Dick And The Fab 5s Most Recent Texts 2 Each Other And Their Names For Each Other (this Is Canon In My

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

This art is my proof that no one would canonically notice how bad dicks fashion choices are until Bruce puts discowing in the case bc he rocks every thing he wears

a request i got for older dick grayson in his og robin suit

I love when I’m reading fanfiction about dick going thru it and everyone hating him and what not.

And then the author is like

Yeah yeah everyone hates him except Donna Donna would never hate him, but she’s busy and he doesn’t wanna fuck up her relationships despite the fact he knows she wouldn’t mind

Bc yes even in a premise as stupid as “everyone wakes up and hates dick Grayson” is we ALL collectively agree that there is no universe where Dick and Donna arent completely out of their minds with adoration for the other

Thank you to everyone who remembers that DONNA TROY WOULD NEVER

The pipeline from “I’m indifferent/slightly averse towards this popular ship” to “this ship shows up in every fucking unrelated fanwork and post and now I have a personal grudge against it because it’s so hard to avoid” is surprisingly short

Forever trapped in each others orbits but gravity keeps us away (DickRoy)

Immediately followed by

Dick Grayson x anyone remotely morally ambiguous (I see u tiger, JGJ, Kori, Helena, Joey I see you and I love you)

Jason Todd x completely normal civilians (bc it would be so funny)

Or

Jason Todd x women that can kill him (asphyxiation via thighs or actually will shoot him)

Put Tim in a throuple as long as Kon is there (Bernard or Bart is ur choice)

Damian must follow his fathers footsteps and date dangerous women I fear (or a Superman what who said that)

And Stephanie brown should date me actually so no one

Au that follows Dick grayson as he accidentally and unknowingly prevents a bunch of people from becoming villains through very intentional kindness (or competence since they’re like oh hell no I am not having his ass come after me. Fuck. No)

there tends to be a kind of under estimation in regards to dick’s attitude towards his parents. they’re more often used as The Reason for his path of heroism, and that’s true enough, but it’s a very focused Reason that often fails to include the actual Loving Parents. i would argue that thomas and martha wayne get more attention in regards to their loving on bruce, and in certain time traveling corners on dick as well, but it’s rare to see that kind of respect paid to john and mary grayson. the parallels we can draw between bruce and dick pretty much end after dick is taken in. we can count: loving parents; stable family structure; only child; bright future; horrific murder of parents; witness to said murder; and plot for vengeance as the core parallels between dick and bruce. where they begin to diverge is the point in which bruce becomes the guiding mentor for dick in how to channel that sense of grief and rage (though bruce had alfred, alfred played no part in diverting bruce from his self destructive path and encouraged it)

to that end, there’s a lot of talk about martha wayne’s pearls and mary grayson’s robin, but even then talk seems to only center around dick’s hero name and never what about the history the name implies. “robin stands for hope”, okay what else? martha’s pearls symbolize the catalyst for bruce’s transformation into batman, but does mary’s robin do the same? i think not, bc going back to the divergence between bruce’s and dick’s origins, though bruce remains the defining fork in the road for dick, if dick were raised in extremely similar circumstances as bruce, bruce would have more or less fulfilled the role that alfred did for bruce- which was mainly distant but caring adult figure that served to simply agree rather than direct. a reasonable conclusion, should bruce have fulfilled such a role for dick, would have been that dick should’ve become bruce #2. obviously, dick didn’t and the reason for that lies in john and mary grayson

this may ruffle some feathers, but there is a point to be made in the difference between the wayne parents and the grayson parents. let’s do some quick if thens: if alfred was left in charge of bruce, then alfred holds some responsibility in how bruce turned out. if bruce grew up to be someone emotionally closed off, then bruce is an emotionally distant, closed off adult. if bruce is an emotionally distant, closed off adult, then it stands to reason alfred reflects the same. so, if bruce and alfred are both emotionally distant, closed off adults, then when they take in dick grayson, dick will grow up to be an emotionally distant, closed off adult. right?

