Tim Drake-Wayne (tjdrake_wayne) wrote in somerealityrpg, @ 2020-04-04 00:48:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | inactive: conner kent, inactive: tim drake |
Who: Tim Drake-Wayne & Conner Kent
What: A First Peace Offering
When: April 3rd
Where: Rooftop
Rating: PG
Status: Complete
Tim wasn’t calm. Calm would indicate that he’d stopped simmering about the conversation with Cassie yesterday and he definitely hadn’t. He’d told Cass that no one was to come into the apartment that didn’t belong there and gone into his room to hide out and brood in private about how he was just screwing everything up and pushing everyone away and how he couldn’t seem to shake the sensation that everything was just wrong here.
He’d at least started filling a locked database with the bits of information he’d managed to glean from the network and from talking to people which had made him feel productive. And since he’d had a pretty heavy sleep the night before, staying awake and angrily coding on his laptop in the dark hadn’t quite impacted him as much as it might have done if he was running on a number of days without sleep (though using alcohol to get a good night’s sleep wasn’t advisable and he wouldn’t be doing it again). So he was able to get out of the apartment.
After grabbing himself a coffee, he snuck up to the roof of an old building that was near the warehouse district, looking over the building that he’d one day work out how to lay claim to so they could make it their base of operations. With something to do, Cassie and Conner might be less interested in trying to push him for how he ~felt.
Sitting on the edge of the building, wishing he had his gear, Tim sipped at his coffee and just watched the traffic below. This was his concession, and it didn’t take long.
Without looking around, Tim just tilted his head and said, “That didn’t take you long.”
Conner was luckily relatively well educated in the unspoken language of one Tim Drake-Wayne in that he knew when he could or couldn’t approach. Given that Tim had come out of his self imposed isolation it was as clear a signal as any that he was at least willing to have a conversation. Civil or not was another matter entirely, but hopefully things would go better with them than it had with Tim and Cassie.
“Seemed like a stupid idea to not make the best of the opportunity,” he offered as he touched down lightly on the space beside Tim, arms folded securely across his chest and head tilted to rest a steady blue gaze on the other.
His gaze lingered for only a moment before Conner turned his attention to their surroundings. “What are we looking at?”
“The city,” Tim answered shortly, not looking up. He lifted his other hand that had another cup of coffee and held it out to Conner. “It’s weird being somewhere that doesn’t have a heavy layer of smog ruining the view. And that isn’t constantly filled with sirens and gunshots.” Gotham was a pretty dark city, and that was one of the major differences between this place and home. Even if Gotham hadn’t really felt like home for a long time.
Here didn’t either, not yet, but Tim took a long time to settle somewhere new, and he’d always be a Gothamite, like Jason, Gotham was their home and that was where they belonged. He lifted his knees to his chest and tucked his chin atop them, hands curled around his shins.
“She’s still pissed at me, huh.”
Conner would have appreciated at least something approaching eye contact from Tim but that clearly wasn’t going to happen so instead Conner took the coffee that was being offered and took the first sip. “It is really different from Gotham. Kansas too, not many skyscrapers or high rise buildings in the part of Kansas I was in before I was here.”
He didn’t need to be told who “she” was because Conner knew as Cassie had shared the exchange between her and Tim with him.
“I’m going to tell you the same thing I told her, she just needs to cool down.”
“Kansas is pretty damn flat,” Tim agreed with a snort, just looking out over the skyline, though he was aware of where Conner was. He always was when the guy was around him. “Everything’s different to Kansas, Kon. It’s like a little land of its own where they breed hearty, home-grown Good Guys.”
He let out a disgruntled sound at Conner’s ‘cool down’ comment. He supposed the Kryptonian was right, but he wasn’t entirely sure that he’d been solely in the wrong. He’d felt so judged, and like she was talking to him as though he was a child. He’d always been younger than her, and he guessed in many ways that he’d made his own bed in distancing himself from her and the other Titans after Bruce died but he’d needed space. He hadn’t told her that Steph had died and he’d kept the loss of his father relatively close to his chest too.
