#prince dick

He did tell Bruce and Dick of each one of these unsubtle offers for support to get himself declared as the crown prince, and he knew that Bruce liked having this list of problematic nobles. But Tim felt his patience with hearing insults aimed at his amazing brother or his dead parents wear thinner by the day. He didn't know how long he would last before he started challenging these idiots in duel.

He had already done everything he could to make his unwavering support to Dick obvious, but apparently that wasn't enough. Normally, he would have been able to send out a message about his lack of ambition toward the crown by carefully choosing his marriage, but as a second prince, the possibility of his marriage was too big an exchange currency to get wasted in a single political statement. Especially one as obvious as his unwavering support for his older brother.

But thinking of marriages... Maybe he could get lover. Something scandalous enough that idiot nobles would stop thinking he is as close-minded as them?

Someone low-born. But who could protect themselves against petty nobles. Male would be nice for shock value. With loyalty to Bruce, and who wouldn't try to use Tim for more power. Already, Tim could only see one suitable candidate, but he kept listing qualities, to feel out the solidity of his choice. Someone he could separate from without worry for either of their reputations later. That Bruce wouldn't be opposed to as Tim's lover. Someone the people loved and whose appearance next to Tim would not cause the commoners to fly out of the handle with outrage. Who had enough power of his own that even the nobles wouldn't want to get in a fight with him.

The Red Knight.

If Dick was the fairytale prince, poor street performer adopted by a king after his parent's tragic death and now set to be the next king that everyone adored because of how good and empathic he was, then Duke Todd was the hero of an epic poem.

Jason Todd was born a commoner, maybe even less than that, at one point there had been rumors that his mother had been a lowly whore, though no one dared besmirch the Red Knight's mother now.

Through determination and hard work, he had became a member of the palace guards, and one day, had saved Prince Richard from an assassination attempt. That had made Bruce take notice of him, and he had been given a horse, a house, and the title of Knight, as well as a place in Bruce's own escort. Then one day on the battlefield, Jason, then called the Red Knight, dove in front of a spear to protect his king. He almost died from his wounds. Bruce had given him the title of Duke, a land, and the fortune necessary to administer his fief as a recompense.

But that wasn't where the list of Jason Todd's achievements stopped, at least not as far as Tim was concerned. One thing Bruce had forgotten when appointing his recompense was that his Knight had never learned to count or read. Todd had yelled at Bruce that he was illiterate and couldn't administer a Duchy, and Bruce had offered to lend him his best royal tutors to avoid to the both of them the humiliation of having to retract his recompense.

And so Jason Todd had learned. He was now an excellent reader, and could verify his Duchy's taxes on his own. He now knew how to read, speak and write several languages. He read for fun, and had opinions on classic writers, his land was flourishing under his care, and he, as far as Tim could tell, had never accepted a single bribe.

Even though he was now a Duke, he had never made a move to get the people to stop calling him the Red Knight, and so it was how he was still referred to half of the time. Another man could have taken offense to this, but he seemed prouder about this title than that of Duke, and that was yet another reason why everyone adored him.

Truly, there was no one better suited to play the part of Tim's scandalous lover.

A smile now firmly pressed to his face, Tim power-walked down the corridors to find the chamberlain. He bumped into Dick on his search and paused. "Oh, hey. Could you tell Bruce that Earl Duchamp just offered me his support to climb up before you in the line of succession? I'm a bit busy."

Dick caught his arm before Tim could make it much further. "What else happened? You never smile when someone tries to kiss up to you. Were you jinxed?"

Tim blinked at Dick. Oh, yeah, right. Might as well use this as a set up for his plan. "No. I am in love, Dick."

Tim used Dick's surprise to slip out of the hold, now running down the corridor so his brother wouldn't catch up to him.

By the time he found Alfred, he was out of breath, but he probably had the most gleefully manic expression on his face. "Alfred! I need to get a message out to Duke Todd, to meet me at his earliest convenience!"

