Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In all his life, Tim has always had one secret bigger than vigilantism. He was a dragon.

The thing is, regular humans aren't aware of the existence of dragons, in fact, his family are probably the only ones walking around. As far as he knew, all the dragons were already in the “1,000 years of slumber” phase. It's a whole thing.

See, dragons are everywhere. Deep inside of volcanoes, sleeping in ice caps. Humans should really be careful about verging into their territories, dragons always wake up grumpy.

His mother was a beautiful full blooded dragon, her mother had been a red dragon and her father a bronze, making her scales a shimmering crimson.

His father was only a silver dragon, but still had many beautiful and shiny scales to show for it.

Tim was a mismatched patchwork of his heritage, almost every scale verging on a different color, mostly red and bronze but still many silver spots, almost clashing but somehow managing to look gorgeous. 

He loved his mother's scales and could never understand how she could say his looked even better, but she said it all the time. 

He wasn't sure if she wanted to hype him up or if she genuinely liked his scales as much as she said, but he thinks without her he'd likely hate them instead of loving them the way he does, so either way he's grateful.

Dragons have a humanoid form, but it isn't quite human enough. So, they also wear enchanted jewelry to hide some of the more inhuman features.

The young are given an enchanted tie, nothing special about it, just an elastic black string, that is tied around their wrist until they are old enough to pick out their own piece of jewelry to be enchanted. There's a whole ceremony, it's a big thing. Think of it as like a dragon bar mitzvah or something similar.

The adults get a piece of actual jewelry, sometimes pre-enchanted, sometimes not. His mother had a beautiful necklace and his father a handsome ring, both looked rather expensive.

Still, even with the enchantments, there are parts that look wrong if you stare too long. 

It hides his fangs and sharper teeth, but they're still a little too long, too sharp. He tries to keep his mouth closed, for the most part. It hides his sharp pupils, but they still poke out at the ends. It hides his scaly skin, but just ends up making it look dry in the places they would appear in his humanoid form.

No amount of moisturizer could make his skin soft to the touch because dry skin feels scaly and he is scaly 

His parents taught him how to smile without accentuating his teeth. How to smile to accentuate his teeth. How to stand to look more human, how to stand to put humans on edge. They taught him everything he knows about blending in and standing out amongst humans.

There's a reason why everyone is so frightened by the patented Drake Smile.

It taps into a primal urge, a long forgotten power, the fear dragons have always sparked. 

It works because dragons are scary.

The biggest lesson his parents ever taught him was how to use that to his advantage.

So, he smiles to threaten and smiles to comfort, he stands to unease and stands to console.

He is both endless fear and unending reassurance, because that’s what dragons are.

To be a dragon is to be the concept of duality itself.

Dragons have plenty of bad qualities. They're moody, and mean, and manipulative, and egotistical, and sometimes even sadistic. Kinda like a Scorpio . But they also have plenty of good qualities as well, but this whole conversation is irrelevant because it's so narrow-minded.

Yeah, sure, these traits are common but it's completely idiotic to say that they are all like this because they very well may not be. Honey Badgers are known for aggression but surely there's at least one that is sweet to humans. 

Seriously, can we drop the whole “Good knight slays evil dragon because dragons are evil and bad” thing? It's so derivative.

Also, those stories suck, okay? Tim always hated them as a kid, and he still has a major dislike for them.

In actuality, things like this are never quite so black and white.

But, that doesn’t matter, because who cares if stories about dragons are too black and white, it’s not like they’re real.

Faeries, pixies, brownies, sirens, dragons, nymphs, all of it, it’s all fake, right?

Right?

In all his life, Tim has had one secret bigger than vigilantism. 

Chapter Text

In Gotham, the Drake name is pretty well-known, this also happens to be the case in the more fantastical realms as well. Everywhere it goes, that name carries weight. Some say it has so much power behind it that even the most mischievous of faeries won't try to run off with it if given the chance.

The power of a name, right? 

The name Drake had come from his mother. His Dad took her name when they married because it holds so much more weight than his previous one had in the dragon world (Yeah, his mom was out of his dad's league, big surprise there) and also he had named their human company after her as a grand gesture of his love and devotion, so it really would have been extremely unwise to keep his own last name.

In the magical world, things were different. It wasn't uncommon for Tim to respond to “Might I have your name?” with “No, get your own.” which wasn't quite the custom in the non magical world.

He flabbergasted many a rich man.

While he may have grown up mostly in the human world, he spent plenty of time in the mystics. His parents would bring him to visit, to parties. Any time they “took him along on a business trip” or “went on a family vacation”, they went to the mystics. The fae wild, dragon territories, enchanted woods, stuff like that were referred to as “the mystics”. It’s kind of like the tropics, except nothing like the tropics.

Basically, if he was allowed to go, then it wasn’t a real business trip, if he was left home to terrorize the maid, it was a real business trip.

His mother went out of her way to make sure he was in touch with his mystic heritage. She taught him the rules, the dances, even the bow. He grew up learning the difference between humans and the mystical and the customs of each creature, not just dragons.

He had to learn how to greet a faerie, a pixie, a siren, etc. etc.

She taught him a lot. She wasn’t around very much, sadly, but she was efficient and very loving, so he took to her lessons quickly.

His father left the teaching to his mother, but he was still around. He was there as much as his mom was, which is to say not a lot, but he still played with him whenever he had the chance.

His parents did all they could to keep their son from being lonely, and even though he was, he was grateful for all the effort they put into it.

He didn’t have many human friends, but he did have a few mystic ones. His closest friend, which really isn’t saying much, they were not that close, was a faerie he met at one of the mystical parties his parents would take him to. Fae don’t give out names, it gives them too much power of them, so she never told her his name. But, with a little deduction, he managed to figure out she was named Ophelia, even then he didn’t call her it. It would have been disrespectful, he didn’t need any power of her and he wasn’t planning on telling her that he learned her name, but he did call her O or Ophy sometimes. It wasn’t her name so it didn’t have power over her, but it was still something she could knew meant him. She didn’t know his name at all, the same rules apply to fae knowing non-fae names, she would have power over him if she did. So, she called him little prince.

But, enough of that, back to what his mother taught him.

Back to the rules.

One thing that is useful to know when visiting faerie folk is flower crowns.

It sounds a little silly but it’s true. Gifting or even just wearing a flower crown can mean a lot to a fae. It also makes a nice peace offering.

From the point he developed fine motor skills, he learned how to make a flower crown and kept improving and working on those skills until he could make the most gorgeous flower crowns ever.

He remembers his first complex flower crown, his mom had been so pleased. She was so genuinely happy and excited, it had been sweet.

In your mind’s eye, imagine what the most complex flower crown you’ve ever seen is, now throw that picture away completely. It is nothing as complex as what a mystic would make, in fact the one you see in your head right now? It isn’t even something Tim would consider complex. It is simple. The ones you gift and wear with the fae are impossibly complex, the type of flower crowns mystics make for the fae wild and enchanted forest is truly something humans may never be able to understand. 

But, that is the fantastical world for you, hard for humans to understand.

One thing he always found interesting about humans was when they got close to imitating the mythical world.

A common thread among mystics was inhuman flexibility, because they were not human. They can bend, and flip, and they love doing tricks.

That’s what he liked about the Flying Graysons. It was like humans attempting a dance only meant for fae.

It was astonishing.

He could watch them perform for hours.

But, back to the rules.

With fae, you never give them your name, under no circumstances should you let a faery take your name, well, under very specific circumstances, like…marriage, but unless you want to surrender yourself to them in a grand gesture, do. not. give. them. your. name. Just don’t!

But, that does bring up an interesting subject. If you give a fae your name and they give you theirs, or vise-versa, you are now married in the eyes of the fae, so be careful of that, I guess.

Always keep your word with the fae, they only except trickery from others of their kind. As a dragon, he has a little more leeway here than a human, but it’s still good to keep in mind. Avoid lying too.

In most cases, don’t accept gifts or foods from fae. There are some notable exceptions.

Put away your iron when meeting a fae, they dislike iron and it’s rude to keep it out when you are aiming for hospitality.

Among many many other rules, and these are just the rules of the fae! And blanket rules at that! Specific faery types and even just a specific faery, may have different rules that only apply to them. Then there are the sirens, mermaids, dragons, etc, etc, who all have their own rules that must be kept in mind at all times. And, all of this is also on top of the rules of humans, which to a human may not seem like much, but Tim is not a human. Just like fae don’t think there is anything odd about their rules, neither do humans.

Social convention, expectations, all of it. It’s hard work keeping up with so many rules.

There is a reason his mother put so much work into making sure he understood the mystic world.

What a wonderful woman.

Chapter Text

When the oldest members of the Flying Graysons died, he had been devastated.

He remembers it very well. He had gotten a picture with all three Graysons before the show, his mom took the picture and he had smiled so wide.

He remembered Dick, the child in the group a good few years older than him, had even asked him about the tie on his wrist!
The tie, of course, was his enchanted tie, the one young dragons wear to conceal their dragon-ness in human spaces until they are old enough for the ceremony, but he couldn’t just tell him that.

He had frozen and his mom had answered for him, he doesn’t even remember what she had said.

But he does remember the fall. He remembers his parents both rushing to cover his eyes, he remembers the screaming, he remembers thinking “humans can’t fly” confusedly for a second before he realized something was wrong.

He remembers Batman, too.

As a youngling, he had been pretty much obsessed with Batman and Robin. 

The first time he saw them out, he thought they might have been mystics, but they were not. Just humans in costume trying to better their town. He could respect that.

He could definitely respect that.

When he was only eight years old, young for a human and a blip on the life of a dragon, he started following them around with a camera. Hiding in the shadows, taking photos without either one noticing.

His dragon abilities had no stake in this either, he was just…stealthy. What can he say? He was good at what he did.

All the pictures of Batman and Robin, and mostly Robin (he reminded him of someone…) was a very early on hoard-ish thing. Well, he treated it like a hoard.

Dragons tend to obsess over collecting things, their collections are called hoards.

His first hoard had been of soda pop tabs, he collected hundreds of different ones in an array of colors.

His mother had been so proud, “Baby’s first hoard” she had said. She took a picture of him with it.

Maybe his mother was where his obsession with pictures had come from.

Either way, it would be a few years before he managed to deduce who the Robin he’d been taking pictures of was behind the mask, but when he did, he did it on his own with his own skills of deduction, just like with Ophy’s name.

Dick Grayson. 

He had realized when he saw him do a very particular backflip in costume.

The Richard Johnathan Grayson (And no, it wasn’t creepy that he knew his middle name)

Little did Tim know, this would be a point of no return for him. If he had known, would he have tried to turn back? 

No. He would never, and maybe that was the problem.

Chapter Text

The closest he can get to flying without taking out his wings is skateboarding, so he skateboards.

He likes feeling connected to his dragon side without jeopardizing his identity, so he skateboards a lot.

It was fun to fly through Gotham without any wings, sometimes he’d even wear protective gear to maintain the image of a fragile human.

He had been skating when at night the first time he saw the new Robin, after some snooping and detective work, he found out it was some kid named Jason Todd. He was a little older than him, but not by much, and had lived a hard life on the streets before his role as Robin, and he still lived a very hard life despite being Batman’s right hand man because Tim had noticed he didn’t always stay away from crime alley where he was from. It must have been hard for him.\

Still, Tim preferred the other Robin, Dick Grayson was way cooler than just some kid.

He felt a little bad for all the trash talking when the kid died. Beaten to death in some warehouse, Batman was inconsolable. 

In his grief, he was starting to run Gotham to the ground.

So, Tim went to Dick Grayson in bludhaven. He was Nightwing now and still just as cool as before. 

He snuck into his apartment, well, he supposes most humans would call it a “break in” but nightwing was cool, it would be fine.

When Dick got back to his apartment, it goes without saying that he was surprised, but Tim told him the situation and he just knew he would help!

Dick was surprised that Tim had managed to deduce all of their secret identity’s and he even told him he was impressed! But…

Okay, so Dick wasn’t going to help, that’s fine.

Apparently that human “go get an adult” business is bullshit, good to know, he’ll have to keep that in mind.

So, it looks like he’d have to take things into his own hands.

A dragon was gonna save Gotham.

He went to Batman this time and insisted on being the next Robin, it was becoming clearer and clearer that he desperately needed one, but the man told him no, that no one would ever be Robin again.

So, it looked like he’ll have to take another route, that’s fine, dragons can manipulate humans easily. 

He started with the Butler, Alfred. Got on his good side until he agreed that he should be the next Robin, then he got Nightwing on his side, even if this was his fault (he wasn’t upset, it was fine )

After all that, he left Batman no choice but to make him the next Robin. It’s a little funny, a dragon disguised as a bird, but despite the obvious hilarity of it, he was going to take this seriously.

He just hoped he’d be able to hide that he was a dragon from the world’s greatest detective…

Chapter Text

Yeah, he’s Robin now, whoopty doo, but he’s still mystic and  he still, on occasion, visits the mystics. He just hopes Batman can hold his own long enough for the visit, it’s hard work taking care of a grown man.

There was a gathering in one of the enchanted forests, so he and his parents were going, there would be many mystics there, including Oph.

She was who he was most excited to see, he had begun to miss her.

At the gathering, they danced and played and mingled, but eventually he and O snuck off deeper into the forest to get away from all the noise.

When he first met her, he never called her Oph or Ophy, only O, but not long after he learned her name on his own, she let him call her certain on the nose nicknames. It was interesting considering she had no idea he had discovered her real name. He had no use for the power it gave him over her, so he never said it out loud.

But, her letting him call her Oph was just one of those signs of closeness, she trusted him with something closer to her real name because they were so close. Best friends, as the humans say.

In all honesty, though, Oph had been acting odder than usual all night.

“Young Prince, I would like to share something with you.”

“Okay?”

“My name, it is Ophelia.”

Holy shit.

Fae don’t just give out their name, even to close friends, and to make things worse, she had this soft look in her eyes! It was awful!

To a fae, the trading of names is the same as wedding vows, this was not only a love confession, but a proposal. But, Tim didn’t have romantic feelings for Oph, he wasn’t quite sure what to do.

“Um, thank you for trusting me with that, O” Okay, maybe calling her O was a bad choice, he hadn’t called her that since before they were close, and she seemed to have noticed from the way her face fell for just a second.

“And, will you tell me your name?”

“I-” He wasn’t sure what to do, he didn’t want to lose her as a friend but he absolutely could not marry her, so he steeled his nerves, “I am sorry, but I cannot return your affections.”

“Oh..” she looked so sad, he hated seeing her so sad, especially since he had made her so sad.

“Well, then I should leave.” She had begun to cry and went to leave, “I hope to never see you again, Young Prince!” She sounded almost angry.

“Wait, Oph!” But she didn’t stop, she just ran deeper into the forest, tears streaking down her face.

When he went back to Gotham, it was with a brand new hurt in his heart.

Chapter Text

Tim was in his non-humanoid, full-dragon form, stretching out his limbs (it’s not healthy to stay in the humanoid form for too long, it is meant as a disguise, just a way to assimilate and not scare humans, after all) when he heard the news. His parents had both been kidnapped by some total wanna be named Obeah Man and he was asking a ransom for their safe return.

He sent a video of his parent’s human assistant’s throat getting slit and demanded money from Drake Industries or else his parent’s would meet the same fate.

Tim wasn’t sure what all the man knew, there was a chance he was going on some kind of witch hunt, or, well, dragon hunt. 

Was the man really only looking for a cash grab or did he find out something he shouldn’t know?

The guy was known for his use of voodoo and black magic, so it wasn’t too bad a stretch to say he maybe found out they were otherworldly, well, other realm ly

Bruce tracked him down and went to save his parents, while Tim tried his best to hold down the fort at Drake Industries. He may have been young, but he was taking charge in this difficult time and he had to make sure everything was alright, he had to control what few things he could. He couldn’t help his parents, he just had to trust Bruce, but he could do this.

By the time Bruce got there, it was too late. His parents had both been tricked into drinking poison, which confirmed it in Tim’s mind that the wannabe bad guy knew they were dragons, how else would he know to pick a poison that could kill one?

Dragon’s were completely unaffected by most, if not all, human poisons, who knows how Obeah whatever his fucking name was got his hands on something that could even give a dragon a stomach ache, let alone kill one, but he did.

When Bruce got back, he informed Tim that his mother had been killed in what seemed to be some sort of ritual, and his father, who had seemingly managed to take less poisson then his mom, was in a coma. 

Bruce did his best to comfort him as he cried. Tim ran out of the room so he could cry alone.

Tim would have probably hunted down Obeah Man right then and killed him in some gruesome and painful way, but there was so much going on and it was all happening way too fast. His mom was dead, his dad was in a coma, he was trying to keep an eye on that CEO that stepped up while his dad was away, he didn’t trust him, he was trying to plan his mother’s funeral alone because his dad wasn’t there to help…it was a lot.

She had a closed casket funeral. 

She left Tim her necklace, the beautiful gold one with the big red gem that she always wore to mask her dragon form, wasn’t that nice?

It felt a little too bittersweet for Tim’s taste.

When he was 14, impossibly young for a dragon, his mother died. No, not died, was killed. 

But it didn't matter how young he was, no amount of time could make him forget her.

Chapter Text

As Robin, Tim was very good at what he did.

Keeping a secret identity came to him like a second nature. After all, in the mystical world it's very important to protect your real name. 

And he was quite good with the rogues gallery

One of the first times he had fought Catwoman, she had been stealing this big shiny diamond.

It was so shiny and pretty, his pupils dilated just looking at it, if he wasn’t doing the whole hero thing he would have stolen it himself, made a hoard of pretty, shiny gems

But he was a hero, so that was a huge no

But still, its sparkly nature distracted him and he was pretty sure she had noticed.

Actually, he was more than just pretty sure she noticed as she had commented on it multiple times, to his embarrassment. 

She seemed to grow quite fond of him after that incident.

The first time he had fought the Riddler he had quite a good time.

He took absolute delight in his riddles and Nigma seemed to catch on to that

What can he say, dragons like riddles, it wasn’t his fault he hit it on so well with the criminal! And it wasn’t like Batman could say anything, not after the years of shameless flirting with Catwoman, at least he wasn’t banging the rogue!

But still, he and the Riddler had a nice little rivalry going on and they were kind of what one could potentially sort of think of as friends! Sort of. Definitely friend ly .

Now, Catwoman kept calling him Kitten and Riddler kept catering riddles directly for him. Great.

Surely this was fine.

Chapter Text

Tim’s dad was still in a coma.

He visited him every chance he got.

Just sitting next to his bed, watching him sleep.

In actuality, it was really only a coma by human standards, dragons didn’t really do comas. It was hard to define a ‘coma’ for a creature that thinks a decade of sleep was light napping, a creature that had the capacity to lay down for centuries.

But this wasn’t the same, it was too soon. Tim was still young, and dragons may be a lot of things, may do a lot of “bad” things, but they did not abandon their young, especially not for a nap. Especially not after something like this.

Tim had to pull a lot of stings behind closed doors to get a couple mythic doctors snuck into the hospital without anyone, including Batman, knowing. Human doctors may be nice, but they can’t help a dragon no matter how good they are. They don’t even know dragons exist.

Obedah man was in jail now, Tim was making plans to sneak in and kill the man as soon as his dad woke up, that is, if he woke up at all.

If a dragon can sleep for 10,000 years and think nothing of it, how long would a coma last?

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Luckily for everyone, Jack woke up after only a few months.

Tim was the one to break the news to him of his wife’s death, they hugged and they cried and Tim wore his mother’s necklace the whole time.

His dad said it looked nice on him.

Chapter Text

Tim was in his room, sitting on the edge of his bed the way he had so many times before, his dad was sitting right next to him, reminiscent of the way his mother used to sit right there, smiling and laughing and talking to him, but today there were no smiles but the bittersweet one and there was no laughter. There were only tears yet to be shed now that his mother was gone.

“You take after her so much, you know that?” His dad said, that bittersweet smile on his face, uncharacteristic tear streaks on his cheeks, “You have her eyes, her smile, her scales, her….everything. Did you even get anything from me?” He said, a crude attempt to lighten the mood, “Well, besides…gender.” Normally, Tim would have laughed at that, but now was not the time for laughter.

“I miss her.”

“I know, buddy….I do too.”

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It was a few months later when Jack met Dana Winters. She was nice and she kept him from thinking about his wife who was taken from him far too soon, so they got on fast.

He didn’t tell her they were dragons.

She was nice, Tim liked her, but she was no Janet. No one could ever replace Janet.

Both her and his Dad came to him separately to make sure he knew she wasn’t trying to.

She was kind, and pretty, and when Tim was around she always did her best to include him even though she didn’t know much about him.

She was never mean or rude and she never commented on how weird the Drakes were even though there was no chance she didn’t notice their odd ways.

She was kind to the staff, she was sweet, she was…Dana.

There was no way she could ever live up to Janet, but that was okay because she was Dana and that was all she ever had to be.

Even if Tim would prefer to just have his mother back.

Chapter Text

Tim had been brought to the justice league headquarters a few times before, met most of the faces.

When he asked Batman what the league needed them for, he was a little disappointed to find out that Bruce was just going to some lame meeting and brought him along so he'd have a chance to ‘get to know the building better’ or some bullshit like that.

Tim was to wait in the main room while Bruce went in the meeting room and talked to the justice league, which was very counterintuitive to the whole getting to know the building better thing if you asked him. 

When the bat walked him into the main area, there was already a man there, he was kinda bulky and blonde and was smoking a cigarette despite the fact that he was indoors.

“Constantine, what brings you here?” Bruce said to the man, no hint of warmth in his voice.

“Ah, you know, just making my rounds or whatever the fuck.” He had an accent, Tim had almost forgotten that humans had such a wide range of dialects. He knew this, he was British! Not quite the same as Alfred though, less proper. Humans were so odd.

Batman stared at him, Tim found it obvious that he didn't believe the other man but was deciding whether or not he cared enough to ask any follow up questions. Apparently he decided it wasn't worth it.

“Robin, this is John Constantine, he specializes in magic and the dark arts. We go to him when we have a problem that involves magic or demons.” Batman explained, “Constantine, this is Robin, please try to refrain from cursing so much in front of him.”

“Eh, whatever.” He finally took a good look at Tim and squinted at him, “Human?”

“Yes? Why do you ask?” Batman responded

“Nothin’, don't worry about it.” the man dismissed.

“Robin, stay here, don't get into trouble, and leave Constantine alone, I'd rather you not let him wrap you up into his nonsense,” Batman said to Tim, ignoring that Constantine was right there, “I will be right back when I am done.” Then, he turned and left.

As soon as Bruce was gone, Tim walked right up to Constantine. He was still smoking and as he blew out his smoke he made no effort to avoid the boy in front of him with the smoke, though he did mostly miss him due to their height difference. He wasn’t being an asshole or anything, he wasn’t going out of his way to blow smoke into the 14-year-olds face, but he also wasn’t putting forth any effort to avoid it. (he was tall enough that it wasn’t really necessary anyway)

Tim stood about a foot and a half away from him and observed him for a moment, taking in the sight of the older man.

“There’s somethin’ off about you, kid.” The man in front of him said.

Wow, he wasn’t bad. Tim would have to keep this guy in mind if he needed any advice on magic affairs.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Tim dismissed, “So, you’re Constantine? What exactly is it you do, sit around smoking all day?”

“Heh, pretty much, yeah.” The man replied, still looking at Tim somewhat suspiciously but seemingly letting it go for the time being, “I pretty much just go around, makin’ life harder for demons.”

“How noble of you.” Tim smiled at the man teasingly.

“What’s with your teeth?”

“What?” Tim said, snapping his mouth shut.

“They’re too sharp,” Constantine leaned in closer, scrutinizing him, “And yer eyes too. Your pupils aren’t quite right either.”

Tim backed away from the man, hoping to put enough distance in between them that the man couldn’t pick out anymore details.

“I know you aren’t normal,” Hellblazer responded, looking unbothered, “Just tell me what you are.”

“I’m not anything and I don't know what you’re talking about.”

“You can play dumb all you want, but I can tell something’s off. I’ve been in this long enough to know a human disguise when I see one.”

Tim moved closer to the man again, leaning in, “You can delude yourself all you want, but I am human. Good luck proving otherwise.”

The man squinted at him as he took another drag of his cigarette. Since Tim was leaning into his space, the smoke got in his face, but it wasn't a concern, dragons could breathe smoke just fine. 

The kid had spunk, demon or not, Constantine almost liked him. Almost . (If he were human he’d probably try to become the kid’s uncle or something by now, but a demon had to go much further than that to earn his trust.)

Tim knew that the man had no way of proving he wasn’t human, there were plenty of ways of course, but he would never let the man get to them. 

“What’s a demon want with the Bat anyway?” “Were you summoned to help him or something? Doesn’t sound like something he’d do, but I could see someone in that town of his doing it.”

He thought he was a demon, how cute.

Though, he wasn’t far off. Dragons are mistaken for demons quite often, it made sense that Constantine would make the same mistake. He dealt with demons all the time, mythics? Not so much.

Tim just smiled at the other man and let out the breath of a laugh, “You’re funny.” He turned on his heel and left the room.

Sure, Batman told him to stay here, but when has listening to adults been his forte? He could care less about staying in one spot, in fact he’d rather see how easy the records room was to break into…

But, he'd have to be careful with that Constantine, he clocked him way too easily. And, one touch of his horns or claws could give him away. While the enchantment that made him look human kept him looking normal, it didn't get rid of bits that shouldn't be there, just made them invisible and changed the texture. So, his skin didn't feel like scales, just dry, his slicker underbelly felt like healthier skin, his horns felt like nothing. The texture of the air, but they were still there so if anyone managed to touch them, or his claws or his tail or wings, they would feel anything but they also wouldn't be able to move their hand through.

One touch and he'd be got.

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“...Where is Robin?” Batman asked Constantine when he was finally done with his meeting with the Justice League.

“Hell if I know.” The man responded, “What’s his deal anyway?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“That kid, there’s something off about him, haven’t you noticed?”

“What exactly are you trying to say, Constantine?”

“I’m saying that kid ain’t bloody right.”

“Thank you for your input.” He responded, sarcastically, though it was hard to tell with the Batman voice, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find my partner.”

Batman turned out of the room leaving Constantine alone.

Something was off with that kid and Constantine didn’t like it one bit.

Chapter Text

The first time Tim met poison ivy, he thought she was a mythic.

Honestly, he had been quite surprised to find out that she wasn't a fae or a nymph or anything of the sort, just a human.

A human who found a way to toe the line.

It was an odd thing to see, a regular human with such druidic power, it was also fascinating.

Ivy may have been an “eco-terrorist” or whatever, but Tim could respect a human who cared so deeply about nature.

Most people thought dragons were full of a greed and selfishness that kept them from caring about anything other than themselves, but that wasn’t true. Dragons cared deeply about nature, they were friends of the fae, how could they not? 

Most dragons left the environmental matters to their faerie friends in favor of slumber, but they still cared deeply about such things, even if it was rare to see them acting on it.

And the only reason it was rare to see them acting on it was because it was rare to see them at all.  

Dragons aren’t seen very often, that’s why so many creatures were fascinated by and scared of Tim in an equal measure.

But back to Ivy

From the moment he met her, he had a certain respect for her.

She didn’t respect him back until she noticed his respect of nature, but he definitely respected her from the start, even after he realized she was nothing more than human.

A very interesting human indeed.

---------------------------

Tim was chasing a rat.

Don’t judge, he liked the hunt, okay? And plus, they were a tasty snack.

He had just ran it into an alley, he had it cornered!

And just as he was about to catch it…someone interrupts him.

As he turns around to see who interrupted his soon to be meal, the rat runs out in between his legs and escapes the alley. Damn.

When he looked at the man, he saw blonde hair, blue eyes, white teeth, and a fearful face.

“You, you’re Robin, right? Can you help?”

Of course, Tim agreed to help despite how the man had peeved him off.

For all intents and purposes, the man looked completely normal, but something was off

Tim followed him to the supposed issue but stayed wary

The man seemed panicked but Tim couldn’t shake the feeling that it was fabricated fear, as he followed him, the small heels on his shoes clicked on the pavement as he made no effort to walk silently.

Dragons have differently shaped feet then humans, their heels aren’t made to touch the ground, so heeled shoes were more comfortable for him to stand in, even if magic had to help them sit properly in them, his feet still made to hold his heel higher than the shoe would allow.

The man in front of him stopped walking and pointed into a deserted warehouse, even now there was no one else on the street. 

“Here, this is where it was, there’s something in there!”

Now, a regular human wouldn’t be able to notice the differences in this man, but Tim knew human disguises all too well, he was wearing one afterall. 

At this point, a different hero would likely say ‘No need to fear, citizen! I’ll take care of this! I’ll keep you safe’ blah blah blah, but Tim could see what was off. Smile too bright, face too even, or perhaps not even enough, skin too smooth, he knew this was a trap, so as the man pointed into the warehouse, Tim just narrowed his eyes at him.

“All right, that’s enough, what are you?” he asked, unimpressed.

The man feigned confusion, “What, what are you talking about?”

“Oh come on, you really think you’re fooling anybody?” “Don’t kid yourself, there is no way I’m gonna just walk into your trap. We’re alone here, no need to keep up your facade.”

“Smart kid.” The man smirked, dropping his humanlike form, but as his fake face melted, he turned into something Tim didn’t recognise as a mythic.

A body made of red clay, very wet clay, he’d heard of this, hadn’t he?

Yeah, Batman had fought him before, this was Clayface.

Tim had been expecting someone from his world, but it was yet again a human who towed the line.

Clayface was arrogant, obsessed with being a good actor, and he was kind of obnoxious, but that didn’t make him any less interesting.

A human who could change his shape like a fae? The claylike texture of his body reminded him of nature faeries, perhaps a river dryad of some type. 

He’d met changelings before, not many but enough to compare clayface to one. He wasn’t too different. 

The line between the mystic world and the human realm was smaller than he had initially thought, so many humans finding ways to accidentally impersonate his kind.

It was thoroughly intriguing, he’d have to do research on a later date.

Him and Clayface fought, without the element of surprise or whoever was likely going to jump him in the warehouse, Tim made quick work of the man.

But he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

What was it about Gotham that bred such mystic-like humans?

Perhaps that was why he loved it so.

Chapter Text

When his mother died, no one had the heart to move any of her stuff. It just sat there, unused, sitting just out of the way. Sometimes it was like she wasn’t even gone.

But she was. She was gone.

And everyday it just became more and more startlingly apparent.

-------------------------------------------

When he got to the batcave, Bruce was already down there.

Apparently, last night a perplexing crime had occurred and no one could figure out who had done it or why, not even Bruce, so he let Tim take a look at the crime scene photos, maybe he could provide a different perspective.

He opened the file handed to him.

It looks like an alleyway, specifically 3 dumpsters, had for some unknown and unconceivable reason been bombed. No people were hurt, there somehow wasn’t trash everywhere, and the explosion had been oddly…sparkly.

The picture looked normal, but something about screamed not real, it was almost like the proportions were off somehow

The detectives on scene reported feeling eerie, any people nearby reported odd amounts of confusion

The gray bricks of the alley wall, once bare, were now covered in some unidentifiable type of ivy and vine, but Poison Ivy hadn’t been anywhere near the alley.

And on the ground, near the newfound greenery, was a familiar circle made of small stones.

Bruce worried this signaled the arrival of a new Rogue, but Tim recognised it immediately.

This was the work of a fae.

