The night hadn’t been great for Tim. His team kept on bugging him about his rival, who incidentally happened to be at the Justіce Leagues Christmas party with someone, Dick kept on giving him knowing looks, Steph, Cass, and Duke, all gave a similar impression, and Damian told him he was being a coward and he should just have a fight to the death with the offending vigilante. That was because, of course, Damian didn’t know how Tim actually felt towards his rival.

He had tried to stay resolute and in place, just talk with Connor or sit around Bruce, but apparently everyone felt like cupid during Christmastime. Shoving him in the same room, and being disappointed and annoyed when he escaped through a vent. We’re trying to make it work, they said, we’re like, so good at this, specifically Steph said.

Well they weren’t good at it. After fleeing about twelve times, it turned out his family didn’t even need to be there to force them into position to kiss. It was literally just that the place was getting more full, and Tim had left for some air. Simple. He could have some peace. But nooo, turns out his rival had the exact same goddamn idea, and before Tim knew it, he was below some stupid mistletoe with someone he totally hated. Totally.

Look, it didn’t matter how he’d fluster and blush that night that the other saved him from falling to certain doom, or how nervous he’d gotten at how close they were, or how those feelings still hadn’t faded. They were rivals. Nothing less, nothing more. Probably. It wasn’t like Tim would ever make a move, either. Sure, Kon told him that there was no way in hell that his rival wasn’t absolutely in love with him, but he could be joking. Being an ass.

"Look, I’m sorry about my family," he started, knowing full well how obvious they had been. "They’re uh, insane, y’know? Richness gets to their minds," Tim said, as if he weren’t the only kid to have grown up rich. Looking up, he sighed. "Ignore the mistletoe too, I guess. Doesn’t really matter." It very much did.