Fate Is A Green-Eyed Monster Chapter 6, a Batman + Teen Titans Crossover fanfic

Chapter 6

"You're sure it's no trouble for Tim to spend the night?" Jack was hemming and hawing to Lex in an attempt to cover up the relief he felt at letting someone else handle his son's latest teenaged crisis for the next twenty-four hours.

"No trouble at all," Lex said smoothly, without allowing the slightest hint of the disgust he felt for Jack Drake to seep through his kindly patronizing tone.

He'd deal with Jack the same way he dealt with his dates; by feeding up beautiful lies mingled with slick manipulation. Better for everyone. Fewer hurt feelings and less mess for Lex to clean up after getting what he wanted.

And what Lex wanted at this particular moment was to whisk his son's soulmate out of the boy's evidently abysmal homelife into the loving parental situation he should have had all along. Lex Luthor was many things, most of them bad, but he was a superior father and he knew it. And he'd be damned if he let poor Timothy Drake spend one more second supervised by the man whose parenting was barely better than the Man of Steel's, and that was saying something.

A steel heart, that's what Superman and Jack Drake had in common, Lex thought idly to himself. And Kal-El dared to call Lex the super-villain! Well, Lex had shown him -

His musings were interrupted by Conner and Tim reappearing in the hallway, Conner carrying Tim's loaded up duffel bag with ease as he swung their intertwined hands together.

"Well, son," Jack said awkwardly to Tim, fumbling for the good-bye that would impress Lex the most. "Call me if you need anything," Jack settled upon, before reaching forward and patting an awkward hand on Tim's back.

Conner rolled his eyes to Lex's barely noticeable, but answering eye twitch that his son had long ago learned denoted deep but secretive amusement. His dad was the best, Conner thought contentedly, and he was so glad that Dad had insisted on Tim spending the night with them before Conner could even bring it up. His Dad was no fool. He saw right through Jack Drake and was as pissed at him as Conner was.

"You ready, Timmy?" Conner asked his soulmate.

Tim started to nod, but then paused.

"Um," he said. "Can I meet you downstairs?" he asked Conner and Lex. "I have something I need to say to my dad in private."

"Of course," Lex answered with an approving gleam in his eye. "Take your time, son," he said, clapping a warm hand on Tim's shoulder before Conner kissed his temple and followed his dad out of the apartment.

"Timothy…?" Jack said hesitantly after the door had closed behind the Luthors.

"Do not tell Lex I was Robin," Tim growled in a deep, authoritative voice that actually made his father take a step back.

"Son!" Jack gasped in surprise. "Why would I -"

"I mean it, Dad," Tim said, drawing his brows even tighter together and crossing his arms over his chest. "You tell Lex, and he'll kill me. And then where will your precious merger be?"

Jack stared at him with jaw open.

"Kill you?" he stuttered out after a second. "Why on earth would Lex kill you -"

"Because he's a super-villain, Dad!" Tim yelled in frustration, throwing his hands up in the air before running them through his disheveled hair. "He's one of the Justice League's biggest enemies. Why do you think Superman lives in Metropolis?" Tim snarked.

Jack's eyes were round. He tried to laugh it off but it came out more like a weak cough.

"The Justice League…?" he said feebly. "Lex? Son, I really don't think -"

"And you didn't think Bruce was Batman, either, did you?" Tim snarled at him.

That shut his father up real quick and made his mouth tighten into a flat line.

"If you want to lose your heir, and maybe even get killed yourself, then by all means, tell Lex who I was. Or who Bruce is," Tim hissed at him. "Otherwise, keep your damn mouth shut."

"Timothy!" Jack Drake gaped at him.

Tim glared back at him with cold eyes, arms still firmly drawn over his chest.

"If it's going to be too difficult for you, I can ask the Martian Manhunter to come down from the Watchtower and erase your memories," Tim said in a nasty voice.

Tim had never met J'onn, or any of the other Justice League heroes, for that matter - not even Superman - and he doubted that they'd take orders from a former Robin, but his father didn't know that.

Jack Drake was drawing himself up straighter, however, and giving Tim a slightly malevolent glare of his own.

"It seems to me that the one you ought to be worried about keeping your secret is yourself," he said back to his son. "You could barely answer about how that Brown girl died. I'm amazed you were able to salvage the situation."

