#they are the few who keep Adam in check and keep a eyes on colin

[ladychandraofthemoone]

⚠️3/1⚠️

Sooo…uhhhh  Gaslight. Gatekeep. Girlboss. Featuring W&S #2&4!

[goulets]

Heartland

Chapter: 3/8 Pairing: Jason Todd/Dick Grayson Additional Characters: Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne, Colin Wilkes, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake, Duke Thomas Rating: T (for now) Case Fic / Kid Fic a03 link

The library has its benefits: no harassment from over-familiar family members, no Dick sexually frustrating him within an inch of his life, and, if he’s willing to be a little sentimental, he kind of does want to show it to the baby. She’s too young to appreciate it, probably, but it stirs something in him to share it with her all the same. He’s heard it’s never too early to get kids into reading - his parents sure as hell never tried, but Jason had read anything he could get his hands on, once he learned how. It had saved him, back then. Maybe it can do the same for her one day.

“Could’ve sworn Bruce had a Dr. Seuss anthology somewhere in here,” he says to her, combing over the shelves with his eyes. “Guess not. You up for something more sophisticated?”

She grunts, squeezing his shirt in her fist. “Alright,” he agrees, pulling Twelfth Night off the shelf. “Shakespeare it is. You’ve got taste, kid.”

***

(dick)

Venice is a nightclub that has gone by many names during its Gotham tenure, and just as many owners. Dick has been undercover here at least twice, back when the club was catering to the wealthier patrons of Little Italy. The current management clearly hasn’t bothered with maintaining that exclusivity - the building is now shabby and outdated, even for this neighborhood. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the real draw of Venice, which is the illegal casino in the back rooms beyond the VIP lounge. Through all the club’s owners, the casino has always been run by the Falcones, and always frequented by the city’s most morally flexible elected officials. In the past four nights that Dick’s been staking the place out, he’s seen five judges, two city council members, and even the new police commissioner slipping out the back door into the alley, stinking of gin and cigar smoke and patting their coat pockets with an air of satisfaction. It’s good intel to have, Barbara’s told him. Always helpful to keep the files updated on who’s being bought and by whom. None of that really makes him feel better about the fact that he’s been staking this place out for four nights and still hasn’t managed to pin down their actual target.

It’s embarrassing, is what it is. He’s Nightwing, for God’s sake. He’s taken down whole Russian mobs in Bludhaven, and now he’s being completely eluded by a third-string Falcone no one’s even heard of.

Oracle had ID’d the doer of the Torres/Howard murders in a matter of hours, true to her word, and the ballistics had predictably matched up with a few other murders that the police never bothered investigating. Susanna “Susie” Falcone, a second cousin once removed with a rap sheet that puts many of her relatives to shame. Her name must still have some pull in political circles, because she’s only done time once, in spite of being indicted almost a dozen times. Gotta love good old fashioned judicial corruption, Jason had said. No one had been able to argue, looking at the number of charges dismissed.

All in all, it was supposed to be a fairly simple tag-and-bag. Once they’d found her place of work - officially, the Venice nightclub, unofficially, the family casino - he’d been tasked to track her, question her, and then turn her in to the police. He’d chosen his stakeout perch well, on a hotel roof high above the alley, he’d followed her, unseen, and so far, she’s given him the slip every freaking time. The woman has vanished through every doorway from here to Robinson Park, as only the most enterprising criminal can. Were this a different kind of case, Dick might have been impressed.

Instead, he’s annoyed, and having to compromise - his vantage point is lower, closer but more exposed in the thin shadows of a third story construction platform right above the alley. He can see the door to the club without any difficulty, but the moment he moves, he’ll be open to attack.

He’ll just have to move fast. Fortunately, that’s what he’s best at.

There’s a soft motion behind him, almost quiet enough to escape his notice entirely. It’s Jason - Dick hadn’t expected him to actually turn up. No doubt he’s here to make sure they finally succeed in catching their mark tonight, but he’s been so adamant about not leaving Danielle with anyone except Dick that it’s still a surprise to see him. What’s equally surprising to Dick is that he was apparently hoping Jason would show, if the relief he feels at seeing him is anything to go by.

It’s a nice moment of solidarity, until Jason opens his mouth. “So, fourth night’s a charm, huh?”

Dick bristles. “What happened to not leaving the baby?” he retorts.

Jason bristles back, but doesn’t rise to the bait. It’s a little wrongfooting - a reminder that things are changing between them. Dick is used to the veneer of antagonism that hangs over his relationship with Jason, the unresolved tension they both pretend not to notice. They’d gotten into a pretty good groove when he was acting as Batman, staying out of each others’ way for the most part, and working together when necessary. Dick’s pretty sure Jason doesn’t actually harbor any murderous feelings towards him, just like he doesn’t actually hate Bruce, no matter what he says.

“The girls and Alfred ganged up on me,” Jason says, leaning back against the scaffolding. “Whatever. I needed to get the hell out of there anyways. I don’t know how you stand being around them all so much.”

Dick laughs. “They’re not as interested in me,” he admits. “I’m not the cool sibling.”

Jason doesn’t respond right away. It's hard for Dick to tell, when he’s wearing the helmet, but he thinks Jason is probably waiting to see if Dick is joking. It’s another way things have shifted between them - Jason’s holding back, not jumping straight to lashing out, like he used to. It should be a good thing - it is a good thing, but it’s throwing him off balance all the same. He feels like he's spent most of the past several days looking for Jason, even when Jason is right in front of him. He’s used to trying to find the Jason he knows - or knew - the Jason who was taken away from him. Now there’s a new Jason, a Jason he’s still getting to know. Dick can’t choose between them, can’t decide which one he wants to find every time he looks at him. Maybe that’s why he can’t seem to find his one lousy mafia shooter.

“Looks like the cops are covering up the ballistics report on Reynolds,” Jason says, after a moment. “Go figure.”

Dick frowns. “Just Reynolds?”

Jason grunts. “Hold on. What.”

Dick turns to look at him.

“Did you burp her?”

Oh, Dick realizes, he’s on the comm. Someone back at the Manor must have pinged him on a private line.

“Then get Alfred to do it.”

It’s curious that the ballistics on Cy Reynolds’ murder are the ones being suppressed, Dick thinks. He was the only one killed with a submachine gun - the bullets from most of the other crime scenes had come from a standard Beretta APX, and the object of his stakeout, Susie Falcone, had used a Glock on Danielle’s parents. The Glock matched a few other shootings, the Beretta matched none. None of that is particularly noteworthy - after all, Susie is a criminal, and Beretta shell casings are a dime a dozen at any mob shooting.

“Fine. I’ll check back in five. If you asswipes don’t pick up, I’m coming back there.” Jason makes an aggravated noise in the back of his throat, which Dick takes to mean he’s hung up.

“Everything OK?”

“Just peachy. By some cosmic fucking joke, I’m the only person in the family who can get the baby to take a damn bottle. I told her they just need to burp her, but I guess that’s too complicated a task for a family of genius detectives,” Jason grumbles. “I knew I shouldn’t have left her. Shit.”

“Jay, relax. She’s fine.” Dick can’t help but grin at him. It’s honestly sweet, the way Jason and the baby have gotten attached to each other. Dick likes to think he’s her second favorite, but it’s pretty hard to tell. No matter who’s holding her, she’s always looking at Jason, and Jason never stops looking at her.

“It’s fucking cold out here,” Jason says mulishly.

Dick raises an eyebrow. “I noticed. It’s April, not August. If you really want to go back, I’m not gonna stop you.”

“I don’t…” Jason sighs. “Look, I’m here, okay? You bungled this grade school op three nights in a row, so congrats, you triggered the bat buddy system. If I leave and you fuck it up again, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Dick supposes it’s his turn not to rise to the bait. “Fair enough,” he says easily, turning around to face the alleyway again. “What were you saying about the ballistics on Reynolds?”

“Oh, Oracle ran the bullets through Interpol. Turns out our ill-fated gang boss was offed by one of Carmine Falcone’s personal weapons. The record’s been scrubbed from US databases, but Babs had a hunch.” Jason sounds impressed.

“Been scrubbed meaning...there was a record,” Dick follows, “and some people might still remember, if they saw the bullets. Hence the coverup.”

“Yup. Hence the coverup.”

“Could explain what the commissioner was doing here the other night,” Dick muses.

Jason snorts derisively. “See, this is what I hate about the mafia. They’re so goddamn predictable. Kill the competition, pay off the cops, around and around forever. It’s so pedestrian.”

Dick laughs. “You’d rather deal with Clayface?”

“Fuck yes I would. Clayface has flair, you know? Anybody can be a mobster, shit.”

Jason has started shifting with agitation, or maybe impatience. Either way, their vantage spot isn’t hidden enough for him to be moving around. “Get low if you’re gonna be twitchy,” Dick tells him. “Or if you’re gonna have a cigarette, but I’d really rather you didn’t.”

“Lucky for you I quit then,” Jason says, crouching down next to him. “I’m not jonesing, I’m just fucking cold.”

“We could huddle together for warmth,” Dick jokes, grinning unabashedly when Jason’s helmet fixes him with a death glare. “Wait, you quit smoking? When?”

“When I started taking care of a baby, obviously.” Jason goes still, suddenly. “Is that her?”

The door to the alleyway opens, and they both tense - but it’s just a man, a bodyguard, by the looks of him. Close-cropped blonde hair, early 40s, used to throwing his weight around. Feeling there’s something familiar about him, Dick nudges Jason and motions for him to take a photo. Jason starts almost imperceptibly at the contact, but follows suit. They both hold perfectly still in the shadows as the man looks around, glances in a cursory way along the rooftops, and then sets off down the alley towards the street.

“I know him,” Jason mutters. “From Tim’s case files - he was with Intergang.”

Dick doesn’t say anything about Jason calling Tim by name, but it’s a welcome development. “Looks like he switched sides, if he’s hanging out here.”

“Wonderful,” Jason says. “All right, I’m gonna check on the kid again.”

Dick represses the urge to give him a shoulder squeeze, or ruffle his hair. It’d probably result in him getting shoved off the platform, but Jason’s being so....not different, because Dick’s always known that this Jason was still in him, somewhere. Always hoped, anyways. When Jason had been younger and acted like this, surly with his words but tender with his actions, Dick had always thought of him as cute. It’s like that now, too, except it’s not just cute, because Jason has several inches and at least two weight classes on him. It’s cute in a different way, an adult way. It’s cute in a way that makes Dick want to push harder against Jason’s armor, to catch as many glimpses of that side of him as he can. If he thinks about it too long, it’s cute in a way that makes him want, recklessly.

“Red Hood to Batgirl,” Jason says. He’s calling on the family line this time. “Give me an update.”

“You’re seriously a helicopter parent, you know that, Hood?” Steph laughs in Dick’s ear. “We figured it out. Well...Black Bat figured it out.”

Jason’s shoulders sag a little in relief. Cute, Dick thinks, involuntarily. He needs to get a grip. “About fucking time.”

“She prefers being propped up,” Cass says. “It helps her swallow.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier. And she likes her back straight.”

“You said none of that, actually,” Steph says. “You just told us to support her head. Which we have been, thank you very much.”

“You have her now?”

“Robin has her.”

Dick and Jason look at each other. Jason says, “What the fuck?”

“Right?” Steph sounds amused. “I was surprised too....his friend is here, that ginger kid? He’s the one that took her from the orphanage, right?”

“Batgirl, I swear to god, if anything happens to her - ”

“Oh, calm down, jeez,” Steph groans. “They’re being supervised, okay? It’s honestly precious, you would agree with me if you could see it. I’ll text the pictures to N.”

“Please do,” Dick says. Speaking of cute, in a way that’s much safer to think about.

“Go do your job now,” Cass tells them. “We’re handling it.”

“Yeah, what she said. Batgirls out.”

“Feel better?” Dick asks, after a moment.

“Don’t ask me that,” Jason grouses. “And show me those pictures when you get them.”

Dick grins. “Sure, Jay.”

“Ugh.”

Dick decides to change the subject, before Jason gets too antsy and tries to bail. “So how do you want to play this, when Susie shows?”

Jason points to a dumpster halfway down the alley. “We wait until she’s there. I’ll get the club door, put a taser on it to stop her getting back in or anyone else from coming out. You cut her off before she gets to the street, and we question her on the backside of the dumpster. I’ll take line of sight, since I’m packing.”

Dick nods. “So is she.”

“So is every goon in those back rooms, sure. That’s why we lock their asses in.”

“And if they come out the front?”

Jason spins a gun in his hand. “Rubber bullets do the job just fine if you know how to aim. Let me worry about the backup.”

Another thing that’s changed about Jason - or that hasn’t changed, depending on how far back Dick looks. He uses rubber bullets now, whenever he’s working a case with one of them. Supposedly it’s a stipulation from Bruce, but Jason didn’t use lethal force on the couple cases he and Dick worked together, either, back when Dick was wearing the cowl. Dick thinks Bruce just gave him an excuse - whatever bloodlust Jason was fueled by when he first came back to Gotham has long since dried up. There are still things that set him off - Barbara had informed them about a dead rapist in the Narrows just last month - but Bruce hadn’t even commented on it, besides the barest acknowledgment. Dick thinks he might be the only one that actually cares when Jason kills someone, anymore. And what’s really disturbing is that he’s not actually sure how much he cares. For instance, he knows Jason has a third gun, holstered under his jacket, loaded with live ammo. He could call Jason out on it, insist he ditch it or at the very least unload it.

He says nothing. Let me worry about the backup. If this mission ends in a massacre, Dick will only have himself to blame.

The door opens again, and out steps Susie Falcone.

She immediately looks around, staying still in the doorway for a minute or more. Dick is pretty sure she hasn’t seen him following her, but he’s familiar with the sensation of being watched. He and Jason both shrink further into the shadows, waiting for her to make a move.

The whole process takes about six seconds. The moment she gets a few paces into the alley, they drop down. Jason electrifies the door handle, and Dick outmaneuvers her easily, slapping his police-issue cuffs on her and kicking her gun aside, then spinning her into the wall behind the dumpster. She hits it with a grunt. By the time she’s glaring at him, Jason is at his side again.

“Nightwing and Red Hood?” she says. “Damn. Didn’t expect to see you fellas out here.”

She doesn’t seem scared of them. Dick guesses they’ll have backup coming their way soon.

“Hey, what do you know,” Jason says conversationally, picking up the gun and emptying the clip in one swift motion. “Nightwing, I do believe this is our Glock.”

“Not mine,” Susie objects. “Picked it up off the club floor.”

“Come on, Susie, you’re smarter than that.” Jason crosses his arms. “Look, I can appreciate a sensible weapon. The Berettas the rest of your family favors? Too flashy for me. I loved Sopranos as much as the next guy, but come on.”

Dick suppresses a laugh. “Thought you were a Sig man,” he says in an undertone. He hadn’t expected Jason to take the lead, but it’s working. Susie looks agitated at the mention of her family.

“Wow, stalker. Remind me to move safe houses,” Jason quips back. “Aw, look, she slipped your cuffs.”

There’s a taser in Susie’s newly freed hand, and Dick quickly sidesteps it, twists it out of her wrist and sends it clattering down the cobblestones of the alley. Jason sweeps her legs out from under her and knocks her down flat, maybe a little harder than Dick would’ve. Thankfully, she goes down without a fight.

“Let’s try this again,” Dick says, kneeling next to her and zip-tying her wrists. If he wasn’t sure before, he is now - she was expecting them. They won’t be alone for long. He throws a couple smoke pellets down to the ends of the alley, and clips a nearly invisible wireless mic to the shoelaces of her boot under the guise of patting her down.

“You’re obviously not surprised to see us, so just tell us what we want to know,” Jason tells her, squatting down. “I’ll be honest, I don’t really give a shit that you shot Big Mouth, but what did Linda Torres ever do to you?”

“Let me up,” Susie snarls.

“No. Talk, or I’ll give you a taste of that taser you tried to pull on us.”

“Hood,” Dick hisses.

“See? He knows I’ll do it. Save yourself the grief, Susie.” Jason points the barrel of his gun lazily at her temple.

Susie narrows her eyes. “Fine. The two of them robbed me, last September. Dumb motherfuckers didn’t know who they were messing with. But I let them live because the bitch was pregnant.”

Jason makes a noise of disbelief. “Oh, sure. You’re a real bleeding heart, is that it?”

“Like you’re any better,” Susie fires back.

“You said you waited on Linda because she was pregnant,” Dick says. “Why’d you wait to kill Big Mouth?”

Susie’s mouth twists. “Guess I just felt like it.” Dick doesn’t need to see the tension in her shoulders to know she’s lying.

“Strike two.” Jason clicks the safety off. “Who put the hits out?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Susie answers. “I’m dead if I talk, so pistol whip me if you want to. Here’s the God’s honest truth: I really didn’t need a reason to kill those assholes. I was out for ‘em anyways. But I’m not crazy enough to kill a baby, all right? I don’t need shit like that on my conscience.”

“Keep talking,” Jason growls. Dick hears the whoop of a siren a few blocks off. “Where’s the baby now?”

“Somewhere safe, I swear. If anybody comes for her, it won’t be me.”

Susie still thinks Danielle’s at the orphanage, then. That’s good for them, but potentially bad for all the other kids, Colin included. These guys clearly have no problem killing children, even if Susie won’t do it.

The sirens are getting closer. Someone inside must’ve called the cops. Dick motions to Jason, indicating they need to wrap things up.

“Who is coming for her,” Jason barks, every line of his body a threat. “You’ve got five seconds.”

“You don’t.” Susie looks triumphant. They can hear the shouts of police from behind the smoke. “But don’t worry, boys. You’ll find out who really runs this town soon enough.”

“Hood,” Dick mutters. “We need to go, cops in this neighborhood aren’t cape-friendly.”

Jason stands, visibly enraged, and for a moment Dick thinks he’ll shoot Susie anyways. He’s prepared to move - but then Jason pulls out his grapple, fires, and flies up onto the roof.

“Talk about a bleeding heart,” Susie says to Dick. “He have kids or something?”

Dick doesn’t like her tone of voice at all. She’s too relaxed, too unconcerned about being under arrest. She won’t stay in long.

“It’s Nightwing! Get your hands up!”

Dick obliges, ready to pull his escrima sticks.

Three police officers come through the smoke, weapons drawn. “You better have a damn good reason for being this far out of Bludhaven,” one of them shouts at Dick.

“Sure do!” Dick calls back. “Arrested a murderer for you, no need to thank me!”

“Shut up,” a different officer retorts. “Keep your hands up, pretty boy.”

“Oh, fuck this,” Jason mutters over the comm. “I’m throwing you an escape, we’ll recon on the library roof. Stop being so goddamn chatty.”

One smoke pellet later, Dick is three rooftops away and flying. He gets to the library before Jason, exhilarated as ever from a good run.

Jason drops down next to him after a minute or so, laughing when he gets a look at Dick’s smile. “Running from the cops still does it for you, huh?”

Dick elbows him, momentarily forgetting to keep his distance. “Doesn’t it for you?”

Surprisingly, Jason doesn’t move away. “Usually they’re shooting at me, so.”

Dick leans closer, testing. “So…yes?”

“You’re so annoying,” Jason says, but he lets Dick nudge his shoulder, bump their arms together. He’s so solid, Dick thinks. So big. More like Bruce than any of them.

“So, how fast do you think she’ll get out?” he asks, when Jason stays quiet.

“Fucking tomorrow, probably,” Jason sighs. “Next week if we’re lucky.”

“Sounds like she didn’t know about Danielle, at least.”

“She’s not the problem,” Jason says, shrugging Dick off and standing back up. “Falcones will blow up the whole orphanage if they get wind of it. We need to put them down first.”

“We need to find out who’s in charge,” Dick agrees. “I planted a mic on her shoe. In the laces. Hopefully she won’t find it for a few days.”

“Good thinking,” Jason nods. “You gonna keep patrolling?”

“Might as well,” Dick says, standing up next to him and stretching his arms over his head. “I’m still stiff from that stakeout, I need to move.”

Jason’s gone quiet again. Dick thinks he hears his breath catch, but the helmet muffles it enough that it could be a yawn.

“You’re going back to the manor?”

Jason groans. “Fuck my life, yes.”

“You miss her, huh.” Cute, his brain chants.

Jason doesn’t answer, but Dick has a feeling he’s getting the stink-eye.

“I miss her too,” Dick offers. “It’s okay.”

Jason sighs. “Dick…”

“It’s a good thing, Jay. You care about her! We all do,” Dick adds, seeing the rigidity in Jason’s posture. “I mean, you’re practically her parent right now. Of course you miss her.”

“...Don’t say it like that.” Jason’s voice is low, almost pained, and Dick knows he pushed too far. “Like…like I have a right to, okay, just. Don’t.”

“Jason, wait,” Dick starts, but he doesn’t get to finish. Without a backward glance, Jason fires off a line to the neighboring building, and then he’s gone.

***

(tim)

The docks are quiet, unsettlingly so, as Tim prowls around the towers of shipping containers, keeping to the deep shadows they cast along the chipped pavement. It’s overcast, so there’s no moonlight to expose him, but it’s also too dark to see which of the trucks and campers parked all over are occupied, which ones might suddenly turn their headlights on him and catch him out.

One truck in particular - an innocuous looking Isuzu with a stunningly weaponized interior, is the object of his search. The driver, Felipe, is one of Tim’s best informants within Intergang - or had been, prior to the upheaval. Tim’s reasonably sure that Felipe is too lowly a grunt to make an example of, but still, he’s concerned that he hasn’t heard from him in a few days.

As it turns out, he needn’t have worried. He finds Felipe a hundred yard away from his truck, taking a piss off the wharf. He lets himself into the passenger side of the truck, and immediately notes that it is packed. There’s hardly a spare inch in the back, and Tim has a tough time even getting into the passenger seat with all the bags, clothes, and blankets stuffed into it. He pushes the majority of it to the floor, and waits.

Felipe comes back a few moments later. He opens the door and starts, eyes going wide when he sees Tim, but Tim puts his finger to his lips and motions for Felipe to get in so they can talk.

“Red Robin,” Felipe says, once the door is closed. He looks even more shaken than usual. “What the fuck, man?”

Tim crosses his arms. “You tell me, Felipe. You’ve been dodging my calls for days, and now I find out you’re skipping town?”

“I ditched that phone, man. Boss Reynolds had my number in there, you know? Ditched it as soon as I heard about him. I wasn’t trying to ghost you, honest.”

“Relax,” Tim tells him. “I’m not mad. I’d dodge me, too. Just tell me what happened, and I’ll shadow you out of town. Make sure you’re not followed.”

“Shit, man,” Felipe sighs. “Okay, look. There’s shit I can’t tell you, not if I ever want to hench again. You gotta figure that all out yourself, yeah?”

Tim shrugs. “Fine.”

Felipe swallows. “It started last week when Boss Reynolds met with somebody - I don’t know his name, God as my witness, but from what I heard, ‘cause I was unloading some of that funky alien tech, and you know Boss Reynolds wanted to supervise that personally - anyways, this guy in a suit took a meeting with him, and it sounded like he was offering Boss Reynolds a job. Said he had a new operation, bigger than Intergang, bigger than anything Gotham’s seen in a while.”

“Did Reynolds believe him?”

“Nah, he told him to get lost. They had some words, and then everybody started pulling guns, and I went back to the ship so I didn’t get fuckin’ shot, but I didn’t hear anything after that. Next thing I saw, Boss Reynolds was calling his son up and telling him to demo some building down by the old boardwalk - a hotel, maybe. Guess he wanted to expand that way, I don’t know.”

“That was the old Falcone hotel,” Tim says, mostly just to see Felipe’s reaction. He isn’t disappointed - Felipe goes pale, and his eyes flash to the rosary hanging off his rearview mirror. Tim likes Felipe as an informant because he’s nosy, shockingly competent for a henchman, and because he really likes to gossip. He’s never held back on Tim before this.

“Few days later, one of ours, this merc named Tiberius, comes down to the warehouse and says he’s got something to show us. Takes out a fat fuckin’ folder full of pictures…man, it was some sick shit. Boss Reynolds, his wife, Reynolds Jr, and every fuckin’ guy under him. Kids, man. He just passed it around, made everyone look at it. Then he says, we can either be in the folder, or we can come meet the new boss.”

Felipe takes a shaky breath. “Obviously I go with Tiberius, like everyone else. I heard a couple guys stayed on the ship that was docked, thinking they’d wait ‘em out, but the new boss blew it up. Says we’re not in the tech business anymore, and anyone caught trying to smuggle it is gonna get tied to it and tossed in the harbor. You can imagine my concerns,” he says, gesturing to his truck. Tim estimates half or more of the weapons in it are salvaged from alien junk. Roy Harper would have a field day with the setup this guy’s made for himself.

“So that’s why you’re bailing,” Tim says, understanding. He can hardly blame the guy. “Why not just hide the truck somewhere?”

“Well…I did think about that,” Felipe admits. “Tiberius made us a pretty sweet pitch, once we went along with him. Not gonna lie, I was tempted. Tech is my thing, you know, but I can make a gun out of pretty much anything. I could see the possibilities, is what I’m saying, but that was before we met the new boss.”

Tim nods encouragingly. This is what he’s been waiting to hear.

“Listen, Red Robin - I know we’ve had our differences, but I respect you, man, you know that. You’ve been good to me, so I’m gonna give you some advice here. Stay the hell away from the new boss. Like, don’t even get involved. I’ve been henching for a while, and I’ve seen some messed up shit, but they are crazy. Está loca, you feel me? I’ve seen the hit list, and you’re right at the top of it. You and all the other capes. Half of Arkham, too. And they’re connected, like you wouldn’t believe. Shit, I’m already saying too much, man. You see the position I’m in here?”

“I do, Felipe,” Tim tells him. He hands over a stack of hundred dollar bills, their agreed-upon rate for information. “Where are you going?”

“You’re crazy too, if you think I’m telling you that,” Felipe scoffs.

Tim wasn’t expecting a straight answer anyways. “Fair enough. You heading out now?”

“Soon as you get the hell outta my car, yeah. You said you’d shadow me out?”

“I will,” Tim says. “From a distance. If you don’t see me, it means you’re clear to cross the bridge.”

“All right,” Felipe nods. “In that case, I hope I never see your ass again.”

Tim laughs, and climbs out of the truck.

He finds his own way out of the shipyard, pulls a bike out of a safe house, and catches up with Felipe’s GPS signal halfway to the Fashion District. Once he’s sure there’s no immediate threat, he calls Barbara.

“Red Robin to Oracle. I’m uploading a recording to the server.”

Barbara is in his ear at once. “You met with your informant?”

“He wouldn’t give me a name, but he let a couple things slip.”

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense,” she says.

“First, he flinched hard when I brought up the Falcone name.”

“Confirms what we already know,” Barbara says. “Good. There’s more?”

“There’s more.” Tim tries not to gloat. This is, after all, a serious situation. “He was being cagey about mentioning the leader’s gender, so I was already suspicious, but then said ‘está loca’ when he was trying to warn me.”

Barbara whistles. “Well,” she says, sounding satisfied. “That’ll certainly narrow it down.”

