Archive of Our Own ^beta

Blue light irritated his eye; his dry eyes looked unseeing at his laptop. On the screen was a short clip that meant nothing to almost anyone.

But Tim wasn’t just anyone.

Tim zoned back in, glaring at the video in front of him in contemplation. He remembered that night at the circus, one of his earliest memories, thinking back to what the ringmaster said that night.

“Now for tonight’s final act, here are the Flying Graysons performing without a safety net, members of the audience you are in for a treat tonight! For tonight and tonight only the Flying Graysons will be performing their infamous quadruple somersault, their infamous skill known by only three people”

Three people worldwide

Three people

Two of those three died that night.

So how is it that Robin knew such a complicated move? One that only one person should know that being the final Grays-

Shock overthrew all of Tim’s senses as the information clicked into place. Dick Grayson, the final Grayson of the infamous Flying Graysons was Robin. Robin, the Boy Wonder, son of Batman.

Wait, Son of Batman…

Scrambling back into his chair, (when did he get on the floor?),Tim checked the local news to make sure his memory wasn’t deceiving him.

It wasn’t.

Dick Grayson was officially taken in as a ward to Bruce Wayne earlier this year. Bruce Wayne the himbo billionaire that lived next door.

Robin is Batman’s son, or at least in his care. Dick Grayson is Robin. Dick Grayson is Bruce Wayne’s ward. Bruce Wayne is-

“Batman” Tim whispered out in shock of his revelation. He had solved one of the world’s best kept secrets in what? minutes? because of a half a minute clip of Robin fighting the Penguin?

Giddily, Tim stood from his chair, doing a lap around his room to try and control his breathing. Tim knew who Batman was.

More thought cogitated in Tim’s brain. If he could figure out who Batman is, what’s stopping him from finding out Justice League secret identities.

Eyes lighting up at the thought he returned to his desk, motivated to follow the rabbit hole of secret identities. He couldn’t wait.

Sunlight crept through the gap of Tim’s curtains when he finally pulled back away from his cork board. He brought it in after half an hour of deep diving Bruce Wayne’s social media.

Attached to the cork board were pictures of newspaper cuttings, strings of yarn, colour coding that looked like chicken scratch, and pictures of seemingly normal people. But Tim knew differently.

See, from Batman’s identity he couldn’t figure out everyone’s identity but he could find two leaguers; Green Arrow and Superman, Oliver Queen and Clark Kent respectively. Without evidence, leaping to these conclusions was insane, but all the evidence Tim needed was in the way they held themselves.

Finding out Green Arrow’s identity was a mix of physical similarities (Tim inwardly wincing at the goatee) and his movement. In everyday situations Oliver Queen showed common habits gained from archery. Pairing this with an unfortunate fashion choice of facial hair Tim had the identity of Green Arrow.

Superman’s identity was almost too easy, making Tim feel bad. I mean c’mon glasses was the best he came up with as a disguise. Not only did these glasses not have any lenses, as shown with the lack of face distortion when Clark Kent wore them, he also didn’t even try to hide or explain his muscular physique. Pair that with him leaving when Superman shows up anywhere. It is safe to assume he was indeed Superman.

From looking at these two leaguers’ socials he was able to pick up on even more leaguers: Dinah Lance as Black Canary, Diana Prince as Wonder Woman, Barry Allen as Flash. Almost everyone was connected by anything from a like on a picture to a comment on a post.

Hal Jordan was one of the only league identities that wasn’t found purely through posts. His identity, while a little harder to find, wasn't too difficult as he is a well known test pilot and the only thing stopping people from seeing his full face is a domino which barely covers his cheek bones. Honestly Tim is embarrassed that these people were Earth’s best security.

Some were easier to find than others; Barry Allen was one of the easiest to work out. He always, without fail, shows up late to everything. This is particularly concerning for a CSI agent but Tim digresses. Some of the more difficult ones included Martian Manhunter and Shazam.

Martian Manhunter due to his shapeshifting abilities making finding his civilian identity nearly impossible if you were looking at the wrong places. Luckily, due to a well placed security camera, Tim was able to see the martian morph regularly into a form known as “John Jones” on social media, presumably the martian’s main alias.

Shazam was a different bucket of worms. Finding out Shazam’s alias was a 10 year old kid was shocking to say the least. But what actually shocked Tim the most was that Billy Batson had a better hidden identity than Superman himself. Tim finds Billy’s hero name sort of ironic as his identity is safe as long as he doesn’t say his hero name. Plus it’s not like anyone would connect the orphan Billy Batson to the man that looks like Superman.

As the sun rose Tim looked to his list of new found identities and couldn’t help but be proud of himself for uncovering them. Tim wrote down all of the names and aliases into a list before taking apart the clueboard. As much as Tim would love to keep his work up to gawk at it in disbelief, he didn’t want anyone, let alone his parents finding out about his discovery.

HEROES / IDENTITY

Superman/ Clark Kent
Batman/ Bruce Wayne
Wonder Woman/ Diana Prince
Aquaman/Arthur Curry
Flash/ Barry Allen
Green Lantern/ Hal Jordan
Martian Manhunter/ John Jones (main alias)
Black Canary/ Dinah Lance
Green Arrow/ Oliver Queen
Red Tornado/ John Smith
Shazam/ Billy Batson

“And that’s how I figured out a lot of league identities as well as Dick being Robin and Babs being Batgirl” Tim finished as he looked up from the photos. Shock emanated through the room as he stopped talking. As he was reaching forward to pick up one of Alfred’s cookies from the table. His family started talking at once.

“Timmy what-”

“Honestly Father it’s absurd how-”

“Damn, Timbo”

“Little Brother’s smart”

“What the hell, Tim”

“Stalker from day one, huh?”

Tim flushed from the attention. At the time he didn’t think of how much of an impact knowing these identities would have on his life but he isn’t too surprised. Tim had a calling for the vigilante life much like everyone else in his family. He chose to jump down the rabbit hole, getting lost in the heroism of everyday people who chose to do good. Living vicariously through heroes didn’t exactly help Tim have a normal childhood (as normal as it could be in Gotham).

Tim relaxed into the couch as his family’s voice became a senseless whirring in his mind, just existing in the comfort of those around him. A toned arm wrapped around his shoulders led to him leaning onto somebody’s shoulder. And as his eyes closed, he heard less and less of the conversations he was surrounded by.