Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim knew Jason was a lot of things, but he didn’t expect homophobic to be one of them.

Tim hadn’t- It’s not like he planned some big perfectly-worded coming out, not like he did with Bruce and Dick. He’d been out for a while now, at least to the people who knew him well. Really, it was at the point where it was weirder to not say anything.

So he’d done a quick internal assessment and decided he was comfortable with letting Jason know, and briefly scanned his mental file on Todd comma Jason to check for any glaring red flags. Of course, there were none. Jason as Red Hood was known for being indiscriminate about who he protected, and Tim was pretty sure he’d seen him skulking around in the shadows at Pride last year, keeping the cops away.

Red Hood was an ally, Tim was certain of it. It was Jason’s opinion of Tim that he wasn’t completely sure about. They seemed to pass the awkwardness baton back and forth, never quite being on the same page. One or both of them was always antsy, twitchy, distracted, or otherwise socially useless whenever they were in a room together without a case to distract them.

It had been a long time since there’d been active hostility between them. The animosity was gone, leaving a cringing void in its wake, like the air between them was embarrassed on their behalf for their inability to replace the aggressiveness with anything else.

So it’s not like he and Jason were best bros, but Tim was 87 percent confident that coming out to Jason wouldn’t have explosively negative consequences.

It ended up happening pretty casually. They were at Tim’s place after a routine patrol. Jason was patching a hard-to-reach scrape on Tim’s back. They weren’t talking but it felt comfortable. It had been a good night, busy enough to not be boring but low-key enough to allow banter during fights and some surprisingly easy conversations in between.

As Jason was slapping an adhesive bandage over the gauze – harder than necessary, because even friendly Jason was a bit of an asshole – he prodded Tim in the ribs (asshole). “Are you setting an alarm?” he asked, digging his chin into Tim’s scapula as he shamelessly read over his shoulder. “The fuck you waking up at 7am for?”

Three hours of sleep was more than enough, Tim calculated as he scrolled the alarm wheel. “Got breakfast,” he said, throwing back his elbow to dislodge Jason without looking up. Jason dodged easily and went back to draping himself over Tim, using his shoulder as a pillow. It was sleepy o’clock in the morning and they were both crashing.

“Why are you, fuckin’, breakfast?” asked Jason through a yawn.

“Bernard’s got a flight to San Fran at ten, so we’re gonna do breakfast then I’ll take him to the airport,” Tim answered without really thinking about it. He shoved Jason off him again and shucked himself out of his Red Robin pants. He was too tired for a shower. That could be a Morning Tim thing to worry about. Sleepy Tim needed bed.

“Who’s Bernard?” Jason followed Tim into the bedroom as Tim flopped himself onto the bed wearing only his sweaty boxers. Tim heard him rifling through the drawers and stealing his clothes. Rude. Even if Jason was only stealing back his own clothes, because nothing of Tim’s would fit him. Still rude. It’s the principle.

“Boyfriend,” Tim mumbled into the pillow. “Bernard my boyfriend.” Syllables hard.

There was a silence that Tim didn’t notice at first because he was too busy falling asleep. Then there was the rustling of Jason putting on a clean shirt, and the ugly bark of a laugh.

“Of course he is,” Tim heard Jason mutter.

Tim rolled his head to squint at Jason, who had a really weird look on his face. He’d pulled a clean shirt over his Red Hood pants and was scratching the back of his neck.

“What?” asked Tim, still not quite getting it.

“No, it’s fine,” said Jason with a really odd smile. He wasn’t looking at Tim. “It’s just funny, that’s all. I mean, of course you have a boyfriend.”

Tim blinked. “Is… that a problem?”

“Well it’s a pattern,” said Jason absolutely nonsensically. He rubbed a hand down his face and the weird expression smoothed a little bit, but didn’t disappear. “Never mind. I’ll just make sure I trademark the Red Hood name. All good.”

Jason lifted a blanket from where it was sprawled half-off the bottom of the bed and threw it on top of Tim, who really felt like he was missing something. “Sleep well, Timbo. Have a good breakfast.”

And then he was gone before Tim could figure out what the heck was happening. He would have mulled it over but he was really so sleepy. Future Tim’s to-do list could handle a couple more things.

-_-

After that, things were weird. Weirder. Jason and Tim nonchalantly avoided each other without acknowledging they were doing it. They stayed professional but didn’t engage in any banter, and somehow their rosters never synced up to put them on patrol together without at least one other person there as a buffer.

After a couple of weeks, Tim was sure that the others were noticing but were correctly deeming it none of their business. It wasn’t impacting their efficiency so there wasn’t any need to discuss anything.

(Tim knew that it was only a matter of time before Steph cornered him about it, but he’d handle that when it came up. Poor Future Tim.)

Privately, Tim wasn’t sure what to think. He hadn’t picked Jason as being a homophobe but his radar could have been off. Maybe it wasn’t a homophobia thing. Maybe it was a Tim thing. Like, Jason already didn’t like him. Tolerated him but they definitely weren’t friends by any stretch. Maybe it was just that Tim was seeing anyone at all. Maybe it was because it was a civilian. Maybe it was because it was a guy. Maybe it was just any excuse to get pissy with Tim about something.

