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"Coffee?" Dick called amused at the sluggish form of teenage Tim stalking towards them in the kitchen. There's a mumble, a hint of a nod and Dick's reaching for the cupboard, pouring his little brother some of the blackest coffee Damian's witnessed. Tim paused at the table where he sat, almost managed to startle Damian out of his chair and ready to catch Tim's suddenly falling body, but its destination was the other free chair. A hand fell on his shoulder, Dick pushing him back in his own seat. Only now did Damian realize he did rise from the furniture in the first place. He sat down with a scoff at his own responsive nature, blowing at his tea.
A mug of coffee was meant to ease Tim into the world of the living, into the reality that persuaded him into long nights of little sleep and copious amounts of caffeine. After a tentive sip, Tim's eyes started to open. Damian was clearly in his blind spot, for Tim showed their oldest brother a smile so languid and soft it caught him off guard. Never before had he witnessed such a carefree, vulnerable expression on his face. Damian's eyes glanced between Tim and Dick, mood growing sour at the ease at which they chuckled at each other.
"Good morning, Timmy," Dick told him fondly, reaching over to mess with his bedhead hair. Tim hummed at the touch, closed his eyes and turned towards his mug for more. When his eyes opened next, he was facing Damian. Both youngsters stared and scowled. "It was untill now," Tim dared to mumble into his mug, leaving Damian gritting his teeth. "Likewise," he snapped at the took a big gulp of scorching hot tea that burned his tongue. He flinched only because Tim laughed at him while Dick went to get him a glass of cold water. "Be nice you two," the older brother breathed out for the umpteenth time. "No way," Tim responded cheekily, reaching for the sugar cubes and dropping them in the dark liquid with an amused grin. He slurped coffee while Damian tried to drown himself in the water.
A year passed and Tim and Damian had overcome the urge to maim and kill each other. Blatantly, that is.
"What's this?" Tim asked looking up from his laptop to regard the foam cup on his desk with caution.
"Coffee, what else?" Damian responded bringing a similar item to his own lips and taking a sip.
Tim's eyes narrowed nevertheless. "What's in it?"
The question caused him to grip the cup a little tighter. "Rat poison, although I doubt it will bless me with killing you," Damian spat in irritation.
The look on Tim's face fell. "Damian, get out," Tim replied with a gesture that waved him off. He turned his back on the scowling
Damian as the whistling of their older brother came down the staircase into the cave to join them.
"Oooh coffee," Dick called brightly upon sniffing the air. Tim handed him the foam cup without taking his eyes from the casefile presented on the monitor. Damian found little satisfaction in watching him drink the liquid he prepared for Tim instead. He chose to hold his tongue and watched his older brother wrinkle his nose. "Bit sweet for my taste," Dick commented licking his lips with a tilt of his head. He nudged Damian with a smile, "we got to get Timbo off the sugar, you in?" Damian's shoulders slumped behind Dick's back as he went to complain to Tim about his sugarintake.
Another year passed and Tim and Damian made a truce, forced by the Batman, but an alliance was created nevertheless. They were still rivals, but now also comrades. In theory, that is. Bruce sent him to Red Robin's Titans with the sole intention of educating him in teamwork. It was utterly useless to Damian, but he could make little threats seeing as he was already grounded for nearly maiming a thug two nights prior and this was the first time since that night he was allowed to go out. When he dropped onto the rooftop of the Titan's Tower he was greeted by Tim. Just Tim, no Titans in sight, although Damian had the inkling they were listening and watching, waiting for Tim to give the command to come at him. Knowing he had this affect on the oh so powerful metahumans made him smirk. Especially since he had no inclination to harm Tim. Not anymore.
Tim tensed instantly at his arrival, no surprise there, and Damian could see how he was reaching for a birdarang stashed on his lower back. His hand rested there in an obvious show of preparation should their meeting turn into a brawl. Damian scowled at the precaution, insulted mostly. They hadn't gone for each other's throats in such a long time, clearly Tim's stay with the Titans had brainwashed him into thinking Damian was still the hostile murder child from three years ago. Like he hadn't tried to change at all.
