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I.
That night, if Jason were in the batcave, it was because he had no choice.
He wanted that to be recorded. Don't get him wrong, the relationship with the bats was improving a minimum, for once both parties had agreed to try to resolve their differences and fix years of roughness and conflict between them. However, this didn’t mean that some tension wasn’t yet present in their interactions, and much as his first instincts as see them wasn’t taking out a gun, it was still a bit awkward to act as if nothing had happened.
Everyone knew that it was a process and they had to take time, so sharing some simple cases, and not killing each other’ during these were the first steps to take in the right direction.
Of course, sharing such cases meant that Jason sometimes had to put a feet int the cave to get a more detailed update or pick up something he needed for, like right now.
This time Grayson had forgotten to send him the entire update of a case that they had right now, reason why he had been forced to appear there to demand it. Although if he thought about it, maybe Dick would have done it on purpose to drive him out of his mind and see him in the cave, forcing him to go there and socialize.
Good strategy, bastard. He'll be punched later in the mission with some vigilante excuse, like "you had something on your nose" or "Batman told me to do it," Or better, he could punch him right now without hesitation, who would stop him? moral? fraternal love? Bullshit.
No matter how hard they tried, the cave was no longer his home, nor was the manor. It might sound sad, but it was so, and it didn't matter how many lies they will tell him or deals made with him to bring him back to the family, such places were no longer considered his home for a long time.
So, he started to search Grayson's stupid ass not to waste any more time. But it was then when he walked through the batcomputer and something else caught his eye.
If there were things that he knew about his replacement, other than that their relationship was still somewhat tentative and strained -but cordial-, is that the guy barely rested, and he was fucking crazy. He was smart, yes, but he sacrificed himself for simple missions to insane points, he didn’t sleep, he didn’t eat well, he worked as CEO of Wayne Enterprise by day, as a vigilante at night, he also had online classes, and his diet consisted of energetic bars, coffee and Monster in industrial quantities.
Yeah, as he said, fucking crazy. Jason didn’t know how he was still alive, even after having survived all attempts on his life, of his courtesy, of course.
So, the sight of the boy asleep above batcomputer’s keyboard wasn’t as surprising as it should be.
He was wearing Green Lantern pajamas, Wonder Woman socks -like his- and the cup he was holding while he was asleep was white with a message that said "there’s still no vaccine for stupidity." His shiny black hair was very tousled, his skin was very pale and his face had some dark circles that didn’t disappear even after sleep, he could almost hear him snoring, he was drooling on the keyboard too, and his cheek crushed against it was writing a deep and interesting report titled "fhidsgbobvhuyfdvashufso".
Jason didn't know whether to feel pity, compassion, or amusement at such a spectacle. It was a mix of all of the above.
In the end, he considered if the boy was exhausted enough to sleep under those circumstances, it was better to leave him as he was, he owed him. So, he did, turned around and left.
When he punched Dick a few minutes later and he started to yell at him, he said:
“Shh. The replacement is sleeping.”
The punch he received back was silent, but effective.
II.
Alfred's excuses for bringing him into the manor were a thousand times better than Dick's or Bruce's.
He went on, and was going to go on, never considering the place as his home again. But Alfred's tricks had something the other two pedants didn’t: Alfred's food. Whether they wanted it or not, it was a real plus and a compelling reason to put aside their grudges and deign to step on the place.
Although as much as being lured with delicious food like a wild animal was a good explanation why he was now wandering through the carpeted hallways of the Wayne Manor, he had to admit that the approaches he had been taking with the family had been having its effects, there was less tension now.
They were still assholes sometimes, but with less tension and a little more understanding or appreciation on both sides.
Of all them, the relationship that seemed to have improved the most and that was a pleasant surprise for everyone, including him, was with his replacement.
The one who he found when he entered one of the most remote rooms of the manor.
He didn't even bother saying hello, but rolled his eyes, this time with amusement.
At this moment, he had spent more time in the place, and he discovered along with the third Robin that they worked very well together, starting to take more and more team missions than they should. Another thing that he had also noticed is that Tim could fall asleep anywhere and under any circumstances, he didn't care.
