Chapter Text
Tim heard the approaching footsteps and after almost a year of living with the brat, immediately clocked them as Damian’s. He prepared to move if he needed to but he would pretend the little demon wasn’t there unless he had to acknowledge him .
“Drake, you have shown yourself to be an honorable man. I am requesting that you step aside and allow myself to claim the position of Father’s heir.”
Tim groaned and dropped his forehead down onto his keyboard.
“Not this again, Damian.”
“Tt. I fail to understand how you have managed to delude yourself into thinking this is anything other than that of the utmost importance.”
Tim lifted his head off the keyboard and turned so he was glowering at Damian. “Explain to me—without insulting me or talking about being the blood heir—why I should do that, and I might, might consider it. If you promise no more assassination attempts.”
Damian studied Tim carefully. “And you are willing to assure me that you will not attempt any assassinations against me?”
Tim pinched the bridge of his nose before leveling Damian with an even flatter glare. “I have yet to attempt to kill you. Which is a goddamn miracle, mind you. But no, I will not try and kill you, Damian.”
Damian gave a short nod. “Then I agree to your terms.”
“Great. Quick reminder, calling yourself better than me counts as insulting me. Choose your words carefully, Demon Child.”
“Tt. While stepping aside as heir would prove disadvantageous to you, it has been shown that you would simply be on your own and you have previously shown that you are fully capable of taking care of yourself.” Tim straightened, that almost sounded complimentary.
“And while I am also fully capable of caring for myself on my own, Father would not allow me that privilege. He would return me to Grandfather and I—”
Damian ducked his head to stare at his feet. “I am fairly certain I would prefer to face death than return to Grandfather.”
Tim blinked. Oh. He tapped his fingers absentmindedly on the armrest of his chair. Huh.
“Okay… I think I understand you.” For the first time ever, maybe. “But this isn’t a conversation we want to have here.”
Bruce wouldn’t kick Damian out for not being chosen as heir, but that didn’t mean he was never going to kick Damian out.
“Tt, why not?”
Tim sighed, turning back to the Batcomputer. “Because everyone has bugs in the Cave. Everyone, Damian. Let me finish writing up my report and wipe all that footage from whatever I can find, and then we’ll go talk somewhere less covered.”
“Ah. I see. I… thank you for your discretion.” Damian wouldn’t want everyone having access to his confession of what Tim was pretty sure he considered a weakness.
“Yeah, yeah." Tim waved him off. "Don’t worry about it. I’ll be done in fifteen. Go stretch or something.”
Damian settled uncomfortably on the bed, legs tucked under him, as Tim did a quick sweep of the room to make sure there were no new bugs.
“Why have you chosen an unused guest room?”
“Because no one monitors them closely. And I chose this one because I sweep it for bugs once a month.”
“Tt. I suppose it’s logical.”
Tim snorted. “You suppose, huh? Alright. We’re clear.”
He took a seat in the overstuffed armchair, laptop balanced on his knees.
“You claim you are seriously considering my request.”
“Sort of. First, I want clarification. Why am I the only threat?”
“Richard has made it clear that he has no desire to be heir and Father has indulged him. Cassandra has no desire to be Father nor does she have any desire to be seen by the public eye. Neither Brown nor Gordon are members of the family. And Jason has been disowned, Father simply indulges in his continued presence.”
“Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Jason isn’t disowned, he would just shoot Bruce if he was legally revived and made heir. Next question: When you say heir, are you talking about Batman, Robin, or Wayne Industries?”
Damian scowled. “I was unaware that they were separate.”
“Okay, so. Robin is Dick’s legacy. You’d be his successor, not Bruce’s. And while Bruce is currently both Batman and the legal CEO of Wayne Industries, those positions are completely unconnected, especially publicly.”
“And you are the heir to it all.”
Tim made a so-so motion with his hand. “In all honesty, I’ve been waiting for Bruce or Dick to ask me to pass Robin on for a bit now and I’ve been designing my next identity. I am currently the CEO of Wayne Industries in practice, so I am heir to that. But I want absolutely nothing to do with being Batman in the future.”
“You… do not?”
Tim snorted. “That is a horrible idea. I have met more than one evil future version of myself who went evil because he was Batman. So, what do you want to be heir to?”
”Father would allow the positions to be divided?”
”They already are, Damian. As it stands, there is no stated heir to Batman, so I’m sure he’d let you claim it.”
Damian stared at Tim. Blinked, looked away, then resumed his staring.
“Alright. Now, onto the important part.”
“That was the important part, Drake.”
“Eh, to you maybe.” He clapped his hands lightly, “So, Bruce isn’t about to kick you about because you’re not his heir.”
“Tt. I have elsewhere to go unlike the rest of his children.”
“Cass could go to Barbra’s. Dick has Bludhaven and Jason has Crime Alley. Even I have places to go. He could forbid any of us from coming back and we’d be fine.”
“Save for me.”
“Except for you. But that’s not to say he would never kick you out. I mean, I don’t think he would, but he absolutely could.”
“Tt. Are you implying that even as heir I would not have a secure position within his household.”
Tim made another so-so gesture. “No more stable than you currently have, but that’s a lot more stable than you think.”
“But it is no guarantee.”
“No.”
“I have… no desire to return to Grandfather.”
“And this is my important part. I am never, ever going to let Ra’s get his grubby, shriveled, zombie hands on you again. I will not allow for it.”
“And if Father comes to the conclusion that it is necessary?”
“Then we take the undercover identities we’re going to start establishing today and leave. If he ever tries to send you back to fucking Ra’s, you are going to come find me and we are going to run.”
