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Truth serum training has become much more interesting since the various members of the family started to casually sleep with each other — a phenomenon brought about by a mass hit of sex pollen that had actually been meant to cure them all of a neuro-toxin that– Tim is getting off track. Anyway, the point is that whenever a new strain of truth serum hits the streets, Bruce synthesizes a batch while he’s making sure they’re stocked up on the cure for the new formula and they train to fight against its effects. Before the whole sleeping together thing it had been some of the worst group training and they’d all agreed on that.
Right now, they’re all spread around the comfortable couches and chairs of the biggest sitting room. Cass, Steph, and Barbara take up one of the loveseats, sprawled across each other in a pile while Barbara’s wheelchair is being used as an impromptu table for the big bowl of popcorn the girls are snacking on. Duke is curled in Bruce’s lap on one of the arm chairs. Damian is on the floor with Dick, Titus and Alfred (the cat) taking their attention. Tim, himself is acting as a pillow for Jason’s head while the other man takes up most of the sofa with his legs.
Stephanie pulls another card from the mixed bin of questions from various card games and clears her throat dutifully before immediately oooh-ing. “This one is good!”
Considering the last couple had been pretty boring — “what’s the most embarrassing song on your playlist?” and “who in the room is most likely to get caught doing something they aren’t supposed to?” — Tim actually has high hopes for a moment.
“Who is the best sex you’ve ever had?” Stephanie asks aloud. “For me, hard choice between Tim and Cass. I’ll be honest, I’m pretty sure he taught her that thing I like.”
“I did,” Tim feels compelled to say at the same time as Cass admits, “He did.”
“Best sex,” Cass hums immediately after. “Bruce.”
Bruce flushes, rubbing the back of his neck, only going redder when Duke also nods from his lap. “Yeah, Bruce.”
“Dick Grayson,” Barbara says as soon as Stephanie’s eyes land on her.
Stephanie’s head swivels to where Dick, Damian, Tim, and Jason are sort of grouped knowing that the question was broad enough that the more practiced Robins who’ve been going through truth serum training for longer need to be asked directly. “Damian, who’s the best sex you’ve ever had?”
Damian shrugs, clearly not caring too much about avoiding the question. “Dick Grayson.”
Dick, who had looked sheepishly proud when Barbara announced his name, gets that look all over again, only to grimace when the same question is issued to him. He definitely fights the compelling effects of the drug more than the rest of the people in the room have, before eventually declaring “Slade Wilson.”
“Slade Wilson for me too, actually,” Jason admits from Tim’s lap before Stephanie can even ask.
“Tim? Best sex you’ve ever had?” Steph asks, pointing the card at him.
Tim does his level best to fight the compulsion, clenching his jaw down on the words about to spill from his mouth. For the rest of them this is easy. Most of the admissions are in this room and it’s no secret that Dick and Jason have ties with Slade that extend beyond the streets. Sure, it probably feels rude to admit to a room of people you’ve had sex with that one of them isn’t your best but Slade Wilson literally has a superhuman libido so it’s not exactly the worst admission.
Steph stares at Tim for a long moment, because not answering doesn’t technically win you the game. She must see something in his expression, though, and her eyes flick to Bruce instead. “Bats, who’s the best sex you’ve ever had?”
“I feel compelled to remind you all that this is not how truth serum training is supposed to go,” Bruce blusters, clearly trying to beat his way around the bush until the compulsion wears off. He gets several boo’s in his direction and the question is issued a second time, this time with his actual name tacked on. The man looks like he’d rather die than let the name come out of his mouth, but he grudgingly bites out, “Slade Wilson.”
Jason jerks into a sitting position and Dick’s head whips around lightning fast, their eyes laser focusing in on what Bruce has just admitted. It’s clear that the two will be ganging up to get more information out of the man later, but before they can start Barbara cuts them off.
“Tim, who’s the best sex you’ve ever had?”
Clearly it hadn’t escaped her notice that Stephanie had skipped over him without getting an answer before. His gaze flicks to the labeled cups with their names sitting on the table. He could take the cure and go, do Bruce’s usual truth serum regimen later on. A part of him wants to admit it, even under the compulsion, because he’s been holding onto it for so long and every day he gets closer and closer to going back, to letting himself have–
“Ra’s al Ghul.”
Every head in the room — bar Damian’s, oddly — snaps in his direction. A cacophony of noises spreads across the room, questions zipping through the air at light speed making it impossible for Tim to even think straight, much less answer. With a groan, he swipes his hand through the air. “This is why I never brought it up. If I’m going to be forced to answer, at least do me the courtesy of asking one at a time.”
