He is static. One moment, as sure as steel; the next, trembling with doubt. The in-between leaves him sharp, his senses buzzed with flavour.
The city is a strange and terrifying place, and he feels it. Something is happening here. Something is happening to him.
He catches Steph staring at him, and it's really all he lets her do these days. He sits in class and coaxes the in-between. They found Bruce--Batman. And the enemy could find him. They could and it will happen here. This classroom.
He lost friends in the last attack. An accident then, but Darla came back.
He lost Steph. But she came back.
Even with the return of the Red Hood, and the return of Jason...
The dead don't stay dead, and it makes the hair on his arms stir.
He breezes past the question his Physics teacher throws his way, and doesn't even notice. Some things he's just sure of.
The silence he navigates is frighteningly awkward. He probably shouldn't have known the answer to that one. Mr. Philbert is probably trying to level every student down to a single, comfortable size, and Tim doesn't even care that he failed to catch it.
He's not normal. He's more, because right now he has to be more!
He doesn't wait at his locker, rather anxious to leave the school before things do happen.
They won't, but they will.
"Tim..."
"I'll be late," he throws his arm up, hardly turning. An excuse not to flee, but to fly. He hasn't shunned friends since his attempts to resurrect Conner.
Conner is dead, and something tells Tim that Conner is the exception. Conner will stay dead, while miracles happen elsewhere.
Just like his father.
His mother.
Dick, if Dick leaves him.
It's acute and it's perfect. The truth is just as sharp as the city when it catches him.
You don't deserve those miracles.
The stone walls and black heights invite him to play. Gotham lacks a partner and though Tim isn't the one she wants, he'll tangle up in the absence naturally until this wears off.
Until this...
Fails to kill him.
He turns, eyes on him. All he lets her do now is stare.
And in turn, he stares back. New eyes. Old eyes. Maybe eyes.
He needs them to come back, but the in-between separates them. His family is gone. His friend is gone. It's Tim, and it's the world. And it's real.
When Robin faces Gotham, he is static. Because somewhere, undecided, is the answer of whether or not Batman is returning.
Sometimes the dead don't stay dead.
And sometimes...
Sometimes Tim deserves it.