"Her name," Tim screamed at him, "is Stephanie."

"I'm sure it will look lovely on her tombstone," Jack sneered. "If her mother can afford one."

Tim gasped and stumbled back, tears filling his eyes.

"Is this what you wanted for yourself?" Jack persisted, crossing his own arms now and giving his son a refined, bored look. "To die before finishing high school? Because that's exactly the path you were headed down with Bruce," he mocked. "The psycho couldn't stop at losing his own son but had to go stealing other people's children to kill off, too."

"You ought to thank me for rescuing you from that twisted bastard," Jack scoffed. "I hope you'll take this girl's death as a warning, Timothy, about what your fate would have been had your fatherwho loves you not intervened -"

Jack staggered back and collapsed to the floor, barely catching himself to slow his fall on the back of the couch as Tim's fist met his face.

"You don't love me," Tim said flatly. "You love Drake Industries. That's why I know you'll keep your mouth shut," he said sourly as he turned and stalked to the door, slamming it shut behind him.

Downstairs, Conner and Lex and a woman in a driver's uniform were all standing on the sidewalk waiting for him. Conner looked especially worried, for some reason.

"I didn't mean to take so long," Tim apologized.

"It was no problem at all, son," Lex said kindly. "Did you get some things off your chest?"

"Yeah," Tim muttered, rubbing a hand against the back of his head.

"Good," Lex hummed. "This is my driver and personal bodyguard, Mercy Graves," Lex introduced him.

"Hello," Tim said politely, reaching out to shake her hand and taking note of her strong grip, which he sensed she was just as politely holding back on.

"Hello, Tim," Mercy said with a friendly smile, though. "I'm pleased to meet you, although very sorry to learn of your loss," she said.

"Thank you," Tim said in surprise.

Although he really shouldn't be so surprised at this point in his life that his father's lack of compassion was the outlier, and not the norm, for the human race. Still, it was pleasantly unexpected to be so surrounded by kindness all of a sudden.

"Shall we go?" Lex said. "Your bag is in the trunk."

"Ok," Tim said, and Lex climbed into the limo first, to the backseat, Tim noted with a slight smirk which Conner returned before following his father in. Tim sat next to Conner and leaned his head down on his boyfriend's shoulder with a grateful sigh as Mercy shut the door after him.

Conner reached his arm up and put it around Tim's shoulders, pulling him in closer and picking up Tim's hand with his left one.

"Thank you for inviting me over tonight," Tim said to Lex.

"I wouldn't dream of leaving you alone with your father," Lex said, his mouth quirking like he'd sucked on a lemon, and Tim giggled.

Lex looked faintly startled, but he smiled back at Tim, even though Conner was frowning with protective dismay.

"Tim can move in with us for good, right, Dad?" Conner asked.

"Absolutely," Lex said with decision. "Assuming you want to, Tim?" he asked.

"Yes!" Tim spluttered out, his eyes going wide and happy as all concerns over super-villainy fled from his mind in his joy at the proposition of no longer living with his dad.

"Really? I can?" Tim said, feeling a tiny bit of the tonnage that was weighing his heart down start to tumble off.

"You can," Lex nodded firmly. "I have no sympathy for shit fathers," he growled, his mouth tensing as he spoke.

Conner looked slightly troubled at Lex's words, too, Tim noticed, and actually let go of Tim's hand for a second to reach out and squeeze his dad's reassuringly.

"You're the best dad ever," Conner said sincerely, and Tim found more tears filling his eyes.

Partly over the fact that he and his own dad didn't have that type of relationship, yeah - but it was Bruce and Tim's relationship that was coming to mind now, and it hurt. Bruce had fathered Tim better than Jack ever had, and Tim had been sure that Bruce cared about each and every one of his Robins.

So how come Batman had fired Steph? And then left her alone to die?

It didn't make sense - it didn't - and it was horrible - and Tim had so wanted to come home to Bruce and now he didn't know what he wanted, except that it resembled what Conner and Lex had and he was crying again and Conner was wrapping him up tighter in his arms and soothing him and Tim figured that Conner probably assumed he was crying over Jack, so he just snuggled into his boyfriend and let his tears out.

When they got to LexCorp, Mercy pulled into the underground garage and clicked a remote for a private, walled off section on the first level.