“Was it rough?” Duke asks curiously, leaning forward in Bruce’s lap. He’s one of the few of them that hasn’t slept with ‘the enemy’ so his curiosity is pretty warranted.
“No,” Tim answers, thankful that the serum doesn’t compel him to go into detail or he’d probably drop dead right there.
“Was it consensual?” Bruce asks, voice hard and serious.
“Yes,” Tim answers at the same time as both Damian and Jason send Bruce an odd look.
“When did it happen?” Dick asks gently.
Tim swallows, his discomfort mounting. “When I was looking for Bruce.”
“Hey Tim,” Stephanie voices, noticing his growing upset and giving him an out. “Who is Batman?”
This time, Tim has much more of a reason to fight the compelling wave of the truth serum’s effects. With effort he grunts out, “Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy.”
A cheer goes around the room and Tim rushes for his cure cup, downing it in one gulp. He knows that Stephanie got him out of this whole thing before the questions could get too specific, too deep. Still, the idea of going back to the penhouse right now is as much a comfort as it is a blow to his continued moral.
[][][]
Jason is still reeling when he and Damian return to the manor. They had left on their foray at the request of Bruce and Dick to get information about Ra’s and Tim’s entanglement, and it had felt wrong in a lot of ways. Jason figured if Tim didn’t want to talk about it then it should be private, but that isn’t exactly how things work in a family of Gotham vigilantes.
Tim and Bruce have the same policy of “if I’m not trying to hide it then it should be common knowledge” though, so the admission during serum training had opened a door that Jason isn’t sure any of them were ready to walk through. Jason reasons with himself that on some level Tim might have wanted them to know, especially since he was able to pass the test almost immediately after, but something about the whole situation doesn’t sit right with him.
“Did you find anything?” Bruce grunts at them when they track those of the family that are here down to the cinema room. Jason still gets left wrong-footed with how often all of them are here now, but even he can tell how much it has helped Bruce be a human being rather than just The Batman. With Tim running the company the man only has to make a few vague appearances a month, and before they had been double whammied with neurotoxin and sex pollen he’d been looking pretty rough.
“We didn’t have to,” Damian reports, grimly. His eyes flick to the paused movie, noting that they have chosen a potty comedy — both Damian and Jason’s least favorite type of movie — to watch while the two were out. Duke, Cass, Tim, and Barbara are handling patrol tonight so it’s just the other robins here, making it clear that Dick and Stephanie have dragged Bruce into watching what they think is a light hearted movie. Damian pulls the sleeved disc from the folds of his clothes. “Grandfather just gave it up.”
“Timmers got word to Gramps that he admitted to their… encounter,” not exactly the word that Ra’s had used but Jason isn’t exactly prepared to deal with Bruce flipping his lid right now. “Apparently he didn’t want us damaging the only physical memory he had of the event so he made a copy. Not sure if Timbers knows about the video, but it wouldn’t exactly surprise me.”
Bruce slowly reaches out to take the disc from Damian’s hand, inspecting it. It’s unlabeled, just a red topped burner dvd in a plastic case. There’s nothing inherently special about it at all, bar the way Ra’s had cradled it and the way his eyes lingered on it as Damian secreted it away. It wasn’t much of a stealth mission at all, which left Jason feeling almost silly for being dressed up in a stealth suit.
“Would it be crude to point out that we’re already in the cinema room?” Stephanie asks after a long minute of them all doing nothing but staring at the DVD.
“You scanned this already?” Bruce questions, eyes flicking between the two of them.
Damian nods. “All that’s on it is a video file.”
With a deep breath in, Bruce hands off the disc to Dick who immediately looks from it to the rest of them. “Are we sure about this? It seems more than a little bit like an invasion of privacy.”
Stephanie steals the case right out of his hand. “God, you always pick the worst time to grow a conscience. Tim literally has cameras in our apartments; we can watch a video that al Ghul literally gave to us. I mean, Tim probably knows he was going to.”
Damian’s hand knits with Jason’s, carefully tugging him over to one of the sofas and setting them both down while Stephanie puts the DVD into the little-used disc reader for the projector. Dick and Bruce take the seats that they were in before; the space between them is clearly meant for the blonde, and is the only reason they aren’t curling together like Damian and Jason are. The comforting weight of the teen against Jason’s side and the facts Steph had pointed out not a moment ago help to settle some of the intense guilt Jason had still been carrying around.
