Just a note but this is the third part to Parts of Each Other, and this one in particular won't make any sense until you at least read Teach Me How to Breathe Again. So, I definitely recommend doing that. Hope you enjoy!
Stardust in our Bones
Tim woke to a kiss.
"Where are we?"
Tim rolled his eyes and neatly stepped over the sprawling mess of roots in front of him. "You set the coordinates, Kon."
"Actually." Kon drew out the word. There was that hint of a smirk, the one that always spoke of good things. For Kon, at least. "I just set the coordinates to the nearest yellow sun. And I wasn't exactly paying attention to where we were going after that. Not with the way you dragged me back into our cabin for the next hour."
"You weren't complaining then," Tim muttered.
"I think I remember begging you to go faster. Unless I imagined it?"
"Fine, I won't do it again."
"Hey, I wasn't saying that. Please don't feel obligated to stop."
Tim held back a smile, slipping underneath the thick swath of vines in front of them. It was best to let Kon think there was even the smallest chance of that for a few minutes. He hadn't had anything embarrassing to hold over Kon's head ever since what happened on Ungara. And now, he noted gleefully as Kon got himself stuck in the vines, he had two things.
These last few months had been some of the best of his life. They never stayed in one place for too long and communication with others often came with more trouble than it was worth. But it was theirs. It was the adventure of being a vigilante that had always appealed to Tim, occasionally even the helping people part, without the constantly looking over his shoulder that had plagued him these last few years. And he had all of that with Kon by his side, a steady presence regardless of what was happening around them.
He stepped past yet another tree and the forest broke away just as suddenly as the ground in front of them had. Roots grew over the edge of the cliffside, intertwined with the rock and earth. It looked almost as if someone had come along and punched a hole in the ground, only for the planet to reclaim the wound for itself. Everything was green and lush, moss growing in the cracks along the side of the cliff.
Whether or not this planet had been chosen at random, it was perfect for them.
Kon fell into place beside him, picking bits of leaves from his hair. There was one notable piece of vine stuck to the back of his shirt but Tim certainly wasn't going to be the one to point it out to him.
Tim glanced up at the sky with its yellow sun and expanse of lilac. "You know, you should be able to fly already."
"What?"
"Flying. You could do it."
Kon hesitated, his interest suddenly diverted to the lake that took up the bottom of the cliff. "I guess."
"Don't tell me you're going to back down now." His lips twitched into a smirk as Kon groaned, clearly torn between flying, falling, and Tim's teasing. "We came here so you could try out those powers of yours. All of them."
"Why are you such an asshole?" Kon replied. But he had already squared his shoulders to the edge of the cliff.
"I like to think it's just my own charm but nature and nurture likely had something to do with it."
The dubious look Kon gave him informed him that the transplant hadn't been able to translate most of the sentence. Tim rolled his eyes. There was too much to explain and they didn't need to spend the next couple hours out here talking about Earth psychology. The transplant was failing him more and more these days. It was difficult to tell whether it was because Tim kept bringing up concepts that didn't exist on Krypton or it it was a problem with the transplant itself.
Oh well, it worked most of the time.
And this was important. More important than a few glitches he might need to work out in the future. Flying and the rest of Kon's powers were important to both of them. For Kon, it was the freedom it would give him from Krypton. And that was more than enough to make it important to Tim.
Even then, they probably wouldn't go out of their way to look for systems with yellow suns in the future. It wasn't that Tim thought Kon wouldn't enjoy learning to fly or use his TTK. It was the association those powers had with Tim's past. They'd drawn clear lines between Kon and Conner, separated the two of them through careful negotiation. Not that they'd gone as far as to admit what they were doing. Tim didn't want them to get lost in those old insecurities and memories anymore than they already did.
It was bad enough that he'd spent an entire day a few weeks back feeling nostalgic over getting hit in the face with a brick.
"You really think I can do this?" Kon asked after a moment, the tips of his shoes edging the drop.
Tim nodded, his voice going soft. "I know you can. We already know you invulnerability works and the two are closely tied. Besides, even if something does go wrong, you'll be fine."
"Uh-huh. Total confidence booster these, jerkface. You want me to throw myself off this - what, two hundred foot? - cliff and hope that I'll survive just because I couldn't cut myself with that knife yesterday?"
"Pretty much," Tim conceded. He didn't bother to hide his grin this time when Kon glanced over at him and grimaced.
Kon groaned again. "Why do you do these things to me? No, don't answer that. It's probably going to be something weird and stalkery. Instead tell me what's going to happen when I just off this cliff and just keep falling."
In hindsight, he never should have told Kon about how he became Robin.
Tim pulled out the comm that had been burning a hole in his pocket since they left the ship. "Activate this and the ship will come pick you up. There's enough room down there for it to maneuver while on auto-pilot."
"You're crazy."
Tim hummed noncommittally and pushed the comm into Kon's hand. He just had enough time to see Kon blink, slow and confused, as he gripped the back of Kon's neck, pulling him down into a kiss and-
Shoved him forwards.
Kon made a strangled noise as he fell, arms flailing in a useless attempt to find something to grab onto. It was going to be fine. Of course it was. The invulnerability and the flying were both born out of the same power, unlike Clark's separate but interconnected powers. It was just a matter of getting Kon to realize that.
Rocks tumbled down the side of the cliff while Kon fell past. Tim grinned. Kon was getting the hang of his TTK then, it was just a matter of time before he started directing it towards himself and not his surroundings. Not much time either because Kon was already slowing, arms spread wide around him, until he'd stopped entirely. It took a moment for him to realize he'd stopped and Tim laughed as Kon dropped another five feet or so at the realization.
There was frustration written into every line of Kon's body when he glanced back up at Tim. His mouth was moving but the words were caught by the wind, pulling them out of his understanding. Kon scowled once he realized Tim couldn't hear a word he was saying and his arms moved awkwardly as he attempted to push himself up through the air.
