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The bang of misfired magic isn't a common sound in Gotham, but after hearing it once it's not something you forget.
Jason had taken his helmet off this particular evening, running patrol in just his half mask while his circuits were being reworked for the hoods' opening mechanism (if Dick laughed at him for getting stuck one more time, so help him). The roof of the building he was on was 8 stories up, a spot he and Red Robin would usually pause and catch up before Red went his route through Robbinsville and Hood would do a last pass by the Sprang. He'd just sat to wait when his com buzzed to life on a closed channel.
"Hey Hood," the voice was breathless, but easily recognizable and he couldn't stop the way his mouth tilted up just from hearing it.
"Sup?" Sooo nonchalant.
"You wouldn't happen to be on the Sprang side of the Bowery right now, would you?" there was the thwip of a grapple echoing in the call, a soft grunt when it landed.
"I just may be." He relaxed back on his ledge, rolling his shoulders to free them of some stiffness.
"Hmmm, interested in acting as the rock in the saying 'between a rock and a hard place'?"
"Ah you know me too well. I'll be there with bells on."
"One block out, about 10 in pursuit, see you soon! Mwah!" The comm clicked off, and Jason ignored the wiggly feeling in his stomach from Tim's sarcastic sign off to find a higher ledge to perch in wait.
Then, when Tim came running like his ass was on fire, followed by figures in colorful robes, he acted as the rock Tim had requested, dropping down from the next building over like the boulder he is and squishing one beneath his weight. If he giggled a little at the deflated squeaky noise they made, that's his own business.
Red Robin had turned on a dime as soon as he heard Jason drop, staff whipping out and cracking across what was presumably the covered heads of the two right behind him, laying them out flat and launching off them to fling himself towards a third. Jason's gun was already out and firing even before he moved off his first victim, 1, 2, 3 of the weirdos flailing and falling soundlessly to the ground, earning him a dirty look from Tim between hits.
He shrugged, pretending at carelessness. After all, if Tim wanted to assume they were regular bullets instead of the tranqs he'd started using, that's on Tim, even if the distrust ached a little.
Behind him he heard the sound of fizzing magic, not super common in a town like Gotham, but not something completely foreign to him personally after the life he's lived. At the same time he heard an odd choked off pop. Now that was much more-
"Hood!"
He whipped around, seconds too late as Tim flew across the roof, a ball of slightly lopsided light propelling him to the ground. The sound of Tim hitting the gravel was both louder and quieter than it should be, the ruffle of cloth but missing the meaty thud of a body.
The empty costume crumpled where it landed. Jason stopped breathing. Stopped thinking.
The cloaked figure who fucked up whatever spell that was hit the ground with all the percussion one would expect of a grown adult; and continued to hit the ground when Jason slammed their skull down once, twice, again, and again until the fabric was soaking through with blood. The other figures were still there, grabbing and pulling at his arms and jacket, but he ignored them in favor of caving in the skull of whoever was dumb enough to kill Tim Drake with a fucking misfire.
The beating continued until he heard a high pitched whine from where Tim's costume sat crumpled, and his heart started to beat again.
The fabric shifted, and a head popped out, small and chubby with toddler roundness.
Jason let his shoulders droop, his fist relaxing where it had balled in the fallen casters robe. Tim wasn't dead. He was just…small. Baby, as one may say.
The other cloaked individuals succeeded in pulling Jason off the person who was definitely not getting up any time soon at this point, pushing him away. Not giving a shit what they were doing, he wasted no time in rushing toward Tim.
"Robin?" Big ice-chip-blue eyes widened with amazement, and Jason froze for a half-step, stunned at the recognition.
"Wha-"
Then those eyes widened further in fear.
"ROBIN!" The impact of something heavy and metallic echoed in his head as the world blinked out.
"Oh mother f-" THUD
If the bitch of a headache he woke up to wasn't enough, he also had to contend with some freshly broken ribs.
What a treat.
His shoulders ached from where they were wrenched behind him and his neck had a kink in it from where he slumped forwards.
The room he had woken to see wasn't anything unprecedented. It was the expected dingy derelict apartment unit, likely a leftover from the quake, a current favorite among goons who needed to torture a stray bat or bird. While Jason claimed to be neither, he could acknowledge he did tend to be lumped in with the group more often than not.
