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"Gas, Jason," Tim desperately whispered hoarsely, clutching his arm. "Timer. Gas." Then his hand slipped and so did his consciousness.
Jason’s eyes widened in fear and he looked him over, examining him to see if he had any other injuries. The kid had been in the same area as Ivy and Joker for who knew how long. He could be seriously hurt right now, par the concussion and the glass cuts from the explosion he got caught in. He checked Tim’s limbs, his neck, his head, his ribs. They all seemed to be okay. Tim seemed to be okay. Keyword being “seemed”.
While he was doing his injury assessment on Tim, Nightwing and Batgirl had arrived. “Joker got the gas hidden somewhere, Tim thinks there’s a timer attached to it,” Jason cut straight to the point.
“I’ll cover it,” Barbara said, darting off. Dick charged his escrima sticks and ran towards the Joker. Three vigilantes were enough for the fight. Jason had a seriously injured child to look after.
Tim had been slurring his words and talking in seemingly nonsensical sentences. There was a high chance that the explosion Jason and Batman had witnessed before they entered the building had got to him. Judging by the shattered glass, his guess was true.
Jason winced as he saw droplets of blood sliding down his black clothes from the glass pierces on Tim’s chest and arms. He had to get the kid out of here first.
He looked around and saw an empty, untouched food table, a safe distance from the fight going on between the rogues and the Bats. Or well, judging by how Nightwing was keeping Ivy from trying to stab the Joker, it was a Bats + rogue vs rogue fight.
Jason slid his arms under Tim’s knees and back, and lifted him. The kid was small, sure, but Jason was happy to see that he had grown at least an inch taller and a pound heavier. He would take everything he could get.
He lay Tim down on the table and procured a pair of forceps from his belt. Suddenly, a heavy plant crashed too close to them and Jason glared at its owner. “Hey!” he yelled. “I’m tending to a sick kid over here!”
Ivy opened her mouth like she was about to shoot back a remark, but her eyes landed on Tim and she closed it, narrowing her eyes and moving the plant away to instead try to drop it on Joker. The plant nearly landed on Batman instead, but he dodged in time. He shot her a look and threw a batarang to destroy the sudden covey of drones that entered from a cartoon hippopotamus statue’s mouth in front of the kids’ play area.
It was pure chaos, clearly stating the Joker’s forte. But Jason had no interest in it.
He looked back at Tim, continuing to pick glass shards from his upper body. Fortunately, none of them looked deep. But Jason was still worried.
He rolled Tim onto his stomach and slowly pulled up his shirt. There was glass all over his back, mixing with the welts which were a little more than halfway to be healed. If Jack and Janet stayed away for a couple more weeks, then they would be fully healed.
Only to be torn open again when they do come back.
Jason gritted his teeth and ignored the voice in his head. He made a promise to Tim. And despite its unethical effects, he knew that if he was in Tim’s place, he wouldn’t want his secret to be thrown out too. He was giving Tim his time to tell the others when he was ready.
But he couldn’t always ignore the voice at the back of his head telling him that the time may never come.
A shout made him swivel his head towards the fight again to see that it was over. Broken drones, glass, bits of rubble and stone were lying on the ground around Batgirl, Batman, Nightwing, Joker and an unconscious Ivy.
Jason tilted his head at them.
A few minutes later, the area was swarmed by the GCPD and damage control who were already taking the drones away in case those had an extra surprise trigger. Tim was still out.
“How’s he?” Batman asked, stopping by Jason before going to Gordon. Nightwing and Batgirl stopped by too.
“Concussion I think,” Jason stated, picking the last shards out from Tim’s arm. “Plus a whole bunch of minor cuts. Only minor though.”
Batman grunted and moved along to talk to Gordon.
“You want me to st—”
“Ivy might wake up again,” Jason interrupted, dropping another glass shard on the ground. This one was covered in blood too. “You two should go over to her. I’ll call you over when Stray wakes up.”
After a brief moment of hesitation, Batgirl shrugged, “Alright then. C’mon, Nightwing. We don’t want Joker escaping after we just caught him.”
