
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/50716.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      DC_Comics
  Relationship:
      Bart_Allen/Kon-El/Tim_Drake
  Character:
      Bart_Allen, Kon-El, Tim_Drake
  Additional Tags:
      Threesome_Slash, Nonmonogamy
  Stats:
      Published: 2010-01-14 Words: 4376
****** The Place You Are ******
by Rubynye
Summary
     "I'm not here to try to talk you into coming back."
Notes
     Written For:
     [[info]]
3_ships; also dedicated to [[info]]mirth_fell *grin and wave*
Based on/Spoilers for: "The Insiders" crossover arc of Teen Titans and
Outsiders (#24 and 25 of each title) and TT#26.
Beta to whom I owe much gratitude and all love: [[info]]petronelle
Title taken from "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel
Kon contemplates the cow. Or regards it. Or watches it. Or something.
The cow chews a mouthful of grass, slimy green spit dribbling down its cow-
jaws. It doesn't seem to realize it's sinking into a sourly stinky patch of
green mud. It certainly hasn't paid any attention to Kon's begging, pleading,
or other efforts to lure it out before it gets completely stuck, and it's well
on the way to ruining what could have been a not quite so horrible fall day.
Kon could probably lift the cow. Well, no. Superboy could probably lift the
cow. Kon... isn't sure he should be using his powers. He also isn't sure who he
is if he doesn't. Which is why he can't.
"C'mon, Bessie..." Kon starts again. The cow doesn't look up, but she swishes
her tail in a "fuck you, human," kind of way.
Kon considers showing her he's half human, shakes his head, and sighs.
"You can probably lift the cow."
Kon doesn't turn around. "Hey, Tim." Mostly because he's smiling at his
sneakers.
"Hey, Kon." Tim doesn't come any closer, either. Kon can hear his smile anyway.
"Turnabout's fair play, huh?" The cow moos like she agrees.
"I'm not here to try to talk you into coming back."
Kon kind of wishes he were. "Then why are you here?"
"To see you."
OK, Kon can't not turn around at that. He has to force himself not to fly. And
Tim---
Tim is in civvies.
Jeans and a yellow hoodie and plain combed hair and his eyes are naked. That's
a stupid way to put it but Kon can't think of a better one. He hasn't seen
Tim's eyes since that night in Gotham, and they weren't his eyes, they were
Some Freaky Normal Guy's.
But here Tim is, out of uniform, looking at Kon with blue, naked, unmasked
eyes. His eyebrows have a sharp little arch to them, which gets archer when Tim
cocks one. "What?"
If Kon replies he's going to say something incredibly stupid. He swallows. The
cow makes a low grunting noise that might be cow laughter. "Um. Where's Bart?"
Yup, incredibly stupid. As if he's not really, really glad to see Tim and all,
as if Tim couldn't get here fifteen different ways.
Tim's smile widens into a kind of gentle smirk. "Checking out Nebraska, I
think. He'll be back--"
An orange blur zips past, dragging cooler air. It spins around Kon and slaps
into him, and Bart's hugging him with both arms and at least one leg, face
shoved into Kon's chest, breathing hard enough that it blows warm through his
T-shirt. His hair ruffles back and forth ticklishly beneath Kon's chin.
"---just about now."
"Hi, Kon," Bart says muffled against his chest. That's all he says, and he just
hugs Kon tighter. Kon's face is buried in Bart's soft thatch of hair. He's
hugging him tightly too. The only person who's hugged him since he--- since he
left the Titans is Aunt Martha, and she hugs him carefully, lightly, never when
Uncle Jon's around. Bart is squeezing Kon with both legs around his waist,
hugging him like he could sink into him.
Then there's another hand, pushing up Kon's jacket, wrapped around his wrist.
Kon peeks through Bart's hair and Tim's right there. Kon didn't even hear him
move up over the pounding of Bart's heart. He's right there with his hand over
Kon's pulse, squeezing gently. "We missed you."
