Chapter Text
Tim was actually beginning to like it here.
Almost everyone was avoiding him, especially Conner and Cassie.
Anita watched him with a soul-crushing frown. She’d also asked him a few funny questions. It reminded him of the shows Selina and he watched, the ones where they interrogated the love interest.
Cissie (a nickname for Suzanne) watched him skeptically, like Anita. He’s pretty sure they banded together to watch him… It’s making things a bit hard, since he’s not quite ready to come out, and since he’s supposed to keep both his identities under wraps.
Suzie (a nickname for Greta) was just quiet. She was kind, didn’t take up too much space, he wanted to make her take up more space. He doesn’t really know if she likes him or not.
Kaldur was good. He’d helped explain why some of the things he said made everyone else mad or weirded out, but he really liked Kaldur. He reminded him of Jason.
Then, there was Bart and Jaime.
Initially, Jaime didn’t like him, Bart became wary. A week later, Bart kept trying to include him more, and Jaime just became skeptical as well.
Along with Kaldur, they spoke to him the most.
But the biggest reason he was starting to like it here?
They had their own lab!
Yeah, Tim looked like a mad scientist… And he felt like one, but just a bit.
Steph had decorated the lab coat his Uncle Victor gave him a while back.
She tie-dyed it with Harley, then they sewed way too many patches on. He loved it.
The lab was pretty big and kinda messy.
Like organized chaos.
Random bits were everywhere, an old sandwich that seemed to be tuna and spaghetti, blueprints that the Justice League would never authorize.
So, he pinned his short hair back, slapped a pair of goggles on, and got to work on a new stun gun for Spoiler.
He was supposed to be wearing his Robin suit around the others, but, as he’d said before, Batman is a bitch with a capital B. He can only stand that thing for so long before the heavy Kevlar and itchy fabric get bad.
So, stolen sweaters from Selina, and loose jeans. He was alone anyway, so it didn’t matter.
He spun around the lab, hooking cables up and soldering things. His headphones blasted ‘bad idea!’ by girl in red.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before it happened, but it seemed they’d just gotten there since no one noticed until Tim was screeching as if he’d just walked in on Mr. Nilsson with his hand in the toaster again.
In that one moment, he wondered if the stun gun would work on his eyes, or if he could make a memory-wiping device.
Bart and Jaime, Jaime and Bart, were making out against the wall next to the entrance, and Tim had just gotten a front row view of it before they jumped apart.
The three stared at each other in shock for about half a minute before he slowly slid his headphones off.
It was a good thing he had his dark pair of goggles on, or they would have seen his face, and his eyes would have been a dead giveaway if they ever met while he was in his regular attire.
“U-uu-uh…?” He really didn’t know what to say, but then Jaime threw his arms out.
“Please don’t say anything!”
Bart was nodding at a speed that would have thrown someone else's head off.
“We’re-not-ready-to-tell-anyone!” He shouted.
The two started rambling on. The two had just started dating, Jaime wasn't ready to come out; they were begging him not to tell.
They barely knew him, they barely trusted him, apparently, everyone thought he was a jerk. It made sense that they were scared.
So, Tim did one of the dumbest things possible since he got there.
“I’m trans!”
The room once again pittered off into silence.
“Uh—so—I won’t tell anyone, I swear. And—you have one of my secrets now, so if I ever did, you have that against me, and, um… damn, I’m not good at this.”
Wow, so many awkward pauses happening right now.
“And you’re a boy?” For once, Bart asked slowly.
Tim nodded.
He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Usually, sometimes I’m a girl, or, in between,” he fidgeted with his sleeve. “I really won’t tell anyone, I would never. And my aunts would kill me if I did something like that, anyway.”
In less than a second, Bart was hugging him.
“Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you! We-won’t-tell-either! And you didn’t have to do that!” The last sentence was said more slowly, as he pulled back and looked Tim in his goggles.
“Seriously, dude, thank you.”
Jaime stepped up next to him.
“Yeah, thank you, Robin. And, my sister’s transgender, so we’ve double got your back, muchacho.”
He looked at his feet, a smile on his face.
Then his head snapped back up with a frown.
“What were you two thinking, though?! You’re trying not to get caught, but you just waltz in here kissing?”
Both their faces flushed.
“No one’s usually in here,” Jaime muttered, arms folded while looking away.
“I’m the only one who uses the labs,” Bart added.
He folded his arms, taking up his Mom’s regular ‘you should know better’ stance.
“You have to start being more careful, especially since so many people can be nosy. You’ve probably got a few months before anyone starts catching on properly…”
After that (Bart dubbed it The Lab Incident), they were friends.
He and Bart became known as The Mad Scientists of Mount Justice. Jaime watched from a distance, ready with a fire extinguisher sometimes.
Tim had started covering for them, since they happened to be extremely bad at hiding their relationship; it was a surprise that only he had caught them.
He played video games with them, had very odd conversations about whether or not a chicken could fly if on steroids.
When Milagro had been on a call with Jaime, Tim had wandered in and mentioned that he was trans… Sue him, he really wanted to talk to another trans person.
He’s pretty sure he was now her favorite superhero.
It was just—really nice.
Selina might have been right after all.