New Happyverse: Home at Last, 2
Dec. 16th, 2006 03:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sylph_ficsTitle: Home at Last, part 2
Cowriter:
Characters: The usual suspects
Rating: R, profanity
Word Count: 12,363 (both parts)
Continuity: The HappyVerse. All fic gathered here.
Disclaimer: DC Comics makes the money, people
Notes: It's official... HappyVerse is our refuge from the meaner things in comics--and our one-stop fix-it shop.
Summary: It's Easter, and Bruce and his boys are ready to come home... and someone returns to a woman who missed him badly.
Jason came in just as Tim and Kon were escorting Mia to her place, having met her at the base of the stairs. Kon pulled the chair out, and Tim kept the contact a gentleman should, as they seated her. She smiled at both, and Kon smiled back, while Jason checked out the pretty blonde girl at his table. Tim's eyes narrowed slightly, and he settled beside her.
Kyle and Connor were both a bit damp, but clean, neat, and downstairs on time. Bruce and Ollie were seated on time too, but Dinah came in as Alfred was beginning to look slightly annoyed. However, when he saw Dinah's face, the complete serenity, he merely smiled and reminded himself that women, like kittens, made their own rules.
Dinner was, as usual when Alfred was cooking, an absolute feast.
Dinah was being more of an observer than a talker that night, not liking the subtle signs she saw around Mia's eyes. She kept one eye on them, and watched with vague amusement when Jay's attempts to engage her in flirty conversation failed spectacularly. Lian did eventually take pity on him, consenting to talk to him.
Tim was making himself let Mia fend for herself--and enjoying her comebacks immensely. Dick found Mia entirely amusing, and Lian even moreso... though he, too, could see something was up with Mia. Kon watched it all with a slight air of hostility, feeling out of sorts over the strong possessive/protective streak Mia had kickstarted in him. That had Roy's eyebrows arching--he'd spent plenty of time with Kon over the last few weeks--he could see something weird there. But then, he'd been starting to bristle Jay's way, too. Could just be that.
Jay was amused by the two boys flanking the target of his attentions, and resolved to see just how far he could push the littlest wing concerning the girl.
Tim found himself using a low-level calming routine to keep his temper in check, keeping a very, very sharp ear and eye on his Mia. If she got upset.... all bets were off. And as he'd spent the year doing far more training than anything else... Jason was going to learn just how much better he'd gotten. //Yes, I am that good.//
Dick took it on himself to break that up with a cheerful insult aimed Jay's way about sticking to his own age group.
That earned Roy a solid leer. "Not a half bad idea," he drawled lazily, before proceeding to inspect Connor and Kyle head to toe as well, an equal opportunity offender and flirter.
"You're not my type," Kyle told him calmly, completely unworried.
Roy snorted. "Try it somewhere else, little brother."
Jay laughed full and long, and then grinned. "Guess I'll just have to wait for 'little sister' to come home. She was a pretty one, after all."
Tim very nearly decked him. "She's not coming home, unless you figure out the trick to sex with a ghost."
Jay turned and looked at him in confusion. "What? What happened to the Batgirl?"
"He thought you meant Spoiler," Mia said, amused at the misunderstanding.
"Jay, Cass is perfectly fine. She's not sure yet on coming back to Gotham though," Dinah told the middle Bat-Boy.
//Cass isn't our sister. No more than Babs,// flashed through Tim's mind, even as he went cold with anger at letting his temper get that far away from him. "I misinterpreted. Alfred, thank you for dinner, it was, as usual, excellent. Night, all."
Mia looked at Tim in concern, and started to excuse herself as well, until Kon stood.
"G'night everyone," the Super Teen said, following Tim.
Jay watched, doing some shrewd calculations in his head. It did not add up that his gibing had pushed Tim's nerves that hard unless he was keyed up over something else already.
Dick was actually even more worried. "Jay, some days--no, strike that. You never know when to knock. it. off."
"Sue me, big bro...it's my nature. And Robins shouldn't be so thin-skinned."
"This Robin has had to shoulder a hell of a lot more crap than ten kids ought in their life," Mia hissed. "No disrespect, Jay, but sometimes it's a hell of a lot harder to live than to die." And with that, she got up, nodded curtly to Alfred, and went after her friends.