Alfred blinked in surprise. "Very well. I shall let him know."

"Magnificent!" Tim beamed, already running out because he might still have an overbearing older brother chasing him. It had been a while since he felt so alive. Maybe he should get up to mischief more often.

Two hours later, Tim was hidden in a tree, snickering at his brother's loud cries of "Timmy, who is iiit?" When he spotted Alfred heading his way followed by a familiar mountain of a man. He probably should have given Alfred the time to answer after asking him to call the Red Knight for him...

He jumped down to the ground and tried to look moderately put together. "Oh, great. That was fast. Thank you Alfred."

Alfred had his prim and proper face on, but Tim could see a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. "It just so happened that I had afternoon tea scheduled with Sir Todd to discuss the fine point of miss Austin's literature today."

Tim swallowed. "I am sorry for disturbing your plans."

Behind Alfred's back, the Red Knight was giving Tim a disbelieving stare. Well, nothing much he could do about the circumstances now, was it.

"Would your urgent meeting with Sir Todd have anything to do with the crown prince chasing you, your highness?"

Tim gave Alfred is brightest grin. "I sure hope so. I need to be able to have a talk in private, could you arrange it?"

"Well, by such a nice afternoon, I would recommend going out for a bit of a ride along the river."

"Brilliant." Tim grinned and started walking toward the stables. Then he paused, looked back at Jason and cleared his throat. "I mean, if you're okay with it?"

The Red Knight was still giving him a disbelieving stare, but he shrugged and followed Tim, so it was probably alright.

The stable hands rushed to get them horses as soon as they saw the illustrious figures asking for them, and before long, they were riding out of the castle.

Tim kept glancing over his shoulder until the Red Knight cleared his throat. "So, Why is Prince Richard searching for you? Or more importantly, why are you avoiding him?"

Tim turned back, grinning, but he sobered up at the suspicious expression aimed at him. "I didn't want to have to answer to his questions before I talked with you."

The suspicious expression didn't go away, and Tim sighed. "You must be aware that many nobles are coming to me offering me their support to get myself declared heir to the crown in prince Richard's stead?"

It might not have been the right thing to start out with, as Sir Todd had turned thunderous hearing his words. "And so you needed to have a secret meeting with me to confirm my support before you confront him about your betrayal?"

Tim almost fell off his horse in surprise. "No, god no." He peered at the Red Knight's still angered expression. "Though seeing your reaction to this assumption does reassure me that I was right in choosing you for my plan."

The narrowed eyes he got in response were a proof that Sir Todd's suspicion were still clinging. "And what might your plan be, your highness?"

Tim looked around to confirm no one was eavesdropping on them, then nudged his horse to come closer to the knight's. "I was going to ask you to be my lover."

Todd jerked, then stared at Tim. "What? Your What?"

Tim shushed him, then elaborated in a still hushed voice. "You don't have to actually sleep with me. But I'd like to introduce you as my lover to as many people as I can for the spring festival."

"But why?" Asked the knight, still looking totally out of his depth.

"Oh, right. I skipped a step in my explanation again. Most of the people trying to convince me to overthrow Dick use my higher lineage as a reason for it, and they generally have the ambition of marrying me to a woman in their family before or after the fact." Todd nodded along, but didn't look like he had caught all of Tim's reasoning. "Publicly claiming that I am lovers with the Red Knight would send the message that I couldn't care less about lineage, and that I am not looking for a queen. It should give me a break from these vultures before I end up killing one of them."

Sir Todd looked a bit less angry and a lot more considering. "And what would the advantages be to me?"

Tim paused. He had thought about his would be lover's security, but he hadn't thought about arguments to convince him to do it. He rooted about for what he knew about the knight. "Well... You would get the satisfaction of annoying them. I chose to ask you specifically because they can't really try to threaten you for being with me." He took a deep breath, thinking some more. "Since me showing a preference for males would also weaken my claim on the throne, that would also be a way to reinforce Richard's claim?"

