Chapter Text
Tim always knew he had bad luck.
From the moment he began to understand that it was not normal for a little kid to be left alone at home in the care of the employees. The moment he learned that the city he grew up in was the most dangerous in the country. The moment he saw two trapeze artists fall from a height, and realized that it would not be the first time he would see people die. And the moment he discovered that his neighbor was Batman, the caped hero of Gotham.
It had been years since he discovered the last one, and only a few months since he started training to become Robin, or better said, since Batman agreed to train him but only to keep Tim silent. There were days when Tim wondered if Batman was actually training him or just using him as his punching bag.
(Tim stroked his side with a wince, remembering the blow that had knocked the breath out of him only a few hours ago).
But without a doubt he was now sure he was the unluckiest person in the world.
Well, in truth it was all his teacher's fault, if he hadn't thought it was necessary for his students to learn how to do their homework without the help of the internet none of this would have happened. Although Tim had to admit that it was partly his fault for forgetting to ask for the books in the school library, he was so anxious to train with Bruce that as soon as classes were over Tim had rushed home to change his clothes.
That had been on Friday afternoon, it was now Saturday and Tim wanted to have Sunday off to just focus on his work as Robin, so of course he had to finish all his homework for the week in record time.
He was sure he had seen the book he needed in his mother's office, but she had forbidden him to enter without her permission. But his mother wasn't home and wouldn't be back for another month.
His mother was confident that Tim would not break into her office, so the door was kept unlocked at all times, after all the valuable things were for decoration in the hallways and at the entrance, a room full of books and half-studied fossils would not attract anyone's attention.
The office was a large, white-painted room with a hardwood floor that might glow if the light would cooperate and agree to turn on. But again, Tim was the unluckiest person in the world. The light in the hallway was enough to read the spines of the books closest to the door, and he was sure that among those was the book he needed.
Although most of the books were about archaeology and business, Tim amused himself by reading the spines and pulling out a few copies to better appreciate them.
Suddenly he felt a sort of grunting behind him. Tim gripped the book tighter and turned around.
Another growl. It had to be a rat, only a rat was the possible answer. His parents were going to kill him if he found out that he had let rats into their house, especially his mother's office.
In short, Tim was a dead man.
But there weren't any rats in sight, well, from what little he could see. But he was sure there was no rat in sight.
The growl returned, louder this time.
And suddenly a golden glow from between the shelves farthest from the door.
Tim dropped the book, a thud seemed to shoo the glow away.
As if something was calling him Tim walked over to the shelf. One of the books seemed to stand out among the others. He carefully pulled it out, waiting for the glow to return, but it did not.
The book was a red color, almost blood-like, with gold trim, a lock and the name "The Clow" on the front cover, above the illustration of a lion with wings. Tim turned the book over, but on the back cover was only a blank pentagram, the same as behind the lion image.
He looked at the cover again, captivated by the lion. And then the lock opened. If that wasn't an invitation, what else could it be?
Inside, the pages were cut out in the middle to form a space where what appeared to be cards were located. But Tim thought little of the cards, he wanted to read the back cover, so he returned to the brightness of the hallway.
"When the magic of this book is released.... great disasters will befall the world" he read the note on the back cover with something of a shudder.
In better light he could better appreciate the first card, its edges were gold and in the center was an illustration of some sort of woman with wings and her arms crossed, her body was white as was her hair.
"The Windy" read the name below the drawing.
And then the card began to glow, much brighter than the book. Tim closed his eyes by instinct, and a strong wind enveloped him. It was more like a hurricane than a wind.
He opened his eyes just in time to see the cards flying in all directions, flying through the walls as if nothing had happened. The book -empty- fell to the floor and Tim dropped with it, unable to believe what had just happened.
No doubt his mother was going to kill him.
Suddenly the book began to glow again, it was the pentagram on the cover. The cover rippled as if it were a pond, and from it emerged the small figure of a yellow rat with small white wings and a long tail ending in the shape of a heart.
Tim was tempted to go in search of a stick and poke the rat's stubby body, just to find out what it felt like. But at that moment the rat raised its head and looked at him with the two black dots that must have been its eyes, even its little mouth that was nothing more than a black line distorted to look like a smile.
" Hey, hey!" shouted the rat excitedly.
Yes, Tim was definitely going to die, but not at the hands of his mother, but of a heart attack.