tim/cassie, tim/kon, cassie/kon
NOTE: This fic mentions Tim getting his new costume colors from Kon--that idea is *not* one I came up with. Both marag's fic I Sing What Was Lost and another which had Steph and Kon hanging out in the afterlife watching Tim self-destruct and which despite being positive I bookmarked, I can't find anywhere, dammit. Anyway, to give credit where credit is due (namely, not me).
She stared at the metal of the door, reviewing why this was necessary.
He dropped off the radar completely for a week, then showed up with no explanation, and since hasn't spent time with any of us outside of missions. He only speaks to the others when he has to. And he won't talk to me at all. Even Eddie thinks he's acting weird. It's past time for an intervention. So how do you get a Robin in a brood to talk to you?
Cassie opened the door, breaking the locking mechanism as she did, went in, and shut it behind her, wrenching the knob back into place with a screech of metal.
"You could have knocked." Robin didn't even look up from where he was wrapping his wrist.
You piss him off.
"You wouldn't have answered."
"I don't want company."
"I do. And I've got the superpowers. So screw you." She picked up the nearest bottle. "What's this?"
"An iodine compound developed by Batman."
She raised her eyebrows. "Bat-antiseptic. Let me guess-just like the regular kind, but it stings more."
Robin finished the dressing on his wrist, and began clearing off the counter, apparently unaware she had even spoken.
"You know, Tim, you were a lot more fun in the old days. At least then, I could get a reaction." She watched closely. "Or do I have to call you Wonder Boy for that?"
He tensed, and then turned. The cape pulled him into the shadows, distorting his size; the spikes on the gauntlets and the smear of blood red were all that she could discern. "What. Do. You. Want."
She shook her head, contempt in every movement. "Batman's voice, Batman's style, almost all of you is from him these days, isn't it? Except the colors." Tim didn't move a muscle, but she knew she'd landed the blow. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice? Red, black, and gold, Tim, those are all Conner's. Everything but the jeans and t-shirt--though I'm not surprised Batman wouldn't let you try for that as well. You'd have to be invulnerable to lose the armor."
"Like you did, you mean." His return was just as vicious. "Or is this another attempt on your part to get away from Wonder Woman?"
Double strike. "As opposed to you sinking so far into Batman's shadow you don't even have a life outside the cape?"
"You're not one to talk."
"I'm not the one who ran away for a year!"
"I was doing what I had to do!"
They were inches from each other, and Cassie absently noticed that at some point Tim had grown; for the first time since she'd met him, she had to look up a few inches to meet his eyes. Speaking of which... "Will you take off that damn mask already! It's not like I don't know who you are behind it."
"I doubt you do."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh spare me your self-delusional pain and just lose it already." She glared, then tried to soften slightly. "You know we need to talk."
It was the wrong thing to say. Tim froze up instantly, and turned away. "I have nothing to say to you."
"Really? You could tell me why you kissed me the other day." She was trying for a casual tone, but heard her voice shaking.
"I di--it was an acc--it doesn't matter."
And apparently it had bothered him as much as it had hurt her. "Really? Because for something that didn't matter, you sure ran away pretty fast right after. Not to mention ignoring me once you finally showed again. And shutting out the rest of the team."
"I hadn't realized you valued my attention so highly. Developing another crush on a teammate?"
Cassie felt her control snap. Grabbing the nearest object, a chair, she hurled it with all her strength at his head. Tim ducked and it flew past his head to splinter against the wall, putting a large dent in the metal. "HOW DARE YOU!" She slammed him against that same wall, screaming in his face.
"Me? You're the one who came in here, who came downstairs, who came back and just won't LEAVE ME ALONE!" Tim gave as good as he got, flipping her with a foot behind her knees and landing on top of her hard enough to shove the air out of her lungs.
"You're my friend, you son of a bitch! Of course I won't leave you alone!"
"We were never each other's friends. And you know it." Tim's voice was suddenly a harsh whisper, an inch from her face. "We spent too much time competing for his attention to be friends."
"And what, you think I won, so that's why you won't talk to me?" she shot back. "I won nothing. He's dead. He left both of us. There's nothing--" she broke off, and swallowed a sob. "There's nothing left to fight about, Tim. And there's no one left but us."
Tim's jaw was clenched so tightly it made her own ache to look at it. The drum beat of his heart against hers, their harsh, rapid breathing almost in time together. She reached up slowly, and pulled off his mask. His eyes were tightly shut, but she could see the dampness under his lashes, felt it against her fingertips. She sat up slowly, still holding him close, feeling his sweat-damp bangs pressed between their foreheads. She stroked the side of his face again. "Tim. It's just us."
