Chapter Text
Tim honestly should’ve known something was up when Kon willingly offered to pay for lunch without going through his usual routine of bringing up every single time Tim had done something wrong to guilt trip him into paying.
He did pick up on it somewhere between Kon falling over himself to open every single door they came across and their food coming to the table, so clearly the detective skills everyone praised him for weren’t going all to waste.
“Alright,” he frowned when Kon laughed a little too hard at a lackluster joke. “I’ll bite. What do you want?”
“Can’t a guy want to treat his best bro to a nice lunch?” Kon asked, batting his eyelashes all exaggerated like over their burgers and fries. Tim snorted, causing Kon to give him a betrayed look. “Sorry, I forgot I was talking to the guy who was trained by the world’s greatest detective.”
“Shut up,” Tim smirked at the old joke, biting into his burger. Some things never changed.
“I need a favour.” Kon said sheepishly. Tim made a sound to convey how obvious this was around his food. Kon waited until Tim had taken another bite before speaking next. “I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend for Christmas.”
Tim choked on his burger.
Kon rushed behind him to provide the heimlich manoeuvre as it became more and more evident that Tim’s wheezes and coughs weren’t enough to dislodge the food from cutting off his oxygen any more than it already was. When he finally hacked it up, he was doubled over as Kon rubbed soothing circles onto his back.
“Is that a yes?” Kon asked, hopefully.
Tim straightened up immediately, looking around the room at the concerned bystanders that had gathered nearby, hoping to see cameras or a rift in the space-time continuum or Bart hiding with a big “gotcha!” banner ready to surprise him.
He came up with nothing, turning to nail Kon with a Look, capital L and all.
“No.”
***
“Think about it, it would solve all of our problems.” Kon was saying as they walked down the streets of Smallville after getting kicked out of the diner for causing a scene. Kicked out was a strong word for it, considering the staff were mainly concerned with getting Tim some help and advising him to see a doctor. He just left a large tip and left, pulling Kon with him.
Tim stuffed his cold hands into the pockets of his winter coat, looking at Kon with contempt. “I think it will just cause a whole lot more instead.”
Kon ignored him, bumping him with his elbow as he walked down the street. “I mean, my family means well, but ever since I came out it’s been Lois trying to set me up with every intern on the planet and Ma hinting that the neighbours nephew that visits every second month is single. And with Christmas coming up, it’s just gonna be sad if I come with no one. And you don’t even know how upsetting Ma’s pity look is.”
“What do I get out of this?” Tim asked. Kon lit up and Tim lifted a finger to shut him up before he opened his mouth. “That’s not a yes.”
“Dude, I was there for thanksgiving.” Kon said pointedly, and okay fair.
Dick had spent half the dinner asking which of his friends he was seeing and he was fairly certain he spotted Jason making bets with Damian and Alfred on whether or not he was dating Kon. Add in Steph bringing up a new guy from her university that she thought he’d be interested in every time he talked to her and Cass not so subtly showing off the diamond boulder that Steph had put on her finger, he had felt a little targeted.
So maybe Tim would give him that point.
But it didn’t mean he was going to give in that easily.
“Also, we have a family vacation which is really just Lois’ investigation into some big business corporation in January and you’ll come along if you’re dating me. And I know how much you love detective work and the opportunity to work alongside Pulitzer prize winning Lois Lane.”
Okay maybe he was going to give in that easily.
“Cass will see right through the facade,” Tim pointed out in a futile attempt to deflect. “And you’re not gonna be able to lie to Mrs Kent. Also my family is literally full of detectives and yours are investigative journalists and geniuses. There’s no way we’re getting away with this.”
Kon just grinned, and like always, it took Tim’s breath away.
It wasn’t fair that he could look that good all the time, even in the freezing cold. While Tim was practically blue and freezing in the winter cold, Kon was like a beacon of warmth and his smile blazed Tim’s insides on fire just looking at him.
“But you’re in, right?”
Tim sighed, running a hand through his hair. He looked around, double checking to see if there was a hidden camera disguised to embarrass him, or a dimensional rift that transported him into another dimension where things would play out like a hallmark movie, or even a wizard or something that had hit Kon with something to put him into some delirium where he thought fake dating his best friend was a good idea.
He sighed again when he came up clean, looking at Kon’s blinding, beautiful grin and feeling that fire inside of him burn brighter. What did he have to lose?
“I’m in,” Tim shrugged. “Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?”
Kon let out a whoop and pumped his fists in the air, causing a couple of bystanders to look over in their direction amused expressions, but the smile on Kon’s face was worth a few weird looks.
