Disclaimer: I don't own – I wish I did and I am making no money off of this
A/N: And sorry it took so long to get up. My apologies. But enjoy the next chapter, let me know what you think.
The room was a mess, the posters torn off the walls, models thrown there in a fit of rage, and the books ripped from the shelves to cover the floor like a carpet. On his better days, Damian admitted that his reaction to Todd's rejection was childish. He had never met the man before that day, so he shouldn't be so upset. Today was not a better day.
It had been a week since they had gone to the shop and met with Todd. Since the man had stormed out of the office, leaving them there to quickly retreat under the red head's glare. It bothered Damian to be dismissed so casually, but he would have been able to ignore it, except that Drake… Something had changed.
Not outwardly, not entirely. Drake still went to classes and interacted appropriately with the other children at school, but it was as though he faded. He mentally retreated into himself. Alfred had noticed that something had happened, but Drake was a good actor and so the older man had let it go.
Damian had accidently walked in on Drake talking to Grayson. Calling the older man back had been enlightening. Apparently Dra – Tim – had wanted to talk or have his brother come over, but Grayson claimed to be busy with an unexpected case. He promised to be by "later", whatever that meant. But Damian suspected that Tim saw it as another rejection.
What was more worrying than Tim's retreat into himself was the fact that the older boy refused to eat. Not consciously, perhaps, but Damian noticed that his food intake had begun to drop and Tim would ignore food set in front of him in favor of whatever project or activity he would be currently engaged in.
Attempts by Damian to make sure that the older boy ate had failed and he wasn't yet desperate enough to ask Grayson or Pennyworth for help. Not yet, because that would mean having to explain why Tim was like this. And Damian wasn't sure he could come up with a reason that wouldn't involve explaining what had happened. And he refused to admit that he felt guilty since, after all, it had been his idea to track down Todd in the first place.
He was reluctant to do so and he could come up with no plausible reason why. It wasn't out of loyalty to Todd - it was his fault that Tim had retreated so thoroughly, after all. It might have been out of a budding sense of loyalty to Tim, who would probably be blamed for the whole fiasco, being older. Damian cocked his head to the side, considering. Todd had lived with Tim for at least six months before "The Incident", whatever it was, had happened. So he should know how to help Tim and Damian was going to make him, because this was his fault to begin with.
It took another two days to be able to slip away from the house Pennyworth noticing. The older gentleman had apparently noticed that something was wrong, because he, at least, spent more time at the house than he normally did. Father had not, not that Damian had expected him to. After all, his children apparently came in a distant second to his work.
The bus ride seemed longer, this time around, without Tim to tell him about the landmarks and history of the areas they passed and the anxiety that coiled around Damian's middle. If this was what caring for someone was like, Damian understood why his mother and grandfather were so against it. It was not a pleasant feeling, worrying about someone else.
His stop was four blocks from the shop and Damian spent the entire walk coming up with ways to convince Todd to help. Luckily, he was there and the red head was not. Damian stood in the doorway for second before clearing his throat to get Todd's attention. The man looked up from the car he was examining and frowned.
"What the hell do you want, brat?" Good. He remembered. That would make this much easier.
"How do you get Ti - Drake to eat?" Damian bypassed social etiquette in order to expedite getting the information he wanted. Todd, for his part, looked nonplussed.
"Excuse me?" The older man shifted so that he was actually looking at Damian. "How do I what?"
"How do you get Drake to eat when he refuses to do so? The question was not hard, Todd, and you are obligated to answer, since it is your fault he refuses to eat." Damian was sure that he imagined the slightly guilty look that appeared on Todd's face before vanishing.
"Whatever the replacement does is not my problem." Jason turned back to the car. "Call Dickie if he needs help that badly."
Damian had, up to that point, kept his temper. But that was the last straw. It would have cost Todd nothing, nothing to give Damian an answer and the man was refusing to do that. He grabbed the nearest projectile - a wrench of some sort - and hurled at the man. It missed, but Todd jerked back and around, trying and failing to keep his balance.
He rolled to his knees and then into a crouch, never taking his eyes off Damian, who had grabbed another wrench. "Kid, you throw that thing and I will beat the crap out of you." He was completely serious, but Damian didn't care. "That was a hundred thousand dollar car you just dented."
"And it's your fault that Tim won't eat and that he won't talk to anybody!" Damian's voice rose. "If he dies it will be your fault! He looked up to you and I don't know why he would, because you are a..." Damian searched for an appropriate insult. "Yela'an sabe'a jad lak!"
Todd looked... actually Damian wasn't sure what to call the look on his face. It wasn't anything that he was familiar with. So he let the wrench fly. Todd snatched it out of the air and was suddenly in front of him, grabbing him by both arms and lifting him up. Damian hadn't even seen him move and he felt a tiny trickle of fear in his stomach.
"Let go of me!" Damian struggled, but Todd ignored him, striding towards the office. "I said let go! I hate you!"
Todd managed to get them both into the office and the door shut before letting Damian go... and getting attacked by a livid ten year old. Todd took the blows in silence, deflecting only the ones that might have caused anything more than bruises. It wasn't until Damian had exhausted himself that Todd relaxed.
"You done?" Damian glared at him but nodded. He didn't understand the man, who would verbally rip one of his younger brothers to shreds but allow the other to vent his frustrations on him. "Good. Now - I'll tell you how to get Tim to eat and then I want you to leave."
"You need to apologize to him." Damian wasn't sure what had prompted that to come out of his mouth, but he wasn't taking it back. "You were the one that drove him to starve himself, so you need to apologize."
"Kid, get out of my shop." Todd held the door open and Damian stalked through it. "And just add Cilantro to whatever food you want him to eat."
"Cilantro." Damian's voice was flat and he turned around crossing his arms over his chest, mimicking Todd, who then raised his hands and shrugged.
"Don't ask me - you put it on there, he'll eat it. Now get out."
Damian left. There was nothing else to add and he needed to take care of his brother. It wasn't until he made it to the house and was sprinkling some of the herb onto a sandwich that he realized, for the first time since he moved here three months ago; he has referred to Tim as his brother.