Chapter Text
Five Years Ago
It was honestly a matter of time before Tim got sick, Chopper reflected. They had been very lucky, but a combination of the tactician diving into the sea to fish out Luffy near a winter island seemed to have done the trick. Even though they immediately got him and the captain dried off and in clean clothes as soon as possible. Sometimes, that was the way of things. Pneumonia was a concern, given his lack of spleen, and anything had a chance to get bad quickly.
However, Tim had been keeping up on the daily low-dose medicine that Chopper made him. While Sanji was the one to drag their flushed and coughing crew member to the doctor, it was caught early enough for him to work quickly.
Their tactician was tucked up in bed in a fresh pair of pajamas and a cool cloth on his head. His eyes were hazy and out of focus, but he had been sleeping. And while he was coughing, it was a dry cough versus a wet one. Chopper’s job was to make sure that Tim didn’t contract pneumonia now.
He could do this. Doctor Kureha and Doctor Hiriluk trained him well. He could do this.
Chopper informed Sanji to stick with broths and tea for Tim for the time being. Something packed with nutrients but easy to swallow, anything to flush the infection out of their tactician’s system and boost immunity. Once his fever broke and he wasn’t sleeping as much, then they could talk about more substantive foods: maybe porridge.
The cook nodded as if this was the most important mission he had ever been given and gently ruffled Tim’s hair before slipping out the door.
The process of making medication was a soothing one to Chopper, despite his nerves. But Doctor Kureha believed that such things should become muscle memory, like how Luffy knew how to stretch his body, or Zoro seemed to dance on the battlefield with his swords. This was where the reindeer shone with the same sort of brilliance.
Or he could, hopefully, one day. He still had a lot to learn and do in the world in order to get better. But you needed confidence in your ability and a humbleness to know that you didn’t know everything out there.
His mentors believed that if you acted like you knew everything, then the only thing you would end up was dead. So, Chopper didn’t act like he knew everything, and was learning so much more instead. Because he wanted to learn and grow, he wanted to understand.
He informed Tim of this when the former vigilante wasn’t sick, and he hummed thoughtfully.
“Sometimes, though,” he told Chopper. He was staring off at the horizon. He smelled sad and looked wistful, though he still wasn’t the best at reading human facial cues. “Acting like you know everything gets you out alive. If you make everyone think you know everything that they know, then they reveal more than they would mean to. There is a time to admit the gaps in your knowledge and the time to be the smartest one in the room.”
Right now, he's focused on healing Tim so that he can teach Chopper what he meant by that statement.
He was about to finish the medicine when someone knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Chopper said quietly, blinking in surprise as Zoro entered the room.
“Luffy wanted to come check on him,” the swordsman explained. “But Nami said he could go see Tim when he wasn’t resting. And then I think Usopp roped him into fishing because Swirly Brow wanted to get a stock pot going for broth. Robin said she would be by later.”
His eyes hadn’t moved from where Tim slept.
“I told the captain that I’d go see how things were.”
Oh!
Okay. Status report.
Chopper could do this.
“His fever hasn’t broken yet, but that’s to be expected,” he informed the swordsman. “It’s not too high, and we’re not in a danger zone of worry yet. So far, he’s been sleeping fairly peacefully, and his lungs sound clear. I just finished the medicine for him, so when Sanji comes by with tea and broth, we’ll administer it then. If he rests, then it shouldn’t be more than a couple of days before I’ll think about releasing him.”
Zoro nodded seriously, taking his word as fact. The doctor tried not to smile at that, being taken seriously by someone as cool as the green-haired man was still new enough to be thrilling. He was looking at Tim, who was still sleeping.
“You can sit with him if you want,” Chopper offered. “I need to change out his compress, but Doctor Kureha said that, for some people, having others around helped. So long as they weren’t stupid about it.”
Zoro snorted before nodding, “Alright.”
He changed out the cloth while the swordsman settled in the chair by the bed.
Tim stirred slightly.
“Alfred?” he murmured. “Bruce?”
