"This is a date," Kiba said, as Dick walked away. Tim wondered what it'd taken for Kiba not to call Dick Mr. Wang.

"Is not," Tim replied.

Kiba grinned, offered a glass of wine that Tim declined, shrugged. "Yes, it is. We're enjoying each others company and looking at pictures. It's like going to the movies but without a plot."

There was high, strange laughter from the other room, and a rush of heated air. Tim tensed but Kiba tapped his shoulder. "Okay, so maybe a little bit of a plot," Kiba offered. "That was just a small fireball. No one's hurt."

"Still not a date."

"What makes a date?"

Tim was ready for this one, though. "Both parties agreeing to call it a date."

"What would it take to make you call it a date?"

Tim didn't answer. Just stared at a painting that looked like there were bones in it. He looked closer. There were. Well, the shape of bones, at least, trapped in the... Whatever the hell this was painted in.

"Tim?"

Tim turned his head. He really... "How long have they been together?"

"Wang and Blue?"

Tim blinked. Then rolled his eyes and nodded.

"What do you count from?" Kiba said, thoughtfully. "They can't have been together more than eight months because blue was still black and crispy nine months ago...."

"I... Guess that..." Tim thought. "When would Dick count it from?"

"I don't know. You know him better than I do."

Tim sighed. Thought about it. Dick probably barely counted it now. He was very. Thick like that. "Fine. When does Kisame count from?"

Kiba shrugged. 'Kisame'd say... First meeting, I think? It was very much first sniff, he said."

"You talk to him?"

"Email. Text. I actually like his band, so I'm on their mailing list thing," Kiba said with a nod. "We all keep in touch, sorta."

Tim mentally sighed. Of course. Why wouldn't they all adapt to email? Kiba had an iphone now, he'd gotten it a month ago and had figured out pictures at the exact same moment that Tim hand managed to dangle about twenty feet off the ground by just his fingertips.

He'd refused to take it off the phones wallpaper, too.

"And you talk about me, of course?"

"Well, yeah. Not a lot. Some of it's just, advice on how to train you, things like that. Most of what I tell the other villager's is stuff like that. Your progress. They're all impressed, really. I mean, like I told you,"

"Yeah, yeah, over three and what's the point...."

"Yeah, but because of you they'll take anyone under six now. They think if you'd been trained from birth you'd be genius level. That's something," Kiba said. "And we all like to talk to Kisame cause he's willing to give us updates on Itachi."

"Is he really a ticking time bomb?"

"He's, ticking," Kiba said, making the trans universal sign for 'coo coo'.

Tim nodded. He knew a lot of people like that. They knew him too, in a way. Well. They knew Batman and Robin. The lucky one's just knew Robin.

"But Kisame's got the key's, and he keeps him nice and tuned properly. To abuse a metaphor," Kiba said.

Tim looked at Kiba. At the suit. "What are you gonna do after your done training me?"

"Training you'll take years," Kiba said, with relish. "The better you get, the more you'll be able to learn."

"Ah. But. After."

"Hopefully by then we'll have moved in together. I'll hang out and train dogs when I'm not doing village stuff."

Tim stared.

"You're rich and I can get money. We could have a nice place. Would need a big one cause of the dogs but-"

"You're serious?" Tim squawked.

Kiba nodded.

"And what if I tell you to fuck off?" he hissed, ducking behind something twisted and molten looking, polished in bits.

"You haven't yet."

"Well, you're training me."

"You've never asked for anyone else."

"That was an option?" Tim said. "I assumed that you were sent here as a punishment."

"For what?"

"For screwing up your villages.... Plan..." Tim Glowered. "That was planned?"

"Well, it was premature... But it was loosley planned, yeah," Kiba shrugged, smiled weakly. "We adapt very quickly to a changing plan, you know?"

"I keep thinking I know. Then you remind me," Tim said. Then, to reiterate. "This isn't a date."

"Only because you say so."

"A..." Tim paused, grimaced mentally and went on. "A movie and dinner Friday night. That's a date. Around seven. Or so." he glowered at Kiba. "And one WORD out of you until then and I will ask for a different teacher."

He didn't think his glower had done much to Kiba. The jerk's beaming face could have repelled a level ten bat glower and Tim had only even gotten to level three.

Kiba's mouth started to open. Then shut. Then he bounced on his toes a minute. Then he'd pressed a kiss to Tim's cheek, flailed in place, and took off out the back down. Tim could hear cheering outside. And a howling that had to be Akumaru.

And then more howls that faded into the night.

Tim ate a canape and wondered why he'd done that. For about two seconds.

Bat's are not fond of introspection.

********

It was a movie. That was all Tim remembered about it. The food had been good, he knew that, because he'd been starving. But after having spent the previous night, generally, being Robin...