Sir Todd stayed silent for a minute. "I would enjoy messing with these idiot nobles... And I do have enough power to protect myself while doing this... But I have a Duchy to administer, I am a pretty busy man."

Tim nodded eagerly. "It isn't a problem, Duke Todd, as I said, I don't actually expect you to come sleep with me every night, and my princely duties aren't so heavy that I can't get leave form them every now and then to come and visit you at your estate."

The duke groaned. "If we are going to do this, please call me Jason. Does the King know of your plan?"

Tim shook his head. "No, I didn't tell him, I just had the idea, and I wanted your answer before I made any announcement. I did tell Dick that I was in love, though."

Jason gave him an appraising look. "Is that why he was looking for you?"

Tim laughed. "I'm already having way too much fun with this plan, I can only imagine how much more I'll have when you're actually in with me."

Jason sighed. "I can't believe I came to a point of my life where I am saying this, but yes, your highness, I will be you lover."

Tim rubbed his hands in glee. "Great. Let's go back to the castle, we can try and get Dick to catch us in a compromising position. Oh. And if we are going to do this, please call me Tim."

Jason made his horse turn around and trot back with Tim's. "Great. I am already regretting it. I thought we were doing it to fuck with the stuck up nobles, not prince Dick?"

Tim looked back and grinned. "We are, but fucking with Dick is always a bonus."

Jason shook his head, but snorted and pushed his horse to go faster, turning their trip back into a chase.

Tim dismounted his horse still high from the feeling of a conspiracy going as he wanted it to, and the childish pleasure of a good game on horseback. He turned to grin at his brand new 'lover', but hear Dick's voice yelling for him awfully close by, and running footsteps. Oops.

Before he really had a plan, Jason had caught him around the waist, pushed him in an empty stall and crowded him against a plank wall.

Tim had a moment of total brain freeze. Oh, right. He had forgotten how very handsome and well built Jason was, hadn't he? Or, well, no, it wasn't really forgettable, but he hadn't thought about how he would be getting up close and personal with all the handsome in the course of pretending they were lovers.

Also, tall, tall enough that his hasty try at a compromising position had him leaning a forearm right above Tim's head and positively looming over him, and that was. That was something.

He jolted out of his daze when he saw a black tuft of hair moving over the top of the stalls, right. Dick. Compromising position.

He hasty put his hands on Jason's sides, trying not to focus on the muscle definition he could feel under the fabric, and went to his toes to kiss Jason's lips.

Jason jolted, but got with the program fast, moving one hand to cup Tim's cheek and adjust the angle, while simultaneously pulling him in so their hips were flush.

Tim moaned, earning himself a questing tongue nudging past his lips, and moved a hand to grasp at a broad, muscular shoulder. His other hand roamed about, feeling all the ways in which Jason was most definitely still keeping up to shape on top of all his duties, and he wanted desperately to be touching bare skin. And why wouldn't he?

At the same time as he opened his lips to invite Jason in, he tugged at his tunic, untucking it and slipping a hand underneath.

Jason shuddered a bit under his hand, slipping his own hand under Tim's ass and lifting him up, then pressing up against him. Tim was a bit blown away at how easily Jason managed to lift him despite the fact that he too had plenty of weapon training and was mainly made out of solid muscles.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, they didn't get carried away any further because Dick interrupted them with a shrill scream of. "JASON? You're... With Jason?"

Well, compromising situation, managed.

Jason let go of Tim a bit abruptly, but not enough that he couldn't catch himself, and Tim cleared his throat, brushing his admittedly messy hair out of his face and smiled lopsidedly at his brother. "Hum. Surprise?"

Tim was internally dancing with glee at how flawlessly his plan was going. Dick was such a huge gossip, everyone in the castle was sure to know within hours.

