Work Text:
They managed to find themselves a little café inside the mall. They used it as a place to have a break from shopping and the continuous walking they’ve been doing all of that day. Tim slides into one side and Cassie slides in opposite him. They take their time to order some food, the variety in sandwiches, burgers, sausages, pastries, cakes, teas and coffees makes it hard to choose something. Eventually they both decide something and order it.
As they wait they chat about anything they could think of but somehow their conversation always turns to the topic of their boyfriends. Conner and Bart. The two men had gone off on their own earlier on in the day leaving Tim and Cassie to their own devices. Tim didn’t mind, it was nice just spending someone to one time with Cassie. She shares some stories of the trip before Tim joined them and she shares how she ended up on the trip.
“Well, my situation was like yours, I met Kon and Bart in a local bar in Detroit. I was there because my mom was there on an archaeological dig. Anyway, I met those two and we got along really well, we got drunk, Bart and I had a thing, found I really liked Bart and to some extent Conner, then hey presto I joined them on this crazy ass adventure and here we are in Central City many months later.”
Before Tim could respond to that their orders of sandwiches and drinks came. They thank the waitress as she leaves. This time Tim raises an eyebrow at Cassie as he picks his sandwich up, “What did your mom say about it?”
Cassie shrugs, “She didn’t seem to bothered to be honest, even encouraged me to go at times. It was like she couldn’t wait to get rid of me.”
Tim makes a humming sound, unsure on what he could say to her. He takes a moment to bite his food and to swallow before he changes topic. “You said that you liked Bart and to an extent Kon, what did you mean by that?”
Cassie gives him a deadpan look at that question, “Seriously Tim? Are you seriously asking me that? Because, idiot, he’s hot! You and I both know that he’s smoking, he’s kind and considerate, cares and is a real softie. Who wouldn’t like him?”
“It sounds like you have a crush on him.” Tim snorts at her. He totally agrees with what she’s saying though, that’s the reason why Tim likes him so much, it also helps that yes, Kon was smoking hot.
She shakes her head, “No, as much as I would, I couldn’t. It’s just…” she tilts her head side to side as if trying to find the right word, “I don’t know Tim. I just can’t see myself with him. Also, 1, he’s gay or more or less is and 2, he’s dating you.”
Tim shrugs, “Okay fair enough.”
“Though I’m glad that we found you Tim.” She says, seeming somewhat serious.
That makes him look up at her with a frown, “What do you mean by that?”
“Before you joined, when it was just the three of us, it seemed like Conner was very much third wheeling me and Bart. I felt bad because it was like I had stolen his best buddy away from him. So when Bart and I first noticed that he had eyes on you we took action and kept going to that bar you worked in so Conner could go and talk to you and even get a night of fun out of it. Except that it took nearly two weeks for him to talk to you because you kept running away every time he went over to the bar.”
Tim feels a blush forming on his cheeks at the last comment. He looks away from her and focuses on the last bit of sandwich in his hand. When he thinks back to that night just under four months ago he can’t help but think how stupid he had been. In his defence how else was he supposed to react when a hot stranger kept on trying to talk to him!
Cassie lets out a laugh, “God Tim it was so funny. Every time you ran away, it gave Kon more determination and courage to talk to you. Though I think it’s mainly Steph we ought to thank really.”
Tim groans and rolls his eyes, “Steph just likes to mess with my life. She’s as bad as my brother’s sometimes.”
“Either way when you said yes to joining us on this trip I was over the moon because it made Conner super happy that you were coming with us. You also balanced out the numbers so at least we can go off in pairs, friends wise or couple wise.”
“Yeah I guess. I’m just happy to get away from Gotham truth be told, also I love seeing Conner everyday and hanging out with you and Bart. It makes a change, these past four months have been probably the best time I’ve had in about 7 years give or take.” Tim lightly smiles, still feeling the blush on his cheeks. He’s not usually this sentimental and open about his feeling but it does feel good to have it out in the open now.
They were just finishing up their snack when Cassie’s phone starts to ring. She shoots Tim a look before answering it.
“Hello. I’m sorry what? Are you being serious? Really! What the hell Bart how the fuck- actually no, don’t bother. Is Conner there with you as well? Oh brilliant. Fine, Tim and I are on our way.”
Tim watches as she angrily hangs up. She runs a hand through her hair while letting out an aggravated sound. Tim frowns, somethings happened to their other halves, but what?
“Cassie, what’s going on?”
She levels him with an annoyed glare, though Tim knows it not actually meant for him, he’s just the only one around to receive it unfortunately. “Bart and Conner are at the police station. I’m not entirely sure why but he’s asked if we can go and get them.”
