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mxddyhero · 1 year

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HELLO you know who it is, I am here to submit Jason and Bruce for the ask game!!!!! Pretty please!!! 🍒

IM SO SORRY TUMBLR ATE THE FIRST TIME I DID THIS I LITERALLY THREW MY PHONE BUT YES OFC LETS FUXKING GO

Also disclaimer I've barely been into dc a year and am nowhere close to reading everything there is on Red Hood/Jason, let alone Bruce so I might just be chatting pure shit but here's hoping I convey some semblance of coherent thought <3

describe their canon relationship/dynamic

Error 404 not found tbh,, their relationship is strained and hostile at best. I do think that when Bruce first took Jason in, he had the best of intentions and he genuinely cared for him like a son in a way he maybe hadn't with Dick. Like, he related to Dick and saw himself in him, but Jason was Gotham personified. Jason was a street kid through and through; determined and calculating, adaptable and resilient, and I think in Bruce's eyes, saving him meant a step towards his ultimate goal of making his hometown a better place. But as time went on, Bruce ultimately came to appreciate Jason for Jason. Which is why their relationship now is so fucking sad, really, because Jason is still the same in many ways. He still cares deeply about the less fortunate citizens, he makes sure his guys don't deal to kids (and if they do, they pay the ultimate price for it). He's controlling crime better than Batman could've (would've) and he even forgives Bruce for not being able to save him that night. And Bruce just. Calls him angry and violent and shuns him and acts as though none of it ever mattered. Calls Jason a criminal, gives him the same label as the man who killed him, and tries to take the moral high ground because he let the Joker go on to hurt more people. Jason, moments after bearing his heart and soul to Bruce, ends up with his throat slit with a batarang and just like that all hope, all possibility of their reconciliation is gone.

your ideal/headcanon version of it? how does it differ from how it is in canon & why is this your favorite version? any other alternate versions of it you enjoy?

Honestly, WFA is basically it. And yeah, I know wfa isn't canon. I know it's a silly, light-hearted webtoon. BUT IT'S SO FUCKING GOOD AND CATHARTIC. Not even just for Bruce and Jason, but everyone in the batfam.

But main canon? I'd love for Jason to step away from Batman for a while. Like, I'm glad Jason's been making progress with Dick, teaming up with him on cases etc., but. I think he should realise that he truly has nothing to prove to Bruce. Until the Joker is dead (killed by whoever), and Bruce is okay with that, I don't see how they can have a functional relationship. Because like, even when Dick killed Joker, Bruce brought him back. So the clown needs to go, and Jason needs to figure out what he truly wants and not trying to gain Bruce's attention and approval again.

ALSO DC I'M ON MY HANDS AND KNEES BEGGING, PLEASE STOP CALLING JASON THE ANGRY ROBIN, THE VIOLENT ROBIN ETC., I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE- is pulled off the stage

what do you like about their relationship, why is it interesting or enjoyable to you?

It's not enjoyable <3 it brings me copious amounts of pain every day <3

But interesting? Not to overshare, but I have no relationship with my father either, and a rather negative view of my bio dad much like Jason so it's more like. I can relate to him and see where he's coming from on a lotta fronts. I can project ✌

what about the individual characters involved? what does this relationship mean to them, what makes it unique among their relationships?

I think that despite it all, they still mean a lot to each other.

I said it before, but the fact that Batman was willing to give Jason, a street kid from Crime Alley, lit a fire in Jason. Jason always had hope, he went out that night to get a meal for him and his mum and I don't think Bruce necessarily gave him that drive necessarily, because the kid was hell bent on surviving no matter what. But Bruce showed him he didn't have to just survive, but he could do more. Without worrying where his next meal was coming from, he could actually focus on himself as a person and what he wanted to do, and had the means and opportunity to actually do it. It made him feel like the future was limitless, like he was capable of anything and everything instead of narrowing his sights to living day-by-day and Bruce encouraged that for him. Hell, he even told him he could quit being Robin after he got hurt because he only wanted what was best for him but being taken in was the best thing that could've happened to him...

And for Bruce well. I dislike a lot of how Bruce interacts with Jason post-resurrection, to put it simply. I like to think it's because after he lost Jason, he gave up on letting people in. He cared for someone and like before, it ended in violence and a life ended too soon and he had to mourn over something that he felt was his fault again. Jason was gone for years, and he had to be pulled back from the brink by Tim, so we know he wasn't coping well and I need to think that the only reason he treated Jason so coldly when he returned was because he so desperately needed for all those years of mourning and grieving not to be for nothing or I'll go insane. It makes sense that Bruce being confronted with that fact that he couldn't keep himself in check alone after losing Jason, he preferred to just shut down instead of engaging with the feelings that seeing his son back brought. God idk if that makes any sense hsgugfs,,

I also wanna talk about Dick, even though you didn't ask but I swear it's relevant to Bruce and Jason's relationship-

Dick said growing up in the manor with Bruce was lonely, which I think is because Bruce saw himself in Dick. Bruce didn't have many people growing up, and he turned out fine (you are not fine, sir), so I think he thought that Dick could handle that way of living too to deflect his own issues. He wanted to raise him the same way he was because he was projecting, if you get me. But in Bruce's eyes, Jason had had people before. He had his mother, and the other kids from the alley and people who looked out for one another because you had to in a place like that. Of course, Dick had that too. A mother and father, the extended circus family, a lot of fans from the circus, but Bruce was too fixated on seeing himself in Dick that he forgot that because he needed to channel Dick's anger right away. Jason might've been wary and callous, sure, but he had time, so Bruce was more tactile and patient in his approach with Jason and I think that's why Bruce saw Jason more of a son than Dick, anyway-

favorite interaction they have in canon

God despite it all, there are a few.

Of course UTRH gotta be here because AAAAAAAAA (sound of wailing)... like please Bruce, he just wanted to hear how much he meant to you and to stop the Joker from being able to do anything like that again... I like to think that as much as Jason was hurt by what happened (because of course he would be, mans literally died), he was hurt on Bruce's account too, because Bruce chose to care for and open his life to someone again, and Jason was taken from him just like his parents. Like... Jason knows that pain (albeit in a different way since Willis was a piece of shit and Catherine ended up being dependent on drugs), and Bruce gave him a second chance despite everything they'd both endured. I think he wanted to prove to Bruce that it was worth trying to care for and love someone again, even despite losses, or even because of them, because Bruce gave that chance to him. And he was just. Shut down. This is sad but it's one of my favourite moments.

God this fuxking sjdghsvsjsbs 😭😭😭 LIKE YOU CAN'T TELL ME THAT JASON GENUINELY HATES BRUCE... I simply do not believe it. I think he's angry, betrayed, resentful... but he still deeply cares for him and IT HURTS.

And listen. Listen to me. Grabs you by the shoulders. This fuxking chapter was so good. It means everything to me. It was everything I could've ever hoped for and more. 🥳 HEALTHY AND OPEN COMMUNICATION!!! 🥳 EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY 🥳 god it makes me so fucking shsvhdvdjd ;;;

favorite interaction they have in your head/a situation you want to put them in

Family therapy 💖But uhm fr? I want to see Jason and Bruce talking about how much Tim has grown. Talking about Damian being in the titans and complaining that he can't take his 284 pets to the tower. I want Clark to just casually drop Jason in conversation because he visited Lois the other day and they talked about the decline of modern literature. Just. Normal family shit that isn't too heavy but also not so trivial it can be overlooked as being "not relevant to the plot" or "out of character". Despite it all, they are family. And I want that to be shown more. Please.

Lin I'm so fucking sorry this is so long........ and that tumblr ate it the first time bcs the first one was so much more cohesive and concise then almost refused to post it again so I dm'd you on dsc... collapses. Tumblr in its joker arc fr rn...

#half of this is incoherent rambling im so fucking sorry #also not tagging the charas bcs i dont want it in the main tags...#d*c fans please dont come for me this is all interpretation <3 #ask game #beloved mutual #7-oh-ta1 #lin if u read all this im proposing to you 💍🙇

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heroicadventurists · 4 years

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Robin 80 ***spoilers***

Robin 80 was a wonderful celebration of the first sidekick... the Boy Wonder... Robin. This issue consisted of 10 stories focusing on the different iterations of Robin. While Carrie Kelley received a pinup in the issue, she did not receive her own story. Robin 80 focused on the five canon Robins. While some are upset that Duke was not included in this lineup, he was never an official Robin to Batman. If we count Duke, we have to count all of the "We Are Robin" crew. When given the choice by Batman, Duke chose to pave his own path as his own hero, which is commendable. Dick received 4 out of the 10 stories in this issue, which was fitting considering it is also his 80 year anniversay. My favorite thing about this issue was the acknowledgement that Bruce adopted the male Robins. Below I rank the stories in Robin 80 from my least favorite to my favorite.

10. Dick Grayson, Nightwing in Aftershocks

Writer: Chuck Dixon

Starting off my list is Aftershocks. This story follows Dick after he has quit being Robin, and has assumed his new identity, Nightwing. This story highlights perfectly how Dick operates as a solo hero. He is brave, quick on his feet, witty, and of course, he saves the day. This was a good one-shot but it didn’t have the impact that some of the other stories in this issue had. However, it did serve it’s purpose of showing Dick coming into his own.

9. Nightwing and The Titans in Team Building

Writer: Devin Grayson

Like Aftershocks, this story serves to show how Dick operates as a team leader. He was smart, strategic, capable and decisive. He was everything you want in a team lead. As before, this was a good one-shot, but it also lacked the emotional impact that other stories on this list had.

8. Dick Grayson, Agent 37 in The Lesson Plan

Writers: Tim Seely and Tom King

Like Aftershocks and Team Building, this story follows Dick as Agent 37. In this story he is a mentor to a young recruit named Paris. He gives her lessons throughout the story that contradict every lesson Batman ever taught him. When he gets to the final lesson, he tells her the one thing that he agreed with Batman on “Ignore Your Mentor. Do What You Do Best”. One thing I really appreciate about the stories focusing on Dick is that each story is a progression in his vigilante career. He has an actual arc in Robin 80.

7. The Supersons in My Best Friend

Writer: Peter J Tomasi

This was an adorable story about how Jon views his friendship with Damian. Damian is a lot more vulnerable when he is with Jon, and honestly, he acts like the kid that he is. This was a lighthearted and sweet story that shows a different side to our current Robin.

6. Tim Drake, Robin III in Extra Credit

Writer: Adam Beechen

This was a wonderful piece that highlighted how awesome Tim is. For so many, Tim is their Robin, and it was nice to see him getting recognition in this comic.

5. Stephanie Brown, Robin IV in Fitting In

Writer: Amy Wolfram

Out of all of the stories in this issue, Stephanie’s story made me think the most. There was a very deep meaning behind this story once you get past the surface level. So let’s breakdown this story. The story begins with Stephanie showing up late to a training session. She suits up in one of Tim’s old costumes. Of course there are issues with this and Stephanie is busting out of the seams (not because she’s overweight but because she has breast, butt and thighs to contend with). She complains about her hand-me-down costume while Bruce focuses on training. Even with her top busted, Bruce is still training. He even has the nerve to tell Stephanie she is distracted. Alfred shows up with Dick’s old costume as a replacement, and Steph asks for something “without a cup”. Bruce FINALLY makes Stephanie a suit fit for a young lady, but when she puts on her new costume, Bruce tells her “no more excuses”. Let that sink in. He saw her complaints about wearing a male costume as an excuse not to train. Let’s carry on. They go to Western Town to take on Firefly. The villain du jour does not take Stephanie seriously and calls her “Cosplay Girl”. Stephanie is rash during the fight and does not follow Batman’s orders, resulting in her capture by Firefly. She is able to avert disaster (barely) and saves the day, but Batman still chides her.

Batman: “Tim would have waited outside”

Robin (Stephanie): “I’m not Tim!”

Batman: “I know”

Stephanie tells Bruce that she wants to be her own Robin and to stop trying to make her into something she’s not. Bruce hears her and makes her a special closet in the batcave with her own costumes. This seems like a step in the right direction but we know how her Robin story ends.

At no point in this story did I feel like Stephanie was being sexualized. it was more awkward and embarrassing than anything else. Neither Bruce nor Alfred said anything inappropriate to Steph, and no skin or nipples were shown thru her shirt. She was just in a predicament where her costume was too tight because Bruce was making her wear Tim’s old costume. And that was the point of the story (at least for me). Bruce wasn’t trying to find a replacement Robin, he was trying to find a replacement Tim, and eventually get Tim back.

Bruce has a bad habit of trying to replace people in his life. He did this with Jason and he did it with Stephanie, and the results where dang near the same. Bruce replaced Dick with a direct copy, down to the hair color, race and costume. Bruce was trying to do the same with Stephanie, however it was unsuccessful for obvious reasons. This story really made me think about all the extra pressure Bruce put on Steph and Jason by trying to have them live up to Tim and Dick respectively. Instead of playing up their strengths and letting them define what type of Robin they wanted to be, he wanted them to be replicas of their predecessors. Both results turned out in disaster with Jason dying and Stephanie nearly being killed after she was fired. To me this story highlights how badly Bruce tried to use Stephanie to get to Tim. It makes absolutely no sense that he wouldn’t make her a costume to fit her body. But is it surprising b/c he did the same thing to Jason. To me this story was a lot deeper than Stephanie busting out of her top. It was about 1. Bruce’s need to get Tim back 2. Bruce’s lack of respect for Stephanie and 3. Stephanie’s disastrous run as Robin. Say what you will but she held the mantle for less than 3 months and almost died trying to prove herself to Bruce. Stephanie never got a fair shake at being Robin, and this story highlights that perfectly. She was literally setup to fail. Maybe I have overthought this story, but those are the points I got from it, and they are important points to be made, which is why it takes the # 5 spot.

