Chapter Text
“He’s cute.”
The unexpected voice from his right makes him jump, “What?”
“He’s a cutie, his friends aren’t too bad either.”
“What the hell you on about Steph?” Tim says giving his best friend a look.
Steph just rolls her eyes and smacks him on the shoulder, “You know exactly what I’m on about Tim.”
Tim shakes his head in denial, but he can already feel a blush coming up on his face, “No I don’t.”
“Tim. You have been eyeing him up since he walked through that door, which was 3 hours ago!”
Tim feels his face go even hotter, he shrugs his shoulders “I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Steph just looks at him and raises an eyebrow, “Oh course not! It’s not like every time he comes up to the bar you just happen to go to the other side and serve someone else.”
Tim opts for not saying anything and goes back cleaning the bar, he has to restrain himself from looking up over to where the very cute stranger and his friends are sat.
Every day for the past two weeks these three strangers have been coming into this bar and drinking, Tim has yet to learn what their names are, but there are two guys and a girl and they all look to be around his age. The one Steph was on about, the one Tim had been eyeing up, was the tallest one out of the group. He was tall and broad across the shoulders, had short black hair and Tim’s pretty sure the guy has blue eyes and nicely tanned skin. Tim’s noticed that he wears a lot of flannel and jeans, it gives him that farm boy look and Tim can’t help but think that it’s cute and even hot.
Tim is startled from his thoughts by a voice, “Uh, hey.”
He jumps and looks up at the owner of the voice and sure enough it’s the exact stranger that Tim has been slightly obsessing over. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t even noticed the guy walk up to the bar while he was cleaning it. Tim stares wide eyed at him, he feels his heart hammering in his chest, his face has once again is growing hot and he can’t think of a coherent sentence to say to the guy.
Before the situation could get any more awkward Steph comes over and saves the day. She slides up next to Tim and smiles brightly at the stranger “Hey Conner, is it the usual?”
The stranger, Conner, smiles back and nods. “Yes please.”
After that Steph wonders off to get whatever his usual is. Tim carries on staring unsure on what to do because the stranger is in front of him and he can’t get away to save whatever is left of his dignity.
“Dude you okay? You’re looking flushed.” The stranger, Conner, is looking at him with what Tim is guessing is concern.
Tim straightens up, “Um I’m, I’m fine. Just lost in my own thoughts that’s all.” He lets out a small awkward laugh.
Steph appears back at his side with three beers in her hands, she wordlessly slides them over and takes the money that’s offered to her.
“Thanks Steph.”
Steph smiles sweetly before disappearing again leaving Tim with the hot stranger. Conner, Steph had called him Conner. At least he now had a name to go with the pretty face.
Once again Steph comes back and hands over the change to the man who immediately pockets it. However instead of disappearing with his drinks like Tim thought he would, he stayed standing at the bar. Tim was about to walk away but Conner was talking to him again, “Hey, when do you finish your shift?”
Tim looks at him to see the guy looking back at him, bold blue eyes staring at him that makes Tim’s heart pound in his chest. After a moment when Tim doesn’t answer Conner raises an eyebrow in question and Tim seems to remember that he’s actually got to answer. He spins around and looks at the clock before looking back at Conner.
“I finish in half an hour,” He tells the other man. Tim has a feeling he knows what this conversation will be like and is already trying to work out how to respond if certain questions come up.
“After you’re done why don’t I buy you a drink.” Conner says looking at him in a hopeful manner.
Tim feels bad, but he can’t help but decline and the only reason he’s declining is because he’s already made a fool of himself and he doesn’t need alcohol to be added into the mix and make things worse. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m need to get back home tonight, my brother’s have this big family thing planned and I promised I’d be there.” He lies giving Conner a small smile.
The other man goes to open his mouth, but Steph’s voice comes from behind him and stops him from talking, “Don’t listen to him Conner. For some reason he’s lying.” She then appears at his side once again, only this time she’s looking smug. Tim is struggling to keep his cool, what the fuck was she doing? He glares hard at his friend as she talks to the hot guy, Steph has definitely seen his look and it frustrates him even more as she completely ignores him like he wasn’t even there.
“Tim would love to have a drink with you, if you go back over to your friends I’ll send him over when he’s finished up here. I’m working all night from now anyway, so I can make sure he doesn’t escape.” She promises.
Conner looks conflicted, “I don’t want to keep him here against his will, if he doesn’t want to drink then I’m not going to force him. I want him to have a good time and forcing him to stay won’t achieve that.”
Hearing that just makes Tim’s crush on this guy rocket up by 100%. Not only is he hot and cute but he cares. Tim bets this guy is going to be the death of him. Tim goes to say something but once again Steph beats him to it “Oh honey, that’s sweet of you, but believe me when I say that he wants to he just won’t admit it.”
The guy hesitates before answering “Uh okay if you’re sure.” He then picks up the three drinks and walks away from the bar. Tim tries very hard to not stare at his ass as he walks away. Tim watches as he sits back down where his friends are and how they all engage in a conversation, in a very quick moment Tim sees the two friends shoot him looks before looking back at Conner. Well I wonder what they’re talking about then.
