I saw that you like Hadestown, so I have a fanfic idea that mixes a little bit of both. Here's the thing: she and Tim met in school. They didn't really have direct contact, but because of the environment, they could have been academic rivals, I don't know. She's adopted (she saw her mother murdered by her father when she was about 6 years old, she testified against him in court and he's in prison, a very big trauma), and the couple who adopted her (who are her parents, like, they're the best parents in the world and support her in everything, she's even their only child) are millionaires and close friends of Bruce, but they don't know about the Batman thing. So they also meet at galas and charity events or dinners. They start to become friends when, unfortunately, she's almost assaulted walking home from school in the afternoon because she asked her driver to go home earlier and, since her phone was dead, she couldn't call anyone. But in the end, Robin (Tim) saves her and accompanies her to the police station, being very gentle and super helpful. The next day he goes to see her and they kind of start talking, also because they had to be paired up for a random school project. Time passed and they became best friends, she already knows his secret, they start dating, get engaged and everything. However, before the wedding, some strange gifts start arriving for her, threatening her, etc., and then when she's leaving her bachelorette party (the day before the wedding) she's kidnapped, and Tim has to go to the "underworld" to get her. The psychological terror is that he has to lead her blindfolded, unable to look at her or behind him, and she can't say anything because otherwise a bomb might explode. So, will he look back? Will she die? Will he die? Will they both die? P.S.: The kidnapping call is being kept secret from Tim because Bruce doesn't want to lose another child, and Tim is going crazy because the woman of his life is dying (videos of her being tortured and such were sent).
I LOVE HADESTOWN! i did the art for my pfp and banner! did a whole animatic for it too on instagram!! (@/farahdrawzz)
The one regular in your life has always been Timothy Jackson Drake.
Since you were children— Heck, since your eyes first met his you knew he was special.
Something about that bright smile, those blue eyes, something beneath the surface even, something made you certain, even as a child. Your bond with Tim was one for the movies.
Quite the sentimental child you were, to decide he’s the love of your life at nine years old but nothing was too strange for Gotham city.
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It was a dark gloomy day when you met, thunder roared outside your pre school, lightning flashed, it was the worst storm Gotham had seen yet. Your lucky day, you thought.
You were hiding under a desk in an empty classroom during recess. Most kids already were picked up by their parents, school’s been cancelled for the day. Your parents, though, spared no time for ‘trivial matters’. At only five years old, you knew you were said trivial matters.
You hug your body tighter, shivering in the cold, still staying out of sight, and then you hear it. Little footsteps approaching your sanctuary (your desk, covered by your little backpack. Blue eyes peek at yours as a boy about your age crouches down to your height, curiosity on his face.
“Hi, I’m Tim,” he murmurs, not being too loud as if afraid to disturb you. “Are you afraid of the storm?”
“Hi, Tim.” You respond, making room for him under the desk, eyes meeting his. It didn’t feel bad having company at a time like this. It looks like his parents didn’t come get him yet either.
“I don’t like rain.” You add as he scoots next to you.
“I’ll protect you.” He says, bright eyes staring into yours, earnest, his little hand extending to find yours.
“You don’t even know my name.”
“Tell me and I’ll never forget it— I promise!” So you do tell him, and you let your head drop to his shoulder. The empty classroom no longer feels suffocating. No longer were you lonely, because you now had Tim holding you through the cold, through the scary rain, sharing stupid stories that made you laugh.
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A couple years passed, Tim’s friendship remained your only constant truly- when you lost your parents, especially then, he was the only thing you had left, the only one that sat and listened to the horrors you endured.
You told him about your father, about how drunk he was. You told him he hurt you and your mother.
You ran to him the night your father murdered your poor mother. He held you tightly like he always did. He soothed your aching heart for years by just being there. Even his silence was kindness, even when he didn’t know what to say he showed up.
After you got adopted, things took a turn for the better, you suddenly had loving supportive parents, people other than Tim who genuinely cared about you.
At eight years old you finally got a birthday party. You got people who remembered your birthday and your favorite flavor cake.
At eight years old Tim started talking to you about his batman theories, started showing you the photographs he took and it only made you worry. He got so close to take those pictures, he could have been caught in the line of fire. You voiced your worries and were reassured with him promising to be careful, like he always was. You knew Tim never broke a promise.
At nine years old Tim showed up to your new manor with a toothy grin and a bouquet of flowers he picked for you. Your adoptive mother found him the most endearing little boy, ruffled his hair and led him to you. He softly knocked on your door and when you opened it you were engulfed in his arms, he giggled, picking you up and spinning you around.
