Note: Inspired by the super cute video by Irosoma0410
'Black is Black and Blue is Blue'
by Songsix
He slipped off his cowl, sighing in relief as the rush of the cool air swirling around the cave hit his face. He could already smell the ginger snaps from the kitchen, hear the murmur of the music blasting from the training room, and feel relaxed at home. Glancing at the digital clock on the giant monitor in the cave, he checked for the time hoping his boyfriend would still be awake. He recalled Kon mentioning a Wendy the Werewolf marathon going on, so he should be.
Calling Kon, he waited for the click in his earpiece as he sat down and started typing on the bat-computer searching for any updated information he needed to know on the Gotham baddies from Oracle. He was never very good at having nothing to do. When he heard the familiar click, he asked with a dull voice, "I got Batgirl covering my patrol tonight. Do you want to come over?"
"It's kind of late, dontcha think?" Tim actually stopped typing for a second, slightly taken aback.
"Alfred just popped out a fresh tray of cookies." He added, aware the clone rarely resisted the butler's cooking abilities. Although, Mrs. Kent could send him on a run for his money.
"I don't know Rob, I gotta get up early and help Ma out with the chores…" Tim raised an eyebrow, not particularly liking the tone Kon had taken. It was different then how it usually was, like there was something he was hiding. There shouldn't be anything Kon should have to hide, and even if he did have something he knew Tim well enough to know it was stupid to even try to keep it from him. His mentor is the world's greatest detective. He considered himself to be a pretty close second.
"If you want, I could come by there tomorrow. I could spare an hour." Tim offered, masking the eagerness in his voice. It's surprisingly been a week since he's seen Kon, and usually he'd see the boy every other day. Even despite the 'no meta rule' Batman has for Gotham. Now, it seemed for the first time Tim was trying to coax Kon into seeing him at all. He didn't like this one bit.
"Nah, it's a'right. I don't want to put you to work."
"I don't mind." He insisted, a tad too fast. There was a slight pause on the phone before the other boy finally responded.
"Seriously, it's okay. I'll just see you this weekend if the Titans don't have a mission."
Tim rolled his eyes groaning, "because villains and crimes stop on the weekends." He muttered, making it clear he was annoyed.
"Hey, bad guys need breaks too." And with that, Kon hung up. Tim pondered for a second if he should be worried, but rather than let it bother him he distracted himself with more work on the computer. Eventually hours later, Alfred had to convince him to go to bed around three for the Wayne Enterprises meeting he had in the morning with a company from Germany. He wasn't surprised to find the boy had been spying on Superboy, or the fact that he had a camera installed into his room. Although, from five different angles was a bit much.
Later that week, Tim found himself calling his boyfriend again after hearing nothing. He was starting to worry.
"Bart told me the impossible actually happened, and you guys got a free day today." Tim commented, doing a very good of not revealing his excitement as he pulled on his gauntlets," maybe we could patrol together. Poison Ivy escaped." He offered up, knowing very well that his boyfriend wouldn't mind one bit taking on that particular villain. That didn't bother him, so as long as he'd get to see the other boy at all. However…
"Yeah, but I thought I'd help Clark out with patrol." Tim glared hard, clicking on his utility belts violently with loud snaps. Even Robin, who was preparing to leave himself, stopped to look over.
"In Metropolis?" He voiced icily.
"Er…yeah."
"Metropolis." He repeated, slowly.
"Superman has to take care of the whole world; sometimes Big Blue needs a hand too."
"Fine. A different day then." Tim huffed, before hanging up without so much of a goodbye, tugging down at his cowl hard, and riding off on his motorcycle giving it extra revs. He took out Poison Ivy, a group of thugs, and a cult trying to sacrifice a young woman in only a few short hours. It was plain to see he was pissed. Especially if Batman felt he had to worry more about him than Red Hood: Enough to pull Red Robin aside and talk to him. Needless to say, it was a good thing Dick pulled him over, before he ran Pyg and his dollies over mercilessly. The poor villain was already close to a coma after Tim was through with him.
After a good chat, he received some advice from Dick and even Barbara, who'd been listening, and was told that he should simply voice to Kon his issues and worries. The only problem was how was he going to get the boy to show up. Then he came up with an idea, being the insane little bat-shit crazy psycho he was…
"You want me to shoot you."
"I have a bullet proof Kevlar vest on."
"You want me. To shoot you."
"You won't hurt me…make sure I fall over the edge though."
"You. Want. Me. To. Shoot. You." Red Hood gaped at him in disbelief, Red Robin didn't even budge. He just stood there, appearing to want to yawn.