No doubt about it, the eeriness, the confusion, the ivy, the literal faery circle on the ground, it all screamed fae.

And something about it felt oddly familiar…

But, he couldn’t just tell B that it was a fae, as far as he was concerned faeries weren’t real.

So, he claimed he didn’t know and forced Bruce to take a break from trying to find out.

After all, Tim was one of the only people who could make Bruce take a break, not even Dick could do such a thing. (Alfred could, he and Tim often worked together to force Bruce to take care of himself)

Besides, Bruce couldn’t waste away in the cave all night! Tim had a gift to give him!

Once he made sure Bruce went upstairs, ate something, drank some water, etcetera, and sat down in his normal non-bat recliner, Tim gave him the gift.

A photograph he had taken of Batman years back.

It was from before Dick had even become Nightwing, Batman and the first Robin running amok, completely unaware of the 8-year-old boy following them around with a camera.

The picture itself was surprisingly incredible quality for what it was, it showed Dick in his Robin costume excitedly telling something to Bruce, he was mid-toe bounce, standing on his tiptoes and, based on the way his arms were positioned, also moving them excitedly. Bruce was looking over at him calmly with the closest thing he got to a smile while in the costume on his face. They were only standing a foot or two apart.

Bruce will vehemently claim he did not cry when Tim gave him the photo.

One thing about dragons is they are very protective of the objects they hoard, Bruce had no way of knowing this, but to be given something from a dragon’s hoard was a great honor.

It was how dragons claim you, it is their way of saying You are one of my own, it is how they let you know you are now part of their thrall, their family.

He had been five the first time he gave away something from his hoard, he had given his mother and father each one of his soda tabs and they had both been so happy.

Since then, he hadn’t ever given a hoard object to another.

Except now, except Bruce.

Later, he would give a different picture to Alfred and a third one to Dick and they would both be touched, but they would not know the extent of the gesture.

-----------------------------------

When he went back to his own house, he couldn’t stop thinking about the alleyway. 

What had a faery been doing there?

He needed to find…something. Of what, he was not sure, but he needed to find some sort of object that could help figure out what exactly was going on there.

Why had the faerie come to Gotham? Why blow up that alleyway? Why make such a large I am here statement, sure fae loved chaos, but this felt bigger than that.

 It just…didn't add up

And that’s why he was here

If anyone had something that could help….

It would have been his mom.

So, he’d have to go through her stuff

And try not to cry too much 

And as he was searching through all her things, in the back of a drawer full of her most precious possessions

He found a single soda tab

Chapter Text

There had been a murder.

A middle class Gothamite named Gloria McKinness was killed for reasons that were unclear, Bruce’s current theory was that she was the test for some sort of new attack one of the villains was planning because why else would she be targeted? They couldn’t find another reason no matter how much they searched and the way the woman had been killed had been far too high effort to not have a real reason.

She was found in the Jason Todd memorial park, vines and branches and flowers growing out of her and securing her to the side of a large tree.

But the thing is, Poison Ivy was in Arkham …

Batman decided to start there, he left for Arkham immediately to question Ivy, Robin insisting on staying to hold down the fort and see if he noticed anything new about the crime scene.

The issue is…those weren’t Ivy plants, they weren’t even native to the area

No, that isn’t it, they weren’t native to the realm

And there were too many flowers! If this was Ivy she wouldn’t have put that many flowers.

Not to mention people in the park reporting confusion surrounding a half hour of the crime taking place.

But the icing on the cake?
A circle of whitecap mushrooms surrounding the tree the woman had been found stuck to.

A fairy circle.

Batman came back from Arkham with no leads, obviously.

Tim pulled a picture of the crime up on the big screen for them both to look at.

Bruce may have been the greatest detective in the world, but he was still just a human, he didn’t really know what he was looking for. But Tim did.

They both looked up at the screen but Tim examined the fae aspect of it all.

The woman, Gloria, was far paler than she should have been and had an almost green tinge, like she was really sick or something. The plants, that batman had tried and failed to ID, were of many varieties, all of which were mostly from the fae wild and the enchanted forest. They sparkled in a way that plant matter shouldn’t.

Everything about the scene was odd, it was like it was covered in morbid glitter, and looking at the testimonials of people nearby revealed strange happenings. Hearing things that weren't there, ethereal giggles, general confusion, the whole nine yards.

And then there was the mushroom fairy circle directly around the body and the tree it was on.

There was no chance this wasn’t the work of a fae, but why?

Had the woman made some kind of deal? Had she done something offensive? Why would a faerie kill her?

That’s when Tim could swear he heard a giggle.

He stepped outside and heard it again, the faerie, it was here.

“What is it you want here!?” He called out, mustering a domineering and powerful voice.

The voice just giggled maliciously, “Are you the Young Prince?”

Young Prince? That’s what the fairies who knew him tended to call him, Oph had started it and the nickname had stuck, now any faerie that recognised him would use it.

“So what if I am?” He responded, a non answer. He knew how to play the game.

“Gotham is your second home, your highness, you love it more than any other place!” The voice creaked back.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Wow, you’ve even started to talk like them, Prince.”

“Like them?”

“Like these humans one finds in this Gotham place!” She laughed.

“What are you getting at?” He still couldn’t see the fae, this conversation was just so eerie, even for him.

“You hurt me, so I will hurt you by hurting the place you feel most at home, the place you pretend to be human, the only place you truly love. I will break your only heart the way you have broken mine. ” The voice laughed and laughed and laughed and then, it disappeared. Almost like it had never been there at all. 

Tim ignored the chill that went down his spine and cautiously went back into the cave.

That voice. He knew that voice.

It had been different for sure, more eerie than it had always been, less kind, far less loving and playful. Or at least, no longer playful in a good way. But he still knew it. He knew it better than anything.

Ophelia?  

Chapter Text

I'm Gotham, there were a lot of quirks and well, rumors spread fast, true or not.

Robin turned the corner of the dark city street, finding he had lost sight of the Riddler goon he had been following. Oh well, he could get his information elsewhere he supposed.

“One time, I swear I heard the younger one hiss!” He heard over on the street, two civilians that couldn't see him were talking.

“Really?” The other lady whispered, not a very quiet whisper, maybe she should get some practice, “The way the Bat moves, and have you seen how pale they are?” 

“What?!” the other women responded, “Pale? They aren't pale! But, the Robin we got right now? I swear his teeth are a little too sharp, don't you think?”

Tim put an insecure hand over his mouth, did they know?

“What are you trynna say, here, Debra?” The other woman responded, a light and teasing lilt to their voice.

“I'm justa sayin, I think they might be scurrying around the sky at night, if you know what I mean? That's gotta be how they get behind you without ya seein, they fly right over!” Oh no

“Oh, I totally know what you mean, those bats are older than they say they are.”

“They're totally vampires!”

Oh, what?

“Shhhh!! Don't say that too loud, what if one of ‘em hears?”

“Sorry, sorry. I think that last Robin though, you know the one that died ,” she whispered the last word like it wasn't something you were supposed to talk about, “do you ever get the feeling that he was the only human? Just some kid?” 

“THANK YOU! Someone finally said it!”

“That first one was definitely just starting the transition or something though, like a fledgling, you know?”

“Don't be daft, Deb! There hasn't been three goddamn Boy Wonders!”

“What are you talking about! There totally has!!”

“No there hasn't!”

“Okay, then what about Nightwing?!”

“That Blüdhaven vig? He's not even affiliated!”

“Yes he is!!”

“No he isn't!!”

Their argument started to dissolve into just yelling back and forth and Tim couldn't help but be amused.

Vampires, ey?

“Oh, but I think we can both agree, that current Robin? And the Bat? They are the MOST vampire of them all.”

“Oh, for sure. I know it sounds crazy, but I SWEAR the kid is more vampy than the bat is!!!”

Huh. He'd have to keep an eye on that rumor then.

Dragons and vampires? That was a new one but he could see it.

Sharp teeth, vaguely inhuman human features, flying, he could understand the confusion.

As he searched down the riddler goon he had given a head start by stopping to listen, he wondered if this conversation represented the entire public’s view or just a conspiracy theory? Not that he wasn’t a stranger to conspiracy theories of his own, his just always ended up being right is all.

After he finished his patrol, he went back to the batcave and mentioned what he’d heard to Bruce, partly because it was genuinely funny, partly to feel the waters. 

He made sure to leave out the “Tim is the most vampire-like” part, though, just to be safe.

The little huff and almost smile batman let out was the closest he’d seen him to a laugh since before Jason died and he couldn’t shake the sudden onslaught of the feeling that he was helping

It felt nice, if a little bittersweet.

Batman was healing, he was getting better, bit by bit, this was good.

He was just happy to be able to help the older detective.

Chapter Text

Today had been a slow day, which was by no means an unwelcome thing.

Despite it being a slow day for him , Bruce was off doing important work elsewhere, or maybe that had something to do with how relaxed his night had been so far.

That was when he heard the news. News that immediately changed the mood of the day and cut through the chill atmosphere.

Obeah man had escaped.

He had cheated his way out of prison and run off back to Haiti, the very same place that he had killed his beloved mother.

Tim rushed to ready the bat plane (whether he had permission to just up and fly it like this was unimportant and honestly why are you even asking, mind your own business) and ignored the way it stung to think about the way Batman had promised him that Obeah Man would stay where he couldn’t hurt anyone ever again, in prison. He knew it wasn’t Bruce’s fault and that he had no way of knowing Obeah would escape (though, considering how often they arrest people only for them to turn back up again a week later, maybe he should have seen this coming before saying he was gone for good)

He wasn’t about to wait for backup, he would catch Obeah man and he would do it soon.

And as a dragon, he couldn’t promise the villain would survive their soon to come encounter.

He touched down on Haiti in the Bat Plane and stepped out onto the ground, feeling the pleasant warm breeze. In other circumstances, this would be a nice place to be, especially with how warm he was naturally, his variety of dragon tended to prefer warmer climates. Though, compared to the kind of heat he could not only withstand but also bask in, the difference between Gotham and Haiti was hardly noticeable. But, this wasn’t a vacation kind of visit, he had a bastard to catch.

And catch that bastard he would.

It didn’t take long to find the building that Obeah was in, whether that had something to do with his detective ability, his spite and anger, the fact that he was a dragon, or was just a reflection on how shit the man was at hiding, he wasn’t quite sure.

Some sort of strange spell caused him to see ghosts of his parents, mostly his mother who he missed so dearly, but some of his dad who was, as far as he knew, waiting for him back home.

Knowing that didn’t make it any less “real”, though.

They tormented him as he searched the building for the villain, but he wouldn’t let them get to him.

He wasn’t just a dragon, he was a Drake , he wouldn’t let some shitty little parlor trick throw him off his game, no matter how much he missed his mom.

He fought through the searing pain the images brought him, reminding himself over and over again that the images were not real.

“Obeah Man!” he yelled out as he entered the room the other man was in.

“Boy Wonder? Aren’t you batbrain’s little pet thing?”

“No, I’m your worst nightmare.” He responded, brandishing his bo staff

“In those tights? Try to be serious.”

“Serious? Yeah I can do that,” He sneered, “You killed my mom and now I’m gonna kick the shit out of you and drag your, potentially not living, body back to Gotham to be put away for good this time, how’s that for serious?”

“Your mom? You wouldn’t happen to be the son of Janet Drake, would you?”

He didn’t answer, just gave a stone cold stare and prepared for the major ass beating he was going to dish out in only a few moments.

“But then that would make you…”

“Would make me what?” He spat

“A beast. Like her.” Well, that answered the question of if he knew they were dragons for sure then.

He made his first strike, hitting Obeah straight in the chest and sending him flying backwards.

A beast, huh? Did Obeah think himself some sort of monster hunter? What a joke.

He hit him again, and again, and again, he wasn’t much of a challenge. It seemed he relied on gimmick more than skill and once you could ignore the haunting imagery he was forcing you to see, he wasn’t that formidable a foe.

Still, even now, Obeah was taunting him.

As it became increasingly obvious this was not a fight he could win, the criminal made no effort to hold back any words that might hurt him. He told him about how he killed his mother, about the poison he’d used, apparently he had used dragon venom against her, taking care to find an extremely powerful dragon that would match her status and one that as far away from her type as possible to make sure it was as powerful against her as it could be. How had he even gotten his hands on such a thing?

What kind of occult black market shit was even going on , he’d have to look into this or something later.

But it made sense, to kill his mother the poison would have to be mystic in origin and there’s not many things that can hurt a dragon better than another dragon. 

His mother was the kind of dragon that ran hot, so he must have found one that ran cold in an attempt to ensure there would be no immunity or whatever. His mother was from a very powerful family, so he found a dragon that was also very powerful. Otherwise, she might not have died. He even gave her more poison than was necessary to make sure, he may have gotten this venom somehow but that didn’t mean he was well versed in it, he had no idea how to use it.

That’s why his father had lived. Janet was born a Drake, one of the most powerful families out there, but Jack? He was from a far less powerful family before marrying his wife, yet he was the one to survive. Why? Because Obeah was an idiot, he heard the fuss about Drake and overdid it with Janet knowing how powerful she was, but he decided to not waste too much venom on the weaker dragon of the bunch, he ended up not giving his dad enough to get past the natural semi tolerance that any dragon would have. What an absolute rookie move.

And now, Tim found himself towering over the man who did this, who caused him so much pain, he had knocked him to the ground and was now standing over him, he had won, now he just had to choose whether to tie him up or to kill him like he had killed his mother.

He may have slain a powerful dragon, but he was just a weak mortal human, there were about a thousand ways he could kill him.

And he’d be perfectly justified to.

Dragons didn’t do “the high road” they did revenge and they did it well, dragons dealt in vengeance, the bloody kind.

But he wasn’t just a dragon right now, he was a bat.

Maybe, maybe if he wasn’t in the Robin suit, maybe if he wasn’t the Boy Wonder right now, maybe if he was just a Drake right now and not a bat, he would kill Obeah

But that wasn’t the case.

Right now? He was first and foremost a bat.

So, he tied up the villain and brought him back to Gotham to be arrested once again

He only hoped that his mother would have approved of his decision.

Chapter Text

All the adults were gone.

He wasn’t quite sure what had happened, but there wasn’t a single adult left on the planet, no one over the age of 18, no, 16, was still on the planet at all, gone without a trace.

Without the justice league, no Nightwing, no Batman, no Superman, no one to help him, how was he going to figure this out?

It was Robin’s turn to save the world now.

To answer the question he posed just a second ago, find people like him. 

Supers under the age of 16.

Sidekicks, just plain kids, anyone, as long as they’d help him save everyone.

As he began searching for people who could help him, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was happening in other places. The fairy realm? The enchanted woods? The beast realms? Creature realms? Sleep Paralysis Realm? The- okay he couldn’t just keep listing every realm, that’d be ridiculous, but you get the point.

But he didn’t have the time to check on that (even if he was really curious. Would the 16 thing still be going on in a place where the majority of creatures reach maturity at a hundred?) He had to get this realm sorted.

Maybe Ophelia was right. Maybe he did care for the human realm more than he should, if that was even what she had meant by going after Gotham.

But the human realm was just as much of his home as the other realms, no, it was more his home.

Maybe the enchanted forest was his home, but he never lived there, and his dad and Dana weren’t there right now, they were wherever all the adults went and he needed to save them and Bruce and Dick and the justice league, that took precedence.

Besides, he hadn’t been to the other realm since….since his mother died

He wasn’t so sure he could stomach going back without her.

But before he could keep up that train of thought, he found people he was looking for.

Superboy and Impulse.

They really were not very hard to find. It’s not like they know what a low profile is.

So, he’d just have to go to them. And well…it wasn’t like there was anyone to stop him from messing with as much bat gear as he wanted.

He’d take the helicopter. 

He had to give credit where credit was due, he was the slightest bit impressed that Impulse and Superboy had found each other before he had found them.

It was almost impressive.

Superboy was irritating, Impulse was annoying, but he’d put up with working with them if it meant he’d save the other bats, Dana, and his Dad. Not to mention the Justice League.

And the more they worked together, the more he almost liked them, it was an interesting phenomenon. They were still irritating and annoying but in a more endearing way, sometimes, sort of.

By the time they had saved the world, worlds? Apparently all the adults had been put on an alternate earth alone, weird, they had been asking their mentors, some begging more than asking, to let them have a sleepover in the old Justice League base they had found themselves in when the planet was normal again.

But, once they were alone for the night, the adrenaline of saving the world wore off and they suddenly remembered all of the things they didn’t quite like about eachother.

Oh, and they were bored out of their minds.

A lot of things happened back to back, Impulse got bored and graffiti’d the entire base at super speed. Which pissed off Red Tornado, who was apparently there, who fucking cares at this point.

Kon did something immature, does it even matter what at this point? He could not believe these two were supposed to be older than him! But he could definitely see how they were like three and one year olds. Are we sure these two are mentally 15 and 16?

Not to mention the fact that Tim was a fourteen year old dragon , it wouldn’t be completely uncalled for to call him a toddler considering how long dragons live for.

So, hey, they could ALL be called toddlers in that sense! Hah.

Anyway, they ended up finding themselves being heroes together again .

Fighting a villain called… the well endowed???

“Foolish males! Once I was mere Nina Dowd, but now I am…” the new villain yelled out, “ Mighty Endowed!”

“We’re supposed to fight her!?” Impulse yelled out

“If there’s a god then YES!” Superboy drooled.

Yeah, this was weird.

But they defeated her. Or maybe she defeated herself , it was not a particularly difficult fight.

On the way out, the press surrounded them.

“Are you a young justice league!?” They asked.

Impulse turned to them, maybe he just didn’t have as much practice ignoring the press as Tim.

“Well, we are young, but we’re just us!” And maybe that’s what started it all.

Young Justice.

Chapter Text

It had been a long day.
He and Bruce just finished patrol and put away Two Face, yet again.
Two Face was one of the more indifferent Rogues so he didn't go easy on Tim either like the Riddler sometimes does.
And there hasn't been any sign if Ophelia lately, what was she planning? Was it even actually her? Was she going to pop back up again soon?
She's already shown up twice, no way there won't be more cameos of the fae in Gotham, especially after she swore to break this city the same way he broke her heart.
He just wished they could still be friends.
It wasn't until extremely recently that he didn't have any friends without her, not including family.
Now he was on a team, young justice, but even then he wasn't sure if they were really friends, more like coworkers.
He missed her.
He wondered if she still had the soda tab he'd given her when they were just little kids.
He sighed, making his way to the center of the cave and looking around.
His eyes landed on the giant penny Bruce had on display.
He can't believe it's already been more than a year since they'd fought Ra's Al Ghul and he'd almost squished him bellow that very penny.
He remembered it like it was yesterday, the fighting, the yelling, the way Ra's left on his own out of respect for Tim's loyalty and gumption or whatever.
But it hadn't been yesterday, it had been around a year and a half.
He'll, that was before he'd even been officially trained by the bat.
He wasn't even wearing the Robin suit when it happened.
He's just glad none of them questioned how he had the strength to just push a penny of that size over…

Chapter Text

Oracle hadn’t been around in a while, and when she finally turned up, she was a bat. 

Literally.

She must have been fighting some magic villain who thought it’d be funny to turn one of Gotham’s own bat vigilantes into a real bat.

She didn’t usually fight villains on her own, so this was a little weird, but they knew it was her because the bat was trapped in her costume that now lay empty on the floor.

That and the distress call, sounds of an unknown villain laughing as he ran away, and what was unmistakable as Barbara’s scream.

It was definitely her.

They picked her and her costume up and carefully took it all back to the cave as Tim tried to ignore the disturbing fact that she looked really appetizing to him now.

What!? Just because he was a bat didn’t mean the little things didn’t make really good snacks, they were essentially rats with wings after all!

In fact, they’d probably be his favorite snack ever if he allowed himself to fly more often. Catching them mid air would probably be really fun.

Sometimes, he found himself sitting in the cave wondering if Bruce kept count of them all. Could he get away with just one bite? He wasn’t sure yet, the matter was currently being investigated.

When they got back to the cave, Bruce pulled out a small bird cage and carefully put Bat Barbara inside.

Good thinking, can’t risk her getting mixed up with all the normal bats on the ceiling. Though, why he had a bird cage, Tim had no clue.

“We should call Zatanna,” Bruce stated, turning to the batcomputer once the bird cage was set down, her suit carefully folded next to it, “If anyone knows what to do, she will.”

It didn’t take too much convincing to get Zatanna to come to Gotham and figure out what was going on, though he was pretty sure Bruce owed her a “favor” now, what kind of favor that was, he didn’t want to know.

“Alright, show me the issue.” Zatanna crossed her arms as she appeared behind them.

“I would have preferred you'd use the door .” Bruce deadpanned back, making a disapproving face under the cowl, but then again when did he not.

“I'll keep that in mind for next time.” She sparked in a voice that clearly said that she would not, “So, are you going to show me the girl or should I just let you two boys solve this yourself?”

“She's over here.” Tim said, moving towards the bird cage and pointing at the little red bat inside. He decided to pipe up before this turned into a flirting fest or a sarcasm off.

Sure, Zatanna was closer to Dick's age but he wasn't sure that would stop Bruce.

She followed Tim over to the cage, “Take her out so I can turn her back.” The snarkiness left her body when she addressed the boy. See? Total save.

He did as told and gently grabbed Bat Barb out of the cage and held her out in one hand towards Zatanna.

Zatanna made an amused face, “Unless you want to be holding your friend by her naked waist, I'd suggest you set her on the ground.” Tim set her on the ground quickly like she was on fire, well, like he was human and she was on fire. 

Bat Batgirl flapped around on the ground trying to get her bearings after being set down a little too fast and just generally trying to get back on her feet.

Zatanna pointed a hand towards the floundering bat on the ground,  “Nurt reh namuh niaga!” she yelled.

Suddenly, the bat turned into Barbara, who was naked and curled into a ball, she gasped and rushed to get her clothes on.

Everyone turned around to give her some privacy.

“I can handle whoever turned your friend into a bat, leave this all to me.” Zatanna smiled.

“Thank you, Zatanna” Batman responded.

“Of course,” she smirked, “You owe me.” Tim didn't like the tone in her voice. He couldn't tell if they were in to each other or not but either way he absolutely did not want to think about it.

“Okay, I'm decent,” Barbara yelled out.

“I'm going to go check on her, if you need anything, ask Robin.” He really was so to the point. 

“Will do,” Zatanna watched as the Bat walked away to talk to Oracle in private, and then she turned her gaze to Tim, “You know, there's something about you…” she started.

“Is there now?” Zatanna wasn't the only one who could snark.

“You have something magic to you. Maybe you could do magic too one day if you tried.” she smiled.

It was somewhat true, mystics did have something mystical to them, that's why they were called mystics, and mystical isn't all that far away from magical, one could argue they were one in the same.

And plus, the enchanted jewelry, the humanoid form, it wasn't not magic, but the kind of magic Zatanna does? That's not really a dragon thing. At least, not usually.

“Let me know when your boss is done talking to Oracle, I have a few things to ask her.” she turned to walk away.

“He's not my boss.” Robin shot back.

“Sure, kid, just let me talk to the girl, alright?” she waltzed over to the wall near the computer and sat there to wait. 

“Yeah, sure.” He agreed.

“So, you met the kid?” the man in the tan overcoat and loose tie said.

“Yeah, I did,” Zatanna responded walking closer, “he's not a demon.”

“Like hell he's not,” Constantine replied.

“He isn't. He's… something, but not that.” she responded, shrugging her shoulders slightly in a nonchalant way.

“Look, trust me, coming from someone who's biggest skill is tricking people, he is tricking you and doing a damn good job of it. It'd be impressive if it didn't bloody piss me off so much.” He made wide gestures as he spoke and turned away from the illusionist.

“I know what you think, but I disagree. He may not be human, but he's not a demon either. And whatever the other thing is is none of my business unless he starts causing problems for me.” she added, disinterest in the bat's ward evident.

“You're supposed to be almost as good as me at this kind of thing, how do you not see it?” He turned back to her.

“I see it, I just disagree on what it means.”

“He's a demon, I'm sure of it.”

She sighed, “Whatever, John.”

Chapter Text

His fifteenth birthday was coming up.

In dragon tradition, usually this was a pretty big birthday, the first time you are entrusted with your own enchanted jewelry, but Tim already had enchanted jewelry, his mother’s.

He wore it around his neck all the time, even tucking the golden necklace under his suit out in the field.

He laid back in his own bed, the necklace on top the dresser, he glanced its way.

Even though he wasn’t wearing it, he still had his enchanted tie on his wrist that kept him looking human. 

Every young dragon had one, just elastic enough for their parents to take off, it was a tradition, once you get your first enchanted jewelry on your fifteenth birthday, it gets cut off.

His mother would have loved to see his cutting ceremony.

But instead, he’d just wear this tie forever he supposed.

His dad knocked on the door and opened it just a crack, “Can I come in?”

Once Tim said he could, not moving from his spot on the bed to say it, Jack came in and sat on the edge of the bed, closing the door behind him.

“Can you sit up for just a second? I want to talk to you about something.” He said, gently.

So, Tim sat up and sat on the edge of his bed with his father.

“So, your fifteenth birthday is coming up soon…” he started, “And I was thinking, it’s time we pick out your jewelry.”

“But, I already have one?” Tim gestured to the necklace on the dresser.

“Yes, I know you do, but you should have your own personal one, one that you actually picked out yourself. Obviously, you can still keep and wear your mother’s necklace, I just want you to have one that’s really your own. You can pick one that’s already enchanted or I can have one enchanted for you,whatever you want.”

Tim smiled, a little bittersweetly at the thought of his mother, “Really?”

“Yes,” Jack smiled back, “We’ll go to the store and you can pick out anything you want. Anything at all. You know your mother had a necklace and I have a ring, but you don’t have to pick either of those if you don’t want to.” He gestured to the ring on his finger at the mention of it. It was a silver ring with a big sparkly green gem on it, kind of the opposite of mom’s golden necklace with two red gems.

“Anything?” He asked, eyes wide like saucers. It’d been a while since he’d looked so his age, it made the sad smile on his father’s face melt into something full of adoration.

“Anything.” He confirmed.

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Tim jumped up from his bed and rushed across the room,  bouncing excitedly as he turned to his father, “Let’s go now!” It really was such a gem to see the rare, rare sight of the boy acting like the child he was, Jack couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Okay, okay, slow your roll,” Jack stood up, holding his hands in front of him the way one soothes a horse, “We can go now, but get your shoes on first.” He thought they’d go tomorrow, but he could never say no to his boy.

So, he called out to Dana, let her know they were going to the store, and they were off.

They started at the fancy jewelry store down the street. Tim tried to contain his excitement inside the store, it wasn’t becoming of anyone to be running around or bouncing in this kind of store, let alone a Drake.

He looked around at the options, watches, necklaces, rings, bracelets galore! All of which with a pretty price tag that literally meant nothing to them.

He looked around and they were all pretty, they all looked nice, but none of them seemed quite right. He frowned.

“Don’t worry, Tim, you don’t have to pick any of these. This is going to be with you for the rest of your life, no need to rush into a decision. We’ll keep looking until you find the perfect one.” Tim smiled up at his father and they left for the next store.

This one looked almost the same, all very nice jewelry, none of it feeling quite right.

They went to a third jewelry store, Jack assuring his son that there was nothing wrong with taking a little while to find the right one, but still no dice. Jack promised to take him to see pre-enchanted jewelry tomorrow.

Not finding anything today, though, dimmed Tim’s mood noticeably, so Jack decided to cheer him up.

“Hmmm,” he started, causing the troubled boy to look up at him, “since you didn’t find anything you liked at those stores, how about we stop at this convenience store up the road and get you whatever you want. We could get ice cream, and candy, and-”

“Okay!” Tim interrupted, he didn’t get the chance to spend time with his father as much as he wished between his dad’s job and hero work, as much as he wished being literally all of the time, he’d give anything to get ice cream with his dad. So, they went in the convenience store and spent their time looking at all the treats and trinkets.

And then, he saw it. The perfect piece of jewelry.

He gasped and his eyes lit up at the sight.

“That one,” He gestured to it, “I want that one.”

Jack gave it a confused look, “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” Tim couldn’t help but bounce a little in excitement.

“Well, all right.” His father said, grabbing it off the rack.

They took it the next day to get enchanted, Jack had told him he didn’t have to come but Tim had insisted. 

Hopefully they’d be back before patrol…

So, they took the little watch to the enchanted forest and his dad paid someone to enchant it with a human disguise. He also paid extra for some additional charms, the watch looked quite fragile and he didn’t want it breaking under any circumstances. So, durability, unbreaking, whatever, he didn’t really care about the price, as long as it was for his boy.

This cheap little thing would have to last the century, after all. It was perfectly reasonable to want some enchantments people normally didn’t get for this kind of jewelry, most dragons chose metal, that would last long enough no matter what, but cheap plastic? He did not want it falling to pieces before Tim was even a hundred. The watch was quite small, maybe he should add something to let it grow with Tim as well?

When the enchantments were done, Jack let Tim take a look at it, The boy almost squealed in excitement at the sight.

Tim had been ranting about his upcoming birthday all week to anyone who would listen. 

Obviously not the enchanted jewelry or the upcoming ceremony, but he had told Bruce about a “surprise” his father was planning for him and Bruce had smiled at the excitement in his voice.

He’d also told Barbara. And Alfred. And Dick. And Catwoman, and the Riddler, and Ivy, and strangers on the street. Actually he told almost all of them about it more than once. Okay, maybe he was getting carried away with this whole birthday thing, this was so unlike him, but he didn’t miss the smile all the adults in his life gave every time he started up again. He could tell they saw it as a nice change of pace to see him acting like this about something. Like an excited little kid.

So much so that the night before his birthday, Bruce pulled him aside and gave him the day off tomorrow. 

On the day of his birthday, Dana had wished him well and gave him a new belt that he very much appreciated. It was clear that she didn’t really know what kind of things he liked but she tried and that was what he liked about her.

Then his dad gave him a new camera, which he hadn’t been expecting. 

It hadn’t even crossed his mind that the ceremony wouldn’t be his only gift.

But this camera? Oh, it was very nice and he really really liked it. He thanked his dad profusely and gave him a hug, which Jack of course returned, and then Dana got in on the action and they all sat there for a moment, hugging.

Then Jack and Tim bid Dana goodbye, Jack telling her that he had a surprise that was just father-son which she was very understanding of, and they left for the ceremony. 

Tim couldn’t wear his mother’s necklace during the ceremony, so he handed it to his dad to hold on to, which Jack did happily.

Inside the room, he saw who he could swear were his grandparents waiting inside. He thought they were asleep? Had they woken up just for this?

Sure, they’d probably go back to their slumber once the ceremony was through, maybe they’d talk to Tim a little bit first, but it was still a very nice gesture.

He noticed it looked like they’d been crying a little, they probably didn’t know about his mother’s death until they arrived in town.

He’d actually never seen them before, maybe once when he was too young to remember, they went into slumber before he was born, but now they were awake. Just for him.

Wasn’t that such a nice gesture?

And some people say dragons are evil.

The ceremony started, there were lots of words said, none in the human tongue, but the big thing was that the enchanted elastic tie on his left wrist was cut off by his father, then more words were said, and the watch he had chosen was put onto his right wrist.

It was tradition to go from left to right with wristwear like this, of course he could have elected to break tradition if he wanted to but he didn’t want to do that.

He looked down at the blue and black metal and plastic and rubber watch on his wrist and smiled.

