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stressedoutcanary · 3 years

Text

Hold On - Jason Todd x Batgirl!Reader

Summary:

"Hey! I see a vent inside, maybe if we get to the roof-"

BAMMMM

"Of course, just shoot open the lock and alert whoever's inside. What a great strategy! Why didn't I think of it?! Oh I know, because it's dumb!"

Warnings: Language, Canon typical Violence, Occasional Angst lets be real it's Jason we are talking about, Kidnappings..?

Word count: 1.6k

A/N:- I...should be studying right now buttt I had fun writing this and yes, I took the title from the song Hold On by Chord Overstreet, I think it fits this perfectly.

I wasn't going for a series but here we are.

Part 2, Part 3

•°•°•°•°

It was a quite night for Gotham. Every person was busy with their own work and so were you, even if it was a little different from what people down below on the streets were doing. As of yet, you had stopped two muggings, busted a few armed two-face goons trying to rob a bank and were currently running across rooftops.

'Maybeee I can get off easy today, go home, microwave the pizza that has been waiting for me in the fridge, get a nice, warm shower and then straight to bed'

You hummed to yourself at the delightful thought as you sat on a gargoyle overlooking the city. You were enjoying the feeling of the light breeze on your face. It was soothing in a way. Not long after, you were startled by your comms crackling to life out of nowhere as you heard Oracle's automated voice in your ears.

"Batgirl I am going to need you to check out the area near Gotham Central Park for any visible strange activity. There are several missing persons reports filed this week that I have tied up to that particular region."

'So much for a warm bath and a good night's sleep, way to jinx yourself (Y/N), you dumbass'

"Isn't that park under construction or something? You know after the whole Justice League fiasco last month?", you questioned.

"Yep but people still go there, in the mornings for walks and at the nights for certain activities."

"Of course they do, I swear, people here are on a whole different level." You sighed. "Alrighty then Babs, I am on it."

•°•°

After climbing up a couple of fire escapes and swinging off of numerous rooftops you finally reached your target destination. There was a deafening silence when your feet landed on the damp grass. You took in the misted surroundings and decided to look around for something out of the ordinary. There was a broken bright neon sign by the corner of the street which caught your attention, you could only make out the last bit, it spelled Parlor.

'That seems awfully familiar. Something about it is odd but I can't quite place my finger on it'

You were lost in thought when you felt someone move behind you, there was rather little time for you to react so you choose the 'hit first ask questions later' option. You clenched your fist, twisted your upper body and delivered a quick, staggering blow to the shady figure lurking behind.

"OWW!! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

"HOOD?!"

Sure enough, Jason was on the ground clutching his ribs looking like a hurt puppy.

You moved your hands up and massaged you temples. You do not want to deal with him. Not today and if possible not ever. Even though you never let it show, you always avoided a run in with him. He may have become a part of the family again but you were far off from forgiving him.

You watched with narrowed eyes as he got to his feet and and dusted off the grass from his jacket.

"So on a Scale of one to Demon brat, how much do you hate me?", the smirk on his face and the way he wiggled his eyebrows at you almost made you want to smack him with a crowbar yourself.

"What? Dami?! I don't-- I don't hate Damian, he just gets on my nerves sometimes, something you do all the time.", you enjoyed, maybe a little too much, the way Jason's smirk turned into a small pout. You smiled a bit as you shook your head at his childishness.

"Before you start chucking batarangs at me I want to make this clear; No, Oracle did not send me here to be your backup or whatever, I just happen to be investigating the same thing which obviously led me here to you. So how about we work on this together and watch each other's back", Despite the uncertainty of your rejection, he sounded hopeful. It seemed as if he was ready to build the old, worn out bridges of your relationship back up again. It sent an unexpected warmth through your chest.

"Just like old times?"

"Just like old times.", Jason repeated as you both did a rather unsuccessful fist bump and grinned like idiots.

•°•°

You walked up to the seemingly abandoned building, Jason examined the door for traps whereas you decided on taking a look through the glass window.

"Hey! I see a vent inside, maybe if we get to the roof-"

BAMMMM

"Of course, just shoot open the lock and alert whoever's inside. What a great strategy! Why didn't I think of it?! Oh I know, because it's dumb!", you whisper shouted with a scowl. Jason just shrugged and tilted his head to the side, pointing towards the now open door.

"Ladies first, so lead the way, unless you're scared.", it was a playful challenge on Jason's part, one that you were more than ready to accept.

"Oh you're on Red."

You stepped inside and it was all business from there on. You took in the condition of the room; dusty desks, broken glass, oddly placed mannequins and footprints leading up ahead into a long hallway.

"They seem recent enough", Jason gave a slight nod at your discovery.

Considering the darkness of the hallway, you and Jason shared a look and switched on your night vision lenses. You both started taking cautious steps, the occasional soft thud of your boots being the only sound in the vicinity.

The end of the hallway was forked up and there were two rooms at the end of each passageway.

"How is this place so big! it didn't seem this huge from the outside", you could hear the exasperation in Jason's voice. You figured not getting to hit someone might be getting to him or that he was just bored.

"Look I will take the right, you take the left, our comms are already connected, if any one of us finds anything we tell the other and remember we do not engage in a fight alone. Am I clear or do you want me to write that down for you"

"Yes ma'am, but just so you know you are starting to sound like The old man", you rolled your eyes at his comment and went on ahead towards the right as he went the other way.

•°•°

You scrolled through the torn down bookshelf kept in one of the rooms and you were making a mental note in your mind that there were a lot of medical journals in the bunch, when your comms buzzed.

"I am sorry", Jason whispered in a soft voice and you froze for a spilt second, eyes widening.

'No (Y/N) don't listen to him, he doesn't know what he is saying, just focus on finding those missing people and get this over with'

With that thought you tried continuing your investigation as if you had heard nothing.

"I said, I am sorry (Y/N). I know you heard me. I also know you've been avoiding me, cutting me out and you don't have to reply if don't feel like it but...I just wanted you to know..."

"Now is not the right time for this Hood and...for what it's worth I am not looking forward to a forgiveness session with you...", you felt awful for cutting him out the way you did, your heart clenched at the harshness of your words as you clicked off your comms, but you refused to have this discussion right now. If you were being more honest to yourself you just couldn't bear the emotions it would bring, so you chose the easiest way; completely shutting him out.

It was few minutes after the highly uncomfortable talk with Jason that a wall poster had caught your eye. You moved your hand over it, somewhat wiping off the dust, there was something scribbled on it making it harder for you to read the actual text. You squinted, trying to make out the words

"The people need...perfection...and that is what Pretty Dolls Parlor strives to achieve."

You scanned the area near poster for fingerprints and clicked your comms back on.

"Hood, get over here, I found something and I think this is the make or break kind of information", you were waiting for scan to complete, concern creeping up your mind when there was no reply from the other end.

"Red Hood? can you hear me?"

Nothing.

"Red?! Answer me Damnit!!"

A whole lot of Nothing.

As soon as you heard the chime of the scanner signaling its completion, you sped the other way towards the left corridor, towards Jason.

'Jay please be okay, please be okay, please be okay.'

By the time you reached Jason's location you were panting from the lack of breath and were already cursing yourself for bringing Jason along. To say that the man can take care of himself might be an understatement, he is basically a lone wolf, but still the thought of something happening to him while he was with you hurt like hell.

You looked around frantically and almost jumped out of your skin when you stepped on a gun. You heart almost stopped, it was Jason's. To make matters worse, there was no other sign of him or of were he went. You picked up the gun holding it securely in your hand. You could literally hear your heart pounding in your ears.

Suddenly, through the reflection from the glass window in front of you, you caught a glimpse of a man wearing a blank white face mask, you turned around, immediately switching to a fighting stance but that only did so much for you. A flashlight was switched on and shoved near your face, the night vision of your lens intensified the light, blinding you completely.

Before you could react, a metal pole connected straight with the back of your head and just like that you were lights out on the ground.

°•°•°•°•

Author's cute little extra Note:

*wiggling my eyebrows rn*

I might be a little too obsessed with the Arkham Knight game hehe.

Well that ended well for you, didn't it?? Jason's gone missing and you get a nice concussion to garnish your anxiety level? No? Okay I will stop talking now.

Tell me if you want to be tagged for the next parts.💕

#jason todd x reader #jason todd reader insert #jason todd x y/n #red hood reader insert #red hood imagine #red hood x reader #jason todd x batgirl!reader #red hood imagines #jason todd imagines #reader is batgirl #jason todd #red hood #batfam #batfamily

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kadhis-stuff · 3 years

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You can’t keep a secret forever

Summary: How is a woman supposed to tell her husband, who has been married to her for almost 7 years now, that she can read minds? That she has been able to since the first moment they met?

This is a gift for @nonokoko13! (AO3 link). I hope you enjoy it! Here’s my little contribution to the Damianya part of the fandom :)

Anya’s unstoppable right foot shook so hard that the dining table moved to her tune, causing a metallic sound from the table legs hitting the floor. Her hands joined forming a fist that was holding her chin. She was staring at the ceiling of her house, looking for some inspiration on what to do. As if the ceiling tiles were an almighty god with all the answers willing to share with mere mortals.

Anya was concerned. A concerned 26-year-old woman. A concern police officer in these peaceful times. She never told anyone about this. Not even her parents. It was an intrinsic part of herself. It grew to be normal on her. Part of what defines what Anya Forger-Desmond is.

How is a woman supposed to tell her husband, who has been married to her for almost 7 years now, that she can read minds? That she has been able to since the first moment they met?

What people has always said about her is that she is a very perceptive person. And as the years went by, she got better at hiding it. No one has been able to hide a secret from her for long. And that is something that, today, was making Damian miserable.

Damian decided that this year was going to be the year. He will blow her mind with the most astonishing surprise ever. He will prove to her that he still has it, after all these years of marriage. For her to remember the feeling of being on the lookout and not knowing what to expect. The knowledge of something coming her way without a clue of what might that be.

Two things were wrong with Damian’s assumptions. First, he has never, ever, surprised her. Not on purpose at least, not by planning something out. He shouldn’t need to prove that he still has anything in that regard. And secondly, she doesn’t know how it feels to be non-puzzled because people usually think about the surprises while they are being planned or revealed. She hasn’t figure it out a way to put a spoiler alert tag on people, so she just deals with it.

Why was Damian getting so frustrated about this lately?

The worst part is that his poker face is too good. There are times in which she knows what Damian is truly thinking just because she can read his mind. Instead, she is an open book.

Faking surprise? Yeah, that has never worked out for her before.

After faking a face, she is always hit by the thoughts “Oh, she saw it coming” “She knew about it” “Surely Becky told her” “Surely Damian told her” “Am I this bad at lying?”

His husband was feeling insecure and he did not tell her, she knows it because she is able to read. His. Mind.

What to do? What to do?

She growled at the ceiling tiles.

She truly thought she was going to be able to take this secret to her tomb. She never told Mama and Papa, and the only one that -probably- knew it, was Bond.

She took a sip of the hot chocolate she prepared to help herself think. Why did she decide to keep it a secret from them all these years?

Right. That night. When she was just an 8-year-old.

~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V

She had the popcorn’s bowl in her lap. Mama was on her right, watching the movie. Papa was on her left, reading a book. Bond was lying in front of her, eyes closed, unfazed by the fighting sounds coming from the TV. It was the latest Spy Wars movie. One of the bad guys had the ability to read minds with a machine.

Loid and Yor already knew about each other secret lives and after a bit dramatic fight, they accepted each other identities and decided to live together after all. Which made possible for Anya to live a real life with them. And she was pondering the possibility to tell them. To also come clean of secrets. For them to be the first people in her life to know. So, she gathered courage, her hands forming fists and asked with the most casual tone she could gathered “Isn’t that cool?”

“What, Anya?” Asked Yor cocking her head with closed eyes and her always gentle smile, who was paying attention to the movie.

“Being able to read minds”. No, she cannot do it. Oh shit, she was already doing it. Panic. She ate a handful of popcorn at once. Swallowed it quickly to continue. “What do you think about that?”

Loid was the first to reply, in his detached matter-of-fact way of speaking, so serious and yet so smooth “Well, even if it is certainly an advantage it might be dangerous. It seems that the machine could blow out at any minute now”

Not the answer she was hoping. Anya wanted to divert the attention from the movie. Was Papa even paying attention to it? He was supposed to be reading. “But think about it in real life” she took her mother’s hand. She wanted to ask ‘what if I was the one reading minds’ but she was too scared to hear the answer, so she said the next thing she thought about. “What if mama were able to read our minds all the time?”

“M-Me?” A soft pink colored her cheeks, and she gave it a thought. “It could be a little tiring I guess, not being able to focus on my own mind because everybody is thinking around me”

That was an accurate way to describe it. Although Anya was getting better at handling it.

“It will probably be weird for the people around her.” Her father got her attention in a second, now we were talking. “I wouldn’t be able to look Yor in the eyes the same way again.”

“Why?” And her voice was probably a pitch higher than before.

“If a person can read your mind, they will know you better than anyone else. They will know what you think even if it is not what you chose to say, so they will not only know the person you want to be or the one you are trying to become, but they will know the true you. And that is something terrifying somehow. Not all people will be able to handle that.”

“Will you get away from mama if she was able to read minds?”

“No, I don’t have secrets from Mama anyway”

But Anya could read minds. And she knew what Loid’s real answer was. She still tried one more time.

“And you Mama, will you stay with Papa even if he was able to read your mind?”

“Of course, sweetheart”

But the devasting truth was that both were terrified of the idea. And although they didn’t directly think “yes, I will leave”, they both imagined multiple situations in which they would rather die from shame than letting the counterpart know their deepest secrets.

“I see” was all that Anya was able to say, while shrinking more into the couch.

“Why are you making that face Anya?” Yor asked, hugging her shoulders with one hand. “Nobody is able to read minds, so you don’t need to worry about it”.

But she did worry about it. Because at the short age of eight, she swore to herself to never reveal her deepest secret to anyone. It was something bad. It was something to be ashamed of. Anya would rather die than letting anybody know about it and let them treat her differently because of it.

~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V

But here she was. Pondering her options. Because maybe the truth was what Damian needed right now. Maybe he could be the first. Maybe she could trust him to not destroy her feelings with utter rejection.

Two weeks ago, Becky invited her for lunch and, as usual, she was telling her about the latest sweetheart she was dating. The conversation ended up shifting to Damian and Anya’s long-term relationship. This year they were going to celebrate the 7 years anniversary.

“There’s a saying, you know?” said Becky casually, taking the dessert spoon when the waiter brought her ‘Golden Opulence’ sundae. “If a marriage remains together after seven years, they will be together forever.”

“Non-sense, there wouldn’t be divorces after 10 years then.”

“I mean it, Anya. It’s called The Seven Year Itch”

Anya rolled her eyes and started to eat her own dessert. “And what’s supposed to happen on the 7th year?”

“Monotony. Love ends. People get bored. They feel like the compatibility is no longer there. That the other person just ‘don’t get it’ anymore.”

The last part caught Anya’s attention. Why was that ringing a bell on her head?

And then she remembered all the times along the year that Damian tried to do different things for her, which all ended up in a frustrated husband.

Could Damian fear they were not compatible anymore?

Anya face twisted like an open book to Becky.

“How is it going with Damian, Anya?” She had concern in her eyes. And Anya knew it was real concern. Becky took her hand over the table “Everything ok at home?”

“Yeah,” she tried to dismiss it with a smile “everything is fine”

But hey, she was friends with Becky for over 20 years now. And Anya did not really know how to lie to save her life.

Becky insisted.

“Okay, well, there might be something” twirling her fingers in rounds, looking to the ground pouting, Anya mumbled indescribable words to Becky before finally saying it: “I think Damian is a bit concern about the fact that he can’t surprise me”

“Nobody can surprise you. You are too good at reading people. And a terrible liar.”

“And he has known about it for years now!” Yes Becky, agree with her. It was not her fault. It was not her fault. “It shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right?”

“Then why do you think he is concerned about that?” Becky was confused.

Because she knew.

A couple days back, Damian got up earlier to cook her favorite breakfast and took it to her bed. But Anya knew that it was going to happen before hand because he bought and hid the ingredients the day before, so she did her best sleepy surprised expression and started to eat.

Damian’s thoughts were loud in his head “Loser. I cannot even surprise her when she is half asleep. Nothing works”

But he did not tell her that, instead, he kissed her forehead and walk out of the room with the excuse of meeting his brother early that day. Lie. He just wanted to be out of there. Away from her.

Anya replied: “He told me he feels bad because he can’t surprise me, I just want him to know that it is not his fault”

“Well, there’s a limit on how perceptive a person can be. I had surprise you before. It’s hard, yes, but possible. It might be kind of his fault” Actually, Becky surprised her on a moonless night.

“It is not” Anya hit her head into the table with a defeated expression on her face “I need him to understand that”.

She can only get surprised on moonless days. But how to explain it without telling the truth?

And here she was.

Thinking.

Considering.

Pondering.

Did it worth the risk?

She was so deeply scared about how hard she wanted to tell him. How hard she wanted to trust him. To believe he will love her no matter what. She has known Damian since he was 6 years old. She knows how good or bad he can be. The deepest secrets of his heart. What makes him happy even if he has never openly said so. There is no human being that she knows better than him.

Damian was certainly going to panic.

But will he overcome it? Accept it?

She was so scared that she picked today, a moonless day, to do so. She wasn’t strong enough to hear the rejection coming from him. Her heart wouldn’t handle it. No matter if he later thinks twice about it and accept it. She couldn’t stand the idea of hearing him fear her.

