Chapter Text
“Guys, I found them!” Dick bounces (yes bounces. Like the damn beach ball his ass looks like) into the living room, where most of the Bats are waiting, with various cardboard boxes stacked precariously in his arms. He drops them unceremoniously on the coffee table.
Only Bruce, Dick, Jason (surprisingly), Cass and Damian actually managed to show up to this ‘family bonding session’. Tim said he’s too busy, assumedly with WE. Steph and Babs are doing some training-bonding thing (they’ve learnt not to ask) and Duke is with his uncle at a school thing.
Dick pulls a couple recorded tapes from the boxes, reading the labels aloud. “Dick, Jason, Dick, Cass, Jason, Jason, Duke, Damian, Damian, Dick, Tim-”
“Tim?” Bruce interrupts, and everyone turns to look at him.
“Yes,” Dick hesitantly replies, “why?”
“I- I never made a tape for Tim.” Bruce seems to struggle to force the words out his mouth.
And, what? Everyone has at least one tape. Most have at least 3 by now. Dick and Jason have over 10 each. Everyone has many memories of Bruce pulling out his old-fashioned film camera to film random things, saying that he wanted to commemorate their childhoods and that they will thank him one day and yada yada yada. So how did Bruce just not make one for Tim?
Jason vocalises the questions running through all of their heads, although in a more aggressive way then most of the others would. But it works, Bruce looks ashamed, something no one thought was possible for Batman.
“When Tim came into my life, I was- I was in a bad place.” He glances at Jason, before lowering his eyes back to his lap. “I didn’t want him, at first. And even after that I made sure that we had a strictly professional relationship. I didn’t want another son. For all I was concerned, he was Robin. Timothy Drake didn’t exist outside of galas. So I never made a video. Then I got more children, and Tim moved out. I haven’t had a chance to start.”
“... What the fuck, old man?”
“Jason, things were hard, after your… death.” Dick gently tries to explain. “But that isn’t a good enough excuse, Bruce. You made a tape for everyone but Tim? What the hell?” He levels a hard glare at him.
“But if Father didn’t make it, what is on the tape labelled for Drake?” Damian speaks up, sounding irritated (as always) but curious.
Curiosity killed the cat. Good thing they’re bats, though.
Cass gets up and pushes the tape into the TV, then motioning for Jason to press play.
A young Tim pops up onto the screen.
“Hello. My name is Timothy Drake. I am making a video tape to talk to about things that are happening in my life while my parents are away. I got bored of not being able to talk to anyone, so i’m going to talk to a camera, which is better, i think, because a camera can’t leave me behind or spill my secrets of anything. Which is good. So yeah.”
Tim rambles, causing the Waynes watching to simply sit in shock. None of them had known Tim as a kid. (Do they even know him now?)
“It’s May, at the moment, and I'm eight right now. Mom and dad left, maybe, four months ago now? I’m not sure. They were meant to come back yesterday, but they never showed up. They probably went to a different country instead, again. But it’s okay. I’m fine on my own.
Mrs Mac came by today. I asked her if she knew about my parents, but she said she didn’t know. She looked kinda sad, but I'm not sure why. Maybe she wanted to see them?
I am doing really well at school at the moment. I’m top of my class in most classes. Not english, though. Last time I talked to my parents, they called me to tell me off about my B in english. They aren’t very happy about it. They said it’s not ‘benefitting of the Drake heir to have a B in any class’.”
Tim does little bunny ears and uses a mocking voice when talking about what his parents said, making the room’s occupants grin despite the heavy topic.
“It’s like they purposefully pick on everything about me. English isn’t even my first language! But no, they made me read the damned english dictionary, which was their only contribution to helping me move countries considering i’ve barely seen them since and it barely even helped, and now of course i should be getting A’s in english class.”
Tim groans, and the smiles slide off the Wayne's faces. They didn’t even know Tim isn’t from America. They had no idea he ever struggled with English, both the language and the class. How could they not know this? Where’s he even from?
“Like sure, I'd get it if they were actually here, but they’re not! I don’t even know how they found out about it! It’s just so frustrating.” Tim sighs loudly.
“I know I should be grateful for them and everything they’ve done for me. But it’s hard when they’re not even here, you know? Sorry, I’m being selfish, aren’t I? Mom and dad always tell me that I am. They say I need to work on it. I’ll try harder in the future, promise.
Anyway, school is going reasonably well at the moment. I still don’t have many, or any, friends. But that’s okay. I don’t need friends, just like I don't need my parents to be around all the time.” Tim glances offscreen, before grinning at the camera. “I’ve got to go now, the news is starting and my parent’s newest find is going to be shown tonight! I’m really excited. Mrs Mac told me about it, she said it was in the newspaper. Bye!” He reaches toward the camera, and the screen cuts to black.
“What the absolute fuck was that?”
Everyone seems to be in shock, staring at the screen.
The next video starts to play.