for the quarantine prompt: DC, specifically the Batfamily. Talk about a bunch of people with too much energy and a tendency to clash dramatically. How are they coping???
(I definitely overthought this before finally deciding to just suck it up and write something lol)
I just stuck with coronavirus because Gotham is supposed to be in Jersey and they’re super hard hit anyway so…
It was all a horrible fluke, really. Dick had gotten a weekend off for the first time in forever, and had somehow managed to drag Jason along on his way to the manor to visit. They’d both arrived bickering but in one piece, just in time to hear the announcement that the governor was ordering everyone into lockdown. Now they were currently sparring in a corner of the Cave, hits landing just a hair harder than normal, while Tim gaped up at Bruce.
“What do you mean, no patrol?”
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “Would you rather I said it in Arabic?” he asked, in Arabic. Jerk. He must have been practicing with Damian.
“Bruce, just because everyone’s supposed to be quarantined doesn’t mean that crime will stop! Looting always goes up during times like these, we need to -”
“I will be patrolling. You will not.”
Tim whirled on his brothers. “Dick, back me up!”
Dick’s face was turning steadily redder from the headlock Jason had him in. He gave a kind of lopsided jerk of his shoulders - presumably a shrug - before twisting his torso like someone possessed in an effort to get his legs around Jason’s neck in turn.
Tim gave up with an exasperated sigh and turned back on Bruce. “You’re more at risk than we are, Bruce! Let us go with you!”
Bruce just stared him down. “Social distancing,” he said. His expression didn’t so much as twitch.
-=-
In the end, Bruce left alone. Tim sat at the computer and refused to watch him leave. Statistics were churning in his mind, death tolls and rates of infection and all the symptoms of a virus that could so easily turn deadly. He couldn’t get rid of the image of Bruce coughing up blood. He didn’t even notice Dick and Jason had stopped sparring until Dick tapped him on the shoulder.
Dick grinned down at him, mask already in place. “Suit up, Red Robin.”
“What?”
“We will leave without you,” Jason called. He was still at the other side of the cave, checking over his guns. “Hurry it up.”
“But I thought…”
Jason growled and stalked over. “You’re thinking too hard, Replacement. It’s no use arguing with Bruce when he’s like that, but that doesn’t mean we have to listen to him.”
“Oh.” Tim blinked, surprised he hadn’t thought of that already. Maybe he was thinking too much. But so many people were dying… “Uh. Give me just a minute.”
-=-
After another week of a rising body count Bruce finally relented and began wearing a full-face mask, specially designed to keep out pathogens. He couldn’t stop Dick and Jason from going out but he made sure they wore one as well. Tim found himself grounded with Damian. He didn’t even try arguing this time.
“Bruce,” he said quietly. “Please be careful.”
Bruce gave him a careful hug - nothing about social distancing now - but said nothing.
Damian disappeared to his room. But, after Bruce caught Jon Kent hovering outside his window for the third time in as many days, he forced Damian to move into Tim’s room. He called Clark too, just for good measure, to make sure that Jon was grounded.
(“Father,” Damian protested, “aliens can’t get sick like humans do! Jon is immune! It’s perfectly safe -”
“His father doesn’t get sick,” Bruce corrected. “His mother does. It’s too risky.”
“…tt.”)
They were still allowed on the grounds, thankfully. Otherwise, Tim had a feeling their bodies would be found dismembered and bloody by the police once this was all over. He wouldn’t have expected it, but Dick was going insane.
“I thought you lived in a trailer, Circus Boy,” Jason snorted.
“Yeah, only when we were travelling,” Dick grumbled. He fell over into a perfect handstand and walked a few feet before starting crunches - still on his hands. “Once we stopped I could go anywhere, as long as my parents knew where I was.”
Jason laughed, but didn’t say anything else. Damian had just entered the yard, Titus at his heels, and the big dog’s tail was wagging a mile a minute. Damian pointed, Titus took off, and -
“Ack!”
Dick fell over, Titus barking and licking his face. Damian was laughing.
-=-
Tim stayed in his room as much as possible. If he started feeling too antsy he would sit in the kitchen with Alfred, but on the whole it wasn’t too bad. Even sharing a room with Damian wasn’t as bad as it could have been, mostly because they both did their best to avoid each other unless absolutely necessary. As usual, his mind was his worst enemy. Tim kept tabs on the progression of the virus as best he could. It was horrific; bodies kept in freezer trucks, rushed burials in shallow graves, hospitals running out of equipment.
