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gotham-mockingbird · 2 years

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Summary: 5 times Barry learned something about his nephew’s boyfriend +1 time he told him

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I walked up the steps to Wally’s room and knocked on the door before opening it a bit. I stop as I hear frantic movement from inside the room, knowing Wally is seeing someone and maybe he brought them over. Suddenly Wally is pulling open the door, red in the face and shirt hastily thrown on while a tanned skin dark hair guy with sunglasses on stands from his bed, pulling a black shirt over his scarred torso.

I raise my eyebrows at Wally’s flushed face as the mystery kid walks over and sticks his hand out to me, smiling brightly, “Hi, sorry we had to meet like this. I’m Nightwing, Wally’s boyfriend.”

I smile back to him and shake his hand, “So you two met in the community? Where are you from?”

He shrugs, “Originally I’m from Romania, then settled in Gotham, now I live and work in Bludhaven.”

I roil in shock just slightly, “Gotham?”

Wally tried to hide his laughs as Nightwing openly laughs, “It’s not that bad. Batman stopped trying to convince me to give up vigilantism pretty early on and we’ve worked well together since. I still visit from time to time, and by that I mean I annoy him constantly.”

Wally snorts, “At least you admit you annoy him.”

Nightwing looked over to him and gasped in mock offense, “Rude, anyways, it’s nice to meet you.”

He smiled back to me and I awkwardly responded with my own smile, “Uh, you’re welcome to stay for dinner if you’d like?”

He chuckled, “Nah I gotta get going soon, my brother would kill me if I made him go to another family dinner and then didn’t show up again,” he turned to Wally, “I’ll see you Saturday, yeah?”

Wally smiled back, “Unless something comes up, yeah.”

Nightwing smiled back and gave him a short kiss before grabbing a hoodie from Wally’s desk chair and hopping out the window with a small wave. Wally watched on with admiration as I watched in confusion.

After I was sure Nightwing was gone, I turned to Wally, “Your boyfriend is so weird.” He smiled, “Yeah, I know, but it could be worse. His siblings are weirder. What’s for dinner?”

I spent the rest of that night thinking about my meeting with Nightwing, my brain not letting me sleep until I came to conclusions that never came.

I was walking through the halls of the Watchtower when I got cornered by Batman. He pressed some buttons on his gauntlet (I still have no clue what they did) before sighing.

“You’ve met Nightwing.”

It wasn’t a question, he was stating something he knew to be true, “Yes.”

He sighs again, “I’m only telling you this because Nightwing and Kid Flash have known each other for a very long time and I trust Kid Flash. Nightwing is my son, my oldest. I trust you’ll keep this information to yourself?”

I stood in shock for a second before nodding, “Yeah, yeah of course. How many kids do you have? Wally said something about Nightwings siblings, plural, meaning at least one brother and one sister.”

Batman sighed again, “That’s an objective question but my kids answer would be around ten. No more questions now, get back to monitor duty.”

He walked away, leaving me standing in the hallway in shock. Batman has ten kids and my nephew is dating one? Oh wow. I seriously need a drink.

The interaction with Batman was on my mind for the entirety of monitor duty up until I got home. Iris was in the kitchen so I greeted her before making my way up to Wally’s room.

Iris stopped me, “Nightwing’s over, so please knock?”

I roll my eyes and chuckle, “Thanks for the warning, I.”

I walk up the steps before knocking on the door to Wally’s room, getting an immediate answer to come in. Nightwing was on Wally’s bed on his stomach with a switch controller in his hands while Wally was on the floor under him, the red controller in his hands. I smiled at them as they paused their game and Wally looked up to me.

I just smiled at Nightwing, “I had an interesting conversation with Batman earlier.”

Nightwing groaned and let his head fall into the bed while Wally laughed. I watched on, slightly amused, slightly confused. How had Batman raised a happy go lucky kid like Nightwing?

Nightwing lifted his head up, “What did that idiot say?”

I chuckled, “Just said that you were his son, thought I should know since you two have known each other for a while. He also said he trusts Wally and that was one of the only reasons he told me.” Nightwing smiled brightly as Wally blushed, “HA! Told you he liked you. He definitely likes you more than Kon. Did you see how he reacted when Red told him? He didn’t react at all when we told him about us.”

Wally rolled his eyes, “Yeah yeah.”

Nightwing ruffled his hair, “Not to mention you get explicit invites to Friday Family Dinner, and Roy barely gets those invites.”

He shrugged, “Yeah, and?”

Nightwing made a motion like he was rolling his eyes, but I couldn’t tell under the glasses, “Roy has been married into the family for like a year now. Plus, if he didn’t like you it would’ve ended up like Red and his civilian boyfriend B scared off.”

