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When Tim finally gets home, he knows he’s beyond done for. The kitchen isn’t empty but it’s definitely not full.
Dick is pacing right by the kitchen sink and occasionally pauses to grab something. The kettle boils and Dick is pausing his pacing to fill up their cups of tea.
Jason is standing by the fridge, his arms crossed over his chest and a hard glare set on his face.
Bruce has just entered the kitchen after finishing something down in the cave and has a neutral look on his face.
Tim knows better. The tick in his jaw and the way his eyes droop just a little bit is enough to tell Tim the man is a mixed of worried and angry.
Tim leans back in the chair feigning nonchalance. His leg is subtly twitching trying to get Tim to bounce his leg to get rid of some of the jitters he feels.
Dick places a cup in front of Tim. It’s a white cup with a tired cat on it. The tea is steaming and Tim can smell the chamomile in it.
Another cup is given to Jason, it’s got a Wonder Woman design on it. The golden ‘W’ and the red and blue bright compared to the rest of the cups.
Then, Dick walks over to Bruce and hands him a plain black cup with a small yellow bird on it.
Bruce sits down across from Tim and Dick finally fills up his own cup of tea. His blue cup has the Nightwing symbol on it.
Jason stays standing but moves to lean back on the sink where he stands much closer and has an easier time speaking. Dick sits a chair away from Bruce and Tim internally sighs, ready for a lecture.
“Tim,” Dick begins, his hands tapping the handle of his cup, “do you remember what we told you to do with big cases?”
Tim bit his tongue, fighting to not argue. This case isn’t big. Big cases are cases like the joker, alien invasions, vampires who are trying to take over the world or something like that. Aiden is…some random kid who came back from the dead.
Tim knows damn well what Jason thinks about that. He had a front row seat after the Titans Tower incident. It’s one that Tim still feels salty about but nowadays, it’s gotten better.
Tim doesn’t hate Jason, quite the opposite, Jason might be one of his favorite siblings.
“Not to take it on by myself,” Tim grits out, tongue heavy in his mouth. He finds it hard to speak at all when he doesn’t want to, let alone when he feels forced .
“And what did you do?” Dick asks. There’s a little bit of a crazed edge to him right now. Tim’s sure it’s because of the subway attack.
“I didn’t take on a big case by myself because Ai—Clark is just a random kid who came back from the dead. He’s really nice too,” Tim rolls his eyes, keeping eye contact with Dick as if looking away might kill him.
“This is a big case but not in the way you think,” Dick sighs, “the case wasn’t supposed to be taken on by anyone but Jason, Bruce, and me let alone known about.”
“So you’re keeping secrets?” Tim retorts, raising a brow.
“No, it wasn’t full on family business. Jason has his own cases but we don’t pry do we?” Dick ignores Jason muttered “yeah you do.”
“Well, now that Timbits knows we can’t really do anything ‘bout it. You get case-crazy if you get denied,” Jason snorts. Tim makes an aborted noise.
“What’s Clark’s name?” Bruce suddenly cuts in, grabbing everyone’s attention.
Tim minutely tenses. Of course slip up from before was noticed by Bruce. He holds his gaze with Bruce only to slump into his chair and loose the staring contest.
“His name is Aiden. Clark is his last name,” Tim relents.
“Aiden Clark?” Dick repeats, a curiosity in his tone.
“Yeah,” Tim shrugs. He blows on his tea and takes a sip. He winces but mostly ignores the way the scalding tea burns his throat.
“And you’ve written a private report on him I assume? Updating our false information and adding more?” There’s a teasing tone in Bruce’s voice and Tim feels a little bit like a scolded child. Maybe he is one considering Dick still looks as if he’s got much to say about the subway incident.
“…yeah,” Tim’s eyes flick to Jason whose basically chugging his tea. Tim’s face scrunches and Jason just shrugs as if his throat isn’t being melted by boiling tea.
“Will you show us the files,” Bruce says it as if it’s not a question and Tim is already leaning over to grab his computer.
