Chapter Text
Tim has been glaring at his closed door for almost half an hour. If it had feelings, it probably would have burst into tears and run off dramatically by now. But it’s wood. It does give him plenty of practice, though, so he is in excellent form when an actual person finally walks through the door.
“Timmy.”
He refuses to answer, on principle. Just because Dick is looking at him with big, sad eyes and coming up close to kneel by the bed and take hold of his hand doesn’t change anything. He is extremely pissed off, and nothing anyone says or does will make this okay.
Dick sighs like the freeze-out is actually physically painful for him. “We just want you to be safe, Tim. We’ve lost enough members of this family. We can’t count on you coming back every time.”
Tim raises an eyebrow at him, doing his best to emote you know you’re an actual psychopath, right? without actually using words. “Dick,” he says, quiet and dangerously calm. “Let me go.”
Dick squeezes his hand and looks at him sadly. “I wish I could, Babybird. But we both know I can’t.”
“Dick, there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m pretty sure everyone else in this family has gone insane, but I’m fine.” Tim moves his right hand a little, the one that’s currently being held hostage to the wall. “Just let me go.”
Instead of helping, Dick just takes hold of his wrist and runs his thumb along the edges where metal meets skin, somewhere between testing that the handcuff is still secure and checking for signs that Tim’s hurt himself trying to get out of it.
To his horror, Tim hears his breath hitch in his throat in something like a sob. He’s been here for a couple days now, and this isn’t even the worst situation he’s been in but he’s starting to think he might go crazy. Because this is his family keeping him hostage, and they’re being as loving and kind to him as anyone could ever hope for except for the part where they won’t let him go and have no idea how unbelievably fucked up this is.
Dick makes a noise like a wounded animal at the sound of Tim’s distress and immediately crawls onto the bed to wrap him in a hug. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay. We love you so much. You’re safe here.”
It feels like he’s slept more in the past two days he’s been stuck here than he had in the past week, but when Dick starts shushing him and rubbing soothing circles into his back, there’s nothing much else to do but be quiet, close his eyes, and hope the world makes more sense when he wakes up.