I can finally share what I spent all summer and most of the fall working on! (Well, excluding the time I spent working on my crochet Magnum Opus which I shall share after Christmas. I still can't believe I've made that.)
It's finally posting week for @dpxdcbigbang!!! My fic this year is even longer than last year's. Ooops. Because of that, I won't be posting the whole thing this week, just the first two chapters.
Much thanks to my fantastic beta @mystarduststories who came up with the brilliant title and helped a bunch with tags and by pointing out awkward phrasing in my first draft. And @random-sparks-98 who came back as my artist for the second year in a row and gifted some amazing art for this fic which you can enjoy in the first chapter!!!!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Relationships: Tim Drake & Danny Fenton, Tim Drake & Danny Fenton & Dani Phantom
Tags: #Tim Drake (DCU) and Danny Fenton are Twins #Twin Reveal #Aftermath of Cloning #Hurt/Comfort #Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent #Bad Parent Jack Drake #Epilepsy #Epileptic Danny Fenton #Past Child Abuse #Accidental Sibling Acquisition #Good Sibling Tim Drake (DCU) #Minor Barbara Gordon #Minor Cassandra Cain #Bad Parent Vlad Masters #Implied/Referenced Child Abuse #Past Ableism
Word Count for Chapter 1: 7.1k
Summary:
Tim Drake is spending an afternoon with his dad and Dana when he gets a call from an unknown number. The voice on the other line, though, is anything but unknown.
His twin has come to Gotham and needs help.
When he arrives, he learns Danny's not quite so alone as he first thought, but he's not with anyone Tim knows. The girl he's with looks just like they do and gives him more questions then she does answers. He's going to have to come clean to Bruce, isn't he?
Snippet under the cut
“This is nice,” said Tim’s dad. He sat next to Dana on the couch while Tim was in the armchair next to them. “It’s been too long since we’ve been able to just relax together as a family like this.”
Tim hummed noncommittally and flicked out the keyboard on his phone before retracting it again. He wanted to open up a game of snake or hangman, but his dad would absolutely notice, and then Dana would be upset he wasn’t paying attention during their assigned family-bonding time.
“It is. I’m glad I succeeded in getting you both into this show!” said Dana. She’d found the buddy-cop drama a few weeks ago and today there happened to be a marathon on, so she’d wrangled them all into watching it together. Tim might have enjoyed it more if he wasn’t a detective himself, but all he could think while watching was that blood tests didn’t work like that. Didn’t help that the characters were all dumb as rocks. Dana continued and said, “Tim, it’s so good to spend an afternoon with you.”
Which reminded Tim why he was pretending. Dana wasn’t a bad person. He shoved his phone into the crack between the cushion and the armrest and smiled at her. “Definitely, Dana. Sorry I’ve been too busy with my clubs to spend much time with you.”
His dad gave him a relieved look, and said, “Well, maybe we can make this a sort of routine. Once a week or so, we spend a few hours together. Either watching something like this or doing something in the city.”
“It’s so much easier to go places now that you live in the city rather than Bristol,” agreed Dana. “I think I saw the art museum had a special exhibit for local artists next weekend, we should check it out!”
Tim wanted nothing more than to run. He’d rather spend the time in San Francisco with Young Justice or in the cave reviewing cases. Maybe at home catching up on homework. Before he could think of a way to politely decline that wouldn’t hurt Dana and piss off his dad, his phone rang.
“Sorry,” Tim mumbled to them as he pulled it out. He didn’t recognize the number, but it had a Gotham area code. “Hello?” he asked.
“Tim?” came through the phone.
Tim recognized that voice: the pitch, the cadence. More familiar to him than his own. “Danny?” His dad made a noise and bolted upright, but Tim barely paid him any attention.
His dad muted the TV. “Everything okay?” he mouthed quietly.
Tim waved him off in favor of Danny who replied, “You picked up! I wasn’t sure you would.”
Tim didn’t have the heart to tell him that he only really picked up the strange number to get out of an awkward conversation with his dad and Dana. “Why aren’t you using your phone? What’s going on?”
Danny’s laugh was somewhat hysterical and Tim jumped to his feet. He waved away his dad’s and Dana’s questions as he rushed to his room. He’d have to pack if he was going to Amity. And look up bus schedules. Tim could hear Danny take a steadying breath. “Um. I have no idea where my phone is right now. But, uh. I’m in Gotham. We got mugged. Could you come get us? We could use some help.”
I just noticed that among the shirts they've shown for the spring merch drop being sold at the con ahead of release, there's a "too much imp to simp" shirt and I would like to thank not only Lucifer but also Satan for finally answering my prayers.
