Duke was still relatively new to the whole vigilante thing. He'd come to understand that along with the dark alleys and disturbing crimes came an unrelenting sense of paranoia.
The boy was no stranger to the occasional chill down his spine. His hair standing on end, or seeing a figure out of the corner of his eye was a common occurrence.
Despite his skill when it comes to perception, he still hadn't been able to figure out what exactly was going on with Tim.
Over the past few weeks, Duke had been noticing things about his brother that were... off, to say the least.
The bats had said that it would take time for Tim to get better. That he needed time to process what he was feeling.
The first few days had been the worst, with Tim barely leaving his room except for coffee and the occasional meal.
Then, things started to change.
It was small differences at first. Red Robin going out for hours without telling anyone, his comms occasionally cutting out or going completely silent for lengths of time.
If any of the other bats had noticed, they didn't say anything. Maybe this was just his way of coping.
It wasn't until late one night, after a particularly rough patrol, that Duke's suspicions were confirmed to be warranted.
He had made his way down to the kitchen, hoping to grab a snack before sleeping off his wounds.
Not bothering to turn on the lights, pushed open the door to the manor's kitchen.
Duke wasn't surprised to be met with the sight of light spilling out of the fridge, silhouetting one of his siblings.
"Better hurry up with whatever you're getting. You know how Alfred gets when we mess around in his kitchen."
Just as he finished his sentence, the other boy turned to face him. Duke took a step back.
The boy that stood in the litchen with him, bathed in pale light, was not one of his brothers. He was definitely batdoption bait, with his black hair and blue eyes, but when the flickering flow from single fridge lightbulb hit his eyes, they reflected back like a cat's.
Not to mention the fact that Duke seemed to be able to see partially through him.
"Who-" Duke started.
"Nobody's going to believe you," the boy said, fading quickly out of view and disappearing.
Duke tried to focus, hoping to use his powers to find him. He was met with nothing but an empty room and a still-open fridge.
All the juice boxes were gone.
------
Tim rubbed his temples, trying his best not to raise his voice.
"You're telling me... that you were found out... because you wanted some damn juice boxes?"
"Strawberry kiwi, man," Danny replied from his seat on the floor, a pile of juiceboxes in his lap.
"How did this even happen? I thought other people couldn't see you if you didn't want them to?"
"It's not like I did it on purpose! Sometimes, it's hard to tell whether im visible or not. Besides, I think it was the meta. You said he could see ghosts sometimes."
"That doesn't mean you should GIVE him the opportunity to see you. You could have just asked me to get you some juice," Tim sighed.
"But you were sleeping so peacefully... I didn't want to wake you the one time you actually got to sleep."
"You ended up waking me anyway. Now we have to find some way to fix this."
"We could gaslight him?" Danny suggested, seeming a bit too eager.
"We are NOT doing that to my little brother. Not everyone has the tendency to be an asshole like you."
"If there's one thing my family taught me, it's "gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss."
"Ghost no."
"Damn, just calling me ghost? Kinda rude, Timothy. It's like if I referred to you as 'human'."
Tim snatched a juicebox from Danny's pile, shooting a glare at the specter as he stabbed the straw in.
"Don't test my patience, casper. You still haven't told me your name," he leaned back in his chair, "Besides, I'm still having trouble believing the whole ghost thing. For all I know, you could have been made by a villain as part of some scheme."
"Ghosts have always been real, Red. People see us all the time. They just convince themselves it isn't real or end up in a psych ward. In fact, some human 'myths' like yetis and wendigos are just different types of ghosts. We're a lot more common than you'd think," Danny explained.
"I know they- you're real. it's just weird to have some deceased dude in my house. When B finds out, he's gonna kill me."
"He's not gonna know. How would he know? If we can keep your brother quiet, the big bat won't find out a thing."
"And how do you intend to do that after he clearly saw you?"
Tim was rethinking his life decisions at this point.
"It's late at night. Maybe he'll think it was a dream! And if he does talk, who's going to believe him?" Danny suggested.
"You think that a vigilante, who is known to be able to see things that others can't, won't be believed? I wish I was still that young and naive."
"You're only a few months older than me, smartass. Maybe if we scare him enough, he'll make the smart choice and keep his mouth shut."
"New rule: you are not allowed to traumatize any of my family members. You sound like a criminal, talking like that."
By the third day of Danny being trapped in the manor, when it became apparent he wasn't leaving anytime soon, Tim had set ground rules to keep the two of them out of trouble.
Unfortunately, he hadn't thought to mention:
1. Not turning visible outside the room, and
2. Not traumatizing anyone else.
Maybe because for any NORMAL person, those things would be pretty obvious.
"I think we're gonna have to tell him. I haven't known him for very long, but he's trustworthy."
"Aren't all the bats trustworthy? Why not just tell them so they can help us figure out why I'm stuck here?"
Tim groaned, "There's no way I'm telling them. Too many questions I dont want to answer. Besides, vigilantes are generally pretty suspicious. I get the feeling Bats would try to exorcise you if he knew."
"Fine, you win," Danny conceded, "I can go get him if you want. It's a lot quicker when walls aren't an issue."
With a suspicious look at his resident poltergeist, Tim nodded.
":)" Danny replied.
"How did you just do that with your voice??""
Agreeing to the spook's request may have been a bad idea. He was gone before Tim got his answer.
------
Look, I wrote a thing ;-;
I drew something based off a comment on a previous chapter, but my internet sucks. I'll try to add it later.