Chapter Text
Strategists always have a plan, the way of strategize can vary from strategist to strategist and their strategies can be applied to other areas and life in general.
For Tim, life, his success as a vigilante, consist into plan ten steps ahead in different possible scenarios, always having a plan even for death. For Damian instead, life is a battlefield that concede the victory to those who have the best stratagems.
Until It didn’t matter how much effort they put into creating the perfect plan, the day wasn’t going as Tim and Damian had planned. None of them thought that they would have to work together to beat The Scarecrow. The man had chosen to work for someone else, it was difficult times to find a job in Gotham after all.
His so called boss was a trafficker of people who planned to take a group of kidnapped kids of different ages and genders, boys and girls, from the country to Hong Kong and was willing to pay anything for Scarecrow’s services if that stopped the nosy masked heroes from getting into his plans and if the villain kept the victims under control, scared and docile enough that they would never want to run away.
No, the day wasn’t going as they planned at all. Robin and the Teen Titans managed to infiltrate inside the cargo ship to stop the trafficker. Red Robin was there to stop Scarecrow. The connection between the two, the trafficker and Scarecrow, was later evident when Damian and Tim met face to face for their misfortune.
Tim didn’t plan for Damian to decide that he could do the mission alone rather than being in “Drake’s” company -Fuck kid, no names in the field, he wanted to tell the brat but he had already left- and Damian didn’t plan to receive a dose of fear gas from Scarecrow himself, an improved version -With all his training it wasn’t slightly possible-.
Finally the Titans managed to safeguard the victims, they would anyway but it was good for Red Robin to be back in the team at least this time. It helped that before he was the team leader because he was finding difficult to concentrate in the mission, Damian wasn’t visible anywhere.
Not that Tim was worried for the Little demon… but an uneasy feeling deep inside was telling him that something was wrong and probably the others noticed, mostly because each five minutes he asked them if someone had seen the Gremlin or cursed that the boy wasn’t there to fulfill his role in the team.
D…Drake- Suddenly Tim’s com sounded on a frequency where the others couldn’t hear it, the one for the Batfamily solely.
Damian. Where the hell are you? I need your location, repeat, give me your damn location- Tim was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, angry, frustrated and in denial. Him? Worried for the little spawn? Pfff never.
Scare...crow… I think- I’m under the fear…gas effects- Of course, it wasn’t usual for Damian to call Tim for help, actually, for anything, that taking into account the chaotic relationship they had. The more Tim listened the boy’s short sentences, the more he convinced himself that something was really wrong with him.
Damian! Talk to me Damian! - Without hesitation and without even bothering to warn the others, Tim jumped towards the ship again and began his frantic search as if an unrecognizable and invisible force pulled him to find Damian before doing anything else. No sound was heard from the other end of the communicator; the day was going from bad to worse.
Out of the blue, a noise like containers clashing one against other could be heard strongly through the little gadget in Tim’s ear and despite begging that the younger kid wasn’t crushed under the containers, the older kid felt relieved because now he knew where to search for Damian, he was in the cargo hold.
While he was running to the fastest speed that his trained legs allowed him, Tim heard a loud sound at his right that seemed like an explosion, just then he noticed that he foolishly wasn’t paying attention to anything at all but it was late to avoid the expansive wave that send him directly against a wall along with a lot of fragments.
The beep in his ears was unbearable, he could hardly keep his eyes focused and suddenly, he felt a stabbing pain in his abdomen that make him automatically direct one of his hands to that area.
Damn it! he thought as he saw his hand back in front of his eyes with the vision already better focused, it was blooded, one of the fragments from the explosion was incrusted in his body’s right side.
For a moment he thought in giving up, to wait for one of the Titans to notice his absence, he wanted to call them. Instead, he decided to talk to Damian first, “help will take a little more Robin”, he would say to him.
Damian, can you hear me?- He prayed for the person in the other side, his… brother, to listen, to answer.
Dr-Drake? I am… scared- Tim didn’t know what kind of visions the gas was making the little boy see, but he was sure about one thing, in all the time he had known Damian, the little spawn would never admit that he was scared of something, not to him. That unique thought made Tim’s heart shake. Fuck waiting for help, he had to reach his little brother now.
I’m coming- Tim made his body to stand up, he made his own pain to stay away from his mind, told it to fake being any other thing, in his mind there was only room for a single thought, Damian, scared and in danger, his little brother, he had to find him, he had to help him.
Cass- He remembered for a moment that the others were outside without knowing anything from them and he decided to notify them first at least.
