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Tim shimmied down the ladder from the attic into the main part of the house. His chest thumped heavily in his chest, and it took him three tries to get the attic ladder to fold back up correctly. Once he had calmed the shaking his his hands, he mentally mapped out his plan. For one, he needed to talk to Jason immediately. Someone needed to know about what he had found on the other side of the portal.
He checked the kitchen first, but found it empty. Not even Alfred was around, which was strange seeings as Thanksgiving was a couple of days away. Maybe he took the demon shopping, Tim reasoned to himself as he poked his head in the den, finding it empty as well.
Tim decided to search upstairs, stopping in from of Jason's door. There was music playing on the other side, and several low voices. Tim knocked, and entered once Jason told him to.
He was surprised to find Jason and Roy with a gaggle of other teens and young adults. Jason went out on occasion with his friends— one of them picked him up most of the time— but he rarely had them over. They were in a circle smoking weed, and the air had a strong smell of it despite Jason's windows being open.
"Seriously?" Tim said, momentarily forgetting why he had come in in the first place.
Jason passed the joint in his fingers to a pretty girl with bangs on his right. He inhaled more air for a moment before blowing out little smoke rings. "Seriously— what's up?"
Tim stuttered for a moment, taking in the scene in front of him, "I'll uh— tell you later..."
Jason shrugged, "Alright, whatever; you wanna stay?" He gestured to a skull bong in Roy's lap and the joint that was making its way back to him.
Tim had never smoked before, and he had never drank either. And honestly, he was not about to start.
"Not today, I have something to figure out." Tim said, stepping closer to the door.
Jason smiled and waved as Tim exited, shutting the door tightly behind him. He smelled his shirt cautiously, hoping that he wasn't bringing the smell of weed out into the hallway. Bruce was going to be— actually no. Alfred was going to be pissed.
Tim went back to his own bedroom, texting Bart on the way.
[TIM as opened up a text with BART]
TIM please tell me youre free rn
BART Yuh
BART Wazzahhhhh
TIM im going to set aside how painful that was to read
TIM the portal is open
Just as Tim was tapping out a second message, he heard the unmistakable squeak of Bart's sneakers on the hardwood floor.
"Can I see it?" Bart said eagerly, bouncing on the balls of his feet so quickly he started to blur around the edges.
"Later, later," Tim said, moving his hands to signal Bart to slow down.
Bart stopped bouncing, disappointment clearly on his face, "So why'd you invite me then?"
"I didn't invite you." Tim said as he ignored the pitiful look on Bart's face in favor of heading to his own bedroom.
Bart scrambled after him, "Okay, okay you're right, but I assumed that the invitation was implied."
Tim flopped back onto his bed, sighing heavily. Bart threw himself down next to his friend and looked over, "You good?"
Tim was silent for a minute before finally answering. "This is just a lot to take in. You know, I've been living here for a couple of years now, and that first day— when I moved in here— it's just so much different than what I thought it would be like."
It was Bart's turn to be quiet.
"I get what you mean. I definitely didn't think this is how my life was going to turn out." Bart finished with a laugh, shaking his head. "But then again, how the hell could I have expected any of this?"
Tim laughed with him, "You're right." He sighed, putting his hands behind his head.
Bart rolled over so that he was on his chest, "So what did you see on the other side? Of the portal, I mean."
Tim licked his lips, debating about what he should divulge to the speedster. Reasoning that everyone would know in the days after thanksgiving dinner, Tim bit the bullet, "My uh—- my grandparents."
Bart sat up, "The Wayne ones? The super dead ones?"
Tim nodded, "Except they're very much alive."
Bart scoffed in surprise, "Shit. No one in the future tells me anything!"
AUTHOR'S NOTE back from the grave with another chapter! happy holidays thank you for sticking with this lame ass story for literally a year. i have three chapters of part two of this story left and one and a half of them are already finished so fingers crossed they'll all be done before i go back to school on the 8th!
