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grayson10yearslater · 24 days

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YOU DON'T KNOW GRAYSON: The Construction of Dick Grayson's Identity in Grayson Act I

INTRODUCTION: WHO AM I?

Like many of us, I first heard of Spyral in Dick-centric hurt/comfort fics. In these fics, the focus is often on how lonely and miserable Dick was during his time as Agent 37. How even after he became Nightwing again, his brothers never forgive him for letting them think he was dead. How the relationship between him and Bruce has been poisoned forever because Bruce savagely beat him and forced him to play dead. Usually Jason, Tim, and/or Damian discover Batcave footage of Bruce’s beat down of Dick, find out Dick was forced against his will into going undercover, and shower Dick with the love and forgiveness he deserves (and also probably kick Bruce’s ass a little). I want to be very clear. I eat these fics up for breakfast. Part of the reason I was so eager to read Grayson myself was for the hurt/comfort fodder.

But Grayson, in tone and execution, is nothing like the fanfics I read. There’s whump fodder, yes, but there is also humor and charm and new gratifying heartfelt relationships built within. Imagine my surprise when I read Grayson for the first time and found that Bruce and Dick’s relationship is not strained and bitter, but actually very tender and nostalgic. Both during and after the infamous Nightwing #30, there is so much affection between them. What got lost in fandom telephone? If Grayson isn’t about Dick at his absolute lowest, being the most miserable and alone sadsack to ever sack, what is it about?

The promo material gives us the easy pitch: identity. “YOU THINK YOU KNOW NIGHTWING…” the ad tells us, “YOU DON’T KNOW DICK.” For my money, this might be one of the best DC house ads of all time. It so perfectly captures the theme and the tone of Grayson. It’s in your face, it’s tongue-in-check, and it is so excited to explore Dick Grayson as a character.

But then the question remains: Who is Dick Grayson? The last six pages of Nightwing #30, written by Grayson co-writers Tom King and Tim Seeley, ends with Dick himself telling us.

“Who am I? I’ve been a lot of things. I was a son. I was a performer. An acrobat. A member of Haly’s Circus. Part of a family, a legacy. Then came Tony Zucco. He murdered my parents, and I was alone. I was angry. A sad, angry boy looking for revenge. Any revenge. Then came Bruce Wayne. He found me, and I wasn’t alone anymore. I was his ward. I was a son again. He trained me. Focused me. And I was Robin. A colleague. A hero. Partner to the Batman, the Dark Knight of Gotham. I was part of a family again. Batgirl. Commissioner James Gordon. Alfred Pennyworth. I grew older. I became a hero in my own right. I was Nightwing. I was a teacher. A mentor. To Jason…Tim…Damian…and eventually, when I was needed, I was Batman. I was part of a legacy again. Then came the Crime Syndicate. They put a noose around my neck, and I was alone again. I was tortured. I was put in front of cameras. I was unmasked. I was a plaything. They strapped me to a machine, I was their weapon. A bomb. Lex Luthor stopped my heart. Killed me to save the world. I was dead. Or so it seemed. In secret, I was saved. Who am I? After all that, I wanted to go back. I wanted to be who I’d been. A son. Part of a family…a legacy. Robin. Nightwing. Batman. I wanted to go back. But I can’t. Something terrible is coming. And I have to stop it. My enemy is in front of me and I’m alone. Who am I? My name is Dick Grayson. I’m who you need me to be.”

This monologue lays out the foundation: Dick defines himself by his network of relationships, his family. From Dick’s very beginning, family is an all-encompassing word that holds both his biological family (the Flying Graysons) and his chosen family (Haly’s Circus at large) together. Dick sees the world relationally; he defines who he is by how he is connected to others. Even his time as the solo hero Nightwing is framed through the relationship oriented occupations of teacher and mentor. It’s telling that in his monologue he uses the word “legacy” almost as often as family. It’s not just about the individuals he’s connected to, it’s about having a web of connections at all. A safety net. Dick is a trapeze artist. The trapeze is not a solo act. Grayson dares to ask who Dick Grayson really is when he’s not a legacy, not a member of a team, not the ‘and’ after Batman?

STILL TWO BEST FRIENDS

Tim Seeley: One of the things Tom and I wanted to do, beyond the drama and conflict between Dick and Bruce, was not another story about the drama and conflict between Dick and Bruce. We didn't want to do another story about how the Robins are exploited and used and eventually turn against Batman. This is still about the two best friends in the DC Universe, but they fight and they have to ask each other to do things that they don't want to. But when it comes down to it, these are the two best buddies that there could be. When they have conflict, it's because it's important. It's because it means something. It's not something to falsify the drama.

To understand what Grayson is doing with the themes of identity and partnership, we have to unpack Nightwing #30. I could write a whole series of posts on Nightwing #30. It’s so densely packed and, by my money, one of the most misunderstood issues in fandom. Every time I reread it, I discover something new to munch on. For the purposes of this post, I will focus on how Dick and Bruce construct Dick’s identity.

Bruce frames their fight as a test. “I need to see if they broke you,” he says, “I need to see if you still have the heart you once had.” This is what Bruce and Dick are fighting over: after being tortured, having his identity revealed by the Crime Syndicate, and killed by Lex Luthor…is Dick Grayson still Dick Grayson?

Their fight is brutal. And why wouldn’t it be? Dick’s lost everything, even his life, and Bruce was helpless to save him. Both Dick and Bruce are at their lowest points right now. “I trained you to live,” Bruce yells as he strikes Dick in the face, “and I watched you die!” This fight is one of the most bloody, violent brawls we’ve ever seen between Bruce and Dick. It’s easy to see why this confrontation spread like wildfire in the whump-centric parts of fandom. It’s blood, guts, and tears.

The quote from Seeley at the beginning of this section is so illuminating. Despite the reputation this scene has gained in fandom, it was never intended to be “another story about how the Robins are exploited and used and eventually turn against Batman”. This scene is intended to break Bruce and Dick down in order to build them back up again. So why doesn’t that intention always come through?

I think it’s a question of genre. Both King and Seeley have gone on record as really enjoying superhero comics for their genre conventions. They are not interested in anything hyperrealistic or gritty. When Dick and Bruce beat the hell out of each other across the Batcave, it’s more equivalent to two characters in a musical breaking out into a dance number, as opposed to actual physical abuse. Compare this issue to New Teen Titans #55, where Bruce’s single punch there has more traumatic weight in the narrative than all the punches here combined. The violence in Nightwing #30 is much more a visual metaphor for Bruce and Dick’s emotional states. The emotional fight is the real concern for the plot, not the literal physical blows, a convention we see often in the superhero genre. And the emotional fight is over what Dick’s identity is now, after the events of Forever Evil. Who does Dick need to be next? Bruce needs Dick to be someone stronger, someone who can’t die, someone who can infiltrate Spyral and not be corrupted by them. Dick wants to return to comfort, to family. He wants to, as he says later on in this issue, “be who [he’s] been”.

For Dick especially, the violence here showcases his struggle with his identity in the aftermath of Forever Evil. As Bruce begins to tell Dick about the Spyral mission, he kicks Dick into the glass case holding the Robin costume. Dick is broken and battered, on his knees on the Robin cape, surrounded by shattered glass and the looming shadow of Batman. This is a visualization of what Dick feels internally: that by agreeing to stay dead and go on this mission, he is shattering everything he once was. Batman is killing him. Bruce is killing the person he used to be.

Dick can’t accept that. He outright says no and uses the Robin cape to choke Bruce out. Again, that sounds horrifically violent. But on the page, it just feels like symbolism. Dick chokes Bruce out with the Robin cape, tying them together back-to-back. He doesn’t want to leave Bruce again. He wants to stay together. If Dick understands his identity to be Batman’s partner, what does it mean that Bruce is trying to take that away?

Bruce and Dick are at cross-purposes with regards to who Dick needs to be next. As they throw punches, Bruce rattles off intel as Dick says the names of his family like a prayer. Bruce is acting from a place of terror. He just witnessed Dick die and his coping strategy is what it always is: become the mission. Bruce needs Dick’s identity to be mission focused, and that mission is staying alive and keeping their secrets safe (pointedly, the very same things Dick just failed to do). Dick needs to feel reconnected to his old identity, he needs to return to his family and be with them. Both of them are desperately trying to make meaning out of Dick’s death. When Dick tackles Bruce into the Batmobile, saying that he’s alive, it almost looks like a hug. They are not communicating here, but that does not mean they don’t care deeply for each other. It is the same tenderness they feel towards each other that provokes them into such a no-holds-barred fight. They are desperate; both of them will stop at nothing to not lose each other. It’s just that they have different definitions of salvation.

Nightwing #30 is an argument of ideology. After knocking Dick to the ground, Bruce plays the mentor. “Why do we fall, Dick? We fall so we can learn to get back up.” The Spyral mission is a very real, very urgent threat. But there’s also a part of Bruce that desperately needs to see Dick prove his invincibility again, for the sake of his worldview. Dick, at this moment, refuses Bruce’s lesson. He peels off the mask Bruce gave him. “No,” he says, “No, that’s not true. We fall because someone pushes us. We get up to push back.” Dick’s resolve is iron-clad. He will never just stay on the ground, not when someone pushed him. His desire for justice will always compel him back on to his feet. That desire belongs to Dick Grayson, not Nightwing, not Robin. Even as Dick argues against Bruce, he proves to them both why he is the only option for a long term undercover mission in Spyral.

Bruce continues to preach the necessity of Dick’s Spyral mission, no matter the costs. “After this, Bruce,” Dick tells him as he blocks Bruce’s punch, “after asking this, between us – it can’t be the same again.” Bruce knows. He delivers his explanation of his self-identity:

“I’m hurting you. My family. I’m making that sacrifice. Because I don’t give up. I don’t give in. But what about you? Are you them? Or are you me? After the Crime Syndicate captured you, tortured you, killed you – tell me Dick, my body, after all of this – will you give up? Will you give in?”

While Nightwing #30 has been laying the foundation of the plot of Grayson this whole time, this is the foundation of Grayson’s Act I’s thematic question: Who is Dick Grayson? Bruce here pitches it as a binary question. Is Dick him? A Bat who never gives up. Or is he “them”? The “them” is ambiguous. Grammatically, it refers to the other heroes who would give up and let Spyral use them. But I think it could be argued that “them” means anyone who isn’t Bruce. The Crime Syndicate. Spyral. The dead. Anyone who isn’t relentless and alive. Dick is a pillar in Bruce’s psyche. It’s an essay on its own tracking all the moments throughout canon and elsewhere stories where Bruce loses his grip on his own identity when Dick dies. He frames this as a binary question not out of sadism, but because this is how Bruce’s worldview works. It is just fundamentally more binary and egocentric than Dick’s worldview. Bruce does not construct his identity (or his understanding of Dick’s identity) in the same way Dick does.

Dick constructs his identity through the relationships he has with people, not if they are him or not. It’s a bringing together of people and identities within himself, not a subjugation. Having those identity defining relationships is an action, not an act of possession for Dick. And Bruce is asking Dick to leave those relationships behind. Dick’s identity is in freefall. He’s losing his family. He’s losing his mantle. After all that loss, one thing remains true: he “is not [Bruce’s] boy”. With that mission statement, Dick delivers the knockout punch that has Bruce forfeiting the fight.

This spark of independence is what makes Dick a survivor. This is what allows Dick to define himself through his web of connections without being a hollow person who has no true personality, no true self. Dick is not a child, a boy, who just belongs to someone. Not Bruce. Not Spyral. He is his own man. And while Dick will struggle with not being able to behave as a Bat does anymore once he’s in Spyral, if a Bat was truly all he was, Spyral would break him. Dick’s refutation here further proves to Bruce that he can survive this mission. “I win,” says Dick, just a small figure in a sea of broken, burning childhood mementos. Goodbye, Robin. Bruce embraces him in a sidehug, literally pulling Dick under his wing. “Good,” Bruce says. Their pose mirrors the photograph of young Dick and Bruce in the panel. The visuals here communicate what Seeley spoke of in his interview: despite the destruction, despite the goodbyes, this is still two best friends.

This is the catharsis of Nightwing #30, the resolution to this fight of ideology and grief. This moment is overlooked because it is so brief compared to the length of their fight. And it’s a messy resolution. I imagine that there are many readers who remain unconvinced of the necessity of the Spyral mission as Bruce’s posits, or the depiction of the physical violence, or many other messy things in the issue. But Dick isn’t unconvinced by the necessity of infiltrating Spyral. The next time we see him, he’s all in on the mission, ready to be “who you need me to be”. Bruce tells a horrified Alfred that he’s “fixed it”. Bruce and Dick both understand that they have to be apart for right now, just for this one problem, and then home will return to them. They both understand it as a sacrifice, not an estrangement. I think a lot of Spyral hurt/comfort fics assume that the Nightwing #30 fight was never resolved. It was. Perhaps in a way that feels unsatisfying to some readers, but Grayson does not make sense if one doesn’t accept that Dick has already made peace with Bruce before he left.

Dick’s relationship with Bruce is solid when Helena Bertinelli offers him a job at Spyral. It is Dick’s own personal sense of self that remains in jeopardy. The last three lines of the issue are Dick’s monologue: “Who am I? My name is Dick Grayson. I’m who you need me to be.” In bold red letters, the issue tells us “TO BE CONTINUED IN GRAYSON #1!” It could not be more clear what thematic questions Grayson will seek to explore. Can Dick really be whoever he needs to be? Can Dick really become the agent Spyral needs him to be and the double agent Batman needs him to be, all while still being himself? Will being Agent 37 break Dick Grayson permanently?

DOWNSIDE OF A SOLO ACT

“The downside of a solo act. No one around to see you do the cool stuff.”

The first four issues of Grayson are defined by identity crisis. The agents of Spyral struggle to get Dick to let go of his current identity that is rooted in Batman and become Agent 37 more fully. Dick struggles internally to adapt enough to Spyral’s culture to continue to be a double agent, while not engaging in any acts that break the morals he’s so firmly tied to his sense of self. Dick can no longer define himself by a family who isn’t there, so he has to define himself as the person his family once loved.

Grayson #1 sets the stage. We are dropped right into the action as Dick takes down an enemy on a moving train. He uses a gun, but not by shooting it. Instead, he uses it as a boomerang that hits his enemy in the head. On the last panel of the page, Dick sighs to him and says, “The downside of a solo act. No one around to see you do the cool stuff.” Readers turn the page, heightening the gag. Set-up and payoff: Midnighter watches Dick with a pair of binoculars. “Damn,” he says, “That was pretty cool.” This exchange is peak Grayson. Its snappy humor disguises the work it's doing to contribute to Grayson’s central dramatic question: Who is Dick Grayson when he isn’t Batman’s partner, a solo act? Midnighter, looking every inch like a Batman type, tells us that Dick is not as alone as he thinks. But the leather daddies in black aren’t here to rescue him from his loneliness, they are here as his enemies first. Dick defines himself through his relationships. How will his sense of self be challenged by people who don’t want to form strong bonds with him?

Even as a spy, it’s still Dick’s default to make friends. His first use of Hypnos, the mind control implant given to him by Spyral, is to make Ninel Dubov think they are close friends. He says: “I’m your friend, Ninel. You’ve been lonely and afraid for so long. I just want to help you. And you want to help me. That’s what friends do.” Yes, Dick is literally brainwashing the guy here, but his words are a solid definition of friendship. This is how Dick incorporates his friends into his identity: he’s there to help them. Even as Dick is doing the most Spyral thing in the world, using Hypnos on a target, he is still operating under his old construction of his identity.

