Chapter Text
“And as the sun begins to set on Gotham city, the end of the latest outbreak of criminals from the local penitentiaries finally follows with it. Our caped crusaders-”
Conner Kent physically sagged into the cushions, his head falling backward as the pent up tension finally flowed away after its days of keeping his shoulders strung tight.
A few nights ago, Tim had been visiting Conner at the Kent’s farm. They had just finished dinner with Ma and Pa, having been shooed out of the kitchen and prevented from helping them clean up, the two had taken to the couch to sit and idly lounge in the after-dinner bliss that usually came with Ma’s cooking. It had been peaceful.
Conner had been absolutely content to just sit with Tim’s legs propped over his own for hours, had been more then ready to physically pull his boyfriend back down when he inevitably tried to get back up, and sneak back into the kitchen to help like he always did.
Then, their night had been interrupted. Not for the first time, their caped lives always came to bite them in the ass whenever they decided to try and be the normal, young adults they were. This time, however, Conner couldn’t slip off into the night with Tim. No, this hadn’t been a Titans level issue, it had been a Gotham one. So, he had to watch the news from the safety of Titans Tower all the way across the continent, and wait for the very occasional ‘I’m alive’ text from Tim as the bats all converged back onto Gotham streets to handle their latest disaster.
Mass breakouts at both Blackgate and Arkham. Not exactly an ideal situation to find yourself in. Or your boyfriend.
Conner had been hovering on the brink of a total break down, and flying to Gotham in the panic that had consumed him every time the Gotham city news updated on a potential injury to any one of the bats. He would have flown over already if Tim hadn’t asked him not to.
No Meta’s in Gotham. Bruce still firm on that decision no matter how often and of them had offered their help, time and time again.
Allow anyone one of them in and they could have had Blackgate and Arkham filled with Gotham’s Rouges in no time. But no, Bruce was certain if any of them stepped in to help it would only somehow make things worse.
Even after all this time, Conner still tried to argue his piece when he was visiting as a civilian. Not the Tim ever helped him. He only laughed, letting Conner talk himself in the very same circles he had been since they met.
“As of right now, there have been no sightings of Black Bat, Nightwing, or Red Robin in several hours, with the last sighting of Black Bat as far back as three nights ago. Although we suspect no major injuries, there is no telling where the three vigilantes currently are.”
The panic only lasted for as long as it took Conner to pick out the sound of Tim’s beating heart in the sea of sound enclosing Gotham. It was a steady sound, much calmer than it had been when he had checked in a few hours ago. If he could give a guess, Tim was probably sitting down, waiting for the others to finish up so they could all head in for the night, or perhaps already back int he Cave, getting checked and ready to turn in for the night.
The though was enough to settle him, if only slightly.
Usually, when these type of things happened, Conner was content with letting Tim come to him. He always tried to give the other time to absorb everything that had happened to him and rest before being bombarded with the onslaught that was a worried Conner, Bart, and Cassie. But it had been days since he last heard Tim’s voice, and one too many close calls he had to hear about through the news channels that he was sure was going to somehow give him early grey hairs.
So, after a minute of trying to find his phone, he pulled it out from where it had buried itself in between the couch cushions and dialed Tim’s number as fast as physically possible.
The phone rang through to Tim’s voicemail box, leaving him to pout as he started to pace the room, dialing again as he did.
“You have reached the voice inbox of Tim Drake,” The familiar message greeted, sounding years younger than Tim was now. “Leave a message if it’s important, and I will get back to you. If you are Bart, no I will not be telling you what happened between us so stop calling me.”
If he wasn’t so eager to hear the current Tim’s voice he would have smiled. Instead, he looked down of the bright screen for a minute, only vaguely noting that the TV channel had switched on its own accord to some other news station in Jersey before he tilted his head to listen in on Tim one more time. Maybe he’d be able to catch whatever conversation the bats were having, or maybe-
Silence. An entire cities worth of noise, still riled and hungry for more, was completely silent in his ears.
Conner pulled the still dialing phone away from his ears, faintly catching Tim’s voicemail again as he stared at the TV screen. He moved to snatch the remote, flipping through channels again to try and view any of the Gotham news stations.
They were all static.
~~~~~
“Alright, alright!” Conner was laughing, his hands held up in surrender against Tim’s sudden onslaught of elbows and knees to his invulnerable skin.
“How about soulmates?”
Tim stopped, a foot aimed for Conner’s shin pausing mid air. It gave Conner just enough time to slip backwards and away from the attacking appendage before it connected.
The pair had been sparring for the last hour, Conner resorting to attempting to tickle Tim when he got the chance, having not been able to land a proper hit on his supposedly human boyfriend once for the entire hour. All he had accomplished was earning the fury of his boyfriend’s fists against his chest for the effort.
“What about soulmates?” Tim repeated, making a face as he ducked down and away from Conner when he reached out to try and grab onto any available limb, only barely brushing against skin despite his effort.
He really needed to stop agreeing to fight without his speed or flying, because it was just pitiful at this point.
“Ya know… You don’t believe in love at first sight. So what about soulmates?” It had been a week since they had that last discussion, as brief as it was. Conner hadn’t really put too much thought into Tim’s response, but it was the perfect excuse to try and distract Tim from the spar. At thievery least, he might catch Tim off guard enough to avoid another thwack to his side.
Besides, maybe the two of them were soulmates! Wouldn’t that be a fun turn of events? The adopted son of Batman, and the clone of Superman, destined to meet each other and fall in love at some point in their timeline. Destined to collide like stars drawn to each others center of gravity, bright and explosive.
Tim only scrunched his nose in thought, sliding just out of reach yet again and nearly tripping Conner as he slipped back behind him, not even slightly slipping up despite the abrupt change in their banter. “I’ve never thought about it. Why?,Determined to convince me we are?” The raised eyebrow was nearly condescending, but the smirk told him Tim was more than willing to hear him out with whatever, probably odd, explanation he came up with.
“I mean look at us! We never had any reason to actually work together, or even like to be around each other.” He stated as a matter-of-factly despite the rather blatant attempt at pulling a non- reason out of thin air, turning around to face the boy again.
“… Were you not forced onto the team so you could adjust to not being under Cadmus?” Tim asked with am amused snort, sliding in close to jab just under Conner’s armpit.
The taller boy pouted more deeply, stepping away rapidly. “Alright. Whatever, my point still stands. Even before I asked you out-”
“I asked you out, you were too up your ass to realize-”
“Before I asked you out,” Conner continued on as if Tim had not, in fact, interrupted his train of thought. “I was always able to find you.”
Tim finally stilled on the mat, tilting his head at Conner for him to continue even as he brought their spare to an awkward pause.
“I was always able to find your heartbeat. Yours before anyone else’s.” Despite his original intentions with bringing it up, Conner couldn’t help but stop in his own corner of the mat. The two of them had never really believed in destiny or fate, but maybe he could let himself believe for this? It was a sweet thought at least, to think that Tim was going to be there for him no matter what. His usual cheeky grin returned in full force on his face as he continued, a spark of laughter in his voice.“It’s like I was always drawn to you. We could have been written in the stars before we even met each other.”
Tim lifted an eyebrow, an endured smile on his face even as he said, “Or maybe you were just too attracted to your very ‘alluring’ teammate as you like to put it.”
The smaller boy was running at him again before he could even come up with any sort of smart retort to the comment.