12. Yeah, we'd fall from grace
Living with Tim has been an unexpected experience - for sure.
Jason wouldn't say it's been bad. It's actually been rather enjoyable given the circumstances. But even then, there still has been some hardship.
There's times when Jason has to keep an eye on him - for Tim's sake.
Sometimes on patrol they have fights but that's usually because of his addiction. At those times Tim isn't in complete control of himself and is way too desperate to get some drugs in his system.
After their encounter with The Riddler, the topic about drug raids came up. Tim suggested that Jason should take care of them or even if Tim takes care of them, Jason should at least be present there in case his subconscious tries any funny business.
So far living with him, Jason's learned that Tim's a good kid. He has a good sense of humor (way better than he had initially expected), he's smart, cute as a button and a complete badass. So in conclusion Jason's glad that he's the one who replaced him.
They've bonded a lot over the past two days.
It's Thursday now and it's getting increasingly close to when Tim has to tell Bruce everything.
So far Tim doesn't look stressed about it as one might imagine - but then again he is a master in the art of concealment. Jason can only hope that everything goes according to the 'plan'.
During their time together, Jason makes all the food seeing as Tim is too lazy and not really a good cook. Tim's work hours are also very early considering their night time activities. But no matter, since Jason wakes up around that time as well, so he cooks both of them breakfast.
"So what did you make today?" Jason hears Tim say from behind him.
"Omelette sandwiches to go" Jason replies, turning around, revealing the plate on which they were set.
Tim raises an eyebrow. "Sounds rushed, but I ain't complaining" He says, and Jason watches him walk forward and reach for one of the sandwiches.
"It was, last night's patrol really fucked up my already fucked up sleep schedule" Jason replies, taking off the apron.
Tim snorts, as he munches on the sandwich. While Tim eats, Jason goes to the coffee maker and pours a cup of coffee for Tim. "Here" He says, giving him the cups.
"Thanks" He mumbles before taking another bite of his sandwich.
"So when's your driver coming?" Jason asks, taking a bite out of the sandwich he just picked up.
Suddenly the doorbell rings.
Tim gulps down his coffee before saying, "Now, I'm guessing"
"I'll check it out" Jason says, as he takes another bite out of his sandwich.
He walks away from the kitchen, going down the hallway to the front door - while still eating his sandwich. He opens the front door to reveal Chris - Tim's driver. Jason nods at him, which Chris returns. "Yo Timbers! We gotta go!" He yells loud enough for Tim to hear.
"Alright, I'm coming!" He hears back.
Jason hums.
"So are you and Mr. Drake...you know?" Chris asks randomly.
Jason turns to look at him. "Me and Tim? Pft as if. He's just a good friend I'm visiting"
"Oh...sorry I just assumed since you've been here Mr. Drake just seems very happy" Chris replies.
"It's cool" He reassures.
"Okay, I'm here, let's go" Tim says, pulling Jason out of the house. Woah, where did he come from?
They follow Chris down the building, until their at the car. By the time they reach the car, Jason finishes his sandwich and wipes his hands with his jeans.
They both sit down inside the car and Chris closes the door for them before sitting in the driver's seat. The car starts and Tim and him remain in silence with Jason can't decide if he finds comfortable or not. But either way, he decides to break the silence after there has been no words between them for ten minutes. "I should really teach ya how to cook, or else ya ain't gonna be eatin' anything"
Tim snorts. "I think we're better off not teaching me how to cook, if we want to not burn down the whole place" he says.
"Practice makes perfect" Jason says, grinning at Tim.
"Don't you dare use that line against me, Jason!" Tim scowls. This line has become an inside joke for the both of them. During the last few days they've become good friends and well this joke became a thing when they were watching TV, and Tim was trying to imitate the guy on TV and it ended up being such a terrible impression, that it was funny.
"I just did" Jason deadpans.
"Why are you even here?" Tim asks (probably himself), while shaking his head in disapproval.
"If I remember correctly, it was you who said I should stay with you" Jason says. His tone teasing.
"Don't remind me" Tim scoffs.
"Too bad" Jason says, pulling his tongue out at Tim.
