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psychovigilantewrites · 3 years

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Chapter 14 - A Different Point of View

Summary: Things that happened that you weren't aware of.

Word count: 9,163 words

A/N: Thank you for being so patient with me. I struggled with this chapter due to its nature. I had to further dive into Bruce and Dick's character that I wasn't too familiar with.2020 was a very tough year for me. I lost lots, learned lots. And I thought that the quarantine would mean I would write more. But I was wrong. Life hit me hard, and I stopped doing a lot of things I used to enjoy.Despite being virtually absent last year, you guys stuck by me anyway. Thank you. I love you all for that.Special thanks to my two beta readers. You know who you are. Here it goes.

(i recommend you guys read previous chapters to refresh coz I had to lol)

Ao3

Masterlist

The roles that people played were false- a mere necessity for their career or survival. Everyone was playing a role, whether it was of their own accord or not.

Bruce Wayne was a role- superficial, fake, yet vital to Gotham. Batman, on the other hand, was a completely different role, born out of exigence and a sense of justice.

Dick Grayson, however, genuinely enjoyed playing his role.

Nightwing felt right to him. Being a police officer felt right to him. And especially, if not ultimately, being an older brother.

He listened to the dial tone of his phone, which rung for a few seconds before you finally picked up.

“Hey,” Dick heard your voice, the usual chirp absent that day.

Dick frowned to himself. Bruce was right about you being troubled after all.

“Hey, sis!” he forced the concern out of his voice. “You busy?”

“Nah, I’m just going over some old case files. What’s up?”

Dick leaned back into his sofa. Aside from the traffic blaring outside, the silence in his apartment made it easier for him to concentrate on analysing your speech patterns.

“Can’t I call just to ask how you’re doing?” he teased, easing into the conversation.

Everyone had always told him how he was natural at talking.

“You already called last week…”

Dick smiled to himself. He could already picture your narrowed eyes regarding him with suspicion.

It was good that you were always on your feet, but it was becoming borderline unhealthy. It reminded him of Jason and how he was always so guarded .

He pushed the memory away.

“I can’t call you again?” he rolled his eyes at no one.

“Bruce put you up to this,” you accused.

That’s because he’s worried about you, kid.

If only you knew how much Bruce had changed for you. Dick was glad that you were being loved by Bruce, yet he still couldn't help but feel slightly bitter that he never got that kind of treatment from his father- not the same treatment he gave you.

But he would rather die than admit his selfish thoughts to anyone.

“Yeah,” he conceded, “He was worried about you after last night.”

“I’m fine, Dick,” you insisted.

How many times has he heard those very same words from Jason?

“Well, if you’re not, then you can talk to me,” he offered.

A short pause.

Your response would be what differentiated you from his late brother.

“Actually, yeah,” you admitted.

There it was. No matter how stupid he knew it was for even comparing the two of you, he found that he always had to remind himself not to.

“How did you deal with it? Did it affect you?”

Dick told you his own experience with gore and dead bodies, how he overcame it, how he coped. There was silence after, and he just somehow knew what you were going to ask next.

“How did, uh, he deal with it?”

Your voice came in a whisper, hesitation evidently clear.

Dick was expecting it, but his heart still sank. He knew how everyone acted when Jason was brought up in conversation- he was guilty of reacting as well. He also knew how you were smart enough to avoid that topic.

It had been years. They should all have moved on, because Dick knew that they were also hurting you.

“He came to me as well.” Dick recalled Jason’s hesitant voice over the phone, never directly saying what was wrong, just rambling about things other than what was really going on in his head.

“Then he gradually called less and less when he learned how to deal with it himself.”

The day Dick noticed it, he was happy for Jason, but a small part of him was saddened that his little brother no longer needed him.

“I’ll have to look for that cognitive therapy, then. Thank you for calling, Dick. Talking to you helped.”

Did it really? He noticed your voice had changed again. Maybe he shouldn’t have gone on about Jason like that.

“No problem, kid. Call me if you need to talk, okay?”

The familiar beep left him isolated with his thoughts, wondering if you would trail in Jason's footsteps.

When will the day come when you eventually stop calling altogether?

***

He felt indebted to his city- the city he loved. The city he hated. The city that robbed him of his childhood.

He felt indebted to his family- the family he would give up everything for, the family he couldn’t stop hurting.

And he was sorry. God, he was sorry.

Sorry for everything he’s said and done- or didn’t do. But he still couldn’t stop. Because he didn’t know how.

Yet, no matter how much he claimed to love his family, the problem with Bruce Wayne was that he always expected them to be the people he wanted them to be.

Never like himself, though. No, he would never want them to turn out like him.

“That’s an order. Stay-”

The silence that followed the click in his ear represented the first time you had ever disobeyed a direct order.

It was a little late on your side. Dick and Jason had begun to disobey him within their first six months in uniform. But you had always been obedient- which made it easier for Bruce to trust you in the field.

This first time came as an unexpected and unwelcome surprise. And Bruce was…

Disappointed.

He grit his teeth when he saw you on the ground with the warehouse burning behind you. If he had just been a few seconds late, would you be in the fire, too?

“I almost had him.”

Bruce didn’t miss the wince of pain as you got up to your feet.

He had heard those exact words before countless times from J- no.

Bruce shoved that thought away.

“He would have gotten away, and we wouldn’t have known who it was that did this,” you argued, brows drawn together in a frown, mouth downturned. Your respiratory rate was high, and you were having trouble breathing.

When did you grow so tall? So confident?

Bruce silently pointed to the active security camera he noticed the minute he arrived and saw your expression fall- only for a second.

“I still think I made the right decision,” you insisted.

“You disobeyed a direct order.” He hated his own voice. The way he spoke sounded too militant.

“I acted how I saw fit,” you continued, “You always say to follow my instincts-”

“Not if your instincts contradict my orders.” He regretted his words the moment they left his mouth. He thought he had changed. But no, Bruce was still a dictator.

“Wow. Just- wow.”

He could see the little twitches of annoyance within the disbelief on your face. He understood it completely.

You were walking away, clutching onto your side and weakly limping to your bike, adamant on not seeking his help.

He hated seeing you injured, in pain. It was his fault. If only he was faster, he could have stopped Red Hood from beating you up. If only he predicted it sooner, if only-

“I’ll be heading back now.”

He missed what you had said before that.

“Robin,” Bruce forced out, “Have Alfred check your injuries.”

He should have been there.

When you drove away, he lingered at the crime scene.

Bruce flipped a switch in his helmet, and his lense changed. Non-organic material lighted up bright white. He noticed a fractured piece of shrapnel lying on the ground, less than a centimeter long.

He picked it up and placed it into a test tube from his belt. Switching his view to normal, he saw that it was red, maybe made from fiberglass. He could only deduce that it was a piece of Red Hood’s helmet.

Despite Bruce’s frustrations at you for disobeying him, he felt a swell of pride. You probably landed a hit hard enough to crack the helmet just a little bit that you yourself probably didn’t even realise it.

He shone a UV light on it. A small portion of it glowed.

Bruce had always been numb when he played investigator so that he would remain impartial and objective. That was true justice.

But when he pocketed the evidence and sped to the Batmobile, he felt something he had never felt before.

Against all logic and rationality, he found himself dreading to uncover who the blood belonged to.

***

Bruce never drank his sorrows away. It was dangerous, too easy to develop an addiction to. He could have easily drowned in alcohol at any given chance, like when he thought of his parents, or when he thought-no, knew- he wasn’t enough.

But no, he only restricted his drinking for leisurely activities. He was disciplined. It was the reason why he was who he was.

However, in that moment, staring at the results of the DNA analysis after hours of anxious waiting, he wished he allowed himself a drink.

Not because he was distraught, not because he was in grief- but because he just didn’t know what to feel.

It wasn’t numbness. It was just plain confusion, an internal tornado of emotions whirling inside him all at once.

Footsteps.

He tapped on a button once, immediately closing the window of the test results displayed on the screen.

Composing himself, he clicked on another pending case to pretend he wasn’t on the verge of a breakdown. It’s just another role.

“Master Bruce.”

Why was he still up at this hour?

“Yes, Alfred,” he turned to meet the butler’s tired eyes- just as tired as his own.

Tired because of him.

Alfred was always up because of him. Because Bruce was a disease, constantly burdening others, dragging them down, keeping them up at night.

“I made some sandwiches. They’re light. Please do eat them,” he set the tray on the cluttered desk, simply pushing aside the numerous stacks of papers.

“Go to bed, Alfred,” he told him. Alfred was too old to be up at this hour. And whose fault is that?

“In due time,” he responded calmly, “What of the blood results, if I may ask?”

“Inconclusive,” Bruce lied.

“I see.”

Suspicion shrouded Alfred’s voice.

“How are her injuries?” Bruce asked, the pain finally creeping in, seeping into his bones.

“I commend you for asking about your daughter’s injuries after only four whole hours of staring at the screen, Master Bruce. You would definitely win father of the year.”

“I was occupied,” he sighed, “Please.”

“Her injuries are only superficial,” Alfred said, “Surface contusions at most.”

He still hurt her.

“Thank you, Alfred. Now go to bed.”

“It was only a little more than two decades ago when I was telling you the same,” he grumbled away.

Bruce made sure Alfred was gone before pulling up the results on the screen again, the glaring ‘MATCH’ sign staring angrily back at him as if it were shouting at Bruce, yelling in rage.

And Bruce understood completely. He had failed Jason Todd. He had betrayed him. And now he was back, vengeful, and full of resentment.

But that didn’t matter to Bruce.

Because despite it all, his son was alive.

In the end, that was all that mattered.

***

What did my son do to my daughter?

Bruce watched in horror as you lay unconscious on the hospital bed, hooked to the IV bag. He couldn’t stop staring at the bruises littering your neck.

Bruises that were far too small and evenly shaped to be the effect of a mere throttling.

He knew how the people close to him viewed him. He knew they thought he was strong, unforgiving, cold, emotionless. Especially when they put him side by side with Clark.

But he forced himself to be those things, because if he didn’t, he would have broken down years ago.

He was used to it. The pain. The darkness.

But this time, he felt like he was being crushed.

He felt like he was hanging on by a thread- no. A delicate strand of thin, brittle hair.

“It’s okay, doctor,” you had said, “I know what you’re going to ask me. No, my genitalia does not hurt. He didn’t do anything to me.”

He felt a wave of relief crash over him.

Jason wasn’t that far gone, then.

But as Bruce looked at your neck again, he still couldn’t help but feel nausea crawling into his core.

He still touched her.

Jim left after his questioning, and you drifted to sleep. He went over to you and looked down at your face, taking everything in.

Since when did you look so mature? When did you get so beautiful?

He couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. Even in sleep you had your eyebrows tugged down, as if you were angry that you had to go to bed. He didn’t know why he never saw that small part of you that shouted rebellion despite you almost always following his orders.

He realised that when he watched you sleep, you looked a bit like- no. Don’t ever compare the two.

He closed his eyes and pressed his lips to your forehead, trying to convey all of his feelings to you.

He was sorry. So god damned sorry for dragging you into this, for hurting you, for pulling you down to the depths with him.

Hoping you didn’t feel the teardrop that fell to your forehead, he quickly wiped it away before leaving for his press statement.

***

“Master Bruce, please!”

Another crash.

Alfred’s plea snapped him out of his blinding fury, his crushing pain.

He was standing at the hallway near the Manor entrance, glass and broken wood shattered at his feet, feeling the walls closing in and narrowing as Alfred looked at him in alarm.

“I-I’m sorry, Alfred. I-” he stammered, feeling like the small, helpless boy who watched his parents die before him.

He remembered the time when he was little, only a couple of months after the tragedy. He had done the exact same thing, taking out his anger and anguish by destroying things, triggered by something he had long forgotten about.

At that time, Alfred had held him closely in his arms as he stained the butler’s suit with his snot and tears. Again, a burden to the man who raised him.

This time, he refused the old man’s offer of comfort, walking past to descend to the cold darkness of the cave he was so familiar with.

Bruce didn’t usually drink his sorrows away, but this time, he did.

***

Dick wasn’t a good person. He was far from it.

Case in example, it was the first time he saw you after your kidnapping.

He meant to come sooner, he really did. But he was just so busy in Bludhaven, he couldn’t spare any time to rush over the moment he heard his sister was hurt. He tried to justify it in his head by thinking that you were probably handling it fine.

But he was just trying to make himself feel better.

What a great brother he was.

“So, why are you obsessing over violent crimes?” he asked, trying to keep his voice from breaking.

Desensitization was one thing when you worked in that field, but obsession was a whole other problem. And he didn’t want to see his sister walk down that path.

“A lunatic just kidnapped me a couple weeks ago, Dick, maybe this is my coping mechanism,” you huffed, giving him your signature eye roll.

A lot of things start with just a coping mechanism, kid.

Dick knew it about it all too well. The people he brought in on an almost daily basis, high as kites. The accident last week on the highway at three in the morning, two innocent lives taken because of a drunk man who had started drinking three years ago to cope with his mother’s loss.

The man downstairs in the cold cave, who was just a little boy when his parents died, now living with the trauma while going out night after night to beat up criminals, sleeping only three hours a day at most.

“I don’t want your pity, Dick,” you huffed, “I’m fine.”

Yeah, you were. And that was what worried Dick the most.

“I know you are,” he tried to smile, “Which is why I don’t think this is your coping mechanism.”

You talked to Dick about Red Hood, sharing your concerns about him. This is what made you, you. Opening up to him, offering your thoughts and feelings. It was something he never had with Bruce or Jason. The both of them were similar in that sense.

“He won’t tell me either,” Dick huffed, “It’s always been like that with him. No matter how hard I try to get closer to him, sometimes it feels like he’s getting further away.”

It was the same with Jason as well. Did everyone he cared about just end up running away from him?

“I can relate to that,” you sighed.

“But I have a feeling that he will tell you eventually,” Dick tried to comfort you, “It seems too important not to.”

Dick knew better. Bruce had always excluded information from him, whether it was important or not.

“And,” Dick hurriedly tried to change the subject, “I heard from Alfred that you’re not talking to Bruce. May I ask why?”

“So that’s why you’re here,” you eyed him suspiciously. . “I came to check up on you,” he stated, “I’m sorry I couldn’t come here right after, but my little sister did just get kidnapped.”

When are you going to stop putting your guard up around me, kid?

“I told you, I’m fine,” you insisted.

“Then you’re fine enough to tell me why you haven’t been talking to Bruce,” Dick pushed, “I won’t judge. I’ve had my fair share of cold shoulders and fights with him too. I know first hand how frustrating he can be. So come on, tell.”

He saw you hesitate for just a moment, before conceding.

“We fought,” you began, “It was when I got back from the hospital. He wouldn’t tell me who Red Hood was. And he- he called me ‘Jason’.”

Ah, fucking hell, Bruce.

“Jesus,” he whispered, “What did he say exactly?”

“‘Back down, Jason’,” your voice cracked.

Dick saw the way Bruce spiraled after Jason’s death, and he would never tell you this, but deep down he was against Bruce adopting you so soon after. He thought that Bruce was using you to fill up the hole he too felt with Jason’s absence.

You were so like him, yet so different. Still, Bruce must have been really distracted if he could slip as badly as he did.

Dick would ask later.

“Now that’s something I haven’t heard in years,” Dick chuckled humorlessly.

Jason arguing with Bruce about using excessive force. Jason sneaking out to go for patrols whenever he was grounded. Hell, even Jason stealing whiskey from the cabinet at the age of fifteen.

He could still remember it so clearly. Jason with his dark hair poking into his eyes that were full of fury, cheeks puffed up and red as he pouted angrily at Bruce for making him stay at the Manor on nights Bruce insisted on going alone.

Dick tried to shove the past away. He knew he was making you even sadder.

“Has Bruce made any attempts to reconcile?” Dick remembered the conversation he was having with you.

“Yeah, but I’m still mad at him,” you pouted.

“And you have every right to be,” Dick nodded, “But Bruce, well, you know Bruce. He keeps these things to himself, but obviously he’s still hurting.”

You have know idea how much he’s hurting, Little Wing.

You avoided Dick’s eyes, looking down at your fumbling thumbs as the room became silent.

“I’m seeing someone,” you changed the subject.

“You are?”

Interesting.

“Yeah,” you blushed, “It’s still very new, and we’re not official yet or anything. But we’re definitely testing the waters.”

“That’s great,” Dick grinned, “Who is he? Tell me the deets. Spill the tea.”

He sort of loved gossip. It wasn’t a secret.

“I met him in the library a while back,” you excitedly said, “We exchanged numbers. Started texting, meeting up from time to time. He’s really cute.”

Ah, young love. What Dick would give to be at that age again.

“I bet he is,” Dick teased.

“What’s with that face?” you laughed, “He is! He’s slightly older, and he’s got this sexy bad boy look, you know?”

“I thought you liked the nerdy types?” Dick responded. He saw a picture of you and your classmates on your Instagram. Typical prep school kids.

“I never had a type, you ass!” . “You’re right. I thought you were completely uninterested in boys,” he wondered out loud, “Is he nice, at least?”

“Yeah he is,” you smiled to yourself, “He didn’t know I was Wayne until 2 weeks ago. Before that, we were mainly texting. Now we’re meeting up more. I feel like I can be myself with him. I don’t know, there’s just something about him that makes me trust him.”

So you still have some of your walls up with me, but you trust a stranger? Who is this guy?

“I’m not going to tell him anything!” you quickly added, “I’m not stupid. I know I shouldn’t trust someone I just met. It’s not about the confidential stuff. It’s the little things like how I feel, and my problems, and just- stuff, you know?”

The thought didn’t even cross his mind. Dick trusted you enough with their secret, just as how Bruce did.

“I get it,” Dick tried to rationalise, “You don’t know what it is about the person, but you feel like the two of you just click, am I right?”

It had been like that with Barbara. It had been like that with Kory.

Now Dick was alone, and deep down he knew that they saw him as how he truly was. Selfish.

“Exactly,” you smiled, “Been with anyone like that before?”

“One or two,” he brushed it off, “People like that- whom you just click with- they’re hard to come by. You should see where this leads. Who knows, maybe he’s one of those that would stick around, huh?”

What he would give to have at least one person who would stick with him.

After he met with Gordon, Dick went to the cave to see Bruce who was, of course, facing the computers.

“I know what you’re going to say,” his father’s voice echoed without even turning to look at him.

“Then you know how much you’ve hurt her?” he crossed his arms.

Bruce did turn around to face him, and Dick suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

He knew that Bruce hardly ever slept, but this was different. He looked disheveled, his complexion pale, his eyes more bloodshot and the dark circles even more prominent.

Alfred did say how badly Bruce took the kidnapping, finding him passed out on the cave floor with an empty bottle of scotch in his hand, but he thought that Bruce would have gotten himself together by now. It was surprising to see him that way, and Dick felt… Uncomfortable.

Something was wrong, and it wasn’t just the kidnapping, nor his fight with you.

“You found out something,” Dick narrowed his eyes, “Something important. What is it?”

He caught a flash of guilt in Bruce’s eyes. “I’ll tell you some other time.”

“Bruce,” Dick groaned, “This is why you keep on hurting her.”

Hurting us.

“I’m protecting everyone.”

“You can’t use that excuse with me anymore,” he sighed, “I don’t need your protection. So tell me.”

“No.”

That was his final word, and he knew that Bruce would never budge.

“Fine,” he let out a breath, “Did you know that she’s seeing someone?”

Bruce frowned.

Which made Dick frown. Since when did Bruce miss things? What the fuck was going on with him?

“Name?”

“Dunno. Didn’t ask. And no, don’t you dare,” Dick pointed an accusatory finger at him, “Do not do a background check on him. She deserves privacy. Hell, don’t even bring it up. You have no right to go poking into her relationships.”

Dick was being defensive, but that was because he was trying to convince himself as well, which was why he didn’t ask you for a name. He knew he wouldn’t be able to resist.

“I wasn’t going to,” Bruce reassured, “She… She deserves a life. A normal life. Not this- not-”

Dick knew then he had to leave, because Bruce’s voice breaking meant he was far from okay, and he knew that Bruce hated to show his vulnerability to anyone.

“Bruce,” Dick said, this time softly, “You’re not alone, you know. I’ve been with you since the beginning, and I’m still with you now.”

And with that, Bruce turned his back towards him again, silently going back to his goddamned computers.

“He’s been that way ever since the kidnapping,” Alfred informed him when he walked up to the manor.

“I don’t think it’s just the kidnapping, Alf,” he frowned at the butler, “There’s something more to it. Did he figure out who Red Hood is?”

“Perhaps,” Alfred pursed his lips, “But he refuses to tell me.”

“That means we know him personally,” Dick theorised, “Who the hell could it be that he’s so adamant on keeping it a secret?”

“I do not know Master Dick, but it can’t be anyone good if he’s got Master Bruce drinking during the day.”

***

Bruce knew that he was wrong to call you by his dead son’s name.

But his dead son was supposed to stay dead instead of haunting him with that glaring red bat across his chest, and having that thought in his head all the time, he slipped up.

He prided himself with his contingency plans and detective skills and preparations, but no amount of time could ever prepare him for when he found out his dead son had sexually assaulted his daughter.

You seemed to have dealt with it surprisingly well, exceeding his expectations. In fact, Bruce thought it was a bit odd that you weren’t as affected by it.

And then he saw it.

He saw what he thought was the internalized anger you felt finally bursting through the seams of your tightly lidded emotions.

And he wasn’t prepared for it.

Bruce didn’t think you had it in you, or else he would never have made you Robin.

But there you were on the ground, beating a man beyond recognition.

He couldn’t dread this moment because he never saw it coming. Not from you. Never from you.

He hurriedly ripped you off the man, flinging you away with force.

Pulse was present, but weak. Flail chest. It took him only a few seconds to observe the damage you did to the man’s face. It didn’t look good.

“Stay back,” he growled at you when you came close.

He couldn’t look at you. He didn’t want to.

“I-I didn’t mean to,” he heard you whisper.

“Call an ambulance,” he ordered.

There was no other choice. He had to take the fall for you.

“NOW!” he snarled at you again. In the background, you were on the phone, but Bruce’s thoughts were elsewhere, calculating what needs to be done.

You moved-

“Leave. I’ll deal with this.” You needed to go. You couldn’t be here when the ambulance and police arrived.

“Batman-”

“I said leave,” he snapped. He couldn’t even hear your voice.

He waited for the ambulance to come before leaving, making sure they saw him escape. Making sure he would be the one the media would attack.

And while he drove back to the Cave, he decided to give his son a call.

“Bruce?”

“Dick,” he sighed. He knew he had always been unfair to his eldest, giving him so much pressure to perform, pushing him to be his best- and ultimately away. He knew that he never showed it, but he was proud of Dick. He always had been from the very beginning.

“What’s wrong?”

It wasn’t a surprise that Dick picked up immediately that something was wrong. If it wasn’t for the fact that calling him out of the blue was what gave it away, Bruce himself trained Dick.

“She- she crossed the line tonight,” he tried to explain, “Jerome Miller. She attacked him. The damage she’s done to him is irreversible. I suspect he will be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.”

“Jesus,” Dick breathed from over the line, “Why didn’t you stop her?”

“I wasn’t there,” he grit. He thought he could trust you.

But deep down Bruce knew that it was all his fault after all. Who was he to act so righteous when he was the reason your parents died?

“I don’t know if she’ll talk to me, Bruce,” Dick sighed, “Not about something like this. She’s probably beating herself up over this already.”

“As she should.”

“Bruce.”

“Please,” Bruce asked, “I’m worried. She isn’t herself and I can’t blame her for it, but the chances of her talking to you are much higher than if I were to try.”

“I’ll try,” Dick agreed.

“Report to me after.”

“Bruce, we’ve talked about this,” Dick grumbled, “I am under no obligation to report to you. I’m doing this for her. Not you.”

He was trying not to go back to the man he was before, but sometimes he couldn’t help it.

They’re your children, not your soldiers.

He had to remind himself time and time again. It was easier to be just a father to you as compared to Dick and Jason, yet even then he made slips.

“I know,” he apologised. “Thank you.”

Click.

And then Bruce was alone again.

***

Bruce watched you from the corner of his eye when you came back. He noticed that you had put more effort into dressing up when you left the house that day.

There was a slight bounce to your step and a small smile that played on your lips.

Dick was right after all. There was someone you were seeing.

But no, he couldn’t look into it. In fact, it would be hypocritical of him if he did. Dick had many girlfriends and flings, and Bruce didn’t want to know about any of them. Mainly because Dick was his first, and the thought of a boy he raised maturing and having relationships made him feel confused about parenthood.

Not that many of them lasted too long anyway.

Jason was a little different. While Dick had girls lining up after him all the time, Jason was much more subtle about the girls he liked, and that made Bruce more curious- but not enough to investigate.

He thought about when Barbara had caught Jason looking at her, making him turn red. He wondered if Jason would like you.

A tight squeeze in his chest.

He didn’t let his mind linger there.

Bruce felt obligated to protect you, which tempted him to investigate the boy you were seeing. It could be a trap, it could be someone using you for fame and money, or something even more sinister. Hell, it could be Jason himself after that stunt he pulled off.

But there was no evidence, and Bruce wanted to be a father to you this time instead of Batman the mentor. So Bruce would have to trust you on this one.

***

There was something holding Bruce back from telling everyone the truth about Jason.

And because he is who he is, Bruce knew what it was.

Guilt. He blamed himself for what had happened, and telling others about it meant owning up to his mistakes. Bruce never ran away from his fears and feelings despite what others might think. On the contrary, he held to them very strongly, using them as a motivation to fight head on.

