Chapter Text
It had been a week or two since Peni had come over.
Since then, Damian had slowly been entering your life more and more.
He would sometimes barge into your room and join in on whatever you were doing.
One time, he barged into your room while you were teaching Peni how to play the electric guitar.
He didn't even ask to join in. He just sat on your chair and lurked.
You didn't mind Damian joining you; it was nice having someone around a lot.
Sometimes it could get overwhelming, though.
Sure, living with Miguel taught you how to live with others, but Damian would sometimes just...linger.
It also didn't help how you liked being alone sometimes, so it got annoying sometimes.
Especially right now, while you were grocery shopping. With Jason.
He had called you earlier, practically forcing you to hang out with him.
Despite your annoyance, you reluctantly agreed.
Regardless of your hesitance, you kind of missed him. (even though you'd rather die than tell him.)
You guys haven't hung out in around 7 years.
You couldn't blame him, though. His death took a toll on everyone, and he no longer lived in the manor.
While going through awkward small talk, which mostly consisted of you both complaining about Bruce, you heard a voice go off through the intercom:
"Ms. Y/N Wayne, please make your way to the front; we have something you lost."
You looked at Jason, who looked almost as puzzled as you.
"Did you lose anything?"
"Not that I remember... I've got both my phone and my wallet in my pockets, and that's all I brought with me. Plus, it's strange; they used Wayne instead of O'Hara."
"I'll never get used to your last name changing. Why did you change it anyway?"
"I have my reasons."
"fair enough"
Once you got closer to the front, you saw two very familiar people.
Peni and Damian.
You mentally facepalmed and decided to lecture them later.
You could see by the look on Peni's face that she was annoyed with Damian.
Damian, on the other hand, looked indifferent and slightly proud.
Seeing Damian made it easy to connect the dots; he was in denial of your last name being changed.
You sighed and apologized to the lady at the front for them.
As soon as you made your way out of the store, bags in Jason's hands (because he refused to let his "baby sister" do any work despite you literally being super-human), you started your lecture.
"How did you two get here? I didn't even bring you with me!"
Immediately after saying that, both Peni and Damian started defending themselves and talking over each other.
You started rubbing your temple, which made them shut up.
"Peni, you go first."
"Why does she get to go first?!"
"Because I said so."
Peni spoke up. "There was an anomaly here. Everyone was trying to contact you, but you weren't responding."
Right. You left your watch in your room by accident.
Peni continued, "I couldn't find where you were because we couldn't track you—"
"Track?!" Both Damian and Jason interjected in unison.
"Life360," Peni continued, "I ended up doing it on my own."
You grimaced, feeling slightly guilty that Peni had to deal with everything on her own.
"Peni, I'm sorry about you having to deal with all of that."
"It's fine; I needed to get away from home for a bit. If I were you, I'd be more concerned about the lecture you're going to get from Jess and Miguel."
You rolled your eyes playfully. "But seriously, how about I get you some ice cream later, my treat?"
"You know I can't refuse ice cream."
You giggled and ruffled her hair. You looked at Damian, who now looked very jealous, and gestured for him to talk.
"TT. I shouldn't have to explain myself."
Peni sighed and explained, "He was lurking, like always."
"I was not!" Damian argued.
You groaned in annoyance and just continued making your way to your car, everyone following behind you, and Damian and Peni still arguing.
After putting everything in the trunk, Damian and Peni begin arguing again.
"I call shotgun!" they both called out, trying to tug on the car handle despite it being locked.
"Get out of my way, you useless piece of filth!" Damian yelled.
"Y/N, tell Damian it's my turn to sit at the front!"
"No, it's my turn!"
"I'm the tallest!" Peni argued
Damian huffed, "I'm the oldest!"
"by, like, a month!"
"I'm still older!"
"I'm the favorite!"
"No, I am!"
"Y/N-! Tell him I'm the favorite!"
"No, I am!"
"Tell us who your favorite is!" they both exclaimed.
"If I told you guys, you'd end up hurting each other." You spoke up.
"Tell us now!"
"Yeah, or I'll get S//der to scare you in your sleep again!"
"Again?" Jason raised a brow.
You chuckled, "You guys are like 5 apples tall; you don't scare me."
They continued arguing, and you started pinching your nose in annoyance.
"Listen, if you guys can't agree on anything, you'll both sit in the back, and Jason will sit in the front."
"That's not fair!" Damian stomped his feet.
"Life isn't fair." You cringed at how you sounded like Bruce.
As everyone settled down and you finally took a breath, Jason spoke up.
"You know, they kind of sound like us when we were younger."
"Really?"
"Yeah," he chuckled, "do you remember that one time you broke my hardcover book and we got into a fight?"
"Not really."
"You snuck into my room out of boredom and snooped around. You found a book you thought was 'cute' because the cover was your favorite color. We got into a huge screaming match."