The little blue bird behind the ticking hand matching the one on his brother’s suit.

Chapter Text

Okay, so maybe there was a bit of a demon problem in Gotham right now

Some stupid teens did some stupid ritual thinking it wasn’t real and long story short, Batman was calling Constantine into Gotham for help.

At the mention of demons terrorizing Gotham, Constantine spared a very particular look Tim’s way which the boy couldn’t help but find extremely amusing.

So, the man still thought he was a demon, huh?
But, Constantine came anyway and Batman filled him in on the exact situation.

Tim stayed silent, lurking behind the Bat where only Hellblazer could see him so that he could mess with the man a little bit. Constantine spared him a few more colorful glances as Bruce talked.

You could almost hear the swears behind them! Impressive.

But no matter how many dirty looks he shot his way, he’d still have to work with him.

Maybe this would be a good day after all.

A cathedral. 

That’s where the demons were swarming.

A cathedral.

Of all places, why that one?

Constantine didn’t seem phased but that’s bizarre, right??

Looking at the damage and the demons filling the sky, Constantine decided the best course of action was to have Batman and Robin fight the demons off to distract them while he does all he needs to to manage a large-scale banishment spell.

Robin quipped that they should have gotten Zatanna instead which made Constantine look like he wanted to wring the boys neck but Batman was completely unphased, stoically insisting they get to work.

So, the bats set off to fight some demons.

Close up, he could see how humans who had never seen either before would mistake a dragon in humanoid form for one of these creatures, though they had plenty of distinct differences.

The thing is, at least as far as Tim was aware, it’s not like he was an expert on demons or anything, demons come in many varied types and dragons, while coming in different types, simply don’t vary as much. It made sense to think that a dragon was a type of demon even though they very much weren’t.

Did this confusion affect the stereotypes of dragons as cruel and evil?
Or were demons just as much a victim of incorrect assumptions as he was?

Weaving through the crowd of nasty demons with his bo staff, he wasn’t quite sure this was the best time to think of that.

One of the demons managed to get a nasty cut in on his bicep, but other than that he did far more damage than he received, mowing down demons left and right with Bruce until they all dissipated in front of his eyes.
For only a split second, he was confused and disoriented, but he quickly recovered, moving to find Constantine with Batman.

Surprisingly, the spell had worked perfectly, not a demon left in Gotham.

It was good considering what he knew of Constantine, with that man every successful spell was more a test of luck than skill.

And yes, he did mean that as an insult and he definitely did say it to his face.

When he walked towards the Cathedral to see Constantine walking his way, he noticed Constantine give him an odd look, like he had expected him to disappear too.

What a lame ass assassination attempt, Tim would admire the try if it wasn’t completely pitiful.

If he wanted a Drake gone he’d have to try a lot harder than that .   

Constantine looked at the young vigilante in front of him in thought.

He had been in range of the spell, if all the other demons were gone he should be too.

Maybe Zatanna had been right.

As the boy and the Bat turned to leave, Constantine had to admit to himself,

The kid wasn’t a demon at all, maybe he’d been too quick to judge.

He glanced down to see a single drop of blood the boy had left behind, he knew it had fallen from the small cut just under his shoulder.

It bubbled, hissed, and smoked in the place it had landed.

He fucking knew it.

Chapter Text

He made his way to the manor in his civies. It wasn't a long walk, the Drakes were just next door and going in the normal person route as opposed to the vigilante entrance gave him a perfect excuse to use his skateboard.

Sure, it wasn't a long walk but the Drake estate was large, the Wayne estate was large, it wasn't exactly a short walk either.

So, he soared down the sidewalk on his skateboard, pretending he was using his poor under utilized wings that were almost always in an uncomfortable position.

The thing about pretending to be human with distinctly nonhuman appendages was that you had to hide those appendages.

His wings were almost always wrapped tightly around his torso so they could fit discreetly under any shirt or costume, which at times kind of felt like squeezing your hand into a fist for five hours straight, it wasn't always fun.

Luckily, his suit was tight enough he didn't always have to keep his muscles taught, the suit did more than enough to hold them in place, but in a loose tee-shirt? He had to keep a handle on it, at least when people were looking.

He'd be lying if he said going home and taking his shirt off so his wings could be free wasn't one of his favorite parts of the day.

When he made it to the door, he gave a nice hearty knock and after a moment Alfred opened up.

“Hello, Master Tim, how are you?” He stood to the side so Tim could enter.

“Not too bad, just coming over for patrol.” He took a step inside.

“Would you like me to take your skateboard for you, sir?” The butler gestured towards the board with both arms.

“Oh, yeah, for sure, thanks Alfred!” Tim handed it over to which Alfred tucked it under his arm to put away in a moment.

“Of course,” he responded, “I can't help but noticing you're not wearing a helmet. I believe those are typically suggested for this sort of activity.” It may seem like he was acting concerned but if you could hear his voice you'd know that was definitely not the case.

Tim shot the butler a look, “I fight crime in Gotham in a neon outfit at night without any helmet, I'm sure I'll be fine. ”

“Then perhaps you should consider adding a helmet to that costume of yours.” Alfred really had such a way of being insanely snarky without losing that posh accent even a little.

“Very funny.” Tim deadpanned.

“Perhaps some kneepads?” 

“Laugh it up.” Tim rolled his eyes, scratching his wrist, inadvertently riding up the sleeve of his jacket to reveal the watch underneath.

Tim noticed Alfred glance at the watch and make a face. He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything about the watch, just led the young boy into the manor as if he somehow didn't know where he was going by now.

--------------------------

After patrol, Tim and Bruce went back to the cave.

“Ugh, I'm covered in Gotham sludge , I'm gonna go tidy up and switch into my civies real quick,” he turned away from the bat and started walking out, “I just hope the smell will come out.”

He took a very quick shower and got back in his civies, as he made his way back to the cave he found that Bruce had already left it. 

He was in his civies as well, waiting in the lounge room for him.

Tim was a little surprised, he had expected to find Bruce still in the bat suit pouring over a case down in the cave, but here he was, casually waiting for him in the manor with a cup of tea in his hands.

“Oh, Tim, you manage to get that smell out?” Apparently he had heard that little comment earlier…

“Eh, mostly, might take a few showers for it to go away completely, though,” he grimaced slightly, moving into the room but not sitting down.

Bruce glanced over at him but his eyes seemed to catch on something.

“Nightwing watch?” He asked after a short pause. 

Tim lifted his wrist to look at it as if he hadn't known what Bruce was talking about, “Oh, uhm, yeah.”

“Not a bad choice, I hear he's pretty good at what he does.” Bruce grinned at his own joke.

“Thanks, my dad gave it to me.”

“Jake did?” He said it like it surprised him slightly, “I didn't think that was the kind of thing he'd buy for you.” Bruce said, trying to make conversation.

“Well, he did.” Tim responded, a little more defensive than he meant it.

Bruce paused for a second, giving Tim a once over, but whatever he was thinking he decided to just move on, “It tell time good?”

“It does fine, as far as I know?” Tim raised an eyebrow at Bruce who just casually looked away, leaning further into the couch.

“It's a nice watch.” Bruce said, earnestly.

Tim got the feeling this was Bruce's best attempt at being emotionally available or something like that.

“Maybe you should get one yourself then.” He smirked as the joke left his lips.

“Eh,” the bat responded, “if I get merchandise of one of you, then I have to get merchandise of all of you…”

“Then do that,” Tim said, “I bet I can find you the best Robin merch out there, but you have to have the most of mine, okay?” He winked a little.

Bruce sighed, “I don't know where I'm gonna find some of Alfred .” He mused, sounding way too serious but that was his favorite way to joke anyway.

Tim let out a laugh at that, he couldn't help it, and he pretended not to notice the way it made Bruce well up with pride ever so slightly.

They sat in awkward silence for a moment, both looking in opposite directions. Now that it was awkward neither wanted to make eye contact.

Tim turned back to Bruce first.

“I should probably be going, I need to get back to my dad and Dana,” he gestured towards the front door, taking a step back, “besides, I've kind of been at your house all night, don't want to look to weird.”

“Yes, of course,” Bruce said, standing up, “I'll walk you to the door.”

“Oh, you don't have to..” Tim responded. 

“I know.” Bruce said, not slowing or stopping.

Tim paused for a moment…

“Thank you.”

They both smiled as Tim finally started walking.

-----------------------------------------

The Drakes were sponsoring a Police Ball for something or other. All the Drakes were there. Even Dana, who isn't technically a Drake but she's close enough, isn't she?

Even Gordon was there, turns out he really was less of a workaholic than Bruce. Who would have guessed (literally everyone)

He even brought his wife and Babs along.

Barb and Babs, that's what they would call Barbara and her mother if they hadn't managed to get away from the famous civies trend the bats seem to keep having, mostly thanks to Bruce .

Tim was used to events like these, in the human realm and out. 

Though, he'd only been to ones in the human realm since his mom died, he hadn't even been to any of the other realms at all since she'd died.

Something about it just seemed…wrong. She'd always loved taking him there so much, how could he possibly stand to go now that she's gone?

But, still, the ball was nice. Even if it got a little hard to remember which customs were human and which were mystic.

And could you blame him? Do you have any idea how many different mystic customs he has been taught? Different fae which is already a couple dozen there, dragons, of course, nymphs, sirens, all sorts of things. 

But he was managing just fine. 

It was nice to have Barb there, a familiar face was always nice. There were actually lots of familiar faces here, since it was full of Drakes, cops, and cop families, as a respected vigilante there were plenty of familiar faces here.

It was always nice to go to Drake events because that means he always gets to see his dad at them. 

His dad was a busy man, he wasn't around too much, but they made the most of the time in between meetings and business trips that they had together. 

But he couldn't talk to his dad and Dana the whole night. 

That's why he was glad to see Barbara in the cloud. 

His Barbara, not her mom of course. 

“Hello, Ms. Gordon, how are you enjoying the ball so far?” He said as he approached her.

She turned around quickly, her orange ponytail whipping with the movement, “Oh, you can drop that act immediately.” She said, referring to Tim's persona.

Tim let out a huff of a laugh, “What, can't handle a little sophistication, Babs?”

“Oh, I can handle sophistication just fine, that however was not. ” she sassed.

“Oh yeah? Then what do you call it?” He matched her energy.

“Snobbery.” she teased, a smile on her face.

“You know I could totally get you thrown out of here.” Tim joked.

“Please do,” Barbara huffed, “my dad made me come, practically begged me to show up”

“That's sweet” Tim smiled. He'd loved to be begged to go somewhere with someone, it sounded like it would feel nice.

“That's not exactly what I'd call it,” she murmured back, “Hey, what's up with that watch? Doesn't exactly look like a Rolex.”

Tim held up the watch she was talking about, squinting at it himself then raising an eyebrow.

“Oh my god,” Barbara quietly exclaimed, “Is that a Nightwing watch !?!? ” She put her hand to her mouth like she needed to hold back a laugh.

“So what if it is?” Tim answered, nonchalantly. 

“What are you doing wearing that kiddie thing with a tux like that?” She couldn't hold back a small giggle, “It doesn't quite …match .”

“Hey, lay off, my dad gave me this for my birthday.” he managed to keep it light this time, he still wasn't sure why it'd come out so defensive with Bruce.

“Oh yeah, what are you, five?” she snarked.

“It's better than the present you got me” he sassed right back. Barbara hadn't gotten him anything for his birthday. It didn't bother him in the slightest, but that didn't mean he couldn't playfully throw it in her face. 

“Touché” she responded.

“Besides, I like it. What's so wrong with that?” There was that defensiveness peaking out again, what was up with that?

“Tim, you're literally wearing merch for my ex boyfriend,” she pinched her lips together like she was really trying not to laugh this time, “How am I supposed to not find that hilarious?”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, but I think it's nice.” He lifted his chin and smiled an adorable and proud little smile.

“It's made of plastic and rubber.” Babs deadpanned.

“There's a little metal in there,” he shrugged.

“Are you sure you didn't lose a bet with Dick or something?” she laughed.

“I'm sure.” He sneered, “Seriously, what's the harm in wearing a little watch with his symbol on it. Plus, my dad bought it just for me, I'll wear it as much as I want.”

“Alright, alright,” she relented, “I'm sorry, you probably don't get many gifts from him, I shouldn't have teased you about it.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” Oh, that's what all the defensiveness was about, wasn’t it? People always assumed his parents were deadbeats just because they were rich and worked a lot. Even the bats weren't above it. He hated the way people talked about his dad like he was some kind of uncaring and neglectful jerk and not the caring father he knew he was. He could just tell when they were thinking it, there was nothing more obvious to him, not even the color of the sky. 

And when people did the same of Janet? Before she died? Oh, he almost lost his temper so many times.

“Hmm? Nothing, nevermind, don't worry about it,” he tried not to hold it against him, humans made assumptions, its kind of all they did, with eachother, with dragons, with loved ones, humans judged and assumed, it was part of their nature in a way. And since Barbara was in his thrall, he would be forgiving with her so long as she wasn't needlessly cruel, “Hey, he remembered your favorite hero, that's pretty sweet.”

“What gave you that idea?” Tim raised an eyebrow. A joke was perfect to cut through the tension of her prior statement.

“Oh, you may have mentioned him…once or twice.” she joked back, following his lead now.

“Yes, only once or twice, surely.”

“Definitely,” she smiled, “So, do you still pretend to be a fanatic at home or did your dad just latch on to an old thing you used to like a lot? Mine does that all the time.”

“Who says he's not still my favorite?” Tim gave her a look.

“...Is he??” she questioned. 

“Well, you better work harder if you wanna beat him on the ranks, Ms. Oracle.” He winked.

“I'll be sure to put in the hours.” she snarked.

“Gee, thanks,” he shot back, “I'll talk to you later, I'm gonna go back over to my dad.”

“Woooow, choosing your lame dad over me? How could you?” she mused, jokingly.

“Okay, first of all he is nowhere near lame, second of all, he's a pretty busy guy, I'm a pretty busy guy! I'd rather not waste this night with him. I talk to you almost every night through the coms, I only get to see him when he's not CEOing.” 

“That's…understandable,” she gave him an almost pitying look, he hated it, “Go have fun with your dad, tyke.”

“I'm fifteen, just because you're ancient doesn't mean I'm a toddler!” he subtly stuck out his tongue as he walked away.

“Hey! I am twenty-eight!” She called back

--------------------------------------

Dick was coming down to Gotham today to have lunch with Tim. He couldn't lie, he was pretty excited.

Dick didn't always have the time to leave Blüdhaven, but it was always pretty fun when he did. He usually made a point to at least stop by and see Tim anytime he was in the area, and they talked on the phone somewhat often, but it'd be nice to sit down and talk over lunch.

Really nice. 

That's why he was trying to find the perfect mix of nice but casual in his room.

Can't go too nice, because lunch with your pseudo-brother shouldn't be a black tie event, but can't go too casual because this was Dick Grayson! 

What if he picked an outfit so bad that Dick didn't want to hang out with him ever again!?

Not only was Dick the closest thing he had to a brother, but he was also his idol for years!

Should he wear a t-shirt and jeans? Was that too casual for a casual lunch? Had Tim ever even been to a genuinely casual event before?

It does seem that the only times he had to dress casual were to skateboard and to see Dick…wait, was hanging out with Dick seriously his only casual outing? Other than skateboarding and taking pictures??

Okay, that might be sad…let's not pay attention to that right now. 

Should he wear his mother's necklace? He usually wore it everywhere but it was kind of bulky, would it look weird under a t-shirt?

He didn't want Dick to think he looked ridiculous! Dick's a cool guy! He'd probably laugh at him!

Oh god, he could be laughed out of the restaurant! And he's not bringing his skateboard, he'd have to walk home!

Was he overthinking this? Maybe. But he just wanted it to go well.

It's not like it's the first time he's ever hung out with Dick, but it's been a while with how busy hero work and regular work can make a person. And this one was out in public! 

Maybe he should just not tuck the necklace under his shirt? Make a statement?

No, that'd look stupid! Ugh!

He could put it under his wings? That would definitely work, but should he really be finding ways to make folding his wings even more uncomfortable??

Plus, the necklace would be safer at home. Maybe…it was time to stop wearing it so frequently?

The thought made him tear up.

Maybe today was not the day to make that decision. He'd rather this be a happy day, not a sad one where he's spending the whole day thinking about how much he missed his mother.

But still, the one year anniversary of her death was quickly approaching. It was hard to not think about it…

But, he'd try to think about all of that tomorrow, he had a lunch to get ready for.

Dick picked him up from Drake manor in his car.

It was probably the cheapest car he'd ever been in, so it was awesome!

He liked Dick's car, it wasn't a limousine or a million dollars which was where it's charm came from.

He may have been the son of a billionaire, but that didn't mean he looked down on more economical things, in fact, he liked them.

I mean, look at his dumb little watch after all.

They got to the restaurant, it was a quaint little place, it looked family owned. They got a table on the patio.

“So, how's school going?” Dick asked as they sat in their seats. There wasn't really anyone out here, which was good, it meant they could talk about whatever they wanted. 

“Eh, it's alright.” He got decent grades and whatever but he was bored and not challenged and it just took time away from his vigilante work. 

“How's English? I know you have trouble with that one.” Dick said, picking up the menu.

“It's fine.” Tim answered. God, he hated Mrs. Ebberman. He had a C, a C! But it didn't matter, all he had to do was pass.

“Maybe I can help you study some time,” Dick smiled. 

As if, Dick was busy enough as it was. It's a nice offer, it's just not something that would ever really happen. Plus, it's not like Dick got that good of grades, Tim hacked into his transcript one time. The only one of them that ever got good grades was Jason, not that he'd ever admit to checking.

“Yeah, maybe…” Tim responded, looking off to the side.

Dick lowered his menu to give him a look. 

His face changed into a mischievous smirk as the waitress approached and he snatched Tim's menu away before he could read it, “Hey!” Tim chided, but Dick was already handing the waitress their menus and ordering for the both of them.

“Trust me, it's the best thing here,” Dick winked at him as the waitress went back to put in their orders.

Were you even allowed to give her your food order when she was just asking for your drink order? Was that not breaking a human rule?

Tim was confused. He thought he understood human customs but they always got weirder and weirder each time.

Dick noticed the shocked and confused look on his face, “Hey, lighten up. I promise it'll be good.” He assured.

In actuality, Tim didn't really care that Dick ordered for him. Human food was human food, he could eat whatever. But, he'd let Dick think that was the issue.

“Yeah, okay,” Tim rolled his eyes, smiling as he crossed his arms, “I guess I'm gonna be the judge of that.”

“Hey, what's that?” Dick asked, gesturing to Tim's arm with his eyes.

“Huh?” Tim looked down to see he was looking at the watch, he quickly covered it up with his other hand, “Oh, uh, nothing.” He blushed.

“Hey, no, you can't just cover it up!” Dick exclaimed, “I saw it, Timmy! What are you doing with a Nightwing watch?” He smirked.

“...My dad bought it for me,” he looked down, wishing to disappear. How could he have thought of the necklace and not the watch!

“Awww, you don't have to be all embarrassed, little wing, c'mere!” Dick moved over and affectionately tousled his hair, leaving his hand there when he was done, “Well, let me get a look at it!” Dick smiled.

Tim huffed and begrudgingly held out his hand towards Dick, who grabbed his wrist to get a good look at it.

“Woahohooo, look at this piece-a-work,” Dick laughed, “You said your billionaire dad got this for you?”

“What are you trying to say?” There was that defensiveness again, why do people have to keep saying mean things about his dad?

But this put him in an odd position, while saying his dad got it for him was true, he couldn't admit to Nightwing that he was the one who picked out the watch, that his dad had planned on getting him something nicer and he'd insisted on this .

“Nothing, sorry,” Well, at least he apologized, his smile even fell for a moment, “heh, look at this thing, wow, where'd he even find it?” 

The reaction wasn't unwarranted, it was pretty visibly cheap.

“Convenience store.” Tim shrugged. 

“What, while buying your groceries?” He laughed, moving his hand off of Tim's head, finally, and to the watch. 

“Yeah,” Tim answered simply. 

“Wait, really? He buys your groceries?” Dick turned his attention away from the watch and towards Tim. 

“Well, while he was buying me some snacks,” Tim clarified.

“Ahh, I see,” Dick smiled, had that made his dad look a little better in his eyes? “He run in without you and bring it back as a little surprise?”

“No, I went in with him,” Tim answered unthinkingly as the waitress came and set down their drinks. He thanked her as he had observed as human custom, but Dick didn't move to do the same, just looked at him.

“Wait…you went in with him?” He asked, “Then, why would you let him buy it…unless…” Dick teased, “You asked him for it, didn't you?”

“What? No!” Tim flushed. 

“Oh my god, you totally did!” Dick laughed.

“No I didn't!” Tim lied, “I just didn't see him grab it!”

“Uh-huh,” Dick said, unconvinced, “So, did you show off your new bling to everyone or am I just special?”

“Shut uppp,” Tim responded, thoroughly embarrassed. 

Dick laughed again, putting his hand in his hair to ruffle it again.

Tim smiled warmly at the gesture and when he was done, he quickly jerked his head up to the hand in his hair and gave it a quick nip.

“Did- did you just bite me?” Dick asked. 

Uh-oh. 

In dragon culture, biting was a whole thing. Communal biting between families and loved ones was common. It helps babies learn how hard to bite, how to control their venom output on someone who wouldn't get hurt by it, and could be used to help gently guide a young one into acting accordingly.

There were many different kind of bites to show different things, the one he did just now was a very gentle love bite, extra gentle since humans had such thin skin and trail bodies.

He'd been doing his best to avoid biting, it wasn't something humans did, but he accidentally bit Dick, completely on instinct! God, what was he going to do.

Tim stared.

“Heh, what has Bruce been teaching you,” he laughed, nonchalantly brushing the small bite aside.

See, that's why Dick was the best.

The older boy turned as the waitress came by with their food and Tim smiled.

Dick thanked her and Tim was snapped out of his stupor to quickly thank her too, not willing to break a custom especially right after doing something not human in nature.

Dick turned back and smiled at him like he found something funny, but he never said what it was.

Tim started eating the food Dick had ordered for him, something called Chiftele.

“Do you like it?” Dick asked, as he took the first bite, “It's almost as good as my mom used to make,” he smiled, taking a bite of his own, “Well, used to try to make,” he added, laughing a little as he continued his plate.

“Yeah, it's pretty good,” Tim answered, it was some sort of meatball with sauce and Tim definitely liked meat, if it was a little more cooked than he typically preferred. 

It had mashed potato as well, but he'd be fine as long as there was some meat.

Dragons were what people called an “obligate carnivore”, but they had strong stomachs, as long as they ate some meat they could pose as an omnivore.

It's like when a cat eats a couple of beans, sure they can't eat vegetables, but they can have a little before it makes them sick, dragons were the same but a little to them was a lot more than what a cat would consider “a little”.

Dick seemed really happy that he liked it. 

Apparently this is the only restaurant in the area that serves Romanian food like his mother used to always make, at least that's what Dick said.

“Does that help?” Tim asked, a sad look in his eyes as he looked up at the vigilante.

“Does what help?” Dick asked, confusion filling his smile.

“Eating stuff your mom would make, does- does it help?” His voice cracked a little, he wasn't going to cry, he wasn't even supposed to think of this right now.

Dicks face became more serious as he realized what Tim meant and why he was asking, his smile became a small frown and his eyes softened, “Yes,” he said, “it does.”

If only his mom were something simple like that, if she was Scottish or Romani or Mexican, he could just simply eat something that reminds him of her. 

If she were only human , he could do the same thing Dick does.

But she isn't- wasn't.

She was a dragon.

And there weren't very many dragonic restaurants.

Maybe he could just eat something really spicy or really raw when he misses her, maybe that could suffice.

But, dragons didn't really have recipes, and his mom didn't really cook, that was Mrs Mac’s job, so what was he to do?

Maybe he could go hunting in her name, find something living and make it dead, eat it right then and there, like a wild animal. Like a dragon .

Or maybe….he could go to the mystic realm.

Dick put his hand on his shoulder, a human attempt at comfort. 

What would his mother do? He found himself thinking.

She'd probably nuzzle him softly, tell him it'd be alright in Latin or some other long dead language, but his mother wasn't here, she was dead .

And so, Dick put his hand on his shoulder. 

He tried not to cry. 

Dick didn't fuss when he didn't succeed.

Chapter Text

The longer he’s in YJ, the more he grows to actually like the members.

Not too long after they formed, Wonder Girl joined the team.

She seemed alright as far as he knew.

She eventually became co-leader with him, he couldn’t lie, it was kind of nice to not be the sole leader of the team, though no one would catch him saying it outloud. But they could tell he appreciated the help.

It wasn’t hard to learn all their names. Bart was definitely the easiest, he comes from a time that doesn’t have secret identities anymore, he was practically yelling “Bart Allen” from the rooftops.

But Conner Kent wasn’t hard to find either, and when Superman gave him his kryptonian name, he told them all about Kon-El repeatedly. 

And Cassie Sandsmark wasn’t too hard either.

But not one of them knew his name.

And they wouldn’t, not unless he one day decided he wanted them to, which seemed unlikely.

But, the way they were growing closer day by day…maybe it wasn’t as unlikely as it seems…

Maybe one day he really would trust them enough for that, enough to unmask.

But not yet, it was too soon.

But still, everyday that him and Kon didn’t butt heads, he knew. Knew that this was his team and there would come a day when he trusted them as much as he trusted Bruce and Dick.

Maybe even more.

He just knew .

When he and Superboy first met, they hated each other, butted heads constantly, but the longer they teamed up, the less they fought, and eventually, instead of fighting, they were quipping and joking around.

Instead of being at each other's throats, they were…

Conner was the closest thing he had to a best friend since Ophelia. 

It was…weird. 

It felt weird to have someone like that when he’d been without it for years now.

The entire team were like his friends, which felt odd when you’d gone so long without those.

He used to have them, but not like this.

Not in the human realm.

He’d never had anything but acquaintances here, and even there he hadn’t had many friends.

There was Oph and well, we all know how that went, there was her older cousin, Damsel, well Damsel was what she went by and he hadn’t known her well enough to puzzle out her real name, there were some creatures here and there that were nice to him, but really, treating him with abundant respect because he was not only a dragon but a high status and highly feared family of dragon was not the same as being friends.

It was…nice. Having friends, that is. He liked it.

And everyday he felt himself growing closer to them.

But he missed having mystic friends.

They were kind of like mystics, with all the inhuman powers and the general difficulty understanding human customs.

But, they still weren’t .

Maybe it was time for him to go back.

Somewhere, anywhere mystic.

It’d be nice to have a fellow mystic to talk to, even if they didn’t understand dragon customs they’d at least not understand human customs with him.

And they could talk about mystic things! The only person he could talk about anything mystic to was his dad , he needed someone his age, thank you very much!

And, to go out without his disguise on? Without bounding his tail and wings? No fear of something touching his horns? It’d be nice.

And to walk around in his dragon form?

That’d be nice.

He hadn’t done that in a very long time.

But for now, he had Young Justice.

And he had to admit, they were pretty great.

Chapter Text

Scarecrow was a weird one. 

A doctor who became so obsessed with the concept of fear that he chose to induce that fear through toxic gas instead of just…doing normal field research like a PhD holding doctor in any other part of the country would.

Though, this most recent attack was taking the cake for odd.

The first thing he noticed when he touched down at the problem site was the lack of visible fear tox in the air, they also never found a canister.

This meant that Scarecrow was trying something new, going a new direction. He'd perfected a new formula that was invisible and somehow didn't require him to leave a canister behind. Perhaps this was a new canister that degraded once the gas had left it somehow?

But there was no question about it being fear tox, it was obvious in the mass panic it was causing in a localized area.

The next thing he noticed was that it could get through gas masks.

Scarecrow toxin was an interesting thing. Dragons are immune to most human poisons and toxins and it was like that for most of the gasses, but Scarecrow is constantly looking to innovate and as of late, his latest toxins have been able to affect dragons in minor ways. Sure, it wasn't nearly as bad as it was for humans, especially since he kept making it stronger, but that didn't make the little it was capable of doing to him impressive.

But this new toxin? He must have put too much effort into the new canister, the clear gas, and it's ability to get through gas masks because it was not affecting him the way it normally did.

It was odd, it wasn't not affecting him, but it was nothing like his past few gasses.

It was still causing him to hallucinate, but it was far away, he didn't really see anything except for maybe a few dots in his vision that could really just be sleep deprivation, and he did hear something but it was all muffled, not strong enough for him to really hear let alone be scared of.

But, in Scarecrow's defense, he didn't know Robin was secretly a dragon and the new toxin seemed to work fine on everyone else, he must have put more effort into the new gimmicks in this one and less into upping the fear like he usually went for.

It made sense when he thought about it like that, he supposed.

But still, there was something off about the way it was affecting him, he just couldn’t place it.

“We need to find Scarecrow,” Batman stated and Tim couldn’t help but agree, “This probably won’t be the last we see of this new gas of his.”

“Yeah,” Tim responded, “Something tells me this was probably just a test run.”

That proved true a few hours later when the Jason Todd Memorial park was hit. 

Damn, that dead kid really can’t stop catching strays, huh? Tim found himself thinking.

Same MO of the new gas, no visible gas, only affected people in a certain radius (as gas normally does), no canister found, and even people in gas masks found themselves affected.

The worst part? Antitoxin didn’t seem to be working.

People affected either had to ride it out or die from the fear, luckily it did seem to wear off eventually, but not all hearts can last that long.

People were dying.

Bruce seemed fine, if shaken.

“Why isn’t the gas affecting you?” He asked.

“I- I don’t know,” He lied. The dragon had a pretty good idea.

“We’re wearing the same gas mask, is there anything about yours that isn’t standard and not in the one i wear?” he asked.

“I don’t think so?” 

“Let’s get back to the cave, we need to get to the bottom of this,” Bruce turned away, “If we can figure out why it isn’t affecting you then maybe we can learn how to stop it.”

Bruce took his mask when they got to the cave and started looking into it, trying to figure out what could possibly cause Tim to be unaffected.

Tim, knowing it was no use, decided to look over the case on the batcomputer.

That’s when he caught something.

“Hey Bruce,” The bat immediately looked up from his work, “From this report, it kind of seems like people without masks were just as affected as those wearing them, is that true?”

Bruce stood up and moved to look over Tim’s shoulder, “That doesn’t sound right, even if the gas can get through masks, they should still diminish its effect.”

But lo and behold, the report said it right there.

“Something feels off here…”
But before they could think about it too hard, they got a call from Commissioner Gordon.

“Yes, Commissioner?” Bruce said, appearing behind the man on the rooftop, scaring him half to death just like always.

“Jesus! Anyone ever thought of putting a bell on you?” The commissioner turned around to see the shadowy figure at his back.

“I think Catwoman considered it once,” Tim joked, stepping out from behind his partner.

“What was it you called me here for, commissioner?” Batman asked, not giving Robin’s comment more than a disapproving glare.

“Well,” the commissioner said, holding out a file, “There’ve been reports of a hooded figure running into this warehouse not long after both fear attacks, thought you might want to know.”

Batman took the file, looking at the warehouse, 

“ Scarecrow .”

Batman still wasn’t sure what was special about Tim’s mask, but he decided to switch masks with him and go to the warehouse alone. Tim tried to talk him out of it, but he just wouldn’t have it, so Tim decided to take one from his own book and follow without Batman realising.

The perks of stalking the bat at the ripe age of eight, yeah?

