Impulsive Improvisation
Title: Impulsive Improvisation
Fandom: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Pairing: pre-BirdFlash II, Tim/Bart
Summary: In which Bart is duplicitous for the good of all mankind, Tim is awkward, La’gaan loses (again), and Jaime valiantly tries not to kill a certain annoying speedster.
Notes: For this prompt on the YJ anon meme. I have no idea where this came from, but foxfireflamequeen was an amazing help with the mess I originally made of the tenses in this story. I hate time travel.
***
Bart is a liar of necessity.
He learned the skill painfully and painstakingly over his very short lifetime. Of course time runs a bit differently for him. A few dozen subjective years was plenty of time to learn the art.
But that doesn’t mean he has to like it.
Still, it’s for a good cause. He’ll happily spew lies with a smile on his face if it will prevent this wonderful past from becoming the future he knows.
When he and Tryon had planned out Bart’s arrival in the past, they took into account that while the young speedster could lie decently and was a fairly impressive actor, it was highly likely that the original Dark Knight of Gotham would see right through Bart. Luckily, events had lined up well enough that Bart could plan to arrive in the past at a time when the Bat was away from Earth.
If everything went according to plan, any major changes Bart needed to make would be out of the way by the time the world’s greatest detective returned and the speedster would be settled enough that Batman wouldn’t be able to interfere. Plus he’d be safe from Wonder Woman’s lasso and Martian Manhunter’s telepathy.
The plan was totally crash.
He’s dealt easily enough with Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon who’s walking around like it’s nothing. (He even had the chance to walk with her himself. Him. Walking side by side with Oracle. That had been crash to the max.) He’d even gotten his Uncle Wally to talk the slightly unnerving M’gann into staying out of his head in order to avoid the potential collapse of all existence.
However… there has been a slight miscalculation on his part.
That little hiccup comes in the form of one Timothy Jackson Drake.
Bart watches the still new Robin out of the corner of his eye in the training room. He’s supposed to be sparring with Jamie, but it’s really hard to focus on the fight when he is right there.
He’d known intellectually that there would be differences, that Drake hadn’t always been a broken psychotic monster. Knowing and really believing it are two separate things. And Bart is still having trouble wrapping his mind around the idea that before all of Tim’s teammates started dropping like flies, before the cloning experiments, before Tim’s father was brutally murdered, before the original Batman was killed, before the second Batman, Dick Grayson followed soon after, before Drake took the cowl and the entire east coast in his iron grip…
Before all of that, Drake was…nice. Sweet even in his awkwardness, in the way that he clearly doesn’t know how to communicate with anyone. Doesn’t know how to make a joke or relax, but tries so hard anyway. Tim Drake is brand new in the field. He’s barely been out on the streets for a year at this point. It shows in Tim’s hesitance, in his obvious, but unspoken fear of failure and his desperate desire to fit in, to make Dick and Bruce and Babs proud.
It is enough to convince Bart that maybe, just maybe, Drake can be redeemed.
Unfortunately, this young Tim Drake is also brilliant.
And if anyone is going to figure out Bart’s secrets, it’s going to be him.
Fortunately Bart is a speedster, and therefore awesome at improvisation. Plus he really just needs to make sure that he doesn’t break character.
In retrospect he might have gone a bit overboard in his attempts to stay in character. But it’s way too late to change his behavior now.
He is so busy watching young Tim Drake take down La’gaan on the other side of the training room that Jaime’s canon blast almost takes off his head.
“Come on, kid,” Jaime mutters. “Keep your head in the game. I’ll be in so much trouble if you lose it.”
Bart grins widely before speeding away to Tim Drake’s side.
The young Robin has just finished helping an irritated La’gaan to his feet when Bart appears and launches himself into Drake’s arms.
“That was totally crash!” Bart cheers. “You totally made him feel the mode. Uh, no offense La’gaan.”
Lagoon Boy grunts. “None taken. I’m used to it,” the other teen says with fond exasperation. “One day, though. One day I’ll beat one of them.”
Bart ignores the other and continues clinging to an obviously bewildered Robin.
“But, but it was fantasticandawesomeandcrash! It’s gotta be as cool as the time you took down Ra’s al Ghul all by your - Oops! Spoilers! Sorry,” Bart babbles as he abruptly releases Drake and dashes back to Jaime.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Bart chirps as he skids to a halt. He can feel Drake’s eyes on him from across the room. He needs to stay in character.
Blue Beetle rolls his eyes. “Honestly, I’m getting used to it,” Jaime says dryly. “Considering that’s the third time in the past hour and the fifteenth time today. You know, maybe you should just tell him, hermanito.”
Bart blinks owlishly. “Tell him what? I just wanted to congratulate Ti - er, right Robin. Ugh. Secret identities are so retro. How do you guys remember them?”
Jaime opens his mouth, pauses and then shakes his head slowly. “No importa. Just, let’s please finish at least one fight today before Black Canary kicks our butts for slacking.”
The speedster pouts. “No fair. It’s totally important. Tell me. Tellmetellmetellmetellmetellme!”
Blue Beetle grimaces and abruptly shoves both of his hands behind his back. “No. We are not going to blast him. He’s not a threat. Just an idiot with a crush - I said no plasma canon.” Jaime hisses at Khaji Da.
“Eh?!” Bart trips and hit his face on the floor. Even though he hadn’t actually been moving when Jaime spoke.
He flushes bright red and opens his mouth to protest when he realizes exactly how awesome of an opportunity he’s been granted. He is definitely acting suspiciously around Drake. So having the excuse of a crush to explain his behavior is perfect.
Besides, it also gives Bart a reason to try and get close to Robin.
It isn’t exactly part of his mission parameters, but…
But maybe he can save Tim Drake as well as the future.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Bart huffs unconvincingly as he gets back to his feet, in the process glancing very obviously over at Tim again.
“Yeah, sure,” Jaime mutters.
Bart isn’t really paying attention, though, because Tim is looking back.
He doesn’t have to fake a blush as he meets Tim’s masked gaze.
Because Bart might just enjoy saving Tim a bit more than is proper.