"Why are you like..." Tim tries to find a word to describe Jason, but not finding any so he starts pointing at him. "...like this?" He asks.
"Genetics" He deadpans.
"That's not what I meant" Tim says giving him an unimpressed look. "I meant like, why are you so weird?"
"Roy" Jason says, shrugging.
"Should've figured"
"Are you indirectly insulting my best friend?" He asks surprised.
"Perhaps" Tim says boldly.
"No one can insult my best friend except for myself"
"What you gonna do about it?" Tim challenges.
Jason thinks for a moment. What will he do about it?
Then an idea comes to his mind. "I'll lock you and Dick in a room together for an hour"
Tim's facial expression is priceless and Jason is trying his best not to laugh. He looks betrayed. "You realize he's going to kill me by giving me relationship advice, right?"
"That's the plan" He says grinning.
"Oh I hate you so much" Tim scoffs.
"Love you too" Jason replies, pouting.
Suddenly the car stops and after a moment the door opens. Thankfully Tim's driver has been parking in the underground parking, so there isn't a herd of paparazzi surrounding them. Besides, Tim even being spotted with Jason is dangerous. Because then it'll be national news that, "Tim Drake-Wayne CEO of Wayne Tech has been spotted with a mystery man" with a picture of them and then the bat-clan will find out and then well they're fucked.
They get out of the car and go straight to the elevator.
The elevator doors open and thankfully no one is in it..
As they go up, they have several stops along the way. In those stops Tim and Jason have to pretend as if they don't know each other, as people rush in and out, gushing over the young CEO.
~-=====-~
Jason sits in Tim's office. His feet draped onto the glass coffee table in front of him, as he watches a movie on the TV that Tim got brought in just for him. (Jason was very flattered when he first found out about this information).
A sudden awareness washes over him as he hears something fall from Tim's direction.
Then he realizes that he's watching an overly violent movie with a lot of gunshots as opposed to any romance or soap opera's he was watching the other days.
"Am I disturbing ya?" He asks, muting the movie and looking at Tim's direction.
Tim looks up from his documents and looks bewildered. "Did you say something?" Tim asks, way too confused for his own good.
"Yeah. I asked if I was disturbing ya?" Jason asks, again.
"Oh no" He says, shaking his head. "I've worked in louder environments, this is nothing. Don't worry" Tim reassures.
"M'Kay" Jason says before turning back to the movie incase he missed anything - even though he's watched his movie about ten times before. "Anyway, you want something to eat?"
"uh no, thank you" Tim says politely as he looks up from his work once again.
"'Kay, I'm gonna ask Claire to order me something" He says getting up from the sofa.
As he goes outside, he hears Tim make a 'mhm' sound.
Jason puts his hands in his pants pockets and starts walking towards Claire's office. A small smile playing on his lips. For the past two days he's been going on patrol with Red Robin. They both take care of things in Crime Alley and his part of Gotham. It's nice. So far they haven't been caught working together. Hopefully they won't until the time is right.
To be fairly honest, he hasn't had so much fun during patrol in years. He feels like a kid all over again. It's calming.
He reaches Claire's office in a matter of minutes.
Jason knocks at the door.
"Come in" he hears her say.
He opens the door and goes in. "Am I interrupting something?" He asks.
"No, not at all" She replies, looking away from her computer. "Do you want something?" She asks.
"Yeah. Could you order that sushi from the place you ordered last time?" He asks.
"Yeah sure, how many servings?"
"Two"
"Alright" She says, writing it down on a notepad.
"Thanks" He says, as he starts to open the door again.
"You know, I'm impressed" She remarks.
"Huh?" He asks, bewildered as turns back around.
"I've been trying to get Mr. Drake to eat lunch for so long, but he's stubborn as hell. But you come, and then you manage to make him eat more than he's probably ever eaten" She says.
Jason shrugs. "Magic" He replies snorting. "But yeah you're right, the kid has been eating more, thankfully. The only downfall of that is when he eats too much and then I have to help him puke"
"oh man, that must suck" She replies, making a face.
"Depends" He says shrugging. "Anyway I should get going"
"Yeah okay, bye"
"Bye"
~-=====-~
"That was one heck of a patrol" Red Robin says, as they enter the apartment.