Yet another thing Tim had to hold over his head later. Or not, he noted, his grin softening into a small smile. Kon had already moved past the learning curve. There was a bit of an unsteadiness to the way he pushed himself through the air but the look on his face spoke of something more. Something that Tim couldn't tease him about even when his attention faded after a moment and he had to rush to catch himself again.
That look was why Tim had pushed him to begin with.
It was the relief of feeling free.
Kon steadied himself the closer he got to the top of the cliff again. But he was moving at the pace of a snail, his trust in his abilities only just forming. There was only one way Tim knew of to change that, only one way that would be effective.
Wind rushed in his ears as Tim threw himself off the edge of the cliff and there was laughter on his lips once he heard Kon cursing. It was more difficult than expected not to dip down into a dive or attempt to maneuver himself towards the roots sticking out nearly thirty feet below. Instead he forced his arms away from his sides and waited.
His body jerked as Kon caught him, arms tucked underneath his armpits. Just like he knew would happen. They passed the top of the cliff in a matter of seconds, Kon pushing himself higher into the air in his panic. But he was trusting himself now, moving them through the air with ease and Tim suddenly realized he was laughing, light giggles falling off his tongue as easily as breathing.
"Are you crazy?"
Tim grinned at his boyfriend, moving his arms around his neck. "I knew you could do it."
"I - you - what?" Kon spluttered.
Later, Tim would attempt to claim that there had been no need to drop him into the lake as his clothes stuck to his skin and the taste of salt water lingered in his mouth. Then Kon would mutter something about reckless bastards before dragging him towards their shower to get clean.
The toothpaste wasn't closed properly when he went to brush his teeth.
"Tell me you have a plan."
"I have a plan," Tim replied without hesitation.
He didn't have a plan.
There had been no reason to come up with a plan for a situation like this. Situations like this didn't happen outside of Gotham. But Tim certainly wasn't about to tell that to Kon. Not when Kon was already looking a bit calmer and a calmer Kon meant he would listen to orders better. For when Tim managed to come up with a plan, that was.
There was also the matter of the small girl sobbing against Kon's shoulder. If she saw Kon freak out then she was only going to get more upset, if such a thing were even possible right now. Tim pushed back the urge to sigh. It could get worse. He'd seen worse, lived through worse.
That still didn't make it easier to see someone's parents dead on the ground. Their blood was a pastel blue but that didn't make it stain the carpet any less as it spread further and further. Better than red. His fists clenched. He didn't think he would have been able to handle red. There were bullet holes in both their skulls and the glass of the windows. A sniper, judging by the splatter and the location of the bodies. If he had the time to find out the heights of the parents in correlation to the holes in the windows, he would be able to pinpoint their location almost exactly.
He didn't have that time.
"Great, what is it?"
Tim faltered, turning his attention back towards Kon. For a moment, he thought he'd made the fatal mistake of confusing Kon with Conner but then he spotted the way Kon's jaw was set. Stubborn but not unwilling to listen. Because Kon refused to act without an explanation and it was his own fault that he'd forgotten that.
He glanced around the room, trying to find information past the growing puddles of blood. "First, we leave."
"And then?" Kon asked, dubiously.
"And then we figure something out."
Tim stepped around the bodies, careful not to get blood on his boots. It was more difficult to move past the emotional side of this than he remembered and he wasn't entirely certain why. Because he was with Kon, perhaps, but it could have also been because of this particular situation with someone's parents dead on their bedroom floor with only one survivor to speak of. Or it even could have been because he hadn't taken on the mantle of Red Robin for too long, no matter how easy it had been able to fall into the role to begin with.
Could he even be called Red Robin anymore?
It didn't matter. Not right now when things had momentarily blown up in their faces and not when him and Kon were going about their lives. Tim tugged at Kon's arm, directing him towards the door.
This constant urge to help was likely to get both of them killed one day.
At least Kon wasn't protesting about leaving. There were at least twenty different ways leaving could go wrong. Unfortunately, staying wasn't an option. The risk of the sniper still being around was too high and the sooner the girl was taken away from her parent's dead bodies, the better. Alien or not, it was a good guess that she felt grief in the same way a human or a Kryptonian did.
"You don't have a plan, do you?" Kon asked as they started for the stairs.
"Of course I have a plan," Tim lied shamelessly. "I always have a plan."
Kon huffed and the pink-skinned girl squirmed in his arms, flinching with each step Kon took. "Really? That's not what I remember from Ungara. Escape tactics are not the same thing as a plan."
"Blame Jason for that, everyone does."
"Who?"
"Uh, my sort-of adopted brother. He came back from the dead once," Tim explained with a wince. He'd thought he'd mentioned Jason to Kon before but apparently not. They reached the bottom of the stairs at the same time and Tim turned to his left, heading for the front door. "I'd explain but it doesn't really get clearer than that."
The girl started to cry again, louder than any cry Tim had heard before. It was what had brought them to this house to begin with-
Tim stilled, listening carefully.
She was crying, yes. But that wasn't just the sound of extreme distress or even Kon's panicked attempts at calming her down again. That was the sound of police sirens getting closer to them, likely called in by one of the neighbours who heard the crying to begin with. And then probably saw two strange-looking aliens pushing their way into the house only a few minutes later.
At least it was nice to know that the sound of police sirens didn't change much from planet to planet. Or reality to reality, for that matter.
Tim turned on his heel, immediately spotting the back door in the kitchen. "We're leaving this way."
"What, why?" Kon asked, his attempts at calming the girl interrupted. But he was already following behind Tim.
"Do you want to try and explain why we're leaving with the daughter of the two warm corpses upstairs, Kon? Maybe then we can also explain how you're a fugitive from Krypton and how I'm from another universe," Tim snapped.
"Right." Kon swallowed and then repeated, "Right."
"Yeah, no, you're going to have to explain that again."
Kon made breakfast for the both of them.
"You know what sucks?" Kon muttered.
Tim rolled his eyes. "That you can't suck me off right now?"