Tim blinks at her trying to process what she just said. “Did you just say that Bart and Conner are at the police station?”
She nods, “I did.”
“What the hell are they there for!” Tim exclaims. “We leave them for what, 4 hours? How the hell did they manage to get into enough trouble that got the police involved?”
Cassie makes her way out of the seat and stands up, “I have no idea, but let’s go find out shall we?”
Tim follows route, they pay for their meal before leaving the mall and headed for the car. With Cassie in the driver’s seat and Tim in shotgun they make their way over to Central City Police Station
Half an hour later they both walk into the station. It’s filled with men and women who were busy at work, some going from one side to the other, others sat at their desks, others talking over files. They share a look and carry on walking through the building, they have no idea on where their boyfriend’s could be. They wonder aimlessly around for a few minutes and it was when Tim was about to ask someone that a voice was calling out to them.
“Tim, Cassie, over here.”
They turn around to find Bart’s grandfather waving at them. They walk over to the man and greet him with smiles. The blond man smiles back at them, “If you would like to follow me then I can take you to them.”
They follow the man further into the building and eventually into an office. In the office were Bart and Conner, they were both sat in some seats opposite a desk. When they hear the door close they both swivel around and face them. Tim watches in amusement as their faces light up at the sight of them before remembering where they are and as their faces fall again now looking guilty.
Bart’s grandfather walks around and sits on the unoccupied side of the desk. He rubs a hand over his forehead and gives Bart a disappointed look, “Now that Cassie and Tim are here you’re both free to go. Bart you’re lucky that charges aren’t being pressed for this. I honestly thought you knew better than to start a fight in the middle of the mall.”
Bart lets out a sound and starts doing frantic hand gestures, “I didn’t start anything! It was Conner!”
“Hey!” Conner protests.
Bart’s grandfather puts his hand up to stop any more verbal responses, “I don’t care. Look you both should know better, just next time try and let it go, let it go over your head and walk away.”
Both Conner and Bart look away from the man, wearing identical expressions of guilt. “Sorry Grandpa Barry”, Bart mutters at the same time say Kon says, “Sorry sir.”
The older man waves his hand this time in a dismissing motion, “Now get out of here, I’ll see you lot back at home this evening.”
They all smile send him a smile as they say their goodbyes and start making their way outside of the police station. None of them talk for the entire walk back to the car and it was only when the four of them were sat in the vehicle that someone finally spoke. That someone being Cassie.
“What the hell you guys!?” She exclaims as she turns around to look at the two men in the back of the car. Tim also twists around so he could see them.
They both seem to shrink at Cassie’s outburst, the two of them attempting to melt into the seats. Now he’s looking at them properly, Tim could see that Bart had a spilt lip and slight bruising on his face while Kon had a bandage wrapped around his knuckles and also had a few bruises on his face.
A few beats go by and again Cassie was talking again, this time her voice low and threatening, “I’ll ask one more time. What. Happened?”
Conner and Bart cringe as they share a glance with one another.
“Well you see…” Conner starts after Bart rapidly shakes his head in protest, “What happened was when we coming out of the techno shop we…”
“I can’t believe they didn’t have it!” Bart complains as they walk away from the till.
Conner snorts at his friend, “I don’t understand why you’re looking for one anyway. We’re still on the road for liker another 4 months, you won’t even use it.”
“I need that special state of the art DVD player Kon! It has all extra things a normal one doesn’t have!”
“Great reasoning.” Kon replies back as he rolls his eyes.
They get to the door and push it open to exit the store and enter the main area of the mall. It was super tall and wide, it goes around in a large circle and at the centre of it there was a large water fountain. The two of them begin to walk in a random direction, neither of them really knowing where they’re going.
The mall was fairly busy but not in the way that it’s over packed. There were people bustling about everywhere, lots carrying shopping bags, some entering and existing shops, people standing around and talking in large groups or in pairs.
One pair in particular caught Conner’s eyes, two young men, probably older teenagers by the look of it were standing close together in an almost intimate embrace. One had tears streaming down his face and the other was clearly trying to comfort him. The one trying to comfort ends up placing a few light kisses to the other’s lips. That seems to do the trick because it soon escalates into a make out session. At that point Kon turns away not wanting to watch it. He wants to be annoyed at the display because you know there’s a line out in public but it’d be kind of hypocritical of him because of the amount of times he’s tried to start something like that in public with Tim. Not that Tim would have any of it, he’d always smack Kon hard if he starts to try something.
