Chapter Text
~~Tim~~
He sighed, it was still fairly hot out even though it was August already. Dick had dragged him out of the Manor to get donuts with Damien. He munched on his glazed donut as Dick mocked him for being basic. Damien complained about the errand at first, but now he was eating a bite of donut then leaving a piece on the ground for the birds.
“And that’s why Strawberry Frosted is the best!” Dick finished his rant.
“Maybe I should’ve gotten that one so I could throw it up onto your suit,” Tim smirked.
“Hold up, guys,” Damien said, stopping to drop some of his cake donut beside some crows sitting atop a mausoleum.
“Of course, feed the creepy death birds,” Dick rolled his eyes.
“That’s ironic coming from you,” Tim mumbled. Damien crawled over the old cemetery fence to get closer to the birds.
“Yo, that’s crazy,” Dick said, standing a safe distance from the graveyard.
“Scaredy-bat,” Tim smirked as he also hopped the fence.
The cemetery was old and unkept, the grass was a few feet tall and there were lots of weeds growing through some headstones.
“Yeah, I’m waiting here,” Dick said firmly, turning his head away dismissively.
Tim rolled his eyes, walking past Damien who was focused on the crows- or maybe they were ravens- Tim couldn’t tell.
He noticed a few graves with dandelions on them, no doubt grown in the same cemetery with all the weeds inside; but they were picked and carefully set on the stones. He kept walking until he found a small stone overhang, likely an archway that collapsed and formed a small roof over the grass. Tim’s eyes trailed up the grass to the pillars, the grass was shorter over here, like someone had picked it to shorten it.
“Guys come on-! Let’s get out of here already,” he heard Dick complain from the gate of the graveyard.
Tim walked towards the broken archway when he noticed an indention in the grass, “Damien, come check this out.”
“I’m busy.”
“Just for a second,” Tim glared at him until Damien walked over.
“What is it?”
“This indentation in the grass, it looks like someone laid here, right?”
“Yeah, so what? I’m sure lots of homeless people squat in cemetery’s, it’s Gotham after all.”
“But this print looks small,” he argued.
“You mean, you-small, not me-small.”
“Same difference,” he snapped.
“Alright, time to go guys!” Dick called out.
Tim sighed with defeat, “Fine, let’s go.”
They walked past the mausoleum towards the gate of the cemetery. Tim glanced back at the caged door of the mausoleum, he froze. Were those glowing green eyes staring back at him? He blinked, they were gone. Damien slapped him in the back.
“Hey-!”
“Then don’t zone off, Sleeping Beauty,” He hopped over the gate, Tim following shortly behind.
“Runt,” he snapped back.
“Weakling,” Damien glared.
“Snow White.”
“What?”
“You know… cause you have all those animals,” Tim defended.
“Weirdasses,” Dick commented before using a hand on each of their heads to make them look where they were going.
~~~~~
Tim slowly lifted a bite of egg to his mouth, then began to push the rest of his food around.
“Something wrong, Master Timothy?” Alfred asked calmly.
Tim looked up at him, then to Bruce, “Can I walk to school today?”
“No,” Bruce answered instinctively.
“But there hasn’t been as much trouble as normal lately-!”
“He isn’t lying,” Steph adds, giving Tim a supportive, discreet thumbs up.
“No,” Bruce replaced after a moment.
“But I don’t want everyone knowing I’m rich the moment I get to school!”
“We’re in Gotham, everyone knows who you are anyways,” Dick muttered through a mouthful.
“Well some might not…”
“I don’t see the harm in letting him walk to school just for today,” Alfred said calmly, glancing at Bruce.
“…Just for today. Don’t use it as an excuse to be late, either,” Bruce replied, not looking up from his plate.
“Thanks, Dad!” Tim says, quickly taking his plate into the kitchen and running upstairs.
Tim tried to hide the skip in his step as he walked to school, sure most people would already know him, but surely there will be a few out of towners, right?
He had left an hour early to make sure he wasn’t, he made good time.
He took his schedule out of his pocket and looked at what class he had first then started walking down the hall. He knew pretty much everyone in Gotham Academy, well, he at least recognized all their faces. He walks up to his locker and puts his bag in, the locker beside him is open and someone else is fiddling inside. He doesn’t pay much attention to it until the locker door shuts, allowing Tim to see the boy behind it.
Somehow Tim found looking half-dead attractive, he just realized, as he looked the the boy beside him. The boy was slightly taller than Tim with black hair and blue eyes with dark eyes bags. He was pale and wearing his uniform quite sloppily. Tim didn’t recognize him and the boy didn’t seem to recognize him. Tim concluded the boy must be from out of town then.
