Mage AU! Requested by morningmoondust . I was just making this up as I went along tbh but I like Tim and Jason brother moments. It doesn't focus much on the mage aspect but. And it isn't really angsty just Tim being annoyed but I put the angst marker on just in case lol

Tim slammed the door behind him, sinking against the chipped stone wall.

Worst. Gala. Ever.

He didn't even want to go. It had taken weeks of prodding from Dick and prompts from Alfred and noncommittal grunts from Bruce for Tim to agree.

'It'll be fun', they said. 'There's so many powerful mages there, you might convince one of them to let you be their apprentice', they said.

('You'll set a table on fire trying to show off your magic to a cute guy from the next kingdom over', nobody said. They should've. A warning would've been nice.)

Tim rubbed at the ash on his clothes. It had been a simple fire spell, trying to light a candle that someone had blown out. He'd failed to remember all Bruce's lectures on how fire magic was 'dangerous' (boring) and how it should only be used by 'fire mages' (super boring) until the table was aflame and everyone was gawking at them.

Sure, Tim specialised in shadow magic but that was completely unrelated. The table should've been less flammable. Same with the blazer he'd abandoned after he'd smelled smoke and noticed Dick trying not to giggle.

He glanced up as heard the sharp rapping of knuckles on wood from the other side of the door. The teen perked up- maybe it was the super cute guy from before, come to say 'hey Tim, it's fine you nearly burnt down the ballroom, because you're super hot and we should go out some time'.

Tim was gravely disappointed at the sound of a harsh, amused, "Heya, Boy Blunder. Mind if I come in?"

He reluctantly shuffled to the side, standing up and tugging the rusty door handle down, letting the door swing back (his room really needed an upgrade, now that he thought about it).

Jason's hulking figure stood in the doorway and Tim tried his best to hide his instinctive flinch, smiling up blankly.

Jason wasn't hard to look at exactly. So many things about him just felt- wrong.

His eyes were somehow both blank and full of emotion, somehow covered in the milky glaze of death and showing off a spark of amusement. When Jason had been sat still for too long, his limbs moved in a stiff and jagged motion that took a few minutes to shake off.

Sometimes he was far too cold to touch, just sitting near him setting off shivers to whoever was nearby. Every day his brother's scars shifted randomly from looking fresh to faded, his eye colour flicking between a blue that was just too bright and a green that was just too pale.

His chest would still for a few minutes longer than it would take the average person to suffocate before his breathing would jump back into action with a raspy breath as if he'd only just remembered breathing was something he was meant to do. If light hit Jason's skin just right, the outline of bones and veins were eerily visible.

Jason pulled the chair out from under Tim's desk, smirking as his younger brother closed the door. "Rough night?" His voice had a taunting undertone that would be read as sympathy to anyone but people who knew the man well.

"Awful night. Missed out on a date. Blew up a table." Tim sank onto his bed, running a hand through his dark hair as he flopped back onto the covers. "I made Damian laugh. It was that bad."

Jason half grimaced, trying to hide an amused grin. "Yikes. In front of all those important, super powerful, potential mentors slash mages as well."

Tim scowled. "There weren't even that many. Bruce tried to keep the invite list short because he was, to quote Alfie, 'physically, magically and mentally drained'. So he can't do any flashy shadow magic tricks disguised as light magic to pretend to be charismatic and show off."

Bruce tried very hard to keep a contrast between his Dark Knight and Bruce personas, using only his main shadow magic as his justice dealing, gruff alter ego, and disguising his talents as tricks of light magic during his celebrations as his smarmy, flirty mask of a lord of Gotham who barely even knew anything about those mages running around, he just did light magic for fun, why would you assume otherwise?

Jason scoffed. "I can name a bunch of mages that were there."

"Bring it." Tim challenged. "It doesn't even matter. I'm like- the best mage to ever mage. I don't need them."

"Clark. Super cool guy. Sun magic."

A scoff echoed, followed by a dismissive hand gesture. "Bruce's best friend. Doesn't count. I could beat him in a fight. Not really."

