Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim was Red Robin, he had been Red Robin for a while now, if he had to put a number on it, he would say that he had been Red Robin for about 2 years now. He loved it, the way that the wind felt on his face as he leaped from building to building, it was a new type of freedom, don’t get him wrong, he loved being Robin, but he's moved on, now Damian has the mantle of Robin. If you would have asked him about that 2 years ago he would have simply just stormed off, while not so subtly muttering curses directed at Dick under his breath, sure it was childish but at the time those small rebellions made him feel just a bit better about the whole situation, but now, although he has that slight bitter taste in his mouth when someone mentions the end of his tenure as Robin, he no longer has the urge to scream at Dick, which in his mind is growth and he's ok with that.

What he's not ok with is having to go to the Watchtower at 2am on a Wednesday when he should be sleeping. With both B and Damian being of world for a couple of days and the other Bats being busy with their own missions, he is the one who has to go and fix the security system that according to whoever is currently on shift just turned itself off, which he doubts. So, he unwilling pulled on his suit and made his way to the nearest Zeta point.

---------------

When he was Robin he reveled in going to the Watchtower, he cherished it, all of his heroes in one place, being there was not only surreal, but it made him feel important, the fact that B had trusted Tim enough to take him to one of the most secure and important places in the world, (well technically not in the world but who cares) meant everything to him, it was proof that he was not failing at being Robin, and that he would be making his predecessor proud. But that was a long time ago; he was no longer Robin; he was something new, someone new, and he had to live with that as much as that hurt sometimes.

The Watchtower at 2am is always quiet, unless there is a crisis happening, then it was loud and chaotic, but today it's still, he's thankful, he gets to work in peace.

Walking into the control room he is greeted by an extremely tired looking Green Lantern, Hal Jordan he decides, who is currently looking like he might fall asleep at any minute, in the other chair by the Lantern’s right is a more awake looking Superman, he's thankful that Clark is here, he will be able to tell him what the problem is straightaway and that means that he won't have to spend an eternity looking for the exact reason why the security system shut down, all he has to do is fix it.

----------

The sound of the door opening brings attention to him, the two heroes turning their heads to stare at him, he stares back at them for a few seconds before deciding to ask about the thing he was there for, “There's an issue with the security system?” As soon as he fixes it, he can go home.

“Umm, yeah” the voice of Hal Jordan speaks up, he sounds confused but that could just be Tim’s sleep deprived mind playing tricks on him. “Who are you?” Hal's question throws him making him flinch slightly, “what?” he says in quick recession, does Hal really not know who he is, they met plenty of times when he was Robin, hell they even fought side by side some of those times, there's no way Hal forgot who he was. While he's spiraling Superman, Clark, speaks up “oh have you not met Red Robin Hal?”

“Names Superman, and no I have not, who is this?” he says, slightly irritated crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair whilst simultaneously side- eyeing Superman.

“Like he said I'm Red Robin, and you know who I am Hal” he's getting annoyed at this point. All he wants to do is fix the security, and Hal questioning who he is, was getting in the way of that.

“Listen kid, I've never met you”

“I was Robin, Hal, you really don't remember, like yeah ok, I was a bit shorter, and my costume has changed but I don't look that different, Clark knew who I was” he mimics Hal, crossing his arms with a huff, he doesn’t understand why Hal can’t remember who he is and why he’s getting annoyed about it, it’s not really that big of a deal.

“To be fair kiddo, we work pretty closely together, I'm practically your honorary uncle at this point." Clark reasons.

Ok, Clark has a point there; Superman is pretty close to the family, but that doesn't mean that Hal and potentially other heroes shouldn't know who Red Robin is; hell, ‘Robin’ is even in the name. He steals a glance at Hal who is still staring at him seeming to finally recognize him; he's too tired for this. “Can you just tell me what the issue is so I can fix it and go home?”

Hal gets up and stretches out, a few of his joints audibly crack “huh, oh yeah lowkey forgot about that, I'll take you to the issue,” he moves towards the door signally for him to follow “it looks like the security went down just outside the infirmary, its only in that area so it shouldn’t take you to long to fix it hopefully”

Mumbling a quiet “hopefully” under his breath he follows Hal out the door.

