Chapter Text
Bernard snuggles deeper into Tim’s side, face illuminated by the laptop laying in Tim’s lap and nearly blinding him. Bernard scrunches his nose and asks,
“Why is your brightness so high? You’re gonna blind yourself.” He complains. Even if he can’t see Tim’s face, he knew that Tim was rolling his eyes.
“You don’t have to be right in front of it. Or you could get an eye mask.” Bernard lets out an unpleasant sound.
“If I have an eye mask, then I can’t look at you,” Bernard pushes himself up just high enough to crane his head around and land a small peck on Tim’s cheek. A blush crawls up on Tim’s face as he mumbles a small ‘whatever’ and continues what he’s doing.
“Am I your first boyfriend?” Bernard asks suddenly. Tim halts his movements and blinks before returning to whatever he was doing before.
“No. In high school I had one.” Tim sounds apprehensive about giving up this information. Bernard doesn’t stop pushing.
“How long did you date?” Bernard asks quickly. Tim purses his lips.
“Almost a year,” Bernard’s eyebrows furrow.
“Who was it?” Bernard knows that he probably won’t know the name, or the person, but he still asks.
Tim tenses. “Connor. Um, Kent.” Bernard’s eyebrows shoot up.
“Like, the actor?” ‘The one who’s stated that he’s never been in a good relationship’, Bernard didn’t say. Tim nods slowly. “What happened?” Bernard’s voice is quiet, as if he doesn’t want the words to reach Tim.
“It was a long time ago. I don’t want to tell you because I don’t want you to see me in that light. I’ve changed,” He looks up at Bernard, “I promise. I’m not the same, stupid kid that I was, and I promise that our relationship will never end up that way.” Tim sounds genuine.
“Okay.” Bernard whispers, and lets it go.
Bernard stares at his phone, an unnamed number in the ‘new message’ bar at the top of his screen, a message sitting unsent in the subject bar, Bernard having drafted and redrafted it too many times to count. He finally got over his nerves and sent it, watching the word ‘delivered’ appear almost instantly. Bernard holds his breath as he waits for the word ‘read’ to appear not even a minute later.
You: Hey, long time no see. You probably don’t wanna talk to me but I would like to ask you a few questions haha
(+1) xxx-xxx-xxxx: I’m sorry, I think you have the wrong number. Who is this?
You: Oh! Sorry, guess I forgot to tell you my name. It’s Tim, from high school, this is Connor, right?
(+1) xxx-xxx-xxxx: What do you want.
You: I wanna talk to you. To apologize for what happened.
You: Meet me at the cafe on main next wednesday. 12:00
The message was marked as read, but Kon didn’t respond, so Bernard just had to hope that he came.
Bernard slid into the booth across from Kon, putting his hands together as if he was a villain, fingertips touching each other, making it almost feel as if he needs a cat to complete to look. He pushes that thought aside and turns his attention to the man in front of him.
“Hey, um, I’m sorry, but I’m supposed to be meeting someone here, can I help you with something?” Kon asks awkwardly. Bernard narrows his eyes, gaze sharpening.
“Tis I, you’re supposed to meet.” Bernard responds in his most mysterious tone. Bernard didn’t know why he said it that way, it just felt right. Kon pauses, looks at Bernard confusedly, then slowly nods.
“I believe you’re mistaken. I’m supposed to be meeting Tim here,” Kon has a polite, yet strained smile on his face. Bernard nods once.
“Yes. I texted you that. I may have stolen your number from Tim’s phone as a means to reach out…” Bernard trails off, scratching his neck sheepishly as he realizes how creepy that probably sounds. “Honestly, I’m surprised you even responded, or that you still have the same number.” Bernard tacks on as an afterthought. Kon blinks.
“So you aren’t Tim.” Kom clarifies. Bernard snorts.
“No, actually, I am, I just gained a whole new facial structure, freckles, and blond hair, and also shrunk.” Bernard responds sarcastically. Kon huffs out a laugh, but waits a moment before responding.
“So, why did you invite me here via a stolen identity?” Kon raises an eyebrow. Bernard takes a breath.
