I looked at the #Catlad AU tag and now I want to explain my three versions of Tim Drake. I’m starting with Catlad!Tim who I have fondly started calling Travis. He is the version of Tim who had an attachment to the Dead Robin, Jason Todd, who came back as Red Hood.
Travis grew up with Janet and Steven Drake and he got bitten by a were-cat when he was five. Steven walked in on him sometime after that, some months or so after. Travis was in his room when his dad walked in on him. Travis quickly shifted back and Steven walked out of the room without a word.
Janet found out about Travis being a cat in a more abrupt, straight-forward way when he was six. Travis ran into the house on all fours with a mouse dangling from his mouth. Janet, who happened to be in the kitchen at the time, jumped onto a kitchen chair, shrieking. The racket caused Steven to walk into the kitchen to see Janet still standing on the chair with a look of horror on her face while Travis was sitting curled up on the floor in human form again, the mouse still dangling by its tail from his mouth. Steven told Travis to go to his room and he told Janet what he had walked in on all those months ago. In turn, Janet told Steven about Travis’ birth father. (Because, no, in all of my AU’s Steven is not.)
After that, Janet treated Travis as if he was no longer her son and Steven would look at him as if he were ashamed of him. That was around the time that Travis took up photography, if for no other reason then to get out of the house.
At the age of seven, Steven took Travis and Janet to see the flying Graysons. That’s the only memory that stands out prominently in his mind where all three of them are together as a family.
Sometime after that, Steven is arrested and Travis goes through drastic measures to get in touch with Batman, such as robbing a convenience store. (All credit goes to I’mBatgirl on AO3 for that idea.)
He gets caught by Robin and ends up tripping and hurting himself in the process. He wakes up in bed and now has a new friend in Robin who takes up visiting him quite frequently during his patrol hours. Travis grows quite fond of and develops a crush on Robin over that time. During one point, when Travis is about eight to eight and a half, he gathers the courage to finally kiss Robin on the lips. It startles and confuses the Robin and he doesn’t come back for a few months. Travis believes it’s his fault, but Robin had other things he was doing during that time as well. Robin told Travis that he had a suspicion that the woman who had raised him wasn’t actually his mom.
During the next year, Robin keeps Travis posted on all of his findings. During this time, Travis finally addresses the thing that had been bothering him. He asked why Robin left so suddenly if he wasn’t startled by the kiss, because, you know, robins are easy to startle. Travis pointed that out and curiously asked if it was because he was a cat and Robin was, well, a bird. Which made Robin laugh, because Travis had disclosed to Robin a long time ago that he was a were-cat. Once Robin calmed down, he smiled and pulled Travis into a big hug and kissed him on the forehead before leaving again.
Robin and Travis had multiple interactions after this, but the most memorable in Travis’ mind was on his tenth birthday. His parents had done nothing for him that day. Steven came home drunk and slapped Janet so forcefully that she met the floor. Travis ran straight to his room and texted the number that he was given to text if he was ever in trouble or if he just wanted to talk. Not more than ten minutes later, Robin is at his window with a small gift. Travis let him in and collapsed in his lap in tears. After fifteen to twenty minutes of comforting him, Robin told him to be quiet and not to come out of his room, no matter what he heard. Robin checked the house to see Janet passed out on the floor, a black eye already forming and Steven drinking more whisky. Robin put his ass on the floor, knocking him out, and went back to comfort Travis. Robin held his friend a little longer, comforting him and telling him that it would be alright and that Steven wouldn’t be bothering him anymore. And then he pulled the box out and opened it for Travis. It was a spinner ring and around the spinner part were infinity symbols.
Travis wrapped his arms around Robin and pulled him close and then Robin kissed him. It was semi-quick and kinda short but it left Travis breathless. They kissed again and then Robin told Travis that he finally picked up a lead on his blood-mother, that she was in Ethiopia. He was going to leave in the morning to see her. The ring was a promise that he’d come back and continue to keep Travis safe, but Travis had a sinking feeling in his stomach.
Needless to say, that was the last time Travis saw Robin. When he heard that Robin had died, Travis didn’t believe that it was an accident so he left his home house behind.
He was robbing a warehouse, gathering things that he would need to find Robin’s killer. Next thing he knows, he’s being ambushed by a few Jokerz. He was gassed and taken God only knows where. He woke up in another warehouse, Joker right there in his face. He survived three weeks of torture and finally got out. He didn’t know where he was and preferred to stay in cat-form. It was easier that way. He could steal from people and street vendors and they’d just think he was an ordinary cat. When he absolutely needed to, he’d go back to being human, but otherwise he was in cat-form for practically two years. That’s how long it took him to get back to Gotham.
He was taken in by Selina and she helped him re-integrate himself back into human society. She also started teaching him her fighting style, while integrating his natural feline-talent into it.
By the time he was thirteen, he was back to being completely human, but he still had some major cat quirks such as adoring pettings, scratchings, brushings, and milk. He still loved drinking milk out of a saucer. He would sleep as a cat and after two years of being nothing but a cat, there’s going to be some things that just can’t be shifted back. In other words, he was permanently stuck with a tail that he tried his best to hide. It was also around this time that she started having him tag along on her outings on the town so she could show him the ropes.
By the time he was fourteen, he was doing this stuff all by himself under the code name of Stray and by fifteen and a half (with Selina’s help) he had his first job at My Alibi which he kept and balanced with his night-life.
At sixteen, his dealings with Red Hood began, and well, I’m not going to say anymore to the effects of that.