Chapter Text
Tim Drake woke up with the worst mood possible. To be fair, he always woke up that way, but tonight it was because of a reason other than simply not wanting to wake up early. Last night had been hell, since a random idiot decided it would be funny to plant a bomb, tipping off the police and not tell them where the fuck he put it.
The entire family almost put the city upside-down trying to find it. To make matters worse, the idiot wasn't some unknown crazy weirdo who wanted attention —well, he was those things— but he also had had serious training, not to mention advanced weapons no civilian should carry. He showed to be even more of a threat when he single-handedly took Nightwing down.
He was left in a terrible state, enough for an emergency surgery being required, so Hood accompanied him back to the Batcave while the rest of them used a different approach. With a bit of Oracle's hacking into personal data, they discovered the man was dealing with a terrorist group affiliated with the League of Assassins and their plan was to use the man so they could leave Gotham in shambles and come as saviors, or whatever.
After many persecutions around the city, avoiding casualties, and finding where the fuck their bomb was supposed to be; they eventually managed to turn the terrorist group against him (something that almost ended on a public execution —one that Black Bat stopped on time). Everyone got handed to the police, Dick didn't die, the man confessed where the bomb was and they destroyed it before it exploded, they lived happily ever after.
Except they caught the guy at three of the fucking morning and Tim had to be in his office at eight.
Tim curses himself internally for having a normal job, and an important one on top of that, so in an almost zombie state he makes himself a simple breakfast and sits down to eat it on the counter.
He pulls out his phone and enters Twitter to entertain himself, nothing was out of the normal, or nothing wasn't until he came across something… Curious.
Gotham vigilantes appreciation @vigilantes_rocks
Guys, I think they are roommates
[The video was recorded by someone who didn’t know much about photography judging the way it was framed, and clearly from a high ground, maybe an apartment, considering Dick and Jason were on a relatively close roof. As soon as the video started the two of them were arguing, the camera was shaky so what they were saying is a mystery. By Dick’s body language it was obvious he was hiding an injury. Relying on his left side. Deep breaths as if he were running a marathon. The discussion got more heated as the video progressed, getting to the point where Jason took out his helmet and held it in his hands, with a mask still covering his identity. Dick was about to answer something but his body gave up and almost collapsed to the floor. Almost was the key word, since Jason threw the helmet away to catch Dick before he fell, they kept staring at each other for a couple of seconds before Hood carries the older man in bridal style to then give him a kiss on the forehead with a faint blush forming on his cheeks, Dick smiles and kisses Jason back on the cheek. The video stops then].
Tim was horrified at first, was this person really implying his brothers were dating? But when he remembered the fanfiction of 200k words he wrote last year for a ship that wasn't even canon, it all made sense.
People didn't even know what kind of relationship vigilantes had between each other, so they came up with their own theories, some more popular than others; of course, people were prone to… Shipping them, and no one could call them out if they hid under the ‘We don’t know what their relationship is for sure’ argument.
It didn't make any of the comments more digestible.
Gabs (elle) @giirliiiie
Idk how you manage to not scream like a fangirl
Gotham vigilantes appreciation @vigilantes_rocks
@giirliiiie Almost did, but they would've run away or hack my phone to erase the video, so I stayed quiet
Danna @Danna_.65
I mean it's always been kinda obvious they explore each other's bodies
ME🫎 @randominternetuser
OMG!!! I ALWAYS KNEW IT!!! I DIDN’T IMAGINED THE SEXUAL TENSION
JackBL @Waterman
@randominternetuser I mean, who couldn't??? Those 2 r textbook definition of enemies to lovers
Helen @personaldiary_rms
Yeah, I remember them once arguing like a married couple on my roof
🍐Pearman🍐 @imthepearman
Hello? People are finally getting *my* OTP?
