Click.

Tim watched her from the shadows, and couldn't help the bitter sweet smile that pulled at his lips as he thought the word, "creep." That was exactly what Jason used to call him when he did this to his friends. Stalked them from behind to make sure they were safe. Now that Jay was gone, Tim missed it, because while Jason usually only said that when there was a gun to Tim's head, had some kind of threat over Tim's life, there were the few and far in between when Jason would show up on the manor steps and the nickname would be just that: a nickname. When he did, they would all be shocked and surprised, and then act like they had dinner like that every night: Happy, strong, joking.

Like a family. A family far from the reality of broken hearts that they knew.

Steph shakes her blond hair out of her ponytail before putting it back up. Tim frowns, raises the camera to his eye and watches her through the lens; happy, strong and joking with Cass over a dead body. He could hear her giggle from where he was perched, saw Cass go through the motions of burning the body, devoid of emotion like the killer she was trained to be. Steph's hair was streaked with red, a spatter of blood on her cheek. He catches the perfect way her wet, blood stained curls bounced, the soft light of the fire against her cheeks, the curve of her back. Tim couldn't help the crinkle of his nose. But... no matter how disgusted Tim was at her, how angry he was at her, he had to admit--

She looked beautiful.

Click.

He let his finger hit the button again and again, couldn't really stop the way he did it, just let himself follow her as she drove home with Cass. He took pictures of her pressed up against Cass as she held onto BlackBat while they road her motorcycle, took pictures while she swung her leg over the seat so that she could get off, added more and more pictures as she walked into one of the hidden entrance to the Cave.

He watched, ducked behind a bush in a Tee-shirt and Jeans, as the entrance closed, the grappling hook he had used to follow them carelessly placed next to him. Once he knew she was gone, completely out of sight, the weight of the camera suddenly felt heavy against Tim's palm. Tim felt so wrong doing this-- watching her, everyone, from behind a lens. He gave it up so long ago.

Despite that, he snapped another picture of the blank rock wall, a well hidden motorcycle somewhere behind the vines and trees.

Stupid-- that's what he was. Stupid for ignoring her, for not telling her what he thought about Bruce, about the Lords, about everything. Why does he have to close up, shut down, stop taking when he should be shouting? Stupid. What was the last thing he had even said to her, before their relationship had just faded? Before when they passed each other in the halls it became glances with nods? Before it graduated to not acknowledging each other at all?

"I don't want to talk right now."

Idiot, Drake. That's what you are, an idiot. It's too late now.

He settled on his back, the moist dew on the grass dampening his shirt. He raised the camera above his head, stared at the small screen and thumbed through his pictures, one by one, zoomed into her eyes, her lips, her everything. At some point he reached pictures of BlackBat, of Barbara, of Bruce, sitting at the computer or walking somewhere. Every once in a while he had managed to snag a picture of one of them on the job, serious, determined, exhilarated...

It always managed to come back to Stephanie.

Idiot, Drake.

An idiot for losing her.

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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnd thats the last update for today :) enjoy the long wait till the next one

until then, gotta work on my SATs

YAY! *so much sarcasm*