But this classic Dick Grayson approach soon backfires. Ninel activates a very dangerous power in order to assist Dick in his fight against Midnighter. When Dick sees that Ninel is at risk of dying, Dick has to drop the friendship act. He goads Ninel into venting his power and completes the mission. In the past, Nightwing would have been able to talk Ninel down with sincerity. Agent 37 does not have that luxury. Dick’s always been talented at manipulation, by his own admission later on in the issue (“I-I’ve always been good at reading people. [...] Never used it – like it.”), but his people reading skills have always been used for the pursuit of justice. Now Dick is using the skills for morally ambiguous Spyral’s benefit. Under Dick’s own sense of self, he should be bad at being a spy. But he’s not. So what does that say about Dick’s identity? Is he really who he thinks he is?

Dick’s struggle to remain connected to the morals that define his place with his family is exemplified in Grayson #2 by Dick’s struggle to remain connected to Batman. Undoubtedly, Dick’s relationship to Batman is crucial to how Dick self-identifies. Over and over again in this run, Dick’s defines himself as Batman’s partner, Batman’s heir. Batman is emblematic of a moral system that is important to Dick’s understanding of himself, the same system that is at odds with Spyral’s definition of Agent 37. But more than that, Batman is emblematic of a person, a history of a relationship, that is critical to Dick’s self-identity. When Dick craves comfort and support, he reaches out to Bruce about their interpersonal connections. He wants to know if Alfred and Barbara are okay after attending his funeral. In order for Dick to feel centered and stable with himself, he needs to know that the people he includes in his self-identity are okay, too.

The downside to this way of being is that if Dick doesn’t have access to those people who are his foundation of self, he grows unsteady. But his Spyral mission, by design, keeps him cut-off from his family, for his and their safety. Bruce must rebuff Dick’s desire for comfort. “Birdwatcher,” Bruce stops and corrects himself, sensing Dick’s vulnerability, “the longer we stay on the line the more likely it’ll be intercepted.” It comes off as a chastisement, and it is, but it’s also Bruce giving to Dick the same comfort he would give to himself: focus on the mission. And Dick tries to. “Right. Yeah. Hey y’know what? I don’t need to know. Because I’m going to wrap this up before the flowers on my grave wilt. Over.” But even as he’s trying to model Bruce’s coping mechanism, his real desire bleeds through. Dick wants to return to his family. By returning to them, he’ll return to a congruent self-identity. When Helena sees Dick after this call, she notes that he looks “rattled”. Until he can return to his connections in Gotham, Dick is trapped in the identity limbo of being Agent 37.

Dick Grayson, however, is a character inclined to change, whether he intends it or not. Batman may be the most important connection in the web of relationships Dick uses to define himself, but he is not the only one, and the web is always growing.

Helena Bertinelli, code name Matron, is that first new connection. She is assigned to be Dick’s partner. As someone high up in Spyral’s food chain, Helena is an antagonistic force to Dick’s mission. Her personality is efficient and no nonsense. Their dynamic in Grayson #2 is reminiscent of the dynamic Dick had with Batman when he was Robin. The stoic, more knowledgeable mentor and the playful, confident student. But that dynamic is purely surface level right now. There is no foundation of trust between Dick and Helena, not at the start. Neither of them are under any delusions about their ability to truly trust each other. But for the mission, they must act as partners.

Spyral sends them to find a bioweapon enhanced stomach of Paragon in Farmington, Leicestershire. Their investigation leads them to Dr. Poppy Ashemoore, who has the stomach implanted into herself, and is now an enhanced cannibal attacking them. Dick’s got a plan to take her down. It’s a very superhero genre plan, he’s going to get her monologuing and then strike. He expects Helena, his partner, to have his back. She doesn’t. Helena orders Agent 37 not to strike. Dick’s confused; this is not how the story goes. “She’s a cannibal, Matron! She killed people and ate them! It goes like this: we knock her down, and we take her to the proper authorities!” Helena reminds him that his old ways of identification hold no value here: “She is not a supervillain. She is an asset who happens to be an incredibly self-sufficient genius.” Dick cannot accept the idea that a murderer may escape justice and be rewarded for it, so Helena uses the code word “tsuchigumo” and knocks Dick out.

After an issue of bonding, it’s a big betrayal. Back at homebase, Helena completes her lecture from the start of the issue about what a Hadrian woman is: “She is unconcerned with righteousness or virtue. She exists only for the prompt and unerring delivery of her charge.” Dick watches from the shadows, sick and defeated. Helena is training the girls, but her words apply to all those who work for Spyral, including Dick. This is the type of person he must become. A strong connection to Helena did not provide him with any relief, just more disconnection. Again, Dick must question his own self-identity.

The issue ends with Dick making a mission report to Bruce again. He’s internalized the need to not linger, but can’t resist one last attempt at re-establishing connection. Helena was a failed partnership, but Batman and Robin never die. This time, he appeals to a value Bruce also shares: nostalgia. They share a sweet memory about Babs and Alfred. Dick may not have his relationships present in his life currently, and he’s suffering for it, but the memories of the love he has for them cannot be taken away. Those memories can stabilize his self-identity for one more day.

But that is just duct tape on the hole in the dam. Eventually, the dam is going to burst. Dick could only juggle being half Agent 37, half his former self for so long. Grayson #3 serves as the ultimate nadir for Grayson Act I. In #3, the struggle between Dick’s relationship-centric self identity and the mission-centric identity of Spyral agents causes the death of two people.

Issue #3 opens with Dick establishing a new connection with a new character: Alia, codename Agent 8. After Helena and Dick are assigned a joint mission with Agent 1 (AKA Tiger) and Agent 8, Agent 8 meets Dick at the shooting range. She isn’t impressed with his shot: “Really? This is how the great Wing-Knight shoots? I see why Mr. Minos has Agent 1 and me bailing you out on this mission.” Dick corrects her. It is both a fact correction and an assertion of his identity. “Nightwing. And you should see me with a slingshot, Agent 8.” Even as Dick asserts his identity as Nightwing, he calls upon the distinctly Robin imagery of the slingshot. Dick’s framing his identity not just as Nightwing, but his time as a caped hero overall. Nightwing isn’t just the Nightwing suit - it’s the entire life Dick’s led up to this point. And that person, he begins with the oath Dick swore to Batman in order to become Robin. Nightwing is the legacy of Robin. And Dick is proud of that legacy. He would rather be good with a slingshot than a gun - that is what keeps him connected to Bruce. This is how he understands himself.

Still, the back and forth between Dick and Agent 8 begins to cross the line into flirtatious. Her body language is clearly sensual as she corrects his form. “But remember, don’t anticipate the explosion,” Agent 8 tells Dick, “Cause the explosion. Can you do that, Wing-Knight? Can you do that for me?” Dick again reasserts his identity. “That’s not my name. My name is…” The next page reveals Agent 8 in bed gasping Dick’s name in pleasure. It’s a cheesy homage to the brazen sexuality of spy thrillers. But even still, it’s revealing. Nightwing doesn’t make up Dick Grayson; Nightwing makes up a part of Dick Grayson. Losing Nightwing does not mean Dick has lost his identity, it just means he’s lost the easiest way to sum himself up. There is hope for Dick’s self-identity, even as we nosedive to his lowest point. He may not be “Wing-Knight” anymore, but he is still Dick Grayson.

After their tryst, Dick continues to struggle with his identity as an agent of Spyral who should be using a gun, vis-à-vis struggling to understand Christophe Tanner, their target for this issue. “I don’t understand these things,” Dick says of a gun. “Going after a guy like this, with a tool like this. He’s in pain. He should stop the pain. How does this stop anything?” Dick’s worldview is so much about soothing hurt. He’s a fixer. Guns don’t solve emotional wounds. But this worldview has no place in Spyral. Agent 8 says so: “What do you know about guns?” But she might as well be asking what does Dick know about this spy world.

Dick, Helena, Agent 8 and Tiger track Tanner down. It goes tits up pretty quickly. Dick faces Tanner down alone. He tries to talk sense into Tanner the same way he’s been talking sense into himself: by reminding Tanner of his relationships. “I know about your boys,” Dick says. “I know you tried to save them, and I know what he did. Haven’t you had enough? Haven’t the guns done enough? We don’t need these to settle this. Tell us where the eyes are, and we all walk away. Think about your boys. Some things you don’t shoot your way out of.” Tanner rejects him and chooses his guns. Tiger comes to Dick’s rescue, but not without chastising him. Dick’s method has failed on Tanner. The worldview on which he constructs his identity has failed. Is it doomed to fail for himself, too?

The consequences of this are severe. Agent 8 blows up at Dick for endangering Tiger, her partner’s, life. She calls him out on a perceived hypocrisy: “Oh, yeah, you noble superheroes. Fire laser beams at people. Arrows. Batathingies. But a gun, no, no, never. God forbid! Not a gun!” Nursing the cheek Agent 8 just slapped, Dick can only repeat what he’s desperately holding on to: guns aren’t “the way [he] fight[s]”. His identity is being challenged at all fronts. He can’t risk revealing how much he holds on to the people of his previous life, so he can only cling on to their teachings. Guns aren’t the way he fights. His explanation only makes Agent 8 angrier. “You’re all like Batman,” she says, “little boys under little masks, crying about their dead mommies.” Dick, acting as both the double agent seeking information and the Bruce Wayne defense squad he usually is, asks, “What do you know about Batman?”

Agent 8 gives an ending argument that hits harder than her slap. “I know he still wears his little mask. What I don’t know is if you’ve taken yours off! You’re not a superhero. You're a spy. With a gun. You’re not Wing-Kinght or Nightwing or whatever. You’re Agent 37.” Here she reveals a flaw at the center of Dick’s identity - if Dick defines himself through his relationships, how can he endanger a partner by not taking the shot? Are Batman’s teachings getting in the way of helping people? But if Dick isn’t Batman’s teachings, who is he? Agent 8 would answer that by saying Dick is Agent 37, a spy who uses a gun. But can Dick really be that?

No. No, of course not. When presented with the shoot or be shot dilemma, Dick does the most Dick Grayson thing he can do: he finds a third option. Dick’s puts together the missing pieces of Tanner’s backstory, tracking him down to the school that his youngest and only alive son attends. He uses the weapon at his disposal that predates even Robin; he tries to talk it out. Dick encourages Tanner to drop the guns and meet his son. “Is that how you want him to see you? With your guns in the air?” Dick reiterates Agent 8’s own defense of guns to him, Dick understands that they “make things go faster”. But, as he tells Tanner, “what’s the damn rush?”

This time, Dick’s words reach Tanner. He confesses he stole the macguffin of the issue because he didn’t want to see his son through the gun. The Paragon eyes aren’t compatible with him, so he gives them to Dick. The two share a touching moment where Tanner is insecure about his looks scaring his son and Dick jokes about Tanner’s chest hair. This is the type of relationship building that is at the core of Dick’s self-identity. But just as Dick wins a laugh from his once enemy, Agent 8 shoots Tanner. Everything goes to shit from that moment on, right in front of Dick’s eyes. Tanner survives the shot and returns fire to Agent 8, killing her. He then falls off the roof and dies in front of his son. The parallels to both Bruce’s and Dick’s parents’ own deaths cannot be ignored; it is salt in the wound. Dick has defined his life by his mission to save people. Now, Dick is left alone on the rooftop, with nothing but blood, a gun, and Tiger’s desperate voice ringing through his coms.

As Tanner’s son finds his father’s body, still clutching his gun, Tiger speaks, “37. 1. Do you have eyes on Agent 8? Repeat. 37, do you have eyes on Agent 8? 37? 37? Agent 37!” Dick raises his head. Grayson artist Mikel Janín’s composition is spectacular here. Dick looks the reader straight in our eyes. “That’s not my name.”

This is the ultimate rejection of Dick’s Agent 37 identity. He will never be convinced of Agent 8’s and Spyral at large’s ideology. All it’s done is make two people dead and a little boy an orphan. This knowledge doesn’t change the fact that Dick’s mission isn’t over. Lives are on the line, in all directions. He has to be a spy. Agent 37 isn’t his name but still Dick must wear this disguise. How will he adapt?

As always, Dick’s ability to adapt is helped by the relationships he forms with other people. If Grayson #3 was about the ultimate failure of Dick and Agent 8’s partnership (and I don’t just mean romantically, I mean Agent 8 as an opposing ideology Dick cannot integrate into his sense of self), then Grayson #4 is the beginning of Helena’s growth into that web. Even though Helena has been tasked by the Director of Spyral, Mr. Minos, to root out the double agent in their midst, she and Dick continue to grow closer.

Grayson #4 starts out with their status quo sunshine-grumpy relationship. Dick is purposefully sucking a lollipop as annoyingly as possible and Helena karate chops it out of his mouth. Dick wraps up the lollipop to send it back to Bruce for DNA sampling, but plays dumb with Helena, who reacts with scorn and disgust. But even after this engineered tiff, Helena immediately tries to comfort Dick over Agent 8’s death. Dick rebuffs her, he knows that death “is part of the job”. He is playing the Agent 37 role that Agent 8 so wanted him to do. Helena isn’t convinced. She tries again to have this conversation with Dick and again is rebuffed. “Don’t worry,” Dick assures her, mistaking what I would argue is Helena’s genuine concern over him with her fixation on accomplishing the mission, “I’m focused. I’m ready. The mission is as good as accomplished.” The status quo is starting to shift between these two, but Dick hasn’t forgiven her betrayal yet.

The rest of the issue acts almost as a breather episode. The Hadrian students decide to raid Dick’s room for his panties. Dick catches them on the hunt, of course. But rather than turn them in for breaking curfew, he starts a cat and mouse game, leading them in a chase across campus. They want a game? Sure, Dick’s happy to play. This moment is silly and fun but it’s so revealing of how Dick recenters himself in his grief. He wants to be with people without having to be vulnerable with people. He wants to be in the air. He wants the chase. This is how Dick self-soothes a wound to his worldview, to his very identity.

Helena, out at night investigating Agent 8 as the potential Spyral mole, catches the group. She sends the girls back to their dorms and Dick to Mr. Minos, where he receives his punishment. He is to become the girls’ gay French acrobatics teacher. It’s pitched as a torture for Dick, and while the Hadrian girls are thirsty af, Dick loves being a teacher. Teacher is one of the ways Dick defined himself as back in Nightwing #30 and of course acrobat is Dick’s very essence. The cover story is framed as a punishment for Dick, but truly this is an opportunity for Dick to maintain his old, true, self-identity.

Helena has another opportunity for Dick’s self-identity too. Later that night, she sneaks into Dick’s bedroom. “I know why you came to Spyral, Dick Grayson.” Dick reacts with confusion. Helena gives an impassioned monologue. It’s a reversal, instead of Helena dragging Dick into the messy spy thriller genre, here Dick inspires Helena to dip her toes into the superhero genre, where impassioned speeches can reach another person’s heart. She says:

“I saw you tonight. Running across those rooftops. There was a joy in your movement. In your eyes. You loved the night. You loved the chase. You loved being the fearless hero. You loved being Nightwing. When you were outed by the Crime Syndicate. Believed killed. You knew you had to remain dead. To reveal that you were alive could endangered those you loved. Set your enemies against them. You had to quit being the hero. Being Dick Grayson. Now, you fear that you might lose who you are.”

Helena reads Dick like an open book. To know Dick’s motivations so well is dangerous, but Helena does not make Dick bleed for it. She simply walks towards the window. When Dick asks where she’s going, she turns and says, “I do not want you to forget who you are Dick Grayson. I want you to remember the rooftops. I want you to remember the night. I want you to remember Nightwing.” She smiles, which on Helena looks more like a smirk, “Chase me.” And Dick does.

