Pirate!Tim fic
So I've been sitting on this Pirate!Tim fic that I wrote for a drawing by Chien http://pikakao.livejournal.com/359625.html, and I was too dissatisfied with it to post it, but then I rediscovered this community! Perfect! Because here, there is no shame. And someone will read it and help me, or read it and tell me to just let it die, or no one will ever see it. So whichever way it works out I'm good. ;)
Title: Something Adventurous and Dashing
Characters/pairing: Tim, Bruce, Dick, Bart, hint of Tim/Bart, possible Wally
Setting/spoilers: Pirate AU.
Summary: Tim's a pirate. I don't know what else there is to say.
Rating: PG?
Disclaimer: If I had a Bart or Tim, would I be sitting here writing fanfic?
Feedback: That's why I'm here. Please help me fix it, or tell me to put it out of its misery. It's ok, you can say it, just say, "Rachel, it's time to let it go." Or chant, "Kill the fic! Kill the fic!", whichever works for you.
Edit: This fic has been rescued by Chien and is now kind of a WIP, think of this as the first draft. I'd still love input but, barring getting totally distracted by something shiny, the fic will live on.
Tim was just a young boy when the Pearl docked in his coastal city. He ran down to the docks with the other children, though as always he was more of an observer than an active participant. While the other kids watched the seamen unload the cargo, begging for stories from sea and a glimpse into the crates, Tim’s eye was caught by a boy a few years older than him swinging around on the ship’s rigging. He seemed completely fearless, and oblivious to the activity on the docks. A voice called out, “Dick, I need you here”, and instead of climbing down the boy somersaulted from the highest mast and landed on the deck. He ran to an imposing figure, presumably the captain, and grinned ruefully. They went inside the Captain’s quarters, and Tim was left to replay the captivating sight over in his head.
A few months later, a seaman passed through town looking for work. The Drakes owned the largest tavern in town, and Tim liked to hide away and listen to the gossip from drifters, it was how they got most of their news. The seaman told a story of how his ship was overwhelmed by pirates, but they were strangely civilized for that kind of ruffian - they killed no one, and somehow the Captain knew what cargo had been come by illegally and took only that from the ship. He then warned them not to break any laws in this area of ocean again, as it was under “The Bat”’s protection. The bartender laughed, and said that if the pirates were so genteel they were no real threat, the seaman’s ship shouldn’t be afraid. The seaman protested that he would never want to encounter the dread Bat again - “I swear the man had a devil in his service, no human boy can fly and tumble through the air as this boy did, and what pirate would have a mere boy as his second in command anyways? No, it’s not worth it to risk encountering them again.”
Tim realized it had to be the same boy he’d seen on the Pearl. He combed the city for information, and became convinced that Captain Wayne and the Bat were the same man.
The next time the ship docked in Tim’s city, he stole aboard and hid below deck. Once the ship was too far from shore to turn back without great cost and difficulty, he went in search of the Captain. He revealed to Captain Wayne that he knew his secret, and that he wanted to become a pirate in the Bat’s crew. Though the Captain was outside the law, he only pirated vile ships like slavers or other, more vicious pirates. In fact, the Bat’s seas were the safest in this part of the world, since most other pirates gave his territory a wide berth. Wayne scoffed at him and told him it was far too dangerous for a young boy, but Tim protested that Dick had been young as well when he began. Tim knew that Dick had been attempting to procure his own vessel and set out on his own, and he feared that without the carefree devil to assist him the Bat would no longer be able to walk the fine line between piracy and villainy. He wanted to help the Captain in Dick’s stead. Wayne did not agree, but he could not throw Tim overboard either, so he sent him to Dick and Alfred, the ship’s doctor, cook, and Wayne’s oldest shipmate, to be trained to earn his keep. As Alfred taught him medicine and how to do everything on the ship, Dick showed him how to fly on the ropes and to fight. Tim proved himself a hard worker and adept learner, at times surpassing even Wayne and his mentors in brilliance. Wayne agreed to let him stay.
