#I had not planned to write this put for some more or less obvious reasons I feel the need to say this

[tolkiens-middleearth]

“What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

Why Galadriel can't just sail into the West

Galadriel's history is one of the most difficult of Tolkie's stories to figure out, because Tolkien experimented with a few different versions of her story later in his life. But I will appraoch this topic with the desire to see some overall working narrative and characterisation, and therefore only consider texts that work with the published canon.

Galadriel is a fascinating character – in the texts she is both a promintend figure and neglected at the same time. In Tolkien's world, she is both the most powerful Elf that we meet in The Lord of the Rings, and at the same time she is an outcast until, banned from sailing to Valinor when the Hobbits meet her.

Galadriel doen't get as much characterisation as someone like Frodo or Gandalf, yet we learn of a few defining traits that are central to her story in Middle-earth.

“Here I am mightier”

“I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer. For many long years I had pondered what I might do, should the Great Ring come into my hands, and behold! it was brought within my grasp.”

Amibition is one of the these central traits, and it is mentioned in almost every text related to Galadriel's departure from Valinor. Galadriel wants to rule lands on her own and has desired the One Ring by her own admition. Whenever I think of Frodo offering her the One Ring I fall in love with this moment again because of how honest it is and how clear we can see Galadriel here.

She has been like that since she first left Valinor, and it is an integral part of her story that only ends at the end of the Third Age.

“After the overthrow of Morgoth at the end of the First Age a ban was set upon her return, and she had replied proudly that she had no wish to do so.”

Together with her ambition, pride is also essential to her character. Galadriel as one of the leaders of the rebellion against the Valar has to ask for pardon of the Valar, or at least accept it in order to be allowed back into Valinor.

That is consistant with what Finarfin did when he turned around, and it fits with the idea that the Noldor, manipulated by Melkor's lies, resented the sovereignty of Manwë in Valinor. The kingship of the Valar in Arda is another issue altogether, but nonetheless it exists and if Galadriel would want to return to the West, she Galadriel would have to accept a certain degree of "tutelage" by the Valar.

But it's not the only reason why Galadriel is held back by pride: she also resents that she may have to live on Tol Eressëa instead of Aman, since she originally lived there and Tol Eressëa “seemed only a ‘second best’”.

“But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me, What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

All ambition and all pride did not change the fact that over time her desire to return increased and that she seemed to have regretted either leaving at all, or refusing the pardon when it was offered.

I can imagine that in the Second Age Celeborn and a new born Celebrían were also very good reasons not to sail West (since Celeborn did not wish to go), but at the end of the Third Age Valinor seems to be on Galadriel's mind a lot: in The Lord of the Rings she sings not one but two songs about it.

“Wise the Lady Galadriel may be”

“‘I pass the test,’ she said. ‘I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.’”

Galadriel's ambition has lead her to a dangerous temptation, but throughout her history her wisdom has always proven stronger: while her cousins and brothers have built realms in Beleriand, Galadriel's focus has been on learning from Melian. In the Second Age, Annatar tries to manipulate Galadriel as well – and is rejected by her. But it's not hard to imagine that there was a huge temptation: if she had accepted, maybe the rule of Eregion would have fallen to her instead of Celebrimbor. In the Third Age, she gets as close as she'll ever be to the title of a queen when she and Celeborn become the Lord and Lady of Lothlórien. But even here, wisdom holds them back from calling themselves King and Queen of a mostly Sindarin and Nandorin population.

The end of the Third Age brings the final and the most important test: Galadriel's rejection of the One Ring is essential for the ban to be lifted. It is Galadriel realising that this kind of power that she desires would come at a price that she is not willing to pay. It must have lead to the consequent realisation that she could have had the power she desired and that she has rejected it – and that if she is not willing to do everything for her ambition she might as well let go of it altogether.

Giving up her ambition for power and her dreams of ruling realms then opens the door for her return into the West. It allows her to accept to "diminish" (she still has to work on her attitude) and to ask for and accept the pardon of the Valar.

This is the core of Galadriel's character journey. Sailing West is the fullfilment of a long held dream that Galadriel out of ambition and pride did not allow herself to have for a long time. Rejecting the temptation of power once and for all opened the doors for her to fullfil her long held desire to finally go home.

#Galadriel #The Lord of the Rings #LOTR #Silmarillion #Middle-earth #Elves #Eldar #Noldor #more or less #I had not planned to write this put for some more or less obvious reasons I feel the need to say this #this is essential to Galadriel's characterisation if you want to get her right #this is part of basically all but the last texts that somehow relate to her #my posts #character analysis #I should have written this as a character short post because Galadriel is also not a black and white character #my apologies for the rambling #essay

[quoththemaiden]

The final chapter of @mrghostrat's Big Name Feelings Good Omens AU is dropping tomorrow, so obviously there was no way I could resist writing another fanscene. (Previous scene 1, 2, 3) Inspired by the sheer domesticity of chapters 15 and 16, enjoy this end-of-series scene.

—

Crowley's key fumbled against the lock — still Aziraphale's lock, technically, but very firmly Crowley's key. "Dinner was good, though?"

Aziraphale rolled his eyes a little at how much more attention his face was getting than the keyhole. Sherlock Holmes might have blamed the wine they shared at dinner for the scratches around the lock, but Aziraphale knew better. "It was delicious, of course. You should know; you were there."

"Nnyeah, well, it's your opinion I care about." As if that weren't obvious from Crowley having gotten them a table at one of the city's best restaurants on Valentine's Day and insisting on not even letting him see the bill.

As if Aziraphale was ever any good at hiding his appreciation of good food.

"Quite sure," Aziraphale replied with a gentle touch on Crowley's arm that swiftly turned into snagging the key from him to open the door himself. Crowley let out a huffy laugh as he followed him inside. "Tea?"

"Sure, if that goes with whatever we're doing next." Crowley had been trying to wheedle Aziraphale's planned gift out of him for the past two weeks, and Aziraphale had remained utterly firm in not sharing it with him. Crowley insisted that whatever Aziraphale planned would be alright with him so there was no reason for Aziraphale to be shy about it, and Aziraphale had said "I know, dearest," and somehow that's as far as Crowley's attempts at learning Aziraphale's plans ever got.

Aziraphale fussed around with the tea and put on some music — old-fashioned stuff on actual CDs, the sap — and Crowley was left to lean against the doorjamb watching him and coming to terms with being so terribly, completely besotted that their evening plans could be "absolutely nothing" and Crowley wouldn't love it a single speck less. Aziraphale had said that he'd always thought of Valentine's Day as just another day, and that he'd certainly never considered that he might be able to celebrate it publicly, so Crowley was already delighted at having coaxed him out to dinner. Crowley found himself very suddenly aware that if Aziraphale's supposed plans amounted to nothing at all, he honestly wouldn't mind. His fifteen-year-old self would eat him alive if he knew, and Crowley felt warm inside to know that that was his younger self's loss.

Crowley blinked out of his reverie in time to help Aziraphale carry the teacups into the living room, and was almost surprised when Aziraphale brought a bag in with him as he followed. "Whazzat?"

"Painting supplies, dear." Aziraphale set the bag down on the coffee table.

Another point in favor of another evening spent doing nothing unusual. Crowley relaxed back into the couch, wondering if his melting heart could leave stains on the fabric. "What're you gonna paint?"

"You!" Par for the course again, then. Aziraphale gave a happy wriggle. "I hope you aren't ticklish!"

Wait, what?

"Uh?" Crowley picked up one of the paints Aziraphale was setting out and found that the label said, quite clearly, "body safe." "Angel?"

Aziraphale looked at him with a smile that said he was still 100% confident in his plan despite Crowley's confusion. "I thought it might be a nice reminder of the con. Getting an airbrush and making stencils didn't seem sensible, really, but I know how to use a brush well enough."

Crowley let out a breathy laugh. "'Well enough' 's an understatement. Geez, now MY gift feels—"

"—completely, perfectly tailored to me," Aziraphale cut in. "I would have been actually cross if you'd insisted on getting me another sword." Crowley laughed again, and it warmed Aziraphale's heart that he'd seemed to do nothing but laugh all night. Aziraphale patted Crowley's hand before picking up his tea, taking an appreciative sip and willing it to calm the excited fluttering in his chest. "What do you think? Another serpent on your cheek? I was thinking a tree would look rather lovely spread across your spine and shoulder blades..."

Crowley shivered a little at that, easily able to picture Aziraphale straddling his hips as he lay on the bed, Aziraphale's left palm spread flat on his back to keep himself steady with the rise and falls of Crowley's breath, his paintbrush tenderly tracing a line along his spine...

"Snake first," he agreed quickly. "And then..." He looked down on Aziraphale's arms and swallowed. "Think you could paint on your own arm? I could help hold things steady for you."

"Oh," Aziraphale breathed, and Crowley's heart clenched in the best of ways. He had no idea how Aziraphale always managed to say that like he was falling in love all over again, time and time again, but he did.

No, that wasn't quite right. Crowley probably did know. He suspected it came from the same place as the way he'd looked at Aziraphale as he helped him out of the car today. Aziraphale had taken his arm without hesitation and looked up at him with a warmer smile than any mortal had ever earned, and Crowley had been certain he was wearing his own heart on his sleeve, his vest, and every other garment he owned.

He adored him, and somehow, ineffably, it was the smallest moments that made it stand out the most.

"...right," Aziraphale managed to say around the happy tightness in his throat. "Some art for the both of us, then."

#good omens #good omens fanfiction #ineffable husbands #bnf au #fanfiction of fanfiction #my writing #absolutely amazing fic bilvy #you should be proud!!

[viking-raider]

The Golden Egg - Cotton Candy Fluff

Summary: It's Easter! So, you and Henry have an Easter Egg Hunt. One for Kal, then go head-to-head against each other, to see who can find their eggs the fastest.

But what happens, when Henry finds the Golden Egg, you left him.

Pairing: Henry Cavill/Reader

Word Count: 2.1k

Warning: G - Cotton Candy Goodness, Soft!Henry, Fluff, Kal, Short Person Joke, Competition, Easter, Competitive!Henry, Domestic Bliss, Instagraming, Surprise Ending

Inspiration: It's Easter. I wrote this in an hour. This video of Good.Boy.Ollie on instagram.

Author’s Note: I hope you enjoy this! Line divider by @FIREFLY-GRAPHICS!

If you would like to get notifications for my writing! Just follow my Tag List blog, @VIKING-RAIDER-TAGLIST and turn on the notifications for it! It’s that easy! @VIKING-RAIDER-LIBRARY

“So, explain this to me again?” Henry laughed, folding his arms over his heaving chest, as he laughed.

“I wanna do an Easter Egg hunt for Kal.” You repeat to yourself, narrowing your eyes at your near hysterical boyfriend.

“The Bear doesn't get the concept of Easter, let alone an Easter Egg hunt, babe.” He howled, his curly head rolling back with its mirth.

“So!” You huffed, pouting at him. “I think it's cute. I also want us to do one. To see who can find the most. The fastest.”

Henry sobered up a tad at that. “All right, babe. You're on.” He smirked, cupping your face in his hands and gently kissing your forehead. “Which do you want to do first?”

“Kal.”

“Done.” He nodded, dropping his hands and looking over the colorful sea of plastic eggs and prizes to put inside of them, that you'd come home with a short time before. “You know, my fans would absolutely eat this all up.” He remarked to himself, biting the corner of his lip and thinking it over, then glanced at you.

“Can I film it?”

“If you want to, Puppy.” You replied, grabbing a four pack of jumbo eggs and ripped it open.

“Sweet, I'll be right back. While you figure out what you're doing--” He waved his hands over the cluttered dining table. “Here.” He chuckled, before rushing off.

Looking over the prizes, you picked out a cute dog toy. It was made of rubber and looked like a throwing stick. You had gotten it cause Kal was a beast of a chewer, when it came to his toys, and this one was supposed to be nearly indestructible. Fitting it inside the bright yellow, jumbo egg, you dropped a couple of Kal's favorite peanut butter and blueberry treats in with it, so he had something to sniff out, then closed it.

You had a reasonable amount of the eggs filled up for the hunts, when Henry finally came back into the dining room, kissing the back of your bent head.

“Everything is set up.” He informed you, casting his eyes over the booty. “You want some help?”

“That would be nice, thank you.” You replied, tilting your head back, smiling appreciatively at him.

“Is there a method to your madness?” He asked, pulling up a chair beside you.

“The eggs on the right are Kal's.” You motioned to the cluster. “I don't fancy getting a squeak toy or dog biscuits, during my hunt.”

Henry's face twisted and he shook his head. “No, I don't either.” He snorted, dropping some chocolates into the egg he grabbed.

“All right, here we go!” Henry exclaimed, grinning, as the two of you finished hiding the eggs, all while his phone recorded on a tripod, he planned on editing everything down later on. “Kal!” He called out and smiled, as the Bear came charging through the open slider and into the backyard.

“Are you ready to do your hunting?” He asked, bending over to scratch the Akita all over.

You and Henry had made sure to hide his eggs in, more or less, obvious places. But a couple had Kal working for them, like one small egg slipped between the braided fabric of his rope pull. Kal was slow at first, sniffing at the eggs, letting out little snorts as his nose picked up the scent of his treats inside of them. You were worried for a bit, that it was a flop. Making your heart sink. But when Kal found the stick toy, it was as if something magical sparked inside the Akita.

And he went wild.

Kal started zooming around the entire yard, diving into the manicured bushes and making them shake as he ran between them and the border fence. He rooted around the patio furniture, nearly knocking over Henry's big, green grill for a hot pink egg that was there; containing three different treats. He finally tackled the last egg, one of the jumbos, behind a large stone planter.

Bouncing around it so ecstatically, Henry couldn't take it from him to open and reveal what was inside.

“Kal.” Henry cracked up. “Let's see what Mama put in it for you, Bear!” He finally managed to swipe it away from the pup and crack it open, discovering the surprise. “Oh my god! Look, Kal!” He dissolved into a fresh fit of laughter, holding out a plush, taffy-pink, pig.

Kal bounced on his front paws, so he stood on his back legs and took the toy out of Henry's hand, finding the noise maker with his mighty jaws and causing the lightly stuffed pig to scream out a stream of oinks.

“Do you like it, Bear?” You giggled, grinning at him, relieved that Kal's egg hunt had ended so well.

“That pig is going to drive us bonkers, until he murders it.” Henry said, wiping tears from his bearded face.

“I know it is, but I couldn't help buying it.” You confessed, watching Kal go to town on the poor thing. “Look how cute it is, and he clearly loves it.”

“Right, well.” Henry sighed, composing himself. “Kal's hunt is over. Now, it's time for our Battle Egg-royal!” He proclaimed, a competitive expression coming over his face. “You're going first. So, go inside and I'll hide your eggs.”

“Very well.” You nodded, kissing his cheek.

“Mind yourself!” He called, as you headed inside with Kal. “No cheating!”

“I would never!” You huffed back at him, feigning insult.

Henry grabbed the basket of eggs he had made for you and got to work hiding them all over the backyard, pausing in front of camera for a moment, a cheeky look on his face, even though it wasn't live, he couldn't help it.

“No, watching my stream, babe!” He laughed, then went back to hiding the rest of his eggs.

Satisfied with where his eggs were, Henry opened the slider and called you back outside.

“I have the stopwatch pulled up on my mobile.” You said, handing it over to Henry.

“All right.” He nodded, taking it from you. “Ready. Set.”

He stood there for a moment and you stared at him.

“Henry!”

“Huh? Oh, right. GO!”

Rolling your eyes, you shot off the patio and started searching the area. Henry trailing after you. You found the first egg balanced on a stone column that a pot of flowers were situated on. Shaking it, you heard the egg-shaped chocolates inside. Henry held out your Easter basket, so you could store your found eggs and not worry about holding them or accidentally rediscovering them. You found a jumbo egg next, inside Henry's grill, which had you giggling.

“Oh, that's so cruel, Henry.” You huffed, finding your last three eggs lined up in a row, on top of the fence, out of your reach.

Henry smiled at you, triumphantly, his nose wrinkling cutely. “Hop, short stuff.”

“You'll pay for this later, Cavill.” You warned, narrowing your eyes at him and jumped for the eggs, just managing to grab them, without knocking them into the neighbor's yard on the other side.

“I doubt you can put anything out of my reach, Bean.” Henry quipped, winking at you, then glanced down at your phone. “Eighteen minutes.” He smiled, kissing your cheek. “Not a bad time, babe.”

“Thank you, now get your butt out of the yard!” You said, pointing towards the house.

“Yes, ma'am.” He nodded, obediently. “I'll take your basket inside with me.”

Biting your lip, you glanced around the yard and quickly got to work, trying to find the hardest places for him to find his eggs. Wanting payback for the shenanigans of those eggs on the fence. You even moved a few eggs a couple times, feeling like they were too easy to find, before you finally let Henry come back into the yard with you.

“It took you longer to hide them, than find them, sugar butt.” Henry commented, amused as he scanned the yard, trying to give himself a head start.

“I wasn't making it easy for you.” You said, setting up the stopwatch. “Ready. Steady. Go!” You barked, jumping up and down.

Henry quickly hurried off the patio, his first target was his grill. You had put an egg there for Kal and he had put one there for you. So, he had felt you'd follow that theme. But, alas, when he opened the hammered dome, he found it egg free. Eyes narrowing, he looked around and under it as well.

Still, no egg.

“Come on, Puppy.” You laughed, wickedly. “I said, I wasn't going to make it easy on you.”

“True.” He hummed back, shooting a narrow eyed look at you, before slowly scanning the yard again. “AH-HUH!” He exclaimed, spotting a small point of neon yellow under the hedge, that led towards the side of the house.

Making for the egg, Henry happened to catch the flicker of something out of the corner of his eye in the process and came to an abrupt stop. Turning towards it, he gently parted the flowers in the stone planter and reached inside, plucking out a pastel green egg. He held it up with a smirk, his blue eyes sparkling in the mid-afternoon sun.

“Two already!” He said, dropping the egg in his basket, and grabbed the other one.

From there, your strategy steadily went downhill. He found three more eggs within a span of a minute and five after that. You looked down at the stopwatch and felt your stomach clench. Henry's hunt was six minutes in and he had found almost all his eggs, leaving him on course to beat you.

“There you are, little bugger.” Henry grinned, finding the turquoise egg in the drain spout. “What's the time, love?” He asked, dropping it into the basket with the rest.

“Fifteen minutes.” You informed him, sighing.

Henry's arms shot up into the air. “Yes, I win!” He grinned, wiggling his muscular body in a victory dance.

“No.” You shook your head at him.

“What?” He frowned at you. “You found your last egg in eighteen minutes and I just found mine at fifteen, baby.” He explained to you, his arms falling back to his sides. “I beat you by three minutes.”

“But you missed one, Bear.” You told him, calmly.

“Where?” Henry snapped, blinking at you.

“Right there.” You said, pointing to a gold egg resting peacefully in the grass, at the edge of the paving stones, near his grill.

Henry's eyes narrowed at you. “What is this, babe?” He asked slowly, cocking his head at you. “There wasn't one there, when I started my egg hunt.”

“I don't know what to tell you.” You remarked, biting the inside of your cheek, fighting the twitching of your lips. “Perhaps you need glasses, old man.” You teased, as he crossed over to the egg. “Why don't you open it?” You suggested, once he had it in his hand.

“You do know it's Easter and not April Fool's day, don't you, honey?” He asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at you.

“Oh, I do.” You nodded, finally allowing yourself to smile at him.

Henry looked at his still recording phone. “If this thing blows up, you know who to blame, guys.” He quipped, popping open the plastic egg and found a folded piece of paper inside. “What, are you proposing to me?” He chuckled, saying it for shock value.

That was until he finished unfolding the paper and concentrated on what it was.

You move to stand before Henry, smiling up at him, while his mouth gently fell open and his eyes grew. “Happy Easter, Henry.” You cooed at him, resting your hands on his hips.

“Is this-” He gulped thickly, looking between you and the paper. “Is this—real?”

“Mmhm.” You nodded, tearing up, seeing his blue eyes start to glisten and his breathing shutter as he became choked up, emotional. “I found out last week.” You explained to him, taking the sonogram from him. “So, I thought this would be the coolest way to tell you. To train you for future Easter egg hunts with the help of our four legged son.”

Henry caught you up in his arms and spun you around, his blue eyes blurred with tears of overwhelming happiness, while burying his face into your neck as he held you tight against his body. He sniffled into your neck and you hugged him tight, feeling content.

“Christ alive, I love you.” Henry cried, tears dripping down his bearded face, as he set you back down on your feet, then looked over at his phone, just then remembering it was recording. “We're pregnant!” He announced, beaming.

#Henry Cavill #HenryCavill #Kal #Kal Cavill #Akita #Viking-Raider Fics #The Golden Egg #The Golden Egg *fic* #Easter #Easter Egg #Easter Sunday #Easter Egg Hunt #Surprise #henry cavill x female reader #henry cavill x y/n #henry cavill x you #henry cavill x plus size reader #henry cavill x black reader #Henry Cavill/You #Henry Cavill x Reader #Henry Cavill x You #Henry Cavill/Reader #Henry Cavill/Y/N #Fluff #Cotton Candy Fluff #Surprise Ending

[britcision]

Gonna try and sneakily post after dnd let’s see how fast I can yeet this up 👀 new chapter!!