"I don't remember that."
"I swear, Alfred scolded me so hard. He put us both in—" He got cut off by Damian's yell.
You pulled over into a Walmart parking lot.
"What?!" You looked at them.
"Parker just bit me! This is preposterous!"
"He started it! He pulled out his stupid katana!"
"Damian, you know we aren't supposed to have katanas in the car," you stressed.
"Snitch." He gave a nasty look to Peni.
"Alright, I'm getting the shirt out." You got out of the car and started grabbing something from the trunk.
"No!" they groaned.
You grabbed a get along shirt and threw it at both of them.
"I am not putting this on."
You glared at him, making him somehow shiver.
"I'm not putting it on either!"
"Do you want me to tell Noir you bit Damian on the arm?"
They put it on begrudgingly, making Jason laugh loudly at how defeated Damian was. You could have sworn you saw a tear fall from his eye.
After forcing them to put on the shirt (and taking away Damian's katana), both of them accepted defeat.
Peni was on her phone, and Damian was looking out the window.
The car was finally silent, with Peni and Damian slowly getting sleepy in the back.
Jason spoke up. "That's what Alfred did with us back when we were younger."
"Deadass?"
"Mhm. I probably have a picture somewhere."
By the time you got back to the manor, Damian and Peni were fast asleep.
The shirt worked.
You chuckled and reached to pick them up; Jason stopped you.
"Wait," he pulled out both of your phones. "Take a picture first."
After taking some pictures (and sending one to Noir), you took the shirt off and handed Damian to Jason.
You picked up Peni and took her to your room.
You placed her on your bed, careful not to wake her up.
You looked around for your wristband to take Peni home.
Once you made the portal, you carefully picked up Peni, making sure not to wake her.
You hopped through the portal and carefully made it through her window, and tucked her into bed.
You got back to your room and finally got to relax.
...that was until Jason walked in through the door.
"Can we talk?" he asked. He looked a bit nervous.
You sat up. "What's up?"
"I miss how close we used to be."
"That sucks."
After around 30 seconds of silence, you spoke up again.
"Listen, we can slowly repair us, but you shouldn't expect everything to go back to normal immediately. Especially since I don't even remember what normal is."
"That's fine, I understand. I'll see you around, I guess." He left, closing your door behind him.
☆
About an hour later, you were still in your room, but now tuning your guitar.
You just got done with your online schoolwork and were dying of boredom.
The Little Mermaid musical was playing on the TV in front of you, and you could hear a slight hum coming from the 3DS next to you, which was playing Pokémon.
Was this a little too much? Possibly.
But you were bored and needed to get some sort of stimulation, since you didn't want to go out and have one of your stupid family members follow you. Again.
You sighed and put your guitar down, watching TV instead.
You took notice of the song playing, Part of Your World.
You cringed at an old memory of you, one where you were around eight.
You were quietly singing, almost humming, Part of Your World, hoping that somehow, some way, while hanging around Jason and Dick, he'd see you and play with you too.
You'd daydream for hours on end; most of your daydreams consisted of your family coming to your performances.
You grew up preferring performing arts, music, dance, and theater over most physical activity.
Not that you didn't like some sports; volleyball and soccer would always have a special place in your heart. Plus, the semester you cheered for was pretty fun.
You also did gymnastics for around 2-3 years (just to be like Dick; maybe Bruce would've liked you more if you were just like him?). which was GREAT for when you became Arana.
But nothing compared to performing and seeing performances.
Both being in the crowd and seeing the crowd gave you a funny feeling, one that gave you adrenaline and made you all giddy and excited.
The first performance you saw was Seussical, on a field trip in second grade.
The Little Mermaid could've been the first, and you begged Bruce to take you to go see it. At some point, he said he'd take you. But he never took you; instead, he took Jason to a bookstore.
You were actually in a play; unfortunately, due to being bitten, now most of your time has to be put into spidering.
You had to quit halfway through the play you were doing; your excuse was that Bruce no longer had time to take you.
Snapping out of your thoughts, you sighed, pausing the musical, which was now almost halfway done. (How long were you spaced out?) and instead of picking up your phone.
You had no new notifications other than Pinterest telling you that you had good taste.
Normally, the lack of notifications would worry you, seeing as how you and your friends usually talk all day.
But you knew they were most likely busy right now, either with work or schoolwork.
Unlike you, your friends went to school in person.
You missed doing in-person school, but it gave you more time to be Arana.
You put your phone face down and flopped onto the bed.
You didn't know what to do right now.
Your friends are busy, and nothing seems interesting.
You could go shopping again, but that would mean having to bring someone with you.
And full offense, you don't think you can stand being around anyone right now.
Sure, Damian's cool, but you were tired of seeing him everywhere.
Jason is most likely going to try and ask to hang out more.
Bruce is awkward with you, plus you don't think you can stand to willingly be around him. Connected by blood, separated by time.
