-What if you're wrong?
Do not seek the because - in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions. -Anais Nin
It was the little things Tim had quickly come to miss. Running water, fresh sheets, and electricity were three that he had happily reacquainted himself with upon their arrival at the Parisian hotel. Fresh from his shower and dressed for bed Tim found his gaze drifting toward the wall of reflective glass erected at the far end of the spacious suite.
Reflected back at him was a devastatingly familiar image. The sight of Bruce hunched over a computer with a quiet intensity so alive in his eyes made Tim's heart ache with nostalgia and his blood boil with rage. In the weeks since the incident in Iraq Bruce had kept conversation to a frustratingly slim set of topics. He asked Tim about his travels, about his health, about the fucking weather! But never had the man asked about his other sons, his home, his friends, not once had he asked about the life he'd left behind.
So consumed within his thoughts Tim didn't even notice the ice blue eyes that had swiveled from the glowing screen of a laptop to the wall of glass he'd been so dazedly starring at. He should have felt Bruce's gaze on his back and the message they had tried to convey, but gone were the days they had had the ability to communicate wordlessly.
"I'm not going to disappear if you look away…"
Liar. Liar. LIAR.
Tim wanted to shout it in his face, wanted to scream it from the roof tops. Instead he willed his eyes away from the glass and redirected them to the shadows dancing across the ceiling. Bruce had always had a habit of withholding information, of delivering the truth in an exquisitely twisted way. There had been a time when he had accepted the manipulated truths and partial lies for what they were, but now they didn't just make him angry, it made him furious.
For the briefest moment he didn't want to be the rational sidekick or outrageously obedient son, and the words flowed off his lips in a quietly intense whisper before he even thought to hold his tongue.
"I never expected you to disappear; in fact none of us thought you ever would. You were a father, a son, a hero…and then out of fucking nowhere, you were dead. Not 'missing' or 'lost.' You were dead, coffin in the ground, eulogy read, and roses laid, — dead."
Tim took a shaky breath as he raked his fingers through his hair. Bruce's eyes hadn't left the computer screen, however the man's fingers had stopped dancing across the keyboard and Tim knew that was as much of his attention as he was going to get.
"Now you're sitting there without even the slightest clue about what you left behind. I just want to know why. Why, were you okay with just letting us believe that you were gone?"
In one violent motion Bruce jerked around to face him, eyes cold and impatient.
"I knew Dick could handle it, that's why."
Just as quickly as he had swiveled around, he swiveled back.
It took a moment, but Tim managed to will his eyes away from the man before him. He snatched the remote from the side of the bed and noisily channel surfed, ignoring Bruce's occasional grunt of annoyance. Out of the brightly blurring images one word jumped out, Tim's fingers stopped suddenly and scrambled to return to that particular channel.
A troubled looking French reporter was sat behind a news desk, voice filled with fake concern. Images of burning buildings, empty streets, raised gates, and ash colored snow falling from a red tinged sky played behind her as she spoke. A large headline scrolled across the top of the screen, making his throat run dry.
Gotham Ville: L'enfer sur terre.—
He turned his gaze back to Bruce, fear in his eyes.
"What if you're wrong?"
In the silence that fell between them, the quietly resumed clack of fingers against keys echoed like thunder.
AN: 1.) I'm alive...hehe yea.
2.) This chapter is basically filler and sat around for months while writers block ate me, forgive the suckiness.
3.) Gotham Ville: L'enfer sur terre.— *Gotham City: Hell on Earth.
4.) Young Justice. Satisfaction...JASON OMFG JASON. Oh and where there is Arsenal there is bound to be Red Hood...please, just please.
5.) That is all.