Stephanie is settling on Dick’s lap and tossing her feet over Bruce’s by the time the video loads on the projector, waiting for the command to play. It takes little more than a press of a button before they’re met with the sight of Ra’s al Ghul’s Gotham chambers.
The room is empty for little more than a moment before Ra’s strides in, the opulent cut of his green robes immediately drawing Jason’s eyes. He’s dressed up for this — beyond his usual degree, which means he planned it all out and knew that Tim would be coming. The unexpected sound of a door slamming shut is what indicates that the video has sound, and it makes all five of them flinch in their seats.
“How do you want to do this?” Tim asks before he comes on screen. He’s wearing the original Red Robin outfit, stupid cowl and all, and he looks rough even though the only bit of his skin any of them can see is the lower half of his face. “Am I supposed to just bend over and let you go at me or…?”
“There’s no need to be crude, Detective,” Ra’s says, amusement clear in his voice as he sheds his outermost robe to the chest at the end of his bed, turning around just in time to catch Tim’s wrist before the teen’s fist can clock him across the face. “Naughty.”
“I told you not to call me that, it’s not, he’s–”
“Shh, it’s alright. Habitual mistake, Timothy,” Ra’s soothes, cradling the part of Tim’s face that he can touch. The kiss that he pulls Tim into is one that Jason can safely say is movie worthy — Tim goes through the whole process of struggling against it and then whimpering into Ra’s’ mouth before sort of melting into the kiss. The fist that he had been clenching even loosens and Ra’s must feel the tension recede because he slowly lets go of Tim’s wrist to lower his hand, resting it against the teen’s back to support him considering it’s mostly Tim bridging their considerable height difference.
“Let me take care of you, Ghalay,” Ra’s murmurs when they part, his fingers caressing Tim’s jaw. “You’ve promised me a night. Allow me to use it to take care of you.”
Dick lets out a curious sound and out of the corner of Jason’s eye he sees his brother nudge Bruce. Not looking away from the screen, Bruce translates, “My precious one.”
Damian uses habibi and albi enough that Dick recognizes those, and some of the various curse words Jason and Damian both throw around, but Arabic is not in the list of the languages Dick knows — especially not the League dialect.
“I don’t need to be taken care of,” Tim croaks, but when the cowl is pushed off his head it’s clear how much that is a lie. If the teen looked rough before he looks beyond help now. Pale, with dark bags under his eyes and a bruise coloring his hairline. His hair is a mess and Ra’s immediately runs a hand through it.
“Perhaps not, but I would like to anyway,” the man says, pressing another slow kiss to Tim’s mouth. “You birds always have tricks up your sleeves. Disrobe for me, Ghalay.”
The next couple of minutes is a show of Ra’s easily slipping out of his own clothes; all but his pants left with his outer robe on the chest before he settles on the edge of the bed to watch as Tim removes all of his equipment and armor. He is left in the tight scrap that is his boxer briefs by the time Ra’s reaches out again, grasping him by the hip and reeling him in between the spread of his knees.
Jason has always known that Tim is small — don’t get him wrong, he’s slept with the guy, he’s seen Bruce sleep with the guy — but seeing Ra's massive hand eclipsing the fine boning of Tim’s hip and his olive skin tone against Tim’s paleness feels jarring. Something about the differences between Ra’s and Tim strikes Jason as oddly…beautiful. It doesn’t help that every time Ra’s kisses the teen he can practically see Tim telling himself he shouldn’t want it before he melts into the man.
Ra’s’ arms wrap around Tim’s petite waist, pulling him in until they’re skin to skin and Tim can do nothing but lay his hands on the built lines of Ra’s’ shoulders and let his mouth be devoured. In one move the man shifts back, rolling his body to press Tim into the silken sheets of the bed. Tim doesn’t even bother fighting the movement, and when Ra’s pulls back from the kiss Jason can tell how good the camera he set up is because there’s this misty look on Tim’s face that he only gets when he’s being manhandled.
As Ra’s retreats, he pulls Tim’s underwear from his body and discards them on the floor with one hand as he reaches into the drawer of his nightstand with the other. The bottle he pulls out isn’t like any lube Jason has seen before, but rather something custom. Definitely expensive. He flips the top open, pouring some of it in his palm, before settling it above Tim’s head on the headboard as he moves to straddle the teen.
“What is that? Amber?” Tim’s voice is softer than before and he reaches out to where Ra’s is warming the liquid between his palms. Clearly he intends to pull Ra’s’ hand close and take a better sniff, but his hand is caught in Ra’s’ and the man begins to squeeze and massage it, and Tim’s forearm tenses and then slowly relaxes as he realizes what’s happening.