Tim just grinned back and looped his arm through Kon’s as they continued to walk along the cold street, letting out a silent prayer that he hadn’t jinxed this whole thing.
***
Making a plan and backstory was easy. Actually telling his family of detectives that he was dating his best friend was harder.
Kon had wanted to do it together, but Tim decided against it. When they were acting together, they could never really pull it off. He still remembered their failed attempt getting Kon to dress up as Robin to try to fool Laura. How she had actually believed them, he had no idea, but the plan had still been a mess when she ended up blasted him out of the sky and Tim had to deal with Kon’s complaints for the rest of the week.
So Tim had come to the manor alone, armed only with a pie that Kon had insisted on baking for him to “make a good first impression”. He shrugged off Tim’s reminders that Kon had cursed out Bruce to his face a million times, only grinning and adding a doodle of a stick figure Batman with an exaggerated smile eating the pie to the recipe tucked into the container.
Tim shoved the manor doors open, walking through the long winded halls, following the sound of arguments and chatter until he reached the living room where his family was clustered. As soon as he walked inside, Steph immediately collided into him with the force of a bull and he had to scramble to keep hold of his pie.
“Watch it– Tim!” She yelped, her blue eyes lighting up as she squeezed him into a tight hug, so tight that he felt his ribs begin to bruise. Only when he could no longer breathe did she let him go, nudging him with her elbow. “Took you long enough. Ooh, is that cherry pie?”
“Cranberry.” She wrinkled up her nose at him with disgust and he shoved her face away. “I’ll have you know it is delicious.”
“If you made it, we’d probably get food poisoning.”
“Gross.” Cass stepped out from behind Tim, smiling at him coyly. Steph’s face transforms immediately upon seeing her, twisting into a lovesick look of adoration. It was honestly disgusting how happy Tim felt seeing them together. “Apple’s the best. And your cooking sucks.”
Tim scoffed. “I made that chicken soup that one time!”
“Yeah, and how long did it take for Dana to drill that into you?” Steph smirked.
Okay, fair point. “Well it’s a good thing I didn’t make it, then.”
Damian sniffed as he walked up to them, peering down at Kon’s pie with his usual snooty disapproval, although it lacked its usual affect with his stuffed nose and pale face. Instead of looking adorable but slightly spooky, sick Damian just looked plain adorable.
“Timothy.” Damian said, his voice sounding congested and raw from the coughing. “Make it quick. I got out of bed for this.”
Tim scoffed, leaning forward to ruffle Damian’s hair and relished in the fact that he was too drowsy with illness to dodge his movement. As Damian’s bristling leaned a little too far on the side of menacing over cuteness, Tim moved away to look at the rest of the room.
Dick was sitting on the couch, a wide grin on his face as he talked to Barbara whose hands were knitted in front of her tightly, that fond look that she had whenever she looked at him never dropping. It didn’t matter where the two stood on their relationship, but Babs always had these certain looks filled with love that she always reserved for a few specific people. For Dick, for Jason Bard, for Dinah.
For Ted, too, one night holed up in the clocktower with pizza and Dick stuffed away in the lion simulation Tim had trapped him in.
He shook the thought off, looking past them to spot Bruce standing by the door looking fondly at them all and Alfred huddled with Jason in the corner. Oh, and he couldn’t miss Charlie sitting on the floor grinning up at him from where she leaned against Barbara’s wheelchair.
When he first met her four years ago he found her dangerous, dangerous enough to figure out Oracle’s identity, but so much more interesting as to how she managed to burrow so deep into Babs’ heart and never get out. Four years later after she had figured out their own identities and took it as an invitation to teleport whenever she wanted into his life, he figured out that she hadn’t burrowed so much as she burst in and refused to leave until you loved her.
“Tim,” He turned to the voice, smiling as Bruce walked forward and rested a comforting hand on his shoulder, heavy and warm. “Good to see you.”
“Thanks, Bruce.” Tim grinned up at him, letting Bruce squeeze his shoulder before stepping aside to put the pie down on the table.
“You wanted to say something before dinner?” Bruce asked, but it was more like a statement, only the slightest lilt on the end of his sentence to indicate he was asking.
Tim cleared his throat a little, straightening up. “Uh, yeah. So I’m seeing someone, someone you all know, and I just wanted to let you guys know before anyone finds out.”
“Caped or no cape?” Dick asked, leaning forward suddenly intrigued.
“Cape.” Tim affirms, watching Bruce’s face carefully for the next bit. “It’s, uh. It’s Kon.”
Bruce’s face remains a blank slate as silence falls over the room. Charlie was the first one to talk, confusion seeping into her voice. “Am I supposed to know who this is?”
