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Jonathan Kent wasn't the sort of guy to attend parties like this. They were always too crowded and loud in a way that made his head spin. He honestly would have preferred to stay at home and play the newest DLC for Cheese Viking, but his friends kept pressing him to join them for 'just one night of fun!' It wasn't like he could say no every single time. Plus, it was the end of the year, so homework wasn't a plausible excuse to present in exchange for an out.
So there he stood in the corner of the packed house. It was sweaty and uncomfortable and there were far, far too many drunk teenagers. Hiding next to the snack table, Jon surveyed the area, watching his friends party the night away with red solo cups splashing beer and God knows what else onto the wooden 'dance floor'.
Well... Friends was a bit of a stretch. They were classmates at best. Classmates who were convinced Jon was their closest buddy because he sat next to them in geography class. He endured them all year. He endured the poking and prodding and laughing. He endured them stealing his glasses and ruffling his hair among all other things. (The glasses weren't that much of an issue, he would just make a squinty face and no one would notice anything wrong.)
At the end of every school day, he would retreat home, change into his Superboy outfit and fly off to meet with his real best friend. Robin.
Robin was amazing. He was strong, brave, funny in a dry kind of way, and, well, Jon couldn't help but find him a little cute. When it was just the two of them patrolling the streets and messing around with each other, life was comfortable. What Jon would give to flee from the stuffy confines of this godforsaken hell hole and fly into the night. He'd wait at their meet-up spot for Robin and then they could be alone together. Well, not alone. They'd be kicking criminal ass together.
He was quickly dragged back to reality when a girl slammed into him and spilt her drink all down his hoodie. Jon winced as the girl spluttered out a barrage of apologies.
"No, no, please don't worry! I'm totally okay!" He offered a tight smile and slunk off to locate a restroom.
Weaving through the mass of people, Jon slipped discreetly into the small half-bath next to the staircase. Inside, he could finally breathe. He yanked off his hoodie— a stupid blue one with a low quality image of the bat-symbol on the chest. If Robin knew he wore something like that, he'd laugh his head off. Jon would kill to hear that laugh right now. Robin was probably busy right now. He was likely either training or patrolling the streets of Gotham beside Batman. Robin could have been by his side, jumping across buildings as he teased his best friend, but stupid Jon had to go to a shitty party instead.
Someone knocked against the bathroom door. "Hey man, you almost done? Mike's about to vomit and uhh..."
"Yeah!" Jon exclaimed, "Almost!" He tied his hoodie around his waist and splashed his face with some cold water before opening the door and returning to the chaos beyond.
Just as he stepped foot outside, his friend grabbed his arm and pulled him into a circle of people. "Yo, Kent! You gotta play."
"What? What are we playing???" Jon laughed anxiously. "I'm really bad at cards so—"
He froze when he spotted the empty beer bottle stationed in the middle of the circle. Oh no.
Damian Wayne wasn't the sort of guy to attend parties like this. He was much too refined for such an event. However, everyone from his school seemed to think it was the greatest thing in the history of the world, and Damian couldn't help but find himself slightly curious.
It certainly wasn't that he was afraid that failing to go to something like this would cause him to be the subject of ridicule among his classmates. Certainly not. He would likely enjoy it, actually! Yes, why wouldn't he? It wasn't like he was unnerved by how close people were and how smelly and sweaty and noisy and just outright terrible it was. Damian was wholly capable of enduring such conditions.
When he arrived at the party there was no acknowledgement, which in his eyes was a rousing success. It was one thing to be noticed in school where Damian excelled, but for eyes to shift to him during a moment he was clearly—no, not clearly, just slightly— uncomfortable? Suffice it to say he didn't want that.
Damian found himself standing awkwardly by a window and sipping air out of a red solo cup. He had glanced over the drink options when he arrived and quickly deduced that they were all either alcoholic drinks or spiked with said alcohol. As he clutched the cup close to his chest, a girl approached him. She didn't look particularly familiar to him, infact he wasn't quite sure she even attended his school. She looked up at him nervously biting her lip. Her finger was caught in the motion of twirling her short, blonde hair. "Hii..." She murmured. "You're really—ahem. You look bored~"
Damian frowned slightly, tilting his head to the side. "Pardon?"
She grinned, "I just meant uh... You should join me— Us! You should join us in a game!"
"What game?"
The girl glanced behind her and then grabbed Damian's wrist. "Come find out."
