Chapter Text
“God Tim, you are so stupid .”
The words bring Cassie up short. She's outside Robin’s room at Titan’s Tower. The door is ajar and through its crack, she can see the back of a blond head and an all-encompassing purple costume.
Spoiler, their newest trial member, is kneeling on Tim’s bed. She holds onto him from behind, bare hands tangling in his hair. She digs her fingers in to his scalp and tugs at the black strands.
“I can hear you thinking. Stop thinking. God, you really have no idea how to act like a normal person, do you?”
Tim mutters something that Cassie can’t hear and moves like he’s trying to duck his head. But Spoiler holds firm and tugs him back with a snort.
“Please. Just look at yourself. You can’t even keep your haircut under control.”
She tousles his hair again, hard and fast. Cassie winces. If Tim still wore as much gel as he had in their younger years, that could have hurt. A lot.
“You’re lucky I came back when I did. Now come on, stop being a baby and take off your shirt.”
Without waiting for an answer, Spoiler reaches around Tim and starts undoing the clasps of his tunic.
Cassie almost steps in, only to stop without quite touching the door. Things have been understandably tense with Tim since they…she…well. She doesn’t regret anything they did, and that includes breaking up. Still, to eavesdrop and then go barging in on a conversation in Tim’s private room, with his real girlfriend? That’s definitely out of line.
So, she steps away. She leaves Robin and Spoiler to their quiet evening alone and tries to forget the bad taste it leaves in her mouth.
After the chaos of Darkseid’s invasion, Cassie hears that Robin and Spoiler have broken up and breathes a sigh of relief. Guilt immediately follows. Tim is no longer Robin. His mentor is dead, his life is falling apart, and Spoiler’s betrayal was a part of that. Her did love her, after all. Or, at least, Cassie assumes he did.
But then, despite all odds, things get better.
Bart and Conner are alive . They come back from the future and rejoin the Titans and hunt Tim down where he’s hiding. Together, they drag him out of the dark. Tim — Red Robin now — comes home, and they help him save Batman’s legacy, right before he turns around and pulls the dead man himself out of the timeline like magic.
Then Damian decides to stay in Gotham, and Tim starts coming back to the Tower and, while things can never go back to exactly what they were, they are better. Tim seems better. Happier. More at ease.
Until it comes out that he is, once again, dating Spoiler.
“Batgirl,” Tim corrects with a dry chuckle. “She’s Batgirl now. And she worked hard for it, so calling her ‘Spoiler’ is a good way to piss her off.”
He says it like a joke. Cassie doesn’t laugh.
They’re in the common area of the Titans Tower dorm floor they share with Conner and Bart. It’s a six-room floor, and other teammates — like Mia, M’gann, Jaimie and Rose — have filled the empty rooms in the past. But, as Titans came and went and their foursome remained, it became more and more their space. It’s a place for privacy, now, where there are no secrets between them.
Tim and Cassie are sharing the couch and a pot of hot cocoa. Tim sits with his back to a corner, tucked tight into the seam where cushions meet. His spine is straight, his legs crossed, and he’s keeping all his limbs to himself.
Cassie, in her pajamas with her legs up and one arm stretched along the back cushions, doesn’t like the tightness in his expression, nor the way his laugh doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “What happened to the old Batgirl? The quiet one Kon talks about. Is she…?”
“She’s fine, now.” Tim waves her concerns away in the well-established sign for ‘family business, don’t ask.’ “She decided to pursue a different angle after…y’know, everything. Besides, Steph needed Batgirl more.”
Like Damian needs Robin more?
Cassie drowns the traitorous words in chocolate. She knows she’s not the only one who still resents Nightwing…Batman…Dick for trying to force the replacement Robin onto their team. But Tim seems to have moved past that, and leaving family drama at the door is a foundation of their friendship.
Tim likewise becomes preoccupied with his layer of marshmallow foam. His mouth is solidly full when he makes a sudden noise like he’s remembered something and sets the mug aside. “Speaking of, I won’t be here next weekend.”
“Why?”