She heard the doorknob opening and her mind went blank, her back ran cold and her hands got sweaty. Was it right? Would it help him to know? Would it make it worst? She doesn’t know.

“I’m home”

He immediately noticed the distressed on his wife. “Is everything alright?”

“No” elbows on the table, she just holds her forehead with her fists. Eyes closed “Can you please take a sit? We need to talk”.

Damian did as requested, showing a hint of concern in his face.

Although a part of Anya appreciated the silence for her to gather her thoughts in order, the other part wanted to peek into Damian’s head and see what he was thinking.

“I know you have been mad a lot lately”.

She looked at him right in the eyes. It seemed to take him aback.

“Me? Mad? About what?” He deviated his gaze quickly, as if looking for a better answer. He was also a terrible liar, somehow.

“About the fact that you can’t surprise me”

Damian’s eyes turned sad, avoiding her gaze he just stared at the table. “Am I that much of an open book to you?”

“No- Yes. Err, something like that”

Still avoiding her gaze, he moved his eyes to the window next to them. “I’m sorry for not being able to do the same for you”

She took his hand over the table; he was still refusing to look at her.

“Damian, please look at me”

She squeezed his hand. He finally did.

“There’s something important I need to tell you. It might sound crazy, but it is the truth. And I’m terrified of telling you. Nobody” and she repeated the word with all the emphasis she could gathered in her voice “Nobody, knows about this. It is my most guarded secret and I swore to myself that I will take it to my tomb”

That got Damian’s attention. Momentarily forgetting how shitty of a husband he was feeling lately.

“I love you, Damian. And I trust you” she was scared. So scared that Damian’s hand was wet with her sweat now. “And I will tell you”

This is it. She will say it. Her heart was beating faster than ever. She was going to reveal her deepest secret.

“The reason why neither you nor anyone can’t surprise me is because…”

Silence. She bits her lip. She cannot face him. She stops to stare at his eyes and lowers her gaze.

“Because…”

Damian squeezes her hand softly this time, encouraging her to talk.

She sighs. Shuts her eyes harder. Takes a big breath and hold it for a couple seconds, until finally releasing it, talking as fast as she could “BecauseICanReadMinds”

Damian asks her to repeat herself, slowly this time.

“Because I can… read minds”

Of course, Damian doesn’t believe it. He drops her hand and stand up from the table. So much mystery and expectation for a joke. He was truly feeling bad about it and Anya wanted to do one of the weird jokes in an honestly bad time.

Damian was feeling insecure. He heard about the Seven Year Itch at work early that year. And he realized that without space for doubts Anya was the person that knew the most about him. But did he know about her the same way? Did he pay enough attention? And what about the relationship? Was he getting monotonous? Will Anya look for other men that can provide her the excitement she so dearly appreciates in her life? How much can she stand his own inaptitude?

So yeah, Damian is pretty pissed off. He gives her his back and walks towards the bedroom for some cooling off time.

“I’m telling the truth!” he hears her say.

He stops on his track and looks at her sideways. “Yeah? What am I thinking right now?”

She feels like stabbed. She didn’t think he was going to assume it was a lie. She was worried about a bunch of other scenarios. “I don’t know! It doesn’t work on days without moon!”

“How convenient. Should I assume today is a New Moon day?”

Damian was already reaching the shared bedroom when Anya took his hand to stop him. Once he entered the room, he was going to shut the door and keep her out for a couple hours until to cool down. He always did it when he was truly pissed off. She knows it and doesn’t want to let him do it. Because once he cools off, she could get cold feet and now that she has resolved to tell him, she did not want to brush it off as a joke or something like that.

“Damian, look at my eyes”

He ignored her.

She took his head with one hand and made him face her. “Look at me”

He finally did.

“I’m telling you the truth. I am adopted. People did things to me when I was a kid, in a lab. I can read minds since I am 3 years old. I had read your mind since the first time I met you. Every day. Except on days when there’s no moon in the sky”

And Damian does know something about his wife. She cannot lie to him to save his life. That is why even if she has tried to act surprised for years, he has always known when she was faking it. He thought it was because she pitied him. He was bad at surprises, and because he couldn’t properly catch her off guard, she fakes it. What Anya was just saying…? Could it be true?

“Why are you telling me this on the day you can’t prove it?”

“Because I’m terrified on what you might be thinking about me.” After saying that, she broke the eye contact with him “I do not want to hear your rejection.” She lets his hand loose “I might still hear it tomorrow, because you can’t trick your own thoughts. I will know the truth. But I couldn’t do it today.”

Damian knows with certainty; he does love his wife. He has loved her for many years now and undoubted he will do it for many years to come. He could not stand watching her like this. It broke his heart. He holds her in a tight hug.

The moment he hugged her Anya started to cry. He spoke softly into her ear “What you are telling me right now is so nonsensical, absurd. Crazy. But I want you to know that no matter what, I love you. And I won’t reject you even if you were an alien from another planet”

Her shuddering sobs started to calm down “Even if I came from Pluto? It is not a planet.”

“Even then, Anya”

She holds him tight “I am sorry”

“About what”

“Being unable to fake my surprise face and making you sad about it”

He removed a tear from her cheek before placing a small kiss on her lips “I preferred it that way. That makes me enjoy more when I see you genuinely surprised. Maybe that’s why I try so hard.”

They stood there for a while, in a comfortable silent hug.

“So how does it work?” He asked.

“Well, I can hear what you think in front of me. If I concentrate enough, I can hear a specific person several feet away”

“Can you know something about a person that is not actively thinking it in that moment?”

“Like look into a person’s memories?”

“Yeah”

“No, I can’t. Just what they are thinking at that time.”

“I see”

Silence again.

Damian broke it, again. Flustered this time “So you have been able to read my mind all this time?”

“Yes”

“W-were you able to read it when I was thinking of kissing you for the first time?”

“Every time until you finally did it” She laughs.

Damian was full red-faced at this point “Did you also read it on Becky’s 18th birthday party?”

Anya’s cheeks dyed pink at the memory “Y-Yeah”

This time Damian covered his face with both of his hands. “Did you read it on our wedding?”

“No” That got him out of the ashamed-zone for a second.

“Why?��

“I ensure it was on a moonless day. I didn’t want to get myself overwhelmed by all the guest’s thoughts on such special day”

Silence.

“That makes sense”

“Yeah”

More silence.

“So, you can’t read them today even if you try hard?”

“Not a single word”

He nods with his head.

“I think I get it”

“Are you not like… feeling weird?”

“Yes, I am”

“… Would you have preferred for me to not tell you never about this?”

He denied with his head “Thank you for telling me, it must have been hard”

“Not even my parents know”

“Really?”

“Really”

Anya didn’t need to read his head to know that he was feeling pretty cocky about it. It was painted all over his face.

More silence.

Out of the blue, Damian started to laugh. He brushed his hair with his fingers and looked at her with sparkles in his eyes.

“I swear I will surprise you this Christmas”

She laughs.

“And how are you going to do that?”

“Now that I know how you do it, I will train myself from here to December. I will need your help, though”

“I will gladly help”

She smiled.

“I love you”

He smiled.

“I love you too”

She figured it out it was okay to tell him the other secret not even her parents knew. If we are coming clean, we are coming clean about everything.

“You know… I am also two years younger. I lied about my age for my papa to adopt me.”

Damian thought about it for several minutes. Face full red again once he talked.

“Y-You were sixteen on Becky’s party!?”

~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V

After that day back in August, they set up a calendar on the fridge door marking the moonless days. The day after “the talk”, Damian spent all morning having a talk to her. Or more like, keeping his mouth shut while she was keeping the conversation out loud with Damian playing with the fact that he can hold a conversation with her without pronouncing a single word.

It had been fun, somehow, watching Damian adapt to his new life over the months.

He soon realized Anya probably knew about all the people he had wanted to kill at some point. She also knew when he thinks about another woman being pretty. She totally knew when he lied to her about enjoying some new food she cooked. She knew when he was being mean with people in his head without reason.

He sometimes forgets and still lies to her. Then, he gets self-conscious about the fact she already knows the truth and apologize for lying.

He has also caught her off guard and surprised her already a couple times. The trick is to think about literally anything else near her and plan the surprises when she is not close by. A bit more difficult, but definitely more gratifying.

She knew all the good and all the bad that was in his mind, and after seeing everything she still loved him. She has always known, since he was a child, and after all this time she was not only still his friend but accept him as a partner to spend her life with.

How can he ever have doubts about her feelings again? How if she already knew everything about him and accepted him as he is?

Is it fair to be blessed in this life with the sincere and absolute love of a person that truly knows you?

For Anya, the feeling was mutual. The first weeks she cried of happiness almost every day. Damian didn’t leave her. He accepted it. Looked for ways to make it work. Embraced it as a challenge to surpass together. As a team.

~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V

On the Christmas day Anya woke up with an alarm’s sound coming from Damian’s side of the bed. She tried to move him to shut it off, but she just found an empty space next to her. A note left in his pillow. She opened her eyes and started to read it with a sleepy face, after shutting the damn thing off.

“Anya,

I’m sorry I was not there to kiss you a good morning today. I needed the alarm so you could eat your breakfast while it was still hot. Please get out of the bed and go to the kitchen. There’s a surprise waiting for you there”

Anya’s smile was big in her face. What? She was enjoying the fact that she had zero clues about this.

She didn’t put shoes on and went out of the bedroom in a second, to the kitchen. The first thing she noticed in the hallway was the strong smell of roses.

The image that welcomed her left her speechless. There were fresh flowers everywhere and in her seat of the dining table there was a full set of plates and another note.

“There is fruit, fresh baked croissants, fried eggs and bacon. Plenty of orange juice and a big peanut can. You can either finish the peanuts after breakfast or carry them with you along the day for a snack. And because I didn’t want you to eat in silence, please go to take the TV remote and turn it on.”

She took a bite of one of the croissants and did as commanded. A video of recaps of their wedding day played with Bryan Adams’ “I do it for you” acoustic version playing in the background. After certain pictures there was a message.

The first photo in the video was one of Anya entering the church. “The moment I saw you step into the hallway, I cried”. The next one, was a photo of Damian crying in his suit. “Because the only thing that was crossing my mind was that I was the luckiest man in the world. You looked like an angel. The most stunning woman was walking in my direction, to declare to myself and the world that she willingly will spend all her life next to me. You continuously make me the best version of myself, Anya”. A third photo: Anya signing the official documents. “Or that’s what I would probably have been thinking if my brain hasn’t done shortcut at that moment”. The next photo that flashes across the screen was one of both exiting the church holding each other hand. “I swear to you I couldn’t think of anything. My mind was a loop of ‘wow’ until the priest started talking and I then I was forced to focus to remember my vows”.

Anya was shaking. A couple tears were rolling down her cheeks. She got pretty emotional watching the video. Several pictures of the party followed without any more messages until the end of the video. She finished the breakfast and took the peanuts can. A message showed up on the TV: “I know the bed is tempting on a Christmas day without responsibilities. But please go and get yourself ready. It is a sunny beautiful day, what about a walk in the park? Make sure to wear comfortable shoes.”

She went back to the bedroom, took a quick shower and got a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt and her favorite sneakers. On top of them, another note.

“I knew you would pick these ones. They are old Anya, let me give you new ones with the same color and style. Your refusal is non-negotiable this time around.”

Anya laughed, no. She will keep them until they are torn, and her toes shows at the front. What is a little worn shoe sole and colorless sections? She loves those shoes. He gave them to her a few years back, when she broke a heel in a night outgoing and the only opened store only sold sneakers. The note continuous

“A boy selling newspapers will be waiting for you in the park. He’s wearing a red t-shirt”

So, to the park it is.

It was a sunny day indeed. A lot of people with the day off were having a blast with their families, kids playing with dogs, old people playing chest, fathers and mothers teaching her kids how to use a bicycle for the first time. She wanted to be reunited with her family too.

It was easy to find the boy. He was so nervous that his thoughts were louder than the people around him “Pink haired woman, give it only to a pink haired woman that uses old shoes. Pink haired woman.”

“Hello there, are you the newspaper boy I’m looking for?”

He took a quick glance at her shoes and then cleared his throat looking for a newspaper in his bag. “They told me the job-hunting section was filled with important information, agent Peanut.”

Anya smiled. So that is what this is about. “Thank you, have a good day.”

While she was getting away to search for a free bench to sit on, she heard the thoughts of the boy running in the opposite direction “I need to tell the man I already did it”

She opened the newspaper, there was a pen marking the start of the section the boy mentioned. She read over the lines carefully until she noticed the pattern. The same they used in episode 703 of “Spy Wars”. The secret code was easy to decipher. Each line had two dots marking each one a letter. The letter that was in the middle of the two marked ones was the one she needs to mark in a circle. And reading it from bottom to top, she will get the message.

“Train station. 53. Seat 9A.”

Anya closed the newspaper and run towards the train station. Laughing her heart out. Such a fun morning. What was Damian planning to do?! She opened the peanuts can that brought with her and eat a few “Crazy man.”

She found out the train she was supposed to take was going to the city borders. In the seat 9A there was an envelope. She opened it.

“Agent Peanut, we have captured your husband. We will torture him until he reveals your deepest secrets. Do not even try to come to the old peanut’s abandoned factory outside the city where we have our secret liar. Coordinates: 51.08342, 10.423447”

The envelope also had the ticket for the ride. Anya rolled her eyes. Damian loved to make fun of the fact that the villain always gave its secret liar address to the good guys as if screaming “go and get me if you dare”. It was never this painfully obvious in the show. Except on episode 113, the one about ‘Bad-Man and the pâtissier heist’.

The train was already in movement when she heard a voice. “Ticket, please?”

She stared at the man and could hear his thoughts “Pink hair, green eyes”. “Are you Miss Peanut?”

A light blushed enlighten her face. It was ok for the newspaper boy to say it but having a fellow adult calling her that was a bit shameful “Yes”

The man took a backpack from the compartments above her seat. “This is for you”

The man left after marking her ticket, leaving her alone to explore the inside of the backpack. She covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh my god”

There were a couple toy guns with 30 bullets each. A belt to hold them. A water bottle, a black t-shirt, cap and sunglasses. There was also another envelope.

“Hey, don’t you dare abandon me.”

A quick sketch of a Damian tied to a chair saying ‘help’ was on the upper right corner of the paper.

Anya bit her lower lip and whispered the answer to herself: “Never”

She was able to change her clothes before reaching the destination. From the station, it was just a 15 minutes’ walk.

Her heart was beating fast. This was exciting. Damian was giving her surprise after surprise and she was loving it. It wasn’t even a moonless day. How come he did not think about this the previous days? He (his mind) usually won’t shut up whenever there’s a big surprise coming. Now that he knows she can read minds; did he take extra precautions? He on purpose force himself to think about everything but this? He was literally thinking about the Christmas lunch and where to go. Planning dinner with her parents. Was it a trick? Or will they go after this? What is it? She took some things for granted today and thought about the surprise being a gift in a box that she’ll open in the family dinner. This was a thousand times better.

She finally reached her destination. A bunch of voices caught her attention.

“Mister Damian is too sweet” Was one of the female voices.

“At least I’m getting paid twice for working on Christmas” another voice.

“I hope Anya doesn’t get hurt” A third one.

“I should have gotten a bigger breakfast this morning” A fourth one.

How much people did Damian had there?

But suddenly, a voice shut out: “Enemy on sight, enemy on sight!”

An alarm started to ring, and Anya’s heart felt like to explode from the adrenaline.

“Don’t let her go to the second floor!”

So that is where she was supposed to go.

Anya entered through an open window and suddenly a lot of gas started to fill the warehouse. Anya saw that the people inside was armed with the same guns she had in the backpack. She took one from the belt and started to shoot. The people she was shooting started to fall and ‘die’. She ran across the people in the middle of the smoke to the stairs when a big guy was waiting for her like a wall.

Anya was a 26-year-old police officer. She was mildly offended that there was only one guy. She easily passed through him and reached the second floor.

Fifteen-armed (with toys) people were waiting for her. Damian was tied in a chair with a smirk in his beautiful face, thinking for her mind only: “Are you going to rescue me or what?”

But the biggest surprise of all was the villain.

“Uncle Yuri?”

“Oh! You have finally find my liar, Agent Peanut!” he ignored her question, getting full in character “But you are late, your husband refused to give us information, so he is useless now. I have decided that he is going to die in 5 minutes!” A bomb with a clock was chained to Damian’s chest.

“I won’t let you!” She was full on combat mode now. Following the game. “Leave my husband alone! This is between you and me!”

“Soldiers, kill her!”

But Anya was too good. She didn’t stop laughing while fighting with the people they hired for this. When she was finally done with the ‘guards’ she faced her uncle: “Now it is your turn!”

“You think you can take me down in 4 minutes and a half? Keep dreaming! You’ll face your end at the hands of – he sighed and though “I can believe I’m going to say this but agh, whatever” - Bad-Man!” She was 100% sure they stopped the clock for dramatic purposes. Also Uncle Yuri performance, top notch!

Anya run to her uncle and kick him with all her might. He easily blocked it with his hand.

A bunch of kicks and fist fighting followed. Yuri was enjoying it as much as Anya. They trained together many years ago, but after Anya grew up and become a member of the police department, they stopped to have the sessions. There was no particular reason for it, they just didn’t have the time anymore.

So being here fighting each other was like a jump back in time. And Yuri’s eyes get a little bit to shiny and his smile was a bit too big while defending up from her attacks.

Finally, Yuri fell with a dramatic scream when Anya shot him in the chest with the toy gun. (it probably hurt, though. She was mere inches away from him).

There is no way in hell that the fight took less than 10 minutes. But when she run towards Damian the clock has a minute left before the explosion.