It wasn’t a surprise looking at the rhythm of life he led, but Jason had found himself appreciating the fun and entertainment provided by being able to find the boy sleeping anywhere. Without realizing it, it was already something he had begun to expect every time he was there, giving him a kind of routine and a sense of normality that he didn't expect to enjoy.
This time Tim was on the sofa, his legs still on the floor but his torso lying on the padded surface of the furniture. He would bet the boy had an early conference call judging by the laptop on the table, or because his pants were the ninja turtle pajamas, but his top was the typical jacket, shirt, and tie you could attribute to the CEO, Timothy Drake-Wayne.
It was hilarious, stupid. Made Jason snort with fun and approach to look like the other slept peacefully, murmuring in his dreams and hugging one of the cushions on the sofa tightly.
This time what he felt was simple relief to see him sleep, since he would need him at his 100% for their mission tonight.
And although his first instinct was to leave again, he stopped to think for a moment, considering that he was starting to realize how difficult it was to repair interpersonal relationships, so he forced himself to try. So, he walked over, scooped up his feet as gently as he could to get him properly on the couch, grabbed one of the blankets on the end of it, and covered him, so he wouldn't catch a cold or something. He didn’t know, but since he slept for once, at least he could be more comfortable than usual.
When he finished, he tried to convince himself that the way Tim had smiled softly in dreams hadn’t affected him at all.
III.
“I'm fine…”
“Shut up.”
“But I'm fine…”
“I said shut up.”
He already knew he was fine, fuck, he didn't have to repeat it. Jason was the first to know that he was fine, who was treating the wound? Eh?
On top of that the gremlin had the audacity to raise his head and look at him in a kind of pout, like a sad puppy or something. He certainly looked like it with those huge eyes and those long eyelashes, he was regretting giving him those painkillers to ease the pain.
The red team had completely killed it this night, like all the others during the last months. Undoubtedly, discovering the good team they made had been one of the best surprises among the Gotham vigilantes, though not so much for the villains who were kicked in the ass, of course.
Precisely because of one of those villains, quite spiteful in his opinion, they were in this situation.
They hadn't expected the little ambush across the corner at the end of the night, so they were caught off guard, and they took a couple of unplanned injuries courtesy of some thugs already on the way to jail.
Jason didn't like that punch in the face, or the stab Tim had received in the shoulder. The last in concrete hadn’t liked him at all, had angered him, very much, maybe more than normal. He almost took out the real bullets again to make it clear that if anyone had the right to stab Red Robin in Gotham without any repercussions, it was him and Robin.
So no, he hadn't liked that attack on his partner. Nothing at all. He could have been angrier with the attacker but leaving the scene and treating the other was more important after knocking out that guy.
So, without wasting a minute he carried the other, fled the scene and ended up in the bathroom of one of the Red Hood safe houses treating his injuries.
Tim, the little shit without a sense of survival and self-preservation, insisted it hadn’t been that bad, it didn’t matter the desperation with which he had swallowed the painkillers and the points that he had to apply to close the wound, he was convinced that it had been a slight injury.
He will teach him what a slight injury is, the stupid shit.
Although when he finished closing and cleaning carefully the wound on his shoulder, Jason realized that he had no explanation for the annoyance and anger that he carried with him about the whole thing.
Yes, Tim was now his partner in Gotham, they were starting to be feared as a team, and maybe, maybe, out of the vigintalism work he could have realized that he likes the nerd more than he had originally imagined. After all the little bird shared his acid and sarcastic humor, caught his literary references, played more with gray and twisted morality than others thought, he was one of the most attractive men in Gotham, and he also liked chilli-dogs. So yes, Jason wasn’t a stone, it was true he was taking a certain fascination with him. One whose reach didn’t want to start thinking about, because although they don’t always come out unscathed from every patrol, Tim was right in saying that the wound he had acquired tonight wasn’t proportional to his reaction.
He didn’t want to give him the reason, Jason wanted to convince himself that the discomfort on his chest wasn’t because he was worried about him or anything like that because that would mean that he cared for Tim a lot. And he doesn't, right?