Tim made a hurt sound low in his throat, but still wouldn't speak, wouldn't open his eyes. She tried again. "You can't shut me out, you--there isn't anyone else. Cissie and Greta are gone, Bart might as well be, and Kon is d--"
The rest of her words were swallowed in his kiss. Hard mouth against hers, the corners of his lips curled downwards even then, but he was warm and alive. She had felt nothing like this for months.
Looking back, it was inevitable. But at the time, amidst tearing clothes and battling mouths, she could barely think. He was right there, scorching heat rising from his skin; not even close to Kon's sunshine warmth, but still so good. Bare, soft skin interrupted by the slickness of scars, stretched taught over wiry muscle and bone. She wanted to bury herself in his warmth, in his sheer vitality, and never come out.
Tim would fuck just like he fought. Precise and determined, seeking out weak points and using them to reduce his opponent to a puddle. He turned all that focus onto her and made her scream before he came. But underneath that control was raw passion. His hands shook when he stroked down her side, and he went over every inch of her body like he was looking for traces Kon left on her hipbones, the space between her breasts, the side of her neck. How did he know that was where Kon's thumbs stroked, where he rested his head falling asleep after they made love, the curve he would brush kisses over when he managed to sneak up behind her?
That was another thing that was clearer in retrospect.
*
They were both breathing steadily now, but Tim had no hope of escaping the coming 'talk' through sleep--he was wide awake and he was certain Cassie was as well. Sure enough, just as he'd begun to consider the gas pellets in his belt, she spoke.
"It's not betrayal."
Tim looked at her.
"Seriously. It that's what's got you so wound up in guilt, stop. We aren't betraying him by doing this."
Tim looked away. "Did you two ever..."
The bed dipped as she rolled over to look at him. "He never told you?" Then her voice dropped. "Oh. I guess he wouldn't have had the chance. Yeah," she cleared her throat, "yes we did. In Smallville, up in the barn's loft the night before he..."
If the silence before was awkward, it was nothing compared to now. Even if he'd had anything to say, he would have held back for fear of breaking the brittle tension between them.
"Did the two of you?"
He looked over. "Did we... what?"
Her expression said volumes about her opinion of his intelligence. "Did you sleep together?"
Tim barely caught himself from jumping upright in shock. "I'm sorry?" he kept his tone mild, despite the sudden tension throughout his body.
He could feel her gaze on him, irresistable force to his immovable object. "Just because Kon never noticed--just because it took me awhile--don't think I don't know, Tim. You wanted to. And he probably would have gone along with it. So. Did you?"
Tim bit the inside of his cheek till he tasted blood. "No."
Cassie was still studying him. "But you have had sex. Probably with a guy--most girls wouldn't like it this rough. If not Kon, then who?"
Tim finally looked at her. "Who have you? Or, as of this past year, who haven't you?"
She flinched. "Not... as many as you think. And not anyone in our crowd. Just, every now and then when I meet someone..."
"Someone good-looking and built with dark hair and blue eyes?"
Her answer was quiet. "Pretty much. Now what about you?"
Tim hesitated, always reluctant to share information, especially about himself. But this--it didn't matter enough to be worth protecting. "Nightwing."
"Nightwing? As in--former leader of the Teen Titans? The guy who came as your guardian to the parent meeting at YJ, who calls you little brother?" Her voice grew periodically higher.
"Do you know another?"
"But--why? Why him?"
Tim's voice was blandly neutral. "Why screw complete strangers when you can keep it in the family, instead?"
Cassie stared. "And once again, the Gotham crowd takes the prize for most seriously fucked-up-ness."
Tim's mouth twisted. "You sound like him."
Cassie sat up, bringing the sheet with her, and wrapped her arms around her knees. "I'll tell the bad jokes if you hit on the female villians."
Tim raised an eyebrow. "Do I have to start with Ravager?"
"Please don't." They were silent for a moment, and then she looked back at him over her shoulder. "You know, I never got why you were so screwed up before when other people had things just as bad happen to them and dealt. Now I do. You were always dealing with it on your own." Her voice broke, but her gaze remained steady.
Tim studied her, the tangled twists of her hair golden in the low light against her perfect, invulnerable skin. Was this what Kon found so attractive? He didn't know. Kon had never said, never talked about her with him in the simple (crude) terms he'd describe other women. "We..." he had to swallow, start again. "We're only alone... because we refuse to reach out."
Cassie's eyes widened. "...Tim?"
He shrugged, uncomfortably, and looked away. "He was never afraid to keep reaching out." In his peripheral vision, he could see her blinking back tears.
Cassie lay back down, closer to him, chin touching his shoulder. "Definitely a better trait to... carry on than the flirting."
