For the prompt ask game!
9. Sleep deprivation and/or 37. Secret Relationship and/or 40. Identity reveal/major secret reveal
(I selected a few so you can chose the one that resonates the most.)
For any DPxDC characters. <3
*emerges from a google docs, covered in blood and panting* i did it... it is done.
thank you for the prompt!! because i love a challenge, or because i can't stop myself, i went and did all of them!! for everyone!! everyone is sleep deprived and everyone is revealing secrets ^^'
Danny/Tim, mentioned Jazz/Jason
(ą¹ā¢Ģ ā ā¢Ģą¹) enjoy!! prompt ask game
kid napping
āRed Robin, sound off. Status?ā
āAll good here, Oracle. Everything okay?ā
Itās been a slow night, never a good sign. Pent up energy itches under his skin and he stretches when he stands, preparing for whatever Oracle is going to throw his way. Itās going to be something, he can tell.
āGood.ā Relief briefly colours her voice answers, before she becomes serious again, keys clacking away in the background. āThereās been a report from Agent A. It appears that one Timothy Drake has been kidnapped and is being ransomed for five million dollars and a helicopter. Iām tracing the call now.ā
āA helicopter, too? Kidnappers these days, used to be they just wanted their money and that would be the end of itā¦ a fucking helicopter, wow.ā Red Hood scoffs, and Red Robin canāt help but join in the laughter over the comms.
āDoesnāt exactly sound like these are the brightest tools in the shed now, does it, Hood? Wonder what poor schmuck theyāve got instead.ā Nightwing says, slightly out of breath.Ā
The smile slips off Red Robinās face and clammy, cold dread shivers down his spine. A stone settles in his stomach. He wets his lips and clears his throat. āOracle, can you pull up the CCTV on my apartment near WE? Any closer to tracing the call?ā
āStill on the trace, theyāre using a jammer. Agent A is cooperating so they should phone back soon, which will help.ā she reports, falling into silence as he finds the video feed.
āYou know who it is?ā
āI hope not.ā
Itās tense, he taps his feet on the rooftop, fingers tightening over his grapple as he fights the urge to fly off the roof and check for himself. It better not be him. Please, dear God, donāt let it not be him.
āWhat are you thinking, Red Robin?ā Batman growls through the comms. Red Robin can hear the wind under his words, whipping fast as he no doubt makes his way over to his position.
āI had a, uh, a friend coming over tonight. From behind, heā¦ he could be mistaken for Tim Drake.ā
The jokes fall silent, the comms growing serious as they pick up on his tone.
āWell, fuck.āĀ
āEloquent as always, Hood.ā
āShut up, bat-brat.ā
āYou were right, Red Robin, it looks like it was yourā¦ friend they caught, instead. About two hours before the call came in. Iām following their van now, I should have the destination soon. In the meantime, it looks like theyāre heading towards the docks.ā
Red Robin throws himself off the building, shooting his grapple as low as he dares to get the fastest swing he can.Ā
They have Danny.Ā
Worry gnaws at his gut even as gravity pulls it into his throat with another swing.
Danny isā¦ And Red Robin means this in the nicest way possible, but Danny is fragile. They havenāt talked about it, but RR knows that Danny has health problems. Something plaguing him since he was young, thatās landed him in the hospital more than once. A weak heart, far too slow to be normal, possibly chronic fatigueāheās always so tired, falling asleep anywhere he can.
Sometimes, he doesnāt even need to put his head down. Once, when they had gone to the corner store to get some popcorn to enjoy their movie (which Danny had explicitly and repeatedly promised he wouldnāt snore through this time), Danny had rested his head on Timās shoulder while they were waiting and heād justā¦ gone. On his feet, asleep, just like that.
Heād laughed, when Tim woke him up. Apologised. Said Tim made him feel safe enough to fall asleep just about anywhere andā
Red Robin grits his teeth and corrects his course as Oracle updates them with more precise coordinates.
Tim had carried him home that night, piggy-back for four blocks, but by the end of it, he wasnāt tired at all. And thatās another thing, Dannyās just so light. Itās concerning.
