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Hey so actually I might be a little obsessed with how Tim is Dick’s only real brother.

Like hear me out. HEAR ME OUT!

Dick’s relationship with Jason is full of regret and guilt. They might be building something now but their past is full of inflicting rotting wounds (metaphorical and often literal) on each other. Dick started the pattern first when he rejected Jason as Robin. And later Jason raging against Dick after his return. Jason’s semi-valid villain crash out ending with Dick putting him in Arkham because Jason was a straight villain pre-rebirth. And even then it takes rebirth remixed canon to allow Jason some family bonding time. I say they have a handful of months — and even then how often did Dick visit! He didn’t start reconnecting with the BatFam until after the Killing Joke and Death in the Family — they got along before shit got worse.

Damian is Dick’s BABY! That is his firstborn! Dick might have had some adoption tendencies pre-crisis with Jason but they realized that shit with Dick’s (Second? Third?) time in the cowl. Dick saw this small murderous child and was like “I can do it better than Bruce” and did. And yes they might be settling into a brotherly role with Bruce stepping the fuck up.* But I promise you having witnessed siblings with a 10 year age gap — even when the parents are perfect and emotionally available — that older sibling quickly becomes a third parent. With Dick, he was the first second and third parent. No way Damian and Dick could ever just be brothers and I love that for them.

So that leaves Tim! The little baby brother he started calling little brother YEARS before Bruce ever adopted Tim.** Timmy, the freak who broke into his apartment to track him down and drag him back to Gotham. Timmy who Dick follows back to Gotham and — through his growing relationship with Tim — reconnects with his second family.

He spent his early 20s with Tim! He comes into his own as Nightwing with Tim as Robin. He literally grows into his adult self with Tim as his witness.

How many lows has Tim helped him pick up after? How many falls has Dick caught Tim after (metaphorically and literally)?

But that’s the sweet sappy shit.

Tim is the one brother Dick doesn’t have to be responsible with. He eats shitty pizza with Tim. He has movie nights and hang outs and poor-tasting inside jokes with Tim. They race each other across rooftops! They play fight in the streets. Dick booby traps his apartment so Tim can have fun breaking in.*** Dick complains about his messy love life to Tim while Tim mocks him!

THEY ARE BROTHERS YOUR HONOR!

With Jason there is too much pain. With Damian there is too much responsibility. With Tim, Dick gets to be his age and just hangout with his brother!

There is a reason Dick calls Tim his equal. Dick loves his brothers, he’ll always be there for them. But Tim is the one Dick doesn’t have to watch or monitor or hover over. Tim is his brother, not his regret or his child.

20 years in real time and 4 years of comic time put Tim and Dick through the ringer. No Man’s Land. Knightfall. The nuking of Bloodhaven. Contagion. Try to name a tragedy Tim and Dick haven’t witnessed and weathers side by side! But no matter how they fight or have to disappear for the mission, they always find each other and trust each other and believe in each other. Because they are truly brothers!

(So context… I’m very much reading the 90s and 2000s run. I’m like chronologically in 98. I’ve heard modern comics have dropped this FOR SOME FUCKING REASON (they forget Tim exists, I guess). But I refuse to believe that rebirth got rid of their brotherly bond. Just as Tim’s “friendship” with Kon-El transcends timelines so does Dick and Tim’s brotherly bond! They are family bonded through the fires of time and comic book bullshit!)

* How much this is true take with a grain of salt. I’m not reading modern yet. I’ve read some cause Damian just slaps and I love him. But there’s so much!

** Tim was adopted for like a year before being emancipated. WILD! What fatherless behavior!

*** What feral menaces! I love them!!! I just need to scream. Not important. Carry on. ^>^

| Like father Like Son

Some baby Bakugou and his dad! I love them so much!

Part 2: Mama Bear

If Jason didn’t die and Tim didn’t become Robin, Tim’s parents would have been killed by the Obeah Man** and Bruce would have become his foster father.

After all, who other than Bruce is qualified to foster a rich kid in Gotham? I doubt there are a lot of other upper crust folks who are capable or certified of being an emergency foster. And Tim is rich enough and public enough (a massive scandal where elite Jack and Janet Drake of Drake Pharmaceuticals is kidnapped in Haiti and ransomed by a foreign costumed criminal! It’d be headlines for weeks!!) to not get lost in the Gotham foster care. So off to the Wayne’s he goes.

I imagine angry and heartbroken at the death of his parents, Tim would see his fostering with the Wayne’s as a sign! After all, this is the same kid who asked if “Robins have to be Orphans” when his parents were kidnapped in the comics. He’s superstitious enough to believe in signs from the universe.

Imagine that first dinner. Dick has been invited over because Bruce has learned his lesson after Jason and he’s been busy reassuring both his sons that this is all temporary and trying to hid any proof he’s Batman in preparation for Tim to come. Alfred has cooked something simple and hearty for a heartbroken boy in the news whose big sad blue eyes remind him so much of the first Orphan he ever cared for. Jason is nervous about having another rich kid at the manor. And Dick feels like he recognizes this kid in the news from somewhere but he can’t put his finger on it.