This time, though, he felt more self destructive- the worst he had ever felt since he carried Jason’s corpse from the rubble- and so he tried to delay the inevitable.

But time was running out. He had enough time to wallow in self pity. It was time to pull himself together, and the first step began with Alfred.

The Cave was colder than usual that night, air thin and darker despite the illumination he had provided. Bruce was slumped in his usual wheeled chair, cowl resting on the desk after patrol, the weight of his suit almost crushing him in his weakened mental state.

“Alfred,” Bruce sighed, “Please, take a seat. I have something to tell you.”

“I assume this is about the identity of one criminal who has been terrorizing your daughter?” Alfred retorted, sitting down anyway.

“Yes,” Bruce nodded, “This… This won’t be easy, Alfred. I suggest you prepare for the worst.”

“And the worst being..?”

Bruce wheeled himself closer to the butler, leaning forward. “It’s Jason.”

Alfred merely blinked. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m afraid my ears have caught up to my age. I must have misheard you, because for a moment, I thought you said that Red Hood is Jason.”

“You didn’t mishear me, Alfred. It’s him.”

Bruce saw the confusion in Alfred’s eyes, the frantic search for reason. “Our Jason? Jason Todd?”

“Yes, Alfred.”

And then, Bruce felt it. The pain he had been suffering with for weeks spreading to the man who raised him. Alfred clutched his chest with one hand, the other clenching tightly over the armrest of his chair, his breathing quickened.

“Impossible,” he whispered, “Jason died. How?”

“There was an event regarding The League and Superboy punching reality. I won’t get into details, but I suspect that was what caused the initial resurrection. The restoration, however. We know of someone who has been continuously restored time and time again.”

“Ra’s Al Ghul,” Alfred concluded, “But why? Why on Earth would he restore Jason?”

“I don’t know,” Bruce frowned, “But it is an almost perfect revenge plan. I would like to entertain the idea that he has brainwashed Jason into thinking we are the enemy, but I can’t put it past him to develop a hatred for me. I… betrayed him.”

“Master Bruce, this is not your fault,” Alfred rose to his feet, “If it is indeed Jason, we can still help. I have faith in the boy.”

“Me too, Alfred. Me too.”

Bruce didn’t miss the sob that echoed faintly through the cave when Alfred ascended back up.

***

As if in slow motion, he saw every change of emotion on Dick’s face. The way he blinked once in confusion, the surprise approaching as he widened his eyes, and then his eyebrows stitching together in a deep frown, his lips downturning and nose flaring in anger.

Bruce saw the punch coming, but he did not do anything to counter it. Gladly, he took the right hook Dick gave him, appreciating the sting that radiated from his cheekbone to his jaw.

“How long have you known?” his son shook in anger.

“Dick-”

“HOW LONG, BRUCE?!” Dick roared, fists clenched, voice echoing in the cave.

“Since the night he blew up the warehouse,” Bruce replied.

“Jesus, fuck,” Dick ran his fingers through his hair, “Jesus, Bruce. That was over a month ago.”

“I know.”

“We-” he choked on his words, “We deserved to know.”

“I know.”

“So why the fuck didn’t you say anything?!” he slammed his fists on the desk. Bruce caught a few drops of tears that fell to the ground.

“I’m sorry,” Bruce apologised, and meant it. But he just couldn’t bring himself to say anything more.

“You’re sorry?” Dick looked at him with eyes far too cold than he knew, “He was my brother, Bruce. He told me things he never told anyone else. We shared secrets and jokes. We went to the same diner once a week to catch up. He asked for my help and I asked for his. And then he died. Just like that, because you couldn’t keep him on a leash. And now he’s back, and you knew it was him, and you’re just sorry?”

Dick’s eyes were wet and red, and filled with contempt. Bruce couldn’t blame him. He hated himself, too.

“Does she know?” he whispered, “Does she know that the man who attacked her is your son, and is my brother?”

Like always, he pushed the pain away efficiently, logically, objectively.

“Yes,” he confirmed, “I told her this afternoon.”

“And she’s not angry?”

“If she was, she did not show it,” Bruce described, “In fact, she looked… Worried.”

“Of fucking course she would be worried,” he snarled, “She’s worried that she’s going to be irrelevant to you now the dead Robin is back.”

“She’s not,” Bruce growled at that, “She’s not his replacement. She never was.”

“Does she know that, Bruce?” Dick snickered, “Did you finally get over yourself and tell her that? Because the last fucking time I spoke to her, you called her Jason.”

Bruce didn’t know how to respond to that. He was good at smiling at the cameras and making speeches and charming an audience, but he was never good with words, real words that described his true feelings to the ones he cared for the most.

“I’m sorry,” he simply said, now numb to everything throughout years and years of practice. “I promise, I will bring him back. Will you help me?”

“What can I do that you can’t?” Dick scoffed.

“You knew him, Dick,” Bruce said, “You knew him in ways I never did. I can predict his movements, but to accurately guess what his motivations are- you knew him better than I did.”

“Fine,” Dick conceded, “But I’m not forgiving you for this, Bruce. I swear, you’re going to pay for all the secrets you’ve kept from us, be it by my hand or someone else’s.”

***

“Did you know that your daughter went out last night to see a boy while we were patrolling?” Dick brought up.

He was looking at Bruce’s back, as he always was.

Bruce was on the computers, going through hours upon hours of security footage and traffic cams for Red Hood- for Jason.

It was difficult for him to put the two together. Jason had always been his little brother. Young, naive, inexperienced. And now that same person was the leader of the underground.

It was definitely difficult.

“Alfred mentioned she went out, but I didn’t know it was to meet a boy,” Bruce replied without glancing his way.

“Well, she lied to me about it at first,” Dick sank in a chair, looking at his nails. “Got pretty defensive when I brought it up. Even tried to deflect by using Jason against me.”

Dick knew you meant to hurt him with your words, and it worked.

He was definitely surprised that you would stoop that low because he always saw you as a sweet, kind girl.

People change. That’s what happens when you stick with Batman.

But Dick didn’t expect you to change so fast.

“She… used Jason against you?”

Bruce finally turned towards him, the ever constant frown a little bit deeper that moment.

“Yeah,” Dick straightened, “It was the first time she’s ever spoken to me that way.”

“What did she say exactly?”

“That I was distracting myself by using humor as a coping mechanism, and that I should come to terms with the fact that it was my brother who kidnapped and sexually assaulted her,” he repeated bitterly.

“What did you say to her that she responded that way?” Bruce asked.

“I was just making fun of her boyfriend,” Dick shrugged, “Why? Do you think she’s hiding something?”

At first, Dick thought that you were genuinely angry at the both of them because you were right- Jason did kidnap you. Jason did do those things to you. And Jason was supposed to be under both Bruce and Dick’s responsibility.

Dick didn’t blame you for it, because he would have probably been angry if the situation was reversed.

It was one of the mistakes he always made as Robin when Bruce was teaching him how to accurately deduce by reading people. Never assume that someone’s motivations would be the same as your own.

“She hid that she has… someone from me. There must be a reason why.”

“Or she knows how you are and would rather not have your nose in her business, Bruce. She did find out about that tracker you put in her necklace. How did she even react to it?”

Bruce had done the same with both Dick and Jason while they were Robin, though it didn’t come disguised as a pretty, shiny piece of metal.

On the contrary, during Dick’s Robin days, Bruce had hid it behind his third molar while he was unconscious. He only found out after a year, when he was held hostage by a mercenary who wanted to use him to lure Batman. Said mercenary had detected the tracking device and pulled it out along with the tooth.

It made him increasingly more hostile towards Batman and his never ending need for control, but at least it saved him a trip to the dentist.

From what Dick knew, Jason died with his tracker on him.

Bruce had said that it was all done in the name of safety.

But would you tell Jason the same thing now?

“I apologised and never replaced the one Red Hood damaged. I thought that would have been sufficient for her to trust me again.”

Dick let out a bark of laughter at that, but it was void of any humor. “Only you would think that not replacing her damn tracker would make her trust you. No wonder she hasn’t told you anything.”

It was probably best not to mention that you were now also sexually active.

“Do you think she’s hiding something important?” Bruce asked.

“Are you actually asking for my opinion?” Dick smirked, “No, but it’s too soon to tell, anyway. Relax, Bruce. It’s like you forgot what it was like to be young and in love.”

That was obviously a joke. Bruce grew out of his childhood the moment he saw his parents getting killed in that alley.

As for being in love, did Bruce ever allow himself that?

***

“What did you say she called herself?” Nightwing asked softly.

The poor girl was scared out of her mind to the point where Dick found it difficult to extract important information from her ramblings.

Well, that’s what happens when someone makes you kill a person.

It was difficult, so difficult, to face the fact that it was Jason behind all of that.

“I t-think, V,” the witness- Elena- stuttered. “She with him. But try to stop him.”

Behind him, he felt Batman pause. He was walking around the club and analysing evidence while listening to the conversation.

“She tried to stop him? Him as in Red Hood?” Dick frowned.

“Yes,” Elena looked down and rubbed her arms.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but,” Dick tried, “You told me they were partners.”

“Yes, but she try to stop him,” she repeated, “I don’t know.”

“It’s okay,” Dick offered a smile, “Thank you very much. You’ve been a huge help.”

“Am I going to prison?” she looked at him with big, wet eyes.

“We’ll make sure you won’t,” Dick assured, “You’ll get the best defense team in Gotham.”

“You can do that?” she asked, hope in her voice.

“It’s the least we could do,” Dick answered, a sad smile playing on his lips.

He’s our responsibility.

“Thank you,” she gave a watery laugh, “Even prison better than with him, I want to be free.”

Dick heard footsteps approaching. As he turned around, Gordon entered the crime scene, followed by his team.

“Of course you’re here first,” he sighed at Batman.

“Gordon.”

“You might have to speak to the police again, okay?” Dick told Elena who was suddenly nervous again by the presence of so many people. “I’ll make sure they know you’re innocent. Gordon is the only one you can trust, okay?”

She nodded, her gaze turning downwards.

“Gordon,” he approached the aging man. He was used to talking with Gordon in Batman’s stead, even when he was Robin, and remembered feeling proud of himself whenever he finished speaking to Gordon regarding cases without Batman having to add anything.

“Nightwing,” he blinked, “It’s been a while.”

“Desperate times calls for desperate backups,” he grinned, “Anyway, the girl. She’s a victim of Victor Ibenescu’s human trafficking trade. Romanian, only thirteen when she was kidnapped. She was forced to shoot Victor by Red Hood.”

“This Red Hood likes his poetic justice,” Gordon snickered.

“It’s still first degree murder, or at least, that’s how the law would make it seem,” Dick reminded him, “But I assure you she’s innocent. Red Hood threatened to kill and rape her if she didn’t shoot.”

That was a lie, on both his part and Elena’s. Judging by the way she averted her eyes and touched her own arm, Dick could tell that she wasn’t telling the whole truth about being threatened by Red Hood- but he also knew that he couldn’t expose her and get into more trouble.

He wanted to let out a tired sigh, but that would give him away in front of Gordon and the other officers. He still needed to maintain his air of hopefulness, and he couldn’t seem like he was troubled by his thoughts.

Time to meet Bruce back at the cave and watch the surveillance footage.

***

“He’s got a partner now,” Dick voiced out his findings, “Since when did Red Hood partner up?”

Bruce’s frown was deep as he stared at the screen.

Dick pursed his lips. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Whether this is Red Hood or Jason?” Bruce hummed, “This definitely does not seem like anything Red Hood would do. He’s always tried to separate himself from others because it furthers his authoritarian agenda. He does not get friendly with people because people are disposable to him.”

“So you think this is Jason, then?” Dick concluded, “Well, Jason never had much of a problem working with others in the past, and he made some friends. He wasn’t the type to be hostile to people.”

“He did have trust issues,” Bruce pointed out, “At the very beginning.”

“Yes, and he kept a lot of things to himself,” Dick agreed, “But he did have friends.”

“Special friends,” Bruce added, “Friends who gained his respect and trust. So the question is- who is this girl and how did she manage to gain his trust?”

“Hey, play it back again,” Dick said, “Those moves.”

Bruce played the security tape, showing the mysterious girl and Red Hood taking down Victor’s men.

“Arnis,” Bruce pointed out.

“It’s a little different.”

“She has incorporated silat in as well. Low stance,” Bruce observed. “She’s skilled, but not polished. It could be anyone.”

There was something familiar about the girl that Dick couldn’t pinpoint. Dick usually had strong intuition- a gut feeling that enabled him to know which facts to focus on during an investigation, or a strong ability to see through people.

But the problem was that it wasn’t solid proof or evidence, something Batman heavily focused on. It was a gut feeling that told him he knew who the girl was.

“Do you think it’s-” he broke off without completing his sentence. There was nothing to back his claims.

“She has no reason or motive to work with Jason,” Bruce shot the idea down, “He’s hurt her. And… She wouldn’t betray me like that.”

“She’s been keeping secrets, Bruce,” Dick reminded, hating the fact that this time it was him who was suspicious.

Oh, how the tables have turned.

Because he never would have thought that Jason was capable of torture and murder, either.

Why didn’t he come to me?

“As you clearly pointed out prior to this,” Bruce grit, “She has her reasons as to why she’s keeping secrets. And it is most probably because of me. All of you kept secrets. But this time, I’d like to let her keep hers.”

It was sweet, seeing Bruce that way.

“Is it guilt?” Dick asked.

“It’s repentance.”

Dick hated playing the bad guy.

Because he wasn’t supposed to be. He was the one people looked up to for inspiration, he was the light to Batman’s darkness, he was the smiles and charms and laughter.

He wasn’t the one who would accuse his little sister of fraternizing with the- was Jason the enemy?

Shit. Jason had messed with his senses. Dick’s head was chaotic, his emotions causing him to tense up.

Was he wrong? Was he just like Bruce? Was he jumping to conclusions just because Alfred told him you were out? Should he investigate this Carter you said you were with?

No. I’m not Bruce.

And now, you were looking at him with angry eyes, betrayed and appalled by his accusation.

*** Large.

That was the first thing that came to Dick’s mind when he saw his little brother.

The last time Dick saw him, he was much shorter, and definitely not as bulky.

And the last time Dick saw Jason, he was giving him a hug goodbye, complaining that Dick had messed up his hair.

And now, Jason was aiming a gun at him.

The gunshot didn’t hurt nearly as much as the thought that Jason had indeed shot him. Did Jason hate him that much?

You’re almost as guilty as he is, Jason’s voice echoed in his head.

“Bruce,” he gasped in the comms, “I’m down. They got away.”

“I heard a gunshot,” the deep voice in his ear spoke.

“Yeah, Jason shot my leg,” Dick winced, “Didn’t hit bone but I think it nicked my artery.”

“There are children here,” Batman said, “I was right. He’s sabotaging the Powers’. Gordon should be here soon. You control your bleeding.”

Dick nodded to himself and took a deep breath before plunging his finger into the gunshot wound to keep himself from bleeding out.

***

“...suspects that the crime lord only known as Red Hood and an unidentified female were behind the home invasion. Maria and Joseph Powers were left in a gruesome state according to reports, but their only child Carrie Powers was unharmed. The authorities are not sure what Red Hood’s motive was, but more will be elaborated during Commissioner Gordon’s public address later this afternoon...”

Dick heard you close the door.

“You didn’t come home last night,” he lowered the volume of the television.

“Uh, yeah,” you answered.

Dick looked over at you. You seemed tired, eyes swollen and red from crying, wearing an oversized t-shirt that he didn’t recognize.

“I was at-”

“Carter’s?” he finished your sentence for you.

“Yeah,” you nodded, sitting down next to him on the sofa.

Dick frowned to himself. Your arms were crossed, you were avoiding eye contact, your body was angled away from him.

“You heard about the Powers’?” he turned his gaze towards the television.

“I saw the news on the way here,” you monotoned.

You smelled like a different shampoo. It was familiar, but Dick couldn’t remember where he had smelled it before.

“So you know that-”

“Yes, Jason did it,” you said rigidly.

“Along with-”

“His partner.”

Ah, now he remembered the smell. Jason’s favorite shampoo. He used to make fun of him for choosing one that was called what it was called. He didn’t really care about it, Dick kept his hair soft and fluffy with multiple women’s hair products. He just liked to rile Jason up because he was so defensive about it.

And with that, Dick let out a long, disappointed sigh.

“Bruce is in the cave. I suggest that you think long and hard about what to tell him,” Dick offered you a soft smile, “But no matter what you choose to say, you’ll always be my sister, and I’ll always love you no matter what, okay?”

You gave him a look of shock, and then realised that he had figured it out.

“I’m sorry, Dick,” you lips trembled, your eyes started brimming with tears.

“No, kid. I’m sorry,” he replied, “Go.”

You nodded and left.

Despite being right all along, he didn’t feel any sense of achievement. Dick couldn’t help but partly blame himself. For being so absent, for being neglectful, for being a bad brother.

Dick wasn’t perfect, but like hell would he stop trying to be.

***

For years Bruce had tried to stop feeling guilty for being relieved whenever someone else takes care of a problem he couldn’t solve- especially when it involved murder.

Bruce had tried to take down the Powers for almost a decade, and everytime he got close, there was always another obstacle in the way. It was difficult to expose the rich and powerful without resorting to violence, without resorting to breaking his principles.

So Bruce was ready to stop himself from internally celebrating their deaths. This time, however, he wasn’t as pleased. Because this time, it was Jason who brutally murdered two people. Jason, who was supposed to be under his care and responsibility.

“Bruce?” he heard your timid, small voice from behind him. “I have to tell you something.”

And there it was.

Bruce turned around and looked straight at you, piercing your eyes with his own as he waited on your confession.

A minute passed.

“I’m V,” you struggled to speak, “I’ve been meeting up with Jason for a few months now. I didn’t know he was Red Hood until you told me. But when you did tell me, I chose to confront him and team up with him anyway.”

Bruce didn’t say anything.

“He- he’s not a bad person, Bruce,” you justified, “He’s just really hurt. He needs help.”

You were telling Bruce things he already knew.

“I- I fell in love with him,” you continued, “And I let my feelings cloud my judgement and betrayed your trust. At first I thought that he was onto something, that his… methods were better than yours. And I was angry that you kept secrets from me. But after last night- after what I saw- I couldn’t- I couldn’t stay.”

Bruce clenched his jaw.

He suspected it. Dick suspected it. But for your sake, the both of them chose to put their trust in you. He had tried so hard to change from his old ways. He learned his lesson with both Dick and Jason.

He didn’t want you to go through the same thing they did.

So, he chose to blindly trust you anyway, hoping that he wasn’t right.

“I’m sorry, Bruce,” you were sobbing now, “I’m so sorry. Please, say something.”

After another minute of watching you break down in front of him, Bruce finally spoke up.

“Hang up your colors. You’re no longer my Robin.”

#Red Who #Red Hood x Reader #jason todd x reader

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mochegato · 3 years

Text

Capturing a Dream

Chapter 4 – Recovery

Chapter 1 Chapter 3

Conner’s fists were clenched so tightly they were past white, verging on translucent. Everything about this day was terrible and it seemed to get worse with every passing hour. They had been invaded. Their home had sustained significant damage and was no longer safe. Red Tornado had betrayed them and the Justice League was cutting them out of the capture efforts. Chimera had been hurt, she had almost died and he hadn’t been able to do anything about it.

It had been hours since they had received an update on Chimera and she was alone in the Watchtower. She was protected by the Justice League, but as they had just violently discovered, that didn’t mean she was safe. Although one saving grace was that by being here, she had been saved experiencing the attack by Red Tornado. From the description Aqualad had given on her status, he wasn’t sure she would have been able to survive it.

The Team needed to pull together right now. They were the only ones they could trust and Chimera had been isolated from them. The rest of the Team had been busy freeing themselves, checking each other for injury, working with the Justice League to assess the damage to the Cave, figuring out how the Reds got into the Cave in the first place, figuring out where their security had let them down, and recovering from Red Tornado’s attack. All of that meant that none of the Team had been able to be with her until now. Kid Flash, Robin, and he had finally been able to come and check on Chimera and bring her back to the Cave with the rest of them, while Artemis and Aqualad stayed in the Cave and tried to figure out what needed to be done next.

Batman met the Team at the doors to the infirmary. “I should warn you, I’ve given her quite a bit of pain medicine and I just woke her up for you so she could transform, so she’s a little out of it right now and honest… extremely honest. Beware.” Batman warned them wryly.

“Was she honest with you?” Robin asked with a smile. He would pay to have heard what an unfiltered Chimera would say.

“Yes.” Batman answered, not looking at him.

“Care to share?” Kid Flash asked with a grin.

“No.” Batman responded turning to peek through the door to assure she was fully transformed before letting them in.

They made it through the door just in time to see Chimera fall as she tried to stand. Kid Flash was there to catch her before she hit the ground. She looked at him slightly dazed, her movements sluggish. “I know you, right?” She concentrated harder on his face. “Right? We know each other.”

The Team gasped in fear and looked over to Batman for an explanation. Batman took a deep breath. “She needs rest. She doesn’t have a concussion, but her body has been through a lot. Combined with the pain killers, like I said before, she’s a little out of it. She should be fine after a rest.”

“No, it’s okay… it’s not… I just… I’m okay. I just need to sleep… or to wake up… I’m not sure which. This is… I’ve done this before… I think.” She slurred her words slightly as she tried to assure them. She looked at Kid Flash with a guilty expression. “I sometimes go too long without sleeping.”

Superboy moved over to her and picked her up, cradling her in his arms, holding her close enough to speak quietly to comfort her. “Hey Chi, it’s okay. We’ve got you. You know us. You’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you. You can sleep.”

She leaned her head back to study his face. She smiled sleepily at him and ran her finger along his jaw. “I definitely know you.” Conner blushed deeply, but then balked at her next comment. “You’re the flirty one.”

Robin came over to double check for signs of the concussion that Batman must have missed. “Maybe she doesn’t recognize him after all.”

Chimera tried to turn over to him but stopped when she saw Kid Flash again. “No, wait… You’re the flirty one.” She tried to point in his direction.

“She may not recognize Superboy, but she definitely remembers Kid Flash.” Robin smirked.

Chimera looked back and forth between the two boys a little too quickly and groaned in pain. “You both are the flirty one.” She pushed her head against Conner’s chest trying to alleviate the pain in her head and stop the spinning.

Batman nodded to someone behind them and stepped forward. “Since you guys are here I’ll let you know now. Green Arrow and Black Canary have already discussed this with Aqualad and Artemis while you have been here. With Red Tornado… missing, the Team will now be overseen by rotating supervisors. Captain Marvel has volunteered to take the first shift.”

Superboy turned around to see a man larger than Batman walking toward them next to Superman. “I’m really looking forward to hanging with you guys.” Captain Marvel said with a smile.

Superboy scowled at them and adjusted Chimera slightly. She turned to face the newcomers. She quirked her head at Captain Marvel and concentrated on him for a few moments. “Who’s the kid?” Captain Marvel’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh no. Do I know you too? I’m sorry. It’s been a… day. Night? Day… I think.” She scrunched her face trying to figure out what general part of the day they were in.

“I’m not a kid!” Captain Marvel exclaimed a little too loudly.

Chimera snorted at him. “Whatever you say, kid.” She settled her head back on Superboy’s shoulder and closed her eyes. “It’s really bright in here.”

“We’re going home now, I promise.” Superboy said quietly. She hummed in response and curled into him a bit more.

“It’s going to be a short visit. I have a new mission for you.” Batman unceremoniously informed them.

“Chimera can’t go on a mission right now.” Superboy said lowly. “And I’m not leaving her alone in the Cave.”

“Someone will be there to watch over her.” Batman assured him.

Kid Flash scoffed and shared a dubious look with Robin and Superboy. “Another Justice League member? No, thanks.” Superboy argued.

“It’s normal to be paranoid after an experience like this. There’s a lot of new things you don’t know how to process yet. Perhaps if you let her stay here in the Watchtower, you can feel more secure.” Superman offered awkwardly.

“It isn’t the Cave I don’t trust.” Conner narrowed his eyes at Superman.

“I understand wanting to keep her close. Your team means a lot to you and you guys weren’t able to keep her safe. It’s natural to overcorrect to overprotective and suspicious. But I can assure you she would be safe here.” Superman tried instead.

“Excuse me?” Kid Flash demanded angrily. Robin and Superboy scowled in anger next to him.

“You all assured us we would be safe in the Cave as well, and that Red Tornado was trustworthy. Your assurance doesn’t mean anything to us.” Superboy hissed at him.

“Black Canary will stay with her at the Cave while you guys are on the mission.” Batman assured him. “She trusted Black Canary with her identity. You should trust her too.”

“Did she trust her or did you tell Black Canary and Chimera had to accept it?” Robin asked skeptically.

“Regardless, she accepts it and trusts her. Her identity is more important to her than almost anything else. If she trusts Black Canary that much, you should too.” Batman answered coldly.

Superboy stared at him unsettled. His whole body tensing. They were trying to distract them from what was going on, from what they let happen. It had ripped the Team’s lives apart and the Justice League wasn’t going to let them react, was blaming them for allowing it to happen.

Chimera furrowed her brow sensing a shift in his body and temperament. She looked up at Superboy and followed his eye line. She blinked a few times at Superman before speaking. “Oh hey, it’s the Boy Scout.” She turned back to look at Superboy. “Look Conner, it’s the cold bastard.” She leaned her head back on Superboy’s shoulder before realizing what she said. She popped her head back up once she realized. “Oh my God! I remembered your name!” She smiled at him, proud of her accomplishment. “I usually can’t remember names until after I sleep.”

