A/n: I wrote this on a whim at 11 pm in 45 minutes and surprisingly, I'm not hating it, but also can you really trust my judgment past 10 pm anyway? Can I trust my own judgement after then? Who knows? Anyway, enjoy a bit of Dick and Tim bonding and vagueness/ mystery I suppose. :)

"Dick? What… what are you doing?"

Tim's unexpected voice made Dick pause, with his hands in the air holding his folded shirts before he continued and placed them into the suitcase before him. He barely spared a glance behind him.

"None of your business Timmy. It's my apartment so I can do what I want which brings the question of what are YOU doing? Here, unannounced at my place?"

"I… was in the area and thought I might drop by," Tim's voice was hesitant, but Dick didn't have time. Tim seemed to sense that and asked more relevant questions. "Where are you going?"

"A mission."

"Police or the other thing?"

"Both." Dick turned around here, but only to go to his closet and grab more clothes, not looking at Tim at all. He was already getting late, he couldn't afford this extra time-wasting. He turned back to the suitcases on his bed.

"How long are you going for?" This question had a bit of disbelief in it, and Dick didn't need to see his brother to know Tim was eying the overstuffed suitcase as he asked.

"None of your business." Dick didn't mean to be rude, but he was on edge and quite frankly, the less Tim knew, the better. His younger brother would no doubt try to stop him from going if he knew the real plan.

"You… need any help?" Tim stepped forward, eyebrow raised at Dick's efforts to squish the contents of the suitcase down which failed miserably, eliciting an exasperated groan from the older man.

Dick gritted his teeth. "I'm fine," he ground out. He expected Tim to comment on how he 'didn't sound fine', but instead Tim was silent for a short while before he suddenly inhaled sharply.

"You're doing something stupid aren't you?"

His deduction almost made Dick smile, proud at his brother's brilliant brain. There was a reason he was one of the best detectives out of the Bats, maybe even better than the Bat. But now wasn't a time for smiling, so instead, he sighed and gave up on packing for now, sitting down heavily beside the case on the bed. He patted the empty space as an invitation for Tim to join him, but his brother remained stubbornly at the door, going so far as to crossing his arms. The action was not lost on Dick and he only sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was so tired, exhausted, but he couldn't take a break. Not now. Maybe just five minutes wouldn't hurt though.

"It's not stupid - " he started, but Tim interrupted him.

"But it is reckless? Dangerous? Self-sacrificial?"

Dick's silence was a better answer than any words ever could be, and Tim scoffed.

"Does anyone even know? From the way you're stuffing everything into that suitcase, you don't even have a proper plan do you, apart from risk something and maybe get killed?"

Dick glared at Tim. "That's not fair - "

"No, it's not. You could die and none of us would know isn't it? It's barely been half a year since we got you back, Dick," Tim's voice became quiet, and it broke a little. He didn't continue, but he didn't have to.

"Look, Tim - no, let me speak this time and explain. I'll say sorry for that however many times you need me to, I will, but I didn't really have a choice, okay? I've got this opportunity now to take down a really really big player, on an international level, and I've done too much work already to abort now because it's dangerous."

Tim sighed. "I'm not talking you out of this am I?"

Dick offered an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

"Is it too late to offer my help too?"

That made Dick pause. "Tim…"

"Dick, please. If I can't stop you from going, I can at least help make sure you don't die. If this player really is as big as you say, then you're going to need help."

"It's too risky. I'm going deep undercover, Tim. I can't risk any communication with any of you, for my own safety. You want to help, then please stay as far away from this case and me as you can. For your safety and mine." He met Tim's eyes and he could see the protest, all the things Tim no doubt wanted to argue about it, but he could also see the reluctant agreement. Dick's case was a solid one, and even worse, it was completely true.

Tim considered for a few moments more before slowly nodding. "Okay."

Smiling softly, Dick spoke up again. "If I do find myself in a situation where I need your help though, I promise I will get it and not do everything myself, okay? Just… don't hold your breath, okay? I don't know what might happen."

Tim swallowed and nodded again. He knew what Dick was implying, could see that there was more to this 'undercover mission' that Dick was letting on, but he had to trust his brother that he knew what he was doing, what he was getting into.

