Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim saw the flash of lightning and thunder almost immediately followed. Great. That storm’s close. He stepped onto the roof and concentrated on his human form. He felt the familiar tingle in his limbs and took a few steps with his now regular, non cat, feet being careful to not swing the camera around his neck too much. He pulled his hood over his head as soon as he felt the first drop of rain and tucked his camera neatly under his sweater, being extra careful to not scratch the lens. Tim crouched down on the top of one the apartment skyscrapers that the bats usually passed on their Tuesday patrol routes.

And bingo. Movement on the rooftop below him, he carefully brought out the camera and zoomed in on the figures below. He cursed under his breath when the rain started to pick up but he kept the camera out, theoretically the thing was water resistant and it seemed he was testing that out tonight. Part of him wanted to call it there and head back to the manor but if the bats didn’t stop for the storm then I neither did the bat’s stalker. Tim turned the zoom dial with the slightest click click and took a few pictures. He focused on the group of, it looked like three, vigilantes. From what he could tell through the rain it was Nightwing, Red Hood, and the new Robin. Well wasn’t that an interesting group.

Red Hood had showed up a few months ago wreaking havoc in crime alley from what Tim gathered but the vigilante hadn’t been on Tim’s radar until he started hanging around the bats. After that he’d gotten a little too curious and was about 85% sure that the Red Hood was a somehow revived version of Batman’s 2nd Robin, Jason Todd. He was still working on how the actual revival part really worked but he was pretty sure about everything else.

The new Robin on the other hand was really easy. Damian Wayne. He made no real attempt to cover his identity besides the domino mask. Very few people in Gotham talked like Victorians and even fewer were on TV. Tim was honestly surprised no one else had figured it out by now. Or maybe they had and were just too scared of him, the kid did have a sword and a strong willingness to use it so he really couldn’t blame anyone for the fear.

Tim shivered under his now very soaked sweater and looked back through the camera as another flash of lightning cracked across Gotham’s smog darkened sky. Tim blinked the light out of his eyes and went back to watching but he swore he saw Nightwing looking straight at him and he swore his stomach dropped to the soles of his feet as Nightwing’s hard stare locked onto him. Apparently he was right. He gasped and scrambled back when a grappling hook struck the building a few feet from where he was crouched. Tim wasted no time in pushing himself to his feet and racing to the edge of the building as his heart pounded out of his chest.

“Kid, wait!” Called a panicked voice behind him that he assumed was Nightwing

Tim didn’t wait though. Instead he pushed off the roof, held his camera to his chest, and concentrated on his cat form as he fell. He felt the shift happen right before he hit the ground lightly on all four paws. As soon as he was grounded he ran under a dumpster in the alley. He sat there and tried to ignore how loud his heart was beating, he wouldn’t be surprised if the bats on the roof could hear it. He tried to ignore how horrified Nightwing must be right about now. He just saw a kid jump off a building and saw nobody hit the ground. Whatever, wasn’t Tim’s problem.

He glanced at his reflection in a puddle quickly. Good, the white dot on his chest indicating that his camera had morphed into part of the cat with him was there. That meant he didn’t drop the really nice, expensive camera his dad had gotten him for his 14th birthday (it was actually his 15th but who’s counting. Tim didn’t care as long as he got that camera). Tim crawled out from under the dumpster and stretched before leaping off down the alley. He turned down a few side streets, took a couple random routes and finally ended up at the 24/7 bus stop. He slunk into the shadows of the alley right behind it to shift back to normal. His heart rate was still a bit high but he had mostly calmed down by this point.

It didn’t take long for the bus to arrive. Once Tim was on he let out a quiet relieved sigh, that was way too close.

Tim had no clue what the bats would do if they found out that their neighbor, or well as much of a neighbor as you could get with properties that big, was a shifter. Shifters weren’t metas per say but they weren’t not metas so he really didn’t know the rules. All he knew was that most of the bats were shifters and they probably wouldn’t appreciate any others being in Gotham, so he’d like to keep that part a secret that you very much.

—

Tim stepped through the large double doors of the manor and tried his best to stomp as much of the water off as he could. He changed into dry clothes, toweled off his hair and shoved his wet clothes in the washing machine.

Tim sat down at his desk to look through the new photos he got tonight, most of them were blurred by the rain and none of them had any actual action because apparently Gotham’s criminals hated the rain as much as Tim did.

Achoo!

Tim wiped his nose with his sleeve and cursed under his breath when he sneezed again. Note to self. Don’t go out bat hunting in the rain. Getting sick does actually happen.

He sighed and pushed away from his desk, he took the SD card and hid it under the loose floorboard and climbed into bed. 1:26 AM. Not horrible but definitely not the best considering he had to be up by 6 to catch the bus. He groaned and shoved the covers over his head. It didn’t take that long before he was fast asleep.

Chapter Text

“They were right there!” Dick said in a barely concealed exasperated tone. He walked into the cave pretty miserable. He was soaked, annoyed at his brothers, and on top of that, might have actually killed a child!

“I’m just saying, if a kid jumped off a building wouldn’t there be a body? Something’s not adding up here golden boy,” Jason replied, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

“You’re back early,” sounded a voice from farther inside the cave.

“B!” Jason exclaimed as he plopped himself into one of the chairs at the computer, “guess what? Dickie killed a kid.”

Dick squawked in protest but Bruce stilled, the light clacking of keys suddenly stopped and the cave was eerily quiet. “Explain,” Bruce demanded, his gaze pointed.

“Ok so, we were on patrol right? And I see this reflection up on the Addam’s apartment building so I go to check it out but it was just some kid sitting up there. They absolutely freak out and jump off the back side of the building before I can get to them but there also wasn’t anyone on the ground or in the surrounding area when I looked over the edge,” Dick was rambling but he didn’t really care. Anything to clear his name! - Jason sucks! -

Bruce sits quietly as he listens to Dick’s whole spiel. When he finishes Bruce goes back to the computer to pull up the security camera footage from the apartment complex. The grainy video showed a teenager who didn’t look older than maybe 15 with a dark red hoodie pulled over their head obscuring any identifying features. They were crouched at the very edge of the building holding a camera that pointed down at a slight angle. It shows them panic and scramble to the edge when Dick showed up and shows them jumping off but the angle of the security camera doesn’t show the bottom of the building.

“Well would you look at that, you weren’t hallucinating,” Jason muttered.

“So they were spying on you?” Bruce asked, leaning back in his chair.

Dick glares at the man, he knows that look. “B, they’re a kid, not a threat.”

“They could be working for someone.”

“I believe you are overlooking the most crucial part,” Damian interrupted. “There was no body, the child is alive and somehow escaped after a 4 story drop, which indicates them likely uninjured.”

“Is he allowed to call them a child? I’m pretty sure they’re bigger than the demon brat,” Jason questioned.

Bruce ignored Jason’s comment and his eyes narrowed on his youngest. “Are you suggesting they’re a meta?”

“It is certainly a possibility.”

“Whatever, as long as they’re alive.” Dick mutters.

Damian sent his brother a pointed stare. “An unknown meta is a threat, Grayson.”

Dick sighed, he was too cold and tired for this argument. He trudged upstairs after drying off and snuck into the kitchen to steal a few cookies from Alfred’s newest batch.

“Sorry, Alfie,” Dick murmured under his breath.

“If you were truly sorry, you would not have grabbed them.”

Dick nearly jumped out of his skin. He whirled around to see Alfred standing in the doorway. “Jesus, Alfie, warning next time please.”

Alfred raised an eyebrow at the cookies in Dick’s hands. “I already touched them, Alfie, I can’t put them back,” Dick protested.

Alfred let out a sigh that only a man who had looked after vigilantes for years could perfect. “Very well master Dick.”

Dick took that as the warning it was and hid in his room for the rest of the night. He’d leave for Blüdhaven in the morning to avoid the butler’s wrath.

—

Dick yawned widely as he walked down the stairs the following morning. Damian, Duke, and Cass were already at the table. Damian looked more grouchy than normal, which was pretty hard to notice when the boy had such a resting bitch face, but Dick had gotten a feel for his moods over the four years he’d been with them.

Duke notices Dick coming down the stairs and grins at him. “Guess who has to do Mr. Moon’s final this year?”

Dick groans at the reminder. That absolutely monster of a final was for Mr. Moon’s English class. He’d done it when he went to Gotham Academy, Duke had done it last year, Steph and Cass the year before, and Jason - that psycho - had actually loved doing it his freshman year, and it looked like it was Damian’s turn now.

“I could do the research by myself. I don’t need to work with one of those imbeciles,” Damian grumbled into his toast.

Duke rolled his eyes. “The point of that part is to collaborate. Not to just get the right answers.”

“It’s pointless.”

“It’s important Dami,” Dick joins in. “Just pretend your partner is one of us. And how about this, if you can manage to get through the group portion I’ll spar with you in shift?”

“You aren’t as stupid as the people in that class.” But Dick saw Damian perk up slightly at the mention of sparring in shift. It was honestly funny how well that worked.

“Maybe they’ll surprise you,” Dick said. He heard Damian scoff and grumble something but he didn’t stick around to hear what he said.

—

Bruce sat at the computer in the cave looking over the CCTV cottage they’d gathered last night. How on earth had that kid managed to not only evade Nightwing, but also avoid any cameras from the surrounding buildings. He’d mapped out the routes they could have taken to get out of the alley and not a single camera showed a sign of a kid in a dark red hoodie. At first Bruce assumed the footage had been altered somehow. That was already suspicious because no teeager should be able to do that so they must have been working with someone. Someone possibly dangerous. But as he looked further into it, nothing in any of the videos had been altered. Everything was in its original form.

“Are you still on this?” Dick asked, sneaking up behind his father.

“We have to have missed something,” Bruce grumbled back.

“Well you’re not going to get anywhere with this if you’re running on no sleep and yesterday’s lunch. So go upstairs before I call Alfred,” Dick threatened. He wouldn’t actually call Alfred, he was probably still upset about the cookies, but Bruce didn’t need to know that.

Bruce grunted but actually did stand up and start towards the stairs. Dick smiled and took his place at the computer. Ok yeah, B was right, they have to have missed something. But what?

Chapter Text

Tim woke to sunlight streaming in through his window. Wait, what? Sunlight? No he was on the wrong side of the house for that much sun this early. He blearily looked over at his alarm clock. Crap! 8:46 AM. He’d forgotten to set the alarm last night and he definitely missed the bus. Great. Now he was going to have to wait until 10:30 to catch the next bus.

