zolac_no_miko: (Timmy: I feel you / Each move you make)
[personal profile] zolac_no_miko
Title: I'll Be Yours (A Love Story) [Ch 5/?]
Continuity: Comics!verse AU, based on post-Crisis continuity.
Rating: Very M.
This chapter–
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake, cameo from an original character; one-sided Tim/Dick, sorta.
Word Count: 1842
Summary: Tim thinks a lot (a lot) about things that upset him. Tim indulges in a couple of his favorite hobbies in an effort to relax. Upon further reflection, Tim has a Really Great Idea.
Warnings: General creepification, one mild swear word, roundabout sort of discussion of sexual behavior in a twelve-year-old. AU!Timmy is not your friend. No spoilers for anything more recent than the 1980s.
Disclaimer: Most of the characters and locations in this story are © DC Entertainment Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment. All content is fictional and for entertainment purposes only, not for profit.

Notes: Timmy calls everyone by their first names. Mrs. McIlvaine doesn't have a first name, as far as I've been able to find. So I gave her one. Also, can I please crawl out of my skin now?

Posted to [livejournal.com profile] robin_fans, [livejournal.com profile] we_love_dick, [livejournal.com profile] mrsarcastic_tim, [livejournal.com profile] batfic.

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* * *

I touch a button on my music player and a bow drags over cello strings. I close my eyes and visualize the intended outcome; I open them and pull the scalpel across preserved flesh, splitting the skin. I must be careful not to cut too deeply. This cat will be an example for my classmates, a display of the major muscle groups. I don't want to damage the muscular tissue.

It is Sunday. I am alone apart from John Macy, who is sitting at the big stone slab table at the front of the classroom, grading papers. He teaches my advanced biology course. I am his favorite student. My exposure of the dogfish shark brain and major nerves was better than the one sent by the laboratory supply company. He gave me a glass container and asked me to label and preserve it for his students to refer to in the future. He tells me I will go far in any biology-related career I choose.

I am his favorite student, so he lets me practice my dissections whenever I want, on weekends and at lunch breaks and after class, leaves before I do most afternoons and gives me the keys so I can lock up when I'm done. I am his favorite student, so he forgave me when I made my eyes round and apologized for putting away the preserving fluid sloppily on Friday, so that some of the containers tipped and fell and broke and spilled preservative down the drain. (I told him a lie.)

Cutting the lifeless bodies, opening them up to expose what is inside is a soothing exercise, like meditation. It grounds me. It reaffirms an underlying Truth of the world. Different cats can have different skin, different hair, different eyes. They can be big or little, fat or thin. They can be lazy or friendly or mean. But when they lie dead and open in front of me and I can see all the little pieces and how they fit together, they are all pretty much the same.

And so it is with other animals, and people. The Truth is, they are all the same on the inside.

I find that interesting.

(What is it, then, if they are all the same, what is it that makes some creatures better than others in life, stronger, more beautiful? It is Fate.)

I am grounded in the order, the logic, the sameness of it all, and so I am free to think. I have a lot to think about.

~ ~ ~

Dick left Gotham City this morning. He did not go to New York. He did not tell anyone where he was going. (He has gone to Haley's Circus, of course. This is obvious. Where else would he go?)

Dick left because Batman fired him. Batman fired Robin. Fired him. He fired him.

This made me very angry.

But I thought about it. I thought for a long time. (I didn't sleep.) And I understand. I understand Bruce. Isley hurt Dick. (That bitch. Never again.) I know Bruce cares for Dick. He was scared. He was trying to protect Dick. He was wrong, but he wasn't trying to hurt Dick. I am angry, but I understand.

Batman needs Robin. Bruce will realize his mistake. He will want Dick to come back.

I am worried that Dick will not want to come back.

That is what upsets me most of all. Dick will come back to Gotham, I know he will. Gotham is in his blood, in his brain, under his skin. But if Dick does not come back as Robin... that's just– it's just---

That can't be allowed to happen. Robin is Dick's destiny. He can't just be ordinary. It is his Fate to be great, special, brilliant, amazing. He needs to be Robin. If he doesn't want to be Robin anymore... no. That just can't happen.

