After the end of the clone wars, also thanks to Commander Fox’s involvement, he is being shunned by his brothers for his actions during the war, as necessary as they were. So when he finds the invitation to join his brothers in the new Free Clone Alliance was nothing but a farce to keep face, Fox never wants to see them again. He takes the Darksaber he had won during the war with the intention to return it to the rightful people. Just a quick stop before he can continue on his way.
He is met with animosity here as well, but it doesn’t cut as deeply as his brother's distaste for him did.
Only he just can’t seem to leave, and slowly the Mandalorians change their opinion of him.
Instead of "the GAR hates Fox for killing fives".....
The gar thinks the Corries basically have a desk job. Probably have rarely used their blasters. The GAR being like "aw poor Fox :( of course he panicked when Fives went for a weapon. He's probably never been held at blaster-point before. Of course he didn't think to turn it to stun :( poor guy it's probably his first time killing someone I hope his brothers know to do a vod-pile"
Fox would hate it so much. He's not scorned or hated for killing Fives. He's *pitied* and patronized and that is so much worse.
I haven't written anything here for a long time, but there's no reason that I had not to share it! The incredibly talented @sokadrawws drew for me such an incredibly beautiful portrait of the incredibly awesome CT-9902, better known as Tech. I miss this brilliant boy every day, but most likely, thanks to the wonderful artist, I will do it a little less often) If anyone liked it, contact the author, give her well-deserved compliments, or better yet, order a commission.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
My second entry for @foxquinweek
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: CC-1010 | Fox/Quinlan Vos
Characters: Quinlan Vos, CC-1010 | Fox, CC-2224 | Cody, Obi-Wan Kenobi
Additional Tags: Lightsabers (Star Wars), Lightsaber Training (Star Wars), CC-2224 | Cody Uses Obi-Wan Kenobi's Lightsaber, CC-1010 | Fox-centric, Crack Treated Seriously, Protective Quinlan Vos, Secret Identity, BAMF CC-1010 | Fox, Lightsaber Combat (Star Wars), Quinlan Vos Being a Little Shit
Series: Part 5 of Corrie Bingo (aka Fox Bingo)
Summary:
Fox isn't jealous of Cody being taught to use a lightsaber by his Jedi. So what if Fox was the only Commander without a Jedi to teach him. Who even wanted to have a cool badass glowstick? No, Fox was perfectly happy practicing hand-to-hand combat with this annoying security officer.
Day 3 Fox being part of the Jedi Order because of a technicality
Day 7 you cannot just hand me a lightsaber and say ‘figure it out’. You're right, here’s a second one. Duel-wilding is fun.
bingo: Lightsaber Shenanigans
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Finished my first work for @foxquinweek
I’m always happy for this event and the work it does in keeping the ship alive ❤️
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: CC-1010 | Fox/Quinlan Vos, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Quinlan Vos
Characters: CC-1010 | Fox, Quinlan Vos, Clone Commander Thorn (Star Wars), CC-5869 | Stone, Coruscant Guard Trooper Hound (Star Wars), CC-4477 | Thire, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, CC-2224 | Cody
Additional Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Misunderstandings, Secret Identity, Identity Reveal, Flirting, Idiots in Love, Falling In Love, Love at First Sight, Sheev Palpatine Dies, CC-1010 | Fox Kills Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, CC-1010 | Fox Needs A Hug, CC-1010 | Fox-centric, POV CC-1010 | Fox, Coruscant Guard (Star Wars), Coruscant Guard Bingo, Undercover, The Force Ships It (Star Wars), Self-Esteem Issues, BAMF CC-1010 | Fox, Protective Quinlan Vos, Soft Quinlan Vos, Implied/Referenced Abuse, not between the main pair just Coruscant being shitty, English Is Not The Author's First Language, Smut, Soulmates, Galactic Senate (Star Wars)
Series: Part 4 of Corrie Bingo (aka Fox Bingo)
Summary:
Fox meets a dancer hired by the senate, and despite his mistrust against Natborns, he can't help feeling drawn towards the man that keeps flirting with him. As Fox slowly lowers his shields and lets the other into his life, he would never suspect the secrets Quin is hiding and their consequences.
Look how many prompts fit in this thing:
Day 6 Fox assumes he's Quinlan's dirty little secret, but Quinlan surprises him by being open and proud about their relationship
Day 6 “I didn’t think you’d remember.” “I could never forget you for even a second.”
Day 4 “You don’t flinch when I touch you anymore.”
Day 2 Skimpily clad Quinlan trying to seduce a fully armoured, unimpressed Fox
Day 2 “If I take the armor off… you wouldn't even recognize me.” “There is no way I could
mistake you for someone else.”
Alternate Prompt:
Quin: "You're beautiful." Fox: "I'm just one of many. We all look the same." Quin:"Then why is it only you that takes my breath away?"
Also for Corrie Bingo:
Soulmate au (I count this; there is a special pull between them in the beginning.)
Accidental kiss (I also count this. I started the bingo in 2024. I'm allowed to interpret loosely).
