cayley 🐝

The Joker’s face screws up into something more contemplative, “Maybe I should take someone new? How about you, baby bat? Whad’ya think? Wanna have some fun with Uncle Joker?”

“I will decapitate you with my sword, Joker,” Damian sneers.

The Joker laughs, “That’s the spirit!”

He’s about to take a step forward when all of a sudden two loud gunshots sound out.

The Joker drops to the ground, both kneecaps shot through.

His family shares a collective glance — Jason? No way, he sticks to the Bowery and Crime Alley when the Joker’s out. So, then who?

“That’s no fair!” The Joker wails, “You told me you don’t use guns!”

“What’s going on?” Babs says into the comms.

“Were those gunshots I just heard?” Jason asks, “I’m coming over right now.”

Shit, Tim thinks, Jason coming over will do no good for anyone. We need to wrap this up.

A voice rings out over them, “Goddamnit Mori, I think my aim’s getting worse. Whad’ya think?”

“You said two shots and you made two shots. It’s not like that clip isn’t still practically full.” Another voice — presumably Mori — says, “If it gets the job done…”

“Then it gets the job done.” The first voice says back.

Two people walk into the clearing both wearing black masks. The one with blond hair is wearing an oversized white button-up with a tie, a black knee-length coat, wide-leg pants, and combat boots. The blond-haired one was shorter than the other but still taller than Tim. He was quite broad too.

You think he’s cute, don’t you? His mind teases

What? No! He just shot the Joker. He retorts.

Yeah, but look at those arms. He could probably pick us up with one hand.

And now that his brain had brought it up, he couldn’t get the idea out of his head.

Look, now is not the time. We’ll jerk off about it later.

So you will jerk off to him?

Tim blushes furiously under the mask, Oh my god, shut up!

Focusing back on the scene in front of him, he catalogs the other man. The other man is quite tall, like Jason-level tall. He’s wearing all black — a turtleneck with two gun holsters strapped across his chest, and black cargo(?)/combat(?) pants tucked into combat boots. He also has a sword strapped to his waist.

Oh, and they both have black gloves on. Huh, hot.

By the time, Tim is done cataloging both of them, they’ve arrived in front of them. 

The Joker turns from the ground, where is trying to stem the blood coming out of his leg, “Are you two the ones that shot me? That wasn’t very nice of you! If you wanted to-”

The blond one tilts his head and in one quick motion, the black-haired one backhands the Joker. 

“God, do you ever shut up?” The blond one says, “Always fuckin yammering.”

The black-haired one sighs, “The sword causes too much drag.”

(Now that he's heard Mori speak a little, he notices a bit of an accent. Not enough to be identifiable but enough to know that English probably wasn't his first language.)

“I fucking told ya, Mori!” The blond says, “Why’d’ya bring it anyway?”

“It adds to the mystique! The aura!”

“We literally did not need that.”

“Whatever. You wouldn’t know flair if it smacked you across the face.” Mori says, “Now help me strap it across my back.”

Tim watches flabbergasted as the two men squabble over the sword. Finally, the blond one gets it strapped on.

(“So many fucking straps and for what?”

“It’s fashion,” Mori hisses.

“It’s impractical, is what it is.”)

Dick seems to get tired of this act and steps forward, “Can we help you two?”

Tim watches as the blond’s eyes curve into smiles, “No, no, it’s okay! Just sit back and watch the show!”

“What do you want?” Bruce says, as curt as ever.

The two men look at each other and then back at Bruce before bursting into laughter. 

“Why what any Gothamite wants of course. To kill the Joker!” The blond says.

The Joker laughs, “Oh now this is going to be fun!”

Bruce steps forward, “We can’t let you do that.”

“Don’t worry, you just have to watch,” Mori says.

Bruce takes another step forward and quick as a whip the blond has a gun trained on him. Bruce raises his hands.

“Don’t move,” he says, “Take a few steps back.”

Bruce walks backward a few steps till he’s back in line with them.