Kon just stares at Tim. Everything he's been avoiding, everyone he's been
missing--
Tim squeezes a little harder and lets go. "C'mon, Bart, let's let him get the
cow." Bart unwraps himself from around Kon, and Kon doesn't hang onto him. Or
onto Tim.
"See you at the house!" Bart waves, and he smiles like nothing's ever changed
since they all met, like any moment he might start babbling like he always did.
But he doesn't, he just zips away. Tim smiles over his shoulder, with both
sides of his mouth, and pushes his hands into his pockets as Bart reappears
beside him in jeans and a sweater and his dorky knit hat, and they walk quietly
away.
Kon stares after them.
Then he stops floating six inches off the ground, and goes and gets the very
startled cow.
 
                                      *^*
 
One really big dinner later, full of knowing smiles from Aunt Martha and
extremely weak attempts at looking comfortable from Uncle Jon -- and where does
Tim hide that Charming Preppy Guy persona when he's not bamboozling people's
guardians and guards?-- the three of them are lying on the roof of the barn,
looking up at the stars twinkling far away. It's a little nippy. Bart's curled
around him like he's got extra joints in his arms and legs, and Tim's hand is
wrapped around his wrist again, two fingertips on his pulse. Kon's pretty sure
none of the guys at school sit like this with their friends.
None of them nearly slaughtered their friends, either. None of them were born
to be weapons.
Kon doesn't wrench free pretty much only because they'd find a way to chase
after him, even if he flew. They're Robin and Kid Flash, after all. So he lets
them hang onto him, and they keep watching the stars.
It's really quiet. Just the breeze and their breathing, people talking in town
and cows occasionally mooing. Kon's never seen Bart this quiet, or Tim this-
- normal. Like Tim always spends his nights hanging out with friends instead of
fighting crime. Like Bart's used to staying still.
"Mmm," Bart says eventually. He snuggles in tighter, hand bare and tight on
Kon's ribs, and he's sleek and warm and his hair smells nice, and Kon's pretty
sure being hard's against the rules, whatever set of rules apply to watching
stars with your best friends after you left your team after you tried to
obliterate them. After you broke one of those friends and nearly concussed the
other.
Even so, the familiar self-loathing's a little weaker. It's harder to feel
quite so shitty when Kon can feel their calm heartbeats on either side of him.
It's a little more real that they're OK.
"Your pulse's so steady." Bart snuggles again, cheek pressed against Kon's
shoulder. Tim makes a warm indistinct noise.
"Mine?" Kon's pretty sure that made his pulse jump, but Bart nods.
"Yeah," Tim points with his free hand. "Bart, what's that?"
"The Pleiades, In the constellation of Taurus. Out here you can even see the
reflective nebula around them." Kon expects another three paragraphs at least,
but Bart just presses his face harder against Kon's chest and breathes. It's
kind of distracting from everything Kon's supposed to feel, as opposed to what
he wants to.
"Hm." Tim stretches, one sleek flexible motion. "The Seven Sisters." Kon's seen
him stretch like that in the Robin suit, and out of it. "According to legend,
they were once mortals."
"Many legends are based in fact," says Bart, a little muffled by Kon's pec.
"Maybe this one is. We should ask Cassie."
Kon winces. Bart and Tim tighten their holds; they so planned that segue. "She
misses you, you know," Tim says in a perfectly reasonable ordinary-guy voice,
or at least a Bat-level fake of one.
Kon remembers the electric burn of her lasso. He remembers the even more
devastating kiss, her tears on his face. If he argues they'll keep going, and
if he doesn't say anything he'll keep going, so he grunts.
And they keep going. "Everyone misses you." Bart tilts his head back, and Kon
sighs and looks to see what sort of earnest wide eyes Bart's pulling.
Bart doesn't look earnest. He doesn't look like he's lying, either; what he
looks like is sneaky, a little like Tim but more obvious. Then Kon can't see
anything, because his eyes are closing by reflex, because Bart is kissing him.