“Yep,” Tim says grimly. “Looks like the new head of the Falcone family is a woman.”

***

(jason)

When Jason was Robin, the library had always been his favorite room in the Manor. It had spoken easily to his idea of what wealth was - rich people had fancy cars, sure, and maybe pools and expensive wardrobes, but wealthy people had art collections, and gardens, and libraries. Jason had spent hours upon hours browsing the shelves, reading anything he could wrap his brain around (and plenty of things he couldn’t), suggesting additions to Alfred, and avoiding his schoolwork in favor of learning about more interesting things, like string theory, or cryptology, or chemical warfare.

That was then.

Now, the library is the only place he can get a minute of peace from the constant barrage of his obnoxious, nosy, boundaryless family members. They’ve been characteristically persistent in their curiosity about him, and about Danielle, who is now Dani, courtesy of Stephanie. This is a nickname family, she’d said, and Jason hadn’t known how to disagree. So now she’s Dani, and Jason is family, and that apparently means he is no longer entitled to any privacy, or personal space for that matter. The only person who hasn’t barged in on him is Bruce, which is almost worse, in a way, because it’s one thing when nobody seeks him out, and it’s quite another when everyone does and then Bruce...doesn’t. Not that he wants Bruce to come up and bother him, God. But he’s in the man’s house, he’s hearing him on the comm constantly either on patrol or down in the cave, and all the other Bat brats and even Alfred are buzzing around him like flies. It’s too much - it feels like before, except for Bruce’s conspicuous absence reminding him that it’s not.

Sharing a bathroom with Dick is another before experience that Jason didn’t need a repeat of. In some ways, it was worse when he was Robin - stripping and showering after patrol in the cave with Dick a few feet away from him is a memory he really wouldn’t have minded leaving back in the Pit - and in other ways, it’s worse now, because Dick is always freaking around. There’s no reprieve, he’s not flitting off to the Titans every week like he used to be. Jason hasn’t gone half a day without Dick getting in his space, drawing up close to him and making that earnest eye contact he’s so annoyingly good at; sometimes wet, sometimes half-naked, sometimes both. And what can Jason do? He’s not going to leave Dani, and he needs Dick to be there so he can get some sleep every once in a while, or patrol, or shower. It’s actually been pretty helpful to have him around, in that regard, but if he has to see the guy walking around with bedhead and nothing but a pair of boxer briefs on one more time, he’s going to fucking explode.

So, the library has its benefits: no harassment from over-familiar family members, no Dick sexually frustrating him within an inch of his life, and, if he’s willing to be a little sentimental, he kind of does want to show it to Dani. She’s too young to appreciate it, probably, but it stirs something in him to share it with her all the same. He’s heard it’s never too early to get kids into reading - his parents sure as hell never tried, but Jason had read anything he could get his hands on, once he learned how. It had saved him, back then. Maybe it can do the same for Dani one day.

“Could’ve sworn Bruce had a Dr. Seuss anthology somewhere in here,” he says to her, combing over the shelves with his eyes. “Guess not. You up for something more sophisticated?”

She grunts, squeezing his shirt in her fist. “Alright,” he agrees, pulling Twelfth Night off the shelf. “Shakespeare it is. You’ve got taste, kid.”

He wonders, not for the first time, what exactly he thinks he’s doing, playing at this whole parenting thing. The rational part of his brain knows that this is a case, that Dani is a victim, that Jason is protecting her because it’s his job. The emotional part of his brain has gone completely off the goddamn rails. Case in point: he’s here with her in the library, prepping her for early literacy like some kind of Crest Hill soccer mom wannabe. Like he’ll even be in her life when she starts doing her ABCs - God willing, she’ll be as far away from him as possible by the time that happens.

It’s fucking hard to think about. He never thought he’d get this attached to a person who can’t even burp on their own. It’s been over a week, and he still struggles with putting her down, with stepping away from her, even when he knows he’s coming right back. Steph and Damian have been wanting to hold her all the time, and Jason knows that they’re capable, knows he has no claim over Dani, doesn’t even mind either of them all that much under normal circumstances, and still, he can’t help feeling like something has reached inside and gripped at his heart every time he passes her over. Which is ridiculous, because she’s not his, he has no more claim over her than any other schmuck off the street. She’s just a kid with unbelievably bad luck, and he’s the idiot who followed Dick up the stairs instead of booking it out the door like a sensible person.

He settles down with her on the couch, propping her up on a couple of pillows, giving her foot a little squeeze. She squeals, smiling at him, and stuffs her fingers in her mouth. God, Jason didn’t know he could feel the way he feels whenever she smiles at him. It’s gonna kill him when he has to give her up.

“If music be the food of love, play on,” he reads, walking his fingers up her leg. “Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die.”

Dani watches him, chewing happily on her fingers. “‘O, it came over my ear like the sweet sound that breathes upon a bank of violets.’ That’s you, you know.” He pokes her in the cheek, grinning. If music be the food of love…but hell, he doesn’t think he’ll ever get enough of this. Especially when she’s all calm and engaging, the precious few minutes that he’s learned to appreciate in between finishing eating and being tired and cranky, when all she wants to do is look around at things, and all Jason wants to do, ever, is look at her.

The door to the library opens, and Jason goes from content to murderous in a fraction of a second. “What the fuck is it now,” he hisses, expecting Damian or maybe Tim, coming to nag him some more, and instead sees Damian’s friend Colin, who looks horrified to have intruded on him. Jason immediately feels like the world’s biggest ass.

“Sorry,” Colin whispers, mortified, and Jason waves a hand apologetically.

“My bad, I didn’t know it was you. Come in, it’s fine. She’s awake, you don’t need to whisper.”

Colin looks unsure, but soon nods and steps into the library, shutting the door firmly behind him.

Once inside, he dawdles by the nearest bookshelf, clearly at a loss. Jason probably should’ve just let him back out, because this is awkward. Should he keep reading to Dani? Talk to Colin? Ask him why he looks like someone just kicked him and stole his dog?

“You good?” he ventures, figuring he ought to at least attempt to be the adult in the room.

Colin glances at him over his shoulder, smiling tentatively. “Yeah, just bored. Damian’s sleeping, we had a rough patrol last night.”

“We?” Jason repeats, stunned. Bruce isn’t an exemplar of child welfare practices, sure, but letting Damian take other kids on crime-busting playdates? What the hell?

“Oh, I guess you don’t know,” Colin frowns. “I’m….uh, it’s probably easier if I just show you.”

He slides his jacket off, threadbare t-shirt hanging off his skinny frame. Jason tenses, not sure what to expect. When Colin’s arm starts to expand, his eyes widen. By the time his fist is as big around as Jason’s thigh, he thinks his eyebrows have probably disappeared into his hairline.

“Oh.” Jason has no idea how he’s supposed to react to this. Is Colin a meta? He’s pretty sure he would know if Colin was a meta. “How…?”

“Scarecrow,” Colin explains. Jason’s heart sinks. “He experimented on me with synthetic Venom. Batman saved me.”

Dani fusses, twisting her body and scrunching her face up. Jason sympathizes - this conversation is giving him gas, too. “Shit,” he says. Not the most articulate way of expressing his condolences, but Colin’s friends with Damian, so tact can’t be of great importance to him. “I didn’t know.”

Dani starts to cry, and Colin takes a couple steps forward, putting Jason’s hackles up at once. Stop it, he tells himself sternly. He might have fallen down a few pegs, but he’s not pathetic enough to square up against an abused fifth grader. He picks her up, rubbing her back, and then glances over at Colin. The kid’s gone shy, looking down at a point somewhere between Jason’s legs and the floor. Jason feels all the hostility bleed out of him, and he sighs.

“You can sit down.” He gestures to the couch, trying to sound nonthreatening. Dani burps, mouths at his shirt, and then gurgles and kicks her legs again. She leans back against his hold to stare at Colin, and Colin’s face splits into a huge grin. He tucks himself down into the cushions, keeping plenty of space between them, but Jason can sense from the inclination of his body that he wants to be closer. Well, if anyone has a right to be close to Dani, it’s the kid who rescued her in the first place.

“Here,” he offers, turning Dani around in his arms. His heart clenches, and he clamps down on his desire to flee. “You can hold her for a minute, if you want to. She likes you.”

Colin looks at him, eyes shining. “Really?”

Jason nods. “Go ahead. Honestly, you probably know a lot more about this shit than I do.”

Colin takes Dani from him carefully, smiling at her and laughing when she reaches forward to grab at his jacket zipper. A few seconds later, it’s in her mouth, along with most of her fist.

“Should I…?” Colin looks at Jason hesitantly.

“I mean…she’s had worse things in her mouth,” Jason tells him. A ringing endorsement of his child-minding abilities right there. “It’s fine, right? That’s how they build an immune system, or whatever.”

“Well, Alfred washed this for me last night,” Colin admits, looking embarrassed. “So it shouldn’t be too gross.”

Jason leans back against the couch cushions, crossing his arms. “Getting all the perks, huh?”

Colin shrugs, casting his eyes down again. “I like it here.”

Considering where Colin grew up, Jason supposes he can’t blame the kid. Still, he’s not quite wrapping his head around this sweet, genuinely nice kid being buddies with Damian. The demon brat isn’t exactly known for his winning personality, and Jason only knows vaguely how the two of them met, but what he’s heard doesn’t strike him as being particularly conducive to forging the lasting bonds of friendship.

Curiosity gets the better of him, and he decides to just ask. “Why’d you call Damian, the night you found her?”

Colin looks surprised. “I...don’t know,” he says, slowly. “I didn’t know who else to call? Damian’s my best friend, and he always knows what to do.”

Jason can’t keep the skeptical look off his face.

“And if he doesn’t, Bat….Bruce, I mean, definitely always knows what to do.”

Jason scrubs a hand over his face. Time to change the fucking subject. “How’d you two get hooked up, anyways?”

Dani turns her head to look at him, still eating Colin’s zipper. Sometimes, Jason gets the bizarre feeling that she can somehow tell when he’s about to blow a gasket. It’s probably a coincidence - she moves around a lot, and Jason has anger issues that flare up every ten minutes, so there’s bound to be some crossover - but it works, because it takes the fight right out of him every time.

“We worked a case together,” Colin says, holding Dani a little more securely against him. “About a year ago, I guess. Kids were disappearing from my orphanage, and from the shelters. I don’t think you were around.”

“I wasn’t,” Jason shakes his head. He and Roy had been busting a trafficking ring in Ibiza, and it had taken Jason over a month to get all the major players. “I heard about it a little, from Dick.”

Dick hadn’t given him too many details at the time - Jason had chalked it up to him having a few other things on his mind, but as Colin fills in the gaps, he starts to suspect Dick just didn’t want him going on a rampage. Which he absolutely would have - he still wants to, God. God. All those poor kids, just a stone’s throw from his old neighborhood. And of course the police had done jack shit - Zsasz is practically Black Mask’s pet, he probably paid them off to look the other way, not that most of them need the excuse - and Bruce was gone, and Jason was gone, and Dick was in over his head, and - fuck, it should never have fallen to Damian and Colin.

He waits for the fury to subside a little, not trusting what will come out of his mouth. Dani hums around her fist, blinking at him, and it helps. “Jesus,” he says, finally. “This fucking town.”

Colin’s mouth twists a little. “Yeah. But you were Robin, right? You probably saw worse things.”

Did he? Jason doesn’t remember. He doubts it, though. He can’t imagine he would’ve been satisfied with Bruce’s way of dealing with it.

“I wouldn’t have pulled my stroke, when I was Robin,” he muses. “Probably why Bruce never gave me a sword.”

No, Jason would’ve bisected the fucker. It still has appeal, though he thinks he would lean towards his favorite Sig rifle if he was taking care of it today. Headshots for the henchmen - anyone who signs on to that kind of operation, even in the most menial capacity, doesn’t deserve to breathe. Kneecaps and crotch shots for the spectators, to make sure they couldn’t get away. Gut shots for the kid-wranglers. And Zsasz....it’s tempting to want to draw it out, but Jason can feel the desire leaving him the longer he thinks about it. His imaginative tortures fade into a simple headshot, and even that isn’t satisfying. Fuck. He just can’t seem to hold onto his rage lately, even when he wants to. It’s all being replaced by some kind of anxiety, some kind of tenderness that aches, burning deep into him every time Dani looks at him, or touches him. Every time he thinks of her. Every time he feels Dick watching him with her, all warmth and affection.

Colin bounces her a little, making her laugh. Jason feels his revenge fantasy slip away.

“What’re you reading her?” Colin nods to the book still laying open in Jason’s lap.

Jason looks at it. “Oh, Twelfth Night. Shakespeare,” he adds, recalling that Colin is eleven, and likely not perusing great literature in his free time. “Figure it’s never too early to start her on the classics.”

Colin grins. “That’s cool,” he says. “Does she like it?”

“Beats me,” Jason shrugs.

“Read some?”

Jason raises his eyebrows.

Colin flushes. “Um. I mean, if you want…”

He decides to humor him. What the hell. “Sure, why not. ‘O spirit of love! How quick and fresh art thou, that, notwithstanding in thy capacity, receiveth as the sea.’”

Dani yawns widely, relinquishing her fist in a long string of drool. Jason laughs, and so does Colin. “Maybe jumping the gun a little,” he admits. “I don’t really know what kids are into these days.”

“Me either,” Colin says. “I think she liked it, though. See, she’s just sleepy.”

Jason feels a lump forming in his throat, and swallows hard against it.

“What does it mean? The part you were reading,” Colin asks.

“Um.” Jason doesn’t really know, he’s not exactly a literary scholar, but he’s always liked to work Shakespeare out on his own, finding meaning in the wordplay and running the metaphors through his mind until they line up in a satisfactory way. He doesn’t know if his interpretation is correct, exactly, but: “So this Duke, a guy called Orsino, is saying that he doesn’t want to be in love anymore. He’s talking about love and how everyone thinks it’s this wonderful thing, but the truth is that it actually just makes people miserable.”

Jason pauses, feeling like he just showed way too much of his hand. “Basically, he’s just complaining,” he finishes, uneasy.

Glancing at Colin out of the corner of his eye, he’s relieved to see that he’s occupied with Dani, and not paying attention to Jason at all. Thank fuck. If it’d been anyone else in the house sitting there, he’d be in for some horrible armchair psychology session, and he’d have to book it out the window and not return for several months.

“I think she wants you,” Colin says, as Dani ramps up her fussing. Jason takes her gratefully, holds her to his chest as she rubs her eyes and grumbles her displeasure at being passed around.

“All right, I hear you,” Jason murmurs, gently tugging her fists away from her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic, come on. It’s not so bad.” Like he’s one to talk.

And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, ever since pursue me, he thinks, rocking her tiny body into a comfortable position. Colin was only holding her for ten, maybe fifteen minutes, and Jason was sitting less than five feet away, but he missed her. God, what is happening to him?

“Damian didn’t want to bring her here, at first,” Colin says quietly. “But I think he’s glad that we did. He really likes her, you know.”

Jason doesn’t quite know how to feel about that. It’s sweet, on some level. And he’s well aware that Damian likes her, going by the amount of time he spends hovering in the hallway outside Jason’s room, not to mention the increasingly expensive toys that keep showing up among her things.

He looks down at her, dozing off. “Well, she’s pretty easy to like.”

Colin nods, looking pleased.

“Damian, on the other hand....”

Colin grins. “He’s not so bad.”

He’s really not. Like hell Jason will ever tell him that, though. “You have bizarre taste, kid.”

Colin blushes, hard, and Jason blinks. Well. That’s interesting, isn’t it? Or it will be, in a few years. He makes a note to ask Dick about it, later.

“Are you gonna adopt her?” Colin asks, bringing Jason’s amused thoughts to a screeching halt.

Automatically, he says, “No way.”

Colin looks wounded. “Why not?”

“Because I can’t,” Jason replies. “I’m the last person who should be a parent, trust me.”

“Doesn’t look that way to me.”

Doesn’t feel that way either - the thought floats up, unbidden, uninvited. He can’t. “She deserves better,” Jason says, heavily. “Even if….even I could handle it. She deserves better than this family.”

“But your family is - ”

“A death sentence.” He’s being harsh, but if Colin’s gonna be hanging around, he’ll find out for himself soon enough. “It’s fucking cursed, look. I couldn’t do that to any kid, especially her. You should get out too, while you still can.”

Colin looks angry, which surprises him. His hands are balled into fists, and Jason sees a tremor in them, a bulging that immediately sets off alarm bells in his head.

“Kid,” he says sharply. “Colin. If you’re gonna hulk out, take it outside. Alfred will have an honest-to-God stroke if you do it in here.”

A few deep breaths later, Colin looks normal again. “Sorry.” His voice is hoarse. “You’re wrong, though.”

Jason’s temper flares. “No offense, but I think I would know better than you,” he snaps. Dani grumbles sleepily in his arms, and he sighs out in frustration. “Trust me, okay? She’s better off. It never ends well, not in this family. I’m proof of that.”

But Colin shakes his head. “You don’t know,” he says. “My mom said the same thing, when she dropped me off at the orphanage. She gave the nuns a letter - she said I’d be better off with them than with her.”

Jason stills.

“It didn’t matter,” Colin continues. “Scarecrow still got me. Victor Zsasz still got me. Maybe they would have gotten me with her, too. Maybe I wouldn’t have been that much better off with her, but at least I would’ve been with her.” He sniffles, and Jason holds Dani a little tighter.

“I know she loved me.” His voice cracks. “I just wish...I wish I could’ve stayed with her. I wish she would have known that I never would’ve been better off away from her.”

He looks absolutely miserable, pitched forward and rubbing hard at his eyes. Jason is reminded painfully of how young Colin is, closer to Dani’s age than his own. He remembers being Colin’s age and younger, thinking the same thoughts about his own mother. How fiercely he’d guarded her, chased away the cops and the social workers, doing everything in his power not to be separated from her. Not that it mattered, in the end.

“Fuck,” he mutters. “Colin, I’m sorry. For the record, I actually kind of get where you’re coming from.”

Colin looks up at him.

“Wish I didn’t, but. That’s life.”

“You should adopt her,” Colin says again, softly.

Jason shakes his head. “Colin…”

“You’ll think about it.”

He exhales. “Sure, I’ll think about it.” Like he’ll be able to think about anything else after this.

“She needs you,” Colin insists stubbornly.

Jason doesn’t reply. He knows on some level Colin is right - Dani does need him right now. She needs someone, at least, someone who can take care of her and protect her. Someone who isn’t afraid to shed blood to keep her safe. Jason doesn’t relish the thought, but he’s certain this won’t end tidily. Mob cases never do. It’ll be messy, and bloody, and Bruce will have a shit fit, and Dick probably will too, and Jason will go back to Crime Alley and Dani will get shipped off to Witness Protection or something, and damn, does that hurt to think about.

He looks over at Colin, still hunched over on himself, vulnerability written into every line of his posture. He’s desperately in need of a hug, or some kind of affection, validation, maybe. Or that’s just Jason projecting, who the fuck knows. If Dick was here, he would know exactly what to do for him. Jason’s at a loss, unable to separate his young self from the damaged kid sitting next to him.

He adjusts his hold on Dani carefully, laying her down flat along his arm, while he works out what to say. Finally, he settles on, “Damian’s lucky to have you.”

Colin sits up a little straighter. He looks like he’s waiting for more, but he’s shit out of luck, because Jason has no idea what else he needs to hear. No idea what he could say that wouldn’t be completely insincere, anyways. We can be your family, Colin. Like hell. Bruce has enough kids lined up waiting to die for him, he’s not about to encourage another one to be turned into cannon fodder for the man’s principles.

“Uh, yeah,” Jason says, after a moment. “That’s all I got.”

Colin smiles wanly. “Thanks, anyways.”

Jason snorts. “Sure.”

“Can I hug you?”

Jason stares. “Can you…what? Me?”

“I won’t if you don’t want me to,” Colin adds, averting his eyes.

Jason can’t even remember the last time someone hugged him. He thinks Roy might’ve, some eight or nine months ago, after they’d narrowly survived a warehouse explosion. Jason’s whole body had been ringing from the blast, so he doesn’t exactly remember the sensation of it. And before that…?

He imagines Dick’s reaction, if he was here. He’d be disappointed in Jason, that’s for sure. Really, Jay? You can’t hug a child? It’s a fair argument, he has to admit. Jason’s fucked up personal space issues don’t really apply to children, or babies, clearly. Colin’s obviously attention-starved, and Jason’s already holding one kid. What’s another, really.

“Okay,” he relents. “Hit me.”

There’s a shuffling motion next to him, and then Colin is hugging his free arm, leaning his head against Jason’s shoulder. Jason can’t quite contain his surprise - it’s weird, as expected, but it’s not dramatically increasing his desire to bolt through the nearest exit like he’d thought it would. It’s a little funny, actually. He’s pretty sure both Bruce and Damian would lose their shit if they could see him right now. Dick, too, most likely, but to his credit, it would be a happy kind of shit-losing. Damian would probably try to gut him.

Are there cameras in the library? Jason can’t remember. He kind of hopes there aren’t, because if anyone else sees this, he will absolutely never live it down.

***

(dick)

“Wait, I think that’s him.” Dick leans forward to peer at Tim’s screen. He points to the familiar looking figure. “That guy. Do you have a clearer shot?”

Tim skips a few photos ahead, and zooms in. “Him?”

“Yes. That’s the guy. Jason said he recognized him from your surveillance files. He was at the club the night we caught Susie Falcone.”

“The fourth night, was it?” Tim asks, innocently.

“Don’t be mean, Timmy.”

“Just clarifying,” Tim grins. Dick raises an eyebrow. “Okay, okay. I don’t have a ton of intel on this guy, he’s really slippery. According to my informant, he goes by Tiberius - some kind of mercenary, Greek or Albanian national. I doubt that’s his real name.”

Dick nods, studying the photographs. Tim continues, “He came over with Intergang as an enforcer, I think. Might’ve been Reynolds’ personal bodyguard.”

“Could explain how Reynolds got taken out,” Dick says thoughtfully. “He’s on the Falcones’ payroll now, but he’s not family. Might be an easy target.”

Tim opens his mouth, about to reply, when there’s a choked-off sound of fury from the Batcave below them.

“Was that Damian? He’s up already?” Dick asks, glancing down towards Bruce’s computer. He hops over the ramp to see what the fuss is about. Tim follows close behind.

“Everything okay?” Dick asks, approaching the wall of screens. There’s nothing that jumps out at him as being particularly alarming; Bruce is looking at DNA analyses, and Damian is looking at the Manor surveillance, tapping furiously at his ear.

“Todd!” he hisses. “What do you think you’re doing? Colin is my friend!”

“Robin,” Oracle’s voice comes through the speaker. “No names on the comms. And Hood isn’t wearing his earpiece, so you’ll have to tell him in person.” She sounds amused. “Oracle out.”

Damian swears.

“Holy shit,” Tim says faintly. “Look at them.”

The screen that all the Manor surveillance feeds run to is showing just one room - the library, of all places, but Dick vaguely recalls it being some kind of sanctuary to Jason, years and years ago. It makes sense that he’d end up back there, and it makes sense that he’d have Dani with him. What Dick doesn’t expect to see is little Colin Wilkes, all five feet and change of him, snuggled up to Jason’s side and hugging him, wrapped around his arm like a gangly koala. Dick can’t help but notice that Jason’s bicep is about as big around as Colin’s head, which is certainly...something. He’s not quite ready to classify how he feels about that, so he refocuses on the hug itself, which is nothing short of charming.

Damian grinds his teeth audibly. “It’s still going.”

“Oh, man.” Dick can’t help the grin he feels creeping up the sides of his face. “Bruce, are you seeing this?”

“I am,” Bruce says, stiffly. He looks like he’s in pain. Dick fights the urge to roll his eyes.

“What’s wrong with you? Look how sweet they are!” he exclaims, gesturing. It’s adorable.

“It is not sweet,” Damian snarls, whirling on him. “Todd is a corruptive influence, and Colin is young and impressionable! Where is your concern for him?”

Tim coughs, and it sounds a little bit like “jealous”. Surprisingly, this does not diffuse Damian’s indignation.

“I don’t get it,” Dick says, stepping between them quickly to block Damian’s spinning kick. “I thought you and Jason were fine, Damian. You’ve been spending enough time in our - in his room lately. Where’s this coming from?”

“Incredibly, I don’t feel as concerned about Todd recruiting an infant onto the path of lawlessness,” Damian retorts. “Colin lacks paternal guidance in his life, as you know. Todd clearly senses it.”

“Jason is very paternal these days,” Tim agrees.

“I’m pretty sure it’s just a hug,” Dick says in exasperation. “No one’s recruiting anyone, Damian. And look, it’s over. Your friend is just a hugger, that’s all.”

“I must agree with Master Richard,” Alfred says from behind them. “Having been the recipient of many such embraces from young Master Colin myself.”

“See? I’ve gotten hugs from him too,” Dick tells Damian. “And I know you have, so don’t bother denying it. He’s probably gearing up the courage to get one from Bruce one of these days.”

Bruce looks slightly alarmed by the prospect. “He is?”

Damian looks conflicted. “He is?”

Dick casts his eyes heavenward. “Colin, I’m so sorry.”

Before he can say anything else, the Cave door opens below them, and Duke’s bike comes shooting in, whipping around into its parking spot in a move that would send Dick flying over the handlebars. Bruce takes about half a second to look impressed, and then clears the main screen to pull up their intel on the Falcone case.

“What’s up, guys,” Duke calls, pulling off his helmet and jogging up the steps. “I’ve got news. Where’s Jason?”

“Being hugged, in the library,” Dick tells him. “You just missed it.”

Duke looks nonplussed. “Damn. Wait, that’s not some kind of weird euphemism, is it? If it is, I don’t want to know.”

“It most certainly is not,” Damian says venomously.

“Cool. I tried to get him on the comm, but he didn’t respond. Should I go get him? He’ll want to hear this.”

“Damian will get him,” Bruce says.

Damian is…already on the elevator. Dick spares a thought for Jason. At least he’s holding Dani, so Damian won’t attack him outright.

“Your news?” Bruce prompts.

“Right,” Duke nods. “I’ve been all over City Hall records, and spent yesterday afternoon getting intel in the East End. I’ve got names and faces of most of the major players in this. They’re trying hard to front some distant nephew of Carmine Falcone as the head of the whole operation, but it wasn’t quite adding up. You said the new Falcone boss is a woman, right?” he asks Tim.

Tim nods affirmatively.

Duke looks triumphant. “Then I know who she is.”

