Sour Candy | T. Drake ✔

[02] Family Time

Tim pushed open the door to his room and trudged inside, not even caring to see that all of his siblings were already there. He was clearly exhausted as he stepped in, collapsing onto the bean bag placed right beside the door.

"Holy shit, Babybird, you look an utter mess."

He recognized Jason's voice and realized that unlike his expectation, he wasn't alone in his room. Not bothering to open his eyes that were glued shut from fatigue, he judged who else was present by listening closely.

He could hear slight comforting voices talking to each other in the distance which meant Richard and Barbara were there too, a tapping of knuckles on his desk that was Steph's habit whenever she was worried or impatient and a slight clicking sound as if Damian had been unwillingly dragged into his room again and was showing his unease by ticking his tongue against his teeth.

"So you guys decided to hog my nest again?"

"Guilty as charged," Richard spoke up, "nice haircut, by the way."

"Thanks, credit goes to Dora," he mumbled, sliding deeper into the soft bean bag as if he was about to curl himself to sleep.

"Tim, we wanted to talk to you," Barbara's voice broke the silence at last.

He kept his eyes closed but nodded, "I know. Talk."

"But since you're clearly exhausted we might come back some other time," she added and was about to gesture to the others to leave but his voice held her at bay.

"It's fine, Barb. You all can stay. It... It feels nice having you all around."

That was Richard's cue to leave the rug he was sitting on as he dropped next to Tim, his arms cradling him close to him, "feels nice to have you with us too, buddy."

Normally, Tim would have pulled apart immediately but right then he was too tired to move even so he let his elder brother cuddle him, relishing in the genuine comfort he felt emanating from the older boy as usual. A very faint smile had broken out on his face but he had turned his face away so that none of them would see it.

"Drake, have you had dinner?" Damian asked and Jay's head snapped towards him in shock, only to be hit in the face with one of Tim's case files.

"Easy Dames, there's loose paperwork in there," Tim mumbled even though he hadn't seen the boy lunge at Jay with that case file, "as for your question, yes, Alfred had brought me dinner in the cave. I'm full."

Even though Damian was about to fire a retort on why Tim had dared to call him by that atrocious nickname but seeing him so tired, he let it slide. "That's acceptable," he replied flatly instead.

"Hey gremlin, why do you still talk like a robot?" Jay spoke up instead, "you should start behaving like a human by now. It's been years since you left the demo. world and joined us, y'know."

"You should stop calling me a gremlin too by now but that's not the case," Dami snapped back, "so deal with it."

Silence washed over the room again until Steph spoke up, "Tim, we all wanted to talk to you about... About how you've been ever since you came back."

He stiffened but felt Richard's grip tighten on him immediately, in a sign that the elder brother wasn't going to let him pull away.

"I have been... Tired," he mumbled softly, "that's all."

"And yet you overwork yourself, isn't that even more exhausting?" Barbara asked.

"No," he replied, trying to steer the conversation away, "when I don't have work to do, I feel terribly useless. I'm glad I am back and you guys have piled up such a lot of cases for me to work on. Not gonna lie, few of those were downright stupid and you should have solved them in a day at most without me even."

"But Timmy, you hardly ever take a rest," Jason had left the chair as well and sat down in front of the two, his callous hand squeezing Tim's knee gently, "look in the mirror, you have grown paler and the rings around your eyes are so prominent that anyone would mistake these for eyeliner. Also, emo is not a good look on you, trust me, same's the case with punk."

He sighed, eyes fluttering open at last to be met with Jay's stormy bluish green irises, "Jay, I am very grateful you guys care for me but please, leave me be. This is something I can't control."

"You can take down an entire army of mutants by yourself but you can't control your own sleep schedule? Bullshit," Steph huffed and Tim froze at her words.

Richard felt him stiffen so he pulled him closer, "hey, that's not what she meant."

"That's exactly what I meant."

Barbara had to intervene by then, "Steph, please, don't push him into telling us anything."

"But that's the only way he is ever going to open up," she argued, "remember when Damian egged him on and he finally told us what the League did to him? The situation is not much different here either."

Richard felt a shudder rake through the younger boy's frail body as he buried his head deeper into his shirt, trying to shut out their words.

"But that was not the right way," surprisingly Damian was the one who spoke up next, "I was wrong to force it out of him. No one deserves to be forced into revealing what they are keeping from their family for personal or obvious reasons."

Tim wanted to get up and hug the little boy but his exhaustion as well as Richard's firm grip on him didn't allow him to act upon that sudden impulse.

"Shocker..." Jay breathed but his voice wasn't loud enough or else it would have caused a fight between him and Dami.

Steph had left his desk as she came to sit beside Tim as well so Richard let go of him, allowing Steph to gently encircle her arms round his frail figure instead, "Tim, we can see that you are hurting and we want to help you in overcoming it."

He shook his head though he had softened in her friendly embrace, "I'm sorry, Steph, I don't need help."

She wanted to smack him on the head for being insufferably self degrading as usual but resisted the urge, "and what about Dora? Does she know or are you shutting her out as well?"

He chose not to reply to that question instead he mumbled, "you know, I was hoping you guys could stay and we could spend some quality family time together. Instead you all have started grilling me with unnecessary questions."

"These are not unneces..."

But Richard interrupted Steph, "no wait Steph, he's right. It's been long since we all gathered like this and we, being the dysfunctional lot that we are, ruined the moment completely."

"It's alright Timmy, forget we asked you anything," Barbara added softly though deep down she knew that even if they were going to delay it for now, some day or other they would have to ask from him what exactly had happened to him.

There was no other way they could help him out if they remained unaware of what he had been through.

"Thanks," he let out a sigh of relief at last and straightened, "also Dami, I'm so proud of you."

"Wait what? Why?" Shock had flickered on the features of the youngest Wayne while Jason burst out laughing upon seeing his reaction.

"Jay was clearly wrong that you still behave like a robot," Tim mumbled, "today you proved you really care for us and I can't be happier."

The boy was speechless for a whole minute causing the rest of them to smile at his baffled expression. But then he spoke up, "I did nothing of the sort..."

Tim opened his arms, giving him the most adorable look he could manage, "can I hug you, Dames?"

That was the breaking point for all of them except Damian whose face had flushed redder than beetroot.

"Drake, you are absolutely insufferable. And don't you dare try to hug me or I will kick you so hard, all this new found affection would evaporate in an instant!"

A soft smile played upon Tim's lips but before he could fold his arms back, Jason had hugged him, "don't know about the gremlin but you sure can hug me."

His smile widened as he returned the gesture, feeling loads better to be with his family, "thanks Jaybird, I really appreciate that."

***