(I was kinda considering pushing out the porn parody to push me over one million words on AO3, but I have to be in the mood to write good smut, whereas I’m damn near always in the mood for crack, so here we are

The porn parody has been started though, and the first chapter is edging its way to completion. I will be starting an entirely new taglist for the porn parody though, so do say in the comments here if you would like to be tagged in the first chapter of that!)

I got to use a little of my actual real life work knowledge for once in my life, instead of my unending stash of random knowledge 👀 it’s a bold new world and I bet you ANYTHING Bruce never documents his code

Eleven million backup plans for if marshmallows take over the world, but someone else sits to debug the batcomputer? Zip. Nothing. Fuck them if they can’t read Bruce they aren’t authorised to touch it

As may be rather obvious… We’re right up in the bats again this chapter, and Bruce is going to make some Inadvisable Decisions 😈

I’m sure this will have absolutely no consequences whatsoever! This chapter also came in a little short, since there’s not quiiiiite enough space left to squeeze in our next scene, Danny Attempts To Make Jason Kill Him In A Motorcycle Accident

This means we should not brick ANYONES’ tumblr! (Like that’ll happen, my poor mobile using fellows)

Note: there is a reason why I’m choosing when to use our various vigi’s human names while they’re masked, I didn’t miss one on the “edit” that is formatting this mess for Tumblr 😁

First Chapter and AO3 link:

Previous Chapter:

——————

One Fine Day In The Middle Of The Night

About twenty minutes after dropping Danny off at his dorm, Jason was suited up and ready to go.

Well, he’d stayed outside until he’d seen Danny shut the door behind him first. Jason had some fucking manners, though if pressed he couldn’t name who’d taught him them.

It was a habit older than the streets, watching to be sure his friends got to safety.

Danny’s dorm was about fifteen minutes from one of Jason’s better safe houses, as it happened. Jason had never been to a dorm, but from Danny’s stories?

A step below Teen Titans’ bunks, and those had sucked. Less privacy, smaller rooms, and more people? Who weren’t even part of the same team?

Maybe next semester Jason could offer to let Danny move in. He didn’t need need the safe house.

Red Hood could always buy the building. There were other apartments and while they weren’t luxurious, they beat half his other spots. The neighbourhood wasn’t bad either.

It’d be nice to pay Danny back a bit. Not have him closer. Just. Repay some of the debt by giving him a place to stay, rent free.

And maybe, just a little bit, the part of Jason that enjoyed the romanticism of his period novels kinda liked the idea. An estate for the king on your lands was a big deal back then.

A slightly more modern part of him thought being a landlord for his ruler would also be pretty funny. He figured Danny would enjoy that side too.

And it wasn’t like the guy could complain, since he’d literally given Jason back himself. Yeah, Jason was gonna pull that one out if Danny tried any familiar “oh I can’t accept this” on him.

Fixing his core was pretty damn god level on the favours spectrum. Jason could do whatever the hell he liked and Danny would just have to deal with it.

It cheered him up a little more, kept him in a good mood on the ride back to his safe house. It was more time where he couldn’t help Cass, but seriously?

Danny could change in a matter of seconds and be at her side not much slower. Walls, cars, goons, Jason had this feeling that none of it would slow Danny down.

And yeah, knowing that helped, but there was still a piece of him that only unknotted as he slid his helmet on and headed to the window.

“Hey, Black Bat. Busy?” He asked as the comms switched from earpiece to helmet display.

Of course he wore both. People kept trying to steal his damn helmet. That was also what the internal explosives were for.

The others all piped up when they heard him, Harper and Steph calling cheerful greetings around an ongoing conversation.

“Shit, Hood’s in, this mean I can go back to bed?” Bluebird teased. Spoiler cut her off immediately.

“Hell no, it can’t be a school night, Robin’s here! Great timing though Hood, we’re planning Red Robin’s eulogy and you have some experience there,” Spoiler chirped brightly, and Jason hesitated.

Sucked in a breath. He wasn’t gonna judge anyone else’s coping mechanisms until they got past “heads in a bag” levels.

Best to ignore it, since she wasn’t actually trying to set him off.

What the hell had Tim done since they’d left the manor?

Shaking his head, Jason settled into Red Hood and hopped onto the fire escape, scaling easily to the roof.

“Black Bat?” He repeated instead of answering, and half smiled when Spoiler groaned dramatically.

Black Bat answered in the considerate group pause.

“Not busy. Why?” She sounded amused, not even particularly tired, and Jason relaxed enough to slip all the way in.

“Thinking of going a little out of my way tonight. Wondered if you’d mind a tagalong?” Red Hood asked, hoping he sounded casual.

It wasn’t like he’d been planning to patrol the Alley anyway; his guys had already been told to handle it. He’d have to run around tomorrow night to keep the creepers scared, but he could have a couple off.

The tiny pause before her answer didn’t quite feel like judgement, but Jason muted before blowing out the sigh as she did. It wasn’t like the others needed to know he’d been stressing.

“Sure. Meet at library?” She’d had his tracker up. Hood nodded, turning and running for the edge of the roof.

“Sounds good.” And they’d probably wound Spoiler up enough, she’d start plotting vengeance for being ignored soon. “So what the hell did Little Red do?”

“Brought Too Fine to the Bat Cave,” Spoiler told him with relish, not noticeably put out by the delay.

Not necessarily a good sign, since she was also this enthusiastic while actively plotting against him.

Wait.

Too Fine was Tucker’s hacker name.

“But he doesn’t know about us,” Red Hood said with a frown, catching an outcropping and swinging on.

“Oh, now you tell me,” Tim groused while the others snickered, “what a shame you didn’t think to when it’d have actually been helpful!”

News to Hood that he was on, probably still in the cave.

“He knows now,” Nightwing chimed in brightly, probably also travelling from the slight strain in his voice.

Hood paused for a moment, letting that sink in before attempting the next jump.

“Is he on comm?” He asked warily, because if Tim brought Tucker to the bat cave, it was entirely possible that they were all outed.

And that Tucker might tell Danny he was Red Hood.

Shit, he still had to text Harley. Resolving to do it once he hit the library, he set back to running, throwing himself across another street.

Black Bat would probably take a little longer to get there.

“He’ll be back, he’s in the bathroom,” Tim explained with a heavy sigh, shaking his head. “It’s not all bad, he’s given me the full story on what happened in Amity Park. Witness account and all.”

“From a witness you let down to the bat cave~” Spoiler sang sweetly across the air.

Red Hood could hear Oracle rolling her eyes as she cut in.

“Tone it down, Batgirl. Bluebird, if you’re still thinking of heading in, could you swing past one last site on your way?” She said firmly, then lightening her tone for their current guest.

“Batgirl who? I’m Spoiler,” Spoiler grumbled, but didn’t push beyond that. None of them did when Oracle invoked the name she’d had before any of them masked up.

Bluebird snickered at her before answering the question, a hint of exertion suggesting she was on the move too.

“I’m not actually in a rush to go home, O, I got all dressed up so I might as well enjoy one last hurrah.”

Right, because she’d be going back to school probably when Danny did.

Harper had always been a damn good hero in Jason’s books, but she valued her retirement and none of them really wanted to ruin it. Unless, apparently, seven bats just had to stalk Jason’s new friends.

Hood would have apologized, but frankly if she’d said no, some of the others couldn’t have come to the gala to be a pain in his ass.

And then he couldn’t have had so much fun fucking with them.

Fine. One cool fruit basket for the Row household, and some rainbow cupcakes for Cullen. He needed practice on frosting roses anyway.

Although that also reminded him.

“Hey Bluebird, have the others filled you in on Phantom?” He asked, cutting off some more background chatter from Spoiler and Tim.

Nightwing and the girls had had hours by now.

“What, your new boyfriend?” Bluebird asked sweetly, and Hood rolled his eyes.

Probably hit the important shit then.

“Sent you a picture?” He asked instead, decidedly not entertaining that question.

Nightwing and Spoiler snickered. Hood flipped off their general directions, settling himself comfortably on the roof of the library to wait for Black Bat.

There was a short pause, the others now wondering what he was getting at. Good.

“In and out of suit,” Bluebird agreed, curiosity tinging with mild suspicion. Being out of retirement clearly wasn’t good for her.

Hood nodded, pulling out his phone and shooting Harley a quick text. It might be moot now, asking her not to mention Red Hood shit in front of Danny, but he might as well.

He still had to ask if Waylon knew. Might as well ask. And see if Tucker knew when he got back.

“I know you’re outta the game, but keep the light show to a minimum if you see him around, okay?” He asked, scanning quickly over the list Danny’d cleared for public discussion.

He didn’t know if Tucker would have mentioned it, but he might as well. Cause of death was good, but Jason personally would veto “and the effects it may have now”.

Because fuck Bruce and his need for everyone to show him their weaknesses.

Bluebird definitely sounded curious now, and possibly like she was punching someone.

“Oh? He not big on the electricity?” She wondered aloud, and Hood grimaced.

Because if they were both at Gotham U in engineering… there was actually a chance Harper and Danny would run into each other.

Danny was older, but Harper skipped a couple years and he had no idea what year Danny was in. Fuck, they might be in the same classes. He couldn’t believe he’d never thought of that.

“Not exactly. You mighta seen him around actually, he’s an engineer too. But he’s not a fan of the electricity flying around,” he explained, Nightwing making background noises that told Hood he hadn’t put the pieces together either.

Good. At least he wasn’t alone.

Bluebird made an interested hum, and probably a finishing blow considering the satisfaction when she spoke next.

“I thought he looked familiar. But then, he’s total Wayne-bait. Yeah, I can keep the good stuff under wraps if I see him around. Gonna guess he’s had some bad shocks in the line of work?”

Hood hesitated and in exactly the same instant Black Bat landed on the roof. Sam had given them all the warning about talking about a ghost’s death, so he could leave it at that.

But…

The way Danny had looked when he explained about Vlad. Yeah, he’d rather they took this seriously. He didn’t want any of his family to hurt Danny, even by accident.

“It’s how he died. He won’t spontaneously combust or anything, but it’s a bad memory.”

Silence reigned while the others absorbed that particular detail, Black Bat crossing to crouch on the roof beside him. Hood leaned over enough to bump their shoulders together.

He could almost feel concern radiating off her, which was an extra weird experience after literally feeling all of Danny’s emotions half the day.

Guess that was where Cass’s liminality was going. It made sense, kind of; despite her occasional trouble speaking, she was pretty much the clearest communicator in the family.

Having another back up way to make herself heard would only fit.

On a whim, he tried projecting comfort back to her. Black Bat didn’t seem to notice, though whether that meant more on her part or his was the question.

She leaned in and bumped him back, her expression unreadable between the full face mask and the shadows.

“Heard and understood, Hood,” Bluebird agreed after a minute, her tone unusually solemn. Hopefully Dickie would take it to heart too.

The odds of Danny running into Nightwing weren’t great if he stuck to Blüdhaven, but Dick was a nosy bastard and there was always one “emergency” or another.

Better than the odds of running into Bluebird, although Harper would almost definitely look him up at school.

Maybe Jason should warn him.

“Maybe you could build him a faraday suit,” Spoiler mused, and Red Hood snickered.

“Handy, but then we couldn’t contact him,” he reminded her and she groaned loudly.

“Hey, if we’re both techies he’ll probably have his own idea. I’ll look him up out of costume, it’s my turn to say hi,” Bluebird decided, and Hood shot Danny a quick text.

Just a heads up.

A picture of Harper, captioned “beware of sibling. May be looking you up in class”. Black Bat giggled beside him, head cocked to watch the screen.

Harper wasn’t technically one of the Waynes, but if Waylon counted she definitely had to, and it wasn’t like Bruce picked his family. Asshole.

A few minutes later he got a message back from Danny.

‘DannyP: !!!!! I know her! 😳😳🤯 She does the cool nanobots! Half our year is betting if she’s a rogue or a vigi 👀 inside info??’

Which was fair, since just knowing Jason wouldn’t be much of a hint either way.

“He knows you,” Black Bat reported to the others, Bluebird immediately bitching that she’d been ratted out.

Red Hood mostly ignored her, texting Danny back.

‘JTodd: Neither anymore. She was a vigi, but she’s retired and getting her degree. No idea if she’ll come back after.’

“Odds you’ll change sides and go rogue, Bluebird?” He asked into a pause, and very much enjoyed the momentary stumped silence. “Apparently there’s a hefty bet.”

Momentary, because everyone had an opinion on that and had to share it. Everyone except Bluebird herself, who seemed to be thinking it over.

“What’re the odds for rogue?” She asked thoughtfully, immediately defending herself as the group booed. “What! I have student loans!”

“You are my villain arc, Red Hood,” Spoiler declared as solemnly as she could through laughter.

“I’m my own villain arc thank you so much, go find your own,” he refuted with a half grin.

“Ask Phantom,” Black Bat advised Bluebird in the meantime, which was probably fair. They weren’t good at staying on topic.

She then gave Hood another gentle nudge, probably for the same reason. Flicked off her comm for a moment.

“Wanted to talk?” She asked, and yeah, they probably should get back to it.

He gave a shrug, hauling himself up and holding a hand back down to her. Definitely not feeling guilty.

They’d tell her before anything became relevant. It just.

Well.

They were a family of fucking detectives, who could never leave well enough alone, and Jason really didn’t want them questioning his humanity.

Just once, he’d like to know something about himself before anyone else did. To have time to understand and come to terms with what he was before Twenty Questions.

Cass was very good at not asking questions though. And Black Bat turned off her comm first. Tim was distracted, probably with Tucker coming back because he’d been quiet.

No better opportunity was likely to come up.

And really, she deserved the same courtesy. Knowing about herself before the others did.

Maybe she’d have some ideas on how to tell them.

Making up his mind, Hood tapped his comms and hauled Black Bat up with his other hand.

“Hey O, gonna be offline for a minute. Text if you need me or BB, we gotta be radio silent.” There were enough possible reasons for that, he didn’t bother giving one.

Just so long as they knew.

Usually he’d just turn the comm off and swear at her if she turned him back on if he wanted peace and quiet, but… well, it was nice to hear the background chatter.

Nicer when the big Bat himself wasn’t in the field to tell them to focus.

“I always need you, baby!” Nightwing called just before he clicked off, and Red Hood rolled his eyes under the helmet.

Dramatic bitch.

He looked back to Black Bat, wondering where would be the best place for this talk. She was watching him patiently, not moving.

It had been her patrol.

“Is there anywhere on your route we can talk privately?” He asked softly, a little surprised at himself. He’d been the one who wanted to wait.

But that just made it his call who he decided to tell what, and when. And Cass… he trusted Cass.

Besides, it wasn’t like he was liminal. It’d give them something to think until he was ready.

Black Bat regarded him for a moment longer, then nodded and made her way to the edge of the roof.

“Follow.”

**

The night was wearing on, but Bruce was darkly satisfied that they were finally making progress.

Constantine’s pacing (replacing his smoking; Bruce may not have bothered arguing in the cave, but even Constantine knew better than to light a cigarette in space) had finally slowed.

Something terrible had happened in Amity Park, but even the magician was grudgingly admitting it was probably over. Left permanent scars, but getting no worse.

Unless it was on a cosmic level and would be a slow seeping problem for millennia, but Alfred had Opinions about Bruce concerning himself with issues on that time scale.

There was only so much they could do in the moment.

Another survey of the city was required, and in person since even the League’s best couldn’t take clear pictures of Amity Park.

A fact which didn’t seem to have stopped the Amity Parkers from photographing and sharing pictures of each other, according to his children. Constantine hadn’t actually argued when Bruce compared it to background radiation, so it must be close enough.

He also hadn’t done more than grimace when Bruce asked if he wanted to undertake the survey personally. That was as good as an enthusiastic agreement.

First, though? First they needed to call a meeting of the Justice League, primarily the heroes located in North America.

They had been horribly uninformed of what was going on right under their noses, and if Constantine was right… Amity Park’s problems had begun to spread.

To Gotham.

To his children.

Constantine’s grumbling that it was the miasma of death that hung over the city drawing them in had not inspired confidence, and Bruce resolved to have Zatanna over at her soonest convenience to explain.

Helping Constantine put together a report on Amity Park itself had more than convinced Bruce not to ask Constantine, even if he could have done it today. The man was…

Well. Bruce wasn’t looking forward to having to run him through the JL’s classification system again. Maybe one of his children would want to go and handle the technical side.

All he had to do was finish preparing the presentation, call the League, and he could rest. It would likely take a day or two to put a full meeting together, but he could at least fill Clark and Diana in tonight.

He could sleep in between. Just for a little while.

Right after he showed Constantine how to configure the alerts from Amity Park to direct to the Justice League Dark, not the spam folder. They hadn’t sent one in years, but he was determined not to miss any changes.

That should have been the easiest part of this whole mess. It was just a simple form, with a basic test button to ensure it worked.

Nothing too complicated even for a man who’d decided “no reply needed” meant the same thing as “too dangerous for anyone but JL Dark”.

Fine. It was fine.

Bruce loved making training videos to highlight the most basic functions of a system and ensure that people actually understood what the various controls meant. Wonderful.

It meant that they could work in parallel for a while, Bruce on the presentation for the League, Constantine to fix his mistake. In a blissful silence, even.

It couldn’t last.

“It’s not working, Bats,” the magician declared, pushing back and away from his computer. Probably to pace again.

Bruce closed his eyes, breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth, and made his way across to frown at the monitor.

“Did you save your changes?” He growled, doing his best not to let the irritation show. It was getting harder every time.

Constantine rolled his eyes, definitely not helping, and pointed at the screen.

“See for yerself. Look, JLD Top Priority, like ya said. And then ya hit the top button to save, and the red button to test it, and nothing happens.”

He waited impatiently while Bruce clicked through the buttons, seeing it for himself.

Constantine wasn’t wrong. That was unexpected.

Brows furrowing under his cowl, Bruce checked the deleted requests. Three test messages from “Amity Park”.

“Hn.”

“Someone’s fucked ya system,” Constantine commented dryly, sounding unduly pleased that it wasn’t his fault.

Something other than his haphazard filing had apparently been causing some of their problems. Bruce… just didn’t have the time tonight.

He nodded over to his screen instead, pulling up his wrist computer to send a private message to Tim in the cave. How long could a tour take?

Tim could find what was going wrong long before he’d have the time.

“I’ve compiled most of the presentation on creatures of the Realms. Is there anything important I should add?” He asked gruffly and Constantine sighed dramatically and flounced over.

Bruce firmly ignored Steph’s voice in his ear.

Not because he didn’t agree, whatever a “woobie” was.

He just needed Constantine’s once over to confirm he had all the pertinent information, and then he could call Clark and Diana.

Head home.

Get to bed.

“Looks fine. I should check yer damn revenant some time soon too though.”

Bruce froze, finger just above the send button on that tech request to Tim.

His fucking what.

**

Black Bat led them easily across the city, along what was probably her normal patrol route. Taking her cue from Red Hood, she didn’t rush, but soon indicated that they turn off into a small alley between two warehouses.

Hell, not even a proper alley. A gap where the buildings hadn’t quite smushed together.

Red Hood recognized the area from Nightwing’s bitching; there’d been a bust here last week, and something had cloaked the whole block from surveillance.

These days, he was almost tempted to check what Danny knew about it. Ghosts fucked with technology in ways none of the bats would find.

Black Bat stopped them half way down the gap, feet braced against one wall and her back to the other, leaving her “sitting” about twenty feet off the ground.

Hood matched her a little further down, grumbling a little at the crush. Almost a foot taller, it wasn’t exactly a comfortable position for him, but he’d held worse.

They were stable, and damn near impossible to observe. This was as good as they’d get.

“So,” he began, and immediately realized he had no fucking clue what to say.

Black Bat’s flat, expressionless mask was not helpful.

Hood wished he could pull his helmet off, just to run his hands through his hair. But they were on patrol.

Black Bat just waited, silent and patient while he wrestled with himself. Finally he decided to just spit it out.

“Danny died, and came back,” he said in a rush, glancing over to her.

Black Bat nodded.

“Like you.”

“Like us,” Hood corrected, groaned, and switched off the voice modulator. Actually, fuck it, he had his domino on.

He pulled the helmet off, balancing it in his lap. He could shove it back on if it came time to go.

Black Bat was beside him now, almost close enough to touch. Close enough to lean in and bump their shoulders together.

“One main difference,” she noted thoughtfully, then tapped her chest, “no skin change.”

Which, yeah, Jason had been hoping to emphasize before any of the family got too far down the right track.

“Right,” he agreed, leaning back to stare blankly into the smog of Gotham above them.

Fuck. How do you even say it? How do you tell someone they’re not fully human anymore?

Someone like Cass, who’d been raised to believe she’d never been human, by force. Just a weapon.

Her hand was in his now, and he couldn’t be sure if he’d reached out or she had. He stared down at their laced fingers instead.

“You know how people get when they spend too long around the pit water,” he began slowly, trying a different path.

Cass had been raised around the League of Assassins. She knew.

And took the change of topic fully in stride, nodding and giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

“Erratic,” she mused softly, her face tilted to the wall across, “unpredictable, especially if they went in.”