Kid Flash and Robin started laughing hysterically. She frowned at Kid Flash and tried vaguely to figure out where the rest of the laughter was coming from or was it just her ears playing tricks on her and figure out why he, or they, were laughing. They only stopped laughing when Batman walked next to Superman and glared at them. But the glare only reduced the laughter instead of eliminating it.

After a few moments Chimera’s eyes widened in mortification as she realized what she had said just after Conner’s name. “Boy Scout!” she exclaimed loudly looking at Superman apologetically, or trying to, and trying to sit up straighter in Superboy’s arms. “I meant to say the Boy Scout.” She cringed and tried to hide her face in Superboy’s neck, but still mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear, “I mean, not that I was wrong. I just didn’t mean to say it out loud.”

She looked up again when she heard raucous laughter coming from all around her. She looked slowly from Superboy to Kid Flash to Batman to Superman to Robin. “Why are all the people I work with either incorrigible flirts or cold bastards?” she asked nobody in particular. “At some point that says something about me, doesn’t it? Is there something wrong with me?” She looked up to Superboy as she said the last part.

Superboy smirked at Superman and held Chimera tighter against his chest as he turned and made his way with the Team to the zeta tubes. She burrowed deeper into his arms and started to fall asleep to the rhythm of his walk. Just before she fell asleep he leaned down to whisper into her ear. “There is nothing wrong with you. Other than working yourself so hard that you forgot our names, you are absolutely perfect. You’re doing everything right. I’m proud of you.” She smiled peacefully as she fell asleep.

<><><><><>

“So this is where you are.” Chimera called out to Conner after she finally found him sitting on the rocks outside the Cave. He was staring out at the last bits of light reflecting off the ocean with an angry concentration. “I don’t think I would have found you without this little chiot’s help.” She smiled at the wolf and ran her hands through his fur. “I guess ‘little’ isn’t really accurate, is it? He’s bigger than me. How was the mission?” He grunted but kept looking out at the water. She gave him a concerned look and moved closer to him. “Conner?” She asked carefully.

“You shouldn’t have gone in to wherever it is you go. You’re still recovering. It was stupid, Chimera.” He growled at her, refusing to look at her. “Stupid and dangerous.”

She looked at him in surprise at his tone. “Ah.” She started delicately, looking around awkwardly trying to figure out if she should approach him or let him continue to brood alone. Brooding is best done alone, after all.

She hadn’t gotten a report on the mission they had just returned from yet, so she wasn’t sure how bad it had been. She had rushed to find him as soon as she got back to the Cave after the showing and clean up. She had stayed for enough of the celebrations to satisfy her supervisors then rushed home. But it appeared that whatever did happen on the mission, it had taken a severe toll on Conner. He was in a significantly angrier mood than usual. She wasn’t sure if he wanted to sit alone, sit quietly with someone, or talk through the anger.

“What do you think, mon petit chiot?” she whispered barely loudly enough to be heard over the tide washing in. “Stay or leave? What should I do?” Wolf whined and bumped gently into her. She smiled gently at him and patted him reassuringly. She turned back to Conner and approached him slowly like he might explode at any moment. She decided to see if he wanted to talk. If he didn’t, she could always back off. She started by trying to lighten the suffocating, dark mood. “Is it okay if I sit and glare at the sunset too?”

He sent her a devastating glare that caught her completely off guard. She stumbled back a half step in surprise, backing into Wolf. Conner stood up and stalked toward her as he roared in anger at her. “Why did you bother coming back to the Cave to recover with people you trust, people who can keep you safe while you recover, if you were just going to leave immediately? What is the point of helping you recover if you’re just going to go out immediately and make yourself worse? Run yourself into the ground… again? And what happens if we get attacked again? What happens if Red Tornado comes back and tries to finish the job his siblings started and you’re too tired to fight? Then you die, or we die trying to save you.”

She reeled back like he struck her, staring in shock at the seething mass of teenage boy in front of her. Wolf moved closer to her and angled himself so he was slightly in front of her, keeping his eyes on Conner.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Conner wanted to take them back. The look of betrayal and hurt in her eyes was heartbreaking. She hadn’t even looked that betrayed when she found out Red Tornado actually did betray them. But now, at his words, she looked absolutely devastated.

Wolf nudged her lightly and whined quietly. The nudge was enough to wake Chimera out of her stupor. “Don’t. Do. That.” She scolded Conner suddenly, slapping his arms and chest punctuating each word. “You. Are. Large. And. Intimidating. And. You. Scared. Me. You. Big. Broody. Jerk.” She huffed at him with one final slap.

He made a show of protecting himself from the hits that were barely hard enough to even gain his attention regularly. He stared at her in shock, eyeing her cautiously, waiting for her to start up again. When he decided she was done, he frowned guiltily and looked over to Wolf, scratching behind his ears to reassure him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” he said quietly, darting his eyes over to her. The dejected frown she had didn’t suit her at all. He needed to figure out a way to put a smile back on her face. He watched her quietly for a few moments while they both pet Wolf. A smirk suddenly appeared on his face. “I just forget how small you are sometimes.”

She glared at him, “That is not how you apologize!”

He chuckled at the pout she sent him. “Sorry.” He repeated more seriously this time.

She pet Wolf as well for a few moments. “What is his name? We haven’t been properly introduced yet.” Her tone was still guarded, but soft.

“Wolf. It’s okay that I brought him home, isn’t it?” he suddenly realized he hadn’t asked her before bringing a new and massive creature into the home they shared. “I should have asked before… but I thought you were sleeping.” There was a sharper edge to his last comment.

She looked at him with a touch of guilt. “Yeah, it’s okay. I’ve always wanted a pet but I was never allowed to have one before.” She answered quietly. She looked down and pet Wolf quietly for a few moments, giving her anxiety something to focus on. After a few moments she spoke up again, “I had to go today. This is…”

“Yeah, yeah, an important time of year. You said that already.” He grumbled, glaring at Wolf’s fur as he pet it. He didn’t want to look in her eyes and see the betrayed look again, but he also couldn’t stop from reprimanding her. “You’re hurt. You could have died in that attack. You can skip a few days while you heal from almost dying, Chi.” He finally looked up to shoot a glare at Chimera who seemed to wilt under his glare. “You didn’t even come home at all last night. We got here this morning to check on you, to make sure you were okay, and you were gone.” Wolf whimpered quietly at him and nudged against him. Conner looked over to Wolf for a moment and frowned in annoyance at his interruption. He looked over to Chimera and sighed at the conflicted, guilt-stricken look on her face.

“… the reason I can be here. I couldn’t skip today. Today was the culmination of months of work, not just mine. I skip, I not only lose out on seeing everything come together, I let down that team, and I get fired. I get fired, I go home. I go home, I’m not only no longer part of the Team, I’ve lost my career. The only reason I haven’t been fired already for missing two days ago is because Batman somehow talked Bruce Wayne into calling my boss and vouching for me personally and promising to appear at… and promising to give them some Wayne Enterprises support. Apparently, it took promising to get Oliver Queen to agree to… to promise Queen Industries support as well in order to get them not to fire me.” She said defiantly but tears she refused to shed were still lining her eyes. She subconsciously leaned into Wolf for support.

Conner huffed and looked down at his feet. “It’s not worth your life.” He grumbled. He wasn’t trying to make her feel worse but she needed to stop, to pull back, to heal. She had pushed herself too hard because of them, for them. And she was still pushing herself. She was going to push herself into a grave because of him. He couldn’t save her during the attack and clearly, he couldn’t save her from this either.

She followed his lead and looked down for a few moments as well trying to fight the tears that were threatening to fall. She absentmindedly pet Wolf as she processed what was happening. He wasn’t mad at her, not really. She knew that. He wasn’t mad, he was scared. But it still hurt and that was worse. Things were spiraling out of his control and he needed something he could rely on. She was only making things worse by having to leave. She was hurting the Team by not being able to devote her full attention. She was hurting him by splitting her focus. She had stayed in the Cave so she could help him, give him someone who was there for him, but she wasn’t and she was hurting him instead.

“I’m sorry I scared you. I wasn’t risking my life. It’s chaotic, yes, but it’s a chaos I understand. It’s a chaos that soothes me. I know my place in that chaos. But it’s over now. I have the rest of the week off and I can stay in bed and relax. Not even school.” She gave him a strained smile. “I’m sorry it was making things worse for you. I’m sorry I’m making things worse for you.” Damn it, she berated herself. That wasn’t what she wanted to say. This wasn’t about her. It was about him.

Conner’s heart dropped. Damn it, he berated himself. He made her think she was hurting him. That wasn’t what he wanted to do. He was making it about himself, but it wasn’t about him. It was about her. He reached out to comfort her but hesitated. He didn’t know how welcome it would be. After yelling at her just a minute ago, she might not feel comfortable with him hugging her. He winced internally thinking about how he treated her as soon as he saw her tonight. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I didn’t have the right to… I didn’t mean to make you feel like I was angry with you. Like you were doing something wrong. You’re not. I mean, I do think you push yourself too hard, but you’re not making things worse. You make them better. You’re amazing.” He blushed when he realized what he said and grasped for something to change the topic. “I mean the way you talked to Superman was amazing.”

Chimera barked out a laugh and hid her face in her hands in embarrassment. “I can’t believe I called Superman and Batman cold bastards. Well, Superman more than Batman. I’m sure Batman has heard it lots of times before… and I’m pretty sure I said more devastating things before I fell asleep in the infirmary. But, it was probably new information for Superman.”

Conner hummed in agreement. He sat down and leaned back against the cliff, looking out to the ocean, not wanting to discuss Superman anymore, despite him being the one to bring it up in the first place. Chimera sat on the ground next to him, stretching out her legs and watching the tide wet the sand in front of her. She burst out laughing when Wolf laid on her legs. “Conner! Help me!” she managed to squeak out between laughter. “I can’t move.” Conner laughed and gave Wolf a gentle shove to get him to move. Wolf made a dissatisfied grunt but moved off of her and next to Conner.

They looked out to the ocean in a contented silence, watching the last bits of light glitter on the distant waves. After a while Chimera spoke up, still keeping her eyes on the water. “Did you know Kaldur and I had to stop Superman from making the entire situation worse? He wanted to rush into the Cave with no idea what to do then. Like his very presence would be enough to end it. All brawn and no plan. Idiot.” She scoffed. “Luckily, Batman backed us up or he would have rushed in and gotten you killed.”

Conner scowled and growled. “He blamed us for what happened, like we didn’t react the way we should have, like I let it happen, and the whole time he would have made it worse.” He balled his hands into fists, his hands shaking in anger. He turned to punch the cliff side then did it again and again.

“Conner!” Chimera gently touched his arm, careful to stay out of the punch arc. He turned to her with wild, angry eyes that softened as soon as he saw her. “Please stop. You’re going to hurt your hand or cause a rockslide.”

He hung his head with a huff and sat back down. “You’re lecturing me about doing things that hurt myself now?”

She shrugged taking his hand to examine it for injury. “I guess there’s a reason we get along so well. We can keep each other’s self-destructive tendencies in check.”

Chimera sat close enough that their bodies were touching, still holding his hand, running her thumb over his knuckles to soothe them. After a few minutes she bumped her shoulder into his. “You know, if you ever want to talk, I’m here. I have a few other good friends with terrible… authority figures in their lives. Authorities that barely acknowledge them let alone give them the respect and love they deserve.”

He considered her words for a while, keeping his eyes on the horizon. “Must be nice for you… having authority figures that support you and don’t critique every move you make as a hero.” He said bitterly.

She scoffed. “I’d hardly call Batman supportive. Plus, I’m pretty sure I told him I thought turning out like him was a fate worse than death. So he’s probably even less likely to be supportive now.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Interesting. But I meant your parents.”

“Oh.” Her smile faltered and she let go of his hand as she looked away and hummed in agreement.

“Chimera?” He prompted her. He squeezed his now free hand. It felt strange on its own.

“Yes?” She asked innocently.

“If you want me to talk, you have to too.” He gave her a pointed look.

She scowled playfully at him and looked back out to the ocean. “I don’t like your rules.” He chuckled at her and stayed quiet, allowing her to get her thoughts in order. “My parents are extremely supportive of me. Extremely.” She started tentatively.

“But…” He urged her.

“But they don’t know… about this.” She sighed. “They don’t know I’m a hero. They don’t know I fight villains. Nobody can know, remember? That includes parents.”

“Your parents don’t know?” He furrowed his brow at the thought of her parents somehow not noticing her missing during crises and not having anyone to support her. “Where do they think you go?” He looked at her incredulously.

“They don’t. They think I’m in my room, or hiding during attacks. Right now they think I’m at an internship in America, which I am, that’s why I can’t always be here, that and school, but...” She turned away with a guilty look. “God, I hate lying to them.”

He furrowed his brow and frowned at her. “So who supports you?”

She smiled up at him with a coy glint in her eyes, like he had fallen into a trap. “My team did, as much as they could without knowing my identity. That’s what teams are for, supporting each other, helping each other. You’re on my team, so I’m here to support you, if you want.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and looked away. “I see what you did there.” He looked out over the water again, watching the tide ebbing and flowing. “I was right there with you… all, the Team, and let you get captured. I couldn’t save you or the team. I wasn’t good enough to. I’m not good enough. What am I even doing here?”

“Hey,” she chided him gently, “Wally didn’t save me either. Do you think he’s not good enough? That he doesn’t belong here? Kaldur didn’t save me. He helped me but he didn’t stop it either. Is he not good enough to be here? Do only Artemis and Robin deserve to be here?”

“No,” he grumbled.

“You need to give yourself a break. You are amazing. You can do amazing things. But we’re a team. We rely on each other sometimes.” She gave him a soft smile. “Sometimes you have to just let us save you and not take that as a fault.”

He turned away, blushing slightly. After a few moments in silence he punched the ground in front of him. “What does it matter? He’s never going to accept me or treat me as an equal anyway.”

She paused while she thought about it. “I think he will. He’s scared and unsure right now but he will eventually get over himself. But however long it takes, it’s on him. It is a sign of his inability to process his emotions in a healthy way. It has absolutely nothing to do with your worth or skills. It says nothing about your value.”

“That’s not how it seems.” He grumbled into the sand.

“Yeah. I get that.” She nodded in agreement. “The downside of being the offspring of an idiot.”

He laughed at that and leaned in conspiratorially. “I believe the official term is ‘cold bastard’.”

She groaned and hid her face in his shoulder. She turned her head to rest it on his shoulder and look out at the crests of the waves in the moonlight. “What people say about us can affect us. It can hurt, especially family because we’re supposed to have a stronger connection to them than anyone else. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t know you better than we do. He doesn’t have better insights. He isn’t your family. We are. And we say you are more than enough. You are amazing.” She hugged his arm.

“You’re my family?” Look at her hesitantly.

“Found Family, baby. One of the best tropes.” She grinned widely at him.

“Tropes?” He looked at her questioningly.

“Found family, friends to lovers, hurt/comfort, and they were roommates. All good.” She nodded with a smile. “I highly recommend them… well maybe not to you. But to other members of our family.”

Conner slung his arm over her shoulders and pulled her into a side hug. “I like this family.” He gave a small smile as he leaned his head on hers. He frowned suddenly when a thought occurred to him. “But, found family rules aren’t the same as regular family are they? Because I don’t think… Wally wouldn’t appreciate that.”

Chimera giggled at the thought. “No, no he wouldn’t. How long do you think before he and Artemis start dating?”

“You think they’ll date?” He pulled back and looked at her like she was crazy. “They hate each other.”

“Oh God, yes they will. That tension has nowhere to go but on a date. I give it a month.” She laughed. Her laughter quieted after a few moments and she moved further into Conner’s embrace. “Found family is about loving and supporting each other no matter what. Understanding we all have problems and helping each other deal with them and loving each other in spite of them. You can definitely date within a group that offers you that.” She confirmed, circling back to his original question. “Most people do.” She added quietly.

He looked at her softly and laid his head back on hers watching the stars twinkle on the ocean surface like a distant, enticing dream. “Good to know.”

Tags:

@mickylikesstuff @mystery-5-5 @roguishredaxion @vroomtaka @laurcad123 @just-an-observer-ignore-me @emimar7 @moonlightstar64 @maribat-writing-and-prompts @aespades @yokomisaki @glastwime859 @mysticknown @fan-written @stackofrandomstuff @jalaluvsu @ultimatetornshipper @charme-de-malchan @lozzybowe @kaithehero

#maribat #capturing a dream #marikon #Marinette x Conner #conner x marinette #connette #connernette

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lunarianillusion · 3 years

Text

A change in fate

a maribat fanfic

Chapter 08

It was so noisy; it was too noisy.

Marinette’s thoughts were running a mile a minute through her head. They were whirling around and around like a tornado. The thoughts were consumed in worries about everything that had happened in the last few days and could possibly come in the following. Her mind was overflowing with possible plans that her anxiety would then throw down into the void, only for them to resurface and overflow her mind again and the cycle would repeat itself over and over.

“Mari-”

The guardian knowledge, her thoughts, plans and worries colliding and overlapping with each other ripping each other apart, mending back together and whirling around her head like a hurricane. Her thoughts losing coherency until only a buzz like sound could be heard and it was only getting louder and louder.

“-ette…MAR-”

Her body began to feel numb as her brain stopped working coherently. She could barely move or feel her quickening breath, she did not notice her vision becoming blurry. Al the while her mind kept spiralling down, down, down, dow-

“MARINETTE!!”

The noir haired omega’s head shot up from where it had been laying on her crossed over arms. Her wide glazed over eyes locking onto a pair of concerned ocean blue eyes, but any other facial features were obscured in her hazy vision. A muffled sound, almost like rhythmic drumming sound, cut through the static haze in the girl’s ears. Was someone talking to her? She could not tell. Then her tingling hand was moved even though she did not will for it to. It took her a second to realise that the person infront of her had taken a hold on her wrist and had paced her hand a solid but warn surface, their chest.

The warmth of the clothed chest slowly chased away the numbing cold that had taken over most of Marinette’s body. She could now feel the slow rhythmic beat of the person’s heart and breathing, a stark contrast of her own erratic beating heart and stuttering breath. As if by instinct the omega began to copy the steady breathing pattern of the person infront of her and as her breath came back to her so did her vision. When it cleared up, she could see the person that had been helping her, it was Timothy.

“That it Mari, breathe. Just breathe,” The alpha spoke calmingly, his voice finally breaking through the static noise. The feeling soon returned to the girl’s body as her other senses started to calm down and her head started to clear.

Marinette let out a deep breath as she slowly removed her hand from Tim’s grip and used it to lean her head on top of instead. Closing her eyes to straighten out her last few disordered thoughts. That was one heavy attack and bless the kwami for their protection.

“You back?” the voice of the male infront of her once again breaking through her train of thought. Her eyes opening to look again at the raven haired alpha and giving him a small smile of reassurance. Her eyes drifted to her surroundings in order to pick the pieces of the morning for her memory had been foggy. With just a miniscule glace she was able to make out that she was in her classroom way before the bell would even ring. From their her memory started to piece itself back together. After having gained all the collected information from mist she had barely gotten any sleep even after the kwami’s had forced her to her bed. Her head had already started its downward spiral at that moment. That morning she had past her parents through the front of the bakery instead of going through the front door. They had said something to her, but even now she did not care what they had said and had gone straight to class when the whirlwind really overtook her.

“Y-yeah, I-I’m back,” the omega spoke softly to the alpha, who was now watching her like a hawk, with a small stutter. A moment of silence followed allowing Marinette to collect the final pieces of her scattered thoughts.

“Is it okay for me to ask what was happening inside of your head, or is it too soon?” Tim asked in a soothing tone. Marinette gave him another small smile to show her appreciation for his care. The genuine care he showed her warmed her heart, even with the suspicions she still held.

“S-sometimes the bottle cracks from all that we try to keep inside, away from the surface,” the noir girl spoke with a chuckle coming out of the alpha and omega duo. “How can I get your mind out of those thoughts?” “Just talk, the silence drags me back under,” The omega responded to the alpha’s question.

Tim gave a moment of thought to a possible subject to talk about and came to a different topic instead. “How about we ask each other some basic questions to get to know each other better?” Though this was a nice and normal suggestion to everyday people this suggestion made Marinette’s hero mindset jump to attention at the possible recon opportunity. Maybe she can get a clue on him possibly being Red Robin. “Sure,” she answered softly.

And so, the asked each other several simple question. The very obvious questions of favourite colours and hobbies one enjoyed. Over the short time they talked Marinette noticed a topic that seemed Tim avoided talking about. “Say what is your family like, I don’t think you ever truly mentioned them since we met. Did they move with you to Paris?” The omega asked. An innocent enough question on the surface but could aid Marinette in discerning Tim’s possible relationship to Red Robin. She could ofcourse ask the kwami’s or use soul vision again. However, the headache was still bothering her greatly and made it hard to focus and this was good train for her growing detective skills. That still did not prepare her for his answer.

“They died some time ago,” the alpha’s voice was soft as he spoke and his sent was spiked in discomfort. The words made Marinette silently wince. “I am sorry. I did not mean to bring up bad memories.” Tim gave her a small smile, understanding showing in his eyes.

Still a question rose up with this revelation and concerning his age. “Do you have a guardian though? I don’t mean to say that I do not believe you can’t take care of yourself but we are of the same age and both underage, so should you not have a family or guardian with you?” Marinette asked, or rambled, as carefully as she could, maybe not as subtle as she would have wanted to be though.

Tim gave her a gently smile to reassure her from her anxious nerves. “I was taken in by a family acquaintance of my parents, who took me into their pack. But I emancipated myself a few months back, because I could not stay their any longer,” he told her in a calm manner, that made Marinette tilt her head with a hope for elaboration. Which the alpha gave. “Things started out really well but over time that foundation cracked and I did not feel welcome or save there anymore. So, I decided to start anew. I decided to move contents because I really do not feel like seeing them again and that is basically how I got here.”

No lie slipped from the raven-haired male’s lips. It took the omega slightly by surprise how honest he was about his situation. Marinette could easily tell as the emotions behind that statement lay bare in his eyes to see and the scent of regret seeping through the cracks of Tim’s control. It made Marinette feel more relaxed and made you over thinking brain ease up on her suspicions as her more sympathetic side came to life.

“I am sorry that all happened to you,” she started off, “To a certain degree I can relate to you in regard to worsening pack relationships,” The omega’s eyes were down cast as she reflected on the past few years. Timothy tilted his head with a gentle look in his eyes curious about the full story, what most likely included the lying orange sausage haired spider but waited for the girl infront of him on her own terms. The gesture was appreciated and so the words easily started to flow out of her mouth. “Believe it or not before Lie-la came along I was ‘friends’ with all of our classmates. Then the spider came along and turned all on me making them think I was a bully and now she has even ensnared my parents into her web of lies,” the midnight haired omega huffed before a conclusion she had come to hanks to this whole drama. “To a degree though I am grateful to the lying bitch,” She stated honestly, making Tim look at her in shocked surprise. “Thanks to her I was finally able to see who my friends are truly and who were nothing more then parasitise piggybacking on me for special favours,” Marinette elaborated gaining a nod of understanding from the alpha.

“I do envy you in a sense,” She continued, taking the ravenette by surprise once more. “I hate the situation that you got pulled into and I truly wish you did not have to go through that, but at the very least you were able to pull yourself out. Leave all the bad shit behind and start anew. I have tried getting out several times, but each and every time something or someone block my way to freedom.”

“Trapping you in a cycle of neglect and pain,” the alpha led out a pained breath at his own words as Marinette nodded in affirmation. The two fallen into a surprising comfortable silence, their presence soothing to the other. A part of Marinette’s brain thought that this was mostly due to the bond between true souls, but though that was definitely a factor a small part of her also thought that the raven-haired boy was someone she would truly able to trust. And being honest she did want to trust him.

“If you ever need help,” The male of the wo spoke, breaking the silence. “With trying to get away from humanity’s fucked society. Just say the word I will be happy to help,” he finished with a snap of his fingers, almost in a theatrical way.

A small playful smile grazed the female’s features as she spoke. “I will certainly call upon you should I be in need of your aid,” the omega tone sounding playfully posh. That was quickly caught by the alpha before her. “But pray tell how you would give me your aid?” This sent a banter ball rolling.

“Why can’t I look out for my fellow coffee loving insomniac with a likewise neglectful past,” Tim responded in likewise posh playful tone. “Truly one would think us to be related.”

“Oh, good heavens no,” Marinette gasped dramatically, as she placed the back of her hand onto her forehead. “I as the goddess of coffee am far too radiant to be related to you my dear friend.”

Tim gave a snort at the girl and her theatrics, before responding in in kind once again. “You are right. Your freckles make you to beautiful to ever belong to this mortal realm. I implore for forgiveness from my mistake a great mistress of the divine elixir that gives me life.”

“My, my is quite the development,” A new voice broke into the conversation. The dark-haired duo flushed at the amused voice and turned to the front of the classroom and the one who spoke. Their just on the steps leading to their seats stood an amused looking Chloé Bourgeois, a glimmer to her eyes that send a small chill down the dark-haired duo spine, and an equally amused Nathaniel Kurtzberg. At least it was not Lie-la and her posse of brainwashed fanatics.

In a graceful yet still dramatic motion, as per Chloé style, did the blond take her place beside her female omega friend. Her grin never leaving her face. Nathaniel two shuffling into his seat beside the male alpha. “Nathaniel we must prepare for the future,” the blond girl spoke first, finally turning away from the blushing pair. “If they are already fliting one this level, it will only be a matter of time before the two are married. And it is only the second day no less.”

The duo’s faces turned even more red with the statement and Nathaniel seemed to want to add some more fuel to the fire. “Yes, I think you are quite right Chloé. Before you know it, little dark-haired pups will be running amuck across Paris.” That statement drew a sound kin to a dying animal out of the dark-haired girl, much in contrast to the blonde’s badly hidden laughter. “Truly the end is nigh!”