“Yes, and musk,” are the words Ra’s answers with.
For a very long time those are the last words spoken by the couple on screen, Ra’s massaging his way up Tim’s arm and across his chest to do the same with the other arm, leaving Tim’s eyes half lidded and his breaths long and slow judging by the way his chest falls. It’s so beyond intimate, beyond anything Jason had come up with since Tim admitted that it happened.
“This is…” Dick says slowly as they watch Ra’s pour more of the oil into his hand, scooting down Tim’s body to massage the bruised expanse of his abs and then his thighs, completely ignoring the teen’s half-hard cock. “Not what I expected.”
“Tim said he wasn’t rough,” Stephanie points out in the barest of whispers as Ra’s reaches Tim’s feet. The whole time he’s been massaged, the teen has occasionally let out a soft sound or a sharp breath but as soon as Ra’s digs his thumbs into the arch of one of Tim’s tiny feet the boy moans, low and loud in comparison.
“There we go, Ghalay,” Ra’s encourages. “Let me care for you.”
“It’s not supposed to be like this,” Tim mumbles, voice shaking.
“I will not treat you as anything less than what you are, Ghalay,” Ra’s murmurs back, letting go of Tim’s foot to climb up his body, meeting the teens eyes. “It could only be like this.”
The kiss they share this time is as slow as the others, Tim lifting a shaking hand to hover next to Ra’s’ face for a long moment before he actually allows himself to touch. It goes on long enough that Steph can let out a soft noise from the other couch, a gentle oh slipping out of her that makes Dick immediately wrap his arms around her with how tiny and affected she sounds.
“Are you doing alright?” Jason whispers to Damian, wrapping his arm around the boy leaning against his side as Ra’s pulls away from Tim’s mouth and grasps his hand, turning his face to press several kisses into Tim’s palm before he moves back down to the teen’s feet to finish his job. “I mean, I’m sure this is weird for you.”
Damian snorts softly, hand sliding down to find Jason’s at his waist. “I regularly have sex with my father, Todd. I think I can handle this.” The use of his last name and the way Damian pulls Jason’s hand subtly over the crotch of his pants to press against the hardness there show how much the video is actually affecting him. It’s clear that he’s not planning to act on the erection now though, based on the way he guides Jason’s hand back to his waist.
On the screen Ra’s reaches up, grabbing Tim by the hips and gently rolling him over. The oil in his hands is refreshed once more and he starts his massage again at the tense line of Tim’s shoulders. Tim’s face has been turned away from the camera for now, so Jason can’t read his expression when he next speaks but it’s clear in the thickness of his voice that this whole thing is emotionally affecting him.
“You don’t have to do all this,” Tim says. “I’m already here, Ra’s.”
“I have waited centuries to get my hands on your skin,” Ra’s says in return, hands sweeping down the lines of Tim’s back, “and I have but one night to fulfill that longing.”
Tim’s fingers curl into the sheets, gripping them for dear life, and Jason gets it. This is intense even from an outside perspective, and where one might usually see Ra’s as a total creep for this whole thing, Jason can’t help but see the sheer weight of the emotions between the two of them. He tries not to romanticize it, as he tends to do being a romance reader, but it’s difficult not to with the way Ra’s is looking at Tim now that Tim can’t see it.
Ra’s passes by the globes of Tim’s ass, working his way down the backs of the teen’s legs. When he finally works his way back up, he grabs handfuls of the teen’s ass, massaging them, before pulling him open and leaning forward. Jason tracks the barest sight of Ra’s’ tongue before his face is buried between Tim’s cheeks and the teen is gasping, head snapping up from the pillows. The profile of his face betrays Tim’s surprise and he flushes, not managing to bite down on his first moan as Ra’s begins eating him out.
“This was his first time,” Steph breathes, realization clear in her voice. “We talked about it… I didn’t know it was Ra’s.”
“Fir– First time?” Dick stresses, head snapping to look down at her. “First time getting rimmed, or first time with…?”
“Both,” the girl murmurs, and hisses when Bruce’s grip goes white around her ankle.
Tim is whining into the pillows as Ra’s spreads him open, thumbs sliding further into Tim to pull him open under the assault of the man’s tongue. The rimming portion of the footage doesn’t last nearly as long as the gratuitous massage, but it’s clear that Ra’s only pulls away so that he can get his oil slicked fingers into Tim’s hole. The stretching portion is slow and thorough, Ra’s laying kisses up and down Tim’s slick spine and over his heaving shoulders as he adds a second finger and eventually a third.