She took the tape out of his mouth and dramatically kissed him. “Are you alright?”

“Hurry Anya! The bomb is going to explode any second now!”

“What is the key?”

There was a circular padlock holding the timer. Anya looked around her and run to Yuri’s pockets. Empty.

“Have you seen something that circular today?” Damian asked her.

She tried to read his mind, but all she found was “I won’t tell you. I won’t tell you. I won’t tell you” repeated as a mantra.

35 seconds.

Think Anya, think.

And then it hit her. She opened the backpack and took the peanut can. Could it be?

She pushed the can against the padlock and the timer stopped.

She beamed at Damian with a smile in her face “Take that!”

He was, however, staring at her with a loving gaze “You did it wonderfully”.

She then released him from the chains and hugged him. “I love you so much”

He replied to her with a thought in his head: “No more than how much I love you, Anya. Merry Christmas”

“You, big dork” was all she could say in a voice faltering with love.

“That hurts, Peanut” Yuri’s voice was behind her “No hugs for the boxing bag you just defeat and keep ignoring?”

She turned around and hugged her uncle without saying a word. She then removed a couple traitor tears that escape her eyes. “So, what’s next?”

“The helicopter is waiting for us behind the building.”

“Helicopter?”

“I just wanted you to live the full experience” was her husband reply.

She intertwined his fingers on hers “Thank you for today”

But there was a final surprise.

Damian’s sweet smile was not showing all the embarrassingly intense passionate thoughts he suddenly sent her way about the plans for the rest of the day and night. Anya’s face grew red in an instant. One of the downsides of the new discovered power was that Damian enjoyed making her blush on public. His smile shift to a cocky one once he saw his wife reaction.

“Did you really though my plans ended up after lunch? It is as if you don’t know me at all”

“Well… I do have the rest of my life to do that”

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

Hope you like it! Happy holidays!

#damianya #aged-up #spyxfamily #spy x family #sneaky santa exchange #anya forger #damian desmond #my writing

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immortalonus · 3 years

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Where You Belong: Chapter 3

A/N: I hate this chapter so, so much. Unfortunately, I also couldn't find any way around it. If I got anything wrong, chances are I just missed it, so feel free to let me know.

Read on AO3 here.

“...Humans with ghost powers!? Crazy, right?” Valerie snorted, then paused.

“Or humans that turn into ghosts, or ghosts that—stay human when they die or whatever. The important thing is that there was a part of Ellie that was real. And if it hadn't been for Phantom, I'd have just left her there with Plasmius, to do whatever—to hurt—to—”

Valerie took a moment, struggling to admit out loud what she had already begun suspect for herself.

“—kill her. he was gonna murder a little girl, mama, and if Phantom hadn't convinced me she still had some human in her, if I hadn't listened to a ghost, I woulda let him.”

Phantom, if she hadn't listened to Phantom, specifically. It was a detail that still irritated her every time it came up.

The ghost boy had been so persistent, for so long in his charade of being a “good guy,” that most days, she simply tuned him out.

And truly, was that so wrong?

Up to that point, Everything Phantom had said in his own defense had been nothing more than talk. Oh, he said sorry, he said he felt bad about it, but at the end of the day, what had he done?

Ruined her fathers job and her life, then fled the scene like the criminal he was.

Stole for the hell of it and couldn't even be bothered to take the blame when he got caught.

(Valerie still had no idea why the ghost thought an “evil mind controlling clown guy,” was a reasonable excuse, at all, for anything.)

Who was always ready to fight, but never to help.

Never, not once, in all the wretched aftermath of the Grey's financial dissolutionment, had Phantom come to their aid. Not in the immediate events that came after, nor during the process of her father's dismissal, when he could well have stayed his expulsion simply by appearing, proving Damian Grey's assertions of spectral interference months before he would have been otherwise believed.

Not during the move from her childhood home to her current residence down in Elmerton. Too strapped to hire assistance, it had been down to Valerie, her father, and Fenton, who had taken his weekend off to help her move instead.

No haunting the creditors who dogged their every step, even now.

Hell, he couldn't even be bothered to tell the public that it was his fault her life was ruined! In private, yes, where he knew no one could hear. But never where it mattered, to whom it mattered, since that would require Phantom to actually give something up for once and admit what he did was wrong. Which he would never do, because Phantom, like all ghosts, was a fundamentally egotistical creature, right down to his very core.

No, Valerie had good reason to believe that she had Phantom all figured out: A showboating prig, full of hot air and false excuses, distinct from other ghosts only in his capacity to fool the masses into believing he was ever anything more.

Then Elle happened.

The ghost girl's mere existence had managed to throw Valerie's world into a whole new tailspin, leaving her reeling even as events conspired to yank more and more of her footing out from under her, teetering on the edge of her own understanding as all her convictions suffered blow after blow.

Living ghosts.

Ghostly humans.

Friends acting as enemies.

While enemies acted as friends.

“I woulda let him kill her.” She repeated, “Just like I let him kill—end—All those other ghosts I gave him, just handed 'em over for whatever freak experiments he had cooked up.”

Just like she had snuffed out who knew how many other specters during her own patrols.

How many of them were still alive in there, she wondered, underneath the ghost?

Her mother's brows seemed to furrow in response, worried, no doubt, over what exactly her daughter had done.

“I didn't mean it mama, it wasn't my fault! It was all Plasmius, you know Plasmius? That knockoff Nosferatu all the time picking fights with Phantom. He used me and he lied, and—“ Valerie licked her lips futilely seeking moisture from a mouth gone dry.

“He played human to do it.”

Valerie felt a flush of rage and shame wash over her at the words. She had been used all over again, played for a fool and manipulated just like her so-called “friends” had used her before, dangling control and importance in exchange for the very essence of her soul.

To learn that she had struck the same deal with a different kind of devil, that all her power was a tool in someone else's hands had curdled into an ache that rivaled the raw burn of a whole new betrayal.

Because unlike the A-listers she'd run with not too long ago, or even Phantom, who she'd always hated, Vlad Masters had been a man she'd seen fit to trust.

“Plasmius was Masters, and—God, they even share the same first name—My sponsor, the guy who gave me my first suit, trained me up, even kept me and daddy off the streets when things were at their worst. And me stupid enough to think it was 'cause he cared.”

A hard exclamation escaped her throat at the thought, to forceful for a scoff, too sharp for laughter.

No such thing indeed.

“Everyone's out for something. Masters—Plasmius, he was out for Phantom, and I was just the pawn that was supposed to get take him out.”

That's part of what scares me too. Why was Plasmius so dead set on Phantom? Why'd he sink so much money into taking him out? Why does Phantom hate him back?”

And it was peculiar, how much Phantom seemed to hate Plasmius. Valerie had thought for a long time that it was some kind of territory dispute, a conflict over a rare and valuable thin spot between realities. After years of chasing after Phantom, however, it became more and more clear that the ghost boy's resentment of Plasmius went beyond that of simple competition.

The mere mention of the vampiric specter was enough to turn Phantom tense and snippy, as though the mere thought of the other ghost irritated him, somehow. After witnessing the two up close, Valerie's suspicions had cemented into certainty: Phantom hated Plasmius, and he hated him personally.

“There's so much I don't know, and no one to tell me. Plasmius doesn't know that I know, and until I get out from under him, that's how it's gotta stay.”

How Valerie was supposed to get out from under Plasmius was another question entirely. Plasmius, in Vlad Master's guise, was the sole reason the Grey family had managed to keep on top of its debts for as long as they had. To make matters worse, he also provided most of the materials Valerie's suit consumed for its more elaborate systems and weaponry.

Even so, the temptation to throw it all away and smash Plasmius' smug face against her boot was a strong one, stayed only by the fear of what would happen to her father if she tried.

“Phantom went squirrelly on me too,” she said. “I thought maybe I could get something from him, since we never ended that truce. But in the end, he was still just a ghost.”

She hadn't wanted to go to Phantom, in those days between Elle's escape and her decision to plunge into the Zone, had felt too much like would be admitting something, somehow, to do so. Had it not been for the fact that Phantom was her sole and only choice, she was sure she would never have asked at all.

Once she'd made the decision to do it, he'd been easy enough to track down. She found him—where else?—but In the middle of a fight, duking it out at altitude with one of the countless animal ghosts that regularly made their way across the paltry excuse for a veil stretched across Amity Park.

The fight had been easy, the conversation that came after it, much less so.

How could someone be alive and dead at the same time? Were they alive and dead at once? all the time? Did they alternate at will? Were they born? Were they made? How many were there? A lot? How did she spot a human-ghost if she saw it? Was there a way to tell? Or did you have to guess?

Phantom had been the one to tell her that these human-ghost, ghost-human things could exist in the first place, which had lead her to expect, rather despite herself, that perhaps he could explain them, too.

So it was only natural, really, that in that moment precisely, he had chosen to clam up. He knew nothing of these miraculous hybrids, could find out nothing concerning them, and as to finding them, he had no clue at all. Nevermind that it had been he who had first told her such beings were possible in the first place, the ghost was a veritable well of ignorance, utterly unable to aid in her pursuits.

“Ghosts are narrow minded and selfish, they go round everywhere like they've got blinkers on both sides of their head. You stick an idea in front of their nose, and they grab it if they like it, and shove it away if they don't. They don't consider where you got the idea from, they don't think about why its there, they don't even goddamn care why you picked it up in the first place. All that matters is somethings blocking their little slice of the world, theirs, specifically, 'cause they wouldn't never consider any other kind.

That was Phantom's problem, he wanted a truce yeah, but his way, not mine. A truce for beating things up, not a truce for trusting and talking or or anything that might give trouble to him. That wasn't how he wanted it to work.

He was even worse with Elle. She's the only other one I could talk to—not counting you, ma—who could tell me anything about anything about what was going on!

And Elle, I couldn't track her down. When she said she had places to be, I thought she meant like Phantom when there wasn't anything fun for him to hit, not just gone! I tried tracking her, I did, but it didn't work. Either staying human hides her, or she's run too far to track.

Stupid Phantom wouldn't help me with that, neither. It was just 'oh she's fine,' this and 'why do you care' that, like I can't worry about a human girl wondering on her own without nobody to make sure she's even fed!”

Not only had he been absurdly reluctant to answer her questions, but even had the audacity to wonder if they were at all related to her continued association with Plasmius. It was an insult, beyond all doubt, as though he didn't know how little choice she had.

As though he wasn't the one who forced her into making it.

“I guess so far as he figured, if Elle wasn't being kidnapped, then she was fine. It didn't matter that she's a kid, or alone, or was stealing apples just to eat. She was strong enough to survive on her own and not melt, and that was good enough for him. He just sat there when she left, too, watching her scat like any other ghost."

Did he know how far she intended to run, or simply fail to understand why he should care?

"No matter how well he thinks he means, Phantom can't help the human parts of her. Just because she could beat any man that tried to take doesn't mean that she doesn't get—scared, or lonely, or—“ Valerie wriggled uncomfortably in her pallet of dust. “—Or that she doesn't need people. Phantom can't give that, and Plasmius is a sick piece of shit, so that left me. Just me. If I let that go, then Elle'd be alone for real.”

The worry in her mother's gaze didn't lighten, exactly, but it did shift, consternation giving way to curiosity mixed with a hearty topping of concern. It was easy to imagine the question she would have asked, if she could but speak.

“Then what is it do you think you're doing all the way out here, hm?”

Valerie sighed. This, at least, she had a clear answer for.

“I'm on a mission. There's this thing called the infini-map. Don't have all the details, but with a name like that?” She scoffed, “don't need 'em. Whatever it is, its good enough to send Plasmius into a fit just at the idea of laying claws on it.

If I could get something like that, imagine, I could find Elle in a heartbeat. No more lookin', no more running blind and hoping for luck. And when I find her, I could use it get out from under Masters thumb for good. Use it, sell it, whatever, with that thing, it would be easy. Me and daddy could be set for life.”

At the time, the idea had seemed brilliant. With her search for Elle stymied, and rental payments approaching their inevitable due, she had latched onto the idea of a Ghost Zone mission the instant her so-called benefactor had brought it up. It was a chance to bleed “Mister Masters” of a little more of his money, without actually having to tolerate his presence for any length of time. Even better, it presented an opportunity to do right by her father while staying far away from the quiet anger, the soft, dispirited sense of regret that had seemed to overtake him as jobs remained scarce, and Valerie continued to hunt.

Perhaps most selfishly, it was the opportunity for the Red Huntress to become what Valerie had had always wanted her to be: A free agent, no puppet masters, no expectations, just the world, and herself within in it.

It was one thing she truly did not regret, even now, lying in the dirt looking up at the memory of a memory ripped to tatters in her hands. Whatever else happened in this strange, wild place, it was her decision, her choice. She was finally in control.

Thinking of control, there was another reason why she wanted to speed up her search for the ghost girl.

“Elle's a good kid, but she <i>is</i> a kid, with a ghost in her she don't even know to fear. I'm not sure how long she can fight it like that without anyone to tell her what's going on. She needs someone who knows about ghosts,who can show her how to fight back, 'cause if she doesn't, I'm not sure how long she'll last until she ends up Plasmius."

“Or Phantom.”

It was an ugly theory, but explained a great deal. The identical looks, the raw antipathy towards Vlad, in particular, or how a full ghost could see himself as related, somehow, to a being that was something so much more.

All ghosts came from somewhere, and Valerie rather doubted Elle was truly Plasmius' only attempt at capturing a hybrid of his own.

“'Cause I think they're the same kinda thing. It explains why Plasmius wanted her so bad, and they change the same way, too. They go from being a ghost, ectosignitures and all, to being alive. Not some fake, but breathing, heartbeats, everything. There's something in them that's really, truly alive.

Plasmius and Elle, they're both alive," she whispered, "but only Elle's human, and I don't know how long that's gonna last.

I can't stay stupid about all this ghost shit, neither. There's so much they won't tell me, and Elle's my ticket to figuring it out. If I can find her in time, I could fix it. Bring her to the Fentons, maybe, take out the ghost before it gets too big, make cash, move out me and daddy and Elle all together. Either way, this is how I do it, right here, right now. This is my chance.”

No more being lead around like a particularly witless donkey for his carrot wielding master, no more suppressing every violent impulse that threatened to take her over any time she chanced to look “Mister Masters” in his insufferable face, no more long, interminable periods of her nose against a grindstone day after day, scraping her fingers bloody against poverty's wall in the way her father seemed convinced was better, somehow, for all the pain it so obviously caused him.

“I know it's risky, but it's worth it, it's gotta be. If I can get the infinimap, then I can fix everything, all at once. I won't owe nobody nothing, and I can start fixing things again, for everyone.”

And perhaps her mother agreed, as the shadow that had gathered against her brow seemed to ease, relaxing back into something more serene.

Valerie smiled, running her thumb over the place where her face once was, pointedly ignoring the sensation of absence in favor of the smiling visage still shining across her display.

“See, I knew you'd see it my way.” Valerie was pretty sure she'd had to have gotten her sense of adventure from somewhere, after all. “It's hard, but I'm fine. And when this is all done, it'll be more than fine, it'll be better.

Just you wait.”

Overlay image: Session end.

The memory of Theresa Grey vanished slowly, victim of her daughter's own reluctance to see her go. But vanish she did, sunshine grew pale and laughter faded, memory crushed into data and erased of meaning, and Valerie was once again alone.

She sighed, finally allowing herself to lower the photograph as she reached over for her other parcels, which she began collecting into a small bundle atop her chest.

Technically, she could reach over to put her mother with her boots and rations instead of the other way around, but found herself suddenly disinclined to do so. Without the stress of the day to keep her going, she found exhaustion pushing down at her very bones, keeping her pressed against the meager comfort of her body warmed hollow of dirt.

No, lifting herself up as little as possible seemed a very enticing proposition indeed.

She grabbed both her boots, then her gloves, peeled off to reveal the same skintight leather which coated the rest of her, the remains of her wallet, and a single, battered bag, too smooth for leather, too thick for silk: All supplies from her earlier run in with the thieving insect from before, pared down to those goods and supplies she could actually use.

She chose not to dwell on how few of them there were.

Her mother came last, placed gently at the head of the pile, where she could look it over one last time.

She should have done this sooner, she knew, perhaps even the moment she entered the Zone. Keeping the photograph on her physical person was too much of a risk, one born of foolish sentiment and thoughtless desire. She had just wanted so badly to keep one good thing with her, somewhere tangible and real, she'd disregarded the threat she put it in.

Because if there was one thing death was guaranteed to do, it was steal everything and everyone it thought was yours.

Valerie placed her hands over the small collection, reaching once again into the inorganic hum prickling ever at the edges of her mind.

Unit_1 selected (Gen_Storage:)

Report

Status: Stable (20% full)

Contents (See details)

Intake request:

Intake selected? (Y/N)

>Yes

Processing…

A flick of her mental fingers, and it was done. Boots, bag, and all turned into their own kind of mist, dissolving into the small pocket dimension that followed her always, shadows diffusing into the surrounding light, the weight of them dissipating until nothing but the memory of their pressure remained.

Valerie brushed her fingers over the space they left behind, a half smile tugged at the corners of her trembling lips.

“Goodnight, Ma,” She whispered. A grief like seaglass hung heavy on her heart, smoothed over edges cut no longer, though the heft of its sorrow lay leaden even yet.

“Sleep good now, you hear?”

No voice answered in response.

Valerie no longer expected it to.

Deep in the realm of the dead, a figure turned on its side, curled against itself on its small outcropping of stone. Legs up to its chest, arms clenched tight around its shoulders as it heaved, breath by mortal breath, seeking some moment of repose.