His eyes cracked open, a sliver of hazy blue, “Dick?”
Chopper froze, uncertain of what to say.
“You’re safe,” Zoro said, deliberately making sure not to lie to Tim in his state. “Go to sleep.”
The order was enough because a few seconds later, the patient was fast asleep. It was always hard to get a read on the older man’s feelings, but those weren’t names that Chopper recognized offhand.
Doctor Kureha also said that people revealed things when they were ill that they would never if they were well. It was their duty as doctors to take some secrets with them to the grave.
“Who are they?” the doctor asked. He figured that they were from Tim’s world, but they weren’t any names he had directly named. Though the doctor guessed that maybe some names were just too painful to say when you were mourning for everything you’ve ever known.
The swordsman sighed and leaned back in his chair. There was an unreadable expression on his face.
“Complicated.”
Ah.
That was about as clear as mud, but Chopper had a patient to focus on. He could worry about Tim’s mysteries later.
Three Years Ago
One of his birds came bearing a package. It was simply wrapped: brown paper and tied up with a string. It was also ringing every sort of alarm bell in his head, mainly due to a childhood in Gotham and being Robin.
Tim thoughtfully chewed on his lip while he examined it.
“You okay there, bro?” Franky asked, watching him sniff the box.
“I’m trying to smell for explosives,” he said. The bird looked offended from its perch, as though it would bring him a box that could kill him. God, had it eaten a Devil Fruit or was Tim still working off the edible? You could never know with this world, sometimes.
Everyone on the deck turned to stare at him.
“Why are you worried about explosives?!” demanded Usopp. He had moved impressively quickly to the other side of the ship and somehow had procured an Army-esque helmet to protect his head.
“Because I wasn’t expecting a package and I don’t trust packages wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string! It is one of my least favorite things because back in Gotham, it usually meant someone was about to get gassed!”
The sniper made a noise of despair with Chopper and Nami, who had also joined him.
“So is it?” Luffy asked, leaning over Tim.
“Doesn’t smell like it,” he said. “And if it was triggered by movement, then it would have killed the bird. Don’t glare at me like that, bird. You know I’m right. Have you eaten a Devil Fruit? Don’t fly away, asshole! I’m talking to you!”
The bird twittered.
Chopper paused in his crying over potentially being bombed and said, “I…I don’t think I’m allowed to say those words.”
Awesome.
A bird had cussed Tim out. He gets no respect here sometimes.
“Well then, open it!” Luffy demanded. “I’ll just eat it if it does explode.”
Well…
His Captain was definitely not wrong about that. Gear 5 was full of cartoon logic in that sense.
Tim took out his switchblade, flicked it open with a practiced movement, and cut off the string.
There was a box and on top of it was a letter. He breathed out a sigh of relief, realizing that it was in Law’s barely legible doctor handwriting.
“It’s from Torao,” he called to the others. He heard Nami wolf whistle now that it was clear they weren’t about to die. Well, it was his own damn fault for kissing the Heart Pirate captain like that back in Wano, he supposed. Flipping her off with one hand, ducking out of Sanji’s kick for flipping off a lady, Tim rolled up into a standing position and opened the letter.
Your gift worked well. Blackbeard has been quite thoroughly defeated, especially since the coward tried attacking me while I convalesced with my crew. My sincerest gratitude and deepest appreciation for what you had gifted me.
A gift to you and your captain, one for your mentor here, and the other as goodwill to a more permanent alliance between us in the future.
And perhaps another kiss, maybe?
Love,
Sincerely,
I can’t believe I didn’t die this time,
Law
“Law’s an emperor now,” Tim informed the group. He looked over at Luffy. “Blackbeard has been defeated.”
His Captain grinned, “That’s so amazing for Torao! He’s an Emperor now, too! We should celebrate.”
Whether they were truly celebrating Law’s ascension or Blackbeard’s death, Tim didn’t know. He wasn’t sure if Luffy knew the reason either. But everyone seemed excited for the party.
He turned his attention to the box.
