Halloween: Tim and Morgan
Dick's not the only one checking on his people. Wee!Tim tracks down Morgan and they have a nice little chat.
Despite the obvious awkwardness of finding oneself suddenly small, most everyone seemed to be enjoying the holiday. The changes did not seem to be pernicious and with luck would be of short duration. That the island had chosen again not to change her, Morgan could only feel obscurely grateful. On the other hand, the opportunity to learn the island's workings firsthand might help her understand what had brought them here.
But it was not this that occupied her mind as she walked the beach by the Compound, breeze lifting her hair and pleasantly kissing her skin. Instead, she found herself thinking on her relationships, specifically that with Cameron, and how at ease she had felt these past days, without the obligation to return home at nightfall. After the holiday, she meant to discuss it with him. Wanda and Jill had been correct; sometimes 'cutting loose' was the kindest cut. Cameron hurt from her need for self-discovery, and though it grieved her, she needed the journey no less because of it.
The ninja costume had been the only one Tim was willing to agree to and so it was that a small black clad form with a face completely covered except for brilliantly blue eyes, scrambled through the trees and executed a perfect flip to land softly before Morgan. He straightened, gave her a dignified bow. "Hello, lady."
Morgan could not help but laugh, soft, silvery, and delighted. "Hello, Timothy." There could be no other boy who would conduct himself with such dignity, in spite of his size and the tiny form flipping through the air to her feet. "Yet another mask for you. It seems you have a preference for those that permit you to walk in shadow. Why is that, do you imagine?" Though she teased, the question had an honest edge, one any student of hers need think about.
He reached up, tugged his mask down and gave her a grin--dimples appearing in a round cheeked face fully thirteen years younger than his actual age. One advantage of this--he had boundless energy. "I'm shy." The expression vanished a second later, though the amusement remained in his eyes. "I see you've escaped this particular island trick."
"You are also very short, and undeniably adorable." Morgan's mouth shaped a smirk that would be impertinent on anyone else. By her nature, she did not generally embrace her friends unless they seemed to need the support, but the urge to simply hug tiny Timothy was terribly strong. "I have. The island's masters seem rather more interested in seeing how I'll react to the tricks they play on my friends than in playing them on me. Are you well otherwise?"
"All kids are adorable. It's part of their survival mechanism. Otherwise they'd never reach adulthood," Tim dismissed that claim with a similar smirk--far too smug for a five year old. "Aside from Dick treating me like I'm actually five all over again? I don't remember having this many people hug me when I was this age the first time around." He shrugged, apparently not minding it, "I'm fine. It's strange to be this short all over again but my flexibility is increased and I'm pretty sure that my metabolism actually runs on candy right now which I previously thought was medically impossible."
"I confess to having the urge to pick you up myself, but unless you wish to take this moment of medical miracles for some very misplaced maternal affection, I believe I shall persevere." Straightening her skirt around her hips, Morgan settled on a convenient nearby rock. "Do come and sit for a few minutes in any event. Your company would not go amiss and Dick seems to leave you to your own devices when he knows you are with me."
Tim scrambled up next to her, settling himself in a place with a little hop, necessary to get his shorter frame up on the rock. "He likes you. He thinks my habit of picking up frighteningly competent female teachers is funny." Tim did not bother to tell her that Dick thought she was extremely attractive. She probably had picked that up all on her own.
"I've seen how your brother likes women." Her tone, while dry, was not as dry as it would normally be. She found it exceedingly difficult to keep the bright, silvery amusement out of her voice at Tim who had probably been born older than Dick would ever be. "In any event, your habit is far more useful than his of picking up frighteningly beautiful women to teach." She spoke without malice, however. On the two occasions she had met Dick, he had been beyond charming, and no one who could see could deny he gave all of himself to everything he did.
Tim laughed--more of a giggle really, pint-sized and almost girlishly pitched--then made a face at the sound. "Well, that was a strange experience. I think Dick and I get different things out of our habits but I agree that mine tends to provide me with a greater benefit. For a while, I was owed a life by one of the more dangerous people in the world." Almost every word of that was a vast understatement.
