Chapter Text
Jason was resigned to his presence these days. Tim liked the tag along with his Uncle Eddie to see what projects the two were working on and if he could help.
He’d even helped Jason come back to the family. They’d started with Alfred - because duh - and then moved onto Dick. After Dick had been Cass and she and Jason had immediately agreed they were siblings. Who was older was their favorite past topic to bicker about. Finally there was Bruce and that had been hard but Jonathan and his Uncle Eddie were there too and Jason did it eventually.
Sometimes they even ran patrols together and Jason made a point to show up wherever he was every time there was an Arkham breakout. Something about not trusting Tim not to get himself killed.
Tim decided not to be offended.
He’d been less protective since his Uncle Eddie had hired Deathstroke to kill the Joker. B still hadn’t figured that one out. He hadn’t tried very hard to figure out who hired Deathstroke. The Joker was dead and he was still Batman and his kids weren’t the ones carrying the weight of it.
Jason had even decided they were brothers - which was wild because hello, Tim still had three living parents and B was probably not a fourth one.
Still, Jason didn’t usually seek out Timothy Drake Wayne, the child who had nothing to do with Batman or the Red Hood.
And yet, they were standing together in airport, shoulders brushing, as they waited for the Drake’s private jet to land.
Jason had another little brother. Talia al Ghul had adopted Jason. These two things were connected.
Ra’s al Ghul wanted to turn his grandson into his next body. His grandson was the son of Batman. These two things were connected.
Talia al Ghul was staging a coup against her father. Damian was coming to live with his father. These two things were connected.
At some point, Talia al Ghul had reached out to Selina Kyle to get Damian into the country. Tim’s parents were involved. These two things were connected.
Tim was waiting for his mentor’s son to arrive on his parents’ private jet. B didn’t know he had another kid.
Selina was planning on showing up with the kid as a nice present for her ex. Something she and Talia could agree on, apparently.
Tim’s mother said it would be good practice for the corporate world. Tim’s father and his Uncle Eddie had shared a laugh at the expression they imagined on B’s face when he found out.
Damian came off the plane and sneered at the surrounding people. He bowed to Jason. “I required further context.”
Jason sighed. “Damian, this is Selina, she’s driving us to go meet your father. Those two are the Drake’s. You entered the country on their plane. This is Tim, he’s their kid, he’s ours. Mother would like him.”
Tim waved.
Damian wrinkled his nose before smoothing over his expression and rotating so he could bow to Tim’s parents. “I thank you for use of your plane and your assistance entering the United States of America.” He turned back to Jason. “May we depart now.”
Tim shrugged. “Sure, you can. But if you do, you won’t get to hear about all the ways to wrap B around your finger.”
Damian paused, eyes narrowed.
Jason scoffed. “I know all the tricks, Replacement. Nothing I can’t teach the brat.”
Tim raised a challenging eyebrow. “The Robin known for having his homework done and never skipping school or breaking the rules knows how to get away with bending B around the rules.”
Damian took a hesitant step towards him. “And you would… teach me? What do you desire in exchange?”
Tim grinned down at the kid.
He won, Jason lost. He was so going to claim favorite brother privileges.
Janet was proud to call Selina her friend. The other woman was ruthless and unapologetically feminine and good but not moral.
Janet knew she and Talia al Ghul, the woman who’d birthed the youngest member of her son’s other family, but she had never expected for Talia to reach out to her again.
Her, not Jack, because Talia knew what most people missed. Jack was good for dealing with people, he unruffled feathers and phrased things diplomatically. He was the one who’d taught Tim to spin a lie without ever once telling a falsehood. He was the socialite between them.
Janet, on the other hand, understood politics. Who needed to be nudged in order to get a new project pushed through, where blackmail was best applied, how money flowed and how to change its course. Janet knew business and efficiency and control. She was the business woman.
Edward was of course good at both, but he was busy.
Talia was apparently newly in control of her father’s empire. Something about it being some few thousand years over due. And while she understood her people, she had never been the one tasked with running the League of Assassins. And as if she hadn’t already bitten off quite a lot, she wanted to bring the al Ghul name into the limelight. Talia was intelligent to know when she needed help and who to ask.
And she didn’t ask without offering something in return. Something that would benefit her, certainly, but something she knew would get archaeologists Jack and Janet Drake foaming at the mouth.
Access to a several thousand year old piece of monumental architecture near the cradle of civilization that had never fallen out of use. A case study of adaptive reuse and also of the past. And they could publish any of their findings.
Janet wasn’t about to turn a woman like that, with an offer like that, down. Jack too didn’t need much convincing.