"Damian..." Tim started slowly, "I know this was Bruce's idea and I assume you did everything you could not to come here, so let's make a deal: you stay out of our way for the next two weeks and I will tell him your time here with my team was only a little disasterous." Damian bristled visibly at the predetermined outcome of the assignment. It showed what little faith Tim had in him when none of the other batfamily members were looking. He turned his head with a huff. It's not like he had hardly slept last night thinking of ways not to ruffle anyone's feathers during his stay. Not like he had actively sought out Dick's advice on how to balance time spent with the team in the Tower and keeping to himself in his room, as to not disappoint his father, he had declared when Dick gave him a surprised frown. Damian pressed his lips into a thin line. Tim hadn't even thought of truly allowing him to stay, had he? "Sounds like a plan," he agreed although reluctantly, but Tim was already walking away from him to return through the door to this team in the building.
Back in Gotham he laid low in the shadows, avoiding Batman's cunning eyes. To do so he crept into Crime Alley's area which was mostly off limits to Batman due to Red Hood's insistance. "Oh, what's this?" Jason commented stepping towards him sulking on a rooftop. "A lil birdy told me ya were off to RR's Titans, tryin' to make friends?" He was grinning beneath his helmet for sure, that annoying hoodlum. "There's no need for friends," Damian started crossing his arms and glaring at him. "Not that it's any of your concern." Jason removed his helmet with a groan, craning his head left and right to work out some kinks. Next he lifted a shoulder, patted his jeans and jacket in search for a smoke. He lit a cigarette and waited but there was no more from the teenage Robin. "'Course there is," Jason objected easily, taking another drag. "Ya don't need many, just a reliable few." He held up three fingers and lowered the outer two, grinning as he flipped Damian off. Damian glared and went for his lighter, throwing it down the building as retaliation. Jason grunted at the loss, but leaned back on his hands as he puffed away. "I have Jon and Colin," Damian stated in the end. The cigarette hung loosely between Jason's lips. "Ya makin' them coffee too? Tryin' to play together nicely, huh?" The slow turning of Damian's head was clearly taught by the Batman. Jason snorted at the hostile aura radiating from the young kid. "I do not know what you speak off, clearly you have hit your head one time too many." Damian retorted. "Yeah, must be it," Jason agreed giving the helmet sitting beside him a knock or two. He finished his smoke, flicking it away. Damian for once was not in the mood to lecture him about littering. "But take it from someone who also went from killin' to likin' the smartypants: he won't know unless ya tell him. Tim's pretty dense for someone so intelligent, ya know?" Red infiltrated Damian's cheeks. "I do not like him!" he bellowed with balled fists. "Don't get yer panties in a bunch, kid. I know makin' friends is hard for ya, didn't mean anythin' else by it, gosh," Jason responded going for another smoke with a dramatic roll of his eyes. "You are as vile and useless as ever," Damian told him watching the second cigarette get lit. And obnoxiously direct as usual. "Yer welcome," Jason called mockingly when Robin rushed past him and jumped off the building to retreat for the night and shelter his flushed face.
Damian told himself if there was ever a day he was in need of Jason's advice surely the apocalypse was upon them. And so he ignored him. One did not simply step up to your rival and declare the proposal of friendship with an outstretched open hand. Not after the years of hostility that grew them apart in the first place. It had been years since Damian viewed himself as a child, but now that he had reached the age of seventeen, a proper teenage into young adult phase, as he prefered to call it, Damian realized Tim still regarded him as one. A child, that is. There were several years between them. It was infutile to ignore, but Damian found himself willing it to the back of his mind when he approached Tim and his now adult Titans. He was one of them, had been for two years on and off, he kept reminding himself although the shifty look of the Speedster told him otherwise. It prepared him for the indifference on Tim's own face.