I am very upset about this.

~ ~ ~

I feel an itching underneath my skin. I need... I need something to make me feel better. No point in going out tonight. Dick's not there, and I don't want to see Batman right now.

I will go to my darkroom instead. I have not yet developed my photographs from Wednesday. I have been much too busy.

It is well past midnight and my parents' house is dark. My parents are not home. Dorothy McIlvaine, the current housekeeper, is asleep. No one will know I have been here. There will be no interruptions.

I avoid the locked front gate. (The security system logs keypad access.) I scale the fence instead. When I reach the house, though, I let myself in the front door with my key, deactivate the burglar alarm, and head for the center of the house and the stairway behind the kitchen leading down to the basement. I don't turn on any lights. I don't need them, not for this.

I pass rows of my parents' bottles of wine and the walk-in freezer Dorothy keeps well stocked. The southeast corner is mine. My special place, where my mom and my dad and Dorothy don't go, wouldn't go. They know better.

I keep a lock on the door, just in case. My fingers find the numbers in the dark, clicking the dials into the right combination. My heart is starting to beat faster.

I pull the door open, close it behind me, make my way through the serpentine light trap and into my darkroom. The smell of the developing chemicals permeates the air. It hits me like it always does, straight to the back of my spine. I feel hot; my breath comes short; it becomes difficult for me to walk.

On the east side of the room is another door; I move quickly toward it in the utter blackness– there is nothing to trip over. Everything is in its place.

The door closes behind me, and I pull the blackout curtains across it out of habit. Then, with some difficulty (my hands are shaking) I switch on the light. I don't see the film developing equipment, or the small animals in jars of preserving fluid. All I see is Dick.

This room is where I keep the photographs of Dick, the ones I have taken and the newspaper clippings. There are dozens of images of Dick on the walls: Dick standing on the edge of a roof, Dick swinging, Dick and Bruce in civilian clothes at Dick's favorite café.

This is necessary. I do this every time I come into my darkroom, and sometimes again before I leave. I trail my hand along the wall as I walk around the room, brushing my fingertips across the edges of the photographs until I find the one I want and carefully remove it from where it's pinned to the wall by brass tacks. (Held at the edges by the heads of the tacks, not the stems; I would never put holes in my prints.)

The one I want tonight I took from a boathouse on the river near the New Trigate Bridge. Dick is standing where a suspension cable is anchored, one hand resting against the steel tower. His face is impassive as he looks down at the people below him on the bridge. I am reminded of my memory of Dick standing on the platform at the top of the circus tent, looking down on the dead bodies of his parents, looking down on the audience in the bleachers.

I take the photograph to my chair and sit. This is why the camera was such a revelation. I can choose from dozens of images, preserved memories, Dick captured perfectly in each one. Perfect, beautiful, eternal. I can see him for as long as I want. I can touch him. I sit in my chair and hold the photograph of Dick in my left hand and I look.

I look and look, taking in every detail. I can almost see Dick's cape whipping in the breeze, and the chemicals heavy in the air make me dizzy, make my head spin, the teeth in my lip my only anchor, and Dick's image is burned onto my retinas so when I can't help it and my eyes fall closed I can still see him clear and beautiful as with eyes open until I'm full, too full and I spill over and everything goes white and for two seconds I don't see anything at all.

I keep my eyes closed and just breathe for a little until the rush sinks down to a low hum, a slight tingling in my arteries and veins, and then I clean myself up and put the photograph away and get to work.

My body moves automatically, comfortable in a routine repeated more times than I can remember, filling the sink and bringing the temperature to 20º C, setting the jugs of chemicals to float in the water bath, switching the lights off and cracking open a film canister. As I work my mind goes back to those two images of Dick. The memory that is a photograph on my wall, of Robin on the bridge. The memory in my head of Dick in the circus tent. Looking down.

Dick is so far above everyone, special. How could he want to give that up? Dick was great; Fate forged him into something exquisite. Through sacrifice, through death, Dick became something better. How can he turn his back on that?

Is Dick's destiny really so tenuous? Is a fight with Bruce all it takes to shake him from his path? I do not want to believe it, but... why not? All it took to start him on that path was two dead bodies, two crumpled, broken bodies– spotlight, chalk dust, blood. That was all it took. Such a little thing. Such a little thing....

