Title: Stitching the Gaps

Authoress: Midnight Rose Princess

Summary: Damian had scoffed when Tim had suggested he watch Lilo and Stitch. Still, there were worse ways to convalesce. Little did any of the Robins know that one little movie would lead reconciliation (or some form of it) between them.

Genre: Family

Author's Note 1: This fic was originally posted back on Tim Drake's birthday (July 19) with the idea that the best gift Tim could receive would be some peace between him and Damian. There seems to have been some confusion over this though. The fic itself was posted on his birthday, but it's not actually his birthday in the story itself. If it was, I feel like Dick would be making a bigger deal out of it (to say nothing of Kon and Bart). Just wanted to clear that up.

Author's Note 2: Slight edits have been made to the first chapter to set up future chapters. Yep, it's not going to be left as a one-shot anymore. Yep, Jason will eventually make an appearance. I'd like to thank those who left reviews and constructive criticism in-between chapters. I would also like to clarify that I've left the narration for Damian mostly as-is because for as unsubtle as it is, it is more or less how he would think on account of 1) He's ten years old. 2) He's drugged up on antibiotics and painkillers. 3) Combine both those things and his lack of experience in interpersonal relationships and it means he's more likely to latch onto comparisons to help him navigate such relationships. As for Tim, well, the edits I've made should make it more understandable why he gives the change a chance. Thanks again for reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story. Tim Drake and all the other DC characters belong to DC Comics. Lilo and Stitch and its characters belong to Disney.

Chapter One: An Unexpected Epiphany I

"You want me to what?"

"Come on, Timmy, please? I can't let Joker's goons run loose when Bruce is trusting me to watch it and it's just for tonight."

Tim stared at his older brother across from the living room in Wayne Manor, with only Alfred standing off to the side as a witness. Alfred, true to form, looked unperturbed while Tim found that, for once, he couldn't school his own expression into anything other than nonplussed.

Tim had been going over a few last details on some paperwork with Lucius at Wayne Enterprises when he'd received a call from Dick asking for a favor. He knew Dick had recently been required to become Batman again while Bruce was off-world with the League in order to wrap up the last few of Batman's cases. When he'd gotten the call, he'd agreed to come by on the assumption that maybe Dick needed some extra help on patrol for said cases or to help the Titans with something.

Instead, Dick was asking him to do the impossible: supervise Damian for a night.

The new Robin had gotten himself injured on a patrol a few days prior: a broken leg, a bruised hip, and some slight cuts on his forearms. By most standards of risk involved in vigilantism, it wasn't too bad, all things considered. There were worse injuries to be had after a faulty landing. It was recommended by Alfred that bedrest would be the best cure for Damian's leg, now in a cast, to heal. Dick had agreed and added that since Damian had already been fighting off a fever from the Gotham rain before he was injured, it wasn't like he was at one hundred percent on his feet anyway.

However, Dick still needed to go on patrol, and he needed someone to make sure Damian didn't try to leave himself out of stubbornness. Tim was apparently the only person who could physically stop him — aside from Cass, who was still in Hong Kong — if need be, but still.

Tim put his fingers over his eyes. "Dick, he's not going to do anything I say. He'll fight me at every little turn because it's me."

"He can't even get out of bed, Tim," Dick said.

"And since when has that ever stopped any of us?" Tim countered.

Dick smirked at the joke, remembering Tim causing mayhem through a laptop alone and Jason once playing darts with batarangs when he was sick. Luckily, he'd already confiscated Damian's batarang.

"Please Tim, just for one night," he pleaded. He even gave the puppy-dog-eyes look to help along his cause.

Tim sighed in defeat at the look. "Fine. Just one night. Though if that little demon does try to kill me, I will fight back."

Dick grinned. Works every time, he thought. Still, he was relieved Tim came through for him. He walked over and gave Tim a quick hug.

"Just don't kill each other until I get back, okay? He's in his room and I already told him you were going to watch him and I'll have the comm on."

Tim nodded, but shrugged out of the hug. "All right. Now get going or those goons might actually accomplish something."

Dick raced off down to the cave to suit up and start up the patrol. Tim ran his fingers through his hair as Alfred came up to stand next to him.

"What did I just agree to, Alfred?" he asked desperately. Why did I think I could handle this after a full work-load at the company today? he questioned inwardly.

"Should I bring you up a cup of chamomile tea with his medicine, Master Timothy?" Alfred asked with a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, thanks Alfred. I have a feeling I'll need it."

With that, Tim made his way up the stairs to Damian's room. As tired as he was from being a teenage CEO of Bruce's billion-dollar company, he had to try for Dick's sake. He knocked on Damian's door once he reached it, though the brat wouldn't have done the same if the situations were reversed. Damian saw locked doors as a challenge on a normal basis — especially Tim's door; there was a reason Tim now lived at his own condo instead of the manor.

"Drake, if it's you, I don't require your services," came a voice through the door.

Taking that as good a cue to enter as any, Tim opened the door and walked in. Damian was propped up on pillows against the headboard and apparently sulking. The only light in the room came from a lamp sitting on the side table on the far side of the room. Tim guessed that Damian was having the typical hypersensitivity-to-light issue fevers usually cause, so the room being dimly lit made sense.

"I don't recall giving you permission to enter my room, Drake," Damian hissed.

"You addressed me. You might as well address me to my face," Tim snapped back. "Besides, it's not like you extend the same courtesy to me when it's the other way around."

Damian huffed as Tim sat in the chair next to Damian's bed which had no doubt been set up for Dick.

"So you're just sitting here in the dark, doing nothing?"

"What's it to you, Drake?"

"Come on, we hero-types rarely get some downtime, and here you are with a perfectly good opportunity to take it easy, and you're not enjoying it." Tim gestured with his hand towards the bulk underneath Damian's blanket that was obviously caused by the cast on his leg.

"Oh, so I should enjoy having a broken leg?"

"No, but you should make use of the free time it gives you."

"What use can I make of time if I can't do anything? I can't train like this."

"Why train? Why not watch a movie like most other kids your age do?"

