Reader is implied to like feminine things, though gender identity is kept ambiguous.
Damian was a good brother. That’s what he always told himself. He was a good brother, a good son. He was cold, rude, and erudite, but he was able and willing to help anyone who needed it.
When he arrived at Wayne manor, Bruce told him the general run down of why you were to be avoided when it came to anything vigilante related. You were still pure, a year younger than Damian but without any of the pain. The only one in the Wayne manor that could have a shot at becoming a normal person. Damian envied that, but kept it to himself. His anger often boiled to the top, drops of green venom dripping from his mouth when you tried to annoy him into spending time with you.
Your complaints of him ignoring you was scalding water on his already raw nerves. Why would you complain about not being the center of attention for five damn seconds? He would trade anything for the life you had. A life where you could lay around after school and never worry about a rogue bullet lodging itself in your arm, or a poisonous plant releasing psychedelic spores into an open wound.
You could and would never join the Robins. You were weak; it was in your blood. Always sickly, always the pacifist. You wouldn't survive a day in his life. And you weren't living his life; you were living his dream.
But apparently the effort the family was putting in wasn’t enough.
He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed that the manor felt… off about two weeks before the fight with Joker. He couldn’t trace it for the life of him at first. When he realized by the second week that he hadn’t spoken to you in days, or really seen you around the manor at all, he wrote off the worms writhing in his stomach. You must’ve been busy with a class assignment and had little time to annoy him with your demands of time together.
After the fight, however, he was a war of a thousand emotions. How dare you leave them? Why would you turn away an easy life fat on nepotism for a group of murderers, con men, the dredges of Gotham’s society?
Were you truly that desperate to be acknowledged that you’d turn your back on the family who did everything for you?
He hopes you’re happy there, since you were clearly so upset at not being given attention.
Over time, however, things start to change. A few days after Jason made a full recovery, Damian looked at one of the drones Tim managed to get a chunk of code from. It took a lot of trial and error, and the development of an entirely new program to grab some of the code before it bricked itself, and enough all nighters and energy drinks that any doctor would faint, but it was managed. The code was dense, optimized to work with the least bloat possible, well tagged variables, and even a handful of comments in the code.
//Buy Bane those Boston Donuts from the donut shop on 5th
//Why does this code need to be here so it doesn’t auto brick itself. What is in the code protecting it from the wrath of God
//Louie likes Texas barbecue ribs. Possible treat?
//DO NOT FEED THEM WHOLE RIBS. COOKED BONES BAD.
//SINCE WHEN WAS THIS VARIABLE A STRING??? IT WAS AN INT 5 LINES AGO
//Help the hopeless lesbians get together.
//Would Harley and Ivy dating make Harley my mom or Ivy my big sister? Both???
His eyes skimmed the retrieved comments, laughing at a few. It seems that Bane, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn were the most common subjects of the notes, though a few mentioning the Iceberg lounge asking what non-alchoholic drink you’d like added, or Riddler offering you another puzzle to keep your mind active. Even Joker was mentioned, though it seemed mostly transactional.
It was strange seeing you in this light. You seemed to have a lot of spice in you, but a heart made of gold. You were definitely surprised whenever one othe villains offered to take you on some trip to amusement parks, regular parks, even just willingly watching anime with you. It was odd to see. Surely someone at the house did those things with you? He didn’t but he was extremely busy with school and vigilantism. Jason was legally dead, so surely he had all the time in the world.
“How was I supposed to relate to them? They’re what, 12 and into shit like that one with the cat looking dog thing and the robot girl. I have shit to do. Y’know, managing Crime Alley?”
Well, Dick had come over to hang out plenty of times. Surely he’d spent at least a few hours with you every now and then?
“I have an entire team and criminals to manage of in another city, Damian. I don’t have as much time as you think to do whatever it was with them they’d wanted to do”
Maybe Tim?
“I have college and stuff, Damian. And I don’t have the energy to put into hanging around them. I’d probably just be sleeping most of the time.
Bruce?
“I have to manage you, Gotham, and the Justice League, Damian. I barely have time for myself.”
… Alfred?
