Work Text:
Jason hardly ever bumps into Tim when he’s not at the safehouse. Maybe once or twice when he’d passed through Park Row as Robin, but that’s it. So finding him standing on a roof a few blocks away from the apartment out of costume had him understandably worried.
He’d first caught sight of the pacing figure at about ten, maybe an hour after he’d started patrol. He hadn’t even noticed it was the kid at first, just thought it was a random distressed citizen. Once he got close enough to see his face, he was also able to see the cut on the side of his face, still bleeding a little from whatever blade had nicked him.
“You get mugged kid?” He asked, a taunt in his voice to hide the concern bubbling up in him. It had been a week and a half since he’d seen him, and though that wasn’t necessarily out of the usual since he got his job back from Steph, it wasn’t expected. He looked a lot thinner than he should, even without Jason feeding him, he usually ate at least one of Alfred’s meals a day, if not just a snack.
It was too cold out for the kid's thin jacket and he was clearly shivering, so he took off his jacket and threw it over his shoulders like he’d done a few times before. “I don’t want to talk about it.” And oh he sounded so exhausted. What could have possibly happened in the eleven days since he’d last dropped by the safehouse?
When they got to the apartment, Tim simply went to sit on the couch without a word, laying down with his back to the room and his face to the back cushions, a clear sign he was not interested in talking about whatever had happened to him.
No matter if he was up for it or not, the kid needed to eat, so Jason let him be alone on the couch for a while so he could make them some food. Going for comfort food rather than anything else, he began making grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Maybe he’d been working with the teen titans again and was just exhausted from all that teamwork and friendship or whatever it runs on these days. Maybe he’d gotten into a spat with one of his friends. Everything was probably fine, he was probably just tired, tired enough to climb into a Crime Alley rooftop in civs and pace back and forth.
He was not worried about the kid and he was not stress cooking and he did not just accidentally burn his hand on the hot pan because he was distracted by the kid on the couch behind him. Except he was and he did so now he was running his hand under some lukewarm water and praying the sandwich wasn’t burning on the stove.
When he’d finally finished with the soup and sandwiches, he set the table before walking over to the couch to wake up Tim. He definitely wasn’t doing good, not saying anything as Jason helped him over to the table and started on his meal, not looking too invested in the food he was putting in his body.
By the time that Jason had finished his sandwiches and was now just eating spoonfuls of soup, he gave in to the urge to prod. “So, you gonna tell me what happened?”
“Mind your fucking business.” Tim snapped, immediately looking guilty for yelling. Fuck, fuck, fuck, abort. Making him even more upset was not his intention at all. The kid ran a hand through his hair and looked up at him. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
Comfort. That’s what the kid needed. Unfortunately, every child was different and he might set him off if he did the wrong thing. No pressure at all, only the entire conversation relied on him not making the kid clam up. Okay screw it, prodding more would have to do. “Have you not been sleeping? Eating? What’s going on kid?”
“I just-” He hesitated a moment before seemingly coming to a decision. “Bruce just got a new kid and he- he- I can’t exist around him! I can’t eat because he keeps trying to put things in my food and I can’t sleep because he keeps hiding in my room to attack me as soon as I’m out. He hates me so much. He spends every day trying to kill me and I don’t want to die but Bruce says I can’t leave because I need to help welcome the creature to Gotham but I just can’t take it anymore.”
Damn. Dick made a comment or two about an adoption problem back when it was just the two of them, small jabs toward their father about trying to heal his own inner child by attempting to fix what was wrong with him in fellow orphans or something like that. He never considered it to genuinely be a problem though. Kid number four? Seriously? Five if you count Steph, but she was more a colleague than his child.
Maybe he should find a way to contact Talia and tell her to hold off on her plans to send Damian to Gotham for a while, two little demon children might be too much for the manor and he knew that the kid would probably just end up hurting himself trying to prove himself better than whoever this mystery additional child was. God knows Tim wouldn’t be able to handle the little demon child that was the Wayne boy.
“I mean I get it, I don’t really have a use anymore and obviously that little assassin thing knows that,” Hold up, self depreciation was not allowed in the apartment, it's a new rule. He was about to interrupt the kid but he just kept going. “But B won’t let me leave so we’re stuck together! But all he does it try to kill me and then go on and on about how he’s the blood son so he should be-”
Jason’s spoon landed in his soup with a small splash, startling Tim into silence. There’s only one kid on this earth who’d be rattling off about birthright at the manor and he should be back with the League in Nanda Parbat for at least another year. “Damian? You’re talking about Damian?”
