Chapter Text
It was inevitable that Batman and Nightwing came after them. Tim was just surprised that it took four days for either of them to show up.
One moment he and Selina were joking with each other as they were leaping across rooftops, on the hunt for some fun, and the next Batman swooped down from out of nowhere and landed down right in front of them.
Tim hadn’t seen Batman in such proximity since the night that he had intervened with Jason and for one moment he was frightened that the man had deduced his identity and had come to take him away.
“The boy, Selina.” The man growled out.
Catwoman widened her stance, her hand going to her side to grab her whip.
He knew that Batman wasn’t going to get his hands on him without a fight. Tim lowered his body, keeping his eyes out for any other outside interference. Batman had been accompanied by Nightwing consistently ever since he had come back from wherever he had gone off to.
Stray was the one who tilted his head to the side, listening carefully when he heard the sound of something scraping against a brick wall. It wasn’t much. Most people would’ve written it off as a trick of the wind, but Stray was starting to know better.
He reached up to the side of his goggles, turning on the infrared function. “Beat it, Batsy. You weren’t invited.” Catwoman hissed out next to him. Stray looked around, still trying to find the source of the sound.
It was a quick flash of orange and yellow in his peripheral one second, and a large blot right in front of him the next. He could hear Catwoman’s whip snap in the air the same time that he dodged to the side.
Stray quickly switch off his goggles, preferring to run around with his own vision as his guide. The infrared would just prove to hinder him at this point.
A quick look over at Catwoman and Batman showed him that they were duking it out. Catwoman was twirling around, cracking her whip at Batman in an attempt to keep him busy and at bay.
Stray knew that she was just trying to give him a chance to run off and hide.
But with Nightwing after him as well, Stray knew that it would only be a matter of time before the older man caught up to him.
As much as Stray had learned over the past few months and how quickly he had done so, he was no match for someone who had been doing this gig for years.
Stray had the advantage in that he was smaller and easily able to slip away, but Nightwing had the tenacity to not back down at a challenge and the sheer determination of getting the job done.
It felt good whenever he turned just right to avoid Nightwing’s arms and he actually laughed out loud when the man growled out in frustration. He even managed to slip away fast enough at one point to leap from one building to the next, but that was where he went wrong. Stray went left when he should have gone right and Nightwing barreled into him, throwing the both of them onto the ground.
In this playing field, Nightwing had the advantage. He was bigger and he was stronger. It was only a matter of seconds before he had Stray pinned down on the roof, holding down his legs first and then grabbing onto his wrists after he avoided a clawed swipe.
Stray struggled for a few seconds, but he knew that it was useless at this point. He groaned. He had hoped that he would have lasted at least a few minutes.
Now that neither of them were moving, Stray took a moment to take in his situation. Part of him wished he hadn’t when the more outspoken part of him shoved its way up to the surface.
“Oh my god!” Stray shouted out, ignoring Nightwing as he pulled his head back in confusion.
There was a hard crack of Catwoman’s whip and a few thuds, no doubt Catwoman and Batman exchanging blows before she shouted back at him. “Stray! Are you alright?”
Stray had no filter anymore. It was no use even trying to stop it. “Nightwing is on top of me!” He swore that his voice didn’t break in excitement. Nightwing choked at his words and the night was filled with silence for a few seconds. It seemed that his words had halted both of the others as well.
There was a gleeful cackle coming from the other roof and Stray could see Catwoman crouching down on the ledge. “Isn’t it the most glorious experience?”
He didn’t even have the time to nod before Nightwing pushed himself off of him and held his hands up. It was hilarious to see the scandalized look on the older vigilante’s face and Stray let out a cackle of his own as he rolled away and jumped up to where Catwoman was.
She reached out and grabbed his arm as he jumped, pulling him up and setting him down in between the v of her legs. Stray leaned back against her, humming happily as she patted his head. He grinned over at Nightwing, kicking his legs back and forth, hitting his heels against the wall.
Stray noticed when a large shadow blocked off the moonlight. It was Batman loomed over them. Catwoman turned to the right and Stray turned to the left, leaning up so he could see around her shoulders.
“What is the meaning of this, Catwoman?” Batman demanded of her. Nightwing had gotten over his own shock and had jumped up to stand next to his mentor.
Stray had no shame in admitting that he stuck his tongue out at the younger of the two vigilantes.
It seemed to make Nightwing uncomfortable and it was fabulous to see.
“I don’t know what you mean.” Catwoman said simply, wrapping her arms around Stray’s shoulders, but not so tightly that he wasn’t able to keep looking behind her. “You have two little sidekicks, I don’t see why I can’t have one of my own.”
“Even you know that this is wrong.” Was the immediate response.
Stray reached up and grabbed Catwoman’s shoulders, pulling himself up so he was facing both vigilantes. “I don’t see how it’s wrong.” His mouth curled up into a smirk as Catwoman kept her possessive arms around him.
“Look, kid.” It actually looked like it was hurting Nightwing to say those words. “You’re young. There are better options for you than running around with a thief.”
“What about you? Weren’t you younger than I am right now when you became Robin? I’m pretty sure that the current Robin wasn’t much older than I was when Batman took him in either.” Stray snapped back.
Both Batman and Nightwing looked at each other at his words. Nothing they could say at that moment could refute what he had just said.
Catwoman pulled her arms away, moving to stand up herself. She placed her hand on his head again and he made a show of taking a step towards her and butting his head against her hand, all the while keeping his eyes on the vigilantes. Nightwing was more expressive with how awkward he felt and Stray could only imagine that Batman was feeling the same way, albeit inwardly.
“It’s just different, kid-” Nightwing started again, but Stray immediately shot him down.
“Tell me exactly how.” He snarled. It was only Catwoman’s hand slipping down to his shoulder and gripping tightly that actually kept him from extending his claws.
It was silent after that and the silence between them was awkward. Nightwing obviously wasn’t sure on how to deal with the situation, Catwoman was giving off her satisfaction and Batman was just silent, never talking his eyes off of Stray.
Stray planted his hands on his hips, cocking them to the side as he looked up at the caped crusader.
His words were few, but that didn’t mean that they were shocking. “I know you.”
Stray immediately tensed up and even Catwoman used the hand on his shoulder to keep him back as she stepped in front of him protectively. She was ready to defend him and throw him off the side of the roof if need be. Nightwing looked over at Batman with a surprised look.
Stray tilted his head up in defiance, trying to convey that the words hadn’t brought down his resolve at all. In truth he was panicking on the inside, Tim freaking out at those three little words. If Batman had already figured out who he really was, then the jig was up. No doubt Batman would pull strings as Bruce Wayne to take him away from Selina. He had the power to do so. Just by placing a concerned call to Tim’s parents and it would ruin everything that he had been working towards for coming up to half a year now.
It wasn’t fair.
He had only just started.
This couldn’t be the end for him.
Batman took a step forward and Catwoman actually hissed at him in an attempt to keep him away, but it didn’t deter the man at all. He might have stopped moving towards them, but that didn’t stop him from speaking. “It was hard to pinpoint because you had that ridiculous accent the last time we spoke.”
Tim’s thoughts screeched to a quick halt. His mind settled as he realized what Batman was talking about. He huffed loudly and held his chin up in defiance. “Well, I ain’t never said ‘twas perfect.”
Nightwing was looking even more confused, if it was even possible, and Tim could even feel Catwoman’s eyes on him. Even though she had hinted that she realized what she had done the night that he had confronted Jason and word went out that Batman was looking to thank a young boy, she hadn’t pressed him on the details.
“You should roll your r’s more. Don’t drawl so much as swallow the words.” Batman gave him as advice.
Stray narrowed his eyes at Batman, not yet trusting that the man hadn’t realized who he really was yet. “I’ll keep it in mind, then.” He mumbled.
Batman stepped forward again, this time without Catwoman giving up any protests. He didn’t come too close to the both of them as he kneeled down to Stray’s height. “I never got the chance to thank you for what you did.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, turning his head away to avoid the Batman’s gaze. “Yeah, well, I couldn’t really just let him run off, now could I?”
“Oh shit.” Nightwing muttered, probably having finally realized what Batman and Stray were talking about. It was about time.
“How’s he doing?” Stray asked timidly.
Batman was silent for a moment, pursing his lips as he seemingly had to think about his response. “He’ll be fine. It was rough for a little bit, but he said he’ll get over it.”
That was a relief to hear. Tim had already gotten word from Selina that Batman had been out to thank him. He realized that this meant that whatever his little intervention had done, it had been a good thing.
“Robin was very vocal about the tracker that you found on his jacket…” There was a stretched out pause, probably for effect. “Supposedly at least. I’m pretty sure that I would have remembered if I had planted something like that on him.”
Great. Now he was trying to fish information about how Stray had gotten his hands on the tracking device. He rubbed his nails on his chest as he answered. “Perhaps you should make sure that your pouches are properly closed before you start knocking goon’s teeth out of their mouths.”
Batman hummed in accordance. “Would you happen to be the reason that we’ve been losing a lot more batarangs than usual as well?”
“They’re nice trophies. They look good on my wall.” Stray didn’t really hang them up. They all went into the boxes underneath his bed. There was no need for him to leave them out to be potentially spotted by his housekeeper.
Batman shook his head, something that sounded like a soft huff of laughter escaping from him as he stood up again and backed up. “Your boy’s good. You’ve trained him well.”
“I’d certainly like to think so.” Catwoman said in response.
“Let’s go, Nightwing.”
Nightwing jumped in surprise, turning towards his mentor as the man started walking off. “Bru-Batman! We’re just going to leave it like this? I thought you said we were going to handle the situation!” Batman didn’t give Nightwing any indication that he had heard him before he pulled out his grappling hook and shot it off, taking into the sky mere seconds later.
The younger vigilante muttered under his breath as he grabbed his own grappler. He turned towards Stray, the white lenses of his domino mask narrowing as he pointed two fingers at his eyes and then back at Stray before he took off after Batman.
Both he and Catwoman stood in silence as they watched the two of them disappear into the night. Once he was sure that they were both gone, Tim pushed his goggles up onto his forehead and let out a loud groan. “That was way too close!”
“You’re telling me, Kitten.” Selina grumbled as she pushed her own goggles away from her eyes.
“I thought that we were made for a second there.” Tim’s heart was beating wildly in his chest. On the one hand it was good to know that Batman hadn’t figured out that he was Timothy Drake yet, but the man had only seen him for all of five minutes before this in completely different state of dress and with a different mannerism. Tim was definitely going to have to up his game when it came to disguising himself if he wanted to start fooling the dark knight.
“How about we call it a night and go get some milkshakes?” Selina suggested.
Tim sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Milkshakes sound great.”