"Damn, I should have thought of that." Kon faked a pout and leaned his weight over onto Tim. An elbow dug into his side half a second later but he continued on with only a quiet grunt. "I mean, it doesn't make sense in Kryptonian but it seems pretty awesome in English. You should teach me more English."
"Later."
"Later to the blowjob or later to teaching me English?"
"What do you think?"
Kon considered it for a brief moment before he grinned over at Tim. "Sweet. But back to the sucking. It really sucks that we're stuck inside a giant, glowing green cage. Especially because of the glowing."
"Yeah, well, neither of you are leaving the cage anytime soon." Hal eyed them suspiciously. "And no blowjobs inside of my constructs, got it?"
"Lame," Kon said and then half a beat later, "That's the word I wanted, right?"
"Depends. Did you really want to suck me off in front of a Green Lantern?" Tim muttered back at him.
Kon shrugged and let the subject drop just like that. It was the nerves. Tim knew that but it hadn't stopped him from snapping. The situation they were in wasn't ideal, not by a long shot. It was more like things had taken a turn towards the absolute worst outcome they could have hoped for. He reached over without a word and threaded their fingers together. The answering squeeze lingered, more of a comfort than anything either of them could have said to each other.
Running into a Green Lantern as they attempted to leave a house with an alien girl was one of the worst things that could have happened. Running into Hal Jordan in the same situation was the actual worst thing that could have happened. There was something ironic in there. Tim was very purposely ignoring it.
On the plus side, Hal hadn't outright asked them about alternate universes or Kryptonian fugitives. But this planet's law enforcement hadn't left them along for more than five minutes at a time so far. Even right now there was an officer standing beside the back door, their eyes firmly focused on Hal rather than the cage him and Kon were stuck inside.
It was a relief to find out that Bruce wasn't the only one who was uncomfortable leaving things to the intergalactic law enforcement.
On the other hand, Tim really didn't want to be thinking about Bruce right now.
Kon really hadn't been too off the mark when he'd said that Tim was better at coming up with escape routes than actual, working plans. But if he wanted a way out of this situation then he couldn't think like a civilian. He couldn't just hope that the Green Lanterns would figure things out sooner or later. An odd feeling settled in the pit of his stomach as he forced himself to come to terms with what he needed to do, even with Kon's fingers intertwined with his own.
There were half a dozen plans that came to mind as Tim pulled Red Robin to the forefront, settling into the mantle like it was an old coat. The last three were dismissed almost immediately. This Hal didn't seem too different from the Hal on his Earth, so he didn't want to hurt the Green Lantern.
Hal just didn't know that while Tim Drake could be taken away from Red Robin, Red Robin couldn't be taken from Tim Drake.
"Hal," Red Robin said simply.
Only it wasn't just simple. It was meant to disarm and unsettle, to make Hal question everything going on here more than he already was.
It worked. A frown passed over Hal's face before disappearing as he accepted Tim knowing his name. Unusual but not unheard of, especially when it came to someone clearly not from this planet. At least when he didn't take the time to consider where Tim would have heard it.
Otherwise, Hal went on ignoring them as the ambulance finally left with the bodies. A few more police officers were visible on the second floor as they examined the windows. They hadn't spotted the bullet holes in the master bedroom yet then. Tim wasn't about to wait around until they did.
There was no way Hal wanted to talk about any of this when they were keeping watch. The chance of sensitive information coming out was too high.
Tim just needed a bit of luck and this would make Hal falter.
All emotions were cleared from Red Robin in a way Tim never would have been able to as just himself. "Have you met Bruce Wayne?"
Kon was staring at him. That was expected, given what Tim had told him about Batman and his reality. It was easier to think about all the stories Tim told him, about getting captured by Two Face or Riddler, than it was to think about the circumstances under which he told Kon those things. Even easier to think about the disgusted way Kon had thought about Bruce. Red Robin had no room for more intimacy between them right now, not if he wanted to do this right.
It took a moment to get the reaction Tim was looking for. Nothing obvious. Hal's attention was just trained towards them more now, his stance on the defensive and screaming panic even if his expression didn't. It wouldn't have worked if Tim had mentioned Batman flatout. He needed to create the impression of trust.
After all, even a Gothamite wouldn't consider having a conversation about Brucie Wayne right now.
Not unless this Bruce had been unmasked, that was. Tim didn't think so. Green Lantern wouldn't be so defensive, for one. And the situation would have had to be truly dire for any Bruce to be unmasked.
"Gotham?" Hal asked dryly but it did nothing to hide his silent assessment.
"Born and raised," Red Robin quipped.
"I swear you guys will be around at the end of time itself. I don't know why you'd think I've met Bruce Wayne though. Playboys like him don't exactly associate with Green Lanterns."
Except when they did, went entirely unsaid.
Red Robin smiled. "I find his policy on metahumans interesting. I always wondered how it would apply to a Green Lantern."
"Kid." Hal's voice dropped into something almost pitying. "I know you're not from around here and not just because of earlier. But trust me, you don't want to go down that avenue, not when it comes to me and him."
"What if I told you that Bruce Wayne trusts me?"
Hal snorted. "Right. Look, even if he did, I can't exactly confirm it."
Of course not but that wasn't the angle Tim was aiming for. Getting Hal to rely in Bruce's trust for another person was about as useful as attempting to convince him stuffed, pink unicorns were attacking the Earth. For one, this Gotham wasn't his Gotham. No matter how similar, there was no telling if this Bruce even had any idea who he was, even if he hadn't gotten the impression things were too different. And then there was the matter that Bruce didn't exactly trust anyone entirely. There were plans he kept even from Alfred.
No, the plan was to get Hal to rely on Bruce's judge of character. That was something else entirely. The Hal from his reality used to make jokes about there being drugs in the Manor water. Tim just had to hope that this Hal had the same faith in Bruce's ability to tell whether someone was a good person or not.
