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#Steph: let me know who wins the argument
kamotecue · 7 months
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friends don’t look at friends that way ✰ s. catley
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pairing: steph catley x reader
summary: in which two teammates are hiding their feelings. irish!reader, arsenal!reader
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ⋆✦⋆ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
you were confused about your feelings for a certain left-back. perhaps it was the huge elephant in the room, or it was just the overthinking thoughts that had occurred.
you felt someone sit beside you, it was your national team captain, katie mccard as the fans would say. she had a habit of getting yellow cards, it was always amusing for you, but at the same time if you needed to win, it wasn’t.
“what’s on your mind?” katie asked, as you just shrugged. you didn’t feel like talking about your current situation.
“good talk, n/n.” katie joked as you groaned.
“there’s this person i like—they can be a bit confusing, like are we friends? or are we more than friends?” you asked, as katie hummed.
“why don’t you talk to them about how you’re feeling? maybe they reciprocate the feelings.” katie said, as you looked across the pitch to see steph who already had her eyes on you and katie. she was talking to caitlin, her national teammate.
“it’s not that easy, she-“ you froze, as katie just nodded but turned to look at you as you paused.
“what? is it the fact that you mentioned a girl? there’s nothing wrong y/n, besides welcome to the club.” katie said, as she gave you a wink. you chuckled, as you shook your head.
“right then, she says that we are friends but the way she looks at me isn’t just friendly” you said, as katie gave you a pat on the back.
“like i said y/n, confront them about it. it wouldn’t hurt to take a risk.” she said, as she got up and went to join the others.
you pushed yourself of the floor, getting your kit bag as you headed to your car. you slung your kit bag to the back, as you took out your phone and connected it to the aux charger not noticing a certain aussie opening the passenger door.
“let’s talk, n/n.” you looked to the side, to see steph catley, the one who’s occupying your mind 24/7.
“be my guest, you’ve already opened the car door.” your sarcasm was ignored, as steph entered the car putting her kit bag in the back gently as she closed the door.
“what are we?” steph asked, as you pulled out of the training grounds.
“i don’t know.” you said, as you focused on the road not even bothered to look at the australian who just analyzed your face.
“are we just friends? or is there something more?” steph asked, her voice was a bit soft making you look at her.
“you say we’re friends, steph. you always do, it’s like you’re embarrassed to be seen with me.” you said, as you thought about the times were she would just introduce you two as teammates, not even friends.
we say we’re friends, but i’m catching you across the room
are we friends? or is there something more? because right now, you needed a sign. whenever you’re doing something, you’d catch her making these glances at you. when you’d hug or cling onto your teammates, she’d have this certain glint in her eyes.
it makes no sense ‘cause we’re fighting over what we do
you thought about the silly arguments that you’d get into. you’d act like a married old couple which is why the team has shipped you both, but there were days where you’d completely avoided each other, acting like strangers.
and there’s no way that i’ll end up being with you
there was always this thought at the back of your head, that you’d never end up with steph or she’d never go for you, because in simple terms, you always thought that she was out of your league.
or the fact that maybe she could be straight? that there is this guy she likes, and they are completely the opposite of you.
but friends don’t look at friends that way
the longing gazes she’d sent your way when nobody is looking, or how you’re the only one she sees in a crowded room.
friends don’t look at friends that way.
but yeah, like you said, friends don’t look at friends that way.
“i don’t want to be friends, y/n. i want you to be mine.” steph said, as your eyes widened.
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lovingthereign25 · 2 years
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Fight for me 🤍
Part 1.
Fight, Fight, Fight that's all my husband and I have been doing for months. Joe and I have been married for almost 10 years, in that time we had arguments but never as bad as it's been the last year. We've been separated for about 5 months now and have made zero progress. As much as it kills me to say it, I think it's best if we get  a divorce.
Joe was on his way to bring our kids back for a weekend with him. I waited on the porch until I saw his car pull up. Our two girls get out of the car running to me while he gets our son out of the car seat. 
"Mama, I missed you"  our youngest daughter Karsyn smiles running into my arms.
" I missed you too my sweet baby" I kiss her head 
"Teo is over tired, didn't nap today" Joe says handing me our 1 year old.
" You have a package from C4 Energy" I say
"Thanks" he says following me into the house.
 "Ryanne and Karsyn take your bags up to your rooms please" Joe says to the girls.
 "Since the girls are upstairs can we talk in private for a minute?" I ask 
" What's up? " He asks, picking up Mateo who was following his daddy with his arms up .
"I've been thinking since it's been months we've been separated and no progress to work it out has been made, if maybe we should just put an end to it and finally go our separate ways." I say 
"Like what a divorce?" He asks cocking an eyebrow
" Yea I mean unless you think we can work this out  I mean I was hoping we could but Joe it's been 5 months!" I say
"If that's what you think is best then fine, we'll work something out with the kids" he finally says after a few minutes of silence
" Joe…" I start but am cut off by him
"Here bud go to Mama, Daddy has to go" he says handing me our son.
A few days later was a really big event for Joe. SummerSlam Joe or should I say "Roman Reigns" was the WWE undisputed champion and was facing Brock Lesnar which I always hated personally as his wife I feel like they've fought enough Brock was known to not follow rules in the ring and would end up hurting people. Anyway I flew to Nashville with my  best friend to help with the kids. Even though Joe and I have been separated for months no one knew about it besides our immediate family so when I go to these events we pretend everything is perfect.
I had a love hate relationship with coming to these events because as much as i loved seeing all  friends it made me miss being in the ring. I was sitting on some crates backstage talking to Bianca and her husband Montez and our friend Angelo. 
“Have you ever thought about coming back?” Montez asks
“Yea a lot actually” i admit 
“So what’s stopping you ?” Angelo asks
“As much as i love wrestling i love being a mom a hundred times more” i smile 
“Girl, you can do both Becky does it, Marsye does it, You got this “ Bianca says.
I find Joe in his locker room getting ready for his match.
“Hey, there you are , Where have you been?” he asks
“Just catching up, You okay?’’ i ask
“Yea, ready to be done with these matches with Brock honestly, after six or seven times it starting to kill me” he says 
“I know, i remember the toll it takes on your body, not to mention the injuries that comes with facing him and him doing whatever the hell he wants, it scares me every time you get in the ring with him” i say
“ I know , Y/n …” he starts but is interrupted by Paul telling us they are ready for him in the gorilla.
“Be safe. Please. “ i smile grabbing his hand 
“I'll do my best”he smirks, squeezing my hand . 
As i sat in the back watching what i think was the most brutal match between Joe and Brock Stepahnie Machon comes over to me 
“Y/n, what do you think of being on Smackdown this week?’ she asks 
“I’d love to. Can I ask why?’ i smile looking form the tv in the back to Steph quick
“Well lets just say we a superstar  supposed to send your Roman  a message, so i wanna get you in there for a good reaction ’ she says 
“Absolutely, i'll be there” i smile 
Looking up just in time to see Joe get the win over Brock in the Last Man Standing match.
“That's your man!” Stephanie smiles 
“ He sure is “ I smile back lying through my teeth.
Being at Smackdown was always a good time, usually I had the kids so everyone would be gushing over how cute they are, or how much they looked like Joe and I . 
My sister flew in to help with the kids which was such a relief. She took the kids back to the hotel before the actual show started.
I still didn't know what superstar was gonna return to send a message but I followed Jimmy,Jey and Joe to the gorilla waiting for our que to walk out
"Nervous?"Joe whispers 
"Never" I wink 
The music hits and we get our que to walk out. Joe stops so he can do his little pose with his belts. He looks over to me, smirks gives me a wink and we continue down the ramp Joe taking my hand in his for show.
Joe was talking about SummerSlam when Drew's music hit as Drew was about to come to the ring the light went low and what looked like a woman was standing at the top of the ramp, then all of sudden someone attacked Drew. It was Karian Kross a guy from NXT next thing I know Scarlett was at the bottom of the ring eyes on Joe, I step in front of Joe, Jimmy and Jey her eyes met mine as she place an hourglass in the ring
"If you know what's good for you I'd suggest you back the hell up" I say with no mic but loud enough for her to hear. She smirks, flips the hourglass and backs up.
After we head back stage Joe  was stopped by Triple H so Jimmy and Jey lead me to the locker room
"From what I saw out there it looks like you still got feelings for uce" Jey says bumping his shoulder into mine.
"Yea…well shut up" I smile 
"I knew it . You do .Man why y'all act like you don't though shit don't make sense" he says
Joe came in before I could answer
"Come on Jey let's go back up" Jimmy says leaving Joe and I alone.
"So how do you feel about Karion's message?" I ask
" I think the real question is how do you feel about Scarlett" he says 
" I don't feel anything as a long as she know her place and stays there"I shrug
I turned around to face Joe and was caught off guard by a kiss. 
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astralis01 · 3 years
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Tim Drake X Reader: Dinner
 Request: Tim x male reader . Tim bring his bf to the manner for a family dinner and crazy shit happening in that night.
Requested By: @imgayandilikeit
“You know Master Tim, you should bring your boyfriend to meet us tomorrow,” Alfred said as the whole Wayne family had sat down to eat dinner. A blanket of silence encased them broken by Dick who exclaimed, “Wait, Timmy has a boyfriend?”
Tim looked at his plate and then glared at Dick and said, “Yes, I have a boyfriend. His name is Y/n and he’s very nice.”
Cass signed from the other end We are happy for you while Stephanie slapped him on his back and exclaimed, “I knew it you had it into you to confess to him.”
Bruce, who was sitting silently at the table then said, “Why don’t you bring him over as Alfred suggested. We could meet him tomorrow.”
Damian glared and then smirked and said, “Oh yes, we have to see how much is Drake paying him to act like his beloved.”
Tim got up and screamed at him, “Oh you little-. Wait, I’ll just call him to give you your peace of mind Demon.”
Dick spoke up, “Timmy, you don’t-”
Tim glared at everyone as if daring to object and said, “No I do. Anyway, I need to ask him about the dinner.”
Tim dialled Y/n’s number, still glaring at everyone when the rising stopped. A soft voice was heard from the other side and Tim’s face softened. “Hey Timmy, you fine?”
“Yeah, thought I’d call you to ask something. You free at 8 tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Well, my family is insisting on meeting you. You okay with that?”
“Oh yes. Wait, a minute Timmy.” There were some shuffling sounds heard on the other end and then the voice rang out, “Noice, noice, noice. I’ll be there. Wayne Manor, right?”
“I’ll pick you up.”
There was laughing at the other end and then the voice said, “Dude, I know how to drive and Wayne Manor is the big, famous building. I’ll reach there.”
“You drive like a maniac.”
“No Timmy. I drive like someone who knows to live life to its fullest. We die wild.”
“Please don’t.”
“I’ll try to. See you tomorrow then. Bonne Nuit.”
“French today, huh. Well, then Bonne Nuit to you too.”
And with that, the voice was cut off and Tim said, “Well, does that satisfy you all. Now, let’s eat.” His voice did not leave any room for argument.
Cass signed You two are very cute.
Tim sighed and ran his fingers through his already messy hair and said, “Thank you.”
——————————————————
The next day was a tense affair. At sharp 8, there was a knock on the door. Tim practically skipped opening the door. There stood Y/n, in all his glory with a container in his hands.
“Hey, Timmy. I brought some of my lava cake for you guys. Hopefully, you all do like cake.”
Dick barrelled towards both of them and said, “Oh we do love cake, especially chocolate cakes. Please come in.”
Y/n handed Dick the cake who joyfully took it from his hands and flipped over the couch with the container tightly grasped in his hands.
He then walked over to Tim and said, “Hey babe. Howdy?” and then leaned over to kiss Tim on his cheeks.
Tim blushed and tried to push him away but anyone who was looking at the couple could see that he wasn’t trying very hard. After that, Y/n was approached by Cass and Stephanie.
“You dating Tim?” Cass’ broken English question was voiced out. Y/n looked confused, looked towards Tim and then looked back at Cass and nodded. Cass gave a nod of approval and before anybody could grasp what was happening, Y/n was flipped over. Tim yelled, “Cass” and rushed over to help him up but then Cass stopped him. “You hurt Tim, you get worse,” Cass said.
Y/n got up from the floor, rubbing his head and grinned at Tim, “You didn’t tell me you had such a badass sister,” and then he looked at her and said, “I’m pretty sure my accounts will be gone if I hurt Tim, but thanks for the warning. A formal hello in place. My name is Y/n. Nice to meet you, Cass, I assume.” Cass smiled happily and shook the hand which was given to him.
Then he moved to Steph and said, “Dude, nice to see you here”, and hugged her while Steph said, “Well, it was a surprise that he kept it a secret from me.”
Tim moved from his place and said, “Come, Bruce is waiting for us.” Tim then leaned over to give him a fleeting kiss on his cheeks and then moved his fingers to intertwine with Y/n’s.
The welcoming committee behind them was almost dying with how cute they both were but refrained from saying anything.
———————————————————————————————————
Dinner was a tense affair but Y/n continued to eat so it was a win for the Bat clan and Bruce awkwardly broke the silence, “So how long have you two been dating?” Y/n continued to eat but when he heard that no one was answering he looked up and saw that the question was directed to him.
“Oh, sorry. I thought you asked Tim but we’ve been dating for like 6 months now, I think.” He looked to Tim and said, “This food is delicious. When we were suffering because of our combined horrible attempts at cooking, why didn’t you tell me about this,” while gesturing towards the food on the table as if trying to capture what his words could not say.
Tim tried to answer but then Damian who was sitting beside Bruce said, “Is Drake paying you to be his significant other because all he does is sit inside and work.”
Y/n burst out laughing and said, “Oh my god. Timmy, your family is pure gold, why didn’t I meet them earlier?” Tim pouted and said, “Because I knew this was going to happen. You were going to team up with my family to bully me.”
Everyone was looking at the interaction like it was some kind of tennis match when Alfred appeared and saved Tim a lot of embarrassment before Y/n could answer Damian’s question and said, “It is nice to know that you appreciate my cooking but could you please repeat what you said about your joint efforts at cooking.”
Y/n looked awkwardly at Alfred and said, “Well, I was doing fine with my microwave and making my food in that when Mr Disaster decided that he was going to try to make something sweet for me and then suddenly I come home to find my microwave destroyed thoroughly because he forgot to do something. could you repeat what you did, Space Case?”
Tim looked at Alfred sheepishly and said, “I was doing it all according to the instruction but then it caught on fire and poured water on it. I did get you a new one.”
Y/n then pointed his fork towards him and said, “Alien, you got me an oven.”
Alfred looked like he was on a verge of a heart attack and then Damian said, “Drake, even with your so-called intelligence, you tried to put out an electric fire with water?”
Tim looked at Dick, Cass and Stephanie for support, all three of them shrugged and said, “We all might have to agree with Damian.”
Bruce then wiped his fingers on his napkin and said, “Tim, you know that you put out an electric fire with a woollen blanket, right?”
Tim groaned and said, “Of course I do now but if Mr Microwave would have told me that before, his microwave would not be destroyed.”
“Tin-man, seriously. I thought you knew,” Y/n said.
But with the introduction to his carefree attitude, stories were exchanged with Tim’s failures to be a proper human being were the highlight and soon Y/n had to head home.
———————————————————————————————————
Leaving Y/n at the gate, near which his motorcycle was parked, Tim said, “You could stay here the night.”
Y/n laughed and pecked his lips and said, “I didn’t pack and come properly enough to stay overnight, but thanks for the offer.”
He drove away, leaving Tim on the grounds of the Manor, wistfully looking towards the direction his boyfriend was gone in while the occupants of the manor looked onto the couple with a smile on their faces.
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verymuchimmortalcat · 3 years
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Familiarity
For Bio Dad Bruce Wayne Month Day 3: Identities
ao3
@maribat-bdbwm
part 1
Marinette couldn’t quite put a finger on it but there was something about the Waynes that felt familiar. Rose would say it’s because they’re family but Marinette knows it not that. In fact, they remind her of the Bats. The simultaneous inclusion and exclusion, the chaos, the feeling of knowing them, everything.
She isn’t quite sure yet if she likes the idea of her family being the Bats but she does know it would explain a lot of things that have happened in the two days since she arrived at the Manor for the first time.
.oOo.
Steph watches as Tim and Marinette plan out pranks, it’s creepy how well the two of them work together. It’s almost like they’ve worked together before. From the way Cass is analysing Marinette, Steph knows she’s picked up on the strangeness of it all too.
Duke had told her they’d asked Marinette to join so they could get to know her better and to spite B, who had told them not to drag her into their chaos. They hadn’t really expected her to be so good at planning pranks. From what she’s learnt she was brought up as an only child. Not that it really matters, they’re going against Babs, they’re going to need all the help possible.
Duke looks thoroughly lost, Steph doesn’t blame him, Tim’s thought process is hard to follow normally but Marinette and Tim, Steph’s just as lost. As the three of them stare at the two of them in the middle of their planning, Steph can’t help but feel they’ve been here before. Which makes absolutely no sense she’s never even met Marinette before today.
.oOo.
His sister’s time has been monopolised by Drake, Cassandra, Duke and now Stephanie. Planning, probably. A pointless endeavour, he's going to win in the end, just because his team has lesser people doesn’t mean they’re going to lose.
However, he has spoken to her. She’d approached him the first day and while their conversation had been awkward and stinted, it had been a conversation. Damian wasn’t planning on telling Grayson but speaking to him had helped.
But what’s been bothering Damian is that it feels like they’ve had that conversation before. Which they haven’t, Damian’s sure he’d remember if they’d somehow met. Jon says he should talk to her but Damian’s sure he can figure it out on his own.
.oOo.
Tim has a theory: Marinette is Ladybug. He doesn’t bring it up with the others, if she had wanted them to know her identity, she would have told them herself a long time ago. Besides, it’s just a theory and even if he is right, he remembers the feeling of betrayal when B had told Steph his identity, so he doesn’t pry.
.oOo.
Cass knows Marinette. She’s not able to place it and it makes absolutely no sense, but there’s something very familiar about her. For someone who walks into objects at least three times a day she carries herself with a grace that Cass hasn’t seen outside vigilantes or dancers and Marinette denies being able to dance. Even if her new sibling is one of the Parisian heroes, Cass doesn’t know the Parisian heroes very well, having met them only a few times. Their training had mostly been taken care by Dick, Tim and Damian, since the three of them spent the most time at the Tower. She leaves it alone, Tim mentioned that the miraculous holders' identities were protected by magic, it would be impossible for her to figure it out.
.oOo.
Dick had wanted to see if he had left his phone in the gymnasium, when he enters the room, Marinette’s there. He watches in shock as Marinette leaps and flips her way through the gymnasium. She’s a surprisingly good gymnast for a civilian. A lot of the moves she uses are familiar to him. Things that he had taught to some of the younger heroes as fighting sequences. He wonders what kind of teacher she must have had to be taught that.
When she finishes, he claps and she turns back in shock, her eyes widen in recognition and she becomes a vivid shade of red. He holds back the urge to laugh.
