#459 - Kokopelli - Time is a Thief - Lightning_skies - BtVS/DCU

[lightning-skies.livejournal.com]

Title: Time is a Thief
Fandom: BtVS/DCU
Prompt: 459 - Kokopelli
Words: 741
Warnings: None

Of all the things Nightwing could have expected from Red X when he first met the assembled Batfamily, he really wasn't all that shocked that the thief's reaction managed to surprise him. In his own way X was as unpredictable as the Joker, but no where near as dangerous. X was a trickster. Always erratic and confusing, but he was mostly harmless so long as anything valuable was properly secured. It was a lot like dealing with Selina and he'd had years of practice getting used to her bizarre relationship with Bruce.

"You have a little baby bird!" X exclaimed in glee as he ignored the others and immediately focused on Tim, teleporting to his side and giving him a big bear hug before anyone could react, rubbing his cheek on the top of Tim’s head affectionately. "Who's the lucky lady bird?"

Babs giggled at the looks on both Dick and Tim’s faces, smirking when they both glared at her.

Tim squirmed, stomping on X's insole and jabbing at a few pressure points to get the overzealous thief off of him. He ducked around Babs and made sure to keep Bruce between them, even as X followed him, making grabby hands at the horrified young Robin.

"He's not actually mine." Dick drawled, watching with amusement as X chased his honorary younger brother around. "You may have missed a few things, but I'm still not old enough to have a kid his age."

"Well, it's biologically impossible for a baby bat to sprout feathers, so the little fledgling must be yours. He does dress better though, your costume made you look like a stoplight. The red and black is very sleek and red breasted Robin. Who's ever heard of a green, yellow and red robin? You were more of a hummingbird, brightly colored and constantly flittering about without stopping."

Dick laughed, bringing X up short. Tim took the opportunity to put some distance between them.

"Did you just laugh? You? Mr. Super-serious-team-leader. Wow, you've loosened up. You used to be all beatdowns and growling reprimands about truth and justice and the law abiding way."

"You're not a threat."

"Aren't I? Inviting me into your inner sanctum to learn all your heroic little secrets. That's very dangerous."

"You made a deal with Batman that you wouldn't ever use what you learned against us."

"And you'd trust the word of a thief, just like that."

"I’d trust your word. In all the time I've known you, you've never lied. You are shameless enough to prefer being brutally honest about everything. You aren't a threat to us and I would even go so far as to say that you'll be a welcome addition to our team. You may get to like being a hero. You seem to have those pesky heroic tendencies that you can't seem to rid yourself of."

Red gasped like an offended schoolmarm whose student had just sworn in class. "You take that back. Heroism is for self-sacrificing chumps."

Tim and Babs both darted glances at Bruce, impressed with the thief’s courage to say something like that to one of the most dedicated heroes in the world.

"Says the thief who claims to care for nothing but himself and still jumped into an unstable time vortex to save me."

"That's completely different!" Red protested violently, sputtering at Dick's glowing assessment of his character.

"How about the time you gave up the Xenothium you needed to power the suit, just to help save Jump from Professor Chang's ray?"

Red X crossed his arms over his chest defensively. "There were extenuating circumstances."

"And helping Batman, GL and the future League prevent the total collapse of the time-space continuum? I suppose that was you being selfish."

"Absolutely. I live in time and space, it's where I've got all my stuff. I stole that stuff fair and square. I wasn't going to let Chronos reboot the universe. My previous save game data would have been lost."

Dick saw the tension leak out of Bruce and Tim as they bantered. Babs was outright grinning at X. This was good. He needed to establish Red's position as a useful but reluctant hero early to prevent the thief from convincing them that he was irredeemable. Red was not the lost cause he claimed to be, and Dick was determined to see him form ties with the family and the team. Red just needed more people who believed in him.