[Fic] East of the Sun, 6/11 (Tim/Kon/Cissie)
Title: East of the Sun 6/11
Authors: lady-sarai and zoe-chan
Fandom: DC Comics
Characters: Tim Drake/Kon-El (Conner Kent)/Cissie King-Jones
Rating: PG
Word Count: 20,600... give or take.
Summary: Kon and Cissie learn that Tim has set off on a crazy solo mission to find Bruce--despite the fact that the whole world thinks Batman is dead. They set out to find him, but when they do, he is not as eager to see them as they had expected. They decide to tag along with him--to keep him grounded, and because they think he needs their help. Along the way, the three grow closer and become tied together in unexpected ways.
Authors' Note: Written for polybigbang, which was so fun. Canon-wise, this draws on events from Red Robin 1-3, but because it was started and plotted back in June, it turns AU before the end of Red Robin 3. It is entirely AU from Adventure Comics, sadly, as that did not come out until August. Our dear beta, xenokattz, managed to read and understand it without knowing recent canon, though. Because she is that awesome.
~*~
Kiev, Ukraine
September 4
Kon was dreaming about Hawaii--sun and sand and surf and heat--when he woke up. Or more specifically, was woken. It took him a few sleepy seconds to wake up enough to realize why he was awake. It wasn't Cissie, who was sound asleep, huddled against him under the blankets. And it wasn't even how cold their hotel room was--it was only September, for crying out loud. Kon blinked blearily over Cissie's hair across the room, registering the fact that the other bed was empty at the same time as he realized he was hearing Tim's voice. And someone else's.
"No, not here," Tim said impatiently. "It has to be farther away."
"Well, how far away do you need to be before we can pick you up?"
There was a pause. "Let's say three--no, four--blocks. The plaza near the park."
Kon frowned, but resisted the urge to sit up or get out of bed and go find Tim. He didn't want to wake Cissie and miss whatever was being said. He was pretty sure that this was a conversation he wasn't supposed to be hearing.
"Fine. What time?"
"Twenty minutes."
"You better be there, or we're coming to get you."
"I'll be there." Kon heard Tim's phone click shut, then closed his eyes when he heard the door open, pretending to still be asleep. He listened while Tim almost silently gathered his things from around the hotel room, then let himself out again.
That jerk.
Kon sat up and touched Cissie lightly on the shoulder. "Ciss," he murmured.
She grumbled and frowned sleepily, shrugging his hand away. "Mmph. Sleeping, Kon."
"Ciss, wake up," he said softly, shaking her again. "We need to go get Tim."
"Tim's sleeping," she mumbled, then blinked blearily up at him. "What?"
"Tim's an asshole," he said, smoothing her hair back from her face. "And he's trying to ditch us. We need to go get him, baby."
Cissie looked up at him uncomprehendingly for a second, then frowned and turned her head to look at the other bed. As soon as she saw that it was empty, she sat up. "The jerk! What the Hell? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. I heard him on the phone, then he packed and left. Didn't even leave a freaking note. Asshole."
She blinked and looked around the room again. Her face fell. "He just... left?"
"Yeah." Kon shook his head a little, tugging on a t-shirt. "No way we're letting him get away with that, right?"
Cissie frowned and pulled her knees up to her chest. "Right. I guess." She sighed and shoved a hand through her hair, then moved to get out of bed to grab a sweatshirt or something.
Kon searched around for his pants. "Jerk," he muttered again.
Cissie traded her pajama pants for a pair of jeans and glanced at him. "He really doesn't want us around, does he?"
"I think he's just an asshole," Kon muttered. "I don't know what he wants."
She looked at him while she finished pulling on her shoes, and then stood up and walked around to the other side of the bed, where Kon was tying his sneakers. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and put her chin on his shoulder. "I'm mad too," she whispered.
"Yeah." He sighed and slipped his arms around her waist. "Let's go find the idiot."
She nodded and pulled back enough to give him a quick kiss. "Okay. Let's go."
He tightened his arms around her and floated both of them up and out of the hotel. He took them through the air along the route he knew Tim would have to take to get to the plaza he'd mentioned to his friends over the phone.
And there he was. Running over rooftops toward his goal.
Hn. They'd see about that. Kon set them down just ahead of Tim, smirking a little when he drew up short in surprise.
"You forgot to leave a note, Rob."
Tim scowled at him. "How did you know?" he demanded.
