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“I uh,” Tim hesitated. Then he grimaced. Ugh there was no way to sound this and not sound like a total douchebag. “Look. If you and Zadie ever need to get away from it all.”
Jason raised his eyebrows at Tim.
“You know there was Drake family money, right?”
Jason’s eyebrows lifted further. “Ye-ees.”
“And, I mean, I thought about giving it away.” More of it away, Tim thought. Because there was now a Janet Drake wing at the Gotham Museum, and a Jack Drake collection on permanent loan at Gotham University.
“You mean, giving more of it away,” Jason said in an eerie echo.
“Yes,” Tim said, badly wanting to move on. “Anyway, the point is, Bart was freaking me out with all his stories of this dystopian future where society pretty much breaks down and like, Lex Fucking Luthor was our last hope, and I thought, what you’d really want in that case is a totally secure fallback base no-one could access without your knowledge and-”
“Tim,” Jason said calmly, “What did you do.”
“I bought an island,” he blurted.
Jason blinked.
“You what?”
“I bought an island. And I am aware I sound like the most stereotypical trust fund baby ever to walk-”
“Hey,” Jason interrupted, “stop. Tim. Stop, buddy. It’s okay. I get it. I know you’re not that guy.”
Tim took a deep, shuddering breath.
Jason reached out a hand, telegraphing the movement, and laid it on Tim’s shoulder. “Slow down.”
“I bought an island,” he said again, but more slowly. “It’s in Washington state.”
“Puget Sound?” Jason asked, and Tim nodded.
“Hiding in plain sight. There’s a lot of places up there, lots of privately owned islands, it’s not all that unusual.”
Jason nodded and left his hand where it was. “So how long have you had it?” his voice was low and even, soothing.
“Um, two years maybe?”
“It sounds nice. Guess you can get away from it all, there, huh? Take a bit of a break from being a CEO, or Red, or a Gotham socialite-”
“Yeah,” Tim said, and felt his heart rate settle. Wow, embarrassing. He hadn’t realized that was such a thing for him. But the thought of losing Jason’s good opinion, of going back to that scornful, antagonistic Red Hood relationship-
“But knowing you, it’s not just a getaway, right?”
Tim shook his head and managed a smile. “Yeah. No, it has a natural spring, and there was an existing house, perfectly nice house, but-”
“But now it has something more?”
Tim nodded. “Yeah.”
Jason watched him for a moment, eyes narrowed, and then said, “Tim did you build an underground fucking bunker to ride out the apocalypse?”
Tim bit his lip.
“And are you inviting Zadie and me to join you?”
Tim shrugged a little.
For a moment Jason just stared, then he shook his head, smiling. “Holy shit. What did I ever do to deserve a little brother like you, huh? You are amazing, kid.” And then Jason was hugging him, and Tim kind of blanked out for a moment. God, he was such a sucker for hugs. Real, genuine, warm hugs from people he trusted.
“Thank you, Tim,” Jason said directly into his ear. “You brilliant, paranoid little spider- monkey.”
“I didn’t actually mean to get sidetracked with that,” Tim said, pulling back and flushing. “I really just meant that uh. It’s totally private.”
“Yeah?” Jason cocked a brow at him.
“So.” Tim rubbed the back of his head. “So if you wanted to, like, strip down to swim or sunbake. There would be no-one there to see you. There’s not even any staff at the house unless you specifically request it.”
Jason froze for a second, then one hand made it halfway to his chest before he caught it. “Are you- seriously?”
Tim shrugged.
“This is seriously because of my scars?”
He shrugged again. “The island’s just sitting there most of the time. Why shouldn’t you use it?”
Jason gave him a warm, knowing look and Tim flushed. “Timbo, I may be out of the game but even I understand that fall-back bunkers designed to beat the apocalypse are better off secret and not shared.”
Tim shrugged.
“How many people know?”
Tim shrugged again. “Kon. Bart.” He shrugged again.
“And me?” Jason asked voice rising.
“It’s not like I wouldn’t bring the others along if something happened,” Tim argued, feeling unaccountably guilty. “It’s just-
“You have to control how many know about it in the first place, I get it,” Jason said soothingly. “You’re not doing anything wrong, Tim.” Then he winked, “I mean, also you must be running some kind of chart in your head about who could actually manage to share living space in the event of the apocalypse, so if you’re prioritising me over B, I have no complaints about that.”
Tim grimaced a bit guiltily, but didn’t argue.