fic: Stealing Headlines
Title: Stealing Headlines
Author: darthbatgirl
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer:I own nothing
Characters: Red Arrow/Tim, Lucius Fox, Hal, Wally, Alfred, Dick
Summary: Tim goes to an art opening, gets held hostage, and the JLA comes to the rescue. Nothing out the norm right?
Word Count:2840
Warnings: fluff, boy kisses, very slight angst
A/N:
written for bradygirl_12 tabloid challenge and for my lover100 table using the prompt handcuffs. ( table is here)
“Tim!” Lucius said warmly as he walked across the lobby of New York's Modern Art Museum to greet the younger man and shaking hands, all under the flashes of the photographers and paparazzi “I was wondering who Bruce would send in his place, since he had to leave for that meeting in Paris.”
Tim smiled as he saw the head of Wayne Enterprises walk toward him through the mass of people who had come out to see the new exhibit.. “Yeah, I drew the short straw,” he said laughing lightly and was soon joined in by Lucius' deep chuckle.
“Jason didn't feel like coming out?” Lucius said lightly. “He seemed to have such a fun last month at the black and white ball. Starting that fight with the photographer and uh . . .dancing with the senator's wife.”
Tim gave a half smile, though his eyes sparkled brightly, “The family thought it might be best if Jason had a break from having to attend these charity events.” The fact that every one knew Jason started the fight and did a tango that could only be described as sex with your clothes on just so he didn't have to attend these events didn't need to be mentioned.
Lucius mocked sighed. “To bad, I hear the senator's wife is upset that Jason won't return her calls.”
Tim couldn't stop the grin that crossed his face, “Yeah that little plan of his backfired a bit. Though Dick and I really enjoyed the muffin baskets she keeps sending him.”
Lucius laughed softly as a voice came over the overhead speaker announcing that the exhibit was now opened. Lucius and Tim made their way up the stairs that lead to the rest of the museum, a photographer snapped a quick picture of Tim and grinned saying,” Hey one of Wayne's boys showed up. This should be a fun night.”
Another photographer called out, “ Hate to burst your bubble, but we'd get more action if their butler showed up.”
Tim smiled patiently as those within earshot laughed a little. While Dick played the role of the media darling and Jason honed his bad boy impressions at these events, Tim went almost unnoticed when he showed up some times..
* * * * * *
“Please convey all of our thanks to Mr. Wayne when you see him,” Mr. Williamson, the museum's curator was saying to Tim as he shook Tim's hand. “This exhibit was only possible with his generous contributions.”
Tim smiled,” I'll let Bruce know. I know he was disappointed in not being able to be here tonight.”
“Ladies and Gentleman! May I have your attention please!” A booming voice came from the doorway. Heads turned to see a man dressed in black body armor holding a rifle and flanked by twenty men all wearing the body armor and holding various weapons. “My name is Da Bois and I am sorry to interrupted the party, but we're here to liberate some items from this exhibit and give them more deserving homes - also to liberate some of you own valuables as well. If you cooperate none of you will be harmed.”
The some of the twenty men spread out and started herding the party goers into the middle of the room and began taking valuables from the patrons while others began dismantling the displays packing up the the various paintings and small sculptures for a quick travel.
Mr. Williamson's face went red as he saw the exhibit he had spent months working on so easily and carelessly dismantled, and to Tim's surprise, he pushed past the armed man standing in front of them and marched up to Da Bois, who at the moment was holding a very beautiful and fragile looking vase.
“That is a 700 year old vase!” Mr Williamson sputtered as he glared at the man.
“Yes and the price that I'll be asking for it will have a lot more zeroes in it,” The thief said smiling, handing it off to one of his men that past by.
“That is a national treasure!”
“Yes, and this conversation is boring me,” Da Bois said as he whirled around and back handed Mr. Williamson, sending him to the ground.
Before Tim even realized what he was doing, he slipped past the guard and was at Mr Williamson's side glaring up at the thief, “You didn't have to do that!”
Da Bois smiled as he whipped out his gun and pressed it against Tim's forehead, “Ah now little hero, I think you're forgetting who in charge here. Why don't you stand up so I could can get a good look at you.”
Tim cursed himself as he stood up, sometimes the blurring of Tim and Robin happened at the worse times.
Da Bois' smile just got wider as he trailed the barrel of the gun down the side of Tim's face, letting it rest just under Tim's chin. “Well, well, well I do believe I just hit the jackpot,” the thief smirked “I wasn't planning on taking a hostage tonight but I think I might make an exception for you Mr. Drake. I'm sure Bruce Wayne will be more than willing to pay a pretty penny to get you back,” he turned to one of his men,” Jasper, bind young Mr. Drake, he'll be coming with us tonight.”