Hearing Tim giggle, Morgan could no longer contain her amusement, and she, too, laughed, a bright, silvery sound that rang rather longer than she could remember laughing on the island before. By the time he had finished speaking, however, her expression grew rather more serious. "And how, may your frighteningly competent teacher inquire, did you come to hold the life of another in your hand?"
"I know CPR and she needed it," he said simply. "It had more to do with her code than mine. But since it enabled me to save the life of a friend later on, I'm kind of glad that she decided saving her life meant she owed it to me." And now she didn't anymore. And one day, Lady Shiva Woosan had promised, one day she would come back, challenge Tim and she would kill him.
"A life for a life, then," Morgan mused. For such a young man, Tim had lived a very full life it seemed, not that this surprised her in any way. It did, however, never cease to amaze her what people of differing temperaments might take from their experiences. Cameron, too, had led a full and storied life, yet he charged at problems head on, if he chose to charge them at all. Whereas, Tim's brother seemed to prefer to dance between them, charm them into submission. And Tim himself, sought to educate himself and know, then behave in efficient fashion. Except when it came to his own heart, but that was not today's topic. "You're fortunate. Power and honor are uncommon bedfellows."
Tim shrugged, small shoulders lifting and dropping. "I guess but I didn't have any other option. She'd have died if I hadn't done something. I couldn't let that happen." This was how he revealed anything about himself to her, in small thumbnail sketches of otherwise complicated situations. They were both the kind of patient that didn't mind the fact that it was somewhat tedious. "This," he indicated his costume, "I really owe to her. She was responsible for a lot of my martial arts training."
Mindful of the day and his small size and unfamiliar body chemistry, Morgan elected to redirect the conversation away from topics that might lead to upset. Yet she appreciated the significant revelation of a part of his path to becoming who he was and offered a smile. "If next Halloween, the clothing box should happen to offer you a dress so white it glows, you need not honor me by wearing it."
He laughed, the sound much freer that he usually allowed himself, "Thanks. I'm terrible at navigating in skirts. Apparently I don't move my hips properly." This was accompanied by a little hip wriggle that shifted his small frame right off the rock.
Lips pressed together to avoid laughing at his predicament, Morgan extended a hand to help prop Tim back up. "You don't strike me as the type to dress as a woman for pleasure. Part of your work? And, shall I guess, it was Dick who said as much."
He held her hand tightly as he pulled himself back onto the rock and got comfortable. "Yes, for work. Occasionally the job required some undercover assignments. It was a generally agreed upon weakness of mine." He looked up into her face, "What makes you think it was Dick?"
Once again, she resisted the urge to continue pulling until Tim wound up in her lap where he might be securely hugged. At his question, however, she frowned, brows drawing together. "From what I know of your relationship and him, it sounded like something he would have said. And he would certainly have made a study of the 'proper' movements of a woman's hips."
Tim considered that, decided it made sense and nodded solemnly. "You're right, he probably would make that same observation if he knew. But that's not quite how it works. For all that I'm fairly open here about my identity," meaning that he wouldn't out and out lie about it when confronted, "back home, that's not how it is. Dick and Tim know each other, we're practically brothers. But Robin is something that had to be kept away from my family at all costs." Heartbreak on a child, even when it was there and gone as fast as it was on Tim's face, was always so much worse than the same emotion on an adult. "It's not safe for them to know."
His expression broke her resolve, despite her knowing he was not truly five. She reached out and ran her fingers through his hair, but drew the line at lifting him into her lap. Certainly he was welcome to the affection if he wished it, but she would not take advantage of his small size to inflict it on him. "It seems you will be subjected to some misplaced maternal affection, regardless of my intentions." A smile flickered at the corners of her mouth then, like sunlight on breeze-blown water. "It would be much easier to avoid if you were not so very, what is the word? Ah yes, cute."
He sat very still, analyzing his own reaction and trying to sort out what was him and what was the influence of extraordinarily different hormones than usual. "I don't mind," he decided finally, "it's a temporary condition and there's nothing inherently evil about misplaced maternal affection."
Laughing again at his determined seriousness, Morgan finally gave in. She leaned over, wrapped her arms around his slim shoulders, lifted him and simply hugged him. Survival mechanism indeed.