They walked away. Jason waited a moment more until he lifted Tim’s shirt again and quickly started to pull out the shards stuck on his back. Keeping his face as neutral as possible, he picked out the shards stuck to the belt wounds .
He plucked the last glass shard out and rolled Tim into a proper recovery position. He flumped backwards on the chair and blew the hair from his face. That took too long.
One thing he was glad about though, was Tim revealing the secret of what his parents did to him to Jason. Tim was deplorable in asking for help. So when he revealed his secret to Jason, it had taken a big trust factor, which was why Jason was so indignant about revealing it to the others when Tim asked him not to. Tim trusted him, he needed to trust Tim back.
He checked Tim’s rate of breathing and his pulse again, they were normal. Just as he was considering fetching a paramedic, Tim started to stir.
Jason sat up, ready to greet him, but startled when Tim cried out in pain. The kid clutched his chest and cried out again.
Jason quickly tried to sit him up, grabbing his arms.
“S— stop,” Tim hissed through his teeth, swatting his hands away. “Go ‘way.”
Jason moved back, concern bleeding through every tissue in his body. “Stray, it’s me,” he tried.
Tim opened his eyes a crack and peered at Jason. “Robin,” he said quietly.
At least he knew who he was. And he had recovered enough to use codenames. “Hey, baby bird. How are you doing?”
Tim sat up slowly, shifting his arms from clutching his chest to folding them. “Hurts. Spinning.”
“I bet. We think you have a concussion.”
Tim looked around, wincing at something. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. Jason unclipped his cape to put on Tim, when the kid made a small, breathless pained noise. Jason turned to where Tim’s line of sight was and saw the Joker grinning at the kid, looking right into his eyes.
Jason moved in front of Tim to block his vision and sent a glare the clown’s way. He draped his cape on top of Tim, adjusting it so it was covering him fully. “When we go home, you’re going straight to the med bay for Alfred to look you over,” Jason declared.
Tim was now looking at Ivy being hauled into the truck, something flickering in his eyes. Then he turned away and faced Jason. “What about my back?” he asked.
Jason clenched his jaw again and fussed with the cape. “I… I took the shards out. I can help rewrap your bandages after Alfred’s done.”
“Thank you.”
There was nothing else left to do with the cape now. Jason rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “How’s the concussion?” He changed the topic.
Tim frowned. “What were the symptoms of a concussion again?”
“Uh…” Jason blinked. “Temporary loss of consciousness, headache, dizziness, nausea or vomiting, slurred speech.”
“Yep, I have a concussion,” Tim nodded a bit too quickly.
“Alright?” Jason arched an eyebrow.
Nightwing, Batman and Batgirl approached them.
“Ready to go?” Bruce asked.
Tim nodded, sliding off the table. “Ow!” he exclaimed, as if suddenly noticing the cuts on his lower body (and back).
“We’ll get that sorted soon, don’t worry,” Dick reassured.
Tim gave a wobbly smile.
They bid goodbye to Barbara and piled into the Batmobile. Jason ignored the passenger seat in favor of sitting beside Tim in the back. Dick did the same. Throughout the short journey, Tim kept dozing off then snapping back up, leaning away from them. He also started trembling.
“Do you have a fever?” Dick asked, when Tim had nearly leaned on him, but pushed back into the seat again.
“I— I think so.”
Dick offered a hug, a tradition of theirs which they tried to enforce at every small chance.
To Jason’s surprise, Tim shook his head. “Glass cuts,” he explained.
They arrived at the Cave and Tim stumbled out of the car. Bruce caught him to steady him, but Tim quickly pulled his hand away, walking straight to the med bay.
Alfred clucked his tongue in sympathy when he saw Tim and immediately brought out the supplies needed. He determined that the cuts weren’t deep enough for bandages, which was a lucky miracle.
“How did you get yourself into this mess, Master Tim?” Alfred asked, dabbing the wet cloth on the last of the bloody nicks on his arms. Tim had insisted from the start that he didn’t want to show his bare chest to people, so Alfred trusted him to clean the ones on his upper body himself as Jason had already taken the glass out.
