Archive of Our Own

Tim considers himself neither pretentious nor stuck up, but as he looks at the modest sized farm house him and his family will now be living in for the foreseeable future, he very briefly reconsiders these statements.

"This place sucks ass," Jason proclaims as his wheelchair gets stuck in a divot in the path leading up to the porch.

Damian takes a running start to dislodge Jason, nearly sending them both flying when the wheelchair tips precariously. They don't, unfortunately for Tim as that would have been the highlight of his day so far, and Jason continues to roll himself forward. Tim still doesn't understand why Jason refused Bruce's offer of an electric wheelchair, he won't even let Tim enchant it for him to make it easier on him. Honestly, out of all of them, Jason seems to be the least affected by his accident, staunchly refusing any and all 'unneeded assistance' because he's - and these are direct quotes - 'not dead yet' and 'still has a functioning upper body, unlike Bruce who's back cracks when he yawns.'

Bruce frowns as he unloads another suitcase out of the trunk of the godawful minivan they drove up here. "We're here so that we can all have some privacy while you're recovering."

Jason looks at the path up to the house, then the divot he just escaped from, then back to Bruce. "Oh yeah, this is gonna be real' helpful in my recovery. Y'know, once I get into the house, hopefully still in one piece."

Their father has the decency to look sheepish as Jason makes his retort. "Damian can smooth out the path for you once we get everything in," he decides.

At least he's not forcing Tim to do it, Tim sucks at earth magic. His area of expertise lies more in spells, enchantments, potions, and the like. Unlike Damian, who is basically a prodigy at any sort of nature related magic.

"At least he had the forethought to put a ramp in," Tim points out, kicking a large rock off of the path.

"Hold your praise, we still haven't seen inside," Damian says as he bangs his fist on the front door.

Dick and Cass had come down last week to start setting things up, making sure the house is liveable for the seven of them. Though they hadn't come out to greet them, the two should be home right now to let them in since Bruce hadn't gotten the chance to make copy's of the single key yet.

The front door swings open, Damian just barely stopping himself from accidentally knocking on Dick's stomach instead of the door. "You made it! And you're all still in one piece," he smiles, ruffling Damian's hair and swiftly avoiding an elbow to his side as he all but leaps off the porch.

"I'm actually still in multiple pieces." Jason continues to wheel forward. "In my legs." he adds for clarification, as if the bright red casts encompassing a majority of both his legs have somehow gone unnoticed.

"Yes, we know," Dick nods, unfazed. "Obviously I wasn't talking to you." his oldest brother smirks as Jason flips him off.

This is going to be a long summer, Tim thinks morosely. He throws his backpack over his shoulder and walks down the path, passing Jason who has once again gotten stuck in a divot.

"Remind me again why we picked a place called Smallville of all things?" Tim asks while watching Jason trying to free himself.

"Clark grew up around here," Bruce replies, abandoning his task of unloading the suitcases to come help Jason. "Can you just let me wheel you in at least Jason?"

"No, fuck you. I got this."

In a moment of unusual kindness, they collectively decide to keep their mouths shut when Jason immediately gets stuck as soon as Bruce lets go. Bruce helps him get free once more, but otherwise lets Jason do his thing with a defeated sigh as he watches his second oldest valiantly attempt to overcome the obstacle that is the bumpy dirt path.

"Maybe I'll get started on smoothing out this path now," Damian nods decisively, speaking out loud more for the purpose of hearing his own voice than getting anyone's opinion on the matter. As is per usual.

Damian starts with the path closest to the house, slowly working over it to smooth it out with his magic. Not keen on sticking around to watch this all unfold, Tim sneaks past Dick and Damian. "I'm going to my room."

Jason takes a moment to stop focusing on wheeling himself forward to taunt his brother. "You mean your lair."

"Just because my room is in the basement doesn't make it a-" Tim begins to shout, a hand on his shoulder makes him stop and take a breath. "Hi Cass."

"Hello, I made sure all your stuff was in your room, but I didn't unpack anything, just in case," she smiles and glides past Tim. "Dick, come help me and Bruce with the luggage," she grabs their older brother by the arm, tugging him forward. "I won't bring food out to you if you get stuck out here," Cass tells Jason as her and Dick pass him.

He waves her away. "Nah, I got the hang of this now."

Good god, has he missed Cass.

Instead of helping the rest of his family unload the minivan and unpack the rest of their stuff, Tim spends the rest of the afternoon getting his room ready. This move is temporary, technically it's only meant to last this summer, and maybe into the fall depending on how fast Jason heals, so he only took the most important things with him. Anything he can get in town was left back home to make more space for the things that he can't get in a small town like this. Like a majority of his rare potion ingredients, or his expensive equipment and whatnot.