Tim sighed and pushed out of bed, it wasn’t like he needed to go to first and second. It was Calc and P.E. He was probably going to skip them anyway. He already knew the material so he didn’t need to show up for anything besides tests in calc, he only took it because he needed the math credits and anyone could pass P.E. As long as they showed up for the mile run at the end. But he definitely needed to be there for third, Mr. Moon was announcing partnerships for the final today so he should actually show up.

Tim was ready to go within a half hour so he spent the last hour he had before he needed to leave for the bus stop doomscrolling at the kitchen table with a granola bar.

Achoo!

Jesus Christ he was never going back out in the rain.

—

Tim walked into Third looking a little less like a zombie than normal after he’d downed a crap ton of cold medicine and took his regular seat in the middle. He’d gotten there annoyingly early so now he had nothing to do for the next 4 minutes of passing period. He watched as the rest of the class filed in, all anticipating the hell that was about to ensue. They’d all been warned but no one was ever really prepared. It was the only final Tim actually had to take seriously, not that he necessarily would. His parents didn’t check his grades so as long as he passed above a D he’d be fine. He’d done the grade calculations and he only needed a 68% on it to get a C in the class so he’d do the absolute bare minimum.

Mr. Moon walked up to the front of the classroom, all 42 kids sat deathly silent as he turned to face them with a wicked grin on his face. “Alright, it’s time. Part 1 starts today, 40% of your final grade. I’m going to place you all in random groups of 2 and you have until next Thursday to complete a 6,000 word research paper with your partner on a topic of your choosing, using the resources provided. They will be released at 4 PM tomorrow afternoon, that gives you a week. Good luck.”

And with that Mr. Moon strolled back to his desk and pulled up the spreadsheet he used for assigning groups on the projector. He selected ‘groups of 2’ and hit randomize. Once all the names were solidified it only took a moment for everyone to find their name on the board and go talk a game plan with their partner. Tim looked over it for his and…..wait, what? No, there was no way he was that unlucky! On the board right next to Tim Drake was Damian Wayne.

No absolutely not, the kid was completely infuriating! This was a junior level English class, Tim didn’t have time for overachieving freshmen. If he’d been an overachieving freshman he would have graduated last year but he’d taken a few too many off periods and fell asleep a little too much in precalc.

Before Tim could really completely process that his partner was the psycho sword wielding Robin Damian had made his way to Tim’s desk.

“You will come to my house after school tomorrow to start on the essay.” He said before walking away back to his seat.

What a prick. As if! There was no way Tim was going into the lion’s den, literally, for an essay he could easily just write by himself and slap Damian’s name at the top.

As if Mr. Moon had read his mind, he cleared his throat to get the class’s attention and said, “don’t forget I will be checking edit histories, don’t just work on one computer, I will be looking for proof that you both made contributions. Equal contributions!” Right, shit, Tim had forgotten about that bit.

He sighed and leaned back in his seat. This was going to be one terrible week. Hopefully he’d survive.

—

Click

Tonight was much better than last night, no rain, actual action, and it was actually pretty warm.

Tim got a few pretty good pictures of the fight between Batman, Nightwing, Robin, and who Tim assumed were Black Mask’s goons on the docks. Some kind of shipment came in today and Tim was morbidly curious. He dared to get a bit closer, ducking behind a stack of crates and concentrating on his cat form. He dropped his front paws to the ground and shook off the static in his limbs before hoping up onto the crates.

He’d gotten pretty good at the cat mannerisms so he wasn’t too concerned about being seen but he still kept as out of sight as he could manage while scoping out the docks. He rounded a corner just before Robin sent a goon flying into the wall next to Tim. He jumped and hissed loudly before leaping over the body and bolting off into a nearby warehouse.

Once Tim made it to the crates labeled with Black Mask’s emblem he looked around for one he wouldn’t have to open himself. It took a moment but he found one in the corner of the warehouse. He leapt up to the top of the box. Inside were meticulously lined up guns. Well that was boring, it was just some weapons shipment. It was different though, normal weapons shipments didn’t have this many Barrett M82’s and something about the scope looked…..odd.

There was no way Tim could take a close look as a cat and he wasn’t about to shift back while there were this many people around. So instead he swatted one of the scopes off a rifle and carefully picked it up with his mouth. He padded back over to the entrance to the warehouse and looked at the still raging fight.

Standing where Nightwing did just moments before was a sleek black panther. Tim almost chuckled, looks like they were finally taking it seriously. It did make him wonder though, why did Black Mask have such highly trained guards defending a routine weapons drop?

Tim didn’t stand around to wait for his questions to be answered, he took advantage of another crash as a distraction to race out of the docks and back towards Bristol.

Chapter Text

The bus ride back was rather uneventful. Tim flexed his fingers, getting used to the feeling of having thumbs again and stuck his hand in his pocket. His fingers met the cool metal of the scope and he let out a quiet sigh of relief. This was probably something that could absolutely get him killed if the wrong person found out he had it.

Tim got off at his normal stop and walked up the hill to Drake manor. He pulled down his hood, stepped into the empty mansion, and pulled the scope out of his pocket. He turned it over in his hands as he sat down on the floor of his living room. What made this weapon’s drop so special? What was so different about these rifles?

Tim held the scope up to his eye and looked through it. The metal was a bit bulkier than a normal one and there were sections of it that turned. As Tim looked through it there seemed nothing unusual with it until he slid his fingers along the loose section and turned the middle. A red dot suddenly appeared in the glass. That wouldn’t have been that strange if it wasn’t for the fact that the red dot tracked Tim’s eye and moved when he looked at different things in the room.

Tim pulled it away from his eye and blinked his vision back to normal, he glanced at it one more time before a notification on his phone went off. He jumped slightly and accidentally dropped the scope. He picked it back up and looked at his phone. The notification was from his mother.

‘We will be heading straight to Thailand when we are done in Türkiye.’

Tim stared at it for a little too long. Going straight to Thailand huh? It’s not like it would have mattered anyways, they would have only been home for two days to go to the Carson’s anniversary gala. He supposed they didn’t really want to deal with the Carsons and he really couldn’t blame them. Mrs. Carson was such a nasty woman, the epitome of entitlement and her husband was really just a glorified doormat with money.

Tim stood and headed to his room, he shut the door a little too loudly and set his phone down a little too hard. He crouched down to the floor and lifted the loose board. He set the scope down and placed the SD card he pulled from the camera next to it. He set the board back down as a plan started forming in his mind.

He had a theory about the rifles. If the scope tracked his eye then maybe there was something in the gun itself that made it so the bullet hit exactly what the user was looking at. It was quite the leap but not necessarily impossible given Black Mask’s resources. Tim would need a full rifle to actually see what was going on with it though. He decided he’d go back down to the docks tomorrow night and see what he could find.

Tim set his alarm for 6 so he could catch the 7:00 bus and get to school on time. He was not making that mistake again.

—

Calc was its normal boring self. Tim sat in the back so he could take naps whenever possible, unfortunately today was test day so he had to actually stay awake long enough to actually take the test.

Tim took one look at the test and almost groaned out loud. The integrals weren’t exactly hard, just tedious. He had to use by parts twice on the first one and the second was trig sub that had him wanting to burn the paper right then and there. The back side, mercifully, was just some polar conversions.

Tim finished the test with about a half hour of class left so he turned in the paper and walked out of the classroom. He turned down the main hallway to the library.

The Gotham Academy library was a monstrosity of modern architecture that tried too hard to look like an old European library. Tim didn’t particularly care for much of it but it didn’t matter since most of the time he spent in it was used for sleeping. He decided he’d skip second again today to extend his little nap. He took one of the big armchairs tucked in an out of sight corner and shut his eyes. The hall monitors didn’t usually appreciate people in the library that weren’t on an off period but if you were quiet and didn’t cause problems they wouldn’t check your schedule.

—

Tim had dreaded third period since lunch but Mr. Moon just had them practicing individual written responses for part 2 of his final so Tim didn’t even have to look at the psycho child in the front.

He made it through fourth too without a hitch, it helped that history was actually sort of interesting so he wasn’t nodding off the entire time.

The final bell rang and Tim was out of the classroom before anyone else like usual and headed out the front with the swarm of exhausted teens.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Asked a voice from next to Tim.

He turned with a confused look to see who it was but he knew from the voice alone that it was Damian. Shit. He had been so focused on going back to the docks tonight that he’d forgotten about the English final.

“Right,” he muttered as he stepped out of the way of the stream of kids and joined Damian on the side. “So, I can just meet you at your house in like an hour?” Tim asked, he almost scoffed at ‘house’. Wayne Manor was much more like a palace than a house.

“No,” Damian said, looking at Tim like he’d just suggested Damian should eat a double decker raw beef and onion sandwich. “You’ll come with me to the manor. I’d suggest you let your ride know that.”

Damian walked away and Tim followed as he muttered a quick “yeah ok,” and typed out a fake message to the first person on his recent contacts list, his mother. He pressed just above the send button when Damian looked over his shoulder and tucked his phone in his pocket. The psycho child looked satisfied enough by that and slid into a sleek black car. Tim followed suit and closed the door behind him.

“And who might this be master Damian?” Tim’s eyes snapped up to the driver’s seat where the Wayne family butler sat. The car started moving and Tim stared out the window at the buildings passing by.

“Timothy Drake, he is my partner for Mr. Moon’s final exam,” Damian responded.

“Just Tim’s fine,” Tim muttered.

“Well then master Tim I wish you both the best on your project,” the butler, Alfred, responded with a warm smile.

—

“Take off your shoes,” Damian demanded.

Tim didn’t really want to start anything so he just ignored the tone and removed his shoes and heard a growl behind him. Tim turned to see a Great Dane sitting next to the door.

“Titus” Damian scolded softly and the dog got up and strolled into the living room.

Tim kept an eye on it as he followed Damian up the stairs towards what he assumed would be the boy’s room. He’d never liked dogs that much and they’d never seemed to like him that much either.

Tim tried not to look insanely relieved when he didn’t see any other waynes, especially when he didn’t see Dick. Tim didn’t actually know if Dick had seen his face that night but he figured since there had been no angry bats at his door demanding to know why he’d been stalking them he assumed he hadn’t. He wasn’t about to test that theory though.

Tim set down his backpack in the room Damian stopped in, pulled out his laptop, and sat on the floor near him. He glanced at Damian’s screen, he had the provided materials up so Tim created a document and shared it with him.

Most of the sources had something to do with conformity so they decided to talk about cults because why not.

—

Tim hadn’t realized how much time had passed until he heard the front door open and a familiar voice run up the stairs. Dick Grayson opened Damian’s door with a little too much energy. Tim jumped and stared wide eyed for a second at the door before regaining his composure and looking back at his screen. Damian on the other hand just glared at his brother.