“I’m entitled to my privacy, you know,” he said, shoulders tensing again, like he was expecting Conner to fight with him about it. “I don’t owe her an explanation for what I’m doing, or where I am all the time. We’ve been perfectly fine not talking for the last eighteen months.” Which had sort of been his state of being since Bruce died and everyone turned their back on him.
Conner snorted quietly. “If by Good Guys you mean Clark then yeah you have a point there.”
He had already clocked the shoulders tensing and knew it was the first warning sign of Tim preparing for a fight.
“I never said that you weren’t,” Conner pointed out calmly before he took another sip of his coffee. “But at the same time you need to remember that you have people who care about you here and worry goes hand in hand when you do something more than a little out of character for you.” He couldn’t really comment on Tim and Cassie’s relationship for the last eighteen months as he hadn’t been there and he was in no position to pass any form of judgment on either of them.
“The whole drinking on a rooftop with somebody you don’t know very well is very out of character.”
“How do you know I was drinking on a rooftop?” Tim asked, turning his head to look at Conner properly for the first time, eyebrow arched. That paranoid part of him immediately flared to life: of course they were talking about him behind his back, comparing notes on how awkward and annoying he was being or how much of a danger to himself he was, how much he couldn’t be trusted to look after himself as the only human on the team.
Honestly that paranoid part of Tim’s brain should have known better to think that either Conner or Cassie would be thinking of him like that. Connor especially. He’d never once thought of Tim as the annoying human on the team who couldn’t look after himself. Hard to do that when the other guy had proven time after time that he was more than capable.
“Because despite what Cass told you I was the one spying on you.” Conner wasn’t much of a liar and he wasn’t about to start now which is why he took the honest route, deciding to confess to Tim that actually he’d been the one to find out that Tim had been drinking on a rooftop. “And before you say she lied to you she only said what she did because it wasn’t her secret to tell, it was mine.”
Of course suspicion was the reason Tim would look at him, no surprise there.
“That doesn’t make it sound any less like you guys are conspiring,” Tim pointed out, “she lied to me to cover for you.” The muscle in his jaw twitched and Tim forced himself to not clench his teeth and flexed his fingers around his coffee. “And it definitely doesn’t make it sound like you guys trust me or respect my rights to privacy.”
Sometimes it was easy to forget that Conner didn’t have the same life experience as others and that occasionally the first thought that popped into his head was the one that he followed. Tim usually was more lenient on him, or he had been in the past anyway. Before he’d died.
“You’re not meant to spy on people,” is what he said after a pause. “Especially not your friends.” Which was rich coming from him, but what he did he did to protect his friends. Not because they were making other friends. “Also, for all you guys know I could have lapsed into alcoholism as a response to losing everything worthwhile in my life and nearly dying in the desert,” he deadpanned.
“Pot calling kettle,” Conner pointed out. “You’re the last person to be telling me not to spy on people or friends, Tim.” He sighed a moment later and shifted until he was sat on the wall next to Tim, coffee clasped between his legs, fingers firmly wrapped around it. “Friends look out for friends even when said friends don’t think they need looking after. I’m sorry I spied on you, I was worried.”
And he had been, Tim had been acting strange and honestly Conner had in the past been able to read the other man well enough to know when he should or shouldn’t be worried but he’d been struggling ever since he’d arrived.
“So don’t be angry at her for that, that was all me.”
He blew out a breath and knocked back what remained of his coffee before he tossed it off the building and into a trash can below. “You know you can talk to me, right?”
“The difference is in the intent, Conner,” Tim retorted calmly. “Doing a bad thing for the right reason is still a bad thing.” But he didn’t say anything else about it because he wasn’t interested in fighting with Conner right now. He was still drained from his fight with Cassie.