4. Dick Grayson, Robin in A Little Nudge

Writer: Marv Wolfman

This is a story about a boy becoming a man and setting off on his own journey. In this story, we see Batman and Robin clashing on patrol, as Batman wants Robin to fall in line and Robin wants to make his own decisions. The issue ends with Dick thanking Bruce for everything he has done for him but leaving the nest to become his own hero. Bruce knew this day was coming, and instead of talking to Dick, he purposely picked small fights with him so he could make that step on his own.

3. Damian Wayne, Robin: Son of Batman in Bat and Mouse

Writer Robbie Thompson

This story lands in my #3 spot This story focuses on the fundamental differences between Damian and Bruce. Bruce knows that something is going on with Damian, he just can't figure out what it is. He wants to fix it but he doesn't know how. He can't rely on Alfred, as this story takes place after his death. On Damian's part, he is blaming everything on Bruce instead of taking responsibility for his own actions. While some see Damian's current storyline as a regression, I see a lost kid with no guidance. Alfred is dead, Dick is Ric and Bruce is emotionally inept. Jason tried to step-up, but that relationship soured quickly. Damian has no one to guide him, and is making bad decisions as a result. This story sets up the eventual showdown in the upcoming Teen Titans annual.

2. Jason Todd, Red Hood in More Time

Writer: Judd Winick

I was not expecting Jason to have the most heartfelt story in this issue. This story was beautiful and now I want Judd Winick to write another Red Hood miniseries or ongoing. This story highlighted the complicated relationship between Jason and Bruce in the most purest way I've ever seen. Even the artwork had an innocence to it. The story goes back and forth between a young Jason, who loves Bruce wholeheartedly, and an older Jason, whose relationship with Bruce is way more complicated and strained. This story highlights why Jason will always be a part of the Batfamily, because even with their complicated relationship, they love each other. This story just adds to the wonderful stories featuring Jason in 2020.

1. Tim Drake, Red Robin in Boy Wonders

Writer: James Tynion IV

The brotherly bonding in this story is what landed it in the # 1 spot. This story takes place prior to Detective Comics # 934. In this story, Tim cannot decide if he wants to attend college or join Bruce in forming the Gotham Knights. He seeks advice from Dick, Jason and Damian, with each one telling him something different. Dick tells Tim that he's a hero that the next generation can look up to. Jason essentially tells Tim that Bruce is stuck in his ways and he has the opportunity to be better than Bruce. The best advice however came from the little Gremlin in Tim's life. After some well placed insults, Damian tells Tim that he has accomplished everything he has set out to do, and has been successful in his endeavors. At the end of the day "You do anything you damn well please". The confirmations Tim received from his brothers was much needed for him and helped him make the decision to form the Gotham Knights with Bruce. I loved getting a "behind the scenes" look at how The Gotham Knights protocol was formed. Because of these factors, Boy Wonders has my #1 spot.

What is your favorite story from Robin 80?

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heartless-error · 4 years

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I'm home

Fandom: DC comics, Batman

Pairing: Jason Todd x Timothy Drake (JayTim)

Rating/Tags: JayTim Week 2020 - Day 4: Free Day, Fluff, Sleepy Cuddles, Developing Relationship, Getting Together

Other(s) links: AO3

Jason knew no matter how hard they tried, the cave was no longer his home, nor was the manor. It might sound sad, but didn't matter how many lies they told him or deals made with him to bring him back to the family, such places were no longer considered his home for a long time. However, of all of them, the relationship with his replacement was the one which seemed to have improved the most, and as the comfort and trust between each other had increased, it was obvious his relationship had changed too, they were... Well… He wasn't sure what they were yet.

But Tim being adorable when he slept didn't help him at all.

OR:

5 times Jason saw Tim sleep and 1 time Tim did.

I'm home

That night, if Jason were in the batcave, it was because he had no choice.

He wanted that to be recorded. Don't get him wrong, the relationship with the bats was improving a minimum, for once both parties had agreed to try to resolve their differences and fix years of roughness and conflict between them. However, this didn’t mean that some tension wasn’t yet present in their interactions, and much as his first instincts as see them wasn’t taking out a gun, it was still a bit awkward to act as if nothing had happened.

Everyone knew that it was a process and they had to take time, so sharing some simple cases, and not killing each other’ during these were the first steps to take in the right direction.

Of course, sharing such cases meant that Jason sometimes had to put a feet int the cave to get a more detailed update or pick up something he needed for, like right now.

This time Grayson had forgotten to send him the entire update of a case that they had right now, reason why he had been forced to appear there to demand it. Although if he thought about it, maybe Dick would have done it on purpose to drive him out of his mind and see him in the cave, forcing him to go there and socialize.

Good strategy, bastard. He'll be punched later in the mission with some vigilante excuse, like "you had something on your nose" or "Batman told me to do it," Or better, he could punch him right now without hesitation, who would stop him? moral? fraternal love? Bullshit.

No matter how hard they tried, the cave was no longer his home, nor was the manor. It might sound sad, but it was so, and it didn't matter how many lies they will tell him or deals made with him to bring him back to the family, such places were no longer considered his home for a long time.

So, he started to search Grayson's stupid ass not to waste any more time. But it was then when he walked through the batcomputer and something else caught his eye.

If there were things that he knew about his replacement, other than that their relationship was still somewhat tentative and strained -but cordial-, is that the guy barely rested, and he was fucking crazy. He was smart, yes, but he sacrificed himself for simple missions to insane points, he didn’t sleep, he didn’t eat well, he worked as CEO of Wayne Enterprise by day, as a vigilante at night, he also had online classes, and his diet consisted of energetic bars, coffee and Monster in industrial quantities.

Yeah, as he said, fucking crazy. Jason didn’t know how he was still alive, even after having survived all attempts on his life, of his courtesy, of course.

So, the sight of the boy asleep above batcomputer’s keyboard wasn’t as surprising as it should be.

He was wearing Green Lantern pajamas, Wonder Woman socks -like his- and the cup he was holding while he was asleep was white with a message that said "there’s still no vaccine for stupidity." His shiny black hair was very tousled, his skin was very pale and his face had some dark circles that didn’t disappear even after sleep, he could almost hear him snoring, he was drooling on the keyboard too, and his cheek crushed against it was writing a deep and interesting report titled "fhidsgbobvhuyfdvashufso".

Jason didn't know whether to feel pity, compassion, or amusement at such a spectacle. It was a mix of all of the above.

In the end, he considered if the boy was exhausted enough to sleep under those circumstances, it was better to leave him as he was, he owed him. So, he did, turned around and left.

When he punched Dick a few minutes later and he started to yell at him, he said:

“Shh. The replacement is sleeping.”

The punch he received back was silent, but effective.

II.

Alfred's excuses for bringing him into the manor were a thousand times better than Dick's or Bruce's.

He went on, and was going to go on, never considering the place as his home again. But Alfred's tricks had something the other two pedants didn’t: Alfred's food. Whether they wanted it or not, it was a real plus and a compelling reason to put aside their grudges and deign to step on the place.

Although as much as being lured with delicious food like a wild animal was a good explanation why he was now wandering through the carpeted hallways of the Wayne Manor, he had to admit that the approaches he had been taking with the family had been having its effects, there was less tension now.

They were still assholes sometimes, but with less tension and a little more understanding or appreciation on both sides.

Of all them, the relationship that seemed to have improved the most and that was a pleasant surprise for everyone, including him, was with his replacement.

The one who he found when he entered one of the most remote rooms of the manor.

He didn't even bother saying hello, but rolled his eyes, this time with amusement.

At this moment, he had spent more time in the place, and he discovered along with the third Robin that they worked very well together, starting to take more and more team missions than they should. Another thing that he had also noticed is that Tim could fall asleep anywhere and under any circumstances, he didn't care.

It wasn’t a surprise looking at the rhythm of life he led, but Jason had found himself appreciating the fun and entertainment provided by being able to find the boy sleeping anywhere. Without realizing it, it was already something he had begun to expect every time he was there, giving him a kind of routine and a sense of normality that he didn't expect to enjoy.

This time Tim was on the sofa, his legs still on the floor but his torso lying on the padded surface of the furniture. He would bet the boy had an early conference call judging by the laptop on the table, or because his pants were the ninja turtle pajamas, but his top was the typical jacket, shirt, and tie you could attribute to the CEO, Timothy Drake-Wayne.

It was hilarious, stupid. Made Jason snort with fun and approach to look like the other slept peacefully, murmuring in his dreams and hugging one of the cushions on the sofa tightly.

This time what he felt was simple relief to see him sleep, since he would need him at his 100% for their mission tonight.

And although his first instinct was to leave again, he stopped to think for a moment, considering that he was starting to realize how difficult it was to repair interpersonal relationships, so he forced himself to try. So, he walked over, scooped up his feet as gently as he could to get him properly on the couch, grabbed one of the blankets on the end of it, and covered him, so he wouldn't catch a cold or something. He didn’t know, but since he slept for once, at least he could be more comfortable than usual.

When he finished, he tried to convince himself that the way Tim had smiled softly in dreams hadn’t affected him at all.

III.

“I'm fine…”

“Shut up.”

“But I'm fine…”

“I said shut up.”

He already knew he was fine, fuck, he didn't have to repeat it. Jason was the first to know that he was fine, who was treating the wound? Eh?

On top of that the gremlin had the audacity to raise his head and look at him in a kind of pout, like a sad puppy or something. He certainly looked like it with those huge eyes and those long eyelashes, he was regretting giving him those painkillers to ease the pain.

The red team had completely killed it this night, like all the others during the last months. Undoubtedly, discovering the good team they made had been one of the best surprises among the Gotham vigilantes, though not so much for the villains who were kicked in the ass, of course.

Precisely because of one of those villains, quite spiteful in his opinion, they were in this situation.

They hadn't expected the little ambush across the corner at the end of the night, so they were caught off guard, and they took a couple of unplanned injuries courtesy of some thugs already on the way to jail.

Jason didn't like that punch in the face, or the stab Tim had received in the shoulder. The last in concrete hadn’t liked him at all, had angered him, very much, maybe more than normal. He almost took out the real bullets again to make it clear that if anyone had the right to stab Red Robin in Gotham without any repercussions, it was him and Robin.

So no, he hadn't liked that attack on his partner. Nothing at all. He could have been angrier with the attacker but leaving the scene and treating the other was more important after knocking out that guy.

So, without wasting a minute he carried the other, fled the scene and ended up in the bathroom of one of the Red Hood safe houses treating his injuries.

Tim, the little shit without a sense of survival and self-preservation, insisted it hadn’t been that bad, it didn’t matter the desperation with which he had swallowed the painkillers and the points that he had to apply to close the wound, he was convinced that it had been a slight injury.

He will teach him what a slight injury is, the stupid shit.

Although when he finished closing and cleaning carefully the wound on his shoulder, Jason realized that he had no explanation for the annoyance and anger that he carried with him about the whole thing.

Yes, Tim was now his partner in Gotham, they were starting to be feared as a team, and maybe, maybe, out of the vigintalism work he could have realized that he likes the nerd more than he had originally imagined. After all the little bird shared his acid and sarcastic humor, caught his literary references, played more with gray and twisted morality than others thought, he was one of the most attractive men in Gotham, and he also liked chilli-dogs. So yes, Jason wasn’t a stone, it was true he was taking a certain fascination with him. One whose reach didn’t want to start thinking about, because although they don’t always come out unscathed from every patrol, Tim was right in saying that the wound he had acquired tonight wasn’t proportional to his reaction.

He didn’t want to give him the reason, Jason wanted to convince himself that the discomfort on his chest wasn’t because he was worried about him or anything like that because that would mean that he cared for Tim a lot. And he doesn't, right?

His plans for constant denial went to hell when he finished cleaning the wound, and he felt a light and soft brush on his cheek, courtesy of Tim's fingers that had startled him.

“What?” He asked, looking at him confused but agitated.

The painkillers seemed to have worked, judging by how the boy was leaning tiredly against the wall and looked sleepy, almost asleep. With those baby blue eyes cloudy and looking at his face as he tried not to close them.

He ran his fingers down his cheek to his cheekbone, touching where Jason still felt a little numb, surely where they had punched him and was beginning to have a bruise.

“You are hurt too…” He whispered, clearly falling quickly into the dream world.

“Tch. Just a punch.” He said, finishing his task and shrugging.

“But you're hurt...” The smallest frowned, almost seemed annoyed, but he had already closed his eyes completely.

“Who cares?” He teased, snorting with amusement.

There it was again, that boundless kindness Tim possessed and intrigued him so much. It had never stopped to amaze him, really. By now, Jason couldn't help but wonder how anyone could be so generous after all he’d been through, especially Tim.

He was fascinated by the way he gave everything for someone, everything. He just gave, gave, and gave, and gave without stopping, without reservation, gave all of himself and what he had with such force and intensity that it even frightened, regardless of the consequences. And even after receiving betrayals, stabbings, and disappointments in return, he was still there with a stab wound in his shoulder, lying in his bathroom, and worrying more about him and the punch in the face he had received.

It was admirable.

“Me…” Tim muttered.

Jason felt his chest sink, almost surprised.

“Yeah, sure” He said sarcastically and snorting.