“I tried, Master Damian. However I’m constantly pulled thin between so many tasks. Besides, all you have is school most days, and you’ve had summer vacations and weekends. Shouldn’t you’ve had plenty of time to spend with your younger sibling?”
… He did have the most time outside of vigilantism. And it took him a week to realize you were missing.
You had to realize that they were under extreme stress though, right?He couldn’t spend all his free time with you. He had his own friends to hang out with. How were you two even supposed to relate?
One day at dinner, the thoughts were thrashing in his head, slamming against soft tissue and tearing through brain matter. He aimlessly poked at the food on his plate.
“You alright, replacement?” Jason asked, pausing in his extremely rare dinners with everyone else. Alfred had promised him a tray of fudge to take home this time around, and nobody made fudge quite as good as he did.
“… They were gone for two weeks.”
Everyone stopped eating as he continued.
“Two weeks. Two full weeks before they showed up at that fight. Did anyone here even know? I only noticed after a week and assumed they were just holed up in their room with a class assignment or something.” He was rambling. Everyone was quiet and looking at each other. How did it manage to slip past everyone? They were detectives, for Christ’s sake.
They were your family.
—
Dinner ended with guilt wrapping around their throats and pulling.
Eventually, all of them found themselves in your room. It had been emptied, but showed no signs of struggle. All the small items, the comforter, and your clothes were gone. But what was taken left something behind. Copies of photos of you winning state level competitions, letters requesting your attendance at seminars, photos of gold medals and blue ribbons spread across the floor. Most damning of all was the most recent photo. A certificate by some big time tech company being handed to you. Edward Nashton stood behind you, a firm, reassuring hand on your shoulder.
When had this happened? They never remembered hearing of something like this. A news clipping on the back told them it was maybe a week before you left.
“The Wayne prodigy stated that their family had more important things to see to than such an occasion. I can’t imagine something more important that either of my kids being recognized by a multi-million dollar tech company! I remember postponing an anniversary with my husband to celebrate our child placing second in the science fair. But I guess that’s just the Waynes for you!”
That’s just the Waynes to you.
But it’s ok. He can make it better. He can be a good big brother. He can spend time watching anime with you and decorating your room with lace and fairy lights and go makeup shopping with you. You just need to come home. Now.
----------------
Taglist! Ask to be added! Edit: It is now closed!
It has been another year that you've walked this realm and I have been blessed by the Dusk Mother and Dawn Father to have crossed paths with you in our lives. Do you remember when we first met? How easily we've gotten along?
I do. I've never forgotten it, that feeling of meeting someone who understands you inside and out, who sees you and all of your imperfections--and still loves you anyway.
Our meeting wasn't conventional and yet, there's nothing really conventional about us, is there? I wouldn't have it any other way.
You are a wonder in this world, one that I would be foolish to let go of. The way you protect, the way you battle, your wit, creativity--everything about you has and continues to take my breath away. It feels as if we've known each other through eons and would always find each other.
Your nameday is a blessing; for have you not been brought into this world, I--and many others--would have been unfortunate to not have met you. I would not have found my Azim, for that is what you are to me. My Azim, my sun, that has loved me through happiness and sadness, through trials, through storms.
May we continue to celebrate your nameday together, until forever.
A l'il something in-character of Shuri as a present for Vhasmun (@starscytheskies). You have been an absolute light in my life, an amazing friend I could ever ask for. You've been there for me through a lot, even through my vents and bad moments. You've never judged me and continued to encourage me to be the best I can be in whatever I do. You've given me tough love when I really needed it. I couldn't ask for more.
I know it's not much, but I hope this adds to making your birthday special.
Imagine a neglected!Reader who did everything in an attempt to impress their family.
Who got amazing grades and got into high school at age 11.
Who was "a savant beyond their years" and "talented beyond what their age group could be taught".
Skills came easy to them. Give them a year and some encouragement and before you know it they'll have mastered whatever it was.
It wasn't like they could leave the house and hang out with friends. Bruce said that was off the table. It got quiet so often in the manor.
But it wasn't enough
Until someone saw the potential that Batman was just leaving there. Like he wanted someone to just... scoop them up and tutor them.
Their friends and allies and even a few enemies saw the potential. They all agreed to teach them their greatest skill. In a year they've mastered all of them, even surpassing some of them.
