Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Listen,” Tim slurs. “Listen. Listen. Listen.”

“Yes, Timothy, I’m listening.” Damian sounds impatient. Why is he impatient. Tim is having a stroke of absolute genius.

“Okay. Okay, consider: Bruce Wayne.” Tim nods emphatically.

“I try not to,” Damian says dryly. Duke elbows him in the side. Bruce just sighs. 

“Superman.” Tim’s jazz hands are glorious.

Bruce rubs a hand down his face. “What about Superman?” 

“Bruce Wayne is Superman,” Tim says firmly.

Duke chokes and coughs roughly while Steph throws her head back and cackles. Cass tilts her head in confusion and Damian stares at him, dumbfounded. Bruce just sighs again and sinks down into his chair, and the nurse currently standing around his vitals monitor whirls around to stare at him, slack jawed.

“Is he really?” Bruce sounds exhausted. Maybe he should take a nap.

Tim shoots him a disgusted glare. “Don’t talk about yourself in the third person.”

Bruce stares off into space. “My apologies.”

Tim nods. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t want us to know.” He pats Bruce’s arm.

“Explain,” Duke demands, over his coughing fit.

“Okay. Okay so like, years ago, you know, before the whole,” Tim waves his hand, “ you know, I realized that Clark Kent, right, you know, the reporter, he does a lot of interviews with Bruce even though Bruce hates interviews and reporters in general, right, but they’re friends! Which is weird right? They’re friends but Bruce hates reporters and Clark is a reporter so it didn’t make sense. But then. But then! I realized, y’know, you know who else Clark interviews, like, a lot? Superman! So like, Clark obviously knows that Bruce is Superman, because like, dark hair, right body type, blue eyes, and Clark is not an idiot, so obviously he put two and two together and he was right. And Bruce knew that he knew so to keep him from telling anyone he told him he’d give him interviews whenever he wanted and now we get regular Bruce Wayne and Superman interviews because of it.” Tim nods emphatically. The room spins a little bit but that’s not important right now.

The entire room is staring at him dumbly.  

“Tim you tiny genius,” Duke breathes.

“No,” Bruce says firmly. Cass is studying Bruce intently, like she also knows he’s lying to them.

“Oh my god!” Steph shrieks in laughter.

Damian is muttering to himself under his breath and Tim can’t hear him but he knows that he’s talking about how smart Tim is, he knows he is.

The nurse’s eyebrows are as high as they can go as she shakes her head. She finishes up and leaves the room.

Alone with family, Steph feels brave enough to ask, “If Bruce is Superman, then who is Batman?”

“Stephanie,” Bruce growls, but Tim lights up like a Christmas tree.

“Clark Kent!”

“Excuse me?” Bruce asks incredulously as Steph cackles once again. “Tim-” he starts but Tim interrupts.

“No no no no, hear me out okay? Okay so like, obviously, I said that he does celebrity interviews because he interviews Bruce all the time, but. But! You know what other kind of articles he writes? Investigative journalism articles! And you know what Batman does? He investigates crimes! And like, I’ve seen him literally disappear! He’ll be there, you know, at the gala or wherever, and then he’ll just like. Disappear into the shadows, and I know he’s still there, but he’s just gone! Where did he go? He didn’t even leave! He just disappears into the background and you know who else does that? Batman. And he’s like. Huge. Have you seen his arms! They’re, like, bigger than my head! So. Batman.” Tim claps for himself. He’s a goddamn genius.

Steph has sunk to the floor, curled in on herself in laughter. Cass is looking at him with wide eyes, obviously seeing the same as him. Tim has obviously awoken a realization in her and he feels proud that he could help her see it too.

Duke is leaned over the side of Tim’s hospital bed, choking back laughter as well. Damian is still standing frozen, staring at him in disbelief. Bruce has his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his cupped hands.

“But,” Damian starts, then seems to rethink.

“What?” Tim questions, interested.

Damian hesitates. “But Father lives here in Gotham. And Kent lives in Metropolis.”

“Oh, yeah,” Tim nods in agreement.

They all wait. Tim tilts his head. 