"I already disabled any of Oracle's or Batman's surveillance tech. You won't get in trouble."
"You want me to shoot you!" Red Hood wasn't even amused, excited, or…or…anything! Normally, this sort of thing would be awesome and he'd be on it quicker than you could sing 'Batman smells'. But with Red Robin actually asking him to do this freely and with no concerns without any backlash was a bit too surreal for Jason at the moment, and he's dealt with some pretty surreal stuff before. Like coming back from the dead, of course…
"Batgirl is away, Robin won't care and would probably thank you, and I already explained this to Batman." Red Robin reassured, referring to Dick of course. Bruce would be flying in that night from Tokyo, but only for a few hours before he'd be leaving again.
"Shit, Kid. What's wrong with you? Not that I'm opposed to the idea of shooting you but–"
"I promise to wire you the money right after. Make it believable and, just don't actually kill me–" Before Red Robin could even finish his sentence he felt the wind get knocked out of him as a pressure pressed into his vest and he'd been knocked over the edge of the roof free falling. He could feel his heart pounding against his chest wildly, and that was exactly what he wanted.
"Gotcha!" Warm, familiar arms wrapped around him, and he instantly felt his own body want to melt into him. He cursed himself for smiling, still frustrated with the boy for the past week. However, he couldn't help but have missed the boy's touch. Its only been a week, and he's waited longer, but sometimes it was as though he needed this all the time. So there was going to be hell to pay if Kon didn't have a good excuse for his absence. Dying wasn't even a viable excuse anymore!
"Thanks SB."
"What happened?" Kon asked worriedly, before snapping his head in the opposite direction Red Robin fell spying a red, shiny, helmet. "That dick. Want me to go after him?"
"It'll be fine."
"He shot you Tim." Kon whined, clutching harder to Tim, holding him closer protectively. Sky blue eyes looked down at white lenses pleadingly waiting for permission to go ape shit at Red Hood, however, he found himself frozen and gaping, even dropping Tim on the concrete roof…
"I know."
"What do you mean you know?" Superboy asked in exasperation throwing his arms into the air.
"I told him to." Tim replied, dusting himself off standing up.
Kon sputtered for a few seconds before yelling angrily, "what the fuck is wrong with you?"
"You were avoiding me!" Tim argued, ripping his cowl from his head as his face started to heat up in frustration. He face was flushed, blue eyes were bright and livid, his nose was flared, and lips red from the rush of blood. Kon paused for a moment admiring his boyfriend's face after not seeing it for a week. He almost wanted to suggest they just take out their anger in some intense making out in some dark alley, but before he could Tim shoved him in the arm bringing him back. "Pay attention!"
"Seriously, your first solution was this?" Superboy gestured to the air front of them, probably referring to the extra bullet proof vest Tim had worn beneath his uniform, "I know you've had crazy plans before but this is–"
"I had to do something to get your attention. I knew you'd hear me." Tim argued, causing Kon's cheeks to go rosy. It was no secret between them that while Tim always watched Kon with his cameras; Kon always listened for Tim's heartbeat wherever he went. It was all a part of their relationship: to continuously stalk each other until the ends of this Earth and other universes as well.
"I wasn't avoiding you, by the way." Kon scoffed, crossing his arms defiantly.
"Yes you were, you always had some excuse." Tim snorted, crossing his own arms.
"Sometimes you have stuff to get done. Even you have busy weeks."
"Yeah, but I used to have to fight you to stay away from Gotham, because you'd come see me so much." Tim bit out angrily, but Kon's expression softened not missing the hint of disappointment laced within the words. Even though Tim slapped him away, and was even close to yanking out a batarang, Kon pulled him back into his arms holding him closely nuzzling his face into dark hair. He used his TTK to keep Tim from being able to pull away.
"Well…I love you." Suddenly, all of Tim's anger disappeared. It wasn't fair how Kon could do that.
"I love you too…than tell me why you've been avoiding me." Kon didn't say anything, "Conner, please?" Tim asked again, looking him in the eye refusing to break his gaze. Kon frowned deeply, and nervously as if trying to hold back. Finally, he sighed out and confessed.
"He just scared the shit out me, man."
Batman. Bruce. "What did he say?" Tim interrogated, with his Red Robin voice.
"Just stuff! I just…I don't know…maybe he's right…" Kon stammered, before his voice died out hopelessly. This concerned Tim.
"About what Conner? You used to not care that he had a whole vault of kryptonite ready every time you came here, and now suddenly you care?"
"Holy crap." Kon went wide eyed in surprise, as if he didn't already know about Bruce's stash, "He has that?"
