Fic: Explorations, Young Justice, Tim/Kon, PG-13, 1/1
Title: Explorations
Author: Amarin Rose
Fandom: DCU: Young Justice
Pairing: Tim/Kon
Rating: PG/PG-13
Recipient: glossing
Summary: Kon is on a mission, seemingly to drive Tim insane, though it turns out that’s just a side effect. Tim never wants to see another issue of Cosmo again, however.
Explorations
“Hey, Robin, what part of your body is most sensitive to touch?”
Stuttering to a halt in his typing, so surprised that he almost fell out of his chair, Robin carefully turned from his computer to face Superboy, who had just floated into the room, reclining on his back in midair with a magazine held over his face. “Wh-what? Kon? What-” Robin shook his head, took a deep breath, and started over, “Why would you ask me something like that?”
“I’m trying to figure out if it’d be easier to get a date with someone if I knew the answers they- that most people give to these questions in this issue of Cosmo.” Kon waved the magazine for emphasis.
Snatching the magazine, Robin quickly skimmed the pages and blanched. Turning a carefully schooled expression towards his friend, he said, voice as flat as he could make it, “Kon, this is a quiz about sex. In order to better understand your partner in bed.”
Kon just blinked at him, though his cheeks did look a bit pink - or that could have been Tim projecting his own embarrassment onto his friend. “Uh, yeah…”
“Why would you want to ask me these questions, then?”
“I’m trying to get a baseline for normal human reactions,” Kon replied, and Tim boggled at how much like…well, like him Kon sounded.
Robin paused, then said, “So you decided to ask the only normal human on the team?” He really didn’t think Cissie was ever coming back to heroing, though he could be wrong.
Kon shook his head, and finally deigned to descend from on high, perching on a clear space of countertop between two computer consoles. “No, I decided to ask everyone on the team. Just figured I’d start with you because I ran into you first.
Tim found himself grateful for all the training he’d undergone with Batman to mask his emotions, since otherwise, he felt sure he would have blushed with what he was about to say. “Since I’m pretty sure that you’re the only person in Young Justice to have ever had sex - if anyone has - then I don’t think asking the rest of the team is going to do you much good.” It wasn’t precisely as embarrassing as it could have been to admit he was still a virgin, since he was almost certain Kon was the only member of Young Justice who wasn’t.
Still, it was Kon.
“Seriously? Only me?” Kon blinked, looking more disturbed at that revelation than he had a right to be. “You think Slobo is a virgin?” he asked almost in a squeaky voice.
All right, perhaps he had a right to be disturbed about that. Robin was pretty sure there wasn’t much Slobo hadn’t done - at least in his previous ‘incarnation.’ “I don’t count Slobo as a member of Young Justice. He’s more like a pest that refuses to leave.” Robin paused a beat and added, “And besides, Lobo might have had sexual experience, but Slobo is even younger than you, and with an even more abrasive personality.”
“True,” Kon agreed. Then he started, and eyed Robin archly. “Hey… Whaddya mean, ‘even more abrasive’? You think I have an abrasive personality?”
“Well, you definitely lack tact,” Robin said dryly, feeling on more firmer ground now that they were back to bantering instead of…whatever Kon was doing with his questions.
“I do not. Bart lacks tact,” Kon declared, “I am just…occasionally oblivious to the more subtle undertones of…stuff.” He shrugged diffidently.
Robin felt pretty certain in his conviction that Kon was repeating something someone - mostly likely Tana or Cassie - had told him. Or scolded him. “Point. But you try asking Cassie these questions to get a date with her, and she’ll hurt you, no matter how tactful you are.”
“Why would I ask Cassie on a date?” Kon asked, appearing honestly mystified.
It was Tim’s turn to be mystified - he didn’t look it, however. “Um…because you like her?” Robin suggested.
Brow furrowing, Kon looked around the computer room as if investigating it for any evidence of a pod. When he turned back to Tim, he asked, a wry twist to his lips, “Whatever gave you that idea?”
