Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim was lying on his stomach on the top of the roof. His camera perched on the side of the building. Below one of Penguin’s man was waiting to make another gun deal. Tim had been following this particular branch of Penguin’s business for a couple of weeks now.

One thing you need to know about Tim. On all accounts Tim was someone you would consider a normal child. He had two loving parents who although more absent than Tim would have liked still loved him very much. He was considered quite intelligent. Furthermore, he had a couple of friends and was quite athletic. All in all, he should have been a normal child.

Another thing you need to know about Tim. When he was three years old, he went to the circus and when the best day of his life quickly turned into the worst, he quickly became obsessed with the boy whose tragedy he was there to witness. This led to two things. One: he could never forget the boy neither could he forget the special flip the boy promised to do for him so when he saw the boy doing the same flip while masked it was quite easy for him to make the connection. Two: witnessing such a tragedy on such a young age gave him a very strong moral compass. When he was three, he couldn’t have stopped a tragedy from happening right in front of him but now that he was older, he wouldn’t stand still if he could stop another tragedy.

When Tim was nine, he figured out the identity of Batman. This would have most likely just stayed as a secret that Tim knew while his life went on as normal if it wasn’t for the mad hatter using his school to create a small army of brainwashed children. Tim stumbling on him on accident couldn’t of course stay still and with a bit of extra research he got the information to Batman.

Tim wished he could say that it was just a one-time incident, but instead it kept on escalating. Once he knew where to look, crime and dastardly schemes were everywhere, and Tim, Tim couldn’t just let it happen. Before he knew it, he was sneaking out every night with his camera.

So here we were, two years later with Tim lying on his stomach on a roof in the middle of Gotham at the height of summer. A car stopped for the guy and the guy got in. Tim quickly made a photo of the number plate. He sighed and got up putting his camera away. He had really hoped that he could have gathered more information. Not only that, but he really couldn’t keep sneaking out it wasn’t like boarding school were sneaking out was a piece of cake. At home, it would only be a matter of time before one of his parents caught him in the act and Tim would rather not be grounded for the rest of summer vacation.

He was walking to the other side of the roof when a figure stepped from behind a cooling unit. Tim yelped loudly almost falling over.

It didn’t take long before Tim recognized who was standing before him. It was Robin.

“What were you doing.” Robin said.

Tim froze, clutching his camera in his hands. He slightly raised his camera, “taking pictures.”

“At 3 o’clock in the morning.” Robin said incredulously.

“Yes.” Tim said closing his camera closer to his chest.

“I’ve been watching you for a few weeks, kid and I always see you taking pictures of crime scenes, so be honest with me. What are you doing.”

Tim almost couldn’t believe it. For two years he had been going around at night taking pictures. Batman never caught him out here and neither did Dick, but now this new Robin caught him within a few months of his career as Robin. And I every other scenario Tim would still have found this incredibly cool. The new Robin was still Robin after all but right now Tim was very much trying to figure a way out of this without his parents catching on, on his nighttime activities. He couldn’t stop now; people would get hurt.

“You are only a few years older than me.” Tim retorted ignoring everything else Robin said.

“No, I am not.” Robin said, “show me your camera.”

“Look, if I tell you what I was doing will you let me go.”

“Depends.”

“I was taking a picture of that car because one of penguin’s men went into it. I am pretty sure that they are trying to set up a new weapon trading deal with a gang from Blüdhaven.”

“Wait really?”

Tim nodded.

Robin sighed, “it is good that you found this out, but you shouldn’t be out this late. It is dangerous.”

“I know that but if I didn’t do this people could get hurt.”

Robin nodded, "Okay, I understand if you give what you have got to me than we will look into it.”

Tim tightened his hands for a few seconds before sighing and removing the SD card from the camera. A part of him really did not want to give this information to Robin, he found out about this, he wanted to be the one to finish it, but Robin had way better resources than him and could find the information way easier than he ever could. On top of that there was the problem of his parents, he couldn’t keep sneaking out of his house now that his parents were home, and he honestly wanted to enjoy his summer vacation before he had to go back to boarding school. If necessary, he could always go back to doing this.