"Hey, um," Dick started, curiosity in his voice. "Why did you come here in the first place, Timmy? The truth this time?"

Tim blinked blankly, almost having forgot his purpose of being there. "I just… I needed your help with something small for a case of my own, and honestly, I probably could have just called, but I kind of also just… I missed you," he admitted quietly, avoiding Dick's tired gaze. "I haven't seen you in a while so I thought I might as well drop by and we'd hang out while we solved the case," he ended in a mumble, ignoring the soft, sad smile on Dick's face. "But I can probably just figure it out myself," he added hastily. "Or call Jason or something."

His older brother frowned and had only just opened his mouth when his phone went off and he bit the inside of his cheek, pulling his phone out as Tim stood in the doorway awkwardly as Dick read the text. The smile returned to the older man's face, and he looked back up at Tim.

"Well," he said. "It seems my next few hours just opened up so maybe we can do your thing after all."

Tim blinked. "But what about the," - he gestured at the bed and the mess that still lay there.

"There's a bit of a delay with the preparations for my mission, so I'm now free for the next little while, with nothing to do but wait so I might as well help my brother out with something in the meantime."

Tim couldn't help the smile on his face as Dick got up and they moved to the living room/kitchen, discussing Tim's baffling case and new movies and whether cereal was a suitable dinner. By the late hours of the night, the two had settled onto the couch, surrounded by various trash - pizza box, chip bags, paper cups, and of course an empty cereal bowl - as they sat huddled together in a blanket, watching a movie.

That was the last thing Tim remembered anyway, before the exhaustion of the past few sleepless nights caught up to him, combined with the warmth and comfort he felt cozied up next to his older brother dragged his eyelids down and the darkness of sleep embraced him.

When he woke up the next morning, the apartment looked drastically different.

Gone were the boxes and bowls, all either already in the dumpster outside or back in the cupboards. If he twisted and looked behind him, he could see into the bedroom through the open door, giving him a full view of the empty bed, all traces of Dick's suitcase and mess from the night before gone along with the man himself. In fact, there was no indication that his older brother had been here at all, the night before, or ever.

By midday, Tim was back in the manor, the whole night and morning still nagging at him. He didn't bring it up the entire day though, and the topic of Dick wasn't brought up by itself either, so no one else in the manor knew what had happened - including Tim himself if he was being honest.

He'd been on his way to the kitchen to ask about dinner when he encountered Damian sitting on the couch, eyes glued to the tv screen in front of him. The situation itself wasn't unusual, but the lack of disdain from Damian towards Tim the second he was within the younger boy's sightline was intriguing and come to think of it… Damian's eyes were pretty wide, face a little paler than usual.

Tim opened his mouth to ask if everything was okay, when the tv caught his attention. The news was on, and that only made him more confused because why was Damian watching the news, and so focused too? All his questions - from now and the ones that had been puzzling him all day and night - were answered the second he read the headlines.

Bludhaven Protector and Hero "Nightwing", Proclaimed Dead Early This Morning.

A/n: Completely impulsive, no planning or editing involved fanfic. Started with the idea of one of the other Batboys stumbling on Dick preparing for a suicide mission (essentially) and evolved into this. Also, I know that the second last line says 'all his questions were answered', but it mainly just sounded better than 'the tv didn't help at all and only gave him more questions' so… get where I was going with this? Jk, I had no plans. But anyway… this was written to be a standalone - I know, I know, cruel - but if there is enough interest from you guys, and enough ideas from me, then I suppose I could find a way to turn this into a longer fic with this being the prologue. But I do think oneshot works as well, whatever, doesn't matter either way. *shrugs*

I also wrote this a while ago but didn't post because then it'd be my 100th fic and I wanted to do something special for the hundredth, but a lack of ideas, a fear I'd forget about this fic for a year, and the fact that I haven't been writing/posting a lot recently because of the 'Hundredth fic' has made me finally just post this. So I hope you enjoyed my 100th fic on the 2nd anniversary of me joining and posting my work for the first time over on . 100 works posted in exactly 2 years and I couldn't have done it without a lot of your support, whether it's commenting on my stories or just reading them so thank you. 333

As always, stay safe and see ya soon.

- CrowofArcadiaOaks