Chapter Text
Tim was sitting in the windowsills as he enjoyed the rare feeling of his face cradled by the warmth of the sun. It baffled him every time, the extent of how different Metropolis and Gotham were. In Tim’s hometown it was perpetual autumn: cloudy, no matter what season was stated on the calendar sheet, and also rainy, even when other cities would finally get their portion of woolly snow to play with. The only times there was ice, it would typically be a toss-up from Dr. Freeze.
But Metropolis was summery, all year long, even now, when its streets were shining from the cold white. It was no wonder that this was the city of kind and shining Superman.
Clark’s apartment was nice. It was basking in the day light, welcoming in a way that none of the places Tim knew ever were. It was as if the home itself was radiant to be a place to rest for anybody who needed it.
Needed it like Roy on the floor, who was very busy scratching the offered belly of a big white dog with a “Krypto” tag on the good boy, while Wally was plucking stray fur out of the pet’s tail. Dick was hugging Roy tightly from behind, his chin buried in the red hair, poor Jason used as a pillow for Dick’s pointy elbow. Tim had a growing feeling that Dick was compensating for years of touch-starvation.
None of them, Tim included, were in masks. This is how unthreatened you were in the home of the Superman.
Tim tried to enjoy the peace and subtly take some pictures and completely ignore the way Lois Lane was roasting and demolishing Bruce in the background.
Go figure good guy Clark would just straight up invite his asshole friend in, no questions asked (just some Nightwing tossed in the air once or twice for everyone’s pleasure), but no interrogations or whatsoever from the strongest and most powerful man in the world who simply oozed happiness from the fact that said asshole friend called him to meet and was speaking to him nicely again.
It’s a good thing Clark had Lois, really. And it was a good thing the woman was angry, but not against giving Bruce a chance to redeem himself, understanding how important their friendship was for Clark (yet it was really, really, really nice she didn’t share her husband’s heat vision or any other power activated by roaring emotions).
But Tim was very much second guessing if his acceptance to visit the Kents was such a great idea. He hated when people were fighting.
And there was no Kon in sight.
And he didn’t really want to impose on Dick’s reunion with his friends. Dick was giddy with happiness, talking with Roy and Wally and glancing at Clark here and then. Nobody spoke to Jason, because the muscle mount of a man had been hiding his embarrassed face in Dick’s thigh ever since Wally reminded everyone about the extensive way Jason recently dashed over Wonder Woman.
As Tim was about to swear that furniture started shaking from Lois brightly yelling the vast list of Bruce’s screw-ups in the man’s face, the boy noticed Superman slipping away unnoticed from his wife defending his honour and coming towards Tim.
“Hi,” said Clark and smiled, ignoring that they all have greeted already, before the breakfast and right after the Bats and Titans knocked on the door.
“Hello,” said Tim politely, not showing how guarded he wanted to get.
Wrong Superman. This one didn’t dismiss a child begging to find his father. This one made him coffee, told him how brave he thought the boy was and promised to help in any way he could. Tim encountered both Supermen only once, and he certainly liked this one better, even if he could see that others in the room had their silent accusations about Tim being given any kind of caffeinated beverage.
“Do you still want to meet Kon?”
Tim perked. “Yes! But… you said he was on the farm?”
Clark smiled. “I’m Superman. I can get you there if you want, I doubt it ma and pa will be against feeding a guest some good pumpkin pie.”
Something suspiciously similar to a ‘sorry’ was met with ‘you better’ in the background. Clark shifted from one foot to another, uncomfortable (which looked jarring with the man’s posture and physic). He clearly needed to take a breather.
“Yes, pl—, if it’s no bother,” said Tim, glancing quickly back, but Jason was still safely wallowing in his misery of being known.
“Excellent!” beamed Superman and offered the boy a hand. “Guys, I’ll take Tim to Kon, be back soon!”
“I have my phone!” managed Tim, before being whisked away.
Clark wasn’t exactly as fast as Wally, or any other speedster, yet for a non-powered human like Tim the trip still seemed rather fast.
Kents’ farm might have been one of the constants of the worlds with its fields and calmness of the rural life. It never changed.
Superman gently lowered Tim down in front of his parents’ house as he was typing inhumanly fast on his phone with two fingers of one hand.
Now that no wind was pushing the words back, Tim asked a question that he wanted to ask through all their flight. “Superman? Why was Kon not with you?”
Tim needed to know that to not upset Kon if this universe too had any issues between the clone and Superman, or if they escalated in this world.
“Oh,” said Clark distractedly. “He’s grounded.”
“He’s what?!”
Never ever Tim saw Clark grounding Superboy. Ever (true, it was because the two didn’t really have much of a natural parent-son relationship and were still figuring things out, but still! Kon never misbehaved at home, keeping all his sass strictly on the missions and in the Titans’ house).
“Grounded,” answered Clark, still typing.
“Superman, why—?!”
Before Tim finished, Clark was out, leaving Tim in the middle of Smallville.
This was fun.
Well, at least Tim now had time to properly prepare before meeting his friend's double from this universe. Or so he thought before the door to the farmhouse bashed open, revealing one Superboy with adorably messy bed hair.
Tim really didn't know how he could explain all that happened to Kon, he had already tried calculating so many possible questions, too many even. Yet the one that his mourning best friend used to actually greet the risen from the dead Red Robin he did not predict.
"It worked," breathed Superboy.
Tim instantly got A Very Bad Feeling.
“Kon. What did you do?”
He didn't get his answer.
He got swaddled in a bear hug.