Robin snorted, and barely refrained from giving his friend a good whack on the shoulder - it would only hurt him more than Kon. “Well, gee, SB, maybe that whole thing, with you kissing her, and flirting with her all the time, and voting for her to lead the team, oh, and that time you made her a romantic candlelit dinner for two?”
Kon blinked and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Uh, okay, lemme see how I can explain this…” He made a show of thinking for a moment, then snapped his fingers and smirked. “Got it. That was Match, also Match, it was more a case of not wanting to vote for you or Ray, and, uh, Match again. In conclusion, Match.” The smirk widened. “Brilliant deduction there, Holmes.”
Tim twitched and quickly exited, stage left.
***
In the ensuing weeks, Kon-El kept up his new campaign of attracting women by being their friends. But first, of course, he had to have a trial run. Since Slobo would have fragged him for it, and Bart couldn’t stand still long enough for anything short of a minor apocalypse, and for some reason, Kon didn’t like Ray all that much (despite the fact he’d been the one to ask him to join the team), Robin ended up being Kon’s guinea pig.
But Robin was adaptable, and soon grew used to having Kon pop up randomly and ask even more random questions. Tolerating the situation, on the other hand…
It was a good thing that Tim didn’t have Kryptonite - and his access to Bruce’s had been curbed until he could figure out Batman’s latest encryption code on the vault - because otherwise he might have maimed Kon just to get some time alone.
Instead, he just took bathroom breaks more often.
Kon cornered him outside the showers one morning, though, asking, “So, what’s your favorite color?” And Robin reflexively gave the truthful answer of, “Blue,” instead of saying red or green, because he’d been so surprised by Kon popping out of the laundry chute.
Kon didn’t seem to find anything odd about that, though, which had made Tim breathe a sigh of relief. At least until the next time Kon ambushed him.
***
A week went by without Kon asking him anything, and Tim was just getting ready to breathe a tentative sigh of relief that the whole thing was over with (as far as he was concerned; Kon would, presumably, next try out his new tactics on the female population), when he was forcibly reminded that he’d never been very good at predicting Kon.
Also, that the situation wasn’t over with. Not by a long shot.
“What’s your favorite kind of flower?” Kon asked, and for a long, long moment, Tim didn’t know how to answer. Trying to get his mind off the resort’s security settings and onto flora was a difficult task, especially since he was, by then, only running on coffee fumes, having downed the last bit of instant three hours previously.
“I…um…” Brow furrowing above the mask, Tim finally decided, “Daffodils…I think. Maybe tulips.” Seeing Kon’s surprised expression, he said, quite aware that he was being pissy, but too mad to care, “I think most girls appreciate roses, however.”
Then he stalked off, and sternly told himself to get a grip. Kon was his friend.
And nothing more.
***
Tim had been tense for so long he no longer even remembered what the thought of relaxation felt like. But when he heard Kon’s voice saying those magical four words, he breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief.
“Okay, one last question.” Kon held a finger - not his middle one - to punctuate his point.
Tim let out a gusty sigh and hid a smile as he waved a hand impatiently. “Fine. Just the one,” he stipulated.
Kon shrugged. “Sure, fine, whatever. Uh, the question is the first one I asked, the one you didn’t answer…” He actually held up another magazine and reread whatever-it-was that had prompted his question before finally saying, “What is the most sensitive part of your body?”
Tim had no idea what it said about him that his first thought was, My heart. “Uh…duh?” he said, wondering if he actually had to tell Kon that his genitals were the most sensitive part of his body.
Kon snorted. “Other than your dick, man.”
Tim only barely held back his own snort. That joke never got old, even if Nightwing was nowhere in the near vicinity. “I…I don’t know, Kon. It’s not like I’ve had a chance to find out.” True, he’d…experimented a bit with his own body. What teenager didn’t, to relieve hormonal stress? But surely, to find true ‘sensitive’ spots, one couldn’t find them on one’s self. Like tickling; the sensation was more intense when caused by someone else.