No one was going to say Ra’s Al Ghul was an unstable mess of a man, but no one had to. Still, how controlled he was was impressive, especially after you saw what mere exposure to the fumes did to other people.

Red Hood nodded, sighing softly.

“Danny’s parents kept it in the fridge. He was… exposed long before he died,” he explained quietly.

If he was talking about himself, he’d say “contaminated”. Hell, it was the word Danny used when explaining it to the bats.

Jason just couldn’t use it about Danny. It just wasn’t right.

Black Bat stilled, almost enough to be mistaken for a statue instead of a living being. Was that her liminality too? Or just her training?

Red Hood couldn’t stand it either way, giving her hand a gentle tug.

“He told me… being around it too long can change a person, even if they never get dunked,” he said slowly, trailing off again.

“We got dunked,” Black Bat said quietly, her hand curling more tightly around his. There was no hint of emotion in her voice, and Jason hated it.

Pulled her closer, doing all he could to project comfort-sorry-concerned-love you. Wishing he’d asked Danny to teach him to do that first.

Neither of them had really considered he’d need it, since Danny was so good at reading him. But he needed her to know she wasn’t alone.

Her shoulders hunched suddenly, body tensed to spring until her head snapped round to focus on him.

He could… he could feel surprise from her. Maybe it was working.

He gave a graceless half shrug, grinding his shoulders against filthy bricks.

Tried to project yeah it’s weird for me too, but wasn’t sure how well it came across. Anything beyond pure feelings was a little tricky for him to push, though he could usually work out what Danny was saying.

“We got dunked,” he agreed quietly, resolving instead to wrap her in love-protect-safe-safe-safe, “and sometimes… that changes you even without a flashy transformation.”

It was an awful explanation and he knew it, could practically feel her eyes darting all over his face, his posture, reading things he probably wasn’t aware he was showing.

Then she relaxed all at once, settling in and leaning part of her weight on him as well as the wall. He braced automatically to take it. He wouldn’t let her fall.

“He called it being “liminal”,” he explained softly, working an arm around her shoulders above the wall to coax more of her weight onto him. “I don’t know what it means for you yet, BB. But nothing bad. He was sure it wouldn’t be bad.”

Black Bat made a soft humming sound, obediently shuffling so he could wrap his arm around her. Looking down at their still twined hands.

“Can feel you,” she said softly, hand rising to tap gently against the red bat on his chest. “Big brother.”

It startled a bark of laughter out of him, because… well, yeah. A good way to sum up everything he’d wanted to tell her without words.

Felt a quick rush of satisfaction from Black Bat, and tried to answer it with relief-agree-protect.

“Yeah, that’s the fuckin’ weirdest part,” he agreed dryly, almost felt the rush of her giggle more than he heard it. “Apparently some liminals get this… aura around them. Sharing what they feel. I didn’t know if you would…”

What? If she’d notice? If she’d be able to feel the same things?

Black Bat nodded, head tipping up to meet his gaze once again.

“Robin? Batman?” She asked, and Jason hesitated.

He couldn’t talk to either of them about it. Not yet. Bruce would fucking push, he always did, and wouldn’t stop until he tore the secrets out of him. Damian would just run to Bruce.

But it was a valid question. And they did sort of deserve to know just as much.

For now he took refuge in what he knew, shrugging it off.

“Danny thinks they’re liminal, but… not as far along as we are.”

Not as close to death. Not as close to not being human, although technically they were both legally non-sentient, so that was fun.

“D’you really think either of them have the emotional bandwidth to share?” He tried to joke, covering the moment.

Black Bat just stared at him until he fell silent. Then nodded.

“Should tell them. No rush,” she added almost before Jason could tense, leaning back in and resting her head on his shoulder, “have been for a while, yes?”

Jason paused a moment longer, shook his head, and snickered.

“Cannot believe I ever doubted you’d be able to do the whole “emotional telepathy” thing,” he grumbled good naturedly, and Black Bat glowed with gentle amused.

“Better than you,” she told him archly, sounding for a moment like Steph when she was teasing Tim. Jason gave her a squeeze.

“Don’t I know it. But yeah, it’s not a new thing, and won’t mean anything to anyone unless one of us dies again.” Which he wasn’t going to think about.

Shit, someone said Robin was out tonight.

Nope. Not thinking about it. Robin had been patrolling for years, and as much as he whined about his solo patrol route, he never deviated.

Not after Oracle had highlighted his route on his wrist computer for him and proved she could see every footstep. She wouldn’t necessarily tell Bruce, but she’d always know.

Black Bat nodded, resting against him for a moment longer before sitting up again.

“You want to wait.” It wasn’t a question, but he felt compelled to answer.

Picked up his helmet, turning it over slowly in his hands. But of course she’d understand. She always did.

“I want to know what this means to me before I have B poking and prying into every part of my life,” he said quietly, staring into the eye slits of the helmet.

Black Bat ruffled his hair.

“Can wait,” she agreed gently, switching her position to have a hand and foot on either wall. Ready to move on. “No rush.”

Red Hood pulled his helmet back on and matched her, the pair climbing quickly out of the crack between the warehouses. It almost wasn’t worth saying, but…

“You can tell the others if they ask. I just…”

“Don’t want questions,” Black Bat agreed lightly, flipping up onto the roof. “Can ask Danny when the time comes.”

“Yeah,” Red Hood agreed, crouching beside her. “Mind if I stick with you on patrol tonight?”

He sort of hoped she’d think it was unrelated, but another moment of stillness passed across her as she regarded him.

“Until we die again,” she repeated his own words, and Hood was pretty happy she couldn’t see his face anymore as he grimaced.

Not that it mattered, another shot of amused shooting between them, followed by a much softer appreciated.

At least she wasn’t judging him for being a mother hen.

“Understand.”

**

Tim and Tucker had made quick work of the interview, and Tim was pretty much running out of questions when the batcomputer pinged with an incoming message.

Tucker gave it a longing look and Tim chuckled softly, wheeling himself over.

“Hang on. Might be one of the others out on patrol,” he explained, right clicking to pull up the monitor that tracked the bats’ various dominos out and about.

Tucker stared up at it politely, diverting his attention from what Tim was doing on the other screen, no matter how curious he was. Showing trust and all that.

It was actually really cool too; he’d not really seen a map of Gotham, and having one superimposed with little glowing lights of the various heroes on patrol was really cool.

It wasn’t really zoomed in enough to tell if Bluebird was actually in a fight, but the little blue dot seemed to be the only one standing still, so Tucker assumed she was.

How cool would that be? Watching just normal human vigilantes fight and take down bad guys?

Although off the top of his head, he could already think of a couple of things to add to the monitoring program. They might already be there, he hadn’t clicked around, but like.

Vitals were all well and good, down in the corner next to each hero’s name and the colour of their dot, but just the heartbeats? That wouldn’t tell you enough.

Tucker preferred brainwaves, because then you could tell if they’d been hit with something or overshadowed.

Although maybe it was because he’d spent his time keeping track of a guy who pretty regularly did not have a heartbeat. And it also gave him more data points for some of his cooler side projects.

Understanding the different brainwave patterns an individual made in different situations was a key part of neural mapping, and adding it to the bat’s routine would get him a ton of data.

And then they could really play Mariokart.

He’d have to ask Tim if they tracked any of that later. Not all the bats wore helmets or cowls that would support the electrodes, apparently. Although if Danny could get his hands on a domino…

Tucker was snapped back to the here and now as Tim pushed back from the batcomputer, a wry grin on his lips.

“Actually, I think this might be something you could help with, Tucker. If you don’t mind a little work on your night off?” He teased, back to Tucker’s complaints about a night of fun and tech.

Like getting to play on the batcomputer did not absolutely count as fun and tech.

Tucker beamed, excitement welling up in him and cracking his knuckles. It’d be pretty cool to assist a human vigilante too. And on a tech problem!

Gotham was fucking great. If Tim really meant it about getting him an internship, Tucker might have to see about switching schools.

MIT was great, but it wasn’t Wayne Enterprises, personal meetings, or personal tech demonstrations with Tim Drake Wayne!

“Sure! What’s going on?” He asked, shuffling over to look at the other screens now that he had permission. Making sure it was obvious he hadn’t been looking.

Resisting temptation had been hard. He deserved credit.

Tim nodded to the screen, and that? That was a message from Batman. Bruce Wayne. Batman.

Tucker scanned the message, eyes widening even as Tim spoke.

“Wanna help debug the Watchtower?” Tim asked, and Tucker clutched at the back of his chair as his heart leapt, swooning just a little.

The Watchtower. The actual Watchtower. In space. Oh he was shoving that in Danny’s face for not telling him he was friends with the Bats!

There was only one real question left.

“Will Oracle be here?” He asked eagerly, looking around the rest of the screen.

A soft chuckle played from a speaker in the bottom corner, and Tucker jumped half a mile as a masked voice spoke.

“You boys have fun with this one, I’ll keep an eye on the city. If you finish early you could walk me through that server of yours?”

Oracle.

The Oracle.

They were real, they talked to him, they wanted to talk about his locked down servers! Tim lunged to catch him as Tucker collapsed, knees giving out under the swell of emotion.

All of his dreams were coming true, all at once.

He’d never been happier.

**

Danny was having a pretty quiet night in. That didn’t used to be unusual while he was in Gotham; having time to himself was still pretty much a novelty, and he wasn’t exactly a party boy.

Of course, it was a night in with some of his parents’ inventions and recently one or two of his own, so the actual “quiet” part was negotiable.

Quiet enough not to piss off his dorm mates, but luckily most of them were engineers too. They may not always know what he was doing, but they were usually interested.

Tonight, he was alone, most of the floor still being home for the holiday. That had been one of the things he’d looked forward to most about staying behind, but…

Well, after his noisy and action packed few days… he was lonely.

He wished he’d asked Jason to stay. Just because he’d said he was going to bed didn’t mean he had to do anything of the sort.

It was just that Jason had been… tense. He’d not even gotten off the bike when they arrived, just pulling over and chatting for a minute before heading out.

Like he wasn’t fully comfortable going into Danny’s place, which was kinda fair. Unlike Jason’s apartments, Danny’s dorm was a communal space.

Even if most of his dorm mates weren’t home, there was still a chance one of them might turn up. And then Danny would have someone else bugging him about his “boyfriend”.

Nope.

Besides, he’d see Jason again at 11am (he had this horrible feeling Jason might be a morning person), so it wasn’t even all that long. He should probably just go to bed.

He should check his class schedule, actually. Work out what days he’d have free, work out when he and Jason could skip to the Zone for fight club.

Wait.

Would Jason be free.

What the hell did Jason do for a living? He’d have to ask at some point, Danny mused, logging in and taking a screenshot of his class schedule for the new year.

For now, it was probably best just to send Jason the picture so he’d know when Danny was free, and then Jason could work out a good time for them to go and it wouldn’t be Danny’s problem.

Excellent. Sheer genius.

Humming happily to himself, Danny pulled up Jason’s number and sent the picture of his schedule, with the caption:

‘Let me know when ur free for field trips 👊🏻💥👻’

Eyes closing for a moment, Danny let his awareness drift out across the city. It wasn’t something he’d done a lot; Gotham wasn’t his haunt and he didn’t want to step on any toes.

Usually he’d just expand his conscious aura if he was looking for someone, but knowing how much Jason didn’t like it… well, his passive aura covered most of the state, so reaching through the same city couldn’t be all that hard.

Right?

Frostbite could find anyone, anywhere in the Far Frozen with little more than a thought. And was convinced Danny would be able to do that with the entire Zone, some day.

Danny was a little less convinced. Past the background awareness that he was no longer in Amity Park that had taken months to fade, he’d never really paid attention to his passive aura.

It’d be too tempting to feel out the rogues, or at least react to the sudden surges of aggression and danger. But he hadn’t had anyone to protect before, and he knew Jason would feel better knowing Danny could.

That was kinda why Danny hadn’t mentioned how theoretical this particular ability was, although he had no doubt he’d recognize Cass’s energy if she came close to death.

Which meant he should totally recognize it while she was alive, well, and had more energy, right?

He had no idea where she was, which parts of Gotham fell on her patrol route, but that kinda helped. It meant he couldn’t trick himself by focusing on a particular area.

Surprising precisely no one though, he found Jason first. The other halfa almost glowed when Danny was focusing on his energy, a bubbling little ball of yellow and red.

He… was maybe with Cass? Danny’s brows furrowed, nose scrunching as he tried to focus without changing his aura.

He was definitely with one of the liminals. And that quiet little light, almost blue, felt sort of like Cass. When he forced himself not to be distracted by Jason’s brighter glow.

Eyes snapping open, Danny’s concentration broke and he frowned up at the ceiling.

Well, that explained why Jason was in a hurry to get going. He was no expert in Gotham herself yet and had no idea where the two of them were, but if he tried again he could probably work it out.

Did Jason still have a suit? Or did he call Cass in, find something he could do as a civilian to have her help?

Shrugging to himself, Danny dismissed the question and hauled himself up. Might as well get to bed; they’d be back together in the morning and he could always ask.

**

Tim was scrolling through the code for the alert messaging system itself while Tucker went through the sections that pertained to Amity Park specifically on his PDA when the other boy made a sudden, startled squeak.

Tim considered pretending he hadn’t heard, but there was a chance he’d found the answer. So he glanced over.

“Any luck?” He asked, noting Tucker’s sudden strained expression. Maybe the guy needed the bathroom actually. They’d been down here a while.

Tucker laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“So… uh… what exactly does the bug we’re looking for do?” He asked in a small voice, looking more embarrassed than Tim had ever seen.

Which… was not a proportionate response for that noise. And a question that they both probably should have thought of sooner.

He’d meant to mention it, since they’d have to explain it to the Amity Parkers at some point.

“So… remember how the Justice League never responded to an alert from Amity Park?” Tim asked not a little sheepishly himself.

Tucker nodded, not actually looking any less embarrassed himself either. That was definitely a great sign.

Tim sucked in a deep breath and forged ahead.

“So, it turns out there’s a bug in the Watchtower’s systems, where anything coming in from Amity Park gets marked as spam and funnelled straight into trash. We fixed the marking as spam thing, which I guess was user error, but it’s still-”

“All going to trash,” Tucker finished with a sigh, grimacing and shaking his head, “aaaaand I think I know why. But the timeline doesn’t make sense?”

That… that wasn’t even on the same continent as what Tim’d expected he’d say.

“The timeline?” He asked, brows furrowing, sliding over to peek at Tucker’s screen.

Tucker shook his head again, angling it so that Tim could see… a section of code that shuddered faintly in and out, almost disappearing entirely every few seconds.

That.

That was not a thing that should be happening.

Tim would have loved for it to be a simple screen glitch, but it was only that one small section of code. The lines above and below were fine, and Tucker could move the flickering chunk up and down.

“Yeah, this is your problem,” the Black man sighed, wiggling the section demonstratively, clearly aware of Tim’s shattered hopes.

Heartless man. Genius man.

“You’ve had ghosts in your back end. Probably wouldn’t even show up on an uncontaminated device. Which, by the way…” he trailed off, and Tim shook his head immediately.

“Not tonight. No changes to the batcomputer without Bruce’s say so,” Tim said firmly, since he’d already fucked up once. Might as well limit the damage.

Tucker shrugged and nodded back to the section of code.

“Okay. But this… this was definitely Technus. And that makes no sense? He’s a spirit of technology, we’ve fought him a bunch of times, but if he got into the Watchtower’s code he wouldn’t just… hide,” he tried to explain, adjusting his beret fussily.

It totally wasn’t adorable.

Tim did his best to keep up though, nodding along and thinking back over everything they’d been told about ghosts so far.

“You think we’d have noticed?” He asked, and Tucker snorted.

“He likes making giant robot bodies out of toasters, you’d definitely have noticed him on your space station,” he agreed dryly, then sighed.

Frowned down at the tablet again.

“I mean, Danny could make him do it and behave himself now, but if these changes were active during the whole Pariah Dark thing… I dunno, Technus should have been a way bigger problem. He’s not subtle.”

Tim frowned, thinking about what Tucker had said and then pausing.

“Danny could make him behave now?” He asked and Tucker pulled another face. Like he hadn’t meant to say that.

“Well, yeah, Danny’s miles out of Technus’ league now,” he tried to brush it off with a laugh, “the guy knows he’ll lose any fight so he’s really not a problem anymore. We have hackathons,” he added and Tim really wanted to know more about that.

There was just. Something off about Tucker’s answer. Not the content itself, just the way Tucker clearly wasn’t saying something.

That was a problem for future Tim though. Present Tim had a job to do.

“So can you fix what he did?” He asked the important question, and Tucker made another face.

“Dude… whoever or whatever made Technus do this, will probably notice if we fuck with it,” he said warily, and Tim shrugged.

“Whoever or whatever made Technus do it couldn’t do it themselves. How would they know?” He shot back, and Tucker chewed his lip.

Shook his head.

“Lemme text Danny. He’s the ghost expert, he’ll know how much we should worry about this,” he explained quickly, pulling out his phone and shooting off a short message.

Tim gave him his very best deadpan expression.

“How much we should worry about technology ghosts getting into space and fucking with Justice League HQ. I have the feeling the answer is “a lot”?” He offered sweetly, and Tucker snickered.

“Yeah, well, we’ll see. Might actually be alright, if this is all he touched. And, since you won’t let me juice the big computer, we’d have to scan the whole thing through my PDA. Every line of code,” he added, like Tim wasn’t already dreading it.

Tim sucked in a slow breath, weighing his options.

Touching the batcomputer? Ultimate no-no. But Tim’s personal laptop… it had access to the Watchtower’s systems, and was under Tim’s personal control.

And would let Tim go through the sensitive data himself, which the core code of the Watchtower was full of. The question was, did he trust Tucker not to install anything dangerous?

That question had been answered the second he asked Tucker to help him debug though. Clearly the guy could already put what he wanted, where he wanted, and with their current tech?

None of the bats would ever know. At least if Tim’s computer got the update, he’d have a chance at spotting ecto-infused code.

There were other computers they could use of course, old or unnetworked computers that Bruce would probably insist they start with.

Which wouldn’t be able to access the Watchtower’s servers, and couldn’t hold the whole thing to be able to run a useful check.

The answer really was kinda obvious.

Tim looked to Tucker, who’d been texting away while he thought things through.

“We can’t do the batcomputer, but is there anything you could do for my laptop tonight, or do we have to wait on Danny still?” He asked, deeply regretting that they’d gone to video games instead of the tech upgrade.

At the time he’d been planning on having a burner laptop done though, so it probably wouldn’t have been as useful.

Tucker shrugged cheerfully and slid his phone into his pocket, cracking his knuckles.

“Well, I can’t give you the full infusion to let you open Amity’s encrypted data, but I can write you a little something that should expose Technus’s code even without it,” he offered, and Tim brightened up.

“How long?” He asked eagerly, wondering if Tucker would let him watch. It’d be fair if he didn’t, Tuck had been cool about not looking when Tim played on the batcomputer, but…

Tucker smirked, flicking open a new screen on his PDA.

“How long will it take you to get the laptop down here?” He asked smugly.

Tim booked shit to the elevator.

**

Private Chat: DannyP & TooFine

2:15am

‘TooFine: Danny when tf did u have Technus hack the JL’

‘DannyP: ……. 👀 u cannot prove i did that 🚫🚫’

‘TooFine: I’m helping Tim debug the Watchtower’

‘TooFine: double fuck u for not telling me about Batman btw’

‘TooFine: someone sent all the Amity alerts to trash’

‘TooFine: if we keep talking about this I might accidentally send something to the group chat 🤨’

‘DannyP: FUCK FINE DONT TELL SAM 🏳️🏳️🏳️’

‘DannyP: after the pd thing’

‘DannyP: cw called’

‘DannyP: they hadnt been reading the messages anyway i just’

‘DannyP: shitty people track the jl y’know? and i didnt want em knowing about us’

‘DannyP: let em all think its a joke and then no one else comes an tries to use our portal to harness the realms and blow up superman or whatever’

‘TooFine: dude u fucking told me to tell them what actually happened??’

‘TooFine: pretty sure anyone tracking the jl will work that out now’

‘DannyP is typing’

‘DannyP is typing’

‘DannyP is typing’

‘DannyP: ok so maybe i didnt think that through 😔😔😔’

‘TooFine: no shit. I’m fixing the code in case any new alerts come through but it’s not like they’ll bother to call’

‘DannyP: not like they need to, frighty’s got em covered 🗡️🗡️🎃’

‘TooFine: yeah yeah. I’ll set it to ping u too’

‘DannyP: ur the best tuck 🙇🏻‍♂️🙇🏻‍♂️🙇🏻‍♂️’

‘TooFine: better than u deserve’

**

Across the city, Red Hood and Black Bat had stopped for smoothies. Patrol was quiet, and word on the street was that Bluebird was mostly to blame.

Nobody wanted to know why she was back and taking no prisoners, so even the docks were almost deserted.

Then again, with Riddler and Waylon snapped back off the streets, Penguin lying low in fear of Harley, and Batwoman making Two Face’s life a personal hell?

Yeah, no wonder the smaller players were lying low.

Hood had pulled his phone out to check in on the Alley in case they’d be more useful there when he noticed a message from Tucker’s private chat app.