***

[henryobsessed]

I Took You Home - A Rocking Chair

Summary: Reba gets to meet her son

Word Count: 1700

A/N is at the end of the chapter

Warning: None 

Previous Chapter 17

Chapter 18

The next two days were a blur for Reba, she slept a lot, and it was a potluck when she awoke who would be next to her. Today she awoke feeling better, the pain medications were not making her feel so sleepy. She had awoken to Henry sitting by her side, he had a hold of her hand, but his attention was on his phone. The tiny cries of a football game could be heard coming from the phone's speakers which must have been set to low to allow her to sleep. His face broke into a huge smile and she could see him trying not to jump out of his seat, his body holding the adrenalin in. She could feel the tangible excitement radiating through his hand as she heard the tiny voice say "touch down for the chiefs"  

She chuckled lightly at him causing his attention to leave the phone and move to her. "Good morning" he leant over and kissed her gently on the forehead. Settling back in his chair he asked "how are you feeling? Can I get anything for you?" Reba thought for a moment before requesting her greatest desire "Can you organise for me to see our son, I need to see him" a softness crossed Henry's face and a small smile lifted as he said "Ok, I'll go talk to the nurses" with that he stood and left the room. Reba was grateful he didn't question her or ask if she was really ok to move. No matter what she wanted to see her baby today.

Henry returned with a nurse, a young man who seemed to be conversing comfortably with him. "Well good morning, my names Adam. I believe you would like to take a trip?" his big smile and a warm voice filled the room. While chatting away with Henry about the American football game he checked her observations and got her some medication. Smiling broadly at her he said, "I'm going to get a chair for you, by the time I get back the medications will have taken effect and it will make the ride more enjoyable." She smiled back at Adam matching his enthusiasm "thank you"

Together with one in a wheelchair the other walking beside they entered the room. For Henry this room was now very familiar, he had spent every spare moment he was not with Reba with his son. For Reba, this was her first time and it was quite overwhelming. As Henry pushed her closer to the clear box that held their tiny infant her heart rate increased, tears started to swim in her eyes as Henry stopped the chair and placed his arm around her. "Sweetheart, this is our son" His tiny little body rose and fell in time with the breaths that left his little milky pink mouth. His little feet kicked out as he stretched and yawned. Reba wanted to sob, wanted to break the box open and grab her little man and hold him close. Yet at the same time, she knew he needed to stay there to be protected for just a little while longer to keep him safe.

A nurse came over and opened the box allowing her to reach in and touch her boy. His skin was silky soft and warm, she ran her hand over his little body checking his toes and fingers. Through her soft tears she said, "Hello little one, mummies missed you" As if registering her voice his lids opened and looked at her with the bluest pearlescent eyes. Henry's hand rubbed her back as if to comfort her as they took in the sight of their son. Clearing his throat, he asked, "So what shall we call this little one, did you have an Idea, Reba?" Her son held her gaze as if asking his own silent question. "I was thinking of my father's name, and now that I have seen him, I think it fits well. What do you think about Angus?" she waited for a response from Henry never leaving her little one's face "Mmmmm, Angus, little Gus. I like that, Angus Collin Cavill is that ok Reba?" swearing Angus heard them his mouth turned up in a smile then burped. Laughing she shifted her gaze up to Henry's smiling face "I think he likes it"

They stayed with little Gus for as long as they were allowed then Henry walked her back to her room. She was tired after her first excursion to see her son and ended up falling asleep almost as soon as Henry helped her back into her bed.

     That evening after resting Reba was sitting up watching the news, Sandy was with her and she had just assumed that Henry was with Gus. Hearing the loud chatter of people, she wondered who on the ward was receiving so many guests. It wasn't until the noise got louder that she saw Henry followed by an older Man and Women plus 4 strapping tall men who looked older than Henry bar one. Henry had an apologetic smile on his face as he bent down to kiss her forehead and whispered " I'm sorry I held them off visiting for as long as I could" Heat radiated up her cheeks as she restrained herself from slapping Henry for not warning her. Her hair was a mess and she was thankful she had just finished expressing the evening's milk.

They all stood looking slightly awkward until Reba decided Henry needed a nudge "So are you going to introduce me? Or do I need to guess who these charming people are?" swallowing then chuckling Henry set about the introductions "Well, Reba this is Maryanne, my mother, Colin my father, and my four brothers Piers, Niki, Simon and my youngest brother Charlie. Everyone this is Sandy Reba's closest relative and ........" Turning to Reba with soft eyes and a cheeky smile "this is Reba, the mother of my child and soon to be my wife"

Nervously she looked at Maryanne and Colin not sure what response Henry's declaration would bring. What she got was more than she could have imagined. Colin and Maryanne's eyes sparkled, and a huge smile broke out on their faces. The boys all smiled big smiles and just nodded their heads. If anyone had walked into the room right now, they would have laughed seeing all these goofy smiles surrounding Reba. Her biggest wish now was that she would be able to introduce Gus to his family for she had an inkling that he would be smothered in love.

Two days later Reba was discharged, her wound was healing well and they needed the bed. Grateful to Henry's family they had organised another hotel room so that Henry and Reba could be close to Gus. He had been doing well but they wanted him to gain a few more grams before he could come home with them. Arriving at the hotel Reba was sore and tired, the effort it had taken to make the short journey made her wonder how smart it was of the hospital to send her home. They walked slowing to the ground floor room. Once inside she laid carefully on the bed grateful this hotel had spent a bit extra for nice mattresses. Just as her eyes started to close, she felt the bed move and warm body cuddled up behind her. Snuggling back, into his embrace she fell asleep with a smile on her lips.

-------------------------------------

Henry awoke to the feel of Reba tucked into his arms, he had slept lightly, well aware of every movement Reba made. He wasn't sure if she was ok with him sharing a bed yet, but she had relaxed in his arms and he took that as a sign it was ok. He slowly got up and looked at the time, 4 pm just enough time to go up and see how Gus was going. He kissed Reba on the top of her hair and left a note next to her bed. Henry had felt familiar love with his Nieces and Nephews, he would do anything for them. What he felt for Angus was so different there was a constant pull to be near him, to make sure he was safe.

Arriving at the NICU, he took his normal place. The big plastic box was gone and now his son lay with a heat lamp above allowing more access. As he sat a nurse came over, she smiled at his son and said "Its almost his feeding time, he has reached a weight we are happy for him to have skin time would you like to do the honours?" an overwhelming sense of panic hit him at the request. His son was so fragile would he hurt him by holding him? Seeing Henry's reaction before he had a chance to answer the nurse said with a comforting voice "You don't need to worry you won't hurt him. We will be there the whole time and help you out"

https://realbabymilk.org/skin-to-skin/ Image from this site not my own image

He breathed a sigh of relief and nodded his agreement not trusting his voice. They walked him over to a rocking chair that was big enough to hold his frame, next they asked him to open his shirt so Angus can have some skin on skin time with him whilst feeding. Finally, they bought Angus over they laid him in his large arms, looking so tiny he made sure he was laying back, so Gus rested against his chest. He watched as they handed him the bottle, he stroked his cheek as he had done with his nephews causing Gus to start a sucking motion as Henry gave him the bottle. So many emotions ran through Henry's heart and mind, every goal he had ever reached, the highest heights of his career could not compare with what he was feeling right now with his precious son in his arm.  

Unbeknownst to Henry, Sandy had come to see Angus. The view she saw she committed to memory to share with Reba. The big man, relaxed shirt open, with his tiny son tucked safely in his arms. Still the greatest image was the look of love on Henry's face as he gazed at Angus with unabashed tears silently running down his cheeks.

Next Chapter 19

A/N This one took longer than I wanted I hope the next few will flow a bit easier. The image of Henry's large chest being a pillow for his little son had me crying. My husband and I are attempting our last round of IVF at the end of this year I could picture us in this situation. (we have been unsuccessful so far)

nice side note - I was a 4 pound 5-ounce baby in a humid crib my dad would come in and sing to me every day - he worked at the hospital as an orderly. I almost made Henry sing and I know he can from Hellraiser but he makes such a deal about not singing in his interviews that I decided to keep to his ethic.

As always your comments are such an encouragement. :) 

I have Tagged people who follow me and who I follow if you want to be removed or added please let me know :)

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[crazed-rambling]

Unconfirmed Conversations of the Werewolves of Lancaster

“Has everyone got their spare change of clothes in the cars?”

A chorus of grumbled agreements and head nods followed

“I know I know we all know but it’s my job to ask. Remember Jack?”

“-I was 15! It was 20 years ago man”

Gethin continued as though the indignant yell had not happened, this in itself was as much a part of the routine as anything else. “We don’t want another repeat of – Are those jeans Colin? What happened to your shorts?”

“They’re in the wash” A sigh.

“Well take them off and put them in the van”

“I’m not taking them off its like 3 degrees out”

“Enjoy the chafing.” That image is enough to have the older members of the group wincing, they’ve all made that mistake at least once. The 70s were a rough time between the denim and the leather.

It seems to be enough to convince Colin as he grimaces and sending one last look to the heavens praying for another option shucks off his jeans and begins his walk of shame through the trees towards the church car park. The chuckles die down quickly as people are soon distracted by their own preparations.

Only his companions continue to look back through the trees, waiting for their friend to reappear.

“Could he be any slower, my dissertation is due next week”

“And I want to be at the Netball social Nathan but unless you’ve listed your fursona as a co-author I don’t think you’re getting much done tonight” quipped the girl next to him, as she pulled her box braids out of her face using a scrunchie.

“Blocked”

“Piss off you meme loving fuck”

“Amanda! Noah and Adam are right there.” Shit. A glance to her right confirms that the alpha was right, there were in fact two six-year olds looking at her in a mix of horror and fascination. “Sorry James”

“Don’t worry about it they already heard me watching Game of Thrones, there’s no way around our hearing”

“Still let’s try and control our language while we’re here, no need to make James’ life any harder” ensuring he made clear eye contact with the main offenders before the reappearance of Colin clad only in striped boxers put an end to any attempts Gethin could make at being serious.

“Dad! Adam took the ipad!”

“You said I could have a go next”

Sure enough the moment they realised that the attention was no longer on them the twins began to fight. At this age they were more wolf than child, especially around full moons, they would fight over anything and everything, they’d mellow out soon…

“My turn wasn’t over”

“Was”

… hopefully.

He glanced to the balding man beside the two hellraisers, who mouthed “sorry” across the clearing, resignation in his eyes. Clearly this was not a new fight.

“What is the ipad doing here? Go put it in the car, before it gets broken” Two identical faces began to open their mouths in protest… “Now.” …and closed

He watched the two backs retreat for just long enough to ensure that they were doing as he said before turning to the teenage girl at his side, with thinly veiled frustration “Why did you let them bring the ipad?”

“I didn’t know they had it,”

“Why didn’t you ask?”

“I didn’t know I had to”

The longer they spoke the more defensive Lydia seemed to become, it felt like that’s all James did with his daughter these days was argue.

“I asked you to look after them Lydia!”

The last straw, and her round face began to contort; nose and mouth pushing forwards, remaining baby fat retreating, fangs bared as she snarled “And I’m not mum!”

Even as she said it her eyes widened as if she, as well as everyone who couldn’t help but eavesdrop, was taken aback by her outburst. At the reminder of what they’d lost both seemed to visibly deflate, her face transforming back into a mask of regret, she never meant to hurt her father.

“I’m sorry honey. I’m just. It’s.” They rarely seemed to speak of April these days, too scared of hurting the other, so when the time came, he could never seem to find the words. It would be easier not to say anything, to let things return to the status quo on their own; his daughter already seemed to regret yelling. It would be easier. But his daughter was in pain, her lips pressed flat and eyes staring resolutely ahead in the way she only did when she was trying to hold back tears.

“I’m sorry. I just miss your mum on transformation nights. It feels like she was able to do anything.”

“She was pretty awesome” a small smile, “I’ll keep an eye on Adam and Noah tonight.” An olive branch; not quite forgiveness but an understanding. This didn’t mean there wasn’t a long overdue conversation to be had when they got home. James felt a comforting presence at his shoulder as she watched her retreating back. It had been months but he still couldn’t shake her, sometimes it seemed all that she left behind was Lydia’s hair, and the twin’s eyes.

“She’s a good kid”

“I know, God knows she gets it from her mum”

“And you.” He wanted to say more, but it would have to wait as his attention was drawn to the moonlight shining from behind the clouds. It was almost time. As much as James needed his friend, everyone here needed an alpha and this was the night when Gethin couldn’t afford to play favourites.

  “Everyone back? Yes. Good.” Few words were required after a transformation, no one was really listening. The only thing that mattered to anyone at this point was food and sleep, in that order. So after a perfunctory check that everyone was no worse for wear, beyond a couple of pairs of torn shorts, Gethin dismissed them and everyone began walking in the direction of the cars.

The church car park was always just a little too small, so people crowded around the cars as they changed into slightly less torn clothes, murmuring goodbyes and promises to see each other soon as they attempted to stay out of the way of cars as they manoeuvred out

Normally ride sharing would not be a great difficulty, but Gethin couldn’t help but feel like he’d somehow drawn the short straw with his group. Didn’t students own cars these days?

“Did we have to be a bible study group, if I have to bail out on a social for ‘Bible Study’ one more time just kill me ‘cause god knows my social life will already be dead”

“Do you have any other ideas for why a group of random people meet up once a month in the woods behind the church? Because I’m all ears.”

“Satanic cult? Family Reunion?”

“-Is it really a reunion if its once a month?”

“Amanda you’re black, I’m Chinese, and Colin is so white the moonlight would burn him if we weren’t so goddamn hairy. No one will believe we’re related.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s racist”

“No one cares Colin”

“Enough. We are a bible study group; we’ve been a bible study group for years and it has worked fine. Plus, it would be a little awkward if an actual bible study group decided to use the church hall while we’re out there, wouldn’t it? I don’t remember you complaining when you first came Amanda,”

“I was 13 and thought that this would be more Twilight and less leg hair”

“Get in, I’ll drop you guys off. Then if anything else happens I’m not alpha for the next 12 hours” He loved his pack, they just made it very hard sometimes.

“I’m not sure that’s how it works” One flat glance over his shoulder was all that was needed to communicate how little Gethin cared for the students bickering.

  There were few words spoken until the three were left on the pavement besides M&S watching the van tear off into the distance. Once they were sure they were out of hearing range

“I don’t know how Arjun puts up with him.”

“He’s working the graveyard shift at St James, Gethin will be out by the time he gets back. But he leaves breakfast out and no one wants to make their own eggs after an eight hour shift.”

“That’s true love that is” says Colin putting on a performance of being deeply moved by their alpha’s attempts at romance, before the rest of his brain caught up with the connotations of what she’d just said “Wait how do you know all this? Gethin tells me nothing!”

“Me and Arjun have a doctors group chat”

“You’re not a doctor yet Amanda”

“But I am suffering so….” she shrugged as though the others were meant to understand how these two concepts related.

“We’re all suffering!”

“Piss off Colin freshers don’t know shit about suffering”

“I’ve got coursework too you know”

“Awww….are you handies hurting from too much colourwing”

“Geology not geography!”

Nathan stared longingly in the direction they last saw the van; it was too soon after a transformation for this. If he didn’t intervene soon these two would be at each other’s throats, and knowing them they wouldn’t stop until the police broke them up or they finally dealt with their sexual tension; right here, outside M&S. But either way a trip police station would be inevitable.

“I’m starved, when does ‘spoons open?” Food possibly the only thing which could distract a pissed off werewolf, transformations were one hell of a work out. Sure enough Colin was fishing his phone out of his pockets. Mission Distraction: Success.

“Shit we got another two hours. Kings might be open?”

“Hell no last time I had one of their kebabs I spent the next day puking my guts up”

“Are you sure that wasn’t the tequila shots?”

“Piss off Colin” Mission Distraction: Success Failure.

“I should have gone with James and them lot I bet you they have food at home”

“Is that you volunteering to sit between two six year olds who haven’t slept in 24 hours, because Edith will be thrilled.” ….Maybe it was better to be their third wheel, the twins were a handful even at the best of times, but exhausted and hungry children are always worse.

“She loves the twins. She says they remind her of when her grandkids were their age” Better to bail out before someone takes him seriously, even Edith, sweet, sweet Edith would take any sign of weakness as an opportunity to switch rides.

“No one loves the twins on transformation night Nathan.”

“Soooo…. Maccies?”

An agreement seemingly reached the three turn and begin walking, just another group of students in search of junk food after a long night.

[hypeathon]

RWBY - Volume 6, Chapter 10 Production Analysis

Previous Volume 6 Production Analysis Posts:

Chapters one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight & nine

The first RWBY episode of 2019 also marks what seems to be the beginning of the last act of this volume. By now, this usually means action sequences and coordination and entanglement between various characters. But how does all of that hold up in this chapter’s presentation?

Since the first scene in this episode involves a cooperative operation between the main cast and Saphron’s family, now is as good of a time as any to go into one character in particular. Adrian is... a fascinating character to put simply, though it’s not just because of what he’s capable of but also because of how he exists. Though not common, models of kids and animals have existed before in the show, but never a fully rigged model of an infant. The closest instance there was of one prior was in the premiere chapter of this volume and even then, the model wasn’t really moving at all. Given his body size, it would not be surprising if Adrian’s model was entirely key-animated which can potentially lead to some awkward motion to make a baby’s fidgety nature look and feel right. But not as much has been needed out of Adrian’s animation outside of a few giggles and small gestures, with one exception of course but more on that in a bit. One last note, Adrian has an actual “voice actor” despite not having any audible words named Lucella Wren Clary who is actually lead producer for volume 6, Joe Clary’s baby daughter.

Going back to Adrian’s animation, the whole opening scene with him, Saphron, Weiss and Caroline was animated by Colin McAtee, Alex Hoyle, Vince Cappelluti and Hannah McCravy. Most of these animators, have been mentioned before through these analyses with the exception of Alex, who confirmed to specifically have done the cut with the Nubuck guards trying to tend to Adrian’s fake crying whereas Colin supposedly animated the cuts that came right before and after. Colin also stated that Kerry Shawcross gave them quite a bit of freedom regarding how to animate the characters. Since Kerry became the main director of the show back in 2015, he has been accused of having a draconian grip over what animators are or are not allowed to convey, namely with fight scenes. This has stemmed from some critics wanting a justification to point fingers at someone for not having certain aspects of the show be as ideal as they want without needing to spend time fact-checking. The reality is that Kerry will always have a vision for how he wants a given scene to be expressed, he simply needs to as the director. However, he is willing to let any animators assigned to a scene (as well as storyboard artist, camera layout artists and whoever else involved) to provide their own creative input to depending on the scene. With some exceptions, he’s actually more easy-going with action sequences than dialogue ones, the latter involves the animators being more precise with character acting (and the animators themselves don’t usually mind it either). So to see confirmation that he gave the assigned animators more creative freedom with the Adrian distraction scene is an interesting change of pace.

In the next scene at the cliff side, there is concept art accompanied with a couple of set design notes. First is, “boulders cover path & jut up from rock wall along entire cliff side” while the other says, “Path width: 20-30 ft, tree height: 30 ft”. In the first place, these design notes are likely to provide details for environment modeling team to maintain the dimensions and key features of a given setting. That said, these same pieces of information can also help give an idea as to what is in store for the story from here on. Between the boulders and trees, they may potentially serve as cover for the main cast once they start fighting Cordovin’s mech. It’s also possible that the height of the trees specifically may serve for another fight within this episode, but more on that later. One other quick thing to mention are the splash effects at the bottom of the cliff side. Splashes have been done before in the show, but given the setting, it’s appropriately presented with more nuance.

Taking a moment to skip ahead, this is a good opportunity to touch on the visual effects in this episode a bit. More specifically, the effects when Cordovin fires the warning shot from her mech. There is a lot of great timing with the build-up where the ball of energy swells up in small bursts within the cannon while a shock wave releases to help sell that effect. The small shock waves themselves also dissolve into particles which were an interesting touch. The swelling ball also has two bits of animation going on in which the layer of roundish shapes give off a backspin while the slender pen-stroke like shapes spin to the left. The best comparison to make would be the way veteran animator of the Pokemon franchise, Masaaki Iwane, animates effects such as explosions and flames. Iwane very similarly uses that swelling build-up effect in many instances such as this sequence in Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back and this one (about 54 seconds in) from Pokemon: Spell of the Unknown. Describing all of this is frankly very difficult but that is simply a testament to how intricately handled the visual effect itself is from just one cut alone. This is not even counting the next cut of when the cannon fires. From then on, there is an extended swelling effect from the ball of energy as well as small sparks appearing in the form of particles and streams. Once the cannon does fire, we see a couple of split-second white flashes on the screen. This is honestly the only part where a small opportunity was missed to capitalize on the effect and apply something called impact frames. They are basically effects in the form of a few frames that are inverted in color to make a sort of flash to help give off the sense of impact as the name suggests. The white flashes from when the cannon fired almost did something like this and could have benefited from adding say, a more blackened silhouette of the mech and the burst from the cannon, similar to what was seen in these stills which may have come from this sequence in Naruto Shippuden.

Despite calling the lack of impact frames a missed opportunity, it’s also nitpicking, as it doesn’t take away from the outstanding work done in just one instance. It is hard to tell how much of each aspect of the moment was due to the visual effects team or the compositing team or whether 2-D Effects artist, Myke Chapman had any part at all in say, the sparks all over the control panels in the ship Weiss and Maria hijacked. Regardless, this is the most creatively handled work from those departments done yet, outmatching that of the electricity swirling around Hazel’s arms in volume 5 or Cinder’s wind column in chapter 5 of this volume.

With all of that gushing of the effects out of the way for now, let’s rewind back to a scene with Maria and Weiss being found out by Cordovin. In terms of animation, there was one bit of confirmation from Nyle Pierson and what he contributed to this episode, that being the comedic and now meme-worthy part where Maria is chewing cashews. If you recall, Nyle was also the one that confirmed to have animated Ruby’s reaction to seeing Jaune’s sister as well as Blake and Yang treading through the snowstorm to the shed. With three confirmed sequences, this should help give a small idea of how he animates. His timing with character acting can be a bit comparable to Hannah Novotny’s in terms of how he applies small bits of anticipatory action before body gestures or head shifts. That said, they don’t approach animating mouths and eye pupils the same. Where Hannah is more likely to shrink the pupils and makes a snarl mouth shape when say, characters get angry (in fact, she may have animated Cordovin threatening Maria through the intercom), Nyle keeps pupils fairly dilated and the mouth movements can be similar to characters in various Sonic the Hedgehog games. 

One aspect of this episode’s production that has been neglected are the storyboards and that’s because there was not much to highlight. Or rather, it was a struggle to find anything to bring up. Part of the problem was that aside from a couple of having establishing shots that make note of the terrain of the different characters and Qrow being framed at certain moments to show him being opposed to everyone else’s plan, the visual direction felt standard overall. There was one fairly clever instance of Qrow blaming himself where the main cast were several feet away from him, only for Ruby to wind up in front of him a few shots later after talking some sense into him (along with an interesting “misty” effect likely from the compositing). Other than that, not much else. That is not meant to be taken as a criticism so much as an observation. Not every episode needs to hit it right out of the park, as this one served as mostly a build-up episode. That said, there’s also the matter that in this episode, there were six storyboard artists which makes this and chapter 2 the most credited. This is strange because usually, an episode will vary from 3-5 storyboard artists and the number is never really dependent on episode length either. Chapter 3, the longest episode in the series (not counting credits) had only Rachel Doda, Kevin Harger and Mari Yang credited while chapter 4 which served as a transition episode, ran only at 13 in-a-half minutes and had all of the previously mentioned names as well as Emily Little, making for four artists. It’s honestly unclear as to why this type of pattern occurs aside from maybe scheduling. 

Moving on to the last segment of this episode, we have the start of a fight sequence between Blake and Adam. As much praise as there was with the effects from the cannon fire prior, the moment where Adam launched his attack at Blake was nothing to sniff at either. The attack came with everything expected from what Adam has done before where the screen dims and parts of his body glow. But this time, some black and red-colored spark effects were added which have never been done before and thus gave off an extra menacing feel. The effects of the slicing wave were also a little different from his character short where in that instance, it felt more like a stream of wind. Here though, the shapes are more defined with a heavy blur layered on top. Then there’s the animation. The only animator confirmed to have had a part in Adam and Blake’s fight this episode was John Yang who very likely animated this segment, though it’s unclear whether he animated anything after that though. John has been involved with the show since volume 5 and some of his previous sequences include Blake firing on Ilia which came prior to Kim Newman’s sequence, Oscar vs Leo, Ozpin vs Hazel, and part of Maria vs the bandits. In the chapter 1 production analysis, I speculated that he may have done Oscar leaping from train car to train car to get to Dudley. After some observation, I’m more convinced that he actually animated Qrow’s initial fight against the Sphinx Grimm and Ruby and Weiss helping Oscar defeat the Manticore Grimm. The way John times movement is with a brief but explicit sense of anticipatory action before each strike and movement is suddenly unleashed. The movements and strikes feel swift but intense in ways that feel a bit similar to animation director for volume 6, Joel Mann. In fact, John’s sense of timing can be compared to animator Yuya Takahashi who depending on whp you talk to, is known for contributing to various fan-favorite sequences in both Dragon Ball Super and Fairy Tail.

All of that aside, one last thing of note towards the end of the sequence were the cold-air effects when Blake and Adam spoke their lines, likely done by the compositing team. This was a neat touch in that it helped indicate the temperature of where they are. It’s one of those neat attention to details that along with the dust particles showing through the light in Lionheart’s office in chapter 1 of volume 5, many viewers would not think of acknowledge but none-the-less add a touch to the atmosphere.

That marks the end of this production analysis. This one was admittedly a bit more scarce and scattered in terms of what to talk about, but the parts that were noteworthy through the presentation definitely had much to breakdown. With the first of what seems to be a set of action-oriented episodes out of the way serving as build-up, we seem to be in for a bit of a wild ride as teased by assistant lead animator, Melanie Stern. Here’s hoping that there will be quite a bit more to touch on through the production of the next chapter.

[kadandrawsrwby]

Shade Vilkas (Fenrir) (borrowed most of the format for this part from @heirsofremnant​ I hope it’s ok!)

Team: Team SFRN - leader

Age: currently 28

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Bisexual

Species: Wolf Faunus

Family: 

Hope Vilkas - daughter

Rusty Maskeli - cousin

Neva Maskeli - cousin

Semblance:  Lycanthrope - At the cost of his aura, Shade is able to change into a massive warg, capable of crushing a Grimm’s skull with one swipe of his huge paws.  While he can remain in warg form for as long as he likes, doing so leaves him much more vulnerable to physical damage, and there have been signs that staying in his feral form for too long may have some unpleasant side effects - memory loss being one of them.  He often saves his semblance for a last resort in battle, but will often take advantage of it for travel - four legs do go faster than two.

Weapon: Double Weapon - not to be confused with dual wielding - his weapon is essentially a staff with blades on each end.  Named Wolfsbane.  Shade uses the weapon’s range to keep enemies at their distance, though he is able to detach the blades from each other and wield them as two short swords instead.  A gun barrel is hidden in the hilt of each blade.

Emblem: A wolf’s pawprint with a rough swirl cut into the middle.  He wears this emblem tattooed proudly on his arm -- the one he still has left, anyway.

Personality: Quiet, patient, gentle, bitter, overprotective, lonely, vengeful, distant, brooding, decisive

Voice: Colin O’Donoghue (Once Upon A Time)

Trivia:

Despite doing quite as the leader of Team SFRN while still in school, Shade never had any interest in the role, and while he did step up when really needed, most of the day to day leadership fell to his partner, Fawn.

The same partner who hated his guts - a mutual feeling - until shortly before graduation.