His plans for constant denial went to hell when he finished cleaning the wound, and he felt a light and soft brush on his cheek, courtesy of Tim's fingers that had startled him.
“What?” He asked, looking at him confused but agitated.
The painkillers seemed to have worked, judging by how the boy was leaning tiredly against the wall and looked sleepy, almost asleep. With those baby blue eyes cloudy and looking at his face as he tried not to close them.
He ran his fingers down his cheek to his cheekbone, touching where Jason still felt a little numb, surely where they had punched him and was beginning to have a bruise.
“You are hurt too…” He whispered, clearly falling quickly into the dream world.
“Tch. Just a punch.” He said, finishing his task and shrugging.
“But you're hurt...” The smallest frowned, almost seemed annoyed, but he had already closed his eyes completely.
“Who cares?” He teased, snorting with amusement.
There it was again, that boundless kindness Tim possessed and intrigued him so much. It had never stopped to amaze him, really. By now, Jason couldn't help but wonder how anyone could be so generous after all he’d been through, especially Tim.
He was fascinated by the way he gave everything for someone, everything. He just gave, gave, and gave, and gave without stopping, without reservation, gave all of himself and what he had with such force and intensity that it even frightened, regardless of the consequences. And even after receiving betrayals, stabbings, and disappointments in return, he was still there with a stab wound in his shoulder, lying in his bathroom, and worrying more about him and the punch in the face he had received.
It was admirable.
“Me…” Tim muttered.
Jason felt his chest sink, almost surprised.
“Yeah, sure” He said sarcastically and snorting.
As if he were to believe that. The medication had to be working a lot for him if it was making him forget that not long ago the one who was stabbing him was him. He shouldn't matter to Tim; he was the last person Tim should care about. But a part of him told him that the medication didn't matter here, Tim would keep thinking the same thing because the way he had forgiven him so easily indicated it, and Jason didn't even want to start thinking about how that made him feel.
“I care…” He whispered weakly, almost asleep. “I care about you, you're my Robin.”
He dropped that while Jason was keeping things in the medicine cabinet absently, making him froze and wondering if he had heard correctly or not. The weight and the annoying feeling that had been installed in his chest twisted, and he looked up uneasily to realize that the other had already fallen completely asleep against the wall.
He had dropped the bomb and retreated.
The thing was that maybe he wasn't even going to remember it in the morning, but surely those words, along with the tender touch of his fingers, and the way his heart jumped listening to it was something Jason wasn’t going to forget, how to do it?
He always thought he had been the least loved, least valued Robin in Gotham and the community. After all he was just the violent street boy that had to fill the shoes of the amazing and perfect Richard Grayson. He didn't do much either, he was like Robin for a short time and it was his career as Red Hood that allowed him to help Gotham from another perspective, also he died of reckless. Why would he be anyone’s favorite Robin?
Apparently, he was Tim's, if he could trust his wounded drugged words.
But it was that the moment and the place where he realized that it wasn’t worth trying to fool himself, because his chest continued to twist, but this time in a more pleasant and warm way, his discomfort was gone, and when he recognized that maybe he was a little more fascinated by the other than he realized, he felt a certain weight disappear from his shoulders.
He looked at his partner asleep, leaning on the wall in his half-worn suit and with a bandage covering his shoulder. He noticed the way he wrinkled his nose like a cat, his relaxed expression so different from when he was awake and constantly alert, his long eyelashes, and the scars that completely covered his body, narrating a life of sacrifice and danger.
With an exhausted sigh, Jason decided to pick him up off the floor with care and allowed him to sleep in his bed that night.
Before going to sleep on the couch, he smiled because the way the other had instinctively wrapped himself like a burrito in his blankets definitely was adorable.
IV.
They didn’t even watch half of the movie when Jason felt a weight light fall on his shoulder.
The Jason Todd from a year ago, would have simply bothered, overwhelmed, and pulled away, perhaps pushed the other. Now he just smiled, almost touched, and settled better on the couch so that the body of the other wasn’t seen in a bad posture after a while.