They never did watch that movie, but itās a night that Tim canāt help remembering fondly all the same. Theyād ended up rewatching some old sitcom that Dannyās seen countless times but Timās never really bothered with, Danny drifting off to sleep again and Tim eventually following him, becauseā¦ sleep is easy with Danny.
Itās the same for him, he thinks. He canāt explain it, but he feels safe enough to sleep with Danny, too.
He needs to be alright.
āSoā¦ Is this friend just a friend? Or a friend friend?āĀ
āA friend, Nightwing. Now hurry up.ā
Heās not in the mood to play these games, not now. Thereās a reason why none of them know about Danny, and this is one of them. His family, as much as he loves them, are just too damn nosey for their own good.
āYou know that doesnāt answer my question at all.ā
āThen why donāt you ask something intelligible, rather than continue with your childish antics?ā Robin snarks, and for once, Red Robin has to agree with him. Or, rather, heās grateful for the distraction that it gives him.
Tim has secrets. Heās sure that Danny does, too, and so farāaside from the standard background check he always runs on new friends and friend friends alikeāheās done very well to respect them. He just canāt say that his family would do the same.
They can be overwhelming, to say the least, and Tim has tried his best to protect Danny from that.
Only to fail to protect him in every other way that it counts.
āHow long have you guys been āfriendsā?ā
āNightwing, save it, please.ā
āWhatās his name?ā
He ignores him.
Red Robin lands on the building first, thank goodness. He wastes no time in finding a skylight that can be pried open fairly quietly, slipping inside without a second thought.
āWait for backup, Red Robin, that is an order!ā Batman says, when he lets them know heās in.
āNegative, Batman. Iām getting him back.ā
āRed Robin!ā
He weaves silently through the desks on the second floor of the warehouse, always moving, always keeping a trained eye on the shadows around him.
When he reaches the stairs, he hears voices.
āLooks like three of them, armed. The-the hostage is tied to a chair in the middle of the room, heā¦ā Red Robin takes a steadying breath. The person has a burlap sack over their head is slumped to the side, from where he is, Red Robin canāt see if his chest is moving. Thereās blood on the floor. āHe needs medical assistance. Another two on the northside entrance.ā
The comms explode in admonitions, everyone pleading with him to stay where he is, to wait for help, but fuck that. With a tap, he switches them off and he can finally, just about make out the words of the kidnappers as he creeps down the first few steps.
āāshouldnāt he have woken up by now?ā
āI donāt know, man, youāre the one that hit him! Do you think heāsāā
āNo! I didnāt even hit him that hard, I swear!ā the man cries, holding his hands up in surrender. āI just couldnāt take any more of his stupid jokes!ā
If there was any doubt in Red Robinās mind that they picked up Danny by mistake, itās gone now. Yeah. If you get Danny, you get his stupid jokes, too.
He creeps closer.Ā
Thereās some storage crates between him and Danny, if he can get behind there without being seen then that leaves him in a good position for when whoeverās next in takes out the guys at the front. He canāt do anything without them gone first, not without risking them taking shots inside and endangering Danny.
The man that hit Danny circles round behind him and grabs at his hands.
āWhat are you even doing, Pat? Who gives a shit, leave him alone.ā
āIām just checking! I just gotta see!ā
āFuckās sake, guys, who cares? We just gotta get our money, thatās itāā
āAnd our helicopter!ā
āAnd ourāā
āShit, I canāt find a pulse! Shit, Frank, I killed him, Iāā
Jason told him once that when the Pits overtook him, he used to see green. Instead of blacking out, heād be swimming in that putrid Lazarus colour and heād slip into that rage and bad things would happen.
Heās heard of people seeing red, too, but really, he thinks thatās more of a literary device.
Tim doesnāt see anything aside from his targets.
A barrage of birdarangs take the guns from the guys at the front, the three around Danny startling badly enough that the guy that kilāthatās behind Dannyāstumbles, losing his footing.
Only one of them shoots.
Amateurs.Ā
Thereās a round of curses on the comms as the shots come through. Oracle must have turned them back on.
