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A loud ringtone starts playing through the room suddenly cutting all other sounds off. The song ‘disco girl’ from Gravity Falls cuts off abruptly as the owner of the phone scrambles to answer the call
disco girl, coming through, that girl-
“Yes ?!’’ Tim nearly screams at his phone as a very familiar face pops up on his screen. Specifically the one of his older brother, you know which one since only one of his older brothers would call him on a Thursday at 2 pm.
“Bad timing?’’ Dick says slightly grimacing.
“No, no, everything is fine’’ Tim tries for a smile but decides against it as he realizes how forced it looks even through the screen.
“Okay well I just wanted to check up on you, since with everything that’s been going on lately I’m concerned you might be overworking yourself again. So how are you? How are things going in the new apartment? You guys doing okay? ‘’
"uh.. Yea! We're uh doing great!" The chuckle he lets out afterwards is so obviously forced Dick has to restrain himself from wincing.
For a moment neither of them speak. Both of them looking at each other, not knowing what to say to prevent the silence from becoming awkward even though they know it's inevitable. There's not much for them to talk about and it's not like either of them was really that big on small talk anyways.
Thankfully they were 'saved' by a, what seemed like almost nothing but a blue dot from Dicks screen followed by a loud crash coming from behind Tim. If Tim was at all concerned about what was going on in his living room he didn't show it. At all. He doesn't blink, doesn't flinch, his breath doesn't even hitch.
Dick is different though. His eyes widen immediately "What was that?!" he asks frantically. Tim, bless his soul, just titles his head and hums like he doesn't know what Dick is referring to. After he points behind him Tim looks over his shoulder for half a second before turning back towards his brother. He sighs tiredly.
"That was just Conner. Did you finish that show you started last week?" He adds the last part almost as an after though like he just thought of it and wasn't trying to change the subject. He doesn't succeed.
"Wha- no I didn't! But that doesn't matter right now! Is Conner okay?!"
"Oh yea, he's gonna be fine" Tim doesn't even look all that bothered, it makes Dick think about all the stuff that must happen around there for him to not look affected, even though he's sure there's gonna be a Kon shaped hole in the wall.
In the end Dick decides to just shrug it off, I mean if Tim says it’s fine it probably is, right? He is the smartest of them, after all. And Conner is half superhuman. Not short after that there’s another crash quickly followed by a shout. Suddenly Bart appears by Tims side, yellow sparks appear shortly from where he had just came from.
“Tim!!’’ Bart squeaks next to Tim, looking panicked. He turns towards the camera and smiles before waving to Dick “Hiya Dick!!” he says before turning to Tim once again and grabbing him by the art to shake him.
“What did you do now?” Tim asks and god he sounds so disappointed he must have gotten that trait from his mother. Bart obviously pales at that and looks down at the ground, his whole face becoming one of guilt and shame. What could he have possibly done?
“I uhh… We burned the water” he says so quietly Dick almost doesn’t catch it. Almost .
“WHAT ?!’’ Tim quickly turns to look at Bart horrified. “How did you burn the water?!’’
“I don’t know! Me and Conner were just messing around and it suddenly lit on fire!’’
"That's not even- oh my god. Just- just put it out and-"
"How?! We can't put it out with water, because the water is the thing that's burning!" Bart practically cries, interrupting Tim. Who said it was a good idea for those three to live alone together, again?
"We have a fire extinguisher!" Tim shouts suddenly, and oh yeah, they do have a fire extinguisher. Dick was the one to make sure it was there in case of emergencies, such as the water burning apparently, and yet he didn't think of it, because he was too busy panicking for the safety of his baby brothers and his two idiots of best friends lifes.
"Oh! Yes, you're right! Brb." Bart is suddenly gone, leaving only a trail of yellow spikes in his exit. Tim sighs, loudly , and after that turn to the camera.
"I'm so sorry Dick. What were talking about?" He smiles. Smiles . Like he didn't make Dick almost have a heart attack.
"Oh you were just telling me how good you guys were doing"
Tim winces. Good, if Dick has to suffer then so has Tim.
"Look, we really are fine. I'm serious. Don't look at me like that. We're managing, even if sometimes, somethings, somehow happen."
Dick narrows his eyes, tries for his best 'Don't-Bs-Me-I'm-Batman" look, realizes he's probably failing miserably, gives it up and decides to trust Tim. That has always worked out well in the end, right?
"Okay well, please , just be safe." He can tell them this much, not sure if they are going to listen to him.
"Always. But uh, I'm afraid I have to go now." Right. Deal with whatever that whole thing was about.
"Right. Go save your friends from themselves. Oh! And you should come by on Sunday, I heard Alfred is making snickerdoodle cookies!"
"I'll try. Don't know if I'll make it, with all this college stuff…"
"Oh come on! We get it, you're smart and actually go to college." Dick may be rolling his eyes when he says that but he can't keep the smile off his face. He's so proud.
Tim chuckles "Okay but I really have to go before they burn the whole apartment down. Bye!... Love you."
"Love you too Timmy!"
The line goes dead. Tim goes to the kitchen to start cleaning the mess his friends made or well tell them to clean it. Dick contemplates if it was a good idea to let them live together, but he trusts them, trusts Tim, to know what to do so he doesn't worry about it too much, or tries not to anyway.