Archive of Our Own

The lady at the entrance had reassured him that nobody would have disturbed him meanwhile he took his photos, but maybe he was disrupting your work, although, after noticing him, you simply shot him a light look and raised a hand to return his salute.

After a few minutes of not knowing what to do, Tim had eventually relented and started with a few photos to try out the light and the various setting of his camera, even sorting which camera would be better among the various ones he had in his case.

He had eventually settled onto a sleek one that seemed to capture perfectly the light water on the tip of the flower, after you had gently taken care of them.

Tim had also used the camera as a double-view mirror to stare at what you were doing.

Not in an inherently creepy way, but he preferred not to be in your own line of work, since he definitely understood that whatever you were doing was definitely much more important than releasing the photography genius that Tim was.

So, he tried to avoid moving in the areas you were working, to allow you much more freedom.

You had first watered the plants in the southern area of the greenhouse and then settled onto potting a few plants from a bigger set up onto smaller vases, probably with the intention of selling them or using them for some floral compositions.

He had been immediately enchanted with the swift way your hands worked, definitely being used to it, meanwhile Tim had killed even the small cactus that Bart had gifted to him as a joke.

Even though it had been made of plastic.

You were swift and efficient, and the light hit you perfectly, from where you were sat on the ground with the tools you needed surrounding you, almost as guardian of your beauty against Tim’s intruding stare, meanwhile he pretended to be interested in some begonias behind you.

And then it had happened.

His damned trigger finger had thought it was the best moment to take a picture of you.

The flash had gone off, because he had been clumsy enough to activate it as he fidgeted with the camera, trying to make himself as indifferent to you as possible.

Just for his whole act to be completely disrupted by his clumsy fingers.

You had raised your hands, almost as a prey caught by a predator, definitely not understanding fully what had been going on, and honestly Tim had hoped that he could just pretend that nothing had happened.

But he was a valiant hero of the night.

Not a creeper.

“Sorry… I…” ‘I am an idiot, and the light makes your eyes look honestly so pretty and your nose has such an antique form that is just so researched…’“… I can delete it if you want… I am very sorry… I just…”.

“Can I see it before you delete it?” your tone had been comforting, almost teasing, which had been confirmed by the way your lips had slowly pushed themselves up in a soft smirk, as you got up and came closer to Tim.

He was definitely tomato red by then.

But there wasn’t much more that he could do other than push the camera between you, two, and show you the photo he had stolen, which portrayed your focused expression, meanwhile your hands where in the midst of gently patting the earth around a plant, to make it even.

It was such a normal gesture, but the way the light fell onto you, almost as a curtain, definitely made you seem some kind of nature divinity, appearing in front of Tim to catch him off guard and tease him.

“Do you have to delete it?” you had mumbled over Tim’s shoulder and he had moved so that you could see the whole thing better “… because I don’t mind it too much…”.

You had a gentle frown on your face, as you traced the elegant profile Tim had gifted you with, definitely having a bit of a hard time recognizing yourself in the creature in the photo.

But you didn’t seem to mind it too much.

“… oh no, I just… I just thought…” ‘that you would run away calling me a creeper’.

“I would never put myself in the way of an artist!” you had joked, as you lightly pushed yourself away from Tim, and he finally felt the light blush on his shoulders recede “… I usually… I usually hate taking pictures of myself, but this is… this is very pretty!”.

Tim’s cheeks returned immediately red, at that.

His friends and family were definitely aware of his hobby and constantly complimented and reassured his abilities, but he couldn’t help but feel like with time, he had gotten used to those comments and right now they just sounded as more an obligation than spontaneous appreciation.

So, to be complimented by such a lovely stranger was definitely a huge ego boast.

“If you… ahem… want, I can send it to you” you had rushed to nod “… you can give me your email… it isn’t the best for the quality but…”.

It was only within your rights not to want to share your phone numbers with such a weirdo.

“I can give you my number, if you are alright with it?”.

If he was alright with it?

You were a lovely stranger, with a very photogenic face and that had just complimented him.

Of course, he didn’t mind.

He had rushed almost clumsily to get his phone, risking of trampling down a few of the potted plants on his path, but he had managed to come back to you in one piece and you inserted your number in his phone under the cute contact-name‘plant person’, which made you both laugh loudly.

“If you don’t require any more photos of me…” he had blushed a bit at your teasing tone, but a call from the old lady at the shop, definitely signaled that you were needed somewhere else, leaving Tim’s brain to take a bit of air after the burning embarrassment of the latest minutes “… I shall go and see what the old hag wants”.

