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English
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Part 105 of Tim Drake AU's , Part 3 of Tim Drake: Myth and Legend
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Published:
2023-11-24
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1,107
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1/1
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Pelts and plants

Summary:

This isn’t freedom.

 

Tim stares down Poison Ivy, Harley at her side, fingers sliding down a moist, soft grey and black skin, fur tickling the tips of her fingers. Tim feels phantom fingers on his back and tries not to snarl.

Tries not to be the riptide.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Tim Drake

 

An interesting name. A fitting name, people would say. More fitting to his mother, Janet, people at galas would whisper. A dragon in disguise. Despite the fact that the name comes from Jack.

It never fit him as well as it did mother.

 

But that was always for a reason. Mother was cold. Unforgiving. Wild in a way that doesn’t seem it.

Free.

 

That is the one thing that Janet made sure to impart onto Tim at a young age:

Freedom. The wildness that seems calm. A riptide disguised as a calm surf.

Freedom, the way that he can leave at any time. Can go out into Gotham on his own without any hesitation.

Freedom… The feeling of pelt sliding down skin. Never a dragon, but some people would say something worse. Something deceptive. And if that isn’t Janet Drake in a nutshell, then Tim isn’t sure what is.

 

This isn’t freedom.

 

Tim stares down Poison Ivy, Harley at her side, fingers sliding down a moist, soft grey and black skin, fur tickling the tips of her fingers. Tim feels phantom fingers on his back and tries not to snarl.

Tries not to be the riptide.

“I don’t feel like I have to say that I don’t necessarily have much love for animals” Ivy starts, breaking the silence that everyone has fallen into as they stand, dumbfounded from the moment Ivy brought out the pelt and Tim froze.

Tim breathes. In. And out. And in again. Like the waves. Like the tide.

Unstoppable.

 

“But something seems off about this little trinket. Selina thought so too. It’s why she left all the shiny things behind. This seems much more valuable” she continues. Tim stays silent.

“Do ya know why we brought ya here, little birdy?” Harley asks, and her voice is soft. Calm. Soothing. Tim wonders if that’s how she spoke to patients.

 

Tim doesn’t answer.

 

He doesn’t have to.

 

“It’s cause we’re worried about you, kitten” Selina’s voice says from behind him. Tim doesn’t turn. Doesn’t face her. Doesn’t have to.

They have him cornered.

They really should know better.

An animal cornered is a dangerous animal.

And what people so often forget, with how cute and soft the pelt seems to be…

 

Is that seals are predators.

 

Tim strikes before either of the three ladies can.

The first priority is getting his pelt away.

Everything after that can be thought up as it happens.

 

Tim lashes out with a staff, jabbing Ivy in the stomach hard enough to knock the wind from her lungs, fingers going lax.

And as Harley reaches out to steady her, Tim gives her a whack on the fingers to make sure the pelt isn’t going anywhere.

The pelt lands on the staff, starting to slip, soft as it is.

Tim’s faster than that. He knows better than that. He’s been trained (His instincts scream)

 

The pelt lands in his arm with the flick of a wrist, the skin under fur bubbling with anticipation. But this isn’t the time.

He isn’t out of danger yet.

 

Tim turns and finds diamond-tipped cat claws way too close for comfort.

They seem to be reaching for the pelt in his arms and Tim…isn’t thinking anymore.

 

He swears that he at least looked human as he lashed out, staff forgotten to the side. But he can’t be entirely sure.

He knows for a fact that he didn’t sound human.

“Ok so maybe cornering him like this wasn’t the best idea!” he hears Harley hiss as almost-human fingernails scrape across her arm.

 

“You think?” Selina asks as Tim’s foot connects with her ribs, shoving her to the side.

Ivy’s the one to step back, hands held up in a sign of surrender, not moving toward Tim. Or the pelt.

Tim doesn’t hit her. And the other two follow suit.

 

Now, Tim’s standing in a clearing, panting, arms clutched around his pelt, his skin, his freedom.

The three ladies are standing back, to the sides of the paths. Not blocking his exits.

No longer trying to cage him in.

It helps the screaming in his head die down. It helps his breath feel deeper, less like the rushing of waves in a storm and more like the lapping on the shore.

 

“Why?” Tim asks.

It’s the only question he can think of.

 

Selina coughs, the sound filled with tension and something almost like regret. “Like we said, we were worried. I thought the thing was cursed. There was just something off about it. But then I brought it to Ivy and…

It isn’t cursed. At least not in the traditional sense”

Tim tenses at the note of pity in her voice.

 

He smiles, teeth sharper than they should be. Eyes darker. Skin swirling like the brine lake beneath the ocean.

“It isn’t a curse” he says, voice almost mirroring his mother’s. Her lessons on freedom and cages.

“It may have been for some people a long time ago. But this” he adjusts the pelt in his arms “Isn’t a cage. It’s very simple, actually. It’s an option. It’s an out. It’s a trap-door that nobody knows about” he repeats, the memory of his mother’s pelt in his hands, the way his father wasn’t home for this discussion.

The way that Janet and Tim went swimming, always alone.

 

“And you” he snarls, remembering that he isn’t alone. Not here. Not now. “Will not tell anyone. Not if I have to rip your tongue from your jaw and feed it to the minnows” he smiles widely, making sure to straighten his spine and drop his chin.

A stance his mother taught him.

Human, she’d said, with just enough “Other” in the smile to be off-putting.

Ivy isn’t perturbed.

 

Tim smiles at her, just a tad softer. Because she might not come from under-hill. But she may as well.

 

“Now, I’m gonna leave and lock this back up again. Gods know what Ra’s would do if he found this” Tim mentions, a real shiver down his spine at the thought.

He sees the ladies exchange a glance behind his back.

Hears Selina say something about people with too much money and enough shiny trinkets.

Hears Harley mention that she isn’t fond of the whole, Assassins run by an insane man bit.

Hears Ivy mention polluting waters.

 

His eyes glaze over, his smile widens.

Let them take care of that for a bit, he thinks as he slips the pelt over his shoulder and feels it melt into his skin.

He needs to go for a swim.

And Ivy’s plants wouldn’t dare hurt him like this.

 

They know better.

Notes:

Alright. So. Some explanation for the craziness that has been this year.

So. I changed jobs at the start of this year. Had an opportunity. Took it. Turned out to not be my thing, which is also OK.

So I changed jobs again in like August.

All the while also studying for my final year of my Bachelors.

So it's been crazy. A little.

And my new job has me in an open-plan office which means that I can't just have the Young Justice comic sprawled out in front of me.

So that's why Here We Go Again hasn't seen any update since I changed jobs the first time.

I'm sorry. But it's been a hell of a year. So we'll see how this one draws to an end. And since I finally have the energy to write again, I'll continue the story! But the delay has been a delay, so. Sorry.

That's pretty much it.

I just wanted to explain