Tim's eyes slid shut. I don't know if I can do this, Kon. He reached out under the sheets till he found her hand. She tightened her grasp convulsively, then eased to something human bones could stand. It was warmer, with her near him.
But I'll try.
She stared at the metal of the door, reviewing why this was necessary.
He dropped off the radar completely for a week, then showed up with no explanation, and since hasn't spent time with any of us outside of missions. He only speaks to the others when he has to. And he won't talk to me at all. Even Eddie thinks he's acting weird. It's past time for an intervention. So how do you get a Robin in a brood to talk to you?
Cassie opened the door, breaking the locking mechanism as she did, went in, and shut it behind her, wrenching the knob back into place with a screech of metal.
"You could have knocked." Robin didn't even look up from where he was wrapping his wrist.
You piss him off.
"You wouldn't have answered."
"I don't want company."
"I do. And I've got the superpowers. So screw you." She picked up the nearest bottle. "What's this?"
"An iodine compound developed by Batman."
She raised her eyebrows. "Bat-antiseptic. Let me guess-just like the regular kind, but it stings more."
Robin finished the dressing on his wrist, and began clearing off the counter, apparently unaware she had even spoken.
"You know, Tim, you were a lot more fun in the old days. At least then, I could get a reaction." She watched closely. "Or do I have to call you Wonder Boy for that?"
He tensed, and then turned. The cape pulled him into the shadows, distorting his size; the spikes on the gauntlets and the smear of blood red were all that she could discern. "What. Do. You. Want."
She shook her head, contempt in every movement. "Batman's voice, Batman's style, almost all of you is from him these days, isn't it? Except the colors." Tim didn't move a muscle, but she knew she'd landed the blow. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice? Red, black, and gold, Tim, those are all Conner's. Everything but the jeans and t-shirt--though I'm not surprised Batman wouldn't let you try for that as well. You'd have to be invulnerable to lose the armor."
"Like you did, you mean." His return was just as vicious. "Or is this another attempt on your part to get away from Wonder Woman?"
Double strike. "As opposed to you sinking so far into Batman's shadow you don't even have a life outside the cape?"
"You're not one to talk."
"I'm not the one who ran away for a year!"
"I was doing what I had to do!"
They were inches from each other, and Cassie absently noticed that at some point Tim had grown; for the first time since she'd met him, she had to look up a few inches to meet his eyes. Speaking of which... "Will you take off that damn mask already! It's not like I don't know who you are behind it."
"I doubt you do."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh spare me your self-delusional pain and just lose it already." She glared, then tried to soften slightly. "You know we need to talk."
It was the wrong thing to say. Tim froze up instantly, and turned away. "I have nothing to say to you."
"Really? You could tell me why you kissed me the other day." She was trying for a casual tone, but heard her voice shaking.
"I di--it was an acc--it doesn't matter."
And apparently it had bothered him as much as it had hurt her. "Really? Because for something that didn't matter, you sure ran away pretty fast right after. Not to mention ignoring me once you finally showed again. And shutting out the rest of the team."
"I hadn't realized you valued my attention so highly. Developing another crush on a teammate?"
Cassie felt her control snap. Grabbing the nearest object, a chair, she hurled it with all her strength at his head. Tim ducked and it flew past his head to splinter against the wall, putting a large dent in the metal. "HOW DARE YOU!" She slammed him against that same wall, screaming in his face.
"Me? You're the one who came in here, who came downstairs, who came back and just won't LEAVE ME ALONE!" Tim gave as good as he got, flipping her with a foot behind her knees and landing on top of her hard enough to shove the air out of her lungs.
"You're my friend, you son of a bitch! Of course I won't leave you alone!"
"We were never each other's friends. And you know it." Tim's voice was suddenly a harsh whisper, an inch from her face. "We spent too much time competing for his attention to be friends."
"And what, you think I won, so that's why you won't talk to me?" she shot back. "I won nothing. He's dead. He left both of us. There's nothing--" she broke off, and swallowed a sob. "There's nothing left to fight about, Tim. And there's no one left but us."
Tim's jaw was clenched so tightly it made her own ache to look at it. The drum beat of his heart against hers, their harsh, rapid breathing almost in time together. She reached up slowly, and pulled off his mask. His eyes were tightly shut, but she could see the dampness under his lashes, felt it against her fingertips. She sat up slowly, still holding him close, feeling his sweat-damp bangs pressed between their foreheads. She stroked the side of his face again. "Tim. It's just us."
Tim made a hurt sound low in his throat, but still wouldn't speak, wouldn't open his eyes. She tried again. "You can't shut me out, you--there isn't anyone else. Cissie and Greta are gone, Bart might as well be, and Kon is d--"
The rest of her words were swallowed in his kiss. Hard mouth against hers, the corners of his lips curled downwards even then, but he was warm and alive. She had felt nothing like this for months.