Despite the obvious awkwardness of finding oneself suddenly small, most everyone seemed to be enjoying the holiday. The changes did not seem to be pernicious and with luck would be of short duration. That the island had chosen again not to change her, Morgan could only feel obscurely grateful. On the other hand, the opportunity to learn the island's workings firsthand might help her understand what had brought them here.
But it was not this that occupied her mind as she walked the beach by the Compound, breeze lifting her hair and pleasantly kissing her skin. Instead, she found herself thinking on her relationships, specifically that with Cameron, and how at ease she had felt these past days, without the obligation to return home at nightfall. After the holiday, she meant to discuss it with him. Wanda and Jill had been correct; sometimes 'cutting loose' was the kindest cut. Cameron hurt from her need for self-discovery, and though it grieved her, she needed the journey no less because of it.
The ninja costume had been the only one Tim was willing to agree to and so it was that a small black clad form with a face completely covered except for brilliantly blue eyes, scrambled through the trees and executed a perfect flip to land softly before Morgan. He straightened, gave her a dignified bow. "Hello, lady."
Morgan could not help but laugh, soft, silvery, and delighted. "Hello, Timothy." There could be no other boy who would conduct himself with such dignity, in spite of his size and the tiny form flipping through the air to her feet. "Yet another mask for you. It seems you have a preference for those that permit you to walk in shadow. Why is that, do you imagine?" Though she teased, the question had an honest edge, one any student of hers need think about.
He reached up, tugged his mask down and gave her a grin--dimples appearing in a round cheeked face fully thirteen years younger than his actual age. One advantage of this--he had boundless energy. "I'm shy." The expression vanished a second later, though the amusement remained in his eyes. "I see you've escaped this particular island trick."
"You are also very short, and undeniably adorable." Morgan's mouth shaped a smirk that would be impertinent on anyone else. By her nature, she did not generally embrace her friends unless they seemed to need the support, but the urge to simply hug tiny Timothy was terribly strong. "I have. The island's masters seem rather more interested in seeing how I'll react to the tricks they play on my friends than in playing them on me. Are you well otherwise?"
"All kids are adorable. It's part of their survival mechanism. Otherwise they'd never reach adulthood," Tim dismissed that claim with a similar smirk--far too smug for a five year old. "Aside from Dick treating me like I'm actually five all over again? I don't remember having this many people hug me when I was this age the first time around." He shrugged, apparently not minding it, "I'm fine. It's strange to be this short all over again but my flexibility is increased and I'm pretty sure that my metabolism actually runs on candy right now which I previously thought was medically impossible."
"I confess to having the urge to pick you up myself, but unless you wish to take this moment of medical miracles for some very misplaced maternal affection, I believe I shall persevere." Straightening her skirt around her hips, Morgan settled on a convenient nearby rock. "Do come and sit for a few minutes in any event. Your company would not go amiss and Dick seems to leave you to your own devices when he knows you are with me."
Tim scrambled up next to her, settling himself in a place with a little hop, necessary to get his shorter frame up on the rock. "He likes you. He thinks my habit of picking up frighteningly competent female teachers is funny." Tim did not bother to tell her that Dick thought she was extremely attractive. She probably had picked that up all on her own.
"I've seen how your brother likes women." Her tone, while dry, was not as dry as it would normally be. She found it exceedingly difficult to keep the bright, silvery amusement out of her voice at Tim who had probably been born older than Dick would ever be. "In any event, your habit is far more useful than his of picking up frighteningly beautiful women to teach." She spoke without malice, however. On the two occasions she had met Dick, he had been beyond charming, and no one who could see could deny he gave all of himself to everything he did.
Tim laughed--more of a giggle really, pint-sized and almost girlishly pitched--then made a face at the sound. "Well, that was a strange experience. I think Dick and I get different things out of our habits but I agree that mine tends to provide me with a greater benefit. For a while, I was owed a life by one of the more dangerous people in the world." Almost every word of that was a vast understatement.