“That was amazing! Where did you learn all of that?”
“Oh, uh here and there, I went to classes for a while and I have a friend who’s really great at gymnastics.”
Dick frowns, she sounds unsure of her answer, but he lets it pass.
“I’d love to meet that friend of yours.”
She looks like a deer caught in headlights for a second before her expression smooths over and she grins at him and says, “I’ll be sure to ask him!” before skipping out of the room.
Dick is officially very curious.
.oOo.
Thursday morning, she’s informed by Duke that they usually have family dinners on Thursday and a few of Tim’s friends would be attending today too. Marinette’s excited, it’ll be fun to meet Tim’s friends.
Alfred’s banned all pranks for the day since they have guests visiting in the evening. There’s some complaining but in the end they all give in. Tim heads to his room saying he has something he wants to work on, Dick and Damian are going out for the day, she can’t find Duke, and Jason isn’t at the Manor. She’s currently searching for Cass. When Marinette finally gives up and returns to her room, she finds Cass waiting for her there.
“Want to join me and Steph? We’re going out.”
Marinette agrees and the two of them leave the manor to join Steph in the actual city. They spend the day roaming around, eat enough junk food to give Alfred a heart attack and just pass time. Steph returns with them to the Manor in the evening for dinner. They’re late but only by a bit, they’d hopefully only get a disappointed frown from Alfred.
Alfred lets them in with a sigh of disappointment. The three of them offer him sheepish grins before running off to the dining room. They can hear all of them laughing, Marinette doesn’t pause to analyse their voices.
She wishes she had.
It’s not surprising really, she’d already known how highly possible it was but nothing had prepared her to be staring at Kon, Cassie and Bart.
Jason notices her staring and asks, “why’re you looking at them like they’re aliens?”
She takes another second to finish processing, and then grins, “Well, Kon is half alien.”
Their reactions are priceless. Plagg would be proud of the chaos she’s unleashed.
Jason’s staring at her in shock. Tim’s yelling, “I KNEW IT!” Dick and Cass look like things make more sense now. B, Steph, Duke, Kon and Cassie. Damian’s jumped onto his seat and is pointing his katana at her. Bart had attacked her in a hug, yelling, “Bug!” which had thrown her to the floor.
Groaning she gets up, “not wearing a super suit right now, Bart.”
“IforgotI’msosorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Oh my, what is going on here?”
They all turn to look at Alfred who’s standing at the entrance.
There’s a lot of apologies as they sit in their seats and everyone settles down. She ends up sitting next to her father.
“So,” he starts, “you’re Ladybug.”
She smiles, “and you’re Batman.”
Before she can reply, she’s dragged into the others’ conversation. Her father offers her a smile and returns to his food. Marinette grins and joins the argument about the stupidest villains.
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stephspurs · 3 years
Text
A Family Affair | Euro 2020 Football Fanfiction
Life is beautiful and life is cruel. A window into the souls of the victorious and the vanquished. In a way, football did come home during the summer of 2021. Follow along Amelia’s journey, navigating the football world as a tactical analyst for the italian football team, with a brother and father part of the three lions. Will Amelia leave Italy and come back to England? Will she leave the Serie A for the Prem? Will she set aside the bianconeri stripes for new colours, leaving behind friendship for love? Maybe she can have both...
EEEEEEK here's part two!!! Part two sees more of Amelia's beautiful brain, the love she has for her team, and her brother, & her friendship with Kyle Walker. Hope you guys love it as much as i do - please let me know what you think - i'd love to hear from you all!
Love always,
Steph xx
UPDATE as of 31/07: I've made some additional editing changes due to some feedback about the confusion between ben white (her brother) and ben chilwell (not her brother LOL). Nothing has been added to the story, just the addition of either surname has been added where i think it could be more straightforward - for future readers!
Part 2. | seconda parte
warnings; none - just a whole lot of feels.
word count; 1469
writing tools; third person until dashed line, first person thereafter.
next update; Wednesday 28/07 5pm AEST. Updates are twice weekly (Sunday & Wednesday)!
Tags (as requested by users); @footballffbarbiex
link to fic masterlist here
11 July 2021 | The Final Match.
The players for both national teams lined up side by side down the tunnel. Chiellini & Kane, both confident in their teams ability, captaining with great authority and mentorship for the ten men stood behind them. Amelia stood at the back of the tunnel, watching the scene ahead of her. Her dad, walking up the centre aisle between the two teams, shaking the hands of his players, confident in his preparation. A gentle hand to her brother's shoulder, saying everything it needs to say. It was the same hand that rubbed the back of her neck as he walked past, communicating the same thing. Go your hardest, you’re ready for this.
It was her turn, she started at the back of the line, and in true Italian style, a kiss was placed to both cheeks of every player up the line. When she reached Jorginho, a player she came to appreciate for his technical mindset and intellectual approach to the game, she kissed his cheek and turned to the player opposite him - her brother, who was trying his hardest to face forward and pay his little sister no mind. She knew what he was doing, but she wasn’t as heartless as the rest of the England squad probably perceived her to be. Reaching out, she rubbed her hand along the back of his neck, just as her father did to her, leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek, before continuing down the line of her players to the front. Shaking hands with Gareth Southgate, who no doubt had come to realise who the girl was in relation to his team, and a kiss to both cheeks of Mr Mancini, she walked out and took her place on the bench, ready for the game of her life.
120 minutes of football later.
Life is both beautiful and cruel. Whilst she hadn’t anticipated the early goal from Shaw, Amelia had predicted every play by the english and made sure her team was there waiting for them to turn and run. They knew to never let Harry Kane have the space to move the ball, to make sure Mason Mount was marked at all times and to pay attention to the silky smooth skills of Raheem Sterling. They knew that every player on the english side had the talent and skill to shoot and score, no matter if they're a striker or full back. In the end, the endless taunts from the british crowd and constant reminder of “it’s coming home” only fuelled the Italians further and pushed them harder, to their limits. Eventually both sides met with equal force and completed extra time at a draw, leading to penalties. All of Amelia’s preparation with Gianluigi Donnarumma would present itself now. She went over the preferred sides of the penalty takers she presumed would be stepping up for their country, and reminded him of all he has achieved & what there is still left to be done. After all, they are the masters of their own fate.
Donnarumma’s block of Bukayo Saka’s penalty rattled her bones and sent a chill down her spine. They had done it. The boys had finally brought football back to Rome for the first time since 1968, and while she can’t take all of the credit, she knows she single handedly played a part in this victory. As soon as happiness filled her body, guilt and sadness flooded her heart. She had been part of the problem that caused her brother so much pain. Her dad knew how to handle rejection, this wasn't his first rodeo, and could see with an open mind just how they had managed to achieve greatness. But her brother had truly believed they had it, that football was coming home to England.
After being surrounded by her boys, cheering and hugging her, screaming in relief that they had done it, Amelia took a step back and took a deep breath in. Looking over to the players in white consoling each other with looks of understanding and pats on the back, hugging those with the unfortunate fate of missing their penalties, she found her brother.
_____________________________________________________________
Squatting down with his elbows resting on his knees and hands covering part of his face, his eyes showing disbelief that the moment had escaped them. Jordan Henderson, the figurative big brother to my big brother, leaning down whispering what one can only assume is words of encouragement and strength to him. A voice to my right startles me, not because I wasn't used to the noise, but because it was a voice I haven't heard directed at me with anything other than venom in a very long time.
“He wants you to be there for him, don’t ever think for a second that he doesn’t want you around.” Kyle Walker speaks into the open, whilst looking around at the fans still in the stadium. The fans behind us right now would be watching with speculation, wondering why the english player is talking to an italian so soon after defeat.
“I don’t think he doesn’t want me around, i just don’t think he wants me around right now” I spoke back, trying to reason with myself and Kyle as to why i haven't gone up and offered my condolences to my brother.
“I think the only thing that can pull him out of this is you. He was beating himself up last night after your argument, and while he turned it into motivation for today, it's still weighing on his conscience. He’s happy for you, we aren't that mean so as to deny him the pleasure of being proud of his little sister...even if she is working for the enemy”
“You’ve always been one to be the voice of reason, whilst still being the clown I grew up to know and love”
“Does this mean we’re friends again? I’m sorry about last night” Kyle admitted.
“Last night wasn’t what ended our friendship...we stopped being friends the day you left Spurs.” I joked back to Kyle. I turned to look at his over-expressed shocked face and walked backwards a few steps while giggling, before turning and sauntering over to my brother who was now surrounded by some more teammates. Upon seeing me and noticing my solemn expression, finding comfort in the fact that I wasn't there to rub my win in their faces, the boys left my brother to himself.
I stood there, staring into the eyes of my brother, who after a few minutes reached out and pulled me into him as though I was a life raft and he was stranded in the ocean. We stood there, hugging, saying everything we needed to say through the way we were gripping to the backs of each other's team colours.
“I am so proud of you, you put up one hell of a fight Ben. Certainly made my job harder” I spoke into his shirt. He was the taller of the two, but I wasn't that short. Almost immediately after, I felt him push more weight onto me and sink a bit lower so he was in my neck, shedding a few tears he didn't want seen by those around us. Not even 5 seconds later, he stood up straight, wiping his eyes and offering me a smile.
“God, I wish you weren’t better at your job than I am at mine” he joked back to me. I smiled up at him, shaking my head.
“I would say you’re wrong but the medal that's about to be around my neck would say otherwise” i joke back with him. I was not about to dull my sparkle for someone else's sun to shine, whether he is my brother or not.
“We have to talk about everything that went down last night but i’ll let you enjoy your night with your team” Ben says as we turn and begin to walk toward the stage being set up for the ceremony.
“Thanks Ben, family dinner on Sunday? Tell your friends to come, you and i both know mum will have enough food to feed everyone without even trying”
“Of course, I'll put it in the lads chat & see who’s still around. Kyle will see it in our family chat - who even put him in there anyway!?”
“Honestly...I think it was mum. You know she loves her son, Kyle.”
As I walk back to my team, and into the arms of Fede and Jorginho who wrap me up in an Italian flag and start jumping around, I can't help but smile and laugh at my amazing life. Who knows what the future has to hold, but for tonight, the azzurri are the champions of europe and the trophy is coming home, to Rome.
Part 3. | parte terza
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hellyeahheroes · 3 years
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The “how the fuck is this a hot take” time
I was about to comment with this under a post mocking that attitude but my computer crashed and now I cannot find it, so let me give the gits of the problem and my opinion.
People who think Cass would be friends with Jason and Damian and could somehow begrudgingly tolerate either of them killing don’t get Cass at all. Cass’ opposition to killing is not something you can rationalize. She’s not going to “discover” moral ambigiuity if you talk to her about fucking trolleys. Her refusal to kill is deeply rooted in her personal trauma. She can read body language on a level no other human being aside her mother can. When she sees a person dying she sees every detail of how life leaves the body, she understands the horrible implications of what is happenning on a level you cannot put into words. Having taken life just once it scarred her to the core. She once got so mad at a criminal killing she stopped his hear for a second just so that he can experience a fraction of what he put his victim through.She isn’t going to listen to Jason’s speech about how many times Joker escapes, for her act of murder in itself is that scarring. If you go and write a story where he does you are writing a story of Jason trying to mansplain her own trauma to her. it would be like if Dick tried to convince Jason to put on a clown makeup and go door to door selling crowbars. Pretty tasteless.
There were two cases of Cass’ breaking this aversion of killing in what is considered well-written Cass (as opposed to garbage that was Robin One Year Later or Geoff Johns’ Titans East shitfest or that stupid miniseries by OYL author). And they both are exceptions that prove the rule. In Kelley Puckett’s run she broke into maximum security prison to stop state-sanctioned execution because that’s how much she detests killing. It took family of the victim whose murder got this particular criminal the chair BEGGING HER to let them find closuer to made her question herself. Law? Some stupid talk about “pros” of death penalty? None of that mattered for her, it was only compassion for the affected person that made her doubt her resolve. 
Second time was finale of her series, where she kills Shiva. And she detests herself for it so much she quits being Batgirl. Shiva in this story worked with people who literally nuked her new hometown and killed all her new friends, Cass was still wrestling with guilt of letting Steph die and she was convinced Shiva WANTED to die. And she still found her actions so horrible she quit. At least until they threw more retcons than possible at this. Anderson gabrych knew only she’s suppsoed to be a villain post timeskip and tried to give her the strongest reason to give up on being a hero. If she sees Jason killing it would only be reasonable for her to demand he gives up his mantle as well.
And you know what? If you want to write them like loving siblings SHE SHOULDN’T let him get away with killing. Because her trying to stop him from killing means she still cares about him. The only Cass I could see who doesn’t care about Jason killing, that doesn’t try to stop him or shame him for it, is Cass who had written him off. Cass who decided Jason is irredeemable monster and it’s pointless trying to save him. Someone whose presence she wouldn’t tolerate, less alone s brother she could love. Because again, she sees killing thouigh her tauma, which was caused by an act of having taken life for a first time. I’m sure she believes the “to kill someone you first need to kill a part of yourself” saying, even if she wouldn’t likely put it that way. Cass that treats Jason as a brother is Cass who would break his fingers so he cannot pull the trigger to stop him from killing his own soul.
And don’t even get me started on Damian. because everything else about his new book aside, after stunt he pulled in issue #2 I simply cannot conceive a scenario where she doesn’t look at him with anything but resentment and disgust. Jason can rationalize his killings. Damian killed multiple people in a span of a day for what purpose again? To win a tournament and show off how cool he is? Because he thought with easy ressurections there are no consequences? Keep in mind, Cass’ hatred for killing doesn’t come from the fact dead person is gone but from her unique understanding what happens when life leaves the body. And in such perspective killing for such a flimsy reason like winning an arbitrary tournament, I simply cannot imagine Cass being able to forgive him. Yes, you can argue that he’s a kid or he’s not in a right mental state. But these are rational argument, useless against Cass very emotional trauma. I think Williamson ruined any chance of the two having non-hostile interactions ever, unless entire Batfam conspires to keep Cass in the dark about what Damian has done.
-Admin
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dontcallmecarrie · 3 years
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Sooooo
What'd happen if Justin wasn't snapped but Steph/Timmy was???
I imagine he'd call in all of the forces and give Thanos a special type of hell after figuring out time travel with the help of his allies and you can bet-
That he SWEARS
and then the others reaction to him callin in all the favours???
realisin how powerful justin's charisma stat is???
...if what you're wanting to see Justin's weaponized charisma, don't worry, that's going to happen regardless in NHDD.
Remember he's practically untouchable, so dealing with him as a villain is kinda like trying to get rid of giant hogweed.
.
As for if he were one of the survivors of Thanos' Snap: it really sounds you want to see this AU's characters in a very different genre that what it currently is.
For the record, his family doesn't need to get Snapped to piss Justin off; he has enough basic human decency to look around at the the desolation that's going on around him, and go "you know, this is a problem."
Because, I mean... some guy just went and genocided half of reality because he has the same logic as that one asshole who failed Econ 101. No way anyone's happy about that.
So he goes, "hey, Tony? New contest: first one to fix this wins."
.
Here's the thing about Justin Hammer: he's nobody special. Isn't a genius, isn't a super-soldier, or alien magician or what-have-you. All he has going for him is some faded echoes of a past life he's long since forgotten, which, in the great scheme of things, isn't much.
But.
No matter how many times he's been knocked down, he always gets back up, and faced the world with a smile.
Kindness was an active choice; no one knew it better than him. It wasn't much, compared to everything, but. It was something he could do, for the people around him.
So when this latest tragedy struck, Justin stepped up. Just like always.
His concern wasn't always welcome— his composure meant some people were actually angry at him, for not grieving the way they did, for not breaking down and becoming yet another of the increasingly grim statistic that was the post-Snap suicide rate. He didn't know how to break it to them that he understood— understood far too well, the magnitude of what had happened, that the only reason he was able to get up in the morning was because he knew people needed him and if not for that, he wouldn't know what to do with himself.
But they didn't ask, so he didn't say.
Just got back up, and greeted people with a smile, and asked them if they'd eaten in the past few hours. It wasn't much, but it was all he could do.
.
Tony's depression was hard to deal with; after he got back from space, he'd locked himself in his private workshop and refused to come out for the longest time.
Justin was grateful that Pepper and JARVIS let him in every day he came over, even if it was only to knock on the blacked-out door and quietly sit for about an hour, occasionally talking about his day and leaving a small bag of trail by the doorway when he left.
The bag was never there when he showed up the next day.
It took nearly three months for that door to open. When it did, Tony looked haggard, almost as bad as when he'd been dying of palladium poisoning, and latched onto him like a limpet as he pulled Justin into his workshop, and quietly started mumbling about time travel and magic and huh, yeah, Justin knew a guy who could probably help. More than one, even.
.
Victor von Doom glared daggers at the blackboard with the damning theorems.
"I'm telling you, it won't work, this realm doesn't have the metal alloys necessary for that type of array to function!" Loki insisted, underlining the pesky variable responsible for their latest failure in combining technology and magic.
"What keeps us from getting it?" Ivan grumbled, as if they hadn't had this conversation eleven times before and sure enough—
"If you want to try your hand at stellar metallurgy, by all means! The dwarves of Nidavellir took centuries to refine their craft and they're almost entirely wiped out, but sure, be my guest."
"Guys, mind having someone else who doesn't think you're speaking Greek?" Justin called as he entered the room, and they both looked over as he ushered in—
Loki blinked. "You brought Stark?"
"Hey, Stark," Victor leaned over, "remind me what the friction coefficient of that element you made was, again? I have an argument to win."
.
Bucky had just sat down in the stupidly comfortable armchair, mug of tea in hand, when someone pounded at the front door.
"Tony! We know you're in there!" An annoyingly familiar voice called, and he groaned.
Tony was in the middle of yet another science-slash-engineering-slash-magic binge with the others, and once they were on a roll the house could be burning down and they'd never notice.
Justin had ended up putting out the fire, that time, which was as much a sign as anything because he had the least self-preservation out of all of them under normal circumstances. Not that circumstances were anything approaching normal these days, but still.
...where was he going with this, again?
The door frame trembled, and the yelling started up again.
Justin looked over from where he'd been sorting through some files at the kitchen table with a slight frown. "Winter, I hate to ask this of you, but could you—"
He raised a hand, and chugged his tea as he made his way to the door. "On it."
A few seconds later—
"Bucky?"
Ugh. The things he did for these people.
.
aka if we go this route, the main overall beats don't really change but the tone definitely does.
Justin has no idea just how much his presence does for the people around him, and they themselves wouldn't actually notice either until he's gone, but... well, you get the idea.
For the record: he doesn't have a beef with the Avengers only because he's too busy keeping Tony from blaming himself, but there is no love lost there. That end scene was them trying to convince Tony to help them figure out how to fix it, not knowing he'd joined forces with Cabal and is several steps ahead of the curve there.