“And if you had to hazard a guess?” Kon persisted, an almost fanatical gleam in his unearthly blue eyes.
Tim sighed. “Kon, why are you doing this? I find it hard to believe that you’re still trying to get girls with this. If it hasn’t worked by now, don’t you think you should just give up?”
“Who says I’ve gotten a chance to try any of this stuff?” Kon asked, peering at him sideways.
Tim blinked. “I just…presumed that you were trying this stuff out, and when it failed that’s when you’d track me down and ask me something else.” Why else would Kon wait in between getting him to answer questions? Tim may have had the patience of a Bat, but Kon was persistent, and Tim had given up on not answering Kon’s personal questions soon after he’d started the whole thing.
Kon shook his head. “Nope. I’ve been making plans.” Even without the eyebrow wiggle accompanying that last word, Tim would have been tipped off to Kon’s intentions by the lecherous tone to his voice.
“I don’t want to know,” Tim declared.
Kon chuckled. “Mmm, are you sure, Rob?”
Tim narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Kon. “Are you finished pestering me, or can I leave yet?” he asked instead of answering that non-rhetorical question.
“Just one more question,” Kon said, tamping down on his laughter. “Nothing to do with…this.”
Sighing, Tim gestured with one hand for Kon to go ahead.
“Why are all these questions weirding you out, man?” Kon’s expression took a turn for the pensive; he looked almost worried. “I mean, the…personal ones, sure, but your favorite color? Your favorite flower?”
To tell the truth, or try to come up with a believable lie? More than that, a lie that Kon would believe? “Because you don’t really want to know this stuff about me, Kon,” Tim said, deciding once again to go for the truth.
Kon blinked at him. “Rob, what makes you think I don’t want to know your favorite color?”
Shrugging diffidently, Tim said, “Because you never asked before.” He knew all of that kind of stuff about everyone on the team - except for Bart’s favorite food, since he didn’t have one - and he’d known it almost since the beginning.
Making a noise of aggravated disgust, Kon flopped down in a chair, tucking one leg up underneath him and throwing his arms across the headrest, the magazine thwacking against the back. “That doesn’t mean I don’t wanna know. I just…it just means I needed an excuse. We’re guys; we’re not supposed to be all touchy-feely and stuff.”
“As opposed to you asking extremely personal and emotional questions of me?” Tim asked with a raised brow.
Kon did have the decency to blush. “Well…” Then he waved his free hand around to illustrate his confusion. “Okay, so maybe not. Whatever, man. I just… Do you mean to tell me you haven’t figured out why I was asking you all these questions?”
Tim frowned. There was something he was missing, something obvious, he was sure of it…but what? Kon had told him his reason, after all, lame though Tim thought it was. “Because you wanted to get a date with…someone…and you thought the information I could provide would help you with that.” At Kon’s exasperated look, Tim knew he was definitely missing something.
Kon tipped his head to the side and spent several long moments just looking at him, before finally asking, “Rob, what do you know about real relationships? Romantic, sexual…those kinds.”
Hoping that Kon would actually, eventually, go somewhere with all those questions, Tim gave the query some thought. “Sex is nothing like in romance novels,” he stated. “That’s…pretty much all I know about it, aside from the fact that it can make normally rational people act completely irrational.”
“Normally rational people…like you?” Kon guessed, with the hint of a grin.
Tim flushed. “I wouldn’t know,” he mumbled. He knew, rationally, that he wasn’t the only fifteen-year-old male virgin left in the world, but that didn’t make it any less embarrassing to admit.
He only hoped that Kon wouldn’t decide it was time to play ‘Bait the Robin.’
***
“Well, you’re right about the romance novel thing,” Kon said, deciding to be magnanimous and not tease his friend too much. It wasn’t like everyone could be as hot as him; especially guys that did the whole ‘hide in the shadows’ thing. “Sex isn’t hearts and roses and perfection and forever. It’s sweaty and sticky and messy and dirty and fun, and absolutely not perfect except when it is.” Kon cut himself off as he realized exactly how much he’d given away with that, but Robin, freaky little freak that he was, seemed to be focusing on pretending he was only half listening, when in reality, he was probably trying to memorize what Kon was saying, and not thinking about his emotional state.