#Valerie Grey #Danny Phantom #Fanfiction #Where You Belong #Chapter 3 #Writing

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listentothelittlebird · 3 years

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Today I bring you: an alternate Super Sons meeting! (This is a scrapped scene from my Code Bat series on ao3, but I think this is still enjoyable without context!)

The rewrite of this is here!

“I told you, coming with me would be boring.”

“Tt. Whatever, Drake.”

The nickname had long lost its malicious tinge. Tim rolled his eyes, trying to quell the fond smile that was twitching at his lips by ducking his face back down towards the paperwork on his table.

He was in a usually vacant office, at the Wayne Enterprises building of New York. Damian was playing a video game of some sort on his phone. Tim leaned over to peer at the boy’s screen. Damian tried to jerk away from his view, but Tim had already caught sight of the display.

Tim snorted, “Is that Dragonvale?”

“Shut up,” Damian snapped, his emotions betrayed by the reddening of his cheeks. Tim laughed lightly before returning to his work, the office descending into companionable silence, the only sounds coming from Tim shifting around the papers and clicking and unclicking his pen.

Damian had insisted on coming along for Tim’s business trip to New York. Not because he wanted to have a hand at the business, no, but because the young artist was interested in sketching the streets of the city - especially from the more illegal perches they could find on the tall buildings.

A ping from Tim’s phone caught his attention. He frowned minutely, enough of a change for Damian to raise an eyebrow from where he had positioned himself in the corner of the office, right next to the window overlooking the street below. Damian had already grown bored of the same view, having sketched the same perpsective for three days straight.

“So much for a peaceful business trip,” Tim murmured, signing quickly to Damian from behind his desk, where the camera in the room was unable to see, “K-O-N is in town. Pursuing T-O-Y-M-A-N.”

Damian tilted his head to the side, a silent question of “How?”, because New York was not exactly a neighbour to Metropolis. Tim shrugged with a disgruntled look, “Let’s go. I’m pretty much done with what I have to do right now. The rest can wait until later.”

Damian kept pace with Tim as he made a quick detour to access his spare costume before exiting the building. They were becoming more and more like real brothers each day - just the fact that Damian was here with Tim, without any of their other family members, already spoke volumes on their improving relationship. “What do I do?” Damian wondered curiously, “I know you’re intending on meeting up with him. Would my presence be distracting?”

Tim pursed his lips in thought. He had to admit, Damian’s new costume - the robe dyed with faint colourings - was pretty neat, but also very easily located. Damian would definitely stand out, if he did suit up. Not to mention that Damian had little to no exposure to any metas besides Duke, and would struggle to hide from Kon’s super senses.

“If you’re ready to make your debut, then I’ll see you at the destruction zone,” Tim clasped his hand briefly on Damian’s shoulder before ducking into the nearest alleyway. Damian would take more time to make it to where Toyman was currently wreaking havoc, since he had left his robe in their hotel room.

Sure enough, when Red Robin swooped down from the nearest rooftop to land a direct hit on Toyman’s newest creation, the flash of Damian’s white costume was still nowhere to be seen.

There was, however, another tween present. It did not take a genius to realise from the boy’s red cape and blue Superman tunic that this was Kon’s younger brother, Jon.

“How did Toyman get all the way to New York?” Red Robin aimed the question at his teammate, electing to ignore the presence of the younger boy for the time being.

Superboy huffed, visibly annoyed. “He let loose a ton of smaller toy robots, miniatures of the one he’s currently on,” Kon pointed to the UFO-like contraption that was zipping about the skies. He then directed a glare at his younger brother, “And somebody decided to ditch homeland, so that their Pa has to do all the work taking the robots down himself.”

“Pa can take care of the robots just fine!” Jon yelled, angry tone still dangerously close to a whine, “And I can help you! It all works out!”

Kon looked ready to argue back, so Tim cut in with a quick, “Less talk, more work. We can deal with family squabbles later.” Both Superboys instantly fell silent.

Toyman was rather irritable, Tim realised. Particularly so for him, since he was unable to fly and was restricted to the rooftops or fire escapes along the sides of the buildings. It was one of the few times that he wished he had incorporated his gliding wings into his Red Robin suit instead of his Gotham suit.

The villain also seemed to have a shield around his robot, preventing them from inflicting much damage on the UFO he was in. Tim was also constantly weary of the civilians - they were unable to properly clear out of the way, since Toyman kept switching streets and running off in different directions.

Jon tried to punch straight through the shield, but the shield deflected the force of his blow right back at him with a displacing wave of energy, sending the boy hurtling into a nearby building. The boy growled and got back to his feet, aiming to punch the shield a second time. The buildings around them were already unstable from the force of the first blast.

“Kid, don’t!” Red Robin called, but Jon had already flown straight into the shield, forcefully flinging his fist into the barrier.

Damian arrived on scene just as the buildings began to crumble. He stayed crouched a distance away, just shy of the main impact zone of the concussive wave.

Damian first noted the failing infrastructures of the buildings nearest to the blast. He was moving before his thoughts had fully formed, diving quickly through the sizable hole in the building and sprinting towards the unlucky civilians that were caught up in the chaos. He had to clear the building fast, before they were crushed under it.

He lowered the last person to the ground with his grappling hook, only to look up and note the presence of not one, but two Superboys. The smaller one looked to be around his own age, which was both intriguing and concerning.

The second Superboy now looked down at him from where he was holding up the upper half of the building he had just exited. “Who are you?” the boy asked in bewilderment. Damian backed away before ducking into the alley beside him, making his way onto the rooftop of a stable building.

“I could use some help!” Red Robin yelled from one street over, where Toyman had retreated to. Red Robin was using what looked to be electrified bird-a-rangs, which were just barely able to get through the shield, but were not doing much in terms of damage.

Damian slipped a small throwing knife into his hand, aiming his shot carefully. Toyman was facing away from him, and his control panel was on full display from where Damian was crouched. He waited until Red Robin readied another bird-a-rang, before throwing his knife in sync with him.

The shield malfunctioned for a split second once more, and it was all that was needed for the knife to slip through at the same time as the bird-a-rang, planting itself neatly into the controls. The wiring fizzled for a brief moment as Toyman cried out, whipping his head back to meet Damian’s blank mask.

The shield disappeared, and then Superboy - Kon-El - was delivering a sharp punch that crunched through the robot’s metallic body easily. The younger Superboy came soon after, hanging back as Red Robin and his older brother subdued Toyman properly.

The boy wrinkled his nose briefly, before looking directly at Damian, his expression brightening. Damian took a cautious step away from the edge of his rooftop even as Superboy flew up to him, landing heavily enough to crack the concrete slightly.

“You’re the guy from earlier!” Superboy enthused, and extended a hand, “Hi! I’m Superboy!”

Damian gazed warily at the boy’s hand. “Will you crush my hand if I shake yours?” Damian blurted out. This was his first time holding a conversation with one of the Kryptonians, he realised.

Superboy froze, and his face fell as he retracted his hand, “Ah, maybe. Sorry, I- I’m new to the hero gig,” he smiled hesitantly, glancing around him, “This is the first time I’ve been Superboy in any city other than Metropolis, actually. It’s… different.”

“I can imagine,” Damian commented, shifting tensely on his feet. Superboy frowned at him, “Your heartbeat’s going kinda fast. You know you don’t need to be afraid of me, right?”

Damian huffed, wondering belatedly how his brothers dealt with their own teammates. “I’m not afraid,” he clarified, “But it isn’t every day you meet an alien.”

“I’m not- okay, fair,” Superboy paused abruptly to glance down at the street. Kon-El and Red Robin appeared over the rooftop’s edge.

“Who are you?” Kon-El questioned, more forcefully than his younger brother’s harmless query. Damian shrugged. “Canvas,” he offered, “That’s what I would prefer to be called.”

The older Kent’s eyes narrowed. “That doesn’t exactly explain who you are very well,” he stated slowly, “What were you doing in the area?”

“Passing through,” Damian quipped easily. Kon-El’s frown deepened, but lifted as Red Robin pulled up several news articles on his holo-glove.

“His appearance matches reports of a white-robed traveller in numerous countries,” Red Robin summarised, and Damian knew immediately that the older boy had planned this statement, “Reports say that he was always found returning something, like an artefact or valued possession, to the communities he visited. He was also reported fighting off supernatural beings and protecting civilians from them.”

When the two Superboys looked back at Damian again, their expressions were contemplative. “So you’re a solo vigilante who’s even more nomadic than Red Robin,” Kon-El concluded, earning a disgruntled noise from the aforementioned person.

The younger Superboy suddenly lit up in an excited grin.

“Bro!” the punch that he gave his older brother made Damian wince slightly, “Teen Titans! Let me join!”

“I’ve already said no, countless times,” Kon-El stated in exasperation, “I’ll only let you on if-”

“If I’m ready, I know, but what if I go through like, a trial period, you know? Just in case I really am ready,” Superboy pointed towards Damian, “And Canva can accompany me, because he’s experienced already, then he’ll be able to tell if I am ready!”

“It’s Canvas,” Damian snapped, before the boy’s words sunk in. Teen Titans?

“You need to ask him for permission,” Kon-El scolded, before turning towards him, “Well? Are you interested in joining a team?”

“I…” Damian was at a loss as to how to respond. This was not what he was expecting.

“How about this,” Red Robin suggested, pulling a communicator from one of his pouches and tossing it over. Damian caught it on instinct.

“Contact us if you’re interested. The offer is open.”

Damian pursed his lips under his mask and nodded mutely, pocketing the device before taking off.

#as you can see #I didn’t know how to end it #writer problems what fun #I’m so glad I finished the series when I did because life is so h e c t i c right now #I want to write but I used up all my motivation #super sons #jon lane kent #damian wayne #tim drake #kon el #batfam #straight from the trash doc

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artxyra · 4 years

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I got another request! So, Jason is Red Hood at the time when he sees Marinette clutching a backpack (it has the miraculous box inside and some essentials and clothing) as she was falling from a portal (even tho a cloud was covering it so it looked like she was falling from the sky) into a river. He jumps in, saves her, and says something like "Holy sh*t I just saved an angel" He stays hidden for 2 weeks helping her until the fam meet her. [Anything you want from here but end goal is daminette]

It was close to midnight when the Red Hood notice that something was up. Little did he knew was that his next encounter with someone would have changed his entire life. He looked up to the cloudy night sky that always plagues Gotham, nothing felt out of the place. Well, the moment lasted into his begins to see a silhouette of someone falling from the sky. The person was coming down fast, real fast.

Rushing to what he presumed to be the persons landing grounds, he failed to realize that the person wasn’t going to reach the cold hard concrete ground but the river not far from him. As the person was falling quickly than anticipated, he ditched his jacket and ran towards the river.

Splash. Splash.

He breaks for air pulling the formerly falling person with him to shore. Back on dry land, the Red Hood was finally able to get a good look at the person he saved.

“Holy shit, did I just save an Angel?” He whispers to himself brushing back strands of dark hair that clings to the girl’s face.

Looking around for any signs of help coming, he picks the girl up into his arms and disappears into the night, not caring that it was his night to patrol.

Marinette woke up the next day with a massive headache. Quickly leaning upward, she calls out for Tikki as she searches through the blankets looking for her backpack. It hasn’t registered to Marinette that wasn’t at home nor was she in Paris anymore.

Tikki flies up to Marinette, giving the panic guardian a sense of reassurance.

“Where am I? Kaalki?” Marinette finally takes in her bearings as she touches face noticing the lack of glasses that is the horse miraculous.

“Kaalki’s fine, Marinette. Your entry coming here was rather shaky.” Tikki states keeping close to Marinette as the realization hits her. Turning to the side table, Marinette sees the horse miraculous and puts.

“Kaalki, where did that portal send us?” Kaalki finally appears but she scoffs and looks around the room.

“The portal sent us to a place called Gotham. In the Americas, apparently.” Kaalki answers before flying off to who knows where.

“Gotham, like in the Batman comics?” Marinette says before groaning resting her hand over her forehead and lay back down. All she could do is think, how was this possible.

“Hey Angel from the sky, you alright in there?” A voice startles her out of the bed. She stares at the tall muscular man in front of her. He has a turf of white in his dark hair, blue eyes, and wearing the worst kind of leather jacket she has ever seen in her life.

Racking through her brain, she tries to find the words to say in English, “Uh… and you are?”

“I should be asking you the same, but the names Jason, and you look like someone who has been trucked over, twice,” Jason says cautiously take a few steps forward.

Marinette’s shoulders relax. “I’m Marinette.”

Marinette walks over to Jason, shaking his hand, thus creating one of the most cherished siblings’ bonds ever created in the city of Gotham.

Over the course of a week, Jason quickly learned that Marinette’s English wasn’t that great (she knew basic English, but then again who doesn’t know anything past basic English), he also learned that Marinette was only sixteen almost seventeen, just a year younger than this youngest brother. Marinette had learned that Jason lives by himself in this rundown apartment complex, though he does spend a handful of times over at his adoptive family’s house. She also learned he really enjoys guns and rock music, so of course they bond over Jagged Stone’s latest new album.

At the beginning of her second week in Gotham, Marinette was growing anxious and a little stir crazy. After Jason had left to go to work, she decided that it would do her and the kwamis well to leave the apartment and explore. She doesn’t know why, but she found herself drawn to the park.

Pulling out the remains of one her sketchbook, she finds a dainty little bench underneath a tree far away from people. Looking around, inspiration hits her, so she begins sketching out an outline.

Marinette doesn’t know how long it has passed until a ball dropped in front of her. She sets the sketchbook aside and is immediately greeted by black Great Dane wagging his tail. Marinette giggles before bending down to search for a name tag.

“Titus?” Marinette mutters before scratching Titus’ head and neck.

Titus nudges the ball towards her getting the message to Marinette. She managed to play ball with her new furry friend until a concerned voice calls out the dog’s name. The person she assumes is Titus’ owner walks in fury towards her direction.

“Hi, he came over to me…” The owner cuts her off turning his attention to the dog who wags his tail in the owner’s face before walking over to Marinette. Marinette tries and fails to conceal her laughter.

The owner sighs and turns his attention to Marinette, “Damian.”

“Damian,” Marinette test the name, “Well you have a very nice dog. Actually, I’m very thankful for him pulling me out of my zone.” She holds out her hand. Damian shakes it after a moment of eyeing her down.

“Titus does have a tendency to do that.” She’s beginning to wonder if Damian was a person against small talk or better yet talking about himself.

Marinette bends down to say goodbye but not before wishing to see him and Damian again in the future.

Damian turns to Titus who does the same, and Damian could have sworn that he says a smirk on that dog’s face.

After their first encounter, Damian and Marinette continuously met at the park. Their second encounter was by pure accident. Marinette had wanted ice cream the following day and decided to enjoy her soft serve back on that dainty bench. Titus wanted to get out again, so Damian took him back to the park around the same time. After that, they decided to meet at the park every day around the same time.

As another week past by, Marinette finally began to wonder what was going on in Paris. She doubts that any besides her parents would care that she was missing, but she can’t help but wonder whether that person (or group) that was after her left Paris alone.

As Marinette grow closer to Damian, she did the same with Jason. He even took her to the shooting ring for practice one night and was blown away by her aim. Jason now swears that if Bruce doesn’t adopt his newly claimed sister then he would find a way to do it legally.

After having Marinette to his lonesome for two weeks, Jason decided that it might be best to introduce her to the family against every bone in his body. He knows that Marinette is hiding something, but it also seemed like she didn’t know what she was hiding also.

“Hey Pixie-Pop, you would you mind coming with to B’s house?” He asks on that faithful Sunday morning, which is odd considering Sundays were the days he typically leaves Marinette to herself.

“Sure,” She pauses for a moment, “Are you sure that they wouldn’t mind? I hate to be—” She rambles on getting a chuckle out of the older male.

“Nah, Pixie-Pop, they wouldn’t mind.” He tells her easing her growing anxiety.

Marinette smiles up at him before rushing into the guestroom that slowly became her room.

On the back of Jason’s bike reminded her of her Nona. In fact, every time she rides with him it’s a constant reminder of her Nona, the rush of wind blowing through her hair. The feeling of someone close to you knowing that you’re most likely being protected. Marinette had dreamed of getting a bike of her own when she older and in case she can never return to Paris perhaps Jason would be willing to teach her.

“Jay-Jay this a house, it’s a mansion.” Were the first few words upon entering the Wayne Manor grounds. Jason laughs it off by rubbing her head and motioning for her to follow him.

“Sup nimrods, I’m back and I brought a guest. Treat her right and there will be no bullets shooting tonight.” He calls out to the group of people settled into the room.

Marinette squirms underneath all the glances she was receiving but upon seeing the familiar sight of green eyes and a certain Great Dane, she slowly became at ease.

“Hey Damian, I didn’t know you lived here.” Well, ring the alarms because immediately she is greeted by screams of all kinds some projected to the green-eyed teen while one was projected to her.

Ignoring the commotion that is aimed at him, Damian curtly nods to Marinette as Titus rushes over to her. “Hi, Angel.” Cue another round of commotion.

So, dinner was a complete mess, well not like food is thrown everywhere kind of a mess but it was an emotional disaster. Tim was knocked over the table, the like of caffeine and sleep finally getting to him. Dick and was having a heated conversation with Jason about Marinette, all while Bruce sat there in silence. Secretly he was hoping for the chance of grandchildren in the future if this girl can make it through with his family.

Once Damian had finished his food and notice how uncomfortable Marinette is, they managed to disappear down the halls to who knows where. Alfred walks in shaking his head all while cleaning up the dishes.

