I can handle it!!!! (she said, clearly not handling it)

after all the hardships and the struggles and the learning curves and everything, after the battles are won and the losses counted and everyone goes home and rests and life gets to be as Normal as it can be for them

His siblings will leave.

They will leave him and everything that they taught him about Friendship and Loyalty and Family and Always Being There For Him is gone. Because they're gone.

Even Duke, the closest to him, is older. He will leave. He will move out and find his own apartment, his own life, his own inside jokes with people who aren't Damian and Damian will be stuck. At home. Alone.

Sure, his siblings are (for the most part) close by. But they don't live there. He cannot just cross the hall and ask to hang out. He needs to text them. Make plans. Ask them to schedule time in their days for him. Since when did they need an event to see each other??

Outside of all of the masks and capes and Events and shit

as in Bruce is obsessed with Hal and Hal flirts back and thinks its fine and natural and whatever but then Bruce gets jealous so he takes Hal back to the Manor and Hal is still laughing and joking and thinks Bruce is finally making a move awww so cute

Until he suddenly starts to feel a little faint and wakes up chained up in some extra cave off the main BatCave

"Wakey wakey, pretty thing." Bruce coos. "The drugs took a solid minute to kick in, but that's okay. made it easier to carry you home, after all. You really should be more aware. It was far too easy to roofy your little Justice League drink. That's why I'm keeping you safe now."

Hal who is slowly realizing no this is real and is horrified and keeps yelling and arguing and "Someone will realize I'm gone! Someone will find out!"

Bruce who laughs and brushes his hair lovingly aside the way he's been doing for weeks now except now Hal feels sick when he does it and just murmurs "Oh? You mean someone will notice your absence? You just went on another space mission, Hal, and forget to tell everyone. You've done it before. The Cave is lead lined." And Hal realizes in horror that he's right.

Hal who tries everything.

He tries starving himself but that just makes Bruce pin him down and forcefeed him.

He tries to dislocate his arms and slip his binds but that just makes Bruce leave him with dislocated arms for a week as he tightens the bonds as punishment

He tries to fight Bruce when he is allowed to get up for a piss but that just ends with a bloody nose and bruised jaw and Bruce cooing as he dabs the blood away with a rag soaked in alcohol

"They'll know its you." Hal cries as Bruce fucks him deep and slow. "Me?" Bruce purrs, licking his tears from his cheeks. "We've been getting along so well though recently, baby. And I'm helping in the search to look for you. I've been in the Cave for weeks now trying to find you."

Just. Idk. Anyone have any fic recs? Toxic BatLantern to the highest degree.

And ofc eventually Hal gets so desensitized to it that Bruce lets him out of his chains and he doesn't even fight it. He starts leaning into the touches. He goes out to dinner in Gotham with him. The League asks where he's been for years and he just laughs and says he was on a mission and must've forgotten to tell them.

He marries Bruce in a chapel and smiles when he kisses him and becomes feral when Bruce gets hurt.

He eats with the kids and takes Duke and Damian to school and pets Ace and everything Seems Normal

Except Hal is cagey around drinks. He won't let anyone make him a drink except Bruce. Won't let anyone try his drink except Bruce. Won't let anyone hold his drink except Bruce.

Except Hal gets weirdly submissive when they're captured on a JL mission and he's put into handcuffs. He just... stops. Drops forward. Obeys. None of the fight that his friends are used to surfaces. He's a doll.

Except Hal is covered in bruises. He doesn't even go on that many missions anymore, he stays on Earth and in Gotham specifically a lot. But he's littered in them. Bruce still grabs his wrists a little too harshly. Hal only really gets hard when he's truly getting hurt. There are teeth mark scars on his chest.