Looking back, it was inevitable. But at the time, amidst tearing clothes and battling mouths, she could barely think. He was right there, scorching heat rising from his skin; not even close to Kon's sunshine warmth, but still so good. Bare, soft skin interrupted by the slickness of scars, stretched taught over wiry muscle and bone. She wanted to bury herself in his warmth, in his sheer vitality, and never come out.
Tim would fuck just like he fought. Precise and determined, seeking out weak points and using them to reduce his opponent to a puddle. He turned all that focus onto her and made her scream before he came. But underneath that control was raw passion. His hands shook when he stroked down her side, and he went over every inch of her body like he was looking for traces Kon left on her hipbones, the space between her breasts, the side of her neck. How did he know that was where Kon's thumbs stroked, where he rested his head falling asleep after they made love, the curve he would brush kisses over when he managed to sneak up behind her?
That was another thing that was clearer in retrospect.
*
They were both breathing steadily now, but Tim had no hope of escaping the coming 'talk' through sleep--he was wide awake and he was certain Cassie was as well. Sure enough, just as he'd begun to consider the gas pellets in his belt, she spoke.
"It's not betrayal."
Tim looked at her.
"Seriously. It that's what's got you so wound up in guilt, stop. We aren't betraying him by doing this."
Tim looked away. "Did you two ever..."
The bed dipped as she rolled over to look at him. "He never told you?" Then her voice dropped. "Oh. I guess he wouldn't have had the chance. Yeah," she cleared her throat, "yes we did. In Smallville, up in the barn's loft the night before he..."
If the silence before was awkward, it was nothing compared to now. Even if he'd had anything to say, he would have held back for fear of breaking the brittle tension between them.
"Did the two of you?"
He looked over. "Did we... what?"
Her expression said volumes about her opinion of his intelligence. "Did you sleep together?"
Tim barely caught himself from jumping upright in shock. "I'm sorry?" he kept his tone mild, despite the sudden tension throughout his body.
He could feel her gaze on him, irresistable force to his immovable object. "Just because Kon never noticed--just because it took me awhile--don't think I don't know, Tim. You wanted to. And he probably would have gone along with it. So. Did you?"
Tim bit the inside of his cheek till he tasted blood. "No."
Cassie was still studying him. "But you have had sex. Probably with a guy--most girls wouldn't like it this rough. If not Kon, then who?"
Tim finally looked at her. "Who have you? Or, as of this past year, who haven't you?"
She flinched. "Not... as many as you think. And not anyone in our crowd. Just, every now and then when I meet someone..."
"Someone good-looking and built with dark hair and blue eyes?"
Her answer was quiet. "Pretty much. Now what about you?"
Tim hesitated, always reluctant to share information, especially about himself. But this--it didn't matter enough to be worth protecting. "Nightwing."
"Nightwing? As in--former leader of the Teen Titans? The guy who came as your guardian to the parent meeting at YJ, who calls you little brother?" Her voice grew periodically higher.
"Do you know another?"
"But--why? Why him?"
Tim's voice was blandly neutral. "Why screw complete strangers when you can keep it in the family, instead?"
Cassie stared. "And once again, the Gotham crowd takes the prize for most seriously fucked-up-ness."
Tim's mouth twisted. "You sound like him."
Cassie sat up, bringing the sheet with her, and wrapped her arms around her knees. "I'll tell the bad jokes if you hit on the female villians."
Tim raised an eyebrow. "Do I have to start with Ravager?"
"Please don't." They were silent for a moment, and then she looked back at him over her shoulder. "You know, I never got why you were so screwed up before when other people had things just as bad happen to them and dealt. Now I do. You were always dealing with it on your own." Her voice broke, but her gaze remained steady.
Tim studied her, the tangled twists of her hair golden in the low light against her perfect, invulnerable skin. Was this what Kon found so attractive? He didn't know. Kon had never said, never talked about her with him in the simple (crude) terms he'd describe other women. "We..." he had to swallow, start again. "We're only alone... because we refuse to reach out."
Cassie's eyes widened. "...Tim?"
He shrugged, uncomfortably, and looked away. "He was never afraid to keep reaching out." In his peripheral vision, he could see her blinking back tears.
Cassie lay back down, closer to him, chin touching his shoulder. "Definitely a better trait to... carry on than the flirting."
Tim's eyes slid shut. I don't know if I can do this, Kon. He reached out under the sheets till he found her hand. She tightened her grasp convulsively, then eased to something human bones could stand. It was warmer, with her near him.
But I'll try.