It was like a switch had been activated and the room erupted in noise, everyone clambering over each other to talk.
“What, Superboy?”
“Hey, he dated Cass–”
“One date. We’re friends.”
“I knew it, didn’t I say I knew it?”
“Finally got your head out of your ass–”
“Well, Master Timothy–”
“I knew it! I knew it!”
“Do you ever shut up?”
“How’d this happen?” Dick asked louder than the rest, clambering over the couch to stand in front of Tim eagerly, his long limbs accidently whacking Damian’s arm with a foot.
“Well, when two guys like each other very much–”
“Don’t be a smartass,” Steph slapped his shoulder with a little too much force than necessary and wiggled her eyebrows with a suggestive leer. “Later, you're telling me all the details. All of them.”
Tim cringed internally, glad that he had forced Kon to make a cover story rather than just ‘winging it’ like he wanted to. Externally, he forced a smile her way and watched her expression fill with glee.
Tim looked away, still watching Bruce’s face intently for his reaction. He was… weird to say the least about Kon. He told him he trusted him to save the multiverse one moment and the next, he was telling his kind to keep out of the city like he hadn’t respected Kon for years.
He knew a part of it was because of Cass and how she hadn’t known how to fight metahumans and handle unpredictability at the time, but the encounter left a bad taste in his mouth still.
“Any burning questions, Bruce?” Tim asked, aiming for nonchalance but the underlying question of approval still seeped into his voice.
Bruce extended a hand almost hesitantly, resting it on Tim’s shoulder. “Are you– does he make you happy?”
Tim thought of the way that Kon had grinned and wrapped Tim in a hug when he said yes, thought of the warm tingly feeling he had felt all over, thought of the way his laughter was contagious and always made him feel right.
“Yeah.” He smiled, this one genuine and open. “He makes me happy.”
***
Later, Tim had chosen to spend the night seeing as the snow was particularly heavy that night in Gotham and he, quite frankly, couldn’t be bothered to head back to his apartment above the theatre.
Tim was lounging on his bed about to drift off when he heard a knock on his door. When he opened it, Cass stood outside, her arms folded over each other and a knowing look on her face, dressed only in an old pair of pajama pants Tim was fairly certain belonged to him and a fraying tank top. Tim sighed, stepping aside to let her in, already knowing where this was going.
She looked around, a ghost of a nostalgic smile settling on her face at the familiar surroundings before she flopped back on his bed. Tim sat down next to her, one leg tucked underneath the other, and plucked at the loose threads of his pajamas on his ankle.
“You aren’t really dating Kon.” She said bluntly with certainty.
“No, I’m doing him a solid.” Tim sighed, unraveling one long thread and wrapping it around his pinky finger. He could see Cass out of the corner of his eye move to plop her head in his lap instead of his pillow. “How could you tell?”
She gave him an unimpressed look, shoving her head towards his unoccupied hand. He smiled, sinking his hands into her soft hair, immediately recognising the product as his shampoo and conditioner.
Kon had snuck in and replaced his five-in-one with some expensive fancy scented ones that he left on his counter, paid for with Tim’s own card. He’d recognise the familiar scent of jasmine and sandalwood anywhere.
“Did you break into my place again?”
“I’ll keep your secret.” She ignored him, but Tim didn’t forget that she deflected the question. He knew he hadn’t been going insane thinking that his products were running out quicker than normal. “You're a good liar. Just… too tense here.” She pointed to his shoulders. “But you almost had it, with the happy part.”
“Don’t tell Steph.” Tim said.
Cass sat up with a gasp, suddenly alert. “I can’t.”
“Yes you can!”
“She’s my best friend!”
“She’ll make fun of me.”
“It goes against my vows!”
“Your wedding isn’t for another 6 months! C’mon, Cass. Please?”
She pouted, shoving at his shoulders with cold hands before standing and making her way to the door. “I’m lying to my fiance for you. You better make this convincing.”
“Please,” Tim grinned, leaning forward on his elbows. “How hard can it be?”
***
They decided to split Christmas, with them spending Christmas Eve at the manor and Christmas Day at the Kent farm in Kansas. It was easy, but it was nerveracking in the days leading up to the night and based on the flour that coated Kon’s faded jeans and plaid shirt, Tim knew he had also felt stressed surrounding it.
“Relax,” Tim smiled, brushing off the crumbs that somehow made their way into Kon’s curls. “Just see it as a trial run before we really do it for your family.”
“I know.” Kon said, pushing an air of nonchalance into his voice but Tim saw the way that his knuckles were turning white around the containers of baked goods he brought.
“You’ve met my family before, like, a hundred times.” Tim reassured.