Kon gave him a thin smile and tapped his ear lightly with the hand that wasn't at Cissie's waist. "Did you forget?"
Cissie crossed her arms, frowning deeply. "Do you really not want us around that badly?"
"That's--not it," Tim replied, frowning at her. "I told you before--I'm not good for people these days."
She rolled her eyes and Kon gave a derisive snort. "I'd say running out on us in the middle of the night supports that theory. Who are you meeting?"
His eyes narrowed slightly. "No one you know," he said flatly.
"You're ditching your friends for complete strangers?" Cissie asked, looking at him suspiciously. "Why?"
Tim set his jaw, glancing between the two of them. "You don't want to know these people. Trust me."
"If they're that bad, why are you meeting them?"
"Business associates."
"Oh, bullshit," Kon exploded. "What are you hiding now?"
"Damn it, Kon," Tim snapped. "Did it occur to you that if I'm trying to hide it, it's something that maybe you shouldn't know?"
"If it's something we shouldn't know, maybe it's something you need our help with," Cissie returned sharply.
"I don't need help. I have it under control."
"It didn't sound under control to me," Kon snapped.
"Oh, really?" Tim glared at him. "And how much of my conversation were you listening to?"
"Oh, don't think you can start yelling at me about invading your privacy," Kon said impatiently. "I was sleeping and I woke up. And I'm glad I did. You were just going to run out in the middle of the night! What did you think we'd do when we woke up? Did you even care?"
"I thought you would go home!" Tim snapped. "I thought you'd get pissed at me for leaving you, and go home."
They stared at him incredulously, and Kon made a noise of complete disgust. Cissie stepped toward him, shaking her head. "Are you kidding? Tim, we've spent all summer looking for you and worrying about you and you think you can just disappear in the middle of the night and we're going to just give up and go home because we're pissed off?"
Tim made a frustrated noise. "You don't--fuck."
Kon frowned in confusion for a moment, then he heard three sets of feet land on the rooftop behind them. Instinctively, he turned toward them, grabbing Cissie and putting her behind him--she wasn't wearing armor. She was barely even out of her pajamas.
Cissie stumbled a little, caught off guard by the sudden movement. "What..." She trailed off, staring at the people on the roof behind Kon. She looked back at Tim. "What's going on?"
"This is why I wanted you to go home," he said through his teeth. He strode forward so that he was standing between the newcomers and Cissie and Kon. "What are you doing here?"
"I told you we'd come get you if you didn't show," one of them said as Kon took a step or two to stand next to Tim.
"Who the Hell are you?" Kon demanded, crossing his arms imposingly.
Tim shot him an annoyed look. "Let me handle this," he snapped before turning back toward the others. "I told you I'd be there. You didn't have to come collect me. I'm not one of you."
"Maybe I'd let you handle it if you weren't being such an ass," Kon muttered, glaring at him.
"Shut. Up," Tim hissed through his teeth.
"Hey, we know that," the guy in the front said, spreading his hands wide, as though this were just a casual conversation. "But we can't help but worry when you don't show up where you say you will."
Kon gave a derisive snort but otherwise kept his mouth shut. Cissie moved to stand at Tim's other side, frowning as she looked over Tim's ‘friends'. "What do you want?"
The guy that had spoken before gave her a charming smile. "We just came to pick up Tim."
"Like Hell!" Kon snapped, floating about a foot off the rooftop without realizing it in his irritation. "He's not going anywhere with you."
"You're not helping," Tim snapped irritably.
The guy--apparently the group's spokesperson--grinned a little and glanced at Kon. "That's right. You run along and let the grownups talk."
"Let the--oh, give me a break," Kon growled, turning to Tim. "Are you kidding me? You were ditching us for them? Why?"
"I'm not ditching you," Tim hissed.
"Bull." He glanced at Cissie in disbelief. "What a jackass."
"Superboy! Shut up!"
Cissie gave Tim a long, questioning look. "What is going on?" She cast a wary glace at the others. "What do you mean, you're picking him up? For what? Why?"
The man at the front of the group gave her an amused smile. "You don't need to worry about that, sweetheart."
"You--"
Cissie cut Kon off calmly, not rising to the bait. "Who said I was worried? Maybe I just want to know where we're going."
Tim gritted his teeth. "You're not coming."
"Like Hell," Kon snapped. "If I have to pack you up into a suitcase to keep you from taking off, I will!"
