Fountain of Acheron - part 6 (vessel!Bernard smut version)
I was trying to figure out what order to do things in next and exactly what the Cult puts Bernard through and what his emotional arc is going to look like for the next bit of the fic (pls let me know if you want me to do a breakdown of this stuff bc I find planning interesting but ehhhh) and part of that was figuring out how Tim fit into all of this. And then. Well. TIM happened to my brain. So this is going to have some spoilers for the next part of Bernard's story but they are sort of contextless because Tim only has a sliver of a clue as to what is actually happening at any given time in Bernard's life. (I will be writing a bunch of this from Bernard's pov so don't worry.)
[CW: angst, gore, dubious consent, drugging of the godly variety, cults, ritual sex, everything is light and fluffy until it's really not]
Tim sees Bernard again for the first time at a society function. He couldn't tell you which one or what it was for. He was strung out and stressed and overworked and expected to be five different people at once at all times. Especially here. The easiest roles were the CEO of Wayne Tech (the co-ceo but considering Bruce's cover as Brucie...Tim was the one all the business people and investors wanted to talk to) and owner of Drake Industries (he was the Heir - now the owner. Their board still talked to him like he needed his daddy's signature but the investors who came to these functions wanted to talk to someone with pull). Those roles were easy because they were business. And what did business really matter except as a cover and a way to fund batman and a way to make real, sustainable change in Gotham- Tim had to remind himself to breathe. Much harder was the role of Tim Drake - heir to the Drake name. People at these things wanted to sympathize with him, to talk about how great his parents were, how much they did and the legacy they left (like they left a 10 year old alone in a mansion with only a part time housekeeper on staff. Ms. Mallory was amazing, but she already had more work than she could keep up with. Tim learned to be dependant early). And the people who wanted him to be Timothy Drake-Wayne, the third Wayne son. The responsible Wayne son. The one that was taking over the family business. The one that all of them wanted an alliance with - that they wanted their daughters married to. (Dick got women trying to seduce him, Damien got attempted manipulation, Tim got proposals that looked like business proposals. Jason, the lucky fuckhead, was dead.)
And, of course, he was also Red Robin.
Later, much later, Tim would remember that he'd been in a back hall of a high society mansion because something seemed off. Odd. Not enough to put a finger on but enough that he paid attention to his Robin instincts.
Then he saw Bernard again. Bernard looked healthy. He had a flush high on his cheeks like he'd been working hard and was glowing with happiness. He was breathing a bit faster and deeper than Tim would expect but it just added to how attractive he was. Tim's brain immediately tanked into the gutter and all Tim could think about was how hot Bernard was, how he looked like he'd just been fucked. How Tim wanted to make him look like that. (Tim was only just coming out to himself at this point and he doesn't want to say Bernard was the push that got him there but...this encounter probably is what made the last of Tim's denial crumble.) Bernard is wearing a slutty little waistcoat and tight pants and when he moves right Tim's sharp eyes catch the bump of his pierced nipples through his shirt and the gap in the vest.
They chat.
They make plans to meet up later.
Tim completely forgets he was investigating anything.
And they do meet up later. And they keep meeting up. Tim has a real civilian friend now. It's hard but interesting. And really worth it. Bernard is amazing and unconnected to any of his stressful life and Tim wants to protect that. So he doesn't stalk Bernard. Doesn't follow him when they aren't together, doesn't track his phone, doesn't ask subtle questions about where he goes and who with.
They start dating.
Tim wants to take it slow because he's never dated a boy. Bernard is enthusiastic about kissing and so, so good at it. But Bernard also wants to keep their clothes on and hands above the waist. Well, he wants Tim's hands above Bernard's waist. He offers to jerk Tim off or suck him off sometimes. Casual offers whose rejection always gets Tim a soft smile in return. It makes Tim want to investigate who Bernard's dated in the past. Because someone expected things of him.
They keep it slow. And life it good.
But every so often Bernard will show up to a date limping slightly, or exhausted, or too sincere and desperate in his jokes about sucking Tim off. And Tim has to get Cass to talk him down and tell him to leave it. Tim trusts Bernard, they talk about a lot of stuff. And Tim shows up with bruises and limping too, so he can't judge.
