[Fic] Feels Like Home (Tim/Kon/Cissie)
And finally! My DOOM fic!
Title: Feels Like Home
Pairing/Characters: Tim Drake/Kon-El/Cissie King-Jones; also featuring Tam Fox, Clark Kent, Bonnie King-Jones
Recipient: museofspeed
Holiday Well-wishes: Er, Happy New Year, late! Happy Sunday?
Rating: PG
Word count: 3900!
Summary: 10 times Tim, Kon and Cissie are reminded of home.
Author's Note/Warnings: This is East of the Sun!verse future-fic, but for the most part, works on its own.
Beta: zoe_chan
Favorite edible plant matter: Pomegranates!
i.
Kon was tired. Not just a little tired, but exhausted. The kind of exhausted where he didn't even bother arguing with Clark and Ma about staying at the Kent farm instead of going home, because he knew if he tried flying he would probably fall asleep in the sky (and that's really only something you have to do once before you never want to do it again). He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow on his old bed.
He had no idea how long he had been asleep, but he woke with a jolt. It didn't take him half a second to figure out what had woken him--someone was screaming. No. Not just someone.
Cissie.
He was out of bed, across the room and down the stairs before he remembered that he was in Smallville and Cissie was at home in Gotham, probably sound asleep in bed with Tim. He came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the living room, blinking stupidly at the television.
"Uh, Kon?" Kara asked from her seat on the couch, looking at him in concern. "Are you all right?"
He blinked a few more times, letting his heart rate drop back to something close to normal. "Uh. Yeah. That's--I heard--Cissie," he finished lamely, gesturing vaguely at the television.
Kara glanced at it and winced, watching a younger Cissie scream and shoot silver-tipped arrows at a Hollywood werewolf. "Oh. I'm sorry. I just couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd watch some tv and Wendy was on..." She trailed off, looking at him. "I didn't mean to wake you. I can turn the volume down if you want."
Kon dropped onto the couch next to her and scrubbed at his face, his initial panic subsiding. "It's fine. Mind some company?"
She laughed. "Only if you don't quote the whole episode at me."
Kon threw a pillow at her. "Hey, be quiet. I'm trying to watch my girl on tv."
ii.
"That's it. I quit. For real this time."
Tim blew out a breath, resisting the urge to cover his eyes. "Tam--"
"No, I mean it," she interrupted, continuing in the slightly high-pitched, rapid-fire pace that meant she was close to panic. "I quit. I am never going on another business trip with you, and when we get back to Gotham, I want quadruple-paned ninja-proof windows in my office and I swear to God if I see a spider--"
"You're still not over the spiders?" he asked, glancing at her.
She smacked him upside the head. "Of course I'm not over the damn spiders! We were attacked by Shelob, for crying out loud!"
Tim rubbed the back of his head and couldn't help smiling. "I think it was more of a man-spider than a giant spider."
"I'll show you a man-spider," Tam grumbled furiously under her breath.
Tim smiled absently and continued picking the lock while she muttered behind him. He very nearly had it until Tam cried out behind him and he dropped his lock pick in surprise. "Tam?" he asked, turning toward her in the dark.
"I'm fine," she muttered peevishly. "My arm hit something sharp, that's all."
Tim frowned, and reached into his belt. "Let me look." He pulled a tiny flashlight out and directed the light at her arm. He frowned and began digging through the compartments in his belt again until he found a bandage. "You're bleeding. Here," he said, handing it to her.
Tam looked down at his hand and smiled. "Is that a Superman band-aid?"
Tim looked and gave a startled laugh. "I think Kon's been messing with my supplies again."
"Uh huh, I'm sure that's it," she said, grinning as she took it from him. "When we get out of here, I want to be there when you tell him and Cissie that you got us attacked and locked in a basement. Again."
Tim groaned and found the lock pick, turning his attention back to the door. That was not a conversation he was looking forward to.
iii.
Cissie was exhausted. She let herself into her hotel room and wanted nothing more than to shower and fall into bed. I'm getting too old for this, she thought, which she knew was ridiculous. She was twenty-three. These were the Olympics. She had worked hard to get here, and she was still one of the younger members of the team, despite this being her third time. But the jet lag was definitely setting in, and the fun stuff hadn't even started yet. They were still stuck in pre-games qualifiers and trainings and press conferences and running around and jumping through hoops. She wasn't thrilled with her shooting today, but she had a longer practice session scheduled for tomorrow and that would at least give her a chance to figure out how to compensate for the things that had thrown her off today. She just needed to get her act together by Thursday when they shot for placements. Then Friday was the Opening Ceremony, and things would improve. She hoped.