His mouth's soft and warm, and his heart's speeding up a little, not racing.
And he's kissing Kon, and he's good at it; Kon's mouth is already open, and
Bart's tongue is warm and wet and fast over his teeth. Kon hasn't been kissed
since everything-- since he went rogue. He's missed it. He doesn't deserve it.
He jerks back, right into Tim, strong arms and hard bod and soft hoodie. Um.
"What was that?"
"A kiss," Bart says in his I-read-it-in-a-book voice, except that he's using it
on purpose, because he's totally smirking. Tim breathes a stripped-down kind of
laugh. "You looked like you needed one."
"I wha-- you can't go around kissing everyone!" Is this like the blender
lessons?
No, because Bart completely knows what he's doing here. He leans closer, leans
on Kon's chest, and Tim is pressed up behind Kon, and Bart's eyes are
twinkling. Actually twinkling. "I can if they need it. Can't I, Tim?"
"You did look like you needed it." That's all Robin, even out of Tim-the-
Hoodie-Wearing-Boy's mouth, and sometimes Robin's command voice gets Kon
completely hard, and this is one of those times. "You still do."
Kon looks over his shoulder, and Tim's Robin-smirk tells him that was right on
cue, before Tim kisses him. Hard, hard and hot and Kon's pushed flat to the
roof before his brain's got time to notice anything except Tim's bossy hot
mouth and Tim's fingers pressing on his face and Tim's pulse flickering under
his thumb. Kon doesn't even know how long he kisses back, as Tim's mouth
softens against his and the kiss gets slower and deeper, as he breathes in the
way Tim smells without armor and smoke and mask-glue, all warm clean guy.
Then everything comes rushing back, and Kon shudders and dammit, he actually
flew back a few inches, or pushed Tim back with his TK, or both. Either way
he's gone too far away from Tim and Bart. Story of his fucking life these days.
Kon sits up, pressing his palms against the rough roof to make sure his TK's
off; his mouth still tastes like both of their kisses, and they're both half-
crouched and eyeing him. He tries to say "what?" and what he says is "How?",
and Bart's eyes go round. Tim's go narrow.
Kon's so startled by his own damn mouth it keeps talking without any control at
all from his brain. "How can you guys do this? How come you're here? I left the
team, I--"
Bart's the speedster, but it's Tim whose fingers land on Kon's mouth. Probably
because Bart's smiling at him, grinning at him, eyes the color of honey in the
low light. "Yeah, like neither of us ever left," Bart says, voice dripping
that's-so-obvious.
"At least you told us where you'd be," Tim adds, looking down so his eyes are
hidden by his eyelashes. His fingers are callused against Kon's lips, and Kon
remembers how much damage Tim can do with them, and wants to lick them. It's
like he keeps forgetting things aren't ok.
"At least you're not still all mind-controlled. You fought it off, you got
better. " Bart pulls Kon's unresisting arm around his shoulders. "Did anyone
tell you about Terra? Or Jericho? Remember when I told you about Rose?"
"Ravager?" Kon remembers calling her a crazy freak, and how mad Bart got at him
for it. He wonders if she ever felt this awful and wonderful when Bart looked
at her with his open, open yellow eyes. He wonders how she still turned away,
when Bart smiled like Kon knows he did, like she was still his friend, just
like he's smiling now.
"At least you're not dead." Tim's mouth is twisted in nothing like a smile.
Bart puts his other hand on Tim's shoulder, and they're so close... Kon gives
up, and pulls Tim in and squeezes Bart. Tim's hand slides around the back of
his neck, and they all hang onto each other for a moment. Or twenty.
It's a total group hug. Kon has to laugh. Tim gets it, and snickers against his
chest. Bart looks up confused. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing. C'mon, we'd better get inside." It's not like they can't climb down,
but Kon's a few feet up in the air before he realizes he hasn't let go of them.
Bart squeaks happily, waving his feet.
