Work Text:
‘Storage Data Full’
Tim clicked out the settings app and fell back onto his bed with a sigh. It was only a matter of time before he ran out of storage on his phone.
When he got his first phone, it barely saw use; he was much too interested in capturing photos of Gotham’s illusive vigilantes to stay on his phone all day. He would even leave it at the house when he went out at night with his camera to secretly capture vigilante pictures. Now that Tim was a vigilante himself and familiar with the bats, he couldn’t easily carry a professional camera with him on patrol, it was far too conspicuous and clunky. That didn’t mean his photography obsession had subsided. On patrol, he had resorted to occasionally sneaking in shots with his phone to keep up his unusual hobby, leading to his storage problem.
Honestly, it was an easy problem to fix. Bruce was one of the wealthiest people in Gotham after all. He could just buy more phone data for him, but Tim didn’t want to have to tell Bruce about his photography hobby. If Bruce knew he was still obsessed with vigilante photography, he would be much more on alert for Tim taking photos; which means goodbye to Tim’s candid shots. Even though Bruce knows he would never expose their identities to anyone through the pictures, Bruce had always been camera shy, which is a kind way to put that he would punch the camera out of anyone’s hands if he saw them recording him.
Old habits must die hard, being a myth for years must have taken Bruce a lot of work and camera punching. Since Tim couldn't ask for more storage, he would have to resort to the next option: delete anything he didn’t need off his phone. A simple, yet effective way to free up storage space.
The most obvious place to start would be deleting some of his photos, but he has too big an emotional connection to them. He had too much pride in his vigilante photo collection to delete those. He also had an album of a bunch of photos with Steph. Most people erase all photos of their ex, but that felt wrong to him. Steph is still his friend... hopefully. He’s just kind of been dodging her attempts to talk.
Aside from the photos on his phone, he has never bothered to delete any of his apps, so why not start there?
For example, the Buzzfeed app. He would never admit it, but a popular pass time of his used to be taking ‘Which Gotham Knight Are You?’ quizzes. When he would take those, he almost always got Batman, despite it usually being the least common result of the quizzes. He never seemed to get Nightwing, the one result he had always wanted to get. Delete.
The Among Us app: After a few rounds his family had banned him from playing. He wasn't too mad about that- apparently he’s just too good of a detective for them. He smirked as he clicked, Delete.
Discord. He hadn’t used that since before he dropped out of high school. He doesn’t use it anymore so Delet...
Well... not yet. Tim clicked out of the delete message and opened the app. He grabbed a blanket from his bed’s surface and shuffled it over himself as the app loaded, getting in a comfortable position. It could be fun to look over his old messages. He remembers Young Justice used to have a server, plus he also had some of his high school friends on there.
Speaking of high school friends, at the top of his direct messages was a familiar name- Bernard’s account. He clicked on the conversation and started aggressively swiping up on the screen to reach the top of their messages.
He forgot how often they used to use Discord. The reminder was laid out in front of him as he scrolled past dozens of Batman memes and rants from Bernard between them. He paused his scrolling at the sight of a forgotten picture of them.
The photo had been from a Spanish class field trip they had gone on together. In the picture, it was a snapchat selfie that Bernard had taken. Bernard's head was at the bottom of the screen, his eyes the only facial feature in frame. His expression was friendly mocking, as it featured Tim in the background struggling to ask an employee a question in Spanish. On the photo, above Bernard’s unruly blonde hair and sunglasses, was text that read, ‘es un perdedor jajaja’ (translation: he’s a loser lol).
During the field trip to the ethnic market, their teacher stated they could only speak Spanish. Tim had never paid enough attention in that class to be good at Spanish, leading to his struggle during that field trip. He remembered, out of frame in that photo, his teacher had watched over his embarrassing interaction with that employee like a hawk. It was not his best moment. It was right before he gave up on communicating with the employee that Bernard had swooped in last second to help him converse. Bernard had always been really good at Spanish and loved to show off in front of Tim.
Or maybe he just liked to show off in front of the Spanish teacher. Quite a few times in class when they were supposed to be practicing the new lesson’s vocab, Bernard would rant to him in Spanish about how hot he thought the teacher was.
Yeah... he was just showing off for the teacher.
Tim clicked out of the photo and above it saw more photos from the same field trip. He clinked on one of them and was greeted with another selfie, this one taken from the inside of a bus.
Tim and Bernard had shared a bus seat, yet Bernard had pulled him even closer for the photo than the cramped seat had already left them. Tim had thrown up a peace sign and confident smile while nested into Bernard’s side. Bernard’s eyes were slightly closed from the huge grin on his face. He had his sunglasses on the tip of his nose, purposely pulled down.
