Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim was lost. There was no denying it.

He had been wandering around Gotham on a hunt for Batman and Robin, looking for all their normal routes, but he had clearly taken a wrong turn somewhere. He couldn’t recognize anything around him.

But Tim knew that he would be fine. He was small enough to go completely unnoticed by those around him, so it was fine. He was fine. Everything was great.

So he kept walking, looking for a landmark that he recognized, anything to get him unlost. If he could just find something that he recognized even slightly, he could get home. Of course, knowing his luck, something would go horribly wrong and prevent him from doing so.

Gripping his camera tightly, he walked by an old crumbling building, saw it’s rusted fire escape, and came up with a genius idea. He would climb up it, just like Jason, his Robin, did. Then he would be able to see everything!

He has climbed up fire escapes before, and even though they weren’t nearly as beat up as this one, Tim could do it. It would be fine.

As he stood at the bottom, staring up at the ladder, his heart started to race a little. Sure, if he fell from one of the bottom levels, he would be fine, but from the top? Lets just say that Tim really didn’t want to become a pancake any time soon.

“It’ll be fine. I can do this. If Jason can, then so can I,” he said.

He managed to jump up and grab the bottom rung of the ladder, and pull himself up. Once he was standing on the bottom platform, getting up to the roof was a fairly simple process of testing to see if each rung would hold his weight and slowly climbing up.

It took about 20 minutes, and while Tim knew that Jason could have done it in an eighth of the time, he hoped that he had made Jason proud. He knew that Jason would probably hate him and never want anything to do with him just like his parents, but it was fine. Tim knew that there must’ve been something wrong with him, because parents were supposed to love their children, so he had to be messed up. But anyways, back to rusty fire escapes.

Once he was on the roof, 20 stories off the ground, Tim figured out that he was about four blocks from where he really wanted to be, so now it was just a matter of climbing down and walking there.

As Tim looked down over the edge at the fire escape, he realized something that was true for most children that climb up something. Getting up is always easier than getting down.

The fire escape suddenly looked a lot more dangerous, like it was going to collapse the moment he put any of his weight on it. It was, unfortunately for Tim, the only way down, unless he suddenly decided that he could climb walls.

“Just one rung at a time,” he muttered, and put his foot on the first rung.

It held. Tim let out a slight breath, and slowly made his way down to the closest platform. Of course, that was when everything went wrong.

The entire structure had barely been holding on, so when it shifted in just the right way, the entire thing collapsed.

As Tim started to fall he could feel his eyes widening before slamming them shut and bracing his body for the inevitable death coming fast.

His entire body jerked when he hit something, but it was not the expected jarring shock.

“Huh. I thought that hitting the ground and dying would hurt a lot less than this,” he said.

“You’re not dead, kid,” a slightly deeper voice said.

And suddenly Tim was jerking his eyes open and staring into the face of Robin who had apparently saved him.

“I… W-what? Robin?” he managed to stammer out.

“Yeah kid. I got you,” Robin, or Jason Todd responded.

Tim just stared at him in shock, only blinking once Robin put him down again once they were back on solid ground. Tim looked around and realized that they were on another roof, a different one than the one he fell off of.

“So, mind telling me what you were doing falling from a building?” Robin asked.

“I um… I got lost? And then I couldn’t find anything familiar, so I decided that it would be a good idea to climb up a building, butthenthatdidn’treallyworkcauseIfellandnearlydied,” he responded.

“Alright… What’s your name kiddo?” Robin asked.

“Uh, Tim,” Tim said, looking at his feet and blushing a little.

“I’m really really sorry for bothering you, and falling, and- and yeah… I’m sorry,” Tim said.

“There’s no reason to be sorry Timmers, but I would like to know why you thought that it would be a good idea to climb up a fire escape that looks like that. And shouldn’t you be in bed right now? It’s way too late for little kids to be wandering the streets right now!”

“I just wanted to take photos…” Tim said while staring down at his feet.

Robin sighed a little before moving towards him and wrapping his arms around him. Tim stiffened up for a second, and then practically melted into the hug.

“‘m sorry Jason. I didn’t mean to disappoint you,” he mumbled.

Jason suddenly pulled back, and gripped his shoulders.

“What did you just call me?” he asked.

“Nothing! I said Robin!” Tim replied defensively.