As if he were to believe that. The medication had to be working a lot for him if it was making him forget that not long ago the one who was stabbing him was him. He shouldn't matter to Tim; he was the last person Tim should care about. But a part of him told him that the medication didn't matter here, Tim would keep thinking the same thing because the way he had forgiven him so easily indicated it, and Jason didn't even want to start thinking about how that made him feel.

“I care…” He whispered weakly, almost asleep. “I care about you, you're my Robin.”

He dropped that while Jason was keeping things in the medicine cabinet absently, making him froze and wondering if he had heard correctly or not. The weight and the annoying feeling that had been installed in his chest twisted, and he looked up uneasily to realize that the other had already fallen completely asleep against the wall.

He had dropped the bomb and retreated.

The thing was that maybe he wasn't even going to remember it in the morning, but surely those words, along with the tender touch of his fingers, and the way his heart jumped listening to it was something Jason wasn’t going to forget, how to do it?

He always thought he had been the least loved, least valued Robin in Gotham and the community. After all he was just the violent street boy that had to fill the shoes of the amazing and perfect Richard Grayson. He didn't do much either, he was like Robin for a short time and it was his career as Red Hood that allowed him to help Gotham from another perspective, also he died of reckless. Why would he be anyone’s favorite Robin?

Apparently, he was Tim's, if he could trust his wounded drugged words.

But it was that the moment and the place where he realized that it wasn’t worth trying to fool himself, because his chest continued to twist, but this time in a more pleasant and warm way, his discomfort was gone, and when he recognized that maybe he was a little more fascinated by the other than he realized, he felt a certain weight disappear from his shoulders.

He looked at his partner asleep, leaning on the wall in his half-worn suit and with a bandage covering his shoulder. He noticed the way he wrinkled his nose like a cat, his relaxed expression so different from when he was awake and constantly alert, his long eyelashes, and the scars that completely covered his body, narrating a life of sacrifice and danger.

With an exhausted sigh, Jason decided to pick him up off the floor with care and allowed him to sleep in his bed that night.

Before going to sleep on the couch, he smiled because the way the other had instinctively wrapped himself like a burrito in his blankets definitely was adorable.

IV.

They didn’t even watch half of the movie when Jason felt a weight light fall on his shoulder.

The Jason Todd from a year ago, would have simply bothered, overwhelmed, and pulled away, perhaps pushed the other. Now he just smiled, almost touched, and settled better on the couch so that the body of the other wasn’t seen in a bad posture after a while.

Tim had finished his last assignments that afternoon, concluding his semester. Apparently, the Wayne Enterprise board looked like to have behaved well this time too, so when the meeting ended, the current CEO sent Jason a text to plan a movie marathon to honor the occasion.

Of course, not was the first time they did something like this, Jason was more than sure what was going to happen. So, he didn’t flinch when Tim fell asleep against him.

Seriously, it was ridiculous.

If someone had told him long ago that he would end up having marathons of the Lord of the Rings with the boy whose blood he tried to write on the walls, maybe he would have shot them. However, against everything, he had found himself enjoying and longing those nights.

There were always quiet nights, when the patrol had ended, or they needed to hide from the world together. They weren’t aware at what point they managed to find so much comfort in each other's company, but surely between healed wounds -like that stab in his bathroom- and completed missions, they must have realized that not only did they get along, but they liked, complemented, and helped each other in more ways than one.

As ironic as it sounded, Tim and his boundless goodness got kept the Lazarus Pit's anger at bay. Not in an exaggerated way, since its effects kept inside him and it was clear that they were not going to disappear, of course it was something he would have to live with now. But Tim, so smart, kind, and perceptive as he was, had learned to read the signs, to interpret them. Soon as he started to get along with him, he could sense when anger appeared, he had learned not to stoke it, not to push it, and give him space when he needs it.

He hadn't said it, of course, because he was a little self-sacrificing shit that did those kinds of things without wanting recognition or anything in return, but Jason had noticed it and inadvertently began to return the same care and caution with which the other surrounded him on his bad days. Without realizing it, he saw himself cooking so that he didn't only eat energy drinks, he canceled some of their joint patrols too when he noticed that Tim wasn’t particularly in the mood, and sent him to sleep when he was too tired. And when he didn't want to, he would play a movie and within a few minutes he was snoring.

Like now, for example.

Jason looked aside and the tender smile he had kept until then grew. No doubt Tim had shown up at his door with popcorn, drinks, and was ready to spend the night awake with laughter and his favorite movies, he had to give him that credit. But knowing him, he had slept rather little to be able to finish all his assignments on time, so the moment he was wrapped in a blanket, comfortable, warm, with the lights off and the television in the background, it was impossible for him not to fall asleep.

Now, he was completely leaning on Jason, lying there placidly while breathing slowly and not even worried by his surroundings, with his guard completely down. As if falling asleep on top of the Red Hood was nothing special.

Jason felt that amusement turn into affection, devotion, even pride as he realized how safe he had to feel around him, so he could sleep like this without reservations. The boy was ridiculous, but he was even more ridiculous for being at his mercy without resistance. Because being so close he could smell the citrus scent of his hair due to his shampoo, as well as feel his small body completely leaning against his. He couldn't see his face, but in these cases, he didn't know if it was better that way.

While the comfort and trust between each other had increased, it was obvious it was because his relationship was now... Well… He wasn't sure what it was. Indefinite, if he had put a name on it somehow.

They flirted, joked, were close, had dates (or something like that) and saw each other when they could.

They hadn't talked about it, but Jason wasn't dumb, and Tim wasn't either, he knew they were both aware of the change of attitude, but they didn't mention it. It isn’t as if they were doing nothing about it, on the contrary, rather he felt that they were letting it develop on its own, to follow its natural course.

Eventually they would speak about it, because at the rate they were going to, they would have no choice.

For the moment, Jason settled on the sofa wrapping the blanket that covered them, put his arm around the little one's shoulders to keep him by his side and after thinking about it for a few seconds, he kissed his hair while he was squeezing it a little and inhaled his scent. Then he looked again at the TV.

When he fell asleep, he felt that this was something he could call home.

When Jason returned from patrol, he didn't even bother turning on the lights.

He entered to the room through the window, like a good with serious problems to remember that doors existed for something, and he started to remove his armor immediately, snorting and boiling of frustration in silent.

The night had been disgusting. Not because something serious had happened, if not because it had been the typical patrol in which he had only encountered pseudo villains who thought they could aspire to something more, and people believing they were dangerous when they were actually rookies with guns trying to rob an unfortunate gas station. He had also had to cover part of Cass's territory in Chinatown, which coincidentally had been the best of the night, because a kind lady gave him coupons and discounts for her restaurant after helping her with the little mob that was trying to intimidate her.

Tim would very much like to take advantage of these discounts this weekend, so with the coupons in hand, the hassle, and boredom, the desire to return home were more powerful than ever, and he headed there in a hurry.

When he took off his armor and looked comfortable enough to go to sleep, he went to bed to find what he wanted so badly to see: The Tim-burrito.

He had convinced his boyfriend to take the night free after an especially busy project in WE, one that had kept him two days awake and working nonstop. When he suggested a break, his little bird had no will to refuse to rest, so finding him in their shared bed sleeping and almost drowned between the oversized blankets, was a complete victory.

He couldn't even see him correctly, because all that was in sight was his soft black hair, tousled and poking out between the sheets, but it was enough for Jason to smile tiredly and lie down next to him carefully.

Settling properly next to him so as not to disturb his sleep or undo his nest, Jason sighed and felt the discomfort he had felt all night slowly disappear as he was near him. It had taken some time, many attempts at emotional conversations, and certainly tentative steps to get to the point where they were not, but without doubt he couldn’t regret it when he now had his warm presence at his side, being able to listen to his soft breathing and the way he murmured in dreams sometimes, seeing his face with that expression serene that he adored so much, and above all, being right at his fingertips.

If Tim didn't want him to hug him while he slept, then he shouldn’t be that adorable in the first place. Because Jason loved holding him in his arms, he liked feel how his smaller body fit perfectly against his, loved to squeeze him and listen to those small and sharp whining of his, or kiss his head, hear his laugh, smell his hair, feel how he smiled on his skin.

He loved his babybird and his strange sleeping habits, or nesting, or stealing shirts, he liked too how little by little he looked willing to take care of himself a little more, to value himself just like he deserved. So, nobody could blame him if he got close in the mattress and tried to cover that Tim-burrito with his arm.

He was on his side and his face half covered, Jason was convinced he was completely asleep, but when he put his arm over his covered waist to bring him a little closer, he heard a snort and a weak moan from him.

Slowly and wearily, Tim opened those blue eyes a bit to scowl at him and churning in his cocoon of blankets. Jason smiled sadly but at the same time moved by this.

“Sorry Babybird, I didn’t want to wake you up.” He whispered, raising his hand to stroke his hair fondly. “Go back to sleep.”

The smallest sighed and closed his eyes numb with the caresses, but before fall asleep again, shook his head and shifted, pulling the covers away from him to get closer to Jason with an intelligible grow. Jason snorted amused and allowed it, hugging him tighter this time while he settled on his chest and intertwined his legs. When Tim was finally comfortable enough, he raised his face and leaned down to kiss him despite being half asleep, and because of that he ended up kissing his chin instead, but Jason soon kissed his lips slightly while laughing.

“Welcome home.” Tim murmured as they parted, each word tinged with love and adoration, hiding then his face in his neck to keep sleeping.

And there, with the other clinging to him and his heart about to explode from everything he felt for that man, Jason realized that it was true, he was at home.

Extra:

When Tim returned from the office, he noticed that everything was silenter than normal.

He knew Jason was home, today was his day off, and he had texted him asking what he wanted for dinner. But unlike most times than that happened, the kitchen was empty when normally there was Jay muttering and singing under his breath while cooking, so Tim soon started to look for him around the apartment.

When he found the other, he relaxed and sighed with relief, smiling at the sight.

Jay had fallen asleep reading on the sofa, head down, leaning to one side with the loose book in his hands. The last few days he had been involved in difficult cases that required too much vigilance until late, so it wasn’t surprising that he was so tired.

Without much thought, Tim dropped his briefcase from work, undid his tie, and approached him to pick up the book that lay forgotten on his lap, a collector's edition that he gave Jason for their anniversary and had made the tallest smile at him with intensity.

Leaving the book on the table, he looked at his boyfriend tenderly, and he settled him on the sofa as best he could so that he didn't hurt his neck, then covered him with a blanket and kissed his cheek, then his temple.

“I’m home.” He said, happier than he ever imagined.

#myfic #jaytimweek #jaytimweek2020 #jaytim #timjay #dc #dc comics #batman #tim drake #jason todd #red robin #red hood #fluff #free day

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pinapple-qween · 5 years

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Just a Little Break-In

Relationship: Jason Todd x Reader

Summary: You got locked out and Red Hood tried to stop you from breaking into your own apartment.

Key: Y/N= your name

You had a long night. Like, terribly long. You’re a bartender most nights at the Iceberg Lounge, and it is exhausting taking orders from drunk rich people and wearing the dumbest high heels on the planet. The only perk from your job is the tips, so you put up with the crappy hours.

It was around three in the morning when you finally began your long walk home, never letting go of the pepper spray that you keep inside your bag. You passed a few empty allies, saw a few drug deals, and kept to yourself like you learned to do from the first day you moved to Gotham. You went through your nightly routine of cursing the Gotham City Department of Transportation for shutting down buses and trains at midnight and at yourself for refusing to take a cab because they always costed more at night. Luckily, you didn’t have too long of a walk and you had managed to get glimpses of Batman and his team of vigilantes because of the walk, so it wasn’t too bad.

You had rounded the last corner when your apartment building came into view. Thankful you had made it home safely another night, you slid your heels off your feet, shoved them in you bag, and half jogged the rest of the way. You made it to the door and dug into you bag, feeling around for your keys.

“What the...” You dug in further. “Come on goddamn it.”

You took out your shoes, then stuck your head into you bag as you dug around again. You took out you wallet, then your snacks, then your pepper spray, but still no keys were to be found. Finally, you gave up on your bag, put everything away, and took out your phone. You had received a message from one of your co-workers, a picture of your keys attacked that read ‘these yours?’.

“Shit.”

You then did the next logical thing someone who doesn’t know anyone in their building does.

You started climbing the fire escape to the twelfth floor.

In your defense, you were tired, slightly delusional, and there was no chance of you walking all the way back to work for your keys. You had your trusty army knife and lived in an apartment with old windows, so why not give it a shot.

Dreadfully out of breath by the time you reached your floor, you dug into your bag once more and produced your army knife, thank god, and examined the window latch.

Jason wasn’t one to judge. He knew how hard it was on the streets and how worse it was when nothing was going your way. And those feelings were reintroduced to him when he saw the shoeless woman with a knife on the twelfth level of a fire escape, looking like she planned on breaking in.

Had it not been for the fact that Jason was grounded under Wayne house rules, he would not have been on patrol tonight. Bruce was pissed off at him after he gave an unapproved interview with the press after a huge drug bust over the weekend, so he marked down Red Hood for ‘on patrol’ all week.

“Stupid Bruce,” Jason muttered as he moved roof to roof, trying to get through patrol as quick as he could. “He couldn’t have forced me to stay home like he does with the devil spawn when he gets in trouble.”

“I heard that, Master Jason,” Jason reflectively put his finger to the ear piece, “and I do believe it was because he knew your favorite show was premiering tonight as to add to your punishment.”

“I knew it!” Jason’s face scrunched up in fury under his helmet. “I knew it wasn’t just a coincident!”

