Work Text:
If one more person came to Tim needing one more thing he was either going to fire them or jump off the roof of Wayne Enterprises. Firing would send a message and jumping would cause more problems for everyone else. Tim's best course of action was to avoid everyone and try to eat lunch in the best symbolist of peace possible. It was Tuesday, but it had the vibe of a bad Monday. Everyone wanted something from him and half of it wasn’t even important. Tim wondered if Bruce hated him for keeping him in this awful CEO position. Lucious didn’t hate Tim, but he had said that he liked that Tim was more involved than Bruce. Or did Lucious secretly hate him and that was the reason he kept Tim as CEO? Tim was too tired and hungry to care that he was being over dramatic.
Everyone was wrong when they said he didn't eat, he did and made sure it hit the calories needed for his body size and activity level. It was harder at the office because the break room was full of people. Last night he had stayed up hours later than usual and fell into bed without supper which meant he was later getting up and didn’t have a chance to eat breakfast. He was starving and had ate every snack in his office by 10:00 am. Normally he packed a lunch that didn't need heating and could be kept in his mini fridge. Now he had to go to the break room filled with people that wanted to curry favor with him, people that thought WE should fund their pet projects, and people that were loud.
Tim wasn't sure when he became an old man in a young man's body, but here he was. Figuring out the best time to go and heat up the beef stew Alfred made last night because his office didn't have a microwave. Which was stupid he needed a microwave and a fully stocked pantry in his office.
"Hey Siri, create a reminder to put a microwave in my office," Tim said as Siri confirmed the reminder Tim walked to the break room. He got out his container of hearty beef stew and a water bottle. He shuffled to the microwave that was heating up salmon, because he worked with animals who didn't have the common courtesy to not heat up fish for everyone in Gotham to smell.
"Beef stew would taste nasty cold and you have cheese crackers to throw in it," Tim reminded himself looking at his coworkers that were smiling up at him. Tim smiled back for all of two seconds and let the fake smile melt off his face. “The good cheese crackers with real fake cheese between them that melts in the beef broth,” he reiterated to himself.
An intern came right up to him, Tim was waiting for the inevitable flirting or butt kissing that came with being the youngest CEO in history. Another reason he tried to get the board to make working at home an incentivized thing for the rest of Tim’s time working at Wayne Enterprises. Why couldn’t he work from home? Why did the board decide stupid stuff he couldn’t over rule like a power hungry dictator?
Instead she pulled out her lunchbox and Monster energy drink. She cracked the pop top and got closer to Tim, "Are you new here too? I just started here and it's so much better than working at Batburger."
"I started working here full time six months ago," Tim replied, hating the breakroom chit chat. He wanted to eat, not prattle or gossip.
"Wow, you must be really smart to get hired so young," Brooklyne said as Tim read her name tag. Pretentious name he thought to himself hangrily.
"Most of the time I believe it was a stupid choice. I should have gone to college and did something fun like being an astrophysicist," Tim snarked as a guy with a man bun pulled out his revolting salmon from the microwave. He thought about getting his name and firing him for the unforgivable crime of microwaving fish in a shared space, but thought better of it. Tim placed his bowl of soup in and covered it with a paper towel because he wasn't a monster with no hint of raising.
Brooklyne chattered on eating the imitation crab snack pack out of her lunch box with Batman riding a unicorn on it. Tim wanted to know who on Etsy was selling those so he could send to Jason and what the hell is imitation crab. Crab meat is crab, why wouldn't you just eat crab? Was it some sort of vegan crab? He'd have to check if Damian liked that kind. It looked like crab meat if crab meat was molded into sticks.
Blessedly the microwave beeped and his soup was as warm as it was going to get. He withdrew the bowl that was roughly the same temperature as the sun and wrapped a paper towel around it, grabbed the spoon out of the dish drainer and was ready to go back to his office and refuge when Brooklyne stopped him.
"I haven't seen you around, what's your name? I may want to look you up."
Tim deadpanned, "You probably haven't heard of me, my name Tim Drake." He was too hungry and tired to care how her face took on a terrified wide eyed look. She might learn that Tim Drake might be the CEO but he was also hangry at lunch time.
Tim retreated to his office with his stomach growling, nothing was coming between him and his Alfred made beef stew. He dreaded the next time he had to come out and interact with people. He got a bite of the soup that burned his hands on the walk to his office and the soup was cold: the bite of potato that had him practically drooling over it was cold and congealed. The flavor was covered by the fact that it was as cold as his mother’s heart.