#in contrast to the yj queer friend group

[soleminisanction]

hello! do you perhaps have any fic recs that focus on how, well, unhealthy the tim//steph relationship was? it's fairly hard to search on ao3 for this since there's no specific tag for that. i've been craving to read some exploration of abusive steph and it'd be great if someone had recs (p.s.: all ships are good, all characters are good, notps and least fav characters exist and that's okay, love to all tim//steph shippers and steph fans, i respect you even if i'm not one of you)

Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of those to be found. A big part of the reason I wrote my own take on the subject was because I was frustrated by how few people want to even acknowledge the toxicity of the relationship, let alone explore it in fanfic.

That said!

Lights Are All Down by ClockStrikesThree is an excellent fix-it fic regarding one of the most toxic periods of their relationship, the bit in Robin #80-87 when Steph accused Tim of cheating on her and then went behind his back to uncover his secret identity, only to be rewarded for her bad behavior with an out-of-character Bruce telling her everything. The fix-it simply keeps Bruce and Tim in-character and has them shut down her bullshit the way they should've in canon and it's immensely cathartic.

The only other rec I have that's anywhere near the same theme is how deep the hourglass by dukeaubergine, which is actually an always-a-girl fem!Tim dealing with the events of Red Robin story, but includes a great subplot of her "protracted friendship break-up" with Steph, which again boils down to just not letting her get away with being a jerk like everybody does in canon, culminating in the extremely cathartic line, “I am officially retiring from giving any kind of damn about Stephanie Brown’s feelings.”

And I'm afraid that's it, aside from my own fic Sticks and Stones, which I am still very proud of. It's honestly one of the best things I've ever written. If anybody else knows any good ones I'd be keen to see them as well.