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As a vigilante/hero or whatever you wanted to call the international community of crime fighters, there were a few rules that Tim had learned over the years.
One: Help when you can.
Two: Ask for help or input in plan making (he was sometimes struggling with this, but goals were achieved faster which meant more lifes got saved).
And most importantly: Be presentable.
Alright, the last one was more of a personal rule. Not a lot of heroes could stay 'presentable' after just having fought a villain that could kill half of the city. Some sacrifices had to be made and looks were a rather not important one.
However, Tim grew up as a Drake, in high society, with reporters walking around wanting to find every flaw. So, in and out of mask he knew: being presentable would and could save someone's ass. Sadly not just the ass of good people.
As example; Lex Luthor had gotten accused of destroying the planet due to a factory he build in Europe somewhere and the experiments he was doing there again. Why did he still have so many supporters? Because he looked serious. Lex Luthor looked serious and talked serious, so people listened to him and let him do what he does without any consequences. As long as you look like you know what you are doing and sound confident, people will listen.
Often the 'look good' rule helped Villains out as heroes didn't really need it. After all they didn't commit atrocities that had to be directed away under a facade. Most of the time.
So while most of his friends (and family, especially Jason) made fun of the fact Tim cared so much about looking good on the field despite most of his face not even visible; he knew one day it would save him and everyone who didn't listen would take a bigger fall than him.
And that's how they ended up here.
It had been a normal week. Some people got robbed, a drug ring got uncovered, someone got murdered - pretty standard stuff in Gotham really. It was a suprise there was no Arkham outbreak, but Tim wouldn't complain about it nor mention it. He didn't want to jinx it.
So when the article about Red Hood beating up and killing a grandma came out on the front page of Gotham Gazette with a photo of well, Red Hood seemingly beating and killing a grandmother, he had been surprised.
No, really! Tim choked on his zesti and stared at the newspaper. Jason Todd was a lot, but not a person that pointed a gun at old ladies that were sitting on the floor. Needless to say, the week went to hell right then and there. Hell for everyone else that was. Tim liked to think everyone learned a good lesson.
Dick jumped off his chair to stare at the photo with pure shock. He had been staying over that weekend for 'brotherly bonding time' and to get help on some casework.
"Jason!" He gasped and grabbed the papers from Tim's cold hands to run off - probably to Jason's secret safe-house that wasn't secret at all and Jason still hid out most of the time for reasons that weren't clear to any of them. Probably not even Jason himself. Oh well.
Tim was nearly annoyed at getting the newspapers ripped out of his hands. He wanted to read the article about Superboy saving citizens from a flood on page 12. He sighed. Tough luck, sometimes he wondered if staying an only child would've been easier.
Of course, Bruce Wayne aka Batman aka ugh alerted everyone in the family of a meeting that afternoon to talk about the article.
When the meeting room in the cave was filled out, Steph raised an eyebrow at Tim as if he was supposed to know why Jason decided to take out an old lady with a walking stick! So he just shrugged, followed by a "no idea"
The first thing Jason said when entering the room and his whole family looking at him with a lot of judgment was "Okay, I did kill her", this did not satisfy anyone in the family as now everyone just looked even more judgmental. "But! But!" Jason rushed to explain before Bruce or Dick or Cass.. or anyone really would start with a lecture "I did find out she was a pedophile! I have this whole policy about no one hurting kid, just because the creep's an old lady doesn't mean she wont get it! I've killed men before for the same thing, I'm not NOT killing women just because they're women!"
Bruce started "Jason, you should've apprehended her and call-"
"Awesome Jason! Get her ass!" Steph interrupted without noticing she had interrupted, earning a glare. Tim did secretly agree with Steph. If Jason was allowed to kill old pedo men, he should be allowed to kill old pedo women too. "So, how'd you end up on the news?" He instead asked as that was the more pressing question. Jason shouldn't have gotten photographed and if he did, he should've noticed it.
"Timbo, I literally have no clue. Already asked Babs to check security cams" Jason let himself fall onto one of the chairs. "But the bigger problem is my reputation, elder abuse ain't looked upon that well in crime alley and the article made it certainly seem as if I had no reason."
