“Hey um. You’re Tim, right? Tim Drake?”
Tim quietly sighed into his coffee. Was nothing sacred? He hoped to goodness this wasn’t another techie fanboy. He wasn’t nearly caffeinated enough for that. “Depends. Who’s asking?”
He looked up and saw the guy from last night awkwardly holding out his wallet. Shit. Shit! Fuck, Tim was such an idiot! An overtired moron! Was this guy going to try to blackmail him now? Reveal his identity in the middle of this café?
“I’m, uh. Danny.” The guy said nervously. “And this is gonna sound weird but Red Robin asked me to give this back to you.
At Tim’s blank stare Danny rushed to explain. “He like, found it?? I’m assuming. He didn’t really have time to explain, heroism never sleeps after all.” He joked weakly.
He didn’t know the half of it, Tim thought forlornly.
“A-anyway. He had to go do hero stuff- you know, being a good guy and all. But I’m absolutely sure he’d wanted this to get back to you. Because he didn’t steal it.”
As Tim was still buffering, the guy began to frown. He huffed defensively. “Vigilantes are doing their best okay? It’s a thankless job putting yourself in harms way to protect others. Just because they’re spooky doesn’t mean you should assume the worst in them! Just because he had your wallet doesn’t mean he stole it! And even if he did, it was probably mind control, because-”
Tim blinked, incredulous understanding finally washing over him. “Wait, is that what this is? You’re defending Red Robin to me? Why on earth would I think he stole my wallet?”
At some point Danny had sat down at Tim’s table, the wallet set on top of the napkin dispenser. He seemed to deflate like the wind was taken out of his sails. His mouth opened and closed a few times. “Because… because he had it?”
“You’re not from around here, are you?” Tim concluded.
Danny buried his face in his hands and groaned. “Gosh, I’m so sorry. This is so embarrassing. I thought… It’s just that back in Amity Part everyone thought Phantom was a menace even though he was just doing his best. They never let go of the thefts he committed under mind control, his actions were misinterpreted ALL THE TIME, and most of the property damage they blamed on him were from the people hunting him.”
“Your hometown hero has people hunting him?” Tim asked, alarmed. “Does he like, need help?”
Danny unburied his face to wave his hands about. “Oh. Uh- no, he’s good! Like, he left. Retired. Or something.”
Tim and Danny sat together for a moment of awkward silence.
Clearing his throat, Danny slapped his thighs and stood up. “Welp. Anyway. Glad you got your stuff back, but I should go…”
“Wait.” Tim stood as well, at last picking up the wallet. He flicked it open and pulled out some bills. Before Danny could accuse him of counting to make sure neither Danny nor Red Robin stole any- Tim shoved the cash into Danny’s hands. “A reward for your integrity in bringing this back to me. Red Robin had good judgment in giving it to you.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly-!”
“I’m not taking now for an answer Danny.” Tim interrupted. “You deserve it. For returning the wallet and whatever it is you did to get Red Robin to trust you with it.”
Danny bit his lip, looking back and forth between the money and Tim. It was insanely cute. “I- I feel like I should be refusing harder.”
“Don’t. This is Gotham. Whatever manners you were brought up with doesn’t apply here.”
“Okay.” Danny pocketed the cash and straightened his shoulders. “Then let me be rude. I think you’re really hot and I’d like to take you on a date. I recently got some money to burn after all.” Danny was blushing so hard he looked like he might faint but his eyes were steady as he held Tim’s gaze.
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