It’s not something the Bat Family really learns about at once. Alfred notices first, naturally, and then Bruce.
It’s not anything sexual or even romantic, it’s a very intimate display of platonic and familial affection that he shows on gentle occasions. It’s not after a bad mission or shift, nor when someone is injured or having a bad day.
It’s also not a big, fancy gesture.
Bruce first received a kiss when he was having a slow, exhausting day dealing with dozens of the more tedious but weighty issues like kids running away from home due to an argument or a mother stealing for her sick child. It wasn’t all that unique, just heavier than usual.
Tim had been Robin officially for two and half months, not that he was counting, and had watched Bruce sit at the bat computer and noted that instead of instantly turning it on he paused for 3.7 seconds with his eyes closed and then proceeded.
He had smiled at his hero and while wiping imaginary sleep from his eyes he waddled over to Bruce, pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek and said, “Make sure you sleep.”
Bruce was confused as hell.
Dick hadn’t been overly affectionate and the only time he came close to doing a similar gesture was when he bite Bruce on the shoulder.
Jason had been so nervous about any affection and had once cried for an hour when Bruce held his hand crossing a street.
What Tim did was casual, quick and filled with care. It wasn’t demeaning even if it was an action a parent usually gave to a child and not the other way around. It wasn’t apart of a concerning situation of Tim having an inappropriate crush, just… a soft kiss to the cheek.
Bruce naturally stewed on it for months.
Alfred received a kiss not long after when he took an energy drink from Tim and asked him to at least try coffee instead, his voice even got as close to pleading as Alfred ever would dare go.
Tim had been glaring, pissed off and irradiated one moment before he seemingly caught himself. He had sighed deeply and then stood on his tip toes and kissed Alfred’s cheek and promised to have tea instead while thanking him with his full heart.
It became a normal, if not uncommon thing.
Sometimes it seemed to be a way for him to say thank you when he was tired. His team learnt it quickly after they had a rather big trauma bonding mission. Tim was exhausted, his eye bags so heavy they went to his cheek bones, and his team mates had cleaned the kitchen fully for the first time since they had been living there in an attempt to help him relax.
Tim had smiled and went around to each of them where they were, spread out in their rooms or on the couch, and gave each of them a kiss on the cheek, temple or crown and then went to his own room and slept for ten hours. Everyone was elated by this and they began trying to ‘earn’ kisses.
Those who felt or wanted more than a platonic relationship with him quickly understood it wasn’t about that when Bart nearly died and Tim stayed in his Robin persona until they were safe and alone, or to more specific, until he was able to give Bart a kiss on the head and he promptly fell into a ball of sobs and snot.
Dick was very upset when he found out about this and he himself hadn’t received one yet.
He watched as Tim got ready for school and gave Alfred a kiss on the cheek on his way out, the elderly man even leaning sideways and down without looking away from what he was doing.
Like it was second nature.
He met up with Bruce and it was the first time they had bonded about something after Jason had died.
That being: it was bullshit that Alfred got a cheek kiss every day and they didn’t.
Dick spent days, no, weeks trying to get one without asking for it and feeling weird. He didn’t want to be predatory to his little brother who didn’t quite feel comfortable calling Dick his brother yet and he grew up with a whole lot of affection and Tim hadn’t so he didn’t want to overstep
Fortunately, a very forward Cassie Sandmark pointed it out to Tim that he might not feel comfortable asking because of how some sidekicks and young heroes had been treated in the past. She mentioned this after Tim joked he was seeing how long it would take Dick to cave.
He instantly understood and wrote Dick a letter telling him that he was raised in a family where kisses were like hugs. Sure, his parents had faults and it was often in place of a hug, but they never failed to give him a kiss when he did something good and he loved greeting his grandmother with a kiss to her wrinkled hands.
He snuck by when Dick was reading it, dropped a kiss to his cheek and ran out of the room giggling madly as Dick started to give chase.
Bruce and Dick began to keep count of how many kisses they got when they noticed he’d always give them one when they did something healthy like sleep for eight hours or eat a full meal or actually wear a seatbelt. It was clear manipulation but Tim became Robin through manipulation, so they figured it was their own fault.
That’s how it went for a while.
The only people to not really get kisses was Jason and Damian, which no one fully blamed him for.
Yet both did have a kiss on their scoreboard.
Jason, after he saved a little girl no older than nine from overdose and wasn’t able to hide his breakdown from the observant Red Robin. Tim had pressed the kiss to his temple and held it for a second before leaving, not overstepping anymore than that. It reminded Jason of his own mother and it both helped and pained him more.
Damian got two, but the first was the only one he cared about. It was after he fully, properly rejected Ra’s and he was stuck in an American school and was forced to deal with the tradition of Mother’s Day everywhere he went. It had been like the world was teasing and tormenting him and he spent the day painting in his room. Tim had snuck in, placed a steaming pot of tea on his desk and pressed a kiss to Damian’s head.
He didn’t leave straight away but didn’t say anything, he just placed the jade cup Damian had broken the day before down all fixed with gold and then left quietly and calm.
The second time was less dramatic, it was when Damian had a cold and finally admitted it. Tim rewarded his brother, who yes he did consider as such, with the affection and then put on an animal documentary.
By the time Tim moved out the family had changed a lot.
Damian was no longer the ‘baby’ and the new ‘baby’ wasn’t as spikey as him.
So, as if overnight, Duke started to make his way up the leader board for the most kisses. It helped that while he did some insane things, he handled the insanity the most… healthily. Yes, he’d jumped out of buildings with no grapple, but he made sure to check where he would land first!
Dick and Bruce become far more infuriating after they take note.
Tim doesn’t mind about their competition, because he knows that his family knows he loves them dozens of times over.
That and Alfred will always be in the lead, so it’s a moot point.
