InsaneJournal

WHO: Jason Todd & Tim Drake-Wayne
WHERE: Coffee shop
WHEN: After this
WARNINGS: None
RATING: Low
SPOILERS? N/A

Tim hadn’t been relieved to see that Jason was on the network. Don’t be stupid. He hadn’t been relieved that someone knew who he was and that maybe that meant there might be people who would make sure he didn’t have to stay on the kids’ floor for too long, that maybe he’d be- God, maybe he’d finally be with his family.

Still, he was apprehensive, even if he might have been a tiny bit relieved (but not even Damien could make him admit that). Jason had mentioned a multiverse. That the Bruce and Dick that were here might not be the ones that he knew (and man, what a relief it was that there was no Damien here just yet, someone who wasn’t around to displace him before he’d even arrived). That the Jason he was about to meet might not be the one that he knew. But the fact that Jason knew him was a start. A better start than Jason going ‘who’ or immediately trying to find his location and stab him in the throat.

He’d appreciate minimal throat-stabbing, he thought, rubbing his collarbone in thought.

Having found the shop quickly enough, Tim found himself a table near the emergency exit that allowed him to see the entire floor, casing the three exits and knowing how long it would take him to get to each one should the meeting with Jason go sour, or should anything else go sour. He had a large cup of black coffee in front of him, packed to saturation with sugar and he was cradling it in his palms letting the heat warm - well, almost burn but that was hardly the point - his skin as he waited for Jason, eyes on the door.

Likewise, Jason hadn't been relieved either when Tim popped up on the network. As contentious as his relationship was with most of the Bat Family, if push came to shove and he had to pick the one who he disliked the least (aka got along with the best), it was Tim. Not that they'd started off great, but when did Jason start off great with anyone? The point was, Tim was less of a ticking time bomb in his life than the others, and that was good.

He shoved the door to the coffee shop open and scanned the room as soon as he was inside, gaze landing on the kid that didn't just seem familiar but was familiar. A flicker of a smile quirked at the corner of his mouth before he gave Tim a nod of acknowledgment, got himself a large black coffee, and crossed over to where Tim was sitting. Jason didn't care his back was to the room, knew he could handle anything that might happen even if he couldn't see it coming, but he appreciated Tim's tactical choice of table.

“Hey, Timmy. I’m surprised you didn't get them to give you the whole pot.”

“I tried,” Tim grumbled, pulling his coffee closer knowing already that Jason was going to laugh at him but honestly right now he didn’t care. “Apparently ‘too much caffeine stunts children’s growth’.” Which would have been hilarious if it wasn’t the longest-running joke of Tim’s entire life. One day he’d hit a growth spurt and he’d outgrow them all. Preferably before Damian caught up with him.

He lifted a shoulder. “But she can’t refuse to sell me other cups of coffee when I finish this one.”

Jason looked… well, the same, he guessed that was part of the problem with the Lazarus Pit. Saved your life, meant you didn’t age? Well, there were a lot of problems with the Lazarus Pit but the resurrecting thing was pretty handy.

“Is this the part where you ask me some secret Bat-kid in-joke to determine if I’m the droid you’re looking for?”

“Don't think I need a secret handshake or anything,” Jason replied with a shrug. “You’re my Tim. Bruce and Dick… don't look the same. You look the same.”

Though it probably would have been a good idea to have a way to check, but Tim looked like himself, was curled around his coffee cup in a way that was achingly familiar, and based on what Jason has seen on the network -- yeah, there was no real need. “How old are you?”

Tim’s eyes lifted from where he’d been looking down into the coffee like it would give him all the answers that he needed - which was unlikely but he’d also been pitched into an alternative reality by some ambivalent cosmic (?) entity without his permission so anything could happen. His brows creased slightly, obvious confusion at the question.

“Sixteen?” He took a sip of the coffee, rested his elbows on the table in a way that would have made Alfred sigh heavily and say Elbows, Master Drake. “Why, how old am I meant to be?”

It did stand to reason, he guessed, that if they were from different realities - or some of them were, and it was a relief that Jason looked the same, sounded the same - that they might be from different times too.

Jason’s brow furrowed, because it wasn't like he had some calendar with everyone’s birthdays on it where he kept track of that sort of thing. Age was… tricky, post-Lazarus Pit. He wasn't sure he even had one. If he did, when did it start? Before or after his death? Did that time get subtracted? So many questions, no answers.

“Older than that, but not a lot?” Jason brought up a hand to rub the back of his neck. “Eighteen, I think? I figured you were younger, what with the kids’ floor problem.”