She dropped her gear next to her bed and took care of her bow before grabbing her suitcase to find her pajamas. The ones she had worn last night were fine, but not warm enough. She frowned, digging through her things. She knew she had packed something warmer. Or she was pretty sure. She thought she had packed the pink flannel nightgown that Aunt Martha had given her last Christmas, but she couldn't find it. Shoving aside a sweatshirt, Cissie reached the bottom of her suitcase and scowled. Then she noticed something odd, and reached to pull out... a pair of Tim's flannel pajama pants. And under them was one of Kon's old black and red S shirts.
Cissie sat on the bed and held the pants and shirt in her lap, smiling. She had no idea which one of them had done this, but she hugged them to her and buried her face in the fabrics, breathing in. She glanced at the clock, mentally calculating the time difference between here and Gotham.
She reached for her cell phone; taking a shower and falling into bed could wait.
iv.
Tim hunched his shoulders, trying to block out the biting winds and snow. He narrowed his eyes--even with the lenses, the cold was making them sting--and watched the warehouse, waiting for his cue. Dick and Damian should be inside any minute now. He couldn't help feeling peevish that they were inside out of the blizzard, even though he knew it was to drive the people they were really after out to where he and Bruce waited.
Bruce was a statue a few feet away. The cold didn't seem to be affecting him, though he knew it had to be. Tim could barely keep his shivering under control, even with the protection his suit provided. All he wanted was to finish this up so he could go home and take a hot shower and crawl into bed with Kon and Cissie. Kon was like their own personal space heater or electric blanket, and even if Kon wasn't home yet--which would be highly unusual--Cissie would have been asleep long enough to warm up the bed.
All he had to do was get through another hour or two, and he could go home to bed. He wondered if they might even take pity on his poor frozen self and let him sleep in the middle.
A man could dream.
v.
Cissie was used to falling asleep by herself, but she wasn't used to waking up in the middle of the night and finding herself completely alone. For the most part, Kon's patrols ended earlier than Tim's, so one of them was usually with her by midnight. When they weren't, she knew Something Big was happening and then had to debate whether or not watching CNN to find out what was going on was a good idea or not. (It usually was not.)
So it should not have surprised her that when she traveled for competitions, it wasn't falling asleep alone in a strange hotel bed that gave her problems. The problem was staying asleep, and then going back to sleep once she was awake.
She woke up one night in New Zealand and blinked into the dark, empty room. She had a moment of disorientation, wondering where she was and where Tim and Kon were before she remembered that it wasn't that they weren't home--she was the one not at home. She spent about half an hour trying to go back to sleep before giving up and reaching for the television remote.
Cissie rolled onto her side and let her eyes adjust to the blue glow from the television before she started flipping through the channels. At home, she might have put on the Science channel or Food Network, or even TV Land for mindless late night distractions, but she didn't recognize anything here and she really didn't know what she was looking for. Not being able to even find something familiar to distract herself with was making her even more homesick.
She finally stopped channel surfing when she stumbled across something with a car chase. She watched for a minute before she smiled a little--she did know this movie. It was one of Tim and Kon's ridiculous action movies with fast cars and explosions. Normally she did everything she could to avoid watching them, but right now... Cissie set the remote back on the nightstand and settled in to watch.
vi.
Kon lay on his back, staring up into the night sky. He looked up, searching for any familiar stars or constellations. Tim liked astronomy, and Cissie liked the mythology behind the constellations. The last time they had gone to Smallville, the three of them had spent an hour or two lying on the roof of the barn, pointing out constellations and telling the stories to one another. He couldn't even remember why they had been doing that, but now all he wanted was to spot just one familiar star.
He hated being here, so far from Earth and them. But he couldn't say no when Clark asked him for his help. He couldn't just ignore something like this and let other people save the universe if he could do something. But three weeks was a long time to be gone, and now that the crisis was over and all was said and done, he just wanted to leave.
The air stirred and Kon turned his head to see Clark approaching him. He looked back to the sky, waving a hand idly in greeting. "Hey, Kal."
"Kon." Clark hovered next to him, watching him. "What are you doing out here?"
Kon shrugged and sat up, crossing his legs under him. "Just--looking at the stars."
Clark looked up, a strange expression crossing his face. "They're very different here, aren't they?"
Kon nodded and gave a small sigh. "We're too far away to even be looking at the same stars, aren't we?"
Clark reached over and gripped his shoulder. "We're leaving tomorrow," he promised.
Kon nodded and looked up at the sky again. "Good."
vii.
Cissie held another box shut and secured it with packing tape. Grabbing a permanent marker, she scrawled "Kitchen--dishes" on top and carried it into the living room, adding it to the stack of boxes against the front wall. "Kitchen's almost done," she announced.
