![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
museofspeedTitle: Alfred Never Looks Under the Bed
Fandom: DC Comics
Characters: Charlie "Misfit" Gage-Radcliffe/Tim "Robin" Drake. Implied past Bart/Tim.
Prompt:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fanfic50: 25. Fascinate. fanfic100: 33. Death
Word Count: 2,625
Rating: PG
Summary: Robin needs help, and Misfit is the only one who can get to him fast enough. They work surprisingly well together.
Notes: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
julius12 for the Beta job and title. Also...het? I never write het!
Robin jumped off of a building, shooting off a jumpline at the last minute.
Why did the people he loved always die? His mom, his dad, Dana, Steph, Kon, now Bart. He’d known the risks of the job when he took it. He didn’t regret becoming Robin, but all of the people he’d lost…
He shook his head sharply. He couldn’t think about these things when patrolling. He had to stay focused.
It was hard, though, with nothing to distract him from the pain. Why were no supervillains out tonight? Robin needed a distraction. He needed one badly.
Bart- Bart never knew how Tim had felt about him. Kon and Tim had talked all the time, shared everything, but Bart and Tim hadn’t been nearly as close at the end. He hadn’t told Bart things that he would have told Kon without a second’s thought. He hadn’t thought to tell Bart that Tim didn’t think he was just annoying and impulsive. Hadn’t thought to tell him that there was no one he’d rather have at his back in an emergency.
He’d never told Bart how much he meant to Tim. He’d never told any of them.
Now was not the time for regrets. Robin switched his focus. From his perch, he could see for blocks in either direction. Nothing to the west or the north. East, nothing. South, though…
Robin swung from roof to roof. It could be nothing, but normally large, unmarked trucks did not park next to banks.
“Oracle,” he said, turning on the radio in his ear. “Do you have anything on Gotham City Bank on third street? I think there may be a robbery in progress.”
“There’s no feed on the cameras, Robin,” Oracle said in his ear. “I’m accessing the cameras across the street.”
“I’m going in,” Robin said.
He heard an intake of breath from Oracle. “Robin, wait for back-up. You’re good, but there are thirty full grown men in there. And they’re not amateurs. I have terrible visuals here, but from what I can see, they’re better than most bank robbers. And at least five of them are metahuman.”
“I have to try,” Robin said.
“Black Canary’s fifteen minutes away-”
“They could be gone in fifteen minutes! I’m going in. Robin out.”
“Robin, don’t be stupid!” Oracle shouted.
Robin ignored her.
Five minutes later, he felt a twinge of regret. This would be a lot easier with back-up.
“Oracle,” he shouted, blocking one punch and failing to block a kick from behind him. “I need help!”
To her credit, Oracle didn’t gloat at all. “I know, Robin. Canary’s on her way. She’ll be there in eight minutes, approximately.”
“Is there anyone who can get there sooner? Anyone at all?”
“There’s one person. Are you sure you can’t wait for Dinah?”
“Agh!” Robin shouted as a thief with superstrength kicked out his legs. He fell to the ground. “Sooner would be a lot better.”
“I’m going to regret this. Misfit! Go!”
Misfit. Robin tried to match a face with the name.
“Daaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkkk Vengeance!” A blue gloved fist shot out of nowhere and punched the man leering in front of Robin in the face.
“Hello!” a girl said cheerfully. She was wearing a black mask that covered the top of her face, a blue shirt with a yellow M that seemed to be modeled after the Bat symbol and a cape. “I’m Misfit! Wanna have a team-up?”
“Um,” Robin said. “Sounds good. I’m Robin.”
“I know,” she said. “Normally I’d totally fangirl you, but instead let’s kick the asses of these baddies, okay?” She held out a hand to help him up.
He took it, and stood with his back to her. “Yeah, sure. How’d you get here so fast.”
“Superpowers. Bouncing, except Oracle says I should call it teleporting. Canary’s on her way, but we can totally take these guys out in eight minutes, right?”
“Actually, I’m not sure that we-”
“Dark Vengeance! Hsss!” Misfit kicked two of the thugs in the face. “Wildcat an’ Canary’ve been teaching me,” she said, sounding pleased. “What were you saying?”
“Nothing,” Robin said, lips twitching. “Let’s kick some ass.”
