Chapter Text
“Alright,” Bruce says, groaning as he stands up from the couch. Tim covers his smile with his hand, B always denies he’s old and he’s so wrong. “We should get going now to reach Gotham before patrol starts.”
“Why don’t you boys stay the night?” Ma asks, giving Bruce a sweet smile that every Bat is unable to say no to. Bruce hesitates, sensing the trap. “My snickerdoodles are almost done. I’d hate for them to go to waste.”
Like any food would ever go to waste near the vacuum cleaners that are Conner and Jonathan Kent.
“Come on, B!” Tim jumps in, greedy for any and every minute he can get with Kon. “Ma made snickerdoodles.”
Martha sends him a wink and a sly grin.
“I too would like a cookie, Father,” Damian hesitantly says, his eyes darting over quickly to the youngest Kent sitting next to him. Jon visibly perks up at the words. Tim watches them, feeling the tension between the two boys, even from across the room.
They’re sitting next to each other, and because of the sheer amount of bodies in the Kent’s small living room, their arms and thighs are touching. Jon’s ears are pretty red and he’s watching Damian with wide eyes. Damian has his arms crossed and has that look on his face that he wears when he clearly cares about something but is pretending he doesn’t. Tim usually only sees that look when someone in the family is injured.
Tim knows his little brother and Kon’s little brother are friends, pretty good friends he thinks, but he’s never really seen them by each other before. He’s come over to the farm to visit Kon a good amount, but Damian is never over when he is. And Tim doesn’t spend too much time at the Manor these days outside of the Batcave due to how busy he is.
This is an interesting development.
Bruce presses his lips together in a moment of contemplation. He wants to go back to Gotham, that’s obvious, but it’s equally obvious he is loath to deny Damian any time with his friend. Damian doesn’t click with people his age–or any age, really–that well, he’s someone you have to spend time with to understand and then you grow attached. Kids at school don’t really have that attention span for someone new.
That’s not to say he doesn’t have friends at Gotham Academy, he does, in fact Dick talks about how happy he is that Damian knows some good kids, but hero friends are something special. There really is something to be said about trauma bonding. Hell, Tim might know that better than anyone. Young Justice, his old team, comprised of his best friends in the whole world, got so close through trauma bonding because of all the shit they went through. And shared trauma is what made him closer to every member of his family.
Tim takes another look at Damian and proposes a solution. “If us staying is really not a problem to Ma and Pa, I can stay with Damian, then Kon and Jon can fly us back in the morning.”
Damian scowls at Tim basically saying he’ll watch over him. Tim knows he doesn’t like being treated like a child and knows that Damian really can watch himself. But Damian’s always been the youngest. He’s never been an older brother. Tim’s not great at it, he’d like to think he’s getting better, but he has been around Damian long enough to feel that protective instinct when it comes to the boy. The one that prompts older siblings to watch their younger ones, even at the younger’s annoyance. And Tim knows that annoyance, too, after being Dick’s brother for so long.
Tim also knows how to read Bruce like a book. Bruce is 70% more likely to let them stay if Tim promises to watch over their baby bat. It makes him feel like Damian is safer.
“It really is no problem,” Ma assures. “You boys know we love having you over. You’re such good influences on our two troublemakers.”
Jon blinks at being called a troublemaker, and Kon laughs, pressing his smile into Tim’s shoulder.
“Come on, B,” Tim presses. “It’s a Saturday. It’ll be good for us.” Tim gives Bruce an intent look.
Bruce’s shoulders deflate. “You have to be back by noon.”
“Two.”
Bruce raises an eyebrow. “And miss Sunday Brunch?”
Tim thinks of the disappointed look Alfred would give him. “Yeah, noon’s good.”
Bruce leaves not long after that, staying just long enough to have rendered Tim and Damian’s arguments redundant by eating cookies and taking some with, leaving with a promise to bring Alfred’s cherry pie with him next time he visits. Ma doesn’t fail to get a promise that he’ll visit again in the next month. She’s smart like that.