“Well, since we got back together, Steph — Batgirl — has been kind of upset that we don’t go out on the weekends. But she’s also never been keen on teams so coming here, probably not a good idea. So, there’s nothing for it but to split my time.”
He already splits his time. Tim spends four or five days a week in Gotham, running his Wayne Tech research and the Neon Knights program and patrols through his designated territory. Compared to Conner, Bart and Cassie, who will all come back to the Tower even on school nights sometimes, Tim is gone a lot.
Worse, now that she thinks about it, he’s acted different the last few months even when he’s around. He apologizes more, speaks up less, defers to others’ decisions and gives instructions only when asked. In the mornings, he’ll drag himself down to the crowded central rec room even though the loud noises make him wince. And just now, when they’d started talking, she’d asked about his projects back home and he’d just turned away, mumbling that he wouldn’t want to bore her by carrying on.
He must catch her expression, because he forces another dry laugh. “It’s not like I’m quitting. I’ve got my comm for emergencies, and I’ll still be around. Just, not every weekend.”
“If that’s what you want.”
His expression falters. He looks stricken. Then, the Bat-poker-face slides into place and he nods.
Cassie sets her mug aside and scoots closer. There should be no masks between them here. “Tim, are you sure?”
“Of course.” He pulls another awful, thin smile. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to be here. But that’s just how relationships go. You have to make compromises.”
“Does she?”
He doesn’t get the chance to respond. An alarm blares and Gar, from monitor duty, orders them all to suit up and hurry downstairs. By the time Cassie looks his way again, Tim is already long gone.
True to his word, Red Robin leaves Titans Tower on Sunday night and doesn’t return the next weekend. That Sunday afternoon, Cassie flies in on Bart and Conner’s bi-weekly gaming session. They're both on the floor when she approaches. She settles, cross-legged, onto the couch behind them.
“What do you guys know about Batgirl? The new one, who used to be Spoiler.”
“I know she’s a bitch,” says Conner at once, which takes Cassie by surprise. He’s never spoken so crudely about other heroes, even before he moved in with the Kents and was molded into a good ol’ fashioned Kansas boy.
It startles Bart too, enough that his digital car goes straight off the track and vaporizes in a burst of color. “How so? Wait, you know her?”
“We’ve met.”
Wow. Cassie’s heard Kon speak of Luthor in warmer tones.
He turns off the console in the midst of his pre-rendered victory lap and faces Cassie head-on. “Why?”
“I don’t know her very well. Which is kind of weird, right? Tim’s been dating her for ages.”
“She helped us in Zandia,” says Bart, his words running together with pent-up energy. “Remember? With Empress’s grand-dad. Though she was really grumpy the whole time, I think because Secret tried to beat her up once. But then…” He screws up his face, the way he does when digging through his stores of memorized facts and figures. “It wasn’t just at Secret. She didn’t talk to anybody. I think she spent the whole time sulking.”
“Is that when you met her?” Cassie asks Conner. He folds his arms across his chest and scowls.
“No,” he says with the hint of a growl. “Remember that month Tim went missing? When his dad found out he was Robin and made him quit?”
Bart and Cassie both nod. Her stomach knots at the memory.
“Yeah, she took his job. And she wasn’t asked to, either. No ‘carry on my name’ or ‘hold the fort until he comes back.’ No, she heard that Tim quit, and decided that meant she got to be Robin instead.” His scowl turns into a full-on snarl, the kind he only wears during fights. “Who does that to a friend? Let alone someone you’re dating? It’s like she didn’t care how he felt at all!”
His anger resonates with the concern Cassie hasn’t been able to put into words. Her hands curl into fists. “Was that the first time they broke up?”
Conner huffs. “A little after, I think. Then she went off and let everyone think she was dead for a year. Rob blamed himself for it.”
Of course he did.
“And I’ve heard her sometimes, too. When they ‘argue’? It’s never Tim who shouts”
“I’m worried about him,” Cassie confesses. “They got back together while you guys were…gone. I overheard them a few times. I don’t like how she talks to him.”
“She’s the reason he’s not here, isn’t she?” says Bart, insightful as ever.