I just dismissed myself from the conversation and invited Nightwing to dinner once again before going back downstairs to confide in Iris about the weirdness that is my life.

I walk into the house, later than I usually would be home, to see Nightwing and Wally cuddling on the couch. Nightwing was on his back, in what I assume is his uniform, sans the mask, with dark eyeshadow around his eyes and Wally laying on top of him on his stomach. It seems they were watching a movie when Wally fell asleep on him. He smiled over to me in greeting and I waved a bit awkwardly back, noticing Wally was also in uniform, his cowl down, and both their boots off.

Nightwing was playing with Wally's hair with the arm he had wrapped around his shoulder while his other arm was behind his head as he watched the tv. Wally had both his arms wrapped around Nightwing’s waist, and if I wasn’t sure before, I knew he was asleep because he snored a bit, softly, before muttering something in his sleep.

Nightwing smiled and looked down to him fondly, making me smile as I rummaged through the kitchen. I got some water from the fridge along with some leftovers, and while they were heating up, a ringtone I didn't recognize went off.

Nightwing cursed a bit before answering his phone, the one sided conversation confusing and alarming me, “Yeah?”

He looked a bit alarmed at what the person on the other end said, “What do you mean you don’t know what to do? I thought you fixed it?”

He put his head in his hand, “Of course, B, you have to talk to him. You do this thing where you get overprotective and instead of explaining that you’re protecting us like a reasonable human being you randomly bench us or take an extreme measure and end up pissing us off.”

He sighed, his voice getting softer, “Dad, he has abandonment issues. His mother just dropped him off with us and left. He thinks if he steps out of line with you that you’ll just send him off with someone and he’s trying to get you to crack faster cause he actually likes us and thinks the quicker you kick him out the easier it will be. You have to explain to him that he’s your son and you aren’t leaving him.”

He smiles gently at whatever Batman said next, “Dad, neither of you are good with emotions, but if you show a little bit of emotion to him he’ll instantly melt. He tries too hard to be tough because that’s how his mother raised him and that’s all he sees you do. I can’t keep catching him when he lashes out. Imagine if he would have run away this time. I’m in Central City and Wally can barely run himself anywhere, let alone me.”

It was quiet for a bit and I stopped the microwave before it beeped, taking out my food and putting a different food in. I pretended I wasn’t listening as Nightwing continued, exacerbated.

“Dad, please just talk to him and explain yourself. He has your blood in him, he won’t take the bullshit excuses you gave the rest of us.”

He smiled, “Yes I know he knows sarcasm, I taught him specifically so he could sass you when you’re being an ass.”

He chuckled, “Don’t worry, he’s fine. He didn’t eat for like four hours and was running on three hours of sleep so he’s out, but it’s nothing that won’t be fixed by tomorrow evening.”

“Yeah, I know, you too, B. Go talk to your son. Love you too. Bye.”

He hung up the phone before sighing a bit. I took my food from the microwave and ate it using my speed before cleaning up the kitchen and turning to the living room where Wally was still asleep, as if Nightwing wasn’t just speaking right next to his ear.

Nightwing looked up to me and smiled an apologetic smile, “Sorry about that, and this. Wally got like three hours of sleep last night and it was a pretty hectic day so he’s out. As for that conversation, my baby brother, Robin, was born into the league of assassins and then dropped off to Batman because he’s a clone of b and Talia Al Ghul and he has issues. Issues that Batman does not know how to handle himself.”

I smiled, “You’re fine. I’m glad Wally has someone who can get him to take care of himself instead of running himself into the ground. As for the conversation, I work with the man. I can only assume.”

He chuckles, “He cares more than he lets on, he just tries to hold others at arm's length so they don’t get hurt. He really tries, he does. If he didn’t, none of his kids would stick around, especially not after…”

He trailed off but shook himself out of it and smiled back up at me, “Anyways, it’s late and I just promised my dad I’d get to sleep at a reasonable time, which is usually before one am in my family.”

I chuckle as he maneuvers Wally so he can pick him up bridal style before standing up, “Goodnight, Barry, and thank you for letting me stay here.”

I smile back, “No problem, thanks for watching over Wally.”

He smiles, “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

He carried Wally up the stairs and to his room, me smiling at him until they disappeared into the room and the door shut. I sigh and go to my room where Iris is already asleep and climb into bed after changing into a sweatshirt and sweatpants.

Batman’s been acting weird. I can’t put my finger on it, but something really feels off about him. Ever since I’ve been getting to know his son better, he’s been nicer to me, and we have actually had some conversation that wasn’t work related. I’d like to think we’ve become somewhat friends.