As they walk Kon puts the young couple out of his mind and turns to Bart, “Hey why don’t we meet with Tim and Cassie, we could get food or something?”
Next to him Bart shrugs, “Don’t mind man. I’ve seen what I’ve wanted to. Anywhere you want to go in particular?”
“Don’t think so, how about-”
The rest of Conner’s sentence was cut off by a shout behind them.
“Take your fucking germs else where you fags!”
That sentence makes Conner freeze in his spot. He slowly turns around and faces where they’ve just walked from. Before him there’s a few men standing near the teenagers. The teenagers were obviously startled at the sudden outburst of the man and clearly uncomfortable with the attention they’ve unintentionally gained.
“We don’t want your kind around here you disgusting pigs!”
“Scram outta here you dikes! You’re not wanted here or anywhere!”
Conner feels instant rage boiling up inside of him at the language they were using. How dare they. How fucking dare they. The men carry on shouting insults at the stunned teenagers and at this point a crowd has started to form. Conner’s pretty sure he’s seen a few phones being held up and pointed towards them.
It’s when a hand wraps around his bicep that Conner realised he’d started walking towards the group of homophobic men. He spins around and sees Bart’s serious expression.
“Don’t.” He warns.
“Bart.”
“Conner.”
Conner grits his teeth in an attempt to stop himself from lashing out at his friend. He focuses on the men once again to find that their language is just getting worse by the minute. A quick glance to the teenagers pushes Kon over the line. They looked upset and frightened. From his own experience Kon could tell this was the first time the young couple was experiencing something like this, they have no idea on what to do. What made matters worse was that no one was stepping in and stopping the men from screaming out atrocious language.
Kon pushes Bart’s hand off his arm and storms forward. He ignores Bart’s hiss of his name and carries on forward.
“Hey!” He shouts and successfully gains the attention of the men. “Would you guys shut the fuck up? Seriously, leave them alone.”
Kon moves in between the men and the teenagers, he stands up straight and stares them down.
“Look at this fellas, we’ve got some big hot shot here.” One of the men say smugly, it was the original one Kon heard insult the kids. “What’s it to ya? We weren’t insulting you.”
Kon shrugs, “Doesn’t matter. I don’t like that language you’re using and I’m asking you to stop and leave these kids alone.”
He’s going to try and be civil, because he’s always been taught that violence isn’t the answer. At least this way he’ll be able to face Ma and say that he tried to talk to them before moving to violence. (At this particular moment he hopes that it goes to violence because they were seriously pissing him off, despite what Ma will say.) Sorry Ma.
“Aw, somebody doesn’t like the language we’re using.” They mock in a baby voice. The group of men laugh before they focus on Kon again, “Why does it bother you? You a faggot too?”
Kon takes a deep breath to control his rage. God he hates that word. He’s doing his best to refrain himself from knocking these guys unconscious. In answer to the question he shrugs, “What if I am?” He doesn’t care if people knows he’s gay, by now he’s had enough experience in dealing with homophobes.
The man laughs, “Oh, look fellas the dikes are gathering! There’s more of them!”
“I’m going to ask you one more time. Stop using that language and leave the kids alone.”
“Or what?” They laugh out.
Kon smirks almost evilly, “We’ll just see won’t we.”
The man steps closer to Kon, he keeps going until they’re next to each other, face to face. Kon doesn’t back down, he stands straight and glares at him. The man was his height and around his build. Kon bets he could take him.
“And if I don’t fag?”
“Then you’re not going to like what’s about to happen.”
The man laughs mockingly again and turns around to face his buddies, “Lookie here, this fag has some big balls.”
Kon times it just right. As the man was turning back around to face him, he swings his fist up and it collides with his right cheek. The force causes the man to stumble to the side. He’s stunned for a few seconds before getting a hold of himself, he wipes his cheek and levels a glare at Kon.
Then just like that they were in a full-on fist fight. Kon loses track in time and what was going on with everything else because he was too caught up in beating the shit out of this homophobic asshole. He delivers several punches and even receives some, he gets winded at some point and another time he’s pretty sure he heard the man’s nose crack.
It wasn’t until hands were grabbing at him that he realises the man was unconscious underneath his weight. He lets his himself get dragged away, an arm comes across his heaving chest as a hand grabs his wrist.
“Enough Conner.” A voice was saying to him.
He takes a moment to get his breathing under control before looking around at what was actually happening. There were policemen around them. One was glaring straight at him, another was down by the unconscious man, one was over by the group of men and another by the two teenagers. Conner looks behind to find that it’s Bart who has a hold on him. There was bruise forming on his face and he had a bloody lip, it makes Conner blink in confusion. Had Bart gotten involved in the fight as well at some point? It briefly makes him wonder what he looks like.