"That's great. Thanks," Bonnie replied, distracted. Cissie shook her head and reached for another empty box, planning to go back to the kitchen to finish packing the cupboards. Instead, her mother waved a hand at her and said, "Come look at this."
Cissie crossed the living room to where her mother was sitting and paging through an old leather-bound book. "What's that?"
Bonnie held it out to her and Cissie sat, taking the book in her lap. She paged through it, a small smile crossing her face. "This is my baby book," she said, reading the statistics--she was seven pounds, two ounces and twenty-one inches long. "Why haven't I seen this before?"
Bonnie shrugged, turning the page so it opened to a picture of her father holding her. Cissie's heart stuck in her throat while her mother spoke. "I didn't know where I'd put it. I... didn't want to see pictures of him," she confessed. Cissie looked up, surprised. Her mother never talked about her father--and certainly never about what happened after he died. But Bonnie looked at her and continued, "I shouldn't have put these things away."
Cissie didn't know what to say to that, or how to take this. "It's all right."
"Not really." Bonnie touched the photo on the page in Cissie's lap. "He loved you very much, you know."
"I know," Cissie replied quietly. That was one thing she had never wondered.
Bonnie nodded again and pulled her hand back. She grabbed her beer from the coffee table and took a long drink. "So when are you three going to get going and give me grandchildren?"
Cissie blinked and gave a startled laugh. "What?"
Her mother shrugged. "Well. We're talking about how much I screwed up with you--"
"We are not."
"Yes, we are. And about how much Bowstring loved you. And you know those boys of yours would fawn all over a baby girl, so when is my baby girl going to give me a grandbaby to spoil?"
Cissie laughed and looked down at the picture of her and her father, the day she was born. She imagined Tim and Kon with a baby--with their baby--and all she could do was smile.
viii.
Tim grimaced, pulling the needle through his side, stitching the gash shut. It wasn't a particularly big gash, but it was deep enough that stitches were the safest option. He might have let it go, but it was easier to take ten minutes and drag out his suture kit than it would be to deal with a possible infection later.
A possible infection, and endless lectures from Cissie and Kon when he got home. Well, lectures and glowering from Cissie and concerned looks and hovering from Kon. Tim blew his hair out of his eyes, tying off the thread. He would almost rather go home and let Cissie do this, but he had been handling his own first aid for years now. Besides, he couldn't go home yet. He wasn't done here. And Cissie would worry even if she did all the stitching herself.
He finished dressing the wound, covering his new stitches with gauze and medical tape. Tim was irritable. He was going to need to spend some time repairing his suit now, which would eat into his surveillance time. And if he couldn't start his stake-out when he wanted to, he would have to stay out later, which would lead to less sleep. And he wasn't so sure he was going to get much of that anyway. All he wanted right now was to bust this bastard and go back to Gotham, where Cissie would fret and Kon would hover, even though all that had happened was a small cut in his side.
All that had happened tonight, anyway. He had a feeling the gash in his side was going to get less of a reaction than yesterday's cracked ribs and dislocated shoulder.
ix.
The picture drew Kon's attention. He was holding up the roof of a building so the earthquake victims could get out before it collapsed on them, when the front page of a local newspaper fluttered to the floor in front of him. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have paid any attention to it. It wasn't even in English. He could do a lot of things, but read Japanese was not one of them.
Pictures were universal though, and seeing Tim's face on a newspaper in a collapsing building in a Japanese village after an earthquake was not something he had expected.
He didn't have time to think much about it, because he needed all of his focus on his TTK and the building. It wasn't long before the last of the victims were out and he could let the building fall in on itself--gently, so it didn't cause more damage to the surrounding buildings.
It was hours later that he had a chance to think about it again. He saw another newspaper in the street and he bent to pick it up. He squinted at it, as if narrowing his eyes would help him suddenly understand a foreign language. He smiled a little. Tim was wearing a suit and looking very serious; he had a feeling the article had something to do with Wayne Enterprises. Before he had left to deal with the earthquake, he knew Tim had been talking about a buyout of some kind. Buyouts weren't ordinarily Tim's style, but when the business being bought was one of Luthor's, well.
Kon folded the newspaper and stuck it in his pocket, grinning. He would have to bring it home and have Tim translate it for him.
x.
Cissie slipped out of the hotel room while Tim and Kon slept. She went out onto the balcony and sat on the cold floor, drawing her knees to her chest. She couldn't sleep. She looked up at the sky, picking out the constellations, just to give herself something to do. Her eyes stung and she swallowed around the lump in her throat.
