Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandom:
Relationship:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Series:
Part 14 of Batfamily Fluff
Collections:
Salmonight's Titans Tower AU, Salmonight's Shifter AU, Best BatFam Fics on AO3, Batfam best fanfic, Wwwwww, Tim Drake, Sustenance for my maladaptive daydreaming, Gotham may be a dangerous city but it's ours, Kat's faves of DC Shifter fanfiction
Stats:
Published:
2023-06-01
Words:
1,329
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
144
Kudos:
6,463
Bookmarks:
900
Hits:
41,962

hear my roar

Summary:

"Tim's eyes narrowed then, finally, he shifted.

And a big, hulking tiger took his place."

-

Talia may not have been completely honest about Tim's shifted form. Jason finds this out the hard way.

Notes:

I swear this is the last Titan’s Shifter AU I'll write *crosses fingers behind back*

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Jason shifted into his panther form with a roar, he glared up at the brat waiting for him to shift.

Except the kid didn't. He just stood there looking mildly inconvenienced at best while Jason snarled at him.

Jason had grown into quite an intimidating specimen, in his humble opinion. He was seven feet long and one hundred and fifty pounds, not to mention he was no stranger to ripping the odd throat out when provoked. There was no reason for the brat to be looking bored.

The Pit flared and Jason growled louder at the kid's reluctance to shift. It was fight or get mauled, Jason was good with either.

He started prowling forward, baring his teeth.

Tim's eyes narrowed then, finally, he shifted.

And a big, hulking tiger took his place.

Jason faltered. The tiger was a solid nine feet long. It was a gigantic monstrosity, in fact, it looked like it had eaten three Jason's for breakfast – shit, the kid must weigh a solid three hundred pounds. 

Talia said they were equally ferocious. This doesn't feel fucking equal.

Jason's snarl cracked and stuttered before going away completely.

If he were in human form, his face would be bright red. Why did he ever trust Talia? 

They stared at one another in silence for a few moments, then Tim's eyes narrowed into slits. 

He stalked towards Jason, moving with a lethal grace that put Nightwing to shame.

Jason growled. He wasn't going down without giving as good as he got.

Even if Tim's figure cast a shadow over Jason as he got closer. Or if his paws were twice the size of Jason’s. Or if his teeth were sharper than Jason’s mind and brighter than his very short future.

Tim pounced and then they were fighting.

Well, Jason was fighting. He was snarling, biting and trying to claw at the few weak spots Tim had.

Tim, on the other hand, was downright amused. He snorted, batting Jason's paws away and smacking his nose every time he went to bite him. 

Jason felt like a kitten going up against, well, a tiger. It was goddamn embarrassing. 

Soon enough, Tim got the upper hand. He tripped Jason up, chuffing as he did and pounced on him before he could move.

Jason struggled, but Tim weighed a fucking ton. Especially since he was lying like a deadweight on top of him. It was like trying to bench Bruce, Bane and Superman all at once.

Jason snarled, low and angry, he was going to haunt Talia for the rest of her miserable life.

He eventually quietened down and waited for Tim’s final attack. But none came. 

The kid just sat on him and rumbled happily, hitting Jason whenever he snarled.

Eventually, Jason gave a questioning grumble. If the kid wasn't going to kill him, what was he gonna do? Let him go?

Tim shifted to get more comfortable on Jason,  because apparently he was furniture now. After a few moments, Tim chirped loudly and obnoxiously.

It basically translated to move me if you can.

That little shit. He knew damn well Jason couldn't.

Then the brat had the nerve to nuzzle the top of his head reassuringly as if Jason were a scared cub.

Jason glared. If he got out of this, he was going to kill Talia.

-

Bruce and Dick had burst through the doors about ten minutes ago. 

In those ten minutes, they had tried to coax Tim off Jason, even going so far as to bribe him to no avail. 

Jason was angrily resigned to his fate of being crushed and snuggled back into the grave by the little gremlin above him.