“Ra’s,” Tim finally hisses, lifting his head from the sheets to buck his hips back as little as he can on Ra’s’ fingers.
“Soon, Ghalay,” the man soothes, reaching out to grab the oil one last time as he pulls his fingers free from Tim’s body. The teen buries his whimper against the pillows as Ra’s pulls back to shed his pants. At the sight of Ra’s’ generous erection and with the knowledge that this is Tim’s first time, Jason is doubly glad for the drawn out way the man has rubbed relaxation into Tim’s very bones.
Ra’s straddles Tim’s thighs once more after the oil has been discarded, angling his cock down to press slowly into Tim. The sight of Tim taking his first ever cock isn’t one that Jason thinks he’ll ever forget, and his hand tightens on Damian’s waist as they watch the man sink in to the hilt. Once he’s all the way within the teen, Ra’s reaches down and wraps the arm closest to the camera around Tim’s waist. It isn’t until Tim has been pulled up against Ra's’ chest that Jason catches sight of the other man’s hand, wrapped loosely — possessively — around Tim’s throat.
Just like everything else that has happened in the video so far, Ra’s fucks into Tim slowly and thoroughly. If Jason were to be asked what making love looks like, it would be this. The sheer bliss across Tim’s face as he moans freely into the air, the way Ra’s cradles him as if he’s some sort of treasure. Jason swallows heavily and he has to say something.
“Pop-pop said something before Damian and I left,” Jason says softly, almost nervously. “To be grateful for what we have, because we don’t understand the wealth at our fingertips. It felt… weird. He says odd shit all the time, don’t get me wrong, but the tone was…”
On the screen, Tim’s hand flies down and grasps madly for any part of Ra’s he can find. He ends up gripping Ra’s arm that is around him with one of his hands and reaching up with the other to slide his fingers between those on his throat. If Jason isn’t mistaken, he even pushes the hand harder against his skin, his moans racketing up a notch.
“I have you, Tag Ra’si,” Ra’s purrs, hitching Damian’s breath immediately and making Jason immediately snap his jaw shut when he mentally translates the words. “Cum for me.”
And Tim does, without even a hand on his cock. The benefit of the doubt should probably be given with all the foreplay, but watching Tim’s cock pulse cum over the jewel toned bedding without being touched is mouth drying. If this were any other sex tape Jason would be so unbearably horny that his cock would probably already be pushed against Damian’s, or maybe even inside him. With this video being what it is, however, his arousal is secondary to the sheer weight of the emotional interactions playing out on the screen, as they crash over Jason like a tidal wave every ten seconds or so. His dick isn’t any less hard for it, though.
“B?” Dick croaks, clearly just as affected and searching for the translation once again.
“Crown of my head,” Bruce murmurs after a long moment of working the tenseness out of his jaw.
Ra’s’ hands are gentle on Tim as the man pulls out of him, turning Tim over to lay on his back on the large bed closer to the camera and away from the mess. Tim is flushed and completely gone where he lounges against the pillows, but he’s still half hard when Ra’s gets a hand under one of his thighs and spreads him open. They’re all treated to the sight of the man pushing into Tim for the second time, arching over his body to drag the teen into another kiss.
This kiss is messier, clearly open mouthed, and needier on both ends. Tim is too gone with the sensation of his orgasm to overthink his reactions to Ra’s, to withhold his affection. His hands come up, wrapping around Ra’s’ neck, one hand dropping to press between the man’s shoulderblades, pulling him closer, and the other lacing through the man’s salt and pepper hair.
This time Ra’s’ thrusts are quicker, more pointed. He’s chasing his own orgasm rather than Tim’s, and that much is clear. He doesn’t even have to hold Tim open for long, one slim, pale leg wrapping around his rocking hips as Tim’s sounds begin to hit the speakers again. This means that Ra’s can let go of his thigh to touch, to run his hand reverently up Tim’s side and cradle the pale column of Tim’s neck once again.
Jason wants to make it perfectly clear that he has never wanted to know what Ra’s al Ghul looks like when he orgasms. It doesn’t exactly seem so bad knowing, though; not with the way Ra’s’ thrusts go a little bit out of time and he pulls away from the kiss to press his forehead against Tim’s, murmuring his name almost reverently. With Ra’s eyes closed, the old man doesn’t even see the wonder in Tim’s face as the teen looks at him and that’s just… Jason doesn’t even know.
The expression disappears from Tim’s face as he moans his way over the edge of his second orgasm, but Jason is still stuck on that moment. He’s still stuck on the fact that he walked into this a little bit expecting to be grossed out and having to join forces with the rest of the family to take down Ra’s, and now… Now Jason wants to show up at the penthouse and shake some sense into his brother because what the fuck do you mean Tim walked away after this?
