#Dick not being angry about Jason becoming robin but instead being angry that his new brother isnt driving Bruce up the wall: | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ktkat99 · 7 months

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Reverse Robins prompt if you're looking

Batman swears he doesn't want a partner. Until he meets Damian. Talia drops him off to be raised by Bruce and, as Bruce has no other kids, the two are free to train as they pleased. Damian grows up and moves out, taking his own section of Gotham to protect under his new, adult identity.

Batman, struggling to get himself reaccustomed to working without a partner, meets Tim.

Tim knows who they are and has been following them, taking pics and copying their moves to teach himself martial arts for years.

He's seen Batman having trouble and insists that he needs a new Robin.

Him.

After protesting and trying to chase him away, Bruce finds out just how alone Tim is at home and decides to take him up on it.

Damian feels replaced and is immediately antagonistic to Tim.

He hates how happy the damn kid always is.

He hates how Bruce is spending more time training him.

He hates how Alfred has changed typical meals that Bruce liked to remove seafood, which Tim is allergic to.

When Tim asks to train with him, Damian goes far too hard on him.

When Tim sleeps over and eventually moves in, having officially been adopted, Damian wastes no opportunity to remind him who the Blood Son is, and tell Tim that he's just a stand-in. Basically cannon fodder. Bruce didn't *really* love him. He'd just needed a soldier.

Over the next few years, Tim gradually grows stronger, but also more withdrawn and depressed.

Bruce takes in Jason and Tim starts going solo on patrol, but he always makes time to train/hang out with/play with Jason, wanting to be the big brother Damian had never been to him.

And then one night Tim never returns to the cave.

There's no call.

No heads up.

No distress signal.

No one knows where he is.

No one can find him.

Damian insists Tim must have just left and openly mocks him for trying to get attention or having not had the spine to quit face to face.

Until Damian finds him three weeks later, having been captured, tortured, and turned into Joker Jr.

Damian is horrified and ends up killing the Joker to save Tim, but its too late.

Tim dies in his arms waiting for help to arrive.

They're all grieving and devastated, but no one besides Jason blames Damian for Tim's death to his face, making Damian feel even worse.

He blames himself for not helping search for Tim.

He blames himself for failing to save him.

He blames himself for being a bully, rather than a brother.

He finally has to take a break from being a vigilante and moves back to Nanda Parbat, throwing himself into his training and confessing what happened to his mother and grandfather.

When he's feeling able to resume his job again, Damian moves back to the manor and life goes on as much as it can.

They all still miss Tim.

But they're learning to live without him.

Talia and Ra's, seeing how rattled and off his game Damian was, decide to follow him back to Gotham, steal Tim's body, and see if they can revive him in a Lazarus Pit.

Tim comes back to life, but instead of returning home immediately, he watches them from a distance.

Damian has moved back home to the manor, despite having an apartment in the city.

Despite Bruce still having Jason.

Tim remembers how Damian used to treat him, all because he was adopted, and gets angry.

He becomes Red Hood, but while Jason!Red Hood's problem was that he wasn't avenged, Tim!Red Hood is more concerned with saving Jason from the abuse he had to endure from Damian.

He breaks into the manor one night as Red Hood, making sure to avoid every trap and alarm while still leaving obvious signs all over the cave and the manor, wanting to send the message 'I know you're Batman. I was in your house while you were asleep. I'm dangerous, and I know all your tricks.'

And then he goes upstairs to kidnap Jason.

Jason is overjoyed to find out Tim is alive, but right as Tim's about to take him and leave, another little kid is suddenly in the room.

Jason explains that Dick recently lost his family and Bruce took him in.

Tim knows he has to save both boys, but now is also even more caught off guard.

He'd spent so long trying to tell Damian that he was wrong, that Bruce really did love him like a son.

But the fact that he'd not only been replaced, but Bruce was still sending kids into battle, even after what happened to him was too much.

Tim tries to kidnap them both, but Dick, who's never met Tim before, gets scared and runs to Damians room for help.

Damian fights off the intruder, but then Tim's helmet falls off/Jason says his name/Damian recognizes the fighting style/he somehow finds out that he's fighting Tim and freezes, allowing him to escape.

Damian is shocked that Tim's alive and he and Bruce work to find him and bring him home.

Only, Tim doesn't want to come home.

Not when Damian is there.

Not with Bruce and Alfred, who never did enough to protect him.

But...

He finally accepts, solely to protect Jason and Dick.

So the family gets to work towards the second chance they never thought they'd get, Tim gets a family who loves him, and Jason and Dick get a very protective older brother.

#batman #tim drake #batfam #dick grayson #jason todd #bruce wayne #damian wayne #reverse robins #nightwing #robin #red robin #red hood #prompt #writing prompts #feel free to use #or just enjoy the vague story

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audhd-nightwing · 3 months

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au where selina adopts dick instead of bruce

- selina goes with bruce to the circus as a date

- when the Graysons fall, she knows bruce is reliving what happened to his parents

- she kisses bruce on the cheek and stealthily makes her way through the crowd to the youngest Grayson

- selina has always had motherly instincts, it’s why she has so many cats. she’s known for taking in strays, so what’s one more?

- she pulls dick into a hug and he melts into her, he just needs someone to hold him right now

- selina reminds dick of his mother- the same warm brown skin, the same tight embrace, both kissing the top of his head and whispering reassurances with a slightly accented voice

- she whisks him away from the police (she doesn’t trust them in general, let alone with a newly orphaned child) and lets bruce deal with the consequences. dick sits on her couch with a cat in his lap as selina introduces herself and explains everything to him

- dick is just glad he doesn’t have to go with the cops or social services (he knows not to trust them), and his gut is telling him he can trust selina. after all, animals are a great judge of character and all of the cats seem to love her

- bruce is aware selina took dick in, but considering how quickly the police give up looking for the boy, bruce doesn’t mind her essentially kidnapping him

(selina eventually becomes a foster parent and legally fosters dick, but it’s years later and the police/legal system don’t care enough to worry about a previously missing persons suddenly appearing as a foster kid. gotta love Gotham)

- dick is still young and angry and wants revenge on tony zucco. selina is honest about her identity as Catwoman, and he asks her to help him get back at the man who killed his parents

- together, they steal his most prized possessions, bankrupt him, and overall ruin his life, and then they hand him over to the cops with evidence of his crimes duct-taped to him

- dick is a natural at stealth, thanks to his acrobatic abilities, and he begs selina to train him. he wants to be like robin hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, and who is selina to deny him that?

- selina will still steal jewels from museums and such for herself, but she does that solo. together, the two of them go after corrupt rich people and steal their money, distributing it to the poor

- dick teaches himself how to hack and is able to access bank accounts, making it much easier to steal large amounts of money. selina is extremely proud of him

- selina makes dick his own suit and he goes by Stray. he is typically the one to give out money to people on the streets, and he’s eventually known by most of Gotham. bruce carefully ignores this happening, because he recognizes that Stray is helping the people of Gotham in a way Batman can’t

- bruce still finds and adopts jason, but his costume and name are obviously not Robin. probably Batboy. anyway, dick hears about Batman’s new sidekick and immediately thinks “friend? potential friend?” so he follows them around and befriends jason

- jason knows about Stray, and has a slight hero worship of him ‘cuz he’s like robin hood!’ which dick (and selina) find adorable

(dick is about 10 when his parents die, 12 when he becomes Stray officially, and 16 when jason (13) becomes Batboy)

- tim, when he finds out about dick being fostered by selina kyle after being declared missing for years, of course goes to confront them. dick was (still is) his childhood hero, and he was so worried when the older boy was declared missing

- at least until he recognized dick as Stray, but he couldn’t exactly confront him then

- anyway so tim shows up at selina’s apartment and demands to see dick. selina is like “you are tiny, come inside” and calls for dick. it takes dick a moment but he recognizes tim and hugs him. tim clings to him and dick just accepts it

- tim gives him the photo they took together and some others he found in the newspaper of dick and his parents. dick cries and thanks him

- they get to talking and dick & selina are like “how did you get here? where are your parents?” and tim is just like “oh they’re in egypt. i rode my bike here :)”

- this of course leads to dick and selina stealing tim and leaving bruce to deal with the consequences once again

- it’s easily resolved, selina becomes tim’s emergency contact and they talk to his parents; whenever janet and jack are away, tim will stay at selina’s. blackmail might be involved but a deal’s a deal

(dick is officially fostered by selina right after jason is adopted by bruce, and about 6 months after that tim (10) confronts selina and reunites with dick)

~ time skip ~

- dick goes to Gotham University and lives on campus but stays with selina every weekend. his major is undecided and he eventually drops out to start paramedic training

- when bruce doesn’t believe jason (15) about Garzonas, he runs away to selina’s where dick (18) and tim (12) comfort him. he tells them about sheila haywood and they research her, but jason ends up deciding not to go after her

- selina has a Talk with bruce and he apologizes to jason, inviting him back as Batboy. jason agrees but visits selina’s apartment far more often. he is Batboy for a few more years before offering the mantle to tim and going off to college

- tim respectfully declines being Batboy, and since jason never dies and bruce never goes off the deep end, it isn’t necessary for him to take on that role

- babs is still Batgirl and then Oracle, and tim decides to train under her with computer stuff instead of going out in a mask. tim helps both Batman and Stray when they need it

(babs becomes Batgirl around the time dick becomes Stray, and becomes Oracle a year into jason’s run as Batboy. she views jason as a little brother, and has a sort of Batman/Catwoman relationship with Stray (aka dick flirts with her as Batgirl and she pretends to hate it. they don’t actually date but end up becoming good friends) dick goes after the joker when babs gets paralyzed and breaks both of his legs. he is Oracle’s #1 fan and is super happy when tim decides to train under her)

(babs is about 2 years older than dick, and balanced being a college student/graduate with being a vigilante. she’s a total badass and works more with the Birds of Prey than Batman, but always has time for dick jason and tim)

- babs becomes a lawyer. dick becomes a paramedic and gives Stray to tim, instead becoming Nightwing- a medic vigilante. tim takes on the mantle of Stray and does the robin hood gig. jason leaves the vigilante life behind and goes to college, majoring in english and minoring in education (he wants to become an english teacher and give Gotham kids good educations)

~ the end ~

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confused-wanderer · 1 year

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Fanfic writers, please show Jason and Dick’s turmoil towards Bruce. It doesn’t matter if the writings fluff or angst, I just want to see realistic repercussions of their time with Bruce.

Obviously, he was not the best father by a long shot. Hell, he never even knew how to parent, teach or take care of children, he just wanted to help. But the road to hell is usually paved by good intentions.

Bruce would’ve fucked up a LOT with Dick, never knowing when to be cautious or straightforward, kind or angry, especially to someone who’s suffered almost exactly like he had. Someone who’s seen his parents die, his world shatter and now is filled with vengeance and trauma. Someone who needs his attention, even on stupid matters while he’s going through his own battles of staring out as batman.

With Jason, he must’ve had a whole NEW problem. Jason’s experience on the streets, his niche triggers and responses to some mundane activities or phrases, Dick’s hatred towards him and Jason while also trying to make sure this one doesn’t get himself killed. With fear and frustration comes anger, and cold logic so I’m pretty sure there must’ve been a few instances to say the least where Bruce retorts with something out of anger or trying to get Jason to realise just how serious things are, only realising too late how much it affected him.

I want their hesitation and fear portrayed. How Dick hesitates to tell Bruce something about a topic that was sensitive when he was younger. The way he holds his breath, waiting for the onslaught of lectures and scoldings, or how he laments on something like “God I’m so careless how could I have missed that?” Which would have previously been met with “You are no detective, you need to do better, this could cost you your life.” But instead hears “it’s okay, we all make mistakes. You’ll get it next time, maybe a few practice rounds would help.”

How Jason gives up hopes of communicating with Bruce at all after the arguments they’d had in his childhood over everything and nothing. How nowadays he doesn’t speak much at all, and always answers in curt sentences, thinking Bruce would not have the time, care about unimportant details or not approve of activities. It’s why he hesitates on the edge of a panic attack or needs help to call Bruce, always keeping it as the last resort. But instead of hearing “I always told you to be careful” or “You could’ve avoided this..” he hears “How does it feel chum? I know it hurts, but how can I help?”

Because when Tim came, let’s be honest he saw Robin as a job. He didn’t give a flying fuck and thus remained relatively unaffected by Bruce. Not to mention with two robins, and Tim being Tim, Bruce could never really pick on things to actually hurt him. In time, sure he gradually saw Bruce as a father figure and they got closer, he still has a lesser fear and knowledge of Bruce’s behaviour.

Just a fic which shows Bruce trying, changing and not realising just how some things he did or said fucked up his children. How he tries to understand why, for the life of him, Dick never really talks about what’s really bothering him, or how he can help, or really anything about his life that he genuinely enjoys. Bruce lives for conversations with Jason, and keeps trying to remain upbeat and patient while he prompts conversations every time because he doesn’t understand why Jason has become just as quiet, if not more than how talkative and expressive he was as Robin.

Shit happened, and there’s nothing he can do to fix that, he knows that. But he doesn’t know what actions or words of his are actually ingrained in their minds. He doesn’t remember the emotional extent of how bad some things seemed. He might remember being strict with Dick, but he doesn’t remember how he had once told Dick that he would never feel the happiness like he did with his parents before when the kid had come crying to him on the anniversary of his parents shooting saying how much it hurts. He recalls being harsh with Jason when he had done incredibly reckless things trying to find his biological mother. He doesn’t remember telling Jason that maybe it’s a good thing that his mother doesn’t want to see him.

All I’m saying- Give me a fic in which through something, supervillain, mental breakdown - something that makes Bruce have that moment of realisation of how, no matter his intentions, feelings or context, he’s responsible for their fear of him. I want to see how he reacts to this revelation, his moments of panic, guilt and horror when he realises just how badly he fucked up. How he desperate starts trying to change himself, how he slowly tries to start building relations and starts being more patient, caring and considerate..because he truly loves his children, and he misses them.