It was from Danny.

Danny had sent him his class schedule. Told Jason to let Danny know when he was free. Like class was the only thing that’d stop Danny from wanting to see him.

Jason was so lost in staring at his phone, utterly swamped in the implications, that he didn’t even notice Black Bat finish her smoothie and swap out her empty cup for his.

Danny wanted to see him again.

He’d have to work out a proper schedule of his own.

**

Bruce was having a Bad Day. An extended bad day, one that was fast approaching 48 hours long.

As if everything with Amity Park wasn’t already bad enough, both in the past and the present, now Constantine believed there was something wrong with Jason.

That his son wasn’t fully human anymore.

Now, Bruce’s best friends weren’t even a quarter human between them, and no matter what everyone seemed to think he was perfectly happy with meta humans.

So long as they kept themselves safe.

Preferably where they wouldn’t be mind controlled, kidnapped, or held hostage every few days. Frankly being a meta was probably stressful enough even in a normal city.

But he’d keep Gotham’s metas as safe as he could, just like Duke.

But Jason… Jason had been born human. Had lived as a human, died as a human, and Constantine seemed so sure he’d come back as something else.

“Revenant” the man had called him. An animated corpse that haunted the living, powered by rage.

Bruce might even have believed it two years ago, when Jason first returned. Jason had been so angry, intent on destroying Tim when the other was just a child.

When Jason was little more than a child.

But… that wasn’t all he was. He was himself, truly Jason Todd in ways Bruce hadn’t wanted to believe. He’d fought his rage and won every day.

Most days.

And being around Amity Park, being around Daniel James Fenton, might be enough to push him back over. To drag Jason closer back to death.

Halfas could act as psychopomps, bringing lost souls safely to the other side.

Jason had only just become himself again. They had only just begun healing the rift between them.

Bruce couldn’t lose him again.

They had to keep him away from Amity Park. It was as simple as that really; something in Jason’s resurrection had gone wrong and they all knew it.

Even Jason himself wouldn’t argue with that. Something about his death clung to him, poisoned him with that violent green rage.

His children’s reports told him that Danny was claiming to help with the pit rage because he had also been exposed. But what if he was just helping the pit?

Even if he didn’t mean to, exposing Jason to that much power that closely tied to death couldn’t be good. Constantine hadn’t exactly said as much, but Bruce could read between the lines.

Death magic was contagious between those who’d been infected. Who’d died and come back.

That wasn’t fun to know. Not with how many of his children, his friends had all died before.

Even he himself had. He’d have to investigate Amity Park personally. Take the risk himself, to keep it from the others.

Tim and Duke could help, but they were both so busy with their own lives. He would have to wait and see.

His meeting with Clark and Diana hadn’t gone well either. They’d both been gratifyingly concerned with what he’d learned and had recognized the threat.

Clark had promised to keep an ear out for Jason, to listen in on his heartbeat and make sure he was okay. Bruce would have been grateful, if Clark hadn’t also told him that Jason’s heart was noticeably slow.

Easy to pick out, even if they hadn’t spent much time together.

Just how close was his boy to dying again?

Diana had advised caution. Wanted to speak to Danny herself, see the hero who had shouldered the burden of this small town. See if he had turned under the pressure.

Pressure that should never have been his. Pressure they should all have shared, protecting the child and the town together.

It would be his fault if Danny had broken. Had given in to whatever in the Infinite Realms had stolen a whole town away.

Bruce knew that with a leaden certainty, felt the weight of it settle in his chest. The same way he knew he was responsible for most of his rogues.

He could see the wisdom in letting Diana talk to the man first. She was wiser than most of the League, and a good judge of character. Even without her lasso, it was hard to lie to her.

But if what Constantine said was true, he didn’t want to tip their hand. Zatanna and Shazam had both agreed to attend tomorrow and give their own opinions.

They could afford to wait one night. Perhaps two, if Danny couldn’t be found tomorrow.

Just about the only thing Bruce wasn’t worried about was Danny running. If he had ill intentions, he wasn’t the sort to give in and disappear so easily.

He’d threatened Bruce to stay out of things between him and Jason. And certainly wasn’t afraid of a fight.

Bruce was also quite sure that he and Diana could take the boy if it came to it, even with the abilities Constantine ascribed to the realms. He would find a way.

But not tonight, he reminded himself firmly as he strode into the zeta tube. Tonight he would go home, update his children, and get some sleep.

Maybe waiting a day or two to speak to Danny directly would help. This concussion had passed frustrating and was beginning to affect his decision making.

Shaking his head to clear it, Bruce hit the button to send him home. Soon he could rest. At least for a little while.

**

A gentle buzzer went off in the cave and Tim yelped like he’d been stung, clutching at Tucker’s arm in an entirely unmanly way.

“SHIT he’s back hide the candy canes!”

Tucker stared at him wide eyed, but to his credit the other man didn’t hesitate to sweep the pile of different flavoured canes off the desk and into the front of his shirt.

“Where?!” He asked, and Tim hesitated for half an instant.

The zeta tube was down by the cars. Bruce would be up in less than a minute. Spinning Tucker by the shoulders, he shoved him towards the infirmary.

“Get in there! Don’t come out til I say!” He hissed, already hearing the zeta tube’s door whoosh open.

Tucker obediently scurried away, and thank fuck he was quick on the uptake enough to drop his voice below a whisper.

“What?! Tim, what?! Am I not supposed to fucking be here?!” He hissed, and Tim pulled the infirmary door almost shut before darting back to the table.

He’d cleared it with Bruce, had texted about giving their guests a tour, but since it turned out that Tucker hadn’t already been in the know… well, he wanted to prime Bruce with the good news first.

The tube only pinged once though, so Constantine hadn’t come back with him. That was probably good. Bruce would be less cranky.

Tim wasn’t exactly back in his seat by the time Bruce reached the batcomputer, but he was close enough to watch him note the second chair.

Tim didn’t let him ask.

“I have a first hand witness account of what happened in Amity Park.” That was the important thing, right? That they had answers.

Bruce stared at him for a long moment, eyes narrowed and the whiteouts narrowing with them. Tim stared him down, refusing to look away.

He’d fucked up just like, a tiny bit. But he’d gotten results. Better results than anyone else. So was it really a fuck up?

He watched Bruce’s eyes widen as he realized, and was a little surprised when the man’s shoulders slumped. He dropped gracelessly into the swivel chair, elbows propped on the table and his head cradled in his hands.

Tim was growing a little alarmed now, hurrying forward to Bruce’s side. Was he injured? Had something happened?

His hand was just reaching out to touch when Bruce sighed and sat back up.

“Tim. Who did you bring to tour the cave?” He asked in a tired, heavy voice, and Tim’s brows furrowed.

What? He’d said, hadn’t he?

“Tucker Foley?” He said cautiously, wondering if he should call Alfred. Maybe switch out Bruce and Tucker and get the big guy into the infirmary.

Bruce was very still. Tim forged ahead, hoping to get to the good news.

“He was a vigilante back in Amity Park, part of the support team. I have his statement going back to the beginning of the ghost attacks, and he’s already answered most of our questions.”

Leaning past Bruce, he hit a couple of keys and brought up the sound file of Tucker’s interview.

Bruce was still a little slow as he turned to look, but it seemed to hearten him. Which was when Tim realized.

“Wait. Who did you think I was bringing?” He asked, brows furrowing in confusion.

Bruce shot him a sidelong frown, pulling off his cowl.

“Not a stranger,” he growled, though his heart clearly wasn’t in it. He just sounded tired.

Tim carefully patted him on the shoulder, still thoroughly confused.

“What? But I said…” he paused, pulling out his phone and staring at the texts.

Nope. No he didn’t.

Oops.

Groaning, Tim let his head drop.

“Ah fuck, and I thought we were doing so well!” He sighed heavily and Bruce made a grunt that might have been a laugh. “Alfred’s going to be unbearable.”

That shut Bruce right up, as it should, and then Bruce sighed again. They were moving past it then. Probably for the best, since Alfred would lecture them both on the importance of communication later.

At least it wasn’t only Tim’s fault. The only person who wasn’t a stranger or a bat had been Harley, and he wasn’t actually sure if Harley had cave privileges.

Well. She did now. Since that was what Bruce must have thought he was asking.

Then Bruce straightened, eyes determined and steely.

“I have new information from Constantine. The risks of the Infinite Realms.” It definitely heartened him to talk about, skipping straight to the debrief part of the day.

Maybe they could just skip right over the Tim-fucked-up-and-brought-a-stranger-to-the-cave.

“I need you all to keep away from the Amity Parkers until I know more.”

Ah.

No then. Nope, not skipping over it, because Tucker was actively still fucking in the cave. It was for the best that they’d hidden him then.

Tim shook his head firmly, hoping that if he seemed certain that would help.

“That’s not gonna work, Bruce. I couldn’t have fixed our Watchtower problem without Tucker, and we can’t look at any of the Amity Park data without an Amity Park device.” It was the theory they’d been running with, but they’d had it confirmed now.

Never mind that Tucker had already downloaded most of what was publicly available for them. Bruce would always want a primary source anyway.

Tim pretended it didn’t affect him when Bruce’s head jerked, eyes narrowed as he scowled at Tim.

“You let him into the code for the Watchtower?!” He exclaimed in a hiss. Which was interesting, since Tim had kinda figured the bat cave thing would be more personal.

Then again, the Watchtower could compromise more than that.

“Bruce, read the report on Tucker. We literally couldn’t stop him if he wanted to hack in, because his tech runs on levels that slide right past ours. Tech he’s already sharing,” he added sharply, reaching behind him without looking to hook his laptop forwards.

Bruce, mouth already open to argue, quieted at once. Yeah, new toys always helped. Tim nodded to the batcomputer.

“The update’s ready to go live, but I waited because you need to see this. Open the third window,” he nodded over, pulling up the corresponding section of code on the laptop.

Bruce’s expression pinched but he did as requested, clearly not willing to put another step between himself and the answer. A quick glance up to confirm, and Tim nodded to himself.

Fuck, he needed a laser pointer.

“So it all looks good up there, right?” He pushed and Bruce frowned, but nodded, eyes scanning quickly across the screen.

“Is this your update?” He asked but Tim was already shaking his head, pushing his own laptop towards the man.

Bruce’s eyes widened at the glitching sections of code. Tim nodded, satisfied he’d gotten Tim’s point.

“Tucker Foley wrote me a program so that I could access this ghost code. In half an hour. From scratch,” he added for emphasis, and yeah, he could already hear the lecture about “compromised tech”.

He tried to shut that one off too, pointing up at the screens.

“That? That’s apparently the work of a ghost. One called Technus, who likes to possess technology, and now Tucker and I are going through every line of the Watchtower’s code looking for changes.”

Bruce’s lips thinned to a tense line and he gave a short, harsh nod. He very obviously didn’t like it, but the presence of a bigger threat did wonders for calming him down.

Tim patted his laptop.

“We’re waiting on you to upgrade the batcomputer, but we’re gonna need to check every program on that too. Everything, Bruce. These ghosts could have been rewriting everything. And we’d never know if I hadn’t asked Tuck to help me with the Watchtower.”

Honestly, Tim was just hoping none of their rogues had made any ghostly connections. The implications made his head spin, but he stubbornly kept himself on track.

They needed Tucker’s help. Never mind that the ghosts themselves were reportedly allergic to subtlety and would always go big over going home; that was a tendency, not a guarantee.

Hell, if Tim had a say, he’d get Tucker’s upgrades for the ghost code, improved firewalls, and Danny’s ectoplasm into all his own gear by tomorrow.

He wasn’t going to, Bruce’s paranoia being what it was, but he was already uploading Tucker’s program to his suit’s wrist computer. It wasn’t like there’d be any hidden malware.

Tim had watched over his shoulder as Tucker wrote it, direct on the PDA. And watching him work had been… it was just…

He so rarely got to talk to anyone that was actually on his level. Rarer still that they weren’t a direct member of the family.

And Tucker, for all he currently had a tech advantage? He’d invented that advantage himself. All on his own, he was incredible. Maybe even better with some aspects of software than Tim himself.

The things they could do together… even the internship was pretty much a formality at this point. Just get Tuck through college and see if he’d accept a job at WE.

Hell, if he wanted to found his own company Tim would invest. That kind of brilliance deserved everything it needed to grow.

He had to wrench himself back to the present moment, the “introduce new genius to Batman” step still looming large, but honestly? Tim wasn’t worried. Bruce would see the potential.

Here and now Bruce’s gaze had gone distant, and Tim could easily have kept going, but he stayed quiet. Let the man absorb new information, stop and think.

And if he still wanted to make dumbass decisions, well, Tim could argue with him literally all night. They’d all picked up Bruce’s stubbornness too.

**

It was hard to focus on the screen through the throbbing of his head, the lights too bright even at their lowest setting. He’d checked.

Luckily, it was an issue he’d been dealing with for years, and Bruce pushed it aside with the resigned acceptance of long practice.

He’d pay for it later. That night of sleep was probably going to be a day of sleep at this rate, but he’d get at least six hours. More if Alfred caught him.

For now… Tim felt very strongly about this. Had good reason to, if he was even half right about the scope of the problem, or Tucker’s uses as a solution.

After hearing from one member of the Justice League Dark, Bruce was desperately hoping Tim was right. They sorely needed an ally, one they could trust to guide them through these dangerous waters.

Of course, Fenton and Foley were close. That may skew his judgement, but it could be accounted for. Wasn’t worth more than an ally whose skillset Bruce understood, and could trust.

Tucker Foley was a tech expert, which put him above any occult master in Bruce’s book. Magic had no rules, not that could be relied on, and Bruce wouldn’t touch it if he didn’t have to.

And Tucker’s tech would work with his own.

There’d be a review period of course. He’d have to meet Tucker himself, speak to him a little, get a sense of the man. See how far his opinions would be based in fact, not feeling.

Tim’s vouch was a good first step. As little as Bruce liked that Tim had brought an outsider down to the lab. And then let him use Tim’s computer.

And honestly, it certainly wasn’t Tim’s fault that Bruce hadn’t asked. He’d been lax, not checked properly, and it was that damned concussion slowing him down.

He needed sleep. His thinking was dangerously clouded. But one thing was always true: he trusted Tim’s judgement. Probably more than he trusted his own at the moment.

They could review the situation in the morning, come up with some suitable punishment and protocol to introduce new vigilantes to the cave (which they’d never needed, because other heroes usually came through the League and were already vetted).

A thought struck and Bruce almost smiled. It would be a fitting solution on three separate sides. Maybe the punishment would be easy after all.

“Alright. I’ll need to speak to Foley first. And you will be writing out fresh protocols to address when a new hero but not a league member can be introduced to the cave,” he added, and Tim groaned loudly.

Bruce ignored him. That was just the start of his troubles.

“You will also be responsible for running John Constantine through the full reporting system, and updating the training materials so this doesn’t happen again.” It was a weight off his shoulders, really.

And a fitting punishment, because Tim would definitely think twice before pulling this stunt again. The man himself threw both his hands into the air.

“What?! Bruce! You said you fixed it!” He whined, and Bruce resisted the urge to smile.

“And I fixed Amity Park. But I highly doubt this was his only error, so the two of you will have to review every case he’s reported on before you go back on patrol.”

It was probably several hundred since they’d had the new system alone. Tim groaned like Bruce was sucking the soul from his body.

Bruce levelled him with a stern look.

“I take the secrecy of the cave seriously, Red Robin. This will not happen again.”

“Because I’m gonna die of old age sitting at a desk with Constantine,” Tim grumbled, folding his arms and scowling.

It wasn’t even something he could write a program to fudge for him; every case would need Constantine’s personal input to be sure it was filed correctly.

Bruce was quite pleased with this solution. But he made sure to hide the smile from Tim, who wouldn’t appreciate it right now.

“Tucker Foley may end up working out for us all, but that’s no guarantee a future mistake won’t be fatal. And Tim…” even if it was a formality at this point, he had to ask. “Do you trust him?”

The answer was obvious, this was Tim’s personal laptop, this was the Bat Cave, and as expected Tim nodded immediately, the sulk from his punishment vanishing.

“He’s a good guy. He’s even made a clean set of Amity Park data you can look through until Danny fixes the batcomputer.”

Ah. And there was the problem. With a solution wrapped around it though, so Bruce focused on the cleaned set of data.

If Tucker was anything like Tim, it’d be extensive enough to keep him busy until the Justice League came to a decision.

Until he could speak to Danny. Speak to Jason.

He was so tired.

Bruce nodded, leaning back in his seat.

“Alright. Tucker Foley is exempted, but I need you and the others to stay away from the rest, and particularly Danny Fenton until the League has made a decision.”

It was just a little heart breaking watching Tim’s face fall from hope and happiness straight back into worry.

“But Bruce… he’s helping Jason with the pit, he might need to see him,” he argued, arms folding again.

Bruce shook his head. That was exactly what he was afraid of.

“I know… and I know how Jason feels about following orders. I’ll tell him myself, tonight.” Luckily he was still in the batsuit, if not the cowl.

Raising his wrist to his face, Bruce activated his secondary comm on the group channel. He’d turned both off when his children headed out, fully aware Oracle would override it if they needed him.

He didn’t need to be distracted by the noises of a normal night.

“Everyone, return to the cave before heading in please. There have been developments I need to update you on.” Nothing to worry them, but hopefully interesting enough that Jason would still drop in.

No talk of protocols or anything. No, that was Tim’s future.

Tim, who was looking at him oddly.

“Who told you Jason went out tonight?” He asked, and Bruce frowned. Looked up at the batcomputer, and realized that the tracker screen wasn’t open.

That could be a problem.

“Didn’t he?” He asked, really not looking forward to asking Dick to ask Jason to drop by tonight. If Jason was actually home, actually sleeping…

But Tim shook his head, that odd expression still on his face.

“He never said he would, but he called in after taking Danny home. He’s out with Black Bat,” Tim added, and Bruce frowned.

Why even bring it up if Jason was out? What did it matter?

Tim, clearly seeing and understanding his confusion, groaned and tugged at his hair.

“Bruce. Please, just… listen to me. Danny isn’t the threat here. He’s been nothing but helpful. He’s the one who picked up the ball when the League dropped it, who dealt with all the ghosts we can’t. He saved that town-”

“We don’t know that, Tim,” Bruce cut him off, shaking his head sharply. “We can’t take that risk.”

He could see Tim getting frustrated, temper flaring, and in an odd way, it made him feel better. Calm. In control.

“Bruce, you stubborn… so what? We just tell Jason to keep away from the only person who makes him feel better?” Tim asked sarcastically, and Bruce could see exactly how he’d missed the point.

This was what he’d have to watch for with Tucker Foley. But the technical advantages would be worth it.

“We don’t know that he’s making the pits better,” Bruce said darkly, and fuck it felt good to even voice the thought aloud.

Made it feel real, less like paranoia.

Tim gaped at him, but didn’t argue.

Bruce raised a hand, counting the points off on his fingers.

One.

“None of us heard anything about him a week ago. Not even a few days. Fenton has been here over a year and only just ran into Jason?” It wasn’t possible.

It didn’t make sense. Gotham was a large city, sure, but for two people apparently so closely linked? No.

A second finger rose.

“Danny himself claims that he is helping with the pits.”

“Jason agrees,” Tim cut in, clearly looking to break his train of thought. Bruce silenced him with a stern glare.

“Danny claims he is helping with the pits. Jason claims to have noticed the same thing, but we already know the pits affect his mind. He may not understand what’s being done to him.”

That? That made perfect sense. The pits had driven Jason into those uncontrollable rages, made him do things he’d never have wanted to.

Who was to say they couldn’t have a more subtle influence? More dangerous? More like Ra’s himself.

Even Tim couldn’t argue with that, and Bruce nodded his satisfaction at the boy’s silence, raising a third finger. This… he wasn’t looking forward to this one.

But its weight had been sitting in his chest since the possibility came up, and he didn’t want to hide anything from his boys. They deserved to know the risks.

No matter how much he’d rather protect them from it.

“The little f… Constantine believes there is a chance that even being close to Danny may have dangerous side effects for Jason, purely accidentally.”

Tim’s eyebrow rose at the aborted description, and Bruce was glad he’d clamped down on it. Couldn’t quite meet the boy’s eye as he continued to explain.

“Danny’s connection to… his death,” the words were hard to even speak, another child lost, “is what gives him his power. It’s strong, and may have radiating effects Danny doesn’t even know about.”

Because that was kind of the worst part. There was a chance that Danny truly meant everything he’d said in earnest. That he was Jason’s friend, wanted to protect him.

Wanted to help Jason come back to himself and be free of the pit rage. That they did truly care for each other, and wanted to make each other better.

And none of those good intentions would matter if Danny’s mere presence risked Jason’s soul.

He could see Tim realizing it too, eyes widening and the aggression slumping from his shoulders. But he’d decided to be honest.

Clear, open communication. They could try.

“The way Jason came back… we still don’t know how it happened, or why. But anything half living and half dead can have side effects on the world around them, especially for those who have already died.”

Danny might be here to take Jason away. Back to the dead.

He’d meant to say the words, to lay it bare, but in the end he choked on them. Couldn’t even face the thought.