“Why live in other city?” Cass asks when Tim doesn’t elaborate.

“To protect their secret identities, duh.” Tim rolls his eyes. “Nobody would expect the hero of the city to live in the wrong city. Especially with Gotham and Metropolis.”

Cass nods in understanding. He knew he could count on her. He can no longer hear Steph laughing, but he can see her chest heaving and shuddering as she lays curled on the ground. He hopes she’s okay.

Alfred chooses that moment to enter. He takes a look around the room, at Steph and Duke’s laughter, Tim’s bright expression, Bruce and Damian’s dumbstruck postures and Tim can see him holding back a sigh.

“Alfred!” Tim cheers, beaming.

“Hello, Master Tim,” he greets gently. “How are you feeling?”

“I am just.” Tim nods rapidly. “So good.” He yawns. “I’m gonna sleep now,” he decides. “If you guys want more facts, ask me later.” He closes his eyes.

Damian’s sigh is the last thing he hears before he sinks into the darkness.

Chapter Text

Bruce allows Tim to go out on patrol only three times a week during the school year: one week day, Fridays, and Saturdays. Tim’s tried to argue for more, and while he thinks he could have eventually worn Bruce down, it was, in fact, Damian who’d stared him down and told him to be grateful he was allowing him that much time out. He’s done it with each of his school age siblings. They each get one day during the week to go out, with the exception of Duke, who gets two.

“Sleep is vital to growing children, especially those in school,” is Damian’s reasoning, which makes Tim laugh because Tim is totally not known for staying up way too late and getting up way too early and getting way too little sleep. Nope, not at all. Damian often forces him into bed, however, and Tim finds himself getting an average amount of sleep most nights against his will.

Damian also uses it as an opportunity to force them to exercise their report writing and information sharing skills, as some ongoing cases have a different vigilante assigned each night. They’re all getting rather good at it, and Tim can see it benefitting all of them more and more the longer into the school year they get.

Who gets what weekday is selected by a random number generator each week. They gotta keep the city on its toes, after all.

This week, Tim’s day is Wednesday. It’s been a slow week, and while Batman and Nightwing each have their own cases they’re running, the Batkids don’t have anything in progress. By all reports from the others, it’s been a very slow week so far, only one stopped robbery and a few bar-close brawls.

While normally, Tim would be very careful to not carry identifying information with him, he carefully folds his packet of Spanish homework into one of the pockets in his utility belt. As he’d predicted, Batman and Nightwing are off following leads for their own cases, leaving Robin alone to hang out on the rooftops above the most popular bar scene in Lower Gotham, in case any more brawls break out. The bars don’t close for a few hours yet, so Tim’s pulled out his homework, filling it in absentmindedly as he listens to the street for any angry, drunken yells.

He’s about halfway through the four-page packet when his comm crackles to life.

“Ivy’s making a nuisance of herself again,” Nightwing grumbles, audibly irritated. “She’s on the verge of destroying a warehouse I need documents from. Robin, come distract her while I get them.”

“On my way,” Tim replies, shoving the papers back into his belt. His wrist monitor pings with Nightwing’s location and he throws himself off the rooftop in that direction.

Okay so here’s the thing about Poison Ivy: on a scale of one to ten for Worst Gotham Rogue, one being Catwoman and ten being the Joker, Ivy falls around a three. Legally considered an ecoterrorist, the Bats are mostly willing to leave her alone as long as she’s not hurting anyone. Usually, they have worse problems to deal with than Ivy wreaking some havoc on a company that a) can handle it financially and b) really could stand to change their methods. 

Here’s another thing about Poison Ivy, in regards to Tim Drake: they’re friends.

Or at least Tim considers Ivy a friend. She’d caught him following Batman and Robin around a few times and eventually, uh, kidnapped him in order to sit him down and try and convince him to Stop That. It didn’t work, but he appreciated her efforts and she’s been good to him ever since. While she’s never let him take pictures of her, she’s let him take photos of some of her more colorful creations.