------------

“Look, I'm sorry for not recognizing you kid” he says rubbing the back of his neck, “it's been an intense couple of years, with Spooky disappearing for a bit and the usual end of the world shit, it's all been a little hectic to put it nicely” he lets out a small chuckle.

Tim lets out a hum of agreement, it had definitely been ‘intense’

----------

The walk to the infirmary is short, only about five minutes, but everything looks so different, the harsh fluorescent lights spilling into the hallway through the glass doors of the medical room, it hurts his eyes, thank God for his mask filtering out some of the light, the lenses diming as if he switched to a pair of sunglasses. Hal shows him what the problem is and leaves him to it with a quiet goodbye. Thankfully It's only a minor issue; one of the wires had become twisted and frayed. All he had to do was replace the wire in that section, and he could leave; it would take him 10 minutes max.

He was right; it took him just under 10 minutes to sort out the issue. He stands back placing his hands on his hips admiring his work, he must have been to engrossed to notice Superman placing a strong hand on his shoulder, the feeling had him turning his head to stare up at his ‘honorary uncle’ “Hal feels bad for not remembering ya know” he says, not looking away from where he was staring at Tim's work “yeah I assumed, he even apologized” he can't help it but he leans into the hand on his shoulder, it's been a long day he thinks.

“Is everything ok Tim, you seem lost in thought today?” for some reason he sounds concerned, but Tim's fine, 100% fine.

He follows Clark's gaze towards his work “just been thinking about Robin a lot today, I guess Hal not remembering that I was Robin pissed me off for some reason”. It’s an admission, of what he’s not sure.

“That's natural, being Robin was an important part of your life and the way that it ended, well if what I was told was correct then it probably hurt you” and just like that Clark figured it out for him.

“Yeah, it did hurt, but I'm good now, me and Dick are good, hell even me and Damian are good. Everything is good.” His voice sounds foreign to his ears, almost sad, desperate even. It makes him wince.

“Tim listen to me, just because relationships have been mended and made doesn't mean that you need to be ok with what happened with them in the past, I'm glad that you and Dick are ok again and that you and Damian have a good relationship, truly I am, but have you sat down with Dick and actually told him what he did hurt you?”

Now Tim is truly stunned, cause he hasn't talked to Dick about it, every time he tried something else happened that needed either one of their attentions, but Clark was right, he needed to talk with Dick and if he was being honest the rest of the family as well, his time away had left scars both physical and psychological and it would probably help the psychological side by getting everything off his chest.

---------

After saying his goodbyes to the two heroes, and assuring Hal that he forgave him for not knowing he was Red Robin and that he was all good, he made his way back to the manor, he had decided that sleep was going to happen before he talked to his family, he also needed to wait until B and Damian were back from space, so cue some downtime, he's like 90% sure he deserves it.

Chapter Text

After a blissful day off Tim felt refreshed, his head was clear and he was currently wearing the comfiest clothes he had, this consisted of a pair of oversized sweatpants, the fluffiest socks he owned and one of Bruce’s jumpers that he definitely did not steal, in his defense B was a billionaire and could literally buy a million jumpers and still have enough money to live comfortably, so him taking one jumper wasn’t gonna be an issue, and he’s pretty sure Jason stole it first anyway.

He had decided that he was going to talk to Dick today, he wanted to talk to him first before telling the rest of his family about his ‘adventure’ to find B, he felt that the conversation they needed to have was most likely gonna be emotional and it felt better if it was just him and Dick.

He called Dick an hour ago asking him to come to the manor, Dick had agreed, with a hint of worry in his voice he assured Tim that he would be there. The plan was that Dick would arrive at 3pm and Tim was going to pour out his emotions to his big brother, definitely not terrifying. Despite his nervousness he knew Dick loved him and would hear what he had to say, but that didn't make him any less anxious.

---------

Dick had arrived at 3.06pm, parking his car in the garage and letting himself in, Tim had met him in the hallway by the front door, he won't lie Tim's call had worried him a bit, but the fact that Tim had asked to meet in the manor and not the cave and at a later time meant that nothing was seriously wrong and no one was injured (he hoped).

