Follow Your Passion: A Seamless Tumblr Journey
Au where time travel shenanigans occur and a younger nightwing is shot from the past smack dab in the middle of the battle.
And (after the fight) takes everything… surprisingly well
I mean it’s nightwing
His whole thing is adaptablity
He’s sees Jason first and he’s a little teary but more so insanely elated that his little brother is okay and that he’s so happy they’re both still around to be spending time together. And Jason gets super choked up bc it’s sweet and happy but like he’s a tough guy they’re both crying super masculine tough guy tears.
He’s friendly if a little distant around the rest of the bats and birds but it’s all okay ya know. If he shoots Steph a weird look once in a while after she mentions that her and Cass have both been batgirl… well worse things have happened.
And then more shenanigans occur
And Dick has to interact with the wider league/ hero community
And bro sees
Donna Troy
Alive and well.
And he just loses it
Full on breaks down and clutches at her like she’s about to disappear. All that perfect grace and poise handling his and Bruce’s repaired relationship, his new role, the 50 new robins and bats, bludhavens destruction and rebuilding, the collapse of many of his very valuable relationships (romantic and platonic)
Gone
Because Donna is here and she’s okay and she didnt die under his leadership lookshesrightthere and it’s 1000% too much for him. His knees have turned into jello everyone else doesn’t matter, her arms are the only thing keeping him from collapsing too the ground.
And he’s just apologizing to her violently bc this is DONNA and bc of flaws in his plan, in his execution he’s had to live without her and he’s just… so happy that’s not forever. He doesn’t have to live without Donna forever, just a little while longer and he gets his sister back.
And ofc bc it’s Donna and Dick she’s 100% not having the apologies and telling him that her death is 100% not his fault and she’s so sorry anything about her has hurt him like this.
Anyway it’s very soft and sweet and teary and they collapse in a puddle of omgmysiblingiloveyou goop. Dick is like fully passed out like an infant after a really good crying session. And Donna is clutching at Dick because he’s here and alive and misses her and doesn’t have the weird glint future Dick has where it looks like he’s looking at her corpse every time they meet eyes.
They could be alone or it could be in front of the batbabies or Batman and Superman or the fab 5 or Kori&roy outlaws or just Roy outsiders, or just Bruce or just Jason
Dealers choice
I just need everyone to know how important Donna Troy is to 1 dick Grayson
When hes recovered from experiencing emotions ™️ he just keeps holding her face between his hands and double checking everything’s okay
Does she have what she wanted in life
Is she happy?
Are her relationships good
He won’t touch Bruce’s money but if she needs an apartment let him know. It’s worth it for this
Is anyone on the league giving her shit (he graduated from the bat university of contingency planning he can help if super strength isn’t enough to take em down)
So on
It’s very cute
It’s very sad
I want you to visibly tell that even however long it’s been since this event (ur choice) Dick Grayson never could have wholly survived Donna Troy’s death, and the longer she was gone the more pieces of himself he lost.
Bruce being startled by laughs and cackles of mischief he though had long been buried
Dick being more of a sibling and less of a parent
The bat neurosis being just so so much lighter
He wasn’t as good or kind of a person when gone but it wasn’t that obvious to anyone. Now that this young Dick Grayson has barely had to move through life without her, has seen that she will come back. His whole image is softer. Everything from the way his eyes assess the world to the tense lines in his back is just softer. More forgiving almost
Anyway
Dick and Donna hours with everyone and their mother understanding just how much these two love each other
Thank you bye bye now
Donna Troy cradling Dick Graysons face between her hands; I would die for you
Dick: I would die for you
Donna: I know hon, but it doesn’t mean the same thing coming from you
Dick, vaguely offended: hey!
Donna: Dickie baby, you’d die for a torn up piece or paper or something much less valuable like Bruce Wayne.
Donna: let’s face it, you dying for something/someone isn’t exactly a compliment, it means they’re breathing (optional)
Dick: …… I mean you’re not…. Wrong but i really don’t want to admit that
Donna now patting both sides of his face: dw I know you love me, even if you have a martyr complex
Listen I love the ‘dicks being ostracized from his family and self destructs’ trope in fics however
I would like an inverse just once (I could write it but I want this fic to be good so I can enjoy it and I am not the greatest writer) where everyone blows up at him and flat out lays into him and he just goes… okay… if that’s how you feel?
Takes himself off of the patrol routes and rosters. He’s off the emergency calls and his ‘call for city wide emergency’ has been down graded to ‘call for world wide emergency’ he’s no longer on comms with oracle
He stops offering assistance to the other kids teams, doesn’t send info for investigation and doesn’t go within 100feet of Gotham.
