Chapter Text
Everything was going according to plan.
Tim had spent the last couple months making sure that tonight would be the perfect occasion. He had kept his grades up, with no complaints from his teachers, even forgoing his nighttime adventures. As much as he enjoyed running around after Batman, this was even more important than that. He’d dotted his i’s and crossed his t’s and made sure that there were no trivial issues that would bother his parents in the few days that they were in town. Tim had even been on his absolute best behavior since his parents’ plane had touched down a couple days ago, all in preparation for tonight.
His parents were busy people, what with running a company and exploring the world and discovering hidden treasures. Tim knew that he couldn’t expect them to attend every little parent-teacher meeting and graduation and family night that happened at his school. He knew how important their work was to them, and Tim would never ask them to put him first.
But his parents were in an exceptionally good mood this time. Their dig had gone off flawlessly, and they had made a huge discovery that had landed them in a published journal. Tim had welcomed them back home with a quiet excitement, making sure to acknowledge their remarkable find without being an annoyance to their tired minds. He’d been at the kitchen table the next morning, fully dressed and ready hours before he usually even woke up.
When his parents had finally woken up hours later, beyond jetlagged, Tim had poured them coffee and made simple conversation that would keep the mood light and positive. He subtly brought up their accomplishments, and his parents jumped on the chance to gloat. They played off of each other, telling stories about their travels that Tim had heard more than once, but he let them talk, let them build their own egos up as high as they needed them to be. Tim just nodded his head and made impressed sounds at the right moments.
As the stories seemed to peter out after they had finished eating, Tim stepped away from the table to pour himself a cup of juice. While pouring, however, Tim’s hand slipped, and orange juice splashed over the counter and onto the floor, puddling at Tim’s shoes. Tim froze, and he put the carton down quickly, clenching his hands to stop their sudden shaking.
Without a word, Tim quickly pulled sheets of paper off the kitchen roll and started cleaning up. As he squeezed the mess into the cup he had been foolishly pouring, Tim risked a glance at his parents. His father was shaking his head disappointedly as he reached for his laptop, while his mother’s mouth was pinched, like she was going to say something.
“We’ve got an invitation for lunch with the Wetherfords. Something about wanting to discuss an investment in the new product.” Jack Drake spoke up suddenly. His wife turned to him with interest, and he continued. “And they want to meet at Keystone… That’s quite an extravagant venue for a simple business meeting.”
Tim apologized to the Wetherfords in his head, and timidly stepped up, “The Wetherfords had a um… scare with one of their help last month. It made the society pages and they likely want to get something better into the papers.”
Janet smirked as she heard the gossip she’d missed while being out of town, and glanced approvingly at her son, “Good catch Timothy, that will be very useful today.” Tim smiled tightly, glad to have her approval, but feeling remorseful for what he had wrought upon his parents’ unsuspecting luncheon companions.
Soon enough, his parents rushed out of the Manor, promising a dinner together that night. Tim couldn’t do much to make sure that the lunch went well, but he hoped that the information he had given his parents was enough to swing things in their direction.
He had a couple hours to spare, and Tim decided to go over his presentation one more time. It couldn’t help to be any more prepared. His parents valued eloquence and efficiency, and Tim knew that he only had one chance to make his case. If the lunch went well, he would talk to his parents while they had their tea in the afternoon. Whatever the result was, Tim would then soothe or celebrate with their favorite takeout. If lunch didn’t go well, however, he would need to find something to distract them with, and then try his luck after a dinner of their favorites. Whichever way the decision fell, they would be out of town by the end of the week, and he would manage the aftermath, good or bad, on his own. It wasn’t a foolproof plan, but it was as good as it was going to get.
Tim was sitting in the inside living room when his parents came back, and he set aside his copy of one of their old journals to gauge their moods. His parents were talking amicably, and didn’t seem particularly upset, and Tim risked further confirming his guess,
“Good afternoon. How was lunch?”
“It went quite well. We managed to get them to pledge fifteen thousand dollars, which should get us thoroughly in the green for the next quarter or two,” Tim’s mother explained smugly as she tossed her coat onto the coat rack. Tim tried not to show all the excitement he felt, and restrained himself to an acceptable elegant smile. The night was going his way. This was going to be his chance to ask his parents to-
“Now get dressed, and well. We’ve accepted an invitation to the Gotham Museum’s Charity Gala, and we need to make the rounds while we are still in the city.” Tim closed his mouth before it had even opened. He choked down the complaint rising on his lips, not all was lost just yet. He nodded in understanding and made his way up to his room to get ready for a long night of remembering people’s names and trying not to fall asleep standing up.
As he pulled the heavily starched formal wear off its hangers, Tim reconsidered the plan he’d been working with so far. His parents were doing well, the lunch and the gala were both positives in their book. Tim himself was still on their good side, but he knew that the gala was going to be a very important step in getting what he wanted eventually. He just had to make sure that everything went well tonight…
Because that was so easy.
~~~
“-And please try not to look so bored this time, you’re an important asset, and you need to play your part so that everything goes smoothly, yes?”