Tim rolls his eyes, but it's not like he's trying to hurt Kon for it, or even
wiggling out of the hold. "What's wrong with the roof?"
"Dude." It's almost like usual. "I should've known you'd want to be on the
highest thing possible, but the Kents--"
"Are on the other side of the house." Tim's totally giving Kon shit, just
because he can.
"Just because Bats live outside at night doesn't mean all mammals have to,"
says Bart. Kon blinks, and then snickers as Tim widens the glare of moderate
death to include him; when he flies them at the barn window Tim reaches out to
open it, and Bart pulls it shut behind them. It's almost like the last couple
of months---
---well, no, they happened, and it's like a cliche that as soon as he thinks it
Kon falls out of the air with a thump that shakes bits of hay out of the loft.
But he doesn't drop anyone, and Tim and Bart wander out into the hay while
Kon's still brushing himself off. "It's kind of sproingy!" Only Bart would
bounce up and down on a hay bale.
"The blanket's more comfortable." Tim spreads it out and lounges carefully,
twitching when a stray blade of hay pokes him, looking like such a city kid Kon
really wants to laugh. He settles down against the wall and watches them for a
sec, breathing hay and cow and diesel. The usual smells of the barn, of his
current life. In the middle of that, Tim and Bart look like they're from
another universe.
"So here I am." When they look up he spreads his hands and tries to look
grateful. "You guys totally planned this, and I appreciate it, but..."
Tim tilts his head. Bart's propped his chin on his elbow on his knee. Kon
swallows. "I can't. I can't come back. I feel like... I'm supposed to be out
here, in Smallville. Being ordinary. Being Conner. I see you guys and-- I've
barely flown in weeks, you know? Till today. You guys make me... someone I
don't deserve to be."
Kon actually wasn't expecting that whole speech to come out of his mouth. But
it did. And Tim and Bart listened to it, and they're not arguing. They're not
even making themselves not argue. They just look quiet.
Tim takes a breath, and Kon braces himself for whatever devastating comment is
gonna blow everything he just said apart. But Tim just breathes out again.
"Cissie says hi, too."
Bart's right next to Kon again. "She says she understands, and now you do too."
Ow. Kon looks at his knees, and at Bart's narrow knee leaning against his, the
one that got shot. He can hear Tim pull off the hoodie, and he only catches
Tim's footsteps because his hearing flares on, and when he looks up Tim's
beside him wearing a white T-shirt with dark purple lettering that spells out,
"Spoiler."
Oh. More ow. Kon shakes his head, and Tim's smile is narrow and tight and
Robin. "We're not here to talk you into coming back," Tim says softly, slipping
to his knees. He said that before, when he got here, but now Kon can feel the
words gently denting his skull. From the inside.
"We're here to see you, Kon. Because we miss you." Bart doesn't say it like
it's totally-fucking-obvious; he says it like it's true. And he kisses Kon
again, which at least means the talking's over.
Then it feels good. Then it feels so good it's almost unbearable. Kon gasps,
and Bart pushes, and all he can smell is Bart's hair and Tim's skin, and all he
can feel are the hands on his face and his chest and his fly and holy crap. Tim
kisses Bart's cheek and Bart leans away but Tim takes over and there's a hand
in Kon's fly and Tim's tongue wetting his lips and Bart's hair slip-hisses over
his shirt. Someone tugs at his jacket and someone tugs at his dick and god he's
just missed the way a friendly hand feels, missed the way his friends smelled,
missed having friends. He couldn't've coped without them, he couldn't've coped
if he'd---
Tim bites his lip so hard Kon has to suppress a TK flare, and then bites it
again and the pain's hot and sweet and bright and Tim's hair is soft around
Kon's fingers and he needs to remember not to squeeze. He's not gonna squeeze.