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sirius Black/Severus Snape
Characters: Sirius Black, Severus Snape
Additional Tags: Angst, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Flashbacks, Reminiscing, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, Enemies to Lovers
Summary:
Going to a meeting with Black before the final battle, Severus is reminiscent about their shared past.
god i love making Damian into a mini Jason. 'akhi' Jason who was literally the only authoriative male figure Damian grew up with apart from Ra's. Jason's dialect, his facial expressions, his humor. Damian inherited it all. Talia watched Damian turn into a mini Red Hood and knew for a fucking fact him going to Gotham would be a dead giveaway that Jason was still alive, and since Jason wasn't ready for an identity reveal she had to coach Damian on Not Acting Like That just to keep the secrecy.
so Damian shows up in Gotham supremely self concious about NOT acting like his big brother. leading him to overcompensate and act like an edwardian school boy/draco malfoy hybrid. and he keeps it up. for like a year.
and then Jason comes back and reveals he's alive, and the family bullshit gets sorted out, and Damian's still just... instinctively acting how Talia told him he had to in order to protect his brother.
except for the fact that the second Damian is in Jason's presence, who he actually is comes FLOODING back. and suddenly the family get to watch Damian walk into a room, lock eyes with Jason, and just like. slump in on himself like a deflated balloon.
"Fuck're you doin?" He drawls easily, sticking his hands in his pockets and sauntering over to where Jason is tapping at the batcomputer. Dick and Tim blink cluelessly but Jason just shrugs, not looking away from the screen.
"Stealin' Bruce's info on this case. You know 'is password for that file?"
"Fuck'm I s'posed to know?" Damian sends him a beweildered look, one that's almost identical to the face Jason himself gives Dick whenever Dick asks to hang out. "I don't give a shit about that stuff."
"Well neither do I!" Jason grumbles indignantly, tapping furiously at the keyboard. "Where's the fuckin- fuckin-" He starts snapping his fingers repeatedly. "Whatshisname. Where's the fucker's' good at this shit. Lil bitch boy Replacement."
"Drake?" Damian checks easily, and Dick bites his lip as next to him, Tim's face tranforms into the most incredulous glare of rage he's ever seen in his life.
"Yeah, that's the fucker."
Damian grunts, tilting his head to the side before swinging his body around to scan the rest of the batcave. His gaze lands on Dick and Tim, and he jerks his head over. "Drake, come help us with this shit."
"What the fuck happened to you." Tim demands instantly. "What the fuck is wrong with you."
Damian scrunches his face up like he's stupid, and when Jason finally turns around from the batcomputer, it's with the exact same fucking expression.
Dick and Tim stare at the identical duo, horrified.
"What?" Both Damian and Jason ask simultaneously.
"I'm gonna throw up," Tim murmurs.
anyway Damian is the Red Hood's little brother and it should fucking show end of essay.
So, I have two very similar fanfic ideas that have Jason switch universes, and I dunno which I like more. I’m just back to being obsessed with Jason and the brotherly bounding of Team red. I still have to figure out a proper end for both but so far that are my brainstormed ideas.
I would be really happy about any sort of feedback.
1. Two Jasons
Jason's world was ending. Literally. Some dark entity was taking over his universe, destroying the entire thing, leaving nothing behind. Anyone he already knew was already gone. It was just rubble that was slowly vanishing into nothingness as he watched.
He expected a similar fate when some higher being, maybe fate itself, comes to pick him up to place him somewhere else. Jason had become immortal at some point. Maybe it was when he came back to life the first time, maybe it were the AllBlades. Whatever it was, he couldn’t die which meant he had to be evacuated when everything ended.
Which was surprising. He had thought he would just fade away with everything else, since even immortals need a world to exist in. Instead, he got a "Sorry, have to throw you out, but I have someone pick up a nice universe for you," before he is sent somewhere else. A place he is reassured has no Jason anymore, since he had just watched one universe burn and he didn’t want to accidentally destroy another by having two of the same benign staying in it at the same time.
It looks like his own universe before things went to shit. Jason does some investigation, not willing to risk making a mistake and ending up in Arkham. And he likes what he finds at first.
In this world, Bruce had been in time... kinda. Jason had survived the Joker, but the trauma had left him distressed and permanently injured. Shaking hand, constant limping, all stuff that makes it so he can't be Robin anymore. He is smaller (malnutrition never cured by the pit), thin, but still has blue eyes and no white hair. It is what Jason had always imagined, a world where never lost years with his family.
On the surface it is perfect. It takes hacking the Batcomoputer the night before he plans to go to family dinner for the truth to come out.
Tim had taken over while Jason had been in the hospital recovering, no one sure if he would make it and the original Jason was angry lashing out, trying to kill Tim but with underhand methods since he lacked the physical power. Without his loyalty to Talia, he had also tried to kill Damian once he arrives, leaving the boy somewhat traumatized. He constantly throws the failure into Bruce's face, causing permanent distress.
He doesn’t go to family dinner the next day. Instead, he returns to the college he is enrolled in. It sucks. He is doing some business thing, maybe to take over WE, but his grades are failing, as original Jason spend his time mostly partying, cheating, having sex and being a scumbag. The ruined reputation makes life hard for our Jason, who has just stumbled in and still tries to find his footing.
This world's Jason had a big fight with Bruce, vanished. A month later, our Jason is put in this universe. He is angry at being put in such a shit universe, but at last he has the chance to see his family again, even if they hate him. Just seeing them alive and moving is good. He can always try to fix things as long as they are alive. They had forgiven him once for his pit episode. Maybe they could do it again.
He picks up being Red Hood, not having the physical limitations this world Jason had, but a lot less violent and deadly. He is trying for his family.
At some point Jason meets Tim who is scared and tries to avoid him, but he slowly earns the others trust again, showing he had 'changed'. Well not really Jason had never been an entitled asshole, just violently angry, but after everything that anger is no longer directed at his family.