He missed having catastrophes he could fight. At least whenever the Joker broke out of Arkham he could punch him in the face.
-=-
After two-and-a-half weeks of quarantine it was Alfred, of all people, who snapped.
“This is unacceptable!” he sniffed. “No blood on my carpets, no property damage, nothing worse than stitches. Go!” He threw several nerf guns onto the living room floor and stalked out of the room. They all stared at the pile for only a moment before scrambling.
Tim got a knee to the shoulder, but he also got the best gun - mid-sized, large enough to hurt but small enough not to get in his way. He made a break for the stairs; there was a blind corner by the bedrooms that would be perfect for sabotage. Alfred hadn’t said anything about booby traps…
-=-
The war ended when Bruce shot Jason right between the eyes. He’d found Damian perched on top of a chandelier four hours ago, got Dick when he tried to avenge Damian, and worked his way through Tim’s booby-traps after that. Tim was proud that it had taken him nearly an hour to get through them all, and with the adrenaline fading from his system he was feeling pleasantly tired. When Jason stumbled into the kitchen, grumbling about the giant bruise blooming on his forehead, he thought he might actually be able to sleep peacefully tonight.
“So Father has won?” Damian asked. He’d been pouting nearly the entire time, up until Dick had set a plate of hummus and chips in front of him.
“Obviously,” Bruce smirked.
“Not quite,” Alfred said, and shot a nerf dart straight at his heart.
Bruce stared down at his chest in shock. The dart stuck to his shirt for a moment, but slowly peeled off. They all watched as it lost its grip, inch by inch, and fell to the floor.
Jason was the one to break the silence, nearly falling off his stool laughing. Dick joined in, burying his head in his arms, and Tim felt his own face split into a smile. Damian sniffed and grabbed another chip.
@starfieldcanvas replied to your post “I just noticed that every time a character is confirmed to have blue...”
that's so funny that never would have occurred to me...i'm from a community (Dutch) where a ton of us have blue eyes and it's just...normal/boring? like obviously some people have really nice blue eyes but way more people have dull normal ones
dude this whole blue eye thing down here is so complicated/drenched in this internalised racism thing... and so many characters have blue eyes because literature be white
not to get too long but blue eyes are hugely fetishised (we are very mixed and brown is the dominant gene so it's pretty rare to have blue eyes even the whitest family) and even the more deconstructed people still don't see the problem with it it's never addressed and it's creepy af
@starfieldcanvas, here are some of my dS bookmarks! All F/K unless otherwise indicated. I tried to make sure I didn’t duplicate anything that was recc’ed yesterday on the discord server, but I apologize in advance if anything slipped through!
The Train Goes Slow, atrata. Ray is patience fucking personified, and he hasn't wanted to punch Fraser in days.
Why I Lied To You, Garonne. It's 1930, and Ray Kowalski is undercover. Contains bootleggers, Al Capone, adventures on the frozen river Detroit... and a rather unusual Canadian Customs Officer.
The Reaching Out One, Alex51324. Every year they take their vacation time together and look for the hand of Franklin, the reaching out one, and when they run out of time they put a pin in the map and the next year they pick up where they left off. It all falls apart when Diefenbaker dies.
that’s where all of the gangsters live, minveracat. Ray loves Stella like he loves breathing, loves Fraser like he loves his tattoo, loves Chicago like he loves everything permanent in his life. Can be read as gen.
More Things In Heaven And Earth, Berty. The kidnapping of a young girl leaves Fraser and Vecchio struggling against time to find her until help arrives in the shape of Ray Kowalski, a man with a talent, a heart and a past he'd rather forget.
O’Leary’s Hotel, J Hardin. This fic doesn’t have an official summary that I’m aware of, so here’s what I wrote for my crackvan rec: This fic takes the magical realism of due South and runs with it, carefully twisting it into actual fantasy without ever abandoning the Chicago that due South is set in. It fits in wonderfully with the mythology of the show, dialing the fairytale elements of due South up to eleven and yet still somehow staying very true to the characters as they are.
