Tim was sound asleep in bed, all warm and cozy as all the beds in the manor were, when he was jolted awake by the pounding and shrieking outside his bedroom door.
"TIMMY! T-TIM TIM TIMMY! TIIIIIMMMMMMMYYYYY!"
"DICK, SHUT THE HELL UP, AND GET OUT OF MY WAY! TIM, GET OUT HERE NOW!"
"Would you two imbeciles be quite for TWO SECONDS?! DRAKE! I require your…. Assistance….. NOW!"
What started out as a I-have-no-school-today-so-I'm-going-to-sleep-in morning quickly turned into I-wonder-if-i-could-get-away-with-a-triple-homicide?
Tim groaned and rolled over, attempting to block out the noise by putting his pillow over his head. It's times like these that he wonders why he had to be adopted into this particular family. His attempts to ignore his brother's whining and thundering were not rewarded as the sounds only got louder. God, anyone within a five mile radius must be up by now! Tim reluctantly pulled back his covers and stalked over to his door and flung it open. The noise immediately stopped as 3 pairs of eyes were trained in on him. The scene before him was… surprisingly normal. Dick was sitting on the ground with his hand up, trying to knock on the door again, while Jason was behind him and had him in a choke hold. Damian was standing next to the two, one hand pushing on Jason's face, while the other was holding onto Dick's wrist. Tim just stared at them with a blank face.
"Uhhhh, hiya Timmy." Dick rasped, the arm around his throat impeding his ability to actually talk correctly. Tim's blank face turned immediately sour as he stared down at his siblings.
"What in the actual hell are you doing?" he growled, hands tightening into fists at his sides. The three boys on the floor just looked in random directions, refusing to make eye contact. They come thundering up here like a heard of drunken elephants, almost break my door down, while simultaneously making enough noise to bust my eardrums, and now they won't even LOOK at me? OH HELL NO!
Tim glared harder at the three troublemakers on the floor before crossing his arms over his chest. "Tell me what it is that you want right now or I'm going back to bed and if you try to wake me up again before a decent hour, I swear all your costumes will go missing and you'll have to go out on patrol looking like Dick in his scaly short pants glory days." He snapped angrily. All three boy's heads whipped up to stare at Tim in horror, also in Damian's case, rage.
"You wouldn't dare Drake! You don't have the balls for that kind of move!" Damian spat, scowl permanently plastered on his face.
"Damian! Language!" Dick admonished from his place on the floor, still being choked by Jason.
"Just try me, oh great warrior of the night. Keep this up and we're going to have the return of Batman and the Boy Wonder. 'Oh golly batman!'" Tim said with a smirk, which then went back to its original glare. "Now I'm going to say it one more time, what do you want?" Tim said finally.
Jason eventually let go of Dick, and the two older boys stood up, still shoving one another. Dick started to rub the back of his neck and lean back and forth, a sign that he was nervous. Suddenly he looked up and grabbed Tim's hand and dragged him down the hall at breakneck speeds. Tim was too shocked to really say anything at first, but when his brain started to process what was happening, he started to hear angry shouts behind them. The angry shouts of his other two siblings thundering after them.
"Dick you cheater! Wait 'til I get my hands on your sorry ass!" Jason yelled as he pounded after them.
"Grayson! This is clearly foul play! Wait until I tell Father about your underhanded tricks!" Damian yelled right behind Jason. They were gaining on Dick and Tim, so Dick started picking up the pace.
"Dick, what are you doing?" Tim huffed out while being drug around like a doll. Dick just continued to run at an impossibly fast rate.
"No time to explain Timmy, we have to get to the Batcave before Jay and Dami catch us." Dick managed between breaths.
They were running into the Cave when suddenly Dick came to a grinding stop right in front of the computer. Dick grabbed Tim by the shoulders and sat him down into the chair and started grabbing a bunch of folders and papers. He started laying them out in front of Tim in specific patterns that showed how some cases and leads were connected, or made some sort of timeline. Tim, out of habit, started to go over them in his head as they were laid out before him. He started piecing them together, imprinting timelines into his memory, and gathering and stockpiling facts in his brain. Tim was really good at this sort of thing. He could just look at a bunch of files and whatnot and remember what was on them immediately, and also make connections to other things related, like other cases, or evidence, or anything. Tim was the smartest out of the 4 of them by far.
Right at that moment, Jason and Damian stormed into the cave, skidding to a halt next to Dick and Tim. "Damn it Dick! I told you I was gonna ask Tim for help before the idea even popped into that over inflated head of yours!" Jason screamed at Dick, who was whistling and looking in the opposite direction. "Don't ignore me you ass!" Jason slapped Dick upside the head. Dick's arms wrapped around his head, letting out a small whine at the abuse. Damian then took the opportunity to kick Dick in the leg, making him fall onto one knee.
