Chapter Text
“This is foolish,” Damian says.
Around him, all his family members are helping, either by cleaning or helping Alfred in the kitchen — all except for the youngest of them all. The Demon Brat, as Jason fondly calls him, is sitting on the couch and doing nothing.
“You know,” Tim says, wiping the dust off the furniture. He knew the tea room would be dusty since no one actually goes in there, but he didn’t expect it to be to this extent . “Instead of complaining about how it’s a waste of time and doing nothing, you could help.”
Damian just shakes his head. “It is not worthy of my precious time, Drake. Father and Kyle have known each other for so long, and she visited us often before they ever started their… relationship .” He makes a face. “The only difference now is that she will be staying permanently . That means she will eventually get used to the mess that is the Manor.”
Tim opens his mouth to reply, but then the doorbell rings, signalling Selina and Jason’s arrival, which means they don’t have time to argue anymore.
He quickly hides the cloth he was using to clean inside one of the many drawers in the tea room, and then checks himself over to make sure he’s decent.
“Coming!” He shouts, then turns to Damian. “How do I look?”
“As unpleasant as always.”
He rolls his eyes and runs a hand through his hair one last time, then rushes over to get the door open for his new mother and, more importantly, his new brother . The word makes him cringe, but at the end of the day that’s what he and Jason will be: brothers . And he better get used to that.
“Hey!” He greets, smiling wide as he opens the door. “You’re earlier than expected.”
Jason raises an eyebrow. “Is that a problem?”
The older is wearing a tight white shirt that not only fills his form in just the right way, but also contrasts with his deep dark skin. His thick, curly hair has grown a bit from the last time they saw each other, but the white streak is still going strong and Tim absolutely adores it.
He clears his throat. “No, of course not.”
Tim takes the bag from his hand, but it’s heavier than he expected so he stumbles a little. Much like in his dreams, Jason is there to keep him up, with his strong arms and his perfect white teeth and his marvelous pecs—
“I’ll take this upstairs,” the older says, looking amused. “You help Selina with the other stuff. And don’t worry,” Jason winks at him, “I won’t look in your room.”
He leaves, and Tim stands there for just a second watching him go. The two of them have known each other for about two years now, and their relationship has really progressed phenomenally. At first, Jason was cruel and rude and he pushed everyone away, but now he’s starting to get better and he’s definitely gotten better with Tim. It’s hard to believe, now, that the older used to be so… hateful .
Tim shakes his head and goes help Selina with the other stuff. It’ll do him no good to keep pining after a guy who, as mentioned previously, is going to be his brother very, very soon.
“Hey Tim,” Selina says, smiling brightly while giving him five bags to carry up to the room she’ll be sharing with Bruce. “You look nice.”
He grins proudly. “Thanks.”
It’s not like I spent the whole morning getting ready , he thinks.
And then he adds, “You too,” because it’s true. She does look nice — very nice. Every time he sees her he takes note of another reason why Bruce fell for her: her wit, her kindness, the care she feels for others, the way her (often braided) hair falls into her face when she smiles… Selina Kyle is just a wonderful woman all around, and today is no different.
Her dark skin is covered in foundation and she’s put extra effort into her makeup today, making her eyelashes look longer and her cheekbones sharper. The outfit she’s wearing is all-white: a see-through dress with a short crop top and shorts that accentuate her hips. Overall, she looks absolutely amazing, and he’s sure Bruce will agree.
On the way upstairs, Jason purposefully bumps into him, and he feels himself grin against his will. Okay, maybe he can pine a little .
After he puts everything down, he takes one last look at the large room before it’s all filled with Selina’s stuff. This room has been through so many emotional breakdowns, not only Bruce’s but all of his children’s too, and yet it’s still somehow standing… it’s amazing that it’s now gonna be Bruce-and-Selina’s.
He has to say he’ll miss all those sleepless nights just crying in that bed, or trying to tear down the ancient wallpapers, or trying to climb the walls like Spiderman. With Selina here, he doubts they’ll have the space (and opportunity) to just… let themselves go like that.
“If I didn’t know any better,” someone says, startling him, “I’d say you don’t really want her to move in.”
