Too Old, Too Young

A Word: Request for the pairing.

.

.

It feels like Dick blinked and Tim grew up in that split second. Grew hard and lean and confident some time when he wasn't looking. Dick still expects Tim to be tiny. A whipcord thin teen with wide eyes and a habit of second guessing himself every second.

What he sees though is a grown man who doesn't once think he's ever wrong. Who rules a board room with the same calm confidence he runs the city with at night. He's not that much taller but the muscle he's packed on makes the old names die in Dick's throat.

Die and wither to ash because Tim is nothing short of breathtaking now.

It's not a new observation. Just one he's never allowed himself to have when one of the most accurate names for Tim was jailbait. A hundred observations shunted to a black hole in Dick's mind. Things about his eyes and nose. The way he laughs and always leans into Dick's touch. His terrible humor and how it takes real work to loosen him up enough to share it. The way he gets loopy after a really bad stretch of sleepless nights and the fact that he'll sneakily steal all the fruit off Dick's plate if it's left unguarded.

"Yes?" Tim looks startled to find Dick patiently waiting for him to get off the phone. His tie, a dark blue that had caught Dick unexpectedly off guard, crooked already despite the earliness of the day. Dick would put good money on Tim not going home after patrol the night before like he said he was going to do. "Dick, did you need something?"

"Yeah," Dick calculates the sleep debt Tim no doubt owes himself and ignores the shoddily wrapped presents shoved under his jacket in favor of a new plan. "You need to finish that," that is a large stack of papers that Dick's sure could have been delegated, "up in ten minutes or less. Less is preferable. I'll be back in a bit."

He shuts the door on Tim's sour look and protests to turn to Tam. The woman arches an eyebrow at him when he smiles down at her. "Tell me he has nothing scheduled."

"He doesn't," Tam confirms with a sad shake of her head. "He doesn't know why though and went out to get busy work to fill up his day."

"Yeah, Tim does that," Dick sighs and pulls out his phone. Debating the merits of pizza verses Chinese. "He forgot his sixteenth birthday too. I'll get him out of here for the rest of the day."

Tam makes a pleased noise as Dick dials for pizza delivery. A few cheesy slices, the bad kung fu action flicks he wrapped up earlier, and a soft couch to lull Tim to sleep wasn't exactly the party Dick was planning but it'll do. He can always think about how very legal Tim now is later.

.

.