“Hang on, Luffy,” he said. “Law also sent us a gift. One for me and one for you. He said that he hopes it will be goodwill toward a more permanent alliance in the future.”
Tim will have to have one of his birds hunt down Marco. They were always good at finding him when needed. Though he was willing to guess that he was on Sphnix Island. He only kept him there for a couple of weeks during his training, but it was a pretty village.
Luffy jumped excitedly.
“A gift! Torao is such a good friend,” he grinned. He had his arms around his intelligence officer’s shoulders, resting his cheek against Tim’s.
He shook his head at his Captain’s antics before opening the package.
“Oh!”
“Oh.”
Inside, nestled and packed with care, were Blackbeard’s two devil fruits.
Tim’s heart thrummed at the gesture.
He was pretty sure he was the one blushing now.
One Year Ago
Tim stared at the young upstart pirate. It really had to be today when one of these assholes decided to come sniffing for a fight, huh?
The young upstart pirate lifted his chin defiantly.
“Dude,” he said, wishing he wasn’t so hungover. “Can you come back like tomorrow?”
Clearly, that’s not what this asshole or his crew expected Tim to say. Yeah, he had his moments of drama. But he wasn’t going to go full, like, Kaido or Big Mom or whatever. He was hungover because it was Zoro’s birthday yesterday, and all the swordsman wanted was for Tim to share a couple of drinks with him. And he was weak in the face of a request from his crew. Luffy was still passed out, so he definitely wasn’t going to wake up for a pissant from the West Blue who only made it to like three islands in the Paradise of the Grand Line.
Tim wished he wasn’t woken up for a pissant from the West Blue who only made it to like three islands in the Paradise of the Grand Line. But here he was.
Also, Vivi was visiting Nami, and if any of this shit was going to disturb their time together, then they all were going to suffer at her hands.
He needed this asshole to go.
Like now.
“So the great Straw Hat Luffy is afraid to fight the Scourge of the West Blue—”
Oh Seas.
He was flexing. His crew was staring at him like he was the second coming of…maybe Kidd? Actually, no, Tim didn’t like the guy, but he was, at least, not as annoying as this fucker. It was fucking close, but…
He was still fucking flexing.
Right in front of Tim’s coffee.
Yeah.
He hated him.
“We’re all hungover,” he said, cutting off whatever circle jerk The Asshole had initiated. All of the fucking Blues, he just wanted to go back to sleep. “And if you keep leaking testosterone over the place, then it will disturb Nami. And she will be pissed. I assure you. She is scarier than Luffy when she’s as upset as I know she will be. And she will kick all your asses and then make out with her queen over your electrocuted corpse. Now, you can make that choice. Or I can pencil you in for a death match tomorrow when we are all not hungover and regretting our life choices or having sex with our various partners.”
The Asshole stared at Tim.
The Asshole’s crew stared at Tim.
Tim took a long, slow sip of his coffee and refused to blink, even though the light was hurting his eyes. He was never going to let Zoro convince him into drinking again. Birthday present or no birthday present, he refused.
He’ll do it again because he loved the asshole, but right now, he refused.
One of The Asshole’s crew flinched and whispered into his ear. Ah, clearly one of them had some semblance of brains between their ears. Maybe he didn’t have to despair over the pirates who have recently been inspired by his Captain to take to the high seas.
The Asshole deflated, literally.
Oh, he had some sort of Devil Fruit that increased his muscles or something.
Huh.
“Would noon tomorrow work for you, sir?” The Asshole asked, almost shyly.
“I can pencil your ass-kicking for that time,” he agreed easily. “Have a nice day. And, remember, leave quietly. Or you will learn why having the Weather Queen mad at you is a very bad idea, capiche? She will show off for her girlfriend.”
Tim didn’t wait for their answers. He spun on his heel and went to fuck off to somewhere dark and quiet so he could sleep off his hangover.
Annoyance averted, thank fuck.
Two Years Ago
“I don’t get it,” Usopp said, watching as Tim soldered together something for an invention.
