Chapter Text
Timothy Jackson Drake was the biggest Batman fan to ever exist.
This was an absolute fact. His room was covered in every piece of Bat-themed paraphernalia to ever grace the Amazon online storefront. Posters, t-shirts, stuffed animals, bed sheets, you name it and Tim had it. When he was seven he’d even had an entire fish bowl shaped like the superhero’s cowl. Unfortunately, Betaman ran away after a few months. Mrs. Mac, the housekeeper, told him the fish had gone to stay with his family in the ocean. Tim still gets sad whenever he thinks about it. He didn’t even say goodbye!
Point being, Tim was a Batman disciple . Key word being ‘was’.
An hour ago, the ten-year-old dropped off several trash bags filled with the man’s merchandise to local homeless shelters and community centers. Currently, he was ordering a new Halloween costume to replace his Batman one, using his parents emergency credit card. Because this was an emergency. With every digit that he typed into the computer, he could feel his rage grow.
Batman broke his camera. His. Camera.
You see, Tim long ago reached the conclusion that in order to cement his status as the ultimate Bat-fan, he needed a scrapbook. Obviously. But his plans had hit a snag when he realized that despite having an official action figure, photos of Batman were almost non-existent.
One thing had very quickly led to another, and Tim became the world’s youngest superhero-paparazzo.
So now, every night after Mrs. Mac leaves, he sneaks out and follows both Batman and Robin on patrol. It wasn’t hard, figuring out which routes they took and what positions got the best shots. It probably helped that he knew their secret identities. But really, if Bruce Wayne wanted to keep that secret, he should’ve told Dick Grayson to stop doing gymnastic moves that can literally only be done by four people in the entire world.
The current Robin was Jason Todd. Tim’s favorite vigilante would always be Batman, but Robin was a close second. He had been absolutely devastated when Dick moved away from the mantle and became Nightwing, and seeing someone new using the title had certainly been a shock. Tim was slightly ashamed to admit that he held a grudge against Jason the first few times the boy went out as Robin.
But he soon grew to see that Jason was awesome . Sure, he didn’t have as much fighting experience as Dick, but he was still skilled. Even better, when Jason fought, he fought dirty. And seeing Penguin getting kneed in the nuts had been the highlight of Tim’s year.
And Jason wasn’t just a good fighter. He always carries granola bars and water to give to Gotham’s homeless population. He’s always holding tutoring sessions for the kids in Crime Alley, and often goes off on a tangent about some classic novel (Tim would love to go, but he’s supposed to be smart and only idiots get Bs in English. Jason can’t know that Tim’s an idiot. He’ll just watch from far away instead).
Once, Jason even walked Tim to his bus stop after finding him in an alley. Tim lied and told him he was a tourist from Metropolis and that he had gotten off at the wrong stop. He told Jason his parents were still on the bus. He was very sympathetic.
Jason was very quickly approaching the status of “Tim’s favorite Robin”. Which was part of the reason he was in this position in the first place. Jason had been benched for an injury the past two weeks, and he’d finally reappeared on the Gotham streets.
Tim had been so excited, he’d gotten a little bit too close to the action. It was a narrow walkway in the financial district, and most of the pedestrians had cleared out when Batman and Robin started fighting a street gang.
Tim had been lining up an absolutely perfect action shot of Robin, and he hadn’t noticed the goon charging at him. He probably wanted to use him as a human shield or something. Batman had swept in at the last moment and yanked him out of the way. The pair had tumbled onto a nearby fire escape.
Batman checked to make sure he was ok, Tim lied and told him he lived in the apartment building they were currently standing on, and Batman told him that the area was dangerous and that he should leave. He heard gunshots and jumped back into the fight.
At the time, Tim had been too terrified of being arrested on stalking charges to argue with his hero. It was only when he was sitting on the bus, on his way back to Bristol, that he realized that his camera had been smashed.
He quite honestly went through the five stages of grief.
- Denial. Batman was the one who rescued him. The man would never break anything, he’s just too skilled. Therefore, his camera cannot be broken.
- Anger. It was that goon! If he hadn’t been charging at Tim, not only would he have the actual best picture ever but he’d also have a fully functional camera! Tim remembers his face, Tim’s great with faces. He could probably track him down, lightly blackmail him. Nothings illegal if you don’t get caught!
- Bargaining. Maybe it’s not totally broken? He could probably still salvage it with some duct tape. As long as the lens wasn’t cracked, everything would be great! Spoiler alert, it was.
- Depression. His camera was broken. It was a birthday gift from his parents, and while it might’ve come two months late, it was proof that they cared enough to get him something. It was even something he’d asked for this time! And now he’d destroyed it. While he’d originally begun taking photos as a way to stalk his favorite vigilantes, it had grown into one of his favorite past times. He liked to mess around with all the settings, and experiment with various lenses. He liked to edit, and watch a raw photo turned into a final product. He liked to pretend that he was a part of all the joy and magic that he captured with the click of a button.
- Acceptance… was supposedly the last stage of grief. But Tim had recently seen Cruella, and he’d learned a lot. Not just about fashion. So now, as he finishes ordering his Green Lantern Halloween costume and matching candy bucket, he finds her words ringing in his mind.
Revenge.
Should Tim have been out alone in Gotham in the middle of the night? According to New Jersey state law, no. But does that mean Batman should’ve broken his camera? No.
Tim’s seen the man diffuse a bomb with a hair tie. He’s Batman . He can do anything, which means he must have meant to break Tim’s camera.
Technically speaking, Tim can afford a new camera if he plays around with the weekly allowance his parents give him for food (the emergency card had a limit of 100$, but that wasn’t enough for a new camera and he’d already used most of it on Green Lantern merch).
Technically speaking, Tim can just ask them for a new camera, and while they’d probably yell at him for being immature and irresponsible, they’d get him a new one.
Technically speaking, Tim was a petty bitch.
Batman broke his camera, so Batman would pay for it.