“Who’s your friend, Dami?” Dick asked excitedly.

Tim was about to open his mouth and say that they weren’t friends but Damian beat him to it, “Timothy’s my partner for Mr. Moon’s final,” Dick’s expression lit up for reasons beyond Tim’s imagination.

“Just Tim,” Tim corrected.

“Oh yeah, I know you, I’ve seen you around galas before,” Dick said a little too cheerfully, nobody should be that happy about galas, “well you guys should work on that downstairs, Alfred’s about to serve dinner.”

“That’s unnecessary,” Damian said flatly without looking up from his computer.

“Dami-,” Dick’s expression fell.

“It’s fine,” Tim spoke up. “We have plenty done for today and we have time in class to work on it. I can just head home.”

“No, stay for dinner,” Dick insisted.

“Really, it’s fine, I don’t want to intrude,” Tim persisted.

Dick sighed and seemed to accept defeat “alright fine, but at least let me drive you home.”

“I can walk,” Tim said. He really didn’t want to spend any time in a car alone with the only person who had maybe seen his face while he was taking pictures. Even if that car ride would likely only be a minute since he lived so close.

“I insist,” Dick said with a tight smile.

And this time it was Tim’s turn to accept defeat. He said goodbye to Damian, got a grunt in return, and headed out the front to Dick’s car.

Tim tried to stay calm through the drive but he kept fidgeting. When they stopped Tim practically jumped out of the car. He thanked Dick for the ride and hurried inside, closing the door quickly behind him and taking a few calming breaths.

Chapter Text

Tim takes his dark red hoodie off the hook it was hanging on and groans when he realizes it’s still wet. He’d actually been counting on it today, the thing had extra pockets galore that Tim had put in himself and he needed somewhere to put his lock picks if he wanted to actually get into the warehouse from before.

He eventually gave up and shoved it in the washing machine before pulling out a different black hoodie. He wrinkled his nose at it but put it on, he glanced at the camera on the kitchen table but decided against it today. He wasn’t going out to stalk, he was going out to find answers. Tim grabbed his keys and practically ran out the door when he saw the time, 10:49. He didn’t have that much time to do this he realized as he headed out towards the bus stop.

—

Tim made his way back down to the docks and ducked into an alley to shift. He padded around for a moment until he regained full feeling in his legs before setting off back on his way. There were guards stationed there but they were just regular security guards, not Black Mask’s guys.

There was an opening on the side of the warehouse. Nowhere near big enough for a person but just might be big enough for a little cat like Tim. He wiggled through the hole, a splinter of wood caught his shoulder and he hissed in pain but he made it through. Time glanced around, the warehouse was nearly empty except for one crate in the corner, he bolted for that crate but it was sealed shut. He tried to shove off the lid but there wasn’t nearly enough force from a five pound cat.

Tim concentrated back on his regular form. It took a second but he was pushing off the lid before he knew it, he just had to make sure not to alert any of the dock’s security. The lid clattered to the ground and Tim winced. He stood deathly still for a few seconds before deciding to just continue like no one had heard him. He looked into the crate and found the rifles he’d been looking at the other day. He picked one up, or well tried to, it was heavy and Tim struggled a bit before giving up and setting it on the crate.

He looked through the scope and turned the same dial he did on the one he had at home. The red dot appeared and started tracking his eye. Ok great, now what? Tim wanted to see if his theory was right but there was no way he could actually shoot the thing in this warehouse.

There was a loud crash outside the warehouse while Tim was contemplating, likely just from someone dropping a crate but he flinched at the sound and his finger slipped on the trigger. A loud bang echoed through the warehouse and Tim froze. There was a brief moment of absolute silence before he heard panicked voices outside. His heart raced as he dragged the weapon off the crate. He needed to leave. Now. But he wanted to take the rifle with. He couldn’t carry the thing as a cat but if he shifted with it then it would just morph with him like the camera did…right? It was hard enough to shift with the camera and Tim had never tried with anything larger before but he didn’t have much of a choice.

Tim concentrated, which was really difficult with the scratching of the keys in the lock on the warehouse doors. He only had a few more seconds when he felt the tingle. As soon as he dropped he didn’t wait to see if the rifle had come with him before bolting for the hole in the wall that he’d used to get in.

He managed to wiggle out and all that really happened was he scared a security guard on the other side. He didn’t stop to see if the guard was suspicious at all; he just ran back towards the city. It took longer than normal for Tim to get the feeling back in his feet but he kept moving as best he could.

—

It started to rain again. Only a few drops here and there but the drops on his head distracted Tim from the pounding in his little chest. He passed an empty bottle in an alley and had to stop when he saw his reflection. Instead of his usual white feet, one was colored a slightly lighter shade of black from the rest of his body. That calmed him down a bit more, this trip wasn’t all for nothing, the morph worked!

Tim rounded the corner to the bus stop and paused. He couldn’t shift back here. He’d just have a rifle in his hand and he didn’t care who was watching, a sixteen year old holding a Barrett M82 was extremely suspicious. The bus stopped in front of him and a woman got off before he could truly realize the predicament he was in. Tim ignored all logic in his brain and instead of boarding the bus as a cat he crawled under it and clung to the mess of pipes and wire covers. This was going to be one sucky bus ride.

The bus passed the Carson’s manor about 20 minutes later. Tim could tell because of the absolute trainwreck of a garden that he could see from under the bus. Someone really needed to get Mrs. Carson some color matching lessons. It seemed new money did not buy taste. The bus stopped a few blocks down the road and Tim dropped from his perch below.

He took a moment to rest from clinging on for so long. Apparently that moment was too long because the bus started moving. Tim froze in place and shut his eyes until he couldn’t feel the rumbling of the bus above him. He was about to move out of the road when he heard a familiar voice say.

“Aw, poor baby, almost got run over by the bus!”

Tim needed to get out of here but before he could move he felt hands wrap around his stomach and lift him up. He tried to get out of the grasp but his limbs were still trembling too much.

“He’s cold, and shaking,” said a different voice that Tim also recognized but it was softer than he’d ever heard it. “We should take him inside.”

“Robin-,” the first voice warned gently, who Tim finally recognized as Dick, or well Nightwing right now. “He’s probably just an outdoor cat and has an owner. Bristol doesn’t get strays.”

Robin scoffed “they obviously don’t take well enough care of him. Look at him. He’s scared, and look at that gash in his shoulder,” he said, bringing Tim closer to his chest.

Ok Tim definitely had to get out of here. He gathered every last bit of strength he had and clawed his way out of Robin’s grip. He didn’t feel too bad, the kid had gloves that Tim’s tiny little claws couldn’t penetrate so he wouldn’t actually scratch him. The message did seem to go through though because Robin did set him on the ground, it felt rather reluctant though. Tim wasn’t about to turn and look at his face to see, instead he bolted straight across the street. It was the Elliot’s house. Tim might have been a bit delirious but he knew better than to just go straight home with bats watching him. Even if he was in cat form.

—

Tim stumbled through a window on the first floor of Drake manor and made his way up the stairs to his room where shifted back to normal with a little too much effort. As soon as he was human he collapsed, the cut on his shoulder felt like it was on fire as it expanded when he shifted. Next to him the gun clattered onto the floor and he vaguely remembered hiding it in the floorboards before trying to fall asleep.

—

Tim walked into fourth that Friday feeling a bit better than he had that morning. Despite the sheer exhaustion from the night before, he had barely slept, he’d been too paranoid about someone from the docks finding out that he’d taken the gun.

But he’d gotten a nap during second and stolen some coffee from the janitor. He felt a bit bad about the coffee but he was desperate.

Tim sat in his usual seat for history and expected everyone else to do the same, unfortunately he did not account for one Stephanie Brown. Apparently she had bribed the girl who usually sat next to him, Isla, with a pack of gum to switch seats. Why? Tim had no clue until Ms. Mackey announced a group project with the person sitting next to you. Stephanie grinned at him and he tried to match it in his tired state. God, he needed to stop getting into group projects with Wayne/Wayne adjacent kids.

—

A few more energy drinks and another nap when he got home later, Tim was ready to go back out.

Tim pulled on the now washed dark red hoodie that he’d worn the night of the storm. He stared at it for a little too long, he was positive Nightwing would remember him if he saw it. Though it wasn’t like any of them knew that the kid on the roof was actually Tim so maybe it was fine. He sighed, threw the hoodie on and made a mental note to be extra careful about staying out of the way tonight.

—

Well that was odd. The two that Tim had been following, Batman and Robin, had turned off their usual patrol route. Well that wasn’t exactly unusually, they responded to calls from each other all the time but this was different. They didn’t look worried enough to be responding to a call for help with a fight and they didn’t seem curious enough for a call for help with a mystery. They just looked normal, like they were just on patrol. Maybe they changed the routes? No that couldn’t be it.

Tim furrowed his brow and dropped to the roof as a cat. He shook off the tingle before following behind the pair. Far enough for them to not notice him but close enough to keep an eye.

Chapter Text

“Alright, I’ve got something,” the voice crackled through the speakers in the computer.

Dick looked up from the case he had been working on to watch Bruce’s expression turn serious again. He sighed and walked over to the computer. They had just gotten back from a rather difficult patrol. Black Mask had a suspicious weapons drop at the docks and all the guards had actually been trained. What happened to mob bosses just hiring random people off the street?

“Something? For what? Black Mask?” He asks over Bruce’s shoulder.

“No, I’ve got something for that kid you guys found. B wanted me to look into them,” she replied and any warmth in the room seemed to drain.

Dick sent Bruce a pointed glare that he, conveniently, ignored. Bruce really just couldn’t keep his nose out of other people’s lives, could he?

“Did you identify the child?” Bruce questioned.

“No there was no way to tell, they obviously know where the cameras are and how to avoid them. But there’s a new apartment complex being built on King Street. Their security cameras will be set up by Friday.”

Oh, ok so that’s how it was going to be. “You can’t seriously be considering tricking this kid into showing their face?” Most of Dick’s frustrations were directed at Bruce right now.

“That’s exactly what I’m considering.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

Bruce sighed. “This child was spying on you, we don’t know how long they’ve been doing so, and we don’t know what information they have or who they work for. We need something to go on.”

“And what if this kid isn’t a threat? What if they’re just some street kid taking pictures of the thunderstorm and got spooked by the grappling hook?” Dick demanded.

“The camera was far too expensive for a street kid to have.”

“Ok fine, not a street kid, that’s not the point. It doesn’t mean they’re a threat!”

“We can’t rule anything out,” Bruce insisted.

Dick glared at his father, “you’re impossible.”

“If they’re gathering information for a rogue they’re putting both us and themselves in danger, not to mention they could be a meta.”