Marinette’s face was ready to combust, if it had not already, from embarrassment. Looking through her fingers, with she had covered her face, she turned her eyes to Tim who was trying to cover his own face and was also as red as a lobster. At least she was not the only one on the receiving end of the teasing. She watched the dark-haired male take a peek at the clock and copied his action. It was almost time for the bell to ring.

“Though this is truly an enjoyable subject,” The alpha male spoke, his voice laced in sarcasm. “But unfortunately, the toxic spider and her gaggle of annoying flies will soon be upon us.” His statement made Marinette’s fellow Parisians groan along side her in misery.

“I suggest that after this day of hell, we go over to my place and have some pack bonding time. Even get a head start on our investigation in that deceitful orange sausage, sound good,” The only blond of the group spoke. She may have said it was a suggestion but her tone left no room for question.

It still surprised the two boys at how easily the two females accepted them into their pack. A small warm smile graced Tim’s face for a moment as a warm feeling rushed through his pained heart. It soon changed into something more mischievous as the annoying sound of the liar graced his ears. “Say who wants to make a bet on the lies we will hear today.”

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The two hidden kwami’s, Duusu and Wayzz, smiled at the turn of events. A rush of relief and feeling of gratitude flooding over them as the young dragon helped the young peafowl and new guardian out of the dark corners of her mind. A feat they had not been able to accomplish, no matter how hard all the kwami had tried, since the child’s awakening.

Marinette may not yet fully trust the boy, but in time hopefully she would. For even though the new guardian could see ones souls she could only see the surface level and could not see the dragon’s scars that reflected her very own. The two kwami present dearly hoped the two true souls would be able to help one and other heal, but only time will tell.

taglist: @moonlightstar64 @iloontjeboontje@mickylikesstuff@myazael @scribblinggraveyard @incredulous-reader@mewwitch@woe-is-me0 @fan-written@coolspidermanmusicflower@heretopasstimebi@jjmjjktth@ichigorose@cmouse @nyx-in-line@chocolatecatstheron@bookgirl14 @toodaloo-kangaroo@iglowinggemma28 @itsmeevie01

#maribat #timinette #timari #miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain cheng #tim drake #chloe bourgeois #nathaniel kurtzberg #kwami swap

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aluka · 2 years

Note

jason + dick for the character thingy!!!!!! oH ALSO CLARK.

oh gosh okay. firstly im doing dick grayson

my first impression was Robin :) batmans friend. my impression now is that well he is my babygirl and one of my favoeite charactwrs of all time. my favorite moment is ummm. okay i dont really read comics because im a poser so im going to say the entire episode in young justice when him and artemis have to stop red tornado's siblings from destroying the cave. unpopular opinion ummm. hes not dumb. idk ive seen people call him a himbo and hes not. idk i dont interact with the fandom except for my mutuals. my favorite relationship is bruce or jason and my favorite headcannon is that hes bisexual

okay jason first impression Woah theres two robins? and my impression now is *loud crashing noises screaming chainsaw revving* i like him a normal amount in a normal way. my favorite moment is either when he steals bruces tires because i think its so funny. unpopular opinion... uh... idk what the popular opinions on him are. fav relationship is bruce again and my fav headcannon is that he listens to radiohead like a loser

CLARK. my first impression was Woahhh superman and my impression now is Woahhh superman. i dont have a favorite moment idt sorry... i enjoy reading about his evil era in injustice though i find it intriguing. fav relationship is... bruce again sorry... OR THE FLASH. fav headcannon is that he is a homosexual

#ask game

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phoenixkaptain · 2 years

Text

Yo it is still so fucking funny to me that Red Tornado called Robin the normal one.

Robin as in Tim Drake Robin.

Tim Drake as in the rich kid who decided Batman needed to calm down and so he dressed up in the same outfit that the last Robin died in and saved Batman.

Tim Drake as in the kid who figured out who Batman and Robin were when he was nine because he was there the night Dick’s parents died.

Tim Drake as in the non-powered, regular human being who has his own fucking Rogues Gallery:

Tim Drake, this Tim Drake, this child who was willing to get into a fistfight with Superboy, he’s normal.

Okay, Red Tornado, whatever you say…

#tim drake #young just us #red tornado #robin #red robin #i’ll never get over red tornado calling tim the normal one #the clone of superman who lived in hawaii is more normal than him #the child who grew at an expediated rate and had to be electrocuted to slow down is more normal than him #the literal being of mist is more normal than tim like come on #red tornado himself is more normal than tim #tim is like fifteen!#and so many people want him dead!#tim normal boy drake

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am-i-obsessed---maybe · 2 years

Text

New Friends In Old Places (GN!Reader x Young Justice)

Word count: 3k-ish (I think)

Summery: As Y/N and the team become more comfortable memories come back and new friends are made in unlikely places. Overall a laid back fun time.

Shadow Of A Bluebird Masterpost

Star City

November 22nd

It took a while but your life returned to normal, Dinah helped you work through the simulation and you enjoyed patrolling with her as well as Ollie and Artemis again. So when Ollie and Dinah got called into the Cave by Batman you were slightly worried. Over the years Ollie and Dinah had become your surrogate parents. Dinah was your legal guardian but she was always close to Ollie and when they started dating he started being around more. It was nice. You never had a proper family and you never thought you’d care. After all you can’t miss what you never had but now that you had it, well you loved it. You spent more time with Artemis outside of patrol and the team as well, it was truly one of the best months you had in a long, long time. One of the only times your life felt normal. You even got Roy to agree to a family photo with Ollie, Dinah him and yourself, all smiling (mostly) and normal looking. But of course that meant something had to go wrong.

Mount Justice

November 22nd

You, Ollie and Dinah zeta’d to the cave at Batman’s request and walked up to him, Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado who were looking at security footage.

“We came as soon as we got your message, what’s the problem?” Ollie and Dinah asked and looked between you and them.

“There’s something you both need to see” He said and even though you read the room and knew you weren’t really wanted you stayed put.

“Just the two of you” Batman clarified and you crossed your arms.

“What? Unless it’s top secret -which I doubt it is- why can’t I stick around?” You asked but Dinah stepped in.

“Y/N, why don’t you go find the others. If this concerns you we’ll let you know” She said and you rolled your eyes but walked away. “Fine” You grumbled and went to find your teammates. You were in civvies, with a pair of shades covering your eyes. Those came in handy for avoiding respect lectures since no one saw your many eye rolls.

After a bit of snooping you found Robin and Wally also in civvies in the common area.

“What are you guys doing?” You asked and they shrugged.

“Chillin, what’re you doing?” Wally asked.

“Ollie and Dinah got called in for something by the big bad bat. But seeing as I can hear muffled laughter I’m gonna take some time digging through security footage later” You replied, filling a glass with orange juice from the fridge and joining your friends around the table.

“You seem better” Robin said and you nodded.

“Family time’s been helping” You mentioned and both Wally and Robin smirked, “What?” You questioned.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you call GA and Canary family before” Wally said and Robin agreed.

“Even your cold heart is melting” Robin cooed and you sighed.

“My heart is not cold” You defended but deep down you enjoyed the banter.

“You’re right, it’s stone hard. Seriously, you know how terrified I was of you when we met?” Wally asked and you raised a brow.

“You were scared of a 12 year old?”

“After you kicked my ass in 2.5 seconds ya! You were scary!” The speedster said and you all laughed.

“Says the guy who’s bestie is basically a ninja” You retorted looking at Robin. “Hey, at least I was chatty. It took like three months for you to warm up to us.” The boy wonder said and you smiled fondly at the memory.

Star City

Four years ago

You walked beside Black Canary to the group of assembled heroes in front of you. You recognized all of them from either TV or your training on Infinity Island. Batman, Flash, Aquaman and Green Arrow were all assembled along with their sidekicks.

“Guys, I’d like you to meet Bluebird” Black Canary introduced you and you nodded.

“Hello” You said politely and Canary turned her attention to the boys.

“Bluebird, these are Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad and you already know Speedy as well as their mentors Batman, Flash, Aquaman and Green Arrow respectively” Your mentor said and they all waved hello. You were far from the youngest sidekick there. Robin looked to be around ten years old, Kid Flash seemed your age but you couldn’t be sure.

“It’s nice to meet you all” You said, voice even and stoic. You couldn’t help it, there were a few people you’ve learned to open up to in the last year or so, Mr. Morris was the first. When he took you in he helped you realize that you no longer needed to behave as your mother taught you. Then Dinah began to teach you how to express yourself the way you felt most comfortable and now you were comfortable opening up to her as well as Ollie and Roy who you had gotten close to thanks to Dinah. But even so it was a slow process escaping the behaviors your mother had enforced for ten years and you were slow to trust. You stood awkwardly beside Canary as Roy came up to give you a small side hug to reassure you and beckoned his friends to come closer.

With the signal from his friend Kid Flash sped over to you and held out his hand.

“Hey Bluebird- can I call you blue?- I’m Kid Flash, or KF-” The speedster said and Robin pushed him aside. “Don’t mind him, I’m Robin, funny how we both chose bird names huh?” He said.

The five of you began training together and over time you all opened up to each other, even spending time outside of the costume though Robin and you still kept your identities mostly hidden. You talked about your experiences on the field and what made you want to become heroes. You found out that Kid Flash is the Flash’s nephew and that Aqualad (who’s atlantean) uses atlantean sorcery.

You opened up to them too, if only a little bit. You didn't trust anyone with the truth of where you came from so you and Dinah created a story to tell others about your past, putting together half truths to create a story that isn’t really a lie.

“So, Blue, how'd you and Canary become a team?” Wally AKA Kid Flash asked, you all had finished training and were sitting around the now empty park where you were all sparring.

“I met Dinah when I was ten, I helped her stop a bank robbery” You told them casually.

“You helped stop a bank robbery as a ten year old? Sweet!” Wally said and you all laughed.

“I was living with a family friend at the time, and I was walking back to his house and saw it go down so I just jumped in. She actually got pretty mad at me for that” You explained and smiled sheepishly.

“Well you were a ten year old who flew over out of nowhere and started attacking the thugs she was fighting” Roy said and the group of sidekicks laughed at the seemingly important information you left out.

“Either way she walked me home, talked to Mr. Morris- the family friend I was living with and she offered to take me in and take me under her wing.” You said, finishing the story.

“Where were your folks?” Wally tried to ask but Robin elbowed him in the side.

“Dude!” The boy wonder said and you laughed.

“It’s okay. I never met my dad and my mom’s a jerk” You told them. For a long time that’s all they knew but over time they learned more.

You told them how you lived with your mom until you were about nine but when your powers emerged she kicked you out, wanting nothing to do with you. In a way that was true. You did live with your mother until you were nine and she did want nothing to do with you because of your powers but it wasn’t because you had them. It was because the powers you had weren’t the ones she spent years trying to cultivate.

Mount Justice

November 22nd

“Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, Bluebird, Miss Martian, report for mission briefing” Batman said over the Cave speaker system and you looked at your fellow teammates.

“Looks like nostalgic reminiscing has to wait for another time” Robin joked and you smiled, taking off your jacket revealing your uniform.

“You guys go ahead, I’ll be right behind you.” You told them and they nodded, going to join the rest of your team for the mission briefing.

You on the other hand ran to the bathroom to suit up and joined them soon after.

“Raman Harjavti is the democratically elected president of Qurac. Harjavti has been praised as a fair, wise leader, a humanitarian.” Batman began, he projected a map Qurac as well as an image of Harjavti with the computer. “But five days ago, Harjavti allied himself with the dictator of the neighboring nation of Bialya- Queen Bee.” He continued and Superboy scoffed.

“Not a fan” he said and Batman agreed.

“Few are. But Harjavti suddenly backs Queen Bee’s baseless claims that Qurac and Bialya were one nation in ancient times, and has announced the countries will reunify in two days at a ceremony in Qurac.” Batman explained.

“And the Quracis are okay with this?” Kid Flash asked, surprise and annoyance in his voice.

“Hardly, their well aware of the brutality of Queen Bee’s regime but Harjavti has censored the press, silenced all legitimate protest and invited the Bialyian military into his country to enforce martial law.” The Bat answered and Robin joined in.

“Queen Bee has to be controlling him, doesn’t she have the power to enthrall most men?” He asked and Batman nodded.

“And some women, but we have confirmation she hasn’t left Bialya. Something else is at work here, find out what. Robin, you’re team leader.” He stated and Wally smiled. “Promotion, sweet!”

“What about Aqualad?” Robin asked, you heard the obvious doubt in his voice which was strange. Once he wanted nothing but to lead the team.

“He’s busy helping Aquaman. You’re the next logical choice” Batman told his protege and Wally being Wally, complained that Robin left his high five hanging.

So, you all got your things and took off in the Bioship to Qurac.

As you all boarded you stopped beside Robin. “You’ll do fine Wonder Bird” You told him and his shoulders seemed to relax if only a bit at the nickname.

Qurac

November 22nd

Miss Martian flew the camouflaged Bioship over the Bialyan Quraci border. A group of Bialyan tanks were running over a fence and entering into Qurac, most likely illegally even though it's not like anyone would try to stop them with Harjavti under Queen Bee's thumb.

The whole team was on high alert, you were officially in enemy territory after all.

“No opposition, I guess Harjavti really is in bed with Bialya'' Superboy commented but Robin explained while looking at a map on his wrist computer. “I wouldn’t expect opposition here. It’s an animal sanctuary.” He said. That’s when Kid Flash noticed something.

“Tanks have caused a stampede… With civilians in harm's way!” He said and almost everyone was in favor of stepping in.

“We’re way off mission here” Robin said but back tracked soon after.

“Deploy. But stealth mode. If the Bialyians know we hit 'em this becomes an international incident.” He instructed and you all nodded.

You pressed the small blue bird emblem on your chest. It was barely visible on your mostly black suit. Really stealth mode on your suit only changed the accent color from a light blue to a dull red but it was stealth mode none the less.

You jumped out of the Bioship with the rest of the team and flew with Kid Flash, disarming and scattering the Bialyian soldiers while Superboy split the stampede and Miss Martian fired cover fire from the Bioship. When all was done you floated above the ground with your team as Robin asked the woman and child that were in danger if they were okay.

“Mom, mom, mom! We were just saved by Robin, Kid Flash and Bluebird!” The boy said excitedly and you gave him a small smile as you lowered yourself back to the ground.

“Well, Superboy and Miss Martian helped too” KF joked.

“We’re just happy you’re okay” You told the kid in a soft voice and Miss M lowered the Oryx the mother and child were huddled by before the stampede.

“We averted the Bialyians around the sanctuary. You should be safe now” Robin told the two in what you had to admit was a very leader voice.

“Which means the coast is clear Miss M, you can de-camo now” Wally whispered to what seemed like no one behind him but you knew M’gann was there even before she removed her hood and became visible again.

The woman you saved sighed, “You may have made things worse, Bialyian border crossings are a way of life here. Usually they wreck a few fences and move on. Engaging them might have made us a target” She said and you had to admit she had a point. Hell you would have agreed with Robin to stay on mission but she and her son were in danger and you couldn’t ignore that.

“Mommmm, uncool” The kid grumbled and you held back a smile.

“I’m sorry, I should thank you,” The woman said. She introduced her son Garfield but before she introduced herself M’gann interrupted her with excitement.

“Marie Logan! I can’t believe I’m actually meeting you in person! Uh- I’v, I’ve admired your stance on animal rights for years” M’gann said and immediately Conner questioned her via mind link because in fact she’d only been on earth for six months.

Eventually or inevitably since both M’gann and Garflied were asking their respective person in charge to allow the other to stay- the team stuck around the Logan Animal Sanctuary for a while longer.

Miss M went with Marie to fix the sanctuary’s ruined fences and you and the rest of the team went with Garfield to their home. By now the sun was coming up and you all had returned your uniforms to normal.

The Logan house was nice, small and quiet, as it seemed it was just Garfield and his mother.

“So, pretty weird about Miss Martian and my mom huh?” Garfield said. With his reaction earlier you were pretty surprised the kid could hold a normal conversation after how excited he was when you saved him.

“What do you mean?” Connor asked and Garfield was more than happy to point out the similarities between M’gann and his mother. Honestly you were surprised the others hadn’t noticed by now. Then Hello Megan was brought up.

“Wait, Hello Megan is a TV show? I just thought it was something she said all the time” Wally and Robin both said and you sat down on the couch in front of the seats they both took.

“You guys haven’t heard of it? One of my friend’s parents were obsessed with it, she practically has the whole show mesmerized” You said. For some reason you’d thought at least Wally would know it. He seemed like someone who’d love sitcoms like Hello Megan.

Garfield was about to put on the pilot episode when Connor stopped you all.

“Wait… Aircraft, headed this way” He said and you all knew what was coming. Robin told Garfield to stay inside and you all ran out to meet the aircraft.

Outside three fighter planes were flying towards you. Miss Martian and Superboy protected Marie from their attacks but she didn’t seem scared for herself.

“Where’s my son?” She asked, the sentiment tugged at your heart but you quickly focused back on the situation. “I ordered him to stay inside” Robin said but Marie was anything but calmed by that.

“He’s eight! He doesn’t do orders!” She yelled and you saw Garfield opening the barn door a decent ways away from where you all were. Your instinct kicked in before anyone else on the team and you flew as fast as you could to the barn but you weren’t quick enough. The fighter planes shot at the barn, collapsing it and causing an explosion. You caught Garfield but only after he had already been hit by debris and thrown into the air. He was unconscious and groaned in pain, his injuries didn’t look bad on the surface but you didn’t know what else might be hiding.

You flew him back to Marie as Miss Martian and Superboy went to take out the planes.

“I told you there’d be consequences!” Marie told Robin as she held her injured son and the boy wonder looked down in guilt.

“Always” He said.

“Let’s get him inside” You told Marie and she nodded, running inside the house and to the clinic in the back.

You helped Marie with as much as you could, hooking Garfield up to an IV and a heart monitor.

“He’s in shock. He needs a blood transfusion, are any of you O negative?” She asked. You and Robin stood in the room with her and KF waited in the doorway.

“No” Robin said and Marie nodded.

“Neither am I” She said. “I used to keep a supply in the clinic-” She began and KF cut her off, offering to run Gar to the nearest clinic only to be told he wouldn’t be fast enough even at his highest speed.

“What about Superboy?” Marie asked and you sighed. “He’s Kryptonian, it wouldn’t help” You told her and Robin continued seeing where you were going.

“And Miss Martian-” He began but Miss M walked in and interrupted him, “Might be able to help. My shape shifting occurs at the cellular level, I think I can morph my blood to match his” She explained and you noticed Superboy had joined Kid Flash in the doorway.

“Please, try” Marie begged and Miss M nodded.

“I’ll need to concentrate. No distractions” she said and Marie, whose voice began to fill with panic, pushed Robin and you out of the room and closed the door. None of you resisted, instead you all went back to the couches in the living room and took a seat.

“And on top of all of this, Harjavti steps down tomorrow, subjecting all of Qurac to this danger” Robin exclaimed. You recognized the slight desperation in his voice and sat down on the chair beside him. “KF, can you find a news station?” Robin asked and Wally fumbled with the multiple TV remotes trying to figure out which one to use. The television turned on and Hello Megan began playing, most likely because that’s what Garfield was trying to put on before the attack.

Connor, Robin and Wally all looked at the screen in shock while you mouthed the words from your seat, annoyingly familiar with the all too catchy toon of the theme song.

🎵School and boys and parents too.

A whole lot to juggle for Miss You-Know-Who.

(Who?) Hello Megan.

(Who?) Hello Megan! 🎵

Soon enough M’gann walked out to join you all and Wally quickly pressed a button on one of the remotes, turning on a broadcast of Harjavti giving some sort of speech.

M’gann recognized some psychic in the background and Robin helped explain.

“That’s Psimon, he must be the one controlling Harjavti” He said and Wally held his head.

“Ugh, I still remember the headache from when he brain blasted us last time we were in Bialya” He groaned and you crossed your arms, “That must’ve sucked for you” You teased, suddenly very happy you were too busy helping Canary to go on that mission.

Marie came out and informed you all that the transfusion seemed to have worked and that Garfield was stable for the moment, so you all left for your true mission. To save Harjavti.

Dhabar

November 23rd

The team had managed to sneak into the democratic palace through the vents and found Harjavti alone in his office. You were about to make your escape when Bialyian soldiers stormed in with what looked like Alien technology.

“Well, well, American heroes here to assassinate the president. Such a shame we arrived too late to stop them.” One of the soldiers said and though the mind link Superboy informed the team that the alien tech were apocolyptin. Miss M took off saying that she found Psimon and Robin had to stop Superboy from following after her. Leaving you, Robin, Kid Flash and Superboy to take down the soldiers.

You all jumped into action, KF and SB relying on their powers while you and Robin took them out the old fashion way.

“No flying today Blue?” KF asked through the mind link and you elbowed one of the soldiers, hitting a pressure point and knocking him out.

“Not enough space” You told him and soon enough all the soldiers were out cold.

You all ran after Miss Martian only to fall to your knees in pain. You had never felt this before, it was like a migraine mixed with deep emotional pain and it was all consuming, you hated it. “I honestly prefer- getting thrown into a wall” You said before you couldn’t hold on any longer and you fell to the ground, unconscious.

You weren’t sure how long you’d been out for but at some point you began to wake up.

“And there’s the headache” Kid Flash said, only just waking up himself.

You gripped your head, “I hate psychics… No offense Miss M” You said, rubbing your temples in an attempt to relieve the lingering pain.

“Psimon?” Robin asked, he was the first to get his bearings together enough to stand.

“He brain blasted you, I stopped him” Miss Martian said and you tried (and failed) to get up. “I see why you hate these so much” You told KF, and together you all helped each other up.

Logan Animal Sanctuary

November 23rd

The team returned to the Logan Sanctuary after the mission was over. You all along with Marie Logan sat and watched President Harjavti meet with Bruce Wayne to discuss their partnership in rebuilding Qurac. All seemed well.

“Gee, Bruce Wayne sure got here fast. Almost like he knew-” Robin elbowed that thought out of Kid Flash’s mouth.

“Don’t you have a souvenir to collect or something?” The boy wonder asked, though it was more of a reminder.

“Hello Megan!” Wally exclaimed, mimicking M’gann. He sped around the room, grabbing the VHS tape with the Hello Megan Pilot and pointed it at Miss M.

“Something you’d like to tell us?” He asked even though there really wasn’t much of a choice. But Wally will be Wally and he can be an ass.

Everyone looked at M’gann expectantly and you sighed, grumbling. “Seriously, you guys care way too much about this”.

Even so, M’gann did share, she related to the character of Megan and when she had to take a human form on earth she chose Megan.

Marie was honored but Robin had to go and ruin the moment.

“That begs the question, what do you look like?” He asked and you glared at him.

“You don’t have to tell or show us M’gann. There’s obviously a reason you took this form and no one is entitled to see or true form if you’re not comfortable” You said while glaring at Robin and Wally, you loved your friends but sometimes they acted like children.

“No, it’s okay Blue.” M’gann said and her shape shifted. Overall it seemed almost identical. Her body stayed the same but her face shape was different, she had no eyebrows or hair but that’s about it.

“Bald M’gann… still hot” Wally commented and you smacked the back of his head. “Hey-”

Connor silently walked up to M’gann and took her hand. “You know you don’t have to put a mask on for me” He told her, taking her hands in his and she immediately shifted back.

“It’s not for you, it’s for me. This is who I really am” She said and you smiled at that. Once the emotional moment ended you hugged M’gann.

“Thanks for trusting us” You said that was the end. You flew back to Happy Harbor having accomplished the mission and making some friends. All was well.

#young justice x gn reader #dc x reader #yj x gender neutral reader #yj x reader #young justice x reader #avengers x reader #shadow of a bluebird #reader insert #metahuman reader #gn reader #gender neutral reader #miss martian #m'gann m'orzz #young justice season 1

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redhoodssweetheart · 4 years

Text

Meeting the BatFam

Genre: Fluff

Relationship: Older!Damian x Gender Neutral!Reader (A gender is never specified throughout the story)

Requested: Yes by @lokiifriggasonn (REQUESTS ARE CLOSED BUT I WILL TAKE SUGGESTIONS FOR FICS YOU’D LIKE TO SEE)

Word Count: 2.5K

Warnings: Fluff, nothing major

Description: You’re meeting Damian’s family for the first time and a little nervous about how it’s going to go.

It looked like a tornado had gone through the room when Damian entered. Drawers to the dresser had been opened and riffled through, the closet also looked like it had been demolished. There were clothes on the floor and you were lying back on the bed staring up at the ceiling. Damian arched an eyebrow and carefully made his way around the clothes strewn on the floor to sit by your side.

“Beloved, why does our bedroom look like a natural disaster hit?” He had an inkling as to why, but he wanted to hear it from your lips.

You rolled your head to the side and looked up at your boyfriend, you could tell that he was trying not to grin or tease you about this. You narrowed your eyes, “Call me Hurricane Y/N and it’s only because I couldn’t find a single thing to wear.”

Damian finally couldn’t take it and started to chuckle, you looked adorable right now. “Y/N, you could wear anything and it would be fine, you’re just meeting my family. They’ll love you regardless of what you wear to meet them.”

You groaned and forced yourself to sit up, “I just want to make a good first impression. This is Bruce Wayne we’re talking about here. And on top of that your brothers will be there.”

Damian snorted, “They love you already. They say you have to be a literal saint to put up with me.”

You grinned and kissed his cheek, “You’re not so bad, Demonboy.”