Tim had finished his last assignments that afternoon, concluding his semester. Apparently, the Wayne Enterprise board looked like to have behaved well this time too, so when the meeting ended, the current CEO sent Jason a text to plan a movie marathon to honor the occasion.
Of course, not was the first time they did something like this, Jason was more than sure what was going to happen. So, he didn’t flinch when Tim fell asleep against him.
Seriously, it was ridiculous.
If someone had told him long ago that he would end up having marathons of the Lord of the Rings with the boy whose blood he tried to write on the walls, maybe he would have shot them. However, against everything, he had found himself enjoying and longing those nights.
There were always quiet nights, when the patrol had ended, or they needed to hide from the world together. They weren’t aware at what point they managed to find so much comfort in each other's company, but surely between healed wounds -like that stab in his bathroom- and completed missions, they must have realized that not only did they get along, but they liked, complemented, and helped each other in more ways than one.
As ironic as it sounded, Tim and his boundless goodness got kept the Lazarus Pit's anger at bay. Not in an exaggerated way, since its effects kept inside him and it was clear that they were not going to disappear, of course it was something he would have to live with now. But Tim, so smart, kind, and perceptive as he was, had learned to read the signs, to interpret them. Soon as he started to get along with him, he could sense when anger appeared, he had learned not to stoke it, not to push it, and give him space when he needs it.
He hadn't said it, of course, because he was a little self-sacrificing shit that did those kinds of things without wanting recognition or anything in return, but Jason had noticed it and inadvertently began to return the same care and caution with which the other surrounded him on his bad days. Without realizing it, he saw himself cooking so that he didn't only eat energy drinks, he canceled some of their joint patrols too when he noticed that Tim wasn’t particularly in the mood, and sent him to sleep when he was too tired. And when he didn't want to, he would play a movie and within a few minutes he was snoring.
Like now, for example.
Jason looked aside and the tender smile he had kept until then grew. No doubt Tim had shown up at his door with popcorn, drinks, and was ready to spend the night awake with laughter and his favorite movies, he had to give him that credit. But knowing him, he had slept rather little to be able to finish all his assignments on time, so the moment he was wrapped in a blanket, comfortable, warm, with the lights off and the television in the background, it was impossible for him not to fall asleep.
Now, he was completely leaning on Jason, lying there placidly while breathing slowly and not even worried by his surroundings, with his guard completely down. As if falling asleep on top of the Red Hood was nothing special.
Jason felt that amusement turn into affection, devotion, even pride as he realized how safe he had to feel around him, so he could sleep like this without reservations. The boy was ridiculous, but he was even more ridiculous for being at his mercy without resistance. Because being so close he could smell the citrus scent of his hair due to his shampoo, as well as feel his small body completely leaning against his. He couldn't see his face, but in these cases, he didn't know if it was better that way.
While the comfort and trust between each other had increased, it was obvious it was because his relationship was now... Well… He wasn't sure what it was. Indefinite, if he had put a name on it somehow.
They flirted, joked, were close, had dates (or something like that) and saw each other when they could.
They hadn't talked about it, but Jason wasn't dumb, and Tim wasn't either, he knew they were both aware of the change of attitude, but they didn't mention it. It isn’t as if they were doing nothing about it, on the contrary, rather he felt that they were letting it develop on its own, to follow its natural course.
Eventually they would speak about it, because at the rate they were going to, they would have no choice.
For the moment, Jason settled on the sofa wrapping the blanket that covered them, put his arm around the little one's shoulders to keep him by his side and after thinking about it for a few seconds, he kissed his hair while he was squeezing it a little and inhaled his scent. Then he looked again at the TV.
When he fell asleep, he felt that this was something he could call home.
V.
When Jason returned from patrol, he didn't even bother turning on the lights.
He entered to the room through the window, like a good with serious problems to remember that doors existed for something, and he started to remove his armor immediately, snorting and boiling of frustration in silent.
The night had been disgusting. Not because something serious had happened, if not because it had been the typical patrol in which he had only encountered pseudo villains who thought they could aspire to something more, and people believing they were dangerous when they were actually rookies with guns trying to rob an unfortunate gas station. He had also had to cover part of Cass's territory in Chinatown, which coincidentally had been the best of the night, because a kind lady gave him coupons and discounts for her restaurant after helping her with the little mob that was trying to intimidate her.
