Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim was slightly competitive if you asked him. Ask anyone else in the family, they’d say he was extremely competitive. His siblings might also bring up the time he threw a controller at Damian because he was 2nd in Mario Kart, the time Tim tripped Duke in a race, or maybe when he bit Cass while they were sparring. He disagrees with their opinions – and memories – of him, so for now he is only slightly competitive.

One of his favorite things to be number-one in is the most liked sibling. He accepted since Damian arrived that he could no longer be everyone’s favorite brother– thanks Dick– but he can certainly be the best-regarded one. He already had Dick and Cass wrapped around his finger, he is the best little brother out there, he and Duke are practically best friends at this point, and Damian is an outlier and shouldn’t be counted in the research. He only has one person left.

Jason “I don’t need family” Todd.

In his defense, he has been more open to the people around him recently, even going out on their monthly “boy’s night” last month. It was just sitting at Batburger and arguing with each other for an hour, but it’s the thought that counts. Tim realized that even if Jason’s relationship with the family as a whole was getting better, Tim himself was starting at ground zero. They only talked during patrol, and only saw each other outside of costume in mandatory galas or dinners. He supposes that it was a great improvement from beating his ass in the Titans Tower, but nowhere near where he needed to be.

“Dude, why does this matter so much to you” Duke looked at him with a half annoyed, half confused face. “Like, being on good terms with your family is all and well, but I feel like you’re taking it too far.”

Tim scoffed at this “You just don’t understand. Imagine the looks on everyone’s face when I become Jason’s most beloved brother” Duke rolled his eyes. “Pipedreams Timmy.”

“I’m being serious! Dick would be so jealous that I dethroned him-” “Dethroned?!” “Steph would probably try to fight me out of anger-” “not even his sister” “and Damian might cry.” “Alright, you’ve lost your mind,” they both began to giggle at each other, “I wish you the best of luck”

“I don’t want luck, I want help!” Tim cried, voice going up an octave. “How do you become friends with someone you never see!”

Duke shook his head and paused the movie he had been trying to watch for the past 20 minutes. “You know, Grown-Ups is too good of a movie to be missing for this” he mumbled as changed positions to be facing Tim. “We should probably start with why you never see him”

“He hates us”

“Uh… maybe in nicer terms”

“He hates hanging out with us”

“There we go!” he gave a faux supportive smile, “why don’t we fix that first”

Tim just slumped further into the couch. He only bugged Duke during his daily procrastinating-homework/not-watch-any-of-the-shows-Tim-recommended-to-him time because he already thought of that. There was one problem with that though, he couldn’t imagine Jason agreeing to that– it also gave everyone else the ability to become close to Jason, but Tim isn’t petty enough to admit that was a problem… he thinks.

“Oh, don’t ask for my help and then get mad when I try to help” Duke gave him a light glare, “What have you already thought of?” Tim gave a light slime at the question, now we’re getting somewhere, “I have a whole PowerPoint ready in my room”

Duke chuckled “Well let’s go see”

They both bolt up from the couch and scamper off to the family wing– slowing down to Alfred’s shouts to not run– and bust open the door to the elder brother’s room.

Or at least they tried to.

The door stopped only half of the way open, blocked by the pile of dirty laundry between it and the wall. Tim grumbled as they both squeezed through to make it inside, “Your room is a mess, dude” “It’s not that bad” he heard the uncertainty in his own voice.

In his defense, it was only clothes that had piled up and paperwork left forgotten. Anyway, he made a little walkway from his door to his bed and desk, he didn’t need the rest of the room.

Duke would say otherwise, “You couldn’t open the damn door because you decided not to do laundry in 2 months.” He walks over to the bed and takes a seat near the open computer in the middle. “It hasn’t been 2 months,” Tim grumbles, flopping down on the opposite side. “Whatever. How many slides are there?”

“About 150… I think.” As he turns the computer on, the screen lights up to show the title.

Tim’s 3-Month Plan.

The first step starts a week later, on Christmas. Christmas is one of the only times when most of the Batfamily, usually excluding people like Babs, Steph, and Maps who have their own families to hang out with, can come together. I mean sure, there are plenty of times where the siblings will hang out, but everyone deciding to align all their schedules just to be in a room with 10 other people is a big commitment.