Not giving my name @IP:17339947
Fr, for a minute I thought I accidentally entered Tumblr cus wtf, I haven’t seen a single homophobic comment yet
Ximena @Cherrydark
@IP:17339947 Oh, those emigrated to instagram XD
Not giving my name @IP:17339947
@Cherrydark Makes sense ngl
Kate 💜🐙 @Skater57
I'm 99% sure i saw smth like this before on ao3
#1 fan of DND @Hobgoblin
I knew there was an established alliance between Gotham and Blüdhaven about this 2 being together but i didn't know they were this intense
What are you a cop @The_roundhog
@Hobgoblin And you haven't seen them in person, it's hell
Olivia Park @osoloky
@The_roundhog Aww, but I think they're cute 😕
What are you a cop @The_roundhog
@osoloky Not when you get hit with 100 bolts because you dared to shoot at Hood. I still feel the electricity in my bones
Maybe it was because Tim was a masochist or maybe curiosity really kills the cat, but he decided to read the retweets. They may have worsened his day.
Chris @Chrishakoke
This is disappointing, they're supposed to protect us, not shove their agendas down our throats
Glimmix @Glitter_inmy_dress
Ok, but can we talk about the height difference and how strong Hood is 😍 They look straight up taken from a bl in the best sense
Alexandria @exxa_26
Ts couldnt be more cliche enemies to lovers, height difference, grumpyxsunshine, you name it they have it. They look fucking taken from a toxic yaoi comic from a 12yo girl on 2014 Tumblr
Melanie @Tierra100able
People twinkifing Nightwing on twitter wasn't on my 2025 list
Ivan @inarikitagawa254
@Tierra100able Tbf I think anyone looks like a twink beside Red Hood, I was once rescued by him and had to look up to look at his face (and I'm 6'1)
Evelyn (Taylor's version) @Lyn35
I wonder if his piece of meat is proportional to the rest 👀
Okay, maybe Twitter wasn't the best option for Tim. It took every single part of his will to not throw his phone across the room or to not throw up his breakfast.
He scrolled for a while, some silly publications getting a smile out of him, as time passed, he was finally capable of forgetting the horrors he just witnessed. Unfortunately, the feeling didn’t last long.
Attack_mongoose
Have yall seen the clip or am I just chronically online?
mattpuzhitsky
Are you talking about the clip with Red Hood and Nightwing having sexual tension while fighting and then dropping what they were mad for to then kiss? Because if you are the answer is yes
Batsarealwaysblack
OK, but the real question here is: what’s the ship name?
Voiceless_radio
Hear me out, we should give them those creative ship names where people put on representative elements rather than actual names like they do with deadlyeggplant (The ship between Black Bat and Spoiler)
redhoodspussy
A crazier hear me out, based on the replays I came up with the perfect name: bird leather.
Since the start I knew their name should represent them. At the start I thought of combining their signature weapons (escrima sticks for Nightwing and guns or bombs for Red Hood), however, I couldn't come up with a decent name. So I decided to be a little more metaphorical: even though it’s not confirmed, it is almost common knowledge that Nightwing WAS Robin (despite people not agreeing on how many there are, the most popular version is that he’s the first one who got shot by the Joker), even now he uses an ambiguous bird-like theme; Hood on the other side was a little bit harder, since there’s no clear theme for him aside from a color or him ravaging criminals, but talking to a few Alley residents who are friends of mine, I discovered Hood sometimes gives his leather jacket to others, from a traumatised victim to a small kid who wants to play, this was just too cute not to include it.
I came up with a few other names before settling on this one: electrified bomb, bird nesting, baston phantom, electric gun; if you want to use any of these names instead, be my guest.
And never forget guys, in the ship the top comes first and the bottom later.
Darkskinpink
Don't get me wrong, I love the name, but why are we assuming Red Hood is the bottom? If anything that man emanates top mafia boss from generic bl energy
redhoodspussy
Nah, this just shows you're not from Gotham. I actually created a list with my friends during a night we were all high as to why he gives big bottom energy:
- He’s a mother hen. One of my friends lives in Crime Alley with abusive parents. About two years ago Hood came and murdered their parents to then hand my friend and his little sister to a stable family, but they stayed with him in the meantime. I quote “He took care of us like those loving housewives from sitcoms.”
- There's many, MANY videos online of Batman and RH fighting (although you mostly find them in the deepest parts of the dark web since Oracle erases them as fast as possible), in there he's shown to be very emotional and sensitive.
- Believe it or not my friend (once again, they're from the Alley) has seen Hood wearing makeup and with painted nails (and not even the typical black, they were purple).