Things are looking up. And then Tim ends up in the hospital.
Superboy punches Jason in the face, Nightwing screams at him. It is a mess. Especially since no one tells Jason what is going on and if Tim is okay, they just blame him for Tim getting hurt.
He finally figures out he has tried to kill Tim again, earned his trust only to sabotage him. Which doesn't make sense because Hood had taken down a drug ring all night. This is how Jason finds out original Jason is still alive and was just lying low while falling in with the criminal element to get revenge on the family. Apparently they had gotten so different that the universe now seems them as twins and no longer the same person, which means he could be placed here with the other still being here as well. It also means someone with his face has hurt Tim and ruined all chances of ever making things right with his family.
He better disappears before Batman finds him. He doesn't want a batarang to the neck again. He can't die. But the emotional damage the first time had left him catonic for months.
Before the can flee, one of Talia’s assassins comes to his safe house and stabs him. It was his favorite hoodie. He is fine, already healed, but too depressed to do more than switch save houses and just let the assassin trail along to watch him. It is company, even if not a good one.
Arsenal is also on the prowl since something is off. He has seen Jason being captured and taken to the watchtower by Batman, and there are some differences to the dude he saw with Tim. So he is suspicious and investigates. He joins our Jason and the assassin (he knows her. Talia had sent her to protect Damian before).
He questions Hood, and it is very apparent he has no idea what is going on, saying shit like 'you are angry because I tried to beat Tim up, right?' which wasn't what happened. Everyone is a bit confused. Especially since Roy is sure Jason is sitting in a cell right now.
The assassin test a theory, spouting nonsense about Jason not getting paid after messing up the hit on Tim to make room for the true heir. Jason who had been all calm while being stabbed and punched loses it, Lazarus green eyes, attacking to defend Tim. It is obvious he is not the Jason Todd they know and is kinda protective of Tim. Jason admits to trying to commit identity fraud, thinking Jason had been death.
He has no fingerprints thanks to league days, he has the same DNA as Jason Todd, he is no alien or meta. People are confused as he is taken to the watchtower. Next to each other, it is obvious how different they look. People try to figure him out, but Jason is no longer talking.
He is a bit overwhelmed. Especially when Tim comes in and stares between them confused. He never had plans to hurt his brother and is sorry his actions gave this world's Jason an opening.
The Jason that attacked Tim is imprisoned for his actions, too dangerous and vengeful. The heroes don't know what to do with our Jason. His only crime is identity fraud (as far as they know) and he is kinda depressed and pitiful. But also they can't just let him go as if nothing happened and putting him in normal prison while he looks like Jason is bad. So they are overwhelmed. They try to make him change back, but realize that he just looks like Jason Todd and has Jason Todd DNA without being Jason Todd. It is confusing.
Tim proposes to just let him be. With their Jason being imprisoned by them, no one would notice someone taking over his identity.
2. Jason replaces the other Jason
Nearly the whole world population got wiped out by an interdimensional attack. Jason is the main fighter, since his Allblades can actually damage the enemies. The bats are all death. Tim, Jason's main supporter, fell in the final battle. Jason can not stay. He has this device that can rip him from his own world completely and insert him in one without Jason, making it so he becomes the world's Jason and is not someone that would put that universe at risk with his presence. Success rate is 40%. He tries anyway, says goodbye to Talia, the leader of the few people still alive, and she promises to tell everyone he died together in battle with Tim.
Jason succeeds and comes to in Gotham harbor, nearly drowning in the progress. He is confused, and does some reckon not knowing about the universe and unwilling to just go to the cave in case Red Hood was active recently, not risking Arkham.
He finds Joker and the warehouse still happened, but Jason survived, even if permanently injured. Our Jason is giddy that his other self never lost the family. He goes to college and lives a normal life. Things are good, he found a wonderful universe and can't wait to see them all again. He nearly cries seeing Batman and Robin patrol.
Still, he can’t risk going home yet to a house full of detectives and mess things up. He finds his shared student flat and is surprised by how stupid his roommates are. Must have been put with random people or something. He sadly doesn't have a phone that could give him more personal information. This world’s Jason must have had it when he died in the harbour, because how else could Jason have taken his place. He would investigate and get revenge later for being killed.
It doesn’t take long to figure out that not everything is as fine as it seems. His family hates him and has blocked him everywhere. All except Dick, who just screams at him in anger when he finally calls, trying Dicks number from his world. It is confusing and Jason has no idea what is going on and why. There is no Red Hood, he checked. Bruce had been in time, it was everything he had wished for, so why was everything so fucked up? No one is there to answer, his research reached a death end. He can only try to reach out and fix this. If only they would stop ignoring him. He will have to confront them once his semester is over.
He had always dreams of pursuing higher education, but this sucks. His courses are shit, all business boring as hell and nothing with literature. His friends are dumb, only partying, drinking and having sex. His grates terrible and he is failing everything. He can't read any of the notes because of the handwriting, which okay tremors suck but still, other Jason could have used a laptop or something.
Speaking of tremors. The device that made it cross dimensions made it, so people didn’t really notice the changes, like him being a head taller and not super thin and sickly like the original Jason. Things that are easier to overlook and explain away with exercise and grow spurt. But something like the son of a billionaire being handicapped is not easily whipped from peoples minds, the notices the tremors are gone. Jason can fake them, but it is risky, so he breaks his hands and permanently pinches a nerve, causing tremors like that. The pit heals the break in a day. He will just have to rebreak his hands to fix it again.