"There something you need, Damian?" The tone in his voice was polite and while it could also be perceived as friendly or even professional, Damian picked up on it as reluctant. Unwillingness to spend time with or on him. He swallowed thickly and mimicked him. "A word, is all," he promised ignoring the shuffling Titans behind Tim, sizing him up and watching Tim's back for signs to intervene. It had been years since their last physical fight or even their last verbal argument. Still it seemed there was no love for Damian among Tim's Titans. That was fine. He wasn't in need of their acceptance. Not theirs. "Well, what is it?" Tim finally asked with a hint of irritation slipping on his face: one brow rising and one corner of his mouth dropping. Clear signs that Damian tried to ignore. What he couldn't help but react to was the casual way Kon swung an arm around Tim's neck, stepping up beside him and lifting his chin at Damian's silent form. While Damian claimed to have perfect control over his emotions, he did register the internal flare of anger that came with the smug smile on Kon's face. He willed his heart rate to stay steady, but the knowing look in the Superboy's eyes only increased it. With a sudden exhale Damian reached for his back pocket and presented Tim with a white envelope. He was curious enough to take it and ask about the content, but Damian didn't trust his tongue to keep to the script in his mind, the one had had been practicing for days leading up to this moment. A moment he had wanted to be private. Alas. Whatever, did he really care? Damian spun around and marched off before his embarrassment could colour his face.
Damian reached his room in the manor with a face like thunder. The slamming of his door should keep prying family members out long enough for him to regain his composure. He paced his room steadying his breathing, sat cross-legged on the bed and attempted to meditate to clear his mind. Failing to do so frustrated him to no end. Damian surrendered to the anger and the disappointment that created it. Falling back on his bed he stared at the white plaster of his ceiling, not truly seeing anything but the indifference look Tim had given him. It had been years and it had been progress: Tim would have glared and demanded him to leave four years ago. They had come a long way, Dick had told him a little over a month ago. He had sounded proud and Damian had shifted into his hug uncomfortably because he hadn't wanted any one to know how much time and preparation went into persuading and taming the betrayed, cautious being that was Tim.
His advances on Tim weren't working entirely according to plan however. This began as a three year plan. At least seven had passed since then. He had expected them to be civil as they were, but had also hoped Tim would reciprocate at one point. And the lack thereoff was becoming much more difficult to bear lately. Damian sighed and threw an arm over his eyes. He was suddenly exhausted. Even Jason had been getting stuff right, like how Tim wanted his coffee, what his go to rerun tv shows were, favourite midnight snacks or rooftop dinners, what helped him sleep (engineering podcasts, not much of a surprise when you think about it), and Damian was so done getting it wrong. Yes, he thought in that very moment, feeling his body accept the comfort of his matrass and the expensive sheets that lay beneath him. Failing to make amends, to changing Tim's opinion of him brought with it an exhaustion that kept him in his room for the rest of the night, skipping patrol with Batman and declining breakfast in the morning when Alfred knocked on his door to check up on him.
The next knock came four hours later around noon. Damian noted the the soft shifting of someone's weight behind the door, the light tap on the wood too careful to be Alfred's, too insecure to be Dick's (who hardly knocked at all these days). "Damian?" Tim's voice started a series of emotions that flung him off his bed, approaching the door cautiously. Tim? Why had he come? Why wasn't he with the Titans? "I know you're there, I can hear you." There was that hint of irritation again that slapped Damian in the face, made him turn away from the door as he had been reaching for the handle to unlock it. There was movement behind him, luring his eyes to look over his shoulder. Beneath the door Tim was wiggling something white over to his side. Damian grit his teeth realizing it was the envelope he had presented him last night. Another failed attempt, he told himself as he leaned down and snatched it from the floor. "So?" Tim suddenly asked through the door, catching him off guard. "So what?" he asked in return and heard a low thumb to the door. "Geeze. Open the envelope, Damian," came the tired command that he followed without a word. Inside was a ticket to a rock concert in Gotham's Music Dome for tonight. Not a surprise, seeing as Damian had been the one purchasing the tickets in a last attempt to persuade Tim to spent some time together out of costume in an evironment to his liking and with the possiblity to ditch him should he feel the need. No, the only fact that took him aback was the single entry slip, the other one missing. Damian turned to the door and needed another second to reassure himself it was acceptable to feel hopeful.