Rolling his one currently non-swollen eye gave him a lovely view of not just his current annoyance (another goddamned cloaked figure, what was these guys deal?) but also of the other two who were guarding the freshly tinier Tim, still wrapped in the now oversized top of his Red Robin costume in the corner. He couldn't afford to pay attention to the kids wet cheeks and tied arms, no matter how much he felt his insides boiling. Focus.
"Wow you guys are losers, two to guard a kid and only one to beat on the red-" THUD
"ROBIN! STOP IT YOU-YOU-" the kid was letting out pitiful half-gasps from his spot, wiggling in his binds, "-YOU DICKS!" Jason couldn't hold back the guffaw, even as his ribs told him it would be a better idea.
"Any more tricks up your baggy ass sleeves or just more home ru-" THUD-CRACK
That one stung a bit. Tim's little voice burned in his ears while he hunched forwards. His arms were secured behind him with rope, around what seemed to be a metal support beam. But, as mentioned, magic was not common in Gotham. So these guys were definitely from out of town. And out of towners usually didn't know this, but Robins are some of the best escape artists out there. Even the dead ones.
The rope hit the concrete behind him, just out of view. As the fucker raised the pipe again, Tim's panic seeming to have also crested, and the support beam served as a great launch point for some forward momentum. Jason's forearm caught the main annoyance's throat like a steel beam with a wet crunch and forced them to the side, while the other hand grabbed the old pipe, that he was now intimately and unwillingly familiar with, and twisted his crunchy torso, whipping it through the air.
PING-PONGGGG
Aaaaand the guard goons were down for the count, the first one still choking on his own windpipe on the floor behind him, and tiny Tim sat there rumpled as a baby chick, looking up at him like he was the best thing since sliced bread and WI-fi even while his little face was still wet with tear tracks.
"Ok kid, time to go." He limped closer, checking that the guys on the ground wouldn't be getting up for a minute, before he turned to help the technically civilian Tim.
The kid was breathing fast, on the edge of hyperventilating.
"Kid?"
"I'm- gasp- I'm really sorry- gasp- r'bin I'm-"
"Woah woah!" he knelt, best he could, making quick work of the knots around the kids body, big hands gently working blood flow back into the little wrists.
The kid's face was red and he refused to meet Jason's eyes, still gasping at breaths too big for such a little dude.
"Hey kiddo, look at me, deep breaths." The kid tried, little ice chips just visible through blunt black bangs.
"It's OK, I'm OK, you're OK, no need to apologize."
"But-!"
"It's all good." The kid looked like he wanted to argue, cheeks puffed up like an angry little frog. The chihuahua shake he had going on also wasn't helping his case.
Jason patted the kid on the head, ruffling baby soft fluff and the kid lost his ability to make eye contact again, face flushed.
Jason groaned as he stood, looking around in search of a window to try and get a grasp on where they were. He flinched as a little cold hand wrapped itself around his ring and pinky finger, tugging gently for attention.
"We're, um, I think we're in Robbinsville." The kid didn't look at him when he spoke.
"Yeah?"
"Uh huh." the kid fidgeted, "I um," eyes darted up then quickly down, "I saw that we were by probably the Sprang river, um, when they moved us, um, but-" he looked nervous to continue.
Jason put on his most reassuring face, even going so far as to unlatch the muzzle of his mask and slip it into an inner pocket. Ice chip eyes widened with wonder before they darted away once more.
"It's OK, I'm listening." Tim curled in on himself a little and slipped to the side, almost trying to hide from Jason behind Jason's own legs.
"Well, the bridge looks, um, wrong?"
"Wrong how?" Idea in his head of where they might have been, Jason started walking, towing the kid behind him as they went.
"There's too many supports? And the, the main walk-path has these big lights on them? Am I-" he cuts himself off, quiet for a moment as they made their way through the building, Jason not picking up on any signs of more people using this place as a hide out.
"Hmm?"
Tiny Tim squeezed at his hand and whispered his question to the dark of the night.
"Am I in the future?" His face was open with wonder. Sweet and innocent, and Jason felt like a bit of an asshole for seeing a side of Tim he hadn't earned yet. Would probably never deserve.