For Dick, this is the remedy for the poison from the last issue. Agent 8 wanted Dick to be someone else. In her worldview, Agent 37 can only exist at Nightwing’s death. Dick must forget everything he was before to be Agent 37. In contrast, Helena wants Dick to remember who he is, which includes (but is not limited to) Nightwing. She wants him to be successful in Spyral not at the cost of his previous selves. Dick has to hide so much of his true identity and belief systems right now. But Helena, at least, can offer herself up as the means in which Dick can still feel safely connected to his old, true identity.

Dick started in Issue #1 utterly alone. He ends #4 chasing after someone who is sour, dark, and perfect into the night, a smile on his face. This ending allows Dick to metaphorically be Robin, Nightwing, and Agent 37 all at the same time. He is able to hold that multiplicity of identity within him because of his connection to Helena. Once again, being a partner act keeps Dick’s identity whole.

I HAVE HER

“This can’t…this…you can’t do this…I know you. I see what’s coming. You…you…can’t. I have…my enhancements. I have…powers. Dick…Dick Grayson...what…what do you have?” “I have her.”

Grayson #5 is one of my favorite single issues of all time. It should be part of a mandatory DC onboarding when it comes to writing Dick Grayson. It captures the core of his character, his ultimate truth: the unflinching determination to help people in the face of impossible odds.

The issue starts in media res. Dick and Midnighter are helping a woman deliver her baby as Helena tries to pilot a failing plane to safety. The mother dies. The plane crashes in the desert. The baby is alive and crying. Helena, Midnighter, Dick and the baby are two hundred miles away from civilization. Midnighter does the math: they’re dead. There’s no way any of them can survive the trek.

Dick refuses to accept that. If they die, the baby dies, so they can’t die. It’s just that simple.

Thus far, in Grayson, Dick’s ability to care deeply about strangers has been used against him. A good spy makes people think they care, but they don’t actually care. They exist in order to survive the mission or themselves. Dick’s mission is caring about people; he defines himself through loving other people. Grayson #5 shows us that this isn’t mere naivete. This is Dick’s most dangerous skill. He doesn't have to have special enhancements or powers. As long as he has "her", a person to save, Dick can do anything. His determination arises from his relational approach to identity.

This has been true for Dick since he was a child. Later on in the issue, after Helena and Midnighter have both succumbed to the elements, Dick tells the baby about a dream he once had. The story he tells is a heartfelt and poignant reference to Batman #156, “Robin Dies at Dawn”. “On this world,” Dick says, “I was Robin. I had to save him.” The syntax and order of Dick’s sentences here reveal that he defines being Robin as saving people and he is Robin. In order to be himself, Dick must save people. And he does, even though Dick’s story ends with rocks and darkness, the moral he gives to the baby is bravery in the face of any odds.

For those of us who are familiar with Batman #156, we know that Dick is hit with rocks and dies. Batman, guilty, grief-stricken, and alone on an alien planet with a monster about to attack him, begs for death. It’s eventually revealed that Robin is alive and well, Batman was just undergoing an astronaut simulation. This meta reference highlights Dick’s superpower in this issue. When Batman doesn’t have Robin, he begs for death. When Robin doesn’t have Batman, he finds more people to save. Dick is able to survive the loneliness and isolation that Batman isn’t because Dick doesn’t define his identity by one person or purpose, but by his ability to care for many people. Today, it’s this baby. Tomorrow, it will be someone else. That’s who Dick is. Dick’s devotion to life itself gives him determination.

Devotion is not something many call a strength anymore. After all, devotion so easily becomes zealotry. Grayson #5 itself warns us of this. A Saudi couple find Dick and the baby and the wife is overjoyed. “We have prayed for so long for a child,” she says, “And here, god has brought one from the desert.” Her husband disagrees. “What is this? God has not brought this boy. This is no God. Look. This is only a man.”

Dick is not a god. He is not even an enhanced guy with a supercomputer for a brain. He is just a man. But when a man makes serving other people his identity, he can do the impossible.

HEART IS AN AWESOME POWER

“Who are you? What do you hold inside? Is it love? Is that what you believe?”

If Grayson #5 is about Dick proving who he is to the reader, then Grayson #6-7 are about him proving that core identity to Midnighter and Helena.

Grayson #6 opens with Dick and Helena investigating a prison island. After surviving an attack from a robot orca, they find that their targets have already been slaughtered by the Fist of Cain. While Helena uses her Hypnos implant to get information about the issue’s macguffin, the Paragon Brain, from a surviving Fist of Cain member, Midnighter kidnaps Dick and takes him to the God Garden. There Dick and Midnighter finally have the all out brawl they’ve been building towards. As they trade blows, Midnighter reveals exactly what he thinks of Dick. He states as fact of all the worst fears Dick has about himself during the Spyral mission.

“You traded in the supertights for a decoder ring but you think you’re still the good guy,” Midnighter says, “But you’ve changed. You’re just lying to yourself. You’re one of them.”

Dick refutes Midnighter’s analysis of himself. First, by refuting Midnighter’s claim that he’s figured out Dick’s fighting style (“You can do jazz. How are you at punk rock?”). Dick is made up of more than what Midnighter claims he is. It’s easy to read this as a rebuttal against the naysayers of Grayson itself: Dick is more than just his mantles. He can carry a solo title with no masks, just as Dick Grayson.

“Comfort. Trust. Family. I gave that up to become a spy. A spider man. A tsuchigumo. I have changed,” Dick acknowledges. “But I’ll always be Dick Grayson.”

If that’s true, then how is Dick constructing the identity of ‘Dick Grayson’, if not by those ties of family and legacy? Issue #7 will answer that for us in time. Here in Issue #6, there’s still more setting up to do. After Helena is exposed mentally to the Fist of Cain’s plans for mass murder, she awakens to see that Dick is gone. She doesn’t know he’s been kidnapped. The first thing she asks is if Dick left her. Like Midnighter, Helena is suspicious of who Dick claims to be. Is he really her partner? Or will he abandon her the second it suits his goals?

As Issue #6 sets up the fears Helena and Midnighter have about who Dick is as a person, Issue #7 proves those fears wrong. Cue the transformation magic, Dick is about to go full magical girl.

Issue #7 is an ode to Dick’s legacy. As Robin, Dick represented spring: the joy and new life after the cold death of winter. As Nightwing, Dick represented rebirth, the great rebuilder after destruction. The mantles don’t represent those things intrinsically. They represent those ideals because Dick infused them with the essence of his own person, who lives by those ideals. Agent 37 does not carry that Dick Grayson legacy the way Robin and Nightwing do; it carries the reputation of Spyral. As Dick tries to convince the Gardener to let him and Midnighter stop the Fists of Cain, the Gardener calls him out on this. “[...] You, Dick Grayson, represent lies and treachery. The loss of ideals. The desire for power at the cost of innocence.” Here, in this world, Dick is no longer the benchmark of the superhero community, the guy everyone respects. He’s fallen. He’s been corrupted.

But he’s still Dick Grayson. He’s not going to let a fall stop him from saving people. The Fist of Cain plan to use the Paragon brain to make innocent people kill each other. Gardener believes that this bloodbath will serve as an example for all of humanity and help create a better world. Dick can’t physically fight her, so he uses his other skills: empathy and compassion.

He tells the Gardener a story about himself.

“When my parents died, I thought that was the end for me. I was freefalling. I thought that I was going to fall and fall until I hit the ground. But someone came to my rescue. He caught me before I hit the ground. He was my net. He taught me to focus my anger. To stop myself from hating the world. From blaming everyone for the evil of a few. And then, I realized how lucky I was. I realized I had to pay it back. I owed it to other people to be their net. I had to dedicate my life to being there to catch anyone who needed it.”

Dick’s anger is not an explosive, severed heads in a duffle bag kind of anger. After Dick’s parents die, he was never in danger of becoming a thug or a murderer, he was in danger of losing his idealism. Anger takes the form of mistrust, disconnection, and apathy in Dick. It’s “blaming everyone for the evil of a few”. It’s closing himself off from the world and all the love the world offers.

When one is faced with the type of acute trauma young Dick survived, it’s easy for that experience to make you selfish and isolated. Becoming the Robin to Bruce’s Batman saves Dick from this worldview. Robin gifts Dick a world of connections - from the bond he forms with Bruce and Alfred, to the people he saves every night on the streets. This is what Gardener is not understanding. There are evil people in the world. The world itself may even be cruel. But that’s not the point. The point is the friends you make along the way, the people you catch in your net. By limiting his scope to the people he can reach, Dick is able to love the whole world.

The Gardener, moved by Dick’s and Midnighter’s pleas, allows them to teleport to Tel-Aviv and save the day. The Fist of Cain are disguised as the band Sin by Silence; they intend to unleash the power of the Paragon brain at a concert for peace. “But I want you to answer a question Tel-Avi,” lead singer Clutch asks the crowd. “Who are you? What do you hold inside? Is it love? Is that what you believe?”

So far Dick himself has not dropped the L word. He speaks around it, citing family and catching people when they fall - terms and phrases that absolutely do share the same meaning as love, but don’t sound as cheesy when said aloud. Clutch is able to speak directly to the central dramatic questions of this issue on Dick’s behalf: “Who are you? What do you hold inside? Is it love? Is that what you believe?” Notice here how the order of Clutch’s questions directly ties the construction of identity to a belief system of love. Clutch intends to subvert this by proving that the true self of all people is a murderer, but Dick Grayson answers those questions in the affirmative. It is love that he holds inside of him. That is the belief he is devoted to. That is who he is.

Helena is starting to understand that. When Dick comes to her rescue, she succumbs to the power of the Paragon brain and attacks him.“Agent 37.” She corrects for his true identity. “Dick. You—abandoned me! I hate you! Kill you!” Dick dodges her attack and Helena is able to come to her senses and realize the impact that Paragon brain is having on her.

“I’m too angry, Dick. I have too much hate,” she says, confessing to Dick her own construction of identity. “I’ve killed. And I’ll do it again. I can’t…I’m too weak even with the Hypnos to get anywhere near the Paragon brain.” It’s only after Helena tells both Dick and herself who she is that she is able to tell Dick who he is. “But you, Dick Grayson. You have no hate. You would never take a life. Everything you do…it’s...”

She kisses him. It’s an appropriate action for her speech as this is all but a declaration of love. It’s a declaration of Dick’s nobility, the very thing both Midnighter and Helena were scrutinizing in the last issue. Helena says Dick has “no hate” but I think another way of saying that is that Dick is full of love. Kissing Dick “clear[s] [her] mind a little”, freeing Helena of the Paragon brain’s influence. Where once Helena flirted with Dick to assert her identity as the better spy, now she kisses him to center herself as someone who won’t give into hatred and mass murder. She kisses Dick as a way back to her identity, just as she lead Dick back to his identity in Grayson #4. They depart, refocused on the mission.

Dick eventually makes it on stage to destroy the Paragon brain. The brain, in Dick’s own words, offers him up the greatest temptation. “I—I can feel you. Whispering to me. Telling me it’s okay to abandon my code...to let go of my humanity. To fear. To h-hurt. To…k-kill”. And Dick is tempted to give into his hatred. As he recounts later to Bruce:

“I was about to smash the brain on the stage. I hated it. Hated what it had done, what it represented. I just wanted to see it in little tiny bits. But then I realized I’d be feeding the emotions the fist wanted to unleash here. I knew that the people who’d been influenced by its empathic attack wouldn’t stop if I fed it more violence. So I didn’t dash it to chunks on the stage like a guitar. I stopped. And I thought about everything I have. My family. My net. And I changed its mind.”

Dick’s ability to pause and reflect before he acts is crucial here. Even though smashing the Paragon brain to bits is ostensibly a good thing, Dick knows that actions of hatred will only beget more hatred. He has to feed the brain something different, show it a different path. He has to forgive it for making him hate it. He has to teach it about being grateful, about family, about helping people up when they fall. This is Dick’s Moon Healing Escalation moment. This is what has been at the core of his identity, since he pledged to never swerve from the path of justice in the wake of his parents’ murders. His ability to forgive, his ability to love, reminds the brain and everyone in its thrall to do the same.

The issue ends with Midnighter breaking ties with Gardener. “I can’t be surrounded by liars and murderers without becoming one myself,” he says, “I’m not like Grayson.” Dick Grayson is a person who can surround himself with liars and murderers and not become one himself. Midnighter, the man who not one issue ago was Dick’s biggest naysayer is now all but calling Dick incorruptible. Dick’s had to give up a lot of the embellishments that traditionally define him in order to be Agent 37. But he’s kept the core thing that makes him Dick Grayson: his ability to love. The people around him are starting to take notice.

CONCLUSION: SAME OLD DICK

Grayson #8 marks the shift from Act I to Act II. It’s a tying up of loose ends and the opening up of new doors to explore. The macguffin of Act I, collecting the Paragon organs, has been completed. Mr. Minos, the enigmatic boss of the last eight issues, makes his play. He attempts to kill Helena, succeeding only in wounding her. She collapses in Dick’s arms, warning him of Minos’ betrayal. At the same time, Minos attempts to kill Tiger with the newly reassembled Paragon. Dick saves him and they work together to defeat the creature that has the powers of the Justice League. Even the Hadrian girls get to have their hero moment in this fight. Minos’ reassembled Paragon has a flaw the original did not: its heart. The baby Dick saved in the desert still claims the organ as her own. Dick does the one thing he’s been avoiding for the last eight issues: he picks up a gun and takes the killshot. He shoots the creature right where its heart would be. Tiger is astounded. “Agent 8 said you were a horrible shot!” Dick responds as an Agent of Spyral should, “Yeah, well, that’s what spies do. We lie.” This is the triumphant defeat of the villain. In this moment, Dick is able to incorporate Agent 37 into his self-identity without completely shattering the construction of self that came before. Being Agent 37 did not break Dick Grayson; Agent 37 is now another aspect of Dick Grayson. Dick Grayson still endures.

Meanwhile, Minos is killed off by the even more enigmatic Agent Zero. She calls Minos bait, a “cliched bat villain” meant to “attract Grayson into [our] web”. It’s clear she will be our new main antagonist. If Act I asked ‘Who is Dick Grayson?’, Act II will ask ‘Who is Spyral?’ Issue #8 ends with a tagline for Act II: “A NEW MISSION! A NEW PARTNER! SAME OLD DICK!”

Same Old Dick is the best conclusion I can think of for Grayson Act I’s thematic exploration of Dick’s identity. Grayson stripped Nightwing and Robin away from Dick, separated him from Batman and the entire Batfamily, and placed him into a situation that routinely demanded he forsake his own personal morals. And yet, somehow, Dick is still the Same Old Dick.

This is the brilliance of Grayson, its ability to synthesize such contradictions. Grayson is both a tongue-in-cheek parody of the spy genre at the same time it’s an earnest spy thriller. It’s both an interrogation and celebration of DC superheroics. It is a story about mistrust, loneliness, and isolation…but also one about friendship, the importance of the connections we form with other people. It’s a story about Dick Grayson, forced out of his element and into the shadows of espionage, still shining brightly as the heart of the DCU.