Shade is almost never seen without his hair covering his right eye.  He began growing it out right around the time he lost his arm.  He claims the two events are unrelated, but even his own teammates have each only caught a glimpse of whatever he’s hiding.  It’s unlikely he’ll ever feel the need to reveal it of his own accord.

Shade grew up in Menagerie, relatively content with his existence until his parents never returned from a mission on the mainland, later confirmed to have been murdered by humans.  This was the event that birthed his hatred of humans and drove him to leave Menagerie to attend Beacon, where he intended to learn to fight, only to turn those exact skills on every human who crossed his path.  Had the White Fang been as violent when he was young as it became under Adam’s leadership, he would have eagerly joined.

This plan never came to fruition, however, as he was otherwise occupied by the time he graduated and thoughts of vengeance had dropped lower on his priorities list.

Shade is absolutely petrified of birds.  This - obviously - can present quite a few problems when faced with a giant Nevermore.  This fear almost got him - and his teammates - killed on multiple occasions throughout their schooling.

After the event that cost him his arm, Shade once again became bitter and hateful toward humanity, eventually joining the current-day White Fang.  He later left only for his daughter’s sake, feeling as though staying would be painting a target on her back for the humans who sought retaliation.

During the early years of his daughter’s life, Shade struggled with alcoholism, but finally kicked the habit when it almost got the little one killed.  He still struggles to keep the addiction in check, and will outright refuse to enter anywhere that sells alcohol at times to avoid temptation and the possibility of relapse.

Had he not set himself on such a vengeful path early in life, Shade would have grown up to be a teacher.

He inexplicably has an Irish accent.

[aggresivelyfriendly]

Hi all! I’m back with new fic!!

 This one is a doozy and deals with some complicated issues- such as a relationship between a man and woman separated by 20 years but connected by the woman’s son. Fair warning! If I haven’t scared you off- let’s see where these peeps take us!!!

Also-This piece wouldn’t have been without @bleedinglove4h, @nocontrolforlouis, and @dirtystyles who made all the amazing art!! They are amazing!!

 Prologue-The Creation of Adam

"What in the bloody fuck?" Jo asked herself whilst stress eating a chocolate bar in her pantry. It had been a shit show of a day.

She'd woken up in the morning with a giant grin on her face. Her boy, her Ethan, was coming home today and she hadn't seen him in three months. Their school schedules should have lined up perfectly, the theoretical perk of having a child at university when you yourself were a professor. But her upstanding young man had taken it upon himself to get a work study job straight off in his first semester.

"Mum, I know you will help me, but I want to help you as much as I can, too. Plus, you have the baby, so there are lots of extra expenses right now," he'd told her on his first actual phone call home. Ethan was right about some things. There were new expenses. Those had more to do with the divorce lawyers than the baby, though. Truth was, other than diapers, the first couple of years were as expensive as you chose to make them. With Ethan, she had been completely on her own. Jo's parents had been livid that she was even considering keeping the baby, especially without a man. She had tried to explain that the man who had got Ethan on her was better off gone, but her mum just couldn't see how she was going to make it on her own. The lack of confidence hurt, but she'd done it. Still was doing it.

She had taken her certification tests and found a school near a housing estate. Those were always turning over teachers. And she loved it, and the students. They had shitty choices to make, but they made rational choices, whether the government saw that or not. Every couple of years, she was able to spot an artistic spirit like her own - someone with an eye. She'd take those ones under her wing and together they would find their medium and Jo would enter them in as many art competitions as she could find. She even got a few to uni that way. It also let her flex her artistic muscles, which were atrophying while she taught general courses

When Ethan got a little older, and they could afford it, she moved out a little farther, to a nice little village. Jo still worked in the city, where she could do the most good, but the apartment she could afford there wasn't a place where she could send Ethan out to play. He needed a garden and space to grow.

He'd brought Harry home when he was 12 years old. They had both been gangly boys, their feet growing faster than they were able to manage. Ethan seemed to use his size well, though. He excelled at soccer, where he had met Harry. And Ethan continued to play long after Harry quit and joined her on the sidelines instead.

Harry was a lovely, fluffy boy. He was all curly hair and teeth and dimples. His pants seemed two sizes too big and his jumpers perhaps a size too small. But he was so well-mannered, helped with the dishes and nudged Ethan when he was giving her a hard time. And he had that spark.

Harry would come 'round sometimes and find his schoolmate was not about the house. Jo would still invite him in lots of times and serve him tea and biscuits while she subtly fished for information on what her son was like at school. Harry was sweet and polite, but astute - she never got anything out of him.

One day, he came in the middle of a painting frenzy. Jo had spoken to her mother and left the conversation simultaneously riddled with guilt and full of resentment. Her mother was a pleasant person, but a dreadful mum. She seemed to like Ethan, but still loathed the idea of him. Jo was angsty and angry, and taking it out on the canvas.

"Oh, hi Harry," she answered the door breathlessly with green and blue fingertips and a speckled tee shirt. "Ethan isn't here. Think I saw him dribbling a ball towards the fields." She gestured with her head.

Harry looked her up and down. Jo hated when Ethan's friends did that, but this wasn't the same obvious ogle she had shut down so many times. His was a look of avid interest for what was on her clothes, not under them.

"What're you doing?" He sounded like she was going to read his tarot cards. A bit of his future in her answer.

"I'm painting." she had answered honestly and wanted to be abrupt and leave the door swinging, even if it hit his sweet face. Jo had some feelings she needed to splash out in bold hues.

"Can I watch?" Harry asked with eyes as wide as the Montana sky.

"Yeah, come on in." Her Englishness asserted itself. "Cuppa?" She wanted to curse politeness.

"Nah, you seem busy. I'm just..." He looked sheepish. "I can tell you're wanting to get back to it, but I just like, want to watch. Ok Miss Joanne?" She hated that too.

"Just Jo, Harry." And she led him back to her tiny sunroom-cum-studio.

He was quiet the entire time he watched her - three full hours - until she started cleaning up the paints.

"Miss Joanne." She gave him an eye roll. "Jo," he showed her a tube with licorice written on it. "Who names the colors?"

"I'm not sure Harry, but I think when you're the painter, you do."

He had looked awed, and that was how she always saw him in her mind's eye. Wide eyed and full cheeked with a silly scarf around his thin neck. Standing in the sunlight watching her paint, getting brave enough to ask questions, and eventually painting alongside her. She was aware that over the three years he spent popping in and out of her studio he had changed, in that way only a very young person can, like going from a raw egg to a cooked one. But she always thought of him as that kid who came to the studio the first time, eyes full of wonder.

That was not how Harry looked when he walked into her kitchen two hours after Ethan. Jo had been rubbing at the spattering of baby puke Zoe had left on her shoulder, the dribble almost making it to her nipple. The screen had been unlatched on the kitchen door, and the smack of it had made her look up.

"Hey Miss Joanne," she hadn't even had time, or tongue to correct him, before he said. "Miss Jo, I mean. Is Ethan about?" He'd rocked up onto his toes and then back to his heels and it was similar to the motion her neck wanted to do in order to follow his form as he made his way into the house and up to Ethan's room.

"Whoa!" Jo found herself saying out loud. That was a fucking butterfly, she thought.

Harry was not the chubby-cheeked awkward boy she remembered. He had been adorable, but that was not the right word to describe him now.

He was wearing jeans two sizes to tight, which he had coupled with a very thin, soft looking green t shirt that clung to him better than any plastic wrap she'd ever found.

"Damn," she muttered. Do not have impure thoughts about your son's best mate. His changes had come over time when she saw him weekly, and she knew they hadn't happened overnight, but they were grander now. Like he'd crawled into a little cocoon and sat there for the three months he'd been at school. He had come out with wings.

Where had all that muscle come from? Jo could clearly see abs and chest and even v lines under that clingy top.

She shook her head blowing out a big breath and released her surprise attraction. She checked the video monitor to find Zoe still sleeping. So she snuck to the pantry to break into her hidden chocolate stash.

Had Harry been looking like that for a while and she had missed it? It must be nearly four months since she saw him last, but she didn't remember his nipples looking like that before. He looked so good, so grown. What was he doing at university to change like that? Had he exchanged time in the library for time at the gym?

The chocolates lowly melted over her tongue and Jo found herself thinking about peeling his shirt off like opening a belgian chocolate, slow and reverently. Her eyes closed involuntarily and she was startled to find her fingers at her own nipple.

Her eyes opened abruptly when she heard the whine from the tiny monitor speaker. Zoe was ramping up, finishing her cat nap earlier that Jo needed her to, she hadn't even gotten the washing done yet. That may have been because she was too busy thinking about getting off with her son's mate in the pantry. She scoffed and pushed her hands down to her sides.

The baby was wiggling, but hadn't flipped yet, so she knew her six month old wasn't entirely awake. She had about five minutes to get up there before the screaming started in earnest.

Jo was throwing in the wash and hitting the button, thinking about how it's been ages since she felt anything sexual. First because Colin's increasing detachment from the pregnancy killed the mood, and then because she was sad about Ethan leaving for school, and then because she was as big as a house. Her dry spell had continued as she found herself once again a single mum of an infant. It was hard to feel sexy on such little sleep. Maybe her thoughts were inappropriate, but Jo was glad to find that part of her wasn't dead, just dormant.

Realization dawned that Zoe wasn't screaming and it had been more than five minutes. A momentary panic seized Jo and she rushed out, smearing melted chocolate on her black yoga pants and throwing the wrapper just outside the bin. She'd have to pick that up later.

On the monitor was a sight that had her covering her mouth. The baby was back to sleep, on Harry's shoulder and her big brother was rubbing her back. Her little arms were bound up under her body and she was almost safe to put down. Just a few more minutes and she'd be back into deep sleep, well, deep for an infant. She saw Ethan motion to the crib and cringed, too soon. She exhaled relief when Harry shook his head 'no' and pointed Ethan out of the room.

Jo watched Harry rock her and felt Ethan come up behind her, he hugged her from behind. Her sweet affectionate boy. She felt bad that he had to be her partner so often as they grew up together, but they were close. Despite their dynamic and because of it.

"She got so big? Do all babies grow like that?" Ethan asked and she could hear him rummaging in the pantry. Her smile was one she couldn't fight. She'd got the shop in and picked up his favorite things on purpose. "Oh mum!" She heard him find his biscuits, the expensive ones she used to buy when he did well on exams. The ones she could only afford once a month, when she got paid.

"Yes, all babies change rapidly. Change almost before your eyes. I imagine it's a shock after a few months." She tried not to layer a guilt trip into her voice, but she missed him. She heard him sigh, so Ethan could hear it too. Jo needed to knock that off, he should have a great time at uni, not worry about his lonely, sad mum struggling at home. And she wanted him to want to come home. She looked from her son who was rapidly eating biscuits to her daughter being gently laid in her crib. Harry's back muscles strained against the green cloth of his shirt.

Speaking of rapid changes.

Jo may not have noticed Harry's entrance into manhood before. The last year the boys were in college, she was falling in love. Colin had seemed ideal, they both worked at the university, and he was an adult male who seemed to have it together. He was her first real relationship since Ethan's twat of a father, not counting a few bad dates and a fuck buddy or two. Since they were both of a certain age, they had rushed things. Jo had rushed to the altar and the maternity ward. By the time she hit six months along in her pregnancy, she knew her marriage wasn't going to last. She could not imagine Colin as a loving father, let alone devoted. She'd had to beg him to come to the appointment where they learned the baby's sex. He had chosen to attend a lecture on horse bridles in Arthurian tales instead. That's when she knew, but she ignored it and tried harder. Until he left when she was right near the end and then couldn't even be bothered to show up for the birth until Jo needed a ride home. Colin had the car seat. Which he left when he dropped them off. New baby and new divorce, all in one go, she was an efficient lass.

But she couldn't help but notice now. Harry was looking full grown and the sight of him with her baby...well, it was doing uncomfortable things to her. Feelings and sensations dormant for the last year were roaring back to life. She barely had time to eat, let alone seek arousal.

"Did Harry's mum have a new baby?" Jo found herself asking after watching him with her own new one before she could rein herself in. Nothing about her felt bridled, let alone her horses.

Ethan came over and slung a cookie filled hand attached to a strong arm around her. "Nah, you would think so though, right? Just has a touch with kids. Only boy I knew who had three regular babysitting gigs!" Ethan sounded proud of his mate and Jo smiled at his sweetness.

"You missed him?" She nudged Ethan's ribs.

"Yeah! Was happy he would be about."

"Why's he home this weekend anyway?" Jo tried to ask plainly, with less interest than she was feeling, obviously.

"Harry lives at home. He goes to your university, Mum! Studies in your department!" Ethan laughed at her fish face.

"Well, I've not had him in any of my classes, I guess. And you'll excuse me love, but I have been a wee bit busy." She poked him in his tickle spot, the one he'd had since he was two and a half and that she fondly remembered prodding when they played tickle monster.

While she was so fucking tired trying to do this again, alone and much older to boot, she couldn't wait to find Zoe's tickle spots.

"Mum, stop looking at me like that." Ethan rolled his eyes affectionately.

"Like what?" Jo hit him upside his cheeky head with the burp cloth and hoped a little spit up made contact.

"Ew, mum! That's wet! Is that wee?" Ethan was frantically wiping his face with a paper cloth.

"Calm down, just spit up!" She guffawed. It felt so good to have her kids under one roof and to be giving Ethan what for.

"What the bloody... that's throw up!"

"Of a sort, it's just breast milk!" She said just to see his face. He paled as Harry walked into the kitchen.

Jo was bent double with laughter and she was aware of just how tight her lounge pants were.

"Mate." He pointed at Ethan. "You see a ghost?"

Jo laughed harder and couldn't even explain why. It was a release she didn't even know she needed. Tears were leaking and she was glad they were happy.

"I wish! Got baptized with my mum's regurgitated breast milk, yech!" Ethan complained while still wiping furiously at his face.

"Mate, the breast milk is better for your skin than what you are doing now. Actually really good for skin." Harry walked over to the fruit bowl and plucked a banana and ate it like he lived there. Jo loved the picture he made.

"How the hell do you know that?" Jo was thinking it, but her son was the one who said it.

"Dunno, think I read it on a flyer at a nurse in or something at school." He shrugged and ate his last bite, tossing the peel and missing the trash can.

Jo picked it up and put it in the bin, with only a small groan. She didn't remember being this sore after long nights with Ethan. "Ethan said you go to Manchester?"

She looked up at Harry then and caught him with his eyes glued to her cleavage. It was the one body part she wished she could take with her post pregnancy and nursing. Her nipples responded to his gaze, and she was right back to feeling that unfamiliar lust he had brought up in her earlier. It felt like a caress, like he'd extended his fingers, not just his gaze, and used the tips to pluck at her. Harry brought his eyes up and for a second he looked like that pink cheeked boy she taught to paint. It was a moment's expression, before his skin tone evened out and he smirked. Those pink cheeks turned out to be contagious.

"MUM!" Ethan said a little too loud and Jo jerked her eyes to him.

"What?" She sniped back. It wasn't nice to be yelled at in your own home, or caught out. Her face soured and she wished for another chocolate when she heard a wail start from upstairs. She looked up to give Ethan a tongue lashing and found him looking sorry, so she let it go and turned with a sigh.

"Do you want me to get her?" Both boys asked in chorus.

That sparked a smile. "No, lovely boys, she needs to nurse." She chuckled under her breath at the look on Ethan's face. "But, you could start dinner, that would be a massive help." Ethan looked like a nineteen year old tasked with a chore, but Harry nodded and shouldered his friend out of the way of the fridge.

They were both good boys, nearly men, and they needed to know how to cook a meal, for themselves, And any lady, or gentleman, lucky enough to catch either. Jo would come shore up the damage later.

The cries were piercing by the time she reached crib side, but when she reached down, Zoe quieted nicely in her arms. She kept eye contact while she emptied Jo's tingling breasts.

Jo was tired, covered in spit up half the time, and hated to be doing this alone again. But these years were short, and she had wished them away with Ethan. She wanted to do better this time.

Jo carried her cooing baby down stairs and set her up in her walker while she helped the boys finish some salad and mash and sausages. It was a curious mix, but nice to not have to cook for a change. She looked around her table and smiled. It was also nice to watch them laugh.

Harry was making Zoe scream with baby giggles by making a popping noise with his cheek, and Ethan was filming it for his insta story. She'd have to ask him if anyone at school was at all interested in his baby sister. The sounds at her table woke her up a little.

By the time she got Zoe down hours later, her feet and head were heavy again. The boys had tossed her about once Jo had declared they were a safe distance from her nursing and mushy peas. At least they were likely to avoid an exorcist-like scene. They'd tickled her and cuddled her and found a tender spot exactly where Ethan's was. Harry had located it and looked at Ethan, "Exactly where yours is!" Which Jo found curious.

Zoe had been riled up, and while Jo wouldn't erase the hours of watching Ethan play with his little sister, she was a little miffed at dealing with the fallout. It took her 10 minutes to get Zoe to latch on, and she was raw from the baby pulling off at every small sound looking for her playmates. As she finally nursed to sleep, Jo kept thinking about her curious interaction with Harry. They had spent lots of time together, usually over tins of paint and canvases, and she had never once seen him look down her shirt.

He was a respectful boy, or gay, and Jo never really thought about him like that at all. He was always handsome, but a baby.

He did not look like a baby anymore and her reaction to him was troubling, to say the least. Jo was sure it was horrible to feel any sort of sexual interest in her son's best mate. But it was just the one time. She'd let it go and focus on and enjoying the long weekend with Ethan. And maybe she'd see Harry around at school.

There was one positive side effect. Her desire that had been buried six feet under with her marriage was back. Jo hadn't even thought about her lady parts since the doctor declared them good as new. Colin had rebuffed her advances as soon as her bump made itself apparent; he found it off-putting. She'd put her interest away as best she could to avoid rejection. It was worrisome to think about what her body may look like after a pregnancy at 40, and if her husband was not into a pregnant body, she had a feeling he would not be able to ignore the stretch marks. Jo had once been flattered by his repeated compliment that she had the face and body of a 25 year old. Now she was just irritated. But her body was back, albeit with better boobs for the term of her breast feeding and some extra tiger stripes where Zoe had made her mark. And everything seemed to be working. It was confusing that Harry was the one to rouse her sleeping libido. Those were thoughts she wanted to avoid. So she left them where they lie and stood gently and square on her toes.

Zoe didn't stir as Jo padded over to the crib. A kiss on the head and deep inhalation of that baby smell before putting her down softly, and Jo was ready to float down to her own bed. She wished there was somebody to carry her to her mattress as she had just done for her baby.

Jo was blearily rubbing her eyes when the bathroom door opened and steam started to pour out. She was just about to admonition Ethan about opening windows unless he wanted to repaint the bathroom when Harry walked right into her. Slick and tan and confusingly covered in tattoos. She wasn't able to make out the shape on his torso before he was pressed up against her, but it was big. So was he, tall. Her nose was at his collarbone and there were swallows on either side. When had he gotten all these tattoos?

"Sorry Miss Joanne." He caught her by the arms and she could smell that body wash she bought Ethan, it smelled different right now.

"You're really wet!" She said stupidly, and looked up to his amused face.

Harry looked cheeky and there were words on the tip of his tongue, poised to spring off like an Olympic diver. Instead he bit his lip and Jo could feel her eyes widen and her nipples contract. "You have a lot of tattoos," she said, and she was surprised by the breathiness suddenly present in her voice.

His arms moved from her elbows to circle around her waist and Harry nodded, "I do, wanna see them?"

He was flirting with her! Was he flirting with her? And she was still pressed up against him. His arms were tighter around her than the corset she wore on her wedding day, at least she assumed so because she was breathless.

"Um, I've, no, not right now." She started to squirm and he grinned and let her go.

She hurried down the stairs and looked back from the middle landing. Harry had a hand on the knot of his towel and a firm shape was just below the tips of his fingers. That made a mental impression, but it didn't press into her mind as much as his face. Harry's eyes looked emerald green and his lip was beneath his teeth.

Jo averted her gaze from his skin and rushed to her room. Rather than straight to bed like she hoped 20 minutes ago, she found herself in her bathroom, doing the skincare routine she had forgotten about 7 months ago at least. Her color was high in her cheeks and she couldn't help but admire it, and herself for a moment before brushing her teeth and shaking herself. Awoken libido indeed, she thought with a glance at her tits.

Jo stripped down to a t-shirt and put shorts by the bed for Zoe's 3am feeding. She needed to get some sleep.

An hour later, she was still shifting around and rubbing her thighs together to alleviate the knot of tension there. Jo finally gave in, and dug through her bedside drawer for the vibrator she resorted to in her second trimester after one too many rebuffs.

It didn't take long, she was so pent up. That wasn't surprising. What was surprising was the pink lipped face she pictured between her thighs as she finished.

This was trouble.

[blankdblank]

Scotland Pt 12

Inspiration ��� Made of Honor, not to the part that is inspired by it yet, nearly there though – Through an interesting arrangement with Richard, who seems to be using you only as arm candy to spur on the rage from his Ex-girlfriend, his treatment of you however enrages his friends, the Hobbit Cast, to no end, as he breaks it off you have to move back home, though before you leave you get some quality time with the rest of the cast.

Pt 1 - Pt 2 - Pt 3 - Pt 4 - Pt 5 - Pt 6 – Pt 7 - Pt 8 - Pt 9 - Pt 10 - Pt 11

...

Bonding with the cast through the celebration. Came up with a few exagerations on traditions for the tasks in the celebration. Ransom use of The Parting Glass as well, just love that song. 

Fluff, angst, drama, and the lingering threat of betrayal bringing out the allies around the OC. It’s going down in flames.

Tags - 

@himoverflowers, @theincaprincess, @aspiringtranslator, @sweeticedtea, @ggbbhehe4455, @thegreyberet, @patanghill17​, @jesgisborne, @abiwim, @evyiione, @abiwim​, @deepestfirefun

…

Days passed after you had taken Richard back to the station. Stealing a tight hug and a momentary lingering peck on the cheek before he accepted your leading him inside for another brief hug then turned and reluctantly went to claim his waiting train seat hoping he’d at least be able to speak to you later to aid him in getting some rest. 

The days following seemed to flood by as you filled your days with the swarms of people passing through to share their own thoughts and relief on the news of the break up and the shifting celebration into a full celebration for the entire town. One by one they all settled that it was a brilliant shift leaving a significant shift from the vengeful group in your favor to loosen up against the Laird and instantly jump into aiding in the planning for the incoming clans.

Settled in the massive castle at Colin’s Mother’s side you reclaimed the refilled cup of tea crossing your sock covered ankles, listening in as she shared the entire plan. All including the full legal disclosure that Bell had agreed to after she’d returned the ring. Moving to their Spring Castle she had agreed to full year round supervision and extra medical check ups and tests on the child to ensure she couldn’t harm it. 

Her only addition was to have full custody passed on to Colin after birth and a free ride in the jet to any destination of her choice once her body had healed, allowing her to travel freely anywhere she wished using the finds he’d promised. Signed and legal by that sunrise you eased back in your chair as the laird himself breezed into the room with an easy smile, claiming his Mother’s side and sharing the first news of the check up Bell had already sat through before the first trip to the Spring castle.

Mingling your days away between the trips from your home to the castle sharing in on the plans. Once your guest had found his way back to England the phones started ringing again and another name started creeping into your daily conversations. Mike seemed to be dropped in a few times a week from the emails he shared with you from a few of his actor friends from various projects he had taken part in. Though soon after he would be spurred on to grab your hand and lead you out on a lengthy hike as if to make up for the few minutes of focusing on his work and his life away from you once again.

…

Once again with the sunrise you eased out of bed slipping free from the tangled mess of sheets Lee had left from his early morning sneak out of bed. Drying off and redressing after your short showers you would leave it running for him to slip in as you ate the breakfast he prepared for you. Weaving your hair back into a loose braid you eased back onto your bed after putting the dishes up in the dish washer just in time to catch Lee’s smirk exiting the shower as his navel flashed as he dried his hair causing his shirt to rise up. Tossing the towel into the hamper along the wall and kneeling at your side on the bed to stretch out above you for another round of tangled kissing that ended with yet another grumble from both of you as your phones rang.

With a soft chuckle Lee said, “For the record, it’s not just my phone doing it now.”

Nodding through your sarcastic smirk you retorted, “I noticed.” Stealing another kiss from him making him chuckle as you slid in opposite directions for your phones only to roll back again for a snuggling pile before hanging up. With a firm grip Lee’s hand on your hip slid you down making you giggle again before his lips landed on yours again. With another break you eased out of bed and returned to the next city over in a large van you borrowed from Colin’s land for the pickups for the rest of the guests that would be arriving the following day. 

Parked again you crossed the small sidewalk alone after leaving Lee to aid in the set up for the first round of celebrations as a large group of fans among the upper level ranked guests were fans of his. Seated safe in the castle sharing in a lunch with the guests he claimed his role happily as it soothed their moods towards the shift in plans, along with the news of the other Hobbit cast members joining the celebrations as your own personal guests.

Looking out through the crowds your hand raised to greet the familiar giant leading the group of equally excited men straight to you through the crowds, all chuckling as Aiden rushed over calling out, “Sugar Muffin!!” Giggling softly you curled your arms around his back as he spun you in a small circle mumbling into your shoulder, “Couldn’t help myself. That’s how you should always be greeted.”

With another giggle you smiled brightly as he kissed your cheek as Dean asked, “Lee’s not here?”

Shaking your head you giggled accepting Richards tight hug lifting you from the ground, kissing your cheek through your reply, “He’s keeping the Laird’s top guests busy until we get there.”

Smirking wider Aiden replied, “We’re show ponies. Love it!” Firing a wink at you, “Any time Love!”

Giggling again Graham, Martin, Adam, and James joined in on the hugs before following you to the waiting van for your drive back again as Graham went into the full spill about his part on the show Outlander you’d still yet to watch since you’d gotten back home. Smiling through his description of it you glanced at Richard who was staring at you through the discussion about the premier for the final Hobbit film coming up in a few months. With the rising of the corner of his mouth you smiled at him in return before facing the road again as he did the same for a few minutes until his eyes wandered back to you again.

..

Through the gasps at your home growing before their eyes you chuckled softly to yourself and gave them the tour of the cottage then drove them the short distance to Colin’s castle drawing a mumbled comment from Martin saying, “Yours is better.”

Giggling softly you replied, “Well he is only a Laird.”

Smirking at Martin, Graham explained the differences between the two as best as he could with a glance at you to fill in the rest of the definitions. All bearing smiles of their own they followed you through the castle to join the rest of the groups. With straightening and widening smiles each of the visiting Lairds and other regal visitors from the varying visiting clans and other countries all rising to greet you properly as your Grandfather smiled proudly at you once you had entered. 

Smiling at Colin across the room who eyed the men behind you roaming through the crowds to mingle with the eager guests as you finished fulfilling your regal role alongside your Grandfather who proudly held you under his arm at his side through the last of the men passing by you. Sliding the plate of snacks closer to you your Grandfather chuckled as you snacked away then led you through the guests to the main ones still bearing a harsh set of thoughts towards Colin for the sudden switch. 