She hated feeling this way. She should be excited. She should be thrilled. She knew she should. She had been pretending all day, and she had no idea how she had managed to keep Tim and Kon from noticing that she was faking it, except that they were both so happy. And there was no reason not to be, so why would they think she wasn't?
Bruce was alive. Tim had been right all along. They were going home. No more crappy hotels, no more continental breakfasts, no more living out of suitcases, struggling with foreign etiquette, wrestling with conversion rates. No more dead ends or false leads, or crushing disappointments. They could go home. They could spend more than a few nights in the same place. They could eat familiar foods and replace shoelaces without hitting a language barrier.
So why did the idea of going home make Cissie want to break down and cry?
She had no idea how long she had been sitting on the balcony when the door slid open and Tim came out of the hotel room. He gave her a tired smile. "Hey. What're you doing out here?"
She shrugged, her voice stuck somewhere past the lump in her throat. "Couldn't sleep," she managed.
Tim reached out and pushed her hair behind her ear, kneeling next to her. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Cissie muttered thickly, but just his fingers in her hair and the concerned tone in his voice broke through her tenuous control and she was crying. She wiped at her eyes furiously, angry at herself.
"Cissie..." Tim sat next to her and put his arms around her, rubbing her back. "Talk to me."
She hugged him, holding him tightly. Squeezing her eyes shut, she just held on, unable to stop crying now that she had started.
"Hey." Kon came onto the balcony and sat on Cissie's other side, putting his hand on her back. "What's going on?"
Tim shrugged and Cissie dragged in a deep breath. "I didn't mean to wake you," she muttered, apologizing to both of them. She pulled away, wiping at her face. "I'm sorry."
Tim kept his hand on her back and kissed her hair. "Did you think we wouldn't notice you weren't in bed?"
She smiled a little and shrugged. "I wasn't going to sleep out here."
"Good," Kon said, putting an arm around her. "Because then you'd have cold feet when you came back to bed and you know Tim whines about that."
Tim gave a solemn nod and Cissie couldn't help laughing--except that laugh turned into a sob and she started crying again.
"Hey, I was kidding," Kon said quickly, sounding alarmed. "Tim won't care about your feet being cold."
"Kon's right," Tim said, a bit calmer. "But we do want to know what's wrong. Something's been bothering you."
Cissie leaned her head on Tim's shoulder and shrugged. "It's stupid," she muttered. "I'm sorry."
"If it's bothering you, it isn't stupid."
"Yes, it is," she exploded, frustrated. "I shouldn't be upset! I should be happy! Everyone else is!"
Tim and Kon exchanged a look. "Happy about what?" Kon asked.
"Going home," Cissie bit out. She pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them. "Damn it."
"You don't want to go home?" Kon asked, surprised, at the same time Tim let out a quiet "oh."
Cissie didn't answer, but instead curled up into herself. Tim stroked her hair, smoothing it down her back. "We'll be going home to different places," he said quietly. "Is that it?"
Kon exhaled in understanding, and his hand stilled on Cissie's back. She sat up and scrubbed at her face. "I don't--I'm sorry," she said miserably. She turned her head to look at Tim. "I just--I've gotten used to the way things are," she explained quietly. "I like being together. We're always together. I don't... We're not going to be together when we go home."
No one said anything for a few seconds, until Kon spoke up. "Yes, we will."
They both turned to look at him. Cissie seemed skeptical and Tim interested, so Kon shrugged. "Maybe we won't sleep in the same bed every night, but that doesn't mean that has to last forever. People manage long-distance relationships all the time." He smirked. "And they can't fly."
Tim laughed, smiling fondly at him. "He has a point. And we'll be able to visit each other."
Cissie looked down, drawing a shaky breath. "I just... I'm afraid," she whispered. "I don't--I can't lose you two."
"Oh, Cissie." Tim pulled her into a tight hug, kissing her neck. Kon wrapped his arms around her from behind, trapping her between them in a group hug. "We're not going anywhere. You're not going to lose us."
"Damn straight," Kon agreed, resting his chin on her shoulder. "You're stuck with us. Even if we're not together in the same room."
She closed her eyes, memorizing this moment, loving them both so much. She swallowed past the lump in her throat and tried to tease them. "Are you going to say you'll be in my heart?"
Tim breathed out a laugh, but Kon nodded. "We will. And you'll be in ours."
"You are such a sap," Tim said affectionately.
"I love you. Both of you," Cissie said suddenly, feeling the need to say it.
"We know."
"We love you too." Kon kissed her throat. "Can we go back inside now? Make the most of our time before we get home?"
Cissie nodded, and when they had disentangled from one another, she let them pull her to her feet and followed them back into the hotel room. Things were going to be different when they went home. But maybe they would be okay, even if they weren't together.
