Work Text:
Tim groaned and let his head fall on the keyboard.
Marinette leaned over to poke his side to check that he hadn’t fallen asleep. Again.
He yelped and batted her hand away.
“Don’t – did you just poke me?” he asked accusingly and sat up, revealing square-shaped imprints all over his forehead.
“Just with a finger,” she replied and wiggled her fingers in front of his face.
She didn’t know what Alya was talking about – having siblings was fun.
He knocked her hand away with a frustrated huff.
“What’s up with you?” Stephanie asked, coming up next to them.
Tim groaned even louder than before, and Stephanie caught his head before he could hammer it into the keyboard once more.
“It’s just this case!” he whined.
Marinette leaned over to look at the screen.
“The Jameson-case? Didn’t you close that already?”
It was a gruesome case. A family of a mum, a dad, and their teenage daughter, all poisoned. They were found together at the dinner table. It had taken weeks of investigation, but the murderer had been caught and put away several days ago.
Tim huffed. “Yes! But something’s been bothering me.”
Both girls looked at him in question.
“All three bodies were carefully examined, right? They looked everywhere for a possible injection point of the poison, and they came up with nothing. Zilch, because the poison was in their food. None of the victims had any prior injuries. And when we found the culprit, he didn’t have any wounds either.”
Steph gestured for him to go on when he stalled for dramatic effect.
“But the thing is that the girl – the daughter – this is what’s been bothering me – she had blood under her fingernails.”
Steph and Marinette shared a look over Tim’s head.
“- so of course, we get it tested, because maybe we missed something – maybe there was an accomplice who she was in a fight against – but then get this – the blood was her own!” he revealed as if he had just told them the biggest mystery since Bigfoot.
“And I’ve been trying to come up with an answer – like, maybe she had stored some of her blood somewhere, but there were no preservatives in it either and –“
“Oh, honey,” Steph cut him off. “This is the reason you’re still just the second-best detective in the world.”
Marinette gave him a pitying smile and squeezed his arm.
“What do you mean?” Tim asked.
“I love you, Tim Drake,” Steph told him and kissed his nose.
“I love you too, but –“
Steph hip-checked Marinette who took the cue and hooked her arm through hers. They walked together towards the stairs.
“What do you mean?” Tim repeated.
As the girls closed the hidden entrance behind the clock, another one of Tim’s frustrated shouts could be heard from the cave.
"What do you mean?!"