The point is that she definitely noticed when he stopped going out to take pictures at night, and she definitely recognized him the first time he showed up in her vicinity as Robin. Luckily, Tim has not publicly connected himself to the Wayne family any more than he was before Robin, so the rest of the Batclan’s identities were safe. That didn’t stop them from being wayyy too overprotective of him in the weeks that followed.

Ivy obviously didn’t spread his identity around, however, as the weeks, then months, passed with no whisper of Robin’s identity. The few times they’ve ran into each other since have cemented into the Batclan’s minds that she can be trusted with his identity and also that Tim is the person to send to get her to stop whatever it is that she’s doing, as even during fights, she’s never injured him or even really fought back against him. It generally ends up being a snarkfest between the two of them. 

It always starts as a mock fight though, so when he swings into the area via grapple, he plants his feet firmly into her back and then ducks into a roll to avoid hurting himself.

They whip back up into fighting stances at the same time, Robin’s staff in his hands and vines wrapping themselves around Ivy’s arms. She sends them his way and the fight begins. He bats away vines and other plants as they sprout up around him, taking care not to actually damage them even as Ivy prevents them from actually causing him harm.

One of the vines wraps around his ankle and yanks, tripping him up. Ivy laughs as he curses on the ground and he tries to flip himself up, but another vine wraps itself around his shoulders, holding him to the ground.

“Aww,” Ivy coos at him. He snarls back at her and she laughs at him again. Tim gives up and just lays on the ground, letting the thick vines cuddle him into submission. He sticks his tongue out at Ivy.

Ivy just grins. “You know,” she says slyly. “Aphrodite has been missing you lately.”

Tim groans. “Please not Aphrodite,” he begs.

She just smirks and makes a twist of her wrist. The ground beside him cracks open and Aphrodite the Venus flytrap grows up out of the ground, all five heads perking up at his, uh, scent? He doesn’t really know how they know it’s him, but they always know. 

Only one head’s stem is long enough to reach him, even as he leans away as much as possible. He can’t get far enough, however, and he groans as the trap drags itself down his face like a dog’s tongue, leaving behind sticky nectar like dog drool. It snaps shut over his nose.

“Ivy!” he complains, voice sounding funny. She giggles. The vines release one of his arms so he reaches up to pet the trap the way he knows it likes. It releases his nose and latches on to his fingers instead. He can feel the nectar drying uncomfortably on his face, but at least his mask prevents it from getting into his eyes this time.

The vines scooch him closer to the plant and release his other arm so that he can pet multiple traps at once. Ivy plops down next to him and starts petting him. On the one hand, he’s pleased that she’s stopped trying to destroy all of the nearby warehouses, but on the other hand, he’s irritated at being treated like a pet. He’s even more irritated because it actually feels super nice.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a dark figure move up on top of the nearest warehouse, dropping in through a top floor window.

He sits with his head in Ivy’s lap for a few minutes before he hears the crinkle-crunch of paper and jerks his head down to look at his belt. One of the smaller traps has managed to get into his hastily, half-closed utility pocket and pull out his homework.

“Aphrodite!” he barks. “Let go!” He tries to yank the paper out of the trap. Tim and Aphrodite engage in a minute of tug of war while Ivy laughs behind him. Eventually, he gets his packet back and separates the papers so they don’t dry stuck together. He spends the next few minutes berating Aphrodite until the flytrap is cowering before him in shame, as it should.

Nightwing slips back out the window, waving his hand in a sign that he’s finished and to clear Ivy out. He vanishes from sight immediately after.

Great, thank you Damian, clearly he can just get up and leave. Tim rolls his eyes. 

“Now that you’ve ruined my homework, can we be done?” Tim asks flatly. “I have bar fights to go take care of.”

“They’re wasting your talents by putting you on the bar scene,” she says, amused. 

“Not like anything else is happening this week,” he grumbles.

“Robin,” Ivy pouts. “Am I nothing to you?”

“You’re a nuisance,” he huffs. “Not a case.”

“Aww, shucks,” she bats her eyes at him. “I knew you liked me.”

He rolls his eyes again and pushes against the vines until they release him.