“Now here’s what’s gonna happen.” He says, “I am going to kill the Joker and you guys are going to watch. And then, we are going to leave. Okay?”

“There are other ways than killing someone. Do not do this.”

The men look at each other and shake their heads. 

“Oh Batman,” Blond says like he’s talking to a particularly disobedient child, “How many people have to die before it’s too many? How many children? How many graveyards does this thing have to fill before it’s too many?”

Jason inhales sharply over the comms.

“How many children do you have to lose, Batman, to this thing before it becomes unacceptable? One in a wheelchair and the other died and was brought back.”

Babs’ voice comes over shaky through the comms, “How does he know that?”

“If you had any sense,” Blond continues, “You would’ve ended this twisted game of tag years ago. But you couldn’t. So now I have to clean up the mess for you.”

“Let’s get started then.” Mori nods and steps back, falling into parade rest.

“First things first,” Blond whips the gun over to Damian. The family startles. “Get him off the field. Now.”

“How dare y-” Damian starts.

“You are, like, 10. I am not going to beat the shit out of Joker in front of a 10-year-old. Go home, kid.”

“I will not.”

Blond shoots at the ground in front of Damian, “I won’t miss next time. I’m not playing around. Go home, kid.”

“Robin,” Bruce says.

Damian stands up straighter, “Yes Father?”

“Go home.”

“Father!”

“That is an order. Go now.”

Damian deflates, “Yes Father.” And he grapples away.

Blond watches Damian until they can’t see him anymore. Then he turns back to the Joker.

“Mori, crowbar.”

The family stiffens.

Mori hands Blond a crowbar. He runs his fingers up and down it in a mockery of a caress.

Blond looks down at the Joker, “No, don’t be scared.” He coos, “It’s just payback. You understand, right?”

He traces the hook part over the Joker’s cheek, “What goes around, comes around. You killed someone and now I have to kill you. It’s nothing personal.”

Blond stops, “Well, actually it is. I’m a Gothamite, it’s definitely personal.”

Blond raises the crowbar and brings it down, again and again, and again.

THWACK — a bone snaps.

THWACK — blood squelches.

THWACK — the crowbar rips through Joker’s face.

Over and over again, the sound rips through the square. Mori never takes his eyes off the gruesome scene.

Finally, Blond seems to get tired of whacking the Joker and drops the crowbar on the ground.

Looking down, Blond groans, “Man, he got blood all over my white shirt!”

I’m pretty sure you did that yourself, Tim thinks hysterically.

“God Mori,” Blond whines, “What should I do?”

“Finish it,” Mori says.

“You’re right.” Blond reaches into his overcoat and pulls out a gun. It’s clearly special, considering the reverence Blond holds it with.

Blond presses a kiss to the hilt and aims it at Joker’s forehead.

“Don’t do this,” Bruce says.

Blond turns his head towards Bruce and oh, his eyes are so sad, “It’s too late Batman. It’s going to happen anyway.”

Below him, Joker gurgles out smiling maniacally through his mangled face, “You won’t kill me.”

Blond takes a deep breath, “For my darling.” He whispers.

He breathes out and presses the trigger.

BANG.

The Joker lies dead on the ground, a smile still on his face. 

Blond crouches down and taps his gun to the Joker’s chest, “I hope you suffer for the rest of eternity. May you never find peace.”

Then he stands up and stumbles over into Mori’s open arms. 

“Mori,” he sobs out, “What, what have I-”

Mori smooths Blond’s hair back, “Shh. It’s okay. You did the right thing. He would’ve killed more people if you didn’t end him. It’s okay.”

“I never wanted to become this. What would she think of me? She’d be so disgusted.” Blond gasps out.

“I didn’t know the young mistress as well as you did but from what you’ve told me of her, I think she’d be proud of you,” Mori says, rubbing his hand up and down Blond’s back.

Lovers? He thinks, Or are they brothers?

(Why does his heart hurt at the thought of Blond and Mori being in a relationship? Tim quickly files the thought away into his “Do Not Touch” folder.)

