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Tim didn’t expect anyone else to be awake.
It was almost four in the morning and everyone else had long since crashed after patrol. Tim, however, was struggling to get his brain to shut off long enough to get some sleep. Contrary to popular belief, Tim didn't avoid sleep. It just didn’t come to him easily.
His solution to that was to brew a cup of coffee and get some work done, so he was at least being useful instead of wasting time staring at his ceiling. He didn’t even like coffee that much, he just didn’t want to be stuck in a weird haze until he had to be up in the morning.
As he reached for the coffee grounds, the kitchen light came on. He froze.
“Drake.” Tim sighed.
“Damian. Why are you awake?” He watched Damian shuffle slightly out of the corner of his eye and sit himself stiffly at the table as he pulled a cup down from the cupboard.
“I could ask you the same thing.” Tim paused. Damian sounded… different. Less stuck up and angry and more… unsure. Tim placed the cup on the counter and paused what he was doing, turning around to face Damian. After looking at him for a moment, Tim put the coffee grounds away.
“Hot chocolate?” Damian nodded slightly, so he pulled out a small pot and poured in milk to heat up. He didn’t press. Damian usually talked more if you pretended you didn’t care. Finally, Damian spoke without looking at him.
“Everyone has been… cheerful.” He hesitated. “Father, Grayson, even Todd. It is… strange. Unsettling.” Tim hummed, poured milk into two mugs and mixed in the hot chocolate mix.
“It’s the holidays.” He said. “People try extra hard to be happy.” He kept his voice neutral. Damian’s fingers tapped lightly on the table, nodding in thanks as Tim placed a mug in front of him. Tim let him sit in silence, waiting for him to speak again.
“I don’t understand it. Any of it. The traditions. The decorations. The meals.” Damian mumbled out. Tim watched as he fiddled with the handle on the mug. “It is… unfamiliar to me.”
“Holiday dysphoria.” Tim joked, trying to ease the tension that was starting to form as Damian let more words slip. “Classic.” Damian frowned.
“I do not-”
“It’s okay.” Tim cut him off. “I get it. Really.” He wrapped his hand around his own mug, pausing. “When I was younger,” Tim said, deciding to get a bit serious, “My parents were never home for Christmas. They traveled a lot. I’d wake up alone in a big house with a tree they had hired someone else to decorate and presents our housekeeper bought. Everyone assumed I had this perfect holiday life, little rich kid with his rich parents, but it always felt… fake.”
Damian shifted so he was looking at Tim. He continued.
“When I came here and the whole family did stuff together? I didn’t know what to do either. I felt out of place. Like I was messing up something special. Like I was intruding on something I shouldn’t be.”
“I do not wish to ruin anything.” Damian whispered.
“You’re not ruining anything.” Tim said firmly. Like he wished someone had reassured him when he was younger. “You’re learning it. That’s different.”
“We did not do holiday celebrations with the league.” Damian admitted. “And the year that father was gone… Richard wasn’t in a festive mood. It is loud. All the emotions. Even father and Todd are not fighting right now.”
“Yeah.” Tim gave a small smile. “Everyone else has nostalgia. Remembering the good days when Dick and Jason were younger and everyone still got along. You and me? We’re kind of building it from scratch.” The tension in Damian’s shoulders eased slightly.
“What if I do not enjoy the holiday the same way they do?” He asked. “What if I disappoint them?”
“You won’t.” Tim swore. “You just being there will mean a lot to them.” Damian took a slow sip of his hot chocolate.
“Tolerable.” He said. Tim picked up on his unspoken words.
“That’s the spirit.” They drank in silence for a while, enjoying the quiet. Once they were both done, Tim grabbed the mugs to wash them in the sink. When Damian finally stood to go back to bed, he paused in the doorway.
“Timothy.” He said quietly. “Thank you.” Tim nodded with a small smile.
“Anytime. Holidays are weird. We can be confused together.” Damian huffed slightly before leaving the room. Tim finished washing the few dishes before drying his hands, and headed back up to his room to try and get to sleep again.
Maybe hot chocolate and the chat with Damian would be enough to get him to fall asleep.