It’s still pretty early in the day, and the extra hour Kansas is behind Gotham makes Tim feel like he has longer with Kon. The four boys spend the day in the sun, Tim lathered in sunscreen (something Kon was extremely happy to do), at the request of Ma Kent.
Tim spends a lot of time outside, it’s something that comes naturally to a vigilante lifestyle, in order to stop street crime, you have to be on the street. But he doesn’t spend too much time outside in a place like this. Y’know, where it’s all green and actually looks like what you think about when you picture the great outdoors. It’s so bright and so…well, fresh here.
(He’d never admit it, but Tim does see what Kon means about Gotham smog being a health hazard after spending a lot of time in fresh air and then going back into the ‘gray cloud of doom and gloom’ as fondly named by Kon.)
They enjoy a very nice dinner of country cooking, Ma going out of her way to make sure Damian has plenty to eat without making it too obvious that he wasn’t partaking in the chicken she roasted. She also made sure to not tell Damian that the chicken they ate used to live on the farm. The chicken had a nice, long life that was naturally nearing to a close, but Damian would still see it as murder and storm out.
After dinner, Tim and Kon retire to Kon’s room after setting up plans to go back outside and watch the sunset over the pond with the other two boys. They’re leaving in twenty minutes to start the fifteen minute walk, and Tim plans to spend those twenty minutes solely with Kon.
Once the bedroom door is closed behind them, they’re on each other like it’s their last day on earth. They fall into bed, Tim straddling Kon’s hips, still kissing him hungrily while his hands run up under his boyfriend’s shirt, greedily seeking skin.
Kon grips Tim’s hips then slides his hands under Tim’s waistband to rest over the curve of his ass, swearing under his breath when his boyfriend moans and kisses the juncture of his jaw and throat. “Babe, you’re gonna kill me.”
“I missed you,” Tim mumbles into his neck. It’s only been a week since they last saw each other, but Tim loves the fuck out of Kon and wishes they could spend every morning and night by each other’s sides.
“Mmm, I missed you, too. But I’m trying really hard to keep my body under control right now. We don’t have time nor privacy to do anything yet. And if you keep doing that, I won’t be held responsible for the downstairs’s response you provoke.”
Tim grumbles and pulls back with a pout. He knows that, he does. He isn’t trying to start something with Ma, Pa, Jon, and Damian awake and walking around the farmhouse. The Kents are very close and open people, sometimes they don’t knock and Tim and Kon, thankful to whatever power may exist, have not been walked in on yet. Tim would very, very much like to keep it that way.
Kon traces Tim’s kiss-swollen lips with his thumb and smiles. “You look so hot when you pout.”
Tim’s ears turn red. “You say I look hot when I do anything.”
“It’s because you do.”
Tim snorts and leans back down to kiss Kon again, this time without urgency and with sickening sweetness. Fuck, he loves him. After he pulls away, he settles in on top of his boyfriend, resting his head on Kon’s chest and going boneless against him. Kon wraps an arm around Tim’s waist to hold him in tightly, his other hand comes up to card long fingers in Tim’s soft hair, and he uses his TTK to pull the blanket over them.
They’re quiet for a moment, simply basking in each other’s presence, nothing in the world mattering except for this little space of peace they made their own. After allowing some minutes to soak in the feeling of being in Kon’s arms, Tim finally lets himself think back through the day and remembers what he wanted to talk to Kon about that needed to happen privately.
“Hey, babe?”
“Mmm?”
“Does Damian come over a lot?”
“Yeah. He and Jon are really close.”
Tim nuzzles into Kon’s chest and thinks for another moment. “Does Jon like him?”
“Of course he likes him, no one puts up with Damian without—oh, you mean like like him.”
Tim laughs. “Yes, for the sake of sounding like a gossiping second grader, I mean like like.”
