For Dick: Days of Fire and Madness

[needsarobin]

"So this is the treehouse. Three of us live here. All except Dairine." Tim led Dick up the stairs that wound around the tree trunk, spiraling up to the landing of the first landing, high above the forest floor. It was dark there and Tim didn't stop, just continued up to the second floor. "This level is mostly storage right now. There aren't

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[cantstopmoving]

Head's spinning still. Wish I could talk this out with Roy and Donna, or Bruce.

Alternate earth? Dimensional shift? None of its new really.

More than a year.

Okay, that's new. Two months would be new. All of us coming from different points in time, that's new too.

I could deal with that. It's the two of them. Tim and Barbara. And Tim having Titans I don't know and a treehouse -

Bruce.

- that have me off-balance.

He leans against the wall, arms crossed loosely over his chest. It probably won't fool Tim, but how he acts impacts how he feels.

"It's well done." Small nod, hint of a smile, approval in his tone. "All of it. Good work, Tim."

Because leading off with you could've warned me isn't going to help.

[needsarobin]

Dick didn't have to say a word for Tim to hear it all in his head. He's watched Dick for years, knows him from every angle in every mood. Two years can't have changed that much. This is still Dick and knowing him, Tim has to struggle to keep his voice steady as he continued the tour. "This is Bob's room--he's Bart's bat. Flying stomach, really. Bart's room is here," It had the feeling of disuse, Bart's almost never in it but he maintained a separate quarters anyway. Most of the day-to-day things are missing though that's hard to tell at a glance.

"My room is here, Jill's is over there. The rest," Tim indicated the two doors that stood open to let in what little sun filtered through, "are open. Upstairs is the meeting room and the sky deck."

If he just kept talking, he wouldn't have to answer the unspoken accusation. He didn't have a good explanation for it. It had just seemed simpler.

[cantstopmoving]

He's not the stalker that Tim is, but he knows him. The way he paces the common room, showing off his home, opening doors and speaking more meaningless words than Dick has ever heard from him - it's wrong. Deep down wrong.

Hair rising on the back of his neck and over his arms, Dick flashes on nights of following him after his dad died. He and Cass staking out Tim to make sure he was okay. He hadn't been.

He isn't now.

Dick's not okay either. He's the farthest thing from okay. But it's the kind of not okay they're used to. Disoriented. Lacking intel. Separated from their teams. Not sure who they're up against or even what to fight.

Keep telling yourself that, Grayson. Maybe you'll even start to believe it.The next time Tim wanders by, Dick shoots out an arm and grabs him by the scruff of the neck. The irony of it - that it's something Bruce would do to him, just like Tim showed his Bat at both he and Babs before - is so thick he almost wants to laugh

[needsarobin]

There was a force of personality to Dick that he didn't remember. It could have been time had dimmed his recollection. Could have been that he just had never faced Dick like this before. But Tim didn't think it was either of those. Things had changed since he left their world. And the man Dick is, isn't the man that Tim remembers. He's changed, grown. Into himself and into his power.

He doesn't have a choice about answering, in the end. "Two years," he made a sound like a laugh interrupted by a punch, "Two years last week. Happy anniversary to me."

It seemed like that should have been a milestone but the day in question had slipped by, unremarkable and unmarked. It was fitting, really. Nothing has changed for him, even though everything has.