Tim was hanging out with his ex-girlfriend and his (somewhat estranged and civilian) best friend.
The thing was, Ives had just left.
"So, Tim," Ariana was saying. "What's been going on in your life?"
Tim was really, really uncomfortable. The only thing was, he didn't think he had the right to. The uncomfortableness he was feeling right then, it was something he'd felt about a thousand times before. The nervous feeling in his stomach, the uneasiness in his chest — it was guilt.
He ran through a few options of why he was feeling guilty, but he didn't need to. He'd thought back on his life and his choices so many times, he'd figured out countless things he'd done wrong in their relationship.
"Not much," he said, though it was an obvious lie. The 'engagement' with Tam had been only a month or so ago, and it was still all over gossip magazines. That wasn't even counting all the things that had happened since the last time he'd seen Ariana.
"I'm sorry about your dad," Ariana said.
"Oh," Tim said, almost surprised. It seemed like that had happened so long ago. "I'm, um. I'm sorry I cheated on you."
Maybe that wasn't the best way to go about things. Ariana was staring at him now, eyebrows raised and one eye pinched slightly.
"Um," she said. "You know that— Tim. You know we haven't dated in years, right?"
"Yeah," Tim said, suddenly feeling like kind of an idiot. "I still… thought I might say it. Because I'm sorry. Did you know that…?"
"That you're sorry?" Ariana asked. "You said it a few times in the past minute. But, um, kind of. I don't know if you remember when I dyed my hair…"
"Bleached it, yeah." Tim nodded.
"Because you were looking at that girl," Ariana said. "She was blonde. I was jealous and traumatized. Was it her?"
"Uh, yeah," Tim admitted. "I didn't start dating her until we broke up… but I kissed her. She kissed me. Kissing and such. Yeah."
"You are a strange one." Ariana wasn't smiling. In fact, she was frowning at him, but she didn't look overly upset. "I figured something like that. Tim, I don't know what the point of telling me was."
"You deserved to know," Tim said. "Or maybe you didn't, if you didn't want to. I'm not sure how I would've known if you didn't, though."
Ariana seemed to consider that. "You know what?" she said. "You're right. Thanks."
Tim shrugged and looked away from her. He didn't know what to say, but at least it was out there. Ariana, too, seemed at a loss for words.
"Did the girl know?" she asked him, finally.
"What?"
"Did the girl know?" she asked. "The one you kissed and such."
"Did the girl know… that we kissed?" Tim frowned.
Ariana groaned. "Boys. Did she know you had a girlfriend?"
"Oh." In hindsight, that should've been obvious. "I told her, I think, when she first kissed me. I'm still friends with her now, kind of."
"Not dating her?"
"Oh, no." Tim shook his head. Things with Steph were still… awkward. He didn't really want to date her, anyway. Not anymore. "I'm not dating anyone right now."
The conversation ceased until Ives came back, completely unaware of what had just gone on between them.
"I just saw a bubble tea place," Ives said.
"Nice, I love bubble tea," Ari said, jumping up. It was almost like the previous conversation had never happened, except Tim could see the slight tenseness in her shoulders. "I like the raspberry kind."
They both glanced over at him, waiting for him to join in. It took a few seconds for Tim to realize and respond. Things were never this hard with his vigilante friends.
Or at least, they hadn't been before half of them died.
"I don't like the fruit jellies," Tim said, maybe a couple seconds too late. "And my favorite flavor is probably vanilla."
"Boring!" Ives said, in the kind of tone that he and Tim had heard from obnoxious jocks for years now. It was probably a joke, but it took too long for Tim to remember to laugh. Ives wasn't looking at him now. Ariana clicked her tongue awkwardly.
Of course, it might have all been in Tim's head. He thought too much, too often.
He said, "I also like vanilla lavender. Or peach vanilla."
"Peach vanilla's good," Ari agreed. "Too bad there was no M-room when we dating."
M-room was the slang term for the Midnight Room, which sounded kind of like a club to Tim, but was actually a tea and coffee shop. It was only a few minutes' walk from Tim's apartment, but he didn't mention that, because Ariana didn't know where he lived and that was probably for the best.
The tea place they went to wasn't the Midnight Room, however, as it was not in the mall. Tim didn't bother to look up and find the name, but it seemed fancier than he would have expected from it. It was possible he was just used to the comfortable nature of the Midnight Room.
"So," Ives said when they sat down to wait for their drinks. "What have you guys been doing? Ari, I never see you. Tim, I never see you. Is it 'cuz I had cancer?"
Ari choked a little bit. Tim's eyebrows went up, which caused him to momentarily consider growing bangs.
"I've just been busy," he said.
Ives tried to move his eyebrows in a suggestive manner, but it didn't really work. "Busy, huh?" he asked. "You still dating that college girls?"
"No," Tim said. "We weren't even really dating. Or engaged."
"How do you accidentally say you're engaged to someone?" Ariana asked. "Was it like that one episode of Grey's Anatomy?"