Unlike other, more popular, types of magic, most of Tim's stuff required other ingredients, not just magic itself. Thankfully all of the most common ingredients in most potions and enchantments are things you can find anywhere. More complex things require some more rare things, but Tim can survive with what he has access to for the summer. It will give him a chance to experiment too, see if certain things can be substituted and with what. Or maybe the lack of access to things he's used to being able to acquire fairly easily will inspire some new potions or something.

Listen. He's trying to look at the bright side here. Things have been rough for everyone since Jason's accident, and the amount of publicity that comes with being part of the Wayne family didn't help. It's why Bruce made the decision to move out to the countryside when Jason was healed enough to not need immediate access to a hospital. Technically Bruce had given them all the choice - excluding Jason - on if they wanted to stay in Gotham or not, but as much as Tim complains about the move and his siblings, truthfully they all needed to get away.

He just wishes that Bruce had picked somewhere a bit less… in the middle of nowhere. At least they passed by an apothecary on their way to the house, because Tim had been panicking when they first drove into the town and he saw no sign of one. It looked small and rundown, but it was better than nothing.

A quick check of the time tells him that he has some time to kill before dinner, probably just enough time to walk to the apothecary for a quick look around. It would be nice if he still had his motorcycle, but Bruce shot that down as quickly as Tim had asked about it, telling him he isn't used to riding on roads like the ones in Smallville and he didn't need two injured kids. Tim refuses to drive the minivan, and Dick would laugh in his face if Tim asked to borrow his car, so walking it is.

Double checking that his phone and wallet are in his pocket, Tim stops by the living room to let Bruce know he'll be going into town. He promises to be back before dinner, and yes he has his phone on him, he knows how to get into town, it isn't a long walk Bruce, god. He is finally set free once Bruce is sufficiently convinced that Tim will text him once he gets into town. From the house to the main square of Smallville it's about a five minute drive, meaning Tim can make it in about fifteen minutes if he's fast enough.

The path leading up to the front porch is relatively smoothed out now, thanks to Damian, though Tim isn't sure how much use Jason will even get out of it. At least, he thinks to himself, it'll be ready for Jason should he need it though. The actual road is thankfully paved and not yet another gravel road like some of the others they drove on to get here, so should Jason decide to make a grand escape he'll likely get pretty far should no one notice his absence.

There's no sidewalks this far out, and while the road is quiet and he doubts there will be anyone driving by soon, he opts to stick to the side of the road. Not quite on the grass, but not in the middle of the road either. Gotham has put him into the habit of leaving his headphones behind whenever he's out and about - it's best to not be distracted and have your full attention on your surroundings over there - meaning Tim quickly finds himself bored. Nature can only entertain him for so long and it's not like there's any risk of being pickpocketed all the where out in the middle of nowhere Kansas.

He has half a mind to turn back and grab his headphones, but ultimately decides against it. He doesn't feel like turning back so he might as well just suck it up. Though he makes a note for next time.

Tim kicks a rock off the road, examining the pavement as he walks. It's definitely seen better days, with the amount of cracks and potholes decorating the surface, the amount of rocks isn't ideal either, but if he's careful Tim bets he could ride his skateboard on it with little trouble. It would also give him an opportunity to perfect his hover enchantment, a little fun side project he's been working on to make it so that he can skateboard over any surface he wants to.

He wasn't sure if there would be many opportunities to use his skateboard, so to save room he decided to leave it behind, but with any luck there should be a store that sells them in town. If not, Alfred is still on his way down and he can ask the older man to stop somewhere and grab a skateboard for him. He'd try and get his own shipped down here, but if Tim is going to be experimenting, he'd rather not break his skateboard, not after all the work he's put into it. Better to fuck up on a random board he doesn't care about.

There aren't many properties along the road they took to reach the house, but the few he does pass look exactly like what Tim imagines farms would look like. Red barns, fields, tractors, and on one property Tim passes he spots someone riding around on a horse in a fenced off arena. The rider looks to be a guy around Tim's age from what he can see, ducking around barrels on a stocky brown horse. It looks impressive, but Tim also knows fuck all about horses and horseback riding, so this guy could be doing horribly and Tim wouldn't know the difference.

Tim is tempted to stop and watch, but he can't afford to waste time and if that guy spots him Tim doesn't want to look like some creep. He keeps going, a bit over halfway to the town now, ignoring the urge to stop and go back, maybe work up the nerve to go up and talk to the guy. No. Nope. Not happening.

To his surprise, the apothecary in Smallville was better stocked than Tim had hoped. Talking with the older woman who ran the shop, he finds out that the town sits between the larger city and the town of a coven known for the rare flowers they cultivate, making Smallville a popular stopping destination for many magic users. Most don't stay long in the small town, much less put down their roots out here, but there's enough demand for more unusual ingredients that Sara and Jess - the owner and her wife - keep some in stock.