Well…okay. That worked. Kon could do plausible deniability, too. “And it’s like…sex is different with everyone, and it’s like…” a light bulb went on in his head, “…it’s like sparring. Because no two people can work together the same way, so you have to figure it out as you go, and sometimes it takes a while, and sometimes you just click, and sometimes you can make it work right away but you still need a while to fine-tune stuff, and…” Kon waved a hand to express all of the stuff buzzing around his brain that he couldn’t think of ways to say.
He also firmly quashed down the thoughts about how well he and Robin worked together. It was pretty easy to do, considering Robin was giving him the Bat-equivalent of the ‘bug under a microscope’ look. Bat-versions of any type of look were twice as intense, especially when it involved anything like detective skills.
“If sexual compatibility is different with everyone, and you know this, then why are you trying to take shortcuts by asking me these questions?” It was said in the icily calm voice that meant Rob was way beyond pissed.
Kon gulped. Truth time, it seemed. “Because, uh…well…see… Well, I… I wanted to know this stuff about you ‘cause I like you and I was trying to see if maybe you liked me too.” He winced, unable to bear Robin’s penetrating gaze, even through the lenses of the mask. Was it possible he could have sounded anymore like Impulse? ‘I like you and wanted to know if you liked me too’? Ick. What was he, a pre-teen girl?
Robin opened his mouth, letting it hang open for a moment as his face contorted in what was probably confusion. He let his mouth snap closed, swallowed visibly a few times as he made surprising whimpering noises, then said, “You…what?”
Kon sighed. “I like you,” he said, not using any qualifiers. “And I thought, maybe, if I knew this stuff about you, it would be easier to…well, to ask you out.” Of course, his half-assed plan of waiting until February and presenting Robin with a ‘Be Mine’ handmade blue bird-shaped Valentine and a bouquet of daffodils and red tulips would probably have resulted in Robin looking similar to the way he did at that moment. But at least he would have been prepared for the reaction, instead of having it sprung on him from (seemingly) out of nowhere.
Robin just stared at him for a moment - or maybe not; it was hard to tell, with him wearing the mask - before he finally shook his head, and then, surprisingly, peeled his mask off. His name definitely wasn’t Alvin Draper, but his face - that was his real face. And despite the fact that he was allowed to show it to them now, he rarely took the mask off, so it was special when he did. “I…you…” He blinked blue eyes wonderingly at Kon before finally managing to eke out, “I like you too.”
Kon was torn between fainting from pure relief that he hadn’t made a complete idiot out of himself, just sitting there, slack-jawed from confusion, or jumping out of his chair and doing a crazy mid-air rendition of the happy happy joy joy dance. While his brain was spinning out of control trying to figure out his reaction, his body took over, blinking a few times, before he finally shook his head to throw off the confusion, and smiled widely. “Dude, really?”
Tim nodded, lips curving up so slightly that if Kon hadn’t been looking for it, he never would have noticed the smile. “Yeah, really.”
“Cool.” His brain finally putting forth an excellent suggestion - namely, that he should kiss the ever-lovin’ daylights of his long-time crush - Kon followed up on it, and pulled Robin in with his TTK so that they were both sharing his seat. The other boy stiffened at the first contact - not like that! - and then melted against him, legs settling on either side of his - which gave Kon even more perverted ideas for later - warm lips and soft, wet tongue moving with Kon’s in a dance of mutual lust, hands absently rubbing and stroking across Kon’s shoulders and chest.
Whatever else Kon knew about Tim, now he could safely say, beyond a shadow of a doubt - whatever that meant - that the boy knew how to kiss. If Kon had thought there was going to be a next time, he would have made a note to go for the direct approach. As it was, Kon just settled in for a long, exploratory make-out session.
