Chapter Text
Tim was not called a stalker for nothing. As a child he’d taken hundreds of photos of Dick Grayson, both as Robin and as a civilian. He’d watched every fight that was taped at least twice, and he’d watched every Flying Graysons performance at least double of that. Even now, he would never be more thankful for his photographic memory; that he could always picture Dick in his mind's eye, that he remembered his smile, his eyes, his hair that he’d straightened to ruination. The only one who probably remembered how Dick looked as well as Tim might have been Damian; The Brat had a habit of “discreetly” drawing his family when he thought they weren’t looking he should know by now that bats are always looking , but he drew Dick the most.
This being said, when Tim heard Cass’s footsteps (he knew he could only hear them because she wanted him to) announcing her presence, along with an unfamiliar set of footsteps (light, most likely a child), his curiosity got the better of him.
He didn’t look up immediately, instead continuing to type out his WE monthly budgeting plan (because most of the people there were idiots, and Tim was stuck explaining every small action step by step like they were toddlers lest the entire company crash and burn. God, he was so thankful for Lucius’s continued existence).
He watched the figure vaguely from the corner of his eye while they sat down with Cass, turning his bat-tech headphones to transparency mode so he could subtly eavesdrop. If Cass was having this conversation in the same room as Tim, she couldn’t be upset at him for listening, it was only fair.
“Tim” Cass said, and Tim’s finger jerked on the keyboard, accidentally spamming the “s” key. Somehow, even now that he wasn’t that invisible kid listening in at gala parties anymore, he still had a momentary stun-response whenever someone addressed him, as though he couldn’t remember that people actually wanted him in their conversations nowadays. The normal person wouldn’t notice his twitching, but Cass wasn’t normal, and when Tim looked up he saw a small, amused smile on her lips.
Cass tilted her head towards the newcomer, a gesture that meant look. She was trying to tell Tim something. Tim raised his eyebrows at her, and turned to see….
Tim’s fingers spasmed on the “r” key this time, but he didn’t bother deleting it. He was staring, gaping, because next to Cass on the couch, fingers fidgeting-rubbing the couch cushion, blue eyes nervous, was a young version of Mary Grayson.
“You’ll catch flies” Cass teased, and Tim snapped his mouth shut, still staring. The girl (Mary) shifted nervously under the intensity. Tim’s heart was pounding; he wanted to throw up. He felt like he was staring at Dick, and at the same time he knew he wasn’t. It wasn’t fair, he’d never get his big brother back.
With a frustrated sigh (which, not fair! Let him have his breakdown in peace) Cass gestured to the girl “Niao”, and to Tim, “Tim”.
Tim looked at Cass, a silent question in his eyes: Is she…? (family? Is she Dick’s?”
Cass nodded, one small tilt of her head: yes.
Tim’s stomach sunk. Niao. She was a Grayson…somehow. She was Dick’s family. She had his eyes blue, blue, blue, she had the ghosts of his smile (ha, ghosts!) anxiously plastered on her lips like she didn’t know whether she was supposed to grin or frown. She had everything that Tim thought he would never get back, everything that was six feet under in the Wayne Family Graveyard everything that should have been here. It should have Tim that was buried, not Dick: bright, happy, dependable, alive Dick.
Cass’s voice cut through his thoughts. “She needs to get her DNA tested,” but not in the Batcave was unspoken. They couldn’t risk it.
Tim nodded jerkily and got to his feet, fighting the sudden urge to get out, to run to Dick’s grave and never leave. He kept his face carefully neutral as his eyes crossed Cass, and then Niao. “I have a setup in one of the guestrooms. Come on.”
_ _ _
Tim was shaking. So barely that Niao, walking beside Cass, didn’t notice. But Cass saw, and as they walked, brushed the back of her hand against his. It was barely contact, but Tim’s shoulders fell minutely, and his breathing seemed to slow down.
Still, the shaking didn’t stop, his hand trembling against hers.
Cass really couldn’t blame him.
_ _ _
MATCH: NIAO LIU
AGE 13
AB
BORN 0*/07/**
PARENT MATCHES: DICK GRAYSON (DECEASED)AGE 27 AND…
_ _ _
“What the hell.”
Niao stiffened as Tim Drake-who had been muttering Niao’s information (and if that wasn’t terrifying, how easily they could find out everything about her in the click of a few keys) in a steady, almost detached tone- raised his voice (just barely louder, but enough of a change to mean something), anger and disbelief clashing in his tone.
Niao wasn’t sure what he found (actually, she was very sure. It was probably about her Mom and what she did) but it couldn’t be good. She tried to shrink into herself, make herself small and unnoticeable, so that maybe Tim Drake wouldn’t-
Tim Drake whirled on her, eyes burning. “Your mom is thirty-nine!” he hissed, and Niao wanted to disappear right then and there.