- [Photo attached of Red Hood sitting in Nightwing's lap, it is taken from a considerable distance but clear enough for anyone to identify who they are]
- Put it last because this can be mistaken as personal taste (it isn't, I swear) but look at those thighs and hips and tell me someone who looks like they're made for carrying babies could top.
Komandy
Furthermore than the typical response others have to this repost saying it's sexist (it totally is), I want to bring up the fact Nightwing and Starfire officially dated for at least two years, and you cannot tell me that man didn't got pegged at least once
#Nightwing #Red Hood #Superheros RPF #Gotham Superheros RPF #They’re cute but at the same time they were eye-fucking each other way too hard #If someone says some shit like ‘Redwing’ or ‘Nightred’ imma lose it #I don’t ever like that ship name but we can come up with something better for those two #However i don’t know what could represent them #Bird leather #RH is deadass a top #Nah bitch he takes it up the ass #What if they’re switches
Tim genuinely couldn't continue, he felt the bilis rising in his throat and threatening to come out at any moment.
People were writing essays. Essays about how his brothers fucked. Between each other.
Tim cursed his past self for offering to help Barbara in keeping tabs about the public image of his family as vigilantes, since now his feed in every single social media he opened was full of people discussing the video.
He seriously considered asking for the day off, but it would be highly suspicious if he did that considering the disaster W.E must be right now after last night.
After having a long and very serious debate with himself (and planning how to ask Zatanna for a memory erasing spell), he went off to work, not before leaving a message to his siblings, who must still be asleep.
Orphans and wannabe orphans
Me
Someone recorded Dick and Jason together and now they're viral
Btw, don't search it unless y’all want a new trauma
~°~°~°~°~°~°~
The bats, having an ever-curious nature, obviously ignored Tim's advice, but at least everyone could suffer together! One by one, they kept falling.
The first one was Barbara, waking up around half an hour after Tim left the message. In her defense, she was Oracle, this was her literal job, for all she knew, the video could potentially be a threat to their secret identities and Tim just didn’t want to say it because he wanted to solve it alone! So, she saw the video, nothing suspicious of it, they never say each other’s civilian names and the masks are well-placed, so then she moves on to the comments to see if people noticed something out of the ordinary. She’s torn between laughing and crying, maybe she can do both while trying to figure out a way to clean her eyes after accidentally watching the very explicit fanart of her ex and said ex’s brother together.
Duke was the second, he technically woke up almost at the same time as Tim, but was occupied getting ready for high school while finishing the biology homework he forgot about. However, he decided knowing what Tim was talking about was more entertaining than listening to whatever new concept his math teacher was explaining. If he had to ask permission and run to the restroom as if his life depended on it after three minutes of entering Tumblr, it was nobody’s business.
Damian also had classes as well, however, he wanted to investigate what Drake was talking about at the manor, where no one could read a little bit too much into his expressions and figure out something they shouldn’t, a faint possibility but never impossible. However, he couldn’t deny his immense curiosity, so when he heard his classmates gossiping about how ‘Nightwing and Red Hood were caught on camera’ he may have eavesdropped. He regrets that decision before, during and after his visit to the bathroom stalls during the rest of the break.
Stephanie didn't have classes that day, although she used her phone on a regular basis like a normal person, so it didn't take her much time to find out what Tim was talking about. Her laugh was heard through the apartment complex and woke Cassandra up as well. She takes as many screenshots as she can to send them to the family group (before Tim or Barbara block her for the spam).
Cassandra on the other side didn't understand her girlfriend's commotion, even after she explained what happened, since it wouldn't be the first time people thought certain vigilantes were dating each other. On the other side she was disgusted at the thought people could misinterpret body language so much to the point they think the love Dick and Jason share between them is anything but brotherly, but she felt that way almost all the time when people ‘shipped’ people who obviously weren’t in love. Maybe this time it could cause a different reaction from others since her brothers were the ones involved.
Jason was peacefully reading while sticking close to Dick side, the man would rather have a tea party with the Joker before admitting he got scared at the thought of losing his older brother, but there was still a reason he hadn't left the manor as soon as Dick got stable after all. He hadn't had the time to look at his phone, but as long as he didn't hear the emergency, then the rest would be fine. However, he eventually finished his book and grew bored, so investigating what Tim was talking about seemed like a good idea. After reading comments after thirsty comments talking about him and his brother that way… He considered talking to Bruce about installing bathrooms in the cave (or any decent place to vomit in peace).