He took a long drink of his coffee, shrugging a shoulder. “This place is… well, it's fucking weird.”

“Well, crud,” Tim muttered into his mug. So Jason was from the future? His future, at least, he wondered what had happened. If he got the Titans back from Damian. If he- He drew in a breath and shook his head. “So right Jason and Tim, right reality, wrong time. Well, two outta three isn’t too bad, I guess.”

He was already thinking about how he could find out more information about this place; set up a search function across public posts on the network, maybe. Dig into the local library, find out how much of this place had a history, and if so, where in space they were. He supposed he could look at the stars but he’d never been much of an astronomer; just knew enough to navigate by. Shiva wouldn’t have let him go if he hadn’t.

“Yeah, I saw mention of like, candyland? Like the game?”

“I’ll take those two,” Jason replied, a hint of a smirk pulling at his features. It was… easy with Tim. It wasn’t a want to avoid, like he'd had with Bruce. A want to lash out, like he'd had with Dick. It helped he was the right Tim.

He rolled his eyes at the mention of a candyland, taking another drink before setting down his cup and leaning back in his chair. “Yeah, exactly like the game. It was -- when you're used to Gotham, that kinda shit is extra disorienting, you know? Fucking gumdrops all over the place.”

Tim smiled into his coffee cup in response to Jason’s smirk, wondering if it was too early to go and ask for something with three espresso shots. He opened his mouth to say something when Jason elaborated on the candy land thing and he just stared for a moment like he was experiencing an internal 404 error.

“...what? That wasn’t figurative?” Was there something in the water that caused mass hallucinations? “Literal candy everywhere? That sounds, uh, awful.” But great for short-term energy.

“Literal candy everywhere,” Jason confirmed, nose scrunching in response to the memory of it all. Not that it had been bad, comparatively, but disorienting. Off putting. Drastically different than anything he'd ever experienced. “It was awful. I think I saw something about some kids finding King Candy or whatever and now we're back to normal. I have no fucking clue.”

He'd preferred it when there'd been lots of ninjas to take down, but that was probably just him. “I don't know how often that kinda stuff happens here, the weird everything changing stuff.”

“I’d say some kind of Scarecrow compound,” Tim suggested, “a variation on Joker gas?” He chewed the inside of his lower lip in lieu of picking at his thumbnail. Casting a glance around them to make sure no one was close enough to listen, he asked, “Is there anything that’s indicated to you this isn’t actually real? Like it’s some mass hallucination?” But he supposed if this was real and inconsistencies like the entire place turning into candy was ‘normal’, it would be hard to pinpoint anything out of the ordinary that would be the tell for something not being real.

He put the cup down and rested his chin in his hand. A part of him was disappointed to have missed an excuse to eat his entire body weight in candy and stay awake for three days straight on glucose and caffeine. It would have been a great experiment for when he got home. If he got home.

“Can I- can I ask you something about home? Like, where you-” His brow creased. “Do I get the Titans back? Do you know?”

“It isn't a mass hallucination, Tim. It's real.” Jason raked a hand back through his hair, sighing as he let it drop to the table again. It wasn't the easiest place to be, or to try and understand, so explaining it wasn't easy either. He felt like he had zero answers. At least Scarecrow compound or Joker has would be an explanation.

He steeled himself when Tim brought up “home” considering it wasn't exactly the same for both of them. Not to mention, he wasn't the most present person in the family. At least he finally had an answer for a question. “Yeah, you get ‘em back.”

The relief that moved through Tim was so powerful his eyes stung a little. He let out a little stuttered breath, shoulders slumping. It might not have been much, but for someone like Tim who was usually so reserved in every sense of the word he might as well have burst into tears. He swallowed and glanced up at Jason briefly before nodding, settling for drinking his coffee again to give him something to do.

That was- yeah, that was a relief.

“Thanks.” He cleared his throat after swallowing his mouthful of coffee. That meant a lot of things had to be going his way: Damian would have to go back to Gotham. Does that mean Bruce came back?

His fingers tapped against the china of the mug. “And the Bruce and Dick that’re here? They’re not the ones from our world, you said. So, what’re they like?” How much of a disappointment did he need to steel himself for?

Jason reached over to give Tim a pat on the shoulder when he slumped like that. He knew how much the Titans meant to some people, like Tim, like Dick. He'd barely had a stint with them himself, but he got it. Chosen family, right? Like he had with Kori and Roy, who couldn't bother to show the fuck up in Goodland.