He could have easily pulled away, but he didn't really want to have a fight in the middle of the party and draw attention. Not to mention, he was kind of bored. And surely he could win a few party games to raise his confidence.
Damian realized all too late that this was not that kind of game.
The girl guided his hand to grasp the beer bottle in the middle of the circle of people and spin it. It was only when the bottle had begun swivelling around did Damian finally piece together what game he was really playing. Spin the bottle? Or worse. He'd heard from his brothers that activities such as this could always take different turns. He felt stupid. So damn stupid in that moment. He was already overstimulated, the last thing he needed was to be forced to kiss someone. Or worse. Never forget the or worse.
The bottle finally halted in front of another person he didn't recognize. A boy with pale skin and freckles dotted across his face. Big, thick glasses were perched on his nose, and he pushed them up at he looked back and forth between the bottle and Damian.
He stood up, his hands folded in front of him stiffly. Damian glanced around with uncertainty. What was he supposed to do now? He'd never kissed anyone before. Wasn't that a lot of intimacy for a first meeting—?
He was shoved into a closet alongside the other person. The door slammed shut and locked with a sharp click. Then silence.
Jon swallowed hard. Seven minutes in heaven. Was it really heaven if you knew diddly squat about the person in front of you? Or was that the point?
Standing face to face with this stranger in the closet that was somehow more claustrophobic than outside. Jon could feel the gentle breathing of the person in front of him. Truthfully, he didn't even really know who it was. He was too caught up in the chaos of being pulled to his feet and pushed into a closet to catch a steady view of their face.
Damian felt similarly, unfortunately. For a detective, he would have thought himself to be the sort to quickly adjust to the situation and gather as much information as possible, but he had been so busy reeling from the sudden movement that he failed to even glance at the other person.
Jon cleared his throat awkwardly. "Hello there!"
Damian couldn't help but scowl. Seriously? That was what they were leading with? "Hi," he replied flatly.
"I don't think we've met before so—" Jon paused, clearing his throat. "I just mean, if we're supposed to, y'know, kiss or whatever..."
Damian crossed his arms tightly. "What makes you think I'd kiss you?"
"Oh." The silence that followed was sharp with a tension neither of them knew what to do about. Damian was anxious and frustrated about the entirety situation. He wanted to go home. He wanted to change out of this stuffy button down and lie on his bed with Titus. He wanted to shower and brush his hair. He wanted to feel normal again.
After what should have been the entire seven minutes, Jon spoke up. "I'm Jon." Damian didn't respond immediately, but he eventually muttered his name."Have you... Um. Ever kissed anyone?" Jon questioned, he offered a wide, nervous grin that was invisible in the darkness of the closet.
Damian refused to answer that.
"Cause I haven't! And it'd be like... A first kiss for me! Haha..haahh..." His smile twisted into a grimace. "Sorry."
Damian leaned back and squeezed his eyes shut. "You really want this??"
Jon sunk to the ground, his knees pulling to his chest. "Not really. I uh... I just kinda thought we had to?"
"Why would we have to?" He scoffed. "If neither of us want to kiss, who in their right mind is forcing us?"
"I guess. So um." Jon fidgeted. "I'm Jon."
"So you've said." Damian rolled his eyes playfully and sat down as well. "I assume you didn't really want to attend this party either?" When Jon replied with a muffled groan, Damian almost smirked. "Same. I don't know what I was thinking."
"Ditto," Jon exclaimed. "I should have just stayed home or gone on—er ahem. Called my friend."
"Friend?" Damian asked only to keep the conversation running.
"Yeah. He's my best friend. Or uh. Something." Jon shrugged. "I kinda have a big enormous crush on him, but I don't know how to tell him or how he'd even react. I wanted to tell him... But instead, I caved into peer pressure and came here." Jon huffed out a shaky laugh, "Sorry. I kinda infodumped."
Dammit. Dammit all. Damian was trying his hardest to not think about his own similar situation. He'd been feeling... differently towards his partner, Superboy, as of late. It was an unfortunate infatuation that he had been certain would dissipate within a few days. When it refused to do such a thing, he realized he may have a problem. Superboy had much better things to focus on rather than romance. Especially romance with him of all people. They didn't even know each other's civilian selves. Superboy would never reciprocate. However, Damian didn't want to give away any of his own turmoil, and he simply clicked his tongue. "If you already harbor feelings for another person, I believe it would be inappropriate for anyone to expect you to kiss someone else. Especially a stranger."