"I'll do more than sue you if Tim doesn't sleep tonight," Dick warned him. "And Kon will tell me." His hand spun idly... as if he were walking one of his sticks over his fingers.
"Boys," Bruce called them down, eyes narrowed. "Stop."
Tim got upstairs and into his room, fighting the shaking in his hands.
Ollie eyed Jay, seeing Roy at his most belligerent and then some...and decided that every family had to have at least one problem child. The others stayed out of it, jumping on the idea of dessert when Alfred broached the subject to try ad clear the air.
Kon was there right behind him, wrapping him tight to his body, and only opening his TTK field when Mia slipped in and up against Tim's back.
"I should not let him get to me," Tim hissed softly, angry with himself.
"Hey," Kon said. "He's an ass. Our own Guy Gardner."
Mia rolled her eyes, but she pressed a small kiss to the middle of Tim's shoulder blades to show she understood and sympathized.
"I knew he'd been around Rose," Tim muttered, furious with himself, locked in on himself.
Kon grabbed him by the shoulders and squeezed. "Don't. Okay? Not a day goes by with him up there that he doesn't start a fight with somebody."
"Tim...beating yourself up for letting him get to you...still counts as him getting to you," Mia pointed out, raising her hand to stroke his hair lightly.
Tim let himself curl around Kon, sighing as Mia's words got through his anger. "You're right. He's an ass and not worth the time."
"Not one bit," Kon agreed.
Mia just smiled, pulling back. "Alright, then; I should let you guys have some privacy."
Tim reached back and caught her hand. "Don't. May need to hear that a few more times."
Mia looked at Kon, who nodded, showing he was okay with her staying. Mia pressed close to Tim again, resting her forehead on his shoulder. "I appreciate you guys trying to back him off of me," she added.
"You don't need to deal with his bullshit. ...but you were doing damn well," Tim added, lips curling slightly.
Kon shrugged. "He does that to everyone, but it's about time someone shredded that ego of his. He's not that hot."
"No, not even in the looks department," Mia said.
That actually startled a soft laugh out of Tim. "True. Dick's the pretty one."
Kon shook his head. "Pretty maybe, but not hot like you."
"Gotta agree with Kon on that one." Mia started working his shoulders.
Tim actually flushed, then sighed and slumped against Kon's body as Mia's strong archer's hands worked on the disaster he'd made of his shoulders. //Unlock the body, unlock the mind... oh, no. Time to be quiet.//
"Kon, lay him on the bed for me. He needs a solid massage." Mia would relax her friend, and that would make Kon's job a little easier.
Kon moved, and shifted Tim, peeling him out of the shirt as he did. "Hm..." //You have oil here somewhere. I know you do...//
Tim sighed. "Top dresser drawer. In the first aid kit."
Mia smirked. "Where every good superhero keeps it," she teased, waiting for Kon to flip her the bottle he retrieved. She climbed up on the bed, kneeling over Tim's hips.
Kon settled beside them, noticing the way Mia's arms corded just slightly with strength she could bearing to bear in her arms, while he stroked Tim's hair.
//Entirely too good to me,// Tim thought softly, relaxing into Mia's touch. She knew what she was doing, not that he was surprised. Words bubbled up inside him, and he started murmuring softly in Hakka. It would undo her work if he fought the urge to talk, but that didn't mean he had to do it in something they would understand.
Mia worked his back all the way to his waist, working each muscle group with the precision Connor had trained in her, then had to stop. For the Arrows, she would have worked their legs, as it was just as much a part of a cool down after a stressful run as the back and arms. With Tim, she could not; she'd have to let Kon tend to that if he needed more massage to relax.
He looked over his shoulder at her, relaxed almost enough to sleep, but wondering why she'd stopped, confusion faintly written over his features.
She leaned down, kissed his cheek, then sat back up and concentrated on his neck and scalp, her eyes meeting Kon's.
Kon saw the briefest flicker of something deeply emotional in Mia's eyes before she flashed him a warm smile, and he could almost believe he had imagined it.
