#I'm realising this makes me seem like an asshole to even reconsider it

[very-uncorrect]

So today I was eating lunch with my friend in the sixth form area of my school and this girl (who I had spoken to for the first time ever yesterday, and she just asked me what my name and GCSE grades were) came up to me and was like "do you have any food I can eat" and I responded with something like "like what?" and she just said "anything", so I gave her a breakfast bar I had in my lunch bag, because I thought "oh maybe she forgot her lunch or can't afford any food", but then later I noticed she was eating this bowl of hot rice or soup or whatever and it made me consider if I was, I don't know how to describe it, conned? (not really what I mean but it's the closest word to it) I'm not trying to sound apathetic or anything, like idk where she got the other food from, but... idk

[yuvon-writes-letters]

Hey guys :)

Maybe I'm going chronological for one time, so I can sort my thoughts easier.

Yeah, Goldie's much mire active than I would've thought, too. But they did all those things to keep me alive and kind of save, since we still don't know who they are exactly working against. (I mean, we don't know who Goldie exactly is either, but you get my point)

Honestly, I am pretty sure the TSB timeline is continuing, at least if my theory that Goldie just set me back in an alternate timeline is true. In this case I feel sorry for TSB, though..Extremely sorry. He still was 'my' Jake back then, even though he acted weird in the end (maybe was manipulated by entities). I mean, if what he wrote was true he went with authorities. And in the end..this could've been his downfall.

And yeah, maybe I'm not exactly safe, but I just have to go back. If I go, and if I lose my job, I have some things to sort out. And Jake luckily agreed with me that clearing up my desk isn't the worst thing I can do before leaving. We're still thinking about a location, which I could luckily deside myself. Max agreed on that. Even though he still has some doubts. (I mean, of course...His cousin opened the door with bruises all over her face.) He did promise to not ask any questions until I feel ready, though. That gives myself and Jake some time to figure that out.

And also, Jake is right! We have three Jakes and three smart people. YUVON. And of course Goldie, like you said Yu :) And some information about the previous timeline. (And that was it with being chronological)

So yeah, like I said, Max and I'll go. And I also think we can be pretty certain now that the message came from Goldie not the MWAF (which is relieving). I saw the messages and they didn't make Jake the bad guy. I honestly just don't think I can quote them yet. (They're too good, but I probably start daydreaming if I do) But they talk about Jake being an important part of my life and my heart and Max protecting me when he cannot. My dear cousin jumped to conclusions when he saw my bruised face. About Max' phone...I'll probably throw it in a river or something if he brings it with him. I told him not to, also because of Jake (he's not only worried about the MWAF apparently...He didn't exactly say it out loud, but I think it's pretty obvious) but he loves this device.

And I emphasize with you about the being kidnapped thing, you'll manage it, I know it :) And if I need to jump dimensions and box some sense into your Crow-Crew xD

No but for real, you can do that. I know it :)

Jake, find a good point in time to talk to her. But do it :)

Otherwise, I still think the 'underlying desire' theory is a possibility! But, like always in the moment, we could be wrong.

As for my stasis, I really do not wish to talk to more people who think I've been kidnapped. And I am a bit scared that could somehow lead to either them or me being in more danger again. But for now we have to wait.

I for now will pack some important things and paper & pens xD I don't want to leave y'all behind :P

Liska🐾🔥

[A screenshot is glued to the back of the letter and the quick sentence "Jake wants to talk to Jake" is written above]

Hello Jake, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am not quite sure in which way Liska will handle giving you my message, but she promised me to not read it for now.

I don't know whether she told you before or not, but as far as I am concerned she realised I am not only worried about the MWAF chasing her.

With me breaking out of this stasis I am sure that my followers aren't that far behind. And I know you can't do anything from where you are, but cross checking way to protect her doesn't seem to bad to me. Especially since we are similar but still fairly different from each other. At least it seems like that from what I have read.

For my part, I recently improved and updated Nym-OS which allows me access to Liskas whereabouts. If Yuvon should read this, she knows and agrees to it.

Still I am yet stuck on one little detail: I am trying to help Nym-OS in counterattacking. So, even though I am sure you already knoe this yourself, Nym-OS gets the ability to access location of the people attacking Liskas phone. I am almost done with that, so we are able to see a bit easier if and where people are that could be a danger.

Do you have any other ideas for ways I could help? Or even improve what I am doing momentarily. I wouldn't normally ask this since I know and trust my skills, but I think that this is fairly different from a 'normal situation'.

~ Jake

Lis,

Um. I don't know if you've seen the newest person to send in a letter, but we now have an issue.

Jessy, if you're reading this, I was sort of trying to avoid talking about this right away but I'm sort of trapped in a weird place, and Jake's here too because I'm a dumbass. I did not, so you know, let him read your letter or my reply. I figured you wouldn't want that. Sorry for dancing around the issue earlier :/ But at least you can get a good sample of the complete insanity we go through on the regular now!