“And if they’re not? What if you’re wrong?”

Bruce didn’t respond but Dick could assume that he was thinking something along the lines of ‘I’m never wrong’. Dick accepts he’s not getting any more answers out of the brute today, so he walks off.

He pauses when he hears the sounds of metal clashing, his brow furrows until he realizes it’s coming from the sparring mats. He heads towards the room and stands in the doorway, watching his little brother show the training dummy absolutely no mercy.

“Damian,” Dick calls into the room.

Damian pauses and looks at the door. “Grayson,” he greets.

“I think it’s time I pay up on our little bargain,” he says, pulling his escrima sticks, he really needed to clear his head. “Put down your sword.”

“What?” Damian makes no move to disarm himself.

“Put down your sword,” Dick repeats. “We’re going to spar in shift.”

Damian’s brow furrowed. “The group portion of the final is not over. I have not fulfilled my end yet.”

Dick gives him a lopsided smile. “Yeah? well I want to, besides, you and Tim seem to be working pretty well together.”

“Timothy isn’t completely clueless,” Damian sets his sword down and moves to one side of the mat to match his brother’s position.

They stand for a moment before Dick makes the first move. He doesn’t think, he just seamlessly transitions from human to his panther form as he lunges for Damian.

Damian too shifts without any issues into his grey wolf. He snarls and shoves Dick with his shoulder. Dick counters by unsheathing claws and taking a swipe at Damian. He dodged and rolled out of the way, trying to get behind Dick.

Sparring in shift was always fun but almost never helpful. Shifters were incredibly rare so they were likely to never come across another shifter that they had to fight. It was much more productive to have one person in shift and one out.

Damian managed to slip behind Dick and attacked. Dick had been expecting it though, he whipped around and caught Damian’s throat in his mouth. Dick pinned him to the mat and tightened his jaw ever so slightly in a show of victory. A moment later he pulled back and just as seamlessly shifted back to normal. He was grinning as he grabbed Damian’s, also now human, hand and pulled him up.

Damian grumbled something about Dick being bigger so it wasn’t fair. Dick just laughed and left his brother to his sword and training dummy.

—

“I still don’t like this,” Dick protested through comms as everyone made their way down to the new apartment complex.

Bruce just grunted. “You’ve made your objections quite clear.”

Dick just sighed, there was absolutely no arguing with Bruce when he was like this.

“Do you have any visuals, O?” Jason asks from Dick’s side.

“Just be patient. Wait until you get to cameras they don’t know about,” came the reply.

Dick and Jason grappled up to the top of the under construction skyscraper and waited for the rest to show up. Bruce and Damian were next, closely followed by Stephanie and Cass.

“Alright now what?” Dick asks

“I’ve got all the camera feeds up, if they cross any I’ll know about it. Just act like you’re doing something important.” Oracle replied through the little speakers in their ears.

They wait for a few more moments before Dick speaks up. “B this is pointless. They’re not going to show-.”

Dick is, very rudely, interrupted by Oracle. “I’ve got someone.”

“Horrid timing, O,” Dick grumbles as Steph and Jason chuckle behind his back.

Oracle seems to ignore him. “And I’ve got a face, the facial recognition will take a sec, you guys can head back to the cave now.” She says.

—

Dick walks back into the cave behind Stephanie. She glances up at the screen of the computer and freezes. “What?” She whispers under her breath.

Dick follows her gaze up to the screen when he sees it too. No. That couldn’t be right. Up on the screen was a picture of the kid’s face from tonight and next to it was a boy’s school picture with ‘Timothy Jackson Drake’ written below it. “There’s no way.”

“Yeah, Tim’s a good kid, he wouldn’t be involved with rogues,” Steph protested. She’d only really spent an hour and a half with him in history that day but from what she also knew from what Damian had told her she could piece together enough.

“The facial recognition software found a 98% match,” Bruce said solemnly.

And well shit. That was damning. The 2% error certainly came from the fact that CCTV was such bad quality.

“We’ll need more information,” Bruce said after a few moments of silence.

“And how do you suppose we get that, old man?” Jason asked. He had his helmet tucked under his arm and didn’t look too pleased either, probably because he was thinking about how best to kill whoever was using a kid for information.

“His house is next door-.”

“Oh absolutely not!” Dick exclaimed. “You’re not searching the kid’s house.”

“I agree with Grayson, father. I doubt Timothy would be engaging with rogues,” Damian said, stepping forward.

“Damian’s right, he wouldn’t do that, he’s just a normal kid,” Steph agreed.

“So you’re suggesting he’s out at midnight, following us for no reason?” Bruce questions.

Neither Damian or Steph didn’t have an answer for that so Dick chimed back in. “It doesn’t matter if he’s working with a rogue or not, you have no right to invade his life like this.”

“He could be compromising our identities.”

Dick was about to open his mouth to respond when he heard a scolding voice from the stairs.

“I do believe you should continue discussing this in the morning. Once everyone is rested and fed,” Alfred. Dick happy for the interruption but he needed to know that Bruce wouldn’t go straight to Drake manor looking for something and terrify Tim.

“I won’t allow anyone to bother that poor boy until you all look more like humans than zombies,” Alfered said firmly. Dick relaxed, nobody in that room would dare go against any of Alfred’s orders.

“Fine, we’ll talk later, but my opinion won’t change,” Dick called from the stairs. Him, Damian, Jason, Cass and Steph headed upstairs. Leaving just Bruce and Alfred in the cave.

Chapter Text

The classroom was quiet, only the sounds of typing and the occasional whisper between partners indicated that there were even people in the room. Everyone was in a food coma from lunch and already had limited energy because it was Monday. Mr. Moon made his rounds, making sure that all the kids were actually working on their projects and not playing snake.

Damian glanced over at his own partner, he didn’t remember noticing him much before last Wednesday. The teen could really just disappear when he wanted to. That fact was pretty noticeable when anyone who passed them in the hall they were sitting in rarely even looked at Tim.

“I have a couple sources here about how cults affect children raised in them, we should do a section on that,” Tim said, tearing Damian away from his thoughts.

“There will not be enough space,” Damian replied matter of factly.

“We could cut down the part about how cults form.”

“We can’t cut it out, it’s important,” Damian said, glancing at Tim’s screen. He had one of the sources he’d been talking about open and he read the title. ‘Cults and how their children are affected’ and just below Tim was reading a section titled, ‘martial arts cult in the Himalayas’. Damian’s brow furrowed, there was no way that article was about the league but he made a mental note to check it out later.

Tim grumbled, “Cut it down, not cut it out. We don’t need two paragraphs. It would make sense to talk more about how cults maintain membership through the kids born into them.”

“The rubric states that we must establish our research points. Discussing formations does that.”

“It also says we have to talk about future implications,” Tim was getting more and more annoyed with the child as this continued. “Just trust me on this,” he said with a bit more bite behind it than he had anticipated.

“Why should I,” Damian shot back. He didn’t trust anything from Tim, especially after they’d found out it was him who was stalking them.

“What?” Tim asked incredulously.

“You have a C in this class.”

“How did you-.”

“If I wished for mediocrity, I would do it your way, but some of us strive for exceptional.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Tim demanded.

“I mean that it’s obvious you are nearly attempting to pass the class while I wish to maintain an A,” Tim opened his mouth to respond but Damian continued, “We were made aware that we would need to work on this outside of class yet I have never seen you on the document outside of school hours.”

“I- I have stuff for other classes,” Tim muttered, avoiding Damian’s eyes.

No, he didn’t. Damian knew Tim was smart, that part was obvious, he just never put any effort into any of his classes. “You don’t.”

“Excuse me.”

“Calculus ended last Friday, P.E. Does not give homework, and your history project with Brown is finished.”

Tim looked at him with slightly widened eyes. Damian hadn’t said ‘so what are you hiding?’ But Tim could read between the lines. The effect was obvious as the air seemed to get heavier between them.

Tim knit his eyebrows and glared at Damian. “Alright, fine. If you’re so determined to make it perfect, do it yourself, see if I care.” He muttered before grabbing his backpack from where it had been leaning against the lockers on the wall and walked off.

Damian scoffed quietly. Of course he’d run as soon as someone caught him in a lie. He watched Tim turn the corner before bringing his eyes back to his screen and continuing to type.

—

Damian went through the last period of the day more annoyed than usual. Tim had run as soon as Damian even remotely let on that he knew something about what Tim’s nightlife was like. He needed more information so as soon as he made it back to the manor he immediately headed for the cave. Jason sat on the side, most likely working on a case and his father was sitting at the computer just as he had predicted.

“Father, I wish to search Drake manor.” Damian declared. With Dick in Blüdhaven for the week and Stephanie on a field trip it made this much easier. Without their voices to object things would run much smoother.

Bruce stilled and even Jason looked up with an eyebrow raised.

“Anything in particular that brought on this change of heart,” Jason joked.

“No,” Damian lied. The others both seemed to realize he’d lied but didn’t press the issue any farther.

After a moment of contemplating Bruce pulled up the blueprints for Drake manor. “Tonight is the Carson's anniversary gala. The Drakes are expected to attend but you won’t need to go.”

“So the house will be empty?” Damian asked.

“Theoretically,” Bruce answered. “Jason will go with you.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Damian said with disgust.

“He’s not your babysitter, he’s your backup if something goes wrong.”

“Do I get a say in this?” Jason asked from the corner. Apparently also not quite happy about the arrangement.

“No,” Bruce replied flatly.

“Great.”

—

Jason and Damian were on the Drake property by the time the gala had started. Oracle had disabled the very few, very outdated, security cameras they had. Jason picked one of the window locks, it was laughably easy, and they were in the house.

The place looked like a museum. Dust-covered cases full of artifacts covered the walls and everything seemed meticulously placed. Damian walked to the living room and his eyes landed on the couch. There was a single decorative pillow that looked out of place and next to it were three claw marks. Weird, he was under the impression that the Drakes didn’t have any animals.

The pair made their way upstairs and found what Damian assumed was Tim’s room. This was by far the most ‘lived in’ looking room in the whole manor but that didn’t mean it was entirely normal. The bed wasn’t made, the computer on his desk was half open with light still coming from the screen and the closet was ajar but there was also a lock on the outside of the door. What kind of family had a lock on the outside of their kid’s door?

They looked through it, carefully opening drawers, looking around furniture, and scanning for any signs of….well..anything.

“We’ve got nothing here O,” Jason said through comms. There was a slight hum from Oracle that came back through.

“Are you sure you’ve looked everywhere?” She asked, sounding unconvinced.

“Yeah, pretty sure,” Jason said as he paced the room. He took a step and it sounded more echoey than the others. “Wait a second,” he muttered.

