Chapter Text
“OKAY, that is IT, I have officially fucking HAD IT with you!”
Alright, look. Tim had been awake for maybe… two days now? He knew he needed to go to bed. Everybody needs sleep at some stage. However, he also knew himself very well. He was used to functioning on little sleep. He certainly had never started hallucinating after two days. Let alone, hallucinating a man who has just appeared out of thin air in the middle of Bruce’s kitchen, looking an awful lot like Bruce’s dead son. Said man whirls around on his heel to face Tim, looking incredibly pissed off.
“What the FUCK do you think you’re doing? GO to fucking BED!”
Jason has officially had it with this brat. He was making his after-life a living hell, and the replacement didn’t even have a clue! This kid needs to go to fucking bed right now. Timothy stares at Jason, startled and looking very baffled. Jason merely huffs.
“I swear, if I have to hear Hypnos complain about you one more fucking time, I’m going to lose my shit.”
Tim rubs his eyes to try and clear his vision, convinced he is hallucinating due to lack of sleep. But when he looks again, the Jason-doppleganger is still very much there, still very much glaring at him, gesturing dramatically as he continues his rant.
“Oh Jason, why hasn’t Timothy gone to bed yet? Jason, why haven’t you paid Timothy a visit? Jason, get Timothy to go to bed or else I will send you to Nyx for a weekend. It is not MY fault you haven’t seemed to get the fucking memo!”
If Jason can’t get it through to Timothy the importance of sleep, he can at least guilt trip him into going to bed, surely. Jason had tried every trick in the book to get him to go to sleep, but this kid was more stubborn than Batman, downing can after can of energy drink. Jason is surprised he hasn’t keeled over with a heart attack. Jason stacks the files Timothy has open on the table with a neat pile, before standing in front of the kid with his arms crossed, eyebrow raised.
“Well? What do you have to say for yourself replacement?”
Okay, this hallucination is starting to go a little too far. Looking exactly like Jason, calling himself Jason, and this guy is… what, in charge of Tim’s sleep schedule now? How does that even make sense? What is he even…
Tim blinks.
Hang on.
“Replacement?”
Jason stares at Tim incredulously for a moment, before sighing and running a hand down his face.
“Out of everything I just said, that’s what you got? Were you not trained by the world's greatest detective Bruce Wayne? Where’s the interrogation? Who are you? How did you get into the manor? Why do you look like Bruce’s dead son? Why are you talking about Greek gods? Come on replacement, give me something! Prove Bruce didn’t make a mistake giving you Robin.”
The hallucination gestures with his hands as if to say bring it, and Tim just continues to stare blankly at him. He would love to ask any of the above, but he is far too tired for this to make any sense. Let alone try to question his own hallucinations. Tim thinks that would be crossing a line into insanity that not even he is ready to cross. The hallucination seems to pick up on the fact that Tim is not going to say anything else and sighs, before pulling a chair up so he can sit down opposite Tim, putting his hands on his shoulders.
Woah, that feels very much not like a hallucination.
“Okay, let me make this really simple for you. You came in here and stole Robin from a dead kid. Not a smart choice on your part. Because now, said dead kid is responsible for making sure you get enough sleep. And, said dead kid is now getting in trouble because you are NOT getting enough sleep. So, to make sure Hypnos gets off my back and you don’t keel over, you’re going to go to bed now. Capiche?”
Tim stares for a few beats longer, before shaking his head really looking at the hallucin- Jason now. The bright blue eyes, burn marks and scars covering his face and arms, the light freckles and dark hair. He looks in awe and quietly whispers.
“Jason Todd?”
Jason rolls his eyes.
“Glad you caught up. Yes. Now, bed.”
Jason grabs his arm and tries to pull him up, but Tim resists.
Tim’s in complete shock. Jason Todd, Robin, is right in front of him. But how? He… he died. Everyone was so sure he was dead. They had a funeral and everything. Tim would go to his grave when he could, talk to Jason about what was going on in his life, about how he ended up becoming Robin himself. Hoping he lived up to Jason’s legacy. Of course, Jason had no idea who he was, but Tim knew all about Jason. He had followed Robin and Batman for so long, documenting their adventures-
Oh my god Batman-
“Oh my god, how are you alive?! I need to go get Bruce. BRUCE! BRU-”
Jason slaps one hand over Tim’s mouth, and panickedly waves his other around in the air. Tim watches as some sand is carried out of a small pouch that rests on Jason’s waist, and seemingly flies into the air and out of the kitchen. Jason stares after it for a moment, before letting out a breath of relief, and turning back to Tim, a sorrowful look in his eyes.
“Look, kid. I’m still dead. There’s no point in getting the big man’s hopes up, okay? He’ll never see me. Really, you weren’t ever meant to have seen me either. So, let’s not go waking him up, alright? Somehow, he sleeps more than you do, but he still doesn’t get enough.”
Tim furrows his eyebrows, but reluctantly nods, and Jason moves his hand.
“So… why can I see you then?”
Jason huffs a laugh.
“Have you listened to anything I said since I got here?”
Tim shrugs.
“In my defence, I thought I was hallucinating until about… sixty seconds ago.”
Jason shakes his head, before sitting down once more, and Tim settles back into his seat as well.
“Alright, here’s the rundown. After I died, my soul got… transported, I guess? Hypnos saw how young I was and took pity on me. Said I wasn’t ready for any other kind of afterlife. So, I became one of his disciples. It’s my job to go round and make sure people are sleeping. Dreaming. I have my charges; particular people I look after. You’re one of them. So is Bruce and Alfred. Even Dickface. Now, even though they’re reluctant to, they actually do sleep enough to not cause issues.”
