Chapter Text
Kon liked his sleep.
Unlike some of his friends, he enjoyed getting a reasonable amount of rest after a hard day’s work. Kryptonians were made for daylight, after all.
Earlier that day, he had helped Clark and Jon take down Toyman and his army of robotic toy soldiers. Afterward, Ma and Pa had invited everyone over for a hefty dinner to replenish the calories they had burned. He and Jon had played fetch with Krypto for a couple of hours while the adults talked, then that night, Conner had gone to sleep looking forward to a full night of peaceful rest.
Of course, those hopes were dashed when he was rudely woken up by a certain Superdog licking his face.
“Krypto,” he groaned pulling the covers up over his head, “window’s open if you want out, but it’s bedtime.”
Krypto whined loudly and pawed at the blankets covering Kon’s face. With a huff of frustration, Conner threw the covers off and got out of bed.
“What do you want, bud?” he sighed. Krypto responded by jumping off the bed and pushing Kon towards the window. “We can’t go for a fly right now. We will tomorrow.”
Krypto whined again and kept pushing Conner forward. Now that he was starting to wake up more fully, he started to get a bit concerned. Krypto was acting like something was wrong. Out of habit, he checked on his friends and family by listening to their heartbeats. He ticked them off as normal one by one until his ears focused on Gotham City:
Tim.
His heart was beating extremely fast. The clock on his nightstand said 2:35, making it 3:35 in Gotham. The Bats would have returned from patrol by now. It wasn’t exactly abnormal for Tim to still be awake at this hour (his best friend had a horrible sleep schedule), but he shouldn’t be doing anything to make his heart speed up like that. Maybe he was having a nightmare?
Krypto jumped up on the window sill.
“Are you worried about Tim, boy?” he asked. Krypto whined, obviously an affirmative. Kon grabbed his phone off the nightstand. “Here, I’ll try calling him.”
The phone went immediately to voicemail.
Okay, now Kon was getting worried. He grabbed a sweatshirt and pulled it over his shirtless body. He didn’t even bother changing out of his pajama pants or putting on shoes before he followed Krypto out the window and into the nighttime sky.
They arrived at Tim’s window at the manor a few minutes later. Krypto whined and scratched at the glass. Kon saw that Tim appeared to be asleep in his bed, but his heart was still beating out of his chest. He wasn’t thrashing about or mumbling in his sleep like he normally did while having a nightmare, either.
Using his TTK, Kon slowly opened the window. As soon as the opening was wide enough, Krypto crawled inside and jumped in bed with Tim.
“Whoa, boy! Don’t tackle him!” Conner admonished, his voice a low whisper. Now that he was in the room with Tim, something smelled… off. It was something he had smelled before, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
Suddenly, a light flickered on. Kon had been so focused on Tim that he hadn’t heard anyone coming. He jumped six feet in the air out of surprise. When he floated back to the ground, he came in face-to-face with a very angry Bruce Wayne in his pajamas.
“Kon-El,” he growled, “why are you breaking into my home at 4 in the morning? And why is your dog on top of my son?”
Kon gulped. “Well, um, Mr. Wayne, sir, you see, Krypto woke me up. He was super worried about Tim. Then I got here and his heart is beating super fast and there’s this weird smell and -”
A small groan from the bed caused Conner to pause his rambling. As Tim slowly sat up, Krypto continued to rub his head on the teen’s shoulder.
“Krypto? Wh’t’re you doin’ h’re,” he slurred. He turned and met eyes with his best friend. “Kon? Wha’s goin’ on?”
His t-shirt was soaked in sweat, and his hair was matted to his forehead. Conner also noticed his hands shaking slightly when they came up to pet the dog.
Bruce must have noticed this as well. He immediately rushed over and sat on the edge of Tim’s bed.
“Tim, where’s your phone? I think your blood sugar is low.”
Tim just blinked slowly in response.
Conner spotted the device on the nightstand. He grabbed it, but it wouldn’t turn on. “I think it’s dead,” he announced, plugging it into the nearby charger. “It’ll probably take a second to come on. Can you use your phone?”
“I left it in my room. There’s a backup tablet in the drawer there. It should have his glucometer pulled up,” Bruce directed. Conner did what he was told and pulled out the sleek Wayne Tech tablet. The screen was blinking red with a warning.
“It says it’s 56,” he reported. “That’s low, right?”
Bruce’s grimace deepened. “Yes.” He reached over to the side of the bed where there was a mini-fridge. He retrieved a small bottle of orange juice and unscrewed the lid. “Here, Tim, you need to drink this.”
“‘M tired,” Tim complained. He tried to lay back down, but Krypto wiggled behind his back and kept him sitting up.
“Good boy,” Kon praised. Tim glared at him (or, at least he tried to. It didn’t look very intimidating).
Bruce sighed. “Tim, you can either drink this, or I can give you a shot. Dealer’s choice,” he pressed. Tim mumbled discontentedly but accepted the juice anyway.
“Is he okay?” Conner asked, watching his best friend closely.
“‘M right here,” Tim protested.
“Drink your juice,” Bruce ordered, rubbing his temples. “He should be. We’ll have to check his blood sugar again in about fifteen minutes. It’s fortunate that you found him when you did. With his phone dead, he didn’t receive a hypoglycemia alarm.”
Conner reached up and rubbed Krypto’s back. “You can thank this guy. He somehow knew something was wrong with Tim even from Kansas.”
“That’s ‘cause dogs can smell lows,” Tim explained. He had drunk about half the juice and was becoming gradually more alert.
“Is that what that smell is? I knew I had smelled it before, but I had no idea what it was. I can’t believe he picked up on it all the way from Smallville. I didn’t notice it until we got here.”
“He’s a good boy,” Tims smiled. Krypto, after confirming that Tim was being taken care of, curled up beside the teen and put his head in his lap. Tim scratched him between the ears. “Such a good boy.”
After a few more minutes, Tim rechecked his blood sugar. It was high enough that Bruce announced he could go back to sleep.
“Tomorrow, we are going to have a conversation about the importance of keeping one’s phone charged,” he warned, “but for now, I’m going back to sleep. I suggest you boys do the same. Conner, you and Krypto are welcome to spend the night if you need to. I don’t let my kids drive drowsy, so I’m sure the Kents wouldn’t mind given the circumstances.”
Kon blinked at the man. Batman had just offered to let him spend the night. Usually, it took weeks of Tim begging for the man to let him come over.
“Oh, um, thank you, Mr. Wayne.”
“You’re losing your touch, B. Keep this up, and people are gonna think you’ve gone soft,” Tim said, yawning halfway through the sentence.
Bruce’s mouth twitched upward into what could almost be considered a smile. “Well, I understand that this night could have ended very differently if Kon-El and Krypto had not shown up when they did. Not forcing them to fly back to Kansas at this godforsaken hour is the least I can do. Just don’t make me regret it.” He leaned over and pat Krypto on the head. “Good dog,” he said. Krypto panted happily.
They said their goodnights, then Bruce left the room.
Tim scooted over on his bed and tapped the empty space. Kon peeled the sweatshirt off and dropped it on the floor before getting in bed.
“G’night, Kon. Thanks for comin’ over. You’re a good best friend,” Tim whispered, already half-asleep.
Kon chuckled as he got comfortable under the covers. “Anytime, Rob.”