After waking up just under an hour later, Bruce looked out the window and noted that the weather was unusually nice for fall in Gotham. Formulating a plan, Bruce softly shook Tim until he was awake and asked, "Feeling better, Timmy?"

Tim sat up and wiped some of the sleep from his eyes and gripped Theodore as if his life depended on it, "Yes. Feel a lot better."

Bruce deflated at the obvious lie, but didn't want to make Tim even more uncomfortable and chose to ignore it. Instead, he softly tapped Tim's back and asked, "Would you like to go for a walk outside? The weather's really nice."

Following Bruce's gaze out the window, Tim repeated, "A walk?"

"Yeah, we can go for a short walk in the backyard." At Tim's hesitation, he added, "It's just going to be us, Timmy, no one else and we can come back as soon as you want."

Still unsure, the last time Bruce said they could come back as soon as Tim wanted he'd brought Tim to the dean's office, Tim could see that Bruce really wanted them to go on a walk and he eventually gave in. Tim nodded and said, "Okay, we can go on a walk."

Bruce smiled and gave Tim a quick hug before changing both of them into the appropriate clothes for a walk. It was getting chilly outside and the last thing he wanted was for Tim to get a cold so Bruce found a sweater and cap to keep him warm. Just in case Tim got hungry, Bruce had him put on the backpack of snacks and water Dick had prepared.

At the foot of the door to the back porch, Bruce helped Tim fit into sneakers and tied the shoelaces for the six year old. Over his shoulder, Tim watched Ace watching them and asked, "Is the doggy coming too?"

"Ace? No he doesn't like walks," Bruce smiled and explained, "He's an oversized lap dog and hates exercise."

"He's watching us," Tim noted as he and Ace entered a staring contest. "Staring at us."

"He's just waiting for us to leave so he can go and jump around on the furniture. Watch this," Bruce said as he walked over to pull out Ace's from a drawer. As soon as he saw the leash, Ace turned around and walked back further into the house and ignored his owner. Bruce returned the leash to the drawer and explained, "He thinks that if he goes and hides somewhere I won't make come with us."

He turned back around to see Tim smiling from the scene before grabbing Tim's backpack and asking, "Ready to go, Tiger?"

Tim looked confused at the new nickname but nodded and waited for Bruce to lift him up once again.

Bruce smiled at the boy waiting expectantly and explained, "I'm not going to be carrying you on the walk, Timmy. It's not really a walk if your not walking."

"Oh," Tim said with a slight blush at his mistake. He shifted in his shoes and waited for Bruce to open the door and lead them outside. Bruce held out his hand and lead Tim past the porch until they were finally on the grass.

They walked in silence as Tim looked around and admired the gardens along the property. He stared at awe of the hedge statues of horses and the hundreds of different flowers that sprouted out everywhere.

Noting everything that drew Tim's attention, Bruce walked them closer to the hedge statues and explained, "These are bushes that can grow really high. Instead of cutting them in boring squares and circles, you can also make shapes out of them."

Most of the horses were standing on their back legs, but Bruce led them to smaller one standing calmly on all fours. "This one is actually two bushes that were put really close together so it looks like one." He pushed lightly on the horse's side and explained, "They're really sturdy and it's hard to break them." Watching Tim carefully for any sign of distress, Bruce offered, "You can sit on it if you want. You're young enough that it can hold you up no problem."

Tim looked up at the statue taller than him and just shorter than Bruce's shoulders and tensed. He shook his head and said, "No thank you."

Smiling to show that it was alright, Bruce lead Tim to the front of the horse and asked, "Doesn't he look a little real? The gardener did a really good job."

Tim watched the horse carefully before asking, "Can I pet him?"

"Yes, of course," Bruce smiled at Tim's sincerity. He lifted the boy up and held him closer to the horse statue and let him softly pet the horse's head to his heart's content. Exploring the horse's face, Tim ran his hands over its eyes and ears before noticing the mouth slightly open.

