used to tiptoe, now i'm running.

So, here's the thing; Tim has absolutely no patience. He doesn't even pretend like he does. Anyone who asks, he'll gladly admit that he's in possession of a fuse shorter than the original Robin shorts. It's just that no one ever believes him.

That's because Tim has mastered the art of waiting. Having patience and being patient are two totally separate things; one can be learned and one is an inherent trait. Tim was born with many virtues and patience was not one of them. Instead, he's honed his ability to be patient like a well crafted blade.

The problem is.

Dick .

Abilities have a threshold and Tim's willpower ( which accounts for approximately all of his faux patience ) can only take him so far.

Over the years, he's been many things to Dick Grayson; curiosity, student, friend, brother, partner, disappointment - And excepting that last one, he's worn each of those titles with pride. Being Dick's anything isn't some consolation prize.

That said, Tim is. Tim has. Well.

It's not like he's the first person to fall in love with Dick Grayson.

Here's another thing about Tim; he can take rejection. If this was a matter of Dick, and him, and a firmly placed no , there wouldn't be a problem. Tim would be happy to gracefully bow out and pack his feelings away into a neat little box, never to be examined again.

( Except under duress with a bottle of liquor and his friends nearby. )

The problem is . Dick. Dick, who is incredibly smart, no matter what anyone says, but who has this terrible habit of being sort of clueless about people. And him. Specifically how people feel about him.

There's this general understanding that Dick is likeable, that he is loveable, that there's very few people who dis like him- So he just sort of. Stops. There. He takes people liking him, loving him in the basest sense, and he's perfectly content like that.

Which is to say, he's completely missed the fact that Tim Drake has grown up, moved out ( mostly ) and made very little effort to hide the fact he'd very much like to date him, please and thank you.

( And, yes, okay, Tim knows there's good reason for Dick to be skittish about feelings. He gets it. He's not judging him. He's just- frustrated . )

So.

So, because he's Tim Drake, the third Robin, Red Robin , he approaches the issue like it's a mystery. He doesn't let it consume his every waking thought ( he grew out of single-mindedly focusing on Dick when he was a child, thanks, ) but puzzles over it in his quieter moments. What to do about Dick.

The conclusion he comes to is what Damian would rightly call pedestrian .

He's just going to have to be straightforward about it.

Ugh .

Tim does nothing with this decision for a very long time. It sits there in his head, nestled between contingency plans and shopping lists, and waits with him. There's no date or time attached to it, no specific set of circumstances in which he'll put it into action. It comes down to waiting .

More specifically, it comes down to waiting for his patience to snap like a femur bone under extreme pressure.

Miraculously, it's not that long.

The time and place is all wrong. Tim's fairly certain he has a concussion. His mouth tastes like something died in it. There is, presumably, a lot of bone dust where his ribs used to be. Also, he's standing in the blown out remains of a toy store with an equally bloody Nightwing.

Who, apparently, is totally unperturbed by the state of his suit. Which is ripped. Almost artfully, really. In some very, very, very interesting places. Places where ' nice work, little brother' really shouldn't be looking.

"Fuck's sake," he sighs, with all the put-upon dismay of a black-and-white actress. Then he hauls Dick down by the back of his neck and kisses him.

It is, as kisses go, very nice for the circumstances they find themselves in.

Dick has the very gratifying reaction of grabbing at his hips, jerking back in shock, staring for roughly ten seconds, then diving back in with gusto.

( Tim would have been happy to tumble down onto the gritty tiles and makeout with him then and there, but unfortunately, concussion . )