Yeah... you're getting thrown into the deep end right now, aren't you. Sorry. There's no way to ease into this. You should probably either stop reading these entirely or start reading the letters from the beginning, so this will all at least make some sense. The first letter should start with the words "To whoever reads this," just so you know you get the right one.

Back to you, Lis. Yeah, I feel pretty bad for TSB Jake too. I honestly can't imagine being in his position right now.

Alright. So, you can choose the place. Great! There's way less chance of you being caught that way...

Tragedies just seem to be happening to all us Duskwood detectives, recently, don't they? Rai is chronically overworked and barely has time to sleep, I'm stuck in this hellhole and I've been forgotten by most everyone, you were shot, and poor Matt died and... well.

I never knew him, but I feel really bad for him :(

You could give Max half the truth. Tell him you have a stalker, and he's starting to get physical. Jake has been trying to help you get away from the asshole. It's not even a lie, just... not the full truth. Because. You know. The whole truth is completely fucking insane.

Writing to Jessy just put into perspective how insane everything is, I think. Gimme a sec.

Oh, fuck. My Jessy just texted me. Great timing.

Jeez that whole thing with me leaving myself out was just a joke XD If I knew you and Jake would take it so seriously, I'd never have said anything. I'll steer clear from now on.

Yeah, okay, definitely Goldie. That makes way more sense. I don't think you have to be quite so drastic as destroying the phone. Just get him to leave it at home for the trip.

Ahaha, thanks. I don't think that's necessary, though. Actually, seeing future!Jessy's perspective has caused a bit of a paradigm shift. I think I might need to reconsider what all to tell and not to tell the Crow Crew. I just sort of default to keeping things secret, now, but you've seen how well that worked for me with you and Rai, and with Jake.

Again, you probably should wait for them to contact you first, but you WILL need to talk to them when that happens. What you say to them and what you don't is up to you.

Pack a couple different pens XD We're all a bit long-winded.

That's all from me :)

(The handwriting changes to Jake's.) Hallo, Lis.

Yuvon refuses to tell me what precisely she means about Jessica. Was she somehow contacted by an alternate version of Jessica? If so, how?

I am glad it was Goldie who contacted Max. Yuvon's suggestion for an excuse seems a good one, as there are far less things to remember that way. You simply need to oversimplify everything.

I do not, unfortunately, entirely believe that Yuvon was joking when she made that comment, based on previous comments and her ongoing guilt. I can't understand sometimes why she feels the need to lie so much. It is difficult for me to read people, much less her.

I will speak to her eventually. Early tomorrow, perhaps, if nothing else rears its head. Yuvon looks tired, and I am also admittedly not at my peak. I sincerely hope she does not wake up as early as she does every single day. It may get somewhat taxing, what with the lack of coffee here.

I think that is all from me to you, Lis. If you would kindly find a way to send the next section to my counterpart without looking at it, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you :)

—Jake and Yuvon

Jake,

It is a pleasure to meet you as well, despite the unusual circumstances.

That our pursuers may be freed from the stasis is a logical conclusion. Seeing as the last known location I had on them in my universe was approximately five hundred miles from Duskwood, they will likely be some of the first to free themselves from the stasis. I do not believe I need to warn you that time is of the essence.

It seems as if I am a small distance ahead of you in the development of countermeasures, perhaps because I have had more linear time to develop them. If you are where I think you are at in the development, you likely have or will soon hit a bug you cannot pin down that makes the pinpointing mechanism simply refuse to work at all. Presuming your and my version of NYM-0S are similar enough, the issue should lie in the public bool set in line 132 of the third part of the targeting script, the script that decides what constitutes a target; you have it defaulted to "false" where it should default to "true".

As for additional countermeasures: I was attempting to work on a rudimentary automated system of pattern detection when I was brought here. Essentially, its function would be such that it would be able to triangulate using the locator features already installed to find a rough estimate of where their headquarters might be. However, I have not found any way thus far to eliminate outliers, and as such the feature is currently next to useless. I am no longer able to work on the code, but perhaps you will have more luck than I did.

That is all I can think of for the moment on that subject. However, I have an odd theory on what may be part of the reason we vary so. If you have a moment to spare, please answer me this:

When I was very young, back when Mother was still around, she took me to a doctor for odd behaviors. This included not looking people in the eyes, but there was a list. I was given a diagnosis; if you had the same experience, you should likely know which one.

Did you have this experience? If so, please prove it by stating what the diagnosis was.

Do not worry if you do not know what I am talking about; I would rather you did not guess. Simply state that you don't know. It will confirm my theory.

Good luck with your pursuers.

—Jake

(The letter tucks itself in the paper clip with the others.)

[awhitehead17]

Hello! I love your fan fiction, you write really well! Sorry for my bad English, i'm italian...XD I would have a TimKon Prompt for you: AU - No capes; Conner has just moved to Gotham, at the same high school as Tim and at the beginning the two hate each other. But when he finds Tim hurt by a group of bullies in their class, Conner decides to help him defend himself. The Bat-family supports Tim, helping the kid to clarify his feelings for Conner. ♥

Hi and thank you so much! It’s always fantastic to hear that peopleenjoy my writing, it means so much to me.

