AU where little Timmy saw Dick's parents fall and wailed and cried until his parents agreed, if only to shut him up, to take Dick in.
Dick, angry and grieving and hurt, gets a little brother, and he wants vengeance. He does. But, look. He can't put himself first anymore. He's used to being the baby of the circus, an only child, but he's got a toddler who looks at him like he hung the stars in the sky. Tim's his baby brother, even if it was originally only on paper, and he's got to take care of him, because it's the only thing stopping him from trying to set the world and everyone in it ablaze.
Tim, only three but so so determined, knows that Dick is hurt. He knows that he can't fix it. But he also knows that Dick still wants to jump around and flip and cartwheel and eat sugary cereal and sometimes hurl things at a wall and scream until he's lost his voice. He can give him what he needs to heal. And sometimes Dick goes out at night and doesn't come back until the next morning, bleeding but less tense. It's weird, but he can deal with that. Dick smiles when he places little Batman band-aids on his scratches.
Bruce still wants Dick, because the Drakes aren't putting any effort into getting a traumatized, recently orphaned child the help he needs. Dick wants to go to Bruce, thinks he gets him, and is wiling to trade an empty Manor to one haunted by the shadow of a man like him. Jack and Janet don't care, but Tim does. Tim doesn't want to let Dick go, and Dick refuses to go with Bruce unless he takes Tim too.
So Bruce is stuck between a rock and a hard place—he really, truly thinks he can help Dick better than the Drakes can, and they're willing to let Bruce foster him. And Dick is barely around them, so he won't miss them, and he genuinely likes Bruce. But he refuses to go without the Drakes' son, a toddler, and Bruce...doesn't think he can take care of a toddler. It's been decades since there was a toddler living in the Manor’s walls, and Bruce doesn't- it won't be best, for the child.
When Bruce asks to meet Dick and Dick brings the little boy with him but not the Drakes, Bruce knows he's in for it.
("Tim hit his head a bit ago," Dick says, his grip tightrning on the boy protectively, "he's tired and won't talk a lot. But he's listening and understanding, so don't be mean."
"I would never," Bruce reassures, instinctively lowering his voice like he does with people with head wounds. "What's his name?"
"Tim." Dick looks at him like he's stupid. "Duh. Do you have a head wound?"
"Sorry," Bruce apologizes, "I'm not good with...children. Where are Jack and Janet?"
Tim looks up at him with wide blue eyes, still half-hidden behind Dick. He's wearing in a bright red sweater that's far too big for him, and his shoes are an eye-watering shade of green. "Mom and Dad aren't around."
"...who takes Dick to school, then? A nanny?" Children must go to school, right?
"I can take care of Timmy all by myself." Dick sounds affronted. "And I homeschool myself."
...Bruce is really going to take in two small children, isn't he.)
It's just disaster adult Bruce, weird toddler Tim, and protective older brother Dick that insists on mother-henning both Bruce and Tim. He still ends up as Robin because he's very persistent, but only on some nights because Tim's an anxiety ridden kid that even Alfred can't get to sleep until Dick is back home safe and sound.
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