Hi, it's Haihai again. This time, with her first published fanfiction in the universe of DC. Batfam, of course. It is rubbish, warning in advance. To be honest, I am a comic reader, I am a cartoon watcher, I love DC movies, TV shows and so on, but I never really had all the collections of comics from DC (I am Marvel one, yeah, tear into me) like I wanted, so in this piece, I am stringing together various timelines, canon bits, and universes and basically doing whatever I want with it, no excuses about that. Also, English is my second language, if you spot mistakes, please tell. If you like it, I will love you to bits. Thanks for reading.
(1)
"Get back here, you little - !" Jason swung his arm, trying to catch the silly hood of the Batman onesie, but missed. Cass shook her head and Tim smiled toothily at him. "It's fine, he just likes to cause trouble." he said and Jason grumbled, but was compelled to acquiesce, as the phrase "wanting to cause problems" was practically Damian's motto. But this was their tradition, for god's sake, and the brat had no right to interrupt them. Tim climbed over Jason's back, and Cass tapped the pages of the open book. "Read," she said slowly, but firmly. Jason huffed, but complied with their orders.
No doubt, Damian was a right terror once he learned how to walk - not that he was not before or that Dick would see it now, blinded by the demon baby's "charm", but it did not fool Jason at all. Alright, he is older brother now, so he has to act the part (never before has he imagined that he would be a brother to anyone at all - and he prayed he would be the only child before Bruce took him in a lot, so...) and like and even grow to love Damian, but he gets to pick favourites, alright? And Damian is definitely not his favourite younger brother. His favourite sister is Cass, no doubts about that, as she is his only sister, but if he gets to pick his favourite brother, it would be Tim.
For some reason, Timmy looked up to his older brothers with a reverence that at first scared Jason - but that came later on. In fact, when Tim first came to live in the mansion, he would do little else but cry, until he exhausted himself and finally plonked and slept for a few precious hours, before the vicious cycle began again. Bruce was skulking around, exhausted, and Dick did what he could, but he is not a miracle worker, eleven-year-old-Boy Wonder and all, though he understood how Tim felt and tried to support him as much as he could. Jason understands how it hurts to loose a parent, but Dick's and Tim's situations are admittedly different from his. After five days of exhausting temper tantrums, Tim finally somewhat calmed down and Jason learned the story of Timothy Jackson Wayne-Drake - not from the source, but still. Tim, as opposed to Jason and Dick, was born into a privileged family - at first, everything was fine, but then it started to go downhill, his mother and father were drowning in work and sometimes left Tim all alone. A toddler - toddler that barely knew them. And so his parents wanted to make it up to their son and on their rare free night took Tim to the circus that was traversing through Gotham to see the main show - the Flying Graysons. Yeah, it goes really downhill from there. Long and sad story short, Tim witnessed the murder. And then got invested in the case.
Jason will forever wonder about that, as the kid started to sneak out and follow Robin's trail. How no one noticed (and no one hurt Tim) is beyond Jason's understanding. Well, someone noticed eventually. Few years later. (Jason did not get the full story until he himself became Robin, but they wanted Tim's collection of photos and the proof of Batman's identity. Yeah. It was messed up.) By then, Tim's mum passed away, but Tim still witnessed the murder of his absent father. Batman arrived just in time to save the kid, and then swiped the custody of him as Bruce Wayne.
So yeah. Jason was not overjoyed when Tim first came into mansion. Tim cried, he moped, he wouldn't let anyone get close. Jason really did not have that much patience. Week and a half after Tim arrived, Jason boycotted the main living room, opting steal a duvet from a linen closet and tiptoeing off to hide in the library to avoid the drama going on in Tim's room or downstairs. The library was good choice as any, as his teacher often complained he was not 'sophisticated enough' compared to other kids in his classroom and belittled him for often, something that Bruce often complained about, not that anything positive came out of it, and so he took to reading some children books left in the massive Wayne library. He was halfway through reading out loud the first chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when he spotted a movement on his left.
Tim was sneaking around, hiding behind one of the many lower shelves that Alfred stocked with age appropriate books. He paused in his reading and Tim stuck his head out, shyly peeking at him. "Why did you stop?" He sounded really tiny and Jason realised this was the first time he heard him talking without crying. He had a really tiny voice and he kept his hands near his face, but he did not suck his thumb as Jason thought he would. Alfred called it 'not a toddler, Master Jason, but not quite a child yet,' stage. Bruce just stood in front of Jason and Dick, trying to get them to include Tim in. Not like Dick needed any encouragements, after he realised two years earlier that Bruce was not trying to replace him, he warmed up to the idea of being a good big brother rather quickly, but his attempts at smothering Jason went out the window really quickly, and the two of them stuck to the playing-fighting routine. With Tim, he had more opportunity to smother, and sometimes it helped, as was proven when Dick just let Tim crawl to him in the middle of the night to cry into his pyjamas, but sometimes it did not. Truth is, the first break down belonged to Jason.
"Cause you are sneaking around," he said, and instantly regretted it as Tim flinched violently and tears pooled at the corners of his eyes. Yeah, you go, Jason, say goodbye to your sanctuary. "I mean," he said hastily, not in the mood to calm a crying Tim down, "that if you want to join me, you don't have to hide." Tim, ever so slowly, came to full view. He was still in his pyjamas, probably slipped under everyone's watchful eyes as they were forbidden from wearing them after breakfast, and made a tentative move towards him. "What are you reading?" But even if he did sound tiny, he also did have quite a distinctive posh accent. Jason wanted to roll his eyes. Jason showed him the cover, not quite thinking it through - "does he even know how to read?" - but Tim looked at it, nodded, and scooted closer. "Can you read it to me?" he squeaked, and Jason arched an eyebrow, but nodded. Bruce would be really disappointed if he sent the kid into another bout of hysterics, after all.
"From the beginning?"
Tim nodded and laid down next to Jason on the duvet that Alfred kept separate from others for that exact reason, listening raptly to the story of the siblings and their fascinating adventure in Narnia.