Jason points at Tim, jabbing him in the chest.
“You on the other hand. You haven’t been sleeping nearly enough. And Hypnos gets really grouchy when people don’t sleep.”
Jason now ruffles Tim’s hair.
“So, it’s my job to get you to bed. Questions?”
Tim takes a moment to process all of this information. His hero, his Robin, is here to make sure he goes to sleep. In fact, it’s Jason’s job. And he doesn’t want to let Robin down. It’s all he’s ever wanted for Jason to be proud of him. But…
“I… can’t.”
Jason raises an eyebrow.
“You can’t what?”
Tim looks down at the ground, dragging one foot along the kitchen tile.
“I can’t go to bed. To sleep.”
“And… why is that exactly?”
Tim looks back to where all his files were stacked on the table, his laptop still open with the report he was halfway through writing. He doesn’t really want to admit that he’s scared of being a failure. He wants to prove to everybody that he is worthy of carrying the Robin legacy, Jason’s legacy. He didn’t want his hero to see him as weak. Jason follows his eyeline before scoffing.
“Oh hell no. We’re not doing that. Bruce has already lost one kid. He’s not losing another to fucking sleep deprivation. Trust me, he’d rather you go to bed than slowly destroy yourself like this. So don’t even think about it.”
Tim still doesn’t look at Jason, but he’s not looking at his work either. Jason watches him quietly for a moment, taking in his body language. Hunched shoulders, making himself small, gazing at the floor, now keeping very still.
Besides, Jason was also trained by the world’s best detective. He could see something still wasn’t right.
“That’s not the only reason, is it.”
Tim almost flinches, and Jason tries to not let the way he feels his heart ache at the sight affect him.
“What is it, kid?”
Tim’s voice is so small and quiet when he speaks that Jason almost misses what he says.
“You’ll laugh at me.”
Jason’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
“Laugh at you?”
The kid nods, but doesn’t elaborate. Jason thinks for a moment. From what he had seen of Timothy (and it was extremely little from a case file Hypnos had handed him on his first day on the job), he looked up to Jason as Robin. Almost worshipped the ground he walked on. It was maybe a little morally questionable, but if it got Timothy to actually get some sleep, Jason couldn’t see much reason to not use that to his advantage. So, he offers Tim his pinky finger.
“Pinky promise, whatever you tell me, I won’t laugh at you.”
Tim stares at it, clearly hesitant, but Jason gives him a grin.
“Come on, does Robin ever break a promise?”
That gets Tim to smile just a little bit, and he locks his own pinky with Jason’s. He takes a deep breath.
“I… I’ve been having nightmares.”
Jason hums.
“Nightmares? How often?”
Tim thinks about it for a moment, before admitting.
“Nearly every night.”
“WHAT?”
Jason almost falls over in his chair from the shock, and quickly rushes to stabilise himself.
“What do you mean nearly every night?”
Tim stutters over his words trying to answer before Jason waves him off.
“No, that was rhetorical. Don’t worry about that. Kid that’s serious. What are the nightmares about?”
Tim bites the inside of his cheek, clearly not wanting to answer. Upon realising this, Jason starts thinking aloud.
“That definitely isn’t right. The occasional bad dream is normal. Nightmares every so often happen to everybody. But it shouldn’t be nearly every night. Hell, it shouldn’t even be every week. Does Hypnos know about this? He would have said I’m sure…”
Jason shakes his head, interrupting that train of thought.
“Not important. What is important right now is dealing with this. I’ve got an idea, but you’re gonna have to trust me, alright kid?”
Jason holds out his hand, and Tim looks for a moment before accepting it with a small smile.
“I’ll always trust you, Robin.”
Jason sees the admiration and hope in Tim’s eyes, and chooses to swallow whatever bitter remark about Robin was about to leave his mouth. He guides Tim through the halls of the manor, back to Tim’s room. He sees how the room is entirely undecorated, the only sign of it being Tim’s room being a rucksack that carries his essentials. He turns to Tim with a questioning look.
“Did ya not wanna decorate? Alfred will let you paint it any colour you want.”
The question makes Tim look… sad. He doesn’t answer. There is clearly a lot of information Jason is missing here. But, that isn’t the priority right now. So, Jason shakes his head.
“Nevermind. One thing at a time. Come on, into bed.”
Tim gets settled into bed, and Jason pulls up a chair to sit next to the bed, grabbing his pouch and grabbing Tim’s hand, before pouring a small pile of sand into it.
“Here’s what’s gonna happen. You’re going to go to sleep, and I’m going to dreamwalk into your nightmares. Whatever it is you’re struggling with, we’ll confront the core issue together, and that way, the nightmares should stop. Hopefully. If they don’t, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it and I’ll try to come up with something else. But for now, this should have some impact.”
Jason puts his hand in Tim’s, the sand pressed between their palms. The grains push into Tim’s palm, but it is surprisingly soft as it does so. It feels like Tim is grabbing onto a soft blanket as opposed to sand.
“Ready kid?”
Tim takes a deep breath to try and settle his nerves before nodding.
“I think so.”
Jason raises an eyebrow with a smile.
“That doesn’t sound like the confidence of Robin. Come on, you can do better than that. Robin is magic! Robin can do anything.”
Tim gives a small laugh, before looking back at Jason with a determined glint in his eye.
“Let’s go kick some nightmare butt!”
Jason’s smile only grows wider. Hey, being Robin may have not worked out for him. But at least he was able to make a good impact during his time as Gotham's light. Even if it was only on one kid.
“There it is. Let’s go kid.”
Jason uses his free hand to touch Tim’s forehead with his fingers, and the next thing Tim knows, he’s out like a light, entering into his dreams.