#robin 125

And remember how Steph thought he was cheating on her, so in order to get back at him she sewed her own costume and signed up to become Robin, and Bruce–belligerent about Tim quitting and eager to coax him back–hired her on the spot?

I wrote a story about it and it's here. :D

Returning home early from work on Tuesday, his father caught him mid-workout and erupted into a paranoid frenzy, convinced that Tim was keeping himself in shape for an inevitable return to Robin.

“Dad, listen to me!” Tim tried to argue. “There’s a new Robin now. She’s–There’s no going back. Dead man’s shoes. Buffy the Vampire Slayer… There can be only one.”

Too furious to reason with, Jack ordered Dana remove all the workout equipment to her studio. “And you’ll be going to football. I’ll pay Hawkins if I have to. That’s the exercise you need,” he said. “Might straighten out that head of yours, too. Teach you some discipline.”

Summary:

Tim Drake walked away from Robin to protect Batman and save his relationship with his father. Now, he's determined to live life as a normal boy, even if it kills him. Follows Robin #125 when Tim quits Robin after his father discovers his secret.

This one hurt.

On his bedroom ceiling, Tim still had constellations of glow-in-the-dark stars he’d pressed on there with his mother when he was six. She’d loved space: “I would have been an astronaut but I’m awfully afraid of heights.” There was the plough and there Orion and his belt, though at some point Betelgeuse had fallen off, leaving the hunter shoulderless.

He didn’t hate his dad. He didn’t. 

He closed his eyes against the plastic stars and remembered that day in the cave. Bruce. Alfred. 

Don’t look at me like that, Bruce. I’m not quitting.

Then his dad was there, appearing on the raised walkway like a caesar. His dad in the cave! It gave Tim the same incongruous feeling of seeing an escapee dog run through the school. It was obscene enough to be laughable if it wasn’t so damning.

After some minutes, he heard the zip and crunch of grapple guns firing and biting into the bones of Gotham’s architecture. Peeling himself up to sitting, Tim watched Batman surge across the sky, the new Robin in close pursuit. She was yelling: a joyful, careless sound.

He folded his arms on his knees and buried his chin in the gap between them. Would she make a good Robin? It felt mean-spirited, but he didn’t think so. He knew too, though, that it was none of his business. None of it was anymore. He was living a normal life. He was just another civilian now.

He’d broken himself a thousand times over to do that job; turned his bleak katabasis into a whole world of possibility and connection. It wasn’t anything he’d say aloud, and the thought itself he held gentle as a moth wing, but it felt at least like he was loved by them, maybe. Like he belonged. And right before it all went to shit, he’d finally accepted himself as Robin. Whole. Complete. And to save Bruce and pacify his father he'd walked away and didn’t look behind him.

The world kept turning.

I really love that Bruce and Alfred thought to call Dick home for this.  Dick is such an key part of Tim's life, it's important that he be here for this.  Plus, we get a really nice Dick/Alfred/Bruce moment.  I love how easily and casually Alfred points out there's nothing they can do to change Jack's mind.  His humor is really perfect at a moment like this.

Meanwhile, Tim and Jack are talking.  We don't know what Tim says, but he convinces Jack not to go public with the Bat's identities.  However, he also points out he can't go against his dad's express wishes.  As a result, he quits as Robin.