Don't Fear the Reaper

14) The Bisexual Republic of LGBTQ+

Tim held a plate in his hand as he hesitantly knocked on the door across the hall from his room.

Three taps sounded as a response.

Wait.

So Tim waited. It was a long minute before his mind began to wander. He glanced at the closed door before quickly stepping into his room across the hall and plugging his phone in, remembering that it was about to die, before turning around to go back to waiting. He froze as soon as he looked back to Nico's room because there the kid was, standing awkwardly in disown doorway. 

"Hey Reaper, Dick got a call from Batwoman that she needed backup, so he asked me to bring you dinner," Tim said with a polite smile.

Nico's eyes were caught on something in Tim's room before he shook himself from it and accepted the plate. "Thank you."

Tim glanced behind him, trying to figure out what the teen had been looking at, but the only thing he could think of was the Bi flag on his wall over his bed. Tim looked at the flag for a long moment, mind racing at the possible reasons Nico had been so distracted by it.

Is he homophobic?  Tim immediately thought. I mean, the League of Assassins doesn't especially love gay people, but it wasn't like they taught hatred or anything. granted, it's unlikely that he got a lot of exposure to the outside world as a child assassin-

His thoughts were cut off by the kid speaking.

"What country is that?" He asked, voice quiet, as if he were scared to admit that he didn't know something.

Tim stared at Nico with wide eyes, really not expecting that  to be the reason the teen had been staring at it so intensely. "What?"

Nico stiffed, looking away from him and stepping backwards into his room. "Never mind," he muttered as he began to close his door.

Tim immediately stepped forward, putting a hand out to stop the door. If Nico had wanted to, he defiantly could have forced it closed, but instead the assassin just froze.

"Sorry," Tim muttered, regretting his immediate reaction to the kid's question. He didn't want him to feel like he couldn't asked about stuff or admit he didn't know something. "That was rude, I just— I wasn't expecting you to ask that."

Nico just looked at him, almost looking his age for once. "You're fine, it was a stupid-"

"It's not stupid," Tim said, eyebrows furrowed slightly. "You'll never learn if you don't ask. The flag isn't for a country. It's a pride flag."

Nico blinked at him, apparently still having no idea what that meant.

"It's a flag for bisexual people— like as a way to show pride in yourself and your sexuality," Tim continued, smiling slightly as he saw slight understanding cross Nico's face slightly. It was paired with a slight look of confusion, but he seemed to understand.

"So... there's only one flag?" Nico questioned hesitantly.

Tim shook his head. "There are a whole bunch, I just have the bi flag since that's what I am. If you want, I can show you some of the other ones while you eat."

Nico looked hesitant to accept, but still gave a small nod, and so that was how Tim spent his night. He had taken his laptop into Nico's room and sat at the desk while Nico sat on the edge of his bed and pulled up the different pride flags, explaining what each was. Nico didn't say much, not even going as far as knocking his responses like he usually did, but he listened. He seemed to be caught in some sort of inner turmoil over the information because while part of him looked interested, while the other part seemed confused and almost sick. It was like he was at least somewhat happy that the flags existed, yet baffled by why people would openly hang them on their walls.

Tim really wanted to ask if Nico was queer in some way, but he knew better. Not only would he never want to rush someone into coming out, but that seemed like exactly the wrong thing to bring up. Nico was guarded in general, and Tim highly doubtful that questioning his sexuality was gonna be something he was open to.

A knock sounded at the door, cutting Tim off as he tried to explain was a pride parade was.

Nico reached over and knocked on the wall twice, signaling for the person to come in.

The door creaked open and Steph's head popped in. "Hey, sorry to interrupt," the girl said with a small smile. "Jason told me that Tim was in here so..."

Tim gave an awkward wave. "What's up?"

"The Batcomputer crashed."

Tim stared at her in confusion. "How the hell did it crash? It's literally one of the most high tech computers in the world."

"Okay well... crash is a strong word. It's more of a—well... Jason and I were arguing and I went to throw my drink in his face and he kinda... moved?"

"You threw your drink on the Batcomputer," he stated, staring at her in disbelief. "The multimillion dollar  computer is now covered in water?"

"Well, it was actually Dr. Pepper so..."

Tim groaned, standing up and grabbing his computer before looking to Nico. "I have to go fix this. We can continue later."

Nico gave a small nod in response.

Tim stormed out of the room and towards the cave, Steph on his tail, as he muttered under his breath about how fucked they were if the computer was broken. 

A/N: GAY!

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