Any drug they were developing was improved beyond anything they could've imagined.
Weapons fashioned to fit them far surpassed anything, even the best on the black market.
The Rogue Gallery was beyond impressed.
And Reader was on Cloud Nine with all the attention it was earning them. Head pats, praise, treats. It was more than anything they could've asked for. And even if they didn't have a new invention at the end of the week, so many were willing to just hang out. Without prompting! No "Go bother Alfred" or "I'm busy" or "Another time, chickadee".
Harley had to be reminded that a 12 year old had no business around hyenas, even if Budsie and Louie were on their best behavior. Harley settled for watching old magical girl animes with you.
Luckily, Poison Ivy knew not to bring you around her poisonous plants. Though she did spend a concerning time teaching you exactly what plants were poisonous and how they were poisonous.
Bane taught you everything he knew, from throwing a punch, to how to scare someone off. Granted, a 12 year old, with so much of their baby fat in their cheeks, and wrists as thick as Bane's thumb, looked like a Ragdoll kitten copying a Bengal tiger. He played chess with you too, and he said that given your role in advising, a knight or a bishop would fit you best.
Bane was your favorite. He'd smush your face (gently, you were so tiny he was scared of breaking you), lift you up, even do pushups and pull ups with you on his back.
When Bane told you how he'd saved Alfred once during a collapse of Arkham Asylum, only to be incapacitated once Alfred was "done" with him, it made your blood boil.
As you learned all of their stories, learned the human in all of them, you knew that you were saved from a family with rotten blood. You'd spend your life repaying them, even if they never asked.
--------
Eventually, you decide to follow them into battle. You're kept up and away from the bulk of the battle. This time, it was Joker vs the Batfamily. Tim was unable to track what he'd been trying to do past a few errant clues. It was clear that the Rouge Gallery had a new villain.
You were given direct instructions to watch yourself; Joker wouldn't care enough to tear his eyes off Batman. You already knew that; Harley had spent 3 days trying to convince you to reschedule with someone else, but you told her you wanted Joker, not someone who'd be tempted to glance back and give away your hiding space.
Jason was the one that saw you. You were dressed in a costume that resembled a bishop chess piece with a split full face mask, perched atop a van far from the actual battle. His old scars with Joker made him hesitate, but you looked like a definite person of interest, and everyone else was indisposed.
He ran over, firing rubber bullets as you dodged, eventually tripping and falling off the van. Why were you so small? Jason picked you up, grip just loose enough so you could breathe.
You reached up, pulling your mask off. Jason blanched as he saw your face, soft around the edges and wide eyed.
Bruce told him that he'd stayed away to protect you from the vigilante life. You were the one person who hadn't pushed to join them, so he never told you about missions to avoid any ideas of joining. Jason followed suit, and so did the others. Their lives were busy enough anyways, and you had Alfred when he didn't have something more important to do.
He may have brushed you off more than absolutely necessary, but he wasn't in the right headspace then! You had already grown so much and all he'd wanted by then was vengeance on Batman. You couldn't blame him for keeping his distance at that point. He was protecting you.
But here you were, pinned by the throat by your own brother. Your protector. He released you, taking a step back. He glanced around for an opening, seeing a small alleyway. He gestured over his shoulder for you to follow. "C'mon kid. I'll get you back home and I won't even tell Bruce you snuck out, 'k?"
Suddenly, he felt a prick in his back, shortly followed by a burning itch and ice cold pain. He fell to the ground, trying to reach the spot you pricked.
"Miss Ivy said these were dangerous. Her own home blend. It's a diluted version, so you'll be fine in a few days, Todd" said the much too calm voice above him. He was struggling to breathe around the writhing mass of pain, looking up at you between blinks of tears.
He couldn't scream, he could barely breathe. He could die here and the family wouldn't know until the dust settled.
"It won't kill you, and from the looks of it, they'll be coming to pick you up soon."
"Aren't we family?" He chokes out between gasps. He felt so lost. You were his baby sibling, the tiny thing that'd wander the halls, holding an old chess board as you asked your cool big brother to play with you. The person he kept away from to protect. How could you repay him like this?
Hadn't he done so much for you?