With how many people come over on the day- like seriously, how did Bruce convince Jean-Paul to swing by– Alfred goes all out. Day in to day out, he’s cooking, hosting, stopping arguments, and making sure everyone is alive by the end of patrol. Tim is always impressed that he has enough energy to even stand up by the end.

Bright and early Christmas day, Tim hops out of bed to get a nice hot cup of coffee, then two more immediately afterward, and gets prepared for the first day of his master plan. As he walks downstairs he can hear slight tunes coming from the kitchen. While Alfred playing music while he cooks isn’t a surprising occurrence, especially because he’s going to be in there all day, the fact that the song is “Rockin’ Robin” was.

“Morning Alfred!” he calls out as he turns the corner to the kitchen, “interesting song cho… oh hey!” as he looks into the kitchen he sees Alfred leaning over peering into what is in the stove, and what caught his eye, Jason standing at the island cutting cranberries.

“Hey..” Jason replied, his voice rough and laced with annoyance.

“Merry Christmas, Master Tim” the British man replied as he shut the door to the oven and made his way to the coffee maker. “I assume you are up this early for some coffee.”

Tim tried to play his confusion off of cleanly as possible. “Merry Christmas to you, too, Alfred. And yes, some coffee would be great.” He smiled sweetly as he walked over and took a seat and the island. “Didn’t know you would show up this early, Jay?”

The man in front of him looked up, green eyes sharp while his eyebrows gave a slight furrow, “I came here last night.”

“Really? I didn’t even see you during patrol last night”

“Me and Jean-Paul came here after Midnight Mass” he grumbled, before looking back down to continue cutting the fruits.

Tim felt embarrassment fill his chest. He forgot that Christmas was considered a religious holiday– and also was embarrassed for giving Bruce credit for bringing Jean-Paul. Before he could think of a way to play his mistakes off, he was saved by his youngest brother walking past the kitchen.

“Ahki. I didn’t think you would come.”

“Didn’t think I would be invited, given I wasn’t last year,” his voice was filled with sarcasm, “But Duke called me a few weeks ago promising he got me a present”

A distant ‘tt’ and ‘Merry Christmas’ can be heard as Damian walks away, apparently too good to sit and talk with everyone. “Master Tim.” Alfred starts as he sets down Tim’s coffee, “As much as I enjoy your presence, I would prefer it more if you could not take up precious space, but if you would like to stay there is-”

“No, it’s ok Alfred, see you at dinner” he blurts out, standing up from his chair, “Merry Christmas, Jay! See you at dinner.”

“Merry Christmas, Timbo” His voice sounds less annoyed and more amused.

After a very loud and extremely crowded dinner, everyone sat down around the tree for a louder and more crowded gift opening. Bruce started by passing out all the gifts to everyone. Jason didn’t have the least amount of gifts, that went to Khoa with only one, but his four gifts weren’t a better look. One was from Duke, as promised, the littlest gift was from Damian, the next said Bruce and Alfred, which meant Alfred found the gift and made Bruce pay and wrap it, and the final one had Tim’s– almost illegible– name written on the side.

To keep the mess to a minimum, they opened presents from youngest to oldest. Tim usually didn’t pay attention to the others, and for the most part, this year was no expectation, but this time it wasn’t out of pure boredom. He was so excited for it to be Jason’s turn he almost didn’t pay attention to his gifts– almost, he snapped back into focus when he opened a brand new skateboard.

Finally after what felt like an eternity– and probably was with how tedious Damian unwrapped presents– it was Jason’s turn to see his.

He starts with Dukes. It was a big bag with wrapping paper spilling from the top. The older sibling digs into the bag and pulls out a box wrapped in red and a little bow on top. He rips open the wrapping and cuts open the box inside to pull out… another box. From beside him, Tim can hear Duke fail to suppress a giggle.

“Duke.. juro gue si hay otra caja adentro de aqui.”

“Open.. open it!” Duke laughed, shoulders shaking.

This went on for almost 10 more minutes and at this point Duke– and everyone else– finished laughing about the job and was ready to move on. It got to the point where Dick ran to the kitchen to get a second pair of scissors to help out in the opening. But for real Duke, where did you get so many zip-ties from? At the end, there was a small long box painted white with light blue snowflakes sprinkled around, inside were two tickets to a Gotham Knights game happening in three days.

