Chapter Text
The next two weeks went by quickly, with the early practices Tim got roped into taking quite a good amount of that time. Before he realized, June 9th had come, and all the Foxes were moving back in for the start of the summer practice.
When he was faced with the fact of moving to the dorms, and the even graver aspect — roommates — Tim reconsidered his entire decision to come here. It wasn’t like he didn’t know he was going to share a dorm, he knew, but knowing things were going to happen and they actually happening were two different things. Tim should know, he was a master of knowing a lot of information and ignoring it right until the moment it came back to bite him in the ass. It was just that, without counting crashing at Wymack’s palace, Tim had gotten used to being alone for a very long time now. Even before he got stuck here, he had just gotten back to Gotham after searching around the world for Bruce, and that was one of the loneliest and most miserable months of his life. And now he had share his living space with two other people in a tiny college dorm.
The last time he remembered having roommates was when his father shipped him off to Brentwood Academy at fifteen, hoping to raise his grades. Tim was glad that at least this time there was a small chance of one of his roommates ending up a member of a snake cult.
He was supposed to share a dorm with the upperclassmen Matt Boyd and Aaron Minyard. Having the advantage of being here before them, with Matt away for the summer and Aaron spending the last two weeks of it with his girlfriend, Nicky had informed him, Tim moved into the Fox Tower first. The dorm was just slightly above his expectations of what it was going to be like. Moving his things and finding them a place was easy, since he didn’t have a lot. Tim had purposely been keeping both his possessions and presence low in this place, he had no intention of staying here forever. His clothes went into drawers, and the backpack with his laptop on the desk, and finally the most important thing — his suitcase.
Despite the fact that when Tim woke up on this Earth he was in a younger body, he still had his Red Robin uniform on. Or, at least whatever remained of it. At places it was charred and burnt, and at others the material had completely disintegrated, leaving strange patterns around it, but the entirety of the suit was preserved. If he had to guess, the damage was from the ominous magic blast he got hit with. His belt, on the other hand, was intact besides some scratches. Tim was happy to report to Bruce, once he returned, that while the material of their suits wasn’t dimensional-travel-friendly, their gadgets were. Since then, he had restored what he could in the suit, replaced the color in places so it garnered less attention when he still went out in it, and found a compatible and easy suitcase to store all of his gear.
And that suitcase he stuffed in one of the drawers under the singular bed. He wasn’t worried about somebody finding it, because even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to open it. The outer shell of it was titanium alloy, the inner layer kevlar, and it had a digital lock. Even if somebody brought a sledge hammer, they still wouldn’t have been able to open it, only damage its contents slightly. It was a pricey investment, but it was worth it. Tim just hoped his roommates wouldn’t mind that he was taking the only singular bed.
After that he went to settle on the table in the living room, taking out an overflowing journal. It was here that Tim wrote everything he knew about traveling between parallel Earths and dimensions, and tried to outline solutions and ideas on how to get back. He focused on his research to pass the time, and this was how one of his future roommates found him, half an hour later.
The door opened without a knock, and a guy with a spiky haircut, whom he recognized from pictures online as Matt, walked in, carrying way too many boxes at once.
Upon registering his presence, Matt’s expression brightened, and he extended a hand for a handshake after setting down the boxes.
‘’Hey, you must be Tim, right? I’m Matt, it’s nice to meet you!’’
Tim returned the handshake and the greeting, at least one of his roommates was going to be easy-going.
Matt looked around the room before asking, ‘’Have you unpacked already?’’
‘’Yeah, I didn’t have that much stuff.’’
‘’Really,’’ Matt remarked, then continued, ‘’Well, I wish I could say the same, but I’ve got to make at least seven more trips to the parking lot and back.’’
‘’Do you want help?’’ Tim didn’t have anything specific that he had to do at the moment, and making a good first impression never hurt.
‘’I won’t decline if you’re offering.‘’
And so the two of them started bringing things back to the apartment, while making small talk. During this time Tim had the opportunity to shake the dust of his people skills. It wasn’t like the last two weeks he hadn’t spoken with the rest of his teammates, he did, but it was mostly about Exy, and of course there was Nicky, but with him he was doing more listening than talking.
‘’So, how have the Monsters been treating you since you’ve been here?’’ Matt asked him, while they were carrying a big box up the stairs.
‘’The Monsters?’’ Tim asked back, with a raised eyebrow.
‘’Andrew’s group,’’ he clarified. ’’We all know how they can be, trust me, and last year they didn’t exactly welcome Neil with open arms, even if things got better after that.’’
Tim could see why some people would have conflicted opinions about the group, with Andrew’s actions and history, Kevin’s character, and Neil’s family history, but he thought the nickname Monsters was more than a little overboard. Maybe it was because his idea of a monster was so much worse than a college student with a history of violence and a shitty attitude.
‘’They were fine,’’ he answered.
Matt didn’t bother hiding his skepticism, ‘’Are you sure?’’
‘’I’m sure.’’
‘’Well, if you say so.’’ He still didn’t sound convinced, but dropped the matter.
After twenty minutes they were done with carrying all the things upstairs, and took a break before the unpacking started. It was at this time that the door opened once more and another person walked in.
Matt smiled at the newcomer and greeted him just as warmly as he had Tim.
