For stalinglim!
Title: Just Another Day at Gotham Middle School
Characters: Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain, Teen Titans
Rating: PG
Word Count: 830
Disclaimer: DC owns.
AN: For stalinglim, prompt: running. Ended up AU.
Tim was at his locker watching the girl across the hall. He’d seen her around school before. On the rare occasion she actually attended, she was always alone and didn’t seem to have any friends. She turned to her right and he followed her gaze.
“Oh, no.” he whispered. Rose was walking straight towards Cassandra; at least, he was pretty sure that was her name.
“I thought I told you this was my locker.” Rose said as she slammed it shut, “You are not allowed to touch my things, understand?”
People in the hall started to form a circle around the two girls. Tim noticed that Cass didn’t seem bothered at all. Actually, she appeared to be amused. She shrugged, turned on her heel, and started to walk away.
“Hey!” Rose shoved her, “I wasn’t done talking to you!”
Tim saw the hands turn to fists, but before Cass could turn around and hit the platinum haired girl, Tim stepped in, “Leave her alone, Rose. She didn’t do anything to you.”
Cass looked at Tim and cocked her head to the side. She could tell he was worried, but he didn’t need to be. She could take care of herself. Her father had taught her far too well.
“Mind your own business, Drake!” Rose yelled.
“She is my business!” Tim countered, wondering where that had come from, but he couldn’t take it back now.
Rose seemed momentarily hurt, but her pride and anger prevailed, “Well, then take your little girlfriend and get the hell outta here.”
Ignoring the crowd’s “Ooooooh,” Tim extended his hand to Cass. When she didn’t immediately take it, Tim fought hard to keep the embarrassment from showing on his face. His had was outstretched and he was regretting having done so. Why did he get involved? Why was he always putting his foot in his mouth trying to help people who didn’t want-wow, her hand was so warm...had her eyes always been such an interesting shade of brown? He’d never seen her smile before. She looked so…pretty.
“Go,” she said and Tim started walking away from the crowd.
He knew his ears were red and he couldn’t bring himself to look at her. He kept his eyes straight ahead. They were about to exit the building when one of the jocks ran inside, bumping into Tim. Both went crashing to the floor, but Cass managed to stay up.
“Watch it, kid,” Vic said pissed off that his pants had gotten dirty. Gar was right, he needed to stop running around and pay more attention to where he was going. He got up and started dusting off his pants. Cass was on him before he was done. She had his arm twisted behind his back and his face down against the tiles.
“Hey!” Vic cried, “What the-Agh!”
“What are you doing?” Tim asked, trying to pull her off.
Cass looked at him then looked back down at the boy who had just hit her new friend then she looked at the boy who had just walked in.
“What in the…Hey! Everyone! Vic’s getting his ass kicked by a girl!”
“Gar! Shut the-ah!”
“Cass?” Tim looked at her hoping she didn’t mind him calling her that, “It was an accident. It’s okay.”
Slowly, she let go of the boy and stood up. Her instinct was to start running and get the hell out of there before things got worse, but she’d done that far too long. She looked at Tim, then at the boy getting up, “S-sorry.”
“Was a misunderstanding, that’s all,” he said rubbing his shoulder.
“Was an ass-kicking is what it was!” Gar cried as he ran out the building and away from Vic.
Cass was kind of confused. That was the main reason she didn’t like coming to school; everything was so confusing and no one explained anything. Why was it that when Tim helped her, it was okay, but when she tried to help him, it wasn’t?
“Um, are you okay?” he asked, concern evident on his face.
She nodded quickly, her black hair swinging with the gesture.
“That wasn’t your fault. I should have watched where I was going and well, Vic’s cool. He didn’t mean it in a bad way even if he did sound angry.”
That made sense, she thought. And she liked that he seemed to understand her more than anyone else here. Or, he was trying to. Plus, she liked that funny feeling she got in the pit of her stomach when she was around him. She extended her hand and waited for him to take it. When he did, she led him out of the building.
“So, um,” he swallowed, “can I walk you home?”
She smiled and nodded, but then thought better of it, “Ice c-cream, f-first?” she asked with trepidation.
“Ice cream sounds good.” Tim smiled at her and tried not to blush too much every time someone looked at their joined hands.