"The world may never know, Timbit." The nickname rolled easily off his tongue before he could stop it, but he didn't seem too bothered by the slip. He, grudgingly, liked the kid. He wasn't anywhere close to admitting it, yet, but he could feel a warm swirl of affection in his chest when he looked over at the younger man. Maybe it was because he'd shaken off the worst of the programming Talia had tried to drill into his brain. Maybe it was because he'd watched in real time as Tim had been just as un-ceremonially replaced as he'd been.

Either way, he no longer had to swallow back the bitterness that seeing Tim had once provoked.

"I think you would have found it, eventually. You're too much of a natural for it to have not leaked out of your ears at some point. But even so, I'm glad I nudged you in the right direction. I wanna see you soar, baby bird. Not crash down in the dumpster with the rest of us rejects. As for Ra's..." He made a face, sending his own wrapper to join Tim's in the trash.

"I'll kill you myself before letting him get his hands on you for real."

It was a threat. Every single word dripped sincerity. He meant it with every fiber of his being, it was whole heartedly a promise of a threat to kill the boy in front of him.

So why didn't it feel like one?