“Go back to Robinson, Ivy,” he says tiredly. “I’m not in the mood to write an extra report about how I let you destroy a company because I didn’t feel like stopping you tonight. I already have to redo my homework.”

She sighs at him. “Have you considered, I don’t know, not bringing identifying documents with you on patrol?”

He glares at her. “Yeah, because a random thug on the street is totally going to know which school gives out this particular Spanish homework packet.” He holds up his homework. “It’s not like I put my name on it.” 

She just shakes her head at him. “Make better choices, little bird. Leave the homework for home.”

They part ways after that and the look Damian gives him as he climbs into the Batmobile later that night tells him that he agrees with Ivy. Tim just sinks down into his seat and buries his head into his arms.

He can’t bring himself to care enough to recreate the packet and redo it all. So he just hands in the packet, punctures, nectar-saliva, and smeared ink included, to his Spanish teacher on the day that it’s due. She takes it carefully between two fingers, face twisting in disgust.

“Timothy. What on earth happened to this packet.” It’s not a question.

“A Venus flytrap ate it,” Tim deadpans. The students near him twist to give him weird looks but they’re nothing compared to the absolute befuddlement on his teacher’s face.

“A Venus flytrap?” she asks incredulously.

Tim shrugs. “Ivy, you know?” He smiles innocently.

She stares at him for nearly a whole minute, but Tim will not break, not for this. Eventually she sighs and moves onto the person behind him.

A few days later, she gives him another look as she passes it back to him, but she doesn’t say anything.

He doesn’t care though. He got a 100%.

Chapter Text

It starts with Duke.

It starts when Duke bumps into Tim in the hallway just before first period. Tim gives him a strange look - living in a house with Damian Al-Ghul Wayne means that your spacial awareness is always going to be in a state of constant vigilance, and also, Tim almost never sees Duke before third period - but Duke doesn’t even look at him, just continues to rush down the hall. 

It’s not until he goes to sit down at his desk that he hears the crinkle of paper in his pocket. He pulls out a folded note with Pass to Steph written on the outside. Nothing is sacred in the family regarding information sharing so he opens the note to see Lydia Burke told Markus Blackstone that your shirt is ugly and that you’re stupid for liking unicorns. Do with that what you will.

Which is. Huh.

The ongoing war between Stephanie Brown and Lydia Burke is infamous in the Freshman class. None of the other grades know, or care, much about it, but Tim, by virtue of being considered family to two of Gotham Academy’s most popular yet ‘unrelated’ students, knows every little detail of drama throughout three different grades of high school. 

And what Tim knows is that it is a subtle war. A war of gossip, rumor, and petty insults. Tim knows that Stephanie is thrilled to have, and be, an actual, real life, highschool mean girl bully. Tim is also pretty sure that Lydia is also having a blast with this little petty war they’ve got going on. 

Tim reviews their schedules for the day. He passes Steph in the hallways after both first and second period. He has third period Statistics with Duke. He passes both Steph and Duke after his fourth, as he and Steph go to Freshman/Sophomore lunch and Duke goes to English. Duke goes to Junior/Senior lunch after them and passes them again in the hall as they go to their fifth period. He’s got Anatomy and Physiology with Steph during sixth period and study hall with Duke during seventh. 

This is a game they’ve played before. None of them know each other as far as Gotham Academy is aware, so occasionally, they’ll pass notes with interesting little tidbits of information and it’s become, well, a little wild in the past.

Tim can feel the adrenaline start to pump. School is boring. He knows almost all of the information they’re covering. He’s a Sophomore only because Gotham Academy is the premier school in Gotham for ‘children with high levels of intelligence’ (cough, rich kids who have rich parents and a few actually intelligent scholarship kids to pad the test scores), and they don’t allow grade skipping. Almost all of his classes are junior or senior level classes. Next year, he’ll have two additional junior classes and the rest will be senior and college courses. Boring.

This, though. This is interesting. The more they do this, the more elaborate they get with it, trying to come up with new ways to pass insignificant notes unnoticed. 

The first few passes will be subtle. An introduction to the game to let them all get on the same page. And then it will be game on.