He looked away quick, missing the way Tim's face dimmed.
"I'll meet your question with a question kid." The streetlights were still on when they made it outside, meaning it probably hadn't been more than an hour since they'd been taken.
"How'd you figure I'm Robin?"
"Oh-" the kid was pink again.
"You um, your hair has- well-" Jason tilted his head in confusion, glancing down while the kid followed at a stunted pace.
"My hair?" He ran his other hand through it and the kid let out a wheeze.
"Yourbangsareheartshapped-" Less of a sentence and more of a squished breath.
"What?"
"Your bangs have um- they're heart shaped. And you um-" the kid looked up, the glare of street lights reflecting off still damp cheeks. "You answered when I called."
"Well, that's-" he looked away, flustered. Turning another corner and finally spotting the train tracks that wrapped around Gotham and divided Robbinsville from the bowery and Crime Alley. He sped up a little, ready to make it to his safe house and wrap his ribs and call Constantine to see what could be done about the mini-red robin.
"Ah!" the little hand tightened around his and he felt the kid stumble.
"Kid?" Looking back he realized in his merry jaunt he'd been leading the kid on, despite how much easier it was on his ribs than even the idea of grappling, he'd made a slight miscalculation. Tiny Tim, while he may have the top half of his costume, was missing the double thick soled shoes he would usually be wearing while out on the filthy and glass sprinkled Gotham streets. Dark stains dotted the pavement behind them, roughly in a walking pattern.
"Shit. Kid, c'mere-" He scooped the boy up, ignoring the way his ribs not only yelled in protest but wailed like the cries of the damned inside his torso. He plopped down on a nearby bus rest and turned the kid in his lap.
Little feet kicked out, but he grabbed one to look and yeah, no, that needed at least a tetanus shot if not a whole new round of boosters.
"Shit." He'd been heading the direction of his safe house, but any vaccines or boosters he kept were adult dosages.
"Sorry Robin…" Tim had stopped trying to wiggle away and instead burrowed his face in Jason's shoulder. Jason patted him on the back and tried not to make his wheezing breaths too obvious as he pressed a hidden button on his collar, pressing twice to signal Dick he needed evac from current location.
"It's, well, it's not great kid, why didn't you say anything?" Tim's damp breaths tickled the side of his neck.
"I know they um, they messed up your ribs right?" hands were fidgeting with his jacket hood. "Thought you might hurt too much to pick me up and I didn't want to- well I don't think you would, I promise- but -" He sounded more frantic by the second and Jason wrapped him more firmly in his arms and ignored the way he went lightheaded.
"Would what kiddo?"
"Um- I didn't want you to leave me behind." Tim's voice was small in his ear, and he could hear the echo of days spent looking in from the outside.
"Tim." The body in his arms was stiff. "I will never leave you behind, no matter how big or small you are."
Tim pulled back, flushed but stubborn looking. "Don't lie to me."
Jason glimpsed his Tim, sharp smile and flinty eyes hovering over the subtly trembling lip and frosty but serious look the kid was trying to hold onto.
"I won't." The kid's face crumpled and he hid once more, shaky and small against his chest.
It was then that his comm buzzed to life, the annoying voice of his older brother bubbling in his ears.
"Hello Hello! I hope you're still kicking because the Nightwing express is pulling up!"
While he still couldn't get a full breath, it felt for a second like the weight had finally eased off his shoulders.
He could hear the rumble of the bat-mobile coming down the road and, still holding tight to Tim, he finally relaxed and let his head thump back against the seat.
"Looks like our ride is here kid."
"Our-? Hey, Robin? Robin?" The alarm in the kids voice was worrying, but Dick was on the way. Jason's chest felt tight and weak, full breaths alluding him, mind going hazy.
"Robin?" little hands patted at his face, and a distant voice called his name, but he was already out.
Groaning into awareness this time was a lot more pleasant than the last; as pleasant that is as coming out of unconsciousness can be.
He could hear the echo of little squeaks bouncing off cave walls and the firm semi-squashiness of one of the easily cleaned med-cots beneath him.
Curiously, he could also feel a small ball of warmth curled up beneath one arm, far enough from his torso not to touch any of his brand new fashionable stabilizing bandages.
