Chapter Text
It was the family's weekly tea time, forced by Alfred. (Not that anyone was going to tell that man no, of course he wanted time with his son, and grandchildren.) They all gathered in the living room - well one of them. It was Dick on one sofa with Damian and Bruce. Tim was on the other sofa with Steph and Cass laying on him. Jason and Alfred were on the chairs, Duke sitting on the floor in front of the sofa with the cuddle pile on it. Babs had her wheelchair rolled up to be beside Alfred’s chair.
There were several types of teas, and sweet treats laid out on the coffee chair that the family were slowly picking at. It was nice, people were softly talking and having their own conversations. Jason and Alfred were discussing the best shotguns, Babs occasionally adding in. The cuddle puddle was chatting away (okay it was more Steph and Tim talking but whatever). Damian was telling his Dad about the “below intelligent children” in his class. Duke was doing homework.
And Dick? He was happily observing his family, it was often that it got to see it’s family all together, being happy. Everything was great until Tim let out a yelp, everyone looked towards him.
“Can someone please kill that giant spider by Duke!” He yelled. And sure enough, there was a spider on the floor by Duke. Duke didn’t seem to mind, as he had put down his pencil to look at it.
“What, you're scared of spiders, replacement?” Jason laughed. Dick looked at the spider and tensed up, he hated those things too.
“Yes!” Tim said loudly.
Damian scoffed, “this is proving how unworthy you were of the Robin title, Drake.”
Tim rolled his eyes. “How about you watch two of your friends die, another get their throat sliced, and then stabbed through the stomach by a man dressed up as a spider calling himself Widower and let’s see how you take to spiders.” Tim spat out.
Dick didn’t like how much it reminded him of Trantula- nope he’s not going there. Then the words processed in its mind.
“I’m sorry, what,” Duke asked, horrified looking at Tim.
Tim just shook his head. “It happened when Bruce was in the tim stream.”
“You left this out in our gossip sessions!” Steph cried out, as Cass nodded along.
“I didn’t think it was important!” Tim yelled back.
Okay that spider was starting to really freak Dick out. “I agree with Timmy, can we please kill that spider.”
Damian looked at Dick, a betrayed emotion on his face. “You too?”
Jason frowned. “Since when were you afraid of spiders? I remember you used to hold them when I was a kid.”
Yeah well that was before the Trantula situation.
Babs frowned. “Trantula situation?”
Aw shit, it had said that out loud. “Aw you know.” He trailed off not wanting to continue.
“As in the criminal Trantula, or the animal.” Bruce finally spoke up, not really wanting to move from Tim’s admission of something that happened while he was… Preoccupied.
Dick grew increasingly uncomfortable with his conversation, he squirmed slightly under the gaze of his family. “Uhhh the criminal?” Maybe if he played this off well enough they would think it was just the whole blockbuster situation.
Bruce’s frown deepened. He, and everyone around that time knew something had happened with Dick but had just assumed it was about Blockbuster’s death. However a fear of spiders from that wouldn’t make sense. You saw a lot of death and violence in this line of earth, and Dick had definitely seen plenty of death in his time.
Babs seemed to have the same train of thought as Bruce as she spoke up. “Why would you be afraid of spiders, though? Tarantula just killed him, she didn’t do anything to you.”
Dick tensed further at that. “Uhh.” He didn’t know what to say. Tim narrowed his eyes, he seemed to figure it out, which Dick wasn’t sure how to feel about.
“Like Maat.” Tim suddenly spoke. Cass tensed a lot from where she was pressed up against Tim, she seemed to also further press herself into him.
“Little brother..” Cass spoke softly.
Damian also seemed to tense, “Grandfather’s half sister? What do you have to do with her, Drake?” Damian almost sounded scared.
“Little brother.” Cass said again but there was more urgency in her voice. She then turned to Dick, “also to big brother.”
Wait- Dick froze completely. “Tim, no.” His voice sounded like a wreck. Who would do that to his little brother? Tim didn’t deserve that, he was only 17, still a kid. Dick had tried so hard to make sure it never happened to the others, but he failed. He made itself be more flirty to hope that people would just focus on it. It hated the attention, the feeling, the hands-
But it had too. So they wouldn’t have to feel it too, but it had failed anyway.
“It’s fine.” Tim brushed off both Cass and Dick. “Nothing actually happened.”
Cass whipped her head to look at Tim, “liar.”
Tim tensed, but said nothing.
“Can someone else explain what is happening right now?” Jason asked, voice filled with frustration.
Tim chuckled. “Let’s just say being scared of spiders is completely valid. Like come one fighting against eight meta assassins themed after spiders does things to a man.”
“I’m sorry, WHAT?” Steph yelled.
“Holy shit, you beat the council of spiders.” Babs suddenly said. Neither Bruce nor Alfred made a comment on the swear word.
“Well not really? I only fought them for like a few minutes, I just had to make sure they didn’t hurt Tam. As soon as I could, we fled.”
“Why were they even after you? They hunt down assasines?” Babs explained.
