Chapter Text
Later, when they finally get out of this mess, Tim would say it was Damian’s fault.
Damian, of course, would say the exact opposite.
The scene of the disaster that played out that night was as it follows.
It was a little after three am and they had just returned from a relatively uneventful patrol. Bruce had disappeared upstairs the moment they got there, an uncharacteristic action for him that made Tim immediately check for head trauma, but Bruce waved him off and said he had been putting off replying to an email to Lucius for about two weeks now.
And, really, Tim understood. He had been putting off replying to another email to Lucius, and Tam, for four days.
So, that left only Tim and Damian in the cave. Dick was in Bludheaven, Jason wouldn't willingly patrol with them unless the city was about to actually fucking implode, Cass was on one of her secret missions, and Steph was preparing for some exam.
Damian disappeared to take a shower. Tim was going to do the same, but first he wanted to look some more at the stone artifact they brought back from their last case for the night.
It had been a robbery from an antique store, and between the three of them catching the people responsible for it had been almost laughingly easy. The stolen items were all returned to their place, save for a small stone tablet with runic engravings, that had begun to ominously glow after it was dropped during the chase.
It was decided to take it back with them until they figured if it was dangerous, so in a compact protective case it went, and they brought it to the cave. Currently, Tim was running it through various scanners and machinery for energy signs and material matches.
The glow had gradually disappeared during the drive back, and it didn't start up again as Tim was doing the tests.
At some point, Damian returned, and he stopped to stand behind Tim. He wasn't saying anything, but Tim could practically feel his pointed gaze digging in the back of his skull.
“What?” Tim finally snapped, after ten minutes of this.
Damian tted. “If you continue handling the dubious artifact this way you’ll break it, or worse.”
“I'm literally not even touching it! How else do you want me to-”
Of course, this wasn't about the shady piece of stone, not really.
It was about last week, and the fight, and old grievances between the two of them who never got the chance to grow old.
Whatever the case, Damian sniped something back, Tim did as well, and things went from there. It wasn't quite a fight, but during it Tim had unconsciously gotten backed towards the equipment that held the artifact and well…
The stone tablet fell to the ground and the whole cave exploded in blinding white light.
When Tim and Damian finally came back to consciousness, they were standing in the middle of a sunflower field, in an Earth that wasn't theirs.
Almost a year has passed since then, and honestly, not much has happened in that time. This was a completely normal world with no magic, no aliens, no advanced technology, and most importantly, no way to get back home. Of course, they still tried. The first few weeks here that was all that they did, but to no fruition. And Bat protocol was that if stranded in an unknown place/timeline/earth, blend in with the locals and wait for extraction.
And they did wait, but nothing happened.
At the two month mark Tim had to call it. It seemed like they were going to be here much longer than expected, so he started on making him and Damian real people here.
Damian Wayne and Tim Drake-Wayne.
Half-brothers, parents recently deceased in a car accident, leaving a healthy sum to their kids(that was definitely not Tim implementing what Barbara called a “tax crime” to a weapons smuggling ring they took down because they were getting antsy with the waiting).
Tim, being of legal age, had won custody of his brother. He kind of wanted for their surnames to be the same to support this story better, but there was no world where Damian was actually going to call him by his first name, so Drake had to remain if people heard them and questioned it.
Then the biggest struggle came. Signing up Damian for middle school.
He had vehemently protested, verbally and physically, but Tim refused to budge on that one. He was attending school back in Gotham, so he had to continue it here, for however long they were in this place.
Damain had argued back that technically, Tim too was supposed to be still in school. If he hadn't quit to look for Bruce in his last year.
Tim had said it was different. Damain said he didn't care, and if he had to suffer the hellish experience of middle school, Tim had to suffer that of high school.
So, after hours of arguing and one couch pillow in their new apartment having fallen victim to the ordeal, Tim was muttering angrily under his breath and singing them both up for school.
He hoped by the time their family or friends rescued them, Tim and Damian hadn't already killed each other.
The school year had been a couple of weeks in when Tim was enrolling them, but he cited the supposed turbulent change of their lives, and there wasn't much of a problem after using the ‘my parents died’ card. And the respective schools Tim had chosen were less than a twenty minute walk from each other, just in case.
And so, Tim and Damian started leading a semi-normal life.
It was…strange. And off-putting.