"Diana. Arcane magic. She's also really cool. You think she'd take a necromanced guy on as an apprentice?"

This was met with an eye roll. "Also Bruce's friend. And you were revived with dark magic. You have bad vibes."

"Not by choice. Dinah. Sound magic. Babs thinks she's pretty."

"She's cool. That was kind of embarrassing, I saw her tell Ollie off for laughing."

"J'onn. Not sure what type of magic he has. He's a bit weird but he could totally take on an apprentice."

Tim groaned. "And I ruined all my chances. I get it."

"Ra's was probably watching somewhere."

"He dark magicked you back alive. And Bruce doesn't like him. Why would I?"

Jason grinned. "Since when did you care what Bruce thinks?" He leaned back in the chair to avoid a thrown pillow. "What about-"

"I get it, alright?" Tim snapped, sitting upright. "I embarrassed myself. I embarrassed Bruce. Nobody's ever gonna want to take me on as an apprentice- I mean, Bruce has trained me well but man do I want to try out some other magic types. That cute guy is never gonna kiss me. My whole life is ruined." His older brother raised an eyebrow, amused expression vanishing.

"You know I'm just messing with you, right, Timbers? It's just a table. I'm sure everyone's already talking about the next person Damian tried to stab, or Bruce flirted with." Jason reassured him with a dismissive hand gesture similar to the one the teen had made at the mention of Clark only moments earlier.

Tim let out an uncertain hum, boredly shaping the shadows on his wall into the shape of a cat.

"Timmers. Listen to me." He flicked Tim in the head. "Look, see?" Jason glanced up as another random blob of shadow became a mouse. "You're great at magic. Just not fire magic. Which is already super hard. You're still talented. Ish." The shadow cat began to stalk the wispy mouse, using the darkness cast by Tim's bedframe as footing.

"Leave the pep talks to Dick, you kind of suck at these." Tim mumbled, but there was no malice behind his tired tone. The cat's movements became more tense and slow as the shade mouse scampered along Jason's shadow.

Jason grinned as he moved his hand, the shadow mouse dropping as Jason's shadow removed any footing for the mouse and Tim frowned at him.

"Dude. I was putting on a show for you. You should be impressed right now." His hand flicked down and the cat's tail drooped. "Meow. That was the cat. That was a sad meow. You made the cat sad."

"You're a child." He shifted his posture so the 'mouse' would have a secure spot to walk on again.

"You sound like Damian." The mouse scrambled back into its shadowy platform as the wispy cat pounced. Tim let out a sound akin to a meow, smirking.

"See? Great at magic. And it helps while fighting. I think. I dunno, dude."

"What type of magic do you even do now?" Tim glanced back.

"I dunno. Any magic I try since the Pit is all green and- Lazarusy." Jason studied the green veins visibly on the back of his hand. "So I'm stuck with dark magic. I guess. But hey, at least I'm not killing people anymore."

The younger of the pair tilted his head, curiosity flashing across his tired blue gaze. "How does it even work? Does it just like- is it just green light magic?" He queried, smiling slightly.

"Kinda a mix of like... fire magic, light magic and telekinesis. A pretty sweet deal, if you ask me, but it supposedly corrupts you the more you use it unless you're a loser with a 'pure soul'. Supposedly. Either way, I don't use it too much." Jason said with a shrug. "I tried some shadow magic a while back but it just came out green."

"How do shadows even come out green?"

"I can show you." The man huffed with false irritation. "I guess you're fine with my soul being corrupted." Tim went red.

"That's not what I meant! I didn't even ask you to-" Jason mimed a yawn.

"Calm down. I was joking, Boy Blunder. I suppose I can use it on occasion. And you can show me some more shadow tricks."

Tim sighed. "If I must."

"At the cost of a smile. Come on, big brother duties aren't free."

"You've been spending too much time with Dick." Despite his words, a small smile tugged at Tim's lips.

The guys 🎉