A few minutes after your joining their group Colin’s body relaxed as you managed to work them all down clearly reminding them of more than a few other scandals far more serious than a single broken engagement between each of the clans. Bubbling laughter filled the room after your battle had ended as the men went to change for the full tour of the grounds.

Rolling your shoulders back you led the group downstairs to the main courtyard as they each relaxed and took a few minutes to claim a few pictures of what they could see already. Joining Richard’s side your eyes met taking the chance to ask through the few moments alone to ask, “Spill. You keep staring since films and shows got brought up on the ride over.”

Smirking at you his eyes scanned over to Lee helping the others in a group picture across the courtyard as Colin slowly approached you, slightly bent over hooking his dog’s leash to his collar. “The third Hobbit film premier. If you don’t get asked, did you want to go with me?”

Smiling up at him you replied watching his smile grow as you said, “I would love to. Planning on me not getting asked already? It’s only a few months away.”

Sharing another adoring gaze he said, “Not planning. Just, I know how much you love Tolkien, and I hated myself for not bringing you to the last one, even though I hinted at it. This time I swear you’ll make it through the whole movie, not just a trip home alone.”

“I never assumed you’d make that mistake again.” Shifting your eyes they landed on Colin bearing a large smile reaching your side before the rest of the guests joined in. Hours you both led them through the best parts of his lands and into the paths looking over the lakes they would be led out to for the morning fishing trip. On the walk back the following days hunting trip was set out fully as well while you led your small group out to return to your home for a short lunch. Finally back in the quiet they eased and relaxed, enjoying the long stretch of green your lands had over Colin’s leading to your riding trip with a full set of snacks for the meal you’d break for in the middle.

…

Day 1 Mingle

Day 2 Fishing

Day 3 Hunting

…

Day 4 Full Celebration including Archery, Caber Tossing

Waking to the growing grumbles in the cottage you smiled and rose out of bed joining Lee on the trip to the closet to grab your set out outfits you eased into. Staying in the closet Lee smirked at you before closing the door allowing you your privacy. 

Easing the white lace dress your Grandfather and Aunt had sent over for you along with a sash to wrap around it bearing your family’s pattern and crest on the pin securing it. Raising your arms you worked your hair into a long braid secured with a thick ribbon with your crest stitched into the ends of it before crossing to your dresser to grab your Mother’s ring and the large emerald coated necklace forming a set of vines coating the entire chain with a white stag’s head in the center formed with diamonds surrounded by onyx in a diamond shaped pendant. Reaching out you drew the matching earrings you pulled on as you slid on your heeled boots. 

Propping up your foot on the dresser you adjusted the tightness of the buckle securing them one at a time with Lee stepping out of the closet with a stunned expression at the full gown hiked up over your knee. An awkward chuckle later you lowered your second foot and adjusted your skirt over you again then crossed to him with a smile working his bow tie together as his smirk returned while you playfully said, “You look good in a kilt.”

Chuckling again he met your eyes looking you over as you secured his jacket over his dress shirt then moved to the bed to secure his boots as you stepped out to help Aiden and Dean with their bow ties. Passing through to the living room where they were grouped you chuckled through their shocked inspection of you. Easily you completed their looks causing their smirks to grow as you complimented each of them on their outfits and locked eyes with Dean as he asked, “Were you asked to wear the wedding gown since it got canceled?”

With a snort Graham chuckled as you did the same softly before holding out the sides of your gown saying, “I’m a Lady, so my status is important. So for official events my dresses are white until I’m no longer considered a maiden.” Eying you over you giggled again as Aiden gawked at you in confusion while Richard adored each detail of you dress triggering his mind into a spiral of daydreams for other reasons for you being in such an immaculate white gown.

Aiden, “So, you’re…You and Lee, or Richard haven’t..”

Chuckling again you looked up at Richard as he absently mumbled in response before he’d realized it, “If we’d shared a decent kiss I didn’t surprise her with I would have broken out of it sooner.”

Darting his eyes to yours his tension relaxed at your smile and soft giggle as you fired back, “Oh trust me I wouldn’t have let you behave like that if it was deeper than an arm candy situation.”

Turning your head you smiled at Lee who eyed the group curiously as Dean said with a smirk, “Didn’t know you had such impossible restraint to safeguard her reputation so carefully.”

Raising a brow he glanced at you as you said, “My gown. Only Maidens can wear white.”

Rolling his eyes at the men his arm eased around your back as you walked past him to lead them out to fill the van outside for the drive over, “Really. It’s like you all expected me just to tackle her right away.”

Giggling again you glanced at Graham as he asked, “When do they send the maidens out to barter their kisses?”

“Tonight, but if you’re expecting me to join, my title bars me from doing so.”

Graham, “Not even for the other tasks?”

Claiming the passenger seat you watched as Richard claimed the driver’s seat for the short drive over while you said, “I can for Quests and the Swimming totems.”

Lee scooted forward asking, “Quests and Swimming totems?”

“For boys they can earn a kiss from the maiden of their choosing by completing a quest the maiden chooses, and the Swimming totems are for the men. They have to cross the lake returning with a totem to gift to the maiden of their choosing for a kiss.”

Lee, “And you’re expected to participate?”

Smiling at him you replied, “Normally it’s only about three, two of whom are under ten. If it bothers you..”

Aiden snapped in with a smirk resting his hand on Lee’s shoulder, “Now now, no breaking traditions. Besides, how else am I going to be able to plant one publicly on my Sugar Muffin here.”

Giggling and rolling your eyes as you turned forward through Lee’s chuckle as he repeated, “Your Sugar Muffin?” Out of the corner of your eyes you caught Richard’s teeth working against the inside of his lips revealing his inner wheels running, drawing a smirk onto your lips as well.

…

The day sped through as you held your place as the Lady of the ceremony while also claiming the place to participate in a few events to stand for your clan. Starting with Archery, then a caber tossing event you were bared from after a few stories of your shaming the other men with your impressive toss when you were a young teen had placed you too advanced against the others with a permanent dent marking your record toss still yet to be matched. 

Trailing after you the Hobbit cast followed as you and the other candidates to the small deck reaching out along the edge of the obviously frigid lake. Passing the hand built rock wall the group eyed the tall stacks of large smoothed stones forming pillars with crests and years marked into the edges on each with curious glances, then turned to you watching as you removed your jewelry, tucking it in the hidden pocket on your sash. Raising your feet back one at a time your heels were loosened and set aside as Colin’s Grandfather stood as the master of this ceremony. 

With the last word of his speech their eyes all darted to you at your gown dropping to the cold wood below your bare feet, leaving you in your green corset with matching panties underneath drawing all eyes to you as you rushed to the edge and leaped in to the water. Clearing his throat Colin’s Grandfather chuckled and said, “You’re tossing it away the longer you gawk lads.”

Shaking their heads the crowds chuckled and whistled as the men on the deck stripped to just their kilts and leapt in chasing after you as you’d reached the half way mark on the lake. Watching you carefully the group listened as Graham explained, “They have to cross the lake, gather their clan’s stones and add them to the towers.”

Turning around Richard eyed the over six foot tower for your clan, saying, “She’s got a weakness then.”

With a chuckle Colin’s Grandfather drew the group’s attention to him as he said, “Our Lady gets a bit of assistance on that front.” Nodding his head at Colin’s Brothers ready to aid you as you drew closer again.

Facing the water again cheers grew as the large 30lb rock was set on the edge of the dock. Rising out of the water you raised the rock to your shoulder exhaling sharply through the struggle against shivering. Twenty feet later you smiled watching as the brother’s dropped to all fours forming a set of stairs for you to add your stone to the stack. Stepping down again you turned to the group accepting the aid your aunt gave you. Joining your side toweling off your soaked braid as Colin rose out next bearing his stone and chuckled at his Brothers as he raised his stone easily to the top of his stack beside yours then looked you over saying, “Few more years and I’ll catch you.”

Giggling in response you replied, “Not a chance. I kicked your ass in a corset, I doubt you can match me out of one.”

Laughing in return he nodded and joined you in watching the others climbing out and joining you. Finally all out of the water you grouped together for the customary photo with the men grouped around you blocking your body from the shoulders down from view before you toweled off and your aunt helped you pull on your dress and jewelry again.

…

Back at the main reception grounds your eyes shifted to the small boy bearing a lone wildflower and a timid smile gaining large smiles from the men at your table. Rocking on his feet your finger curled around the flower and he dropped into a low bow reciting, “Fair Maiden, please bestow upon me a mighty quest so I might win your favor.”

Peeking his head up your deepening smile and nod prompted him to rise with an anxious gaze as you replied, “Good Sir Knight, to gain my favor you must defeat a Dragon amongst our company in a game of checkers to earn the location of my favorite flower. Return with a flower and you will have your kiss.”

With a growing smile he nodded and sprinted off spreading excited whispers through the crowds watching his charge while a voice called out, “Looks like we’ve got our first quest!”

As you giggled and turned back to the table as they chuckled and Martin asked, “Dragon amongst our company?”

“Colin’s crest bears a Dragon. All of his kin know my favorite flower.” Lifting the flower you smiled at Lee as he collected it and slid it into your hair behind your ear.

Aiden, “So, these totems..”

Graham smirked pointing back to the lake, “Across the lake. Same one she crossed. Though it’s frigid.” Turning his head back he pointed at Lee mid lean to kiss your cheek, “Hey now, only totems grant kisses till sunrise. Even for you.”

With a playful glare Lee rose from his seat and followed after Aiden as James leaned in to say, “I wager they won’t make it halfway before they return. Poor Lass looked like she’d turned blue.”

Glancing over your shoulder you smiled at the small boy returning a few minutes later bearing a small grouping of bright yellow always overlooked wildflowers you happily accepted as he bowed again, “My Lady, I have journeyed far and through many perils to bestow this token upon you.” Rising again his smile grew while you gently claimed the flowers and leaned forward tapping your right cheek. Inching forward he timidly pecked your cheek and blushed at your fingers resting against his chin as you returned the favor and said, Brave Knight I shall treasure them always.” With another giddy bow he turned to rush back to his group of cheering friends all readying for their own quests. Chuckling deeply the group around you all watched as Richard slid over and helped add the yellow flowers into your hair with a deepening and adoring smile.

Sipping on your pint your eyes rose to the sharply exhaling and dripping pair of actors returning behind the line of similarly conditioned men moving to their own maidens. Claiming his seat at your side Lee chuckled dangling the totem before you while he said, “I don’t know the words but I got this for you.”

Smiling brightly through your muffled giggle cheers filled the crowds at the random kisses being shared, while Lee scooted closer to you landing a crashing kiss against your lips for a few moments until the clearing of a throat brought you to turn at Aiden drenched behind you. Bowing to you your next giggle broke free as you turned and rose at his kind request, “My Lady, if you would rise please I might beg you to accept my totem as well.”

Barely able to hold your giggles you rose and claimed the totem only to softly squeak at his gripping and dipping you for a loving kiss drawing loud cheers and laughs from around you as the other maidens tossed flower petals into the air around you through that and the other more loving kisses shared. Placing you upright again your giggles erupted into full laughs as your head drooped against his chest and he hugged you in his own laughs before helping you back into your seat before claiming his.

Two more young boys arrived for quests through the dinner before Colin came to collect his customary kiss on the cheek before leading you up to the stage where the points were tallied and the victor claimed, as Colin, by the mere point of you being bared from the caber toss drawing it’s usual chuckle through the crowds. 

...

Clearing his throat his lips parted as he led you and the rest of the champions from each clan through a singing of The Parting Glass, with all the deep voices of the men playing nicely forming the echo and chorus behind your singing of the main melody.

Of all the money that e'er I had

I spent it in good company

And all the harm I've ever done

Alas it was to none but me

 And all I've done for want of wit

To mem'ry now I can't recall

So fill to me the parting glass

Good night and joy be to you all

 So fill to me the parting glass

And drink a health whate’er befall,

And gently rise and softly call

Good night and joy be to you all

 Of all the comrades that e'er I had

They're sorry for my going away

And all the sweethearts that e'er I had

They'd wish me one more day to stay

 But since it fell unto my lot

That I should rise and you should not

I gently rise and softly call

Good night and joy be to you all

 A man may drink and not be drunk

A man may fight and not be slain

A man may court a pretty girl

And perhaps be welcomed back again

But since it has so ought to be

By a time to rise and a time to fall

Come fill to me the parting glass

Good night and joy be with you all

Good night and joy be with you all

 As the last words were sung the clans had risen to join along then end the song with the final toast before you were led back to your seat by Colin as everyone moved while the sun was setting to the set up dance floors not far from the tables. 

.

One by one all the group including Colin had taken turns leading you for a dance before they were eventually snatched away. Alone again at your table your eyes scanned around without any sight of Richard. 

Walking across the empty field in the coating of shadows you searched all through the house used for the bathrooms and kitchen nearby before another shadow crossing to the lake alone drew your eye through one of the windows. Raising your skirt you heard a splash along the way followed by a shocked hushed shout before more splashes that grew softer the farther they got.

Finally at the water’s edge you grabbed the towel waiting there as the splashes grew closer once again until finally Richard’s arms rose to rest on the dock and his blue eyes shone brightly reflecting the pale moonlight. Drawing in another breath you moved closer holding out the towel as he stammered out through a shiver, “This is madness.” With a firm lift you fought your eyes searching over him hungrily, trailing the water over his toned frame for his action role back in London. Raising your eyes to his downcast face while his nearly numb fingers looped the warm towel around his waist before looking up saying, “’s fucking freezing!”

Giggling softly you turned and grabbed another towel and dried him by throwing it over his back and rubbing it against his skin as he did the same over the towel coating him from the waist down. Looking at his pale cold skin you asked in a soft tone, “I thought you hated water.” Turning to grab his kilt and turn so he could pull it back on again.

Eyeing your back through another shiver and exhale he replied, “I’m absolutely terrified of it.” With a gentle tap on your shoulder you turned and your eyes met again. “Doesn’t mean I still wouldn’t claim a chance to offer a Fair Maiden a token of my affection.” Holding a creeping smirk as he raised the dangling totem from his hand before you.

With a weak disbelieving chuckle you slid your fingers under the totem asking, “You crossed a lake you’re terrified of, to get this, for me?”

With a simple nod he shifted closer to you while he wet his lips and asked in a cautiously tender tone, “Do you accept my totem?”

After a simple nod of your own his arm bearing the totem eased around your middle while his other hand slid across your cheek, within moments your fingers had eased into his hair holding him in the deepening kiss. Held only for a few moments, but leaving you both breathless, and impossibly tempted to steal another. He swallowed dryly with his forehead pressed against yours while stroking your cheek and stating, “I really wish I’d have done that at the beach house. It all would have gone so differently.” Soaking up the stolen loving moment.

Drawing back again, a sting ran through your chests as you both forced out a smile and lowered to collect his clothes leaving only your averted yet longing gazes bearing the truth you both refused to admit to due to obvious barriers between you. Rising up on your toes as he secured his shirt again, his eyes trailed over you lovingly once again while you worked the towel through his hair and his dripping beard. Earning deep rumbling chuckles from him before he led you back to the party just in time to steal the last dance and join the rest in the quiet walk back home again.

…

Retreating their own rooms you lingered again, looking out the large window in your living room, still seated before the roaring fire enjoying the heat. Freshly scrubbed and changed, Lee entered quietly and eased down behind you, wrapping is arms around your front over the large sweater hanging over your sleeping pants and long socks. Settling his chin on your shoulder his smile grew as you leaned back against his chest and he asked, “Can’t sleep?”

“Just enjoying the fire.”

“Did it all go according to plan?”

“Everyone enjoyed it, all the clans behaved, so I’d say so.”

“If you’d like I picked a movie and a lit a fire in the bedroom if you wanted to curl up with me?”

Turning your head his smile grew at your nod, with a gentle peck he helped you to your feet and led you back to bed, holding you tightly as he slept through the night behind you. Between your short naps your mind raced through everything that had happened through the past few weeks and everything that would have to happen through the week to come. 

With the constant phone calls Lee had finally found himself unable to miss an event coming up, a simple appearance at a comic convention for a signing with most of the other members, one you all would be flying out for the day after the next, allowing them all the final day to relax in the peaceful town before returning to their busy lives.

If your dreams seemed turbulent Richard’s were a frightful minefield. Through his sleep the memory of that beach house kiss had flooded back to him yet again. The stolen moment he had forced on you without warning feeling far more cold than he had intended, even though the pictures gave an incredibly different impression. That single stolen moment had changed everything for him. The one thing he’d never dreamed of was to feel anything at all for you, but the endless ability to just pour and pour all of his grievances and inner most turmoiled thoughts to someone who not only understood but attempted to aid in the mending of. 

Even though the suggestions and remedies fell on deaf ears the truth had hit him completely, he’d revealed a side to him he’d never shown before and you never flinched. Through your year together he had missed the single most loving person he had ever encountered, past his own family of course, that he would ever wish to know. One kiss later and a biter taste of regret stuck in his mouth unable to be scrubbed or gargled away once his thoughts shifted from ‘How can I use her to irk my ex’ into more frightening daydreams about those lips he’d so wrongfully tasted along with each inch of your smooth skin that had eased against his in any reason drawing an urge to smooth his hands over the rest of your hidden inches.

Bearing through this suffering Richard clung to his plan as tight as he could, hurt his ex and feel nothing. Leaving the jarring discovery of his ache to be with you as only one thing, against his rules an obvious growing love for you had formed, one only growing after your words had shattered his plan and finally allowed him to grieve the lost relationship with his ex, unknowingly as well as you grieved for yours. 

But surely as anyone could obviously tell he was far from over you, making the small hints Lee had been casting out unknowingly all the more painful for him and the rest of the cast members staying with you. Settling them all on the fact that a bumpy ride was ahead for the both of you and you seemed to be clearly aware of the warning signs yourself.

…

Packing proved easy enough and Lee beamed brightly as he filled you in on the plans settling you all staying at his place through the first two nights for after the flight and the event the following day with a dinner at his Sister’s home with her Husband and Children as well to introduce the woman he’d told them so much about. All while bringing the adoptive Uncles his nieces and nephews had taken to so deeply. 

Going through your final night the men aiding you with your lands happily reclaimed the tasks of maintaining your home, animals and lands through your well needed vacation. After another packed drive you all filed onto the plane after checking in Lee’s dogs Lee’s hand curled around yours on your lap with a soft smile as he said, “I hope you enjoy your vacation as much as I enjoyed mine.”

Shifting your eyes to the window you watched the taxiing of the airplane leading to the inevitable take off starting your nearly day long flight. Resettling in your seats the runway came into view drawing aching grumbles from each of you. Back on land you eased up as a group and stretched with ripples of pops going through all of you before exiting and taking the walk to claim your bags then Lee’s dogs.

Through the wave of flashes waiting for them you were led into the waiting cars by Richard who ignored them completely as the others went to answer questions and pose for pictures while the giant claimed the seat at your side rolling his head as you asked, “You’re not going to go out there?”

Softly smiling at you he rumbled in response, shaking his head, “No, we’ve got an eight hour signing tomorrow.” Gently patting your knee he chuckled softly then stretched his arms and laid them out across the back of the bench seat you were waiting on, missing the lone photographer able to catch your assumed snuggling time.

With large smiles the rest of the men finally filed in catching Richard using your shoulder as a pillow for his unintentional nap from his body relaxing fully with your physical contact. Rising through a steady inhale Richard straightened up as he blinked steadily and offered a sleepy smile to Lee who added his arm around your shoulders with a smile of his own while the suv’s took off to Lee’s house.

Pulling up to the beautiful home a smile eased on your face through your inspection. Parking finally the dogs bounded out happily to be home again while you followed the others into the house as Richard pointed out the areas on the main areas around you. 

Turning to the back yard you spotted Lee rushing out to accept the hugs from the small children as a brunette woman a bit shorter than Lee with a matching quirky smile walked over to you offering her hand, “Sally, You must be Lee’s Scottish friend. He’s told us so much about you.”

With a group of glances you felt all eyes on you and chuckled softly as she shook your hand as you replied, “Jaqi.”

Nodding again she turned saying, “I’ll show you and Richard to your room since Lee’s playing Uncle right now.” Drawing in a breath you held your smile feeling a blush coat your cheeks through your following her through the house to Richard’s usual room as the others claimed their own rooms while they shared a hushed conversation about the introduction and obvious title blunder Lee had obviously not let be known. 

Entering the room you smiled larger as she turned and added, “I’ll let you two get settled.” Scanning her eyes between you two a soft excited chuckle escaped her as she said, “I’m so glad to see you’ve finally found someone you care for Rich. Though I don’t know why Lee didn’t share it sooner.”

Richard opened his mouth and said, “Well, we’re not actually...”

Waving her hand Sally said, “No worries, no full titles necessary with us. It’s obvious you’re both happy. Whenever you’re ready to share the news let us know, Grandma’s dying to add another sweater to our holiday photo this year to match yours. Just keep the clothes on around the kids.” With a soft squeak your words left you as she turned and winked at you both through her shutting the door behind her.

Exhaling softly after crossing to the bed you sat down, lowering your bags to the floor as Richard looked from the door to you and said, “I’m sure Lee will clear it up.”

Forcing a smile through your nod you replied jokingly, “If not and they stay the night we’ll have to share.”

Eyeing the bed Richard smirked and claimed the spot at your side setting his bags down beside yours while he chuckled and replied, “No problem there. You don’t take up too much space. And you like to snuggle, so don’t worry about it.” Looking up at the reopening door you watched the rest of the actors slipping inside as Aiden asked in a hushed tone, “I thought you and Lee have been dating for 2 months at least!”

Nodding you glanced at Graham who crossed his arms while Martin said, “He’s certainly got a lot to explain. At least to you. I mean, friend from Scotland!”

Turning your head again to the door your smile returned as a small boy entered saying, “Uncle Lee says the food is ready if you are.” Easing his smile wider scanning over all of you then left again.

Rising to your feet you felt a set of hands patting your back in a comforting way through the walk out to the back yard where his newly arrived younger Brother also bearing a similar appearance to Lee who crossed and shared the same assumed greeting, one that the actor behind him holding his small daughter either didn’t hear or completely ignored.

With a gentle hold around your middle Richard led you over to the waiting food, hoping to keep you calm through the confusion. All around you the actors mingled and dug for more information appointing Richard in charge of you while Lee all but ignored you tending to the desires of his young family members flocking around him and his newly returned dogs. 

Dropping around you the children all started drifting off causing the Paces to lay them out on the guest beds Lee kept for them while their parents took the inflatable mattresses while Lee claimed the main couch allowing his Parents to sleep in his bed. Without a single glance your way he changed and settled on the couch in the living room while you joined Richard back to his room along with the irritated actors more than willing to give him more than a few hours lectures for his ignoring and clarification needed with his family.

..

Sharing a weak smile you both changed, sitting on the bed Richard watched as you wove your hair back in a loose braid not far from him. Eyeing you closely his hands reached out curling around your middle at your lip trembling, he drew you into his lap for a tight hug as you curled up in his arms while he stretched out on the bed. Speaking in a soft low tone through your soft sniffle against his neck, “We will handle him in the morning Darling.” Brushing back a stray curl loose from your braid from your face he added, “Just relax through the day, his family will be gone before we leave, and if you don’t want to stay after you can always come stay at mine if you want.”

Snuggling closer to him as your arms eased around his sides while he switched off the lamp by the bed and raised the covers higher around you through your next sniffle and hushed trembling whisper, “Thank you.”

Closing your eyes causing a warm trail to slide across your face, “I don’t understand how, he could tell them so much, but not that.”

Sighing under you his deep rumble eased your aches from tensing through the entire meal to hold your fake pleased mood, “Maybe he just hasn’t told them you accepting him as your boyfriend yet.”

“Maybe.” Resting your forehead against his chin after his gentle kiss landed on your forehead while you both remembered back to Lee’s siblings sharing inside jokes about the mysterious Mike he’d seemed to share much more details about his times and future plans with said stranger only bringing more pain to the situation.

..

The sunrise poured in the room while the alarm on Richard’s phone buzzed, grumbling softly you curled closer to him causing his smile to return as you mumbled, “Five more minutes.”

Flicking his fingers across the screen he smirked setting a timer for ten and curled around you tighter, easing against your body through it, memorizing each moment of it until he finally had to slip out and get ready. Sitting at your side again in his tshirt and cardigan over his dark jeans and sneakers he leaned across you brushing the stray curls from your face away while he softly asked, “Are you hungry?”

“No.”

Meeting his eyes after your lazy fluttering of your lids had ceased he said, “Then snuggle up here as long as you like. It’s an eight hour signing, so plenty of time to sleep off the jetlag. Numbers for takeaways are on the fridge along with the address, and the remote for the tv is next to your phone.” Brushing his fingers along the side of your face again he sighed and continued, “We’ll get to the bottom of this. Just relax and we will handle the rest.”

“What about the dogs?”

A smile eased across his face, “Their bowl has a timed feeder on it, it’s full and there’s a doggy door for the back yard for them.”

Nodding again he leaned in and kissed your cheek and smiled as you lifted your head as he pulled back to do the same repeating, “Thank you Richard.” Grazing his fingers across your cheek again he smiled and rose, grabbing his jacket to pull on over his cardigan and exited the room with a forming scowl through his walk down to breakfast. 

Claiming his seat he caught Sally’s eyes as she asked, “Jaqi’s not coming down?”

Shaking his head he replied, “She’s sleeping off the jetlag.”

Nodding her head Sally nodded and winked at Richard saying, “Of course.”

Raising his brow Richard’s eyes turned to Lee who had given him a stern glare across the table, that he promptly masked as his Parents entered and added more food to his plate.

...

Waving as his family pulled away Lee turned to face Richard, ready to go after him for sleeping with you only to freeze as the entire group had fixed glares on the stunned actor while Aiden asked, “You seriously haven’t told them you’re dating Jaqi?!”

Lee, “It’s still early.”

Dean held up two fingers, “Two months! Minimum!”

Aiden, “She had you at her home, Lee, and they called her your ‘friend from Scotland’, then you ignore her and they go on all night about some Mike person, that she has to listen to about them joking about you two getting together!”

Graham shook his head, “I know family comes first, but you can’t do things like this! Not with her! She’s had a long ordeal with her family, then those bridesmaids that wouldn’t stop tailing her at the party until they had finally left.”

Lee eased his hand over his beard spotting the furious glare coming from Richard who simply clenched his jaw and his fists before turning to the waiting suv’s farther down the driveway and climbed in politely greeting the driver as he did. 

Exhaling again Lee’s eyes shifted to Adam who said, “She’s a vet, and a Lady, not some one night stand or floozy you can brush aside. Any relative would be elated to be related to her one day. You have a lot to make up for.” Shaking his head and joining the others in the walk over to join Richard.

Lee looked at Martin asking, “Who put her in Richard’s room?”

Martin, “Sally saw him showing her around, assumed they were together.”