#Bruce Wayne #batman #batfam #batbrothers #batbros #Tim drake #red robin #Tim drake robin #dick grayson robin #dick grayson police officer #nightwing #Jason todd red hood #red hood #Jason todd robin #batman and robin #batfam fluff #batfam angst

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aspenxlabyrinth · 7 days

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Hi there! My name is Aspen, and this is a repost of my one-shot whump fic of Dick Grayson (Nightwing) struggling against Mad Hatter’s control. If you’re interested, a link to my Ao3 account is on my profile, have a great day!

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A heavy pulse thundered in his ears, alongside searing pain in a tight band around his head and the shrill screeching that rang discordantly with his usual tinnitus. Somewhere beyond the agony and chaos in his mind, there were voices loudly arguing. About what, Dick wasn't entirely sure. His mind and energy were being spent on fighting whatever was putting him through this Hell.

Focus. Focus. How did I get here? What happened just before the pain?

All he could remember was being directed by Oracle to follow up on a report, but everything else was becoming increasingly hazy.

Okay. If the "Before" is too hard, try to figure out the now.

Even if the pain wouldn't subside, temporary reprieve could come from focusing on the other sensations in his body. Dick looked around to see a concrete floor... dark walls... and the symbol that's haunted every nightmare, as well as every dream of hope he's had since childhood, the bat symbol. A familiar red helmet stood out to the side. Bruce and Jason.

He could feel cold concrete on his cheek, and colder air on his head and face. The familiar feeling of his suit contrasted strongly with the unfamiliar and heavy feeling of his arms bound to his chest - is this a straight jacket? Who put him in a straight jacket? Was he a prisoner somewhere?

Outside the ringing and the pounding in Dick's ears, Jason's raised voice clashed with Bruce's, and what sounded like other jumbled and unseen voices from slightly further away echoes behind.

I won't worry about the other senses... okay... my hair is gone, I'm in a straight jacket, I'm on the floor, I'm in a closed off and dark room, and Bruce and Jason are arguing.

Dick was in no state to put the pieces together, as his head pain erupted into something far more severe, eliciting a cry of shock and a jerk of pain from him. Even thrashing on the ground, someone with strong hands managed to sit Dick upright. Who was he looking at? The haziness that came from the ear-splitting ringing and now truly thunderous headache brought a level of disorientation that Dick wasn't used to. He saw the color red, but that was all he could make out.

A voice that sounded as if it was underwater spoke to him, definitely coming from the mass of red in front of him.

"Dick! Snap out of it! Tell us where Hatter's chip is and we'll get it off of you."

Dick? Hatter? Who are they? No. Dick is me. I am Dick. God this hurts...

A strange feeling that resembled dread settled in Dick's stomach the moment the voice had finished speaking. So did a sense of jealousy, although he couldn't identify why he was feeling either at the sound of a voice that sounded as if it wanted to help him. Regardless, he couldn't bring himself to do much of anything.

Why do I feel afraid? Why can't I answer? Who would I be answering?

A new, very clear voice rang through his head.

In front of you is the man who replaced you, who made you worthless to the person you trusted most.

Worthless...? I haven't felt worthless since - Jason. Jason replaced me.

That's right. Jason Todd. The Red Hood. The second Robin. The better Robin.

No... that's wrong. Jason is... something else. Wait. Who is Jason?

"Dick! Are you listening to me? I know it hurts, come on tell me how to help you! We can't get the chip if you don't tell us where it is, we don't have time here! It's me, Jason! Come on, you only have to respond for a second!" The red mass in front of Dick disappeared, and instead was the face of a man with dark, concerned and angry eyes. Dark hair too. Except for that white in the front. When did Jason get white hair again? Who is Jason?

Submit, Nightwing. Submit to my command and I will ensure Jason Todd is served justice for what he did to you.

Very suddenly, a new pain, far more extreme than the pain in his head, cracked and splintered through his leg. Dick let out a pained yell, but for a moment, his mind was cleared.

"DICK! Where did Hatter put the chip?" Jason had gripped the collar of the straight jacket and was desperately screaming in Dick's face.

"Jason? I don't know what you're-"

"MAD HATTER!!! The mind control chip, where is it?!"

Dick's memory cleared in that instant. He could remember earlier that afternoon, when Babs had told him about the Mad Hatter sighting, and where to go. He could remember sneaking his way there, and watching the crazed Jervis Tetch from a distance. And he could remember being strapped down, before that thing had been implanted, and passing out from the pain of that procedure.

"Fuck, I don't know! But they were cutting into my-" The pain, the ringing, and the pounding returned with a violent force all at once. "AGH, my head!"

"Bruce it's in his head, tell them and get a surgeon in here NOW!"

They don't truly care, Nightwing. You know that. Batman only wants his weapon. He's not going to save you because he wants you alive. He doesn't care. And the Red Hood only thinks he cares, because Batman is telling him to. I can handle both of them. Just submit, Nightwi-

"Dickie, I know it hurts but you've gotta listen to me. There's a surgeon on his way. We'll get that thing out of you. I swear I'd cut in myself if I knew for sure it wouldn't kill you. You've gotta hang on." A man was in front of Dick again, speaking softly this time, but desperately nonetheless. Who was it?

"Keep him out of your head, Dick. If you give in, I don't know for sure if we can get you back, and you can't do that to us."

Do you see? He only cares for their benefit.

Exhaustion was setting in, and with it, the ringing and throbbing seemed to dull. It would be so easy to just sleep, and let the pain, and the confusion go away. The man in front of him was shouting at him in what was easily identifiable as rage, and still concern. Dick figured even if he didn't know who he was talking to, he at least owed him some kind of response.

"Us...?" was all Dick managed to get out.

"Oh come on Dickie, yes, us. Bruce, me, Tim, Damian, Barbara, Starfire for Christ's sake!"

Fragments of images flashed through Dick's mind. Most passed by without much recognition. A few, however, brought images to his mind that almost stopped all of his pain altogether. Wholly green eyes, orange skin and red hair. Ginger hair, glasses, and a wheelchair. Comfort and familiarity in both.

All lies, Nightwing. Don't fall prey to a false sense of safety. Submit to my command.

That exhaustion crept in once again, providing more relief from the pain, but seemingly even more deprivation of his memories and mental function.

"Dick! Come on stay with me!"

"Who are you...?"

"Shit. Dick, it's me. It's Jason. Come on! We met after I tried to take the wheels off of Batman's car!"

"No... that... that was Robin..."

The blue eyes in front of him were growing more frantic every second. Dick felt bad for the man, and wished he could help him.

"Yes, Dick. That's me. I was Robin after you. Remember? After you were Robin-"

"Jason was..."

"That's right! Me! I'm Jason."

"Jason didn't have white hair... Jason was Robin. Jason didn't dress like you either, and was much younger. Jason..." Dizziness and exhaustion were already overwhelming Dick's senses, but there was now a heavy feeling of anger and grief accompanying them, swirling in his mind and crushing his heart. "Jason is dead."

That's right. These people seek to deceive you. Submit.

"Shit shit shit... Yes, I died, but I came back! Please remember, please! Stay with me Dick. I swear to God if you make me have to explain this to everyone I will never forgive you. Shit! Where is Bruce with that surgeon?! Dick come on just stay with me, talk to me, tell me how you're feeling right now."

"Who's... Dick...?" There was too much going on. Too much ringing, too much pounding, too much light, too much yelling... it was all too much.

It would be so, so easy to just sleep. Anything to put a stop to the pandemonium and agony in his head. Anything to distract from the pain in his leg, or the rawness of his throat from screaming.

I can give you that relief. Submit.

Submit. That'd been said a few times... the pleading and distraught man he'd been talking to didn't seem to want him to go to sleep, but surely he must not know how much pain he's in. This other voice wanted him to rest, and wanted the pain to go away.

I don't know who either of these voices are... I don't know who Dick is... or Nightwing for that matter... I can't seem to remember where I am, or why I'm in pain. But I can't fill in the gaps when my mind and this room are spinning like this. Sleep will help. Sleep will help the pain, and I'll figure all of this out when I wake up.

Jason shook Dick violently by the collar of the straight-jacket when he watched Dick's eyes roll back into his skull, and a feeling of both terror and grief flooded his veins when the eyes of the man in his arms rolled back into focus in an expression that looked nothing like the brother that should have been there.

#nightwing #whump fic #jason todd #jervis tetch #mad hatter dc #red hood #one shot fic #dick grayson #mind control

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punkeropercyjackson · 4 months

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Summer Kent lore dump

Ages ago @mik3stuff asked me to tell him about my DC self-insert because he wants to make one too and the ask he sent me got lost in my drafts and i FINALLY remembered and got the motivation to make this!It's long and i do mean LOOOONG because they've existed since 2019 + I tagged canon characters for personal organization and i'm very sorry if that annoys anyone!! /gen /srs

Summer Kent was born Frankie Garcia,in Metropolis,to Mayerlin and Sebastián Garcia.His parents divorced when he was a baby with his mom getting custody of him and his dad neglecting him and they were abusive to him in the classic 'neurotypical cishet parents with a queer neurodivergent kid' way along with some racism on his mom's part since she was white and he grew up getting bullied at school and with no friends too.One of his first memory's is seeing Superman for the first time and being a huge fan of his ever since so when he realized how awfully his parents treated him,he started dreaming Clark would save him

On his 10th birthday,Lex did a rampage across the city in a Lexcorp robot and killed his parents by throwing them onto a building so hard they died on impact,immediately kidnapping Summer to experiment on him afterwards.The experiment in question was to inject him with the dna of the last Kryptofang,a kryptonian species that were basically Krypton's equivalent to dragons but with the addition of telepathy,as an attempt to train him to kill Clark.He was encloused to a Lexcorp lab for 3 days until Clark found him thanks to his and Lois' investigations on Lex's plans.Since Frankie wanted nothing to do with his birth parents,he told Clark his name was Summer when asked since that was the season where he discovered Superman

Summer and Clark instantly bonded so he had no hesitation when he found out about them wanting him to adopt them and this also made Lois his adoptive mom and baby Jon his little brother,along with Jimmy and Lana being his(nonromantically involved)honorary uncle and aunt.They became his sidekick under 'Sparks',both because of his pyrokenisis and his new family being sparks of hope in his life,and him and Lois pulled them out of school so they wouldn't get bullied anymore and Lana was their teacher thanks to her children's education degree she'd previously given up on using.Lex did a smear campaign against Sparks/Summer to detract suspicioun on himself and that made them become more angry and violent and pessimistic than ever combined with their fresh trauma(Clark,Lois and Jimmy did their best to spread good word of them ofc)

A year into his sidekick career,they met Jason due to Clark bringing him on a Justice League mission the same day Bruce did him and they butted heads because of their opposite personalities but were best friends by the end of the day,calling eachother 'Basket Case and Bird Boy' as insults turned affectionate nicknames.Through him,Summer also befriended Eddie and Jason dubbed them 'The Magic Trio' due to his belief that being Robin gave him magic,Eddie's demon theme and Summer's powers.Jason was a positive influence on Summer with his optimistic and peppy attitude and genuine belief in him and made him become more of an 'ideal' hero.Ironically,Bruce disliked him because he thought it would be the other way around

Sparks eventually gained the nickname 'Superpunk',much to his dismay because the Metropolis media meant it as an insult and he was also a goth tomboy both in and out of costume

Clark got Dick and Kory to mentor Summer and this led to them becoming Summer first crushes,with him being aware of the Dick one and throughly embarrased by how obvious they were with it against their will and confusing their's on Kory for jealousy over her being Dick's soulmate(but there was no pick me-ness on his part and instead they were always kind and supportive to eachother).His bi awakening happened when he was 14 and slightly unrelated but in this verse,Eddie was Jason's.An unofficial mentor and moreso intergenerational friend was Selina,who he gained his love of cats from

When Jason was 15,he realized he'd fallen in love with Summer and Dick convinced him to ask him out to a Gotham Academy dance as a confession but then Ditf happened and Summer shut down so hard he had to put the sidekick mantle on hold.On june 1st,he flew to Gotham to visit Jason's grave and got into a fight with Mr Freeze,who accidentally killed him via hypothermia and that made the ghost of the last Kryptofang manifest in his headspace along with his own ghost.They had a conversation that ended with him naming it 'Fantasma' and it convincing him to live again.Clark ressurected him with the Kryptonian Regeneration Matrix using a piece of his hair,Summer having lost three fingers by the time he came back to life and now living with prosthetics.Clark and Lois sent him to live with Jonathan and Martha in hopes of helping him cope and it worked as he learned how to do farmwork,diy and bake,was showered in kindness by his abuelos and got close to Fantasma who taught him Kryptofang things(which Clark also had with the info in the Fortress of Solitude but it had even better knowledge on them than him for obvious reasons)

A while later,Summer moved back to Metropolis after demanding to when he saw Superboy(Kon)and Supergirl(Cindy)on TV,wondering what the fuck was going on.Their relathionship had a rocky start to say the least but Summer still tried to be the best older sibling he could be to them once he saw how poorly the adults in their lives treated them and this led to them having a healthy if very weird dynamic and Summer himself got a new pseudo father-son relathionship in John while they worked on fixing the broken KRM.Jon had developed a love of video games while he was gone and got Summer into them too and over the course of these runs is when we get the arrivals of 4/8 the remaining Superkids:Mia,Chris,Laney and Match and since this was at the same time as Stephanie's and Cass' Robin and Batgirl eras,he teams up with them and they become a trio with Summer taking Babs place as their third while Babs is allowed to truly stay Oracle like she deserves-He was also much kinder to Stephanie than almost everyone else and this made it so they're the closest out of all the platonic World's Finest duos