After hanging his jacket up on the coat rack, he turned and drew Tim into a hug. They stood there and just hugged each other for a moment; it was nice. Before pulling away, he placed a kiss on the crown of Tim's head.

Without a word, Tim grabbed Dick’s hand and dragged him to the den and then telling him to take a seat, after Dick sat in his usual seat on the sofa Tim sat down in B’s armchair, positioning himself to face Dick. Ok now he was getting worried, he loved Tim, but this secrecy was gonna kill him.

Breaking the silence Dick was hesitant but asked “Tim is everything ok, you called me all the way here from BlÜdhaven, not that I'm not happy about seeing you or anything, but I'm just a little worried is all”

Tim was fiddling with his hands, his tale-tell that he was nervous about something, after a gruelling moment he spoke “we need to talk about Robin Dick.

“Why is something wrong with Damian?” now he was getting worried.

“Not that Dick,” he paused like he was trying to decide how to phrase what he was thinking “about you taking Robin from me, we need to talk about that”

And wow that was not what Dick expected “ok, that's fair” and it was, as much as Dick wanted to avoid the subject, if Tim wanted to talk about it, they would.

Tim took a breath “I understand that you were under a lot of pressure when Bruce” he paused, wincing, “well you know what happened” Dick grimaced, he did know, and it left a sour taste just thinking about that time.

“But I was hurting to Dick, for me, I had just lost my team, Steph and then Bruce, who is essentially my dad now and then you ripped Robin away and gave it to Damian, who had tried to kill me several times in the short period that I had known him” his tone held emotion but not anger, his shoulders drooped, Dick knew he had fucked up he did but to see Tim like this god it made things worse, but he agreed they needed to have this conversation as horrible as it may be for both of them.

Tim continued “I need you to know how that hurt me Dick, I was grieving just like you and you ripped away my safety net” there were visible tears in Tim's eyes now “you knew how much it meant to me, how much this family meant and” he stopped and gathered himself, then looking directly into Dick’s eyes, making sure he would hear what he would say “ you called me crazy Dick, you made me think I was crazy, I had to work with Ra’s cause no one would believe me that B was alive”

And just like that Dick’s heart broke into a thousand pieces, he had hated himself for how he treated Tim during that time, and to hear Tim say all of this and how his actions drove him into working with Ra’s Al Ghul of all people, it solidified how much of a prick he had been to him, to his little brother who had needed him and he had then pushed him away. Sure, his relationship with Tim had gotten better, but it hadn't been the same since before, but he just ignored it, not wanting to face his past actions and to just forget about it and move on, God he was just like Bruce sometimes.

Meeting Tim's eyes he realized that tears had started to fall down his little brother's face, he was so obviously trying not to cry, God what had he done to deserve such a brave and selfless litter brother. “Timmy, baby bird, my darling little brother, I'm so sorry, I know that doesn’t make up for the shitty behaviour I directed towards you and that my actions caused you so much pain” looking at Tim's face it was clear he held no malice towards Dick, god knows why he deserved Tim's malice, his harsh words, hell if Tim decided to just punch him in the face and never talk to him again he would understand, but knowing Tim he just wanted Dick to be aware of how he felt and to be able to move on.

Without a word Tim stood up from where he was sitting on the arm chair and shoved himself by Dick’s side and held his hand “I know why you did what you did, I just wished you would have asked me first, I would have given it up, I just, that whole time was shitty and I just wanna move on” Dick squeezed his hand “I just needed you to know how it made me feel ya know, but Dick” he pulled away slightly to look him in the eyes “I don't hate you or anything, ok, your still my really annoying big bro that I can't shake so, take what I said in but don't beat yourself up over it.” god this kid, without another word he pulled Tim into a bone crushing hug, which Tim accepted and wrapped his arms around his brother, they just sat there and by the time that they pulled away old wounds had started to mend and although they might not get back where they were before B got lost in time, there was something new, something that would allow their relationship to move forward.