Tim! Where the heck are you? - tsk Were they sure that they weren’t real brothers? Wondergirl thought, she really didn’t know if that was The Batman’s training or something else but all the Robins had proved to be even more stubborn than their master and sincerely, she wanted to fly to Gotham and ask him in person how he could stand them.
Take care of everything. I’m going for Robin- The communication channel was down and Tim kept ignoring the pain, despite the poor results of doing that.
To his frustration, reaching the cargo compartment took more time and effort that he would have liked and the task ahead looked like an almost impossible mission. He forced his brain to work despite the numbing pain, despite the confusion and how heavy the rest of his body felt. His mind was clouded, yes it was sluggish, but thinking about Damian in danger kept him concentrated, his mission was finding him and making sure to put him safe.
And there, between two containers, curled as a small child, more small than the brat really was, was his little brother, oblivious to his older brother relief.
Damian!- Maybe it was the pain, maybe it was the emotion from seeing his brother alive, maybe the pressure of having to take him out quickly because the ship was falling into pieces around them, maybe it was everything or nothing, but Tim felt like crying, and that’s why that shout, his brother name, came out louder than he intended in first place.
Red Robin had to reconsider when Damian flinched and crouched even more, when the little warrior showed him a knife in a menacing way, Damian was in that moment the most menacing that can be a kid trained for a group of assassins and it was a lot… but Tim didn’t feel scared for his own sake, he felt scared of losing Damian, that was a dumb thought having the child in front of him but still, it made Tim feel a lump in his throat.
Hey… calm down Dami, it’s me, Tim- With a soft and calm tone Tim approached to his brother as if he was an scared animal, not a human being, and the little boy dropped the knife to the ground to Tim’s surprise.
Tim? - Red Robin didn’t know what was more impressive, if the jumble of emotions the moment he heard his name leaving his little brother’s lips for the first time or the fact that, Damian -his self-proclaimed nemesis as part of a race to consume everything that Tim cared in order to feel accepted- just pronounced his name in a tone so small that it made him sound… vulnerable .
Dra- Tim! – Without a trace of doubt, Tim let himself be filled with tenderness and carefully approached to the younger Robin touching first his hand, later his arm and finally with a single pull, pulling him to put both arms around the kid to ground him, to support his little head -Oh, how small he was- and his back in his own hands.
Shhh, shhh, here I am little brother, you’re safe now- In absence of signs from The Scarecrow, Tim concentrated his efforts into calm Damian down, the poor kid was trembling like a feather but there wasn’t way to help him. If his research was right this was a new formula, giving him the antidote could kill the boy faster than not doing it.
probably he wouldn’t remember anything and everything would be shouts, disagreements and fights again after this. However, what mattered here was that Tim could feel his brother there with him, his warm little body, he could cradle him between his arms, hear his agitated breaths and see that he was alive and that if he wanted to keep his little brother alive he had to find an away to get him out of there.
Weakly Tim tried to think some away to escape but he found the cruel reality, there was no way that he could get Damian out on time, the entrance was blocked and he couldn’t carry his stout little brother too far with a wound like his, Oh, yeah, his wound, the same one that was making him feel dizzy and without strength in that moment.
Tim gave up the idea of getting out and began to search an away to survive, then his eyes caught an open container, a last minute bless that could keep them safe or at least extend their existence until someone could rescue them. Please, someone save my little brother.
With the last of his strength, still without letting go the helpless kid in his arms, he walked weakly and stumbling towards the container where they found refuge once it was sealed from inside.
There was nothing more that he could do, so he laid Damian to his side and began to run his hand through the boy’s hair and face, while he used his other arm as a pillow and a shield, waiting that soon Damian would fall asleep.
Tim? - A soft voice seconds before falling asleep sounded inside the strangely cozy darkness.
Yes Damian?- Tim was too weak to answer but he did anyway, he really did wanted to keep his eyes open, mostly because he was worried about Damian’s safety but the exhaustion was so overwhelming… that he almost could swear that his body was shaking but maybe it was the result of the freezing cold that he was feeling.
I am really sorry- Damian said holding Tim’s free hand as if he wanted to feel that he wouldn’t leave, that he wouldn’t be alone again.
For what?- It wasn’t that the little brat didn’t have reasons to apologize, but in that moment Tim didn’t care, so the question seemed logic but once he told it, it sounded stupid.
For everything- The effect of the fear gas, Tim thought immediately but just that time he wanted to believe that it was real, that Damian really wanted to apologize, that he really thought in his predecessor as a brother as much as Tim did of him.
I’m sorry too, for everything- From that moment everything around them was consumed by the darkness and just the sound of them breathing could be heard for a long time.