No Nuance November

Come Hang Out

 Tim wasn't sure when it had started. Or why quite frankly. He just knew when he got involved.

Patrol had been... boring? Quiet? Dull? Lame. It was so lame that Tim had resorted to looking for jaywalkers. Which, shockingly, had been absent from his prowl as well.

He glided down to an adjacent rooftop he'd been perched on for the last hour. He was half considering turning in early. It was just barely midnight. He could actually get a decent amount of sleep.

That was until he saw the fire pit. It was maybe three blocks away, on a rooftop straight ahead. Tim made out two figures with it. They didn't appear to be doing anything, but Tim was too far away to tell.

He took off across the rooftops with a skill that only Robins possessed, before stopping short by half a block. Two adult men. One was sitting on the edge watching the other pace back and forth across the roof, swinging his arms wildly as if telling a dramatic story. Both dressed sensibly for the weather. Layered up underneath they're coats. One wore a hat the other had the hood up to the sweat shirt he wore underneath a leather jacket.

A leather jacket that looked an awful lot like Jason's.

Another couple steps closer.

It was Jason. Talking very animatedly to Dick who seemed amused at the passion behind whatever was being discussed.

He began to approach them. Jumping off the side to a less obvious route not wanting to derail Jason's story.

"... he wasn't even fucking sorry. Blamed me for sitting off to the side minding my own business." Jason sounded angry.

"And then, let me guess, you let him be wrong and left without making any sort of scene." Dick countered

"Obviously not. You don't just spill shit on me and claim I grabbed a girl's ass and think I'll let it slide. I would never grab a woman, I'm a femanist!"

"That's why Babs loves you."

"Exactly. I slammed his head on the bar and then left."

Tim wasn't close enough to hear Dick's scoff, but he'd seen it enough to know when it happened.

"What are you doing?" Tim called out as he jumped to join them on their rooftop.

"Venting mostly." Dick quickly supplied. "Well Jason is, apparently he had a rough night."

"It's three degrees outside and someone spilled beer down my back. I'm freezing." Jason retorted.

"Then go home and change."

"Then go home and change." Jason parroted back mockingly.

"Bad day?" Tim asked, settling down next to Dick.

Jason looked him over, as if deciding what to say next. "What do you want, pretender?"

Tim shrugged. "Just bored. This seems interesting. You hang out like this often?"

Jason shot him a dirty look.

Dick on the other hand answered verbally. "Yeah. Little Wing started it actually."

"Aww Jason."

"I'm gonna push you off, you keep that up." Jason stood up straighter looking Tim dead in the eye.

"You're embarrassed that you sought me out? Tim would never. I might have to call this off. I can't have this sort of toxicity in my life."

Jason's face became slightly unreadable. Like he was once again going through a list of things to reply back with. "Are you breaking up with me? You can't do that."

Dick shrugged. "I need to think of what's best for me."

Jason laughed.

"This is weird." Tim decides after a moment.

"Yeah. Dick could never get someone like me."

Dick squinted slightly. "Yeah that's the problem he's having. You're out of my league, not we're brothers so it's technically incest."

"Why you gotta ruin a good thing?" Jason asked him

"What's new with you Tim?" Dick asked him

"Patrol that boring that you've gotta interrupt my therapy session?" Jason asks him

"To be fair I wasn't listening." Dick adds

"What am I playing you for?"

Dick shrugged.

"To answer Jason's question. Yes. I haven't even seen mugging that hadn't already been solved by the victims."

"Damn." Jason steps directly behind the fire and pulls out some sort of bottle tossing it to him. "Have a beer, kid."

Tim catches it before sending a confused look towards Jason. "I'm under age."

"Fine, give it to Dick."

"No thanks, I'm good."

Tim puts the bottle on the ground.

The conversation held no depth. It was the type of conversation you have in passing. Not memorable in any sort of concrete way.

Dick and Jason had a random rooftop rendezvous like this all the time, unbeknownst to Tim or anyone apparently. Tim found himself running into them more frequently. They only happened on dead nights when the three of them had absolutely nothing to do.

There was once a time that Tim hated slow nights. The ones that seemed to go on forever. He loathed them, but suddenly he found himself excited when they happened. The three of them just gravitated to one another and the conversation bounced from one forgettable topic to another.

It was rare when they really felt like brothers outside the mask. With Dick it was easy, Jason made it difficult. But when it came to a fire on a rooftop, suddenly the idea wasn't so weird. If anyone saw them they would see the same thing Tim saw. Three brothers, one of which liked to play with the idea of being an arsonist.

Short and Sweet, I'll be back tomorrow