“I know.” Kon repeated in the same tone of voice.
“Really? Because you still seem a bit nervous.”
“Me? Nervous? Pshh.” Kon frowned, straightening his back. He went silent for a moment, as if waiting for Tim to make the next move. Tim resolved to wait him out, until three minutes of silence ticked out and he gave up, turning to the door.
“Okay. Well, I’m just gonna–”
“Do you think I should’ve worn my glasses? And are you sure Bruce is cool with me? Because last time I was dating one of his kids it didn’t really end well and I know he’s been cool since then and I don’t really care what he thinks but he’s your dad now and–”
“Conner,” Tim gripped Kon by his shoulders, pulling him down and towards him until they were face to face. “Bruce respects you. He has respected you for the last eight years. And if he tries to take it back or acts weird like last time I’m telling you, father or not, I will beat his ass.”
“Yeah?” Kon asked, his eyes big and wide and Tim wanted to wrap him in a big hug and never let him go. If Kon hadn’t been holding a stack of containers Tim probably would’ve.
“Yeah. And Cassandra will be on my side because she loves you. You know how many times she’s beaten him? Like a gazillion times, dude. I don’t need Bruce’s approval to date you–” Tim knew he slipped up, saying date instead of fake date, but Kon didn’t seem to pick up on it, just nodded his head earnestly and took a deep breath.
“Okay, let’s do this.” Kon said with a steady determination, nodding towards the door. Tim grinned.
Tim twisted the doorknob to the manor, walking inside to it being surprisingly and eerily quiet. “Hello?” He asked, to be met with silence. Huh. “Let’s just put that away in the kitchen. They might be outside.”
Tim pulled Kon by his arm through the halls until they reached the kitchen, placing the containers on the Kitchen island and noting the snowy footprints leading outside. The grounds were covered in a thick sheet of snow and Tim could see his breath residing in the air in front of him. But before Tim could even step outside, a snowball crashed into his face, sending him stumbling back into Kon’s solid chest, Kon’s arms immediately coming up to rest on his shoulders.
He could feel Kon’s laughter from the solid chest behind him and craned his neck up to glare at the other man. “I thought you were supposed to have superspeed?”
“Hey, I can’t betray my batbabe!” Kon snickered, nodding in the direction of Cass standing triumphantly across the field. Tim glowered, sticking out his tongue at his sister who retaliated with a warm grin.
Tim moved to step out of Kon’s embrace, but his hands tightened around Tim’s shoulders, holding him in place. Tim glanced back again, this time with a raised eyebrow.
Kon shrugged, leaning down to whisper in Tim’s ear. “Gotta make it look good, right?” His breath was warm, ghosting over Tim’s skin like a furnace and triggering an involuntary shiver to run through his body.
Huh.
Tim didn’t dwell on it, stuffing it into a box in the back of his mind and shifting so that one of Kon’s arms was slung around his shoulder, pulling him into his warm side. Kon had always run hot, Tim wasn’t sure if that was a Kryptonian quality from their sun-sourced powers or if it was just Kon, but it was one of the best things about having him as his best friend.
They walked towards Cass and the rest of Tim’s family gathered near the lake and Cass immediately jumped onto Kon, wrapping him in probably one of the tightest hugs Tim had ever seen.
“Wow, I see how it is. My own sister.” Tim feigned offence, clutching his chest with one hand. Cass just rolled her eyes and hugged Kon tighter.
“You’re just jealous he built me a cloud castle after one date and you don’t have one.”
“What? No fair!” Tim looked at Kon, his eyes widening in betrayal. “Where’s my cloud castle? What do you mean?”
Kon let out an exaggerated groan, letting go of Cass to run his hand through his perfect curls, causing them to stick out an odd angle. For some reason, Tim was entranced by the movement, a desire to reach up and smooth the curls down overcoming him.
“I guess there’s no loyalty in exes.”
“You went on one date, that’s barely a relationship.” Steph grumbled, coming up to lean on Tim, slinging her arm around his shoulders. She was taller than him, only by a couple of inches, but it still let her blonde waves tumble over him when she tilted her head to the side.
“Okay, but I want a cloud castle.” Tim grumbled, yelping when Steph swatted him with her hand, shoving her away as she laughed. Kon opened his mouth to say something, but his eyes lingered on a movement above Tim’s shoulder, his expression shifting from humour to concern.
It was all the warning he got before icy cold snow was poured down the back of Tim’s neck.
He shrieked as he was tackled with a hug, shoving him down to the ground and pining his arms to his sides. Tim felt Dick’s laughter more than he heard it as he shifted around in his arms and grinned up at his older brother.