#dick grayson #dick grayson meta #grayson #grayson (2014)#grayson meta #agent 37 #DC comics meta #batfamily #Bruce Wayne #helena bertinelli #tiger king of kandahar #Midnighter #grayson10 #nightwing #spyral #monthly mod meta #mod post

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himejoshiangels · 2 months

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Duke Thomas fic rec list

I've scowered every tag relating to him, combed thru the 'duke centric tag' at least 8 times, this is what ive come back with, at least my personal faves

necessary reminders - duke pov, outsider pov, and some social media following duke as he gets used to his day job as a vigilante. flows really well, has a good balance of sad and happy, and gets dukes character rlly well

that which you cannot bear - THIS FIC WILL BREAK YYOU duke is kidnapped and its only down from there!! this is like, one of the first duke fics I read and it's still labeled as such in my mind. its well based, sooo cohesive plot wise, and stays completely in character w all its characters, especially duke, while exploring such an interesting facet of him > his tendency to self-isolate, insistence on being independent, and his stubbornness. sooo much good angst just incredible stuff while also staying hopeful and grounded. ALSO duke is an intelligent badass throughout the fic which is an important detail 2 me

signal, n. a divine act - same author as the last one, absolutely insane concepts are explored and its just so well written srsly it's like poetry. digs into some of dukes ideologies so well. if u like holy imagery??? kind of but not rlly?? ig you'll love this

this whole series is just so fucking incredible but something about my bodies made of crushed little stars I don't fucking know it messed w my brain chemistry, I've recced it b 4 bcs it made me cry but read the whole series, it's all duke centric and just so good. Saki writes bruce and duke in a way that fizzes u up w emotion and focuses on such unique facets of dukes character/dynamics and sleep well my little sunshine is soo cute and fun and soft >when earth finds the stars - bonus presignal duke and jason fic, balances being incredibly fun with a realistic zoom in on duke before we are robin. he's quippy and witty and always at the edge of his rope

not mutually exclusive - tired of bruce being kinda shoved into the role of dukes capital F father when that's not quite what their dynamic is? Then this is the fic for you!! Just good duke and Bruce interactions overall, it's sad and hilarious with just incredible dialogue and peak Bruce and Duke interactions

signals and symptoms - a classic sickfic and like one of my fave bruce bonding fic ever ever EVERRR!! really introspective abt dukes character and just so well done

even exchanges - some of u are gonna hate me for reccing an incomplete fic and esp one that doesn't look like it's gonna be finished anytime soon but even exchanges is so formative to my duke characterizationalong with portraying such a fascinating dynamic w him and his new family. it delves into his messy and angsty experiences pre-becoming the signal and is overall written like several subsequent punches to the stomach. promise ur gonna bitch and moan about this fic as much as I do

scientific method - extremely cute fic, watch Duke bond w the bats and slowly get more comfortable with them over time as they all tru to figure out what the fuck this guys powers are. Really fun dynamic wise, the dialogue is crafty and captures the familiarity between the characters. Really realistic about day to day vigilante life and how genius the bats truly are. really slice of life fluffy shit w some bonus sciencey stuff

turn my voice human torch remind people what I’m fantastic for - truly a classic, Duke invites cass to slam poetry night. short n sweet I LOVE BUMBLEBATS RAHHHHHH

tradition - pure duke n bruce ice cream fluff

meal prep - real sad angst one shot ft. alfred

occupational health and safety violations - duke pov reverse robins but it's way out of order

write about flowers (at a time like this) - duke and dick fic where they meet pre we are robin. yes I just found this one yesterday yes I'm absolutely obsessed. it characterizes him so well and understands his thought process and motives and UGHH just tune in yall

sidequest: the viper pit - WE ARE ROBIN DND JUMANJI

signals of fear and hope - duke centric reverse robins, caters TTOME specifically it's so fire

and now here are fics that arent duke centric but he's in it and in character/well written and now forced into the back of the room aka some of my general faves that feature duke

gotham aviary - the batman fic where he just adopts a bunch of em truly adorable like the cutest thing you'll read

I walk the streets at night (with monsters in my mind) - dragon fic, absolutely goated 10/10

fight, flight - cass centric but duke plays a big role, they mean everything to me

#will be adding to this again as we go but yk #the signal #dc tag #duke thomas #dc comics #batman #batfam #batfam fanfic #fic recs

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florisa6s · 3 months

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A idea- Jason

I absolutely love comics and fic where Jason is overall doing gremlin evil stuff and whenever he's caught he acts like he's the most purest thing alive.

He acts genuinely offended if anyone says he did something bad or a prank (which he totally did) he sucks around acting sad and betrayed even if there's photo proof of him switching the bats costumes with one anothers.

I can see him gasping dramatically going to have tea with Alfred to talk about the absolute audacity of them to accuse him of such a childish thing!

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Gordon: Batman, Redhood just killed 20 people and you expect me to let him just walk away?

Bruce: Yes, he's innocent

Gordon: we have him on camera!

Jason: you heard the old man Gordon! I'm innocent now shoo go on!

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Jason: I'm just a little boy I could never hurt anyone! How could you accuse me I thought we were brothers!

Dick:......you killed 20 joker thugs!!

Jason: hey they tripped and fell ain't my fault.

Bruce: Hood theres-

Jason: oh I see you aren't going to believe me again? Remember what happened the last time you accused me of lying of someone tripping and dying?!

Bruce:.....I believe you Jaylad

Dick: wha- they have a knife in their back.

Jason: hey they happened to accidentally trip on my knife. I'm an innocent witness to a fatal accident

Dick: but-

Bruce: you heard him he's an innocent witness!

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Jason 'accidently' shoved Tim down the stairs

Bruce: why did you push Tim down the stairs!?

Jason: I was just goofing around he shouldn't have taken it so seriously.

Tim: I broke my fuckin' leg!

Jason: like I said it was just a little goofing around I didn't know Tim would be so dramatic about it breaking his leg like that!

#dc prompt #dick grayson #jason todd #batman #tim drake #bruce wayne

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thebigbadbatswife · 4 months

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He Let Me Steal You Like A Thief In The Night

Pairing(s) - (Starts with) Bruce Wayne x F!Reader, (Ends with) Selina Kyle x F!Reader

Summary - After Bruce Wayne continues to not treat you the way that you deserve, Selina Kyle decides to steal you away from him.

Warnings - Inspired by the song Diamond Girl by Set It Off. Bruce is a dick, Angst, References to cheating, Implied sexual content, Fluff and a happy ending, Bisexual!Reader. (If I missed anything, lmk!)

A/N - So, several months after saying I was working on this fic it's finally finished! It's also now my longest one shot to date which is cool! Anyway I hope the wait was worth it and that you all enjoy 💜

Word Count - 10k

As you finish putting your earrings in, you pause and look at yourself in the mirror. You look good tonight, you think. Your dress hugs your figure and accentuates your breasts and ass, but in a classy way that’s fitting for the charity fundraiser that the two of you are going to tonight. Your jewellery and makeup is much the same. Classy. Nothing too flashy. You wonder if Bruce will even notice the effort you have put in to make yourself look nice. He hasn’t the last few time. Hell, the last time he took you out to an event like this, he not only barely payed any attention to you, but he completely vanished from the venue. Leaving you alone and having to call Alfred to pick you up and take you back to your apartment.

Though Alfred had done a good job that night to try and hide it, you had still been able to tell he was absolutely fuming at Bruce. As are you each time that you think about it. Though you do have to keep in mind that he has been very stressed recently in regards to his company. While he hasn’t told you exactly what’s going on, you know it’s left him with a lot on his mind, a mountain of paperwork and has led to him being forgetful. You’re positive that it will all pass once he’s figured things out and then everything between you and him will go right back to the way that they were before.

Back when he would text you while in the middle of a meeting because he was thinking about and missing you. Or when he would call you, usually in the middle of the night, because he was miles away in another country and desperately wanted to hear the sound of your voice. And there were the times when you and him would curl up on a couch and watch a movie for date night instead of going out to some restaurant, away from the constant flashing of cameras that often left you becoming overwhelmed very quickly. Or there was that time…

Your train of thought is broken by a knock against the door of the en-suite. It’s probably Bruce wondering what’s taking you so long to get ready.

“Yes?” you call out.

“Master Bruce was wondering when you would be down.” It’s Alfred… Wait… Alfred? Bruce couldn’t even be bothered to come up and check on you himself? You push the thought away.

“I’ll just be a couple of minutes!” you call back.

“Of course, dear. I’ll let him know.”

With Alfred now gone, you turn you attention to the two bottles of perfume on the counter. One of the bottles is an expensive perfume that Bruce bought you for your birthday. It’s not your favourite scent in the world, but it was a gift from him and you have yet to wear it. The other is the perfume that you wore on the night that you and him finally went all of the way. Maybe if you wear that one he might actually pay you attention. The scent of it making him remember that night hopefully. After a moment of debating you decide to go for the latter. Tonight you wish to stay hopeful.

Once you have spritzed the perfume onto your pulse points, you grab your clutch and make your way out of the en-suite and bedroom and to where Bruce is waiting for you in the foyer. As you make your way down the stairs you expect him to look up at the sound of your heels clicking on the wood. Instead his eyes remain glued to his phone screen like a teenager; his fingers typing out a message just as fast as well.

You do your best to hide your disappoint, keeping your face blank, but it must have shown briefly because, as you reach the bottom of the stairs, Alfred suddenly clears his throat. The sound catches Bruce’s attention and he finally looks up from his phone. Before he’s allowed to say a word though, Alfred is speaking.

“You look lovely, dear,” he tells you. His compliment has you smiling. At least someone noticed.

By now, Bruce’s phone is back in his pocket and he’s stepping toward you. He checks you out, his eyes lingering on your breasts a little longer than is gentlemanly. His smile that genuine one he only ever gives you.

“Absolutely beautiful,” he says, his hand coming to rest beneath your chin and tilting your head up a little. “Aren’t I the luckiest man in the world?” You can feel your cheeks heating up at his words and the way he’s looking at you, as he breathes in your perfume. He presses a kiss to your lips. It’s a light one so that he doesn’t end up ruining your lipstick. “Come on. We’re going to be late.” He pulls away and takes your hand in his.

You and Bruce grab your coats and say goodnight to Alfred, who wishes you both a pleasant night. He leads you down the stairs to the car already parked out front.

The drive is a silent one. Neither of you saying a word nor him even bothering to put some music on. It has you yearning for the days when you both couldn’t stop talking, discovering all of these new things about each other or even discussing how you’re going to sneak away from the event at some point. Usually so that you could do other things together. And then there were the times where the speakers of whatever car you were in at the time would be blasting music as you and him sing along loudly to whatever song was playing.

Not being able to listen to the silence any longer, you decide to break it yourself.

“What’s the charity that’s being supported tonight?” you ask him. You don’t remember him ever mentioning a name, just that there was a fundraiser.

“Uh, it’s something to do with endangered animals,” he replies.

“What sort of animals?” There’s so many of them this day and age that are in trouble and you doubt that tonight is going to cover every last species.

“I believe it’s for big cats, but I honestly can’t remember. We’ll find out for sure once we get there.”

“Right. Of course.”

The car once again falls into silence as you struggle to think of what else to talk about. What even is there for you to say? How that was the longest you have spoken to him without his phone ringing and him walking away to answer it? And it’s not like Bruce is trying to fill the silence either. Is it just as awkward for him? Or does he simply not care?

You turn your attention to your window, watching as the city passes by as he drives. Silently, you continue to hope that things will get better once you arrive and he is no longer focused on getting to the venue.

Upon arriving, Bruce does help you out of the car and keeps you shielded from the vultures who are sat outside of the venue, waiting. The bright flashes from their cameras is blinding as they do their best to surround both of you, making large dots dance in front of your eyes. You’re sure that you would be stumbling blind if it wasn’t for him keeping you close and guiding you toward the entrance. Even after you both are inside the building and the doors are closed behind with security making sure that the paparazzi cannot follow, he keeps his arm linked with yours. Despite the harrowing experience with the paps that has left your heart hammering against your ribcage, not once does Bruce ask if you are okay. Perhaps he assumes that since you have been with him for the past year and a half that it no longer fazes you? You honestly can’t imagine it ever not fazing you, how invasive those people can be.

You are about to say something to him, ask him why he cares enough to try and shield you, but not enough to actually check on you, yet you’re not given a chance to as you’re already stepping into the main hall. All eyes are on you both. Bruce is already smiling that dazzling billionaire smile of his and you quickly follow suit, shoving your irritation away. The last thing you need is headlines about how pissy you look.

Your arms stay linked together for the majority of the night. Though they might as well not have been considering he spends the night basically ignoring you. You sip on champagne while Bruce talks to men who have no interest in the good cause that they are all suppose there for and would rather try and get him to invest in their company.

It’s not like you expect him to have his tongue down your throat (though that did happen a few times very early on in your relationship). And it’s not like you’re just standing around expecting him to pick up that something is wrong simply by your mood. You’ve tried talking to him, but each time he dismisses you. You’re honestly starting to feel like the only reason he brought you is for you to be his arm candy. The thought has you wanting to be anywhere, but here with him. And you would call Alfred and leave if you thought that you wouldn’t end up on the front page news thanks to the cockroaches sitting in wait outside.

Even with that said, you still don’t want to be around him right now and this is a big hotel. There’s got to be somewhere for you to retreat to for a little while. Some sort of garden or courtyard perhaps? You’ll find out once you slip out of the ballroom.

You pull away from him, unhooking your arm from his, as you tell him that you need to get some air. He doesn’t look you, not even a glance, as he replies with an “okay” and continues talking to the three men in front of him. As you make your way through the ballroom, you place your half finished glass of champagne onto the the tray of a passing waiter and leave the room through the nearest exit.

You wander the halls of the hotel for a little while, following the various gold plated signs that eventually lead you outside to the flower garden. A majority of the flowers are in bloom, leaving a very floral and sweet scent in the air and there are lamps in the ground between the flowerbeds, lighting up the pathway for you. You follow it until you reach a bench, where you decide to stop and take a seat.

It’s nice and quiet out here. The perfect place for you to be left alone with your thoughts. All of them about Bruce. You honestly do not even know when things started to actually change. It’s like one morning you woke up and he went from being totally and completely head over heels for you to not giving a damn about you. It leaves you wondering if the girls, who had approached you shortly after your relationship became public knowledge, were right. Has he grown bored of you? Is he really only keeping you around while he looks for someone new?

What if he’s already found that someone new and is with them on the nights that he doesn’t come back to the manor?

Almost as soon as the thought has entered your mind, you’re shoving it away again. No. No! You know Bruce. You’ve seen the way that he looks in disgust at the people in these rich people circles who are cheating on their spouses. You’ve listened to how he talks about them, a sharp edge to his voice. He hates cheaters so why would he turn around and do that to you? No. Absolutely not. He would never. Maybe… maybe this is just the end of what they call the “honeymoon phase”? At least, that’s got to be part of it. And you cannot forget how busy he is. But the more that you think about it, the more you think about these last few months, the more the doubt starts to trickle in. What if you’re wrong? What if you don’t know him like you think you do?

The more that you think about it, the more upset you become. So much so that you can feel tears threatening to spill, but as much as you want them to fall, you can’t. You’ll ruin your makeup if you do and as upset as you are, you don’t want that. It took forever and you do look really good tonight. Not that the man you got all dressed up for even cares about the effort that you put into your look tonight. Other than back at the manor, he has barely even looked at you.

And that thought alone is enough to finally get the tears rolling. After all what the hell does it even matter if he doesn’t care?

As you cry, you don’t even hear her. You don’t hear her heels against the stone pathway that leads to the bench you’re sitting on. You don’t even feel her as she sits down next to you. You only become aware of her when her hand comes in contact with your back and she rubs your back. You don’t jump at the sudden contact, you’re just confused as you look up at her, brow furrowed.

You go to speak. You’re not sure what, maybe to apologise for the state you’re in? You honestly don’t know, but it doesn’t actually matter as she doesn’t let you say anything, shushing you softly. The woman pulls a handkerchief from her purse and uses it to dab away your mascara filled tears. As she does that, through your tear blurred vision, you do your best to make out her appearance. Perhaps you know her?

