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It had been a long mission, and the report was probably going to take even longer, but fair was fair. It was Tim’s turn on rotation to write up the incessantly long report of their fight today. Batman insisted on thoroughness, so here Tim found himself, propped up on the sofa with a fresh cup of coffee, ready to transcribe the minute-by-minute record that was always the worst part of their jobs.
It was on that same sofa that Tim found himself jerking awake a while later, but he...couldn't? Tim blinked his eyes open, wondering if Bart was pranking him again, but there was no speedster cackling at him in his eyesight. Tim felt awake, but he couldn’t move a single inch beyond swiveling his eyes around to try and figure out what was going on. He tried opening his mouth to yell for Kon, but not even a whimper escaped his lips.
Tim’s mind raced. He was trapped on the sofa, and it was the middle of the night, so unless someone got hungry, help wasn’t coming anytime soon. He could wait it out, he figured. The tower was locked down and everyone was out for the night after a long, tiring day. In fact, if he’d just be stuck here until morning, he’d probably end up getting the most sleep he’d had in weeks.
Unless… if he was trapped because he was drugged, then his friends might also be drugged, and Tim had no idea if they were even okay. Suddenly, it became a lot more important to find a way out of whatever he had gotten himself into.
After what felt like hours of useless struggling, of Tim pushing his mind and body to move , he hadn’t even shifted an inch from where he had started. Tim felt exhausted, even though he knew that he hadn’t actually expended any energy. All the mental strain though must have started to wear on him, because he would have sworn that he saw the shadows across the room shift a little. A red glint flashed at him, but when he blinked, his vision cleared to darkness again.
He didn’t have a lot of options, but right now, it didn’t seem like he’d be getting freed in the near future. Tim debated all his best options, before deciding on a good combination of tactics. He would mentally call out for J’onn, hoping by some coincidence that the Martian was tuned in to Tim’s brain’s frequency, while also blinking for help in morse code. Tim figured that if Batman or Nightwing happened to check in on the video feed for the Tower, and saw him voluntarily ‘sleeping’ on the same uncomfortable couch Tim had been complaining about for weeks, they would realize that something was wrong.
It didn’t look like help was coming though, and Tim decided that he’d just deal with this if when his body was freed from its internal bindings. His eyes started to flutter slowly shut, and Tim let the sleep that was gently pulling at him tug him under.
But instead of the sweet embrace of a REM cycle, Tim was roughly pulled to his feet by strong gloved hands. He wondered for a second if rescue was finally here, but when Tim blinked away the blur in his eyes and saw the metallic red helmet, he knew that was far from true.
Panic rose in his chest, but all he could do was blink like a damn idiot as the crime lord, Red Hood himself, held him in the air like a rag doll. Hood let go suddenly, and Tim crumpled to the ground with a thud. He hit his hip on the corner of the coffee table going down, but all that came out of him was a fluttering breath, high and shallow with pain and fear. Tim wondered for a second if all this was a terrible nightmare, but the ache on his side, a fresh reminder of all the other hurts he’d acquired while he was still mobile earlier today, proved that this was all too real.
“Huh, thought the latest bird’d be a little less… floppy” Red Hood’s voice was mechanized and garbled through his helmet, but Tim could hear the condescension dripping off his tongue anyways. He strained his eyes upward, and he could barely catch a glimpse of the man from beneath his bangs at the angle he’d landed. Tim could see the heavy combat boots, the dark armored pants, and the bottom edge of a leather jacket. Somewhere above that, he thought he saw an image of a slashed red bat, but Red Hood moved out of his vision before he could confirm.
“C’mon, show me what Daddy Bats hired you for, show me what makes you worth it, Replacement. ” A heavy boot pushed against his limp chest, and Tim fell helplessly onto his back, now staring up at the villain who’d gotten into one of the most secure buildings on the West Coast.
Tim could only mutedly whine in pain as Red Hood pressed down, pushing the breath from his lungs as he demanded answers from Tim, “Are you so scared that you can’t even move? Are you really this pathetic? Man, how did you ever convince Batman you were worth anything, let alone that you were worth Robin ?” The gun that Red Hood had been twirling around was now pressed against his forehead, and Tim tried harder than ever to get any part of his body to move, to push back at the weight on his chest so that he could pull in a full breath.
“What the hell is wrong with you, brat?” Red Hood was now staring down at Tim, the anger in his voice fading to what sounded like confusion. He picked up Tim’s hand and let go of it over his face, and Tim internally winced as it smacked him in the nose. Red Hood snorted meanly at the sight, and Tim grumbled, squinting his eyes at the infamous Crime Lord now laughing over him. Suddenly, the light chuckled turned into full-on cackling, and Red Hood bent over in half, pressing more of his weight onto Tim, who was truly struggling to breathe now.