He handed the SD cart over.

Robin smiled at him, “thank you. Now where do you live, so that I can bring you home.”

Okay Tim could admit that he panicked. The large mansion in front of him was testament of that. I mean when Robin asked him where he lived Tim could have just refused to tell him. Which was something he thought about only when they were already halfway there. He could have also given his actual address and then snuck in but nooo. He didn’t want to get caught by his parents, so his genius brain came up with the only address he knew to belong to an empty house. The house directly bordering Wayne manor. He had only known this house to be empty due to the fact that he had been sitting next to his mom while she was doing that grown up thing of looking at houses you can’t afford and since this house was directly next to Wayne manor aka Batman’s house. Tim had it immediately committed to memory.

“I didn’t know somebody lived here.” Robin said.

That was because nobody lived there, Tim started walking towards the door, “well thank you for bringing me home, I’ve got it from here.”

Robin smiled at him sweetly, “It is quite a long walk up the driveway, I’ll walk with you.”

“Thank you, but there is no need.”

“No, no, I insist.”

“Well, if you insist.”

They continued walking towards the door. Tim was panicking hard; he obviously didn’t have a key for the door, and although he had been practicing his lock picking was that not something that was quick or subtle for that matter and then Robin would figure out that Tim had lied to him which was not, if Tim was honest, something that he would like to experience.

For the distance they had needed to cross it was really no time at all before they reached the door. Tim who was usually very good at making plans hadn’t come any further than pointing to the bushes and screaming, ‘O MY GOD is that the joker.’ And then running away really quickly. Which would most likely not work.

Tim put his hand on the door, getting ready to scream when the door opened. The door wasn’t locked. Tim couldn’t believe his luck, but before he could dismiss Robin the boy had already entered the house.

“Where are your parents?” Robin asked.

“In bed of course.” Tim said, technically not lying.

Robin raised his eyebrow clearly not believing him. Tim already had dug a big hole so he chooses to keep digging.

“Okay, they aren’t home right now.” Tim could feel which way this was going. Robin wanted to contact his parents so that he couldn’t go out again but luckily for Tim he was an excellent liar. “They are on a dig in Egypt.”

“They are in Egypt.”

Tim nodded, “Yeah they are archaeologists.”

“And when will they be home?” Robin continued to interrogate.

The longest dig his parents had ever been home was three months, “Uhm I think four months.”

“Four months.” Robin repeated, “that is a very long time, and you are alone here.”

Oh, shit. “No of course not, Ms Mac takes care of me.” Tim shot a prayer into the universe that Ms Mac would never hear of this, she would kill him.

Robin moved his finger over a dusty chair, “does she now?”

“Uhm, she threw her back out. So, she can’t do much right now.” Tim started praying a bit harder. Ms Mac was so going to kill him.

“Look if you need help you can tell me.” Robin said.

“No, I am all good.” Tim said forcing himself to smile and hoping that Robin would leave so that he could sneak out and go home.

“Okay,” Robin said, “but if you ever need help.” Robin grabbed some notes and a pen from his belt and quickly wrote down a number, “this is my number.”

“Thanks, but I am really good.” Tim said pocketing the piece of paper.

Robin looked at him one last time before leaving.

Tim let out a big breath, he somehow made it, but now he really needed to get home before his parents woke up. It would really be a shame if he did all of that and still got caught.

Chapter Text

Jason didn’t see the kid for the rest of the summer. It hopefully meant that the kid was staying safe somewhere, but Jason very much doubted it. He certainly wasn’t at that age.

He had noticed the kid a few times before he confronted him. One thing that Batman had taught him pretty quickly and thoroughly was the power of being prepared.

“With good preparation, you can beat anyone." Bruce had said when Jason had complained about having to do another stake-out, “and going in blind can kill you. If you don’t know all the variables, even the best warrior can be taken by surprise." When a couple of days later, Batman and Robin completely destroyed the drug cartel. Afterwards Jason had to admit that Bruce had a point.

The problem was that the kid was incredibly sneaky. Whenever Jason had tried to follow him, he quickly found it to be practically impossible.