“Yeah, he does. And I’m like seventy percent sure Damian likes him back. It’s hard to get a read on him sometimes, I don’t know him well enough.”
“It’s more than that.” Tim pulls back to look his boyfriend in his beautiful eyes. He can’t resist the urge to stroke Kon’s cheekbone with his thumb. “I can tell.”
Kon frowns. “Then why doesn’t he ever say yes when Jon asks him to get milkshakes, which is Jon's ideal version of a date?”
Tim frowns also. “Jon’s asked him out?”
“Yeah, a couple times at least. I told him he might need to be more direct, but,” Kon shrugs, “I think he’s pretty scared he’s going to get rejected again. At least with a simple milkshake question, he could get away with meaning it in a friendly way. Jon’s scared Damian will stop talking to him if he ‘makes it weird’.”
Tim softens, feeling sad for the boy. “I remember feeling like that.”
Kon’s face screws up in a sad pout. “Tim, I’d never stop being friends with you, even if somehow I was too stupid to not fall in love with you.”
Tim smiles, pressing a soft kiss to Kon’s mouth. “I know that now, obviously. But it was scary back then. I didn’t even know you liked guys until you kissed me.”
Kon laughs. “I don’t think I did either. Hit me pretty hard with your mouth on mine, though.”
“Dork,” Tim murmurs fondly. “But seriously, I wonder why Damian’s said no.”
Kon sighs, watching Tim with love in his eyes. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“No, he’s my brother, I want him to be happy. And maybe I want to put poor little Jon out of his misery. He’s so puppy-like with Damian.”
Kon throws his head back and laughs loudly. “It’s the effect you bats seem to have on us Kryptonians.”
Tim mock pouts. “Oh, bats as in plural? Which one of my brothers are you sweet for also, cheater?”
“Bleh. You know what I meant. You somehow domesticated me, and Damian might as well pull Jon around on a leash. Even Clark is like this with Bruce. And Kara with your bat girls.”
Tim smiles and shakes his head. “I guess that’s our superpower.”
“Hmm, I love it.” Kon leans up and bites Tim’s bottom lip playfully.
“Kryptonian love language: following your person around like a puppy.”
“Got me all figured out, don’t you, Wonder Boy?”
“Mhm. Only took me long enough.” They’re twenty now, they’ve known each other for about six years, and started dating nearly two years after Kon came back from the dead, putting their relationship at almost a year old.
“All’s well that ends well.”
“Died and came back a philosopher,” Tim mumbles. It’s true that Kon changed after his death. Tim’s very familiar with this concept (see his second oldest brother and a nasty green pit) so it wasn’t really surprising. But Kon didn’t lose his mind or anything, in fact he stopped being so childish and headstrong, instead choosing to enjoy his time on earth and hold fast to those he cares about.
Tim would never be so heartless as to say Kon's dying made him a better person. He loves both versions of him. And that’s not to say Kon’s some mature statue that the masses look up to, he’s barely twenty (or only a few years old, depending on how you want to look at it), and he still has his moments of acting childish, and Tim loves those times just as much as he loves having mature conversations with his best friend.
Bart, who also died and came back pretty much at the same time as Kon, is still a little shit, and they love him desperately even with that. Maybe because of it.
“Hey, can you do something for me?” Tim asks, biting his lip with his eyebrows pulled together.
“Anything.”
“When we’re walking to the pond, distract Jon? I want to talk to Damian.”
Kon nods. “Okay…but are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“I know I’m not always a good big brother and that I don’t have experience with this sort of thing, but I really want to know where Damian’s head is at.”
“I don’t mean it that way. I just mean that he’s having a good day, both of them are. Do you want to risk the rest of the night in case Damian doesn’t like your prying?”