Red Hood must have finally noticed Tim’s waning heartbeat, because he stepped off of him and dragged him back up to sitting, leaning him up against the sofa. Tim tried to temper his breathing, to not pass out from hyperventilation while he couldn’t even breathe out of his mouth. Red Hood was still laughing and gasping for breath as he pulled off his helmet, revealing a hauntingly familiar face, green eyes wet with tears of laughter.
Tim could only blink in shock as Jason Todd, dead Robin number two, giggled quietly as he patted himself down, pulling out a knife from a hidden holster, and an injector from a pocket. He held up the knife next to Tim’s face, squinting as if he were comparing something, and another laugh erupted from him before he sighed and put the knife away. Tim wondered if the Red Hood had taken some of his namesake’s gas before coming here, with the way he seemed nearly out of his mind, first with anger, and then with laughter.
But the telltale glassy sheen of Joker Gas victims’ eyes was missing from Jason’s, and as Tim watched him warily, Jason pulled himself together, coughing lightly to clear his throat.
“Kid, you’re damn lucky. Did you fuckin’ laugh me outta the Pit or something? I don’t even know-” Jason was mumbling to himself, and Tim gaped at the revelation that not even his attacker knew what he was going to do next. Bruce had once told him that the most dangerous kind of criminals were the ones that were confused and lashing out, and it seemed like Jason fit exactly into that category.
Jason gripped Tim’s face in his hand, turning his head to the side to bare his neck to him, and Tim started breathing heavily in panic again. Red- Rob- Jason seemed like he was flipping switches at the drop of a hat, and Tim was truly confused as to what was going on. He couldn't track the man’s facial expressions, and he couldn’t read him at all.
Tim hated being in such a vulnerable position, and he wanted to fight, to get out of the hand holding him, but his limbs were still completely useless.
As Tim wracked his brain, desperately trying to find a way out of the trouble he’d found himself in, a sharp pain pricked in his neck, and he was let out of the hand holding him. The injector that had been plunged into his neck fell lightly to the coffee table just barely within Tim’s eyesight, and he saw Jason sit down on it too, one leg bent up and on the table, the other stretched out next to Tim on the sofa.
A light push with a boot sent Tim sprawling back against the pillows, and looking straight at Jason, who squinted back at him.
“Hm, guess that’s gonna take a second to kick in then. Might as well talk while I can still see straight.” He said, cracking his neck from side to side, similar to the nervous tick that the second Robin always tried to pass off as a show of confidence years ago.
“Look, I came here to fuck you up. Like, it was gonna be a whole thing, lights, torture, a heavy emotional trauma before I left you here in a pool of your own blood.” Jason said lightly, and Tim’s eyes widened in pure fear. What was holding Jason back, then? Tim should have been dead the minute that Jason had found him lying helplessly on the couch, he could still-
“Okay, stop- stop spiraling like that, I can see you freaking out. Where’s your listening comprehension, I said ‘was’ didn’t I? Here’s the thing, I got dipped in the Lazarus Pit, and it brought me back wrong. My head’s all out of whack half the time, and the other half wants blood. Which is what I came here to do, I guess. But then you’re here, limp as an overcooked noodle, and I can’t stop laughing, and suddenly the haze is gone? I’m not really sure what’s going on, but I gave you the antidote to the toxin, and you should be unfreezing soon enough,” As he explained, Tim saw the truth revealed in his words. The way Jason’s once blue eyes now shined green, the brutal rage, the dizzying moodiness; they were all effects of the Pit, ones that Tim had read up extensively on. And like Jason had said, Tim could feel the motion returning slowly to his body.
As soon as his tongue unstuck, Tim babbled uselessly a couple of times, lips not quite working yet, and Jason startled into silence. Finally, as his body settled, Tim pushed himself upright, looking Jason carefully in the eye.
It seemed like his mood had evened out, more or less, and Tim took a moment to measure out his words before he said something stupid that would get him back on the top of the Red Hood’s murder list. Before he could say anything, however, Jason spoke up.
“So, which one is it?” Jason had a look in his eyes that was oddly familiar to something he’d seen in Dick’s, and Tim leaned away again, now suspicious.
“Which one is what ?” He asked cautiously.
“Which of your little Titans are you getting down and dirty with?” Jason asked, a smirk now stretched wide across his face, and Tim choked on his next inhale.
“My little- down and what ?” Tim scrambled away from Jason, not in fear, but sheer embarrassment. How could he just ask - Tim knew his face was probably flushed red now, and giving away more answers than not.
Jason laughed again, and Tim froze, wondering if this was some catalyst to another emotional shift, and when Jason stepped closer to him, he flinched backward, but Jason just peered into his face, grinning at the color spreading on his face.
“You must really like her, huh?” Jason asked, but Tim frowned.