She has striking green eyes, almost like a cat’s, and long, curly black hair. She’s gorgeous. That much is clear to you, even in your heartbroken state. And you’re certain that you do not know her. You would remember if you did.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

You shake your head, not trusting that the second you try to speak that you won’t turn into a babbling mess as your tears start to fall again. And it’s not really fair to burden a stranger with all of the reasons why you think that the man you’re in love with likely doesn’t love you. The look she gives you is one full of sympathy, which only makes you feel worse.

“A woman as beautiful as you shouldn’t be crying over a man like him,” she tells you.

“But things were so good in the beginning,” you say. All reservations that you had a moment ago about not burdening a stranger with your problems are suddenly out of the window. As you talk you half expect her to come up with an excuse to leave, most people would, but she doesn’t. Instead she stays and listens. The more you tell her the more annoyed she seems to get, but it doesn’t feel like it is directed at you. More likely she is getting annoyed at your boyfriend. Hell, now that you’re talking about it, and therefore thinking about it more, you are starting to get annoyed at him yourself as well.

“I’m sorry. That’s a whole load of information that you really did not need. I haven’t asked you your name.” And now you’re completely embarrassed. So caught up into your own shit that you completely forgot about basic manners. She doesn’t seem to have minded though. She smiles softly.

“Selina Kyle,” she introduces herself. “And you are?”

You introduce yourself. For some reason her name strikes a cord of familiarity with you. It takes you a second for you to know where. Tonight’s fundraiser, of course! She’s the one who organised tonight; you remember seeing her name on the notice board just outside of the ballroom. She must be so busy tonight yet she’s still taken time to make sure you are okay and she doesn’t even know you? It has you feeling rather touched.

“We should probably be making our way back,” she begins, “but first let me help fix your makeup,” she offers as she reaches into her purse.

After she helps you fix up your makeup, making it look you had never cried to begin with, you and Selina make your ways back to the hotel’s ballroom. Not long after you have reentered the room you lose sight of her. Not that you expect her to spend the rest of the night with you. You are strangers, after all, and she is busy. Instead you set yourself your own mission; finding the bar. You don’t care to look for Bruce. He didn’t bother coming to look for you despite how long you were gone for, so why should you look for him?

It doesn’t take you long to find the bar. You order your drink of choice and take a seat. Now that you’re here, your only interest is drinking as much as the bartender will allow.

As soon as the two of you re-enter the ballroom, Selina leaves your side and quickly, but gracefully moves through the room. Her eyes scan the area as she moves, looking for someone in particular.

Honestly she can’t believe him. Actually, maybe she can. This is Bruce after all. It still infuriates her. How is it that he has a beautiful woman like you in his life, who very clearly loves him, and yet he treats you like you are just another one of those models he used to “date”? And, from what you have told her, things weren’t all this way.

She can easily think of what’s changed. It’s the exact same thing that led to her leaving, several years ago. No matter what. One way or another, Batman will always end up taking priority over everyone else. Clearly, he needs a serious wakeup call.

It doesn’t take her long to spot him. He’s with several other men and honestly looks extremely bored. Yet he would instead give them his time than give it to you. She scoffs and rolls her eyes. Typical.

Bruce takes notice of her quickly, doing a double take as his eyes widen for a brief moment. He regains his composure, the shock disappearing as his eyes narrow and his brow furrows, his lips set in a grim thin line. He’s not happy to see her and, quite frankly, she’s not too pleased to see him either. A cat does not easily forget those who have wronged her.

She had been hoping that she would not have to interact him at all tonight. Simply take his money for her charity and then leave this city once more. Maybe forever. But things rarely go to plan in a city like Gotham.

Selina raises an eyebrow at him before gesturing with her head for him to follow her. She doesn’t look back, doesn’t wait for confirmation that he will. She knows he will follow. His curiosity always gets the better of him whenever she’s involved. Almost like it’s a law of life like gravity.

She weaves her way through the crowd once more, leaving the ballroom behind her. She decides to head back toward the hotel’s flower garden. It’s the perfect place to talk away from he nosey busybodies that make up Gotham’s higher society.

“Hello, Bruce,” she says, turning around to face him.

He scoffs. “Really? After all of this time that’s all you’ve got to…” he shakes his head. “I’m already with someone else. I–”

“Oh I know,” she cuts him off. “I’ve already met her. She’s beautiful, it’s just a shame that she’s so sad.”

Bruce frowns, an eyebrow raised. “What are you talking about? She’s fine.”

“She’s not, but you would know that if you were actually paying attention.” Selina steps toward him and leans in close. “Let me put it this way, clean up your act and start paying attention to her or I will.”

It’s toward the end of the night when you finally see Bruce again. You feel all warm from the alcohol running through your veins and each step that you take isn’t very coordinated, especially in these ridiculous heels.

“There you are,” he says as he approaches you. You’re currently using a pillar to steady yourself after almost tripping over your own feet. He looks troubled, but you don’t care enough to ask him what’s wrong. As of right now you really don’t see why you should. “Come on.” He links his arm with yours again, bringing you close to him to support you. “Let’s get back to the manor.”

You follow him back to the car. You’re so in your own head, focused on how good the drinks have made you feel, that you don’t even notice that there are barely any paparazzi around now, as he helps you into the car.

Much like the drive to the hotel, the drive back is silent. Of course you really don’t think you can hold a conversation properly any how. You’re sure to slur your words and, damn, your eyelids feel so heavy right now. It wouldn’t hurt to close them for a few minutes. Your last thought is how you’re going to have a killer headache in the morning.

The cafe had been busy when you had first entered, but the more that time passes and the lunch rush ends, the emptier the place becomes. You were suppose to meet Bruce for lunch, but while you showed up, he hasn’t. He hasn’t even bothered to reply to any of the texts you have sent him either. Instead they have all been left on read. You put his contact on mute. If he can’t be bothered to even reply to you then you can’t be bothered to talk to him full stop.

What makes it all worse is that, the day after the fundraiser, when you were somewhat recovered from your hangover, he had promised. He had promised that things would change and that you were important to him. And things had changed… For about a week. Once again you are left wondering whether or not the man that you love even loves you anymore.

The looks of pity and sympathy the other customers keep sending your way have you wanting to disappear forever. It’s humiliating. You decide that, as soon as you are done with your hot drink and food, you’re going straight back to your apartment and never leaving it again. You do your best to finish your drink and food as quickly as possible while also trying to not draw anymore attention to yourself.

As you are finishing up your drink, the chair across from you is suddenly pulled out and a woman sits down. Despite getting drunk, you recognise her instantly. Selina Kyle, from the fundraiser. Even now you still feel embarrassed about that night, crying and venting to a complete stranger about your relationship issues.

“Sorry I took so long, traffic was a nightmare!” She says it so casually, like she is the one who you were meeting today. She gives you a smile and wink. She doesn’t have to do this, hell you don’t even know why she is doing this, but you play along with her anyway.

“It’s fine. You’re here now,” you reply.

You briefly get up from the table to get another drink. After you have sat back down, the two of you beginning to talk. It starts off as basic small talk. The weather, the city’s current state, the money she had raised through the fundraiser and the good it was going to do for the big cats. She even leans across the table to show you pictures of her many, many cats. All of whom are, of course, utterly adorable.

As you take a sip of your drink, she asks you the question that you have been waiting for from the moment that she sat down at your table.

“That boyfriend of yours was supposed to meet you, wasn’t he?” she asks you. Though, you suspect, that she already knows before you answer her.

“Is it that obvious?”

She nods and, immediately, you want to disappear completely once more. She regards you for a moment, before speaking once again.

“Forget about him,” she tells you. “At least for tonight.”

“If I’m forgetting about him for tonight, what will I be doing instead?”

“You’ll be coming out with me to have some fun.”

The way that she says it. Like they are plans that have already been made and you are not allowed to back out. You don’t want to anyway. It sounds like fun, a night out with Selina, leaving Bruce alone and wondering where you are for once. It’s the least of what he deserves. Maybe it will be the wake up call he needs. And if not… You don’t want to think about that right now. He’s pissed you off, but he is still the man you love and, even with the way he has been treating you recently, you still cannot imagine a life where he isn’t in it.

So, you agree to going out with her and you exchange phone numbers. For the first time in a while you were actually looking forward to something.

The nightclub is loud, the base thrumming through you and you cannot hear yourself think. The place is packed and so many bodies close together has you feeling hot, and you haven’t even done any dancing yet!

These types of places are not usually your scene. You find them far too loud and there are far too many people around, but it’s hard to focus on all that with the woman in front of you. Selina’s outfit and makeup is casual, a strapless black top, jeans, a simple cat eye and red lipstick, yet she is easily the hottest person in the room. Sure, you’re in a committed relationship with Bruce, but you’re not blind and you can appreciate still. You are sure that he does.

She grabs your hand and leads you through the crowd and toward the bar. Much like the rest of the club, there is quite a few people around the bar. Definitely not enough room for the both of you to approach, so you tell her your preferred drink to order and she disappears amongst the crowd to get it.

You’re not entirely sure what to do with yourself, while you wait for her. Which has you feeling rather awkward. It doesn’t really help that people keep looking over at you. They’re likely just checking you out, but, standing here by yourself in your own head, you start wondering whether or not they are just judging you and the outfit that you have picked out for tonight. You aren’t left to fall down that rabbit hole for long though as Selina repappears, drinks in hand.

You do your best to shout over the music to thank her, but after the third time she finally moves in close to you. So close that her body is now touching yours, which leaves your heart thumping hard against your ribcage. Now that you have been able to thank her, she somehow moves closer, bringing her lips up to your ear. You can feel her breath fanning across you skin, making goosebumps raise across your skin, despite the heat of the nightclub.

“If you want to thank me, relax and have some fun.”

You almost laugh at her words. Is your nervousness that obvious? You had been hoping that you would be able to hide it more from her, but it seems she doesn’t miss a thing. Your nervousness doesn’t last. With the alcohol of a couple more drinks flowing through you, any doubts or anxiety you had before are quickly forgotten about. As are any thoughts of Bruce.

Hours fly by without you noticing as you dance and drink with Selina. Your laughter is loud, though still drowned out by the base, but she hears it easily enough. The green of her eyes seems to almost sparkle each time the neon lights hit them. The same way that you remember /his/ eyes lighting up when he first met you. Though you’re sure that it’s just the alcohol making you see things. She knows that you have a boyfriend and there’s not possible way she could be interested in you like that. (Though there had been a time you had thought the exact same when it had come to Bruce).

As the night draws on and the club starts to empty once curfew has hit, instead of finding your way back to your apartment, you and Selina find your way in a diner. With how late it is, the diner is mostly empty. The only other two customers there being a couple of cops taking a short break on their night shift. She leads you to the booth furthest from the cops, side eyeing them like she expects them to do something.

The waitress brings over a couple of menus. You thank her and take one of the menus while Selina declines, ordering only a coffee. After looking over the menu, along with your own coffee, you also order a burger and fries. While you did eat before coming out tonight, all of the dancing has left you absolutely starving.

While you wait, you decide to have a quick look at your phone. You quickly wish that you hadn’t. There’s dozens of messages, voice mails and missed calls from Bruce. He is very obviously worried and it has you feeling guilty. Maybe you should give him a call and let him know that you are okay?

“Your boyfriend?” Selina asks, breaking the silence that had fallen.

You nod. “Yeah. Maybe I should give him a call,” you say. “He seems really worried.”

“Does he call you when you send texts worried about him?”

You stop to think for a moment. “No,” you finally reply. “He usually only sends a short text.” Almost immediately, you understand what she is getting at. He doesn’t call you, only texts. So that’s what you do. A short text that reads “I’m fine. Still out with a friend.” Then you turn off your phone’s screen and return your attention to Selina.

Within that time, the waitress returns with yours and Selina’s coffees and your burger and fries. You both thank the waitress before returning to your conversation. You talk quietly, mostly about tonight. Despite your originally anxiety about tonight, you did end up having a lot of fun that you otherwise wouldn’t of had, had she not met you in that coffee shop and suggested it. As you talk, between taking bites of your burger, she steals a few of your fries, causing you to smile and shake your head.

“If you’re hungry, why didn’t you order your own fries?”

She shrugs. “They taste better when they’re not actually yours.”

Her reply makes you laugh and nod in agreement. After all, you are guilty of having done the same thing a few times, in the past.

The food and coffee does a good job at sobering you up. Not that you had been super drunk. Certainly not nearly as much as you had been after that fundraiser. Once you’re both finished, you reach for your bag to pay, but Selina beats you to it.

“You can pay next time,” she tells you.

You raise your eyebrow at her. “There’s going to be a next time, is there?”

“Of course there is.” She says it so matter of factly, like it’s already a done deal despite there not even being a discussion. Not that you mind. You would be more than happy to come out with her again.

With the food and drinks paid for, you and Selina leave the diner. Her driver is already waiting out front for both of you, ready to drive and drop you off at your apartment. You thank her again for suggesting that you go out with her tonight and that you definitely wouldn’t mind if there was a “next time”. You both say goodnight to each other and you make your out of the car and into the building.

Your apartment is pitch black and you fumble in the dark for a few seconds before your fingers finally find the switch. Despite the fact that you were expecting it, you still wince as the sudden brightness of the lights blinds you for a moment. You’re actually surprised to find your apartment so empty, you would have thought that Bruce would drop by unannounced, he has a key and you remember the endless messages and voicemails left by him, that you saw just a couple of hours ago. You haven’t checked them since then. Maybe you should do so now, but first your feet are killing you and you desperately need to get your shoes off.

With your shoes finally off, you collapse onto the couch. You pull your phone out of your bag and have a look at your messages. Since the one text you sent while at the diner, he’s only sent you one other text.

”Why didn’t you let me know? I had something planned tonight.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t going to make it to lunch?”

As soon as you hit send, you decide to put your phone on do not disturb mode. You will deal with Bruce in the morning. Now that you are home, the high of the night is starting to wear off and you are starting to feel really tired. All you want to do is get your makeup off, get into your pyjamas, curl up and go to sleep. So that’s exactly what you do.

In the weeks that follow, you end up spending a lot of time with Selina. She takes you to the other nightclubs that are dotted around the city and you often meet up for lunch. You learn a lot about each other during these lunches. Like how she came to have so many cats and the passion she has in the various causes that she supports. In turn you tell her about your own work. As you talk you honestly expect her to lose interest and not pay any attention. You expect various hmms and huhs and to see her looking either at her phone or at something else in the room instead of you, but it doesn’t happen. The entire time her attention is always focused on you and she actually asks you questions. You have got so used to being ignored that you had forgotten what it was like to actually be listened it.

It’s not like Bruce didn’t ever not listen to you though. He did, in the beginning at least. But like everything else, with the honeymoon period being over, he just doesn’t do it anymore. All of it leaves you to continue to wonder whether or not he does actually love you or if you were just another “conquest” in a long line of them. But it’s not like you can even ask him. Right now Bruce is half a world away from you, thinking that sending endless gifts, flowers and chocolates is a good way to apologise. Which is not the effect you had hoped ignoring him that first night out would have. And even if he wasn’t half a world away from you, getting him to stay and talk to him is nearly impossible since you can never seem to hold his attention for more than a few seconds.

It’s late at night and you’re laying wide awake in bed. You can’t stop thinking about Bruce and not in the way that you used to. More like you have no idea how you even feel about him anymore. Do you love him? Before you had an immediate answer. “Yes, of course I do.”. Now though? You can’t answer it anymore because you don’t know what the answer is.

And then there’s Selina. The way that she looks at you from over the table during lunch or the way that she touches you when the two of you are dancing together. It makes it feel like there are butterflies fluttering around your stomach and your heart pounding hard against your ribcage. More often than not you have found yourself looking at or dreaming about her lips, wondering how it would feel for her to kiss you…

Almost as soon as the thoughts come to you, you shove them away. They really aren’t helpful to your current dilemma when it comes to you trying to figure out how you feel about Bruce.

