubbed her eyes, trying to not engage too much with the thoughts she was having, letting the guilt sink in but instead of covering herself with it like a wet blanket she tried to understand ‘why’ she was feeling that way. 

“Just… none of this makes any sense, I don’t know about you but we don’t live in a fairy tale Motor, this isn’t normal.” Her shoulders dropped with the weight of the situation weighing her down from standing up to a nearby moss-covered boulder. 

“Back at the office, seeing that giant eyeball staring back at me was horrifying enough, but now that we were literally a foot stomp away from being made into pancakes…” Ellie started to babble as she sunk further into those baseline human feelings that first show up when their whole understanding of existence has been challenged.

 “Not going to lie, I felt like running.” Admitting that out loud made her feel like actual scum of the earth. Her hands clapped together and brought them to her crown with a desperate inhale. Was Motor’s awkward stare down and dirt-kicking coming off as judgemental? It was. According to Ellie it was. 

“So uh… Jason actually likes her back huh?” Motor asked, his stomach sinking from his doubt being proven wrong after all this time. He cringed as he frustratedly brushed his curly mess of hair in a declaration of being agitated. “Kinda messed up, he hasn't noticed by now she’s basically throwing herself at him this whole time. Seriously I haven’t seen her this down bad in years… The giant idiot has been leading her on?!” 

Those words weren’t going to fly, not on Ellie’s watch. She straightened her posture to glare at Motor and pointed aggressively at him. 

 “He isn’t leading her on!” she scolded back as she folded her arms, “It’s complicated, he doesn’t have a single idea that she likes him back.”

 “Then why don’t he, oh, I don’t know, JUST FUCKING TELL HER?” His patience dwindled as he paced around trying to not focus his anger on a person but the ground below him. “This whole star-crossed lover shtick got old the minute Natasha told me she liked him,” Motor spouted as he paced back and forth angrily, “I straight up told her that ain’t going to turn out because he’s a self-absorbed, spineless chicken!”

 The silence from Ellie pulled him away from his anger when he noticed she didn’t retaliate with his argument. She was sadly staring down at her battling thumbs, not sure what to say to that. “I know it looks bad,” she finally opened up to answer, “But they would definitely get terminated by Atlas if their feelings were known, and you know both of them have so much to lose.” 

Motor opened his mouth but it seemed he ran out of arguments. While he didn’t give a single shit about Atlas in the slightest, he knew that Natasha really cared about her career. 

Instead of continuing to bicker, he just took a seat on the boulder of shame next to Ellie and clumsily patted her back as they just let the silence of the forest do all the talking for the both of them. After a good minute Motor broke the silence first. “Capitalism can suck it.” Ellie sighed. “This is completely out of my league, Like, what do we do now?” She questioned not only herself but opened the suggestion to Motor. 

“We turn him into a superhero,” Motor delivered to her, which he continued before she could object. “Wait- let me finish, this is going to be helpful I swear.” He was granted permission by Ellie to go further into his wildly off-course suggestion just to see where he could have been going with it. 

Motor stepped back from the boulder with his hands gesturing to the area where a giant had been having a self pity moment.

 “If I learned anything from superhero movies, I know for sure that weird junk like this doesn’t happen for no reason,” he continued, as he closed his eyes to envision the classic hero origin story from the perspective of a common movie fanatic thinking of theories that could possibly happen in the next few chapters of Jason’s life.

 “You see, I think we’re at that part of the movie we figured out what makes him tick, it can’t be an unimportant plot point because that’d be dumb.” Motor spoke as his hands landed on his hips while his huff blew the tufts of his mess of curly bangs as he kept tacking on information,

 “There’s gotta be a reason for him to have super powers,”  The obviously confused Ellie sat there on the rock trying to find what connections Motor could be talking about and why in the world he’s bringing up fictional terms into this real life situation.

As if Motor could read her thoughts, he continued his spiel while scratching his baby beard, “Could be connected to Natasha, whatever Jason’s past is or something completely unrelated. Who knows?, The thing we need to worry about is,” Motor then talked grimly as he bent down to be eye level with the clearly nervous college student, 

“Whatever it is- Jason needs to be big to stand a chance.” 

It was completely unheard of to Ellie to take whatever comes out of Motor’s mouth with a grain of seriousness. In that bleak moment, the realization of impending doom crawled into her head. Being exposed to a phenomenon that broke her view of real world physics and scale had made her become more receptive to the idea. While Motor’s superhero rant is silly, she had to be there for her friends. Even if she was far from equipped to deal with it. 

No matter if it was just conjecture- it was all they had left. The big nerd has a point for once. 

“Well uhm… I guess we could help him adjust to this… thing.” Ellie asked as her eyes slowly met Motor’s with color fading from her face.

“Bingo,” Motor responded. 

Thunk

CRASH

---

Jason couldn’t tell how long he’d been lonesome. Despite having a small fling in secondary school with a girl, well, it wasn’t a legitimate fling so much as it was the ending punchline to that girl’s sick joke to her friend group that lasted about 12 hours.

 Never forgive or forget Tracey. 

