spatz | April recs

About half and half Batman and Guardian recs this month (yeah, I don't know what my brain's up to lately either. They both...investigate crimes in weird fictional cities? I guess??). The Batfam fics are all gen, the Guardian fics are all Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. Enjoy!

BATMAN

cards on the table by @wesslan

Tim's parents faked their deaths and fled the country years ago, but neglected to take him with them. He spent some time on the streets, and now at 16, he makes a living as a fortune teller, stalking and hustling the shit out of Gotham's elite by telling them eerily accurate fortunes based on the information he gathers about them.
His life is peculiar but he wouldn't change a thing. When he gets booked for the big Wayne Halloween party, however, he finds himself getting all tangled up with the Waynes, and the more fortunes he tells, the tighter the snare becomes.
or: Tim just wanted to scam Gotham's elite, not end up on the Batfamily's watchlist. But it seems they just won't leave him alone…

Completely delightful, except where it's heartbreaking. Oh, Tim.

when the man comes around by julodinae_sunsets / @pyrras

Alfred’s love is pressed shirts and warm food. And his love is a gleaming knife, too.
He would bleed for his boys. He would make others bleed for them. And so he does.
(Or: the Joker must die, and Alfred Pennyworth is not a man who waits on others to do his work.)

Sometimes a girl just wants to read about the Joker getting killed, you know? And Alfred's POV is so sharp and well-written in this.

nightcall by TheResurrectionist / @frownyalfred

Carter played the recording for a third time. Red Hood’s lips pursed.
“I don’t know what the fuck Nightwing was talking about,” he said. “That’s not a Thai dialect. He’s always had the worst ear for Kra-Dai languages.”
(or, the one where an enterprising GCPD member uses the batsignal to ask the local vigilantes for translation help, and the Batfamily knows WAY too many languages)

Ah, my darling weirdo nerds. ❤

GUARDIAN

Following the rhythm of indulgence and delight by naye

"Your messages were terribly inappropriate," Shen Wei tells him.
"Oh?" Zhao Yunlan asks on a rapid breath.
"Yes. You didn't say 'please'," Shen Wei admonishes. In his arms, Zhao Yunlan gives a full-body shudder of excitement.

Sweet, hot (with side of established kink play that I loved), and domestic.

Won't be waiting alone by velithya

"That was DCPD," Wang Zheng says. "A missing person matching our last ID has just been reported – from Dragon City University, a Professor Shen Wei."

I do love Shen Wei being vulnerable and hurt - which is hard to manage because he's such a OP badass - but this different-first-meeting AU nails it.

Support Network by Prosto_Dasha

Most Dixingren living in Dragon City know him as Lan-gege, the guy who one of the first welcomed them in this unfamiliar realm and helped them get their bearings. Zhao Yunlan is very careful about keeping his identities separate, but it's all useless when the Black Cloak Envoy appears just as he is trying to evacuate a newly-manifested Dixingren from under the SID's nose.

Charming AU with solid worldbuilding where Zhao Yunlun rebels against his father in an entirely different way - and runs smack into Shen Wei while he's at it.