The Sea Wolf, Kadru. 100 years in the future, an archaeologist uncovers Constable Fraser's journals, and as she pieces together the details of their lives, she discovers something she never expected.
horseshoes and handgrenades, omphale23. A midcentury AU, in which there are photographs, parachute troops, invasions, exploding trees, foxholes, misunderstandings, bullets, letters from home, smokejumpers, roommates, and more exploding trees.
True Colors, Kellie Matthews. Sometimes eavesdroppers learn things that change their lives.
Can’t Even Focus On A Cup Of Coffee, helens78. life goes on in Chicago. Ray's new partner keeps an eye on him as he tries to find a new sun to orbit.
Sweet Confessions Under His Tongue, thehoyden. It was like a car wreck, really. You just couldn't look away. And Fraser looked up at Ray, with his expression like the cold fury of God.
Chasing Smoke, hazelwho. Benton Fraser is a Canadian smokejumper who finds himself in Arizona cross-training with a wildland fire crew led by Ray Kowalski, a veteran structural firefighter from Chicago who headed west after his divorce.
Ajax Fassbender’s Amateur Guide To Zombie Wrangling, brigantine. After Ray Vecchio disappears undercover into the wilds of Las Vegas, Fraser decides it’s high time to quit moping, and get on with life. Diefenbaker puts in his two cents, which is pretty much where the trouble starts.
Katabasis, aria. "I talked to your dad, I went through this place called the Borderland, I had a boat ride, I fed a wolf a doughnut, and I told stories for your soul," Ray interrupted. "This does not mean you are not insane."
Deke, rhi_marzano. Also known as “the other hockey AU”.
Calm & The Black-Stained Sky, sageness. Two years post-COTW, Fraser is promoted to corporal & RayK becomes a volunteer firefighter in a small town in Yukon Territory—a small town with a spot of arson on its hands.
Parental Guidance, Kass, Alanna, & Starfish. Ray’s parents think he & Fraser are dating.
The Love Song Of S. Raymond Kowalski, aria. Ray dared to smush his experimental hair down in hats in Canada, dared to eat everything Fraser gave him including the freaky bark tea, dared... dared to let Fraser turn his world inside out and meet his eyes afterward.
Academic Punk, thehoyden. The academia AU you never knew you needed.
Family Portrait, Journey. AU in which RayK is a widower with kids.
Find Me A Find, green_grrl. Ray Vecchio runs a matchmaking agency.
Like A House On Fire, Kellie Matthews & Beth H. "In the immortal words of Yogi Berra, 'It's deja vu all over again.'"
Playing Wolf, Kellie Matthews. Fraser's past comes full circle.
Real Boys, salieri. He came to the city on the trail of the killers of his father, and for reasons that will be elucidated, he didn't remain. Also, that there's a dog, okay?
Birds Of A Feather, julia_here. Gen, SGA crossover.
I would feel remiss if I didn’t also rec Busted & its sequel Tapestry, which are fandom classics.
Lastly but DEFINITELY not least, this isn’t really F/K centric but please PLEASE read Arch To The Sky by sl-walker & kalijean, a Turnbull-focused epic that is one of my favorite fic series of all time.
Okay so it’s a very stylish baby, right of the bat. I mean come on, it has Cosette as a mother and Montparnasse as a godfather?? That baby is destined to be sharply dressed. Hell, Montparnasse makes some of the clothes himself!
There’s this French phrase “pleurer comme une madeleine” which translates to “cry like a madeleine” (dont ask me out a buttery cake can cry) and the baby cries so much Cosette makes up a lullaby called “Petite Madeleine”
Eponine makes fifty “Don’t talk to me or my baby ever again” jokes a day
They also both sing “Castle on a cloud” as a lullaby
Grantaire bought t-shirts for Eponine and the baby that read “Original” on Eponine’s and “Fun Size” on the baby’s
Eponine is a lot more experimented with kids than Cosette, having 4 younger siblings and all, so she’s like the baby whispered who knows what each cry and each sound means
Grandad Valjean carves toys from actual fucking logs
we know from the brick that enjolras can be reasonably described as a tall man, but what do you think that means in practical terms? how tall WAS he? given that humans have gotten taller on average over time (due primarily to better childhood nutrition, and to improved nutrition overall) do you think modern AU enjolras would be taller than his brick counterpart?