The police officers from the second story had moved away from the window by now, leaving just the one officer by the back door. Even their attention seemed to be divided by something going on inside the house. Their presence was still close enough for Hal not to ask too many questions on Bruce Wayne and Batman, mixed in with a healthy desire not to unmask Batman.
Even if the people here had no idea who Batman was.
Exaggerated frustration flickered across Red Robin's face and he was briefly distracted as Kon squeezed his hand. He squeezed back after a moment, continuing on. "I know. If I could prove it to you, I would but-"
"But dimension travel is a bitch, yeah. You don't work long in a job like mine without figuring that out," Hal conceded easily enough. "Don't change anything though, not when I know nothing about your reality."
Not the reaction Tim was hoping for.
The opportunity to be listened to would have been appreciated. Make their explanation sound as innocent as it really was. This sort of thing worked best when Tim was selling the truth, after all.
"So, what then?" Kon snapped. There was a real thread of anger in his voice and Tim stared at him with wide eyes, put off guard. "Boo-hoo, he was Robin, let's throw him in jail anyways? Dude, I thought that knowing about Bruce Wayne Batman was supposed to be a big deal or something."
Hal recoiled, immediately scanning their surrounding on the off-chance someone heard. "I wasn't going to- You were Robin?"
"Uh, yeah." Tim let a bit of authenticity seep into his voice, pulling forth how it had first felt to take on the mantle. "For a few years after… the second Robin. Obviously not anymore, given the circumstances, but yeah, I was Robin."
The moment they got out of this, Tim was going to kiss Kon until he couldn't think anymore. That had worked better than anything he could have said. No, he wasn't going to just kiss Kon, he was going to make breakfast for them every morning for the next week. Or at least one breakfast that he didn't manage to screw up. Dinners had always been more of his specialty.
"After - What happened to… you know what? I don't want to know." The fight drained out of Hal, his mind made up. "You guys didn't have anything to do with this, did you? Stumbled across someone in trouble, couldn't resist trying to help and then things took a turn for the worst?"
"That's what we've been-"
Red Robin squeezed Kon's hand tightly, effectively shutting his boyfriend up even as he offered Hal a sheepish smile. "Yeah, we didn't think it was a good idea to leave her in there with her parents. The luck of a vigilante, you know?"
Hal let out a long sigh and the green construct disappeared, dropping Tim and Kon to the ground with a low thud. "Yeah, I know. Stick around for a few days, just in case this goes sideways again, alright? A helping hand or two might be appreciated."
The officer by the back door was staring at them as they picked themselves back up, their expression inscrutable. Tim made a show of wiping the dirt off of himself, slow and unworried before tugging Kon towards the street. Calm and unconcerned really wasn't a look that Kon pulled off well. And Green Lantern wouldn't hesitate in putting them back in that cage if he changed his mind about their innocence.
"We'll do that, thanks!" Tim called over his shoulder, Kon stumbling beside him.
There was an answering chuckle that told Tim everything he needed to know about what Hal thought about them taking off as soon as they could. Expected, for the most part. A bit amusing. Unlike whatever this planet's law enforcement thought as they reached the sidewalk. One turned on their heel, heading back into the house, likely to question Hal.
It wasn't their problem anymore.
The only problem Tim had right now was Red Robin hovering right under the surface of his skin, closer than the persona had been since he first showed up on Krypton. It felt like he was Red Robin again. Enough that pushing the mantle back down felt like he was locking up an undesirable piece of himself, only one that he actually wanted to see the light of day. He'd been trying to avoid something like this from happening.
Kon hadn't fallen in love with Red Robin, after all. Red Robin hadn't even come into his consideration of Tim until after they'd started their relationship. Nevermind that Tim Drake and Red Robin were just two halves of the same whole.
They turned down a street, out of sight, and Kon fell into step beside him. "Dude."
Tim sighed. "Kon."
He really didn't want to deal with this right now. There would be questions and probably an argument or something and his back ached from sitting in that cramped cage.
"How did you do that?"
Tim faltered, glancing over at Kon. Maybe… maybe there was a way to spin this that Kon wouldn't even notice the difference between how he normally acted and before. "I just told him what happened."
"Sure," Kon agreed, rolling his eyes. "Which I would understand if I hadn't tried to tell him that four or five times before whatever that was. Instead, you smiled or something and he figured it out himself."
"It was-"
Tim cut himself off, his thoughts coming to a halting stop. He couldn't think. Not when Kon was staring at him like that. His eyes were almost impossibly dark and it looked as though Kon was only moments away from pushing him down onto the pavement. Public sex a block away from a murder investigation was a bad idea, he reminded himself hazily, no matter how appealing it might seem in the moment.
"You okay?" Kon asked, his voice low.
Tim nodded.
"Good, because once we get to the ship, we're going to figure out how to make sure that guy leaves us alone. And I know we were talking about blowjobs earlier but I was thinking about fucking you with my tongue until you can't speak after that."
His feet stopped as his legs threatened to give out underneath him. "What?"
Kon looked back over his shoulder, eyebrows raised. "You didn't notice? Tim, that was fucking hot. Like, sparring levels of hot. You happen to drive me crazy but, you know, in a really good way."
"Oh."
Something eased inside his chest as Tim felt an impossible fondness for the man two steps ahead of him, all messy hair and broad shoulders. And then he was bombarded with memories of post-spar sex, rough and hot and amazing. The kind of sex he always used to wish he was having. Tim needed that right now like he needed air to breathe, caught by the realization that he'd been letting Red Robin through a lot more than he'd ever thought possible.
It took him less than a minute to catch up to Kon. The ship wasn't that far away but it was enough to make him anxious to get there as soon as he could. They could talk about Hal later. Preferably not until tomorrow, at the very earliest.
Judging by the twist of Kon's lips, part smirk and part nervous grin, the feeling was mutual.
They sat in front of the ship's console and chose their next destination.
"This was a great idea."