The combo of his character development and constantly being around Kon and Stephanie who're both gnc trans people in their own ways made Summer's egg as a bigender and genderfluid transmasc crack and he got a new costume and official hero identity under 'Superpunk' for reclamation that only lasted 3 months until he switched to newER one under 'Ember' as he realized he's actually a pastl femme now,Kory and Dick helping him make the second costume.As Ember,he became second only to Clark on the beloved Metropolitan hero list thanks to how many feats he accomplished and his bubbly sweetness and humility and told his Papí he wanted a boy middle name so he gave him two:Valentino and 'Va-El',a kryptonian one to show him he saw him as much his son as he does his bio kids.While all this was going down over the years including the above part,he also had his first relathionship in Rose,dated Kyle(who is only a bit older than 90s YJ like him to avoid creepiness)and had a short thing with Eddie and befriended Natasha,Helena,Cassie,Bart,@insomniac-jay's Dahlia,Solana,Lilith and Daisy,@honeypotsworld's Onya and Lucille,@theautisticcentre's Mathew and Jennifer and @refrigeratedboombursts's Kahali.Kara,Mae,Karen and Krypto come in here too

In Utrh,Bruce calls him to Gotham because he has a feeling Red Hood is Jason but dosen't tell him that's why.Summer still resents him for not killing the Joker but Dick convinces him to agree and him and Jason get into a one on one fight where Jason recognizes him and unmasks himself.Summer is nearly shellshocked because they recognize him too now and he tries to go in for a hug while talking about how much he missed them and makes a joke phrased compliment on their current look and attitude but they fly off in heartbreak at their childhood best friend coming back only for him to be evil.Fantasma forms a mindlink between the two since it's tired of Summer's constant thoughts of him yet refusal to talk to him and this leads to them reconnecting and reforming their bond that was never really lost,including Jason coming to visit him in Metropolis,over the course of a whole year.He also regains his confidence in his love for them and starts shamelessly flirting with them and they're very flustered by it and pretend to hate it but they're secretly loving every second of it,as well as being convinced he's just messing with them instead of having actual feelings for them

Duke is the 5th Robin in this verse instead of Damian and We Are Robin still existed but like him they're elementary and middle school ages instead of high schoolers and Summer is an older sister figure to him,Mar'i is also canon here and two years younger than Lian and they grow up to date and Talia gets herself out of the man-driven narratives DC refuses to free her from by taking over Lexcorp and turning into a force for good by completely rehauling it and is a comphet lesbian happily in love with Selina

Summer becomes Damian's first real friend in their miniseries that takes place slightly before SOB which is about him befriending people his age specifically and regularly appears on Stephanie's Batgirl(60 issues here),Duke's Robin,Cassie's Wonder Girl and all the other Superkids' runs(Kon upgrades to Power Boy instead of the T-Shirt bullshit)and @jellyjays 's Blitz Cross,one of Summer's many found siblings,makes it's debut inbetween these time frames

Jason is an influence on him once again but this time in the opposite direction,making him become more sardonic and brutal as Ember and this causes the Metropolis media to frame him as 'evil all along' which hurts him so much he decides to finally join The Outlaws.The original trinity is Jason himself,Eddie and Rose and once Summer joins as 'Ignite' with a new suit he made and an additional black domino mask gifted to him by Jason to match him,they're 'The Dark Core Four' and @moonage-gaydream's Pepper is their Greta in the sense that she joined because of her crush on one of them-Summer,who she befriended before he ditched Metropolis and who liked her back.Thaddeus(who's a trans girl)is added to the team after they accidentally save her life and then come in order Kahali,Kyle,Artemis,Imani,Mathew,Lilith and Daisy simaultanously,Duke,Azriel(Created by Jay once again),Venus and finally Jennifer.Jaysumm are the Team Mom and Dad from the start AKA Dadhood and Supermom but Thaddeus legitimately views Summer as her mother

Their base is an old abandoned but still functional mansion of Bruce's that they call 'The Fortress',Rhato is 104 issues lasting 3 years in-universe,the Outlaws are a crazy ass and morally gray found family,Mathew is the token cis and Pepper is the token allistic and they've disbanded by the end but on good terms and keep in touch.During it,Jason Summer and Mathew are briefly Lanterns(Star Sapphire/Violet,Black and Green respectively),Rose leaves back Ravager to become Willow,Kyle upgrades to White Lantern,Thad realizes she's a girl mid-way through,Kahali gets killed and ressurected just like his didi Summer and Duke gains reality warping in addition to light and darkness powers.He's actually the reason the N52 exists so he's God actually.Summer takes some detours later on in the run as Outlaw bussiness gets him tangled up with the Gotham Academy kids and starring in the Lumberjanes crossover

Canon couples other than Jason and Summer are Eddie/Lilith,Rose/Imani or Rose/Pepper,Tim/Kahali,Kyle/Venus,Artemis/Daisy,Mathew/Jennifer,Duke/Luna(my Aquafam oc i made to be his love interest)and Thad/Azriel.There's also some mix and match verse's in there,including an adult Outlaws polycule

Jaysumm is finally canonized in this series via Summer one day being especially stressed out and missing the Superfam to boot and Jason comforting him which turns into a makeout session and them sleeping together and agreeing to be fwb because Summer somehow STILL dosen't realize Jason is literally in love with him and they're now a couple in every way but going on dates until Summer has another intense missing of the Superfam day on halloween when he wants to take Jon trick or treating so Jason and him sneak out in a werewolf and fairy costume respectively to do it together,with Jon wearing an Ember costume because he missed his first brother just as much.They have a great night and Jon and Jason still get along like they did when he used to babysit him as Robin and after they drop him at home when they finish,they stop by the fast food restaurant Summer used to work at for late dinner and that's when he finally has his Jason love epiphany.He goes through several stages of emotion over the next hours and blurts out a confession when they make it back to the Fortress because it's killing him and Jason confesses back and they have a long session of different kinds of kisses as they go to Summer's room to sleep

Post-Rhato,Summer goes back to Metropolis with Jason in toe due to their dating status at the same time Clark ends up in a coma thanks to saving Jon from Ultraman so Summer takes up the Superman mantle in the meantime since he's the eldest Kent sibling.Kenan,Carol,Jane,Laura and Lucy are Superfam members by now and Summer,Lois,Martha,Kara and John make his Superman suit together as a bonding activity and his hero work is better than ever,the effort he puts into it being to redeem himself from what he did as vigilante.Also,Talia makes him his own Krypto equivalent with kryptonian technology named 'Kryptona',a robotic female supercat who can speak english,spanish,arabic and kryptonian and has pink hearts for pupils

He also mentors Damian's team,the All New Teen Titans,because Jon is a part of it and so do Jason,a newly Batwoman Stephanie,Duke codenamed 'Eris' and Cassie who's now 'Wonder'.The members other than Damian(Shadowbird)and Jon(Superboy)are Maps(Robin),Maya(Nobody),Suren(Fang),Kathy(Beacon),Colin(Abuse),Irey(Thunderheart),Bobby(Wonder Boy),Nell(Batgirl),Keli(Teen Lantern)and Laurel(Supergirl + A trans girl variant of Jon instead of a genderswap and Earth 11 is generally very different here).75 issues,their Titans Tower is in Brooklyn and the ships are Damimaps,Jonay,Mayakathy and Surnell but only Mayakathy is explicit and the rest are just implied since they're all so young.Stephcass and Cassiegeorgia are canon too

Two years pass until Clark wakes up and by then,Metropolis loves Summer so much that when he announces he's been Ember,son and daughter of Superman,the whole time and is going back to it they do multiple kinds of grand apologies to him for their mistreatment and Jason also gave him a domino mask again but this time a baby pink one to symbolize him finally embracing all parts of himself and Summer adds on a pastel trans flag colors Superfamilia battle jacket and pink demonias for the final touch.Them and Jason have officially settled down together as they buy a house and have Metropolitan and occasionally Gothamite adventures and end up having four kids:October,Gus and Zane(identical twins)and Thea.Summer opens up his own bakery called 'Summer's Desserts' but stays Ember and Jason becomes a librarian when he's not Red Hood

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evilwickedme · 1 year

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A question that a lot of Jason Lives AUs try to answer is what does Jason actually become later on?

The easy and most boring answer is that he still gets traumatized by the Joker and still decides to become Red Hood. Just because this is a boring answer doesn't make your fic a boring fic, don't @ me, just saying it's the simplest one and doesn't require a lot of thought.

One I see a lot is Jason becoming the Flamebird to Dick's Nightwing. I like this fine, but the whole point of Nightwing was that Dick found an entirely new identity for himself outside of Batman, and I feel like having Jason's arc go from defining himself as Batman's sidekick to defining himself as part of Nightwing's story ain't it.

I've seen some people attempt to come up with other names. I like Phoenix, especially if the story still includes Jason being traumatized by the Joker but not dying, because it's about his own personal journey. Like that name means the exact opposite of what Red Hood means. Red Hood is about defining himself through the man who murdered him; Phoenix, instead, can be about defining himself despite or against what happened to him. Both approaches make sense for the story they take place in (or hypothetically take place in).

Something I don't think I've seen is Jason just... staying Robin? Like I remember reading that when DC comics revisited Earth Two (the original DC universe) it turns out that Dick never stopped being Robin, even when he became an adult, and I think that in a way that would actually make a lot of sense. I think Jason is the only batfam member who didn't choose the vigilante life but rather found himself in it. Not that he didn't take to it like fish to water, but between eight year old Dick running off to kill Zucco and baby Damian trying to kill Tim over the Robin mantel, all the other members of the batfam actively chased this life, while Jason joined the WayneFam first and foremost and became Robin because Bruce was Batman.

So since Jason does enjoy being a vigilante but isn't actually motivated to it naturally, I can see a reality where he just... stays Batman's sidekick, eventually graduating to full adult partner, but keeping the Robin name. He might protect Crime Alley more than Batman does, but overall maybe in this universe nothing really truly terrible happened to him. He might've gotten angry and frustrated with Bruce, but they worked through it and had a better relationship for it. Even Dick eventually gets over his issues and sees how Good Jason is, that he just wants to help. They'll never be close, but they start becoming a family.

You can have this au never include Tim at all and that would work, or maybe he steps in specifically because he sees Jason and Bruce having issues and just wants to see his heroes to get along. Maybe even then he doesn't become a vigilante; Bruce and Jason like having him around, and they're not going to stop keeping an eye on him when he knows their secret identity, but he doesn't ever really need to put on the pixie boots, so he doesn't. He's good with computers, though, and he gets along well with Barbara, so eventually he gets a mask and some little codename and he helps with Oracle duties.

Cass is Cass. She's more dedicated to the cause than to Batman, but also Jason is a great little brother, joyful and supportive. They both understand the need for violence and both have witnessed immense suffering and death. In a world where Jason is still Robin, Cass and Jason get along so well. Jason is patient with her and her words, and she likes listening to him read his favorite books aloud to her.

In a world where Jason is still Robin, he doesn't get hit by Spoiler's brick, but he finds it incredibly amusing that she tries. He advocates to add her to the team early on, and Bruce isn't seeing a dead kid when he looks at her and hears her Alley accent, he just sees his son, his partner, and he feels this urge to protect her. Bruce trains her, and she has the same sense of humor as Jason, and she meets Tim when he's just hanging out in the Cave, and she meets Cass because Cass still Lurks sometimes, and she just seems to fit right in, you know?

And then Damian shows up, and instead of dealing with a sixteen year old who's still insecure about his position in the family, he's dealing with an almost twenty year old who has this large support group and friends and family and also is way bigger than this tiny assassin who just tried to stab him. He doesn't love the fact that the little gremlin thinks that he can just take Robin away from Jason, but he understands coming from a life of violence, and he can understand thinking that being Robin and being Bruce's son come hand in hand.

I don't know enough about Duke to know how he'd come into the family in this au, but I know that Jason and him get along just fine in the comics, so it seems to me that a Jason that isn't even as angry and hurt as canon!Jason would get along with him even better. He probably thinks Duke's powers are the shit, and empathizes with him over his parents, even though it's not the same.

Anyway I just spent like forty minutes writing this au out and I'm (probably) never going to write a fic for it so uhhhh yeah idk I'll end this here for now

#robin jason todd #jason todd #batfam #batfamily #dc #this my fic #technically. I guess.#gail speaks #jason lives au #jason todd my beloved #jt

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psydelta · 1 year

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Imagine this: Bruce doesn't understand the concept of death.

He has pretty developed abstract thinking but this concept just. Evades him. He simply doesn't understand and has no intention to. Death is a social construct, and Bruce refuses to follow it.

It has so much crack potential but I'd like to see some DRAMA. Like, when his parents are shot in front of him, Bruce goes "nope, I refuse" and simply drives the whole concept of death out of his head. Instead he tells himself that "they'll be taken to the hospital and be fine". He anchors down with them, holds their hands and waits for help. Imagine Joe Chills terror when this child looks at him with horrified expression and goes "That must really hurt! Why did you do this?" and takes bloody hands of his dead parents muttering reassuring things and constant stream of you'll be okays and this will heals.

After Alfred takes Bruce home, he tries to explain that his parents are dead. But Bruce just looks at him with big eyes and says: "But they're in the hospital, and doctors will help them, right?" Alfred tries again and again, and eventually Bruce goes into full-blown tantrum and refuses to listen, covers his ears and goes hiding. Alfred doesn't have a heart to try this again.

And after days, then weeks, Bruce starts asking about his parents. Shouldn't he and Alfred go check on them? Why aren't they home already? What's happening? Where are they? And Alfred explains again: "They are dead, Master Bruce. They'll never come back, they are dead". But Bruce doesn't hear "dead" . He nods as if he totally and completely understands and hears "abandoned you" instead. Because being alive and abandoning him is better than being dead.

He lives with this. With the thought that his parents couldn't put up with him - put up with Gotham - anymore. He imagines their new life and shows hand-drawn pictures of them - alive and happy and in the midst of craziest adventures 10-year-old can come up with - and Alfred excuses himself after to cry alone every time.