well, we all know that’s not how it turned out, and all reason for such a conclusion reside solely in the short time john and mary grayson raised their son. “but bruce had about the same time with his own parents. why did he and dick turn out so different?” and again i point directly at the implied differences in the wayne’s and grayson’s child rearing! the waynes represented a very nuclear family, one that is generationally upper class and in very prominent leadership positions. tracking the assumed and typical rearing patterns for that kind of family, though it may be a foundationally loving one, it’s also one that is radically different from the type the graysons represented. power and job structure rested solely with thomas and martha; bruce had very very little to worry about or any responsibilities other than making good grades and being a generally good son. comparing such a dynamic to the graysons, the power lines begin to blur a little. john and mary are employees, not leaders or heads of anything. however, they work in an extremely team oriented and cooperative environment- their earnings depend on everyone and themselves. though a prominent act in haly’s circus, they are not a completely solo one, and even then, it is a team, FAMILY act. since his birth, dick has been raised in an environment that focuses heavily on teamwork and perseverance. he took on enormous responsibility in being a part of the flying graysons, which likely wasn’t something he was being forced to do, young as he was. taking on a JOB as young as 9 years old, one that tests his physical, mental, and emotional strength sets him drastically apart from bruce when he was the same age. but let’s go back to john and mary again

no parent on earth would ever want to put their child in such a dangerous position as performing on the trapeze. and yet, john and mary did. why? dick’s initiative and his parents’ trust and strength. if john and mary believed that they lacked in some way that could put dick in harms way, i find it impossible to believe they would have ever let dick join them. dick did not learn his strength and endurance from bruce. dick already possessed those qualities before meeting him, otherwise dick would have never become robin and joined batman so quickly. the graysons set an ENORMOUS example for dick, one that set the tone for the rest of his life. taking into account the “it takes a village” familial structure that dick was raised in while with haly, dick would have learned that the strength of individuals COMBINED is what makes a person strong. even the formation of the flying graysons relies on trust in each other, that they will be caught in the next leap and that they can do these amazing stunts without fear of failure BECAUSE of the Faith they have in each others abilities. in addition to that, an environment that encourages strength and teamwork must also encourage FAILURE. one cannot learn from perfection- only through mistakes does one grow, and dick grew EXPONENTIALLY. dick grew, at the age of 9, to PRODIGY levels of talent and acrobatics. john and mary set an example so strong and so steadfast that it fostered dick’s stone-solid character for the rest of his life, even after they were gone from it

dick would have not survived his parents’ deaths were it not for the way they had raised him. it is why dick can move on and grow from it, whereas, as we’ve seen a dozen dozen times, bruce has failed to ever move on. coddled and adored as he was, bruce never had to face a challenge that his parents wouldn’t have gladly taken care of for him. the waynes did everything for their son because they loved him enormously, and what parent in the world would force their child to do difficult things- especially at 10 years old? of course bruce never had to confront things like failure or hardship before, his circumstances in life simply wouldn’t have allowed for it, and that is why bruce was so incapable of handling his parents’ deaths. thomas and martha did not prepare bruce for difficulties in any department, whereas john and mary introduced problems AND solutions to dick very early on. the SOLUTIONS bit is what set up dick for so much success- that’s the key difference between the two. dick had both parents AND guides, while bruce just had parents

dick would not have become a light in the world while with bruce were it not for john and mary grayson and their love and dedication towards their son. the credit for dick’s achievements as a hero may fall to bruce most of the time, but even bruce recognizes that he had zero part in the formation of dick’s strength of character. dick’s continued success and perseverance has EVERYTHING to do with those first 9 years he was with john and mary, and not a single one of the innumerable tragedies dick has endured has ever been able to disavow that

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23094079

idk if you like reverse robins but…red hood steph

PFFFFTTTTTTT

BRO I feel like so many times people de age my son and make him a saint or the devil.