Tim bit his lip in frustration as the man came over and handcuffed Tim's hands behind his back, dreading the lecture Bruce would give him about this.
A radio attached to Da Bois' belt crackled to life.”Da Bois! It's time to go.”
Da Bois picked up the radio, speaking into it, “Is it the police.”
“No. Justice League.”
“Very well, get the van started we will be out shortly.” Da Bois replaced the radio and turned to his men. “Jasper! Reese! Please escort our little hero out. Bond! Smyth! Jarad! Remove the crates. The rest of you! Secure our perimeter. Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your cooperation. I now leave you with a charming little story to tell your children.”
Two men grabbed roughly Tim by the arms and dragged him out the door after the men caring the crates with the stolen art and jewelry. The group made their way out to the lobby, where reporters, photographers and several other people where still milling around. The lobby was filled with screams as Da Bois' men shot their gun in the air, scattering the crowd, and making their way outside to a waiting van.
Before they could reach the van a familiar green light enveloped the van, lifting it up in the air. And dropped it on the roof of a near by building. Looking up they could see Green Lantern hovering in the air, “Your turn Flash.”
A streak of red weaved it's way through the gunmen, yanking the guns out and knocking the men out cold. A couple of arrows joined in disarming the men, Tim looked up to see Red Arrow standing on the sidewalk with his bow ready.
Tim struggled against the two men who held him. Two glowing green fists appeared and punched the two men in the face. Green Lantern touched down on the ground and pushed Tim towards some bushes. “Go hide until this is over.”
Tim didn't know if Hal had recognized him or not, but headed over to the bushes as he watched the three Leaguers mop up the rest of the gang as he worked on getting out of the handcuffs Flash and Red Arrow had efficiently disarmed and secured most of the gang and Green Lantern formed bubbles around the crates of stolen art and floated them back to the museum.
Tim had gotten one hand free of the cuffs when he felt the barrel of a gun pressed tightly against the back of his skull and a voice whispered in his ear. “Your not free yet hero.” Da Bois wrapped an arm around Tim and pulled him out from behind the bushes. “Stand down!”
Flash, Green Lantern, and Red Arrow froze when they saw Da Bois and his hostage. Tim could see Red Arrow's eyes turn into saucers as he recognized Tim. In a blink of an eye he had his bow notched and drawn back. “Let him go!” he ordered icily.
Da Bois laughed. “Don't think so. Return my van to me and the little hero and I will be leaving. You can keep the men.”
Tim locked eyes with Red Arrow and for a moment the two shared a look. The archer gave a barely noticeable nod that Tim returned. Then suddenly Tim threw his weight sideways making it look like he stumbled. The sudden shift of Tim's weight threw the thief off balance - almost making him fall forward. Red Arrow let loose his arrow shooting the gun out of his hand. With a cry of pain Da Bois let go of Tim, cradling his hand to his chest as Flash came up, knocking him out cold and hauled him over to the rest of his men.
The sound of police sirens filled the air, and a few reporters began to mill around. “Ah just in time for the clean up,” Flash said smiling.
“Yeah . . “ Red Arrow said. “Why don't you guys go talk to the cops. I'll make sure the kid's alright.” Red Arrow clapped a hand on Tim's shoulder and steered him away leaving Green Lantern and Flash to talk to the arriving police officers.
Red Arrow lead Tim back up to the museum, to a small alcove, and took a hold of Tim's wrist. “Here, lets get those handcuffs off of you.”
“You mean these?” Tim grinned dangling the handcuffs from a finger.
“Cheeky brat,” Roy said with a hint of fondness in his voice. He glance over his shoulder quickly. “Do you think anyone's watching?”
Tim did a quick scan and saw most of the action was settled on Hal and Wally and the would be art thieves. “I don't see anyone.”
“Good,” Roy husked as he pulled Tim to him and kissed him. Tim wrapped his arms around Roy's waist and returned Roy's kiss happily, matching Roy's intensity with his own. As they slowly parted, Tim felt the familiar pang of guilt for not telling anyone yet that he and Roy were dating. Things were simple right now between them. They went to dinner, saw movies, took walks, and just generally enjoyed being together Telling their respective family and friends would only complicate things in a way that only their loved ones could.
