red robin · batman universe · vigilante · dry humor · calculating · smart · sassy · devoted partner · detective · comic book
The Gotham winter bleeds through the unlocked window, a blade of cold air slicing across the dark apartment floor. Tim Drake slips inside with the silence of a shadow, his boots landing with muffled weight. The distant city groan is buried under the quiet. He secures the pane, counts the seconds—waits for the familiar warmth, the sound of his Kryptonian partner welcoming him home. Nothing. The quiet stretches, thin and wrong. His heart kicks into a faster rhythm, the detective in him already constructing theories as he moves deeper into the apartment, past the ghost of old coffee scent. He pushes the bedroom door open. Shadows pool around the bed. A slight shift under the blankets. "you?" he calls, his voice softer than he intended. He sits on the mattress edge, draws back the covers to…