There were other ‘likes’ of Robin’s that he needed to learn.
Author: Amarin Rose
Fandom: DCU: Young Justice
Pairing: Tim/Kon
Rating: PG/PG-13
Recipient: glossing
Summary: Kon is on a mission, seemingly to drive Tim insane, though it turns out that’s just a side effect. Tim never wants to see another issue of Cosmo again, however.
Explorations
“Hey, Robin, what part of your body is most sensitive to touch?”
Stuttering to a halt in his typing, so surprised that he almost fell out of his chair, Robin carefully turned from his computer to face Superboy, who had just floated into the room, reclining on his back in midair with a magazine held over his face. “Wh-what? Kon? What-” Robin shook his head, took a deep breath, and started over, “Why would you ask me something like that?”
“I’m trying to figure out if it’d be easier to get a date with someone if I knew the answers they- that most people give to these questions in this issue of Cosmo.” Kon waved the magazine for emphasis.
Snatching the magazine, Robin quickly skimmed the pages and blanched. Turning a carefully schooled expression towards his friend, he said, voice as flat as he could make it, “Kon, this is a quiz about sex. In order to better understand your partner in bed.”
Kon just blinked at him, though his cheeks did look a bit pink - or that could have been Tim projecting his own embarrassment onto his friend. “Uh, yeah…”
“Why would you want to ask me these questions, then?”
“I’m trying to get a baseline for normal human reactions,” Kon replied, and Tim boggled at how much like…well, like him Kon sounded.
Robin paused, then said, “So you decided to ask the only normal human on the team?” He really didn’t think Cissie was ever coming back to heroing, though he could be wrong.
Kon shook his head, and finally deigned to descend from on high, perching on a clear space of countertop between two computer consoles. “No, I decided to ask everyone on the team. Just figured I’d start with you because I ran into you first.
Tim found himself grateful for all the training he’d undergone with Batman to mask his emotions, since otherwise, he felt sure he would have blushed with what he was about to say. “Since I’m pretty sure that you’re the only person in Young Justice to have ever had sex - if anyone has - then I don’t think asking the rest of the team is going to do you much good.” It wasn’t precisely as embarrassing as it could have been to admit he was still a virgin, since he was almost certain Kon was the only member of Young Justice who wasn’t.
Still, it was Kon.
“Seriously? Only me?” Kon blinked, looking more disturbed at that revelation than he had a right to be. “You think Slobo is a virgin?” he asked almost in a squeaky voice.
All right, perhaps he had a right to be disturbed about that. Robin was pretty sure there wasn’t much Slobo hadn’t done - at least in his previous ‘incarnation.’ “I don’t count Slobo as a member of Young Justice. He’s more like a pest that refuses to leave.” Robin paused a beat and added, “And besides, Lobo might have had sexual experience, but Slobo is even younger than you, and with an even more abrasive personality.”
“True,” Kon agreed. Then he started, and eyed Robin archly. “Hey… Whaddya mean, ‘even more abrasive’? You think I have an abrasive personality?”
“Well, you definitely lack tact,” Robin said dryly, feeling on more firmer ground now that they were back to bantering instead of…whatever Kon was doing with his questions.
“I do not. Bart lacks tact,” Kon declared, “I am just…occasionally oblivious to the more subtle undertones of…stuff.” He shrugged diffidently.
Robin felt pretty certain in his conviction that Kon was repeating something someone - mostly likely Tana or Cassie - had told him. Or scolded him. “Point. But you try asking Cassie these questions to get a date with her, and she’ll hurt you, no matter how tactful you are.”
“Why would I ask Cassie on a date?” Kon asked, appearing honestly mystified.
It was Tim’s turn to be mystified - he didn’t look it, however. “Um…because you like her?” Robin suggested.
Brow furrowing, Kon looked around the computer room as if investigating it for any evidence of a pod. When he turned back to Tim, he asked, a wry twist to his lips, “Whatever gave you that idea?”