They still did the occasional bout of vigilantism, because a teenager who spent half a decade fighting crime and supervillains, and a baby ninja assassin couldn't sit still in a room for a long time even if they tried. Though, it was a lot less than before, because they couldn't risk the attention.
Through the midst of all that, Tim had picked up playing a sport.
Something called Exy, which didn't exist back home, and it was kind of an insane sport. The rules, the size of the field compared to the players on it, the amount of violence allowed.
But Tim hadn't meant to start playing, everything happened kind of incidentally.
He was skipping a class that was so boring it almost put him to sleep once, and while passing by the field he nearly got assaulted by a stray exy ball flying straight for his head. Tim should have just dodged, but in the split second he had to react, he caught the ball instead. After seeing that, the exy coach didn't leave him alone until Tim was on the field with a racquet in hand and some ill fitting gear.
Turns out that his school had a pretty formidable Exy team, but the last few years it has been struggling, so the coach corralled any person showing potential into joining.
Tim had refused to play at first, but Coach Mills didn't give up, and over the next week came up with enough perks that he would personally provide if Tim agreed to join the team, at least for a test period.
So, Tim did.
And he found he liked it a lot more than he expected. He was always an athletic person before even taking up the mantle of Robin, but he couldn't afford to play any sports, much less team ones, for obvious reasons.
But here he got that chance, and beyond that, Exy was quite a challenging sport and that made it fun.
They tried out all the positions in the game, on account of Tim never having played before. He was an okay goalkeeper, but sitting still in a goal was a waste of his speed and agility. He was a decent backliner too, but again, the positions that made most of his talents were a striker, or a dealer.
In the end, Tim ended up being a striker/offensive dealer.
His coach told him it wasn't that unusual for dealers to play as other positions if the situation needed it, and the opposite, but he was surprised Tim had gotten used to it so quickly, given his lack of experience.
On one occasion, Tim had even played as a defensive dealer.
He simply was good at getting the ball where it needed to be, with his quick reflexes, calculated throws, and agility allowing him to weave between opponents with ease.
All of this quickly made him a valuable player to the team, his coach having him play in quite a few games, much to the annoyance of some of his older or more experienced teammates.
And, today they had a game too.
Tim was already ready and dressed in his gear, having made use of the locker rooms well before anyone else arrived, and was waiting in the inner court next to the benches. Seated upon them was Damian, who often ended up having to come here after the end of his classes and wait for Tim to be done with practice or a game.
A fact he endlessly complained about since Tim started playing.
Tim vaguely explained his home situation to Coach Mills, and the guy was quick to agree to letting Damian wander around court after school was over, as long as Tim was on the team and in general proximity.
‘’Cheer on us?’’ Tim asked him with a smile.
Damian raised his head from his sketchbook to give him an unimpressed glare and say,
‘’I’ll pray for your demise.’’
Tim had expected nothing else.
He raised a hand to ruffle the brat’s hair, an action that would have earned him a knife between the ribs the first few months they knew each other, a broken wrist a year ago, but now resulted only in his hand slapped away and a muttered insult.
Tim and Damian’s relationship had changed over the course of the last few months. Being stuck in a foreign Earth, with no one that knew them and no one to rely upon but each other, it had to, whether they wanted that or not.
They still didn’t get along great, and Damian still disliked most things about Tim’s existence with a passion, but things were a lot better than before.
Soon after Tim had to head out on court with the rest of his team, and once twenty more minutes passed in preparation, the game began.
Tim let himself get lost in the atmosphere of it, in the running and twisting to avoid players, in the shouting of the crowd that enveloped the place, in the adrenaline that surged through his veins.
He ran, dodged, and scored goals, and by the time buzzer sounded the end of the game, his team had won the game by two points.
Tim allowed himself a small, pleased grin for a second, before schooling his expression and jogging towards the rest of his team.
Things after there were a lot less interesting and tediously long. Debrief, getting out of sticky gear, waiting for everyone else to finish using the showers so he could. Tim was often the last person to leave the place, but he preferred the privacy waiting provided. Again, the only downside about it was that Damain complained.
After finishing dressing this time though, Coach Mills stopped Tim before he could disappear.
‘’Tim, if you have a second, come meet me in the foyer. I have something I want to talk to you about,’’ the man said before leaving for the room.
