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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"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?"

Dick's a little short for his age, so the shelf is even too high for him, and honestly he thinks that's kind of awful because what kind of parents put so many lovely stuffed animals where they couldn't be loved?

He still feels bad for Tim getting in trouble so he decides to put on a little show for her, flipping himself up on his hands and walking his way over to the shelf. He flips himself back upright, jumping up onto a chest of drawers before somersaulting forward, grabbing the tiger on his way past the shelf, landing with a little flourish.

She giggles and claps her hands. It's still fun to watch him perform, even if she's also kind of sad she won't get to see him do it as much anymore.

Unfortunately, that was loud enough for it to attract the attention of a parent. "Tim?" her dad calls out, and Tim freezes, panicking slightly.

Dick winces, realising it's his fault, and throws the tiger to her, putting his finger to his lips before ducking quickly and rolling under her bed, waiting silently until it was safe again.

Tim explains away the noise and the tiger in her arms by saying that she was getting it down, at which point Dick gets a front-row seat to another lecture on Being Mature and Responsible and Trustworthy. At the end of it, Jack puts the tiger back on its shelf, orders her to go back to sleep, and then leaves, relocking the bedroom door behind him.

Tim waits a little while to be sure he's out of earshot before whispering, "You can come out now."