The blue eyed boy stared at him with a new sense of suspicion Jason hadn’t seen since he’d bought the kid. “How do you know that? Kid’s been off grid his whole life and hasn’t left the manor since he moved in.”
“Okay, so don’t freak out.” He held up his hands, trying to show he came in peace or whatever the fuck. He honestly was having a hard time stringing together a thought after the realization that his baby brother had been in the same city as him for over a week and he hadn’t known. He’d be able to see him again. He now had more than a promise to hold onto. Now wasn’t the time for Damian though, now was the time to convince Tim he wasn’t here to kill him. “I trained with the league for a while. Damian was my responsibility there.”
“So you’re what, his babysitter?” The kid had stopped eating, now staring at his bowl like it would kill him. Maybe he thought it would if the Demon Brat had been trying to poison him all week. “Is that why you’re in Gotham?”
Perfect, a direction to the conversation that would make it seem like he wasn’t an assassin with horrible assassin-y intentions and possibly even humanize Damian. “I’m a Crime Alley kid born and raised. It’s Gotham, so of course some stupid shit happened. I ended up with the league and became the kids bodyguard. He’s my brother in all but blood.”
“Oh.” Tim said, and oh god no the kid was going to cry wasn’t he. Why was he crying? Obviously it shouldn’t have fixed everything but his last statement was at least supposed to help a little. He was so out of practice with kids wasn’t he. The boy had gotten up from the table and ran to the bathroom by the time he started sobbing, leaving Jason incredibly guilty for upsetting him.
After a moment he got up to follow him, not caring that he left to be alone. That kid was alone too often, he could suck it up and let Jason console him while he was crying. He knocked on the door twice, being answered neither time, and finally he got concerned enough to just open the door and walk in.
Tim was sitting in the empty bathtub, sitting with his legs hugged against his chest and his face tucked into his knees as he cried, fingernails digging into the skin on his arms as he squeezed them around himself. “Hey,” He quickly, gently, grabbed his hands and held them in his own before he could do any real harm to himself during this fit. He was kneeling outside the tub, incredibly concerned for the boy in front of him. “What’s the matter?”
It took him a while to stop crying long enough to speak, the words stuttered and watery, but he eventually got it all out between choked down sobs. “When he showed up I knew- I knew I wouldn’t be welcome back in the manor because he had a real kid now who could be Robin, and- and I accepted that. I don’t want to give it up but I know I have to, you know? But you- you were always just my thing so nothing with Bruce would effect me being able to be your friend, but- but now you’re also Damian’s brother and he’s going to be here too and I’ll have nowhere to go and I-”
That’s all he managed before he started crying too hard to speak again. And honestly Jason got it, if he removed himself from the situation and imagined there was someone trying to kill him in his home which he would soon be kicked out of and he went to his one safe space only to find out they were there the whole time, he’d also be freaking out like this.
The realization that he was Tim’s safe space struck him almost in the same way Damian’s arrival in Gotham had. There were a few moments where he couldn’t really speak before he stood up and then sat down in the small bathtub next to the kid, pulling him into the best side hug he could manage in their position.
The kid was small and he was folded into himself to be even smaller, but Jason was a big guy, so he just sat with his back against the wall and his legs out of the tub to take up the least amount of his space as possible so he could still pull away if needed. When he didn’t, he started running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to soothe him, talking softly to calm him down. “Listen, Damian never has to know about this place if you don’t want him too. He’ll never be around if you don’t want him to be. This can just be for me and you, okay? He may have been my brother first, but you’re my brother too now.”
It shocked him to realize the truth in that statement. He’d been trying not to think of him as a brother, it would just make things with Bruce and Dick more difficult, but his replacement had wormed his way into his heart and now he knew he’d found himself another brother. Goddamnit, things really hadn’t gone according to plan with this one had it.
“I’m really glad I know you.” Tim sniffed, seemingly exhausted from crying himself out the last fifteen minutes. His head rested against Jason’s side where he’d been hugged against him earlier, too tired to sit up at all. “You’re very good at being a brother.”