Deep down Stephanie Brown knew that she had no real reason to go outside. In a city of superheroes where over half wore red, there was no real reason to worry about a red shadowy figure upon a rooftop.
So why did she throw on a sweatshirt and go outside?
More importantly, why did she throw on just a sweatshirt and go outside?
If she was being truthful it was the hope that Tim was watching her after her long day of talking about him.
But if she was being Stephanie she would say that it was likely some freak trying to case the joint.
It didn't matter anymore, her beaten tennis shoes were up against the sidewalk and she was already shivering outside in her sweatshirt.
She had already managed to round the corner where the cops were relatively undetected and walked through in the cover of shadows.
But just as she had managed to catch the glimpse of red she had already crossed the street.
She silently swore, it seemed that she was not going to catch the creep without some hard effort.
She made a hard cut into an alley, feeling the eyes sawing into the back of her head as she did so.
A fire escape was folded up above the trash, as per the typical Gotham route. She jumped with all she had to reach it, just missing the bar.
A climb onto trash for Stephanie Brown it was.
Thanking god for the people who owned this building thinking to have metal trash bins in the goddam 2010s, she climbed atop it and hopped once more, praying that she wouldn't miss this time and fall in the trash.
Her hand caught the end of the escape.
In the old days, there would be an acrobatic trick or multitude of flips onto the ladder. But the Stephanie Brown that existed now was out of shape to a point where that idea was almost laughable.
She instead attempted a pull-up and managed to get up the bar far enough to reach the next bar.
She felt the eyes on her head once more.
The air heard a chuckle.
"Don't you dare make a Batgirl/Fatgirl joke." She mumbled under her breath as she managed to grab another bar and get her knee onto the ladder.
She looked over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of someone kneeling on the rooftop watching her.
Male.
She took the ladder very quickly at this realization, making it to the first balcony of the escape. She ran to the side to catch another glimpse of them.
Gone.
Another chuckle from someone who had very obviously ducked behind a portion of the rooftop.
She ran to the next ladder and scaled it easily.
There was one more to go.
A pain very subtly hit her stomach, cramps.
She groaned and forced herself to dash to the ladder, taking great pains to make it to the top of the escape.
Now the tough part, making it to the rooftop from the platform.
She thought for a moment before returning to the ladder, beginning to climb again from her location.
Curious eyes were felt once more.
She struggled to make it to the top wrung and balance herself atop it, thanking god for the beat up tennis shoes having little to no sole left and therefore being very bendy.
She grabbed the edge of the roof and braced herself to hop atop the two rails.
A sharp pain was felt as she made it atop them.
The ladder shook.
She held her breath.
Using all of her strength she very quickly hoisted herself up and immediately rolled on the rooftop in pain.
The stranger was definitely laughing at her.
He stood silhouetted on the rooftop across from her, not fully visible in the moonlight.
She could make out a cape, which was a very helpful feature as almost everyone wore a cape.
With a deep sigh she finally a managed to get to her knees.
The stranger was evidently very confused but amused that she was there, as his head cocked to the side.
She pointed threateningly at him, beginning to stand.
She started to take steps back, the stranger took a second to process this.
When she began to sprint towards him he finally understood her intentions, turning to sprint away from her as she took the leap of faith and landed on the rooftop.
With the new rooftop came a new challenge, as he appeared to vanish entirely upon her landing. She turned to look at him.
The horizon was clear.
Was she crazy?
She began to shake her head as a breeze came in, a piece of material waved in the wind from one of the rooftops.
She had found him.
She reared up and sprinted again, jumping and barely hitting the next rooftop, the stranger skidding just outside of sight as she landed, hoping across another gap.
She groaned in irritation, another cramp hitting her abdomen.
They continued this cycle of her chasing after him and him narrowly avoiding her capture only to watch her again.
"Tim Drake, I know it is you!" She screamed out into the opening air, knowing he could hear her somewhere, anywhere.
A hand popped out of the corner of her vision and made a hand signal of which was typically used to denote 'so and so'.
She made another run to the area, collapsing upon the roof. Her hood flopped over her face, someone next to her attempted to stifle laughter. A black gloved hand was held out to her and she almost reached it when-
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring, brrrrrrrring.
"Seriously, how unprofessional do you have to be to bring your cell phone?" Stephanie replied to the noise, her hand just barely brushing his before her mysterious stranger seemed to vanish.
Except for the noise of the phone ringing somewhere far in the background.
Stephanie struggled to her feet on the rooftop, looking for her mystery man.