“It’s not a her-” he protested, and then shut his mouth, wondering if his adamant correction was going to change something again. But Jason simply shrugged,
“Aha, see you slipped, there is someone.” At the shocked look on Tim’s face, Jason looked offended, “What? I might be a psychopath, but I’m not homophobic!”
“Now, stop trying to lie to me, this is the most interesting gossip I’ve heard in years. I know Goldie and his team were a whole happy little bunch, but I’m pretty sure B banned that. Does he know you have a hero hottie on the side?” Jason asks, looking seriously at Tim, who flushed again,
“I don’t have a- a ‘hero hottie’!” he cried, trying to keep his heartbeat stable and his breathing even like Bruce had taught him to lie, but Jason just snorted.
“Listen, kid, you wanna know why you’re not in itty bitty Robin pieces right now? It’s because the toxin that I gave the rest of your team to knock them out was delivered directly into their bloodstreams, and that’s where it was supposed to stay. So unless the five of you were backwashing directly into one shared drink, the only way you could have been affected by it is if you were making out with one of your team members before I got here. I was all ready to tear you a new one when I got here but seeing you all floppy like that, and knowing it was because you broke one of B’s fraternization rules, well, all that stupid laughing must have knocked the Pit out of control because suddenly I didn’t wanna kill you anymore.” As Jason explained, Tim fidgeted nervously, suddenly less afraid of the Crime Lord in front of him, and more worried about the possibility that the crime lord would tell Batman.
“I’ll make you a deal though, you tell me which one of them is your boo, and I won’t tell Batty that you’re canoodling with your colleagues.” Jason cajoled, and Tim balanced the pros and cons of telling him before giving in.
“You really won’t say? He made me sit through a 53-slide presentation on professionalism in the workplace, and Dick says there’s another one waiting for me if I ever get caught.” Tim glared at Jason’s mocking laugh, but when Jason put out a sarcastic pinky, Tim grabbed onto it with his own and made them shake. Jason’s eyes widened slightly at the show of trust and seriousness over a partner, but the kid had gotten the haze of rage to recede, so he let him have it.
“It’s….” he devolved into mumbles, and Jason snorted.
“C’mon kid, no deal if I can’t actually hear you.”
Tim took a deep breath, and Jason wondered for a second if he was the first person to be told about Timothy’s partner.
“It’s Kon.” he blurted out, watching Jason.
Suddenly, like before, Jason started cackling again. Between wheezing laughs, he looked up at Tim from where he was bent over, trying to catch his breath.
“Are you-” he choked out, “Are you seriously dating Supes’ clone?”
Tim was sure he looked fully like a tomato now. This was the first time that he’d admitted as such aloud, to anyone, and it was kind of nice to hear verbalized, even if it was just to his homicidal predecessor as blackmail.
“Oh my god, this is the best thing I’ve ever heard. Not only are you dating a team-mate, but you’re literally dating a tiny Supes- holy shit Bats is gonna lose it.” Jason cackled, straightening up as he wiped away tears.
“Hey! You said you wouldn’t tell!” Tim protested, running after Jason, who was picking up his jacket, and a wide variety of weapons Tim was thankful he hadn’t seen the business end of.
Jason pulled his helmet back on, and the glowing eyes stared menacingly at Tim. Tim wasn’t intimidated, not after the man under the stupid Christmas ornament had just spent 20 minutes laughing at Tim’s future pain.
“I’m not gonna tell, but damn, this is gonna come out someday, and I’ll be able to lord it over B that I knew the whole time.” Jason chuckled to himself, shaking his head as he walked out of the common room.
“Stay out of trouble kid,” he called as the elevator doors shut, and Tim put a hand up to wave by instinct before he froze, and took stock of the past couple of hours.
He’d started the night by falling asleep after being knocked out by a poison he’d ingested from his boyfriend’s system, been threatened and thought he was going to die halfway through, and the attacker had revealed himself as the presumed-dead Robin before laughing his ass off and leaving Tim alone in exchange for removing the control of the Pit.
Tim decided that he was going to ignore the events of the last couple of hours entirely. He didn’t think he would be able to tell anyone what had happened without sounding like an absolute maniac, and honestly, he didn’t want to explain it to himself either.
_____
A couple of months later:
“Timmy, the Pit is coming back, quick embarrass yourself!”
“Jason? What?”
“The only thing that brings my wrinkled heart any joy is watching you suffer, so unless you want to be in physical pain, I need you to embarrass yourself.”
“Are you kidding me? I’m not doing that!”
“Okay, but if the head’s start rolling again, I’m gonna tell everyone that you could have stopped it and didn’t,”
“Oh my god, you’re such an asshole.”
~
“So that wraps up most of the League’s announcements for the annual press conference, unless- yes, Robin?”
“Um, I need to make an announcement. I’m uh- I’m dating Superboy.”
~