“Yes, of course Mother, I understand.” Tim resisted the urge to sit on his hands so he wouldn’t fiddle with his fingers as he listened to his mother drill him on gala etiquette that he’d been instructed in since he was old enough to hold conversation.
The night passed in a blur of conversation and hidden meanings and disgusting foods. Tim tried to talk to every person that his parents wanted to appeal to, and made sure to be seen interacting with the ‘important’ children while he was wandering the hall. He had just stumbled into the first interesting dialogue all night with Bruce Wayne’s latest child, Jason Todd, when he saw his mother gesturing for him to come over.
“Sorry to cut this short, Jason, I really am, but my parents are calling for me,” he apologized, interrupting the older boy in his vivid description of one of the artifacts on display that night.
“Nah don’t worry ‘bout it, duty calls and whatnot. See you around.” Jason shrugged, clapping Tim on the shoulder as he walked past him.
“Yeah, yes, that’d be nice.” Tim tried to tamp down his excitement at the casual affection, and from Robin, no less, as he approached his parents and the group they were standing with.
When he slipped into the circle of people however, the look on his parents’ faces said that he’d done something very wrong, and he could not for the life of him remember what he could have messed up. He quietly greeted the group with a “Good evening,” and then stood at attention, trying to follow the business conversation and not to look bored, or worse, tired.
His father’s arm had fallen over his shoulders in a mockery of affection, and Tim tried not to flinch. Jack had his hand on Tim’s shoulder, and squeezed, hard, whenever Tim did something that wasn’t up to their exacting standards. If his posture fell or he dropped his smile, and once when he took a sip of his drink at the wrong time.
By the end of the night, Tim’s shoulder was aching from the wordless rebukes, and his face from smiling artificially for hours now. His father’s arm was replaced by his mother’s tight grip across his upper arm, and he was led out of the gala after the Drakes’ had made their rounds of farewell.
In the car, Tim watched the streetlights flash past as his father sped towards the Manor, and tried to pay attention to what he was being scolded for now.
“-And there’s absolutely no reason for you to be so close to Wayne’s street rat.” Tim winced, and hoped that his mom hadn’t caught that in the dark.
“You had the most miserable look on your face the entire night, and you couldn’t even be bothered to make conversation properly. Is this what we’ve taught you?” Tim had only focused long enough to understand what he was in trouble for, and now he just wanted to safely zone out again, only nodding his head and looking contrite at the right time for appearances.
Jack and Janet Drake had never understood why Bruce Wayne would take in random children from the streets to raise them. The first one could be understood, Wayne had seen himself in the child, but this second was just unnecessary. His background was the antithesis of what most of Old Gotham considered acceptable, and as such, many did not approve of him, or try to associate with him.
With Dick, Tim’s parents had encouraged him to ‘connect’ with him, a business ploy under the guise of friendship. It wasn’t a great hardship for Tim, but the boy had been much older than him, and Tim doubted that Dick saw him as much more than a child who’d gotten overly attached to the first loving person he had come across. In any case, Tim had thought that his parents would want him to ‘connect’ with Jason as well, but clearly their distaste, and that of the people they wanted to impress, had won out in this case.
He’d been careful all night, talked to the people they wanted him to, made intelligent remarks in adult business, and not fidgeted an inch out of place, even in the uncomfortably stiff outfit he’d been dressed in. Tim sometimes wondered if there was no pleasing his parents, if they’d always find a reason to be angry with him for things he could barely understand or control.
Tim didn’t even realize when they’d gotten back to the Manor, and he was shaken back into reality by the sound of slamming doors. His parents were already walking up to the door, and Tim scrambled to get out of the car before he got locked in overnight, again.
When Tim caught up with them, Jack had already poured himself a glass of whiskey, and Tim’s mother clutched a cup of wine. Tim looked at the pinched look on their faces, the frown lines marring his father’s face, and the angry tap of his mother’s feet and decided to make the smart decision and leave.
“Good night,” he said, just loud enough to be sure that his parents had heard, and then he turned and nearly ran from the building tension in the sitting room.
~~
Tim had barely gotten any sleep all night, in his anxiety of the mood of the household. He still had four days left to sort things out, but there was no accounting for how badly he had messed up during that gala. He had grown up at these events, and learned the unspoken rules of behavior, but in his excitement at meeting Jason, his Robin , Tim had forgotten the hypocrisy and cruelty of society.
He needed to make sure that every single one of his cards were played perfectly, he had very little time in which to make his play, and failure would mean that he would be alone, again.
Dressing quickly but smartly, Tim took a deep breath and headed down the stairs, preparing his words for whatever situation he was about to walk into. As he walked into the kitchen, a simple “Good morning,” to his parents, Tim glanced carefully at their reactions. His father simply nodded in acknowledgment, while his mother, surprisingly enough, deigned to actually reply.
