Young Writers Society

He almost stumbled under the weight, but he regained his balance as he hoisted Eddie up with him - Eddie's back and butt firmly supported. They easily towered over Megara and would have towered over Tim if he was in the room. He fought the urge to glance back at the door. It would only raise suspicions.

"See?" he dramatically whispered to Eddie.

Eddie giggled, "I'm bigger than you Meggie!" he announced, waving at her from his perch.

Her immediate instinct was to cross her arms, but she had to quell it if she wanted to keep standing with as much comfort as she ever had these days. Instead, she just returned his wave and smiled, "You certainly are."

Tim 'ought to be back soon. She didn't imagine it would take that long to change outfits and get back with presumably a new persona. What would his persona be like? If it was anything like hers when she was playing the intimidation game, it would be insufferable. She'd been part of a set when she played that game directly, so her overblown flirting and constant amusement was offset by Briar's complete lack of personality. Tim acting anything like she did alone would be an ordeal to deal with, not to mention slightly embarrassing on his side what with his previous personality not being even close to that.

She ceased that line of thought. As amusing as that would be, persona's like that were usually chosen carefully so a slip could be covered up. Megara's persona was just an exaggeration of her real personality, Tim's would be the same for him. Probably.

She didn't like not knowing exactly what to expect.

He grinned just like Charlie would have at Eddie's reaction. Charlie had always loved hanging out with little kids. Maybe it was because he was a little kid at heart, always eager and hopeful and ready to conquer whatever challenge came his way. He had liked watching him, back then. Back when they volunteered at the local elementary school. Charlie used to make all of the kids giggle and laugh and smile with the faces he pulled, and James would just stand on the sidelines, wishing that the moment would never end-

And then it did.

Charlie hadn't been smiling then.

The sound of the door opening snapped him out of the memories that were threatening to overtake him. Tim slipped inside the room. Even before Megara and Eddie had time to react, James got a sinking feeling in his stomach. It was usually difficult to imagine Tim as Robin, thanks to some of the costume choices, but something told him the resemblance would be all too obvious now.

Themed armor. She didn't know what she'd expected, but it wasn't this. He resembled the kind of 'fighter' she might glimpse at the occasional festival she attended. A performer. It was beyond her why they would remove any intimidation he might have to whatever enemy he came across right off the bat, but maybe it was a Gotham thing.

She didn't outwardly react other than the quick once-over she gave the boy, who she was pretending to think was someone other than Tim.

Eddie, however, giggled and pointed, "Look at the costume Meggie!"

Tim gave a smile at the comment - not because he was trying to fit a role, but because it honestly made him happy that Eddie liked his costume. There were only a few things that Tim enjoyed in life, and being Robin was one of them.

"Hi," he said. "Tim said you needed help getting home?"

"Yup!" Eddie said, apparently feeling talkative, "There are lots of bad guys here. More than home. I wanna go home." He said all of this in that upbeat chirp of his, tainted only by its own innocence.

He was wrong. There were quite a lot of bad guys back home, Megara had just gotten really good at keeping them far, far away from Eddie.

"Yes," she said, "We're not sure how we got here, but we really should get back."

Tim nodded, a momentary look of worry flickering across his face when he heard what Eddie said. He tried to reign it in, but it was hard to - Eddie should have never dealt with anyone remotely similar to the criminals that lurked in Gotham's streets.

Then Dick carefully put Eddie down.

He looked between Tim and Megara with an unreadable expression on his face - an expression that was more James than Dick Grayson. And then he said, in a quiet, tired voice, "There's no point in pretending."

Tim faltered.

"Pretending what?" he asked - a little bit of an urgent, frantic hiss to his voice. "I'm not sure what you're talking about-"

"She knows, Tim," he said. Tim's eyes widened as the sudden name drop - this was not part of canon - but Dick continued on regardless. He turned back to Megara, looking at her with an expression that was certainly James, and said, "Tim is Robin. It's supposed to be a secret, but I can tell you already know."

Megara looked Dick up and down, looking slightly annoyed. He didn't know, of course, that he had just called a professional liar transparent, but it still kinda stung.

"The costume does nothing to disguise your figure," she said, not at all an attempt to regain a bit of dignity, "and the mask is just kind of pathetic. Your entire facial structure is visible, and you hardly change up the way you hold yourself at all. Put all that together and it's pretty damn obvious."

Eddie was shifting around, his eyes darting between them as he tried to piece together what was going on. He couldn't seem to.

"In my defense," Tim indignantly said, crossing his arms, "most people don't know even know that Tim Drake knows Robin. And I'm not the first one to wear the costume, and those two never were-"

"Tim," Dick interrupted.

Tim sighed.

"Fine," he admitted. "You're right."

Megara looked down at Eddie and offered him her hand. He looked like he was going to go run up to Tim any second, and she decided that wasn't going to accelerate the conversation by any means. He took the offered hand.

"How do you plan to get us home?" she asked, "I can't stay gone long."

Tim and Dick exchanged a look.

"We still need to work out the specifics," Tim admitted. "But we have two options right now. Our first one is to check Bat-Bruce's technology and see what we can use. If there's nothing there that's usable, Dick is going to cash in a few favors with the Justice League and ask them for anything that can bring you back home."

"They have a wide variety of people," Dick added. "One of them is bound to have a way to get back to your world, even if we can't predict what that way is right now."

Megara nodded along, about to say something when Eddie tugged on her arm. "I don't want to go home," he insisted.

She blinked down at him, "We have to-"

"No!" He stamped his foot, "Cook is there! And bad guys!"

"Eddie..." she didn't know what to say.

Tim and Dick exchanged a look.

"We have very bad people here," Tim said, his voice gentle but assertive. "Your world is safer than ours, Eddie."

"No!" Eddie protested, "It's not! It's not it's not it's not!" He stomped again, "It's not! Meggie will tell you! She keeps the sharp things everywhere! And she makes some of them not-touchable with the yellow stuff! There's always danger!"

Megara's gaze had slipped to the floor.

Neither one of them addressed Eddie's comment.

They got the implications. But considering that they lived in Gotham, and that Megara honestly seemed to be doing her best to take care of Eddie, neither one of them wanted to broach the subject.

Instead, Dick got down on his knees and looked right into Eddie's eyes.

"It's even more dangerous here, Eddie," he softly said. "Tim's not my only little brother. I had another one before him, too. Someone decided that it was better if he was dead than alive. He beat him with a crowbar, and, when that didn't kill him, he destroyed the building he was in with an explosion..."

Dick faltered.

Tim watched as he spoke. They both knew Jason was alive. But something about the emotion in Dick's voice wasn't forced - like he honestly did miss Jason. Tim wondered if he could understand that feeling; would he ever miss a character in the same way that Dick did when they inevitably changed with time?

"We have a grave for him behind this house," he said. "There's a grave for my dad's parents there, too - they were killed by criminals. And so were my birth parents. Even if it doesn't feel that way, Eddie, you're safer in your reality than in ours."