--she lands silently next to him, cape billowing behind her.

There was something enjoyable about the thrill of a fight. The sound of metal to metal and the rush of adrenaline in your veins. He never once thought he would become like this but now that he was here, he couldn’t go back. It was the smell of blood, metal, and the smoke the filled the air tonight. 

“Dick?” he replied. He doesn’t register that his brother is there quite yet. There is a ringing in his ears and a sharp pain in his skull. He’s laying there but nothing feels real to him. He’s in a state of shock. He couldn’t remember where he had taken the hit. It felt like his head. It felt like someone just stabbed in the head. Or maybe it was elsewhere since he was still thinking about this. 

Slowly blue eyes open but they’re weak and every breath is painful, slow, and heavy. Tim can’t breath. He can feel it in his chest. It feels far too heavy to be good news. If he didn’t know better, he could have sworn that Dick was sitting on his chest. He realized in that moment just how heavy is body felt. The whole world is weighing down on him but here is his brother, here is Dick holding him up, asking him to hold on. That is impossible when he can’t even lift his body at this point. 

He managed a cough, spitting and spraying blood from his mouth. Also not a good sign. “Hey there,” he replied. “Keep an eye on Bruce this time, will you?” More coughing and he coughed up even more blood this time. 

Did Dick say anything else? It was now getting hard to make out his voice. It sounded so distant. It sounded like he was eavesdropping rather than listening to his brother right next to him. To Tim, Dick was in a bubble. 

Then it’s vision. It’s hard to focus. It’s hard to make out that black and blue suit. He chooses not to. He chooses to keep his eyes closed and remember Dick how he usually is - that stupid, happy, circus boy who did too many flips and had too many jokes. 

“I.... love you....” 

He honestly couldn’t believe he had made it this far. Truth be told, he didn’t think he would get this far in the first place. This was a really smart idea or a really dumb one and he wasn’t sure which one yet. He was getting anxious but by the time he had managed to track Nightwing down to his current apartment and break in, it was far too late to turn tail and run. No, he needed to see this through but that didn’t stop the kid from being nervous as hell about it.