She grinned at him.
By the time Black Canary arrived, Robin and Misfit had most of the thugs lying passed out on the floor of the Bank. Three were clearly playing possum, and one was gibbering and sobbing and swearing to forgo crime forever if it would keep Misfit from every speaking to him again.
“That was fun,” Misfit said. “We should team up more often.”
The odd thing was, it had been fun. Robin hadn’t had that much fun fighting crime since before Young Justice had broken up. Misfit was as annoying as...
As Impulse had been. It hurt to think about Impulse.
“Maybe,” Robin said. “I better go. My patrol’s over.”
“Misfit, you have to come home too,” Oracle said in both of their microphones.
Misfit rolled her eyes. “I’m coming, Oracle. Just wanna say good night to Robin.”
“I have about three emergencies to divert,” Oracle said crossly. “Check in with me when you get here. Don’t be too long. Oracle out.”
“She can be so annoying sometimes,” Misfit said. “I mean, she’s really, really cool, but she’s so, like, serious, you know?”
“Um, sure,” Robin said. “She’s pretty busy, though.”
“I know. But it’s not like I wasn’t going home in a few minutes anyways.”
Robin’s lips twitched again. “Good night, Misfit. It was lovely teaming up with you.”
She grinned. “Yeah, it was totally cool. Pound it.” She held out her fist.
Robin couldn’t help but smile slightly. He made a fist and lightly punched her fist.
“Bye, Robin!” She called. Then she vanished in a flash of purple light.
Robin stared at the space she’d been. Misfit. Hmm.
Back in the Batcave, Tim pulled off his mask and turned on the computer. He pulled up Batman’s file on Oracle and clicked through until he found…there. Misfit.
It was a very short file. Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe AKA Misfit. Age 16. Powers: Teleportation and a healing factor. No living relatives. Affiliated with the Birds of Prey. Knew Oracle’s identity and Huntress’ identity at least.
That didn’t tell him much. He ran a search on her name and again, nothing much came up. Misfit had appeared from nowhere.
No pun intended, Tim thought with a smirk.
He yawned. The mystery of Misfit would have to wait. For now, he had to get some sleep. At least it was a weekend. He could sleep in the next morning.
One week later he woke up, pulled a batarang out from under his pillow, hit the light switch and saw…
“Misfit?”
She grinned, looking embarrassed. “I kinda thought you’d be on patrol. Didn’t mean to wake you up. Sorry, Robin.”
“You were going to break in here when I wasn’t here?”
“No!” Misfit said. “Course not! I just thought that it’d be fun to fight crime with you again so I bounced to where you were and that happened to be here. I’m really sorry. Like I said, I totally didn’t know you were sleeping or anything. You’ve got a really nice room, by the way.”
“Uh, thanks.” Tim felt under his pillow for his mask. He hadn’t meant to show his face to Misfit. Not then, possibly not ever. Batman would kill him.
Someone knocked on the door. “Master Timothy?”
Oh, no.
“Hide,” he mouthed to Misfit. She vanished. He switched off the light, then lay down and pretended to sleep. Through half closed eyes, he watched Alfred poke his head in the door, looking worried. Tim turned over, as if stirring in his sleep, and Alfred left, closing the door behind him.
Tim sat up and put his mask on. “Misfit? Are you still here?” he whispered quietly.
She rolled out from under his bed. “Yep. Man, you’ve got a clean bed. That wasn’t Batman, was it? Cause he didn’t sound like Batman, and plus, he called you Master Timothy. Timothy’s a nice name, by the way.”
“…it’s Tim. And no, that was not Batman. By the way, don’t tell anyone, not even Oracle that you know that. You aren’t supposed to know.”
“Sorry. Like I said, I totally didn’t realize you’d be at home.” She grinned. “So now, I, like, know your secret identity and you don’t know mine? That’s so cool. I know more than Robin. Heh,” she giggled. “I know more than Tim.”
“…Actually, I know your secret identity, Charlotte.”
She grinned. “Charlie. How’d you figure that out?”
“I was trained by the World’s Greatest Detective, you know.”
“Duh. But how’d you do it?”
“To tell the truth, I just looked at Batman’s files.”
Misfit- Charlie snickered. “Cheater. But really, I’ve got a file?”
“Under Birds of Prey.”