There wasn’t true annoyance in your words, and it wouldn’t have been surprised Tim to know that you were related since you and the ‘hag’ were both pretty similar physically.

But he thought that he had already bothered you enough, so maybe the stalking could be left to after you decided not to press charges against him and, once he sent you the picture.

He had thought of sharing it immediately, once he got back in the Manor and safely in his own room, in order to download all the photos that he had taken that day and send them to you, before he went to sleep.

Except not only he had been taken aback by some work stuff and some vigilantism, the usual for him, but his ‘brothers’ had also backed him up into a corner, once they had noticed his rush to reach his room and as…

“… his own big brothers who knew stuff…” had proclaimed Jason, meanwhile he got the guns he had used that night away in the Batcave, before Bruce reached it, since he had a few matters to take care of (Selina) and had left them go back, before him “… I feel immediately compelled to mind your own business”.

“… I appreciate the feeling” Tim had commented annoyedly, trying to hide his flustered face in his cape, meanwhile he folded it neatly, since Alfred didn’t appreciate picking it off the floor, like Damian was doing, a few centimeters away from them, stomping on the cape as he sent it to the ground.

Meanwhile he was listening onto the conversation.

“… but fuck off”.

He truly appreciated the brotherly teasing Jason inflicted upon him.

The older one might not notice it, but Tim clearly knew and understood the reason behind why Jason expressed himself this way towards his ‘replacement’, and by now he considered it Jason’s own way of showing Tim some affection.

“Oh c’mon, Timmy!”.

Tim honestly hated that Dick was witnessing this whole convo, because as much as Jason was an easy beast to shake off his back, the eldest of the Wayne siblings definitely was too curious for his own good.

And years with Bruce had drilled onto him a certain kind of persuasion.

So, Tim’s only choice was to deny and then rush to the privacy of his own room.

“… we are just surprised you don’t want to spend some time with us!”.

Dick was a master manipulator, so Tim knew perfectly that behind that soft pretense of worry, there was a sly smirk waiting for him to do one false step.

Tim honestly didn’t know whether he should be amazed by the fact that they had become so good at reading each other or just scared by the fact that they did so, manipulating each other brilliantly.

“Nobody told Drake to join us” muttered angrily Damian, from behind Tim, and his need to be out of the cave fast, made him stop from doing anything that he would have regretted, as he put back his bo staff in his private weaponry station and moved to the showers.

Just for Jason to block his path.

“The brat isn’t actually invited if he keeps this up” replied Jason, shooting a light glance to Bruce’s demonic spawn, who had by now some kind of relationship with the red vigilante and didn’t directly charge at him, as he would have done a few years before.

Although Tim could feel that he had definitely shot him an angry look.

For good measure.

To make sure they would all remember that he was a killing machine.

And Tim caught quickly the way Jason’s eyes shifted from Damian, onto him, a few centimeters lower than the tall build his predecessor had grown into, but that bulging mass of muscles certainly didn’t seem to hide the worry in his eyes.

“… and Replacement… we are just worried because… you see… you are always the one that stays up the longest down here” although sarcasm dripped from his voice, it was obvious that they were all worried by his unusual behavior.

And also curious about what had prompted it.

“Just want to sleep it off…” that prompted even more wide-eyed stares from all around him and Tim was glad the girls were off to the Watchtower to help Babs with a problematic in her newest informatic system “… is it so bad that I, for once, want to take care of myself?”.

“Tim…” Dick’s voice was smooth, as the older vigilante pushed a hand onto his tense shoulders, definitely having done that gesture to be able to catch onto his sibling’s body language, so Tim shook the hand off quickly, as he bumped against Jason’s sturdy chest.

Two assaulters, maybe a third if Damian decided to join in the fun, and all his ways blocked.

He would have definitely tried to push the two to attack each other, and then sprinted on top of them to be able to reach the path behind him and towards safety.

But both Dick and Jason weren’t two of his enemies.

Although he would have gladly preferred to deal with some of Ra’s’ assassins at the moment.

“… we are just worried that you might end up ditching the family again for God-knows-how-long…”.

Dick’s worry was real, and Tim couldn’t exactly fault him for such a thought, even more when he knew how much the older boy had blamed himself for Tim’s last escape plan and the way it had thoroughly damaged him.

He hadn’t been there, when Tim had needed him the most.

So, he was trying to be there for him, even if it meant being an overprotective piece of shit, who was buggering him.

“I swear I am not ditching you” he promised solemnly with one hand over his heart “… I just need to send some files to a person…”.

