imagine being a hero as a 14-20 year old. your hormones are going haywire, every attempt at dating fails ‘cause your partner assumes youre cheating when the villain-of-the-week manages to hit your neck hard enough for it to bruise. youre flunking your classes, which in turn causes your parent(s) to scold you even when they damn well KNOW the both of you just fought that gigantic alien squid the past two nights which got you so sleep deprived you slept through your finals test.
then to make things worse you have to attend the MANDATORY jl meeting every two weeks where the senior members drone on and on about plans and debriefs and lex luthor and cheetah and sinestro and lex luthor lex luthor lex luthor— and you get it, it’s important and you love your job and you care about the world so much you’ll put up with this, but damn it if you werent just so tired all the time.
as youre thinking of all this, your eyes begin to close and your head is about to fall on the table. someone reaches to shake you awake but before they can do so, someone stops them. you only hear a few words, but it reassured you enough that you give in to the pull of sleep.
meanwhile the jl is just staring, gobsmacked, as batman slaps green arrow’s hand away from a dozing arsenal, growls, then continues on with the meeting in a considerably quieter voice as if nothing happened.
of course this makes its way to the jl gossip mill, and of course it reaches arsenal’s ears. at first he’s embarrassed, because really? how awful did he look that the strictest member of the jl cut him some slack? but after a few moments he decides to just go thank the guy and maybe tell him that he’s usually not that irresponsible but he was just so tired that day so please dont kick him out—
and batman just. stares. gives a grunt. then suddenly arsenal’s sitting shotgun in the batmobile with BATMAN and he gets to pick the music and oh wow batman is answering all his questions about which buttons does what and he gets to PRESS THE BUTTONS and then his best buddy red hood FLINGS HIMSELF INTO THE OPEN WINDOW and chats batman up like they were old pals.
ever since then it's pretty common to see arsenal sticking close to batman in the watchtower or anywhere in general, which confuses the heck out of all the jl, specifically the senior members, and ESPECIALLY ollie.
imagine it going like this:
Batman, blank-faced, standing in the darkest corner of the room:
Arsenal, pacing around him, chatting up a storm: —and then we caught them in the janitor’s closet! they were cheating on the poor guy!
Arsenal: right?! wait ‘til i tell hood about this!
Arsenal: oh yeah, i probably shouldn’t huh, he’s gonna kill them.
Arsenal: good idea b! ill do it right now!
as if that interaction wasn’t mind-boggling enough, arsenal pauses right as he was about to get in the zeta tubes, looks back at batman, then suddenly they were hugging. green arrow doesn’t know whether to get mad, scream, or faint. he does all three.
Roy, humming, skin clear, no eyebags, having just slept the best night of his life in the wayne manor: good morning mister wayne batman sir ☺️
Roy, in a more neutral tone: ‘sup jay
Jason, grinding his teeth, subtly moving his chair closer to bruce’s: …roy
Roy, oblivious, sitting on the other seat next to bruce: wow thank you for the breakfast mr alfred
Alfred: just alfred is fine, master roy
Alfred, to bruce: *eyebrow raise*
Bruce, averting his eyes: hm.
Dick, walking in the room, yawning: morni—
Dick: who is this and why is he sitting in my seat
Damian, behind him: you mean my seat, richard?
Dick: i claimed that seat before you were even born
Damian: tt, well times have changed now, do keep up
Damian: richard what are you doing. richard.
Damian: richard let go of titus. RICHARD.
