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“I have something tell you,” says Tim.
Bernard nods. "I know. You're Black Bat."
Tim blinks.
They're sitting in the houseboat's kitchen, Tim on the stool, Bernard on the counter. Tim had been completely twisted up with anxiety, nearly hunched over in his seat. But now all that anxiety is smothered beneath a flood of utter bafflement. "I– what?"
"You're Black Bat," Bernard repeats. He smiles, crooked but a little smug. “Sorry to like, bust your reveal? But yeah, I figured it out.”’
“You– wait–,”
“The gender switch-up is a good call, secret identity-wise,” Bernard continues, and his voice is pretty close to the same rapid-fire, giddy tone it takes when he’s explaining his latest conspiracy theory. “But I know that you have like…stuff with gender.”
“I’m not Bl– Wait, what?”
“You know, the way you never dress a little femme as Tim? The way you always create a whole female identity if you want to go out in makeup and heels?”
Tim’s mouth opens. Shuts.
Okay, yes. He does only go out dressed feminine if he’s in a female persona. But that’s obviously to avoid dealing with tabloids being annoying about Timothy Drake-Wayne cross-dressing. And also because he loves to multi-task, and creating a new persona allows him to practice his disguise work.
Which he can tell Bernard about now, technically? "Okay, well that's. That is actually partially for practice. Because I have to do a lot of undercover work. But also, I'm not Black Bat?"
Doubt, says Bernard’s expression.
“You don’t have to hide it, Tim,” he says, voice a little gentler. “I completely understand why you did, but– wait, was that not what you were about to tell me? You have a whole different gigantic secret you called me here to talk about?”
“Yes– I mean, no– I mean– ugh!" Tim pulls at his hair. All of the potential dialogue trees he'd imagined for this conversation and absolutely none of them accounted for this. "Bernard, I'm Red Robin! I'm not Black Bat, I'm Red Robin!"
It’s Bernard’s turn to blink. "What? No you're not. There's no way you're Red Robin."
"What do you mean? How can Black Bat be a viable option but not Red Robin?!"
“Because Red Robin is just…Tim in a mask?” Bernard sounds genuinely bewildered. “Like, that would be such a terrible secret identity. You're so careful and paranoid, there’s no way you’d have a superhero persona that’s just you copied and pasted.”
Okay, now Tim’s offended. Identity work is one of his strongest skills, actually!
“Red Robin is not just Tim in a mask,” Tim defends, eye twitching. “I take considerable and meticulous pains to portion out my personality and defining characteristics in such a way that Timothy Drake-Wayne and Red Robin are completely different.” He walks differently, holds himself differently, adopts completely different voice cadences–
“Well, yeah. I guess Red Robin is completely different from Timothy Drake-Wayne,” Bernard agrees, scrunching his nose. “But he’s not different than Tim.”
Tim opens his mouth to argue–
Shuts it.
That's...hrm. Okay, maybe Bernard has a point there.
There used to be a pretty stark divide between Robin and Timothy Drake. Because Timothy Drake had a civilian father and stepmother, civilian friends and classmates, a civilian girlfriend, and was hiding his identity from Steph and Young Justice. And Robin– Robin was still something he had to actively work to be. A role he had to embody, a legacy to uphold. It took time for Robin to be who he was.
But now, Timothy Drake-Wayne has one civilian friend and one civilian boyfriend. Every other important person in Tim's life knows that he's a Bat. And...the dynamic has flipped. It's not Timothy Drake working to make a Robin persona that's different from who he is. It's Red Robin making a Timothy Drake-Wayne that's distinct from who he is. Bernard's not wrong— Tim is more himself in costume than out of it. But Bernard’s also the only non-vigilante who would notice; Ives doesn't follow news about the Gotham Bats enough to have a measure of Red Robin's personality.
"It's not a bad secret identity," Tim grumbles, less embarrassed than laid bare. Feeling extremely, unexpectedly seen. “You’re just…perceptive. And you know me. Not a lot of people know Tim, most people know Timothy Drake-Wayne.”
"Yeah, but..." Bernard seems kind of at a loss now. Expression absolutely befuddled. "Are you serious? You're actually Red Robin?"
"I am actually Red Robin," Tim confirms. Then smiles.
Because while the conversation has definitely gone in some, uh, unexpected directions, none of Tim's worst case scenarios unfolded. Bernard didn't freak out, didn’t accuse him of lying, didn't argue, didn't storm out of the houseboat– none of that happened. And it doesn’t seem like anything along those lines is going to happen, since apparently Bernard has long suspected that Tim is some kind of Gotham Bat.
Slowly, deliberately, Tim arches an eyebrow. "I know I still need to fully come clean about everything and have the actual serious conversation I intended. But can we please talk about why you thought I'd commit to presenting as a female vigilante? All the time? For years? Because that is a lot different than going out to queer clubs in a pushup bra and heels."