Lucky his teenage heart was broken not out of legitimate love for the girl but the pride of being in a relationship. He learned that he never cared for the race to be someone’s boyfriend or that ladies man nonsense. For years he concluded he just simply wasn’t meant to be attracted to anyone and let that matter rest, because he’d rather not place the burden of love on somebody. He’d always figured he’d be a terrible romantic partner. 

Sure, he idealized romance in his favorite rom-coms and paperback novels which didn’t hurt anyone, though one could say his tastes in quality media suffered. It was for the best he’d keep to himself and do the simple task of just having good friends in his life because that’s all he needed. He absolutely botched the plan when he realized he’d fallen head over heels for Natasha. It happened so abruptly that he could pinpoint the moment his heart decided that she was the one. It was a Saturday night after work when the gang decided to get drinks at this local indie band bar that Ellie suggested. It was just a few pints and music for crying out loud. Cupid must have had it out for him, because in a moment his friend of three years suddenly became the most attractive woman on Earth.

 Strange part was that nothing changed about her, she looked the same, acted the same and seemed to brighten the room the same. Nothing about it was her fault- just his dumb mediocre man feelings. 

She doesn’t deserve him. The bloody monster. Reflection time was abruptly shattered when Jason's body collided with the wooden pikes surrounding him. The tree pressing against his glasses and threatening to poke his eye served as a painful wake-up call, bringing him back to reality. With a sharp yelp, Jason jolted and surveyed his transformed surroundings. The boulders had morphed into skipping stones, and the trees appeared more fragile than before.

As the pieces fell into place in his mind, Jason let out a pitiful grumble. "Now I can't even wallow about my love life without everything shrinking around me? Unbelievable!" he exclaimed in a mixture of annoyance and desperation.

Attempting to gauge his own size, Jason estimated that the towering Douglas firs must have been at their maximum height, around 30 meters. That meant he had to be over 40 meters tall himself, considering the sticks around him only reached his lower chest. The thought induced a cringe that resonated throughout his entire being. 

Why did he have to be good at math?

This made Jason feel like throwing up, though he held back on following through because of the consequences of getting sick everywhere. 

Frustrated and questioning the purpose of his brain, Jason pushed himself up to gaze at the dark gray clouds gathering over Seattle, seemingly poised for an extended stay.

At least there was something looming above him, for the time being. Jason's mind began to wander, contemplating whether he could reach such heights to devour cumulonimbus clouds as if they were fluffy cotton candy. The thought sent a shiver down his spine, but he quickly pulled himself together, realizing that would be just absurd.

This was too weird for him. 

“Out of all the curses in the world, I had to get gigantic, didn’t I?” Jason asked the nonexistent crowd with a strong distaste, “For Pete's sake, I would have taken being turned into stone or a vampire even! At least then I’d be able to fit in a house..” 

He clenched his fists with a large inhale, tensing himself up before exhaling a wind that blew through the quiet woods like a sudden, harsh spring gust. Covering his mouth once again with a startle, Jason took a second before huffing out a smaller, less affecting sigh.

 “How am I supposed to live like this?” He asked no one. No one responded with silence and small trembles of animals escaping the scene.

 Jason could already sense his mind trying to fill the void with the usual daydreaming which unfortunately, had romance most of the time. In defeat of calming himself down, His eyes searched the land for something to distract himself with- what he had at his disposal was trees. Fantastic. 

Jason reached his hand to touch one fateful douglas fir trunk as his whole body laid on the ground. In an attempt to distract himself from the panic swirling inside him, he sought solace in fiddling with something to turn off his overactive imagination. His enormous fingers gently cradled the trunk of the tree and slowly moved the tip of his fingers against the aging bark. His colossal fingers flinched away from surprise in a brief moment, he had expected the bark to feel completely smooth as his eyes told him, but it felt rough.  

“Woah, isn’t this bizarre?, “ Jason remarked, his voice filled with astonishment. His fingers continued to explore the tree trunk, brushing against the curves of the bark that his eyes alone could not detect, “Like- I can still feel all of your crevices and all that… How?” 

Driven by his curiosity, Jason leaned in closer to the trunk, his eyes widening with excitement. He realized that by focusing his attention, he could perceive even more intricate details of the trunk's curves and weathered wrinkles, each marking a chapter in the tree's long history. The bumps scattered across the surface became distinct under his scrutiny, and he could now discern the individual pine needles with remarkable clarity. It was a newfound perspective, one that revealed the tree's hidden beauty in ways he had never imagined before.

 Incredible, he had thought. 

Eyesight was one of those things he’d struggle with needing his glasses to be able to see far-sighted. His ability to see objects up close was serviceable but he'd never been able to pick out details to this extent. 

The excitement surged through his veins, causing his hand to tightly grip the tree trunk as a radiant smile spread across his face. "This is incredible... Could I have done this before?"

However, his blissful moment was abruptly shattered by a sharp snap that echoed in his ears. In an instant, the tree returned to its smooth appearance, devoid of any discernible details. Jason's elation turned to dismay as he realized the consequences of his newly acquired strength. His hand recoiled from the trunk, revealing the broken remnants where his fingers had once tightly clenched. The once-mighty tree, which had weathered countless storms and endured the tests of time, now stood fractured and vulnerable, like a worn-down pencil shattered by an overwhelming force.