“That’s so cool!”
Tim smiled. “It is pretty cool.” He decided not to tell her how much was in the file.
Charlie sat on the bed and pulled her knees up to her chest. “It’s too bad you put your mask back on, Tim. You’ve got nice eyes.”
“Uh, thanks.”
She smiled. “Welcome.”
The alarm started blaring. Tim groaned.
“What’s that?” Charlie asked.
“Major Arkham break-out alarm. You better get back. Oracle’s probably going to be up and coordinating any second now, and she might go check on you.”
Misfit nodded. “Yeah, probably. G’night, R- Tim! Luck with the baddies! You know where to find me if you need help!”
He nodded. “Good bye, Charlie.”
She teleported away.
A few weeks later, they teamed up again. Misfit suggested they get a snack afterwards.
“Can we ride your Robinmobile?”
“Um, we can take my bike. I don’t have a Robinmobile.”
“Oh.” Misfit shrugged. “Still cool. I know this great burger place!”
“Alright,” Robin said. He wondered what he was getting into.
Robin was used to lurking in the all-concealing shadows. Even though he was no longer an urban legend, the habit hadn’t entirely died yet. He sat in a shadowy corner booth and watched Misfit go up to get their food.
“Hi,” she said cheerily. “Could I get two burgers, a shake, and a water, please? Plus a large fries.”
“So’re you an actual superhero or just some kid dressing up?” the cashier asked.
“Actual superhero,” Misfit told him. “On the Birds of Prey. You probably have heard of me. I’m Misfit.”
“Actually, I haven’t-”
“That’s cause I’m so spooky and mysterious. Criminals fear to speak my name, you know.”
Tim bit his lip to keep from laughing.
“Uh, well, here’re your fries, Miss.”
“Misfit.” She vanished and appeared across from Tim. “Couldn’t let him think I was just a dopey kid in a costume, could I?”
“Of course not, Misfit. Heaven forbid.”
She took a large slurp from her frappe. “So, Robin, what do you do when you aren’t kicking major baddy ass?”
“I...go to school. I train.”
“Wild life, huh?”
“I also play tennis. Not very well.”
She snickered. “I’m not too good at tennis, but I play a mean ping-pong. Wanna play me at some point?”
“That’d be fun,” he said. She smiled at him, and for a moment, Tim smiled back, but his communicator went off. Tim felt almost disappointed.
“Robin,” Batman said. “Where are you? Shouldn’t you be patrolling?”
“I stopped for a quick snack,” Robin told him. “I’ll be back out in a few minutes.”
“Soon as you can. Sooner, if possible,” Batman growled.
“I read you. Robin out.”
He looked up at Misfit. “I have to-”
She nodded. “Yeah, I get it. Can I finish your fries?”
“Sure,” he said. “This was fun.”
“I know!” She said. “Can we team up again soon? Please? You’re like, the most fun team-up I’ve had. And we didn’t even fight first!”
He laughed. “I hope so, Misfit. I’ll see you later.”
He went several blocks before he realized that it had been the first time he’d laughed like that in weeks.
They teamed up a lot over the next few weeks. Tim liked Charlie. She was so full of life, so happy. She had told him about the fire, and he couldn’t understand how she still smiled as often as she did.
“My parents wouldn’t have wanted me to be all angsty,” she told him when he asked.
It was definitely something to think about. None of the people he had lost would have wanted him to be sad. His parents loved him, even if Tim had argued with his dad about the whole Robin thing, and Steph would have slapped him for allowing himself to wallow in misery. Kon would have been there for him and known exactly the right thing to say. Bart would have chattered on obliviously, jumping from topic to topic so fast that Tim wouldn’t have been able to help but laugh.
Tim jumped as his cellphone buzzed. He didn’t recognize the caller ID, but he picked it up anyway.
“Hello?” he asked.
“Hey,” a voice said. “It’s Charlie.”
“Charlie?” Tim asked. “How’d you get this number?”
“Looked through Oracle’s rolodex. You’re the second Tim I called, actually. The first one only spoke Portuguese, though, so I figured he wasn’t you.”
“Safe bet,” Tim conceded, “and sweet, in a slightly stalkerish way.”
“Hardy har. Wanna go to a movie or something? Like, in civvies?”
“Are you…asking me out?”
