"We'll manage."

Dick watches the green spaceship ascend until he can't see it anymore, and then a little longer, in case he's mistaken. The cluster of heroes around him feels too crowded, too close. He slowly moves away from them until he can breathe easier, then closes his eyes.

He knows they may not come back. He knows it, and it hurts him, and he selfishly finds himself angry at his teammates, that they have the audacity to be sad and afraid for their loved ones when they don't understand what it feels like to have your heart ripped out and crushed again and again and again-

Dick breathes. Of course they understand, almost all of them do. The ridiculous thoughts leave with the air out his nose.

He doesn't even notice Tim walk up behind him until he speaks, startling him.

"Are you okay?"

Dick unclenches his fists, opens his eyes, relaxes his shoulders. When he turns to Tim, a small smile comes naturally at the concern on his face."Yeah. I'm fine."

Tim doesn't say anything in response, just stares at him, eyes wide. Dick scowls. "What?"

"You're upset."

Tim is a detective. Dick is too, but where he sees dishonesty in someone's eyes, Tim sees dishonesty, the true story, and the person's childhood address. He's not afraid to say as much either.

Tim's the perfect Robin. Dick's as certain of that as he is that he and Jason weren't.

"And?" He turns away from those skilled eyes and looks out at the water instead.

"Why?"

Dick lets out a long breath, then sits cross-legged in the sand. He's suddenly so utterly exhausted, and the fact that he can't tell Tim about eighty percent of what's weighing on his mind is even more tiring. He digs around with his fingers for a shell to fidget with. Tim kneels next to him awkwardly, still staring until he gets an answer.

"Just kinda...worried about B going. That's all." He's not lying. Just leaving out the part about how completely worn down he is, how he's starting to feel like crying whenever someone so much as cancels plans with him, how incredibly not good this whole Bruce-going-to-Rimbor-and-maybe-never-coming-back thing is for him right now. Although, a more calculated part of him thinks it is good, since if he was around Bruce a second longer he'd probably crack and spill everything about Aqualad and the mission. And god, he wishes he could. He needs advice, he needs help, he so does not need to be left alone right now, not when it already strikes a nerve in him even without all the things he's trying to shoulder.

"It's more than that." Tim is as flat-voiced as if he were observing a bug in science class and it would make Dick laugh on a better day. Today, he can't muster it.

"You're good, dude. Yeah, it's a little more than that. No worries."

That appeases him for a few seconds, and then he's back on it. "Talk to me about it."

"Ahh…" Dick looks around, trying to see if he can get out of this. Barbara is talking with Cassie. Some of the others are heading back up to the mountain. Dick is stuck. "I just...have some issues, with this kind of thing. You know...people leaving."

Tim nods, shifting his legs out from under him. "Abandonment?"

"Right." He swallows. "It's just a...a dumb thing. I'll get over it."

He doesn't want to talk about this with Tim. Jason always listened to him bitch, but Jason's gone and maybe if Dick wasn't always bitching he would have come to him before running off alone. Maybe if he's the perfect big brother to Tim and never shows a sliver of weakness, Tim won't die.

"Can I ask you something?" Tim sounds awkward again, and Dick snaps his mind back to his living brother. He almost wants to say no, but he can't, not when it's Tim. Besides, Dick knows he can find the information he wants, easy. It's a pretty polite gesture that he's asking in the first place.

"Go ahead."

"What did you and B fight about, a couple years back? He never told me."

Dick groans, then scrubs his hand over his face. "What fight? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Please? 'Wing, I...if I'm gonna be a part of this...this family, I need to understand."

Dick sighs. He's right. They try, desperately, to pretend things never fell apart but their relationship is still so damaged. Anyone could see that, let alone someone as perceptive as Tim. Dick and Bruce owe him an explanation at least, and since Bruce is away - and he can handle that he can he can he can - it's Dick's job.

He looks back to assure that their teammates are clearing out or at least a safe distance away, and tries to explain it with as few details as possible. Unsurprisingly, it's difficult to explain how Bruce sorta accidentally fucked my emotional health up because he was scared and you know how he gets when he's scared? And then I lost my shit and told him his parents would hate him and then he lost his shit and sort of kicked me out? And then I think he was afraid to apologize because he thought I wouldn't forgive him? And honestly, I probably wouldn't have? But now we're alright, I guess? I still have ridiculous attachment issues so that has to count for something, right?

