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mxtantrights · 3 years

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past lives | epilogue

a/n: time to look forward. and back. this doesn’t feature a big time jump. I’m gonna make an ending so cheesy... I think I’ve left this story pretty open so that you can insert whatever you want / envision for yourself. Once again thank you all who kept up and read or who’s gonna binge read once this comes out! Love ya <3

You opened your front door and there they all were. Most importantly Alfred. You had to show the man you could cook and fend for yourself if need be. Even though others couldn’t say the same.

“Great you’re all here. Come in, I’ve got the table set up and everything.” you said.

They walk in one-by-one into your home. You were up last night tossing and turning because it really wasn’t much. They didn’t all live in the manor currently but they all had lived there previously.

You eyed Damian specifically, to see his reaction to your place. He hadn’t been inside of it yet. Only ever on the fire escape and even that needed some work. You watched as took one swift look around and nodded at you.

“It’s quaint.” he said.

“Did you just call me cheap or something?” you said.

“It was a compliment.”

“You hesitated.”

You wince as Alfred wrapped up your lower stomach. It was to help the swelling he said. You were sitting up on the bed in the guest bedroom.

“May I ask what caused such bruising.” he asks.

You look over at Bruce who’s out of his nighttime suit and is watching from across the room.

“A really big box.”

You see Tim leaning against the door archway, hands behind his back. Bruce was Batman and Damian was Robin. That meant the Tim shaped Red Robin was Tim. He steps further into the room and reveals his hands.

He hands you two pills, “for the pain.”

You take them out of his hands and put them into your mouth. Then he hands you an opened water bottle. You take that and gulp down the pills, you have to tilt you head back a bit.

When you tilt it back forward you feel the hammering of the punches again. It makes you wince. Alfred had already did the best he could with your face. No stitches thankfully. But just bandages and ointments.

“So how long have you known I was his child?” you ask Tim.

He shrugs his shoulders, “After the gala before the lunch interview”

“You mean the set up to get my DNA.”

He winces when you say that.

“Tomatoe, tomato.”

Alfred lets you know that he’s done wrapping you and that you should lay down and try to get some rest. Which you don't argue with, you get the feeling that you don’t really argue with a man like him. He helps you pull your shirt down.

So you lean back slowly into the bed. You try to hold back the sounds of pain but one slips past your lips. This makes Tim and Bruce stand over your bed.

“You don’t have to worry. I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna die from a couple beatings from Ra’s.” You say plainly.

And it hurts Bruce. Damian had told him that you were in the league years before. But he could tell the harsh treatment you suffered there stayed with you. You were able to take so many hits from Ra’s it was something he never wanted to witness in his life.

“Any normal person would.” Tim says.

Bruce looks over at him.

“Well after I came out the pit things changed.” You answer.

They both look at you then. You figured Damian told at least Bruce that you were brought back to life by the pit. Maybe he was leaving that to you to discuss.

“We’ll talk about this in the morning. Get some-” Bruce begins.

Then you hear the incoming footsteps to your new room. Sure enough Damian pops into view in the doorway. He wastes no time in running over to you, stopping short of hugging you once he sees the wrappings peeking through your newly acquired pajamas.

“Alfred says you’ll live.” he says.

You nod you head lightly, as to not start another headache before the ibuprofen kicks in.

“You got there right in time.”

“I shouldn’t have let him get to you in the first place.”

“Wasn’t your fault, besides I can handle myself.”

“Obviously not look at your face.”

“I was in retirement. Cut me some slack.”

Bruce interrupts the impromptu match the both of you were having. Even though a part of him didn’t want to. He wanted to see the two of you interact more, since the both of you were family after all.

“Time to rest, say goodnight Damian.”

Damian takes another look over you.

“Goodnight.”

He walks out the door with his brother and father. And they shut the lights on their way out. You're thankful you get to shut your eyes for a bit. The homecoming Ra’s gave you was anything but sweet.

By morning time, you wake up to find Damian sleeping in a chair at the end of your bed. He has a blanket pulled over his form, from either Alfred or Bruce you take it.

“Thanks for offering to do the dishes with me. I know Alfred is probably losing it in there.” You said.

Bruce looked at you with a laugh, “Yeah.”

When you handed the last dish for him to dry and cut off the sink you didn’t make a move to leave the kitchen. You had some words to say to him now that everything was out in the open.

“I wanna be clear, that day when you hinted at the recorder being on and me hearing your conversation with the others, I wasn’t rejecting you.”