Marinette ended up moving into Wayne Manor just days after the dinner at the request of Jason who ended up tag-teaming with Bruce. It didn’t take her long to figure their secret identities and it wasn’t long after that when they question her as to why she was declared missing and presumed dead in Paris. Let just say that was another heated conversation because it unleashed a whole lot of emotions.

Damian finally worked up the courage to ask the bluenette out after her staying with them for over a month. Both of them were too afraid of ruining the friendship they created. Not long after they started dating, Marinette learned that the people who were after her in Paris were a part of some cult under the name League of Assassins. This is then prompted Damian to talk about his past and Marinette telling the family that she had known their identities for quite some time. It didn’t them long to meet the kwamis and adding Ladybug to their personal alliance.

Marinette only went back to Paris after some convincing from the Batfamily to at least give her parents some sort of closure that their daughter is safe. She took Kaalki to make the trip easy. Her parents were, of course, mad at her for not contacting them sooner, but after she explained everything it was Sabine that had some choice words to say to some “old co-workers” of hers from her early teen and adult years. As much as they didn’t want Marinette to leave, her parents knew their daughter was happier in Gotham than she ever was after the whole Hawkmoth ordeal and even both that. Her missing person case was closed, and Marinette went back to Gotham with the promise to come to see them again in the summer.

Damian and Marinette finally shared their first kiss with each other after a couple of months of dating. It was Titus that pushed them to do at the park underneath the bench where they meet.

#maribat #platonic jasonette #daminette #ml x dc #mlb x dc #dc crossover #ml crossover

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reiven2017 · 3 years

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Delicate steel.

Chapter 5

The knuckles on Damian's hands turned white as he gripped the steering wheel with force and the artificial leather under his palms creaked pitifully.

He sat in his car for 40 minutes and could not and did not want to think, his body did not obey commands while only her smell was in his head. The smell of his steam.

He used to think that the torment was not knowing if his true mate existed in the world, but now, when he knew that she was there and lived somewhere nearby, Damian was going crazy and realized that he was ready to burn in Hell just to see her. To feel her scent again, dispersing the blood in his veins. The smell, with the help of which he felt alivefor the first time in all 17 years.

At first, having felt a strange smell and an inexplicable reaction of his wolf, Damian did not know what to think, believing that this was just an idiotic joke of his brain. He had been so used to loneliness for many years and already seemed to have reconciled himself to his fate and experienced panic, realizing that the wolf was glad to smell a couple. To tell the truth, Wayne didn't know why he was afraid, this was all new to him and he had no idea what to do with it.

Wayne didn't know what this new feeling was when he caught himself thinking that he was angry after learning that Grayson met his couple first.

The guy gripped the steering wheel with a new force, anger and something else burned his body from the inside, when he thought about Richard's hands touching his mate, his eyes saw his mate, he spoke to his mate and heard her voice, and Damian was forced to be content and rave only with a barely perceptible smell.

He was ready to personally interrogate Grayson, as long as it took and even more until he compiled a complete list of all the people he had met this week. Time, place, description of a person all this, he is ready to knock it out of him by force if it becomes necessary.

The very next day it became clear who she was. More precisely, almost nothing has become clear now. Dick, exhausted and tired from the endless questions of the evil Alpha, suddenly dug out a strange incident on the road from the depths of his consciousness. He did not remember anything important and valuable, except that the girl had strange, bright hair and he helped her with a panic attack. He didn't know the face or the name, and he didn't remember it.

The information about her attack caused Damian's parents to worry, but he dryly ignored them, turning only one thought in his head about hair. The next day, his people were already scouring the city and the search continued until now and Damian did not know a week or less had passed since that moment, but his patience was dangerously exhausted and the guy did not know how much longer he would hold out in ignorance of where his mate was.

Rumors that the heir of the Wayne family finally had a couple scattered like a flock of birds, and after the rumor reached the neighboring flocks. Damian was congratulated by other wolves, asking about how soon he would bring his mate to the pack, and he just waved away their questions, asking himself the same question.

His family called him crazy. He saw only her, his wolf felt only a couple, and this sometimes became dangerous.

Occasionally, at night, the guy woke up from the fact that he felt someone else's emotions. It happened insanely rarely and felt intangible and so far away that Damian began to feel that he was really slowly going crazy. Sometimes he stopped understanding what he was feeling, and for someone in whose veins Alpha blood flows, it was disastrous. Wayne was still a fucking Alpha and the concern for his mate was becoming very problematic for his affairs.

All this made him restless, anxious, nervous, and he hated it.

Now the guy was standing on the side of the road, the engine of his car was not turned off, and his phone was bursting with calls and messages. His cell phone screamed again, pulling him out of the bottomless world of emotions, reminding him of what Damian was doing and was going to do, as his thoughts went to the damn ass as soon as he felt the echoes of other people's emotions again.

This time, it was something remotely similar to fear and it made his wolf howl in despair that he was not there at that moment to protect her. Damian tried not to think about anything bad. Just the thought that something irreparable had happened to his mate and the guy couldn't restrain himself from growling.

Wayne blinked stupidly, trying to normalize his vision, looking at the windshield of the car, but his gaze disappeared somewhere in the distance. He followed the drop of water running down the glass with his eyes and shuddered sharply, returning to reality. Damian took a deep breath, trying to start reacting again and grabbed the phone with an uncoordinated movement. He saw a couple of missed ones from his father and Grayson, and his brain finally began to convulsively return to reality, trying to start working again. He was driving to the pack council when the guy was overtaken by the emotions of his mate and unable to cope with it, Damian was forced to pull over to the side of the road.

They even washed about his mate, made him weak and Damian became disgusted with himself and his pity. He was fucking Wayne, a fifth-generation Alpha, and he shouldn't have been sitting around melting like a stupid boy dreaming of a girl.

The thought made him frown. He sent a quick message to his father that he would be there soon and threw the phone on the back seat, rubbing his face. Damian was no longer going to be driven by emotions and behave like a madman in love. He doesn't even know who she is, and already breathes unevenly at the thought of her. It was insanely stupid for Damian.

The guy growled angrily and pressed the gas pedal harder than necessary. He still has a question about the pack council, and if Damian doesn't show up there during this time, his family will raise the issue of his execution.

======

At the same time, on the other side of the city, Raven was once again asking how she had allowed herself to be persuaded to do this, standing in front of an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city and frowning listening to the muffled music coming from the half-broken windows.

These five hours in her life were the most intense in her entire history and Rachel was afraid to think what would happen next. She barely fought off Rogers with a wardrobe of indecently short dresses and won her right to stay in shorts with a T-shirt and a jacket. Roth wondered where Amy had gotten these dresses and if Mrs. Rogers knew about their existence. After slipping through the window in her room, she and Amy found themselves on the street, where, according to her, a taxi was waiting for them. The car was really standing a few houses away from Rach and she allowed herself to be seated in a rather muddy-looking car, clutching a knife in her pocket all the way, and then she was happy to stay in the car after seeing the place where the party was taking place.

Rachel had never been to a party before and was not eager. She had a list of what was bad and what was good, and the parties just related to the terribly bad. She knew that this was bad, partly because it was at one of the parties at the age of 16 that her mother met Rachel's father, Traygon, and became pregnant. She also did not like a large crowd of people who were under the influence of alcohol and carnal desires and she herself had never had a love for this kind of event and she had a hundred and one reasons why it was just a terrible idea.

But she was still standing there, giving her hoodie to Amelia, who was shivering in her dress.

-" How would you like to go home and forget the way here? " Rachel drawled warily as she dodged a drunken crowd of teenagers.

She looked at Amy, who was trying to force a smile, but her eyes were just as uninspired looking at the gloomy building in front of her.

Rogers tangled herself more tightly in Raven's sweater, casting a brief glance at her, trying to distract herself from the darkening facade of the building and the growing sense of fear. It was the first time she was so far from home, and if it hadn't been for Raven, who agreed to go with her, Amelia would never have decided to do this.

- "I didn't know you had so many tattoos. " Rachel smiled dryly.

"More than twenty...I think. I've never counted them.

"Do they all mean something to you?" Rachel frowned, thinking about the answer to the question. She didn't want to lie to Amelia, and lying was never her strong point, but it would be better for both of them if they were just stupid drawings without meaning and without what was hidden under them.

- "no. Just pictures." she smiled.

- "Cool. Amy's distant reply sounded." The girl nodded in the direction of the warehouse. -" I think so...should we come in? Michael...he should have been there a long time ago." -" I prefer to stay here. "Rachel caught the girl's reproachful look and just shrugged.

But Amelia Rogers wasn't the one who hesitated for a long time.

"Raven?" Amy said, glancing at the building, and Raven's name sounded questioningly on her lips. Roth looked at Amy for a few seconds, her thoughts were still against this whole terrible idea for the sake of one stupid boy, but she perfectly saw the love in the girl's eyes just at the mention of his name and smiled encouragingly at her, gently squeezed Amelia's hand.

Even if Raven had a certain fear of the party, strangers and the unknown, now...and even before that, she will not be able to say no when her hand is squeezed as the only support.

And Rachel Roth was the one who thought about others, much more than about herself.

Amelia nodded, a smile bloomed on her lips, and after returning the hoodie to Raven, she proudly walked to the warehouse, blowing a kiss to her friend. Rachel only quietly grinned after her, catching up with the girl and not noticing how wild, red-flushed eyes looked at her from the shadow of the forest surrounding the warehouse, and the toothy mouth stretched out in a cold snarl.

======

From the first moment they entered the warehouse, the thundering music deafened Rachel and she hovered in space for a second, trying to orient herself. There were neon signs everywhere, music and smoke, and Raven counted about ten couples kissing as she and Amy walked down the corridor and shyly covered her eyes with her hand, at the sight of not just kissing couples. Rogers snickered maliciously at Rachel

's reaction.

- "Shut up." Raven grumbled, still half covering her eyes with her hand.

She learned early what sex is because her mother saw fit to tell her about it at an early age and Rachel sometimes hated her for it.

Raven didn't know if it was related to Angela's pregnancy or if it was just her parenting method, but she remembered closing her ears to her mother's words, blushing in every possible way. Even now, having already a driver's license and a mental disorder, Rachel never considered herself old enough and ready for this, without ceasing to be embarrassed and it was quite stupid in her opinion, but she couldn't do anything about it.

She grimaced, feeling annoyed when some left-handed dude blew cigarette smoke in her face, continuing to follow Amelia down the corridor. She didn't know if the girl had been here before, but of the two of them, Rachel thought that Rogers knew what she was doing, so she just followed her.

The music grew louder and minutes later a massive door appeared at the end of the corridor, and behind it a huge room. The sharp smell of alcohol and something sweet hit Rachel's nose, sharpening her senses and she had to admit that the club looked much better inside than outside. It was a large, spacious room, in the center of which was an improvised dance floor, a DJ booth and hundreds of people, covered with music and alcohol. At the end there was an iron staircase and Rachel followed it with her eyes, paying attention to the fact that there was something like a second floor on top, where the party guests were. To her right was a large neon-lit bar, to which Amy dragged her through the crowd, grabbing Rachel by the arm.

She barely caught Amelia's words to the bartender over the loud music, but the next minute Raven was staring in disbelief at the machine in her hand, in which an amber liquid was splashing.

- "Is it necessary? "- she said and felt Amy roll her eyes almost to the ceiling, standing with the same glass and smiling provocatively.

-" Yes, especially for a boring ass like you. "Raven looked doubtfully at the glass again, completely sure that it was something alcoholic. Probably not once in her life had she stood and breathed so close to alcohol and did not even expect to drink when she agreed to a party, but the amber liquid in her hand aroused her curiosity. Rachel had no idea what the hell was in her glass and it did not cause confidence, although she trusted Amy, but her cheeky side of character began to take up and Rachel tried to sniff the drink, catching the mocking look of the bartender. It made her pride growl.

- "How about something else and non-alcoholic?"

"Oh, my God, Rachel, just drink this!" Amelia shouted, trying to shout over the loud music and drained her glass in one gulp. Raven stepped back, and after a few seconds she couldn't breathe as her throat burned and her lungs filled with fire as she tried to breathe. It was bitter, sharp and hot, but Rachel hummed to herself when the first sensations subsided and a pleasant sweet taste was felt on the tongue. It was a sharp contrast and it seemed to stop the time inside her and Raven caught herself that she liked it. The corners of her lips lifted in a satisfied grin and she defiantly licked her lips, collecting the remains of the drink, seeing how the young man behind the counter nervously swallowed.

Sometimes Rachel did it before she thought about it, but alcohol inspired her with confidence that previously she would not have had enough for this. Amelia watched this scene with the pleasure of a mother for her child.

- "Why didn't you tell me earlier about the magical effect of alcohol on you? I would put it in your lunch every day." - she drawled mockingly, replacing their drinks. Raven shrugged, twirling the glass in her hands and drank without hesitation. She felt her brain beep a warning signal to her, but ignored it and heard Rachel call sharply. She barely managed to leave the glass on the counter before Ro was dragged back into the crowd.

- "Let's go dance."

- "What about your adventures with Michael? " Raven finally remembered their main goal.

"That's why we're going to dance, Rachel...I saw him near that column." Amy whispered conspiratorially in her ear and led them to the one Raven Colon understood. They squeezed in between the flow of people, slowly dancing to the music Rachel tried to concentrate, the alcohol hit her well in the head, but she continued to wander with her eyes in the direction where Amy was nodding. Then she saw him, a dark brown-haired man with gray eyes, vaguely known to her from her friend's love stories as Michael. He seemed to be playing football...or not, and that didn't interest Raven much.

"What are you going to do?" Rachel asked.

-" Push us off. Amelia's immediate response came, and Raven's eyebrows shot up in surprise when it sounded like a well-thought-out plan from Rogers ' mouth.

- And?

-" Now we will pass by him and you will accidentally stumble and push me into him. " Amelia dictated, and shot Rachel a furious look. "Don't you dare miss."

- "And he will save you from meeting the asphalt like a prince?"

- "Exactly."

- Okay. - if it hadn't been for the two glasses she had drunk, Raven would never have agreed to such an adventure, but now she found it somewhat funny.

"If you do it right, I'll get you some more of those cocktails." Amy smiled cheerfully.

"Oh, this is definitely getting interesting."

======

Raven leaned against the bar, irritably trying to wipe off her beer shorts. Some drunk idiot decided to flirt with her without being able to connect even two letters and stumbled, overturning the contents of the glass on the girl. Her head gradually began to spin, and her vision became blurry and indistinct, and she felt her body relax and get drunk, making her pliable and sluggish, and Rachel suddenly frowned.

Oh, yes, Rachel Roth, keep digging your own grave.

Rachel grimaced irritably, rubbing her face and returning the remnants of her mind, she was determined to get out of here before it was finally too late. She would have done it much earlier if it hadn't been for Amy, who, as expected, fell into the arms of her prince and flew away from Raven on the wings of love, forcing Roth to hang out near the bar, ignoring her anger at her friend.

She was angry at Rogers for just leaving her, but at the same time she was worried about her. Amy hadn't been in her field of vision for a long time, and Raven tensed her eyebrows on the bridge of her nose. Theoretically, Amy was with Michael, which means no one else could threaten her, but Rachel was the one who knew what girls in love could do and it covered her with a wave of nervousness. Maybe she was exaggerating, or maybe it was the effect of alcohol on the brain, but panic slowly rolled up to her throat and Raven rushed into a bunch of dancing people with a clear goal to get her friend away from here.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but a sharp sense of danger and panic didn't stop leaving Raven and she wasn't sure if it was just because of Amy.

Rachel suddenly found herself barely breathing as she scoured the building in search of a friend and her gaze involuntarily stopped on the man.

He was there, standing in the darkest corner of the opposite wall and his eyes were incredibly glowing when the man looked directly at Raven and she felt a herd of goosebumps run through her skin as soon as she could recognize in his dangerous and cruel smile, the local leader of the football players and her nedo-rapist Jonathan Wild.

He was looking at Rachel and only at her, and when he caught her eye, he grinned caustically. Raven swallowed hard.

Fuck.

The fear for her friend faded into the background. Now Raven was beginning to fear for herself. She didn't know what Wilde was capable of, but the fact that he was right here and right now, watching Rachel with fierce eyes made her doubt that it was an accident and her body froze with fear and Raven didn't know that it was possible to sober up so quickly.

She watched as Wilde moved in her direction, waving away everyone who got in his way, and this pushed Rachel to take a few frightened steps back. She needs to run. Right now. Her eyes carefully and warily slid around the room and Raven clung to the green sign "exit" under the stairs, and without wasting a minute rushed there. She felt like vomiting was rising in her throat from sudden movements and convulsive brain work, but she continued to confidently make her way to the exit through the crowd of people.

Grabbing the door handle, she forcefully pulled the iron door, literally falling out of the building, covering her mouth with her hand and leaning over the cold iron railing, spat the bitter taste of alcohol on the asphalt. Her head was buzzing, her hands were crumpled, and the fabric of her black shorts was soaked through with beer, viciously sticking to her body and she opened her eyes wide, staring into the forest.

Damn Data with its solid thickets.

Rachel tried to figure out what to do next. She had no idea where she was and was going to bite off her finger from anger that she didn't pay attention to the road when she and Amy were driving in the car. Her phone, of course, was happily left at home. And who could Raven call when her parents had already had their third dream, believing that their daughter was sleeping in her room with a girlfriend.

Amy. Raven could only guess where this woman had gone, but at least she was sure that she had a phone and money with the prince and urged herself to calm down mentally, her problem with the ferocious Wild hung over her a danger sign and Rachel had to move away from the building a few steps, I hope that she was able to break away.