No HE IS JUST CHAOS

Bro grew up weird and thinks the way he grew up was normal ofc he’s annoyed your worried for him

There are like 2 things bby Grayson doesn’t like

- insults to his parents

- insults to his showmanship/ skill

If you think a BRUISE is gonna knock him down obviously you’re insulting both and are obviously cringe fail losers lmao

Also I love how we all agree that in the deaged verse Damian is horrifically and cartoonishly protective of Dick Grayson

THANK YOU FOR THE FIC REC

Okay listen there are 5000 timelines so stay with me as I cobble like 10 together for angst reasons.

(My weird fanon x canon take on Dick becoming nightwing)

I am a Bruce kicked Dick out truther

So

Bruce freaks after Dick gets shot and goes ‘this can’t go on’ and Dicks like what?

Bruce decides that Robin is done, Dick can’t be Robin anymore. But Bruce doesn’t have that right, it’s Dicks name! Hell it’s Dick mother’s name for him, Bruce has no right!

Except he does, he made the suit, he made the tools, the schedules, the taught Dick most of what he uses on a day to day basis.

Which means he can take it away.

And he does.

Dick of course doesn’t stand for this, which causes a big argument to get even bigger. Alfred is furious because Dick is still a child, a child who just had a bullet pulled out of his shoulder. Bruce should’ve let the boy rest before starting this argument.

But now that it’s brought up, it’s never going back down, Dick won’t take this loss of control as anything other than a lack of trust that he can handle himself. He won’t see that Bruce is worried for him, that Bruce can’t stand to lose him.

They get into a screaming match and it’s bad, Dick Grayson is one of the few people who get pull Bruce out of callous logic and into cruel rage.

So Bruce says something I’m sure at least 50% of children with tenuous relationships with their parents have heard

“If you don’t like my rules get the hell out of my house” or some various, maybe Dick gets him to yell at him for the first time possibly ever that hot raging anger that makes tears bundle in the corner of your eye. Maybe Bruce’s anger is cold that’s honestly your choice.

But Dick… Dick doesn’t take him all the way seriously and pushes just a tad more, yells one last thing. In a rage, maybe something about his parents, or Batman or this whole fight being Bruce unable let go of the image of a loved one dying by gun.

Well whatever he says..that’s it

Bruce’s voice goes back to the dead Batman growl and he tells Dick it was a mistake to make him robin, leave the suit and drop his keys with Alfred.

Now Bruce is a very intelligent man, Bruce is a very calculated man. You’d think that Mr. Very smart and calculating would realize how that sounds to a young teenage boy.

Especially a young teenage Boy whose first experience with the Gotham was being place in a juvenile detention center and being forced away from a life he knew with people he loves.

But no. Bruce is being an idiot and does not realize that he basically just went.

My house

My stuff

My rules

I made you

If you want to make your own choices you get the fuck out and don’t take anything from me.

Nope doesn’t get that at all

Alfred is horrified because he thinks that Bruce is behaving like a spoilt seven year old (oh if you don’t listen to me you can’t play with my toys)

But he doesn’t say anything, just watches as Dick tries to fit 7-9 years of his life into a backpack.

Watches as Dick leaves all the expensive gifts and allowance money Bruce has given in and only takes the money he got from working summer jobs (it builds character which Alfred is a big fan of) or mowing lawns or tutoring kids.

He needs a place to spend the night but him and babs are on the outs, him and the titans are tight but the closes people to him location wise are not Donna or Wally so he doesn’t feel safe collapsing and sobbing into their arms.

It’s Roy, the closest person to him rn is Roy and him and Roy haven’t gotten over their teenage crush/I must be better than you thing and Dick doesn’t wanna be ridiculed (which Roy would never but our boys in a bad headspace)

All and all it leads to him freaking the fuck out in the pouring rain, but fuck it he doesn’t have time for this. He’s on his own now, fine. Whatever he can do this.

Cue Liu, the boys home and the violent manipulation our boy goes through in canon.

“I thought she loved me but she was using me” and keep the age gap fucked up here for angst purposes later!

