copper meadows

I know it's not an original thought to think that he would be one to completely loose it at a minor convenience after weeks of compartmentalizing, but I need full on, eye-twitching before he lashes out.

I might be projecting a little bit, but trust when I say this kid uses primal screaming therapy and breaks things.

Imagine screaming in a car or coming home from something and Tim quietly asking Dick or whoever else if he can let it out for a minute only for them to agree and being blown back by how guttural it is.

Swinging his bo staff around while yelling so hard his throat bleeds, tearing important documents up, throwing a water bottle at the wall, waving around frantic hands, and absolutely stunning anyone nearby into silence.

Like, I know DC never locked it down and most people just slap it onto the first day of Spring, but consider this:

Dick's birth and adoption dates are both incredibly vague- and when I comment on his adoption know that I know he was a ward for a long time, but I need like a Bruce and Dick moment where he's like "will you be my son?" And then everyone cries.

Point is, and the point is incredibly angsty, that when Dick is nine, he just knows his birthday is the first day of Spring. When his custody is transferred again and again before Bruce, any sign of foreign birth certificate is lost in the system (not to mention Dick was literally born in a circus so that already makes things a little muddy).

They celebrate accordingly, very hesitant and usually on March 20th.

Another point, slightly lighter and because I refuse to admit that Bruce never officially adopted Dick, is that they do celebrate his Gotcha Day.

Maybe it wouldn't be openly celebrated, but it would be at the very least unspoken acknowledged.

Dick's favorite dinner, a family movie night, and even maybe a small token.

He never expects anyone to really know, but I think the fact that there's a highlighted date with no words in each child's assigned colored code on the family calendar is enough to make Dick at the very least smile.

I know this argument has been made before, but I want the Tim Drake who actively judges people for simply breathing wrong.

I need the kid who's actively judging other heroes at all times, who has no patience for incompetence, and who aggressively parents grown men who dress as bats in their free time.

I need a Tim Drake who side-eyes his teammates. The kid who actively has to hold back from making spreadsheets detailing every trait that doesn't meet his own incredibly high expectations (whether the traits are his own or another person's is debatable).

I need him mentally ranking each person he interacts with by how much of a liability they are, both in field and as people with active roles in his life (maybe a lingering effect of parents who tired but weren't really there).

And sure, he outgrows judging people for things they can't control, but damn if you do something stupid.

Don't get me wrong, I've consumed a lot of Tim Drake: emotionally inept mess who needs love, but I want that paired with the same kid who looked Red Hood in the eye and literally scoffed.

I need this because I need a petty Tim who goats Jason on because yeah, they're good now and even consider themselves lightly family, but hey, 'remember that time you tried to kill me?'

He loses track after that; it is Gotham after all (even if you count his time overseas).

The point is, he's prepared for this. Maybe not this close to his own home, though, three blocks into Bristol and just down the road from where he knows the owners of the car reside.

The car is flipped onto its hood, propped slightly up against a tree 40 feet from the borderline country road where the tree line begins.

Bruce knows from a glance alone that the Drakes are dead. It pings something like guilt in his chest because he was supposed to have dinner with them and one or two other neighbors downtown.

The restaurant was too close to the old theater for Bruce to feel fully comfortable attending, so he canceled, sent Dick to bed early, and ventured out into the night.

He's not even responding to the crash via page, he was on his way home.

The car's been here for hours.

Metal creaks and glass shifts across the asphalt as Batman creeps closer to the car. A sniffle, and a groan, and suddenly Bruce is reminded that the two bodies up front are crushed and cold.

He crouches to see where the last bit of breathing is coming from.

“I threw up.”

Bruce freezes, cowled eyes locked with light blue ones. “Mr. Wayne?” Something like alarm bells ring in his head at the use of his name. He glances at the bodies, then at the child in front of him.

“It’s okay, Tim. I won’t tell anybody.”

Bruce puffs himself up a little bit, hopefully to distract Tim from where he can so very clearly see his parents.

"Why don't you come out here, with me?" Bruce croons.

Tim nods slowly and Bruce unclips his cape to lay over the class covered roof.

Bruce does a once over of the child and pulls him away from the wreckage once he's crawled out from where his booster seat was hanging above him. Tim tackles his waist in some broken attempt of a hug.

He's supposed to be prepared for this.