Bruce almost immediately found himself under the fear toxin’s influence, poor thing, so Tim went in through the window to fight Scarecrow himself.

When he touched down on the ground, he looked up to see the culprit in the same cloak that witnesses had seen before, but

This wasn’t Scarecrow.

It was a girl. 

Small frame, around his age, looked very young.

She had a cloak on with the hood up to hide her features, but Tim could see right through it.

Ophelia.

Her disguise may have worked on someone else, but not him. 

He knew that girl anywhere.

Even though he couldn’t see her face, even though he couldn’t see her luminescent light blonde hair that seemed to have every color in it when it hit the light, even though he couldn’t see slim features, or pale skin, or soft blue eyes, he knew. Because before all of this happened, she was his best friend in the entire world and he would know her anywhere.

It finally made sense. Dragons were inherently magical creatures, so magic didn’t always have the intended effect on them. Weaker magic didn’t work on them at all, some magic just had the incorrect effect, it took very strong magic to truly effect a dragon the way you wanted.

And Oph had spread her magic too thin. Far too thin to truly work on him.

“Hello, Young Prince, or should I call you, what was it you were going by nowadays? Robin? ” The cloaked figure deviously smiled, her mouth the only thing not shrouded in shadow.

“What is it you want?” Tim decided not to reveal that he knew who she was, if she was going to go through all the effort to disguise herself, why ruin the fun?

“I already told you, boy ,” she sneered, “I want to destroy your heart the same way you destroyed mine.”
“ Gotham .” Tim added, solemnly, knowing immediately what she meant.

She jumped towards him and he dodged out of the way as she began her attack.

This could all be put to an end so easily, she was a faerie and he knew her name, all he had to do was name her and he could stop all of this.

She swung at him and he dodged again, pulling out his bo staff and swinging at her in turn.

But he couldn’t bring himself to, not to her, not unless he really really had to.

Not unless she was tearing the world apart.

So, he kept up this game they were playing, swing for swing, pretending he didn’t know who she was, just like all those years ago when he pretended he hadn’t figured out her name.

“You ruined me!” She yelled and it hurt to hear, if he said something right now, would his voice crack and break like her heart had? He wasn’t sure.

He didn’t answer, just kept fighting her like any other Gotham rogue, but she wasn’t just any Gotham rogue, she was Oph!

It hurt to see her like this.

“How could you have done something like this to me!?” She was hurt too. It was obvious.

They were just children, not even twenty years and thousands of more to go, for them both, he couldn’t find it in him to fault her for all of this, for not understanding that he hadn’t rejected her proposal as some sort of attack.

Because they were children, and he understood that.

They were just children. Hurt children.

The thought surprised him, he’d never considered himself a child before, never allowed it, always thought he should be treated like and expected to be an adult. But…he wasn’t.

There were dragons alive now that saw the fall of Rome, of Greece, of Babylon, and he was only fifteen. They were faeries alive today that saw the rise of Camelot, the pyramids being built, the dawn of man, and she was only a few years apart from him.

Was it really out of her right to throw a tantrum?

Was it within his own to do the same?
Why did he always feel the need to be so grown up when he was barely a second into his life?

Kon, Cassie, Bart, they always acted older than them, why?

Why was he trying to act like an adult when he simply wasn’t?

The fight went on.

“I’m sure whatever happened, I didn’t mean to hurt you!” He cried, still trying to play this game, still refusing to admit he knew her even with the disguise.

“How could you have not meant to hurt me!?” She snarled, gearing up for another attack. He noticed tears streaming down her face as they slipped out of the shadows of her hood.

“We’re kids!” He yelled, as if it was some sort of grand realization. Maybe it was. “We do dumb stuff sometimes, okay? Why does everything have to be so black and white with our kind? Why must every grievance be deliberate?” He answered, trying his best to answer her without revealing he knew exactly what he’d done. I didn’t hurt you on purpose when I refused to marry you he tried to convey.

Something in her face shifted, like she’d realized something, but she quickly fixed her face back into her anger and attacked again.

He managed to make her fall and point his staff down at her, effectively pinning her with minimal effort.

“This isn’t the last you’ll see of me!” She yelled under him, “I’ll be back and next time I won’t be so kind, listen to my words, oh, Robin, next time I am here, I will tear Gotham to the ground!”

And then she disappeared, just like that, with a puff of magic and a promise to return.

She never did.

Chapter Text

“Tim?” He heard his father say, lightly knocking on his door before opening it anyway in that way that father's do.

“What's up, dad?” He turned from his computer where it sat on his desk. His dad wasn't nosy enough to realise he was working on cases.

“Dana and I were hoping maybe you'd like to go on a walk around the neighborhood?” He said, top half of his body poking in through the door, not making any move to actually enter the room.

“Uh, yeah, sure, just give me a sec to finish this up,” he said, moving around his mouse on the screen with the TouchPad.

“Of course,” his dad answered, “I'll meet you downstairs when you're done. Oh, and maybe bring your skateboard? We're probably going to pass by that skatepark you like and I'm sure Dana would like to see your moves.” Jack winked and left Tim to finish his work.

Tim immediately knew that Jack was planning this on purpose, the skatepark wasn't something they'd pass by on a regular walk but he'd probably set it up so he could get him and Dana to bond.

It was honestly sweet, how he was going out of his way to get his son and girlfriend to bond. He wondered if Dana was in on this as well or if his dad had planned this all on his own.

When Tim made his way downstairs, skateboard held under his arm, Dana had turned to him and smiled, “Hi Tim!” she had said with that sunny demeanor she always had.

Tim couldn't help but look at the necklace she was wearing, something his dad had given her a week or two ago. It was a shard of a very old vase that his dad had uncovered on one of his archeological digs. 

He had started those with his mother, a little hobby they shared, collecting old artifacts and such.

The shard of old pottery had had a small hole drilled in the top so that it could be put on a chain, the very chain that now sat on Dana's neck.

As a human, she had no way of knowing, but the act of his father giving her that necklace was a very big deal dragon wise, it meant he considered her part of his thrall.

And to use an object from a hoard that he had shared with his mother? It really did mean a lot. 

And even though Dana didn't know the extent of its meaning, it was clear she thought the world of the gift.

Maybe he should feel bad or angry or something about it all. Yell and scream that his dad was replacing his poor mother. But to be completely truthful? He didn't feel that way at all.

He liked Dana, she seemed very nice and she really helped his dad with his grief.

His mom wouldn't have wanted his dad to never date again and Tim wouldn't want it to be anyone else, Dana was genuinely a kindhearted and very nice woman. His mom probably would have loved her.

As far as humans go, she was pretty great, maybe her and his mom would have been friends. It was an oddly nice thought.

Maybe he should have been upset, maybe that's how you're supposed to feel, but he just wasn't. 

Janet Drake was a wonderful woman that no one could compare to, and maybe if Dana Winters had been trying to compare he would have felt that way, but she wasn't and he didn't.

So, he went on the walk with them, and they talked and laughed and had a lot of fun.

They stopped by the skatepark and Dana watched with a smile as he did some basic moves. Her smile was so bright it could probably replace Gordon's bat symbol if someone slapped a bat silhouette on it.

She even cheered and clapped as he moved.

Skateboarding was always something special for him. It was like flying when he wasn't able to actually fly.

And having her watch him skate like this, it was almost like she was watching him fly.

Like he was showing her that side of himself without actually showing it to her.

Maybe it was stupid but, it felt nice.

And she cared so much, she was so excited to see him go, she had even doted on him before he started, asking him if it'd be safe without a helmet and kneepads and he'd assured her he'd be alright.

It felt nice .

It made him smile.

After the skatepark, they stopped at a small ice cream shop before heading home, each of them getting a cone to themselves. 

Tim got two scoops of mint flavor, Dana got strawberry and his dad got a scoop of vanilla and some fancy chocolate the parlor had. 

It sounded like something his mom would have gotten.

They walked back to the manor, ice cream cones in hand, talking and laughing like before. 

Dana didn't really know a lot about Tim when push comes to shove, but she tried and that's probably what Tim liked about her so much.

She didn't understand Tim, didn't really know what he liked, but she still tried, she tried so hard, she was just such a kind soul that wanted to make him happy because she loved his dad and nothing else.

Sometimes, he felt like she saw him as her son. And while she'd never be his mother, she was nice.

Things were nice.

Dana was good for his dad, he knew that, and while they didn't hang out very much, he thought she was good for him, too. 

A few days later, he gave her a picture he'd taken of the Gotham landscape at sunset.

When things end, sometimes they are just the beginning of something different. When the sun sets, the sun is gone, but the night finally gets to begin.

Things were nice.

Chapter Text

A large museum in upscale Gotham had been robbed of multiple precious gems in the past week. Same with a large jewelry store and the house of a major CEO (one that Tim happened to despise so he wasn't exactly all that upset but he wouldn't be admitting that. He'd seen that man at galas, he definitely had it coming.)

From the way the glass was cut to the items stolen, it has Catwoman written all over it.

But, Ophelia had impersonated Scarecrow before, could this be her?

There was only one way to find our.

The prettiest and most sparkly diamond in Gotham was on display tonight, and Tim knew a thing or two about pretty gems, there was no way the cat would be able to resist.

Now, all that was left to do was to go to the diamond and wait and see if it really is Catwoman or another one of Ophelia's tricks.

She had promised she'd be back after all.

As they waited in the shadows of the exhibit, they saw a figure creep towards the diamond.

Tall and slender and curvy, with a skin tight costume, nothing like Ophelia.

It was the one and only Catwoman.

Selina Kyle, if the things he'd overheard Batman say were to be trusted.

As she took the diamond off its stand, him and Batman stepped out of the shadows.

“Oh, well hello, batsy~” she flirted, “Oh, and nice to see you again, kitten,” she purred, standing up straight and not putting the diamond back where it belonged even at the appearance of her occasional fling and the Robin she liked (Tim knew more about what was going on with Selina and Bruce than he would like to admit, unfortunately neither Wayne Enterprises nor Drake Industries manufactured brain bleach)

The cat had thrown something at them and made a run for it, when she was gone, him and the bat split up for a better chance of finding her.

Tim was the one who found her.

They were on a roof together, chasing after each other with no Batman in sight, a fascinatingly shiny diamond in the woman's hand. It was reminiscent of that first time they'd met.

“We have got to stop meeting like this,” Tim had said when he'd caught up to Selina, a smirk on his lips.

“You think so, kitten?” She smiled, waving the diamond in the air, the way the Robin in front of her’s gaze (from which she could only tell through the way his head turned through his little mask) slightly followed the gem not lost on her.

“You're not getting away with this, Catwoman!” He yelled in her direction.

“Mhmm..” she hummed

“That diamond belongs in the museum, not your collection of stolen goods!” He channeled his inner Dick Grayson cheesiness to really hit the Robin motif.

“Hear, you take it,” she tossed the diamond at him and winked, “you seem to appreciate it just as much as I do.” 

She was teasing him, it was obvious, yet Tim still caught the diamond on instinct and stared at that entransing sparkle.

Catwoman smiled at the birdie as he admired the gem in front of him, she liked this one, she could tell he had the same affinity for beautiful jewels as her. In another world, maybe he really would have been her kitten and not another on of the bat’s birds.

Seeing how enamored the boy was with the diamond, she felt a sort of pride in her chest, as if he was somehow her kid and not Batsy’s. 

She knew that the diamond would probably be put back where it “belonged” by morning, likely at the Bat's request and to the child's reluctance, but she still felt a joy at seeing him hold it, almost like he had stolen it himself when she knew he hadn't. 

She left while the boy was distracted, the smile not leaving her face.

“Robin,” Batman landed next to his bird, “did you find her?”

Robin snapped out of his stupor, slightly embarrassed by how easy he'd been to distract, stupid dragon instincts! He was definitely not telling Bruce about this.

He turned around, revealing the diamond in his hands to the Bat.

“Good work, Robin!” Bruce almost smiled, “Did Catwoman get away?” he asked, noticing no apprehended rogue in sight.

“uh, yeah,” Tim answered, “but what matters is I got the gem back!” He added, hoping that meant he wouldn't have to ever admit that she distracted him by throwing it at him.

They made their way back to the exhibit and Tim couldn't lie, he really wished he could keep the diamond.

Not just because it was pretty and would make a great hoard, but also because of the way he had gotten it.

Catwoman had given it to him, against her typical nature, because she thought he'd appreciate it as much as she would, if her word was to be believed.

She wasn't a dragon, that he knew, but that didn't stop the way it had felt like she'd just given him a thrall gift. Claimed him as family.

He put it back on the exhibit shelf reluctantly, it almost hurt to give it away like this.

It's not like he was against stealing, the only stealing dragons forbade was stealing from another dragon's hoard, but as a vigilante he accepted Bruce’s way of doing things, at least in Gotham, he'd follow the Bat code of conduct, even if it hurt sometimes.

He wasn't sure, but he thought Batman might have caught on to his reluctance.

“Why does Catwoman call you ‘kitten’?” Bruce asked as they walked away from the exhibit.

“Why does Catwoman call you babygirl?” he shot back.

“She does not,” Batman frowned.

“She might as well,” Tim murmured, rolling his eyes, “Did she not call the other Robins kitten?”

“Eh, on occasion, but she'd usually call them ‘birdie’,” Batman explained, “I'm just curious why she seems so transfixed on calling you kitten, I don't think she's ever called you birdie at all, which is odd for her.”

“I don't know, B,” Tim said, kind of lying. Lying was okay, lying didn't break any human laws.

“Alright…” Bruce said, a hint of concern in his voice as he dropped the matter.

The next day, he heard that Wayne Enterprises had dropped a pretty penny on that diamond they'd recovered. 

He found it sitting on the desk in the spare room Bruce always kept reserved for him.

Chapter Text

The odd thing about being in a superhero group that didn't actually live together at all times but still had a live in base is that one week your living in Gotham all the time and the next your lounging around the base even though there isn't a mission going on at that moment.

He was glad to have the dad he did because if he had a less busy dad or a more overbearing dad he didn't know what he'd do.

But lucky for him, it wasn't that odd for dragons to wander off for a while. They did go to the mystic realm on occasion after all and sometimes time was not quite right in there.

Not that he'd been to the mystics since his mom died. He keeps saying maybe it's time, maybe it's time, maybe- but he never finds himself doing it.

Right now he was in the YJ base, sitting on a couch with his arms crossed.

Kon, Bart and Cassie sat across from him, no sign of red tornado, maybe he wasn't the best at keeping watch…

Tim sighed and looked to the side.

“So, Robin, what's been goin on in Gotham lately? I heat it's wicked freaky scary there!” Bart asked, practically vibrating. He wasn't very good at sitting still.

They'd been sitting there for two minutes and he'd already superspeed out for snacks twice. 

Tim let out a harsh sigh, “it's…alright.”

“Is something going on in Gotham, Rob?”

Superboy asked.

“It's nothing, it's kind of dumb,” Tim shrugged.

“But?” Cassie asked.

“ But…” Tim started, “the Riddler's been giving bad riddles recently.”

“What?” Kon asked.

“See? I told you it was kind of dumb.” Tim rolled his eyes and looked to the side again.

“What Kon means is, what do you mean by bad riddles, Robin?” Cassie said, successfully saving face.

“Usually The Riddler gives riddles !” He started, “but lately, it's been, like, rhymes and stuff off of laughy taffy wrappers!” The annoyance oozed off of him, “Batman said there's no point in getting upset over the Riddles that we have to solve to literally save Gotham not being hard enough, but it's like, that's false advertising, Nygma!”

“Ugh, dude, that sounds like it freaking stinks!” Bart exclaimed.

“Wait, you really think so?” Tim asked. He'd expected them to agree it was stupid, not to validate his frustration.

“Yeah, man, I mean, if he says he's gonna do riddles, he should do riddles! ” Kon chimed in.

“Sounds like he's running out of material,” Cassie agreed.

“Right? And like, I don't want to be mean to Nygma, but like, last week he gave me a math problem. A math problem!” Tim exclaimed, feeling something interesting building in his chest the more he heard his team agree with him on this pointless matter.

The other three teammates groaned in unison at the mention of math.

“Seriously!?” Bart exclaimed

“Duuude! I hate math!” Kon added.

“That really blows, Rob.” Cassie added.

“And it wasn't even a difficult equation! I don't know what's wrong with him!!”

“Has he ever done this before?” Cassie questioned.

“No! Not that since I've been Robin!” He confirmed, “but get this, Batman says that he used to pull this kind of thing all the time with the other Robins!”

“For real?” Bart asked, still bouncing in his seat.

“Wait, but you've been Robin for like, two years now, why hasn't he done it to you yet?” Kom asked. 

“Yeah, that's a good point. And why is he doing them all at once, wouldn't it normally be spread out between other real riddles?” Cassie chimed in.

“Wait, you're right…” Tim added, perplexed, “And he hasn't been doing any of his cheesy audio or video recordings! He didn't even accuse Batman of cheating for being able to solve his laffy taffy riddle in only a few seconds!”

“Wait, he accuses Batman of cheating when he solves the riddles too fast?” Kon asked amused.

“Yeah, he does it to Nightwing too.” Tim confirmed.

“Wait, does- does he not do it to you too?” Bart asked.

“No, he likes me.” Tim answered simply, the others looked like they had a lot of further questions there but decided not the ask them.

“Then that's probably why he hasn't done any of the lamer riddles to you yet. Maybe he feels like it's a disservice to his favorite Robin or something?” Cassie suggested.

“Yeah, probably. He likes me because I actually like his riddles. Like a lot. I love riddles.” Tim answered. Wait, was this what it was like to have a normal conversation with friends?

“Well, that solves that,” Kon shrugged.

Guys, one sec, I need to message Batman, this is…definitely a copycat or something. I can't believe I didn't notice sooner.” Could it be Ophelia? Hopefully she didn't do anything to Gotham while he wasn't there.

Was that her plan all along??

“Dude, don't beat yourself up about it,” Kon smiled as Tim typed out the message, “even you can't notice everything all the time!”

Tim couldn't help but smile, “What do you mean even me? ” He teased.

“You know exactly what I mean, wonder boy!” kon teased back.

“Okay you two, stop flirting,” Cassie smiled.

“We are not flirting,” Tim chided as he finished sending the message.

“Mhmm” Cassie simply said, disbelievingly.

“We aren't !” Kon insisted, but there was no convincing wonder girl.

“Isn't it weird how we have two people with wonder in their name on the team?” Bart suddenly blurted out, a little too fast at that.

“What?” Tim asked plainly at the nonsense statement.

“Boy Wonder and Wonder Girl!” Bart exclaimed, like he just solved some grand mystery. Or perhaps…riddle.

“Hey, he's onto something!” Kon smiled, that bright smile he had that lit up the room and made Tim want to smile too.

“No he's not!” Tim responded with fake exasperation.

“Yes I am!” Bart stuck his tongue out.

“Other people are allowed to be smart too, Tim!” Cassie teased.

“Yeah, just not you guys,” Tim smirked at his witty comeback.

“Hey! I'm plenty smart!” Kon complained.

“How could you be so mean to that face!” Cassie joked, pouting cutely as she scrunched up Bart's face with one hand, who responded by making puppy dog eyes.

Tim raised an eyebrow. 

The way they were all acting was very unbecoming, they were acting like!... like kids.

They were acting like kids.

Tim remembered his revelation while fighting Ophelia.

They were just kids.

Maybe he couldn't act his age all the time, but goddammit he could be a kid sometimes, he could be a kid right now.

What was stopping him? They weren't on a mission, they weren't busy, they weren't working, the only thing keeping him from acting like a little kid was some dumb sense of useless pride! Well what had that gotten him?

He wouldn't get rid of it completely, but he would relax a little, if he was a human this stress would kill him by thirty!

So, he let himself relax and took in the situation before him.

He smiled at the dumb faces his friends were making and all the noise they were creating.

Friends? Is that what they were to him? The word had come so naturally he'd almost not even noticed.

Friends. 

That was nice.

Close friends, the closest ones he had.

Cassie squeezed Bart’s cheeks even tighter and his words became completely unrecognizable. 

Tim let out a laugh, a loud hearty laugh at the scene in front of him. 

Everyone froze.

“Rob, did you just… laugh?” Conner exclaimed.

“What of it?” Tim smiled, “God forbid I let loose!” He raised an eyebrow but this time not in judgement.

“We've just, never heard you laugh like that before is all,” Cassie clarified.

“Yah, ah dudnt thnk yu culd” Bart tried to say, Cassie still holding his cheeks.

Tim let out another laugh, “You guys look like you were about to have a heart attack! No wonder I never relax.”

“Hey, I like when you're relaxed!” Kon assured, “You've got a nice laugh, you know.” He winked.

Tim snorted, “Yeah, whatever, like I wanna hear that from a fake punk!”

“What!?” Kon exclaimed, a little too dramatically, “I am not a fake punk!”

“Please,” Tim rolled his eyes, “You don't even know how to skateboard.”

“I know how to skateboard!” Said Bart, raising his hand like they were in a classroom as he used the other arm to push Cassie away as they scrimmaged over god knows what.

“Like, you even know how to skateboard,” Kon huffed.

“Oh, I know how to skateboard,” Tim challenged.

“No way!” Kon crossed his arms.

“Conner, he can fly a helicopter, do you seriously draw the line at a plank of wood with wheels?” Cassie asked, to which both Bart and Tim momentarily rose to defend the honor of skateboards.

“I'm just saying, I won't believe it ‘till I see it.” Kon crossed his arms.

“Yeah, whatever, krypto.” Tim rolled his eyes.

“Hey, it's not my fault you can't-” Kon started before the words truly hit his ears, “Wait, KRYPTO , are you calling me a DOG?” He yelled out.

Tim slowly leaned closer to the Kent, “Woof.”

“Oh, you -” he seethed. 

“Pfft, like you wouldn't love being his dog.” Cassie muttered.

“Hey!” He yelled out, “Cass!”

“I mean, you do kind of act like his dog, like, by following his orders, that's what dogs do, right?” Bart chimed in.

“Well then, that means all of us are dogs!”

“Not as much a dog as youu,” Cassie continued to tease.

“Hey, I am not a dog!” Kon argued back.

“I'm not saying you're a dog to everyone ! Just to Tim!” Cassie smiled like the cat that murdered the canary in cold blood and successfully framed the hawk.

“I am not Tim's dog!” Kon yelled back.

“ Very real punk of you to follow every order I give you exactly,” Tim teased.

Kon let out an insulted gasp, “I do not! ”

“Kon, do you trust me?” Tim asked.

“Of course,” Kon answered immediately, the softness in his voice a stark contrast to moments ago.

“Stand up for a second,” Tim asked, crossing his legs.

Kon did.

“Okay, now sit back down,” Tim leaned forward.

Kon did.

“Okay? What was that for?”

Tim rested his chin in his hand and raised and eyebrow at Conner, a huge smirk on his face.

“Oh, fuck you!” Conner yelled, suddenly realizing the point Tim was making.

Tim smirk turned into a smile, that smile turning into a laugh as he curled in on himself.  

Kon couldn't stay that angry, he began to laugh as well.

And soon, everyone was laughing. The sound bounced off all the walls and filled the room nicely. 

How was it that he used to not be able to stand these people?

His closest friends, his favorite people, that's who they were. 

It was strange to admit, but he liked them even more than Nightwing. 

No one in the world got him like they did. 

Now that he knew them, he wouldn't last even a day without them.

And yet, he knew, one day he'd lose them all.

The perils of having a dragon's lifespan.  

Day by day, he'd just have to take it day by day. 

When he got back to Gotham, he found that his suspicions were right.

It hadn't been the Riddler, turns out someone had taken his place while the real Edward Nygma went on a short vacation somewhere. 

The faker was apprehended and sent to Arkham.

It wasn't Ophelia.

Chapter Text

Today was the day. The anniversary of his mother's death.

He couldn't lie, it was getting to him.

How had she been gone a year already? It had been a whole year to the day that the most important person in his entire world had been taken from him. His favorite person in the entire world, no offense to his father, he understood.

Tim had always had a favorite, even though he loved both of them dearly, but now?

…well, he supposed he didn't have a favorite anymore.

“Hey, Alfred, uh, can I pick some flowers from your garden?” He randomly asked on a whim. What was he doing? He knew what the answer would be, Alfred was very protective of those flowers.

Wow, grief really made people idiots, huh?

“For what purpose, Master Tim?” The look on his face said ‘absolutely not’.

“Well, my mom used to make these flower crowns with me, and I was thinking maybe-” he tried to explain.

Alfred's face softened, did he know what day it was? “Yes, you may use my flowers to make flower crowns.”

“A-are you sure?” Tim responded, shocked.

“Yes, make as many as you'd like, Master Tim.” He decided to ignore the pitying look in his eyes.

“Seriously?” He asked in disbelief. He had been so sure of the outcome…

“Well, the flowers will grow back eventually, will they not?” But your mother won't he almost heard. It made something bitter form in his mouth, he pushed it down for now.

“Thanks, Alf” he smiled, heading to the garden.

He made his way to the, admittedly quite nice, flower garden. Was he really going to mess this up?

He'd just take a few. Strategically from places they wouldn't be missed.

The flower crowns his mother had taught him to make were complex, so he'd only make one, Alfred was being very kind to let him do this, he couldn't just destroy the whole garden.

As he strung the flowers together, he felt himself begin to cry. Then sob.

Suddenly, he was uncontrollably crying while holding a band of flowers.

He must've looked pretty silly. Crying over flowers.

“Master Tim?” He heard a voice behind him and he jumped slightly, moving to quickly wipe the tears away before Alfred could see.

He had a feeling he noticed anyway.

“Yes?” His voice cracked dumbly. This wasn't becoming of a Drake or a bat.

“Do you need anything?” There was that softness in his voice.

“No, no I'm alright,” he insisted, “Don't worry, I'm just gonna make one, I don't wanna ruin all your hard work.”

“Tear the entire place apart for all I care,” Alfred shrugged, surprising Tim once again.

“Wha- are you sure?” Tim said past the tightness in his throat.

“Yes, indeed,” Alfred spoke as if everything was normal, like it was just another day and Tim wasn't sobbing in the flower garden like a child, “I could use a new project during the day, anyways, it gets boring here sometimes, you know,” Alfred lied. 

And Tim knew it was a lie because Alfred could never run out of things to do in this stupid big manor.

“Why don't you go ahead and make one for your father and that Dana girl, yes? And perhaps Master Bruce would appreciate one, Master Dick and Barbara as well, and I wouldn't mind one of my own. Not to mention one for you to take home for yourself,” Alfred said it all so casually, like he didn't know he was making Tim's head spin, and he knew .

Tim was flabbergasted, especially with how overcome with grief he felt, he didn't know what to say.

He felt a little bad tearing the garden apart, but Alfred had insisted it was okay.

So, he made one for Alfred, of course, he made sure that one had the best flowers.

And one for his dad, Dana, Dick, Babs, just like Alfred had suggested.

“Tim?,” he heard a voice behind him, “What are you doing chum?” There was a mote of fear in the voice at the sight of Alfred's garden.

“Don't worry, B, Alfred told me to,” he turned around to look at Bruce.

Bruce glanced at his tear stained face in concern, “Are you alright?” He asked.

“Yeah, I'm fine…” he lied.

Well, it wasn't really a lie…just a half truth.

Bruce nodded solemnly, like he was pretending to agree and stepped closer.

He walked right up to where Tim was on the ground, kneading flowers together, and stood above him for a moment. 

“Can I help you?” Tim raised an eyebrow at the towering figure, who didn't answer. “Well, if you're gonna watch you could at least sit down.” He stated, looking back down at the flowers he was wearing.

But they both knew what it was, an invitation for Bruce to stay. A question that required an answer.

Bruce moved to sit across from him on the floor and they sat in comfortable silence as they watched Tim work, with the occasional question asked between them.

When he was finally done, finally being an overstatement, this was practically muscle memory, he put it on Bruce's head and he smiled.

When he went home, he gave his dad a beautifully intricate flower crown, the second most intricate one he made that night, and they cried together.

Even later that night, he went to his mother's grave. Janet Drake carved into stone.

He sat with her all night and under the large stone, he set down a crown made entirely of all the red flowers in the garden.

The most intricate flower crown he'd ever made in his life.

He gave it to his mother and cried that he'd never see her again.

Chapter Text

It was time.

He'd been saying it over and over again, that maybe it was time but now? He was going to actually do it.

He wouldn't go to the fae realm, not yet, but the enchanted forest seemed like as safe a place as any to start.

The enchanted forest was a realm not unlike the fae realm but it was far more populous, and with larger trees.

And to get there, you do the same you’d do for any mystic realm, find a spot in the human world that it bled into.

And well versed mystics always knew where to look.

The enchanted forest was a place he’d been to many times, in fact he went there with his father to enchant his watch, but this would be his first time actually visiting since he’d gone with his mother.

And it’d definitely be his first time going alone.

But, he knew where it was like he knew his own house, it was practically his home.

When he entered, he saw many creatures, some of which sort of recognised him, some of which he recognised but didn’t recognise him without scales, some of which didn’t know him at all.

It was nice to be in a place he knew.

And he didn’t mind the occasional rudeness, it wasn’t often and it was honestly quite amusing when it did happen.

Because, he knew all it would take was a mention of his name and those rude looks would dissipate immediately.

The Drake’s were a well known family, after all.

As he walked around, looking at all the sights his mother used to turn into lessons of different mystic things when he was young, he heard singing.

He felt a small pull and knew what it was immediately. 

For most, a siren song was all encompassing, you hear it and it takes over your entire brain, nothing but an all consuming need to walk towards it at any costs, a spell put on you that ensured you would stumble closer and closer to the awaiting siren.

But for dragons, that wasn’t quite the case.

Dragons were magical creatures by nature, so some magic just didn’t work the same on them, and siren songs happened to be one of those things.

Where most people felt an untamable need to get ever closer to the source of the sound, dragons simply felt a slight tug that could easily be ignored if so chosen.

But, Tim was curious, and he knew that even without all of his vigilante training, he could easily take a siren in a fight.

So, he wandered towards the noise to find a waterbound siren in a small body of water who smiled predatorily when she saw him draw near.

He stopped a few feet away from her and looked casually.

She had either black or dark brown hair, it was hard to tell when it was so wet, light colored eyes that looked like sea glass, and blue fins on the side of her neck, face, arms, and legs. She also had gills.

She continued to sing, a look of confusion filling her face.

Her song stopped abruptly as she puzzled at the man before her, “How can you resist my song?” she asked, “You’re just a human, are you not?” 

He couldn’t put it past her for not clocking the human disguise, it's very likely she’d never even seen a human in person before, how would she know that his teeth were too long or his pupils too sharp? Besides, it filled humans easy enough. Though, mystics were typically harder to fool since, well, they knew about mystics.

Tim let out a hum, casually stepping closer, “Well, I guess that’d be because I’m not human.” he said casually, this was the enchanted forest, he had nothing to hide here.

“You aren’t?” She puzzled, turning her head to the side, “But you look like one?” she questioned.

“Oh, that’s just my human disguise,” he gestured to the watch. He now stood directly in front of her, feet a few inches from where her arms rested on the bank, crossed on top of each other and holding her perplexed head, tipped up to look at him. He smiled.

“Really?” She asked, a smile blooming on her face, while Tim’s was more of a shit eating grin, hers was far more genuine, “I’ve never seen one of those before!” She marveled.

“Well, they’re kind of necessary when you spend as much time in the human realm as me,” he shrugged.

