#fanon tim haters avert you eyes!

[riderofspades]

Christmas JayTim not-drabble(?)

Holiday seasons, growing up, had meant pain to him. It meant an empty home, sometimes without heating, because his parents had forgotten to pay the heating bill while away again. It meant eating tuna straight from the can for the umpteenth time, or even moldy bread. (Sometimes, he had beans heated up in the microwave as a treat.) It meant going to sleep in the most luxurious bed money could buy, listening to the ticking of the clock outside the cavernous hall counting down to midnight, hoping he would find sleep before the fireworks went off and reminded him of what he never had (what he could never have). And above all, never ever going out on Christmas Day, because going out meant families, meant love and warmth and home.

(Meant a feast before his starving eyes, mocking with looking his fill but not being able to touch.)

Such were those times. Lonely. Sad. But simple.

Now he spends his Christmasses busy. There’s the yearly fundraiser, Bruce. You’re not coming, right? So I definitely have to go. Oh sorry, Dick, but I’m in space right now. Young Justice business. What do you mean it’s Christmas Eve?

Sorry, Alfred…

Sorry…

Then he hangs up his phone and his mask falls. And he goes back to the Nest, just in case Batman or Nightwing is checking, and does an umpteenth sweep of the place for trackers. And eats the umpteenth can of tuna, straight out of the can. Curls up on his couch under the muted light of his high-end flatscreen TV to sleep.

(Some things really never change.)

And this story would’ve ended here. Except.

Except.

At some point, Tim meets Jason. Really meets Jason. Not the Robin he had once worshipped from afar, not the vengeful Red Hood who had tried to kill him. Jason, who was the books he loved, and the weird dreams he had when crashing from a 30-hour work binge, and the bad breath he suffered from in the morning, and his impeccable angel’s food cake that he baked. And so, so much more.

Jason, who was alive and here and warm and had chose him, who was not far away across the world or a mere figment of his fanciful boyhood wishes. Who gave him awkward hugs and imperfectly made coffee, because he was still learning, because he had bothered to learn. Who was not as subtle as he’d thought in gauging what he assumed Tim would like as a present, and who hid his Christmas dinner plan ideas in his sock drawer, written out in pencil with poorly scratched-out lines over and over, all because he cared whether Tim was allergic to nuts or fucking hated cranberries.

He was right; Tim hated cranberries.

He was also wrong; Tim would eat them by the bucketload if it meant making Jason happy.

That was when he realised, this was it. This was who he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

(But ah, that is another story.)

#behold my trashy writing sprint results #jaytim #my rambles #fanon tim haters avert you eyes! #my fic writing