It ended up being Dick who said something first. Dick was great, really, but sometimes his earnest care and consideration clashed with his staunch refusal to betray confidences and remain “neutral”, resulting in the most infuriating conversations imaginable.

It went something like this:

Dick: “What’s wrong, Timmy?”

Tim: “It’s nothing.”

Dick: “(sad face) (big sad cow eyes)”

Tim: “It’s Jason. He’s been weird since I came out.”

Dick: “(complicated face)”

Tim: “What?”

Dick: “Nothing.”

Tim: “Dick.”

Dick: “Nothing.”

Tim: “Dickchard John Grayson.”

Dick: “I’m sorry things are tough, you can always come to me if you need anything, except for right now because I’ve suddenly got to go do something far away and throw my phone in a river bye!”

That was paraphrasing slightly, but basically that’s how it went. Tim was now frustrated with three of his siblings (Damian was always a source of frustration, constant as the tides).

It was nearly a month later when the mystery was finally revealed: Jason wasn’t homophobic. The family was just a pack of idiots.

Tim was in his apartment, eyes nearly crossed from hours of scrolling through lines of code to help Oracle with a bug patch. He was perched on a chair wearing pyjama bottoms and one of Bernard’s t-shirts. A half-empty Red Bull and pack of Cool Ranch Doritos sat forgotten next to him. At some point, he’d wrapped a thin blanket around his shoulders but he couldn’t remember doing it.

There was a knock at his door. Tim raised his head like a startled gazelle. That was weird. It was – he checked his computer – 3:56am. Suspicious time to have a door-knocking visitor.

It was Jason. Not Red Hood: Jason Todd, looking awkward and annoyed at feeling awkward. He had a small card in his hands.

The card was thrust at Tim, who took it automatically.

“What’s-?”

“I was an asshole,” said Jason by way of greeting, shouldering past Tim and into the apartment. Tim closed and locked the door, then flipped the card over.

It wasn’t in an envelope. It had a rainbow with the words “BE YOURSELF” on the front. Tim was alarmed to look inside but did so anyway because he’s a superhero, dammit, but luckily all it said was:

To Tim, From Jason

It was still confusing.

“Thanks for the… coming out card?” Tim ventured, following Jason into the living area and perching next to him on the sectional. Somehow, Jason managed to look more at home in Tim’s space than Tim did.

“Yeah.” Jason fiddled with the drawstrings of his hoodie, which was a weirdly young thing for him to do. Tim never really thought of Jason as young, even though they were just a few years apart in age. The way he carried himself, the scars and bearing of a much older person, the trauma that no one of any age should experience… Usually he gave the impression of being way older than his years. Like thirty-five.

Jason didn’t look thirty-five now. The muscles in his jaw jumped and his hands were thick and scarred, but the expression was nervous and his fingers fiddled uncertainly.

Tim opened his mouth to offer Jason a drink when Jason spoke over him.

“I’m happy for you,” Jason ground out, like the sentence was made of concrete. “Really. Felicidades. I’m sorry I was an asshole. It’s just… Yeah. I shouldn’t have made it about my shit. So. I’m sorry.”

Tim was usually really good at reading between the lines in conversations, but this time he was totally lost. “Your shit?” he asked. What was he missing?

Jason scratched his nose. “Yeah. I mean, it was different for me obviously, for a lot of reasons, but I guess I’m not as over it as I thought. Wasn’t fair to take that out on you though.”

What the fuck was going on. “Uh. Are you…” Tim was doubtful, but there was one explanation that would explain at least parts of this conversation, “telling me that you’re gay?”

Jason stared at him, gobsmacked. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

Tim had no idea how to take that. Jason seemed offended by the question but Tim wasn’t sure why. “Uh. Yes?”

Jason blinked at him. “Tim, you know I’m trans, right?”

Tim completely bluescreened.

Jason cursed, his awkward tension dissolving into disbelief. He ran his hands down his face. “Well, fuck.” He let out a strangled laugh. “Okay. That explains a lot. Okay.”

At least he also seemed discombobulated, Tim noted as his brain rebooted. Wait, she? They? Tim needed more data. “So your pronouns…?”

“He him, dipshit. I’m a trans guy.” Jason shook his head as Tim’s brain tried to open six tabs at once and froze. “I can’t fucking believe you didn’t know. You’re the stalker kid! You know everything!”

“I wasn’t stalking you in the shower,” Tim snapped defensively.

“You literally had files on all of us before you even joined the team,” Jason seemed almost gleeful. “You knew Alfred’s grandmother’s maiden name. How did you miss this? I’m telling Babs. I’m telling everyone. We need to performance manage you.”

“How- Does everyone else know?” Tim felt really stupid.