Damian huffed again, glancing at the TV on the wall. "Fine. I guess Van Helsing or something would do."

"But you don't even like those, even though you've seen them a hundred times," Tim said. "Why not try a kid's movie?"

Damian deadpanned at him for a second before raising an eyebrow. "Are you insulting my intelligence?"

"No," Tim replied as evenly as he could. "It's just... In a way kids' movies can be just as effective as an older audience's movie." Plus you're ten and should enjoy being a kid, he added inwardly.

Damian scoffed.

Knowing Damian had a tendency to try and force himself to mature faster, he decided to go for a different tactic and appease Damian's competitive nature. "Kids' movies are more of a... challenge, actually."

At that magic word Damian seemed curious. "How so?"

"Well, movies aren't just made to entertain," Tim said, shrugging. "Some are made to get a message across to the audience. Kids' movies have to get some of the same complex messages across, but through subtler means. Sometimes, that makes the message have more of an impact on them."

Damian looked unimpressed. "Most of the ones I've heard about or seen seem to have some educational lesson like 'be nice to others' or have some other such nonsense," he said with a sneer.

"Those movies they show at school aren't usually very interesting, I admit."

"Then what movie would you recommend, Drake?"

"To recommend one, I'd have to know what we have, first. I know we have a few from back when I had to look after little Helena for Selina... Let me go look, should be in the spare room." On his way out, Tim poked his head back through the open door. "Don't try anything," he warned before going back out again.

"Tt," Damian muttered. He'd have liked to try something, but Grayson had already seen to it that the batarang he'd swiped to throw at the wall or cut his cast — he hadn't decided which to do first — had been taken out of his reach.

Tim came back in with a DVD, though Damian couldn't quite make out in the dimness of the room what the cover looked like. He started to go about turning on the TV and DVD player when he noticed that the cords between the two weren't even connected, much less plugged in.

"You seriously never even hooked up your TV?" Tim asked in disbelief, throwing a glance over his shoulder at Damain.

Damian gave a minute shrug that didn't send twinges of pain down to his hips. "Unless Grayson insists or Father demands a Zorro night, I have no use for movies."

"Until now, apparently," Tim muttered, not low enough to be unheard.

"I will not become a slave to television absurdities like my classmates, Drake!" Damian bit back.

At that moment Alfred came in to give Damian his next dose of medicines, for which Tim was forever grateful. As he hooked up Damian's TV and DVD player and set their defaults, Damian took the medicines Alfred offered him with no complaint despite the bitter taste. Damian was not as weak as other children who threw a fit over such things, and he would prove it.

Tim came back over as Alfred left and Damian snatched the DVD case out of his hand. Annoyed but not having the energy to start a fight over it, he just took his seat in the chair again and hit play with the remote.

Damian adjusted the angle in which he held the case to let the lamp's light fall on it more.

"'Lilo and Stitch'... What on earth is this about?" Damian asked.

Tim sipped the chamomile tea from the mug Alfred had left him on Damian's nightstand and pointed with a free finger to the back of the case.

Turning it over, Damian read the summary as the previews of other movies played through on the TV.

"On the lush and tropical Hawaiian Islands, an independent little girl named Lilo adopts what she thinks is an innocent puppy, completely unaware that he is a mischievous creature who has escaped from a faraway planet. Stitch takes Hawaii by storm, wreaking havoc and hanging ten while he evades the alien bounty hunters who are bent on recapturing him. It's an action-packed comedy the whole family will enjoy over and over again."

"What compelled you choose this one, Drake?" Damian asked, tossing the case onto the side table. He'd at least expected Tim to pick something more mystery or crime-oriented.

"I've never seen it before, but I heard it was really good," Tim answered, distracting himself by slightly lowering the TV's volume. Damian would be more of a pain if the noise aggravated his fever-induced headache.

BEEP BEEP.

Tim reached into his pocket and opened up — not a comm, as Damian had first assumed — but a cellphone. He gave the Caller ID only glance before he answered.

"Hey Cass, what's up?" Tim listened for a moment. "How bad it is?" he asked. He listened some more and then nodded. "Give me a sec and I'll help with the security bypass."

He stood up and looked at Damian. "Cass needs some help hacking a security system over in Hong Kong for a case and Babs is busy training Steph. I'm not leaving, of course, since I can hack it through a connection on my laptop. But I'll need to focus, so... I'll be oustide in the hall if you need me."

"Don't hold your breath, Drake. Go help Cain," Damian scoffed. "Give me the remote so I can stop the movie if it bores me."

Tim shook his head. "You shouldn't judge movies by the DVD cover, brat. Going by the title alone, I'd say it's got something more than an alien adventure in store."

Damian raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "The title?"

"The movie takes place in Hawaii, and if I remember right, Lilo can mean 'generous one' or 'lost,' and generally a 'stitch' is meant to repair something, like those scrapes on your arm if they'd been worse."

"So I'm supposed to anticipate a challenge from a movie whose title means 'Lost and Repaired'? That's ludicrous, Drake."

Tim rolled his eyes. If he didn't leave the room and get his laptop from Alfred soon, he'd have to deal with a headache of his own. "Well, it's either that or deal with boredom. It's up to you."

o0o0o0o0o0o

Drake left the room, shutting the door behind him, though muted sounds of his continued conversation to Cain on the phone could still be heard.

Damian rolled his eyes. Drake was actually going to just take a seat on the floor right outside the door. If he'd just go to the cave or his own room, I could at least retrieve another batarang from the hall table, he thought. Surely boredom of this level counts as an emergency?

He looked back at the TV screen to see the movie was starting and decided even the most ridiculous children's movie would be more stimulating than outright boredom.

It started with a trial of sorts in front of a council. The scientist Jumba was obviously not helping his case. Two-Face at this worst would manage better than this.

"Show us that there is something inside you that is good."

Damian smirked at the blue creature's answer. He found himself instantly pegging this Gantu character as a foe easily outsmarted due to having a false sense of security that he was in control. It was something Damian had seen in Gotham often enough, even on the side of 'good.' Detective Bullock was a prime example of this. Without much effort, Experiment 626 had escaped.