"Ow, Damian!" Dick protested, but Damian was having none of it.
"Quiet Grayson! Clearly my dilemma requires Drakes assistance more than yours! You're just being lazy, and you know that Drake will just solve your puzzle for you!" Damian growled at Dick. Tim decides to look at his 3 brothers, after memorizing most of the contents of the folders. He was getting quite tired of everyone demanding his help, when he didn't even know what he was supposed to help out with.
"Alright, that's enough. What have you three been going on about?" he asks. All three of them look at Tim with the same expression, an 'Isn't it obvious?' face. This pissed Tim off even more because, no, why should it be obvious? He was sleeping peacefully about 10 minutes ago when this whole thing went down. In fact, what even was the time? Tim looked at the corner of the computer to check the time, and nearly fell out of his chair, and also strangled and maimed all three of his brothers. 5:25 am. 5:25 in the friggin' morning. Tim was slowing going insane and he wasn't sure what was stopping him from launching himself at his brothers right now. Most likely the fact that he'll lose to all three of them at once, and then most likely be forced to help them anyway. But this certainly would not be taken lying down, oh no. Tim would get back at his brothers for this outrage. But until that time, he settled for finding out what they even wanted at this ungodly hour.
"Stop giving me that annoying look and tell me what the hell you all want from me." Tim snapped. That seemed to do something because Dick finally stepped forward.
"Well, you see Timmy, you know how Bruce gave us all tasks to do while he was away?" Dick began hesitantly. Tim nodded. Bruce left on a W.E. business trip a few days ago, and wouldn't be back until later on today. "Well, we all knew that you got your project done the day he left, but that's not so for the rest of us. So we all decided to get up really early and finish." Dick continued on, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Not good, he's nervous, which probably means he feels guilty, which means this whole endeavor probably didn't really require his assistance, and that his brothers simply wanted the short way out.
"Go on." Tim forced out, getting more uncomfortable with each passing moment.
"Well, we were all getting stuck, so Jason said he was going to ask you to help him tune up the Batmobile the way Bruce likes it, because you seem to know how he likes it better than anyone else." Dick took a deep breath before continuing. "When Jason went to get you, I thought that you'd be able to help me as well, but Jason said that he needed you to focus only on his project so you couldn't help me. Damian heard our argument, and said he needed your help-" Damian suddenly jumped in
"I do NOT need Drake's help! I simply require him for some assistance. Like someone who need a sharpener to sharpen a pencil. He's simply a tool." Damian huffed out. Dick just smiled and ruffled his hair. Damian swatted Dick's hand away and glared at the floor. This would be considered endearing if Damian hadn't just referred to Tim as nothing more than a pencil sharpener.
Dick looked up at Tim again and continued. "Then Jason started heading up to your room saying that once he asked, we weren't allowed to ask you for help on our projects. So then it turned into a race to your bedroom to get you to help us…. And now we're here!" Dick finished with a lopsided grin. Tim just stared at him and sighed. That's it? They were basically fighting to the death for help on a car, case connections, and laundry detail? (yes, Damian had to do the laundry while Bruce was away to give Alfred a break.)
Tim stood up from the chair and walked over to Dick. Dick looked a little apprehensive at his approaching younger brother, especially with the void look he had on his face. "Ummm, Timmy? What are you-" Dick was cut off by Tim grabbing him by his shirt and flinging him into Jason, who was surprised by the flying body so didn't have time to ground himself, and they both fell to the floor with a heavy thud. Tim immediately dropped down and swung his leg around to sweep Damian's feet out from under him. Damian though, being a little more aware of what was going on by then jumped back to avoid Tim's side swipe.
"Really Drake? Did you think that you would get me with-" Damian, who wasn't paying attention to his surroundings enough, missed the stool that was sitting next to one of the tables with Bruce's experiments on it, and tripped right over it onto his head, which is what Tim was aiming for in the first place. Tim stood up and grinned at his accomplished feat of felling all his brother's in one go. He then went over to the case files in front of the bat computer and began to write things on random different pieces of paper. He then went over to Dick, who had gotten up by then but was now rubbing a growing bump on the back of his head from where he collided with Jason's jaw. He grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back over the case files.
"I've written out possible outcomes and schemes that the criminal organization who's been shipping out drugs and illegal fire arms might be planning. I've also written who was behind it, possible buyers, and locations to and where they're shipped from." Tim told Dick, not stopping for breath so as to get it all out in one go. Dick just stared at the files with a bewildered expression, and when he was about to open his mouth to say something Tim just pushed past him and walked over to Jason, grabbing Bruce's tool box along the way. He just motioned with his hand for Jason to follow, knowing Jason would probably smack him if he actually tried to grab him.
