Chapter Text
Tension swirled around the room. Cassie lay on her stomach on the bed. Kon was sprawled on the floor next to her, his head tipped back against the mattress. Bart was in the desk chair, his foot tapping so fast it was a blur.
Tim was waving some kind of device around the corners of the room, scanning for bugs. His face was pinched into the same worried frown he'd been wearing since Kon picked him up from Gotham – which itself was unusual when the Batcave had Zeta tubes. Even stranger, he had insisted on meeting somewhere other than the Tower, leading to the four of them piling into Cassie's bedroom, growing more stressed by the second.
“Tim,” Cassie said flatly. “Sit down, or one of us is going to make you.”
“I'll just be a few more – okay, okay!” Tim hurried to obey once Cassie started rolling her sleeves up threateningly. He hesitated for a moment about sitting on the floor next to Kon, but Kon's TTK grabbed him and pulled him to settle against Kon's side.
“What's wrong?” Kon asked, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder.
“Yeah,” Bart agreed, “tell us what has you so twitchy, and then we can kick its ass.”
“That's probably a bad idea,” Tim said slowly. “I'm uh – I think I might technically be a fugitive from Batman?”
A ripple of tension flashed around the room. Bart went suddenly still, and there was a sudden tang of ozone in the air.
“I mean, I definitely left. I'm not working with him any more.”
“He took away Robin?” Cassie asked sharply.
Tim laughed derisively. “He wishes. Robin is Nightwing's legacy, and N is on my side. But Batman is pretty mad – I mean, I escaped after he put me in lockdown –”
“You were in lockdown?” Cassie asked.
“Yeah. I mean, he thought I was under mind control, but only because he was being stupid about it –”
“What kind of mind control?” Bart interrupted.
“Oh, just standard reprogramming. He'd already ruled out magic and nanobots and all that, but he wouldn't listen when I tried to explain…”
Kon half-smiled to himself. Tim was rambling, yes, and Kon had immediately lost track of what this story was. But that meant Tim was processing things still. When he went blank and started sounding like a mission debrief, that was when it was time to get worried.
“… that I was completely in my right mind when I shot the Joker.”
“What?”
“You shot someone –?”
“Sounds fair,” Bart said, overlapping with Cassie and Kon's protests.
“Thank you,” Tim replied. “I mean yes, I get that Batman has a whole thing about not killing people. But he was the Joker, you know? When someone dedicates their life to causing as much pain and suffering as possible, it seems irresponsible not to kill them.”
“I mean, yeah, obviously,” Cassie said. “But also, why wasn't this guy in prison already?”
Bart shrugged. “Gotham.”
“So,” Kon said, trying to steer this conversation vaguely back on track, “you were fighting the Joker…”
“It wasn't really a fight,” Tim said. “He was tied to a chair. He might have died of his wounds anyway, to be honest, but I didn't want to take the chance Batman would revive him again.”
“Where did you get the gun?” Bart asked, casually.
Kon made a note to circle back to that “again” some other time.
“Okay,” Tim took a deep breath. “There's this new Gotham vigilante I've been working with. He uses guns, doesn't have a rule against killing… it's a rougher way of doing things, but he's working in some of the worst parts of Gotham –”
The other three shuddered in unison.
“That horrifying thought aside,” Kon said, “I'm guessing Batman didn't know you were working with this new badass antihero?”
“Of course not,” Tim snorted. “He decided to take down the Joker while Batman was out of town. The mission went kind of sideways, and I got involved too. Batman was about to arrive, so I took one of his guns and shot the Joker a whole bunch. Then Batman arrived.”
“And he totally flipped his shit,” Bart said.
“Accused you of being mind-controlled,” added Cassie.
“And put you on lockdown, until you broke out,” Kon concluded.
See, Tim might be the detective of the group, but the rest of them could read between the lines just fine.
“You've got it,” Tim said. “So. What's the verdict?”
The other three blinked at him.
“I think I speak for everyone here when I say: wuh?” Cassie said.
“I killed someone,” Tim said, and Kon could hear the faint tremor underlying his voice, but he suspected no-one else could. “I shot an unarmed human being. If any of you guys are uncomfortable with that for any reason, I won't hold it against you. I'll leave straight away –”
A chorus of yelling immediately drowned out anything else he might have said.
“Shut the fuck up!” Cassie said loudly. “We aren't doing that!”
“Cassie,” Tim said, in his frustratingly reasonable voice, “you can't –”
“Let's have a vote,” Cassie spoke over him. “All those in favour of Rob shutting his stupid mouth, say 'aye'.”
