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Despite his current predicament, Tim couldn't bring it to himself to feel too bad about what he did.
Not like that's good, he probably should feel some regret for what he did, but... Well, it's not like he ever claimed to be perfect.
It's not like he enjoyed getting in trouble with the school. He tried to avoid it as much as possible if he could help it, really. It was a pain to watch the office try and fail to reach his dad over and over again. The last few times, it ended with Ms. Mac having to come pick him up.
So really, it was easier to just stay in his lane and not make everyone go through the tedious process of finding a guardian. It just wasn't worth it.
Except Ms. Mac was visiting her kids outside of the city, and there wasn't exactly another guardian named in his life. Damn it, he should have taken a look at what his emergency contact list was before something like this happened. That's what he gets for procrastinating, it would seem.
Clearly, they called someone. They would have come to talk to him if they weren't able to reach anyone. He's played this song and dance a number of times before, after all.
He'd ask about it, but the dull throbbing in his face seems a lot more interesting to focus on, right now.
Oh, and Tim's crime? An argument with a senior that had quickly spiralled out of control. Which... may or may not have ended with hands being thrown.
And you know what? He isn't accepting criticism, either! He doesn't regret it, the shithead had it coming.
...Okay, maybe he was slightly regretting his choices, now that he was an hour in to sitting in the nurses office with an ice pack held to his face. But that was neither here nor there.
Ives had even sat with him for the first ten-ish minutes after the Principal had given Tim a thorough lecture before the nurse had shoed him away. It was a nice ten minutes, he was missing them dearly now that he was stuck in the tense disappointed silence of the nurses office.
He wondered if Ives would have to deal with people questioning him when he went back to class. Probably. If there 𝘸𝘢𝘴 anything he would admit to regretting, it would have to be that. The poor guy was never a fan of being overcrowded like that... he'll have to think of a way to make it up to him later.
Something about the way the nurse kept staring at him made his skin crawl, though maybe it was just the discomfort of having someone older than you being visibly disappointed in your choices.
He sank further into the chair, counting the seconds as they went by. Maybe he could hide behind his ice pack, if he positions it right... At this point, he was willing to do anything to be picked up soon. It didn't matter who it was, he just wanted—no, needed—to get out.
As it turned out, he didn't need to wait for much longer.
The first thing he registered as being distinctly 'wrong,' although the better word for it might be out of place, was the sound of heavy boots walking closer to the office.
Not strange on it's own, and neither was the small clanking sound Tim's ears strained to pick up on as the, presumably man with the sound of their heavy footsteps, got closer and closer, to the point where even the nurse was eyeing the door warily.
The door pushed open, and on the other side of it was–
Jason?
No, not Jason– well, it was Jason, but he wasn't in his civies, instead donned in the full Red Hood get up.
Oh, he was also pointing a gun at the school nurse.
Fuck.
He turned to Tim, the white lenses of his helmet seeming to bore into his skull.
"Get up," his voice was harsh through the modulator, and maybe something about the fact that he was currently armed gave it an extra edge.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
His thoughts raced a hundred miles a minute. What was Hood here for? Was... was this a kidnapping? Their relationship was rocky, at best, with everything that had happened, but he thought...
He didn't think Jason was still going to go out of his way to go after him.
Or, more accurately, he assumed.
The memory of blood and broken bones surfaced as he watched Hood threaten the terrified woman, still staring right at him.
It was sort of genius, in a sense. There was no fighting back here, not while he was Timothy Drake.
"I won't repeat myself," he snapped, making the poor nurse whimper in fear where she was huddled up against the wall.
"Okay! Okay," Tim relented, slinging his backpack over his shoulder as he stood up with his hands raised in submission, cautiously walking towards the door.
Jason grabbed him by the arm the moment he was in reach and dragged him out, and Tim sent the nurse one last apologetic look as they left. At least she wasn't being threatened anymore.
They only passed a few horrified bystanders as Hood took Tim with him, not facing any resistance when leaving the school.
Thanks, guys. Really demonstrating what this school stands for, right now. Geez.
Before he knew it, they were... in front of Jason's motorbike?
He spun Tim around, reaching into the inner lining of his pocket and crushing the small panic signal he had been waiting for the right opportunity to use.