You were confused but reciprocated anyways. Turns out he did it just because. Turns out he saw your favorite flowers and spent the whole day arranging a bouquet just for you.
You spent the rest of the day together, playing on your PlayStation your new parents had gotten you. You ended up asleep in each other’s arms. Your parents informed the Drake’s and got their okay for a sleepover.
Waking up next to Tim on your small bed was the best thing that happened to you. He was still asleep, cuddled up to you.
You find yourself staring at him, a hand hesitantly brushing his hair behind his ear, pure fascination on your face. Tim had beauty marks, small, not very noticeable but impossible not to notice now that you knew. You kissed his cheek before you even realized what you were doing, your own face heating up.
He whispered your name in his sleep, stirred a little, and those blues were open again, soft, sleepy. From there and then you decided this is the boy you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. Those are the eyes you wanted to see every morning.
He smiled lazily at you, a hand coming up to cup your face, his eyes flickered to your lips. He blushed.
“Please..?” He murmured, staring at your lips now.
And you shared your first kiss with Tim Drake on your bed at nine years old. The most innocent gesture you two could muster up. The purest form of love.
—————————————————————————
When Tim’s mom passed and his dad was in a coma, it was his turn to rely on you. At thirteen years old he cried in your arms and you held him just as tightly as he held you when you were six. You reassured him, you comforted him, you understood his pain. He kissed you again, drowning his grief out, letting his walls down, letting your love distract him from the sorrows he was suffocating from. He’d rather drown in your affection than this endless sea of pain.
When it all happened, when Tim was relocated to Wayne manor, you begged your parents to let you stay there a while, they were old friends with Bruce Wayne anyways. So they let you. They arranged it with Bruce and he had a room prepared for you, next to Tim’s.
You stayed a while, let him lean on you— urged him to lean on you. But you felt he was slipping away. Slipping into some darkness you were afraid you couldn’t save him from but you still tried, you still showed up, you still cuddled him to sleep and kissed his forehead when the nightmares got too bad.
But he started disappearing on you. Responding to texts and calls late, always told you it was nothing when it was in fact something. But it’s not like he could barge in your temporary room and tell you he’s robin.
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At fourteen you weren’t angry with him, just concerned, just scared for your first love, you knew what this pain could do to a person first hand, and your heart ached for him.
Consumed by your thoughts, you walked back home, taking the shortcut you’ve taken a million times but you made the mistake of not being aware of your surroundings. In Gotham City. In a split second your school bag flew to the ground and you had a knife to your throat.
“Hand over your valuables and maybe I’ll spare you.” You recognized that voice.
He didn’t even recognize you.
You shut your eyes for one moment, trying to rack up your brain for.. well anything. One move and you’d join your mother in the grave.
“Let go of her!” Another voice you recognized. Less than a beat later the mugger was on the floor, knocked out, your eyes snap open to meet.. Robin’s?
“Are you okay, miss? I’m here to protect you.” He asked, his hands lingering on your arms, concern radiating off that all too familiar voice.
“Tim?” You murmured in disbelief, but it all made sense. Too much sense. The disappearances. Everything.
“What— no! I- who?” He stammered, taking a step back. Yep. That was your Tim.
“Tim..” Quieter this time, you collapsed in his arms, sobbing. The shock wearing off and the realization your father almost murdered you setting in.
He forgot everything other than your safety and well being in that moment. To hell with secret identities. Of course you’d recognize him.
The way home was a blur, he carried you back to the manor, not your place, not even your room but his. He set you down on his bed, threw off his mask, and held you. Not bothering with the hassle of taking off his uniform.
“I’m sorry- I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you- couldn’t risk someone using you to get to me.”
You look up at him, eyes puffy and full of tears, you were not crying because he’s Robin. Of course it hurt he didn’t tell you but you were grieving much more.
“Tim- Tim no— it was- my father.”
And suddenly it made sense to him why you looked like you’d seen a ghost, because to you, your bio dad was one.
“Oh, baby..” He wiped your tears. He promised no more secrets. He kept you closer than ever before.
—————————————————————————
When everyone thought Tim was crazy, that grief blinded him, that bruce truly died, you did not. You believed in him. You believed in your partner. You knew better than anyone how brilliant Tim is, you knew he could outsmart almost anyone.
So you waited for him to bring his father back and he did.
You couldn’t be more proud of him. And he couldn’t be more grateful for you, the only person who did not doubt him.
When you were finally reunited you were inseparable again and especially then. You finally got him to take more time off, and Dick was more than happy to fill in for his little brother.
Then came your eighteenth birthday, your family and friends gathered around, you in a red dress Tim had tailored for you, your nails done, everything just.. perfect. He got down on one knee.