Tim sighs. Kon has a good point, Damian could easily take offense to Tim butting his way in, but he’s not doing it for gossip. “It’s…he’s…Damian’s different from other kids, you know that. Nothing about the way he’s been raised can be remotely called normal, at any time in his life. I have a feeling that there’s something more to this. Something that’s bothering him for him to say no to Jon. I’ll back off for now if he wants me to, but I want to trust my gut, and I especially want to help him. If anyone needs something good in their life, it’s that kid.”
Kon smiles softly up at his boyfriend. “That’s why I love you, you care so much.”
“He doesn’t always make it easy for me, but yeah, I do care about him.”
A couple of minutes into the hike, Kon goads Jon into flying after him, after messing with him a little in typical older brother fashion. Tim waits until they’ve been gone for about twenty seconds before casually turning to his little brother and hoping he doesn’t fuck this up.
“Do you like it here?”
Damian raises an eyebrow at him. “At the farm?” After Tim nods, Damian hums. “It is an adequate place to spend time. I presume you enjoy it?”
“Yeah. It’s relaxing here. Plus the people are pretty great.” He’s going for subtle but clearly misses the mark, or maybe Damian decides to use his detective skills, either way, Damian presses his lips together, looking not that happy.
“What are you getting at, Drake?”
“I know you and Jon are good friends. You guys look pretty close.”
Damian’s eyes flash with some sort of emotion before he tramps it down, his walls coming up quickly. “I fail to see how this is your business.”
“I–” Tim sighs. “Damian, it’s not a bad thing.”
“When did I imply having a friend is bad?” He’s getting defensive. Over the years since he’s come to the Manor and since he’s been accepted and figured out his place, he’s changed. He’s no longer the stabby little shit Tim hated, but rather the complex teenager with adult emotions and an overwhelming pool of care in him he’s not great at expressing. He still occasionally gets defensive when he feels verbally threatened or angry.
“We both know that’s not what I’m talking about.”
Damian freezes for only a moment before continuing his walk, his shoulders raised and tensed minutely. “What are you planning to do with this information, Drake?” He doesn’t do the whole ‘why, I have no idea what you could mean’ thing, he knows it’s pointless. Still, Tim doesn’t like the nervous look in his eyes, a look that says he’s waiting for Tim to judge him. It breaks his heart.
“I only want to talk to you.” Please let me talk to you, let me figure out a way to help whatever it is that you’re struggling with.
“Why would I ever want that?” Damian hisses, his tone intending to bite. It doesn’t phase Tim.
Tim stops his little brother with a hand on his forearm. “Damian, I get it.”
Damian’s eyes widen before he shakes his head. “You may think you understand, but you do not.”
“No?” Tim’s lips tug up a little. “I seriously, undeniably get it.” He raises an eyebrow to emphasize his words.
Damian narrows his green eyes slightly as realization sets in. “Your clone boy–?”
Tim nods. “Yeah.”
He hears Damian swallow loudly in the quietness of the scene. “Oh.” Any other time, he might be surprised Damian didn’t figure out Tim and Kon were together, but since he’s watched Damian all day, he knows the boy was too focused on Jon to pay him much, or really any, attention.
“Yeah. This is the first time I’ve seen you two around each other, but I noticed it pretty easily.” That's maybe not the right way to word it because Damian tenses. “Because I went through that,” He adds. “I knew Kon for a long time before we got together. I know how stressful it can be to care so much about someone and not know if they care about you back.”
Damian shakes his head and turns to start walking again. Tim follows, not saying anything, wanting his brother to speak first, to really say what’s on his mind. “That is not the problem.”
“So you do know Jon likes you.” This is exactly what Tim thought, what he was telling Kon earlier. There’s something else on Damian’s mind.
“Why do you care about this?” Damian demands, the words coming through gritted teeth.
“Because you’re my little brother, Damian,” Tim answers truthfully. “Because I want you to be happy. Because you’re holding yourself back, and I want to know why. Because maybe I can help you.”
“Tt. You are hardly ever at the Manor, Drake. You never choose to socialize with the family outside of patrol. Why should I believe you care about this other than some undisclosed selfish reason?”