The three newcomers stepped forward almost as one. "You can try," the one woman among them said, raising an eyebrow.
Kon made a noise of disgust and sneered. "Is that supposed to scare us?"
"It should. Do you have any idea who we are?"
"Sure we do, we've only been asking that since you showed up because we like the sounds of our own voices," Kon snapped. "This is fucking ridiculous. Tim, come on. We're leaving and you're coming with us."
"He's really not," the woman said with a thin smile.
Tim's eyes flashed as he glared at her. "I can speak for myself."
Cissie exhaled in a huff and reached out, taking Tim's arm and giving it a tug. "Come on. Let's just go."
He sighed, glancing at the others. "Can you give us a minute?" he gritted out, following Cissie a few steps, and motioning for Kon to join them. He scowled. "Stop this. Go home."
"What do we have to do to get it through to you?" Kon asked, returning the scowl and setting his hands on his hips. "We're not going anywhere."
Cissie nodded, frowning. "Kon's right. Tim, what are you doing? Who are they?"
Tim turned toward Cissie. "When does school start?" he demanded. "Most U.S. school have freshman orientation around now. Shouldn't you be at orientation, instead of stalking me around the globe?"
She stiffened. "I don't have orientation. Stop deflecting."
"Fine. When do classes start, then?"
"Not now," she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. "Who are these people?"
He mirrored the gesture. "That's not important. When does school start, Cissie?"
"It's obviously important or you wouldn't be trying to hard not to tell us!" she argued, ignoring his question.
"League of Assassins," he said shortly. "School, Cissie. I can look it up myself."
"What?!" Kon cried, looking at Tim in shock.
"Why are you working with them?"
Tim made an impatient noise. "That's not the important thing--Cissie's blowing off classes!"
"They're hardly the same thing! And you're working with the League of Assassins! By choice?"
"They offered to help," Tim said through his teeth. "I accepted."
"With what strings?" Kon muttered, shooting a dark look at the other side of the roof.
Cissie followed his gaze before turning back to Tim. "You accepted their help, but you didn't want ours."
"I'm not keeping them out of school," Tim said, looking pointedly at Cissie again. "And no one wanted to help me when I accepted their offer. Damn it, Dick told me to see a psychiatrist!"
"I'm not going to school," Cissie shot back. "And we wanted to help! We never said you needed a psychiatrist!"
Tim blew out a breath. "You didn't want to help then. Or--if you did, I didn't know about it."
"We didn't know!" Cissie exploded. "We didn't know where you were or what you were doing or anything! You just disappeared and no one even told me. Not even Cassie! No one tells me anything anymore. I only knew because Kon came to ask if I knew where you were--because he didn't know either!"
"Excuse me for not leaving a note when I ran away from home!" Tim snapped. "I didn't want to be found!"
Cissie clenched her jaw and looked away, glaring across the roof toward the people waiting for them.
"Yeah. We caught that," Kon said dryly. "When we spent all summer looking for you and then you tried to ditch us in the middle of the night. Look--we're not leaving. If you go with them, or run out on us again or whatever it is you're planning, we'll just follow you. Again."
Tim made a frustrated noise. "Fine," he snapped, turning toward the trio. "I'm staying. I don't need the pickup anymore."
They looked at one another briefly and the leader raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?"
Kon opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, but Cissie elbowed him and shot him a warning look.
"Yes, I'm sure. Tell Ra's I don't need backup anymore." Kon felt a little jolt when he heard the name. He couldn't believe Tim had been working with that psycho.
"If you say so," he said, sounding obviously skeptical. "We'll be in touch." He nodded to the others.
Kon watched and hoped Tim and Cissie appreciated that he waited until Tim's "friends" had left the roof before he said anything. "So does this mean you're coming back to the hotel with us? And we don't have to set up a sleeping schedule so we don't have to worry about you pulling a stunt like that again?"
"Yes, that's what it means," Tim said irritably. "I'm not going to take off."
Cissie pinched the bridge of her nose, looking tired and tense. "All right. Let's just... go back. So we don't finish this conversation out in the open like this."
"Fine," Kon muttered. He took her hand and pulled her into his arms. After a moment's hesitation, he grudgingly reached a hand toward Tim. "You want a ride?" he asked shortly.
"Fine." Tim grabbed Kon's hand, and he flew them back to the hotel, where the balcony door was still opened.