He’s been a bit more distant from others for the past week, not to mention Nightwing hasn’t visited Wally in a while. I tried asking about it but Wally wasn’t answering anything. If it weren’t for the fact that Wally has promised that everything is ok in the relationship, I’d think they broke up.

I sat back in my chair as Superman drones on and on about a mission, but my eyes found their way to Batman. He looked bored, which is weird, considering he’s Batman. He noticed me looking and quickly put his regular broody face on, but something struck me as odd. His jawline looked a bit softer and if i thought about it just enough-

I tried not to physically show my surprise, and did well considering everyone was either bored as shit or looking at Superman. I could tell that he knew I figured it out because I could basically feel him mentally screaming at me to shut the fuck up. J’onn looked between un quizzically for a bi before realizing himself that that is not the Batman we know, but apparently Nightwing took care of it because he didn’t say anything.

It was an even longer meeting than it had to be and it felt even longer with the suspense of finding out just what the fuck is going on in the air. Superman dismissed everyone and ‘Batman’ told me to stay behind. Hal and Ollie pat me on the back, thinking I was in trouble, before it was just me and Nightwing.

He typed some stuff into his gauntlet and the doors sealed, the cameras turned off, and some sort of green light emanated from the walls, before he took off the cowl. The young face of my nephew’s boyfriend, black eyeshadow smeared on his eyes, looked up at me.

I sighed, “Please explain this, where’s B?”

He sighed and looked down before looking back up, tears brimming his eyes, “We don’t know. Protocol stated that in the event that he goes missing during an event that could take his life one of us is to take on the cowl. He got caught in an explosion, but when we checked the building we didn’t find any traces of him. Our witness also claims there’s no way he could have gotten out before it exploded. Based off of evidence, we’ve declared him dead. We still have hope, though. Until we find him I am Batman. It’s not a title I ever wanted, but I’m the only one who can currently take it up. I guess Black Bat could, but until we have definitive proof he’s dead we don’t want Gotham to panic.”

I sat there frozen for a second, taking in the information, “Has Wally been helping you in Bludhaven?”

He nods, putting his head in his hands, “Wally’s completely taken over Bludhaven for me, and usually one of my siblings goes to help. Being Batman is a full time job, though, especially with the League. I don’t know how he does it.”

I think for a second, trying to find a way to help him, “Would it help if I made something up for the others and sent Wally in my place as Flash?”

I saw his eyes light up a fraction of a bit, “That would help more than you could ever know.”

I nod my head and smile at him, “I’m happy I can help. I’m here if you ever need to talk.”

He nods, “Thank you Barry, it means a lot.”

I shake my head, “It’s no problem. I’ve noticed the difference in Wally these past weeks and I think it would do some good for him too. I could tell he’s missed you.”

Nightwing sighs, “Yeah, we should probably go before everyone else gets suspicious. Don’t need the Justice League making rumors about Batman and Flash now do we?”

I chuckle, “That we do not.”

He put his cowl back on and undid the security measures and the door opened. I gave him one last smile before walking out to find Wally and tell him the plan.

It was about another month before I came home to see ‘Batman’ with his cowl down laying on my couch with Wally, still in his Flash suit, standing over him, “C’mon babe, it’s not that bad.”

He just groaned in response so I made my presence known, “Uhh, is everything ok?”

Wally rolled his eyes, “Batman is alive, we found him, made sure he didn’t die, bla bla bla, but the thing is, the Batcave is very open. The medical bed B was on was in the open. I was being a good boyfriend and convincing Nightwing to come over and rest after almost two months of non stop work when Batman woke up.”

He groans, “You make it sound like we were just talking. He woke up right as we kissed, it was weird. We were in costume Wally. He saw Batman and Flash kiss. We’ve scarred him for life and I can never go home.”

I tried to stifle my laughter as Wally shook his head, “He was high on painkillers, who knows what he’ll remember.”

“Probably the image of Batman and Flash kissing. I know we scared the shit out of some of my siblings the other week. That was funny though.”

Wally laughed with him, “It really was, but to be honest, if Batman is scarred by that then we have other matters to discuss since he’s seen way worse things.”

Nightwing seemed to think on it for a second, “That is true. Although the idea of my father seeing me kiss someone will never be mortifying, especially when I’m dressed as him and the person I’m kissing is dressed as his coworker.”

I just shake my head, giving up on containing my laugh, “I think it’s hilarious and next time I see him I will definitely be asking if he remembers that. In the meantime, you both have been working too hard and need to sleep.”

