Chapter 6

Tony got to his apartment without incident or any sign of pursuit. Tim made a couple of feeble protests about going up there and then let Tony support him up the stairs. He collapsed onto the couch and closed his eyes again. Tony sat down and waited.

"How long will it take?" he asked.

Tim shrugged and didn't answer.

"Okay."

There was silence for about ten minutes. Then, suddenly, Tim sat up and looked around, clearly on edge.

"They coming?" Tony asked.

Tim didn't reply. He closed his eyes and held out his hand. Tony could see that he was shaking a little. The only question was whether it was from fear or from exhaustion.

Maybe both.

After a few seconds, Tim's fingers started to close and he held up his arm with his other hand.

"It's going to be fine, Tim," Tony said, in a low voice.

He wasn't sure Tim had heard him, but then...

"I hope so," Tim whispered, and his fingers straightened.

Then, Tony saw a flash of color. He kept himself from pointing that out. Tim was the knower and he was actually doing what he knew to do.

There they were. The dragons came into the room, and they weren't large and roaring like they had been after the Fracture. They were bright, almost blinding, but they were small, as they'd formerly been.

They flew around the room and then moved to dance around Tim's head and swirl down his arm until they took up their rightful place on Tim's hand.

Tim closed his hand into a fist and then slumped back onto the couch, resting his fist against his forehead.

"Everything okay?" Tony asked.

Tim nodded.

"You're feeling all right?"

Another nod.

"No dying or anything like that?"

Tim shook his head.

"Good."

Tim lowered his fist and opened his hand.

The tattoo was there just like usual, but extremely dark and black.

"That looks different," Tony said. "Looks almost like they're burned in, like a brand or something."

"Yeah."

"What does that mean?"

"That they're not going anywhere."

"Does it hurt?"

"No."

"Will people notice?"

"Probably not."

Tony grinned. Tim raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"I like it when you have all the answers."

Tim smiled tiredly.

"I...I almost don't."

"So...you're not going to go back to avoiding all this, right?"

Tim traced the shape of his tattoo.

"I guess I can't. I probably shouldn't."

"No, you definitely shouldn't."

"I would have thought that you'd prefer it," Tim said, looking up at him.

"No way. I have to keep my position as the only other person in the world who knows what happened last year."

"You'd still know about it even if I didn't talk about it. If you didn't forget after, then, you're not going to."

"You know what I mean," Tony said, seriously.

"Yeah, I know. I just hoped that...it would go away. It's not like I can really do anything about it, and it was made very clear to me that I still have to be what I was."

"You have to?"

Tim nodded.

"You want to unpack that a little? Who's making you? Greta again?"

"No. I don't think she really cares...if she's even still a she anymore. That's one of the things I was fixing, you know."

"Then, who is?"

Tim smiled a little and held up his hand.

"They are."

"I don't like that you're referring to your tattoo as something alive."

"I don't know that they are alive."

"Okay. Now, you're really confusing me."

"Rhian gave this to me as a symbol of who and what I am...and it's become a way of using that power that I have." Tim looked at the tattoo again and took a deep breath. "Even though I discovered that I need that in order to be me, I hoped that I could ignore it, that I could stop being that and just live a life that's...normal. But I can't. I can't ignore a part of me and hope to live a normal life because my normal isn't your normal. My normal is...having a dragon tattoo that can come to life, move around, fly off my hand and do things. That is normal for me, and I guess the part of me that's always known that was making it clear to the rest of me."

"You're talking about yourself like you have different personalities or something, you know," Tony said.

Tim shook his head. "No. Just one person who has been trying to figure out how to live in a world that he thought shouldn't have him in it. I've been so afraid of destroying the reality I built that I forgot I lived in it before it got broken. I forgot that it was a knower who set it up to be broken in the first place. Or I was just too freaked out to think about it."

"Probably, the last one."

"Yeah, probably."

"So... what now?"

"Well...you want to watch a movie?" Tim asked.

"A Road picture, perhaps?" Tony asked, with a grin.

"Maybe. I heard there was one we still hadn't watched."

"I just so happen to have it, right here," Tony said.

He got up and walked over to his movies. He pulled The Road to Hong Kong off the shelf and displayed it with a flourish. Tim laughed.

"Been planning this for long?"

"Nope, not really, but I always had it just in case. I didn't have all the Road pictures when this whole thing started, you know."

"You didn't?"

"Nope. I only had three, I think. I bought the others after the second time, just in case we needed them."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Tony shrugged, feeling a little awkward. "Believe it or not, Tim, I've hated how things were in the last year. I know you hated all this stuff that you had to do, but we got to be friends because of it, and I...didn't like how that was changing because you were trying to avoid it all. I kept hoping you'd change your mind."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I never even thought about you actually liking having to deal with it."

"Well, liking that is a bit of a stretch. But being friends...I missed that."

Tim nodded. "Me, too."

"All right, then," Tony said lightly. "Enough mushy stuff. Let's watch the movie."

"Okay."

He started the movie going and sat down by Tim.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"The Italians!"

Tim smiled as he watched the end of the movie. Of all the things he could have done after facing the fact that he was still a knower, this was the best that he could think of.

He looked over at Tony and grinned when he realized that Tony had fallen asleep. That was pretty much par for the course. They'd only managed to stay awake all the way through one or two of these movies.

As far as supernatural adventures went, this one had been pretty tame, Tim had to admit. In fact, right now, he could honestly say that it had been a good thing for him.

However, he was still a little worried about how effective his attempt had been. He didn't like the idea that he'd just have to hope that it had worked.

Then, he looked at his tattoo. The dragons shivered a little.

"Show me," he whispered.

The dragons swirled around on his hand and then formed a circle. Tim lifted his hand up to eye level and watched as the dragons visited multiple people, swirled around their heads and then moved on. Somehow, he knew that their memories had been wiped of the memory that had led to searching for Tim. He couldn't hope to remove all memories of what had happened last year, but he could close the thoughts that had meant people needed to search for the one responsible for it.

That was the best he could hope for, and strangely, it was enough.

Tim gently closed his fingers over his tattoo and the image vanished. When he opened them up again, his tattoo was back to normal...at least, it was back to the new normal. Could he accept that?

Yes.

It didn't necessarily make things perfect, but it made them easier.

Tony suddenly inhaled and sat up, looking around blearily.

"I'm...I'm ready."

"For what, Tony?"

Tony yawned widely and then looked toward Tim.

"Um...what?"

"What are you ready for?" Tim asked.

"I...I don't know. The movie over?"

"Yep. You missed it."

"That's okay. I saw enough." Then, Tony raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you all right?"

Tim thought about it for a second and then nodded.

"Yeah, Tony. I am. For the first time in a year, I'm all right."

"So...no more avoiding me because you don't want to talk about it?"

"I still don't want to talk about it much, but no."

"Good. I can work with that. So...anything else coming down the pike that I should know about?"

Tim laughed. "Not as far as I know...but you know...in the real world..."

"Yeah. Nothing is quite what it seems," Tony said. "That's plenty obvious."

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm going to bed. Feel free to camp out on the couch."

"Will do."

Tony got up to leave but he stopped.

"It's nice to have you back, Tim."

"Thanks, Tony. For everything."

Tony just nodded and went into his bedroom. Tim lay back on the couch and looked at his tattoo again. Would he be called on again? He didn't know, but now, he knew he could face it if necessary.

"Nothing is what it seems to be," Tim said softly. "Not even me."

Then, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

FINIS!