Title: Feels Like Home
Pairing/Characters: Tim Drake/Kon-El/Cissie King-Jones; also featuring Tam Fox, Clark Kent, Bonnie King-Jones
Recipient: museofspeed
Holiday Well-wishes: Er, Happy New Year, late! Happy Sunday?
Rating: PG
Word count: 3900!
Summary: 10 times Tim, Kon and Cissie are reminded of home.
Author's Note/Warnings: This is East of the Sun!verse future-fic, but for the most part, works on its own.
Beta: zoe_chan
Favorite edible plant matter: Pomegranates!
i.
Kon was tired. Not just a little tired, but exhausted. The kind of exhausted where he didn't even bother arguing with Clark and Ma about staying at the Kent farm instead of going home, because he knew if he tried flying he would probably fall asleep in the sky (and that's really only something you have to do once before you never want to do it again). He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow on his old bed.
He had no idea how long he had been asleep, but he woke with a jolt. It didn't take him half a second to figure out what had woken him--someone was screaming. No. Not just someone.
Cissie.
He was out of bed, across the room and down the stairs before he remembered that he was in Smallville and Cissie was at home in Gotham, probably sound asleep in bed with Tim. He came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the living room, blinking stupidly at the television.
"Uh, Kon?" Kara asked from her seat on the couch, looking at him in concern. "Are you all right?"
He blinked a few more times, letting his heart rate drop back to something close to normal. "Uh. Yeah. That's--I heard--Cissie," he finished lamely, gesturing vaguely at the television.
Kara glanced at it and winced, watching a younger Cissie scream and shoot silver-tipped arrows at a Hollywood werewolf. "Oh. I'm sorry. I just couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd watch some tv and Wendy was on..." She trailed off, looking at him. "I didn't mean to wake you. I can turn the volume down if you want."
Kon dropped onto the couch next to her and scrubbed at his face, his initial panic subsiding. "It's fine. Mind some company?"
She laughed. "Only if you don't quote the whole episode at me."
Kon threw a pillow at her. "Hey, be quiet. I'm trying to watch my girl on tv."
ii.
"That's it. I quit. For real this time."
Tim blew out a breath, resisting the urge to cover his eyes. "Tam--"
"No, I mean it," she interrupted, continuing in the slightly high-pitched, rapid-fire pace that meant she was close to panic. "I quit. I am never going on another business trip with you, and when we get back to Gotham, I want quadruple-paned ninja-proof windows in my office and I swear to God if I see a spider--"
"You're still not over the spiders?" he asked, glancing at her.
She smacked him upside the head. "Of course I'm not over the damn spiders! We were attacked by Shelob, for crying out loud!"
Tim rubbed the back of his head and couldn't help smiling. "I think it was more of a man-spider than a giant spider."
"I'll show you a man-spider," Tam grumbled furiously under her breath.
Tim smiled absently and continued picking the lock while she muttered behind him. He very nearly had it until Tam cried out behind him and he dropped his lock pick in surprise. "Tam?" he asked, turning toward her in the dark.
"I'm fine," she muttered peevishly. "My arm hit something sharp, that's all."
Tim frowned, and reached into his belt. "Let me look." He pulled a tiny flashlight out and directed the light at her arm. He frowned and began digging through the compartments in his belt again until he found a bandage. "You're bleeding. Here," he said, handing it to her.
Tam looked down at his hand and smiled. "Is that a Superman band-aid?"
Tim looked and gave a startled laugh. "I think Kon's been messing with my supplies again."
"Uh huh, I'm sure that's it," she said, grinning as she took it from him. "When we get out of here, I want to be there when you tell him and Cissie that you got us attacked and locked in a basement. Again."
Tim groaned and found the lock pick, turning his attention back to the door. That was not a conversation he was looking forward to.
iii.
Cissie was exhausted. She let herself into her hotel room and wanted nothing more than to shower and fall into bed. I'm getting too old for this, she thought, which she knew was ridiculous. She was twenty-three. These were the Olympics. She had worked hard to get here, and she was still one of the younger members of the team, despite this being her third time. But the jet lag was definitely setting in, and the fun stuff hadn't even started yet. They were still stuck in pre-games qualifiers and trainings and press conferences and running around and jumping through hoops. She wasn't thrilled with her shooting today, but she had a longer practice session scheduled for tomorrow and that would at least give her a chance to figure out how to compensate for the things that had thrown her off today. She just needed to get her act together by Thursday when they shot for placements. Then Friday was the Opening Ceremony, and things would improve. She hoped.