“Aye!” Kon and Bart chorused. Kon raised his arm for emphasis, and Tim gave him a look that was deeply exasperated, but more than a little grateful too.
“It doesn't just have to be about morality,” Tim said. “I committed a serious crime. I don't know if Batman is going to pursue the case or not, he doesn't seem to have informed the Justice League –”
“Are you turning evil?” Bart asked.
“I – what?” Tim thought about it for a second. “I don't think I am. I had good reasons for what I did, but then I suppose every villain ultimately thinks they have a good reason –”
“Yeah, nope,” Bart interrupted. “If you were really evil, you would have lied about it. You're still you, Rob.”
“That isn't necessarily how it works –”
“I think that's how it works,” Cassie said teasingly.
Kon turned to smile at Tim.
“It's how it works,” he agreed. “Three to one, you're overruled again.”
“I'm sensing a bias in this voting system,” Tim snarked. But for the first time since he arrived, he seemed to properly relax, leaning into Kon's shoulder.
“It's our job to keep you humble,” Kon informed him. “Otherwise you really will go evil on us.”
“It's our duty as citizens of the world,” Bart agreed.
“Is there anyone else we have to worry about coming after you?” Cassie asked. “Other than Batman, that is.”
“Nah, the rest of the Gotham vigilantes who know are all on my side,” Tim said thoughtfully, “and the official story is that Robin wasn't even there that night.”
“Aw, you trusted us with your crimes even though there's a cover story?” Cassie said, ruffling Tim's hair. “That's so sweet!”
Tim tried to wiggle away, but Kon slung an arm over his shoulders, holding him in place.
“Fuck off,” Tim said, flushing. “You guys are worse than Hood.”
“Who?” Bart asked, flashing over to sit on Tim's legs.
Tim sighed a little, and rearranged himself so he didn't lose feeling in his feet.
“The new vigilante I'm working with,” he clarified.
“Gun guy? Tell us more about gun guy!”
“You're working with him now?” Cassie asked. “Why not Nightwing?”
“He's in Bludhaven,” Tim said, with a tone of disgust completely unwarranted from anyone who willingly lived in Gotham.
“Aren't they basically the same city?” Kon asked faux-innocently, just to see Tim's scowl.
“Red Hood is… he knows his stuff, and he really cares about everyday people – that's why he's so harsh on anyone who hurts them. He can be overprotective sometimes though, it's always 'I'm not taking a teenager to a gang shootout' this and 'you can't supervise a drug shipment until you finish your Geometry homework' that –”
“He sells drugs?” Kon asked.
“Cool, can he get us some?” Bart added.
Cassie reached down and batted Bart on the arm. “Drugs are illegal in this time period.”
“No way!” Bart protested. “Rob takes caffeine all the time, I've seen him!”
“Some drugs are illegal,” Tim clarified. “But the rules on what is allowed and what isn't are kind of stupid. Hood decided to take over the Gotham market for illegal drugs so he can stop people from abusing the lack of oversight.”
“Committing crimes for the greater good?” Kon mused. “Okay. Are you sure you should be involved in this, though?”
Tim snorted. “I can handle it.”
Oh right, Kon remembered. Robin was fucking insane.
Honestly, he kind of felt sorry for this Hood guy.
“Wait, if you're working for a criminal, are you the cool one now?” Bart asked.
“I've always been cool!” Tim complained, at the same moment Kon answered: “No.”
“Rude,” Tim said. “I'd like to see you make it through a night patrolling in Gotham –”
“Reckless and cool are not the same thing, it's about style –”
“Boys, boys,” Cassie said, overruling them. “Stop fighting. You're both dorks.”
“Hey!”
“Sorry Bart – all three of you are dorks.”
“Thank you,” Bart said, flopping over Tim's lap to rest his head against Kon's leg. Kon automatically started stroking his hair with TTK, and Bart grinned lazily up at him.
“I'll show you style,” Tim grumbled. “I have a new costume and everything. Red Hood asked me to be his Robin. Red Robin.”
There was a moment of silence.
Into this silence, no-one said the words: isn't that a restaurant?
And no-one replied: shut up this is clearly important to him.
“That's amazing, bud,” Kon said, and Tim's shy smile only widened.
“Happy for you!” Bart agreed.
“You're going to be amazing,” Cassie said, patting him on the shoulder. “And in case you need reminding, you're still on the team. No takebacks.”
“Seconded.”
“Thirded!”
“I am once again out-voted,” Tim grumbled – but underneath a pile of his friends, surrounded by love and acceptance, he grinned.