The creak of the metal chair beside was an annoying afterthought.
"Hey Jay." Dick spoke softly.
"Fuck off dick ngh-" Jason did not speak softly, but in more of a zombie groan, as was his right. The ball of warmth on his hip twitched, burrowing centimeters closer.
"hm-?" Shifting slowly, he turned his head, creaking open crusty eyes to see a little fluff of black hair passed out and snoozing, tiny feet wrapped securely and covered in new socks where they pressed to his thigh.
"Oh."
Dick was smiling, a little mischievous but mostly fond when Jason looked up in question.
"We couldn't get him to let go of you after getting you home. Had to keep you knocked out for a bit while we did scans, but he refused to let you wake up alone." Jason couldn't stop the fond smile if he tried. He cleared his throat and looked away, trying to look neutral when he looked back to Dick, but knew by the way the other's face was soft that he hadn't quite hit the mark.
"Any idea what spell did this?" Dick shook his head.
"We've got Zatana watching back through yours and his mask footage, but it may take a few more hours. We were more worried about stopping your slowly collapsing lung to call her in immediately." The side eye was lethal, but Jason ignored it with practice.
"Hmm OK, guess we've got a little barnacle for the time being." Dick shot him another look, this one less recognizable.
"We? Jason, this kid looks like he'd crawl in your skin if you let him."
"What?"
"Listen, I know what a dedicated Tim looks like, and it seems to me," he glanced down at the kid, eyes softening as he reached to press the kid's bangs out of his face, "Tim is currently very dedicated to you."
Dick hung out for a little bit longer, mostly petting Tim's hair while he was still tiny and less likely to bite him for the offense.
After he headed out, Jason picked up one of the books Dick had left behind, keeping quiet to avoid waking the kid.
He was half-way through a chapter book when the wiggly little form, dressed in what he's pretty sure were Bruce's old kid clothes, flopped aside and rubbed a clenched fist across both eyes.
"Hey Tim-tam" the body jolted, practically launching itself upright and whipping around to look at him.
"ROBIN!" The kid looked ecstatic, clearly holding himself back from launching at Jason in his excitement.
Jason laughed, wincing at the movement, but not able to resist ruffling the kids hair.
The kid giggled, all smiles and pink cheeks now that they were somewhere safe.
"Morning kiddo, Dick said you've been acting as my little guard?" the kid tilted his head in confusion and then his face went red.
"I just wanted to make sure you were ok! you got really hurt protecting me and-"
"Woah woah! It's all good! I'm just teasing you kiddo." The kid curled up like a little pillbug, a tiny ball on the bed. Jason laughed and patted his back, smirking at the annoyed little groan the kid let out.
“Dickie explained what happened to you?”
The kid looked up and nodded, bobble headed.
"yeah, he said i'm usually big, not your sized big but, uh, yeah, and I got hit by a spell-?" he looked for confirmation and Jason nodded, "-a spell, and now I'm small, or, um, smaller I guess?"
"Yeah that's the gist of it." The kid nodded, trying hard to be serious but Jason could see the curiosity in his face.
"What's up kid?"
"You, um," little eyes darted from his face, to his hair, down to the scars that carved across his chest and his throat, then back up, "you look…. different."
He chuckled, relaxing back against the cot and looking at the ceiling. He didn't want to see if Tim was disappointed in what Robin had become.
"Yeah kid, time tends to do that." the kid wiggled up his side, small hands hesitantly wrapping around his arm.
"Why's your hair white?" His throat felt tight. He looked down and Tim's face, small but definitely Tim, with all his sharp wits and rounded features, looked back at him. Eyes, less the prickly pins and needles he was used to, and more plain childish curiosity, dug into him. He felt himself missing his Tim, even with him right here.
"Well-" how to explain. He looked down at innocent eyes and couldn't, not fully.
Little fingers tapped non-sense patterns out over his arm, tracing bandages and scars.
Jason craved the way his Tim would tap in morse code, stupid little messages and phrases. He ached for something neither of them had named yet, but the way they'd been meeting weekly on patrol, trading jokes and tossing each other the occasional rouge to rough up.
