Poker Face | Bruce Wayne

twenty three

Tim walked back up the Manor stairs with only his third coffee of the day, which was pretty good by his standards. He'd gotten nearly six hours of sleep— not on his own accord, but because Bruce forced him into taking some pretty strong sleeping pills— which you'd think was a nice gesture at first, but Tim later found out it was only because Bruce went to go visit Meredith's office and didn't want anyone bothering him.

Father of the Year award definitely goes to Bruce Wayne— forcibly drugging his son under the illusion of kindness to go see a woman who hates him.

Tim wished he could say he was surprised.

Off in the distance, he could hear Damian and Bruce arguing over something, most likely Damian's patrol last night with Dick, where the younger boy put three thugs into a coma and nearly blew up half of a factory outside of downtown Gotham.

Tim reached the landing of the second floor as Damian and Bruce were storming down the hall, both males walking exactly the same: hands balled into fists at their sides and eyes glowering.

"You're reckless, Damian," Bruce scolded as he followed his son. "You can not perform out of the field like you did last night— that's how people get killed."

Damian stopped, face contouring into anger as he spun around to face his father. "I was successful! I stopped the shipment, didn't I?"

Bruce took a deep breath. "At what cost? Lives? Your own life? Your brother's life?"

"If Grayson turns himself into collateral damage, that's not my fault."

"Dick has years of experience on you. You need to listen to him, not lie about your location, and put both of you in the line of fire."

Damian got a look in his eyes— one of pure, cynical amusement— the one he got when he knew he was right and he was about to say something that was going to piss Bruce off. "Oh, you mean how you lie about your location to go prance around Elias' office because you can only get her attention as Batman and not as Bruce Wayne? Like father, like son, I suppose."

Bruce got a very blank look on his face as Damian turned around and stalked off past Tim. Tim raised his brows as Bruce squared his jaw.

"You're banned from patrol for a week."

Damian immediately halted, spinning around on his heel. "What?! Banned? I'm banned because you can't handle the truth?"

"No," Bruce's voice was very borderline Batman's. "You're banned because you can't follow direction, and sending someone like that out in the field is as good as a suicide mission."

"It's not my fault that your feelings are hurt, Father!" Damian essentially screeched.

Silence.

"This isn't up for debate. And if I find that you went out as Robin, your Batcave privileges are revoked for a month. That's final."

Damian's face was red with anger. "Father! You can't just—"

Tim's phone rang, and he almost paled out of fear as the two males turned to him with a shared look of irritation.

He held a gaze with Bruce, who had his eyes narrowed into suspicious slits, as Tim pulled out his phone.

"Hello?" Tim greeted cautiously.

"Is this Tim Drake?" A feminine voice came over the phone.

"It is," Tim said. "Who's this?"

"It's Meredith Elias— I was hoping you had time to chat?"