“You’ve been to the human realm before?” Ariel, little mermaid, that’s who she reminded him of right now. He nodded at her in response and her face lit up, the sharpness of her teeth was highlighted by the way she smiled, unlike Tim who had his fangs and a few sharp teeth but otherwise plenty of flat teeth, the siren’s teeth were all sharp, every single one, “I’ve always wanted to go.”

“Then why don’t you?” He asked plainly. Waterbound sirens weren’t actually bound to water, that’s just what they were called. They could breathe air and, unlike mermaids, had two feet with fins and webbed toes instead of a tail, they were just called waterbound to distinguish from other types of sirens, such as airbound, and because while they weren’t bound to water, necessarily, they still couldn’t veer too far, you wouldn’t find one in a landlocked state.

“Don’t have a human disguise,” She answered simply, a cheeky smile gracing her face, “Here, why don’t you come in the water with me and we can talk all about this!” her voice was cheery like someone had injected sunshine directly in.

“Sure,” Tim shrugged, moving to sit down on the shore next to her arms, “But I have to warn you, I wouldn’t make very good prey.” He dipped his legs into the lake giving her a cheeky side eye as he sat. He knew what she was trying to do and he couldn’t say he cared all too much. He was getting his pants wet but he didn’t really mind that either.

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it!” The siren said, feigning innocence.

It only took a few minutes for his body temperature from his legs alone began to raise the temperature of the water noticeably. If he stayed too long, it’d begin to boil, he’d have to keep an eye on that.

“So, what’s your name?” the siren asked casually. Sirens weren’t name thieves like fairies, so it didn’t raise any alarm bells for her to ask. Though, she didn’t yet know what he was so he wasn’t sure if it was a smart question or not. 

On the one hand, if he turned out to be a fae, volatile in nature, who’s to say he wouldn’t be angered by the question? On the other hand, she made sure to ask first so now she couldn’t be tricked into giving her name first or accidentally insulting him if he weren’t a fae and had asked first, and she could also tell if he was a fae by the way he answered, narrowing down his species.

He wasn’t sure if she’d put anywhere near that amount of thought into the small question, he simply didn’t know her well enough yet.

He glanced around to make sure there was no one listening that shouldn’t be, after all, it was the enchanted forest, better safe than sorry, there was no one around.

“Tim,” he answered, “You?”

“Eldrianna,” she answered, “So, you’re not a human, you’re not a faerie, what are you?” she smiled amused.

Tim let out a huff of a laugh, “How about this, I’ll give you a hint and you can guess what I am,” he smiled deviously at the idea of an entertaining game.

Now that he was closer up, he could see her better. From this distance, he could see the pale effervescent scales, from afar they looked like regular skin, but close up they were pearly and definitely scaly. But, that was all apart of the trick.

She didn’t have a nose. From this close, he could see that there was a small bump where one would be but it was otherwise flat. No creature could perfect a human disguise naturally, dragons and sirens alike needed enchanted jewelry to fit in.

But the most inhuman part about her might have been the eyes. She had slitted pupils, similar to him, but the color in her eyes filled the entire thing, sea glass through and through, the whites in her eyes simply weren’t there. And then there were the second set of eyelids. Clear, completely see through, they closed sideways as opposed to the way the first set of eyelids did. 

“Alright, sure,” She agreed.

Tim put his finger to his chin in thought as he considered what the hint should be, he then turned back to look at her when he thought of it, “We both have scales,” his crooked grin showed off one of his fangs.

“Hmmm,” Eldrianna said in thought, “You have scales, you like games, you're immune to my song, and you run warm…” She mused, “You aren’t a faery or a human and I take it you aren’t a siren either…” she trailed off.

After thinking for a moment, she eventually shrugged and admitted defeat, “I don’t know.”

“Dragon,” Tim answered simply, not holding the loss against her. It was all in good fun.

His answer had Eldrianna immediately straightening up and knitting her eyebrows together, “Dragon!?” She asked, surprised. It was clear that had been the furthest answer from her mind, Which was fair, dragons were pretty rare.

“Are you alright?” Tim asked in genuine concern, arm reaching out as if it could somehow help.

“I’m fine, sorry, just took me by surprise,” she answered, an embarrassed smile on her face.

“No worries,” he assured.

“What do you look like without the disguise?” She asked, never having seen a real dragon before.

Tim smiled, “Here, I’ll show you,” he carefully took off his watch and then his mother’s necklace and delicately placed them on the shore. He then moved to quickly take off his shoes, the magic made them fit alright but without them they would get really uncomfortable really fast.

“Wow…” The siren said in amazement, “Erm, may I?” She asked, gesturing towards him.

“Sure, why not?” he couldn’t keep the devil out of his smile.

She reached forward and touched him reverently, examining every part of him his clothes didn’t cover.

Tim noticed she had long sharp nails that were thicker than a humans that could be used as claws. When she got to his hand she compared them to his actual claws.

Maybe sirens and dragons weren’t so different after all.

He had to admit, having a girl his age examining him like this was pretty nice.

He leaned towards her, their faces and lips inches apart.

What happened from there, if anything at all, was no one’s business but their own.

Chapter Text

“Alright, kid, let's get suited up,” Dick said, ruffling the front of Tim's hair in a way that left the bottom of his palm pressed against his forehead.

Dick was in Gotham today and they were supposed to work on a case. They'd probably hang out in the batcave for a while until they figure out whodunnit, aka the culprit, and left to apprehend him.

It was gonna be great.

Dick suddenly stopped ruffling his hair and made a face, scrunching his eyebrows together.

He moved his hand out of his hair and fully onto his forehead and turned to face him better, the scrunch in his brows didn't let up as he flipped his hand around to feel his forehead with the back of his hand, he did this a few more times before doing the same with his other hand, ending with both of his hands on Tim's forehead. 

“Jesus, Tim! You're burning up!” he exclaimed.

Oh no.

“What are you two doing?” Bruce asked casually as he entered the room.

“Tim is burning up, I think he has a fever!” Dick answered, finally removing his hands from the younger ones forehead.

“Really?” Bruce asked, “I'll have Alfred bring us a thermometer,” he said, moving to get the butler.

“God, Bruce, he doesn't need a thermometer!” Dick rolled his eyes, “You're so white .”

“I'm not sick,” Tim raised an eyebrow. He couldn't get sick, not from anything human at least.

Which means, if they think he's hopelessly sick, there wouldn't be a way to convince them he wasn't. How was he supposed to get better when he was at his regular temperature? Get hypothermia? He wasn't even sure he could!

“Nice try, baby bird,” Dick answered, squashing any hope of him getting out of this easy, “Look, every Robin tries this at some point, okay? We've all done it, but you can't just pretend you aren't sick because you want to patrol, all right?”

Tim huffed, there goes his night patrolling and catching baddies with Dick.

“Come on, let's set you up in your room in the manor. No patrol until you get better,” Dick said with an air of finality, guiding him towards the specified room by his shoulders.

“Dick!” Tim whined, “I can walk home just fine!”

“No way I'm letting you walk home like this!” Dick exclaimed, leading him towards the room in a way that made him think Dick worried he might fall, “You must be a hundred degrees! I don't even know how you're still standing!” He was a little more than a hundred degrees .

Though, at least Tim was thankful that Dick had rejected the thermometer idea, if nothing else at all .

He wasn't sure how he'd explain away the melted plastic tip.

“I live next door!” Tim shot back.

“So?” And that was final.

Dick took him to the spare room that Bruce left reserved for Tim and Tim alone and put a wet towel on his forehead, doted on him and explained the situation to Alfred with a bit more fever than necessary. 

How was he going to get out of this one?

Dick told him stories of him trying to convince Bruce he wasn't sick when he was Robin and a few of Jason doing the same.

He didn't miss the way his voice lowered when he told the Jason one's, like he was worried Bruce would hear and fall apart all over again even now.

All night, he found himself stuck in that room while people doted on him while he didn't need doting.

But what could he do? Lower his natural body temperature? He'd already managed to sneak an ice pack and put it on his forehead in hopes of tricking Dick into thinking his fever had gone down. It had completely melted almost immediately and his forehead barely cooled down for even a second.

So…that wouldn't work.

Finally, when Dick was switching out his towel for the millionth time Tim asked, “what will it take for you to let me go home?”

“Not until your fever goes down, I'm sorry Tim, but I'm just looking out for you, okay?” He frowned in understanding.

“My dad and the maids can take care of me just fine, Dick! I don't need to stay here, besides, it's getting late!” He argued.

“I'll have Alfred call your dad and let him know the situation, then,” Dick answered, just now considering it might not be the best idea to keep him here so late without warning his father at all.

“Oh come on! ” Tim yelled, “I live next door!”

“Timmy,” Dick's face got really serious, “The only way I'm letting you go home is if I'm carrying you, you are NOT walking to your house in this state.” There was an air of finality.

“Fine! Fine! Carry me, then! Just take me home!” Tim shouted, surprising Dick with his outburst.

This whole thinking he was sick thing was getting on his last nerve. 

“Wh- are you sure?” Dick asked, surprised, when Tim confirmed he moved to pick him up, “All right, then.” He shrugged.

He lifted him up bridal style, it was not dignifying, and carried him out of the manor and to his house with ease, knocking on the front door.

His father answered.

Jack opened the door with a smile, that quickly faded into confusion and amusement at the sight before him.

“Hi Tim,” he smiled at his son who looked very unamused, “Mr. Grayson,” he nodded at the older boy, “...is there something I'm missing?” He asked, looking at the interesting scene before him.

“Tim has a really high fever,” Dick explained, “He's very sick but insisted on going home, so I carried him.”

“Alright, then…” his face scrunched and lips pressed together in an attempt not to laugh, “I'll take it from here.” He held out his arms and Dick passed Tim over to him like he wasn't a whole ass person.

“Thank you for looking after him, Mr Grayson, I hope to see you at the next gala,” he smiled that patented fake Drake smile.

Dick merely responded with a finger guns and a tongue click and walked away, as soon as the door shut, Jack set his son down and dropped the act.

Taking a step back, he looked at his son.

“What was that about?”

Chapter Text

“What was that all about?” His father puzzled.

“The Wayne's thought I was sick ,” Tim lamented, “So, they held me hostage all day.”

“Oh, is that where you've been?” His father responded casually.

Tim had been going over to Wayne manor a lot lately, Jack wasn't sure why but he wasn't worried.

He new Brucie , he was a nice man, a bit aloof, good with kids, kind to others, had a tendency to drink too much at events that gave out champagne and a difficulty keeping track of his kids, er, kid. What had happened to Jason truly was a tragedy and his heart went out to the poor man, even if he didn't know much of the details. 

Tim had started going over there after the kid had died, he was a kind soul like that to comfort the poor grieving socialite.

Bruce donated to charities even when no one was watching, kept a kind eye on any children in his vicinity that needed it, was always nice to talk to, and even if he wasn't what he seemed, he knew his Tim could hold his own, especially against a human, especially against that human. 

The biggest thing he had to worry about Brucie Wayne was him trying to steal his spot as Tim's father, and there he knew he had nothing to worry about.

He could picture poor Brucie doting over his son, convinced he had a fever, running around like a cockatrice with his head cut off not knowing what to do as his butler stepped in to help, it was quite an amusing picture. 

“Well, I'll be sure to boil you a good chicken soup, can't have my boy having a fever!” He joked.

“Ugh, dad .” His boy complained. 

“I know, I know,” he relented, “Just be glad the help has already gone to bed, or you might have had to keep up that sick act for one of them .” If they were around, they surely would have answered the door and not him and heard Dick's whole spiel. Tim was lucky Jack had been the one to answer.

Tim groaned at the idea.

“Did you at least have fun?” His dad asked.

“ No, ” his son answered, like it was the most obvious thing on Earth.

“All right,” Jack relented, “Then let's do something fun now to make up for it,” he smiled warmly, grabbing his keys. 

“Hey, dad,” His son piped up from the passenger seat, “has anyone ever told you that you're not a good driver?” He asked.

“What would you have had me do? Wake the driver up at this hour for nothing important?” Jack shot back.

“Well, if it means I don't die,” Tim teased.

“Here we are,” Jack stated, parking the car.

“A…jewelers?” Tim asked, reading the sign in confusion.

“Don't think I didn't notice that big diamond you brought home the other day,” Jack winked, he didn't ask how he got it and if it was acquired legally, he was cool like that, “gems are a pretty common hoard item, they trigger the oooo shiny instinct and the desire to collect riches ,” Jack smirked, emphasizing the words as if they were a joke of some kind, “I thought it'd be nice to look through them together, we can both collect some hoard items together,” he smiled, a warm genuine smile, it was always nice to see on his face.

Tim smiled and they went into the store together.

Every gleaming gem caught their eye, Tim's more than Jack's, he was still young after all. The sparkle on the gems never failed to cause a sparkle of delight in his eyes, a gleam of happiness, a glitter of joy.

And Jack bought his son as many gems as he could, even when Tim insisted he didn't have to, didn't need to buy him this one, didn't need to buy him that one, didn't need to buy him another and another and another and another.

Because he loved his son, he loved him dearly. 

And he would spend all the money in the world to see that gleam in his darling boy's eyes.

Chapter Text

“So,” he asked the siren, “What do you usually do here?”

He was back in the enchanted forest to see his new mystic friend, Eldrianna.

Turns out, having friends makes it a lot easier to come back to the realm without completely associating the place with your dead mother, who knew.

“Mostly just singing…and boredom. A lot of boredom.” she snarked.

“Well then, why don’t we just go to my house?” he asked, “In the human realm. I can’t promise it’s not also boring but at least there’s more than two things to do,” he joked.

“Um, did you forget?” Eldrianna sassed, “No human disguise?”

“Here,” Tim said, taking off his watch and handing it to her.

Sure, it was important to him, but not nearly as important as his mother’s necklace, there was no way he was letting her borrow that one, so watch it was.

Eldrianna froze for a moment before taking the wrist wear being extended towards her, “Are you sure?” she asked before attempting to put it on.

“You can wear it for now,” Tim answered, “Later, I’ll take you to a jewelry store and you can pick out whatever you want and I’ll have it personally enchanted.” he said casually.

“Oh! How generous of you!” she said, over exaggerating her words a little for comedic effect.

“Eh, I kind of have more money than I know what to do with,” he shrugged.

“Oh, really?” she said, “And here I thought that was just a stereotype.”

“It is,” Tim answered plainly, “It’s just in some cases those happen to be true.”

He moved to help her put the watch on, accurately assuming she’d never put on anything like it.

He gently wrapped the strap around her wrist and did the clasp for her as she watched with mild interest.

“I’m gonna need this back when you’re done borrowing it, you know?” he looked up from the watch and into her eyes.

“Duh.”

Tim walked Eldrie back to his house.

It was interesting to see her in a human disguise. 

She looked different yet all the same. While her appearance was not the same, she still very much looked like Eldrianna.

Her human disguise faltered in different areas than his did. The whites of her eyes were slightly off, her teeth were off in a different way than his were, even though she also had scales her skin did not look particularly dry, but it did look a little too pearly if you looked too close, which was interesting since her skin was actually somewhat tan, at least tanner than Tim’s, her ears looked off, the places on her where she normally had fins or gills looked strange when observed to closely, Tim made sure to warn her that though her fins were not visible they were still definitely there. It was all interesting to say the least.

They entered the manor and Tim began to lead her towards his room.

“Oh, Tim, you’re back,” His dad smiled when he saw him, “Who’s this?” he asked.

“This is my friend, Eldrianna, Eldrie, this is my dad,” he smiled.

Jack simply glanced at Tim’s watch on her wrist and raised an eyebrow in question.

“Siren.” Tim answered simply.

“Ah,” he dad said in acknowledgment, “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Eldrianna, was it?”

“Yes, uhm, it’s nice to meet you too, erm-” she answered, shaking his offered hand and finding herself at a loss for what to call him.

“Jack, please,” he answered, Tim was starting to worry his dad was stuck in his socialite setting.

“Jack.” Eldrianna finished, smiling semi-awkwardly.

“Well, you two kids have fun,” He smiled and walked away so they could continue walking to Tim’s room. 

“So, how’s your first rendezvous in the human realm so far?” Tim asked, casually moving to sit on his bed.

“It’s nice,” She smiled, “I’ve always wondered what it was like here.”

“Right, ‘cause you want adventure in the great wide somewhere,” he chuckled, “Wait, that’s the wrong movie, isn’t it?”

“What?” The siren scrunched her face in confusion.

“Because you wanna be where the people are,” He corrected, “Wanna see, wanna see ‘em dancing.”

“Huh?” Eldrie asked, even more confused.

“Nevermind,” Tim said, brushing it off, “So, what do you want to do first?”

“I…don’t know,” She answered honestly, “As much as I, uhm, want adventure in the great white somewhere , I don’t really know anything about the human realm,”

“Hmmm,” Tim hummed in thought, flopping down on his back, his head still facing her as he looked at her upside down Eldrianna elected to simply lean against his desk, “well, it’s only your first time out, let’s not try anything too crazy,” he half joked, “I could show you human music? Maybe it’ll give you new inspiration for your siren songs,” he half teased.

“Okay, sure,” She smiled.

“Oh, and you can take the watch off if you want, we’re fine in the house,” Tim said, rolling in on himself in an almost slapstick way to take his shoes off and then removing his mother’s necklace and carefully setting it next to him on the bed, then falling back to the semi upside down position from before, he let out a small sigh of mild relief as his disguise fell away, “I really need to take that off more often.”

Eldrianna hummed in acknowledgment before fiddling with the latch on the watch, she seemed to be having trouble with it so Tim started to move to help but she gestured for him to stay so he let her figure it out for herself.

“Why do you always take your shoes off before you take off the jewelry?” She asked, curious.

“Well, my feet aren’t made for human shoes, but the enchantment, along with making me look more human, let’s me fit into the shoes and such more comfortably,” He explained, “Let’s just say, if I don’t take the shoes off, it gets real uncomfortable real quick.”

Eldrianna made a noise of acknowledgment and nodded her head before they both fell into a comfortable silence, seemingly forgetting about the promise of music.

“So,” Tim started, after a moment, “Your siren song, does it just lead people to you or can you make it do other things?” he questioned.

Eldrianna chuckled, “Why do I feel like you’re about to start taking some kind of notes on me?”

“Because I totally am,” Tim smirked, “How do you know me so well already?” He snarked.

She laughed fondly in return, “Well, I’ve never really tried to make anyone do anything specific, so I guess the answer is…I don’t know,” She shrugged.

“So, it requires further testing then?” Tim asked,

Eldrie chuckled, “Yeah, I guess?”

“Let me know if you find anything out either way, all right?” Tim requested, “For science.”

“Will do,” She made a small mock salute with her fingers, “Science, isn’t that one of those human things?”

“It isn’t just human,” he rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Eld answered somewhat amused.

After a moment of silence, Tim piped up out of nowhere, “Do you know any dances?”

“What?” she asked, caught off guard.

“Dances,” Tim repeated, “My mom taught me this really formal faerie dance, I was wondering if you knew some sort of mystic dance too. Maybe a siren dance or something, is that a thing?”

“You know a faerie dance?” she asked, not at all answering his question.

“Well, yeah,” Tim shrugged from where he laid on the bed, “They are our closest friends. Dragons and fae tend to mingle since we’re the closest mystics to each other's lifespan. And it’s also kind of a high society mystic kind of thing, it’s kind of complicated,”

Eldrianna hummed for a second, “Do you think you could teach it to me?”

A warm grin filled with so much joy split Tim’s face open as he looked at the mystic across the room.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Tim, son, can I talk to you for a minute?” His dad asked.

“Uh, sure?” he answered.

“Have a seat,” Jack said, patting the seat next to him.

“Okay?” Tim did just that.

Jack took a deep breath and then sighed, “Alright, Tim, there comes a time in every young man’s life, dragon or otherwise, where-”

“Woah, woah woah woah,” Tim interrupted, “We are not doing this.”

“It’s an important talk we need to have!” He answered, “Especially with you bringing girls into your room,” He waggled his eyebrows, teasing.

“Dad!” Tim complained.

“Look, I know it’s a bit of an awkward conversation, but it’s still one we need to have.”

“I already had the talk with mom!” He lied.

“No you did not, your mother would have told me,” Jack deadpanned.

“Well, she didn’t get the chance to because she died, ” He shot back, rolling his eyes.

“You’re lying,” Jack responded level headed and calmly, “And that’s a cheap shot even for you,” he continued, addressing the she died comment, still it was clear he wasn’t upset in the slightest.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tim wrinkled his nose.

“I think you know.” Jack squinted.

“This is ridiculous!” Tim sneered.

“Have you started having sex?”

“What? Dad!” Tim had a look of horror on his face.

“Tim, it’s alright, you know you can always talk to me,” he put a hand on his shoulder, “Was it with that siren girl?”

“What!? No!”

Yes.

“Me and Eldrianna are just friends!”

Mostly. It’s complicated, kind of.

“Alright, alright,” Jack relented, “I was just asking, I just want to make sure that if you were to start having sex sometime soon, or if you’ve already dipped your claws in, that you’re being safe, alright?”

“Dad, seriously, can we not do this?” Tim groaned.

“I’m sorry, but no.” The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in bluntness.

Tim groaned even louder.

“And, Tim, before you can mentally check out here, I want to throw something else in, too.” Jack tilted his head.

“Are you serious? Something else !? What could you possibly be about to add to this to make it even more embarrassing!?” He hid his face in his hands.

“Tim, I know we’ve been in the human realm a while, and I know there are some thoughts here that are startlingly prevalent, so I just want to make sure you know that no matter who you like, be it girls or boys or something else or some sort of being that’s completely incomprehensible to our semi mortal brains, I will love you no matter what and I will not care, all right? It doesn’t matter to me at all as long as you are happy, ” Tim removed his hands from his face, okay, maybe this wasn’t as embarrassing as he’d thought it would be, “And I know for a fact that this is a sentiment that your mother would agree with, alright?” He assured, “That kind of thing may be common among humans, but it doesn’t fly with us mystics, yeah? And if you find a mystic who thinks that way, you better find out what they’re sniffing because it must be trippy . Stay away from drugs, Timmy.”

Tim laughed lightly, “Sorry, just to be clear, you’re saying that if I do one drug I’ll…turn homophobic?”

“Yes,” even Jack found himself holding back a laugh, “And that I love you unconditionally and so did your mother.”

Tim smiled and ignored the burning tears welling in his eyes, “Thanks, dad.”

“And now, speaking of love …” Jack started.

“Oh no, I don’t like where this is going,” Tim groaned.

“Look, your body is going to be going through changes-” Jack started.

“It already went through the changes, dad!” Tim argued.

“No, it is in the process of going through those changes,” Hus dad shit back.

“I don’t want to talk about this!” Tim shouted.

“Well, tough tanukis, Tim, we have to talk about it.” Jack deadpanned.

“DAD!” Tim complained, leaning back in his seat as if he could just be swallowed up into it and be done with thus.

“Groan all you want, you’re not getting out of this one.”

Tim let out a deep sigh.

This was going to suck .

Chapter Text

Tim walked into the yj common room with a can of Zesti in hand. He finished it off, tipping his head back to get the last of the drink out, and then broke the tab off of the top and slipped it into his pocket as he threw the can into the garbage.

Kon scrunched his eyebrows in curiosity from where he sat by the counter, “Do you collect soda tabs?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, kinda,” Tim responded, grabbing another can from the communal fridge. 

“Jesus,” Kon remarked casually, “How many of those do you drink? ”

“Are you my teammate or are you my dad?” Tim popped the top of the drink open without looking away from Conner.

“Don't ever call me your dad again,” Conner jokingly winced.

“Well, then don't act like it,” Tim deadpanned, then he darkened his voice and smirked, “What? You can't handle someone calling you Daddy? ” He flirted, jokingly.

“WHA- You did not say Daddy!” Kon squealed, suddenly blushing.

“Huh,” Tim hummed, “I guess you really can't,” the smile on his face was devious as he took a sip from his soda and leaned against the fridge, casually. 

“Pfff, whatever,” Kon huffed.

“You know my dad tried to give me the talk the other day?” He chuckled at the thought, “It was so embarrassing.”

“You? Getting the talk?” Kon asked, an amused smile holding back a laugh, “Like, the sex talk?”

“The very same.” Tim confirmed.

“Like you need it,” Kon joked, “You're a total babe magnet.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Tim snarked sarcastically. 

“No, really,” Kon assured, “If I was a girl? I mean, I'd totally hit that.”

Tim raised an eyebrow but ultimately decided to ignore the underlying implications.

“Did anyone ever try to give you the talk?” He asked, “And if so, was it Lex or Clark, because if it was Lex that's the funniest thing ever.”

“It was Clark,” Kon confirmed, it made more sense but also crushed Tim's dreams, not that getting the sex talk from Supes isn't also hilarious, “it was mortifying.”  

“Ha! I bet,” Tim smiled brightly, “Especially since he's your brother-dad.”

“Do NOT call him that .” 

“Sorry.”

“Besides, like you have room to talk, what's Nightwing to you? ” Kon's voice had that special “got him” quality when in actuality he was just being an idiot. 

“Okay, what in Batman's name do you think my relationship with Nightwing is?” Tim squinted, “Hint! Nothing fatherly!”

“You got me there,” Kon admitted defeat, “But speaking of Nightwing -” Kon said, voice darkening to match what Tim's had done before.

“No! No, absolutely not!” Tim chided, “We are not doing this again!”

“Hey, it's not my fault he's the hottest vigilante in Gotham!” He bit his lip, “Well.. second hottest,” he winked.

“ Stop. ” Tim sneered.

“What you can't tell me you never once thought about it while you were stalking him,” Kon teased.

“It wasn't stalking! It was…scientific research,” Tim corrected.

“You wanna scientific research me? ” Kon flirted.

Tim gave him a look and then continued talking as if he hadn't said anything at all, “And besides, I was eight .”

“You got me there, ya fucking weirdo,” Kon relented as Tim took another sip, “Say, is that any good?” He asked.

“What, my Zesti?” Tim raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah! Is it any good?” Kon repeated. 

“Have you never had a Zesti before?” He questioned.

“Haven't had a lot of things,” And well, yeah, that was fair. It's not like Cadmus was giving away soda to their experiments. And it wasn't like Zesti would be that high on the list of first things to try.

Dragons were very…territorial. They didn't like to share.

One time in the third grade, a girl had asked to borrow one of his pencils and he had genuinely sneered at her.

But Kon was his best friend, he could make an exception for him.

Best friend? Was that what Kon was to him? When had that happened?

“Why don't you try some?” He said, handing the can over to Conner who made a joking remark about ‘indirect kisses’ before taking a sip.

Dragons didn't like to share with anyone who wasn't in their thrall, Kon wasn't a hoardmate yet he'd still almost immediately let him have something that was undeniably his with not just little, but no fuss.

Wasn't it just yesterday that they'd hated each other? What had happened to that?

Now Tim was calling him his best friend without even thinking about it, when did that start? Right now? Had he done it before and not noticed? He wasn't sure.

He hadn't had a best friend in…a while, not since Ophelia. Was Kon really his best friend??

Kon handed him back the can saying that it was “all right” and Tim had jokingly scowled at him for not agreeing that it was the best drink out there.

“More for me then” he said.

“Hey, I didn't say I didn't like it!” Kon said, trying to snatch the can back jokingly.

Tim matched his energy and swung the can away from him and out of his reach, some of the liquid inside hit the floor but he found that he didn't mind. How undragonly of him to not care that he'd list something that was his own, “Get you're own!” He laughed.

There wasn't much left of the drink so Tim finished it off and broke the tab off in a practiced motion, then he looked down at it in his hand.

It was shiny and metal and sparkly and good.

He threw away the can and looked over to Conner. His best friend.

“Hey, take this,” Tim said, handing over the soda tab.

“Uh, why are you giving me your soda can tab?” He asked, confused but still reaching out to take it.

“Token of our friendship,” Tim shrugged once it was in Kon's hands, “If you throw it away, you're throwing away our friendship, okay?” Tim was oddly intense as he said it.

“Uh, okay?” Kon said, holding the tab in his hand and no less confused.

Tim smiled at him and then grabbed another Zesti from the fridge and disappeared from the common room.

Despite his confusion, Conner still put the soda can tab into the safest place in his room that he could find.

Chapter Text

Eldrianna sat in the water with her head leaning into one of her hands, she let out a sigh. 

Carp was she bored.

“Hey there,” she heard from behind her, startled, she jumped and turned around to find Tim standing there.

“Tim? What are you doing here?” She exclaimed.

“I said I'd take you to get that jewelry, didn't I?”

He had once again lent her his watch as they ventured into the human realm. She looked down at it, soon she’d have one of her own.

She looked down at the clothes she was wearing next. She’d never had clothes before, in the water she didn’t need them.

They were Tim’s clothes, he had let her have them so she wouldn’t venture into this new world completely naked. Apparently they didn’t like that here.

But still, something about the clothes felt odd. And not just the fact that she wasn’t used to cloth on her body, though that was definitely a reason.

They didn’t feel like her .

To this day, she’d never worn anything that felt like her own. 

These clothes were Tim’s, this watch was Tim’s, and everything else belonged to the sea.

She couldn’t help but wonder, when she got this enchanted item, would it feel like hers? Or would wearing it bring the same feeling of not hers as everything else had.

They walked into the “jewelry store” as Tim had called it, she looked over at him and he had this adorable smile on his face, it made her want to smile too.

Tim was a good friend and a good man. He was kind and he cared about things very deeply.

His father seemed nice as well, though she’d only met him for a moment.

He seemed so loving and caring to his son, she had never known anything like it.

Sirens don’t always stay with their young, she wasn’t sure she’d recognize her parents if she saw them. Apparently, it wasn’t the same with dragons.

She wondered what it would feel like, to have a parent that stayed by their young until maturity and showered them with love and affection until they were old enough to seek it out on their own.

She had so many questions, but she’d leave them for now. Maybe it’s best not to tell Tim about how waterbound sirens don’t get to know their own parents. At least, not yet.

Tim brought her to look at all the jewelry, pointing out things he thought she’d like.

“What do you think of pearls?” He asked, looking around at all of the jewelry. 

“Pearls?” She asked.

“Yeah, pearls!” He clarified, “Shiny little rocks that you find in oysters?”

“Well, I do like oysters,” She smiled.

“Like, to eat or as friends?” He turned his head to the side at the thought. Did humans do that or was it a dragon thing? She was so curious to learn more about him.

“Oysters don’t talk.” She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him.

“So, food then,” He shrugged, turning back to the line of shiny jewelry, “Here, look at this,” He pointed to a string of pearls, white circles with a small knot tied between each one.

She scrunched her eyebrows in curiosity, moving to get a better look at it.

“Is that the kind of thing you think you’d like?” He asked.

“I don’t know,” She answered honestly, she wasn’t really sure what she liked.

“Alright,” Tim answered, turning to an attendant and calling them over, “Can we look at some more pearl options, please?”

“Of course, sir,” The man nodded, “I’ll bring them right over!” He turned around and quickly left to do just that.

Eldrianna found herself wondering if they treated everyone like this here or if Tim was just exceptionally important for some reason.

The man brought over a ton of different pearl jewelry. Earrings, bracelets, necklaces, anklets, all different colors, some just pearls, some with other things mixed in. Tim patiently went through each one with her and made sure to tell her the name of the item and where it went.

Eldrianna didn’t have ears. It was something a siren simply didn’t have.

She had a small hearing hole and a fin in front of it that covered the hole, but no ears. Tim knew this, it wasn’t hard to notice.