“Ah,” he started, pausing to take another drink to buy himself a few seconds. “I mean, they're Bruce and Dick.” One world was about the same as the other, just like he figured whatever alternate version of him there was out there was similar. “I try not to deal with them much,” he admitted unabashedly, shrugging a shoulder. “Bruce is old, Dick is Dick. I don't know how the housing thing'll shake out but if you end up with us, we all live together. And Kori -- Koriand’r? I think you'd know her. She's from our version of things too.”

Despite everything, Tim did laugh a little. Some things never changed. “I’m surprised you’re rooming with them to be honest.” But then, Dick being Dick and Bruce being old were constants, sure, but what else was there. Did they have Jasons and Tims and Damians in their own worlds? Did they have other Robins that weren’t one the radar? Did they have other families that meant Tim would still be on the outside?

“Yeah, I know Kori a little. Starfire. Not on the Titans when I’m on the team, but then, I kinda didn’t graduate properly up to the real Titans just yet.” He offered Jason a little smile. “I- Dick’s Batman where I come from. After Bruce di- went missing.” And his hellspawn little brother replacement Robin was chosen to stay at Dick’s side instead. “I don’t know her well, though, not well enough to be able to carry out a conversation that didn’t involve categorising everything that Batcomputer had on her.” Which was really all he knew about anyone who wasn’t his immediate family.

His shoulder lifted again. “So is this place just like an ordinary city? With doctors and stuff?”

“I was here first, they got put into my apartment,” Jason said with a grimace. Because really, Entity? Low blow. “Yeah, Starfire. When I’m from, me and her were going around together, and Roy -- Arsenal, who isn't here.”

A big part of him wished Roy would show up, but another part didn't want whatever drama would happen since Kori and Dick were… doing whatever they were doing. Jason tried to ignore that as much as possible.

He took in the tidbits (tim-bits, ha) of information out of what Tim said and gave a slight nod to his last question. “Exactly. Ordinary city with doctors and stuff, that occasionally turns into candyland. Plenty of coffee shops for you.”

Tim snorted, barely containing his laughter at the realisation that Dick and Bruce had been foisted onto Jason. “So that kid on the network was right,” he said, not knowing - or caring if the person was older or younger than him, “this Entity is an asshole. Or has a really twisted sense of humor.”

He glanced at his device again, it was a phone but not quite. Though give him an hour and he’d have it hacked. Maybe less. It looked less complicated than some of Bruce’s tech, and none of that had defeated him yet. CADMUS hadn’t either. He thumbed a quick reply to the network and then put it down on the table. Face down.

“Well, can’t complain if there are infinite places to get banned from for my underage coffee habit,” he retorted. “Are there enough bars and strip clubs to keep you happy or have you gotta resort to finding bad guys to punch to keep you out of trouble?” He was teasing, of course, but it felt nice considering he’d been so alone.

At least if there were doctors here, preferably one on the network, he could speak to someone about getting his penicillin. He had no desire to suddenly fall sick while in a place he couldn’t trust, thank you very much.

“Not as lax as Gotham with the not caring about underage shit, either coffee or otherwise.” Jason offered him a smirk, raking a hand back through his hair. Tim’s comment about strip clubs made his stomach twist slightly, a poke into a wound there was no way the kid could know about. No one did. But coming off as the bad influence, it was a role he’d played for years and it was easy to let that be how people saw him. “Plenty of places for me to keep busy, though I kind of miss having punchable bad guys at my disposal. There were a ton of bad guys not long after I first got here, lots of fun.”

He gave a quiet hum as he thought, both to when he’d arrived and everything he’d encountered since. And since Tim had asked about doctors specifically… “There’s a medical center in the building, some doctor guy that puts something up about once a month about getting information from newcomers about any specific shit they should know in case you get fucked up and need help.”

Tim wrinkled his nose. “I shoulda just got that medic-alert tag.” Alfred had mentioned it once when he’d found Tim’s pill bottle and challenged him on why he was taking antibiotics when he was seemingly completely fine. Without having gone into ‘oh yeah, I lost my spleen in the desert’ he’d just said something about a medical condition and literally begged Alfred not to tell Bruce. “Can’t I just tell someone I trust rather than give some random doctor my Kryptonite?”

He was all over it with the references today, he had to be tired.

“What’s even here to do? The place seems so… sunny.” Gotham was dark and gritty, even when the weather was good. Violence hung over it like a perpetual storm cloud. This place just seemed so artificially calm. He’d not heard a single siren or gunshot or even really a raised voice. “What do you do with your time if there’s no crime?” Because he was assuming - correctly - that the crime rates here were very low.