Hearing Tim giggle, Morgan could no longer contain her amusement, and she, too, laughed, a bright, silvery sound that rang rather longer than she could remember laughing on the island before. By the time he had finished speaking, however, her expression grew rather more serious. "And how, may your frighteningly competent teacher inquire, did you come to hold the life of another in your hand?"
"I know CPR and she needed it," he said simply. "It had more to do with her code than mine. But since it enabled me to save the life of a friend later on, I'm kind of glad that she decided saving her life meant she owed it to me." And now she didn't anymore. And one day, Lady Shiva Woosan had promised, one day she would come back, challenge Tim and she would kill him.
"A life for a life, then," Morgan mused. For such a young man, Tim had lived a very full life it seemed, not that this surprised her in any way. It did, however, never cease to amaze her what people of differing temperaments might take from their experiences. Cameron, too, had led a full and storied life, yet he charged at problems head on, if he chose to charge them at all. Whereas, Tim's brother seemed to prefer to dance between them, charm them into submission. And Tim himself, sought to educate himself and know, then behave in efficient fashion. Except when it came to his own heart, but that was not today's topic. "You're fortunate. Power and honor are uncommon bedfellows."
Tim shrugged, small shoulders lifting and dropping. "I guess but I didn't have any other option. She'd have died if I hadn't done something. I couldn't let that happen." This was how he revealed anything about himself to her, in small thumbnail sketches of otherwise complicated situations. They were both the kind of patient that didn't mind the fact that it was somewhat tedious. "This," he indicated his costume, "I really owe to her. She was responsible for a lot of my martial arts training."
Mindful of the day and his small size and unfamiliar body chemistry, Morgan elected to redirect the conversation away from topics that might lead to upset. Yet she appreciated the significant revelation of a part of his path to becoming who he was and offered a smile. "If next Halloween, the clothing box should happen to offer you a dress so white it glows, you need not honor me by wearing it."
He laughed, the sound much freer that he usually allowed himself, "Thanks. I'm terrible at navigating in skirts. Apparently I don't move my hips properly." This was accompanied by a little hip wriggle that shifted his small frame right off the rock.
Lips pressed together to avoid laughing at his predicament, Morgan extended a hand to help prop Tim back up. "You don't strike me as the type to dress as a woman for pleasure. Part of your work? And, shall I guess, it was Dick who said as much."
He held her hand tightly as he pulled himself back onto the rock and got comfortable. "Yes, for work. Occasionally the job required some undercover assignments. It was a generally agreed upon weakness of mine." He looked up into her face, "What makes you think it was Dick?"
Once again, she resisted the urge to continue pulling until Tim wound up in her lap where he might be securely hugged. At his question, however, she frowned, brows drawing together. "From what I know of your relationship and him, it sounded like something he would have said. And he would certainly have made a study of the 'proper' movements of a woman's hips."
Tim considered that, decided it made sense and nodded solemnly. "You're right, he probably would make that same observation if he knew. But that's not quite how it works. For all that I'm fairly open here about my identity," meaning that he wouldn't out and out lie about it when confronted, "back home, that's not how it is. Dick and Tim know each other, we're practically brothers. But Robin is something that had to be kept away from my family at all costs." Heartbreak on a child, even when it was there and gone as fast as it was on Tim's face, was always so much worse than the same emotion on an adult. "It's not safe for them to know."
His expression broke her resolve, despite her knowing he was not truly five. She reached out and ran her fingers through his hair, but drew the line at lifting him into her lap. Certainly he was welcome to the affection if he wished it, but she would not take advantage of his small size to inflict it on him. "It seems you will be subjected to some misplaced maternal affection, regardless of my intentions." A smile flickered at the corners of her mouth then, like sunlight on breeze-blown water. "It would be much easier to avoid if you were not so very, what is the word? Ah yes, cute."
He sat very still, analyzing his own reaction and trying to sort out what was him and what was the influence of extraordinarily different hormones than usual. "I don't mind," he decided finally, "it's a temporary condition and there's nothing inherently evil about misplaced maternal affection."
Laughing again at his determined seriousness, Morgan finally gave in. She leaned over, wrapped her arms around his slim shoulders, lifted him and simply hugged him. Survival mechanism indeed.