Bruce wasn't usually happy. That's not to say he's depressed (in fact, it's been years since he could call himself that) but Bruce... Bruce had a bit of mental fortitude. Enough to understand that usually he was upset, or exasperated. Sometimes amused, and sometimes - most of the time - he was in a state of general apathy that he hated he was so used to.
But today? Today he can truly say he's happy. His family, all of them - including Stephanie - are here. Home. A late patrol last night had Dick, Stephanie and Jason staying the night at the Manor. While not uncommon for Dick or Stephanie, for Jason... Well, he rarely stayed over if he could help it. The last month though, Jason had stayed the night four times. And three of those times he had stayed long enough for breakfast.
One of those three times was today.
Bruce had a small smile on his face as he watched his family talking and eating. Together. Bruce took a bite of eggs as he turned his head towards Tim, who sat next to him. "Tim, how was your latest project at WE?" Bruce asks his son. Tim groggily looks up from his cup of tea. (Alfred has banned coffee at breakfast. You could blame Tim.)
"The Verdian case? I'll get right on it after breakfast B." Tim says sleepily. That seemed to get the attention of Jason, who was sitting across from Tim. He looked at the younger boy for a moment, and then snapped his fingers a few times in front of his face. Tim tried to wave the hand away. "Dick, stop." Jason snorts.
"Alrighty, that's it, I'll get Timberlina to bed." He says, pushing himself out of his chair, and walked around the table. He effortlessly grabbed Tim and half dragged, half carried him upstairs. Damian scrunched his nose up. "Tt. As usual, Drake's lack of self care always astounds me." Read 'I'm mildly worried about my brother, but he's done more work with less sleep, so I know he'll be fine.'
(The amount of work the two had done at being closer to each other sometimes astounded Bruce more than when Jason would stay the night.)
Dick laughs and turns his attention to the ladies, who were all talking quietly on the other side of the table. "So how is my favorite sister and sister - adjacent doing?" Dick asks, and Stephanie flicks a small amount of eggs at him. "Strict Batgirl business, no boys allowed." Stephanie says, and Cassandra sticks her tongue out at him. Dick makes an exaggerated huffing noise and turns to Duke, who was hunching in on himself.
"How rude. So! How's my favorite meta sibling doing!?" Dick asks loudly. Duke groans. "Man, can you quiet down a bit? Think I have a headache." Duke says, and Bruce frowns. He opens his mouth, but someone beats him to it. "How do you think you have a headache?" Jason asks as he sits back down at the kitchen table. Duke just rubs his head. Damian turns to look at the meta and furrows his brows.
"Did you not sleep well last night Thomas? If so, maybe you should refrain from patrol today." Dick reaches over and ruffles Damian's hair. "Aww, who's worried about their older brother?" Damian growls, as he raises his knife defensively.
"Richard, do not assume I cannot end you with a butter knife." Jason snorts, as he shovels bacon into his mouth. "Wouldn't do that Demon Brat. Then I'd need to hide the body." Dick, instead of looking upset, is instead amused. Heavily, it seemed. "Aw, brother bonding! See Damian, looks like you have something to do today!" Damian grumbles, but goes back to eating.
Bruce loves his kids. He really, really does.
It's around four when Bruce decides to ask if everyone wants to watch a movie. And to his surprise, they all agreed. Even Duke, who'd taken a quick nap after daytime patrol. The family had all sat down, even Alfred had joined them after making a small lunch. The movie was going to be fun. Bruce found himself happy once again.
And then the world started to shift. He's vaguely aware of someone, probably Jason, cursing, and then everything went black.
Tim awakes with a groan. He can't make out much of anything, but that's because he's facing the floor. No, no it's harder than wood. Concrete? Steel? Tim raised his head and blinked as his took in his surroundings. He was in Gotham. Somewhere close to Crime Alley if he had to guess. As he stands up, another groan can be heard nearby. Tim perks up, and followed the noise deeper into the alleyway. He finds Jason, waking up inside a dumpster. Tim would normally laugh, but right now isn't the time.
"Jason? Jay, you with me?" He asks carefully as he watches Jason shake his head. "Timmy?" He asks, his voice heavy with sleep. Tim snorts.
"Yeah it's me. Let's get you out of the trash." He grabs Jason's hand and pulls his older brother out of the dumpster. Jason lands feet first on the ground, and then smacks himself a few times.
"Ugh, FUCK what the hell happened!?" He asks angrily. Tim frowns. He's... Not exactly sure.
"Well... We were watching The Lion King, right?" Jason nods carefully. "Yeah. Fucking Scar just murdered his brother. Asshole." Jason says with more anger than Tim had ever heard him have for fictional characters. Unless maybe he's projecting? From the time he nearly killed Tim? Maybe. It's a nice thought if true. Still, right now they need to get a hold of the others. Sadly, when Tim reaches into his pockets, both his phone and wallet are gone.
"... Dammit." He says, and Jason's head whips to meet his. "What's wrong?" He asks, and Tim shakes his head.
"Phone's gone. So's my wallet." He sees Jason quickly start to check his own pockets as well, before a scowl comes across his brother's face. "Fucking hell. Mine too. Guess we walk to the Manor?" Tim wasn't really in the mood to walk from Crime Alley all the way to Bristol, but they didn't have much of a choice. He was just glad that it wasn't too dark yet. Most of the criminals will hopefully be hiding from the wrath of vigilantes set to come out soon.
