No but like imagine Damian finding out that Tim’s that actual first blood son. The drama. The scandal. The indignant rage Damian would have. Glorious, *chefs kiss*
This would not leave my head, so behold, the aftermath. Brown haired Jack Drake AU.
Or a Tim is adopted AU
Using pre Love Is A Battle field for this.
I just kept writing, so enjoy this massive one shot.
.......................................................................................
Dick crossed his fingers and leaned forward. He minimized the image of Tim's parents.
"We have to run some tests."
Jason frowned, "the little demon is gonna freak."
Dick let his head drop. "Fifty fifty chance he takes this without an attempted murder." Dick reached for one of Tim's abandoned coffee cup.
....
Dick stared at the DNA test results. Forget Damian, how was Bruce going to react to another blood son?
Weirder still, while the test had run Dick had dug farther. The Drakes had documentation for a closed adoption. There were no full names, just initials. After what happened with Jason that made Dick's skin crawl. Did they even want to know the mother this time?
Did he dare assume?
"What do you have there Greyson?"
Dick swiveled his head to stare at Dami.
"Side project, what are you up to lil' bird"
"Tch, Jason was acting strangely. He started pacing the kitchen. Have you roped him into this...project?"
"Uh yup, good detective skills kiddo."
Damian scoffed. "Of course I am the blood son after all."
Dick smiled. "So what has you down here. Is food ready?"
"Hmm, yes. We are having stuffed potato skins and bacon. I believe there is cheese involved."
Dick shoved the two printouts into his pocket. He jumped from the chair. He pushed Damian in front of him. "We are not going to be late to that."
He hit the elevators close doors button repeatedly.
Damian narrowed his eyes at the batcomputer as the elevator closed. "Quite the hurry for some potatoes and dairy, greyson."
"Don't forget bacon."
"Hmm."
...
"You sit, I'll go check if there is anything I can help Alfred with," Dick said. He patted Damian's shoulders.
Cass looked up from the other side of the table. Her eyes narrowed. While Damian grumbled she tilted her head at Dick.
He signed -later-
Cass nodded.
Dick slipped into the kitchen. Sure enough Jason was pacing.
"We were right," Dick whispered.
Jason sighed. He turned to Where Alfred was pulling the last tray of bacon from the oven. He squared his shoulders and walked up to their grandfa- butler.
"Alfred. We might have, no, we have a Damian like problem."
Alfred chuckled. "And here I thought the boy had calmed down since meeting the Kent boy."
Dick stepped forward. "No Damian's fine, it's, the unexpected son discovery part."
Alfred laid the last piece of bacon down and turned. "Do elaborate Master Richard."
Dick pulled out the crumpled paper from its hasty place shoved in his pocket. Alfred carefully uncrumpled the paper. He smiled gently.
"Ah, yes."
Jason's eyes widened. "You knew?"
Alfred only smiled.
Jason started laughing.
Dick resisted pulling at his hair. He grabbed his wrist instead. "Well, what do we do about it?"
"Do about what?"
Dick jumped. Damian looked up at him.
"Don't worry, it's just that side project I've been working on." Dick smiled. Damian narrowed his eyes.
"You are worse at evasion tonight than usual, Greyson."
Jason ruffled Damian's hair. The boy scowled.
"Hey kiddo, why is Tim the one you keep trying to murderise?"
Damian stiffened. "Why?"
"Humor me kiddo."
"I'm not a child."
"Humor me, not-a-kiddo." Jason joked.
The edge of Damians mouth twitched.
"If you insist. Mother said he was my competition, that he was the best detective thus the one who would challenge my right as batman's heir."
Dixk and Jason exchanged a look. Alfred gave a small smile. "Perhaps you would do better to not try and grievously injure your brother."
Damian scoffed. "I am the only blood son left."
Jason moved his hand from Damian's hair.
Jason squatted so he was eye to eye with the kid.
"Why would you say it like that?"
Damian folded his arms. "Mother couldn't let there be competition."
"What happened to the others Damian?" Dick asked. The hairs on his arm stood on end as Damian met his gaze.
Damian's expression wavered. "My mother was not father's only...dalliance."
Jason put his face in his hands. "That witch. She would. Damn it."
Dick did not like the conclusions he was leaping to. "Does Bruce know?"
"Do I know what?"
Jason stood slowly. Dick turned to look their father in the eyes. Bruce had bags under his eyes.
Dick picked over the details of Bruce's face. How had he missed the resemblance? That might be a better thread to throw at Bruce than that Damian's mother killed her child's competition.
"Did you know Tim was adopted,Bruce?"