And boom! Right after everyone is done scrapping their plates and thanking Alfred after a relatively normal dinner. Tim, who’s been very quiet, looks up and demands to be trained as a superhero. He’s not looking to be Robin, not with Jason alive. He’s not trying to replace Jason. But he won’t let what happen to him happen to any other kid. He wants to be a hero and he won’t take no for an answer.

Well fuck… I guess Bruce is keeping another one? What else is he supposed to do?

—-

** The reason Jack Drake lives is because Batman goes to Haiti to save him. If Bruce isn’t emotionally connected to Tim why would he care about this case personally? It has no effect on Gotham and he was in the middle of another a serial robbery case which is more pressing that he abandons to look for Tim’s parents. So I fully believe if Tim wasn’t Robin, Jack would have died with Janet.

Tim Drake is destined to be an orphan just like his brothers and sisters.

I have thoughts about Bruce & Parenting:

One of the reasons Jason runs away from home to find his birth mother (and eventually dies) is because Bruce benched him. Removing Robin from Jason made Jason think his time at the Manor was coming to a close, triggering his desire to return to his neighborhood which leads to him find our Catherine isn’t his birth mother. And all that heartache -- and the pain to follow -- stemmed from a misunderstanding that Jason thought he was “adopted” to be Robin while Bruce was just looking for a son.

This misunderstanding is never resolved. I would argue it is one of the keystones of the modern Jason-Bruce arguments. And it is never resolved because Bruce doesn’t know Jason didn't want to be Robin. After all, Jason genuinely enjoyed being Robin and Bruce thought he was being a "good dad" because he was making Jason happy while protecting him physically. After all, Jason asked to be Robin just as Dick did.

But why did Bruce allow Robin to be created in the first place?

My hypothesis… my interpretation is as such:

One of the failings of Bruce’s parenting with Jason and Dick is Bruce allows the child to set the expectations in the parent-child relationship.

You can see this A LOT in Bruce’s biggest blunders with Dick. When Dick was young (NINE!), Bruce let Dick decide to be Robin, throwing himself into danger, and running lead on cases without a lot of oversight or boundaries from Bruce. This pattern of behavior carries over into their civilian life. This has lead to interpretations of their father-son relationship being more like brother-brother in the early years. All of which, Bruce allows because Dick is physically small enough that Bruce can protect him from danger. Weirdly it’s the same logic small dog owners use to avoid teaching their dogs: why bother training them to stop jumping when you can just pick them up and move them. Of course kids don’t stay small forever.

As Dick got older and Bruce attempted — most likely subconsciously — to course correct by setting expectations like Dick needs to take his safety more seriously and slow down on hero-ing to allow for a civilian life, Dick is shocked and insulted, seeing it as Bruce not trusting him. When in reality, expecting your child to pursue some kind of job/college post high school is a not an unrealistic expectation nor is questioning if that child really wants to continue heroing, a very dangerous profession, into adulthood where Bruce can no longer protect him.

The problem is these expectations are being set way too late. Dick and Bruce have been operation for so long under Dick’s desires that it is such a shock to the system/routine that when it all comes to a head after Dick is shot by the Joker (triggering Bruce’s PTSD) it leads to a massive falling out. Of course, Bruce goes way too far in attempting to control the situation when he takes Robin away in a misguide attempt to bench Dick.

Of course we know how that works out.

Years later, once Jason is older, starting to push back against Bruce’s teachings, and is getting too big to hide under the cape, we see the same issue popping up. Bruce sees Jason acting out/getting angrier and is afraid Jason has killed a man (The Diplomat’s Son) and benches Jason. While Jason is used to following Bruce’s lead in the field, Jason definitely sets the expectations in their father-son relationship. So when Bruce attempts to take the reins by benching Robin — the one area in their lives that Bruce’s kids listen to Bruce — it, again, feels like a betrayal. This all culminates in Jason running away because he doesn’t feel stable at home (the same way Dick did).

(Side note: You could argue this is because Bruce’s biggest parenting influence is Alfred. Bruce views Alfred as a father figure but Alfred is never able to fully step outside his role as butler, no matter how much he wants to. This meant that Alfred the Butler enables Bruce a lot. That coupled with Alfred’s own violent past meaning Alfred doesn’t have a good frame of reference of what a child can handle in the first place, we end up with Batman.)

I don’t think Bruce really fixes his parenting until he gets Damian.

With Tim, Bruce provides stability — to the point Jack Drake feels threatened by Bruce’s presence in Tim’s life — but that is because Bruce is strictly the “mentor” in Tim’s life for the first few years, which helps establish a pattern in the relationship where Tim listens to Bruce’s expectations in and out of the mask. It also helps that Tim is less confrontational than Bruce’s other children and is less likely to argue directly with Bruce and more likely to go around Bruce while feeling guilty while he’s doing it lol.