Tomorrow. After he slept. If they still needed convincing, he’d try again tomorrow. Which did neatly bring them to point number four.

Steeling himself, Bruce shifted his gaze back to Tim, raising his pinky finger.

“And if you are right, if Danny really is helping… it’ll only be for a few days. I meet with the League tomorrow. Zatanna and Shazam will both be there to give their opinions.”

Suddenly Bruce just felt tired. Tired of arguing, trying to make people see things his way. All he wanted was a couple of days. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.

Tim raised an eyebrow again, shifting slowly to lean against the other chair.

“Then why will it be a few days? Why not tomorrow?” He asked cautiously and Bruce chuckled.

Of course Tim knew him well enough to know there would be something else.

“I’d like to talk to him myself first. Perhaps have them meet him directly. Just to be sure what his intentions are in the city.”

“And with Jason,” Tim put in flatly. Bruce just nodded. The boy was right.

“With the city and with Jason,” he agreed, looking back up at the large screens of the batcomputer.

Pulled up the location tracker for his bats and birds, watching their little trails of light run across the city. He wouldn’t let any of those lights wink out.

Tim sighed and shook his head, coming to lean against the back of Bruce’s chair instead. Not quite tall enough to rest his chin on the top of Bruce’s head, and not likely to grow much more at nineteen.

“I still think it’s a bad idea,” he said bluntly, eyes tracking the Red Hood dot in particular. “You’ll only push Jason further away by trying to control who he sees.”

Bruce shook his head, leaning back just a little more into the presence of his son.

“I don’t care if Jason hates me for the rest of his life, so long as it’s a long and healthy one,” he said softly, and Tim snorted.

Pushed away from the chair, and for a moment the distance ached.

“Yeah, well. When it blows up in your face, I told you so. Did you wanna see Tucker tonight or tomorrow?” He asked, and Bruce’s head snapped suddenly around, scanning the cave.

“He’s still here?”

**

Shaking his head, Tim made his way across the cave to the infirmary, pulling out his phone where Bruce couldn’t see it. He shot off a quick text, not looking down.

‘J. Don’t come back to cave. B has mega bitch face just let him cool down’

**

Across the city, the message flashed in the corner of Red Hood’s helmet visor. Groaning to himself, Hood kicked a goon’s gun into Gotham bay and waved to Black Bat.

“You good? I gotta send a text.” He called, deeply offending the eight goons still standing, armed with knives and fucking pipes, and tussling with Black Bat.

Which only got worse when she shot him a quick thumbs up, sat on a particularly tall goon’s shoulders before throwing herself back so far the guy toppled, twisting them in the air so she still somehow wound up on top.

Hood nodded, pulling out his phone one handed.

“Hey! You can’t just text! We’re not done!” A goon protested, rushing in at Red Hood.

Who pulled his gun and shot him in both kneecaps, sending him sprawling to the slick planks of the dock.

This was why he always took out their shooters first. Batman could preach hand to hand all he liked, it was way safer when the bad guys had holes in their hands and no guns.

“Anyone else?” Hood asked rhetorically, pointing the last gun on the dock at the remaining goons in turn. In unison, all six focused their attention solely on Black Bat.

Not because they thought they’d win, but well. She didn’t have a fucking gun.

“Yeah, thought so,” Hood grumbled, sending a quick message back to Tim.

Paused to take a picture when Black Bat actually got three heads at once into a leg lock, because that had to be a record.

‘Is it to do with your big fuck up?’ Cuz honestly, what else could B be pissed about?

The answer came back though, fast and weird.

‘As hard as I also find it to believe this, no. Magician’s got him all twisted around about Phantom. Wants to forbid us all from seeing him.’

The phone creaked in Jason’s grip as he read the last words, a low rumbling growl spilling from low in his chest.

The remaining standing goons whipped around and exchanged startled looks.

That. That definitely wasn’t fucking good. No way.

Black Bat took another to floor as they paused, and the last three fled. Didn’t quite make it to the door.

Jason didn’t notice until her hand landed gently on his shoulder, concern radiating off her. His head whipped round, and he was suddenly glad the full helmet covered his face.

Couldn’t see the way he fucking snarled at her.

Black Bat didn’t move, her head cocked to one side as she regarded him.

“Eyes. Glowing,” she told him carefully, reaching up to touch the side of his helmet.

Jason jerked back in shock, but he could already feel the green rushing away. Receding until his vision purely his own again.

He hadn’t even noticed the green haze.

Black Bat inspected him again, then nodded, going on tiptoes to pat him on top of the head.

“What’s wrong?”

Red Hood sucked in a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment to recenter. He’d never felt the rage come on that fast, from nothing to all consuming before he even felt it.

Even thinking of the messages made angry green tides again.

We will not be kept from the King!

And it was talking to him again. Lovely. Why couldn’t that part have been his imagination?

Shaking his head, he focused on Black Bat’s question instead.

“Just B bein’ an asshole again. I’m gonna pass on the cave tonight, tell him I went to bed.” It was about as much as he thought he could talk about it without screaming.

Almost forgot that Black Bat could read him too, her aura still soothing and open to him as she nodded. Rested a hand gently on his shoulder.

“Go now. Rest,” she told him firmly, turning back to the downed and groaning goons.

Red Hood hesitated, looking around the dock. It was getting early, nearly time to turn in anyway, and they were done here. Just a routine drug shipment.

The last lot too dense to be cowed by the mood on the streets, or counting on the hour to mean the bats went to bed. Cuz that went so well for them.

He nodded and moved to help her, flipping the biggest goon over and zip tying his wrists to his elbows, and then his ankles.

“After I help you wrap your presents,” he agreed, heard Black Bat let out a soft huff of laughter.

One of the still conscious goons shot him a glare.

“Y’could at least pretend to take us seriously,” she grumbled, then yelped as one of her fellow goons kicked her in the shins.

Clear message: do not push the crazy bat.

Red Hood snorted.

“I’ll take you seriously when you’ve fuckin’ earned it,” he told her, going for the next biggest body.

Black Bat could take every one of them out of the fight, but bagging and tagging a dead weight was much less fun for her. He could handle that part before turning in.

He had a big day tomorrow.

**

Private Chat: DannyP & TooFine

4:30am

‘TooFine: dude Tim just shoved me in a closet I don’t think Batman knows I’m here?????’

‘TooFine: dude’

‘TooFine: dude wake tf up I might need emergency evac 🚨🚨’

4:35am

‘TooFine: that fucking Constantine guy’s put a bug in Batman’s ass’

‘TooFine: told u we shoulda hunted him down 😤’

‘TooFine: and after all I did to help!! Ungrateful bat!!’

4:46am

‘TooFine: okay Batman fucking hates u specifically ur screwed 😳’

‘TooFine: I’m good tho 😇’

‘TooFine: I think he likes me now 😏’

‘TooFine: he wants all my sweet tech upgrades’

‘TooFine: they’re gonna let me play on the batcomputer!!! 😳😳😳’

5am

‘TooFine: u are missing vital updates bitch’

‘TooFine: he’s gonna fucking ground Jason from hanging out with u’

‘TooFine: AH SHIT HE KNOWS IM HERE ABORT ABORT ABORT’

8am

‘TooFine: u may have been right going to bed early man this shit sucks’

‘TooFine: didn’t even get to see what happened’

‘TooFine: they sent me to bed like a naughty child! 😤’

‘TooFine: I’m changing all his ring tones to Funky Town’

10:59am

‘DannyP: okay miette’

11:02am

‘HalfBitch: OKAY IM SORRY TUCKER AT LEAST TAKE THE MAGIC MIKE THEME OFF’

——————————

Next Chapter:

Tag List: @welcometosasakiworld @kyrianclawraith @someonebored0100 @stealingyourbones @starkcravingmad @frostedthroughghost @akikkobara @rainbowbunny0159 @littlefeather345 @violet-catsarelife @serasvictoria02 @wolfjackle @blacksea21090 @secretdestinywerewolf @anime-hipster-the-amazing @undead-essence @skitscratched @blackroserelina @snoodly-boop @trickerdi @mayoota-blog @xysidhe @idkmrpianoman @little-apricot-the-writer @chaoticmistake @the-legal-shipper @bun-fish @aroranorth-west @demon-cat-goes-woof @perfectwastelandcreation @onyxlightdragon @larks-and-katydids @peachesandcreamfemboy @jesus-camp-the-sequel @may-rbi @mothman-the-mothman87 @viyatrix @stargirl1331 @idfk-man10 @thedepressedrobin @skulld3mort-1fan @rootsmudge @ravenshadow17 @cankoking @phantom-dc @mentalcarebear @magic-pincushion @redamancyardor @lyra689 @itsparadoxlacuna @alcorbearson @asphyxia778

#dp x dc #danny fenton dead and loving it #dead on main ship #jason x danny #danny x jason #one fine day in the middle of the night #still no smooches here tho #just bat angst and softness #chapter 13 #unlucky 13 cuz i forget the number exists

[nightgoodomens]

How did you predict that ??! It is awesome but omg . Like honestly he is trying so hard to get her out there I do feel it is abit late tho.

More asks and answers below:

Because they went very basic obvious PR. If something feels forced, on purpose, not organic, not usual; if it stinks, it stinks for a reason.

It started with him making a point to mention her during his BAFTAs interviews to ensure they write her name down.

Constant mentions from a man who always avoided talking about her are always suspicious.

But hey maybe I’m too cynical?

Then with every article underlining she’s an ACTOR. Which was a stretch anyway and frankly no media would care to mention her if he didn’t tell them to.

But hey maybe I’m too cynical?

Then bang we wake up in the morning of BAFTAs with every trash magazine writing articles about her suddenly about some old stuff so they were told to do so because they had zero reason to do that themselves. They had zero reason to care about her when she hasn’t done anything new so they had to bring up really old stories and focus purely on her even though it was David’s day. So they were paid to do so.

But hey maybe I’m too cynical?

But then bang again we are suddenly getting a whole over-acted show. Oh my godddd you look amaaaazing he made such an amazed face right in front of the main camera where they decided to meet. What a coincidence! Click📸. Ohhh time for a huge PDA kiss in front of all these cameras! Click📸. Oh now you give me a long loved look and now I do that in return! Click📸. My goodness like in a perfect movie with actors… oh.

And then ok we are done, where’s Michael?

David has worked his ass off to give her everything he could, even getting Michael to give her a role, now it’s up to her to do something with it. He will probably try to push her wherever possible, but we will need to see if suddenly after all these years she became an actress that people want because of her skills not famous surnames. Surnames only get you so far.

If she’s still the same, he can dance on his head and it won’t work. Sure Neil is his buddy was loves a nepo show, and Michael loves David, so he did it for him (he did make her watch an intimate moment between men though lmao), but how many more people will take her on just because David is pretty?

Oh I wonder what suddenly made him so desperate and motivated to find her a job after years of failures… so he’d be more free… I wonder if it starts with M and ends with L.

Honestly I was laughing when people were all “this is true love!” no babes this is business. The most blatant of businesses.

I doubt she suddenly became a good actress so I wonder if they will try something else with her. I just wish DT got a break and in result us.

I think things are a little different now and so might be his priories. I hope the agent won’t keep on using him to promote her. Even more than already.

Yeah I cross my fingers for GO to be nepo free but…

No wonder he’s so tiny, dude is exhausted from everyone hanging on him. He tried so many freaking times with GT, I just hope that agent finds her something that isn’t just hanging on him.

He is a shover 😂

If she actually wanted a job then she’d have found something she’s actually good at years ago. But she wants the “cool” job and doesn’t want to admit she just isn’t that good. When you are privileged, you can spend 15 years having your man try to make you an actress. Normal people go “damn I’m shit at this and I need to pay bills so let’s find something else”.

Aw thank you for writing in and don’t worry!

I’m not 100% sure yet.

I could see AL/MS break up but not GT/DT but now I have a slight itching (after seeing that the PR show was indeed to get GT a job) whether… well…

We have such an extreme push to make GT and AL independent or at least slightly less dependent on the dudes and it’s clearly a whole plan that they have put into motion. Why such sudden need? Especially since soft launching MS/DT at the same time?

I definitely won’t say oh yeah sure there is a separation coming. But I’m also not saying “no way!!!” anymore.

If a separation will come then on beautiful (££) terms though.

#NightGoodOmens talks PR #NightGoodOmens talks Michael and David

[merakiui]

So random Mera but I've read your last post, and the line about Riddle planning out his morning sex had me wondering, will he put that in his daily planner? I can both see him being too embarrassed to commit such things to writing, but at the same time, he has this side of him that makes me think he'd want to show it off. Like, 'Oh, Trey, can confirm the time of my dentist appointment for me on Wednesday?' Just knowing he had a 5AM entry in there about banging Darling. What do you think: too shy or showing it off?

AAAAAA OH MY GOSH YES YES!!!! This is exactly how I imagine Riddle feels. Maybe he’s shy the first time he makes note of it, but then he’s lived away from his mother long enough to realize premarital sex isn’t going to lead to the end of the world and that it’s normal to indulge in intimacy for reasons beyond what his mother thinks is the standard. Not everything has to be related to the traditions of marriage and having children.

Riddle’s once narrow world has opened so much since he’s allowed himself to follow his own rules, slowly but surely cutting himself out of his mother’s mold and becoming more of himself. It’s impossible to rid himself of her influence overnight, but baby steps are important and much-needed. He’s making progress! So I think, in the very beginning, he’s immensely embarrassed and shy about scheduling these sorts of things. Even talking about it with you prickles his skin with some sort of nervous discomfort—like he’s about to do something criminal. He gets used to it eventually, especially if he’s discussing sex often with you.

At some point, it feels like less of an embarrassment and shameful thing to write in his planner and more of a blessing. He’s doing this because he wants it. Because he’s allowed to choose the things he wants and he’s not going to let his mother’s influence from all the way in the Queendom of Roses to cow him into submission. Riddle does have a few prideful bones in his body, so he absolutely becomes proud of adding you to his schedules! At first it felt like he was tainting the page with mentions of sex, but now he’s happy to plan it out and pencil you in. <3 he definitely has Trey check his planner to confirm certain arrangements all while fully knowing his friend will stumble upon the time slots he’s reserved for fucking you hehe.

Also, on the subject of showing things off, Riddle’s the type to threaten tell you not to leave hickeys in obvious places, but when you do he’ll feign frustration and act like it’s the worst possible thing. But then he’s purposely wearing outfits that will risk showing off the love bites. :) he’s immensely proud of every scratch and bite and bruise because it’s proof of the enjoyable times he spends with you. Also also!!! Sometimes he just doesn’t want to be seen as a pure goody-goody. He’s sheltered, but he’s not that sheltered. Not anymore. Not since you came into his life and helped him see the horizon beyond the birdcage his mother raised him in.

#twisted chit chat #rendy-a #n/sfw #trey reads off the appointment and then is like ‘you just wanted me to know you’ll be busy in the morning’ #and riddle’s struggling to hold back a coy smirk #he’s proud!!! let him be proud <3 also he trusts trey and is comfortable enough to share such personal details #also trey sort of gets it??? he’s cheering for riddle #supportive as always <3 live laugh love trey clover orz he’s a good friend to have

[caffess]

freedom ; peter ballard x reader

A/N: not the first fic i write, but definitely the first one i post in here

contents; violence, fluff, peter is not the bad one its 002, happy normal life, probably a part two, y/n and peter are cute.

summary: you and peter have been longing for freedom ever since you fell in love, now its time to finally flee the lab with a eight-year-old eleven and start living a normal life.

“Everything ready?”

“Yes, lets just hope Eleven gets here on time”

“She will. She’s very smart for her age.” Peter shuffled around grabbing the walkie talkie that you had sneaked into the lab less than a week ago; in the other line awaited an excited Russian named Yuri, awaiting to do the job he was so well paid for.

It was hard to find a way to escape the lab, especially since Peter and Eleven weren’t allowed to go outside for obvious reasons. Freedom seemed to be something they could only dream of, but if your plan worked out, it would become a reality.

“If Eleven takes the soteria off of you, in theory, you would get your powers back, correct?” You asked, as you got rid of the silly doctors hat that Brenner made you wear.

“Not in theory, it’s a fact,” Peter played with his fingers nervously, an excited smile threatening to form in his lips “We will get the life we've been dreaming of. I promise.”

He kissed you gently in the lips, and for a moment, you let it all settle in.

You would be free.

You were interrupted by the sound little footsteps emerging from the stairs. Peter let go of you and grabbed Eleven as gently as he could, indicating her to stay quiet, due to her nearly letting out a frightened squeak when one of the machines let out some steam near her.

“Follow me, Y/N is just around the corner” He told her.

In less than a second you could see how El and Peter emerged from the distance, and the nervous girl let out the breath she was holding as she saw you.

“Hi, El” You whispered, opening your arms so Eleven could launch her tiny frame into yours

“Hi, mom” She whispered, tears falling from her eyes. 

When Peter told her that there was a way for you three to escape the lab and become a family, Eleven had been so excited she nearly forgot to fake playing the game of chess. The whole day she just kept thinking about the world outside the walls.

You talked to her about Hawkins; the sun, the squirrels, the music. Everything you talked to her about seemed to make her more excited and curious to know what the world outside would look like.

“So, this is the thing.” Peter said, as he placed the walkie in front of both you and Eleven. He took her tiny hand and placed it on his neck where she could feel the little bump under his skin “Can you feel it?”

Eleven nodded in confusion, and looked over to you in search of an explanation.

“Your Papa calls it Soteria” Peter said “It weakens me, it tracks me. We need your help to take it off, if we don’t he will find us”

“H-How can I help?” El asked nervously while pursing her lips. You place your hands on her shoulders and make her turn around to look at you.

“The best option we have is for you to use your powers to take it out” You said, taking one of her hands in yours. “If you do it fast enough you wont hurt him, but we have to be fast unless you want us to miss our ride to freedom”

“O-Okay” She said.

Peter took his belt off and moved in order for him to lay his back on a wall, and put his belt in his mouth, with his other hand in yours.

“When I count to three, you will pull it off, okay?”

El nodded.

“One.. Two” Peter closed his eyes hard and his grip on your hand grew tighter “Three!”

Peter’s whine is partly muffled by the belt and you hear the Soteria clink as it hits the ground. 

“You okay, darling?” You ask as Peter shuffled towards the tiny chip covered in blood, his hand not once leaving yours.

“Yeah... Yeah... Im fine.” Reality seems to punch him right in the face when he sees the object shining between his fingers. Freedom was just a few steps away from becoming real.

“There they are!” A voice shrieks while kicking the door right open “Freeze!”

Peter grabs your and Eleven’s hands and makes a run for it. 

You both follow him up some stairs while several security guards yell orders behind you. Peter’s grip on your hand becomes tighter signaling the fear and adrenaline going through his veins. You kick open a door and you're able to find yourselves in a hallway. It seems empty at first and you try to keep running, but just as you turn your heel, you are surrounded by guards with electric weapons pointing at you.

“All three of you against the wall!” One of them says, you slowly hide behind Peter, holding Eleven tightly in your arms.

“You don’t have to be afraid of them, El.” He tells her while looking at the guard right in the eyes “Not anymore”

In a quick movement, Peter turns around and uses his powers to push the guards behind you against the wall, and crashing the two others in front of him against the roof. The last one puts his hands up but Pete shows him no mercy, and snaps his neck before he’s able to even beg for mercy.

“Come on, El, let’s go, now!” You grab her wrist and follow Peter around the lab. Your feet run as fast as they can trying to keep up with the blonde boy. You hear Eleven’s terrified whimpers and you long to console her but now isn't the right time, and the only thing you can do is try to urge her to run faster.

She’s just eight years old, her tiny and delicate frame cant keep up with both yours and Peter’s long steps, so you stop for a brief moment and take her in your arms.

“Lets play a game, okay?” You whisper in her ear, while putting your hand in Peter’s once again “You will try to hold me as tight as you can, and I want you to close your eyes and count to the biggest number you can think of, alright?”

You can feel her nod, and her head buries itself in the crook of your neck, where you can hear clearly her voice counting as slowly as possible.

“Dont move, we will shoot!” A guard screams. Peter looks back at him and sends his crew flying against the walls. One of them fires his gun but it missed you narrowly, startling El, who whimpers in your neck.

“What was that?” She asks, her voice cracking. As soon as Peter is done with the guards you keep running, holding his hand and cradling Eleven’s head.

“It was nothing, keep counting, you were doing it so well!”

You go down some stairs and finally see the reception. Alarms are blaring around you and Peter is going ballistic throwing all the goons around the air and against the walls. When you're about to reach the door, you trip with an object and hit your head against a hard surface. You can hear Eleven whine and Peter’s too busy with the men to help you. You try to stand up but an artifact floats towards you and hits you right in the nose.

You shriek at this and turn around to see what happened and are faced by number Two staring at you with angry eyes.

“You guys always seem to forget about me, dont you?”

Peter turns around and freezes for a second at the sight of the kid. How he has escaped is beyond you two, but he seems to be boiling in anger. Before you're able to formulate a response, you see the kid raise his hand towards you and you can feel a force pulling you up by your neck.

“Peter tries to focus on both him and the guards but the task seems impossible. Your sight starts getting blurry and as soon as you think you're going to slip into unconsciousness, you feel the pressure leave you, and you drop to the ground.