Tim settled again, stretching against the bed. "Mia... thank you. Very much..." He was so very glad neither one of them had understood what he was saying.
"Anytime, Tim, anytime." She continued until he was right on the edge of sleep, and then shifted to leave the room, so Kon could lay with him, and she could clean her hands.
Kon caught her, this time. "Keep your ears open, Mia," he said, barely audible. "Hopefully he won't, but..." //Jay shoved Steph in his face...// "Might need you."
She nodded. "I'm right across the hall, Kon; door will be open so I can hear." She gave him a quick kiss on his cheek too, before leaving the boys alone.
//Why is she being skittish?// Kon wondered worriedly, then stripped to boxers and settled he and his drowsing lover under the covers.
"m'a?"
//God you're wiped...// "Cleaning up." It was true enough, and Tim might really sleep.
Mia listened outside the door a long moment, then nodded casually to Kyle and Connor going to their room. She went across the hall, cleaned up, and stared a long time at the mirror. One way or another, she was going to have to bite the bullet and really decide what she wanted, and then find out if it was what they wanted.
Bruce and Ollie had gone down to decide what needed to be done, created a few fairly massive lists, and decided to table it all for morning--Bruce's night, until his body reset--and gone up to find Dinah.
They got into the room looking for her, only to have her come from the other end of the hall and step in behind them, looking sharply at Ollie.
"You told her she had to let them know, didn't you?" Her voice had a small edge to it, that made Bruce wince inwardly, seeing an infamous Arrow/Canary argument brewing.
"She wasn't even going to come, and I had to make her see how unfair she was being to Tim," Ollie retorted, his eyes meeting hers warily. Spending Easter weekend fighting with either of his lovers was not on his agenda. He had not seen either of them nearly enough.
"It would not have hurt Tim to not know for a month, two at max," Dinah said in a low voice. "Now she's going to have another thing to stress over."
Bruce, knowing how worried Tim was in the back of his mind over Mia's health had a hard time agreeing that anything could warrant hiding what Mia was doing, but he listened, even as Ollie ran a hand over his hair.
"Explain it to me, Pretty Bird, how having her two best friends supporting her right now could add stress?"
"Because she's terrified that the friendship is going to suffer once there is no 'security blanket' between them." Dinah relaxed her tone, and Bruce felt the tension lapse, even as he waited to hear the explanation of the faulty feminine logic. "She dos not want things to change from the way they have them... Kon with Tim, and her as their friend, and she's pretty well convinced it will."
"I'm not following." This made absolutely no sense to Ollie, and less to Bruce.
Dinah took a deep breath. "Ollie, what did Mia do before she met you?"
"We don't need to go into that," he said gruffly.
"But we do... it's the core of her problem once she is clean." The woman came and sat between them on the bed, having changed into a light robe as they talked. "For too long the only time men touched her was when they wanted that... then along comes Tim, willing to go past the fact she's carrying the disease, willing to touch her and it not mean anything more than affection."
"She thinks getting clean is going to...?" Ollie still did not yet see the whole picture, but he did wince to see Mia's viewpoint.
"She's been worried over things changing, and now she's going to worry over them worrying it will get weird." Dinah pressed into Bruce's arms as he caught and held her, while her hands took Ollie's and drew him to rest close. "The disease has been a huge stop sign about thoughts of sex for Mia and for the boys. Once that's gone... she's just worried because she doesn't want things to go wrong."
"Not a very good reason, but if she's having issues about her past," Bruce rumbled, pausing when Dinah shook her head.
"Here's the real rub, and the reason I chose to not convince her to speak up," she said. "She loves Tim, loves Kon... that's obvious. But she really doesn't know if she wants them to be interested that way, or not. It's probably partly because of how fierce she protects them being together, doesn't want to get in the way, and partly because of her past, but she does have some conflicted thoughts on what could happen down the road."
"And rather than add her worrying over their reactions too, she just chose to keep it quiet for now," Ollie said, finally understanding; even if the logic was severely flawed, he could see the merit of not adding anymore stress on top of what she was already feeling. Dinah merely nodded, then indicated time to talk about the children was over by very solidly kissing each of her men.
