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Tim takes a breath and feels his lungs expand inside his chest.
He breathes out and it takes effort not to turn it into a scream.
“If one more person questions me, I can and will ask Alastor to shut you up semi-permanently” Tim snaps when Diana’s lips move out of the corner of his eye.
Alastor gives a smile as his visage twists mildly, antlers appearing and neck elongating, but his smile stays fixed. “And what would you offer me in exchange, Timothy?” he asks, voice lined with teasing. They both know that Tim wouldn’t do it.
But Tim meets his eye anyway. Makes it clear to his family that he is done with their bullshit. “I’ll offer you Hood’s Pit rage”
Alastor looks over as Jason takes a sharp breath, his yellow eyes scanning and taking on a glint of interest. “I may actually take that deal, Timothy”.
But Tim shakes his head. If Jason wants the pit gone, Tim can deal with that, can bargain for a mutually-helpful agreement. But right now, he just wants the league to be quiet.
It works, thankfully. Clark’s mouth is parted in a mildly horrified expression as every other league member takes a step back.
“Now that we can finally talk…” Tim starts, giving a look that says it would be a horrible idea to interrupt, “You want me to join you in going back to Pentagon City and looking at a hotel? Run by the princess of Hell, the daughter of Lucifer Morningstar? The same princess that apparently set up a fight with Heaven that left you borderline dead?”
Alastor’s smile doesn’t shift, but then, it rarely does.
“Yes”
Tim’s mouth presses into a small, thin smile.
Not the matching one to Alastor’s but one that Tim himself has learned. He isn’t exactly pleased to be meeting with the most powerful, naïve child Alastor had ever described. But he can stand it.
After all, Alastor’s good. But even he got hit during extermination day. And he can’t stay out of the fray forever.
Eventually, an angel is going to get a lucky swing in and take Tim’s only childhood friend away.
And Tim…Tim can’t allow that.
Maybe Alastor will never be redeemed. Tim can’t imagine he has a chance.
But if this hotel plan manages to keep the numbers under control?
If the overpopulation is no longer a problem, then Alastor is no longer in danger.
It seems fairly clear-cut to him.
“Lead the way”
The Batfamily jolts at Tim’s back, held back when Constantine hisses a swearword at them to stop. But not before Alastor’s eyes fix on them with a lamp-like glow.
Jason, in particular, stops instantly, as if Alastor’s gaze has a physical effect on him. But even Damian’s teeth grind as Alastor’s deer-like features exaggerate themselves.
“Oh, they can come along” Alastor says, voice lilting like it does when he offers Tim power and wealth and everything Tim’s never wanted.
Tim’s immediately on guard.
“Why?”
“Because I think it will be rather interesting. Your ragtag group and my own”
Tim’s eyes narrow at the answer, looking over Alastor as if he’ll see anything but a wide smile and malice-amusement.
Tim doesn’t get the chance to chew it over or object.
“I think that will be appreciated”
Bruce answers a question, an offer that he doesn’t realize is one and Tim’s lips turn up into a snarl as Alastor’s eyes.
Spark.
“I can make no guarantee of your safety. Of course. Mortals aren’t meant to dwell in Hell, after all” Alastor says in the same lilting tone and Tim intervenes before anyone can dig their own grave.
Especially Bruce.
After all, Alastor hadn’t wanted his soul. But he’d asked about Bruce’s.
“But you’ll stay in the hotel. You won’t shake any hands and you won’t accept any deals” Tim states, not a question but a demand.
His eyes meet Bruce’s, impressing upon him how important this is.
Tim knows what he’s getting into. Knows that if it gets to that point, he can talk his way out of shit. Can go to Alastor for help, even if it’ll cost him his soul. After all, it’s not like Tim hasn’t offered the tattered thing up already.
Bruce’s jaw clenches and Jason looks like he’ll argue on principal.
But something in Tim says “NO” and the shadows behind him, forming part of Alastor, shifts.
Tim sees Alastor lean down next to his head, taller than Tim and his lips in line with Tim’s eyes even as he hunches over like a bull.