Sighing lowly Lee followed the trail of men to the suv’s taking his place in the car behind Richard’s for the long ride to the convention center. Eight long hours they sat while you stayed in the irritatingly stiff bed choosing to finish off the helping Richard had left for you in the oven before scrubbing the pan it was in and started the dishwasher for that and everything else. Keeping watch on the time after returning to bed once you realized the dogs also seemed to be far too distracted to pay you any mind as well, you exited and ordered a large amount of pizza.

..

Climbing out of the suv’s the group all sighed and stretched while they walked inside, glancing around to see the kitchen had been tidied up as you switched off the sink and tossed the dish towel back over the side of the sink. Smiling softly you scanned over the group asking, “Everything go well? I ordered pizzas.”

After a short round of thanks they all parted to change leaving Richard slinking away with a lingering glare on Lee while he returned to his room. Wetting his lips Lee flashed a nervous smile at you while he claimed the seat near you.

Meeting his eyes you exhaled and sat down as well saying, “Families are difficult. I get it.”

Scooting closer Lee replied, “I haven’t seen them in months, and I’m, so, sorry for getting carried away with spending the night focusing on them.”

“I really do get it.”

With an apologetic gaze he offered another weak smile saying, “I will tell them that you’re with me, not Richard.” Biting his lip again his body tensed at the brit’s name.

“Just enjoy the time with them. Details can wait.”

Scanning over you your eyes locked with his when he raised his again as he asked, “Richard behaved?”

Weakly chuckling in return you replied as you stood at the doorbell sounding as you playfully quipped back, “You mean you didn’t hear my screams of ecstasy, if you’re really curious you can ask Aiden,” Raising a brow Lee turned to catch your wink as you added, “Wonder why his beard’s so bushy today?”

With a soft chuckle Lee rose and followed after you saying, “I didn’t think you’d want to crash on the couch after the long flight. Thought they’d leave a free bed for you.”

“He doesn’t take up that much room, though you wouldn’t guess it by his size.”

Opening the door his eyes widened at the delivery van stacked with pizzas that the guys trickled out to help transfer inside as they all pitched in to claim their own portion of the order, unwilling to let you pay since you’d ordered so many. With a soft smile you eased Richard’s nerves and rage for a short while as he claimed the spot at your side for the movie marathon you all decided on through the rest of the day before heading back to bed again, only this time with you sharing Lee’s instead of Richard’s.

...

Morning came with the suv’s to take the guys to their next destinations while Lee was locked on a long phone call allowing each of the guys to give you large hugs and kisses on the cheeks promising if you wished it you were welcome to join each of them if you wished. Waiting for Lee you curled your legs up before you, spotting the same apologetic gaze when he finally did join you, causing you to ask, “You have to go?”

Nodding his head he exhaled as he sat on the coffee table before you, “My manager can’t get me out of a press tour in Mexico he assured me he moved months ago.”

In a polite tone you asked, “Press tour, how long are those usually?”

Wetting his lips he replied, “A week normally. This one, possibly two.”

“If you need me to go home, I-.”

Scooting forward his hands curled around yours as he said, “I’d like you to stay. I mean, you’re here already, and I’ll be back soon. It’d be a shame to send you back after you haven’t even seen anything.”

Glancing around you nodded and said, “Sure.”

Rising again through his groan at the phone in his hands buzzing again from a call from his manager again as he said, “I have to start packing, again.” Following after him you helped the process along hearing the car already pulling up his driveway to drive him to the airport. Releasing a low growl he crossed the room earning a soft giggle from you as he raised you in his arms to wrap around his middle through a passionate kiss. A honk forced you to part and drew a sigh from him while he lowered you before saying, “I will make this up to you, when I get back. I am so sorry.”

Following him to the door you stole another hug and kiss as he passed you the spare keys before you said, “Safe travels.”

Smiling at you again weakly Lee exhaled and said, “William should be here to get the dogs soon so you won’t have to worry about them. One week, I promise.”

Nodding again you watched him climb in and wave with his irritated and slightly ashamed face as the cab drove off.

…

Slipping back inside you drew out your phone from your pocket and your fingers danced across the screen through your tears, finding Steve’s name in your phone through your first choked sob that you managed to reign back in as the second ring sounded. Clearly through the line his slightly tensed tone rang out, “What did he do?”

Through your quivering lip and escaping tears you shakily explained Lee’s trip causing you to ask, “Do the guys still have a house out here?”

Turning his head in the pub Steve grabbed a roll from in front of him and chucked it at Colin drawing his attention to the standing man nodding his head to the side through is walk to the door urging him to follow. Sharing the news Colin drew out his phone and fired off a message of his own to his Cousin in LA watching their family vacation home there as he claimed Steve’s phone once he received the confirmation message from the workers taking care of it to say, “Lady Bug, you just sit tight, pass on the address and my driver will be there in about an hour or so. You want Steve out there, I can fly him out for you.” With a gasping sob through your tear filled nod through your body folding into a ball against the wall by the living room door Colin’s eyes filled with tears as he said, “I’m guessing you nodded. So sit tight and he’ll be out first thing Lady Bug.”

Easing you through your mild panic attack at the jarring start to your visit the pair worked out the travel plans and packed Steve’s belongings while Colin drove him to the waiting family jet, arriving just as a the car Colin had ordered arrived. Sharing a set of thanks you finally hung up and let in the driver who bowed his head to you through his formal greeting then followed you to collect your bags while you finished remaking the bed. 

Reaching the door again after rinsing off your face, coming face to face with William who eyed you curiously saying, “Jaqi, right?” With a quick nod you smiled up at him as he eyed the driver through the open door, “Thought you’d have gone with Rich.”

Passing him the spare key you smiled up at him and replied, “Richard had to get back to England for work. Um, Lee gave me this but, he had to go, and I’m staying with friends. I think you should hold on to it.”

William nodded and smiled, “Well at least he had something of a vacation. You managed to keep him the longest in Scotland. We can barely keep him around longer than a week or two since his career took off.”

Unknowingly sealing the final nail in your assumption of his not being able to return any time soon you nodded again saying, “Well, it was a pleasure to meet you. I should leave you to it then.” Responding with a nod of his own he curiously watched you climb in the open door to the waiting car that was soon shut and driven off by the driver once he’d climbed back in again. Shrugging away his curiosity William called out for the dogs after checking through the house to make sure it was sealed up properly before gathering their belongings and taking them to his home.

Blinking through your silently flowing tears, you held your focus on the scenery around you slowly feeling a bit more at ease once again under Colin’s protective grasp, even with an ocean between you until Steve could be at your side once again to aid you in trying to enjoy your now, less than enjoyable vacation. 

With traffic and the long winding path to the gated housing suburb you finally stood in the long driveway thanking the driver who bowed his head to you after helping you bring your bags inside and turned to drive back to the car center that had sent him. 

Turning around your eyes landed on the tall redhead approaching as he ran a towel through his hair with a large grin saying, “Jaqi!” Tossing the towel in the laundry room he passed his arms lowered to curl you in a hug you clearly needed saying, “Don’t worry, Col gave me specific orders to not let you out of my sight until Steve gets here tomorrow. Even got me a two day extension till I’m due back in Ireland, so you’re really the one doing me a favor.” Setting you down his eyes met yours as his smile deepened through his bright eyes shining cheerfully at you, “Now, time to find you something to eat. You clearly need it. Can’t let you starve.” Giggling softly you accepted his hand and followed him to the kitchen to help him prepare the meal he was going to make for you.

One that you shared through a joking conversation that paused as you responded to a text you received from Aiden, who claimed the self appointed job of making sure Lee behaved as he had a stop in Texas with the second group of Hobbit cast members for another fan meeting. A meeting that came before a short two month break allowing him to return quickly if you needed a friend to lean on. Your response however drew the eyes of the other cast members as he raised his phone to his ear, calling you once he’d read your message to nearly shout into the phone, “He did WHAT?!”

…

Fixed and irritated on the flight over Lee fidgeted until he finally landed, holding his same expression through leaving his bags in his hotel room and the ride over to the event. At least until he joined the rest of the cast members in the back room before the fan meet as a familiar lanky brunette turned with a scanning gaze over the newly arrived actor with an approving gaze drawing him to meet him halfway for their same familiar habit of hushed conversations among the rest of the boisterous cast.

Pt 14

[justjessame]

Who Really Believes in Numbers Chapter 5

Colin couldn't fucking believe it. He had been in the middle of a set when Ally Darling bum rushed him on stage. The rest of the band had looked like he felt. His colossal fuck up was going to ruin them. Jesus, did she really think that this would put her in a good light? What did she think this was a rom-com?

After she tried to explain that Jake Adams wasn't for her, that she saw clearly that Colin was her fate or destiny, Jake stared at her like she had lost her mind. Who was this woman? Honestly, Jasmine would shake her senseless trying to get her straight.

"Ally, stop." Colin said, bringing her monologue to a standstill. "I'm sorry, but you and I are not happening." He watched her face fall. "I wasn't completely honest with you from the beginning. I love someone else."

"What are you talking about?" She didn't look heartbroken, just confused. "You've slept with half of Boston, Colin. Who's the LUCKY girl?" Sarcasm, cute.

Colin shook his head. "You'd never understand. Jasmine, we've been together since we were children. She left to go to NYU six years ago and before she left she wanted to-" He struggled to explain and went with the simplest. "We agreed to be in an open relationship. We were always the end game, Ally."

Her eyebrows raised. "You offered me a chance at a relationship with you. What was that?"

She was right, what was that? Sighing he realized how deeply he'd dug this hole. "Jas and I had a hiccup in our relationship. And being an idiot, I tried to convince myself that it was a sign that you and I should try it." Realizing the hiccup was partially her fault, he sent her a look. "The upset in our relationship was sort of your fault."

She shot the look right back. "MY fault? And how is that?"

"The day you took my phone, the first time. You got a call for me, a woman. That was Jasmine. You told her that we were together, at least that's what I assume. I found a call from her that was answered, and the calls before and after were calls you made. Am I wrong?" Colin felt like he was passing the blame around, but truth be told, he was angry at Ally. She was so focused on herself and her wants that she assumed everyone else was part of making her whole.

Ally paled, she remembered the call. "You never told me that you had someone important, how would I have known?"

"Because, Ally, you should have noticed that she was number one on my contacts, and that every time you've taken my phone by accident, how often did women call asking for me?" He asked it without venom. "You didn't care. You made an assumption and ran with it."

"How do you know that this Jasmine will even take you back?" She asked, eyes flashing. "Even with an open relationship, hearing that you're taken by someone else probably pissed her off. We could still try this, Colin." She reached for him, but he stepped back. "Why not try something new?"

Colin glared at her. "I don't care if she takes me back or not, Ally. This," he gestured between them. "Will not be happening. You don't consider me the 'one' until it suits you. You and I aren't right for each other, Ally. We never were and never will be."

Ally turned on her heel and stomped away. Pissed, but not heartbroken Colin noticed. Good, he thought, stepping back on stage and trying to salvage his job. The last thing he needed was a woman who was wishy washy about her feelings. He knew one more thing as he started the next song and noticed several single women glancing his way. He'd be going home alone tonight. And for the foreseeable future. He was done.

Colin sang and formed a plan. It was time to get Jasmine back.

A BAR ACROSS BOSTON~ IN JASMINE AND COLIN'S OLD NEIGHBORHOOD

"Come on, Jas!" Christine yelled over the music. "At least pretend you're having fun!"

Jasmine rolled her eyes. This wasn't her idea of fun. And it wasn't her idea to be here at all. When her hometown best friend had called and insisted on a girl's night out, she'd tried multiple excuses to get out of it. None worked.

"I'd pretend if I could, Chris, but you and I both know I'm no fake." She gave a pained smile. "I'd rather be having dental work."

Chris laughed. "You look like you're having dental work." She sighed and pulled Jasmine to a corner booth, giving up on trying to get her bestie to dance. The booth was quieter, and sitting there she noticed how tired and upset her friend still looked. "The point of this was to get your mind off Colin."

Jasmine shook her head as Chris waved for a waitress' attention. "I know. I'm sorry, I just can't seem to stop thinking about him. Pitiful, huh?"

Chris ordered their drinks and shook her own head. "No, it's not. Jas, you two were together for so long, of course you're upset. Hell, the whole neighborhood is going to be upset. I bet they've been planning your wedding for years."

A dark chuckle escaped Jas' lips. "A wedding. That's rich. I gave him permission to play the field and didn't expect him to find someone else. I'm an idiot." Their drinks arrived and Jasmine shot hers back. Screw it, she decided, getting drunk could be cathartic.

The night progressed in a blur of drinks and, once she finally got a good buzz, dancing. She and Chris were on the dance floor when she noticed her friend's eyes dart to the bar. Rolling her own, she assumed her best friend saw a hottie and was interested. She was about to tell her to go ahead when Chris tried to divert her attention elsewhere. Curiosity peaked, she looked where Chris' attention had been focused.

At the bar were a few of Colin's bandmates. Scanning quickly, heart pumping harder than even the dancing could be credited for, she let out her breath when she realized that Colin wasn't with them. She contemplated going up to them. They were friends of hers after all, but she decided against it. Chris' stress left her when she realized that Jas wasn't interested in confronting them.

Unfortunately they didn't get the memo. Chris watched as Joe and Matt came strutting toward them. Jasmine had gone back to dancing, but Chris' hand on her arm and a nod of her head caused her to look to where Colin's bandmates were approaching. Sighing she nodded and kept dancing as they approached.

"Christine and Jasmine!" Matt yelled over the noise. "Fancy seeing you two here. Been a long time, Jas."

Jasmine nodded her agreement and kept dancing. Hoping against hope that neither Matt, nor Joe would have to bring Colin up, but knowing it was a useless hope.

Joe was watching her carefully, and noticed her hand still wore the ring that Colin had given her. He raised an eyebrow, wondering if they weren't actually broken up. After witnessing the scene at their gig tonight with the blonde neighbor, he was confused.

"Colin's been out of sorts lately." He mentioned casually, judging her reaction. There was a tightness around her eyes, but she didn't say anything. She continued dancing, but it was less frantic and excited, now it looked like it was something she had to keep up. Pretenses.

"Yeah, he had a really rough night. Thought his drama would fuck up our job tonight." Matt agreed, taking a swig from his beer. "That chick just barged onto the stage and took him away for a chat."

That's all Jasmine had to hear, she was done. Clearly Colin's new girl was the center of his world. Anyone who could command his attention during his music was special. She rolled her eyes and walked away. She was done. Thanks for cementing the loss of her relationship, guys, she thought. She waved Chris off. Her house was within walking distance and she needed the air. She wasn't afraid of the darkness, she knew this neighborhood like the back of her hand.

The fresh air helped sober her. She was still a little unsteady on her feet, but she made her way carefully along the path home. So it really was over, she thought and had to stop herself from starting the frightening laughter that would make her start sobbing. Maneuvering along the glowing path, she thought about their past. Before she'd been accepted to NYU. Before she made the stupid decision to give him free reign on sex with other women. She'd never admit it, but she gave him the out, but never took it for herself. Touching another man, any other man didn't appeal to her in the least.

Guys at the bars she'd been forced to frequent during her college years had tried to hit on her. She gave in to a kiss or two, but each time Colin's face, his touch, the kisses they shared would rear up and she'd pull back and shake her head. No one had gotten further than a kiss. It just didn't feel right to her.

She didn't begrudge him taking advantage of what she'd offered him. Jasmine was honest when she said they were too young to not explore other options. Obviously he'd found something more than what they had, while she was stunted. No one would be what Colin had been to her. And even now, wearing the ring that she should have taken off as soon as the other woman picked up his phone, she couldn't really imagine a future without him. Guess being a spinster sounds OK.

She was nearly home when her cell rang. Holding it up to check who the caller was, she squinted. It couldn't be. She was clearly too drunk to read or it was wish fulfillment. He couldn't be calling NOW.

She struggled with her emotions for a split second before pressing ANSWER. Holding the phone to her ear, she felt her heart clench waiting for the last shoe to drop.

[lizacstuff]

7x04 Anons

I have a ton of asks so I’ll answer a few under the cut.  A lot of them deal with negativity over the ep and season so be warned and don’t click if you don’t want to read that.

Anonymous said:Liza, have you watched tonight's episode? What did you think of the Rumbelle send off? And of Alice being Roger's daughter?

I had zero emotional reaction to Rumbelle’s story in this episode. None. It’s been too toxic and gross and I have never really cared about it so it didn’t make me feel anything at all. I was curious what they were going to do. Now I know. 

As far as Alice being WishHook’s daughter. Eh. So they take the only interesting character and now she’s a fake Wish person too?  I just can’t with this nonsense. I’m having  a lot of problems with WishHook, so I’m not thrilled she’s tied to his story. 

Colin is still hot and an awesome human being and a terrific actor, but the plot... it’s a no for me.

Anonymous said:Sometimes I think Adam and Eddy believe they are the most clever people to ever write, and that everyone else are simple minded peasants. Like that one post-7x04 interview where the interviewer asked if Alice is wish Hook's daughter. "You're very perceptive." Uh, no, Adam and Eddy. You just have all the subtlety of a freight train. You had Alice and Rogers play chess. Wish Hook and his daughter played chess. It's obvious. Don't talk to people like they're stupid for figuring the obvious out.

This show has always been pretty obvious about some things, but they used to pull off some twists. I remember a time when fan speculation was way more wrong than it is right.  

However, season 7 is just really obvious in terms of some of the “big twists.”  Take Alice being the LGBT character, the entire fandom speculated that from the first second she appeared in shooting spoilers based on stereotypes. I have been hoping it’s not her because of those stereotypes, but nope! They had no surprises up their sleeve with it. Then most people immediately assumed she was Roger’s daughter the second we found out he had one... and apparently no twist there either. 

I guess the days of the entire fandom being shocked by finding out Hook is the Dark One and Dark Swan did everything for Hook... are over. 

Of course we should have known this reboot lost all subtlety in the second episode when everyone and their mother kept asking Henry if he was in love with the random woman he just met.  

Anonymous said:I know the promo pics didn't spell anything good for Belle, but I'm still surprised that they actually had her die. I kept thinking that there would be some twist to it.

As I was just saying... no twists, no turns. It’s exactly as everyone predicted. 

Anonymous said:I didn't watch the ep, but shit Henry and ivy have so much more chemistry than the other girl. Cinderella I think lol damn talk about epic romance also I saw comments that also agree with the Henry and ivy

If you haven’t watched how do you know they have more chemistry?  Seriously, that’s kind of ridiculous. What are you basing that on?

Anonymous said:ouat is a weird show, it requires you to pay really pay attention but not to close of attention or you will notice all the plot holes

100% accurate.  This reboot is creating so many more plot holes with all the magic mcguffins that are suddenly in play.  I guess you either have to accept it and go along for the ride, or recognize it for what it is. 

Anonymous said:hey liza, who are your favourite characters from the new cast? some of them don’t really impress me but i quite like ivy and tilly.

Both of those characters have some interesting aspects to them.  It may have a lot to do with the performers.  I haven’t been impressed with Gabriel, Dania or Mekia’s choices so far, but Adelaide and Rose have interesting screen presence. 

Anonymous said:Drizella really is a Mean Girls version of Regina. I'm between finding her general attitude annoying and finding her somewhat sympathetic considering she has to deal with Tremaine all day.

You mean Regina when she was a girl and under Cora’s thumb?  I could see that comparison.  Lets hope Drizella doesn’t follow in Regina’s footsteps and become the mass murdering rapist in town.

Anonymous said:Did Rumbelle build the house in Storybrooke?

Um... I’m not sure I understand this question.  In the show I believe that Up-inspired cabin where they were living isolated from everything and everyone else (do people really find that a happy ending?) was in the edge of realms. 

Anonymous said:I'm almost mad that we got to see more of Belle and Rumple's story than we did of Captain Swan. We all know they are living their happy ending but it would still be wonderful to see a little clip of Emma sitting on the beach with their daughter waiting for Killian to show up and join their picnic. Just some good ole domestic Captain Swan on scene would make me so happy. *sigh*

I have a number of anons like this, and just NOPE.  

First, we did not see more of Rumbelle than CS on this show.  Rumbelle was a backburner story that was most often characterized as a cautionary tale of abuse and manipulation and the pair were mostly apart and had very little focus through the run of the series. 

The showrunners decided that going forward they needed viewers to feel good about Belle and RB so after making them a gross, toxic mess for seasons now (it was just last year that Rumple was fucking the Evil Queen while Belle ran and hid for her life as he stalked and threatened her) they gave fans a bunch of twee scenes of her growing old (a life she lived isolated from everyone but two people) and dying in order to get rid of her and give Rumple motivation for this idiotic S7.

You’re jealous of that? Seriously? Fuck no. 

Also you need to understand that 7.02 and 7.04 were very different episodes.  7.02 was still really Henry's story and a moment in time where he called for help and got to see his parents for a few minutes and we all found out that Emma and Hook are doing great and gonna have a baby and living a blissfully happy life together.  It was just a check in where it was confirmed for us that Operation Happy Beginning has been a success and things are amazing. Also it spun off WishHook and completely separated the plot of S7 away from CS.  7.04 was 100% Rumple plot and his story. It explained why he's there and what is motivating him in Hyperion Heights.  Very different.  For 7.02, CS were not the focus because they didn’t need to be. Nothing in S7 requires knowing exactly what is going to happen to them minute by minute.  I'll take less screen time and my OTP being completely disentangled from this mess any day of the week.

Anonymous said:Lol my jealousy of Rumbelle having more focus than CS has dropped to 0%, that episode was eh. CS is expecting a baby, and Belle is dead after spending her life trying to fix rumple's. Nice.

Yep.  Look, I’m happy for any fans of Rumple or Belle that are happy about this episode and found peace in Belle’s life, but the writers did too much damage to this pairing over the years for me to care about it at all. 

Anonymous said:While I can't stand rumbelle I feel for the shippers. They did get some happy scenes but their ship is going to spend the rest of the season apart and in pain until the half alive dies.

Yeah... I would not like that, I don’t think. It’s just kind of creepy and icky and ew-ey. However, to each her own.  

Anonymous said:Agreed with that anon, there some good moments, but this was definitely not even close to one of the best episodes of the series. I have to respectfully disagree with Colin on this one. (Actually season 7 in its entirety lol)

Oh dear sweet Colin. Just trying to do his job.  So many cast and crew and media have shot their hyperbolic wad with this episode. Calling it the best EVER!!!!!  What will they say for the rest of the season?  “This is the second best episode EVER!!!!!” Or will they keep one upping every time they have to promote an ep?

No one with an economic interest in S7 can be trusted when talking about the quality of this season (and I include Mitovich and NA in that.) 

Anonymous said:I didn't watch the episode but I'm curious: are we supposed to believe that when Belle dies Emma and Killian are old too or was there some timeline glitch and Emma and Killian are still young in Storybrooke at the time of HH events? 

Who knows. Belle and Rumple were off living at the Edge of Realms for the last years of her life.  Rumple said something about time standing still there except for Belle??? I think. (my mind kept wandering duiring those scenes becuse they were so boring) Then after she died he opened a portal thingy to go to the time and place where the Guardian (the deux ex machina that is going to cure him of the Dark One curse) lives and Rumple was then transported to the newEF (that looks exactly like the old, I mean couldn’t they have given this new storybook’s fairy tale land some stylistic differences???)  on the night of Cinderella’s Ball and we see Henry drive by on his motorcycle. 

So yes, I think some of the flashforwards could have been from far in the future, and some could have been not all that distant because they were in a weird realm with weird time mechanics. 

However, I think Rumple and Belle left Storybrooke well before Henry did (they talk about it at Gideon’s first birthday and Henry still would have been about 14 at that time) so by the time this Hyperion Heights stuff is happening they would have been off in Fairy Tale land “traveling?” (ie living their lives in dusty libraries searching books for a way to cure Rumple.)

It hurts ones head to try to sort it all out. 

Anonymous said:After watching this episode, all I think is how sad it is how far this show gone from greatness. Going back 3 years, I would’ve never imagined ouat would be like this now. Sorry for being dramatic, it’s all just so jarring.

I think one of the most unfortunate things about this is that I really think OUAT could have been a valuable and viable franchise for years to come.  However, they tried to reboot it too soon.  As I’ve said since last spring, I think it would have been much better to let it rest a year or two and then come back with 10-13 episode event series for ABC.  

However, this experiment will probably negate any opportunity for that.

Anonymous said:I think it's a little sad that in real time, Belle died like 5-10 years after the s6 finale. I know it was longer for her but to everyone else that knew her, it'd be like she died young.

Yep. I’m not sure if in Hyperion Heights or Storybrooke in 2017 if Belle is dead, dead, or still living out her life at the edge of realms or wherever and Rumple traveled back in time???  

I don’t know. 

Anonymous said:Do you think killing Belle off is going to decrease the ratings more?

Nope. If ratings do decrease, I don’t think that will have been a factor.

Anonymous said:They lost viewers even with the episode they promoted the most wow 

They did and yes, other than the premiere, this has been the most promoted episode.  As I’ve said since the premiere, ep 5 ratings should be the most telling. I’m guessing that will be the baseline for the rest of the half season. At that point anyone in the audience who was just curious if they would preserve our favorites happy endings from the first 6 season will know and there won’t be a bump from that.  We’ll see. 

[angel-gidget]

Fire At My Feet Again (Tim/Cassie, post-Red Robin)

Title:  Fire at my Feet Again Fandom: DCU, Teen Titans, Red Robin (preboot)     Rating:  PG-13 | Words: 4.6K  | a03 link Summary: Tim and Cassie have been assigned to mentor the upcoming new version of Young Justice. Cassie isn’t drunk enough yet to process this turn of events properly. But if she has her say, with Tim’s help, she soon will be.

Set a handful of years after Red Robin. Contains miscellaneous comic references including 90’s YJ. Yet also borrows an element or two from the Young Justice cartoon. Bc I do what I want. Also unbeta’d. Bc impatience.

Note: Also using this fic to fulfill prompts/days 1-3 of Tim Drake Week (First & Lasts, Childhood & Adulthood, Dreams & Reality) bc this sucker took me long enough that I say it counts and I’d like to catch up.

The déjà vu was murder. Cassie wanted to scream at the Justice League that they had the wrong girl, she wasn't a MENTOR, if anything, she was still a MENTEE, but Tim was standing right next to her, giving his Serious Business head-nod, and Cassie realized that if she did, in fact, start screaming at the JLA, she wouldn't be screaming at strangers.