Kon stood in front of him, stripped down to nothing more than his underwear. They clung to his hips like a second skin and Tim couldn't make himself look away. Not that he wanted to, not even for the few moments it would take to think coherently enough to question why Kon was standing there in his underwear.
That was probably the point, really.
Tim set down his tablet on the towel beside him. "It was," he agreed. "You know, I thought about leaving tomorrow but I don't think that's possible anymore. We haven't actually had sex on the beach yet."
Actually, that was likely the point behind Kon trying to draw his attention away from the tablet for the last few hours. Tim smirked and slowly stood up, driven by the way Kon's face split into a wide grin. It had been so nice that his boyfriend had the patience to wait so long before literally stripping himself in front of him.
It was really only right that he rewarded that patience. Their eyes met as Tim forced himself away from the thin material covering Kon and gripped the edge of his t-shirt. He pulled it up over his head, the shirt falling to the ground. Kon was clearly moments away from lunging forwards and taking the rest of Tim's clothes off all by himself, his breath caught on his lips. It wouldn't have been the first time and it certainly wouldn't have been the last.
That was too simple. They were here to enjoy themselves, after all. So, Tim hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his shorts while he walked towards the water lapping at the shore. They were deliberately eased over his hips with each step and then kicked off to the side.
Kon groaned, certainly noticing that Tim hadn't been wearing underwear at all. His pace was slow enough that it only took moments for the Kryptonian to catch up, arms wrapping around his waist. A giddy excitement shot through Tim's veins. Nobody could have missed just how much Kon was affected by him, certainly not when his boyfriend pressed up against his back, skin to skin.
Tim turned to face Kon and his arms rested on broad shoulders, fingers playing with short, almost curls. The couple inches of height difference between them was quickly shifted as his legs wrapped around his boyfriend's hips, held in place by strong hands on his thighs. It was impossible that Kon didn't know how well he was pushing Tim's buttons. Not all but more than enough of them that leaning down to press their lips together was just as inevitable as breathing.
The reaction was immediate. Kon's hands tightened on his legs and his boyfriend kissed back eagerly. His lips parted with a sharp inhale, caught off guard. It was the exact opening Kon had been waiting for as he took Tim's bottom lip between his teeth, sucking on it. Tim sighed into his mouth, fingers threading through Kon's hair because he needed something, anything to ground him.
"What was that for?" he teased as they briefly pulled back.
Kon grinned against his lips. "Sex on the beach?"
"I didn't say sex on the beach right now," Tim countered but he smiled back, unrepentant. "I thought we'd spend the night out here, take advantage of those fireflies that keep showing up around here."
"Really? Then what was all of this about?"
Tim tried to hold back a laugh, an odd breathy giggle escaping instead. "Maybe I just wanted to go skinny dipping."
"You wanted to go skinny dipping." His breath caught as Kon started to walk, slow and a bit unsteady, towards the ocean. It was likely just as clear and beautiful as it had been the last couple weeks but Tim found himself not caring in the face of the man he loved. "You mean like this?"
"Kon-"
His protest was swallowed whole as Kon all but tossed him into the water, the cool temperature a shock against his flushed skin. Tim spluttered and pulled himself towards the surface. Lips met his before he even had the chance to open his eyes, laughter echoing between them while Kon pulled them further away from shore.
He turned into the punch, absorbing the impact, only to be pinned to the wall with teeth nipping at his neck.
Tim frowned at the screen and sighed, his fingers catching on tangles as he ran them through his hair.
It was a scan of his own brain, taken only half an hour ago in the ship's tiny med-bay. At first glance, it looked completely normally. But Tim never stopped at just a first glance.
Jor-El's transplant was simple in design but ingenious in application. Tim could almost feel the chip at the base of his skill but the wires protruding from it were where the real work came into play. They were small, especially considering how much information they were transmitting, and made of some organic material he couldn't recognize. Which was where his problem came into play.
It was obviously just meant to be a temporary solution for a temporary problem. A way to make communication easier until somebody came up with a way to get Tim back to his own reality. Then he'd left before something more permanent could replace it, in light of the plans they'd made with the military.
The information on the chip was just language. He'd already known that. It was one of the first things Jor-El told him, clearly concerned about him taking offense. There had been no sudden influx of information on Kryptonian customs or manners, nothing to tell him about how to maneuver through this brand new society. That was part of why those first couple months had been so difficult. Until he met Kon. And it didn't feel like he knew Kryptonian, not really. To him, it felt like everything was said or written in English. It felt like he was speaking English, and so that was what came out when he said something without a direct translation.
If the situation had been any different, if he'd had any choice, he would have insisted on learning Kryptonian, difficult or not. Anything would have been better than someone else's tech in his brain. But it hadn't been an option and so he'd lived with it.
Until now.
Because those organic wires were breaking down and he was left with varying levels of comprehension. Sooner rather than later, the wires would disappears, along with Tim's access to the language.
Him and Kon wouldn't be able to understand each other, not outside of a handful of words.
Unless.
Unless Tim took out the transplant on his own terms, before it managed to degrade entirely. If he had a physical copy of it, there was a decent chance he could replicate it and then put it back in again with Kon's help. They wouldn't be able to understand each other for only a few weeks, maybe a month. It was better than the rest of their lives.
There were complications with that though too.
Tim lifted his mug up to his mouth, recoiling slightly at the taste. Too sweet and not in the way that came from too much sugar and a splash of milk. His eyes squeezed shut briefly, the scan imprinted in his mind. It looked like Earth coffee. Kon even swore that there was no way it could be that different from the coffee he knew and loved but that didn't take away from the reality of it.
There was no way to know how difficult removing and reinserting the transplant would be until they did it. Kon would have to do it all too, and that really wouldn't be fair on his boyfriend. Not to mention the lack of communication throughout the process. If something went wrong or Tim wasn't able to put it back in, it would be extremely difficult to convey that to Kon.
An answer had to be around somewhere.
"Tim?"
He quickly clicked out of the scan. Kon didn't need to worry about this. Not until he came up with a proper plan of action.