Tim put a hand on his head, as if trying to recall something. His memory must still be slow then. “I… One of the street kids came to me and told me that Joker still had the gas from ages ago. I tried to follow you, but then saw Ivy attacking the Joker. I knew that if she managed to kill Joker and if Bruce and Jason had already been caught in his trap, then there would be no way to get them out. So I, uh, interrupted them.”
“That’s a dick move,” Jason said.
Dick folded his arms. “Do you mean that as something I would do or is that an insult?”
Jason smirked. “Keep guessing.”
Tim continued. “Joker got away while I was… talking with Ivy and she let me travel with her underground to where the Joker had his new hideout—the recently closed down mall. He saw us and Ivy bought me time to run, but the door was rigged and I got caught in the explosion, and… you know the rest.”
Alfred shone a light into his eyes and Tim immediately squeezed them close. “I need to check for a concussion, Master Tim.”
“Wait,” Tim said, pushing Alfred’s hand away.
“Wait for what?”
Tim’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and he muttered “sorry” before blacking out.
Jason quickly caught him.
The four looked at each other. The kid had just asked them to wait just to pass out.
When they checked that nothing else was wrong with Tim, Jason volunteered to stay with him for the first watch. He tried to knee Dick before the man left as punishment for not even protesting to stay with Tim. Dick retaliated with a sweeping foot. Alfred stopped them with a light cough before it turned into a spar.
“It’s what little brothers do,” Jason protested.
“I don’t see Master Tim doing it,” Alfred replied calmly, putting away the band aids box.
“That’s because Tim’s still training to be a little brother. Wait till he grows up a little more with us, he’ll be stealing hoodies and making sarcastic remarks all the time.”
Alfred ruffled his hair and Tim’s before leaving. Bruce was still looking over Tim, Jason didn’t know what for.
“You good there, B?” he asked.
Bruce narrowed his eyes and turned to him. “Ivy was trying to tell us something before Joker hit her with one of the broken drones on the ground. She was saying something about Tim.”
“What was it?” Jason questioned, his interest piquing.
“Didn’t manage to catch the whole thing,” Bruce muttered. “But I think Tim was with her before they came to the mall. The ground was a little shaken up inside. I had blamed that on the explosion.”
Jason hummed with interest. “I’ll keep an eye on him, Bruce. Don’t worry.”
Bruce didn’t look too convinced. “Tim… could be hiding something. Fainting twice isn’t common.”
Jason grimaced. “Look, if something bothered him, he would tell us. He’s starting to open up more lately, right? He asked you for help with one of his coding programmes just last week. He’ll tell us if something was seriously wrong.”
“I hope so,” Bruce mumbled. He sighed and pulled back the hair from Tim’s face and left.
Jason hid a smile. The man was behaving more fatherly everyday.
-------------------------------------
Jason was peacefully reading Reddit stories when the boy in his arms rolled off the bed, toppling to the ground and screaming, startling Jason enough to drop his phone.
He swiped his phone from the floor and leapt off the cot. “Tim! You airhead, why did you roll off like that?”
Tim opened his mouth to answer, when his pupils constricted and he turned to the side and heaved.
“Shit,” Jason exclaimed through his teeth. He quickly sent a text to the groupchat with the others to get down to the Cave, then put a calm hand on Tim’s back.
Tim flinched and shuffled away, shaking his head. “S— sorry,” he croaked before he turned and puked again.
Jason grimaced in sympathy and reached out to put another hand on his back, but stopped. Tim wasn’t liking any touch at the moment. That was fine. Jason had other things to address first.
Confirming that Tim wasn’t going to puke anymore, he cleared his throat. “Okay, here’s the thing. B and D are going to be here in a minute. A is preparing your bed right now, but he’ll be down soon enough. Now before you offer, I’m going to tell you right now and I’m going to say it as many times as needed: you don’t need to clean anything up. You’re sick, and that’s what we’ll concentrate on first.” They had done this rodeo before, when Tim had acquired a stomach bug and accidently missed the toilet and tried to clean it up immediately after.