Originally he hadn't planned on buying anything, but since he's here already Tim grabs a few things he hadn't packed with him. Plus a few ingredients Sara recommended once hearing about his plan on enchanting a skateboard. At the register, Sara tells him about the two other shops that cater to his branches of magic, Tim happily writes them down with a sincere thanks and a promise to stop by again.

Checking his watch, Tim balks at the time, he didn't mean to get so distracted in there, but it was so much better than he'd hoped it would be and he got sidetracked. He contemplates calling Dick and bugging his older brother into coming to pick him up. As quickly as the thought comes to him, he shakes it out of his head, Dick would never let him live it down.

Resigning himself to his fate of walking all the way back, Tim shoots Bruce a text to let his father know he's on his way now.

The walk back seems shorter than the walk there, which might have something to do with the fact that he's actually paying attention to his surroundings instead of the ground in front of him. Seeing the scenery actually change around him does a lot to make it seem like he's covering more distance than he actually is. It's thanks to his attentiveness that he notices a mailbox with a familiar last name painted onto the side.

'Kent' is painted in bright red letters on a stark white mailbox - they must have recently repainted it, or it has a really good protection enchantment on it because there's no way it would be that bright for very long out in the country. When Tim follows the gravel road leading up to the house on said property, he can't say he's all that surprised to see it's the same house he saw his cowboy riding next to earlier.

Unless Clark and Lois moved back in with Clark's parents sometime in the last few days, said rider must be Clark's half brother… or maybe it was cousin? Tim prefers to keep himself out of Clark's complicated family, unlike Dick and Jason who thrive on drama - which Dick passionately denies and Jason gleefully embraces. Whatever, it's not like he has any intention of talking to this kid, Tim plans to keep to himself and get through this summer with a successfully enchanted skateboard and several new high scores on the various games he brought along.

Speaking of which, he needs to get back to the house before Damian steals his switch again - yes Damian has his own, no Tim has no idea why Damian keeps stealing his - Tim likes to change hiding spots at random to keep his brother on his toes. God this is going to be a long summer.

"So the Kent's are our neighbours?" Tim shoves the front door open, he'd seen Bruce sitting in the living room through the window when he got back home.

"Are they? What a coincidence," Bruce hums, all innocent and wide eyed.

Tim glares at his father. This is a grown ass man, a witch with such infamy that some people refuse to believe the true extent of his abilities. Yet, he acts the same age as his oldest kid. It's times like this that Tim wishes his parents hadn't died and Bruce hadn't adopted him. He could have had normal parents still, but no.

"You seriously didn't know that," Jason - holy shit when did he get here? - nearly laughs, appearing from the abyss as if he had teleported despite being on a strict magic ban while recovering. "We literally passed their house on the drive here. Bruce went 'oh look, this is Clark's parents place!' and everything."

His face flushes red. Okay, so maybe this is on him, but Tim will not back down now. He cannot show any small weaknesses in this family, they'll never let him live it down. Never.

"I tend to tune you all out when I can," Tim retorts quickly, not necessarily lying either.

Jason looks him up and down. "Right," he doesn't look convinced, but he drops it anyway. "Isn't Clark's cousin living with them now, he's Tim's age isn't he?"

Bruce finally decides to rejoin the conversation now. "Yes, I believe his name is Kon," he says. Then to Tim, with a sinister sparkle in his eye: "Maybe you two could have a play date!"

Jason wheezes so hard no sound comes out. "I'm eighteen years old," Tim screeches, his face completely red now. "I'm not- I won't- there is no way-" he sputters, turning on his heel and marching back down to his room for the next thirty years of his life.

Behind him he hears Jason finally get some air back in his lungs as he gasps out: "A play date!"

This summer will end up with someone dead, Tim just doesn't know if that'll be himself or one of his family members just yet. Only time, and his dwindling sanity, will tell.

Tim spends the next day and a half locked in his room, refusing to come out until Alfred arrives on the afternoon of their third day there. Cass, the only person Tim will respond to right now, is the one to come get him when his saviour finally drives onto the property. Hopefully with his skateboard so that Tim can get out of this house and away from the people slowly driving him to committing his first felony.

He ignores his brothers and father with practiced ease, bounding down the dirt path until he stops right beside Alfred as the older man unloads his luggage.

"Did you-" Tim starts, cut off by Alfred holding a brand new skateboard out to him without turning around. "You're the best, thank you!" He jumps and pumps his fist, grabbing the board and moving it to the front lawn so that he can help Alfred unload.

"You are most welcome," Alfred gives him a wry smile then immediately shoves a heavy bag into Tim's chest. "Now bring that in for me."