Bruce Wayne's Butler reports a car crash only three miles from his employer's home. Officially, Batman is the first to respond. The EMTs are second.

Bruce Wayne receives an emergency placement as the closest and most available registered foster patent in the area.

The girl is young, and Batman and Robin were made known to the scene pretty quickly as Batman scares off the dog with a taser.

Despite being the adult, he balks a little at how well Dick handles the toddler in front of him.

Later on, when the girl is seen by paramedics and the mother is finally calmed after being assured that the only physical damage present would be some scarring on her left leg, Bruce takes Dick out for ice cream for being so brave.

Then again, Dick was the one to threaten death upon his parents' murder at the ripe age of 9.

But the incident is filed away, deep in the archives of the BatComputer.

Dick is much older, and has seen much more, but he's still calm when one of his brothers is half-torn apart by a shark on an impulsive surfing trip with their hero friends.

Everyone is panicking because as much as they'd loathe to admit, seeing something that gory is so completely different than being in costume (because being in costume means they're at the very least prepared).

But Dick is calm, and his first aid more immaculate than ever.

When someone asks him about it, how he can stay so calm, he's suddenly 7 again.

He's 7 again and watching his Uncle-not-really-uncle getting mauled by one of the sick tigers. He's watching as his father rushes to help and calms the crowd down.

When he asks his father why he was not scared, he receives this.

"I was terrified for my friend, but panic makes your hands shake, makes you slow. He did not need my fear, he needed me."

I wish I had the effort to fully render cause I get about halfway and call it a day

But Damian has green eyes, though they're not quite like Talia's either. In fact, he looks almost nothing like her. Enough so that Bruce had considered she wasn't even Dami's biological mother and a surrogate was used.

Then, Dami gets taller, and older, and he pierces his ears much to Tim's absolute delight (only because Damian had asked him to help) and Bruce's absolute horror.

After Bruce gets over that he gifts a pair of small diamond earrings that his mother had worn almost exclusively unless there was another event and it's like his frontal lobe has developed a second time because staring back at him is the face of his mother.

He's certainly younger and his skin is about three shades different- the only thing he seemed to inherit besides Talia's attitude. But she had the same muddy-green eyes, the same ears, cheekbones, hair texture, everything.

He knows he's smart, being placed into advanced reading in fifth grade does that to a person. But after spending the better part of his childhood caring for a mother so sick he starts to skip school... things like Lord of the Flies become obsolete.

Then his mother dies, and he drops school completely to fully focus on his survival. He tried to go back once, but the office tried to sick social services on him.

So, when he's not scrounging around for something to help aid his survival, he's at the Gotham Public Library to fill out his education as he sees fit. Most of it is classical reading and occasional fiction. He does learn a lot about cars, though.

Batman takes him home, and despite no longer being completely unsure of where his next meal comes from, he spends most of his day trying to reinvent a schedule that doesn't make him go crazy. Robin can only take up so much time before even that makes him go mad. So, Bruce suggests he go back to school.

He's supposed to be a sophomore. At least, that's what his age says, and he's technically tested into 11th Grade Writing. The school barely lets him join halfway through the year as a freshman due to his lack of formal education and math scores.

Despite a huge ego blow and definite self-confidence issues, he actually really enjoys school. His favorite teacher is actually an art teacher, because she's nice and grades on effort, not skill. He's even made a few tentative friends. Even if he gets sent to the office for beating the crap out of a kid picking on some middle-schooler for being considered to skip another grade, that's his business, not the teachers'. Besides, he knows he's smart, and that's what matters.

Then he dies.

He spends the next couple months after he wakes up a husk of who he is, barely able to string thoughts coherent enough to get himself fed and find a place to sleep. After that, he spends his days in some old compound surrounded by personal tutors and taught by what might be the oldest family alive.

Then, Talia tells him about Batman's new Robin, and he feels like a used car part that failed to make the car run again to eventually be replaced by a new car entirely. He starts researching as soon as he gets out of the compound.

It's weird, cause this kid used to be in his math class and barely spoke two words to him despite sitting right next to him. Now he's jumping around wearing Jason's old colors.

A kid, who was healthier when Batman picked him up. A kid, whose parents were still alive, who never had to want growing up because he already had everything ready at his beck and call. A kid, who despite skipping school to galivant around with Bruce, is still three years ahead the academic norm.

Tim got everything he wanted and more, and Jason was held back.