thegoshdarn | (no subject)

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smol tim is smol

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Ever since Tim worked out (a) worked out Batman and Robin's identity and (b) realized that she could sneak out of the house at night without anyone noticing, she has a system. She keeps a bag packed with her camera, a bottle of water, and some snacks in case she gets hungry, and she has a set of dark-colored clothes, a nice warm jacket and shoes with a lot of grip for running around Gotham. When she gets to go out depends on who's at home with her that night. Tonight is really easy, because her parents are in the city but at a big party, and usually they go right to bed when they get home without checking on her.

She's gotten really good at analyzing patrol patterns based on current crime rates and past patrol routes. Bruce Wayne is supposed to be at the party tonight, so she heads to one of the most likely places Robin is going to go to tonight.

It's colder than she expected tonight, but that's okay. Tim finds herself a snug, semi-hidden place on a fire escape and settles in with her legs pulled up to her chest for warmth. All she has to do now is wait.

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She curls up again. Can she hide? Is it possible to make herself disappear with the power of her mind?

Cause. Batman.

"I thought it would help," she mumbles. "Um. To record it. I was gonna give it to you later."

When Batman came over, it was obvious for a moment that he thought Dick was talking about Tim's presence, which is probably why he frowned particularly deeply when Dick practically ignored Tim and pushed the camera towards him. Dick tried to look innocent for as long as possible, but Batman clearly wasn't having it.

Bruce lifted a hand, beckoning Dick to follow him, before turning and stalking a little way away. Wincing, Dick followed him and there was an obvious whispered argument happening. Neither of them raised their voices enough for Tim to catch anything of what they're saying, but it was clear that Dick was in a lot of trouble. He waved the camera at Batman insistently, trying to get him to focus on the important thing, and finally the older man took it and watched the video. A few minutes later, Dick returned and crouched down in front of Tim.

"Hey...so... you really can't come out and do this anymore, okay? And Batman wants to know a bit more information so he can check up on you, because we're worried about you..." and he knows she probably doesn't want to get her parents in trouble, but there isn't really any avoiding it now "but the video is really good, okay, and it's really helpful, so we're pleased with that."

She helped them? She helped them!

Unfortunately, the excitement over helping Batman and Robin is pretty short-lived because (a) Batman doesn't want her going out anymore, and (B) her parents. "I could just go home? I won't be, um, in the way anymore."

"It's not about getting in the way," he tells her as gently as possible "It's about you, remember? We don't want you to get hurt... " he also can't deny he's a little glad Bruce is going to get her parents looked into, because she is out and about far too often for them to be looking after her properly.

"Okay," she says, a little doubtfully.

But when Batman comes over to talk to her, she cooperates and even lets him borrow her camera for the evidence on it. He ends up sending Robin back to the Cave with it and taking Tim home personally so he can have a Chat with Jack and Janet Drake about keeping an eye on their daughter and not letting her wander around Gotham unaccompanied. For the moment, he leaves it at that, with the intent to see how Mr. and Mrs. Drake change their parenting. (Maybe dig into things a little more, if he doesn't like what he sees.)

After he leaves, Tim is treated to a lecture on Not Embarrassing The Family because Batman, Batman had to come to their house to deal with her, and really, they thought Tim was better, more mature than that.

Since they can't afford to keep an eye on her every second of the day but think it's kind of ridiculous to hire a nanny to do it for them when she's right there, they compromise by locking her in her room when they're not with her. (As something of an afterthought, they inform her that it's a Grounding and she has Lost Their Trust, but Tim's kind of worried about that. She's never been Grounded before, but in books and things there was usually a set time limit on it, and this seems to be more of an indefinite arrangement.)

It's not that bad. She has an adjoining bathroom, and there's lots of books and toys and a computer with lots of child-lock controls on it that she can use for a set amount of time. She misses her camera, but there isn't really a lot she could take pictures of in her room, anyway. Plus, she goes places with her parents a couple times for meetings so that's kind of neat, even if they're kind of annoyed they have to bring her along and it's really, really boring.