There’s a snicker as Tim’s peripheries go dark and the horrified expressions of his family and his team and the league stay in focus.
Tim takes a breath.
Swallows.
He knows that the only reason that the mortals in this room are still standing, still have their souls, is because of Tim.
Whether because Alastor, in his own fucked up way, cares about Tim or because he wants to use them as bargaining pieces, Tim doesn’t know.
But he remembers the offers, while Jason threw him off the 3rd floor of Titans tower. While Kon was dead. The offers for power and revenge.
And there are several new, interesting souls standing just a few feet away.
And Alastor is looming over him like he’s making another offer. But Tim remembers his words “I will not take your soul in exchange for any other. Ask me for power or wealth or fame and I will grant it, but this, I will not do”
Tim’s next breath comes easier.
And Alastor behind him shrinks.
Like he was protecting Tim rather than intimidating him.
“You will stay in the hotel. You will not go near anyone without me somewhere in earshot. You will not shake hands for anything” Tim states, self-assured and confident.
Forceful.
With a smile.
Bruce looks paler than Tim’s used to seeing him these days, but Dick nods, wordlessly.
And Tim takes that as the universal agreement that it is.
He turns his back to his family and friends. Turns to Alastor with a grin and a nod.
“Let’s go visit, shall we?”
-
The hotel is vast, almost twice the size of any hotel Tim’s ever seen. Red and black and classy. It doesn’t look damaged, Tim notices.
And if something was able to take on Alastor, there is sure to be a vast amount of property damage. So Tim looks over his shoulder and raises an eyebrow.
Alastor gives him a grin as he moves past Tim to shove open the doors, ignoring Tim’s voiceless query.
“Dear princess and lackeys! I’ve brought some guests!”
The tone is familiar. Mocking. Teasing.
But there’s palpable excitement at the words.
“More guests! Alastor! I never thought you’d try!” a female, cheerful voice calls, the clopping sound of hooves over wood flooring rushing overhead.
“Yeah, I don’t believe it for a moment” A more masculine voice speaks up to Tim’s left.
He turns his head to the left and sees…A cat-bird? Cat-like with wings, at the very least. At a bar, holding a bottle of some clear liquid in his hand and watching their procession with an expression that is partly shock and mostly disbelief as he looks over at Alastor.
But before Alastor can say anything back, his lips stretching wider and showing sharper teeth at the back, there’s a crash and then multiple thumps that attract attention back to the main staircase in the centre of the room.
Thump
Thump
Thump
Thump
Thump
A figure comes into view, tumbling down the stairs, blonde and wearing a red suit. Tumbling head over heels until they come to a stop at the base, sitting and staring at them dumbfounded.
“Charlie! I told you! Carpets and hooves don’t go together!” a voice calls from upstairs.
“They looks so good, though!” The figure calls back as they brush long blonde hair out of their face. Revealing pale skin and kind features.
“Charlie Morningstar” she introduces herself as she stands, looking over their stunned faces. Though Alastor’s smile has turned more predatory than amused at Tim’s side. “I run this hotel of redemption!”
“Attempted redemption” the cat-bird from the side pipes up, causing Charlie to slump slightly. But the correction is said with a smile.
“Right. We haven’t managed it yet, but we will!”
Tim glances at the princess of Hell, at her wide smile and innocent expression and can’t help but give Alastor a look.
He only earns a sharp smile back.
“This is Husk, the bartender despite the fact that nobody should really be drinking” Charlie starts to introduce, gesturing to the Cat-bird with a wide grin that’s somehow more revealing than tears.
“This is Angel Dust, he’s another guests” she then gestures to a pink, fuzzy person laying on the couch that Steph raises an eyebrow at.
“Hiya. You seem to be a rather big, strong man” Angel Dust says, slinking off the couch and moving toward Jason with a flirtatious smirk. Jason just rears back in mixed shock and maybe some disgust, but Tim guesses it’s less about the flirting and more about the way Jason, of all of them, can clearly see the desperation and practiced ease of movement that only the working girls in the worst parts of Gotham with the worst bosses have.