Bruce frowned. "No, he refused every time I offered. Dick, Tim fabricated his own uncle to avoid me becoming his legal gaurdian."
"No, not by you, by the Drakes."
Bruce sighed, "No."
Jason laughed. "Mr. Paranoia didn't check every detail."
Bruce looked at the floor. "I wasn't in the best place when he became Robin Jaylad. He was going to be there whether I wanted him to or not. I...I've never followed up on it after his father died. It seemed cruel."
Jason's eyes flashed a hint of green behind his pupils. "Sure, that's the line."
Alfred put a hand on Jason's shoulder. "Master Jason. Would you help me carry the bacon to the dining room?"
Jason took a deep breath. It came out shakey. "Yeah Alf. Sure."
...
Damian glared after Jason and the Butler. The butler with the paper Greyson had brought up.
"What is your side project researching, Greyson?"
Father looked at the eldest adoption brother. "You aren't working a case over dinner are you?" The man smiled but there was bat iron disapproval about interrupting Alfred's dinner with casework.
Greyson glanced at Damian then back at father. "Can I talk to you after dinner? In your study?"
"Oh, sure thing chum."
Damian frowned further. He knew where he would be after dinner. What did Timothy being adopted have to do with Damian's mother's assessment of him as the intellectual threat to Damian's title?
Greyson was acting too strange not to follow up.
....
Jason kept glancing at Tim during dinner.
Tim looked up from his laptop and caught him staring.
"Take a picture, it lasts longer," Tim said.
Jason frowned. He glanced down the table where Dick had not cracked a single pun all dinner. It was that realization clicking into place that led to Tim clicking his laptop closed.
"OK, What did I miss?"
Cass lifted her hand. -big secret unburied-
"Hey," Jason said, " we haven't even told you yet."
Cass' smile was very smug. She pulled out two pieces of paper with crinkle lines like someone had tried to flatten them back out.
-DNA test drama- she signed -you wanna read?-
Tim chuckled. He reached for the offered papers. Damian snatched them first.
Alfred coughed pointedly. "Do not stand on the table , Master Damian."
The demon boat's eyes widened. His hands shook. The paper crumpled. Damian's eyes blazed. He whipped his head to glare at Tim.
"You!"
Tim barely had time to push his laptop out of the way. Damian leaped at him. The chair slammed back. Tim's head bounced off the carpet. Damian had Tim's windpipe in one hand. His other hand reached for his belt. Surely there was a knife there.
Tim jabbed at the nerve cluster under the shoulder. Damian cried out. The grip on Tim's throat loosened.
Tim rolled. He slipped a leg behind Damian's knees. He yanked. Damian struggled to right himself but Tim had him off balance. Damian flipped belly down. Tim got a knee on Damian's back. He grabbed the hand thrusting a knife back at his leg. He twisted Damian's arm. He eyed the other hand with the two crumpled pieces of paper.
"Cutting my grapple line is one thing. Do you have to ruin bacon night? You're crossing a line, Damian."
The murderous demon brat did the last thing Tim expected of him. He started crying.
Tim loosened his twist on the knife arm. "Dick. Your child is broken."
"I'm the blood son dammit!" Damian sobbed.
Tim shot a bewildered look at Dick. The man was already leaping sideways over the table like the acrobat he was.
"What the hell is going on?" Tim demanded.
Dick shot him an apologetic look. He tilted Damian's wrist until the demon brat dropped the knife. He went to do the same for the papers but Damian let them go willingly. Dang it, why was the demon brat still crying?
Dick handed him the papers. "Mind letting Lil bird up? I got him."
Tim took the papers. He frowned. He backward somersaults out of range. Rightly so, as the moment his knee left Damian's back, the demon brat immediately kicked like a horse.
Dick managed to keep ahold of Damian's wrists. He wrapped his legs around the kid, stopping him from lunging right back at Tim. After a minute of struggling, Damian went limp. His shoulders shook with silent sobs.
Tim carefully uncrumpled the papers. One then the other. The one on top was an adoption certificate. He cringed. He looked at Alfred.
"They found it?"
Alfred nodded.
Tim looked back at Damian. "Why are you crying about my adoption certificate?"
Damian bared his teeth.
Dick leaned over the table. "So you knew?"
Tim rolled his eyes. "Of course. I know basic gen...etics." Tim stared at the second paper. His heart rose to his throat. He looked at Dick. "Who's is this?"
This couldn't be his. Surely. Because that would mean...
Dick gave him baleful puppy eyes. The poor paper crumpled again.