“I’m afraid not,” Alfred continued, “but you should be happy to know it is being recorded and your route is almost finished.”

Sighing contentedly, Jason thanked the butler and returned to his building hopping. Tonight was one of the more quiet Gotham nights. Only a few drug deals he had to break up and the mandatory Iceberg Lounge check-in to make sure the Penguin wasn’t up to any bullshit. He probably only had a block left when he spotted her.

She wasn’t dressed like any prostitute Jason had ever seen, nor did her outfit scream of homeless junkie, so he couldn’t be too sure what she was doing there. He watched her for a bit, kind of amused by how hard she was trying to unlatch the window. He heard a cuss or two every once and a while, but she was determined.

After she took her second break, Jason grappled his way to the escape landing above her. He leaned over the railing so he was upside-down, but about eye level when she stood.

“So, whatcha doing?”

She screamed an lashed out with a knife in one hand and a high heel in the other. Jason flipped down to her landing and put his hands up defensively.

“Woah, woah, woah. Calm down there Cinderella. Didn’t mean to scare you,” Jason cocked his head like a puppy, “I just want to know what you’re doing?” He smiled, forgetting the fact he was wearing his helmet.

Your heart was trying to come back to Earth after the man in the helmet scared you half to death.

“I could ask you the same question,” you huffed. “Who the hell do you think you are? Batman?”

You watched him tense up. “I am NOT Batman,” he growled. “I’m Red Hood, but I do work with...Batman.”

“Right. Sorry.” You could feel the fatigue getting to you. “Listen, Red Hood, I’m just trying to get inside, so if you could just leave me alone, that’d be a big help.”

He shifted to stand in front of the window. “Now why would I do a thing like that?”

“Because it’s my goddamn apartment and I’m locked out and I just want to sleep,” you started crying, “I’m just so tired.”

You could see Red Hood get slightly uncomfortable as he watched you cry. “If this is your apartment, why the hell are you breaking in?”

“I left my keys at work,” you sniffled, “and I don’t know anyone because I’m new,“ you sniffled again, “and it’s been a long night and all I want to do is go to bed.”

Again, you watched Red Hood shift uncomfortably. Then, he took off his helmet. Underneath was a mop of black hair, with one white streak in the front, and a mask. You watched the way his lips curled into a troublemaker smile. “What’s your name?”

“Y/N.”

“Well Y/N, hand me your knife.” You flipped it around and handed him the handle. “I’ll get you in in no time.”

Not even a minute passed and Red Hood had unlocked your window, threw it open, and lead you inside. A rush of relief flooded over you as you were able to plop yourself onto your couch and take a moment to relax.

“Thank you so much.” You got up and went over to Red Hood, he seemed to be examining your photos. “Is there anything I can do to repay you?”

He turned to face you and then he got that troublemaker grin going again and playfully put his finger to his chin. “I’m sure I can think of something...”

You giggled at that. Then, without much thought, you gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Well, I hope one day you figure it out.” You watched as a blush crawled up his face.

His voiced came out a little strained this time, “I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other around.” You nodded. He nodded back. “Right. Well. I’m gonna...I’m gonna go. I got other...hero things I gotta do.”

You gave him a mock salute. “Right on, cap’m.”

You watched as he returned to the window you both crawled in. “Well, uh, bye!” He waved at you then turned and disappeared out of the window.

You strolled over to the window, looking into the nothingness of the ally.

“Goodnight, Red Hood.”

Jason couldn’t stop blushing the whole way home.

#jason todd imagine #jason todd fic #jason todd x reader #Jason Todd #BatFam #fanfic #reader insert

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ty-talks-comics · 4 years

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Best of DC: Week of March 18th, 2020

Best of this Week: Robin 80th Anniversary

All of the Robins are awesome.

Every Bat-fan has their favorite as they usually define the era when they began their love of Batman and comics in general. Older fans love Dick Grayson for being the first and greatest Robin that helped make Batman brighter. Edgy 80s kids and teens both love and hate Jason Todd for being the bad boy that died. Younger fans love Tim Drake for being the one to carry the name in the later seasons of the animated series and being one of the best and smartest Robins. Girls get representation from the spunky Carrie Kelly and the awesome Stephanie Brown. No one like Damian. (I’m kidding, he’s super fun.)

There’s a Robin for everyone and this 100 Page Spectacular celebrates the long history of Batman’s greatest sidekicks (though misses a chance to give Carrie Kelly her own short story) and does an amazing job in displaying each characters personalities by some of the best people to have written them over the years. Because there are so many, I’m only going to talk about the ones I really enjoyed!

The first FOUR stories follow Dick Grayson and some of his best eras.

“A Little Nudge” is written by Marv Wolfman with pencils by Tom Grummett, two parts of the legendary team behind the best years of the New Titans (1989). This story follows Dick Grayson as Batman begins to nudge him in the direction of becoming his own man by being increasingly irritable to his protege. At this point in time, Dick was dealing with the stresses of outgrowing his childhood identity and Batman’s continuing overbearing nature. Where Bruce was all about being cold and methodical, Dick thought with his gut.

Grummett, Scott Hanna on inks and Adriano Lucas on colors illustrate Dick’s frustration through his increasingly sour facial expressions and sudden heroic actions. The costumes are as colorful as those old days with Dick wearing the bright yellow cape, bright red tunic and the elf shoes. In the middle of the dynamic duo’s fight with Natural History Museum thieves, Dick stops fighting when a child gets shot, against Bruce’s orders, and stays with him until the bad guys either get away or get taken down by Batman.

Later on, Dick tells Batman that he’s outgrown the Boy Wonder name and sets off to become his own man as Nightwing. Wolfman gives readers an excellent inner monologue from Bruce where he owns up to the fact that he was nudging Dick in that direction because he had just turned eighteen and Bruce believed in him. Batman always supports his kids, especially his first and it turns the story of separation into something heartwarming.

“Aftershocks” is a fun story by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel who worked on my favorite Nightwing series in the 1996 - 2005 era of the character. This wasn’t anything major, just Nightwing doing everything he could to save people after an earthquake causes massive damage to a suspended bridge in Bludhaven. This era of Nightwing was characterized by him mostly striking out on his own and becoming a Bludhaven police officer, being inspired by Jim Gordon.

Dick really came into his own and developed a rogues gallery to himself during this time, not to mention the sweet costume with the blue “wings” running down his arms into his fingers and those big, bulky gauntlets and boots. This era was the epitome of the 90s with big set piece moments, big muscles and Nightwing just being a nice and generally charming guy. After diving off of the bridge to attach a winch to a falling car, the woman inside asks to name her baby after him and he smiles and says, “Robin works, right?”

“The Lesson Plan” is a story from my favorite modern age creators in Tim Seeley, Tom King and Mikel Janin. The Grayson series took place shortly after Dick’s identity was exposed to the world during “Forever Evil” (2013) by the Crime Syndicate. At this time he was acting as a spy for an agency called Spyral while spying on them for Batman. I never think of Tom King as a comedy guy, but this story was almost gut bustingly hilarious. It was just a world trotting adventure where he teaches one of the students of St. Hadrian’s how to be a spy.

Truly this series was Dick at his most handsome, witty and skilled. He jumps out of a helicopter and grabs onto the cords of a cable car before rescuing a woman held hostage by terrorists on walruses. Dick, the student and the hostage ten fight off more terrorists in Tanzania, riding a bus headed for Los Angeles of all places before Dick finds himself in something Dejah Thoris would wear and having a night with the hostage who reveals herself to be a gorilla from Gorilla City. It’s absolutely absurd, but it is immensely fun and welcome since that whole series is well regarded by fans.

“More Time” by Judd Winick, Dustin Nguyen and John Kalisz is a far more somber tale about Jason Todd potentially a short time after the events of Under the Red Hood. Jason Todd was the second Robin and met his unfortunate end in the 1988 story, A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo. Jason eventually returned in the Batman: Under the Hood story where Winick and Doug Mahnke re-envisioned the former Robin as a violent vigilante Jason does have something of a strained relationship with Batman, but it wasn’t always that way as this story illustrates.

One thing that Dustin Nguyen has always been great at, it’s making kids super adorable and he does so in this story as it flips back and forth between the past and the present as Jason gives Bruce a birthday present in the form of his father’s watch, which Jason sought to fix. Nguyen and Kalisz characterize the past with Jason appearing as a happy, young kid under the dim lights of the Batcave and a twinkle in his eyes. He’s happy to have a home and a father to care for him so he wanted to do something nice for him.

Present Day Jason is characterized by dark backgrounds with bright oranges, smoke and heavy blacks for the shadows. Jason is far more tired, grizzled and angry, but he still finds the time to place the same gift box from all those years ago on the Batmobile for Bruce to find. At this point in time, they may have been at each other throats, but the love between them was still there, buried deep - culminating in two side by side panels of past and present Jason saying, “Happy Birthday, Bruce.”

“Boy Wonders” is a story about Tim Drake by James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez and David Baron and sees Tim taking advice from all of his brothers. Next to Chuck Dixon and Geoff Johns, James Tynion IV has had one of the longest lasting impacts on the Tim Drake character throughout his run on Detective Comics by emphasizing the power of his mind in comparison to the other Robins and why he could ultimately be the successor to Batman above each of them or eke out a new life for himself.

While taking down the cast of The Warriors on a speeding train with Nightwing, Tim contemplates what his future will be. He looks to Dick as the one who did everything that he’s doing now and Dick tells him that as the smartest Robin, the best thing he could do is use that mind to bring up the next generation of heroes. Jason, the reason he’s even wearing the costume of Robin in the first place, tells him to take everything he’s learned from Batman to become BETTER than him. Arguably, it’s Damian that gives him the best advice by telling him that he’s the most capable of all of the Robins and that he should choose a path himself instead of relying on the advice of others.

Of course, this story takes place before the events of Detective Comics Rebirth where Tim does chart his own path in making Gotham safer with his Gotham Knights Protocol, but things don’t exactly turn out well for him. For all of the talk about how Tim is the smartest, he unfortunately could never get out of his own way long enough for things to go right...especially now that he’s going by “Drake” in that awful brown costume.

“Fitting In” is a Stephanie Brown story by Amy Wolfram, Damion Scott and Brad Anderson which sees Stephanie trying to live up to the standards of each of the boys that came before her. Stephanie was absolutely the shortest term Robin that Batman took on, as he only allowed her to take up the mantle in an attempt to get Tim back after his real father told him to hang up the cape after discovering his sons identity.

Even still, Stephanie did everything she could to earn Bruce’s respect and Wolfram plays on this and that past story by making it more about Tim than Steph. She has to train in the same costume that Tim did, but she proves more...voluptuous than Tim. Her costume bursts at the seams and Alfred designs the costume that she’s known for. She and Batman then get a call about fire at an amusement park and ride off to take down Firefly.

Unfortunately for her, she gets captured, but being the innovative girl that she is, she manages to free herself and take down Firefly at the same time. Damion Scott’s art is very well suited to the cartoonish action and paints her as a capable sidekick despite initially being a damsel in distress. I honestly wish her run as Robin would have been longer because she honestly fits well in the role as the bubbly Robin in contrast to the hell that Tim was going through at the time.

A point can be made that this story also had some needless sexualization, but given Bruce's lack of respect for Stephanie and him just wanting a replacement Tim at the time, this was well written from that perspective. He never cared for Stephanie and her time as Robin was mostly her trying to live up to Tim's standard which eventually left her to try too hard and "die" because of it. I’ll always take more Stephanie Brown as I can cause even now there’s not enough of her and I’m damn sure not reading Young Justice by Brian Michael Bendis.

“My Best Friend” is the one that makes me the most sad as it revolves around Jon Kent writing an essay on Damian as well...his best friend. I feel like the Super Sons series was also done a dity hand by BMB as he took Jon and aged him up for his Superman story when we could have gotten more fun stories between Damian and Jon. As far as homages to one of the better Rebirth series this one was just fun.

There’s not much to say other than Jon reminisces over a few of their adventures and tells readers about the side of Damian that we don’t often see because the Bat-boy is always a little bit too intense. Jon reminds us that they’ve fought for most of the time they’ve known each other, but when it comes to being heroes, Damian always had his back. It’s heartwarming. Of course there’s the continuity issue of them going to the same school in this story cause Jon was only ten at the time and Damian was thirteen, but honestly I only care about the friendship.

“Bat and Mouse” is a story by Robbie Thompson and Ramon Villalobos which sees Bruce and Damian having separate brooding inner monologues about how neither understands the other anymore and about how they want to open up to each other, but the distance between them has grown too wide. Admittedly, this is a much darker story in the respect that Batman and Robin haven’t really been the same since Damian started his new Titans team and started down a darker path that his father has yet to find out about.

Thompson captures this feeling that Damian is arrogant but scared. He feels like he’s outgrown what Batman has become because he’s willing to get rid of threats almost permanently through erasing their memories and villainous tendencies (see Teen Titans, 2018). At the same time, he’s afraid that maybe what he’s doing isn’t the right path and he so desperately wants to reach out to his father, but feels like he can’t.

Batman is the same way in that he loves his son more than anything and wants to regain the relationship that they had in the past, but doesn’t know how to say the words either. He knows that Damian is hiding something big, but he doesn’t want to accuse the boy and deepen the already cavernous rift. Even as they take down the robotic villain Quietus, they show signs of breaking through their equally cold exteriors, but fail to do so and I get the feeling this will all come to a head soon.