“Uh-huh. If you say no, I’ll be completely and utterly crushed. I’ll be forced to turn into one of those dark anti-heroes and kill all my friends.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want that.”
“Nope,” Charlie sounded pleased. “So is that a yes?”
“Sure, Charlie, I’d love to.”
The restaurant was delicious, and Tim had a great time, as he always did with Charlie.
At one particularly suspenseful point during the movie, Charlie grabbed Tim’s arm.
He leaned over and whispered, “Oh, come on, like we don’t take on people three times as tough on a daily basis.”
She punched him on the shoulder. “Shaddup. We don’t get theme music.”
They agreed, as they left the theatre, that the movie was horrible, but the company was great. Before bouncing back to Oracle, Charlie kissed him, letting their lips brush once before pulling away and blushing.
“Thanks,” she muttered.
“It was my pleasure,” Tim told her. He touched his lips where she had kissed him. It really had been a fun night.
Charlie grinned. “Night!” she said, and she bounced away.
Tim changed into his Robin costume and went home by rooftop, grinning madly the whole way home.
It wasn’t his last kiss with Charlie, or their last date. Batman didn’t approve. Oracle did, though.
Tim offered Charlie a place on the Titans roster, but she declined.
“I like the Birds of Prey,” she told him. “We can hang out when we’re off duty.”
That settled that, apparently.
“You’d have liked her,” Tim said, standing in front of Bart’s grave. “She reminds me of you, you know. I still miss you, but having Charlie takes away the pain. She’s really- I think I love her.” He felt a tear roll down his cheek. “I should tell her, now, before it’s too late. I should have told ever single person I lost how much they meant to me every day.” He impatiently wiped at his eyes. “I need to tell her. I need to tell her right now. Bart, I really hope you’re happy in the Speed Force or wherever you are right now.”
Charlie walked over to him and put her arms around him. “Hey, Boy Wonder. How’re your dead friends?”
He touched her chin, tilting her head up. Tim kissed Charlie, wrapping his arms around her.
“I love you,” he said, when he had pulled away.
“I know,” Charlie told him. “I love you too.”
Fandom: DC Comics
Characters: Charlie "Misfit" Gage-Radcliffe/Tim "Robin" Drake. Implied past Bart/Tim.
Prompt:
fanfic50: 25. Fascinate. fanfic100: 33. DeathWord Count: 2,625
Rating: PG
Summary: Robin needs help, and Misfit is the only one who can get to him fast enough. They work surprisingly well together.
Notes: Thanks to
julius12 for the Beta job and title. Also...het? I never write het!Robin jumped off of a building, shooting off a jumpline at the last minute.
Why did the people he loved always die? His mom, his dad, Dana, Steph, Kon, now Bart. He’d known the risks of the job when he took it. He didn’t regret becoming Robin, but all of the people he’d lost…
He shook his head sharply. He couldn’t think about these things when patrolling. He had to stay focused.
It was hard, though, with nothing to distract him from the pain. Why were no supervillains out tonight? Robin needed a distraction. He needed one badly.
Bart- Bart never knew how Tim had felt about him. Kon and Tim had talked all the time, shared everything, but Bart and Tim hadn’t been nearly as close at the end. He hadn’t told Bart things that he would have told Kon without a second’s thought. He hadn’t thought to tell Bart that Tim didn’t think he was just annoying and impulsive. Hadn’t thought to tell him that there was no one he’d rather have at his back in an emergency.
He’d never told Bart how much he meant to Tim. He’d never told any of them.
Now was not the time for regrets. Robin switched his focus. From his perch, he could see for blocks in either direction. Nothing to the west or the north. East, nothing. South, though…
Robin swung from roof to roof. It could be nothing, but normally large, unmarked trucks did not park next to banks.
“Oracle,” he said, turning on the radio in his ear. “Do you have anything on Gotham City Bank on third street? I think there may be a robbery in progress.”
“There’s no feed on the cameras, Robin,” Oracle said in his ear. “I’m accessing the cameras across the street.”
“I’m going in,” Robin said.
He heard an intake of breath from Oracle. “Robin, wait for back-up. You’re good, but there are thirty full grown men in there. And they’re not amateurs. I have terrible visuals here, but from what I can see, they’re better than most bank robbers. And at least five of them are metahuman.”
