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Tim was over at the safe house again, as he had at least one night a week for the last six months, stuffing his face with the creamy rice dish Jason had made while grumbling about getting in trouble with Bruce again. Honestly, none of it was making a whole lot of sense, but he was much more upset about it than any of the times he’d been benched, so it must have been a pretty bad blowout.
When Jason had shown up to the safehouse after getting the alert that the kid had arrived, Tim had been trying very hard to stop angry tears from strolling down his face as he sat in mostly silence, occasionally hitting a pillow or stomping his foot when he got particularly angry. He’d never seen him throw a genuine tantrum like this, the sort of teenage pissy fit he used to have all the time living with Bruce.
Eventually he had calmed down enough to sit on the island and watch Jason cook food for them. Well, it was less that he calmed down and more that he’d tired himself out, but the result was all the same. “Are you okay with rice?” A grunt. “Water or milk for a drink?” Another grunt. You get the picture.
So, he’s got a grumpy Robin across from him who was eating in the most agitated way he thinks he’s ever seen. After the third time the kid mumbled himself into a frustrated scream, Jason decided to ask what the fuck his problem was. “Okay kid, what the fuck is your problem?”
“He fired me!” He erupted, shoving a particularly aggressive bite into his mouth. “I suggested we discuss more permanent methods to dealing with a few of our regulars and he said that I’d been spending too much time sneaking off and hanging out with you and he fired me! I didn’t even say we should kill them, just send them somewhere they genuinely can’t ever escape!”
Before he could even get a word in to comfort or shit of Bruce or literally anything, he was off again. “And I was like, you can’t fire me, Alfred said you’re not allowed to be Batman without a Robin because of everything that happened after Jason. And you know what he fucking did? He made my ex girlfriend into the new Robin!”
Damn that was brutal. He didn’t think Bruce would have stooped down to that level but apparently when he was mad enough at his kids anything was possible. How the hell did the kid even have an ex that had the abilities to be Robin. Not to toot his own horn or anything, but no average civilian could do temp work as a vigilante. Especially not for Batman, arguably the most secretive in the whole JL about his identity.
Seemingly sensing his question before he even asked it, Tim sighed. “It’s Spoiler. I’m sure you know of her, she’s around fairly often. It’s complicated.” He shrugged at the end, scowling into his food as he continued to eat.
Red Hood and Spoiler had crossed paths exactly one time. He’d just finished killing a guy who’d just gotten out of prison from a sentence that should have been at least twenty times longer and was feeling kind of hungry, so he’d walked into the closest Batburger since it was the only restaurant open that late that never looked twice at the fresh blood splatters on his clothes.
He’d just ordered when a girl sat down across from him, entirely dressed in purple, the only visible part of her was her young eyes and blonde bangs hanging out from under her hood. His body tensed as if preparing for a fight, but she just waved him off. “You killed a pedophile, I wanted to buy you dinner.”
“Oh. Thanks.” Yeah that checked out. He hadn’t done much research on the Spoiler, just knew that she existed and knew she worked with the Bats sometimes, but he figured she’d be chill like that. And really she was. They chatted lightly over their burgers, mostly discussing cases and the job and whatnot, but it was still pretty funny and good company.
Sitting across from Tim now, he can’t really imagine the two kids together. Not that he can really imagine him with anyone, deep inside Jason sort of thinks of him as an overly dramatic eight year old. “Are you upset he gave it to her because it’s not you or because he’s your ex?”
“Either? I don’t know, me and her aren’t on bad terms or anything, it was an amicable breakup and stuff. We’re still good friends and all. It’s just like, he could have picked anyone else! I mean, well, not anybody else but also he could have just talked to me. I could have explained why I wanted to take more permanent measures and if he didn’t want to agree then maybe he could explain his side, but no! He’s so frustrating sometimes!” He groaned in frustration, taking the last bite of his food and standing up to go rinse his dish.
As usual, he was at a total loss on how to comfort the kid. He couldn’t reveal his identity in an attempt to relate to the kid, and he really couldn’t think of anything that would have helped him back then. Instead of anything logical, he just made a brief suggestion. “I could help you fake your death to get back at him.”
“What! No, that would be so rude.” The kid shook his head, firmly shooting down the idea. “Sure I’m mad at him, but I’m not cruel. I’m not going to make him think he lost another Robin- Ex-Robin I guess, and then just pop back up like it never happened.”
Yeah, that was fair. He knew it was wrong when he said it, just thought he’d throw it out there just in case it was an idea the boy was into. Nevermind all that, he’d finally come up with an excellent piece of advice for him. “You know, you could just talk to Spoiler about it. I know Bruce wouldn’t listen to you but if she’s your friend she’ll at least hear you out.”
He sighed, putting his dish on the drying rack and leaning against the counter top next to it. “Yeah, you’re probably right. It just kind of hurt my feelings I guess. Maybe I’ll meet up with Steph tomorrow and talk it all over with her. Thanks Hood.”
“No problem kid.” He smiled, cleaning up his own plate and moving to wash it. Tim moved away to give him some space and wobbled a bit as he walked, making his eyebrow pinch in concern a bit. He guesses that maybe it had been a while since the kid had dropped by for a meal, he’d probably not be eating again if Bruce was stressing him out this bad. “If you’re planning on staying here while all of this is happening I’m happy to stay or go. Whichever you want.”
The tension dropped out of his shoulders out of relief when the kid agreed. “Yeah that’d be cool. I’ll probably be here until Bruce lets me back on the job, I don’t really have anywhere else to be since he’ll probably notice if I zeta to the tower to hang out with the teen titans.” He let out a sad huff, more of a pout really, and walked over to the couch. “We’re going to watch a show.”
“You know, if Bruce doesn’t let you back you could always say that not being able to go out at night means you get to hang out with me more. Isn’t that the whole reason you were fired anyways.” He humorously suggested, letting out a laugh at the resulting eye roll thrown at him from the couch. “Okay, I get it, the world doesn’t revolve around me.” He sighed dramatically, joining him on the couch and putting his feet up on the coffee table.