Jason gave a heavy sigh as he sat back down, “I’d thank you, Sunflower,” he muttered as he pushed the rest of his trash into a bag Helena tossed to him, “but I don’t know how thankful I am right now”

“You can thank me at the game”

He shook his head, curly hair giving a slight bounce with it. He finally reached over and picked up Damian’s gift. It was a rectangular box wrapped in the same shade of green the League of Assassins used. As he pulled the wrapping away, it revealed a cloth rolled up. Inside there were three knives of varying sizes, all had a black finish painted on. Tim vaguely recognized it to have some type of meaning within the League, but he didn’t learn any of the etching meaning while there.

Jason cracked a light slime. “These are very nice Habibi”

“Mother sent them over,” the youngest stated, chest puffed up in pride, “It is as much a gift from her as it is from me”

He looked over, swooping the tuff of white out of his eyes. “I’ll make sure to send her my gratitude also”

Next, he reached over to Alfred’s and Bruce’s gifts. It was obviously a book, with beige wrapping, folded to leave pockets that were filled with bookmarks and tea. Spilling the pouches out and yanking at the paper, he exposed a cover that was light gray and had deep blue human hearts patterned around it. Jason’s mouth dropped open a bit, wide eyes looking over at Alfred. “Did you really?”

His reaction seemed to shock everyone in the room, as they started to lean over to see what was in his hands. Tim would’ve done the same if he wasn’t already looking over Jason’s shoulders the entire time. On the top, printed in the same deep blue as the hearts, said Frankenstein.

“If I remember correctly” The old butler’s voice was warm, “that was the book you wanted, right? In cloth bound at least?”

“Yes, Alfred.” The younger man gave a light chuckle.

Bruce– probably feeling left out let us be honest– bumbled out “Inside the front cover, there is a plastic cover. I heard that the foil rubs off, thought you would like to protect it for as long as possible.” “Thank you, Pops”

Tim knew that he was saving the best for last– at least that’s what he told himself– as Jason finally picked up his gift. It was in a medium-sized bag and had some more obvious weight to it. He got a raised eyebrow from the young adult before he turned back to untie the strings.
When he reaches his hand out the bad he pulls out an antique box with the words tea written on top of a small metal square, the sides had black all around, and a small yellow-orange diamond patterned inside, with a matching metal locked on the front. “You’re joking! Baby Bird, you’re fucking joking!” Jason’s face lit up like the sun while staring at him.

“What is it, Little Wing” Dick questioned quietly, trying to voice the confusion on everyone’s face.

“It’s a Jane Austen tea caddy box! Like the actual thing!” His voice became light with boyish excitement “How in the world do you get this?” he all but squeaks out, looking at Tim.

“Uh.. well a lot of pulled strings and a lot of money.” Tim cringes, his voice not sounding as confident as he hoped. But Jason just went back to the box, seemingly not noticing his brother’s awkwardness– but by the look Cass gave him, she noticed.

Taking this time to look around, Tim saw Kate looking in disbelief at the scene in front of her, Damian failing to hide his frustration at being one-upped, and Bruce’s eyes started to water at the sight of his estranged son’s smile. The euphoric feeling Tim gained from being number one was enough to get through the entire night of patrol without being the start of a fight– with siblings and goons.

And if he tailed Jason around the whole night, well that was between him and the Gotham snowy skyline.

And Oracle, but everything is between her.

Chapter Text

The second stage happened a couple of weeks later. Damian was sitting in the Batcave, waiting patiently for Bruce to finish up the last bit of paperwork he had to do for WE before they could go out for patrol. It was a bit earlier than anyone usually goes out, 9 pm, but it was Friday and Damian had only been out twice this week because he had an essay due, so he was allowed to drag his father out early tonight– and if he was lucky he could probably get away with coming back late.

He argued all day Tuesday, swearing that he could still finish all his homework before the end of the week and continue to patrol, but it was continuously shut down. “I don’t need you to have you distracted while doing important work.” He could still hear his father’s voice from a few days ago. “I will not let this history essay bother me during patrol” “I was talking about thinking of patrol while doing history.”

He sat quietly at the computer, swiveling back and forth lightly in the chair when the computer lit up. He bolted up in his seat, expecting an emergency call, what he was greeted instead was the view of his brothers.