I stop, suddenly; the lights are on and my film is in the developing tank and I'm checking the temperature of my chemicals and I stop what I am doing and think. Just think.

...That is the key, isn't it? Death. The death of Dick's parents was the catalyst that changed him, that raised him up. All he needed then was Batman's guidance and teachings. Dick doesn't need that anymore. All he needs is the catalyst. All he needs is the reminder of who he is.

Suddenly everything makes sense. Dick, me, the circus, Robin, the fight with Bruce, the wheels of Fate turning and turning until everything falls into place here and now with this realization: I can do it.

I can be the catalyst.

This is what it's all been for. The thrill of it rushes through me and I return to work with shaky hands. I sweat and tremble and ache. (I will have to sit with one of my photographs again when I am done here.) I think and think about what I can do for Dick. The truth of it is just too beautiful.

Dick needs me. And only I can help.

* * *

[Next Chapter]

Date: 2010-12-11 03:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ivy-b.livejournal.com
This is completely creepy and fascinating at the same time. I'm a cat lover, so that beginning disturbed me greatly. I wonder who Tim plans on killing as a 'catalyst'.

Date: 2010-12-11 09:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
I love cats too, but I also enjoyed dissecting one. Because I am a biology nerd. (My shark brain exposure was TOTALLY the best in the class!) But we ALL should be disturbed when Timmy does dissections, because his motives are suspect and having nothing to do with an interest in biology and oh gods his habit really shouldn't be encouraged like it is. T_T

Ahaha, who indeed~?

Date: 2010-12-11 08:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ignescent-fic.livejournal.com
I think this is the first time i ever wanted jason to go to etheopia- i think he'd be safer w/ the joker than creepy!timmy. *shivers*

Date: 2010-12-11 09:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Ahahahahaha~!! ...Awwwww, but Timmy swears he would never beat Jason half to death with a crowbar and then blow him up! (He would find other ways~....)

Date: 2010-12-11 09:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magusronin.livejournal.com
Aawwwwwww Shit! Creepy!Timmy is getting scary ideas. ^v-v^ The dissections perfect. Definitely looking forward to the next installments.

It's amazing where our creative imaginations can take us sometimes.

Date: 2010-12-11 09:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Hee, dissections~! Happy flashbacks to Vertebrate Structure and Function lab... ohhhh, I miss that class so much! T_T That bit about the dogfish shark brain exposure is all me... I fucking rocked that dissection!

Ahahahaha 'amazing' is one word for it.... Gah, this chapter was so fucking difficult for me to write... especially the bit with Tim and his photo collection and ARGHqhkjhphqhpepqang;jhz seriously can I please please please crawl out of my skin now? TT_TT ...And I don't think my imagination is involved so much as... okay, I mean, I know Timmy isn't real, I created him, he is my imagination, but I do this thing that I always do when I write or play a character, where his personality is so well formed in my brain that he's become somewhat autonomous. Like, last night Dar and I were walking around downtown and we passed this place that sells fancy photographic equipment and I have absolutely NO reason to care about that kind of thing at ALL, but Timmy made me turn my head and look and smile and go, "Ooooooh~, camera stuff! :DDD"

Date: 2010-12-11 10:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magusronin.livejournal.com
T_T Yay turning science into, the twisted little pastime of a twisted little creature. ;)

Yep that's what happens for a well researched character. So what was Dar's reaction to you making googly eyes at camera stuff? you really are exceptionally talented with all this storytelling and writing stuff. I hope you're continuing to put some work into your original material. I for one would love to see some of your original stuff developed for publication.

Date: 2010-12-11 10:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Yeeeeeaaaahhh, when it comes to dissections I don't think Timmy and I get the same things out of the experience....

Haha, well, she didn't notice until I laughed/groaned at myself about it... I told her what was happening in my head, of course, and she sort of rolled her eyes at me. ...She gets it. A couple of months ago she was the same way with one of her RP characters. He was always checking out people she didn't find attractive.