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theodorecanaryhood · 3 years
Text
Anything you can do
Request from tagged user: can i request one where jason and his brothers bring their girlfriends over and have a competition on who does their girlfriends makeup the best and its jason x reader dick x kori tim x steph dami x raven
So it all began one Saturday when the boys were bored in the Manor, you would think living in a giant mansion there would be stuff to do. But no, the four boys were bored out of their minds.
'Wanna hang out with the girls? Sure they're not busy' Tim suggested, the other boys just shrugged. Jason Reading his book, not really caring. Damian cleaning his sword.
About an hour had passed and all four boys and their girlfriends were sitting in the living room chatting. Dick was with Kori, Jason with y/n, Tim and Steph and Damian and his newly found beloved, Raven.
'So we were really drunk, or at least I was. That's when Jayman decided the next day, he would do my make up and hair for me seeing as I was too hungover' y/n spoke, smiling the whole time.
'Something similar happened to me, I was too tired one day so Dick decided to do my hair' Kori laughed, the both of you laughed together.
'You do your girlfriends hair?' Damian asked confused, Raven chuckled.
'Why are you weirded out, you've done my make up before' she laughed, all the boys looked at each other.
'No one can do it better than me' Tim laughed, Jason scoffed
'Oh really replacement? You wanna do this now?' He cracked up, getting onto his feet and standing up, Dick following.
'You do know I have experience with doing makeup? I was in a circus remember?'
By this point the four girls were laughing as all the boys were arguing, full on, over who could do their girls make up the best.
'Boys, only one way to settle this' Steph said, the four girls were in sync, handing the boys their make up bags.
'Let's have a competition, whoever does it best wins the argument' Kori finished, all the girls washed off their makeup so the boys would have a fresh start.
Tim showed off Steph first, however, the colouring was a little off for a blonde. Tim tried his best.
'Dark colours on a blonde?' Dick laughed, Tim sighed, 'it's ok Timbers, you tried'.
Damian showed off Raven next, her looks were already unique so her paler foundation went well with her dark eyeliner and lipstick.
Dick showed Kori next, her skin fell perfectly with the colouring that Dick had chose, but Kori was a close second to Jason's Masterpiece.
'I have a confession, I don't wear makeup as much and Jason helps to do it for me. He's great at a lot of things, and this is one of them' all the boys looked at how well Jason had done. But of course, they needed a tie breaker for Damian, Dick and Jason.
'Who did it best?' Kori asked, everyone sighed in unison as they looked on but Tim started laughing. When all eyes fell on him, he went quiet trying to hold it in.
'What's so funny?' You asked confused, Tim chuckled again as Raven and Kori looked at Steph, then they all gasped. He redid her make up perfectly.
'You are good' Dick smiled, then he pouted, 'so I guess we're all equally good?' He asked confused. Everyone nodded.
'Guess so, although we could as Bruce or Alfred for their opinion' Jason suggested, you just sat down bored again.
'Or we could just drop it and watch some Netflix'
Then everyone looked at each other and shrugged, sitting down and getting comfortable on the couches and chairs.
'Who's the one of all of us that can hold their liquor more?' Dick asks as a joke, but everyone seems to point to a different person. Starting a new argument.
'Here we go again' you laugh as everyone scrambles to start proving their point, you roll your eyes and smile.
Sorry it's short! Hope you like it
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@coolkidjtworld
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techmomma · 3 years
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I made big progress with my trauma recovery the other day! I’m really proud of doing a very hard thing, and honestly doing so made me feel so much better.
Said growth involves realizing some unfun things, so y’know, look out for that under the read more, even if I consider this a hopeful, uplifting realization by the end. Christ this is long, have fun reading this word wall.
So I essentially lived in a bitter divorce household. Y’know, when the two parents have an awful, agonizing divorce that pits the kids’ loyalties against each parent and each other and themselves.
I grew up in that. Except they never actually divorced. Or separated. Not till after I’d moved out, anyway. So 20+ years of living in a household where my parents flip-flopped between “trying to make it work” and “screaming at each other and bitterly trying to corral their kids in this us-vs-them, me vs your other parent toxic tug of war.”
Why didn’t they divorce? Codependency and religious pressure because both were previous divorcees, one was an excommunicated catholic because of this, and the other was a narcissist who couldn’t admit defeat and made a promise to god to make it work for fear of the shame that would come from failing again! What a winning pair! Who definitely did not mutually cheat on one another and then act scandalized and eternally vindictive about this.
Anyway, what this meant for Steph’s psyche was every day was an eternal battleground of loyalty tests. Any disagreement was disloyalty. Saying the wrong thing could be taken as disloyalty. Yet, y’know. You don’t want to be disloyal to the other parent that you love. You don’t wanna throw them under the bus. You just wanna say what you saw happened.
Which meant every answer became this tightrope of not only validating and appeasing one parent’s ego, but also finding the diplomatic thing to say so as not to implicate the other parent, or get that parent in trouble, or appear disloyal because that too could come around to bite you in the ass. Sometimes we agreed with what one parent was saying, but taking issue with a small part or one aspect? This was seen as fully disagreeing and being disloyal.
You can imagine the pressure this put on an already socially-awkward kid, ages 4-20, to find the exact correct thing to say. It rarely worked out.
But I figured out a clever loophole early on: if I shut down, if I didn’t make a peep, if I said not one word—sure. That parent would be mad at me for not responding. They’d be made I wasn’t saying anything. They might yell louder, or guilt me, or threaten me with some form of humiliation.
But not saying anything was so, so much better than any alternative. Never once did speaking up end well.
If you know about pavlovian training, you can probably quickly see the conditioning that was set in. Parent would state an opinion, about anything. Give validation. Parent looks for validation about shitty feelings about other people? Don’t say a peep, let parent be mad, and eventually they’ll either get so frustrated they give up, or they say their piece and get whatever was on their chest off of it. Either way, they leave me alone. Maybe after three hours of screaming at me, but three hours could turn into six if I made them more mad by disagreeing or seeming disloyal.
And for the record, when I talk about loyalty, I’m not saying they were asking about actual loyalty. They wanted me to agree with their opinions. They wanted me to be on their side, their ally, no matter what the other parent said. It was all or nothing. “You’re with me or against me.”
Made all the more complicated that sometimes, if you seemed disloyal to the other parent, the supposed “enemy” in the situation, the first parent might berate you for that too. “How could you talk about your mother/father that way? How could you say those things?” Despite having been saying worse things minutes before.
They were volatile. The smallest, stupidest things could become full-blown arguments that could last for hours, at the top of their lungs. After which they might turn that to us, the kids, to get out whatever was left in their system I guess. Small questions, statements, became tests. Answer wrong, and there would be hell to pay. The most innocuous things could become loyalty tests. But most of all, the most discerning tests came when they were complaining about the other. When Dad complained about Mom, and when Mom complained about Dad. “Agree with me,” they said between lines, “Are you on my side? Aren’t they terrible?”
I just wanted to love both of my parents. I never wanted to choose.
My epiphany came when I realized that when others seek comfort from me, when looking for validation during shitty events or people being mean to them—y’know, normal things people do with friends—I was having emotional flashbacks. I was being triggered into a state of trauma, my brain receding to that familiar shutdown state. Terrified that whatever I say to comfort them, whatever I say to help them feel better, would be taken as a loyalty test. To voice even slight disagreement could be disloyalty.
My friends had never tested me. But my brain was reacting so firmly and my body so wholly that I had no idea. I try to be aware of my emotional states and how my body reacts but this shutdown response has just been so normal for so long, and such a large bodily feeling, that I never noticed what it was. And it wasn’t until watching a video about this type of situation, feeling like you have to validate someone not necessarily from a place of concern but of fear, that I realized what was happened.
I realized how deep the rabbit hole went. This has been happening for decades. At work, when coworkers would complain or even just chat normally about other coworkers, my brain was shutting down out of fear that my loyalty was being tested, I was being scrutinized for disagreement. When customers talked about my coworkers, my brain was shutting down, terrified to say the wrong thing and either disagree with said customer or throw my coworker under the bus. I shut down when friends talk about other friends, when people talk about other people and maybe I agree, but there’s an aspect or idea in the situation that I don’t agree with, or maybe I’m just seeing things differently from an outside perspective.
But every time, I was terrified. I was so scared that my brain returned to trauma, returned to that shutdown state from childhood (and some adulthood), because shutting down, previously, had always yielded the better result. Staying quiet, keeping my head empty and my thoughts blank, kept me safe for twenty years.
And now I can’t hear other people talking in a room without returning to that same shutdown state, for fear that they are arguing and I will be forced to choose between people. To love one friend more than another. Forced to pick a side, forced to soothe their emotions because if I don’t, things will be so many times worse. Heaven forbid they have disagreeing opinions, even if they’re calmly sorting them out, communicating in a healthy way. God help me if they’re actually arguing. I can’t think, I can’t even speak sometimes, voice pulled tight like I’m being strangled; I can’t even squeak out a sound. It hurts too much. It hurts so much.
Sometimes I can hear people through my earbuds or headphones and all I can do is lay on my bed and plug my ears with my fingers as tight as possible and try to hum a song, try to force a mantra to drown out the sound as I desperately try to soothe myself with some kind of stim, even if it’s just rocking side to side on the bed.
I knew I had problems with listening to people disagreeing. But I realized the other day how deep the rabbit hole goes. How often, daily sometimes, I’ve been having emotional flashbacks. How thoroughly this has been effecting my life, my relationships, my sanity.
It’s been so exhausting. Realizing how many things connect back to this central issue of toxic loyalty that I grew up with, how thoroughly engrained this trauma is in my life. Realizing I’ve been having emotional flashbacks almost every day, for decades.
I’m so tired.
But I’m really glad I did. It’s putting a name to the beast. I am finally getting to the heart of an issue that was so much larger than I originally thought but in turn, there is so much potential to truly grow and heal. If I know the beast, then I can know how to face it. I can know how to use CBT therapy for this, how to weaken it to progress. And I’m really glad for it.
I also did something very hard: directly forcing myself to face it, and told my roommates about this deep-set fear. I realized that I don’t often just talk about how I’m feeling, I usually do so in the context of like having an issue or a problem that we need to talk out or talk through. I don’t usually just say, “I’m really really scared of this thing.”
I told my roommates this realization and like the wonderful, amazing friends they are, they understood. It’s an internal problem for me, something just for me to work on. It’s my issue. But now... they know that if I go quiet when discussing other people, or leave the room when disagreements are happening, I’m not just trying to blow them off or or be wishy-washy. I imagine there have been many times in the past when a friend has come in need of support and my answer came across weird or like I was trying to change the subject and it was awkward and not what they were hoping for.
Now they know that my response might be weird because I’m having a flashback. I’m scared, my brain is shutting down and I can’t think.
And that’s okay. It’s okay to be scared in front of my friends. It’s okay to experience that trauma in front of them. I don’t have to try to pretend I’m okay or try to push through the fear when I really, really can’t. It’s okay to need a subject change or even to just listen quietly if I don’t necessarily want my friend to stop venting, I just may not be able to answer in a beneficial way. I may be shutting down and sometimes all I can do is wait it out. And that’s okay.
I don’t have to validate other people because I’m scared. Because I think I’m being tested.
I felt better not just because talking about these things helps but also because a weight was lifted. One of my main triggers is feeling like I have to respond and have to respond correctly Or Else. But now that they know, that weight is off of my shoulders. I can be afraid and not able to respond and they understand why now. I don’t have to try to keep up that lie or try to put on a face or try to push through it.
I can be scared. And letting yourself be scared is the first step to healing from it. I don’t have to pretend to not be scared anymore.
I always know I’ve hit the hammer on the head when it comes to my emotional issues because I start crying and even just typing this out made me weepy, haha. It’s a good weepy though. I made a big step, and I’m really proud of myself. My instinct was to take this and agonize quietly over it myself, find my own solution on my own and deal with it on my own. But I didn’t. I reached out, and it was scary and hard and it hurt and now I’m so, so much better off for it, and now I can really start healing. I can change this.
God I’m so tired tho. Holy shit.
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hood-ex · 3 years
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Thoughts on Dick killing the Joker and how he feels about that now? I've seen fics that explore his regret and whatnot, but I've also seen ones where he says things like, "At the time I regretted it, but now I really wish he had just stayed dead." I personally feel like arguments can be made for both being in character (especially with the right context) but I don't really know enough to finalize an opinion
Lemme ramble a bit to pull all my thoughts on this together.
Okay, so, when Dick heard that Tim was “dead,” he told Babs and Dinah that he wanted to kill the Joker. Babs and Dinah were obviously like what the fuck are you talking about? You can’t kill Joker because that means he wins! 
And Dick said, “He’s already won! You were right... Babs... he wins every time.”
Dick is very aware that there is no such thing as justice when it comes to the Joker just as Bruce was made painfully aware of that after Jason’s death. 
The interesting thing was that Joker’s idea of winning in this specific scenario was to let Dick kill him because he knew his death by Dick’s hand would wreck Bruce. But it was a double edged sword because Dick would be wrecked by the idea of failing Bruce or losing Bruce’s love. And I feel like we should consider the possibility that maybe Dick hated the idea of disappointing Bruce more than he hated himself for actually killing Joker (this connects to the feelings Dick had with the Blockbuster incident as well). 
Dick admitted that he felt happy when he killed Joker. Like who fucking wouldn’t feel relieved knowing that the monster who killed your brothers (he thought Tim was dead) and countless other people couldn’t hurt anyone again? It would be as close to “justice” as Dick could get for the things Joker had done. 
Later on, Dick admitted to Babs that he felt like he disgraced himself and his uniform. I feel like Dick’s shame was amplified because of the fact that nearly the whole batfam was there to see the aftermath of what he had done. Bruce, Tim, Steph, and Helena were all there, and Babs already knew of Dick’s intentions when he left her place. Obviously, none of them were patting Dick on the back for this. That probably just added to the judgement Dick felt for what he had done. 
I think some of Dick’s feelings of self-worth are tied up in Bruce’s opinion of him. Dick’s moral development was initially influenced by his parents, but his morals were strengthened and tested under Bruce. To me, it seems like it’s possible that Dick’s self-worth tanked because he perceived that Bruce’s opinion of him changed, or that he was worried about being judged by Bruce, or that he was worried he would lose his family in some way. 
Not saying that Dick would be fine with the act of killing had the batfam not been there or had he not been worried about failing Bruce. Any person with a decent moral compass would probably feel a bit horrified with themself for taking a life. I mean, y’know, unless you’re someone like Damian who’s morals developed later in life. Killing someone like Joker would possibly not affect him as strongly... or at all. In which case, any feeling of shame would come from disappointing Bruce or Dick. 
Anyways. Basically what that all boils down to is that I think it’s okay for Dick to wish that the Joker had stayed dead but, simultaneously, I think it’s also okay for him to feel ashamed for taking a life. Regret is something that can come and go, and while Dick may have felt intense regret after the incident happened, he may not feel regret for it at all the next time he’s wishing Joker was dead because Joker just broke out and killed a bunch more people. 
There is no perfect balance, and it doesn’t have to be one or the other. It can be a messy blend of both. 
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Text
i finally got my dad to agree with me when i say mary morstan is a villain
hi steph! i’m not sure if this is the right place to go for my kind of submission, i would do an anonymous ask but my ask would be too long so i hope this is the right place to submit! my story isn’t anything fascinating, i’d just like to share it and kind of rant about it because i’m kind of proud of myself, for once.
basically, my dad is a sherl0lly shipper and a mary stanner. i’m a johnlocker, and i have been for a year (my anniversary of discovering johnlock and taking a closer look at sherlock’s sexuality was actually this month, i’ve been watching sherlock for close to two years), so when we have our little debates about sherl0lly and mary, you can probably guess why it bothers me.
admittedly, i can see why someone would ship sherl0lly, (i shipped a little bit of adlock before johnlock) so i can’t say i hate sherl0llians (people can ship whatever they want to ship), but it’s not my ship so naturally i’m going to hold somewhat of a grudge, and as someone who likes reading meta and drowning in subtext, sherl0lly kind of makes me want to throw my hands up in the air and yell “OH MY GOD, CAN’T YOU SEE THAT HE’S GAY?? CAN’T YOU SEE THAT HE OBVIOUSLY HAS NO INTEREST IN HER?? DO YOU EVEN WATCH THE SHOW??” but that would make me a bit of a hypocrite wouldn’t it?
and then there’s the mary conversation. now, i try to be as lighthearted as possible with the “sherlock loves molly and vice versa” argument, but when someone tries to argue that mary was not a villain and that she had a great marriage with john and that she was generally a good person who meant well and oh the classic “you only hate her because you ship johnlock and she married john and your ship wasn’t canon poor you”, i kinda, uh, lose it. which is what happens when my dad argues that mary wasn’t a villain, she had a great marriage with john, etc etc etc
so last week, i finally tried to set things straight. normally we argue about this in person, and i blank on my reasons why and he wins the argument (or so he thinks) but this time i wasn’t blanking, i had my notes open, and i was ready to fight if i had to (sometimes i look back at myself and shake my head “but it’s just a show..”).
here’s parts of my text:
“SHE SHOT THE MAIN CHARACTER. THIS A COMMON STORYTELLING METHOD.”
“she just shot him, completely fine with the fact that john would have to deal with sherlock’s death once again. SHE KNOWS WHAT SHERLOCKS DEATH DID TO JOHN.”
“to ‘not be a villain anymore’ that requires a REDEMPTION ARC and she DID NOT HAVE ONE.”
“the show will never be about john, mary, and sherlock. the show is about sherlock and john. that’s why she’s dead and that’s why it took john less than a year to get over her.”
15 minutes later, he texted me back. and he actually agreed with me. it wasn’t much of a text or an agreement but he did say “mary was a disappointing character.” and i consider that a victory.
a lot of my points were probably off and i probably could’ve gone really deep into subtext and mentioned some of my favorite metas, but some of that would require mentioning johnlock (my dad teases me when i talk about deep subtext and meta too), and my dad is a straight up homophobe and if he knew that shipped the two main male characters he would probably rip down the sherlock poster in my bedroom and never allow me to watch or mention the show again (which would really suck, sherlock’s kind of been a big deal in my life and it helped me cope with my anxiety and suicidal thoughts, it would be so sad for me to let it go).
anyways, uh, that’s the story! a lot of johnlockers have probably gone through the same thing before, my story isn’t anything special, but i felt like sharing it because i honestly never thought my dad would agree with me. like i said, a lot of points were probably off but it was worth my shot and i was kind of proud!
(Submitted by nat)
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Hey Lovely!
Oof, it’s always a super interesting to me when people tell me stories about “Mary is a villain” and their friends/family realizing that Yeah, she is. I spent far too much time analyzing her character for personal reasons, and I’m not gonna lie, reading this made me suddenly realize people are using the arguments I use is super humbling LOL <3
Sorry with regards to the homophobia, though :( One baby step at a time, I suppose <3
Thank you so much for sharing your story! <3 And if you ever need to drum up some more arguments, tonnes of meta linked on this post here which goes into why she’s an abuser :P
Cheers, Lovely! <3
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kimberly-spirits13 · 4 years
Text
For Wandering Dreamers (Pt. 2)
 Synopsis: After hearing your parents argue about something for what feels like the zillionth time that night, you escape to your books and comics for some escaping of reality. Just as the argument ends with slamming doors, a note and locket landed on your bed. Inscribed on the note was a promise of new adventures and a better life awaiting you.