The footage that follows is the gentlest aftercare he’s ever seen. Ra’s wipes them both down, but takes care to practically sponge bath Tim’s entire body as the teen starts drifting off. The soiled top cover on the bed is discarded and Ra’s settles them both under the remaining blankets, pulling Tim onto the expanse of his furred chest where the teen nuzzles against him, wrapping his arm around Ra’s’ fit waist as he succumbs to sleep completely. Ra’s doesn’t sleep for a while; Jason can tell that by the way the man strokes his hand up and down Tim’s back.
The footage jumpcuts so quickly that if not for the relaxed expression on Ra’s’ face and the timestamp changing so abruptly in the bottom he wouldn’t even notice it. They are treated to Tim waking up, his eyes no longer underlined with as dark of bags and his entire demeanor more relaxed than before. He looks up at Ra’s and just stares at the sleeping man for a long moment before an expression of profound sadness crosses his face. With a shake of his head, Tim slowly extracts himself from Ra’s arms, making his way over to his things to begin pulling his Red Robin suit back on.
With every piece of the uniform that gets put on, it’s like all of Ra’s’ hard work vanishes before their eyes.
“I do hope you aren’t going to leave without what you came for,” Ra’s says from the bed. His voice is raspy, clearly having awoken when his bed partner abandoned him.
“You’ve had your night, Ra’s,” Tim says firmly, no longer familiar or soft as he paces towards the bed.
Ra’s reaches out, hand wrapping around Tim’s gloved forearm, and yanks Tim down until he’s sitting on the side of the bed. The kiss shared is familiar now, Ra’s having to work at it until Tim relaxes, and even then the teen doesn’t melt like before. He’s clearly putting a tight collar on himself.
When he pulls from the kiss, Ra’s reaches into the bedside table, extracting a thumbdrive and holding it out. Tim takes the drive, rising from the bed and turning towards where they entered the room. His steps falter when Ra’s speaks. “I do hope you find your lost Bat; things are always more interesting when he’s around.”
Tim returns to the bedside, hands grabbing the sides of Ra’s’ face to pull him into an almost fierce kiss. Tim licks over his lips when he pulls away, opening his mouth to say something but clearly second guessing himself. With a whirling sweep of his cape, Tim troops out of the room, the door slamming once again behind him.
On the screen, Ra’s runs a hand through his hair with a drawn out sigh. “Good luck, Hubb Haqiqqi.” Bruce, Damian, and Jason all stop breathing, immediately sitting straighter at the words. Ra’s gets up from the bed, making his way over to the camera and with his hand on the lens, the footage freezes, ending there. It leaves them all staring, agog.
“What was that one?” Dick asks curiously, eyeing all three of their stiff shoulders.
It’s not Bruce who answers this time, but Damian, the teen’s voice thick with emotion. “True love.”
Stephanie bursts from Bruce and Dick’s laps, wielding the remote like a weapon. She aims it backwards at the projector, glossy eyes on the screen as the footage rewinds freeze framing at that look of wonder on Tim’s face as he stares up at Ra’s. Her arm sort of falls at her side as she stares at the screen, a tear making its way down her cheek.
“It’s unfair,” she whispers, the remote clattering to the floor as she lifts her hands to swipe at the tears that immediately follow that first one. “It’s so fucking unfair!” If Jason didn’t know her, he might think her jealous of what she sees on the screen, but that’s not Stephanie and that’s not what this is. “Why do all of us get good shit and Tim never does? He’s always giving things up and pushing himself to the limit to help us and- and–”
“Hey,” Dick says gently, standing to try and soothe her, lifting his hands to touch her arms. “It’s alright, take a breath–”
“It’s not alright!” Stephanie shouts, jerking away. She points hard at the screen. “Look at them! Look!”
“Stephanie,” Bruce says sternly.
“No!” She hisses, turning her teary glare on him. “You get to gallivant across rooftops with Catwoman. Dick and Jason go and get railed by Deathstroke. Babs has had threesomes with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Fuck, even Damian has a thing with that chick Flatline!”
“I understand that you’re upset,” Bruce says carefully, getting to his feet. Dick steps a little closer to Stephanie, stance open in case she’s willing to accept his touch this time. Unfortunately, Bruce has done what he does best and turned her ire on him.
“Yeah! Yeah I’m upset. He gave all of whatever that was, up for you,” the girl growls, gesturing widely at the screen before pushing her finger hard into Bruce’s chest. “And you are going to fix it. I don’t fucking care how, but you better fix this.”