The Robins will always be some of my favorite characters in all of comics. Each of them have distinct personalities and quirks that set them apart from a lot of comic characters, especially when it comes to the trauma that they’ve faced alongside Batman. This special won’t be for everyone, just like each era of Robin isn’t for everyone, but overall, I really enjoyed it and the creators selected to honor these fantastic characters.

#robin #robin 80th anniversary #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #stephanie brown #damian wayne #carrie kelly #dc comics #comic books #comic review

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crypterion-moon · 5 years

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Exchange

“We traded kisses for bruises, I’m back here to trade them back in.”

Part 1

Things have smoothed somewhat since their fights and Jason only slowly begins to discover things about Tim that forces him to come to terms about his own feelings and Tim has to stop running from him.

There’s not a lot of things that Jason cares about, maybe his work and his identity as the Red Hood but his life? His ‘family’? Especially the Bats? They couldn’t be any lower on his priority list, if they were even on it.

Bruce still tried his best to reintegrate him back into the Bats, nice try B but this Robin fell out of the nest a long time ago. Besides the fact that he’s not sure he wants to spend more than an couple of hours in a mansion with Dick, the demon brat and Tim.

Jason leaned back next to the gargoyle and took a long drag of his cigarette. He’s not sure what he’s supposed to do with Tim. As Robin, he was formidable, intelligent and calculating but simultaneously the most benign and reserved out of all the Robins, which made him akin to a ghost. He rarely ever started fights, only ever with Damian and he deserved most of the bashing Drake gave him. But when it came to Jason, he pulled the vanishing act faster than Jason could even say hello to him. Tim was outright avoiding Jason. They fought a few times but the first time was brutal and he could remember how bloody Tim was by the time he was done. There was something in his eyes, behind the mask, his posture, that seemed to make Jason even angrier, he was a very angry person then. But the expression still bothered him even now.

Jason stubbed his cigarette out and let out a long deep breath, it’s not like he can ask the kid now, Tim hardly let him get a word out before disappearing first.

There’s noise on the comm, someone has accessed his channel.

“Jason,” Bab’s voice crackles on the other end.

“Yo, what’s up?”

“Don’t ‘what’s up’ me, you jerk, you’ve just made my job hell of a lot more trouble,” Jason couldn’t help but smile at how huffy she was getting, Bab’s was both intimidating and adorable that way, no wonder Dick was so smitten.

“Sorry Oracle, I couldn’t sit back and wait for some pimps to start shipping girls off before we took ‘em down.”

“Well, your heroics have caused an awkward situation, I have to do the above ground cleanup while Batman is dealing with your mess on ground level.”

“I’ve always loved pissing him off.”

Babs is talking now to someone else, there’s another voice in the background, a softer one. For some reason, she sounds surprised, speaking for a bit before turning her attention back to Jason.

“Well, you’ve got one grateful bat, Red Robin says thanks.”

Jason is speechless for a moment. It was completely out of the blue that he’d leave a message like that. Jason isn’t that hard to find and Tim is smart, if anyone could track it was him, but he’d chosen to not say it to Jason’s face.

“What��s that mean?” Jason find himself asking.

“Well, as awkward as you made it, you did stop a few of the victims from being sailed off. He was worried about them.”

“Huh.”

“You should try talking to him.”

“Maybe,” Jason said, “Probably not.”

Tim would prefer to pride himself on solving problems but lately, he’s just running away from them, Damian was determined to stick a big target on Tim while his relationship with Dick and Bruce has gone, somewhat cold. It’s become easier to stay away from Wayne manor than stick around unless it was for patrol. At least, he’ll won’t have to meet Jason too often. He’s definitely running from Jason but at this point he can’t stop it. It was just much easier to run than talk it out. Perks of living alone, he didn’t have to talk to anyone. Bruce and Dick still call up to check on him but he’s mastered the art of deflecting questions. He catches Jason trying to say something but his body flees before he can convince himself to listen, he’s scared, hurt still from those times they were at each other or rather Jason was trying to kill him. It’s an old scar and he’s not sure how long before he stops running. He’s not sure why Jason is trying to talk to him.

He’s finally back at his safehouse, it’s simple and clean since he doesn’t spend too much time in it. His time is always occupied with Wayne Enterprises during the day and patrol and investigations during the night. He can’t say he doesn’t want more, someone to greet him or someone to call when he’s home, just so that he isn’t completely alone. Tim walks to his room instead of the kitchen, he’s a bit peckish but not that interested in food, he’d rather catch up on sleep. At some point, even all the caffeine he could consume won’t keep him awake. If Alfred knew how his lifestyle had deteriorated Tim would get a long lecture. There’s nothing more disheartening than Alfred being disappointed. Tim collapses onto the bed after getting rid of his suit. Sleep will be nice.

The most obnoxious of sounds wakes Tim and he falls in a most ungraceful manner off the bed. Right, it was his alarm, purposefully jarring for the sole reason of waking him up for work. He reaches over his bedside table for the alarm, almost slamming the snooze button too hard. By the time he’s done and ready to head off to the office, it’s only eight probably enough time to get coffee on the way. To his surprise someone is waiting outside...Jason. Tim stands there gaping a bit in shock.

“I heard you are a monster without your morning coffee, thought I should at least get you some before we talk.”

“Uh, thanks but I do need to get to work,” Tim says, the sudden need to run strikes him.

“I know, I’ll drive you there,” Jason gets on the bike and pats the seat behind him for Tim to get on, “It’ll be quicker and we’ll have some free time before you need to go.”

Tim realizes he can’t refuse and it’ll be rude to at this point now that Jason is dead set on it. So he gets on, gingerly. Jason hands him a spare helmet which he puts on with shaky hands.

“Hang on tight, don’t want you falling off,” Jason says, though that is more preferable to Tim’s current situation he does what he’s told and wraps his arms around Jason’s midsection. They speed off.

Jason ends up getting them both coffee in a nice café that Tim frequents. He hadn’t asked what Tim likes though so he ends up getting him a sweetened large latte with caramel in it. It’s indulgent as intended, the kid looks like he could stand to gain twenty pounds. Tim doesn’t tell him it’s too weak though, it’s still nice, probably the sugar will help.

They sit awkwardly by the window, Tim looks out nervously so he won’t have to look at Jason.

“Um, thanks...for the coffee.”

“You come here a lot don’t you?”

Tim bites his lip, he knows Jason has been observing, probably like that time when he was gathering enough info on him to launch his attack. It’s making Tim nervous, but he doesn’t understand what Jason’s intentions are this time.

“It’s close to the Wayne building and they do good coffee here.”

Jason takes a sip of his, “Yeah, they do.”

“You...had something you wanted to talk about?” Please say no, please say no, say no so I can leave, Tim repeats in his head.

Jason nods,“Yeah, about last night, what was that about?”

“What?”

“Babs told me what you said, you were there with her.”

“I...thought you did a good job, those girls could’ve been gone for good if we waited.”

Jason sits back, this is so weird for him, he can’t understand why Tim, the Robin he beat up is complimenting him. Unless he’s feeling sorry about his little spat with Batman.

“I’m guessing you heard me and the big guy duking it out after, right?”

Tim remembers Batman sounding much gruffer on the line to Red Hood, he always does when he’d angry, he remembers that voice chastising him.

“Yeah, I heard,” Tim say, “I thought it wasn’t as bad as he said it was, I didn’t want you to put out.”

Jason twitches, so he was just being pitied. There’s nothing he hates more than people patronizing him like the Dick. People will say all kinds of nice thing but in the end, they were there to backstab other people, just like how he gets backstabbed in the end, even by his own Mom.

“Save it, I don’t need your sympathy.”

Tim looks up in shock, “Huh?”

“I get it, you feel sorry for me that B got mad at me. Well, screw that, I’ve never cared one way or another so I don’t need you to tell me everything’s okay,” Jason growls, his temper boiling over.

“No that’s not what I-”

Jason is one step away from slamming or kicking the table, but he doesn’t instead, he sits forward abruptly, gripping the table, “Of course that’s what you mean, I know your type and you have nothing but nice things to say to people who aren’t so lucky, yeah? That’s what you do.”

“Can’t I just be nice?” Tim is confused and scared and offended at the same time, he doesn’t like shouting, he doesn’t like being shouted at.

“And let you look down on me? A real saint aren’t you?”

It’s Tim who slams his hand down on the table, people turn to stare before looking away quickly, some whisper to each other while they watch.

“Is that how everything is to you? Some kind of conspiracy, that everyone is out to get you?!” Tim screams, “Do you ever stop to think that maybe you should shelve that stubborn pride of yours and take a step back?!”

“I started from the damn gutter, if I have any pride I’d damn well keep it!” Jason is yelling too. But even as he’s letting his rage fly, he can see Tim’s hands, no, his body is trembling.

“And I have everything? That’s what you think? That money and parents, a big mansion and that’s what counts?” Tim is trying not to cry from the strain, “Do you know what it’s like to have all that and nothing at the same time?”

“The hell are you talking about, replacement?”

“Don’t call me that!” Don’t, because Tim doesn’t want to face the truth of that, “You don’t know, what it’s like to try and try and in the end, never be enough. You don’t know what it’s like to stand there take it and be expected to smile and stay quiet because you’re supposed to.”

Tim sees Damian sneering at him, Bruce’s back is turned, he’s too busy. The face of his dead father, his best friend, all his friends. The moment he looks back at the Drake manor, empty, like it’s always been. Being cold and tired. He stands, his hands, his vision shaking.

“You don’t know what it’s like to lose everything and everyone you trust and love, have the world just crumble around you and have to watch but you can’t scream.”

He can’t count the amount of times he’s looked down on everything and wondered if it would make a difference if he just...faded. Through watery eyes he sees Jason staring at him, too stunned to say anything. Tim needs to walk or he might collapse on the spot.

“I have to go...work,” he says weakly and bolts like a rabbit.

“Wait.” He doesn’t stop even when Jason calls out to him.

#tim drake #jason todd #jaytim #angst #fanfic #my writing

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batfam-imagines · 7 years

Text

Captured

Prompt: OK FUCK UM SO LIKE U KNOW THE FIRST PROMPT LIST U REBLOGGED CAN I GET 4, 13, 15, and 20 WITH JASON (is that how this works?? Sorry if it's not)

4. “Walk out that door and we’re through”

13. “You can’t keep pretending it didn’t happen, cause guess what? It did!”

15. “Stop pretending you’re okay, cause I know you’re not.”

20. “I think you’re just afraid to be happy”

So I did my best!

“Walk out that door and we’re through, Jason” The words hurt, they tear at your throat like broken glass, but they still ring true.

Jason’s shoulders stiffen, “So you’re just going to break up with me? Is that it?”

“You’re out of control, Jay! Every night you’re out there, hurting one of your brother, killing people, becoming a fucking mob boss!”

“I’m doing what Batman can’t, Y/N. He keeps trying to stop crime, well guess what? You can’t fucking stop crime, that only way to make any kind of difference is to control the crime. If I run this city I can make rules, and anyone who breaks those rules dies. That’s the only way to make any kind of difference.”

“And what about me, huh?” You take a shuddered breath, “What if they try to get to you through me? They know that the Red Hood has a soft spot for me, you’ve had to kill thugs for me twice this month. They’ll put the pieces together. I love you, Jay, and I knew what I was getting into before I agreed to move in with you, but you’re going too far. Just think about us Jay, what if they track us back here …”

“They won’t” Jason removes his hand from the door knob and gently cups your face, “I love you, sweetheart. I love you so damn much, but I need to do this. I can keep drug dealers away from kids, make sure that women are safe on the streets, I can make a bigger difference than B ever did. I just need you to trust me. Can you do that? Can you trust me?” You nod and Jason leans forward, pressing a kiss to your forehead, “Don’t wait up for me, it’s gonna be a long night”

You startle awake when a large, and dirty, hand clamps over your mouth. Kicking out you immediately try to bite the hand, and twist off the bed.

“Now, now, missy. Mr. Black Mask wants to have a meetin’ with you. He only said that you had to be alive, now unless you want to show up banged up and hurtin’, I suggest you come quietly”

“My boyfriend’s gonna kill you”

“Your boyfriend is precisely the reason you’re havin’ this meetin’”

“And if I refuse to go?”

“Then we’ll have to knock you out, and” his eyes rake over your bare legs, you’d only worn underwear and one of Jason’s shirts to bed, “who know what’ll happen then”

“Can I put on some pants and shoes first?”

“Yes”

Quickly making your way to the dresser you pull on a pair of pants, and slip a tracking device in your shoe. “Okay, I’m ready”

As it turns out Black Mask has no real intention of talking to you. He just wants to use you to get to Red Hood.

“Hood! I know you can hear me, Hood. I also know that you’re down by the docks tonight, on the opposite side of town from where I am. Another thing I know … your girl looks so pretty when she cries”

There’s a pause, “I don’t have a girl, Mask. I’m a one man show who’s going to …”

Black Mask tisks, “You don’t have a girl you say? So, that means this pretty little thing who’s tied up and gagged in my office means nothing to you?”

“Mask …”

“Well, you heard him boys! There’s no need to keep her alive if she doesn’t mean anything to Hood.” Two men grab you, hauling you in front of their boss, who quietly pulls out a gun, “Goodbye, girly”

“Wait!! Wait don’t – don’t shoot her”

The safety clicks back on, “So she is your girl then?”

“Yes”

“Good, I’m glad we got that misunderstanding out of the way. Now I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to do in order to keep your pretty little miss alive and unharmed.”

“So that’s how you think this is going to go? You’re just going to give me an order and expect me to follow it? Not even Batman has managed to make that happen”

Black Mask bares his teeth, “What part of ‘I’ll kill your girl’ did you not understand?”