So after a few weeks of fruitlessly trying to follow the kid, Jason gave up and confronted him directly.

Jason was very much regretting his carelessness right now. The kid had completely disappeared, and the only thing that Jason had to show for it was an SD cart with way too much valuable information. It was insane how much that kid had gathered. So for the kid to just disappear, well, it worried Jason.

Jason had staked out the mansion next door multiple times, but no dice. It appeared as empty as Jason previously thought it was, but the kid had to have been staying there. It was quite smart; if Jason had known about this place, he probably also would have ended up squatting there.

Still, it was almost the end of summer vacation, and Jason wasn’t any closer to figuring out the mystery that is camera kid.

Jason tried not to think about the kid today, even though he was a probable street kid with way too much knowledge of the criminal underworld, because Bruce had bought two tickets to a nearby theater where they were going to see Othello.

Ever since Jason had started living with Bruce, he has become a complete and utter bookworm. First, it was mostly books like Percy Jackson. One of the kids in his class, who was a completely stuck-up loser, approached him while he was reading.

Jason had been sitting on one of the benches during the break. He had been going to school for only a couple of months, and although he enjoyed it immensely, he had been having trouble making friends. Mostly due to the fact that for the last few years he had mostly lived on his own, having trouble finding enough to eat, most of these kids had been rich before even mommy and daddy had been born. Which made it quite hard for him to relate to them.

One of these kids, Pete, was the worst type of rich kid. You could tell that nobody has ever told him no, and the worst part was that despite being all kinds of shit, he was still quite smart, and he wanted everyone to know that he was.

Jason being at his school was, of course, a big insult to him due to his lack of former education. So Pete had made it his mission to make Jason's life miserable. When he saw Jason reading one of his books, he had found a new target of ridicule.

“Pssk, You are still reading that garbage." Pete said.

Jason curled inward. "So what?"

“I can’t believe they let kids in here who still read baby books." Pete shook his head in mock sympathy. “I feel sorry for you.” A couple of Pete’s friends laughed.

Jason could, of course, have let this go, but instead, when he got home, he scoured the library in Wayne Manor until he found a copy of one of Shakespeare’s works. Originally it was just to prove Pete wrong that he could read books that weren’t for ‘baby’s’ but Jason quickly found himself enjoying them a lot.

So now, months later, he was going to see his first Shakespeare play live, which was, according to both Bruce and Alfred, the best way to experience the pieces, and Jason had been looking forward to it all summer.

They arrived at a theater somewhere in the center of Gotham. Bruce had put on his ‘normal man Bruce’ disguise so that he wouldn’t be recognized by every gothamite in the vicinity. The theater was a big old building, and Jason immediately got excited. Jason followed Bruce inside, and they quickly found their seats.

There weren’t a lot of kids that went to his kind of thing, so any kid would stand out. Because of this, Jason immediately noticed when another kid entered the theater. The kid was dressed to his nines and was talking to his mom and dad while they walked to their seats, which happened to be exactly next to theirs.

The woman smiled at Bruce and him and sat down next to Bruce; the kid sat down next to her, and the kid's dad sat down next to him. Jason couldn’t stop staring at the kid, because he recognized him.

The woman stuck out her hand. “Janet,” she said, “I didn’t know that other kids would be here.”

Bruce took her hand. Bruce, he said, “Bruce" He said,” Jason really got into reading Shakespeare, last year.”

The kid was the camera kid. Jason suddenly felt really stupid. Here, he spent the past few weeks worrying about this kid, but he was completely fine. He could sink through the ground, completely mortified.

“Oh, we have been going to these kinds of plays since Timmy was four. He is really smart.”

“mooom.” The kid, Tim said, slightly embarrassed.

Not long after that, the play started. Jason tried to enjoy the show, but he constantly got distracted by Tim. At first, he kept looking at Tim, but later on, he started to notice Tim watching him just out the corner of his eye.