"Fuck you Dick. You have to ask permission." Tim wasn't hyperventilating. No sir. This didn't cut out years of work. This didn't invalidate everything it had taken to beat Ra's at his own game. He was still the one who made everyone of his accomplishments.
Oh, there were hands on his face.
"Breathe with me chum. In 2, 3, 4. Out, 2, 3, 4. In 2, 3, 4, Good."
Tim couldn't look away from Bruce's blue eyes. His breathing calmed with the counting. He took in Bruce's features fully from the close. The shape of his eyes and the bags under them. The color of his hair and his cheekbone shape.
Tim pushed Bruce away.
"No. No absolutely not." Tim didn't have the shoulders. Or the square jawline. He wasn't...he couldn't be. Damn it. Was he just the next detective plaything to Ra's because he was...
"No way I lost my spleen because of you. I am a good detective. I can go to lengths even you wouldn't dare."
Bruce put out his hands. He pat the air in a calming gesture. "You're having a panic attack, I need you to breathe."
"I'm not having a panic attack! I'm having an existential crisis!" And a panic attack. But he could function through a panic attack. He had them often enough he had learned to force himself to keep going. No, he was stuck on how his entire legacy as Robin changes if he was Batman's son.
"Damn it Dick run it again." Tim said. He threw the crumpled papers on the ground. "Or better, I'll run it."
On the way down. The table he grabbed Bruce's cup of coffee.
"Chum, caffeine won't help after a panic..."
"It's a fresh sample. Get another one."
Tim swept out of the room. He had a DNA test to run.
...
Bruce turned from Tim's exiting form to where his oldest was restraining his youngest. Tears from Damian. And another claim about blood son as usual. Then Tim had a panic attack. What made this time so different?
He looked down at the crumpled paper. Bruce bent his knees and reached for the crumpled papers.
He took in their contents.
Tim Drake : Bruce Wayne
49% match
Bruce ran a hand down his face.
"He shouldn't exist! I'm supposed to be the only surviving blood son!" Damian wailed.
Bruce's blood ran cold. He closed his eyes. Talia wouldn't...no she would.
"Damian, answer honestly," Bruce said, " Did your mother have any kids I might have had and not known about killed?"
Damian sniffed. Though it was more running nose than disdain sounding.
"She said she did. I wasn't supposed to have competition. Not for blood son."
Bruce took a moment to put mourn the unknown children that had fallen at Talia's orders. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes.
Dick had transitioned from restraining to hugging. "B, how did he survive the League."
Jason chuckled. "You'd be surprised how good he is at that."
Bruce marked that for later. Tim had also mention Ra's and a missing spleen. One crisis at a time.
Bruce lifted the adoption papers. Under birth father were the initially MM. "Who ever the mother was, she gave Tim up rather than raise the child of Matches Malone, Gotham crimelord." Bruce sighed.
"I'd would bet Talia missed that because she doesn't know about that particular pseudonym of mine." He stared at the initials of the mother that had given up the child of a supposed crimelord who's identity he had borrowed after the man died.
Initials of a woman he couldn't forget no matter which mask he wore.
S. K.
Selina Kyle.
...
Tim ran the titration a third time. He put his head in his hands and screamed. He took a deep breath and forced it out.
The timer dinged. He finalized the result and uploaded them
He just had to run it against the database one more time.
Bruce Wayne 49.5% match
Selina Kyle 50% match
M. M.
That dumbass ran off with catwoman as Matches Malone and never told her?
Tim stared at the cieling.
He wasn't Bruce. So he wasn't Selina.
But that would explain the slimmer build he had. Morals were nurture not nature...but he did fall much farther on the grey side than he would like to admit.
Tim leaned back in the chair, tilting his head to stare tare at the stalactites.
Damn it, he had found footage of Zatanna saying she messed with Selina's mind to put her on a less criminal path. Had she erased the memory of a night with Matches Malone? Or did she know she had a kid out there?
He watched the clip again.
"I'm gonna strangle them." He told the bats at the top of the cave.
...
Batman landed on Selina's window sill. She watched him dramatically sweep the curtains open and everything.
"Mmrow, somebody's impatient to see me. And I haven't even stolen anything to entice a visit."
The Batman was silent. She grinned.
"What's on your mind batman?"
Batman closed her curtains back up.
"Mm, you want a little private time."
Batman's shoulders, slouched. He didn't turn around.
"Well don't keep me in suspense."
"Selina," said a much lighter voice than she expected, "Did you have a child?"
Selina's hand drifted to her stomach. "Why do you ask?"
Still facing the blackout curtains batman pulled back his cowel.
Silent stared. What about plausible deniability? This wasn't the cave. What had it all been for if someone... but the curtains were closed.