The words hit Tim’s chest like a knife. He feels like an absolute piece of shit, walking next to his little brother on some random hiking trail in Smallville, Kansas, trying to get Damian to open up to him when Damian hardly has any reason to believe he’s doing this because he cares.
Tim swallows and wraps his arms around himself, feeling years younger and also feeling so old at the same time. “You’re right, I don’t spend much time at the Manor. I’m really busy with WE, and according to Kon, I take on too many cases at once, and I’m selfish with any free time I get, choosing to spend it with my friends.” Tim pauses. “I–I’m not great at this whole family thing. It freaks me out if I’m honest. But that doesn’t have to do with you. Just because I’m not around all that often, doesn’t mean I don’t care.”
When Tim realizes what he just said, his heart sinks inside him. Oh God. “Fuck, I sound just like my parents.” A maniacal bubble of laughter erupts out of him, despite this not being funny at all. He rubs his hands over his face harshly. “Jesus Christ,” He swears.
What happened to him? Sure, he’s not a parent leaving a kid alone, but still, family isn’t supposed to ignore family, that’s a lesson he learned, one that he thought he took to heart. He didn’t mean for this to happen, didn’t mean to be the person everybody made excuses for. ‘Oh, Tim? He couldn’t make it, but he promised to be here next time.’
He feels like throwing up.
When a kid is younger and you ask them who they want to be when they’re older, chances are they’ll say they want to be just like mom or just like dad. Tim never wanted to be like his parents, not then and not now. It’s a tough pill to swallow, the realization that that’s who he’s become in relation to this strange family he’s found himself a part of.
That’s who he is to his little brother.
It’s no wonder Damian doesn’t like him. Tim hasn’t given him anything to like, just reasons to find him annoying and a flake.
“Drake?” Damian calls, his voice sounding almost concerned.
Tim swallows and does what he does best: push aside his shit to focus on his mission. “Sorry, yeah, I’m…I’m okay.”
“Tt. You are lying.”
“Maybe so, but that’s not what I want to talk about. Damian, I want you to know I do care about you and that you can talk to me.”
“You can save yourself the trouble of this speech, Drake. I have already heard it from Richard.”
“Yeah, I don’t doubt you have.” And if Damian is going to talk to anyone in the family about sensitive stuff, it’ll be Dick. Maybe…possibly Bruce if he was in one of his kind moods where he listens to his kids and doesn’t trip over his words. “Does Dick know about you and Jon?”
Damian tenses again. “There is no Jon and I. There is nothing for him to know.”
Interesting. Dick doesn’t know. Sometimes Dick can care a little too much. He can push too far when trying to help, a trait he shares with Bruce. If Dick knew Damian likes Jon, he’d keep pushing until he got to the reasons behind Damian’s reluctance to say yes. It’s something Tim knows he needs to be careful with now.
“Okay.” Tim goes quiet, not knowing how to continue without pushing too far. Sure, he’s got next to nothing out of Damian during this conversation, but it still feels like progress. He wishes he were better at this stuff.
“Are you done questioning me?”
“If you want me to be. If you want to tell me more I won’t object.”
“I do not want to.”
Tim feels his stomach sink in him. He’s such a terrible older brother. Damian’s right, maybe he’d have a leg to stand on if he was ever around in the first place. Still, this could have gone a lot worse. At least Damian doesn’t look angry, more apprehensive, maybe still unsure of Tim.
“Okay,” Tim says with a nod. “Then I’m done. But know that I’m not going to say anything to anyone about it. It’s not my business, I’d never out you like that. And if you’re worried about how the family would react, know that they don’t care. Bruce doesn’t care about sexuality, he’s supportive no matter what.”
Damian’s quiet for a long moment, long enough that Tim’s sure the conversation is over for good. “Does anyone in the family know about you and your clone?”
