Chapter Text
"Our story begins on one, cold, winter morning." Stephanie Brown, EX-Girl Wonder, EX-Spoiler, CURRENT Batgirl. She sits at the breakfast table with her unsuspecting mom. How was she so good at keeping her secret? Years of practice. Stephanie shoved a forkful of syrupy waffles in her mouth and glanced upward to her mother, her expression refusing to reveal her wandering, narrative thoughts.
"What are you doing?" Stephanie's mother, Crystal Brown, stood beside the table her daughter sat at, Stephanie's favorite purple coffee mug nuzzled between her hands.
"Narrating, Mother. The morning was not quite like any other, and our hero knew it might not end well for her."
"Stephanie, is this about your exam today?" She placed the coffee mug on the table next to Steph's plate, taking a step back to prepare a mug for herself.
"It might be." The blonde swallowed the mouthful of waffles and took a gulp of coffee. "I haven't studied."
"I thought you were focusing more on school!"
"Well, I am," her lips stammered to find an excuse. "I hadn't studied because I felt confident! And now that it's too late, I'm panicking." Such a terrible liar. Even Tim can do better. Stephanie's heart sank at her own thought. Well, we know he could lie better, don't we?
It was an intrusive thought and not a terribly uncommon one. It had been years since she learned Alvin—Tim had been lying to her about his secret identity. Not that she could be surprised, he worked with the secret identity man. Stephanie really couldn't support some of Bruce's ideals, especially the ones that involved pushing others out. She could deal with it if it were just Bruce, but of course he had to shove the ideals onto his kids. Especially Tim.
Stephanie's mind wandering, her eyes scanned up absent-mindedly. They caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall ahead of her, and her frantic hands reached to the edge of the table to push herself up. "Speaking of panic!" Her body jerked itself out of her chair. "Could you put the rest of the coffee in a travel mug for me?" Her words came out in a frantic jumble as she pushed past her chair, running toward the stairs and up to her bedroom.
Two steps at a time, Steph. Bruce has put you through worse training than getting to school on time.
Stephanie threw on the first shirt she found in her closet, a dark green t-shirt, and put on some jeans. Positioning herself in front of the mirror, she finally ran a brush through her knotted hair. A breath forced itself from her lips as she slipped on a coat and made her way out her bedroom door. Moving down the stairs as fast as she could, she made her way to the kitchen and grabbed the travel mug from her mom's hands. She shoved the rest of her waffles into her mouth, forcing out a 'thank you' through her full mouth, and made her way out the door.
Our hero's morning had hit a rocky start, and it was sure to go downhill fast. Will Stephanie be able to salvage this day and ace the exam? Her brows furrowed at her own thought. No.
The lecture hall was empty minus the few students dotted around in random seats. Maybe I got here on time? Stephanie pulled out her phone and took a glance at the time. No. Guess I'm just one of the few that showed up. She slid into her chair and placed her bag by her side. Her hand reached to the side of the bag, unzipping it to reveal a relatively empty bag holding only the bare essentials. A few pens, pencils and erasers littered the bottom of the bag next to an eggplant purple spiral notebook and a few crumpled assignments. And of course, Batgirl's uniform had found its way into the bag. She reached her hand in, pulling out her purple spiral notebook. Loose papers of drawings and scrawled writings fell out of the journal and into the bag as she skimmed through to a blank page. She tapped a pencil against her desk until it volunteered a doodle of Batgirl. She was, after all, her own biggest fan.
"Should you really be doing that in the open?"
Stephanie didn't need to look to the voice to recognize who it was. After all, she recognized the voice more than the face. Tim Drake, EX-boyfriend, EX-Robin, CURRENT Red Robin. I can't really act surprised that my day threw this at me. I already acknowledged it wouldn't get any better.
"You're late, Draper." She let a tone of bitterness slip through the name. A sinking feeling in her chest forced her to regret the hostility, but she couldn't help but feel it necessary from time to time. Their entire 'job' revolved around hostility, didn't it? It was an act of defense and she knew it. Not a healthy one, but she was never one to deal with emotions in a healthy manner. Besides, after being told for years that his last name was Draper, why change it now?