"Um." Tim hadn't seen that episode of Grey's Anatomy. "A reporter was asking her a bunch of questions, and she got panicked. She kind of hates me now, anyway."
Ari shook her head. "You really have a way with girls, don't you?"
Tim sighed. "It feels like the only girls I get along with are my sister and my friend Cassie." He paused and frowned. "Both of them are named Cassandra."
"I forgot you had a sister," Ives said. "What's she like? Cassandra Wayne, right? Or did she keep her name?"
"Cass Cain-Wayne," Tim confirmed. "She's great. Lives in Hong Kong right now, so we don't see her too often. Not often enough, anyway."
"Could say the same about you," Ives muttered. "Ari, what about you? Still working at that, uhh, coffee… restaurant… cafe?"
"You can just say you don't know where I work, Ives," Ari said. When Ives didn't respond, she added, "I still work there, yeah. Tim, is being co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises an actual job or more of a figurehead thing?"
"I… have to go to important meetings and fundraisers," Tim offered. Ives snorted at his lackluster response.
"I have to deal with annoying customers and people flirting with me," Ariana countered wryly.
"I got nothing," Ives said. "Am I allowed to play the cancer card yet or is it too early?"
"You used to be a giant rat," Tim reminded him.
"Right!" Ives sat up straighter. "That was awful."
Ariana laughed. "Were you really? How many secrets do you keep, Ives?"
Ives had once been a much more confusing character in Tim's life, but now everything and everyone in his life were so hectic things with his civilian friends didn't even seem to compare. Back when he was a fourteen, fifteen year old kid, things like Ives having a secret job had seemed a lot more pressing.
Of course, Tim hadn't known it was that when he'd been investigating it. Tim was Tim, so he'd suspected the worst.
"Hey, Tim, do you want to come over tonight?" Ives asked him. "We can play some new video games I got…"
"Sorry," Tim said, and he really almost was. "I'm busy."
There was no rest for the wicked.
That was something Bruce had told Tim, years ago, when he was still training to be Robin. He'd still been wearing the green tights, back then. Tim had taken the line seriously; he'd been more idealistic back then, more accepting of everything he came across. Over the years he became more realistic due to experience, but he still thought about those words.
There was no rest for the wicked, but there was even less for those who were not.
"Red Robin," said a voice, half obscured in static. "Do you have eyes on Winters?"
"Yes," Red Robin said lowly. "They're moving to the meeting location. Do you have eyes on Carvin?"
"Yes."
Red Robin nodded, though his partner for the night wouldn't be able to see it. He leapt down from the roof (which hurt his feet) and snuck into the warehouse building adjacent to the place the two criminals they were tracking were meeting in.
Marsha Winters was a short and thick woman, with black eyebrows but hair as white as Ravager's. She stood at the side of the door she'd entered in, waiting a moment to survey the area before moving toward a table with two chairs placed opposite each other. She seated herself, but with one foot positioned so she could run if she needed to.
Red Robin had seen that before — he'd done that before. She didn't quite trust whoever she was meeting.
"Carvin is coming in."
"Wait till we can get something," Red Robin said, though it probably could have went unsaid.
David Carvin was so long-limbed and spindly he looked almost inhuman. His mouth was half-open in a strange grimace, his eyes were wide open and crazed, and his fist was clenched tightly around something that could have been and probably was a weapon.
"Carvin," Marsha Winters said, rising up momentarily. "Good to see you."
"You've come a long way from being an assassin, Winters," Carvin said. He pronounced the s in Winters sharper than the rest of his words. "And I mean that in a bad way. Why did you contact me?"
"My employers have a message for you," Winters said. "They want you to work for them."
"Your employers," Carvin repeated. "I haven't seen you since when the world almost ended a year and a half ago and you want to employ me?"
"I don't, my employers do." Winters shifted in her seat. "DIRAE wants you to supply us with your… paraphenalia."
"What does DIRAE do?" Carvin asked. "And where do you get off in being the one to contact me?"
"David, I swear to god," Winters said.
The mood of this scene had shifted suddenly and confusingly. Tim wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.
"Okay, just- this is going nowhere."
He'd seen enough fights between Batman and the Red Hood to know where that nothing useful was going to happen here. He'd barely finished his sentence before a shadow cast down on the two criminals and the Black Bat jumped down on the table between them.
"Holy shit!" Carvin tried to dive out of the way, but Black Bat caught his ankle as he moved.
"Who the fuck are you?" Winters asked, springing up and backing away quickly. Before she could escape, Red Robin moved in behind her and grabbed her.
"That's Black Bat," he answered her. "She's been in Hong Kong."
"I forgot to do a line," Cass said to him. "I was going to say something from a movie."
"It's cool when you stay silent, too," Tim said. "Very Batman-like."
Cassandra smiled. Tim thought it was nice that he could see her smile in her new costume — in the old one it had been kind of creepy. "Yes," she said. "I'll be the Batman now."
Well, alright then.