Nightwing groaned, “I need to get out of this thing.”

Wally snorts, “You’ve said that everyday for the past two months, let’s go.”

“Ugh,” Wally pulled Nightwing up off the couch and dragged him up the steps calling over his shoulder a goodnight.

I smile and shake my head calling out goodnight as well before going about what I was going to do when I walked in the door.

I’m scrolling through TikTok, taking the day off work because of a pretty bad injury that needs the day to heal, when I see Nightwing on my screen. I smile, knowing Nightwing is pretty loud in his pride at being Batman’s son, the only one of his kids who isn’t just rumored. I also know Nightwing doesn’t share his fathers interests in staying mysterious.

I watch the funny lighthearted video before following him and deciding to look through his page. There were lots of videos of him and Spoiler, but one particular video caught my eye. It seemed to be a bit darker than the rest.

I clicked on it and read the first line, it was set to the sound I am the righteous hand of God, and he had - what I hope were fake - injuries littering his face, a manic smile set as well, ‘Joker after kidnapping and killing my kid brother, beating the shit out of me.’

The chorus came and the scene switched to Nightwing, covered in shadows, injuries still there, looking menacingly with the caption, ‘Batman deciding his no kill rule doesn’t apply to people who hurt his kids, effectively scaring me shitless for the first time in my life.’

He mouthed the words, ‘I am the righteous hand of God,’ while stretching his hand out as if asking someone to take it, his expression soft and looking past the camera, before he gave a scary looking smirk and a glare to the camera as he mouthed to, ‘and I am the devil that you forgot.’

I paused it after it started to repeat, absolutely shocked. Does Batman know he made this? How am I supposed to react to this? Did Batman actually kill the Joker? I don’t blame him to be honest, but damn, knowing B, it had to be gruesome. Did Nightwing watch?

I stopped thinking about it and clicked on the comments. It seems most of his audience is Bludhaven and Gotham residents because they were talking about remembering that day. Apparently Joker had been taunting Batman by torturing his kid on live television. I got nauseous reading some of the comments, mostly from people who had seen the live streams and knew the beating Nightwing took that night.

It hurt to think about. I exit out of the app and text Wally, ‘Hey, so I just saw something, could you get me in contact with Nightwing?’

It didn’t take long for him to text back, ‘Y? Wut did u see?’

I sigh at his texting grammar, ‘Tiktok’.

He doesn’t text back for a second, but finally I get a reply, ‘oh’ ‘I’ll send him ur #’

I shake my head and text back, ‘Thank you.’

I tap the edges of my phone anxiously waiting before I get a text from an unknown number, ‘Wally says you found my Tiktok and wanna talk?’

I swallow my nerves and text back, ‘Yeah, um, I saw the “righteous hand of God” one?’

The typing bubbles popped up and stayed there for quite a bit of time, as if he was typing and deleting over and over again before he finally sent something, ‘I made it with the permission of Batman and my brother who died and came back to life. It was supposed to be funny, and it still kind of is, but people who don’t know about his resurrection don’t see it how I do. The comments got a bit darker than I thought they would. Questions I know you might have, no I did not see either of them die. I was on my way back to Gotham when it happened and when B found me getting beat up he made sure I was safe, told me to go home, and then smashed the camera joker set up. No one in Gotham made a big deal of it, either, not even Vicky Vale reported on it. Anyways, that's basically it.’

I stared at the giant blob of speech in front of me, trying to process it, but one thing stuck out, ‘Resurrected?!’

‘Yeah, Baby Bird got resurrected like 7 months after his death. B-man was not happy about it, but second chance ig? Idk I wasn’t there for the reunion. I just know he came back different and much much taller, the asshole.’

I chuckle at Nightwings ability to make anything a joke and type back, ‘Thank you for the explanation. I was worried when I saw it that B didn’t know about it and you had outed like a secret or smth.’

‘LOL no. I texted him the draft and asked if it was ok and he just sighed and said to ask Jay who thought it was fucken hilarious so I posted it. It’s all over and done with now, my little brother is alive, and he comes over every Friday for dinner.’

I just roll my eyes, chuckling, ‘I suppose the reason it isn’t international news is because most of your followers either think it’s fake or are from Gotham/Bludhaven.’

‘Yeah it helps. Gotta go. Robbery. See you tomorrow probably.’

‘See ya.’

I sighed and set my phone down, deciding to catch up on some sleep instead of watching more TikTok.

I climb into the Batmobile so Batman can take me to his cave, reflecting on everything that got me here. I had gotten a call from Nightwing saying Wally had been hurt, not enough to worry about, but enough to where he had to be on bed rest for a while. He said I could come visit and sent me an address, telling me to wait on the roof. Batman had shown up and directed me to his car where he told me the condition Wally is in.