Tim scares you, Dick tries too hard, and Alfred makes you mad.
You sat up and decided to get a snack.
It was almost time for patrol, and you needed all the energy you could get.
As you made your way down the hallway and past everyone's rooms, you looked at some family portraits.
A couple of them were your grandparents, Martha and Tomas.
The pictures were old and somewhat rusty, but you could feel the love radiating off of them.
Some other pictures were of the family (which you weren't even in; no, you didn't feel angry and upset; shut up).
You had some photos of you, only put up recently.
They were from your social media and had your friends awkwardly cut or edited out.
You huffed and continued down the long hallway.
As you started to space out again, you felt your spidey senses go off slightly.
You were now in the living room, where everyone was sitting. Silently.
Dick patted the seat next to him.
Usually, when something like this happened, you'd ignore him and sit literally anywhere else.
Unfortunately, every other spot was taken.
You sighed and sat next to him, a genuine smile taking over his face.
You looked at Bruce, whose face was neutral.
Wanting to break the ice, you spoke up.
"What is this, an intervention?"
You looked around to see everyone looking slightly guilty, like they got caught doing something stupid.
"Oh, so it is an intervention." You leaned back, a bit bored already.
Bruce cleared his throat. "We need to talk about you being Arana."
Shit.
You assumed that you all had a silent agreement that no one talked about each other's vigilante lives.
They never actually told you about theirs, so you found no use in telling them about yours.
"We have decided it is safer for you to be on patrol with at least one of us," Dick said casually.
"WHAT?!" you practically yelled, a bit dramatically.
"It's for your own good—"
"This isn't fair! I don't work in groups. I work better on my own." You stood up and argued.
Tim scoffed, "What about when you fight with your little friends?"
"That's different!" You started crying out of frustration. You hated it when they treated you like you were incapable of anything.
Bruce got closer to you, making you subconsciously back up in fear.
"One of us is coming with you. End of discussion."
You huffed and stormed off to your room.
You just wanted a snack.
☆
You were on top of a rooftop, sitting beside Jason and Damian.
They both had to come with you due to them not agreeing on who should go with you first.
Patrol was boring, and you couldn't stand hearing Jason and Damian argue for a moment more.
You were about to swing away when you got a familiar feeling.
"Hey!"
The familiar voice made you turn around in excitement.
Before Damian and Jason could ask who the guy in the red and black costume was, you hurriedly ran and hugged him.
"Want to get out of here?" Miles asked.
You practically started jittering in place. "Yeah!"
"She's fine, Spider-Boy." Jason put an arm around your shoulder.
"Oh, not again." Miles dragged his hand on his face.
You started laughing harder than Jason had ever seen you laugh. Your eyes were watering, and you were grabbing your ribs.
"I'm very clearly a man; it's in the name!"
"You're never beating the Spider-Boy allegations," you teased.
Jason spoke, "No way, Jose, I'm on babysitting duty."
"I'm 16; I'm fine. I don't need a babysitter." You argued.
"No, you're not. B told me to take care of you—"
Before he knew it, both of you swung away, giggling.
You knew both he and Damian were following you guys using a grappling hook, but they'd be a bit slower.
You and Miles went around stopping a few petty crimes.
After around 10 minutes, you were sure you lost Jason and Damian, even if it was for just a moment.
You guys sat down on a random rooftop.
Miles went ahead and talked about small things that happened lately.
He and Gwen went on a couple of dates, his grades have gone up, and he might get a job soon!
Miles mentioned his family (why couldn't you have a family like that?) and how they've been more supportive of him since he told them he's Spider-Man.
Miles noticed how quiet you were, which wasn't normal for you.
Usually, you were very chatty and bubbly, so seeing you quiet and calm was worrying him.
He shifted the conversation onto you: "So what's going on with you? anything interesting?"
You sighed, flopped down onto the concrete roof, and looked at the stars slowly appearing. "Nothing much. My family suddenly decided I'm incapable of doing anything on my own."
He laid down next to you. "Really?"
"Yep. They won't leave me alone."
"I could tell."
A moment of calm, serene silence passed as you both just stared at the stars.
All the two of you could hear were some cicadas and the sounds of people walking below you.
You smiled, "I missed this."
He looked at you, puzzled, "Missed what?"
"Being with friends. I missed being around my buddies."
Miles's eyes lit up a bit. "We should all hang out together next week!"
"We should! Where do you think we could go?"
You two talked about plans, which didn't really make sense.
You guys decided to plan it later. That's a problem for future you.
After half an hour of you both joking around, Jason and Damian showed up.
You let out a groan in annoyance, and Miles waved goodbye.
You knew once you'd get to the manor, you'd get a huge lecture, one more annoying than the one you were currently receiving from both Damian and Jason.
But all you could think about was how nice it was to get away from them and hang out with a friend for once.
It was so worth it.