=^_^= Gosh, thank you! And yeah, I really need to put more work in on Umbrella Man, I haven't touched it in, like, a month, except to type up what I have so far. Must. Finish. First. Chapter. T_T ...Dunno that I'll ever try to publish that one, though. One of these months or years I really do need to get serious about putting in some work on my novels. -_-;;

...This is actually really good practice, though. I've never written ANYTHING novel-length in my life... I started writing a novel-length fic a few years ago, and stopped three chapters in. -_-; So actually working on not one but THREE novel-length stories is kind of a big deal for me. If I can finish even one of them it'll prove to me that I can, that something that long isn't quite so daunting as it seems... and it's invaluable practice in plotting and pacing for something of that length. So. This is a good thing.

Date: 2010-12-11 10:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hotomi.livejournal.com
Oh this was really good and creepy. When Timmy had his "revelation" I was like OMG (and then I thought "He is totally right anyway") Loved it!

Date: 2010-12-11 10:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Yay! Ahahaha, yes, the best thing about scary!Timmy is that most of his strange logic actually does make sense to the rest of us. He's not crazy! He's just... slightly sociopathic.... ^_^;;

Thanks for reading!

Date: 2010-12-12 07:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] harechan.livejournal.com
Oh, my. What a thing to have at the top of my inbox when I come back to LJ after my break. Timmy still creeps me the hell out, but I'm certainly adjusting to it. You're superb writing may be assisting in this. I am worried that Timmy thinks he's the only one who can help. I had this rather funny thought of him knitting a Nightwing uniform Don't ask. I blame brain damage from studying for finals.

As always, I'm looking forward to the next chapter. (and I'm off to get caught up on what has happened while I was neglecting things online)

Date: 2010-12-12 08:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Hey, welcome back! I'd been wondering where you'd run off to. Finals go okay?

Timmy still creeps me the hell out, but I'm certainly adjusting to it. - By all means, keep being creeped out~! I can't be the only one. T_T

You're superb writing may be assisting in this. - Awwww, thanks love, you say such nice things! =^_^=

I had this rather funny thought of him knitting a Nightwing uniform - LOL! This story would be a lot shorter and a lot friendlier if that was the case. I can just see it, though... if Dick needed Timmy to learn how to knit, Timmy would become the best damn knitter in Gotham City!

Date: 2010-12-12 09:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] harechan.livejournal.com
Finals are this coming week actually, but I always take a break the Saturday before hand. I'm less likely to spaz later... when about to take a final. Also You're superb... wow. See how tired/brain dead I am? This is why I take breaks on Saturday nights. XD

I'm still creeped out by him... a lot actually. I just feel slightly less like I need to sleep with the light on after reading one of his chapters, but I still wouldn't want to be left alone in a room with him. So don't worry! You're not alone!

And you're very welcome! I'm looking forward to getting caught up on Live Without too.

Of course he would! He'd want to make Dick proud of his mad knitting skills after all.

Date: 2010-12-12 11:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Ah, well in that case, good luck!

You're superb... ahahaha, yeah, I wasn't going to say anything, but I had to struggle with myself to not correct it in the copypasta. XD; ...It's okay, love, typos happen. I just fixed one in the above story a few hours ago.

Heehee, your intense reaction to dear Timothy will never cease to please me. <3

Date: 2010-12-12 10:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mosrael.livejournal.com
Oh snap that is some delicious creepiness. Although I wouldn't trust any 'revelation' I had after wanking in a room full of chemical fumes... honestly, when I realized what he was doing I cracked up. :D It may be skin-crawly to write, but it's sort of in that sweet spot of not 'over-the-top creepy', and not 'make-believe-kiddie-sociopathy' either. *offers you a brofist of encouragement*

Date: 2010-12-12 11:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
I wouldn't trust any 'revelation' I had after wanking in a room full of chemical fumes... - Oh my god you should've heard the noise I made when I read that. It was loud and strange and caused alarm in my roommate. XDDD Lmfao, seriously!

...You make a very excellent point, though. XDDDD

Lol, you're the first person to even mention the wanking. I was getting all paranoid, like, was it too vague? Are people afraid to mention it? Do they just not care? Am I the only person who finds that part intensely sketchy and also kind of hilarious?

