There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother.

~Terri Guillemets

Chapter Sixteen

Tim was walking slowly around the gardens. There wasn't much to look at. It was late October and most of the plants had long since died. The evergreens still retained their green, but they were evergreens. Tim sat down on a bench nearby. His muscles were regaining their memory and strength back after months of motionlessness. But not as quickly as he would like.

It had been a month since he had woken up. He had been asleep for nearly five months. And during that time he had missed out on a lot of his family's lives. He missed Dick and Barbara's wedding. He heard that they were going to postpone it until Tim woke up, but the uncertainly of when that would be, drove that from their minds. He missed Damian's first day of school with other students. He missed Jason's Fourth of July fireworks display which ended in near disaster. He still didn't know the details of it, but apparently the police and firemen were involved. He missed his own eighteenth birthday.

Not that that last one really mattered to him. He probably would have forgotten it like the past few years.

Damian had been avoiding him since he woke up. Tim wasn't sure if it was because he didn't want to see his face, or if when they did meet he just didn't know what to tell him. Tim felt conflicted about this. A part of him was happy that their relationship hadn't changed, but with less insults. But the other part of him was a little disappointed that their little ordeal hadn't changed their relationship.

But he wasn't going to press Damian any harder than what he was comfortable with.

It was hard. Getting back on his feet. He still lived at the manor. That was something that Alfred had insisted upon as he was still in physical therapy. Tim was more than happy to offer to move out and live on his own without being a burden to them anymore. They immediately insisted that he wasn't. So Tim stayed. But every day he still felt a bit burdensome.

He kicked a stone that was on the ground near him. It bounced along the grass and disappeared behind a stump.

And Steph. He had no idea what he had done to get such a girl. She was by his side nearly every day when he was under. He didn't understand why she was still there. He had hurt her and she came back. He still loved her, that hadn't changed. They told him that it was during one of her visits that he really began to wake up. As he once told himself, she was his link to sanity. She was his link to humanity. He firmly believed that.

"Would you wipe that dumb look off your face? Or will I have to tell Brown to do it?"

Tim looked over at Damian standing just beyond the trees, signature smirk on his face.

"How'd you know I was thinking about Steph?" he asked.

"Please, you and Richard are all the same. You both get that dumb look on your face when you are thinking about someone that you adore with blind passion. It is very annoying." Damian rolled his eyes.

"But how'd you know it was Stephanie?" Tim shifted in his seat.

"She looks the same way whenever she's thinking or talking about you. I should know. She wouldn't shut up about all the adventures you two had together when you were incapacitated."

Tim smiled. Yeah, that sounded like something she would do. He could just imagine her face now. Bright and happy.

"Ugh, you're doing it again." Damian sneered and rested his head on the tree trunk near him.

"Sorry. Sometimes I just can't help myself. But what about you? What brings you this far into the Hundred Acre Wood?" Tim smirked at his little joke. Dick and he had nicknamed it as such when they once got lost.

Damian rolled his eyes at Tim's comment.

"I thought that I would be able to take a walk without having to see anyone's ugly mugs for a bit. I was wrong." Damian turned and started walking away.

"Come on now. We both know that's a lie. You've wanted to talk to me for a while now. Come, sit." Tim patted the area of the bench next to him.

Damian watched him for a moment before sitting. There was an awkward, but not awkward silence that followed. Tim was watching the forest and listening to the birds that hadn't yet left for the winter.

Damian squirmed a little. There was a pressure there from the lack of pressure that Tim was inflicting. It had only been recently when Damian realized that he really didn't know anything about Tim. He didn't know any of his favorite things, but why would trivial matters matter to anyone. He didn't even know how Tim expressed his love towards others. He'd been watching for the past month, and every time he thought he figured it out, there would be something that to change.

"Stop thinking so hard Damian. You don't have to say anything if you don't want."

Damian looked at his older brother. Tim was unlike the others in so many ways. Dick would have pressed for information. Jason would have threatened it out him, or attempted to. Father expected it. Tim waited for him. Was this the same person who really put him on a hit list?

Tim saw Damian looking at him and gave him a small smile. It was easy, relaxed.

"How can you be so at ease? Father won't let you be out on the streets, and those who injured you are still out there," Damian asked.

"Perspective Damian. I'm still alive. You're still alive. They haven't, and won't be bothering us again." Tim looked up at the sky.

That wasn't the type of answer that Damian was really looking for. He wasn't sure just what he was looking for if he was going to be true to himself. He fell into silence for a bit longer. Tim didn't seem to mind. Damian opened his mouth again.

"Why did you say that you loved me? I tried to kill you, multiple times."

"Because I do." Tim finally looked at Damian's face. The look on Damian's face broke Tim's heart a little. Uncertainty. "There doesn't really need to be a reason. You're my little brother, don't question it. This type of love isn't something you can run from, or destroy. And rejecting someone's love doesn't mean that they still won't give it."

"But you should hate me. You almost died because of me."

Tim took a deep breath.

"And you died. How do you think that I felt? How Dick and Jason felt? How Bruce felt? You're here now because Bruce couldn't move one. Because I couldn't move on."

And there was the reason Damian had been searching for since he had found that it was Tim was the one to resurrect him. Damian watched as realization crossed Tim's face and Tim looked away. Tim had been hiding it from himself. Damian didn't understand what he was supposed to do now.

He punched Tim in the shoulder.

"Ow! Dude, what was that for?" Tim exclaimed rubbing his shoulder.

"That's for not moving on. You have your own life to live, as lowly as it may be," Damian scolded.