Jason’s chuckle echoes thought the loudspeaker, “Well, I think you’re bluffing. What leverage will you have left if you kill Y/N? None! You won’t have anything to bribe me with, all you’ll have is a body and seriously pissed off guy. You need me, Mask. You wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of keeping Y/N alive if you didn’t need me to do something”

“Are you saying we’re at a stalemate, Hood?”

“Sounds like it”

The next thing you know, a knife is being plunged into your stomach, “Because you see, Red Hood, you’re right. If I kill Y/N here, then you have no reason to do as I ask, but there are other ways to get what I want.” One of his hands cup under your chin, “She really is a pretty little thing, and I have quite a few men who would love to try her out.”

“You wouldn’t”

“Oh, I would! These men are extremely loyal to me, and if you don’t do as I ask I’ll give her to them. It also seems like your girl has been stabbed, and without medical treatment her death will be very slow, and very painful.”

“You son of a bitch!!”

“Easy now, Hood. We wouldn’t want to add a gunshot to her list of injuries, would we?”

Jason is silent for a moment, “You’re going to pay for this, Mask.” There’s the sound of breaking windows and several people shouting all at once, “Did it ever occur to you that I was just biding my time? Did you really think Y/N was stupid? She had a tracker on her the entire time, and now you’re going to pay for hurting her”

You smirk up at Black Mask, using your tongue to push at the gag, “You’re fucked, asshole”

Black mask snarls and points his gun at your head, “You bitch …”

A dagger flies from behind you, knocking the gun away and sinking into Mask’s hand, “Did you think we would not find her? You may have lured Red Hood to the docks, but you did not plan for anyone else to come to Y/N’s rescue”

Now that you’re surrounded by several vigilantes, you allow yourself to feel the pain that you’ve managed to block out. “Batman …”

There’s a soft swish of a cape and Batman is crouching next to you, gently taking the gag the rest of the way out of your mouth, “Are you alright?”

“Not really, he stabbed me but right now the knife is stopping a lot of the blood loss, and I was kicked around a bit. Definitely need medical treatment”

“Yes, you do. Robin, tie up Black Mask. We’ll leave him for the police to deal with”

“Very well, father. Y/N … will you be alright?”

You flash a brief smile, which you have a feeling looks more like a grimace. “I’ll be alright, Babybat.”

Bruce quickly gets to work and starts untying your arms, his voice is soft, pitched low so Damian doesn’t hear him, “You can stop pretending you’re okay, because I know you’re not.”

“I’ll be fine until we get to the hospital, I can’t … I don’t want to let Damian know how hurt I am”

“Can you walk?”

“No, my leg’s broken and I was stabbed. Just – just help me up”

“I’ll carry you”

“… Fine, I honestly don’t think I’ll be able to stand”

Bruce rolls his eyes, quickly lifting you in a bridal carry, “And yet you were going to try. You are more like your partner than you realize, Y/N”

You let out a strained chuckle, gripping Bruce’s shoulder tightly, “I’m gonna take that as a complement. Is Hood gonna meet us at the Cave?”

“Yes, he’s on his way there now.”

“Good”

“Y/N!!”

You wave weakly, blood loss starting to take its toll, “Hey, babe”

“Damnit, Y/N, you would get kidnapped and almost killed by the Black Mask” Jason carefully takes you from Bruce’s arms and places you on the steel surgical table. “B said that you have a broken left leg, a stab wound in your lower abdomen, and various lacerations from being beaten”

“Yeah that about covers it”

“We’re gonna patch you, sweetheart. Here, take these” Jason hands you a couple of pills, “these will knock you out, and when you wake up we’ll have set your leg, and stitched you up”

“And you’ll be here?”

Jason leans forward, pressing a kiss to your forehead, “I wouldn’t be anywhere else”

Everything is groggy when you start to wake up. You’ve been moved to a more comfortable bed, your casted leg is propped up on some pillows, and bandaged cover most of your other injuries. Bruce and Jason are the only two voices you hear in the room.

“You can’t keep pretending it didn’t happen, cause guess what? It did!”

Bruce sighs, it’s obviously not the first time he’s heard Jason say that, “I’m well aware that Y/N was hurt because of you, but what did you think would happen? She’s dating a vigilante, one who controls most of the drug trade that runs through all of Gotham. She knew the risks when she started dating you”

“He threatened to let his guys have their way with her. They could have raped her, beaten her more, anything. He did this to get back at me, Bruce. How can I continue seeing her if this is the kind of danger I’m putting her in?”

“I think you’re just afraid to be happy”

Jason pauses, “What?”

“You seem to forget that Y/N chose to be with you. She was the one to weigh the pros and cons of dating a vigilante, and she decided that you were worth it” You crack one eye open to see Bruce place a comforting hand on Jason’s shoulder, “You love her, Jay. I know you do. You can’t just give up your chance at happiness”

“I was so close to losing her tonight, B” Jason’s voice wobbles, like he’s fighting back tears.

“You can’t let fear rule your life, Jason. You need to hold onto your happiness, hold onto her, for as long as you can. I know that we don’t have the best relationship, that you are still angry with me, but just … just don’t let her go so easily. In the world we live in, leading the lives that we do, tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. Treasure her while you have her, Jay”

“I just love her so much, Bruce. I hate seeing her hurt”

Clearing your throat softly, you extend one hand toward Jason who immediately takes it. “I love you too, Jay”

“How are you feeling, baby?”

“I’m fine, still feel kinda hazy and numb.”

“Good, do you want any water or anything?”

“No, I’m fine right now. I – I might end up falling asleep again”

The hand not holding yours slowly runs through your hair, “Good, you need a lot of sleep to heal properly”

Your eyes are getting heavier the longer you’re awake, “Just one thing to say before I sleep”

“Go ahead”

Throwing out a smirk, you tighten your grip on Jason’s hand, “If you break up with me just because Black Mask kidnapped me I’ll … I’ll hide your stupid helmet from you, then you’ll just be the Red Mask Guy”

Once again Jason presses a kiss to your forehead, “Don’t worry, baby, I have no intention of letting you go.”

“Good, you better not”

#Jason Todd #jason todd x reader #jason todd imagine #black mask imagine #hurt reader #hurt/comfort #batman imagine #bruce wayne #bruce wayne imagine #Damian Wayne #damian wyne imagine #batfamily #BatFam

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xseaxwitchx · 6 years

Text

Pining and Pizza [Part 2]

Fandom: DC Comics

Relationship: One-sided JayTim (technically)

Words: 2,124

Warnings: Implied horrible things for anyone not straight that’s open about it

Summary: The title, I feel, is self-explanatory.

A/N: This is part 2 to what originally was supposed to be a one-shot, but a second part was requested. So, without further ado, here ya go!

Part 1

Tim stood beside Jason, not really looking at the movies but instead trying to catch Jason in his peripheral vision. Why? He wasn’t sure.

“How about this?” Jason asked as he stood straight and held the movie case out to Tim. R.I.P.D he saw on the cover. “Sounds interesting. Any good?”

“Well,” Tim said, “it’s funny. Kinda sad at some point, but overall funny.”

Jason nodded his head definitively, making his way over to the television set that had the DVD player. Tim went to sit on the couch, cross-legged, waiting for Jason. As he bent down to put the DVD in, Tim couldn’t help the thoughts that entered his mind when he saw Jason’s butt. He pulled the hood down to completely cover his face, trying to fight off the thoughts. Stupid, stupid, stupid, thought Tim. There’s no way he’s going to see you romantically. Plus, he’s straight, isn’t he? Wait, you don’t know that for sure. Argh, why me?!

Tim startled out of his thoughts by Jason tugging on his sleeve. “You okay, Timbo?”

He let go of his hood, hands going to his lap, face dusted pink. Jason lifted the hood, peeking at Tim’s face and saw the light blush. “Why are you blushing? Have someone on the mind?” Jason and his goddamn smirk. Jason and his goddamn wiggling eyebrows. Jason and his goddamn...him. Goddamnit.

Jason laughed, yanking down the hood, Tim lurching forward a little with the force. He collapsed next to Tim, feet going up onto the coffee table, hands in his lap. Tim took off his hood, little attention on the TV, most attention on Jason. Why was Tim freaking out tonight? The crush had been blossoming for about five months now, and Tim never became as flustered as tonight. Why? He wished he knew.

Jason pressed play when the menu popped up, then placed the remote on the coffee table. As he reached over, the back of his shirt rode up, revealing part of his lower back as Tim turned his head to ask Jason a question. Tim had to swallow, struggling to control his blush and mind. At this rate, he might become more blush than human. “Hey, Jay? You want some chicken nuggets? I was gonna go make some, and wanted to know if you wanted any.” Tim surprised himself by keeping a steady and unsuspecting tone.

“Timmers, unlike you, I had food today. And just ate pizza. Maybe later, but for now, go take care of yourself and make chicken nuggets before I slap you,” Jason answered. Ah, tough love.

“Okay.” Tim pushed himself off the couch, padded his way to the kitchen, then to the cabinets for a microwavable plate. His mind wandered as his hands did. He debated whether or not to tell Jason his feelings or just wait to see if the crush would go away in time. All his being would love the second option, but his reactions tonight say otherwise. He absentmindedly threw open the freezer for the chicken nuggets, threw them on a plate, and stuck the plate in the microwave.

“What would be the worst that could happen?” Tim started muttering to himself, hoping Jason wouldn’t be able to hear him over the TV. “He says no, then the friendship or whatever the fuck we have is strained, then he runs, never speaks to you again, then you fall into--”

The beep of the microwave interrupted his muttering, indicating his chicken nuggets heated. He opened the microwave and let out a hiss at the hot temperature of the plate as he went to grab it. After a few seconds, he went to reach for the plate again, fingers stinging from the plate, but the temperature bearable.

His feet softly hit the floor as he tried to elongate the journey to the couch. Alas, it only took him all of 15 seconds.

The plate of chicken nuggets he set on the coffee table and returned to his place on the couch. The chicken nuggets slowly disappeared over the course of 20 minutes. Jason side-eyed him a few times, but for what, Jason didn’t know.

Tim started to scooch closer to Jason, seeing how close he could get without Jason saying anything. Soon, their shoulders barely touched, just sweeping by each other. Tim decided to try his luck; he scooched over until they were flushed together and he leaned his head slightly onto Jason’s shoulder. Just his luck that Jason turned to look at him as best he could. Tim’s head shot straight off and he backed up as Jason threw him a questioning look.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d mind...much,” said Tim, an edge of panic in his voice.

“Mmm, I don’t care. Just a little surprised because it’s only nine o’clock; didn’t think you’d be tired already,” Jason responded, hoping to relax the other man.

“So, can I?” Tim asked, referencing to leaning his head on Jason’s shoulder. Jason quirked an eyebrow in a “really?” expression. He happily made his way back to Jason, bodies flush against each other, head on Jason’s shoulders. They continued to watch the movie, neither saying a word to the other. Eventually, Tim’s arms wrapped themselves around the other man’s arm, him snuggling into Jason. Both remained oblivious to this action.

At the end of movie, Tim stretched one of his arms up, yawning. He didn’t remember ever feeling so tired, but safe and warm enough to comfortably let himself be so. His arm returned to its original position.

Jason peered down, now noticing their positions. All of a sudden, Jason felt awkward. He cleared his throat and was just about to ask Tim something when he heard mumbling. “What was that?” he asked.

Tim, mind hazy with exhaustion, repeated his words louder without thinking: “I love you, Jay.” He snuggled deeper into the man, unaware of his predicament until he felt himself being pulled away. His eyes blinked a couple of times before his mind caught up. When it did, his eyes widened in shock as he crab-walked to the other side of the couch to try to get as far away from Jason as possible. His face grew tomato-red and he once again grabbed the hood of his onesie and yanked it down over his face to save himself from seeing Jason’s shocked face.

“Tim?” called Jason. His feet came off the coffee table, one leg folded onto the couch and the other sitting on the floor, facing Tim.

“Tim’s not here right now; this is a hologram,” Tim responded, albeit slightly muffled due to the hood. Jason smiled a small smile to himself as he moved over to Tim. He took Tim’s wrists in his hands, tugging gently to get Tim to lower them and let go of the hood. Reluctantly, Tim let him. As Tim’s hands found his lap, Jason reached up to remove the hood, taking in Tim’s face.

“Tim? Tim, look at me,” Jason told him. He looked up, and their eyes locked. He felt himself shrink under Jason’s intense gaze, crumple and wishing to implode, to disappear; he couldn’t believe he let those words slip from his mouth in his tired state, and using “love” of all words.

Jason’s hands returned his own lap. He sighed, breaking eye contact and sweeping a hand through his hair. He opened his mouth to start, but Tim beat him to the punch. “Look,” started Tim, then drew a shaky breath. Tim took a moment to compose himself and Jason, interested in what Tim had to say, closed his mouth and gave Tim his full attention.

“Jay,” Tim started once again, hands tense as he gripped his legs in anxiety, “I-I, uh, meant it in a brotherly way, like, you’re my big bro. I mean, what other way is there to take it? Romantically? Psshh, that’s...no. What? Ri-ridiculous and--”

“Stop,” Jason interrupted him. “You and I both know that’s rambling bullshit. Tell me what it meant.”