āFucking hellāNightwing and I are at the front, Red Robin, donāt worry about them.ā
Red Robinās barely listening.
He spins, kicking the largest guy in the stomach hard enough so that he doubles over, wheezing. Following through the movement, another kick lands on the side of his head and heās down.Ā
The second one, Frank, gets his wits about him and raises his gun, spraying wildly. Heās a shit shot, going wide in panic, and Red Robin simply ducks and rushes forward, keeping low. Tackling the guy, he grabs the gun off of him and uses it to smash him across the face, once, twice, three times, before he stops moving.
āOracle, get police and paramedics on scene, now.ā Batman says, the displeasure in his voice evident. āRed Robin, Robin and I are coming in from the top.ā
Pat hasnāt even made it up off the floor yet, scrambling backwards, fear plain on his face.Ā
Red Robin stands, breathing heavily, gun still in hand.
āIām sorry, Iām sorry, I swear I didnāt mean to do it! Pleaseāplease, donāt, please!ā
Red Robin doesnāt kill.
Well, no, Red Robin doesnāt normally kill.
No, thatās not quite right, either.
Red Robin has killed. Red Robin will more than likely kill again. Red Robin sees no problem with killing.
The gun is up, pointing towards the guy without any real thought about it.
Footsteps rush behind him, the familiar heavy footfalls of Batman and Robin, so he doesnāt bother turning around. The gun follows the guy as he keeps pulling himself backwards, snot and tears mingling down his face.
āRed Robin,ā Batman says, softly.
Itās always weird hearing Batmanās voice like that. Itās not the first time, obviouslyāBatman canāt use his scary intimidating voice on victims or children, after allābut having it used on him is weird.Ā
āBreathe.ā
āHeās dead. They killed him.ā
If hearing Batmanās voice was weird, Red Robin canāt even recognise his own.
Distantly, he realises heās dissociating. Thereās a tightness in his chest, itās hard to breathe, a growing buzz drowns out any noise in his ears and he canāt think, he canātā
A heavy hand squeezes his shoulder, jolting him out of his thoughts. Batman reaches around and gently removes the gun from his grip, and Tim feels the instant loss of it. He should have done it, why hadnāt he done it?
Robin takes care of the last man, his crying cut off by a swift kick to the head. Nightwing and Red Hood join them, zip-tying the men on the floor and starting to drag them back to the entrance of the warehouse one by one.
No one says a word.
Shrugging off Batmanās hand, Tim moves towards the chair.
Shaking, he takes a deep breath and removes the sack. The small part of him that was left hoping it wasnāt him, it couldnāt be him, please dear God let it not be him, shatters.
Even dead, he looks peaceful.
Timās seen death. Heās no stranger to it, heās seen what it can do to a person. Thereās some blood coagulating over his eyebrows, but otherwise, he looks peaceful. Is that comforting? That he didnāt suffer?
Dannyās head lolls to the side as the sack comes completely away, his hair flopping over his eyes. Timās been on at him to get a haircut lately, he thinks itāll be nice tidied up a bit, just on the sides. Itāll get rid of that permanent bedhead. Help him with job interviews, heās got to be thinking about that now that heās in his last year of college.
Itās about the only thing thatāll hold him back, Tim thinks. Dannyās brilliant. Any employer would be a fool to turn him down because of his shaggy hair, but employers are stupid so it makes sense to put your best foot forward andā
Tim falls to his knees.
Fuck.
Heās dead, heās reallyāDannyās skin is horribly pale, cold to the touch. Gone is his bright, cheerful smile.Ā
āDanny, Iām sorry, Iām so, so sorry, IāāĀ
He stops himself with a deep, shuddering breath. He canāt break down here, he canāt, he canāt, he canāt.
Instead, he tips forward to rest his head in Dannyās lap, arms curling around himself. They were too late. They got here as fast as they could and they were too late.
