writing idea: Damian comes home to find his cozy gamer girlfriend immensely stressed by something he does every night.
a/n: may or may not be based on my current struggles in playing arkham asylum :(
At your core you're a cozy gamer. Sticking to the games where you could decorate an island or room to your hearts content. The ones where you could dress your characters in their cute little outfits and dictate their lives to make them do whatever you wanted, no matter how questionable those actions were at times. You enjoyed nothing more than to cuddle up on the couch with a blanket and controller as you pulled one of these games up as you waited for Damian to come home after patrol.
So why had you chosen to stray from this tonight? Why had you chosen to cause yourself nothing but struggles and rage? Maybe it was the curiosity to get a taste of what your boyfriend did in the dark nights of Gotham. Or maybe it was simply the fact that you could get three games for $20. Whatever the reason was, you were full of nothing but regret.
Your cozy games could never have prepared you for playing something so fast paced like Arkham Asylum.
You were typically a mellow person, never getting easily upset and always keeping your temper in check, but this game was bringing out the worst in you as you watched Batman die time and time again. You couldn't believe people actually enjoyed playing these types of games. They were so difficult! Your only joy in the game had come from looking for Riddler trophies around the island or trying to solve his riddles, but this too would come with its own frustrations.
"How the heck am I supposed to get that one." you groaned as Batman once again fell down a dark pit as you attempted to get a Riddler trophy located across a wide gap. Ultimately you gave up, deciding to continue the intended plot of the game.
The boss battles were no better. You knew you were doing something right. As the enemy charged at you, you successfully dodged at the last second, causing them to crash into a wall and become dazed. So why weren't they dying? Finally, in your now deeply ingrained frustration with the game, you looked up a Youtube play through. Scrolling to the part you were at and watching the random person play the game made you feel foolish.
"Oh." was all you could say realizing you were meant to attack the character while they were dazed. Finally, after dying at least once more, you beat the boss.
"Finally!" you yell throwing your controller in your lap and your head back to rest on the back of the couch.
"That was painful to watch Hayati." You jump at the sudden voice. Embarrassment quickly settles within you as you quickly realize who is standing behind you, but nothing could prepare you for what you'll see when you turn around.
You expect to see him standing there in his Robin suit, probably with a couple scrapes and bruises, but instead you are greeted by pajamas and damp hair from a shower. The embarrassment within you doubled upon the realization. When had he come home? Had you really been so engrossed in your game that you hadn't noticed when he swept in through your bedroom window?
Just as quickly as the embarrassment had settled within you, it was gone. Replaced instead with horror. How long had he been watching you fail to beat a boss? An even deeper horror grew when you were hit with the reality that you had just been caught not only playing a game poorly, but that the game was based on his own father.
As you sat there processing your doom, Damian stood by watching with a small amused smile. He knew you were completely out of your depth playing a game like this and it was only made more amusing by the fact that it was a Batman game. His curiosities to know why you would play such a game would have to be reserved for later. He could tell you were tired. Physically from staying up late and emotionally from whatever torture you had put yourself through to play this ridiculous game. So, he attempted to comfort you before he would ultimately coax you to bed.
"There is no shame in failure Beloved." Did he truly believe that? No.
But he had recently begun to realize that it was occasionally okay to say small lies in order to comfort you. Except your groan at the statement demonstrated that the phrase had not brought you any comfort.
"Can we just pretend this didn't happen?" You ask, your voice muffled as you buried your face into a pillow and prayed to any higher beings to please have the Earth swallow you up.
You felt the couch dip beside you and a warm rest on your shoulder. The two of you said nothing for a while, the only noise being the quiet background music and noise from the game. Eventually you looked up, knowing that Damian had been swimming in his thoughts trying to piece together something that would make you feel better but also knowing that emotional support wasn't necessarily his strong suit.
"Promise me you won't mention this to anyone else."
"I promise my love."
"Good. Now you try." You say handing him the controller. Surely he can't be good at this game. He never plays video games.
"We should go to bed"
"Just give it a try for a couple of minutes." You plead. He sighs.
Then he stares at the controller for a second before pressing some buttons to test what they do. Once he has the hang of it he begins to move around the map. You watch in astonishment as he clears all the enemies quickly. In the short span of half an hour he accomplishes more than you could have in two.
Of course he was good at this.
After he beats the next boss he turns to look at you. Watching him play had allowed for the exhaustion within you to finally settle in. Somewhere along his journey to the boss you had fallen asleep, your head resting on his shoulder.
He did his closing shift duties with minimal movement, turning off the console and tv, placing the pillows where they belonged, and lastly folding your couch blanket. Then he picked you up and carried you to your shared room where he gently placed you under the blankets of your bed. Finally sliding in beside you and pulling you close, he places a kiss at your hairline.
"I love you beloved."
"Even when I'm bad at being Batman?" You mumble half consciously after being awoken by the movement of being picked up and carried.