Several long minutes passed, Wilde did not appear, but her nerves were on edge, Rachel stopped breathing, then inhaled sharply without taking her eyes off the iron door. The music continued to be loud, and Raven knew that no one would hear her screams from here. She shuddered.

Don't you dare think about it, Rachel Roth. You made it. You ran away. Well done.

In the next minute, her blood cooled and stopped, and her mind completely refused to accept what was happening. Raven heard a branch snap at her side and she heard a growl. A wild, bestial and dangerous growl, not capable of being made by a person. She swallowed hard, her muscles stretched into a rigid string and she did not remember how she turned around, meeting the gaze of three pairs of eyes. Wolf's eyes.

#ravenrot #damirae #damian x raven #raven #demonbirds #Damian Wayne

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dessarious · 4 years

Text

Misconceptions, Miscommunication, and Misinformation Pt61

Inspired by @ozmav Maribat AU

AO3 Beginning Previous Next

Marinette woke to a shouting match between Damian and Chloe. They were in each other’s faces while Luka looked like he’d given up trying to mediate a while ago. He was the only one who noticed she woke and came over to the couch to sit with her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him, tempted to go back to sleep.

“How long have they been at it?” Luka let out a huff of amusement.

“Almost an hour. It started about whether to wake you or not but I very much doubt either of them remembers that now. They’ve blown through quite a few topics since then.” Marinette just sighed and debated if she wanted to intervene. This blow up was a long time coming and it would be better for them to vent their feelings now, before a confrontation with Hawkmoth. She could feel the barrier that Wayzz had put up to prevent an Akuma entering. Possibly even to keep Hawkmoth from sensing their negative emotions in the first place.

“How dare you come in here and think you understand anything that’s been going on after just a few months when Mari’s been dealing with this on her own for two years!” Chloe was so angry she looked on the verge of tears.

“I wasn’t the one who left her alone during those two years!” Marinette jumped up at Damian’s response. Trained assassin or not Chloe was either going to kill him or break down. Either way this needed to stop. She got in between them and shoved Damian back.

“Enough! Both of you. That last comment was uncalled for. You have no idea what Chloe was going through. And you.” She rounded on her girlfriend and pushed her backwards to create more distance. “I appreciate you defending me but I can do that myself. You know better than to argue with someone who just wants to argue. No good will come of bashing your head against a brick wall.” She heard an insulted noise come out of Damian but trusted that Luka would handle it. She knew how much guilt Chloe carried over how she’d treated her and Damian’s last dig was likely to unleash it. Sure enough Marinette could see her fighting back tears.

“I’m sorry.” The words were quiet and she knew Chloe only meant them for her ears. She also knew Chloe wasn’t apologizing for the argument. Marinette wished Damian had chosen any other jab.

“The past is the past. We can’t change it, we can only learn from it. We’ve both done things we regret but letting that define us, or our relationship with each other, will only cause more problems. I know you’re sorry about what happened and I know that you’re not that person anymore. No matter what anyone else thinks.” It was that more than anything that had caused her to ask Chloe to move schools with her. She needed a fresh start even more than Marinette did. She needed a chance to grow out of the box she’d been in her whole life. Chloe took a shuddering breath before leaning into her.

“I’m still sorry.” Marinette could only sigh as she hugged her. She looked over her shoulder to make eye contact with Luka who still had a hold of Damian. Damian, for his part, looked like he was still arguing why he was right about whatever it was they were actually arguing about. Detailing her plan should be lots of fun. At this moment she wished she had anyone else to give a Miraculous to. Damian was unstable at best and she didn’t really trust him to follow her lead. He should be too focused on keeping Luka safe to cause problems, but it was still one more thing she needed to worry about.

“Would you like to hear the actual plan before you decide it’s garbage or do I need to find someone else to have Luka’s back while you’re off pouting?” Yes she was being petty, but it did shut him up and the look of insulted rage on his face was honestly a little funny. Luka just rolled his eyes at her. She and Damian had a rather messed up friendship and he’d learned to roll with it for the most part.

“Given the way you fight I didn’t expect there to be a plan.” He was trying to get to her, and it might have worked if she wasn’t prepared for it, or if there weren’t a lot of holes in the plan she did have. There was still a lot of missing information and they didn’t have time to wait and hope they found it. Gabriel was going to get more desperate by the day now that he lost both Nathalie and the Peafowl Miraculous. They couldn’t give him time to plan.

“The way I fight is because I never know what I’m up against until it happens, unlike you who just keep fighting the same villains over and over again.” The glare he sent her way had likely cowed many of those villains but she just raised an eyebrow at him.

“Fine. What’s this brilliant plan of yours?” He dropped down into a chair, not sulking because as he told her, Damian Wayne doesn’t sulk. Luka sat on the arm and kept a hand firmly on the other boy’s shoulder. Marinette pulled Chloe over to the couch to keep some distance.

“Alright, just keep in mind that we need to act fast so we don’t have time to wait for Gabriel to make a move. Worst case scenario he’ll tell Adrien he’s doing everything to save his mother and Adrien will agree to work with him. That could easily cause another Heroes Day situation and that was bad enough the first time around. Given Gabriel’s overall disdain for his son’s abilities I’m hoping the thought doesn’t even cross his mind but we can’t count on it. As things stand our best option is going to be using Viperion’s ability to fill in any gaps we still have.” She paused, expecting Damian to jump in with a comment but he just continued to frown at her.

“What do you need me to do?” Luka’s voice was steady, no hint of concern. He trusted her, both of her, and it gave her a confidence boost.

“So we have surveillance in Gabriel’s office and thanks to Nathalie we know that’s where he enters his ‘lair’. We wait until he goes in, because that’s where he feels safest. He’s less likely to expect us or more likely to be overconfident which we can use to our advantage. Viperion will set his Second Chance before we enter, before Gabriel knows we’re there. Then, barring us actually getting the Butterfly Miraculous back, he’ll reset before his timer runs out so we can refine our techniques to the actual situation. As many times as it takes. Damian, I’ll be giving you the Turtle Miraculous so you can protect Luka. As long as he can reset we still have a chance no matter what happens. His safety is your only priority. Chloe and I will handle Hawkmoth.”

AO3 Beginning Previous Next

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#maribat #marinette dupen chang #damian wayne #bffmaridami

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whereflowersbloom · 4 years

Text

Fly with me

Chapter II: Necessary Conversations.

Damian was a hard hitter. He was viciously tackling the sandbag in the training room, striking punches, furiously. Attempting to reduce his frustration and anger. He’d been training two hours before with his sword, as usual, fighting the system’ holograms, all the possible targets, not missing even one. A temporary distraction, to get what was exactly bothering him off his mind. It wasn’t enough, so he found another activity to release accumulated stress and deal with his volatile emotions.

He didn’t need to look back to perceive Richard’s presence in the room. He chose to ignore it and continue with his activity.

“You know, sometimes I’m relieved you don’t possess super-strength. You’d have destroyed the entire tower years ago. Isn’t it a bit late for night training?” Dick said jokingly, his voice echoed through the room.

Damian frowned irritated, eyes narrowed. “Is there anything you need from me, Grayson or you simply have a death wish.” He growled annoyed at his brother.

“I come here in peace.” He splayed his hands in the air. “Maybe have a brotherly bonding moment?” Noticing his brother’s jaw clenched, he asked harmlessly.

“I guess it’s the second. I’ve warned you to stay out of my personal business.” Damian glared at him, furious. Yet, he realized throwing wild punches wasn’t getting him anywhere.

“Look, I’m just here as an older brother concerned about my little brother’s behavior.” Dick sighed, genuinely worried. It was his job as his older brother, his mentor in a way. Damian had a hard time expressing his feelings, but he wasn’t the assassin, cynical child he met years ago. “Just know, if you’re willing to talk, I’m here to listen. No judgment. Not a word out of this room. I promise.” He spoke quietly with a sincere expression.

Damian meditated Dick’s words for a couple of minutes. He was unsure. He knew he could trust Richard, he’d been there for him, after all his mistakes, putting up with his irritable and touchy temper. Truthfully, Dick Grayson earned his trust and respect.

“How about a quick spar and chat between brothers?” Dick suggested, approaching Damian and putting his hand on the young Robin’s shoulder.

“If you’re sure you can multitask. Bring it on, Grayson.” Damian spoke challenging him. Unhooking his sword belt and tossing it aside.

Damian charged throwing his body and frustration, in to the strike with full-force, which Dick evaded rapidly. Soon they were both into it. Damian barely dodged a flying kick aimed at his temple.

Dick took a solid punch to his shoulder, strong but not enough to actually harm him. Nonetheless it almost threw him from his feet. “You aren’t holding back. What’s on your mind, Dami?” His breathing quickened, the first drops of sweat on his forehead.

His shoulder would be sore tomorrow.

“I asked Raven to the Wayne Gala.” The green eyed man says as he ducks in time under Dick’s swing. He throws an elbow into his older brother’s stomach, but Nightwing was fast enough to step back and avoid it.

“Oh. So she’s your plus one. Isn’t that great news? Your first date. About time.” He grinned widely, sweat covering his face now. Perhaps he needed to spend more time training. Damian was definitely getting better.

Dick attacked, Damian brought his hands up defensively and caught the blow with his forearm. “I think she’s feeling rather insecure about it. Our relationship changing, making it public, how it’s going to affect my image as a Wayne. On top her origins and appearance, I’m assuming.” He said gasping for air. He was starting to feel the effects of his long training session finally.

He didn’t care if she was only half human. She left a mark on him the night she whispered those words to him ‘But in your heart, you’re a kind and generous soul’. She’d seen through him even when he was insufferable as she described, that angry and proud kid. Did she think he was a vain person who let looks influence his feelings and decisions? For fucks sake, she was insanely beautiful. A goddess walking among mortals. The most exquisite creature with the kindest heart he ever laid his eyes on. This situation was exasperating.

Grayson shifted his stance bringing his hands up quickly at Damian’s face with a palm strike. But the young Robin overstepped the strike, weaving to Dick’s left. He drove one fist into his opponent’s stomach and the other into his lowers ribs with only half his strength. The older man absorbed the attacks the best he could. Damian was becoming an amazing fighter. No doubt. His proud older brother was certain he’d surpass him soon.

Damian stood his ground, eyeing Richard, waiting for a counter attack when Dick made a sign to let him know he could stop.

“Alright, I admit defeat for now. Maybe you need to calm down and give me a break.” Dick managed to say panting as he laughed breathlessly. Damn that hurt. He’d need an ice-pack for his ribs.

“Maybe you’re getting old, Grayson.” The tanned Robin arched his eyebrow and threw his brother a mocking grin.

“Shut up, kid. I’m just tired. Running the tower, patrolling and dealing with you every time you throw a fit. It’s not easy.” He said defeated, you could hear the fatigue in his voice, his expression masking his frustration. “Still, you’re my irreplaceable little brother.” Damian opened his mouth for a second, he didn’t speak but offered his hand to his brother, smiling sincerely. Both brothers shook hands and laughed loudly, resonating through the room.

The walked to the bench that ran along one of the training room’s walls, sitting down. Dick let out a sigh of exhaustion. His ribs hurt every time he breathed. Damian handed him a bottle of water as he started drinking his own. Damian staring at his hands, they were shaking, but his mind seemed to be somewhere else. There was a long pause before he spoke hesitant “I’m not quite sure how to handle these emotions.” He admitted, his emotional battle showing on his face, storming in his eyes.

“Have you ever thought that maybe if you stopped burying those feelings all the damn time, it would be easier. You don’t have to be this impenetrable wall, Damian. We are family and we do care for you, even when you don’t wish to see it.” Okay it was out. He’s had enough of his brother trying to become their father, this obsessive control behavior wasn’t healthy, they both knew it. It never stops, it consumes you gradually until there’s nothing left but the damn code.

“You know, we have a responsibility, a mission, the code. Father-“ Damian speech was interrupted by Dick’s shout.

“STOP IT. Do you honestly want to become Bruce? Is that what you really want for your future, Damian?” Richard grabbed his brother’s broad shoulders, shaking him out of this Batman code brainwash, utterly frustrated at this point. “Yes, he took us in, taught us a better way, but also a lesson, not make the same mistakes.” There was no way he was letting Damian become another Batman. His adoptive father did so much for him. He was thankful for his presence in his life, but he wasn’t blind, anyone could see the loneliness and trauma in his eyes. The path he chose.

Eyes wide open. Hearing Richard’s words was quite shocking for Damian, it made him question if he path he was following was the right one. Did he want to be like his father? He couldn’t think of anything to say. Contradict Dick.

“Remember everything he taught you and use it to become a better man. That’s all you can do.” Dick gently patted him on his back. Looking him in the eye, his blue eyes telling him ‘I know you can do it. Be better.’

The face of Raven crossed his mind. Realization hit him. He was aware of his feelings for her, all those moments they spent together. They were a gift. Her kindness and tenderness had penetrated his shields. He wanted more. More of those moments. More of her. Her. Completely. Wholly. He didn’t understand how strong his feelings and desires were until tonight.

“Now. Go take your girl on that Gala date and let her know about those feelings. She’s an empath but can’t read your mind, genius.” Dick teased him, smirking. “Have fun but don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. If you need help taking care of things, at the Manor I’ve got some-“ Damian’s furious glare stopped him from finishing.

“Save it, Grayson. You’re years late, I already know everything I need to. Besides, it won’t be necessary and it’s nobody’s business but mine.” Damian snarled, looking extremely pissed at his brother’s suggestion.

“I was simply offering.” Dick shrugged, smiling, playing the innocent. “I’ll give you the keys tomorrow. But don’t tell him I gave them to you.” Thus sparked Damian’s interest.

“You have my word I’ll be careful. I’m old enough now. He isn’t stopping me.” Damian replied content. He couldn’t wait for the weekend.

He was about to leave the room and head back to his room, his fatigue was evident. Before he stopped for a moment at the door. “Grayson” he said getting the older man’s attention.

“For the first time, I admit you’re right about our conversation. I appreciate and thank you for your advice.” Dick looked surprised for a minute but smiled and told Damian that’s what brothers do. Damian nodded and whispered “Goodnight...brother.” Before closing the door, his figure disappearing into the dark.

“He’d a good kid.” He said to himself proudly. Before coughing. His damn ribs. He needed that ice as soon as possible. “Throws some killer punches.” Massaging his side in pain and walking out of the training room.

@chromium7sky 🙈🙊🙊🙊✌🏻

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bat-losers-inc · 5 years

Text

Collisions in the Dark (Ch 20): Buried Piece

Summary: As unbelievable as it seemed to Tim, they were all together as a family again, planning a battle strategy in Jason’s cramped kitchen.

Chapter Notes: Buried Piece: A piece hemmed in by friendly pieces and pawns. Such a piece will have a difficult time actively participating, and may also interfere with the development of other pieces.

“You and I wear the dangerous looseness of doom and find it becoming.” —“Introduction: New & Selected Poems.”, E.E. Cummings

They came as a group, ambushing them in Jason’s small kitchen, the only warning— a text from Damian offering a five minute heads up. There was no knock at the door, just the turn of the lock as Dick used his key to let them in.

Jason turned away from Tim to lean back against the counter, silently appraising the group. Tim knew they were waiting for him to turn as well, but Tim refused to do so until the coffee maker started dripping dark liquid into the pot. He had no doubts that this would be a long talk and coffee would be necessary to keep his calm.

When he turned he was greeted by five pairs of eyes that followed his movements.

He hadn’t expected to see all of them here. If they were going to be lectured on their individual actions over the past couple of days, he expected it to come from Dick and Bruce. Damian had already voiced his opinions on their decisions more than enough, as far as Tim was concerned. Tim hoped that the younger boy had just come to enjoy the show… except he was having a hard time believing that. After everything that Damian had done for him and revealed to him over the course of a day, Tim understood that he took no pleasure from watching this play out. And if he wasn’t here to gloat or to chastise, then why was he here?

Jason must have been thinking something similar for he grunted and said, “Man, you called in the calvary? I guess we really are in some deep shit. What is this a family roast? Everyone’s gonna get a chance to take their best shot at us?”

Steph’s brow creased with confusion, and perhaps a small bit of pain. “We’re not here to kick you when you’re down, Jason. We’re here to help.”

Jason’s eyes slitted. “Oh, yeah? Like how you helped Tim before? Locking him in a room like he’s a child with false promises that everything will be okay?”

Tim swallowed quickly and shifted his weight. He couldn’t help the sudden flash of heat that surged through his gut at Jason’s heated words. He knew that the older boy was jumping to his defence and a large part of Tim wanted to be relieved that Jason was there defending him again, snapping at anyone who might hurt him like a vicious dog. Another part of him, however, understood how misplaced his intentions were.

Tim bit hard into the side of his lip, but couldn’t stop himself from speaking. It needed to be said.

“You don’t get to say that, Jason. You’re just as guilty as they are in this, except where they stayed… you abandoned me.”

Jason twisted around to look at him, the anger on his face slipping away to reveal the vulnerable cracks underneath. Tim couldn’t stand that raw look.

He licked his dry lips and continued. “That’s not to say I’m free of blame, because I’m not. I’m just as guilty as you.”

Bruce looked around at all of them. “We’ve all made mistakes and hurt the ones we care about as a result, but we can’t move forward until this is forgiven.”

Tim gave a weak laugh. “Forgiven? You’re being very naive if you think any of this can be forgiven and forgotten. I think I speak for both of us when I say that I might move on, but that doesn’t mean I won’t still hate you all for your actions.”

“He’s right,” said Jason, eyes cast towards the floor, evidently deep in thought. Jason shrugged one shoulder. “I love Tim and would do anything for him, but I don’t think I can ever forgive him for what he’s done. My love for him doesn’t erase my hatred for his past actions… at most one counterbalances the other.”