You can hear a loud crash and screams, and you feel Peter’s arms around you. When you look up, the only thing you're able to see is a huge red opening against the wall that is slowly closing in front of you, and Eleven’s tiny frame collapse in the ground.

Everything seems too blurry and your throat aches like hell, but with Peter’s help you manage to get up. He grabs El’s tiny body and cradles her in her arms and you're back to running. Peter uses his powers to open the gate to the lab and you both run off to the woods. 

Your feet hurt and you're feeling dizzy, but you cant afford to stall right now. You are so close to making it that you can nearly taste freedom at the tip of your tongue.

The world around you seems to fade and theres only you, Peter, and Eleven. Running for your lives. Running for your freedom.

“I see you, Americans” You hear a voice echoing from Peter’s pocket, and suddenly you remember what you’re running towards: Yuri’s car.

Far from you, you see a glimpse of blue, and the closer you get, the better you can see it.

It’s a car.

It’s freedom

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

Eleven didn't wake up until you guys arrived at a cottage far from the lab. The car ride was full of weird attempts at understanding Yuri’s less than funny jokes but in the end everything worked out for you guys.

El rubbed her eyes as she looked around the place, you were putting her down on an old dusty couch so you could look for the bags hidden under the floorboards.

You reached for a suitcase filled with money and handed it to the weird russian man, who had been drooling over his payment a whole month.

“There you go, now get the fuck out of here” You said. You watched him scurry away and didnt peel your gaze off him until he was way out of sight in the heart of the woods.

“Where are we?” Eleven asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Hey darling, we are in a safe house. We have about an hour to get cleaned up before we go to our real house”

“Real house? Where?”

“Its a beautiful place near Lovers Lake” You explained, while ruffling inside the bag looking for the clothes you had bought for her. “Go inside the room and put this on. I will help you get cleaned up in a second”

“Wheres Peter?” She asked, while grabbing the white shirt and blue skirt you had gotten her.

“Don’t worry about him darling, he’s just starting the car”

As she entered the room, you didn’t waste any time and took your ugly dress off. You pulled your clothes on and put a coat over them; you were in the middle of November and it was pretty chilly.

“The car is ready to go” Peter said as he jumped into the cabin. You couldn’t help but notice the huge red stain in his shirt caused by the open wound of the Soteria.

“Oh Peter come on we gotta get you cleaned up.” You said, hurrying to get something to stop the bleeding. You ripped a piece of your ugly nurse dress and pressed it on his neck. “Good luck I got you a turtle neck”

He chuckled at this, and you couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“Gods, I love you, you know that, right”

You chuckled and nodded.

“I love you too, Peter, you’re the love of my life”

#peter ballard #peter ballard x reader #vecna x reader #001 x reader #victor creel x reader #victor creel #stranger things vecna #001 stranger things #eleven stranger things #henry creel stranger things #jane hopper #dr brenner #peter ballard stranger things #hawkins #stranger things x reader #stranger things 4 #ST4

[respectthepetty]

Make Shin Suffer for 35 Minutes!

Full disclosure: I like Guide. He is a good actor, but I like him aesthetically because he is beauty and grace, and I am desperately in love with his face, so my thoughts on Bake Me Please have always been biased meaning . . .

I loved the Bake Me Please special episode!

Shin is still a Black Brooder and a jerk.

And Guy is still fine and the obvious better choice.

But Shin is very much in love with his Blue Boy Peach and has started incorporating Peach's color into his wardrobe.

However, on the day he is finally able to see Peach due to Peach's busy schedule, our Black Brooder decides to wear pink! Because he is very much in love with Peach, and Peach picked this shirt for him.

But Blue Boy Peach doesn't give one eff and tells Shin to change back into his normal black then abruptly leaves.

Shin is worried Peach no longer loves him, but Atom assures Shin that Peach is very much in love with him, so much in fact that it makes Atom sick to his stomach.

But the entire friend group does suggest that perhaps Shin's boring ass personality is to blame for Peach's distance since Shin tends to bore them to death every single damn day.

So Shin sits on that honest truth, and with some convincing from his friends, he decides to surprise Peach.

He asks Peach if he is doing something on the 17th, which happens to be Shin's birthday, and Peach replies that day is a very important day.

Now, Shin is all kinds of excited as he bakes a Torta Caprese highlighted by the blue background for his Blue Boy.

But Peach doesn't show up claiming to be somewhere else celebrating someone else since Shin said he didn't want to do anything for his birthday, so we flashback to the boys asking what Peach wants to give Shin for his birthday, and he states he wants to sleep with Shin.

The entire table is shooketh by this way-too-much-information truth!

But what Peach means is he wants to sleep with Shin every night in their bed in their home as in he wants to move in with Shin. Once Atom fully recovers from the scary thought of someone wanting to have sex with Shin, he immediately questions his friend's sanity by reminding him that Shin is, well, Shin, and who the hell would want to willingly live with Shin? (remember that his brother had a crush on Shin, so Atom is definitely holding grudges, and I love it)

Then, Atom proceeds to list all of Shin's shitty quality WITH supporting examples.

And tries one more time to help his friend see the light before he ends up married to this man with a mortgage, a kid, and a dog named Ruffles. *shudders at the thought*

But Peach is Peach and double downs on his BIG feelings for Shin, so the guys decide to help Peach be less weak for that jerk and devise a plan to make Shin suffer for reasons that I think are totally valid since they just want to see Shin in pain which who wouldn't?, but they do this under the guise of forcing Shin to see how much he wants Peach around.

But the problem is Peach is ready to cave the second Shin texts him.

The guys know how to handle this and take Peach's phone away and threaten him to stay strong so they can all reap the benefits of watching Shin possibly cry.

It's a constant battle, but the boys remain steadfast in their goal of making Shin pay for all the shit he put them (AND ME) through for six episodes.

But I do appreciate that Peach recognized how fine Shin looked in that pink!

Finally, the big day is here, and Shin is peak Sad Boy energy and probably listening to Drake's "In My Feelings" on repeat, so, of course, the fam is ecstatic and very pleased that their plan to make Shin lay on the floor in the fetal position worked in Peach's favor!

But they pull one more stunt and decide to change the writing on Peach's cake to say "I'll give you a good time tonight" instead of "I want to live together" which would have matched Shin's cake.

Basically, they are doing the Lord's work!

And everybody wins including my light x dark duo!

But especially the audience because we deserved to see Shin miserable for 35 minutes, and we also deserved to see Shin lift Peach on that counter, and . . . eff it! Just enjoy the visual.

And I'll enjoy my Oab x Guy crumb.

I needed this, and I deserved it!

#bake me please #bake me please the series #bake me please special episode #this special was for me #and I loved it!

[softlyspector]

Do you think the Moon Knight boys would want kids? / how would they react to the reader being pregnant?

This is a really interesting question! Kids are probably a kind of difficult thing for all of them to consider.

Marc:

Marc obviously had quite a traumatic childhood. There would be a lot of fear that he might not be such a great parent. He also has a tendency to self-destruct and has quite a dangerous lifestyle. He probably wouldn't be keen on have a child - if you wanted kids and the pregnancy was intentional it might take a long time to reach that point with him. If it was an accident - he may flake on your for a bit, convincing himself that the child will definitely be better without him around. I think with some coaxing from you, gentle or not, and a bit of a tongue lashing from Steven, he'd probably come around to the idea. No matter what he would be acting as he thought was best for your well-being and safety. Once he's in - he's all in as with anything in his life. He'll make sure that things around the flat are childproofed, he'll make sure you never want for anything during your pregnancy. His favorite thing becomes waiting for the kick against his hand when he touches your belly.

Marc would be really good with newborns and infants, its when they get a bit older that he worries more. They'll remind him of his own childhood and the things he went through - might be a bit of a distant parent. The kind of dad that will do the oil changes on their car without them asking, remembers the kind foods they like to eat and always keeps it stocked, but finds it difficult to say 'I love you' or give hugs and affection even though he may want to.

Steven:

Steven wouldn't really have the same kinds of fears that Marc does. He's overjoyed at the prospect of children - planned or not. He would worry about the lifestyle the system has a little but not nearly as much as Marc would. Steven would be super attentive while you were pregnant. He'll be reading baby books, and buying those huge books with just lists of names. He talks to your belly, he's in tune with what you need and want. A bit of a helicopter actually, when it comes to you and the baby. But he has a lot of love to give and his excitement is infectious. Like Marc he makes sure you want for nothing, unlike Marc he loves to go window shopping for all kinds of baby things and goes a bit crazy with all he buys.

Steven would be really good with children of all ages but he's especially good with younger kids aged like 6-10. He always has some activity for them to do together and loves watching them discover the world. He's the kind of parent that encourages every single interest, buys all the supplies needed for said interest. He's good with affection and love, always sends them off to school with an 'I love you' and a hug. He write little notes to put in their lunch. When they're a bit older he worries a lot about the trouble they may get into but it's just usual parental fretting - has confidence that he's raised a good one, to be able to make mistakes and solve problems and always come to him if they need help. They would feel very accepted and loved.

Jake:

Jake worries he'll fuck his kid up, like Marc, but he's less of a runner. He fronts infrequently, but he's there. He supports you. He thinks of himself more like uncle Jake than anything. Jake is very protective of children, for obvious reasons, and when you're pregnant its no different. He's always looking out for you. He makes sure to know what kinds of things you should and should not eat, the kinds of activities you should and should not do. Whether the pregnancy is planned or not, he listens to your signals about what you want to do, what's best for you and your body - he trusts that to you. But he also makes sure he's informed, just in case.

Jake is better with older children - preteens and teenagers. When they're still an infant he likes to hold them and sing, he likes to feed them and rock them. But once they hit that toddler stage? What the fuck is he supposed to do with them? He takes to telling them stories and panicking anytime they cry. He's never sure how to tell what they need. He's a supportive parent and maybe even a little bit of a chaotic one - encourages them to go for things and make mistakes and be a little bit too loud and not worry about passing every single test. He makes sure they know how to defend themselves, teaches them to drive. He's a good listener and often times he doesn't have to say anything because they talk themselves to the solution of their own problem. He loves his kid, but they scare him because of that, and so he'll always be just a bit father away that he maybe should be - thinking of them as Marc and Steven's kid more than his own makes it a bit easier on him.

#bec talks #moon knight #steven grant x reader #marc spector x reader #jake lockley x reader

[max1461]

Ok I'm rather busy and had planned to write a longer post elaborating on this topic but I can't do it now, I'll probably still write one later but I wanted to make a short post as the topic has become relevant: the thing that you have to know about my writing style is that (speaking particularly about my serious posts here and not my shitposts) it is very literal modulo certain stylistic quirks. I don't really have time to elaborate all of these (ironically this post was written in a rush, and thus might not itself be the best example of my usual style), but one important fact is that when I say "almost", "in generally", "more-or-less", "in some sense" and so on, I really mean these. Like, these aren't filler words, I think a lot of people just gloss over them but tbh I often agonize over where exactly to put these when writing a post. I sometimes leave posts in my drafts for ages just because I haven't decided whether to propose some phrase with "generally" or not. I'm very, like, careful about trying to make it unambiguous that I don't mean whatever I don't mean, right? So these words are not meant to be glossed over; they're written carefully and they're meant to be read carefully.

It's also important to note that I omit them for stylistic reasons quite often, in particular because if I included words like this everywhere that I think they should logically be, my writing would become like, unreadable. So I try to structure things whereby I set the reader up with reasonable assumptions about what generalizations are absolute, which ones are statistical but high confidence, which ones are very loose and so on. So for instance I'll often set up the appropriate way of understanding a generalization in the first paragraph in which it is introduced, and then make it clear from context that the reader should carry this through when I talk about it going forward. Maybe I don't always do a good job.

But like, consider this recent post. I first say that "I’m comfortable taking it almost as an axiom that no one should ever get kicked out of where they are living". And when I say almost, you know, I mean almost! Idk if other people's writing has this quality. Almost is not there for metrical shape, it's there for content! Anyway, later say something like "an ideal housing policy should respect this axiom", and this is meant to mean... well, I'm not sure really how to say it other than how I said it, it's meant to mean "an ideal housing policy should respect this axiom". A very important part of the semantics of this sentence is that I am invoking a sort of fundamental property of ideals, which is that you usually can't achieve them in actual practice but you should try to get close, modulo whatever constraints you are under. Maybe it's not clear that these constraints are the same constraints imposing exceptions to the axiom; that seems like a genuine ambiguity. Well that's on me.

Anyway, this post sounds kinda snarky like I'm getting on people's case for not reading my post correctly, but no that's not what I mean at all! No like, I'm not irritated at other for not reading a post how I intended it. But I've been wanting to write about my own writing style for a while, in particular because as I said I write in a very particular way whose meaning may not always be like... obvious to readers. And this was a good opportunity to like, point out one of the biggest ways in which my writing style is particular, and which sometimes leads to misunderstanding. Well anyway. Sorry this was written in a rush cause I have actual things I have to do today, there's probably typos and so on so please forgive that.

#navel gazing

[the-face-in-the-mirror]

I am in complete and utter LOVE with your Sds redesign and Au!

Meli doesn't look like a freaking toddler anymore but is still short king which I love! (AND HIS FREAKING TAIL!!!) Ellie looks adorable but elegant too and she now has a reason to be clumsy (phantom scars is a brilliant idea and actually gives deeper ties to her past incarnations rather than just appearance and personality) King also no longer looks like a toddler but is still youthful and has pointy ears plus a tail makes him more fairy-like and less human which I love as it actually gives more diversity between the humanoid races. (Instead of just looking JUST like humans, they now have distinct features that distinguish themselves from each other) Ban is killing it in that outfit and long hair (my weakness!) And I like that you included more thief-like aspects to him. (Werewolf Ban would certainly be an interesting idea, makes the more animalistic features make more sense) I also like how you changed Diane's eyes to green a nice way to symbolize envy. I can totally picture Diane carrying everyone's camping gear and stuff, giving more attention, and using her backpack that sadly didn't get used much and having her have knuckle braces is a nice touch to her culture.

Also having their animal symbols be branded (with the exception of Ban for obvious reasons) instead of tattooed makes better sense as they were deemed criminals. Better to mark them with something hard to hide and get rid of as an easier way to find them. The redesigns are practical and actually give you more of an idea about the character's style and who they are. (And fixes the child-like appearance problem) AND gives more diversity and culture to the respective races! One can tell you put A LOT of thought into the characters, and your art is amazing! Much of Kudos to you, my dear liege!

All and All I cannot wait for the next redesign!

*SCREAMING*

OH MY GOODNESS, THANK YOU SO MUCH; I'M SO GLAD YOU LIKE THEM, I'M GONNA CRY.

I've been stewing in the idea of redesigning these characters and making this AU for a long time, and now I've decided that it's time. In the middle of my college year, no less, but we're not gonna worry about that.

Yes, the child-like appearances always irked me a bit! And some of the previous designs just didn't pass the vibe check. As many problems as the series has, I've always loved what it had at its core and all of the amazing places it could've gone but never went. And I am here to feed the masses. And I've got plenty of stuff planned for these characters that I didn't write on the redesign pieces!

I'm working for the redesign of Gowther as we speak, and I think ya'll are REALLY gonna like this one. I know I do! Justice for our wonderful little Sin of Lust!

#Seven Deadly Sins #Nanatsu No Taizai #nnt #nnt rewrite #nnt canon rewrite #canon rewrite #sds

[awlwren-writes]

Writing Meme: First Line Patterns

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (or however many you have) posted fics and see if there's a pattern!

Thanks to @garbria for tagging me in this!

Cor knew they’d planned on using his confrontation with the Bladesmaster to make him well-known enough that he could stand by Regis’s side even without the formal title. (Walls that I Have Grown, FFXV, Gen)

“This wasn’t in the forecast,” Cor grumbled to himself, glaring at the heavy clouds. (Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head, FFXV, CorNyx)

They'd received word that the Glaive were coming back from their most recent raid with sensitive and important information, and so Cor had gone out to meet them personally, to help provide escort back from the forward bases into more secure territory. (Where Angels Fear to Tread, FFXV, Pre-CorNyx)

Pelna froze, like the reveal of that secret made him more exposed somehow. (Chapter 2 of Hide and Sneak, FFXV, Gen. If we're going with the first line of the fic itself, it was "Pelna loved figuring out secrets.")

Luche was so ready for today to be over. (All Through the Night, FFXV, Gen)

It was a long trip from where she was back to Insomnia; even having taken a few detours to throw off any Niff spies – ha! and hadn’t that worked out so well – Crowe had already been an hour or two's drive outside the wall by the time of the ambush, and now she was going to be making that journey on foot. (Chapter 2 of Shifting Sand, FFXV, Gen. Original first line was: "Crowe took a deep breath to steady herself before she put on her helmet.")

“C’mon, it’s tradition!” Tredd coaxed, trying to suppress the grin trying to split his face, or at least tame it to less suspicious levels. (Tredditions, FFXV, Gen)

The slog through the sewer wasn’t fun, for many many reasons. (Chapter 2 of Delta Blues, FFXV, will be CorNyx when Cor shows up. Original first line is "Nyx did his best to keep himself concealed as he surveyed the square where they were supposed to meet up with the Captain.")

It was never supposed to become a thing. (Chapter 2 of Call and Response, FFXV, Gen. Original first line is "Axis, as a rule, hated talking with the other glaives.")

Titus hadn’t known what he expected, if Regis would truly show, if Ulric would. (From There to Here (final part (for now) of Smoke and Mirrors), FFXV, background CorNyx)

Well, other than noticing I wrote a lot of chapter 2s for Legends at the end of last year, I'm not sure what patterns I had? At first I thought it was gonna be the pretty obvious point that I'm just way too wordy, but some of them were concise!

Maybe that I just like starting the fic with the PoV character's name.

No pressure tags: @maychorian, @philomytha, @grumpyarcherkitten, @canisargentum, @blossom-adventures and anyone else who wants to.

#just getting back into tumblr so sorry if I forgot any writers I know #or doubled up on someone who's done this to death already #an interesting activity! #and get some answers #ffxv #writing

[firsttimewriter92]

Everything Black Part 5

This is a Post Azkaban Sirius Black x fem! reader (Muggle) fic I came up with. This is the first time I´m writing something like this and posting it, so let me know if you have any suggestions as to how I can improve my writing. I am not a native speaker so please keep that in mind :) Please, please don´t copy my work. If you want to repost, please do. I would love it if you tagged me, though :)

Warnings: It´s finally here! Smut, dry humping, cursing, drinking. Angst (some of these creatures are nasty) Fluff, all the fluff

I am SO sorry this took so long! I was struggling with all of the ideas I had for this fic. I still hope you enjoy it! <3

Minors do NOT interact! Skip this part if you have to. This is not for you. I know Moody is technically dead at this point but this is my timeline and I need him for this one, so...

Word count: 7.057

Summary: Things are getting revield and your relatioship with Sirius takes on a new form. An unexpected event leaves you with a clear sign to act

____________________________________________________________

You jolted from a very inconsistent sleep when you heard the taps on your door. Trying to wake up a little more you made your way towards the door when you  heard him. He taped the door again saying your name in a desperate tone. Within a second you flung your door open and there he stood on wobbly legs. His eyes red and swollen you could still see the tear streaks on his cheeks. His hair was all over the place and he smelled like alcohol. Your heart was breaking in two when you saw his helpless expression. He leaned onto the doorframe and tried to look you in the eyes. “I´m the reason”, he whispered. “I´m the reason they´re dead”. And with that he stumbled forward into you with another sob, realising with a jolt of his heart, that your arms caught and enveloped him without hesitation.

You pulled him inside and he collapsed to the ground clutching onto your middle while choked up sobs left his lips. Your heart hurt so much at this moment. You didn´t know why you started crying. Because he was obviously distraught or because of the weight that left you realising he was here. With you. He came. Your heart broke and healed at the same time. “They are dead” he said into your stomach. “James, Lilly…It was my fault.” You caressed his hair and nodded. “Okey”, you said in a hushed, choked up tone. “Okey.”

You let go only briefly and guided his limp body onto the bed laying next to him. You lay on your side and touched his damp cheek. With encouraging circles of your thumb you whispered, “Sirius? What happened?” He took several deep breaths before he spoke. “When Harry was born….Godric, they were so happy. And when they made me his Godfather, I didn´t think I could feel more important.” You smiled timidly at him.

“There is a prophesy…about Harry….and the dark Lord. Neither can live while the other survives.” You could feel your heart sink and fear made its way into your every vein. “They had to disappear. And all of us, the order I mean, were willing to do whatever it took to see them safe. Albus…he made a suggestion. There is a spell, a powerful one. Once it is cast, a secret keeper is chosen. As long as that secret keeper doesn´t give them up, not even the dark Lord would be able to find them.” New, fresh tears rolled down his face and over his nose. He pressed his eyes closed and with a shaking voice continued. “We agreed that the keeper should be me.” Your hands started shaking a little.

“But…in the last minute…they decided that I was too obvious of a choice. James was worried that it would put a target on my back that cannot be ignored. So…we changed the plan.” He suddenly looked into your eyes with absolute fear.