Even if that has to be Bart's mouth on him, and damn it's hot, and he can't
think. He's up against the wall of the hayloft under the window and Tim's
kissing him and Bart's sucking him off and everything's just gone but this
breath, this moment, this sensation. Tim's tight hands on his shoulders, Tim's
tongue in his mouth, Bart's hand around the base of his dick and Bart's tongue-
- it's fast but it's not flicking, those are long dragging licks but they're at
speed, and Kon would use his own speed to feel them individually but he's too
busy groaning into Tim's mouth as his eyes roll back in his head. His eyes feel
hot. That makes him remember, no, no---
Tim bites him again, raking his lip and pulling back, hands sliding up his neck
to frame his face, fingertips pressing the outside corners of his eyelids.
Kon's so startled he opens his eyes, and he doesn't see red. He only sees blue,
Tim's blue eyes bare inches in front of his, and the light in them is glittery
and pale. Kon thinks of Raven showing him his soul, and almost wonders if
that's what Tim's seeing, as Bart goes down like he's a triple-scoop cone and
Kon can't wonder anything, can't see anything, can barely feel his head roll
back and bonk the wall, and it feels like his own heat vision flashes into him,
through him as he comes.
The first things he feels after that are Bart's chin on his thigh and Tim's
fingers on his face.
The next thing he feels is the crick of his neck tipped back and the
cracklebreeze as Bart grabs Tim and kisses him. By the time Kon's head is up
Tim's giving as good as he's getting and whoa, they're right in front of his
face, wet and hard and licking each other's mouths, Tim's fingers tight in
Bart's hair and Bart's blurred on Tim's fly. Right.
Tim grunts and pulls on Bart's hair till Bart lets go. Kon's still gasping.
Bart's mouth is red and wet and open and if Kon can make his hands move he's
gonna grab Bart and kiss him, but Tim says, "Wait," to Bart and strips off his
shirt, and they're both too busy watching Tim's skin appear. Tim has the most
scars of anyone Kon's ever seen naked, and next to metas like him and Bart, Tim
looks like anything could break him and nothing ever would.
He doesn't have any new scars on his arm.
Tim catches Kon checking, and smirks gently, but his eyes are so open. Bart
makes this little impatient growl that hits Kon low and sweet, and he's naked.
Speedster. Damn. How the--
They are so not giving Kon time to think. They kiss again, Bart's arms around
Tim's neck, at least he starts there, and Kon's hands had a great idea without
him because they're on Bart and Tim's backs-- how did Tim get scars on his
back-- and sliding down and Bart has the pertest little ass ever. Tim's is so
firm a guy could break a finger squeezing it. Kon squeezes both and they both
moan and they're too far apart, kneeling over his legs.
So he lifts them into his lap. Well, drags. They don't really seem to care,
Bart's naked legs tangled up with Tim's denim-covered ones, and their hands
around each other's dicks, and Kon can feel them both gasping and shaking,
sweaty and breathless with their ribs heaving under his hands, Bart's skin soft
and smooth, Tim's soft between slick discontinuous scars. Kon is so gonna be
hard again in--
Just about now, because Bart shakes right into vibrating, and his hand on Tim's
a blur till Tim whimpers, and Kon can see Bart stopping himself on each stroke
or it'd still be a blur. It's just wild, it's what he wanted to do back when it
was just the three of them and their sleeping bags and they didn't even know
Tim's name, and somehow Kon's mouth wound up in Tim's hair and he can feel
Tim's pulse throbbing against his lips, and Bart's forehead creases as he makes
this row of sharp-edged broken noises and comes, his whole body jerking.
And he doesn't stop vibrating. In fact Bart's a little blurry, and he loses
Tim's mouth as he slumps, and Tim doesn't fall back so much as writhe up over
Kon's arm, moaning high and desperate-sounding, and that's definetely a scream
Tim just muffled in Kon's shoulder as he comes.
Bart's already looking up at Kon, grinning like he just had the best thought
ever, and he wraps his hand, all wet and hot with Tim's come, around Kon's
dick, and vibrates double-time. He says something, but Kon's can't hear
anything at the moment except his own brain blowing up.
