The Good Student, DCU ficlet, PG (Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake)
Title: The good student.
Claim: Barbara Gordon
Characters/Pairing: Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake
Rating: PG
Word Count: 533
Prompt: #37. Duty for dcu_freeforall
Summary: Tim needs to learn a couple of things and it's Barbara's duty to teach him.
Author's Notes/Warnings: Thanks favouriteyear for her beta work. This takes place after the events of Red Robin #15. So...um, spoilers! Oh, hey! I just finished my prompts! *is proud*
“You’re doing it all wrong.”
Those are Oracle’s first words to him after his ‘shooting’.
“You can fool them, but you’re not fooling us.”
Tim doesn’t ask what she means by ‘us’. He only calls Alfred, to have him drive Tim to Barbara’s place.
***********
“You are okay with this?”
Those are Tim’s first words to Barbara after his ‘shooting’.
Barbara, not Oracle, is playing some game in PS3 and doesn’t give him a second look. Tim takes this as a good sign.
“Tell me what I’m doing wrong.”
Oracle pauses the game.
********
“You are putting way too much weight on your legs.”
Steph is standing in the corner staring at him. She’s quiet and so much more different than the Steph he knew. Knows. Knew. She’s different; she’s quiet and she’s listening. Maybe for the first time in her life, she’s listening.
“Putting too much weight on my lower body, check. What else?”
He’s not going to admit it, but she’s making him feel a little nervous. Probably because he doesn’t know if he’s speaking to Oracle or to Barbara; or maybe he’s speaking to the former Batgirl.
But she’s a Bat and she’s good with hiding her real self.
“You don’t sweat.”
***********
That surprises him.
“I don’t sweat?”
This whole situation is so weird. Steph is still sitting quietly, but Tim can hear her thoughts out loud. Oracle is teaching them both something. She’s teaching him how to act like a (and he doesn’t like the word) ‘cripple’ and at the same time she’s teaching Steph how to pick up details.
He nods.
************
“Drag your feet.”
“You’re moving too fast.”
“You were shot, Tim. Your muscles are not going to work as well as before.”
“Put more weight on the crutches.”
“Don’t stretch your arms.”
At the end of the hour Tim is covered with sweat and his arms hurt like hell.
“It’s not going to work.”
And Tim had had enough.
“Why the hell not? I’m doing everything you say!”
“You’re not afraid to fall.”
And for the first time Tim has no problem understanding who’s talking to him.
*************
Later, he’s wearing his Red Robin costume (and he feels like less of a failure) jumping from rooftop to rooftop until he finds some action.
Without thinking about it much, Tim jumps from the 3 storey building and gracefully lands on the ground. The boy, (they get smaller and smaller every year) sees him and just runs away.
Tim doesn’t follow him. The boy is not going to try anything for a while and if he’s smart enough (Tim thinks he is, if he can judge from the way the boy ran when he saw him) he won’t try anything else ever again.
It’s only when he’s climbing up that realizes what Barbara meant earlier.
****************
The next day he goes back to the mansion.
He drags his feet, he doesn’t put weight in the lower part of his body, he has sweat stains under his armpits and he’s out of breath.
Barbara looks at him for exactly one second before turning her attention back to the screen.
“At least you have the right attitude.”
Tim smiles.
Claim: Barbara Gordon
Characters/Pairing: Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake
Rating: PG
Word Count: 533
Prompt: #37. Duty for dcu_freeforall
Summary: Tim needs to learn a couple of things and it's Barbara's duty to teach him.
Author's Notes/Warnings: Thanks favouriteyear for her beta work. This takes place after the events of Red Robin #15. So...um, spoilers! Oh, hey! I just finished my prompts! *is proud*
“You’re doing it all wrong.”
Those are Oracle’s first words to him after his ‘shooting’.
“You can fool them, but you’re not fooling us.”
Tim doesn’t ask what she means by ‘us’. He only calls Alfred, to have him drive Tim to Barbara’s place.
***********
“You are okay with this?”
Those are Tim’s first words to Barbara after his ‘shooting’.
Barbara, not Oracle, is playing some game in PS3 and doesn’t give him a second look. Tim takes this as a good sign.
“Tell me what I’m doing wrong.”
Oracle pauses the game.
********
“You are putting way too much weight on your legs.”
Steph is standing in the corner staring at him. She’s quiet and so much more different than the Steph he knew. Knows. Knew. She’s different; she’s quiet and she’s listening. Maybe for the first time in her life, she’s listening.
“Putting too much weight on my lower body, check. What else?”
He’s not going to admit it, but she’s making him feel a little nervous. Probably because he doesn’t know if he’s speaking to Oracle or to Barbara; or maybe he’s speaking to the former Batgirl.
But she’s a Bat and she’s good with hiding her real self.
“You don’t sweat.”
***********
That surprises him.
“I don’t sweat?”
This whole situation is so weird. Steph is still sitting quietly, but Tim can hear her thoughts out loud. Oracle is teaching them both something. She’s teaching him how to act like a (and he doesn’t like the word) ‘cripple’ and at the same time she’s teaching Steph how to pick up details.
He nods.
************
“Drag your feet.”
“You’re moving too fast.”
“You were shot, Tim. Your muscles are not going to work as well as before.”
“Put more weight on the crutches.”
“Don’t stretch your arms.”
At the end of the hour Tim is covered with sweat and his arms hurt like hell.
“It’s not going to work.”
And Tim had had enough.
“Why the hell not? I’m doing everything you say!”
“You’re not afraid to fall.”
And for the first time Tim has no problem understanding who’s talking to him.
*************
Later, he’s wearing his Red Robin costume (and he feels like less of a failure) jumping from rooftop to rooftop until he finds some action.
Without thinking about it much, Tim jumps from the 3 storey building and gracefully lands on the ground. The boy, (they get smaller and smaller every year) sees him and just runs away.
Tim doesn’t follow him. The boy is not going to try anything for a while and if he’s smart enough (Tim thinks he is, if he can judge from the way the boy ran when he saw him) he won’t try anything else ever again.
It’s only when he’s climbing up that realizes what Barbara meant earlier.
****************
The next day he goes back to the mansion.
He drags his feet, he doesn’t put weight in the lower part of his body, he has sweat stains under his armpits and he’s out of breath.
Barbara looks at him for exactly one second before turning her attention back to the screen.
“At least you have the right attitude.”
Tim smiles.