This time he lets his friend keep a hold on him as they watch the police officers talk to one other, eventually they speak to Conner and Bart.
“We need you two to come with us.”
Unwilling to argue they both wordlessly follow the officers out of the mall. But before they leave Kon glances at the two teenagers, they both make eye contact with him and mouth ‘thank you’. Conner gives them a nod each in acknowledgement.
“Then we went back to the Station and got bandaged up. They said they were going to press charges, especially since the guy I beat the crap out of ended up going hospital, but Bart’s grandfather interrupted and spoke to the officers and somehow managed to get us to go away free.” Kon summarises up not really looking at them.
Tim blinks at Conner for a moment before sending a quizzical look at Cassie. She sends one straight back.
“So you, Conner, started a fight in the middle of the mall because of some douchebags were being homophobic?” Cassie questions him.
He nods, not looking at all guilty, “Yeah that sums it up.”
Cassie turns to Bart, “And you, Bart, stood by and watched until you felt like it was the right time to intervene?”
“To be honest Conner had it pretty much handled, I just handled the others when they started trying to hit Conner.”
Cassie sighs and rubs a hand over her forehead in exasperation. “Children, I’m dealing with children.” She mutters as she turns back around to face the wheel.
Tim shares a smile with both Kon and Bart before saying, “Well at least you’re both safe and only have a couple of bruises to show.”
He turns back around and buckled up as Cassie starts the car up. They head out of the station and carry down the road heading back for Bart’s grandfather’s house. They’ve been staying there since they’ve arrived in Central City just under a week ago now. Bart’s grandparents were lovely and welcomed them with open arms. Their house was fortunately big enough to accommodate them all, Bart and Cassie stayed in Bart’s room while Tim and Kon stayed together in the spare bedroom. It’s been a lot of fun, a great opportunity to learn about Bart’s home life and of course for Bart to see his family again.
As the car moves along the road a mix of emotions run through Tim. He feels proud of Kon for standing up against those assholes but he feels sad because it won’t be the last time those teenagers come across people like that. Tim’s had his fair share of experience in dealing with homophobes and every time it’s not nice but by now he’s learn to let it go over his head. He often gets people commenting on his sexuality because he’s the son of the famous Bruce Wayne and next in line to run Wayne Enterprises, but at the end of the day how does his sexuality interfere with how he works? It doesn’t.
So he feels proud of Kon but sad at the same time. There’s not a lot he can do about it but hope that those teenagers see through it and stay together.
Tim’s broken out of his thoughts when they pull up to the Allen’s house. They let themselves inside and go about doing individual things. Tim and Conner head up to their room where Kon promptly sits down on the bed. They share a smile and Tim walks over to him, Tim takes his hand in his own and studies the bandage wrapped around his knuckles. He bends down and presses a light kiss to it before looking at Kon.
“That was good of you by the way, I’m proud of you.” Tim tells him.
Conner shrugs, “Eh, it was nothing really. Those assholes deserved it, they had no right to shout those kind of things at the teens. Okay they shouldn’t have been doing what they’re doing in public but that doesn’t mean they get to have vulgar language thrown at them.”
Tim nods knowingly and runs his other hand through Kon’s hair as the man’s arms wrap around his waist. They stay like that for a moment before Tim was suddenly being thrown to the side and down on the bed. He lets out a laugh as Conner crawls up the bed and hovers over him.
“I’m so glad I met you Tim,” he says quietly, voice full of love and his eyes sparkling.
Tim couldn’t help but smile as well as feel slightly embarrassed at the words, he feels his face heat up as a blush forms over his cheeks. He looks back up at Conner anyway. “I’m glad I met you too.” Tim tells him.
Conner grins brightly and bends down to press a kiss to Tim’s lips. Tim immediately responds and kisses him back. What starts out as a few light pecks quickly transform into something much more deep, heated and passionate.
“Boys! Dinner’s ready!”
The shout from Bart’s grandmother startles both them. They jump and Tim lets out a hiss as Conner bites his lip hard. They pull away, both breathing heavily. There’s a moment between them as they burst out laughing.
“Guess we’ll have to put that on hold then won’t we?” Conner grins at him.
Tim rolls his eyes and pushes Conner off him so he could stand up. Conner follows suit and then holds out a hand to him which Tim takes. Conner begins to pull him out of their bedroom and smiles widely, “Let’s go eat!”