Notes: Y/F/D= Your Favorite Drink  Y/N= Your Name   Y/N/N= Your Nickname   Y/F/P= Your Favorite Playlist
Warnings: None
Word Count: 1979
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          You woke up to the sound of someone trying to wake you up and small beams of golden sunlight peaking in through the curtains of your bedroom.        
           “Y/N, it’s time to get up.” You rolled over and rubbed your eyes to see Damian stepping back. His emerald green eyes sparkled in the light and you smirked some siting up and taking your hair out of the two braids that it was in, revealing wavy hair
           “What time is it?” You mumbled yawning.
           “it’s 9:15 in the morning. Alfred has breakfast prepared downstairs.” He informed you as you rolled out of bed fixing your shirt.
           “Thank you. I’ll be downstairs shortly.” You said, “Wait, where is the kitchen?”
           “So, you can make your way to the Batcave and the Fortress of Solitude but not the kitchen?” He chuckled, “You surprise me more and more every minute.”
           “Well, I have seen blue prints on Google of the house but it was how someone imagined it so I cannot guarantee that that is actually how to get downstairs.” “And also, you will find that I am in fact very impressive in multiple ways.” You smiled getting out one of the outfits that you packed.
           Running into the bathroom as Damian waited outside on the bed for you, you changed into your favorite colored thinner hoodie, denim jacket, dark grey ripped jeans, black and white Adidas, and you put your hair up. After that you brushed your teeth and then headed out to go downstairs with Damian.
           “Try and take the lead.” He challenged, “Just see if you can make it to the kitchen.”
           “Fine.” You replied walking down the hallway, eventually to a set of stairs.
           “Oh, what floor are we on Damian?” You asked.
           “Just the second.” He answered.
           “Cool.” You walked down the flight of stairs which seemed never ending and then to a double staircase that led to the massive living room and to the side, the kitchen.
           “It wasn’t that hard.” Damian remarked behind you.
           “Mhmm.” You rolled your eyes getting a small laugh from Jason who was leaning on the counter.
           “So, you must be Y/N?” Jay asked.
           “Yep.” You answered, “Oh Jason, just for your information, all of Tumblr wants you to know that you’re awesome.” “It’s a social media platform where I’m from.” You explained, “I don’t know if you guys have it.”
           “Finally, some recognition around here.” He threw his hands up in exasperation, “And what does Tumblr say about the rest of the crew?”
           “It’s pretty unsurprising really.” You answered, “Dick is the mother hen, you’re the awesome one that everyone loves, Tim is the sleep deprived little bean,” you laughed some and continued pulling up a link on your phone, “According to this, Damian is a small deadly cupcake, Cass is an amazing and beautiful person who everyone would seriously die for, Steph is a waffle queen, Babs is just a queen... no a goddess, Bruce is the mom jeans dad, and Alfred is superior to all. Oh, and Kate is a badass, Duke is the sane one, and seriously at the end of this it says that the writer would die for every one of you guys.” “So yeah, you guys are pretty popular.”
           Jason was wheezing laughing at Tim and Damian’s description and Dick was slightly offended before be introduced himself. You guys talked a lot much to what seemed to be the to the jealously of Damian for some reason. You wouldn’t admit it but Damian was your favorite Robin. You had had a crush on him but you know, that didn’t need to come to light.
           You sat down at the table and was talking to Damian again who was seated next to you as everyone sat down. They were asking questions and introducing themselves little by little. It was just as you had imagined it on the nights that you dreamed of leaving home or scrolling through some sort of fan fic. The breakfast was amazing and was enough to make you remember that you actually had a life outside of this. Plus, would Bruce pay for education? You weren’t really expecting that but it was the summer time so you assumed that there was no need to worry about that yet.
A few weeks later...
           You were walking around Gotham with Damian the day after the third gala that you had attended. It wasn’t hard to become fast friends with Cass, Babs, and Steph seeing as how they were literal queens of the entire Batfam and the rest of the family welcomed you with open arms, but recently you and Damian haven’t been spending as much time as the two of you would like to. It was something that he had “voiced” after kind of ignoring you for a few days which led to some interrogation on your end, plus some slight teasing.
           Finally, you guys were doing something that didn’t involve six other people, even if those *other people* were very much welcomed. The two of you walked down a sidewalk into a coffee shop where you proceeded to grab a table for the two of you and Damian got the drinks. He came back and smiled some, sitting down and passing you Y/F/D.
           “Thank you.” You said taking a sip from the drink.
           “Anytime.” He answered before the look of an idea graced his face, “There’s a book store not too far from here that you’d probably like.”
           “Is it a Barnes and Noble or just corner/ local shop?” You inquired.
           “It’s a corner shop just down the street. Trust me, it’s better than any Barnes and Noble you’ve ever seen.” He answered.
           “Wanna bet on it Dames?” You chuckled some.
           “Only if you’re prepared to lose Y/N/N.” Damian challenged, “If this is the most impressive book store you’ve ever walked into, I get to take you out on a date Friday night.”
           “Well, then, I might purposely lose, Wayne.” You smiled at him some, the look of brilliant trouble glazing over your eyes, “And if I win, you can take me out and kiss me after the store.”
           “I might do both regardless.”
           You raised a brow, “Well then, what are we waiting for? Let’s go see this awe -inspiring book store.”
           You guys walked down the street, swarmed by the media and paparazzi as they were getting pictures of Gotham’s newest unconfirmed couple. The two of you stopped in front of a store that read, “Corner- Shop Books.”
           “Straight to the point I see.” You said sarcastically as you guys walked inside.
           “Mhmm.” Damian looked to see your reaction which was almost immediate.
           The shop was bigger than you expected. There were shelves everywhere and a small sitting area near the middle of the store. In the back, there were stairs that lead to another floor of books and the seemingly infinite sea of literature drew in anyone that gazed into its glass doors. You were still for a second, admiring the large room and then walking around some, leaving Damian behind for a few seconds.
           To Damian, watching you was like watching a kid in a candy shop. You gently ran your fingers over some of the intricate spines of the books, making your way to the classical literature, and then myths, history, and up the staircase to where the fiction and fantasy was.
           He smiled as you looked so at peace in the world. It was the first time that he had really seen you this comfortable aside from some of the moments where you two were alone in the library reading or out in the gardens having conversations on whatever subject or topic you were interested in discussing. The thought that you guys might be here for hours crossed his mind, but was quickly brushed away once he saw the excited look on your face as you found something that was interesting enough to grab hold of your ever -wandering attention.
           “What is this one about?” He asked referring to the hard -back book with a beautiful pale pink and gold cover, and what looked to be part of a castle on the spine.
           You were reading the synopsis of the book before answering him, “It’s a book about a princess that comes from a lineage where the first of the family was a “god killer” of sorts. He defeated the goddess of death when she decided to take over the land and now the goddess, 300 years later, is back to reclaim her throne.” You stopped for a second, “It’s also got a male character who acts as an assassin for the king and may or may not be the romantic interest of the trilogy.”
           “The boxed set is right there if you’d like it.” He picked it up and handed it to you.
           “I’d like to not spend a ton of money on books until I find a job or something.” You said putting the book down.
           “I’ll get it for you. Just get what you’d like, the bookshelves in your bedroom are looking empty as of late except for the few you managed to bring. I can see how you stare at it sometimes with the look of dissatisfaction during some of our conversations.” Damian offered, joking some at the last part.
           “Dames, it’s okay I-“ He cut you off.
           “I insist Y/N.” He said handing you the box of books.
           You gratefully smiled at him and offered a thank you before continuing along in the store to hunt for more books. It was maybe three hours before you guys left. You had a few bags of books and thanked Damian profusely. He insisted that it was totally fine and you kind of stopped once you reminded yourself that he was, in fact, the son of a billionaire.
           Once back in the manor, you had run upstairs to start organizing your shelf, you know, as any book worm might. It wasn’t long before you got a knock at the door and you were pretty sure you knew exactly who it was.
           “Come in.” You turned off Y/F/P and waited for the person to come in.
           Damian walked into your room and shut the door, “So, about the bet.” He asked, “Was it the most impressive book store you’ve ever seen?”
           You thought for a moment, “Well I mean, the one in New York was really cool that one time, oh there was that one from Jersey...” You looked up and smiled, “Just kidding. And yes, it was by far, the best bookstore I’ve ever seen.”
           He smiled and walked to you, putting his hands on your waist, “Then I hope that you will keep your end of the bargain and accompany me to dinner Friday night?”
           “I will.” You replied, your breath hitching some at how close you two were, “I am slightly disappointed that you didn’t lose though.”
           “And why is that Y/N?” He asked.
           “Because now, you don’t have to kiss me.” You smirked some as he stared you intensely.
           “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.” With that, he pulled you into a long kiss, you ran your fingers through his hair at one point, and he pulled you dangerously close to his chest.
           Once you broke apart he spoke up, “Y/N, would you be my girlfriend?”
           “That’s an offer I cannot pass up.” You answered, “100%.”
           “Well then beloved...” You smiled at the name remembering it from the fan fics, “I hope you have something to wear for our date.”
           “I’ll find something.” You looked at your stack of books debating whether or not to start shelving them.
           Your thoughts came to a stop when you heard that dinner was ready, you would just do it while Damian was on patrol. You were a night owl anyways, so it wouldn’t matter.
Ya’ll I’m dying I haven’t had literally any sleep but here we are lol. I hope that you guys had a great Easter and are doing well. If you have any requests, please send them in. I hope that you guys are staying safe and are well have a good day and keep sane! 😊
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vikingpoteto · 4 years
Text
Red Robin under the spotlight
Read on AO3 
______________________
Relationships:  GEN. Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown & Tim Drake
Summary: Red Robin and Red hood are basically urban legends, no one is sure they're real. That is, until there is a picture of the two of them grinning at each other on Gotham Gazette's front page.
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Tim Drake is having… a day. 
Stuck in his office for the afternoon, he is praying for nightime to come soon so he can put on his suit and vent his frustration by beating up some unsuspecting criminal. He’d known being a CEO wasn’t particularly fun, but he didn’t expect the board of directors to be babies for so long. 
He skims his proposal for what feels like the hundredth time unsure of how to make it clearer that that is the best course of action for their investments. The fact that he is only 18 should not trump his very solid, data-based arguments. 
So he’s already in a bad mood and praying for a distraction when his office door swings open and Tam Fox storms in.
“Timothy!” she shouts. 
He feels like he's about to learn he should be careful with what he wishes.
“Hey, Tam, I missed you too?” He tries.
Behind her, his secretary makes a helpless gesture as if trying to communicate she tried to stop Tam. Tim gives the woman a tired smile and makes a dismissive gesture.
Ignoring that, Tam slams the door closed and repeats for emphasis: “Timothy.” She pushes an iPad into Tim’s chest. “What is the meaning of this?”
Raising an eyebrow, he takes the iPad and looks at the screen, noticing he’s staring at a Gotham Gazette article and… Tim’s heart stops.
The headline screaming at his face says RED DYNAMIC DUO? by Vicki Vale and beneath it…
“Oh god,” Tim whimpers.
Beneath the headline there’s a picture of him and the Red Hood. 
Or, well, Red Robin and Red Hood. They’re sitting on the fire escape of one of the abandoned buildings in Jason’s territory and both are seemingly at ease. Too at ease. There are two BatBurger bags at their side and their fingers are intertwined. Red Robin is staring at their joined hands with a wide smile. Fucking hell. Tim always makes a point of never smiling in front of anyone when he’s in his suit, he has a reputation to protect. He doesn’t know if it’s better or worse that Red Hood isn’t wearing his helmet, because it emans his open grin is visible as well - and thank god  Jason has the habit of wearing a domino under his helmet. 
Who the hell took that picture? How the hell did they go unnoticed by both Tim and Jason?
He then starts reading the article, every word feeling like a punch to the gut. 
Gotham City has seen its share of vigilantes over the years and, unlike public figures such as Superman, they prefer to keep to themselves, making many people wonder whether they’re even human. As a shot captured by an amateur photographer that chose to remain anonymous, we find out at least a pair of the many Gotham “heroes” are closer to us than we thought. 
The vigilante known as Red Robin Gotham's patheon of heroes a couple of months ago and little is known about him. He’s been seen working with the likes of Batman, Robin and even Batgirl, making us all think he’s one of the good guys. It seems like Red Robin’s circle of friendships doesn’t include only Justice League members, though.
The Red Hood, the man so tenderly smiling at Red Robin, is a notorious mob boss whose territory's size, GCPD especulates, rivals Black Mask’s. Red Hood wanders between both criminal activities and a violent brand of justice and, while he's been seen working side-by-side with heroes like Nightwing, a hero that since has only been seen in Bludhaven, no one can claim to have seen the Red Hood so comfortable around one of the bats of Gotham
The two young men were pictured in a tender moment. Could this mean that Red Robin is straying towards villany? Is the Red Hood is considering changing his ways? Or, perhaps, are we facing a pair of starcrossed lovers, separated by different set of morals, but still unable to stay away from one another? 
Tim makes an inhumane sound. The words  star crossed lovers  jump from the screen, burning his eyes and making him wish he was going over a dumb business proposal still.
“Well?” Tam demands. “What is that, Tim?”
“I don’t know, Tam,” he answers, his voice weak. “What on earth- How the hell… Oh, god .”
“Why were you hanging out with the Red Hood?”
“Stakeout,” Tim says simply.
“Why were you on a stakeout with the freaking Red Hood?”
At that, Tim recovers enough to feel a bit miffed. That’s the same tone she had last year when Tim was working with assassins and he gets offended on his brother’s behalf. Even if, you know, said brother had also been somewhat related to the assassins in question. In the past.
“Hey, Hood is not as bad as the news make him look. Sure, he’s not exactly clean, but he’s a valuable undercover agent and…”
Tam makes sounds of a woman whose white Valentino bag had liquid lipstick spilled in. “Does that mean you  are  dating the Red Hood?”
“What? NO!”
Tim pinches the bridge of his nose. God, what a mess. 
“He’s my brother,” he says. 
Tam looks like she goes through the 7 stages of grief in a very short time and, honestly, Tim feels for her. He likes Tam a lot. She is smart and strong and the poor girl has had to deal with so much since she and Tim became friends.
“Are you telling me… that Dick Grayson…”
“No, Dick’s not the Red Hood.”
She stares at the picture again and then at him. “This isn’t Duke or Damian, Tim.”
“You’re right. It’s a long story. I can’t tell you, though. I trust you but Hood’s identity isn’t my secret to share.” 
Tam closes her eyes and breathes in and out slowly. After all the crap she had to deal as one of Red Robin’s friends, a stranged brother that happened to be a crime lord (an anti-hero, really) wasn’t that far fetched. She didn’t know much about the Drakes because Tim didn’t talked about them, so, for all she knows, Red Hood could be Jack’s or Janet’s bastard child. Although Tim can figure her theories, he doesn’t try to explain anything. Whatever she works out is better than letting her know Red Hood is Bruce Wayne’s son brought back from the dead.
“Fine. You’re not dating a criminal. You’re a criminal’s brother.”
“I mean… if you think about it, I’m a criminal too.” He smiles sheepishly under her glare. “Being a vigilante isn’t exactly something I can put on my resume.” 
Shaking her head, Tam checks the picture again. “What were you even doing? Because it looks like you’re holding hands and finding it hilarious.”
“We… hm. We were thumb wrestling.”
She stares at him, her expression empty of any emotion. Tim cringes.
“Look, not everything is death traps and high risks, alright? Sometimes stakeouts get boring!”
“You were laughing your head off because you were having a thumb war with the Red Hood,” Tam deadpans.
“Hm. Actually the thumb war wasn't that funny, that was him cheating. I was winning so he kept talking shit about Dick’s past to make me laugh and lose focus.”
Tam finally sits down and she looks at ceiling as if she’s considering all the life decisions that lead her to this moment. At this point, Tim knows she’s just being dramatic, because knowing Red Hood cheats at thumb war for certain isn’t more shocking than the time she met Tim. 
“The thumb was isn’t important now, though,” Tim says. “ This  is a huge problem. Hood’s gonna be in hot water if people think he’s  friends  with a hero.”
He refuses to use the word lovers, because ew. Sure they’re not related by blood, but… ew. Tim  sees  him as a brother, damn it.
“Well, I’m afraid there’s not a lot we can do now,” Tam says apologetically. “The article’s been up since this morning. Even if we have them take it down, it’s already out there. #RedDynamicDuo is trending on Twitter.”
Oof. That’s… oof.
Tim intertwines his fingers and glares at the tablet in front of him as if waiting for the puzzle to solve itself. He knows it won’t, so it’s up to him to fix this. His burnt out brain suggests calling Bart and asking him to run back in time and stop that cursed thumb war. His practical brain has half a mind to call Oracle and see how much online evidence she can get rid of. He has to contact Gotham Gazette and threaten them into not putting vigilante’s identities at risk by posting such pictures, although he doesn’t hold high hopes for that course of action. What he needs now is a bigger scandal, although he fails to think of something more dramatic than Red Robin and Red Hood being buddies…
Right as he’s starting to feel a bit forlorn, his phone buzzes on the table. A picture of Dick smiling flashes on the screen and Tim allows himself to perk up for a moment. Dick for sure will be able to help him.
“Dick!” He picks up, full of hope.
Tim is greeted with cackling. Dick’s cackling.
He groans. “Richard.”
“AHAHAHAHA O-oh god, you… aha... b-baby bird, you… HAHAHAHA--”
Tim isn’t paid enough for this. He hangs up.
“Can you help me with this?” He asks.
“Don’t I always?” Tam quirks an eyebrow.
Smiling tiredly, he stands. “I’m taking the rest of the afternoon off. Can you take care of… you know… day job stuff?”
“I guess. Good luck with your… your family thing.”
 THE BIRDNEST
spoiler alert: *insert game of thrones joke here*
In the hood: Go fuck yourself, Stephanie
spoiler alert: not judging u bro he hella cute
WonderWing: steph please
cassandra cain-wayne: ?
send me a Signal: they’re talking about that picture of Hood and Red holding hands cass
yumm: were NOT holding hands
cassandra cain-wayne: I print that picture.
In the hood: W H Y ! ?
cassandra cain-wayne: cute :) 
spoiler alert: she right and she should say it
In the hood: Steph, turn on your location. I just want to talk.
yumm: stephanie I hv pics of u sleep drooling on me from that that 1 patrol dnt test me
spoiler alert: shut up red dynamic duo
 Tim hates the internet.
Barbara is kindly trying her best to muffle the online reaction, but there is only so much she can do without outright deleting people’s tweets. Tim knows for a fact that that would only cause a bigger uproar, so he asks her to settle for burying mentions of them under a fake algorithm. 