“..All my life, you’d been my one constan— my one good thing— the light at the end of the tunnel. I couldn’t have made it without you. I know we’re still young but I also know there’s no one else in the world I’d rather be with than you..” He was crying at this point. So were you.
“I love you, and I always will love you- so please.. please do me this honor.. please make me the happiest man in the universe and marry me.”
You’d never said yes to anything faster than this, ge put the ring in your finger, clumsily got up and spun you around.
The room erupted in cheers and claps.
You two were finally getting your happily ever after.
—————————————————————————
It was the day before your wedding, everything was perfect, just perfect. You’d moved in to your new place with Tim. This was everything you two always wanted.
You were having your bachelorette party that day.
Tim stirred awake, rolled over to see you at his side except you weren’t. That was the first red flag.
“Mm— baby?” He called out, assuming you were in the bathroom or the kitchen.
Tim got up, not suspecting much was off, he sleepily looked around. Your phone was on your bedside, your things around the room. You couldn’t have left?
The window was open. The window was open?
Tim was suddenly very alert.
He called your friends, no one heard from you, he went through your phone, privacy be damned he needed to find you. He even called Bruce.
You vanished without a trace.
It’s been five hours of looking everywhere you frequented, he asked EVERYONE.
Were you regretting it? Did you run off? But you wouldn’t leave your things.. all your things. He headed to the cave, cracked every security camera he could find in the area.
There! He found something? Someone? He watched the tape over and over, something sped towards your apartment building, then the camera broke. Something humanoid but not quite human. This was Gotham, freaky creatures weren’t anything new. But he’s never seen anything like this, he had to slow down the footage to even catch a glimpse of it.
Someone took you from him. Someone was using you to get to him.
This.. this felt like losing his dad all over again.
A consequence of his actions and decisions.
If Tim hadn’t let you in, if Tim hadn’t risked it- if he was strong enough to resist love, you would have been safe. But this wasn’t the time to wallow in self pity and grief.
This was the time for action.
“Tim.. I’m sorry.” Bruce broke him out of his trance and somehow it made everything worse.
“Don’t say that like she’s gone!” He shouted, shooting up off the chair and grabbing his suit.
—————————————————————————
It was another day of searching until Tim collapses on the cave floor. He was exhausted, guilt ridden and heartbroken.
You were meant to get married today.
He would have been your husband.
But you’re missing. You’re missing and it’s killing him.
Bruce has been away. Dick was helping him search, even Jason snd Damian were looking.
Tim forced his body off the floor, he stumbled and fell again. Crawled to the batcomputer and used the chair to help himself up, then something caught his eye. An.. owl? An owl icon on the computer.
Tim was brilliant, Tim was smart, he should’ve thought twice before hitting it but he was too exhausted to think properly.
“Beware The Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them, or they'll send the Talon for your head.”
The nursery.. rhyme? It didn’t prepare him for what he saw next.
A video of you. All beaten up and bloody, running from what looked like a humanoid owl.
The court was real. The court of owls was real. And they got you.
He clicked on the next video.
“The court has reclaimed what was rightfully theirs. The girl will make a fine talon. All in due time.” A modulated voice spoke, and there were more clips of you, of you getting tortured, of you on the ground.
‘Last viewed: this morning’
Bruce knew and he didn’t tell him.
Tim skimmed through the rest of the files he found, then he saw a meeting point and an informant.
“Hadestown, huh?” He read out loud, his voice dry, humorless as he forced himself up again.
Perhaps a set up but he didn’t care at this point. He couldn’t lose you too.
He took his bike and set off to find that so called informant.
—————————————————————————
“How to get to hadestown?” The old man started “..you have to take the long way down to the underground, the court will be prepared for you, boy,” he continued.
“Lay low, stay out of sight, don’t carry any technology, boy. They’ll catch you faster.” He spoke, his voice shaky, a man who’d seen too much and barely survived by the looks of it.
Tim nodded, hesitantly dropping his gadgets. Anything for you, he thought.
“I hope you survive that place, son.. it’s a labyrinth. A deadly labyrinth. And don’t give your name- you don’t have one. That place will try to suck you dry.” The man warned one last time before walking away, leaving Tim alone.
“I’m coming, wait for me..” He whispered as he set off into the darkness.
Oh a labyrinth it was. It was like the walls themselves were listening- it’s like the walls were moving. Taunting him.
‘I hear the walls repeating’
The walls were indeed repeating a sequence. It was like.. a computer code.
He stopped and touched a wall, trying to feel the vibrations, trying to understand the maze. Then he heard it. Footsteps. Your footsteps? His?
He screamed out your name.
‘The falling of my feet.’