It’s sort of funny in a way that he still calls Kon ‘your clone’. It’s not meant out of rudeness or a way to set Kon apart from other people, he’s just always been a very literal person, Kon is a clone so he calls him a clone. And it doesn’t bother Tim too much because Kon doesn’t care. They’d be having words over the name if Kon did.
“No, they don’t. We’re not hiding it or anything, but I’ve never told them. They’ve never asked.” Tim shrugs. “Ma and Pa know, and they couldn’t be more supportive. Ma actually bakes me a pie every Saturday and makes Kon fly it over.” He smiles. “It’s really sweet.”
“Why would you say Father would not mind if you never told him?”
Shit, Tim thinks. Damian thinks Bruce’ll judge him for this. “B doesn’t know I’m dating Kon, but he does know about my sexuality. I told him a while ago. He was very supportive. He told me that love is love and to never let an idiot tell me otherwise. It’s actually one of the better conversations I’ve had with him.”
“Why not tell him about your relationship if you do not feel shame over it?”
Tim blinks in surprise at the question. He looks over at his little brother to see that Damian is genuinely confused. “I’ve never thought about it like that at all. There was no conscious decision to not tell anyone. My life is my life and I don’t have an obligation to share it with anyone. I don’t need to tell anyone, but I won’t hide it if they ask.”
“And no one has asked?”
“Not in the family.”
Damian’s eyebrows pull together. “How long have you been seeing your clone?”
“Almost a year.”
Damian sits on that for a moment. It does sound a little sad, putting it like that. No one has cared enough to ask him if he was seeing anyone in the past year. But Tim’s always been private, so they don’t intrude. It’s really not a big deal.
“Hn. With how often Richard bothers me over my interpersonal relationships, I assumed he did the same to you.”
“Not for a while.” He can remember those days, back when Dick was his only big brother, his only sibling. Back when Dick fussed over him constantly, so much that it annoyed Tim a little, but he also liked it because he liked the feeling of someone caring that much about him.
“I suppose it is different with you.”
“In what way?”
“You are not the heir,” Damian says, his voice quiet, making it sound like an admission. His shoulders are stiff and his eyes are hard, guarded. This is it. This is what is holding Damian back. But…but why? What does he mean by that?
“And that makes it different?” Tim’s careful to sound questioning, friendly questioning, to not be challenging in any way. This feels important. He doesn’t want to say the wrong thing and accidentally amplify Damian’s worries or get him to shut down on him.
“You are not the blood son.”
And oh. It hits Tim like a train, what that means. Of course, he thinks. Damian has had the importance of an heir drilled into his head his entire life. To the League and to Ra’s, an heir is essential to ensure the line of succession. After Bruce died (or rather was presumed to be dead), there was a lot of talk about who would take the cowl after him, who would be the successor of the Bat, the heir if you will.
It really shouldn’t be surprising that Damian thinks he’s expected to have an heir of his own one day.
Of course adoption exists, there’s no way he couldn’t know that with his family, but he always harps on about being the ‘blood son’ and how that means more, of course he’d want his heir to be his blood. Tim wonders if he knows about surrogates, then ignores the thought because that’s so not the point right now.
The point is that Damian won’t let himself enter a relationship with the boy he likes because he feels pressure to continue the bloodline. Jesus, that is fucked. He’s said multiple times in the past how he is the descendant of two great bloodlines, he must feel pressure from both sides.
Ra’s might care about the heir thing and getting one from Damian to continue the line, but Tim seriously doubts he’d care if Damian dated a guy, you don’t live to be 700 years old and not be at least a little open-minded. Bruce would never care about something like the Wayne family blood needing to be passed on, especially not at the price of his son’s happiness. And Tim doesn’t know if Damian is bi or gay. Fuck, what if he’s gay and was going to force himself to be with a woman to do what he thinks is his duty to his family?