He has yet to think of gossip hot enough to top the rumors, but he doesn’t think even his fake engagement to Tam last year received so much attention. A glimpse into Gotham’s elusive heroes’ personal lives was too exciting to let go quickly.
When he walks into his apartment, he wants nothing but to take a hot shower and a nap. He knows he can’t, though. 
As well as he knows he isn’t alone. 
He plays it cool, walking in as though he doesn’t notice the person in the shadows. He drops his keys and phone on the nearest table as he would normally and turns around too abruptly to allow a reaction, his fist connecting to… someone’s palm.
“Nice reflexes, Baby Bird,” Jason says, quirking an eyebrow as though mildly impressed.
Tim groans. “Would it kill you to use the door?”
“It might, better not risk it.”
“It shaves five years of my life span every time I come home and you’re waiting in the shadows. Of all of Bruce’s habits to pick up…”
Jason simply shrugs. “So… what’s up,  honey? ”
“Ew, don’t say that,” Tim groans.
Keeping his nonchalant facade, Jason lets himself fall into Tim’s couch as though he belongs there. Tim heads to his room to change into more humane clothes.
“I’m assuming Dickie shared the news already,” Jason says.
“He couldn’t stop laughing long enough to say anything,” Tim replies from his closet. “Tam was kind enough to show me, though.”
“Tam… is that your ex-fiancée? Hmm… The news sure keep shipping you with everyone, speaking of which.”
Grumbling the whole time, Tim puts on a purple hoodie he might or might not have stolen from Stephanie and that he wears whenever he’s stressed. He wears that hoodie a lot. Heading back to the living room barefoot and feeling slightly more prepared to deal with the situation, he says:
“I’m assuming you aren’t here just to hang out.”
Jason gives him an unimpressed look. “I’ll give you three guesses.”
Tim blinks once. Twice.  No, it can’t be that… “ Everyone thinks you’re a rat.”
“Bingo.”
And this situation keeps getting better and better. Red Hood is feared enough that he can get away with hanging out with the goody two shoes every now and again and keep his rep. Being caught eating burgers and giggling with a hero was a whole new animal. 
They have to assume Hood’s safe houses were compromised as well. The point of having many hideouts is that you’re never left with nowhere to go, but even Jason wasn’t prepared to have everyone in his territory turn on him. That and they all had been raised and trained to be paranoid. It was too big of a risk to assume he’d be safe in a known place.
“Crap,” Tim mutters. 
“I considered ditching Gotham and spending some time with Roy instead…”
“But that would be as good as a confession. You’d never gain their respect again,” Tim completes for him.
Jason nods. 
The only silver-lining about this situation is that this is Jason. Granted he isn’t too angry to think, Jason is practical and willing to do what’s needed, even if it’s annoying or if it makes him uncomfortable. Tim likes working with him because of that.
“You know where the extra blankets are,” Tim says. 
Because, of course, if Jason can’t be at his own place and he can’t be with Roy and Kory, he’d crash Tim’s place. The manor isn’t really an option for him and Tim doesn’t blame him for that. 
“The plan of action?”
“I’ll let you know as soon as I figure out.”
Jason sighs. “I’m going to punch something in your Red Robin cave.”
“Be my guest.”
 Damage control is necessary, of course, especially for Red Hood’s safety, but there is something bothering Tim more. He opens the news and studies the picture. It’s a damn good shot, almost looks like it was staged. He closes his eyes and tries to remember that night. In order to take that picture, the photographer would have to be in of of the buildings across the street and they’d have to be good enough to go unnoticed not by one, but by two highly trained vigilantes, one of which had his senses enhanced by the Lazarus pit. 
He messages Babs quickly for more info on whoever sent those pictures to the news, but not even Oracle had managed to track them yet. It sounds like the photographer walked into Vicki Vale on the street and handed her the picture, because there was no digital footprint of such interaction.
Without any more ideas, he puts on his suit and heads out, glad that is patrol night. Perhaps punching criminals will give him some clarity.
Tim is nowhere near closing any of his cases and Gotham is unusually quiet because of course the criminals would choose tonight of all nights to be chill. The night Tim needs a crime. That’s why he’s more than a little thankful when a crackling sound in his comm lets him know someone’s trying to send him a message.
“Hey, hot stuff,” a familiar voice calls, “I have an underground gambling den to dismantle tonight, you want in?”
Red Robin smiles. “Is that a date?”
“I don’t know, is it? I don’t want Red Hood coming after me.”
“Batgirl.”
She laughs shamelessly. He hopes Barbara isn’t listening. Although the alternative would be Wendy listening, and he doesn’t know which one would be worse. Steph’s sense of humor isn’t for everyone and while, Tim doesn’t mind their inside jokes and got used to her eternal flirting, he feels as though those should remain between the two of them only.
“I’m serious, though,” Steph continues. “I don’t think backup is needed per se, but I miss fighting criminals with you. Plus I figured you could use a punching bag or two.”
He grins. He just  really  loves Steph. 
“Send me the details. I’ll meet you there.”
Turns out it’s a pretty standard burst for them. Gambling den covering a massive drug operation, because this is Gotham. Why wouldn’t they use an illegal thing to cover another more illegal thing? That sounded like a great idea. 
He finds Batgirl waiting for him on top of a building. She simply smiles and points at the shady alley down the street. 
“Gentlemen first?” she offers. 
“It’s your case.”
With a nod, she dives towards the ground and Red Robin follows her closely, frowning in confusion when she doesn’t dropkicks any windows. Instead, she casually strolls towards the back of the alley where a suspicious metal door that could easily go unnoticed if it didn’t scream CRIMINAL ACTIVITY HERE. Batgirl knocks at the door and gestures at Red Robin to stay away.
A slit on the door slides open and a confused crook tries unsuccessfully to see who’s there. With both vigilantes’ out of his line of sight, the poor bastard has no option other than opening the door to check. Batgirl swiftly pulls him into a headlock as soon as he walks into view and Red Robin’s grinning face is the last thing the man sees before the pressured applied makes him pass out.
Red Robin doesn’t figure what Steph’s plan is until she cuffs the unconscious bouncer and stands straight, offering her arm.
“You’re so dramatic.” He rolls his eyes, even as he takes it.
“Shush, you think I’m awesome.”
That he does. Especially when the two of them climb down into the basement turned illegal cassino with their arms locked as if they’re a couple. It’s cartoonishly comic how long it takes everyone to realize Red Robin and Batgirl are standing on the entrance, looking around at the 50 different illegal activities happening at once. 
Not as comic as when Batgirl shouts over the music: “Please, don’t stop on our account!”
The gamblers sober enough to freeze in horror. 
“Before we start, anyone wants to just give themselves in?” Red Robin offers.
That’s when guns start firing and all hell breaks loose. 
 The night ends, as it would, with Batgirl and Red Robin walking home a trio of strippers. The women weren’t to blame that their work environment was less than ideal and they certainly didn’t need to be left tied up waiting for the GCPD like the mobsters Steph and Tim beat up tonight.
Red Robin wanted to just watch them from the top ot the buildings and make sure they got home safe, but Batgirl insisted they walked alongside the women. Their costumes don’t look completely out of place near them and Red Robin doesn’t know what to think of that.
For a second, he thinks he hears someone behind them. Everytime he turns around, he finds nothing but an empty alley, so he shrugs if off as him getting hit tooo many times.
While Batgirl excitedly chats with two of the women about their future employment - one of them is in this line of work just to get by, the other genuinely enjoys sensual dancing as a form of art but wishes she could work somewhere better - when the third of them discreetly detaches herself from the group to walk closer to Red Robin.
She still looks tense and guarded, her arms tightly wrapped around herself and Tim wishes he had a jacket to offer her. The way she sideeyes him says she wants to say something, but is too nervous to start. Not wanting to betray his persona, he simply waits, trying to appear as non threatening as possible.
“Thanks a lot for savin’ us, Red Robin,” the woman says finally. “I can’t believe I’m meetin’ ya.”
He gives her a small smile. “I’m just glad you’re safe, ma’am, there’s no need to thank me.”
“I just wanted ta say… I get ya.”
Red Robin tilts his head to the side. “Ma’am?”
“The thing with your man. Must ta’ be hard dating the Red Hood. I know how it is.”
He was… He was getting sympathy from a stripper with bad taste in men.
“There’s nothing gross between Hood and I!” He lets out before he can help himself, his voice a little louder than intended.
The other women startle at his outburst and turn to him, wary. One of them reaches for what is clearly a pocket knife that she thinks is cleverly hidden in her bra.
He sighs. “I’m sorry, ma’am, just… Batgirl, I believe you’ve got things from here. I’m taking off.”
She gives him a concerned look, but ultimately nods. Under Batgirl’s and the three strippers perplexed glares, Red Robin grapples his way out of there.
 Tim wakes up around noon feeling as though he was hit by a truck, as he does when he sleeps longer than three hours a night. He slowly sits up and looks around his messy room, wondering how come he’s feeling so miserable. The smell of food stirs him into some sort of alertness.
Right. He’s not home alone today.
Yawning and scratching his belly, he forces himself to get out of bed. He know that the longer he stays the more likely he is to slip into a coma, his body demanding compensation for years of sleep deprivation. Tim drags his feet towards his kitchen where he finds one of Gotham’s most dangerous vigilantes humming to himself as he makes breakfast. Or Lunch. Brunch. Whatever.
“And here I thought I was the family’s zombie,” Jason says in lieu of good morning.
Tim grumbles something about his brother being too comfortable in Tim’s kitchen, but he doesn’t dare complain. Jason is probably the only person that uses Tim’s stove and one of the perks of having him over is that he does cook. A lot. 
The one disadvantage about having Jason over is…
A knife lodges itself on the counter in front of Tim when he tries to reach for the coffee pot. Tim didn’t even see him throwing it. He glares at his brother.
“Food first. Coffee after,” Jason says. 
“I’m too nauseous to eat, I just woke up.”
Again without breaking eye contact with the pot he’s stirring, Jason blindly reaches for a package of crackers casually left on the counter and hands it to Tim.
Tim makes sure to give him his best rebellious teenager glare before grabbing the stupid crackers and sitting down to eat them. Stupid Jason with his stupid boredom. Tim had forgotten Jason goes into full mom mode when he has nothing else to do and that he’s particularly obnoxious about Tim’s eating habits.
“I consume the necessary calories,” Tim mumbles over his cracker.
“Okay, Damian.”
Tim throws a cracker at him. Jason easily dodges without looking, which is kind of annoying.
After that, the two brothers fall into comfortable silence. Tim knows Jason wants to talk about their plan of action, but he knows Tim is nowhere near awake enough to hold a conversation. Besides, Jason doesn’t like being bothered while he’s cooking anyway.
By the time the food is ready, the crackers worked their magic and Tim no longer feels as though his stomach is ready to puke out its emptiness. He grabs dishes he hadn’t used in quite a while and sets the table for the two of them. The brothers start eating in silence, Tim slowly recovering his sense of self - no wonder he goes for so long without sleeping, he takes too long to reboot when he does - and Jason mindlessly scrolling through his phone. 
Then something on the small screen makes Jason choke on his food. 
Tim quirks an eyebrow. “You okay?”
“Hm… Timmy, you may wanna take a look at this.”
“What?” Tim takes Jason’s phone. “Oh, for fuck’s sake !” 
It’s another news article. The picture is fortunately less detailed, just a red and black silhouette against Gotham’s sky that may or may not be Red Robin standing over one of the many gargoyles. The text, however.  
RED ROBIN MAKES HOMOPHOBIC REMARK AND SHOCKS ADMIRER
Gotham’s newest vigilante busted an underground gambling den last night. Despite his heroic deed, his words after the fact were less than commendable. When questioned about his relationship with the Red Hood by one of the women he rescued, the hero allegedly said that there’s “Nothing gross between him and Hood.”
“Personally, I was shocked,” said the woman in question, Krystal Math, 25  years old. “Red Robin became my favorite hero when I heard he also has a dead-beat boyfriend. I was starting to finally see myself in one of those bats, you know? I couldn’t believe when he said being gay is gross. Never meet your heroes, I guess.”
   THE BIRDNEST
WonderWing sent a screenshot.
WonderWing: red robin is cancelled for homophobia, pass it on
Robin: Good. It’s about time we rid ourselves of him.
Cassandra Cain: Little brother does not approve gay rights? :(
yumm: im literally bisexual
spoiler alert: he avoiding the question
in the hood: #redrobinisoverparty
yumm: I hate this fucking family
 Tim hasn’t stopped pacing around the room since he read the most recent article. Those were his exact words by the letter, meaning someone had been listening. He doubts Krystal, bless her heart, was the one going to the news with his “homophobic remark”. 
Having basically given up on getting Tim to calm down, Jason is the one to get the porch door open for Steph. Because apparently she’s been learning from Jason and acquired his hatred for front doors. Steph knows how Tim gets, so she promptly ignores him and gets comfortable on the reading chair to check the article fully.
“This is nuts,” Steph says. “We were being careful. I made sure of it.”
Tim believes her. Batman and Robin are basically public figures at this point, even if they don’t interact with civilians if they can help it. Red Robin and the Signal were heard of and spotted around the city, but not a lot of people really  know  of them. Red Hood was basically a urban legend until recently and Black Bat sill is. Batgirl, however, is known for being a people hero. 
She was, back in Barbara’s time, stopped for a bit with Cass, but Steph embraced the old tradition whole heartedly. She would walk people home late at night to make sure they were safe, wave at little girls in the bus, talk to kidnapping victims until they were under heavy blankets handed by the police. Steph was extroverted and charming and she used that fully as Batgirl like she never could as Spoiler. That being said, she and Barbara always made a point to avoid pictures, security cameras and whatnot. If there was a hero good at hanging with civilians while unnoticed by the media, that hero was Stephanie Brown.
Tim’s phone is buzzing. He ignores it in favor of stomping around some more. 
“Well, something must have slipped your watchful eye,” Jason says, shrugging.
Steph glares at him. “Mine, perhaps, but are you implying someone went unnoticed by Oracle?”
“Well, someone obviously did,” Tim snaps, tossing his phone at the couch in frustration. “What happened after I left, Steph?”
“Nothing,” she says honestly. “I walked the ladies home. Krystal was a bit miffed but she didn’t say anything, so I thought she was just a shipper upset that her OTP wasn’t canon.”
“You think she went to the news after?” Jason suggests.
Steph frowns. “Why would she? She didn’t look like she had media connections exactly.”  
Tim’s phone, that bounced off the couch and fell with a soft thud on the carpet, continues to explode with texts. He sighs and stops to pick it up and finally answer them.
“Appearances can be deceiving,” Jason argues. Then turns to Tim: “You should look into her. I’m gonna check other possible sources.”
“Hm-hum, just a second,” Tim mumbles, typing furiously. “Damian is being a nightmare and asking for help on a case.”
“Wack. Are you telling him to solve his own cases instead of using your intell to impress Bruce?”
Tim glares at Jason.
“Really? C’mon, Timmy, we’ve been over this.”
Stephanie gives them a puzzled look. “You’ve been over… Dami being a nightmare?”
“Jason says that whenever someone is mean to me I should reply by attacking them where hurts the most,” Tim explains.
“He knows all of our weaknesses and he has the quickest thinking,” Jason says, frustrated. “The least he should do is stand up for himself with that knowledge!”
"Kinda rich coming from the guy that tried to kill him," Steph says, quirking an eyebrow.
"Steph," Tim scowls. "He didn't know me then and the pit rage--"
"Timmy," Jason cuts him off. 
Tim sighs. "Besides now I could off him in 20 different ways if he tried any of that shit again. There. Happy, Jason?"
"That's my baby brother."
Steph smiles at him. “You know what? You’re onto something, Jaybird.”
Tim interrupts his walk of worry again to smile a bit. Something about Stephanie and Jason agreeing on something is immensely satisfying.
Still, on the matter at hand, Tim says, “If I go off on Damian, Dick’s gonna get mad…”
“Then go off on Dick as well,” Steph promptly suggests.
Jason high-fives her. “Atta girl. Besides if Dick doesn’t want us to tell Damian to fuck off he has to work harder on teaching him not to be a little shit. Everyone here has a tragic backstory here and we all know Damian goes too far sometimes.”
Tim shakes his head again. “Regardless, Damian’s case will have to wait. We’re gonna go with your plan, Jay. And Steph…”
“Wow, no way, José. I’m just here as an eyewitness. I don’t want to get involved with homophobes and end up shipped with Jason or some shit.”
Tim glares at her. “I was going to offer you some of our leftovers, but since you’re not interested, that’s fine.”
While Jason laughs and Steph protests, he proceeds to look for his laptop, hoping this isn’t going to be a dead end. 
 “This is a dead end,” Tim declares.
From what he can find, Krystal wasn’t even paid for her impromptu interview. Apparently Vicki Vale showed up at her place to confirm the veracity of a story that she heard God knows where. 
Dick is in Bludhaven, but he insisted on facetiming them when he realized his brothers were struggling, even if he mostly just made worried faces from Tim’s phone as Tim, Jason and Steph exchanged notes. As a rule of thumb, Tim doesn’t involve his siblings in his cases since he became Red Robin, but this is definitely an all hands on deck situation. Tim isn’t desperate enough to get Bruce involved, but he’s getting there. Especially when Dick says:
“Babs couldn’t find anything in Vicki’s email or phone. She’s double checking all of Vicki's sources, but so far it’s been no good.”
“We could always get Vale and hang her by the ankles on top of some building until she talks,” Jason suggests. "Let's go old school on her."
Everyone ignores Jason. Tim stands for another mug of coffee. Dick lets out a frustrated sigh. Steph keeps watching all of them from the couch, where she’s been lying down and tossing gummy bears into her mouth for the past half-hour. 
When no one acknowledges him, Jason sighs and stands. “Alright, this’ been fun. I’m going to patrol.”
Dick frowns. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“He can’t vanish,” Steph says. “One thing is crashing Tim’s place to make sure he won’t get ambushed in his down time. If Red Hood goes AWOL he might as well admit he’s working with the Batclan.”
Jason nods. “If I don’t do my job, next thing I know Black Mask takes over my stuff.” 
“Can’t have Black Mask taking over his stuff,” Steph agrees.
Dick glances at Tim as though expecting him to disagree with the plan. Tim lets out a defeated sigh. “He’s right. Just… make sure to find a safe place to change into your gear so no one sees you. If there are any safe places, that is…”
Jason rolls his eyes. Tim knows he’s going full Robbie Downer mode, as Jason likes to call it, but he can’t help it. It’s not often that he finds himself without any ideas. He  should  have been able to solve this already. Since nothing comes to mind, he starts imagining unrealistic scenarios in hopes that they’ll give him some insight outside of the box.  AU in which I was never shipped with my brother by some nosey reporter. AU in which I went out Damian instead of Jason that night.
Tim groans in frustration. “Why did it have to be Jason? We could get away with me having a thumb war with literally anyone. If it was Batman out there, this wouldn’t be that much of a problem.”