Little Tim was adorable, but sitting there, torso black and blue, stuck in the cave until Zatana had made her way through the spell, all he wanted was his Tim.
"I got- I got really hurt when I was 15." Undersell of the century, but the kids eyebrows tilted in concern, "And my hair changed color from getting hit there. It’s,” He let out a shaky breath, “It’s actually what made me stop being Robin."
"You're not Robin anymore?" The kid looked appalled and Jason snorted.
"No kid, I'm too big now, leotard’s a little small for me." The kid still looked befuddled.
"But! If you're not Robin, what happened to Batman?!" Jason had to close his eyes and breathe through the anger, "There can't be a Batman without Robin!?"
"There should have been." Tim flinched back and Jason tried to keep himself restrained.
"oh." The kid's voice was so small. Almost a whisper. "Sorry."
Little hands let go, leaving his arm cold. He couldn't see Tim's face when the kid turned, feet dangling off the side of the bed.
"I'll leave you alone." The voice was toneless, none of the emotion little Tim had been shining all over. It sounded like Tim on his worst days.
Alarmed at the change, Jason's hand darted out, gathering the kid into his side and ignoring his squeak and the way Alfred would definitely disapprove of him aggravating his ribs.
"Kid, whats-" the kid wiggled but froze when he grunted from the movement.
"You-" a shaky breath, "You didn't want another Robin, Dick said I was also-"
And the dots connect. Goddamn it.
"You were a great Robin Tim." A choked breath.
"I was-? But-"
"I'm- ugh, I'm mad at Bruce. I'll probably always be mad at Bruce. But that's not your fault. It's not your job to fix us." Tim was frozen, but at the admission, the absolvement, he softened, little limbs going limp in his hold.
"Ok." Jason held Tim until they both fell back asleep, wa
The spell, it turned out, wasn't very complicated, and likely only got fucked up because the one casting it was also fighting a concussion.
Dick and Damian had gone out later and retraced their steps, nabbing the loopy idiots that were still there and notifying the authorities to another group of cloaked weirdos to be on the lookout for.
Zatanna wiggled her hands above the kid and said a few words backwards, tiny Tim watching in amazement at the little pink sparkles shedding off her hands.
"All right! You've got about 20 minutes till it breaks," she glanced at Tim and smiled, "I'd suggest someone go grab him something to change into." The kid flushed but started asking something about how the spell worked.
The bustle of Dick running to the lockers to grab a change for Tim mixed with the sound of Tim pelting Zatanna with as many questions as his little motor mouth could run.
After a minute or two of this, Dick called Tim over, putting a pause on his questions and Jason caught a glimpse of Damian making his way up the stairs. He let himself feel the slightest bit grateful to Bruce for staying out of his sight for the night.
Tim, waddled back moments later, now changed quickly into his comically oversized adult outfit. He couldn't stop a chuckle and heard Zatanna and Dick both stifle their coos.
The kid grumpily threw his arms over the side of Jason's chair, grabbing onto his hand firmly. Jason could see the false bravado poke through.
"Stay with me?" Jason squeezed his hands in response.
"Of course kiddo."
"I'll see you guys upstairs in a bit." Dick nodded at him. " Be careful with your ribs and take a chair if you need to."
"I'd better be headed out as well," Zatanna checked her watch. "While this was very entertaining, I do have a show to be running, and several spells to upkeep. I'll expect a favor as payment for later! Toodles!" And with a finger wave and a rush of sparkles, she vanished.
"I'm just gonna take the stairs out." Dick laughed to himself as he did so.
"Wow. So funny." Jason rolled his eyes and Tim giggled at the theatrics.
"Hey, Jason?"
"Yeah kid?" Tim looked a little nervous.
"Are we friends, when I'm big?" Jason looked at the hopeful look on the kids face.
"We weren't always, but I like to think so." The kid's eyes were crescents when he smiled.
"I'm excited to be big again then." And Jason's cheeks burned, but he smiled, gentle. Tim knew that smile. He'd seen Robin wear it for years.
"Me too kid."
Tim's chest glowed through his baggy shirt and the cave sparkled as it filled the space. The hand he was holding grew, scars and calluses dotting the palm. Blinded, Jason squeezed it. Tim squeezed back.