At least her windows aren't locked, partly because it didn't occur to her parents that she could try to climb out them and partly because there's not a lot of ways a kid her age without any tools could get out through them without breaking something. She was having trouble sleeping tonight, so she opened one of them a little to let in some air and decided to read one of her books until she gets sleepy.

Dick's not the kind of kid who'd just wash his hands of the whole thing and assume it was done with, he's relieved to see no sign of Tim on their next couple of patrols, but he liked Tim, he thought she was adorable. Besides, they had a deal, and he didn't want her heading out again because it had been a while since he visited. Plus he just sort of wanted to check up on her, Batman speech or not, he didn't trust that she would be okay and properly supervised now without seeing it for himself.

So the next chance he got between patrols, he headed over to the apartment, dropping himself down from the roof. He's glad to find the window already open and swings himself in side, rolling onto the carpet and jumping to his feet with a little flourish intended to make her laugh.

He does get a little giggle, even if she's also kinda confused. She hadn't really thought he'd come, since now she doesn't really have a choice about going out to look for Batman and Robin now.

She sets down her book and comes closer. "Hi. Um." She didn't do something wrong, did she? She's not sure how she even could have.

"hey," he gives her a little grin, reaching out to ruffle her hair reassuringly.

"Don't look so worried Timmy, I'm just dropping by to say hello."

"Oh." She doesn't look any less worried, though. Her parents would probably be mad if they knew Robin was in her room, because vigilantes poking around means she must have done something else to bring them here, right? "I don't think I'm supposed to have visitors."

Edited 2016-03-05 15:55 (UTC)

"Oh.." he glances towards the door, frowning slightly, then lowers his voice to a whisper and leans in conspiratorially "How come, did you get into trouble?"

She ducks her head. It's not that Robin doesn't already know what she did that she got in trouble for, but that doesn't mean she wants him knowing she got grounded for it. Then he'll think she's bad!

"Uh-huh."

"Oh dear, did you get grounded?" he asks gently, plonking himself down on her floor cross-legged. He doesn't realise right away that it's because of them "What happened?"

"Uh-huh."

She draws her knees up to her chest and hugs them. "'m not supposed to go out anymore."

"Well, sure, you know it's-" he stopped, frowning slightly "Wait, is this because of you going out to take pictures?" he hadn't meant to get her into trouble.

"Uh-huh," she repeats. And then, sadly: "You should probably go." Cause her parents would want it.

He feels guilty that he was the cause of it, though he can sort of understand why parents might react that way, he just hopes they managed to do some good as well.

"...ok... but before I do, are your parents around more often, or do you have a sitter when they're away?"

She stares at him blankly for a moment. "Sometimes they take me places with them...?" Does that count as being around more often?

"...Any more than they used to?" he asks pointedly, frowning. Had they changed anything at all? Did they just blame it all on Tim?

"Are they here right now?"

Well. They didn't take her places very often before, but sometimes they took her to do fun stuff and now they mostly just take her along to business things. "They're home." Not that she could check, what with her door being locked.

"Tim, you know this isn't all your fault, don't you?" he says gently "It's not good to run off on your own, but they should've been looking after you more too."

Aaand she's back to blank staring. Her parents were very clear that she is Too Old To Embarrass Them Like This and Should Have Known Better.

"You're just a kid, Tim, it's okay to make mistakes sometimes, and sure sometimes you have to take responsibility for them, but parents are there to look after us, and you're a little young to be left on your own so often."

"I can take care of myself," she says, a little indignantly. She can. That's why her parents got so mad. Cause she knew better. Right?

"Well... sure, you can, you've proved that," he agrees, wanting to be encouraging "but that doesn't mean it's okay for the to leave you alone all the time."

"Okay...?"

She's still not really following. Especially cause if she wasn't the only one who did wrong, then why is she the only one who was punished? So it was her fault.