Timothy was eighteen, he’d graduated early and didn’t see the need to pursue a college degree. Maybe he’d get one when the board demanded it. For now he was tutoring Damian in the politics of business.
Cassandra, Bruce’s daughter, was in college. She was majoring in dance and finals were coming up fast. She said she was willing to take a semester off if it meant she got to go spar and train with new people. There was always something to be learned, apparently.
Jason’s crime syndicate had taken off. It was running smooth and stable and he could take months off to run around with his-- Janet wasn’t sure what Starfire and Red Arrow were to him, actually.
Damian was in school, he’d skipped two grades, but summer break was fast approaching and if they did overshoot the summer, Jack was going to take him and Timothy home.
Duke wanted to focus on his schooling, considering he was entering his senior year of high school and was gearing up for his college career, Janet respected the decision.
Richard, a full grown adult with two separate full time jobs on top of his night time shenanigans, did not want to come. Not only because taking that kind of time off was inconceivable for a non-critical trip, but also because he twitched any time Janet mentioned Talia. It was quite amusing.
So it was only four kids that Janet and Jack herded onto a plane and out of the country to go spend the summer with a group known as the League of Assassins. She was interested to see if they had any untraceable methods, sometimes there were people you just had to get rid of and a good hitman was expensive.
Janet was pleasantly surprised that Bruce was fully… resigned to her and her husband taking four of his six children, who were encouraged to take non-lethal action, into a murder cult headed by his ex-girlfriend.
She was more surprised that he didn’t demand to tag along.
Though Selina did, Janet wasn’t too especially surprised about that.
Janet had a wonderful time. There was so much history in the place. Layers upon layers of it. And plotting. Janet loved scheming. It was always made easier by money, and the al Ghul’s had amassed a fortune several hundred times over.
The assassins seemed to enjoy sneaking up on her husband and startling him, but they’d gained a healthy respect for her when they realized she could often hear them coming. Timothy had always been a sneaky child, even before becoming Robin.
They had taken to teaching her how to hide a knife and use it safely. It was one thing to know how to assassinate someone, it was another entirely to know how to defend yourself, and according to them, she simply had to learn.
It was remarkably enjoyable.
Timothy, Jack, and Damian all returned to Gotham at the end of the summer. Jack returned to Janet’s side just after Christmas. Jason and Cassandra left days later. It wasn’t until nearly a year had passed that Janet sent their paper out for peer review. Another half a year before it was ready to be published.
Talia stepped into the socialite scene, arm and arm with Selina, the same day the newest Drake Paper was published. About the long, long history of adaptive reuse and how it was no new phenomenon, nor something particularly revolutionary.
Selina and Talia’s wedding was a private affair. They’d made B play the part of witness much to Tim’s amusement.
The party Harley and B threw together for all their friends to celebrate was less private.
Tim was especially amused to note that he’d been invited twice. Once as a Drake and once as a Wayne.
He brought them two separate gifts.
The two newlyweds began the celebration not with a dance, but instead with a carefully choreographed fight. It ended in a draw, their faces inches a part.
Tim clapped.
Tim was close enough to hear Jason sidle up to B and ask, “So, Old Man, how’s it feel, knowing your exes got married to each other?”
B gave his son an unamused look.
Tim slid closer. “Better question: How does it feel knowing Talia has claimed half your kids as hers one way or another?”
B leveled Tim with an exhausted look. “It could be worse.”
Tim beamed. “You’re right! It could be. Let’s see, I already have Mother and Father, there’s Dana and Uncle Jas, considering the invite I received, I’m assuming I’m one of yours now too. That’s five. How do you feel about seven?”
B closed his eyes with a pained expression. “Tim. Please.”
“You’re no fun. I’m going to go find Cass and see if she wants to dance with me. Maybe I’ll stop having two left feet then.”
Jason shook his head fondly as he shoved Tim in the direction of Cass - she was over at the snack table talking to Steph - “How someone as graceful when fighting as you is a bad dancer, I’ll never know.”
Tim flashed him a peace sign and got moving.
He wound up dancing as a triad with both Cass and Steph. Mostly because Steph couldn’t decide who she was jealous of when Tim asked Cass to dance. Her bestie ex or her definitely not a crush, Tim, stop being weird.
Selina came up at the end of the night to give him a hug. She was a little tipsy. There was a reason Tim was driving his parents home.
Talia, standing behind her wife, nodded at Tim. “My sons both think highly of you and you fight well.”
Tim took the compliment for what it was.
The drive home was quiet, but the joy and light of his friends and family followed him all the way home.