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It was months before things mostly went back to normal. Keyword being mostly.
Jason was categorically refusing to go to the manor, unless it was to drop Tim off after their movie nights (the fact that those were still going still had him reeling). He had gotten less strict about the Bats in Crime Alley, but all interactions with the Big B himself were kept purely professional, and he always hid whenever Nightwing came around. He specifically said Robin was welcome, so Tim was usually the one coming by to trade intel.
Steph had recently been Robin for a second there, for a moment in the brief interval where they were dating. At first it made him all anxious, but ultimately, they talked it out. After that, she got her own mantle: Spoiler, specifically to spoil her father’s plans as Cluemaster. Still made him anxious, but ehh, he knew her well enough by now not to try and stop her. He introduced her to Jason instead, and he agreed to help train her. She got to try Jason’s waffles, too, and had promptly decided to force herself into a handful of their movie nights from then on. Not that Tim minded all that much, though she did let him have his hero brother to himself from time to time.
She had long since apologized for his sixteenth birthday. She had apologized as soon as she could, even. That’s more than Bruce did. Still.
But even Bruce had changed. He was looking at him a little less like a placeholder. A little less like he saw a stranger wearing his dead son’s clothes.
When he said ‘Robin’, it started to feel like he meant him.
At some point, they had picked up a new family member. Cassandra Cain, who had saved Commissioner Gordon and then promptly took them all down in about thirty seconds. Tim, Jason, and Steph immediately took to helping her learn to communicate, though at some point she had picked up the various Bat codes, so that was a pretty good place to start. She was learning fast, and was already fluent in ASL– which most of the family knew. She was abroad on another case right now, though. Steph went with her.
So it was just the boys at the manor for now.
Oh, and Tim’s Uncle Eddie plan fell through. Which kinda sucked, to be honest, but also kinda rocked? He wasn’t sure how he felt about it. He was just kind of doing his best.
Jason made him get an allergy test. Turns out pumpkin seeds were fine, but sunflower seeds were not. He was allergic to bananas, apparently, just, like, not enough to really hurt him unless he ate three in one go. Alfred raised an eyebrow when Tim reached for one later that day, but didn’t stop him.
Right now, Tim was in the darkroom (he was about 74% sure the manor hadn’t had a darkroom before he moved in full time, but then again, he was also about 6% convinced the manor was, like, sentient), developing a few of the photos he never got the chance to back home.
Someone knocked on the door. It was nice to be in a house with people that had good photo etiquette. He carefully blocked the photos he was working on so they wouldn’t be ruined by the light.
“Come in.”
Alfred stepped through the door and greeted him, carefully closing it behind him so he wouldn’t disturb the process.
“Hey Alfred.” Tim said, carefully leaning against the counter so he didn’t damage anything.
“I wanted to ask what you’d like for dinner.”
“Anything’s good. Everything you make’s always perfect.”
“Thank you, master Tim, but every week I make a point of making a favorite recipe for someone in the manor. It is your turn this week.”
Tim stopped. Looked at the ground.
It always felt weird when they acknowledged that he was living here full-time.
“I don’t know.” He tried to say. “Anything’s fine.”
“I’ve been raising Bruce since he was a boy, master Tim. I know a lie when I hear one.” Alfred says, not unkindly, his eyebrow raised.
Tim looked at the photo negatives that were hanging to dry. All of them were either of one or more of the Bats, or of the city of Gotham from above.
“…One of my nannies used to make baked mac and cheese.” He said quietly.
“Is that what you’d like?”
Tim nodded, still not looking at Alfred.
“Then that is what we’ll have for dinner.”
He protected his photos as Alfred left the darkroom, securely closing the door behind him.
It still felt strange to be counted as family.
(He left the room before he started crying. He didn’t want to risk the salt from his tears ruining his developing solution, even if he wasn’t dumb enough to cry on his precious negatives.)
Alfie invited Jason for dinner.
Jason gets these invites a lot, but usually he makes an excuse for why he can’t go. Until last week, when he said honestly that if he saw Bruce that day, he was going to break something.
But this week, Alfie mentioned that it was the dish made at Tim’s request.
That shouldn’t mean much, right? It was just dinner. Alfred does this for everyone.
But it was also the first time he’d done it for Tim.
It’s stupid. Jason shouldn’t be wanting to go over something as simple as this. And he was still pissed at Bruce. For more reasons, this time.
He was pretty sure he hadn’t apologized to Tim yet.
But somehow, he found himself parking his bike in the family garage, leaving his helmet there.
And now he’s in the kitchen, washing the dishes for Alfie while the food was in the oven, just like he used to do because he couldn’t stand not helping.
Apparently Dickface wasn’t able to make it, and Tim needed a buffer between him and Bruce. Steph and Cass were still in Hong Kong, so it was just Tim, Bruce, and Alfred in the manor.
Well. And Jason.
He took a deep breath as the oven timer dinged. The entree had been the only part of the meal left to cook, so now it’s time to face the music, huh?
Tim’s eyes lit up when Jason entered the dining room. He looked so excited. That instantly made this worth it.
“Listen.” Jason started when Bruce opened his mouth to talk. “We’re not talking shop. We won’t bring up the clown. And no one’s gonna mention Ethiopia. I’m here for Tim. We are going to sit down, eat dinner, and talk about regular family things. Okay?”
Bruce nodded.
Good.
Jason sat down.
Bruce just watched as Jason and Tim started talking about photography, Tim excitedly explaining a new technique he just learned as he enjoyed Alfred’s cooking.
He had known Tim was interested in photography, of course. But he hadn’t known just how passionate he truly was.
After that night in crime alley, when Tim had snuck off to gather intel, he had stopped seeing Jason whenever he looked at Tim. Not because it wasn’t something Jason would do– no, that kind of behavior was very in-character for every robin, Stephanie included– but because Tim’s hunch had been right. Bruce had been certain that Sionis wasn’t involved, but then one of Jason’s– no, Hood’s– people had found him as Batman to give him the information she’d gathered on the docks.
And now, he just kept noticing the differences.
Not the way he used to, when he was living in guilt and mourning, but in a whole new light.
Tim hated school where Jason had loved it- he simply wasn’t challenged by it.
Tim had blended into the shadows in a way Jason hadn’t- as if he belonged there, the bright colors doing little to hinder his stealth.
Tim was assertive in the few ways Jason wasn’t- dragging Bruce to get some sleep whenever he stretched himself a little too thin.
Tim’s eyes stuck on details to put together a puzzle, where Jason had always seen the bigger picture. Tim’s smile at galas was perfectly practiced where Jason had always had the same rough toothy grin. Tim’s mind moved from one thing to the next so quickly, it was almost hard to follow his process, where Jason would mutter to himself as he thought things through.
All his Robins were brilliant, but Tim was a genius. He didn’t know how he hadn’t seen it before.
Now Tim was talking about a friend he had met, a boy named Bernard. He was complaining, but his eyes shone bright with an excitement Bruce hadn’t seen… ever, really.
…He should probably talk to Dinah about a therapist.