“I was willing to do it. I wouldn´t have given them up. Never! James was my brother. You have to believe me, please. I couldn’t have cared less about a target on my back. I would have died for them.” Hushing him you scooted closer and hugged him as best you could, as hard as you could. “I know”, you whispered quickly. “I know, Sirius. I believe you!”

After several minutes with him shaking in your arms he squeezed you. A sign for you to look at him again. “We chose someone else. Peter. He was our friend in school. We did everything together. He was part of us.” Peter…he hadn´t mentioned this name ever when he told you about his time at Hogwarts. Of course now you understood why.

His eyes became cold and bitter. “Coward! He gave them up the second the dark Lord was approaching him.” You closed your eyes and the full weight of the betrayal that James, Lily, Harry, Remus and him had to endure made your insides catch on fire. Pure hatred towards Peter, that´s what you felt in this moment. “I wanted to check on him…on Peter. The night it happened. I had such a bad feeling. I knew the moment I didn´t see any lights at his flat. I knew where he was. With who.” Incredible dread washed over you and suddenly you felt nauseous.

“I found them,___. I found them, dead. Little Harry in his crib. Alive. And….and that´s when I made my biggest mistake.” You swallowed hard. “You went after Peter”, you said in a choked up voice.

Suddenly he stood from the bed and cursing under his breath, pacing the room. “I should have stayed with Harry. He needed me. I should have been there for him all these years” he said in an angry voice clutching at his raven strands of hair. You sat on the bed watching him. He needed to do this, you knew. So you listened. “Yes, I went after him! I was mad with grief and I wasn´t thinking straight. I cornered the bastard. I didn´t even care that there were Muggles all over. I would have never thought that he was as clever as he was in that moment”, he laughed bitterly, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “He blew up the street,___! He blew it up behind his back and everybody thought I did it. So many dead and him? The coward changed into his Animagus form and bolted! It´s easy for a rat!” He sat down on the bed again, exhausted. “It happened so fast. I truly thought I was going mental. Same evening I was already in a cell in Azkaban”, he huffed exhaustedly.

Silence lay itself over you like a dark cloud. “It wasn´t your fault”, you whispered. He looked at you incredulously. “How is it not my fault? I should have insisted on being the secret keeper. Harry would still have a family.” The violent sob you had tried to suppress, finally made its way up your throat. “You couldn´t have known he would betray you, Sirius. He was your friend” you whimpered. “You went to the most horrible place imaginable and you escaped. You did it for Harry. You are here now.” He tried his best to believe you. And with the feelings of trust he already had for you, it was indeed easier than trying to convince himself alone. Crawling over to him he enveloped you in his arms and again pulled you into his lap. “You are incredible” you said, still sniffling. “You endured so much and you still manage to…You amaze me, truly.” His lips were on yours the next moment. It was desperate. Hard, quick and salty from your tears. “It´s you who´s amazing”, he said between kisses. “I needed you to know everything” he said while caressing your face. You nodded with a small smile. “Thank you for telling me” you whispered.

Even though the whole story of what had happened made you feel awful, you were also relieved that now, there seemed to be no more secrets between you. “So, Harry” you continued. “The dark Lord is after him?” Sirius nodded. “That´s why being trapped here, not being able to protect him…again, it´s pure torture.” You hugged him close to your chest, trying to calm him with deep breaths. Slowly he matched his breathing with yours. You could feel his exhaustion so you took his face in your hands and said “Stay here tonight, yeah? Stay with me.” He looked at you like you hung every single star in the sky and nodded. You stood from his lap and took his hands. Standing in front of the bed you again leaned up towards him. He came willingly and kissed your lips. You let go only for a moment to walk around the bed lifting the covers, waving him towards you. Seeing this grown man hunched over and still shaking a little, all you wanted to do was making him feel safe. So the moment he got under the covers and scooted over, you climbed in behind him and lay on your side facing him. He enveloped you in his arms and even though the smell of alcohol still faintly lingered on him, his own unique scent calmed you down.

Your foreheads touching you looked into each other’s eyes. Liquid silver, rimmed with bloodshot whites, was swirling in his irises. Pulling you under and breathing life into you just the same. Something seemed to shift between you. An incredible force none of you could name seemed to slowly sow the both of you together. Irreversibly. His eyes were as wide as yours. “Do you feel that?” he asked with wonder in his voice. You nodded quickly. “I have no idea what this is but…I also know that I cannot live without it now.” Your voice was full of adoration. A short breath escaped him quickly and he pulled you as close as you could get. Your head tucked underneath his chin you marvelled in his warmth.

Soon, you fell asleep and although Sirius told you the whole truth and the evening wasn´t quite how he imagined, being here in your bed, in your arms and, as he hoped in your heart, his eyes slowly closed and he slipped into a dreamless sleep.

The events of the former night as well as the alcohol let him sleep in for once. He thought he woke up from the light filtering through the stained glass window but that wasn’t it. Slowly he began to feel his surroundings. He felt your hand on his waist, circling slowly. He felt your body close to his, your warmth and the sleepy scent of your skin. His eyes were still closed. Worried he was indeed dreaming and not in fact in bed with the woman he adored, he made a small sleepy noise and pulled himself closer to you. While you chuckled lightly he felt that your torso was propped up in the bed. Turning onto his back he slowly opened his eyes. And there, in the soft, coloured morning light he saw what he had wished for so desperately.

You were leaning over him ever so slightly. Hair an adorable mess on your head and the most radiant smile on your face, directed at him. It seemed like a fever dream the way the green, red and golden flecks of light danced across your face. Fascinated and a little speechless he reached up and stroked his knuckle carefully over your cheek. Leaning into his touch you whispered “Good morning.” He smiled at you contently. “That it is, darling.” You grinned leaning down. His hand immediately went to the back of your neck and held it while you kissed his lips. “You feeling ok?” you asked against his lips. “There was a lot going on yesterday.” He sighed but pulled you back down to him, wrapping his arms around you as securely as he could. “I´m fine, sweetheart” he said in a gravelly voice that made your stomach twist. That´s what he sounded like in the morning? Good Gods…”I´m so sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable by telling you the whole story. I just felt that you deserved to know. In case…in case you see me like this…” You put your pointer finger up to his lips and he immediately closed his mouth, looking at you expectantly. “None of that. Sirius, this whole situation can be uncomfortable at times, yes. But that is not your fault” you said looking at him intensely. He nodded. “You deserve so much more than what you have to endure right now. But we´ll get through this. We all will. Everyone in the order, you, me and Harry.” You, me and Harry. Oh, he liked that. He liked that an awful lot. Again he pulled you close and turned slightly to kiss you. It started out as lazy, deliberate pecks to your lips, your nose, your cheeks.

Humming contently you felt your whole body vibrate for his touch. He felt the exact same, then took most of his courage and slowly moved his long, lean body on top of yours. The pressure of his lips on yours soon became more bold, the kisses getting longer. His long hair created a curtain, shielding you from the rapidly brighter becoming light of day. Still, you couldn’t resist raking your hand through the ink black strands of silk, pushing them away from his face and emitting a literal growl from the man above you. His skin beneath your fingertips became hotter by the second. Holding himself up with one elbow above your head, his right hand slowly but deliberately moved up and down your ribcage. You barely heard your own whimper but he sure did. One gentle roll of his hips told you just how much he was enjoying this. Letting him know you felt the same, you pushed your chest closer to his. Breaking the kiss and breathing heavily onto your open mouth, his silver eyes barely open, he moved his hand underneath you. Right above your bum, he pulled your hips towards his own, letting you feel the proof of his attraction to you. Moving your legs around his waist, you connected your mouths again with a desperate sound leaving your throat. It didn’t take long for the both of you to find a perfect, teasing rhythm.

Although he was still wearing his clothes from the day before, you were sure he could feel the rapidly growing wet patch on your pyjama pants. With every languid movement of his hips your pleasure spiked tenfold. Tiny little whimpers left your mouth whenever his lips were not on you for the fraction of a second. Your insides twisted and a familiar pulsing started right between your legs. Groaning, Sirius changed the angle again and hissed a quiet “fuck” into your neck. The new angle aligned his bulge perfectly with your sensitive heat, making you moan deep in your throat while his teeth started to scrape the skin of your collarbone. The thrust of his hips became more pointed, his breathing and slight moans in your ear became your favourite melody. “___”, he breathed, trying to touch every single slither of your skin he could reach. “I…I don´t know how to stop”. His voice was equal parts pleading and full of longing. Pushing your head deeper into the pillow you cupped the back of his head, holding him to your pulse. “Don´t. Please, for all that is good, don´t.”

He growled again, the sound sending goosebumps across your skin, his pace again increasing. You could feel his erection bumping your clit with every move and it was by far the most delicious feeling you had felt in ages. If ever. A knot right underneath your bellybutton formed and twitched every so often. You know what it was and you chased that feeling with moans and rolling hips of your own. Sirius´ lips had not moved far from your collarbone but now, your whimpers in his ears, he moved them lower. When he reached the collar of your nightshirt he began to play with the upper button with his teeth. “May I?” he murmured and looked up at you. His chest rising and falling quickly, his eyes liquid silver. They shone up at you with so much lust and adoration, your head began to swim. You barely managed a whispered “Please” when his long fingers already opened three buttons. The more skin was revealed, the more frantic Sirius´ kisses to your chest became. When the last button was opened and the shirt fell to your sides, a shiver ran over you. Not because you were cold, but because Sirius´ face quickly changed from wonder and adoration to fierce hunger. Raking his now almost black eyes over your chest he tentatively reached out. Quickly checking your facial features for any kind of discomfort, he found none.

Licking his lips and revealing his canines to you in the process, he stroked one finger around your nipple. The air was punched from your lungs as your hands fisted the sheets. He smiled and did it again. Panting, you tightened your legs around his waist again pulling him closer. “What are you doing to me?” he asked as he resumed the roll of his hips against you. “Hm? Beautiful dove. Do you want to cum?” “Fuuuck”, you gasped when his lips finally closed around your nipple and the pressure you felt between your legs almost snapped. Again your rhythm became even more of a passionate dance. But this time, nothing seemed to disturb him from getting the both of you off. With his one arm around your back, he guided you against him in a perfect angle. “S-Sirius”, you breathed. “Hmm?” his voice was vibrating against your nipple. You almost forgot what you wanted to say when the tip of his tongue darted out and flicked against the other one. “I´m…feels so good. Don´t stop….please, please don´t.” Your voice was almost pathetically pleading but you couldn’t care less. If he would stop, you knew you would definitely perish. “Not planning on it, beautiful. Godric, you feel so good in my arms. So warm, so perfect”, his lips travelled to your ear again as he whispered, ”So wet.” His voice was so deep you almost didn´t catch what he said. Almost. Your whole body twitched violently at this and you knew it would not take long now. With a long moan you buried one hand in his hair again and pulled. While your other hand grabbed his firm ass, Sirius lost the rest of his control. His lips found yours again and desperately he clung to you. You could feel the throb of his length against you and you knew he was right there with you.

 “___, fuck. I´m sorry. I can´t hold it…Hnngg.” He was babbling against your lips. “I´m gonna…I´m there,___. Please, please cum with me. Fucking hell. Ahhh” His desperate tone of voice did it for you. The second his voice spiralled upwards, calling out your name, your orgasm flooded your every cell. Your legs shook with the effort to keep him as close as possible. The throbbing of your core now pulsing through your whole body. “Ahh, Sirius! Fuck. Gods…yes!” Faintly you heard your gasping and moaning. His figure was hunched over, panting and grabbing. “Fuck, dove. Ah… Made a mess of me”, he said while peppering your chest with kisses. His hips were still pressed to yours and you could clearly feel the wetness you both had left on your respective clothes. Slowly catching your breaths, you clearly felt your heated cheeks but you needed to see him. Raising your hand you stroked his head lovingly. Chuckling he lifted his head from where he had rested his forehead between your breasts. “Hey”, he said in cheesy tone and a silly smile on his lips. “Hey”, you chuckled and pulled him to you again. Still smiling he rested his weight next to you but still continued the slow, deep kiss. Slowly, as if to try and prove something to himself, he carefully licked your bottom lip. With a jump of your heart you opened your mouth to welcome him in. And Gods, did it feel incredible. Humming contently he delved his tongue into your mouth, savouring your taste. And although you didn’t actually have sex, you couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like having an orgasm invoked by his penis inside you instead of dry humping like horny teenagers. You giggled at your own thought.

“Now, what´s so funny?” Sirius asked amused, pecking your lips affectionately. “We just humped like horny teenagers”, you said grinning and covered your eyes with the palm of your hand. Sirius snorted and huffed a laugh. “Yes, yes we very much did. And you know what?” He gently took your hand in his and looked you in the eyes. “That was by far the hottest fucking thing I have ever done with a woman!” His eyes held no lie and you suddenly felt pride swell inside of you. “Very satisfying”, you nodded. You lay there for another moment or two before Sirius got up to clean himself up in your bathroom. Lazily you stretched your limbs on the bed and groaned aloud when you felt your spine crack. When you opened your eyes again you saw Sirius leaned in the doorway to your bathroom, eying your form on the bed with fiery desire. You held his gaze when you smiled and moved to redo the buttons on your sleepshirt. “Don´t do that on my account”, he said while sauntering over to you. Your hands halted their movement while he sat down next to your body and slowly stroked his hand over your belly. Caressing it with a circling thumb he said “Are you hungry? How does pancakes sound?” You sat up and threw your arms around his neck. “Yes and yes, please”.

Leaving your room also meant that you were again confronted with what had happened the night before. The attack on Arthur, Harrys vision. You immediately saw the worry return to Sirius´ eyes the moment you entered the kitchen. Only this time, he did not let go of your hand until you were seated next to him, as always. According to Tonks, Harry and the Weasleys were at the hospital where Arthur was currently treated. This seemed to calm Sirius down a little. At least that meant that he would soon be able to see his godson again. Gradually over the next few days the house filled with visitors for Christmas. And every day, the house seemed less and less uncomfortable. Sirius spent almost every night next to you in your bed. Nothing sexual happened these nights but holding you close and feeling less alone was more than he could have whished for. The usually dingy house you both inhabited seemed to glow a little these days. There was always someone walking around the place, talking, laughing. The day a very tired Arthur returned to Grimmauld place was a happy one. Molly kept fussing around her husband, making sure he was taken care of and all her children as well as Harry and Hermione were fed and more or less worriless. You on the other hand spent almost as much time with Arthur as Molly did. Happily explaining the London Tube system to him or why football was so popular. “I just don’t get it”, Arthur said with a shake of his head. “There is only one ball and it doesn’t even fly. And why does every team need eleven people running after it? Six would clearly suffice.”

Sirius was spending quite some time with his godson and you loved the way he interacted with the teenager. They both held a deep fondness for each other, everyone could see. Harry even made an effort to include you as much as possible in their conversations, though you happily excused yourself to chat with Tonks or the girls Ginny and Hermione when you noticed that he would much rather talk to Sirius alone. Sometimes during these conversations you could see the strained expression on Harrys face and suddenly had the urge to hug him and tell him, everything would be alright. No teenager should have this kind of burden to carry. You could see that Sirius tried his very best to encourage his godson and you admired him for the dedication he showed. He truly loved this boy.

And just like that, Christmas was only one day away. But before that, Moody had decided to hold one more order meeting. Seeing as almost all members of the order were accommodated at Grimmauld place anyway. When the time for the meeting came, Sirius pulled you aside in the kitchen. His arms snaked around your waist and he looked you deep in the eyes. “It won´t take long. After that, we can concentrate on the holiday spirit again”, he smiled. “I wish I could do more”, you said in a small voice not looking him in the face. You had not spoken about your own fears and worries but you had a feeling Sirius already knew. He sighed and took your face in his hands. Leaning his forehead to yours he said “I know, love. I could not be more thankful to you for being so compassionate and understanding.” He kissed the crown of your head and moved so you had to look at him. With a meaningful expression he continued. “I need you to know that you do much more than you think. You are a friend to Tonks and Remus, another soul to fuss over and to take care of for Molly,” you chuckled at that. “A lexicon on Muggle things for Arthur. You possess the one thing we all hunger for these days. Normalcy in it´s purest form.” You eyes stung again but you smiled none the less. “And to you?” you asked carefully. “What am I to you?” You were nervous for his answer. And it did seem like he was struggling for a second. But then he gave you a shy smile. “My light”, he answered simply.

Sniffling lightly you stood on your toes and kissed him with all the affection that was currently swirling inside you, turning your insides to absolute mush. Neither of you let go for a long while. Tongues lovingly caressing each other you didn’t notice the people that came down the stairs. Only by the clearing of a throat did Sirius detach from you looking rather pissed at the person behind you. When you turned as well you were greeted by an eyerolling Alastor Moody. Behind him however Tonks gave you a double thumbs up. Next to her, Remus looked like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to look happy for his friends or slightly disgusted by what he just witnessed. His ears were tinged pink when he decided on a raised eyebrow and a smirk in your direction. “I´ll leave you to it”, you quietly said to Sirius, kissing his cheek lightly before Moody could make a snide remark. You grinned at Tonks and squeezed her hand quickly when walking by. At the foot if the stairs you felt lighter than air and in a bust of happiness you turned your head towards Moodys back and stuck your tongue out at him. Fully aware that he probably saw that with his creepy eye, you ran up the steps passing the twins on their way downstairs. “Now, what´s gotten the Muggle so happy?” George said with a toothy grin. You turned at the top of the stairs and smiled down at them. “After the meeting, I´m going to kick your ass at exploding snap” you said pointing at George. “Uhhhhh, you hear that Fred?” he said, Fred nodding and snickering beside him. “She´s definitely going to kick your ass, Georgie. Look at her, she is pumped.” “You know I love a good challenge, Fred”, George said. His eyes twinkling up at you. “Keep that energy, lass. We love to see it” he continued walking down the steps giggling. Fred winked at you and followed his brother.

You decided on some light reading in the library and made your way up the staircase. Decorations now hanging from the banisters and handrailing, there was a stark contrast between dark, gloomy doom and festive cheesiness. You loved it. When entering the library, you remembered all the significant moments you had with Sirius in this exact room. Your first touch, the many conversations, light hearted and serious, your first kiss. Tomorrow for Christmas, you decided you would take the plunge and make your intentions absolutely crystal clear. Not in this room of course but…Excitement twisted your stomach when you thought about him in your bed. Preferably naked, underneath you…shivering you plopped yourself onto the old sofa and tried not to squeal. You grabbed one of your favourite books from the nearby table and started to read. Flipping though pages of narrow handwriting and more or less disturbing caricatures. You were actually looking for something very specific. A potion or spell you could ask Tonks or Molly to make or put on you. If you wanted to take the next step in being intimate with Sirius you had to at least make sure that no accidents happened. You wanted to fully concentrate on him and not worry about the “what ifs”. You paused on a promising page when you heard movement behind you. Bolting upright you turned in the direction of a still dark and dingy corner of the room that the light from the fire couldn’t reach. Carefully you eyed the corner and wondered with slight panic how long it would take for the people in the kitchen to hear you scream when you saw a figure emerging from the shadows. Relief flooded your system and your hammering heart calmed down a little. “Albus”, you said with a still panicky chuckle. “You scared the shit out of me. Why are you up here in the corner just lurking about? Shouldn’t you be downstairs with the others?” He gave no answer. Just looking at you intently and suddenly the panic was back full force. Something was off. “Albus?” you asked, your voice beginning to shake. You stood and stumbled back a few steps when he approached you slowly. Still not saying a word and just looking into your eyes. Your hands went clammy and ice cold water seemed to have replaced the blood in your veins. “Albus, what are you doing? Say something!” you almost yelled in pure fear. With a sickening grin that could only be described as downright hideous he reached inside his robes and pulled out his wand. “No”, you whimpered. “Please don´t.”

“I´m afraid you overstayed your welcome” Albus said with malice and frightening glee in his voice. Sinking to your knees, shaking and already sobbing you watched as he raised his wand and pointed it directly between your eyes.

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Downstairs the meeting came to an end and everyone was kind of on edge. The recent developments rattled the group and asked for a more hands on, aggressive approach. Again Sirius felt hollow when the Aurors came up with a new plan to protect the prophesy. His name did not fall even once. He knew why of course. That did not help his feeling of helplessness however. All he could do was coordinating everything and everyone from his house. Keeping its doors open and trying to come up with a strategic plan. At least he could do that. As Molly started cooking dinner, everyone tried their best to return to the light hearted feeling of pre-Christmas contentment.

For the most part, the younger generation seemed to get into it quickly. Butterbeer and Firewhisky was handed out and calm chatter floated around the room. Just as Sirius thought about how your warm smile was missing from the table and he was about to get up, Moody turned his head sharply at him. “Sirius”, he grunted. His steel blue eye was turned upwards towards the ceiling. “Did you lot get rid of every pest in this house?” Sirius blinked. “As far as I´m concerned, yes. Why?” he asked slowly. “Hmmpf”, Moody puffed out an annoyed gust of air. “You missed a Boggart” he simply stated. Annoyance made its way into Sirius´ chest and with a groan he said “I´ll deal with it after dinner. Must have slipped in sometime last month.” Moody pinned Sirius with both eyes now and he could feel his skin crawl. “You might want to reconsider that.” Moodys mouth twitched a little. “Your little Muggle friend is in a bit of distress.” An bucket full of ice tipped over in his stomach and he immediately broke out in cold sweat. Tonks and Remus´ heads whipped upwards immediately and worry laced their features. Like a bolt of lightning Sirius jumped to his feet and bolted towards the stairs. “Library!” Moody bellowed after him but he already had a feeling that you would be in there. Taking two stairs at once he threw open the kitchen door and thundered up the steps. The panicked ringing in his ears preventing him from noticing his mother’s screams. No, no, no, no, not her! She doesn´t know! He thought as he threw open the library doors, Remus hot on his heels. His lungs constricted painfully and every ounce of oxygen left his body at the sight before him. You were cowering on the floor, sobbing, hiccupping and hugging yourself as Albus Dumbledor seemingly was about to hex you.

