Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim had been fiddling with his keys for the last three minutes, and still hadn't managed to unlock the door to Bernards apartment. Which may have been because he really, really needed to sleep, but he thought it was more to do with the fact that the door always got stuck. Without fail. But Bernard refused to let Tim pay for someone to come and fix it, or fix it himself, so he kept messing around with the keys, until he finally got the door open and tripped into the apartment.

He dumped his bag down on one of the couches, grabbed his phone and headed through to the kitchen to find Bernard, before walking into a short strawberry blonde man that was definitely not his boyfriend.

"…Hi." The man said, hand flinching towards his hip slightly as if going for a weapon. "You are…?"

"Tim" He replied, making sure he could easily reach his staff if he needed to. Bernard hadn't mentioned anything about anyone coming over, or Tim would've stayed at his own apartment tonight.

"Mitchell, are you - Oh, hey babe." Bernard grinned, coming round the corner and heading over to Tim, who pulled him in for a kiss but was sadly interrupted by the guy Tim assumed was Mitchell.

"Babe? You got a boyfriend and you didn't tell me?" He practically shrieked, levelling an impressive glare at Bernard.

"Uh, well, we've kind of been…keeping it quiet for now?" Bernard replied, running a hand through his hair and glancing back and forth between Tim and Mitchell.

They had been keeping it quiet, mainly because Tim didn't want Bernard to have to deal with any of the paparazzi that cropped up once any of the Wayne children announced that they were dating. He wouldn't mind more people knowing they were dating though. Steph knew, although she had yet to actually meet Bernard, and Tim wouldn't mind introducing him to the rest of his family, if his family was less…his family.

"Why?" Mitchell asked, shifting his glare over to Tim, who could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"The paparazzi in Gotham can be pretty intense." Tim said, flashing a disarming grin. Something about Mitchell unnerved him slightly, but he was glad Bernards friends were protective over him.

"…You're one of those billionaire kids." Mitchell said finallly, with an air of realisation. Tim was vaguely surprised, he couldn't go far in Gotham without being recognised so he might have just assumed Mitchell knew who he was.

Bernard seemingly agreed with him, thankfully, flat out cackling at his friend who scowled and rolled his eyes. "It's not exactly easy to keep up with celebrity gossip, okay?" He grumbled.

Tim couldn't help but agree, the amount of hours he spent keeping up to date on the latest Gotham socialite scandal, and informing everyone else when they had to go to galas was ridiculous.

"I thought you had a phone from Connor?" Bernard said, leaning his head against Tims shoulder.

"It got eaten." Mitchell said mournfully, and Tim had to do a double take. It wasn't that weird, he supposed. There were plenty of things in Gotham that might eat your phone. Although Mitchell had a very strong New York accent, and somehow Tim didn't think they had quite so many issues with that sort of thing.

"It got eaten?" Bernard parroted, sounding like he was trying very hard not to burst out laughing.

"By a snake."

Right. Tim didn't spend a lot of time in New York, but he'd definitely been there enough to know that there weren't many snakes just running around. And he didn't miss the way Bernard tensed next to him, before asking if Mitchell was okay. The words were pretty calm, but his body language was panicked, and his eyes were darting all over his friend as if checking for injuries.

"I'm fine." Mitchell waved him off. "But Connor's not getting new stock for a while and I can't afford to pay him to get me one sooner right now."

Yeah, that was definitely illegal in some way. But some teenagers selling bootleg phones wasn't the worst thing in the world, and he trusted Bernard not to be involved if it was something actually dangerous.

"So anyways," Mitchell grinned, flopping down on the couch across from them. "You told Will about your new boyfriend yet?"

"I…have not." Bernard admitted slowly. "I'll tell him next time I see him, but can you…"

"I'll keep my mouth shut."

"That includes Drew."

"…Fine."

Mitchell glanced between Tim and Bernard, and went to grab his bag from by the door. "I should go, Nico's giving me a lift back and I don't want to make him wait." He gave Bernard a hug, and clapped Tim on the back, told him it was "good to meet him" and then whirled out the door leaving Tim feeling slightly shell shocked.