Bruce forsed into therapy. It's not healthy to just forget about death; it's not healthy to live in such complete denial. And he goes, willingly, without complaints. He talks about problems at school, about his fears and anxieties that had gotten worse after his parents left him. He talks about them at length - mother's kindness and warmth, father's guidance and patience - and cries. And every time his therapists try to tell him: "But they're dead, Bruce", he gets this blank look in his eyes for a second and goes quiet and still. His sessions last for three years; Alfred thinks about fourth and does nothing.

After that it is still the same path - Bruce decides that he must help Gotham, seeks training, becomes Batman, all that drill. He fosters Dick - and loves him with all his heart. They fight, Dick leaves, and Bruce thinks that maybe it's not Gotham - maybe it's just him.

He finds Jason - hungry and miserable and too angry to be alone. He takes him under his wing, and makes him Robin, and everything is not fine - Dick still doesn't come home but at least he picks up the phone - but it's good. Bruce is good. He content with his life.

And then Jason dies.

It uproots everything. Dick comes home to scream at Bruce about his dead- something, they wasn't brothers truly, but Dick started to accept Jason as his successor. He screams himself to exhaustion. He turns to leave again. And then Bruce pulls down his cowl and says: "I understand that you are upset. It's my fault that Jason is in this condition. It'll take a lot of time to heal but hell be fine, Dick. I promise."

Dick is frozen. He stands with his mouth open, unable to form one coherent thought, until Alfred guides him away with a gentle touch on the elbow and explains Bruce's inability to understand death in hushed voice. Dick doesn't believe him. Not at first. Not until he sees Bruce talking at Jason's corpse with almost serene smile on his face and then Dick out of the cave to promptly retch into the nearest toilet. It's too much.

It's too much for Alfred too. He doesn't know what Bruce sees inside his mind, when the are at the wake and coffin is lowered into open maw of the grave. But Bruce talks to Jason - and Alfred doesn't listen after "I'll wait for you, son, as long as I need".

And the worst part? Jason does come back.

#dc #batman #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #alfred pennyworth #I took concept and ran with it #and made myself cry in the process #angst and misery #somebody please attack this with reverse uno card #it'll be hillarious #Bruce: I only punched him in the face forty two times!#Dick: but Bruce #it kills people!

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incorrectbatfam · 3 years

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Stepmom!Selina?

She sees what she's getting into from a mile away, but she welcomes it because Bruce's kids are a part of him, and she loves all of Bruce.

The kids all see it coming too, and while some (Damian) take longer to warm up to her, she's welcomed into the fold with open arms.

Selina's got a heart as big as her partner and while she's not always perfect, you can see how much she cares.

As a former foster child herself, Selina understands Duke's unique experiences and traumas from the foster care system, so whenever he needs to talk, she's the first one he goes to. Sometimes he doesn't want to (or need to) talk, so they'll watch boxing matches or she'll teach him little bits of Mandarin. If the kitchen isn't busy, they'll try their hand at new TikTok recipes, and film themselves either succeeding or debunking the original poster.

Being raised in isolation to be a human weapon meant Cass missed out on a lot of the things daughters typically learn as children/teens. The evening of Cass's first gala, she didn't know the first thing about doing her own hair and makeup. She's braved assassin armies, but her self-made disaster of bobby pins and eyeshadow nearly drives her to tears. Selina swoops in, wipes Cass's face with gentle reassurances, and walks her through step-by-step.

Selina considers it a privilege to have watched Dick grow from the spunky little Robin to the man he is today. Even though he's taller than her, she still ruffled his hair when he does a good job. She also keeps the first ever birthday card he gave her, which includes a pop-up bat signal and scented stickers, and remembers all of his favorite radio stations. Also, when Bruce does something, Dick goes tattling to Selina.

For a while, Carrie mooched off of her siblings' Netflix profiles, but everyone got tired of her messing up their algorithm and she was forced to make her own. She soon realized how much freedom she had because no one could see what she was watching. Selina caught on to the power trip and started researching and watching snippets whenever a new show comes out. That's how she stopped a bunch of preteen girls from watching Squid Game.

Tim often gets overlooked as not just the middle child, but the child who appears put-together and regularly takes on adult responsibilities. Selina, however, remembers that he's still a teenager. She regularly checks in and gradually teaches him that it's okay to let go and act his age. Selina encourages him to call his Young Justice friends outside of missions and take small acts of rebellion against Bruce. When Tim and his boyfriend snuck out to a famous lover's lookout, Selina gave them the car keys and covered for them.

She noticed that Jason really enjoys hanging out with Harley Quinn, bonding over not just Joker trauma but other shared interests like music taste. After Harley turns to the antihero side, Selina discusses with Bruce and they start inviting Aunt Harley and Aunt Ivy to dinner. The first time they do that, Harley is so excited that she baked a three-layer cake just for Jason. Literally, in strawberry frosting, it said, "THIS CAKE IS FOR JASON ONLY." Finding someone that Jason can relate to remains one of Selina's proudest accomplishments.

She's trying her best, but she makes mistakes too. For instance, although Wayne Manor has plenty of kitchen space, Selina does her cooking at Harley and Ivy's because Ivy can offer her fresh plant-based ingredients that suited Damian's needs. When Alfred's not available, she sends Damian to school with healthy, flavorful vegan lunches shaped into Cheese Viking characters. One time, she was tasked with bringing brownies to a PTA meeting. Incidentally, Harley was simultaneously baking a... different kind of brownie for a block party (you can see where this is heading). When an angry superintendent demanded to know who was responsible, Selina wisely kept her mouth shut and thankfully, so did Damian.

Cullen loves concerts, but he's a huge introvert who gets anxiety when he's left alone in a crowd. Selina becomes his concert buddy, and she'll go as all-out as he does. Sometimes that's showing up to a garage band dressed-down in hoodies and sunglasses. Other times it's painting their faces and looking like they just came out of a Hot Topic blowout sale. She even listens to the discography beforehand so she can blend in. Selina learns a lot about Cullen through this, because nothing says more about a person than the music they listen to.

Harper, though looking rough around the edges, turns into a giddy little kid at interactive science museums. During one of these trips, Harper got distracted by the giant Newton's Cradle so she didn't notice a fourth grade field trip sweeping up Selina. When they reunited at the gift shop, a chaperone had given Selina a school t-shirt and she was put in charge of grading ten kids' assignments. Harper laughed so hard that she spewed lemonade on the museum owner. Neither of them will let the other live that day down.

Selina and Barbara openly talk about guy stuff, and Selina is more than happy to offer advice in times of need. They're both pretty liberal talking about that stuff, and one time they did a tier ranking of all the Gotham Rogues based on how effective their gimmick is (Joker was the only S-tier). They then proceeded to get into a debate on whether or not Man-Bat and Killer Croc should qualify for the list, which led to them staring each other down at dinner while the other family members sat around them confused.

Steph's school offered a Mother's Day breakfast. Although Crystal Brown was doing her best and wanted to make it, she was scheduled a double-shift that the breakfast fell right in the middle of. Selina reached out to Crystal and with permission, went in her place. Afraid that Steph would publicly reject her, Selina sat in the parking lot for ten minutes as Bruce amped her up over the phone. Steph, thinking that no one would no up, was ecstatic and said that she couldn't have thought of anyone better. They enjoyed stacking up waffles and making the girls who bully Steph envious.

Long before she and Bruce got married, Selina made it clear that she would not be relegated to the gender-typical role of a homemaker, and Bruce happily concurred because it's 2021. They knew that to give Alfred a break, they'd have to take on some chores themselves. Instead of dividing up a boring old chore chart, they find ways to make cleaning fun and collaborative. They'll dance around the halls in mop slippers, play "guess the stain", and race their roombas. The kids see this and start modeling the behavior in their own ways—Dick swings from high places to dust them, Damian trains his pets to pick up garbage, and Cass and Duke compete to see who can clean the most bathtubs.

Some parts of the Manor are due for redecorating, so Selina and Alfred make a day trip out of interior design sketches, flipping through furniture catalogues, and looking at paint swatches. It sounds boring at first, but the menial tasks meant they had plenty of time for conversation, and she finally understood why everyone respects him. They also made room in the afternoon for a stroll through the park and afternoon tea, where he told her and her only the secret to a perfect scone.

The other Justice League partners welcome her into the group too. Whenever Selina's in Metropolis, she joins Lois and Ma and Pa for Sunday brunch where they share what their kids have been up to. Iris shows her life hacks to cooking large batches of food in a short time. Selina and Dinah discover an online store dedicated to selling vigilante gear and go on a Cyber Monday spree for their whole families. Steve Trevor, Diana's partner, teaches Selina how to fly with the invisible jet so she can surprise Bruce with the batplane.

After overcoming their initial conflicts, Selina and Talia hold a high amount of respect for each other. Talia sees Selina as not just a capable combatant, but a worthy partner to her former beloved and stepmother to her son. Selina, after spending all that time with the kids, understands the motherly love that Talia holds for Damian and makes it abundantly clear that she would never try to replace Talia in the boy's life. Regardless, looking after all those kids is hard, so they are very much open to the idea of co-parenting.

(Selina doesn't know it, but all this makes Bruce fall in love with her all over again.)

#ask #anonymous #selina kyle #catwoman #gotham city sirens #gotham rogues #batfamily #batfam #batkids #batsibings #batclan #batman family #dc comics #headcanon #tw food mention #tw mental health mention #tw drug mention

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soulmate-game · 3 years

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Not related to the other two Bio!mom Harley AUs that I did. Just... similar. I wrote this instead of sleeping, as per the usual.

—*—*—*—*—*

“I need your help.”

No accent, no threats of violence, no beating around the bush (figurative or otherwise). No fighting or unconscious bodies.

Just Harley Quinn with her hair down, no makeup, and completely serious, in the center of the Bat Cave. Even though her usual exaggerated Brooklynn accent (circa 1950s) had become a pretty inseparable part of her personality over the years, every now and then she forcibly stuffed it down and used her mostly unaccented voice. The one reminiscent of days with less colors on her face, a high bun, and a pristine white lab coat.

Every single one of the Bats and Birds present, fresh from an interrupted patrol thanks to her, could count the number of times they had seen Harley like this on one hand. Bruce would have the most recollections, but everyone else would have plenty of fingers left on said hand. So they all knew, especially when Bruce willingly pulled down his cowl so he could look Harley in the eye, that this was the start of something they were not likely to forget. And maybe their chances of survival were slim too.

“Harley,” Bruce’s voice was still gruff, seeing as he was still mostly Batman at the moment, but his eyes were soft. “Maybe you should tell us what you need help with first. And sit down. You look exhausted.”

Sure enough, there were dark circles under Harley’s eyes. She let Bruce-man lead her over to one of their debriefing tables and sit her down. She let out a huge sigh, her fingers tangling in her loose blond locks.

“I have a confession, and it isn’t gonna leave this cave, capiche?” The slight return of her accent relieved a little of the tension, but not much. Taking this as their cue, the rest of the bats spread out into their usual seats at the table. Bruce stayed near Harley, keeping a hand on her shoulder in silent support. Harley didn’t continue talking until he gave her a solemn nod in agreement. She gulped— an action that immediately returned the tension.

“... fifteen years ago, back when I was still with Joker, I disappeared off the Gotham scene for a few months. I’m sure a few of you remember,” she looked up, and a couple of the older vigilantes nodded. Really, Jason has still been Robin back then. But the memory stuck out in his head now that he was thinking about it.

“Yeah, you were breaking away from him a little bit, which was weird at the time,” Red Hood mused aloud, arms crossed. “I think you helped us out a couple times and did some of your first team ups with Ivy before you vanished. Then a few months go by and you were back in action with Joker, so we mostly ignored it as you just being you.”

Harley nodded. “Ah, my Ivy’s a lifesaver, even back then. She helped cover up the timeline by keeping me in action for longer than I should’a been without putting me at too much risk.”

“Timeline…” Red Robin spoke up, eyes huge even behind his mask. “You don’t mean—“

“Harley,” Bruce breathed, having also caught on. “You were pregnant?”

The air went still. Harley sniffed, eyes watering even as she smiled.

“Oh yeah. Shouldn’t have been possible, ya know? Me ‘n Joker being dumped in that damn acid should have made us both more sterile than an operatin’ room. But I knew I couldn’t raise a kid, so after she was born—“

“You kept her?” Damian interrupted, earning a gentle cuff over the head from Dick. Harley just snorted.

“Yeah. Not gonna lie, I thought about abortion. But the baby didn’t do nothin’ wrong, and I was still in love with Joker back then so I was ecstatic that I was able to make something new with part ‘a him in it. Still, I knew a baby didn’t deserve to be raised in Gotham. Especially not my baby, not with my enemies and history. Not with who her father was. I knew he’d never want her, never let me keep her. So I spent the last five months of my pregnancy lookin’ around for the best possible family to take her in. And I found them in Paris, France. A sweet couple, both of them bakers. Sabine, she’s both adorably sweet and super kickass. Comes from a Chinese family that is crazy about teachin’ their women martial arts. But nothing shady about it, I triple checked. Just bonding through kicking people in the face. Which is perfect, I wanted my baby to know how to defend herself. I knew she’d need those skills eventually. And Tom, that’s Sabine’s wife, he’s a gentle giant. Same size as Bane, but as harmless as a puppy and makes the best croissants ever. Seriously, the best.”

“Harley,” Bruce gently prodded, but there was a tiny grin on his face. Seeing her behaving so… so normally, so proud and reminiscent, was a rare treat. Bruce would be lying if he said he wasn’t proud of how far the woman had come. How she had freed herself and become a better person, mostly on her own.

“Right, right. The point,” Harley took a breath, rubbing her forehead. “I came clean to Tom and Sabine, but apparently they knew who I was the whole time. They just didn’t care— did I mention they are perfect? Anyway, once I explained everything, they agreed immediately to adopting my baby. They’d been wanting kids, but it would’a been too risky for Sabine’s health. That’s how I found them anyway, they were in the market to adopt. We named her Marinette. She took Tom and Sabine’s last names, hyphenated. We decided Quinn would be her middle name. And after that, I came back to Gotham and told myself that she was in good hands and I needed to forget about her. Cuz I was no good for her. I knew that. I went back to my old tricks. And then…” Harley chuckled, but it was self-depreciating.