Bernard freezes. Then gives a nervous laugh, high-pitched. "This uh, this isn’t really– the vibe of this conversation is a lot different when we’re not on the same page about your. Um."
"Stuff with gender?" Tim offers, amused. "Which you alluded to earlier? Again, it's practice for undercover work."
"Right. Sure. Okay. Oh boy."
With another nervous laugh, Bernard directs his eyes ceiling-ward, hands clasped and thumbs literally twiddling. "Here's the thing. You know how in high school I had an aggressively heterosexual persona that, in retrospect, was clearly me trying to mask my unmistakable queerness?"
"...yes?"
"You, uh, kind of cosplay masculinity in the same way? It's like– I don't know, it's hard to explain. But the first time I saw you dress up as 'Alvin Draper' was the first time I started thinking you might have some uh, gender stuff. Because I looked at Alvin Draper and thought ‘oh, that’s drag. Like that’s basically a drag king persona’."
Bernard meets Tim's baffled eyes briefly, grimaces, then drags his hands down his face. "But clearly I wasn't– I mean I guess it might not be– I just thought– auuuuuugh this is such a different conversation when you're not actually spending 60% of your time as a female vigilante! So maybe we uh, maybe we shouldn't have it. The conversation I mean. Since I'm clearly way off base."
Bernard has been under the impression of I have “some gender stuff” for years. And it's not just because of Caroline and Jenny and Erica. Interesting. Tim rotates the thought around in his head, examining it from all angles the way he assesses a crime scene. He tallies up the evidence that might have led Bernard to this conclusion (there’s a lot). Considers whether willingness to crossdress for detective work was mutually exclusive from crossdressing for self-actualization and expression (inconclusive). Considers all of the macho-ness he put into his original Robin persona alongside Alvin Draper and Mr. Sarcastic. Considers how it had taken 19 years to even suspect he might be bisexual.
“Tim, I’m really sorry,” Bernard says, sounding miserable now. “I shouldn’t have made assumptions– I know I get way too into my theories, but this is different than superhero theories about people I don’t know. I shouldn’t have–,”
“No, no it’s fine.” Tim waves a hand airily. “Seriously. Thanks for presenting this to me. I’ll need to conduct some tests to assess your hypothesis and confirm or deny whether it’s accurate.”
Bernard blinks. Blinks again. “Uh.”
“Obviously I can’t experiment as both Red Robin and Timothy Drake-Wayne at the same time; you wouldn’t need to know me personally to make a connection between them if that happened. I think it’s best if I craft a new vigilante person. I’ll still go out as Red Robin, but I’ll also go out as a female vigilante to see how I feel about it.”
“Uh, wait, you don’t have to–,”
“Thinking about this in the hypothetical isn’t going to provide a truthful conclusion, Bear. Now, I don’t think it’s a good idea to do any gender experimentation as Timothy Drake-Wayne until I’m sure. I’m not as worried about reputation anymore since I’m no longer a controlling shareholder of WE, but I’d prefer to come out with an official statement and not that I’m ‘experimenting’. There’s nothing wrong with having the questioning identity of course, but with how cruel the Press can be, I’d rather have certainty before I do any sort of gender announcement as a Wayne.”
Bernard’s half-miserable, half-guilty expression has returned to one of bewilderment. But it’s a hopelessly fond bewilderment. “Tim, oh my god.”
“And speaking of Tim – as in me, not my public face – I think I’ll…try being femme as Tim on occasion. No female identities, just Tim. Maybe when hanging out with Steph and Cass. See if I feel differently as 'myself' as opposed to a crafted persona. Once I’ve gathered some data, I’ll be able to determine whether your hypothesis was correct.”
“Your brain works in ways that baffle me,” Bernard says, lovestruck and bemused. “I love you so much. Are you mad at me for trying to crack your egg?”
“No,” Tim replies, just as bemused, just as in love. “I am reflecting on the lack of self-awareness that led us here. And on how well you know me.”
It's a little embarassing sure, a little nerve-wracking. But it feels warm to be known. And Tim has to kiss Bernard about it, right this instant. So he does.
When they finally pull apart, Bernard says a little sheepishly, “You know it doesn’t have to be gender, right? It can just be presentation, that’s an option too. Like, I don’t feel genderqueer in any way, but I like to dress a little girly sometimes.”
Options. Right. Genderqueer, genderfluid, non-binary, bigender, agender, possibly more that Tim doesn’t know about. Could be any of those. Could be none of those.
...maybe not none of those. Probably one of those. A very strong possibility of one of those being correct. Further testing is still needed to confirm, but...it seems pretty likely that this is going to be one theory that Bernard actually got right.
Actually, on that topic...
"Wait. If you thought I was Black Bat, who did you think was Red Robin?”