Stephanie pulls back, takes a deep breath, and nods to herself. Dropping her hand, she grabs Dick by the arm and drags him out of the cinema room. Jason can only guess what kind of emotions those two are about to go work out together and he’s pretty fit to follow her example with Damian, who has buried his nose against his neck already, when Bruce turns to them looking bewildered.
Sharing a look with Damian, Jason pulls them both to their feet. Tilting his head as he drags Damian past the man, Jason can’t help but comment, “Don’t look at us. We agree with Stephanie. Fix this.”
“If you don’t agree,” Damian tacks on at the door, “I suggest watching the video again. I’m sure Duke, Cassandra, and Barbara would love a viewing.”
[][][]
Bruce knocks.
It feels odd to knock on a door when he has the key to the private elevator and knows how to disable the electric field on the skylight. In this instance, he needs to approach this in the most respectful way he possibly can. Only, as soon as Tim opens the door and gives him a look like he’s Clayface parading as Bruce Wayne, he fears he misstepped.
“I don’t know why I thought this would be better,” Bruce admits, scratching the back of his neck.
“Do you want me to, like, shut the door so you can come in through the window?” Tim arcs a brow.
“I think I have to commit to this,” Bruce jokes lightly, as lightly as he can considering the subject he came here to talk about, and how he and the rest of the family had reacted to that footage.
Tim nudges the door open, leaving it that way as he makes his way towards the kitchen. “Do you want a cup of coffee while we talk about my amateur sex tape or would you prefer something stronger?”
Bruce manages not to stumble as he follows, but it’s a close thing. “You… you know about that?”
“I have a copy,” Tim says as he rifles through his cabinets for a set of mugs.
While he’s distracted, Bruce takes a glance around the room. There are fresh hibiscus flowers on his island. The blanket over the back of his couch is of Chinese make. There’s a chessboard near the window that is halfway through a game. If Bruce didn’t know where Tim had been and who he had been with for the last several months he would think that the conversation he’s about to have is unnecessary.
“He leaves me things,” Tim admits when he notices Bruce’s wandering eyes. Settling the coffee on the island in between them, Tim cradles his own mug to his chest as he leans back against the other counter. The space between them feels yawning. “I throw away the consumables, of course, but the other things are harder to part with.”
“What,” Bruce swallows, grabbing his coffee and coming around the island to stand closer to Tim, leaning back against the island to mirror the younger man’s pose. “What kinds of other things?”
“Flowers — he replaces them when they start to wilt and moves his pieces on the board,” Tim’s finger twitches in the direction of the chess board. “Clothes, blankets, a rug for my bedroom when I bled all over the last one, jewelry,” Tim breaks off in a weird, sad sort of laugh, “a lot of jewelry.”
“You don’t wear jewelry,” Bruce points out. At least, Tim doesn’t wear jewelry often. Usually it's for special events or even just when he’s planning to be seen in public as Tim Drake-Wayne. “Much,” he corrects himself.
Tim snorts, sipping his coffee. “I’d wear it more if I could… everything he leaves me is… it’s all perfect.”
The older man tries not to make it obvious that his heart has been wrenched from his chest. “Why can’t you?”
Glacial eyes cut through Bruce completely. “If I wear it, it means something, Bruce. I… I know you might not get that, but what Ra’s and I would have in that case… it’s not like what you and Selina have.”
“I don’t…” Bruce takes a steadying breath. “I don’t think we’re on the same page, Tim.”
The younger man licks over his bottom lip, shaking his head. “I know what’s on that tape, Bruce. Trust me, I’ve watched it god knows how many times. You don’t have to come here and make me feel better about not being able to have–” Tim swallows, cutting himself off.
“Why can’t you?” Bruce asks, trying to sound soft, trying to sound calm, trying to channel Dick for a moment because Dick would have done this a hundred times better than him.
“Like I said, Ra’s and I… we aren’t like you and Selina,” Tim traces the handle of his coffee mug. “It was hard enough to walk away the first time, and I love you Bruce, so much, but I can’t do that again. Not even for you.”
“I’m not asking you to,” Bruce says, trying desperately to get his point across.
Tim smiles thinly and they finish their coffee in silence.
Bruce is pretty sure he’s failed when he leaves the penthouse, so he prepares to get his ass handed to him by a raging blonde and her entire team of people who’ve also decided this is his problem to fix.