Shit.
"Get on."
Tim shot him a strange look. "Are you... like, going to kill me, or something? I sort of thought we moved past that."
Hood stared for a long pause, before sighing, the sound probably not as harsh as the voice modulator was making it out to be.
"Get on the bike before those idiots finally have the sense to call the GCPD."
He blinked. Okay, so that wasn't a no...
It was probably in his best interest to do as the crime lord said, for now. With that reasoning he swung his leg over the bike, securing his hands on Jason's sides a little awkwardly.
"Hold on," was the only warning he got, before they proceeded to break several traffic laws in a very short amount of time.
He tried not to make too much noise as they sped through Gotham's streets, he really did! But damn it, it was like Jason wanted to give him a heart attack. And Tim's been driving since he was 14, he was well familiar with a little reckless driving.
Which... okay, maybe that made sense. He was the one being kidnapped right now.
When they finally stopped, Tim pried his eyes open hesitantly, expecting a warehouse, or maybe the edge of Gotham's harbour.
Instead, they were in front of– an ice cream store?
Jason properly parked his bike, (breaks a million traffic laws, but he respects parking? Really?) before taking his helmet off, much to Tim's surprise.
He had a domino mask on underneath, but still. Not exactly what he was expecting.
Maybe he wanted some ice cream before he dumped Tim's ass in a ditch. Or, dare he be optimistic for once in his life, he wasn't actually about to be tortured?
"Run away and I'll shoot you," he said offhandedly, glancing over his shoulder only briefly before walking towards the store.
Never mind.
The tired looking woman behind the register inside the shop didn't seem surprised as they walked in. It could mean Jason came here often enough for them to accept it, but, well. It was Gotham, so who knows.
Tim was uncertain with himself where he stood behind Jason, rocking slightly on the heels of his feet.
The older man rolled his eyes after a tense pause, grabbing him by the shoulder and shoving him forward. "Choose a flavour."
"Uh..." he blinked down at the various number of flavours. "Mint... chocolate chip...?"
Jason snorted. "'Course you'd like something like that," before saying to the woman behind the counter, "one scoop mint chocolate and one scoop of strawberry, both in cups."
"I kinda want a cone, actually–"
"I'm paying. We're getting cups."
Tim fell back into silence behind him, eyeing the other customers instead.
He could probably run away while Jason was paying. He most likely wouldn't get very far, but he could. He wasn't really excited to wait until Jason's strangely charitable mood ran out.
The other customers didn't seem very worried, only a small number walking out just as soon as they walked in.
Soon enough, they got their ice creams, and Tim followed Jason to a corner booth, where they sat across from each other.
"So like," Tim eventually spoke up, idly poking at his ice cream with a plastic spoon, "is there a particular reason you kidnapped me, or...?"
"Didn't I say I wasn't going to kill you?" Jason huffed, swallowing a mouthful of his strawberry ice cream.
"Uh, no. You just told me to get on the bike. And then you broke my panic signal."
Jason paused, thinking about it, before shrugging. "Okay, well, I'm not going to kill you."
"So you kidnapped me from school to eat... ice cream?" Tim asked dubiously.
He rolled his eyes. "God, you're dramatic. This isn't a kidnapping, either."
"You pointed a gun at the school nurse?"
"I heard you got into trouble at school. It's not like I'm on your emergency contact list, so I went with the next best thing."
"Sooo, what? You came because Bruce is invasive as hell and let something slip, and out of the goodness of your heart, you came to get me?"
Once again, he shrugged, before admitting, "Alfred let me know. He asked me to come grab you. Apparently the big, bad, Bat is too busy for this sort of thing."
Ouch. "Great," he muttered, eating a spoonful pf ice cream.
"...So."
"So?"
Jason pointed the plastic spoon at Tim's face. "Nice shiner. You got in a fight?"
"I... yeah, I guess. Wait, is that why we're getting ice cream?"
"Duh. Why else would I bring you here?"
"Oh." That was... actually kind of nice of him. Really nice of him. He promptly decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth. Free ice cream was free ice cream, after all.
A bit hesitantly, Tim said, "he shoved me first."