The door opened carefully, Tim raising his forehead from the wood and meeting Damian's contemplative stare. In his hand was the matching ticket which he raised with a frown. "Where did you get these?" He questioned sternly. "The internet," Damian answered defensively. Tim shook his head. "These were sold out ten minutes after sales opened. How did you get these?" Damian didn't like where this was going, Tim's expression not loosening up. His hand remained on the door handle in case he needed the shield against Tim's snark, which he was expecting by this point. "I bought them when they announced the sale," Damian elaborated bringing confusion to Tim's face. He shook his head once more, staring at the ticket in his hand. "Sales were seven months ago. Have you.. been holding on to these all this time?" Damian felt his shoulders contract up into his neck and willed them back down. Now was not the time to show his unease. Tim's eyes were searching his intently. The frustration he had heard in his voice before had traded places with curiosity. Damian bit his tongue. Perhaps now was the time to be genuine, after all. He nodded slowly in confirmation and blinked at the sudden laugh that came from Tim's smiling face. It was crooked, the grin that he was given, like Tim wasn't sure what to do with his face. Well, that made two of them. Although, Damian did know what he had wanted to say. He glanced at the ticket in the envelope and inhaled deeply. "Last night I wanted to ask.. if you would like to go," he managed with heat gathering in his face. "Together, you mean," Tim added leaning against the doorpost looking perplexed still. "Do you even like this band?" He laughed at the shifty look it triggered on Damian's face. "I'm open to discovering new music," he declared while squaring his shoulders defiantly in the same way he had when telling young teenage Tim he was to be Batman, not Tim. Tim snorted, bringing the ticket to his face to laugh into it. Nervously, Damian noticed, frowning with his brows and lips. The laughter died and made way for an uncomfortable silence. Tim was watching him closely, mouth still hidden but eyes bright. "I think... I'm open to discovering something new, too," he announced revealing a little smile when lowering the ticket back down. Tim tugged the slip of paper into his jeans and glanced at Damian once more, smile growing. "Never knew you could look like that," he said amused narrowing his eyes playfully. Damian glanced to the side where his full body mirror stood and caught his expression in the reflection. There were no lines of frustration or concentration on his forehead and in between his eyebrows. His mouth was relaxed, the corners lifted up into a content smile. On his cheekbones rested a light red colour that deepened the longer he looked at himself. "You're really happy about this, aren't you?" Tim asked fuelling the temperature of Damian's face. Tim was grinning, looking cheeky and enjoying himself in teasing Damian's uncomfortable shifting behind the door that he was closing a little to hide behind. "Surprised, is all," he managed to mutter looking away. Tim hummed in contemplation and gave him mercy, stepping back into the hallway. "I guess Kon was right all along, you do have a crush on me," he said thoughtfully while turning around and walking away.
So much for mercy. Damian was slowly closing the door until he heard Tim's parting words. He stomped out into the corridor and stared wide-eyed at the back of Tim's head as he spedwalked around the corner. His inner child demanded he'd follow and dispute the claim. When he arrived at the top of the stairs, Tim was standing at the bottom, watching him expectantly with hands in the backpockets of his jeans. Tim had always looked annoyed about Damian surpassing him in height, having to look up at him. Now however, he appeared perfectly happy to crane his neck back. That fact alone send his heart thundering against his chest. Damian gripped the banister and felt his face flush once again. "I do," he told Tim without hesitation. "I have, for a long time, I think."