“Fine,” Tim said, utterly defeated and cornered. “I like you. Not in a companionable way, not a brotherly way, not a friendly way. I like you as in, like you like you. I, uh, I have for awhile. I mean, after I go to know the real you. At first, I was attracted to you--your jawline, your arms, your eyes. Ya know, physically. Over time, I came to like your compassion, your heart, your sarcasm, your tough love, your...everything. Before I knew it, I was falling hard. You-You don’t have to do anything, of course, but then again, you were never supposed to know, then it sort of slipped out and now--”

Jason pressed a finger to his lips to silence him, a smile playing at his lips and sadness in his eyes. “Tim, let me tell you a story about me.” He put his hand down.

“I remember when I was a kid on the streets, when I was old enough to understand, I knew I was definitely attracted to girls. But I would occasionally find myself attracted to some male celebrities on the TV when I was allowed to watch with my mom. I remember the first time I told her, she sighed and told me to never tell anyone, to only date girls when I got older. When I was 12, I asked her why. I’m not retelling that part to you. Anyway, I was turned off by men when I heard what she told me and the fact that there was not one boy my age who wasn’t in a gang or violent for the wrong reasons.

“When I was Robin, romance left my mind because I was too excited to finally make more of a difference with Batman. I fell in love with the job and the quality education I was finally able to get. Of course, as soon as I hit puberty I died.

“After coming back from the dead, well, ya know. I didn’t exactly have romance on the brain.” Jason sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. Then he continued.

“Of course, after that fiasco was over, Roy, Kori, and I teamed up for Red Hood and the Outlaws. One night, after Roy and I got piss drunk, we had sex. I don’t remember much, neither does he, about that night. All we know is that it happened and I found myself curious about men again. Not Roy, though. I love him like a brother.”

Tim sat patiently, listening and hanging on to every word. Chalk what he just heard to the list of things he didn’t know about Jason. “So then?” Tim prompted.

Jason continued. “I’ve been too scared, admittedly, to ask any guy out because of the neighborhood I live and work in.”

“But you’re Red Hood. I’ve seen you kick ass!”

“It’s not something you would understand, Tim.” Jason looked on forlornly and Tim felt his heart drop.

“Like I said, you don’t have to do anything,” Tim said dejectedly, sighing.

“No, Tim, you’re right, I don’t,” replied Jason, taking one of Tim’s hands in his. They made eye contact again.

“I can’t say I feel the same way, but, knowing that I wouldn’t have to worry about you too much, I think that maybe I’d like to take a chance,” said Jason.

Tim couldn’t believe what he heard. He must be hallucinating, had too little sleep. Nevertheless, his eyes started to water, lip quivering slightly. He didn’t know whether to cheer or cry.

“I honestly don’t know why you’d genuinely like me because I’m a fucking mess who doesn’t deserve to be loved--”

“Shut the fuck up, Jason,” Tim interjected. He pounced onto Jason, locking his arms around the other man’s neck and they both went tumbling to the floor between the couch and coffee table with an “oof.”

Jason landed on top of Tim, who pulled Jason into a kiss by pulling down on the back of Jason’s neck. What started as a kiss turned into a full make-out session. Jason pulled back, both panting for air. Tim’s hands still found themselves threaded through Jason’s hair, and Tim’s hair a mess from the carpet.

“We...are not...doing anything tonight,” huffed Jason between breaths. Tim whimpered in mock disappointment.

“Movies and cuddles it is, then,” Tim said. “Now get off; you’re becoming too heavy.”

Jason chuckled as he climbed off Tim and settled back on the couch. Tim went to pick the next movie after he adjusted himself. As he passed Jason, Jason smacked his ass playfully.

“Really, Jay? Was that necessary?” Tim said indignantly.

“What? Golden Boy isn’t the only one with a nice ass in this family,” said Jason nonchalantly.

#jaytim #jason todd #tim drake #red robin #red hood #pining and pizza #fyi I don't ship jayroy romantically #or seriously #although I do think a drunken one-night stand would be a plausibility between them #and ofc kori wouldn't be upset #she's just great okay #anyway #here ya go #*throws confetti*#the witch writes

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onehaleofanadventure · 7 years

Link

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Relationship: Jason Todd/Dick Grayson

Summary:

Dolorous: feeling or expressing great sorrow or distress

The first few months after Dick finds out about Jason's death are the hardest—not that it will ever be easy to deal with. In a fit of self-hatred and rage, Dick pushes away everyone who cares for him. Alone in Bludhaven, he suffers through his bond flares as some sort of penance for the horrors his would-be-mate suffered, for the horrors he could've protected Jay from and didn’t.

Bond flares are very common in the first six months or so, the pain—both emotional and physical—accounts for the Broken Heart Syndrome that kills the surviving partner so soon after the other in a large percent of the population. After the first six months, bond flares happen sporadically for the rest of a lifetime; these flares can last anywhere from hours to weeks, on occasion, they have been documented to last up to a few months. Bond flares can be caused by anything, usually a specific memory or sensation that reminds the surviving bond member of his or her mate.

For those first few months, Dick and Bruce's relationship becomes even more strained. Despite knowing and seeing the obvious need for closure—what little could be offered—Bruce refuses to allow Dick to even visit Jason's grave.

---

When Tim showed up at Dick's apartment asking about Robin, Dick felt the largest bond flare since he learned of Jason's death, and sent Tim away. He couldn’t be Robin again, even if he was willing: Robin was Jason's.

After Tim approaches Bruce—and the chaos that ensues from Tim’s (stalking) knowledge of their identities—and becomes Robin, Bruce settles some. Tim would never be as close to Bruce as Jason was, but he would stand by Batman when necessary, and these days there was more Batman than Bruce.

More balanced and somewhat content, Bruce allows Dick to visit Jason, just not as often as he wanted. These meager visitation rights were the only thing that kept Dick from strangling Bruce and destroying the horrid glass-encased shrine he had made of Jason's uniform as some sort of war-memorial/cautionary-tale for the future.

---

Dick makes the effort this time, for the most part, to be a good big brother. In the beginning, his interactions with Tim were awkward and stressful; not in the least due to Tim's near obsession with the second Robin. Part of Dick wants to hate Tim, to prove to him, that the young beta could never good enough for Jason. However, a bigger part of himself wonders if maybe Tim would’ve been better for Jay, would’ve loved him and cared for him as he should've been. Mostly, though, Dick hates himself for being a big reason why Tim would never get to meet Jay, get to experience that all-encompassing passion in everything Jay did.

With Dick and Tim being closer, and Dick agreeing to teach Tim his acrobatics, Bruce—with some not-so-gentle prodding from Alfred—makes an attempt to mend his relationship with his eldest child. They will never be the same, but after a few years—and some challenging times—Dick feels that their relationship has gotten better.

---

Even with as civil as they’ve become, Dick knows he will never be forgiven for some of his more self-destructive behaviors.

The first time he encountered the Joker after Jason's death is mostly a blank spot in his memory, one of the few times he has ever allowed his instincts to take over rationality. He was helping Batman while Robin was being forced to wait in the cave.

They were calm, as calm as can be expected given the mass-murdering psychopath who murder a member of their family, prancing about in front of them. Dick was fine, under control. Until the bastard started bragging about clipping the last Robin's wings. After that, it’s a blur of blood and crunching bones; then, Bruce yanking Dick off the bloody mess and flinging him across the room. Personally, Dick thinks he should’ve done worse, should’ve made sure the Joker could never hurt anyone else. Hurting the Joker was the first thing to make the numbness receded into some other than pain. Killing the Joker is not what Dick wants, but Arkham isn’t good enough, he needs to be stopped.

After the Joker came Slade. Dick being reckless and unfeeling left him open to Slade’s onslaught. The flirting had little to no effect, Dick wasn’t really interested in relationships anymore—a bond is forever, even if one person is gone. The blatant propositions, even if he felt like he was betraying Jason, were progressively harder to ignore—at 19 and unmated, he had certain needs to fill. The on-going, random booty-calls are a difficult subject with the rest of the Bat-brood, and some of the heroes, but Dick is tired of the pitying looks from those who know and the concerned looks from those who don’t.

Then comes Blockbuster. He could have saved the man if he tried, but letting him die was better for the city. The guilt still weighs heavy on his conscience. The man was already dying, and destroying Bludhaven, but Nightwing has no right to decide who lives and who dies.

Despite all of that, Dick’s biggest mistake in the last five years is the Red Hood. The man is an anomaly, and Dick never should have let him get so close to destroying Nightwing.

---

Despite what most people might think, the worst moment of Jason’s life—up until this point, because a street rat always knows that it can get worse—is not being blown-up or the hours of vicious beating with a crowbar. Nor is it the harsh rejection and bond-induced first heat, or even the Lazarus pit. No, the worst moment of Jason’s life has to be young zombie, catatonic Jason crawling his way out of his own grave, in the throes of the worst heat he has experience since the first—due to six months without suppressants from being, you know, dead and all—alone.

After Talia picks him up and dumps him into the Lazarus pit, he vows to never suffer through heats again. He has no desire for a relationship given the disaster that was his bond; and, not that he would ever tell anyone, he doubts his capability to parent a child considering the stellar examples he had, he will never be so irresponsible as to make a child suffer for his own idiocy.

After going through Talia’s training, and pretending to go along with her ridiculous plan, Jason designs one of his own. He is going to make Bruce and Dick—the two people who were supposed to love and care for him—pay for replacing him, for not even caring that he died.

---

The first time Dick met the Red Hood, the man nearly kills him. The fight is a lot of blood and snarling—alphas fighting for dominance—and unfortunately Dick loses. At the end of the fight, the Red Hood flies off with a bitter laugh and spitting hatred, while Nightwing hobbles away with a broken leg and a clear warning that next time the Hood will shoot to kill.

Each encounter with the man has to be handled delicately, to avoid any more serious injuries, and Hood seems to take every precaution to make sure he is never so much as touched. Beyond their encounters, the Red Hood was strange: he built up one of the strongest followings, through completely distasteful means, in the Gotham, even branching into Bludhaven, and then gave them rules about children and women. Also, the people living on the streets praise him for to beating up or killing the abusive pimps and the dealers who sold to kids. If he wasn’t so prone to murder, and didn’t clearly hate the Bats, Dick would almost consider him a vigilante.

Still, somehow it’s a surprise when Nightwing stumbles upon the Red Hood hurt: a nasty shot just between the straps of his body armor and his jacket. The smell of his blood is oddly enticing, something spicy and sweet under all the metal and leather, gun powder, sweat, and suppressants. Dick doesn’t know what possess him to do it, but he removes his own glove and reaches out to the man’s wound.

The connection is instantaneous and just as electric as the first time, and for the second time in his life, Dick runs from his bond-mate.

---

Hood disappears for a few days after that, which makes avoiding him all the easier for Dick. It’s a little more difficult to do when he comes back, but it’s clear that Hood doesn’t want anything to do with him either. This bond could be something dangerous, and even though the pain is excruciating, he has lived it all before and will not risk his family for something he doesn’t deserve.

Bonds are supposed to be rare, supposed to last forever. It’s a one in a trillion, or hundreds of trillions, chance for someone to have more than one bond. In all of history, there has been a recorded total of two. Dick doesn’t think he should be allowed to join those ranks, to have another bond, after what he did to Jason. So, despite knowing he shouldn’t, he hides that he re-bonded, doesn’t tell Bruce, and hopes that Red Hood doesn’t use this to hurt them.

---

The next time he sees Hood is by far the worst moment of his life.

He followed a distress call from Bruce—from Alfred, on behalf of Bruce, who was watching the cowl’s camera feed—and found an old abandoned apartment building. Just as he was marking the correct window, the entire building explodes in flames and a shower of debris.

Dick rushes to the settling rubble, searching for any sign of life. He finds Bruce, lugging a battered but living Joker under a few smaller pieces of debris. Before he can so much as ask of Bruce’s condition, he is shoved aside and Bruce is frantically digging through the rubble from the other side of the building.

As Dick gets closer, he can he the wheezing, bubbling sounds of a person choking on blood, soft under the crunching, scraping sound of concrete and brick.

When the last bit of debris is lifted, Dick gasps, unable to do more than stare in shock. Below him is the Red Hood, grasping at the large gash, spurting blood, on the side of his neck, a blood-stained malicious smile on his—older, but undeniably familiar—face. Lightly curled black hair, with a strange white streak, matted with blood. Eyes glazed, and little too green, but still Robin’s Egg blue, and spicy-sweet scent from the bloody puddle forming around him. Jason.

#Jason Todd #Dick Grayson #Doleful sequel

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pinapple-qween · 5 years

Text

Batman and the P.I.

Relationship: Batfam x Reader

Summary: You’re a private investigator and you were hired to get insight into the Wayne family.

Key: Y/N= your name, L/N= your last name

Warning: Language, mentions of abuse

A/N: This is like, fucking long bro. Have fun!

You sat in your office, going through old photo sets and deleting the bad pictures and enhancing the better ones then downloading them to two external hard drives. Hey, you never know what’s gonna happen and what you may need.

This is how you spend your off time, the occasional appointment popping up, but day time wasn’t when you did your work. You were a private investigator and you knew that most dirty deeds happened in the darkness of the night. You were decently well off, Gotham always seemed to be in need of a P.I., so you weren’t terribly worried when you had a more quiet day.

That was when he busted into your office.

“Are you Y/N L/N?”

Not bothering to look up from your computer, you yawned and replied, “Who’s asking?”

He slammed his hands on your desk. You lazily lifted you head to look at the man. He was a average looking businessman, his hair a little wild, his shirt was not tucked in and his tie was loose around his neck. “Are you, or are you not Y/N L/N?”

“Yeah,” your voice expressing your disgust, “And who the hell are you?”

“I’m Cole Roman and I need to hire you.”

