Chapter Text
The nightmare was over.
When Tim woke up his arm was normal, no longer broken, he was no longer in a hospital bed, it was all just a bad dream, a really bad one, if he thought about it a little more he could maybe get some meaning behind the weird dream, something about stop being a loner loser? His subconscious invented a lot of imaginary friends for him, maybe Dick's insistence was finally taking a toll on him, except..
The other boy in his dream, Conner was it? Was a bit peculiar, everyone else in the dream knew Tim even though he didn't know them, but him, he seemed in the same situation as dream him, with no clue about what just had happened. With no knowledge.
His room looked different, there were papers everywhere, like someone tried to snoop in his space. And his computer, it looked opened up. Tim stood up from his bed to go and check it, he didn't want to imagine who would snoop through his things, none of his siblings seemed like a possibility, they would at least have the decency to make everything be where it was supposed to be at. The person who did this didn't care that he found his room like this, but he didn't think someone just broke into Wayne manor that easily.
His computer had new files he didn't add, about people he didn't know, they had alarming amount of information, hobbies, jobs, families. But some in particular caught his eyes, there were files about the people from his dream, about the boy of his dream specifically. Tim had nothing better to do than to read about then, why did he have these strange files in the first place?.
Smallvile, that's were the boy was from, his profile was the least detailed of the bunch from his dream, it seemed like whoever did this didn't find it useful to dig up information of this guy.
His phone started to buzz from his nightstand. Cautiously Tim went to pick it up, he only had his family's phone numbers, and everyone was home except for Bruce, but he didn't call if it wasn't serious. On closer inspection the name that appeared on screen was that of ‘kon’ he didn't know why he had it, Tim thought about a name that could match it, without realizing he accidentally pressed accept.
The few moments it took to enter the call felt eternal, and once it finally connected, the otherside of the line was silent, before he could ask who it was, someone finally spoke.
“Uhh, you were in my contacts as Rob, and I kinda don't remember the last three days after the weirdest dream of my life, maybe you could know something?” That voice, it was the voice of the other guy, Kon appeared to be his name, or at least some type of nickname from Conner?. And Tim couldn't act clueless, in the dream people called him Rob, and one just didn't share a dream with someone. Something weird was happening.
“Wait, the last three days!?” Tim went to look at the date that appeared on his computer, Kon wasn't wrong, they had lost the whole weekend, it was no longer Friday, but monday.
“Did you by any chance dream about being in a superhero world?” Now that caught his attention even more.
“ With a fast kid, a blonde girl and various others?”Tim spoke slowly, neither talked after that, they both knew something bigger than them had messed with their lives.
Tim thought about the possibilities, and a memory from their time in that strange world resurged, blonde girl had talked about something to do with dimension travel, and if he took it with face value, maybe that's what had happened, there was really no explanation, maybe the mess that was his room was from his other self, and if it was a version of himself, he would of left some kind of note to himself, he didn't know anything from this other guy, but apparently their other me's were friends, so Tim could kinda trust him.
“We have to be smart about what we do next, we basically have zero information on what our bodies did in the last three days, try snooping for info, we can call again when we gain more data” Tim wasn't going to just drop the multiverse thing on this random guy, he was going to confirm his speculation. What had happened to them was strange, but dropping that nonsense to someone would be that of a crazy lunatic.
After the call ended he tried searching his phone for clues, he must've of have left a note explaining at least something, he went to his most recent chats for clues, and there he found it, apparently adding Kon’s number wasn't the only thing he did, the text history wasn't that long, only starting on the second day of Tim's no memory land, scrolling through them he could see other Tim had bought some plain tickets for him and Kon, to, las Vegas? The date for the tickets was for before yesterday, and there was no return tickets, so him being at Wayne manor was a conspiracy of its own, if he was in Vegas how did he travel all of that to new Jersey again in less of a day?.
The last message in the chat was from Tim, but it wasn't a text for Kon, it was for the both of them.
It wasn't longer than three lines, his other self explained the bare essentials, alternative universe, you guys are fake dating, you're in Vegas because there was a wizard.
You guys are fake dating.
You guys are fake dating??.