“Gotcha!” Dick laughed, leaning up to ruffle Tim’s hair.
“Quit it!” Tim tried to scowl, but he was smiling too hard. “You're a bigger kid than Damian.”
“I’m forever young at heart,” Dick grinned, before shoving Tim back into the snow and jumping up to his feet.
“You’re pushing thirty!” Tim hurried after him, grabbing a handful of snow and tossing it at Dick’s face, who dodged with ease.
“Am not!” Dick shouted, before throwing a snowball at Tim. Tim charged at his brother, chasing him across the grounds, throwing snowballs after him until Dick turned on him, grabbing Tim by the scruff of his sweater and pulling him back. Tim shoved snow down Dick’s shirt right as Dick smashed a ball into his face, getting it in his open mouth.
They collapsed into the snow in a fit of giggles, surprisingly puffed out from the chase despite being vigilantes who regularly train surfed Blüdhaven’s subways blindfolded. A small face came into view as Damian looked down on him.
“You’re both children.” He sniffed, the cold that ailed him still persisting, but he held out a hand to Tim anyway, pulling him upwards.
“Aww, you're just jealous that you didn’t get to throw snow at me.” Tim smiled, reaching up to ruffle Damian’s gelled hair, but the other boy swatted him away with a cough and a glare. “Shouldn’t you be inside so your cold doesn’t get worse?”
A malicious grin spread across Damian’s face then as he leaned in. “Then I wouldn’t get the chance to throw snow at you.”
Tim paused for a moment before the realisation hit him. He let out a groan. “No, come on, I still have bruises from last time.”
“It’s tradition! That’s what Christmas is all about, little bro.” Dick grinned, slinging an arm around his shoulders and pulling him back towards where they had left the rest of them.
Damian walked next to Tim, the excessive hair gel he used making him almost as tall as Tim. He was already dreading the day that Damian outgrew him.
They turned a tree, finding Bruce in a conversation with Kon, Kon’s back turned to him as they talked. Tim bristled immediately, but he noticed Cass standing not too far away watching them with a soft smile on her face. Alfred had come out, his usual suit decorated with a simple knit scarf that Tim remembered Dick giving to him one Christmas.
Jason was standing not too far away, talking with Steph and actually smiling, something he hadn’t done often in the past couple of years. After Bruce came back, he’d worked at trying to repair their relationship. It took a while, many tense years and negotiations and days when he’d show up in the cave to help Tim work on the redbird but then reappear days later to try to bait him into a fight.
But they’d made it through. Although he’d never fully be comfortable with all of them, he may miss a couple of dinners, although their family was always gonna be broken and weird, it was good having Jason there anyway.
Tim left Dick to slide into Bruce and Kon’s conversation, pulling Kon’s arm over his shoulder and leaning into the warmth of his side. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Nothing,” Kon said absentmindedly, his arm trailing down from Tim’s shoulder to rest on his waist before he pulled his hand away, making a face. “Why are you wet?”
“Blame Dick,” Tim grumbled, but he couldn’t hide the smile on his face. He noticed the corners of Bruce’s mouth twitch upwards and felt his grin widen. Kon frowned, but resided himself to the fate of being Tim’s personal space heater.
“What were you two doing?” Kon asked, a confused look on his face as he watched Dick rush around and grab their family to stand together. His lip jutted out as he did so, and Tim wanted nothing more than to pull Kon’s face down to his and—
“Are you sure you want to do the fight again?” Bruce interrupted Tim’s thoughts, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he watched Dick. “Last time you got injured—”
“Last time we were playing with the Birds of Prey,” Tim frowned, his previous apprehensions leaving his body with ease. “You know we shouldn’t have let Babs have that rapid fire snow cannon, no matter how disadvantaged she was.”
They made quick work of organising themselves into teams, with Alfred sitting out to be a referee. Dick got Damian, Steph, and Kon on his team, much to Damian’s approval, while Tim got Jason, Bruce and Cass. There had been an argument for a bit over who got Kon on their team and they ended it with Tim getting Cass, who could penetrate Kon’s impregnable force field, despite Kon not being able to use many of his powers — Kon tried to argue for TTK until Bruce mentioned how he destroyed every gun in LA five years ago and his abilities had been strengthened incredibly in the years that followed.
The following fight was brutal, to say the least, but it was like that every year, and within the first five minutes Cass had tackled Dick and forced snow under every article of clothing he had rugged himself up with. Kon caught Tim’s eye over the spectacle, a twinkle of laughter showing as he grinned, snow from Jason’s shot covering his hair, white speckles mixing in with brown curls.
He looked beautiful.
Tim threw a snowball in his face.
