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"So I was your gay awakening hmm?" Tim teased.
They were chilling in Tim's bedroom in the houseboat, Tim scrolling idly through his phone as Bernard played some resource management game on the Xbox.
"I mean, the first that was a real person." Bernard said.
"What does that mean?" Tim asked, genuinely curious.
Knowing his boyfriend, he would come up with some crazy answer like his first gay crush was actually on Bigfoot, or a clone version of Tim. But Bernard's answer almost made him drop his phone.
"Everyone's gay awakening in Gotham was Nightwing." Bernard said. "Except maybe yours. You're just weird and clueless enough that it really might be me."
Tim chewed on his lip, debating whether to spill the beans on one of his darkest and most carefully kept secrets. Well, what the hell? He didn't have anything to lose by it. Bernard was a civilian, he wouldn't get the deeper implications of Tim once having had a crush on Nightwing.
"If you mean it in the sense of, the first person you're attracted to that makes you aware you're queer, then that's definitely you." Tim said.
"But?" Bernard asked. "I'm definitely sensing a 'but' coming."
His attention was completely diverted from the game now, his eyes on Tim. He would love to know who else had caught Tim's attention.
"But if it's the first person of the same gender you were attracted to...then I'm no different than everyone else in Gotham. The first time I masturbated, I was looking at photos of Nightwing. I didn't even really know what I was doing, it just kind of unconsciously happened. I was looking at him and I started rubbing myself and…well it felt good so I kept going. You know how that ends." Tim said, a slight blush forming on his cheeks as he thought back to that time.
Bernard dropped his Xbox controller and tackled him.
"No way! You, the most straight-as-an-arrow acting guy, who only dated girls until me, used to jerk off to Gotham's hottest hunk and it never crossed your mind even once that you might be queer?" Bernard asked.
His eyes stared into Tim's like lasers, demanding Tim spill everything to his boyfriend. He was bubbling with delight and curiosity.
"It's like you said, Nightwing is exceptionally good-looking. I think you could be straight and still get off to Nightwing." Tim defended.
Bernard guffawed. "Your powers of denial are stunning Tim, simply amazing."
"Shut up!" Tim said, and flipped his boyfriend over, pressing him against the mattress.
Then he kissed him.
It was a long time before they spoke of Nightwing—or anything else—again.