Damian glanced over when he heard Jason say that and watched as he crouched and ran his fingers over the floor. He pressed on the floor in a few spots before he found something that moved slightly. Jason grinned, “Bingo.”

Jason pried the floorboard up and revealed a hidden compartment just below it. He sucked in a breath and called Damian over.

Damian glanced over Jason’s shoulder and his brow furrowed when he pulled a gun out of the compartment. “What is that?”

“That,” Jason said, “is one of the rifles that we intercepted a few days ago.”

“The ones from Black Mask? Why would Timothy have one?” Damian questioned.

“I dunno,” Jason replied through slightly grit teeth as he turned the rifle over gently in his hands. “But it looks like this one’s been fired.”

Damian glanced back into the compartment and leaned down to pick up an SD card.

Jason lifted an eyebrow. “What’d you think is on that?”

Damian was about to respond when he heard Oracle on comms say “incoming,” and then heard the crunch of gravel outside. His head snapped up to see a car pull into the driveway. Damian looked outside in confusion, they should have had at least another hour. Jason heard it too and they quickly got to work putting everything back exactly as they found it and leaving out the same window they came in.

—

Bruce was waiting for them when they got back to the cave.

“Report,” he demanded.

“Kid’s got one of those fancy Black Mask rifles and an SD card we didn’t look at in a compartment under one of his floorboards,” Jason said, tossing his holsters to the side so he didn’t try and shoot anyone.

Bruce’s expression darkens. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking Black Mask is using the kid for information.”

“That would certainly make sense,” Bruce muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Jason sighed and tried to calm down a bit. “So who gets to tell golden boy ‘I told you so’?”

Chapter Text

Tim walked into history a bit early after he’d stormed out of English. He was joined a few minutes later after passing period by Steph. She gave him a weird look and sat next to him.

“Who pissed in your coffee this morning?” She joked and shoved his arm playfully.

Tim rolled his eyes but smiled. Her grin was just so contagious he couldn’t help it. “Your brother,” he muttered.

“My- oh, Damian? He’s not really my brother,”
Steph laughed.

Tim waved his hand dismissively, “close enough.”

“Yeah, he can be kind of an ass sometimes, but he’s a decent kid,” Steph said as she leaned her head on her propped up palm.

Tim scoffed lightly, thinking back to the kids' speech on Tim’s ‘mediocrity’, “yeah right.”

Steph just chuckled before she looked up at the clock and suddenly stood up. “Oh my god I’m gonna be late!”

She startled Tim and looked up in surprise at Steph.

“Oh, sorry,” she said, winching slightly when she saw Tim startle. “I need to be on the bus to Ocean City,” she explained.

Tim nodded along, he’d only been hearing her gush about the trip for weeks now, her AP Bio class was taking a trip down to Ocean City. Two days and two nights in a condo near the boardwalk sounded pretty lovely but Tim had never been a fan of the Ocean so he wasn’t too jealous.

The two were already done with their project, they’d been given a few days but it really only took one class period so they’d been spending the last two days goofing off and stealing the pass to go wander the halls. They’d only met a hall monitor once, surprisingly, but Tim wasn’t about to complain.

He sat there bored out of his mind with nothing to do for a bit. He hadn’t realized how much Steph had made the mundane fun until she wasn’t there anymore. Tim gave up after about ten minutes and just walked out of the classroom. He ignored Ms. Mackey’s protests and just headed home early.

—

Tim walked down from the bus stop in Bristol like he usually did to get home. His expression morphed into one of confusion when he saw a car parked in the driveway. His parents were supposed to be in Thailand for the next two months, so why were they here?

Tim hesitantly pushed open the door and walked into his parents already deep into the flurry of unpacking. His mother caught his eye and smiled with no real emotion behind it.

“Hello dear, I’m sorry we didn’t give you much of a heads up but our plans for Thailand fell through so we thought we would come and celebrate the Carson’s anniversary,” she explained.

Tim’s father then comes up behind and pats his back hard enough to make him stumble. “Come on kid, why don’t you help your mother and I unpack?”

The next few hours were a blur of preparations and unnecessary unpacking. His parents would just shove it back into the suitcase by the next day and be back on a plane so he never quite understood why they were so adamant about it.

—

“Timothy!” His mother called up the stairs.

Tim tapped the floorboard in his room one last time as a nervous habit to make sure it was still safe. He let out a small relieved sigh before quickly making his way downstairs.

His mother was dressed in a long emerald green evening gown with her hair precariously piled on top of her heat. His father stood next to her in a boring regular suit, Tim really didn’t have room to make fun though because his own suit was really just a smaller copy.

“Janet, dear, we’re going to be late,” his father said impatiently as his mother tidied up the last few things.

Tim’s eyes fell onto a decorative pillow that his mother was currently straightening and he froze.

His mother stilled as well when she saw what was under it. “Timothy,” she said tightly.

Tim had used the pillow to hide claw marks from one time that he had broken his wrist and shifting had been absolute agony. To his mother though, it was nothing but proof that Tim had ‘unbecoming of a Drake’ while they were away. Why did she have to move the pillow? It was barely out of place and no one ever used the couch!

“Janet, come on, we’ll discuss this later,” his father’s voice was dripping with thinly veiled anger.

His mother set down the pillow harder than necessary, her lips drawn into a thin line. She avoided looking at Tim and honestly he didn’t blame her. His father followed his wife out the door and down the driveway to the car.

—

The gala was boring as always. He had to stick to his parents' side because apparently they didn’t trust him to ‘uphold the family name’ anymore. It seemed a bit ridiculous to Tim but the Drakes were nothing if not dramatic. Whatever, they’d be gone within the week, he could deal with a couple days of this.

“I hear Timothy will be graduating early,” says a voice from in front of him. Oh shoot he hadn’t been paying attention.

“Yes, he’s always been a smart boy,” his father said with that disgustingly fake smile.

Tim glanced up just to see his mother’s pointed glare. Great. She’d seen him zone out. Add that to the pile of infractions tonight.

The man who’d been talking to them wandered off to go talk to someone else. Tim turned to grab a cracker from the snack table when he heard a different voice start talking with his parents.

“I hear Tim and Damian are taking on Mr. Moon’s infamous final together,” Bruce Wayne. Goddamnit. Was Tim just a Wayne magnet at this point?

He faced back at the conversation in time to his mother’s face twitch slightly at the nickname. He knew she’d always hated it when he shortened his name. He also noted the polite shock on his parent’s faces.

“I don’t believe we were aware of that,” his father said with a smile creeping onto his face. That was exactly why Tim hadn’t told them, they would have wanted to use him as a way to get closer to the Waynes.

“Really?” Bruce asked with both eyebrows raised.

“Tim’s always been so independent, we hardly hear anything that’s going on in his life anymore,” his mother said. She laughed politely but Tim could see under the facade and he was sure Mr. Wayne could too.

“Right,” Bruce muttered, his gaze slipping into something more calculating.

“Where is your son anyway? Surely you would want to adjust him as soon as possible,” his father asked, tactlessly changing the subject.

Oh that was a mistake. Anyone with a brain would be able to understand he was talking about the last gala he’d attended, the one where Damian had almost stabbed Mrs. Carson with a steak knife for making some comment about Mr. Wayne’s habit of picking up ‘unsavory’ children.

Everyone knew not to insinuate anything about Mr. Wayne’s kids in front of him but Tim’s father, like nearly everyone else in the room, assumed Mr. Wayne was drunk. Tim could see it though, his eyes were too sharp. He saw the way he’d secretly dump the drinks into planters and just act more and more drunk as the night went on.

“Oh he’s just at home. You know how kids are, never want to go to a social event unless there’s pizza and games,” Mr. Wayne joked with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Of course,” Tim’s mother replied but Tim could see the disapproval in her eyes. She’d never voice her concerns though, nobody criticized the Bruce Wayne.

Tim’s father cleared his throat and said “well if you’ll excuse us, it’s getting late and Timothy’s had a long day.”

“Oh by all means,” Mr. Wayne replied. “It was good seeing you Tim.”

Tim gave him a slight smile. He didn’t care that it probably looked far too forced but in his defense he was a little preoccupied. He followed his parents outside and down to their car.

—

The ride home was short and tense. Tim could only hope that they’d forgotten about the couch. Unfortunately, the universe did not answers his prayers

Tim’s mother walked into the house first and the first thing she looked at was the couch. She was already upset after the interaction with Mr. Wayne but with the reminder of Tim’s inadequacies she was fuming.

“You’re not an animal Timothy,” she said tightly, “why must you insist on acting like one?” She demanded.

“I-,” Tim started, but he was cut off by his father.

“Timothy, we expect you to remain accountable when we aren’t here.”

Tim didn’t really know how to respond to that so all he could really do was stand frozen in the middle of the living room. His mother’s expression darkened and she stormed over. She grabbed his upper arm, digging her nails into his skin through the fabric. Tim stumbled as she dragged him up the stairs.

“Clearly we can’t trust you to not run around as an animal like some street kid!” She exclaimed as she paused in front of Tim’s room.

She looked at Tim with anger clear on her face. She used the momentum of Tim’s last stumble to shove him through the door. Tim fell backwards, hitting his back on his bed frame. His mother slammed the door shut and he heard the familiar click of the lock. He glared at the door until he heard footsteps getting farther away.

Tim tried the handle, it jiggled but didn’t move. Figures. Tim sighed and changed into more comfortable clothes, this wasn’t the end of the world. He’d just sneak out his window once his parents left and they’d forget that they even locked the door by the time they managed to get back to Gotham.

Tim closed his closet door and glanced around the room. Something felt….. off. Everything was exactly how he’d left it so why? Tim’s eyes then locked with his computer. It was closed. He’d been so sure that he’d left it open. Tim’s heart stopped when he started making connections….someone had been in here.

He scrambled for the floorboard and practically tore it out of the floor. He let out a sigh of relief when everything was there but that didn’t mean someone hadn’t gone through his things. But who? Did Black Mask notice one of his guns was missing? That one seemed pretty unlikely. Maybe a robber? But nothing was stolen. Or maybe one of the hundreds of artifacts was gone and they just hadn’t noticed it yet, there were a lot of clay pot shards that looked exactly the same.

Chapter Text

“Todd,” Damian approached Jason as he hopped off his parked motorcycle. Jason was showing up in the cave more often now but it was still rather unlikely to find him wandering around.

“What do you want?” Jason asked dismissively.

“I require your help with Mr. Moon’s final.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “You have a partner for that. Who was yours anyway?”

“Timothy Drake,” Damian responded, “He is no longer contributing to the project.”

