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bernard loves taking care of tim after his missions of saving gotham. he knows that tim’s always so stubborn in a self preservation type of deal, but he doesn’t care. if he can’t help him out in the field, he can help him at home.
bernard assists by first helping tim shed off his robin suit. he’s careful with his movements, not wanting to jostle the fragile thing beneath his fingertips. he was the last person to ever hurt him, and he didn’t want to ever be one of those people. so he takes his time helping him out of his clothes, allowing tim the space to say no at any moment.
he doesn’t.
so bernard slowly guides tim to the bathroom, cleaning his dirt covered hair with gentle fingers before washing off all the dried blood and debris that caught onto his achy skin. he loves how thorough he is, almost passing out in the tub before being softly shaken so he could keep his eyes open.
tim’s embarrassed to be treated so gently, unlike the roughness of the outside world, but he doesn’t vocalize it because he likes it. he likes being taken care of more than anything and he knows he shouldn’t get attached, but he can’t help it.
and after treating him like he was the most precious treasure on earth, bernard helps tim out of the bath and change into pajamas. tim requests wearing bernard’s clothes because it would make him feel safer, and bernard agrees happily.
but before they could sleep, tim needed to get bandaged up. bernard fished out his first aid kit that he bought immediately after finding out his boyfriend was robin and began to carefully wrap every scratch, cut, and bruise that needed to be compressed. he’s so attentive to what hurt and what didn’t, how each bandage was wrapped tight so there wasn’t a risk of infection or how the gauzes were placed so accurately that it caused a flare up in him.
tim feels like he’s gonna cry.
not because he hates this— oh no, far from it. it’s so intimate and sweet that it’s foreign to him. he’s never had anyone handle him with such kindness before. sure, there was bruce, but bruce wasn’t bernard. no one was.
he notices his choked up expression (of course he does, bernard notices everything) and he placed a gentle kiss as a reminder that he was still there and that he didn’t think any less of him for coming home half dead nearly every week.
after the bandages were done, bernard takes tim into his bed and lays him down. he intended to leave so he could sleep but he felt a gentle clutch at his wrist and a soft sob like voice rip through the air.
“please. stay.”
and how could bernard deny a request like that? he just nods, pressing a benign kiss to tim’s forehead to ensure that he’d stay. sliding into the place next to him, he doesn’t comment about the way tim immediately clings to him and keeps a tight grip on his shirt, almost acting as a lifeline of sorts.
he needs bernard to stay grounded.
and bernard needs him to stay alive.