This time, Tim rubbed his eyes and nodded. He turned and retched again, but nothing came out. He had cleared all of his stomach’s contents. This was one serious concussion.
Footsteps alerted the arrival of Bruce, Dick, and Alfred. Tim had started shaking again and was biting his lip, looking worriedly at the mess and trying not to cry. Bruce immediately picked him up to carry him to his room; a more familiar environment. Tim looked like he was about to resist, but gave up, sinking into Bruce.
Jason followed them, opening doors for them to pass through, while Dick stayed back to help Alfred clean up. They arrived at the bedroom and Bruce put Tim straight onto the bed.
As soon as he left Bruce’s arms, Tim let out a scream. A scream that sounded like he was in pain.
Bruce frowned with unease. “Was there something in the explosion that’s causing all this pain?”
Tim shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut. He turned his back to them and covered himself with blankets.
“Tim?” Bruce asked, now fully concerned. “Tim?”
Tim didn’t answer.
“Tim, chum?”
“I jus’ wan’na sleep,” he rasped quietly.
Jason was about to outright demand what was going on, when Bruce stopped him with a look. He shook his head and pointed to the door. Jason scowled at him, but Bruce stayed firm. Giving the order like they were on the field.
Jason scoffed and left the room.
Bruce followed him and shut the door behind him. “Not here,” he said when Jason opened his mouth to talk. Jason stomped out of the hallway and reached the family room where Dick and Alfred were now sitting, having cleared the mess.
“I think Tim’s been cuddle pollened,” Bruce announced once everyone was seated.
Jason straightened from where he was sulking on the couch chair. “What?”
“He has the same symptoms you did before and he was with Ivy when we found him.”
“But Bruce,” Dick said. “He would tell us if—”
“Would he?”
Jason thought back to all the times Tim had hidden major instances like injuries and feelings from them. “But he’s been getting better at it,” Jason refuted. “He’s been— he’s been asking us stuff.” And he had trust.
“Jason,” Bruce sighed, sitting down on a chair. “What symptoms did you experience again?”
“Cold when there wasn’t any touch.”
Bruce nodded, prompting him on.
“Uh, trembling, blacking out, feverish chills and…” Jason’s eyes widened. “Vomiting.”
“Exactly. Tim doesn’t want us to know that he got hit with cuddle pollen and is hiding it.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense, B,” Dick shook his head. “Just a week ago he was telling Jason off, so far as to build a prank for him because he got cuddle pollened, why would he not tell us now? Not to mention that he’s regularly holding his arms out for a hug now.”
“I’m glad we’re able to reverse some of the wrong things his parents taught him, but remember that this is all second nature to him. Tim’s used to hiding things.”
“Just like Chalk,” Jason muttered quietly. Just like his parents.
Jason groaned and put his head in his hands. He really thought they were getting somewhere. He really thought that he had actually managed to help Tim. Actually managed to make him believe that he was safe here. That he had them as a safe place. As a family. But Tim, that stupid, genius yet idiotic and neglected kid, was still struggling to believe them. And they didn’t even know.
“But Bruce,” Jason suddenly stuck up. “If he really was cuddle pollened then he would be dead by now. I felt like I was about to die just around two hours after getting blasted. It’s been more than that now.”
“Cuddle pollen causes a person to become touch-starved,” Alfred interrupted. “In a greater length of course, but what if that person already is?”
Jason jumped up. “We gotta go up to him right now!”
“Now hold on a minute, Jay,” Bruce said. “You’re going to freak Tim out even more. He’s already scared and pushing him would only make him crawl back into the shell we coaxed him out of.”
“So what?” Jason put his hands on his hip. “We wait until he actually tells us?”
Bruce and Dick spared a glance at each other. “I’d say give him a chance,” Dick agreed.
Jason did not like that idea. “But if—”
“Jason,” Bruce said patiently. “We all want to help Tim. The best way to do it is to let him come to us. You can’t force a child who doesn’t know the concept of family to suddenly be pulled into one and expect him to right away feel like one. We’re not Tim’s family. Not yet anyway.”
“Like I said,” Dick put a hand on his shoulder. “Give him a chance.”
