Note: That awkward moment when I start off writing slight Tim/Kon and it turns into Tim/Steph. Just a warning.
"Hey, Alf," Tim calls home one day after reestablishing contact with his family. "Why did I ever change the Robin costume to red and black? They're not exactly traditional," he asks, forcing his tone to remain nonchalant. There's an uncomfortable moment of silence on the other end of the line.
"Why, I can't remember, Master Timothy," Alfred answers, sounding astonished in his own quiet way. Tim frowns.
"Yeah, me neither," he says and hangs up.
Sometimes, when Bart thinks he isn't looking, Tim catches him staring at some of the Teen Titans. Considering Bart barely has the patience to look at a sheet of paper for as long as he watches them, it's unusual enough. It's even more peculiar that he looks so sad, like just the sight of that person is breaking his heart.
The only ones he looks like at that are Cassie, Superboy, and Tim. He's checked the video footage from the cameras he has hidden around the Tower to make sure.
When he watches the feed from the camera in Bart's room one night during routine surveillance before heading to bed, he finds Bart giving the same destroyed look to a sketch he did just moments before. The drawing is of a man, old and gray, dressed in blue and white. Tim has never seen him before in any of Batman's files.
The team likes to watch television together. Not all the girls like video games and Miguel is absolutely terrible at them, so they settle for lounging together and watching anything that's on. Lately, one channel has been showing old reruns of Wendy the Werewolf Stalker and Superboy has been adamant about watching all that he can of the show.
Cassie frequently complains that it's too predictable and Tim has to agree. He can guess all the so-called twist endings within the first five minutes of watching. He can even predict the dialogue, almost word for word, but he enjoys it regardless.
During one episode which features a pretty blonde girl that Tim can swear he's seen before, Bart gives that look to the television. Tim narrows his eyes but doesn't ask.
The next day, a DVD of Wendy that includes that episode is resting on Bart's desk, almost hidden from view by a doodle of a small spotted dog.
Tim goes home for the first time in months. Not home to his anonymous penthouse apartment without so much as a fish, but home to Wayne Manor. Dick isn't there, but Damian and Bruce are. Damian seems taller than he remembers, but he is at that age.
"How old are you now, demon spawn?" he asks Damian, one eyebrow quirked.
"I am twelve, which you would know if you weren't gallivanting across the country with that pathetic excuse for a team," Damian tells him with his arms crossed and Tim thinks.
"What did you get for your birthday last year?" The question obviously catches Damian off guard.
"Why would you care?" he asks and Tim shrugs halfheartedly.
"Just can't remember, I guess."
"For your information, Drake," Damian starts but his sneer freezes and for a moment, his eyes are questioning and tracking frantically. "A jet," he finally finishes and scoffs before turning on his heel and leaving the room.
But Tim knows he's lying, because his mother gave him a jet for his tenth birthday and Dick gave him the access codes for Batman's ages ago.
He's in a teen-friendly store in the mall, figuring he should pick up some clothes for Superboy since it's not like any of the other Titans can afford it. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the slightest idea what he would wear. He briefly considers buying him all leather and skin-tight pants as a joke and snorts to himself. Instead, he makes his way over to the racks of plain shirts, deeming them safe and acceptable.
Upon seeing a rack of Superman themed shirts, he's tempted to buy one, but that would be too suspicious considering he doesn't wear a mask. Then, he sees a row of black tees with a red S shield imprinted on them and for some reason, the sight of them makes him forget to breathe. Shaking his head slightly, he notices it isn't the stylized S Superboy wears on his chest and mentally berates the producer for getting it wrong. Still, he picks out a size medium for himself, if only out of support for his teammate.
In the end, he buys some jeans, an assortment of t-shirts, and a pair of tasteful boots for Superboy. He isn't sure why, but he succumbs to the strange urge to throw in a black sweatband once he gets to the counter.
Most of the time, when he's not terrorized by nightmares, he dreams of blue eyes. Sometimes, rarely, the eyes are brown, but he chalks those dreams up to statistics.
Tim can't understand why the eyes are almost always blue when he wakes up with a phantom warmth enveloping his body and a faint memory of someone holding him. Occasionally he'll remember a flash of purple or the softness of hair.
Sometimes he wakes up crying. Sometimes he wakes up with his heart so full of love he wishes he could remember his dreams.
Superboy trusts him more now that he's seen Tim's face, which Tim supposes is only fair since the rest of the team had seen his face since the beginning. But Tim had to be sure he wasn't going to return to N.O.W.H.E.R.E. before letting him in.
Now, Superboy comes up to him, looking unsure yet determined, and stands in front of Tim until he looks up from his laptop. He barely has time to raise an eyebrow before Superboy declares, "Sometimes I remember things."
