Issue #2 – Big Time to Small Time

Tim Drake was a city boy. He was from the city, Gotham City. It was a lot like Metropolis, only people didn't want to live there. Tim had always been an exception to that. He loved Gotham. He had lived in Gotham his whole life, and he thought he wouldn't trade it and all of its dirty streets, miserable people, and psychotic madmen for anything.

He had expected to be terribly bored by Smallville. So far, though, the country hadn't been nearly as bad as Superboy made it sound. Tim felt a little uncomfortable with the lack of noise, but he quickly adjusted to it. He sighed. Everything seemed less complicated in the country.

In Gotham, there were a million things to stress Tim out. That number jumped to two billion when he was Robin. No matter how good you are at keeping your cool, when Two Face is strapping you to a bomb, you do start to sweat. These days, though, the problems Tim faced in his civilian life seemed a lot worse. At least he had been trained to deal with Two Face; nobody had shown him how to adapt to a new school, living with his dad and step mother, and lying about being Robin to a father who seemed so proud of him. And Tim had to put up with Batman's moodiness whether he was wearing the cape or not.

All of that stuff was hundreds of miles away right now. In Smallville, the only thing to stress Tim out was Conner. While they did chores, every time Tim tried to strike up a conversation, Conner would only grunt or mumble. Even when Tim asked what he should do to help, Conner would just grunt and point like a gorilla. Tim idly wondered where Krypto was. It seemed like the last Dog of Kyrpton would have been better conversation.

It was noon before they finished the chores, and Tim still had not gotten a word from Conner. They were halfway back to the house before Conner quietly said, "Hey, Tim?"

Tim looked up. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry if I was a little cranky this morning."

"A little?"

"Okay, a lot. I didn't mean to sound like I don't want you here. Actually, I've been looking forward to this for the last few weeks."

Tim looked down. "It's fine." Tim didn't admit it, but he had looked forward to it too.

"Yeah," Conner said, rubbing the back of his head. "It gets pretty dull out here. Boring as hell. It'll be nice having somebody to actually talk to. Especially someone who I…uh…" Conner fumbled over his words. He was about to express emotion, and that was never an easy thing for a sixteen-year-old boy to do. Especially not to another guy.

Tim raised his eyebrow. "Someone whom you what?"

Conner bit his lip and looked at the dirt. "Someone that I consider a pretty good friend. Maybe my best."

Tim looked down too. "Oh." Tim tried to ignore the empty feeling in his chest. "Thanks."

"Yeah." Conner coughed, in a tough-guy way, to reaffirm his manhood after the touchy-feely moment. "Well, I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted this morning. It wasn't very cool of me, and I'm sorry. I also had a headache, and I guess I took that out on you too."

Connner's words shot Tim in the chest. If he had not been so good at putting on masks, Tim's face would have turned pale. He stopped walking. "You had a headache?"

Conner nodded. "Yeah. I did, but it's gone now. I guess the fresh air cleared it up."

"Isn't that strange?"

"Isn't what strange?"

"Is it strange for you to have a headache? I thought you were Superboy."

Conner raised his eyebrow. Something about Tim's voice sounded different, like he was taking charge of the situation. He sounded more like Robin. "I'm also half human. I can get sick. It takes a lot, but it can happen. And besides, I get headaches a lot these days." Conner sighed. "Don't worry about it. It's probably some new power manifesting. Like the heat vision. I just now got the hang of that. It figures, once I figure something out, something new comes up."

"Maybe you're finally getting X-ray vision," Tim said distantly. It was like Tim had made a joke that he didn't get. "I'm sorry about your headache."

"Tim, it's fine. It's just a headache. Look, I appreciate your concern, and I understand how hanging out with Batman could make you obsessive compulsive, but really, I'm fine. I'm okay. Alright?"

Tim nodded. "Okay."

They started walking back to the house again. "Hey, did you bring any clothes or anything?" Conner asked.

Tim blinked. He never talked down to Conner to be mean, but sometimes Conner did ask stupid questions. "Well, yes…"

"I was just asking. I don't remember seeing you with a bag."