In her human form, her fins turned into these “ears”, and they didn’t look exactly right but they looked good enough.

Tim held up a pair of pearl earrings, just one white pearl on each.

“Technically, they’re supposed to go on ears,” Tim explained, knowing she didn’t have any, “But, if you like them, we can probably get your fins pierced and put them there.” He smiled. He spoke in a slightly hushed voice so no one overheard.

“Pierced?” She asked. She winced at the thought, she hadn’t made it this long without a fisherman hooking her just to do it on purpose now.

“Yeah, it’s when-” Tim started, no doubt about to calmly and patiently explain the concept to her.

“I think I get the idea,” Eldrianna cut him off.

“Oh, okay then,” He said casually, “Moving on-” he continued.

They went through lots of jewelry and Tim made sure to remind her that she didn’t need to get anything here and it definitely didn’t have to be pearl if she wasn’t feeling that.

But then, she saw it.

It was a silver necklace with a large light blue pearl that was surrounded by decorative silver that held it in place. Near the silver clasp there was another blue pearl that matched the one in the center, this one a lot smaller than its sibling.

She pointed to it, “I want that one,” She’d said.

And Tim had glanced at it and gestured at the attendant to get it for her.

Tim then lazily handed the attendant some sort of sleek black card. The attendant ran off with it and came back with both the card and a black box. He handed the box to Eldrianna and she opened it to find the necklace she’d chosen inside.

“Come on,” Tim gestured to the door of the establishment with his head as he put the card away, “Let’s get going.”

He took her back to the enchanted forest, where he found someone to enchant the necklace for her, even requesting they add a waterproofing charm to it as well.

He handed it back to her and she happily put it on, giving his watch back to him as well.

“How does it look?” She smiled with teeth just a little too sharp, the necklace only did so much.

Silver. It looked very nice on her.

Silver had always been his dad’s color, it always reminded him of him whenever he saw it.

His father wore a silver ring for his disguise, his wedding band had been silver as well, he still wore both to this day in memory of his late mother whom neither of them had ever stopped loving, and, to top it all off he was a silver dragon.

It was why silver looked best on him. The scales, even when not visible, affecting his complexion.

His mother had always worn gold. Gold necklace, gold wedding bands, gold everywhere.

Janet was a red and bronze mix, so naturally gold looked better on her than silver.

Though nothing looked better on either of them than each other.

Technically, Tim was more silver dragon than red or bronze since that was how genetics worked, but for some reason it didn’t look that way.

Even in his dragon form, he’d always looked more like his mother.

The silver dusted his scales, but the red lived in it. Some of his scales were more silver than reddy bronze but they were few and far between.

The Drake genes must have just been stronger, he supposed.

The necklace reminded him of his mother in a way, as well.

His mother had always worn a necklace, chosen a gold and red one as her enchanted jewelry.

The way the pearl sat encased in its silver prison reminded him of a less robust version of his mother’s ruby necklace.

But, the blue pearl? That was all Eldrianna.

There were parts that reminded him of other things, but that necklace, the one around her neck, that was all Eldrianna.

“It looks great,” He answered.

She smiled once again.

Chapter Text

Something had happened.

It didn’t matter what.

All that mattered is that he was now sixteen and he wasn’t Robin anymore.

He ran back to his father's house to celebrate his birthday there, during the celebration he chose to pretend nothing was wrong, that he hadn't just taken off his mask and stepped all over it, like he hadn't lost more than just his nightlife.

He'd lost everything.

But right now, celebrating with his father and Dana, he could almost forget that.

It didn't take long for batman to replace him. Some blonde girl. 

It didn't take much digging to find that she was really Stephanie Brown.

And he didn't care either. If batman wanted to parade around with some girl, let him. He wasn't Robin anymore.

It wasn't even two weeks later when she had stopped showing up. Fired.

Poor thing had barely lasted.

But he still saw her around. She may not have been Robin anymore, but now she bore a new title. Batgirl.

And Tim wasn't a vig at all. When he let go of the Robin mantle, he didn't pick up a new one like so many before him had.

Because all of them had chosen to be Robin, Tim never had a choice.

And this wasn't about growing up or proving a point. It was about the most fowl betrayal of his trust someone in his very own thrall had given him. 

How could Bruce do something like this? Like that?

But in the end, he had become Robin out of duty and he would continue to be Robin out of that same duty. He’d never had a choice in the matter and he surely didn’t have one now.

No matter what Bruce and Alfred had done to him, no matter if he couldn’t trust his partner anymore, he was Robin and that was all he’d ever be.

Chapter Text

That Stephanie girl seemed nice.

They talked a little at some point, she seemed pretty interested especially since he had been the last Robin.

He carefully avoided any and all questions about why he'd left. 

Even though he was just a civilian now, they became friends. 

She asked him how he could get away from the vigilante life so easily, he wasn't sure he could.

But, being a civilian just meant more time to spend with his dad!

Except it didn't. 

His dad remained the ever busy head of Drake Industries, always out on business, try as he might unable to spend every waking moment with his son no matter how badly he wanted to. 

But at least it made more time for friends.

He found himself visiting Eldrianna more frequently. She seemed to pick up on his lower mood. 

He dodged the question when she asked about it.

And he got to spend more time skating or with kids from school.

He had a few good friends at school, Ives, Bernard, others as well. People tended to like him, while he was odd, a nonhuman pretending to be one always was, people liked him and he was good at networking.

But he couldn't ignore the allure back to the nightlife he'd held since he was thirteen, maybe even younger if you count his time trailing after the previous Robins.

Maybe one day he'd be able to go back to civilian life for good, but not now. Not when Gotham still needed him.

And not when it meant losing his best friends.

Young Justice didn't know his secret identity yet. If he quit Robin now…he'd never see them again.

So, he put the mask on again and Bruce let him.

“I'll never be able to trust you again,” he said to the Bat as they returned to the cave together for the first time in weeks, “You know that, right?” 

The man simply responded with one word. “Good.”

Chapter Text

There were many realms, but for a rebellious sixteen year old? The pirate realm was definitely a favorite.

A long time ago, the pirate realm was just another beast realm, but during the times when pirates roamed the earth, some of them happened upon immortality, eventually those pirates ended up here.

They took over the beast realm and now they live their varying never ending pirate lives here.

Many different reasons for being immortal, but all end up here. Did they count as some sort of immigrant mystics? Or were at least some of them still human?

Either way, it was the pirate realm and Tim knew how to get to it.

And it was the place to go if you wanted something you shouldn't have.

And that brings us to why Tim is here.

Young Justice was throwing a party, just something among members, but the kicker?

Red Tornado wasn't going to be there.

And what does a party full of teenagers and no adult supervision entail?

But, Tim was a dragon, he couldn't get drunk on any amount of human alcohol, not even a light buzz, so he came here to buy some Dragonic Whiskey. And maybe some other things while he was around…

Technically, Dragonic Whiskey wasn't by any means illegal, but no one would sell it to Tim because he was sixteen. 

But you know who would sell it to him?

Pirates.

Plus, they probably have the good stuff anyways.

He grabbed some stuff and left with a full duffle bag.

Would mystic alcohol work on speedsters and kryptonians? He found himself wondering.

The answer, as it turned out, was widely yes.

Barry Allen's team must have been quaking in their stations. 

An alcohol strong enough to get a speedster shitfaced that lasted longer than a few seconds and didn't taste like total shit? Yeah, nobody tell any of the other speedsters about this one.

He walked in with the duffle bag, at first the others expected him to be a party pooper, Impulse had even complained and begged him to not ruin their fun.

That's when he opened the duffle bag, lying that he had some experiments he wanted to test on them.

He lied that he had synthesized the alcohols himself in the lab and Kon and Bart were psyched to try them.

Who knew being the only sober people at a teenage party wouldn't be that fun?

Tim. Tim did.

So he made sure to drink as much as he could get away with.

Cassie was already drunk before he'd even pulled out the new alcohol, they made a pact to keep her away from the strong stuff, she was already enough of a lightweight as it was. Well, at least, compared to them she was a lightweight.

Maybe it was an unfair comparison. 

When asked, he lied that the one he was drinking was regular strenght. He didn't need anyone worrying about him while he was trying to have fun or to try and figure out an answer to any questions they might have.

Still, the night went on for hours, and if Tim was being honest, he didn't remember most of it.

He'd definitely be doing this again

Chapter Text

Tim woke up with a massive headache. 

Maybe he wouldn't be doing this again.

He opened his eyes to find he was on top of a shirtless Kon 

Further examination proved himself to be shirtless as well.

He stood up and gave the sleeping Kon a once over. He wasn't wearing any pants but he did still have his underwear on. 

Though, it did look a little disheveled. 

His goods were still tucked away, though, so perhaps that was a win. 

Tim stood for another moment before deciding to ignore it.

He walked away, deciding the perfect hangover cure would be a little bit of water, a Coffee Zesti Energy, and some training.

So, he walked into the communal kitchen area and drank a glass of water. Then, he grabbed a Coffee Zesti energy out of the shared fridge and cracked it open.

His favorite part of coffee flavored Zesti Energy was that it tasted absolutely nothing like coffee. He finished the drink and popped off the tab, sticking it in his pocket.

Thankfully, he was still wearing his pants.

Then he made his way to the training area. Hopefully a few rounds of training and some exercise would make the pounding in his head go away. 

He had just finished doing a few tricks and exercises on the pull up bar when Jason showed up, eyes grin as sin.

Be beat him to a pulp, but he didn't mind. He was a dragon, he could take it.

And even if he wasn't a dragon, well, he wasn't hitting that hard.

It was a lucky thing that Jason was too blinded by rage to notice the unnatural heat of his blood as it left his body.

Jason looked like a maniac, especially in that ugly Robin costume.

“Still think you're the better Robin now?” he spat out at the boy on the floor.

“Yeah,” Tim said, casual as someone who wasn't being attacked by his dead predecessor.

Maybe if they hadn't partied so hard the night before, someone would be here by now to stop Jason.

Maybe if he hadn't done so many shots, he could have stopped Jason himself.

But, as it was, Jason was pissed and Tim wasn't too worried about what was coming.

Sure, he was pissed, but come on, this was Jason .

Jason Todd.

Maybe he'd changed since Tim last saw him, but to seriously injure a sixteen year old? To kill or maim or do anything more than rough him up a little?

No one changes that much.

Chapter Text

It wasn't long after he became Robin again that he started dating Stephanie, she was a pretty nice girl and he had to admit…a good kisser too.

He brought it up one night when he was hanging out with Eldrianna.

“I started dating someone.” He said, breaking their comfortable silence.

“Dating?” She asked.

“Oh, uh, courting,” Dating was a human term, it wasn't something she'd know the definition of.

“Oh? That's nice,” she said casually, “Who is it? What are they like?”

“Her names Stephanie,” he answered, smiling, “She's, uh, she's pretty great,” he blushed.

“Well, then I gotta meet her!” Eldrianna smiled at him, readjusting her position.

“What?” He asked.

“Well, if you like her so much I have to see why!” She smiled even bigger, “You should introduce us!”

And that was how he ended up here, introducing Eldrianna to Steph in civvies.

“Steph, this is my friend I wanted you to meet,” Tim smiled moving over to grab Eldrianna's shoulder as if showing her off, “Elds is a close friend of mine.” Though his hands were on Elds’ shoulders, his smile was aimed at Stephanie. 

“Elds?” Steph asked.

“Yeah, uh, Eldie,” he answered, “Her parents were hippies,” he lied.

“Yep! My parents had all the hip!” Tim internally face palmed at Eldrianna's answer.

“Alright then,” Stephanie smiled, a little confused, “It's nice to meet you… Elds, I'm Stephanie.” He reached out a hand to friendily shake with Eldie.

Eldrianna looked at it confused and Tim grabbed her by the forearm and put her hand into Steph's laughing a little awkwardly.

Steph wasn't sure she liked how touchy Tim was being with this friend. Something about it set off alarm bells in her head.

But it was probably fine.

At least, she hoped it was fine.

“Eldie,” she said, awkwardly taking her hand away, “Where'd you get that necklace? It's really pretty!” She smiled a fake smile.

“Oh, Tim bought it for me!” She smiled.

Stephanie new Tim was a nice guy…but that didn't make the odd feeling in her chest go away.

She couldn't help but think one word…. suspicious.

Chapter Text

Tim was feeling hopeful.

Sure, being Robin was often gritty and painful, but today he was in such a good mood, not even the endless crime in his favorite city could get him down.

His dad had had a talk with him and he’d made a brand new schedule to ensure he had more time to spend with him!

He was so excited, this was going to be like a new leaf for them, a chance to get closer!

He loved his dad and now that his mother was gone, there was no one in this world he wanted to see more.

Before he left, he made the choice to tell his dad. Tell him he was Robin.

Jack didn’t really care all too much.

What did you expect? They were dragons. It’s not like vigilante work was all that bad.

Jack had simply asked him to be safe and graciously thanked him for trusting him with the secret.

That’s what was so great about his dad. He was so laid back and understanding.

The smile on his dad’s face made him smile without thinking about it.

The next time he saw his dad, he was on the ground.

No more smile.

He’d never see it again.

His dad…was dead.

This was supposed to be their new leaf…

Tim fell to the ground of the room where his father’s body lay, screaming and sobbing as he clawed at the ground in almost desperation. Invisible claws tearing up the floor in front of him.

He stopped scratching as he fell out of his screaming and was left only crying on the floor, on his hands and knees, almost unable to breathe from the way the sobs wracked through him.

That was when Batman came in.

Bruce saw the situation and held Tim as the sobs continued to rack through his entire body, he did his best to comfort him.

Tim glanced back at the unmoving body on the floor, a giant metal boomerang in the back of his head.

Boomerang.

It was clear that the man had been looking away when the villain struck him.

That coward.

Chapter Text

May all beware the fury and bloodlust of a dragon.

Never piss one off.

It hadn’t been hard to track Boomerang down. Keeping it from Bruce hadn’t even been a hindrance, that was how easy it had been for him.

He followed the man into the building, keeping to the shadows

As he walked, he put his nails against the wall of the corridor.

His fingernails were completely blunt and not even touching the wall, hovering about a half inch, an inch, away, yet he still left claw marks in his wake.

“Hello? Is someone there?” Boomerang called out with some level of indifference.

Boomerang must have heard it. Good.

But he wasn’t scared, not yet at least, Tim would have to change that.

Because this was the man who took the only parent he had left from him.

And for that? He’d kill him for that.

Screw Bruce’s rule, he’d be willing to murder this man for what he’s done.

And he’d be sure to make it hurt.

He climbed a little higher, sneaking around the big windows near the roof of the building Boomerang had found himself again.

From up there, he made sure to make just enough noise to have Captain Boomerang looking all around the room, get him squirming.

Then, he jumped down and landed right behind him.

The man jumped and turned quickly.

“Kid?” He asked, “What are you doin’ here?” he asked. He was far too confused and not nearly scared enough. Tim hated it.

“ You killed my dad,” Tim sneered.

There was the fear, flooding into his face as soon as Tim said it.

“Look, kid, erm, Robin, I was hired to do that, okay?” He pleaded, “Don’t take it out on me.”

“I don’t care if you’re a hired gun or a rat on the street,” Tim’s face was unmoving, chemically calm, terrifying in a way, “You killed my dad, so I’m gonna kill you .”

“I- I though bats didn’t kill?” He was starting to sweat, there was a shake to his voice.

“ Today they do. ” Tim flexed his fingers, readying his claws.

“What are you gonna do? Scratch me?” Boomerang asked, mostly confused but still a little bit teasing him. 

Bad idea, though, it didn’t make a difference. Tim was going to do this either way.

Tim scratched at Boomerangs chest, leaving behind four bloody claw marks, clear as day even though it was night.

Boomerang let out a mix between a yelp and a scream.

Tim didn’t care.

The man tried to fight back, he really did, but he was no match for a young and angry dragon with a lust for blood and revenge.

In the end, Boomerang ended up on the floor and Tim ended up with his throat in his mouth, ripping it out with his teeth.

He looked at his reflection as he passed by one of the windows, he’d have to clean himself up before he went back to the cave.

By the time he returned to Gotham, the news of Boomerang’s death had already reached the city.

Tim smiled as he heard the news that captain boomerang had been attacked and killed by an as of yet unknown animal.

Before he’d even gotten the taste of the blood out of his mouth or the smile off his face, he heard the news.

Obeah Man had escaped.

Chapter Text

One thing about dragons? They can hold a grudge. 

Obeah man had escaped again, and so close to his father’s death.

He’d let him go once. He would not do it again.

Maybe the Bat thing to do was to put him back in jail, but he was not a bat today. He was a Drake. First and foremost.

So, he tracked him down and found the man who killed his mother.

He’d been keeping an occasional eye on him, he already knew he’d tried to rally a few inmates against him once before, it had almost ended him up in Arkham, Tim had let it slide because it had been both funny and sad, especially when he tried to out him as Tim Drake only for it to make everyone think he’d gone even crazier than before.

Now, they were both alone.

Who would come out on top? A pathetic voodoo man or an angry dragon?
Tim had an idea where to place his bets.

Obeah man tried to throw some feeble spells his way, but any fight the man had to bring was futile.

An angry dragon was not one to be messed with, surely Obeah knew that.

“I tried mercy the bats way, now I'll show you how Drakes do mercy.” He sneered, throwing his bo staff to the side, electing to use his hands for this.

Obeah was taken off guard but still tried his best to fight.

It was proving more and more pathetic.

He scratched at him, blood splashing everywhere, he punched and kicked, and all of it proved to not break much of a sweat on his end.

On Obeah’s end however…well, he was definitely breaking a few sweats.

He felt his heart in his hand

He didn't even mean to go that far, humans were so fragile. How had he not killed one by mistake already?

His hand was all the way through the villain's chest, the heart now about a foot and a half behind his back, clutched in Tim’s hands, he dropped it in surprise and pulled his arm out of the man’s chest.

He looked down at his arm, blood went all the way up to the shoulder

He looked down at the lump of man on the ground, suddenly dead, and found that he didn’t care that he’d killed him. In fact, he was almost pleased by it. This was the desired outcome, anyways, he just didn’t expect it to happen so fast, he thought it’d at least be more drawn out.

He supposed it was drawn out enough.

He walked over to where the man’s heart lay outside his body, lying on the floor.

It reminded him of, what did humans call it? A hacky-sack?

He stared at it on the ground between his feet for a second and considered stomping it into a mess of sticky flesh, but decided against it and picked it up.

He squeezed it lightly in his hand, examining the organ.

What would his mother think of him if she could see him right now, holding the heart of the man who killed her? Would she be disgusted? No, he knew she wouldn’t. He knew how she felt, even if she wasn’t here to say it.

She would be proud.

One sentiment of hers filled his mind as he brought the heart ever closer to his face.

No second chances and no mercy. 

She was no Batman, she was a Drake.

And this was the heart of the man who killed his mother.

Experimentally, he took a sniff.

What would a Drake do in this situation? That he already knew.

He sunk in his teeth.

He felt the blood dribble down his face, it was a pleasant feeling, like a powerful and rabid animal awakening inside him, the kind of feeling he believed one eats a pomegranate to replicate.

It tasted amazing.

Chapter Text

After his father’s funeral, he took both of his rings and put them onto his mother’s necklace, he decided to add her wedding and engagement ring as well, making sure the wedding rings were touching.

That way, they could all be together, even in death.

The silver and the gold clashed, as did the different gems, but he didn’t care even in the slightest.

He forged a few things into his father’s will, as well as a few other documents, to make a fake uncle for him to be sent to live with.

He hired an actor and everything.

He wasn’t sure how long he put the front on, if he was being honest.

But, eventually, and only when it was a definite benefit to him, he was adopted by Bruce.

Now he was officially Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne.

It felt weird.

He moved into the manor, now living in that spare room that had always been reserved for him.

He’d already sold Drake Manor when he’d ran off to go live in his “uncle’s” apartment (it was actually just an empty apartment he’d lived alone at and decorated as if it belonged to someone else, hiring his fake uncle to come over on occasion), so it wasn’t an issue now, but since there was a very real chance that someone new that they didn’t know was living next door now, Tim had Bruce invest in some better curtains.

It was weird living in Wayne Manor now, especially since it was the house he’d watched for countless hours as a child, the place he’d visited countless times as a teenager, and that it was so different yet similar from the house he’d grown up.

But, as long as Bruce or Alfred or Dick or Babs or Steph never found out what really happened to Boomerang and Obeah, he didn’t let himself mind too much.

Chapter Text

There was a new brat in town.

Damian Al Ghul Wayne. Son of Talia and Bruce and grandson to the worst man alive.

And Damian was shaping up to be the worst boy alive.

The first thing he’d done when he’d got to Gotham had been to attack Tim.

And the worst part is Tim might have won if he didn’t fall on his ass halfway through the fight.

Look, tails are made for balance! Do you have any idea how hard it is to not only stand or walk or run but to fight with your special balance appendage fucking tied to your leg??? God forbid he falls every now and then!

He’d say he’s doing a pretty damn good job!

And let’s not forget how he started the damn fight!

By throwing the head of his girlfriend’s, Stephanie Brown, father at him and detonating it in front of him!

That psycho shit is bound to throw him off his rhythm a little!

He’d barely even let Bruce adopt him in the first place and now it was getting him attacked by some freaky murderous ten year old? This is ridiculous!

Some snotty little human child who thinks he needs to literally kill Tim to take his place in the family or something insane like that!

Tim wasn’t even human and he knew he was being crazy!

And it’s not like Tim was all that crazy about being Bruce’s son. Maybe if he could explain to that dumb little kid in a way he could understand that he was 1. A Drake before all else and the son of Jack Drake before he even considered Batman and 2. Literally just adopted by Bruce so he wouldn’t be sent to an orphanage or whatever and not because B saw him as a son because, news flash! He didn’t.

But it’s a little hard to reason with a crazy ten year old with two swords who’s trying to kill you.

Bruce better ground that fucking brat.

And of course the little brat became a Robin because why wouldn’t he.

Why wouldn’t there be two Robins at the same time, why fucking not.

Tim understood that the new kid was just starting out, but everyone else had the decency to wait until there wasn’t a Robin to take up the mantle!  

Disrespectful brat.

Whatever, he could push past it.

Even if he was the worst kid he’d ever had the misfortune of meeting…

Okay, Tim didn’t really mind people attacking him, even for shitty reasons, so Damian attacking him the way he did didn’t really bother him all that much, even if he went a little too far with the whole head thing, it was fine, it didn’t really bother him.

If that was the only thing he’d done, Tim might have even found it endearing.

Dragons were far from above fighting and killing and roughhousing, Damian was a youngling, a little kit, a baby, even, no matter how serious he fought, it felt somewhat like play fighting for Tim, especially since Damian was a human and therefore fought like a human and not like a dragon, it was reminiscent of communal biting and young dragons still learning to fight.

If it was anyone else, it would have been cute.

But the problem with Damian was the attitude!

He was rude and snobby and a total little brat.

And he wasn’t part of his thrall, he wasn’t a hoardmate, he wasn’t anything and yet he acted like he was everything. He was rude to Alfred when he first arrived! Alfred!

Some amount of grace was expected to be granted for children, especially when the child was human , but the amount of rudeness this kid exuded towards people who were actually in his thrall, his actual hoardmates, was unacceptable, even if they all brushed it off. 

And that was the real reason he hated the kid.

Standing in the cave felt weird with this new kid around, especially since he didn’t like nor trust him.

He stood in the middle of the Batcave as Batman told them both some important things about some mission.

Tim wasn’t all that sure, he wasn’t really listening. Too busy keeping an eye on that new Robin.

He stood at full attention, it was a pretty dragon way of standing. Well, humanoid dragon. Of course. It’d be a little difficult to stand like a dragonoid dragon while in human form.

There were many classic dragon ways to stand and this was one of them.

It was the more regal stance, the kind of stance you’d expect at a gala or something. 

You know how socialites stand kind of different than the general population and its so snobby and you hate it because it screams I think I’m better than you? Yeah, this was the dragon version of that.

Back straight, hands placed behind you at mid lower back with the wrists crossed over each other, elbows out, neck straight, chin up, ankles crossed over each other, tail straight and down, not that he could do that right now with his tail tucked into his suit and wrapped around his leg, only not super obviously bulging through his spandex because of the charm on his watch, it was a way dragons have stood for a very long time. Likely taught to them long ago by an ancient soldier or a knight of some sort, or maybe shown to them by a faerie who learned it from some ancient human soldier, either way dragons saw it as a very proper way to stand and Tim, as a Drake, had a tendency to stand that way often.

He was lucky none of the Bats were mystics, otherwise it might have gotten him caught by now.

Even the now it all Damian who seemed to think he knew all there was to know didn’t recognize it as anything, it was almost amusing. 

God that kid was a brat.

And now he’d have to work with him? No thanks.

He looked back over to see the kid also looking over at him.

The child shot him a pompous sneer.

Holy sphinx he hated that kid.

Chapter Text

Bruce is around way more often than his parents were, yet somehow he talks to him far less than he did with his parents.

Bruce isn't constantly going on big long business trips like his parents were, but when his parents weren't on business, as they often were, they would spend every second they had with Tim. 

They'd wait for him to go to bed before even considering doing any work, and if it was pressing they'd tag team, so even when they were working, he'd never be without at least one of them. They made the most out of their time together every single time. 

Bruce doesn't know how to do that. Sure, he's around way more, but all of his time is wasted.

Bruce is always around but never making the most of being there, that's the biggest difference between him and his parents.

He guesses they're kind of opposites in that way.

In a way, he kind of felt bad for Damian.

At least Tim used to have parents like that, Damian would never get to have that.

Maybe that was why he was such a brat .

Maybe that was something Talia was better at than B, he’d never really met the woman but she seemed alright from what he knew about her, somehow, despite the odds considering the piece of work her father was.

The odds of that kind of parent being something Damian had ever experienced seemed low, though, just based on how insufferable his personality was.

Though, it's not that hard to be better at it than Bruce , so props to her there then.

Either way, sad life or not, that kid was a little shit.

But, Tim wondered, what was worse? To have that and lose it? Or to never have it at all?
Because sure, it’s sad to never have it at all, but also you don’t know what you’re missing.

But to have it and lose it?

Dragons live for quite a long time. Janet and Jake were a lot older than they let on, and neither even died of old age. 

Tim couldn't say the knowledge that he was likely going to outlive everyone he loves didn't keep him awake at night. 

And he’d have to live all of that time knowing what he had lost, what he was missing.

For the rest of his semi immortal life he’d have to remember people who were supposed to still be there, who he’d lost far too early, and he’d have to miss them.

And on top of that, he’d have to watch all the people he loves now die. Slowly or quickly, he didn’t know, but they would die one day, some way.

And long before him.

Is it bad that sometimes he hopes someone kills him far too young so he’ll never have to see that? He didn’t quite know.

The only friend he could hope to see live as long as him was Ophelia and well…she had kind of promised to destroy Gotham and ruin his life so, maybe not the best person to rely on right now.

Actually…Conner was his best friend and well…he wasn’t fully human, was there a chance he might live long enough to at least spend some of Tim’s adulthood together? Or maybe just his older juvenile years?

No human would even last to the end of Tim’s juvenile years, but maybe a kryptonian could?

Next time he was in Metropolis, he took a moment to talk to Superman one on one before he left.

“Hey Clark, how long do Kryptonians live?” He asked, feigning simple curiosity without a deeper interest.

“What?” The man turned to him, eyebrows furrowed.

“You know, like the average life span? How old will you be if you die of old age?” He clarified.

“I….I don't know.” Supe’s eyes widened slightly.

“Really?” Tim asked, trying to ensure his voice and face portrayed no disappointment at his answer.

“Well, I've always assumed we'd have the same lifespan as a human but now that you mention it, what if I don't?” Clark seemed to be beginning to panic a little at the though.

Oh god, here we go…

Tim had no interest in watching Superman have an existential crisis.

Especially not over his lifespan length, get in line dude.

Of all people to have that freak out with, Tim was not the guy.

Oh, you’re worried about outliving your friends? My lifespan is multiple thousands of years long, dude! Get in line!

Tim made a face and looked around. Surely no one would mind if he just…left?

He decided to sneak away before Superman’s freak out got too bad.

Someone else could deal with that.

So much for finding someone who won’t die in a measly one hundred years.

Chapter Text

Okay, so, Tim and Steph broke up.

It wasn’t a huge deal, these things happen and they ended on good terms. They’d even still be friends, hopefully even good friends, after the breakup.

Which is good because it’d be really awkward if they had a bad breakup and still had to do vigilante work together.

They were only together a few months, Tim felt a little bummed that he couldn’t even maintain a relationship for at least a year, maybe he just wasn’t very good at relationships, though it was probably too early to be able to say that.

But if he couldn’t get a relationship to last for as short as a year? It was just a little sad.

But he didn’t mind. At least not too much.

Though, when he told Dick they broke up, he seemed to think it was a big deal.

“I’m so sorry, Timmy,” He’d said, hugging him tightly.

Tim had tried to assure him that it had only been a few months, nothing truly serious but Dick had given him an odd look.

Apparently Dick didn’t consider two to three months casual fling territory, how odd.

Wait, what did Dick mean his shortest fling lasted only a day? A day??? Was he insane?

Every time Tim thought he understood humans…

Chapter Text

The Riddler was always an interesting figure.

He always enjoyed when Tim showed up as Robin to thwart him, he liked the kid so he’d even often go easy on him, not throw as many dangerous things at him.

Tim’s favorite thing about him was that he always saved his best Riddles for him specifically, he could just tell that he got better riddles.

And it was true, the riddler never one hundred percent knew that Tim would be the one to show up, sometimes he’d bank on it, but oftentimes he’d actually prepare multiple riddles, so if only Batman showed up, he could save the good stuff for when Tim was there.

But, today Robin showed up looking…different. And it definitely threw him.

It was definitely a Robin, but this kid was younger and shorter and smaller and meaner than the usual kid, and he was far less witty. 

His favorite Robin would have tons of witty banter with him as he thwarted him, would even go a little bit easy on him during fights sometimes, but this little kid was no nonsense, kinda snobby, and definitely didn’t go easy on him.

There was a new Robin??? Again???

What happened to the other Robin?!

He liked that guy!

He really hoped it was more of a Robin 1 situation and not a Robin 2 situation, but no one answered any questions he posed, least of all this new Robin. Since when is Robin so no nonsense, this kid clearly did not get the spirit of the job.

Nygma doesn’t remember the last time he was nearly as relieved as when his Robin showed up again.

And the best part was that this kid would actually answer his questions.

They talked casually as they fought each other, neither using their full force or energy on the other but both sharing an understanding that they would never admit that.

Apparently there were two Robins now? That surely wouldn’t get confusing.

The boy seemed to share his lack of enthusiasm about the new guy.

Eventually, the boy beat him, like he always does, and Nygma went to Arkham with no complaints. Robin won fair and square, why would he fight it? (Ignore the fact that if Batman or Nightwing were the ones to catch him he would have had plenty of complaints and plenty of fight)

When he got settled into Arkham, a photograph was sent to him with some writing on the back.

It had Robin's symbol on it and a few general notes, the picture itself was a stylistic picture of one of his riddles, a large question mark with some Gotham landscape in the background. It was a pretty well taken photo, it had some artistic value for sure.

Huh. His favorite Robin enjoyed photography, you learn something new every day.

He later mentioned it to Catwoman the next time he saw her and she admitted that he had been sending her jewels sporadically as well.