As soon as Tim is able to, he escapes to his room and gets started on his skateboarding project. First thing's first the wheels need to go, the trucks stay though, to give him a place to work from. Originally he had thought about removing the wheels and trucks, keeping just the board part in tact, but ideally he wants to be able to use the skateboard just like he would any other, something that would be much harder to achieve just using the deck itself. Enchantments adhere to a surface meaning any version of a levitation enchantment that he puts on the underside of the deck would cover the entire surface making most tricks impossible to do. There are ways to only enchant a certain section of something, but it's more effort than it's worth when he has a perfectly good - and far easier - alternative.

All he needs to do is modify two thin sheets of metal and solder then lengthwise to each truck. The sheets will act as the wheels for the skateboard, allowing him to enchant it in a way that lets it function the same as a normal skateboard.

The idea is simple enough, and getting the metal is as simple as bribing Damian into forming some old bits of scrap metal Tim found in the yard into the proper shape he needs. Damian even agrees to attach the sheets to the trucks with his magic for a more secure bond as long as Tim makes Damian a skateboard when he gets it working properly.

Now many people think that potions are finicky and enchantments are a piece of cake, but it's actually the other way around. There are certainly exceptions to the rule, but to put it simply, enchantments are like baking and potions are like cooking. A science versus an art. The former requires precision and a certain order in which things are done, whereas the latter is more forgiving. It throws a lot of people off when they first learn this, it threw Tim off when he learned about it, but it makes sense to him now.

Potions react to the innate magic in every living thing, whereas enchantments draw magic from their components. There's more to it than that, but that's the gist of it, so Tim is fully expecting to encounter a lot of trial and error.

A lot.

He runs out of the components he needs five times over the course of three days. Every time he has to walk back into town and buy more of what he needs, limited in what he can grab by how much weight he's able to carry. Every time he passes by the Kent property on the way to town and the way back home. And every. Single. Time. Kon Kent is out in the fields riding a damn horse.

The other boy doesn't take notice of Tim at first, but on his third outing to go restock - the fifth time Tim passes by the farm - Kon finally seems to notice Tim. When Tim is on his way back, Kon has moved from riding near the house to riding closer to the middle of the field. The next day, on his fourth trip and seventh time walking by the Kent property, Kon has gone from the middle of the field to about eight yards from the fence. Kon stays at this distance the next few times Tim walks past, but Tim knows that Kon is watching him every time. He can feel the way Kon's gaze burns into him as Tim refuses to look over.

He will not give Bruce the satisfaction.

Unfortunately Tim keeps failing - he's getting closer though, some progress has been made despite how it may seem - and since he's only able to carry so much as one time, his trips past the Kent's property do not decrease in frequency. At the very least Kon has still kept that last bit of space between the two, not straying much closer to the fence - at least not when Tim is walking by.

Unrelated to Kon, by day five of his attempts to modify the skateboard, Bruce bans Tim from working on it inside.

"This old house doesn't have ventilation as good as the Manor does, Tim," Bruce tells him with a frown, standing at the very top of the steps to the basement and adamantly refusing to come down.

Tim frowns, lifting his visor - safety is important, especially when experimenting with enchantments. "What, why?"

Dick leans around their father. "It smells like burnt hair, Tim. Everywhere."

Tim is about to deny this, he can't smell anything, when he remembers that in addition to eye protection he also wears a respirator that both filters out any dust and debris as well as neutralizes any smells. Enchantments, like spray painting, while not exactly harmful to the human lungs, is best done in a well ventilated space or with proper respiratory protection. It also has a tendency to not smell the best when it fails.

"Okay. Fair enough," Tim concedes. To the front yard he goes.

It takes almost two weeks, but Tim finally manages to modify a low level levitation enchantment to fit his needs. The most complicated aspect was fitting in some kind of adjustment capability into the enchantment, something he can calibrate while finding the perfect settings for a levitating skateboard without needing to start the enchantment from scratch when he starts doing test runs of his skateboard. Because he will need to adjust things, and having a basic enchantment he can modify as needed will make things a bit easier in the long run.

He brews a few protection potions - it's either the potions or protection pads and a helmet, and the potions are actually more effective even if Bruce always squints suspiciously when Tim tells him this - in preparation for his test runs, then takes a well deserved break of one day where all he does is sit in bed and play video games on his Nintendo switch.

The day following his break, Tim sets out late in the morning - really it's almost noon when he leaves the house - and stares at the road in front of him. He's already taken a sip of one of the protection potions, but after a long moment of consideration, he oh so wisely moves from the road to the grass on their front lawn for his first attempt. Regardless of whether he was using potions or actual pads - or no protection at all - falling on a gravel road like this would hurt like a motherfucker, so until he can confidently stay on the board it's on the grass for him.

