The feeling slides down his spine, and he turns from his place in the shadows to face the new comer to his perch. Others had taken on his old patrol route, his old hidey holes to sit for a minute, grab a power bar and a drink before going back at it. His new route (when he's in Gotham) came with new hiding spots too. Trust the Batman to find them.
"Red Robin," the dark knight greets, half in shadows.
"Batman," the younger returns without coming out of the shadows. "What do you need?" Rote.
"I'm with you tonight." And that's it. Almost two years patrolling by himself and all of a sudden he's got the man himself coming out of the woodwork.
"You're on the South side with Robin. My business is taking me East."
To his credit, the Bat doesn't show he's surprised Red Robin knows their patrol schedule (if he is surprised at all).
"Change of plans. Robin is with Nightwing. I'm with you."
"Unnecessary. They're have a small group, it's more Intel than fighting."
"Regardless," is the only response.
Finally, he turns to face his old mentor, both with cowls to hide themselves.
"I don't know who's been talking to you or what's going on," it's the Red Robin voice, "but I don't need a babysitter."
Unruffled, the Batman gives no outward reactions. It's strange, he used to be able to read the smallest tick, used to be able to find the emotion even when he was the Bat. Now, it's like he's looking at a stranger all over again…
"I've been told you've stopped checking in when you're in town." A mild observation, but Red Robin is a detective in his own right now and he can read between the lines.
"I patrol whenever I come back."
"Not the point."
"It IS the point, Batman." He returns. "I haven't 'checked in' for over a year, and it's just now an issue. Why?"
Silence. Because of course the Batman didn't like to be called out, but Red Robin wasn't one of his anymore. He wasn't going to blindly follow; he has his own team, his own agenda, his own way of doing things. They weren't partners anymore (but were you ever really, Replacement?).
"Quiet is not an answer." Red asserts patiently, crossing his arms over his chest.
"No one has patrolled with you since the last crisis. It's a good strategy to know how my fighters work when we need to be paired up or the team united."
"Good strategy," he keeps his voice carefully empty, forcing himself not to tense because the team. "Agreed. I'm still part of BI so my profile is there and it hasn't changed. I work well with Hood, Black Bat, and Oracle. Even Robin and I can get along." There. Now he can be on his way.
But the Bat isn't done. "Then I'll be more direct." He steps out of the shadows to come closer, "I've made a grave error in the attempt to give you what I thought you needed: space, time. You needed to figure out who you were and where you needed to be, just like Dick when he left Robin behind."
Red Robin stays silent, back turned to the Bat.
"But it's been two years since you found me, brought me home, and I've finally got the full account of what happened while I was gone. Dick took Robin from you-"
"This is an old story, Batman." And the tone is there, the 'testing my patience' tone.
"None of us expected you to leave the family over it, Tim."
His spine snaps straight, angrily, and it gives the Batman pause, looking at his son.
The laugh is bitter, "sure. That's what you want to believe, then not a problem. I left the family. I don't call for help on comms anymore because why bother, really? I don't come when there's a call or spend days getting the data you need. I don't take care of business to make sure it stays in your family. Sure, Batman, I just left. So, you've got no reason to follow me then, right? I'm the stand-in between your sons, so I'll pull my file from BI and be on my way."
His grapple is already shot, he's already flying while the Batman is left standing with a highly unusual sense of guilt the Bat normally didn't feel. Those things were left for when the mask came off. But those words came back to him, a stand-in between your sons. The situation with Tim had degraded more than he initially realized and the Bat got out his own grapple, firing with an outstretched arm. The tracker he'd managed to peg on Red Robin is already working.
He would still follow. He would follow Dick's lead and work on trying to fix the obvious break in their family.
Wow, now he's completely fine with a bad guy beat-down.
He'd already snuck into their 'office' and cracked the password; his transmitter sent the data to his system for later. When he looks at the security feed, the pissed off hits. Batman is doing his stand in the center and be creepy before the fight starts thing, and Red Robin swears, loudly.
Guy wants to do this, fine. Just, fine. Red moves out of the office, not meeting anyone (pity) before he came to the main storage place for the drugs. The small group of bad guys turned slightly larger at, well, 'shit, shit, Batman.'
And watching Batman is like watching water run, smooth and consistent, never stopping. He goes from one thug to the next, one fight to the next without a hitch, and Red jumps, summersaults, comes down with a kick to enter the frey.
He doesn't default ("back to back, Robin"), but takes his section of them and works through the mass. He uses what he has, doesn't try anything fancy, and he not end-of-my-patience brutal. He doesn't fight like Robin anymore, he fights like Red Robin.
By the time Batman is done, his section tied and ready for the police, Red Robin's are tied and he's gone, moving to the roof for the next stop in patrol. The tracker is neatly placed on top of a crate.
When the Batman returns to the Cave after a night of chasing Red Robin's spectacular distractions, the email from Oracle confirms the Red Robin profile is gone from the database.