“I have to try,” Robin said.
“Black Canary’s fifteen minutes away-”
“They could be gone in fifteen minutes! I’m going in. Robin out.”
“Robin, don’t be stupid!” Oracle shouted.
Robin ignored her.
Five minutes later, he felt a twinge of regret. This would be a lot easier with back-up.
“Oracle,” he shouted, blocking one punch and failing to block a kick from behind him. “I need help!”
To her credit, Oracle didn’t gloat at all. “I know, Robin. Canary’s on her way. She’ll be there in eight minutes, approximately.”
“Is there anyone who can get there sooner? Anyone at all?”
“There’s one person. Are you sure you can’t wait for Dinah?”
“Agh!” Robin shouted as a thief with superstrength kicked out his legs. He fell to the ground. “Sooner would be a lot better.”
“I’m going to regret this. Misfit! Go!”
Misfit. Robin tried to match a face with the name.
“Daaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkkk Vengeance!” A blue gloved fist shot out of nowhere and punched the man leering in front of Robin in the face.
“Hello!” a girl said cheerfully. She was wearing a black mask that covered the top of her face, a blue shirt with a yellow M that seemed to be modeled after the Bat symbol and a cape. “I’m Misfit! Wanna have a team-up?”
“Um,” Robin said. “Sounds good. I’m Robin.”
“I know,” she said. “Normally I’d totally fangirl you, but instead let’s kick the asses of these baddies, okay?” She held out a hand to help him up.
He took it, and stood with his back to her. “Yeah, sure. How’d you get here so fast.”
“Superpowers. Bouncing, except Oracle says I should call it teleporting. Canary’s on her way, but we can totally take these guys out in eight minutes, right?”
“Actually, I’m not sure that we-”
“Dark Vengeance! Hsss!” Misfit kicked two of the thugs in the face. “Wildcat an’ Canary’ve been teaching me,” she said, sounding pleased. “What were you saying?”
“Nothing,” Robin said, lips twitching. “Let’s kick some ass.”
She grinned at him.
By the time Black Canary arrived, Robin and Misfit had most of the thugs lying passed out on the floor of the Bank. Three were clearly playing possum, and one was gibbering and sobbing and swearing to forgo crime forever if it would keep Misfit from every speaking to him again.
“That was fun,” Misfit said. “We should team up more often.”
The odd thing was, it had been fun. Robin hadn’t had that much fun fighting crime since before Young Justice had broken up. Misfit was as annoying as...
As Impulse had been. It hurt to think about Impulse.
“Maybe,” Robin said. “I better go. My patrol’s over.”
“Misfit, you have to come home too,” Oracle said in both of their microphones.
Misfit rolled her eyes. “I’m coming, Oracle. Just wanna say good night to Robin.”
“I have about three emergencies to divert,” Oracle said crossly. “Check in with me when you get here. Don’t be too long. Oracle out.”
“She can be so annoying sometimes,” Misfit said. “I mean, she’s really, really cool, but she’s so, like, serious, you know?”
“Um, sure,” Robin said. “She’s pretty busy, though.”
“I know. But it’s not like I wasn’t going home in a few minutes anyways.”
Robin’s lips twitched again. “Good night, Misfit. It was lovely teaming up with you.”
She grinned. “Yeah, it was totally cool. Pound it.” She held out her fist.
Robin couldn’t help but smile slightly. He made a fist and lightly punched her fist.
“Bye, Robin!” She called. Then she vanished in a flash of purple light.
Robin stared at the space she’d been. Misfit. Hmm.
Back in the Batcave, Tim pulled off his mask and turned on the computer. He pulled up Batman’s file on Oracle and clicked through until he found…there. Misfit.
It was a very short file. Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe AKA Misfit. Age 16. Powers: Teleportation and a healing factor. No living relatives. Affiliated with the Birds of Prey. Knew Oracle’s identity and Huntress’ identity at least.
That didn’t tell him much. He ran a search on her name and again, nothing much came up. Misfit had appeared from nowhere.
No pun intended, Tim thought with a smirk.
He yawned. The mystery of Misfit would have to wait. For now, he had to get some sleep. At least it was a weekend. He could sleep in the next morning.