[][][]
Tim hates galas, but the name of the game is to get through them with at least six new business deals and ten strings of gossip under his belt. He doesn’t think of his mother often nowadays, but he thinks in this specific instance she might be proud. He did learn how to ringlead galas from her, after all.
Even with his goal in mind, his patience is running thin. His eyes cast around the room in search of a single other one of his casual partners to get him out of the conversation he is in but all of them seem busy. Jason and Damian are talking to the humane society representative that the charity is for. Dick is dancing with one of their most loyal donors. Even Steph and Cass seem to be schmoozing old money singles into donating to the cause.
Subconsciously he nods and makes an affirming noise to the woman he’s supposed to be listening to, his gaze coming back to her without processing any of what she’s actually saying. Damian and Bruce had dressed him from his closet tonight, piling him into a silk button down that Ra’s left him beneath one of his usual suits and adorning him with a gold watch and thumb ring that come from the collection he sat aside to specifically not wear. He isn’t actually sure how they managed it, but he’s pretty sure some of it happened while he and Damian were making out and he hasn’t been able to make himself take the jewelry off yet.
“Mind if I cut in?” A rich, familiar voice cuts in as the woman in front of him finally pauses to take a breath.
Tim’s eyes snap upward, finding Ra’s’ like they’ve been magnetized together. The man isn’t in his usual opulent robes, but the deep green suit and ruffle-collared white shirt are eye-catching enough even without his ringed hand being held out to Tim. The woman is stepping back, giggling behind her palm even before Tim lifts a shaking hand to take Ra’s’.
“What are you doing here, Ra’s?” Tim murmurs as the older man pulls him out onto the dance floor. Tim isn’t unpracticed with following, but for once he feels disjointed and out of his depth. Ra’s is in the manor, their home turf, and Tim has had no warning or time to prepare for the inevitable clusterfuck that happens as soon as Bruce realizes the Demon’s Head is in his house.
“My grandson cares a lot about this charity,” Ra’s drawls, leading him in a practiced turn. “Can I not be here in support of him and his interests?”
“That’s bullshit and we both know it,” Tim hisses under his breath, trying not to get trapped in the muddled green of Ra's’ eyes. Touching him with his bare hands, standing so close to him, breathing in the familiar scent of amber and musk… It’s all too much without a conflict between them to keep Tim’s head on straight.
“Bruce Wayne invited me himself, much to my surprise,” Ra’s admits, shifting them just slightly to avoid a much less practiced couple as the two whirl by giggling. “It seems that he believes there is a wrong that needs to be righted.”
“Oh? And what would that be?” Tim snarks, trying to cast his gaze subtly around the room to find the man. “Really, I’d love to know considering we just talked about this and his stance was pretty clear.”
The hand on his waist lifts, cradling Tim’s jaw and bringing his gaze back to Ra’s’ face. The man is looking down at him like he is every wonder of the world rolled into one human body. “He mentioned that you might have misunderstood him and had hoped I would have better luck.”
The younger man feels his brow crinkle and he tries not to lean into the touch. “What are you talking about?”
“Your group of paramours has expressed very deep upset that you have given me up for them, as if, at this juncture in our relationship, I would ever have you choose between the family you have fought so hard for and a relationship with me,” Ra’s begins nonsensically. “They wished for the Bat to rectify that, and upon his failure he came to me.”
Tim’s chest constricts harshly, his ribcage squeezing tight around all the organs that make it possible to function, much less continue to follow Ra’s’ lead in their dancing. “I… You’ll have to give me some leeway here, Ra’s. It isn’t often that I draw a blank.”
Ra’s’ thumb strokes gently over his cheekbone. “I do believe, Ghalay, that your family has been attempting to give us their blessing.”
Tim’s breathing hitches, a silly, foolish amount of hope rising in his chest.
“Though, I have been asked to give several months of advanced notice before I ask you to marry me,” Ra’s says lightly. “Allegedly there’s a cat and a mercenary that will need to be tracked down for the guest list.”
Tim blinks hard to keep any tears in check, smiling up at the man. “If you kiss me, I could be convinced not to tell them how many times you’ve proposed to me over the years.”
It’s not exactly a great idea to stop dancing on a dance floor to kiss your partner, but enough people stop to watch Tim practically melt into Ra’s that they’re pretty safe from being bumped into. They haven’t kissed since that night, but it’s still familiar, still mind-numbingly pleasure-filled, and Tim presses into it with everything he has, arms wrapped tightly around Ra’s’ neck as Ra’s guides him closer via a hand on his lower back.
Across the room, Stephanie wolf whistles, a huge grin spreading across her face as she watches Tim finally get what he has been silently pining over for years.