The boy turns around and there is Bruce Wayne, looking happier than Tim’s ever seen him. He’s wearing a nice casual outfit, but he still makes it look super refined, and there’s a sparkle in his dark blue eyes that’s only ever there whenever he’s with Selina.
“That’s not true,” Tim says. “I mean… I love our house, and our family, and having her and Jason here will be different , for sure… but I’m excited for it.”
By the relieved smile Bruce gives him, he knows he’s said the right thing.
“I am, too.” The man nods his head towards the door. “Let’s go. Alfred says lunch is ready, and you know how he gets about us being late.”
The two of them make their way down the stairs and into the dining room, where the rest of the Wayne family is already gathered: Damian is already sitting down on the dining table, ready to eat, looking no different than he would on any other day; Cass, on the other hand, is dressed much fancier than normal, looking elegant as she helps set the table; lastly, Alfred looks as he always does: composed, smooth, and elegant.
“I’ll go call Selina and Jason,” Bruce says, and leaves the room.
Tim takes a seat in front of Damian and both hopes and dreads that Jason will sit beside him. His little crush will be the death of him, truly.
Thankfully, Cass saves him and sits next to him.
We made dim sum , she signs. The small smile on her face betrays her stony façade. Alfred learned quick.
Tim smiles back. “Still, I doubt he’ll be as good as your ma.”
She nods agreeably. Sandra Wu-San and Cass had parted on good terms — at least, good enough that he can mention the woman freely without worrying about consequences —, but one thing he would always miss about the woman was her cooking . His own parents couldn’t cook their ‘authentic Asian food’ for shit, so it was a surprise to see Sandra continue on her culture and tradition and pass it down to Cass.
When Jason and Selina come, the boy sits down next to Damian and in front of Cass, while his mom sits down facing Bruce, at the end of the table. Alfred serves the dishes onto the table and takes his seat next to Cass, and then they’re all diving right into all the food Alfred and Cass prepared.
“So,” Jason asks, while absolutely devouring the fried rice, “how’s the wedding planning going? You two decided on a date yet?”
Selina sighs. “Not yet. I never thought wedding planning would be this hard— actually no, scratch that.” She takes a bite of her chicken leg. “I knew it would be this hard, but I never imagined it’d still be this hard even with Bruce and Kate helping me.”
They all laugh and keep eating. The conversation shifts to the topic of what it’ll be like to live together, all seven of them, in Wayne Manor, and Cass comments that it’ll be nice to have another woman around.
“Well, I won’t be a bother for too long,” Jason says. “Give us a few months and I’ll be graduating and moving away for college.”
Selina smiles sardonically. “What, you that eager to get away from me?”
“If I were, I would’ve suggested we move in with the Waynes way sooner.” He gives her a deadpan look. “Either that, or I would’ve graduated early and gotten the hell outta town.”
Tim doubts Jason really would have graduated early, but both he and, most importantly, Damian , keep their thoughts to themselves. Jason Todd-Kyle is incredibly smart and bright, but he puts very little effort into his studies, unlike Tim himself.
“Well, I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that the Waynes are more than happy to have the both of you here.” Bruce smiles brightly and lifts his glass of wine. “A toast, to the Kyle-Wayne family!”
Tim rolls his eyes fondly. “You’re so embarrassing .”
All of them share a toast together, and then Alfred gently knocks on his glass with his spoon. Everyone turns to him, and anticipation is clear in the air when everyone realizes he’s about to give a speech .
“Having all of you here today has brought much joy to my heart,” the man says, earnestly. “I have taken care of Master Bruce since he was but a toddler, yet not once have I seen him this… happy .” Alfred turns to Bruce, then. “My boy, I cannot express to you the warmth that fills my heart to see you build a family for yourself, to see you open yourself up to both Ms. Kyle and Master Jason. I know I will never replace a true parent, but I am certain, if your parents were here, they would be extremely proud to see how far you have come.”
There are tears in their eyes by the time he’s done, yet no one, not even Damian, tries to pretend like that wasn’t just the most heartwarming thing Alfred could have possibly said. The man may be their butler, but he’s more like a second father to all of them; the Wayne family would never have been possible if not for Alfred Pennyworth.
