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There was a knock at the door of his home office that Bruce hadn’t expected. The kids rarely knocked - well, not since Dick had been ten and in need of a signature for his school report -, mostly barged in with complaints about each other. And Alfred usually walked in right after knocking but the door had stayed closed, the potential intruder waiting to be welcomed in.
“Come in.” Bruce said loudly enough to be heard through the door. Tim half-opened the door.
“If you’re not too busy, can we talk ?” he asked, an eyebrow raised.
Tim never asked for anything from Bruce ever. His other kids didn’t do it often, but Tim avoided it at all costs, probably in case Bruce suddenly decided he was too needy and threw him out or something. Bruce was quite certain that fear was still lingering in his son’s mind.
The kid asking for something, even something as simple as a short interview with Bruce, was a bit worrying. Bruce had actually been busy, but it could wait if the kid needed him.
“Of course, come in.”
Tim was holding a manilla envelope in his right hand.
Bruce put the report that had been sitting on his desk away and gestured for Tim to take a seat in front of him.
The teenager sat gingerly. He put his envelope on the desk but didn’t push it toward Bruce and Bruce didn’t try to take it. The teenager looked quite nervous and Bruce wondered how much coffee he had been drinking. He should do something about that - some days, Tim seemed held together by coffee, sheer will and not much else.
Bruce waited for Tim to start talking. They had been staring at each other for a handful of silent seconds when Tim had spoken.
“Has anything happened recently that you should have been discussing with us ?” he asked.
Bruce frowned, trying to figure out what Tim wanted to discuss. Without success.
“I don’t think so. Care to elaborate ?” he asked.
Tim seemed to think he hadn’t shared intel that the kids should have been aware of but Bruce couldn’t think of anything of the sort.
“Nothing to say about Green Lantern ?” Tim said finally.
Ah. Bruce tried to buy himself some time. Nosy kids.
“Which one ?” he asked.
Tim wouldn’t be fooled but it let Bruce a few seconds to think about what he would answer to his kid’s eventual questions. Tim grabbed the envelope on the desk and opened it before plunging his hand into it.
“Hum, let’s say... Hal Jordan, perhaps ?” Tim said, tilting his head as he pulled a small stack of photographs out of the envelope.
He handed them to Bruce, who looked down at them. He had barely thrown a glance at them that he was looking back at Tim sharply.
“Where did you get those ?” he asked, his voice quite tight.
The photographs had been taken in several rooms of the Manor and the garden. Pictures of Bruce and Hal together.
“Take a guess.” Tim said, crossing his arms on his chest.
Bruce sighed. Of course.
“You took them.”
“Gathering evidence on my own. Aren’t you proud ?” Tim said, half-smiling.
Bruce tried not to laugh and glared at him.
“What’s this about ?” Tim asked, pointing at the pictures.
“What do you think ?” Bruce asked.
He wasn’t sure yet what he would tell Tim.
“I think Jordan had been around quite a lot lately and that you’re strangely defensive about mere pictures.” Tim said, his voice neutral.
“It isn’t what you think.” Bruce affirmed.
Which sounded a pretty weak defense, even to his own ears.
“Humor me then, what do I think ?” Tim asked.
“You think that Hal and I are dating. We’re not.” Bruce answered swiftly.
His eyes had focused on one of the pictures.
Hal had asked to see him after a mission and Bruce had told him he had a call to take but to make himself at ease in the living-room.
The call had taken him longer than Bruce had warranted and when he came back to the living-room, he had found Hal curled up in an armchair, his familiar jacket thrown over the back of another.
Bruce had thought of fetching him a blanket and letting him sleep but had considered that Hal’s current position would induce pain on waking. So he had crouched in front of Hal and shaken his shoulder lightly. Hal had opened bleary eyes and smiled at Bruce.
It was that moment that Tim had captured - Hal smiling softly at Bruce, who had a hand resting on Hal’s arm . It looked so intimate in retrospect that Bruce had to look away.
Bruce snapped back to the current times when Tim spoke again.
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on exactly and how you label it, but there’s something going on between you two, right ?”
Bruce assessed the kid. His kid. A bit thinner, shorter and lighter than the average superhero and working hard to make up for it.
Bruce decided to reward his hard work - the photographs had clearly been taken over several weeks and neither he nor Hal had noticed Tim taking them. Well, Bruce wouldn’t be surprised if Tim had only strategically placed cameras he could activate remotely or something in the kitchen and the living-room.
“Hal and I are soulmates. We found out four months ago and Hal volunteered for a two months mission in space to give us time apart from each other just after. We talked when he came back and decided to give each other a chance.” Bruce explained.
“You said you weren’t dating.” Tim said, frowning.
“A chance at being friends.”
“Nothing has to change. I have your back, you have mine. What’s new ?” Hal had said then.
Bruce wasn’t certain it was what he wanted or even what Hal wanted, but it was a good start. Friends. They could manage that.
“Just saying that the last time I looked at a friend like that, we ended up - ” Tim said before pausing.
“You ended up what ?” Bruce said, amusement piercing in his voice.
Tim wouldn’t look at him.
“Uh, making out.” Tim muttered, his cheeks turning red.
“Is that how kids call it now ?”
“Hey, I am almost eighteen.” Tim protested, crossing his arms. “Bruce, do you think your feelings for Hal would be different if you weren’t soulmates ?”
Here they were. The heart of the problem, what explained Tim’s presence here.
“This isn’t about my relationship with Hal, is it ?” Bruce asked.
Tim shrugged, looking at Bruce’s desk intently before looking back at him with determination.
“Hypothetically ? No, it isn’t. It’s more personal. But I’d really like to know your opinion on that.”
“My answer is no. People aren’t always interested romantically in their soulmates and don’t fall in love with them because they are soulmates. Sometimes soulmates fell in love with other people and it’s alright, Tim.”
The teenager nodded, even gratifying Bruce with a small smile. He seemed more at ease as he stood up and started reuniting the pictures on the table.
“I am keeping those.” Bruce said sternly, even if he didn’t doubt the kid had made copies. “Oh, and before I forgot. Hypothetically, if you had a boyfriend and he happened to stay with you at night sometimes, he would be hypothetically welcomed at breakfast and wouldn’t need to sneak out of the house.”
Tim shrugged and looked at Bruce.
“Right. Do you plan to keep the pictures ? Some of them are pretty good. As for the hypothetical boyfriend thing, I’ll think about it and it’s appreciated. And I do think you should ask Jordan out.” he said just before closing the door behind him, not leaving Bruce the opportunity to reply.
Bruce was still looking at the pictures spreaded on his desk when his phone rang. He looked at it. Hal’s number.
Bruce let it rung a bit longer than necessary before answering the call.
“Hal. I was about to call you. Could you be at the Manor tonight ? There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.