Big gremlin. Whatever.

"Tim, please." Bruce sounded exhausted, like this had happened before.

Tim rumbled and continued nuzzling the top of Jason’s head. It actually felt kind of nice, like what Dick used to do back when Jason was a cub.

"Robin." Bruce growled. Jason's ears perked up instinctively and he saw Dick straighten up, out the corner of his eye.

Every Robin knew that tone meant business. It was the equivalent to getting full named by an angry parent. You don't mess with it unless there's no other option.

Tim growled back at Bruce in the same tone, almost as if mocking him. He went back to nuzzling Jason, rumbling in contentment. 

Jason felt his eyes go wide. Looks like Bruce had his hands full with this one. 

"I will bench you." Bruce glared. Jason’s gotta give credit where credit's due, it was brave of the old man to look a man eating tiger in the eye and basically tell him he's grounded. 

Not that it did much.

Tim snorted and rested his chin on Jason’s head.

"I mean, this is pretty tame compared to other stuff he's done." Dick said with 'a what can you do' shrug. 

"He's snuggling a crime lord." Bruce glared.

Jason bristled, he was a certified rogue at this point and should be treated as such.

Tim growl-clicked and put his paws over Jason's ears before roaring at Bruce. A deep, guttural thing that would have had anybody sane running the other way.

Bruce and Dick remained, because of course they did.

Dick shot Jason a reassuring smile. He wasn't sure if he felt more protected or patronized at this point.

Bruce pointed at Tim. "Don't use that tone with me."

Tim snapped his jaws at Bruce's finger. Bruce closed his eyes in despair, scrubbing a hand across his face.

Jason snorted. He'd never seen the old man look so defeated. 

"Hey, tiny tot," Dick scratched the top of Tim's head. Jason blinked, who the hell looks at a giant ass monster of a tiger and calls it tiny tot? "Is there a reason you're so attached to this particular B-List villain?"

Jason's head snapped up and he roared indignantly. B-List? How dare he. Jason cut off twelve heads in two hours, does Dickhead know how much upper body strength that takes? How much conviction?

Dick gave Jason a flat stare. "You basically just stole another rogue's old title, even Kite Man is more creative than that." 

Jason could feel Tim shaking above him. First the little shit steals his name, now he's laughing at his new one? 

He should have just stayed with the League. 

Jason folded his ears and grumbled, a few meows sneaking in between growls, he even huffed as if he was fifteen again.

The room went silent.

Jason looked up to see Bruce's eyes shining as he stared at him in something akin to awe.

"Jaylad?" He said softly. "Is that you, sweetheart?"

Jason gave him a half-hearted glare before nodding.

Tim chuffed, rumbling in a way that could only be construed as smug.

"Oh my God." Dick murmured, he reached out towards Jason, smiling softly–

Jason bared his teeth at him.

Tim whacked him. 

"Tim!" Bruce scolded. He smoothed a hand over Jason's head, which felt annoyingly comforting.

Tim stared into Bruce's eyes and whacked Jason again.

He was never going to be taken seriously by anyone again, his reputation was ruined. He snarled and hid his face behind his paws.

"Aww, Little Wing, there's nothing to be embarrassed about." Dick soothed, scratching behind Jason's ears, he begrudgingly leaned into the touch. "Tim does this to everyone, you know, he even scruffed Bruce one time when–"

Bruce coughed pointedly.

Tim chirped brightly, like the little shit he has proven himself to be.

Honestly, he was starting to grow on Jason.

"Okay, Tim, now that we know it's Jason, can you move off him?" Bruce requested, finally seeming to understand that politeness was the best way to go for his deranged Robin.

Tim tilted his head consideringly. And for a single, beautiful moment, there was hope.

He then proceeded to lay down until Jason was completely covered by him, very clearly not moving anytime soon.

Jason snarled as Dick started laughing.

He hated this family.

Notes:

Can you tell that I love embarrassing Jason?

Series this work belongs to: