Chapter Text
Draco crouches behind the short wall that lined the roof, head barely peeking above the brick. It isn’t like he had their patrol routes memorized, or even figured out, but Draco is smart enough to realize that the poorer, more crime ridden parts of the city had better chances of seeing the caped crusaders. After doing this for about two years, Draco is proud to admit he has a knack for guessing where they will turn up. The snick of a grappling hook rewards Draco for his patience. About time, he thinks, getting his camera ready. Looking through the viewfinder, it takes a moment before Draco’s able to focus on Batman, swinging from what looks like a dilapidated apartment building. Not far behind is Robin, tanned skin on display thanks to those ridiculous short shorts. Draco snaps a picture with a smirk.
Something must catch Batman’s attention because he makes a quick hand motion, and both veer off. Cursing, Draco awkwardly makes his way to the south side of the roof, still crouched, hoping to get a view of whatever is going on. Zooming in on the alley across the street, Draco watches as Batman helps a man who is slumped against a building, either drunk, drugged, or dying. Not a worthy photo op unless Batman gets upchucked on. The thought of that keeps all of the blonde’s attention. That’s probably why he doesn’t hear the light footsteps coming up behind him.
“What are you doing?” The question startles Draco so badly, he almost drops the camera. He definitely doesn’t squeak as he spins around to face whoever just spoke. He feels his heart twice as fast. Draco has only been mugged three times in the past two years, a fact which he’s incredibly proud of. He has a small can of mace in the front pocket of his hoodie, and his right hand goes to grab for it when he recognizes just who is behind him.
“You’re Robin,” he breathes softly, if a little dumbly. Robin, the Boy Wonder, stands not five feet from Draco. His dark hair is messy from swinging through the city and his eyes are hidden behind the white lenses of his mask, which are currently focused on Draco. He stands confidently, with hands on his hips. God, those thighs look so much more toned than his camera could ever do justice. Maybe Draco needs a new one with better resolution. He was seriously missing out before.
“I thought you’d be taller.” And of course he ruins his first meeting with the sidekick. Mother always did say that he needed to work on thinking before he spoke.
“I- what?” The hard edge of his voice wavers almost immediately, clearly caught off guard. That makes two of us, Draco thinks with a wry twitch of the lips.
“Nevermind, I asked you a question.” The stern tone is back. Draco has to stop himself from finding it cute.
“I’m-”
“Why are you taking pictures of Batman?” Draco makes a face at being interrupted, lip curling up at the side in a sneer.
“Are you going to let me answer this time, or do you have any more questions that just can’t wait?” The brown skin under Robin’s domino deepens with a ruddy hue, but Robin only glares back with a pointed silence. “I just like taking pictures. That’s not a crime is it?”
“No, but it’s dangerous for you to be wandering around like this at night. You should head home.” “
haven’t even gotten anything good yet,” the blonde whines. The other boy openly gapes before schooling his features.
“Your safety is more important than a few good pictures. If I can’t convince you, maybe Batman can.” Annoyingly, the thinly veiled threat works, and Draco can’t decide whether being threatened is helping or hurting his stupid crush on the hero. But either way, there is no way Draco wants to meet Batman. Sure, he’s a hero and Draco knows the man would never hurt him, he was just an innocent civilian after all, but Batman has worked hard to strike fear into the heart of Gotham and her criminals. And it has certainly paid off. Draco hugs his camera a little tighter to his chest and takes a small step back.
“You wouldn’t. I didn’t peg Robin as a tattle tale.”
“I’m a vigilante, I’m pretty much a glorified tattle tale.” Robin quirks an eyebrow and, for the first time without a camera lens in the way, Draco gets to see a small smile on the Boy Wonder’s face. With a cocked hip and hands still firmly placed on his hips, Robin lets Draco stew in the silence. Draco would hate that snarky confidence if he knew it wasn’t one hundred percent correct. With a heaving sigh, more drama than necessary, Draco wants it known that he is doing this against his will.
“Fine.” With that, he makes his way to the fire escape. Robin follows him. “What, are you going to walk me home?”
“Just making sure you actually leave.” Robin quips back, this time a few teeth are visible when he smiles. The challenge in his voice is definitely not doing any favors for that crush, so Draco tries to play it as cool as he can. After all, he does not want to be just some civilian that has heart eyes over the nearest vigilante. Even if that’s exactly what he was, Robin couldn’t know that. How tacky, his mother and father taught him better than that.
“Sure,” Draco drawls, starting his descent, camera strap safely around his neck. He has to look away from Robin to climb down. The buildings in this part of town aren’t always in the best shape. The metal ladders and walkways got a bit shoddier the higher up this fire escape went, so until Draco was about three stories lower, he had to be careful how much of his weight each rung can take. By the time Draco can safely look back up towards the roof, Robin is gone.