One week later he woke up, pulled a batarang out from under his pillow, hit the light switch and saw…
“Misfit?”
She grinned, looking embarrassed. “I kinda thought you’d be on patrol. Didn’t mean to wake you up. Sorry, Robin.”
“You were going to break in here when I wasn’t here?”
“No!” Misfit said. “Course not! I just thought that it’d be fun to fight crime with you again so I bounced to where you were and that happened to be here. I’m really sorry. Like I said, I totally didn’t know you were sleeping or anything. You’ve got a really nice room, by the way.”
“Uh, thanks.” Tim felt under his pillow for his mask. He hadn’t meant to show his face to Misfit. Not then, possibly not ever. Batman would kill him.
Someone knocked on the door. “Master Timothy?”
Oh, no.
“Hide,” he mouthed to Misfit. She vanished. He switched off the light, then lay down and pretended to sleep. Through half closed eyes, he watched Alfred poke his head in the door, looking worried. Tim turned over, as if stirring in his sleep, and Alfred left, closing the door behind him.
Tim sat up and put his mask on. “Misfit? Are you still here?” he whispered quietly.
She rolled out from under his bed. “Yep. Man, you’ve got a clean bed. That wasn’t Batman, was it? Cause he didn’t sound like Batman, and plus, he called you Master Timothy. Timothy’s a nice name, by the way.”
“…it’s Tim. And no, that was not Batman. By the way, don’t tell anyone, not even Oracle that you know that. You aren’t supposed to know.”
“Sorry. Like I said, I totally didn’t realize you’d be at home.” She grinned. “So now, I, like, know your secret identity and you don’t know mine? That’s so cool. I know more than Robin. Heh,” she giggled. “I know more than Tim.”
“…Actually, I know your secret identity, Charlotte.”
She grinned. “Charlie. How’d you figure that out?”
“I was trained by the World’s Greatest Detective, you know.”
“Duh. But how’d you do it?”
“To tell the truth, I just looked at Batman’s files.”
Misfit- Charlie snickered. “Cheater. But really, I’ve got a file?”
“Under Birds of Prey.”
“That’s so cool!”
Tim smiled. “It is pretty cool.” He decided not to tell her how much was in the file.
Charlie sat on the bed and pulled her knees up to her chest. “It’s too bad you put your mask back on, Tim. You’ve got nice eyes.”
“Uh, thanks.”
She smiled. “Welcome.”
The alarm started blaring. Tim groaned.
“What’s that?” Charlie asked.
“Major Arkham break-out alarm. You better get back. Oracle’s probably going to be up and coordinating any second now, and she might go check on you.”
Misfit nodded. “Yeah, probably. G’night, R- Tim! Luck with the baddies! You know where to find me if you need help!”
He nodded. “Good bye, Charlie.”
She teleported away.
A few weeks later, they teamed up again. Misfit suggested they get a snack afterwards.
“Can we ride your Robinmobile?”
“Um, we can take my bike. I don’t have a Robinmobile.”
“Oh.” Misfit shrugged. “Still cool. I know this great burger place!”
“Alright,” Robin said. He wondered what he was getting into.
Robin was used to lurking in the all-concealing shadows. Even though he was no longer an urban legend, the habit hadn’t entirely died yet. He sat in a shadowy corner booth and watched Misfit go up to get their food.
“Hi,” she said cheerily. “Could I get two burgers, a shake, and a water, please? Plus a large fries.”
“So’re you an actual superhero or just some kid dressing up?” the cashier asked.
“Actual superhero,” Misfit told him. “On the Birds of Prey. You probably have heard of me. I’m Misfit.”
“Actually, I haven’t-”
“That’s cause I’m so spooky and mysterious. Criminals fear to speak my name, you know.”
Tim bit his lip to keep from laughing.
“Uh, well, here’re your fries, Miss.”
“Misfit.” She vanished and appeared across from Tim. “Couldn’t let him think I was just a dopey kid in a costume, could I?”
“Of course not, Misfit. Heaven forbid.”
She took a large slurp from her frappe. “So, Robin, what do you do when you aren’t kicking major baddy ass?”
“I...go to school. I train.”
“Wild life, huh?”
“I also play tennis. Not very well.”
She snickered. “I’m not too good at tennis, but I play a mean ping-pong. Wanna play me at some point?”