"Yeah, he took the red one."

Damian smirked again. It was an exchange that made him recall a particular quip from Grayson on one of his outings as Nightwing in Blüdhaven with Damian tagging along as Robin. If you're going to escape, at least do it in style! This is pathetic.

626's escape method certainly wasn't pathetic, and of course he just happened to land on an island, despite the fact that most of the planet was covered in water. The Agent Pleakly character was starting to annoy Damian, if only because he took affront to being referred to as "simple minded" by proxy. Karma kicked in though, and as one who twisted situations into his own favor on a regular basis, Damian could recognize when Jumba did it.

The movie then started to follow a little girl on the island as she ran to what he assumed was a dance class. Water on a hardwood floor... not a good idea. Proven right, he continued to watch. He was confused as soon as Lilo started speaking, but assessed the situation as it progressed. This Lilo girl's guardian was her older sister, and a social worker was checking up on them, most likely to see if Nani should have custody. Lilo didn't fit in and was kind of weird, which caused issues between them.

Damian paused the movie as he found himself wondering if the rest of his father's adopted brood had ever been evaluated by a social worker. Grayson had been the only one formally adopted, wasn't he? Damian wondered. To his frustration, he couldn't remember what the adoption status was on Todd or Drake, which he should — he'd studied his predecessors, after all, in order to compete with their legacies.

Damian huffed. He blamed his failed recall of his more factual knowledge on his fever. He'd think about it later. For now he decided that at the very least it was possible, if only because the Wayne Family tended to be in the Gotham spotlight regularly whether they wanted to be or not.

After pressing play to resume the movie, Damian wondered if the ensuing argument between Nani and Lilo was confusing because he'd taken time out for his own thoughts or if it was meant to be that way as the two sisters tried to reconcile.

"We're a broken family, aren't we?"

"No. ...Maybe a little. Maybe a lot."

It wasn't like that was unusual. Most super-hero families were a bit broken, to say nothing of the 'Bat Family' as the other heroes commonly referred to those within Gotham. If they were even a family before that. Father was usually off with the League, Todd was off losing his mind in Gotham's underbelly, Drake was usually off being the CEO of Father's company, Cain was off in Hong Kong and Brown was with Oracle for Batgirl training. Grayson was the only one who really tried to spend time with him. Even when they banded together to face a common threat, everyone in their so-called family was messed up somehow: parent-issues, communication-issues, mistakes, regrets — the list went on endlessly.

"People treat me different."

"They just don't know what to say."

Somehow Damian doubted that was all it was, but he could sort of relate. Drake never trusted him, so usually he just seemed to avoid speaking to him directly unless he need to. As he honed in his hearing, past the movie's volume, to hear muted typing through the door, he wondered what Grayson must've had to do to get Drake to agree to supervise him.

Naturally, the pace of the movie had to pick up again sometime, and 626 had entered the atmosphere. He crash landed and was apparently trigger-happy. Then again, he was programmed for destruction. The creature was built sturdy if he could endure being run over by three semi-trucks. Lilo proceeded to adopt 626 as the DVD case had promised, and gave him a name: Stitch.

"His destructive programming is taking effect. He will be irresistibly drawn to large cities, where he will back up sewers, reverse street signs, and steal everyone's left shoe."

"Tt," Damian chuckled. Minor inconvenience to follow up mass destruction. Stitch would have done well in Gotham. "Clever," he said, giving praise where it was due.

Stitch's resulting fit from finding out he was on an island was amusing. Due to his earlier musings, Damian's mind supplied the idea that this was how Drake had reacted when Grayson surely must have tricked him into agreeing to this.

The montage of Stitch trying to adjust to the situation was kind of slow, but eventually it ended to show them at a restaurant where Nani worked. When Stitch started to smell something, Damian facepalmed. "You're not seriously going to fall for that..." he whispered.

But Stitch did, and it got Nani fired.

"And here I called you clever," Damian muttered. "I retract that statement."

Once home, Nani was seriously considering taking him back to the pet shelter. Lilo, of course, was against this.

"He was an orphan and we adopted him! What about OHANA!"

"He hasn't been here that long."

"Neither have I! Dad said ohana means family. Ohana means family. Family means nobody—"

"''Nobody gets left behind..."

"Or?"

"Or forgotten."

Damian had a feeling that the message of the movie had just been outright stated. It wasn't done subtlely at all. Drake, I will get you for tricking me into this, he vowed. However, as disappointing as that was, he'd still be too bored if he stopped the movie.

He was skeptical of this lesson, though, as he'd been all the other general lessons the Gotham schools had tried to teach his class through film days. Though the lesson was likely meant for good families, not all families met that criteria. The family-first mentality had shown the damage it could cause through all of Gotham's mobs thousands of time over, after all.

By the time Damian started paying attention again, Lilo was trying to get Stitch to stop attacking everything in her trashed room.

"You know, you wreck everything you touch. Why not make something for a change?"

And so Stitch started to build, and build, and build, though it wasn't shown what exactly he was making... until the camera zoomed out. Damian blinked, surprised at makeshift skyline.

"Wow. San Francisco."

Then Stitch started to imitate the B-horror movie from earlier by destroying the model city.

"No more caffeine for you."

Damian doubted it was purely the caffeine. Pleakly, the annoyance from earlier, soon became victim to mosquitoes, which actually made him giggle. He muffled the sound before Drake could hear it through the door, though. He blamed the slip of amusement on Grayson for showing him slapstick cartoons in the past.

Jumba had made an observation. He'd created a creature that had no other purpose than to destroy, and afterwards, that left his creation with nothing. Not even memories. Stitch tried to entertain himself by finding a book to read woke Lilo up to explain the story in one that found his interest.

"That's the ugly duckling. See, he's sad because he's all alone and nobody wants him. But on this page, his family hears him crying and they find him. Then the ugly duckling is happy, because he knows where he belongs."