Bruce stopped drying the plate for a second. You saw him falter. He tried to pick up like it didn’t happen but you saw it. Instead of letting him continue you grabbed the plate from him.

He looked at you.

“You weren’t?”

You shake your head, “No. I think you're a great guy, from what I know at least. And you had to be or my mother wouldn’t have liked you. Nor would she had wanted me to find you.”

“About your mother-”

“We can talk about her another time. I’m talking about you Bruce Wayne. I wanted to let you know that I do wanna figure out this relationship. I couldn’t say anything before because there was things I was unsure of.”

He cleared his throat.

“Like me?”

“No I wasn't unsure of you. I was unsure of how you would react about me and my past. I was your secret child who had been murdered and brought back to life by a mercenary who trained me to kill. On top of that, I had unknowingly cared for your youngest son before either of us knew anything.” you said.

He nodded his head at your words.

“But I think I knew I was sure of you when you wanted to fake me out about the added information in your interview. When you let me walk away.” you said.

Bruce tried to hide a grin but he couldn’t do it, “I thought you rejected me that day.”

“I was trying to protect you. Before I knew who you were during the night time, that is.”

“So now that you know, how do we do this?” he asked.

You hold up on finger, “First, you will not send me money. I make enough as it is and I do not need more.”

“Maybe just a savings account then.”

“No, Bruce, no accounts. And no secret accounts either, I’ve heard from Alfred about your little set ups and such.”

“Sneaky.”

“I like him”

When you finally get to the dinning room in the morning everyone, sans Alfred, is waiting for you. You hold onto your wrapping as you take the open seat next to Damian and across from Jason.

“I just wanna say I’m sorry for flirting with you before I knew you were family.” Jason says.

He doesn’t sound that sorry, which makes you look over at Damian. He’s got a proud smirk on his face. You face forward again.

“It’ll never happen again right Todd?” he asks.

Jason mumbles something indescribable.

Then the room is filled with a moment of silence. It’s not really awkward per say, but you think it’ because they all have so many questions they don’t know where to start.

“So you guys LARP every night?” you ask.

Tim busts out laughing along with Dick. Jason crosses his arms over his chest with a chuckle. Damian, who you can tell is looking at you like you’ve grown another head, isn’t laughing. Neither is Bruce. Like father, like son you guess.

“I think you’re gonna fit right in.” Dick says.

“Speaking of which, are you gonna live here now?” Damian asks point blank.

Bruce beings to apologize for him but you shake your head and let him know it’s alright.

“I’m going to remain at my own residence. If you wanna come over you know the way.”

Jason has a look of shock on his face and Damian stops him.

“Shut it Todd.”

A knock comes from your front door. It must be one of them, maybe they forgot something? You jog over to the door and open it.

Dick Grayson is in your doorway.

“Did you leave something here?” you asked.

“No, I just wanted to say that I’m glad you're a part of the family. Honestly I’ve never seen Damian so calm before. And not his typical calm where he’s planning out every exit, this is different. It’s like he’s a normal kid.” he said.

You are speechless for a moment.

“Thank you for letting me know, Dick.” you smiled.

“Gotta get going, a flight to catch.”

You nodded you head, “Jason said you were in between red-heads. Do I wanna know what that means?”

He chuckled.

“I’ll let you know when I visit again, gotta go meet Wally.” he said.

Then he left with a simple wave. You could tell he wanted to hug you but didn’t want to cross any boundaries you might’ve had. In all honesty you would’ve hugged him back. You can see a bit of him in Damian and you’re thankful.

You closed the door and turned the lock.

As the rest of the boys cleared out, Bruce slid over your phone. The new one that you thought you had dropped on the sidewalk when you were taken. You reach for it and it’s totally fine.

You look up at him.

“Thanks, how did you get this?”

“Nyssa.”

Her name makes you still. She was never going to contact you after that night. Whatever friendship the two of your had was over. It was going to be hard to come to terms with but you’d have to make do.

But why did Nyssa have your phone?

“But this was on the ground last time I checked.” you asks.

“We saw on cctv, she picked it up while you were being put into the van. She had it on her the whole time, she’s the reason we were able to find you. Nyssa turned it on and it pinged a tower.” he answers.

Maybe it would be the last thing she ever did for you. Saving your life. You didn’t know what to think about her actions. It all felt like a past life or something.

You turn it on and see that you have unread messages and unanswered calls. Spanning days.

“How do I have all of this on my phone?” “I might’ve asked a favor from Killer Croc. It’s just the SIM card don't worry.”

“You mean Batman asked Killer Croc to find my phone?”

“He told me it wasn’t that far from where you dropped it, outside of your building.”

