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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"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.

"They're your parents Timmy, they're supposed to look after you," he tries, he can see she doesn't really understand, but he doesn't want her to think this is all her fault.

"I'm not supposed to make them mad," she points out.

Making her understand may be a little bit of an uphill battle.

"I dunno about that, making your parents mad is kind of what being a kid is all about, I make Batman mad all the time," he jokes, then turns more serious again "I'm sorry though, Tim, I promised you wouldn't get into trouble..."

She shrugs. "It's okay." Cause it's her fault anyway, so it isn't his fault, right? Right.

"No, it's not okay, I made a promise and that got broken, and I'm really sorry I let you down." he tells her softly.

"Not your fault." He's Robin. That means it's pretty definitely her fault, not his.

Maybe she can distract him, though. "Um. Could you help me with something?"

He shrugs awkwardly, because he feels like it kind of is his fault, that he was the one who stuck his nose in, even if he did it to protect her.

"Sure of course I can, what do you need?"

She points to one of the shelves in her room. It has a line of very nice stuffed animals that look like they've barely been touched, probably because the shelf is way too high up for Tim to reach on her own. "Can I have the tiger? Please?"