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The last few weeks of Tim’s life had been… strange.
In the three weeks since meeting Bruce down on the beach, Tim had spent more time interacting with people than he had in the past several months. Even while he was at school, he hadn’t spoken to anyone as much as he was doing now. Because it wasn’t only Bruce living in the cabin on the beach. Oh, no. Bruce’s kids were there too.
Dick and Jason are, in a word, overwhelming. They’re loud and boisterous and playful, constantly bickering and chattering and laughing, and everything Tim isn’t. But honestly, Tim doesn’t mind their noise. They always make sure to include Tim as much as he wants to be included, and Bruce steps in whenever he sees that the boys are getting too much for Tim. He somehow always knows, and he steps in with a gentle smile, some careful redirection, and a sly smile for Tim as Dick and Jason hare off on whatever tangent Bruce has sent them on. Then he lets Tim sit down with a book or some quiet conversation. It’s wonderful.
Bruce, Dick and Jason are all really interested in what Tim likes, too. He’s never had people who are so invested in his hobbies before. Bruce has spent hours sitting with Tim, going through his photos, listening to him ramble about lighting and how to frame a shot. The boys are interested too, although they mostly like the wildlife photography.
Especially the seals.
They all seemed to be very invested in his photos of the seals, and none of them could agree on a favorite. Each of them had a preferred seal, and vehemently defended their choice to each other. Tim wasn’t quite sure why they were so passionate about it, but it was pretty funny to watch them squabble over seals, of all things. Bruce smirked every time Tim called the seals playful or grumpy, which was a little odd. But Bruce was big on ocean conservation, so maybe he just thought Tim’s anthropomorphization of the animals was funny.
Dick had definitely chosen Playful Seal as his favorite, and gloated over every documented moment where Playful had emerged the victor of a scuffle. In particular, his favorite photo was the one Tim had taken on the day he’d met Bruce. It was the one where the playful seal posed in victory as the grumpy seal fell into the ocean. He burst into laughter every time he saw it.
Jason didn’t seem so keen on that photo, for some reason. He liked the ones taken where Grumpy Seal was winning, or at the very least looking cool, because he was Grumpy Seal’s stalwart champion. Although, he’d pulled the strangest face the first time Tim named Grumpy Seal out loud, while Dick cackled and Bruce smirked. There was definitely something there that Tim didn’t understand yet, but that was okay. He would learn the inside jokes, eventually.
When Tim said the largest seal looked majestic, Dick and Jason strenuously objected, and Bruce looked oddly smug. He lost his smug look when Tim said the seal was a lump of majestic blubber, but his sons howled with laughter, so Tim figured it was okay.
The deep investment in the antics of wild seals was perhaps a bit odd, despite how much personality the animals seemed to show. Tim didn’t mind, though, because he liked getting to tell his new friends everything he’d seen the seals do while he was on his photography adventures.
It was just so nice to have people who listened to him. Jason had even started hanging out with him at school, and he’d rapidly become Tim’s best friend, and wasn’t that weird. Apparently they’d both been at Gotham Academy this whole time and had never spoken. Then again, Jason was fifteen to Tim’s twelve, so it wasn’t that unusual that they hadn’t crossed paths. But once Tim had learned Jason’s full name, he had realized that he’s definitely heard talk about Jason Todd Wayne.
The Waynes were famous, or infamous, in Gotham, depending on who you talked to and what angle they approached the story from. Martha and Thomas Wayne had been pillars of Gotham’s high society, passionate ocean conservationists who had turned Wayne Enterprises into one of the most ecologically sustainable companies in the world. They had flitted in and out of the news, smiling at society events and speaking seriously in political forums to further their cause.
Their deaths had shocked not only the country, but the world. In the wake of their deaths many of their championed causes were forgotten by the public, and many industries took advantage of the public inattention to flagrantly lobby against many environmentally protective measures. That is, of course, until their son Bruce had taken up the banner upon reaching adulthood. He was just as passionate as his parents had ever been, and through his efforts many companies in Gotham and the U.S. at large had been forced to clean up their acts.
Tim knew all this information, of course. He could recite this information perfectly off the top of his head, as anyone in Gotham’s high society was expected to know about the Waynes. What he hadn’t put together, for the first few days after meeting Bruce, was that he was Bruce Wayne.
And, well, that changed everything. And nothing.
He was still the same Bruce who sat with Tim and listened to him ramble about photography. Dick was still the same person who taught Tim basic gymnastics and helped him climb trees for better shots. Jason was still Tim’s best friend, who laughed with wild abandon and was ridiculously passionate about literature.
But Bruce was also the man who Tim’s parents grumbled about, who lobbied for laws that forced Drake Industries to change their manufacturing processes and cost them millions of dollars. Jack and Janet hated it every time new environmental laws were passed, even as they praised Wayne Enterprises’ cutting edge technology and strategy.
Tim wasn’t sure how he felt about that, honestly. On the one hand, Bruce did make things harder and more expensive for Drake Industries, and thus for Tim’s parents. On the other hand, all Bruce wanted to do was make the oceans safer and industry more sustainable, and it wasn’t like that was a bad thing. It just wasn’t… convenient for Drake Industries.
Tim decided he didn’t want to think about that situation too hard. ‘Here be dragons’, and maybe uncomfortable realizations, and all that. Besides, when the laws were passed, Drake Industries had always complied, so it wasn’t like they’d really done anything wrong.
It was far more interesting to think about the Waynes themselves. Tim had never met any of the Waynes before this, despite the many galas his parents had dragged him to over the years. All he remembered from those galas was looking up at a bunch of fancily dressed adults, feeling very small and out of place, and having to be ‘seen and not heard’.
The thing about being seen and not heard, however, was that it gave a clever kid a lot of chances to listen and learn. And Tim has always been clever.
Those same society matrons who cooed over Tim’s chubby cheeks murmured disdainfully about every single person in Gotham’s high society, whether they were in attendance or not. Over the years, Tim had learned to collect those pieces of gossip, squirreling them away to consider later. Sometimes, he’d hear a particularly interesting tidbit that he could give to his parents. Whenever he gave them something useful, they’d smile at him, and Jack would pat his shoulder, or Janet would kiss his temple. He liked finding those useful pieces for his parents, liked being useful.
Some of those overheard tidbits Tim had squirreled away were about Bruce. The society ladies swooned over him in a way Tim didn’t quite understand, and speculated about why he was always alone. The matrons hid nasty barbs behind sympathetic laments, saying it was a shame his parents had died so young, how he’d never really learned to manage society events properly. They called him a fish out of water, and although it had been meant to sound teasing, even to Tim’s young ears it had only ever sounded mean.
When it came down to it, apart from the gossip, no one in high society really knew much about the Waynes at all. But Tim had learned plenty about them in the past few weeks, and he’d liked everything he’d found out.
Sure, Dick and Jason were overwhelming, but they only ever meant well. Bruce’s quiet companionship and attention was something Tim hadn’t even known he’d needed. So perhaps they were all maybe too heavily invested in the lives of wild seals, but they listened to Tim, and wanted to spend time with him. Bruce had started grouping Tim’s name in with his actual kids, just automatically. And even if that meant he occasionally got called a “pup”, which was still a weird thing to call a kid, Tim was just so happy to be accepted. He could get used to this new normal, full of talk and warmth and laughter.
He’d never been less lonely in his life.
The last few weeks of Tim’s life had been strange, sure, but that wasn’t to say they weren’t good.