"Agreed" Red Hood says, as he takes off his helmet and shakes his head to get some sweat out of it, before taking off his domino mask as well.
"Like, it wasn't even like a hard one. Just so much distance to cover and so many people crooks, Jesus Christ" Red says, as he takes off his cowl.
"Yup" Jason agrees.
"Anyway, I'm gonna go take a shower" Tim says.
Jason nods and gets out of his bedroom and goes to his own. He throws his helmet and mask onto the bed, before shrugging off his jacket and throwing it on the bed as well. That's when he hears the shower start running from Tim's room.
He sighs. He's exhausted and ready to hit the bed any second, but he needs a shower, he's covered in sweat.
He's about to start taking off his armor when he hears something.
Someone is in the house. He knows it. His league of assassins training can't deny that.
He stays quiet and quietly takes out his gun and slowly starts moving out of the room. Jason goes down the hallway, making little to zero amounts of noise - his m1911 pistol in hand. The person is in the living room.
He's sure. He senses movement.
Hears it even.
And he knows for a fact it's not Tim, since the shower is still running and his door is closed.
Jason then moves into the living room, reading to fight whoever is there. That's when his eyes lock with Dick's.
Fuck.
"J-Jason?" He can hear the shock in Dick's voice. "What the hell are you doing here?!" Dick growls. He went from a zero to a hundred real quick.
"I could ask you the same thing" He replies.
"You and I both know you're banned from being here, so tell me why the fuck are you in my little brother's house?!" Dick yells.
"Ladies first" he retorts, getting closer and closer to Dick.
"I swear to God if you try to hurt him, I will forget that you're my brother!" Dick threatens.
Jason snorts. "I have better things to do than to hurt your little babybird" He says, his gun still pointing at Dick.
"Then why the hell are you here?!" He yells again.
"Tsk, still impatient I see" He says, shaking his head sarcastically in disapproval.
"Jason, don't make me hurt you!" Dick warns.
"I'd like to see you try Dickface. We both know in combat, you have no chance against me"
"Wanna bet?"
"A thousand bucks" Jason replies smirking.
"What the hell is going on?" He hears Tim from behind him.
Jason turns around and sees Tim enter the room with only a towel wrapped around his waist - the rest of his body wet.
"Dickface decided to show up" Jason says snorting.
Tim's eyes widen as he finally processes who is in front of him. "Dick what the hell are you doing here?"
"I came here to surprise you. What the hell is he doing here?" Dick asks, pointing at Jason.
"Oh my God" Tim mumbles, covering his face with his hands. Yup, this is happening Tim, believe it or not.
"Why are you so surprised to see me and not him?!" Dick asks.
"Because I invited him! God damn!" Tim yells in frustration.
"What why?!" Dick yells again. Before he goes completely quiet and his eyes blow wide. "...Are you sleeping with him?"
"What?!" Both Tim and Jason yell in unison. This is the most absurd thing Jason has heard all year, what the hell.
"Just because I invited him here doesn't mean I'm fucking him!" Tim yells again.
By now this situation is over welcoming its stay and it needs to go. Jason looks over to Tim for permission. Tim nods.
At the moment, Dick is surprisingly close to Jason, so taking this opportunity and Tim's permission, Jason punches Dick in the nose, hard. Not anticipating the attack, Dick's body falls back and then falls on the floor due to him being unconscious.
"Ouch" Tim comments from behind him.
"Yeah..." Jason says, assessing the damage done. Hopefully he didn't break his nose - for now it just seems like it's bleeding. "We better fix that bleeding problem" He comments.
"Yup" Tim agrees.
"So what are we going to do about him?" Jason inquires, as he turns around and looks at Tim.
"Tie him up in my closet?" Tim says shrugging.
"And use him as a peace offering to the bats?" Jason adds. Tim shrugs. "I mean, sure"
"Never thought I'd become a kidnapper" Tim says.
"Well technically it's not kidnapping. It's more like 'borrowing' him, I'd say" He says.
"Yeah, definitely"
~-=====-~
Finally wrote this!!! I don't know how long it'll take for the next chapter to come out but I'll try my best to write it as quickly as possible :)