“Please,” he heard you whimpering. The sound breaking his heart into a million pieces. “Please, I don´t want to forget. Please don´t make me forget him, please.” You were begging on the floor at the feet of Albus. The scene almost made him sick with panic and absolute rage. The taunting laugh he heard next coming from the boggart made his blood boil and within the fraction of a second he called your name and propelled himself forward. The boggart whipped its head around and cackled while teasingly waving the wand in front of your face. Screwing your eyes shut and sobbing violently you sunk deeper onto the carpet. When Sirius reached you, he fell to his knees in front of you and hugged you to him forcefully. “I´m here. I´m here,___. It´s me! I´m so sorry. I should have checked, I´m so sorry. Please, stop crying. Nothing´s going to happen. Please.” He pressed your head to his chest and buried his nose in your hair, trying to calm you down. You were shaking like a leaf, babbling incoherently but none the less clinging to his shirt like a drowning person holding onto a buoy. “Remus!” Sirius called almost desperately. “I´m on it”, Remus hissed and came over to distract the boggart away from you.

“Shhh, it´s okey, dove. You´re ok. It´s just a boggart. Remus will get rid of it, I promise” Sirius whispered into your ear while stroking your hair and cradling you in his arms. You were trying to catch your breath, the panic still flooding your system but his voice reached your ears more clearly now. “That´s it. Good girl, breath. Listen to my voice. Noone is going to take your memories. Noone!” He said those words like he was trying to convince himself of that fact as well. Breathing hard he tried to calm himself down as well. He heard a faint crack behind him an knew that Remus had gotten rid of the pest. Relieved, he tried to make eye contact with you. Stroking your face with his thumbs he was desperate to stop the flow of tears streaming down your cheeks. Your eyes were puffy and red, a haunted look edged deep into your irises. Again his heart squeezed painfully inside his ribcage. “Noone?” you managed to force the word out, your eyes searching his for reassurance. He pulled you into his lap and kissed your forehead several times while nodding. Looking deep into your eyes he said “Noone is going to take you from me, my love. I swear it! You belong here with me, little dove. My dove. Mine.” He didn’t care if he sounded desperate or possessive. In his book, you being his, was an irrefutable fact. Nothing less. With his hammering heart, your shaking form in his arms and his whispered name on your lips he searched deep inside himself for the words to put your mind at ease. He knew what he wanted to say. To give your relationship a name, a path to follow further. But the three little words got stuck in his windpipe as he had not said those words to anyone before. Not in a romantic way anyway. So he opted on holding you as close as possible, lightly swinging you from side to side and kissing your head. There would come a time, a perfect time to tell you what he felt.

Minutes later he still sat on the floor with you. Your breathing somewhat calm you still clung to him. But not as desperately than before. You just concentrated on his heartbeat next to your ear, his calming scent of woods and smoke and his gentle hands stroking your back and hair. A boggart, he said. You read about them briefly and knew what they were but you never thought you´d see one. It was all so real. The boggarts taunting and the awful words it said to you, seemingly going on for hours. Letting you think every second now, you would forget the man you loved. And that is what this experience had revealed to you. You were irrevocably in love with Sirius Orion Black. It wasn´t just mere attraction or adoration. Surely these feelings dipped into the greater picture of what you felt for him but the sheer horror of maybe losing your memories of him, manifested what you had pondered for days now. You loved him. Loved him with a tenderness and force that seemed to create an everlasting storm inside you. His dove, he called you. His. That you were, there was no denying.

Slowly raising your head from his chest he looked at you with the utmost worry in his storm grey eyes. You tried your best not to look too rattled. “I could really use some Firewhisky right now” you croaked. The worried look vanished from his face and with a chuckle his shoulders relaxed as he kissed your lips carefully. “Whatever you want, my love. Whatever you need.” You kissed him back, finally able to smile up to him. “What she needs, Sirius, is chocolate after all this” Remus´ voice came from somewhere behind Sirius. He rolled his eyes and helped you up to stand on still quite shaky legs. His arm went around your waist as he turned to Remus. “Not everything is solved by eating chocolate, Rem.” Grinning, Remus walked over to you, an open chocolate bar already in hand. Teasingly he pumped Sirius´ shoulder while handing the bar to you. “Speak for yourself, padfoot. Just because you can´t have it…”. Sirius groaned. Biting the chocolate bar thankfully, a warm and fuzzy feeling spread through your chest. “This is really good, thank you Remus” you said warmly and gave him a big smile. He nodded and looked a bit deeper into your eyes. “You all right? Gave this one quite a scare” he pointed at Sirius at your side. His hand on your waist twitched but you were fast to answer. “I´ll be fine. I´m just a bit shaky still, that’s all.” Seemingly satisfied with your answer Remus came up again to his full height and nodded. “Good. Eat the whole thing, you´ll feel better.” In your periphery you could see Sirius eying your chocolate bar suspiciously.

“Oh, right” you suddenly exclaimed. “Why can´t you have chocolate, Sirius?” He hung his head while Remus started laughing heartily. You hadn´t heard him laugh this carefree yet and it vibrated pleasantly in your ears. It was a clear, happy sound. It reminded you of a bell. “Because he is a dog. It´s basically poison for him” he wheezed and clapped Sirius´ shoulder good naturedly. “I can have chocolate” he grumbled. “I just get violently sick.” Again you saw an adorable pout on his lips. This time, not hesitating kissing it away. He grinned down at you. Remus snickered. “Yes, if you call violently sick projectile vomiting all over the pl-“ “That´ll do!!” Sirius raised his voice slightly and steered you towards the door. You were giggling all the way down to the kitchen.

When Molly saw you, still a little pale faced and obvious red rimmed eyes, she immediately buzzled over to you. “___, dear! Are you all right? We hoped we had gotten rid of all the boggarts but this one seemed to have a brilliant hiding spot. Oh, my dear child.” She hugged you tightly to her chest and your arms immediately wound themselves around her. She retreated and looked you up and down. “Come on, let´s get some colour onto those cheeks again. I´ll make you some tea.” “Put some Whiskey in there, Molly” Sirius said while guiding you to your seat. Molly gave him a pointed look. “I wasn´t born yesterday, Sirius. Of course she´ll get some Whiskey.” Shaking her head as if Sirius´ had just asked if the sky was blue, she made her way over to the stove. “In that case, while you are at it, mum…” Fred piped up. “I think we all could use-“ “Do not take me for a fool, Fred Gideon Weasley!” Molly said sternly but with a slight smirk on her face.

While Molly and Sirius made sure you were comfortable and after cup after cup of tea, slightly buzzed, Remus, Tonks and Moody (who had been observing the whole scenario from a afar) sat in a quiet corner of the room talking. “I´ve never seen him sprint like that” Tonks said in a hushed voice. “Good thing he did” Remus said thoughtfully with a sideways glance at you. “She was in a right state when we got to her. That was a nasty boggart. Took me several takes to get rid of it. Eventually I almost ran out of ideas on how to make a fucking full moon seem funny.” Tonks looked at him almost dreamily. “Did the balloon do the trick?” she asked. Remus smiled mellowly. “No, not this time. I had to switch to the fart cushion.” Tonks snorted into her Whiskey. “Ohhhh, I love that one.” Remus had a hard time believing he was actually joking quite light heartedly about his condition with the woman he fancied. Maybe he could actually…”Glad the Muggle is fine” Moody said gravelly, effectively stopping all of Remus´ thoughts. “What?” Tonks looked at him in surprise. “Believe me, I wasn´t happy when Albus came here with a Muggle to babysit but,” Moody took a sip out of his flask. “She seems to fit in well. Keeps you younglings from losing your heads. Well, except that one” he twitched his head toward Sirius. “Has a grounding effect on you lot. I like it. Keeps Black in line as well. Can´t hurt” he shrugged. Remus let his eyes wonder over you and Sirius. The way he seemed to gravitate towards you all the while seeming calmer than he had ever seen him. “Yea” he said. “That reminds me. Something strange happened when we got up to the library.” Moody gave him a sidewards glance. “Go on” he drawled. “Well, when we saw the boggart, Sirius basically threw himself between it and ___.” Moody made an impatient gesture with his hand and Remus continued. “The boggart was definitely fixated on him then but…it didn´t change form. I just assumed…you know. His time in Azkaban. I thought his greatest fear would be to be back there, but… It was still Albus. Threatening to erase her memories.” Tonks looked momentarily confused until her eyes widened like galleons. “Well, well” Moody said. “Let´s leave it to a Muggle to show us all what´s inevitably important.”

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As always I hope you enjoyed this part. If you did, please interact with this post however you see fit :) I truly hope that the next part doesn´t take me this long. If you have read everything so far, THANK YOU! It truly means a lot^^

If you want to be tagged in the next part, let me know :)

@twilightlover2007

@momorina

#sirius black #sirius orion black #old sirius black x reader #remus lupin #nymphadora tonks #order of the phoenix #eventual smut #slow burn #older sirius black #mad eye moody

[disturbedbeautywrites]

Ghost - Steve Harrington

(A/N: Here’s some angst that ends in fluff. Hope you all enjoy! I’m open to requests if anyone has any! I can try to write the other stranger things characters as well!)

Three miserable months; that’s how long you and Steve had been broken up. Things were going well, until your dad decided to forbid you from seeing him. At first, you guys tried to sneak around, but your dad caught on and started grounding you more and more and taking away privileges.

It was rough. You loved Steve more than anything, and he loved you just the same. However, the constant tension around your family was too much to bear and you decided to tearfully break things off with Steve. Now, you both moped around Hawkins; missing each other more than either of you could put into words.

You were a regular at family video by now, casting small waves and heartbroken glances in the direction of the boy who stole your heart and whose heart you had broken. It was always the hardest night of the week; Steve usually asking robin to cash you out as he walked into the back to regroup. His heart would be aching and he would be struggling to keep his composure. He was so angry. He was so sad. He was so lonely. He wanted you back.

You were the first girl who he had loved that genuinely loved him back. You always made sure he was okay. You always made sure to tell him that you loved him. Sure, everyone was telling him to move on. Telling him that sitting and living with the ghost of you wasn’t healthy. But, hell, he knew that. He already freaking knew that. He knew that when he started losing sleep, started eating less, drinking more. He wasn’t himself since he lost you so abruptly.

He missed you riding shotgun in the BMW, your hair down and whipping through the wind as you both sang at the top of your lungs. He missed sneaking in your room at night, interrupting your studying for a quick break that consisted of him twirling you around your room and kissing you until your mind was fuzzy. He missed hearing you say his name in only the way you could. He missed your blush, your smile, your eyes. God, he missed you so much.

He didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He saw your memories everywhere. Your smell was still on his sheets. Your pictures were still in his room and his car. Hell, your hair was even still on some of the hoodies you borrowed and returned. That’s why he was now in the situation he was, his BMW parked outside of your house. He had to fix this. He had to get you back.

He had a plan, although Robin had called it beyond stupid and a suicide mission, he was going through with it anyways. He took a deep breath and glanced at your front door again, running a hand through his hair. He was about to try and reason with your father and holy shit, was he scared. “Come on, we got this. It’s for (Y/N).”

He managed to hype himself up enough to get out of the car and walk up the front steps to the door, his knuckles rapping lightly on the wood as he waited. Time passed by slowly, seeming to be hours before the door finally opened and your dad stood there. At the sight of Steve he snorted, trying to shut the door in his face. However, Steve caught the door with his arm. “Mr (Y/L/N) can we please talk? Give me 10 minutes then you can kick me out, beat my ass, whatever you wanna do. Please.”

Your dad eyed Steve up and down, his mouth set in a straight line as he sighed and motioned to the couch. He sat down in his recliner, raising an eyebrow at Steve in a way to tell him to start talking.

“Look, I know you don’t like me. You’ve made that very obvious at this point,” He ran a hand nervously through his messy hair, “but I need you to know that I love your daughter. She’s honestly the most amazing girl I have ever met. She has the most amazing personality and is the most gorgeous girl I have ever laid my eyes on. I know you don’t think I’m good enough for her, and I agree. She deserves the absolute world and more and I have no idea what I did to even deserve her attention. But, I love her. I love her more than I can put into words. Because of her, I’ve been working on getting a more stable job. I’ve been looking into new places to live. I’ve been trying to be better to deserve her.”

Your dad still had a gruff look on his face, it starting to soften a bit as he could tell that Steve was telling the truth. “You know, Harrington, your reputation precedes you. It’s pretty bad when I know about it. But, I can tell you truly care about my daughter. You have one chance. If you break her heart, you better pray she doesn’t let me know. At that point, you better also sleep with one eye open boy. She’s my only daughter, I will ruin you if you hurt her.” Your dads face was dead serious before he sighed and stood up, slapping Steve on the back before calling you downstairs.

You walked down, your eyes widening at the sight of Steve in your living room. “What are y-“ you started before your dad cut you off, holding up his hand. Your eyebrows dressed in confusion, taking in the sight before you. What was going on?

“So, Steve here decided to show up and fight for me to give him the chance to be with you.” Your dad started out, your eyes filling up with tears as you looked at your ex boyfriend with a hopeful expression. “And I must say, he impressed me in doing so. Therefore, I’m giving him a chance. But, he has one chance and that’s-“

You didn’t even let your dad finish before you ran downstairs, hugging him and thanking him. “Thank you, dad.” You smiled, kissing him on the cheek before running over to Steve, launching yourself into his arms. His all too familiar cologne engulfed you; his musky scent instantly calming you and feeling like home.

“I missed you so damn much.” Steve whispered into your hair, holding you tight against him as if you might disappear.

“I missed you too, more than you could know.” You whisper the words back, your eyes meeting his.

“I want you to know, from now on, no one on this earth is taking me from you. You’re stuck with me, and that’s a promise.”

#imagines #stranger things imagines #stranger things imagine #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things fanfic #steve harrington x fem #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington imagines #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington x you #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington angst #Steve harrington fluff #angst imagine #fluff imagine #stranger things fluff #stranger things angst

[fivekrystalpetals]

Not me making the umpteenth post about this very panel, but, bc I have only so much to go by here ;_; this panel has some funny underlying subtext because at the first glance, this seems like a very normal, very formal conversation between two people who are more or less strangers but--

1.] Break knows her name now?

interesting that Break addresses her as Miss Lottie here, and not little miss (flirty (derogatory)) like in the Sablier arc.

so, my guess is that he really did not know her name then, because he simply followed Oz (eye of the cyclone lmao) hoping to find some Baskervilles targeting him as they did in the Lutwidge. In fact, Oz himself wanted to do the same, put himself out there as bait for the Baskervilles before deciding to venture into Sablier.

(Funny how Break shoots down Oz's idea of meeting the Baskervilles with the excuse that they might be following absolute orders and hence, useless to negotiate with. and then..... proceeds to do the same lol)

[more under the cut cuz I can't shut up about these two lol]

Also, in the same chapter, Oz lets slip Zwei's name in their conversation which Break silently registers--

all in all, the most names among the Baskervilles he would have known by the time of Sablier arc is Zwei's.

meaning, after returning from his meet-cute meeting with Lottie, he must have set about trying to find out her name. Since they don't have internet in those times, only way to get information is to manually dig around.

but... of course, that is not possible just like that, right? Break cannot ask around a Baskerville's name without raising a bunch of questions, facing trouble from the Pandora (which is why he even hid the Intention's desire from them), ntm, nobody even knew any of the Baskervilles, much less their names.

Well, nobody except Oz. Oz did get to meet the Baskervilles and see and hear them interacting. during which time, Fang and Doug did call out Lottie's name a bunch of times. so obvs Oz should know her name. however, it's up in the air whether he would remember, rather want to remember the name of the girl who stomped all over his chest?

so this means Break really went that extra mile to manipulate this information out of Oz without rousing his suspicions. Oz is too smart for his own good, mind you. The slightest misstep, he is going to figure out what Break was planning:

and from this panel, it appears he didn't want anyone (including Oz and Gil) to know what he had been planning with the Baskervilles. and now even we, the readers, will never know lol

He must have asked Oz to recount his experiences from Lutwidge for him again and got him to slip up her name, the way Oz did for Zwei. Sneaky, so sneaky!

sooooo, while everyone was busy putting together two and two about the Tragedy of Sablier and whatnot, Break here was trying to squeeze out the name of the girl he met in a dungeon someday before he went fully blind (he was fated to see her just once, he can never see her again.) lmaooo what kind of shoujo manga plot was he playing out here?

2.] Lottie expected to meet him again?

This is a little more obvious but funny (to me) nevertheless. when Break puts his sword at her throat, Lottie doesn't even blink or get startled, merely sighs and goes: oh yeah I was wondering why the hell you didn't show up?

But for some reason I felt you'd show your face here.

So, I don't think she means Break making an appearance at Yura's party. That's way too obvious. Rainsworths, and by extension, Break their important valet, are invited and are going to be present here.

No, this means she had a feeling Break would slip out of there and come out here to have a tête-à-tête with her which is just... ??? How was she so sure? Was she looking forward to it? Waiting for him to write her a letter to her hiding place in Sablier or something? Waiting for him to come there just as her lion knocked down Yura? She wasn't in the least fazed! just goes, oh yeah I was waiting for you >_>

Because logically, Break surely went radio silent the whole of the month(?), right? Owing to his untimely blindness, whatever plans he might have had for her also must have cut off. Unless he got help from another person which he didn't seem to want, esp. not in this case, which, for whatever reason, he wanted to keep a complete secret. And in spite of this radio silence, Lottie doesn't think he was bluffing or stood her up at Sablier. She actually seems quite prepared to meet him here? I wonder how many times she turned the scenario over and over in her mind since they met and parted, and got more irritated what the hell did he mean and if he did mean something, why can't he contact her again?

because, the very first thing she demands of him is an explanation of what he meant by his words at Sablier

and surprisingly, this.... surprises him? at least enough to sheathe his sword and start talking properly to her??? (a huge thing bc Break never gives a straight answer; he is always talking in riddles and annoying everyone on purpose)

#pandora hearts #xerxes break #lottie baskerville #charlotte baskerville #retrace xxxiv #retrace xlii #retrace lii #break x lottie #brottie #ph musings #anyway tl;dr #just what the hell was supposed to be going on between these two? #some kind of star crossed fate #he sees her once then never sees her again #they talk civilly once then end up never talking again #he wanted to be friends with her in life they don't but in death they do and just what gjfklklfj #mochijun really created a ship that caters to me and me alone lmaooo #no probs the actual tl;dr is #peak clown on clown communication #they are star crossed idiots tbh

[cipheramnesia]

since i think you mentioned previously that there are a few Scream movies that you like on their own, could you expand on that, and also maybe on what your problems with other Scream movies is, or the franchise as a whole?

I'd have to go back into a dive and re-watch the series to really go in depth which, for obvious reasons, isn't something I'm planning to do. Generally, when I last revisited the movies (and it has been awhile), they felt aged in a way like a good deal of the ironic, self-aware, cinema-sins type of media. A little bit too heavy on the crutch of being too hip for its own genre, too ready to underline how much the movie knows its own tropes while using them.

This isn't to call Scream terrible, and I had a pretty good time with at least the second and third one, at the time, in theaters. More that as I've grown and changed and developed new taste, it's also felt to me that there's a subset of horror filmmakers that looked at Scream, and all they took away from it was the self-aware cynicism and the idea that this horror shit is easy if you just admit you hate the genre. This isn't meant to be the takeaway from Scream, more of unintended consequences. When you pair that along with Kevin Williamson's writing, they just haven't come with me as I changed. Which, again, nothing wrong with the writing but after dozens of pale imitations, plus the occasional misfire from Williamson himself, it makes the source material grate a bit for me.

To me, the Scream is an artifact of its time, and the only way to properly enjoy it is to see it sometime before 2001. It landed at the perfect moment, delivering a horror movie that was relatively low on gore and blood, while also offering sharp writing and a magnificent set of thrills, that nudged and winked along with the audience to tell them it was okay to like this slasher because it knew these movies all have bad plots and stupid characters. It worked because it wasn't those things at all, but also because of how tired the genre had become of the slasher genre, which was long out of date by then.

That said, I think for some people it still works quite well, placing the teenaged protagonists as more in charge of their own lives and less naive than past movies. There's a lot of care put into making everyone a fairly complete character type, so much so that they're sort of a whole new set of archetypes that now get lifted wholesale for every other modern self aware horror movie, and the cycle continues. It's kind of Friday the 13th for a newer era of horror, not a movie that created a genre, but a movie that defined it, and which is consequently unable to be free from the many ways it's been done to death in the subsequent decades.