Cowriter:
Characters: The usual suspects
Rating: R, profanity
Word Count: 12,363 (both parts)
Continuity: The HappyVerse. All fic gathered here.
Disclaimer: DC Comics makes the money, people
Notes: It's official... HappyVerse is our refuge from the meaner things in comics--and our one-stop fix-it shop.
Summary: It's Easter, and Bruce and his boys are ready to come home... and someone returns to a woman who missed him badly.
Jason came in just as Tim and Kon were escorting Mia to her place, having met her at the base of the stairs. Kon pulled the chair out, and Tim kept the contact a gentleman should, as they seated her. She smiled at both, and Kon smiled back, while Jason checked out the pretty blonde girl at his table. Tim's eyes narrowed slightly, and he settled beside her.
Kyle and Connor were both a bit damp, but clean, neat, and downstairs on time. Bruce and Ollie were seated on time too, but Dinah came in as Alfred was beginning to look slightly annoyed. However, when he saw Dinah's face, the complete serenity, he merely smiled and reminded himself that women, like kittens, made their own rules.
Dinner was, as usual when Alfred was cooking, an absolute feast.
Dinah was being more of an observer than a talker that night, not liking the subtle signs she saw around Mia's eyes. She kept one eye on them, and watched with vague amusement when Jay's attempts to engage her in flirty conversation failed spectacularly. Lian did eventually take pity on him, consenting to talk to him.
Tim was making himself let Mia fend for herself--and enjoying her comebacks immensely. Dick found Mia entirely amusing, and Lian even moreso... though he, too, could see something was up with Mia. Kon watched it all with a slight air of hostility, feeling out of sorts over the strong possessive/protective streak Mia had kickstarted in him. That had Roy's eyebrows arching--he'd spent plenty of time with Kon over the last few weeks--he could see something weird there. But then, he'd been starting to bristle Jay's way, too. Could just be that.
Jay was amused by the two boys flanking the target of his attentions, and resolved to see just how far he could push the littlest wing concerning the girl.
Tim found himself using a low-level calming routine to keep his temper in check, keeping a very, very sharp ear and eye on his Mia. If she got upset.... all bets were off. And as he'd spent the year doing far more training than anything else... Jason was going to learn just how much better he'd gotten. //Yes, I am that good.//
Dick took it on himself to break that up with a cheerful insult aimed Jay's way about sticking to his own age group.
That earned Roy a solid leer. "Not a half bad idea," he drawled lazily, before proceeding to inspect Connor and Kyle head to toe as well, an equal opportunity offender and flirter.
"You're not my type," Kyle told him calmly, completely unworried.
Roy snorted. "Try it somewhere else, little brother."
Jay laughed full and long, and then grinned. "Guess I'll just have to wait for 'little sister' to come home. She was a pretty one, after all."
Tim very nearly decked him. "She's not coming home, unless you figure out the trick to sex with a ghost."
Jay turned and looked at him in confusion. "What? What happened to the Batgirl?"
"He thought you meant Spoiler," Mia said, amused at the misunderstanding.
"Jay, Cass is perfectly fine. She's not sure yet on coming back to Gotham though," Dinah told the middle Bat-Boy.
//Cass isn't our sister. No more than Babs,// flashed through Tim's mind, even as he went cold with anger at letting his temper get that far away from him. "I misinterpreted. Alfred, thank you for dinner, it was, as usual, excellent. Night, all."
Mia looked at Tim in concern, and started to excuse herself as well, until Kon stood.
"G'night everyone," the Super Teen said, following Tim.
Jay watched, doing some shrewd calculations in his head. It did not add up that his gibing had pushed Tim's nerves that hard unless he was keyed up over something else already.
Dick was actually even more worried. "Jay, some days--no, strike that. You never know when to knock. it. off."
"Sue me, big bro...it's my nature. And Robins shouldn't be so thin-skinned."
"This Robin has had to shoulder a hell of a lot more crap than ten kids ought in their life," Mia hissed. "No disrespect, Jay, but sometimes it's a hell of a lot harder to live than to die." And with that, she got up, nodded curtly to Alfred, and went after her friends.