Wow, Kon eventually thinks. Tim's head is under his chin. Bart's is under
Tim's. His shirt's a wreck, and Tim's wiping his hands, because he would have
something with him even if he didn't have his belt on under there, and Bart
wiggles out to look up and check if Kon's still sentient. If he ever was. Bart
nods, grins and tucks himself back again, and as Kon's brain slowly solidifies
he manages to realize a couple of things.
One is that he's being cuddled. He's totally being cuddled. Just like on the
roof, except nakedly this time, so kinda even more so. Tim's jeans and boxer-
briefs are around his knees at this point, they don't really count. It's
probably not exactly ordinary American masculine behavior, but Kon could care
less about that at the moment.
Another is that Tim and Bart trusted him not to squash them in the throes of
passion, as the phrase goes. Knowing, more than ever, what kind of damage he
can inflict. He really doesn't deserve that, but the impulse to flee is held
down by the thought that this is a gift, the kind of thing Aunt Martha had that
talk with him about "being a gracious recipient" about. Kinda. He sighs and
leans against the wall a little bit more, and Tim and Bart lean on him.
A third thing Kon realizes, is that they're warm, and the pleasant kind of
sweaty, and pretty much naked, in his lap. And the Kents are, eventually, gonna
come looking for him.
Tim was probably waiting for him to think of that. "We'd better get dressed,"
he says at that exact moment as he shifts off Kon, and only the fact that his
cheeks are two shades pinker than usual gives him away. If he weren't Bat-pale
a person probably wouldn't even notice.
"Kon, say something." Bart's suddenly in his face, dressed and blocking his
view, and when he can see anything again Tim's dressed too. "You're never this
quiet."
"You're one to talk." Kon tries to ruffle Bart's hair, and Bart grins and
ducks. Kon grins back, pulls off his shirt and zips up his jeans, and stands
up. Tim's hood's up over his hair, Bart's got his dorky cap back on. They look
like they're ready to go, and as cool as if they hadn't just tackled him to the
floor and come sitting in his lap, and Kon really has to laugh, harder when Tim
gives him the eyebrow and Bart's eyes go round.
Then he has to stop, because he's only laughing because it hurts. "It's like--
- the old days, when we were Young Justice. Before YJ. Before..." Before things
seemed like they had consequences. Before Kon left Hawaii. Before anyone died.
"Before we met Anita, and Cissie." Bart looks... not bummed, but still. Almost
quiet. Way too quiet.
"Cassie, and Greta." Tim's arms fold up a little tighter.
"Before Max disappeared." Bart sighs, and Kon really wants something hard
enough to bang his head against. But Bart smiles, because Bart always smiles,
and he says, "We're here, now."
And Tim smiles, one of those little smiles he really means, even though he
says, "We should probably get moving."
"Yeah," Kon says, because he it's not like he can ask them to stay.
"Um. Batgirl's not in Bludhaven at the moment, but when she gets back I'll tell
her you said hi." Tim looks at Kon, and Kon nods and tries to think of
something not completely stupid to say, and looks at Tim back.
At least till Bart tackles Kon against the wall and kisses him. "Bye, Kon."
Bart smiles, fast-wide-bright, and kisses him again. "You'll always be a Titan.
Don't forget."
"Come back when you're ready." Tim's still kinda far away. And then he isn't,
looking right up into Kon's eyes. Kon blinks, and Tim smiles, wide enough for
anyone not just him, but it doesn't look like an act. And he kisses Kon, too.
Then Tim smiles at Bart, who crackles away and reappears in his suit, and wraps
his arm around Tim's waist, and they're both gone.
Kon stands there, blinking a bit. After a moment he pulls on his jacket and
looks out the window. Bart's track is already gone, but the stars are still out
there. So's the Tower. So's the world.
All this evening Kon kept forgetting to hate himself. Bart and Tim don't.
Cassie and Raven don't. The Titans don't. Maybe, sometime...
Kon looks down at the hay around his feet, but he still smiles.
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