“Then a few years passed, and I started breaking away from Joker for real. Then we broke up, I blew up Ace Chemicals while you guys were outta town doing Justice League and Young Justice shit. I started dating Ivy. And—“ she smiled softly at the table, clearly seeing something the rest of them couldn’t. “Then Ivy convinced me to go see her. Visit my baby, see how she’s been. And I did. Marinette was seven years old, but damn it to hell she was gorgeous. And say whatever you want about me and Joker— most of it will even be true— but neither of us are stupid. And she inherited all of our intelligence. All of it. She got my blue eyes. But she got his hair, which meant Sabine teased me relentlessly about ‘are you sure she isn’t that Wayne’s kid?’ And don’t make that face Bruce, you’d be lucky to have a kid half as beautiful as my Mari-pie. No offense, Damian. Anyway. Anyway, this is the important part. Or part of it.

“She sat there and listened to everything I had to say. Everything. A little seven year old, who could barely understand English at the time, and she listened without interrupting once. She never threw a fit, she wasn’t angry or confused. I told her about the things I’d done in the past— well, G rated versions— and she didn’t care. She called me Momma Harley right away, said she wanted to meet Aunt Ivy sometime soon, and started telling me everything about her that I’d missed. From that day on, she became my sunshine. The light of my life, and I still call her at least once a week every week. When I disappear for a few days out of the city? I’m visiting her—“

“You’re banned from international travel, Harley,” Dick scolded, but he sounded way too amused for it to work. He knew she had her ways, anyway. Nobody could actually stop Harley damn Quinn from doing whatever she wanted.

“—Ugh, she tells me the same thing every time! Disappointed glare and everything. I don’t know how I gave birth to such a goodie goodie, but somehow I did. Not important though! The important thing is, I’m always the first to hear when something new happens in her life. And we had decided that she wouldn’t visit me in Gotham until she was at least eighteen, but apparently she disobeyed me— which I should have expected honestly— and entered you guys’ WE international scholastic competition.”

“Oh no,” Bruce pinched the bridge of her nose. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng? The contest winner?” He finally pulled out a chair and sat down. “The winner gets an all-expense paid trip to Gotham for them and their whole class.”

“Exactly!” Harley threw up her hands. “Mari told me last week, and I’ve been trying to talk her out of coming ever since. But she’s inherited both of our stubbornness too, and she isn’t budgin’ a bit. ‘Momma Harley, I wanna see you and Auntie Ivy though!’ And ‘Momma, Gotham’s nothing I can’t handle,’ or my favorite, ‘Maybe you’ll finally get to see me dropkick someone three times my size then, and I’ll prove it.’”

“So that’s what you meant by you need our help,” Tim said as he leaned forward over the table. “Joker just broke out of Arkham yesterday. You want us to protect her.”

“I’d prefer if one of you was with her outside of the mask too, as often as possible,” Harley confirmed. “I can’t stop her from coming here anymore, but I also don’t trust Joker for a second. As soon as he sees her, I’m afraid he’ll make the connection.”

“She looks like him?” Damian asked, scrunching up his nose at the ugly mental image of Joker as a teenage girl. Harley shook her head, solemn.

“She looks like a dark-haired mini-me,” she corrected. “She even keeps her hair in pigtails as her way of showing support for me. And I know Marinette can kick ass, Sabine’s trained her well. But Marinette inherited more than I’d like from me,” Harley ran a hand through her hair. “I didn’t notice it until she was thirteen. She got a crush on a classmate, and it was almost like watching videos of me back during the early days of— well, of Harley Quinn. Just without the crime and insanity. She didn’t even realize that she was almost stalking the poor kid until I pointed it out, and luckily I was able to put my doctorate to good use and we nipped that right in the bud ASAP. She never meant it that way, anyway. As soon as I explained things to her, she was horrified and immediately asked me to help her learn how to have a healthy relationship. That was a fun discussion,” Harley grimaced. “But she still gets attached to people really, really easily. Once she grew out of her crush on that boy, she adopted him as her unofficial brother. She already calls Selina “Auntie,” even though I’ve barely mentioned her to Marinette. She gets attached fast, and deeply. And I’m afraid that even after all the warning I’ve done, all the stories I’ve told her—“

“You’re afraid she’ll get attached to Joker just like you did,” Bruce finished for her, closing his eyes. “Because she knows he’s her father.”

“Yes,” Tears were slowly dripping down her face already, her hands curled into fists so tightly that her knuckles were paper white. “You know how he is. If he finds out she’s his biological daughter, he’ll immediately try to take advantage of that. And he’s far too good with his words for people like me and Mari. I’m worried outta my mind. Please. Help keep my baby safe from him.”

“We will,” Jason no longer had his helmet on, or the domino mask that he usually wore underneath it. All of them knew masks were merely formality with Harley nowadays. And he needed to look her directly in the eye so she could see how serious he was. “I can sign up as a bodyguard for the class. It won’t be weird, seeing as they’re tourists and this is Gotham. They also have several rich kids in their group if I remember right.”

Bruce nodded, agreeing with Jason. “That’s a good idea. I can lead the class on their tours of WE personally. That’ll serve the purpose of keeping an eye on her and shutting up the investors that keep begging me to make more public appearances for the sake of the company. Marinette’s name is already released to the news as the winner of the contest, so we can’t keep her out of the spotlight long. Tim, you’ll have to keep an eye on any and all pictures of the class. Try to erase or doctor the images with her in it well enough that connections between her and Harley can’t be easily made. Dick, you and Damian will be in charge of keeping an eye out for any activity from Joker. The slightest hint, and you notify all of us. We’ll decide on a case-by-case basis who is necessary to stick with the class and who goes after the clown.”

“She’s gonna sneak out of her hotel to stay with me and Ivy,” Harley admitted, bringing the (now slightly judgemental) attention back to her. She raised her hands up in surrender. “She didn’t tell me that, and I didn’t approve or suggest it! I just know my baby too well to not realize that that’s her plan. Could ya provide an escort?”

Bruce sighed. “This is gonna be an eventful month.”

#maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc #soulmate-game #bio!dad au #bio!mom harley quinn #bio!dad joker #maribat fanfic #maribat fic #platonic Harley x Marinette #platonic Ivy x Marinette #platonic brucinette

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danny-chase · 2 years

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What if…it was Dick that was the Red Hood instead of Jason?

Few options I can see happening here:

1) Canon divergence - Dick goes off the rails after Jason dies, he was already in a downward spiral in this case no one intervenes and he keeps going. He goes out for revenge and successfully kills the Joker. He spends a lot of time isolating himself like as in Last Laugh’s aftermath (for those who don’t know, he beat the Joker to death). Eventually he takes Red Hood as a mantle out of repentance because of his guilt over stooping to a villain's level. Unlike Jason’s Red Hood, he doesn’t kill criminals or go on to become a mass murderer/serial killer.

2) Dick and Jason swap roles, where Dick dies during the Harvey Dent, Robin: Year One incident (for those who don’t know, Harvey nearly beat Dick to death with a baseball bat, with Bruce watching rip). In this case, Superboy’s punch brings back Dick instead of Jason. He doesn’t really have a reason to specifically become “Red Hood”, so in this case “Nightwing” is possibly a villain. I don’t know if Dick would be angry in the same ways Jason was angry (ie: would Dick be resentful he wasn’t avenged?) but he would be thrown in the pit by Talia and trained by the League and stuff. Idk this would be funny because iirc Dick never liked Talia (not in a like Talia is evil way, just as in like they didn’t get along which is hilarious way, I like to hc that he was jealous Bruce was spending time away from him like a child getting upset their new single parent has a new gf way). This would make for an interesting reunion and also change a lot of things about Jason being raised (it would also be interesting if they both died and came back and reacted in different ways but met or something idk rip bruce though).

3) Jason dies a second time and Dick takes over the role of Red Hood sort of like he took over for Batman, but it makes less sense because Red Hood (no one kill me please) is less integral than Batman is canonically not in your hearts. Maybe Jason’s established himself in another city or something. It’s a tale of Dick struggling with portraying Jason accurately while sticking to his morals. Could also happen short term (I think I’ve read a fic or two where Dick had to go undercover as Red Hood because Jason’s busy or smth) in aftermath of injury or while Jason’s busy.

#momo don't look #batfam #red hood #jason todd #dick grayson #nightwing #batfamily

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the-dragonfire-system · 3 years

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A second Bat-Family idea/headcanon. Again massive thanks to @hintofelation99 and @timdrakeisaclownbaby for giving us the Bat-Family bug

What if Spider-Man (Peter Parker) was raised by Bruce Wayne? Part 1- Backstory and first night as Spiderman

In this universe Spider-Man and his villains all exist in the DC universe but not any other MARVEL heroes

Uncle Ben and Aunt May died before Richard and Mary Parker

Richard studied alongside and knew Bruce Wayne, with Richard being on of the only people Bruce called a friend during his time studying sciences and forensics

Richard and Bruce became close enough friends that Bruce was named Peter's godfather

Richard was working for Cadmus but quit when he found out they were weaponizing his research

Knowing he had to run, Richard left Peter with Bruce and ran with his wife Mary

Richard and Mary Parker died after Cadmus destroyed their plane

Peter is raised alongside Dick Grayson (as Dick is like 23 and Peter is at his best when he's in his early 20's)

Peter being a genius realises Bruce is Batman

Peter becomes Robin when Dick leaves to join the Teen Titans, Dick becomes Nightwing earlier (as soon as the Titans are formed as he trusts Pete to be Robin)

Peter is expertly trained by Bruce

Peter is still Robin when Jason is adopted

On a field trip to Cadmus, Peter is bitten by a radioactive spider that Cadmus was using for cross species genetic enhancement

Peter gains his powers from the 616 universe pretty much overnight

When Peter tells Bruce of his powers, Bruce pulls Peter from the Robin role until they can find his limits

Bruce, Dick and Peter had been training Jason and Jason is made the new Robin

Batman and Robin (now Jason) go out to fight crime leaving an angry Peter at Wayne Manor

Peter calls Nightwing who brings over his red and black suit, red goggles and a black bandana for Peter's basic first suit

Peter in a spare Nightwing costume helps Bruce and Jason on patrol

They had been up against Bane, but with Peter's new powers he easily beats Bane

When the 3 get back to the Batcave Bruce lectures Peter but agrees with Dick and Jason that he did well

Peter remarks on his spider like abilities and Jason jokingly calls him "The Human Spider"

Dick is the one to suggest "Spider-Man"

Peter agrees saying the second Robin is now his own hero and that Jason is Robin

Bruce and Peter design the iconic webshooters

They add different functions such as electric webbing, fireproof webbing and a stronger variant laced with kryptonite dust/fragments

Jason and Dick help Peter design his costume

As he's been raised and trained by Batman, Peter puts more of an emphasis on stealth

Instead of red and blue, Peter's first suit is similar to Otto Octavius's Superior Spiderman suit

The suit is also made of the same material as Nightwing's. Flexible but much better armoured the mainstream Spider-Man

Donning his new suit and webshooters Peter Parker takes to the streets of Gotham as The Sensational Spider-Man

If you enjoy and want a Part 2 (How Peter reacts to Jason dying, Peter meeting Tim, how his villains come about etc) then let us know. We have ideas

Rebirth System signing off

#Jay's ideas #DC #Marvel #Batfamily #Bruce Wayne #Batman #Dick Grayson #Nightwing #Peter Parker #Spiderman #Jason Todd #Robin #Amalgam Universe inspired

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jinmukangwrites · 3 years

Text

Day 5 (6-17): Aged-up | Mother and son | Brothers

Warnings: near death experiences, drowning, canon typical violence, kidnapping

Note: I felt like I've written a lot of Dick and Damian bonding this week... So I'm switching it out with Jason. I had other things I wanted to write for this prompt, but it got too late at night to write something long. Enjoy this short, hurt/comfort Jason and Damian bonding instead <3

-o-o-o-o-

Damian's only been captured for a few hours... and already he feels more miserable than he has in a long time.

None other than the Penguin stands before him, sneering cheek to cheek as his associates finish tying the knots around chest and the damp wooden pole his back leans against. The sand underneath him is rocky and sharp; he can already feel the curious laps of the returning tide against his tailbone. His hands are restrained behind the pole as well, while his legs are tied by his ankles. He's sitting, and stuck sitting thanks to the rope around his chest.

His head aches, which isn't very surprising considering the thing that got him in this situation was a well placed hit to his skull via a brick.

He didn't mean to get caught. He simply wanted to blow off some steam after getting fed up with Jason while on patrol. Of all people to be paired up with, it had to be Jason. It couldn't have been someone Damian gets along with like Richard, Duke, or Cassandra. It couldn't have been Timothy where they at least know when boundaries are being pushed with their banter. It couldn't have even been Stephanie, where she's at least funny.

No, the entire family was there, and Damian got paired with the one he doesn't know how to deal with. He got annoyed by the constant, demeaning tone Jason would use on him, and after one too many backhanded insults that only Jason found funny, Damian snapped. He doesn't even remember what exactly was said, he just knows he yelled at Jason to go on without him, and Jason didn't stop him when he turned the other direction.

Thinking back on it, Damian probably insulted him back, and the reason he let Damian go was because he was just as annoyed as Damian was.

It doesn't matter now. What matters is that he didn't intend to stumble upon the Penguin and his goons in some warehouse by the coast. He was just going to take down a few classic muggers or something of similar nature and go back to Jason and act like the argument never happened.

He intended to go back and tell his father about the Penguin's actions, but he didn't notice a pigeon until he almost stepped on it. Startled, it flew up at his face and he fell backwards right through the already broken skylight. He barely managed to slow his fall with his grappling gun, but he still hit the ground pretty hard. Hurt and surprised, he didn't have time to even stand up before the brick was smashed against his skull.