"Weren't you late too?" Stephanie finally glanced up to look at him. Tim stood beside the desk next to hers, a black backpack slung over his shoulder. He almost reminded her of what he looked like back when they were younger. He certainly fit the part of a student well. He pulled the backpack off of his shoulder, setting it down beside him and taking a seat in the chair. He began to open his backpack, digging around for any supplies he needed.
"What are you even doing here, Tim?"
"Alvin," the boy corrected her without even glancing up. His eyes seemed focused on finding his utensils. So, he's undercover? Go figure. "My dad thought it was time I enrolled."
"What's the real reason?"
"If you want to meet up after the exam, we can talk." Of course that's not the real reason. He finally pulled himself away from his backpack, his own journal now sitting on the desk in front of him. A red spiral. Fitting. His eyes avoided contact as she watched him open the journal to the first page, a blank page. So Bruce bought him a new journal for this. Why doesn't the billionaire pay for my school supplies?
"So, what? You're completely enrolled? On the day of a big exam?"
"Yep."
"Ah." Her eyes pulled away, focusing back on her doodle as her pencil began to mindlessly shade in unnecessary spots. "I imagine this was pretty short notice."
"He sent me in with the enrollment paperwork today. I think Barbara had something to do with my getting in so quickly."
"Well, you are the perfect one. Why wouldn't they take you?" Tone down the sarcasm, Steph. Theworld's second greatest detective isn't exactly that clueless.
A voice at the head of the lecture hall snapped her attention away from her bickering thoughts. The professor had finally arrived and stepped to the front of the class. Well, at least I can't be marked tardy if I got here before the professor did. The few students who arrived began opening their journals, and Stephanie took it as a sign to open to a clean page.
"Here we go," her lips mumbled softly more as a reassurance to herself. She heard the soft sound of Tim exhaling a little harder than usual. A laugh without laughing? Her lips involuntarily smiled and her eyes darted to look at him beside her. Sometimes it was nice having him around.
So, here we are. Stephanie sat on a cold metal bench just outside the school's library. She shoved her hands in her pockets in a pale attempt to keep them warm, though there wasn't much that could warm you during winter in Gotham. Her eyes stared at her feet, unsure of where else to look while she waited. If Tim wanted to talk to her, it was clearly work-related.
Are we over being rude to each other? Have we moved past that? Well, it seems like Tim has. She couldn't help but feel like she should apologize. There wasn't any reason for her to still hold any resentment towards him. Except for the lying throughout the entire time we had been together.
"Hey, Steph." Tim sat on the bench next to her, staring at his own feet.
"Tim, can we talk?" Her eyes refused to part from her feet. She didn't know if she could bring herself to look at him.
"I thought that's what I came here for -"
"No, not that. Look, I'm sorry for how I acted inside. If you need my help with anything, I'll contain myself. I promise." From the corner of her eyes, she could see his unwavering expression. He didn't look confused, but she could tell he didn't know what to say. Maybe I shouldn't have started off with that.
"Look, Stephanie, it's fine. If you want to talk about it later, we can." He paused, choosing his words. "We have grounds to believe there's illegal activity going through the university. Nothing major right now, but Bruce doesn't feel good about it. He sent me here to scout it out."
"Why couldn't he have just asked me?! I already go here!"
"I don't know, Steph. I didn't ask." Do you ever question him? "But what's good is since you already have an insider's perspective, you can help me with this. Is that okay?"
She sat still for a moment, taking in what she heard. Of course it was okay, why would she consider otherwise? She can't focus on being petty when it's about work. She had to be better than that. Her head bobbed in a soft nod.
"I think I can do that," she finally brought her eyes to meet his. They were familiar yet distant, but above all, they were trusting. She watched as he smiled, and felt a smile come across her own lips.
"Where should we meet?"
"We could meet here."
He stood, putting his hands into his pockets and nodded.
"Alright, see you tonight."
Stephanie watched as he turned, walking down the sidewalk and turning a corner around the other side of the library. It's been a while since they'd been so close. It had been even longer since she had allowed herself to relax around him. They had history, sure, but she didn't have to focus on how it ended. She didn't have to focus on the lying. It wasn't his fault. No matter how angry she had been, she couldn't ever forget that whenever he was able, he was always there for her every step of the way.