“People are idiots in any universe. There’s nothing to get.”
The sniper frowned.
“So you’re telling me that people are going into abandoned, derelict buildings.”
“Uh-huh.”
“To explore.”
“Yep.”
“And there is a non-zero chance that there is a secret supervillain lair or someone living there when they shouldn’t.”
“Yessir.”
“And they still do it for…this Internet thing?”
“Internet fame,” Tim said, considering the connections he made in the device. He had lifted his goggles up but had grabbed his magnifier. “But yes, you’re right on the money.”
Usopp had no clue why people would want to get famous by exploring old abandoned buildings with a high risk of death. But, well, given his own profession, then maybe he shouldn’t be throwing stones. However, in his day-to-day life, the sniper wasn’t going into abandoned old buildings to poke around.
Not without Robin at least.
But he had to admit his own curiosity about Tim’s world. More importantly, he wanted to understand it and understand how it shaped someone whom he loved. Kaya said it was something that she loved about him, how he wanted to know the people around him so deeply.
But there were things about Tim’s terrifying fucking world that he didn’t understand, and probably would never understand without going there himself. However, Usopp also felt like he owed it to him to try, if that made sense. Even if it scared him, because that world did fucking scare him, but he loved his crewmate.
And he wanted to try to understand.
“And the Internet is that thing you miss?”
“Fuck yes,” their intelligence officer said. “If only to hack into CCTV cameras and government agencies. Can you imagine the sort of fuckery we’d pull on the Marines?”
No?
Well, maybe? If it were like what Tim did at Egghead and Punk Hazard, then yes.
Actually.
Yes.
“Maybe the gods wanted to,” what was the word? “Nerf you?”
Tim, who was taking a drink, spat it out impressively before laughing so hard he started crying.
“Did I not use it right?”
His friend shook his head, waving it off.
“You used it perfectly,” he giggled. “I just wasn’t expecting it. It throws me when you guys use slang from where I came from.”
He grinned at Usopp, though. His blue eyes seemed to sparkle in the light of the workshop.
“But I appreciate it, the effort,” he looked down at his project. “I just really love you. All of you.”
The sniper’s heart felt like it was drowning in love at that. He threw his arm around Tim, carefully avoiding the delicate project he was working on.
“The great God Usopp loves you as well!” he said, hugging him tightly.
Yeah, he’d learn a million horrible things about Tim’s world to make his friend happy.
Especially when he was smiling like that.
During the Straw Hat’s Separation
“He’s safe,” the figure that had been sitting in Dragon’s office said. They sounded masculine, but any sort of gender heteronormativity had been trained out of him by Ivankov long ago. A mask, shaped like a bird (it looked like Karasu but with more facial coverage), lay on the table.
The Leader of the Revolutionary Army looked into the eyes of Drake Timothy, a member of the Straw Hats Pirates.
“He is,” he agreed. “Are you here to see Robin?”
The young man had a very good stoic face, Dragon noted. But he had grown up reading what his father wasn’t saying, so he read between the lines and the barest flick of his eyes toward the door.
“No,” the young man said. “If I see her, then I would want to stay. And I have things I need to do.”
Not much was known about Drake Timothy; that was just a fact of the world. It frustrated the Marines and the Dragons in a way that made the small, petty, private part of Dragon enjoy it. Just a little.
“Then you’re here to see me.”
“I am,” he said. “I’d like to propose a partnership.”
“A partnership?”
Drake paused for a long, long moment.
And he suddenly looked so very old sitting in his chair, Dragon wondered what made that boy, who is the same age as his son, look like that. What sort of life did he leave that could age him like that?
He took a seat instead, on equal ground for them both.
And he waited.
If there was one thing that Monkey D. Dragon had become very good at over the years, then it was patience.
“I am disgusted by the World Government and the Celestial Dragons and whatever other dark thing is hiding in the cracks of a rotten core in this world,” Drake said. “I am horrified by what they do, and I have the ability to do something. My loyalty is to your son, and if it comes between him and you, then I will choose him every time. But I helped people once, and I have so much more information now. And I would like to share it with you from time to time, if you think it will help.”