“Maybe if you hung out with all your brothers and not just Jason there wouldn’t be as many rumors about you and Red Hood,” Dick mumbles.
Tim glares at the phone. 
“Really? You wanna go there? You wanna talk favoritism, Richard? Because you’ve been favoring Damian for-freaking-ever.”
“Drag him!” Jason cheers. 
“Tim,” Dick says, looking genuinely upset, “I love all-”
“Save it,” Steph cuts in. “We all have favorites Dick, there is no use denying it.”
Because Dick’s eyebrows are knitted in confusion, Tim clarifies: “Bruce’s favorite is Cass, yours is Damian, Jason’s is… I don’t know, his guns. Steph is my favorite, unfortunately. Steph’s favorite is Cass, Cass’ favorite is Duke, Duke doesn’t have favorites, he’s the only good person in this family, and Damian’s is also you.”
Steph nods. “You did it! You broke the Bat Family dynamics to its bare essentials!”
“And that is why Tim is my favorite. After my guns,” Jason adds.
“Jason, we do not rate our siblings.”
“That’s why you’re in last place, Dick.”
Ignoring Dick’s enraged noises, Tim sets his mug aside. “I’m going patrolling, even if today isn't my turn. Solo this time. Hopefully Red Hood and Red Robin being separate out there will help the rumors die down a bit.”
No one has a better idea - Tim’s least favorite sentence - so that’s what they do. 
 It’s another infuriatingly quiet night.
Red Robin stops a couple of muggings, scares the crap out of some drug dealers. At some point, he considers contacting Poison Ivy and asking if she has any corrupt CEO she wants help with. He could, you know. It’d stop Ivy from killing someone and on his last run with Harley Quinn she did let slip that Tim was Ivy’s favorite Robin. 
He almost falls mid swing at the memory, thinking he might be onto something, but then he remembers Harley hadn’t particularly recognized Red Robin as the third Robin. She was just ranting about how the new tiny Robin had no sense of humor and Ivy missed the last one. Besides of course Harley Quinn wasn’t feeding Vicki Vale some BatFanfic. Tim’s brain must be really burnt out if that’s the best hot take it can come up with. 
It’s almost 3am and he’s taking a pair of muggers that can’t be much older than Tim to the police. He’s about ready to call if a night when someone shouts:
“Red Robin!” 
He looks on instinct and his stomach drops when he sees Vicki Vale running towards him.  Crap.
“Red Robin, can I get a statement?”
He keeps walking. He’s just one dirty alley away from GCPD, otherwise he’d just tie the stupid muggers to his back and would use his grappling hook to get out of the situation, grapple safety be damned. The muggers gingerly attempt to hide their faces as the reporter runs to them swinging a digital recorder. Vicki acts as though she can’t see them.
“Red Robin, what do you have to say about the rumors of your relationship with the Red Hood?”
The rumors you created?  Red Robin quickens his pace and the muggers trip over themselves. He stares straight ahead, pretending he doesn’t notice the woman basically running in heels to keep up with him. 
“Are you ashamed of it? Is it because he’s a criminal or because he’s a man?”
Red Robin wonders if the muggers would walk the rest of the way and turn themselves in if he asked nicely.
“Don’t bother, lady,” one of the muggers says. “He’s a nasty bigot.”
The other mugger  nods and the two of them are wearing matching pouty expressions. Now Tim just feels bad. He didn’t become a hero for the recognition and he’s not in the business of doing PSAs like Superman, but he doesn’t want the strange socially woke criminal youth of Gotham to think they’re being arrested by a homophobe.
“I have no problem with two men in a relationship, I’m bisexual,” he tells the muggers. “Still, I’m not dating Red Hood. Just because I’m bi it doesn’t mean I’m dating every male vigilante I run into.”
At that, the two crooks look mildly surprised and suddenly they seem to feel a bit better about being arrested. Would you look at that. 
Red Robin delivers them to the police, painfully aware that Vicki Vale is nowhere to be found anymore. He feels like he’s going to pay dearly for being too prideful to let himself be mistaken for a heterosexual person. 
 Lo and behold, Twitter, on that very same morning.
@Gotham_Gazette:
Red Robin hints that he might be bisexual. “No, I’m not dating the Red Hood, just because I’m bi it doesn’t mean I’m dating every male vigilante,” said the hero on the rumors about his relationship.
        @dgraysonman hints??? he literally said he’s bi smh
        @stephssss wow only the male vigilantes? biphobic. let red robin date batgirl too
        @babsgeez be gay do crime, be bi serve justice
        @thomascommaduke no cops at pride, only Red Robin using a bi flag as cape.
“Timmy…” Jason starts.
“Don’t. Just leave me alone to die.”
“That’s fair, have a nice day.”
 At this point, Tim is surprised Bruce hasn’t intervened. As unaware of social media as Bruce can be, he’s always on the look for anything that might compromise their secret identities. Tim pulls two all-nighters in a row doing detective work and still makes no progress on his search for the person that sent Vicki that picture and overheard his conversation with Krystal. He fully expects Batman to jump him on his next patrol and give him a lecture.
When he comments that to Jason, he gets a confused look in response.
“You didn’t get a lecture? Bruce was the one that told me first. I had to hear about being careless for 20 minutes before I got home and could take off my comm.”
Tim frowns in confusion. Bruce had talked to him once or twice after the news got out and he didn’t comment anything on it. 
“That’s Batman’s psychological profiling,” someone suggests. 
Tim almost jumps out of his skin when Steph casually walks into the living room with a bowl of chips. 
“What are you doing here? And are those my clothes?”
Steph shrugs in the sweater that clearly doesn’t belong to her. “Jason and I are doing movie night.”
“Movie night,” Jason mocks. “She’s been here for the past two days. Did you seriously not notice, Tim?”
Tim’s jaw drops. 
Steph sighs and her expression turns guilty. “Fine. My mom is out of town for the week and Jason is a better cook than I am. Is it a crime to bum off your ex-boyfriend and his bizarrely talented in the kitchen brother?”
Before Tim can say anything, Jason interrupts: “What were you saying about Batman, Steph?”
She heads to the couch and starts looking for the remote, her feet propped on the coffee table. “B knows Jay will just shrug it off and deal with the consequences, hence the need of a lecture. If he annoys Jason, he’ll stop and reflect on it, even if out of rage. He knows Tim’s already overthinking and working his butt off to fix it, so he doesn’t want to add any pressure.”
Both Jason and Tim stand in dumbfounded silence.  Since when does Steph know Bruce so well?
She raises her gaze when the quietness stretches and quirks an eyebrow at them. “What? Am I wrong?”
“Hm. No. That’s pretty much what we’ve been doing,” Jason admits, if a big begrudgingly. “That’s annoying though.”
Steph simply makes a dismissive gesture and pats the sit beside her. “Tim, you need a break. Wanna join us?”
Tim hesitates. On one hand, the fact that Bruce trusts him that much is a tad touching… and knowing it makes him feel he has to solve this as soon as possible. On another… it’s kind of annoying that Bruce knows him so well and yet doesn’t think about offering any assistance. Tim is not stubborn enough to refuse a helping hand when he’s on a pinch.
“You’re not going to solve anything if you’re hallucinating from sleep deprivation, Timbers,” Jason points. “Besides we’re watching Avatar.”
“Fine,” Tim says.
If for nothing else, just to prove to Bruce that he’s  not an overworker and he can slack off in the absence of a parental figure.
Tim falls asleep in the middle of the second episode. Steph and Jason vow to take him to bed once they’re sure he’s completely out, but they only last until the end of the first season. The three sleep soundly on the couch for good eight hours and regret dearly when they wake up with necks too sore to fight crime for at least a day.
 Consequences. They always come.
Almost a week goes by in which the rumors are but an annoyance to Jason and a source of stress to Tim - but almost anything can stress Tim if he tries hard enough, so that’s not saying anything. Jason is still staying at Tim’s, but he’s considering going back to his own place when they go for three days with no new article and nothing unusual has happened. 
Until it does. 
It’ a rainy night Tim is going over reports for the next WE meeting when he hears a noise coming from the balcony. His stomach gives a familiar twist when he recognizes Batgirl hunched over the weight of one Red Hood. 
He rushes to her aid, already feeling nauseous. There’s no blood in sight but whatever happened must be serious if Jason is willing to let Batgirl give him a piggyback ride. Tim lets them drip water all over the floor and, in his panic, has half a mind to appreciate that Batgirl’s boots have enough traction that she doesn’t slip.
“What on Earth…”
“The most ridiculous thing,” Steph bables as she and Tim drag a very dizzy Jason to the couch. She then starts ranting so fast Bart Allen would be proud. “He was doing his thing as usual, but some of his people turned on him and there was an ambush and so many flipping people against one poor Hood and good god that guy shot his helmet at point-blank which,  damn , that was so stupid, of course the freaking helmet is bullet proof, it just ricocheted and…”
“Steph, calm down,” Tim interrupts. “Jason, can you report?”
When he gingerly attempts to take off his helmet, Steph takes over and undoes the safety measures before carefully removing it. There is a dent on the back part where he had been presumably shot. 
“Hm,” Jason grunts, squinting even behind his domino mask. “Ambush. Shot. Concussion. Very concussion. Ankle hurts? Prolly not broken, tho. Also stabbed?”
Tim nods. “Steph, get the medical supplies. Where’s the stab wound, Jay?”
Jason points to his thigh and there is an improvised bandage keeping him from losing too much blood. Considering how well done it is, Tim figures it’s Steph’s work. He nods and starts checking his brother’s vitals and making sure there aren’t other serious wounds.
When she comes back with the supplies Tim needs, Steph has her cowl down and a somber expression. She turns off the lights for Jason’s sake, the only source of light left on being the lamp near where Tim is already ripping off a piece of Jason’s pants to have better access to his wound. Steph sits by Jason’s side and grabs his hand, much to Tim’s surprise. He’s too busy taking care of the stab wound to ask, but he doesn’t have to. Steph breaks the silence:
“I’m so sorry, Jason.”
Jason gives her a confused look. “You saved my ass?”
“Yes, but…” Steph sighs and turns to Tim. “Babs is with the Birds of Prey tonight, so I was on my own. I was messing around with my comm frequency when I accidentally got into Jason’s. I heard the mess and it sounded like he was in trouble so I panicked. I went to get him and… Well, if there was any doubt that he’s working with the Bats, there isn’t now. It was too obvious that I was protecting him.”
Jason squeezes her hand. “Hm. Pigs.”
“Right. Then the police arrived and instead of leaving right away I stopped to make sure Jason wasn’t bleeding to death. More than a few cops saw me patching him up.”
Tim sighs. Well, shit. 
“It’s not your fault, Steph,” Tim says. “I mean… he literally wears a bat on his chest. People were bound to find out it isn’t just to stick it to Batman.”
“Is too,” Jason mumbles.
Tim ignores him. “The situation isn’t ideal, but we all prefer people knowing Red Hood is associated with the Bats than him being dead.”
“I died before.”
“We know, Jay.”
“Do not recommend.”
“We know, Jay.”
Steph fidgets a bit, still looking guilty, but ultimately nods. Tim is about to start stitching Jason’s wound closed when she says: “There’s more. You, hm, you know Renee Montoya?”
“The one valid pig,” Jason says. “I like her.”
“She was there. She helped a ton keep the other cops away from us before we could escape,” Steph says. “I think she wanted to check on Jason and…”
Tim stops moving. He knows Montoya, worked with her before and she’s a nice woman. That being said, she doesn’t have any connections to Hood. Why would she… Oh. The gay rumors. Damn wlw/mlm solidarity.
“What happened?” Tim asks, already fearing the worst.
“Hmmm, we’ll tell you, but I’m concussed, so you have to promise you won’t be mad.”
“Jason.”
Jason sighs. “Well. She asked about our relationship and… Hm. I might have told her we’re brothers.”
Tim stares at them. Steph is cringing and Jason is too out of it to care. At this point… Tim starts laughing, making the other two - even the concussed one - frown in worry.
“Aw, man,” Tim says between chuckles.  “What the fuck, am I right? I’m too old for this. Who cares? Not me! Fuck it. Fuckety fuck fucky-fuck.”
“I think we broke him,” Steph whispers even as Tim resumes stitching his brother.
They went from not-sure-if-real to a freaking cop knowing about their family in the span of a week. Tomorrow #TimDrakeIsRedRobin could be trending on Twitter and Tim wouldn’t care. Not anymore. Let them come.Literally everyone in his friend circle is a vigilante, a hero or a criminal at this point, he doesn’t even care about endangering anyone.
 It takes actually two days for it to hit the news. He’s alone in his office when Tam texts him a link to Gotham Gazette online. Judging by the lack of other words, Tim figures she’s cutting ties with him again.  
The newest article has no actual pictures, but a sketch of Red Hood standing with his guns pointed at the viewer and Red Robin standing behind him, his face only partially turned. The thing looks more like superhero fanart than an official sketch, but that never stopped Vicki Vale before.
 VIGILANTE FAMILY? by Vicki Vale
Red Robin, one of Gotham’s many masked vigilantes, was cause of intrigue recently. Many  people noticed the hero doing his work around Red Hood’s territory, something not even Batman dares on the regular. Speculation turned into a craze of theories when both red-themed vigilantes were caught sitting on a roof sharing a meal from Batburger and many thought perhaps there was more than your regular vigilante team up. 
Turns out the hero and the mob boss aren’t lovers, against popular belief. When questioned about the nature of their relationship, Red Hood snapped and confirmed one of the less popular theories: the two men are, in fact, related. “Red is right and he should say it,” said Red Hood to a bewildered policewoman. “Of course he’d say it’s [REDACTED] gross, he’s my little brother.” When asked about the conversation overheard by our reporter, the policewoman in question refused to give any more details and requested to remain anonymous.
It’s hard to be sure how such development came to be. The Red Hood has been active in Gotham for years as a mob boss and, more recently, a vigilante and ally to Gotham’s bats. While Red Robin is a newer vigilante, could it be that he was trained by the Red Hood? And how do the two brothers fit with Gotham’s oldest vigilantes? Unlike his older counterpart, Red Robin has been often spotted working side-by-side with the likes of Batgirl and Robin, making some question whether Red Robin is distancing himself from his criminal brother. However, sources spotted Hood being aided by Batgirl more recently. Could it be that his former sidekick is bringing Red Hood closer to the side of justice? More on the Red Twins as the story develops.
 THE BIRDNEST
spoiler alert: RED TWINS
WonderWing: R E D  T W I N S
send me a Signal: ~ * R E D T W I N S * ~
in the hood: uhhhh my bad?
yumm: dis is great
yumm: now im hoods stranged sidekick
yumm: i fucking hate u jason.
in the hood: hey, if you didn't want to be my sidekick you should've picked another color
yumm: screw u u dont own the color red
in the hood: I was born first
yumm: u died first 2
WonderWing: Tim!
spoiler alert: oof 
send me a Signal: wow Tim that was too far
in the hood: I’ve never been prouder to be your brother I taught you so well Timmy
send me a Signal: … I stand corrected. I sometimes forget everyone in this family is clinically insane
 “Hey Tim. There is discourse about you and Jason now.”
Tim lets out a whimper. 
“So apparently some people still ship you two. But those people are being cancelled because shipping incest is problematic.”
“Steph, are you planning on going home? I noticed you took one of my drawers.”
“There’s fanart of you two.”
“I don’t want to see it. That'll scar me for life."
“I’m DMing it to you. By the way there is civilian Red Robin fanart and for some reason they made you blonde.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, I guess it’s more fun to ship people with different hair colors. Should we dye your hair?”
“Why.”
“That way when you finally hook up with Co-”
“Finish that sentence and I kick you out of this apartment for good.”
 With the cat out of the bag, they start doing different damage control. 
Red Hood is now openly working with the Bats, so Steph and Cass dismantle Hood’s former safehouses around Gotham which mostly means getting Jason’s books and bringing them to Tim’s place. Jason suggests the places should be converted into something useful for the neighborhood, such as libraries or a community center of sorts, so Tim starts working on what needs to be done by WE to make that reality. Tim also makes sure Bruce pretends not to know Jason is using a lot of money illegally acquired to getting himself new hideouts.
They dance around the topic a lot and nothing is really said until Steph brings it up. Steph, whose mother returned days ago. Steph, that definitely doesn’t want Jason to leave, because apparently she suddenly has a new favorite ex-Robin. Steph, that is currently eating homemade waffles in Tim’s kitchen, even though Tim is 83% sure she didn’t sleep over last night.
“Why doesn’t Jason just moves in?” she asks.
When neither boy replies immediately, she continues:
“I mean, it’s more practical, isn’t it? Tim’s place is already secure, he has a hero hideout downstairs and you two already work together all the damn time. Tim’s office can be converted into a room for Jason, because, let’s face it, I spend most of my free time here and Tim never uses it. I once saw him take his laptop with him to the bathroom and then return to the kitchen table instead of using the office. We wouldn’t even have to take the shelves, because Jason would fill them.”
They exchange a look. 
“You know, she’s right,” Tim says. He shrugs like it’s no big deal, really.
He isn’t nervous at all while Jason stands there, his expression unreadable. It’s not like he enjoys way too much having his brother around and got way too comfortable with having a roommate and a half (if you count Steph) on the past weeks. Tim doesn’t care, he’s cool like that.
“I mean. I guess having you as a roommate beats living alone,” Jason finally says.
Tim fails to hide his grin. “We can start working in turning the office into a room this weekend.”
Jason smiles back and messes his hair. 
Tim’s first theory is that Steph wants Jason off the couch so she has an official place to sleep, because apparently Jason’s cooking is that good.
His second theory is that she noticed how happy Tim is to finally share a house with family. The Wayne Manor had been home for a while, sure, but despite Alfred’s best efforts the place wasn’t the coziest. It wasn’t the same as sharing an apartment with a brother, bickering about sharing chores and openly discussing their night jobs before shifting the conversation to a video game they want to buy. Sharing actual meals and making sure one another wouldn’t end up dead in a ditch.
Tim decides to stick with his first theory, after all it’s easier for Steph to make Red Twins jokes if Jason and Tim are under the same roof. 
 Even without new gossip, the idea of vigilante brothers is too interesting for the general public to let go. Tim and Jason start acting mostly in the shadows and having no interaction with civilians at all and they’re still the topic of Gotham’s variety shows and online discussions from time to time.
Because they don’t slip again, Bruce has yet to bring up the subject with Tim, but the mystery remains. Who listened to all those conversations and how? Tim keeps expecting the other shoe to drop, to get a message demanding ransom for their secret identities, something,  anything , but nothing happens. Nothing freaking happens and he’s never been this frustrated.
That is, until, it happens. The ultimate betrayal. 
Dick’s next visit coincides with the time Cass is over for the week. Because Bruce is secretly a sap in the wrongest way, he suggests they all go patrolling together. Such great family time. 
Despite their initial protests, they must all be the same kind of freak, because they all agree. They split up soon to cover more ground, but keep their comms on so it still feels they’re all in a big menacing group. 