Jason lowered down so that his face was a few mere meters away from the afflicted tree with a guilt ridden gaze. “I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to-! …God,” Jason’s panicked guilt turned into unfolding shame. He huffed before brushing his bangs away from his face. “Jason, you're apologizing to a tree for pete's sake.” 

Then why did he feel so bad about it? It’s not like the tree has the capability to forgive him right? He couldn’t even forgive himself. 

Jason also heard another thing with his excellent ears, the sound of crackling and birds screaming as they evacuated their homes. Before he could react, the towering timber leaned precariously, its weight shifting, until it finally crashed onto Jason's head with a resounding thud. A pained yelp escaped his lips, causing an eerie silence to descend upon the once lively surroundings.

With trembling fingers, Jason attempted to push the fallen tree back into its original position, his voice filled with desperation as he whimpered, "No, no! It's alright! Everything is fine!" For a fleeting moment, his efforts seemed to have some effect. 

“See? Good as new!” The creaking sound disagreed however and the tree made its second fall onto Jason’s face. Again.  

He dug his fingers into his knees as he stewed there with a tree adorning his forehead. Against his better judgment he made another large tidal wave of air flow through the forest aggressively.

“What the hell are you doing!?” Motor yelled out as Ellie and him scrambled into the clearing. 

“Destroying the environment, that's about it.” Jason responded solemnly, still with the tree resting on his forehead. 

He didn’t bother looking behind him because he could hear someone making an impressive low whistle. Ellie raced past Motor in a fit, "Are you okay?!" She yelled, pushing through the knee-high grasses and bushes as he bolted towards Jason. The giant hardly had any time to react and had only managed to raise his head off of the ground, letting the dead tree slide off of his nose. 

"Woah hold on a minute don’t get close to-" Jason's warning was cut short by a gentle force pressing against his lower leg. Swinging his head downward, he discovered a tiny figure attempting to grasp his ankle in a panicked embrace. It felt more like a light pinch than a warm hug, but the gesture was appreciated.

Figuring he already knew who was coddling him, the idea of using his newfound ability to focus on her came to mind, and he saw no harm in giving it a shot. Squinting his eyes and concentrating, Jason directed his attention towards Ellie. His head bent downward, his eyes squinting intensely.

In a sudden moment of clarity, the details came into view. He noticed Ellie's blonde, soft bangs brushing against his diamond patterned wool socks, and the elegant tattoos adorning her arms. Underneath her pushed-up sleeve, he caught a glimpse of a wrapped-up bandage on her upper arm. Her grimace was hidden as she buried her face into his sock, holding on tightly for a few more seconds.

“Come on, let him go.” Motor spoke up, “Gulliver said he didn’t want to be touched.” Ellie jolted off of him while patting herself down with shaky hands. “Oh geez- s-sorry dude, I… I just...” Ellie sputtered out embarrassingly as Jason pulled his head back to not scare her further.

 “It’s quite alright Ellie, the hug was nice.” Jason commented as he pulled himself slowly around so he was facing his mini coworkers. He traced his finger in the ground to lightly pet the grass with his finger tips. “This whole ‘giant’ thing has gotten me out of sorts,” Jason began to explain to his audience of two people, reaching his hands up to his face to flex them. 

“It’s not just that everything is small… Compared to me I mean, but I can- well. I don’t know how to explain this without sounding like I’m on some heavy drugs,”

 “Too late for that!” Motor interrupted proudly. 

Jason tried to sputter his words out to scold the little trouble maker without busting anyone’s ear drums. “No-NO! Oh my go- Motor please let me explain! I think I have, oh I don’t know, super focus or something!” 

Jason Leaned a bit forward to look down upon his friends, nervously smiling and trying his best to seem non-threatening as if trying to persuade a feral cat to become best friends. Ellie and Motor looked at each other in confusion. 

“Like- If I have my attention on something for long enough I can actually see and hear it just as if I was normal.” Jason continued to explain, bringing his eyes to track Motor this time and tried to dart his gaze on his clothing. Motor tried to speak up to ask what the heck Jason was even going on about, but he caught his tongue when he noticed Jason’s expression turned from a friendly inspection to a mischievous smirk. Motor hated that look, he could smell the superiority from all the way down there. 

Didn’t help Jason’s hulking form started to lean down towards him menacingly with that disgusting smugness filling his vision. Motor tried to step back a little bit when he saw that Jason’s hand was heading towards him. The audacity of this giant jerk. Motor gawked and yelled out:

“Hey, HEY! HEY! I THOUGHT YOU DIDN’T WANT TO BE TOUCHED.” 

The hand turned into a fist as it was a few meters away and Jason’s earl gray scented breath sent shivers down Motor’s spine. Was this a sick joke? Is Jason about to take his revenge on all those head rubs Motor has tormented him with? He braced himself and waited for… whatever the heck Jason was thinking of doing to him. When nothing happened, Motor peaked his eyes open and realized that Jason’s index finger was pointing down at him just a car lengths away from his chest. “You have a barbecue stain on your jacket.” … “I actually hate you.”