So life is shit, but It is okay, Jason is managing. He will switch courses next semester and improve his grades, claiming the subject suites him more. He can say he had a handwriting tutor over the break. New courses mean new friends, right? People that don't know he is an asshole yet and give him a chance.
He has a plan. Instead, Alfred, his grandfather, throws him out of the family when he reaches out to Bruce wanting to reconnect.
It is devastating. Jason barely registers it when he loses his room at the end of the semester once tuition is no longer paid. He is left with nothing, returning to crime alley, his home.
But it is okay, they are alive and well, he has to keep telling himself that. No matter how much it hurts, they are alive. It has to be enough. Even if this world's Jason has destroyed all chances of family, he can watch them, see them breath and run about Gotham's roofs.
He is sad, he needs an outlet for the pain before it consumes him. Plus, drug money pays the bills, so he kinda becomes red Hood again, only a lot more social taking care of kids and giving his people health insurance. He still kills. What does it matter? He is already the bad guy and his family hates him.
Jason figures out his other self tried and nearly succeeded in killing Tim and Damian. He feels terrible, especially since he has also tried that in his world. He wonders what the different is so his Tim had forgiven him and this one didn't. He has no one to ask.
Someone from university ask to stay with him after a fight with their parent. Jason easily agrees, seeing as he is already funding half the crime alley kids. What is one more stray. They never leave, just staying in his apartment. Jason likes their company. They look at him funny. Jason is fine with that, he is pretty different with his books and nerdiness from the original Jason. It is fine. It is also fine when he figured out he doesn't know the guy only from university but from their mask life. Well their mask life this Jason had never picked up a mantle again after the Joker incident. The other guy doesn't exist in Jason’s old dimension. Properly, Jason's death scaring people off from getting sidekicks for a while. Jason is just happy to no longer be alone, even if having a mask in his life is risky with Red Hood being a secret.
He doesn't want the Allblades back, feeling too tainted and raw. Especially since he failed protecting his old universe. Only being able to save 2% of the population.
It is a harsh reality check, finding out that is the best outcome anyone has ever seen. What had attacked them has gone to other universes before. They are used to a good outcome being everyone dying in a sacrifice and the entity just not spreading to another universe, consuming everything and being trapped there. Destroying all attackers and giving the chance to rebuild is something unheard of. So after some pushing, he gets the AllBlades back, surprised that apparently his soul is still capable of fueling them. It is just in case, this is his universe now after all, and he needs to be able to protect it should it be attacked again.
His roommate figures out something is off. He had gentle prodded into why Jason had done tings and Jason's answered vague, having no idea why the other Jason did things. Or sometimes that he had even done some repulsive thing at all. All his experience from his old universe don’t apply at all. One day he is confronted and has to spill that he has kinda amnesia. Or well, memories that don’t really match. But his roommate things it is kinda amnesia.
Seeing how miserable Jason is without really knowing what he has done, the roommate goes to the bats and say he can understand their anger, but maybe they can try to explain things to Jason because expecting him to apologize when he has no recollection of what he has done wrong will not work.
Jason breaks his hands at some point in front of his roommates while holding eye contact, scarring him. The shaking is gone after. Jason don't want to pretend to be someone else anymore.
After the revelation, it is not the Bats that confront him, but Superboy and Megan. Superboy is angry for Jason getting off so easily, conveniently forgetting, and making Tim feel bad for hating Jason when he can’t remember it. Mega goes into his head against his wishes. It is mostly him figuring stuff out, piecing together the relationship with his family and his university stuff.
The Gotham bay he crawled out of.
A barrier blocks the rest, Megan keeps pushing, uncaring of the pain she causes.
Jason saying goodbye to Talia.
Tim falling in the final battle, Jason crying over him, begging to not be left alone.
The talk about the dimension jumper.
When the probing stops, Jason is passed out on the ground, in terrible pain. He comes to at the watchtower, the teens having called the adults afraid he was dying, which he kinda was if the wound in his mind had not been fixed. It is weird, people stare at him confused. Tim, brave Tim, comes into the room and explains what happened.
This world’s Jason had a call with Bruce on the day of the joker and the warehouse, nearly driving Bruce to kill himself with his harsh words. Very drunk Jason went out, picked a fight and got killed and dumped in the harbor where our Jason appeared.
They don't know what to do. They checked and Jason now belongs to this universe, they can't just permanently sent him somewhere else. But they also can't just accept this. It is a mess. Jason is just sad and tired, thinking he should have died with his Tim on the battlefield. His roommate notice and get really worried arguing to just let him go since he has done nothing wrong and only sought refuge and that he can just live his life lying low like he had been, they agree. Jason is kinda just mopping while his roommate tries everything. He is still Red Hood. Only when a Bat comes to investigate the new hero he starts crying and runs hiding for days.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” He screamed, smacking away Bruce’s hand with vitriol and anger on his face.
So, Bruce does as he’s ordered. It’s the only thing he can give Jason.
It’s the only thing he’s really been good at.
There comes a point when you realize your children don’t want you around anymore. You’ve tried, to the best of your ability, to show affection in any way you can. But time and time again, you fail.
Over and over. How many times can you fail before everyone becomes sick of you? Does it matter what your intentions are? Does it matter how much you try? Does it matter that you feel your heart breaking every day, and it's your children who are doing the breaking?
There’s not a book out there on how to interact with your child who’s come back from the dead. Trust him, Bruce has searched tirelessly. How could he possibly continue to face the one child he failed irreparably?
