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Tim was heading to the cave when he saw them walking downstairs, talking quietly to each other, Jon laughing at something Damian may have said. It was late and they weren't in costumes so they must be just hanging out tonight. He saw them walk past him, Damian observing him cautiously, greeting him with a brief nod, Jon just smiled and waved.
They were heading to the door and Tim wondered where they were going this late. Damian turned back almost immediately, looking at him, if he could throw daggers with his eyes, Tim would be actively dodging. Then it dawned on him, he must have wondered it out loud. Damien looked at him with an eyebrow raised, the look of 'did you just say something' on his face. Tim cleared his throat and forced a smile. He didn't actually care where they were going, he knew they could take care of themselves but Gotham be damned if he ever backed down on the demon spawn.
“I said, where are you guys going?” Damian looked at him and took just a second too long before sputtering an "out" and Tim just KNEW, instantly all the “MUST TEASE YOUNGER BROTHER” alarms started blaring inside of his head.
Damian broke eye contact to quickly look at the door as it opened. Dick cheerfully got to take a couple of steps in before he noticed all the tension in the air. He looked at Tim, worried and Tim shot him a toothy grin, to which Dick relaxed and went to the boys. He ruffled Damian's hair as he greeted them, Jon just smiled politely, eyes never meeting Dick’s nor Tim's.
“What's going on?” Dick finally asked, a bit confused by the apparently non-threatening but very tense aura of the room.
“Is there a new 'gather at the foyer to talk to your siblings' etiquette I haven't heard of?” he joked sheepishly looking around.
“Nah” Tim snorted playfully, “I was just asking the boys where they could possibly be going on this oh so cold Halloween night” he added suddenly feeling like being extra dramatic. Damian narrowed his eyes, still shooting imaginary daggers at Tim. Dick exhaled loudly and laughed. “Leave them alone, Timmy. They are probably just going on a trick or treating date” Jon gasped audibly, turning to Damian excitedly, Damian looked at him while addressing his brothers
“We are way too old for trick or treating, Richard” his tone dry, Tim didn't fail to miss how he hadn't denied the date part.
Jon talked for the first time, beaming. “I wouldn't mind trick or treating, though! My dad says you are never too old to do things you love ” Tim smirked suggestively and Dick rolled his eyes at him. Childish.
“We are actually going to a play” Damian had actually responded, stopping the hypothetical daggers shower to Tim to look at Jon in disbelief, the same look Tim had seen on the field at least a hundred times, he could almost read the 'I can't believe you've just blown our cover' look in Damian's eyes, Jon quickly cover his mouth and muttered a curse under his breath. Tim just arched one eyebrow, impossibly high.
“What? is the old man dragging you to a hamlet or something? You can always say no, buddy!” Jon just hehed his way out of responding, rubbing his neck, lips sealed now, not a single word coming out on accident, well trained. Damian clenched his teeth, Tim knew he'd had enough and he was almost excited to see him blow up.
“Actually, Timothy. No. We are not going to a Shakespeare” he quickly added a “tonight” to his statement to which Jon just grumbled at, visibly resigned to eventually having to get through more classic plays. “It would be disrespectful to the holiday, not that I expect you to know anything about manners, or respecting traditions for that matter” He could feel Dick stifling a laugh right beside him.
“We are actually going to a rocky horror, alright! Nothing new, nothing weird, just a couple of friends watching a musical together, that's all, if you excuse us” he turned back to the door taking Jon by the neck of the sweater “we don't wanna be late. I suppose you know what happens to the late guests. Goodbye”
Dick beside him just whispered a “Bye, dami” while Damian dragged Jon outside. with a loud slam of the “way-too-overpriced-so-if-you-break-it-you-pay-it'' door they were gone.
Tim was taken aback for a couple of seconds, he could faintly hear the gravel under the boys' feet and Damian's voice scolding Jon, probably about how he likes his private matters staying private, thank you very much.
He felt the warmth of his brother's hand on his shoulder and turned. Dick looked at him a bit puzzled, a bit cocky “are you alright, Tim?” Tim shook his head in an attempt to put himself back into his body, “Yeah, no, I'm just. impressed, I didn't actually expected him to answer me, is not really fun if he's honest” Dick smiled at him knowingly, they had been picking up and pushing at Damian's buttons for years, partly because of older siblings reasons, partly because they wanted him to feel included on the constant bickering the previous robins were always in.
At first, they didn't expect Damian to fight back wrongly underestimating the boy, but he was incredibly headstrong to just let them tease him and walk away with no repercussions.
Tim walked back towards the cave, hearing dick faint humming, both of them falling on easy silence until the gears turned and the light finally turned on in his head. He turned to dick with a grin “do you think he's popping his cherry ?” Dick looked at him, flabbergasted, his jaw finding the Batcave before them
“Can you not phrase it like that ? Man, they're just kids!” He threw his arms in the air and Tim's grin widened.
“I have no idea what you mean, that's how they call it, right?” He was performing innocence, exaggeratedly bad, he knew, dick knew, probably Bruce, hearing them over the bugs, knew.
“haha very funny” Dick shot back sarcastically, looking at him as if he'd just stared down their waitress cleavage.
Tim didn't know where all that prudeness was coming from, dick had started dating way before Damian's age but to each their own, it was probably the baby brother/eldest son overprotectiveness, not like he had it when he was the youngest but he understood, with Damian it was a lot more different.
They resumed mindlessly going down, silence having fallen again, at least until Tim nearly crashed with Dicks back almost sending him flying down the stairs, not that dick couldn't handle it, he was sure Dick would probably acrobat his way out of a broken neck but he didn't want to test it.
He looked at the back of dicks head, curiously, taking in the image of his brother’s head, he could swear he almost saw a couple of graying hairs up there. Dick sighed loudly, shoulders slumped noticeably. “honestly? I don't think they're even at the holding hands base” He said it flatly and all of the sudden very serious, it sounded as if he was very certain about it. Almost as if he had been thinking about it very hard.
Quickly he chirped back to his normal cheery self and jogged down the rest of the way, Tim was once again frozen into place and downstairs he could hear Alfred telling dick about how dangerous it was to run down the stairs and broken necks.
Tim smiled to himself at how silly and old dick sounded when he acted all overbearing over Damian. The kid was practically an adult!, or at least acted more like one than even Tim did, he always had. Perks of being a trained assassin at the age of three and never getting to have a childhood at all, he would guess.
He often forgot how dick had been Damian batman for a while. Performing a better dad than Bruce could never even dream of being. So he knew, after all, it was a lot more different with damian.