In Preludes and Red Wine
Summary: "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." –Unknown. Sometimes, the shortest parts of life are the memories we share with everyone.
Note – Title is kind of based on a lyric from the David Bowie song Time. I always thought it said "Time, in preludes and red wine" but it's really "Time, in Quaaludes and red wine". Quaaludes are sedative/hypnotic drugs used in the '60s, but are now discontinued due to recreational abuse of the drug. (Let's see…marketed during the '60s and '70s and abused? Nope, no correlation there…*sarcasm*) You may know Quaaludes better as Methaqualone, the real name of the drug.
And the reason that I thought it was "preludes" and not "Quaaludes" is because they are pronounced remarkably similar. Seriously, go listen to the song and tell me they don't sound the same.
More notes at the bottom.
Enjoy. Has nothing to do with Quaaludes or Methaqualone, though. Yet.
In which Dick decides that Tim meeting the Team is the best thing since sliced bread, and Tim meets Kon, who is the best thing since the best thing before the best thing before sliced bread.
When Batman finally relented and let his protégé meet the Team, Dick was ecstatic.
He bounced from room to room, looking at everything to see as if he hadn't already seen it before.
Tim was distinctly Unimpressed and very Displeased. Capital letters and all. Dick called it the "grand tour". Tim called it the "too much time with my brother/team leader".
Unimpressed. Displeased. Words that Dick, in his younger, English-mangling days (Tim remembered hearing Dick once call it "inventing the American language", to which three-year-old Damian prolifically claimed that America had mangled it enough and it was still English no matter what. Tim had never liked the kid more than that moment) would have a field day with.
He wasn't going to let it get that far. It was his day.
So, when Dick was waxing poetic about the gym (seriously, did his big brother ever shut up?), Tim kinda-sorta slipped away.
He retraced his steps through the Mountain, ending up near the zeta tube in the living room. There hadn't been anyone there when they first came through, but now Tim could see a dark head and shoulders covered in black cloth. The figure was sitting on the couch, staring at television snow.
"Uh…" he said, eloquently. He could've smacked himself; first day, and probably already insulting veteran Team members. He really, really should've tried talking Bruce out of this…
"Who's there?" Oh, God, it was Superboy. Tim would recognize that voice anywhere. He'd seen the hero once, when Dick brought him to the Manor to spend the night (back when no one knew what to do with him and the Mountain's quarters hadn't been cleaned out yet). Tim had taken one look into the kitchen, squeaked, and ran back up the stairs, into Jason's room, and hidden under his brother's bed. Because despite growing up in the Batcave and with Batman coming in and out of his home, Superboy was the greatest hero in the world, even better than Superman himself.
Superboy began to turn in his direction. It seemed like forever between the words and the face, but Tim knew that it was lightning-quick. He considered ducking and running away, but Dick was just fine in front of his Team in civvies and…
Tim's fingers flew to his face. Batman had warned him about not showing his identity to anyone on the Team, even though Wally already knew both his and Dick's (somehow, that was a perk of being a nosy Flash. Tim still couldn't figure out those logistics) and Artemis suspected (knew) Dick's identity.
Tim did the only thing a boy in his situation could do.
He squeaked and ran away.
He knew, just knew, Dick knew exactly what was happening and was laughing at him at this very moment. Because that was just how Dick was.
Tim wouldn't be able to show his face to anyone, let alone Superboy, for at least a month. The only way it would be worse was if his voice started to crack right when he was introduced to the Team.
There IS a bit of symbolism in the title, which is interesting.
Preludes are short musical compositions that appear in front of longer works.
Red wine can symbolize life, especially in dreams.
Which, put together, should symbolize short works prior to long works about life. Well, we're skipping the long works, and this will be a mini-series of short shots of life. Crossovers and various characters and situations will be abound. It may also be an extra-ideas file. AUs, etc. My private headcanon (which includes Rose as Deathstroke, but will be gotten to later).
Please note, this is SEPARATE from The Intrepid Trio. That one is specifically Roy, Wally, and Dick. This is anyone within the YJ fandom. Updates are irregular.