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The first thing Kon thinks when he sees Tim waiting by his locker in Smallville High is oh shit, did I forget about a date? (Well. Actually, it’s wow, those jeans are really working for her, then oh shit. So sue him, he’s a teenage boy.) Still. As far as he remembers, they weren’t planning to see each other today, and there isn’t anything going on in Smallville that would register on Red Robin’s radar.
So yeah, maybe he’s a little confused. “What are you…?”
“Hi.” She glances at him, lips twitching upwards like something amuses her. Probably his poorly-disguised panic. “Don’t worry, this was an unplanned trip. Well,” she adds with a grimace, “I didn’t plan it, anyway.”
“So who did?”
“Bruce. He felt that I need a vacation, away from my responsibilities.” Her grimace darkens into a full-on glare, directed at no one in particular.
Kon… can probably guess Bruce’s motivations on this one, but he has to ask anyway. “And why did he do that?”
“I may have had a ‘nervous breakdown’ – “ she adds exaggerated airquotes for effect – “that was barely worth being called that, and he decided I needed to get away. So here I am.”
“Oh, Tim.” It’s probably not a great idea for Conner Kent, small-town nobody, to draw attention to himself by kissing Timothea Drake-Wayne in the hallways of his high school (not that anyone’s recognized her yet, but someone could), but he doesn’t really care right now. She makes a pleased noise against his mouth, so he figures it’s more than worth the risk. He ends the kiss by wrapping an arm around her shoulders and tugging her closer, careful not to knock off her balance with the crutches. Of course the reason she’s using them isn’t real, but they have to make it look good. “How long are you staying?”
“At least a week. I was going to rent a hotel room – “
“You’re staying at the farm.”
“ – that’s what Mrs. Kent said, too.” Her mouth twists up into a rueful smile. “She picked me up at the airport. I’ve already been to the house – she put me in the room next to yours.” After a second, she adds, reluctantly, “although she did add that she didn’t plan on doing bed checks.”
It’s amazing how fast he can flush red, with the right kind of motivation. “Um.”
“That was what I said, too.”
“Conner Kent can I talk to you for a minute.” It takes Kon a second to realize that the slightly shrill request came from Simon, who is currently staring at them like Kon just grew horns and announced his new allegiance to the Dark Side: completely unexpected and a total betrayal.
“Uh, I’m kinda busy here,” he says, and Simon grabs his arm and yanks him away from Tim. Kon could just refuse to move, but he figures he should find out what’s going on, so he lets Simon drag him along.
“You just kissed the CEO of Wayne Enterprises,” Simon hisses at him once they’re mostly out of earshot of Tim.
“Uh. Yeah?”
“You don’t think this is important information?!”
“…No?”
Simon turns around and flails at nothing in particular for a few seconds before turning back to Kon. “I’m an inventor, Conner! Do you understand what a boon it would be to the scientific community if I had access to her company’s resources?” He huffs. “Of course, I have no intention of signing my work over to any company, but I’m sure an arrangement could be made – “
Kon grabs hold of Simon’s shoulders to get him to stay still for a second. “Look, man. I can ask her later if she’ll talk shop with you, but she’s here to relax, okay? Don’t ambush her with this first thing.”
Simon blinks rapidly like he’s trying to reboot his train of thought before nodding. “Of course. That would give me time to prepare my thoughts. Thank you, Conner.”
“No problem, man.” Kon turns back to his locker to go back to Tim, but she’s disappeared. There’s a post-it note on his locker that says didn’t want to distract you from classes, see you at the farm. P.S. tell your friend I’m happy to talk about his work later. He does a quick scan of the area for her, but she’s pretty much gone. Figures that she can even do the creepy Bat disappearance thing when she’s on crutches. He sighs, shakes his head, and grabs his books for next class.
He kind of rushes back to the farm after school, where he finds Tim sitting on the porch with her crutches set off to the side and Krypto resting his head in her lap. Krypto wags his tail a few times when he sees Kon, but is clearly way too happy with his current arrangement of Tim-scritches to get up or anything.
“Yeah, I see how it is,” Kon says to Krypto. “Tim shows up and suddenly I’m not the favorite anymore, huh? Traitor.”
Tim snort-laughs and pats the seat next to her. “Sorry. I’m sure your status will be re-instated after I head back to Gotham.”
“But the feeling of betrayal will last forever.” He sits down and slings an arm around her, pulling her into his side. “Settling in okay?”
“Mm. Mrs. Kent made sure of it.” She tips her head over onto his shoulder, and he takes the opportunity to kiss her forehead.
“So. You said something about a nervous breakdown?”
“Ugh. It wasn’t that bad.” She sighs. “I just get so busy with Wayne Enterprises and the Neon Knights Foundation and you-know-what, and then Bruce asked me to keep an eye on Damian and he started mouthing off, and I just – freaked out a little.”
He kind of wants to ask what freaked out a little means to her, but he already has a pretty good idea. Yelling, lashing out, probably at least one super-reckless near-suicidal stunt. “Well, I promise a stress-free week. Nothing shitty will happen.” And then, because Smallville has been kind of unpredictable lately: “And if it does, I’ll take care of it.”
She snorts. “You realize you’ve all but guaranteed that we’re going to be attacked by something at least once a day this week, right?”
“Eh, Krypto will protect us.”
Krypto raises his head at the sound of his name, and Tim grins down at him. “I’m sure he will. Maybe we should open up a spot for him on the Titans. I heard he won a race between Superboy and Kid Flash, so I’m sure we could use his speed.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Kon rolls his eyes before kissing the top of her head again. “I got some chores to do, back in five.”
“Mm-hmm. Well, I can’t promise I won’t run away with Krypto before then, but if I’m still here when you get back, you might be able to convince me to spend some time with you.”
“Well, if that’s the way it’s going to be – ” Kon starts to stand up, but she reels him back down for a kiss with an arm around his neck.
“Hurry back, Superboy,” she says once her mouth is free again.
He smirks. “Count on it, Girl Wonder.”