Well, a bit later. Dick seemed like he was a bit broken at the moment.

"Please let me tell Father about it?" He mumbled to complete the illusion.

Dick nodded, but otherwise stayed stuck in place.

Tim grabbed Jason and pulled him out of the stables, stifling his giggles as long as they were within earshot of his brother. Jason put a hand on his back, looking a bit bemused as Tim wheezed with laughter. "His face! Did you see his face. This is priceless!" Tim guffawed for a minute before he could take a deep breath, then looked up into Jason's faintly smiling face and smiled big and wide. "Let's go tell Bruce all about our torrid love-story!"

Jason shook his head, but still looked very amused. "I really should have said no, shouldn't I?"

Tim chuckled. "Probably, but it is too late now, lover mine!" Still grinning at his giant prank, he took Jason's hand and jogged toward the castle. "Our love cannot be stopped anymore!"

Jason grunted, but followed him without a hitch as they headed toward Bruce's study. An idea came to Tim and he pushed Jason in an alcove then pressed himself close to him to whisper in his ear without risks of getting overheard. "We have been in love for one year, but you always insisted that I had to come of age before we could consummate it."

Jason blinked, then nodded. "Of course, you're already four years younger than me and a prince, I wouldn't want to get hung for touching you before your twentieth birthday."

Tim sighed exaggeratedly. "Yes, a shame for lost time, but you just can't help being such a gentleman... Thankfully we can catch up for that time now that we've come out publicly about our relationship."

Jason finally snorted. "Are you really not going to tell the king the truth?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

Bruce took the tale with a sigh and a head-shake. "The two of you should have told me, I would have laid the groundwork for your public revelation. How do you intend to go about it?"

Tim cleared his throat. "Well... Dick just caught us... Hum... In the stables... The whole castle should know before tomorrow, and then it will seep in town soon after. I can just show up with my lover next to me for the spring festival opening and we can make a formal announcement at the great ball?"

Bruce nodded. "I guess it will do well enough." Then, as they started getting up and heading for the door. "Tim, Jason? I have to tell you that I do approve of your relationship. It will be good for morale to have one of my sons seen publicly with one of the people's heroes, I might even manage to have the churches of the green light of Will accept to marry you if you wish to, but I will need some time. As I said, had you told me earlier..."

Tim swallowed, throat suddenly dry. Well, that wasn't quite what he had expected. "Thank you. We can wait, it's okay."

Jason wrapped an arm around Tim and bowed to Bruce. "I thank you for your esteem, my King. But Tim and I... We aren't ready to discuss Marriage just yet, maybe, maybe next year."

Bruce closed his eyes with a faint smile. "Yes, do enjoy your young love without constraints, but remember my offer. Now get out with your lovely aura, I have work to do, and you two have to find a place where you won't be walked in on."

Tim blushed and walked out.

They silently headed for Tim's chambers and sat on his bed. "Well. I wasn't expecting that."

"Me neither." Jason sighed. "It's always a shock when King Bruce takes it upon himself to compliment me that way."

Tim looked up at Jason's face and huffed. "You are worthy of every compliment, and he is right, our people love you, me being seen with you is not only acceptable, it will make the royal family even more loved than Dick and Bruce already make it, and I should have guessed Bruce would see it that way."

By this point, Jason the Red Knight was blushing furiously. "Can you stop it. It isn't for real."

Tim set his face and rolled on all four on his bed. "It could be. This kiss was incredible. I wouldn't mind a repeat. I wouldn't mind you sleeping here either."

Jason stared at him, then he set his shoulders and stood up. "You have just decided to pretend to be with me to ward off pesky nobles, and this castle is full of nosy maids... And princes. I have also not told my people that I intended to stay over. If you still feel that way by the time you can free an evening to spend at my estate, then I will have no problems with having you in my bed, but if we are to do this, it will be neither now nor here. It will not be rushed, I won't allow it."