Tim followed him, wondering what this was going to be about.
Upon entering the room his attention was immediately caught by the three people already in it. One was a large and broad man, late thirties to early forties, with tribal tattoos sneaking up his exposed forearms. Next to him were two younger guys, around Tim’s age maybe, with respective intriguing appearances.
The first one that catched Tim’s attention was the shorter one, and how couldn’t he. Striking auburn hair and eyes a hue of blue that was almost uncanny. But what really caught Tim’s attention was the scars. Short straight lines, definitely some kind of blade, and circular ones overlapping at the edge of the cheek. Burns, if Tim had to guess by the way the flesh healed.
These weren’t accidental. Someone tortured this guy.
Tim allowed himself to consider him for a second more before it got rude to stare, and turned his attention towards the next person.
Tall, dark hair, and light green eyes. He had a little bit of that effortless beauty to him, a face that could be a model, undercut only by the stony expression and the rigidness to his posture. There was something else in his features though, Tim threw a quick look back at the older man, and yeah, these two were related somehow.
The most interesting thing about his appearance was the tattoo of a chess piece, the queen, in the exact same placement as the burn scars on the shorter guy.
And all of the unfamiliar people were decidedly looking at him.
‘’Coach,’’ Tim began, ‘’what is this about?’’
He had an inklining, one that he wasn’t particularly a fan of, about the answer.
Coach Mills stepped in front of the older man and motioned towards him with a hand. ‘’Tim, this is Coach David Wymack, and with him are a couple of people from his team. They are from a university—’’
‘’No,’’ the word slipped from Tim’s mouth before Coach Mills had even finished speaking.
‘’What?’’ The man paused. ‘’What do you mean by—’’
‘’You know exactly what I mean,’’ Tim cut him off again. ‘’We’ve talked about this, I have no interest in playing after I graduate. So, my answer is no.’’
‘’Now, hold on a second,’’ Coach Wymack spoke up. ‘’At least hear our offer before deciding whether to accept or not.’’
Tim turned to face him, he didn’t seem like a bad guy, and there certainly was something interesting going on with those players of his, but he was kind of annoyed with the situation.
‘’It doesn’t matter what you say. My answer won’t change.’’
Chances were, Tim hoped, Damian and him would get home before he had to worry about higher education and so on. Not he had been interested in pursuing it in the first place, even on their own Earth.
‘’Let me say my piece anyway,’’ Wymack said with a huff at Tim’s blatant refusal. ‘’I paid for four tickets to get here, the least you could do is give me five minutes of your time.’’
‘’Four?’’ Tim questioned.
‘’Final person of our group is waiting outside. Now, will you hear my offer?’’
Tim regarded the guy and decided there was no harm in listening to what he had to say. He nodded.
‘’Good. We are from Palmetto State University, and after reviewing the file your Coach sent us, it was decided you’ll be a good addition to our line. Sign the contract to play for us and you get a full ride everything and a chance to play on a Class I team. It’s a pretty decent offer If you ask me.’’
‘’Class I?’’ Tim asked with raised eyebrows. ‘’You do know I’ve only played Exy for, like, seven months now, right? Surely you had a lot of better candidates than me.’’
At that, chess tattoo guy stepped up and began speaking,
‘’We did. And yet, we discarded them and came here instead. So, stop wasting both of our times, and agree to sign the contract.’’
‘’I’m sorry?’’ Tim couldn't help himself but say. That was some attitude, alright. ‘’And who exactly do you think you are to tell me what to do?’’
The guy bristled at that, and the redhead next to him let out a short and sharp laugh.
‘’Kevin Day,’’ the man answered.
Tim could tell he was expecting maybe some kind of recognition for that name, but unfortunately for him, Tim hadn’t bothered much with Exy beyond learning the rules of the game.
‘’Okay, Kevin Day, you can’t seriously tell me to join your team and expect it to work. I’ve listened to your offer, and Coach Wymack, you’re right, it does sound like a very decent one, but my answer’s still the same. I’m not interested.’’
‘’Then you are a fool,’’ Kevin stated. ‘’Do you even recognize the opportunity that is presented to you? No other Class I, or even Class II, team is going to give you a chance based on your stats and inexperience, but if you sign with us, we can make you a champion.’’
‘’Ease up, Kevin,’’ Wymack muttered, but didn’t refute any of his words.