He had then pushed past Jason towards the shower, since the older boy had seemed too surprised to hold his defense stance, giving up quickly as the older and leaner boy sprinting towards the safe comfort of warm water.

“… what kind of file?” muttered Dick on the run, meanwhile Jason and the midget were right behind him, effectively stalking him “… if you need help, you can count on me…”.

“This is personal” it was Tim’s way of saying ‘this is a closed case, folks’but none of his brother seemed to fully understand it, as they kept on hounding him for more details, suggesting that they told Bruce to stop overwork him or to…

“… just take on less things, Drake” Damian had sprouted loudly, and for a moment Tim had thought that the demon had some feelings for him “… you are obviously unable to hold up to father’s expectations, so I don’t think he’ll be too disappointed to know that you are an utter failure”.

No, they hadn’t definitely misplaced him with an identical good twin of his.

“… it’s a social thing”.

Honestly, he hadn’t been too hopeful of his brothers leaving him alone after saying such a thing to them, but he had also thought that maybe it would distract them enough for him to lock himself in the showers till they eventually found something more interesting to do.

But apparently, he had been wrong.

Jason fucking sprinted in front of him, shoving him backwards as he was halfway through reaching out for the locked door, effectively getting him to almost step on Damian.

“It’s a girl, right?”.

“No” he had piped back with a falsetto that definitely didn’t help his case.

“Is it a boy?” had tried then Dick, meanwhile Damian nodded thoroughly, insisting that ‘he did spend a lot of time with the awful Kent clone’.

“First of all, don’t insult my friend, he is the coolest one of the Kents…” he just hoped that Kon hadn’t heard that one with his super-hearing or he wouldn’t hear the end of it “… and secondly, why does it have to involve some kind of romantic relationship? Platonic relationships are very much important for people, and you shouldn’t put them in a second place…”.

“Drake tends to blabber when he is hiding something” muttered loudly Damian, meanwhile Dick and Jason simply nodded with huge smirks on their faces “… I say he got rejected by a pretty girl and can’t handle the burn”.

“So, pessimist, little D!” chastised him Dick, but did nothing to stop Tim’s public humiliation “… Tim, you do know that you can come to me if you have any kind of trouble… like even love problems, they are absolutely valid and…”.

“I’ll slip some condoms in your room” Jason simply commented, meanwhile the eldest vigilante badly tried to cover Damian’s ears, who insisted ‘that Todd did leave those, because a wolrd with one more Drake would have been barely tolerable for him’ “… hey! You gotta be protected! Did Bruce ever give you the talk? The one about the birds and bees…”.

“Why are you tormenting master Timothy?”.

Honestly Tim hadn’t ever been happier of Alfred’s sudden appearance, because it took the attention away from him for the whole time, he needed to grab the doorknob and lock himself inside of the showers, much to the protests of the others around him.

He was in a shitload of troubles.

And what was worst was that the one who was the closest to the truth was Damian.

He had actually exited the showers unscathed, probably due to Bruce’s return and his brothers had preferred to start teasing him, instead of Tim, which had meant that he had actually been able to reach his room as the dawn creeped in his room from the windows.

Jason had made good on his promise and Tim blushed at the sight of a condom pack, quickly hiding it under the bed, alongside a few other trinkets that he preferred not to be in full view of the rest of his family.

Although he knew that, in a family of detectives, everything was at risk.

But his brothers at least pretended not to see what he was hiding underneath the bed.

He had actually been eager to check out the photos, and by then he was mostly focused on the photos than the promise of sending you the one in which you were the main focus.

Also, because he doubted you would have been up.

Even if you were still in school, you would have been alerted by Tim’s early message.

And the thought of maybe startling you awake, made him hold himself back from sending you anything in that exact moment.

He checked the photos, deleted the ones he didn’t like and retouched the few that needed a few adjustments, downloading them into his own private computer, the one that not even Bruce knew existed.

He, then, proceeded to save an external copy in a pen drive for the lady at the flower shop.

She hadn’t seemed expert with technology, but if you worked there, you could have helped her figure out how to upload them in the social medias.

And alongside this he had put a copy of the damned picture, since sending them through WhatsApp or messages definitely lowered the quality, although it was faster and definitely a little bit less stalkerish.

In the end he had cleaned up a bit of his room and organized a few things of his busy schedule, meanwhile he waited for a decent time to send you the message.

He would have liked to actually join the others for breakfast, but that would have resulted in more teasing.

And knowing himself this would have stopped him from sending the photo to you.

So, he waited for a ‘normal’ time to send you the picture, with a small message that explained ‘he wasn’t some strange weirdo’ but simply ‘the dude who took picture in the greenhouse’.