“I wanted to ask you about you and Tim’s relationship… Tim said he didn’t want to tell me because it’s been, y’know, five years since then, and he’s changed a lot, and he doesn’t want me to view him in a negative light because of his past actions, but I want to know what I’m getting into.” Bernard rehearsed what he was going to say multiple times, practicing it until he had it down so that he didn’t fumble. Kon looks as if he was weighing his choices. Bernard fidgets nervously.
“If I’m gonna tell you, I want Tim to be present. He may have been awful to me but, like you said, he’s changed since we were hormonal teenagers, and he should get a chance to hear my side of it because it’s definitely biased,” Kon decided. Bernard scrunches his face, as if he didn’t like that answer. He sighs and nods begrudgingly.
“Dang it, that means I have to tell him that I talked to you. But I guess that’s fair.” Bernard pauses. “I’ll text you about what Tim says. I paid for your meal, so don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to you soon.” Bernard stands up, placing his palms flat on the table as he talks before grabbing his phone and exiting the cafe, the small bell above the door echoing throughout the space, leaving Kon to wonder what on earth just happened.
“I was the one who broke up with Tim.” Kon started, fingers threaded together where they sat on the table. Bernard’s eyes flick over to Tim’s for a moment, barely noticeable, but Tim seems unfazed, face stoic as ever. Kon continues.
“We were sixteen, and, looking back, we broke up for the dumbest reasons, but hormones make you overly sensitive and stupid.” Tim cracks a smile, letting out an amused huff. “Tim had just taken up his position at W.E. when all the problems started, but we had been dating for like, what, four months at this point? Something like that. But anyways, so he started working, like, nonstop, and I swear he didn’t know how to turn off his work brain. He was always thinking about work and rarely made time for just me, there was always someone else there, most of the time it was Cassie or Bart, if not both, but it was never just me.” Kon trails off.
“I always thought that I could get more out of interactions if there were more people there, I guess?” Tim takes over, eyebrows furrowing as he tries to rephrase his response. “Like, I thought that, if it was just you, I wouldn’t make the most of the time that I had, so I would have Cassie and Bart there to knock out two birds with one stone.” Tim pauses. “Wow, yeah, I see why you broke up with me,” he laughs. Bernard makes a concerned but confused face, as if he felt that it was all wrong. Kon nodded.
“Yeah. It made me feel like I wasn’t enough, y’know? Like I wasn’t worth your time, or something.” Tim’s eyes go wide.
“Kon, no, that wasn’t it, I promise, I was just really stupid and really bad at making time for the people I care about back then. I loved being around you, I swear.” Tim takes Kon’s hand and looks at him earnestly. Kon looks back with a strained smile.
“Of course, yeah.” Kon takes a breath before placing his hands in his lap, leaving Tim’s hands cold. “But it was also because you worked so much, not just that you didn’t make time for just me, but also because you always had work on your mind. I don’t think we had a single date in the last three months of our relationship that wasn’t interrupted by something for work. I was always either stood up, or left at the restaurant, even if you were my ride home,” Kon lets out a self-deprecating laugh. Bernard turned to Tim seriously.
“If you ever do that to me, I will kick your ass.” Tim laughs.
“I have a much better work-life balance nowadays, don’t worry, that won’t happen.” Tim responds. Bernard nods once
“Good.” He says. Kon’s smile melts into something sweeter.
“Now, listen,” Kon clears his throat, “When I say he was always thinking about work, I mean it. I mean, seriously, we would be like, on the couch cuddling or making out or something, and this man would gasp like he had an epiphany and exclaim some work related problem that he thought of a solution to. It would kill the mood. Every time,” Kon shakes his head and mutters ‘blasphemy' under his breath. Tim groans and buries his head in his hands and Bernard bursts out laughing.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Bernard shakes his head, clearly getting too much joy out of Tim’s embarrassment. Kon’s eyes go wide as his head moves side to side.
“I am being dead serious.” Bernard leans back and grins.
“In my defence, I didn’t know how to compartmentalize when I was sixteen.” Tim tries to defend himself.
“Babe, with all due respect, that doesn’t help your case,” Bernard replies. Tim just groans louder.
“Why did I ever agree to this,” Tim says with a glance to the ceilings, as if he was asking whatever god was watching over them. Bernard and Kon just laugh and continue poking fun at his habits.