Dick woke up to Jason looking through his phone, a rare sight since the man hates using technology for recreational purposes. He asked what he was looking at, making his brother look with the most horrified expression he's ever seen in the man, who just tossed his phone, Dick picked it up and threw it to the wall in less than a minute.
“Promise I'll buy you a new one.”
~°~°~°~°~°~°~
The siblings plus Steph and Barbara reunited in the Batcave, deciding what they should do next. They were sprawled around the computer —that was showing the infamous video paused— in a semi-circle. It has been exactly a week since the video got published and people weren't calming down.
“No Damian, we cannot mass-report people just because they’re shipping… Dick and Jason,” Duke said with a tired tone, since it was the fifth time they had to turn down the youngest bat suggestion.
“You’re right, we have Gordon to directly erase all evidence the video ever existed.” Collective groans were heard around the cave.
“As much as I would like to do that…” Barbara said carefully. “Things aren’t in our favor right now, a lot of people have already seen it, if we suddenly erased all evidence of its existence, even backups in the web and downloaded versions, people would get suspicious.”
“Not to mention they already know about Oracle’s existence, people aren’t as dumb as you believe brat, they’d put two plus two together and think we’re hiding something, maybe an actual relationship, and would talk even more about us.” Jason seemed to have, surprisingly, the chilliest reaction out of everyone in the group (if you ignore him vomiting on the Batmobile after entering the Internet).
Stephanie was also chill with the whole incident. “I say we should capitalize on it.” And the last statement was scratching it out. “Think about it, a whole underground deal where we sell photos of Dick and Jay kissing. We could even send them autographed!”
Dick stayed uncharacteristically quiet, this wasn't the first time an incident of those sorts has happened, but they had been easier to ignore. When people thought he and Bruce had some sick relationship during his time as Robin, he just shrugged up the people who thought that as either bad-faithed or straight up weirdos; when he got shipped with any of the Titans, people were right about ninety per cent of the time, so he couldn't even get mad.
But he felt somehow conflicted now, people weren't in the wrong for thinking his little brother and him were together; they quite didn't know any better, and it's not like they're going to risk their identities by telling the public they were brothers to make them stop.
And that wasn't the worst part, if this was something small or at least avoidable —like in the past— then he wouldn't have made a huge deal, but almost every living being on earth was talking about it. Yesterday alone he was approached by three different people who asked if he was ‘Fucking Hood’, it was tiring and of course he didn't want to think about his brother like that.
“What if we tell them you're brothers? But like —biological ones, so our identities aren't put at risk,” Duke suggested.
Everyone thought about it, that actually sounded like a good idea. “Mhm, we actually look alike,” Jason started, “If we pull up a convincing enough scenario where we ‘accidentally’ reveal we're brothers, most people would back off…” He trailed off, letting the rest get their own ideas.
At the end they agreed this was the best course of action and started to make a plan.
As if it were a cue, Bruce descended from the mansion to then do a double take at the fact most of his family was reunited in front of the computer, clearly planning something, surely nothing good for his sanity. “Is everything alright?”
Bruce's kids and other auto-invited members turned to look at him, then had a silent conversation, deciding on whether or not it was a good idea to inform Bruce on what was going on. Their hesitation seemed to worry the old man even more.
Was there a new villain? Did someone escape? Are any of them hiding a life-threatening injury? “If you need anything, I'm free of cases at the moment.”
The others reached a sort of agreement.
Dick decided to proceed with caution. “There is a little video of Jay and I online, it doesn't leak our identities or anything serious but people have started to… To sh- to… Okay, this is harder than I believed.” He wanted to say the words but they burned in his throat when he tried to.
“People think we're fucking,” Jason said with his characteristic tact.
Bruce visibly relaxed, sitting on the computer Tim was previously sitting on to send some reports to Jim. He said nothing since it was obvious they wanted to tell him more.
“So, we're revealing Richard and Todd’s sibling bond so those horny bastards with a lot of free time stop bothering them with stupid and unfounded theories.”
Bruce was thankful to not be drinking anything in this instance, or else he would've spit it out. Still, he kept his cool. “I forbid you from doing that.”