Jason chewed on his lip. “Fine, but I’m gonna be standing in front of his door, ready to bust in.”
Dick snorted. “You think you’re the only one, pipsqueak?”
Jason scowled at him. “Tim’s the pipsqueak.”
So they nervously stood outside Tim’s room. Jason pacing while Dick was sitting and Bruce was staring blankly at the door.
Jason wanted nothing more than just to seize Tim right there and then and pull him in a hug. He knew how much cuddle pollen hurt. He couldn’t just be sitting outside and waiting for something to happen. But he trusted Bruce. The man had emotional repression issues, but when it came to taking care of kids… Jason trusted him. Adding on to the fact that Tim seemed to be more like Bruce than any of them. The Justice League once had actually mistaken him for one of Bruce’s sons.
A few minutes passed when Jason’s ears caught something. “Do you hear that?” he asked the other two.
Bruce and Dick paused, looking up.
Muffled noises were coming from the room, sounding too much like sobs. Jason put a step closer to the door, when a scream broke out, freezing all three of them in place.
Before Jason could even digest what he had heard, another scream rang through the door. A scream full of pain. Tim was screaming in pain. Because of the pollen. It was hurting him. He was screaming in pain.
Jason didn’t move for several moments out of shock. Then ignoring all thoughts about trust in his head, he marched forward, reaching out towards the door.
“Jason—”
“I can’t do this anymore!” he yelled, pushing open the door with more force than what was necessary.
He ignored Bruce’s quiet murmur of “I was about to say okay anyway” and stomped straight towards Tim. The absolute dumbass of a kid was huddled in blankets, shivering and casting his teary eyes towards them.
Jason roughly threw the blankets off to sit on his bed and pull Tim in his arms, wrapping him in the hug that he had so desperately been wishing to give him.
"You're a real shit for hiding the fact that you got cuddle-pollened.” he choked, trying to hide the worry and fear in his voice. “A real shit."
Unexpectedly, Tim didn’t melt into his arms like he usually did. He tensed up. “Jason, let me go,” he said.
“No.” He held onto Tim tighter. Fuck if he was gonna let go of the kid now.
“Jason,” the kid had the audacity to say in a warning tone.
“Tim, please shut the fuck up.” His frustration built up at Tim’s resistance and fear went along with it. So much that he couldn’t help but yell, “It’s clear that all of this is hurting you! Tim—” his voice cracked, “You were screaming.”
Not wanting to dwell on that horrid fact, he pressed his nose against Tim’s hair and reached out to run his fingers through it. The second time he ran his hand through his curls, Tim sobbed. He sobbed again. Then he couldn’t stop.
“I’m sorry,” the little bird whimpered. “I’m sorry. I’m— I’m s—” Tim hurled. He gagged, but nothing came out. Jason loosened his grip a little, getting increasingly concerned. But he would amend that. He was planning on amending everything.
Jason shushed him when Tim took a breath, running his hand through his hair. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
“Jason,” Tim whimpered again. “It hurts. Everything. It hurts. I— I thought—”
Jason looked over when he felt two more presences approach them. Dick and Bruce shuffled them over and joined the hug.
Tim hissed in pain. “I’m sorry,” he blubbered. “I’m so sorry.”
Jason turned to Dick and Bruce, exchanging a glance between all of them to convey one message: Apologies later, cuddles now.
They shifted around, still hugging Tim, but lay down on the bed, turning it into a proper cuddle pile.
“How’s this now?” Jason asked.
Tim squeezed his eyes shut and let out a pained noise. “I’m sorry,” he said in a small voice. “It— it still— hurts.”
Jason frowned. That wasn’t right. It should be feeling good now. The warmth should be sweeping in to replace the jittering cold, not causing more pain. “What do you mean it still hurts?”
“The— the cold. It’s like— like stabbing.”
The cold should be gone by now. “That’s not right,” Jason whispered out his thoughts. His grip on Tim slackened.
“I’m sorry,” Tim squeaked once more.