And now he's here, under Gotham's docks, being tied to a poll while the Penguin laughs to himself.

"I'll just let the tide kill you for me," he says to himself, yet his idiot goons still cackle. Damian glares at them, but they only laugh harder, sending down their own insults until the ocean water begins to pool up to Damians toes.

The Penguin makes a remark that it's time to go, and that he doesn't want to get his new dress shoes messy, and then they're gone, leaving Damian to attempt to tug on the ropes holding him against the pole. He tries to reach for the small blades he keeps in the compartments of his gloves, but his fingers come away empty. Curse Gotham's Rogues and their ability to actually use their brains and disarm their captives when they get their hands on them.

He strains harder on the ropes now, twisting and trying to reach any knots with his fingers, but all he succeeds in doing is cutting off the circulation to his hands and pressing the rope into his chest.

He relaxes with a frustrated huff and glares at the water that's already risen a few inches to ripple close to his hips. He knows that not long from now, the water will be above his head.

For now, it's freezing, and once it reaches his fingers, escape will become all the more impossible thanks to numbing appendages.

He tugs on the ropes, then tugs some more, and he keeps going until he has to stop and let the blood come back to his fingers.

The water continues to rise, seeping through his suit and into his bones, rising to his fingers, then his arms, then his shoulders... It's when it finally touches his chin when the despair and terror finally settles.

He can't get out. He can't get out. The ropes feel no more loose than what they were when he began trying to undo them, and his fingers are so numb now they must be turning blue under his gloves. His jaw aches from his chattering teeth, and his nose is beginning to run.

He pulls desperately on his bonds now, his attempts to escape becoming more and more reckless the longer he sits here. He's hyper-aware of the movement of the water around him, and his panic is making it difficult to breathe.

Through his terror, he hears something. The motor of a bike. He hears the engine cut out nearby. He can probably shout for help.

It's his last hope. He can only pray that whoever came to the docks at this hour of night, that they are friendly. He opens his mouth to yell for assistance, but he chokes when sea water enters his mouth. He scrambles his bound feet against the rocky sand, attempting to lift himself up the pole just a little higher, but he doesn't go anywhere. The ropes are too tight.

He's not sure if the water near his eyes is from him flailing in the water, or if it's because of frightened tears. Either way, he can feel the water tickling his nose, and he only has a split second to suck in one last breath of air before the water rises above any means to breath.

"Robin?" A deep voice shouts, and Damian could sob at the irony of it. "You here?"

Someone came looking for him, but they don't know where he is. He's going to drown under the feet of someone who could have saved him if they had come just minutes before.

The water rises over his head now, and he can no longer hear anything besides the racing of his heart. He can't feel his fingers or toes anymore, and he's sure he will drown with bruises under the ropes on his chest.

He's going to drown. He's going to die. His lungs hurt, already his oxygen is running out. He's panicking and it's cold and he's going to die-

He doesn't know how much longer he holds his breath, only that eventually, his mouth opens against his will and sucks in water that may as well be fire going into his lungs.

Black creeps into his vision... and with the last sight of dark bubbles erupting around him, he loses consciousness.

-o-o-o-o-

He wakes up vomiting. A strong hand wraps around his arm and holds him on his side so he can empty his lungs and stomach of salty sea water. It feels like his insides are being torn apart, but eventually it calms down a little so he can finally suck in a gasp of air.

The hand on his arm becomes two, snaking around his shoulder blades to sit him up and squeeze him against a broad chest.

"Holy shit," a familiar voice gasps, "Jesus fuck."

"J'son..." Damian murmurs, trying to make sense of what's going on. His throat feels abused, and his head pounds like drums. He's so tired, his eyes begin to drop.

"Nah don't you fucking think of it," Jason growls, pulling him away from his chest and giving him a hard shake. Damian blinks, trying to focus. Jason brings a hand up and brushes his dripping hair from his face.

Then, it all comes back to him. The tide... The water... He was drowning...

He thought he died.

But here he is, untied from the pole and on the docks, looking at Jason's bare and dripping face with his helmet castaway on the ground. He must have given him mouth-to-mouth... And his chest aches like he's taken a beating. Must be the combined bruises of the ropes and from chest compressions.

He's suddenly overwhelmed with emotions, all of his fear slamming right into him.

"You came," he croaks, not sure if it's because of his abused respiratory system or if it's because of his rekindled tears.

Jason's face twists, then he pulls Damian back in to squeeze him tightly once again. The hug is a surprise, and it hurts, but Damian doesn't fight it. He's too relieved and scared and confused and ashamed to fight it.

"When you didn't answer the comms, I thought you were still mad," Jason explains. The rumble of his voice in his chest against Damian's cheek is oddly relaxing. "But then it started getting late and I didn't feel right, so I asked Babs for your coords and- fuck- I thought I got you killed."

"How did you know...?" Damian asks, not willing to go further into the sentence and endure the pain of his throat.

Jason gives a laugh, and it's almost hysterical. "A lucky guess? I don't know, I guess it's just habit to look in the water when something goes wrong at the docks." There's a pause. Then Jason releases Damian once again. "I'm sorry. I said some things I shouldn't have. This wouldn't have happened if I kept my cool."

Damian shakes his head. It doesn't matter now. "You came."

Jason's lips twitch. "Of course I did. We're... Brothers. Even if we don't get along all the time, I still don't want anyone beating you up other than me."

Damian let's out a laugh, though it dissolves into a fit of coughs. Jason rubs his back during all of it, then once he calms down he helps him to his feet.

"C'mon," he says, "let's get you back home so Alfred can check on you. The sooner we get back, the sooner I can get getting yelled at out of the way for letting you go off on your own."

He helps Damian up to his feet, and Damian gratefully clutches to his jacket to steady himself. "I am to blame too. Once we tell father you helped save me, he will be less angry."

Jason snorts. "You think I'm worried about the old man? It's Dick I'm worried about."

"Ah," Damian grins, all the fear finally ebbing out from his system. "I'm afraid I cannot help you there."

Jason helps Damian onto the bike and returns his helmet so it's over his head. He holds Damian in front of him with one arm securely around his chest as he drives. He feels safe nestled against Jason like this. It's strong and unyielding. His relationship with the older man has always been strange, considering they weren't always on the same sides when Richard was Batman.

But this? This is safe. It's warm. Is careful and gentle. Normally he'd be embarrassed to be so vulnerable like this near Jason, but like Jason said... They're brothers.

He cannot help but feel a little disappointed once they finally make it back to the cave. Yet it seems he's misjudged Jason once again, because after he was rushed to the med-bay and Jason got an earful from Richard... he fell asleep and awoke the next morning with Jason still there.

Things may not be perfect with Jason, and they argue a lot, but Damians sure things have a chance of becoming better.

They're brothers, after all.

#damianwayneweek2021 #damian wayne #Robin #jason todd #Red Hood #dc comics #fanfiction #jin writes #drowning tw #kidnapping tw

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roobylavender · 2 years

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hello!! :3

you’ve said how much you really dislike the bruce wayne portrayed nowadays in comics and just in general, cold and unfeeling, but what are your thoughts on how tim drake is shown in fandom (specifically fics?) and could you summarize him in a ‘few’ words(or more👀)? because going back and forth between comics and fic, there seems to be some sort of extreme contrast going on😭

how i feel about tim, in more than a few words (copy pasted from some other asks lol i hope that's okay!):

tim is someone who should never become batman. tim enters the scene when bruce is arguably at his worst: in the wake of jason's death. he emerges out of a lonely childhood where his time was spent following the adventures of batman and robin, so he grows up understanding and aspiring to the ideal. he feels the weight of the symbol and what it means for this city. he knows what has to happen when the symbol's foundations threaten to crumble. he has to find robin. he has to bring batman and robin back together. he has to preserve the ideal. and although dick refuses to return to his childhood mantle, tim somehow ends up in the dead robin's shoes instead, not only trying to preserve the ideal he believes to be so important, but also trying not to be stifled under the weight of jason's death. he more or less begins to operate on autopilot. he lives and breathes robin. he does whatever he believes it is that he has to do to keep the machine running, bc without the machine, gotham dies, and gotham can't die. tim is an amalgamation of bruce's worst autopilot tendencies and coping mechanisms. he's a ticking time bomb waiting to happen, and he's only sixteen years old, and it's brutal

what i love about tim so much despite his solo run being one of the worst reading experiences of my life is he's so obv a teenager. like that sounds stupid but i love seeing him have really warped idealistic notions that are sort of beaten into the ground and him getting angry and him being bad with relationships like he's a Disaster and obv so much of dixon's fixation on straight white males living in suburbia contributes to making him feel not all that unique as a character but i somehow still manage to find him endearing bc it feels like a realistic reaction to being in that position and being that age. with dick's era his robin tenure was a bit idealized and then with jason it was so short but tim gets the full display and trivial repercussions of the circumstances and for all of my qualms with dixon i do think it's an interesting exploration into how this isn't an ideal field for a teenager and navigating it is actually difficult and incredibly debilitating despite all of your hopes and dreams for it to be something meaningful

what makes me love him as a character the most though is definitely young justice bc it grounds and humbles him in a way new teen titans fails to with dick. dick is very much an intimidating force within the titans and even if he loves all of them deeply like family they'll rarely stand up to him or believe themselves to be as capable as him bc of how the narrative is written. but i love that young justice allows the other members of the team to regularly push back and stand on equal footing with tim and that it molds him into a good leader and friend even if there are drawbacks in the sense that losing people he loves near irreparably devastates him bc he grounds his entire world in his friends. tim is bossy and at times obv very arrogant but none of the members really bothers to take his bullshit and gives as much as they get from him in the first place even if they have a certain respect for him, and that's very refreshing to read

wrt fanon i feel like i'm lucky in that i haven't really come across much of it so i don't have a concrete idea of what it's actually like. tim is oddly enough the robin whose writing i have the least amount of problems with bc up until the point where i stopped engaging with batman canon i was pretty much satisfied with how he was written: an idealistic teenager steadily being driven into developing a more realistic picture of the work that he does and maybe teetering on the line between that realism and cynicism but ultimately being kept from falling into darkness bc he has his best friends to ground him. i haven't much looked into fics with him bc idk what else i really want to see done with him as an individual (well. aside from him foraying into crime journalism as a civilian career but that's pretty hard to find using standard fic site filters). i know the general gist of what happens to him in the wake of jack, kon, stephanie, and bruce dying and i think it is fairly realistic for him to descend into a level of neuroticism and paranoia that is more or less a desperate attempt to keep intact the remaining threads of his hope and belief in heroism before he falls into utter despair, but at the same time, idk if i actually want that for him. like you said it kinda falls into the same caveats as bruce where we see canon and fanon writers start to explore and invest in misery to the point that it no longer holds actual meaning and is there simply for the sake of being there like a kind of exploitative genre porn, bc they're more interested in the idea of tim being this beaten down baby bird who will never be happy than the idea of him being confronted with the pitfalls of vigilantism and choosing to hold onto hope anyway

ig that's why for all of my problems with the way his romantic relationship with stephanie is written, i still want their relationship to remain an important part of his life, at least as like best friends or something. i want him to always be surrounded by people who may not necessarily know how to blot out his growing cynicism entirely but nonetheless still inspire him towards seeing the merits of continuing to do good. and maintaining those relationships with not just stephanie but with jack and young justice and bruce is critical to that. rather than killing them off and throwing him haphazardly into this dark black hole i want them to be there as the tethers he holds onto so that he can still believe in something and remember that his civilian life is as much worth keeping as is his vigilante one. so ig from what i have heard of the horrors of tim fanon, that might be what separates me from it. i really want him to realize that he doesn't have to carry these ridiculously life-sized burdens on his shoulders as a teenager but that he's also allowed to express a little negativity bc i mean, who in his position wouldn't. the novelty of tim as a character is that he grows up utterly normal. and i feel like that's where the novelty should stick, that he should believe in heroism, sure, but that he should know he doesn't have to lose his entire life to it and that there are other ways to help that will also alleviate the growing cynicism he experiences wrt the world. yj in general is such a good exploration of the members of the team recognizing that vigilantism is what binds their group of friends together but at the same time is never the end-all, be-all of their lives, nor should it be. and it's a shame that the series got cut off so short bc exploring that mindset within their generation would have been very cool had they actually been allowed to move forward as something more than just plot devices for a geobard jawnes run

#does this even make sense towards the end.. idk #i'm so bad at rambling and losing my train of thought and going in a gazillion different directions #i wish i was like this with my academic papers jgkfjdhdlgf #outbox

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purple-goo-writes · 4 years

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Young and Beautiful Part 2

Taglist: @clumsy-owl-4178 @myazael @woe-is-me0 @midnightmode @t1dwarrior-of-earth @stainedglassm

@catthhay @dorkus-minimus @maskedpainter @waffleyunsure @marinettepotterandplagg @demonicbusiness @mystery-5-5

@justafanwarrior

I've seen the world, lit it up As my stage now Channeling angels in a new age now Hot summer days, rock and roll The way you play for me at your show And all the ways, I got to know Your pretty face and electric soul

Will you still love me When I'm no longer young and beautiful? Will you still love me When I've got nothing but my aching soul? I know you will, I know you will I know that you will Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?

He didn’t see her again until three years later after he took in his first ward, Richard Grayson.

He didn’t know how she knew that he needed her support or how she was aware of his new ward, soon to be adopted son. All Bruce was aware of was of the fact that his shoulders finally released the tension he had not been aware that he was carrying when he came up from the Batcave after Dick’s first patrol and felt her familiar and welcoming calm aura. Even Richard noticed the distinct change in his guardian’s demeanor once they exited the Cave and entered the manor. And though the young Robin didn’t necessarily feel the new aura of calm permeating the Manor, he certainly does relax the moment he steps out of the Cave and feels the tension he had carried since his parent’s murder leave his own body.

