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Tim is so confused.
Jason, the man who’d brought him back to his home, kept calling himself his father. Tim wasn’t sure how to react to this information. His daddy, the one who’d ran him off in the streets, hadn’t been a very good daddy. Tim knew that some people had good dads, he’d watched all about it on the television, but had any of their dads ever just adopted them on the spot?
Tim might be confused, he might be weirded out by a strange man telling him to call him his dad, but he liked the man’s fussing. His dad never cared. Jason seemed to care. He constantly checked up on Tim. He’d always look over his injuries, trying to see how much they healed, and he combs through Tim’s hair to keep it tame. He does little things that Tim clings to. He tucks Tim into his new bed, every single night, and he makes sure Tim is full with food. He growls when the head of the house, Mr. Wayne, starts talking about possibly giving Tim up to an organization called the CPS. That meant that he didn’t want to give Tim away. It meant he wanted him to stay.
Tim knew he wasn’t supposed to talk to strangers, but he loves the affection that Jason gives to him. He never had someone dote upon him before, not like Jason did, and he never had someone take care of him. Not unless they were paid to.
The man who Jason called his brother, Dick Grayson, was really nice to him, too. He helped Tim when he was about to trip down the stairs. He shot out a hand to grab him, keeping him in place, and pulled him back protectively back to the top of the staircase. He was silent a lot, Tim was intimidated by his silence at first, but ever since the staircase incident he realized that Dick wasn’t a mean silent. He was a thoughtful kind of silent. He acted a lot like Tim. He spent more time observing his surroundings, observing the people around him, rather than spending energy to speak.
Dick didn’t mean to scare Tim just like how Jason didn’t mean to scare Tim. Jason might growl sometimes, he might even raise his voice, but he did it because he wanted to keep Tim. He did it because he was angry at the people who hurt Tim.
Tim likes that. He likes it a lot.
Tim couldn’t really think of Dick as scary especially when he saw him carrying a baby around. Dick likes to carry the baby, Damian, everywhere he goes. Damian is much more talkative than Dick, though, because he cries. He cries a lot. The only way to stop him from crying is when Dick changes his diapers, gives him a milk bottle, or rocks him to sleep.
Jason likes to carry Tim sometimes, too, except he doesn’t carry Tim like a baby. He often picks up Tim, presses him against his chest, and guides his arms around his neck. With two hands supporting Tim’s legs, Jason will transport them to wherever they need to be, and Tim holds onto him with a deep want. He wants this man to be his dad. He wants this family to be his family because his daddy was mean. His daddy hated him. He kicked him out, left him to get hurt by wild dogs, and never came back for him.
One day, Tim asks Jason an important question when the man is tucking him into his bed.
“Do you really want to be my dad?”
Jason pauses. His eyes drift up to Tim’s face where they stay. Jason likes to look at Tim a lot. He also likes to brush Tim’s bangs out of his face, and he proves this fact by doing exactly that. He reaches for Tim’s forehead, and brushes his bangs away.
“I want to,” Jason tells him.
Tim blinks at him.
“Does that mean you want me to be your son?”
Jason’s lips are pressed together in a straight line, but it’s not a bad straight line. It is thoughtful. It is considerate.
“Yes.”
Tim wants him to be his dad. He wants him desperately to be his dad. He wanted someone to rely on. He wanted someone who cared about him.
“Can you stay with me?” Tim whispers.
Jason looks over at him. He nods, finishes tucking Tim in, and then climbs up on his way too big mattress. He stays above the covers, maybe because it’d undo his tucking if he tried to slip underneath the blankets, but Tim didn’t want to keep it that way.
Tim wiggles on the mattress until the blanket starts to slip around him. He then flips the blanket off of himself, sits up, and works on folding his blanket in half. He folds it over Jason.
“You need to be warm,” Tim says.
Jason looks at him with amusement. He throws the blanket off of himself, slightly offending Tim, but then he adjusts by pulling himself backward to slip into the covers. He then returns Tim’s gesture by throwing a piece of blanket back over him.
Tim thought that, although he worked hard to give his piece of blanket to Jason to begin with, maybe this was the better option.
Tim cautiously gets closer to Jason. Jason doesn’t move. He is completely still as Tim tests the waters. Tim experimentally curls up next to him, tucking his body against Jason’s chest, and then he holds his breath.
Jason responds immediately. He tugs Tim even closer by wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Suddenly, there’s no distance between them, and there’s a pair of lips pressed against his head.
This is what Tim wants. He wants someone who will hold him. He wants someone who will love him.
“You won’t hurt me?” Tim asks, remembering Jason’s words in the alleyway.
“Never,” Jason promises into his hair.
Tim feels better. He feels a lot better.
“Okay,” Tim breathes out in relief. “You promise?”
“Yes,” Jason whispers.
Tim relaxes instantly. He snuggles up into Jason's chest. It doesn’t feel wrong. It feels like destiny. It feels like this was supposed to happen - that Jason was always supposed to be his - and that Tim just needed time to process things. Something about Jason drew Tim in, and maybe it was the same for Jason. Maybe he’d just recognized it first, and acted upon it accordingly.
Tim closes his eyes.
For the first time in years, he feels safe, and he hopes he’ll always feel that way.