Jason looked up worryingly at Bruce. He could feel Dick behind him loosen his grip too. Bruce looked back with hard, but reassuring eyes. “It’ll be okay,” he said, leaving where Jason left off and stroking Tim’s hair.
“It burns,” Tim gasped again. “I’m sorry, but it burns.”
“What burns?” Dick asked.
“Touch.”
Dick’s arm under Jason’s head tensed up, so did the rest of his body. “That’s really not right.”
“It’ll be okay,” Bruce pressed on. “It’ll be okay.”
Jason glimpsed at him, trying to discern what he was saying. Bruce landed his determined eyes on him, sending a message to his Robin-trained communication cues. A look that told Robin on the field when to reassure a panicked victim.
Jason understood. Tim was already freaked out. Hearing comments about something not being right with him would freak him out even more into something dangerous. The cuddle pollen making touch burn the victim’s skin was not normal, it was the opposite—it was disturbing. But they had to calm Tim down first. They had to make sure that he felt safe before deciding to do anything more.
“He’s right,” Jason said. He brought his thumb to draw lines on a side of Tim’s face, remembering the times it had calmed him down before. “You just need to get used to it.” He hoped that was it.
Touch starvation meant that a person was in need of touch. So when cuddle pollen was in effect, that would mean that a touch-starved person’s need for touch wouldn’t be quenched so easily. Jason just hoped that their guess was right and didn’t lead to something else.
Dick relaxed behind him and leaned over Jason to press a kiss on Tim’s forehead. Jason ran continuous lines, brushing away whatever tears were on Tim’s face and Bruce continued his hair stroking.
Jason could feel Dick wanting to do something of the sort, but he elbowed his ribs, warning him to stop tensing up. Two at a time was enough. He could wait his turn.
An hour slowly passed and Jason felt himself lazing in a fog of comfort. Gosh, they should do cuddle piles more often. Even Bruce had fallen asleep.
“How’re you going now, Tim?” Bruce asked, a moment after waking up from his nap.
“Good,” Tim answered.
Dick pinched his cheek, calling him out, “How are you really feeling?”
Tim smiled faintly. “It doesn’t hurt as much.”
Relief flooded Jason and he sighed in contempt. He managed to scrounge a small pint of worry to ask, “Still hurts though?”
Tim, like the stupid liar he is, replied, “Not really.”
Dick shook his head. “Tim…”
Tim sighed, biting his lip with concern. “Yes,” he admitted in a small whisper.
Dick exchanged a glance with Jason before urging, “Quick! Cuddle harder!”
They immediately pressed even closer to Tim.
Tim laughed. “I love you,” he said. Then his eyes widened, as if just realizing what words his tongue had just formed.
Something warm and tingly filled Jason and a clog in his throat threatened to spill tears. Jason flicked his forehead in response. A much kinder teasing than what Tim had done to him last week. “Why didn’t you say anything before, Timbit?”
Tim pursed his lips and shook his head.
“Tim?”
He shook his head again, more frantically this time.
“We won’t be mad, Tim,” Dick reasoned.
Tim still shook his head.
Jason opened his mouth, about to demand an answer that wouldn’t worry them even more when Bruce interrupted. “It’s okay,” he said, as assertively as before.
Jason was going to stuff his “it’s okay”s down his throat if it weren’t so useful. He narrowed his eyes and settled down.
Tim was still shaking and shivering under their arms, soft trembles against their steady hands, putting out as much touch as possible. Jason recalled the time when he had gone too long with cuddle pollen.
The pollen had a tendency to pierce into your skin, entering your pores and staying there until it was either broken down into the skin or was taken out by Ivy herself. Bruce had noted that the pollen interrupted nerve signals and sent a message that there was nonexistent ice on the skin to the brain and the only way to solve it would be body heat from human contact. If the need wasn’t met, then the signals would be interpreted as pain, resulting in blackouts, vomiting, shivering, and fever.
Out of all of Ivy’s crazy powers, cuddle pollen somehow found itself at the top of the list. The victim wouldn’t actually be dying, but they survived by a hair’s breadth. The symptom that sucked the most was the cold, the overburdening, overwhelming cold. And there was no other way to cure it. No other possible way to cure it. The pollen needed warmth, it needed touch.