Jason let out a low whistle, “our little stalker? So what? Did he just refuse to do any work? Tough luck demon brat.”

“So will you help me?” Damian asked.

“No can do, kid. Outside help is strictly forbidden if I remember correctly. I can’t be out here promoting academic dishonesty now can I?”

Damian narrowed his eyes, “I don’t remember you being so inclined to follow the rules.”

“Maybe, but what kind of big brother would I be if I let you go around blatantly cheating,” Jason turned and walked off, waving behind his head at Damian. He was likely off to go bother whoever stood at the top of the stairs. He seemed to be enjoying this far too much.

—

“Oracle,” Damian greeted through a private comm line.

“Robin,” Oracle greeted.

“I require your help when I get back to the cave.”

“Of course. May I ask what this is about?” She questioned carefully. It was rare that Damian ever asked for help, especially from her. Barbara was met with silence on the other end of comms. She huffed in annoyance but moved onto the main channel where she could help with patrol.

—

“So. Are you going to tell me what this is about?” Barbara asked when she saw Damian enter the cave on the cameras. Her voice came through the speakers on the computer.

Damian sat in the chair his father usually used and gazed up at the screen. “I need to fake my partner’s contributions to our project.”

Barbara was silent for a second. “May I ask why?”

“No.”

“Very well.” Damian heard Barbara typing through the speakers. “It shouldn’t be too difficult, the school hardly has good security.”

Damian looked at the small frame that Barbara occupied on the computer with thinly veiled surprise. “You’re just going to help me?”

“Sure. Why not? I can and I’m not busy so may as well,” she replied.

“But isn’t it cheating?” Damian had expected her to respond how Jason had.

Barbara just laughed from the other end. “Oh please, you’re in high school, it’s not the end of the world. What’s the saying? ‘If you’re not cheating you’re not trying?’”

Damian sat there dumbfounded. Was Barbara truly this lenient with rules? How had he not noticed?

“Thank you for your time, Oracle,” Damian said before heading out of the cave and letting Barbara do whatever she needed to. Damian just needed to finish the rest of the project by Thursday. That shouldn’t be too difficult.

—

Patrol was more boring than usual, not once did Damian get to punch anyone. Everyone else seemed pleased by this fact but the night just appeared pointless to Damian. That was until he saw a flash out of the corner of his eye. He snapped his gaze to the roof where he’d seen it but nothing was there. He narrowed his eyes on the building.

“Hey! Demon brat let’s go” Jason called from behind him.

Damian ripped his gaze away and followed Jason down to meet up with the others. Damian landed right next to Jason with Cass and Bruce already there.

“What was that all about?” Jason asked as Dick landed in front of them.

“I thought I saw a camera but no one was there.”

Jason chuckled, “guess our little stalker’s back then.”

“You shouldn’t be taking this so lightly, he’s still a threat,” Damian said coolly.

Dick looked up, now very interested in their conversation, “he’s not a threat,” he corrected. “He’s probably just curious.”

Jason raised his hands in mock surrender, “maybe. But that rifle in his room was pretty damning.”

“In his room? What? Did you guys search his house?!” Dick’s voice rose as realization dawned. “B what the hell?! We agreed to not search the house!”

Bruce just grunted under the cowl. “The search was enlightening,” well that apparently wasn’t the right thing to say Damian thought as he saw a flash of anger cross Dick’s expression.

“You can’t be serious.” Dick sounded calm but Damian saw his right eye twitch. “Do tell me, what was it that you found there? What makes breaking into the kid’s home okay?” He demanded.

“They found one of Black Mask’s rifles,” Bruce said.

Dick scoffed, “you can’t seriously be thinking that he’s working with Black Mask?”

“Willingly? No.” Jason interrupted, “but there’s a chance he’s being coerced somehow,” his face wasn’t visible under his helmet but his voice was much less sarcastic and much more serious than usual.

Dick got silent for a second, “are you sure?”

Jason shrugged, “it’s a theory. But one that makes a lot of sense.”

“We should talk to him,” Dick turned his attention to Damian and Jason. “And you two better help.”

Jason shook his head “count me out, I’ve got a tip on a drug deal tomorrow at some street dog fighting ring.”

Dick wrinkled his nose in disgust, “those rings are awful, can’t it wait?”

“Sorry, no”

“Ok whatever, Damian can just talk to the kid at school.”

Damian was about to protest but everyone seemed to move on before he could speak up. He snuck on last glance up to the roof where he’d seen the flash. Still no one. His lips pressed together in an annoyed line as he followed his family back to the cave.

—

Damian sat in third period English, working on the final alone. It would have been suspicious if Timothy had actually bothered to show up but he wasn’t here today. Damian had walked into the room, expecting Timothy to be early like he usually was but his desk was empty. Mr. Moon had frowned at it and approached Damian during work time.

“Hey, Damian. Do you know where Tim is?” He asked quietly as to not disrupt the other partnerships.

“I do not,” Damian replied without looking up, Timothy was probably just avoiding Damian like the coward he was.

Mr. Moon frowned but left him alone. Damian just hoped that Timothy wouldn’t show up for the next few days and just allow Damian to do this by himself.

Chapter Text

Tim was woken up but the sound of tires on gravel. He frowned and in his half asleep state figured it was some trick his mind was playing on him but the headlights flooding his window said otherwise. He got out of his bed groggily and looked out the window just in time to see his father’s car pull out of the driveway.

Tim stood there frozen for a moment after the lights had made it over the hill and out of sight. It was common for them to leave again soon after they got home but the same night? That was new.

Tim shook off the surprise and moved to open the door. The handle didn’t move. Wonderful, they’d forgotten to unlock it. Tim groaned and headed over to the window, looks like he’d have to do this the hard way.

Opening the window was annoyingly difficult. The thing was ancient and so sticky but Tim managed to wiggle it open enough for he cat form to get through. He was already tired so this was going to suck but whatever. Tim concentrated on the visual of his cat and felt the drop down to his front paws. He shook out his limbs before hopping up onto the window sill and squeezing through the opening.

Tim dropped into a bush and quickly checked the surrounding area for anyone who might see him shift. It was late, or early, Tim hadn’t checked the time, but it was dark, so no one was walking around.

Once shifted, Tim made his way up to the front door and found the key hidden under the mat. For being such rich people the Drakes really had some crappy security, but Tim wasn’t one to complain about something that helped when they forgot to unlock his door.

He stepped through the door and the first thing he noticed was a sticky note hastily placed on the shoe cabinet. Tim frowned and moved closer to read it.

‘Timothy, an opportunity came up to go out to the Philippines instead of Thailand. We should be back by the Elliot’s charity gala at the end of November. - J. Drake’

Tim could guess that it was probably his mother that had written the note, his dad’s handwriting wasn’t legible most of the time, but it wasn’t like it mattered. It was weird though. Why would they have remembered to leave a note but not unlock his door? Tim shrugged it off and tossed the note in the trash before heading up to his room and unlocking the bolt on the outside.

—

Tim was back out on the streets by the next night. Powered by copious amounts of energy drinks and spite.

He spent the night following around the bats like usual but it was just plain boring tonight. Nothing happened, nobody got into a fight, not even a little one. What a waste of time.

Tim was about to call it quits and just head home but he figured he’d just snap one last picture, but as he looked through the view a shiver ran down his spine when he made eye contact with Robin. What the hell? He was looking straight at Tim for what felt like an eternity before he was pulled away by someone, Tim didn’t check to see who it was. The second that psycho’s eyes were off him he stumbled away from the edge of the roof.

He was rarely this unstable, he usually kept his cat-like balance even when in human form and he really should have expected the bats to know about his little escapades by now but the interaction had still rattled him.

Maybe it was the fact that he was 90% sure someone had gone through his room. Had it been them? And had they gone through the SD card? Tim winced as he remembered the rifle, yeah that was way more condemning than a few pictures……okay maybe more like a few hundred pictures, but it wasn’t like he was just handing them out!

Once Tim had scrambled out of view and he tried to make his way down the fire escape, trying to keep his hands from shaking too bad from the adrenaline rush but he gave up about a third of the way down and just sat there. He’d climbed up this old building more times than he could count, he could do this with his eyes closed if he really wanted to but he needed more than a logical brain to convince his body that he wasn’t actively plummeting to his death.

Shaky breath after shaky breath left his mouth as he sat on the metal platforms and pipes that made up whatever janky contraption he used to get up. Tim felt a drop of water on his nose. He looked up and truly contemplated in that moment what he’d done in a past life that made the universe hate him so much as the sky opened up and it started pouring.

Tim looked down at the ground miserably and debated just jumping off and shifting on the way down. The wet metal was pretty much a death trap at this point so really, what was there to lose?

The platform creaked as Tim swung his legs over the side and tried to ignore the freezing rain falling on him to focus on his shifted form. It took a bit longer than normal for him to feel the familiar tingle and hop off the platform.

He landed on the ground with a soft thud and he was almost proud of himself before he heard a gasp to his side. He snapped his little head up to see a woman standing at the mouth of the alley. She had a bright red umbrella and Tim briefly wondered if she was the inspiration behind those Liz Hess paintings but he was a bit more preoccupied with the look of shock and……something else in her eyes. It took Tim a second to place the expression outside of a gala setting but it was the face he saw on someone who had just closed a big deal. Something akin to satisfaction.

She’d seen him shift.

And was, for some reason, happy about it.

This was bad.

The woman took a step towards him and he tried to scramble into the alley and find some kind of cover but his limbs were still a bit too numb and his brain was still a bit too disoriented to make it far enough before the woman caught up to him. He clawed at her arms, hissed, even tried to bite her. He did everything he could to get out of her arms but her grip was rock solid and Tim wasn’t exactly the biggest kitten out there so his efforts were pretty much futile.

Her grip remained just as strong as Tim’s energy faded and he was practically a motionless lump. He didn’t know how long they’d been walking but he didn’t really count on a rescue. Who would really question a woman trying to pick up a stray?

—

Tim heard the jingle of someone opening a door into a store before he was, rudely, blinded by fluorescent lights. He weakly hissed and turned his face away from the ceiling.

“Oh, I know, the lights are awful, aren’t they?” The woman cooed.

“What’ve I told you about strays?” Said a voice from inside the store, it was a man’s, a bit rough with a strong crime alley accent. Wait. Crime alley? Where the hell did this lady take him?!

“This one’s special. Call up Carson, tell him I’ve got him a shifter.”

Tim could practically hear the man’s eyebrow raise, “A shifter? Don’t you think he’s a bit small to put in?” The man questioned.

“He’ll grow,” the woman chided, “and tell Carson I want full price.”