Jason sat slumped in his seat. Bruce was still bragging about him to Tim’s mom, as she was doing the same about her kid. While it was nice to hear in the beginning, it started to tire. Tim had quickly left as soon as the break started, presumably to go to the toilet. Jason had considered following him but had decided against it; it wasn’t like he could confront him, and today was supposed to be his day off.

When the show began, Tim still hadn’t returned. Jason decided that was not his problem and just enjoyed the show.

Not twenty minutes had passed when Jason's phone rang. Not his civilian phone; of course he had turned it off way before he entered the theater. He wasn’t a complete savage. It was his bat phone, which was only used for emergencies.

Jason quickly got up and left the theater promptly. Tim was standing outside the

theater hall.

"Good you came.” Tim said as he put his phone away.

“What.” Jason said as his phone stopped ringing.

“We have a problem.” Tim continued.

“What are you talking about?"

“I know that you are Robin.” Tim said matter-of-factly.

“No, I am not.” Jason tried feeling completely flabbergasted.

Tim gave him a look, “I’ve known who Batman was since I was nine, but that is not important, scarecrow is here, and he is going to gas the theater.”

“Shit, really?”

Tim nodded. "Follow me.”

Jason followed him, feeling all out of sorts. How did this kid know who Batman was? He knew that there were plans in place if someone figured it out, but if Scarecrow was really here, then that took precedence.

Tim led him to some hallways backstage.

“What were you even doing here?" Jason whispered.

“Exploring.” Tim said, “I thought I heard something, and I was right.”

Suddenly, Tim stopped, putting his finger to his lip and motioning for Jason to come forward. There was a scarecrow fidgeting with some canisters.

"That's not good.” Jason whispered.

Tim nodded. “But you’re here now.” Tim’s face lit up as he looked up at Jason. And Jason, whom he knew of course couldn’t back out now, even though he has never fought against a rogue by himself before. Jason smiled back at Tim because he totally got this.

The door swung open. Scarecrow's head stuck outside. "What do I’ve got here?" Scarecrow’s mask mouth split open in the mockery of a smile. “Two naughty children.”

Jason yelled loudly and punched Scarecrow hard in the face.

Scarecrow’s smile changed into a sneer. “You are going to regret that, child.” Scarecrow loudly whistled, and about ten henchmen with guns ran into the hallway.

They were pushed into some kind of storage area, and the room was filled with all kinds of props. Twenty minutes had passed since then, and Jason still hadn’t made any progress on the knots of the ropes that tied him and Tim together and made it impossible for them to move. He knew he could do it, but it was a lot harder now that he was tied to another person. Tim had constantly been squirming since they got into this mess.

“Sit still. “Jason snapped. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to have a normal day out with his dad, but now he was tied up by scarecrows goons instead of enjoying the show. He couldn’t even get out of these stupid restraints, even though Bruce had spent hours with him working on this exact issue, but he still couldn’t get it right. If it were just some ropes, why couldn’t he just get out of them? Jason let out a frustrated, stressed sound when he heard a soft crying sound.

Jason stopped fiddling with the ropes, “Are you okay?"

‘I am fine.” Tim said choked up.

Jason knocked his elbow against Tim. "We are going to be okay, you hear me. Even if I can’t get out, Batman will surely have noticed by now that I am gone.”

Jason felt Tim nod against the back of his head.

“How did you even find out about our identities?" Jason said he was trying to keep Tim distracted as he continued to fiddle with the ropes.

‘Uh,“ Tim fidgeted a little. “It isn’t really a fun story.”

Jason prodded again, “Oh, if you don’t want to talk about it, then that’s okay.”

"No, no, it is okay. I was there that day, in the circus.”

“Oh.” Jason said, he must mean that day. Bruce and Dick never really talked about it, but Jason, of course, knew.

"Yeah, Dick, he, uhm, promised to do a special jump for me, and I never forgot, so when years later I saw Robin do the same one, the connection was easy to make.”

“That’s impressive.” Jason said, meaning it fully.

“Yeah.” Tim said a little bit of his old cockiness was leaking back into his tone.

Suddenly, Jason felt something give in the rope. “I think I’ve got it.”

“Really.” Tim said, sounding a lot happier than he did a few seconds ago.