Red Robin is somewhere near the crime alley when Nightwing announces he noticed some of Two Face’s goons getting into a building. He checks his wrist pad for their locations and notices Nightwing isn’t that far from where he is. The next closest person is Red Hood.
“I’ll take care of it,” Nightwing says over the comms.
“Negative. Two Face himself might be there,” Batman intervenes. “Wait for backup. The Red Twins--” And he stops himself as though realizing what he’s saying.
“Batman!?” Red Robin gasps in a betrayed voice. 
Nightwing is already having a laughter fit over the comms almost drowning the sound of Bruce’s disappointed sigh.
“I’m sorry, Red,” his father says and he even forgets to use Batman’s scary voice. “Nightwing and Batgirl have been saying it so much that-”
“Save it,” Hood groans. “And stop laughing, Jerkwing!”
The worst part is knowing that, even if he solves the mystery, the Red Twins thing is probably going to follow him to his untimely death. 
 Tim all but lost hope when he gets an email from Barbara. “To my favorite Red Twin” says the subject. He groans, but opens the email, because one does not simply ignore a message from Oracle. Then he almost drops his phone. 
Attached there is a grainy picture of a young woman talking to Vicki Vale. The image had certainly been enhanced digitally as it’s probably from a shitty security camera, but you can still see the woman’s face clear as day. She looks like she’s handing Vicki something, her shoulders tense and her expression wary. The body of the message is, most likely, the woman’s personal info. Her name is Lisa Harris. She is 27 years old. She lives somewhat close to Jason’s territory. And, most importantly, Babs added to the end of the message:
The picture is from the night before the Red Twins article ;) Vicki didn’t talk to anyone other than her coworkers and our pal Lisa on that night.
Jason comes out of his room when Tim trips on the coffee table in his hurry to stand. “What’s up?”
Tim hands him the phone. Jason’s eyes grow wide. “I don’t care about subtlety. We’re both going after this chick.”
“Agreed.”
“Should we wait for Steph? She’s gonna be mad that we went when she’s in class.”
“Jason, Steph doesn’t live here.”
“Doesn’t she, though?”
“We’re not waiting for Steph. She’s not involved.”
“Aight, but when she’s bitching I’m gonna say I remembered her and you said no.”
 They leave their bikes behind first for stealth sake, but mostly because the place they’re going isn’t that far from their place. Tim shivers at the thought of someone so dangerous living near him. He wonders what kind of information Lisa might have gathered and for how long she’d been watching them. Is she a new enemy? Perhaps a member of the league?
The shitty building she lives in doesn’t suggest that. It’s just another grimy Gotham apartment complex that didn’t age well. The place they’re looking for doesn’t have a balcony, only a useless fire escape so rusty it would probably crumble under any sign of flames. It’s a perfect hiding spot, because nothing suggests a villain lives there. It’s just a building, home to many underpaid bachelors, nothing too suspicious about it.
Red Robin reminds Hood of that before they nod to each other and split. Jason goes into the building with a ton of confidence, for such a big guy trying to go unnoticed. Tim uses his grapple to reach the right window, not trusting that fire escape for even a second. 
The window is open and he finds himself looking at a place not that different from the one Jason lived before moving in with Tim. Mismatched furniture of the living suggests whoever lives there didn’t have money for fancy decor or that they don’t mind how the place looks. However, something about the place looks… well, lived in. It doesn’t look like a criminal temporary hideout, but rather someone’s place.
As he hesitates, a woman walks in. The woman of the picture, Lisa Harris. Her long blonde hair had been tied in a knot on top of her head and she’s getting ready for bed, if her oversized T-shirt and pajama pants say anything. She’s holding a bowl of cereal.
She reminds him of Steph and that causes him to hesitate for a second. What if this girl is innocent? Their evidence is circumstantial. Maybe she just happened to talk to Vicki Vale at the wrong time.
That hesitation costs him dearly. The woman appears to feel his eyes burning the back of her head. She glances at the window and their gazes meet.
Crap. 
Lisa inhales sharply and drops her cereal bowl. Before he can reassure her of anything, she’s bolting for the door. He pats himself in the back for his backup plan, because just as she opens the door she runs right into Red Hood’s chest. Lisa stumbles backwards, her expression horrified.
“Knock knock?” Hood quips.
She lets out a squeak and guilt makes Tim wince. Once again he opens his mouth to tell her they’re not here to hurt her when she… vanishes. 
She simply disappears right in front of their eyes.
“Shit, she’s a meta,” Hood hisses. 
Red Robin’s thoughts fly a thousand miles per hour, finally making the conexions he stupidly missed for so long. Of  freaking course.  He was so used to dealing with a bunch of idiots in colorful costumes and assassins and whatnot he hadn’t taken in consideration that ninjas aren’t the only exceptional enemies they face. And if his theory is correct. 
“She’s still here,” he says. “If I’m right, she can turn invisible. That’s how she’s been listening to private conversations.”
A soft gasp follows his statement and Hood is moving almost as fast as Red Robin’s insights. An invisible woman is still solid and her clumsy footsteps are still audible, so on the moment that follows Jason seems to embrace air. 
“No!” She cries out, flashing in and out of sight for a few seconds.
“Careful,” Red Robin warns.
Hood is wearing his helmet, but Tim knows him well enough to know his brother is glaring at him as if saying  duh?  
Lisa tries to stomp on Hood’s feet, she squirms and grunts, but he doesn't budge. Apparently invisibility is her only power and she looks terrified.
“It’s okay!” Red Robin hurries to say. “We’re not going to hurt you!”
She turns her frantic gaze to him. Her brown eyes suddenly become watery. 
Shit.
“Hood, let her go,” Red Robin says. 
“Seriously?”
“Yes. You’re not going to try to escape again, are you, Lisa? We just want to ask a few questions.”
He wishes they had waited for Steph.
Lisa hesitates, paralysed, but slowly nods. Her eyes never leave Red Robin once their gazes met, not even to check whether Hood is going to let her go or not.
“Hood,” he calls again. 
Groaning something about being too trusting, Jason lets her go. He is gentle about it, too, making sure to let her feet touch the floor carefully instead of simply dropping her. Regardless, as soon as she’s left to stand on her own legs, her knees give in and she drops on the floor. At that, Tim can tell even Jason is hiding guilt behind his helmet.
He shakes his head to regain focus and crouches in front of the woman. If at this point they just apologize and leave, they’ll have traumatizes this poor woman for nothing.
“Lisa Harris,” he starts. “That’s your name, right?”
She trembles when he says her name and that should have been the first red flag. He blames it on the stressful situation and moves on.
“I’m sorry for startling you,” he says. He keeps his expression empty, even if he again can tell Jason is cringing at the understatement. “No one here is going to hurt you. We just want some answers. Is that alright?”
Her hands are balled tightly on her lap as though she’s making a lot of effort not to move them - perhaps to punch them, defend herself? But again she doesn’t look prone to start a fight.
“You’re him,” she whispers, her voice heavy with… something. It almost sounds like affection. “You’re really the Red Robin. In my room.”
That  red flag is harder to ignore. He is about to check for other shock symptoms when Hood calls.
“Hmm… Red? Are you seeing that?”
He follows his brother’s gaze… and his chin drops. On the wall opposite to the door hangs a giant corkboard. On the corkboard, held by black and red tacks there are dozens of Red Robin pictures. Some blurry, some taken from so far that you can barely be sure it’s really Red Robin or not, the infamous picture of the thumb war (demon horns had been disturbingly scribbled on Jason on that one) and… He doesn’t have words. 
“You’re my hero!” Lisa claims.
“Is he? I couldn’t tell,” Hood says.
Red Robin punches his knee, which is all he can reach from where he is, and turns his attention to the woman in front of him.
“Lisa, for how long have you been following me?”
“Since you saved me,” she says. “Well… Hm. You didn’t save me. But you stopped a heist at the Central Bank a couple of months ago and I was there. I could've died without you.”
Aw, crap on a stick.
“Do you… do you know who I am?”
“You’re Red Robin,” she repeats.
“He’s asking about his identity behind the mask.”
The way she glares at Jason doesn’t suggest she had been shaking in fear moments ago. “He’s Red Robin,” she insists. “I don’t need anything else.”
“If you don’t know… how do you have so many…” Hood gestures vaguely at her creepy corkboard.
“I did detective work,” she says and glances at Red Robin as if expecting a pat on the back. “I noticed you always go on patrol on mondays, wednesdays, fridays and saturdays. Then if I wandered around long enough… It was just a matter of hard work and bit of luck, really.”
Damn. Now that Tim thinks about it, the one time he went on patrol spontaneously was also the night Vicki Vale found him by coincidence rather than magically knowing what happened. 
“Fuuuuck,” Hood groans. “I told B patrol schedule was a dumb idea!” Then, in a deep growly voice, “ It’s a matter of efficiency Hood, don’t be paranoid. Who’s paranoid now, Batloser?”
“Not the time, Hood.”
“Right. Proceed.”
Red Robin sighs. “Why did you sell my pictures to Vicki Vale?”
At that, Lisa looks suddenly ashamed. “I.. I’m sorry. I thought… I thought you were  involved  with  him  and I panicked. I thought… I thought seeing what it would do to your reputation would make you see that he’s not good enough for you.”
“Rude.”
“Hood.”
“What? She is.”
“I was trying to learn more about him, you know? I was. When I found out he was your brother, I realized you had no option, right? Family is family. I even told the news again to clean your record.”
So he had a stalker. A stalker concerned about his love life, no less, that’s… great. Just great. Of all the scenarios he considered they’d have to face, this is not one of them. Before he decides what to do, however, Lisa speaks up again. 
“You sound so… nice.”
Tim stares at her in confusion, unsure whether to thank her or not. Regardless, she didn’t sound like she was complimenting him.
“I mean… aren’t I supposed to be?”
“No! I mean… you’re… you’re dark and brooding and serious and you don’t waste time with civilians unless forced…” She frowns and Tim figures she’s thinking about the night with the strippers. “You’re… the night.”
Jason snorts. Tim punches his knee again. “Lisa, I’m pretty sure you’re thinking of Batman, not me.”
Her expression twists in such fury both vigilantes prepare to restrain her, but instead of directing her anger at them, Lisa scoffs.
“Don’t  get me started on Batman! All that crap about being mysterious and working alone? Then he joins the freaking Justice League? Just… Batman, in the middle of a bunch of rainbow wearing clowns. And then… all those freaking kids. Why does he have so many kids?”
“Lady, we ask ourselves that everyday,” Tim admits.
Lisa is wearing the same expression Krystal had when Red Robin denied his relationship with Hood.
“I’m sorry, Lisa, I’m grateful that you admire me, but you can’t keep following me like this.”
Her eyes teary again, Lisa swallows dry. “Clearly, if you’re  sorry  about it.”
They can’t exactly take her to Arkham for taking pictures. Tim feels less bad about the whole thing when the woman stands and starts telling them in a  very loud voice  to get the hell out of her house.
“Fine,” Jason says, heading to the corkboard. “But I’m taking this.”
“Take it,” she shouts. “I don’t need it anymore. You’re  just like Batman!”
And that’s how Red Hood and Red Robin find themselves standing in the middle of a dusty hallway, Hood with a conspiracy board under his arm. 
Well, that happened. 
 In the end, Steph  was  furious about them going to the stalker’s house by themselves, but there was not a lot she could do except doodle on every picture of the stalker board. 
There must be something very wrong with their sense of humor, because their text group becomes a mess of jokes about the stalker Robin being stalked. At that Tim has no problem exercising Jason’s lessons in holding grudges and refuses to help them with any of their cases unless they stop it. The thing is that all of them find the whole thing hilarious.
All of them except Duke.
“Give it a while,” Tim tells him. “You’re the most recent acquisition to the family. In due time your idea of funny will be just as warped as ours.”
“Hm. When was the last time you slept, Timmy?” Duke asks.
“Tuesday.”
“Today is Tuesday.”
“Hahahaha yeah.”
“... Jaaaaasooon! Come over here! Tim is going into The Ring territory! Do something about it!”
Bruce doesn’t find it funny either. He isn’t happy that there’s a deranged meta he didn’t know about, but Tim thinks that was the least surprising part of the whole ordeal. He reckons a lot of metas doesn’t want to be a hero or a villain, they’re just regular people that live regular lives and happened to win in the metagene lottery. 
Or… well. In Lisa’s case, not so regular.
And that’s why upon hearing the story for the first time, Bruce  completely freaks out. He starts considering possibilities from scaring the woman as Batman - “That’s a terrible idea, dad, you heard she likes that shit,” says Dick over facetime - or having her arrested - “Father, having bad taste in men is hardly a crime. She has yet to do anything to harm Timothy” Damian helpfully reminds him - and finally to fill out a restraining order - “For who, Karen?” Jason snaps. “Red Robin? Or you want to walk into that nut job and tell her she’s not allowed near Tim Drake-Wayne?”
Long story short, it’s chaos. Tim has had enough of a crazy night, so he sits back near the training area of the cave and sips the tea Alfred made him. Bruce is doing Tim’s stressed out circuit, pacing back and forth around the cave while his children follow him - Damian is holding the phone higher than his head so Dick can talk to Bruce at eye level - and they try to talk him out of doing anything stupid.
Most of them, anyway. It looks like Duke is definitely looking into the possibility of a restraining order.
Cass detaches herself from the mess and heads towards Tim. She looks calm, as Cass always does, and some of that calm transfers to him. When she takes a seat by his side, he smiles at her.
“Okay?” she asks. 
Tim shrugs. “Weirded out, mostly. I���ll be fine.”
She points at her then signs Tim’s house as a question. She’s asking him if he wants her to come over.
While Cass is one hell of a bodyguard, Tim thinks of Steph, who’s most definitely playing with his video games back at home, and of Jason, whose schedule mostly matches Tim’s, hence he is, more often than not, at one shout of distance. Tim can’t think of any place that feels safer than his home right now.
“I’m fine. Jay and Steph are taking care of me. I’ll just have to be twice as careful during patrol,” he says.
Cass nods, satisfied. She gives him a forehead kiss and leans against his side. The two of them watch their family yell at each other for the next ten minutes, matching serene smiles on their faces.
 Bruce settles for keeping Lisa under occasional watch. 
Barbara stalks her online and finds that Lisa has left a Red Robin fanclub (Tim did not know those existed) and closed all of her threads on the Red Robin subreddit (Tim knew about those, but kept his distance), making it seem that learning that Red Robin is just a polite-ish kid really killed her love. 
Bruce says he’ll keep tabs on her because he know she’s a meta, it’s not like he’s being overprotective, he totally knows Tim can take care of himself, really. 
Other than that, Bruce is way too happy about Jason’s new living arrangement. He even  almost smiles. 
 Tim… is fine. The whole thing is creepy, for sure, but he finds out that his siblings making so many jokes about it makes it easier to handle. Yay for their unhealthy coping mechanisms. 
He doesn’t think he will ever be okay with media, though. It’s annoying enough that he has to deal with reporters as Tim Drake-Wayne, he definitely doesn’t need the attention as Red Robin. 
Luckily for him, his siblings help him with that too. One time he’s wrapping a gang bust with Nightwing when a reporter comes running towards them, begging for a few answers. Red Robin cringes inwardly realizing there are no close buildings to use his grapple, but before he can say anything, Nightwing squeezes his shoulder. 
“Go, Timmy. I’ve got this.”
Tim smile. “Thanks, Dick.”
And he leaves the silent and swift way only a Bat can do. 
 Things are great. As great as they can be in Gotham, at least. Tim wakes up at 9am - an early time for a vigilante, but he got at least 5 hours of sleep, so that’s something - and heads to the kitchen. He finds Steph (who still swears she doesn’t live with them) and Jason bickering over pancakes they’re making. Smiling to himself, Tim mumbles a good morning and starts washing the dirty dishes from last night.
The peaceful morning is interrupted by Steph’s phone buzzing. She use a paper towel to clean her hands before checking it and…
“Uh… Timbers?” she calls.
He freezes, the pan he’s washing suddenly forgotten. “What now?”
Steph is trembling with contained laughter when she hands him the phone. Duke just sent her a link to a news article. Tim clicks and finds himself staring at the headline RIVALRY BETWEEN HEROES? followed by a clear picture of Nightwing and a blurry shot of Red Robin.
The article follows:
After dealing with an infamous gang of contrabandists that operated near Gotham’s harbor, Nightwing and Red Robin went their separate ways without much courtesy. Despite the short collab, it appears that Red Robin didn’t appreciate Nighwing’s help, his farewell words being a sarcastic “thanks” followed by calling Bludhaven’s hero a “dick”.
Tim raises his eyes to the other two. Steph is hiding her face into the crook of Jason’s neck, her shoulders still trembling a bit. Having read the article over Steph’s shoulder, Jason is biting his lip.
Tim deadpans: “This is the funniest shit that ever happened to me.”
The three of them explode in laughter and they cackle for a good minute, until the three of them are breathless and their cheeks hurt.
“I-I want to print that and frame it,” Steph manages between giggles. “Let’s hang it on the living room.”
“Good… ahaha… Good work, Timbers,” Jason says, smiling wide. “For that, you can have extra pancakes.”
Tim is still grinning when he goes back to his dish duty. Maybe being under the media attention isn't so bad after all.
32 notes · View notes
bigskydreaming · 4 years
Text
Due to having the numbers, the social dynamics within the Wayne household are flipped. People outside Wayne Manor look down on Dick, Jason, Cass and Duke for their lack of a social pedigree. But within Wayne Manor, Dick, Jason, Cass and Duke razz Bruce, Tim and Damian for having one in the first place.
“This makes no sense,” Tim protested. “Jason went to a private school while he lived here and I’m the one who actually went to a public school after I moved in! How am I the one on the butt end of all this?”
Jason hummed absently. “Those who are born with a silver spoon die with a silver spoon, Tiny Timothy. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.”
“A, that also makes zero sense. B, call me Tiny Timothy one more time and see what happens and C, you’re literally making this up as you go along.”
“Dude, you do know you argue like you’re holding a powerpoint presentation right?” Duke threw in from where he was lounging in an arm chair. Upside down. His head and shoulders on the ground, legs in the seat of the chair. Further proof that Dick should not be left unsupervised around new siblings. “Like, what’s the deal with that?”
Tim’s head swiveled ominously, eyes narrowing as they zeroed in on the younger boy. 
“I’ll get to you in a minute,” he growled in a voice reminiscent of Batman, but in theatrics that were born more of further examples of Dick’s terrible influence.
“Hey, what did I do?”
“You picked a side,” Tim said dismissively, turning back to face Jason, who seemed preoccupied with his phone.
Duke attempted a shrug. It didn’t go well. “Well yeah, but their side had Jason.”
“Our side has Damian,” Tim countered, before stopping and looking vaguely unsettled as he realized what he’d just said. Damian’s head snapped up from where he was lying stretched out on the floor, drawing in his sketchbook. His eyes were so fixed and flinty on Tim, they practically sparked as the youngest silently dared him to continue in that vein.