You look at him from the boot of the van. When had you gotten so far away? Your voice is quiet, but it's heard, if barely, over the revving of the engine as Joker's minions prepare to drive away, and the screaming of his name as the rest of the family approaches.
"Were we? I never thought you wanted a baby sibling like me."
-------
The Batfamily took him home and patched him up. The new tech, like all other recent inventions brought in, were so advanced they bordered on state of the art. Even Tim was struggling to decode any of them, with all the kill-switches that seemed to recognize when it wasn't hooked up to the original computer and bricked themselves.
Jason had recovered, like you said, in a few days. Capable of breathing easily in 2 days, regularly needing to be sedated before then, and sitting up without pain by day 5.
The Batfamily had asked him by day 4 about the masked person they had seen next to him. Jason was detached from himself. That face, those eyes. They held no warmth for him, no pity for him while he was writhing in agony at their feet. Like he was less than a stranger.
Like he was less than human in their eyes.
Your name fell off his tongue like lead, slamming against the ground as everyone fell into silence.
"It was them. They gave me that injection. Their face, I-"
"Todd, did the injection give you hallucinations? There was no way that they'd accomplish something like that." Damian raised his brow, checking the chart to make sure the bulk was out of his system.
"I know what I saw. They hadn't even injected me when I saw their face."
"That's impossible, Jay! Look, I'll go to their room and get them right now. They'll probably be pretty cranky since it's, what, 4am?" Dick's footsteps disappeared down the hall.
After a few minutes, Dick came running back, looking at Jason with a mix of shock, horror, and confusion.
Two words.
Two words that finally made them look at you.
Two words that made them realized what they'd missed.
Two words that made them connect the inventions that almost got them killed to the darling child they'd convinced themselves they were protecting with cold shoulders and smothering silence.
Two words that made them refocus their sights on bringing you back.
what if there was a yandere batfam x villain!mom!reader. More specifically, I'm thinking of this (Fem reader);
Reader is a (technically) small threat. They're well known, but they mostly go after the rich and police. Unfortunately, that describes everyone in/closely involved with the Batfamily. Attempts at capture are futile, however, since they seem to rival Bruce in contingency plans.
Eventually, Jason steps up to bat and tries to catch them. However, there's one thing that Jason picked up from Bruce; his type is crime.
You and Jason have Batman-and-Catwoman-esque chases throughout Gotham, Jason blaming your escape on you being too crafty while denying any help. You see Jason's scars and admit that you have a pretty bad one on your side, eventually showing it to him when you feel comfortable taking your clothes off. Jason has had to hide more hickeys, bite marks, and scratches on his back than anyone would hazard to guess.
One day, however, you disappear. The Batfam is relieved that you've finally stopped your reign of terror over Gotham, but Jason is worried.
The Batfam all go out for ice cream a few months later for something unrelated, when Jason catches sight of something familiar.
A scar winding up someone's side. A scar he's seen before. A scar that's stretched due to a bump.
Dick walks into his back when Jason freezes. Judging by the size, you've been pregnant for about as long as you've been off of the streets. So that's where you've been...
Why didn't you tell him? Did you think he didn't love you enough? Did he not show you enough times that he loved you? Did you think that it wouldn't work because he was working with Batman? He wasn't that close with him! He'd help you find a nice apartment in Crime Alley, or, hell, you could move in with him! He wasn't sure how good of a dad he'd be, but he'd try! Isn't that what parenting is about?
Oh god, he hasn't been around for so much of your pregnancy already. He needs to talk to you!
"...Jason. Earth to Jason Todd? Hello?" Dick says, waving his hand through the thoughts swirling in front of his eyes. Jason starts slightly as he remembers where he was. Damian begins walking towards you. Or rather, the ice cream store you were in front of.
While you were out of earshot, he saw as you looked at Damian. You smiled, probably asking where his parents are, because he gestured behind him. He watched as your smile fell into shock as your eyes landed on him, hand instinctively going to your stomach before you glanced at a nearby alleyway before looking back at him.
He took the hint. Now you're facing each other, unasked and uncountable questions floating between the both of you. Jason, however, asked the worst question possible in that moment.
"Is it mine?"
The slap was warranted, honestly.