Tim nodded and rose onto his toes and lowered back down as Damian descended the stairs. Coming to a stop in front of him, Tim rose to his toes once again and leaned forward. Damian's breathing stuttered at the touching of their chests, of Tim's face to close to his like this. Tim's hands slipped from his pockets and onto Damian's shoulders. He pushed and Damian lowered through his knees to be on perfect eye level with Tim. "You should have told me," Tim muttered blowing strands of hair from his eyes and finally chuckling again. "But, I guess you did. In your own weird way." Damian frowned contemplating between being offended or being relieved to hear his work over the years has not been for noth. "So, how do you see this playing out?" Tim asked moving his hands closer to Damian's neck. Damian dared to rest his hands on Tim's waist. He wasn't refused, Tim not showing any reaction at all. "I hadn't thought about it yet. The chance of you accepting my invitation was much lower than you refusing it, or using the tickets to go with Superboy instead," he revealed unable to keep from huffing at the metahuman's alias. "You think so little of me, huh?" Tim replied pursing his lips. The raise of Damian's brow caused him to give an apologetic smile. "Of course not," Damian retorted, "but it is quite evident you and Kon are close." Tim hummed in agreement, tugging at the hem of Damian's soft green shirt. "True, and we have gone to concerts together before, as you probably already know. Kon's fun, good at letting loose, and I need that sometimes to balance out the angst in my life," Tim admitted with a little smile. Damian lowered his gaze, knowing there was a time he was part of that angst. "Yes, I.. was hoping I can offer the same," Damian responded with a sense of insecurity new to them both. Tim, lowering on his feet and having Damian straighten to his full height, looked up at him with another nod, evidently realizing how genuine Damian was being. "Well, here is how I predict this night," Tim replied more softly, fingers caressing up Damian's neck and into his hairline at the back. "We go to the concert together, get high on adrenaline and make-out in the car afterwards," he suggested, eyes hooding slowly. "Can you offer me that?"
Silence.
"Is that what Kon offers you?" Damian dared to ask in return. Tim exhaled slowly pushing some hair behind his ear. A nervous tick, Damian knew and prepared for the answer. "Sometimes," Tim answered truthfully, watching Damian's nostrils flare shortly. "It is a casual thing. Making out is all it is. There was some heavy petting a few times, but he's someone I have to work with on a daily basis so.. not going there," he added providing an explanation to why he hadn't hooked up with Superboy ages ago, like Damian had thought he would. "We are.. colleagues as well," Damian reminded him, his hands twitching uncertainly atop Tim's hips. He wanted to grab him tighter but feared what would happen if Tim wanted to step away and he couldn't let go. "True, which is why Kon is going to whine and moan about us when he finds out I made an exception for you," Tim retorted rubbing at his temple. The frown on his face soon let up as Damian bestowed him with a sudden laugh. Soft and breathy, warm against hisface. Tim blinked and smiled at the little smirk on Damian's face.
A three year plan to friendship morphed into a seven year endeavor to show Tim his affection. No one could truly blame Damian for turning a verbal confession into a heathed kiss that pushed Tim against the banister, bending him back as he grabbed the back of his head and pressed with all the passion in his body to Tim's pliant lips. Tim was holding on to his shoulders, tightly. It occured to him that that might be because he was taking his mouth hostage, but Tim wasn't pawing at him to keep balance or to push him off, because an arm curled around his neck and Tim's mouth opened to invite him into an even more intimate kiss.
Both of them were giving small sounds of appreciation as slick muscles met. Tightly pressed together it was impossible to remember their current vicinity. Damian took hold of Tim's chin and tilted his head further, exploring more of him as a leg crept up to encircle his waist. Tim was breathing harshly through his nose, fingers tugging lightly at Damian's hair. They pulled back and panted against each other's wet mouths. Damian swallowed thickly, feeling the throbbing in his nether regions and the tight press of Tim's own erection to his thigh. "I can," he said on his next exhale. "Better than he ever will," Damian announced, promised even. Tim blinked through his arousal and hung his head back with a breathy laugh. "I will be the judge of that," Tim retorted grinning and pulling Damian's face close once more.