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Tim sighed as he pulled the last box out of the back of his truck. He was moving back into the manner after nearly two years away, dying to the Joker before having Ra's Al Ghul dig up his fresh grave and thrown into the Lazarus pit. It had been a hell of a ride to get back to where he was now, but he was happy to be home.
Not that he would ever admit that to Bruce.
Damian knew though, Damian practically knew everything. But he was Tim's older brother and he was also someone he could confided in about his time with the League of Assassins and feel heard, given that Damian had been raised in the League until he was 7 and spent the next ten years visiting his mother and grandfather for holidays. Assassins and their weird desire for joint custody.
It was because of Damian that the bridge between Tim and Bruce could begin to mend, as well as the reason Jason reached out to Tim in the first place, practically latching himself onto the older boy. Said boy was now on the steps of the manor looking at Tim with unbridled delight, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet as he held the door open for him.
"Hurry up Tim!" He whined. "Stop dragging your feet already."
Was I this hyper at his age? Tim thought with internal horror at the thought. Jason was extremely energetic for being 13, going to school, and doing vigilante work. Tim himself remembered being constantly exhausted, running on fumes, irritable at the best of times. Thankfully Bruce and Alfred were used to irritable children, ie. Damian, and were more than able to handle Tim and all his attitude and anger.
He had just lost his parents when Damian took him from his home next door and demand that Bruce adopt him before Tim could end up in the foster system because he thought Tim was "Too adorable and too smart to be placed anywhere else". Which…weird but Tim would take it. It gave him a new home, fairly close to his old one and he was allowed to return there when it all became too much.
While Tim's parents weren't always around, they loved him and he loved them. It broke his tiny eight year old heart when he found out that a villain, not even a Gotham one at that, had murdered them.
Bruce had given him an outlet to take his emotions out, it wasn't a healthy one but it was the one that Bruce and Damian knew.
One that Jason had taken as his own and turned it into something to be looked at with hope and awe instead of fear. Jason laughed and wore more color that Damian or Tim ever had, he made tons of jokes on patrol and generally had a good time fighting crime, using the outlet as a way to protect the people he grew up around in Crime Alley and a way to get rid of the excessive energy that existed in him.
Groaning dramatically Tim slammed the tailgate shut and dragged his feet towards Jason and up the steps of the manor. "Come on Jay, have pity on me." He pouted, knowing that the kid loved the theatrics of it all and it would make him giggle.
"Pity for what?" The smooth steely voice of Damian interrupt Jay as the two made their way passed the foyer and towards the staircase.
"For having to share a house again when I was living prime bachelor life." He waggled his eyebrows, making Jason laugh and Damian huff. He and Damian both knew that Tim was not living a good life alone, he could barely feed himself let alone set time aside to sleep. Moving back to the manor was for the best if Tim wanted to stay healthy or according to Damian, get healthy once more.
"Hmm. Jason, head up to Tim's room and wait for us, we'll be right there but I would like to talk to our brother alone for a second." Damian said, polite as ever but already nodding towards the bedrooms before Jason could answer.
With a shrug, the youngest boy took off up the stairs and towards the family wing. "What?" Tim asked, watching as Jason took off only started to follow after once he could no longer hear the thudding of his footsteps.
"Are you sure about this?" Damian fell into step besides him. "I dislike it when you make decisions that you feel pressured into."
Tim sighed and clicked his tongue, a habit he had picked up from Damian. "While I was against the idea at first, and yes Jason is quite persistent, neither he nor you nor Bruce or Alfred had any major impact on my decision. You were right in saying that moving back in my health was bound to improve, and Jason has the cutest of puppy eyes, but to be honest…I just missed this. Missed being home, missed having you there whenever I need or just want."
A moment of silence passed as the reached the top of the stairs. "And Jason really is quite persuasive when he wants to be."
"I missed you too." Damian said once they neared Tim's bedroom. "I'm glad you're home."
"So am I."
Written by a human in Ellipsus.