“Alfred,” Bruce says, discreetly wiping away the tears from his face. “ Alfred . You… you’re no replacement — far from it. There’s no one quite like you.” He gets a sudden heartbroken look on his face and looks down at the table, but Tim knows he’s started to cry again. “I… thank you , Alfred. Thank you for everything.”
The butler nods, but there are also unshed tears in his eyes. “ Always , Master Bruce.”
The lunch ends on that heartwarming note, and the kids all help clean up while the two fiancés go to their shared bedroom, presumably to settle everything down.
“Hey,” Jason says, eyes soft as he bumps into Tim. “I know Alfred kinda stole the spotlight there, but I was gonna say…” He smiles. “I’m real excited to be your brother.”
Tim’s heart does a funny thing, then: it both breaks and jumps in excitement. Realistically, he knew that the chances of Jason not only being bi, but also being into him , weren’t great, but to hear it coming from the man himself is… embarrassing , to say the least.
But Tim can’t ruin this.
He’s seen how happy everyone seems now that Bruce and Selina are getting married. Hell, even Damian is happy, underneath it all and despite his stubborn claims that he doesn’t care much for ‘Ms. Kyle’.
So Tim just smiles back at him. “I’m excited, too.”
*
Jason Todd-Kyle,
You didn’t know me at first, but I’d known about you for about two years before we’d ever met. So I think it’s fair to say that, even before I knew you were Selina’s son, you were mine first. My secret crush, my dream guy, my one-and-all… you were everything and you were mine , but just… not my brother.
But that’s what you will be soon, and I know, rationally, that my feelings are hopeless and they have been from the start, but now it’s almost like they’re illegal . I don’t know if there are laws for that — I guess there aren’t, since I’m not even related to Bruce and we aren’t technically related —, but it feels illegal and it’s just wrong . So I’ll stop, and I’ll never say anything and you’ll never know, because both our families deserve to be happy.
Yours,
Tim.
P.S. I still love you.
I still love you and it’s terrible and I thought I’d get over it but it’s still here, and it’s killing me.
*
As of grade 11, Tim has only written to five people: Steph from preschool; Kon-el from grade seven; Cassie from homecoming; Tam from Model UN; and Jason. Tim writes these stupid letters in his computer whenever he has these really intense crushes that he just needs to get out there and get out of his mind so that he can focus on more important matters like school.
Being the adopted son of one of the most famous CEOs in America, he keeps his letters well-encrypted and neatly stored into a drive. A lot of people have tried to hack into the Wayne family’s computers but none so far have succeeded. If they had, it’d be a real humiliation for the Waynes; they did learn computer programming from Barbara Gordon , after all.
“Drake,” a voice rings out, and he startles and closes his laptop. There’s only one person who calls him by his last name, after all, and he knows that if Damian knew about the letters, the younger would never let them go. “Father is calling you.”
He looks at the time. “Oh, is it time for movie night already?”
Tim stands up and carefully guides Damian away from his laptop. Years of living together tell him that drawing attention to his laptop by going over and carefully encrypting it will only lead to disaster, so he leaves it as is. After all, a movie only has two hours of runtime, maximum. There’s no way he’ll be so unlucky as to encounter some hacker during those two hours — and the chances of the other actually getting anything out of his laptop in only that short amount of time is highly unlikely.
So he just leaves it.
Tim and Damian sit down next to each other on the couch, every other seat already taken, and it’s just his luck that his seat is beside Jason.
“Popcorn?” The older asks, not taking his eyes off the screen.
Tim shrugs. “Sure.”
Selina picks an action movie and lets it play as she leans into Bruce, casually, like there’s nothing else she could possibly be doing other than this one act of intimacy. On the other side, Cass sits with their (Damian’s) Great Dane, Titus, on her lap, cuddling him like the good dog he is. Alfred has long since gone to sleep, and they’re all that’s left now.
Jason stretches his arms out onto the couch behind them, and Tim tenses. He knows it’s not what he thinks, but it still feels like butterflies in his stomach.
He barely notices it when Damian leaves, sending Tim a knowing glare. Tim’s too focused on the feel of Jason’s thigh against his and his arm right on the back of Tim’s neck — things that will soon become routine for them.
Tim lets himself drift off, promising today is the last day he’ll feel this way.
In his dreams, though, he can’t control the way Jason smiles at him and takes him into his arms and kisses him senseless.