“The blood on your hands isn’t something you can lose, otouto. All you can do is choose is whose.”

“You have to calm down. You came here for one more thing. Finish it and we can have a breakdown later.”

Blond takes a few deep breaths as he tries to regulate his breathing. Pushing away from Mori, he spins around to them.

“Right! Sorry about that.” He says voice infused with fake cheer.

Blond’s eyes roam over their family before landing on Tim.

“You,” He says, “Come here.”

“What do you want with him?” Dick asks.

“I’m not going to hurt him I swear! I just need to ask him a few questions.”

And well, Tim’s always been too courageous for his own good, so he steps forward.

Blond looks him up and down before saying, “Take the mask off.”

The entire family protests.

“We can’t do that.” Dick says, “It would compromise us.”

Blond waves his hand, “I already know who you are. Don’t worry about it.”

This sends the family into a silent frenzy.

“People will see,” Tim says quietly. Blond’s eyes snapped toward him.

“My men have had this area blocked off for a while. Nobody will see.”

Tim takes a deep breath and peels his domino mask off. Blond inhales sharply.

“Oh,” He says quietly like he’s wounded.

“There are those pretty blue eyes of yours. Such a shame you hide them behind your mask.”

Tim’s cheeks traitorously start blushing. Blond raises his hand as if to cup his cheek and Tim can’t help but wrinkle his nose at the blood dripping off the glove. Blond follows his eyes and snorts in amusement.

“Don’t worry, pretty bird.” He says “I’ll take them off.”

True to his word, Blond does take them off and reaches back out to cup his cheek.

His hand is warm, Tim thinks, Does he have a fever?

“Are you eating well?” Blond asks.

“What?”

“Are you eating well?”

“Yes?”

“Are you sleeping well?”

Tim grimaces, “Yes? Sorta?”

Blond frowns and Tim has the irrational urge to smooth out the wrinkle between his eyes.

“Okay, not really the answer I wanted to hear but I guess for you ‘sorta’ is better than an outright no.”

He smiles and drags his thumb across Tim’s cheek, “And lastly, Red Robin, and this is the hard one, are you happy?”

(“What the fuck is going on?” Jason asks flatly through the comms.

“I have no fucking idea.” Duke responds, “I feel like we shouldn’t even be watching this.”

Steph chimes in, “Cass wants to know if Tim already knew this man. I don’t think so but like isn’t this soooo Wattpad?”

“What the fuck is Wattpad?” Dick asks.

“Is Tim having his Y/N moment? Is that what this is?” Jason asks incredulously.

“Guys, shut up.” Babs hisses, “I’m kinda invested in this.”)

Tim swallows and shit, isn’t that a question for the ages. Is he happy? He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know anything outside of being Robin. If he’s not solving cases, he’s out on patrol. If he’s not out on patrol, he’s working with his team. When was the last time he ever did anything for himself? When was the last time he went skateboarding? Or played video games? When was the last time he hung out with people who weren’t heroes?

When was the last time he was just Tim and not Robin?

(Probably not since high school. Not since Darla and Ber-

We are not thinking about that.)

Tim swallows around the lump in his throat, “I don’t know.”

Blond’s eyes go sad, “That’s okay. You can figure it out.”

Tim can’t help but lean into the hand. Blond caresses Tim’s face one last time before pulling his hand away. 

Blond puts the gun back into his coat. 

“Well,” He says, “It’s time for us to leave. I don’t know if we’ll meet again but if we do, I hope your answers are more concrete next time.”

Blond leans in to touch their foreheads together, “Be well.” he whispers.

Tim’s breath catches in his throat, everything laser-focused on Blond’s face so close to his. If he leaned in he could ki-

Blond turns around and walks back to Mori. Mori lifts up his arm to wrap it around the other’s shoulders.

Just as they’re almost out of earshot, Tim finally finds his voice.

“Hey!” He shouts. They turn their heads toward him, “Do I know you?”

Blond laughs a little, it’s sad and it’s broken, “Once. A long, long, time ago.”