"Y-Yes!" Jon exclaimed. "Exactly! Exactly!" There was a brief moment of comfortable silence before Jon spoke up again. "Did you tell me your name..?"
"Damian."
"Right! I'm Jon!" He grinned awkwardly. "Which I've told you."
"Three times now," Damian stifled a laugh.
"Yikes. I am not doing well in this interaction, huh?" He winced.
"You're doing alright." Damian huffed lightly. He ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to remove any built up sweat. "I... Am in a similar predicament as you are in."
"Bwuh??" Jon blinked a few times.
Damian cleared his throat anxiously. "With your... Feelings towards your friend."
"Oh! Oh?"
"Yes. That's... All I will tell you. Just... I understand. In a way."
"Right! Right, yeah. I won't push, I promise!" Jon swore, placing a hand over his heart.
Damian snorted softly. "Thanks."
"Y'know," Jon began, then paused. "This might sound a little bit weird, but I, uh, I feel like we've met. Your voice and attitude... And your laugh kinda... Sound familiar. And if that's like... True... It's gonna be really embarrassing for me. Actually both ways it's embarrassing cause if you're really just a stranger then I'm being really rude—"
"Familiar how?" Damian interrupted.
"Like... I mean, just... Okay, don't take this the wrong way, your laugh... It just... Kinda... A little bit.. reminds me of my friend. Uh. My friend... uhm... Robin."
"...Robin."
"Yeah. Like— uh. Well, not like— not the superhero! Obviously!" Jon's fingers dug into his arms as his brain screamed at him about his own idiocy.
Damian's stomach dropped. No way. No freaking way. He suddenly began digging through his pockets. Shit. Shit. Shit. He had to have at least a sliver of kryptonite on him. Just a discreet way to test his ludicrous theory. If Jon reacted in any way to it then...
Yes! He held the small ziplock bag tightly in his palm, careful not to let the other teen see even a sliver of the rock's natural glow. He held it out just slightly and then waited. After a few seconds Jon clutched his head.
"Ack, sorry, stupid uh... Stupid anxiety, right?? I feel sick all of a sudden. Look, I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable, I was just— I'm sorry."
Damian dropped the bag, gasping softly.
Jon's eyes widened. "Is that...? Why do you have...?"
"Superboy?"
His eyes darted back up to Damian, his face a mix of astonishment and confusion. "Robin!?" He lunged forward and embraced his friend. "Oh my golly am I glad it was you. Cause if it wasn't I'd look insane!!!" Jon laughed brightly.
Damian sighed and rested his head on Jon's shoulder. "And yet I'm the son of the world's best detective."
"It's elementary, Watson!" Jon giggled.
"Ew shut up," Damian chuckled.
"So..." Damian murmured. "About uh.. that friend you have a crush on."
Jon froze. "Oh. Uh. Well. Um. Y'know it wasn't— It definitely wasn't you or anything."
"...right. okay, but you said I sounded like that friend—"
"OKAY FINE! I DO REALLY really... Like you. Like... Like like you." Jon pulled away and buried his face in his hands.
"...Okay. Okay... I feel similarly," Damian spoke carefully.
"For reals?" Jon gawked. Damian simply nodded awkwardly. "Wow. Oh wow."
Clearing his throat, Damian sharply changed the subject. "I feel like it has been a significantly higher amount of time than seven minutes."
"Oh. Hah... Yeah, they probably got bored and forgot about us."
"Then I believe it's in our best interests to get out of this closet—"
"Wait!" Jon yelped, grabbing Damian by the shoulders. "Just... Wait, okay? Please?"
Damian blinked in confusion. "What."
"Could we... Er. Would you want to maybe... Uhh.. like... Kiss. Maybe. Please? If not that's totally fine—I just thought that because you like me and I like you and I've been thinking about it for a while wait no, not a while sorry that's embarrassing I just meant—"
"I'd like that," Damian said softly, ending Jon's rambling.
"Oh! Uh. Yay!" Jon almost melted when Damian cupped his face with his hands.
The two of them drew in closer and finally locked lips. It was messy and awkward, but both boys were brimming with elation and a sloppy first kiss wouldn't bring them down. When they broke away from each other, Jon pulled Damian into a tight hug. "Thank you."
"Thank you," Damian replied. "Now, shall we exit this closet or what?"
"Haha.. yeah. Wanna go patrolling?"
"You read my mind."