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Summer nights in Gotham were uncomfortable. Sometimes Tim questioned himself when he went out into the humid and heavy air. It made his clothes stick to his body uncomfortably and he always needed to carry water around with him. That was all even worse now that he started wearing a reinforced vest under his clothes.
“Precautions he says. It’ll keep you safe he says,” Tim muttered to himself as he climbed up a fire escape. “If you insist on being out on the streets you need to be protected.”
Tim was liable to actually faint from overheating over getting caught by unsavory figures.
Wearing the protective vest had been a stipulation from Bruce after Tim screwed up and accidentally admitted to Jason that he knew that they were Gotham’s infamous vigilantes Batman and Robin. Bruce had flat out told him that Tim wasn’t allowed to go out at night and take pictures of them anymore, but Tim had put his foot down. He’d been taking pictures of them for nearly seven years. If anyone was able to take care of himself, it was Tim Drake.
They’d argued back and forth – in the Batcave of all places, Tim would’ve freaked out if he wasn’t trying to tear Bruce a new one – until they’d reached a compromise. Bruce had even gone so far as to offer to train Tim and take him under his wing, but Tim turned that down as well. Tim was fascinated by vigilantes, but he didn’t actually want to become one.
It’d been an interesting few months though. Tim hadn’t been forcibly silenced like he expected, but he’d actually been taken into the circle instead. Now Tim got to hang out with his childhood heroes and even help them once in a while.
Besides the constant arguments that Tim had with Bruce, he’d managed to get a few nice things out of his new acquaintanceship with the Bats. The vest, while encumbering, was definitely a bonus. Tim always just went out in his regular clothes before and they didn’t offer any protection whatsoever. He’d gotten a shatterproof casing specially made for his camera as well. If he dropped it now, it wasn’t going to break. This was good, because Tim had actually dropped a camera or two before. The last thing that he’d gotten was one of the grappling guns that the vigilantes used. It was meant to be a last resort, but it was good to have on him.
Once he made it to the top of the building, Tim grabbed his shirt and tried to fan himself with it. The slightly cool air was nice on his face, but it didn’t help his chest at all. Bruce had been Batman for years now. Hadn’t he come up with a more breathable material yet? Of did he just pick this to screw with Tim? That was possible as well, after all.
Tim lifted his hand to his ear to activate the communicator. “Okay, where am I going?” He asked as he walked across the roof to peer over the west side at the docks.
“Pier thirteen, warehouse five. Now remember Tim-”
“Don’t take any unnecessary risks. I know, Oracle.” One offer that he hadn’t turned down was Barbara’s. After seeing the pictures that he’d taken she’d asked him if he had ever thought of dealing in information. At first he’d been pretty on the edge about it, but then she’d suggested that if she needed some help she’d ask and then he could decide if he wanted to do the job or not.
Tim already had a few of these jobs under his belt, but they were never anything other than taking pictures of areas of interest. This was another one of those jobs. Tim just needed to make his way over the rooftops and take pictures through the skylights of the warehouse that Barbara was talking about.
“Hey, don’t be such a smart ass. I’m your boss,” Barbara said with a snort.
Tim chuckled as he hopped over a gap between buildings. Luckily everything was pretty close together in this area. “Technically. You don’t pay me.”
“I got you a gift card to your favorite café last time.” She reminded him.
“I know. It was more of a thank you than payment, but I guess it came in pretty handy.” Tim didn’t want to blush as he thought about it. His face was already flustered enough tonight.
The gift card had come pretty handy indeed. He’d taken Jason out for a drink. In his mind it had been a date, but Tim didn’t exactly tell Jason beforehand, or during for that matter. It was while they were waiting for Alfred to come pick them up that Jason had asked him if they’d just gone a date.
Now Tim realized that he easily lost his cool whenever he was around Jason, so he’d mostly babbled around it while they’d been waiting and promptly became tight lipped when Alfred arrived. However, not one to let things lie, Jason spoke up when they pulled up to the Drake Manor, grabbing onto Tim’s arm to keep him from running out straight away.
“For the record, I thought it was a very successful first date. We should go again.” The only thing that calmed Tim down was that Jason had been blushing as well.
They had gone out on a few other dates since then. They’d gone to the movies a handful of times and gone back to the café. There’d been a few study sessions as well, but Tim didn’t think that those really counted as dates.
Tim shook his head to pull himself out of his thoughts. Now was not the best time to be reminiscing about those things. He was on a job right now, and walking over questionable wooden planks to cross between warehouses.
“What am I looking for again?” Tim lowered his voice once he got closer to the warehouse in question. He really didn’t want to let anyone know that he was around.