“No you didn’t! You definitely know something. I’m gonna take you back to the cave with me. Come on,” Jason said while grabbing Tim and grappling over to his motorcycle.

He placed Tim in the seat and then sat down right behind him so that he could maneuver the bike around. He then jammed a helmet onto Tim’s head, which Tim found slightly offensive, because even though this was really cool and amazing, Tim could put on a helmet by himself thank you very much.

So they drove through Gotham, speeding around corners and flying through the streets. And then they reached the Batcave.

Chapter Text

Honestly, Tim was kinda freaking out. He was fairly certain that he had just been kidnapped. By Robin of all people. But it was fine.

Actually it wasn’t fine, because he had just revealed that he knew Batman and Robin’s identities.

Tim’s parents had told him that he was supposed to stay out of sight and out of mind because who would want to deal with a kid like him? And then Tim just had to go and do the exact opposite.

What if Mr Wayne tells my parents that I was sneaking out? They would kill him. He would probably have his camera taken away and would probably be locked away in the closet, but he hated the closet and he didn’t want to go there again.

But Tim would just have to figure something out. He always did. So he took a deep breath and looked up as the motorcycle came to a stop.

He couldn’t help but stare. He knew that there was a Batcave, but this… this was insane. He looked around and saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and his eyes widened. Right in front of him was Batman.

“Robin. Why is there a child in the Cave?” Batman asked.

“‘Cause he knows our identities B! I found him nearly falling off a rooftop takin’ pictures and when I grabbed him he said my name!” Robin said as he climbed off of the motorcycle and picked Tim up before placing him on the ground.

“Are you certain that it wasn’t a random accident?”

“Come on B! I know what I heard!” Robin exclaimed.

Batman crouched in front of Tim, and carefully looked at him before asking, “What’s my name then?”

“Bruce Wayne…” Tim whispered softly, “and he’s Jason Todd.”

Bruce pulled back sharply and stared at him and then glanced at Jason, appearing to almost have a silent conversation.

“Alright. What’s your name chum?” Bruce asked.

“Tim. Tim Drake.”

Bruce’s brows furrowed and looked at him in confusion.

“As in the son of Jack and Janet Drake? Last I heard they were in Saudi Arabia for another two months,” Bruce said.

“Yeah, but I’m fine on my own! I can take care of myself! And Mrs Mac comes by every Thursday to check in and make some food for the rest of the week!” Tim said.

Bruce scowled slightly as he pulled off his cowl, and when Tim looked at Jason he was grumbling and glaring at one of the walls.

Tim wanted to cry. Clearly Bruce and Jason knew that it was his fault that his parents left him. He sniffled and felt his eyes well up with tears. His hand moved to rub them away when suddenly he was jerked into someone's chest as their arms encircled him. Looking up he could see that it was Jason.

“Tim, we're not mad at you. We’re just worried. No kid should be on their own for that long,” Bruce said, raising his hand to stop Tim from interrupting him.

“I know that you claim that you can take care of yourself, but you shouldn’t have to. You need parents, people who are around and can make sure that you have everything that you need,” Bruce finished.

Tim just nodded and ducked his head back into Jason’s arms.

“How’s you even figure out our identities, Timmers?” Jason asked.

“I met Dick Grayson at the circus before his parents died and watched them perform. Then they were dead and you took him in Mr Wayne, and all of a sudden Batman had a new partner. And one day I saw Robin do a quadruple backflip, and the only other person that I know can do that is Dick Grayson, so it all made sense,” he answered.

“That’s very impressive Tim. And please, call me Bruce.”

Tim decided right then that Bruce Wayne wasn’t nearly as scary as he thought he was. He kinda thought that when Jason was bringing him to the cave that Batman was gonna lock him up or something, but it turned out that he got more hugs from Jason!

And then there was Jason. Jason was amazing, but Tim already knew that before he actually met him. Now though, Jason had already hugged him for longer than either of his parents ever had and it was really nice. It made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Jason picked him up and started walking up the stairs while calling out behind to Bruce.

“He’s gonna stay with us right?”
“Yes. Make sure to let Alfred know about it and help Tim settle down okay Jaylad?”

“Alright. ‘Night B!” Jason said.

“Goodnight Jay, goodnight Tim.”

Tim sighed contentedly and settled into Jason, slowly nodding off to sleep.