He drags it towards him and opens it with his third password. It’s one of the four passwords he has:
One for his civilian identity, one for the vigilante, one for the shared access between allies, and a fourth one for just Tim. Nobody knows the password of the last one and he’s quite thankful for that.
He opens the files and spins it to show the other three. Jason puts his now empty cup down and leans forward to examine the file.
“Well you’ve got the basics of our file,” Jason notes, “but you have more information about his meta-like…stuff.”
“Yeah, he definitely doesn’t have a metagene or anomaly though. His blood is black and I saw the tests you guys did about the livor mitosis,” Tim nods, already feeling much less annoyed now that he gets to talk about his notes and observations. “I also saw the footage from Dicks domino.”
There’s a pause of collective silence. Dick looks grim along with Jason and Bruce is still deceptively neutral.
“I think that livor mitosis only goes into effect if the blood in his limbs is no longer circulating,” Tim explains.
“Yeah that’s kinda how that works, dumbass,” Jason snarks. Tim rolls his eyes with annoyance and groans.
“ Obviously Jason,” he retorts, “I mean that it goes into effect despite his heart still beating. It’s not like getting your blood flow cut off, his body literally begins to rot and decompose. Maybe his brain placebo affects him into feeling as if his leg is just loosing circulation? Or maybe he doesn’t actually rot—I never got close enough to him. Dick, did he smell like rot? Or was it obvious his leg was decomposing?”
Tim flipped the computer towards himself with new vigor. He began to type up more theories in the “Theory” section of his large document/file.
“I don’t understand how Aiden could heal so fast without a meta gene. He hasn’t been Lazarus pited or anything,” Tim opens a new tab and pulls out a file about meta genes, Lazarus pits, and quick healing. “He said that it…it depends on how fast he gets over the injury? He said it at Leslie’s.”
“He talked to Leslie about it?” Bruce quirked a brow at Tim.
“Yeah, a few hours ago Leslie talked to Aiden but he didn’t sound sure,” Tim shrugged, “if it depends on his feelings and he doesn’t have some sort of gene-induced powers like Duke and it’s not a Lazarus pit thing then maybe it’s alien? Although he said that this new ability thing happened recently. I’m assuming when he came back from the dead?”
“Last time I tried to directly ask him had him shutting me down. He avoided our usual hangout spot after that for a few days,” Tim bit the inside of his cheek with thought, “He wouldn’t even tell Leslie the details.”
“Tim,” Jason interrupts and closes the computer halfway despite Tim’s frown, “we’re not gonna get any answers soon. The kid doesn’t trust me, doesn’t really trust Dick let alone Bruce. He trusts you though, right?”
Tim’s brows furrow. Where is Jason going with this?
“I’m just as curious as you are, little bird,” Jason says at Tim’s look, “why not invite the kid over?”
Silence. A long, long minute of silence. Then suddenly, Dick gasps and stands up.
“Yes! Jason you genius!! Duke is still dealing with his broken leg so he can also join us!! We can have a movie marathon,” Dick smiles wide, eyes shifting between the others.
“A movie night would be better. Aiden’s basically nocturnal, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him awake during the day,” Tim nods.
“Nocturnal? Is it a side effect from…death? Or perhaps whatever ability he has?” Bruce asks.
“When I asked Aiden, he vaguely talked about some sort of repeating event that made him like that? He said he shook a lot. He literally spoke so fast I couldn’t understand him,” Tim frowned.
“Hm,” Bruce hums and shifts his attention again.
“Well then, I guess we’re having a movie marathon?” Dick asks, “we get to learn more about Aiden! Tim, you just gotta share the file with us so we can make comments n’ stuff, yeah?”
Tim nods and makes a copy of the file. He quickly shares the file with all of them and closes his computer. He slips out of his chair, already making his way back into his room when he suddenly feels a hand grip his shoulder.
“Oh no you don’t,” Jason smirks down at Tim with an evil glint in his eye, “you’re not getting away from that safety lecture.”
…fuck.