"Can you put me down for a second?" Tim asked softly while he thought deeply. Once he was on the ground, he squatted down to pull out a few blades of grass before holding his arms up ready for Bruce to lift him up again.

Back in his original position, Tim picked out the blades of grass from his hand and slowly fed the horse making sure to not let the grass fall. Bruce let him work until he was content before leading Tim to some of the flower gardens around the property. He watched closely as Tim took in just how big the Wayne estate really was as he couldn't spot any neighboring houses no matter how far they walked.

After half an hour, Bruce decided to stop at a flower bed with a bench for them to sit on and offered Tim some water as he looked closely at the flowers.

Tim looked back between Bruce and the flowers and asked, "Are they thirsty? Can I water them?"

Bruce decided, "If you drink some water yourself, you can give the flowers a little bit too."

Accepting the offer, Tim drank a few sips of water before walking over and carefully tipping a few drops onto the roots of a few flowers. Once he was content, Tim walked back to Bruce and crawled up beside him on the bench so they could watch the flowers together.

Bruce let them sit in silence for a few minutes before clearing his throat and saying, "I'm really sorry, Timmy. Today was my fault and I'm sorry for making you go through that."

Tim looked up at Bruce obviously confused and asked, "About what?"

"You've only been with us for three days, Timmy, and only two full days," Bruce explained. He wanted to be perfectly honest to Tim, the boy deserved it and Bruce was willing to address his own faults if it helped Tim. Bruce knew this was one of the things he'd learned from raising Dick. "Pushing you to go to a school after two days was too fast. I should have let you get settled in first before moving you on to something new."

Unsure of how to deal with Bruce apologizing to him, Tim looked around and reminded him, "I wanted to go."

"I know, bud, but I'm supposed to know when things are moving too soon," Bruce explained. "I'm happy that you're excited about school, but I should have known not to have you go so soon."

"It's okay," Tim blushed at the new experience, still unsure about how to handle Bruce, Batman, apologizing to him.

"It's not okay, Timmy, and I should have been better," Bruce reiterated.

When there was another pause between them, Tim offered, "Didn't want to miss Dick."

"You didn't want to be at home without him?" Bruce asked for clarification.

Tim nodded and explained, "He says he's my big brother."

"Do you think he's your big brother?" Bruce asked softly wanting Tim to open up.

"I don't know," Tim said honestly. "I'm confused."

Bruce sighed and said, "That's okay. That makes sense and it's okay to be confused right now, Timmy. You don't have to figure everything out so quickly. You can take your time to settle in first."

"I like being with Dick." Tim confessed, "He's really nice and he helps me with everything. Makes me feel nice."

"That's really great," Bruce said sincerely. "I'm very happy that he's helping you so much."

"Miss him," Tim mumbled wishing Dick could be there with them.

"A..." Bruce sighed searching for the right words to comfort Tim. He didn't know how to help Tim considering their unique circumstances, but he wanted nothing more than to help Tim. He offered, "While Dick is in school you can stick with me. I'll keep you company until he gets back from school."

"What about your job?" Tim asked cautious about getting his hopes up.

"You can come with me to the office when you're up for it," Bruce explained. "Other than that I can work from home."

Tim had been thinking about Bruce's night job, he didn't think Bruce would be willing to bring him along for his patrols, but he figured Bruce knew more about his schedule than Tim would. "Do you have to work today?"

"I- yeah I do have to get some work done, but it's no rush," Bruce assured him. "I can wait until Dick is back, you don't have to worry about me."

Tim nodded kicked his feet back and forth as he looked around at the vast backyard. He enjoyed the peaceful silence before asking, "Can we walk around a little more? Before we go back?"

"No problem, Timmy," Bruce smiled as he sat up and helped Tim off of the bench. "You can lead the way."

a/n: do y'all prefer smaller, more frequent updates or longer, less frequent updates?