Patchwork Siblings, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl

Chapter 4 - Settling In [rough draft]

Tim and Talon settle into a routine pretty quickly. Talon soon gets the run of the house, and seems to spend most of his week days eating sugary snacks, watching movies, and climbing on things. Nights are spent teaming up on patrol. After about a week, Tim feels okay enough about Talon's 'Yes I am a normal human being, nothing to see here' performance that the man starts going out in civilian clothes. His visible presence makes Tim less of a target to predators and reduces the suspicion of people who would take issue with him being unaccompanied.

Tim buys Talon a burner phone as a way to communicate when they're separated, and gets a kick out of the text messages he frequently receives: Talon liberally sprinkles emoji throughout his messages despite not really understanding how to use them properly. Tim's starting to decipher a pattern, though, like a secret emoji language unique to his new friend.

Tim spends weekends teaching Talon things that the poor man never learned while being stuck as a slave in a creepy cult, and feels warm when Talon starts to teach him things in return, such as how to flip and to climb better and to fall without hurting himself. It's also a relief to see Talon very slowly come out of his shell, starting to initiate more things and use bits of slang in his speech.

It starts when Tim falls asleep on the couch next to Talon during a movie. Soon, it becomes normal for the two of them to just...sleep together. There's nothing sexual about it at all, thankfully (Tim hasn't mentioned that sort of thing since the first night, since he has no idea how to address that kind of trauma, especially when it's obviously layered over with multiple other types of serious trauma). If Tim allowed himself to think about how weird it is to share a bed with a grown man, he'd be self-conscious about it, but he deliberately doesn't, so it just feels nice to have someone to cuddle.

Talon's body doesn't generate heat the way a normal human's would, so it's odd at first, but Tim gets used to it. Despite being a traumatized assassin, Talon is somehow a wonderful cuddler, and Tim feels safe wrapped up in his arms. He'd probably be more worried if Talon was a normal adult, too, but Talon doesn't actually act like an adult. He's not quite a child, either; whatever awful things the Court of Owls put him through seem to have arrested him in an in-between state, but whatever it is, Tim doesn't feel threatened by it. If pushed, he would say that falling asleep while snuggled up with Talon feels like being with a sibling, or at least what he imagines having a sibling is like. It's really nice. Tim isn't...lonely anymore.

'Pretty sad when the only reason you're not lonely is because you've got an undead pet assassin living in your house without permission,' he thinks ruefully.

o.o.o

Talon is very, very glad that the Tim-Owl is his master now. He likes Master Tim very much, and Master Tim is a much better master than any of Talon's previous ones.

He never did find out what frightened Master Tim back then, but it seems to be all right now because Master Tim is not afraid anymore. Talon doesn't know why Master Tim is so much smaller and younger now than he was before, either, but that's all right. It's not Talon's place to be told things he doesn't need to know, and Master Tim doesn't seem to be harmed by being younger than before.

It's not just whispers anymore; Master Tim talks to him all the time now, bright and kind. And...and he lets Talon talk, too. Encourages it. Talon was so frightened of being punished at first, but it's been weeks now and Master Tim has only very rarely punished him, and the punishments are strange but easy to endure, and none of the punishments were for talking. Talon...Talon can speak now, and he loves it.

He loves Master Tim. He won't ever let anything bad happen to Master Tim.

Master Tim gives him even more pleasant-tasting things, whole meals instead of small hidden treats. Master Tim shows him interesting things and explains things to him and never, ever, ever hurts Talon on purpose or makes Talon hurt innocent people or puts him in a coffin. Master Tim goes away a lot, all day for five days of the week, and Talon is sad to be alone. But Talon's new storage container is much, much larger than a coffin, and he's not even required to remain inside it, and there are things to do as a distraction while he waits, and Master Tim always comes back, and sometimes he has new things to talk about and teach after he's been at 'school.'

He lets Talon teach him things, too. He never gets angry when Talon does a bad job of teaching, and whenever he successfully learns a new skill, Talon's chest feels warm and bright. He loves Master Tim so, so much.

He hopes he is never given to another master. If anyone tries to take him away from Master Tim against Master Tim's wishes, he thinks...if the new master is not-good like all the others, he thinks he might kill the new master and make it look like an accident or like someone else did it. He'll keep doing that until there's no more new masters and he's given back to Master Tim. Master Tim is the best thing that has ever happened to him.

For the first time since Talon can remember, he is glad that he's not dead.

o.o.o

Tim is in second period when he gets a text from his mother cheerfully announcing: Home in an hour! We're getting Vietnamese for dinner.

Aghast, Tim asks to go to the restroom and then hides in a stall, first texting Talon to warn the man as best he can: My parents are coming home soon. Please clean up as best you can and then HIDE! Don't let them see you!

Then he frantically taps at his phone until he confirms that his parents are, indeed, on their way to Gotham and will make it back to the manor long before Tim is released from school. He clenches his free hand, frustrated that they didn't warn him. If they'd just texted even a couple of hours earlier, he could have done a better job covering up the fact that there's an assassin (ex-assassin?) living in their house, but as it is, he's stuck. He can't leave school without rousing suspicion or getting into trouble, so he's just going to have to trust that Talon gets the message in time and obeys it adequately.

Actually, never mind about the cleaning, it's fine. Just hide hide hide, please...!

There's nothing else to do but go back to class. Tim is a wreck the rest of the day, but tentatively takes it as a good sign that his parents don't text again, so maybe they haven't noticed Talon. (...Or he's killed them. But it's been a while since Talon even reflexively attacked someone who was threatening Tim, much less killed anyone; and he's really good at hiding. Tim's parents probably just haven't noticed.

