#please understand that i wrote this entire thing picturing tim in a huge sweatshirt with his hair in a half-ponytail

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

double-asking for the roadtrip au because *heart eyes emoji*

the roadtrip fic has hardly and solid plot or a working title yet but heck it's fun akskdjfhskfns

"Where's Jason?" Asks Duke, flat-out on a plush hotel bed that feels like a freaking cloud. Tim stretched out along one side of it, and if it doesn't say something about how big these beds are that the two of them, him and gangly Tim Drake, are both sprawled comfortably in the same one, Duke doesn't know what to say about that.

Tim doesn't look up from his laptop. "Probably pissing off Cass," he replies.

Duke raises an eyebrow, which Tim doesn't see, because he's staring at the computer screen. "On purpose?"

Tim shrugs. "Probably not, but also? Possibly. I don't think the whole thing with Steph is on purpose, though." Duke watches upside-down as a corner of Tim's mouth quirks up.

"Alright, I'll bite. How does Steph play into this?" 'Cause it's not like Duke hasn't noticed the rivalry between Cassie and Jason, they're not that subtle about it. He just hasn't asked. Not his monkeys, not his circus, right? He should use that one around Dick, see what the former circus kid thinks of that very appropriate saying.

Tim sighs. "I mean- you might get caught in the middle of it too. Cass is frustrated enough to stop pulling punches, at this point."

How Tim knows that, without a single word from the Batgirl in question for the duration of today's drive, Duke definitely won't question. If Tim is some kind of potential mind-reading meta, he's not going to be the one to out him.

Tim finally closes the laptop, looks at Duke. "Cass... does not," he emphasizes not, "Like Jay. I won't call it hate, because hate would have to have love to reflect from, but... it's close. It's the killing."

"I figured."

Tim nods. "And Jason hates being hated. They really don't get along in the best of circumstances, and, like... Cass can't turn off her abilities, you know?" He frowns. "Being stuck in an enclosed space with the entire family and all our emotional crap? Sucks for her and I don't think she expected it."

Duke remembers the excited, emoji-filled messages he'd gotten from Cassie about this trip the past few weeks. He doesn't think she expected it, either. "And Steph?"

Tim looks him directly in the eyes, which is freaking unnerving because Tim has those icy blue eyes like Bruce that look like he's staring directly into you sometimes, when he's not looking at you from behind messy-long hair. "Come on," he says, almost abruptly, then relaxes back against the cushiony headboard of the massive bed.

He sighs, loud and grating in the quiet of the room. There's a gorgeous view out the window, but the quiet, free of road noise and navigational conversational chatter, might be the best part. Duke stares out the window, overlooking a shockingly blue lake, watches a floating dock bob in the wind instead of watching the thinly veiled emotions crossing Tim's face. Tim is like a steel trap a lot of the time, expressionless as Red Robin but when he's himself, really, he doesn't hide so much. Duke doubts he really wants him to see all that, though, if he could even parse it all out.

Finally, after long enough that it almost makes Duke jump, Tim speaks again. "Steph has been spending a lot of time with Jason lately." Something about his tone, or maybe the words themselves, sounds weirdly deliberate. It takes Duke a minute to figure out why.

He pushes himself up on an elbow to stare at Tim, not upside-down. "They've got something going on," he fills in, and, yeah, that checks out.

Tim snorts. "Heck if I know. I don't think they're, like... dating? But there's... definitely something there."

"Mutual crush," Duke fills in again, because that definitely fits with what he's seen.

"Something like that," Tim says. "If my ex girlfriend, who's currently one of my best friends in general, and my brother have a thing for each other... who gets the shovel talk?"

Duke, to his credit, doesn't burst out laughing like he wants to do. "Hell if I know," he replies, then laughs because he just repeated what Tim had said a second ago. "So Jason is pissing Cassie off by hanging around with Steph?"

"Yep," Tim replies, popping the P. "I wonder if B is aware of this whole thing," he mutters.

Duke grins. "Tell him. Then he can handle the shovel talk."

Tim looks at him, startled and considering at the same time, then grins back.