This seemed to cause a level insight to form inside of Stitch, though Damian still found himself unimpressed with the obvious parallel. The plot picked up again before he could get too annoyed, with Nani searching for a new job and Lilo trying to mold Stitch into Elvis, a model citizen.

It was here Damian just had to accept what was going on and not question it. Damian knew nothing of this Elvis person except that he was a musician of sorts people in Gotham sometimes liked to dress as on Halloween once Scarecrow had been neutralized.

Stitch tried, but the camera flashes ruined everything. The ice-cream-guy lost his ice-cream again, and Nani lost another potential job. The David guy — Nani's coworker, Damian had to remind himself — from earlier took them surfing. Stitch was the odd one out for a while, and he tried to give it a chance, despite the danger water posed for him. Then Jumba and Pleakly jumped Stitch while he was on the board. The social worker had seen it happen, and it was obvious that time was up.

"You know, I really believed they had a chance. Then you came along."

Damian started to sympathize with their plight. A lot of this stuff had been played for laughs, but this would be a serious situation to be in. It was even starting to get across to Stitch that every action has consequences. Stitch went back inside their house and saw the picture Lilo had freaked out over earlier. It was of her and Nani, and two adults who must have been their parents.

"That was us... before. It was rainy, and they went for a drive. What happened to yours? I hear you cry at night. Do you dream about them? I know that's why you wreck things, and push me. Our family's little now, and we don't have many toys, but if you want, you could be a part of it. You could be our baby and we'd raise you to be good. Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind. But if you want to leave, you can. I'll remember you though. I remember everyone who leaves."

Damian felt his eyes welling up with tears against his volition, and tried to wipe them away, feeling ridiculous for doing such a thing over a kids' movie. His mother had taught him that crying was a weakness, and that weakness of any kind was punishable by death.

He tried to rationalize his reaction away as purely a result of the line itself. After all, to be accustomed to being left alone in life was a feeling he'd voiced to himself often enough after becoming Robin. Being allowed to leave but banned from returning was the cost of turning against his grandfather's rule and his mother's teachings.

Still, there was more to the line that bothered him more than he cared to admit, and that was the way in which it was said. Credit had to be given to the voice actress's delivery, but that tone was familiar to Damian. The more he wracked his brain to supply him with the identity of the voice he'd heard speak in such a way before, the more he realized he'd heard that same tone of voice — regularly — from... Drake.

He forcibly shook that train of thought from his mind and looked back to the movie. He's missed a scene or two, and Jumba was now approaching Stitch in the forest.

"...waiting."

"For what?"

"Family."

"Ah... You don't have one. I made you."

"Maybe... I could..."

"You were built to destroy. You can never belong."

Damian looked down to where his hands were gripping the blanket tightly. He refused to cry more than once. He didn't understand why this movie was making him feel so ridiculous. It couldn't be the only reason for his tears. It was probably the faint fever that had been coursing through his system, or the medicines causing his thought processes to misfire. The combination of the two was weakening his mental strength as much as his physical strength. It was a reason that made sense. Taking a deep breath as he accepted that conclusion, he looked back up to the movie.

The house was blowing up as a result of the chase to capture Stitch. The social worker was preparing to take Lilo away from Nani, or at least he was until Lilo ran away. She rejected Stitch when he handed over the burnt photograph of her family. He revealed he was an alien, but Gantu captured both of them before Lilo could process that properly.

Seriously? Kidnapping a human when you work for an intergalactic equivalent of the UN? Damian thought with disdain. This Gantu may have appeared to have a sense of duty earlier in the film, but apparently also had some more thug-ish tendencies. He was like the corrupt cops Drake had gotten investigated during the Newton Community Gym's opening stunt.

Jumba and Pleakly caught Stitch, who'd easily escaped the capture pod and Stitch effortlessly convinced them to help rescue Lilo. The first half of the rescue was aerial maneuvers. Then Stitch proceeded to hijack a gasoline truck and drop it into a volcano, waiting for Gantu to get close.

"Abomination."

"Stupid head."

Damian gave a small smirk. Using the environment to your benefit. Good. Keep your cleverness consistent this time, Damian thought. Stitch rescued Lilo, blew up Gantu's ship, saved Gantu, and they all safely landed to where David could get them to shore. On shore, the Councilwoman was there waiting to take Stitch into custody. Stitch asked to say goodbye, and was allowed to.

"This is my family. I found it all on my own. It's little, and broken, but still good. Yeah... still good."

Apparently, aliens were all about rules — Have they met Father? Damian pondered sarcastically — and allowed Stitch to stay based on the fact that they'd technically be stealing if they took Stitch. Stitch's exile status was thereby to be served on Earth and his family were protected by the United Galactic Federation... and Jumba and Pleakly were stranded.

Stitch started up the music, and the epilogue was shown. They rebuilt the house, went through daily life, had fun, traveled, and were a family. Even the social worker — Bubbles? How did I miss that his name was so childish?! — was shown hanging out with them, and Nani had started dating David. Stitch was still a bit mischievous, but the consequences weren't too serious since he kept his mayhem under control.

The credits started rolling, and even though the song wasn't to Damian's tastes, he didn't mind it much. He sat back and, for lack of anything more to do until Drake or Grayson returned, tried to understand why it had effected him to such a degree earlier. The more he thought though, the more he realized it was too easy to apply the movie's own familial issues onto his own.

Damian had to admit there were similarities between him and Stitch. They were both meant to do something bad; Stitch had been made to destroy, and he himself had been born to be an assassin. They'd each rejected that side of themselves; Stitch did when he saw the consequences of his destruction and Damian had when he realized his mother was wrong. They were both orphans who were adopted by a family that was far from perfect, but still generally good despite its problems. Each of their families were trying to raise them to be good, but whereas Stitch ended up happy, Damian couldn't say the same for himself.

He felt he always had to fight for his right to even be there, and it was so hard to get rid of a superiority complex instilled in him since birth. Unfortunately, he didn't have anywhere to go if he was kicked out of here. His grandfather only wanted him as a prospective new body and his mother had replaced him with another clone. If he lost this family, he'd have nowhere to go.