He throws the skateboard down, grinning triumphantly when it doesn't bounce a foot in the air like it had a few days ago - attempts number twenty-one to thirty-five did a great job reminding Tim why his visor is important not just for when he's working with liquids or heat, but with levitating objects as well (RIP his bedroom light). It does, however, roll - float? - farther than he intended it to, something that might become a problem. Maybe he can modify one of those spinning fidget rings into a sort of break for the skateboard. Something that could slow him down and even keep the board at a complete stop when needed.

The only issue with a fidget ring is that most of them spin freely, an issue for something meant to be controlling his speed. If he could find one - or make one - with some sort of ratchet mechanism to make is to that it wouldn't spin freely Tim can probably make it work.

Torn between continuing with his intended task for the day or making a slight detour to try and make this speed mechanism work, he absently goes after his skateboard, picks it up off the ground, and sits down on the front steps of the porch.

On one hand being able to control his speed while practicing would be a bonus, but on the other hand it means he's back to the drawing board and has to find a ring,hopefully, to use as the base. Most likely, this means finding something online and getting it shipped out here, which would mean having to wait for it to get here. But in the meantime he could probably find something to work as a substitute for the ring, a slightly modified ratchet wrench would work as a prototype.

"Why are you glaring at my path," the sound of Damian's voice has Tim starting with a yelp.

Pressing a hand to his chest, heart racing, Tim glares at his brother. "I'm not glaring. I'm thinking."

"Okay, well your thinking face looks a lot like your glaring face then. Maybe get that checked out."

"You are so funny." Tim deadpans, flipping Damian off. Damian ignores him. "I want to make something that can slow down or stop the skateboard," he explains when his brother doesn't leave.

"Like a break?"

"Basically, yeah. I was thinking of using one of those fidget rings, but I need to find one that has a detent of some kind so that it doesn't accidentally spin when I don't want it to and like throws me off or something because it's suddenly stopped."

Damian snorts, likely imagining the exact scenario Tim just described. "I bet one exists online, or Cass has been playing around with metallokinesis recently. You should see the earrings she made the other day, I bet if you give her a diagram she can replicate it for you."

Tim perks up. "Damian, I don't say this often. Because it's not often true, but that is a great idea."

Skateboard under one arm, Tim hops off the steps and races inside, ignoring the indignant protests coming from Damian with practiced ease.

"Cass," Tim yells, throwing the front door open. "Cass! I need your help!"

Cass agrees to help him out, mostly because she thinks it'll be a good challenge for her and only partly because Tim is her favourite - the rest of his brothers would disagree, but fuck them. So while she gets started on that, Tim scrambles down to his room to brainstorm ideas.

Compared to the levitation enchantment, this one should actually be really easy as enchantments that control speed are far more common than levitation ones. Finding a formula that should work is as easy as narrowing down what he wants in the enchantment and going on to the internet to find someone's preexisting formula that fits.

It takes five minutes to find what he needs, another minute to write down the ingredients he needs, then he's throwing on his shoes and running back out the door with a haphazard shout to Bruce that he's going back to town again.

The first time Kon sees Tim Drake-Wayne he doesn't actually know that it's Tim Drake-Wayne. He just knows that it's someone from the family that moved in down the road for the summer. The rich people Clark knows - because Clark is friends with Bruce Wayne somehow - a fact that still fails to make any sense to Kon whatsoever. He'd finished his chores for the day and decided the best way to spend his time was out in the arena riding Comet The Second - Comet The First is Clark's horse and too old to be ridden or worked nowadays - and only barely noticed the lone figure walking along the road.

He offhandedly mentions it to Ma and Pa when he goes inside later that day and thinks nothing of it. Then Tim kept walking past. He had to get a bit closer to the fence to actually see any defining details and make out who it was, but once he did he was intrigued. What could Tim possibly be doing that he needs to walk back and forth from the town multiple times a day, each time bringing back bags of something from the main apothecary in town.

Truthfully, Kon was still working up the courage to ask, or even say hi, so he keeps a bit of distance between him and the fence. But as weird as it is, he can't stop himself from riding out into the fields everyday hoping to see Tim walk by.

It's not easy to admire someone while riding a horse, but there's enough pictures of Tim on the internet to help Kon's imagination.

That sounds weird. He swears it's innocent, okay? It's just a tiny crush that will probably go nowhere and really he's doing no one any harm by admiring Tim from afar while he still can because Kon knows from Clark that this move isn't permanent.

Then Tim doesn't walk past the farm at all one day. Which, as far as Kon is aware, has not happened one single time since Tim has moved in. It makes him worry, it shouldn't because Kon doesn't know Tim at all and he has no right to be worried over what is objectively more normal than walking to town multiple times a day. He still worries.

Today, in a valiant attempt to be completely normal about yesterday, Kon goes about his day as he normally would. He ignores the inappropriate worry he feels, completing his chores in record time because if he's working hard and focusing he has less opportunities for his mind to wander. It leaves him in a tight spot when everything is done and there's no chores left to distract him with.