The man sighed and Tim heard his footsteps grow fainter. After a few moments the footsteps returned and Tim felt someone grab him by his scruff. Tim tried one last desperate attempt to get free but there was a sharp inch in his neck and he went limp.

He really hadn’t been planning on going back to English tomorrow but it looked like Damian truly was on his own now.

Tim’s last few thoughts were that no one would really notice his disappearance for another few months. Not until his parents got back. And everything went black.

Chapter Text

Tim blinked his eyes open and was met with the truly unfortunate sight of troffer lights behind a set of bars. He would have grimaced at it if he had the face muscles to do so, unfortunately he was still a cat, and - super unfortunate - a quick glance around told him the cage he was in wasn’t anywhere near large enough to shift in.

Trying to stand just ended in Tim wobbling around the cage and crashing into one of the walls. He heard a chuckle from above him and glanced up as an unfamiliar voice spoke.

“Looks like your little project is up, Chantal,” the voice belonged to a rather skinny man with an unkempt beard and what looked like well worn coveralls.

The click of heels on tile indicated another person entering the room. Tim glanced up to see a face he actually recognized, the woman with the red umbrella.

The woman, Chantal apparently, frowned and spoke. “I want to put him in the ring tonight.”

Tim’s blood ran cold, there were only so many ‘rings’ she could be talking about and Tim didn’t particularly like any of the options. The man just sighed and nodded as he opened the door to Tim’s cage. Tim tried to run out of the now open door but the man was way faster than Tim expected, he had grabbed the tiny kitten and snapped a heavy metal collar on him before Tim had a chance to react.

“Feisty one, huh?” Chantal said and Tim could practically hear the smirk.

“Sure is,” the man grumbled. He roughly shoved Tim back in the cage and shut the door with a little too much force, “You’re lucky you’re one of Chantal’s. We’ll be back in a few hours, don’t cause any problems,” he warned.

Before Tim knew it the click of heels on tile started back up again and after the slam of a large metal door the room fell dead silent.

—

Tim tried to get some sleep but it was completely futile, the room was clammy, the flickering was textbook horror shit, and the clunky metal collar made moving his head annoyingly difficult.

The clock above the door clicked as the seconds passed. Tim had no idea if the time itself was right, 5:16 AM didn’t seem right but the room didn’t have any windows so he really couldn’t tell. All he knew so far was that the man and that Chantal lady had been gone for almost an hour and a half. The man had said they’d be out for a few hours but didn’t give an exact number so as far as Tim was concerned it could be from 2 hours to the end of eternity.

He tried to lift his head and look around what little of the room he could see from behind the cage door but this stupid collar was really not made for kittens. He stumbled a bit before falling against the wall with his head slamming into it. Tim hissed and tried to blink away the dots forming in his vision.

—

When the clicking of heels returned Tim opened his eyes and glanced at the clock. It had been 3 hours and 17 minutes. Tim didn’t bother trying to stand as the door swung open revealing Chantal grinning but missing her red umbrella this time.

“C’mon pretty, we’ve got work to do,” she sing-songed while unlocking his cage and picking him up. She made sure to support his head and Tim took that as confirmation that she knew the collar was way too heavy. He would’ve grumbled at her if he had the right vocal chords to do so but unfortunately he didn’t. So he stayed quiet.

Tim strained his eyes to look around the room and following passage ways as Chantal clicked along. God, that noise was getting obnoxious.

—

He stayed bored out of his mind until Chantal pushed open a door and unceremoniously dropped him onto a table.

“I don’t expect a deal without the show tonight but what do you think?” Chantal asked.

A voice laughed from beside Tim and he looked up to see an annoyingly familiar face. Tim was well aware Mr. Carson was into something illegal, he was sketchy as hell but seriously? Shifter trafficking? That’s what he was doing? Rich people and their illegal hobbies. Yes Tim was well aware that he was rich and that stalking was technically illegal, he never said he was exempt!

“That puny thing? You’ve really lost your touch Chantal. The ring will tear him apart,” Mr. Carson said through his chuckles.

“He’ll grow, he’s probably a teen, you’ll have time” Chantal replied cooly.

Mr. Carson just huffed, “Chantal please, I don’t have time for long term investments like this.”

Tim knew Mr. Carson was creepy but this was on a whole different level, ‘long term investments’? Was that really what he thought of shifter kids? And investments for what?

Tim didn’t get time to think about it before Chantal was grabbing him again and muttering “you’ll see” under her breath as she stepped out of the door.

Her grip around Tim’s limbs was bruising and he really hoped they didn’t have much longer to go, which apparently they didn’t. Chantal pushed open yet another door, this one was much more heavy duty. It looked like it was a foot thick and made of metal and probably concrete. Tim really should be paying more attention to where he was being taken but at this point everything was a blur.

Once the door was opened Tim’s ears perked up at the sound of voices on the other side of the door. Lots of voices, it almost sounded like cheering but much more aggressive.

As Tim glanced around the room he spotted another door on the other side and saw it shake as something slammed into the other side of it with a loud crash. Tim flinched at the sound and tried to scramble away but Chantal kept a tight grip and whispered.

“Don’t worry dear, it’ll be your turn soon enough,” her voice was sickly sweet and it made Tim want to puke.

Tim decided he didn’t want to be in the place of whatever crashed into the door. A creak snapped Tim out of his thoughts and he watched as the man from earlier dragged a barely conscious dog behind him, scratch that, the thing looked more like a wolf. As Tim looked down at the wolf he noticed how….odd it’s eyes looked. They were a strange shade of green for a wolf. Tim’s blood ran cold as his eyes clocked the numerous injuries on the rather large and muscled looking animal. Oh hell no. Tim stood no chance against whatever had beaten that wolf up so much.

The man grinned up at Chantal and muttered. “Good luck with that runt,”

Chantal just glared back and set Tim down on the ground. She crouched beside him, blocking the exit. Not that she really needed to; there was no way he was getting through a solid foot of concrete once the man shut and locked it. She reached over and snapped the collar off. Tim’s neck screamed in relief but he also had a pretty good idea what this meant. What the hell did she think he was going to do against something powerful enough to tear up a wolf like that? Tim came to the conclusion that she was either delusional or brain dead.

Chantal stood and walked to the door leading to what Tim could only assume was an arena of some kind. “C’mon kid, he probably won’t hurt you too bad, he’s got a soft spot for little ones.”

Tim recoiled at the words. He didn’t like that his life apparently hinged on a ‘probably’. He backed up and pressed closer to Chantal’s shoes as she opened the door. He’d actually rather stay with her for now, at least she hadn’t broken any of his bones, whatever was out there probably would!

Tim’s eyes were squeezed shut until Chantal pushed him out the door with her foot and shut the door behind him as Tim plopped onto the ground causing a small cloud of dust to appear. Tim blinked the bright lights out of his eyes and stood frozen as he saw what he was expected to fight.

Standing on the other side of the ring was a dog. Tim wasn’t an expert on dogs but he was pretty sure that was a Doberman, and a huge one at that. It had black fur that faded to an auburn at the tip of its ears. It lowered its head and stalked closer to the kitten. Tim shut his eyes once more and tensed for what he assumed was about to be his last few minutes alive.

But they weren’t his last few minutes alive, Tim squinted his eyes back open to see the Doberman sniffing at his face and looking down at him with a curious expression. Or at least as curious as a dog could look. The crowd around them seemed to boo but whenever Tim tried to look at the viewers the dog moved to block his sight. Now that the beast appeared to not be trying to kill him Tim decided to worry a bit more about trying to get out of this disgusting place.

A commotion seemed to be coming from the back of the seats and Tim assumed it was some kind of drunken brawl until a piece of metal clanged against the metal cage surrounding them. The Doberman glanced up and it seemed to look more annoyed than anything else. Tim took the opportunity to look down at the piece of metal……holy shit, that was a Batarang!

Chapter Text

The crowd seemed to go silent for a moment as the Batarang fell but it didn’t last long. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity everyone in the audience panicked and either started running towards the exit, fighting anyone else who tried to escape, or both.

Tim could feel the panic that coursed through the building and he felt his own heart race as he stood frozen, not knowing what to do. The Doberman in front of him stood like a giant wall of calm. Tim had no clue how he could be so indifferent but he wasn’t about to stick around and find out.

Tim shook off the dizziness he was feeling, either from the chaos around him or from being in shift for so long. He made sure the Doberman wasn’t watching him before turned to find a way out of the ring.

An urgent bark sounded behind him that Tim assumed came from the Doberman but he didn’t turn back to the animal.

He didn’t know who did it but he hoped whoever it was lived a long and happy life. There was a small hole in the chain link fence that Tim was able to wiggle through.

Tim stepped into the chaos around him and almost regretted leaving the ring. He chanced a glance back at where the Doberman had been but he wasn’t there anymore. Tim didn’t get time to think about that too much before someone stepped right in front of him. Tim had to scramble back to avoid their other foot and he ended up running under one of the seats in the audience to wait for the foot traffic to die down.

The noise in the arena was deafening as everyone tried to get out of the few doors the place had. Tim stayed huddled under the chair up until an explosion, or at least what seemed like an explosion, sounded from somewhere in the building. The arena began to tremble and Tim knew he had to leave now.

He took one cautious step out from under the chair and was nearly trampled again but this time he was prepared. Tim wove through the crowd of people, he had no clue where he was going but he needed to find a door or a window. He needed to get out of here.

Racing around everyone’s frantic steps was harder than Tim thought it would be but he caught sight of a small hole in the side of a wall. He didn’t know where it led but it wouldn’t be here so he made a sharp turn and raced towards the wall. He barely made it ten feet before he felt gloved hands grab him. He struggled and clawed at whoever had dared to grab him but his efforts seemed to do nothing besides make them tighten their grip.

“I told you I didn’t need help,” Tim heard a faint annoyed voice coming from what he assumed was a speaker of some kind.

He paused his struggle and looked up. Well damn, that wasn’t a face he particularly wanted to see. Damian, dressed in his Robin costume.

“Aw, c’mon hood, we’re just here to help out,” replied another, overly cheery, voice. Nightwing, Tim guessed.

The voice, who Tim assumed belonged to the Red Hood, sounded like it was about to speak when it was inturrupted by a new voice, “Robin. Let the cat go, you’re needed here.”

“But father-“

Damian was cut off by Hood chiming in, “wait, a cat? Was it the one in the ring?”

Tim noticed the immediate shift in Damian’s demeanor, “You let a kitten in the ring, Hood?” Damian’s voice was cold.

“I didn’t fight him, you know what I meant, Demon Brat,” Hood replied.

Damian seemed to calm down a bit, “what about him?”

“Well is it the same cat?”

“I believe so.”

“Don’t let him go.”