"I'll do more than sue you if Tim doesn't sleep tonight," Dick warned him. "And Kon will tell me." His hand spun idly... as if he were walking one of his sticks over his fingers.
"Boys," Bruce called them down, eyes narrowed. "Stop."
Tim got upstairs and into his room, fighting the shaking in his hands.
Ollie eyed Jay, seeing Roy at his most belligerent and then some...and decided that every family had to have at least one problem child. The others stayed out of it, jumping on the idea of dessert when Alfred broached the subject to try ad clear the air.
Kon was there right behind him, wrapping him tight to his body, and only opening his TTK field when Mia slipped in and up against Tim's back.
"I should not let him get to me," Tim hissed softly, angry with himself.
"Hey," Kon said. "He's an ass. Our own Guy Gardner."
Mia rolled her eyes, but she pressed a small kiss to the middle of Tim's shoulder blades to show she understood and sympathized.
"I knew he'd been around Rose," Tim muttered, furious with himself, locked in on himself.
Kon grabbed him by the shoulders and squeezed. "Don't. Okay? Not a day goes by with him up there that he doesn't start a fight with somebody."
"Tim...beating yourself up for letting him get to you...still counts as him getting to you," Mia pointed out, raising her hand to stroke his hair lightly.
Tim let himself curl around Kon, sighing as Mia's words got through his anger. "You're right. He's an ass and not worth the time."
"Not one bit," Kon agreed.
Mia just smiled, pulling back. "Alright, then; I should let you guys have some privacy."
Tim reached back and caught her hand. "Don't. May need to hear that a few more times."
Mia looked at Kon, who nodded, showing he was okay with her staying. Mia pressed close to Tim again, resting her forehead on his shoulder. "I appreciate you guys trying to back him off of me," she added.
"You don't need to deal with his bullshit. ...but you were doing damn well," Tim added, lips curling slightly.
Kon shrugged. "He does that to everyone, but it's about time someone shredded that ego of his. He's not that hot."
"No, not even in the looks department," Mia said.
That actually startled a soft laugh out of Tim. "True. Dick's the pretty one."
Kon shook his head. "Pretty maybe, but not hot like you."
"Gotta agree with Kon on that one." Mia started working his shoulders.
Tim actually flushed, then sighed and slumped against Kon's body as Mia's strong archer's hands worked on the disaster he'd made of his shoulders. //Unlock the body, unlock the mind... oh, no. Time to be quiet.//
"Kon, lay him on the bed for me. He needs a solid massage." Mia would relax her friend, and that would make Kon's job a little easier.
Kon moved, and shifted Tim, peeling him out of the shirt as he did. "Hm..." //You have oil here somewhere. I know you do...//
Tim sighed. "Top dresser drawer. In the first aid kit."
Mia smirked. "Where every good superhero keeps it," she teased, waiting for Kon to flip her the bottle he retrieved. She climbed up on the bed, kneeling over Tim's hips.
Kon settled beside them, noticing the way Mia's arms corded just slightly with strength she could bearing to bear in her arms, while he stroked Tim's hair.
//Entirely too good to me,// Tim thought softly, relaxing into Mia's touch. She knew what she was doing, not that he was surprised. Words bubbled up inside him, and he started murmuring softly in Hakka. It would undo her work if he fought the urge to talk, but that didn't mean he had to do it in something they would understand.
Mia worked his back all the way to his waist, working each muscle group with the precision Connor had trained in her, then had to stop. For the Arrows, she would have worked their legs, as it was just as much a part of a cool down after a stressful run as the back and arms. With Tim, she could not; she'd have to let Kon tend to that if he needed more massage to relax.
He looked over his shoulder at her, relaxed almost enough to sleep, but wondering why she'd stopped, confusion faintly written over his features.
She leaned down, kissed his cheek, then sat back up and concentrated on his neck and scalp, her eyes meeting Kon's.
Kon saw the briefest flicker of something deeply emotional in Mia's eyes before she flashed him a warm smile, and he could almost believe he had imagined it.
Tim settled again, stretching against the bed. "Mia... thank you. Very much..." He was so very glad neither one of them had understood what he was saying.
