"Oh, for the days when Cassie had a real personality!"
Mmm.
TO be honest, I never shipped them while they were in YJ together either. They were both hot (and I grew up with a crush on Tim-as-Robin), but I never saw them *together* really, yeah, until Johns started going to town making their relationship a mirror of Clark and Bruce.
And having said that, Bruce and Clark's friendship really is special -- mostly because Batman has pissed off everyone else in the DCU about three times, but Clark still genuinely likes him -- whereas IIRC people always sort of found Tim amiable and friendly. But still.