“What we’ve done can’t be easily forgiven, but with time, hopefully we can mend the wounds so that they won’t leave scars.”

Tim met Jason’s eyes and slid further to the side until he was leaning against the counter next to him, their elbows touching, their fingers brushing until eventually their fingers intertwined.

Dick seemed to want to smile at the sight of them together, but another thought dragged his expression into a troubled frown. “But none of that can happen until we deal with the most immediate problem. Ra’s al Ghul.”

“As past experiences have proven, he isn’t going to take no for an answer.” said Bruce. “If he won’t stop, we’ll make him stop.”

“Yeah?” snapped Tim, “How’s that?” He couldn’t help the irritation that threaded through his voice. It just felt like Bruce was rubbing salt into an open wound. After all, it was Tim who had been fighting toe to toe with Ra’s for two weeks straight, getting further from victory with every encounter. Yet here stood Bruce, pretending he had all the answers— like Tim hadn’t been wracking his brain for the same thing for days now.

Bruce eyed him in that same way he’d done the last time Tim had gotten the nerve to lash out at him. It wasn’t anger or disappointment… no. Bruce understood well enough that he didn’t have the right to feel those emotions. The look seemed like more of an acknowledgement, noting that Tim and Jason were justified in their anger and willing to let events play out in whatever way his children wanted them to.

Tim pressed his lips together. In truth he didn’t want to be fighting Bruce. He wasn’t the real enemy here. Their family’s hastily formed peace left Tim feeling like they were standing on a stretch of volcanic rock. Fractured in places and barely holding itself together, their anger spitting lava through the cracks, it would be impossible to move forward until their tempers had cooled.

Bruce looked silently between Tim and Jason for another minute, making sure that whatever needed to be said got its opening.

“We go after him together… as a family. Since it’s impossible to change his mind, the only other option we have is to take his resources away from him.”

Damian stepped forward. “Right now, Grandfather is on the hunt for you, which means that he’ll be based at Nanda Parbat. It’s the strongest league base with the largest force of assassins and the most advanced tech. We dismantle that base and he won’t be able to hunt for you. Not until he’s rebuilt his organization.”

Tim bit his lip, thinking it over. “It’s a temporary solution at best. Knowing Ra’s, he’ll have the league up and running again in a month, at most two.”

“Oh, undoubtedly,” grunted Damian.

Bruce nodded. “I know, but it’ll give you time to get back on your feet and it’ll give us time to come up with a better plan.”

“Okay,” Jason scratched behind his ear. “So dismantling a base. That doesn’t sound so hard. With the firepower on the Batwing we might be able to do it without our feet ever hitting the ground. If we’re really lucky, maybe a wall will squash Ra’s into a pancake and save us all a lot of trouble.”

Steph shifted closer to Jason to give him a not so sly fist bump.

“One can always hope, right?” she smiled.

Bruce shook his head. “We won’t be blowing up anything. We’re all going in there to take down as many ninjas as possible and lock down any valuable tech. If it can’t be accessed and altered then we’ll fry it.”

Bruce turned to Tim. “I’m leaving that part up to you, Steph, and Damian. Barbara will be assisting you remotely—”

“No!” Jason barked out so sharply that Tim flinched hard against him. The grin he’d been sporting a moment ago had dropped right off his face.

Tim stared at Jason as he pulled his hand free of Tim’s in order to advance on Bruce.

“I’m not letting you pull him into this again. Tim’s staying here. Get someone else to hack computers for you. Fuck knows we all know how to do it! You never left a stone unturned when it came to training us, that’s for sure!”

One step forward, thought Tim, two steps back.

“Jason,” Tim gripped his arm above the elbow and gave it what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze. “It’s okay. Honestly. I’ll be with Steph an—”

Jason turned on him suddenly. “No, it’s not fine! It’s not fine, Tim. I want you to stay here where you’re safe. I won’t stand by and watch him throw you into that psycho’s arms again.”

Bruce had held his tongue while Tim and Jason spoke freely with each other, but now he spoke up. “Do you really believe that Tim would be safer if we left him at home while we did this? Call me reckless for bringing him with us, but I think there’s just as much of a chance of this being a trap. What if Ra’s expects us to leave him? Do you really want to take that risk?”

A mirthless laugh bubbled out from Jason’s lips. “That’s fucking cruel, Bruce. You’re going into this mission expecting Tim to be taken from us. The only question you pose to me is if I’d rather fight alongside him and watch him get taken right in front of my eyes or leave him here in false safety.”

Tim squeezed his eyes shut.

Jason shook his head and continued, “All you really care to know is which decision I could live with.”

He’d had enough of this… He couldn’t stand here listening to this same conversation play out over and over again. All of this talk about him, yet it was never posed to him. Tim was so tired of being the chess piece moved around on the board.

He slammed his fist down on the countertop, drawing eyes to him. “Stop talking about me like I don’t have a say in any of this, because I do. I love you guys, but your opinions on this matter don’t mean shit. It’s my choice and I say I’m going.”

He’d apparently shocked the room into silence, though Damian smirked approvingly from across the room. Jason’s eyes bored into him the longest of all of them. Tim didn’t say anything, despite the discomfort of his intense gaze. He let his words hang in the air… he wanted Jason to feel them and know that they weren’t going to change.

Finally, Jason gave a half shrug, “It’s your decision. If you can live with it then so can I.”

Tim breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps they were getting somewhere after all.

Nanda Parbat, as far as secret bases went, was usually pretty desolate and hard to find from the outside. With the sonar vision in the Batwing to give them a peek inside the mountain base, though, they could usually get a good sense of what they were dropping into. Today, however, the sonar was reverberating off of the walls of empty hallways, the only movement coming from a small group of sentries completing another lap around their floor.

“Well that’s not weird at all,” blurted Steph. “Where are all the ninjas?”

Dick squinted at the monitor. “Deeper in the base, I guess. Ra’s must have gathered them where our tech can’t reach.”

“You promised me ninjas. There’d better be ninjas.”

Cass placed a hand on top of Steph’s. “I’m sure there will be plenty of ninjas once we get inside.”

Jason balked at the girls. “Hey ladies, we’re only about to engage in a dangerous battle in the hopes of saving my boyfriend from a psycho. Don’t sound so eager, would you?”

Tim blinked at him from where he was buckled into his seat. “Boyfriend?”

“Oh, is it too soon to be putting labels on things?” asked Jason with his eyebrows quirked in way that warned Tim he was arguing a futile point. “I just figured I might as well since we may all be dead in ten minutes.”

Tim couldn’t really argue with him there. “Alright, Boyfriend. Just don’t start calling me babe or anything in the middle of a fight because I will shoot you with your own gun.”

“Noted.”

Damian rolled his eyes. “Will you idiots please focus. Please— just for like, five minutes.”

“Oh, lighten up, Damian,” sighed Steph. “We’re focused.”

“Yeah, like a swarm of gnats. It’s no wonder Batman prefers to work alone.” grumbled Damian, strategically ignoring the evil-eye he got from Bruce.

“Alright,” Dick announced drawing everyone’s attention. “We’re heading into this blind as a bat.” He flashed a smile at Bruce while the rest of the group groaned. Despite his dislike of Dick’s puns, intentional or otherwise, it was still nice to have a little humor right before something this big. They might not be the best family, but they knew how to work together and ease the tension before a big mission. Tim thought that in the event that he didn’t make it out of this—if this moment was going to be his last memory of them all together, then it wasn’t a bad one to have.

“Remember your teams and tasks.” Dick continued. “Neither of these are optional. This base needs to be razed to the ground and everyone needs to be watching each other’s backs while we do it. We’re going up against an army. If we get separated, we’ll be outnumbered and then we’re all dead. Understood?”

They all nodded.

Sitting at the controls, Alfred flicked the switch to drop the ramp. It lowered with a mechanical whine until the lip hit the ground. They descended one by one into the packed snow.

Tim followed in Cass’s footprints as they head for the hidden entrance. He didn’t look back as the Batwing lifted off the ground, whipping snow up around them, and left them to their fate.

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batboys-and-other-messes · 6 years

Text

Pizza (Tim Drake X Fem!Reader)

Requested: Yes Request: Tim Drake prompt: “I have and will sell you all for some coffee-“”Wait when did you sell us-“ “don’t ask” A/N: Just a little something, This is more Batfam interacting than actual Tim fluff but since I bombarded you guys yesterday, I took it easy today :D I’m not even sure what this is but just a slice of life thing? Dunno. Word count: 1064 Warning(s): Food mentioned Tagged: @jason-todd-rh @boosyboo9206 @pooiooi @icequeen206 @sassyshoulderangel319 @crescent-bluemoon @nanna-the-batmum @xoleaox @sleep-depiravation [You wanna be tagged in my next piece? Just shoot me a message or ask!]

Your heels clacked against the floor as you walked towards the kitchen where the lights were on.

You arrived just in time to witness Dick, already suited up, stuffing a piece of pizza into his mouth.

‘This can’t end well’ you thought as you brushed the skirt of your dress clean. You watched some cheese drip down onto Dick’s white dress shirt in slow motion.

“Shoot.” He said, mouth full.

I knew it.

“Watch your fucking language, Dickhead!” Jason’s voice boomed from behind you and you jumped in surprise. “There are fucking children here.” He said, covering your ears and you slapped them away.

Then he pointed at Damian. “Except you. I’m not even sure if you age like a human”

“Watch it, Todd.” The youngest Wayne growled, and you saw Dick slowly push the katana down that Damian had suddenly pulled up from nowhere.

“Guys, Alfred won’t be happy if you start this in the kitchen. He has no time to clean up blood again before the guests arrive.”

“Again?” you asked yourself silently in confusion, but you didn’t care to ask aloud. You were tired and hungry.

“Hey, can I have some pizza too?” you immediately asked as you saw the carton on the table. You sat on the stool as you took one, which Jason slapped out of your hand immediately.

“Respect your elders.” He said before he picked the piece up that fell onto the carton. You rolled your eyes. He just wanted to have the one with the most cheese. Asshole.

“Where’s Bruce?” you asked, ignoring him and picking up another piece. Nobody could destroy your mood when there was food involved but it seemed like they all seriously tried.

“Talking with Drake about his irrelevance.” Damian had said, his katana on the kitchen counter.

“Bruce is not irrelevant.” You said, tiredly, which earned you only a click of his tongue. He knew that you understood what he meant but he dropped it, much to your surprise. At least now you knew why Tim wasn’t in his room after you got out of the shower.

“What about Steph and Cass?” you took a bite of your pizza. You looked up at the three of them. Seeing them all in suits was almost unnerving.

“The hell should we know? Do you think we have everyone in this house microchipped?” Jason asked, and you smiled.

“No, I KNOW that you have each other microchipped.” You simply said and none of them even tried to deny it as they looked away.

“Seriously? You do?” Jason looked at his brothers in surprise. “What the hell??”

“I think they are getting ready.” Dick had said while ignoring Jason, and you watched him rub the stain on his suit with a napkin, which didn’t make it worse but didn’t help at all either.

“This is stupid. Fathers presence isn’t even necessary for this event.” Damian had finally said and strangely enough, it was one of the rare moment in which he actually looked a child with his crossed arms and the frown on his face.

“Uhm… He’s the host? I don’t know, I think it’s kind of necessary to attend the party one has organized. Also, it's for charity.” You said before Jason interjected.

“He even got me to attend so suck it up, gremlin. You’re nothing special.”

In one moment you had enjoyed the delicious pizza in your mouth and in the next you saw Damian leap over the counter and straight at Jason, who only cursed under his breath before you heard them collide on the floor.

“Oh.” you said.

“I think I need to put on a new shirt.” Dich sighed, and you looked at him in disbelieve. That was his priority?

“(Y/N)? Where- oh hey.” Tim entered the kitchen, catching you trying to pry Damian off of Jason. Or rather trying to pry Jason off of Damian? You weren’t sure which on it was as Jason had Damian in a headlock and Damian was biting Jason’s exposed arm, drawing blood.

A sight that was all too familiar.

“Oh, pizza.” he only said, looking away from you before taking a slice.

“Tim! Could you help me a little here??” you asked and he only looked at the position you were in, considering it for a second. Was it worth getting involved? He probably should take a picture.

Suddenly both boys got out of your grasp and continued their battle. You even heard fabric rip but decided to let it go and return to your food.

“Thanks for nothing.” You said, blowing a stray strand of hair out of your face.

“Mhm, you’re welcome.” He said before handing you a glass of juice which you accepted hesitantly with a side eye.

“Why do you still even bother?” Tim asked and you shrugged.

“Geez I don’t know, maybe because I don’t want to see them kill each other?” you had said sarcastically and shot Tim a warning glance to choose his next words carefully.

“It’s best to just let them fight it out sometimes.” Dick said, coming back with his new shirt on.

“Lets out their energy before the party.” He added.

“I just don’t understand.” You took a sip of your juice, hearing gunshots in the distance. “Like, would you watch me physically fight my siblings?” you asked your boyfriend.

He seriously thought about it for a moment.

“No, but that is different. I care about you.” Tim said.

Dick gasped. “Does that mean you don’t care about us?”

Tim looked him dead in the eyes.

“I have and I will sell you all for a cup of coffee if given the opportunity.” He said and you chuckled.

“Wait, when did you-“ Dick started but Tim interrupted. “Don’t ask.”

“Even me?” you wondered out loud.

“Except you.” He pressed a kiss on the top of your head as he walked past you.

“I’m seriously concerned about what you just sai-“ Dick started again only for all of you to stop in your tracks when you heard Bruce’s voice boom through the halls

“What are you two DOING?”

Jason and Damian’s fighting had stopped.

All three of you looked at each other.

“We were never here.” Dick said, grabbing the pizza carton.

“Yupp.” Tim said, grabbing your free hand as you all scrambled and left the kitchen, leaving no evidence of your presence behind.

#my writing #tim drake #tim drake x reader #tim drake imagine #tim drake fluff #batboy x reader #batboys imagine #batboys #batfamily #batfam imagine #dc imagine #fluff

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damijon-supersons · 7 years

Note

Are you still taking prompts? Damian and Jon playing Mario Kart or whatever video game you want to use.

Okay, since you said I could use any video game I want (haven’t played mario kart, sorry. Aside from Pokemon, Nintendo wasn’t part of my childhood), I’m going to use Injustice 2 XD

Also, I’m sorry anon, but I am going to hijack your prompt! I’m going to use this to express my refusal to believe that Damian will ever go back to becoming an evil character! What I noticed was, in about 4, yes FOUR different times, DC has predicted that Damian will revert back to his evil ways in some way when he grows up. Nope, I am not having it! (Btw, the ones I’m talking about are the Injustice timeline, Damian’s battle with his illusion future self in Robin: Son of Batman, Batman Beyond Rebirth, and in Detective Comics 966)

Damian has worked too hard, has literally died and back, to prove that he has changed for the better. There is nothing that will convince me that 13 years of great character development for Damian will be thrown aside because he turns evil again in the future! Nothing!

And you know why I’m so sure of that? Because our Damian in this main timeline right now has someone that all of those evil adult Damian timelines didn’t have…a certain boy named Jonathan Samuel Kent.

“I’m picking Robin,” Damian announced.

He placed the cursor on a portrait of a much older Damian on the screen, and then an electronic monotonous voice intoned ‘Robin’.

“Heh, that’s so like you,” Jon replied dryly. “Well, if we’re picking ourselves it’s not fair for me. I don’t know why but, I haven’t seen a single game with a Superboy on it.”

“Just pick your dad,” Damian teased. “You’re practically the same anyway, except you’re three decades lamer.”

Jon stuck his tongue out at Damian. “Shut up, this Superman isn’t my dad. This one’s like, super evil. I’m never gonna pick…‘not-dad’, he said with finality. He ended up picking Bizarro, earning him a snort from Damian.

“Hey, don’t laugh!” Jon chided Damian. “Jason said he’s actually pretty cool.”

“Todd said the same thing about your costume,” Damian casually replied.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Jon asked with a raised brow.

“Just that his idea of clothing gets him thrown out of most restaurants,” Damian answered with a smirk. “But never mind that, it’s time to kick your ass!”

The boys had gotten a copy of a new fighting video game that was inexplicably based on the world’s heroes, which included renditions of most of the people that Jon and Damian knew. It had an impressive roster of intricately rendered characters like their fathers, the League, and other heroes—including weirdly out of place characters they didn’t know about like an ice ninja, a Japanese thunder god, and a red horned man with a gun.

As the game advertised, it was set in an alternate universe where Superman became an evil dictator, and the whole world decided that being dark and gritty was an essential part of a balanced diet. With equal parts amusement and curiosity, Damian and Jon had decided to play the game with little more intention than to laugh at how hilariously off the characters were compared to their real-life counterparts.

But Damian being Damian, he also played to win. And Jon being Jon, he was definitely not going to lose to Damian in anything.

The Damian in the game was much older, and as Jon put it—much to real Damian’s chagrin—a lot taller and better-looking. He also used a sword which he used in most of his attacks. The real Damian picked up on the controls quickly, and there wasn’t a single moment where game Damian wasn’t swinging his lethally sharp blade. It whistled with a shrill shwing with every strike, making it sound even more dangerous.

Unfortunately for Damian, Jon’s character, Bizarro, had ice beams that shot out from his eyes.

“Gah! You cheater…” Damian grumbled as game-Damian was interrupted from a flashy sword combo by a single ice beam. “Fighting in a two-dimensional field is idiotic. If it were really me, I’d have sidestepped that!”

“Told you Bizarro is cool.” Jon giggled.