You groan and bury your head in your pillow. When did things in your life become so complicated?

“You seem distracted,” Selina says. You look up from the plate where you have just been pushing the food around, like a child.

“Sorry,” you reply. She invited you out to dinner a few weeks ago, at one of the fanciest restaurants in Gotham and you’ve spent the entire time distracted because you can’t stop thinking about Bruce and how you feel about him. It’s been plaguing your mind for a few weeks.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

“I…” While you have thought the words a couple of times now, you don’t think you are ready to say them out loud. Especially in public with so many eavesdroppers. You shake your head. “It doesn’t matter.”

Selina frowns, clearly not believing you, but she doesn’t push it. Which you are thankful for. Saying those words out loud will make them really real and you don’t know if you are ready for that. How did the relationship you had once been sure would last forever end up turning into this?

For the rest of dinner, you do your best to push away any and all thoughts about Bruce and your relationship with him. He will be back from his business trip by the end of the week and you can deal with your feelings then. Though, as you eat and talk with Selina, it briefly occurs to you that he had once promised to take you, but never did. It leaves a somewhat bitter taste within your mouth.

You pull your coat close to your body as you and Selina leave behind the warmth of the restaurant and step out into the cold Gotham night. She links her arm with yours and pulls you close as you start walking down the street, back toward your apartment. It’s not a long walk, only a couple of blocks.

Selina knows why you have been distracted, not only tonight, but for the past couple of weeks. She’s felt the way you have responded to her touches and she’s seen the way that you have been looking at her. She has also seen how you are around Bruce now, during various events he’s taken you to. You are no longer looking at him, waiting for him to pay attention to you, instead you are looking around for her.

She hasn’t missed the way you react to her when she touches you, while you are dancing with her. And she certainly hasn’t missed the way that you look at her. Especially her lips.

She hasn’t made a move to kiss you yet though. While you’re drifting away from him, you haven’t actually broken up with Bruce yet. And you have so much inner turmoil right now she doesn’t think it’s fair to add on to it. But if you were to suddenly decide to kiss her, well, she certainly wouldn’t stop you. In fact, she would like it a lot.

Does Bruce even know? She wonders. He prides himself in being the world’s greatest detective yet, as far as she can see, he hasn’t caught on to the fact that you’re drifting away from him. Or that she is the cause.

At least he hasn’t caught on to it until tonight.

Out of the corner of her eye, high above on a rooftop on the opposite side of the street, she catches the sight of a large black mass billowing out into the wind. He lied to you. You have told her that he said he would be back at the end of the week, yet here he is. Using his mask to spy on you instead of the usual crimefighting he’s so passionate about.

Knowing that he’s watching, she pulls you closer to her.

“Are you okay?” you ask.

“It’s colder than I thought it would be tonight and you’re nice and warm.”

She knows that Bruce can hear the two of you speaking and she knows that it must be driving him crazy that he can’t just swoop down and interrupt. There’s people everywhere and, from what she can tell, you have no idea what he does when the sun sets. Things probably wouldn’t be as bad between you and him if you did know about his nightly activities. Or, maybe, if you did know, you would have already left him.

“Do you want to come in?” you ask her, once you and her have reached your apartment and you’re opening the door.

“Normally I’d love to, but something has come up with the land I was hoping to turn into a cat sanctuary,” she explains. Selina has her phone out, open on the email she received at the start of the week. It’s not a complete lie. She has hit issues involving that land, but she’s not dealing with it tonight.

Your face drops for a second before it’s quickly gone and replaced by a well practised understanding smile. Even the words you say “Of course, I understand,” sound rehearsed. He has done a number on you and it has her feeling a little guilty. How many times has he pulled this move on you? And now she’s doing the same thing. She steps forward and takes ahold of your hands.

“Are you free tomorrow?” she asks, “We could have lunch, maybe even check out that new jewel collection at the museum? You know, to make up for me having to suddenly leave.”

You look at her for a moment, like you weren’t expecting that. “Oh, I’ll have to check my schedule, but I think I should be able to. I’ll text you?”

“Of course.”

As soon as you are in your apartment and the door is shut, Selina is gone. Back out into the night, into her car and then back out into the night once more; wearing a completely different outfit. It’s not long before she is swinging high above the streets of Gotham, with a certain pointy eared man following after her.

It doesn’t take him long to catch up to her. She feels the change in the air around her as his hand closes around one of her arms and her world spins briefly as he grabs and spins her around, slamming her against a wall.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing Selina?” he growls, the white lenses of his cowl narrowed. His act might work on the common criminal, but it has never phased her one bit. Calmly, she removes his hands from her arms and pushes him away.

“I warned you, Bruce,” she says as she steps away from him, putting space between them. “Don’t you remember? I told you what would happen if you didn’t change how you were treating her."

“What? I didn’t think…”

“You never do. If it makes you feel any better she hasn’t kissed me yet. Maybe there’s still a chance for you, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

“Why?”

“It’s rather simple, you weren’t treating her correctly so I decided that I would.” Her shrug is causal, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Which it should be to the person who considers himself a detective. “And maybe it’ll make you think twice before you decide to treat another woman like this.”

She doesn’t wait for him to say anything. She walks to the edge of the roof, not even taking the time to look back like she once did a long time ago, and jumps. He doesn’t follow. Likely too caught up within his own inner turmoil about the revelations of tonight.

If she was anyone else, Selina wouldn’t be able to understand how or why you are still with him. But she does understand the how and why because she was you several years ago. It’s easy to get caught up in a man like Bruce Wayne. With his looks and the way he talks, that silver tongue of his. The way that he makes you feel like the most important person in the world just with one look.

Though, she really does wish that you would break up with him and soon.

This may have started out with her proving to you that you deserve so much better than putting up with the way that he treats you, but she has grown to like you. A lot. And she would rather see you with her than him. Though, she supposes, it’s only a matter of time before that happens. She simply needs to have some patience.

When you wake up it’s to a couple of texts from Bruce. Telling you that he’s coming home early and wants to meet for lunch. You reply telling him you can’t, you already have plans. So he offers dinner at the manor, away from the prying eyes of the public. Just you and him. Normally the premise of having a quiet and private night with him would excite you. Finally having him all too yourself far away from flashing cameras and gossipers. Instead, you don’t feel… anything. There’s no more looking forward to seeing him. No quicken of your heartbeat against your ribcage, or between your thighs, as you think of him. No wanting to blow off any other plans so that you can see him sooner. Hell, you don’t even want to see him. Not really.

As you sit there in bed, looking over the text messages again, those words comes back to you. The ones that you have been struggling to admit out loud. Though, with this newest revelation, you know that you need to and sooner rather than later. It’s not fair on either of you if you don’t.

Lunchtime feels like it takes forever to arrive as you do some chores around your apartment. You only just saw her last night, like every time, you can’t wait to see her again. And that excitement has the hours ticking by so slowly. There is a part of you that does have you pausing for a moment, wondering if this new feeling of excitement will end up the same. But you remind yourself she isn’t him.

You meet Selina at the same cafe that you had when she had suggested going out and giving Bruce a taste of his own medicine. You often meet her here. The place essential becoming your “spot”. Like how the park had once been yours and Bruce’s.

She’s already at the table, waiting for you. She has her hair done up in a bun and she’s wearing a red dress. You feel your heart almost skip a beat when you lay eyes on her. There’s already a latte on the table.

“I’m not late, am I?” you ask as you sit down. There had been some traffic on your way, but you had been sure you would still arrive on time.

“You’re on time,” she says before covering her mouth and yawning, “I didn’t get much sleep last night,” she explains. “I already ordered you your usual.”

“You’re not going to lose that land are you?”

“With all the work that I did last night, I would say that it’s safe and sound now,” she replies with a smile.

“That’s great news.”

She looks you over for a moment, her smile now gone and replaced by a small frown. “Something’s still bothering you,” she states.

“Bruce texted me this morning, he’s back early and wanted to meet for lunch, but I wasn’t about to cancel plans with you, so we’re having dinner instead tonight…”

“But you don’t want to go.”

“Is it that obvious?” You glance around the cafe, wondering if anyone is listening to your conversation. This city is filled with people who don’t know how to mind their own business. Especially when you are dating the renowned “son of Gotham”.

“I just… I know I have to face him because it’s unfair on both of us to keep this going, but I feel so guilty. He’s got no idea.”

“He would had he been paying attention,” she says. You can’t help, but agree.

Much to your disappointment the lunch goes by relatively quickly and before you know it your back at your apartment, getting ready for your date with Bruce. Just as your finishing up, there’s a knock at your door.

You answer the door to Bruce, who’s holding a bouquet of red roses and that genuine smile that he has only ever given you. You honestly weren’t expecting him to show up. Instead you had been expecting him to send Alfred.

“Hey, baby,” he greets you, using his free hand to pull you close and pressing a light kiss to your lips. Doing his best not to mess up your lipstick. “You look beautiful.”

The way he’s looking at you and kissing you has your heart skipping a beat. For weeks now this is all you have wanted. Your man looking at you like he actually loves you and wants you. All of his focus on you. But a voice in the back of your head reminds you of what he’s been like for weeks now and that he’s only acting like this now so that you don’t leave him. Chances are, as soon as he’s sure you won’t leave, things will go straight back to him ignoring you again until you think of leaving and the cycle will repeat.

You can’t go through that again. You won’t go through that again.

“I need a few more minutes,” you tell him as you let him inside of your apartment.

“Of course. I’ll put these in water for you?”

“You can just leave them on the side if you want. I’ll deal with them later,” you reply.

“It’s no trouble.”

You really wish that he would just leave the damn flowers alone. After tonight you’re only going to end up throwing them out. By the time you’re finished up and leaving the bedroom, he’s put the roses into a vase of water and set it onto your coffee table.

“Ready?”

The more that you look at him, the more you can see the man that you fell in love with to begin with. The way that he looks and talks to you, touching you, making you feel like the only woman in the world. But, once again, you can’t forget the way he’s been. Going from the most attentive boyfriend ever and then completely ignoring you like you aren’t his girlfriend, just another acquaintance he has on his arm and back again. And other than your heart skipping when he kissed you earlier you’re not feeling anything else. Your heart’s not even skipping anymore.

You haven’t eaten a thing all night. You usually love Alfred’s cooking, but tonight you have absolutely no appetite. It makes you feel worse than you already do, even if Bruce has barely touched his own food. You push your plate away from you.

“Sorry, I’m just not hungry,” you say.

“Same here,” he replies, shoving his own plate away. He sighs before taking a sip of his drink.

A long awkward silence falls between the two of you. Just as you start to think about saying something, perhaps the words that you have been too chicken to finally say, he breaks the silence.

“It’s over, isn’t it?”

“I’m sorry, Bruce. I just… I don’t love you anymore.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who’s sorry. It’s my fault. Maybe if I had been more attentive or something. I don’t know. Maybe I could have saved this.”

“I still should have said something sooner.”

“Maybe, but at least this way I got to see you one more time.” Bruce gets up from his seat. “I’ll go get the car and I’ll drive you home.”

“I really am sorry,” Bruce says. His hand is cupping your face, thumb softly stroking your cheek. You expect him to kiss you for the last time, but he doesn’t. He pulls away, letting his hand fall away and back to his side. “Maybe we could have made this work if I was a different person leading a different life or maybe we would have ended up here anyway. I don’t know, but don’t blame yourself, okay?”

You nod. “I think I’m going to miss what we could have been,” you reply.

“So will I.” He steps forward and presses a kiss to your forehead. “Goodbye,” he says your name softly, as if it hurts him to say it. “Good luck with the rest of your life.”

“Goodbye Bruce.”

As soon as he’s gone, and you’re back inside of your apartment, you’re pulling your phone out of your purse and dialling Selina’s number.

“I thought you were supposed to be on a date,” her voice comes over the phone, sending butterflies swirling through your stomach.

“I was. Are you home?” you ask.

“I am. Why?” You picture her smiling, like she already knows why you’re asking.

“I have something to tell you, but honestly, I need to say it in person,” you explain.

“Oh? Well I certainly won’t say no to you coming over. You know my door’s always open to you.”

“Good because I’m on my way over.”

Your heart is hammering against your chest as you stand in front of Selina’s apartment, waiting for her to answer. It feels like forever before the door finally opens, which only makes the butterflies worse. Her hair is flowing over her shoulders and the only thing she’s wearing is a short red silk robe, that’s barely containing her breasts.

“I broke up with him,” you tell her.

“Well it’s about time,” she replies. She pulls you close. Her fingertips on your skin, sending electricity jolting through you. One of her hands remains on your arm while the other comes to cup your jaw. Her green eyes flicker down to your lips before quickly returning to your eyes. Understanding her silent question, you make your move and lean in. Your heart is somehow beating even harder, feeling like it’s trying to burst from your chest while everything else seems to slow down. Seconds feel like they trickle by before her lips finally connect with yours, making everything stop.

Selina kisses you slowly and sweetly. Her lips are even softer than you imagined them being. Kissing her is even better than you imagined. Your hands find her hips and you move forward, stepping more into her space until your bodies are touching. She smiles against your lips and pulls away.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” she says. Both of her hands are cupping your face now and that look in her eyes has your stomach doing flips.

“And you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for you to do that,” you reply. That makes her laugh softly.

“Come inside?” she offers. You agree eagerly and let her pull you inside of her apartment.

The feeling of kisses being pressed to your face slowly bringing you out of your sweat dreams. You grumble as you turn over and try to bury yourself further into the covers. Laughter reaches your ears and has you feeling warm and fuzzy inside. She keeps kissing you. Pressing them to your neck and shoulder blades. You sigh as you finally lift your head and look over your shoulder at Selina.

Playfulness sparkles in her green eyes. Her hair is a mess, but you think she looks as radiant as ever. You sit up and pull her close to kiss her. She kisses you back with fervour and heat rushes through you. Before you know it, she’s straddling you and has you pinned down against the mattress. You whine when she pulls away. You do your best to chase after her lips again, but she holds you down.

“As much as I would love to keep you in bed, we’re only here for a couple more days and we still have a long list of places to check out,” she says. She gets up off of the bed and walks over to the curtains where she pulls them open, letting the daylight into the hotel room and showing the view it has of the Eiffel Tower.

You and Selina had come here to Paris after visiting and exploring London. Shortly after getting together, you and her had decided you both needed a change of scenery, far away from Gotham. Before the two of you had left she had let you know about her secret double life.

She didn’t want there to be secrets. She knew how quickly they could break down a relationship so she told you about Catwoman. Stealing from the rich and how she was the East End’s self appointed protector, keeping the women and children safe from the men that prowled the area.

You didn’t believe her to begin with. That was when she showed you her catsuit and her bullwhip. You couldn’t not believe her after that. While it had come as a shock, it didn’t change how you felt about her. You love her.

“Don’t you mean you have a long list of places to case so you can take from them?”

She turns around to face you, hands on her hips, completely unashamed of her nakedness. Not that you’re complaining as you run your eyes over her body. “They’re not all for me. Picked out a few spots that I know you’re going to love.”

As soon as you have showered and you’re dressed, you and Selina leave the hotel. You let her lead the way, like always. First she takes you to a small cafe for breakfast. The food and drink is good, though your company is certainly better. Once you were both done eating she takes you by the hand and you continue your tour of the city.