Robin snorted, and barely refrained from giving his friend a good whack on the shoulder - it would only hurt him more than Kon. “Well, gee, SB, maybe that whole thing, with you kissing her, and flirting with her all the time, and voting for her to lead the team, oh, and that time you made her a romantic candlelit dinner for two?”
Kon blinked and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Uh, okay, lemme see how I can explain this…” He made a show of thinking for a moment, then snapped his fingers and smirked. “Got it. That was Match, also Match, it was more a case of not wanting to vote for you or Ray, and, uh, Match again. In conclusion, Match.” The smirk widened. “Brilliant deduction there, Holmes.”
Tim twitched and quickly exited, stage left.
***
In the ensuing weeks, Kon-El kept up his new campaign of attracting women by being their friends. But first, of course, he had to have a trial run. Since Slobo would have fragged him for it, and Bart couldn’t stand still long enough for anything short of a minor apocalypse, and for some reason, Kon didn’t like Ray all that much (despite the fact he’d been the one to ask him to join the team), Robin ended up being Kon’s guinea pig.
But Robin was adaptable, and soon grew used to having Kon pop up randomly and ask even more random questions. Tolerating the situation, on the other hand…
It was a good thing that Tim didn’t have Kryptonite - and his access to Bruce’s had been curbed until he could figure out Batman’s latest encryption code on the vault - because otherwise he might have maimed Kon just to get some time alone.
Instead, he just took bathroom breaks more often.
Kon cornered him outside the showers one morning, though, asking, “So, what’s your favorite color?” And Robin reflexively gave the truthful answer of, “Blue,” instead of saying red or green, because he’d been so surprised by Kon popping out of the laundry chute.
Kon didn’t seem to find anything odd about that, though, which had made Tim breathe a sigh of relief. At least until the next time Kon ambushed him.
***
A week went by without Kon asking him anything, and Tim was just getting ready to breathe a tentative sigh of relief that the whole thing was over with (as far as he was concerned; Kon would, presumably, next try out his new tactics on the female population), when he was forcibly reminded that he’d never been very good at predicting Kon.
Also, that the situation wasn’t over with. Not by a long shot.
“What’s your favorite kind of flower?” Kon asked, and for a long, long moment, Tim didn’t know how to answer. Trying to get his mind off the resort’s security settings and onto flora was a difficult task, especially since he was, by then, only running on coffee fumes, having downed the last bit of instant three hours previously.
“I…um…” Brow furrowing above the mask, Tim finally decided, “Daffodils…I think. Maybe tulips.” Seeing Kon’s surprised expression, he said, quite aware that he was being pissy, but too mad to care, “I think most girls appreciate roses, however.”
Then he stalked off, and sternly told himself to get a grip. Kon was his friend.
And nothing more.
***
Tim had been tense for so long he no longer even remembered what the thought of relaxation felt like. But when he heard Kon’s voice saying those magical four words, he breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief.
“Okay, one last question.” Kon held a finger - not his middle one - to punctuate his point.
Tim let out a gusty sigh and hid a smile as he waved a hand impatiently. “Fine. Just the one,” he stipulated.
Kon shrugged. “Sure, fine, whatever. Uh, the question is the first one I asked, the one you didn’t answer…” He actually held up another magazine and reread whatever-it-was that had prompted his question before finally saying, “What is the most sensitive part of your body?”
Tim had no idea what it said about him that his first thought was, My heart. “Uh…duh?” he said, wondering if he actually had to tell Kon that his genitals were the most sensitive part of his body.
Kon snorted. “Other than your dick, man.”
Tim only barely held back his own snort. That joke never got old, even if Nightwing was nowhere in the near vicinity. “I…I don’t know, Kon. It’s not like I’ve had a chance to find out.” True, he’d…experimented a bit with his own body. What teenager didn’t, to relieve hormonal stress? But surely, to find true ‘sensitive’ spots, one couldn’t find them on one’s self. Like tickling; the sensation was more intense when caused by someone else.
