Archive of Our Own ^beta

They were sitting on a comfy sofa in their shared apartment, which they had bought together just over a year ago and they sat in a content silence as Tim was working on some case notes and Stephanie was doing some research on her latest assignment for her pre-med research.

As Tim finished his latest case work, he turned to his girlfriend and gently bit his lip looking at her, she was clad in a purple t-shirt with a bat logo, which Bruce hadn't liked, and a pair of simple black shorts that came down to her mid-thigh, and as their patrol had been typical, a few cuts and bruises, she had a few bat themed plasters on her knees, Tim thought she looked cute.

"Your staring." Stephanie muttered silently, breaking Tim out of his thoughts having not realized he was in fact staring at her. Not that she minded, he was the one person she wanted to stare at her.

"Oh sorry." He said sheepishly while rubbing his neck.

"That's okay, I don't mind former boy virgin." Steph teased him.

As he blushed slightly, he stated to her," I love you Steph." Tim said seriously.

As Steph heard those 4 little but big words, emotionally anyway, and she sobered up and smiled sweetly at the admission and replied," I love you too Tim."

She saw Tim relax at the reply and briefly wondered why he had randomly told her he loved her but thought not to push him too hard and put her forgotten work down and removed his own laptop from his own lap and replaced it with her as she straddled his waist and leaned in for a kiss to which he reciprocated instantly as he brought his hands up to cradle her, the other one wrapped around her waist and brought her closer to him and his free hand that brought her face closer to him went up to be tangled into her soft long blonde hair.

As they finished their mini make-out session Steph manoeuvred herself, so Tim was laying on his back and her back was pressed to his chest and was sat between his legs, and then tangled their legs together. Tim wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her hair and breathed in her lavender sent and was content in holding her until he fell asleep, as was Steph. Not without placing multiple smooches on the back of her head, along with some peppering her neck.

And now Tim knew that she did in fact love him, there was no doubt.

He could finally start putting Operation: How to Propose to Stephanie Brown Successfully?

With his track record he wouldn’t be asking Dick or Bruce, but he would be asking Cass and Babs as they knew how to deal with delicate topics that involved emotions and feelings. With their help hopefully Stephanie would become Mrs. Stephanie Drake, and they would have three kids named Jackson, Debbie, and Annie.

He blinked. Okay, he was getting a tad ahead of himself, and then he finally fell asleep with the woman he loves in his arms.