Bruce turned. And it was Bruce. There was no bat scowl. He looked at her like his heart had been spoon fed to someone while he watched, his blue eyes watered so she wondered whether Dickie bird git his puppy eyes look from Bruce.
"Silena please. It's important."
"I-I did have a child. I couldn't take care of the poor thing. I don't even know the sex. Just who they were from. And trust me, it's better he doesn't know he has a kid."
Bruce collapsed into the plush white chair across from her. He put his face in his gloves.
"Matches Malone is dead." Selina tried to summon up sympathy. Maybe somewhere she had cared for their late nights together.
"I can't regret he's gone."
"He's been dead for almost senenteen years Selina."
"What? No. But it was only, what sixteen years ago. He was reported seen two years ago, before the gang war."
"He was me Selina."
Selina stared at Bruce as the words sank in.
And suddenly she understood the tears in his eyes.
"Oh God, my baby. I could have kept my baby."
Bruce stood. In full bat suit, besides the lowered cowl, he slid to his knees on the carpet in front of her.
"I'm sorry, I should have told you."
And for a few moments he held her as she cried, mourning what could have been.
She felt his tears on her neck as he held her.
After she had let him go, she pulled out the kleenex box. She tickled the end of his nose with a tissue.
"Why did you ask me tonight? What changed?"
"I-I found him Selina. Or at least found out he's ours."
Selina gasped. "Take me to him."
....
Damian's heart sank from somewhere in his gut down to his toes when he saw who father brought home.
Catwoman.
Damian knew His parent's relationship was contemplated. He had heard his mother boast about drugging the world's greatest detective to craft a perfect heir. He knew that would always make things complicated.
But if Bruce just brought Kyle home after the drama spilled over dinner. Connecting the dots meant Tim wasn't just the blood son. He was the son of the woman Bruce truely loved.
Damian was the fraud.
He ran to his room, refusing to cry in front of the others again. Weak. He was weak.
Damian opened his door and shut it silently behind him. Silent tears followed the crusty salt paths down his face.
Tim was older than him. And even mother thought Tim was smarter than him.
Tim was always meant to be Batman's heir.
Damian was a blood son.
But he was just the spare.
....
Tim was taking his antibiotics when Batman returned to the cave.
Selina Kyle stepped out of the passenger side.
Tim gasped so hard he choked on his pill. He coughed struggling for air. He reached for the mug he set it on the edge of the table, stood. And shoved him self down. The self hymlic dislodged the pill which clicked against his clenched teeth.
His eyes watered from the pain. He blinked a few times as he regulated his breathing theough the second attack in his throat today. Two nickels for him.
He looked over to see Selina running. She had crossed the distance while he was choking.
"Are you alright?"
"Oh, yeah, learned the self Heinrich when I was like five. When I was old enough to be home on my own."
"At 5? For how long?" Selina asked. Behind her Bruce started getting out of the bat suit.
"Oh don't worry. It was only a couple weeks at a time. I was quite responsible for my age."
Selina put her hands to her mouth. "That is far to young."
Tim shook his head. "New Jersey doesn't have a minimum age for staying home alone. It was fine. I just learned to take care of myself."
Selina put a hand on either side of his face. "I wish you hadn't needed to go through that."
Tim's cheek scrunched against her hand as he turned his head slightly to make eye contact with the approaching Bruce.
"You told her?"
"She deserves to know. After all this could have been avoided if she knew about Malone."
Tim sucked in a big breath. If he had been a Wayne. If Selina and Bruce's on again off again flirtation had become something more.
If Tim hadn't had the Drakes as parents.
His parents had loved him in their own way.
Janet Drake always brought him something from their archeological digs. Jack paid for school and expected excellence. All Tim had to be was the perfect heir.
Tim laughed. "No wonder the demon brat wanted me dead day one."
Selina looked alarmed. Tim moved her hands off his face.
"Let's have this conversation upstairs. I'm going to ask Alfred to make us dome tea."
....
Greyson knocked on the door lightly and opened it a crack. A sliver of light from the hall slashed across Damian's bed. Damian lay on his belly under the frame next a sliding storage box full of his least valuable knives.
"Hey, Lil bird. Do you want some company? I brought Titus."
Damian considered. He was in a hidden spot but not very defensible especially if Titus sniffed him out. Still, even knowing was an illusion, Damian felt safe under the bed in the dark room. It reminded him of his childhood. Always finding a new way to escape somewhere only he was small enough to hide.
Greyson opened the door further.
Titus stepped into the room. The dog turned to face him tail wagging gently.