“That’d be fun,” he said. She smiled at him, and for a moment, Tim smiled back, but his communicator went off. Tim felt almost disappointed.
“Robin,” Batman said. “Where are you? Shouldn’t you be patrolling?”
“I stopped for a quick snack,” Robin told him. “I’ll be back out in a few minutes.”
“Soon as you can. Sooner, if possible,” Batman growled.
“I read you. Robin out.”
He looked up at Misfit. “I have to-”
She nodded. “Yeah, I get it. Can I finish your fries?”
“Sure,” he said. “This was fun.”
“I know!” She said. “Can we team up again soon? Please? You’re like, the most fun team-up I’ve had. And we didn’t even fight first!”
He laughed. “I hope so, Misfit. I’ll see you later.”
He went several blocks before he realized that it had been the first time he’d laughed like that in weeks.
They teamed up a lot over the next few weeks. Tim liked Charlie. She was so full of life, so happy. She had told him about the fire, and he couldn’t understand how she still smiled as often as she did.
“My parents wouldn’t have wanted me to be all angsty,” she told him when he asked.
It was definitely something to think about. None of the people he had lost would have wanted him to be sad. His parents loved him, even if Tim had argued with his dad about the whole Robin thing, and Steph would have slapped him for allowing himself to wallow in misery. Kon would have been there for him and known exactly the right thing to say. Bart would have chattered on obliviously, jumping from topic to topic so fast that Tim wouldn’t have been able to help but laugh.
Tim jumped as his cellphone buzzed. He didn’t recognize the caller ID, but he picked it up anyway.
“Hello?” he asked.
“Hey,” a voice said. “It’s Charlie.”
“Charlie?” Tim asked. “How’d you get this number?”
“Looked through Oracle’s rolodex. You’re the second Tim I called, actually. The first one only spoke Portuguese, though, so I figured he wasn’t you.”
“Safe bet,” Tim conceded, “and sweet, in a slightly stalkerish way.”
“Hardy har. Wanna go to a movie or something? Like, in civvies?”
“Are you…asking me out?”
“Uh-huh. If you say no, I’ll be completely and utterly crushed. I’ll be forced to turn into one of those dark anti-heroes and kill all my friends.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want that.”
“Nope,” Charlie sounded pleased. “So is that a yes?”
“Sure, Charlie, I’d love to.”
The restaurant was delicious, and Tim had a great time, as he always did with Charlie.
At one particularly suspenseful point during the movie, Charlie grabbed Tim’s arm.
He leaned over and whispered, “Oh, come on, like we don’t take on people three times as tough on a daily basis.”
She punched him on the shoulder. “Shaddup. We don’t get theme music.”
They agreed, as they left the theatre, that the movie was horrible, but the company was great. Before bouncing back to Oracle, Charlie kissed him, letting their lips brush once before pulling away and blushing.
“Thanks,” she muttered.
“It was my pleasure,” Tim told her. He touched his lips where she had kissed him. It really had been a fun night.
Charlie grinned. “Night!” she said, and she bounced away.
Tim changed into his Robin costume and went home by rooftop, grinning madly the whole way home.
It wasn’t his last kiss with Charlie, or their last date. Batman didn’t approve. Oracle did, though.
Tim offered Charlie a place on the Titans roster, but she declined.
“I like the Birds of Prey,” she told him. “We can hang out when we’re off duty.”
That settled that, apparently.
“You’d have liked her,” Tim said, standing in front of Bart’s grave. “She reminds me of you, you know. I still miss you, but having Charlie takes away the pain. She’s really- I think I love her.” He felt a tear roll down his cheek. “I should tell her, now, before it’s too late. I should have told ever single person I lost how much they meant to me every day.” He impatiently wiped at his eyes. “I need to tell her. I need to tell her right now. Bart, I really hope you’re happy in the Speed Force or wherever you are right now.”
Charlie walked over to him and put her arms around him. “Hey, Boy Wonder. How’re your dead friends?”
He touched her chin, tilting her head up. Tim kissed Charlie, wrapping his arms around her.
“I love you,” he said, when he had pulled away.
“I know,” Charlie told him. “I love you too.”
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Date: 2007-12-11 01:31 am (UTC)Plus, I think I'm the first. It's hard to be the first on the internet.