“That’s it, you're going down!” Kon yelled, a grin stretching across his face.
“You talk the talk, Kent.” Tim leered, taking a few careful steps backwards with one hand holding a snowball hidden behind his back. “I wanna see some action.”
Kon’s grin widened as he launched himself at Tim with a battle cry, tumbling them both down into the snow.
Tim shoved the snowball at Kon’s face, hearing Jason and Bruce cheering after him, but that was all he heard before Kon shoved his face into the snow.
He brushed it off, grinning up at Kon as he straddled Tim’s waist even as the melted snow started to seep under his collar and down his back.
“Do you give up?” Kon leaned down to say, icy water dripping from his hair and landing on Tim’s nose. Tim could shrug him off easily, but he found himself too fond to try, just leaned back into the snow and smiled up at Kon.
“C’mon, Drake! Don’t let us lose because you wanna get your dick wet!” Jason yelled, followed by an oomph sound as he presumably fell into the snow.
“There’s children here—” Dick yelped.
“Get off, dickhead!”
Tim’s grin widened as a blush spread over Kon’s cheeks, taking the opportunity to flip Kon over using a tactic he learned from Dick, switching their positions effortlessly. Kon blinked up at him, something like awe on his face. He could hear Steph start whooping and cheering with glee despite going for the other team.
“I think…” Kon started, his voice so low that Tim wouldn’t have heard it if they weren’t inches away from each other's face, his eyes trained on Tim but his attention clearly elsewhere. The blush stretched from Kon’s cheeks down his neck. Tim had a sudden overwhelming desire to see how low the blush went. “I think we should kiss. For the audience.”
Tim leaned in a little further, his gaze slipping from Kon’s face to his lips as the other boy licked them. “Gotta make it look good, right?”
He closed the gap between them.
The kiss started out sweet, innocent even, just the touch of their lips. But then Kon’s hands came up to Tim’s hips to pull his body impossibly closer and Tim sunk his hands into Kon’s curls and something shifted. Kon kissed him like a starving man devoured a meal, like he was taking everything from Tim and Tim just wanted to keep on giving, opening his mouth and letting Kon slip his tongue in.
He kissed Kon with everything he could muster.
Tim kissed him like he’d never get another chance.
“Wow, boy blunder. There’s kids here!” Steph crowed out, and if she was calling them out then maybe it was a bit much.
Tim drew back, scanning Kon’s face to see the other boy’s reaction. Kon’s lips were red and swollen and his hair was a mess and he looked at Tim with wide eyes and a grin, dimples cutting into his cheeks in perfect dots. He understood, suddenly, why every high school girlfriend he had hung posters of him in their lockers and on their walls.
He was so unbelievably gorgeous.
Tim stood up, helping Kon to feet and slipping his arm around his waist as he pulled him back to the group. Damian was snarling between coughs that he was almost fifteen to a snickering Steph and Dick and Cass was looking at them weirdly, so Tim sidestepped them to approach Jason, Bruce and Alfred standing a little further back.
Jason raised his hand to highfive Tim, but Bruce swatted it back without even looking.
“So,” Tim asked, running a hand through his hair. “Did we win?”
***
They moved inside to sit around the fire in the living room, warming themselves after the chill from the snowball fight shifted from cold to freezing. Alfred immediately rushed Damian upstairs to change into something warm while the rest of them made themselves comfortable on the couches.
Jason had started a heated debate with Kon about the logistics of Star Trek, a mistake that Tim should’ve prevented seeing as Jason’s stubbornness kept him arguing well past the point where he knew he was wrong and Kon’s passion for Star Trek was matched only by Bart.
Tim lingered back to sit next to Bruce on the sofa who was watching with a smile as Cass cracked up over some joke Steph made, her feet in Steph’s lap and her thumb tracing circles into the back of her hand, dancing over the ridges.
“She’s good for Cassie, huh?” Tim asked as he watched Bruce’s face. A flicker of something almost resembling guilt settled over his face for a split second.
“I shouldn’t have been so harsh on her.” He admitted glumly.
“Did you tell her that?” Tim questioned.
“She knows.”
“We all do,” Tim huffed out, his eyes trailing back over to Jason. “But that’s something you learned with Jason, right? Sometimes you need to actually tell people things. Not everyone knows what’s going on inside that head.”
Bruce made a low noise, something like a hum of affirmation as his line of sight followed Tim’s, drifting over Jason before landing on Kon.
“I was apologising.” He said in a low voice.
“Yeah?” Tim blinked, looking back at Bruce whose eyes remained fixed on the Kryptonian.