Cassie nods. “She doesn’t like that he’s spending so much time without her. And the way he’s been acting lately…I think something’s wrong. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s like he’s…”
“Hurt?”
“Hurting .” Cassie shakes her head. “I don’t know, maybe I’m imagining things.”
“But what if you’re not?” Conner rises enough to slide onto the couch beside her, covering a hand with his own. “That’s what you’re thinking. If you’re not imagining things…”
“…then Tim’s in trouble.” There’s a rush of wind, and Bart is on her opposite side. His eyes are wide as saucers. “So what do we do?”
We. So much relief in one little word.
Cassie turns her hand to hold Kon’s, breathes a sigh as she feels the burden lift, and lays out the only plan she can think of:
“We talk to him.”
Tim doesn’t come back the next weekend, either. Or the one after. His e-mailed apologies and explanations of Gotham chaos do nothing to soothe Cassie’s nerves.
Just as she’s is ready to say, “Fuck Batman’s rules” and fly in to extract him herself, a Bat-plane appears on the eastern horizon. Half the team rushes to the rooftop landing pad to greet him. It’s been three weeks since the Titans have seen their co-leader, and that is far, far too long.
Tim emerges in full cape and cowl, which covers everything but the easy, relaxed grin he’s using to make his apologies. It’s enough to pacify Kiran, Gar and Jaimie, but Conner catches Cassie’s eye across the crowd and shakes his head. She catches his meaning: that’s Tim Wayne’s smile. A fake, practiced mask.
Between the welcome back and the various debriefings and round of new training drills, they don’t manage to get Tim alone until after dinner. Even then, he slips past the three of them and disappears into his room before anyone can so much as suggest a movie night.
Conner, Cassie and Bart gather outside his door and hover there long enough that he must know they’re lurking. Still, the door remains closed. A silent glance between the three elects Cassie to take the first step. She knocks.
“Tim? Can we talk?”
…
No answer. The long silence makes her stomach squirm.
Conner sighs, leaning his shoulder into the wall beside the door. “C’mon buddy, don’t lock us out. We’re worried about you.”
At that, the lock clicks open. Conner raises an eyebrow, like he didn’t hear the footsteps; but it’s Tim, so they’re all more used to that than most people would be.
Tim opens the door halfway and peers out. He’s padding about in his socks, stripped down to the lean bodysuit that makes up the base of his costume. He blinks at them, bewildered. “Worried about me? Why?”
Cassie glances to the other boys. They’re all thinking the same thing: that Tim’s attempt to appear bright-eyed can’t hide the heavy bags they carry, nor can his washed-out, drawn appearance be entirely blamed on the fluorescents in his room.
“…can we come in?”
He steps back without hesitation. Cassie leads the charge inside. They’ve barely gotten settled — Tim on the bed, Cassie beside him, Kon in the desk chair, and Bart pacing — before Impulse follows through on his old nickname and blurts out his nerves.
“You should stay here. Like, always. At least this week. Call in sick. Don’t go back to Gotham.”
Tim’s shoulders tense and his brow furls in confusion. Cassie cuts in for damage control. “You’re busy, we know but…gods, Tim, we’ve been so worried.”
It’s like a dam bursting from there. Their fears spill out one after the other, going in turns where one picks up where another left off. Tim’s brow gradually smooths and, with it, his whole face. He follows the path of their words like watching a bizarre three-way tennis match.
Finally, before they can get themselves too worked up, he cuts in with one hand raised.
“Guys, guys. It’s sweet of you to worry, but I’m fine now. I swear.”
Bart catches Cassie’s eye and shrugs helplessly. When Tim talks like this, so rational and almost relaxed, it’s easy to believe that they’ve just been imagining things.
“Sure, I was in a bad place,” Tim continues. “I went way off the rails, did some things I’m not proud of. I…I failed Batman’s test…” His expression falters, the lower lip giving a single uncertain tremble. “That’s why he doesn’t want to see me anymore. And why Dick had to find a new brother.”
Cassie sucks a gasp through her teeth. “Tim…”
“But it’s fine! I’m getting better. Not good, not like before, but…better.” He glances between their expressions as his continues to fall. “I’m sorry, I’m just freaking you guys out, aren’t I? It’s my fault. I’m so bad at pretending to be normal.”