“Hood, we really don’t have time to be worrying about strays,” Nightwing's voice was choppy through the mic and it sounded like he was in the middle of fighting some henchman. Given the current state of the arena it didn’t seem too unlikely.

“The cat’s a shifter,” Tim froze and Damian’s grip seemed to tighten, “Robin, don’t let him go.”

Why did Red Hood want Robin to hold onto him? Tim’s brain ran through every possibility it could think of. Did the bats consider shifters as metas? Did they consider him a threat? Tim didn’t really want to find out.

Another explosion came from the direction of the ring. He heard a muffled ‘that one wasn’t me,’ before he managed to take advantage of the distraction and wiggle free of Robin’s grip. Once out of the gloved hands, Tim bolted for the hole he’d spotted in the wall.

—

Tim was absolutely exhausted as he stepped into the abandoned warehouse he’d found. He figured the owner wouldn’t care about some stray and he really needed a quick rest before he tried to go home. His eyes fluttered shut and his ears twitched as the sound from the arena wafted towards him. He knew he was far enough away but it was nice that his ears were still good enough to pick up on the noises.

Before sleep could fully take him, Tim was jolted aware by a small beep coming from his back. He snapped his head over his shoulder to see a small metal circle that was pulsing blue light. His eyes widened and he swatted the divine off before taking a few steps away. He had a pretty good guess what it was but he wasn’t about to take his chances so he took a cautious step closer and pressed all his weight onto it until he heard it crack. The pulsing flickered out and died as Tim heard a distant howl, likely from the arena.

He didn’t get the chance to relax though before someone came swinging through a broken window. Tim barely had time to hide his little kitten body behind a pile of rubble as the unidentified bat’s shadow shrank down and dropped to all fours. Tim used a piece of the shattered glass of the window in front of him to gaze around the pile of rubble.

Standing just feet away from him was a huge black wolf that was sniffing at the air. The wolf noticed the crushed device on the ground and turned its attention to the small pile of scraps as Tim held his breath.

It didn’t take long for Tim to notice that the wolf currently sniffing the broken tracker likely wasn’t looking for escapees from the arena but rather, for him. Though Tim figured he could count as an escapee from the arena, just for different reasons.

Tim had two options now. He could jump out that window and fall who knows how far, not to mention the possibility of more bats on the other side. Or he could reveal himself to the wolf. Only the thought one of those options actually forced a shiver down his spine, so the window it was.

Tim lept for the window and made it out but the second he moved the wolf’s ears pricked up and Tim hear a howl from behind him. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who that was meant to alert so Tim really had to move fast here.

The window was only one story off the ground so he didn’t have to worry about that but as he ran as fast as he could down the alley he realized no matter how fast he moved his legs, they were just too little to run fast enough. That fact was ever so apparent when a sleek black panther started to pursue him, gaining on him with every stride.

Tim made a split second decision when he saw a familiar pipe out of the corner of his eye. They already knew he was a shifter so maybe, just maybe….

He focused on his human form as he continued to run. As he felt the familiar tingle he reached for the pipe, he grabbed it with a now human hand and swung himself up onto a ledge. He focused back on his cat form and trusted his shift a little too much as he moved to slide through an opening far to small for human Tim but just big enough for cat Tim.

Nightwing’s pursuit was relentless and that little stunt didn’t put as much distance as Tim would have liked between them, but he continued to bounce between human and cat forms, shaping his body to his city. He tried to ignore the numbness in his limbs, he entirely relied on muscle memory to keep his legs moving even when he could barely feel them.

He was exhausted and he didn’t know how much longer he could do this. Sure he knew the city inside and out but so did Nightwing and all the other bats. Tim just wouldn’t be able to outrun them for much longer but Tim refused to give up now. What if there was some kind of punishment for ‘evading the bats’?

Tim could hear the light footsteps of the panther racing behind him through the factory he’d ran himself into and he made the split second decision to turn towards a different alley that had an access to the sewers. He didn’t particularly appreciate the idea of being in the sewers but he’d memorized the map just in case, he’d have to thank past Tim for that one if he made it out of this alive.

Tim was on the second story so he’d have to shift on the way down if he jumped, that wasn’t a problem, he’d done it before. Unfortunately, he hadn’t truly accounted for how exhausted his body was. Adrenaline was one hell of a drug but it didn’t fix everything. Tim crashed through the window but his shift came too late, he was going too fast and he didn’t have time to flip around in midair so he landed at an awkward angle on one of his paws.

He heard the crack before he felt the searing pain and he couldn’t suppress the pained cry that followed through his already ragged throat. He tried to get up and keep running but each step on that leg sent shockwaves of pain through his body. Tim didn’t dare look down at it, it was probably bent at some wrong angle and his stomach already churned just thinking about it.

His last resort would be to shift back to human and keep running that way. He concentrated on the form and bit his tongue as he ignored the fact that his wrist felt like it was on fire. He collapsed into a pathetic heap on the ground and let the sweet nothing of unconsciousness take him. But not before he heard the pad of soft paws turn to footsteps and felt careful arms lift his body.

—

Tim blinked his eyes open and the bright lights of wherever he was immediately made him close them again. He let out a quiet groan as he slowly tried again. As his eyes got used to the area the first thing he noticed was that his wrist was in a cast now. He sat up and glanced around the room. It looked like some kind of mini hospital, with medical equipment carefully organized and Tim assumed there was more in the cabinets that lined the walls.

He swung his legs over the side of the cot he was laying on and sat up. His head was pounding and he could still feel the numbness in his arms and legs, though it had subsided significantly. After testing his legs on the floor he figured he could stand and walk around without falling flat on his face so he hopped off the cot and made his way to the door.

Before he was able to turn the handle of the door it opened inward, revealing Nightwing standing in the door. He wasn’t in his costume anymore but he still had a domino mask on. Tim felt like he couldn’t breathe. He should’ve known he’d end up here, he’d passed out while being chased by Nightwing, of course he’d wake up here. Wherever here was.

Despite his head trying to tell him not to panic, Tim's heart felt like it was beating out of his chest and took a step back, trying to put some distance in between him and the man who knew what he was.

Nightwing frowned and matched Tim’s step, “hey, kid, we’re not gonna hurt you.”

Yeah right. Tim scanned the room for any way out besides the door that was blocked by Nightwing but there was none.

“I’m serious,” Nightwing continued, “you’re a shifter, we’re shifters too, we can help.”

Tim stared suspiciously at the Vigilante, there was one word in there that stood out to him, “help?” He asked. His voice was barely audible.

Nightwing smiled softly, “of course, we can help you control your shift and help with whatever trouble you’re in.”

“Trouble?” Tim questioned.

Nightwing winced slightly “we know about your connection to Black Mask.”

Tim stared in confusion for a second before the pieces started to click into place, “The rifle. You searched my house?”

“It wasn’t my idea,” Nightwing protested.

“I don’t have any connection with Black Mask, the rifle just looked….different, and I was curious,” Tim said sheepishly.

After a pause Nightwing let out a small chuckle, “So you’re really not involved with him?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Oh, B’s going to be pissed,” he muttered to himself, sounding amused.

Tim hesitated before asking, “So, you’re not mad about the shifter part?”

Nightwing frowned, “why would I be mad?”

“Batman doesn’t like metas,” Tim said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Shifters aren’t really metas,” Nightwing paused for a response but when he didn’t get one he continued, “is that why you ran? You were scared we’d treat you like a rouge?”

Tim nodded ever so slightly. He supposed that summed up his response pretty nicely.

Nightwing was about to speak again when someone spoke from behind him, “this is sweet and all but you’re glossing over the important shit, Wing,” A taller man. He had black hair like the rest but it had a white streak in it and he wore Red Hood’s usual costume with the red helmet tucked under his arm.

Nightwing gave him a rather confused look but the Red Hood’s attention was now on Tim, “you were kidnapped, Tim,” Tim stilled at the sound of his name, “and trafficked, who knows what would’ve happened if we weren’t there.”

“Sorry,” Tim muttered, looking down at the floor, he hadn’t meant to be such a nuisance to them.

“No. No don’t apologize,” Nightwing said quickly, “none of that was your fault.”

“Where are your parents, kid?” Red Hood interrupted.

“Thailand.”

“Thailand?”

Tim nodded

“You got someone looking after you while they’re gone?” Red Hood presses.

“I don’t need a babysitter.”

Red Hood raised an eyebrow, “so babysitter’s off the table but getting kidnapped is fine?”

Nightwing sighed, “leave him alone,” he motioned for Tim to follow him, “C,mon, this room can’t be comfortable. We’ll figure everything out in the morning.

Tim didn’t really know what that meant but he was exhausted and getting some sleep sounded like heaven right now.

—

Tim hadn’t been paying attention to where they were going, he’d been too tired to memorize the turns or hear a quiet comment about ‘taking care of everything’ but he ended up in front of a door that Nightwing gently pushed open.

Tim froze when he saw inside. A huge black wolf was laying on the floor, curled around an asleep Robin, the wolf cracked its eye open and let out a deep comforting growl. Nightwing dropped down to the floor as a panther and curled up next to Robin as he laid his head on the wolf’s stomach. Red Hood was next, shifting into a Dobermann. Tim paused for a second, so that was how he had known Tim was a shifter. He’d known his eyes had looked off.

Apparently Tim had paused for a bit too long, his gaze snapped back to the wolf when he heard a sharp huff. The wolf moved its head to motion Tim to join. He took a hesitant step forward, then another, and sat down on the ground next to the rest of them, he kept a respectable distance. The wolf didn’t appear to appreciate that, it stood up, ignored the hiss from the panther and padded over to Tim. It nudged Tim’s back until he complied and stumbled over and laid down in between Robin and the Dobermann. The wolf curled around all three of them and let out a contented rumble.

Tim had expected sleeping like this to be uncomfortable but it was entirely the opposite, the warmth from the wolf and everyone else was enough to lure him into a deep sleep.

—

Tim blinked his eyes open to the feeling of someone staring at him. He squinted at a blurry figure right in front of him until his eyes adjusted.

Damian’s eyes were open and he was looking at Tim like he was trying to figure out some mystery but he made no move to start any kind of conversation.

So Tim started it for him, “I owe you.”

“What for?”

“For the final.”

Damian froze and his eyes narrowed and Tim smiled softly at the idea of getting any sort of surprise out of the guarded kid, “you know?”

“I’ve always known”

Tim didn’t hear Damian’s response, if he even responded. He closed his eyes again and reveled in the warmth of the sleeping animals around him. It was a lot nicer than the cold halls of Drake manor and Tim entertained a thought of finding real family. Not blood family, but the family he got to choose.