‘’Welcome back, Aaron! How was your summer?’’
Aaron Minyard paused upon seeing them, and Tim took the time to observe him. For all that they nearly looked identical, Andrew and his brother couldn’t have carried themselves more differently. Andrew’s body language was blank, trying to suppress every single emotion and intent, but never completely at ease. Aaron, on the other hand, came across as cautious but not closed off, he made no effort to hide what he was feeling, and dared anyone to call him on it.
‘’Good.’’ Aaron answered. His gaze was stuck on Tim, and it wasn’t particularly friendly.
Matt saw where he was looking and introduced them. ‘’This is Tim, he helped me bring my stuff up.’’
‘’Why are we the only ones who got stuck with a freshman?’’
‘’Come on, don’t be like that, dude.’’ Matt responded, and his tone told Tim that this wasn’t the first time they were having this conversation. ‘’You know there wasn’t enough room with the other freshmen, and Tim’s nice.’’
Aaron muttered out a disinterested whatever, before disappearing into the bedroom.
‘’Don’t pay him attention, it takes him time to get used to people.’’ Matt turned to address Tim.
Tim just nodded, he really didn’t care if Aaron liked him or not.
After that they fell into relative silence while Matt worked on unpacking his things. It wasn’t until a while later that quietness was broken again.
‘’By the way, I promised Abby to give you a lift to the stadium before I go pick up the girls, for your physical. You know about that right?’’
Indeed, he knew. Tim did a thorough research on everything that playing for the Foxes would entail, before he signed the contract. He can’t say he was looking forward to being poked by an unfamiliar medical professional, but there was no way around it if he wanted to play. May as well get it over with.
Fifteen minutes later, Matt dropped him off at the parking lot in the stadium. Tim headed directly towards Abby Winfield’s office, letting himself in after knocking on the door and receiving an answer.
‘’Hello, Tim. I assume you’re here for your physical?’’ Abby greeted him from behind her desk.
This wasn’t the first time that they met, Abby often dropped by Wymack’s palace for one reason or another. Tim’s read of her was a kind and genuine person who loved doing her job.
‘’Yes.’’
‘’Okay, let’s begin then.’’
Abby did a variety of basic stuff like taking his weight, height, blood, and texting his reflexes. All things considering, it was less invasive than the tests they had to run regularly back at the cave. Tim thought they were done, but Abby stopped him.
‘’One last thing, take your shirt off please.’’
Tim stared at her. It wasn’t hard to figure out the reason why this was part of the exam, with a team like the Foxes it wasn’t surprising that some of its members would be involved with drugs. Still, it wasn’t like Tim could just take off his shirt. Years of crime fighting had turned his body into a map of violence that had no beginning or end, and while he had long accepted that as a part of the job, he knew that a normal person would definitely have questions. He toyed with the edge of his shirt, thinking about how to proceed.
Abby, seeing his hesitance, tried to reassure him.
‘’Tim, whatever happens in this room stays here. I just want help, and make sure you healthy.’’
He had already come all this way, done all kinds of things that he probably shouldn’t have. What was one more?
‘’Just don’t… panic. It looks worse than it is.’’ Tim tried to prepare her at least a little bit.
And then, fully realizing that this was probably going to end up being a mistake, he took off his shirt.
The following silence, while completely expected, was still awkward as hell. Tim fidgeted with the shirt in his hand while Abby’s shocked expression swept over his body. Any competent medical practitioner could recognize a scar from a bullet wound, and besides those, Tim had plenty of other strange ones, courtesy of numerous fights with metahumans and people who liked to use very strange things as weapons.
So, he was taking a gamble here, either she would keep this to herself, or not, and then he would have to deal with consequences. Suddenly, for a second he was glad Bruce wasn’t here, he would have been not pleased with reckless choices Tim had been making lately.
Finally, Abby tore her gaze from his body.
‘’Tim,’’ she began, then stopped, as if expecting him to interrupt her.
‘’Yes?’’
Several complicated emotions went through her expression before she asked.
‘’Are you in danger?’’
Not an unreasonable assumption considering everything, but still not the question he expected.
‘’No.’’
Clearly, she didn’t believe him.
‘’These,’’ Abby said, motioning towards his scars, her voice strained, ‘’weren’t accidents.’’
‘’No,’’ he agreed, deciding it was pointless to come up with some ridiculous excuse that she wouldn’t believe anyway. ’’But they also aren’t your concern. They’ve got nothing to do with whether or not I can play Exy.’’
And at that he showed her his forearms, clearly devoid of the track marks she wanted to check for. She looked like she wanted to continue the conversation, but decided against it.
The rest of the exam went by quickly. Before he left the office, Abby called out to him.
‘’I want you to know, if you are in trouble, if you need help with anything, we are here. Me, Coach Wymack, Dr Dobson, and we will do anything within our power to help.’’
‘’I’ll keep that in mind.’’ He responded, but didn’t mean it. Tim wouldn’t willingly ask for help even if he was actively being held at gunpoint.
After leaving the stadium, he didn’t immediately head towards the dorms, and instead took off in a random direction. By the time he got home, it was a little bit after ten. He exchanged a couple words with Matt, before heading to the bedroom crash in his bed. Sleep, for once, came to him easy.