Not actually being anymore capable of backing down from a terrible idea than any of his siblings, Tim continued undeterred. “See? He’s vicious.”
Duke just shrugged again, a little more successfully this time. It still looked weird. “Yeah but Jason has viciousness and body mass.”
“As the self-appointed judge of this tomfoolery, I rule that Duke’s logic is sound and his choice was the right one. The moral high ground here is his,” Stephanie weighed in from where she was sitting cross legged on the floor, painting Dick’s toenails. The eldest was sprawled across the seat of another armchair, legs draped loosely over the armrest. He was sound asleep despite the commotion, having been up three nights straight tracking down a gun smuggling ring. 
Steph was four toes in, wielding a garish neon magenta polish like she was Monet and this was her greatest masterpiece. Damian almost lost an eye when he made a token effort to protect his brother’s dignity, but then Dick started snoring and that ship sailed.
Many, many pictures had been taken.
“How does that in any way constitute having a moral high ground?” Tim asked with a sigh.
Steph cocked her head and surveyed her work on the latest toe. “Wait, morality in this house isn’t based on who wins any given argument? That’s weird. I think I’ve been doing it wrong.”
“Anyway,” Tim foraged on heroically. “I don’t get why I’ve been singled out, all things considered.”
“You haven’t been singled out,” Jason said without taking his eyes off his phone for a second. Tim fervently hoped that he was playing Candy Crush and not sexting his boyfriend, as those were the only two things Jason did on his phone with that much focus. “You said it yourself. Your side has Damian.”
“Yes, but I don’t care, and all of you are idiots,” Damian said calmly, having returned to his drawing. Tim stretched an arm out towards him, as if to say “you see what I have to work with?”
“I rest my case. Your premise is flawed, and you can feel free to stop at any time,” Tim said.
“A, can’t stop, won’t stop, B, I’ve never presented a flawed premise in my life, I’m intellectually dazzling, and C, besides, its the principle of the matter.”
“Oh god, its contagious,” Duke muttered. Tim ignored him.
“That’s definitely not what a principle is,” Tim heaved another sigh, exasperated. Jason finally looked up from his phone, screwing up his expression into an over-acted blend of righteous indignation and hurt.
“Are you saying I don’t know what a principle is? What, like I’m too dumb to know what I’m saying? Not educated enough for you?”
Tim narrowed his eyes. “None of those were even in the zip code of anything I said, inferred or implied. What is the matter with you - “
Jason just deepened his false face of hurt, rolled his head back on his neck and bellowed out: “Bruuuuuuce. Tim is making fun of my lower class origin story! Make him stop being classist, it reflects badly on the whole family!”
“Oh for the love of - “ Tim started, but that was as far as he got as Dick snorted mid-snore and surged out of his chair and into frantic awareness, landing catlike in a crouch on the floor and looking wildly around for danger and the source of the disruption. 
It only took a couple seconds for him to verify that they were all safe and sound, and simply being noisy jackasses who couldn’t let him nap for even two hours. It only took two seconds more for his eyes to land on his painted toenails, zeroing in for a closer inspection that morphed his usual cheerful countenance into a scowl.
Stephanie was halfway towards the door by that time, choosing speed over subterfuge, so the culprit was easy enough for him to identify.
“You’re dead, Brown,” Dick yelled, smoothly transitioning into a sprint as he gave chase.
“Sadly, the artist’s greatest piece was left still unfinished upon her untimely demise, but her work will forever live on in legend and infamy,” she hollered back over her shoulder.
“Oh I’ll show you infamy, Blonde Wonder!”
“You shouldn’t run while your polish is still drying, basic rules of nail care!”
“Somebody run after them and take pictures. I’m too comfortable,” Duke said half-heartedly from his upside down position.
“Impressive,” Jason noted. “It took the rest of us much longer to adapt to this household’s tendency to treat sitting down like an event at the Contortionists’ Olympics.”
“Guess I’m just precocious.”
“Or just the most susceptible to terrible ideas and other things that are bad for your long-term and overall health,” Tim tacked on archly. Duke just shrugged one more time. This time it elevated his whole body vertically like a kind of upside down push-up.
“I like my take better.”
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dilfdoctordoom · 4 years
Note
your head canons are just perfect. What are some random ones you have for Dinah Lance and Bette
Uhhhh gonna be going off the top of my head here (& under the cut because guess who wrote a load whooo) but
Dinah
Dinah is trans!!! I liked it Bombshells, I’ve decided its canon across all universes because you know what? It’s amazing
Dinah’s metagene got activated because Alan the JSA accidentally irradiated her throughout her childhood. Barry got lightning, Dinah got a weird family. It’s equality
She adopts Mia!!! Her & Ollie do, since I don’t think that officially happened in comics even though we all know it should have
Hal/Dinah/Ollie is absolutely a thing that I need. They’re in love, there’s nothing you can do to disprove it
Though, like, personal headcanon for Dinah’s relationship is that her & Ollie are in an open relationship, Hal’s their third & Dinah is dating Babs but Ollie is not because. Could you imagine. Oliver Queen. Dating a bat. The thing nightmares are made of, I tell you
When Hal dies, his ring goes to Dinah. I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules, this is just how it is
Ollie & Dinah have a third wedding since their other two were, uh, messy & technically not legal in the new timeline. No supervillains attack & it doesn’t take place in a hospital, so she considers it a win
By the time she dies, she’s in the top five fighters on the planet
Dinah (with the help of Ollie) once attempted to assinate the Guardians of the Universe
She & Zatanna dated
Babs brings up the Ra’s Al Ghul incident whenever she wants to win a dumb fight. Tragically, Zinda & Helena have picked it up too. Will Dinah ever escape her shameful past? Probably not, the Birds refuse to let her live it down
Thanks to her dip in the Lazarus Pit, Dinah’s eyes like... glow in the dark. It’s not very noticeable, but when it’s pitch black, her eyes are a really faint green
She can’t cook. At all. In the Arrowfamily, your options for food are Ollie’s chili (a safety hazard, 50/50 chance you burn to death) or Dinah’s unspeakable, ungodly creations that are probably an insult to the Presence himself. Or you can beg Connor to make you some delicious vegan thing
She’s got a little coffee addiction. It was really bad when she was on tour, a lot better now, but yeah, if you approach this woman before she’s had her first cup, she’ll scream in your face
This woman is bi & there’s nothing you can do about it
Dinah runs Sherwood Florists in Star City & all of the fam help out
Look, not technically a headcanon, but I want to make one thing abundantly clear: while Dinah Laurel Lance will always be a metahuman to me, I like Dinah Drake-Lance to be cursed by a wizard. I just think it’s fun
Bette
Okay, again, she’s bi. Like, we all know it, it’s not a secret, no cishet is working her original Flamebird costume
Bette loves glitter but even she knows that’s a little unsafe & never incorperates it into her costume. One day, though, one day...
She goes back to Flamebird around the same time Steph becomes Nightwing which is definitely inspired by @dykegreenlantern‘s death, but, yeah, she works as Flamebird again for a little while
When Kate retires, she suits up as Batwoman. It’s an awkward transition, but she makes it work
Oh, you think Tim has a caffeine addiction? He has nothing on Bette. Bette’s been in beauty paegents, winning tennis tourements, maintaining a 4.0 GPA & running around in a costume. Do you honestly believe she achieved that without caffeine? No. This girl is wired 24/7, there’s nothing that can be done about it
She came out to Bruce first. It would’ve been Kate, but Kate was in the army at the time & they hadn’t talked in years, so. Bruce
Bette’s one of the most forgiving members of the Batfam. Just look at how many of her friends turned into supervillains. She’s, like, yeah, okay, you’re evil now, are we still on for movie night? No? You have an evil scheme planned? Well, cancel it, we’re watching Mean Girls
I know Bette didn’t show up at Zero Hour, but she should have. Exclusively to judge Hank. He’s trying to destroy time but it’s very hard, she’s pulling the ultimate ‘I am disappointed in you and you have brought shame upon this team’ face & they haven’t even been a team in years. It’s not fair how does she even do this the Bats are weird. And then Parallax just. teleports her away. She’s too distracting to Extant, goddamn
I maintain that her & Terra II would’ve eventually become friends. Maybe even enemies to friends to lovers, since Terra II is a lesbian
She isn’t as huge on the whole no-kill thing as Bruce. Like, she’s never killed anyone herself, nor does she plan to (people like the Joker excluded), but she also doesn’t mind if her teammates cross that line
Her fights with Slade are always petty. She took Addie’s side in the divorce, okay, she’s gonna go in for the (emotional) kill when they’re fighting
She makes a lot of quips & is one of the best people at getting Batman to smile. Like, specifically Batman, and not Bruce. She’s seen him crack a grin at one of her puns, she swears
Artemis Crock is her ex girlfriend
Jesse Chambers is still, like, iffy on Bette after she... accused Jesse’s mother of murder. What a fun team up that was
I don’t know how or why it would happen, but Bat-Girl absolutely worked with the original Green Lantern at least once. Got no reasoning behind this, they’re just two of my favourite characters. I don’t think they’d get along (see: anything with Alan in it ever) but... it’d be an interesting team up, that’s for sure
She also knows Jason Blood but instead of being a fun adventure, that was more ‘okay yes I understand that Hank’s gone a little insane, he’s gonna be a future dictator, he’s committed mass murder, etc, but maybe you have some magic to undo all that? Pretty please?’
Her endgame relationship... I honestly change this all the time, but right now I’m on Bettenelli. Strong arguments have been made for Holly Robinson & we cannot ignore the possibility for a Bat/Cat next gen relationship, we simply can’t
Bette Kane deserves to be a doctor, screw what the N52/Rebirth said. Military Bette is gross & we do not support that in this house
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gothambydaylight · 4 years
Text
home
//OOC it’s called home for lack of a better title, but oh well, you win some, you lose some. have a fic explaining why duke’s been off tumblr recently!
Duke shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning against the train’s wall. There was no one else on the train, but his legs ached for activity when he sat, so he stood.
Tim was gone. Duke didn’t know how to feel about that. He wanted to encourage it, he wanted to let Tim escape and heal and let the drama die down, but… 
He looked up, staring through the windows. Duke had known and loved Gotham City all his life. Even through the supervillain attacks, even through losing his parents, even though the other cities seemed so much safer and friendlier, Gotham was his home. 
Pushing himself off the wall, he walked over to the window, careful not to lose his balance. The sun was still high in the sky, and light still drifted into the train. Duke let it warm his face for a moment before turning away, blinking rapidly.
He didn’t understand how Tim could leave Gotham. Maybe it was a rich kid thing, where you don’t grow attached to how little weeds sprouted in the cracks of the cobblestone in narrow alleyways. It would only be for a little while, Tim told him, but Duke would lose himself if he left.
And Steph wasn’t leaving, but it felt like she was. Duke chewed the inside of his cheek, remembering how Steph had blown up at everybody, how Tim and Steph had blown up at each other. Cass hadn’t said anything on the group chat for a while, Barbara shut down, Jason was dealing with his own problems, and Tim and Steph were still fighting.
He joined this family less than a year ago, and already it felt like it was falling apart.
                                                          *
His phone buzzed as he walked in, but Duke turned it off. He glanced at the warden with wide eyes. 
“Hey, kid,” the warden said, his eyes crinkling as he smiled. “Hell of a time to be visiting your parents, huh?”
Duke tried to smile back at the warden, but his smile kept faltering. “Yeah,” he said instead. “Can—can you just take me to them, please? Not having the best day.”
The warden scrutinized him, glancing up then down. “You sure this is what you need then?”
Duke swallowed bile and nodded. 
“...Okay.”
He flinched at the sounds of giggling coming from every bed, but it evolved into a full-body wince once he saw his parents.
They wore permanent grins, saliva dripping down their cheeks because they couldn’t close their damn mouths to stop snorting for just a few seconds. This was what it was like every time he visited.
“Mom?” Duke called softly. “Dad? It’s me, Duke. I’m here.”
His dad latched onto his shoulder, his eyes red and veiny, still laughing to himself. Instinctively, Duke threw his hand off. It was easier than he’d thought—his dad had lost even more weight. 
While his mom’s laugh grew into a full out cackle, his dad collapsed onto the floor. Duke sucked in a breath and dropped down as well, looking to lift his dad up. “Please, Dad,” he murmured. “C’mon, Dad, you gotta get up. Get on the bed.”
The only response he got was chuckles.
Duke took on the responsibility of heaving his dad up himself. He dragged his dad up and plopped him down on the bed, promptly slumping down on the chair across from him. 
He closed his eyes, breathing in and out, accompanied by that dreadful laughter that made his insides seize up. 
They’d been like this for months, and even from the very beginning, doctors speculated that heavy exposure to this strain of Joker gas would cause permanent damage. They weren’t getting better. 
Duke crumpled in on himself, holding his head in his hands. His parents were lost. His new family was falling apart. He glanced at his parents, still snorting themselves silly. 
He ran. Past the warden’s pitying face, out the doors, and away.
He missed the train. Duke took a shaky breath. He could get back to the manor by foot, he knew the way.
The sun lowered with every passing second, and as consequence, the light slipped away. Duke squinted and let his photokinetic vision—which is what Bruce called it, he was still trying to think of a better one—take over. He counted the light particles to ground himself. 
And just because, Duke played around with his vision, his ability to see where light was and will be. 
A woman stumbled into the alleyway beside him, pushed by a gruff-looking older white man. Duke’s eyes narrowed.
He turned around and punched the guy, letting out a hiss of pain when the guy’s muscles turned out to be rock hard. Shit. 
Duke made eye contact with the lady and jerked his head in the opposite direction as the guy growled and lifted him without breaking a sweat. “Run!” he commanded. 
Okay, okay, what would Bruce tell me to do? Duke asked himself, now staring into the bulging eyes of a man who could snap him in half. 
He kicked, aiming for a cheap shot. 
It worked, with the huge guy dropping him. However, getting dropped onto gravel hurt, and why the hell had he decided to wear short sleeves today. 
The guy was still doubled over in pain. Duke glanced at him and the woman who was running away slowly in heels, at the distance between them. And he thought of going back to the manor, the one that almost started feeling like home but now felt like a death sentence in a game of tug-of-war. 
Duke punched the guy’s nose.
                                                          *
“Hey Riko, what’s up?” one Isabella Ortiz asked, lounging on a chair and holding her phone to her ear.
“Have you heard from Duke?”
Izzy scoffed. “What, you think ‘cause we were a thing for a couple weeks I have trackers on him?”
“No,” Riko said, worry pervading her tone. “No, I mean I haven’t heard from him since, um. Yesterday, I think. And I checked his Tumblr,”—Izzy still thought Tumblr was a dumb idea; the Waynes coming together whether online or physically always seemed to be a dumb idea—“and the last thing he posted was about going to see his parents. At the psychiatric ward.”
Izzy’s eyebrow creased as she recalled Duke coming to her about his parents the first time, frustrated and upset. He usually only visited twice a month, and stayed in a funk for a little while afterwards. She was planning to go with him next week, for moral support.
He visited early?
“Check the other Tumblrs,” Izzy said, sitting straight up. “I think something’s wrong.”
“I know something’s wrong!” Riko exclaimed. “I just have a really bad feeling about all of this.”
Izzy stood, throwing on a cap and hoodie. She decided on her Robin cap, just in case. “Tell me on the way. I’m gonna head over there, try to find him and talk to him.”
She heard sounds of frantic typing from Riko’s end and adjusted her cap. 
If Duke was hurt by them, Izzy would willingly beat the shit out of all those goddamned Waynes. 
                                                          *
Duke leaned against a wall, gingerly touching his freshly swollen black eye. Yeah, okay, maybe he told Tim he could take on a couple punks from West Robinson, but for whatever reason, these guys were out in packs. They were sneaking out, and Duke saw them, and he laughed to himself and shouted at them, and… yeah, it didn’t go well.
He panted, the adrenaline making his head spin. He closed his eyes and let the coolness of the dark calm him. 
This was fine, this was fine, he would be back at the manor in no time at all.
“Hey!”
Duke clenched his bruised fists and, with another sharp intake of breath, slung them at—
Air. Air that happened to have Izzy beside it. 
Oh, shit.
He tried to grin at Izzy, but the pain from his split lip flared up. “...Uh,” was all he managed to get out.
Izzy’s eyes were wide, taking him in. “Duke Thomas, you’re a fucking idiot,” she said finally in deadpan tone. Her expression and the way she reached down to keep him steady betrayed her true feelings.
“I was heading home already,” Duke protested. Izzy hoisted his arm on her shoulders and they walked together.
“Yeah?” Izzy asked. “And how’s that working out for you? Remember the day we met, when you got yourself into trouble with people looking to blow up the city hall? And you got in a fight with Smiley,”—Duke shuddered at the nickname, a flash of a blood red permanent grin stuck in his mind—“because of your punk cologne?”
Duke blinked. “I wasn’t in a good mental state then,” he said. “And there were so many more fights before that you don’t know about.” 
Izzy flicked his forehead. “That’s my point, dumbass. You go looking for fights so you don’t have to focus on yourself. Even when you were looking for your parents, you were distracting yourself with them. So what’s up? Riko told me about what’s going on with your family, but what about you?”
Footsteps rapidly approached them and a small figure jumped right by Duke’s side, lifting his other arm to be supported with her shoulder. Riko.
“Izzy stopped answering me when she said she was around here, so I figured that’s where you were,” she explained. “What’s up, Duke?”
Duke’s breath hitched. “It’s nothing, guys, really.”
“I call bullshit,” they both chimed at the same time. 
“I’m serious! It’s Tim’s and Steph’s argument, not mine.” Duke’s gaze drifted down. “And even then, Barbara and Cass and Jason? They’re having problems, too. Me? I’m the new kid. I’m not as invested as everyone else. Tim had to send me a PowerPoint so I would understand.”
Riko snickered. “You’re so soft, Duke.”
“Huh?”
“She means,” Izzy said, dragging them both to the side when they veered dangerously towards the road, “that you have a bleeding heart. You don’t like to show it, but you do. You gotta recognize that. Anyways, my bike is parked somewhere around here, we can get you home.”
Duke saw a weed, a small dandelion, sprouting out from a crack in the sidewalk. Gotham was dark and hazy and the sun was long gone, but it managed to continue sticking around. 
He stepped on it. 
“Not my home,” he muttered. 
He could feel Izzy’s eye roll. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”
                                                          *
Upon arriving at the manor, Duke pointedly ignored Tim’s bedroom and Steph’s guest room, instead taking the long route to his room, sent out a Tumblr post, and collapsed. He was tired, and these bruises were gonna hurt like hell come morning. Maybe if he just slept through the entire next day, the bruises would fade.
And sleep through the day he did.
                                                          *
//OOC (and then once he woke up and checked tumblr again, he had a panic attack primarily caused by steph’s panic attack but also. Everything Else. this may have seemed like a not angsty ending but damnit i’m not done with duke angst yet)
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