I'm glad I've managed to hit your creepiness sweet spot! ^_^ *omg brofist hells yeah, i feel so encouraged*

Date: 2010-12-14 04:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mosrael.livejournal.com
It was pretty subtle at first - I was all like 'oh he's fixating creepily on a photo, lah de dah, OH MAN HE IS JACKING IT TO THAT PHOTO :D:D:D' and the realization was glorious. It can be a good thing to be subtle, because then his layers of depravity sort of sneak up on the reader. >:3

Also it is pretty rad that you've dissected a shark! And are drawing upon that experience for hot weird hot gay fiction! I love seeing different, unexpected things in my gayfic (I,uh, read a lot of it). Now I am starting to feel like a repetitive praise machine BUT I REALLY LIKE IT OK *patiently awaits further unhinged adventures*

Date: 2010-12-14 05:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Oh good, that's kind of exactly how I wanted the scene to read! Yay! ...But yeah, when it comes to certain things in my writing, especially when it comes to the thoughts and feelings of my characters, I tend to err on the side of being possibly too subtle and too vague rather than being too blatant and direct. I worry sometimes that I'm not getting what's in my head across properly to my audience. So it's nice to get that kind of feedback.

With that scene there was really no other way I felt I could go about it. Part of it was my issue with having to write the scene at all... I felt like it had to go in, I feel like it sends a pretty strong message about the type and intensity of Tim's feelings about Dick. But I personally was a bit squicked about the whole thing... writing about a twelve-year-old boy jacking off was embarrassing enough already, and then on top of that he's a creepy little sociopath, so to me that is just... uncomfortable and creepy. So I didn't feel comfortable with a lot of detail. The bigger part was actually Timmy himself, since I'm writing from his POV. He... would not be inclined to go into detail. For him the act... isn't really about sex. He has a sexual reaction to Dick, but... in his head it isn't really sexual. He doesn't fantasize about Dick, about doing things to Dick or about Dick doing things to him, sexual things... I don't think he'd know what to do with Dick if he got his hands on him. For Timmy, what he does in his darkroom is about Dick's beauty and perfection and how that beauty and perfection makes Timmy feel (words like bliss and rapture may be involved), and has very little to do with touching his penis and thinking about sex (not at all to do with thinking about sex). He just has this involuntary physical reaction when he sees Dick and... touching it makes it go away, and also gives him that blissful rapturous Dick-worshiping feeling.

Um. But yes! Dissections! Yes, I was the kind of biology major that really really liked dissections, and I always named my dissection animals, and, um... I'm just weird like that. I had that shark (and also a salamander, and a cat) for a whole semester, during which I slowly took him apart, and we became good friends. His name was Bryce, and he had a roundworm in his heart, and he was a FREAKISH MUTANT because where this one organ is supposed to have one artery he had TWO and and and actually the shark brain exposure was a different shark, they gave us sharks' heads specifically for that one lab but mine really was the best in the class. Totally worth all the shark cranium cartilage in my hair. ^_^

But yes! I love when I'm able to just put a little bit of my personal life into my stories where no one would notice them (if I didn't tell everyone about it, ffff). I love different and unexpected in my fiction too. I hope I can continue to deliver that for you.

OKAY SO THAT COMMENT TURNED INTO A LOT OF WORDS, SORRY. ^_^;;

Date: 2010-12-15 01:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gemfyre.livejournal.com
That was my reaction too. It's like, oh yeah, he's looking at the photo. Hrm, I bet he's jerking off. Is he? Is he?

Oh yeah, he is!

Lol
(deleted comment)

Date: 2010-12-14 02:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
Oh, Something will happen, alright! Something will definitely happen~. >:D

Date: 2011-01-11 11:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] realpestilence.livejournal.com
OH GAWD, TIMMY, DON'T KILL ANYBODY GIVE DICK TIME TO DEAL FIRST 'N SEE WHAT HAPPENS, OK?!!! 0.0


Date: 2011-01-11 03:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com
XDDDDDDDDDDDD

BUT BUT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, DICK NEEDS TIMMY TO KILL PEOPLE!! THIS TOTALLY MAKES SENSE, RIGHT?!

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