So, mistake after mistake, Bruce watched their relationship crumble faster and faster until there was nothing but a thin rope holding them together. Bruce balances precariously on top, always on the verge of falling.
He just wanted to make sure Jason was okay. He had seen that thug land a pretty solid hit to Jason’s shoulder. He knows from experience the kind of radiating pain that could fuck you up for days.
He wanted to cup his cheek and examine the small cut under his eye. He wanted to poke at the bruises spotted on his torso to make sure nothing was broken. He wanted to squeeze his hands to make sure they were still working, that his blood was still pumping.
Somehow, someway, he messed up. He always messes up.
Bruce stands silently, alone, deep in thought, in the cave for a long time. Long after Jason had left. Long after the rest of his children had awkwardly filed out. Long after Alfred had given up on reaching him.
Everything used to be so good between them. But now…
Bruce resists reaching out and ruffling Jason’s hair as he passes by. Instead, he keeps his hand firmly by his side and gives a strained smile as he passes, not allowing his eyes to linger lest he embarrassingly breaks down in tears.
He squeezes Duke extra tight as the boy is going off to school in the morning, pushing away thoughts of younger Jason eagerly waiting by the door for his routine goodbye hug. That was a long time ago.
“You okay?” Duke, the kindest, most considerate boy in the world, asks as he hugs Bruce back just as tightly. “I’m here for you, you know. You don’t… You don’t gotta hold it all in. It’s unhealthy and stuff.”
Bruce couldn’t answer. He feels his throat close up and a pressure build behind his eyes. Instead, he nods and holds on a little longer.
Dick, who had stayed over late to get some advice on a case, is asleep, draped across the couch in his study. Bruce swooped in and covered his shoulders with a blanket. No, Bruce refuses to think of seeing Jason asleep in the library after binge-reading a book series. He tucks the blanket around him tighter, to keep out the cold Bruce keeps feeling.
“Goodnight Dickie.” Bruce pressed a kiss to his eldest’s forehead, smiling softly at the tired, mumbled words Dick replied with.
He sits and talks with Damian, having his son carefully explain his paintings and what they mean to him, all while gently squeezing his hands. He resolutely refuses to think of Jason passionately explaining his annotations and inferences in his novels.
“Baba.”
“Yes, Habibi?”
Damian hugged him around the neck, a very uncharacteristic gesture that made Bruce pause in his aimless wandering thoughts.
“What’s this for?”
Damian shrugged as he set his head down on Bruce’s shoulder, keeping his eyes forward. “I felt as though you required it. Richard told me that my hugs were healing.”
Bruce let out a small huff of laughter and started squeezing Damian’s hands again. “Well, Dick has always been correct about those kinds of things.”
When Jason comes over for the second time in a week, a rarity, Bruce makes sure to make himself scarce. He knows his limits. He won’t be able to keep it together. He doesn't want Jason to hate him more than he already does.
Bruce is ashamed that he can’t even give Jason a fake smile as he brushes past him in the hallway. Just a hoarse grunt before he rushes back to his room, like the coward he is. He's always been a coward.
At dinner, Jason opens his mouth like he wants to say something, and Bruce squeezes his eyes shut, prepared for an onslaught of insults and pointed words on all the ways he had failed Jason that week. Instead, he’s met with silence.
Instead, Jason stares at Bruce with a look he can’t figure out, but it makes his chest hurt nonetheless. He doesn't know if that's worse. When had he stopped being able to understand what his child meant with a single look?
Bruce quickly excuses himself from the rest of supper, the food turning to sand on his taste buds, and goes for a walk out back.
He turns his back on his parents’ graves, too ashamed of his incompetent parenting to face them. He takes step after step towards the woods, intent on getting himself lost before he has to go back and face the harsh reality that he made for himself.
—
“Bruce?”
He startles from his thoughts, blinking up at the night sky and the stars that wink hello at him.
“Jason…” Bruce grunts, his entire body going rigid as he feels his second-oldest son come closer, small twigs breaking under his steel-toed boots. “I was just heading back.”
There’s a small scoff. “Really? From the looks of it, you would have continued staring off into nothing.”
Bruce grimaces, unsure of what to say that wouldn’t set Jason off. If Jason were to yell at him… he might actually cry. If that happened, he'd lock himself away for a week to meditate and get a better hold on his emotions.
What a mortifying thought.
“Bruce-“ as Jason takes a step closer, Bruce takes one back, making sure to put an arm's length of space between them.
He has to make good on his order.
Jason simply looks at him, and from the position where Bruce is standing, most of his son’s face is obscured by shadow. Everything except the hard line of his mouth, his jaw clenched.
He can’t tell. He can’t tell if Jason has an impressed face for actually listening to him or is disappointed that Bruce still can’t take care of himself… he can’t even gather anything from Jason’s body language.
“Good night, Jason,” Bruce grunted, pushing down any emotion that he wanted to feel and turning on his heel, marching toward the mansion without a glance back.
—
“It’s good, right?” Jason grinned, rocking on his feet like he was a little kid again, and he was practically bouncing up and down. It was adorable. Jason would have his head if he said anything like that aloud.
Bruce nodded, finishing off the last lines of the essay Jason had written. Good was an understatement. Jason had always had a way with words. Bruce didn’t know what the essay was for; he doubted Jason would give him a straight answer if he asked, but he was proud nonetheless.
