Hi! Itâs my birthday on Saturday and I was wondering if you can do one where everyone realizes they forgot Timâs birthday but rogues remembered.
hello anon!! ANDâhappy birthday !!! I hope today is full of love, sweets, and the exact level of chaos you prefer !!
I made sure to get this ask done in time to post today so hopefully you like it !! <3
Tim doesnât expect much from birthdays anymore.
Or maybe thatâs the lie he tells himself to keep the ache manageable.
He doesnât need cake. Doesnât need giftsâjust⌠a text, maybe. Someone remembering. A vague, âHey, isnât todayâŚ?â wouldâve been enough.
But the morning passes in silence.
Then the afternoon.
Night falls, and stillânothing.
He's in Red Robin gear by the time it finally hits him. Itâs been a full 24 hours, and no one in the family has said a word. Not Bruce, not Dick, not even Alfred. Damian certainly hasnâtâthough thatâs a little less surprising. Jason? Quiet. Cass? Sheâd probably just forgotten in the shuffle of patrol schedules and training runs.
Itâs not malicious. Itâs never malicious.
That somehow makes it worse.
He keeps busy. Patrols. Reports. Maintenance.
Anything to fill the space.
But loneliness is patient. It settles in the spaces between heartbeatâin the static of his comms, in the stretch of rooftops with no voices on the other end.
Thereâs a cup of hot coffee waiting for him at one of his usual stakeout spots, lid marked in bright red sharpie:
âHope today doesnât suck. â H.Q.â
He looks around. Sheâs long gone, obviously.
At first, he thinks itâs a coincidence. Just Harley being⌠Harley. But the night keeps going.
In an alley between two abandoned tenements, tucked behind a rusted dumpster and wrapped in a soft green ribbon, he finds a cloth bundle.
Itâs a cloakâdark, heavy, almost leathery to the touch. Lined with deep green ivy that seems to pulse ever so faintly, breathing with the night. The vines curl and uncurl gently, like itâs alive but sleeping.
Inside, thereâs a note written in neat, looping script on recycled paper:
âDonât act like you donât need comfort.
Let it wrap around you when no one else will.
â P.I.â
He doesnât know how she got it to him. Doesnât ask.
Just presses the cloak to his chest for a second before tucking it away.
On the roof above the GCPD, he finds a small box. Inside: a limited-edition puzzle he mentioned onceâonceâin passing, during a sting operation where he and the Riddler were forced to work together. Thereâs a tag.
âHappy Birthday, Boy Genius. Donât insult me by pretending youâre surprised I remembered. â E.N.â
Itâs starting to feel like a bit.
Tim stashes the puzzle. Patrols another hour.
She doesnât say anything at first. Just walks beside him on the rooftops, silent and unbothered, like itâs a shared habit. After a while, she passes him a wrapped package and says, âI remembered the hoodie you lost. The one with the thumb holes. Happy birthday, kid.â
Looks at the package in his hands.
For a long time, he doesnât move.
Itâs not the gift that gets him. Itâs not even what it isâitâs that it is. That someone noticed. Remembered. Cared enough to do something.
Tim sinks down onto the edge of the clocktower, the package resting in his lap. Below him, Gotham hums with lifeâsirens in the distance, headlights flashing, a city that never pauses for anything, least of all birthdays.
The lights blur a little.
They look like candles, maybe. Ones no one lit.
He thought heâd stopped hoping for this. Thought heâd built enough layers around it, packed it away under the rest of the things heâs used to not getting. But hopeâs a quiet thing. It waits. It lingers in the background, stubborn and unreasonable.
And maybe he did hope someone would remember.
But maybe itâs fitting, in some backwards way, that it was them. Harley, Ivy, Nygma, Selina. Gothamâs worst, depending on who you ask. But tonight⌠they remembered something the rest of his world forgot.
And somehow, that makes it worse.
Tim presses the heel of his hand to one eye and laughs once, soft and tired.
Itâs not everything. Itâs not what he wanted.
And maybe thatâs enough.