What did his other self do, and why dating seemed to be the answer to them?, and that other part about waking up in Vegas? Tim was clearly not in Vegas, something must've had happened, there was a whole day missing between other Tim's time and his own, Tim only remembered two days in the strange superhero world, but three days had passed in his world. Tim was running out of options, his family must've know something, but he couldn't be that oblivious, he was sure they felt he was acting weird the whole time other Tim was here, and analyzing it a little bit more, the fake dating but must've happened because someone saw them together, and other them must've panicked.
No one has checked on him yet, so he couldn't even confirm his suspicions, but Tim didn't had the motivation to throw himself to the wolfs just yet. He felt compelled to call Kon again to see if he found anything at all, but not even thirsty minutes had passed since the call they had, that wasn't enough time for anything, Tim would have to wait until he called himself, he just had to be patient.
“ When did you wake up” Jasons voice startled him, he looked to were his door was, Jason was sporting a tray with a cup of water and some medicine.
“What do you mean wake up?, I always wake up in time” it was better to play dumb, he had to act like he had lived the three days he lost
“ Tim, you were asleep for a whole day after Bruce found you in fucking las Vegas”
“ What do you mean Bruce found me?!” At least that covers the lost day, Bruce founding him was nor ideal, but he could deal with it
“You mean you don't remember?, Dick was exasperated, it was actually super funny how you ditched your grounded ass and ran away with your boyfriend to the roof apartment of an old sketchy dude who gave you something even more sketchy to drink, Bruce was even worse than Dick, he didn't even know you had a boyfriend”
Tim just stared at Jason, his other left really fucked up his social life, but maybe he could use the drink thing to his favor, if it was the reason he wasn't awake for a whole fucking day, maybe it could do memory lose too.
“I actually don't remember all that much from that day, how much do you know that happened?” Jason seemed to know quite a bit of what happened to him, the whole house must know what happened in Las Vegas, hell, he even guessed that Dana knew what had happened at this point, they maybe hadn't had contact in a while, but Bruce informed her about stuff in his life that were important, Tim guessed his other self fucked up qualifed as important.
“Well, apart from everyone thinking you were doing a Vegas wedding, everyone was super worried when you didn't wake up, Bruce said the sketchy dude told him you were going to wake up disoriented and then he just disappeared. He personally went to drop of your boyfriend to his house, he was lucky Dick went there the day before to drop him off with you”
Dick dropped him off at his house? In Smallville? Tim could maybe hack the security of Dick's car to check on what did they talk about in the time they travelled, it isn't a short one, their other selves must've dropped some information on how their cover worked, Tim didn't think they just said they were dating and that was it, his family was a noisy one. And the fact that Dick had to drop him off meant Kon was at the manor at least once.
“Is Bruce still at the manor by any chance?”
“You bet he is, I wanna see him ground you till you enter college, maybe he won't even let you leave the city, you did demonstrate zero survival skills drinking unknown liquids”
“Well thank you Jason for your very not necessary input, but I want to be alone right now, so go” Tim pushed Jason out of his bedroom and closed the door, Jason seemed to have forgotten why he was there in the first place, leaving with the tray in his hands, it did make it easier to push him out, due to him having no hands to battle with.
With his newfound information now he had to call Kon, but it was too much to process. Why did other him choose the sketchiest way to go back to his world? It's like they didn't even think about the ones who lived in this frinkin world. At least it didn't happen in college, he still had three weeks until classes started, San Francisco would be a fresh start from this hell of a mess, contrary to popular belief, Tim did have some friends, but they weren't going to the same place after highschool, from his friend group Tim was the only one that was leaving Gotham.
With nothing better to do, he just called Kon to tell him his discoveries, he did not want to exit his room after whatever bad karma had fallen upon him.
____________
Conner was feeling happy, after the last few weeks, something good finally came, college classes were finally starting.
Maybe in his break he was the unluckiest dude to ever exist ( apparently the multiverse is real), so what if his other self kinda used all of his allowance money, the one he gained with blood sweat and tears for a car he could use so that he didn't inconvenience pa…
Positive thoughts!Today is a great day, maybe his life kinda got ruined, maybe he came out to his grandparents without being even him who did it, but he gained a new friend!, Tim and him were now trauma bonded, he was even nice enough to give him some of his money back, but it wasn't all, same day plane tickets are expensive, and like him, Tim was also grounded. The definition of grounded for their guardians was kinda funny to compare, Kon got extra work on the farm, while Tim got a 24 hour surveillance so he didn't pull a stunt like he did again. The both of them were basically paying for things they didn't do.