Ā āDanny, Iām so sorryā¦ā he whispers. āIā¦ I love you, I love you, Iām sorry.ā
Dimly, he can feel the others standing around them. Someone crouches down beside him, resting a comforting arm over his back, but he doesnāt turn his head to see who it is. He squeezes his grip on Dannyās legs tighter.
āCome on, baby bird. Letāsāā
Theyāre interrupted by a huge, honking snore as Danny jerks himself awake.
Timās head snaps up, staring at Danny with wide eyes.
āYou were asleep?ā Red Robin springs up, several different emotions rapidly flip flopping through him.
āWhaā¦ What?ā Danny heaves a yawn, blinking blearily down at him. āSorry, Iām justā¦ they were shit kidnappers, man, really boring. Honestly, worst abduction yet.ā
āYou were asleep? I thought you were dead!ā
āNot mutually exlusive, you know.ā Danny says through another yawn. He rolls his neck around with an almighty crack and glances at everyone. āDidnāt think Iād warrant the whole Bat brigade, thoughā¦ā
āThe kidnappers thought they had Tim Drake.ā Batman supplies, while Red Robin tries to work through the emotional whiplash.
āAh, makes senseā¦ wait.ā Danny sits up suddenly, squinting at Red Robin. āDid you say you loved me?ā
āNo, of course not, why would Iāā
āTim? Is thatāare youāare you Red Robin?ā
āEveryone, hold the fuck up!ā Red Hood shouts from the other side of the warehouse, having finished securing the perps to a streetlight outside. āDouble R is dating Danny fucking Nightingale?ā
Well, there goes his identityā¦ Oh, whoās he kidding, Dannyās smart. Thereās no way he could have salvaged that. This was not how he thought the night was going to go.
āCranberry, is that you?ā Danny twists in his chair, somehow delighted to see Red Hood rescuing him, too. āI thought I smelled you lurking about!ā
āShut it, you little shit. Since when were you dating this dweeb?ā
āIām sorry,ā Red Robin pleads, hands in the air to try and slow down the onslaught of information and insults, āyou two know each other?ā
āCranberry?ā Nightwing echoes, looking as lost as Red Robin feels.
āYeah, CranberryāThe Cranberriesāzombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie. Obviously. Also heās wearing a big, fuck off red helmet.ā
āYeah, sure, makes sense.ā
Itās about the only thing that does.
āAnd please donāt call my boyfriend a dweeb, Cranberry. Especially when he just said he loves me for the first time.ā
āHe only said it because he thought you were dead.ā
āI am dead, so it counts.ā
āOnly half, so Iād say that puts you at a solid ālikeā. Timāsāand savour this, Tim, because Iām only going to say it onceāTimās intelligent, so Iām sure heāll come to his senses soon.ā
Danny just throws Red Hood such a shit-eating grin. A level of feral that Timās only seen before in Damian.Ā
āThatās what I used to say about Jazz, too.ā
Hood scoffs in offence, and to be honest, Timās not sure where he should go from here. What the hell is happening, how do they know each other?
āCome on, is anyone going to untie me or am I really meeting your family mafia-style?ā
āDo it yourself, Slimer.ā Red Hood laughs, crossing his arms.
āUgh, you suck so much. Iāll fucking slime you, just you wait. Canāt believe Jazz even likes you, I preferred it when she was dating Johnny.ā
And then, without Danny doing anything other than muttering obscenities at Red Hood, the ropes fall to the ground. In one swift motion, Danny stands up and stretches himself to his full height of 5ā6.
āAll of you need to explain, now.ā commands Batman, and honestly, Red Robinās very much on his side of it.
āI canāt believe itā¦ Jason and Timmy are both in secret relationships? Thatāsā¦ How come no one told me?ā Poor Nightwing sounds the most shocked out of all of them. He turns to Damian and clasps onto both of his shoulders. āYouāre not secretly dating, are you, D? Please tell me youāre not, please tell me youāre single, please?ā
Of course, Robin just clicks his tongue and pushes his hands away. Really, Red Robin doesnāt think that Nightwingās in any danger of that happening, heād be surprised if anyone could stand Robin enough to actually date him.