It was his turn to narrow his eyes at you, “Yeah, you’re going to fit right in with them if you keep it up.” He stood up and tossed your favorite outfit your way. “Go ahead and wear this, I know it makes you feel more confident and it’ll be fine to meet my family in.”

He left you alone so that you could change and then the two of you head for Wayne Manor. You could feel the butterflies in your stomach as you drew closer to the manor. You knew of Damian’s family, you had seen their faces plastered all over tabloids and on the news. They were Gotham royalty and you weren’t sure if you would be able to measure up to their expectations for Damian.

The manor was impressive, seeing it in pictures versus seeing it up close and personal was a whole other story. You paused to take it all in and Damian waited patiently. To Damian the manor wasn't that impressive, he had seen others bigger and grander than this. But he knew that that was just his experience, this was something new to you. When you were done he slipped his hand into yours and led you inside where Alfred was waiting.

“Damian,” he took your coats and offered a bright smile to you. Damian had often described Alfred as a grandfather figure to everyone in the home, and had been with the Wayne family since forever. “Y/N, it is so lovely to finally meet you. Damian speaks about you all the time.”

“All good things I hope,” you said as you glanced at your boyfriend wondering what exactly he had to say about you.

“Of course,” Alfred said. “The young man is quite smitten with you.”

Damian was turning red, “Alfred.”

Alfred chuckled, “I do believe this is the first time I’ve ever seen you flustered, Damian. Maybe he should have brought you around soon, Y/N.”

Damian tugged you along, “That’s quite enough, Pennyworth. Come along, Y/N, there are more people to meet.”

“You mean more people to embarrass you,” you teased and he sighed knowing that you were unfortunately correct about that. His family would find any excuse to embarrass him.

You followed Damian through the halls to the living room where they were all gathered around reading or on their phones or computers. Jason was the first one you noticed with the shock of white hair in the front and the classic book perched on his lap, a pensive look on his face. Next was Tim with his laptop open and a cup of coffee beside him. Then there was Dick on his phone probably texting Kor’i about how Damian and his significant other were on their way. Then there was Bruce sitting in a wing-back chair reading over the paper.

They were a portrait of a rich upper class family.

Damian wanted to roll his eyes at how hard they were trying to appear normal.

He cleared his throat and they all looked up and spotted the two of you. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet Y/N.”

“Hello,” you gave a little wave and a smile hoping that you didn’t look as nervous as you felt.

Dick was up in a flash and coming over to pull you in for a hug, “Y/N! It’s so nice to finally meet you! We didn’t think Dames here would ever bring you by.”

Damian pinched the bridge of his nose, “Grayson, you are about as excitable as a puppy. Please try not to scare Y/N with your overly excitable nature.”

Dick released you and gave you a sheepish smile, “Sorry, but I gotta say we’re all just really excited that you’re here. Damian never brings anyone here for us to meet so you must be something really special if he’s willing to risk embarrassment for us to meet you.”

Tim stood up next and shook your hand in a much more formal manner than his older brother, “Don’t mind Grayson, he’ll calm down once all the excitement is over.” You chuckled and told Tim that it was nice to meet him.

Jason followed Tim, again offering you a solid handshake versus the hug. “I’m surprised you manage to get along with the Demon spawn.”

“Watch it, Todd,” Damian growled which only made Jason smirk.

Jason leaned in and whispered, “He’s so easy to rile up, sometimes it’s too hard to resist.” That got you to giggle and Damian crossed his arms and pouted. “Welcome to the family, Y/N.”

Next was Bruce and you squirmed under Damian’s father’s gaze. He was an intimidating man and you wondered if you would pass the test. “Y/N, it’s wonderful to finally meet you. Boys, give Y/N and I a moment of privacy please.”

“Father,” Damian started, but Bruce held up a hand silencing his son.

You glanced nervously at Damian as his brothers crowded around him and watched you and Bruce head down the hall. The two of you were silent and you tried to admire the artwork hanging on the walls. Finally Bruce stopped in front of a door and opened it to reveal a library. It was an impressive collection and you weren’t surprised to see what appeared to be a few first editions on the shelves.

“Have I done something to offend you, Mr. Wayne?” You asked Bruce when you turned to face him. He was leaning against a table watching you, gauging your reaction to things.

“No, I just wanted to ask you something important,” he said. “Something that has to do with our... nightly activities. I know Damian’s told you the truth about who he is and what we do. He wouldn’t bring you here if he hadn’t.”

“This is going to be a test isn’t it?” You asked as you took a seat in one of the armchairs present. “You want to see if I’m worthy of knowing this secret that you’ve carefully safeguarded all these years.”

“Exactly,” Bruce said. “I don’t trust easily, Y/N. And neither does Damian, so it’s saying something that he told you any of this, but for my own peace of mind I need to ask you a question. That question being: are you truly all right with Damian being Robin?”

You remember the night he told you. It had been an accident. He had been injured and not far from the apartment you had been living in at the time. He had come to you seeking aid, trusting you enough to patch him back together. It had been a shock to learn that Damian was Robin and the revelation of who the rest of his family was. But that didn’t mean you loved or trusted Damian any less.

“It was hard at first because I was always worried about him, but it was never a question if I was okay with him being Robin. It was more so could I handle it if something terrible were to happen to him on a mission one night. I know that being a vigilante isn’t safe and I’ve seen him hurt before, that was how I found out that he was Robin in the first place. And I promise you, Mr. Wayne that I will never tell another living soul even if, and I have no plans of this ever happening because I love your son, but even if we were to break up I would never tell another person. His job is too important to jeopardize like that. So yes, I am okay with him being Robin, I have nothing against it.”

Bruce stood and offered you a genuine smile, “Then welcome to the family, Y/N.” You offered him a smile back and then Bruce surprised you by saying, “All right you four you can come in.”

The door opened and a sheepish Dick, Tim, Jason, and Damian entered the room. “How did I know the three of you would be listening?”

Damian had wandered over to you and wrapped an arm around your shoulders, placing a kiss to the top of your head. “I only came to make sure you didn’t traumatize, Y/N with your ‘I am vengeance, I am night’ speech.”

Bruce shook his head, “I only use that with my enemies, and as far as I am aware Y/N is not an enemy.”

Dick and the others were trying hard to hold in their laughter, each of them had heard the speech over the course of their years with Bruce. None of them could ever keep a straight face when listening to it. “Well now that Y/N has been properly welcomed into the family can we please eat, I am starving,” Dick said.

“I second that,” Tim agreed.

“I think Alfred said the table was set and ready whenever we were,” Jason said as he headed for the door of the library.

The boys all started to file out of the room together and Damian helped you up, but stopped you before you could follow them. “Thank you.”

“For what?” You asked.

He shrugged, “For being amazing and for putting up with my crazy family.”

You smiled and kissed Damian sweetly on his lips, “I gotta say I love them already. And I gotta admit I’m kind of excited to see how they embarrass you throughout the night.”

Damian groaned but before he could say anything else Dick popped his head back into the library, “Come on love birds the food’s getting cold!”

Damian shook his head and took your hand, “Let’s get this evening over with.” You snorted and followed Damian and the rest of the family to the dining room.

Each one of them had stories about Damian and his younger days and the crazy stunts he used to pull. They told you about Batcow and then Titus, and then Alfred the cat. You listened as each of them shared some sort of anecdote about the youngest member of the Wayne family. Damian watched as you laughed, your eyes lighting up whenever something funny was said. It was worth the embarrassment to see you enjoying the evening with his family, and soon he was laughing too and turning the tables on his brothers.

When the evening came to a close Dick made you promise to come by at least once a week for dinner and possibly game night which you enthusiastically say yes too. Promising that you would make sure Damian brought you bye. Bruce even told you that you were welcome in Wayne Manor whenever you wanted and they all watched as you and Damian drove off together.

“I like Y/N,” Jason announced. “I hope they come back more because I have more stories on Damian that I didn’t get to share tonight.”

“I’m sure they’ll be back soon enough,” Bruce said as he patted Jason on the back. “Damian’s found himself a keeper.”

#Damian Wayne x Reader #Damian Wayne x Reader fluff #Damian Wayne #Damian Wayne fanfic #Damian Wayne fanfiction #Damian Wayne Fluff #DC Comics #DC Comics fluff #DC Comics fanfic #DC Comics fanfiction #Requested

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vln-vibes · 4 years

Text

Unwanted, Unreliable, Unstoppable (2)

Holy shit this did better than expected.

Summary: When one of their own gets harmed by the one who should have protected them most, how will the Team take it? Not lying down thats for sure!

Tags: @abrx2002 @bigpicklebananatree @jardimazul @lozzybowe

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When Dick Grayson became Bruce Wayne’s ward that fateful night he hadn’t known what to expect.

Of course he had heard of the Waynes while on his travels with Haly’s Circus, they were probably part of the Top Ten Richest families in the world if he had to guess. Though no one really knew much about the lone Wayne, Bruce, other than the fact that he was an airheaded philanthropist party-goer. Everyone would pretty much be surprised if he hadn’t just wasted away his family’s money by the time he was in his mid 20s.

He never thought that his new guardian would be doing things like this.

“So….You fight crime dressed as a bat?” Dick found himself asking as he looked around the “Batcave”, as he’d been mentally calling it when Batman started talking about hideouts.

“Something like that”

Dick hadn’t thought much of the training Bruce made him undergo when he said he agreed to take him along to defeat Tony Zucco. He thought it as just regular training like he had done before, granted it was a lot of how to redirect knives back to the enemies, avoiding gunshots, dismantling or disarming guns, sticking to the shadows and how to throw proper kicks and punches.

Was it strange that he had not heard of Batman when people actively talked about heroes like Superman or Red Tornado or Wonder Woman, well no. After all Bruce said he did more detective work, stuck to Gotham and was ‘just’ human.

He hadn’t thought much of it, he needed something to get his frustrations out.

When they took down all of the goons and had Zucco tied up Robin didn’t know how to feel.

“Do what you want with him” Batman had told him, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Let it all out; your fear, anger, sadness, let it all out on the man who caused this”

Dick never thought of himself as a bad person even as he began to beat Zucco bloody with his armored fists.

Death would have been too painless for a man like him.

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“Ugh just look at her” Alya grumbled.

In front of them was Kagami talking to a rather attractive teen with rich tanned skin and piercing emerald eyes. Neither she nor any of her friends had any idea who he was and she only got close enough to hear the tail end of their conversation.

“... Exhibition match is going to be the most enjoyable challenge since first dueling with Adrien” she said in her normal stoic voice. The boy seemed to not notice or care as he just nodded along with her.

“Yes, my brother has insisted he come and watch as well. I reckon your mother will also want to?”

“Oh Alya, I just don’t think Kagami is good for Adrien” Lila cried out, snapping Alya from her stewing anger, the girl instinctively hugging her friend in comfort.

“Ever since she’s joined our school, he’s done nothing short of physically lashing out on his father. He even said that if we don’t stop bothering his Kagami that he’ll make me pay!”

“That𑁋That guy is gonna see what it means to mess with my BFF!”

“O-Oh but don’t blame Adrien… after all it was Kagami who started this nonsensical feud within the class as well”

Alya never saw the smirk grow on Lila’s face as everything was going to plan.

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“You shall not make fools of the Tsurugi. We Are Perfection”

Kagami elected to stay quiet as her mother continued to monologue, as though Kagami hadn’t heard the same conversation play out ever since she could remember.

During the sessions she had with Dr. Quinzel, Harley Quinn the psychologist had told her she preferred to go by outside of the office, she had come to realize that what her mother was doing to her was not alright. Her mother continued to enforce her ideals onto Kagami, as though she were trying to live vicariously through her. Kagami couldn’t fathom why; her mother was trained by her grandfather, a kendo Hachi-Dan, all her life and was already a world renowned and record holding fencer… So what did she want out of her? Why was it so important for Kagami to be seen as superior to all others?

“Show him no mercy, that he is nothing against a Tsurugi '' her mother finished much to Kagami’s relief.

“Mother, you are aware this is merely a friendly exhibition match, correct?”

Smack

Oh, Kagami had forgotten who she was talking to; she was not in Gotham, hanging out with her friends or training with the Bats or even talking to Dr.Quinzel or Dr.Isley.

She was in Paris where her mother and Hawkmoth were; Where both her civilian and hero self had unrealistic expectations for her.

The current sting on her leg reminded her of that fact.

“Watch your tongue you insolent child. Now go before you prove to disappoint me further”

“Yes, mother” Kagami gritted out, trying the breathing exercise Luka had taught her as she walked up to the field of play, a mat having been laid out to indicate all the boundaries.

“Are you ready, dragon girl?” Damian questioned, walking back from where Richard, Dick he had insisted, stood alongside her friends. She was too distracted to realize he had an alarmed and analytical look towards her and her mother.

“Only if you are, Chīsai tori-chan”

The two made their way to their positions, M.D'Argencourt waiting for them in the middle before starting the match.

"En garde! Prêts? Allez!"

Kagami had been using her anger to lash out on Damian, some may call it unfair but she looked to think it was a good use of her pent up energy.

“Point to Miss Tsurugi”

“Oh I thought you were better than that?” she smirked underneath her mask. She couldn’t see his expression but she just assumed he rolled his eyes or scowled.

“You merely caught me off guard”

Kagami felt herself smile as she heard her friends cheer for her, Damian shaking his head before going back to their original position.

She was not expecting the events of the day from that moment, she hadn’t realized and would not want to hear her birthgiver’s explanation after that day.

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“Unbelievable!” Robin cried out in frustration, next to him Speedy looked like he was ready to punch anybody who’d stand too close to him.

“Sorry, uh Robin” the ginger speedster looked flustered.

“It’s just too dangerous for people like you to be involved with us” the new ‘hero’, Miss Martian, they recalled, said apologetically. “Your physiology is too susceptible to injury, it isn’t like our own”

“You think we want to be part of your stupid daycare club” Speedy laughed harshly, “We just saved your sorry asses because we were around, because you’re on our turf”

“And you still want to call us fragile and weak? You’re just as underwhelming as they said you’d be” Robin snapped, frustrated at the continued degradement from Metas and the Justice League.

He remembered when he first met Speedy and the League, Batman having been sent a request to help with some world ending thing; definitely above their pay rate but Batman also didn’t trust them to get it done so they agreed.

He remembers working his ass off to make sure these people made it out alive, live to see another day, and help defeat the big bad. Then the comments came rolling;

“Isn’t he too young? Why did we have to call in the human? Is the Bat insane? It's bad enough that we got the man involved, now we have to deal with his kid too? We could handle it without them. Now we have to play babysitter for the humans”

He understood why the Batman didn’t even stand working with the League after that.

“We-We were here by League orders!” Miss Martian cried in outrage.

“Orders to spy on us” Speedy sarcastically remarked as the ‘Young Justice’ flinched “You lot really think you were that slick?”

“Whatever the hell it is they were supposed to do is over” Robin nearly growled out, batarangs at hand, “They’re officially persona non grata”

“You can’t just do whatever you please” Wondergirl began “The League just wishes to know if your mentors are up to any… questionable activity”

“Shitty excuse for shitty behavior” Speedy responded, clearly getting on the nerves of the Young Justice.

“Just let us do our job and we’ll be on our way” Cyborg tried placating though the duo was not impressed.

“Or we can just kick your asses and send you crying back to your bosses” Speedy took out his quiver and pointed straight at them, the group divided between offended and surprised.

“We do not need to result in such behavior, we mean no harm” Starfire tried getting in the middle, only to be pushed back by Kid Flash and Miss Martian. Aqualad seemingly about to do the same but realising it was a fruitless endeavor and just got in a fighting stance.

“You don’t even believe that princess” Robin felt his eyes rolling, the Young Justice tense considering Starfire being princess of another planet was supposed to be a secret.

“You- You shouldn’t know that! See, this only proves what Superman feared! That the Batman has gone rogue!” Miss Martian said in a near panic.

“What do you mean by go rogue; We’re not even part of the League!” Dick was getting real tired of these pretentious metas already. From the corner of his eyes he could see two shadows waiting for their signals and staying in position.

Dick didn’t think of himself as a bad person but this Young Justice really had all of this coming.

“Young Justice, action!”

And really he was sure he could come up with better names than them.

At the end Dick and Roy kept their word, the Young Justice scattered all around them in various states of consciousness on a Central City rooftop. Kid Flash groaned as he looked at their ‘fragile’ assailants, only to see two new figures with them, a blonde girl with an arrow pointed at Miss Martian, and a shorter boy wearing Robin’s costume that just electrocuted Wonder Girl with glorified knuckle busters.

“Oh and Wally,” the speedsters heart began to beat faster as he looked at the cold smile on Robin, ex-Robin?, now wearing a black and blue bodysuit….when did he change? “Tell Superman I’ll be using the name Nightwing from now on”

Nightwing did not think he was a bad person as he, the new Arsenal, Tigress and the new Robin dumped the unconscious bodies of the Young Justice back into their ship, sending it on autopilot after typing in the ‘secret coordinates’ for Mount Justice.

The Justice League would understand loud and clear that they would no longer be expecting help from the Bats or Arrows at a moment's notice or preferably ever from now on.

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“Umm are you Mmd. Tsurugi?” Tomoe Tsurugi turned, indicating her attention was caught by the young lady next to her. She sounded vaguely familiar but they said it was easier to recognize someone by their face than by their voice; she wouldn’t know.

“Who are you to ask?” she responded curtly, wanting to refocus on the match her prodigy and some American boy were engaging in. From what M.D'Argencourt had told her, his name was Damian, a prospective transfer student from America, who wished to check out the school’s fencing team. D’Argencourt had insisted that the boy was one of the best he’d seen, on par with her own prodigy. How could some average boy be on par with her own prodigy of the Tsurugi name?

It simply would not do.

Thus they had arranged this exhibition match, to show just how leagues above the Tsurugi were from this common boy.

“ My name is Lila Rossi, a classmate of your daughter and model, I work for Gabriel Agreste” the girl’s self-praising was not missed by Tomoe but she had ignored it for now, it would be best to quickly get to the point lest she miss a second of the match.

"En garde! Prêts? Allez!"

“I’ve heard of you from M. Agreste. What is your business with me?” Tomoe was getting quickly irritated, as her own prodigy had taken longer this round; the rapid movements of the sabres, swishing in the air and clashing into one another, both opponent’s feet moving across the mat in quick and small intervals.

“ I know I’m not supposed to say things without letting M. Agreste know first but,” she starts to tear up, at least Tomoe could hear that from the hiccuping of her voice. “Your daughter has been influencing Adrien to rebel against his father”.

Her prodigy did what?

“I overheard them talking about how the two planned to help each rebel against M. Agreste and you. She said she’d throw the match in order to disgrace you”

Tomoe had trained Kagami better than that! There was no way the insolent child would be so foolish as to𑁋

“ Point to Mister Damian”

She began to metaphorically see red as they called for the final round of their little exhibition match. Kagami was made to perfection; this should have already been a settled deal instead of dragging out for almost five minutes now. Kagami better not disappoint her in the final match lest she have to discipline the girl.

“ I know this is an inopportune time to inform you of this but I fear of what else she’ll do and what she’ll make Adrien do if she keeps this up… With such influential families it would be dishonorable to let this continue further”

Tomoe was so deep in her head that she missed the rapid footsteps running across the mat or the sound of liquid falling on it.

"Final round. En garde! Prêts? Allez!"

The match had lasted just as long as the last, almost using up the full three minutes. She could hear the two make their way onto Kagami’s side of the mat when Tomoe realized that she was disgracing the Tsurugi name on purpose.

The child slipped backwards, she could already hear the announcement before D’Argencourt could.

“Point to Mister Damian. Match goes to Damian”

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“Again”

Dick took out his escrima sticks once, panting and sweating profusely but did as his instructor told. He felt himself repeat the same movements over and over again, he was going solely by muscle memory at this point.

“Alright Grayson, you’re done for the day” Dick resisted the urge to sigh in relief as he gave a slight bow and took a drink from his water bottle.

“So how have the kids been Slade?” he asked nonchalantly, knowing if it were any other person they’d be dead for even bringing up Slade Wilson’s children.

“Joseph is doing as well as always, focusing on the fine arts and being a good kid. Rose just enrolled in the same private school as him so they’re looking out for each other” the mercenary said with a huff, one Dick saw through.

“Why, I’d say you sound like a proud father!”

“As if you and Bats don’t talk about the birds like that”

Dick knew he had him there.

When he was 9 years old, a year after debuting as Robin and being adopted, he met Bruce’s ‘girlfriend’, if they could call whatever game those two were playing an actual relationship. He did not like Talia al Ghul, even less who her father was but he kept his opinion to himself, he wanted Bruce to be happy. Then it turned out she was pregnant.

Talia had decided to stow away from Ra’s, definitely not defecting from him anytime soon but she also knew that the man held too many secrets; few which she was able to discover. She was already aware that Ra’s had contingency plans if the Lazarus Pits stopped working on him, he was planning on possessing the body of someone of his blood. She knew the child would be the perfect vessel in his eyes.

So she lied to Ra’s, stating that she was going on a deep cover mission for the League, dismantling or infiltrating some country from the inside instead of just killing their way in. Instead she hired Slade as a bodyguard and to help maintain her cover while she stayed at Wayne Manor. He had to admit that it was the softest he’d seen her.

Then when he was 12, they found Jason Todd. Well more like they caught him trying to steal the wheels from the Batmobile in the middle of the night at Crime Alley. The kid had spunk and a not great life living in Crime Alley’s streets so they took him in as their own. At the same time Dick was outgrowing Robin and didn’t think the mantle should gather dust as they waited for Damian to grow up; Jason was the perfect candidate.

That same year Batgirl came out of nowhere, a new shadow that hunted down corrupt cops specifically. Dick hadn’t really been all too surprised when it turned out to be his friend and classmate, because he was bored and decided skipping two grades would be a good idea, Barbara Gordon. That or the fact that they immediately took her in and gave her real training.

He was 15, nearing 16, when Tim Drake literally barged into their lives.

He was a scrawny 9 year old that had apparently been stalking them while they went around Gotham beating up very dangerous people and had found out their identities by seeing him perform a quadruple somersault. Seriously what the fuck had been the only thing in his mind at the moment.

It turned out that Tim had come to them in need of protection as he found out his parents were involved with the Court of Owls, something Bruce had tried to uncover but even he was beginning to believe was a myth, with his parents soon scheduling for him to be tested as a potential Talon. They were fully willing to sell their son’s soul for their cause and not caring that he would lose his humanity in the process. It wasn’t hard to open a case against the Drakes as concerned citizens for child neglect and embezzlement that may or may not have been discovered while they raided their place in the night and took anything they owned pertaining to the Court of Owls the week before the police began their investigations.

Which led to now.

Joker had decided to attack the new Robin, his perverted mind finding it unfair that he wasn’t told of the new change. Not only had he been surprised by the fact that Jason survived but he also got his ass handed back to him by Batman and Nightwing when they found out. Jason was borderline dying and the closest place they could go was, unfortunately, Infinity Island; aka al Ghul palace.

Ra’s was fortunately not on the island however David Cain was not informed of the fact that the Bats and Talia al Ghul had a strange alliance, sicking his living weapon aka his daughter out on them. She had stopped when she saw how close to death Jason was, freezing as though she could physically see his string of life snapping, and when David was readying to retaliate against her, he found himself knocked out by Talia. A few hours later the Batjet was sent back and the Batplane returned with Alfred, Barbara, Tim and Damian inside.

Once Jason was well enough, a day or two hopefully, they’d be leaving the island with a new sister in tow.

Dick would stop at nothing to keep his family safe.

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“Oh my god, Kagami”

Marinette had been hanging out with Damian, Dick, Marc and Alix in her room when her skylight window opened. Now this itself was a common occurrence after she and Adrien revealed their identities and when she began to give Miraculous full time.

However, the sight in front of her was one she had never expected to see before.

“I hope I’m not interrupting”

Kagami had dropped the transformation the moment she opened the window, Longg floating besides her in concern.

Her normally impeccable fair skin was littered with bruises of various shades, the most notable being a dark purple one on her cheek close to her eye. There were others she noticed on her hand and few popping up from underneath her ripped leggings.

Marinette was snapped out of her stupor as Kagami stumbled down the window, her bookbag and two carry-on bags on her back.

“What happened?” Marc asked, right beside Kagami as Marinette took the other side, helping the Japanese girl with her bags and sat her on Marinette’s chaste.

“... My mother was not happy with my performance today” the girl winced as she sat down “She seems to have gotten it in her head that I sabotaged the match and have disgraced the family name”

“Kagami,” she looked up to see Richard, Dick, with his deep sapphire eyes full of concern and unrelenting fury. “Do you feel safe at home?”

Had she been asked a year ago she would have said that she did or that it was irrelevant and did not matter. She has since learned that ignoring the blaring issue and suffering in silence would do no good for anyone.

“No, I do not”

“Do you want to open a case against your mother?”

“... I do”

“That’s all I needed to hear”

While Marinette went to get her parents, scrambling up an explanation for how Kagami got to her house, not that her parents would ask once they saw her friend, Damian took photos of Kagami as evidence for a domestic abuse case.

They all took notice of her missing ring and the patch on her blazer.

Dick Grayson was not going to let this go.

But he knew that the woman did not deserve his time as Nightwing for this. No. She would just twist it with her reputation; they needed to destroy that to truly break her.

He may not have jurisdiction in Paris but he was still an officer and vigilante dammit! Not to mention he had a billionaire dad notorious for adopting kids left and right.

“Hey dad, y’know how it's my birthday in like ten months; how would you feel about giving me another sibling or two?"

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“Who are you?” In the middle of their stakeout for a potential safehouse in Happy Harbor, Nightwing and Robin turned to see an eerily familiar looking teen floating next to them, arms crossed but not looking ready to make a move. Yet.