"Er…yeah." Tim cocked an eyebrow in confusion.
Kon shook his head before his eyes went downcast to the ground, "well…no that's not it…"
"What is it then?"
The larger boy kissed the top of Tim's forehead, before continuing with hesitance, "he doesn't think anything we feel is…real."
"Really now?"
"He said our….he used a lot of words."
"Try me."
"Something along the lines of that our feelings…are a…result of my return. Yeah! That's it!" Kon smiled goofily pointing a finger into the air as he remembered, "He also said that I was only going to hurt you and leave you when I figured that out, and when that happens I would pay severely." His expression was sad, and Tim could hear the pain in his tone.
"Conner…"
"But I would never leave you Tim. Not by choice." Kon insisted, letting go of Tim and cupping his face with both hands, "I just thought if I stayed away for awhile he'd calm down a little." When Tim did nothing but stare it frightened him. He could see in his eyes that he was thinking. Hard. Finally…
"Take me to the Manor."
"But Tim–"
"Now. Kon." Tim demanded with his Red Robin voice, slipping on the cowl and throwing his arms into the air waiting for the boy to take his hands and fly them off. Good thing he left the motorcycle at the cave. Kon nodded and saluted him before grabbing his hands and taking off with his TTK.
"Right!"
"Bruce!" Tim shouted, charging through the front of the manor doors, Kon floating not too far behind him.
"Master Timothy, you have returned home early…" Alfred's words trailed out as the boy stormed right past him and stomping up the stairs. The butler glanced at Kon, but all he could do was smile sheepishly and shrug not really sure what his boyfriend was up to himself. The two followed behind Tim, curiously.
"Um…Tim?" Kon started, realizing what was probably going on, but he'd been ignored.
"Where's Bruce?" Tim demanded to know from Alfred.
"In his study. He had just flown in and was actually about to prepare to leave again."
As soon as Alfred revealed Bruce's location, Tim made his way in a hurry. Kon follow behind nervously trying to talk to him, but his words were still ignored. Alfred was about to follow, but when he heard a knock at one of the front windows he hurried to answer the call. When Tim arrived at the study, he made it a point to slam the doors open as loudly, and angrily, as he could. Bruce looked up from his desk wearing a calm expression, not the least bit surprised by the entrance; however, he wasn't clear as to why the boy was so upset…
"Bruce."
"Tim? What's going on?" Bruce asked, putting down his paperwork before lacing his fingers atop his desk. Tim gritted his teeth trying his very best to keep calm, but this was the last straw. He made it clear before that he was not okay with Bruce treating Kon as if he was merely just some hollow clone. He even knew how much he missed his best friend, so for Bruce to be this way really, really…really pissed him off.
"Look, our feelings are not a 'result of clone boy's return'." Tim seethed out, slamming his hands onto the wooden desk to make a point. Bruce was still unmoving, but he was still confused.
"Tim I–" Bruce started.
"Listen…" Kon tried.
But Tim wouldn't have any of it. Never breaking his glare on Bruce, he snapped an arm towards Kon, fisted his t-shirt, yanked him to his face and gave him a hard, bruising kiss. Tongue and everything. Finally, when they broke apart, Kon was actually heaving while Tim was still glaring Bruce down."Our love, as you can see, is true and you're just going to have to accept it's as simple as that!" Alright, Tim has officially gone crazy.
"I dropped by to drop off some…what's going on?" Stephanie interrupted, coming in with arms full of folders from Oracle. Bruce looked over Tim's shoulder at her gesturing to Tim with his pupils reading: "He's gone nuts, fetch Alfred". Just as she was about to follow his silent orders, Tim revved up again, and she didn't want to miss it.
"I don't even know why you still have a problem with him! And who cares if we're together! I'm mean, Jesus Bruce, you didn't seem to have a problem with Dick's girlfriends…" Stephanie had to cover her mouth to conceal her giggles, Kon sighed, Bruce didn't say a word.
"…and believe me, he's had a lot of girls…" Tim went on, with absolutely no shame.
"Did I hear my name?" Dick asked, as he wondered in wearing a nervous smile. However, Stephanie pulled him back just as he was about to grab Tim and drag the boy out.
"…some of them, he didn't even date!"
"Ouch." Dick muttered, eye twitching, but it only made Stephanie giggle a bit harder. As well as another…
"He's got you on that one."
"What are you doing here?" Dick exasperated to Jason.
"Relax, Bruce invited me to talk...didn't expect this, what a riot!" Alfred had followed behind also appearing amused. But when there was another slam on the desk all four of their heads snapped back to the scene. Bruce continued to remain un-moving and unafraid, Kon was sweating bullets, and Tim was as red as his uniform.