“Just any signs of people tampering with the goods that are coming in. There’s been reports of containers being broken into.” He could hear Barbara typing. Knowing her, she was probably working on a few things at once.
The roof of the warehouse was covered in bird poop. No one ever tells you about the gross parts. Tim was really glad that he’d gotten boots specifically for going out, because this was pretty gross. Hopefully nothing would shit on him while he was walking around.
He made his way up to the skylight and peered through the window. There didn’t seem to be anything going on right now. Tim moved along the edge to change his perspective. Hopefully there’d be something. From what Barbara had told him earlier, they were trying to figure out where the containers were being taken before they were broken in to. So far they only had a few leads, and she’d hoped that Tim would actually be able to find a few things.
It didn’t look like he was in luck though. The warehouse was clean of any containers and no one seemed to be hanging around. This lead was a bust then. Tim always felt a little bad when he couldn’t do much but tell Barbara that he wasn’t able to find anything.
Tim walked around the windows once more to make sure that he hadn’t missed anything before he left. Now he was just thinking about walking into a store to find some air conditioning. There had to be something open in the area. Tim just needed a place where he could cool down a little.
When he was sure that there was nothing of interest, Tim made his way back to the building that he’d climbed up on. “Negative on the location, Oracle.”
“Damn,” she cursed. “Alright. Thanks for your help though. Can I call you if I get another lead?”
“Yeah, you know how to contact me,” Tim said.
“Have a good night. Get home safe.” Barbara said before the line clicked. Now Tim was on his own again.
He was definitely going to try and find a place to cool down, but Tim wasn’t sure what he was going to do afterwards. Tim could definitely go home and take a shower to get all of his sweat off, but he could also go looking for other things to photograph. Even though he usually came out at night to photograph Batman and Robin that didn’t mean that he didn’t take pictures of other things as well.
The people of Gotham were very interesting subjects after all.
Tim licked his lips as he stood by the edge of the roof. It looked so high up from here, even though he couldn’t be more than five stories up. It wasn’t even close to the highest that Tim had climbed before. He was probably just dreading it because it meant exerting himself.
Going home definitely sounded like the right idea for now. Tim ran a hand through his sweaty hair and he pulled out the water bottle that was attached to his belt. He was parched right now. There wasn’t actually that much water left in the bottle. Tim shook it and figured that he had about two big sips left. Maybe going into a shop and cooling off wasn’t such a good idea. It’d probably be better to head straight home. He didn’t really want to suffer from dehydration.
Tim twisted the top of the bottle, ready to feel the relief of water when he was suddenly grabbed and lifted up off the ground. “What the?!” He would’ve started struggling, except for the fact that he was suddenly flying between buildings. Tim bit back a scream as he clung onto the arm around his waist.
They touched down on a rooftop across the block from where they’d started and Tim immediately pushed at the arm so he could pull away from the person that was holding onto him. He whipped around and was met with laughter. “Jason!” Tim snapped.
Jason was laughing, bent over as he slapped his knees. “Ho-holy shit! Your face!”
“Ja-Robin!” Tim hadn’t censored himself the first time around, but he wouldn’t make that mistake again. He’d gotten the whole code name spiel from Bruce. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Jason moved a hand up onto his stomach and held the other up as he tried to stop laughing.
Tim huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. What was the big deal? Jason had never done anything like that before and they’d run into each other a few times since Tim had been brought into the circle.
“I’m sorry. You were just the perfect target.” Jason was still giggling, but he managed to get a hold of himself.
“You could’ve dropped me!” There were so many different things that could’ve gone wrong.
“I’m hurt. Don’t you trust me?” Jason asked, stepping in closer.
Tim sighed and narrowed his eyes at Jason. “Of course I trust you, you idiot. But you can’t just do that.” Tim trusted Jason with a lot of things. He just didn’t always trust Jason’s better judgement.
“Okay,” Jason said and he held up his hands in acquiesce. “I didn’t expect to see you out tonight.”
“What you mean to say is why I haven’t been following you around.” Tim knew that Jason actually liked that Tim took pictures of him. The first time that he’d stepped into Tim’s room he’d demanded to see them.
“I mean, isn’t that your hobby? You little stalker.” Jason’s lips were curled up and he was trying to hold back laughter.
“I’m not a stalker!” Tim hated it when Jason called him that. It made what he did feel dirty in a way. He’d just wanted to take pictures of his idols. There wasn’t anything bad behind it.
Jason tutted and stepped closer, wrapping his arms around Tim. “I know, sweetheart.”
Tim scoffed, digging his fingers into Jason’s ticklish sides. The older boy chuckled and jumped back to get away. “You’re such an asshole.”