A simple ride out in the field with Comet Jr won't give him enough to focus on in order to be any help - he could do it with his eyes closed even - but it's too dangerous to do anything more complicated like barrels in the area he's been riding in recently. The grass is too high to see any holes or rocks Comet Jr could trip on, and lugging the barrels that far out would be a workout in and of itself.

Going back and forth for far too long, Kon shakes his head with a sigh and starts setting up the barrels in the arena. Technically barrel racing, especially competitively, is primarily done by women, but his cousin Kara does it competitively and she made it look fun so she taught him. Of course he doesn't do it competitively, he does it just for fun since the speeds barrel racers typically go at around the barrels makes him want to hurl. Kon can only imagine how much it would hurt to have your horse wipe out on one of those turns and land on you, it makes him shudder just thinking about it.

Barrels set up and Comet Jr ready to go, Kon does a quick warm up before getting into it. Even though he doesn't push Comet Jr very hard at all he makes sure to let the horse cool down between runs, especially as the sun shines brightly overhead. Kon is just about to go again when movement down the road catches his eye, he stops, then using his hand to cover the glare of the sun, squints at the figure walking down the street.

He's a little too far away to tell for sure, but it has to be Tim. His heart skips a beat, but he urges Comet Jr to keep walking in an effort to seem normal. Kon ducks his chin, hiding a smile. Gosh he needs to get it together.

Is it weird to say that Kon being all the way over in the arena instead of out in the field like he has been throws Tim off so much he almost trips over his own two feet when he notices. It's weird, right? But there's no reason for Kon to be in the field, he's his own person and can do whatever he wants.

Even if Tim is not a fan - for totally normal reason of course - and has the strangest urge to march over to that stupid arena and ask what gives. As much as he hates to admit it, Tim is but a man and Kon Kent is hot. Plus, the look of those thighs when he's riding makes Tim drool. No one should have thighs like that, but Kon Kent does. Sure he could take a risk and try talking to Kon, but first of all he's still pissed over what Bruce said - a fucking play date? - and why ruin a good thing. If he talks to Kon he risks scaring him off and losing what is objectively the best part of his walks, the eye candy. The eye candy with godlike thighs and he's probably got freckles from being out in the sun so much, and Tim bets his arms are just as beefy as his thighs if not more-

No. No. Bad Tim! Bad! If he starts thinking like this he'll want to get a closer look to confirm his theories, and if he does that he'll probably have to talk to Kon or risk looking like a stalker, and then he's back to the whole 'if he scares Kon off he can't look anymore' thing. So no. Just no.

Tim shakes his head and tells himself to keep walking, he has plans after all. Kon is not part of them, even if part of him wouldn't mind Kon getting involved.

The rest of the walk into town sort of blurs together in Tim's mind, luckily he manages to remember to buy everything he needs - it would be beyond embarrassing to have to go back again so soon - and he's back in front of the Kent farm before his thoughts can catch up. Against his better judgement Tim glances over at the arena to catch another look at Kon, totally not letting out a sigh of disappointment when it seems as though Kon has gone back inside.

That is until he looks further down the road and sees a very familiar figure on a very familiar horse walking right up against the fence. He nearly stops dead in his tracks out of shock, thankfully he doesn't because that would be mortifying, but it's a near thing.

Why is he so close to the fence? Tim wonders, praying to any god he can think of to ensure his face isn't as red as a goddamn tomato right now.

He makes himself look away from Kon who hasn't seemed to have seen Tim yet. Putting one foot in front of the other, not thinking at all about how if he looks now he'll be the closest to Kon that he's ever been. Maybe he should move back into the city, Jason won't be mad. Of course Tim would never live it down if any of his siblings found out he moved back to the city to avoid a hot cowboy, but maybe that's a price he's willing to pay.

It's actually not a bad idea if Tim really thinks about it, he could get used to the constant torment eventually, maybe they'd even got bored after a few years. He can do a few years of relentless teasing-

"Hey! You- uh- you moved in down the road, right?" Kon's voice is not at all what Tim expected it to be, it's smooth and rich like melted chocolate. How the fuck does a voice sound like melted chocolate? It shouldn't be possible, Tim knows this, but somehow it is possible.

Maybe Tim is coming down with something? That would explain a lot actually.

He looks back up at Kon and gets caught completely off guard by the way his wide brown eyes look so curious and sincere as they look at Tim. It makes his mind go blank and he forgets that he needs to say something if he doesn't want to seem rude. He gives himself a moment to reset, a necessary kindness, then digs deep down for all the media and publicity training Bruce gave him that he usually ignores.

"Yes, me and my family moved in for the summer," his face is bright red, isn't it? Fuck, it better not be.

The smiles he gets in return from Kon is blinding. "Cool, cool. I'm Kon by the way. I think you may know my cousin, Clark?"