Dick said "Well, we can drop some files about her being a pedophile to the Gazette and they'll probably write an article"
While Tim said "Just tell them you didn't mean to kill her"
This did earn him a lot of confused looks that said 'that wont work' and they were right. "Oh right, you aren't handsome enough with the helmet, that wont work"
That statement did not help with the looks. It's was as if they never heard of pretty privilege.
"Drake, don't be stupid!", Damian came to word, frowning at him - his posture held perfectly and chin titled up. "Todd cannot just say he didn't mean it!"
"Yeah, I already agreed. Hes not handsome enough."
"That's not how that wor-"
"Sure it works, if you're handsome. My image is awesome. I could kill 10 people and maybe only fifty would care, not including the family of the people I killed of course. And they wouldn't even have to be criminals."
Silence. Tim shouldn't have said that so casually. His mistake. Jason stared at him as if he was about to activate heat vision and burn him to a crisp. He knew that look from Kon well enough. Bruce just looked helpless. Shouldn't have adopted 5 deeply traumatized kids. Bruce's mistake.
"Listen, I bet you that I could make a live press conference as Red Robin, claiming I dressed as Red hood for that day for some reason - claim I killed the woman for no reason and walk away with my reputation being better than before." Tim doubled down.
It was the turn of all of his siblings to scoff. Thankfully, Steph didn't count because she seemed to believe him.
"Okay, what's the bet?" Jason asked in that tone that made it clear he thought that Tim would back down. Too bad he wouldn't.
"A million dollars."
"Okay rich kid, I don't have a million dollars."
"Yes you do, Bruce has trust funds for all of us."
"I'm not betting you a million dollars."
"Cover my patrol routes for me for a month."
"Deal"
With that out of the way Tim stood up to set a press conference up somewhere. Completely ignoring Dick trying to call him back and Bruce's exasperated 'hn'.
Now they were here. Tim in his Red Robin suit looking sullen on a stage as he had just claimed to have killed an old woman by mistake after having made clear it had been him in Jason's costume due to Red Hood being sick and needing his routed covered.
Naturally this prompted the hands of various press people to go up. Tim picked someone at random.
"Are you saying you killed that woman for no reason?"
Tim took a deep breath to look even more sad about the news. "I did not mean to, that is correct. She had taken me by suprise."
"I find that hard to believe. You have been a vigilante for years how could you kill a woman for no reason?"
"Well you see. With me being a vigilante for many years, I've experienced a lot. Torture, seeing people I love dead in front of me." Tim took a long pause to make his words settle in. "When she suddenly stood behind me, I thought of her as an enemy. It was late and she scared me. I'm not proud of it at all. It shouldn't have happened, but think about how I feel."
Tim used to hate the speeches his parents dragged him to, most of them coming from corrupt politicians, but today it was very useful. Thanks Janet and Jack.
"But the article mentioned you beat her up before killing her, surely you would've noticed?"
"Sadly, a lot of enemies in this world have some capabilities of hiding their appearances. Clay-face can make new people out of his body! And let's not forget when Joker masked himself as an old man to hide bombs in the town hall, that wasn't even that long ago. I'm not trying to say I had an excuse, because I didn't, but understand how this looks for me!"
After a few more questions and the press looking more emphatic with every answer Tim knew he had won. No mention of the woman being a pedophile, no mention of the woman being a criminal. He always knew pretty privilege worked.
Which got even more approved as the internet started trending #RedRobinItsOkay, followed by an article of the interview of people saying that he had been through so much and various mentions of how pretty he looked when sad. Ha, life was easy.
Jason could've never pulled that off, with his ugly mask.
He told his brother as much when the other man mulled over Tim's patrol routes to see where he had to go.
Jason just told him that he hated him.
Tim replied with a simply "Maybe you should start taking the Helmet off. You'd look better."
He got said helmet thrown at him.
Worth it.
Heroes and vigilantes still didn't care that much about how they looked and talked to the press, but Tim did notice that they seemed to take it a tiny bit more seriously. Which was a good start.
He had seen Kon fix his jacket while fighting more than once to not look to beat up.
And when Kon got accused of not saving as many people as he could've had during an earthquake in Japan, more people than normally defended him.
People should listen to Tim more.
Even if Jason still refused to take his helmet on patrol off.
Loser.