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This would almost be funny if Jason didn't know how overwhelmed Tim was.
He could see it in the way Tim's eyes darted around the room, surprising to Jason because Jason had always been so sure that Tim was good at the whole 'fake it 'til you make it' deal that came from working in the company.
The grand spectacle that was Gotham's Tech Awards was something that Jason himself had struggled to take in when they'td first stepped up to the building in the first place. He didn't know how Tim could deal with all the excess and suffocating opulence; something that Jason had to chalk up to most of the tech companies being run by excessive billionaires.
Tim had invited him and Dick to the awards ceremony the day before. After a night of patrol, with nothing too interesting happening, Tim had sprung the idea out into the atmosphere. "Because awards aren't fun," Tim had told them, "Awards aren't fun. They're long and boring and I don't want to be all alone with all those eyes on me." Which was valid, quite honestly; Jason wasn't sure how he'd respond if the roles were reversed but he did know that the concept of being stared at by jealous tech company moguls for winning an award they most definitely believed they deserved more would drive Jason up a wall. And--forget it--Jason would have something to say about it if it were him.
Tim was much the same, but the only difference is that he had to keep up appearances: he was one of the heads of development for Bruce. So, here they are. Dick and Jason took a seat at the table reserved for Wayne Enterprises personnel where Tim had already been seated. Tim looked like he'd been just about to throw up and—in the moment—Jason wished nothing more than to take the anxiety and the stress of this entire ordeal away from him but he didn't know how he could. The only thing that he could give that wasn't wildly overstepping in a public was reassureance.
So he does.
He couldn't help himself; Jason scoots his chair closer to Tim and places a hand on his own. It was obscured by the tablecloth, but Jason takes Tim's hand and squeezes it tightly. A piece of reassurance, Jason can't help but think. Dick looks at them both like he knew what was happening, smiling at him. They stay like that for hours, fingers enterlaced while the ceremony started.
It felt likeforever until the award Tim had been up for came up. The 'Tech For Good' award was what Tim had been up for based on the predictive analytics software he'd developed.
Jason remembered when Tim had been working on this, funnily enough. Tim had came home from patrol one night heartbroken at the fact that he'd seen so many homeless kids on the street—kids who hadn't stood chance. A lot of them had been teens thrown into an unfortunate situation —much like all of them had been in their lives. It was a particular ache that Never truly left, stood lingering and potent and sad.
Tim wanted to make their lives better. And, in his infinite smarts and unwillingness to give up, he did.
Jason knew Tim didn't do it for the bragging rights, so this award ceremony had been so out of his depth that it made him nervous to even be here. They'd been in the process of listing out all the nominees and Jason could tell that Tim had been nervous.
That fact had been accentuated by Tim blinking at him.
In something akin to morse code.
"You alright, Timbit?" Jason asks quietly, with Tim's hand still in his own. He smoothes his thumb over Tim's knuckles in an attempt to reassure him that everything would be okay.
"I feel like I'm gonna barf, Jason,"Tim says. The award presenter goes through the list of nominees one more time before announcing the winner—
And Tim's name had been called. There had been applause and Tim had been brought up onto the stage as quickly as his name had been called. It was a blur after that, but one thing is for sure: Jason had been super proud of him.