"How could you miss it? It was the big bag in the kitchen. You practically sat on it when you came in. And I moved it to your room while you were in the shower. You had to have seen it while you were getting dressed."

Conner shrugged. "I guess I was half awake at the time. And like I said, I was distracted by my head throbbing."

Tim nodded. "Are you sure you feel okay?"

"I said I'm fine, Tim. Jeeze, I'm going to start calling you 'Ma' Drake'."

Tim forced a chuckle, and they reached the house. When they got inside, Martha told them they had done such a good job that they deserved a little treat. So she gave them a little bit of money and told them to go into town for a burger. She even said they could take the truck. Conner had wanted to fly there, but Tim insisted they drive. "It's broad daylight," he said. "Are you trying to tell everyone you're Superboy?"

"I zoom around Smallville all the time. Nobody is that observant here. You are way too paranoid about the secret identity thing." Still, he agreed to take the truck. Conner didn't have the patience nor had he seen the point in getting his driver's license so he let Tim have the driver's seat.

When Tim hopped into the beat up pick-up truck, he looked around. He seemed confused.

"What is it?" Conner asked.

"I don't see the button for the rocket thrusters…"

Tim said it so seriously that Conner didn't realize it was a joke until Tim cracked a smile. "This is no Batmobile," Tim said, and the truck kicked as he shifted it into gear.

"You should have let me fly us. It'd call less attention to us, and it'd be safer."

It didn't take long to drive into town, and when they got to Big Hank's Grill, they overheard two of the townspeople talking about how Farmer Jed swore that aliens had visited him earlier that morning.

"He said there were two of them that landed outside his field. There was a big one with horns, and a little one that had a bag full of probes and such," an old man said.

"He said they had a bat shaped flyin' saucer," his friend added. "Fastest thing ol' Jed ever seen."

Tim jabbed Conner in the ribs with an elbow and hissed, "See? See why I'm paranoid?"

"Yeah yeah, I can see. You don't want people to mistake Robin for Martian Manhunter. I got it."

They ordered their food, and Tim offered to pay for it. Between Jack Drake and Bruce Wayne, money wasn't much of a problem for Tim, and Tim could see that the Kents could use everything they earned. Conner, however, wouldn't let him pay. "She offered to pay, Tim. Let her. She would take it as an insult if you didn't."

Tim still felt bad about her paying, but he convinced himself he would feel worse if he had insulted her. They sat down, and they started eating, and they talked. They didn't really talk about anything, but for some reason that was okay. Usually, Superboy and Robin would talk about serious things like Lex Luthor, stopping whatever was threatening Earth that day, and other important Teen Titans matters. Over French fries and Coke, though, Conner and Tim joked about how Tim's lungs weren't used to the clean air of Smallville, so it made him gag. They talked about how Conner didn't have any friends in Smallville and how Tim only 'sort of' had friends in Gotham. They did end up griping about Superman and Batman, and Tim said that at least he had Nightwing. Nightwing had been the original Robin, so he had a good idea about the things Tim went through. Tim had never told Nightwing, but he really looked up to him, like a brother almost. Over Coke and fries, though, Tim almost admitted that to Conner.

They had finished the last of their fries, and their sodas were getting watered down when Conner said, "You know, it's weird talking to you without the Robin uniform. And it's different calling you Tim. It's almost like talking to a different person."

Tim chuckled. "I know what you mean. It's weird seeing you in glasses, dressed like a farm kid, and calling you Conner. It's weird having you call me Tim too."

"Yeah, but I think I'm more Superboy that I am Conner. I've been Superboy a lot longer, anyway. But you, you've always been Tim. I don't see why it's strange for me to call you that."

Tim shrugged. "Sometimes I don't know who I am. Sometimes it feels like Robin and Tim are two completely different people, and sometimes…they're not…. At first, when I first started, I loved being Robin a lot more than I did being Tim."

"And now?"

Tim fiddled with the wrapper to his straw. "Now I don't know if I wouldn't mind just being Tim Drake."

Conner nodded. "Well, from what I've seen, I think I can understand. I really like Tim Drake."

Tim laughed. "That's good. Tim seems pretty fond of Conner Kent too."