Takes himself off the den-mother, baby sitter, trainer for all the younger teams lost that involve any and all bats
In the beginning he vacates his apartment and temporarily moves in with Donna in New York and things are good because of course they are. They’re Dick and Donna a world doesn’t exist where they aren’t okay.
And then his presence in New York leads to a lot of the og core five titans interacting and they realize that they miss each other like hell and start to work together more and more. Until news sites are like ‘teen titans grown up??’ ‘Original titans spotted doing hurricane aid in Florida!’
Because Dick loves his family but he knows when to bow out. And he chose the family he made in the new teen titans.
And then one day one of the bats track him down in nyc and breaks into what is now Dick and Donna’s apartment and are ready to argue that they need him back and need him there for a huge Gotham wide event.
And Dick says ‘sure okay let me get my stuff and we leave in half and hour’ as soon as the first sentence is out
No convincing or begging or asking for money (cough Jason cough)
Dick is patched into their comms and he’s working efficiently except he’s not… acting like himself.
He’s collaborating with whoever they tell him too, no problem, he’s discussing ideal plans and co-ops and teams and how to best get it under control.
But he’s talking to them the way he talks when he’s offering aid to teams he’s not a part of.
Like the hero version of an acquaintance and no one can call him out on it because he’s doing good work. Work that’s on par with his work before this whole fiasco. He explicitly isn’t letting their personal issues affect his work.
He’s speaking but not talking
And Bruce remembers this… he’s probably the only one who does because last time he was the only one included. The last time Dick acted like this is when he first visited Jason and him after he had been fired.
Whenever Bruce was in the room and Dick was forced to speak with him, the conversation never strayed past business casual especially around Jason.
Batman and Nightwing got into screaming matches
Bruce and Dick were strangers
And now they’re back to this, 7 kids later, a million ends of the world stopped, they’ve bled together, cried together and clung to each other in pure relief after they managed to clutch victory.
And Nightwing was treating Batman Inc like a new team stepping onto the scene.
Once they’ve secured everything and managed to keep Bruce from self destructing and making it worse. Dick just leaves and tells oracle that he’ll send over his debrief in 3-5 business days and it was nice working with them.
And then he’s gone
No cave, no manor, no Alfred, no med-bay because Dick doesn’t stay places he’s not welcome.
And after they all talk about that and how weird it was and Bruce reveals Dick did this before when he was Nightwing after Bruce fired, where Dick Grayson didn’t know Bruce Wayne.
And one of the kids asks when he broke and stopped the act and Bruce just says ‘the day he found out Jason died’
And the Batkids kinda freak bc what do you mean?? What is he only going to come back when someone dies? Thats not? There has to be another way?? And Bruce is like yeah no idea sorry (bc he’s helpful like that)
So then Steph the next day resolves to go visit him, Tim isn’t the only professional stalker. And she finds Dick and Donna’s apartment and well it’s daylight and she’s in civvies she’s if she climbs in through the window she might get reported to the NYPD and she doesn’t wanna get arrested or shot to door it is!
And so she goes and knocks and Dick opens the door and just lights up
Something something this is such a nice surprise something something it’s so good to see you.
Dick had taught Donna how to make some of his mother recipes when they were kids. So now whenever they’re together for a long time they cook together.
So Dick who is usually living in a cluttered apartment with no clean dishes and an exclusively grab and go food is now trying to force feed her some of his cooking.
Because he picked up the habit again since he’s the better cook between him and Donna.
And it’s delicious and he wants to catch up and hear everything that’s going on in her life, is she working with new people, dating anyone? How is her relationship with her mother etc etc.
It’s a nice day and she stays late and never confronts him on anything until she sees how long ago the sun set and she needs to get moving.
He hands her paper with his number and makes her promise not to give it to the others or she will lose access to it, he offers to help her on a conditional basis as nightwing but only her, she can call him about the rest if it’s an end of the world or they’re near death and need immediate aid.
And that’s like the fic because the key to winning nightwings assistance is like breathing (optional) but if you’re Dicks family you have to care or else. He’ll love you and help you, when you need it but he won’t tie his life up with yours, he’ll spend his time with people who value his opinion and the person behind the mask.
Anyway cue all the Batkids trying to do what Steph did and fail because they’re neurotic shits who think bonding involves doing casework together or a steak out.
(The next person to crack it is Damian, completely unintentionally he has a fight with Bruce and can’t ask him how the fuck he’s supposed to solve this equation in the new stupid way they’re teaching him no he can’t use the old method they’re supposed to show their work so he pulls up to Dick and Donna’s in a ratty ass hoodie like plz wtf do you mean you work top down explain Grayson- and dicks like awww no problem kid)