How could he change? He wanted to think Drake was the problem, but when he really, really thought about it, he knew that Drake had a reason to be mistrustful of him. He'd barged into this family and tried to kill Drake, then took Drake's place out from under him. However, even when Drake was off going around the world to prove Bruce was alive, there had always been that vibe that Grayson had wanted him to come home.

Grayson had wanted — still wanted — Damian and Drake to get along. However, it would be difficult to reconcile with the former Robin his grandfather had spent years ruthlessly comparing him to, especially considering he was still resentful that Drake was more forgiving of Todd's actions despite the similarities to Damian's own behavior.

Although, the fact that Drake still held out hope for Todd, of all people, to eventually come back into the 'Bat Family' fold did seem to support the idea that peace between them was even a possibility. Did he even want a peace with Drake? He wasn't sure. Even if he did, was it even likely to succeed, considering all the resentment from both parties?

The problem was, Damian knew that to make amends with members of this particularly dysfunctional family, one usually had to swallow a considerable amount of pride and initiate conversations about the subject to find out if they could be forgiven. He and Drake could barely hold a conversation without his resentment fueling a venomous insult towards Drake — earlier was probably a fluke due to his own boredom and Drake's lack of energy.

As much as Damian realized this, he knew he was still too proud to ask. Frustrated by all of this, he found himself crying again.

o0o0o0o0o0o

Tim, having gotten Cass safely through one of the best-secured buildings in Hong Kong and out again with the stolen microchip she needed in hand, bid her farewell as he closed the live communications on his laptop. Looking at the corner of his laptop screen, he saw the time. The movie he'd given Damian to watch was only 85 minutes, and it had been a little over 100 since he left the room.

Guess it's time to check on him, he thought. He shut down his laptop and placed it on the small hall table, where his empty tea mug from earlier sat on a coaster. He stood up and re-entered Damian's room, not bothering to knock this time.

The sight that greeted him shocked him. There Damian was, on the bed like he had last seen him. The movie had stopped and was waiting on the special features menu silently. Damian, however, was crying. Not fake crocodile tears, but actual, tears-running-down-your face-crying. Damian's eyes darted to him and he instantly looked the other direction to try to hide it.

"Go away, Drake." Damian's voice wasn't even, close to breaking and, dare he say it, weary.

Tim ignored Damian's words through long practice and pushed the door back behind him as he made his way over to the chair again. "What's wrong? Did you accidentally aggravate your injury?" Tim asked, trying to understand what was going on. When he got no response, he questioned further. "Do you need more medicine?"

"No!" Damian snapped.

"Then what's wr—?"

"This is all your fault Drake!" Damian hissed, cutting him off.

Tim blinked. "Mine? How—?" he began, starting to feel affronted.

"If you hadn't made me watch that stupid movie—!"

"Wait, this is about the movie? Something about the movie made you cry?" Tim asked, surprised that a kids' movie of all things could make this kid cry when almost nothing else did. According to Dick, the brat had barely cried when he broke his leg in the first place.

"Shut up, Drake, and go away!" Damian insisted.

Tim shook his head. "Not until you tell me why you're so upset." Tim had to figure this out. This was surreal. He had heard about some Disney movies traumatizing kids —usually in jest — but if he'd seriously messed Damian up worse, Dick may or may not be tempted to chase him halfway across Gotham.

"I just told you!" Damian answered angrily, facing him again.

"No, you told me it was the movie, but you weren't specific. What about the movie got you upset?"

"Don't act like you care! You're just watching me because Grayson begged you to!" Damian retorted.

Tim growled. "I admit that I am reasonably concerned that Dick may or may not kick my ass if this movie seriously messed with you, but I care about you a lot more than you care about me, brat!"

"Yeah, right, you—"

"I took care of you just as much as Dick did, you demon brat!" Tim snapped, his patience thinning.

"Wha—?" Damian said, surprised. "You can't be serious."

Tim raised a challenging eyebrow.

"I had to fight to be allowed here!" Damian blurted.

Tim decided to ignore the movie for now because he'd had some words on this subject bottled in for a while.

"When you got here, you attempted to assassinate me because you were worried that Bruce wouldn't let you be an heir. If you'd studied us as much as you say you had before you barged in, then you would've known that Bleeding-Heart-Bruce-Wayne has no qualms about adopting 'just one more.' Even more to the point, you're Talia's kid. However much Bruce disagrees with her decisions, he wasn't going to blame you for them. He still doesn't, by the way."

Damian looked ready to protest him even mentioning Talia, but Tim cut him off again.

"To this day, I still don't understand why you tried to kill me. Even from the view of an assassin, it makes no sense. The best I can grasp is you felt you were eliminating a competitor from what wasn't even a competition, but if you had killed me, it wouldn't have gained you anything! At best, you would have been shunned. At worst, chased out of Gotham."

Damian glared but didn't reply.

Tim ran a hand through his hair, getting exasperated. "Even when you were allowed here and became a Robin, you still kept up that pretense —"

"Did you expect an apology, Drake?!" Damian sneered.

"Expect one? No. Figured you might give one to save face for Dick? Maybe. Put the competition mindset aside? Unlikely, considering Jason's still not over that either. Stop belittling me once you got what you wanted? I admit, I had hoped you'd manage at least that."

Tim sighed. Not that it did much good hoping, he thought. It always comes down to a fight between us. It was as if Damian's initial weariness transferred back to Tim. It is too late for this, he groaned inwardly. I am too tired for this.

o0o0o0o0o0o

At the mention of Todd, Damian's earlier misgivings on Drake's differing behavior towards the two most violent Robins resurfaced.

"Because you treated me differently!" Damian snapped. "Todd has killed others too! He's even tried to kill you before, too! You're willing to extend an olive branch to him but not towards me when what we did was the exact same!"

"It wasn't the same, Damian," Drake stated neutrally. His voice was more modulated as it had been before. "Jason was killed by the Joker, resurrected by my best friend's alternate self punching reality in the face, manipulated by your mother, and, long story short, might have recovered from all of that already if Bruce hadn't said the exact wrong things in that video will. It's different."

