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Throughout Tim’s life he has always felt like a burden to everyone around him. Whether that’s his fault or his parents fault is up to differ. Tim has always taken it upon himself to never be a failure or be perceived as weak by the people around him.
Because of this, Bruce has to often stop him from training himself to exhaustion, especially on patrol. So it isn’t necessarily uncommon for Tim to get sick.
Unfortunately for Tim and his immune system, it’s time again for him to get rest. One morning, he wakes up and Bruce is over his bed with Alfred checking his temperature.
His entire body aches when he moves.
“B?”
He feels Bruce’s hand on his forehead. “Hm Chum?”
Tim doesn’t say anything else, he is falling asleep with the comfort of Bruce’s hand on his forehead. Bruce presses a kiss to Tim’s forehead and leaves the room letting him sleep. Tim wakes up hours later and Bruce is gone. Tim feels slightly better than before so he heads downstairs to the den where Bruce is reading the newspaper on the couch. He feels sweaty and hot.
A few days later, Tim is outside the manor on the sidewalk in a blizzard just trying to get some extra steps in. He might be sick but he hates being cooped up. He must’ve walked a mile and a half away from the manor because when he turned back around he realized how far he had left to walk. As he turns back he realizes that the wind is now blowing towards him and the roads aren’t plowed and everything's really icy but he’s closer now to the manor and he…
He sees a plow.
It’s getting closer.
And closer.
And closer.
And…
He falls on ice that he didn’t even realize was there.
His legs essentially slip from under him. He looks and sees the plow inching closer towards him and sees a group of people making a snowman slowly turning to look at him.
They don’t say anything.
But they see him on the ground super clearly.
It fills him with a sense of so much rage which left him wondering:
Why couldn’t they just ask if I was okay?
As Tim scrambles to get back on his feet he speeds walks home quicker than before. He gets inside and immediately takes off his warm winter gear.
He makes eye contact with Bruce as soon as he turns into the private living quarters and his heart drops. Bruce looks so concerned.
“What’s wrong son?”
Something in Bruce’s tone made Tim’s lip quiver and he immediately started to cry. “I fell outside and—”
Bruce is already at his side pulling him into a hug.
“Are you hurt?”
“No I’m just embarrassed Bruce”
Bruce stares at him raising an eyebrow. Tim felt awkward because he hasn't shown that much emotion in front of him before so he continues, "and B when I fell there were these people building a snow man and they just stared at me and they didn't even help and —”
“It’s not your fault that you feel it’s more embarrassing that those people that saw didn’t ask if you were okay. I’m sorry that there’s mean people in the world Tim. I’m really sorry.”
Tim grips onto Bruce tighter, wanting his body to stop aching.
“And there was a plow coming towards me and—”
“Oh buddy, that sounds traumatic, I'm really sorry.”
Bruce leads Tim to the couch and has Alfred make him hot chocolate.
Jason walks through the door, he was running errands with Damian.
“Timothy” Damian stares at him, his expression blank, “heard about your fall from Jon.”
Tim's face grows red. He feels hot and feels his face get red. And stares at Bruce like a dear in headlights.
By the mere thought of being perceived by anyone, he cries more into Bruce's shoulder like that’s the one thing holding him together.
Bruce looks over to Damian and shoots his youngest son a cold glare. Bruce soothes Tim by rubbing his back as he barks at Jason to get him Advil to help soothe his body aching from the fall.
The next day, Tim is still sore from falling the day before but he doesn’t want to seem like he’s being lazy to his new family so he decides to get some chores done while his energy is at least up.
Tim goes and takes the trash out just because it’s been piling up. When he leaves the manor for the split second to put it in the dumpster, he is temporarily blinded with how bright the sun is against the snow.
He gets back inside the manor after his chores and he quickly feels all of his energy dissipate. Tim sits for a few minutes in the den to calculate his next few moves with the little energy he has left.
He knows he should shower. It'll help him feel better so that’s his next move.
The shower is fine, as all showers go. He takes it as a win.
In the shower, he notices how long his finger nails have gotten and decides today will also be the perfect day to cut them.
After he dries off from the shower, he gets into a fresh pair of pj’s and starts trying to cut his finger nails. His hands are shaking, he actually has no energy left. He feels dizzy. His head will not stop spinning. He rushes to his bedroom and just closes his eyes.
Tim wakes up and it’s 6pm and Jason is watching him.
“Dinner’s ready you creep”
Tim slowly gets out of bed and, “did you just call me a creep?”
“I could’ve called you my replacement but the old man says I need to be nicer to you. Whatever the fuck that means.”
“Ok Jane Austen lover” Tim mumbles tiredly, rubbing his eyes.
Jason rolls his eyes scoffing, holding back a chuckle.
Jason and Tim walk into the kitchen with each other and sit down at the table with the rest of the family.
Tim keeps his head down and just slowly eats his food as he is actively fighting the urge to fall asleep. He cannot focus on what his family is talking about around him but he decides to not concern them and nod along.
He is starting to fall asleep now as he has food in his mouth mid chew. But he can’t fall asleep because that would seem rude.
He can’t be rude.
His parents tried to raise him better than that.
Tim's face feels like it’s burning up. He hears a loud buzzing sound ringing through his ears.
Tim stays in his own mind for a while feeling stuck.
Hoping that no one notices.
He feels a tap on his shoulder of Jason sitting next to him.
“Tim?” Tim looks up. Jason looks super concerned.
Tim looks at Bruce as if he would answer for him.
“Chum,” Bruce looks at him, “you don’t have to be here you can go upstairs to your room if you don’t feel—”
Tim didn’t hear the rest or really remember it.
The next time he woke up he was in his bed with someone's hand on his forehead checking his fever.
“Dad? Is that you?” he couldn’t make out his face. He can see their reaction though on how they look sad but happy he’s awake again.
Tim finally makes out the face and realizes it's Bruce. He then recognized that he had just called Bruce dad for the first time and started to panic mentally, his face feeling hot suddenly.
“Yeah, it’s me” Bruce is trying not to cry, Tim can tell.
Tim had been living in the manor with Bruce as a father figure for around two years at this point and had never called him dad or father or even old man since he’s been living with him.
He doesn’t move or say anything else, he just stares, not sure what to do. He doesn’t want to make Bruce suddenly feel bad for letting him stay with him for all of these years, but he fears he just made it awkward by calling him dad for the first time.
As Tim is mentally freaking out Bruce pulls him into a hug. Tim freezes.
“B I’m going to get you sick”
“Shhhhh” he soothes him and places a kiss on his forehead. “Why don’t you get some sleep?”
Tim huffs in acknowledgement and lays down on his pillow staring at the wall. He can still feel Bruce’s presence, but he doesn’t mind. For the first time since he can remember since he moved in, Tim feels loved and knows it too.