This is so far out of Tim’s depth. He’s not the one who should be here with Damian. He’s going to fuck this up. Dick or Bruce should be the one to tell him that line of thinking is bogus. And it’s not something anyone can tell him once and make him actually believe. Getting rid of that nasty thought after it has been so important in his mind will take time.
“Damian,” Tim says, his voice sounding a little breathless. “Shit, I don’t know how to make you believe this, but that doesn’t matter. Continuing the blood line doesn’t matter, not if it’s going to make you unhappy.”
Damian’s gaze shutters, and he looks frustrated. “Do not talk about what you do not understand.”
“You’re right, I don’t understand it the way you do. But the Drake name is old, and I’m not planning to make a blood heir.”
Damian’s fists clench and he tightens his jaw. “Shut up, Drake. It’s not the same and this conversation is over.”
Tim runs a shaky hand through his hair. He promised he wouldn’t tell Bruce about this, but this is seriously something the two of them need to talk about. Surely it’ll mean more from Bruce than Tim. “Damian, if you don’t believe me, you should talk to Bruce about this.”
Damian pulls away from him even more at that.
Tim squeezes his eyes shut. “I’m sorry, I said something wrong. I know being the blood son means something to you, and I’m not trying to tell you it shouldn’t. All I mean is that you should not let that get in the way of being happy. And being in a relationship with someone that you care for will make you happy, trust me on that, please, if nothing else.”
Damian doesn’t say anything. He just stands there with his arms crossed, his mouth set in a scowl, his eyes frustrated, with tense muscles all over.
“Damian, one more thing, then I promise I’ll shut up. If you think, even for a second, that Jon will make you happy, you deserve to try with him. And so does he, that boy adores you. Leave the future for the future. Okay?”
Somehow, Damian finds a way to grit his jaw tighter and looks away. His body is full of tension, and Tim hates that he made him that way. They’ve never been close, not really, but they were doing better. And Tim might have just ruined that. But if anything he said stuck with Damian, then it’s worth it.
“Incoming!” Kon’s voice calls from over the treetops. The warning gives both Waynes a moment to pull themselves together before the Kents come crashing in. They’ve been talking for a while, much longer than Tim expected. And somewhere along the way, they stopped walking. He doesn’t know when that happened and how much longer they still have left until they reach the pond.
When Kon and Jon crash land in front of the other boys, they both have smiles on their faces, the picture of perfect brothers. It makes Tim jealous for a moment. But he can also see Kon’s smile isn’t entirely real, it’s far too strained. He wonders how much he heard of the conversation, he had to have checked in to know to keep Jon away for as long as he did.
Kon moves closer and wraps an arm around Tim’s shoulders. Tim deflates gratefully into him. Jon turns to Damian with his wide smile that falters at the tense look of his friend.
“Dami?” Jon asks, reaching out a hand. Damian flinches at it and Jon visibly wilts at that, pulling his hand back and his beaming smile turning into a sad frown. Tim’s heart breaks in his chest. He’s responsible for this, and it hurts like hell. This is why he should stay away from the Manor, he’ll just keep messing up Damian’s life further and further if he comes around more.
Kon clears his throat. “We should keep going to see the sun before it sets.”
“Yeah,” Tim agrees quietly.
Kon slips his arm over Tim’s back and down his arm to tangle their hands together. He presses his mouth into his hair and whispers: “It’ll be okay, baby.” He presses a lingering kiss there before pulling back with more of that false cheer on his face, a clear attempt to keep the mood from staying at rock bottom.
Damian watches the little display, but doesn’t say anything, he only walks past them to go further down the trail. Jon hesitantly trails after him. Kon catches him as he passes, pulling him in for a quick kiss on his head and a fond hair ruffle. Jon smiles gratefully at his older (sorta) brother.
Tim sighs but goes willingly to Kon’s tug forward. At least they have a beautiful sunset over some water to look forward to. Hopefully the rest of the night isn’t ruined by his failed attempt to be an older brother.