And it wasn't like he could cancel on Kiba.

He yawned. He head was rolled back, his cheek was on something soft and warm. He'd fallen asleep sitting up, he realized.

With Kiba's arm around him in the theater. The house lights coming back on had been what had woken him up.

Tim's throat was dry. He took a sip of watery sprite (melted ice) and swallowed. Looked down. "I fell asleep?"

Kiba nodded. Took the cup back. "I told you that we should just skip the movie and sleep."

"You meant together, thought, right?"

"Yes, but as tired as you are, I didn't actually mean sex. I was going to order a movie on my phone, and make you watch it with me in the morning. Very romantic."

Tim laughed, hollowly. "Because if I say a date is dinner and a movie, and you get a date, then you get dinner and a movie?"

Kiba nodded.

Tim rubbed his face with both hands. Groaned. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean too do this to you..."

"Snuggle trustingly for over an hour?"

Tim glared through his fingers. "Is it not possible for me to piss you off?"

"It's possible. You just aren't very good at it."

Tim took a deep breath in, then out, then froze. Kiba had kissed his ear. There was a long, waiting sort of moment, followed by another kiss. "Does it count as a movie if you sleep through it?" Kiba asked him, question going right in his ear.

Tim mentally swallowed. "Yes."

"So it was a date?"

"Yes."

"Can we have another one?"

"Now?"

Kiba laughed. "No. Maybe, next Tuesday?"

"Maybe."

"Is this date over then?"

"I don't know the social rules for two boys. Generally it's over when one person takes the other one home," and oh, he could feel the leer. "Not like that."

"So you want me to take you home then?"

"You're angling for a kiss, right?"

Kiba nodded.

Tim took a breath, mentally braced, turned his head and gave Kiba the start of an awkward kiss.

It would have ended as an awkward kiss too, except Kiba's arm tightened, and his other hand came up to catch Tim's jaw. Kiba knew how to kiss properly, and took over.

Tim had to make himself let Kiba take over. It was a control thing. A bat thing, really. And in all likely hood, Tim admitted, a Tim thing.

Letting Kiba kiss him like this though.. Tim made a mental note to allow it more often as Kiba shifted to nuzzle him nose to nose.

"We can go home now," Tim said, kissing his cheek. Leaning his head into Kiba's shoulder a moment, then standing up. "Okay?"

Kiba nodded. He looked like he was avoiding speech in the event that it would scare Tim off.

"I've already decided what I'm going to do when we get there," Tim said. "So you can talk. You'd have to be pretty impressive to get me to change my mind."

"I managed it once," Kiba said, smiling.

"It's not gonna take eight months to get back to your place."

"My place?"

Tim nodded.

If Kiba had a tail, Tim reflected, it would have been wagging. He got up, gathered the soda's and the empty popcorn while Tim stretched up and felt his spine crackle.

"Could you be more eager?" Tim asked, amused and feeling slghlty less drowsey.

"Yes," Kiba said with a quick nod. "I could be MUCh more eager. I could be carrying you down to my truck and singing."

"Please don't," Tim said, grimacing. He'd seen Kiba's truck. It was a beast, lifted, with shocks, and a camper on it because he usually brought one or ten dogs round at all times. Tonight it was just Akumaru curled in the bed, but still.

Tim realized, as he clamored into the thing, that he'd never been in it even though he had seen it. He wans't even that sure where Kiba lived.

It made him feel mildly guilty, rather than exposed. Yeah, Kiba knew wher he lived. But Tim had told him to save time.

"It's about an hour drive, this time of night," Kiba said, looking over. "I'm way on the outskirts, see? so the dogs can run. Place used to be a polo pony thing. So there are stables."

Tim nodded. He thought he might know the place. "Did the main house burn down a few years ago?"

"Yep."

He remembered that place, certainly. They'd been breeding. Things. He'd knocked over the candles.

Tim supposed that he'd also driven the price of the place down. Well, that was okay, it wasn't a deliberate thing. He shifted on the wide flat bench seat, leaned against the door and put his feet up because it was comfortable. The cab smelled like dog. Not wet, just dog. Musky. Kiba smelled, the same, but spicier.

Tim wondered when he'd made a mental note of Kiba's smell. Probably right around his real last chance to get the man out of his life. He poked the radio, and came on.

It wasn't a station he recognized. He frowned. It didn't look like satellite?

"It's one of the three village stations," Kiba said, catching Tim's eye as he pulled out of the parking space. "Music, updates, occasional gossip. Nothing classified, obviously we don't really encode. This one's kinda, pop and dance stuff. There's a harder rock and techno one cause our one guy likes to remix, and the third station goes between country and classical every few days."