‘’I’ll pass,’’ Tim said.
They were putting quite an effort in recruiting someone not only was not interested, but as Kevin more or less put it, with not that impressive stats. That, coupled with the general appearance of his recruitment party, made this thing only more interesting.
But still, Tim couldn’t accept, for a number of reasons.
‘’Why?’’ the third person asked, and for a second Tim thought he had said the last thing out loud.
‘’I’m sorry, you are?’’
‘’Neil,’’ the guy answered, and then. ‘’Why do you refuse to play? I saw you at the end of the game, you enjoyed it. Enjoyed playing Exy in a way not a lot of people do. So, why are you saying no?’’
Tim felt a little strange at being correctly perceived by stranger in a moment that lasted less than a couple of seconds.
‘’Even if that’s true,’’ he began his reply, ‘’that’s not enough for me to agree. I have a lot more important things to worry about.’’
Neil looked at him like he understood, at least a little, and said,
‘’You can still try, in spite of everything else.’’
But Tim just shook his head.
‘’Not really.’’
‘’What do you have to worry about?’’ Wymack asked. ‘’Maybe we can work something out.’’
Just by his tone and the way he phrased the sentences, Tim could tell he knew.
He grew a shit tone more annoyed with Coach Mills, who had apparently been discussing his private life with strangers.
‘’I have a brother,’’ Tim said coolly, and he guessed right because Wymack didn’t react to the information, but his players did. Seriously, what kind of recruiting party was this and what research did they do? ‘’And I’m his guardian, so you aren’t just asking me to move and play for your team, but to string him along too.’’
Not that Damian was particularly fond of the place they were living right now, but still.
‘’We can make arrangements, including your brother in your contract. This way we’ll provide both of you with any necessities you may need, like housing and education,’’ Wymack explained.
Clearly, this offer was something already thought out before coming here. Which again, strange, because Kevin and Neil didn’t seem to know about it.
And, Tim had to pause for a moment here, because this was just way too much.
‘’Why?’’ he asked. ‘’Why go through all that effort for recruiting someone not only not interested, but as Kevin here put it, way too inexperienced?’’
‘’Because our recruiting standards and what makes someone a good player are a little bit different than any other team,’’ Wymack grunted out.
But Kevin gave an answer too, after taking a step in Tim’s direction and looking him intensely in the eyes.
‘’Because you have potential.’’
And, really, what was Tim supposed to answer to that?
‘’I can’t make this kind of decision without speaking to Damian first,’’ Tim sighed and told the group. ‘’Chances are he’ll say n—’’
And, of course this was the exact moment Damain chose to show up.
He strode into the room with his head held high and a little scowl on his face, probably irritated that Tim was taking even longer than usual. The backpack slung over his shoulder hitting him in the back with how fast he was walking.
‘’Drake,’’ he bit out once he reached Tim. ‘’What on earth could be possibly taking you so—’’
The sentence trailed off when he spotted the unknown occupants in the room. He gave them an appraising look, then turned back to Tim.
‘’Who are they?’’
‘’My recruitment party, apparently,’’ Tim answered. ‘’’From…Palmetto State University, was it?’’
Coach Wymack gave a small nod, but he, like the rest of his group, were currently looking at Damian, startled a little bit by his approach.
Damain had that effect on people sometimes, when they met him for the first time.
Even though it was pretty evident at that point, Tim stepped up to the kid and carefully didn’t place his hand on his shoulder but hovered it somewhere there, and introduced him.
‘’Coach Wymack, Kevin, Neil,’’ — he was saying the names for Damian’s benefit — ‘’this is my brother, Damian.’’
‘’Hello,’’ Wymack grunted out, a little bit awkward.
Kevin and Neil were just staring at the two of them.
Damian didn’t offer a greeting back. Instead, he looked at the coach and with a raised eyebrow and sounding highly skeptical, he asked; ‘’You here to recruit him?’’
‘’Yes, brat,’’ Tim huffed. ‘’Me.’’
‘’You must be desperate,’’ Damain muttered, and let his gaze slide to the floor. The interest with the situation leaving him once he learned this had to do with Exy.
He wasn’t particularly impressed by the sport.
The assembled group looked at the interaction between brothers with a range of expressions. Even Coach Mills, who had known Damian for a few months now, wasn't quite used to his demeanor.