This wouldn't ruin them.
They argued over who should clean the dishes.
"You know, I'm not sure why I'm surprised you're here."
Red Robin turned away from the crates full of guns to look at Green Lantern, unimpressed. "You should be. We don't actually go around looking for trouble."
"Right."
Sarcasm bled into the word but Tim didn't take offense. He wouldn't have believed it either, given what Hal knew about him and Kon. Which wasn't much, just whatever he'd picked up between the fiasco last month and now. The evidence was largely stacked against them.
Especially right now, when Hal had stumbled upon him listening in on a couple thugs. They hadn't been speaking in a language Tim understood, at least not until Hal's ring kicked in for the translation, but he'd picked up enough contextual clues to find out what they were doing. Most importantly, smuggling these weapons into the city for some sort of gang war that had been in the works for weeks. They'd left nearly thirty ago, only one crate packed into the back of their car.
Hopefully everything was going better on Kon's side of this all. A bit less crashed by Green Lanterns and a bit more let's deal with this city's growing drug problem. Then they'd get to finish this up, attempt to convince that mechanic back on the other side of the city to restock their fuel, and then get as far away as possible.
"So, you're still hanging around that Kryptonian then?"
Red Robin bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from saying anything too rude and narrowed his gaze into an unimpressed glare. The head of this operation would be here anytime to pick up the rest of the weapons. Talking about his relationship was at the bottom of his priorities. He never wanted to talk about his romantic relationships with Hal Jordan, actually. Or anyone in the Justice League for that matter, including Bruce. Especially Bruce.
Dick was the only one who came close and that was purely because he'd force the conversation on him.
Hal snorted, easily brushing off Tim's glare. "You know, if I wasn't convinced about Bruce training you before, I sure am now. Not many can pull off that look so well."
"Shut up," Tim replied.
Hal opened his mouth again, only to slowly close it as a car pulled up outside the warehouse. The crates separated them from whoever had arrived but Red Robin was able to place the car itself without trouble. Him and Kon had been tailing it for the last week, after all, tracking how it seemed to show up wherever there was trouble.
Criminals outside of Gotham were always a lot less intelligent than Tim gave them credit for. It would have been difficult to make the connection if it weren't for this car with its flashy rims and distinctive colour, especially given the lack of verbal communication to pick up on. Simply switching cars between jobs would have fixed that. Or learning how to expect and shake a tail. Even everyday Gothamites had had these things drilled into them at a young age.
It did make picking up the occasional job for food or fuel easier, though, so he wasn't about to complain about the quality of his criminals.
At least not out loud.
The boss climbed out of the car, the light blue of a scar stretched from his neck to his ear, and Hal impulsively flew over the crates at the sight of him. Shouts echoed across the open space, quickly followed by gunshots. Red Robin grimaced to himself. A quieter entrance would have worked better, might have even gotten them information about the rest of the operation to send over to Kon.
Except that this was Hal and so he didn't know what else he'd expected. Tim waited for the break in the shooting, crouched down behind the crates, before he pulled himself over the top and joined the fray.
It was frighteningly simple to slip back into the mantle of Red Robin as he moved past Hal, the bullets not so much as grazing his skin. He itched for the weight of his bo staff in his hands, for the mask spread across his face. Neither were necessary to deal with these thugs. All they needed was a firm blow to the shoulder or the leg to take them out of the fight, improvisation kicking in without a thought.
The fight itself didn't last long. If Tim had known that it was going to be this simple, he would have taken them out days ago and watched the operation fall apart around them. Even their boss was incapacitated in a matter of minutes with the help of Hal's constructs, after fleeing into the warehouse. And after setting up a bomb along the back of the front door.
He hadn't gotten around to arming it however.
It was disappointing how useless they really were.
"I think that's about it," Hal commented as he finished restraining the last of the thugs for the police. Only the head of the operation had received special treatment, floating in the air with his hands pulled behind his back and a square of green over his mouth.
"Great," Red Robin said as he fiddled with his communicator. He was sure Kon could handle things on his end, especially if they were anything like these guys. He just wasn't sure he could handle not being there if something happened to go wrong. "I'm going to take off then. It was nice chatting with you."
"Wait a moment."
Tim glanced up, his eyes narrowed.
"There's something I should tell you. Just not right now." Hal shrugged towards the struggling gun smugglers. "I suggest we meet up another time. I'll send you the coordinates and a time. And I promise it's not some secret plan to drag your friend back to Krypton."
"Why would I agree to any of this?" he asked slowly.
"It's Gotham."
Of course it was Gotham. His jaw clenched as he turned back towards his comm, pretending to himself that he didn't already know his answer. Except there was no doubt in his mind that he was going to hear Hal out, even if it was only to discern that the Green Lantern was overreacting.
"I just thought you would care," Hal added.
"I have to talk to Kon before I agree to anything. That includes meeting up with you."
"Of course. I'll see you around, kid."
The operation head floated behind Hal as he took off into the sky, their business officially done without even the slightest question of why Tim was here. His hands shook as he prodded at his comm again, silently begging it to work. He needed to know that Kon was alright and then they'd talk about whatever was going on in Gotham and-
His communicator wasn't actually malfunctioning on him.
It was almost certainly in the same state it had been in when he took it off the ship. The only difference was that he could no longer understand any of the options written on the small touchscreen. Even the symbols themselves were only vaguely familiar to him. This was getting worse at a faster rate than he'd feared.
Whatever was happening in Gotham wouldn't matter if he didn't do something about this first. He couldn't manage to even call the ship to his location without knowing what was written on the screen. Not without the concern that he was accidentally contacting Krypton in the process.
Kon stood beside him as they took in the sight of a new planet, its possibilities as infinite as the universe itself.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Kon hissed.
Tim sighed, purposely looking Kon in the eyes even as he wanted to exact opposite. "What would I have said? I'm sorry but eventually I'm not going to be able to understand you?"