Damian, from day one, is looking for a parent. And at this point — between Tim and Cass and fixing his relationship with Dick — Bruce has started to figure out how to manage his kids. This all culminates in a father-son relationship with Damian where Bruce, as the father, sets the expectations in and out of the mask. Bruce makes a lot of effort to bond with Damian in the Batman & Robin comics after he comes back from the dead. Bruce makes Damian go to school and expects him to socialize. He sets the moral framework for how Robin operates (which Dick started). After Damian comes back from the dead, Bruce knows Damian’s friends and is involved in his romantic life. He engages in Damian’s hobbies and encourages them. He also scolds Damian when he breaks the rules or tries to lie without ripping away Robin (shockingly low bar I know!).

Of course, I wouldn’t say Bruce is earning any parenting awards and I’m still reading about Damian and Bruce’s relationship so I’m sure there is information I’m missing. But Bruce seems like a much more involved parent now than he did with Dick.

But this is my interpretation of Bruce’s parenting so far!

Break Me (Like a Dream)

Summary:

Fate seems determined to keep throwing them together. Wen Qing and Jiang Cheng have a chance to talk. This fixes some things. Sequel to Listen to the Ocean (Hear it Break)

Ship: ChengQing

Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence | Post-Golden Core Reveal | Hurt/Comfort

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63570229

Excerpt:

Wen Qing says nothing as Jiang Cheng opens her cell door. The slow grind of metal on stone is far too loud in the present silence as if only hours ago she had not heard the screams of her people and the sounds of battle.

“Lady Wen,” he greets, surveying the confines of this cell and stares long and hard at the manacles around her wrist and the array drawn on them. 

Qi sealing arrays. She’d designed them herself for risky surgeries where one’s qi could lash out and hurt the physician or patient. The irony of it all feels like a slap in the face. And was most likely Wen Chao’s intention.

As does his presence here. 

“Sect Leader Jiang,” she echoes like it is enough, like it can encompass everything that lies between them. 

---- Read More ----

In honor of messy bitch Tim who deserves a maneater era after his womanizer era in the 90s. Here is a fic concept:

Bernard wants to get engaged young. 22-23. The minute he’s done with school he wants that ring on Tim’s finger.

Tim — allergic to commitment outside of the cape — is like “nope!” And it’s their biggest fight. It actually ends with them taking a six month “break” which Tim reads as a “break up” and proceeds to enjoy a voluminous ho phase, slipping in and out of the clubs of Gotham and Metropolis with Kon, Bart, and Dick as friends/guides.

It’s during this time period that Tim starts sleeps with Kon. They might have experimented when they were younger (no homo was said at some point because that closet was made of glass). A part of Tim, the part that has been in love with this boy even if he hadn’t had the language for it just yet, wants to cling to Kon with all the spite and terror of a bat. But the other part, the same part that ran away from Bernard, knows he won’t be satisfied if he ties himself to Kon just yet. There’s so much more to explore, to experience. He’s a researcher at heart after all. A scientist and an archeologist. He wants to experiment.

And Kon… Kon wants. And if this is how Tim will have him, he’ll enjoy it. He’s a “life is for living” kind of guy. If it becomes something more, Kon would be delighted. But he’s lasted this long as one of Tim’s best friends by meeting him where he’s at. And it’s fun. The sex and the partying and experimenting. Tim and Kon make it fun.

(Dick is happy to be Tim’s guru on all things safe, sane, and consensual. Honestly, Tim’s crisis of the week is small potatoes compared to most of the family DRAMA Dick deals with.)

And then Bernard comes back into the picture. After six months of licking his wounds and realizing he’d rather have a part of Tim instead of nothing at all, asks for another chance. He even suggests keeping an open relationship, as long as Tim doesn’t say “I love you” to anyone else and agrees to a date a week. Bernard can live with it. He’s not… thrilled, exactly. It’s not his first choice but he’d take some of Tim instead of none.

Tim introduces Bernard to Kon three months after settling into the new arrangement. They hadn’t met before then because Tim had no way to explain their connection out of the capes. Now Tim can say, “Bernard, this is my most frequent partner, Kon. He’s been my best friend since I was 14.”

And so the messiness commences!

One day I’ll sell my crafts. But for now I’m glad I finished these!

Is there a fic where Bruce gets Damian as a newborn and still adopts Dick? I’d love to see Bruce juggling nap times and burping while dealing with an angry hormonal preteen! I think it’d be good for him.

(Also Damian getting all these older brothers but still being the first son! Damian teasing everyone by claiming “technically I was here first so I’m the oldest!”)

Someone with more skill PLEASE animate Nightwing dancing to Like Jennie but specifically this TikTok sound:

Please tell me y’all can see the vision! He would be amazing!!

I have some money and a dream. No lie. I need to see this.