“Yes, of course they-“ Jason cut himself off, frowning. “Actually fuck, I don’t know now. I mean, Dick and Bruce know, and Alfred of course. Babs obviously. I just assumed they told everyone. Wasn’t that, like, part of the legacy of the poor dead Robin? Another dead trans kid from the wrong side of the tracks, flew too close to the sun and got his wings burnt off, all that shit?”

Tim shook his head. “Bruce is nowhere near that poetic. They never said anything like that. They just… You were Robin. You were Jason.”

Jason’s face twitched.

Tim tried to get things back on track. “So, when I came out to you, you were mad at me…?”

“I was pissed because you took something else that I’d done first.” Jason started counting on his fingers. “Robin, then Red Robin, and now being the queer Robin? It felt like you were being the asshole at this point.”

“I didn’t come out as bisexual to copy you,” said Tim incredulously.

“Well I know that now.”

“Not everything is about you, Jason.”

“I know! That’s why I apologised. Wait, what did you think I was pissed off about?”

“I didn’t know, I thought you had an issue with me having a boyfriend.”

“You thought I was a homophobe?!”

“I didn’t know what to think! You weren’t talking to me.”

“So you just assumed I’m a bigot? Everything you know about me, everything Red Hood’s done for the queer population in this city, and you just came to the conclusion that I’m a RAGING ASSHOLE?”

“You ARE a raging asshole!”

“Not THAT kind! I’m literally trans!”

“I. DIDN’T. KNOW. THAT.”

“That’s not my fault!”

“You didn’t come out to me, jerkface. How was I supposed to know? The only reason we’re having this conversation is because I came out to you.”

“So now you’re better than me because you came out first?”

“Oh my god, not everything is a personal attack.”

“You don’t have to be right all the time!”

“I’m not wrong about this. It’s like a bad sitcom trope. Everything could have been avoided if you’d just communicated.”

“You want me to communicate? Fine, I’ll communicate.”

“JASON. Put your phone away. You are NOT coming out by text in the family chat.”

“Most of the people in the chat already know anyway. I’m putting them on blast. ‘Hey fuckers.’.”

“Jason NO.”

“Jason yes. Shut up, I’m composing. ‘Hey fuckers. Heard you got some bad intel.’”

“Oh my god.”

“’As usual, it’s all Bruce’s fault…’”

Chapter Text

Batfamily Chat

Duke:
Guys, Jason’s phone’s been hacked.

Steph:
Roy, give Jason back his phone.

Dick:
OMG

Dick:
JASON

Dick:
JASON PETER TODD

Jason:
Yes dear?

Tim is typing

Dick is typing

Dick:
YOU CANT COME OUT OVER TEXT

Tim:
I told him not to do this over text.

Steph:
WTF

Cass:
[rainbow rainbow rainbow] [love heart] [smiley smiley smiley] [strong arm]

Steph:
Jason is this real

Steph:
Dick is this real?!!?!?!?

Dick:
JASON

Jason:
Yes Steph it’s real

Jason:
I thought Bruce had told everyone already

Jason:
But he’s even more emotionally-incompetent than I thought.

Bruce is typing

Duke:
Shit man, happy coming out I guess. [rainbow] [party hat] [confetti]

Jason:
I’ve realised I’m owed several years’ worth of backdated Pride Month gifts. I’m registered with Park Row Armoury and Explosives but will also accept donations in my name to Gotham’s Emergency Food Relief Centre and The Trevor Project.

Tim:
Pride Month gifts aren’t a thing.

Jason:
That’s very transphobic of you to say

Bruce is typing

Tim:
You’re so annoying.

Jason:
Cancel Tim Drake-Wayne

Steph:
Cancelled

Duke:
Cancelled

Cass:
[cross-arms] X [cross-arms]

Bruce is typing

Tim:
Jason is literally sitting next to me while he’s typing this. He’s in my apartment.

Tim:
He’s eating my Doritos
Tim:
He just burped in my face

Bruce is typing

Dick:
Jason, stop burping on your brother

Jason:
I didn’t, I just burped and he put his face in the wayyyyyyyyyyy

Jason:
gSg NPt4mpsf owt

Bruce is typing

Jason:
DICK

Jason
DICK help

Jason:
Tims hatwecriming me

Jason:
Hes toyeg to stale my phene

Jason:
Steal my phone

Dick:
Tim, stop stealing Jason’s phone

Bruce:
I’m very proud of all of my children. Jason, you’ve always been an exceptional and brilliant example of the best type of person. I know we’ve had our differences, but I’ve always been so inspired by the boy you were and the man you’ve become. The world, and this family, are lucky to have you. Thank you for trusting us all with this part of yourself.

Jason:
Well fuck

Dick:
I’m so proud of YOU, dad. [heart heart heart]

Cass:
[heart]

Steph:
Aww B, don’t make me cry when I just did my makeup so nice.

Tim:
Jason’s sobbing about how much he loves us

Jason:
Fuck you no I’m not

Tim:
GIVE ME BACK MY DORITOS

Steph:
I [heart] my transgender crimelord

Damian:
All of these notifications are alarming Batcow

Damian:
What is going on?