He shakes his head and turns to Danny, whoās staring right back at him, worry clear on his face.
Fuck, he... He's alive. He's really alive.
Tim pulls him into a bone-crushing hug, fingers buried deep in his NASA shirt. Tucking his face into the crook of Danny's shoulder, he laughs wetly with the joy of it. He's alive. He hasn't lost him. He's safe.
āIām sorry I havenāt told you before now, starshine, butā¦ā Danny breaks the hug and softly pulls away from him to rise on his tiptoes to place a kiss his cheek. The skin burns cold where his lips touch. āI love you, too. Also, youāre gonna wanna sit down. This is going to be a lot.ā
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Wip Wednesday babeeyy
eyy I've finally remembered that wip wednesday exists!! here's some proof that i'm working on something, and that something is the follower milestone gift i said i was going to do and i promise i'm doing it! i'm doing it it's happening i promise!
so here's a little taster!!!! and here's Part One if you want a refresher!
And then the kid just vanishes.
In the blink of an eye, in the time it takes for him to look down, screw his face up because this is all confusing as fuck, and look back up, heās just gone. Thereās nowhere to hide, thereās nowhere to go, Jason can see everywhere around himābut he canāt see Danny.
āWellā¦ shit."
āWhat, what happened?ā Dickybird hisses in his ear, the unsaid, exasperated ānowā very clear in his voice.Ā
As much as he loathes to admit it, Jason is feeling very much the same way right now. What was meant to be a simple case of āinvestigate the potential child abuse and put an end to itā has instead become somethingā¦ less simple. When is it ever simple in his life?
Still. If working with supers, metas, vigilantes, whatever, has taught Jason anything, itās that just because you canāt see someone doesnāt mean theyāre not there.
āHey, kidā¦ Danny. Listen, Iām not here to hurt you and if youāre still here, if you can still hear me, then, I donāt know, do you want to get a bite to eat or something? I just want to talk. I just want to figure out whatās happening.ā
Jason doesnāt hold his breath.Ā
Okay, no, thatās a lie. Jason holds his breath, but he swears heās holding it so he can more accurately hear if Danny is still around. Thatās all it is, heās not attached to this kid already. Heās not.
When no answer comesānot even a whisper of a breath or the scuff of a sneaker on the pavementāhe suppresses a frustrated growl and opts instead to breathe deeply and pinch the bridge of his nose.
āSoā¦ā Tim begins, drawing out the word.
The urge to growlāhell, the urge to pull out his comms and smash them on the floorāgrows.
āThe kidās a meta, then. Potential powers including but not limited to: invisibility or teleportation. You think heās still there?ā Thereās no reason for the kid to still be around, not at all. If it was Jason, heād have scattered as soon as he realised the stranger impersonating his dad wasnāt the guy he thought was impersonating his dad, and honestly, wasnāt that extra fucked up? That someone impersonates people in this town often enough that itās not a surprise? The way Danny spoke about himā¦ What was his name?
Amorpho. Amorphous. Without shape.Ā
A shapeshifter?
Whatever. Itās a mystery for another time, because thereās still a more pressing mystery in front of him.
Or,. rather, not in front of him.
Yes, thereās no reason for Danny to still be here, butā¦
Jason sighs.Ā
āIām going to BatāNasty Burger. Really? Is that the best burger joint here? Nasty Burger? Whatever, Iām going to get some fucking fries.ā
Jason feels fucking stupid talking the air like this. He must look fucking stupid, too, but the thing isā¦ Thereās a prickling on the back of his neck, a rolling taste of green on his tongue when he glances through his peripheral, the vague weight of an unseen eyes on him.Ā
Call it wishful thinking, call it a hunch, call it something else, but Dannyās still here.
āThereāll be a burger waiting for you, too, if you want it. My treat.ā Jason turns in a full circle, examining everything in his surroundings. Nothing seems out of place, nothing screams wrong to him. āI just want to talk.ā
He waits for a full minute with no success, which makes Jason feel even more stupid, before clicking his tongue and making his way to the, hopefully ironically named, Nasty Burger.
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