Damian stared at him, mouth slightly ajar. “Why?”
“Because you’re my brother and Ra’s is a creep.”
“I have—on multiple occasions—attempted to end your life. How could you view me as anything resembling family?”
“You weren’t the first brother of mine to try and kill me. And quite frankly, Jason did a better job.”
“Jason is not the superior—”
Tim held up a hand. “In some ways, he is. That doesn’t make his position in the family more secure than yours. His is actually probably more at risk.”
It made sense, all those times he said he was superior to Tim, Damian was just trying to establish himself as a better candidate for family. It was fucked up but it made Tim less annoyed by it.
Which was kind of annoying because he still wanted to be at least a little bit pissed at Damian and having empathy take over was a bitch.
“Right now, what I need you to do for me is this: Stop attacking me and help me set up a history for our on-the-run identities. What I am going to do is make you a beacon that alerts just me. If Bruce is trying to force you to leave and you can’t get away from him on your own, activate it.”
He would be doing most of the work for their identities, but it would make Damian feel better if he thought he put equal contribution in.
”What is the point of backdating our identities? Would Gordon not be capable of tracing us?”
”Barbara and I have a deal where we don’t break into each other's stuff. If it ever becomes necessary and we open it up and the files are in light mode that means we know there’s a reason to look into the files, still don’t.”
”Tt. Why would Gordon agree to that? She is the superior hacker.”
”She is. She could break in a lot easier, but I could still get into her stuff. It would just take me a lot longer.”
Damian nodded, frowning. “Then it would likely manage to fool the rest of them.”
”Yup. So right now we’re going shopping.”
”Why?”
”So we can get clothes and wigs. Then we can go to Batburger and flesh out our identities.”
”A reasonable use of our time. We are leaving immediately then?”
It was almost noon which meant it was a good time to do stuff and Tim had gotten his sleep between five and eight in the morning so he was well rested.
”We are.”
Dick stopped them on their way out—Tim had thought he had a shift and was in Bludhaven, it was Saturday, he had thought wrong—and looked more confused when Tim happily declared: “Bye, Loser. We’re going shopping.”
Tim got Damian into the car before he began laughing at the expression he’d been wearing.
Damian grumbled at him to start the car.
It took half an hour to drive into Gotham proper and then the shopping district but Tim was surprisingly okay with just sitting in the relative quiet with a calm Damian.
The shopping district was loud and Tim popped his earplugs in before they entered any of the stores.
“Okay, we can get some things and the wigs from these stores, but we’re going to need to get most of the clothes from, like, Walmart or something.”
“And why is that?”
“Easier to trace if we’re always wearing expensive stuff. I want you to plan to keep some of the stuff in your closet, but most of it is probably going to drop locations.”
Damian nodded seriously. “Do you have any recommendations as to what I am attempting to select?”
Tim hesitated, Damian was asking for his advice? He took an extra moment to study Damian and hummed as the doors to their first stop slid open. “You’re pretty preppy. Maybe something more casual? Hoodies, sweatpants, t-shirts, cargo shorts, jeans.”
“I see. And for you?”
Tim hummed, eyes flicking over the wigs lined up behind the glass display case. “I’ll probably go for something similar. Maybe more grays.”
“Can I help you, Sirs?” An attendant asked, rushing up to them almost as soon as they were spotted, for certain. Wayne’s were good for commission.
“Yeah, actually, I’m looking for a short brown wig, a mousey kind of color, for me and a short blonde one for my brother? I’m into photography you see and I’m looking for some things for a shoot I’m working on.”
”Of course, of course.”
They were ushered around the store as the attendant offered them wig after wig.
Tim left with two wigs, one to a bag. He’d used his credit card—the one tied to Drake Industries—to pay for them.
They spent the next three hours cruising around stores looking for suitable clothes. While they were at Target Tim picked up some cheap makeup. If he got to pick an appearance, he was definitely going to play with makeup more than he could as Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne.
They finally landed at one of the batburger locations that was a little too close to Jason’s territory for it to be a usual stop for anyone in the family.
”So,” Tim began, popping a fry into his mouth, “what does Damian like? Not heir to Dick, not heir to the demon throne, not heir of Bruce Wayne, what does just Damian like?”
”Tt. I fail to see how this is relevant.”
”Because when working under a false identity it’s easier if you include real aspects of yourself. So, what does Damian like?”
Damian hesitated, taking a bite of his Ivy Wrap—ironic considering Ivy would probably not be happy with plants being eaten under her name—before answering. “I enjoy artistic pursuits and appreciate animals deeply.”
”Gotcha. I know you can drop the accent for an American one, you do it at the galas—” and it was fucked up that it was expected of him— “but can you speak less formally?”
“Well, if you really, really want me to, I can talk like a stupid pre-teen who is dumber than a rock, it’s just not worth my time, Tim.” His entire inflection shifted and Tim fought the urge to cringe.
”Ookay… that’s gonna take some getting used to. So, here’s my idea for a backstory, I grew up with a mom and a dad and then when I was around six my family was ripped apart by my cheating father who left us because his mistress got pregnant.”
”You desire to present me as a bastard?”
”Damian, Talia and Bruce were never married, you are a bastard.”
”Would you not have every reason to hate me with your proposed history?”
”I’m working on that. I’m thinking something like my mom died in a car crash and I moved in with you and still hate my dad but have chosen to adore you or something.”
Damian nodded. “I suppose it is plausible.”
”Great, now let's figure out personalities.”
Damian pointedly took another bite.