Tim watches Jason fumble with how to broach the topic and hears him ask “Want me to kill your boss?” before he turns his attention back to Charlie, who doesn’t stop at the interruption, apparently way too used to whatever this is.
“This is Nifty, she’s the housemaid, but she’s also rather good at…self-defence” she says, the pause making it clear that that isn’t exactly the word that applies.
Tim looks over to where she’s standing and sees no-one next to her. Squinting, Tim looks up, as he’s used to in Gotham, and when he sees nothing there, Alastor takes his chin between his fingers and tilts it down until he can see a very small, almost insectoid person with one large, round eye and what looks to be a very large needle in her hand.
The eye is focused immediately and fixedly on Bruce before her fists clench and she lunges, needle held high and Bruce instinctively dodges.
Charlie takes this in for a moment with a stunned expression before her eyes clear “Right. The bat-ears. Nifty has a thing with bugs. Maybe take the ears off and she’ll be…better”, then she just moves on as Dick takes a step toward Husk, seemingly attracted by the only semi-normal person they’ve met so far.
“Vaggie! We have new guests!” Charlie yells, head turned to the stairs before a grey-skinned girl with long white hair steps down, meets eyes with Damian and stops in her tracks.
“Vaggie?” Charlie asks when the girl doesn’t move any further.
Then, she shrugs “This is Vaggie. She’s my girlfriend and helps protect the hotel from intruders, she also helps me with bonding activities” Charlie explains, though there’s a note of nervousness in her voice as she turns to Alastor.
“And this, is Alastor. I assume you know him already because I’m not sure how to explain what he does, exactly” she says, and there’s something in her voice, a shiver or hesitation that says that she’s scared of Alastor.
That there’s some kind of power imbalance there.
Like Alastor holds power over her.
Tim swallows heavily.
“I’m Tim. This is Dick, Jason, Bruce and Damian. We’re uh. Temporary guests, I guess you could say” Tim says, forcing a smile to his lips. One that Alastor taught him. One that he uses with media and supervillains.
“Temporary?” Angel asks, turning away from some kind of ranting session with Jason where Jason’s eyes are starting to glow the slightest bit green.
“Mortal souls” Alastor answers before Tim can get his voice to co-operate and the entire room freezes.
“Mortals? In Hell?” Husk asks, voice more than disbelieving.
Tim smirks at the tone. He doesn’t explain any further.
Alastor’s the next one to speak, moving forward and laying a hand on Charlie’s shoulder that makes Vaggie tense at her side, like she’s ready to intercept. Like she knows Charlie couldn’t hurt Alastor if she wanted, despite being the princess of Hell herself.
“Why yes. A little mortal wandered into the realm quite some time ago. While I was away. Ran into some unsavoury types in the city before he ran into me” Alastor smiles at Tim, sharp but not predatory. Maybe even soft, in comparison to the smile he gives Charlie a moment later.
“We came to an amicable agreement, you see” he says, moving away from Charlie’s side to rest his chin on Tim’s head.
Charlie and Vaggie give Tim matching terrified expressions.
“And he still has his soul?” Husk asks from the side, disinterested as he glances over, but there’s something in his eye when he looks over at Alastor.
“There are other things to trade” Tim says before Alastor can answer for him. He can see the shadows at his side, a sign that Alastor is nightmare-like behind him.
But Tim isn’t tense. Isn’t scared.
It’s hard to feel scared when Alastor is behind him. When the shadows envelop him in a hug. When Alastor’s guided him to safety from a desert that he never would have left alive without assistance.
When Alastor had told him “Ask me for anything you want. Not anyone else. What. You want”
And Vaggie seems to see the relaxation and the trust in his expression and his body language. She squints at Tim.
“And he didn’t try to deal for your soul?” she asks, sounding skeptical.
Tim scoffs. “Of course he’s tried” he smirks.
And the smirk may be slightly closer to Alastor’s than she’s comfortable with. Tim can see it in her eyes. But there’s something in the way her eyes flit between Tim and Alastor. Something that makes the defensiveness in her back relax just the slightest smidge.