What a dork. He’s trying so hard to be cool; it kinda makes him look cute though, Tim thought.
Wait.
Tim scrambled to close out of the photo as his face suddenly turned red. He threw his phone away from him onto his bed.
That was... a weird reaction. He just broke up with his girlfriend last month, so there was no way he was blushing thinking about one of his best friends from high school, right? A friend that was a guy, not a girl. His face somehow grew even more flushed.
Nope, time to compartmentalize that thought for later- or never. Never sounded like a good option to him.
Maybe he should just delete the Discord app now, he could always just steal one of his Young Justice teammate’s phones to look at their old Discord channel logs.
Yep, time to delete Discord. He reached across his bed to scoop up his phone from where it had been disregarded and was greeted with a video of Bernard’s face filling the screen.
It wasn't the Bernard he remembered. This Bernard looked a bit older with slightly paler skin. He also had shorter trimmed hair, styled with floppy pieces in the front that looked fluffy, which certainly didn’t help Tim's earlier blush to fade.
As Tim stared at the screen, he came to a sudden realization.
This wasn’t an old video, this was a live call.
That meant this was the real, current Bernard. Bernard who could also see Tim gaping at him if the small video feed of Tim in the corner of his screen was any indication.
Their eyes connected through the screen, both boys gazing at each other with confusion written across their faces.
“Tim?”
He had never moved quicker as he smashed the end call button. He held a hand over his mouth as if to hide his red flush from the other inhabitants of his empty bedroom. Holy shit, did that just happen?
His phone buzzed in his hand, shocking him into dropping it onto his lap. He scrambled to re-grab it. Once his eyes landed on the screen, it revealed that his phone had automatically scrolled to the bottom of his DMs with Bernard, revealing new messages.
B: what was that LMAO
B: did you just butt dial me?
So that really was Bernard. Tim was so screwed.
He scrambled to restart his brain in an attempt to find a way out of the situation. He needed to respond.
T: Hahaha oops
Nailed it. He hit send.
He let out a breath and relooked at the message. That sounds so dumb.
Bzrt- Another text from Bernard came in.
B: youre still in gotham right? dude we should meet up!
Nice, he hadn’t scared Bernard away... yet. Bernard even wanted to meet up with him. Tim couldn’t even imagine saying no. He wondered why that is. He probably just really misses his friend, it’s been years since they’ve spoken after all.
T: Yeah we should :)
B: nice! where you wanna go?
What type of place should they go? A restaurant? That seems like a normal meet-up spot. Yeah.
Okay, now what restaurant? Where would Bernard like? Tim remembers him liking American food, so maybe a diner? No. Somewhere nicer. Ah ha, he knows where to go.
T: What about Bincys Bar and Grill?
B: the number one couple’s hot spot of gotham?
...
B: i havent seen you in forever, thisll be great ;)
Tim nods to himself, he made the right choice. Bernard even seems to be as excited to meet up as him. Looks like he’ll actually have plans for this week other than patrol. Tim couldn’t wait to see his old friend Bernard; Bernard whose appearance was definitely different than high school if the video call was any indication.
T: Yeahhh I get to check out your new look irl
T: What happened to your sunglasses lol
Bernard’s responses came rapid-fire.
B: nooo shut up
B: i dont want to remember my terrible high school fashion choices
T: It wasnt bad, you pulled it off
B: unlike the mullet lmao
T: True, youre new haircut definitely makes you look hotter
There was a pause before Bernard responded.
B: tim drake complementing me instead of sarcastic comments? im blushing ;)
B: lmao i g2g, see you then
T: Yeah!
Tim got up, leaving his phone disregarded on the bed to run over to the calendar on the wall of his room. Snagging a pen off his nearby desk, he found the date on his calendar and wrote ‘Meet up with Bernard’ into the box. He circled it a few times for good measure.
Bernard’s proposal gave him a shot of adrenaline, usually his excitement made him focus really hard on whatever it is, but with Bernard, his mind was racing. He should probably try to calm down... or he could pick out an outfit for his hang out with Bernard.
Was it a week before they would meet up? Yes. But- he wanted to make sure his outfit was perfect. He never cared much for fashion, but if Bernard had a glow up shouldn’t he prove he can too? Not that he cares for Bernard’s opinion on how he looks, he’s just doing it for his own self-esteem, obviously.
A quick glance at his closet had him abandoning his room in a hunt for suitable attire. He’s sure Dick would probably have something that would work, due to all the dates he goes on. And in the end, isn’t meeting up with an old friend like a date? Only with the attire he should wear to the events obviously, no other reason they are similar.