The next few questions come more easily. You're around 24 weeks along, you've been living alone for the most part, you've obviously taken time off to avoid any injuries/toxic exposure to the baby, etc. Eventually, he asks why you never told him, and the reason was twofold.
On one hand, telling him would've required doing some sort of crime for the batfamily to follow and him being the one that caught you, which you had known was debateable since he mentioned how Bruce and the Robins offered to tag along.
On the other, the chance of everything crashing and burning because of this was too great. You were too willing to accept that it was truly just like what Batman and Catwoman had, something fun and fleeting but nothing deeper than that. You weren't going to risk your child because you felt loved.
Jason takes your hands and tells you his full legal name. At first you're confused, but he tells you more. He tells you how long he's been a vigilante, where he lives, even the code to his apartment. He doesn't see any of this as fleeting. This, to him, was a relationship that just needed a full push to become a "proper" one.
He places his hands and yours on your stomach.
"My name is Jason Peter Todd, I'm the vigilante Red Hood, son of Bruce Wayne, and... I'm gonna be a dad if you'll let me."
You smile and hug him, unable to talk around the lump in your throat.
"Jason...? What the fuck are you doing?" says Dick.
He turns around and realizes that the entire batfamily had heard him.
"So, she's pregnant with your child?" Damian glances around, trying to get another look at your belly.
"Of everyone I thought would get a villain pregnant... you weren't high on that list." Barbara chimes in.
"I'm gonna be a grandfather?" Bruce asks
---
So yeah, gist of it is that Jason gets Reader pregnant, Reader gets some information that Batman uses to justify keeping you in the manor, along with the half truth of "keeping appearances", since the tabloids would eat you alive if they caught evidence of a member of the Wayne family being a deadbeat dad, and over time, the family becomes more and more suffocating until your baby is born, in which they somehow make themselves a nuisance in child rearing.
I'm not back, but here's a drawing from a story I abandoned. The girl in the red sweater (Reader, Damian's older half-sister) dies and her death is the inciting incident (so is her resurrection)
Bit of a pivot from Little Bishop (just wanted a change of pace tbh, fic's still on) but what about a Black!Spider!Reader that still has a living family and is just living their best life. Like one of their moms worked at the research facility that the spider was in, and Reader didn't even kill the spider. They just put it back in their enclosure they knocked over. They didn't tell their mom because they knew their one rule was to not go running around in the lab.
Eventually (when Reader is about 16), their moms might find out. But until then, maybe even after, they mostly spend their time in New York (and later Gotham when they move) swinging around as Spiderman.
I got a book back when I was a child about Anansi, the African Trickster god, and I think Reader would name themselves Anansi after that book. (Yes I know about Kwaku Anansi. I'm using the justification of Their Names Are Technically Different)
They're quite the trickster, too, so it fits. They capture villains with extremely sticky traps, trick them into surrendering their weapons, get them to fight each other, etc.
When they eventually move to Gotham, the villains start to prefer them to the Batfamily. Anansi doesn't need to pummel them out of their devices. Granted, being outsmarted by someone who goes on to talk about how they're glad they don't have to hide their bruises during PE again sucks, but ego damage is preferred to physical damage.
Reader hits the Batfam's radar faster than sound. Your good rapport with the villains despite being a vigilante intrigues them. When Barbara brings up some videos of you tricking the villains into disarming themselves, trapping themselves, otherwise neutralizing them without causing more than a few bruises in the span of weeks, they reach out to try and work with you.
Reader, through no attempt of their own, has that mischievous yet relatively sweet side that complements what I call Cute Kid Chic; a trait that makes people older than them want to adopt them. Bruce's adoption problems are put to the test when Reader mentions their mom.
They already fit into the Batfamily so well, bantering with Red Hood, pranking Nightwing, tricking Robin into having fun. You're practically part of the family already!
Meanwhile, Duke is obsessed over a classmate of his that's in Mathletes, chess Club, and does ballet. Damian notices them through a match of Capture the Flag their high school has, their way of using trickery rather than pure speed or brawn like his teammates is... refreshing. Admirable. Fascinating.
You know Cass through ballet, and you're probably closest to her outside of your spider suit. Signal is who they're closest to in suit, and they usually end up working together since they're the two heroes that work during daytime.