"Sorry I, uh, didn't mean to like, kick him out or anything." Tim said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. That had definitely been one of the weirder conversations he'd been involved in, at least in his civilian identity. Outside of his family.

Bernard just snorted, "I wouldn't worry, Nico probably would've actually killed him if he'd made him wait much longer."

"…Right. So uh, who is he?"

"Oh, he's just an old friend, we used to go to camp together." Bernard said casually, but he clearly wasn't relaxed, and Tim couldn't figure out why.

He assumed they had a past of some sort, but then why wouldn't Bernard just tell him that. Tim wasn't the type of person to get jealous over something like that, or at least he didn't think he was. Maybe Bernard just didn't want to talk about it, which he could understand. His boyfriend didn't look particuarly comfortable with the way the conversation was headed, so Tim figured he would drop it.

"Will's my brother, by the way, if you were wondering." Bernard said, heading into the kitchen. "What do you want for dinner?"

"I don't mind," Tim said trailing after him "We can just order something if you want?"

He knew Bernard had been on shift last night, and most of today as well, and he was also pretty sure they didn't really have any ingredients in.

"Oh thank god," Bernard sighed, collapsing at the table. "Thai?"

"Sounds good" Tim said, pulling their usual place up on his phone. "So…I didn't know you had siblings?"

He really didn't want to push. But he couldn't remember Bernard ever mentioning any siblings, Tim had heard a little about his parents but they didn't talk about them much either. Not that Tim minded, he didn't exactly talk about his family much either, but he'd definitely mentioned them all to his boyfriend at least a few times.

"Yeah, my family's a little…complicated." Bernard winced. "My siblings are great though. Will's two years older than me, and Kayla and Austin are both younger."

Yeah, Tim knew all about complicated families. But he could tell Bernard loved his siblings, his face seemed to light up just talking about them.

"You can tell them about us, you know? I just didn't want the press to know yet, but your family is different obviously. "

"I might go back to visit them this weekend," Bernard mused, "I'll tell Will then, I guess."

"Great." Tim smiled reassuringly. "And, uh, would you be okay if I told my family?"

"Yeah, of course." Bernard gave him a tired smirk. "Meeting the parents when it's Bruce Wayne is a little more intimidating than normal, but I'll survive."

"They'll love you." Tim snorted. He hoped. It would probably be a lot more background checks and worries about revealing their identities, but once they got to know him, they'd love him. Who wouldn't?

And Tim wanted Bernard to meet his family, he really did. He just felt bad taking that step in their relationship when Bernard still didn't fully know who he was. But he couldn't tell Bernard his identity without exposing, well, everyone else, and he didn't imagine that would go down to well.

Chapter Text

Tim was grinning to himself like an idiot as he was curled up on the couch next to Bernard watching old grey ghost re-runs. They'd both been so busy recently, Tim hadn't had a calm night in with his boyfriend in weeks. And since Tim had found out about his family they'd both been trading stories, and Tim was seriously thinking about inviting Bernard to the next family dinner.

So they were having a great relaxing evening. Until someone started trying to bang their door down. Tim jumped up to get it, not wanting to disturb his boyfriend and silently praying it was just a neighbour. He wasn't even patrolling tonight he was just staying at Bernard's and if it was anything to do with his family he might just lose his mind.

He opened the door to a girl with curly brown hair scraped back into a bun and a massive bruise decorating half her face, supporting a tall freckly guy with…a massive bloodstain down his jeans. And a knife sticking out of his thigh.

"Hi." The girl beamed. "Is Bernard in?"

Now, this wasn't exactly an unusual situation for Tim to be in. His family and most of his friends were vigilantes, getting injured came with the territory. However he didn't often encounter people being stabbed in his boyfriends apartment. He didn't think Bernard encountered it often either, although the way the girl had shoved past him yelling his boyfriends name seemed to contradict that.

Bernard rushed out the bathroom, dragging his first aid kit with him as Tim hesitantly helped the girl manoeuvre the injured guy onto the kitchen table.

"I'm gonna call an ambulance." Tim said reaching for his phone, but was met with a resounding "No" from everyone else in the room. And sure Tim hardly ever went to the hospital himself but civilians did. Right?

"What happened?" Bernard asked the girl, both pulling on a pair of surgical gloves and inspecting the skin around the wound.