Tim smiled. His arm still stung a little, but the twerp had a lot of upper strength and he wasn't in the same shape as he had been in before. Quickly he wrapped his arm around Damian's throat and pressed his fist into his hair rubbing.

Damian could have broken free easily. It wouldn't have been very hard at all. A dislocated shoulder, a broken bone. But turnabout's fair play. He twisted his body, so he was behind Tim, wrapped his legs tightly around Tim's waist and rubbed hard against Tim's skull.

"Ah! I submit! You win!" Tim cried out.

Damian's vigorous rubbing ceased.

"Take me to the house," Damian commanded.

"What?"

"Take me to the house knave," he commanded again.

Tim obeyed, even when Damian's fingers gripped chunks of his hair tightly like reins. He wouldn't trade this moment for the world. A moment that he thought would never come in a million years. It almost seemed like they were a normal family for once. Without the attempted killing each other, and fighting crime. Tim winced when Damian's foot connected with his ribs.

"What!?"

"Faster. Your energy is not focused."

Tim took a deep breath and began to jog back up towards the manor.

Dick didn't understand why Bruce needed him to be at the manor while he was gone. To stand in for Batman was something that was understood, that's what the specialized suit down in the cave was for. Dick guessed it was to watch over Tim and Damian, but they had been rather civil with each other since Tim had woken up. And if there was any type of trouble, Alfred was more than capable than handling it. He was the one to raise the Batman throughout his teenage years.

"Hey, Jason, what do you think Bruce is doing?" Dick asked looking away from the fridge.

Jason came along, simply because he was bored. He had taken down the human trafficking ring that he had been after for months the previous week. Kory and Roy decided to spend the next week or so on vacation without work, leaving Jason behind in Gotham.

"Probably being talked at with facts at whatever meeting he's at. Or somehow keeping his cover. Either way, he's bored." Jason looked out the window at the pile of leaves that had been gathered together sometime in the past week.

"Yeah, I suppose. Those meetings of his were like some foreign language to me."

"Says the man who speaks a thousand different languages." Jason rolled his eyes.

"Exaggeration." Dick pulled his head out of the fridge. "Juice?"

Jason shook his head. A shout from outside attracted his attention. He looked out the window and snorted. This was just too good.

"Dickie, look at this."

Dick bounded over to the window. A wide smile spread across his face at the sight. Damian on top of Tim's back and both of them had a smile on their faces. Dick thought that he could die and go to heaven right then and there. He put his juice on the table and dragged Jason behind him as he ran outside.

"What the hell?"

Dick held a finger to his lips and crouched behind a bush. Jason crouched beside him. Tim and Damian neared their hiding spot and they could hear their laughter grow louder. Dick held up three fingers. Jason smirked.

Three. Two. One.

Together they jumped up and grabbed a brother. They lifted them onto their shoulders and quickly moved over to the leaf pile.

"Unhand me this instant! Richard!" Damian yelped.

"Jason! Put me down! C'mon!" Tim giggled.

Jason did. Into the leaf pile. Dick dropped Damian into the pile beside his brother. The pile swallowed the little boy and he clawed his way to be visible again. When his scowling face was seen again, both Jason and Dick leaped in beside their brothers, sending leaves up again.

They sat gently in the pile for a moment before the first act of war was initiated.

Tim chucked leaves into his brothers' faces.

Jason and Damian retaliated by grabbing him and shoving his head under the pile. Dick laughed at their antics, until Damian leapt and started to smother his face with leaves. Dick continued laughing. Tim was quick to wiggle out of his position and piled on top of Damian and Dick. Jason seeing his opportunity as the largest to sit on top of them all. There were instant protests from everyone underneath him.

"Jason, get off me!" Tim squeaked.

"Todd get your fat ass off of us!" Damian yelled.

"Jay! Jay! Get off!" Dick wheezed.

Jason stayed there for a moment before finally relenting and allowing everyone to breathe again. It took less than two seconds for everyone to leap on top of him.

Alfred chuckled.

"Oh no, Master Bruce. There's no need to worry. Everything's under control. The Birds of Prey have been coordinating rather efficiently with the young masters."

"How are they Alfred? Is Tim still keeping up with his physical therapy? Is Damian still ignoring him? Has Cass's plane landed yet from Hong Kong? Dick and Jason haven't eaten everything out of the fridge yet have they?"

Alfred smiled. "Calm down Master Bruce. You keep asking questions as such people might not buy the irresponsible playboy act that you give. They could see the truth."

"What?"

"That you're a devoted father. And there's no need to worry about your children. Everything is being handled. You may be surprised at what you might see when you come home in a few days."

Bruce didn't say anything over the line for a little while. Alfred could hear someone talking to Bruce and Bruce sighed.

"There is just no end to these meetings today. I can't wait to get to the hotel room and just sleep. And just make sure that no one burns down the house while I'm gone."

"Absolutely sir. I wouldn't dream of it."

Click. The phone call ended. Alfred set the phone down on the nearest table and picked up a camera. Bringing it up to his eye, he focused the camera on the action below in the yard. With a shutter click, a moment was frozen in time. Alfred smiled. That was going to be the new desktop on Master Bruce's computer.

Alfred set the camera down before heading down the stairs to go outside. As much as he enjoyed the fact that they were all getting along with each other and having fun, they were messing up his manicured lawn and someone was going to spend the rest of the evening making the lawn look exactly like the way that it had that morning.

The image of all four boys with smiling faces and leaves in their hair would become their favorite.

A/N: Now it's all over. And I am unashamed that this last chapter is fluffy. I like fluffy things. And I want to thank all of you who reviewed, followed, and favorite it. It really has meant a lot to me. Until next time!