He spends the rest of first period in anticipation, day-dreaming up more and more dramatic and intricate methods of passing the notes.

Finally the bell rings to signal the end of first period and Tim struggles not to rush packing his things away. The game is to avoid notice, which includes people wondering what’s got kid genius Tim Drake in such a hurry to leave class.

When Tim finally sees Steph in the hallway, he has to stifle a laugh at her shirt. It’s a custom, $400, neon purple t-shirt that Damian had specially made for her for her birthday after he mockingly offered to buy her a pony and she rolled her eyes and specifically said, “I’m turning fifteen, not five, Damian, buy me a t-shirt, not a unicorn.” It has a hand embroidered and sequined Twilight Sparkle stretching across the front and Steph laughed so hard after opening it that Bruce later admitted that he ran a blood test to check for lingering chemicals. 

He rubs the folded piece of paper between his fingers. He knows he’s going to be spending his weekend hearing all about the aftermath of this note and he regrets not being able to watch her face when she reads it. 

Tim just barely brushes against her, excusing it in the crush of the between-period rush, and tucks the note into her pocket the same way Duke had. 

The smirk she gives him in the hallway a class later tells him she saw it and has already retaliated. She doesn’t try to make a pass to him even though he makes it easy for her, which means she’s already seen Duke and it’s his turn to pass again.

Tim beats him to Stats . On purpose, he finds, as Duke rushes through the door right at the bell, ‘tripping’ right in front of Tim’s desk in the front row. He catches himself on Tim’s desk and rushes to his own desk two rows over, and Tim closes his notebook to see the folded note sitting innocently on his desk underneath. 

Under the original note, there’s a little smiley face with devil’s horns and thanks for the info in Steph’s handwriting. Duke’s already added another note underneath.

I texted N what she said too, he said to tell you to ‘do your worst.’ 

Damian, who claims to be above all of the high school petty drama that Steph adores, but consistently hovers in whatever room the three teens are gossiping in whenever Steph relays updates to her ongoing battle. He lives for Steph’s petty drama victories just as much as she does and Tim and Duke think it’s hilarious.

Tim snorts to himself and writes, I have to wonder if he’s ever even met S.

The basic (to Tim) math class drags by but eventually the bell rings again, and Tim lingers with a hand hanging over the front of his desk. Duke passes by close enough that Tim can slip it between his fingers. Duke takes it from him and tucks it into his jacket pocket.

He’s got physics next, one of his few interesting classes, and he’s able to focus on it enough that it flies by.  

He’s late to lunch and spots Duke in the hall, looking pale, refusing to meet Tim’s eyes, and rushing to his next class. There’s no pass. He does not see Steph, which is unusual, but somehow he sits down at lunch to find the note shoved into his backpack.

Duke’s written I can’t say that he has, and Steph follows with LOL well with permission given…

Which is, quite frankly, terrifying. Steph at full petty power is only a funny sight if you’re not on the other end of it. Thankfully, he’s not, but he feels a little bad for Lydia. 

He has to force the grin off his face as he scribbles, Just remember that murder is Not AllowedTM. 

It’s towards the end of lunch when he hears one of the girls behind him snickering as a video plays, and he hears Steph’s name mentioned along with Duke’s.

Well, what’s this?

He turns around and smiles charmingly at Sara Andrews. 

“Whatcha watching?” he asks curiously. 

Sara giggles, turns her phone towards him, and starts the video over. 

He watches in astonishment as, in the background of Daniel Chambers trying to shove his entire serving of grapes in his mouth at once, Duke walks closely behind Steph as she approaches Lydia Burke in a way that Tim recognizes as predatory. The way Duke is following tells Tim he’s trying to pass the note; there’s no other reason for how close he’s following her.

Hilariously, it backfires on him. Duke’s more concerned with the pass than he is with Steph’s purpose and when she stops suddenly, standing to the side of Lydia, he’s clearly not expecting it and stumbles right into her. 

Tim watches the fallout with unbridled glee. Steph, who’s carrying her lunch tray and a drink, manages to move her tray out of the way as she crashes into Lydia, but the drink falls directly into Lydia’s lap, cup crumpling and juice everywhere. 