As the silence stretched out a bit, Damain spoke up again,
‘’Are we going to stand around here all day? Get your things and let’s go back to the apartment, Drake. I have things I need to do, even if you don’t.’’
‘’Yeah, give me a sec—’’
‘’Wait a minute,’’ Kevin interjected. ‘’You still haven’t signed the contract.’’
Damain’s gaze snapped to Tim. ‘’Did you actually agree to this? Are you that—’’
‘’No,’’ Tim cut him off. ‘’I didn’t. I said to them I’ll talk to you first.’’
‘’I don’t think there’s something to talk about. Let’s go.’’
Feeling the protest from the group were going to start again, Tim hurried to say,
‘’Just, give us five minutes.’’
Then he carefully dragged him away out of the room. Damian shrugged off his hold the moment the door closed.
‘’What is this about?’’ he hissed.
Tim didn’t beat around the bush.‘’I think there’s something interesting going on with those guys.’’
‘’The guy with the scarred face?’’ Damian asked immediately.
‘’Yes, but not only him. All of them are kind of strange. And I’m getting a vibe.’’
‘’You’re getting a vibe,’’ Damian scoffed.
Tim ignored that and said, ‘’I think it’s worth looking into.’’
‘’So, you propose what, agreeing to sign and play for their team?’’
Tim shrugged. ‘’Maybe. We’ll search them up first, and if there’s something, we’ll go.’’
‘’You just want to play more of your pointless sport, don’t you?’’
‘’I won’t lie, there’s a bit of that, but that’s not why. School year’s ending soon. Don’t you want to find something interesting to do after that?’’
‘’Emphasis on the word interesting.’’
‘’Come on, Damian. If there’s nothing, we’ll leave. Tell me you actually like the school you’re currently attending anyway.’’
Damian stayed quiet. Then he crossed his arms and tted.
‘’There better be something.’’ And only Damian could make his agreement sound like a threat.
They returned back to the group. Tim turned to Wymack.
‘’Look, I’ve never heard of your team before today, so, can I have a little time to check you out?’’
‘’You…’’ Wymack trailed off, seemingly troubled by his request.
But Neil finished the sentence for him.
‘’You might want to agree less once you check us out. If you really don’t know anything.’’
It was a blunt and honest answer, and Neil’s expression didn’t change a bit while giving it.
Kevin slammed an elbow into his side for it. Neil frowned and returned the gesture along with pushing Kevin away.
Well, that sounded promising.
Wymack sighed at the antics of his players and turned to Tim again.
‘’Fine. You can do that, but I don’t know how much time I can give you before we leave.’’ He checked his watch. ‘’Our flight back is at seven. So, an hour and something good for you?’’
‘’It should be enough,’’ Tim nodded.
‘’Good, here’s my number. Let’s meet somewhere in the vicinity of the school once you’re ready.’’
And with that, Tim and Damian finally left the school stadium. They passed a blond guy on their way out, standing in front of the doors and smoking a cigarette. He could only by the last member of the PSU group Wymack mentioned, but the man didn’t so much as blink at them as they walked by, and Tim wondered just exactly what this Class I team was that allowed players to smoke.
-
Instead of going back to their apartment, Tim and Damian stopped at a nearby cafe.
Tim pulled out the laptop from his backpack and began searching up the PSU Exy team.
To say the results were a lot would be an understatement.
Scandals, deaths, overdoses, charges of murder, and so much more, all centred around a team that currently didn’t have more than eleven players.
And this was only what was available to the public.
‘’So, is this enough for you yet, or shall I keep going?’’ Tim asked Damian.
‘’Shut up.’’
-
Tim met up with Wymack to finalize the whole thing.
They had few things to discuss, like Tim and Damian arriving at the university a week or so before the summer practice started. Them renting one of the apartments in Wymack’s buildings, since there were a lot free apparently. Then moving into dorms, and how would that all work out. And a couple of other small things.
At the end of it, Wymack asked,
‘’So, am I putting Wayne or Drake on the jersey?’’
‘’Wayne,’’ Tim said after a few seconds.
He probably wouldn’t have picked that one if he was back home, but circumstances here kind of required it.
Wymack seemed to pick up on it.
‘’Okay, Timothy Drake-Wayne, welcome to the line.’’