Tim mouths Kon's name as if he's hearing it for the first time. "My father does, yes. I'm Tim. It's nice to meet you," his words are stilted and awkward, it takes everything in him to not cringe at himself. This is why he planned on avoiding contact with Kon. Tim does not mix well with people he finds attractive. It's a recipe for disaster.

"Nice to meet you Tim, so what's up with the uh…" from on top of his horse Kon waves his hand up and down the road.

It's times like this where the earth swallowing him whole would be an act of mercy he can only hope for. "Oh, right. You've probably seen me walking by," Tim responds, like a goddamn idiot. "I'm trying to enchant my skateboard so that it levitates and it's taking a lot of trial and error." He finishes lamely.

"That sounds sick!" Kon gushes. "I've always wanted to try skateboarding but there's not a lot of places 'round here to do it."

Don't. Don't even think about it- "When I figure out the enchantments, I could teach you how to skateboard," Tim wishes he had a roll of tape as soon as the words leave his mouth - very much against his will - until he sees the grin on Kon's face.

"Really? That would be awesome," Kon rubs the back of his neck, biting his lips.

Tim nods, his face heating up embarrassingly fast. "Yeah, um, it'll be a few more days, but I can come and get you when I'm done," he offers, looking off to the side as his stomach rolls violently.

"I'd like that," Kon replies, and when Tim looks back up at him Kon's face looks just as red as Tim's feels.

"Cool, cool, um, I'll see you later then."

"Yeah! Yes, later! Good luck with finishing it then."

"Thanks."

"Why do you look like you have a sun burn?" Jason asks as soon as Tim gets back.

"Fuck off."

Perking up with a sly grin, Jason turns his full attention to Tim. "Something embarrassing happened, didn't it? Damn, why am I stuck in this wheelchair I probably missed something amazing!"

"Nothing happened!" Tim shouts, an utterly unconvincing display that frankly makes him feel ashamed.

"What didn't happen?" Dick appears from around the corner, much to Tim's continuous dismay.

"Something embarrassing," Jason responds at the same time that Tim once again shouts: "Nothing!"

Of course Dick only listens to Jason. "Something embarrassing? Do tell!"

"There's nothing to tell." He glares at his brothers.

"Yeah because you won't tell me what happened."

"You're dying of boredom out here, aren't you?" Tim hisses at Jason.

Jason raises an eyebrow. "You're just realizing this now?"

"So nothing happened?" Dick clarifies, looking between the two.

"His face was red when he came inside," Jason says in a stage whisper.

Dick gasps. "A crush? But on who?"

Tim says nothing as he slowly inches his way towards the stairs to the basement. He's so close to getting out of this. So. Close.

"Considering his face was red when he came inside, he must've encountered them recently," Jason muses slowly, an evil glint in his eyes.

Tim inches faster.

"Good point Jason," Dick agrees casually, a matching evil glint appearing in his eyes now. Oh Tim is so screwed. "Y'know, out here there's not many houses too close by."

Fuck it, Tim sprints to the safety of his room. Sometimes fleeing is the only sane option. It's not cowardly, it's strategic.

Tim stays in his room for the rest of the day, thanking god that Jason can't go down the basement stairs and that Dick seems to have no interest in seeking him out to torment him further. The only person who even steps foot in his room is Cass who comes by that evening to drop off both dinner and the ring he asked for.

"Thank you, Cass, you're the best," he stresses, grabbing his plate of food and the ring.

Cass hands both over easily with a small smile. "I know," she replies sincerely. "I better be the first person you tell about this crush of yours by the way."

Tim freezes. "Hypothetically, if I did have a crush. Then obviously in this totally hypothetical scenario, I'd tell you first."

His sister considers him with serious intensity. "Right, and hypothetically this crush wouldn't happen to be a certain nextdoor neighbour."

"Hypothetically, how much did Jason and Dick say."

"Well, hypothetically, they just have a theory."

They stare at each other without blinking or speaking for nearly a minute before Tim breaks.

"His thighs Cass, you haven't seen his thighs. They're criminal, I tell you, criminal."

Taking a seat beside him on his bed, Cass begins to pat his back. "There, there. Let it all out."

"I wanna lick his face."

"Right."

"Don't judge me. I had to listen to you moon over Steph and she's my ex."

"Point taken, continue."

"Thank you. Now, going back to his thighs-"

The next day Tim throws himself into his project with renewed motivation, the source of said motivation definitely not being a certain tanned and freckled cowboy, obviously Tim is doing this for himself and no other reason.

The ring Cass made for him works exactly as he needs it too, and with the prototypes he tested the other day it was easy enough to get the enchantment working properly the first time around. Linking the ring to the skateboard is a bit more difficult, requiring nearly an entire day of fine tuning and messing around with things before he gets it working.