She takes you to a couple of different museums, sharing with you her favourite exhibits. And then she’s taking you to almost endless jewellery and clothing stores. Neither of you buy anything from any of the stores you visit, but you know, beyond a doubt, that she is shopping. You don’t know the ins and outs of it, it’s safer that way if the cops come knocking, but in the fifteen minutes you’re in each store, she already knows what she wants and how she’s going to get it without tripping the security systems. And she knows what you want as well, keeping an eye on whatever your eyes linger on for just a moment too long.

As evening time rolls around, you and Selina decide to end your long, yet enjoyable, day at a rooftop restaurant. The Eiffel Tower acting as the backdrop, like you’re in some ridiculous cheesy romance movie.

Though you both arrived back at the hotel to change for dinner, she leaves long before you. You know why, but if anyone was to ever ask you where she is was on any particular night, you already have an answer. “Yeah, she was with me all night.”

Selina doesn’t leave you waiting at the restaurant for long, arriving five minutes after you. She arrives breathless, but looking perfect. Ringlet curls, a smokey cat eye and purple lipstick that matches her dress. Your mouth almost drops open at the sight of her.

“I didn’t keep you waiting long, did I?” she asks as she sits down.

“Of course not. You never do,” you reply.

Dinner goes by quickly which isn’t hard with how caught up you and Selina are with each other. The subtle touches sending goosebumps across your skin and how she looks at you. Only this time there’s no guilty when you think about kissing her. And you can kiss her. Nothing and no one in your way to stop you. And you do love kissing her.

“I’ve got you something,” she says. She reaches into gift bag she brought with her and presents you with a blue rectangle box, complete with a green bow. It’s light and doesn’t make much noise when you gently shake it.

You undo the bow and remove the lid. Inside of the box is the diamond bracelet that you had been eyeing up earlier. You smile at the sight. She leans over to help secure it to your wrist.

“You shouldn’t have.”

She shrugs. “It’s not like it cost much,” she laughs.

After dinner, you go for a walk together through a nearby park. You walk hand in hand, talking and laughing quietly. She suddenly stops in her tracks and before you can ask what’s wrong she kisses you. It’s not a peck either. Her full lips move against yours, tongue working your mouth open and stealing away your breath. Not that it’s hard for her to do that.

She rests her forehead and you can’t stop thinking about how happy you are. It’s strange for you to think that there had once been a moment not too long ago when you had thought you knew what happiness was. You had been wrong. Standing here with her, you know what real happiness is supposed to be.

“Let’s sit,” she says. You agree, thankful for the chance to sit, your heels are starting to hurt. She leads you toward a nearby bench where you take a seat.

With that feeling of happiness that’s flowing through you and the realisation you have come to, you decide to take a chance.

“I love you, Selina,” you tell her.

She looks a bit taken back which has you panic. Is it way too soon to say that? It only lasts a moment though as she smiles, the corners of her eyes crinkling before she’s leaning back in to kiss you again.

“I love you too,” she replies. Hearing those four words has your heart feeling like it might burst from how happy you are. You can’t hide your huge smile, nor would you want to. She then leans in close and lightly strokes your hair. “How about we go back to our hotel room and, should we make it the bed, we won’t leave it for all of tonight and tomorrow hmm?”

You agree eagerly.

#catwoman x reader #selina kyle x reader #catwoman x fem!reader #selina kyle x fem!reader #bruce wayne x reader #selina kyle imagines #catwoman imagines #dc x reader #fem!reader #bisexual!reader #my writing

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celaenaeiln · 8 months

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Is Dick's tendency for self-destructive habits really as bad as some fics make it out to be?

oh interesting!! In some way, yes actually.

Batman (2016) Issue #689

Dick and Alfred!! The duo make me so happy <33

But anyway, it's weird that someone who's so effusive with his affection so often and readily "deflects a moment of genuine emotion." Which is also one of the reasons why Dick Grayson as a character is so fascinating because he's never what people expect him to be. He's like a puzzle box where every time you think you solved, you just opened yourself up to a hard, even more complex one wherein the process repeats on an endless cycle.

He's incredibly self-destructive in the way he drive a burning car off a bridge and he'll know it's on fire, he knows where he's going, but he'll do it anyway because the car has a bomb and it's safer with him than the civilians behind him.

You know what? I just realized he deflects intimate conversations because he wants to keep the focus on the other person. Since he was Robin, Dick has been purposefully neglecting his feelings in order to take care of Bruce's. Right after his parents died, he bottled up his sadness and sorrow because he was worried that Bruce would blame himself and he didn't want Bruce to do that.

It's always been "Tell me what's wrong, Bruce." He's been so busy raising his guardian, his friends, his siblings, his teammates, that Dick has sunk into the role of a performer - the spotlight's on him but the audience is the focus.

I didn't realize until writing this ask but self-destruction is just such a normal thing with him that it's become a part of his personality. In fics it's very obvious when he's being self-destructive or neglecting himself or etc because he's very aware of it but Dick in canon has just made it his thing. It's actually the Titans that realize this and yank him out of it because Dick has no idea what he does to himself.

The New Teen Titans (1980) Issue #28

He's not self-destructive in a way that he's conscious of it but his habits and his lifestyle don't really give him a choice. He literally works himself sick.

The Titans (1999) Issue #9

"Maybe it's too much. Dick --have you considered that? You're working Bludhaven, even joining their force, you still clearly intend to come here to Gotham every time he calls you -- working so hard you're making yourself sick,"

"No. It's not the newness that's the problem."

People are literally telling him to calm down and he's like 'No! I'm perfectly okay. This is fine, let's continue.'

And this isn't even going into when Blockbuster blew up his life and Dick kinda lost himself to hunt him down and make him pay. People understand that Desmond burnt down the circus but Dick was still connected to the people in that circus, like he used his contacts there to sometimes inquire about things going on Bludhaven. The people at the circus raised him along with his parents so killing them was like killing Dick's aunts and uncles and friends and childhood. What happened then and after the SA was catastrophic. To Dick self-destruction has just become a part of him because he aims for perfection in every aspect of his life.

Like Donna said, "He works with the Titans, on his own, goes to school, and then he works alongside Batman..." and so on. Usually people struggle to maintain even one area of their life like just school or family but Dick's juggling, his work, his family, his friends, his relationship, his teams, and is still on call for Justice League incidents.

Titans (2003) Issue #6

He literally dropped everything to come over and break up the Titans (OF WHICH HE IS NOT EVEN A PART OF RIGHT NOW BECAUSE HE'S IN THE MIDDLE OF DEALING WITH THE OUTSIDERS) and the Justice League full on fighting.

He's not self-destructive in the way he doesn't want to get out of bed or that he isn't clean, it's just that Dick Grayson is a machine. He's got ice in his veins and he just powers through everything. Everything he does has to be top notch, so sleep and social life and happiness can say goodbye because he's too busy for that. This is why the Titans are so important to him and for him because they realize this toxic trait of his and do their absolute best to yank him out of this bad habit because Dick certainly can't stop.

So self-destruction has become part of his personality but unlike in fics, it's conducive self-destruction. It comes from his refusal to feel any emotion that isn't for others because Big Brother Dick Grayson and Best Friend Dick Grayson are always there for everyone but the second he's asked to help himself or someone tries to help him, he flakes. He's the best at helping others and being there for them but he's allergic to getting help or talking about himself.

#dick grayson #nightwing #alfred pennyworth #donna troy #wonder girl #koriand'r #starfire #justice league #dc titans #cl randomenglishmajor asks #cl asks #thanks for the ask!

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wolfjackle-creates · 2 months

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Hi!! I haven't been on Tumblr for a while but I used to read a fic you made out of a prompt (?) Someone else made about Danny who freaked out when he realized the Waynes are the Bats and accidentally shot Bruce(?) And if I'm not mistaken you made a part 2 of it (idr remember if it was a wip or finished) but do you have a masterlist so I can re-read it :D? So sorry if I sound weird (´⌒｀;)

It is absolutely never weird to ask an author about their works!!!! Thanks so much for sending this in.

It's been ages since I've worked on this one, but it's definitely on my short list to get back to. Especially since I'm pretty close to having it finished?

Here's chapter 1 on AO3. And the Subscription Post.

Chapter 2 is limited to Tumblr right now, only two parts currently. Part 1 can be found here.

Currently it's called Want to Hold on and Feel I Belong. However, when I do start updating on AO3 again, I plan to change the name. (I'm just waiting so people who have subscribed are more likely to remember what they're getting an email about.) Mostly I refer to it as my Bad Reveal AU. Though I get that's not a great working name as that's usually reserved for the Fenton parents reacting badly rather than Danny reacting badly.

Also, as a thanks for reminding me that it's been a while since I've posted anything about this fic (or, well, in general), have the next bit!

Here's a random 1.5k.

-----

Having a potential lead so close meant the hours until J’onn’s arrival were spent in prep mode.

Every uniform had to be checked for the slightest damage and upgrades done where possible. Supplies and go-bags were organized so they could leave the moment they had a lead. Fuel levels in every vehicle were checked and topped off where necessary.

And finally, the zeta tube activated and J’onn stepped out. “Good day to all of you. I heard my assistance was needed?”

Bruce went to greet him. “J’onn. Danny’s room is upstairs. Did Clark explain the situation?”

“Yes. He said that your newest ward has density shifting powers and left things behind in his walls and floor before running away a few days ago.”

Bruce nodded sharply. “Follow me. Clark will show you where the items are hidden so you can retrieve them.”

Dick happily zipped up what felt like the hundredth bag he’d had to pack and joined them. “Hey, J’onn. Welcome. How have you been?”

“Greetings, Dick. It has been a long time since our last meeting. I have been well. I want to wish you luck in finding your brother swiftly and easily.”

Dick nodded his thanks. “Same. We’re really hoping he left behind something to help because we haven’t had much luck so far.” Dick pulled out his phone and notified the family of J’onn’s arrival and requested they meet in Danny’s room.

On the way, Bruce and Dick filled J’onn in on the situation. At the implication of government experimentation, he face went hard and he vowed he would help them however he could.

Clark, Jason, and Alfred were already there when the group arrived and the rest weren’t far behind. With everyone present, the room felt crowded.

“Where should I start?” J’onn asked Clark.

“Behind the NASA poster. I think that’s where he keeps the weapons. One of them is an object that looks like it might be the same as, or at least similar to, the weapon that shot Bruce.”

Under Clark’s direction, J’onn removed not just two more energy guns, but also a glowing-green net, a boomerang, a tube of lipstick, what looked like a weird, high-tech thermos, and a wooden baseball bat with a sticker that said “Fenton” on it.

Dick couldn’t help but whistle at the pile. “Damn, he was packing all this?”

“Apparently,” said Damian. But Dick could tell his youngest brother was impressed and mentally reassessing his beliefs of Danny. “Perhaps he is not as helpless as I previously believed.”

“Why’s he got lipstick?” asked Steph as she picked up the tube.

“Don’t!” ordered Bruce even as she opened it and released a laser beam that left a small scorch mark on the ceiling.

She stared in shock before laughing. “Oh, damn! When he comes back, I’m so asking if he could get me one of these. That’s so cool!”

“Can I see that?” asked Barbara.

“Wait until we’re in the cave,” said Bruce with a sigh. Both women grinned at him.

Dick reached down and grabbed the net. Despite the color, it seemed normal enough, maybe a little smoother than most rope he’d handled. He pulled out a pocket knife and was able to slice through one of the ropes easily enough. Jason came over to look at it with him.

“Anything weird about it?” he asked as he reached out to touch it. “Huh, that’s odd.”

“What’s odd about it? Seems pretty normal to me.”

“It just… It feels weird. It almost hurts to touch.” When Dick looked at him sharply, Jason quickly added, “It doesn’t hurt, but it feels like it should. If that makes sense.”

“Feels normal to me.” Dick showed him the break he’d made.

Jason shrugged. “Dunno, then. I just get a weird feeling from it.”

Damian picked up the energy gun, Tim the thermos, and Duke the boomerang when Alfred cleared his throat.

“Before we get distracted, might I remind you that there is more to find? We can bring everything down to the cave to examine them with no more damage to Master Danny’s room.”

Everyone sheepishly put down the things they were holding. Dick bit back a laugh when he noticed Clark push the baseball bat away from himself with his foot.

“So, J’onn,” Clark said. “I think the next area of interest is behind this poster.” He gestured at a poster of the horsehead nebula. Dick had helped Danny find it and hang it up and the kid had talked about nebulae for over an hour as they did. The memory caused his eyes to burn.

From this stash, J’onn pulled some notebooks and two external hard drives, which Barbara took. Dick and Bruce both grabbed a notebook. Dick opened his to the first page.

Journaling is such a stupid idea. I don’t have any time for it but Jazz says I need to get my feelings out. Pointless. So what if I can’t sleep and Skulker attacked me again today during English getting me another detention. Its not my fault! Shit, haven’t done that essay for Lancer. If I miss any more assignments he’s gonna fail me for real.

Everyone knew Danny had been failing before he’d been brought to them, but he’d refused to discuss why. Once he was in school in Gotham, he’d gotten straight A’s. Even if he did ask for the occasional help in English from Jason.

But this raised so many questions. Who was Skulker and why were they attacking Dick’s little brother during English class. He flipped through the pages. Interspersed between journal entries were drawings of schematics. Dick thought he recognized some of the designs as the weapons they’d uncovered.

His eyes caught on an entry that started with a string of curses.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. My parents saw Dani today. In ghost form. They actually managed to hit her. Only her second visit and I couldn’t keep her safe. Some big brother dad cousin whatever I am. I did get her to the Far Frozen. Frostbite fixed her up. Taught me what to do if it happens again, too. And gave me the medicines and supplies to do it. I’m so glad I have friends in the Zone now. It makes it so much easier. I can’t get the image of Dani’s blood staining my hands out of my mind. Going to Tuck’s tonight. I can’t be around my parents right now.

Stomach dropping, he flipped a few more pages until he found one with a photo. It was a grinning Danny with white hair and wearing a jumpsuit standing on a curved balcony. Behind him, spire buildings rose into the air, many rounded in a way not often found on Earth.

Clockwork took me to Mars today! Holy shit it is so cool. Just, everything. We went back to when they were thriving and I had to stop an invasion. But that’s not important. Everyone here can go intangible despite being alive. Some of their buildings don’t even have doors because they’d be pointless! And the plants and animals are all so different, too. Clockwork helped me find some books on Martian history and biology and evolution. He’s also gonna show me where the Martians exist in the Zone so I can learn their language. Maybe one day I can go to Krypton or Tamaran as well?

Dick stared back at the picture. It did have that distinctive feel of wrong that extraterrestrial landscapes always had. He swallowed. “Uh, J’onn?”

“Yes, Dick?”

“Um, Danny. This is his journal. He said he went to Mars. Before… Just, before. He’s got a picture. Is this real?” He handed the photo to J’onn who hesitated a moment before taking it.

J’onn froze as he stared at the simple image. “I… Yes. This is my home. How…?”

Dick shrugged and wished he had an answer for the last of the Martians. “Someone called Clockwork brought him there apparently. To stop some sort of invasion? He didn’t discuss that much. He was too interested in the planet and people to talk about what he did. He was hoping to visit Krypton and Tamaran, too. Also said something about Martians existing somewhere he called the Zone. He wanted to meet them to learn the language.”

The look on J’onn’s face at the mention of other Martians existing somewhere was heartbreaking. Maybe Dick shouldn’t have said anything? When Danny came home, would he maybe want to talk to J’onn about Mars?

With clear reluctance, J’onn handed the picture back. “This is your brother in the photo?”

“Yeah. I mean, Danny usually has black hair and blue eyes, but that’s him. Do you recognize him?”

J’onn nodded. “Of course. He is the Omen. His coming foretells death and destruction which he will then try to avert. I know what invasion he is speaking of, it is, was, taught in our history books. He saved all of Mars that day. We thought him a god.”