To say the others were outraged at the simple dismissal was an understatement, but if they wanted Bruce to be on their side, they needed to play their cards right. That's what they agreed in their next silent conversation.
“Bruce,” Barbara started, with not so much carefulness as Dick has, “This whole situation has been going on for a week and-”
“Barbara, you know better than anyone else how the internet works,” Bruce interrupted, “Eventually, people will forget the video even existed in the first place. If it bothers you that much just ignore it.”
“At least half of my employees have made a variation of the ‘So you're the one who pulled Blüdhaven's greatest ass’ joke during the last week.” Just because Jason seemed relaxed on the outside didn't mean he was less annoyed at the commentary; in fact, there's a ninety-nine per cent of chance the only reason he's not screaming at Bruce by now it's because he's broken at least ten fingers in the last twenty-four hours from criminals who had the audacity (or stupidity) to ask him if Nightwing and him were really dating.
“Two days ago, a group of girls almost got mugged and once they were safe, they asked if ‘bird leather was real’. That shit will hunt me in my nightmares.” Stephanie laughed at Tim's story.
“Same happened to me.” Sadly, they were civilians, so Cassandra had no excuse to hit them in the face.
“Only civilians? I stopped a bank robbery and they asked if Black Bat and I ever went on a double date with Hood and ‘Wing.”
It was crystal clear that Bruce was pulling every single concentration technique he learned through the years to not show his emotions. “It's not so bad, you'll survive it.”
“B, don't you understand the gravity of the situation?” Dick grew annoyed at the fact Bruce didn't understand how horrible it was to hear sex jokes about you and your brother fucking each other.
“You think it hasn't happened to me before? Barbara once sent me an hour-long video compilation of people thinking the Justice League is a big polygamous group. And don't even get me started on the whole Brucie drama I have to involve myself into.”
“Bruce, B, you cannot possibly compare people thinking you're dating your coworkers with people thinking I am dating my brother!” He screamed the last part, sue him, there's no way Bruce can be this apathetic.
“They'll get over it in less than a month. That's how the Internet works.”
Bruce was a man of evidence, without it he almost never traces a plan, if the stories weren't enough then he would show how bad people's comments were, so Dick pulls out his phone and reads the first Tweet he found about them. “‘Red Hood getting out of the battlefield and letting others take over his territory only because of Nightwing leaves it clear-”
“-That he decided to get railed before saving the city, the man had his priorities straight.” Jason couldn't hold back his laugh when he saw Bruce's face, who looked like he just licked a lemon.
“Do you really want to hear that shit for more than a week?”
The brothers saw Bruce's ‘I regret adopting all of you’ face before he started to type with a bit more force than necessary and they swear his eye was twitching under the cowl. “Give. It. Time.”
~°~°~°~°~°~°~
They gave it time, most consider they gave it a little bit too much time, exactly three weeks. Although —and no one could be caught alive admitting this— Bruce was right, comments about Nightwing and Red Hood's relationship have decreased significantly, maybe in a week or two people would really forget about the incident and move on, decontaminating the bats' social media.
But then another criminal popped out and hell broke loose.
This time Poison Ivy, who hadn't committed any significant felony during the last year, was holding hostage the police station, demanding for her girlfriend to be freed from Arkham. Every non-corrupt officer was trapped inside, so there was no way the bats would collaborate with the few ones on the outside.
Their plan was simple enough. They would divide in three groups: Batman, Robin, Red Robin, and Spoiler were group one in charge of distracting Ivy. Group two, conformed by Nightwing, Black Bat, and Bluebird, had to free the hostages and send a signal once everyone was out of the station. Group three, who were only Red Hood and Batwomen, remained hidden in a nearby building as backup in case something went wrong.
The first minutes went perfectly, their plan was working with group one fighting against Ivy as farthest from the exit group two was using to rescue the hostages; however, as Ivy grew more angry by the fight, her plants also reacted by rising stronger and multiplied, hindering the escape plan, prompting group three to help, with Batwoman fighting the plants blocking the exit while Red Hood entered to get Nightwing and a boy, who was inside a cell when Ivy attacked, out. Whatever, it was easier said than done.
By the time they got the boy out, the plants were even angrier than before, actively attacking the duo of vigilantes, not only doing the typical things like strangle and hit them, but also some of them were expelling some weird pollen variation they’ve never seen before. Red Hood was lucky to have a yet intact hamlet on, while Nightwing got his emergency breath filter broken at some point of the fight.