“The structure is impeccable, and I liked your verb usage in this paragraph,” Bruce commented. “While I believe you could have moved this sentence to the end of this paragraph rather than have it as your introduction for the next, it isn’t clunky, and it still flows in your writing style.”
Jason rolled his eyes, but the grin did not disappear from his face. “Yeah, yeah, that just means you loved it.”
Bruce couldn’t help the small chuckle that came out; he raised his hand to ruffle his hair, just like he had always done since he was just a little guy.
But then he remembered. He wasn’t supposed to do that anymore. Bruce’s hand hovered awkwardly in the air before Bruce coughed and lowered it, resolutely not looking at Jason’s face in case he was angry at the attempt.
“Thank you for showing me this, Jason.” Bruce kept his voice carefully monotone as he set the papers down on a nearby table. Handing it to him could accidentally lead to touching him, and Bruce couldn’t do that.
He no longer had that right.
“I have work I need to get done.” Bruce heard himself say, his own words sounding muffled in his ears as he turned and slowly walked away. “Goodbye, Jason.”
Rather than go to his study and pretend to try and focus on his WE paperwork for a few hours, Bruce heads upstairs to his bedroom. He needed to be unconscious immediately.
He thought he had a handle on this.
Sure, it hurt that he couldn’t give his kid affection, but if this is what Jason wanted, he would continue to try his best.
—
Bruce had gotten better. It was almost second nature for him to clasp his hands behind his back whenever Jason was in the room. Almost.
If Jason accidentally walked too close, Bruce would subtly move his body to avoid any point of contact. It was like a dance. One step closer, one step back.
But he had to touch someone.
“You don’t usually care for girl time, B.” Barbara mused, watching as Cass carefully did her best to paint her fingernails an understated green, then alternating to purple in a simple pattern.
Her wheelchair had been pushed into one of the corners of the clock tower and she was seated comfortably on a bright yellow pillow beside Bruce on the floor.
“I could.”
“You don’t like the feeling of nail polish.” Cass pointed out, looking up from her work to give him a flat stare. “But you let us do yours. You’re troubled.”
Bruce looked down at his black and dark blue painted nails, resisting the urge to pick at them till they were off and no longer touching him. “I can handle it…”
“You gotta figure out your shit, Bruce. I say this with love.” Babs lay her head on his shoulder, giggling and murmuring a soft apology to Cass as she glared at the older woman for moving her hands.
“In the meantime, we’ll cover for you,” Cass said, making Barbara hum in agreement.
“My girls… you’re too good to me.” Bruce closed his eyes and leaned against Barbara, smiling as Cass leaned against his outstretched leg.
“I think you deserve a lot of good things, Bruce. You just… gotta let them happen.”
—
“Are you and Jason… okay?” Tim asks him softly, his head tucked against his shoulder as they sat as close as possible on the couch in his study.
Tim’s laptop is off to the side, abandoned after hours working on a case that truly didn’t need as much focus as the two had given it.
Bruce takes a moment and tries to really think of the question. Are they?
He hasn’t given Jason any physical affection for around four weeks. An entire month. He’s surprised he’s lasted this long. But he can’t say it was due to self-restraint, more like deflection. Every time he felt the urge, he would just go to his other children.
He couldn’t tell if they were similarly getting tired of him and only indulging him due to the strange air surrounding him and their brother, or they truly didn’t notice, but Bruce couldn’t answer the question truthfully.
“Yes.” He says because he has to believe that Jason is happy with him, finally leaving him alone. He has to believe that he’s doing good for him for once in his life. He has to believe that this is for the best.
After years and years of letting him down and never being good enough, this is the one time he can truly fulfill a request by his second-oldest.
“Yes, Jason and I are fine.” He repeats, pulling Tim closer and burying his face in his soft, messy hair, trying to distract himself from the million thoughts of self-loathing and doubt racing around.
He couldn’t make this about himself. This was for Jason.
—
“This is the fifth time you’ve asked to braid my hair this week.” Stephanie hummed softly, keeping her head still in the exact position Bruce had gently guided it to one minute and 30 seconds ago.
“Is it?” Bruce made sure to keep his voice light, as if he weren’t painfully aware of the fact that he was annoying Stephanie with his own neediness. “I hadn’t realized.”
Steph hummed again, picking at the stray wool fraying from her dark purple socks. He had gotten them for her many years ago. He had also gotten her twenty other pairs, but these seemed to be her favorite. He'd like to think it was because it was the first thing he had ever gifted her. But that's just being willful.
The fact that she still wears them makes his heart clench painfully. He can’t help but wonder if Jason threw out everything that Bruce had once given him, just like he had thrown away his affection.
But that wasn't really fair, was it? No, Bruce can only blame himself in the end. Everything was his fault. Clearly, he had not been trying hard enough. Or maybe, he had been trying too hard? He always had a tough time figuring out which one it was. Gauging others' emotions was too hard.
Steph opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. “Jason is an idiot. Despite wanting to seem cool and whatever, he’s easily guided by his emotions.” Steph curled a framing strand of hair around her finger. “Takes one to know one.”
Bruce hummed and tied the end of the complex braid with a transparent band and draped it over Stephanie’s shoulder.
“Cool.” She grinned, standing up to look at herself in the mirror.
“You should talk to him, you know.” Stephanie turned to him, trying to catch his eyes, but Bruce purposefully looked away. “It might help. You tend to take things too literally.”
“No… I don’t think it will.” Bruce chuckled. “It would make things worse.”