“That’s bullshit!” yelps Bart. Tim gives him a sad smile.
“You don’t have to lie to me. I know things would be smoother for everyone if it were Damian on the team instead. I’m too pushy and cocky, and a know-it-all, and a prude…”
“Jesus Christ, Tim.” Conner’s voice is strangled. “Where are you getting this from?”
Tim shrugs. Cassie wants to shake him.
Conner surges up, his feet hovering an inch over the floor. “It’s from her, isn’t it? Your goddamn girlfriend? I’m gonna wring her neck.”
Tim locks his spine, shoulders tense as a cat with its hackles raised. Cassie catches Conner’s wrist and pulls him back to the floor. “You’re not helping.”
“Let’s all just calm down.” Bart, ever the voice of reason (despite the buzz of anxious vibration in his tone), lays a hand on Tim’s shoulder and pushes gently until they’re made to relax. It doesn’t quite get rid of the tension, but it does settle him a bit.
Conner, likewise, sinks back into the office chair with a scowl. The silence that falls between them is smothering, heavy as soaked down quilt. Nobody looks at Tim directly, nor does he look at any of them. He stares at the floor between his feet, eyes unfocused, hands wringing.
“This isn’t Steph’s fault,” he says finally. “She’s not a bad person. She doesn’t…I mean, she’s never…”
“Hurt you?” Bart supplies.
Tim bites his lip. Fury surges through Cassie's chest before she remembers that beating each other black and blue is a part of their job training, especially when you’re a ‘mere’ mortal. And that Tim, for all his skill at lying, hates to do so carelessly.
She sighs, finally voicing the question that’s been nagging her all this time.
“Why did you go back to her? You’ve broken up, what, three times? And two of those were after betrayals of trust. So why do you keep going back?”
Tim blinks, like he’s never considered the question. “Because…Because I have to. We’re meant to be together. She’s the only one who…nobody else could ever love someone like me.”
Cassie lurches forward, rakes her fingers through Tim's hair and pulls him in before her conscience can think better. If he wanted to push her away, he could; she keeps her hold loose and her strength in check. He doesn't try.
She kisses him. It is so much like their first kiss, in that it is full of desperation and need and unspoken desire; but it is also entirely unlike it, in that Cassie has never been so sure of anything in her entire life.
He pants when she pulls away, wet gasps that leave no room for words or thought. She looks to the others, their boys, their missing pieces. Both catch her meaning in a glance.
Bart tugs Tim by the arm and into a dip that sprawls across his lap. One kiss, too quick, becomes dozens, peppering Tim’s lips and cheeks and, soon, his entire face.
Then he passes to Kon, who slides into a kneel and bundles Tim into a protective embrace. He is strong, so strong, but also so gentle. He tilts Tim’s head up with his fingers and looks deep into his eyes before kissing him, soft and sweet.
“We love you, Tim.” Cassie lays a hand on Tim’s back and leans in, turning the embrace into a group hug. Bart covers her hand with his own and joins in, pinning their Robin between all three. “We’ve always loved you, just as you are.”
“It’s not just us,” Kon murmurs as his lips slide off Tim’s. “Batgirl — the other one, your sister. The other Cassandra. She loves you too.”
“And Batman,” says Bart. “And Nightwing. Even if they’re bad at saying it.”
“And Starfire,” adds Cassie. “And Rose and Gar and Cissie and Greta and Jaime and Raven and Miguel…”
She clutches them, crushes them, holds tight as she can without bruising mortal skin. Her team. Her boys. She loves them all so much her heart can barely stand it. That Tim, who is loved by so many more besides, could ever be led to think otherwise tears at her very soul.
“Please, Tim. Please stay. Don’t go back to Gotham, just for a while. Please. For us?”
Tim shivers. He’s got his eyes closed, and his head drifts to rest on Kon’s shoulder. He holds Cassie’s hand, leans into Bart’s touch, and breathes a relieved sigh.
“Okay,” he whispers. “Okay.”