Steve Rogers who was raised in the 40's and is deeply religious and he isn't homophobic, that defeats the Steve Idealism or whatever, but he's not gay he can't be it's not- its not right

Tony Stark who is a hopeless bisexual in the modern age and has been in love with Steve since his father first hung a poster of him in his room as a boy and sure, yeah at first it was just because he wanted his fathers love and affection so he'd get it through validation of sharing an interest but then he met Steve for real and fuck

Steve who takes off his cross to kiss Tony

Tony who whispers "just pretend I'm a girl" in desperation when Steve can't bring himself to go all the way because he wants it so bad

who cares if Steve calls him "Anny" instead of "Tony" and who cares that he whispers "good girl" instead of "good boy" and who cares who cares who cares he Has Steve and that should be enough, it is enough he swears to himself even though he tried to spontaneously kiss Steve the other day and the man acted like he was attacking him and dragged him away from everyone else and removed his cross first and yes, no, of course I love you baby it just... slows down the mood...

Like Bruce is leading Clark and Diana through the Manor and chatting and randomly walks around the middle of the hallway for no reason and Diana follows him while Clark just walks headfirst into Duke and neither Duke nor Bruce realized what they'd done

Tim is casually talking with a couple of friends he has over and randomly picks up a sandwich from the plate in the middle of the table and holds it over his shoulder where it just disappears

Steph is helping Alfred set the table and just shoves a glass bowl into the abyss and lets go and Alfred is two seconds away from screaming when he realizes 'oh, Duke is holding it' and Steph didn't even realize he wasn't visible.

like- Hal is one of the only Founder league members who spends more time in space than on Earth. Their literal only job as a functioning team is to protect Earth, and Hal spends more time outside it than on. (Barry, Clark, Bruce all have their territory to protect, Diana and Arthur have their kingdoms, and J'onn has a Settled Life.)

He's on week long, month long missions with the Lantern Corps and its fun and they're his family- but the Founders of the JL are his family in a way that only a group of 'technically humans' from Earth can be.

He comes back from a mission and Bruce invites them all out to dinner and someone says "hey Artie!" and Hal has a small panic attack because when did Arthur start accepting Artie as a nickname instead of scowling

He's out with Barry and Diana after coming back from a month in space and Barry says "hang on, I gotta let J'onn know" after they cross a street together and Diana starts cracking up and Hal has to remind himself to breathe for a moment as they explain the inside joke

It's not intentional on their part and its nobodies fault- but their lives continue whether Hal is there or not. They invite him everytime but Space doesn't have the best reception and besides, he's too far away to make it in time. They hang out and he can't be there, he misses more than he attends, and its fine and they understand, no one gives him a hard time for it or excludes him-

What if horsemeat was served in burgers instead of the regular meat we are given today?

where Dick is the Manager or something (I don't know pilot things guys I am doing this with whimsy in my heart and zero knowledge) and runs Ground Control (thats a Thing right?) and is in charge of people landing and docking and etc etc

Bruce is the Head like Leader guy who Dick reports to and they're not adopted in this au but he's basically adopted all of his little workers and they hang out in his office and Dick actually used to work with him at another Flying Place but when Bruce left Dick left with him and they started up their own together and Dick was willing to work under him instead of with him but Bruce still treats him like an equal and he has a say on almost everything that goes down

Jason and Tim are copilots and Duke and Steph are copilots and they all give Bruce a headache because they'll randomly be challenging each other to races in the sky and other bullshit like that- not to mention the Fraternization that may or may not be happening between Tim and Steph but whatever, if he doesnt see it he doesnt have to do anything about it

Damian who gets to be Nepo Baby confirmed and walks around with his Dada learning the business and when Bruce is busy or goes on work trips Dick takes him around and the pilots are always nice to him and show him how to work the planes etc etc

Barbara runs... the talker position. She talks to the pilots when they're in the sky. That's a role. She has it. Ground Control? (Guys idk im sorry) and spends time in Bruce's office a lot and helps with decision making like Dick (same rules apply for her and Dick- if Bruce doesn't see it its not his problem)

Cass gets to be an engineer. She keeps her feet firmly planted on the ground and she and Bruce spend long hours underneath the planes not speaking and just Fixing things up.

They run their own... delivery service??? Whatever planes are used for besides Travel, that's what they do.

One day Dick comes in yammering about this guy he met at the local bar who seems to be pretty good and said he got kicked out of the military but not because of recklessness or anything and he seems like a standup guy and Bruce please hire him he's nice and would be good with the clients and also Steph said that if she doesn't get more days off she's ramming her plane into your office

So Bruce hires Hal, naturally.