All of the rope fell away around them. "Well, that answers that.” Jason said.

Tim was rubbing at his wrists. “I don’t think I enjoyed being tied up that much. “He said it jokingly, but his blotchy face spoke the truth of the sentence.

Jason smiled back at Tim when he heard a sound coming from outside. Quickly, he grabbed Tim, pulling him behind some props that were lying around the room.

Two goons came sweeping into the room and said, “Boss wants you guys on stage for the show.” One of them said, before stopping in his tracks. “They’re gone.”

“Way to state the obvious, Idiot.” Goon 2 said.

“How can it be I used the best knots, I took a class and everything.” Goon 1 sounded as if he was about to cry.

Goon 2 patted him on the shoulder, “You’ll get him next time chief, just keep practicing.”

Goon 1 nodded, “fuck, now we will have to tell the boss that his act escaped.”

“Ugh,“ Goon 2 said, “remember last time.”

Both the goons shuddered before leaving the room.

Tim looked very confused at the goons, “They didn’t even check the room.”

Jason shrugged, “They’re goons.” As if that made perfect sense.

Tim would probably have answered that with something eloquent like: huh, or that doesn’t make any sense, but Jason had already left the room, barely waiting for Tim to follow.

Chapter Text

Tim’s day had gone completely off the rails. Which he honestly should have been expecting, the past few years had shown him that it was a trend of his life for him to stumble into bad guy activity.

The past few weeks, on the other hand, had been silent. Ever since he had given Jason his SD cart on the roof, Tim hadn’t run into any more criminal activity. Even without his bad track record, it was impressive for Gotham. Instead, he enjoyed a sleep-filled and calm couple of weeks with his parents.

Tim was still rubbing his wrists; he did not enjoy being tied up. Even though about 23.3 percent of Gotham kids get kidnapped at least once before they turn eighteen, he had always hoped that he was not one of them, but today he broke his perfect record. Although he could still argue that he was technically not kidnapped if he really tried.

Tim forced the thought of being tied up and completely helpless to the back of his mind and forced himself to focus on what was really important—stopping the scarecrow.

Jason was leading him through another hallway; the cheerful theater decoration was slowly falling away for more of a fear theme. Tim didn’t recognize any of the hallways from his earlier snooping.

“I didn’t know that was here." Tim whispered.

Jason nodded. "It seems the scarecrow has been here for a while.”

They kept walking until they came to a door that led to a stairway going down. There was only one thing that could be below here. Scarecrows' super-secret evil layer.

Jason turned back to Tim, “I think it is better if you go back; this could get dangerous.”

“No way.” Tim said, “I am coming with you.”

“Kid. “Jason said

Tim immediately interrupted him: “I am only 2 years younger than you.”

Jason glared at him. “It is more like three."

"Also, I know multiple martial arts.” Tim gave the air a good fake kick and punch.

“Well, you are not trained by Batman." Jason said before going to stand so that he blocked the entrance.

Tim crossed his arms, “Superman isn’t trained by Batman, and you would have let him come.”

“Superman has-," Jason started to say before Tim grabbed him quickly, pulling him into a closet.

Two of scarecrows' goons came walking past the closet Tim and Jason were hiding in. They were holding some kind of canister.

“I am coming,” Tim said when the men were gone.

“Fine.” Jason said, "But if you die, that is not on me.”

Tim pumped his fist, “yes.”

They slowly made their way downstairs, their footsteps echoing through the hallway. Turned out Tim was not completely correct; it wasn’t an evil layer, but instead a basement filled to the brim with canisters of fear gas.

Jason nodded. "Yeah, and by the looks of it, a lot of it.” He picked up a canister.

"There is way more here than what scarecrow would need to gas the theater." Tim said.

“Scarecrow is planning something big.”

A loud scream echoed through the room. “It came from the theater.” Jason said, "They are gassing them.”

“My parents are there.” Tim said suddenly feeling worried. He didn’t want his parents to get hurt. He wouldn’t be the first kid to lose his parents in Gotham, but he really did not want to be among the countless orphans.