Dick’s mouth fell open. His little brother? A god?

-----

Did you enjoy your little surprise update tonight? Let me know what you think!

#dpxdc #bad reveal au #wolf writes #dick is trying to be a good brother #but he keeps feeling like he's failing #(he's not he just thinks he is)#i hope my vague descriptions of mars #are accurate enough to hold up #the door thing isn't based in any sort of canon #idk if there were any buildings on mars that eschewed doors #but i feel like it'd make sense if they did?

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spidernuggets · 6 months

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Hi! First time requeating something and i hope i’m doinv it right, but if you want could you write Reader meeting Jason’s family? Like, titans + bruce and his siblings? Ans Reader is nervous cause she doesn’t know how they’ll react to her and she wants to make a good impression and she’s anxious n stuff? Tysm! 🩷🩷

Jason Todd x Fem!Reader

OH MY DAYSSS, your first time requesting?!?! And you picked lil ol' me?!?! Got me blushing and kicking my feet. ANYWAYS, i hope this fic brings you justice to your request. If you don't mind, I'll split it into two, half for Titans, other for Batfam!!

BATFAM (based on WFA):

You were pacing around the steps of Wayne Manor. Jason wanted to bring you up to the manor with him, but he wanted to make sure all his siblings and Bruce stayed in check before you arrived. In all honesty, he was more concerned about his family's behaviour rather than yours. He also doesn't really care what his family thinks of you. If they don't like you, screw it. He'd pick you up, throw you into a plane, and move to a beautiful island with you.

You were biting your nails, but then realised that you were standing in front of the richest man's, let alone Batman's house, and biting your nails might make you look bad for Jason. Then you looked at your nails. The polish was chipped, and your nails were jagged. And your skin seemed dry. God, no, now they were sweating?!

One little thought led to another. How did your outfit look? Shit, is it creased? Is that a stain? Maybe you should've worn something more formal, more expensive, perhaps.

Your body moved faster than your brain could think and turned, wanting to make a run for it. But before you could take another step, a certain butler opened the doors.

"Ah! And you must be Ms. Y/n, correct?" The old man asks, a welcoming smile on his face.

Your shaking hands wiped the thin sweat away along your pants as you turned and an awkward grin on your own face. "U-uh, yeah. Yes, I am. Hi." You stammer, reaching your hand out as Alfred shakes it.

"My, you're as wonderful as Master Jason decribed you as. Come in, come in," he steps aside, letting you in.

Okay. Maybe this whole family meeting thing isn't as bad as it-

"So you're Todd's girlfriend?" A short boy who appeared out of nowhere says.

You look down on him. Thinking he'd be as nice as Alfred, you tuck a loose strand of hair behind your ear, smiled and replied, "Yeah, I am. You must be Damian?"

Damian tilts his head to the side and hums. "Do you participate in any form of combat?" He asks, as if it's a normal question to ask someone you meet for the first time.

"Uhm... No.?"

"Hm. I would've thought Todd would have dated someone similar to him," the kid mutters. That statement made your knees shakier than they should have.

"Alright, scram, brat." You've never felt more relieved to have heard your boyfriend's voice. The last time you felt this relief was when you were held at gunpoint, and luckily, Jason showed up right on time.

"Tt. You were the one who wanted us to meet her," Damian scoffs.

"Yeah, and now your time is up. Thanks for letting her in, Alfred," Jason says as Alfred nods and heads off to fulfil other responsibilities, and Damian also leaves, most likely to tend to Titus. "Don't worry about Dami, sweet thing. He's like that to everyone," he kisses your forhead.

You lean against his shoulder. "But I need everyone to like me!" You complain.

He rolls his eyes. "I'm the only person who needs to like you. If no one else does, fuck them. Besides, there's literally no reason for anyone not to like you," he wraps his arm around your shoulders, guiding you to the living room where everyone was.

"Okay, everyone. This is Y/n," Jason says upon walking in. The second everyone's eyes were on you, you wanted you run away, jump out the window, have the floor swallow you whole. Anything to get you out of this situation.

You were sure there would be questions bombarding you like Damian's, like, "Are you skilled in any area of combat?", "Do you know how to use any weaponry?"

Or even questions like, "Do you really like Jason, or are you in it just for the money?", "What’s your social status?", "What’s your occupation?"

What you didn't expect was a blonde girl rushing over to you, embracing you in a warm, tight hug.

"Hi! Oh my gosh, you're Y/n! I've been dying to meet you! But Jason's been hiding you away for a while," she frowns at Jason, who was behind you. Another girl, short black hair, stood behind the blonde, waving at you with a small smile. "Oh, yeah! I'm Stephanie, that's Cassandra! You can call us Steph and Cass!" She points to Cassandra.

Jason holds onto your shoulders behind you. "Okay, okay, back off, Steph," he tries pushing you away to meet the others, but Stephaine is just so keen on meeting you.

"Ugh," Stephanie scoffs, linking your arm with hers. "Jason always was so down bad for you. He literally wouldn't stop talling about you," she says while giggling while also making you blush.

Jason flicks Stephanie's forhead. "Ow! Asshole," she mutters, letting go of you. "Anyways," she starts pointing around the room. "That's Tim, Dick, Duke, and Barbara!"

"Hello," you shyly say, waving to the group.

"So you're the girl that was able to swoon Jason," Dick got up from the couch and walked towards you. "Finally, nice you meet you. My compliments to you. You really know how to tame him," Dick smirks at Jason, who was currently shooting daggers back at his older brother.

"You sure he didn't like... pay you or anything to date him?" Tim shouts from the couch.

"Quiet, nitwit," Jason yells back.

"Behave. The both of you," a deeper voice behind you said, making you flinch.

As things were getting good, you turned and saw the man of the house, making you feel smaller than you already were. "Hi- Ahem, hello, Mr. Wayne," you squeaked, feeling the need to curtsey.

Bruce smiles down at you. "Bruce is fine, Y/n. It's a great pleasure to meet you," Bruce extends his hand out to greet you, and you hope he doesn't notice your clammy hands and shakiness as you shook his hand.

"It's great to meet you, too. All of you," you say back to the rest of the family before looking back up at Jason. He sends you a wink back, telling you that there was nothing to worry about.

A bark came from behind Bruce. He steos to the side and reveals Damian and Titus. The two walked by as Damian muttered that they might as well join the rest of the family.

Your nerves were suddenly put aside. "You have a Great Dane?" You gasped, holding your hand out to the dog. Titus slowly walks up to you, first sniffing your hand, then taking a lick, accepting your affections as you begin to pet him.

"Mm. She's an acceptable partner, Todd," Damian looks up to his older bother as he observes your encounter with his pet.

"Yeah, whatever. I wasn't even looking for your validation," Jason bites back. But deeo down, he's glad his family liked you. This meant less work of him trying to praise you if any of his family tried to criticise you or your relationship.

"So. How was that?" Jason asks, walking you out of the manor, offering to give you a ride home.

You smiled up at him. "Fun. Went better as expected."

TITANS:

He kisses the back of your hand. "Told you they'd love you, sweet thing. Not as much as I do, though."

"Nope, I don't wanna do this anymore," you say out of nowhere. You and Jason were already at the entrance of Titans Tower. And Jason being his bragging self, couldn't stop talking about his amazing, beautiful girlfriend to the rest of the Titans.

And a certain comment from Rachel, saying she doesn't believe this girlfriend he's talking about is real, Jason promised to bring you up to introduce you to everyone.

You were eager to meet everyone, but on the way to the tower, you started thinking about everyone and everything. They're all badass heroes, some wirh powers. And even those with no powers can still fight like crazy. And you were just some mundane civilian who didn't even pack a punch.

If you were a member of the Titans, you also wouldn't believe that Jason is dating the kind of person he's describing. And don't get yourself started on his ex-girlfriend.

Rose fucking Wilson.

You heard plenty of her. How she used Jason and the Titans, yet somehow is still a member?

And how she's also a badass who can use swords... And how she can't necessarily die... and how she has cool hair and an eyepatch...

Jason grabs onto your wrist. "And why not?" He asks, preventing you from walking away.

Your shoulders dramatically slump, and you pout. "They're gonna hate me! And don't say they won't, because if they don't hate me, then they'll definitely think I'm some lame person who just lies in her couch all day," you felt like you wanted to cry. You weren't sure if you were overreacting, but this isn't just some simple introduction with other people. This is meeting with Jason's teammates. A group of heroes, vigilantes, who saves lives for a living!

Jason'a gaze softens, taking into account your anxious state. "Hey," he gently calls out, brushing your hair away from your face and cradles your cheeks. "They're not gonna hate you. But, listen. If you don't want to do it, that's okay, I won't force you to," he kisses your nose. The light touch makes you giggle.

You take in a deep breath. "No, it's fine. I want to meet them."

He raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure? You don't have to-"

You hold his hands in yours, turning your face to kiss both of his rough palms before leaning into his touch. "I'm sure."

Jason leans his forhead against yours in reassurance before the two of you head up in the elevator.

You couldn't help but laugh after feigning annoyance when the elevator doors open, and the first thing Jason said was, "I told you she's real, motherfuckers!"

You noticed a green haired boy clap his hands in victory, receiving cash from a buffer guy with a superman symbol on his black shirt, and from a purple haired girl. You also noticed a thorny Rose Wilson, sitting beside the other girl, keeping a sharp eye on you, but you made it your best to avoid any form of contact with her.

Jason had an arm protectively wrapped around your waist as he walked you further into the lobby.

Dawn was the first one to walk up to you. To be honest, if you weren't head over heels for Jason, you probably would've tried swoon Dawn. (I'm sorry, she's just so pretty)

"You're Y/n?" She asks as she walks to you.

"Hi.. yeah, I am," you reply, shaking her hand.

"Aw, well. Jason told us all about you," she sends a knowing wink to Jason. If she knew Jason didn't want her to say anything to you yet, she would've told you all about how he came up to her, asking about what girls like, how to ask you out, how to plan the perfect first date, etc. But that didn't stop her from teasing and testing Jason's shyness. "He honestly couldn't stop talking about you. Especially ever since Rachel said you weren't real," she sends a look and raised eyebrow to Rachel. Rachel just rolls her eyes and smiles at the memory before turning to talk with Gar.

"Well, I can promise everyone I'm a hundred per cent real," you reply, leaning closer into Jason's hold.

"Jason, where have you bee- Oh. Are.. you the girlfriend?" A guy emerges from the hallway, walking over towards you two.

"Hi, yeah. And you're Dick?" You shake his hand, too as you introduced yourself.

"Yeah. Jason's talked a lot about you," Dick says, raising his eyebrows at his younger brother.

You couldn't stop yourself from smiling, hearing about all the times Jason has talked about you. "So I've heard."

"Well, welcome. I'd love to get to know more about you, but Jason. I need you to help me with a few things. It was nice meeting you, Y/n," Dick says before leaving, walking back where he came out from.

Jason rolls his eyes before stepping in front of you, holding your shoulders. "You gonna be okay on your own? It's only gonna be for a bit," Jason asks with concern.

You smile, holding onto his face before kissing his cheek. "I'll be fine, Jay."

He brings you in for a hug. "Ignore Rose. If she says anything, tell me, okay?" He whispers into your ear. You hum in response, kissing his shoulder before he lets go, kissing the back of your hand, and running off towards the same direction as Dick.

You were wrong. You were awkwardly standing there for a few seconds, not knowing where to go, what to do, or what to say. And from the corner of your eye, you could see Rose smirking at your current situation.

You thanked the gods when Dawn came back with Hank.

"It's Jason's girlfriend!" She almost squealed.

"Did he pay you or anything to date him?" Was the first thing Hank said. Dawn hit him against his bicep.

"Be nice," she said to him.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "Nice to meet you," he says, offering you a fist bump, in which you retunred one to him.

Then, from behind them, you saw a vibrant pink haired woman. Damn, all these people have cool hair.

"Oh, you must be Y/n! I'm Kory," She doesn't hesitate to give you a welcoming hug once ciming up to you.

"Hi, yeah, I am. Cool hair," you try to say with confidence.

"Hm, Jason was right. You are sweet. And pretty," she winked. This made your heart race faster. "You want anything, sweetie? A drink? Food, snack?" She asked while walking over to the kitchen.

"Oh, no, I'm fine. Thanks." You call back out to her. That was a half lie. You were sort of in need of a drink. All these nerves and handshakes got your throat drying up.

Hank grunts. "You sure he didn't pay you? You're like the complete opposite of Jason Todd."

You laugh. "Yeah, he's a hot head a lot of the times."

"All the time," Hank interrupts.

"Yeah, fine. All the time," you correct yourself. "But he's actually really sweet. And real attentive too," you quietly admit, knowing Hank probably wouldn't let Jason hear the end of it.

Hank nods in surprise. "Well, maybe he isn't such an asshole. I'll still find a reason to kill him, though," he grins before walking away.

Dawn shakes her head. "He's not gonna kill him. C'mon, sit." Dawn leads you to the couch to sit on the other side of Rachel. Kory comes up, placing some snacks on the table for the others and hands you a bottle of coke as you quietly thank her.

"Rachel," Rachel introduces herself, offering her hand to shake.

You smile, "Y/n," you shake her hand.

"It's so great to meet you! I'm Gar," the green haired boy smiles. "Rach and Conner believed that Jason was lying about you being real. But thanks, because I just gained ten bucks!" He laughed, waving the money around as you laughed with him.

"So, Y/n," Rose chimes. You and Rose haven't officially met, but knowing what she did to Jason made you automatically hate her. "How did you and Jason meet?"

It was an innocent question that the rest would probably like to know. So you didn't show any signs of disliking yet.

"Oh, uhm, we met at the store I work at-"

"What store?" She interrupts, making a nerve inside you twitch.

"Uhm, a book store. It's also a cafe. I own it," you meekly reply while still maintaining your posture.

"Oh. You know, for a person dating Jason, I expected another vigilante. Or, y'know. Somewhere along the lines," she smirks.

You shrug. "Mm, well. Jason's a bookworm. Not a lot of people know that," you feign an innocent smile to Rose.

"Oh yeah. He told me some stuff about theatre and how he was quite a theatre nerd himself-"

"Thespians. He likes them to be called thespians." You interrupt her. Your shaken nervers were replaced by spite, wanting to put Rose in her place.

"So," Gar tries to break off any possible dispute. "Y/n, how long have you and Jason been dating?"

"Uhm.." You pretend to give it some thought, wanting it to seem like a longer time than Rose anticipated. "Six? Reaching up to seven months now," you reply, knowing that Rose and Jason only lasted less than a month.

You mentally punch the air in victory as Rose rolls her eye and gets up from the couch and leaves, saying she's getting herself coffee.

At the same time, Jason comes back with Dick, sending him a couple of scoffs and glares after saying, "He took too much time from him away from his girl."

"Seriously," Rachel says, scooching closer to you, "What do you see in that guy?" She quietly and genuinely asks, since all her previous encounters with Jason weren't really sunshine and rainbows.

You smile to yourself and look over the couch, watching Jason flip Hank off for no reason, your smile growing wider. "He makes me laugh," you replied.

"So? Wasn't so bad, was it?" Jason asks as the two of you walk out of the tower, ready to go home. His arm is laying around your shoulders as your head lays onto his own.

You hum in response. "They're really nice."

He kisses the crown of your head. "What about Rose? She give you any trouble?" He asks with genuine worry.

"Nothing I can't handle," you smile up at him, kissing his chin.

"That's my girl," he says back, pulling you closer, capturing your lips against his.

You guys see what i did there... at the end... was the reference obvious...

HOPE U ENJOYED, ANON!!

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