Thinking about friends he turns around to Steph and smacks her on the shoulder, hard. “What the fuck did you think you were doing? Why would you do that?” He hisses at her.
Steph just steps away from him and gives him a bored look. “Why do you think genius? You’re interested, he’s clearly interested, and he finally asked you out to have drinks! Why would you turn that down you idiot and make up some bullshit lie to try and get out of it?”
Tim looks away from her and doesn’t answer. She always sees right through him dammit and because of that he bets she already knows the answers to her own questions.
After a moment of silence Steph sighs “Right, well anyway we have work to do so let’s do it.”
As it gets closer to the end of his shift Tim gets more anxious. He keeps sneaking glances over to Conner’s table where he sees the three of them engaged in conversation. They’re all clearly good friends and have been for years, surely it would be awkward when Tim joins them. Its not like he can escape from going over there and joining them either, he knows Steph is keeping an eye on him like a hawk and true to her promise she will not let him leave without having some drinks with them.
When his shift is finally over he fills in his hours he’s worked that day and grabs his jacket. He walks out of the bar and stands at the other side. Steph is immediately in front of him smiling. “So…”
“I hate you.” Tim tells her as he gets out his wallet, “Can I have four beers please, or whatever they have been drinking all night.”
Steph nods before disappearing, she comes back with the drinks and hands them over. “Here, Tim relax you’ll be fine. I bet you’ll even have lots of fun.” She tells him, forever the optimist.
Tim hands her the money, “Yeah well we’ll have to see. I may as well make a good first impression to at least the other two and try and make up to Conner by buying them drinks first.”
Steph gives him his change. “You’ll be fine as I said. Now go have fun.”
Tim sends her a scowl before picking up the four drinks. He starts to make his way over to the occupied table. Its an easy journey as the club wasn’t too busy that night, they have their regulars and a few others in but that’s only because it’s currently a weekday night. If it was the weekend it would be packed.
When Tim got close to the table Conner notices him and waves him over the rest of the way.
Conner grins at him “Steph kept her promise then.”
His smile made Tim’s heart stutter. “Yeah she did.” He smiles back at Conner feeling himself blushing. Remembering that there are two others at the table Tim places the drinks down on the table and spreads them out to each person “I brought you guys drinks hope you don’t mind.”
“I have no clue who you are, but I like you already.” The other guy at the table claims taking a sip from the drink Tim had just placed down.
“Oh yeah! Sorry,” Conner suddenly bursts out “Guys this is Tim and Tim this is Bart and Cassie.”
“Hi.” He greets weakly. At least he finally knows their names.
“Conner move your fat ass and make room for him to sit down.” Cassie tells him.
Conner looks sheepish as he moves to the side making room for Tim to sit. Tim sits down and finds himself opposite Cassie with Bart diagonal to him and Conner directly to his left.
It goes silent for a few awkward beats and Tim’s just thankful for the loud music in the background, it makes the moment a little more bearable. Tim’s trying to come up with a question he can ask the three strangers, but his mind is keeps running blank. This is the exact thing I wanted to avoid, thanks Steph. Thankfully Cassie is the one who breaks it with a comment, “Nice club you guys got running here by the way Tim. The three of us have really enjoyed coming here.”
Tim’s taken back by the comment, its not very often he gets people complimenting his work space right to his face. “Thanks, but I’m not really the one you should be thanking, its my manger you ought to thank. I’m just here to get paid, serve drinks and watched people get pissed.” Tim tells them. Truth be told he likes working here, a lot. Steph is definitely a major factor in why he likes it here, the two of them get along really well.
The three others all laugh at his comment. “Yeah well, it’s hard to find a place with a good atmosphere, this place is cool.” Conner comments from next to him.
“I assumed you guys liked it here, you’ve been in like nearly every day for the last couple of weeks.” Tim says.
“Yeah, as we said it’s got a good atmosphere.” Cassie repeats.
As they talk Tim picks up on something “You guys aren’t from Gotham are you?” It was after he said it he realises that he actually voiced his question. He quickly tries to cover it up “I’m sorry I wasn’t meant to pry, it’s just your individual accents suggest you lot aren’t from around here.”
“Dude chill. Its cool.” Bart tells him with a laugh. “Yeah, we’re all from different places, we’re on a road trip!”
“Road trip? You guys are on a road trip and you stopped off in Gotham of all places?” Tim questions. Why would anyone want to stop in Gotham?
“We’re actually heading for San Francisco, we saw that Gotham was a couple hours away from where we were, so we decided to see what this city is all about. We’re leaving at the end of this week.” Conner tells him.
Tim nods taking a sip of his drink. He won’t ever admit it out loud but he’s disappointed to hear that they’ll be leaving, that Conner will be leaving.
“How long you guys been traveling for? San Francisco is miles away, you guys really road tripping it?” Tim asks curiously.
“We’ve been on the road together for about 4 months now, just traveling here there and everywhere really. It’s been a lot of fun, we have definitely had some crazy ass adventures.” Cassie says smiling.
“Sounds fun.” Tim laughs taking another sip.
“Right, you will not believe what happened when we were in New York….”