And this is where the fic kind of dissolves because I had a few different ideas on how to bring Bart and possibly Kon in.
Option 1:
After a few months the ship dropped the rest of the crew off at a port, and continued on with just the Captain, Dick, Alfred, and Tim. They arrived at a mysterious cove off of an island. Dick called it “The Batcove”. Tim didn’t understand why Dick was so amused by this, but he’d long ago learned to just let Dick’s odd quips pass.
The ship was met by a blur of red that seemed to somehow dock the ship in a moment, and then the blur came to a grinning stop in front of the Captain. To Tim’s shock, the man kissed Captain Wayne soundly and said, “I missed you, I know your work is important but you stayed away too long.” Wayne cleared his throat, looking slightly embarrassed but glad to see the strange man.
“I’m sorry you couldn’t come with us, but you know the Batship had to be repaired after that storm and I couldn’t stay away from the sea that long. We’ll all be at sea again soon, and as the Bat this time. I’m weary of Wayne.”
“But you”, the man chastised, “know I didn’t need anywhere near that much time to fix it.”
The Captain smirked, an expression Tim had never before seen on his face, and seemed about to reply when a second blur attacked Dick and then Wayne. Tim immediately dropped into a defensive crouch and the moment the blur hit him he grabbed and pinned it to the deck. Underneath him lay a shocked and slightly vibrating boy with unruly hair and golden eyes. He quickly recovered and beamed up at Tim, seemingly not at all concerned that he was still being held down. “Hello”, he chattered rapidly, “My name is Bart.”
“Um, I’m Tim, pleased to meet you”, Tim replied, completely confused at how Bart and the man in red could move so quickly, that the Captain was apparently involved with another man, and what role this young boy played. Just when I thought I had this family figured out… Tim heard a snicker from behind him, and twisted to see Dick laughing at him. Tim belatedly realized he was still pinning the eager boy beneath him and hastily stood, offering Bart his hand.
Option 2:
Instead of the Flash clan being at the island, the Supers are. Bruce is dating Clark, and Tim meets Kon first. Either way, Tim would be introduced, shown the Batship (I know it’s a dorky name, but he rides around in the Batmobile usually, it’s canon that Bruce is terrible at naming things), eventually figure out the other family’s superpowers, set out to sea again and become friends, then dock somewhere and meet Bart or Tim, Bart as some kind of Aladdinesque thief or Kon as a deckhand. I’m leaning towards meeting Bart first. Also, I’m not sure if the Bat should have a separate ship, or if he should have some kind of cloaking device (different sails of course, and possibly some kind of covering to change the ship’s appearance?) so both the merchant ship and pirate ship are the same. In that case I guess Wally would have remained on the island to make repairs to the Batcove? Or I could totally drop the Batcove (let’s be honest, I have it in there mostly because “Batcove” cracks me up) and just have Tim meet Bart and Kon in port.
Anyways, that’s as far as I got with (relative) details. My ideas for how Tim ends up in the pirate costume, because he hasn’t actually worn it yet - (the whole “Arrr!” thing with the eyepatch seemed like it was more Tim imitating a pirate from stories he’d heard than what I can imagine the Bat’s crew actually dressing as, it’s canon that Tim’s costumes tend towards the outrageous) -
On their first pirating mission the Captain calls out to change into their disguises, and Bart pulls Tim aside to dress him in the costume, OR it’s Tim’s own idea of how a pirate dresses. So, when he comes out in the costume and growls “Arr!” menacingly, Bruce and Alfred are amused and Wally Dick and Bart outright laugh at him. And then Bart kisses him to make up for it or something, I don’t know. OR Bart and Tim could dress in disguises to do some kind of recon for the Bat ashore (opportunity for Bart crossdressing here) and that’s when they meet Kon. Or uh, both?
::vague handwave:: And then they have many wonderful adventures and live happily ever after… Yeah, I have no idea what to do after they meet Kon, and I’m completely lost for dialogue or really detailed scenes. That’s all she wrote folks. Input?