Jason raised a brow at him. "You let some punk provoke you into a fight?" The look on his face must have been enough of a response, because he added, "hey, I ain't judging. I mean, I'm a bit surprised maybe."
"Why's that?"
"'Cause you're a good-two shoes," he said factually through a mouth full of strawberry ice cream, making him sound a bit silly.
Silence lapsed between them, not awkward per se, just... stilted.
Then again, maybe that was just a him thing, Jason seemed perfectly content with shoving more ice cream in his mouth in silence.
"Man, my dad's going to kill me," he said absentmindedly, staring down into the cup. At the look Jason gave him, he elaborated, "He's on vacation with his girlfriend right now, he'll be all stressed out over nothing."
Jason flicked his forehead, and Tim yelped with surprise. "Ow!"
"Don't be stupid. He's your dad. If anything, he'll just be relieved you're okay." There was a bit of a bitter edge to his voice as he said this that Tim decided was safer to ignore.
Tim looked away, fiddling with the edge of his sleeve. "I dunno... it's not the first time something like this has happened, you know?"
"What, getting picked up by your friendly neighbourhood crime lord?" He joked.
"Going missing," Tim said a bit quietly, before shrugging and going back to working on his ice cream.
Jason put down his empty cup, head tilted away. "Yeah, well. Hazard of the job."
"I know."
"What did you expect? Shit like this happens all the time to people like us."
"I know."
"You learn to live with it or you quit while you're ahead. Don't you–"
"Jason," Tim cut him off, "I know."
Jason huffed, leaning back in the booths seat. "Sure you do, kid."
"I'm like, two years younger than you," he corrected, feeling a bit indignant.
"Looks like a kid, acts like a kid, ergo..." he trailed off, a smirk tugging at his lips.
"Asshole."
"Careful, kid," Jason kicked Tim's shin lightly, although there was only as light as you could be when you were wearing army boots, "that's the ice cream I paid for that you're eating."
"Could have paid for it myself," he mumbled.
"Sure, but you didn't."
Tim sighed, dragged out and exaggerated. He couldn't help but find this kind of fun, though. He got to leave school early for ice cream while being in a world of trouble.
And he wasn't even going to be dumped into the harbour later!
He didn't think he'd ever really like Jason, after what happened. In all honesty, it was only recently that Tim came around to the idea that the older boy wasn't an evil bastard who deserved to be in a jail cell for the rest of his life.
Mostly. Clearly, he's still a bit evil.
He glanced out the window they were sitting next to, eyes scanning over streets, people going through their day to day lives.
By Gotham's standards, the weather wasn't all that bad today, either. Weird.
"Hey," Jason spoke up, catching his attention, "if you actually thought I was going to hurt you or something, why didn't you run?"
Huh. That's what he was curious about?
Tim rubbed the back of his neck, a bit sheepish. "I was worried you'd start threatening civilians, or something. Plus, you were getting me ice cream. I figured I'd wait out your nice mood so today wouldn't completely suck."
Jason stared him down, and Tim swore he could see the cogs turning in his head through the domino. "...Seriously?"
"What?"
His eyes narrowed behind the mask. "You're a weird kid, you know that?"
Tim blinked. "Again, I'm only two years younger than you. But, what? No I'm not."
"Sure you are," Jason insisted, "weird, and like, mildly worrying. No wonder Dickhead clung to you so quickly."
"He didn't cling to anything," Tim deadpanned, "he chucked me at Bruce and called it a day."
Jason barked out a laugh. "So I've heard." He gestured to Tim's school bag. "Shouldn't you be making some calls, by the way?"
"Oh," Tim dropped his cup onto the table. Damn it, how had he forgotten about that, already? Depending on how merciful Alfred was feeling, Bruce could totally be losing his shit right now.
He dug his phone out of his bag, blanching at the hundreds of notifications on his screen.
A small number are from Bruce just asking if he's alright. None from his dad, thank god, and the rest of them...
83 missed calls from Ives.
As if on cue, his phone begins to ring, and Tim quickly picks up.
"Hello...?" He answers with trepidation.
"Why the fuck is the school saying you got kidnapped by a crime lord?!"
Tim groaned, glaring at Jason as he visibly tried to hold back his giggles, not even attempting to look remorseful.
"It's... a long story..."