She had given up when she heard a familiar voice on the ground away from her.
"Yeah Tam, I'll be heading home soon…"
Stephanie Brown had somehow managed to get to her rented apartment at the end of the night, falling asleep dead tired at three in the morning.
She was awoken at seven by the return of knocking to her door.
She mumble screamed a response of 'please come back some time later' that came out more like.
"Not people hours."
She had a distinct feeling that the familiar chuckle was made in the distance.
Stephanie Brown finally crawled out of her bed and blearily answer the door.
Tim Drake stood there all too cheery with a box of donuts.
"I figured I should bring you something to eat, you might be too tired to cook."
With a rather sarcastic tone, Stephanie brown asked, "And how did you figure that?"
"I just had a feeling."
If there was one thing Stephanie Brown hated about Tim Drake it was the way he looked at her.
Obviously full of pity, Tim drake managed to take in all of the parts of her that she did not want to be taken in even the simplest of moments.
Such as, for example, the two of them eating donuts together and her being acutely aware that not only had he taken in her swollen eyes or messed up hair, but also the many sweat stains on her clothes and the purple bruises on every portion of her body.
He didn't say this, but she knew that he noticed.
"How's Tam?" She asked very pointedly after her second donut.
"Gone on business again, she left at six am for New York." He replied unevenly, "We had a little time together before she left."
"Before or after you tormented me?" Stephanie replied, biting into yet another donut.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." How cute, faking innocent. "You are terribly out of shape by the way."
"Thank you." The taste of sweet cream filled her mouth, he must have gotten an assortment.
"Not that you're out of shape shape," Tim was on the defense, "Just out of… our shape."
"Watch what you say, Boy Blunder, Tam's the same size as me." She was not. Tam was three sizes smaller than her.
"You're in good normal person shape." He admitted.
"Just not in running-on-the-rooftops-chasing-some-lunatic-in-red shape?"
"Whoa, I wouldn't call the guy a lunatic," He placed down the chocolate donut he had grabbed before, switching it for a vanilla one out of apology to the blonde. "Just worried about your safety in the most crime-ridden place in the world."
"Thank you for sacrificing the donut you have touched," She rolled her eyes, "But I have to reject it. You see that's contaminated with Tim Drake, and I am very allergic to Tim Drakes." Returning to the subject at hand she countered his statement. "You and everyone else, but you're the only one camped outside of my house. It's almost like I can take care of myself."
He ignored her later statement. "Allergic to Tim Drake? You weren't when you were younger."
"That's the thing about allergies, they take time to develop."
"So that's where we stand right now? You're allergic to me?" He joked.
"Yes, in fact, I am."
"Amazing, a true medical anomaly."
She scowled, reaching for the sacrificial chocolate donut. "How does Tam put up with you?"
"She doesn't." He replied, reaching over to the donut in her hands and retroactively taking back the sacrifice by ripping half of it off.
"Oh wow, even your own fiancée can't stand to spend time with you." She replied.
Tim shrugged, just about to take a bite out of his donut when Stephanie ripped a piece off it.
"Hey!" He exclaimed.
"So what made you decide you had to get married?" She asked him, popping the piece in her mouth.
He snatched her half of the donut out of her hand to her irritation. "It just seemed about time."
"About time?"
There was one donut left in the box now, Stephanie eyed it heavily.
"I mean, I'm not getting any younger, Stephanie, and I'm not going to live forever," Tim replied, pushing the donut box to her.
"So you're getting married? You're like twenty-four." She easily accepted the donut and scooped it up.
He took in her happy smile as she took a bite out of the donut. "I'm in a dangerous line of work."
"True," she admitted, biting her donut. "But that's never put you on the train to commitment before."
"I know of too many almost deaths to wait, I want to start getting to the point of my life when I can enjoy things."
"With someone so like you? That's great, do the two of you enjoy filing taxes together?" She bit a bit too hard into the donut, jam spilled out the front. She unabashedly caught it in her hand and licked her hand.
"We watch a lot of big cat documentaries." He admitted.
She choked on the donut, coughing for a second before spilling into laughter.
"So what's the plan, boss?" She asked jokingly as she slid onto the couch next to him, hair still soaked from the just finished shower.
"Today? I guess more interviewing, and likely a trip to my home." Tim responded easily.
"Can't," Stephanie countered quickly, "I gotta stay put, I'm waiting for a visit from Cass."
"She can figure out where you are." He argued.
He seemed a bit too insistent.
Author's note:
Big thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story despite the really long pause between updates and revision of the first few chapters.