He kept dragging his body through the labyrinth. The walls kept changing.
‘It sounds like drumming.’
The walls stopped. He could hear the footsteps again. Yours.
You were there. He wasn’t too late— he couldn’t lose still save you.
‘I hear the rocks and stones,’
The walls roared another time.
“Tim!” You yelled, your voice coming from far ahead. It echoed.
“I’m coming!” He yelled back, running towards the sound.
He dashed towards your voice, taking a turn after the other, desperate, too desperate to think.
“Hello, Timothy.” The modulated voice from the recording. The man who tortured you. His neck snapped towards him.
“Who are you— what have you done with her?” He yells.
“You will have respect for the voice of the court.” He spoke, voice cold, his arms crossed. He was in an owl mask. Of course he was.
“I’m here to offer you a deal, boy.” He started again, the faintest hint of humor in his tone.
“Lead her out of the labyrinth without looking back once and she’s yours, your eyes meet hers one time and she’s ours. And of course our little secret would die with you.”
“You’re sick! You’re sick- just give her back!” Tim is too tired for games, too tired for this bullshit.
Suddenly he’s surrounded by talons. Okay. Okay.
He was outmatched and outnumbered, his only bet was what? Accepting that stupid bargain? He relented.
“I accept your challenge.” The words leave his mouth, his voice even, as even as he could muster.
The walls roared one more time and Tim heard you behind him. He almost turned but he didn’t. Instead he said your name, carefully, reached a hand back towards you without looking and you took it.
“Tim.. you’re here.” He sighed in relief when you gripped his hand back, when he heard your voice clearly.
“I told you I’d protect you— I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.” He led you through the labyrinth, silently praying you two make it out, training his eyes forward no matter what.
“They told me you’d forget me. That I’d turn into one of those things.” His heart ached, he squeezed your hand as you walked.
“Never, baby.” He responded, voice full of conviction. Tim was nothing if not determined. He would save you no matter what it took.
He continued forward, occasionally talking to you, just to ease his mind, and he fought his way through, never looking back, never letting go of your hand, slowly following the path ge documented in his head, it wasn’t of much use when the walls kept moving but he would still try. Anything for you.
“You know, it’s dumb but I thought you left because you didn’t wanna marry me.” He said, squeezing your hand as he led you through a narrower path.
“No no- this isn’t on you.”
“I know. But trust me I’d love nothing more than to be yours forever.”
“I promise, after I get you out, we’ll have our wedding.”
You squeezed his hand, and smiled at him although he couldn’t really see it. You could finally see the light— the stairs leading up. You hold onto his hand tighter.
—————————————————————————
And here, my dearest reader, the decision is yours. Will Tim look back? Will he not?
Skip to the next section if he looks back. If not, keep reading.
You tripped and Tim almost looked back, but he forced himself not to.
“Are you okay?” He asked, voice loud, concerned, but he stood his ground.
“Yes, yes. I’m fine.” He heard you get up and then you grabbed his hand again. He sighed in relief, and finally led you out of the labyrinth. You could finally see the sky. He took a few extra steps without looking back, just in case, and finally turned to you.
He murmured your name, wrapping his arms around you, holding you against his chest, his hands roaming your back, as if to make sure you’re actually there.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” He kept repeating, leaving soft kisses at the too of your head, before he just picked you up, despite his weary body, he led you to his bike.
“Wait.” You said before he started it, pulling out a small detonator? He blinked once. Twice. Then realized when you finally pressed it what you did.
You destroyed the labyrinth.
His smart beautiful girl.
Instead of going straight home you two headed to city hall, made up some lie about being in an accident and eloped. You’d still have the wedding but this was.. necessary. Neither of you wanted to wait any longer.
ALTERNATIVE ENDING || TIM LOOKS BACK :
You tripped and Tim on stupid stupid instinct looked back, to help you up, he had one foot out of the labyrinth—
The walls spun, the exit was gone. You were surrounded by talons and modulated laughter.
“I knew you wouldn’t make it.”
He didn’t have a chance to respond before he was shot in the chest. You collapsed next to him, pressing pressure to the wound but it was no use, it went clean through his heart.
“Tim— Tim please. Stay with me. It’s going to be okay.” You cried, your free hand cupping his face.
“Just.. come here..” He murmured so very weakly. And you kissed him. You kissed him one last time before the end of everything.
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“Your new assignment is to bring in the bat, Bruce Wayne, and the late Timothy Drake’s father.”
“Don’t ask questions, Talon.”
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PHEW THIS WAS CRAZY,, not very proofread cause it’s so long (20k characters) i changed some stuff i think but not a lot, i hope you like it!!