And then B pulls him off a case. This is a case Tim's been working in the background for years. There are a lot of cults and cult-like organizations in Gotham and Tim's tried to map a lot of them and figure out motivations. The Cult of Dionysus hasn't ever been a priority. Sure they are sketchy as hell and Tim really doesn't understand how anyone can be attracted to stuff like that. But as far as Tim can tell, they are mostly a standard cult, stuff the regular authorities can handle. And they aren't even a cult that kidnaps unwilling victims and brainwashes them so they aren't that bad. Or at least, they weren't that bad. Recently things have been going weird around them. There were two major members who suddenly were released from prison with no appeal necessary. And a puritan politician was found in the middle of an orgy with no memory of how he go there but his campaign collapsed when he couldn't keep from jerking off in the middle of a debate. And a vocal anti-cult (and specifically anti-Dionysus cult) activist was found dead with a grape vine growing from her heart.
It was the last one that sent Tim into a spiral. He knew it was the Cult of Dionysus and he knew there was something not normal human about the murder. But he couldn't prove anything. There was no evidence other than the blatantly obvious Vine through the Heart. And Tim was apparently getting paranoid. He was convinced they were building up to something. Something big.
So B took him off the case.
The next time he saw Bernard, Bernard was glowing with health and happiness. He was so proud about his contributions to some club he was a part of. Tim wanted to be happy for him. WAS happy for him. He told himself he just wanted to be part of that.
He followed Bernard and-
Bernard was part of the Cult.
This was everything Tim wanted. everything he Desired. Tim was welcomed in with open arms and Bernard showed him around, introduced him to all his friends. To the other guys from his college that Tim'd already met at coffee once, to his biochem professor, to the woman who'd helped him pass cacl in highschool, to the two older men who made sure Bernard always had a safe place to sleep even when his parents kicked him out for the night. Tim and Bernard cuddled and kissed and had some punch and Tim saw a lot of sex that night, some of it really risky and a lot of it involving knives or needles or fire or whips, but everyone wanted to be here. Everyone was enthusiastic about it. He watched, because he was Red Robin - and later he analyzed his memories and realized Bernard had kept them to softer, introductory rooms.
Tim had an IN now.
He went back, once, without Bernard. It wasn't as fun and he did feel a little pressured and he still couldn't figure out what was happening and how they were connected to the deaths. But then B was waiting for him at the exit and that was the end of that.
Then came the night when Tim was just back from patrol, running on five hours of sleep in three days and therefore not sure if anything was real. He was in his room in Wayne manor in just his underwear when something tapped on his window. He looked and it was.
Bernard.
Bernard looking like he was a ghost. Pale and shaking and sloppily dressed in a toga. Tim let him in (somehow the alarms didn't react). Bernard babbled and it was only half in english. He sobbed because he wanted out. He was in too deep and didn't want to die and just wanted them to love him again. And Tim offered him a safe place, gave him clothes. Saw the scars and the whip marks and the burns and piercings and the base of a plug inside him and the cage on his cock. Nothing needed to be treated immediately. He bundled Bernard into bed and cocooned them in blankets and mentally made a list of things to deal with in the morning.
He woke to a breeze from his cracked window and a few leaves on his pillow and a mental to do list that didn't make sense. That had been a strong hallucination.
He and Bernard made plans and Bernard was happy. He seemed stressed but it was finals at school and Bernard was swamped so that was obviously it.
A week later, Bernard arranged a date - a super sweet gesture with flowers and sushi and hanging out in a park. and when they kissed goodnight he said something that sounded a lot like it meant "goodbye" and not "see you later". His smile had been a cover all evening. Plastered on over stress and worry and...Tim knew later, pain.
If Tim was a regular person, Bernard would be dead and the world would be a riot of wine and sex and pain and chaos. But Tim wasn't regular and had participated in his fair share of conversations where one person was going to do something where they were pretty sure they were going to die but didn't actually want to tell the other person (Tim's been on both sides of that conversation actually). So he recognizes it. He plants a tracker (several trackers) in Bernard's things. And follows them to a cave under a sex club.
Where he hides in the rafters until he can actually figure out what's going on.