“What I’m hearing is you and Killer Croc talk one-on-one.”

About fifteen minutes later, after Dick returned, there was a knock you were expecting. It came from your fire escape. You hurried your way into your room and drew up the blinds. There he was.

You slid open the window.

“Hurry up and get in, it’s fuckin cold out there and I’ve got nothing on.” you said.

He climbed through the window and stood toe to toe with you.

“I can see that. Nice tank top.” he joked.

You raised your eyebrows at him, “You know I can just kick you out of my home you horny bastard.”

“Oh but then we couldn’t all the fun stuff.”

“That would indeed be the point Jason.”

He kissed the top of your head. Then he began to peel off his jacket. The same one that he wore to the gala when you first met. He looked just as good right now as he did that night. The cigarette smell might’ve added to that too. He placed it over the chair that sat in the corner of your room near the window.

It was a quick, like lighting really, and you saw him move his eyes away but he looked at your scar below your collarbone. It stuck out like a sore thumb when you two weren’t rolling around in the dark.

But before you can say something to him, he speaks.

“I never told you this, but I think we must’ve ran into each other before all of this.” he says.

You tilt your head, “where would I run into you, Jason Todd?”

“I’m not sure, maybe in a past life or something.” he shrugs.

You watch as he walks past you, heading to the kitchen no doubt. Out of the both of you your fridge is the better choice for actual food and not takeout. You follow behind him, only up until your room’s doorway which you lean your body against. And you think to yourself, you have a couple of past lives now.

#dc x reader #Jason Todd x reader #Dick Grayson x reader #Tim Drake x reader #Damian x reader #Bruce Wayne x reader #batman x reader #batfam x reader #redhood x reader #PAST LIVES

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cheryls-blossomed · 4 years

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Honestly, the continued disrespect to Iris West-Allen, The Flash’s black leading lady in the sixth season of the show, is absolutely appalling and unacceptable. Meanwhile, the network never fails to capitalize on Iris and Westallen’s popularity in order to gain buzz. (Remember how the entire promotion of Crisis on Earth-X was Westallen wedding, including their own promotional poster, despite how they were shafted in that crossover? Remember how the very first Elseworlds promo was Iris and Oliver, and the first full preview clip was of Barry freaking out over Oliver waking up with Iris, despite the fact that Iris was not even allowed to cross-over? Remember how Eric Wallace went on a whole press run when it was announced that we’ll see Iris in her natural curls in 6x05, even though she and Barry are relegated to the episode’s D-plot?) Showrunners constantly make false promises about her journalism, about The Central City Citizen, about Westallen, and about Iris’s POV being explored, because they are aware that that is what people want to hear, even though they have no intention of following through. They utilize Candice’s talent by giving Iris highly emotional scenes, but they don’t extent her POV outside of these isolated moments, nor do they have characters check up on her. I generally love the Broken Hero trope, but only where the character’s strength and resiliency, despite their trauma, is frequently acknowledged by other characters, so as to allow the character to also be vulnerable and have ample POV about what they’re going through. The application of the Broken Hero trope to Iris over the seasons has resulted in her being relegated to a strong black woman archetype time and again, and it’s utterly disappointing.

In season 1, the three men whom she trusted most were lying to her. Her father infantilized her frequently. Eddie lied to her face, dismissed her journalistic endeavors, but then cold-shouldered her when she rightfully became angry with his lies. Barry, her best friend and the person she loved most in this world, chose not to tell her that he was the Flash for non-existent reasons which of course he couldn’t even articulate, and this naturally broke her heart when she found out.

Her promising journalism arc with her mentor, Mason Bridge, where they were poised to investigate Harrison Wells together and hopefully discover that he was really Eobard Thawne, was cut short, when Mason was unceremoniously killed off, and Iris’s investigations were handed off to Barry and Joe.

Iris had to put up a strong front for Barry and the Team in season 2 and was never allowed to really grieve Eddie onscreen. The only time we ever saw her have a moment to grieve is in 2x17, when Barry stops his entire mission to retrieve the video message for her.

Iris again had to be strong for Joe, after she found out that he lied to her about her mother. She was given little to no time to process the fact that her mother was alive, but was dying, and Barry was the only person to ask her if she was okay, but even then, she is not given the chance to vocalize how hurt she is.

Francine and Iris are given one scene, on Francince’s death bed, to reconcile. Nevermind that Francine abandoned Iris as a child or that Joe lied to Iris all these years about Francine or that Iris has had no time to get to know her mother, but nonetheless has to now say goodbye to her. And nobody comforted Iris during this time. Absolutely no one. She and Wally barely got moments to grieve Francine together.