They were still fake dating, it was started by their other selves, but Tim said it was important to remain sane looking people, so if in the eyes of their family they were dating, they had to maintain it at least for a bit, it would be weird to present someone to their family and just dip the next day, so maintaining appearances they were, it wasn't that hard in the long run, by living in different states they could get away with not looking like two lovesick fools. The two of them were thinking of breaking up the first week, or month of college, with the excuse they just couldn't be together with all that space between them, it was a solid plan.
The both of them even chose to not say we're they were going to study at, it was weird enough to have to play lovers with someone they barely knew, because that's what it was, strangers acting, their parallel selves may had been more, but it didn't mean they had to be too, hell, they wouldn't even know each other if it wasn't for the accident their other selves caused. In that world, they seemed close with the other guys, blond girl and fast boy were nice, and a little mean to each other, but it seemed like a strong friendship, the situation that happened was likely just a big joke to them, supernatural things must've been the norm there.
Clark seemed to be important in the other world, Kon saw him on the news, he was sporting the same logo as him on his hero suit, the whole family probably was super, ma and pa maybe were first generation hero's or something, or maybe not, it all depends if Clark was adopted in that universe too, Kara seemed to be a super too, so maybe adopted was the option, he didn't see any news on his grandparents there.
Ma and Pa were dropping him off personally, they did a whole road trip to San Francisco, even Jon was with them, wanted to see his big brother off to college, Lois and Clark had to work, they sent their apologies, but Conner honestly didn't care, the people he cared the most about were there with him.
Conner hadn't checked his roommate yet, he left it to luck and good vibes from the universe, with all the bad luck he had, something good must be on his way.
His family helped him unpack his things to the correct dorm, they said their goodbyes, and they left to go back. And it was done, he was now officially a step closer to adulthood. His bed was cheaply made, the walls had the landlord special treatment to them, and there was enough space in between beds and desks to fit only one person. It was the peak of the college experience, who needed Greek life when you had this?.
His roommate still didn't arrive, and that was with Kon arriving the day before classes started, he hopped it was a late on purpose kind of thing, he had heard stories of people just never arriving to their dorms because they dropped out before the year even started, maybe it would be cool if that happened, more space to him, the dorm really was small.
A bump on the door brought his attention back to reality, Kon went to open the door to the sight of several boxes in front of him, Kon assumed it was his so awaited roommate.
“Hi, can I get some help with the boxes?, their about to fall from my grasp”
“No worries dude, helps on the way” when Conner removed the top box from the dude, he could finally see the face of his roommate, and it shocked him to his core, it was, mother fuckin fast dude in the flesh, and if he was here it only meant one thing.
A guaranteed friend who will tolerate him to the heavens and hell.
He remembered that this dude apart from fast was a really fast talker, Kon thinks that must translate to the real world as ADHD of some kind. But only time would tell.
Time told him that he really was a fast talker, Bart, the name of his awesome roommate, really loved to move around, he moved a lot, the speed powers seemed to not be the reason of his absurd movement in the other world. Bart was also fun, they had a lot of the same classes together, so it added to the growing friendship that they were having, they basically just glued the classes of one of them to their door, it was at that level of same, it was the coolest thing ever to have your roommate have the same interests as one. First class of the day was great, he wrote in notes and everything, sadly their second class was the only one that they didn't share, so they had to go separate ways.
His second class left him speechless, he was just having a great time, when he suddenly spotted Tim on the front row, with blond girl. This had to be the unluckiest thing ever, for both of them, Tim felt his eyes presence on his back and turned to his direction. He was also left as stiff as a statue, the plan was to not see each other ever again after the summer break fiasco, not, not this!.
If Conner didn't know any better, he thinks they may be the college alternative universe, everyone from the other world was here, it was only a matter of time until Bart and blond girl made friends and dragged them together, maybe it was already happening, he didn't mind Bart being his roommate much, because he's a cool dude, but they were already connected by a lot of their classes, it's like the universe pairing them together, it was too late to even switch colleges, what would he say? That he didn't want to see his boyfriend in his classes!?.
Their four week plan to breaking up seemed to fall into dust in just a few seconds, college life was going to be hard.