Jason nodded and started to walk towards the exit. "You're right, let’s go back.”

Tim was about to follow Jason when he learned that his dad was very wrong about one thing. Playing wizards and warlocks was incredibly useful because that was the exact moment that Tim spotted something weird with the wall. “Jason wait.”

Jason turned around.

Tim walked over to the wall, frowning slightly. There was something wrong with the wall.

“What are you doing?"

“I started a campaign for wizards and warlocks last year, and one thing you always have in dungeons is secret doors.” Tim said in lieu of an explanation.

“What.”

Tim just motioned to the wall.

Jason frowned at the wall for a few seconds. "Huh, that is weird.”

“I know right.”

Tim went to stand next to Jason as they both analyzed the wall. Jason walked to one side of the wall and started knocking against it. Tim quickly followed his lead. Tim suddenly felt something give way.

The door was completely silent as it swung open. Tim turned to Jason with a smile, "Secret tunnel.”

Silently, they walked down the tunnel. Their footsteps echoed against the walls. Every few meters, a lightbulb hung slightly, flickering. A sound floated up through the tunnel. The sound was an eerie sort of music. Tim felt a shiver go through his body. They continued walking as the music got louder.

At the end of the hallway, Scarecrow was happily singing his creepy tune while mixing up more and more of the fear gas into something else. Tim stood behind Jason, who was blocking the entrance; he had to stand on his tippy-toes to see over Jason’s shoulder. The room was ginormous. This was the secret villain layer that Tim had been expecting earlier. Enormous vats filled with fear gas stood all over the room, with pipes leading up to the surface.

Jason pulled Tim a little bit back. Jason was frowning slightly and biting his lip. "This is not good.”

“No shit sherlock, what are we going to do?"

Jason hesitated for a few seconds. "How good are you with computers?"

“I am the top of my programming class. “Tim said proudly.

"Okay, those pipes lead the gas all over Gotham; I am pretty sure that the attack here is just a distraction. There is a computer; it probably controls the whole operation. You have to shut it down while I fight scarecrow, okay?”

Tim nodded.

“Good.” Jason stuck his hand in his pocket and produced two masks: one he stuck on his own face, the other he gave to Tim. “Let’s go.”

Tim put on the mask. He blinked a few times. The world had a slight film over it, but instead of being able to see less, he felt like he was able to see more. Jason was already sneaking back through the tunnel. Tim followed slowly after him.

Scarecrow was typing something on the computer. One of the vats let out a loud groan. “Shit.” Jason muttered before standing up straight, taking a deep breath, and shouting through the room, “That is enough, scarecrow.” Jason did something with his voice; Tim could still very much recognize it as his, but if he didn’t know that Jason was Robin, he would not be able to hear it.

Scarecrow turned around, his mask parted into a mockery of a smile. "Do I hear a little birdy here? I was already getting bored.”

And Jason, Jason seemed to disappear. Tim logically knew that Jason had been standing in front of him a few seconds ago. But Tim had been distracted for a few seconds watching Scarecrow, and suddenly Jason was gone.

Tim’s eyes swept through the room, trying to find him. A figure came down with a somersault, hitting Scarecrow square in the face. Jason smiled at Scarecrow, who got up, trying to regain his composure. No, not Jason stood there. Robin. Robin was standing there in all his glory, smiling defiantly at Scarecrow. Scarecrow stood up and lunged at Robin, who jumped out of the way every time, just at the last second, smiling the entire time.

The computer was empty. Tim could still see the program running from where he was standing. Silently, he started making his way across the room. He ran as quickly as he could, hoping that Robin could keep Scarecrow distracted.

Tim reached the computer. Scarecrow was still logged into the computer, so at least he didn’t have to figure out what his password was. The vat made another large gurgle. Tim had to hurry up; he didn’t know how much of the gas had already entered Gotham.

Some of the gas was verily harmless only scaring people, but Tim doubted very much that they were in that lucky percentile with the gas. The gas would more likely be the kind that would scare people so much that they died of a heart attack, or the one that made people the violent kind of scared. Tim never wants to find out which one it is, so he had to figure out how to stop the program.