“Before the snowfight. I was apologising for what I said all those years ago.” Tim stiffened slightly as Bruce’s gaze focussed on Tim. “I think Conner is a formidable ally—” He paused, shaking his head and letting a smile fall on his face. “I know he is a good friend to you and Cass. And I know you don’t need my approval, but you two are good for each other.”
“Thanks, Bruce.” Tim was unable to keep the grin from his face, but he found that he didn’t want to.
“Honestly, I kind of saw it coming.” Dick grinned, flopping down on the other side of Tim, his arm resting around his shoulders. Tim blinked back at him, causing Dick to scoff. “Come one, Timmy. I knew from when we went to the fortress before— well, before. All he talked about was you. And you weren’t exactly the most subtle about it either.”
“Oh, we're talking about Tim’s crush on Kon?” Steph grinned, turning around so that she could grin at Tim over her shoulder. “Don’t get me started. The first time we were in my room and he saw my Superboy poster, he made me take it down because he couldn’t kiss me with it up.”
“That’s not why!” Tim spluttered, suddenly aware of Kon and Jason’s abrupt end to their conversation and their eyes on him. “We hated each other at first, I just didn’t wanna have to look at his face longer than I had to.”
“It was like watching kids pulling pig tails,” Dick grinned. Tim shrugged his arm off his shoulder in betrayal.
“Really?” Kon grinned, leaning in with a big smile. “Tell me more about little Tim’s massive crush on me.”
Tim groaned, looking up at Kon. “I did not have one!”
“The evidence is right here, babe.” Kon gave him a knowing smirk.
“Hey, you weren’t so innocent either, big guy.” Steph’s grin widened as Kon’s face paled. “What about the whole thing when Tim stopped being Robin and you came to Gotham demanding to see him and saying I wasn’t a real Robin?”
Tim perked up immediately, watching as Kon covered his face with his hands. “I didn’t know that.”
“The clone’s obsession with Timothy’s role as Robin was annoying.” Damian affirmed as he slumped into the chair opposite the sofa. He paused, grimacing a little as he turned to face Kon. “Sorry. Conner’s infatuation was annoying. He was very disapproving of my time on the Titans with his team.”
“The whole, ‘you’ll always be my robin’ thing?” Steph smirked at Kon as he lifted his head to grimace at Steph. “Yeah, we traded war stories of the disapproval of us as Robin.”
“I said I was sorry, man!” Kon groaned.
“I hate to interrupt," Alfred spoke from the doorway, the smell of food wafting through to meet them. “But perhaps you’d like to start on dinner before it gets cold?
The food was good, and dinner conversation was nice until the finished dessert and Steph decided to restart the conversation.
“Hey, remember the time that Tim changed his suit to Kon’s colours—”
“Okay!” Tim stood up suddenly. “Thanks for the dinner Alfred. Kon, let’s go.”
“But–-”
Tim grabbed Kon’s hand, the other boy letting Tim yank him out of his seat. “Loved the food, Alfred! Steph, I hate you.”
He pulled Kon up the stairs away from his family, dragging him through the manor until they reached his room that he had barely looked at since he was seventeen and pushing him behind the doors, relishing in the sanctuary it gave them.
Then Tim realised it was the room he’d barely looked at since he was seventeen.
“Hey, you kept the Enya CD!”
Fuck.
“Gimme that,” Tim scowled, snatching the CD out of Kon’s hands where he was grinning standing by his bookcase.
It was like a mirror of his sixteen year old self finding Superboy in his room making fun of his music to try to convince him to be Robin again. Except this time they weren’t in the Drake’s Robinson Park penthouse and he wasn’t sixteen and dumb about hiding his guilty pleasures. He should’ve expected better from a guy with x-ray vision.
“I told you it was a gift.” Tim lied, causing Kon’s grin to stretch from ear to ear, dimples dipping into his cheeks as his eyes drifted across the room.
It was barely changed from when Bruce took him in, but still much cleaner than he would’ve left it, and way cleaner than his room when he lived with his father, but that was courtesy of Alfred's pedantic cleaning and persistence. Mrs Mac had given up after the first few months.
No dirty dishes lying on the floor or comics strewn about on an unmade bed or clothes bundled in a heap on the floor that was impossible to navigate. His comics were placed upright into his bookcase and his clothes were packed away in his closet and his bed was made, corners neatly tucked in and all.
Even his prized Green Day and The Clash posters were still hung on his walls.
“I never saw this room,” Kon said softly, almost in wonder, as he reached out to touch an old physics textbook on his bedside table.
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t really in good shape when I was living here. Alfred probably salvaged it for parts.” Tim tried at a joke, but it fell flat. Kon remained quiet, his hands drifting from his textbooks to a picture framed on his bedside table.