Wasn’t that Robin something? What a nice kid.

The favorite Robin of the Gotham rogues gallery, it seemed.

Chapter Text

“Ugh, I hate Bruce’s new kid,” Tim complained.

“It can’t be that bad,” Eldrianna shrugged, almost attempting to comfort.

They were at a coffee shop talking, both disguised as normal humans even though they were anything but.

“He’s the worst! He’s a total brat,” Tim huffed.

“Sirens don’t even have families,” Eldrianna pointed out.

“What do you mean by that?” Tim asked, sirens didn’t have families? He didn’t know anything about that.

Eldiranna’s face shifted for a moment, like she hadn’t meant to bring that up, but she relented and told Tim what she meant, “Sirens aren’t really big on families,” She said after a few moments, “Parents don’t stay with their young, siblings never meet each other, we’re just not big on family culture.”

Tim frowned, feeling bad for his friend, “Sounds…lonely”

“Yeah, I guess it is,” She shrugged, “But it’s not like we don’t have any relationships, we don’t really do family but we still have community, it's just based on friendships instead of families is all.”

Communities based on friendships instead of families wasn’t a foreign concept to Tim, that was basically what Young Justice was to him.

Eldrianna didn’t add that she didn’t have a big community at all. Most sirens befriend other sirens and fish and maybe even different water based creatures, but Eldrianna didn’t have the biggest network. Some fish and two sirens at the most, and she didn’t exactly see them often.

But siren communities didn’t have to be other sirens, she could befriend anyone she wanted…in a way, Tim was that for her.

Eventually, they left the cafe and ended up walking around the woods together.

“Hey, Tim,” She turned back, “Wanna dance?” She smiled.

He’d been teaching her a traditional faerie dance for some time, it was complicated and difficult to teach but he did his best.

“Sure,” He chuckled.

The dance starts with this over the top bow from Tim (a customary bow to give to mythical creatures deserving of respect) and he puts a kiss to her hand

Then, they begin to move. The dance is not quite something most have seen before, it looks like a mix of a ballroom dance and the type of dance you'd do in the forest with your shoes taken off

They move all around the woodland floor, the movements look both improvised and rehearsed.

There's lots of spinning and motion and arm movements, they aren't afraid to move their bodies into what should be awkward positions but look so graceful as they do them, somehow. 

The dance also has these weird gymnastics moments where it feels like they're just showing off.

After a while, the dance ends with Tim doing that same bow from the beginning, except this time instead of kissing her hand, he raises his hand above his head for her to kiss.

It was a nice dance, fun to do and fun to look at and Eldrianna couldn’t help but giggle a little about it.

The dance reminded her of adventure, she wasn't sure how to explain it but something about the dance was just filled with whimsy and almost filled the small hole inside her that she knew could only be filled by living a better life, she's always wanted adventure and this was the closest she'd ever gotten, it was amazing.

Tim was a good friend.

He looked over at her. The silver on her necklace reminded him of his late father.

It made him a little sad.

The silver of it reminded him of Jack, the way it hung from her neck reminded him of his mom, he missed them both so much.

But it wasn’t Eldrianna’s fault they were gone and it definitely wasn’t her fault that her necklace reminded him of them, so he would let her be oblivious to his pain.

It was alright, she didn’t need to know about his pain.

It seems they were both good at not telling the other about their problems.

Chapter Text

Tim had been taught a myriad of dead languages from a very young age, so young that he wasn't sure if English was his first language or Latin.

Most dragons speak a “dead language”. They may be dead to humans but when your species lives for thousands of years, languages don't die that easily, and Tim's parents would be remiss if they set him up for failure by not teaching him the languages that most of his kind in the human world spoke.

He was lucky they started with the long dead languages before moving on, otherwise he might have never had the chance to learn them before they…well, you know.

But, learning long dead languages so early on, I'm sure you can see where the problem there lies.

He can't just go around muttering in ancient greek or some other long lost language under his breath anytime he's upset in front of humans, and even though many humans learn Latin, speaking it the way the ancient Romans did? Yeah, he had to keep that under check for sure.

But, sometimes…he slipped up.

Tim had chased a bad guy down into crime alley and before long, the big bad boring crime lord, Red Hood, appeared.

When the goon was apprehended, he stopped to chat.

“So, how’s it been, replacement?” He said, almost sounding cheery under the helmet.

Tim just rolled his eyes and groaned, “What do you want, Hood?”

“Hey, who says I have to want anything?” He tensed up, but relaxed when Tim gave him a look , as if dropping an act, “I hear there’s a new Robin in town, how’s it feel to be the replaced, huh?” He asked.

“You know? I wouldn’t mind it so much if he wasn’t such a brat .” Tim admitted, “And, you know, you replaced someone too, Hood, stop acting all high and mighty.”

“Yeah, but I did it better,” Tim could hear the shitty smirk through the helmet.

“Okay, sure, Mr. Robin gives me magic .” He smirked, crossing his arms and looking at the thug at his feet he apprehended.

“How do you-?” Jason started to ask, but ultimately seemed to decide he didn’t want to know and moved on, “Well, I waited until Wing was done with it first, okay?” He defended.

“ Preeetty sure you were done with it,” He snorted, “The only one who didn’t have the ‘decency to wait’ is that new brat.” he huffed, crossing his arms, facing away from Jason.

“Look…” Jason started, “I just wanted to make sure there were…no hard feelings between us.” Finally, the actual reason he stopped to talk to Tim.

“Hard feelings?” Tim asked, casually turning around to face Hood, “Why would there be any hard feelings?” He asked, genuinely, and a little bit condescending.

“Are you serious?” The crime lord asked, “You know, the whole me breaking into your base and beating you up thing?”

“Oh, that?” Tim asked like he genuinely thought it was nothing…because he genuinely thought it was nothing, “Why would there be any hard feelings about that, Hood? Don’t flatter yourself, that put you nowhere near my radar.”

“Look, kid,” Jason said, a certain softness in his voice, “I just thought I’d offer an apology, but if you don’t want it…”

“Wait, you were going to apologize?” Somehow, Tim seemed to think that was the most surprising thing that’s happened so far, “Like, actually?”

“Why do you sound so surprised by that?” Hood squared his shoulders a little. Tim was sure that meant something with humans but he couldn’t remember what right now.

“I didn’t think it was something you guys were capable of,” Tim huffed out a sound of amusement, “I think the last time someone apologized to me on the job was…like, a year ago. And it wasn’t even sincere.” He chuckled like something he had said had been humorous. 

It was true though, Dick never apologized for the circumstances he’d set up that forced him to become Robin, Bruce never apologized for what happened on his birthday, he’d assumed Jason would be just as bad with emotions as they were, emotional suppression just kind of came with the job.

Dick was the best with emotions, he’d expected Jason to be between him and Bruce, simply because no one could possibly be worse than Bruce, but to apologize just because without there even being need? Not even Dick was prone to that. Though, it’d be unfair to say he never apologizes, he’s not too bad at apologies.

But to apologize like this? For something Tim didn’t even care about?

Well, technically Jason hadn’t apologized, but it was close enough for Tim.

Either way, it was bizarre.

Jason laughed, “Yeah, I guess that sounds about right…” Something in his voice said it didn’t quite, “So, new kid, huh? Tell me more.” 

“He’s such a brat,” Tim rolled his eyes, “He was rude to Alfred when he first arrived,”

“Wait, seriously?” Jason seemed surprised.

“Yeah, he’s kind of a snob,” Tim huffed, “I hate his guts.”

“Isn’t he like ten?” Jason asked.

“That doesn’t exempt him from all judgement, Hood!” Tim sneered.

“Okay, jeez,” The crime lord seemed a little amused.

“He’s just the worst!” Tim complained, “Asinus totus est et spero incidit in "The Bat-Chasm" et moritur.” He huffed the last part under his breath.

“Was that…Latin?” Jason asked, perplexed.

“What? No,” Tim lied.

“Yes it was,” Jason still sounded a little confused, “Something about an ass and something something falls into the bat chasm and dies?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tim denied, “Now if you’ll excuse me , I have a perp to interrogate and you’re distracting me from my job. Leave.” Tim turned to the apprehended goon on the floor.

Even though they were technically in his turf , Jason decided to leave without a fight, just this once.

Weird kid. He thought as he walked off.

Chapter Text

The new brat in the house seemed to have a bit of an obsession with animals. He’d brought about a million into the house already.

It wasn’t too bad, though Tim was at least sixty percent sure that these animals weren’t typical for human pets.

The cat and the dog were fine, and even Tim had to admit that naming the cat after Alfred as a sign of respect definitely made up for any past rudeness, though he still did not like the kid even with that out of the way.

But the cow and the turkey certainly threw him.

Tim may have spent plenty of time in the human realm, but it wasn’t like pets were something he’d care to study intensively, there was a while where he wondered if maybe they were common pets, but that was definitely not the case. Probably.

Tim had to admit that sometimes looking at the pets too long made him a little hungry, but he wasn’t a monster. He might not like Damian very much but that didn’t mean he was about to go and eat a child’s pets.

Even if they did look kind of tasty…

All the animals seemed wholly indifferent towards him, which he was fine with.

Sure, if he really wanted he could put the fear of god into them but he wouldn’t terrorize small animals for no reason.

Though, sometimes, he felt like they could…tell.

Was it in the nature of a cat to clock a human disguise? To pick a dragon out of a crowd?
Or, perhaps, animals were just all too good at noticing a predator.

Something about him just screamed that he was higher on the food chain than them, humans didn’t often notice it but animals were a different story.

He wasn’t sure the exact moment the pets went from indifferent to tentative around him and in all honesty? He didn’t really care.

He just hoped Damian never noticed the hesitance his treasured critters had around him. That could be a problem.

Chapter Text

When Jack died, there was this box he left Tim in his will.

It was a chest with minor enchantments, the mystic equivalent to what humans call a, what was it again? A safebox? A lockchest? A safelock? Something like that.

Tim had it, of course, but…he didn’t have the heart to open it.

So, it sat in his room, contents unknown.

But today when he got back from patrol…it was like it was staring at him.

It was late, really late, but it wasn’t like he was going to sleep anyways, and that chest continued to loom over him.

So, he caved.

He grabbed the chest and moved it onto his bed, he sat there for a moment, just staring at it like it might do something.

He sighed and sat down next to it, turning it to face him.

What could be in the box? What could his father have left him?

After a moment, he moved to open it, holding his breath the whole way, when the chest was open he realised he’d closed his eyes at some point.

He opened them and finally looked inside the chest.

On top was a note.

“My dear son, I love you more than anything and I hope that you already know this. If things go the way I hope they will, you will never have to read this note or look in this chest, but with the suddenness of your mother’s death, I know that this is a necessity. Contained in this chest is everything you will need if I am to die. I love you so much and if you are reading this, then I am sorry for leaving you behind. I hope one day I will see you again but no time soon. Please enjoy your time on this world even if you must spend it all without me there to love and guide you. Know that even though I am not there to hold you in my arms, I am thinking of you every moment even in death and I am wishing you well. I will remind you once again, I love you and never forget this. Love, your father, Jack Drake”

Tim took a moment to breathe, setting the letter down as he tried to stop the tears that welled up in his eyes.

He failed, of course, and sobbed to himself for a while before moving on to look at what else his father left for him.

The next thing he found was a small notebook. He opened it to find it was filled with personal information he may one day find himself needing to know.

Things like where to find the Drake and Draper (his father’s unmarried name) clans, where they slumbered, even a map of how to find them if needed, family friends and where to find them/how to contact them, portals he may one day need to find, things of the mystic world he had yet to learn, and more notes from his father littered throughout.

He had to take another break.

Other things in the chest included books on mystics, dragon books written by other dragons, some of his father’s most prized mystic possessions, among other things.

Anything he would need to live without his parents.

Slowly and very carefully, like they might break, he put everything back into the chest, closing it and setting it gently onto the floor, he pushed it under his bed for safe keeping.

Then, he promptly and ungracefully flopped down face first onto his pillow and cried for the rest of the night.

He only knew when morning had arrived by the sounds of the songbirds outside.

And even then, his tears had not yet dried.

Chapter Text

Robin slipped open the window on the old musty 3rd floor apartment, it was locked a second ago but he was no stranger to getting past that, and slipped inside, case file in hand.

“Constantine,” he greeted as the mam turned around, started by the bat suddenly appearing behind him in his living space.

“You…” he scowled slightly, “what are you doing here?”

Tim moved to sit at the table….or what was left of it, what had happened here?

“I'm here on business,” he answered once he was sat, casually as if he wasn't in someone else's apartment, “Batman has something he'd like you to look at…” Tim then looked around the apartment, almost nothing was intact, “So…what happened here?” He asked, gesturing to the room. 

“I take it that means you had nothing to do with it?” Constantine raised an eyebrow, “Just give me the file and get out.” He huffed. Someone was in a bad mood.

“Why would you think I had anything to do with it?” Tim questioned, ignoring the man's request and not handing over the case file just yet.

“Look, there's a demon messing with my shit,” Constantine asked dismissively, “I have it handled.”

Tim took another look around the room…yeah, it didn't really scream demon.

“You sure?” Tim asked, something in his voice saying the other man shouldn't be, “This isn't really a demon M.O.” He walked around the room a little as he spoke, looking at all the broken items.

“Oh, and you would know?” Constantine raised an eyebrow. 

Trying to catch him in a lie of some sort, it seemed. Constantine could do whatever he wanted, he wouldn't “trick” him into proving he was a demon because he wasn't a demon.

Tim laughed at the thought, he didn't need to be a detective to know exactly what Constantine was trying to do, “Nice try,” he failed to hide a small chuckle, or maybe he just didn't feel it needed to be hidden at all, “When'd all this start?” Sure, the mess could have been anything, but Tim had an eye for this sort of thing. Something was telling him this was a faery of some kind, and that something was literally fucking everything.

Constantine sighed heavily, resigning to the fact that the boy wouldn't be leaving without an answer, “The breaking stuff? A few days. All of it? About three weeks back.”

“What do you mean all of it?” Tim asked, now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow, “What started three weeks ago?”

“Every day, I'd go to sleep and wake up to a perfect apartment. Spick and span, cleaner than I'd ever seen it, it was weird. My laundry'd be done, my dishes clean and put away, even my bloody floor mopped, it was…bizarre.” Constantine explained, “I don't know why whatever this thing is was doing this, maybe to try and get on my good side or something, but next thing I know it's breaking everything and messing up my shit!”  

Ah, well that explained it. Tim knew exactly what this was.

He crossed his arms and turned to Constantine, “What did you do?” He asked, as if he was a child or something.

“What?” Constantine puzzled, “I didn't do anything!” He said, defensively.

“Well, you must have done something to piss it off!” Tim said with clear growing annoyance.

“I did nothing! Why is this my fault now!?” The man complained.

“It was always your fault,” Tim snarked, “So walk me through this, what do you do each day in the apartment before it started breaking things and messing with you?”

“I don't know!?” Constantine's frustration was growing, “I tried to exercise it a few times, you think that did it?”

Tim put a finger to his chin in thought, “Well, I'd sure be upset if you tried to exercise me, ” he thought, “But no, that shouldn’t have done it.”

“Then I have no idea, I did nothing! ” Constantine huffed, exasperated. 

“Wait,” Tim lifted his head in dawning thought, “ Nothing nothing? You left sweets out when you went to sleep though, right?” 

“What?” John asked, “No? Why in the bloody hell would I do that?!”

“What!?” Tim exclaimed, “What is wrong with you, you didn't leave it any sweets? At all?”  

“Why would I leave a demon sweets?!” Constantine yelled back. 

“It's not a demon, you buttknuckle, it's a brownie!”

“ A what?” Constantine asked, “Why is a dessert haunting my apartment?”

“Not the food! A brownie! Like, the faery!” Tim said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world and Constantine was the idiot.

“A fairy? What like Tinkerbell ?” He asked, incredulously. 

Tim let out a deep calming breath with his hands clasped over his mouth before he spoke again, taking a moment to collect his emotions, he calmly spoke, “I'm gonna hold your hand through this,” he said, approaching the brit moving his hands to point at the man as he spoke, “A brownie is a helpful faery, not. like. tinker. bell., that does housework and other nice and helpful things for people. It shows up at a random house and the people there leave it sweets , usually shortbread, as a sign of appreciation, okay? If it doesn't feel appreciated enough, it wreaks havoc, do you understand?”

Constantine made a face, “Okay, so it's not a demon?”

“No!” Tim was going to kill this man, holy shit, “The first three exercises should have told you that!” Constantine really seemed to have a problem with assuming things were demons even when there was evidence that they weren't, hopefully it wouldn't get him killed one day.

Tim could appreciate the headstrong and stubborn nature, but holy shit this was a little much, no?

Constantine nodded his head, absorbing the information, “Okay, so how do you get rid of it?” 

“Once it feels like you've given it enough to be even with what it's done with you, it leaves on its own,” Tim shrugged. Brownies were pretty easy faeries, quite benevolent in nature which was always nice. Once it felt it had done enough and there was no debt owed either way, it would leave the house alone and be on its merry way.

“You're kidding, all I had to do was give it some damn cookies and it woulda left?” he sighed, “I wasted my good demon proofing materials for nothing.”

“You on the other hand…” Tim started, Constantine would have to do a lot more than a pack of Oreos to fix this one, “Okay, here's what you do. You're going to need a mountain of good sweets, baked goods specifically. And homemade! None of that store bought crap, trust me, it can tell. Then, once you think you have enough, make some more. And once all that is done, you need to leave it all on your counter with a genuine apology note to the brownie, no sarcasm, trust me it can tell, then go to sleep, and maybe maybe it will forgive you.”

Anything short of begging on his hands and knees and Constantine would be fucked . He was lucky, three weeks no treat? This was a pretty nice and patient brownie, it would probably forgive him. Maybe. But if it didn't? Well, it wasn't cousin to the hobgoblin for no reason.

“Wha- Bake? I can't bake!” Constantine called out as Tim was already turning back to the window.

“Not my problem,” Tim answered simply, “When you're done with that, look over this ,” he held up the case file and then tossed it onto what was left of Constantine's coffee table, “and contact the justice league with what you find.”

Hellblazer watched as the bat left through the window he knew had been locked a few moments prior.

Fairies, huh? He'd have to look into that.

Chapter Text

He hadn't been back to the faery realm since his mother had died, now his father was dead too.

He'd never be able to go with either of them ever again like he had when he was young.

But he couldn't just never go again, his parents surely wouldn't want that, avoiding an entire realm simply because they couldn't go with him anymore.

It was time he put this aside, time he at least tried to visit the fae wild.

So, one night when he didn't have much to do, he took off and headed to the fae realm. 

He straightened his back as he entered the clearing and began to see the faer folk around.

He looked around the clearing, he’d been here before so many times, but not in a very long time, no since before his mother died, not since before Ophelia gave him her name.

He and her used to play here, now she’d sworn to destroy all he held dear.

There still hadn’t been a sign of her anywhere since the Scarecrow fiasco.

What was she planning?

He looked to his left, if he listened really closely, over the noise of all the faeries around him, he could just barely hear a stream that he had always suspected led to the ocean.

See, the mystics are always called realms, the faerie realm, the pirate realm, the beast realm, this realm, that realm, but that was somewhat misleading.

The truth is, none of them were separate realms at all, in fact they were quite connected.

They were called realms simply because of a misunderstanding that humans had.

The mystic realm has many different entrances in the human realm, and when a human would find one, they wouldn’t usually wander far. They’d see realm, they’d say realm, that’d be that, but they’d never venture far enough to see that these different realms were actually connected, so they had no reason to think they were.

So, the humans who mistakenly found themselves in these places named them all different realms and it just sort of stuck.

So, what he tended to call different realms, were really just part of the mystic realm as a whole, or The Mystics, as they were more commonly called.

That’s why the enchanted forest doesn’t follow the trend of being called a realm, none of them really are and enchanted forest realm sounds stupid.

Plus, not as many humans got there to influence the name.

He was sure that if he followed that stream, it would let out into the ocean and could lead to the pirate realm or the enchanted forest, or maybe the enchanted forest was connected to the same landmass as the faerie realm, he wasn’t sure.

In truth, he didn’t know the mystic realm all that well, he wasn’t sure what connected to where when there were no human realm entrances involved.

Maybe he should rectify that.

But he could do that later, for now, he was simply visiting the faery woods.

He walked with his head up and back straight, almost regal in the way he presented himself, as a bit of a stir began among the faeries as they noticed his presence.

He pretended not to hear the whispers and gossips and laughter.

Laughter, oh how he’d missed the sound of faeries laughing.

Gotham’s laughter was different, forced and surely a sign of death to come, the Joker had ruined that much, and while fae laughter was not a good sign either, to Tim it was not a threat, just one of those noises that almost makes you feel nostalgic.

There was something so recognizable about a faeries laughter, nefarious or otherwise.

“How did you find yourself here, young one?” He heard an echoey voice from above him, a familiar one, there was an edge to her voice.

Tim lifted his chin a little but didn’t even bother to look where he thought her voice was coming from, he knew enough about fairies to know she wouldn’t be there, “It’s nice to see you again, Your Highness.” He smiled, moving to stand at attention, legs crossed at the ankles where he stood and wrists crossed behind the small of his back.

The faery queen moved in front of him and looked him over, “I know you, don’t I?” she asked. He had been only thirteen last time he’d been here, it made sense she didn’t recognize him immediately. It made sense that none of them did.

He did an over the top bow, it was customary for faeries, they had an admiration for flair. He uncrossed his ankles and recrossed them the other way, he moved one hand away from his back, adjusting the one still behind him, he curved his back and flourished his newly free hand, bowing down with even more flair, he lifted one foot up behind him like some sort of odd ballerina pose, then he spread his arms straight out, something about it seemed to require more flexibility than the average man had.

“Young Prince, at your service, Your Highness,” He said, before ending the bow and straightening back up, returning to his former at attention stance.

The queen’s face twisted into one of surprise, “Young Prince?” She asked, “ The Young Prince? What brings you here, child? I’ve never seen you here without your parents, and even then it has been so long,” She almost lamented, he supposed her and his parents were somewhat close, in more of a diplomats who have both lived a couple thousand years way than a friends way, though.

“Unfortunately,” he started, fighting to keep his composure, “They have died.”

“Both of them?” She asked, he nodded gently, a solemn expression, “Oh my…you poor thing…” 

The fae and dragons were often friendly because of their lifespans, they lived absurdly long in similar ways, so they could understand each other like that.

In that moment, the queen understood his pain in a way no one else had, a way no one else could, because, yes, losing both parents by the age of sixteen was sad for any species, but to a creature that would live multiple millennia? That was an entirely different kind of tragic alltogether.

Would he even be able to remember them by the time he had finally grown old? He heard the faeries wonder, Would he still know their name when his time came as well?

It was a special kind of tragedy, one every creature in that clearing took pity on him for.

But not the awful kind of pity, the kind that made you hate everyone who dared to look at you and yourself, the kind that only came with understanding.

They all welcomed him back with open arms, how could they not.

Eventually, a different faery he recognized approached him, asking to speak in private.

It was Damsel, Oph’s older cousin.

He followed without question and they ended up alone behind a tree, it wasn’t very far at all from the one Ophelia had proposed to him at.

“Is this about O?” He asked the older fae.

“O?” She asked, “Why would this be about her?”

“She swore to destroy everything I love starting with Gotham?” He snarked.

“Gotham?” She asked, “Oh, is that that little human town you like? Don’t worry, she’s just throwing a little tantrum, she’ll get over it eventually,” She waved it off like it was truly nothing.

A temper tantrum that destroys an entire city! He thought. Dragons were no stranger to tantrums of epic proportions, but Tim happened to like that city, thank you very much.

“Well, if not about her, then what did you want to talk about?” He asked, electing to ignore her dismissal of Gotham’s potential destruction for the time being.

“I have a proposal for you, Young Prince,” She smiled.

Tim couldn’t lie, he got a bad vibe from that sentence, but she was Ophelia’s cousin of whom he’d known the greater part of his life, so he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Sometimes, fae just came off more off putting than they realised, Damsel probably didn’t have any ill intent.

He gestured for her to continue so she did.

“Humans…” She started, “They are not deserving of the things they have, a whole realm to themselves and yet they cannot take care of it. They are crass, and uncaring, they think they are entitled to own their entire realm and anything else they stumble upon only to themselves,”

She wasn’t necessarily wrong about some of that, but Tim wasn’t sure where she was going with this, he let her continue so he could see.

“They don’t deserve a realm for themselves, I think we should take notes from the Pirates and take it for ourselves,” Yeah, okay, definitely didn’t like where this was going.

“What are you talking about?” He asked.

“The human realm!” She answered, “I think it’s time us the mystics move on to bigger and brighter things, a new realm full of creatures that are actually deserving!” This was already bad enough, but a thousand years couldn’t prepare him for what she would say next, “As a dragon, I’m sure you can appreciate this sort of idea. I want to offer you something, a dragon would be an invaluable partner to my cause. Picture this, all the riches the humans have ever owned in your hands, that pretty city of yours can truly belong to you, you can be a tyrant, ruling over all those you don’t choose to kill. Pillage any village you choose, and leave the rest to admire and enslave. Everything you’ve ever wanted at your hands, all the blood and carnage you could ever want, a million new servants to stroke your ego, you can rid yourself of all the other dragons. I know they are asleep right now, I promise to help you sneak in and gut them all as they rest so you can have all you want to yourself, all you have to do is help me and you can have it all. I know of dragons, of your greed, ruthlessness, and unkindness, you don’t have to pretend to be civil anymore, you can have everything if you simply help me.”

Ex-fucking-scuse me?

Tim was speechless, he found himself standing there with his mouth wide open in shock, letting her drone on far longer than he should have due to the shock .

That was probably the most prejudiced thing he’d ever heard in his entire life, not even just at him, ever . And he’d heard some pretty bad things, he was from Jersey after all, sneaking around Crime Alley at night, you hear some crazy shit, but this? This? He’d never heard anything like it.

He half expected her to make up a new slur.

The implication that dragons cared about nothing more than wanton greed? That the only reason he cared for humans was because he wanted them to be his servants? The idea that he was pretending to be civil in the presence of humans and fae. That he wanted to be a tyrant, a pillager, that he was a backstabbing coward who wanted to kill his own kind in his sleep??? He murdered Boomerang so gruesomely that there may very well still be blood stains on the floor of that warehouse because of the cowardly way he killed his father, and now she dare to imply that he is that cowardly as to backstab his own kind in their sleep? 

If the blatant prejudices didn’t piss him off, that definitely got his blood boiling, Well, more than it already was.

He clenched his jaw as a growl unintentionally escaped his throat.

Damsel seemed to notice the death glare and lowered herself, taking a step back away from him, perhaps the first smart thing she’d done this entire interaction.

Tim took a step forward, following her as anger burned in his eyes. Not anger, fury .

“What the hell do you think you’re even talking about, Damsel,” He spit her name out with a deep distaste, “What are you saying?” There was an edge to his voice, a warning that she needed to backpedal immediately . 

Damsel put up her hands in a placating gesture, “There is no need to get angry, I know rage is in your nature but I assure you I mean you no threat, I do not intend to trick you, you can let down the mask you wear now, I will not judge your worse nature.”

Tim scowled, “And what mask are you referring to?” He was damn sure he wasn’t in costume.

“Oh, please,” she would sound nonchalant and even annoyed if it wasn’t for the edge of fear in her voice that she was clearly fighting to keep down, “We all know you’re a skink!”

What the fuck did she just say?

“Quid FUCK modo me vocas?”

The words that left Tim’s mouth were not english, they weren’t even latin, they were dragon .

Dragons have their own language, of course, it would be ridiculous if they didn’t. Could you imagine a creature that outlived multiple civilizations only speaking in borrowed tongues?

Dragon Speak had a Dragonic Base, a language of hissing and bellowing, few words could be spoken by the human mouth, but dragons were an eclectic bunch.

They didn’t just hoard objects, they hoarded knowledge, and knowledge happened to include languages . 

So, languages that dragons tended to like got added onto that dragonic base. Latin, Ancient Greek, Archaic Chinese, it led to a lot of interesting dialects, dragons living in different areas have completely different languages added in. 

All of these languages were combined into a beautiful glob of Dragon Speak, not English though, it was a little too new .

Imagine that, English too new. It really puts into perspective how long dragons live, does it not?

He watched that fear bubble up in Damsels face, eyes wide, stumbling back, as he yelled at her in a language she did not understand.

Why would she? It was clear she did not care enough to actually know anything about his kind beyond her own assumptions.

He was too angry to even care that she couldn’t understand him while he told her off.

He yelled and before he knew it, she tried to yell back but once again said the wrong thing and his fist was swinging.

He punched her in the face, hard. 

Seriously hard. Imagine what you think is a hard punch, throw that out the window, set it on fire, this was far harder.

He could hear her nose crunch on impact, he watched as she hit the ground, blood already running down to her chin.

He wiped the fae blood off of his hands, it left a sparkly mark on his pants, and walked away at the sight of her shaking in fear and shock on the ground.

He stormed out of the realm, none of the faeries knew what had happened but they knew to not bother him, only an idiot would bother a clearly pissed off dragon.

He thought back to Damsel, shaking on the floor, her blood all over herself, almost on the verge of tears.

Yeah, she wasn’t going to be a problem again.

Chapter Text

One thing about dragons is that they love to sleep. Everyone knows it, dragons slumber. 

They love sleep, they love naps, and when they go to sleep they don't like waking up

It's in their nature,  dragons come in many colors and types but one common thread is that they all love sleeping

So, if Tim has taken to avoiding sleep at all costs in an effort to hide his dragon side, that's his own business. 

Well, maybe it was less about hiding his dragon side and more about the fear that if he fell asleep he wouldn’t wake back up.

Dragons sleep for a thousand years and call it a light nap, but if he fell asleep for even a hundred, he would wake up to every person he cared about being dead .

He’d be lying if he said that didn’t scare him.

The point is, Tim hadn’t actually slept in…well, let’s just say a while .

It was a risk he couldn’t afford to take.

But the exhaustion was starting to get to him, to affect him in negative ways.

He was a dragon, he could handle a couple nights without sleep, but he was really starting to push things.

He couldn’t think , he would find himself falling asleep momentarily in common rooms, leaning on hoardmates, on the floor, anywhere but his room pretty much.

Little power naps here and there, they did nothing to ease his fears.

But despite the bone chilling amounts of exhaustion, he had to stay sharp .

He was a vigilante, he was robin , it didn’t matter how little sleep he got, he would live up to his title, he’d live up to all of his titles.

So, when he went on patrol, he didn’t let the tiredness show.

Even if the batbrat was on patrol the same night in the same area.

He was running through the rooftops, as patrol typically entails, looking for anything that would be amiss.

That’s about when the fire started.

By the time they got there, the flames were already huge, it was a building on the corner of their patrols.

Tim was there, of course, and Damian and Dick had both shown up because they were patrolling together and saw the flames.

They both approached the front of the building, “Okay,” Dick started, “This is clearly an abandoned building, my guess is some delinquent teens doing a little arson, but we should probably try and see if one of the kids got trapped inside.”

“I don’t hear anything to suggest there is anyone inside,” Responded Damian.

“Which is a good sign,” Dick answered, “But we should still-, uh, Tim?”

Tim immediately turned around to see what Dick wanted, “Hmm?”

Dick paused for a moment before speaking, “...you are standing in the fire.”

Tim whipped his head down and what do you know, he absolutely was.