"What kinds of things?" Tim asks after a moment, noting how Superboy's fists are clenched at his sides.
"Things like...faces. Your face. Cassie's and Bart's faces, but different and younger," he says. His gaze shifts to the floor then flicks back up at Tim as he takes a deep breath. "I remember the smell of a farm and I-I can do the hula. Do you think I was created with these memories?" He looks at Tim hesitantly and Tim wants to offer him comfort, but he doesn't know what to say.
"No, there's no point in you knowing those things. Besides, Bart wasn't known aboutwhen he was younger, so it's impossible to implant the memory of his appearance," Tim tells him, moving his elbows to his chair's armrests and steepling his fingers. There's something wrong with some of their memories, and even if not everyone is not affected, it's significant enough to be concerned.
It's incredibly disconcerting.
Superboy is still staring at him and looking frustrated and just a little bit vulnerable. "I'll look into it and let you know when I have more information. For now, don't worry about it," he says, hoping it sounds reassuring and turns his attention back to his computer screen. He hears Superboy huff in annoyance and walk away.
"Bruce, how is your memory?" He doesn't sugarcoat it, not for Batman. There's a slight pause on the other end of the line before the man responds.
"Muddled at best, contradictory at worst. The...chronology of events don't make sense somehow if I think about them for too long. I assume yours if off as well?" Bruce responds and it's strangely relieving how he says it all like it's just another case. But then, it probably is.
"There are things missing. Important things. Why didn't I have any friends? Bruce, I can't remember the last time I talked to my dad. And I know the anniversaries for things I can't remember," Tim tells him and he lets a fraction of the distress he's feeling leak into his voice. Bruce is - no, he's not his father, but then why does he remember Damian angrily telling him he's adopted-
"We'll figure it out," Bruce's voice cuts through his growing panic and he takes a breath. "Has anyone else been affected?"
"Superboy, Kid Flash, and I think Damian and Wonder Girl," he answers. "But they're the only ones I've noticed. If it's affecting more than you, me, and Damian, it could very well have affected the entire community."
Bruce breathes. "I'll ask around. Gather more information from your team and report back," Batman orders.
"Got it," he replies and Bruce has already hung up.
"You remember," he says and Bart jumps off his bed in surprise. Perhaps Tim should have knocked. But Bart has already recovered and is looking at him like he's trying to decide whether or not to try lying to him.
"I didn't at first," he finally replies, glancing down at the drawing in his hand that he had been looking at when Tim first came in. "At first, it was just dreams and I figured that wasn't that weird 'cause everyone has dreams, y'know? But then I started remembering stuff when I wasn't dreaming and I met you and Kon and Cassie and everything just started to click."
Kon. Who is- "Conner," Tim breathes and the red and black Superboy shirt he bought instantly comes to mind. He remembers how he held that shirt and tried not to cry but he can't remember why. "How do you remember?" he asks Bart, desperately, because this is so frustrating. He's so close to answers but he doesn't know how to find them.
"I'm a time paradox. So when the Flash changed the timeline a few months ago and then changed it back and all this stuff changed, I was immune. Well, I was supposed to be immune, but I kind of almost died, so I guess I was in shock or something for a while," Bart explains. It makes sense but doesn't at the same time, but Tim figures that's usually the case with time travel.
"So, what you're saying is," Tim begins slowly. "All this stuff we can't remember happened but the Flash made it so it didn't. And now no one knows what's going on."
"Pretty much," Bart says. Tim's heart pounds as he thinks of his next question.
"Why did meeting us make you remember?" he asks and tries to swallow down the anticipation. Bart smiles, brokenly, and there's a gust of air as a different drawing appears in his hand.
Tim can make out Bart and himself immediately. But he realizes the other two teenagers are a punk Superboy and Wonder Girl in a wig just as Bart says, "We were best friends."
A month later, he meets the Spoiler on a trip to Gotham. Her costume is the eggplant of his dreams and he follows her home, hoping to see when she takes off her mask.
She catches him peeking through her window and punches him in the face. He thinks he might be in love.
But a month after that, Cassie and Kon (they've taken to calling him that, after Bart explained things to everyone) get together. Tim watches out of the corner of his eye as they kiss and something inside of him lurches. He thinks it's jealousy, but he can't decide who it's for.
Bart had told him that he and Cassie dated after Kon had died. He also told him that he changed his Robin colors to Superboy's.
But Cassie has more attitude than she used to and Kon is...different. It used to just be a gut feeling, but Bart had agreed when he brought it up.
So Tim looks away and replies to the flirty text Stephanie Brown just sent to Alvin Draper.