Tim knew what it was without looking. It was the last picture they had of all of them — Cassie, Kon, Bart and him — before Lex Luthor got in Kon’s head and made him think he wasn’t good enough, before Kon hurt Cassie and broke Tim’s arm, before Superboy Prime came and fucked everything up and Bart aged up by three years and died and Cassie and Tim were left to pick up the pieces.
He remembered looking at that picture more times than he could count over those two years that he felt completely and utterly alone.
“Hey, Robbie.” Kon’s voice was soft and it brought him back into the present. Tim looked up, meeting Kon’s unreal blue eyes, blinking away tears that he hadn’t even realised had started forming in the corner of his eyes.
“I’m good.” Tim said, his mouth’s dryness contrasting the wetness of his eyes. It sounded wrong to his own ears.
He watched Kon’s face soften as he set down the picture on his bedside table and pulled Tim in, wrapping him in his arms and his warmth. He felt like a furnace, ablaze and lighting up Tim’s insides and all Tim could do was latch his hands in Kon’s sweater and not let go.
“I’m here,” he said, lips ghosting over the side of Tim’s face. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Tim just tightened his fists, holding Kon tight to his own body. He didn’t cry, just stayed buried with his head in the nook where Kon’s shoulder met his neck, breathing in his scent, grounding himself.
He was here. Tim hadn’t lost anyone else. Tim hadn’t lost Kon.
“Sorry,” he whispered, leaning back to look up at Kon but not stepping back. Kon smiled, a sad one, his hands sliding up from where they had cradled Tim’s body to him up to his face, brushing a smooth thumb over his cheek.
“Tim, do you know what day it is?”
Tim paused. It was Christmas Eve, what was so important? His mom was jewish they didn’t even–
Oh.
He felt a chill settle over his body. He had forgotten. How could he have forgotten?
There were a few days that he felt imprinted onto him, that he never forgot. The day his mother died and his father went into his coma, the day he ran home to find his father with a boomerang in his chest, the day his school was shot and twelve of his closest friends died, the day Steph died, the day blüdhaven and his stepmom were bombed.
The day that Kon died.
The day he lost Bart as well.
And his mom’s funeral, for a reason that was impossible to forget. They were jewish, so Christmas Eve never held much significance for them. It still didn’t, but the tradition and family time always made him feel connected and Bruce always made sure there was a menorah out for Hannukah.
But hearing church bells ring out around Christmas time always brought him back, always made him think of the day he put his mother in the ground, his father too incapacitated and depressed to do it himself, leaving the job up to Tim.
He’d forgotten.
“Come on,” Kon spoke again, his eyes looking at Tim with so much affection it made Tim’s chest hurt. It was more than affection, more than anything Tim could put a word to. “Let’s go to bed.”
Kon turned around while they shed their clothes, stripping down to their boxers. Tim threw on a pair of pajama pants and T-shirt, but Kon always ran hot, only pulling on one of Dick’s old T-shirts that Tim had stolen. It was tight in the chest and biceps, something Tim tried to ignore as he watched him crawl into his bed, and definitely didn’t look any lower than the waist.
Tim stood there awkwardly for a moment after switching off the lights. “I can sleep on the floor—”
“Don’t be an idiot.” Kon rolled his eyes, reaching out his hand and wrapping his fingers around Tim’s wrist, giving it a slight yank.
Tim slipped under the covers next to Kon, lying there like a plank for a split second before Kon let out a frustrated huff and pulled him in towards him so they were facing each other, wrapping Tim up in his arms, his head pillowed on his chest and their legs tangled around each other. Tim moved his arm so that he was holding Kon.
“Hey,” Tim whispered, moving his hand that wasn’t holding Kon’s body up so that he could cup his cheek. “I didn’t ask before but are you good?”
“Yeah,” Kon’s breath tickled Tim’s cheek, his eyes bright in the dark. “I’m good. I love you, you know that right?”
“I know,” Tim managed around a yawn. His eyes were already drooping closed, his breath evening out. “Love you too.”
Faintly he registered Kon’s breath hitch before he felt warm lips press to his forehead in kiss. There was no family, no one to pretend for, no one to convince. But still, Tim felt himself leaning into the touch, finding comfort in the fact that someone was there to hold him through the night, finding comfort in the fact that it was Kon.
As he drifted off, he thought of Kon’s radiating smile, his calming presence, the way his kiss on the field had caused an eruption of emotion beneath his skin, the way he felt like he was on fire every time he spent time with Kon, the way he loved Kon–
Tim’s eyes flew open.
He was in love with Kon.
Fuck.