"Anytime, Tim, anytime." She continued until he was right on the edge of sleep, and then shifted to leave the room, so Kon could lay with him, and she could clean her hands.
Kon caught her, this time. "Keep your ears open, Mia," he said, barely audible. "Hopefully he won't, but..." //Jay shoved Steph in his face...// "Might need you."
She nodded. "I'm right across the hall, Kon; door will be open so I can hear." She gave him a quick kiss on his cheek too, before leaving the boys alone.
//Why is she being skittish?// Kon wondered worriedly, then stripped to boxers and settled he and his drowsing lover under the covers.
"m'a?"
//God you're wiped...// "Cleaning up." It was true enough, and Tim might really sleep.
Mia listened outside the door a long moment, then nodded casually to Kyle and Connor going to their room. She went across the hall, cleaned up, and stared a long time at the mirror. One way or another, she was going to have to bite the bullet and really decide what she wanted, and then find out if it was what they wanted.
Bruce and Ollie had gone down to decide what needed to be done, created a few fairly massive lists, and decided to table it all for morning--Bruce's night, until his body reset--and gone up to find Dinah.
They got into the room looking for her, only to have her come from the other end of the hall and step in behind them, looking sharply at Ollie.
"You told her she had to let them know, didn't you?" Her voice had a small edge to it, that made Bruce wince inwardly, seeing an infamous Arrow/Canary argument brewing.
"She wasn't even going to come, and I had to make her see how unfair she was being to Tim," Ollie retorted, his eyes meeting hers warily. Spending Easter weekend fighting with either of his lovers was not on his agenda. He had not seen either of them nearly enough.
"It would not have hurt Tim to not know for a month, two at max," Dinah said in a low voice. "Now she's going to have another thing to stress over."
Bruce, knowing how worried Tim was in the back of his mind over Mia's health had a hard time agreeing that anything could warrant hiding what Mia was doing, but he listened, even as Ollie ran a hand over his hair.
"Explain it to me, Pretty Bird, how having her two best friends supporting her right now could add stress?"
"Because she's terrified that the friendship is going to suffer once there is no 'security blanket' between them." Dinah relaxed her tone, and Bruce felt the tension lapse, even as he waited to hear the explanation of the faulty feminine logic. "She dos not want things to change from the way they have them... Kon with Tim, and her as their friend, and she's pretty well convinced it will."
"I'm not following." This made absolutely no sense to Ollie, and less to Bruce.
Dinah took a deep breath. "Ollie, what did Mia do before she met you?"
"We don't need to go into that," he said gruffly.
"But we do... it's the core of her problem once she is clean." The woman came and sat between them on the bed, having changed into a light robe as they talked. "For too long the only time men touched her was when they wanted that... then along comes Tim, willing to go past the fact she's carrying the disease, willing to touch her and it not mean anything more than affection."
"She thinks getting clean is going to...?" Ollie still did not yet see the whole picture, but he did wince to see Mia's viewpoint.
"She's been worried over things changing, and now she's going to worry over them worrying it will get weird." Dinah pressed into Bruce's arms as he caught and held her, while her hands took Ollie's and drew him to rest close. "The disease has been a huge stop sign about thoughts of sex for Mia and for the boys. Once that's gone... she's just worried because she doesn't want things to go wrong."
"Not a very good reason, but if she's having issues about her past," Bruce rumbled, pausing when Dinah shook her head.
"Here's the real rub, and the reason I chose to not convince her to speak up," she said. "She loves Tim, loves Kon... that's obvious. But she really doesn't know if she wants them to be interested that way, or not. It's probably partly because of how fierce she protects them being together, doesn't want to get in the way, and partly because of her past, but she does have some conflicted thoughts on what could happen down the road."
"And rather than add her worrying over their reactions too, she just chose to keep it quiet for now," Ollie said, finally understanding; even if the logic was severely flawed, he could see the merit of not adding anymore stress on top of what she was already feeling. Dinah merely nodded, then indicated time to talk about the children was over by very solidly kissing each of her men.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 03:44 am (UTC)Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-19 04:17 am (UTC)*glee*