"Different how?! True, I didn't die, but I was also manipulated by Mother!" Damian countered, nearly shrieking as his tears welled up anew. He'd rarely allowed himself to admit in inwardly, much less aloud.

Drake sighed and crossed his arms. "I won't deny that you were both manipulated, and neither of you deserved it. Jason was lashing out emotionally and irrationally but nowadays he usually lets me be. You were lashing out too, but you were calculating about it and still insult me at every turn."

"You won't trust me no matter how much I prove myself!" Damian yelled.

Drake turned his gaze to the wall above the nightstand. His shoulders sagged ever so slightly, and he suddenly looked much older and more tired to Damian. Having been expecting an angry confirmation of this fact and that it would never change, Damian found himself suddenly off-kilter due to the unexpected reaction.

Drake's voice, when he spoke, was monotone. "I don't trust anyone, Damian."

Damian blinked, nonplussed. "Anyone? Not even Gray—"

Drake cut him off as he turned his gaze back to him. "Don't change the subject. When it came to finding Bruce and dealing with everything else, I didn't have the time or the energy to try to deal with you. That doesn't mean I don't care."

"Wh—?" Damian was so confused he wasn't even annoyed when Drake cut him off again.

"You had a choice: to be an al Ghul or a Wayne. When you chose to be Robin, you renounced the entire life you'd led up till then, and started thinking for yourself outside of your mother's influence. That took guts. If any adult did that it would earn them most people's respect, and you were just barely ten years old."

Damian lowered his own voice somewhat back to normal as he took in this information and tried to follow it to its logical conclusion. "So... you only mistrusted me because... I still acted towards you like I was under my mother's influence despite that decision?"

Drake nodded. "Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"It's also just the fact that even for a ten year old, you're intimidating enough that I won't take any death threats you give lightly. Too risky in our line of work," he quipped civilly.

It was odd going from a near-shouting match to a strangely casual if awkward conversation, but Damian felt it may be as good a chance as any. Drake waited while he wiped his tears, which were finally ebbing away.

"Respect... isn't quite the same as care," he stated tentatively.

"It's a good basis for caring, though. At the very least, I try to make sure you don't deal with the more unsavory parts of being a Wayne heir."

Damian must have looked as confused as he felt, for Drake continued.

"If I keep the tabloids busy with Wayne Enterprise's ventures, not just Vicki Vale, then that lessens their focus on you. Dick, Jason, Me, even Cass had to deal with tabloids suggesting the most..." Drake paused to make a disgusted grimace.

Damian knew of the vicious tabloid gossip in Gotham, but wasn't quite following.

"The tabloids will try to insinuate any garbage they can to circulate rumors about why a rich billionaire playboy would adopt so many kids," Drake eventually stated. "None of them worth thinking about or repeating. My own father had his concerns about Bruce mentoring me even before he found out I was Robin. If I can spare you any of a Robin's troubles, it's that one."

As he realized what the tabloid vultures were insinuating, Damian's own expression turned into a grimace similar to Drake's. Despite not ever being their target, apparently thanks to Drake's efforts, he felt infuriated on his adopted siblings' behalves.

o0o0o0o0o0o

Tim gave time for that to sink in. Even if this conversation was only the result of his exhaustion and Damian's medication, he'd wanted to lay all this on the table in case it ever went anywhere.

From what he could tell, Damian wanted him to trust him and, going by the olive branch comment, maybe even wanted to make peace with him. If they managed it, Dick would be over the moon.

It would also be nice to visit the manor more often without getting an endless barrage of insults, Tim thought.

He was still curious as to how a movie had managed to bring this entire situation about, but if he pushed Damian about it, there was the chance the kid would take it as Tim not trusting him. If he didn't push Damian about it, Damian might never admit it. However, steering the conversation back into that route seemed to be the best step to take next.

"If you can't trust me enough to tell me what upset you, Damian, then at least trust me enough to know that I've got your back. When I told Ra's to back off from our family and our allies, that meant you too, brat."

He'd said the last word with a bit of affection in his voice — the same he'd heard once when Stephanie remarked to him, 'He's a little bit of a demon brat, but he's our brat.'

Damian swallowed, and looked down. For a moment, Tim thought he wasn't going to get a reply, but then Damian said, in a small voice, "Ohana."

"Ohana?" Tim queried.

Damian gestured towards the TV. "The movie said it means family, and that family means no one gets left behind or forgotten."

Tim nodded slowly, following along so far. "That's true, more or less, in good families."

"Stitch — the alien— he... he reminded me of... me," Damian admitted.

"How so?" Tim asked, genuinely curious.

"His purpose was to cause destruction, but when he saw the consequences of his actions, he wanted something different. He was alone and... didn't belong anywhere... didn't even have a family. He was adopted into one, but almost ruined everything for them. They raised him to be good, or, well... better. It wasn't perfect. It was flawed, but... in the end he was happy," Damian explained.

Tim nodded slowly. "So... it sounds like the movie had a happy ending, at least. I can sort of see similarities in his situation with your's from what you've told me."

Damian said nothing.

Tim waited.

"I'm here, with a family, and... I don't feel... happy. I just feel... here, most of the time," Damian admitted.

Tim closed his eyes. We're more in the same boat than I thought.

Tim took all this in. He was still surprised, considering this was the most words Damian had ever said to him that wasn't insulting in any way. When he opened his eyes and looked back at Damian though, he noticed that Damian's eyes were looking wet again.

Knowing this wasn't the time for platitudes, Tim reached out put a hand on the blankets beside Damian, near to his hand but not holding it.

"I... want to be a part of this family. For real. I mean... I know Grayson cares about me. Father's... distant, but he accepts me. Pennyworth puts up with me. Oracle thinks I have potential. Brown seems to think my temper's adorable or some other nonsense. Cain saved me that time at the bridge. Todd's... never here and trigger happy when we run past him... and you're, well..." Damian trailed off. "You're... complicated, now."