“And if you had to hazard a guess?” Kon persisted, an almost fanatical gleam in his unearthly blue eyes.
Tim sighed. “Kon, why are you doing this? I find it hard to believe that you’re still trying to get girls with this. If it hasn’t worked by now, don’t you think you should just give up?”
“Who says I’ve gotten a chance to try any of this stuff?” Kon asked, peering at him sideways.
Tim blinked. “I just…presumed that you were trying this stuff out, and when it failed that’s when you’d track me down and ask me something else.” Why else would Kon wait in between getting him to answer questions? Tim may have had the patience of a Bat, but Kon was persistent, and Tim had given up on not answering Kon’s personal questions soon after he’d started the whole thing.
Kon shook his head. “Nope. I’ve been making plans.” Even without the eyebrow wiggle accompanying that last word, Tim would have been tipped off to Kon’s intentions by the lecherous tone to his voice.
“I don’t want to know,” Tim declared.
Kon chuckled. “Mmm, are you sure, Rob?”
Tim narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Kon. “Are you finished pestering me, or can I leave yet?” he asked instead of answering that non-rhetorical question.
“Just one more question,” Kon said, tamping down on his laughter. “Nothing to do with…this.”
Sighing, Tim gestured with one hand for Kon to go ahead.
“Why are all these questions weirding you out, man?” Kon’s expression took a turn for the pensive; he looked almost worried. “I mean, the…personal ones, sure, but your favorite color? Your favorite flower?”
To tell the truth, or try to come up with a believable lie? More than that, a lie that Kon would believe? “Because you don’t really want to know this stuff about me, Kon,” Tim said, deciding once again to go for the truth.
Kon blinked at him. “Rob, what makes you think I don’t want to know your favorite color?”
Shrugging diffidently, Tim said, “Because you never asked before.” He knew all of that kind of stuff about everyone on the team - except for Bart’s favorite food, since he didn’t have one - and he’d known it almost since the beginning.
Making a noise of aggravated disgust, Kon flopped down in a chair, tucking one leg up underneath him and throwing his arms across the headrest, the magazine thwacking against the back. “That doesn’t mean I don’t wanna know. I just…it just means I needed an excuse. We’re guys; we’re not supposed to be all touchy-feely and stuff.”
“As opposed to you asking extremely personal and emotional questions of me?” Tim asked with a raised brow.
Kon did have the decency to blush. “Well…” Then he waved his free hand around to illustrate his confusion. “Okay, so maybe not. Whatever, man. I just… Do you mean to tell me you haven’t figured out why I was asking you all these questions?”
Tim frowned. There was something he was missing, something obvious, he was sure of it…but what? Kon had told him his reason, after all, lame though Tim thought it was. “Because you wanted to get a date with…someone…and you thought the information I could provide would help you with that.” At Kon’s exasperated look, Tim knew he was definitely missing something.
Kon tipped his head to the side and spent several long moments just looking at him, before finally asking, “Rob, what do you know about real relationships? Romantic, sexual…those kinds.”
Hoping that Kon would actually, eventually, go somewhere with all those questions, Tim gave the query some thought. “Sex is nothing like in romance novels,” he stated. “That’s…pretty much all I know about it, aside from the fact that it can make normally rational people act completely irrational.”
“Normally rational people…like you?” Kon guessed, with the hint of a grin.
Tim flushed. “I wouldn’t know,” he mumbled. He knew, rationally, that he wasn’t the only fifteen-year-old male virgin left in the world, but that didn’t make it any less embarrassing to admit.
He only hoped that Kon wouldn’t decide it was time to play ‘Bait the Robin.’
***
“Well, you’re right about the romance novel thing,” Kon said, deciding to be magnanimous and not tease his friend too much. It wasn’t like everyone could be as hot as him; especially guys that did the whole ‘hide in the shadows’ thing. “Sex isn’t hearts and roses and perfection and forever. It’s sweaty and sticky and messy and dirty and fun, and absolutely not perfect except when it is.” Kon cut himself off as he realized exactly how much he’d given away with that, but Robin, freaky little freak that he was, seemed to be focusing on pretending he was only half listening, when in reality, he was probably trying to memorize what Kon was saying, and not thinking about his emotional state.