In season 3, Iris had a death sentence hanging over her head for the better part of a year. She put aside her own fears and trauma in order to prevent Barry from going over the edge in his desperate attempts to save her and also to be strong for her father, who was becoming increasingly traumatized as the season progressed.

The writers even had Iris value Gorilla Grodd’s life over her own. Let me reiterate: the show had Iris tell Barry that her life wasn’t worth Barry compromising his humanity by killing a gorilla. The strong black woman trope is utterly dehumanizing.

In the wake of Barry entering the speedforce, despite her grief and trauma, having just witnessed the joy of being alive with the love of her life stripped from her once again, Iris kept her promise to Barry and steps up to the mantle to help Team Flash. She bottled up her grief to be strong for the Team, before finally breaking down to a recently returned Barry before she gave herself up to the Samuroid to restore Barry’s mind.

Despite Killer Frost being complicit in attempting to murder her just months ago, Iris was forced to advocate for Frost during her own bachelorette party.

Her wedding ceremony was interrupted by Nazis, but the only person to ask her if she was okay in the aftermath was her fiancé. Furthermore, no one, outside of Joe and Wally, who attended Barry and Iris’s wedding checked up on them, and instead Iris was relegated to having to comfort Felicity, who was having relationship drama.

We learned in 4x16 that Iris had PTSD from having had a death sentence hanging over her head, and she had quit her job at CCPN as a result. Her PTSD had not been explored at all up until that point. Meanwhile, Ralph was cruel towards Iris, taking out his own cowardice on her, while she was internally plagued with self-doubt.

Iris attempted to reach out to Caitlin and expressed concern for her in 4x20, but Caitlin coolly dismissed her in Iris’s own home.

In season 5, because it’s totally fine to just put Iris through more trauma and strife for no reason, the writers constructed an arc where Nora was cold and rude to her mother, because of their fractured relationship in the future, a fact which traumatized Iris for a good chunk of the season.

In 5x05, Iris vocalized self-hatred (“I would hate me too”), because that’s how devastated she was over hers and Nora’s relationship. All she wanted to do was bond with her daughter, because Iris is such a sweet and caring person, and motherhood is something which came naturally to her. And yet, the show chose to put her through inordinate amounts of trauma over her motherhood.

In 5x12, we find out that Nora’s anger towards her mother has warped some of her own memories completely, and the false memory only served to traumatize Iris further. The real memory was sweet and poignant, and just the fact that Iris went through all that trauma in the present for no real reason is absolutely disrespectful and appalling.

Barry and Iris’s child disintegrated in their arms, but nobody except for Joe and Cecile offer them condolences and follows up to ask them how they are doing. While Iris is shown grieving Nora in 6x01, after that episode, we never see her linger on photos of Nora or be allowed to vocalize how her grief has now been magnified by the impending Crisis.

After Barry and Iris learned that Barry has to sacrifice himself, Iris was given one episode to come to terms with this, and we have not once seen her POV nor have we seen her struggle with her grief over losing Barry, her husband and the person whom she loves most, especially just months after she lost her daughter.

Instead, the narrative diminished her importance in 6x04, and even had Ralph behave rudely and dismissively towards her. They had a character like Frost ask Iris is Ralph was going to be okay, but no one has a care in the world for Iris’s well-being. But she is always expected to be there for everyone and help everyone and run errands for everyone.

In an arc about Barry dying, Iris, the most important person in his life, has been sidelined and treated like an after-thought. She is now playing support to literal supporting characters. It’s beyond egregious.

Furthermore, her journalism arc has been disrespected yet again. She hired Allegra, but Allegra’s entrance into the narrative was via Cecile. Iris and Allegra had little narrative space to build any sort of mentor and mentee relationship in 6x03 (because supporting characters’ side stories had to take precedence), and instead the show resorted to Allegra telling Iris off. We have yet to see Iris commanding her team at the Citizen, and her journalism arc was most prominent in 6x01, before we even saw her Team.

This is racist writing. This is misogynistic writing. This is absurdly disrespectful to Iris and to her fans, and this has been a tired pattern since season 1. I am sick of false promises; I am sick of being lied to. This is the sixth season, and to see Iris treated like this is infuriating beyond belief. Showrunners and the network capitalizing on Iris’s popularity and Candice’s talent for viewership is disingenuous and wrong, when it’s clear that the show continues to adamantly refuse to give Iris her due. Enough is enough.

#yes im infuriated #thoughts #my meta

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