Damian should have hidden his scent. He didn't think they would bring the dog to track him down. He had failed, again. Damian sighed. He crawled backward out from under the bed.
"Very well. Titus is permitted."
The dog padded around the end of the bed. Damian scratched behind the old dog's ear.
Greyson stayed on the other side of the door. Damian could practically hear the man sulking. Damian sighed.
"You may enter too Greyson."
Damian sat on the edge of the bed he patted the space next to him. Greyson sat down. Damian kept scratching the dog's ears. In a weird way, it was comforting that, for the dog, nothing had changed.
Greyson leaned back on backward palms.
"So, do you want to talk about it?"
Damian petted Titus and contemplated.
"Have you ever felt like, like something you trained for, something you earned, was taken from you in an instant?"
Greyson tilted his chin the his chest.
"Did I ever told you why I chose the name Robin."
"Greyson, it's a serious question."
I know. Just, here me out?"
Damian huffed. "I am listening. This better not be a useless tangent."
" It's not. I promise."
Damian nodded. "Proceed."
Greyson snorted. "When I was little, I couldn't be with the circus all year. Sometimes, I would stay with my uncle part of a season. Mostly, I could be with my parents in their trailer. I could be on the road longer and longer as I got older. But I was still too young to perform into the night. I was eager to be apart of the act. I wanted to fly like my parents. Mama called me her little Robin because I wanted to fly, and I was still the first to go home as the seasons got long. It stuck as I grew up."
Greyson leaned back, supporting himself on his elbows. "I was my parent's little Robin."
He paused, eyes half focused. "Then I watched them fall to their deaths. The circus hadn't paid protection money, so the mov took out their best show."
"And father stopped you from killing the one at fault."
"He did. But We brought him to justice. So I picked Robin as rememberence to my parents. And an oath to uphold justice. And little bit to remember I could still fly."
"Then why did you give Robin to Jason? If it was yours why give it up?"
Greyson took a deep breath. " see this is what applies to your previous question. Because I didn't give Jason Robin. Bruce did. While I was out of town establishing Nightwing. He gave my mother's childhood nickname which I took up as an oath to do better, and gave it to some street kid that stole his hubcaps."
Damian chuckled. Jason once told him he smacked Batman with a ture iron after he got caught.
"And you know what made it worse?"
Damian shook his head.
"What made it worse is Jason was better than me."
Damian wrinkled his nose. "That seems unlikely."
Dick snorted. "No really. Jason was younger that I was but batman snatched the kid off the streets adopted him practically on the spot, and Jason shone. He loved school. He was a natural fighter who learned from batman in half the time it took me. And he didnt have the burning rage I had then."
"Ironic."
Dick smiled sadly and continued. "He was just better. For awhile that's why I thought he got adopted, but I was just Bruce's ward. I had been replaced with the newer better version. And he was handed my title with no input from me." Dick turned to meet Damian's gaze. "So yes. I have felt something have worked for and which had come to define me ripped from my grasp."
Damian frowned. "But You and Jason get along the best of all of us, except maybe Cass and Steph. But Steph barely counts."
Greyson smiled. He plopped fully back onto the bed. "Yes, we do. "
"How?"
"Because I took the time to get to know the sassy little smart alek. I found out being robin had taken him by surprise, and he felt like he was stuck in my shadow. Heck after I heard his full story I told Bruce I wanted to adopt him. Bruce understood but felt the same. We all found a balance."
"How do you find that balance."
"There isn't a step by step Lil bird."
Damian glared at Greyson's feet. "Greyson. I think Titus wants a hug."
"Oh?"
"I am going to let him onto the bed. Don't tell Alfred."
"Wouldn't dream of it." Greyson sat up. He bent his arms as if he were about to move off the bed.
Damian grabbed Greyson's sleeve at the elbow.
"Will, will you help snuggle the dog. I think he needs comfort."
Greyson smiled gently. "It's OK to ask foe cuddles when you need them little bird."
Damian felt the weight of the nickname as it registered what it meant to Greyson. Greyson calling him a little bird was him telling Damian he was family. That they were all learning to fly.
Damian nodded. He signaled to Titus to get up on the bed. Damian wrapped his arms around the big dog. Greyson wormed his arm under Damian and Titus' head. And layed down.
"Do you want me to tell you another story?"
"Yeah." Damian snuggled his face between his oldest brother's arm and the dog's short sleek fur.
Greyson told him about the longstanding rivalry between him and Batgirl that case by case turned into mutual respect.
Damian fell asleep, knowing that even if he wasn't the heir, he would still be family.
............. ..............
Alright folks. That's all I got in me rn. Can't wait to see what you thought!
