—Batgirl #8
This page totally encapsulates what I wanted Steph and Tim’s relationship to be after she came back. Tim is reticent, focused on getting Bruce back—-and still kind of sore about all of the complicated details associated with her return. When Tim’s hurt, he curls up into a little ball inside a protective cowl. When being Tim Drake is too hard and too painful, he relies on Robin to keep him going. Focusing on those goals is what keeps him from falling apart. Tim Drake had just spent the last year or two of his life losing everything he loved. His girlfriend, his two best friends, his father, and his mentor/best friend/father. Tim’s deeply introverted to begin with, so he only has a small circle of people that he really trusts. He lost almost all of it. That was devastating. So when he sees Steph, he is reminded of all of that pain and mourning he doesn’t know how to even PROCESS. He can’t address it, so he focuses on Red Robin—-and when he has to work with Steph, he tries his hardest not to take all that messy pain out on her.
But Steph is Steph. She exudes this wonderful little bubble of optimism wherever she goes. When Tim’s with her, he remembers the silly little details that make Steph Steph—-the fact that sometimes she can’t differentiate between her internal narration and her outside voice, and that hilariously off-tune sing-song voice she used when she was trying to “charmingly” wheedle.
And Tim really needs details like that. They take him back to the clarity he’d had years ago, before things started falling apart. He can take a deep breath, remind himself that he isn’t going crazy, and enjoy the fact that there are some people in his life who trust him enough to believe in him, even if he was going crazy. He can’t acknowledge it yet, because this is a Tim-clarity, not a Robin one, and Robin still has goals to check off the list. I JUST WANTED MORE OF TIM APPRECIATING WHAT A BADASS STEPH IS.
Sigh. Ridiculously in-depth panel analysis helps me headcanon away inconsistencies for my canon OTP. :|
