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Tim couldn’t look at Jason the same after that. In fact, he couldn’t look at him at all.
He also couldn’t look at the kid, y’know, Damian.
He felt terrible. The brat- the kid walked in on them. He couldn’t leave his room. It would just be too awkward.
He might as well just kill himself. No one will miss him anyways.
He quickly scratches that thought out. No. He wanted to keep living. For Gotham. For himself too, but mainly for Gotham. He couldn’t abandon the people.
God.
Alfred had been bringing him his food lately, leaving it by the door and adding notes saying, “Master Timothy, won’t you join us for dinner sometime? It’s been an awfully quiet without you. ~Alfred.”
He hated Jason so much right now. How could he? They were practically brothers. So why? Poor Damian.
He decided the best thing to do to get rid of these thoughts was to just cry himself to sleep again. He knew he should go into the city and protect people, but he just couldn’t face his family. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
٩( ᐛ )و
Dick was starting to get worried.
His little brother had been locked away in his room for about a week now. His other brother, Jason, told him to not worry about it. Since he was with Damian all the time, he asked what he thought. He usually just went pale and tried to change the subject. He also got nervous every time Jason came around, it seemed.
It’s like the whole family changed a week ago. Like an inside joke he wasn’t let in on. How did this happen?
“Alfred, I’m telling you, the kids are acting differently. Haven’t you noticed?” Dick asked one evening. Alfred nodded, looking just as worried.
“Yes, you are quite right, Master Dick. I’ve been worried and have left notes for Master Tim. He hasn’t written one back or even tried to talk to me yet. It’s rather upsetting.”
Dick nodded. “Yeah, and notice anything about Damian? He has been awfully quiet lately.”
“Yes, it’s quite strange,” Alfered remarked, looking deep in thought.
“I’ll have to talk to him tonight. I want him at breakfast tomorrow, at least,” Dick told him, looking determined.
“Good luck to you, Master Dick.”
٩( ᐛ )و
“Tim!”
No response.
“Tim,” Dick asked, knocking on his door.
“Uh- one moment!”
Tim asked through the crack in the door, quietly and almost muttering, “do you need something?”
Dick cleared his throat, smiling. “I would like for you to join the family for breakfast tomorrow. You’ve been locked in your room for a while now and I’ve been worried- we’ve been worried sick.”
After a pause, Tim lets out a shaky sigh. “I’ll try to be there. As long as I’m not close to Jason.”
Dick sigh-laughs, quickly saying, “you and your heated rivalry with Jason! Ok, I’ll make sure you two are separated. I guess…”
Tim sighs, glaring through the crack. He mumbles something, sounding like, “it isn’t that…” before closing the door once again and locking it. Dick puts his head in his hands, muttering, “what am I to do with this family?”
٩( ᐛ )و
Tim reluctantly stepped out of his room. 7:23 pm was the time his watch showed. He knew dinner was going to start soon. That meant Jason and Damian were going to be there.
“Ok, I can do this. Just go in there and keep my head down. I don’t have to interact with anyone,” Tim said to himself quietly. He had on a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, his hair combed. He looked… nice. He could do this. He could do this.
Walking toward the dining hall took longer— or felt longer— than expected. His stomach was queasy with anxiety. He felt like his head was underwater and it could burst any minute.
When he finally reached the dining hall, he was greeted by Dick and Alfred first.
“Hey, Tim, it’s nice of you to join us,” Dick says with a smile on his face. Tim looks at him and gives him a strained smile. “Come sit down.”
He felt like he was walking to his execution.
He sat down, which happened to be right across from Jason who was leaning forward, having a wry smile on his face.
“Hey Tim.”
Tim glared at him and responded with a quick “hi” before avoiding eye contact. Subtly. Very subtly.
Damian, however, stared at Tim wide eyed. He didn’t seem to get the memo that he did not want to be looked at at this current moment. And annoyingly, Jason did the same, except instead of a ghastly expression, he looked at him almost amusingly.
Dick was so confused.
“O… ‘kay, how about we start eating and stop staring! Anyone like to talk about… literally anything?” Dick said, trying and failing to ease the tension.
Jason looked at Dick for a moment and then quickly nodded, telling them a story about his expeditions as Red Hood. Tim was not listening. How could he? He just wanted to eat quickly (as to not worry Dick) and go back to his room and rot away.
He’s so caught up in his plan that he doesn’t notice Damian is gone until he feels a tap on his shoulder and flinches.
He looks up and sees-
“Damian?”
He looks down at him as Jason notices but doesn’t say anything, still talking like there’s no tomorrow.