You snorted, “Why else would you be in my office?”

“I’m not here to kid around. Listen, I know there is something up with Bruce Wayne, something weird, and I need you to figure out what it is.” You were about to laugh again, but his face was deadly serious.

“You’re serious about this, huh? Alright, sure. I’ll follow around the most important man in Gotham, but it’s gonna cost you. Big.”

Cole nodded solemnly and handed you a bag. You peeked inside. There was quite a few bundles of Benjamins. You looked back up at the man, nothing in his eyes wavered.

“This’ll do. What information are you looking for?”

“I work at Wayne Enterprises in accounting and I’ve found some discrepancies in finances. I want to know where that money is actually going. I want to be able to expose him. Whatever he’s using that money for, it’s gotta be big and obviously expensive.”

“That’s a start.”

You infiltrated Wayne Enterprise three days later as a mail room attendant. It wasn’t too difficult and it gave you access to Cole Roman’s computer on an unrestricted basis. Every chance you got you would slip into his office and hack further into the Wayne Enterprise system, trying to get as much information as possible. That afternoon you made some big progress.

Tim noticed it first. Someone was getting further and further into the computer system, and one of his alarms triggered. Whoever it was seemed to be looking for the “Batman Expenses”, the nickname Tim had given to the expense reports that went to gadgets Bruce and Lucius worked on for Batman.

Slightly worried because of how close the person had gotten to the reports, Tim decided to pay a visit to Bruce’s office.

Tim approached the receptionist, “Hey Becca, Bruce in?”

Becca looked up from her computer and smiled. “Hi Timmy! Yes, Bruce is in, but he did ask to not be disturbed until lunch.”

“Well, can you let him know that it’s really important. Like, terribly important.” Tim gave her a pleading smile.

“Okay, okay! Give me one moment,” she held up a finger as she used the phone, “Yes, Hello Mr. Wayne. Mr. Drake is here, he says he has something important to discuss with you. Uh huh. Yes, I know. He was very insistent. I’ll let him know. Thank you!” She nodded to Tim and he thanked her then walked in.

“Tim,” Bruce stood from his desk and approached him, “What’s wrong?”

Tim explained the situation. As he talked, he watched Bruce’s face get more and more concerned. When he finished, Bruce had sat back down at his desk and steepled his fingers.

When Bruce finally spoke, his voiced was strained, “This is not good Tim.”

“I know that, why else do you think I came to you?” Tim’s hands flew up to his hair. “Bruce, what the hell are we gonna do?”

“We aren’t going to freak out. We need to figure out who is doing this. Come here,” he motioned for Tim to come to the other side of his desk, “We need to look into the usage data, see if we can track the IP address.”

Bruce began pulling up the advance computer accessing programs and Tim borrowed Bruce’s laptop and did the same, they both looked for irregular IP’s that may have broken into Wayne Enterprise’s systems.

Hours passed and they could find nothing irregular. Getting frustrated, Bruce leaned back in his chair. That was when he noticed the pattern.

“Tim do you see that?” Tim looked at Bruce confused. “Right there, and there. And again a few rows down.”

“Holy shit- yeah Bruce. But that’s...that’s one of ours.”

“We need to figure out who that is and fast.”

Your “shift” ended just an hour before sundown, when the real work begins. You left Wayne Enterprises, much more informed than when you entered and made your way back to your office. Once you go there, you wrote down all the numbers from the expense sheet you memorized, not that you really needed to, but sometimes it was helpful to be able to match the numbers with the pictures.

You got your camera and stealth supplies together and made your way to Wayne Manor. Slipping through the gate, you tip-toed over sensors and motion detectors to place yourself in a tree not to close to the building itself, but far enough to be able to get pictures of all the floors. You were slightly surprised that Bruce Wayne didn’t seen to have any blackout curtains on any of his windows, but you guessed he assumed no one could get past his security systems.

You waited patiently until you could see a fancy car pull up to the house around the corner. The driver exited and opened the passenger side door to release a boy, no more than ten, you listened to the boy complain about school as he walked into the manor. Damian Wayne, you thought, Not connected to the data, moving on. You took a closer look at the driver, he was an older man, well dressed. Alfred Pennyworth, probably connected, closer investigation. Not long after those two had enter the manor, another even fancier car pulled up. Bruce Wayne exited the driver side and Timothy Wayne exited the passenger side. Strong data connections, investigate both, you noted as they walked inside.

It was midnight before anything else of informational value happened. As you were scouting the manor, you noted two more men and two girls inside. You noticed Richard Grayson immediately, noting he probably has a strong connection. The other man wasn’t a normal associate of the Wayne family, he was a bigger guy with a white streak in his black hair. The girls were Cassandra Wayne and Stephanie Brown, girlfriend of Timothy, Cassandra was noted as involved but Stephanie was noted uninvolved. Weirdly, all of the people in the house appeared together in what seemed to be a study. You watched them through your camera trying to understand what was happening. It was hard to make out, but then something even more strange happened. They all walked behind the only thing obstructing your view and never returned.

It was bizarre. Every last one of them, gone. Even Alfred Pennyworth. This piqued your interest. You slowly made descent from your perch and slipped into the manor. Stepping lightly, you weaved through the maze of the manor and found the study. Looking around the door frame carefully, you found it was completely empty, like no one had ever entered. You wandered into the room and looked around, taking a few pictures here and there, and tried to find the spot that was obstructed from your tree view. You found it as the grandfather clock against the wall. You studied the clock, the time was wrong.

Carefully, you reached out and pushed the minute hand slightly. The clock shuttered and began to slide aside, revealing a hidden staircase. Refusing to let yourself back out, you began silently descending to a secret level.

“-breach is from within.” You could hear the tail end of someone’s conversation. You pressed yourself against the rock wall at the end of the staircase. You took out you camera and flipped the screen so you could see what was going on beyond the wall. In the screen, you saw eight people, but not the people you witness disappear. These eight people were in uniforms: Batman, Robin, Red Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, Batgirl, and Spoiler. But then you saw him, Alfred Pennyworth and you put it all together.

The expense are withdrawn by Bruce Wayne to make gadgets for Batman.

And Bruce Wayne is Batman.

Your camera clattered to the ground.

*Clunk*

Everyone’s heads whipped around to the sound and found a camera at the base of the stairs to the Batcave. Cass ran over and ran up a few stairs before she returned, grabbing you by the arm. They watched as you struggled to escape her grasp, doing so a couple times, but Cass would fix her grip and pull harder. When she reached the group, you stopped struggling and looked Bruce right in the eyes.

Bruce used his Batman voice, “Who are you?”

You stood taller, “Y/N. Y/N L/N.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I was hired to investigate Bruce Wayne. Or I guess I should say Batman?”

Bruce’s mouth turned down into an even deeper frown. In the blink of an eye, his hand was around your throat. You didn’t gasp, actually the look in your eye intensified. “Who hired you!” He shook you a little. “Who?”

You smirk at him, which surprised Bruce causing him to loosen his grip. You slipped away from him, but not before the rest of the vigilantes surrounded you. “Just some accountant. No one important or dangerous, I promise.”

“Why?” Dick spoke up, “Why did he want Bruce investigated?”

You turned to face him, “He noticed a discrepancy in the numbers, wanted to figure out what was going on. Flashed me some Benjamins, so I took the gig.” You looked at the ceiling in thought, “$150,893.43, $471,990.21, $1,004,561.08 to name a few amounts that disappeared.”

Dick’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, “H-how did you know those numbers?”

You shrugged, “Saw ‘em, memorized ‘em. Took about five minutes after I found the spreadsheet.”

Dick looked at Bruce in surprise, noticing the Bruce looked just as shocked himself. Tim and Bruce locked eyes, the same question going through both of their heads.

Tim was the one to ask it aloud, “How did you get to that spreadsheet?”

You shrugged again, “I got a job in the mail room. Whenever I got a chance, I got onto the accountant’s computer and wiggled through some firewalls. It wasn’t too hard, part of why I became a P.I.”

If Tim didn’t know any better, he would’ve guessed the look on Bruce’s face was one of admiration. Actually, Tim himself felt a certain admiration for Y/N. Not many people had your abilities. Actually, no normal people should have your abilities.

Bruce finally spoke up again, “So what are you going to do now that you know about all this?”

“What do you think I should do?”

Steph spoke up, “What do you mean by that?”

“You could tell the world who we are, what we do. You have the proof right? Why not? What could stop you?” Bruce didn’t sound worried, but he wasn’t sure what you would do.

You sighed, “No, I won’t tell. Listen, my work...it ruins lives. I’ve seen it happen, and it’s not something I want to repeat. I’ve also seen what you guys do,” you shifted from one foot to the other, “You guys do good, I’ve seen that. I can’t interfere with your work. No, I won’t tell anyone.”

Everyone studied Y/N carefully. Damian was sure you were lying, but he couldn’t detect deception. Dick was slightly amazed at your response, and Tim was in awe as well. Steph and Cass began whispering their doubts to one another. Jason couldn’t help but scoff, he could believe you wouldn’t tell anyone, but not without a price.

“You wouldn’t do this without a price,” Jason got up in your face, “What do you want?”

Y/N didn’t shrink back. You actually got closer. “I don’t want shit.” Your eyes didn’t waver.

Bruce approach the two of them, he grabbed Y/N and took you aside. “I could use a brain like yours.” He watched your eyebrows shoot up. “You’re smart Y/N, there’s no denying it, and I can always use fresh eyes.”

“I would be honored, but...I mean...I’m not all that special. I mean... I can’t see what you see. When I think of myself, all I can see is an asshole that abuses people’s weaknesses and hate for a quick buck.” Y/N’s head fell for the first time in that cave. “I almost got her killed,” your voice no more than a whisper.

Bruce grabbed your shoulders, “What are you talking about?”

You raised your eyes to meet his. “This guy hired me, one of my first gigs, wanted me to figure out where his girlfriend was going. Easy, yeah?” Your shoulder tensed under Bruce’s hands. “She was going to a reproductive care clinic. I didn’t bother looking into why, and I told him. He got furious, right there in my office,” your eyes began to well up with tears, “He screamed ‘That bitch’s body is mine, she’s going to regret ever thinking otherwise.’”

Bruce watched as you took a deep breath. The tears spilled over your cheeks. “But you stopped him,” he asked softly.

You nodded, “I found her, before he could, told her what happened. I will never forget the fear I saw in her eyes, and that feeling of powerlessness because I couldn’t change what I had done.”

“You fixed it though,” Bruce noted, “You did good in the end. That’s why I think you’d be a good fit around here. Remorse, it can be used for good, motivation to do better in the future.” Bruce then did something everyone else in the cave thought was unthinkable, he hugged Y/N. Bruce felt as your arms tightened around his waist, and felt you shaking as you leaned into him.

Bruce gently pulled you away from him. “Y/N, I don’t know know how you feel, but I can tell you I did things I’m not proud of when I started out, just like you. The thing is...are you looking for a second chance?”

You took a moment to process what he said. Bruce watched as your tears disappeared, and a determined look settled onto your face. “I am.”

“So, what did you find?” Cole Roman paced around your office after waiting all morning for you to return.

“Sorry to disappoint Roman, but Bruce Wayne is not particularly interesting. The money went to a charity and charity auction item which, subsequently, was a fraud and the money disappeared.” You showed him some staged pictures you and the Wayne family had set up as added proof. “Nothing exciting going on in Wayne Manor.” Then you got out his bag of money, handing it back. “Full refund.”

Cole Roman grabbed the bag hesitantly, looked through it and nodded. “Fine. I guess it’s just weird to have a normal rich guy in Gotham.”

You smiled to yourself, “Yeah. Normal people in Gotham is rare.”

You bid Cole goodbye, and watched him leave the office. When he was out the door, you began packing it all up: external drives, cameras, lenses, notebooks filled with dirt on all kinds of people. Before you packed up your computer, you erased your business and yourself from the internet.

You found yourself in Wayne Manor the second time that day, now a welcomed guest. Bruce had set you up in one of the many rooms in the manor. When you walked in, you were in awe. The room was three times bigger than your office and looked like it was fit for a king. You began to set up all of your stuff when a knock came from the door. You turned to find Jason Todd, the only one you hadn’t know from before.

“Settling okay?”

“Yeah, just setting up my computer.”

Jason looked at your computer confused. “I’m sorry, what century is that computer monitor even from?”

You snorted, “I know, its a box. It’s all I could afford and I hadn’t been to keen to lose my office space or, you know, food by spending my income on a new monitor.”

“Bruce will have no problem getting you something better, he’ll want you working at a hundred.”

You nodded and continued setting up. Jason crossed the room and started helping you unpack. “Thanks.”

“No problem...” He trailed off. Then he turned to face you. “Y/N, why are you doing this?”

“What, unpacking?”

He chuckled, “No. I mean joining the life. It’s not easy and people get hurt.”

You looked Jason in the eyes. “I’ve already seen people get hurt. I know unease. I’ve been looking for a second chance and Bruce gave it to me.”

“Okay...alright. I get that.” Jason laughed to himself, “It’s probably better than the second chance I got.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I died, I was twelve. Bruce’s mortal enemy resurrected me. It was one of the worst times of my life.”

You looked at Jason like he was joking, but nothing changed in his eyes. Your eyes widened, “You serious?”

Jason shrugged, “Yeah.”

“Oh.”

“Well,” Jason set down a camera and walked to your door, but before he left he turned to look at you, “Welcome to the family.”

You watched as he walked away from your new room, processing his story.

“The hell have I gotten myself into...”

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