Maribat March 2021

First Time

For Maribat March: Day 2 Theme: First Time

Slight Timari/Sibling Jasonette

Bruce 35

Dick 17

Jason 12

Tim 10

Marinette 9

Nettie was sitting on a roof on a cold November evening watching Batman and Robin chase a mugger with a gun. She was out of sight from them, making sure to keep her distance. It was hard to sit there and do nothing knowing her Jay Jay was under the domino mask. She had a feeling Jason knew she was watching. Or at least someone did, she could feel their eyes.

"First time stalking the bats?" a voice asked.

She jumped a bit, not expecting the watcher to actually talk to her. It also threw her theory that the eyes she felt on her were Jason's. She looked to where the voice came from to see a boy around her age, he seemed relatively harmless, but she changed her stance just in case.

"Who are you?" she asked the boy.

He had nice clothes on and a well-done haircut. The boy radiated upper-class energy. Except one thing was missing, he wasn't automatically disgusted by the clear street kid he saw in front of him. Nettie chalked it up to him being young. But it was definitely refreshing.

"Tim Drake," he responds.

His last name sounded familiar, but that was less concerning to her. The more concerning factor was this boy shared his full name with someone he didn't know. Did he have a death wish?

"Do you just give your full name to everyone who asks?"

"Of course not, but you're just a kid."

Ah, yes being a child makes her look trustworthy. She was sure many would disagree with that logic. She definitely disagrees with that logic.

"What's your name?" Tim asked.

"You can call me Mare."

It was close to Mari, her other nickname, but not as personal as Nettie. She needed to keep safe. After all, Jason was no longer able to look after her, he had other responsibilities now. Jason would say she's more important than his other responsibilities, but he's a vigilante and that's important. He needs to keep the city safe, so Nettie can keep herself safe.

"Okay Mare, is it your first time stalking the bats? You can stalk them with me, I don't have many friends who would do this, but we can be friends. I already know who they are."

Her eyes went wide.

"You can't tell anyone their identities."

"Of course I wouldn't do that, I just wanted to be friends and give you a reason I can be valuable in your stalking."

Nettie didn't want to trust him. But she did. "You just can't tell anyone who the new robin is." Jason's identity needed to be kept safe and a secret. He needed to be protected in any way she could. In a way, she felt like she needed to pay it forward. But at the same time, she was being too vulnerable with someone she just met.

"You know him, don't you." She didn't respond so he continued, "I found out who the first Robin was a while ago, it made figuring out Batman pretty easy. Which made the new Robin pretty easy too. But I wouldn't be much of a detective if I couldn't read basic body language. You definitely know him."

"He's my brother. Well, half brother."

Should she really be telling this to a stranger? Even one as naive as Tim.

"That's really cool."

Tim clearly didn't know what to say, but he was trying and it made her smile. It was nice to talk to someone her own age. Maybe she should put more thought into the conversation. More effort. Maybe she could even have a friend.

"Why does your last name sound familiar?" Nettie asked, unsure if this was a question she should even be asking.

"My parents have a big company. You've probably seen it on a building or something. "

So he was of the upper class, she was right. But it really just made her question what he was doing in this part of the city, besides stalking the bats. Nettie was slightly concerned for him, but he was able to sneak up on her so that didn't make it too bad.

"Your parents just let you run around this part of Gotham?"

It was a personal question, but she was curious.

"They're away on business, and they don't exactly know. I don't think they'd care about it as much as how it would make the family look if they found out. So I just haven't told them"

The two talked for the next couple of hours sitting on top of the roof. They mostly talked about Tim's family, but she answered a few questions about her life and her life with Jason. Tim was an interesting person and their conversation flowed easily even when Nettie was iffy about answering some questions.

"My real name is Marinette," she says when the conversation starts dying down, "you can call me Mari, I just wasn't sure how much I could trust you before."

"My first name is technically Timothy," Tim admitted to her after she shared her name, "We pretty much stayed up the whole night."

He was right, it was almost early morning. What an omen this would be to the future.

"You should go, you probably need sleep," Mari said to Tim.

"Where are you going to stay?"

"I'll find somewhere. I always do. Maybe I'll just stay up here."

Tim clearly didn't like the idea. She could see the discomfort in his eyes as soon as she suggested it. She wasn't sure what he was going to say next, but she knew that even if she argued against it, he would probably convince her anyways.

"You can stay with me, my parents are rarely ever home and you could hide when they are. It's warm and indoors and pretty close to the Wayne Manor."

She looked like a deer caught in headlights. She didn't expect that and he was giving her a way to be closer to Jay Jay. But she couldn't accept this, could she? Truthfully, she really wanted to accept his offer. Like he said it was warm, indoors, and close to Jay Jay. Nettie knew Jason didn't want Bruce to adopt her because he wanted to keep her out of anything bad. But this was a way she could be close without getting involved with anything bad.

"Okay," Marinette said.

There was no argument about it, he didn't need to convince her. Tim was surprised. But he took her hand and started navigating his way home.

"Hey Tim, it was my first time stalking the bats."

Words: 1099