"Yes. Even then." you feel his smile on your forehead.
"I love you too Damian."
------- bonus scene with jason -------
A week later you find yourself at Jason's apartment for your weekly book club meeting. After a heated discussion over the relationship between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester you decide to call it a night and watch some Youtube videos as you wait for Damian to come pick you up from his brother's residence.
As Jason cleans up the remnants of refreshments from the book club you turn on the tv and navigate to Youtube on his console. As you do so something catches your eye.
"I didn't know you played the Batman games." You say as he walks back into the room and sits down in the armchair beside you.
"Played it when it first came out. Roy had mentioned it was good so I figured I'd give it a try even if it was based on the old man" He says as he takes the controller from your hand and navigates to Youtube.
"What'd you think?" you ask while avoiding his gaze.
"Not a bad concept but they could've made the fight scenes a little harder. I mean seriously the NPCs were pretty much blind and the boss battles were so predictable. An idiot could beat this game with their eyes closed" he rants.
"You thinking of playing it? It's kind of out of your zone isn't it?" He follows up and looks at you with a look of skepticism.
"Oh no no. Just curious cause ..." you pause briefly trying to think of an excuse to hide your apparent incompetence "I didn't see you as a guy who'd play a Batman game".
You'd never speak of your failed attempt to play the game. Especially not a member of the Bat family.
a/n: ngl guys I got lazy towards the end but if I didn't finish this in one sitting it wasn't going to get done. my b.
writing idea: a sibling day with the bat boys and their youngest sibling.
cw: manipulation by a child, arguing, slight assault(?)
w/c: 1.8k
a/n: this is my first writing in like 7 years TT please be kind to me
at the family dinner on sunday your daughter had heard the boys talking about going out for a siblings day. as soon as she heard that all her brothers were going to be hanging out together, she wanted in. regardless of the fact that they wanted to go paintballing, and she was clearly too young to go at her big age of six.
after her instance and many adorable pleas to her older brothers they allowed her to join.
she was smart, you had to give it to her. she had started with dick who required nothing more than a sad smile before he caved. it took less than a minute.
then she worked her way to jason, who was also not too hard to convince. once she managed to get him to look down at her puppy eyes and jutted out lip, he was like putty in her little hands. it took less than two minutes.
tim was a bit more difficult than the first two. like bruce, he was worried that she would get hurt or overexert herself from playing with her much older siblings. she insisted that she was both strong and brave enough to play with the big kids.
she put on a show, tugging at his hoodie sleeve while hugging his leg under the table and pulling the same tricks she had with dick and jason. it took less than five minutes.
more so because tim was getting embarrassed for her than actually believing she would last the day.
then came her final foe.
damian.
you were sure she would fail here, but you were pleasantly surprised. after collecting herself from her show with tim, she confidently walked to where damian was sitting, a smirk on his face daring her to give it her best shot.
the rest of you watched with curiosity of how she'd manage this one. to everyone's surprise, she dropped to the floor in hysterics, tears streaming down her now red face as she pleaded with damian to let her join them on this seemingly legendary siblings day.
alfred, who stood at the door of the dining room, wished he had his camera on him to capture the faces of everyone in the room. wide-eyes, mouths dropped to the floor, surely gathering flies if there had been any in the room.
and damian.
pale as a ghost.
then your daughter grabbed at damian's ankle and slowly hoisted herself up his leg as she cried out.
"damian pleaseeee! pleaseeee let me go! pleaseeee!"
damian stared in horror for a minute at the scene unfolding before him. he had thought his younger sister was a real piece of work with her earlier theatrics with tim but this was something else entirely.
"fine. fine you can go. now get off of me." he grumbled as he shook his leg to get her off him. it took her less than five minutes.
"yay! did you hear that daddy! they all said i could go!" she yelled and she climbed into bruce's lap. her emotional state doing a complete flip from distress to overwhelming glee. you all stared at her in astonishment.
"i see that sweetheart, but i don't think it was fair the way you did it. also your mother and i haven't said yes" bruce said as he wiped away the wet remnants of whatever his daughter had just done to convince her brother.
you glared at him and gave him a light kick under the table for the tail end of his comment. he knew you were ok with the sibling day. you trusted that the boys could take care of their sister for a one day outing. you had said so at the beginning of the conversation, and you weren't about to let him drag you down with him.
"but they said yes. and mommy said yes. and you'll say yes too, right daddy" her voice getting thinner with each word, eyes beginning to well with tears again, and bottom lip slowly jutting out more and more.
you and the boys looked at each other with amusement as the panic began to rise in bruce's eyes and show on his face. it was a unusual sight to see bruce wayne so unsettled.
"yes sweetheart. you can go" your husband said a little too quickly for his liking.
"yay! thank you daddy!" with a kiss to his cheek, your daughter jumped off her father's lap and ran over to alfred. bruce leaned forward, placing his head in his hands, already regretting what he had just said and plotting on how to take it back.