Suddenly, the video veers away from Daniel Chambers, now choking on grapes, and wavers for  a moment before refocusing on Lydia and Steph, for the first time, teaming up. Duke cowers before their combined onslaught of what is clearly insults, but the camera is too far to pick up the specifics of what’s being said. 

Tim almost, almost, feels bad for him.

Instead, he laughs with Sara and then says, “Oh my god, you have to send that to me!” and gives her his number.

It’s in his inbox twenty seconds later.

He forwards it on to Damian, adding a lmfao to it. Delivered changes to Read at XX:XX within ten seconds and gets a LOL back. Tim rolls his eyes at Damian’s old man tendencies. Two minutes later, he gets a text from Duke saying Where the hell did you get a video of that??? and Tim leaves him on read. 

He drops the note down the back of Duke’s shirt on his way to Spanish, stifling a giggle as Duke flinches, and then gets it back on his way to sixth period Anatomy and Phys via Duke tucking it in his belt. 

Duke’s added Can’t believe you sent that to N, he’s making me do blindfolded training tonight now :(

Tim snorts and scrawls out, I can’t believe you didn’t notice S was in hunt mode and completely lost track of your surroundings, it’s the least of what you deserve.

He flicks it across the floor to Steph when no one’s looking, and she masks picking it up by knocking her pen to the floor. He sees her shoulders stiffen as she struggles not to laugh and chokes down a laugh himself as she starts scribbling furiously.

She drops it straight back into his lap as she leaves class before him with a new addition, but he waits until he gets to study hall to read it.

What a coincidence, I volunteered to help N with training tonight followed by a :D with little wings and a halo.

Tim shoves his fist over his mouth, masking his laugh with a rough cough. He sees Duke looking at him out of the corner of his eye, and Tim smirks as he writes Here lies Duke Thomas, beloved son and friend, killed by a high school mean girl half his size. 

He spends study hall planning out how he’s going to get the note to Duke before school lets out. Duke tries to make it easy for him when the bell rings, rushing out of class right by Tim’s desk with his hand right at level for passing. 

Tim scoffs and sticks his foot out to trip him.

Duke crashes heavily to the floor. The whole class looks around to them and he sees at least one phone out.

“Oh my god!” Tim cries dramatically. “I’m so sorry! Here let me help you up!”

Duke glares at him even as he takes Tim’s hand. Tim slips the note up his sleeve instead of straight into his fingers and the glare deepens. Tim tugs him to his feet and pats him on the chest.

Tim gathers the rest of his things and sweeps out of the room without looking back. He heads straight out to the pickup lane and gets into his contracted chauffeur vehicle (his parents couldn’t bear the embarrassment of their precious heir being seen taking public transportation, after all). He doesn’t look back at Duke and he refuses to meet Steph’s eyes as they pass even though he notices her trying to catch his attention. He speaks to no one and not-quite-slams the door behind him.

“Good afternoon, Jeff,” Tim greets cheerfully.

“Good afternoon Mr. Drake. Straight home today?”

Tim’s phone buzzes in his pocket. “Yes, please,” he responds as he pulls his phone out. Another text from his new best friend Sara Andrews. A four second video of Duke crashing to the floor and the beginning of Tim’s dramatic apology. Tim cackles in the back of the car and drops it straight to the Batkids group chat.

His phone starts blowing up immediately.

Steph laughed at a video followed by Duke’s why do you both hate me, I have non-patrol bruises from today, this is fucked up. 

Cass also ‘laughs’ at the video and Damian writes, Tim would you like to patrol an extra night this week? I think Duke’s spacial awareness training is going to run long tonight.

YES!! Tim sends back, and then sends another text with a line of gravestone emojis.

Cass and Steph both ‘laugh’ at the gravestones and then Cass sends note? 

Duke sends a photo of the final note and Cass replies with crying laughing emojis.

Duke does do blindfolded training that night, and Tim does get to go out on patrol in his place, Damian shaking his head in disbelief as Duke theatrically fails to hit a single dummy blindfolded.