Tim smirked a little at that. "Guilty as charged," he admitted. "Our family is dysfunctional, to put it mildly — that's no secret. So, it's not like you don't fit in, Damian. It's not like we're going to ask you to leave. Dick probably wouldn't even let you, at least not without giving you that puppydog look to try and convince you to stay first."

Something he said must have hit the nail on the head, because Damian gripped the blankets so tight that Tim could see his knuckles turn white.

Wordlessly, Tim flipped over the hand that rested on the bed. Damian noticed the movement and, after a few moments, cautiously took it.

o0o0o0o0o0o

Drake's hand was chilled. Probably from typing out in the hall or they just seemed that way because of his own fever interrupting his temperature regulation.

"You're... sure?" he asked.

When Drake cocked an eyebrow, he clarified.

"I won't have to leave?"

Drake made an odd look, gazed towards the ceiling, and then determinedly raised himself out of the chair and sat on Damian's bed.

"Wh-Drake, wh-what are you—?!" Damian spluttered.

In one of what he knew were Drake's rare urges to initiate touch, Drake threw his left arm around Damian's shoulders in a half-hug.

"Don't ever think you have to leave, Damian," Drake said. He looked at Damian right in the eye and his gaze brooked no argument. "I'm personally a little fed up with the whole robins-being-pushed-to-leave-the-nest-too-soon tradition, and I'll make sure it stops so long as I have any say in it."

A little voice in the back of Damian's head reminded Damian of his father's stubbornness and that Drake likely couldn't change anything of the sort. On the other hand, another part of him supplied that Drake was the Robin that had convinced Batman and Nightwing to train him for Batman's sake in the first place, so it wouldn't do well to underestimate what he could accomplish with words.

Drake must have seen this debate play out in his expressions and taken it as an affirmative, for he ruffled Damian's hair the same way Grayson usually did.

"You can be a pain sometimes, but you're a part of this family. You're a brat, but you're the Baby Bat, and we all care about you."

"'Baby Bat'?" Damian parroted in confusion.

Drake smiled. "You didn't notice by now? Dick comes up with nicknames for everyone."

"Aside from just abbreviations of their given name?" Damian asked. "Really?"

"Really," Drake confirmed. "You know Oracle's is 'Babs' but occasionally she's also 'The Queen.' Dick calls Jason 'Little Wing' even though he hates it. I call Jason 'Jaybird,' since I know he likes it even though he swears he doesn't. Jason and I call Dick 'Big Bird' or 'Mother Hen,' respectively. They both call me 'Baby Bird' whenever it's not Timmy. Cass is 'Princess Bat' or 'Cassie' depending on her mood, and Steph is 'Eggplant surprise.'"

Drake paused as Damian raised his eyebrow at the last one.

"Long story," he said, rolling his eyes. "As for you, well, you're Bruce's son by blood, as you were keen on reminding us back in the day, and since I'm 'Baby Bird,' you get to be 'Baby Bat' or even 'Prince Bat' according to Cass."

"I like it," Damian decided, smirking. His respect for Cain had increased yet again.

Drake smiled. "So, Baby Bat, you were worried that since you and I couldn't get along, we'd never be a family? Well, look at us. I'm hugging you, and you haven't tried to run me through with a sword yet."

"Don't tempt me, Drake," he replied.

Drake chuckled.

Damian was relieved the conversation seemed to be working out, but one thing from earlier nagged at him. He was loathe to risk whatever progress had been made, but... he couldn't let it rest.

"...Drake, about what you said earlier, about not trusting anyone?" he began.

Drake's expression became a bit more neutral, his smile fading into a thin line. He looked at Damian with a poker face. "Yes, what about it?"

"Why?" he asked simply.

Drake sighed. He unwrapped his arm from Damian's shoulders and folded both of his arms over his chest, though he still leaned on Damian. For a second, Damian thought he wouldn't answer, but Drake proved him wrong.

"The only people I trusted were those closest to me. Then I lost them," Drake said, closing his eyes.

Damian knew that; he'd read reports of the deaths of Drake's parents, step-mother, Superboy, Impulse, and the presumed-death of Spoiler.

"After they died, or at least, were believed to have died, I just... I was a mess."

Damian's grandfather had remarked upon his disappointment that, whether by Nightwing's influence or not, Drake had not been able to bring himself to use the Lazarus pits when given the opportunity to revive them. Knowing the strength of bonds a bit more just from his own partnership with Grayson as his Robin, Damian could recognize that feat was no less impressive than his own decision to turn his back on the Demon's Head.

"I couldn't even trust myself after that, much less anyone else," Drake admitted. "The only thing I could trust were facts, statistics, data, evidence. Even though some of the people I lost are back now, that still hasn't really changed."

"But... they're back, and they're the same as before—" Damian started.

"Exactly. That's partly the problem. They haven't changed too much, but I'm... I'm not the same Robin I was when I lost them. Heck, I'm not even the same Tim." He paused for a bit, then opened his eyes, though he looked down at his crossed arms and not Damian. "Steph was alive the entire time and knew, but just let me believe she was dead. I love her and I mostly blame Leslie, but... she lied. Kon and Bart didn't really have a choice or know what was going on, so I can't hold a grudge against them."

"Then you can't trust them because..." Damian supplied, trailing off.

"Because they expect me to be who I haven't been for a long while. As for who I am now, well... I can trust my limits and my potential, but... I don't know. I'm complicated, as you and many others have said."

Remembering Lilo's line of making things instead of wrecking them, Damian came to the conclusion that maybe trust was more of a... two-way street, as the old saying went.

"For what it's worth... Tim? I trust you."

Drake looked at him in surprise — at the use of his real name as much as for the statement, no doubt — but smiled. "Thanks, Damian."

o0o0o0o0o0o

There was a minute or so of companionable silence Tim previously would have thought impossible to share with Damian before he noticed the time on the alarm clock. 4:45 am.

If it wasn't for the current season, it would be nearing daylight by now and Dick would be on the way back from patrol. As it was, they still had a couple of hours before Dick would be back, but Tim realized he'd probably have to call in sick tomorrow for work at the company.

