Tim tried to ignore the presence hovering over his shoulder. It was proving very hard to ignore.
"Hurry up, Tiny Tim. We don't have all day!"
Tim gave him an unimpressed look. "Hacking Justice League databanks has to be done perfectly. If you wanted it done perfectly and quickly, you should have asked Babs."
Jason poked him. "I thought you were supposed to be the little, genius, know-it-all."
Tim flushed and pushed his hand away without looking away from the laptop screen. "Babs is a better hacker," he muttered. "And she actually is a genius. I'm not."
The snort Jason gave that in response tickled his ear. "Yeah, tell me the other one."
"It's true! Tim insisted, fingers still flying over the keyboard. "I don't have an eidetic memory or advanced processing abilities like Barbara does. I'm not...special like Dick."
He ignored Jason's mutter of "Special's one way to put it."
"And I don't have street smarts like you or Stephanie or skills like Cass. Even Damian-"
"Hey!" Jason shoved him harder this time, almost knocking him off the beanbag chair. "Stop that."
Tim finally looked away from his computer. (Which was linked in to the Bat-System) Jason was right up next to him, glaring. He felt a little intimidated, even though he knew Jason ould never hurt him. Jason was single-handedly responsible for Tim's bully-free existence at school last year. And Tim knew he'd spoken with Cass about her maintaining that now that Jason would be moving up to junior high.
"I'm just me." He said quietly. "Nothing special."
"That." Jason said, poking him in the chest, his green eyes angry. "Is a load of crap. You're f-freakin' brilliant! You work harder than anyone I've ever known, except maybe Bruce, and he's an obsessive freak. You're better at connecting clues than Bruce too! I mean, you're not even out in the field and you've solved what, three cases?"
"Four." Tim admitted softly, fidgeting nervously with the hem of his hoodie. He could feel the heat as a blush spread over his face and neck. He silently cursed his "romance novel vampire complexion" (Steph's words) and tried unsuccessfully to defend himself as Jason came in for a noogie. He finally manged the beat the overenthusiastic older boy off with the hardcover copy of Treasure Island from the bedside table. That successfully distracted Jason.
"Show some respect for classic literature, brat." He was too busy checking the book over for damage to interrupt Tim's hacking for the next thirty seconds or so, which let Tim get back in the rhythm and actually into the JLA's systems.
"Found it."
They read the reports from the Team's mission the night before. Tim was rather surprised that Dick wasn't the leader, though he admitted that Aqualad might be a better choice for the time being. If only because it would mean there was one part of his life where Dick didn't have to be the responsible one.
"Dude," Jason said as they watched the footage of the facility exploding. "I don't think they quite grasp the concept of 'covert.'"