“The better question is who are you” Nightwing quipped “I know Boy Scout did the Devil’s Tango but his kid definitely shouldn’t be as old as you are”

“Oh my god, shut up Nightwing” Robin groaned, Tim wondering what his odds would have been if he had just run away from home instead of going to the Bats.

“... I’m Superboy” the teen looked at the two curiously, he had heard hushed whispers of the Batman and his sidekicks, Nightwing and Robin. He also knew that for some reason the name Nightwing had caused discomfort and righteous anger to Superman.

“Superboy, huh.” Nightwing questioned as Robin began typing on his wrist computer “So you’re the secret member of Young Justice”

“How do you know that?” he hovered defensively, confused at Nightwing’s hand wave.

“Chill Superboy. I’m sure you’re all aware of the not so secret dislike between us and the League” his smirk told him there was more there… not that he’d know. None of the adults really talked to him other than Black Canary, and she was only a temporary member at that; she had mentioned to Superboy how she usually works alongside the Arrows of Central City and was part of The Birds of Prey.

“Especially after I stole the name from Superman”

“Stole from Superman?” Superboy was never aware of the fact that Nightwing was a name Superman ever used, it wasn’t part of the data fed to him through Cadmus or even personal studies he did in the Mount Justice library.

“Hasn’t big blue told you about his heritage?” Robin asked, an air of nonchalance and judgement around his statement.

“... No. Superman would rather ignore the fact I even exist” Superboy hadn’t meant to sound so pretentious but he couldn’t help it! It was getting on his nerves, how everyone just saw him as nothing more than a mini-Superman or a clone or even a weapon the enemy made… He wanted to be more than all that.

“Do you have a name?” Nightwing asked, his cheerful demeanor gone and replaced with a serious and protective one.

“I am Superboy”

“Noㅡ I mean a name for the teen underneath the ‘S’. Not a codename” Nightwing asked gently “People don’t call me Nightwing when I’m not wearing the mask”

“... I’ve only been called Superboy, even in Cadmus”

“Oh you have got to be kidding me for fucks sake” he heard Robin’s angry huff, he couldn’t exactly turn off his super senses.

“Well that’s dehumanizing” Nightwing was suddenly all smiles again, gently pulling Superboy down and sitting on a city bench, oddly there was no one near their general vicinity.

“How about I give you a Kryptonian history lesson, straight from the Fortress of Solitude’s archives! The story of Nightwing and Flamebird”

That was how Superboy became friends with the “dangerous enemy” and got a real first idea of what it meant to be Kryptonian.

That was also the night he gained the name Conner.

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When Kagami didn’t show up to school the next day no one thought much of it, at least no one that wasn’t Lila Rossi and Alya Cesaire.

People began to grow curious when Marinette and Chloe were also gone or the fact that Marc and Alix had huge eye bags under their eyes. Depending on who asked they’d say that it was something personal or none of their business.

People began to get concerned when Sabrina’s dad, officer Raincomprix, asked to speak to M. Bustier, Adrien, Marc and Alix.

When the class began to pester Sabrina for answers she gave them a lost look and said “I can’t tell you anything, I’m not even supposed to know about the case but dad asked for some information… I think it's best we back off”

Of course that didn’t stop Lila or Alya from gloating over their victory, hoping that Kagami had been pulled from school or even sent back to Japan.

They never realized how much their act of revenge had impacted the Japanese girl or her group of friends.

Bruce Wayne would arrive that same day and head straight for the Dupain-Cheng household along with his daughter Cass and sons Tim and Jason.

“I didn’t think we’d have to start this whole process until after December but being early never hurt” Tim tried to joke, helping lift the somber mood just a bit.

After Tom and Sabine offered them refreshments before having to head downstairs to the bakery, the group began to think of logical backstories before Officer Raincomprix was due to arrive.

“... So you can just say after that poor excuse of a birth giver did what she did to you” Jason made sure to keep his cool, he knew these kids didn’t need a fucking Akuma right now “ You already had bags prepared and managed to leave when she went to sleep and went to your friend’s house. You knew you’d be safe there and that they’d be able to take you to the hospital to get your injuries looked at”

“I think that’ll work” Tim nodded along, invested in his laptop as he looked through Parisian surveillance for any other instances of public domestic abuse or even covering Kagami’s tracks as Ryuuko from last night, not that he blamed her for trying to leave as soon as possible.

“I know I said I’d help you with Gabriel but, “ Bruce began before Marinette shook her head.

“Right now Kagami’s case is more urgent… besides this may be beneficial with our case against Gabriel for associating with Tomoe and praising her form of parenting. Maybe we can even get them both in one go”

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Amidst the laundry list of paperwork and things to get done there were two important things happening;

First was the announcement of the Flying Grayson’s Foundation, a scholarship for international students to travel and study at Gotham Academy and any other high ranking schools around the country; they were looking for children who were either of lower income who could take advantage of the once in a lifetime opportunity or students who displayed great talents and could use the enriching environment these schools had to offer.

In other words it was a cover up to get the Miraculous Team away from Paris and in Gotham.

Should Bruce really be using his fortune to do these sort of things? He was rich with money to spare, if he used it to help teens that were left to their own devices by most of the adults in their lives then who was to say what he could or could not do with his money.

The second was the Hawkmoth investigation finally going guns ablazing.

Bruce and Marinette had both decided to let their teams handle tracking Hawkmoth for now as they strategized on ways to get Adrien away from Gabriel and secretly Nathaniel away from his parents.

With the later they had more luck by the name of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy.

Within the months they had spent together the duo had gotten attached to the teens and were protective even as they ‘attacked the city’ to keep their criminal cover. When hearing about Nathaniel's situation the two had begun to think of ways to get him away from it, having had similar experiences growing up, along with Bruce.

They hadn’t realized there was a much simpler solution that wasn’t killing/arresting the Kutzbergs or kidnapping Nathaniel.

“You know you can just Matilda this and just give the adoption papers to them, right?” Duke said from the couch one day. “From what Nat says its likely they won’t give a shit or even protest”

It had worked.

Nathaniel was now officially Nathaniel Isley-Quinzel.

Barbara had worked with Tim and Max to perfect the laters algorithm for tracking down the Hawkmoth (along with some upgrades on Markov and maybe creating other sentient A.Is they hoped wouldn’t cause the apocalypse in the far future). Thankfully Tomoe Tsurugi had proven a valuable pawn as they managed to track down the one mile radius from where the Akuma could have come from when she was arrested for child abuse, physical abuse and child neglect.

Luckily, Tomoe had tried to attack Kagami when she heard her ex-prodigy and former daughter on her way to the police car. Dick had intervened, giving her a nerve punch and rendering her unconscious. Of course he brought up that it was for self-defense and could easily be proven by the cop cameras, though it was still seen as overkill.

That Akuma was quickly captured by Ladybug, who had already seen it coming, as she and the new Bee, Abeille, were watching the arrest from a nearby rooftop.

Money made things work much more faster in terms of the adoption process. It helped that he already had four adopted sons, an adopted daughter and biological son as proof of his competence as a parent. They’d laugh at him being a ‘great parent’ but he was a tired man who was secretly trying to change the world for better by dressing up as a Bat furry at night and was trying to be good for them and also had six legal and two technical children, so really they’d take what they could get.

Gabriel Agreste and Natalie Sancoer were doing their best to cover any violations of child labor laws, even going so far as to try to ground and pull Adrien out of school again.

Of course when Bruce and his three oldest sons showed up they had all the evidence they needed for a major scandal to break and ruin the Gabriel brand. They did make a very nice offer at a not so nice expense;

Give guardianship to/let Bruce adopt Adrien and the press would never have to find out.

Gabriel had nearly yelled at the man to leave his home the instant he subtly suggested it, even going so far as to call the “Gorilla”, which not only did not work but also gave the Wayne’s an even harder dislike of the man.

As it turns out as soon as Adrien told Gorilla, damn it he would find out the man’s name one day! About the plan against his father the man gave Adrien a flashdrive to use as part of the evidence.

“It's up to you Mister Agreste” Tim said in his CEO voice, cold and with business only in mind.

“You could just listen to our offer and just renounce any custody you have of Adrien and give it to us” Dick practically sang through his eyes but still held a hard look.

“Or you could face the backlash of not only exploiting, but also keeping him captive in his own home and overworking your son all for the name of your brand… Not to mention your questionable business practices or bias towards an underaged model” Jason added as nonchalantly and non threateningly as he could. It did not work, which was the whole point. “Losing your reputation and your son anyway”

Gabriel knew he was in over his head but was no fool.

Adrien packed up his things the next day, beginning his process of shipping his belongings off to Gotham. Coincidentally, Gorilla had given his letter of resignation and had gotten a job as the main caretaker of one Alise Anciel-Pennyworth.

Gabriel swore he’d get his revenge against Bruce Wayne one way or another.

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Conner did not know what to do.

He knew he did the right thing in distancing himself from his team, he didn’t know them well enough to consider them friends. But it still hurt to be alone…

Superman had been nothing but a pain in his ass with his Boy Scout routine and higher than thou personality.

Ugh just thinking about it made him want to shoot him with his heat vision. He had no idea how Superboy, because yeah the kid asked him and how could he say no to him?, could be related to that man. It must have been the Lois Lane of the kid.

Conner didn’t know who to turn for, there was no way he’d go to any of his biological donors, so he'd just spent the past few days flying endlessly.

He had stopped by Star City to see how Black Canary was, and for a quick session, but as much as she and Green Arrow offered he didn’t want to overstay his welcome. Not to mention he had a feeling he needed to go somewhere else.

The only other person who had given him the light of day was….

“Are you Superboy?” Conner looked up, which he didn’t do that often now that he thought about it, and saw a male figure standing on a lightpost, his features hidden by the Gotham night.

“Not anymore, who the hell are you?” the guy hoped down, with the light he was able to see the blonde hair and leather catsuit… did Catwoman get an apprentice?

“Well you should know the big bad Bat doesn't like metas. Any reason you’re here or should I escort you out right meow?”

“... I’m going to ignore the pun for now. I’m looking for Nightwing”

Conner noticed the twitch of the leather ear against the honey blonde hair and began to wonder if the guy was either trustworthy or meta. Just as Conner was about to fly away the guy tapped his ear, he recognized Nightwing’s voice before the guy nodded and ended the transmission.

“Well looks like Nightwing is vouching for you” he sat down on the park bench where Conner hadn’t realized he had spaced out for most of the afternoon. “He says to stay put, he’s kinda busy right now but shouldn’t take too long. Anyways I’m Chat Noir, Parisian superhero”

“Never heard of you before but it's nice to meet you” Conner shook his hand even though Chat Noir scowled, dropping the whole playful demeanor.

“No surprise there. You know we spent years asking for the Justice League’s help and they didn’t do shit, they didn’t even open our messages” the half Kryptonian experiment thought that he must have been mistaken.

Sure the Justice League had Superman and was full of a bunch of enhanced beings/meta-humans who would rather have brawns than brains according to his #2 Sperm Donor and refused to allow ‘regular’ humans or even only slightly enhanced on their team even though they knew how to kick ass but they weren’t terrible enough to not answer distress signals, right?

“How can you be so sure of that?”

“Nightwing and Batman told my team”

“And you trust their words, just like that?”

“Don’t you?” Chat Noir seemed to stare him down before Conner sighed, hand raking through his naturally curly hair.

“Yeah, I do. Wouldn’t be here if I didn’t trust him. Never met the other Bats and Birds though”

“Trust me, it’ll be chaotic in a fun way” Chat Noir grinned, a knowing twinkle in his eye. “So, why are you looking for Nightwing? Sorry if its invasive but well, you know what they say about cats”

“Curiosity killed the cat?” Conner questioned, the shit eating grin on Chat Noir’s face grew, like the cat who caught the canary.

“But satisfaction brought it back!”

“It’s kind of a long story, I doubt you’ll want to know the knitty gritty” Conner showed his gloved hands into his leather jacket, sighing.

“I’m all ears”

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“So you’re telling me that you were genetically engineered to replace and destroy Superman by using his stolen DNA and the one of his arch enemy Lex Luthor while also being planted with trigger words to make sure Luthor had a way to control you. Superman never even liked you even when he thought you were just a clone of him even though his own kid was pretty chill with you and he met you after the whole Daddy #2 reveal. Which also he used the triggers to make you attack your teammates, the Young Justice, so even though you got the triggers removed you quit and decided to take a break from the hero biz but you don’t really have anyone to trust so your best bet was Nightwing, who you’ve talked to every now and then since he likes messing with Superman and taught you about Kryptonian culture”

“Well yeah basically”

“Holy shit you need to see Dr. Quinzel or something”

“What about you leather boy? What are you even doing in Gotham?” Conner asked with a smirk, feeling comfortable with the feline boy after letting out his whole life story to him.

“Well do we want to start from when my mom died or when I was chosen to be a superhero at thirteen or when the whole city of Paris just expected my partner and I to be able to defeat the full on grown man terrorizing the city all on our own with no help whatsoever?”

“Daddy issues?”

“Pot calling kettle”

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“Ugh I can’t believe Ladybug didn’t show up to the fire yesterday” Alya ranted to her classmates, the ones that were still worth talking to that is.

“Dude you do realize that the fire department was there and had everything handled, right?” Nino looked at her skeptically, the two had broken up a few months or so ago now but they still treated each other with decency. At least most of the time.

“Think of all the lives they risked by not showing up!” Lila cried out “How could they leave Paris at their most vulnerable state?”

“I- I’m sure they were busy” Rose squeaked out, trying her best to console her friend. She still held some hope for the heroes of Paris after all!

“Yeah it's not like the firemen were doing their job or anything” Alix rolled her eyes at the group.

“Sabrina!” the ginger girl tensed at her name, turning to see the very much in danger of being akumatized again reporter “Didn’t your dad and the police department have to deal with those bank robbers last week without help of Paris’ heroes?”

“We-Well yes but my dad does that 𑁋”

“They’re just being so selfish! Think of all the people who risk their lives everyday with no magic bulletproof suit. They think they’re above Paris’ everyday problems and only show up when we can’t handle it”

“Surely you aren’t such a fool, Cesaire” Max stated cooly as he typed away on his laptop “Or do you not remember how everything used to function before their arrival”

“Listen here you little nerd!”

“N-No Alya… I know I shouldn’t say this but the truth is… Ladybug is over Paris” Lila began to tear up, hiding her face within her hands as she started to choke up “She and I had a fight a few weeks back; she said she’s tired of dealing with all of Paris’ problems even when I begged her to reconsider! I- I think she’s planning on abandoning us altogether… and we all know we’re doomed without Ladybug there to keep her sidekicks in check”

The room was full of looks of shock and surprise, including that of Miss Bustier who was sitting at her desk. Suddenly that grieving silence was interrupted by laughs coming from the back, Adrien trying to reign in his laughter.

“Oh god,that’s probably the only lie you told that’s partly true Rossi '' the blonde sunshine child had gotten more cynical the longer he spent time in public school. There were rumors he threatened his father with a lawsuit through a third party about child labor laws, something Alya tried researching and asking him about. Apparently Adrien was officially out of the fashion industry.

“She really is a lost cause” Alix had not so subtly whispered to Kim, who nodded along.

“What would you lot know! Besides anyone whose friends with the Ice Queen, Tsurugi is𑁋”

“Actually, Alya” Marinette interrupted “As class vice-president you should be aware that Kagami had her name legally changed. She now goes by Kagami𑁋”

“Oh dear, did you get disowned Kagami?” Lila framed it as an innocent concern but those who knew the real her recognized the mocking tone.

“I owe you no explanations, Rossi” the girl responded back, going back to ignoring the class with Marinette. They still remembered the day she came back to school, most of the class, not including a select few assholes they decided not to name, had looked at her in worry as she branded various bandages and some healing bruises; she had all but ignored them and continued on her regular routine.

Meanwhile that night Bruce Thomas Wayne made a press conference at Wayne Enterprises’ building, with his two oldest Richard John “Dick” Grayson-Wayne and Jason Peter Todd-Wayne.

“Mister Wayne are you really saying you’ve adopted another child?” Lois Lane stood up as the microphone was given to her “What warranted the newest member of the Wayne Clan? Is it a sensitive matter like that of your daughter Cassandra or perhaps like that of Damian’s?”

Bruce made sure to give a flustered look, especially since her husband, one Clark Kent, otherwise known as Kal-El or Superman, was with her.

“Why I must say, those are excellent questions Miss Lane” he started off with a smile “ However, to answer your questions they’ve been a family acquaintance and then friend for some time. It’s not my story to tell but their home life was not the healthiest, it got to the point where my family offered to help them get out of that situation. They were admittedly reluctant to do so but… I suppose a line had been crossed and they asked for our assistance”

The members of the press seemed to deflate at the confession, all drawing up their conclusions to what his words meant and what the newest member had experienced in their life.

“Yes, Ms. Grant?” Dick asked, pointing for them to hand over the microphone for Cat Grant.

“Will we be meeting the newest member of your family anytime soon?”

“They will be properly introduced to the public during the Wayne Gala next month in Paris, they’re still attending school elsewhere but they’ll be transferring to Gotham Academy and properly moving into the estate this upcoming semester”

They were sure the new Wayne would be making headlines when the time arrived.

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“You’re serious” Conner asked in awe, “You’d really do that?”

“Oh kitty,” Selina began to brush her fingers across Conner’s curly locks as she held the hurt boy closer to her.

After arriving in Gotham and getting to talk with Nightwing, who when learning about the situation the teen was in had recruited the help of the Gotham Sirens to host the boy as the Wayne’s had a lot of eyes on them after the announcement of an adopted child; Conner didn’t need the attention right now.

The Sirens had agreed after learning about everything the boy had gone through, Harley agreeing that he needed stability and offered sessions or even having Dinah come visit, while Ivy made sure their place was secure enough to withstand an attack and kept vigilant in case the boy scout decided to come looking for Conner, even if they doubted he’d’ try. Selina tried to get the boy to open up, sharing her own childhood backstory and how she became Catwoman.

That’s when Selina realized that Conner had no family name, he’d even only gone as Superboy until fairly recently. No one bothered to give him a name.

So she offered her own.

“Of course I am. In fact any one of the people in this apartment and even the Bats would offer their name if you asked”

Conner knows that Jon called him an “honorary Kent” on the basis of being his dad’s clone and a Krytonian but Conner never felt like he had earned the name. Clark certainly never offered.

“Conner Kent, they said I should feel free to use that name” Conner sighed “But I don’t think it’s right”

“Well whatever name you choose it’ll be yours. Though I suggest making up your mind soon, Oracle is working on making you some legal documents so you can finally have a ‘normal life’ if that’s what you want”

“What even is normal?” the duo looked behind to see Nathaniel, graphite smudges on his face. The red headed boy was staying over with Harley and Ivy as his new moms and they were working on some more “family bonding time”. If all went well he’d be transferring to Gotham Academy for the new school year.

If Selina remembered correctly his boyfriend and Alfred’s great-nephew would also be moving to Gotham while Alfred’s sister would be placed in a senior center or given a caretaker.

“What happened to you?” Conner muffled a laugh as he took a look at Nathaniel’s state.

“Deadlines” the boy in question said, chugging what they thought was hot coffee, Trixx sleeping on his head, almost camouflaging in the red. “I’m about to go in a 12+ coma, night”

“But its 2 pm?” Conner asked amused, Nathaniel walking out of the room with a wave of his hands before peeking back inside with a smirk.

“By the way, Chat Noir has a thing for black hair and blue eyes”

Selina was amused by the flush Conner was quick to gain and decided that she’d tease him about it another day.

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“Chloe, Nino hey!” Adrien waved at his friends as they made their way around the enormous amount of rich/influential people that were attending the first ever Flying Graysons Scholarship celebration in Paris. All of Dupont Francois was allowed to attend, though Lila insisted it was thanks to her connections, because of the amount of students that would be receiving their awards/scholarships that night.

The whole Miraculous team was clad in images to their hero persona via Miraculous by MDC line that Marinette had been working on ever since she quit being class president almost a year ago. They were her most popular designs on her website, even internationally which they had found odd.

Nino was wearing an Anselm inspired bomber jacket along with a standard white button up and black jeans. Chloe was wearing something a bit more formal with a two piece dress with a black top and honey gold pencil skirt with little bees stitched at the hems and some high heels, her hair was let down for once with a pearl hairclip keeping her bangs up.

“I’m guessing you got here with the rest of your not yet adopted family?” Chloe asked while the boy grinned. Adrien had decided that the first thing he would do as a not yet Wayne was to wear other designer clothes that were not from the Gabriel design, and what better clothes than those of his platonic soulmate. Marinette may have gone over the top but he loved her for it; deep emerald dress pants and tie, the tie having subtle cat paws travelling from the top to the bottom where a cat was stitched, a black button up with the same shade of green as the pants on the underside, showing up as he had rolled his sleeves, standard black vans and her iconic bowler hat.

“Well yeah but I also got a date” Adrien smirked at their surprised and offended looks

“And you didn’t tell me!” they both said outraged.

“Guess the cat’s out of the bag now, babe?” the two turned to see Conner, whom they met a handful of times since he tended to hang out alot with the Sirens; he was a cool and overall good guy who just had shitty adults in his life according to Nathaniel, who’d see him when visiting his moms.

“Well at least you have good taste” Chloe gave Conner a one over; he was for once not wearing the same leather jacket he wore as not-Superboy, though he wore a ruby button up with rolled sleeves, a black vest and black jeans making the outfit more of a business casual sort of vibe though his brown combat boots definitely it lean more on casual.

“Thank you, your highness” the Kryptonian bowed much to their amusement “Though I don’t think I got a bad catch either”

“Damn I don’t think we had any betting pools for that” Kim laughed as he walked along with Max. Kim was wearing mocha dress shorts and a beige dress shirt, a mocha bow tie and gray suspenders with little monkeys tied the whole thing together. Max had a more average short sleeved white button up and khakis combination though with the addition of a coffee bowtie and deep coffee formal jacket with small silver horseshoes on the collar it definitely spiced up the look.

“By my calculations you guys were the most unpredictable pairing though it doesn’t surprise me that you got together before LadyRobin”

“LadyRobin? I thought we were going with Daminette or Maridami?” Nino asked amused

“Whatever their name is, those two are taking forever to make a move! For kwami’s sake RedScales/LukaTim already got together months ago” Chloe huffed in annoyance causing the group to laugh in good nature.

“Conner?”

The group took quick notice of Conner's sudden stiffness, looking up to see a besticaled man with an overbearing aura, as though his mere presence could overpower you. They had assumed that it was because of his large figure. Until Bruce made his way towards them.

“Clark Kent, right? With the Daily Planet?”

That got reactions from the teens; they were well aware of who the man before them was.

“Right you are sir. It's an honor to meet you in person mister Wayne” Clark laughed politely in a very obviously superficial way.

“I’d hardly call this the first time, after all I know the Daily Planet has a tendency to send you and Miss Lane when covering cases in Gotham” Bruce smiles before looking at the group of teens, as though he had just noticed them, “Ah! I see you’ve met some of the recipients of our Flying Graysons Scholarship”

“Oh, really?” Clark gave a skeptical look as he looked at the teens who were subtly moving Conner away from the center of attention.

“Yes; We have Kim Le Chien as a training olympian swimmer and overall athlete, Nino Lahiffe who’s been getting recognition on short films he’s created for school along with some original soundtracks he’s made and Max Kante and his talent for coding and robotics”

“And what of the others?” the reporter pestered on, though they knew he just wanted to know what Conner was doing there with them,

“ Well, Adrien Graham de Venily is a family friend, while Chloe Bourgeois is daughter of the mayor and of the fashion mogul Style Queen” he gestured to the two blondes gave cold smiles at the besticaled man “Both they and Conner Kyle here” he patted Conner’s shoulder, the teen relaxing at a familiar touch before glaring at Clark, “The adopted son of a family friend, will be transferring along with the award recipients considering they’re all friends to Gotham Academy; I rather think its touching how deep their friendship runs”

“Conner… Kyle?”

“Yes. It's my legal name on my birth certificate, Mr.Kent. Do you have a problem with that?” Conner puffed up his chest towards his genetic donor.

“... None at all Mr.Kyle” Clark had then been quickly swept up in a conversation that was truly about nothing that Bruce had distracted him with, allowing the group to leave towards the balcony for some much needed privacy.

“Are you alright, Kon?” Adrien looked up at his boyfriend in concern before the boy sighed with a tired smile.

“I will be”

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“I can’t believe Adrien blew me off like this!” Lila cried out on her ride to the Wayne Gala. She didn’t care for the stupid scholarship, her mother’s job could easily send them to wherever the hell they wanted anyway. Alya seemed to believe that she had a chance of getting the award and scoring an interview with the Wayne’s newest member. If Lila had her way then she was sure she would get one of those rich idiots eating out of the palm of her hand by the end of the night. Especially if they were as much of a playboy as Brucie Wayne was.

“Lila you need to realise that Adrien isn’t worth it” Alya soothed “He’s done so much shit to you, he doesn’t deserve your time. I bet you can totally score a better man at the gala than anyone Adrien could hope to be”

“Tha-Thanks Alya, I don’t know where I’d be without my bestie”

The two girls met up with the rest of their school during the reception, though a few noticeable people were not with the group.

“Thank you, everyone for coming today to support this wonderful new foundation” Richard’s voice echoed as he made his way on stage, the audience applauding as he reached the table with all the awards.