Tim gets it all working that evening, and after dinner with his family - Bruce wouldn't let him hide away for another day - he's racing outside to finally test it properly.

Summer is not usually Tim's preferred season, but he will admit that there are definite upsides to the whole more hours of sunlight thing it has going on. It's certainly working out in his favour right now, as the sun isn't supposed to set for another few hours now, giving Tim the opportunity to ride around now instead of having to wait for tomorrow.

Downing one of his premade protection potions, Tim sets the skateboard on the grass of the front lawn just like he did the other day. Except this time, with the help of the ring, it doesn't roll away from him. Tim lets out a cheer, pumping his fist, it's not much but finally he can see the finish line of this whole project. Plus, he now has an added bonus of getting a prize when he finally does cross that finish line.

Okay, now to see if it will actually work the way he wants it to when he's on the skateboard and not just watching it sit in the grass. Tim slowly places one foot on the deck, not putting much weight on it at first, he grins when it maintains the height it's supposed to. He puts more weight into the foot on the deck, watching carefully to make sure it's staying where it's meant to be. Finally, he puts both feet onto the skateboard and lets the feeling of success buzz through him when it stays in place.

"Are you gonna do something or just stand there?" Tim turns around to see Damian making himself comfortable on the porch steps, a bowl of ice cream cradled in his hands.

"I will, I'm just making sure it's holding my weight and double checking that the stopping mechanism works."

"Boring."

"You don't have to be here!" Tim says incredulously.

Damian smirks. "Yeah, but I wanna be here if you fall and eat shit."

Tim doesn't entertain him with a response to that. Unrelated to Damian's teasing, Tim takes one foot off the deck to balance himself as he releases the skateboard from what is essentially acting as the parking break for it. While enchanting the levitation charm, Tim had contemplated whether or not he wanted to make it so that the skateboard can go side to side - sort of like a snowboard - or let it only move forward and backward like a normal skateboard does. Eventually he landed on letting it move side to side, both to make it easier to enchant and to give him a bit more creativity in riding it.

He should still be able to turn the same way you do on a regular skateboard, but being able to move side to side as well sounded like fun.

With that in mind, it's extra important that Tim keep his balance when the skateboard can move so that his shifting weight doesn't make it slip out from under him. He knows that Damian would never purposefully try to distract him or make him mess up, so he trusts that his brother will stay silent and let him focus for now.

It takes him a while to find his balance, and when he actually gets moving there is a lot of 'getting off and messing with the levitation enchantment then getting back on' involved in the process. Especially in the beginning as Tim gets used to things and tries to find the right balance of everything for the perfect experience. It's still pretty rough when he turns in for the night, only having fallen off four times - much to Damian's displeasure - but it's still progress.

He's back outside early the next morning, getting right back into it as soon as possible. The first few hours are spent fine tuning everything even more, but come noon Tim is happy with how everything is working at last and after a reluctant lunch break he finally gets to actually ride the skateboard properly. It takes some getting used to, though not a lot, because Tim is damn good at what he does not to brag or anything. All in all, it's not long before Tim is using the front lawn as his own personal skate park.

Tomorrow he'd go see Kon.

Kon can't remember the last time his heart was beating as fast as it was when he talked to Tim the first time the other day. He could've sworn it was going to pound right out of his chest, but it didn't and somehow he didn't creep Tim out and Tim agreed to come over when he finished with his project and teach Kon how to skateboard.

With how often Kon saw Tim walk back and forth into town those first few days, he doesn't expect to see Tim again for about another week. Imagine his surprise when Tim returns only a few days later, skateboard under one arm and a bag slung over the other shoulder.

"Tim! Hey!" Kon greets in the middle of cleaning out the barn with Pa. "I, um, I didn't think I'd see you again so soon."

Tim shuffles awkwardly in front of the barn doors, hovering outside like he's not sure if he's allowed to come in or not. "Ah, sorry. I can come back later, or- I just-"

"Nah son, Kon is about done for the day, isn't that right?" Pa slaps Kon on the shoulder with a smile.

Kon just about protests this on instinct, he's actually got a few more chores he's meant to finish today, but clearly Pa is trying to do something nice for him and well… he's a weak, weak, man.

"Yeah, that's right. Just um, just give me like five minutes to finish this and I'll meet you over by the arena?" He says hopefully, blushing a bright red from the tips of his ears and going over his cheeks.

Tim perks up a bit, looking less awkward and more hopeful now, grinning sheepishly. "Yeah, sounds like a plan."

Kon smiles like an idiot. "Great, great."

He's gonna get so much shit for this later, partly from Pa and then from Clark and Kara when Ma and Pa inevitably spill the beans, but for now none of that matters. Right now, Kon is going to finish cleaning the barn and then a really hot guy is gonna teach him how to skateboard.