A good ‘hope you’ll like it and that I am not bothering you’ and his hands were trembling intensely as he pressed the ‘send’ button, before throwing the phone onto the bed and going to the kitchen, hoping not to be overcrowded by his siblings.

And he was thankful of finding there only Alfred, who insisted that Tim drank something that was effectively healthy and not ‘those energy drinks that have more chemicals than water in them’ and he ate something that had just come out of the oven.

And who was Tim to refuse that?

At the breakfast table, Bruce was there, but he didn’t crowd Tim as the other boys had done, previously.

He definitely tried to make some conversation with his ward, softly asking about how things were going with the foundation he had given to him to take care of and if he needed some help.

‘Thought about going to college?’.

‘Shouldn’t you be happy that we all prefer to stay at home and not spend our trust-funds in alcohol and drugs in frat-houses?’ the younger boy had promptly answered him back, meanwhile Bruce put down the newspaper, revealing a slight smirk on his face at Tim’s sass.

‘Just worried you are missing something out’ he had insisted and became as worried as Jason had been the previous night, when he had been thoroughly questions about ‘his unusual behavior’ and Tim wouldn’t be surprised to know that he had talked with the boys about what had happened.

‘I don’t think that I could learn something that I don’t already know’.

It was cocky and a bit more arrogant than Tim was, but he run on the anxiety that sending you that small message had provoked, which didn’t make him the most sensitive person.

Bruce had simply raised his cup at that, almost as if to say: ‘if it is fine by you’.

And he had quickly excused himself, as his ‘work-phone’ had beeped and Tim could only think that it was probably the Yerns Enterprises acting up again, since they had been requesting more freedom from the WE, although they wouldn’t settle for the terms Bruce had set down for them.

Tim simply sent him a look of encouragement, but Bruce just downed his coffee in one go, under Alfred’s annoyed and disdained glance.

Who prohibited Tim to do the same.

So, he had to endure a whole quarter of hour spent on a chair, meanwhile his watch told him that he had a new message.

‘Maybe it is just Kon having heard what you said about him last night and wanting to make fun of you’.

It wouldn’t be unusual and there were a lot of people who chatted with Tim on the daily basis, considering that he was captaining two superhero teams and half the planet seemed on the run for him.

And yet, he wished that it was you.

But expectations weren’t a good thing to have in his line of work.

He had almost risked of tripping up the stairs, once he had been allowed to leave the table as Damian had passed in the kitchen for his pocket lunch for the day, sending Tim one disdainful look before moving away, after Bruce who was definitely rushing out with an unlaced tie.

Cass appeared at the top of the stairs, enough to scare him a bit, and he was thankful when Duke securely held an hand out to him to stop him from rolling down the stairs, as he suggested to Tim ‘to be cautious’, meanwhile he distinctively heard a feminine laugh behind him.

He wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Cass was trying to see how many people in the Manor she could scare with her graceful silence.

She had caught Jason in the middle of a reading in the library, a few weeks ago, and the boy had almost set fire to the whole place, thinking that it was some kind of supernatural monster.

Once inside of his room, Tim rushed for the bed, falling gracelessly onto it and risking of sending his phone onto the floor, managing to catch it at the last minute, as the screen lighted up for the small pressure of his fingertips, revealing the contact who had sent him the message.

Plant person.

You.

He still had to hold himself out from doing something more as his hands trembled, meanwhile he inserted the pin and revealed a preview of the message, definitely filled with more emojis than the average messages he shared with Stephanie, and the sweet repetition of ‘thank you’.

You weren’t definitely surprised by the early hour and instead commented on the photo quality and Tim’s capture of the details.

‘I honestly look so pretty in this photo’.

He wanted to tell you that you were actually pretty.

And not solely in the photo.

But he just answered with a light ‘you are welcome’.

“… the quality isn’t actually the best… but I did save another copy on a hard-drive, alongside all the other photos I took at the shop”he had explained, feeling like he was dragging out this whole conversation and yet, not wanting to stop talking with you.

And he was extremely proud as your icon changed suddenly into the photo that Tim had taken of you.

“Oh no, it’s too late!” an assortment of various laughing emojis had followed “… it is already on all my socials!”.

‘No, Tim, you can’t go and stalk her on her socials’.

He had sent her a ‘nice’ with a sparkling emoji and then he had tried to surrender himself to the thought that this was now the end of their conversation and nothing more.

But then his phone had lighted up, as he was pushing himself to do some detective work on his work computer.