Because screaming at Aquaman and Superman and Batman was one thing, but the NEW Batman was once Nightwing and she didn't really like the idea of screaming at him. She would also be screaming at Vic, who was her friend. And--sweet Hera--she had FRIENDS in the JLA. You're a grown-up now, Cassie. You're a MENTOR now, Cassie.  So is Tim, for that matter. Hell. She didn’t want to admit out loud how familiar it was. How, in the last days before she gave up the Titans, she’d had trouble remembering the names of multiple team members; they had come and gone so quickly. So playing chaperone to a bunch of kids she didn’t know was actually way more familiar of a feeling than it ought to have been. But they weren’t asking her and Tim to be team leaders. They were asking her and Tim to play Red Tornado to their new batch of kids. Not to lead. Just to make sure they didn’t break anything. To help them with reporters.  To save their asses if things got out of hand. To be around if they wanted advice. "You start on Monday." Vick told them. "We start on Monday." Cassie repeated in a daze. When the rest had left, and it was only her and Tim, the feeling that it was real began to press on her lungs. "We start on MONDAY. Oh God." "Cassie? Are you o--Um. I can do it. You don't have to help. I--" "Do you remember what we were like?! You'll need my help. WE may need help. What if they have their own Kon? What if they have their own BART?" "Or Slo-bo." "Oh God." "It'll be okay. They're just as likely to have their own Secret, somebody they'll band around to protect. Or their own Anita, who can radiate reason. Or their own YOU, somebody smart who can represent the team and keep them in line. Ultimately, they'll be themselves and we can just give them the benefit of the doubt. It'll be okay." Maybe it was the truth of his words, or the blatant compliment, but Cassie did feel herself begin to calm down. This wasn’t history repeating itself. It was just a few parallels here and there. And the history wasn't all that bad anyway. When did she get so good at only remembering the rough parts? "I'm good. I swear I am, but I think I need a drink." Tim's smile was weird. Like he was about to be nostalgic, but it was 50/50 whether it was going to be a good idea or not. "I know just the place." She half-expected him to take her to the same zany hole-in-the-wall they went to for his 21st birthday years back, but he surprised her with a Gotham spot she had never seen before. It was kind of on the (conventional) sporty side, and kind of posh. Not really the sort of place she had expect him to go. "This was my dad's favorite place." Cassie shook her head to clear it. She could count on her hand the number of times Tim has talked about his dad with her, and four times out of five, he had been in tears while doing it. "Do you remember Klarion?" Tim asked. "Bum, bum, bum… The witch boy." She wanted to slap herself for completing the obnoxious little tune on autopilot, but decided not to be too hard on herself. It WAS catchy. "Well, when he had us stuck in adult bodies, I got the bright idea that I should go check on my dad in his natural environment." "There is no way that went well." Tim nodded, "He said I reminded him a bit of his son, and he invited me to sit down and have a beer with him." Cassie felt a smirk coming on. "And you had never had a beer in your life." "Correct. I spit it up all over him. And he never learned that the weird guy who chilled with him and wrecked his night was me.”

Cassie chuckled, “So, do you want a beer?”

“Hell, no. Can’t stand the stuff.” It might have been the funky lighting, but as Tim scratched the back of his head, she could swear he was blushing.

“Me neither. Good thing we’re old enough to admit it. Hey bartender!”

Cassie waved at the old man behind the counter. He seemed to be hard of hearing, as he kept cleaning the other end of the bar. She sighed, “Go over the new roster with me.”

“They haven’t got the official—“

“I know you know the biggest candidates for this thing, and I’d like to have a heads up, please and thanks.”

Tim nodded, as he waved his own hand in the old man’s direction to help her out, “Okay. So Lian has already said yes, and if there is a god, she will hopefully end up being team leader…”

Cassie smiled, “Roy Harper’s kid would be good at it. Though Robin will probably fight her for it…”

“Damian will be there under duress. Dick thinks it will be good for him, but the chances are that if he gets out of line…”

“He absolutely won’t listen to you, so I will have to do it. Uhgh.”

Tim gave her a pained laugh, “Thank you in advance?”

Cassie shrugged. She was already beginning to understand why the League was insisting on both of them. There had been some rosters of the Titans that were like that, some deferring only to Robin and some only to Wonder Girl. But by that time, she and Tim had mastered being in-sync to the point that it was a (mostly) doable nightmare.

“Who’s the heaviest hitter we’ll probably have to clean up after?”

Tim steepled his fingers thoughtfully, “That’s a toss-up between Damian’s friend Colin, who is actually an incredibly nice kid, and Jon Kent: our new Superboy-to-be.”

Cassie frowned, “Wait, I thought… what happened to Christopher?”

“You didn’t…?” Tim’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Um, a lot of things happened to Chris. But when he came home from the phantom zone a few months ago, he… well, it wasn’t like when a Robin gets replaced, but he told me it took a lot of adjusting to the fact that an entire time-line crisis had given him a baby brother that was already twelve years old. Last I’ve heard from him, he’s trying to decide on a new code-name and … well, he’s too old for the team.”

She felt her draw drop. “Chris Kent, who was like barely past my hip last I saw him, is TOO OLD for this team? What the hell?!”

“Cassie, the last time you saw him, I was babysitting him because he was ten. And with the phantom zone, well…”

“Well how old is he n—wait. Don’t answer that. Not until I’ve had whiskey, because this  now officially calls for whiskey. BARTENDER. WHISKEY.” The time for being polite and patient had officially passed.

Cassie cradled her head in her hands as she listened to Tim placate the offended bartender, and modify her order. Apparently whiskey wasn’t specific enough. Apparently the brown-eyed little boy she’d last seen wearing little boy shorts and a cartoon character wristwatch was now too freaking old to join Young Justice 2.0.

“So help me, Tim, if you’ve ordered something crazy-expensive, you are buying.”

Tim sighed, and Cassie felt a twinge of guilt. This wasn’t any easier for him. Hell, it might be harder. She knew Damian always made things harder for Tim.

Cassie was both boggled and somewhat grateful that she didn’t have a new Wonder Girl to contend with. Though, now that she thought about it, it did seem almost a shame for one to be missing from the roster… No.

No, she was still too young to be getting mopey over legacies. Not that she hadn’t always dug the idea of an Amazon legacy, but it was supposed to be, like, a general legacy. Not hers. Not yet. And yet…

“I am buying, and you will like it. I promise. It’s only a little expensive, but trust me that you don’t want the default of anything in this place.”

The next thing she knew, she had a strong-smelling double-shot over ice in front of her. It tasted like honey. If honey weren’t made by bees, but instead made by kangaroos kicking her in the face. She decided she liked it.

“Cassie, you’re supposed to sip that.”

She smirked at him, “I’ll sip the next one. Better hope our tab’s on your platinum card.”

He snorted, but didn’t really protest, taking a taste of his own glass.

She observed him.

He closed his eyes and tilted his head as he drank, though not with the speed of someone rushing a shot. It took the shadows off his face for a moment, so she could clearly see the tiredness around his eyes and the faint stubble around his jaw. She faintly recalled that said stubble had come very late in life to him. At the very tail-end of puberty.

She remembered that the first time she had kissed him—mourning Kon’s death in a sea of shattered glass in the Titan’s sublevel—the line from his cheek to his adam’s apple had been completely smooth.

Don’t go there, Cassie.

That was a long time ago, Cassie.

“So… um. So how’s Kon taking the whole codename thing?”

Tim shrugged, blinking his eyes open as he continued to hold the glass near his lips. “You know about as much as I do. He can’t decide what to pick. That is, he agrees that he’s years overdue to shelve “Superboy”, but replacing it is giving him conniptions.” Tim gestured the bartender back to refill her glass.

“That’s about what I know,” Cassie conceded, “But somehow, you always know a little more. So spill.”

As promised, she sipped the next glass. Sipping was like getting kicked by a baby honey-making kangeroo. It was still pretty damn good. She raised her pinky jokingly, which finally got a smile out of Tim that went up to his eyes as he spoke.

“He’s actually been trying to pick Chris’s brain on the matter. While Kon can hardly think of anything, Chris’s knowledge of Kryptonian language and mythology is giving him a ton of ideas and he just can’t choose.”

“Yeah, well. Kon’s gonna have to get used to choosing names in general. And soon.”

Tim’s puzzled expression stopped her cold.

“Oh Hera. He hasn’t told you yet.”

Tim similarly froze, “He… told me there was something he though he’d tell a lot of people in person. Said it wasn’t bad news. But with his new off-world mission, and how, um, busy we both will be… “

Cassie nodded. If Kon wanted to protest, he could blame her.

“M’gann is pregnant.”

It was always fun: managing to surprise Tim with something he’d clearly had absolutely no clue about beforehand. So fun. So rare. He was even choking a bit on his own drink.

“You’re serious. Kon’s going to be… a dad?”

“Totally.”

“Wow. He’s got to be over the moon. Both in a happy and terrified way. I’ll be an honorary uncle. Heh…”

He went serious then, totally quiet. Sometimes Cassie didn’t dig the reminder that she didn’t really have the full specs of the brain of Timothy Drake. But then again, did anyone?

She held back a tiny flinch as Tim set down his drink and put his hand over hers…

“Are you okay?” he practically whispered.

“Yes…?” she mimicked his low voice.

“Because I know you’ve never liked talking about how things ended, but it’s alright to…”

Gears clicked into place.

“Omigod. Tim. I’m fine. Kon and I are both totally over each other. Promise. Seriously, have you been worrying about that for the past five years?”

His face didn’t turn red, but his ears did.

“Hey, you wouldn’t talk about it, okay? And Kon may be my best friend, but… he’s not my only best friend. You and Bart… you can’t think I love you any less. Do you?”

Holy shit. The L-word. From TIM. In a totally platonic sense, of course.

As it should be, Cassie.

She knew Tim had been trained to resist truth serum and torture since his Robin days. Apparently, his own taste in alcohol was considerably more effective if it could get talk of actual feelings out of him.

Focus, Cassie. He asked you a question.

“I know you love me.” She squeaked.

A distinctly fraught look pulled his eyebrows together, and it occurred to Cassie that her assurance didn’t sound very believable.

So she tried again, “I’m serious. I don’t mean that in whatever placating double-meaning Bat-way you guys usually communicate in Gotham. I mean it. I know. You love me. I love you too.”

Those burning ears of his were back, but at least the distressed twist to his forehead had gone away. And that… Cassie knew she’d said enough. Her brain knew, anyway. Her tongue didn’t. “If… if a burning building had you and my mom inside and I only had time to save one, I’d save my mom because she didn’t sign up for the life we did. But I’d be every bit as devastated over losing you as if I had lost her.”

What the hell, Cassie?! Dark escalation much?

She spared a glance at her drink as though it had betrayed her. Was she on glass number two or number three?

Tim just snorted with a smirk, “Me too.”

He took another sip, which seemed to oddly sober his face again, “Though… I’d probably be more devastated if it was you. I… I sometimes wondered if there was something wrong with me considering how fast I recovered from my mom’s death. We weren't  close. I… I wanted us to be. So much. But we weren’t.”

Cassie held her breath. She… she had known that Tim’s mom was out of the picture. That when his dad died, that was it. Officially one of Batman’s orphans. But she’d never…

Apparently, it was Tim’s turn to look at his drink as though it were up to shady behavior.

“I’ve never admitted that out loud to anybody. Not in so many words, anyway.”

They both let the silence breathe a moment, before Cassie tentatively let her curiosity get the best of her.

“What was her name? Wanna tell me about her?”

Tim didn’t look her in the eye, preferring to keep his gaze pinpointed on the single oversized ice cube in his glass, but he nodded.

“Her name was Janet. She um…” A tiny strange grin quirked the side of his mouth and he finally looked up at her through messy black bangs, “Remember that time when your mom invited me and Bart to dinner with you, and she complained for half an hour about the ‘jet-set’ archaeologists who have all the money but half-assed dedication to historical findings? Who are all about the fun and polish?”

“Um, yes?”  Oh gods. Helena Sandsmark’s fifth favorite rant topic. She had hours of material on the unfairness of wealthy socialites’ interaction with the archaeology scene. Cassie always died of embarrassment anytime someone she knew was exposed to even a fraction of it.

“My mom was one of those.”

Cassie slumped in her chair, beginning to feel her own ears turn red.

“Oh gods, I’m sorry—”

And Tim giggled. Giggled. It was… stupid but nice and he kind of sounded like he hadn’t taken in quite enough oxygen at first to do it properly.

“Don’t be, Cass. Your mom didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. I wasn’t mad. It was… nice remembering her. She was spoiled, but in a classy kind of way. At least, that’s what my dad would say about it. But he might have been biased. Considering.”

“Considering.” Cassie let a relieved giggle of her own slip.

The silence that followed wasn’t a bad one. She eventually realized that Tim was faintly tapping on the edge of the bar to the tune of the music softly playing over he speakers, though she didn’t recognize the song.

At some point in their conversation, he had let go of her hand, and she tried not to overthink her awareness of that. She also tried not to overthink the fact that she was mentally listing the different ways she might get him to put it back.

She was startled from carefully not contemplating these things when his finger tips continued tapping, but this time against her own fingers lingering on the bar. She saw an expectant expression on his face, and it took her a moment to realize that the music had changed.

Cassie’s eyes widened. Was that.. Mmmm Bop? It was. The one hit from that stupid band that every member of Young Justice has solemnly sworn to hate into eternity was dancing over the speakers.

Some members, however, had been lying through their teeth when taking said oath.

Cassie had been one of them. Apparently, so had Tim.

Their moment of mutually tapping to forbidden tunes was interrupted as the old bar keep slammed a giant pink drink in front of Cassie’s nose.

“From th’ gentleman.” The man muttered, tottering away.

Cassie frowned. Tim seemed to be on the case, however, as he made a subtle pointing down the bar. She looked over her shoulder and saw the guy. He was tall and broad, with a lear and patch of scruff on his chin that reminded Cassie of Tim’s old Mr. Sarcastic disguise. Just… without the sarcasm. His target of choice hadn’t accepted the drink yet, and he was already elbowing his buddies and preparing to stand.

“He looks like the pushy type to me,” Cassie muttered, “Mr. Detective?”

Tim gave a small sigh, “I’m inclined to agree. How do you want to play this?”

There were a lot of correct choices. Not the least of which was taking the drink and pretending it meant nothing. Making eye contact and firmly pushing the drink away was a fair call too. If Mr. Pushy pushed, well… It would hardly be any skin off her back to return the favor. But a hero was always supposed to avoid escalating the situation or provoking it. Such was the correct choice.

You’re going to be a mentor, Cassie.

Meaning—she replied to the voice in her head— that if she was going to do something wild and on the side of crazy, it had to be tonight. So, she grabbed Tim’s hand and whispered in his ear.

“Pretend to be my boyfriend.”

His eyes went comically wide for a fraction of a second, but the next instant, he was giving her a succinct nod of the head.

She felt his fingertips slide up to her jaw, pinpricks of cold from the condensation of his drink. She barely registered the procession from one moment to the next as his lips were suddenly touching hers.

Barely touching. Very lightly.

But staying. Not a peck.

Rather, a quick brush followed by a very slow second brush.  

Her eyes slipped closed, acknowledging that the feeling was nice, if unexpected.

She held still everywhere save her mouth, mimicking his movement until she could breathe in the honey-tang from his breath instead of her own.

She then set her icy fingernails against his cheek, as was only fair.

He gave a quick inhale that let her know she had startled him back.

“Two for flinching.” She chuckled against his mouth.

In an instant, she wanted desperately to see his expression, but he ducked his head to whisper in her ear again.

“Why go back to competing when we’ve gotten so good at teaming up?”

Tim thought he was so clever sometimes. She wanted to agree and roll her eyes at the same time. She was about to reply when something in the shift of his shoulders told her they had trouble.

“What is it?”

“Pushy Type has strolled out with his friends, but they went around the alley area of the building without grabbing a ride and none of them had car keys.”

Cassie hissed, “They wanna jump us? Are you serious? This neighborhood sucks.”

Tim pulled back far enough that could see his face. There was some uncertainty there that he was doing his utmost to hide, but Cassie was too familiar with it to be fooled by it anymore.

Goddess. He liked it. He liked it as much as I did.

And now he’s wondering if he messed up.

“Tim—“

“I know the corner they’ve picked. No cameras, no witnesses. They’d be… very surprised to not have the advantage. We could change into uniform in the restrooms and sneak out the back of the kitchen. It’ll be fun.”

And… he was off. He even left the barstool he’d been sitting on spinning.

Fine.

Stupid bat-birds and their emotional issues.

She’d let him get away with it for now.

——

Two hours later, they stumbled into Tim’s apartment dripping wet, with an unanticipated number of cuts and bruises.

“Fun, you said. We intimidate them and they’ll re-think their life-choices, you said.” Cassie scoffed.

Tim clutched his bruised rib, “I didn’t know C-listers were developing their own knock-off venom pills these days. It’s a recent development.”

His other arm was over her shoulder, keeping weight off his bruised ankle. If knock-off venom could punch her right into him, she didn’t want to think about what the original Bane could probably do.

But it probably didn’t help that they were both a little tipsy. While Tim might not have guessed that Mr. Pushy—who had wanted to be called The Dejector, of all things, yeesh—would be carrying supervillain steroids, they both would have resolved the fight a lot faster if they had both been sober and had their minds off… well.. The Thing they were avoiding talking about.

After they had the perps bagged and tied for the Gotham PD, Tim had decided to play it safe and not drive his motorcycle back. Cassie had similarly decided against flying.

So they had walked.

And then it rained.

Because Gotham.

Cassie carefully set Tim down on his couch. She then followed his directions to find the first aid kit as he began to check himself for damage.

“Just so we’re clear: I’m not actually mad, Tim. Just grumpy. I had plans for tonight. They didn’t involve this many scrapes.”

“I… Oh.” He froze, “I didn’t know I was keeping you. Sorry.”

“You’re not,” Cassie corrected, setting the kit down by his foot and she cinched up the leg of his jeans. (The nice thing about his crazy expensive wardrobe: there was some extra stretch to the denim.) “You were at the center of the plans.”

“Oh.” He tensed again, and Cassie worried for a moment that she had hurt him just by applying ice. But as she looked up, she realized his ears were red again.

Okay, Wonder Girl. Time to be brave.

“Confession time. So… you already know I love you. We got that out of the way. The big secret is that I also might… kinda like you on top of that.”

Tim snorted, but it was with a tiny hopeful smile on his face that quickly smoothed itself out to boarder-line sly.

“Oh really?”

If he was gonna be that way about it, there was no need to be delicate with the application of the ice. He flinched for real.

“Yeah,” Cassie muttered, meeting his eye, “Funny how that works.”

“Funny how it’s mutual.” He panted.

Cassie blinked. “Does this mean we…?”

“If you want.” Tim whispered.

She kissed him.

Sweat, rainwater, scrapes and all. She had wrapped her arms around his neck, and even when she bumped his foot and his leg tensed, he still clutched back.

It was hard to tell who’s idea it was to lean back into the couch. Definitely her idea to start lifting his shirt off. His hair was just long enough that damp tendrils lingered where his neck met his shoulders and she didn’t resist the temptation to run her hands through it. He rolled into the movement like a cat with his eyes closed, and something like déjà vu struck her for the second time that day.

For all that Tim’s everyday body language exuded a polite distance, actually touching him was so very different. Kind of like a sunflower desperate for a hint of light. As if no one had held him for years. Maybe no one had.

Rain still clung to her own hair as well, water droplets shaking loose from assorted strands of her blond hair. They splashed onto Tim’s chest, making him shiver.

She knew he could resist the cold, if he wanted. He could use a simple stretch of his own self control to curb his reactions, but he chose not to. Chose to let her see it, and the thought lit something warm in her chest.

She leaned in close again, feeling her own shirt slide up, enjoying the contrast of warmth where their stomaches touched and cold where their hair got in the way. Tim was the one doing the kissing then, returning to that slow brush he seemed to have perfected, only against her neck instead of her lips. His arms held tight, tighter. And she gladly returned the favor until—

“OUCH!”

His whole body tensed, but Cassie knew it was the foot.

The Achilles Heel, as mom would say.

“Guess it would be more fun to save the rest for when we’re both in one piece, huh?”

Tim sighed, “‘Rest’ implies a finite amount. Was going more for an indefinite sort of plan.”

Cassie grinned.

“I’ll remember that. Now where are your towels, Young Man Wonder?”

He scowled at her, but he gave up the location of the towels. And the location of his popcorn machine. And blankets. And spare pyjamas. And dvd collection.

I could get very used to this.

She was cuddled in his arms on the couch again, but this time calm and dry with antibiotics gently applied to her minor scratches.

“It’s different this time, you know. I can feel it.” She whispered.

Tim stirred beneath her, though he took a moment to speak.

“You mean… us?”

She nodded against his chest, “Us. The vibe of it. The… the kissing. It’s different. We’re different.”

She didn’t have the energy to lift her head, but she felt him nod all the same.

“Last time, we were in a bad place. Now we’re in a good one.”

She smiled against him and trusted that he could feel it, “Even if you have to face down the Damian squad on Monday?”

“It won’t be Damian’s squad. Not immediately, anyway. But yes. Even then. We can do this. Together.”

Cassie threaded her fingers through Tim’s as her eyes fluttered shut for the night.

She believed him.

F.I.N.

[paradisobound]

Phan Masterlist

This is my Phan masterlist that is compiled only of my stories that I have posted with Dan and Phil. This list is being continuously updated as I post more stories so stay updated and organized here! 

A Summer Beside You: 36.5k Words- Rated Explicit-Dan Howell, a New York City native, suddenly finds his world turned upside down when he is told that his estranged father is wanting to spend the summer with him. Having not seen his father since he was young, he is reluctant to travel to this small little beach town to see him. Bringing his younger brother along with him, he boards a plane and heads south. Upon arriving, Dan goes to the boardwalk just down the beach and runs into a native by the name of Phil Lester. As Dan starts to spend more and more time with the native rich kid in town, he finds himself slowly falling in love. Through trips to the boardwalk and even just simple walks down the beach, Dan realizes that he doesn’t want to leave this town behind. But as the date of his departure edges closer and closer, he finds that his grasp on this small town and his love for Phil strengthen, leaving him to make the ultimate decision: Do I go back to NYC or do I stay here with my dad and Phil?

A Picture is Worth: 4,441 Words- Rated Explicit- Dan is a student photographer who finds comfort in taking photos. Phil is the older man who is finally confronting Dan on why he’s trespassing on his dock. 

A Royal Wedding: 997 Words- Rated Teen-A chance encounter leads to a royal wedding. 

As Told By Dan: 1,500 Words- Rated Mature- Dan recounts to his friend Louise what his first time with Phil was like. 

30 Day's of NSFW Challenge

Be Alright: 3.3k Words- Rated Explicit- Warning: unhappy ending- There is a darker side behind the hiatus and the ending of Dan and Phil games…one that Dan and Phil never showed.

Behind Hazel Eyes: chaptered work- Rated Explicit-  Dan’s known Lucas since college and he’s never been so convinced that two people are meant to be together. He loves Lucas more than anything. But when news report of a serial killer striking around the town, Dan begins to notice signs in Lucas that leave him nervous. With the help of his newfound friend Phil, Dan pieces together the parts of Lucas that he somehow missed before anyone else loses their lives–and before Dan loses his own. 

**BINGO 2019 Masterlist**

Buy You A Drink: 1.1k words- Rated Explicit- Dan’s lonely…and bored. He also has nothing to drink in his flat. So as he’s swiping on Tinder and he matches with a random guy, he decides to play it up a bit. So he asks the guy to bring him a drink to his flat–in exchange for a blow job. 

Car Sex Can Be Romantic!: 2,656 Words- Rated Explicit- Dan and Phil have their first time in the back of a car. Trust me, it’s more romantic than it sounds!

Convergence: Part I, Part II, Part III- Rated Explicit- Daniel Howell had a one night stand in London when he was only eighteen years old. It was supposed to be a visit to London but instead, it led him into the bed of Phil Lester: Flat 311 to be exact. Now, three years later, Dan decides to seek out Phil in London but he’s not alone…he has a three year old son.

Dear Diary...Signed Daniel Howell: 3,551 Words- Rated Explicit- The Diary Entries of Daniel Howell. Warnings: Rape and non/con elements! 

Dorm Room Antics: 1,877 Words-Rated Explicit-Dan and Phil have sex in Dan’s dorm room the day he moves into college.

Down By The River: Chaptered Work- Rated Explicit- Dan Howell was isolated from the world. Living in a small town, the population only 750 and being in a high school where everyone knew your name and your history, Dan hated it. He wanted out. Nothing is going where he wants to in life. That is until he meets Phil Lester by random chance at a grocery store and Phil begins to show him all of the happiness that life can actually bring.

Dreams Can be Deceiving: 2k Words- Rated Teen and Up- Phil has a nightmare one night that Dan is pregnant. The dream causes Phil to freak out and freak out Dan in the process. However, the dream leads to some thoughts and Phil begins to see what the future may look like.

Flashes of Innocence: 5,600 Words- Rated Explicit- Phil Lester was an aspiring photographer, trying to fine tune his skills in a black and white photography class. Cue Daniel Howell, the attractive male that walks in one day and captures Phil’s eyes. But Dan has a small secret, he needs help. He runs a Tumblr blog and he needs someone to shoot his photos for him. But there’s a catch that Phil doesn’t know right away. Dan runs a NSFW porn blog and he’s asking Phil to help him recreate authentic photos. 

Forever the One: Chaptered Work- Rated M-  When Omega Dan is of age, he is told by his father that he will be sold off to find an Alpha mate. Cue, Alpha Phil. Alpha Phil is in desperate need for a mate, and although Phil is only a few years older than Dan, he holds a reasoning behind why he needs a mate so quickly. When secrets are revealed that give up why Phil needed a mate, this story may not have a happy ending. 

*Forever the One Masterlist!* 

In Front of the Lights, Behind the Camera: Part 1, 2, 3, 4: Rated Explicit-  When Dan Howell became a model as a teenager, he expected that his face would be used for clothing launches and runways. But suddenly, his once pristine appearance changes and he’s left with nowhere to go in the modeling industry. One night, he finds an application for something different–completely absurd really–and decides to take a shot. Not long after, he becomes well known adult film star James Colin and finds himself in front of the similar lights of those of a modeling shoot. But then he meets Phil Lester, who appears to be an arrogant cameraman with nothing better to do than snap at him. And slowly, Dan sees something that he wants a little bit more of than the fame, money, and the attention. 

Innocence: 2,206 Words- Rated Explicit- Dan was always adamant about not having sex before marriage. But one day he decides he wants to try it with his boyfriend, Phil. But he has one condition: he doesn’t want to see Phil’s dick during sex. 

**I Want It, I Got It Masterlist**

I Want It, I Got It: Chaptered Work- Rated Mature- Phil Lester was a worker for the BBC in London. Working in the advertising department, he was content being alongside his friend and fellow coworker PJ during every shift. However, the BBC is temporarily being used as a film set for a new movie staring Hollywood ‘It’ star, Daniel Howell. Being stuck as an extra on the set, Phil finds it’s hard to ignore the famous star. And maybe, just maybe, Dan finds it hard to ignore Phil as well.

Japan 2.0: 1.1k words- Rated Teen and Up- Phil decides to plan a trip to Japan for Dan because he wants to propose to him. 

Keep My Head Above Water- 7.8k words- Rated Teen and Up- Dan is the captain of his high school swim team and the sport means more than anything to him. He hopes to be recruited into college so he can continue to swim, however, his plan changes when he fails English. Being tutored by Phil, Dan soon sees that even though he still wants more than anything to continue to swim, he may also want something else too.