"Yes!" Kon shot back. He was trembling but whether it was in anger or fear, Tim couldn't tell. "And then we would have figured something out. Together. Like always."
"Telling you wouldn't have changed anything."
"Yes, it would have. This isn't some sort of contest! This isn't like-"
"This isn't like what, Kon?" Tim asked him slowly.
The confines of their already-cramped bedroom pressed in around them as Tim shedded any attempts to stay calm. Out of the handful of ways Kon could have ended that sentence, there was only one that made sense. The one that was completely off limits, even in an argument. It was like bringing up Kon's creation or wondering out loud about how anyone on Krypton was doing.
Kon pulled his shoulders back and pushed forward regardless. "Your reality. Nobody here expects you to constantly wonder if the people you care about will think you're weak or whatever it is that Bruce Wayne taught you."
"Bruce has nothing to do with this," Tim said lowly.
"He doesn't? If it weren't for him, you wouldn't have tried to become some sort of teenage superhero! You would still be in your own reality, I would be on Krypton, and maybe we would be happy."
His breath wavered and he couldn't quite force his hands to stop shaking. Tim had known what Kon thought of Bruce, had known how off it was from reality. But he hadn't thought it was this bad. He hadn't thought that Kon believed Bruce was at fault for committing him to some horrible life. He'd thought they were happy.
"Say something!" Kon snapped, eyes wild with something Tim couldn't recognize.
He didn't.
There was nothing to say to that.
No way to explain how wrong Kon was about everything and so Tim lunged forwards, that hopelessness driving his fist forwards. It was pushed to the side instinctively, leaving Kon open to a second attack. Bruce had always told him to put his real force behind his second attack. That mentality sent Kon tumbling to the ground, the kick to his knee making his legs give out beneath him.
Tim followed him down and pinned him to the floor, his arms trembling as they held his boyfriend's shoulders in place. His legs straddled Kon's waist, just as they had a million times before. Only this time their fighting wasn't going to escalate to sex on the floor. This time Kon was going to listen to him, just like he should have been this entire time. He was going to see that Tim only did this to stop him from worrying. That he'd made the right choice in not telling him about the transplant.
"This isn't about Bruce. Bruce did everything he could for me," Tim spat out instead, his hair falling around his face. "This is about the stupid transplant that I'm trying to fix."
"By hiding it from me?" Kon demanded, the words faltering with mocking laughter.
"Until I had a plan, yes!"
"Yeah, well, maybe if you told me from the start, we wouldn't be in this situation! I'm not fucking stupid, Tim, and I've been studying Jor-El's designs since I was created. I could have helped!"
Tim opened his mouth to retort back, to say something that would likely pain him as much as it did Kon. Then he closed it again and squeezed his eyes shut, his jaw clenched in frustration. He was better than this. He needed to be better than this.
And at the end of the day, Tim knew that Kon was right about this. He didn't want that to be the case; he wanted to be able to say that he'd forgotten about how Kon spent the first few years of his life wanting to be accepted into the Science Guild like Jor-El. It wasn't his fault he'd been blocked from it at every turn. But the truth was that Tim hadn't forgotten, he'd just been willfully ignoring it.
Kon took advantage in the brief drop in Tim's guard to flip them around, the wall dangerously close to them. There was no time to react before he had Tim's hands pinned above his head with one hand. Tim kept his eyes squeezed shut. He couldn't look at Kon, not right now.
"Tim," Kon said softly and Tim opened his eyes despite himself. "I can't lose you."
"I-"
Tim cut himself off, unable to finish that sentence with those sad blue eyes staring at him. It was difficult not to fight back, to throw Kon off of him and react in the way he knew best. By throwing himself head first into a fight. It was what he did when Conner and Bart died, when Stephanie died, when his dad died, when Bruce died. Losing himself in the physicality of a fight would always be easier than facing the emotional dilemma right in front of him. Always.
That wasn't the best way to deal with things though. Kon loosed his grip on his wrists and Tim felt the last dredges of his anger wash away, replaced by something more painful.
"I can't lose you either," Tim admitted.
Kon finally relaxed, nearly draping himself over Tim rather than pin him in place. It would have been simple to throw him off if Tim wanted to. "Then why keep this from me?"
"Things would have changed and I didn't want them to."
The words rang with a truth Tim hadn't known and any need to fight was gone entirely now. Maybe some sort of switch had been flipped. Or maybe getting past the difficult part was all it had really taken.
They stayed where they were, the seconds ticking away around them. The last hour had been one of the most exhausting hours of Tim's life and he needed Kon here with him now that they'd reached some sort of understanding. To reassure him that things weren't going to fall apart around them anytime soon, that he hadn't broken the one thing that really mattered to him.
Since leaving Krypton, they'd built a life together. It was fast-paced and they never managed to stay in one place for more than a couple weeks at a time. Tim loved it almost as much as he loved Kon. It didn't matter where they were, so long as Kon was by his side, sharing the experience of a new village or city or planet. Sometimes they struggled to get ahold of the supplies they needed to keep going and sometimes they orbited around a planet for days, never leaving the ship. Tim didn't need anything more than this.
Kon shifted slightly, letting go of his hands entirely, and dipped down to rest their foreheads together. Their breath mixed as they lingered there, not moving. "You thought this was going to change us?"
"What else would I think?" Tim countered, the truth coming out of him like blood from an open vein. "This isn't like leaving Krypton. We won't be able to talk and half the things we joke about won't make sense anymore. Everything will be different, there's no getting around that."
"Right, and leaving Krypton didn't change us at all."
Tim touched Kon's hands, letting his eyes fall closed. "Of course it did. But this is different. Even if I learn Kryptonian or you learn English or both, for that matter, things are still going to change. And I can't see how it would be for the better."
"Tim."
His breath caught at the emotion poured into that single syllable. For the first time in months, Tim could truly believe that everything was going to be alright between them. Transplant or no transplant, they would figure it out. Together. Kon leaned down those last couple centimetres and their lips brushed together briefly as Tim opened his eyes again.