Tim nodded, filed this. An hour to get there? He looked at the clock. It was wrong, had to be, maybe Kiba was one of those people that didn't bother with daylight savings. But the minutes.. He still had sixty of them, right? Until they got to Kiba's? "What the hell made you so stubborn?"

"Huh?" Kiba was just a shadow in the dark now, occasionally illuminated by the street lights. Tim did not look at his profile, and did not consider what he'd more or agreeded too jsut by climbing in the car.

"When you decided you wanted to bed me, or, however you said it," Tim said as if he didn't remember the words.

"When you looked like you wanted to say yes, but said no."

"I did not."

"Yeah, you did. Akumaru agreed. Right Akumaru?"

A short rough bark that Tim had to admit held the tones of agreement. He scowled.

Akumaru laughed. It was an erriely human laugh.

"Is she really learning to talk?"

Kiba chuckled. "Speak girl!"

"She shells seashells by the seashore," said the dog. It was laborious, but clear. Like a stroke victim speaking. That slow careful infliction.

Tim stared. "They can learn to do that?"

"My dogs can. Well. Akumaru can. The wolves won't learn it unless I bond with them really closely and to connect with that many... It'd be like growing twelve extra arms. And than having to learn to type with all of them."

"So Akumaru's like an extra arm?" Tim asked, looking at the muzzle snuffing against the glass.

"Yeah."

"How hard was she to get used too?"

"Easier than getting used to the lack," Kiba said. Tim thought that there had been a sort of finality to that statement, but Kiba kept talking. "I was, bonded to a puppy at one year. Akamaru. Red dog. They did it in a way that, meant he'd grow as I grew. Stayed a puppy a long time, stuff like that. Made him smarter. I mean, he was from a really good bloodline but..."

On the freeway now. Silence for a moment as he slid into the carpool lane. It was late, so they didn't need three.

"When... When I fell through, Akamaru fell through with me. And he didn't make it."

Tim blinked. He wasn't sure how you reacted to that. "So you, needed a new arm?"

"Yeah. Pretty much."

"But the wolves won't.. If one of them died it'd... be what? Like loosing a toe?"

"Or getting kicked in the balls. I don't know for certain. It'll suck if it happens though," Kiba sounded like he was smiling, somewhat weakly. Ass.

Tim reached out, hesitated, and put a hand on Kiba's shoulder. "Why'd you name Akumaru so closely?"

"Cause she's evil. Evil dog. Pee'd on me a LOT as a puppy. That's, most of it. One little letter, two different dogs, see? The little things that kill. I was feeling very poetic that day..."

"Ahkay," Tim managed. He went back to slumping against the door.

"You look very tired."

"Long night."

"And you trained yesterday."

"Yeah," with Batman. "But I still want to go home with you."

"Mm. Do you really trust me enough to sleep?"

"Yeah. Is that strange?"

Kiba hummed half under his breath, in tune with the low music. "It's a little strange? I trust you enough to sleep near you, with you. Because you're a good person, you know? I know your moral code wouldn't let you hurt me. Especially not in my sleep."

"And I shouldn't trust you because you're a bad boy?"

"Oh, but in such good ways!"

"You keep bragging."

"Well, I'm fabulous."

Tim sighed. The conversation had lost him again. "You say that, but you're not screwing any of the other villagers. Aren't they 'fabulous' too?" The inverted comma's clanged down.

"Nope."

"Have you checked?"

"One or two, one or two, but..." Kiba sighed. "I like you, alright? I don't want to be like... Some of the others, staying like with like. I wanna be out HERE helping them in little ways."

"So you want me cause I'm an outsider?"

"No. Cause your hot when you concentrate."

Tim gave up. Well, he'd already given up. "Do you all do this? Pick a person and focus?"

"Well, no. You mean like Kisame? Kisame's a genetically engineered freak, Itachi's just a regular inbred freak, and I have no idea what Kisame's social customs were where he grew up. But Nami's dating regularly, Rei's dating online cause he doesn't trust people he can touch, and..." Kiba stopped. "Hey, how often do you superheroes date each other?"

"I don't," Tim started, then considered. "You're gonna say shared experiences, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Sorta. I know what you are, you know what I am. We can be honest. That's a good start."

Tim shut his eyes. "Yeah, okay."

Akumaru whined and then they were off the freeway, driving for another ten minutes until they got too....

The burnt out house was gone, but there was still just a charred foundation there. The guest house has something built onto the side, and a covered walkway to the stables. Very high hedges all around. Unnaturally so, really. Tim wondered if they were real.

The doors weren't locked. Tim would have commented but the massive dog behind him, pushing past him with her tail wagging, reminded him that Kiba didn't really need to worry about petty theft. It was still strange to see an unlocked door in Gotham county.