“Yeah sure, I can handle it,” Jason said, not bothering to ask if Tim trusted him because it probably didn't matter. “Won't tell the random doctor anything unless absolutely necessary.” If he was already asking the Entity for guardianship of Tim, which was fucking hilarious on its own, he might as well be that person for him, too. Whether Tim trusted him or not, he didn't exactly trust anyone else there. Except Kori, who had amnesia and couldn't be expected to remember shit.

“Believe me, the lack of crime has been noted and is kind of concerning.” He scowled, fingers tapping absently against his coffee cup. “I know Gotham is… Gotham, but this place is unsettling, even when it's not covered in candy.” There was no way he'd let it lull him into a false sense of security. The day he stopped looking over his shoulder, that'd likely be the day the Entity dropped the contents of Arkham on them for fun. “Hard to find shit to do once you've got that one track mind going, you know?”

Tim blinked for a moment and glanced up at Jason for a moment before he flexed his fingers around his cooling coffee. “So, uh- I kinda lost my spleen in the desert.” It had been a while ago, the Al-Ghul family were remarkably generous with their healing abilities when they weren’t trying to kill you. Those were the days, right? “Long story, no need to ask questions,” he said as if that would stop Jason from snorting his drink and kicking him under the table for keeping something like that a secret. “Alfred’s the only other person who knows and only by accident but I’m on a permanent prescription for penicillin.”

He shrugged, as though that wasn’t a huge deal.

“This whole place feels like a hallucination, Jay, so I get you.” He looked out of the window, quite convinced he’d never, ever, seen Gotham city so bright. Even in the middle of summer.

Jason didn't take it lightly that he was one of two people who knew about what happened to Tim, even if it was out of complete necessity. Tim still could've told him to kick rocks and gone off to find not-their-Dick and confide in him instead. He still shook his head, not surprised by the secrecy (because that was practically a tenet of the Wayne pseudo-kids) but more so by Tim somehow losing his spleen in the desert.

“Okay, well let me know what dosage it is you need and I’ll get it from the doctor,” he said, mirroring Tim's shrug. Because really, missing a spleen and having to take a pill every day wasn't that bad. Tim seemed fine.

“This place… it’s not a hallucination, but it is someone or something fucking with us.” The muscle in his jaw twitched, his gaze focused on his coffee a moment before rising to meet Tim's again. “This Entity… no one really knows anything about it. Seems a good amount of people here ready to take on whatever gets thrown at us, though, not just us.”

“Thanks, man.”

Tim fished around in the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled the small pill bottle out, carefully throwing it across the table to Jason without so much as a think fast. It wasn’t to say that growing up with - or around - Bruce Wayne was dangerous but constant vigilance had been a basic necessity for survival. Even more so when Damian came into the picture. Tim clenched his jaw a little, shaking the thought away and dislodging it. Deal with thoughts of hellspawn not-sibling later.

He listened, having already tried to piece random strings together to connect absolutely nothing. He figured he’d get a board, he could use string and pins and Jason could mock him for being a paranoid conspiracy theorist - and since Jason had not been around to tell him he was insane for believing Bruce was alive it wouldn’t sting. Anything would be better than just being stuck not knowing what was going on and who was holding all the cards here.

“So it’s some kind of meta-being with godlike powers that’s… pulled people here for what, its own amusement?” It was a puzzle. Tim liked puzzles.

Jason caught the bottle easily, turning it over in his hand to study the information before tossing it back. He'd get in contact with the doctor or whoever and get it sorted out.

“Pretty much,” he confirmed with a grimace. “At least, as far as I can tell. People show up, people disappear, no rhyme or reason to any of it.”

Pills replaced in his inside pocket, Tim rested his hands on the table. “Well, I guess we can start by tracking who arrives and leaves, see if there’s a pattern. And maybe track the events that happen, someone mentioned New Orleans? Like… the candy land thing but somewhere else.”

That sounded like a good way to keep busy, and possibly get some answers. Jason gave a nod, taking another sip of his coffee. “Definitely. Like I said, no timeframe as far as I can tell for things happening. Maybe you'll find a pattern.”

“Better than waiting and hoping to get blinked into oblivion or wherever it is that people go.” Tim finished his drink, “Anything else you think I-“ he paused when the waitress came a little closer and ordered another coffee each ignoring the buzz of his phone. “-I need to know?”

Jason gave it a moment of thought before shaking his head. “I think that's all the main shit. Put something out there to get you off the kids’ floor, still waiting for an answer, but I’ll let you know as soon as I do.”

Tim glanced up, surprised that Jason had already done something like that for him and his expression shifted through a few emotions before finishing on a small, but definitely there, smile.

“Thanks, Jay.” And he meant it. He really, really did.