Tim’s face took up most of the screen making it hard to see behind him, and the dark atmosphere didn’t help either, but he could slightly see a red shine. ‘Red Hood’ Damian thought snidely.

“Oh.” Tim practically groaned out, and though his eyes were covered in his cowl, Damian still saw the way his jaw tightened and teeth clenched. “I thought Batman would’ve been there.”

“Father is currently busy, this isn’t your patrol time Drake” the younger one sneered, then after a beat added, “What happened”

He didn’t enjoy helping his older brother, but he also couldn’t ignore him if he was in actual trouble.

“It’s nothing super important. I’ll just uh.. wait for dad” His brother looked behind, and the red shine moved in a suspicious shaking motion. “And anyways,” he began when he looked back. “Why do you care about what time I decide to go patrol or not, it doesn’t ruin your night.”

Damian opened his mouth to respond but was surprised by a new voice from the computer, “Goddamn it, Red.” At least he knows that it is Red Hood now. “Never offering this type of shit again.”

Green eyes widen slightly, they were together because of Jason? Damian knew that recently more of the family had been teaming up with Red Hood but if he recalled correctly– which he always did– it was only someone asking Hood, not the other way around.

Damian felt jealousy start to worm up into his chest, “What are you two doing out together, is there a problem, why did you call me?” He started to spew out questions, feeling a burning desire to figure out what was going on, on the other side of the call.

“Calm down, Dami” Drake mocked lightly, “It’s just some brotherly bondi-” he wasn’t able to finish the sentence before being cut off by the man behind him.

The older one of the three stomps over from the background and picks up what could be assumed to be Tim’s arm– Damian hoped that left a bruise– so that the camera was facing him completely. “Hey Habibi, will you do a thermal check on warehouses around the Narrows.”

“I could, right after you explain to me what is happening” The curiosity that came from jealousy has turned into anger from not being told. How dare they try to hide something like this away, why were they out on patrol together this early without telling anyone, and why had they already run into problems?

And most importantly, what did Drake do that was more deserving to go out with Ahki than he was?

A heavy sigh was heard but right when Jason started to speak again, a deep, strong, voice came from inside the cave. “Robin, who are you talking to?” Their father walked into view of the computer, finally finished with his work– and conveniently suited up too.

“Todd and Drake-,” “No names in suits you little demon” Damian let out a frustrated groan, “Red Hood and Red Robin are out in the narrows together, they have gotten into trouble”

Bruce shook his head and leaned against the back of the chair to look up at the screen. “What went wrong”

“Nothing has gone wrong!” Red Robin shouted out, pulling his arm back so the camera was back on him, “We just need a temperature scan of the area, everything is under control”

“Why do you need a temperature scan if everything is okay? And why are you out in the Narrows, at this time nonetheless?” Argued their father, tiredness thick in his voice.

Tim sucked air through his teeth as he began his story. “Well… I wanted a second opinion on this case I was working on for a few days, the one about the missing people, so Duke and I came around Hood’s place at noon-ish and were only planning to stay a few hours before going back to the Batcave to finish the case on my own, I swear. But what ended up happening was that Duke left at 3 to patrol some more before dark, and Hood and I finished it in his apartment after like 8 hours then just decided to go out early to wrap everything with this case up instead of having to wait another 4 hours.”

“We need the temperature scan to search for potential hideouts for Mr. Freeze. We have reason to believe he is the one behind the missing people.” Jason butted in at the end. “So if we can just get that scan, that would be great.”

As much as Damian wanted to argue that giving them any more information about the whereabouts of Mr. Freeze was a bad idea, he knew it wasn’t. He was just so surprised about the fact that not only did Drake ask for help but also that Hood let him stay over for multiple hours.

‘And probably cooked him amazing meals’ his brain supplied unhelpfully.

So he begrudgingly sat in silence as he watched Bruce type on the computer, starting a look out for any place under 32 degrees in Gotham. “It will be done soon, boys. I’ll hand it over to you guys once Robin and me make it out there, but please be back inside earlier tonight, I don’t want you two to become worn out.”

“Ok, Da-” “No promis-” both sons were cut off by the beeps of the call ending.

“Let’s go, Dames. Have a feeling tonight’s going to be rough”

Damian couldn’t help but agree.