It felt as if he was finally coming home and not just coming back to the house he inhabited with his guardian and the butler.

Bruce could only watch in awe as Marinette breaks through all of Dick’s walls and within a week he walks in on Marinette holding a crying 12 year old boy as he finally griefs for his parents. Not long after that Marinette joins them on patrol as PopinJay using the fixed Peacock Miraculous.

Her suit looked like an odd mix of leather and spandex, a deep dark blue with black accents with some dark green detailing here and there; black gloves with blue fingers, black boots with blue heels and a dark blue domino mask with green detailing that mimicked feathers. Attached to her waist was a partial skirt that mimicked peafowl tail feathers with an ombre effect- starting black before fading to dark blue then green at the tips. Her hair was put up in an elegant bun pinned in place by two golden peafowl quils and held in a holster around her waist were two steel fans tipped in gold that when spread resembled two beautiful yet deadly fans of peacock feathers.

“Why the Peacock?” Batman enquired with a raised eyebrow while Robin squealed happily as the preteen danced around PopinJay taking in her suit.

The masked woman snickered softly, her lips tugging into a small smirk, “I figured it would match well with your theme.”

Bruce should not have been surprised about how flawlessly she joins into their routine and patrols. Marinette had always been able to adapt to any situation easily after all. It was something that the Guardian was still trying to teach him how to do.

She would pop in randomly over the years that followed, always seeming to know when Bruce and Dick needed her the most. She was a part of their small family after all and Bruce’s oldest friend. It was why he did not protest when Marinette whisked Dick away to the Temple to train after he and Bruce have a fight again when Robin talks about heading out on his own and becoming his own hero, outside of the Young Justice. After all he was turning 18 soon and was outgrowing the Robin mantle.

“Just because he is growing up, doesn’t mean he no longer needs his father, Bruce.” Were Marinette’s parting words before she left with Dick for Tibet.

When they returned a year later, it was to a relieved, if sheepish, Bruce who had just returned from patrol with a very angry preteen in tow dressed in a new Robin suit. Instead of feeling threatened, Dick grinned, causing Bruce to sigh in relief, “So does this mean I have a little brother now?”

“How did you end up adopting this one, ma nuit noire?”

“He stole the wheels off the BatMobile.”

“Only you, Bruce, only you.”

A month later, Dick became Nightwing after a conversation with Superman when the young man asked the super if his culture ever had vigilantes after Dick moved to Bludhaven. With the alien’s permission, he took up the mantle of Nightwing and officially passed on the Robin mantle down to his younger brother, Jason. Bludhaven gained a vigilante and Jason gained a new confidence with his older brother’s approval, not that the angry teen would admit it.

PopinJay made return to Gotham to help train the new Robin. Bruce was surprised, though he shouldn’t have been, at how fast Jason took to Marinette. The former street kid would even slip and call her Ma now and then, especially when the peacock heroine was being extra motherly. That Bruce wasn’t surprised about as Dick would, and still did, call Marinette Mama Bird. He tried not to dwell on how much his heart warmed at the thought of Marinette as the boys’ mother figure. Especially not when he was currently dancing around Catwoman and their odd relationship or his thing with Talia Al Ghul, who he knew disliked PopinJay greatly. Though his relationship with Talia ended when she drug him.

It was after a routine patrol when PopinJay came sauntering back into the Batcave carrying a confused, if exited, little nine-year-old boy with dark hair and bright blue eyes dressed only in his pajamas and holding a camera. The dark blue haired woman was smiling motherly down at the little scamp in her arms as Tim babbled excitedly about meeting one of his favorite heroes and how he couldn’t believe that MDC was PopinJay.

“PopinJay, what is the meaning of this?” Bruce growled in confusion as he turned from the BatComputer to address his partner, who simply giggled at his attempt to intimidate her.

“Bruce, come meet your biggest fan.”

“PopinJay!”

“Oh, don’t be a stick in the mud. He already figured out our identities from Dick’s quadruple somersault.”

“He what? But, how?” This had Bruce intrigued as he stalked close to the woman, who was practically the mother of his sons, taking in the sight of little Tim, “He is the Drake heir...what is he doing out so late?” The fact that he was still in his pajamas without shoes on brought the father in Bruce to the forefront went without saying.

Jason watched all this with a sigh and grumbled, “I’ll go tell Alfred to get a room ready for him.” Looks like he would be sharing his Ma with another brother...He best tell Dick about Tim, Jason just knew their parents (Marinette was their Mom no matter how oblivious Bruce was to his feelings) would be adopting the boy.

And wouldn’t you know he was right, somehow not even three months later Tim was now Tim Drake-Wayne due to his parents being found neglectful in a hush-hush trail. Dick was ecstatic about having another little brother to dote on and even Jason was happy to have a little brother, having grown fond of Tim during all the times the youngest Drake stayed at the Manor or BatCave when his parents went out of town on one of their frequent business trips.

If Bruce wasn’t already thankful for Marinette’s presence in his life, he would have been after Jason ran off to track down his birth mother after finding out that Catherine was not his mom. He understood that Jason simply had questions he thought only his birth mom could answer, but it still broke Bruce’s heart that his middle son thought he would not help him find the woman. If it wasn’t for the multiple trackers he had placed on Jason, he would not have known that the young Robin was in Ethiopia of all places. Batman wouldn’t make it in time to save Robin, but he knew one person who could.

It was the only time his composure had came so close to breaking as he called Marinette and begged her to save their son. Batman arrived just as the building went up in flames and would have broken down if not for PopinJay informing over the comm that she had Jason and that they were at the Cave. Unfortunately, Jason was in critical condition and had slipped into a coma by the time Bruce made it back to the Manor. After a long talk, it was decided that Marinette would take him to the Temple to heal and recover. Tim would be taking over as Robin in his absence, though the 12 year old wished it was under different circumstances.

Marinette kept Bruce updated on his status using the communicator he had given her. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that he cried when she called him and informed him that Jason had woken up. Jason and Bruce had a long discussion when he was fully coherent, thankfully Jason understood why Bruce gave Tim the mantle and even asked him to inform Tim that he had his blessing to be Robin. This talk was also the first time one of his sons’ called him Dad.

“Dad, I don’t think I can be Robin anymore, anyway...I think it’s time I branched out.”

“Will you be using a Miraculous?”

“No, Ma asked, even said I would be a good fit for the Eagle, but I turned her down. I want to make my own way without fancy powers.”

“You know we will support any decision you make.”

It was two years after that that Jason fully recovered and returned to Gotham as the vigilante, Red Hood. Thankfully, Marinette talked him out of that outrageous helmet and helped him design his new costume, his suit he wore had a red hood attached to it and he wore a red metal face mask with a black domino mask. He still managed to keep the leather jacket though. Even if Bruce frowned at his use of guns, at least the rounds were mainly tranquilizers, the Bat was proud of his son.

Tim made an amazing Robin and detective. Though Bruce was suspicious when Marinette would disappear with Tim to train him in secret or take him to the Temple. But, it was Tim’s choice and if he choose to join the Order, Bruce would support him. Marinette loved their sons equally, but Bruce knew she was closer to Tim.

He was thankful for Marinette being there for him when Barbara joined the team as Batgirl. Even more thankful for when Stephanie joined and then Cassandra was adopted. He was not sure how to handle daughters and the girls having a positive female role model relieved him greatly. Even if he did get a few grey hairs now and then from some of their more interesting purchases.

Talia dropped Damian on Bruce when Tim was 16 and had just become co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises, after both his older brothers refused the position. (Dick was now a Cop in Bludhaven and Jason had taken over Security for the WE.) Bruce was still reeling from the shock of finding out he had a blood son and Talia just dumping the ten year old on him without so much of a by-your-leave. Bruce had finally put his past with Talia and Selina behind him and finally moved on when this happened. He was unsure how to process this new situation. Though after stopping Damian from killing/attacking Tim once again, he knew what he had to do.

He called Marinette.

Bruce isn’t sure what she did or said to his youngest son. But after whisking Damian away for a few months at the Temple, the child that came back was changed. Still the same arrogant cold ex-assassin, but he had started to open up to his family and follow his father’s code of honor. Though, things were still shaky between him and Tim, the older boys were all amused when Damian bluntly asked them why Father hadn’t proposed to Marinette, or Mère as he called her in French, yet.

“Because Dad is really, really oblivious to his own feelings.”

“He’s a fucking idiot.”

“Jaybird!”

“What? You know it’s true!”

“Little ears, Jay!”

Damian turned to his only intelligent sibling, and most dangerous outside of Cain, "Drake, I presume you have plans ready to set in motion?"

There was a reason he considered Drake his highest threat to his position as blood son. Ra's had stated time and time again that he wished to induct Tim into the fold, one way or another. Many times his grandfather had stated this when he found Damian's own performance lacking, making comments on how the young Detective would have done things. Drake had plans within plans, a mind like a steel trap mixed with a twisted maze and a tenacity most assassin's would envy. It was why Damian grudgingly respected the teen, even if he would rather bit his tongue off then admit it.

Tim gave his youngest sibling a rather maniacal grin, some of his Red Robin persona (A mantle he took up recently) shining through, "Oh do I."

Unfortunately, their plans to trick their parental figures into realizing their feelings would have to wait.

Because Darkseid came and Bruce was gone...

#brucinette #mominette #maribat #ml x dc #i swear to god tumblr #YOU BETTER POST THIS #YnB

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scorpionyx9621 · 3 years

Text

I Hope Hopeless Changes Over Time: A Red Hood and Batman Fic

*Source of the image I found off of Pintrest. I tried to find the original artist but the link on Pintrest led to a dead Tumblr account. If anyone wants to find/point out the account to me so I can give proper credit to the artist please please do.*

I wanted to make a fic based on an ask I did from the lovely @dilfbatman about Jason and Bruce. I hope people enjoy this mini-fic that I've expanded upon.

TW: Blood, Physical Assault, Suicide Ideation, Swearing. Bruce being a shitty father but trying. Jason having demons

3.75K words.

Bruce was uneasy about Jason staying over at the Wayne Mansion. Even with other members of the family around. Jason has done so much wrong and has hurt so many people. However, at the end of the day, Jason still is his son. So when he gets a call from Jason in a hushed voice asking Bruce to stay the night. He hesitated for a second, but acquiesced, Jason was nothing if not independent, so to be asking Bruce outright to stay at the Wayne Manor meant something was wrong.

"Master Jason wouldn't reach out to any of us unless something was gravely wrong, Master Wayne." Alfred had reassured Bruce, who was staring absentmindedly at the glass case which housed Jason's old Robin costume. The costume that Jason had died in. Bruce always tried to repress the memory of holding his son's cold, lifeless body. The pain he felt from losing his parents burned in his heart as an everlasting stab wound. But the pain from losing Jason, his son, it was too much to bare.

"I'd be welcoming to Master Jason, but keep your distance. Master Damian is spending the night at Jon Kent's house, Master Richard is in Blüdhaven, and Master Timothy is with the Teen Titans tonight. I'll rest assured Jason doesn't try anything to harm you. But don't try to encourage a confrontation." Alfred explained. He always seemed to understand Jason to a tee after he came back to life.

"I don't know how you do it Alfred, you can read the boy like a book." Bruce had retorted. Cocking a half-smile to the man who raised him since his parents died.

"Master Wayne, Master Jason wears his heart on his sleeve. He always has. And one of the reasons why you two fight constantly is because, for as terrific as a detective you are, you are horrifically inept in reading the emotions of your children." Alfred had stated, those words bit Bruce. He wasn't expecting such sharp words from Alfred. "We failed Master Jason. And he's hurt, he's been hurt for years because of it. However he keeps choosing to come back and try and trust again. We needn't come at him with accusations of ulterior motives, but we should be supportive." Alfred stated.

"But cognizant of what Jason is capable of." Bruce added back. Jason may need help, but he's still dangerous. He has tried to kill Bruce and the rest of the Robins multiple times. He wants to trust Jason and warm up to him again. But the man who wears the Red Hood and stalks the streets of Gotham killing those he deems criminals is not his son anymore.

Alfred and Bruce greeted Jason as he walked in the large double doors of the Wayne Manor. The first thing Bruce noticed was the dark circles under Jason's eyes. It seemed as if the man hadn't slept in days. Jason was wearing sweatpants and a fitted black wife beater, accentuating his muscles. Jason would have looked more intimidating had his body language not suggested he was as disheveled as he was, physically and mentally.

"Thanks Alfred." Jason had said meekly towards the butler. He took one step into the mansion and looked at Bruce. Bruce noticed as soon as Jason's eyes met his, his tired irises contorted into anger. His lips pursed downwards but Jason chose not to say anything. Instead just walking past Bruce pretending not to acknowledge him.

"Master Jason, you will be staying in the guest suite on the main floor. I've already prepped everything for your arrival. Please make yourself at home." Alfred had said. Jason just shook is head as he headed towards the hallway leading the guest suite. Bruce didn't notice it immediately but the stench Jason had emitted stung in the air. It smelled like stale liqour and body oder. It seems Jason hadn't bathed in days. Bruce had wanted to say something but chose not to.

The evening went by quietly enough. Jason had taken a shower and changed into another fitted wife beater but still sported a tired energy about him. Alfred had put together a beef pot roast for dinner with red potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery over garlic mashed potatoes. A favorite dish of Jason's. The three of them ate quietly as Bruce continued to size up his son. He was conflicted. At one point he saw the man who blew up the head of a Gotham security force member with a torture decide he had created. On the other hand, he saw the boy who would beg for Bruce to buy him more books after he finished the maximum amount a library card would allow for a week in the span of 3 days. The son who told him being Robin gave him magic.

