You work alone. Always have
At nights you ran around Gotham, doing what you do best - protect.
And you saw an older man getting mugged - you immediately fought off the thugs and made sure the man was ok before disappearing once more
Little did you know, that man was Alfred, the beloved butler of the Wayne manor, and more importantly, the favorite person of the BatFamily, a family of vigilantes.
Alfred had been out on what was supposed to be a simple errand, when he was mugged by some thugs, and when he mentioned to the family that another vigilante had saved him, all were immediately wanting to know who was the person to save Alfred
Tim was the first to find out your identity, but instead of leaking that to the world, he kept the locations you usually hung out around in the Batcomputer, just in case
They kept tabs on you, making sure you were safe, even when you had no idea they were keeping an eye on you
One night, the man you saved, Alfred, was sitting on the roof where you usually sat to patrol. A few feet away from him sat a thermos and a wrapped pastry, for you?
You normally would have ran , but, his presence was calming.
The two of you quietly talked - he didnt ask for your name or anything, just quiet talks as you hesitantly drank the tea he made for you from the thermos, and ate the pastry - never taking your mask off, and he never asked you to
After the first meeting, you kept meeting him there often - sometimes Nightwing or even Bat//Man shows up trying to “casually” join. You freeze, hand on your weapon.
Alfred just says, “Gentlemen, you’re scaring the poor thing. Off you go.”
Eventually, you start trusting Alfred enough to let him fix your injuries — but never at the manor, always neutral ground, like that rooftop
He’s been meeting you for months, and had always figured you were late teens, maybe early twenties, based on how you carry yourself, But when the mask comes off after an injury, he realizes you’re barely sixteen.
it made him freeze, and you could tell he was surprised by the quiet way he sets down the gauze, and the long breath he takes before saying, “You shouldn’t be doing this alone.”
You flinch, fully expecting him to be mad…
But instead, he wraps the bandage and whispers, “I won’t tell them. But you need rest.”