“Hi, you must be new. I’m Tim,” he blurted out. He honestly didn’t plan to say anything but looks like hormones got the best of him.
The boy looked him up and down with a look of boredom and exhaustion, “Mhm, Danny,” he says simply.
“Need some help finding your classes?” Tim asked with an uncharacteristic smile.
“Well, it took me thirty minutes to find my locker, so sure,” Danny smiled.
Tim chuckled, “Good thing you got here early then.”
“Definitely.”
“So, what class do you have first?” Tim asked.
“Uhm..” Danny pulled a crumbled up paper from his pocket, “Algebra II.”
“I’ll show you the way,” Tim started walking, glancing behind him to make sure Danny was following. “So, are you just new to the school or new to Gotham in general?”
“Gotham in general,” Danny said before yawning.
“You moved here by choice?” Tim chuckled.
Danny shrugged vaguely.
“So… where are you from?”
“Small town in Illinois,” Danny said blankly.
“This is the English Hallway,” Tim said before detouring back to the earlier topic. “Small town? How small?”
“Uh, the downtown is about the size of the school campus, actually no, the downtown is smaller.”
“Damn, so pretty small.”
“Yeah.”
“Were you born there?”
“Mhm”
“What grade are you in?”
“11th, junior”
“Me too! Age?”
“17”
“Me too,” Tim smiled, he was a little frustrated with the boy’s one word answers but he couldn’t blame him with how tired he looked. After a moment of silence, “There’s the music hallway.”
Danny nodded, “Were you born here?”
“Yeah, born and raised.”
“Rough town to live in?”
“At times.”
“Any tips?”
“Just the basic stuff, don’t go in the sketchy areas at night and stuff. Probably should steer clear of the docks in general,” Tim said, running his fingers over the lockers lining the walls as he walked.
Danny nodded, “Any teachers to avoid.”
Tim shrugged, “Not that I know of.”
“Already sounds better than my last school,” Danny smiled softly and Tim matched it.
“Here’s the Math hallway, your class is the one in the corner over there,” Tim said, a bit upset he didn’t get to continue talking to the bed student.
“Thanks, Tim.”
The slightly shorter boy nods, “See ya at lunch.”
Danny looks at him when he hears the silent invitation to sit with Tim at lunch, Danny nods and walks into his classroom.
~~~~~
Tim sits alone in the corner as usual, it feels safe and quiet, at least more so than the rest of the cafeteria.
“This seat taken?”
Tim looks up at the sound of the familiar voices, “No, go ahead.” He couldn’t help but smile.
Danny sat, silently pushing his food around, occasionally eating a few bites. “Wow.. this food is actually edible.”
Tim raised a brow.
“You’ve probably never been to a basic school huh?”
Tim shrugged.
“My old school’s cafeteria food was worse than prison food, like it was so expired it was mush.”
Tim flinched back in disgust, “Seriously? How was that allowed?”
“I don’t even know, but all kinds of shit goes on in that hellhole of a town.”
“You don’t like it that much, huh?” Tim said, leaning forward a bit with curiosity.
“Just… lots of bad memories.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes.
“So, why Gotham?” Tim asked, trying to hide the curiosity twinkling in his eyes.
“Just the city that was chosen for me, I wasn’t told why here.”
“So your parents made you come here?”
“My godfather.”
“Oh, sorry for your loss,” Tim said, assuming Danny’s parents were dead.
“Oh, they’re not dead… just dead to me I suppose.”
Tim nodded, he wanted to ask what happened so badly but he just met Danny, he couldn’t scare him off with questions just yet.
“Still sorry,” Tim said softly.
“Not your fault.”
“So, when’d you move here?”
“A few weeks ago,” He said before taking another bite, once he realized the food was edible he ate it quickly.
“How’re you liking it?”
Danny shrugged, “I haven’t looked around much.”
“Why not?”
“Moving is exhausting,” Danny said simply as he finished his lunch.
They sat there in silence for a while, it was awkward but also comfortable and calm at the same time. Like they had an understanding but the silence still clawed at Tim’s skull.
The lunch bell broke the silence, “See you tomorrow?” Tim said with a hopeful hint in his tone.
Danny nodded, “Best seat in the house, after all.”
Seems Danny was paranoid like Tim, the bird didn’t think about it much, especially considering what Danny had told him about his life in Illinois. Tim suspects bullying at least.