Shakespearean - JayTim - Camp NaNoWriMo - July 2017

Chapter 3 - Harper: A History

Jason decided on ramen for lunch. Yeah, he knew it was cliché, but stereotypes exist for a reason. It's because they're usually accurate.

He was enjoying his time to himself. He had thought about working on his research assignment, but he was a procrastinator by nature so he settled on reading a new book. He had made it a few chapters when his roommate, Roy Harper, came banging into the dorm. They had met the previous Saturday, and Jason had decided he liked Roy. They were just enough alike to get along, but not so similar that they clashed.

"Sup, Jason," Roy said. He dropped his laptop bag on his bed and flopped down beside it.

Jason looked up from his book, observing Roy's quiet sigh and his look of exhaustion. "Today has been a day. How you holding up?"

Roy gave him a look and snapped, "I'm just peachy, Jay. Real peachy."

A raised eyebrow was Jason's only reply. He went back to his book. The silence only lasted a few minutes before Roy sighed harshly and shook his head a little. "Sorry, man. I'm just stressed."

Jason nodded his acknowledgement of Roy's apology. "Why's that?"

Roy hesitated a beat before giving in. "My girlfriend. Her mom's back in the hospital and she's been stressed about it, which means I'm stressed."

Jason shifted his position on his bed. "Her mom gunna be alright?"

Roy shrugged. "Probably. It's been on and off for years, but any time it flares up could be the time that kills her."

Jason let out a breath and leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. He set his book aside and picked at a loose string on the hem of his cargo shorts. "That sucks, man."

Roy snorted. "Yeah. Yeah, it does." They shared another minute of silence before Roy shrugged again. "It is what it is. How was your first class?"

The question brought a smile to his face. He quickly told Roy what had happened that morning, starting with his encounter with Tim and ending with his conversation with Professor Kent. "Tim was right. Professor Kent is awesome."

Roy smirked and shook his head. "Your first day of class and you meet Clark Kent and Tim Drake. You've got weird luck, dude."

Jason's eyebrows shot up. "Drake? Like that big-ass tech company?"

"Drake Incorporated, yeah. Tim is the son of the founder." Roy grinned at Jason's obvious astonishment.

Stunned, Jason wasn't actually sure he was understanding correctly. "Holy shit, man. Everybody's saying they're the next Apple."

"They are. They've been responsible for more than half the technological advancements in the last 20 years. The only reason Apple is still such a big deal because they have a freaking monopoly on everything for the most part, including music. Most MP3 players just can't compete with iPods. But just cause Mr. Drake is dead doesn't mean the company doesn't have a bunch of geniuses on staff. "

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. They got murdered, didn't they?" Jason leaned his back against the wall next to his bed, remembering the news story he'd seen a couple months back about the 10 year anniversary.

Roy nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty bloody. Tim saw it happen."

"Shit." Jason thought back to Tim as he saw him that morning. He hadn't seemed like the kind of person who had witnessed his parents' gruesome murders as a young child. Then again, Jason had been through a lot of shit, too, and nobody seemed to be able to tell by looking at him either.

"Yeah. But he got adopted by Bruce Wayne, so his life hasn't sucked too bad, I guess."

"Bruce Wayne? As in Wayne Industries? As in the sponsor for the Wayne Scholarship and the founder of the Wayne Foundation?" No fucking way. There was no way, no way at all, that the Tim who had spilled coffee all over him that morning was the son of the guy who was responsible for Jason even being there at all.

Roy nodded, laughing at Jason's surprise. "Yeah, man. Mr. Wayne took over the Drakes' company until Tim comes of age, which should happen in a couple months. Tim isn't looking forward to being the owner of a major conglomerate, even if it was his father's."

Jason had to take a second to wrap his head around it all. Short, nerdy, hot Tim Drake was the heir to a multi-billion dollar company, which his deceased father founded 20+ years ago. Jason could hardly believe everything Roy was telling him. Tim hadn't acted like a rich kid at all. "Wait a sec, how do you know all this? It can't all be common knowledge."

"Tim's older brother, Dick, is an old friend of mine." The redhead smirked. "I'm pretty well connected." And smug, too, apparently.

"You don't look rich." Jason didn't mean it offensively or anything. It was an honest observation, and he had always been too blunt for his own good.

Roy didn't get offended anyway. He just laughed. "I'm not. Not even close, not really. I was a street kid. My girlfriend's mom is one of Oliver Queen's sisters, and the Queens are good friends of the Waynes because of Wayne Industries' partnership with Queen Consolidated, as well as the fact that rich people tend to stick together. My girlfriend, Artemis, ran away from home when she was 9, and I helped her out when she was on the streets."

Jason laughed at the craziness of it. "No shit?"

"No shit. She went back home when her asshole of a dad got arrested, and she took me with her. Oliver Queen took me in, said I reminded him of himself or some shit. I was never adopted though. Just a foster." What the actual fucking hell?

"Damn, Roy. Lucky punk if I ever saw one."

"Damn straight. So that's how I know the Wayne family."

Jason shook his head in wonder. "So how does everybody know Professor Kent? He rich now, too?"

That made Roy laugh. "No. Not even close. He could be if he wanted to, but he's such a bleeding heart that he gives away practically everything he has. Him and his causes... No, he knows Bruce because he got the Wayne Scholarship when he was a student, and now he and Bruce are both teachers. You wouldn't think journalism and linguistics were that closely related, but they share a lot of students."

Jason's eyebrows wrinkled. "Bruce Wayne is a linguistics professor?" Roy nodded. "But he's rich. And he has Wayne Industries." Roy nodded again. "And I thought he was some badass homicide detective or some shit."

Roy sighed. "He's rich because of Wayne Industries and he inherited his parents' money. He owns Wayne Industries, but he doesn't really do anything for the company. He just owns a majority of the shares so he's on the board or whatever. And he was a homicide detective. He was the best, probably ever. He just hated it. Decided he'd rather be a teacher, that his parents would approve more of that anyway, and that he really liked learning languages or something. I think he said once that he only became a detective to solve his parents' murder, so once he'd done that he didn't need it anymore and lost all interest."

Jason was silent for a moment before he snorted in amusement. His roommate was Oliver Queen's ward, his journalism professor was a personal friend of the Billionaire Brucie, and the guy who spilled coffee on him that morning was the adopted son of said Brucie and the heir to Drake Incorporated. "People's lives are weird."

"Agreed," Roy said. "Well, I have to get ready for work." He reluctantly stood up and popped every vertebra in his back. Then he got his uniform out of his closet, grabbed his shower stuff and headed out to the communal showers.

Long after Roy finished his shower and went to work, Jason still sat on his bed in silence, wondering how the heck any of what had happened today was even possible. Holy fucking shit.