“I remember before meeting Bruce I’d travel around the world along with the circus with my parents; we used to perform gravity defying tricks as the Flying Graysons. We’d see the different places of the world but I noticed the differences in the culture and state of living. So now I’d like to honor their memory with the help of dad by giving different gifted and talented kids around the world a chance to flourish and further polish their talents”

Alya was already streaming on the Fox Tea as the crowd clapped. Lila wasn’t impressed though; he may look like money but he was just a circus monkey after all. Though his body certainly looked like a million dollars.

“And to help give out these awards I’d like to invite my family, including my new little sister; Kagami Wayne!”

Lila would feel her nails stab into her palms as the Waynes came out from behind the curtains, a familiar Asian girl with them.

She hated the fact that her dress was as gorgeous as it was.

Kagami hadn’t wanted to go over the top but according to her brothers and sisters she needed to stand on her own lest the media try to brush her off or even try to start shit with Bruce neglecting them. Marinette had worked long and hard on the dress she wore, swearing it was her magnus opus of the Miraculous by MDC summer formal line. A raspberry red thigh high figure hugging dress with a silk skirt and golden embroidery with a dragon wrapping up to her waist. It had been months since Kagami began to rebel against her birthgiver and had grown her hair out enough to curl it and clip it to the side of her hair with a golden hair ornament Bruce had gifted her when the papers went through, pairing nicely with the golden heels, belt and choker she wore.

The rapid flashes of light nearly blinded Lila but somehow none of the Wayne’s seemed affected by them as they just stood and posed for the paparazzi.

“Now we’d like to present the Flying Graysons Scholarship to the following people from Francois Dupont; Marc Anciel, Luka Couffaine, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Nathaniel Isley-Quinzel, Max Kante, Alix Kubdel, Nino Lahiffe, and Kim Le Chien”

If it weren’t for the fact that she spotted Gabriel earlier in person and could currently see him glaring at the Waynes, Lila would have been counting on Akuma to appear.

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“Oh my kwami, please tell me I’m not seeing what I think I’m seeing” Marinette stated as she rolled her suitcases behind her, her friends in similar states as they saw the building before them. It was now the end of August by the time they officially moved into their new dorm… or rather new apartment building in which they were the only residents besides Mrs.Anciel-Pennyworth and “Gorilla”. Adrien had sworn all of them to not tell him his former bodyguards real name because he was a big boy who’d investigate it himself.

“Holy shit this man literally just flexed at us” Conner said in awe, lowering his sunglasses to get a better look at the place, it seemed like Bruce had thought ahead and coated certain rooms in lead paint, enough to keep Boy Scout from snooping but to be safe for his friends to not face health issues.

“Okay he’s clearly showing favorites now unless he did the same for the other winners” Alix looked unimpressed.

“Though he certainly did a 180 of this place” Max nodded, as it turned out those months ago this had once been the building where the now extinct gang was keeping their “merch”. Since then they knew Wayne Enterprises had bought it out but they hadn’t realized that Bruce would refurbish it and make it into their new living place.

“Seriously, Mr.Wayne you didn’t have to spend𑁋” Nathaniel began, looking as the man came out with his own kids to help with the move and to get Kagami, Marc and Adrien settled.

“Don’t worry about it. It was like spending money at the dollar store for him” Jason ruffled his hair before picking up some boxes and taking them inside.

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“If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were trying to buy us out” Luka said as they finished up the tour of the glorified dorm/ mansion.

The building had what they called six visible floors;

The rooftop had an indoor pool and was fully furnished to hold campfires or even barbecues if they wanted as well as a collapsable roof.

The sixth floor is where the music studio and labs were. Both were soundproof, reinforced and had monitors linked up to Big Sister aka Hecate ( the artificial intelligence Barbara had worked on to reassure Bruce that the kids wouldn’t die in their dorm. She was no replacement for Alfred however Guillaume ‘Gorilla’ Durand promised to do his best in taking care of the children’s well-being and that of Alise.) who would warn them if their activities were reaching dangerous levels.

The fifth floor was called the Artist Alley. Half of it was occupied by Marinette and Chloe as they developed Lady Luck (trademark pending) by MDC while Marc and Nathaniel occupied the other half with their studio to develop their series “The Adventures of Illustrator and Reverser”. They thought it was good but both had realised that they wanted to try making a more mature, probably teen targeted, series; (Teen) Titans was their current working title.

The third and second was what they called the residential floors, the right side holding the girls’ dorm while the left had the boys’.The second floor also had rooms they would use for guests though each room also had a pull out couch just in case. Each dorm had a private bathroom with a full bathtub, sink and toilet, full sized room, closet, and computer desk with a comfortable amount of space to rearrange or add their own items. Each floor had their own entertainment system, kitchen and dining room that helped separate the rooms. On the third floor was Marinette, Kagami, Chloe and Alix on one side while Adrien, Luka, Nino and Conner were on the other. The second floor had Alise and Gorilla on the right while Max, Kim, Nathaniel and Marc lived on the left.

The first floor was the entrance, the first part looking like your standard lobby though it still had a mailbox for all its residents for the mailmen to drop off their letters and packages, fully equipped with a detector just in case anything passed any screening before. People could only make it to the elevator if they were accompanied by one of the residents or were identified as welcomed/ not persona non grata by Hecate. The other side of the first floor was the game room; different game systems, DDR system, pool table, darts boards, foosball table, and chess/checkers table were scattered around the remaining space of the room.

The basement was a fully dedicated gym. It had about every machine one would find at a regular gym along with a basketball court and a place for practicing gymnastics though there were nets and safety mats installed along any area where they could have accidents on them.

The first secret floor was where their special gym was, the floor hidden by thick lead underneath the basement. There they had equipment that they could use to train their extraordinary abilities. Any equipment in it was super strength resistant for Conner to blow off some steam without fearing he’d ruin it for his friends. Training dummies were also in their own section for them to train without having to go to the Batcave. There was a place to meditate and find quiet amongst the chaotic building, soundproof but monitored by Hecate. The room was also made to withstand any natural disaster, including a disaster caused by Superman or a rampaging Joker.

Beneath the building was also an underground tunnel, it was connected to the Batcave and could be used to escape in case of an emergency or for a direct route from the cave without having to go out on the surface. There was also another one that was connected to a safehouse where they would meet in case shit really hit the fan. It was big enough for them to use their hidden motorcycles, leave traps for any followers or to run; whichever they had the liberty to do .

“Brucie didn’t pay for everything” Dick laughed

“Yes, Jagged insisted he help with at least the music and art floors” Damian informed them in a monotone voice, though he did try stealing glances from Marinette.

“Plus Lex Luthor may or may not be missing some hidden money that may or may not have been used for all the gym equipment and the labs. Y’know evil guy pocket change” Tim laughed as Luka just snuggled to his little evil genius of a boyfriend.

“Well if he was buying us out I’d say it’s working”

🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫🔴⚫

“He’s conspiring against us”

“How?”

“He’s making his own team of teenagers”

“So you’re saying that Wayne is the Batman? And that he’s making his own teen superhero team?” Flash, Barry Allen, found himself questioning their leader during yet another Justice League meeting at the Hall of Justice.

“Well there have been more vigilante reports in Gotham” Wonder Woman, Diana, added on, looking through the newest blurry photos that the internet was able to scavenge up. Like the other photos they were all blurry and covered them by shadows.

“And Sup— Conner was amongst the children that transferred into Gotham Academy “ he admitted reluctantly, their screens showing the list of all Flying Graysons Foundation Scholarship before narrowing them by those who would be staying in Gotham.

“Conner? But I thought—“ Martian Manhunter asked from his seat.

“All these papers look legal enough,” Barry said as he took a closer look at the copies of the birth certificate and school records for one Conner Kyle.

“We can’t even say these are fake or forged because he never had one to begin with” Diana further admonished though Kal brushed over it.

“And you suspect that the other scholarship students are in on it?” Aquaman, King Orin or Arthur Curry, asked skeptically. The children who had won the scholarship seemed about as average as normal children could go other than the fact that they had different specialities or talents, awards already to their names in recognition and that they attended the same school as the newest Wayne, Kagami.

“Well there’s no evidence that points towards that” Hawkwoman, Shayera Hol, admonished “These are merely children; accusing them of such things is most dishonorable if we have no evidence against them”

“We are well aware of the animosity between the League and the Batman” Red Tornado informed in his normal monotone voice.

“And we know you and Conner had a hard falling out after… All that happened those months back” Starfire, Koriand’r the alien princess of Tamarand and supervisor of the Young Justice, stated as diplomatically as she could.

“Are you sure you aren't blowing this out of proportions? This could just be Superboy moving on with his life. Perhaps he found someone to adopt him as their own” when certain people failed to was the silent addition most could hear out of Diana’s voice.

Barry Allen knew they had a reason to fear these rumors.

If the limited, and he meant the bare minimum, information Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, had told him of the secret alliance of heroes who weren’t part of the Justice League was anything to go by.

He just hoped that they hadn’t done anything to anger these new blood.

AO3 Ko-Fi

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nefelibata-agibilibus · 4 years

Text

Why Young Justice is a disappointment

I just rewatched Young Justice, and I’m thinking about the disillusion I felt, and why, for a few days I have been thinking about this, and I want to write it, this will be a long post, and is just me venting about my feelings.

Why I like Young Justice

I love to see cartoons, series and movies. I always liked superheroes, and, when I found Young Justice I loved it, the animation was great, the fights were cool, the characters, the plot, It was awesome, into the things I like are:

The big plot: It was awesome, as we learned about they machinations of the villains, we met them, the idea of the Light, this group of people, using the Justice League, in the fight between Darkseid and Vandal Savage, the two of them conquering the universe, waiting to fight each other in the last, ultimate, fight.

The way we learned about the Light was cool too, in the first season we don’t know who they are, we watch a lot of people planning things in the background, before knowing what they want we know who they are, and, by learning all the kind of villains are part of this, we understand the plans are big, mixing technology, chaos magic and metahumans powers, with influence on the ocean, the world politics and one of the greatest group of assassins, even alien conquerors.

The core of the show: We can say this show, deep down, is about found family and teenagers stepping up.

The team is about found family, in the first season Artemis, Conner and M'gann are alone, and they found family on the team and their allies, Mount Justice became the house of Zatanna after Zatara puts on Nabu’s helmet, they are kind of a surface family for Kaldur’ahm, in the second season a lot of people live there, and call the place home, this is the new home for Bart, and the kids kidnapped by the Reach found friends on each other, in the third season the team is a family for Violet, Bryon, Vic, Tara and Forager, and the youth center for metahumans is meant to be a home, they even buy a new place to be their quarters.

This is specially for Artemis, she was raised by abusive parents, Sportmasters trained her to fight, in the comics we see she knows other villains kids, Jade ran away, Artemis wanted to ran away, and her mother is manipulative, she cries so Artemis accepted entering Gotham Academy, despite not wanted to do it, her mother also uses Lian to make her quit the superhero life and enter a relation with Will.

At the beginning she doesn’t trust the team, she hides the truth about her origins, and she is really worried they would find out, at the end she trust them, and, after five years, she and Wally even consider start their own family, in the mental playground M'gann created is clear they talked about marriage and having babies, she offers a home for Violet and Tara, not only teaching them how to control their powers and work as a team, but offering kindness, and that kindness saves Garfield life and helps Tara cut the relation she had with the Light, both of them were in abusive places, and a group of friends they made are the ones helping to be better, they choose the kind and loving people over the manipulative and abusive.

The second core of the show is teenagers asking to not be treated like kids without agency, untrusty of the league secrets, they can make decisions too, they can fight crime too, the world the grown ups are crafting is theirs too, and, yeah, the grown ups are more mature, can take better decisions because they have more experience, their brain is fully developed, and, at the beginning, Red Tornado, Black Canary and Batman look after the kids, keep and eye on them, assign the missions, do the training, Black Canary is a teurapet too!. They are taken care of physically and emotionally, but they ask for trust, Garfield and Conner said it, work with me or move away, this is my world too, and, if I can take decisions about what’s happening to it, I will act.

Artemis and Kaldur’ahm act won’t have worked without the team, they were trusted enough by the league, so, Kaldur betraying would be useful to the Light, but the big public didn’t knew a lot about him, and their missions were undercover, no big shows and public fights for the normal people to know about them, so the betrayal affect just the heroes, Artemis death just affects the team and the league won’t need to said out loud that she died, and then said “Just kidding, she was in a deep undercover mission”, like, If Wonder Woman, Superman, or any league member died, the people would get angry if later they just take back that and go away with it.

And they are important in other ways, during the first season, when Klarion created two worlds, the team were essential to calm the kids, and asked for the older ones to take care of the youngers, and, during the fight, they needed them to fight against Klarion and brake the stone in their reality to join the worlds, Zatanna is the one to put on the Helmet of Fate, she is the decisive piece to win the fight; in the third season, when the outsiders stepped into the spotlight, they save people, and show that Luthor’s impediments could cost lives, in the final moment the outsiders, by defeating Granny on earth, saved all the heroes.

The fights: The animation is 10/10, smooth, easy to follow, clean, I love it, but, especially in the first season, the fights are more than heroes punching villains, the fights develop a character, give exposition about their history, an inside on their minds, or moves the plot.

This is awesome, taking on account the first two seasons were made to be broadcast on cartoon network, for a casual viewer, while zapping, would stay for seeing the fight, but, for a viewer who wants to know the characters, it is always going to have exposition, for the plot or the character.

You can take, as an example, the episode 5 season 1 “Schooled”, we watch how Superman don’t want to work with Superboy, and we’re reminded about Conner’s anger issues, he’s acting proudly and Black Canary defeats him easily, Robin is the one smoothing him, a kind of foreshadowing for Dick being the leader, Conner gets the lesson “raw force won’t help you win every battle”, and, during the fight with Amazo, he understands that, they even present Artemis.

Some people would stay, watch the episode, and enjoy it, it has its own story, there is no real need to know all the plot to enjoy it, for a fan, or someone invested in the show, the episode is good, we watch the relation between Superboy and Superman, foreshadowing about Robin leadership and a lesson for Conner.

The consequences: The things happening to the characters aren't capsuled on one episode, they do things that will affect them in the future.

I will take, as an example, the episode 17 of season 1 “Disordered”, chronologically is after the exercise of the aliens, a traumatic experience for the characters, and it isn’t swept below a rug, we got and inside of every character, you have the cool episode fight, and an introduction to New Genesis and Apokolips tech, something really important for the next seasons.

We deal with the feelings of everybody, and they give us hints about the secrets or the future of the characters, Robin wants to be away of Batman’s darkness, putting on track Dick’s journey to become Nightwing, for Wally, he acts like nothing happened, and is still in denial about his feelings towards Artemis, we get hints about M'gann secret and how she is affected by the idea of others knowing, the writers foreshadow Kaldur’ahm leaving the leader position for Robin, the fear Artemis has about her friends finding out about her family, and, Superboy’s wish to be Superman, all of that is the road to the character grow.

But they ruined it with the time skips.

2. Where Young Justice failed?

Time skips: I was watching Young Justice with my dad, it was my second time with the series, he ended the first season, we started the second one, and my dad asked me if Netflix didn’t add a season, no, they didn’t forget a season, they decided to age the characters, put a lot of info in the firsts episodes, and I felt robbed.

The first skip is of five years, the team grow, M'gann is less like Hello, Megan, she and Conner broke up, she is dating a L’gaan, is treated like a sister by Garfield, whom developed powers and now is Beast Boy, Superman is treating Conner like a brother, he have less anger, and helped the Genomorphs to be free of Luthor, Roy tried to enter the Light undercover, with Jade help, they failed, decided to have a normal life, married, have a baby, and now Roy is in a bad place, everyone is worried and Jade rejoined the villains, Artemis and Wally keeped their relation and leaved the superhero life, they were doing fine, Dick became Nightwing and is the leader, dated Zatanna and broke up, Barbara became Batgirl, Batman adopted Jason, Jason died, he adopted Tim, and Kaldur’ahm, lost Tula, discovered Black Manta is his real father, (in the comics we met his father and mother, so everybody lied to him about his family), quit the team to become a villain, but, plot twist, is on a deep undercover mission, and, apparently, only Dick, Wally and Artemis knows about.

And we didn’t need the skips, like, all the things happening would be useful for one or two seasons, and, if you wanted the undercover thing, you have Roy, you, literally, said he was undercover with the Light, you had things with every character, a way to develop them.

The second skip is shorter than the first, but it wasn’t necessary either, they grieved Wally, Dick ended his time out of hero life, Barbara became Oracle, Bruce adopted Stephanie and Cassandra, and they became Orphan and Spoiler, M'gann and Conner were doing a home life, M'gann was the team leader, Roy decided to be a normal man, changed his name to Will and raised Lian with Artemis, she kept Tigress alias, and lied to his mother about being a hero, Kaldur’ahm got a boyfriend and became Aquaman, leading the Justice League, all Atlantis knew he betrayed them, and now he is the great hero for all the atlanteans, Bart took Kid flash’s mantel, got adopted by the Garricks, and was able to spend a good time with his grandparents, father and aunt, Jaime got a girlfriend, and the kids kidnapped by the Reach aren’t around, except for Eduardo, who is helping in the Youth center for metahumans, and Virgil, who’s a hero and wants a girlfriend.

If you start a show with a core group of characters, and they are the main characters, you can’t insinuate grow for them, give the hints about their future, and swept them under the rug with the beginning of the next season, then, the new characters I’m starting to care about are pushed away too, it disappoints me. I wouldn’t be surprised if in season 4, the team are the babies we saw in season 3.

And there is no need to do this, are little things you could justify to need the time, but aren’t really important or could happen before is stated in the show.

In the first jump you could justify the Kroletan invasion as a reason to skip the five years, but the Kroletans aren’t the main villains, they are only used to make a database about the Justice League, and, in the comics, changing the leader of Bialya to be under the control of the Light, (and this is never brought again), furthermore, you could justify the building of a complex base under the earth in few months, days or weeks with alien technology, or just begin with the Reach, and justify the existence of the database about earth heros with info given by the Light.

And during the second time skip you could say, Tara needed time to be brainwashed by Slade, the tech to activate the metagen is new, and the mental controls to the metahumans.

But, technically, they said Vandal Savage is a meta human, and he is older than human history, if you don’t want to count him, you could start the metahuman gen active since 1950, I think, if they have on the Light mind controllers, people older than the team, and literally made clones, have access to Apokolips technology, they have Lex Luthor! The Light didn’t need the time, and the way to activate the metagen is really different between the Reach and the Light, they didn’t need the Reach to begin the investigation.

The lack of character growth: They were doing well at the beginning, and were good, and they hit a few things on other characters during the other seasons, but they miss a lot.

Dick, for example, has a lot of little brother energy, out of mission he is teasing his friends, when Black Canary defeated Conner, he laughed, he made fun of Wally the first time they were with M'gann, he is asking, with mockery, Artemis about what she is doing in Gotham, he calls M'gann Bald Megan, when they are on the first mission on Santa Prisca he is mocking Kaldur about explaining the disaster to Batman; he is going to be the leader of the team, but he is young, despite being the one with most time working as a vigilante, he is only 13, in age the next is Wally, with 15, and that Robin is interesting, in the comics he is the leader of a lot of teams, he is the older brother of the batfam, but he has to learn how to work with a team, to be trustful, to talk to others.

Creating Dick’s growth about leadership is an excellent idea, learning to guide people, how to talk to them, and, when he is a leader, he learns to be a mentor, he is teaching Violet, Bryon and Forager to control their powers and work together, an seeing a character grow to this point, would be satisfying, but they don’t do this, and yes, he is leader on season 2, but he is barely there, the missions, the action they are doing, Dick is away, he only fights one or two times, when the alien traps them on the Justice Hall he is not there, when Bluebettle betrays them, Dick’s not there, and he leaves, M'gann is the new leader, and they never gave hints about her doing that, Barbara has more foreshadowing than M'gann, Dick tells Kaldur Batgirl can step up and help, not M'gann, and we don’t see her really leading, Dick is the trainer, and Garfield is the one creating the Outsiders; Dick is a leader, you want him leading a team, but you don’t let him be one.

And if you wanted a love interest, in the comics they said Dick and Barbara liked each other before the team started, when you only watch the cartoon is, almost, out of nowhere the relation, Barbara is in Gotham Academy a few seconds on season 1, she makes a joke with Dick on season 2, they are dating on season 3, and they only interact a few times, I would rather see both of them grow into a relation than Mal and Bumblebee having a drama, Barbara, literally, said she is waiting for Dick to be ready, right now he is a dog, textual words from Wally and Barbara, and the idea of two peoples saying “I love you and I want to be with you the rest of my life, but right now I’m not ready to give you all you deserve” is astonishing, or, you could talk about healthy polygamus relationship, condemning the jealousy that could destroy a couple.

The show had good points, other character starting big, but falling flat, is Bart, he is from the future, a dystopian future, he is willing to leave behind all his friends and family to be in the past, he had a flashback when he is, literally, slaved by the Reach, he is using a collar, doing hand labor, and we don’t know if he really succeed, the only glimpse we got is the man helping Bart, not scarred and radioactive, but still on a bad world, and, on the third season he is a comic relief, saves a girl, and takes a photo with Jay and Barry saying #WeAreAllOutsiders.

Too many characters: Having six characters as the core team, none of them being more important than the others, could be hard, but they were doing it fine, the things went down with the second season.

Now we have a big team, we don’t really know their names, how they became heroes, why they are here, in the first season we met Zatanna, and get a few chapters of her interacting with the team and Artemis, the only one that the watcher don’t really care about is Roquet, but she is important showing the sidekicks they aren’t a shadow of their mentors, they aren’t just kids on costumes, they are real heroes, they inspired her, and, we could guess, inspired others.

But in season 2, there are a bunch of characters I don’t know, and I quit the show at the beginning of season 3 because I wanted to watch the original cast, Wonder girl wanting to be more, Mal and Bumblebee having romantical issues, L’gaan jealous about M’gann and Conner, Tim wanting trust, nothing of that matters to me, you didn’t need them, needed their drama, because they go nowhere, and, in the third season, they aren’t bring up again.

You needed Jaime, he was the weapon against the Reach, and Bart was a good character, but his presence meant they failed saving the world, and he was a kind of comic relief, but not annoying or silly, and they did good when Tye was kidnapped, we watched the worry of Jaime, how he searched for him, by that we cared about Tye.

I understand why they created Violet and Victor, having a father box and a mother box with them, not as a computer, but as thinking beings, Violet is the answer for Darkseid plan, Victor was created from the father box, and now is working with the team, and they are poc, Violet is no binary, they are good characters.

Bt they started a journey with a character, gave us hints about they journey, and then, all the developing on the background, in season 3 Will tell Dick to stop being a loner, Jefferson is surprised Dick searched for him to save the kids at Markovia and asked help to enter Granny’s house, Dick, for the viewer, was never a loner, on the first episode he is making the team, in the second season he is the leader, his first appearance on third season is working with Oracle, asking help for the mission on Markovia, doing a team with the Harper boys, and training Forager, Violet and Bryon, Will said “Whom are you recruiting this time?” For us that means Dick, usually, asks for help to do the missions, they tell us Dick was working alone, but never showed it.

3. Conclusion

The most infuriating thing is the show is good, they have a lot of great ideas, I will watch the fourth season, I want to watch the DC Fandome, I love the show, all this babbling came from my heart, and I’m sad, because they have great ideas, they put seeds for an excellent show, but barely water them, they let the ideas rotten and die.

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akalei · 5 years

Text

Debrief

I’m back with another installment of Ladybug Young Justice AU!! This one is a bit shorter and as I have warned is mainly just set up for the overall plot. Damien again isn’t in this installment but he will be in this AU I promise!! but LB, Chat and the Team have some stuff to figure out first before Robin can make his appearance! As always feel free to send me asks about this AU and I hope you enjoy!

@ozmav

@kelelamentia

@resignedcatservant

@imfreakingmagical

@northernbluetongue

@tinybrie

constancetruggle

@foofoocuddlypoopsgavesokkaapples

Ladybug and Chat Noir had changed as heroes, if you asked any of Paris’s citizens they wouldn’t be able to tell you what caused the sudden maturity in their heroes but the cause was honestly very simple. The Team. Their accidental joint mission taught the two young heroes about taking responsibility for their actions, especially their mistakes. Over the next two years, Ladybug and Chat Noir would work with members of the Team repeatedly. To the point where Batman had the two heroes summoned to Mount Justice for a debriefing.

Adrien had always dreamed of being able to meet the members of the Justice League when he was a child he would dream of becoming a hero and helping them. Now that he stood in front of Batman, Red Tornado and Black Canary as Chat Noir he no longer felt that childlike awe but instead immense respect. After meeting and working with, Nightwing, Aqualad, Miss Martian, Kid-Flash, Superboy, Artemis, and a few other heroes, Adrien became all too aware of how immature and entitled he was acting. These heroes risk everything to protect the entire EARTH and he was just tasked with stopping Hawkmoth and even then Adrien wasn’t sure if he’d be able to risk everything as they do. But he was going to try, he was going to be a hero the Team would want to work with, a hero the Justice League would acknowledge, a hero that his lady could rely on and a hero that could protect the Earth.

“The League is growing concerned with the increase of Meta and Akuma related attacks,” Batman began the debrief, “We believe that the villain known as Hawkmoth is now working with the Shadows and possibly the Light.” Batman looked over at Ladybug and Chat Noir, “We’ve invited Ladybug and Chat Noir to share our information and combine our efforts in stopping this threat, Ladybug?”

Chat watched and his lady walked up to the screen next to Batman, “Right, thank you, sir, Hawkmoth emerged about a year and a half ago. He doesn’t fight directly but uses his Miraculous to control civilians,”

“A miracu-what?” Kid-Flash interrupted looking very confused.