Well…okay. That worked. Kon could do plausible deniability, too. “And it’s like…sex is different with everyone, and it’s like…” a light bulb went on in his head, “…it’s like sparring. Because no two people can work together the same way, so you have to figure it out as you go, and sometimes it takes a while, and sometimes you just click, and sometimes you can make it work right away but you still need a while to fine-tune stuff, and…” Kon waved a hand to express all of the stuff buzzing around his brain that he couldn’t think of ways to say.
He also firmly quashed down the thoughts about how well he and Robin worked together. It was pretty easy to do, considering Robin was giving him the Bat-equivalent of the ‘bug under a microscope’ look. Bat-versions of any type of look were twice as intense, especially when it involved anything like detective skills.
“If sexual compatibility is different with everyone, and you know this, then why are you trying to take shortcuts by asking me these questions?” It was said in the icily calm voice that meant Rob was way beyond pissed.
Kon gulped. Truth time, it seemed. “Because, uh…well…see… Well, I… I wanted to know this stuff about you ‘cause I like you and I was trying to see if maybe you liked me too.” He winced, unable to bear Robin’s penetrating gaze, even through the lenses of the mask. Was it possible he could have sounded anymore like Impulse? ‘I like you and wanted to know if you liked me too’? Ick. What was he, a pre-teen girl?
Robin opened his mouth, letting it hang open for a moment as his face contorted in what was probably confusion. He let his mouth snap closed, swallowed visibly a few times as he made surprising whimpering noises, then said, “You…what?”
Kon sighed. “I like you,” he said, not using any qualifiers. “And I thought, maybe, if I knew this stuff about you, it would be easier to…well, to ask you out.” Of course, his half-assed plan of waiting until February and presenting Robin with a ‘Be Mine’ handmade blue bird-shaped Valentine and a bouquet of daffodils and red tulips would probably have resulted in Robin looking similar to the way he did at that moment. But at least he would have been prepared for the reaction, instead of having it sprung on him from (seemingly) out of nowhere.
Robin just stared at him for a moment - or maybe not; it was hard to tell, with him wearing the mask - before he finally shook his head, and then, surprisingly, peeled his mask off. His name definitely wasn’t Alvin Draper, but his face - that was his real face. And despite the fact that he was allowed to show it to them now, he rarely took the mask off, so it was special when he did. “I…you…” He blinked blue eyes wonderingly at Kon before finally managing to eke out, “I like you too.”
Kon was torn between fainting from pure relief that he hadn’t made a complete idiot out of himself, just sitting there, slack-jawed from confusion, or jumping out of his chair and doing a crazy mid-air rendition of the happy happy joy joy dance. While his brain was spinning out of control trying to figure out his reaction, his body took over, blinking a few times, before he finally shook his head to throw off the confusion, and smiled widely. “Dude, really?”
Tim nodded, lips curving up so slightly that if Kon hadn’t been looking for it, he never would have noticed the smile. “Yeah, really.”
“Cool.” His brain finally putting forth an excellent suggestion - namely, that he should kiss the ever-lovin’ daylights of his long-time crush - Kon followed up on it, and pulled Robin in with his TTK so that they were both sharing his seat. The other boy stiffened at the first contact - not like that! - and then melted against him, legs settling on either side of his - which gave Kon even more perverted ideas for later - warm lips and soft, wet tongue moving with Kon’s in a dance of mutual lust, hands absently rubbing and stroking across Kon’s shoulders and chest.
Whatever else Kon knew about Tim, now he could safely say, beyond a shadow of a doubt - whatever that meant - that the boy knew how to kiss. If Kon had thought there was going to be a next time, he would have made a note to go for the direct approach. As it was, Kon just settled in for a long, exploratory make-out session.
There were other ‘likes’ of Robin’s that he needed to learn.