She dropped her gear next to her bed and took care of her bow before grabbing her suitcase to find her pajamas. The ones she had worn last night were fine, but not warm enough. She frowned, digging through her things. She knew she had packed something warmer. Or she was pretty sure. She thought she had packed the pink flannel nightgown that Aunt Martha had given her last Christmas, but she couldn't find it. Shoving aside a sweatshirt, Cissie reached the bottom of her suitcase and scowled. Then she noticed something odd, and reached to pull out... a pair of Tim's flannel pajama pants. And under them was one of Kon's old black and red S shirts.
Cissie sat on the bed and held the pants and shirt in her lap, smiling. She had no idea which one of them had done this, but she hugged them to her and buried her face in the fabrics, breathing in. She glanced at the clock, mentally calculating the time difference between here and Gotham.
She reached for her cell phone; taking a shower and falling into bed could wait.
iv.
Tim hunched his shoulders, trying to block out the biting winds and snow. He narrowed his eyes--even with the lenses, the cold was making them sting--and watched the warehouse, waiting for his cue. Dick and Damian should be inside any minute now. He couldn't help feeling peevish that they were inside out of the blizzard, even though he knew it was to drive the people they were really after out to where he and Bruce waited.
Bruce was a statue a few feet away. The cold didn't seem to be affecting him, though he knew it had to be. Tim could barely keep his shivering under control, even with the protection his suit provided. All he wanted was to finish this up so he could go home and take a hot shower and crawl into bed with Kon and Cissie. Kon was like their own personal space heater or electric blanket, and even if Kon wasn't home yet--which would be highly unusual--Cissie would have been asleep long enough to warm up the bed.
All he had to do was get through another hour or two, and he could go home to bed. He wondered if they might even take pity on his poor frozen self and let him sleep in the middle.
A man could dream.
v.
Cissie was used to falling asleep by herself, but she wasn't used to waking up in the middle of the night and finding herself completely alone. For the most part, Kon's patrols ended earlier than Tim's, so one of them was usually with her by midnight. When they weren't, she knew Something Big was happening and then had to debate whether or not watching CNN to find out what was going on was a good idea or not. (It usually was not.)
So it should not have surprised her that when she traveled for competitions, it wasn't falling asleep alone in a strange hotel bed that gave her problems. The problem was staying asleep, and then going back to sleep once she was awake.
She woke up one night in New Zealand and blinked into the dark, empty room. She had a moment of disorientation, wondering where she was and where Tim and Kon were before she remembered that it wasn't that they weren't home--she was the one not at home. She spent about half an hour trying to go back to sleep before giving up and reaching for the television remote.
Cissie rolled onto her side and let her eyes adjust to the blue glow from the television before she started flipping through the channels. At home, she might have put on the Science channel or Food Network, or even TV Land for mindless late night distractions, but she didn't recognize anything here and she really didn't know what she was looking for. Not being able to even find something familiar to distract herself with was making her even more homesick.
She finally stopped channel surfing when she stumbled across something with a car chase. She watched for a minute before she smiled a little--she did know this movie. It was one of Tim and Kon's ridiculous action movies with fast cars and explosions. Normally she did everything she could to avoid watching them, but right now... Cissie set the remote back on the nightstand and settled in to watch.
vi.
Kon lay on his back, staring up into the night sky. He looked up, searching for any familiar stars or constellations. Tim liked astronomy, and Cissie liked the mythology behind the constellations. The last time they had gone to Smallville, the three of them had spent an hour or two lying on the roof of the barn, pointing out constellations and telling the stories to one another. He couldn't even remember why they had been doing that, but now all he wanted was to spot just one familiar star.
He hated being here, so far from Earth and them. But he couldn't say no when Clark asked him for his help. He couldn't just ignore something like this and let other people save the universe if he could do something. But three weeks was a long time to be gone, and now that the crisis was over and all was said and done, he just wanted to leave.
The air stirred and Kon turned his head to see Clark approaching him. He looked back to the sky, waving a hand idly in greeting. "Hey, Kal."
"Kon." Clark hovered next to him, watching him. "What are you doing out here?"
Kon shrugged and sat up, crossing his legs under him. "Just--looking at the stars."
Clark looked up, a strange expression crossing his face. "They're very different here, aren't they?"
Kon nodded and gave a small sigh. "We're too far away to even be looking at the same stars, aren't we?"
Clark reached over and gripped his shoulder. "We're leaving tomorrow," he promised.
Kon nodded and looked up at the sky again. "Good."
vii.
Cissie held another box shut and secured it with packing tape. Grabbing a permanent marker, she scrawled "Kitchen--dishes" on top and carried it into the living room, adding it to the stack of boxes against the front wall. "Kitchen's almost done," she announced.