"This is our own private elevator to the penthouse," Lex explained as they got out of the car, "as well as a secure bay for my personal vehicles," he said.

Tim noticed there were three limos, including the one they had arrived in, but no fancier cars such as Wayne Manor boasted. Bruce had quite the collection of sports cars and luxury vehicles that Brucie Wayne frequently drove around town, but it seemed that Lex felt less of a need to show off.

Well, that and Lex probably actually got real work done in his car while Mercy drove him around Metropolis, Tim thought with a quickly suppressed giggle. Lex Luthor was a businessman first and foremost, even before being a villain, and he wouldn't be one to waste time on senselessly parading himself before the masses.

"Welcome to your new home, Tim," Lex said when he and the two boys entered his penthouse, having left Mercy to attend to the cars down below.

"Oh, wow," Tim breathed out, taking in the view, which was way better than the one that he and his dad had in their still very expensive suite, but they could see the harbor and the park from Lex's windows, and Lex's furniture was way nicer, too - actual antiques and unique pieces instead of carefully-selected-to-be-inoffensive mass-produced luxury items, and the kitchen was bigger, and the seating areas, and there were a lot more rooms from the look of it, because Lex's penthouse apparently took up the entire top floor of the LexCorp building.

"Now," Lex said, shrugging out of his suit jacket before carefully hanging it in the coat closet, "you and Conner are welcome to share a bedroom, or you can have your own. You don't have to decide right now," he added with a smile, "but we have plenty of space either way."

"Ok," Tim said, turning a little red, although Conner looked not only completely unabashed but totally delighted by his father's words.

"Come and see my room first," Conner said, tugging Tim forward, "and we can talk about it."

"Ok," Tim said again, letting himself be pulled along.

"Dinner's at seven," Lex called after them.

"Oh, this is cool," Tim said when they entered Conner's den, papered with band posters and funny headlines he'd cut out from newspapers and random strings of lights and old vinyl records and such a mishmosh of ephemera that Tim couldn't begin to take it all in.

"Thanks," Conner beamed at him, lowering Tim's duffel bag to the floor. "I do have a lot of clothes," he said, throwing his closet door open and showing off very full racks of the craziest clothes Tim had ever seen, all of which seemed to have been foraged at thrift stores, "but I saw on TV how to fold clothes up so they fit in dressers better," Conner said, "or I bet Dad would expand my room into the next bedroom over to give us another closet," he said.

"If you want to stay in here, that is," Conner added a little more bashfully, glancing down at his boots.

"I do," Tim smiled, his heart going flippity-flop.

Conner let out a happy squeal and tackled Tim, flying further than it seemed like they should be able to until they landed on his bed with a far more gentle thump than Tim thought he should have been slammed to the mattress with underneath his excited boyfriend, but Conner was kissing him and all thoughts of gravity and physics flew out of Tim's head just as easily.

Tim's stomach was fluttering in the most unusual but delightful way when there was a knock on the bedroom door. Conner groaned but got up and helped Tim up, too, before going to answer it for Lex, who was very patiently waiting to be let in instead of bursting in like Tim's dad used to do until Tim had started locking his door, which used to also get him a scolding, but his dad had no respect for privacy.

"Tim's going to share my bedroom," Conner happily announced as Lex entered, although his voice trailed off in a most unConnerlike fashion and his eyes got big when he saw what Lex had in his hands.

"Now, boys," Lex said calmly, setting the bottle of lube and box of condoms down on top of Conner's cluttered dresser.

Tim felt his face go beet red and Conner's was actually reddening, too, this time.

"Sit, sit," Lex chuckled, shooing them towards the bed as he took a seat in Conner's desk chair.

Conner inched his way back towards Tim and they both sat gingerly on the very edge of the bed, with enough room in-between them for not only Jesus, but Mary and Joseph, too.

"Now," Lex repeated, seemingly unperturbed. "I want to make very clear, boys, that neither one of you is to be pressuring the other for sex before they're ready. You're both young and it's perfectly normal to want to wait. I expect both of you to respect that in each other, if that is the case."

Tim was sure his face was darkening to tomato rouge, and while he didn't dare to swivel his eyes to look at Conner, he could practically feel the waves of heat emanating from his boyfriend's cheeks.