"So...yeah. Ah...it was messed up, really messed up. But. It's better now. Not...not perfect. It's getting better." He sounds a whole lot more like he's trying to convince himself than Tim.

His brother is gaping at him, somewhere between shocked and skeptical. He wants to believe him, Dick can see it, but he doesn't, not quite.

"How...what?" The gears turn visibly behind Tim's eyes. "So he's scared because you're getting older and worried about you getting hurt so he...kicks you out?"

He's not sure if it's a good thing that he rushes to Bruce's defense. "It wasn't- it was complicated. I...he didn't know what to do with me, I was...really difficult, at the time. And he snapped. We both...snapped." Dick swallows. Tim looks crestfallen.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's over now. We can...work together just fine." He looks up at the sky, wonders if Bruce is looking back at Earth. Wonders if he'll miss him, really miss him the way Dick will.

"How...how did you forgive him after that?"

I'm still trying.

Someday, he hopes he can truly, completely let go, but that sounds even more difficult than stopping the Light. There's a very fine tightrope between forgiveness and being too damn tired to hurt, and Dick's not sure which side he falls on.

"It was after Jason," he murmurs, heart clenching. "It all just...seemed stupid, then."

"Oh." Tim looks down, picking up small handfuls of sand and letting it dribble to the ground. Dick has always hated the feeling of sand slipping through his fingers.

"Bruce...he told me something, yesterday," Tim says. Dick feels his pulse quicken just a bit at his tone. Something about you, Tim doesn't say.

"Yeah?"

"He...he asked me to look out for you. Said that...that you can get pretty sad, sometimes. That this might...make you sad." Tim hesitates before meeting his eyes.

Dick opens his mouth then closes it again, chews his lip, and answers. "Was...was that it?"

"That's all he said." Tim raises his palms in surrender. "But, um, the way he said it...is it...like, bad?" Behind the embarrassment at his clumsy words, Dick can see genuine worry.

"Like, bad," he affirms. Tim's face crumples just a bit, and he wishes he'd kept his tongue. "Not...I mean...ah, fuck. Tim, just- just don't worry about it, please."

"Are you sad now?" Tim sounds like a child when he asks the question, and yet it holds more weight than it would phrased differently. Dick pushes his hair back a bit forcefully.

"I have a lot on my plate right now."

"I know." There's a touch of dismay in his tone. "You're keeping something from me."

"I'm not," Dick says automatically, but he sounds blatantly nervous to his own ears. Lying to his friends hurts, but lying to his family kills him. He swears his brain is sweating. His wrists itch.

Tim shakes his head. "I wish you'd tell me. You don't...you don't have to be all alone, Dick."

Fuck. Dick's eyes are burning. The mission and the team have put feeling on the backburner for him and Tim has no idea what kind of bottle he's opening. He needs to- needs to breathe. He needs Bruce's hands on his shoulders but he might never have that again. He needs Batman, for the first time in years, to help him hold the world together, but Tim's wrong. He does have to be all alone with this, even if it kills him.

And the last Grayson flies solo again. It's what he does.

Tim's hesitant, awkward hand touches his arm. "I-I'm here. We're all...here."

"You won't want to be," Dick whispers fiercely. Tim raises an eyebrow.

"Huh?"

Dick shakes his head, pulls him tight to his side, ignoring the involuntary, uncomfortable squeak he makes, and breathes in stuttered breaths until he feels like he can close the bottle again. Tim's cold and awkward and his elbow is digging into Dick's hip, but he stays.

He stays until Dick's ready to go home and start holding down the nest.

A/N: hello! this took forever because I kinda got cold feet about it and also I have like two different versions of this scene and I was indecisive. I still kind of hate it, but it's not gonna get any more done. anyway. It's here now. Sort of a filler, but also not. We get to see some of Tim, which is fun. He's a very good boy. And we also see our sad boy getting a little better, finally. He's at a stable place right now. Next chapter will be up in a couple weeks because I'm going away, so see you then! Thanks for reading.