There wasn’t an obvious stop button on the screen. If only it was that easy. Actually, it was what Tim was doing. He pressed control, alt-delete and opened Task Master. A program using almost all the CPU was standing on top called Fear Gas (the final edition (the one where I gas the entirety of Gotham)). Tim clicked and then pressed End Task. The vat immediately stopped gurgling.

Tim turned around just as Robin jumped away again from another one of Scarecrow’s attacks. "Stand still, you little.” The man said, starting to sound very annoyed.

Tim grabbed a loose, lying pipe. Scarecrow lashed out against Robin. Robin barely dodged Scarecrow's fist, grazing his face. Without thinking, Tim ran forward and hit Scarecrow as hard as he could against his head. The man dropped like a fly.

Tim looked from the body on the ground to Robin. “We did it.”

Robin crouched to the ground, checking if Scarecrow was really just out. “Yeah, we did. Now we need to get out of here.”

Jason took off his mask and motioned for Tim to do the same. Tim gave the mask back. They walked through the completely deserted hallways until they got back to the main hall.

Tim saw his mom sitting with a shock blanket around her shoulders. Tim heard his dad talking very loudly: “What do you mean you can’t find him? That is your fucking job.”

Suddenly, Tim wanted nothing more than a hug from his parents. “MOM!” he shouted. His mom looked up before dumping the shock blanket and running towards him, quickly engulfing him in her arms.

She pushed him backwards. “Where were you?" She shouted at him. “We were worried sick.” And to Tim’s absolute horror, he started crying.

“Oh, Honey.” His mom said before hugging him again tightly.

In the background, he could vaguely hear Jason give a very edited explanation of their adventures. Jason mentioned them getting captured, but he did not mention them escaping, but instead said that Robin saved them. Janet was clearly listening, since she hugged him a little tighter, and even his father put a hand on his head.

Not long after, a very disheveled Bruce Wayne came running in before also hugging his son. “Oh, Jason, I was so worried. There was fear gas all over the building. Luckily, Batman saved us.”

Tim could only get a small goodbye wave in before his parents were whisking him away to go home.

The next few weeks were very calm. Tim had half expected to see one of the various mind-altering supers on his doorstep to make him forget Batman’s secret identity, but it didn’t happen. Still, after a few weeks, the inevitable happened and summer vacation ended as it always has to. Tim had to go back to boarding school.

Janet had been very reluctant to leave him after all the excitement a few weeks prior. But needs must and she and Jack would have to leave multiple times during the year for business trips; a normal school just really wasn’t an option if they wanted to provide any stability for Tim. In the end, she talked herself into it.

Tim never liked boarding school, and the first day back was always the worst. He missed his parents, even though he was already eleven. His parents would, of course, try to call as often as possible and send postcards if that wasn’t a possibility, and he would still return on the weekends if they were in Gotham, but he continued to have a big distaste for the school.

Tim never had that big of a case of homesickness; he knew that some kids would cry themselves to sleep every night the first week back from vacation, but still he found himself unable to sleep. After a couple of hours, he gave up and climbed out of the window. The summer still hadn’t completely left Gotham, and it was still pleasantly warm out.

“Tim Drake." A low, monotone voice called out.

Tim almost fell off the roof in fright, but luckily a leather-cladded hand grabbed him.

Tim looked up at the man many in Gotham still considered a myth, “Batman.” He almost whispered.

“You know our identities.”

Tim nodded, awe-struck, before trying and failing to shake himself out of his stupor. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

“Robin told me that you have been going out at night taking pictures of criminals." Batman said.

Tim nodded again.

“It is quite dangerous to go out alone at night like that.” Batman continued, "And Robin said you really held your own well back at the theater but that you were just a bit inexperienced

Tim’s eyes widened as he caught on to what Batman was putting out: "Do you want to train me?”

“Only if you promise never to go out alone again until I give the say so.”

Tim nodded.

Something played around Batman’s lips, which could almost be called a smile: “Good.” He started to walk away. "Now, are you coming?"

That finally got Tim moving as he scrambled after Batman.