He walked over to the Batmobile and placed the tool box on the floor and popped the hood. He started looking around inside before sliding his hand over his face and sighing. He grabbed Jason's hand and put a wrench in it. He started pointing to various areas of the engine and told him what to tighten, how much, or loosen. He then helped Jason change out the oil, and replace the tires. After they were all finished Tim left Jason to wash the car by himself, surely he could do that much. Jason just mumbled a 'thanks' and went to go get a bucket of soapy water and some rags. Tim finally made his way over to Damian, who just glared at him.
"Let me make this perfectly clear, you're not helping me, you're just a tool in order to make my job less strenuous." He snapped at Tim. He then turned on his heel and marched upstairs to the laundry room. Tim just sighed and began to follow him. Then a thought occurred, if the laundry room is upstairs, what was Damian even doing down in the cave with Dick and Jason? Tim just shook his head and trekked after the youngest.
When they arrived in the laundry room Tim almost screamed at the atrocity that awaited them inside. Dirty clothes were strewn about the room, a box of detergent was laying on it's side, the contents spilled out across the floor from an opening in the box looking suspiciously like… a katana sword? Really? And to top it all off, the oxy clean box was just sitting inside the washing machine. Tim began massaging his temples, already feeling the massive headache beginning to form in the back of his skull.
He immediately began to work, starting out by removing the box of stain remover from the washing machine. He then sent Damian to fetch a broom while he gathered up all the dirty laundry and just began chucking it into the machine. He then took some of the remaining detergent and dumped it into the machine along with some oxy clean. While Damian began sweeping up the detergent, he looked over at the load of laundry and suddenly stopped what he was doing. "Drake, what the hell are you doing?!" he shouted, stalking over to Tim and pointing at the machine.
"Why did you throw them all in together? Now all the colors are going to run together! All of our clothes are just going to be one giant tie-dye mishap!" he yelled up at the older boy. Tim just looked down at Damian and shook his head.
"Oh Damian, so much to learn." He said in a wise, mocking voice. Damian only glared harder, if that was even possible. Tim sighed and bent down a little to be more on Damian's level. "This is a little trick I learned while Alfred was away in England one time. It was before you lived with us." Tim whispered into Damian's ear. There was no point to whisper considering they were the only one's in the laundry room, but Tim just wanted to make it more dramatic, and it seemed to work anyway judging by slightly intrigued look on Damian's face. Tim smiled slightly.
"If you run the wash on cold, and just add a bit of extra detergent, you can wash all the clothes at once, and they get just as clean. But don't tell Alfred because he might have a heart attack." Tim said with a light hearted grin. Damian just stared up at Tim. But instead of just plain contempt, he saw a bit of awe sparkling in the corner. Of course Damian would never admit to being in awe of anyone, much less Tim, but it was there none the less, and that made Tim smile even more. Damian must have realized that his emotions were showing more than he wanted them too, because he began to blush slightly and quickly turned around.
"Well, that was all I needed you for Drake, you may go." He said in that superior voice that was too old for him. Tim just looked at him until a sly smile appeared on his face.
"I thought you didn't need me Damian? I thought I was just some tool?" He said with feigned innocence, a huge smirk upon his face. Damian whipped around, blush in full force, and opened his mouth to say something. When nothing came out, he quickly snapped it shut and just stalked out of the room, muttering incoherent words to himself. Tim just sighed and exited the room as well.
Tim was thinking about going back to bed, but then realized there was no way he could fall back asleep now, and besides it was already 7:00 in the morning anyways. With this in mind he walked into the kitchen to get some breakfast. He was only slightly surprised to find his brothers already in there. Dick was shoveling dry cereal into his mouth, while getting it everywhere else as well. Jason was rummaging through the fridge, looking for some leftovers to warm up, like the pizza they ordered two nights ago. Damian, unlike the other two, was actually attempting to make a somewhat decent breakfast. Key word: attempting. He had a bowl of eggs on the counter that he was going to scramble, while a few had fallen and were on the floor and counter, and the ones that actually made it into the bowl had a bunch of egg shells in it. He was also trying to make toast in a pan, but he had obviously forgotten about it because black billowing clouds of smoke were rising up. Tim rushed over and shut the stove off while also running to open all the windows in the dining room and kitchen.
Tim huffed and walked back into the kitchen with a tired expression plastered on his face. The other three just looked at him with blank expressions. Tim could slowly feel his sanity slip from him as he exploded at his brothers. "What were three even thinking? Damian, you know Alfred has banned you from the kitchen ever since the blueberry pancakes incident!"
all four brothers simultaneously shudder at the memory.
