Chapter Text
Stephanie’s fingers run gently through Tim’s hair as he trembles softly against her, their sweaty skin clinging to the sheet covering the mattress beneath them. This was still new for them, well, new for him. Tim had never been bothered by the fact that his girlfriend had been with someone like this before. What had bothered him was the thought that maybe she had higher expectations because of it, that he wouldn’t be up to her standards. He should have known better than that anyway. When they were together past relationships never mattered. There was no need to think about how similar or different the two of them were compared to other people they had shared something with. In the end they had found their way back to each other, exactly where they belonged. And for once, nothing was going to stop them. The timing was right, things were as calm as they were ever going to be, and no one was dying any time soon. Not on his watch.
His temple is resting against against her shoulder, her breathing was soft and shaky much like his own. Tim liked lying here with her like this, her just holding him and both of them knowing there was not need to fill the silence with words when they already knew anything that may seem appropriate to say in the moment. They both felt loved and safe . That was why he always liked it when her arms were wrapped around him. For just a little while he didn’t have to be the protector of a city or the world or his friends or anything else. In these moments she was his protector. She defended him against the darkness, sheltered him from the cold and, most importantly, she protected him from himself.
It was no secret that Tim’s head was a lonely place. It consisted of facts and numbers and clues and he often stayed among these fragments of information for far too long. When there was no one there to remind him that he had a body to take care of too, he would run himself ragged without even thinking. He’d forget to eat, to sleep, to shower. He would pour himself into his work and just let everything else go. Steph never let him though. She was always there to pull him back, to make him stop for a few moments. When he was in her arms, there was no way he was interested in going anywhere else. If only for an hour or so everything else could wait.
After he’s finally stopped trembling so much and his breathing has begun to even out, he turns his head just enough to press his lips to his girlfriend’s collarbone. It was brief and gentle, his lips pressing to her skin only for a few seconds before he lays his head against her against, threading his fingers through her unoccupied ones. It was easy to pretend in that moment that they were just normal people. They weren’t covered in weird scars and they certainly didn’t go out at night dressed up in glorified Halloween costumes. For tonight they were just Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown.
Tonight, they were just two people in love.