"However," Lex continued, "given that you're soulmates, it's also fine to have sex whenever you're both ready," he said, "and I would rather you be prepared. I do not," he stressed, "want to know your sexual histories or lack thereof," he said with a slight shudder.

"If you're both virgins and you plan to be monogamous, you don't need to use condoms," Lex said, "but here they are just in case," he indicated.

Tim wasn't sure when he'd last taken a breath and he felt almost positive that Conner was in the same boat. Jack Drake was slowly rising in Tim's estimation, he had to admit, because Jack would have died rather than give Tim the Sex Talk, with or without his soulmate present.

"Lube is absolutely essential for anal sex," Lex calmly went on - Conner made an involuntary strangled squeak - "and, if you lack experience, do yourselves both a favor and research online how to have it - not on porn sites, which are wildly inaccurate, unless they're educational videos," Lex rolled on with nary a twitch of discomfort, "because your assholes will be in for a world of hurt if one of you tries to stick a dick in there without loosening them up first."

Conner's strangled squeak became a full-blown wail of horror as he flopped backwards on the bed, covering his ears.

"Enough!" he yelled. "Dad! Please! Stop," he begged Lex.

"Your ass will be inclined to thank me one day," Lex said mildly and without offense as he thankfully stood up, his parental lecture finally finished. "Oh, and all the rooms in the penthouse are sound-proofed," he said with a little wink as he turned to leave.

He pulled the door shut after him and Tim finally took a breath which quickly turned into a drawn-out and pitiful horror-stricken moan as he covered his face with his hands and fell down backwards next to Conner.

"Did that just happen?" Tim mumbled to his boyfriend, peeking out through his fingers with massive amounts of leftover embarrassment.

"Unfortunately," Conner whined back. "Oh, my God, dude. I take back everything I said about my dad being cool."

"My dad would totally never have done that. Ever," Tim agreed. "Although," he frowned, "my dad would never even have let you spend the night, so I guess he's still the loser," he grumbled.

"Your dad really is awful, babe," Conner said with empathy, some of the angst leaving his face at the welcome change of topic as he scootched over closer next to Tim and ran a gentle hand down his boyfriend's face.

"Yeah," Tim mumbled, not wanting to cry again, but still feeling like it. "I, um, I punched him," he said, ducking his head.

"Shut up!" Conner exclaimed with glee. "Really?" he asked. "Timmy, that's awesome! Way to go, babe!" he said, pulling Tim into a proud kiss before leaning back and pausing.

"He must have said something really heinous, huh?" Conner asked sympathetically.

"Yeah," Tim said, sniffing. "About Steph."

"If you messed his face up, he might not be able to come with us to the funeral," Conner said philosophically.

"Here's hoping," Tim sighed.

Clark Kent was generally not in the habit of eavesdropping on his fellow reporters at The Daily Planet.

Over the course of his life, he'd learned to tune out and filter the abundance of background conversations his over-sensitive Kryptonian ears could pick up, and the juicy tidbits of gossip and news flying around the press room weren't usually tantalizing enough to disrupt his concentration. Any legitimate news would be published soon enough as it was, and Clark preferred his peace of mind over getting the latest stories a few hours earlier than the rest of the world.

Until he heard Lex Luthor's name, that was.

His super-hearing perked right up.

"- scoop, Perry!" Cat Grant, society editor-in-chief, was exclaiming with glee. "Premarked, can you believe?" she said. "Two such prominent families; Conner Luthor and Tim Drake. It's absolutely wild! Lex is giving me an exclusive interview with the boys tomorrow morning. He wants it published in tomorrow's evening edition when they're gonna drop their press release."

Clark froze.

"That's generous," Perry was commenting around his cigar. "What's the angle?"

"The Drake boy's best friend just got murdered down in Gotham," Cat said, and Clark's heart began to race. "She was a vigilante of all things -" and Clark's heart almost stopped in his chest until Cat said, "Spoiler," instead of Robin, and Clark slowly began to breathe again.

"Bad business," Cat was saying, "and she'd had a baby as a teen mom, too, and Lex wants to spin her in a positive light for the boy's sake. I don't see any harm in that," Cat was saying, "girl's gone now, anyway, and it's an easy way to buy us a lot of favor with Lex. Maybe get Lois a scoop the next time something big with LexCorp rolls around."

"I love it. Make it happen," Perry said back to Cat as unusual beads of sweat began to drip down Clark's back.