He didn’t look at Conner for a long moment before he just nodded his head. “I know I can, Kon, I’m not sure what you guys think is happening? I’m not having a mental breakdown - been there, done that - and I’m not about to snap and try to break reality to bring anyone back here. You want to tell me what it is you guys want from me? Because I’m confused and tired and I don’t know.” People were hard, even the ones he knew well. Tim had never been great at reading intentions when it came to intentions about him. Too much of Bruce in him for that.
“I’ll remind you of that the next time you tell us a half truth,” Conner returned just as calmly because there was no high ground here, not with him, Tim or Cassie, they all had their part of blame to carry.
His eyes were fixed forward as he leaned back to rest his weight on the spread of his palms against the cool concrete beneath him. “I think all we’re asking for is that you talk to us. I mean I asked you if you were okay and you basically edged around the question, hung out with us like nothing was wrong, then you’re on a roof drinking and you don’t expect that to be concerning?”
Conner’s gaze lifted to track the movement of a bird.
“We care about you and we notice stuff.”
“Harley had some stuff he needed to get off his chest. There’s nothing wrong with me. If it had been Bart who wanted to talk about something I’d have done the same thing. It’s not like I was hanging out at the edge considering jumping without a safety net.” Tim shrugged. “I’m fine, and if I wasn’t, you’d be the first to know. Being here’s an adjustment, and you- you’re different to how I remember you in Paris. Different to how you were when I spoke to you in Gotham.”
He shook his head “It’s fine. I just- I need something to do. Once I’ve got something to keep me busy it’ll be fine.”
“Bad different?” Conner asked because he genuinely wanted to know because he was aware that more time had passed for him than it had for Tim. A lot more by the sounds of things.
Conner still didn’t know who this Harley was though hopefully that would change when and if they started working together.
“I’m gonna admit I’m suffering a little with the whole not doing anything thing as well.”
“No, just different,” Tim said with a shake of his head. “More confident, for one. It’s not a bad thing, don’t worry.”
He snorted, “yeah, idle hands and all. I’m hoping to get… something going soon, at least so I can use the warehouse that Cassie found. It’s just- yeah. I promise you, Conner,” Tim unfolded carefully and leaned to the side, letting his shoulder bump against Conner’s upper arm. “You really don’t need to worry about me. But I- I’ll try and do better, okay? For both of you.”
Conner nodded in response to Tim’s reassurances that his being different wasn’t a bad thing because honestly it had taken him such a long time to come to terms with who he was and actually discover who Conner was outside of “Clark Kent” and “Lex Luthor”.
He glanced over as Tim unfolded and went one step further to bump his shoulder against his and it was a small but distinct movement that spoke volumes if you spoke Tim language. It helped ease Conner’s worry that maybe just maybe he was losing touch with one of his closest and dearest friends.
“You can say that we don’t need to worry all you want but we’re still going to worry because that’s what friends do but I promise I won’t spy on you again and respect your right to privacy.”
“I didn’t mean to make you worry, Kon,” Tim said quietly, with more than a touch of guilt to his tone. He didn’t move away, but he did tense again. “It’s just easy to fall back into old habits. What happens when you go? Or Cassie? Or Jason, or Cass?” People just kept leaving him.
“I know it’s hard but you can’t think like that.” Conner shifted so he was a little closer and put his arm around Tim’s shoulders before he reached upwards to first of all rest his hand atop his head before fingers idly strayed into the short dark lengths. “I know it’s hard, but if you keep focusing on what might happen you’ll miss out on what’s actually going on.”
He tipped his head until his own was now resting against Tim’s.
“That’s kind of my MO,” Tim pointed out dryly. “Gotta be prepared for any eventuality. I just-“
He cut himself off, settling for leaning against Conner properly. “Thanks for coming up here. I’m glad you did.”
“Me too,” Conner answered back as he just settled into a comfortable silence beside Tim. This was nice and felt as though it was definitely a step in the right direction.
Slow and steady, isn’t that what won the race?