And with people like Tim, criminally deprived of touch, maybe the victims really would die.
Damn it, when would the kid learn? Jason didn’t know whether to throttle him or bubble wrap him. He settled for tightening his grip on Tim’s waist and shifting to put his head on his shoulder. He hoped Tim would get better soon. He needed to come up with a way to firmly screw into his head never to repeat this stunt ever again.
Or maybe…
Hadn’t Tim enacted his “revenge” on Jason just a while ago as punishment for him jumping into the line of fire. And hadn’t Jason planned another revenge of his own?
“Well, you still need to be taught a lesson,” Jason commented.
Everyone turned to him in bafflement. Jason locked his eyes with Tim. Tim looked down guiltily.
“What lesson?” Bruce asked slowly.
Jason smirked. He put two fingers on Tim’s arm and walked them all the way to his armpit. Then he dug his fingers in and started tickling him.
Tim roared with laughter, squirming like a slippery eel, and trying to push away his hands. Dick joined in, making it especially difficult for Tim to escape. Bruce just smiled and went on petting Tim’s hair.
Tim subconsciously drew towards Bruce’s hand, to get as much touch as possible. Jason laughed out loud at the action, but Tim laughed louder.
“Stop!” Tim managed to giggle, out of breath. “Stop! Stop!”
“Promise never to hide serious stuff like this then.”
Tim huffed and zipped his mouth shut in a feeble act of protest, but exploded with another giggle as Dick poked his neck.
God, the kid was so ticklish.
“Alright!” Tim gave in. “Okay! I won’t hide serious things like this from you anymore.”
Jason and Dick exchanged a glance and nodded, ceasing their torture.
Alfred entered a moment later. “A little warning as to how long you would be here would have been good,” he complained. “I would have then made dinner later.”
“Sorry Alfred,” the four of them chorused.
Alfred shook his head and approached them. He pulled Tim’s hair back and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Sleep well, Master Tim.”
Tim gave a smile. When Alfred left, he let out a relieved sigh.
Jason automatically felt a smile on his face. He saw them on Dick and Bruce too.
“That’s creepy.”
Jason stuck his tongue out at Tim.
They nodded off soon after.
-------------------------------------------
Tim gasped, pulling Jason out from his groggy slumber.
“‘S the matter?” Dick asked, his voice thick with sleep.
Jason whined, he was tired. He wanted to sleep. He pulled Tim closer to himself.
“It doesn’t hurt now!” Tim said victoriously. “The pollen’s gone!”
All the memories of last night’s events came crashing into him. The explosion, the screams of pain, the thrown away trust. Jason felt his worried anger build up again.
“That’s great, Tim,” Bruce said.
“You’re so happy now,” Jason murmured. “But why didn’t you ask us for help before?” Jason was scared. Tim had been sobbing and screaming. That’s how intense the pain was and they hadn’t even guessed until the last minute. He shuddered to think what would have happened if they hadn’t arrived when they did.
He cracked open his eyes a little to see Tim, only to have him grimace with guilt. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Jason sighed with exasperation and turned to face Bruce. The kid didn’t even know what he was apologizing for.
Bruce pursed his lips. “I have a Wayne Enterprises meeting today.”
“Amy asked me to fill in for a sick officer,” Dick sighed.
Jason nodded with understanding. He purposefully made his voice solemn. “We have school.”
Tim sagged in misery, nodding.
Surely the idiot didn’t think they would actually make him go to school after everything?
Jason shifted a little, to grab Tim’s attention. He looked up and stared at them three. Jason tightened his gesture, sending as many non-verbal signals as possible to Tim. Bruce and Dick were doing the same.
At the corner of his eye, Jason saw Tim open his mouth. He immediately turned to him, urging him on.
“Will— will you— I—” Tim gulped. “The after effects are still— still here. Can you… um, cuddle— I mean, stay with me? Please?”
Jason smiled and leaned forward on him. “Seeing since you asked,” Jason said proudly “I can't see why not.”
Tim smiled back.