Piece of Cake
November:
In full costume, Tim stood on the top of a Wayne skyscraper. He walked to the edge and looked down laughing nervously to himself. The teenager turned back and looked at Batman with a shake of his head.
"You're kidding right?"
Bruce shook his head. "You have to do this by yourself at some point, so do it now while I'm here." Unsaid was 'so I can catch you and you don't die,' but Tim was glad that Bruce didn't add that.
The teenager stood at the ledge and ground his boot-covered foot into the cement roof. "Okay, so what do you want me to do?"
Batman moved next to Tim and pointed to a building that was about a block away and thirteen stories lower. "Get there," he instructed and moved back from the ledge giving Tim room.
"Right, no problem," the teenager mumbled under his breath and grabbed his grappler.
"This is no different than the Cave. See your path first then leap. You will learn how to improvise soon enough."
Tim looked out at the city and tried to ignore the dizzying height he stood at. "Fall for ten, released towards flagpole, swing towards building, release and land on the building," the teenager said to himself figuring out his path which was, relatively speaking, easy.
Without a thought (because he was certain he would chicken out if he paused to consider what he was doing) Tim jumped. He'd free-fallen many times in the Cave, but for some reason knowing that the harsh pavement now replaced the soft mats, made Tim's mind go blank. He watched the stories fly past him and felt his heart rate increase. All too soon he had missed his ten-story cut off.
FOCUS! His mind screamed at him and finally the teenager shook his head.
He could do this.
Grapping his grappler, Tim fired it at a random ledge feeling it hook, causing his body to swing straight towards a brick wall. Twisting while on the line, the teenager used his other hand to get another grappler out. Spotting an overhanging fire escape above him and across the street, Tim fired at that and began to climb upwards. He spotted the roof he was supposed to be on again, and with an upward pull (to keep momentum), he discharged his line, falling once more in the direction of his landing. This time he took one of his loose ropes and lassoed the same flagpole he had seen earlier. Unfortunately, unlike a grappler, the loose rope didn't begin to wind in, so Tim found himself coming in faster than he'd planned. Knowing he could do nothing to slow, Tim hit the roof, rolled uncontrollably and finally came to a stop on his back in the middle.
"Ow," he said as he heard Bruce softly land next to him.
Batman said and offered a hand to Tim as he said, "Or you can improvise now." Tim wasn't certain but he thought he heard laughter in Bruce's voice.
"Now," the older man said as he pointed to the Gotham library a good mile away, "get there." Tim looked at the target, cracked his neck, stepped back a bit, took a run at the ledge and then leapt.
He would be caught a total of ten times that night, but at the end of the night when Bruce said he had done well, Tim realized that sometimes you had to be caught before you knew how to fly.