Bernard is tied up and begging in the middle of a double circle of candles. But he's on the altar begging to be fucked. To be mauled. to be used. He's bleeding heavily and covered in a lot of bodily fluids. There are so many Implements around. And plants. and jugs of liquid and fresh fruit. And there are people. Cult members are jerking off idly. And Tim.
Tim realizes they are waiting their turn. Waiting to fuck Bernard. Or carve off another piece of his flesh. Like the man who's inside him right now, chanting in ancient greek while using a wire to cut into Bernard's flesh. A woman starts pressing a stake into Bernard's chest and-
The candles flicker and Tim loses his inhibitions. Tables overturn, batarangs fly, the man inside Bernard goes crashing into a wall hard enough that if Tim was thinking straight he would've been really worried. But he isn't. He's staring down at Bernard.
Bernard who isn't begging.
Who's started laughing. Laughing with a voice that isn't his.
"Oh little bird, look what a mess you made." It says. In greek which somehow Tim understands. Because it's in his head and he can't look away. "Come finish what they started."
Tim won't. He can't. He WANTS.
But he wants Bernard. Not this thing in his skin. He'd been trained by Batman. He's faced scarecrow. He's held his own against gods and demons and the inside of his own head. He will not cave to this one simply because it wears the skin of the boy he loves. (He WANTS)
Only then the thing is laughing and the laugh is sliding into screams of pain and Tim realizes Bernard is dying. He's bleeding out.
Tim should let him. The ritual will fail, Dionysus won't have a foothold into their world. But-
It's all the foothold Dionysus needs. The want overwhelms him and Bernard is laughing again and Tim is inside him for the first time (his first time with a boy at all) and it is good and right and everything he ever wanted and the distant screams as fire grows hotter and fruit trees grow in the eye sockets of cultists and reflections cut necks to water the ground with blood to make it fertile. It all fades into Bernard's golden eyes looking into his soul and wanting him, loving him.
Tim wakes up in the middle of an underground orchard. With the two old men clearing out personal belongings and bones.
To a Bernard who hates him for interrupting. for interfering. for ruining his life.
And a few weeks later, for not even doing all of that properly.
[NOTE: I haven't quite figured out how Tim actually fucks up the ritual. Because the easy way is for him to just tear the dude away and free Bernard and them run away. But I wanted to have Tim have to fuck him sooooo. The worldbuilding will get developed as I develop Bernard's side of things. And might be retconned. or rather - it might get even more obvious that Tim is not the most reliable narrator in this.]
Summary: The section of the tunnels where they’ve decided to talk – an enclave branching off from the main passage – is cold, dark, and stiflingly quiet. In the silence, Tim can clearly hear both Jon’s breathing and his own. Signs of life, steady in spite of everything. Tim finds comfort in the sound for a moment, then remembers with a rising dread why he and Jon are here in the first place. He can’t run from it forever.
“Maybe you can phrase things as statements instead of questions. ‘I want to know what happened’ instead of ‘what happened?,’ and so on.”
Jon nods again. “I can do that. Uh…whenever you’re ready. I would like to know what happened – what your experience was with the Circus of the Other.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 9/?
Fandom: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jason Todd & The Batfam, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall & Bizarro & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne
Characters: Jason Todd, Artemis of Bana-Mighdall, Bizarro, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Damian Wayne, Stephanie Brown, Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain, Duke Thomas, Barbara Gordon, Kate Kane, Jim Gordon, Renee Montoya, Lucius Fox, Harleen Quinzel, Zatanna Zatara
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Age Regression/De-Aging, Family, Family Feels, magic and mystery, Protective Siblings, Family Drama, Dysfunctional Family, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, smol bean, Jason-Centric, trope deconstruction, Murder Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Summary:
All Jason wanted was a case that was simple, clean, and far away from the latest mess in Gotham. Magic wasn't the Outlaws' area of expertise, but they soon found themselves investigating a dark wizard with a penchant for organ harvesting.
When an accident on the case leaves Jason as a clueless seven year old with a memory that's spotty at best, what else can his team do but go to his family for help?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Summary: The next time one of Tim’s headaches brings him to the Institute, he decides to find a corner of the library to hide in until the pain goes away.
(aka: Tim runs into a familiar face while trying to stay away from everyone. Ria has gotten some of her energy back.)