Normally he'd try to make it through the workload despite his lack of sleep on caffeine alone, but he trusted his limits to recognize it wasn't a good idea after a night like this.

"You know, to be honest, Baby Bat, I'd normally be up to rewatch the movie with you to see this little alien's character development myself, especially since we have the time, but... I'm a little exhausted."

"When was the last time you slept, Tim?" Damian asked, not missing a beat.

"Uh... Day before yesterday, maybe?" Tim muttered, trying to remember. Didn't Lucius let me fall into a catnap at some point this morning? he wondered.

Damian looked slightly concerned. "You need sleep before you collapse."

"So do you," Tim replied. "It's about time for your next dose anyway."

Tim shuffled off the bed and started to prepare the medicines on the nightstand. He handed them over to Damian, who took them again without complaint and finished off the water left in the glass from before.

Realizing the DVD would be exceedingly hot considering how long it had been waiting on the special features menu screen, Tim figured if he wanted to be able to rewatch it with Damian at a later date, he'd have to save it from melting first.

"Hey Baby Bat, pass the remote?"

Damian tossed it at the perfect angle for Tim to catch it.

Robin reflexes. They come in handy.

The DVD was stopped and placed back into its case, the TV was turned off, and the remote was put back on the nightstand over the next few minutes.

Once he was done with all of that, Tim tried to figure out if he should tell Alfred to take over his watching-Damian shift so he could go to his old room and get some sleep or to just crash on the living room couch.

Damian watched as Tim debated where he was likely going to sleep, and Damian decided to give into an impulse Dick had only encouraged for post-patrol crashes.

"Can you... stay here? I can make room," he offered.

"You sure?" Tim asked.

"I wouldn't offer if I wasn't sure, Drake," he countered casually.

Tim chuckled but didn't argue as he texted Lucius that he wouldn't be in tomorrow. He set his phone down on the nightstand and set about helping Damian lay down a bit more as he rearranged the pillow against the headboard, mindful of Damian's broken leg. He climbed under the blankets next to him and they settled in, facing each other as they started to drift off from exhaustion and medicine, respectively.

"Hey... Tim?"

"Yeah?"

"Tomorrow, can we... talk more?"

"Sure. What did you have in mind?"

"Why does Gray — Big Bird? — feel the need to hug everyone constantly? What's the story behind the eggplant thing? And... why does Jaybird... hate that video?"

Dick's a kinesthetic person who relies on touch for reassurance, Stephanie is Stephanie and could never get nicknames to stick, and Jason couldn't stand being called a failure, Tim thought to himself. Aloud, he replied, "All very good questions. Not sure if I have all the answers in their entirety, but we can talk about it tomorrow after we watch the movie. Sound like a plan?"

"Agreed," Damian confirmed.

After a while, they started to doze off, and with the stealth of the master valet and former MI6 agent he was, Alfred pushed the door —which had been opened a crack and allowed him to overhear most of the conversation — fully open and took a quick picture with a camera before shutting the door again. He put the camera back in his own quarters before going back down to the cave to await Dick's return.

o0o0o0o0o0o

Later that morning, Dick returned to the cave and was greeted by the valet.

"Hey Alfred," Dick said, taking off the cowl and the suit. "Did everything go okay with Tim and Damian?"

"I believe so, Master Richard. It appears that they may have finally reached an understanding." Taking the suit, he handed Dick his civilian pajamas.

"A good one or a bad one?" Dick asked, changing quickly.

"To put it simply, Master Richard, they've apparently decided to give the whole 'family' prospect a proper try, and are currently sleeping in the same room without killing one another."

"Really? You're kidding!" Dick said, his eyes as wide as dinner plates. "This I have to see." He rushed getting on his shirt as he ran off, careful not to let his pajama trousers tear on the cave's steps.

"Just be careful you don't wake them, sir!" Alfred called up after him as he folded the suit, thereby fulfilling his own last duty before retiring for the evening. Well, at least until it was time to make the young masters' breakfasts.

After vaulting up the stairs multiple steps at a time, Dick quieted his approach as he neared the door. He noticed Tim's laptop on the hall table and suppressed a groan. He'd been afraid of asking for Tim's help tonight specifically because he worried about Tim's workaholic tendencies and feared adding too much more to his little brother's workload.

Still, if Alfred was to be believed, things had worked out for the better. Although Dick didn't doubt Alfred's honesty — it was practically against their family's policy to do so — it was still hard to think such a miracle had happened. It was too good to be true, but he wouldn't know for sure unless he saw it for himself. So, Dick carefully turned the knob and opened the door, peeking in and quickly smiling at the sight that greeted him.

Tim and Damian were facing each other while laying on their sides, fast asleep. One of Tim's arms was under his pillow, while the other was draped over Damian. Damian was currently trying to move as close to Tim as possible considering his leg, and his position mimicked Tim's, the only difference being his free arm was gripping the sleeve of Tim's pillow-arm.

Dick found the urge to do something as childish as squee hard to resist, but resist he did in fear of waking them up. He was exhausted as well (why does Joker have to hire thugs from other gangs?) and doubted he had the energy to make it to his own bed. So, he went around to the other side of the bed, furthest from the door, and slid in under the covers as well. He wrapped his arms around both of his little brothers and was almost asleep himself when Damian mumbled something in his sleep.

"Todd's... ohana, too..." he mumbled.

"Yeah," Tim replied back drowsily. "One at... a time."

Dick was thoroughly confused, but decided to ask about it in the morning. Right now, he just wanted to enjoy a good night's rest cuddling two of his little brothers. Little Wing... you need to come home. You're missing out, he mused.

After all, nothing torn can be stitched back together unless all the pieces are present and accounted for.

Author's Note 3: Hope everyone enjoys the edited version of chapter one. I'll try to get chapter two out soon, since I'm transferring the handwritten rough draft to my computer and editing as I go. In the next chapter, Tim and Damian cement their new equilibrium, discuss the dysfunctional group that is the Bat Family, and enlist Dick's help to plan out a solution to said family's lack of cohesion as of late.