...After all, they don't seem to notice Tim half the time even when they're home and he's not hiding, so there's probably no way they'll notice Talon. It'll be fine.)

When Tim enters the house, he surreptitiously looks around but doesn't see anything alarming. "Heya, sport," his father calls from the kitchen where he's fixing himself a drink. "How was school?"

"Good," Tim says. "Hi, Dad." He forces himself not to immediately rush upstairs and make sure Talon's nowhere in sight. "Will you be in town long?"

"Nah, just for a few days," Jack says. "We have an important meeting to oversee, but then it'll be right back out again. You holding down the fort?"

"Oh, absolutely," Tim says, straightening. "How was Romania?"

"Oh, it's beautiful."

Tim endures the chatting for as long as he can, then finally makes an excuse about homework and escapes upstairs. When he passes by his parents' room, he spots his mother standing among half-unpacked luggage, fussing over some of her clothes. "Hi, Mom."

"Timothy, darling! Come here and give your mother a hug."

Tim goes into the room and obeys, then tries to look attentive and not-anxious as he sits on the bed and listens to his mom chatter about the trip. At last, he finds a decent place to slip in his homework excuse, and is finally released.

He's still debating whether to go to his room or risk searching for Talon when he sees the man himself peeking out of an unused guest room at the far end of the hallway. "H-i-d-e," Tim signs. He's got a pretty good grasp of the alphabet, but he and Talon have only just started learning the rest of ASL.

"You s-a-f-e?" Talon signs back.

"Yes! You not s-a-f-e! G-o h-i-d-e."

Talon vanishes without a sound.

Tim does his best to work on homework, though he's not very productive. It's a relief when his parents finally call him down to dinner - now at least he'll have a better distraction and he'll be able to keep his parents in sight and not worry about them wandering into the little-used corner that Talon's hiding in.

"So, what've you been up to, sport?" Jack asks as they all transfer food from the takeout containers to plates and bowls.

"Oh, not much," Tim lies. "Just school and hanging out with friends sometimes."

"That boy Ives, you mean?" Janet says.

"Yeah, mostly." Another lie. Tim still keeps up with Ives at school, but all his free time is spent on Talon and the Bats. Since he doesn't have much he can safely discuss with his parents, he tries to redirect the conversation. "Where are you guys off to next?"

"Oh, it'll be back to Romania for now, but we've also been invited to speak at the Palaeontological Museum in Munich in a couple of months. Most of the other speakers they've booked have a different area of expertise, so they wanted to bring us in to round out the discussion."

"Sounds like you'll be busy," Tim comments, and that's all that's needed to get the conversation rolling without much input from him.

After dinner, he and his parents watch a documentary together and then discuss it for a while afterward. Tim is careful about the spacing and the gradually increasing intensity of his yawns until his parents finally send him up to bed. Knowing that they'll stay downstairs a little longer to talk some more and finish their wine, he scurries to the guest room at the end of the hall and whispers, "Talon?"

The room is empty.

Tim is still standing indecisively in the doorway when Talon's head and shoulders pop into view outside one of the windows, upside-down. "Talon!" Tim hurries over and opens the window. Talon eels inside and starts sort of patting him over.

"Tim is safe?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

Talon performs a careful thumbs-up and says in a monotone, "Awesome."

Tim smiles, still amused by the ex-assassin's attempts to act normal. "So, here's what's going on: my parents are back, but they'll probably leave again soon. Do you know what 'parents' are?"

Talon is silent for so long that Tim eventually thinks he's not going to answer. Just before Tim starts to continue, however, Talon says, very quietly, "Yes."

Tim nods. "Okay. So, my parents love me and they'd never hurt me, right? I'm safe from them. But this is their house, and they didn't invite you in and they don't know about you, and you're- Well, basically, just, if they caught you in the house, they'd probably throw you out. And you'd have to let them, because you are not allowed to kill or hurt my parents, all right?"

"Yes, Tim."

"So they'd throw you out, and maybe call the police about you, and, just, basically, we want to avoid that. Okay?"

"Yes, Tim."

Tim exhales. "Unfortunately, this also means that we won't be able to go out into the city as much. We can still try if the conditions are right, but we'd better not risk it on my parents' first night back. So...I was thinking, unless you have a better idea, maybe you can hang out in the attic for a while...? I'll bring you stuff, just like when I'm at school; only difference is that if my parents are in the house, you have to stay quiet and use earbuds. Okay?"

"...Yes, Tim."

It's not ideal, and as the days pass, Tim gets quite bored under the restrictions of parental supervision. He feels a lot of sympathy for poor Talon, who must be even more bored stuck in the attic. Tim visits him as often as he can, and when his parents are out, he lets Talon stretch his legs, so to speak, in the main part of the house.

Still, it's a relief when Jack and Janet finally leave after five days. Tim waves as their car rolls down the driveway and muses that, for the first time since he can remember, he doesn't even feel a twinge of regret that his parents are leaving him behind.

As soon as their car is out of sight, he goes to let Talon out of the attic. "Okay, they're gone. What do you want to do first?"

"I want to hug you," Talon says immediately.

Tim laughs and opens his arms. "Go for it."

They go out to stalk the Bats that night, and many nights after that. At one point, as Tim is sitting next to Talon on top of a cathedral, the two of them eating ice cream and enjoying the magnificent view of Gotham City at night, he thinks that he's never been happier in his life.

TBC

A/N: Ftr, Tim has never punished Talon. There have been incidents of miscommunication where Talon wrongly assumed he was being punished because he was missing context and couldn't think of any other explanation.