"That's great. Thanks," Bonnie replied, distracted. Cissie shook her head and reached for another empty box, planning to go back to the kitchen to finish packing the cupboards. Instead, her mother waved a hand at her and said, "Come look at this."
Cissie crossed the living room to where her mother was sitting and paging through an old leather-bound book. "What's that?"
Bonnie held it out to her and Cissie sat, taking the book in her lap. She paged through it, a small smile crossing her face. "This is my baby book," she said, reading the statistics--she was seven pounds, two ounces and twenty-one inches long. "Why haven't I seen this before?"
Bonnie shrugged, turning the page so it opened to a picture of her father holding her. Cissie's heart stuck in her throat while her mother spoke. "I didn't know where I'd put it. I... didn't want to see pictures of him," she confessed. Cissie looked up, surprised. Her mother never talked about her father--and certainly never about what happened after he died. But Bonnie looked at her and continued, "I shouldn't have put these things away."
Cissie didn't know what to say to that, or how to take this. "It's all right."
"Not really." Bonnie touched the photo on the page in Cissie's lap. "He loved you very much, you know."
"I know," Cissie replied quietly. That was one thing she had never wondered.
Bonnie nodded again and pulled her hand back. She grabbed her beer from the coffee table and took a long drink. "So when are you three going to get going and give me grandchildren?"
Cissie blinked and gave a startled laugh. "What?"
Her mother shrugged. "Well. We're talking about how much I screwed up with you--"
"We are not."
"Yes, we are. And about how much Bowstring loved you. And you know those boys of yours would fawn all over a baby girl, so when is my baby girl going to give me a grandbaby to spoil?"
Cissie laughed and looked down at the picture of her and her father, the day she was born. She imagined Tim and Kon with a baby--with their baby--and all she could do was smile.
viii.
Tim grimaced, pulling the needle through his side, stitching the gash shut. It wasn't a particularly big gash, but it was deep enough that stitches were the safest option. He might have let it go, but it was easier to take ten minutes and drag out his suture kit than it would be to deal with a possible infection later.
A possible infection, and endless lectures from Cissie and Kon when he got home. Well, lectures and glowering from Cissie and concerned looks and hovering from Kon. Tim blew his hair out of his eyes, tying off the thread. He would almost rather go home and let Cissie do this, but he had been handling his own first aid for years now. Besides, he couldn't go home yet. He wasn't done here. And Cissie would worry even if she did all the stitching herself.
He finished dressing the wound, covering his new stitches with gauze and medical tape. Tim was irritable. He was going to need to spend some time repairing his suit now, which would eat into his surveillance time. And if he couldn't start his stake-out when he wanted to, he would have to stay out later, which would lead to less sleep. And he wasn't so sure he was going to get much of that anyway. All he wanted right now was to bust this bastard and go back to Gotham, where Cissie would fret and Kon would hover, even though all that had happened was a small cut in his side.
All that had happened tonight, anyway. He had a feeling the gash in his side was going to get less of a reaction than yesterday's cracked ribs and dislocated shoulder.
ix.
The picture drew Kon's attention. He was holding up the roof of a building so the earthquake victims could get out before it collapsed on them, when the front page of a local newspaper fluttered to the floor in front of him. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have paid any attention to it. It wasn't even in English. He could do a lot of things, but read Japanese was not one of them.
Pictures were universal though, and seeing Tim's face on a newspaper in a collapsing building in a Japanese village after an earthquake was not something he had expected.
He didn't have time to think much about it, because he needed all of his focus on his TTK and the building. It wasn't long before the last of the victims were out and he could let the building fall in on itself--gently, so it didn't cause more damage to the surrounding buildings.
It was hours later that he had a chance to think about it again. He saw another newspaper in the street and he bent to pick it up. He squinted at it, as if narrowing his eyes would help him suddenly understand a foreign language. He smiled a little. Tim was wearing a suit and looking very serious; he had a feeling the article had something to do with Wayne Enterprises. Before he had left to deal with the earthquake, he knew Tim had been talking about a buyout of some kind. Buyouts weren't ordinarily Tim's style, but when the business being bought was one of Luthor's, well.
Kon folded the newspaper and stuck it in his pocket, grinning. He would have to bring it home and have Tim translate it for him.
x.
Cissie slipped out of the hotel room while Tim and Kon slept. She went out onto the balcony and sat on the cold floor, drawing her knees to her chest. She couldn't sleep. She looked up at the sky, picking out the constellations, just to give herself something to do. Her eyes stung and she swallowed around the lump in her throat.