Tim supposed he's been expecting... Dogs everywhere. But they weren't. Oh, AKumaru was curling up by the couch, chewing on a massive knot of rawhide that must have been more than one cow, but the place was clean and, when Kiba threw a switch, well lit.

There was a big desk, a big couch, a large tv. There was a kitchen. The kitchen had an extra steel door, like a walk in frezer and...

"Wanna help me feed the wolves?" Kiba asked. The freezer did have a lock on it, he was spinning the numbers.

Tim nodded. "Should I hang my jacket up?"

"Naw. They eat outside, stay outside most of the time. Wolves are still wolves, you know? They'd eat the furniture," Kiba said.

The door swung open.

Inside the freezer, it was filled with meat. Meat, meat, more meat.... A few carton's of milk, some ice cream, a fire ax by the door per saftey regulations, and a little red wagon that Kiba was stacking frozen chickens onto.

"Can I help?"

"You can pull the wagon in a minute," Kiba said, calmly. Nothing was wrapped in plastic, it all hung on hooks. Lot's of hooks. Kiba's take down a bird, toss it hand to hand to gauge weight, and set it on the wagon.

"You don't let em thaw?"

"Good for their jaws, to chew a little," Kiba said. "If I let them pick they go for the harder ones."

TIm nodded, and pulled the wagon when he was told.

Watching the wolves get fed was slightly odd.

They came. They sat for Kiba. They lay down. They stood up for him, they behaved very well....

And then he'd toss out a chicken and the wolf that you'd almost decided was a large down was just one huge gaping maw and there was a crunch and then it was sitting again, tail wagging.

"I didn't feed them much this morning," Kiba said. "Though I might be running with them tonight."

"If I shot you down?"

"If you gave me a goodnight kiss then went home."

"Ah."

"Exactly." Kiba was washing his hands with the hose spigot now, and rinsing out the wagon.

Tim stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and watched. His stomach was starting to do weird things again, like it'd just remembered that it was supposed to be butterfly filled but could only manage goldfish. His brain wasn't helping by bringing up the matter of his limited experience. Well. Vast if you counted theoretical but sex was closer to, say gymnastics than chemistry. You couldn't just study how a cartwheel was supposed to go then go do one.

According to that theory, Tim was about to fall on his face. He tried to think of a different theory.

The walk back to the house was quiet while the wolves and Akumaru sat about and ate. Kiba's hand found Tim's shoulder, then back. The wagon was put away.

Tim didn't quite laugh when Kiba took his hand and led him to the bedroom.

*****

Kisame didn't sleep much. That was fine, neither did Dick, and Itachi slept for ten hours at a go, so it left them a lot of overlapping time where they were both awake. And on a good week, they'd get little chunks of time like this, when they were both up, and Itachi was asleep, and the city was a tiny bit quiet.

The show'd been a good one, too. And while Grayson hadn't seen it, it was still a nice fact.

Not as nice as sitting on the fire escape with a lap full of superhero, making out like stupid teenagers. Mask on, even.

"The hell was that noise?" Nightwing asked, pulling away.

"They usually call those moans and," Kisame said cheerfully.

"No, it was in your jacket," Nightwing grumbled, rummaging. He'd had his hands in there anyway, gloves off. "Ah, your phone."

"You can leave it," Kisame offered. "It wasn't any sort of emergency call those have a different ringtone."

"But it's almost two am, who'd call?"

Kisame leaned in and licked Grayson's ear. "Jealous?"

"Should I be?" Nightwing flipped open the phone. "It's a text from... Doi cho?"

"It's a sort of dog-meat sausage. It's Kiba. Go ahead and open it. What's he want?"

"... I can't read this. It's text gibberish."

Kisame took the phone. w do i do f he falz|-I on d bed aftrgetNhs shirt off? Kisame scanned it twice. Then snickered. "Apparently his date fell asleep on him."

Nightwing blinked, then buried his face into Kisame's shoulder to laugh a moment. "Oh, poor Tim."

"You heard about the date too, huh?"

"Yeah, of course."

Kisame sent something back as a response, and tucked his phone away again. Sighed when Nightwing pulled his gloves back on and leaned in for a goodbye kiss. "Gonna leave me to pack up the amps by my lonesome?"

Nightwings response took a moment because someone else's tongue was in his mouth. Made talking tricky and when he had use of it back, he was a little out of breath, with reddened lips. "Yeah, I am."

"Mmkay. See you later," a statement, not a question. Another quick kiss then Nightwing was gone, though his scent hung heavy on the coat.

Kisame took a deep breath in. Smiled. And went back into the club to gather up his things, get everyone in the band into the van, get 'em all home.

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-Author's notes: Anyone still following this?