The girl glanced at Tim, and then said something in another language. Which wasn't suspicious at all in Tim opinion. Definitely not, especially when paired with the showing up on the doorstep bleeding.

A hand tapped his side and Tim tried to hide his flinch. He wasn't very successful.

"Sorry." The guy on the table gritted out. "Tim, right? You're…this idiots new boyfriend."

"This idiot is keeping you alive right now." Bernard said, turning back to his conversation with the girl.

"Nah … 't won't kill me." The guy replied, his words slurring even more. "Survived to much shit…to go like this. They'd…never let me live it down."

Well. That wasn't a concerning statement. Tim was trying very hard not to freak out. He trusted Bernard, of course he did, but he was starting to worry his boyfriend was…caught up in something.

The guy on the table clamped down on a yell, and Tim looked over to realise Bernard had started taking the knife out. He rushed to pin the guys upper half to the table, while the girl did the same with his legs.

The guy managed to poke Tim in the side again.

"Tim. 'm Travis."

"Hi Travis." Tim said, slightly bemused. But he needed to keep Travis conscious. "So, uh, how'd you know Bernard?"

"'s my cousin. We go…summer camp together."

"That's nice." Tim said, frantically searching for something else to say but thankfully, Travis seemed to be happy to keep the conversation going on his own.

"Camp's great." He muttered, eyes slipping in and out of focus. "Bernard and 'is siblings they…keep us all alive when they…they can."

If that sentence alone didn't set of warning bells the look that Bernard and the other girl shared definitely did. But Tim couldn't fully get a read on what they were thinking because it only lasted a second before Bernard gestured for her to pass him something - iodine?- and began stitching Travis up.

"'nd I met Katie there." Travis exclaimed, waving his arm excitedly before Tim managed to pin it back to the table. Travis was deceptively strong.

"She's amazing." He continued, staring up at Tim. "We've been…dating for… 3 years next month."

"Shit." Bernard cut him off. "That's…pass me the graft." Tim snapped his head up, because that did not sound good, but the girl just handed something to Bernard and mouthed "keep him talking" at Tim.

"She's so strong, and she always smells like flowers, and her hair is so pretty and she's so smart - did you know she's top of her college class right now?"

"I didn't know that." Tim replied, when it became obvious Travis was waiting for him.

"You should've." He pouted.

"…I'm sorry?"

"We graduate…next year." Travis forced out. "'s pretty cool…didn't think we'd…we'd get to do that. After we do I'm gonna…"

"Okay." Bernard announced, tying off the last stitch. "We're all done. Can you get him into the spare bedroom?"

Tim helped the girl heave him off the table and drag him into the spare room, while Bernard disposed of his equipment.

"I'm Katie, by the way." The girl offered, as they awkwardly lugged Travis down the hallway. He was mostly unconscious by now, and wasn't making it very easy for them.

"I figured." He smiled. "Tim Drake."

They shook hands quickly, rushing back to stop Travis from face-planting into the wall. But he didn't miss the way that her hands were callused, not in the way that his were, but more similar to Damians. They were pretty typical for using knives or even swords, and although it could also be explained by intense sports, the small scars over her hands looked more like accidental knife wounds. They were pretty similar to Tim's from when he'd learnt to fight with knives as well.

"Sorry for barging in on you guys like this." Katie winced apologetically. "We wouldn't have if it wasn't an emergency but…"

Yeah. Thigh wounds were pretty bad, and Travis was extremely lucky it hadn't hit his femoral artery. They managed to get him into the bed, his injured leg elevated and then snuck back out the room. They both collapsed back onto the couch, Tim trying to process what had just happened, while Bernard came over intent on checking on Katie.

"I'm fine." She snapped. "Idiot jumped in front of the knife for me didn't he?"

Tim got up and made his way into the kitchen to grab a glass of water. While he wanted to know what was going on, he had a feeling this wasn't something Katie would appreciate him being in the room for. Your boyfriend getting stabbed for you…he didn't imagine that was a particularly fun experience.

He came back into the living room five minutes later, to find Katie leaning against Bernard, under a blanket on the couch, Grey Ghost blaring out of the TV again.