The entire bottom left half of his body was engulfed in flames and he was just standing there like it was nothing, like he couldn’t even feel it.

Not very human of him.

He quickly stepped out, a slightly nervous laugh gracing his lips, “Sorry, I’ve been working on a new fire resistance in my suit,” He lied, his suit didn’t have any extra fireproofing than anyone else’s, why would he need that? He was already fireproof by nature.

Even Damian was glancing at him in concern, for a moment it seemed like they wouldn’t believe him, but they quickly brushed it off. Damian faster than Dick.

They did a quick check of the building and found it to be empty.

Dick sent the all clear through his comm while he was still on the second floor of the building, Damian was standing just outside in front of the building next to Dick.

With confirmation that the building was clear, he turned to make his way out, but in the corner of his eye, he saw movement.

He turned quickly, dragon instinct and bat training both kicking in as he readied for either a hunt or a fight, only to find himself looking at a dog.

It was a large dog, generally speaking, fluffy and grey, Damian would probably know it’s breed but Tim wasn’t even human so he would surely get a pass for not knowing.

It was very shaggy, fluffy grey fur covering his eyes, a large red collar around his neck with a name tag that he wasn’t quite close enough to read.

A doorway stood between them, completely engulfed in flames.

So, he did the only natural thing to be done in this situation.

He casually walked through the fire like it was nothing and picked the dog up.

But here was where a problem arose.

He couldn’t walk back through the doorway without burning the dog.

If he wasn’t wearing this stupid suit, he’d simply wrap his wings around the dog to protect it from the flames, but his wings were tucked securely inside his suit.

He looked around the room, no doors that weren’t completely blocked by flames, he was on the second floor and the wood was starting to become unstable. A beam fell through the ceiling in the corridor he was just in to prove his point.

There was only one way out he could see, a somewhat large window in the middle of the room.

“What’s taking him so long?” Dick found himself wondering, he’d told him to get out plenty of time ago.

“You know Drake,” Damian shrugged, “He is probably just distracted doing something idiotic.”

Dick ignored the mean spirited statement, “He should be out by now…” He nervously tapped his foot.

Just then, he heard a loud crash and turned to see the person he was just talking about falling out of a window, he was holding something big on his chest as he fell backwards, seemingly trying to protect whatever it was, he was falling too fast for him to see what it was.

He ran over to where he was falling a couple yards to his left and Damian followed.

Dick couldn’t get there in time to catch him, reaching him just as he hit the ground with a loud thump and a small “HEUS!” (Dick has long since elected to ignore the strange things and noises that come from Tim at times) as all the wind left his lungs.

Now that he was on the ground, Dick could see that he had been holding a dog .

Tim loosened his grip on the animal and it sat up, happily thanking the Robin for the save with sniffs and licks, Tim pushed the dog back a little so he himself could sit up too, stretching his back.

“Jesus, are you alright?” Dick asked.

Tim groaned slightly, rubbing a spot on his back, “I’m fine,” He said.

Dick noticed the way Damian lit up at the sight of the dog Tim had saved, Dick may have seen a small look of admiration grow in the younger Robin's eyes that Tim didn’t but he wouldn’t say anything for now.

“Bosco,” Damian said, reading the name on the tag once the dog approached he and Dick when Tim nudged him off of himself.

The young Robin pet the dog, scratching the top of its head.

He tried to project a serious and mature no nonsense attitude, but he was really just a kid under it all. And it was never more apparent than when he was interacting with an animal.

Tim stood up and stretched a little, casually checking himself for injuries, he didn’t find any of note so he simply approached Damian and the dog that was apparently named Bosco.

“Does it have a contact number?” He asked, suppressing a yawn.

You’d think something like that would wake him up a little more.

“Yes,” Damian answered plainly, flipping the tag around, “Right here on the back.”

“Good,” Tim rubbed his neck and shoulders as he approached the two, “We can call them later.”

“Whoever owns this dog will surely get a piece of my mind,” Damian exclaimed, “Leaving a dog all alone in an abandoned building? Letting it wander around the Gotham streets alone? What a pitiful dog owner, if I wasn’t a bat this would surely be a killable grievance.”

Dick wasn’t sure if he should scold Damian for resorting to killing or applaud him for refraining from murder.

“You know, you don’t need to talk like a victorian ghost all the time, we get it, you want to sound important,” Tim said, placing his hand on the dog’s back.

Damian scowled at Tim, but Dick could already see it was different than before.

The two of them might not know it yet, but they were starting to like each other.

Dick smiled at the two kids before him.

Chapter Text

Honestly, how he got here was a bit of a blur.

The broad strokes are TwoFace showed up at an event and kidnapped Tim in front of a bunch of people, likely because Bruce wasn’t there, which made him the biggest ticket man there.

His plan seemed to be to force Batman to save him, a very important figure in Gotham, and make some sort of political point about it or something. At some point, listening to villains drone on and on about their plans just turned into white noise.

Maybe his plan was to kill him just before B could save him, somehow using that to discredit the Bat? 

It was a little hard to pretend to care.

Batman was late. He must have gotten held up somewhere as Bruce.

Tim really wished he would hurry, he didn’t really care about the vat of whatever the hell that he was hanging over, but he’d rather not stay hung upside down over it by a rope for too long.

Not because he was that opposed to being upside down, but the rope wasn’t all that comfortable and he already was uncomfortable enough shoving his tail into his pants and clenching his wings to keep them from potentially ripping his button up,besides he definitely preferred to hang upside down on his own terms.

Not to mention, if he hung like this long enough without passing out, it’d be a little suspicious. Humans do that right? Pass out when the blood reaches their brain or whatever? That was right, right?

Okay, maybe he wasn’t one hundred percent sure what happened there but either way he wouldn’t seem human if he didn’t do whatever random shit humans did automatically in this scenario.

TwoFace was starting to get impatient, he’d taken Tim in front of so many high society people, why was it taking the bat so long? He crossed his arms and tapped his foot, standing in front of the tank that Tim was hanging over.

In all honesty, Tim didn’t particularly care what was in the tank, it was highly unlikely it could even slightly hurt a dragon.

That was probably why he’d tuned out that part of TF’s evil guy rant.

The rogue was about to start pacing when Tim piped up and he turned around at the noise.

“So…is this it, or?” He could push the guy’s buttons, as a treat. It was better than sitting here in silence waiting and besides, Tim loved being snarky more than anything.

Twoface huffed, “Of course this isn’t ‘it’! We’re just waiting for the Bat to get here,” He scowled, “He’ll be here any minute now.”

“Are you sure about that?” Tim pressed.

“Of course I am! The Bat wouldn’t just leave you!” Two Face snapped.

“I don’t know…he kind of had beef with my dad,” Beef, that was the human term, right? 

“Just hush!” He yelled.

“What are you even planning?” Tim said, not hushing.

“What?” He turned, still yelling, “I just told you! I just explained my entire plan a few minutes ago!”

“Yeah, wasn’t listening, sorry,” Tim responded, not sounding sorry.

TwoFace grumbled but after a moment he steadily summarized the plan, “Batman will come, he won’t be able to save you in time, Gotham will be forced to face his flaws and eventually turn against him.”

TwoFace was on okay terms with Robin, but he wasn't Robin right now, he was Tim. He wondered if he'd do the plan the same way if he was Robin instead, or if he wouldn't care too much. Sure, TF liked him more than some of the other Rogues, he was kind of right in the middle of that list, but that didn't mean he liked him.

“So, what, your plan is to kill one of the only generous billionaires to ever exist?” Tim pointed out, “Do you have any idea how many charities I fund, without even including the ones Bruce chips in on?” It was true, practically all of Gotham was funded by the Waynes and the Drakes and the Drake-Waynes. Which is to say, Tim and Bruce.

Tim, as a dragon, was always protective of his things, charity wasn’t something that went along with his hoarding nature, but Gotham was different.

If it had been any other city, any other people, he wouldn’t give away a cent, he’d hoard all the riches without even buying anything with it so he could stare at it all day long. Tim was a dragon, what were the other billionaires’ excuses?

But Gotham? He was willing to give anything to his city, it was like the entire city and all those inside were a part of his thrall, over 8 million hoardmates.

“ Hush.” TwoFace repeated.

“It’s a stupid plan, it’s okay, you can admit it,” Tim snarked.

“ HUSH.” The man reiterated.

“Whatever,” Tim rolled his ruby eyes, “Hey, you used to know Bruce, didn’t you?” Tim asked, trying to start small talk until B got here and maybe get some good blackmail to put on the backburner in case he needed it.

“Why do you want to know about Bruce?” TwoFace made a face, “Oh, he adopted you, didn’t he?” He looked nowhere in particular in thought for a moment, “Maybe I won’t kill you then…” He decided.

Oooooh, Tim found himself thinking, interesting reaction…

“He talks pretty good of you, you know,” Tim added, who knows, maybe this will end up taking a rogue off their roster if he can borrow some of Bruce’s charm.

Harvey paused for a moment and slowly turned to him, “He…talks about me?” The look in his eyes was all Harvey, no TwoFace in sight, it was almost heartwarming.

Tim could kind of relate to the TwoFaced aspect of the criminal in front of him, he'd never thought about it before now, Harvey had just been another Rogue to fight, but the similarities between them might be more than he'd thought. Because Twofaced, we're they both that? Tim pretending to truly believe in Bruce's mantra? Tim pretending he wasn't Tim and that he wasn't Robin depending how he dressed? Tim pretending he was human.

“Yeah, sometimes,” Tim shrugged, “When he gets all gross and sentimental.”

Harvey let out a hum.

“The way he talks about you sometimes,” Tim started, smirking, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you two hooked up a few times.”

“What!?” Harvey’s face filled with shock and a flush ran to his cheeks.

“Or at least made out a few times. As “practice”,” Tim’s hands were bound, but it was clear that if they weren’t, he’d be doing air quotes.

The flush in Harvey’s cheeks only grew, “We did not, we weren’t-” He stumbled through his words, not able to find the words he wanted to say.

“Yeah, yeah, just friends, I hear you,” He hoped this isn’t how he looked when people said this to him about Kon. They really were just friends but hopefully he didn’t end up seeing himself in Bruce and Harvey’s “just friends”.

Tim decided to be merciful and change the subject before the man exploded, “I heard you were a pretty good lawyer. I’m not gonna lie, at first I thought B was over-selling you because you were such good friends, but I looked through some of your old cases and he was actually pretty accurate.”

“Thank you,” Harvey said, face still cooling down. Now, if he was thanking him for the compliment or for changing the subject, who was to say.

“I know you’re like, a villain or whatever now, but I’ll be sure to call if I ever get in any legal trouble.” Tim said, swaying in the air as he spoke.

“Of course,” Harvey was suddenly serious, “You and his other kids can always come to me if you get into any sort of legal trouble.”

“Not Bruce?” He asked.

“Bruce already knows he can come to me,” Harvey smiled lightly.

“I’m not so sure he does,” Tim shrugged, “Becoming a supervillain kind of sends the wrong message. Just a little.”

“ He knows.” Harvey insisted.

The rope started twisting and he found himself not fully facing Harvey anymore, “So, as a lawyer, any laws you disagree with?” He asked as he slowly spun.

“I literally kidnapped you, kid,” He pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean you agree with kidnapping,” Tim shot back.

“I guess you’re right,” Harvey relented, “It just depends. I can’t go into ethics with you, especially as a lawyer.”

“You're seriously gonna say you can't legally give me any thoughts on the ethics of the law when you kidnapped me? At gun point, might I add, which I'm pretty sure is an additional charge.”

“It is,” Harvey added without thinking, “I still can't give you advice about which crimes are okay to break as someone who very well could be your lawyer some day.”

“Oh come onnn, Uncle Harvey, you are so lame!” Tim whined.

Harvey froze for a moment, “Uncle Harvey?”

Tim immediately realised what he'd let slip and straightened up, “Sorry, that's just, uhm, a dumb thing Bruce came up with…”

“He thinks of me as your uncle?” Harvey's eyes softened again.

Tim awkwardly cleared his throat.

After a moment of silence, he spoke up, “So, can I come down now? Since you aren't gonna kill me anymore?”

“I never said I wouldn't,” Harvey said, but it was clearly a joke.

“Please?” Tim said, not really taking it seriously, as if he ever was at all.

“Oh come on, your face isn't even red yet!” Harvey joked, “Wait, why isn't your face red yet?” 

“Uh,” Tim said coming up with a lie, “Makeup.”

“Figures…” Harvey chuckled, “You celebrities and your foundation,” he moved to gently let Tim down without releasing him into the vat of whatever.

“So, uncle Harvey, huh?” He smiled.

“I'm surprised you haven't heard it before, we all call you that,” Tim shrugged, glad to no longer be tied in that shitty rope.

“All of you, really?” It was kind of odd to see TwoFace like this, smiling and not TwoFace at all, just Harvey again. Was this what he had been like before everything went down?

When Batman finally got there, he bursted into the door, “TwoFace!” He yelled.

Tim and Harvey just turned to him where they were sitting on the floor, chatting.

Maybe Robin and TwoFace would stay slightly above acquaintances, but Tim and Harvey were more than that now, they were...friends? Was that the right word? He wasn't sure.

Maybe he'd have to give him a present one day like he'd done with all his other favorite Rogues.

“Took you long enough.” He said to the Bat who looked at the scene in front of him with veiled confusion.

Chapter Text

Hey guys!!! It's Arrow, I'm sure many of you are getting deja vu right now
Yes, it is true, this fic is joining its older brother in permanent hiatus.
Obviously theres the small chance I might get back into this fic one day and continue writing, I've done it before! And if that happens we'll all just pretend this didnt happen and act surprised by the ending;)
But i dont like leaving things open, I think you guys deserve closure!
The reason I probably wont finish this fic is because I've been working on a complete lore overhaul by taking the lore from this fic and completely reworking it for an original work separate from the dcu! (It might one day come out as a book so keep an eye out for that 👀)
So, I want you all to know where this story was going.
First off, here's the stuff I already have written thats been rotting in my Google docs

Here is what was in my notes for this fic

"Dragon tradition where the young use like a tied string foe their enchanted jewelry that's tied around their wrist. There's this big ceremony when their of age where the kid gets to choose their real jewelry and they cut off the tie.
When his mom died, Tim wore her necklace but didn't cut off the string. For his personal jewelry, he chooses a nightwing watch.

Tim's canon hoards:
Soda tabs
Photos
Gems

Tim has the classic dragon fire breath but the fires invisible, he just kinda blows lightly on something and it starts burning

Customary to go from tie on your left wrist to jewelry on your right, if you get wristwear
Tim follows this custom

Batfam thinks Tim had a fever but he's just like that

Boomerang gets better, scared of tim now

Dragons can stand in fire without getting burnt, it feels nice actually, they can also breath smoke just fine. (Immune to cigarettes???)

Tim trying to figure out if someone is like him or just autistic

Dad's ring on mom's necklace, together even in dead

Tim sees something shiny and his pupils dilate noticeably

Blood that is literally boiling, it smokes and hisses when it hits the floor

Ophelia is an unnamed mystery villain in Gotham, its obvious to Tim it was the work of a faery
When Constantine catches her, she has given that up because she realised Tim was not her villain, he didn't purposely make her fall in love just so he could break her heart, he just didn't feel the same.

Maybe oph makes him live his greatest fear and that's why he's mad at her? She's doing it for the greater good but she still HURT him, he gets mad, cries and yells and tells her he never wants to see her again, the next time he sees her she's dying for him? Now he's truly going to be alone? Seals the deal

"Oh, I bet your brain echos when you shake your head, huh?"

"Everyone always thinks Phoenixes are so cool, they suck! They're little assholes and they keep setting shit on fire."

"Conner, im scared"
"Of what? Whats got you scared?"
"They're all gonna die..."
"They're okay! Look, you can see them, They're fine!"
"I know, but one day...one day theyll all be gone and ill still be alive and...it scares me shitless"

Eldrianna waterbound SIREN.

Fae realm, human realm, beast realm, typical fantasy realm, creature realm, sleep paralysis realm??, pirate realm, hell

oph, obeah man, bats, oph again, yj formed, Ra's, magic bs feat. Constantine, 15th b day!, Constantine for real now, batfam YJ , oph , jack, yj, flu, jack, eldrianna, jackTHE TALK, Yj, eldrianna

[16th bday, pirate realm + yj rager, Jason, Jack dies, kill boom, kill obeah, yeah ] fake uncleadopted, Damian, breakup,
Eldrianna,
Jason
Rogues
Damsel
Damian
Constantine
Sleep deprivation
Rogues
Tim yj name reveal
Eldrianna
Losing sight of who you are angst aha
Constantine
Damian
Duke intro
Meta chap
Rogues
Food run feat yj
Damian at gala...wait is he secretly a meta too, wait no just autism
Kon finds out
Kon
Veganism
Jason and magically out of it
Rogues
Constantine??
Pirate realm rendezvous, Eldrianna
Damian
Tells yj
Kon dies, Bart dies, something else, Bruce dies, LOA, 17

They're all gonna die angst
Lava resistance
Kill for Damian
Ras
Dwarf gnome bar thing
Jon is too old angst

Kill Ra's
Sleepy Tim fluff

Ophelia shows up
Fear tox
Gather the troops
Big fight
Big reveal"

Hopefully that wasn't too much because next is my snippets

"“Oph…” He started, “You were my best friend.” He took a moment to breathe, ignoring the way he could hear Conner swing around at that, ignoring the jealous glare he could already tell he was shooting Ophelia's way from behind his back.

“Since you're a dragon, does that mean you can magic my cigarette lit?” Kon asked, holding out a cigarette towards his best friend.
“Okay, but only because you're a Kryptonian and can't get lung cancer.” He answered.
He leaned in close to the tip of the cigarette and gently blew on it, nothing visibly came out of his mouth but the cigarette lit itself after only a second.
Kon tried to ignore the lump in his throat at the sight of it.
There was something oddly…erotic about it.
Kon put the cigarette to his mouth and took a drag to distract himself. It worked just like any other cigarette.
He blew out the smoke and after a moment spoke again, “Do you think half Kryptonians can get lung cancer?”
“Aaaaand, no more cigarette.” Tim said, stealing the cigarette from his hand and snuffing it out on his palm. Woah
“Wha- Hey!”

He held the heart in his hand, other hand still on Ra's’ chest, soaking in the blood that poured out of him
So he did still bleed, that answered that question.
He looked down at the heart in his hands, it had finally stopped beating.
He stared for a moment, at the bleeding mass in his hands.
He took a bite
It squelched as his teeth sank in, blood running down his chin and throat, dripping onto his suit and the body below him.
He didn't care.
It tasted….rotten
Wasn't that just fitting?
A rotten heart for the most rotten hearted man he had ever met.
He didn't spit it out.

He sat at the batcomputer, there was no one else in the cave today and it was getting late even for bats like him.
He was working on a case, an important one too.
So important that he had forgotten to eat anything at all today, he realised
Suddenly, he heard a moo behind him
Oh no.
He turned around to see Batcow was looking right at him.
His stomach grumbled as they made eye contact.
Ever since Damian had shown up, things had gotten harder for him, and not just in the little kid trying to kill him department.
It had been easy to manage his hunger when it was just Ace, it wasn't hard telling himself that dog not food, but for god's sake, a fucking cow!? A turkey?? Damian had a habit of bringing every kind of animal into the cave and it meant that if Tim didn’t want to lose himself and be caught with one of the brats pets hanging out of his mouth, he had to be careful to actually eat enough every day.
Sure, maybe he should have been doing that already, but for god's sake, he gets busy! Not to mention he's a dragon
He needed more food than the average human, he didn't want to raise any suspicions by eating way too much he'd just end up worrying someone
But now, he was face to face with a cow that was looking more and more like dinner
A chorus of thoughts filled his head
Don't eat the cow don't eat the cow DON'T EAT THE COW stop thinking about eating the cow stop salivating No not even just a little bite don’t eat the cow don't eat the cow don’t eat the cow DON'T-
He jumped out of his seat and made a run for the cave exit usually meant for vehicles, his feet echoing in the empty cave
Where was the nearest Quick-E-Mart, again?
He needed a steak.
Oh, hey, was that a rat?
His eyes darted to follow the movement, journey to Quick-E-Mart forgotten as his instincts kicked in
He began his prowl, pupils slitting as he followed the big fat rat as it scurried into a nearby alleyway.

“Wait, you cant seriously be considering fighting them, prince!”
“Why exactly not?”
“Look, i know you are a very formiddable and powerful opponent, not to be trifled with, but she has an army of faeries! not even you can win this.”
“I have before.”
“This is not the same as whatever silly games youve been playing with the mortals!”
“Shell destroy the human realm! I have to do something.”
“I know you love this place, but you have other options. All the people you know here will live short lives anyway, what is even the point of trying to save them now when they will die tomorrow anyhow? Please, you must reconsider this.”
“I wont”
“Then i am sorry but you leave me no choice, i must stop you.”
“Oph? What are you talking about?”

Tim has an ongoing theory that the “meta gene” is just holdover from the mystics
In other words, he's pretty sure “metas” are just part of the magic world and don't realize it. Not necessarily part dragon, but there are plenty fantastical creatures to choose from.

“Wouldn't be the first person I've killed.”
“Oh yeah? :] and who was that?”joker
“Captain boomerang.”
“What”jay?
“I ripped his throat out with my teeth.”
“You..you What?”joker
“You heard me. He killed my father so I ripped His throat out with my teeth.”

I know what goodness is
Oh and I don't? You think you’re goodness?
I didn't say that. I'm not good. You're a better person than me. In fact, you're more of a person.

“Hey, Duke, can I have some of your hair?”
“What? Why??”
“I need to run some tests”
“Huh??”
“Just appreciate that I'm asking.”

Dragons, at least in their humanoid form, age similarly to humans, that is until they reach 17 years.
Dragons naturally live far longer than humans, so it stands to reason that they'd age slower as well.

“This one's my favorite “
“What is it, a super bowl ring?”
“No, it was just my Dad's favorite ring before he died…”

When Damian got home, Drake was curled up in a ball on the floor, blocking the walkway, sound asleep. Snoring even.

Jason's out smoking on the balcony
Tim asks for a cig
He lights it and goes “ew” but no cough
You smoked before?
No
You aren't coughing?
Maybe I'm just not a little bitch
???

“It's you”
“Wha- young prince?”
“Huhhushshsjsjsuusjs”
Blah blah blah
Do you still remember my name
Yea
But you won't tell me yours
Shake head
Hm
I'll tell you whatever you want to know, for one thing
What's that
A kiss
A kiss?
Yes.
And you won't try to hurt me?
I could never hurt you, young prince
…
Okay.
this doesn't Mean anything, you know that, right?
I do.
Okay
Kisskisskiss
He stands all the way up and holds his hand behind his back in a way that almost looks regal
She stays on the floor.

You spend all your time with these mortals. You know they will all have to leave you in the end, one way or another, Do you not?
I do.

“Cut me and I bleed, do you still do that, Ra's? Or has your pathetic attempt at immortality taken that from you too?”

He remembered Damian's little friend from when he was so small, when Damian had just met Jon. Now, he was taller than Tim. He said something about a temporal disturbance in space, which made sense he guessed, but all he could think of was how young the kid was. And how much he was going to outlive him.
The boy was, what? 5 years younger than him or something? He supposed less with the temporal thing, but still, a good bit younger than him.
Yet, he was going to outlive him a hundred-fold, probably more. Probably much more.

You hurt me. You said you'd never hurt me, but look, you have. You've hurt me far worse than any smack or stab could, tell me, fae, what are you if not your word?”

“What happened?”
“Apparently, the fae and Scarecrow aren't all that different.” verge of tears
“She fear toxed you??!”

Something something gate turn off magic haha
What
Sjit shit shit shit
“Hey, Kon?” Tim said, keeping his composure perfectly. He kept walking straight, not looking at Conner as he spoke.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Okay, don’t freak out.”
“What?”
“Don’t freak out.”
“About?”
“Just, dont freak out, okay?”
“Uh, okay?”
As they walked through the gate to enter the town, Tim’s magic charm failed due to the enchantment of the town and Kon let out a sound of surprise,
“WHA-” Tim quickened his pace and kept his face firmly forward.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Tim could hear Kon quickening his own walk to catch up with Tim, “Uh, what is- uh, what…uh”
“I told you not to freak out.”
“I’m not freaking out! Just, uh, just confused is all!”
Tim stopped walking and turned around to face Kon, with a nervous smile he did some awkward jazz hands, “Ta-da!” he squeaked, “I’m not human.” he dropped the smile and turned around to continue walking.
“Oh, uh, um, hey wait up,” Kon followed after Tim, who was walking fast with his head down, “Look, I promise I’m not freaking out, okay! It’s fine, I am cool as a cucumber.”
Tim laughed a little at the last part and slowed his walk to a more comfortable pace.
“So…if you’re not human, then..what? are? You?”
“Promise to stay cool as a cucumber?” Tim teased
“Absolutely.”
“But seriously, now, don’t freak out, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I’m a dragon”
“a WHAT” Kon yelled
“SHHHH” Tim shushed him, throwing his hands over Kon’s mouth until the yelling subsided, nervously looking around to see if anyone heard the yell, he removed his hand.
“Sorry, sorry,” “a dragon?”
“Yeah, now we have to get on with the mission.”
“Okay, but you have to tell me EVERYTHING after, okay?”
“...Deal.”

“Tim…” Cassie starting, cautiously, “maybe it's time…it's time we…clear out Conner's room…” he could hear it in her voice, the way she was trying not to cry.
“No.” Tim answered.
It'd been months since Conner had died, his room had been left untouched. Maybe if it was anyone else, they would have already cleared it out for new recruits like protocol dictates, but it wasn't anyone else. It was Kon.
“Tim…” she tried to reason, pity lacing her voice.
“No.” Tim answered firmly, “We are not emptying his room. I don't care how long it's been, I don't care if he never comes back, I am not letting anyone touch that room until the day I die.” And that would be a lot longer than any of them realised.
Cassie didn't answer at first, either way, he appreciated the way she pretended not to notice the tears in his eyes and the shake to his voice, just as she probably appreciated him doing the same, “...alright,” she answered.
The next day, he got the call about Impulse.
His phone slipped out of his hand and crashed into the floor at the words died honorably in battle.
Impossibly hot tears streamed down his face.
What had they done to deserve this?

“Good work, detective.” Ra's said as he pushed him out the window.
He was falling, plummeting to his death.
Maybe in a regular t-shirt he'd be able to simply open his wings, they would be strong enough to rip the fabric, and fly away, but he was in his suit. Solid Kevlar.
His wings wouldn't be able to break through, that was kind of the point, he could relax his wings in the suit without worrying.
That was definitely biting him in the ass now.
But, at least he'd done everything he needed to.
Bruce would be out of the timestream no matter what anyone did.
Ra's wouldn't be able to win.
He saved everyone Bruce cared about the most.
He may be about to die, but this was still a win.
He didn't know the max height a dragon could fall from and live, it's not something that really came up, it was surely more than a human's but a creature that flies doesn't really think of things like that, like falling.
Still, this high up? It was unlikely he'd survive either way.
But, he'd done it. He'd saved all the people Bruce loves.
And, best of all? Dying here and now meant that he'd never see all the ones he loved grow old and die while he stayed exactly the same. At least he'd be spared the pain.
He didn't want to die now, he had so much life to live and so much more to do, but right now? As he fell?
He felt content.
Suddenly, he felt a weight press into him and grab on tight and, out of the blue, he wasn't falling anymore.
Speaking of blue, he looked over to see none other than the one and only Nightwing holding on to him.
He brought him to the ground and set him down carefully.
“How'd you know I was gonna catch you?” He asked.
He paused… “Because you're my brother.” He lied."

These are all the bits and pieces I had prepared for this project before I ended up eventually moving on to my current project (Seriously if you like my writing style and ever a long ways off see a book called The Bold And Boisterious pick it up)

This was definitely my most optimistic and story based work so far.

Okay, so the next chapter was set to be a name reveal with yj, I love my yj chapters.

The plot was going to have Eldrianna get her big moment soon, she always talked about yearning for more and travel so there was going to be a plot point where Tim decides to try and map the mystic realm because surprise surprise, all the mystic realms are actually connected its just no one knows the layout bc everyone uses the portals. He'd ride on a pirate ship from the pirate realm and realise the crew was being mistreated and kill the captain, he'd take over until he could pawn off the captain job and he'd give it to Eldrianna. That was going to be her big moment.

All of this was leading up to a moment where Constantine would reveal to the league and yj (yj was just there, Constantine is talking to the JL) that something bad is coming and he'd captured a fae that knows about it.
He would then reveal Ophelia in a fairy circle (there was going to be a joke about Constantine not understanding fae and assuming a fae circle was like a salt circle but for faeries and look really silly) and she wouldnt talk
Her and tim would then notice eachother
She apologizes for everything and explains that she realised that it wasnt his fault for not being in love with her and he wasnt doing it maliciously, that she forgave him and whatnot
she would then promise to talk if Tim kissed her so he did and she would reveal that there was a war coming.
Remember Damsel? Well, after tim rejected her she didnt just stop, shes gathered an army of mystics and is planning on killing the humans and taking over their realm for mystics.
Tim would then go and find all the allies hes made throughout the fic, some of which we didnt get around to him meeting, and he'd prepare his own counter army.
The fae wouldn't help fight but the queen gave him a note that she said to only open if he had no other choice.
YJ, the heroes, some drunken dwarves, Eldrianna and her gang of pirates, and the rogues who adore Tim, among others, would come to help fight, some without an invite, looking at the rogues rn trust
Ophelia would then realise that tim is going to fight and shed stop him at JL hq and try to talk him out of a battle she didnt think he could win, he would refuse to back down so she would pull something out of her back pocket
A few chapters back, she used a spell that was mistaken for a new fear tox, she qould use this on tim, thinking she had no other choice to save him
Tim would then hallucinate waking up, he accidentally hibernated and now everyone he loved was dead, he'd scream and cry
Kon would hear his cries and save him
Tim is now POed at ophelia and hates her
Ophelia shows up at the fight begging him to not and hrs all fuck off I hate you know
Then, someone almost kills Tim and Ophelia jumps in front, killing her
Tim mourns the loss of the only friend that would have been alive when he woke up if he were to fall asleep, he marches through the battlefield with the thought that he would now for sure be completely alone one day
He destroys his way to where Damsel is
But when he gets to her theres too many of them, he cant beat them
Then he hears dragons
Its his grandparents, coming to help at his call, he thought they wouldnt show
He opens the letter from the queen and inside is only a few words
*a name*
*damsel's name*
He names her and she is defeated
He goes back home to pretending to be human
And after all of that?
After an entire war, the way his secret is spilled is a routine mugging.
The Wayne's are being mugged and one of them notices his mother's necklace under his shirt, so he takes it from him
*Revealing his dragon form to all family members present*
After all of that, its something this mundane that outs him
He doesnt know what to do so he runs, ditches his shoes, flies away, they look for him
All of the bats are told to find this strange dragon creature
Tim eventually realizes he doesnt know where hes even going and goes back to the cave to fess up and face the music
He tells them what he is
He tells them everything
And then there would be a few post reveal chapters, at least a few where Damian would be fascinated by Tim being a dragon
Thats not everything I had plan but its the broad strokes

I hope you enjoyed the story so far and im sorry to do this to you guys again
If you have any questions about how the story was supposed to go, feel free to ask them!
I love all of you guys! Have a wonderful day!!!!
You guys rock 💕💕💕