And he can’t do this

Fuck that

After that shit show and he’s dismantled her little empire and gotten her arrested… he, like a very logical 16/17 year old. Has a fucking huge panic attack. Huge enough that his heart rate jumps so severely a certain blue boy-scout comes to check on him.

And sees his nephew in the pouring rain, violently dissociating, looking thinner, more worn and dead eyed than Clark’s ever seen him.

Yeah no, that’s not gonna work for Clark.

He takes Dick back to metropolis and we get Clois parent comfort hours.

Lois decides she’s gonna Kill Bruce

Clark decides he’s not gonna stop her

Dick gets better with them, less jumpy.

The comfort of people who’ve loved you since your were a child + regular trips to kanas farms for menial labor jobs around animals and southern cooking. Do wonders for a boy wonder lol.

They do the infamous “have I ever told you about the story of Nightwing and flamebird”

It’s a title freely given and that’s a huge difference.

Dick goes back to the titans, does his lil costume change and new name reveal. And then leads them as well as he always had. Without the pressures of disappointing the bat, I mean he’s already ruined that relationship.

The titans do great work, become a respected team, take a bunch of kids under their wings.

They’re messy, drama filled, mirage still happens, Roy gives in to addiction, Wally has a heart condition. Dicks fighting everyone for the right to marry Kori. He’s still being manipulated by brother blood.

But they make it through.

Kori and Dick aren’t together anymore, they both make the mature choice that they need to heal separately. And maybe if they’re better they’ll try again.

Roy has Lian and with Dick and Wally’s help. Gets his shit together

The titans is an entirely independent organization from the league, Dick Grayson will not take a Dime of Bruce’s their money.

Merch sales, stock trading and tax write offs keep them afloat.

He hasn’t spoken to his Dad since he was 17, he turns 20 a week after Donna dies.

He’s met and helped Jason for 2 years in bludhaven but he doesn’t touch Gotham.

Because that’s Bruce’s.

Bruce gave him Gotham, Bruce gave him Robin, Bruce gave him a family.

So Bruce could take it away

And Dick

Internalizes this SO heavy

The titans can’t touch Bruce, Nightwing can’t trust Bruce, he quits any/every job he land if he finds out they’re so much as using Wayne operating systems. His relationship with Jason is entirely separate from Bruce. So much that, Bruce knows about the hanging over of the Robin suit and literally nothing else.

He doesn’t know about aspen, he doesn’t know they meet up for food once a week, or that they’ve taught each other their mother’s recipes. He doesn’t know that they’re close.

When Batman’s busy, Bruce’s life falls down the list of priorities. Jason’s doing his Robin duties, getting good grades and living his life. Bruce doesn’t need much more.

I need Nightwings early habits to be Dicks full on trauma response to basically being informed that the life he fought for was actually a loan that could be taken away from him.

He buys his childhood circus

He buys his apartment building

He doesn’t involve Bruce when the circus burns or building explodes.

Doesn’t involve Bruce when his relationship crumbles. Or for tarantula/ blockbuster/deathstroke/crutches advice.

I feel like there are 10 flavors of shippers in this fandom

- no you can’t ship that ship?? It’s so problematic (there is a 2 year age gap)

- yeah Bruce prolly fucks his kids who also fuck each other

- why are you shipping fanon?? Why does everything have to be gay?? Enough with the gay stuff

- problematic non incest ships (slade Wilson and Dick, Talia and Jason, Tim and Ra’s) I call this one the Freud would sell his soul to interview you tier

- stuck on one ship that hasn’t been canon in years or only happened in a tv show or else world story

- Batkids x miraculous ladybug or Danny phantom

- why love triangle when they can all hold hands (everything is a polycule)

-why love triangle when the women can just date each other and abandon the mediocre man (gayyay subgenre exists where the women leave their boyfriends to date each other and then the boyfriends also date each other)

- quietly ships current canon and lives their lives

-all queer ships, canon! Fanon! Who cares? Two bisexuals of opposite genders is fine but it has to have pizzaz

Tag yourself or add anything that I missed!