Someone on tumblr requested TimSteph and, while I had tried to do fluff... This turned out much better.
Opps.
I do not own Batman.
He loved her. He loved her more than anything else. He loved everything about her: everything from her bright green eyes that always brimming with emotion to her cascades of blond hair.
However, Tim thought- no, was certain, that she would be better off without him. Without his inability to say the right things, the things he knew she deserved to hear, like how beautiful she was and how much he needed her. No, Tim could never manage to get those words out, could do nothing but blunder in her presence, becoming nothing more than a jerk that burdened her with pain and agony.
Stephanie always knew what to say to make any days brighter; all he could do was break her heart.
He knew this. He could rarely stop thinking about this plain and simple truth. However, he could not bring himself to let her go, to say goodbye to one good thing he still had left in his life.
So, he just continued on, day by day, knowing that he did not deserve the little joy he had...
Until disaster struck while they were on patrol one night, no different than any other...
"Good job with those thugs, Batgirl," Her form had been perfect, masterful in nature, but his tongue had barely let him speak with even the simplest of compliments...
"That's because I'm a badass, Red," she replied, smiling smugly at him.
As he was about respond with some clever comeback, he noticed one of the gang members they had just defeated, who he had been so sure was unconscious by now, sitting up. He had no idea how that was possible; in fact, he was near certain that was the one he had landed on top of when they had arrived to break up the meeting. The man should have been out cold.
Yet, somehow, he wasn't, and was currently sitting up, and reaching in his pants for something...
Which, of course, just had to be a gun.
Tim was ready to move out of range and towards the thug to disarm him, but froze when the weapon rose.
It wasn't pointing at him, as he had expected. It was pointing at Stephanie.
His logical side saw the reasoning in that choice almost immediately. She had been the one to defeat the majority of the members of the gang, since he was still exhausted from doing researching for Dick, Bruce, and the Titans the night before. She was the biggest threat.
His heart, however, lurched as soon as the barrel faced her, her back turned to the weapon, completely unaware of any coming danger.
Then, suddenly, the weapon went off. There was no time to warn her, only time to act.
Which was he pushed her out of the bullet's path, split seconds from when it would have hit, but putting himself in the line of fire.
Stephanie rolled away from where she had been standing just moments before as Tim pushed her, looking back with confused eyes to see why he had done so.
Only to have those eyes widen when she saw Tim curled up on the concrete, his stomach bleeding profoundly.
"What the- What happened?" she asked in desperation as she fell to her knees next to him, trying to find a way stop the blood flow.
"Don't- know," he grunted out, pain obvious in his voice. "Had to save you,"
She knew what he meant immediately.
"That was heading towards me and you decided to be an idiot and take it on yourself instead? Really, Red?" she asked, even though she knew the answer, already hearing her voice cracking as tears threatened to start pouring from her eyes.
"More-important-than-me," his voice was fading quickly, as was the pulse that she was feeling for most likely harder than she needed to.
"No, you idiot, I'm not more important than you!" she nearly cried out the words, even though her voice was soft.
"Why... not?" his voice was barely audible now...
"Because you're a genius, almost everyone depends on you all the time, you're a gifted fighter, both Batman and Nightwing will kill me if I don't get you home, and I freaking love you, dammit."
"L-love you t-too, Steph..." he whispered quietly, so quiet she had to lean in to hear him, before the pulse stopped.
"No," it was a whisper at first, a whisper of pure denial but a whisper still. "No, no, no, no, you can't just leave me! I-I love you! I freaking love you, you freaking sacrificial idiot!"
Stephanie laid there, clutching the body, weeping in agony, not knowing that Tim was near certain that he was freeing her from a great burden when, in reality, it was only adding the burden of unadulterated heartbreak.