quiet_tiger | Ficlet: At a Glance (or not)

Title: At a Glance (or not)
Author: Quiet Tiger
Universe: DCU, Young Justice
Genre: Gen
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake, Superboy
Word Count: 412
Warnings: none
Summary: Tim has one more assignment before Batman will fully trust him.

Note: For

batfic_contest theme "Key."

~*~

“Dude, what the heck is this?”

Tim looked up from the computer to see that Superboy had been rummaging through his backpack. He knew he shouldn’t even have the backpack with him, but he hadn’t had time to go home before hitching a ride to Young Justice. “It’s an invasion of privacy.”

“Not that, this.” Superboy handed him what was very clearly a map of Gotham City.

“A map.” Superboy made a face, and Tim sighed. “It’s a color-coded map of Gotham that Batman and Nightwing made for me.”

“It looks like some sort of abstract painting or something.”

“Not when you know what everything is. Green circles indicate a safe zone. Red squares are dangerous areas. Blue triangles for drug zones, white stars for weapons. Green shading is the Joker’s previous hideouts, checkerboard pattern is Two Face, brown for Scarecrow, black for Penguin, orange for regular gang stuff…” Tim lost himself as he listed for Superboy every single shape, symbol, color, figure, and line on the map.

“That’s… intense. There’s nothing that even tells you what anything means. How’d you learn all that?”

“I have the key in my head. I have to memorize that whole thing so I know where I can go and where I shouldn’t, and where I may find someone or something if I need it. It was Nightwing’s idea to color it. Batman says I have to have it memorized entirely and then destroy it. It’s not safe to have it lying around, and I’m not allowed to stay out for long by myself if I don’t know it all by heart.”

“I don’t know if that’s awesome or made of suck.”

Shrugging, Tim answered, “It’s important. If I wander unaware into enemy territory, I’m of no use. Now give me that back before someone else sees it. I shouldn’t have even told you about it.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Might prove useful to have someone else know the ins and outs of Gotham, especially someone who could fly. “Just don’t let Batman figure out you know.’’

“Got it. Don’t want him to dislike me any more, or have him Bat-ground you or something.”

“Ha-ha.”

Further conversation was cut off by the whirlwind arrival of Impulse, who started chattering about what was going on in Dallas. Grateful for the interruption, Tim snagged back his map and shoved it back in his backpack. He knew the map by heart, but one more look later that night couldn’t hurt.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oooh, interesting idea! Of course the bats would be totally detail oriented and OCD about Gotham territories and such. But I like how Tim takes the time to explain this to Kon, even though he knows he shouldn't. It really demonstrates the level of trust and friendship between them. And further expands upon Tim's desire to do good for Bruce by continually studying to improve.

Great job! This was a really interesting, insightful story!

Thank you! Bruce is nothing if not careful and OCD, and he needs to know, especially after Jason, that Tim will know where is safe and where there might be trouble.

Kon and Tim are BFF for sure, and I love their relationship. For all Kon is half Superman and half megalomaniac, he grounds Tim. They have a really important relationship.

Glad you liked it! Thanks so much for reading and commenting!

Very cool, his excitment over the map seems *very* Tim.

I love wee!Tim; like the other members of Young Justice he's so enthusiastic but he's the only one without powers. He's just a bit crazy, you know?

I'm glad this worked for you! Thanks for reading and commenting!

poor Tim, that's worse than me and all the shit I had to memorise for chemistry!

Beautifully done and so perfectly Tim.

It's definitely a different sort of stress than a school requirement!

Thank you so much for reading and commenting! Glad you liked it!

Oh, Timmy! Batman already knows. Either he has you bugged, or Oracle has you bugged, or they both do and have shared the info. Or he'd figure you'd tell your best friend, just because you're a kid. Or Nightwing did, and told Bruce you would. Any way you look at it, he knows you're telling Kon about the map; he may have figured you'd tell Impulse, too.

But unless Kon has a photographic memory, he'll only remember a few details anyways. Again, something they'd all probably count on. This way, their territory layout is still secret, and Tim gets points with a friend for telling him Bat stuff.

That's how I see it, and I'm stickin' to it, lol.

Geeky!Timmy is very cute.

Maybe Bruce wouldn't care that Tim told Kon, just because maybe if Tim needs help Kon will have a better idea of how to help him.

I like your reasoning that Kon will only remember part of it, but he'll think Tim is that much cooler for having shared the info!

Geeky!Timmy is the best! :D

Thanks for reading and commenting!

It would depend on whether Bruce is still in his calling Kon "the clone" stage.

Yeah, I didn't have specific timeframe in midn for this relative to the "the clone" nonsense.

Ficlet: At a Glance (or not)

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