“… wait… shit, I am a horrible person… I didn’t even ask if I could post them on that… I just… you are really talented, and your photo made me feel so… so… confident!” the message had already Tim’s heart speeding but then you added more “… I should honestly thank you for that, because it has been a long time since I felt like this”.

He couldn’t fall in love with somebody, just because they texted him like that.

Stephanie would have made fun of him.

“No worries” another soft emoji to convey better the message.

Something he might have taken after Stephanie and Cass, who never sent a message without the appropriate emojis.

And the blond one definitely abused of this power.

“Still, I should give you credit!” considering that Stephanie never gave him credit for the shots he took of her, he honestly had resigned himself to simply be ‘the one behind the camera’ “… hope this doesn’t sound too rude of him but… what is your name? Nana kind of.. forgot it…”.

So, you were the grandchild of the owner.

That did explain your presence in the greenhouse.

‘Tim, calm down, you can’t analyze them as you would with a crime scene’.

“Ahem, no worries…” he had texted back, meanwhile he measured the danger of telling you his real identity, because as much as you doubted anybody would have targeted you, it could have exposed his crush to his brothers.

Wait, did he have a crush for you?

He had known you for A DAY!

He couldn’t do this, already.

In the end, he thought that giving you a fake name would have just ensured that you took him as a creep, so he ended up telling you the truth and hoping that his brothers would have steered clear from the social medias for the following few weeks.

But your answer had actually shook him much more.

“Wait…” the typing had gone back to appearing and disappearing and he had thought that maybe you two knew each other from school and he had been a dumbass not recognizing you “… you are… you are Tim Drake? Like… that Tim Drake?”.

And the message that had followed had been a link to a recent article about him.

And his choice to present himself in the office in a Pokemon shirt.

Definitely his highest moment.

But fuck.

His crush knew that he was dork and a weirdo now.

“Ahem… yeah…” ‘please don’t sell this to Vicky Vale’ “… the one and only”.

Now, he understood why Damian thought he would get rejected.

“Oh, fuck”.

But was it a good ‘oh fuck’ or a bad one?

“… I can’t believe that… I mean… you seriously by now think that I am a weirdo”.

Well, that was a pleasant outcome of the events.

Because he was sure that you were the woman who thought him a creep.

“… ahem no” Tim had rushed to write “… I honestly am glad that you liked my pictures… I don’t have too many people with whom I can share them, and I do get the whole ‘feeling down’ thing, so your compliments definitely and positively made my day a bit better”.

Yeah, he just needed to add ‘I love you’ for good measure and here came the restraining order.

He had thought that you would drop texting him, after that, probably a bit shaken by Tim’s confession, but the icon of the typing had started beeping again, and he had chosen to move himself from his ‘gaming station’ to his own bed.

So, he could lay down and take the rejection in a more relaxed way.

“… honestly, I can’t believe that by your age, you are helping with the WE, working with the police and also… shooting these amazing pictures…”.

Your words seemed honestly genuine and he wished that you could have this conversation face-to-face.

But that would have been seriously asking for more.

“… and sorry for wasting your day… this college dropout is probably keeping you from something important”.

The adorable emoji that you had sent him, definitely conveyed that you weren’t sorry in the slightest, but that somehow you didn’t know whether a longer conversation would have been proper.

“I have to say that considering I have been grounded…” it wasn’t the complete truth, since he hadn’t been technicallygrounded by Bruce, but the guards at the WE had been told not to let him inside for at least a few more weeks, since he had fallen asleep at one reunion and started bleeding from his nose a few moments later “… I mostly work from home, which entails a lot of coffee breaks, so you aren’t bothering me. Actually, saving me from the thought of finding a way to reply to latest email I got”.

“Let me guess, it doesn’t involve the sight of adorable puppies”you had shot back with a few smiling emojis, and then had forwarded him a picture of a few adorable puppies, definitely taking him by surprise at that sight.

Although it wasn’t unwelcomed.

“Hope these puppies will make up the braincells I burned with my silly messages”.

“Bold of you to assume there aren’t some that aren’t burned, yet”.

He had thought that after that message, he had finally managed to discourage you fully from asking anything more.

He had quietly sat onto the bed, with his back against the headboard, trying to calm his beating heart and settle in his brain the thought that it had been nice for the time it had lasted.

Then his screen had lighted up one more time.

“… this is probably out of like… this is probably me asking for too much but… you said… that you do a few coffee breaks during the day, so maybe… I can offer you a coffee in exchange of the nice photo, can’t I?”.

Well, he couldn’t wait to rub it in Damian’s face that he hadn’t been rejected.

Yet.