"So just get used to knowing our relationship is fact. Like blue is blue and black is black!" He yelled out, tugging Kon towards him once more. The boy almost pulled away, but Tim forced him into another sloppy kiss, before tipping him over and throwing the boy over Bruce's desk in dramatic effect. When they pulled apart, Kon was speechless, Bruce finally moved a single eyebrow, and the remainder of the room gaped…except Jason, he openly laughed.
"There! Happy?" Tim asked, hands on his hips in pride.
"Would someone enlighten me on who allowed the clone boy into our household?" The others parted the seas as the youngest of the crew squeezed his way through, squinting his eyes at Kon as though he should have already been thrown out like yesterday's garbage. The boy in subject tugged at the collar of his shirt nervously, he was quick to fly up and away from Bruce's desk.
"Damian–" Tim said, as the gears in his brain started reeling and clicking before he had a sudden and embarrassing epiphany. Jason and Stephanie leaned on each other as they laughed together, Dick and Alfred smiled sympathetically, and Bruce even cracked a slight smile. Kon floated higher to the ceiling afraid he was about to be pummeled.
"Yeah, Tim, buddy…I was trying to tell you." He apologized, crossing his arms to shield his chest, just in case the other boy was about to fling something at him. It wouldn't be something new if he did.
"But then it got hilarious."
"Jason." Tim warned.
"He's got a point Timmy." Dick butted in.
"Wow Former Boy Wonder." Stephanie added in.
"I don't even–" Tim stuttered, surprised and completely humiliated that it had been Damian Kon was talking about. Just as he was about to snap at the younger boy for being so infuriating he had another realization…He also said that I was only going to hurt you and leave you when I figured that out, and when that happens I would pay severely. "Everyone needs to leave. Now."…all of his anger dissipating.
"Aw come on, it was getting good!"
"C'mon Jay, it's been awhile since you've been here. Let's find you a room!"
"I don't plan on staying here forever." Jason insisted as Dick pulled him along.
Stephanie shrugged her shoulders and dropped the folders onto the desk before leaving, "I need to get back to Barbara anyways."
"Master Bruce, shall I take your bags to the front door?" Alfred offered.
"I'll just come with you." Bruce set a comforting hand on Tim's shoulder saying nothing else, and left the room. Tim flinched, unable to look at his face.
Just as Superboy was about to close the doors to give them privacy and even usher Robin out, Tim pointed a new glare at him, "You too."
"But Babe–"
"What did I tell you about that?" Tim warned, referring to the pet name.
"Right…I'll be in the kitchen." Faster than a speeding bullet, Superboy was out of the room leaving just Tim and Damian. Robin was going to leave as well, but Red Robin was quick to intercept his path standing in front of him blocking the exit. His arms folded over one another wearing a stern expression. The young boy rolled his eyes and wouldn't meet his look.
"Look Damian, understand one thing and one thing only…"
Damian waved his hand mockingly, huffing, "Drake, I don't need the third degree. Save it for someone who cares, because I'm actually regretful I did in the f–" But he stopped abruptly when a pair of hands landed on his shoulders and he was at eye level with the older boy.
"I can take care of myself. You don't need to worry about me. Bruce knows that, so does Dick and everyone else in this insane…'family'." With that, Tim gave a slight squeeze, let go, stood up, and smiled warmly.
Damian was almost speechless. "I…understand."
"I'm pretty sure Conner probably found that chocolate cake Alfred baked, let's go before he swallows it whole." Damian nodded and lead the way, Tim didn't miss the smile gracing the boy's face.
Hours later found Kon and Tim laying side by side on the roof just staring up at the sky with bellies full of Alfred's cooking. Their shoulders touching, and hands and arms a top each other. Kon nuzzled closer to Tim, slipping an arm beneath the boy's neck and wrapping it around his shoulders possessively. Tim complied easily, letting his head fall onto Kon's forearm taking in a mix of a musky scent and hay.
"So, everything alright with the little snothead?" Kon asked lifting their entwined hands, kissing the back of Tim's affectionately.
"Yeah." Tim replied, moving his head slightly to kiss his boyfriend's shoulder, "Conner, next time, just talk to me."
"I thought he'd bug the comm. Links."
Tim had to roll his eyes, "since when were you scared of Damian anyways?"
"Man, I wasn't, until when he…you don't want to know what he told me."
"I love you."
"Baby, my love is true, know that right?" Tim held back a shove.
"Matter of fact."