They had many informants, but one more wouldn’t hurt.
“And you think Luffy will allow that?”
“Of course. And if he didn’t, then I would stop,” he paused. “But he wouldn’t.”
Suddenly, Dragon desperately wished to know his son. He kept a professional boundary with Nico Robin for a similar reason. He loved Luffy. He was so proud of him. But he couldn’t know him, couldn’t know the man that he became.
Otherwise, he would break.
And he couldn’t afford that.
He could never regret what he did to make sure his boy stayed as safe as he could be. From what he understood, overhearing Sabo asking Robin questions, he never seemed to mind not having parents. Orphans were just a fact of life in the world. Sometimes, parents go out to sea and never return home.
“May I ask you a question?” he asked.
“Of course,” Drake said. “It’s your base and your office and your Army.”
The Army was for the People, but, well, Dragon understood what the younger man meant.
“Are you a Celestial Dragon?”
It was his theory for the mystery member of his son’s crew. A Celestial Dragon who had somehow run away from home and joined a pirate crew made sense.
The younger man, however, looked horrified.
“Oh fuck,” he said. “Do people think that?”
Oh boy.
Dragon may have fucked up.
See? This was why he didn’t really speak a lot.
“It’s a theory.”
“Do I look inbred?” Drake paused, staring off into the distance. “I think you offended me. I feel genuinely offended. I mean it’s not a bad theory given the information you have to work with, but…yeah, no. I’m still offended.”
“…Sorry?”
Drake pointed at him accusatorily.
“Don’t make it a question!”
“Then where are you from?”
The younger man seemed to deflate at that. He rested his chin on the palm of his hand, looking at him intently. He felt as if his every move was being reads and analyzed.
“Do you really want to know?”
Dragon did.
Three Days Ago
It’s not that I didn’t trust you. I know it doesn’t seem like that, but…
Why are words so hard?
Oh yeah, the alexithymia. Words aren’t hard emotions are.
Fuck me.
Okay.
From the top.
It’s not that I didn’t trust you, Tim.
Really.
It was that I didn’t really trust me. I knew what would happen to me if I had lost you, too, somehow. It would be what killed me. Or what led me to kill myself. And I couldn’t put that emotional burden on you or myself.
You had way too much of the emotional burden already. A burden you didn’t really deserve to begin with. If I were a better man, then I would have…gotten help. But you saved me, and I made you feel alone.
That was the last thing I wanted.
It was wrong.
It was unfair.
Life was wrong and unfair. Or, at least, that’s what I told myself. People like me weren’t allowed to be happy.
You were so much like me that maybe I transferred that onto you.
And I hammered that into you. Don’t trust anyone, not even yourself. Be paranoid. Be cautious. Be careful. You did it, and it made you miserable those last few months before you left. Or at least that’s what I pieced together. I tried to retrace all of your steps, hoping it would lead me to you.
Hoping that I could bring you home as you brought me home.
However, I…
You had become me, and I hate it. And I’m sorry.
You stopped when you faced off against Ra’s. You asked for help. You saved people dear to me. And you weren’t me in those moments.
I’m so proud of that.
And then…
Fuck.
Big boy words, Bruce.
Then I saw you with people whom you trusted, who you loved, and I saw the kind of son I could have had if I just let you be. If I just trusted you when it was hard, when I was in my lowest place. And maybe I was jealous.
At least, I think that’s what jealousy feels like.
I’m so fucked up that I see a group of people who love each other in a way that doesn’t utterly destroy them, and I think they’re in a cult. I think that they had been bamboozled or swindled by a charismatic leader, who made them do horrible things. I tell myself my gut is right, and I let my eyes lie to me to get the evidence needed.
That was how far I had fallen from my true roots as a detective.
The evidence is that they loved you, and there was no baggage to that love.
The evidence is that they loved you and proved it.
The evidence is that I failed.
And I still have no idea how to apologize for all the ways that I did