buggery | Oops, Bat-boytouching.

I actually wrote this for Te last month, and forgot to post it. I know, I don't know either...

Te had set her AIM away message to read:

I, of course, cannot resist the terrible whirling eyes of Te -- or, indeed, half her offhand suggestions.

I didn't think I could write any toon!Tim smut. He's too... I look at that boy and just know he hasn't had a single pubic hair come in yet.

But, since the desires of Te MUST BE FULFILLED... I played with Livia's generator Mark III, aka the EVIL LORD AND FOUNT OF ALL CRACK plot generator, until it gave me a scenario that I didn't immediately say, 'No, that won't help' to.

So... story. This is actually a The New Batman Adventures/The New Superman Adventures (those cartoons that followed Batman: The Animated Series back in the 90s) crossover. If you've seen The Batman-Superman Movie, same thing. The plottishness referred to did not happen in series canon, and I decided it didn't actually need to be shown in the story, either.

Thanks to Reilael and L.C. for being a receptive and enthusiastic audience.

Abroad in the Sunlight

Bruce is still talking with Superman, and while Tim's presence isn't exactly unwelcome, he's not really part of the conversation, either.

Squinting against the sun-glare off the giant globe -- you'd never see an enormous garish bit of whimsy like that in Gotham's skyline -- he looks across the rooftop, and spies someone watching them from the doorway to the stairs.

The adults don't even notice when he slips away from them.

Jimmy startles when Tim drops down beside him, but he returns Tim's grin, if a little uncertainly. "Um... I guess I shouldn't be up here, huh? Superhero stuff..."

"Hey, I couldn't have saved them without your help." He puts his hand on Jimmy's, the one that wants to reach up and hold the camera hanging around his neck. Tim can tell Jimmy knows that looking like you're about to snap a photo isn't interpreted as friendly in superheroic circles. "I won't forget that, even if they do."

Jimmy smiles for real at the acknowledgment. Tim looks up further, to his eyes; yep, it's genuine. Jimmy's also blushing, a little, making the freckles splashed across his cheeks stand out a little less. He never thought he'd see blushing make somebody look older.

"It must be tough, being Superman's... friend, but not being able to really work with him," he says.

The blush gets a little deeper, and Jimmy looks down at his feet. "It's all right. I mean, he's *Superman*. And it's not like I could really do anything *to* help..."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Tim says. Smirking feels good. Returning Jimmy's grin when it reappears feels even better. "Maybe you just need the right partner."

Jimmy glances over at where Superman and Batman are still talking, arms folded over their chests, serious. When Tim looks back at Jimmy, his face has gone serious again, too. His hand tries to pull Tim's up to the camera.

He'd forgotten he was still holding Jimmy's hand, it felt so natural.

"I tell you what," he says, with another glance over his shoulder to assess how soon the other conversation might be over; not soon, it looked like. He can't remember the last time Bruce has had such a long conversation with anyone; even if it's mostly business, it's good for the big guy, and Tim wants to let it go on uninterrupted as long as possible. "You want to take some pictures of Robin in action?"

Jimmy's mouth falls open. He's really cute, in an I-could-have-a-crush-on-this-older-boy way. "Are you serious?"

"As Batman," he answers, though the way he can't help but grin ruins the effect. "Just promise me none of them will appear with a 'Boy Wonder' caption." He tugs on Jimmy's hand, and leads him over to the edge of the roof.

Jimmy just gapes at him for a moment, then starts getting his camera ready. He gets out one of his folding manual grapples -- the line-launcher would make too much noise, and he doesn't need to secure the line all that higher up than they already are anyway -- and hooks it over the rungs on the access ladder atop the stairwell with a practiced toss.

A couple of tugs to check that the line's secure, and... "Ready?" he asks Jimmy.

Jimmy crouches down on the gravelled roof and holds the camera up to his face. "Whenever you are."

Tim gathers the loops of slack line in one hand, dashes obliquely away, and launches himself into space with a last push off the retaining wall. He can't do much more than swing in a little arc back onto the roof, a few yards from where he started, but he heard the camera's shutter clicking and the whirr of the film advancing, fast as tommy-gun fire.

Jimmy looks... in awe, maybe of Tim, maybe of himself for getting it on film, maybe some of both.

"Did you get me?"

Jimmy... beams at him, *beams* like a sunbeam. It lights up his whole face, makes his red hair seem like a corona. "I don't know if they'll all come out -- you were moving so *fast!* -- but yeah, I'm sure I'll have at least one good shot or two."

"Think the Planet will run them?"

"Are you kidding me? A photo of Robin, the-- of *Robin*, swinging above Metropolis in full daylight? It might just make the front page."

"Cool." And it is. "Should be easy enough for me to get a copy, then."

"Oh... yeah... or maybe I could give some prints to Superman, to give to Batman, to give to you."

"Yeah. Sure." It's not the best idea, actually -- or rather, Bruce wouldn't like it -- but he doesn't want to dampen Jimmy's enthusiasm.

Something else is doing that, anyway. Jimmy looks... pensive, or wistful, all of a sudden. "What is it?" Tim asks.

"I was just wondering... I mean, I've gotten to fly with Superman a few times, but I just thought, I mean... it has to be a lot different, what you and Batman do, right?"

Tim measures Jimmy with his eyes. He's got a few inches on Tim, but he's lean, probably doesn't weigh even one-fifteen, and he's strong, too, for a civilian. His physical strength had turned out to be as crucial to his role in the rescue as his wits and courage.

"You really want to find out?" he says. He has a feeling he's grinning that 'particularly mischievous' grin that Alfred says puts him 'in mind of Master Dick.' Jimmy's speechless again, but he bends his head to let Tim take the camera on its strap off him, and follows him over to where he jumped from before.