The pollen entered quickly to his system, leaving him practically useless, a dead weight who Red Hood had to get out from the building. At the end, Ivy was retained with severe damage to the police station (not that any of the vigilantes cared that much), a cleanse of dangerous plants with unknown abilities that would take at least a week to finish, and a Nightwing covered in, what they discovered through an express test, cuddle pollen, and already suffering its effects by clinging to Red Hood, and he would do it for the next twelve hours, when they would wear off.
By the end, no one was critically harmed and the only remarkable event that lasted in the bats memories were the several pictures of Dick hugging Jason while the latter was desperately hiding how much he liked the physical contact.
They never thought it would have that much impact.
~°~°~°~°~°~°~
[The video opens with Red Hood without his helmet on in the distance getting out of the damaged police station with Nightwing hugging him like a koala. As he approaches the camera, held by someone who's clearly leaning on the window from a significant height, it catches what the vigilante is saying “That damned pollen, I get it, no I really do, ‘Oh, I'll save my lover no matter the cost’ I'd do the same if I ever had to get my fucking partner out of prison, but what use would a clingy ‘Wing have? Now I'm responsible for this idiot and not getting out of bed in at least the next twelve hours.” As soon as he stops talking, the video is cut].
Comments
angelcantdothisanymore
Bruh, no way we just got confirmed those two fuck ☠️
tutucaa_n
Wym?
naakygmay
Nightwing is COVERED in sex pollen
valer1e_34
For non-gothamnites, here we got a rogue called “Poison Ivy”, yall probably know her from the time she kidnapped the president for an entire week so he would cancel some construction project that I don’t remember at this point. Well, every once in a while, she attacks some important building full of politicians and millionaires to protest in favor of nature and the “Batfamily” (as we locally call our group of vigilantes) stops her. This video is from an incident from some days ago and we can clearly see Nightwing covered in sex pollen, Red Hood too but the man wears a freaking hamlet so I doubt he’s breathed that shit, hence why everyone is making sex jokes
user0903_04
@valer1e_34 Couldn’t it also be cuddle pollen tho?
zzzeeenaab
@user0903_04 Idk bout u but i wouldn't lay in bed for +12 hours with smone just to hug
robissandoval
Poison Ivy my beloved, now making my fav ship cannon
fosl₡ally
@robissandoval She’s literally a terrorist who forces people to rape each other but okay
Poison.Ivy.Fan
@fosl₡ally She got better
whildxhild
Wasn't there another video of them being gay that went viral like a month ago
joshua_park
Damn, now everyone wants them to be gay 😒, can’t vigilantes, heroes or whatever be normal now?
itsgoodbyetwenties
@joshua_park Let me hold your hand when I tell you this…
larubiadelamesa8
GUYSSSS people in Tumblr already have a ship name: Bird Leather, use this knowledge wisely
Leuchtturm.day
Aww, he said he would break Nightwing out of prison if it were necessary, what a bad time to be single and jealous of heroes 🥹
m.fernadez
Why does everything has to be gay now?
sleepy-cat.627
Where are my ao3 writers at?
madi_gwenwood
Doesn’t everyone else finds it creepy to see real people be shipped?
raidersbook
@madi_gwenwood Stfu
silver.ware
@madi_gwenwood I mean, they’re not really people, they’re symbols who with no real personality beyond helping save the world and stuff
spritetual_gennie
Not to b tha person but it makes SO MUCH SENSE, i swear the 1 thing bludies and gothamnites agree on is that those 2 are freaks together (trying to avoid censorship from ig, be gentle)
n!kki
@spritetual_gennie If you call us ‘bludies’ ever again imma show to your house in ya sleep
tythatguyler
Damn, ive been learning about them since a fee days ago and Gotham people have the best concept for a romance novel ever but they're not going for it
swaggysonia
@tythatguyler nah fr, an ex-crime lord and a vigilante (practically superhero) going through the most gut-wrenching enemies to lovers you can imagine with also a sort of Romeo and Juliet conflict because of the bat-clan who publicly hates Nightwing's could be lover, not to mention they bicker like an old couple? Someone write the novel right now