Stephanie shrugged before walking out of the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts. Great, that’s exactly what he was trying to avoid.
—
“Fuck…” Batman growled, gritting his teeth, as he looked down at the pipe bomb, counting down. He had already disarmed two, and he didn’t know how many were left in the building.
A fire had already been set, which made it harder for him to search while time continued to tick away.
There wasn’t enough time.
“All civilians in the area have been evacuated to a safe distance away, aided by the GCPD.” Oracle crackled to life on his comms, giving him a wave of relief. “Get out of there, Batman. The structural integrity of the warehouse was already compromised before the fire; it's not gonna hold for much longer.”
“Already on it.” He grunted, turning to look behind him, but the hallways he had run through were swallowed up by erratic flames. He would have to find another way.
Batman took off running, eyes scanning everything at once, looking for the perfect way to escape the warehouse. He jumped, kicking off a nearby wall that soon crumbled under his foot, and successfully climbed his way onto the third floor.
“Hey, old man!”
Batman jolted, his head snapping around to see Red Hood running at him. If his respirator wasn’t covering his mouth, his jaw would drop open in surprise.
“Red Hood?” He questioned. “Oracle, why didn’t you inform me Red Hood was here?” Instead of an answer, his comms crackled. Fuck, they were officially cut off from Barbara’s reach. He had been meaning to update his comms to handle more intense heat. It was now at the top of his list.
“Hey, old man, I followed you in. Knowing you, you would get killed trying to save this place.” Red Hood snarked.
“Now isn’t the time for this, Hood. We need to find a way out of here.” Batman growled. Later, when he could take off the cowl, he would try and talk to Jason about his decision on running in after him. He would try and hover till Jason would inevitably snap and push him away.
But at least he would know that he was safe.
The two took off running in the only direction that they could, the flames building faster and faster. While running, Batman continued to try and contact Oracle again, but there was no luck.
“Batman, this place is gonna-“A flaming piece of concrete broke from the caving roof and fell directly onto Red Hood.
Onto Jason.
He was no longer Batman, no, he was Bruce. And his son was in danger.
“Jason!” Bruce yelled, darting back and ripping the debris from his son, watching in horror as a strained, malfunctioning robotic noise came from the helmet.
Bruce’s hands automatically found the hidden release hatch that Jason had thankfully shared with him and ripped off the broken thing. He didn't bother checking to see where it landed. Jason was the most important thing in this moment.
Bruce’s hands hovered, so close to touching, but-
Jason coughed and shook his head. “I’m fine, I’m fine! The debris just knocked my respirator out of the loop.” Jason groaned, covering his mouth and coughing again. Bruce would bet money that if he took off Jason’s domino mask, his eyes would already be watering.
Bruce untied his respirator and pushed it toward his son. “Take it.” He ordered, ignoring the glare sent his way.
“Fuck no, I don’t need it. This smoke doesn’t mean anything.” Jason swatted at Bruce’s hands, an unexpected action that caused the respirator to fall into the flaming sea on the lower floors. “Oops…”
Bruce restrained himself from sighing or doing anything that could take up more oxygen and allow him to inhale more smoke. “Hurry, let’s get out of here.” He wanted to help Jason up, but instead, he focused on finding an escape from this death trap.
“Bruce! Over-“ a loud explosion shook the building, and more debris rained down on them. That wasn’t the pipe bomb he was looking at before, no, it was somewhere on the opposite side.
“Jason, we need-“ another explosion, a completely different place from the one that just happened. The building moaned and swayed as if it were crying out in pain.
Fuck, staggering pipe bomb explosions. The majority of this warehouse would go down in a second if a strong enough breeze came along. But Bruce knew this layout; Gotham had a million of these warehouses built by the same company. There was always one place that would stay standing while the rest of the building fell.
“Move, move, move!” Bruce yelled, screaming at Jason to pick up the pace as he felt the metal walkway underneath them tremble and grow hotter. “Left! Get up there! Press yourself against the wall!”
Bruce watched Jason leap into the one place he knew he would be safe. He was so close, just a few more steps and a leap, and they would both be safe.
Another explosion.
So close. Too close.
Bruce felt a blow on the right side of his body, a searing pain as shrapnel embedded itself into his side. Fuck, a pipe bomb hidden underneath the walkway. It was so obvious and yet, in a panic, he had missed it. His armor was useless against the sharp metal pieces that flew at him from so close in proximity.
Bruce didn’t flail as his body was smashed through a crumbling piece of the wall; he didn’t panic as the only thing he could do was grip onto the railings of the walkway as his body dangled in mid-air. He was Batman. He had been in the position alone a million and one times. He would find a way out.
He did, however, feel his breath catch as he watched his son desperately try and inch over to him, rather than stay safe like he wanted him to.
“Fuck! Jason, go back!” Bruce groaned, his voice quieter than he wanted it to be as he strained to keep himself up. His side throbbed in time with the flames that danced and rose higher and higher. “Get back now!”
“Dad! Dad!” Jason cried out. Once again, Bruce’s breath stuttered. “Dad, are you okay! I’m coming!”
“No! No baby, go back!” Bruce screamed, gritting his teeth, and he felt blood start to pool inside his suit. “It’s not safe!”
Jason's movements were frantic and wild, as if he weren't really there. Obviously, no matter what Jason tried to claim, an exploding building would have an effect on him. Bruce distantly wondered what Jason was really seeing. Was it him, or his mother?