"Yeah we should probably get back there. Or to one of our safehouses?" Tim asks. Jason tilts his head in thought. "Actually yeah, I know this alley. We're about ten blocks from one of mine. Should have an extra phone or two." Jason says, as he pulls up his hood, and Tim follows his older brother as the man walks out of the alley.
Now, Tim has lived in Gotham his whole life. He's not from The streets like Jason, but he's been out here in the city for longer than most, and if you add up all the time he's spent? Most of that time is here. In the city he both loathes yet loves. And there's differences. Not any major ones, but he's pretty sure a few dead ends look like they lead to other alleyways now. And a few stores are either just gone completely or moved a few doors down.
Jason frowns and stops walking. Tim's pretty sure he notices it too. He turns around and Tim nods quickly. "Yeah, this ain't our Gotham." Tim agrees. It's definitely not. He's also mostly ruled out time travel, since these types of changes wouldn't usually be caused by messing with the time stream. Still, he keeps it as a possibility. He'd not be caught unaware if he can help it.
"So what do we do now?" He asks, and Jason shrugs. "I've got a few ideas. Could head to a library. There should hopefully still be one in the middle of Crime Alley, if Bruce adopted me here at least." Jason says, and Tim remembers that. Remembers when Jason first came to live with Bruce, and how the man had made sure to make a well funded, well stocked library right where people needed it most.
There's always the chance that Bruce didn't meet Jason here. Or that he did, but didn't build a library there, but it's a chance they can take at least. If they don't see one there, then they can just try to find another one somewhere else. They need to get to a computer stat. Try to figure out who's who in this possible different dimension. Rule number 1 of time/dimension displacement, figure out where and when you were, and who could be potential allies.
Again, Tim follows Jason down through the Alley. Unfortunately, they start to pick up a few stragglers. He can hear Jason cursing under his breath.
"Tim, how you want to handle this?" He asks, and Tim honestly isn't sure. He wouldn't want to get this universe's Tim in trouble by beating the shit out of a few thugs. He also doesn't want to get mugged by five - no six - large guys either. There's also a chance that Jason could have also gotten legally brought back to life in this universe - or never even died in the first place - and that could get him in trouble too.
Eventually, the choice is taken away from Tim and Jason when a large man walks out of the alleyway in front of them, pointing a gun directly at the two brothers. The thug smiles.
"Alright, you know the deal. Wallets, phones, the works." Tim isn't sure how he wants to play this, but Jason has obviously already decided. He looks at the guy in front of him, and turns his head to look at the men closing in behind him. Jason smirks.
"Man you guys must be really hurting if you're the only guy packing." His older brother says, and Tim blinks a few times, turning his head around to stare at the men. Now that they are close... Yeah. No one else has a gun. One guy has a crowbar and two more guys have baseball bats, but that's it. Tim grins.
"Well this is just sad. Honestly if I had money, I'd definitely give it to you guys." The man in front of him is visibly pissed. "Why don't you two shut the fuck up and give us what we fucking asked for!?" He yells, his grip on the gun getting tighter. Both Tim and Jason are just out of reach; with no armor or weapons, they can't disarm him. The two brothers share a look. Tim tries to come up with a few plans, but suddenly, there's a gunshot.
And the guy holding his gun drops it, cradling his own hand as it starts to bleed.
From above, a large, hulking figure drops down, and Tim can see Jason's eyes widen. It's the Red Hood. Only... Fairly different. No jacket, no jeans. Instead, he's got on full body armor. Sleak and black, with a large red bat on his chest. The helmet though, is a nearly identical copy. Maybe even the same. Time travel is looking even less likely, and Tim is more willing to say that him and Jason - maybe the entire family - is in a different dimension.
The Red Hood aims his guns at both the guy in front of them, and the men behind them.
"I'll say this once. Get lost..." The Red Hood puts his fingers near the triggers. "Or get gone. Permanently." In a flash, the men all run away, almost screaming. Jason holds back a laugh. Tim, however is aware that the Red Hood hasn't put his guns away. Instead, he's eyeing Tim carefully. Oh no, this Jason didn't still want Tim dead, did he? Jason notices the guns still aimed at them, and takes one defensive step in front of Tim.
"... Tim." The Red Hood says, and Tim waves at him. "Uh... Hi Hood?" He says questioningly. The Red Hood tilts his head, and then shakes it.
"You're not Tim. He's on vacation." Alt Jason says, and ok, at least this Jason doesn't immediately want Tim dead. Jason - his Jason, growls.
"Yeah yeah, 'we're not the droids you're looking for' or whatever. Different dimension travelers here, so put the damn guns down already." Jason says. The Red Hood turns his head quickly, and he immediately drops his guns. He just... Just stares at Jason. The Red Hood's hands shake ever so slightly. Eventually, the Red Hood shakes his head.
"There were... Odd energy spikes around Gotham. I was sent to investigate the one closest to me." He says carefully, all the while still staring at Jason. Tim starts to get a weird feeling, one that Jason doesn't seem to pick up on. Instead, he scrunched his face up, and flipped the Red Hood off.
"'Fuck you looking at? Never looked into a mirror, man?" The Red Hood makes a weird noise through the voice modulater, and Tim knows.
"... Back home... You're the Red Hood?"
This isn't Jason.
The man looks left and right, and raises his hands, taking off the helmet. Jason and Tim both stare in disbelief.
The Red Hood is Bruce Wayne.
(A/N So Red Hood!Bruce is wearing Jason's default Red Hood outfit from Gotham Knights. While Jason's usual Red Hood outfit is from the Arkham universe. It's my favorite Red Hood outfit, so he gets that.)