“Uhm, yeah?” He says with more attitude that he would’ve liked.
Damian makes a ‘tch’ sound and then states that he would like to talk to Tim in private. Tim nods and gets up. Damian is now almost the same height as him. Damn this kid is sprouting up like a bean sprout, it’s so heart warmi- now’s not the time.
They go into the hallway. Tim is so happy that he’s away from Jason. This is the perfect excuse to get away from him. He then remembers that this is not perfect and is actually horrible. He now is going to be alone with Damian who walked in on them fucking. This is not great.
“Drake, we can stop here.”
There’s a little couch that they could sit on. Tim instantly goes for it but Damian stays standing up.
“What would you like to talk abou-”
“Do not play dumb, Drake, you know what we’re going to talk about.”
Tim should’ve known. In the back of his mind he knew it was this.
“The sole reason I wanted to talk to you and not Todd is because you are slightly more reasonable. You actually understand what you and him did was wrong.”
Tim looks down in shame and sighs. “Yeah, I’ve already told myself that I’m a disgusting human being multiple times, you don’t have to tell me again.”
After a moment of silence Tim feels someone plop down beside him.
“Drake- uh, Tim. You don’t have to feel this way because you made a mistake. I know this only could have happened because of Jason. We all know he’s different after what my grandfather did to him. It’s no one’s fault but Ra’s al Ghul’s and my mother’s.”
Tim looked at Damian who was now looking down in shame.
For a minute all that could be heard were their soft breathing. Then, Damian broke the silence with a sigh.
“I do hope you know that walking in on that was horrifying though.”
Tim rolled his eyes before patting Damian on the back. Damian made a ‘tch’.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been thinking about that all week.”
“Don’t let this incident distract you from crime fighting, as it is your job,” Damian says coldly.
Tim responds with an annoyed “yup” before getting up and walking back to his room. He did not want to go back to the dining hall at all.
As he was walking back, Damian called back at him.
“What do we tell Grayson?”
Shit.
He hadn’t thought of that. He sort of felt bad for him because he saw his brothers start acting differently all of a sudden with no real explanation. What do they tell him?
I mean, Jason will probably think of something. Or he might just straight tell a horrified Dick what had happened. That was not going to happen.
He quickly turned back and started speed walking back to the dining room, passing a confused Damian on the way. Damian quickly started following him in silence until they turned the corner to the dining hall.
Dick was sitting with Jason at the table as they finished up their supper.
“Oh hey, where’d y’all run off to? We’re finishing up our food. Might get seconds. Do you guys want to finish y-”
“Dick, I need to talk to you,” Tim cut him off.
Dick’s smile faded before being replaced with another one. “Of course, let’s go.”
Dick followed Tim back into the hallway while Damian stood there. Jason looked confused and then spotted Damian.
“Hey, demon child, wanna hear stories of how I single handedly stopped a mafia boss and his goons who were planning to human traffick a few people?”
Damian scoffed and sat down, glaring at Jason (as per usual). Jason took that as the go ahead and started talking to him.
^_−☆
“What d’ya want to talk to me about, Timbo?”
“I wanted to talk about why me and Jason are giving eachother death glares…” Dick arches an eyebrow before Tim clarifies, “more than usual.”
Dick slowly nods. “Ok, go ahead.”
Tim then explains that he and Jason got into a nasty fight, both saying things they shouldn’t have. Like Jason calling him a creepy stalker for following the bat family and Tim referencing his time with the Joker. Obviously all lies, but who would blame him? His brother did not need to know the truth.
“That… makes sense. I need you two to know that that isn’t ok,” Dick responds with furrowed eyebrows.
Tim nods.
“What about Dami? Why is he so put off by the both of you? Again, more than usual.”
Tim looks down in faux shame. “We tried to get him on either of our sides. He said he would not choose a side but we kept pressuring him. Of course, that made him mad at us both. We’re sorry.”
“It seems you two have made up? That’s good. What about you and Jason?”
“I think we’re probably going to make up soon. We just need some time.”
“Oh, and what was the argument about? Just curious, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
Tim thought for a moment before looking back at him. “I honestly don’t even remember it. It was something stupid.”
Dick clicks his tongue, nodding. “Most of the time arguments are caused by stupid things. Thank you for being honest with me. I hope you’ll be joining us for more dinners in the future?”
Tim feigns thinking for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, I think that sounds good. And I’ll try to not be too argumentative with Jason from now on.”
Dick smiles at him sincerely. “Thank you. Would you like to go back to your room or maybe have seconds?”
Tim smiles and responds with, “I’d love to. D’ya think we could have dessert?”
“Sure.”