The warehouse shook again, not an explosion this time, but he still didn’t know how many were left and still able to work. It was breaking apart; he could hear the wall underneath him crumbling away and falling into the harbor.
Another explosion.
The railings creaked under his weight before giving. Bruce’s eyes widened as he was suddenly weightless, his stomach dropping and bile rising in his throat.
“Dad! Grab my hand!” Jason screamed, the sound ripping from his throat sounding raw and terrified. His hand was stretched so far, and Bruce reached up, a millimeter away from reaching him. From being saved, rescued.
Blinding fear zipped up Bruce’s spine. He couldn’t. He fucking couldn’t.
Bruce ripped his hand away just as Jason was about to grasp him, pulling it close to his chest and curling in on himself. Time seemed to stop as he stared, shocked that his body moved on its own.
In the last second before he felt his free fall, Bruce looked at his son. His sweet baby boy, whom he loved, lost, and somehow gained back. His son, who had grown into a strong man who was now even taller than he was, who didn’t need Dad to protect him anymore. Who didn’t need him at all.
Jason’s mouth was open like he was screaming at him, but over the roar of the inferno surrounding them and the shock from the explosion earlier, all Bruce could hear was an incessant ring that drowned out any other sound.
Jason’s arm was still outstretched, his hand holding nothing but air as Bruce slipped away from him.
And then, he was falling.
When Bruce hit the water, he felt an intense, sharp pain radiating to every point in his body. He felt as though he had smashed into a thick layer of concrete, but that was to be expected, falling into still water from 40 feet in the air. He could feel his nerves alight, and he couldn’t do anything but go limp.
There was nothing he could do. That wasn’t the scariest part. Neither was his slow sinking, nor the way his vision was blacking out, nor the debris from the blown-up warehouse battering against his broken body, nor even the way his body moved from searing, blind hot pain to all-consuming cold.
No, it was his mind clouding in pain, causing his thoughts to drift away into nothingness as the dirty Gotham harbor water filled his lungs, suffocating him.
‘I really want a hug…’ Bruce couldn’t help the last coherent thought from drifting through his mind before he closed his eyes.
—
The next thing he knows, he’s in the cave, hooked up to various machines, trying their best to keep him stable, to keep him alive. The beeping and the whirring hammering into his skull, the sound almost too much for him.
Faint, blurry memories of being pulled from the harbor and having his ribs broken by chest compression surface fleetingly before disappearing in the corners of his mind.
Bruce could always examine them later if he got the chance; there was no way he could forget. A curse brought to him by a photographic memory.
There was nothing Bruce could feel that didn’t ache. He was sure that if he wasn’t hooked up on so many medications and wasn’t so out of it, there would be other areas that hurt as well. The consequences of hitting the nasty Gotham water with only burning rubble pieces around him to break his fall were apparent.
When he finally cracked his eyes open, he winced softly at the harsh white light in the cave’s medical room.
“Dad, thank fuck! You had me so fucking scared, pops! Y-you wouldn’t wake up…!” A voice sobs out in relief. It’s Jason. Jason is at his bedside. Jason, his little boy who had grown up and seen Bruce for who he really was and hated him, was here. For him.
“J-Jay…” Bruce rattles, looking at the exhausted face of his second eldest. He looked so tired.
Jason mumbled something, his voice hoarse and desperate as tears streaked down his cheeks.
He wanted to reach up and wipe away those tears, to fight away whoever made Jason cry, but Bruce was fighting a losing battle trying to move his body in the way he wanted.
“I’m sorry…” Bruce's voice cracked painfully as he tried his best to squeeze Jason’s hand. He’s gotten so big. Before, Bruce could almost perfectly hold both of Jason’s hands in one of his own; now they’re basically the same size.
“I… I know you don’t like it.” Bruce coughed, trying to suck in more oxygen from the breathing mask. “P-please… let me hold your hand…”
Just his hand. That’s all Bruce needs. He doesn’t want to be greedy.
Bruce thinks he hears Jason sob. “D-dad… I’m so fucking sorry… It’s my fault! I don’t know why I said that. I was being stupid! Hug me, ruffle my hair, tousle with me, just don’t fucking leave!” Jason clutched his hand tightly and continued to babble more apologies, but Bruce could no longer hear him.
“I’m sorry,” Bruce murmured again, the world buzzing around him, a soft hum that weighed on his bones and made him feel exhausted. It was a strong pull to get him to close his eyes. “I know… You hate it. I’m so f-fucking sorry…”
“Dad-!”
“One… one last time… please… please…” Bruce begged, his voice a faint whisper, the light in the room growing brighter, but strangely it didn’t hurt. No, nothing hurts anymore.
Too bad Jason would hate him for having the audacity to touch him. Being hurt wouldn’t be an excuse good enough for Jason. He was lucky he wasn't getting yelled at right then. Alfred must have persuaded him to not yell in the med bay.
Bruce tried to squeeze Jason’s hand one last time, but it fell limp. He was too tired. He was just glad to be able to touch his son again, even if it wasn’t the hug he had longed for.
Bruce closed his eyes and went to sleep. It was so quiet.
This poll will be open until sometime on July 26, likely after 10pm US central time.
The goal of the preliminary vote is to bring the number of prompts to vote on to 35 so that it the votes aren't quite so spread out and with many ties. There are 52 quotes to vote on, so have fun picking out your favorites you hope to make it to the top 35.
dailybridgerton
origamiaround
pixelskylines
vaporwave
kianamaiart
yousharknotpass
discoholicmusic
izzy806