*Light in the Dark Masterlist* 

Light in the Dark: This is a chaptered work- Rated Mature- Warnings: Medical disabilities (blindness)- Phil is the RA (Resident Advisor) for his local college where he manages the residents in his dorm building. But his junior year in college is about to take a turn when one of his residents, who’s named Dan, is blind. Soon, Phil develops a friendship with Dan as he soon discovers that they were meant for much more than just a platonic relationship. He just hopes that his Alpha abilities won’t scare away the timid Omega

Let’s Party!: 1,738 Words- Rated Explicit- A party that Phil doesn’t want to go to? check. A night of surprises? also check. And finding unexpected feelings for a friend? Triple check. 

Lets Get Lost: 4.4k words- Rated Mature- Sometimes a drive going nowhere is all that one needs

Love Thy Neighbor: 3,063 Words- Rated Explicit- Phil is the son of Assembly of God pastor who begins to fall for the son of the rivaling Methodist church across the road. A quick friendship quickly picks up speed into a sexual relationship that neither one of them can avoid. Finding solace in one another, they gain a newfound love that they never knew could have existed.

Moving Too Fast: 986 Words- Rated Mature- A small one-shot based upon this post that I laughed at for a solid twenty minutes. 

Painted Flowers: 1,764 Words- Rated Mature- Flowers come in many shapes and sizes. Colors and types. But to Dan, they mean so much. From the young age of five, flowers begin to show up on his skin, and slowly as he ages, every Valentine’s Day, another flower paints over his flesh. They continue to grow into a beautiful garden until one day he meets Phil. And like the tale tells, once you meet your soulmate, a flower will no longer bloom on your skin every Valentine’s Day.

Perfect Night for Wishes: 1.6k Words- Rated Teen and Up- Dan hasn’t been nervous for a date in nearly 10 years. But now that Phil suddenly wants to go out for Valentine’s Day, he finds himself nervous for their date

Piecing Together My Mind: 10,763 Words- Rated Mature- TW- hospitals, mentions of injuries, surgery- When Dan is the victim of a terrible car accident, he suffers unbelievable trauma to his brain. As a result, only a few doctors in the world can perform the operation that is needed for him to recover: one the doctors being Phil Lester from America. Through the surgery and his recovery, Phil is there for him every step of the way, leading them into a spiral of love no one can predict, which eventually gains attention and popularity through a book written by Dan. 

**Sail Away With Me Masterlist**

Sail Away With Me: Chaptered Fic (In progress--on temporary hiatus)- Rated Explicit- It was a fluke. Dan shouldn’t have ever gone with Sam to a party on a yacht. He shouldn’t have trusted her to go. But in a chance encounter, he ends up in bed with Phil Lester, a billionaire CEO of a luxury clothing company. When he thinks he’s screwed up enough, he realizes he’s in way too deep. Because Phil Lester has fallen in love with him. The catch: Dan gave Phil a fake name and all Phil has to remember Dan by is the tattoo on his hip and the necklace he left behind. 

Scared to be Lonely: 15,700 Words- Rated Mature-Tw:Signs of a toxic relationship, mentions of dubious consent, mpreg, sexual mentions, and light smut-Phil begins school at a new high school to avoid his past, however, he doesn’t intend for how much his life is going to change. He meets Dan, the one he’s first warned about, and develops a quick attraction for him. But when things begin to look up for Phil, someone else comes in and breaks the norm. 

Skittles Grow on Trees: 2k Words - Rated G- Phil tells his and Dan's son a little white lie that Skittles grow on trees in an attempt to stop buying him them. However, their son gets excited about the idea and thus, Skittles Trees are born

Social Interactions of the Drunken Kind- 2.1k words- Rated G- Dan gets drunk and confesses to Phil that he likes boys. But now that that is out in the open, where does that leave them to go from here?

Starry Eyes: 1.6k Words- Rated Explicit-  It’s a night under the stars and what’s a more perfect way to look at them than in the bed of Phil’s truck. 

Starstruck: 3.6k words- Rated Mature- Phil attends all of Dan Howell’s concerts. In fact, he makes it a rule to even record every one he goes to. You could say he was in love with Dan Howell and in fact, that wouldn’t be a lie because he’s actually Dan’s fiancé. Too bad Dan’s fans see him as the creepy guy at Dan’s concerts. 

They’ll Tear Us Apart (If You Give Them The Chance)- 7.3k words- Rated Teen and Up- Dan was just a fairy in his little village of Vixedeler when a mermaid invades the waters and sends the village into a frenzy. A thousand year old rivalry is resurfaced and Dan is left in the middle of his village while also feeding his new connection with the mermaid, Phil. As tensions rise, and Dan falls deeply for Phil, a Romeo and Julietlove story begins.

The Christmas Fic || 2017: 1,995 Words- Rated G- How Christmas 2017 should have went 

The Flowers Are For You: 1.9k words- Rated Teen and Up- It’s Dan and Phil’s one month “anniversary” and Phil wants to get Dan flowers. The only catch is he has no idea what flowers to get Dan, or even if Dan will like them.

The Glory Hole Incident: 2,281 Words- Rated Explicit- Phil is pressured to go to a glory hole to relax, who would have thought it would lead to more? 

The Moments that Shape Us: 4,547 Words- Rated Explicit- TW-non con elements and mentions of rape!- A timeline through the tough times that Dan has to go through following a traumatizing experience and how he eventually goes back to the way he should be. 

The Notion of Us: 2,742 Words- Rated T- Five Times Phil wanted to propose, and the one time he actually succeeded

The Perfect Gift: 3.4k Words- Rated Explicit- Phil Lester didn't particularly like Secret Santa that his maths teacher did every year. He normally received just simple gifts and was always underwhelmed. But this year, his Secret Santa gives him the perfect gift and he's determined to find out who this person is. It also helps that his Secret Santa has a crush on him too.

The Photoshoot: 1,266 Words- Rated PG- Dan wants to do a couples shoot and it goes better than expected. 

The Valentine’s Day Fic: 2,057 Words- Rated T- It’s Valentine’s Day, and things go a little differently for Dan

Unexpected Trip: 1k words- Rated G- While Dan and Phil are in the USA for Vidcon, they go with Cat to an animal shelter and Dan falls in love with Holly, a 7 year old corgi mix.

Uncertainty: 10,317 Words- Rated M- It was all started with a fight…I mean, when you looked at our relationship in the public eye, everything seemed perfect. We were loving to each other, he was always holding my hand in public, showing me affection, just making sure I was comfortable in every sense of the world. I really did love him. I still do…Dan Howell and Phil Lester were the couple everyone thought of them to be–or so everyone thought. That was until a fight between them nearly collapsed all they had known…and left them in a situation neither one ever wanted to be in.

Wonders Never Cease: 10,300 Words- Rated Explicit- Dan and Phil were one of the ‘it’ couples at their high school until one day, Phil blindsides Dan with a break up. Hurting and seeking comfort, Dan befriends Tyler who helps him get through the first tough few months of the break up, mending his shattered heart. But Dan doesn’t want to move on. He wants to be with Phil and maybe, just maybe, in the end, he’ll still get to be.

Young and In Love: 9,148 Words- Rated T- When the coffee shop in the basement of Dan’s university is suddenly closed one evening, he uses his phone to track the next closest one. But who was to know that his life would change entirely when he stepped inside? A story of love, heartbreak, and everything in-between, we follow Dan through the journey of growth and acceptance.

[wellthatjusthappend]

Flicker Beat (2/2)

Read on AO3

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Damian was sleeping soundly on the couch at last. Dick took the blood sample he’d drawn, separated it out into a couple test tubes, added drops, and set them spinning in a homemade centrifuge of sorts he’d thrown together. The baddies were always cooking up some chemical this or that and while a trip to the cave would be ideal, it wasn’t always possible.

Case in point.

The Abuse kid said something about it not affecting Alpha’s as much, which was weird to say the least. Hopefully after these samples settled properly he could get a better idea of what they were dealing with. Damian seemed to be already doing better, but that wasn’t the point. Someone had taken a good shot at his partner and it irked Dick that he hadn’t been there for him. Damian was very dear to him. If that dosage had been lethal…

Dick closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He balled up the wrappings from the tubes and went to toss them in the trash. Dick paused noticing an unopened package that was partially buried under the rest. It was flexible and had been squished up as much as possible. There was no return address, but Dick recognized Leslie’s spidery scrawl.

I know this is hard for you, but it’s not your fault. Please take them, they really will help.

Dick frowned opened the sack. Inside were a couple different bottles of medicine as well as a bottle of antidepressants. He wracked his brain trying to think if there was a reason Leslie would give these to him and came up blank. He’d call her after Damian was feeling better and try to figure why exactly these were in his trash. In the meantime he put time safely in his cupboard.

He heard Damian move around in the other room and hurried out of the kitchen again.

“Little D,” Murmured Dick kneeling by his side and feeling his forehead. No fever anymore, that was good, “How are you feeling?”

“Less than optimal.” grumbled Damian, jade eyes blinking open to stare at him blearily before scowling, “Colin, that traitor.”

“I’m glad he brought you to me.” Dick said firmly, “You didn’t know what you had been dosed with, it could have been very dangerous.”

“-tt-” Damian looked away. Dick wanted to hug him. He settled for stroking a hand through his hair affectionately.

“I’m really glad you’re here, babybat,” Dick admitted, “You have no idea how worried I’ve been.”

“Your worry was unnecessary. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself,” Damian scowled. Dick was quite sure that if he knew how much he was pouting he’d stop immediately.

“You still shouldn’t have had to.” Dick said angrily, “You’re 14 years old, you should be having to carry adult burdens. Just because you technically can doesn’t matter. It wasn’t an ok for your Dad to do that.”

Protecting Tim was one thing. And an important thing at that. But turning your teenage son out of the house was another. Dick thought Bruce sometimes forgot Damian was actually child. He had a bratty attitude sometimes, but for the most part it wasn’t like he ever acted his age much. Still.

“So why would he do it?” Damian shot back, his angry tone barely covering an edge of hurt, “Why? I’m the blood son. Me. So why would he choose Drake over…?”

“Because even though Bruce is some of the smartest men I know, he’s also one of the stupidest,” sighed Dick helping Damian sit up a bit so the Beta could sit and he could lean against Dick’s chest, “I don’t think he meant for you to be gone more than an evening, but that still doesn’t excuse his behavior. I think he thought you would just agree to stop attacking Tim and that would be the end of it but he really should have known better. He knows you, after all. You’re both so stubborn.”

“I don’t understand. Drake already has everything. Why does he insist on always messing everything up?” Damian gritted.

“Wouldn’t you say though that everyone deserves a chance to feel at home in their own skin?” Dick asked.

“Don’t be idealistic Grayson, bodies were always meant to be cumbersome things.” Damian gave Dick a look like he was stupid.

“And even so, we still all try to find our place to fit.” Dick insisted, “Tim has found his. The pack is supporting him in that.”

“Colin would fit, if he could.” Damian said suddenly, Dick looked at him quizzically, “My- the person who brought me to you, Colin.”

“The Alpha.” Dick nodded, pursing his lips at the memory. He didn’t like that such a big aggressive Alpha had been just living with his younger partner. Dick wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that Damian was calling this- friend?- by his first name either. Damian didn’t call people by their first names.

“He’s not an Alpha.” snapped Damian defensively, “He’s- he doesn’t fit correctly into the dynamics, but he would if he could! It’s not his fault. If he’s had a choice he would have and- And then there’s Drake, hah!”

Dick bit back a thousand things that came to mind in the younger Beta’s defense but he decided to let Damian vent for a little first.

“Drake fit before and now he’s just messing it up just because he feels like it. Dynamics matter. They’re everything you can’t just- you can’t just throw them out just because.” Damian tried to explain.

Dick let them sit in silence for a little before carefully asking, “If dynamics are everything, where does that put your friend Colin?”

“I don’t know.” Damian admitted sounding distressed.

“What if your friend decided he wanted to fit? He’d have to go do some of the same kinds of things Tim is doing.” Dick let that sit, “If, say, he decided to transition to being a Beta, would you consider him to not be a real Beta like you’ve told Tim over and over?”

“No.” Damian gritted out, “I am aware that makes no sense, but no.”

“Ah.” Dick felt a flicker of hope. He’d always kind of been worried Damian might never except Tim. But maybe…

“I don’t know what to do, Grayson.” Damian admitted quietly, then more loudly and frustrated, “These matters are supposed to be set and very clear. The rules are in place, and those with any ounce of integrity follows them. There a correct way of doing things for each dynamic that compliments each other. If you break for that there can only be chaos and heartbreak.”

Dick refrained from asking about what Damian thought of relationships outside of a potential bond or traditional Beta/Beta relationships. He was already aware Damian thought he and Jason were infidels. Still…

“If you want to talk about my take on it all, I’d be happy to share some of the insights I’ve heard.” Dick said slowly, “But it sounds like most of all you need to think about it all some more. Don’t just bottle it up and try not to think about it because it’s hard though.”

“I know that.” grumbled Damian wiggling close. Dick smiled to himself, knowing that Damian would deny snuggling till the day he died. It was hard to resist kissing his forehead, but he doubted Damian would tolerate it.

At first Dick thought that his throat was tightening up because he was emotional. But after a couple of times of trying to clear his throat unsuccessfully, Dick got a bit suspicious. Damian seemed fine though.

“One sec little D.” Dick said regretfully shuffling out from under the other.

“Where are you going?” Damian asked looking disgruntled at having to move.

“Just gotta check something.” Dick smiled reassuringly.

In the kitchen the centrifuge had long since stopped spinning. Dick’s eyes widened at the way all of the tubes had separated and were reacting really concerningly. It didn’t say great things about whatever this new drug was.

One of the samples wasn’t sealed properly.

He started to reach for it and became aware that his hands were shaking. Hard. And more by the second. And the room was starting to pulse in an alarming way.

“Dami-!” Dick tried to call but it came out a concerning weeze. He couldn’t breathe. And everything was- everything was-

Black.

*****

“Pennyworth! Please! Grayson has-” Damian started frantically pulling the Beta far away from the sample in the kitchen.

“I’m on my way.” Alfred began to say before Damian’s brain caught up to the situation.

“No!” He said, “Stay away. And keep Drake away too. This is a drug that only affects Beta’s, we can’t have you getting exposed as well. I’ll call the ambulance, you inform the rest of the pack.”

“As you say.” Alfred said, strain evident in his voice.

“I need you to send an ambulance. Do not send any Beta personnel,” Damian said briskly dialing 911, “My packmate has reacted to the drug called Flicker. He is no longer breathing. My address is 54th St and Adams. West Gotham, apartment 731. I expect you to arrive promptly.”

Damian hung up before they could answer and focused on giving Dick CPR. He wasn’t sure it was doing much but his brain was filled with statistics and facts about the brain starting to die after 6 minutes without oxygen.

“Grayson, you fool, you’re not allowed to die.” Damian told him, “Especially not because you were caring for me.”

The ambulance's arrival and the ride to the hospital was a confusing panicked blur. Damian tried to keep track of who was doing what and why but it was chaos.

“Stop! Where are you taking him?” demanded Damian when they tried to take the Beta away from him.

“Don’t worry kid,” one of the attendants smiled wearily, “We’re getting real good at treating Flicker victims. Your packmates going to be fine. We just need to take him for a few.”

Damian reluctantly sat back and channeled his worry into rage for the fools who dared to hurt his pack and what he planned to do to them.

“Damian!” Damian turned as his name was called to see Tim running up.

“You shouldn’t be here-” Damian started angrily. Regardless of what Drake really was, right now physically his makeup was closer to that of a Beta than an Omega which meant he could be at risk. They weren’t sure exactly what it was people were reacting to after all.

“It’s fine,” Tim waved him away, “If it was loes in the hospital then Beta’s would be collapsing left, right, and center.”

“-tt-” Damian turned away.

“Tell me what happened.” Tim said intently, and Damian knew in that moment he was dealing with Red Robin. That was fine. He always dealt better with him than Tim.

Damian explained all about the gangs and the drugs and about getting dosed and not knowing that Dick had taken a sample so he hadn’t thought to warn him about any potential dangers. Tim was frowning deeply by the time he finished. Tim nodded and quickly sent out a series of texts.

“No one can seem to get ahold of Jason, but Barbara is going to Dick’s place to get his samples. We’ll have an antidote of our own soon enough.” Tim said

“Todd is going to go on a rampage when he hears.” Damian said dryly. The grimace Tim made said he agreed.

“Where is Dick?” Tim asked, “How is he?”

“In there.” Damian nodded to the doors.

“I’m going to go talk to them.” was all Tim said. Damian let him do it. He had no patience for people caught in bureaucracy and they would likely not appreciate him hurling them over the counter when they refused to cooperate.

“This doesn’t make sense.” Tim said looking troubled when he returned, “The drug has dramatic effects. Deadly if not treated. But it’s not hard to treat. They’re telling me that it rarely takes more than a day for Beta’s to get back on their feet. If this gang is targeting Beta’s, then it can’t be this simple.”

“-tt- Perhaps they got sloppy.” Damian said.

“No, they have to know by now that people can treat it easily but they’re still producing.” Tim said frustrated.

Damian shrugged and kept his eyes fixed on the door. He and Tim sat in silence, Tim occasionally tapping away at his phone. It was the first time they’d seen each other since their fight. Damian expected to feel more resentful, but he couldn’t muster it in the face of Tim’s palpable worry about Dick.

A commotion by the entrance made Damian look up to see Jason shoving his way past personal with Colin trailing worriedly behind him. Both Damian and Tim were on their feet in an instant.

“Are you ok? Should you be out here so soon after-” Damian went straight for Colin.

“I’m fine, Jason said I already stopped scenting and I’m feeling better than usual since he was taking care of me.” Colin said quickly. Damian started to feel jealous at that but-

“Where is he?! Where the fuck is he?!” Jason yelled.

“Jason-” Tim started to lay a hand on his arm but Jason shook it off.

“No, fuck, you need to let me see him right this fucking second!” Jason spat, his eyes wild and feverish.

“Sir, calm down,” a nurse tried to calm him, “If your mate is somewhere here than I assure you that we can take you to him. The Alpha ward is this way if you’ll-”

“I’m not going to no fucking Alpha ward.” Jason snarled, “My mate’s a Beta.”

“Oh,” She blinked rapidly, “Um, well, technically then you’re not m-”

“He was just admitted here for unintentionally exposure to Flicker?” Tim cut in with a charming smile before Jason could lose his already frayed temper, “Could you tell us if his procedures finished?”

“Flicker? Oh, well that procedure should have been finished a while ago, it’s really quite quick. We don’t take names upon entrance since patients usually wake up again fairly quickly to tell us themselves. I can see if he’s in the system?” she said stepping behind a computer, “What’s his name?”

“Dick Grayson.” Tim said while Jason muttered things under his breath. Colin took Damian’s hand and squeezed it comfortingly.

“Hmm, no one here is by that name.” She hummed, “Can you give me any other descriptions?”

Tim listed off several more.

“I’m sorry, you’re sure he’s didn’t already check himself out? Flicker patience do that sometimes. The only Beta’s here for Flicker are in their teens.” she asked.

“You.” Jason rounded on Damian grabbing his shirt, “Why didn’t you stay with him?”

“I wasn’t permitted to-” Damian began to spit defensively.

“When the fuck has that ever stopped you?” snarled Jason, “You knew Beta’s were disappearing after taking this drug, why the fuck would you let him out of your sight for a second?!”

Damian felt very cold.

“Oh god.” Tim breathed, “Oh god, that- that’s very clever. They could just- and nobody would probably notice- oh god.”

“I’m going to go fucking find him.” Jason said spinning on his heel.

“I- I’ll keep looking for clues here.” Tim said shakily turning back to the front desk.

“Wait, just like that? You guys really think he’s gone?” Colin asked worriedly.

“If he’s here, Drake will find him soon.” Damian said trying to breath through- Dick, no, they couldn’t have taken Dick. Not the one person in the family who- “But if they have taken him we’ll only have a short window to intercept them.”

A window that may have passed.

“Damian, I need you here with me.” Tim said apologetically as Damia started toward the door with Colin, “you’re the one who was with him and might be able to identify those who brought him in.”

“Colin, you go help Todd. I’ll remain here with Drake.” Damian said pushing his friend towards the door, “You have the best nose out everyone besides Jason. See if you can track him down.”

“Are you sure?”

“No.” said Damian in frustration, “Now go.”

With one more cautious look, Colin took off.

“We’re going to find him,” Damian said turning back to Tim, “We must.”

[demi-mccullar101-blog]

What Do I Watch?

All right, the pressure is off!  Let’s get into it.  My previous experience with Tumblr has been strictly for reading opinions about various shows I and others watch.  Now it’s my turn.

Let’s go by days of the week, shall we?

Sunday:

Like the rest of the world, I love Game of Thrones.  I truly have no idea how this show will end but I do see Dany as being on a Villain’s Journey.  I think Jon is on a Hero’s Journey as well.  I can’t wait for them to meet, and I expect a battle, but I have no idea which one will stand tall when the snow clears. 

I also watch Veep.  It mirrors real life more than it ever intended but remains brilliantly funny.  At no point during the episodes do I groan when a character comes on screen.  There aren’t any bad characters on this show.  Each is perfectly crafted and played. 

Finally, I end this night with Last Week Tonight.  Ollie was excellent on The Daily Show and is even better here.  He is funny and informative and has introduced the world to Janice From Accounting.

Monday:

This is a busy night for me.  First is Gotham.  I finally figured out why I love this goofy show that doesn’t make any sense.  Gotham is for me what the Adam West Batman is for those who watched it live.  It’s a ridiculous interpretation of the Batverse that couldn’t make me happier. 

Then comes Lucifer.  I haven’t read the Vertigo comics but, if they are anything even close to the show, then I’m sure I would love them.  This show brings the funny and is so upbeat that the serious moments actually have some gravitas.  I’m currently convinced that, if we are to meet Dad in season 2, then it will turn out to be Ella.  No particular reason, it just came to me earlier in the season.

Supergirl is next.  Season 2 has faltered a bit, with losing Cat and elevating Mon-el at the expense of Kara’s relationships with Alex and J’onn but I still feel positive feelings in general.  My hope is that season 3 fixes the mistakes of season 2 (and I wouldn’t object to Cat returning!).

The night ends, as it always does Mon-Thurs, with The Daily Show.  I think Trevor Noah is doing a great job and is a worthy successor to Jonny. 

Tuesday:

The Flash is one of those shows where I don’t really know why I still watch.  I don’t read Flash comics, as I’m a Batverse lady, so I have no connection with the character outside of the show.  Barry is actually my least favorite part of the show, to the point that I’m TeamBarryIsBigBad, and that does make it a chore to watch.  I do like the actors, so they might be why I’m still here.  I do think that Candice is given next to nothing to do and yet still manages to have presence.  This current season I LOVE Julian.  Not because of Tom Felton, though that doesn’t hurt, but because Julian is the only character who doesn’t worship at Barry’s feet and, as a result, actually calls him on his shit.  I loved watching Cisco do the same in the fallout from Flashpoint but he’s back in the Cult of Barry.  Thinking some more, yes, I think because I like all the actors involved (even Grant, as it’s not his fault the producers don’t realize Barry is the villain of the series). 

Legends of Tomorrow is my favorite of the Tuesday shows.  I’m a rare one who loved Kendra in season 1 and I still miss her but I am happy Hawkman is gone.  If they’d cast someone who could act, then I may feel differently but it’s hard to support a character when the actor is abysmal.  I think Amaya is a great addition to the team, though I can do without Nate.  A better actor, yes, but we have plenty of straight white guys and Ray fills the dork role already.  Plus, I get a serious Taking Screentime Away From Established Characters Ala Mon-el vibe whenever he was on screen which I do not want.  I am looking forward to how the team gets out of their current predicament.  My theory is that Rip is connected to the Waverider and can’t just go off to experience life.  He must always intend to return otherwise we have Dinosaurs in Los Angeles.  I expect we’ll get a story of him figuring out his place in the ship and on the team without usurping Sara’s Captaincy. 

My favorite moment of season 2, speaking of Sara, was when she saved the day by simply depowering the Spear.  Sara has seen too much, has done too much, and has experienced major consequences for her choices over the years.  There’s no one else who would make that choice.  Everyone would try to do good deeds and all that would happen is that other negative things would happen.  Look at Barry and Flashpoint.  All he wanted to do was fix the past so that his parents didn’t die.  When all was said and done, his parents were still dead, Cisco’s brother needlessly died, little Sara Diggle was turned into JJ Diggle, and Savitar exists.  Sara herself knows this firsthand.  Her sister brought her back from the dead but didn’t know what she was doing and so Sara was a soulless killing machine until a magic solution was found.  And her sister ended up dead as a result.  Sara knew the safest choice was to set things the way they already are and to give no one else the chance to play god.  I love this character.

Count me among the many who fell for This Is Us.  I don’t think Jack is the Saint Husband that is so commonly felt among viewers but I do like the character.  I find Kevin a bit boring but I love watching him opposite his siblings.  Kate is great, and I relate to her insecurities, but I am not a Toby fan and I hope he doesn’t last much longer.  Randall is wonderful and I adore Beth and their girls.  Sterling K Brown is a gem and I want to see him in everything.  I found myself, when the season finished, relating to Rebecca the most.  She put her life on hold to raise the kids and probably would have been able to keep her resentments in check if she’d gotten the chance to truly pursue music without having to deal with Jack’s jealousy or drinking.  That ex in the band was a dick but she shut him down twice and probably would have just found a new group to sing with had Jack not been such an ass.  I do think that all happened in the run up to his death and I look forward to more details.

Agents of Shield is another Tuesday favorite.  I am very behind currently, as my DVR didn’t record the first few episodes when the show came back from the winter hiatus so I’m waiting for it to arrive on Netflix before binge watching.  My favorite characters were actually Bobbi and Hunter but I enjoy everyone else a lot which kept me around when they were written off.

Wednesday:

The week starts to get lighter beginning here.  I don’t have anything on until 9, when Chicago PD and Designated Survivor both air.  I quit Arrow back in season 3.  Sara’s fridging was the last straw for me. 

I do like Chicago PD but I’m mainly here for Sophia Bush.  If she ever leaves, then so will I.  I’m just tired of cop shows that glory in police brutality with no fallout unless the story permits.  When the show slows down and shows them doing actual detective work it works for me.

Designated Survivor is another where I’m mainly here for Maggie Q.  I like the other characters but the show doesn’t seem to know if it wants to be a conspiracy thriller or a political show.  It tries to do both and it doesn’t work very well.  I hope that a second season fixes these problems.

Thursday:

The Good Place is amazing.  Kristen Bell is one I will follow forever.  She’s just that good.  Ted Dansen is born for comedy and he is so great as Michael.  Chidi is someone I want in my own life and I can relate to his indecisiveness as I get that way with big decisions.  Tahani reminds me, in the best way, of a lot of people I went to college with.  Jason makes me laugh so hard and I love his relationship with Janet.  And, yes, I adore Janet. 

Superstore is so accurate that I cry laughing.  Sandra is probably my favorite and her look to Carol in the season 2 finale was everything. 

Chicago Med, like PD, is one that I watch because I enjoy Colin Donnell but it is not a good show.  There is a lot of judgment of the patients on the part of the doctors and nurses, rather than just treating them and moving on, so I tend to roll my eyes when I watch.

And that’s what I like to watch.