"did you hear that alfred i can go to on the silbings day!" she was practically buzzing as she told alfred.
"yes very well miss wayne. i will prepare snacks for the day what would you like?" a small smirk briefly flashed on his face as he watched bruce, thinking about how much trouble she would cause in the future.
the rest of dinner consisted of the boys deciding to change the original plan from paintball to laser tag and the promise of a meal at the nearby mall food court in order to appease bruce's concerns over his six-year-old daughter going with them. you rested your hand on his, giving it a squeeze when you saw him starting to spiral into all the possibilities of what could go wrong on this supposedly cursed siblings day.
when the day finally arrives, she wears her special flowy purple princess dress for her very special day.
a siblings day with her four older brothers.
a day she claims she has been waiting for her entire six-year-old life. you braid her hair into a ponytail to avoid the inevitable rats nest it would become if you didn't. when you finish, she all but bounces down the hall and stairs into the arms of her oldest brother, dick, who picks her up and throws her onto his shoulders as she giggles.
"hey there kid. ready for today?" he asks her with a laugh at how excited she is to tag along.
"yes! yes! i'm so excited! are we going now? let's go!"
unfortunately for her, she'd have to wait seeing as damian and jason are entangled in an argument over the seating arrangement, and you don't entirely blame them. the image of the four robins and your daughter in her car seat cramped into dicks day-to-day civilian sedan for a two hour round trip to the sports emporium makes you snicker.
"i simply stating that i should get to sit in the front while grayson drives" damian boldly states.
"and why's that short stack? don't have enough space for those non-existant long legs in the back with drake?" jason quips, irritated that it's even being suggested he should sit in the back.
as they continue to ague you observe bruce from the top of the stairs as he stands off to the side with a scowl, still not fully satisfied with the fact that the boys have refused to allow him to go with them to chaperone. it was a siblings day and not a siblings and father day after all. you can see that the argument between damian and jason is eroding at his already hesitant agreement to this whole sibling outing that they have planned.
"hey guys, don't you think you should be heading out?" you interrupt, hoping to get them out the door before bruce changes his mind about letting them take your daughter with them.
"yeah let's go, we can always change the seating order on the way back" tim adds, hoping they agree to this since he was ultimately sentenced to the dreaded middle seat.
you snicker again, imaging him squeezed between your daughter's car seat and either an annoyed damian or a pissed jason. both of whom would grumble about their dismay with the arrangement the whole ride.
with that you begin to usher them all out the door being held open by alfred, the two of you making eye contact and sharing small smiles. you watch as alfred hands jason a small lunch bag, containing some grapes, blueberries, and cheese sticks meant for your daughter but you're sure the boys will also sneak some aswell.
once alfread closes the door you move to join bruce at the window overlooking where dick's silver is parked.
"what if something happens?" he asks with a worried expression and eyebrows furrowed as you both stare at your children getting into the car.
Dick has your daughter in her car seat and is buckling the middle clasp before working the two at the bottom. Tim has dreadfully resigned himself to his fate and shuffles into the middle seat beside her.
damian opens the front passenger door and begins to slide in before being pulled back at his shirt collar by jason, who then smacks his head with the lunch bag, pushes him to the side, slides into the passenger seat, closes the door, and locks it before damian can reach the handle to get his revenge. you giggle as damian incessantly pulls the door handle while surely threatening jason, though you can't hear what he says to his brother.
when you turn to look at bruce you notice his jaw is now clenched as he watches the scene between the two boys.
"hey it'll be fine. she'll be fine." placing a hand on his shoulder you try to comfort your husband, trying to ensure him that this whole sibling day thing is fine.
you get no reply other than a disgruntled huff.
when you look back out the window dick is closing the door to your daughter and ushering damian to the other side of the car with him, where damian gets in beside tim and slams the door behind him. before getting in himself, dick looks up at you and bruce and gives a reassuring wave and smile.
when he slides in and closes the door you see him turn around, maybe to tell damian to calm down or ask your daughter if she's ready to go. regardless of the reason, the car soon starts, and you and your husband watch as it goes down the drive way, pausing at the gates as they open, and then taking off to start the sibling day.
you can see the tension in bruce's shoulders as he stands there, still staring at the gate probably trying to will the sedan to come back. when it ultimately doesn't and he resigns himself to the fact that his only daughter just left with four of his sons for what could quite possibly be the worst day of his life.
"you worry too much. she'll be fine." you say as you move to give him a hug. he remains stiff at first but slowly melts into you.
"i know." he whispers.
"maybe i'll go down into the cave to get some work done." he mutters into your hair. you quickly pull away and look at him, only to see he's avoiding your gaze.
"you're not going after them." you say sternly. knowing he was likely going to try and follow them as batman.
"you're stuck with just me today handsome"
preview of pt2:
"please, please, p-please. can we pick this one please." she says excitement making her stutter, with her hands clasped together as she begs for the object in front of her.
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