Kon smiled. "I love you."
"I love you too," Tim replied hesitantly.
"Good. Because that's not going to change, even if we can't fix this. I might have to find new ways to tell you you're a reckless jerk but that could be fun."
Tim choked out a laugh, finally smiling back. "Thanks, Kon."
"You totally owe me for this, by the way. You're just lucky that I take my payment in kisses."
He rolled his eyes at Kon's choice in movies, a protest already waiting on the tip of his tongue.
"You're sure he's going to be here?"
Tim rolled his eyes and leaned into the hold Kon had on his hip. "Of course I am. You can see him just as easily as I can, Kon."
"I don't like him," Kon pointed out, needlessly. "Besides, it could be a trap."
"Why? He already had the opportunity to deal with us."
"Maybe he wanted me."
Tim stared at his boyfriend in disbelief. "Right. Because an intergalactic police officer doesn't have better things to do than take in a fugitive from a sector outside his jurisdiction. A lame fugitive, I should add, who fold his socks."
Kon made a face, almost certainly pouting. It was difficult to tell through the glass protecting his face from the un-oxygenated air of the moon though, however thin it was. "It's weird that you don't fold them."
"They're socks."
"And?"
A cloud of dust rose around Hal as he landed on the ground and he batted it away with an absentminded wave of his hand. It did little to actually clear the dust but it settled after a moment, regardless. "The two of you couldn't get more domestic if you tried. I'm not sure if it's cute or nauseating."
"I usually aim for both," Tim interjected offhandedly.
Kon was definitely pouting now and Tim smirked over at him, even as he resisted the urge to rest his head on his boyfriend's shoulder. They almost hadn't showed up, Gotham or no Gotham. Not with the way things had been going the past couple weeks now.
That was to say, a lot better than they had been before Kon found out about the transplant malfunctioning. Tim hadn't even realized things had gotten back until Kon had woken him up with fresh pancakes and bacon the morning after their fight. It was easier now than it had been. Especially once Tim realized just how much he'd been missing, how many quips and questions he'd filtered out because he hadn't understood them.
Most of their time had been spent studying the transplant itself. There weren't any official designs for it on the ship but between the scan of Tim's transplant and Kon's memory of Jor-El's previous designs, they were making it work. Possibly even improving it. The last thing they really needed right now was more drama to add to the mix. Not when their biggest problem was finally getting the information transferred from the old chip to a new one.
Gotham was the only reason they'd showed up in the end.
"You guys are comfortable talking about this out here then?" Hal's attention was clearly focused on the ship behind them as he spoke.
"Comfortable is my middle name," Kon replied.
Tim snorted when Kon beamed at him half a second later. It had taken a long time to get Kon to even understand the concept of a middle name. He wasn't entirely certain he understood now. "What he said."
Hal shrugged. "Fine. I can't judge. I just make sure you were fine discussing your… unique situation in an open place."
"If someone wants to try and listen in on us, they're more than welcome to try," Tim interjected smugly. Kon huffed and Tim continued on as if he hadn't heard it. "The ship has had more than enough upgrades to make sure we have complete privacy here. And anywhere else we want to go."
Hal shifted his weight awkwardly as the subjects he could bring up to stall came to a close. He wasn't looking at either of them, not directly, and Tim got the feeling that he didn't actually want to say whatever he'd come here to tell them. Otherwise his discomfort wouldn't be so clearly visible on his face. Tim could work with discomfort if things took a turn towards the worst.
"It's Labyrinth," Hal admitted.
Tim frowned. "Who?"
"Labyrinth? What, does Dick have better taste in costumes in your reality?"
"Dick-" Tim stopped himself, swallowing back the words. Things weren't the same here, he had to remember that. "Not in costumes but in identities, yeah."
"Why can't Bruce or Batman or whatever he calls himself deal with this?" Kon asked when it became clear that Tim wasn't going to elaborate.
"Bruce is more of the problem in this situation than the solution, I think."
He took a shower before bed and Kon joined him in the stall within minutes.
"Are you sure you want to go back?"
Tim nodded, ignoring the pitying look Kon gave him. It had felt like there was a spring inside him ever since Hal had said Dick's name and it wasn't about to be let loose just because Kon wanted to comfort him. His fingers tightened around the pen he was clutching.
This was something out of a nightmare. Dick was dead. It wasn't the Dick he knew but some version of Dick Grayson had died and Gotham had gone dark. No news in or out of the city in months while Tim had been travelling around the universe like he was on some sort of vacation. Any moment now, he was either going to start crying or laughing and he didn't quite know which it was going to be. How many times had Jason demanded to know what would have happened if Dick had been the one to die instead of him?
Their discussion last night over what to do had been short and brief. No need to question what they both already knew.
A Gotham in trouble was the only thing that would always bring Tim back.
"Hey."
Tim glanced up at the sound of Kon's voice, closer than it had been before. His boyfriend had crouched down in front of him, the height of the bed putting Tim several inches above him. Kon touched his hand, easing the pen out of his fingers.
"Hey," Tim echoed back. His voice was rougher than he thought and he blinked quickly, feeling pressure at the back of his eyes.
"We don't have to go, you know," Kon pointed out, softly. Not as if he thought it was a real option but more just a possibility. "You don't owe them anything. You don't even know any of them."
It was a nice thought. That they could just turn their backs to this mess, let someone else sort it out, whether it be Jason or Bruce or someone else entirely. Maybe even his counterpart, whoever they were in this reality. It clearly wasn't Red Robin but Tim couldn't picture himself as someone who wasn't a vigilante, not outside of bizarre circumstances such as his own.
"I do though," he said. "So, we'll go to Gotham, fix their mess, and then use the Cave's tech to figure something out with the transplant."
"Yeah?"
Tim nodded and threaded their fingers together. "Yeah. Just, in a minute?"
"I think we can pull that off."
He fell asleep with Kon half-wrapped around him, feeling safer than ever.