“I hate you and your puns!” Damian groaned. “That’s it, taste defeat, farm boy!” He executed game Damian’s special move—a sword combo with an explosive finish via batarang. It was enough to give Damian the round.

“Hah!” he pumped his fist in triumph.

Instead of looking disappointed with his loss, Jon’s cheeks were almost bursting from stifling his laughter.

“What…what’s so funny?” Damian asked as his smug smile wavered.

“Your special…” Jon began as he breathed in to compose himself, “was to do an awkward ninja run, look really stiff while using your sword…then pose and wait for three whole seconds before your batarangs hit me.”

“That was two seconds, tops,” Damian said, completely missing the point.

Jon snorted and burst out laughing.

“Damian…your video game self was so extra, it’s like the only thing you left out was shades and shiny teeth. You were trying way too hard to look cool.”

“Hey,” Damian protested. “It’s a decently styled—”

“The only thing that makes this even funnier is that it’s totally you,” Jon giggled heartily.

Damian frowned. He didn’t know how to retort without making it obvious that for a few seconds, he’d actually wanted to try posing like his game-self did.

The boys kept playing and trying different characters until Damian went back to playing himself. Jon chose Batman for the first time, and he noticed Damian tense up. As the story of the game went, game-Damian turned against Batman and sided with Superman. Game-Batman had readily abandoned his son in turn. Whenever the two of them would face each other in the game, they’d both spew out scathing and hateful taunts that made Damian squirm.

This time, Jon won handily, winning with Batman’s special move.

Jon blinked. “Did your game-dad just…use a bat-shaped jet to drag you in the air and blow you up with a small army’s worth of bullets and missiles…?”

Damian looked as mind-blown as Jon. “That…was the most impractical use of the Batwing I’ve ever seen.”

“That was overkill,” Jon mused.

“And that’s considering that my dad has intentionally rammed the Batwing into things in real life before,” Damian nodded.

“Hey, Damian?” Jon asked as he eyed his friend anxiously. “Are you okay? You seem kinda antsy ever since I picked your dad…”

Damian avoided looking straight into Jon’s eyes. “What do you think about how the game depicted my future?” he asked with a guarded expression.

Jon raised his eyebrows—the question took him by surprise. “It’s a video game. I don’t really care what they said you were.”

“But you thought that the Damian in the game was evil, right?” Damian continued, glancing expectantly at Jon.

“Well, I mean, everyone was sort of on this gray line—“ Jon stopped after seeing Damian’s annoyed look. “Okay, fine, I thought he was evil. The game makes it a point to make you act as unlikeable as possible anyway.”

Damian shifted uncomfortably on the couch. He sighed as if resigning himself to a cruel fate.

“That game…” Damian began, his words calm but measured. “It’s not the first time that something predicted that I would betray my father and turn to evil in the future.”

Jon listened with rapt attention as Damian continued. He’d never seen Damian this gravely serious before.

“When I was adventuring with Maya, an artifact manifested future versions of ourselves based on the parts of ourselves that we couldn’t come to terms with. I was forced to fight an adult version of myself that was still the bloodthirsty assassin my grandfather trained. I barely survived.”

“Wow…that’s rough,” Jon said gently. He could tell that Damian was upset in a way that could not easily be dismissed.

“That’s not all,” Damian continued. “There’s…something I’ve never told you before. Drake…he created this computer program that could calculate a person’s approximate future based on their experiences and personality. On two separate instances, that program predicted that I’d turn back to my old ways—once as the new ruthless leader of the League of Assassins…

“…and another as a more tyrannical and deadly version of Batman.

“Either way, it seems like everything agrees that my future will see me becoming the evil I’d sworn to reject.”

Damian ended with a solemn silence. He bowed his head and stared at his knees. “Do you understand why I never told you this before?” he asked Jon, who had a mixed look of confusion and concern on his face. “Knowing what I’d just told you…and what I’m destined to become, no one in their right minds would associate with me. And I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to leave and stop talking to me.”

Jon knew that Damian wasn’t the kind of person who cried much—if at all. But the sheer cold silence that Damian was giving him was worse. It was as if Damian was deathly certain that he would leave right then and there and never come back. Damian had already accepted that Jon didn’t want to be friends with him anymore, and that he was just waiting for Jon to say so.

Jon knit his brow. Damian’s willingness to accept his dark future was frightening, to be sure. But one detail, or rather, the lack of a certain detail, tugged at his mind.

“Damian,” Jon asked carefully. “In all those futures…what happened to me?”

Damian wrinkled his nose at Jon. “Those were my futures, not yours. Why would you ever be in them?” he snapped.

“Because, dummy,” Jon retorted with a stubborn look. “Do you think I’d let any of those bad futures happen to you? Now, tell me where I was in your future, or when exactly you got those predictions. Did we even know each other already when you got them?”

“Well I…” Damian trailed off, his eyes widening in apparent realization. “No, I suppose we hadn’t met yet when the program had made the predictions. You weren’t there yet when Maya and I were completing my atonement for the year of blood. And you and I’ve only been public as a team recently, so the game wouldn’t have put you in…”

“Then that settles it!” Jon declared ecstatically. “Damian, there’s one thing that your futures didn’t count on—the fact that we became friends!”

“What do you mean?” Damian asked with genuine curiosity.

“Damian…in the first place, I don’t believe that just because some things predict your future, you can’t decide it for yourself,” Jon explained adamantly. He was wringing his hands as if willing Damian to understand.

“I don’t care how many people say your future will get messed up—you’re a good person. You’ve fought and sacrificed so much to become who you are today. You’ve become someone that your family loves and cares about! You’re not Damian, Ra’s Al Ghul’s grandkid. You’re Robin, son of Batman.”

“And more importantly—“ Jon continued, cutting off Damian’s inevitable retort. “Dude, I’m your friend! I mean, sure, we argue sometimes, and you’re mean, and you tease me a lot…”

“Tt,” Damian clicked his tongue as if to say ‘that’s not helping’.

“But…we’re friends.” Jon waved dismissively.

“Not just because we’re working together as superheroes, either. We’re friends because we want to be. Because I want to be. You…you get what it’s like to be a kid and a hero at the same time, I can talk to you, and we can hang out and stuff. I never tell you this but, I kinda look up to you, you know? You’re always so in control and awesome, and like a ninja and…sometimes it’s cool…”

“Are you saying you think I’m cool?” Damian smirked.

“Shut up Damian! I’m in the middle of something here!�� Jon chided him. “What I’m trying to say is, whatever happens…I’ll help you find a future that’s better. I’m not gonna leave you. We’re partners, now and in any future. Your bad futures aren’t gonna happen because I’m here to make sure they don’t.” Jon flashed Damian a toothy grin.

“And if for some reason, I end up having to fight you and fulfill that dark future?” Damian asked coyly. His voice, however, had softened and relaxed.

“Then I’ll beat you, duh!” Jon emphasized. “Laser eyes beats sword, remember?” he finished by sticking his tongue out.

“You sound so sure,” Damian said as he shook his head. Whether it was in disbelief or gratitude, Jon wasn’t sure.

“Don’t worry about your future,” Jon said with a grin. He held Damian’s hands enthusiastically. Before Damian could even protest, he was already hovering a few inches off the floor, carrying Damian with him.

“Superboy’s got your back!” Jon promised.

The corner of Damian’s lips twitched. He wasn’t in a hurry to show any kind of emotion. But what he said next was better than any sort of ‘thank you’ that he could think of.

“I know. I believe you.”

There you go, guys! Consider this fic my rebuttal against DC trying to make Damian evil as an adult! No way Jon would ever let that happen! I’m convinced that Jon would help keep Damian good if anything would ever tempt him to return to his less heroic ways. I hope this fic was okay, I was agitated when I wrote it and it might have typos and stuff :p

Also shoutout to @harljordan who let me use their awesome edit from Supersons #8 above :)

EDIT: I couldn’t resist making this edit based on this awesome post script idea by @desolationofzara :D

BUT THIS IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

Edits by me, and I screencapped my game for this XD

#damijon #super sons #supersons #Damian Wayne #jonathan samuel kent #jonathan kent #robin #superboy #DC #fic #prompt #userharljordan #injustice #adult damian #edit

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foreverlilaclies · 7 years

Text

Burn The World Down

Jaydick

Rated M

You love him; You know you do. You love how blue his eyes are and how they light up when he's excited about something. You love his mouth, his pink full lips that are inviting and tantalizing and filled with such promise. You love his neck. You love the graceful slope of it and how he's so sensitive there when you kiss him. He offers you gasps and little moans and you take those to memory. He's always been so pliant and trusting with you and the fact that he trusts you enough to let you have him at his most vulnerable is nearly overwhelming.

"I trust you, Little Wing."

You love Dick Grayson. It's not even a question, but there's always something more isn't there? You've always been difficult, you understand this. For as much as you love him, you love hurting him just as much. There's always that satisfaction of when you're arguing with him and you throw something particularly biting at him and it shows in those baby blues of his. You remember all the times when you've fought him as Red Hood and managed to land a hit on his pretty face. How his bloodied lip had been so satisfying to look at. You love the feeling of your fingers wrapping around that slender throat and putting on just enough pressure that he knows that you have him.

It's disgusting, you know this. You've loved Dick since you were a kid and yet you find sick pleasure in causing him even the most minute of pain. It's something you've dealt with for a long time. Since he first danced into your life, all grace and talent while you were nothing but a knock off copy. You loved him the moment you met him, but that did nothing to quell the dark jealousy and hatred that lay in your stomach. Sometimes you want to push him off his pedestal and watch him fall. You want to cut his lines even though you know his biggest fear is falling.

He's like a light in ways. The kind that attracts so much attention but when you get to close, you get burnt. You are the fly. You know he shouldn't, but you can't help yourself. He deserves better than that. He deserves better than you, but like you, he always had a knack for rebellion and Bruce's opinions were easily ignored and Damian's distaste was placated. They knew who you really were. They could see the anger and darkness that you tried so hard to hide. You wanted to be good. You wanted to make Dick happy; You wanted a lot of things. You never usually got your way anyway.

He's in no way perfect and he knows this. He has a temper to match your own and his own demons that he would rather forget than face. You understand. Sometimes forgetting is easier than acknowledging it, but that doesn't stop you from judging him. 'Coward,' You think as your lips murmur words of understanding. There was a darkness there but Dick was content to ignore it and pretend that everything was okay.

Roy Harper had loved Dick once. Had adored him with his very being and it was the light all over again. Roy had flown too close and had been burnt. Whtever he and Dick had been was never discussed. There was anger there, different from your own, but still there. He had become your closest friend, he knew it was like to be discarded and forgotten. He hadn't approved when you started dating Dick.

"He's too much drama, Jason. Walk away while you can."

You don't want to walk away. You don't want to lose Dick. You want to be able to walk down the street holding Dick's hand in your own. You want to watch dumb romcom movies with him until 3 in the morning while eating take out. Dick was your person. You don't want it to end, not when you are finally with the man you love. But you are also self destructive, and whether it was to hurt Dick or to hurt yourself, as far as you are concerned what you and Dick have could never last. It was only a matter of time until it crashed and burned.

Roy offered something that Dick couldn't. He didn't love you and you didn't love him, but there was something about him that just drew you in. So one night after one too many drinks, the both of you fell into Roy's bed together in a tangle of limbs. You pinned him down, straddling his waist with a little grin. He was smaller than you but still bigger than Dick, more heavily muscled and scarred in placed that Dick wasn't. His skin was as pale as your own, which contrasted with Dick's own golden flesh. It's different, but you can't get enough. Roy's anger is enough to match your own and you enjoy every moment of it. You don't need love or labels, just a bedroom and that unspoken understanding that Dick could never provide. Roy's as broken as you are, like a broken teacup and although you don't fit together you can still pretend. How could a broken teacup like yourself ever fit against Dick's own unchipped one?

Dick and Roy were no longer close but Dick never spoke up against your friendship with him.

"He needs friends. I'm glad he has you."

Would Dick think the same if he knew that Roy sucked your cock like a pro? Better than Dick did even. How he never gagged and made the most delicious noises while going at it? Would he be as accepting if he knew that Roy had ridden you on the matted old couch in your living room? How the kitchen counter you had fucked Dick on was also used while Roy returned the favor? The sex was good. Not as mind blowing as with Dick and without any sort of emotional bond, but it was good and raw and you loved it.

It all reaches a head when one evening while Dick is out and it's just you and Roy at your apartment, you take him to bed. It's late and Dick is still out. You have Roy pinned to the mattress, his face buried in the pillows as you thrust your hips against his. You never fuck him on his back. You never look into his eyes while you're with him. There's something far too intimate about doing that with Roy. The only eyes you want to see are Dick' and of you want to kiss. It's pure fucking and that's just fine. Now you have him on his stomach, his arm pinned behind his face and his face pressed against your pillow. He's not as vocal as Dick is, mostly muted moans and low cries. Still, he's tight enough and curses you as you hit that little bundle of nerves inside him. Your laughter is loud in the little bedroom.

"Had enough, Harper?" You tease, rolling your hips as your grip on his arm tightens. He snickers back, dark eyes blinking in the dark bedroom, egging you on without saying word. He rolls his own hips back and you draw out before slamming back in harshly. Distantly you hear the front door close, but you barely pay any mind to it. You don't hear the tentative voice calling out, "Jay?" as the owner of that voice hears the grunting from the bedroom. Roy does however and goes stiff, eyes darting towards yours, almost a plea but you don't budge. You hold his stare, even as now you can perfectly hear Dick's approaching footsteps. You thrust again and Roy moans despite his own hesitation, eyes falling shut.

The door opens and the dark bedroom is spilled with the golden light coming from the hallway. You turn you head, not stopping your motions as Roy grunts beneath you, hard and near completion. Dick stands at the door, staring with those blue eyes of his. His hand is holding the door knob and his face is blank, almost like he's not truly understanding what he's seeing. It's only when you thrust again and Roy comes with a low moan, that Dick finds his voice.

"Roy," Dick looked from his former friend to his boyfriend, "Jason?" And that satisfaction of seeing him look so hurt is equally satisfying and heartbreaking. You come, staring into Dick's eyes even as you are finishing inside your best friend.

"Dick." You greet, tone bored as you fall back onto the bed beside Roy who is blinking away his own high. You inspect your fingernails, waiting for Dick to speak up as Roy manages to get his breathing under control. Dick closes his eyes, blinking as if hoping he's seeing things wrong. When he opens his eyes you hold his gaze, hungry to see what he will do. What he will say? Roy is silent at your side, tense as if prepared to spring to action. You don't spare him a glance, hungry to see Dick's every move. Dick breathes out, wavering as if in pain.

"I dont...I don't understand." Dick manages to speak up, tone vulnerable and confused. He's not angry yet. He's still trying to process what he's seen. He's still trying to find out why.

"What's there to understand?" You drawl and Roy glances at you, almost bewildered by your blasé reaction. Dick closes his eyes again and keeps them closed. For a long moment it's silent.

"Why?" Dick finally asks. You snort and finally look away. There's an ache in your chest now and there are many things you want to tell him. That you both love and hate him with every fiber of your being. That when you first saw him as Nightwing you could barely even stand straight. How his cooking is awful but you eat it anyway because he made it for you. How he was one of the last things you thought of before the Joker took you away. You want to spit at him and hurt him, tell him that he's nothing but a coward and a liar. You hate cowards. You hate him. You want to reach for him and take his calloused fingers in your own, apologize. You want to wipe away that lost expression on his face or at least see the anger that you know is there.

"Because I wanted to." You finally reply, voice low. Roy closes his eyes and Dick nods his head once, as if it hurts him to do so. You watch him, not bothering to cover your nakedness. He can see every bite mark and the stains from what you had just done in the bed you shared with him. Dick takes a step back, those baby blues of his shining. You don't look away. For moment you see that anger and you want him to shout. To yell and to fight you. It's gone as quickly as it comes though, leaving just that lost look.

A weak breath is released like air from a balloon. It's a sound both you and Roy are accustomed to. It's a sound of pain and weakness. One that he makes when he's hurt. When he's lost. He made that sound after Bruce had 'died'. He had made that sound after coming to you after facing Damian's constantly barbed words and cruelty.

"I don't know what to do for him."

You always hated that noise. It was painful and lost and had no business coming from Dick. Now he makes that sound again as he stares at his ex best friend and his replacement turned brother turned enemy turned lover. Roy can't look at him, guilt finally reaching him and he could only look down at his hands. Dick however only has eyes for you. He stares at you, looking for something. Something that will explain this all. Something that won't take you from him once again. However, you hold your cards close and stare him in the eye, unflinching.

Dick breathes.

He flees the room, leaving the door untouched as he runs out of sight.

You remain on the bed, hands folded together. You don't look at Roy as he quietly slides out of the bed and dresses. He doesn't look at you, shoulders hunched and mouth in a thin line. He dresses silently and walks out of the bedroom. You let him go. There's nothing more you can offer each other. Still, it does sting knowing that you lost a friend tonight.

"People like us kid," The Joker breathed out with a little laugh. "We like hurting. We like taking things. I can see it on your face. You pretend to be good or whatever, but it's there. It's in you. We take and we take and we take but it's never enough is it? Oh no, not until everything around us is burning."

You had expected some satisfaction. Some pride that you could bring Dickie down. Dick didn't give you the satisfaction. He left as silently as he came, something he never usually did. He'd no doubt go to the manor or to Barbara. They would soothe his wounded ego. You don't doubt this. It's cold in the room now. Like all the warmth had been sucked from it. You can still see his eyes, blue and filled with such anger and sadness. There's no satisfaction. There' no pleasure in this pain and you know it.

You close your eyes.

#jaydick #my writing #dickjay

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