As soon as he landed, Tim let go of his hand and stalked into the hotel room. Cissie sighed and tightened her arms around Kon briefly before letting go and following him in. Kon stood in the doorway for a second, watching them. He pulled the door shut behind him and demanded, "What the Hell was that all about?"
"Which part?" Tim snapped crossly.
"All of it!" Kon shouted.
Cissie raised her voice, talking over him. "You can start with why you were meeting them. Or why you didn't want us to know or come with you."
Tim set his jaw briefly, considering his answer. "They're the people I was traveling with before you found me," he said finally.
Kon crossed the room to sit on the bed with Cissie, crossing his arms. "You're still not telling us everything. Or anything."
"What do you want?" He threw up his hands in frustration. "That's who they were! You already know they're League of Assassins--I told you the on the roof! What more do you want?!"
"We want to know why, Tim! We want you to talk to us instead of brushing us off and trying to run out on us in the middle of the night or trying to make us go home!"
"Fine! I'll talk! What do you want me to say? That I want you to come with me on my crazy quest instead of living normal lives?"
"Yes!"
"When have any of us ever had normal lives anyway?" Cissie asked calmly. She took a deep breath. "Are--are you working with them by choice?"
Tim nodded stiffly. "He offered. I accepted. I knew what I was doing."
"Are you insane?" Kon demanded, throwing his hands up and shoving them through his hair. "What did he offer you? What could possibly--I mean--Ra's al Ghul, Tim!"
"Yes, Kon. I'm completely out of my mind. Thank you for pointing that out." Tim folded his arms tightly across his chest, glaring past them.
Kon growled in frustration and dropped back to lie on the bed, glowering at the ceiling. "Damn it, Tim, I didn't mean it like that!"
"How did you mean it?" he demanded. "Do you have any idea how tired I am of people looking at me like they think I'm crazy? Everyone before I left Gotham. Dick, Damian--let's pretend I care for a moment--Stephanie, Cassie. I'm not crazy."
"We don't think you're crazy," Kon snapped, still lying on his back and talking to the ceiling. "Not like crazy-crazy. Just like... Ra's al Ghul, Tim! Ra's is crazy! He's an insane, evil madman and he--how many times has he tried to kill you? And you're just... working with him now?"
Cissie reached over and put her hand on Kon's knee. "Stop it," she said sternly. "Tim, we don't think you're crazy. We've told you that. We just don't understand."
"I don't know how to explain," Tim replied, frustrated. "I was alone. He offered to help. I accepted."
"But why did you accept?" Kon asked, sitting up. "I mean, what? Was it one of those offers you couldn't actually say no to?"
Tim eyed him, frowning. "What part of ‘I was alone' was unclear?"
"I--" Kon blinked at him and frowned. He didn't know what to say to that. It was one thing to know that Tim had been alone while he and Cissie were running all over looking for him, and another thing to know what that meant. "I'm sorry. You're not alone now?" he offered uncertainly.
He blew out a sigh, looking back at him. "No. I guess I'm not."
Cissie looked down at her lap for a moment. When she looked back up, she asked quietly, "Did you want to go with them tonight?"
He frowned at the wall behind her. "I wanted for the two of you to be able to go back to your lives. I thought that if I was gone, you'd be able to do that."
She shook her head. "If you were gone, we would have worried. We wouldn't have gone home."
"We're a little stubborn," Kon pointed out, smiling wryly. "If you hadn't noticed."
"I got that vibe." He sighed, scrubbing at his face. "I'm sorry. I just--sorry."
Kon shrugged. "Promise not to pull a stunt like that on us again?"
Cissie elbowed him and shot him a brief glare. "It's okay. We're just--here, you know? Because we want to be."
"I know. I wish you didn't want to be--not because I don't want you here," he added quickly when Kon started to scowl. "I like having the company. But I think you'd be happier at home."
"We think you'd be happier at home," Kon replied, shrugging. "But we're not going to try to make you go back. Not before you want to. So can you stop trying to make us go back without you?"
"Fine." He gave them a small smile. "Wouldn't do much good anyway."
"Nope," Kon said with a grin. Next to him, Cissie gave a small laugh.
"So--we're okay?" she asked.
Tim hesitated a moment, then nodded, glancing at Kon. "We are, right?"
He took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah. We are."
Part 7: Kiev, Ukraine, con't