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Tim stood in the middle of the pet products aisle. Suddenly he wasn’t feeling well, wasn’t so sure about himself. It was the day after he got Doggie and when he woke up in the morning—finding Doggie sleeping by his bed—he realized he was not playing anymore. Adopting means responsibility, and Doggie needs someone to take care of her. She was a sweet dog, and she ate whatever left inside Tim’s plate (not much. Tim was always ignorant about his own physical needs. His fridge is almost always empty. The only time it is full was always after Alfred’s visit—Alfred knows everyone’s secret houses. Now that he thinks about it, maybe Tim was to Alfred what Doggie is to Tim. Maybe) yet whatever Tim usually eats was definitely not enough to sustain nutrient needed by a canine.
So there he was, immediately after breakfast, taking Doggie to his nearby bigger commercial grocery store. He tied up the (make do) lash onto the pole with some other dogs (the grocery has provided a bowl of water for the pets). Doggie looked hurt when Tim moved away, it took Tim fifteen minutes to assure the canine that he was going to return to her very soon. It was almost a teary Tim who entered the grocery shop; some of the old grannies (who love to shop in the morning) tried to offer their handkerchiefs to him.
Tim had a better diet on his chart now: some eggs, cheese, bread, instant noodle, oil, some sausages and chicken nuggets, some ice cream (secret—Tim loves his ice cream. He has three tubes in his chart now, but who’s counting?) and three kgs of apples. Apples are good. An apple a day keeps the doctor away, three kgs of apples should keep him alive for the next three years. And he checked (googled!) that apple is good for dogs. So Doggie should be fine. But now he is stuck at the pet row.
Who knows there are so many pet food? Tim has eliminated the food with cats and birds and fishes on the label, and focused on the ones with dog picture. But there are pictures of puppies, big dog, medium dog, small dog. Doggie is a dog, but Tim wasn’t sure whether she is considered as medium or big. And how old is she? Is she teenager or elder dog? But she is a lady, she should be an adult. Maybe. That eliminated quite a lot of choices. Now, onto the flavor. What does Doggie like? Is it dry or wet food? If Doggie is like Tim, then she should like the dry ones. But maybe Doggie is not Tim, then she would love the wet ones.
Tim decided to just get one of everything and let Doggie decides for herself. There are lots of choices, Tim felt lucky he had money concern (not to brag, but he paid for his current penthouse in cash). Some of the choices are put on top of the top shelves, and it was harder for Tim to get it. Tim had admitted it early on, that after his puberty, he wont be as tall as Dick or Jason. Tim kind of accepted it, but he is afraid that the Demon spawn might be taller than him one day—if genetics is to be believed, then the Demon Spawn should be at least as tall as Bruce Wayne.
A hand pushed the crown of Tim’s head down and reached the top shelves before Tim managed to grab the can of grilled chicken flavor wet food. Tim growled and heard a chuckle.
“Hey Babybat.”
Oh Batman. Tim grimaced and turned to find the hand who pushed him down belonged to Jason Todd. The man was without his usual Redhood mask; smiling and looking cool—that’s not fair. Nobody should be looking that good at 9 am in the morning with bed hair and eyes. Tim swore he would find some drugs to control his blood flow—but for now, he could do nothing to keep his blood from staining his cheek red.
“What do you want?”
“Me? I am just helping a short damsel in distress.”
“Go away.”
“Or maybe an angry wet cat.” Jason smirked and looked at the can in his hand. “Dog food? Did you get a pet, Babybat? You sure about that?”
“What? You think I cannot take care of a dog?”
“The way I see it, you are one hell of demanding pet. You still need to be look after.”
Tim growled, yet somehow it made Jason laughed. He put the can in the chart, shrugging.
“Whatever floats your boat, Babybat.”
Tim humphed, realizing that the act made him looked childish. He pushed his chart harder than necessary, but then stopped around the place where they had shampoo for dogs and lash. He turned to see Jason still standing watching him, and Tim took a deep breath; trying to regain his composure. Jason Todd was not Red Hood now—he wouldn’t be trying to kill Tim. But he would be trying to taunt Tim, finding anything he could tease Tm with. Doggie is more important now though. The poor lady hasn’t eaten breakfast as yet.
Tim took the shampoo nearest to him and a red collar; then took a brush, water bowl and poop bag (they do have it! amazing, Tim marveled). He quickly left, wishing Jason wouldn’t follow him.
The next time he met Jason was at night, when he was snuggled in between Doggie and Corgtwo, while the others slept around the sofa. They were watching Big Hero 6, and Tim was snuffling through Tadashi’s death. He could feel the hurt really bad, because if Dick died like that, he would be devastated to no end.
Suddenly something exploded by the furthest empty room (the penthouse has at least six bedrooms; Tim only use two: his bedroom and his workroom. The rest became storeroom or hardware rooms), alerting all of them. The dogs started barking and the cats hissed; the ducklings went for cover while its fierce mother walked first towards the noise, brave as ever.
She captained all of them towards the sound, when the door suddenly unlocked and a bleeding (a bit, just a bit) Red Hood came out from it.
“Wha…. What the hell, Hood???”
“Hi Princess.” Hood spoke softly. “You have dangerous alarm system in there.”
“Of course. It keeps me away from the likes of you.” Tim said, lacking the bite. “Come here. I have some aid kits around.”
It ended up with Jason (Tim forced the injured man to take a bath, cleaning himself from the smell of road, trash, gun powder and musk) sitting beside Tim and Lassie, with Cat sitting on top of his lap. Tim was hugging Doggie and CorgThree—or CorgFour, Jason wasn’t too sure, and they resumed watching the Big Hero 6.
Jason was expecting a kid’s animation. He was fooled, utterly fooled. Baymax made him want to apologise to Bruce and get the man to buy him one. Hiro reminded him of Tim, and when Tim—no, Hiro, the kid’s name is Hero—cried when he saw his brother video saying he has not given up on him, Jason had the urge to hug Tim.
And he did just that. Tim also let him too. Until the end when Baymax asked whether Hiro was satisfied with his care.
Both started to sob like 2 years old.
The thing is, the visit to Tim’s penthouse became a habit. At first Jason was intrigued when he found Tim looking for Dog food in the grocery store. Then he started to realize the crow army (he learned the hard lesson). Next he wanted to play with the pets, because honestly? Jason was a giant cuddle slut. Now, Jason learned to handle duck attack and corgi army, just to be close to Tim. Tim, the Disney Princess.
Maybe Jason is attracted to Tim like the animals attracted to Tim.