The dinner ended as it began. With awkward silence and the father-son duo eyeing each other. One with cautious trepidation and the other with abject hate. Bruce had decided not to go on patrol tonight as he felt he needed to be at the manor should anything happen while Jason was here. An uneasy sense of dread built over Bruce as he had said good night to Jason as the two passed by each other in the halls. Jason simply spat 'Bitch' at Bruce and walked into the bedroom. Bruce had been bad with other people's emotions, but something didn't sit right with the way Jason was carrying himself. He had decided to stay up tonight regardless. A sense came over him after being sworn at by Jason. A sense he hadn't felt in a long time. He felt as though his son needed help.

————————————————————

"You're a monster"

"Jason is a murderer"

"Stay away from Jason, he'll kill you."

"No one wants you around, Todd"

"You're just a good guy trying to be bad"

"This is the kid you had to replace me with as Robin? Bruce he's pathetic."

"I can't believe my daughter wasted the Lazarus Pit on a miserable failure like you."

"Maybe I'd be better off dead"

Jason tossed and turned. It's been days. He couldn't get the voices out of his head. Those whispery, moany voices that taunted and tormented him. He knew it was a result of the Lazarus Pit. Ever since Roy died and everyone left him the voices started taunting him again. He tried everything he could to get the voices to stop. He drank, he read, he worked out, he did everything he could. The only way the voices became quiet were when he was beating the ever-loving shit out of some criminals. This was not the mindset Jason had wanted. He wanted to go back to being supported by Bruce, the man who betrayed him. He knew that Bruce was weak. He couldn’t kill the Joker because of his weakness.

Jason got up and walked over to the connecting bathroom to the suite that he was staying in. He went to the sink and splashed some cold water on his face. Against his better judgement, Jason looked up to the figure he saw in the mirror. He took note of his jawline, his face, his green eyes, his muscles.. but one thing that caught his eye was the fucking skunk streak of hair at the top of his head. The physical reminder of his dip in the Lazarus Pit. He had just re-dyed the spot not two days ago and it already came back. He did everything he could to try to hide the streak. It’s what he hated most about his new body. The pit wiped away all of the scars he had on his body. And any new fresh scar or wound would just fade in a matter of moments due to the effects of the pit. The only thing that ever stayed was that damned streak.

Jason had nothing but disgust and contempt for the man he saw in the mirror, which, ironically, was himself.

“You’re just using the sarcasm to hide your hatred.”

“It’s your fault that everyone hates you.”

“Killing the sick of the masses to save those who are weak is your calling”

“Those reptiles deserve to die”

“I don’t want to kill unless I don’t have to.. I don’t want people to hate me..” Jason tried reassuring himself. The voices in his head kept getting louder and louder. “I want Bruce and everyone to love me again....” He continued to try to re-assure himself. It was a false sense of hope as always. His mind soon wandered to a moment where he was on top of Dick in a fight. Confronting his older sibling and reciting a quote he had heard from a Japanese philosopher and optimist as he had the barrel of a gun placed against his older brother’s temple.

“Do you know what the most convenient phrase in the world is, Dickie? It’s ‘I’m sorry.’ Anyone who hears that is obligated to forgive, no matter how hurt or angry they might be... There's no more disgusting phrase in all the world. It's used to displace your suffering unto others so you can escape your sins... The moment you employ it, your suffering becomes the other person's. A thing can be unforgivable, but oh, if they apologize... I say there's no reason to accept that suffering. You don't have to forgive them. Cast aside the mask of your conscience.“

“Stop this. Please stop this.” Jason had begged aimlessly into the air. He didn’t want to live like this anymore. He didn’t want to live, period. He just wanted all of this to end. He had caused so much pain and so much suffering to the people of Gotham all so he could attempt to hurt Bruce. But those words kept repeating in his head. He knew he had to stop this. He needed help, he wanted to go to Bruce and explain what was going on but Bruce would just have him institutionalized. His murderer of a son starts hearing voices in his head? A one way ticket to a padded room.

Jason suddenly stared back into the mirror and saw something he detested. The green eyes that stared into his soul. The one he hated more than anything else. Was himself. This thing was staring him in the face mocking him, and he wanted it gone.

“Do it Jason.” the voice had beckoned from the mirror. “Kill them all. Slit Damian’s throat and watch the fucker bleed. Bash Tim’s stupid face into the concrete until there’s nothing but mush. Rip Dick limb from fucking limb. Watch Bruce as you choke the last bit of life from his eyes. I promise all the pain will go away once all of this is done.” the voice sounded almost sweet as it promised to do all of this. Jason just retched as he saw the green eyed monster promising poison to him. He felt his vision fade to black.

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

STOP IT. SHUT. UP.

*CRASH*

Bruce had jumped up from the chair he was sitting on in the library, the voice came from the suite that Jason was staying in. Bruce didn’t have time to think. He just ran towards the noise. He threw the door to the suite open and ran to the bathroom. There he saw Jason in front of a heavily cracked mirror. Jason was hyperventilating and he saw blood oozing from Jason’s fist which was pressed against the mirror. Bruce saw from the reflection that Jason had split open the left side of his lip seemingly from a shard of glass. It wasn’t long before Jason glanced up at the imposing shadow in the mirror and noticed Bruce’s presence.

“YOU STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME BRUCE.” Jason had shouted at his reflection. Jason was shaking. Bruce had wanted to assess the injury that Jason gave himself. But he knew he was cornering a scared animal if he pressed any farther forward. Bruce stood their frozen. Pondering between trying to press forward upon a killer, or to check up on his son.

“Jason, I just...” Bruce was cut off by another scream as Jason turned around.

“IF YOU COME ANY CLOSER I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL KILL YOU WHERE YOU FUCKING STAND YOU PIECE OF SHIT.” Bruce finally got the cue. The hitch in Jason’s voice. This is the same hitch his voice made when he was a kid and was angry at Bruce. Alfred was right. This is his son. And right now Bruce needed not to be the Batman approaching the Red Hood. He needed to be Bruce, to help his son.

Bruce walked forward to Jason, still shaking as blood oozed from the gashes of glass on his fist. Bruce decided against everything in his gut telling him to stop this criminal. This monster who killed for sport and to prove a point. He needed to help Jason, his son.

Bruce was knocked back by a fist to his chest. Glass imbedded itself into Bruce as he felt the sting of their shards. Jason was right, he was going to hurt Bruce if he approached. Oracle was right, Jason had been abusing venom. The quick gain in muscle mass was proof enough but the stinging pain in Bruce’s chest also proved that hypothesis. Jason barred his teeth as his eyes displayed a seething hatred. Bruce would have been frightened on any other day. Today, Bruce felt a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time. Bruce collected himself and got up to approach Jason again.

“I TOLD YOU I’M GOING TO KILL YOU BRUCE. I FUCKING HATE YOUR GUTS. I WANT YOU TO DIE. I WANT ALL OF US TO JUST FUCKING DIE.” Jason screamed even louder this time. A hot stream of tears worked their way down Jason’s cheeks. Bruce no longer saw a rage-induced monster but the boy who took a tire iron to his gut on the streets of Gotham. The boy who would was thrilled at every opportunity he got to show Bruce the A’s on every test he got in school. This was his baby boy who needed his help.

“Jason Peter Todd that’s enough.” Bruce said firmly, but not harshly. Jason stared directly into his eyes. “Jason. I want you to listen to me.”

“Go to hell you motherfucker.” those words which escaped Jason were laced with poison. Bruce didn’t waver.

“You can punch me as much as you want Jason and I’ll deserve all of it.” Bruce came closer to Jason. Jason proceeded to physically make himself smaller. Like a scared animal. Bruce remember what he did to Jason after he had seemingly killed The Penguin. How he beat Jason to within an inch of his life. His heart plummeted to his stomach as he saw Jason cower like a scared dog over his approach.

“What are you going to do Bruce, beat me to a fucking pulp again? You hate me more than you hate the fucking Joker, don’t you?” Jason asked. Bruce truly saw the fear in those green eyes. He had to take a moment and realized just what he was doing. He unclenched his jaw and relaxed his shoulders as he approached Jason. This time he was back within striking range of his son.

“Jason. I failed you. I have been failing you for the past 10 years since your death. I have failed this city and this family in providing the protection it needs. I couldn’t kill The Joker because I’m weak.” Bruce sucked at emotions and emoting. But Bruce hadn’t felt this shaky and wavering since the day he lost Jason. His son needed to know the truth. He deserved to know the truth. “Jason I never hated you. I hated the actions you have taken against the people of this city. But I’ve come to realize that the hatred and contempt I’ve held is because you do what I can’t do.”

“Oh so now you’re coming over to apologize? I don’t owe you shit after what you’ve done to me.” Jason had stated. He may have been acting like a pinned animal. But his mouth will never not cut like knives.

“Jason, when we had fought in the abandoned apartment. And you had the Joker with you. You had tried to shoot me after I had turned away from you.” Bruce said. Inching ever closer to Jason while trying not to be imposing. “In that moment, I threw the batarang because I knew you were going to retaliate against me. But I need you to know in that moment I turned away. I turned away because I decided I wasn’t to be the one to decide the Joker’s fate. He had taken your life and it wasn’t up to me to decide. I want nothing more than for the Joker to pay for the countless lives hes taken and ruined.” Bruce swallowed hard as he felt tears beginning to well in his eyes. “I failed you because I couldn’t kill the Joker. But in that moment, I wanted nothing more than to have my baby boy back. I wanted you back in my life. I still want you back in my life.”

“Bullshit. Fucking BULLSHIT.” Jason spat at Bruce. The emotions were flooding out of his face. Anger, hatred, fear, but most of all sadness. Jason’s voice began wavering as he began to cry. “If you loved me why in the fuck have you never realized I’ve been trying to help the people of Gotham. Instead every time I take matters into my own hands all I meet are your fucking fists. I hate your guts Bruce. We’d all just be better off fucking dead. It’s all Hopeless. I’m hopeless.”

Bruce took a deep breath. He tried to find his resolve. He wanted nothing more than to be able to reach out to his son again. “You’re absolutely right Jason. I’ll bet Gotham would be a whole lot better without me. Without the pain I have caused. And no amount of apologies will fix the pain that I have caused you. No words will ever take back the transgressions I have taken against you.” Bruce was crying this time. “But know this. You always have been my son. And I love you so much. The day I lost my parents was agony. The day I lost you, I felt like I had lost myself I felt I had died a bit inside.” Bruce choked out. “We both have done so much we regret. If I could take back all the times I hit you I would do it in a heartbeat. But no amount of sorry will take back that pain. I shouldn’t be in the position to be asking this. But I just want my son back.” Bruce swallowed. “You have every right to hate me, but I will never stop loving you. You aren’t hopeless and you never have been. You never have been a burden. You are valued by so many people. I. I love you my son. I love you Jason."

Jason’s face relaxed from a position of contempt and hatred and soon was overcome with years of pent up tears. Jason let out a hearty scream as he proceeded to weep and sob. As if a dam had broke and was threatening to engulf a town in an apocalypse. Bruce went against everything he had known and was screaming from the inside of his body and wrapped Jason in a hug. He was almost as large as Bruce himself and barely fit around his arms. But Bruce held his son and hugged him tight. Jason was crying uncontrollably.

“I’m hearing these voices. They’re telling me I’m a monster and a killer and that I should kill all of you.” Jason shouted between sobs. “But I don’t want to. I’m so afraid Bruce. I don’t want to hurt anyone unless I have to.”

“Just breath Jason. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. Let it all out.” Bruce had solidified his resolve and worked on being there for Jason. He couldn’t run away this time. His son needed him more than ever. And Gotham be damned. He’s not making this mistake twice. He’s staying here. For Jason.

It felt like hours before Jason had run out of tears and sobs. Jason was fading and seemed like he was about to fall asleep. The shards of glass that were imbedded in his hand seemingly prevented Jason from bleeding out. Bruce had saw Jason’s eyes glaze over as his breathing calmed.

“Jason, I’m going to pick you up and take you to bed.” Bruce had said, asking for permission from his second son. Jason simply nodded as he starred off. He was numb now. The pain seemingly gone for the moment. Bruce lifted Jason up and was taken aback by just how heavy his son was. He truly was 225lbs just like his records showed. This wasn’t the son who hid under the cabinets when Bruce first brought Jason home. But Bruce still saw the boy as his son nonetheless. As Bruce laid Jason on the bed Alfred had approached with a first aid kit. Proceeding to begin to clean up Jason’s hand. Jason was so exhausted he barely felt any of the picking and pulling or the iodine going into his wounds. He kept his eyes fast forward on Bruce.

“Bruce. I. I’m sorry.” Jason had said meekly.

“Don’t apologize Jason.” Bruce had stated. He ran his hand through Jason’s hair, giving a soft massage to his scalp. “You get some sleep now. I don’t think you’ve rested in days.”

Bruce had remembered the time he had read Jason to sleep. This time he had thought back to a poem that struck him from his phone. It was from a famous lyricist and singer. As Bruce pulled up his phone he had found the poem and recited it as Jason fell asleep. Things are far from perfect or even better. But tomorrow was going to be the first day of the rest of his and Jason’s lives.

“They told me once, ‘there's a place where love conquers all’

A city with the streets full of milk and honey

I haven't found it yet, but I'm still searching

All I know is a hopeless place that flows with the blood of my kin

Perhaps hopeless isn't a place

Nothing but a state of mind”

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pHEW GOD THAT WAS LONG. I hope you all enjoyed the fic! This was my first published attempt at angst and whump and while I feel some parts are cringe. I am proud of what I made.

Big thanks again to @dilfbatman for inspiring this fic. The inspiration of the title is the song Hopeless: by Halsey. The quote about I’m Sorry is from the character Shadow Maya Amano from Persona 2: Innocent Sin. And the poem at the end is the first part of the lyrics to the song Good Mourning by Halsey.

#Jason Todd #Red Hood #Bruce Wayne #Batman #Whump #Angst #Hurt/comfort #Non-ship #Bruce being a good father #Jason trying his best #Jason getting the rest he deserves #The two have gone through so much but they can get help #TW Blood #TW Physical abuse #TW Swearing

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