Tim would very much like to take advantage of these discounts this weekend, so with the coupons in hand, the hassle, and boredom, the desire to return home were more powerful than ever, and he headed there in a hurry.
When he took off his armor and looked comfortable enough to go to sleep, he went to bed to find what he wanted so badly to see: The Tim-burrito.
He had convinced his boyfriend to take the night free after an especially busy project in WE, one that had kept him two days awake and working nonstop. When he suggested a break, his little bird had no will to refuse to rest, so finding him in their shared bed sleeping and almost drowned between the oversized blankets, was a complete victory.
He couldn't even see him correctly, because all that was in sight was his soft black hair, tousled and poking out between the sheets, but it was enough for Jason to smile tiredly and lie down next to him carefully.
Settling properly next to him so as not to disturb his sleep or undo his nest, Jason sighed and felt the discomfort he had felt all night slowly disappear as he was near him. It had taken some time, many attempts at emotional conversations, and certainly tentative steps to get to the point where they were not, but without doubt he couldn’t regret it when he now had his warm presence at his side, being able to listen to his soft breathing and the way he murmured in dreams sometimes, seeing his face with that expression serene that he adored so much, and above all, being right at his fingertips.
If Tim didn't want him to hug him while he slept, then he shouldn’t be that adorable in the first place. Because Jason loved holding him in his arms, he liked feel how his smaller body fit perfectly against his, loved to squeeze him and listen to those small and sharp whining of his, or kiss his head, hear his laugh, smell his hair, feel how he smiled on his skin.
He loved his babybird and his strange sleeping habits, or nesting, or stealing shirts, he liked too how little by little he looked willing to take care of himself a little more, to value himself just like he deserved. So, nobody could blame him if he got close in the mattress and tried to cover that Tim-burrito with his arm.
He was on his side and his face half covered, Jason was convinced he was completely asleep, but when he put his arm over his covered waist to bring him a little closer, he heard a snort and a weak moan from him.
Slowly and wearily, Tim opened those blue eyes a bit to scowl at him and churning in his cocoon of blankets. Jason smiled sadly but at the same time moved by this.
“Sorry Babybird, I didn’t want to wake you up.” He whispered, raising his hand to stroke his hair fondly. “Go back to sleep.”
The smallest sighed and closed his eyes numb with the caresses, but before fall asleep again, shook his head and shifted, pulling the covers away from him to get closer to Jason with an intelligible grow. Jason snorted amused and allowed it, hugging him tighter this time while he settled on his chest and intertwined his legs. When Tim was finally comfortable enough, he raised his face and leaned down to kiss him despite being half asleep, and because of that he ended up kissing his chin instead, but Jason soon kissed his lips slightly while laughing.
“Welcome home.” Tim murmured as they parted, each word tinged with love and adoration, hiding then his face in his neck to keep sleeping.
And there, with the other clinging to him and his heart about to explode from everything he felt for that man, Jason realized that it was true, he was at home.
Extra:
When Tim returned from the office, he noticed that everything was silenter than normal.
He knew Jason was home, today was his day off, and he had texted him asking what he wanted for dinner. But unlike most times than that happened, the kitchen was empty when normally there was Jay muttering and singing under his breath while cooking, so Tim soon started to look for him around the apartment.
When he found the other, he relaxed and sighed with relief, smiling at the sight.
Jay had fallen asleep reading on the sofa, head down, leaning to one side with the loose book in his hands. The last few days he had been involved in difficult cases that required too much vigilance until late, so it wasn’t surprising that he was so tired.
Without much thought, Tim dropped his briefcase from work, undid his tie, and approached him to pick up the book that lay forgotten on his lap, a collector's edition that he gave Jason for their anniversary and had made the tallest smile at him with intensity.
Leaving the book on the table, he looked at his boyfriend tenderly, and he settled him on the sofa as best he could so that he didn't hurt his neck, then covered him with a blanket and kissed his cheek, then his temple.
“I’m home.” He said, happier than he ever imagined.