"And you two!" Tim yells, pointing at the two older ones, who just look back at Tim. Like a deer caught in the headlights. Tim thinks to himself, and continues on with his rant. "Why did you just stand there and let him do it?! He could've caught the house on fire! He was about when I came in!" Tim shouted at them. Finally, Dick and Jason started to look somewhat guilty at their negligence. Tim just sighed. (he seemed to be doing that a lot this morning.)
He walked over to the stove and took the pan over to the garbage, where he proceeded to scrape the charcoal mess out of it. After that he filled the pan with water and set it in the sink to soak a bit before it could be washed. He then went over to the staircase and called for the colossal beast that was their dog. "TITUS!" He called up. A few seconds later, a loud rumbling was heard, and then Titus came barreling down the staircase. Tim led him into the kitchen and pointed at the floor. Titus, getting the message immediately, ran over to the eggs on the floor and started licking them up. Tim cleaned the ones on the counter off into the trash can, and proceed to pick out the egg shells from the bowl with a spoon and fork. Once that was all done, he added a few more eggs to the bowl, and stirred them all and put them in a fresh pan. He also grabbed several slices of bread and buttered them before putting them into another pan. Once that was all finished, he walked over to Dick and grabbed the cereal box, earning a whine of protest from Dick.
"Hey Timmy, I was eating that!" Dick yelled at Tim. Tim only rolled his eyes and put the box away. He grabbed plates and forks from the cupboards and set them around the dining room table. He looked at his brother's and pointed to the table.
"Go sit down, I'll bring breakfast over when it's ready. You guys can get your own drinks." He told them. They all just stared at him before Dick jumped up and ran over to Tim and hugged him from behind.
"Awww Timmy you're making us breakfast? That's so sweet of you!" Dick squealed, picking Tim off the floor and spinning him around. Tim started kicking his legs so Dick would get off.
"Yeah yeah, I'm adorable, now get off!" Tim protested. Finally Dick let go and walked over to the table where his other two brothers already sat. Tim went over and finished making the eggs and toast, and put them on their own serving plates. He brought them over to the table and sat them down before sitting down himself next to Jason.
As everyone began eating, Tim felt a wave of exhaustion hit him. After he was finished with breakfast he took his plate and put it in the sink, along with Damian's massacred pan. He went into the living room and plopped down on the couch. He'll just close his eyes for a few minutes, yeah that's it. He thought to himself.
After finishing their own breakfast, the three other boys got up and put their plates in the sink along with Tim's. All three wandered into the living room, where they found Tim, fast asleep on the couch. He was lying on his side, curled around one of the enormous plush cushions that adorned their couch, snoring softly. Dick looked down at Tim, an affectionate smile spreading across his face. Even Jason was sporting a small, fond smile. Damian just gazed down at Tim. He wasn't smiling, but he didn't have the usual scowl or disgusted look that usually adorned his face when dealing with Tim, so that's a big step. Dick put his finger up to his lips, a sign for them all to be quite.
Damian just nodded and silently walked away, but not before he leaned down and whispered "so, you're not completely useless Drake." Into Tim's ear.
Jason walked to the other side of the couch so he was right in front of Tim. He got into a squat position, and then ran his hand softly through Tim's hair. "Thanks a lot kid." Jason whispered, and then got up and walked towards the workout room.
Dick was left standing next to Tim by himself. Copying Jason, he walked over in front of Tim and squatted down. He just continued to smile fondly at his brother's sleeping face. A face that Tim will deny to the ends of the earth of being adorable, but Dick's the big brother so he obviously knows better. He puts his hand on Tim's cheek, running his thumb back and forth affectionately. He then leans forward and kisses Tim's forehead whispering "Sleep well baby brother. Thanks so much for this morning. You don't know how much you mean to us and how much we need you." With that, Dick got up and headed for the Batcave. He had to somewhat make it seem like he came up with those connections by himself on the cases.
Tim, not being completely asleep like his brother's believed, smiled to himself as they left. Could his brother's be annoying? Most certainly. Obnoxious? Oh, of course. Make him want to run up to the top of W.E. tower and jump out the window? So many times. But that doesn't mean for one second that he doesn't love them all with all his heart, even the little psycho ninja. His brothers will always come first, even when they drive him crazy. Because he knows they will do the same for him. Being woken up at 5:30 am by a cacophony of thundering elephants, drug around like a rag doll, and made to do menial tasks by his brothers on a Saturday. Sometimes Tim wonders if it's all worth it. But every single time, when he's done dealing with them, and it's quiet, and he gets time to think to himself, Tim always arrives at the same conclusion. It's always worth it.