“He’s going to be ok. The only thing I’m worried about is his metabolism burning through the pain meds, but Red Robin is pretty sure he got the dosage right for his metabolism. If not we’ll figure it out eventually. Meta care isn’t our specialty, but we engineer drugs, vaccines, and antidotes on a bi-weekly basis, so meta physiology isn’t that far of a stretch.”

I smile at his attempt at reassuring me, remembering Nightwing telling me how hard he tries, “I trust you, Bats. to be completely honest I wouldn’t trust anyone else in the League but maybe J’onn to take care of Wally when he’s hurt. Plus, you’ve trusted me with Nightwing and you’ve obviously known Wally personally longer than I’ve known Nightwing exists.”

He smirks at me before I take in our surroundings. We just drove into a tunnel that seemed to be illuminated with white and blue lights, but other than that it was dark. I knew instantly that we were almost to his cave.

“So if the Batcave an actual cave or are we about to emerge into like a basement?”

He rolled his eyes under the cowl, “It’s a cave. With bats.”

I chuckle, “Of course.”

He shakes his head, “When we get there, my other kids probably won’t have their masks on.”

I froze a bit, understanding what he meant and what was probably about to happen, but he continued on, “I don’t see Wally and Dick breaking up anytime soon, or ever really, and I know it’s hard on them to keep it from you.”

He pressed a button, presumably to make the car drive itself before turning to me, “My identity stays silent-”

“Uh duh, like I’m going to go around screaming who you are. Sorry, continue.”

He huffs, “You can tell Iris, but if she says anything I’ll have her put in a mental asylum.”

I nodded, “Fair.”

He sighed before removing the cowl, showing BRUCE WAYNE? I froze, staring at him in shock for a second before removing my own cowl and rubbing my eyes before looking back. He just rolled his eyes and went back to driving.

Finally, as I was about to gain my senses back, we made it to his cave. It was breathtaking. I looked around as we came to a stop and the top opened. I got out and followed BRUCE WAYNE to where Wally was.

I smiled as I looked into the room Bruce directed me to and saw Nightwing - Dick Grayson - laughing at something Wally mumbled in his sleep, holding him much like the night he walked in on them on the couch.

Bruce and I agreed it was best for him to stay here and recover, but I did get to stay for dinner, and now I see why Dick always blew off dinner with us.

I left Wayne Manor happy to know my nephew was happy with his boyfriend, and his future in-laws were amazing people. I also left giddy about Bruce Wayne being Batman and the fact that Batman will soon be forced to interact with me and Iris on a daily basis. Gods I can’t wait to tell Iris all this.

*BONUS*

I could barely hold myself together the entire meeting. Batman, the real one, was sitting across from me for the first time since he came back from the dead, and I can’t stop thinking about Nightwing ang Wally’s in-uniform kiss. The meeting was dreadfully slow and boring, Batman and J’onn having a conversation no doubt about nightwing substituting for him.

Finally, the meeting ended and I asked Batman if I could have a small word. He sighed and when everyone was out of the room did the same thing Nightwing did for privacy.

I sighed, “Ok first thing, I want to say nightwing told me how you went missing, and I’m very glad you’re not dead. Second, he did a very good job impersonating you and you should probably be worried. Three, what’s the first thing you remember after waking up?”

He groaned and rolled his eyes under the cowl, “I’d very much NOT like to remember that sight.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, “Nightwing was mortified.”

He hummed, “As he should be. I’ve told them to refrain from PDA in uniform many times. They called me a Boomer before TikTok dancing and running away holding hands. I have the video if you’d like it.”

I chuckle, “Oh most definitely.”

He smirked before turning serious and asking quietly, “How did he do as me?”

I smile softly, “From what I heard, no one even bat an eye. He was stressed, but he did better than I think anyone could have done in his shoes. I subbed League duties with Wally so they could see each other more, and I think that helped a lot.”

Batman did something that truly shocked me, he smiled, “Thank you, Barry. I know Nightwing already has, but I had to. You…”

He trailed off, but I knew what he was going to say, he was just having a difficult time saying it, “You’re welcome. You don’t have to say more, I know what you’re going to say. You’re not really a words guy B, don’t try to be.”

His smile softened a bit, “We should go.”

I chuckled, “Yeah, can’t have people making rumors about us, no matter if Batman and Flash have kissed before.”

He groaned, “Shut up, if I ever have to see that again I’d kill myself.”

I laughed as he undid the security measures before walking out, Batman behind me, scowling.

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