Jason shrugged and snapped his fingers. Not only was he an asshole, but he had a pretty big ego as well. Tim was always trying to make sure that he wasn’t too full of himself. There was no need for his head to get bigger than it already was. Of course, Tim liked it as well. How could he not? It’s what made Jason different.
Different from Bruce and Dick. It was those differences that had made Tim look up to Jason all the more. Even though he’d always looked up to Dick, there was just something about Jason that drew him in and Tim didn’t know how to get away from it. He settled for getting closer instead.
“You owe me water by the way,” Tim said. When Jason scooped him up, Tim had dropped his water bottle in shook. Now he was hot, sticky, and thirsty.
“I already finished mine for the night, sorry.” From the smirk on Jason’s face Tim could see that he really wasn’t all that sorry.
Tim tugged at his shirt again to try and get the cooler breeze. “I feel so gross right now.” Tim was pretty sure that he didn’t really look refreshing either. He didn’t know how Jason did it. There was a slight flush on the older boy’s cheeks and his hairline looked a little damp, but he didn’t seem bothered by the humidity at all.
“Don’t worry, you’re still pretty,” Jason said.
Tim snorted, rolling his eyes. “You’re only saying that because you’re my boyfriend.”
“Am not. ‘It takes a great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it’.” The way that Jason said it sounded so rehearsed.
“You’re a sap. Where did that come from?”
“Oscar Wilde. Do you want another one?” Jason stepped forward, taking Tim’s hands and pulling him in closer.
“No way. Don’t you da-”
“’There is no exquisite beauty…without some strangeness in the proportion.’ Edgar Allan Poe.”
Tim groaned and headbutted Jason in the chest. He didn’t think that his face could get any hotter right now, but he was proven wrong. “I lied. You’re a giant nerd. An asshole nerd. A…a nerdy asshole!”
Jason, meanwhile, was just laughing at him. He was really getting a kick out of this. How he was able to still be so energetic and happy was beyond Tim. It probably came with years of training. There was no other way. Tim hid his face against Jason’s chest, just trying not to get in over his head. They were standing on a rooftop. Tim was dressed in black like he was some run of the mill burglar and Jason was supposed to be patrolling as Robin. He didn’t even know what kind of sight they made right now.
Tim turned his head so he could rest his ear against Jason’s chest and he looked down at their hands. His heart was beating wildly as he twisted his hand so he could slip his fingers in-between Jason’s. Now they were really holding hands, even if Jason was technically wearing gloves.
There was a gentle touch at the back of his neck and Tim wasn’t able to hold back the shiver that went through him. It felt so nice and he could feel the hairs standing up on end.
“Hey…” Tim slowly lifted his head so he could look up at Jason as he spoke. “You could look like crap and I’d still like you.”
“You’re such… You’re a sap,” Tim said, trying not to look away from Jason’s gaze. He could feel the weight of it even through Jason’s mask.
“You like it,” Jason whispered as he tilted his head down and moved in closer.
Tim’s heart was going on overdrive and everything looked like it was going in slow motion right up until the instant that Jason’s lips touched his. His breath hitched. Oh god. Jason was kissing him. They were kissing! Tim squeezed Jason’s hand and gently pushed up into the kiss.
Tim had thought about kissing Jason. How could he not? He just never expected it to happen like this, or so soon. They hadn’t been dating that long. Right? He couldn’t think straight right now. It was like the synapses in his brain were misfiring and short circuiting and it was all because Jason was kissing him. They weren’t even doing more than pressing their lips together and Tim already felt like he could go weak kneed at any moment.
When Jason pulled away Tim let out a soft gasp. Even now his lips were still tingling, as if Jason’s lips were still pressed against his.
“Did you think your first kiss would be like this? Kissing Robin on a rooftop? I bet you had a few thoughts like that,” Jason said.
And there it was. Everything came crashing down again. “You ruined the moment!” Tim lifted his free hand and slapped Jason on the chest. How could he be so calm after that? They’d just kissed! His first kiss.
“Hey! It was mine too!” Jason was chuckling and he grabbed onto Tim’s hand before it could hit him again. “Should I say another quote? Would that fix the moment?”
“No. You ruined it. It’s ruined forever,” Tim bemoaned his life choices, although he did feel a little light headed knowing that he’d been Jason’s first kiss as well.
“How about Virginia Woolf? ‘In case you ever foolishly forget: I am never not thinking of you.’”
“It’s still ruined,” Tim said.
Jason just chuckled again. “Okay, how about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry?”
“Oh my god.” Tim ducked his head down again. How was this his life?