She opened her mouth to say something, anything-Apologize. Defend her Mom. Shun her- but the words died in her throat. She stared up at Tim Drake’s intense glare and tried to force the sentences out, but as much as she moved her lips no sound came. What could she say? She was sorry, of course she was, but she wasn’t the one who slept with a kid! She just wanted to get to know her family, the family who’s dead brother her mom hurt…and of course Tim Drake would be mad. He had every right, but he was just so intense, and he wouldn’t stop glaring, and-
“Well” Tim Drake drummed his fingers on his arms impatiently. Niao swallowed against the lump in her throat. She wanted to cry, she wanted to leave, she just wanted Tim Drake to be nice, like Cass had-
_ _ _
Cass stepped between Tim and Niao.
The girl had looked ready to cry, and even though Tim was good at hiding it, Cass could tell he was freaking out too.
All of the Bats were great at compartmentalizing, but at home, in the manor, their careful neutrality lost its edge. Tim wasn’t like Cass, just so happy to have anything of her brother back, no. For Tim, it likely felt like losing Dick all over again.
Cass couldn’t be upset at him for losing his cool, not over something like that; not when family was involved.
But an upset Tim was also a Tim on a one track mind, a Tim with tunnel vision, and Niao was not used to Tim in any form, She was definitely not ready for his interrogations.
The girl’s body screamed fear-fear-guilt-whatdoIdo, and Cass, well, she was just as upset as Tim about what he found (she couldn’t say she hadn’t suspected the mother was older, or that the relationship hadn't been very healthy. Niao just radiated so much shame about her birth), but Cass also just had it confirmed that she had a niece, and she couldn’t let her first memories with her new family be so… she couldn’t find the word, but it wouldn’t be a good one. Dick would never have wanted anything but the warmest welcome for his daughter, she was sure.
Tim’s eyes snapped towards Cass as she stepped between him and Niao, not exactly like he’d forgotten she was there, but more like he hadn’t realized she could interact with him, like she was just another object in the room, shoved to the corner of his mind. Cass wasn’t upset, that was just how Tim was.
He stared. Cass stared back, unaffected. Slowly, she moved a hand up, and pressed the pads of her fingers into his chest, right where his heart was, both to hold him back and to ground him. Remember where you are. You’re in the Waynes’ “tech room,” with Dick’s daughter. She has never hurt you, or him. You’re safe. Please be nice.
Tim looked hard into her eyes as she tried to convey all of these things, and gradually, they roamed outwards, taking in the room, before they settled on Niao, who had been watching Tim cautiously from behind Cass. When Tim and her made eye contact, she immediately ducked her head to look at the floor, and Cass saw her brother’s shoulders tighten in guilt.
_ _ _
Tim felt bad. Of course he did, but it was just…it was too much. He couldn’t be nice right now, not after everything that was sprung on him, not while staring into Mary Grayson’s eyes. He needed out.
_ _ _
Take care of her Tim signed- using Bat-sign, because it was simpler, shorter, and less noticeable, and, almost forcibly, tore his eyes away from Niao and turned away from Cass.
Niao looked up at Tim as he left the room, spine curving downwards like she was wilting. Cass could tell that she was blaming herself.
She made her way over to the girl, her niece, who jumped when she put a hand on her shoulder.
Cass smiled at her.
_ _ _
“Not your fault,” Cassandra said, smiling kindly, the polar opposite of Tim Drake, and Niao couldn’t help but relax. Cass’s hand was warm, and it sunk into Niao the same way that her Mother’s hugs did used to, and her eyes held no judgment. Cassandra liked her, at least.
“Not your fault” Cassandra repeated, firmer this time, looking expectant and- oh! Did she expect Niao to respond? “Okay,” she said, her voice feeling too hoarse, and Cassandra’s smile grew.
“Your dad was like that too,” the lump in Niao’s throat grew for some reason. She didn’t know why she felt so…so much just hearing about Dick Grayson. It’s not like she knew him. “Thought the weight of the world was on his shoulders.” Her sadness leaked into her flat voice, just slightly. Niao didn’t know what to say.
Before she had to respond, however, she was saved by Cassandra’s hand on her shoulder gently pushing her forwards, guiding her towards the door.
“I can message the rest of the family, when you want” Cassandra said -still looking at Niao as she walked, not bothering to hide the love that she had for this girl she’d only just met, and Niao wasn’t didn’t know how to feel about that- “But, first: Food.”
“Alfred will be so glad to meet you.”