“Good morning, Timothy. I see you slept well,” she said, and Tim ducked his head in guilt. It was only 9:30, but his parents had clearly been up for much longer than he’d expected, if the plates piled in the sink were any clue. He was usually strict about getting up earlier while they were in town, to make the best of what little time he had with them. But it had been a late night, and Tim had been more tired than he’d expected. His mother gestured to the seat between the two of them, and Tim slipped into it quickly.
Instead of a lecture or anything of the like, Janet placed a plate in front of Tim. He looked up at her in surprise, and she just motioned at the cloche. Tim lifted the cover to find a plate of still warm french toast and eggs, just like the breakfasts he remembered when his parents used to be in Gotham more months than not. He grinned widely at his plate, trying to press back the tears that had suddenly sprung up.
“Thank you, Mom.” She simply smiled back at him, then turned back to her phone.
While Tim ate his breakfast, he had one of the best mornings he could ever remember. His mom asked him about school, and praised him when he told her about how well he was doing. His dad ruffled his hair while he’d walked to the coffee machine, and commented on how tall he was getting. Light conversation and laughter flowed across the table, and Tim thought he must look crazy with how much he was smiling.
“Speaking of crazy coincidences,” his mother spoke up, after a story about how he and his locker partner had worn the same outfit three days in a row. “The site director of our last dig reached out this morning. They’ve found an identical artifact to the one we recently found, and in a completely different part of the region.”
“Wow, that’s really cool-” Tim started.
“And I said of course we can come check that out immediately! We’ll head out tonight, it’s a very exciting find!” she finished, not even stopping for Tim, whose heart fell to the floor. His time with his parents was a very coveted experience. He prepared for months to make sure that nothing would go wrong, that nothing could come in the way of making the stay absolutely perfect. His mom kept raving about the upcoming trip, but Tim heard none of it.
The Drakes had touched down in Gotham two days ago- actually, it was barely 36 hours ago. They saw their only son for the first time in 4 months, and had only spent a couple hours with him. And now they were leaving again, three whole days earlier than planned. Tim saw his careful plans crumble in front of his eyes. Dinner plans and activities that he had interspersed deliberately throughout their visit, so as not to overwhelm them or seem needy, were all useless now. Tim clenched his fork in his hand, trying to keep quiet, to just let the slight pass him, because really, what was new?
“We’ll just pack up here, and then we have lunch with the Sotherweld’s, so we’ll just head to the airport from there.”
Tim froze.
They were leaving early, they hadn’t spent any time with Tim, and now they weren’t even going to spend the last of their time with him?
Something inside of Tim snapped. He set down his fork with a sharp thud, interrupting whatever his mother was talking about now. She turned to him to rebuke the inelegant action, but Tim opened his mouth before she did.
With a forced casualness, throwing every plan to the ashes, Tim ground out, “Since you seem to be leaving me for the desert again, do you mind if I get a pet snake? I’m sure you’ve seen enough of them on your trips, and I’d like to have some facsimile of companionship lest I forget how to love in all the months you leave me here all alone.”
Tim’s heart was beating out of his chest, and he looked resolutely into his plate, not wanting to look into the angry eyes of his parents, the ones that cut him deep and leave him torn with guilt for daring to step out of line. His heart was in his throat, and Tim knew that whatever damage he had caused was going to weigh on him heavily in the absence of his parents.
Now, however, the anger that was raging through him kept him back straight and hands steady, mouth set with the same expression he’d seen from his mother time and time again: disappointment.
“Timothy Jackson Drake, how dare you speak to us like that? We are your parents , we provide you with everything you could ever possibly need, and you show us such disrespect and ungratefulness?” his mother seethed, tone just shy of shouting.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you, young man, but this will not be tolerated. We raised you better than this, and we will not have you throwing tantrums like a child because we are going back to work, the work that keeps you in this luxurious mansion, by the way. Go to your room, and reflect on your actions here, and I hope you will have fixed your attitude by the time I come and talk to you,” Jack ordered, righteous anger and pride blinding him from the truth.
In a haze, Tim found himself back in his room, lying flat on his bed, staring vacantly up at the ceiling. He’d been so excited to have them back, really. He didn’t mean to be ungrateful, he knew how hard they worked, he appreciated everything they did for him. It just hurt that they didn’t seem to care the same way for him.
The comment he’d made hadn’t been a throwaway insult, he’d wanted a snake for a while. He’d made charts and graphs and calculated numbers, all to appease to the professional his parents wanted him to be. He’d hoped that all his efforts would show that he was serious in his request, that he wasn’t just a child demanding a plaything, but a young adult asking for a bit of responsibility and a companion.
He’d ruined it all, just because he couldn’t hold his tongue. Tim was such an idiot , he knew how to work around his parents, how to manipulate them to get what he wanted, but his carelessness had destroyed months of careful planning and hard work.
A door thudded in the distance, and Tim let the tears start to fall, as he realized that his parents had left him behind once again, not even saying goodbye as they disappeared for another stretch of endless time.
Notes:
the drakes are a piece of work and i want to fight them... if you read the tags you know what's coming up though, and that's gonna be a lot more fun to read!
if you liked this, please comment, kudos, bookmark, and subscribe to be updated for when part two updates!