Tim positions Jimmy carefully. "Okay, stand like this. Yeah, facing parallel to the roofline. Now, keep this arm slack, until I grab you, and then you can put it here--" he wraps Jimmy's arm briefly around his waist "--and hold on to the arm I'm swinging from with the other."

Jimmy nods, his face a caricature of concentration. Tim nudges him and grins. "*Relax*. This is supposed to be fun -- and if you tense up, it'll be less safe on top of less fun."

Jimmy breathes in and out, smiles ruefully and then more purposefully, more for Tim's benefit. His stance eases.

"Yeah!" Tim says. "Like that. Now, if you do tense up, don't worry about it -- I'll have you, and I won't let you fall. Just try to stay relaxed, and enjoy."

Setting his foot on the parapet, Jimmy strikes a rakish pose, arm out. "Well?" he prompts. "We gonna do this?" Tim grins, jogs back enough to give himself a running start, and repeats his swing, snagging Jimmy on his way off the roof.

Jimmy is a natural. His arm wraps around Tim's waist just where it should, just above where Tim's arm is around Jimmy's, and he's holding on to Tim's shoulder with the other. The rest of his body is slack, not quite limp, not weighing them down, but flowing with their swing. He can just see the white of Jimmy's grin out of the corner of his eye.

Too soon they're back at the roof. Jimmy lets him control their landing, so they wind up with Tim standing upright and Jimmy supported only by his grip on Tim's shoulder and Tim's arm around his waist, his legs bent lax beneath him. Their positions remind him of ballroom dancers, like he's seen at some of Bruce's parties, watching from the mezzanine when he was supposed to be in bed. The image doesn't give him any urge to giggle, oddly. He's staring down into Jimmy's wide, dazzled, ecstatic eyes, his own head bent.

That crush that was a hypothetical, theoretical, might-happen-someday just minutes ago is suddenly very real and very right now, pounding in Tim's veins and making his breath catch in his throat. He wonders whether Jimmy is feeling anything like that, or if it's just the exhilaration of his first ride on a jumpline. He wonders if Jimmy would think he's too young, and by how much. He straightens the rest of the way up, drawing Jimmy with him until the older boy gets his legs under himself.

It doesn't remind him any less of dancers rising out of a dip.

They're both still staring into each other's eyes. The pink spots high on Jimmy's cheeks are nothing like a blush. Jimmy is panting softly, his mouth open, his lower lip glistening.

"Wow," Jimmy whispers. "That... I.. that was... wow..." It's not the most coherent description in the history of language, but it's more words than Tim can quite manage yet.

They still have their arms around each other, though they've slipped from waists to hips. Jimmy's other hand is warm on Tim's shoulder, even through his sleeve. He lets go of the grapple line, so he can reach for--

"Jimmy?" Superman. Shit.

Mercifully, miraculously, they get their hands off each other quickly but not *too* quickly, and he busies himself freeing and coiling up his line while Jimmy stammers, "Uh, h-hi, Superman, so glad you're all right," and retrieves his camera. "I uh," he repeats as he resettles the strap around his neck, "I should go, uh, get... go... get back to work." His hands drop to his sides and fidget there, but he doesn't reach for the camera.

Tim finishes packing his line back away. He can't actually see where Bruce is, but he can feel that he's being watched, which confirms that Batman is still somewhere on the roof. He can't decide whether a lecture or silence would be worse.

Superman smiles, wide and open as the sky. "Okay, Jimmy. I just wanted to thank you for your help. I understand Robin couldn't have done it without you."

Jimmy flushes to the tips of his ears. Then Superman *winks* at him, and Jimmy makes a quiet, choked noise as he ducks his head and stumbles into the stairwell, the door closing after him with a clang.

Well, he'd suspected as much -- *Jimmy* has a crush, and there it is, right in Tim's face where he can't miss it. He wonders how much this ruins any chance he might have. Or maybe... maybe Jimmy will be more sympathetic, if he 'gets' it...

Drifting a little closer, Superman drops down until his feet almost touch the rooftop. "Thank you, too, Robin," he says. He lays his hand on Robin's shoulder. The other shoulder, not the one Jimmy had had *his* hand on.

It's impossible not to smile when Superman is being nice to you.

"Thank you from *both* of us," Superman adds.

"Hm," Bruce says, having decided to reappear.

"You're welcome to visit Metropolis anytime, Robin." And Superman's lifting up and away, the sun behind him so that Tim's eyes water and want to close, but he'd almost swear that... Superman winked at him, too?

Superman disappears in a sudden blur of primary colours, leaving Batman and Robin alone on the roof.

"So..." he asks, trying for casual, "home to Gotham?"

Bruce just says "hm" again, but a moment later the jet is dropping out of the bright, bright Metropolis sky. They strap in, and Bruce pressurises the cabin. As they bank past the Daily Planet building, Tim catches a glimpse of Jimmy standing in front of one of the big windows, watching them go.

When he faces front again, he catches Bruce's reflection in one of the instrument panels. Watching him.

He sighs and settles back in his seat. Silence all the way back to Gotham, and *then* a lecture. Possibly separate lectures on involving civilians in the Mission and on horseplay with Robin's equipment. Almost certainly another lecture tomorrow about secrecy and publicity, after the paper arrives.

Closing his eyes makes the rush of wind, the press of Jimmy's body against his, the light in Jimmy's eyes immediate again.

Let Bruce lecture. It was worth it.

Tim grins all the way home.

Title taken from Sospiri Di Roma III. "The White Peacock" by William Sharp (1855–1905).

other DCU stories by Jack
all fanfiction by the Jack

edited to provide a slightly more fitting subject line