“Oh shit, now I wanna hear this.” Jason grinned, ignoring Bruce’s quiet “language”.
“Stuff happened while I was on my world trip, okay? Committed art theft, blew up some things, got kissed by a girl, kissed a girl, accidentally got engaged. You know, just regular stuff.” Tim explained, shrugging like he didn’t just admit way too many things. “Oh, and worst of all, I also got my favorite colour of green permanently wrecked for me and now I hate it.”
“Was that last part really the worst part?” Duke asked carefully.
“Yes,” Tim, Steph, and Cass spoke in unison. Duke just shrunk down slightly.
Dick thought about the colour that got wrecked for him - orange. He never had a favorite colour, just always said blue if anyone asked. How could it have a favorite colour? Why do people even have a favorite colour? Dick never understood, there were so many social things it never understood, but people just assumed it was good at social things so it became good at them - even if it never understood them.
There were many things like that. Many things that Dick just had to figure out despite never understanding them. It didn’t work like other people, maybe it wasn’t human enough? Dick never felt like it was very human, and clearly it wasn’t. Mirage had confirmed that feeling years ago.
“Tim, what happened when I was,” Bruce hesitated, “trapped in the time stream?”
“A lot.” Tim simply replied.
Dick was also curious about what happened to Tim during that time. He knew lots of it was his fault, and how he had handled Damian and Tim. Not to mention the Robin situation. Dick had a lot on his plate, but that didn’t excuse the hurt it caused and he knew that.
“Yeah a lot did happen.” Steph agreed. “Still don’t know how you walked out of the League of Assassins alive.” Steph said, fully aware of what she was doing.
“Steph!” Tim cried out.
Damian was frozen. Jason let out a sound suspiciously resembling a squawk and Dick wanted to cry.
“You what?” Bruce said.
Tim sighed, looking frustrated. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Timbit, anything with the LoA is a big deal, trust me I’d know.” Jason growled out the last part.
“That’s why you knew who they were targeting, and why you asked for help protecting all those people.” Dick breathed out, then looked up at Tim’s eyes. “And why you faced off against Ra’s in WE.”
“You what!” Damian cried out.
“He wanted to destroy everything Bruce had built, what else was I supposed to do? It’s not my fault he gave me computer access to the LoA and then got made when I blew his shit up. Plus it’s fine he kicked me out of that window, so we are like, even.” Tim explained, his body tense.
Dick remembered that night far too well. Tim had come home after months to give him proof Bruce was alive, then explained that Ra’s was going to try and kill a bunch of people. Tim had protected everyone, then went against Ra’s alone.
Dick remembered that horrible moment as he watched Tim’s limp body falling from the top of WE. Dick remembered Tim’s beaten and bloody face. Remembered the smile on Tim’s face that it tried so hard to forget. Dick remembered forcing himself to believe in what Tim had said.
“You didn’t know I’d catch you.” Dick said quietly. Despite the loudness of the arguing happening everyone heard him and fell silent. Dick held back tears, no one could see it cry, he wouldn’t let that happen. “You didn’t know I was going to be there and catch you. You were going to let yourself fall to your death.”
Tim froze. “I-”
Dick cut him off. “Why didn’t you call Kon. Why didn’t you try anything to stop yourself from falling.” Dick’s voice began to raise.
“He wouldn’t have gotten to me in time, I couldn’t leave that guilt on his shoulders.” Tim said softly, though it was a poor excuse.
Dick wanted to believe it, he chose to believe it, to ignore the gnawing feeling. It had to be true, tim wouldn’t lie, he never would-
“Liar.” Cass spoke.
Dick’s world came crashing down.
Tim forced his way out of the hold of Cass and Steph. “Okay! Yeah I lied, I didn’t know Dick would catch me. I didn’t want Kon to come and save me. I was fine with dying. I was expecting to hit that ground, and I was fine with it!” Tim yelled, tears building in his eyes. “I lost so much, I did so much to bring Bruce back, and I couldn’t live with it. It’s fine. I’m fine. I’m not actively suicidal anymore.”
No one said a thing. The room was deathly quiet. The tea had long since gone cold. Duke’s homework hadn’t been touched in minutes. No one moved. Tim walked out of the room, not saying a thing.
Dick couldn’t move, he couldn’t find it in himself to move. To go after Tim. Because it knew that feeling. That feeling of not wanting to continue, to just let the next punch connect. To not reach for the grapple. To not fight back against the feeling of hands. To stand at that ledge. The only thing that had kept him from crossing that line was the idea that the new Robin would be alone. That Tim would be alone. But Dick had failed that too, it was clear Tim had felt alone. And it was all Dick’s fault he did.
Jason was the next to leave, he thanked Alfred and left the house. Alfred began to clear the dishes. Duke picked up his homework and hesitantly left the room. Cass slinked off, probably going to check on Tim. Steph muttered something about college classes and left. Damian got up to walk the dogs. Bruce looked at dick then got up and headed to his office. Dick remained sitting.
Dick realized that it and Tim were much closer to the same, than either had realized. And Dick made the decision that he would be there for Tim starting now.