Ladybug just smiled, “A Miraculous they’re the source of Hawkmoth, Chat Noir’s and my power. They’re jewels that can hold a Kwami’s power.” This time Miss Martian raised her hand but Ladybug just continued already knowing what she was going to ask, “You can think of Kwami’s like the embodiment of abstract ideas, they’re like divine spirits that can grant Miraculous holders, like myself and Chat superpowers.”

“And Hawkmoth is a Miraculous user like the two of you then?” Aqualad asked, Ladybug just nodded, “Yes, Hawkmoth has a Miraculous of his own, Nooroo the Miraculous of Transmission. If someone is feeling a strong negative emotion Hawkmoth can send out these things called akumas to akumatize them and basically grant them powers if they do his bidding.”

This time it was Artemis who spoke up, “So the two of you have been fighting him for a while now what does he want? Why would he be working with the Shadows?”

Chat looked at his lady ready for her to continue, “As far as we know Hawkmoth wants our Miraculous, my best guess would be to use them together and rewrite reality to grant him a wish, but neither Chat or I have any idea what Hawkmoth’s wish would be. Though I’d assume he is working with the Shadows and possibly the Light in order to obtain our Miraculous or they’ve offered him something that would grant his wish without the power of our Miraculous. I can’t rule out either possibility.”

“Alright, so if Hawkmoth and the Shadows are akumatizing meta kids, how do we stop them?” Nightwing asked crossing his arms over his chest.

“Ladybug is the only one who can cleanse an akuma, though the rest of us can remove the akuma from the object it posses,” Chat replied causing the rest of the Team to look at him.

Nightwing followed up with another question, “What do you mean by remove?”

“When someone gets akumatized, the akuma posses an object on that person, so by finding that object and then breaking it, we release the akuma and then Ladybug can capture it and cleanse it,” Chat responded animatedly explaining with his hands.

Superboy raised an eyebrow, “That’s it? The person goes back to normal afterward?”

Ladybug nodded and walked back towards Chat and Nightwing, “That’s it, but no matter what we have to ensure that the akuma is cleansed or else it can infect others,”

Batman had assumed Ladybug’s place at the screen and pulled up a map of Paris, “Alright team, here’s your mission,”

#maribat #ladybug young justice au #lyj

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timdrakequotes · 5 years

Note

Hey! Was wondering if you could pull up some of Tim’s serious/inspirational quotes.

1. ‘One of the things I’ve learned is that it gets bad for everyone sometimes. Superman, Batman–everyone. I remember I’m not alone. I remember things do get better. Sometimes on their own, most times when you work at them. And when I have trouble remembering those things, I find people to talk to. […] Your folks, an old friend, even a trained counselor you’ve never met before. Someone who has a totally different perspective because they’re not as close to the problems as you are. Maybe they give you advice, and that’s great…or maybe they just listen. Sometimes, that’s all you need. Anyway, that’s how I deal with it when things suck. And it works.’ –Tim Drake (Robin #156 – The High Dive)

2. ‘Get up. Get the hell up. You don’t get to quit!’

–Tim Drake to himself (Robin #167 – The Promise)

3. “You know what? You never made me Robin. I made myself.”

–Tim Drake on Batman (Robin #100 – The Price of Justice)

4. ‘All of us. We’re not the costumes. At the end of the day, we’re just a bunch of scared guys trying to fight through the fear and leave the world a little better than we found it. People always ask,“Why Young Justice?” I’ll tell you why: Because we’re so damned glad that we found each other, that we hold on to each other like life preservers as the flood waters rise. We don’t get more complicated than that. We don’t have to.’

–Tim Drake (Young Justice #55 – I’ve Got A Secret)

5. ‘Maybe…maybe it was the pressure. When you’re fighting for what you believe in–for what’s right–you find out just how alone you are. Every time you face up to evil, you have to beat it. But you only have one life…and you can’t afford to lose it. It’s a knife-edge not many can walk. Sometimes…even heroes fall.’

–Tim Drake (Batman #466 – No More Heroes)

6. ‘I don’t like people putting us in a box. Telling us what we’re capable of. Telling us who we are. I chose to become Robin, nobody picked me.’

–Tim Drake (Teen Titans #4 – Breaking the Rules)

7. “I hear a lot of loose talk about “justice” these days. Maybe we should talk more about peace.”

–Tim Drake (Robin #26 – The Hard Lessons)

8. “Despite how cold and empty I actually feel, I go out of my way to keep it lighthearted. Because I’m not going to surrender to the void, no matter how attractive and comforting it seems. The all too welcoming abyss. That dark place where Batman lives.”

–Tim Drake (Robin #132 – Fresh Blood Part One of Four: Too Many Ghosts)

9. “I can feel it now, like Batman used to. Electricity and guilt, shadows and sadness, kinetic energy and hope. It’s my city now if I want it to be. Not Dick’s. Not Bruce’s. Mine. But to make it that way…to make it right…what will I have to become? So many choices…but what will be my decision…?”

–Tim Drake (Red Robin #26 – What Goes Around…)

10. ‘If I were no longer Robin…that would mean that no more innocent people are being threatened. No more criminals going around breaking the law. No one was living in fear of their lives. No more crime or wrongdoing. It would mean that mankind had entered Utopia, and I’d be happy for humanity. Because that would be the only circumstance under which I’d quit the game.’

–Tim Drake to Young Justice (Young Justice #7 – Conferences)

11. Robin: [to Jack Drake’s grave] I’m tired of pretending that not having you here isn’t killing me. That every time I lose someone else, it doesn’t take a little part of me with them. Before…before it happened, you told me it was all worth it. This life was all worth it, and that I should never question it. Well, I’ve been trying…please believe that I’m still trying…but every day I have to find another reason to put this mask back on. Sometimes it’s for Bruce. Sometimes for Conner, but a lot of times, I do it for you. Because you were brave enough to understand the man I wanted to be. And you lost your life because of it. If I was just some normal kid with some normal life, you’d be alive today. Maybe Mom would be alive today. Were your lives really worth all the others I’ve saved? God, how can I even ask that? Dad, I used the night of your death as a reason–no, as an excuse to turn into someone else…and I came here tonight to tell you it won’t happen again. I’ll never give up, Dad. Not while there’s a breath in our bodies–neither one of us will ever give up.

Batman: [above Tim on a tree branch] No. We won’t.

Robin: We’ll get stronger. We’ll get faster. We’ll get smarter. We’ll honor you, and everyone else we’ve lose. We’ll die before this happens again. We won’t forget. And maybe some day… Maybe you can forgive us.

Batman: Goodnight, Jack. I’ll take it from here.

–Tim Drake with Bruce Wayne to Jack Drake (Robin #167 – The Promise)

12. ‘I don’t care if I am afraid–I can still act!’–Tim Drake to Scarecrow

(Batman #457 – Master of Fear)

13. “Here’s the thing: no one can predict their own future. The best a guy can do is to look to those who’ve been much longer on the same path as him, and see what a life of walking that path has done for them. For me, those people are Bruce and Dick.

You see what I’m getting at? Bruce has been on the job the longest. It’s slowly driven him madand eaten the human part right out of him. But what about Dick? Surely a guy like him can’t dedicate himself to this line of work and keep a level head on his shoulders? I wanna yell “He can!” But I can’t forget the glimpses I’ve seen recently of the same kind of monster eating at Dick, too. Little things that, looking back now, I can remember seeing in Bruce a few years ago. Should I call them “early warning signs”? Do I dare to assume it’s a disease I can’t catch with time?”

–Tim Drake (Robin #100 – The Price of Justice)

14. ‘You can’t have a friendship without trust…nor a relationship…nor a teammate. Take Batman for example… He trusts me to keep his secrets, to cover his back. I trust him the exact same way. He knows that I’ll always consult him on anythinghaving to do with those secrets, and vice versa. Because of that implicit trust, our relationship works. And it’s unique.’

–Tim Drake to Secret and Spoiler (Young Justice #30 – Round Robin)

15. “No time for ego, hurt feelings, petty disagreements…it’s all in the past. I need help. I can’t do this by myself.”

–Tim Drake (Red Robin #9 – Collision: Part One of Four)

16. “Hesitation…second guessing…self-pity… Leave them behind. They’re death now. Use what you know. Remember what you learned. Be smart. Stay alive. Save the girl. Remember what Shiva taught you…what Ducard taught you. Remember how Dick moves so effortlessly. Remember Conner’s own special “techniques.” Remember what Bruce did. Use it all now. Win the next fight and the one after that before you get there. Remember everything your teachers gave you. Don’t be any of them. Be all of them.”

–Tim Drake (Red Robin #8 – Council of Spiders: Part Four of Four)

17. Tim: Robin is a symbol just as much as Batman is. It isn’t just a symbol of the law, it’s a symbol of justice. And Batman needs a Robin.

Batman: What I do is dangerous.

Tim: I know.

–Tim Drake with Bruce Wayne (Young Justice Secret Origins – 80 Page Giant: Little Wing)

18. ‘Of course we’re going to do this. I said it looked tough, not unbeatable.’

–Tim Drake to Secret (Young Justice Secret Files and Origins – Take Back the Night)

19. ‘“Never fight angry.” I didn’t know what it meant until tonight. He wasn’t talking about style or common sense. He was talking about weapons. Honor. Purpose. That’s what helps you survive and win. When all you bring to the fight is anger…you’ve already lost.’

–Tim Drake (Robin #25 – Sophomore Lethal)

20. ‘If you’re asking if I plan to continue as Robin, the answer is yes. I’m more determined now than ever before. But don’t for a moment think I’m now like you, Bruce. I’m not about to let these losses turn me into another copy of you–grim and vengeful and closed off from most of what keeps us human. Steph and Darla and my Dad died in a war worth fighting–made even more so because of the terrible price they paid, not in spite of it. I won’t squander their sacrifice by quitting again. So, if you’ll still have me, I’m Robin, and I’m in it for the long run.’

–Tim Drake to Bruce Wayne (Robin #132 – Fresh Blood Part One of Four: Too Many Ghosts)

21. ‘This is the deal. You want us to be part of the Teen Titans, this Tower has nomore rules. We get enough of them at home. We won’t sit on the sidelines. We won’t be treated like inferiors.’

–Tim Drake (Teen Titans #6 – War and Peace)

22. ‘We know we’re right, but what’s the point in being right if we’re not willing to fight for it?’

–Tim Drake to Red Tornado (Young Justice #18 – Revolting Developments)

#answered

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hunnywrites · 5 years

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Sixteen Candles: Part One

Summary: It’s the day that Vivian has been looking forward to nearly her entire life: her sixteenth birthday. But between her sister’s wedding overshadowing her big day, and praying that her crush Billy Hargrove will finally notice her things aren’t going too well for her. If she can just survive the under the sea dance at her school and avoid the really weird and creepy Tommy H her night might be salvageable. Maybe.

Pairing: Billy Hargrove/OFC

A/N: I’m cracking under the pressure and writing one of the 80′s teen movie inspired fics for Billy. I meant to get this up a few days ago on my birthday, but we all know I’m horrible with deadlines. This is gonna be a mini fic, probably around six chapters in total. And I’d say it’s an AU. I hope you all like it! We get to see more of Cheryl Burns from Arcade Dreams which I’m pretty excited about.

Vivian’s house was chaotic on a good day. Weekday mornings went by in a tornado like blur as she and her older sister Carol got ready for school and her parents readied themselves for work. If it wasn’t Carol and Vivian arguing over who got to use the bathroom first, it was Vivian yelling at Carol for using up all of the hot water and borrowing her clothes without asking. Their mother had given up on cooking her family a big breakfast once both of the girls had started high school, and now the two sisters all hurried around the kitchen dodging each other while fixing themselves a bowl of cereal while their father practically choked down some dry toast and coffee. That was a normal morning. This week had been been anything but normal.

Vivian’s older sister Sarah was getting married in two days. The only catch was that Sarah her fiance Kevin lived in Florida. Which meant that all wedding planning was taken over by Vivian’s parents. Which meant that their household had gone from chaotic to nuclear war zone. The phone was constantly ringing. If it wasn’t a florist or a caterer or someone that was calling with questions about the wedding, it was Sarah calling nearly in tears over how scared she was that her wedding would be anything less than perfect.

Tonight would be a slight reprieve though. Her parents were driving a few towns over to pick Sarah and Kevin up from the airport, and wouldn’t be back until the middle of the night. Their mother had absolutely forbidden them from taking any calls regarding the wedding. They’d been instructed to take a thorough message on the notepad their mother had left on the fridge and that was all. “I want homework done as soon as you get home. There’s leftovers in the fridge so no ordering pizza. I want you both in bed by ten and absolutely no friends over.” their mother had said. That last part had been mainly for Carol. She’d been known to throw a few impromptu get togethers anytime their parents were gone for the night.

Vivian never really minded. Even though she and Carol got along as well as two alley cats, Vivian always covered for her. Regardless of the fact that Carol’s boyfriend Tommy was an absolute weirdo and Vivian always spent most of the time hidden in her room to avoid him, there was one reason that she was so willing to look the other way when it came to Carol’s parties. Billy Hargrove.

The crush Vivian had on him was absolutely shameless. Just like every other girl at her school, Vivian had it bad for Hawkins’ resident bad boy. They definitely weren’t close or anything. They barely interacted. If Vivian was ever brave enough to leave her room when Carol had friends over he might say hi or give her a nod in the halls at school if she could work up the nerve to say something to him. Of course Vivian had it all built up to much more in her mind. Countless times she had fantasized about saying a flirty hello to Billy in the hall, and that nod would be followed by him sauntering over, taking her in his arms and kissing her so hard she’d forget her own name.

But there was one other thing getting in the way of Vivian’s fantasies ever becoming a reality ...aside from the obvious of course. Cheryl Burns. Cheryl was Billy’s pseudo girlfriend. They weren’t quite friends with benefits. They weren’t really even friends. But they both hung out in the same circle, they were both freakishly attractive and Billy was of course more than willing to pretend to be Cheryl’s date every once and awhile in exchange for...well, Vivian didn’t really like to think about what those two were most definitely doing. And it wasn’t like Vivian wasn’t attractive. She was just painfully shy and awkward. But those two things definitely didn’t work well with trying to get a boy’s attention.

Which was why she was stuck up in her bedroom and watching down on Carol and her friends wistfully from her window. The usual crowd was there. Tommy H had brought a twelve pack of beer, Nicole had brought some guy along (Vivian was pretty sure his name was Curt), and Cheryl was placed delicately in Billy’s lap. It was still warm outside. The weather was somewhere between summer and fall, so Billy could comfortably lounge out by the pool in a pair of jeans a light blue button up shirt. Vivian wanted to rip the buttons off with her teeth.

She shook her head wildly to get the image out of her mind and reached for the pale yellow phone that sat next to her bed. She quickly dialed her best friend’s phone number, her leg bouncing nervously as she waited for her to pick up.

“Hey, Viv-”

“He’s here.” Vivan hissed, keeping her voice down as if somehow the group outside would hear her.

“...Who’s there?” Robin asked.

“Billy! Carol invited them over since my parents are off picking Sarah up.” Vivian explained, looking down once again at Billy who still had no idea she was even home.

Robin sighed loudly on the other end. “Viv, I really don’t get this whole Billy thing. I mean aside from the obvious reasons. The guy’s a total douchebag. He’s like the douchiest of douchebags. And I’m pretty sure he uses more hair product than you do.” Vivian rolled her eyes at the joke.

“Okay, so he’s not exactly Prince Charming,” Vivian agreed. Robin let out a snort. “But he’s not that bad. I mean he’s like mysterious. Dangerous.” she explained. Try as she might, Vivian had never really been able to explain the appeal of the whole bad boy type to Robin. She always just looked at her like she was speaking some foreign language.

“Can you even hear yourself?” Robin laughed.

“Oh shut up,” Vivian said with a sigh. “Robin, this is the worst. He’s in my backyard and I’m up here like some sort of peeping tom.”

“I gotta be honest, Viv. That’s pretty pathetic.” she teased.

“I know.” why couldn’t she just go downstairs and talk to him? He was just a boy. Vivian told herself it was because she didn’t want to hear Carol bitching at her that she was trying to scare her friends away or she didn’t want to deal with Tommy and his flirting with her (if you could really even call it flirting). But she was a chicken with a capital C. I’m totally gonna die alone, she thought with a groan.

“Look,” Robin began with a serious tone. “He’s right downstairs. He’s not dating Cheryl. You should just go ask him out. Bite the bullet. I mean, it’s not like you’ll die if he says no or whatever.” it had always driven Vivian crazy how Robin could have such a casual attitude towards everything. She didn’t think there was a thing out there that could scare Robin. Well, except maybe one thing.

Vivian crossed her arms. “I’ll ask Billy out the day that you ask Tammy Thompson out.”

Robin was silent for a moment and Vivian could practically hear Robin rolling her eyes dramatically. “...Touche,” was all she said. “Listen, I’m changing the subject now. What do you wanna do tomorrow?”

Tomorrow was Vivian’s sixteenth birthday. Something she had been looking forward to practically her entire life. A girl’s sixteenth birthday was a big deal. A right of passage. She’d finally be able to drive. Initially she had a whole plan laid out. Her entire day had been scheduled from morning until night. But then Sarah called to announce that Kevin had proposed. And then they decided they’d be getting married the day after Vivian’s birthday.

Then there was the under the sea dance at school. Hawkins High was trying to put a fun spin on their homecoming dance or something. It had been announced on the school’s morning announcements about a week ago. And Vivian had no intention of going. She and Robin never had any interest in those sorts of things. Carol definitely would, but Vivian wasn’t exactly bummed out over the idea of her sister missing out on any birthday plans she had.

It just so happened that Kevin’s parents would be flying in on the night of Vivian’s birthday, as well as her grandparents. So her parents gave her and Carol a choice; either go to the dance or have dinner with Kevin and his parents at Enzos. Vivian decided the dance would be the lesser of two evils.

“Ugh, I don’t even know anymore. Maybe we can catch a movie or something? I think Red Dawn is still out. Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey.” she said, wiggling her eyebrows. They probably wouldn’t have to stay at the dance long. Carol wouldn’t rat Vivian out for ditching solely on the principle of Vivian constantly covering for her. And it was better than spending the night trying to explain to her grandpa how the new TV worked for hours on end.

“I do love me some Swayze,” Robin joked. Vivian let out a snort. “If that’s what you wanna do, birthday girl, then that’s the plan. Listen, I gotta go finish some biology homework. Try to stop stalking Billy, okay?”

“I’m not stalking,” Vivian argued before sighing. “...I’ll try my best. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“You know it. Later, dork.”

Vivan smiled and rolled her eyes. “Later, dweeb.”

She could still hear the sound of Carol and her friends hanging out by the pool, so Vivian decided it would probably be safe to head down to the kitchen. She could see from the top of the stairs that the small light above the stove was on, but she assumed Carol had left it on so she and her friends could see to get in and out of the house. She definitely wasn’t expecting to see Billy rummaging through the fridge.

Vivian stopped short in the doorway and let out a small “Oh.” when she saw him. There was a brief moment when she was deciding whether to go back upstairs or not, but before she could decide, Billy spotted her.

He did somewhat of a double take when he saw her. Almost like he was making sure he wasn’t just imagining seeing someone in the doorway. He flashed a slow, easy smile her way and Vivian nearly gulped. “Hey, Viv.” nearly everyone she knew called her Viv. And yet somehow no one else managed to give her that tingly feeling that shot up her spine like Billy could whenever he said her name. Robin was right, she really was pathetic.

“Hey…” she shifted awkwardly, not moving from her spot in the doorway. Say something you idiot, she scolded herself. You’re alone with Billy Hargrove in your fucking kitchen. Say something!

Thankfully he beat her to the punch. “Nice shirt.” He said, nodding to the oversized Tank shirt she was planning on wearing to bed. The three headed hellhound that adorned her shirt was almost looking up at her judgmentally.

“Hmm? Oh! Thanks! Yeah, uh my dad took me to see them a few years ago as a Christmas present.” she’d definitely gotten her taste in music from her dad. Back in the day he’d followed the Grateful Dead whenever they toured and he joked that he had the Kiss logo tattooed on his ass. Vivian kinda didn’t believe that one though. There was no way her mom would marry anyone with a tattoo of anything on their ass.

Billy raised his eyebrows and let out a chuckle. “Your old man is definitely cooler than mine,” he pulled out a can of Coke and held it up in offering to Vivian. She gladly took it and mumbled out a thanks before taking a long sip. Billy watched her quietly for a moment before nodding his head towards the patio. “How come you’re not out there with everyone else?”

Vivian rolled her eyes in a way that she hoped came off as casual. “Carol always says I’m trying to steal her friends or whatever.” she said with a shrug. That was the nice version. “Don’t think that you’re cool by association just because you’re my sister. You’re definitely not.” Carol had said once after Vivian asked if she could tag along to some house party Carol had been invited to. So Vivian gave up trying to hang out with Carol after that. Tommy and Carol would give her a ride to school and a ride home and that was about the extent of the relationship.

“Yeah,” Billy said. “She can definitely be a bitch when she feels like it.”

“You’re preaching to the choir,” Vivian said with a snort. She bit her lip when Billy let out a small laugh. This was it. This was her chance. There wasn’t anyone else around. She should just ask him to the dance. Robin was right, what was the worst that could happen? “So um...are you going to the dance tomorrow night?” she asked, trying to keep her voice sounding as calm and casual as possible. Her heart was beating so hard in her chest that she was sure Billy could probably hear it.

He made a face. “Probably. I’m pretty sure Cheryl’s gonna drag me along,” he rolled his eyes. Vivian’s heart dropped down into her stomach. Of course he was going with Cheryl. She would never miss an opportunity to flash off whatever sort of relationship they had. Cheryl would never pass up on making the other girls from school jealous. It was what she lived for. “What about you?”

Vivian was so shocked he asked that she almost didn’t respond. She cleared her throat loudly before giving a small shrug. “Yeah. It’s either that or a rehearsal dinner for my sister’s wedding,” she rolled her eyes. “I mean, you’d think they’d let me skip out on both since it’s my birthday and all…”

“Oh yeah? Well, happy early birthday. One year closer to the sweet release of death.” Vivian felt her cheeks grow hot at the way Billy grinned at the snort she let out. She was grateful that the kitchen was dark and he couldn’t see how red her face probably was.

“Thanks...um, I have homework I gotta finish up so I should…” she jabbed a thumb in the direction of the stairs. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Billy nodded, a faint smirk on his lips. “Sounds like it. Later, Viv.”

Vivian let out a sort of quiet, strangled, nervous laugh before turning around and all but bounding up the stairs. She sighed loudly once her door was closed behind her. “God, I’m such a fucking idiot,” she scolded herself. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” She repeated in a mocking tone. She threw herself dramatically down onto her bed.

If Billy thought Vivian was a total loser after that interaction he’d been gracious enough to hide it from her. So much for small miracles, she guessed. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach that later when Billy was driving Cheryl home he would bring up Vivian’s pathetic attempt to ask him out. The thought of them laughing at her made Vivian let out a loud groan.

At least tomorrow was her birthday. She would wake up to the smell of the blueberry pancakes her mother always made for her birthday, her dad would crack his “boy, you sure are getting over the hill, huh, sweet pea?” Joke he cracked every year, and when she came home for school it would be time to open presents before Sarah, Kevin and her parents headed off to meet Kevin’s parents. If she focused on that then her run in with Billy didn’t seem so bad.

Only that’s not exactly what ended up happening. Vivian woke up to a morning that wasn’t quite as chaotic as usual. It was so quiet that Vivian felt like something might be wrong. She’d almost wondered for a second if somehow she’d woken up late. There were no pancakes. No birthday jokes. Instead her father was running around an otherwise quiet house like a headless chicken. “Has anyone seen my briefcase?!” he called, poking his head into each and every room he walked by. He barely passed a glance in Vivian’s direction. Weird, but Vivian was willing to accept that he was just distracted.

Her mother was in the kitchen with Sarah and Kevin. “...Morning.” Vivian said wearily as she walked in. Sarah was the only one that looked up.

“God, Vivian what did you do to your hair?” Sarah gasped. Vivian frowned, reaching up to touch her red hair. “Who let you cut it? You’re a bridesmaid!” her sister’s face was growing more and more red by the second. “We’ll have to put it up. This is completely unacceptable. Mom, did you approve of this?” Kevin didn’t even bother to look up from his newspaper. Which was typical of him. He practically wouldn’t speak unless Sarah told him it was okay.

Vivian’s mother rolled her eyes. “It looks fine, Sarah. Leave it. Vivian, do you want toast?”

Vivian blinked a few times, wondering if maybe she was just dreaming. Or maybe they were trying to pull some sort of prank on her. “Um...no. I’ll get cereal I guess if there aren’t pancakes…” she said, looking carefully at her mother.

Her mom let out a snort. “Not unless you’re making them. Okay, I have to get going. You’ll get a ride with Carol?” she asked, turning to look at Vivian. She could only nod. “Sarah, you have to meet with the florist in an hour. I’ll be home at five.” she shot Sarah a pointed look before walking out.

Vivian opened and closed her mouth a few times.

“Jesus, what crawled up your ass?” Carol asked with a dramatic eye roll as she walked into the kitchen. She looked at Vivian’s pajamas and scoffed. “And will you get dressed? Tommy will be here soon and I’m not waiting for you. If you’re not ready by the time he gets here you’re taking the bus with all the other dorks.”

Vivian looked at her sisters. Carol was shooting her a dirty look while Sarah looked at Vivian and her hair with a nearly disgusted look. She silently spun around, heading up to her room, shutting the door behind her and leaning against it.

“I don’t believe this...they fucking forgot my birthday.”

#billy hargrove #billy hargrove fic #billy hargrove x oc

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