She hated feeling this way. She should be excited. She should be thrilled. She knew she should. She had been pretending all day, and she had no idea how she had managed to keep Tim and Kon from noticing that she was faking it, except that they were both so happy. And there was no reason not to be, so why would they think she wasn't?
Bruce was alive. Tim had been right all along. They were going home. No more crappy hotels, no more continental breakfasts, no more living out of suitcases, struggling with foreign etiquette, wrestling with conversion rates. No more dead ends or false leads, or crushing disappointments. They could go home. They could spend more than a few nights in the same place. They could eat familiar foods and replace shoelaces without hitting a language barrier.
So why did the idea of going home make Cissie want to break down and cry?
She had no idea how long she had been sitting on the balcony when the door slid open and Tim came out of the hotel room. He gave her a tired smile. "Hey. What're you doing out here?"
She shrugged, her voice stuck somewhere past the lump in her throat. "Couldn't sleep," she managed.
Tim reached out and pushed her hair behind her ear, kneeling next to her. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Cissie muttered thickly, but just his fingers in her hair and the concerned tone in his voice broke through her tenuous control and she was crying. She wiped at her eyes furiously, angry at herself.
"Cissie..." Tim sat next to her and put his arms around her, rubbing her back. "Talk to me."
She hugged him, holding him tightly. Squeezing her eyes shut, she just held on, unable to stop crying now that she had started.
"Hey." Kon came onto the balcony and sat on Cissie's other side, putting his hand on her back. "What's going on?"
Tim shrugged and Cissie dragged in a deep breath. "I didn't mean to wake you," she muttered, apologizing to both of them. She pulled away, wiping at her face. "I'm sorry."
Tim kept his hand on her back and kissed her hair. "Did you think we wouldn't notice you weren't in bed?"
She smiled a little and shrugged. "I wasn't going to sleep out here."
"Good," Kon said, putting an arm around her. "Because then you'd have cold feet when you came back to bed and you know Tim whines about that."
Tim gave a solemn nod and Cissie couldn't help laughing--except that laugh turned into a sob and she started crying again.
"Hey, I was kidding," Kon said quickly, sounding alarmed. "Tim won't care about your feet being cold."
"Kon's right," Tim said, a bit calmer. "But we do want to know what's wrong. Something's been bothering you."
Cissie leaned her head on Tim's shoulder and shrugged. "It's stupid," she muttered. "I'm sorry."
"If it's bothering you, it isn't stupid."
"Yes, it is," she exploded, frustrated. "I shouldn't be upset! I should be happy! Everyone else is!"
Tim and Kon exchanged a look. "Happy about what?" Kon asked.
"Going home," Cissie bit out. She pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them. "Damn it."
"You don't want to go home?" Kon asked, surprised, at the same time Tim let out a quiet "oh."
Cissie didn't answer, but instead curled up into herself. Tim stroked her hair, smoothing it down her back. "We'll be going home to different places," he said quietly. "Is that it?"
Kon exhaled in understanding, and his hand stilled on Cissie's back. She sat up and scrubbed at her face. "I don't--I'm sorry," she said miserably. She turned her head to look at Tim. "I just--I've gotten used to the way things are," she explained quietly. "I like being together. We're always together. I don't... We're not going to be together when we go home."
No one said anything for a few seconds, until Kon spoke up. "Yes, we will."
They both turned to look at him. Cissie seemed skeptical and Tim interested, so Kon shrugged. "Maybe we won't sleep in the same bed every night, but that doesn't mean that has to last forever. People manage long-distance relationships all the time." He smirked. "And they can't fly."
Tim laughed, smiling fondly at him. "He has a point. And we'll be able to visit each other."
Cissie looked down, drawing a shaky breath. "I just... I'm afraid," she whispered. "I don't--I can't lose you two."
"Oh, Cissie." Tim pulled her into a tight hug, kissing her neck. Kon wrapped his arms around her from behind, trapping her between them in a group hug. "We're not going anywhere. You're not going to lose us."
"Damn straight," Kon agreed, resting his chin on her shoulder. "You're stuck with us. Even if we're not together in the same room."
She closed her eyes, memorizing this moment, loving them both so much. She swallowed past the lump in her throat and tried to tease them. "Are you going to say you'll be in my heart?"
Tim breathed out a laugh, but Kon nodded. "We will. And you'll be in ours."
"You are such a sap," Tim said affectionately.
"I love you. Both of you," Cissie said suddenly, feeling the need to say it.
"We know."
"We love you too." Kon kissed her throat. "Can we go back inside now? Make the most of our time before we get home?"
Cissie nodded, and when they had disentangled from one another, she let them pull her to her feet and followed them back into the hotel room. Things were going to be different when they went home. But maybe they would be okay, even if they weren't together.