Morality
Jason’s Tim was a hell of a fighter, but this Tim? This Tim was in a whole different bracket. He fought hard, and he fought mean.
Tim tapped out a few times, but Jason did so far more often. Tim was kicking his ass.
It only took a few rounds for him to figure out what was different. There was still plenty of Bat in Tim’s fighting style…
But there was a whole lot more League.
Jason stumbled when the realization clicked and Tim took him down hard. He wasn’t bad off enough that he needed to end it there, but he tapped out anyway.
“Already? Done for now, then?” Tim stepped away, breathing hard.
Jason stood (with maybe a little effort) and wiped sweat out of his eyes. His mind was racing.
“Yeah. Mind started to go elsewhere. We can take it up again later if you want.”
Tim shook his head, walking to the side benches and grabbing two water bottles. He tossed one to Jason and cracked his own open. “Dami’s turn for a while.”
He needed to probe for information. He’d just been flashed a red flag and he needed to probe for information. If he was about to bump into Ra’s al Ghul in the fucking living room one day he needed to fucking know. “Sure you aren’t going to tire yourself out too much before tonight?”
Something odd flickered over Tim’s face, only for a second. “You know I can handle more than this. This is nothing compared to what I’m used to.”
What I’m used to. One point for Jason. Tim was used to more rigorous training. Which, okay, it wasn’t that big of a revelation when Jason already knew that he obviously had League training.
Jason raised his hands. “You’re right. Just making sure you didn’t get too soft while I was gone since you didn’t have me around to keep you in shape.”
Tim snorted. “You wish.” He paused for a moment, then sighed. “I’m still too pissed at you to joke about this.”
Jason grimaced. “That’s fair. Sorry.”
That meant he was done poking for now. He’d have to think of more ways to suss it out later.
“We’ll find Dick first,” Tim continued. “After that...we can go from there, okay?”
“Okay.”
His brain switched out of detective gear and jumped right into making him feel like an asshole. Other-Jason was still wherever he’d fucked off to. Tim was mending bridges with the wrong guy and it was going to hurt when Jason pulled the rug out from under him.
But they needed him to get Dick back. He couldn’t just leave them like this. Tim was right, he just didn’t realize what he was really saying.
Save Dick first. Then they’d go from there.