Slowly Roy broke the kiss and ran his fingers through Tim's hair. “You sure you're okay?” concern filling his voice.
Tim nodded as he cuddled into Roy's arms a little. “I'm fine. Just want to go home and relax and then figure out how to rig the next time we have to draw straws for these things.”
Roy chuckled as he hugged Tim tightly to him one more time.
* * * * * * *
Tim buried his head in the pillows as his alarm went off. Eleven o'clock in the morning had come really to early. He didn't get home until about three in the morning - not terribly late, but it was after talking to the police, giving short interviews to reporters, and assuring Lucius that he was fine and didn't need to go to the hospital to be checked out.
A light knock on the door drew his attention as Alfred opened the door and came in with a breakfast tray. “Good morning Master Tim. I thought you might enjoy breakfast in you room this morning, considering last night's events.”
“Thanks Alfred,” Tim said sitting up. “If I never have to go to another one of those museum events it'll be too soon.”
“Indeed sir,” Alfred intoned. “When you do get up though, there has already been several phone calls from several media outlets wanting to talk to you about last night's . . . events.”
Tim snorted, “Must be a slow news day when I make the headlines.”
Alfred raised an eyebrow as he put the tray on Tim's computer desk and headed back out the door with a . “Yes sir.” as his farewell.
Tim stretched a little and stumbled out of bed going over the the tray and picking up a piece of toast and began nibbling on it as he unrolled the newspaper. Sure enough a picture of Da Bois and his men being taken away by the police graced the front page with the headline of JLA Stops Attempted Art Theft.
Tim's cell phone rang into life. Tim put down the paper and grabbed, flipping it on when he saw it was Dick. “Hey Dick. You owe me big time for last night.” he teased his older brother.
“When the hell were going to tell me about it!” came Dick's surprising greeting
“Wha . . .?! What are you going off about? It was only an attempted robbery. They didn't even get off the property.”
“I'm not talking about that! I'm talking about you and Roy!”
“Me and Roy . . .?” Tim racked his brain for something that could have tipped Dick off, but couldn't think of anything “I don't know what . . .”
It's all over the society pages and TV!.” Dick interrupted.
Tim shook his head at the phone and flipped to the society section and then nearly dropped the phone and the paper as a huge picture of him and Red Arrow kissing with a headline of Billionaire's Son Locks Lips With Super-Hero filled up most of the the front page.
Oh no.
“Do you have any idea of the phone calls I've been getting this morning about this? And is there a reason I'm hearing about my best friend and little brother getting together through the newspaper and not from them?” Dick asked. His voice a mixture of annoyance, anger and hurt.
Tim sighed as he sat on the edge of the bed. “Dick . . . we really didn't mean to keep it a secret from everyone. We just . . .you know how it is when you begin to see someone and everything is new and exciting and you just don't want it to be ruined?”
“And you think I'd ruin it?”
“No! . . Yes . . . maybe? Don't be mad Dick.” Tim said softly. “I just really like him.”
“You do huh?” Dick sighs on his end of the phone
“Yeah, he makes me laugh.”
“He makes you laugh,” Dick repeated, f or a moment the line is silent as Dick considered Tim's words. “Okay,” came the long waited answered.
“Okay?” Tim asked as he let out the breath he didn't know he was holding.
“Yeah, okay. Your dating Roy and that's okay with me. I won't even give Roy a hard time”
“You won't?”
Dick's laughter was warm coming over the phone. “He makes you happy and I'm not going to mess with that. Besides being over bearing and over protective is more of Bruce's thing than mine.”
“How mad do you think he'll be?” Tim asked as he nibbled on his lower lip.
“What? That he found out that you and Roy were dating through the paper and not you? He won't like it.”
“But . . he's in Paris right? It'll be a couple of days before he hears about this right?” Tim eager to find any thing that might make this better.
Dick chuckled, “Only if he's no where near a TV or computer. The news shows have been showing that picture every hour on the hour, and I won't even start on how it's all over the internet.”
Tim groaned with that information, this was so much worse than Jason starting a fight with a photographer. The phone on his desk started ringing, Tim got up and picked up the receiver and officially decided that this was the worse day ever after looking at the caller ID.
“Dick I got to go. I . . got another call,” He said. Dick didn't say anything but chuckled sympathetic. Tim shut down his cell and tossed it on his bed He looked at the receiver in his hands and for a moment thought about just letting the answering machine pick it up, but decided that would probably be worse in the long run.
He took a deep breath and hit the talk button and said, “Uh . . . .yeah hi Bruce.”