Sorry it took me a little while to answer this, but the prompt’s awesomeand great timing too, because I’ve been wanting to write another high schoolstory for a little while now. This story took a turn all in it’s own but it wasfun to write, I hope you like it!

Of course the one guy who gets his attention turns out to bean asshole. He’s only been at the school for four days and he has alreadydeveloped a crush on someone and that someone happens to be the son of thefamous billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne.

Even though its only been four days Kon already knows thatTim is an asshole. He’s seen it by the way Tim acts in class and the way heacts during lunch breaks. The guy pushes everyone who tries to get close away,he’s stuck up and clearly thinks he’s better than everyone else just because hehas money. Kon’s fairly sure he hasn’t seen Tim interact with more than fiveother people in school in a way that wasn’t mean.

How Kon has fallen for him he has no idea, it probablydoesn’t help that Tim is hot. Piercing blue eyes, medium length black hair, alean figure (though Kon has seen him once at the school’s gym and knows thathe’s packing some serious muscle and strength even though it doesn’t show).Maybe it’s because Tim Drake-Wayne is appearing to be a mystery person that Konhasn’t come across before and its made him intrigued.

Damn him and his mysterious ways.

It was on his fifth day at his new school that somethingactually exciting happened. Well not exciting but something interesting. Halfway through the day he was in biology and asked to go to the toilet, thankfullythe teacher let him go and Kon headed out to look for the closet toilets. He wasstill new and was yet to remember the school’s layout.

He was walking down the empty hallway when a group of guysenter from the side. They were being loud and all of them were laughing. Konrecognises them all from the football team. While they all look like a good groupof guys, Kon’s heard rumours about them being bullies and general dick heads.He has yet to see them bully anyone, but the rumours are just enough to makehim want to stay away from them. He doesn’t like bullies.

As they cross the paths the one at the front spots him andpoints at him, “Kent, you better be trying out for the team next week. The wayyou played the other day was fantastic.” He praises Kon.

Kon appreciates praise but he gets he distracted by seeingblood on the hand that was pointed at him. “Yeah, maybe.” He says.

“You better.” The guy laughs and then he and his friendscontinue down the hallway.

Kon walks down the hallway and turns to the side, where thefootballers had just come from, and follows it through to the end where thetoilets were at. He gets to the door but pauses after seeing something smearedon it. He bends down and gets a closer look to find that it’s blood, and thatit was still wet.

Frowning he enters the toilets and finds a sight he neverexpected to see. Leaning over a sink was Tim Drake-Wayne. From where he stoodKon could see the blood dripping down the side of his head and down his neck. Whenhe looks in the mirror he sees Tim looking down and holding a hand to his nosewhile blood seeps through his fingers and into the white bowl below him.

Kon stands there for a minute before he realises that he’sstaring. Making himself move he goes over to the toilets and does his business.At the same time he feels something inside him pulling at the fact TimDrake-Wayne was bleeding in the school toilets and how he should somehow helphim.

As Conner was zipping up his jeans he made the connectionthat any idiot would be able to. Blood on footballer’s hand, blood on the doorand blood running down Tim’s face. Tim had gotten beaten up.

He takes it back, he’s now seen them bully someone, butwhether this was a one-time thing or a regular thing he’s not sure.

Kon leaves the toilet to find Tim still at the sink exceptthis time he’s continuously wiping his nose with a now red tissue. He walks upnext to him and starts to wash his hands, he glances at Tim through the mirror,“Why did they do it?”

“Why does it matter?” Came the sharp reply.

“Just curious.”

“Well take your curiosity elsewhere.”

“I was just asking okay. No need to be so hostile.”

Tim turns and glares at him, “AndI’m telling you to get out of my business, so fuck off.”

Kon turns the water off and faceshim, “Look there must have been a reason to why they punched you, I was justasking that’s all.”

“I get that you’re new here butlearn that people in this school are assholes and they don’t need a reason todo anything.”

“Like how you’re one?” Conner shoots at him. He watches withamusement as Tim blinks, taking in what he had said.

Tim moves away from the sink over to the toilets to grabmore tissue before coming back to the sink, “It doesn’t matter why they didit.” He says quietly, this time with no anger to his words, “Nothing will getthem to stop.”

“I could teach you how to fight, if you want.” The offercomes out of nowhere, so it shocks Kon just as much as it apparently shocksTim.

“I know self-defence.” Tim tells him sharply, like Connerhad insulted him.

“Okay, but do you know how to fight?”

“I have brothers.” Tim tells him.

Conner lets out a frustrated noise, he isn’t getting anywhere here. It’s clear that Tim isn’t interested so he decides to give up withhim. He tried, so no one can say that he didn’t do anything. Conner starts towalk towards the door, “Well if you change your mind let me know.”

With that Kon leaves Tim to his bloody tissues and exits thetoilets. He heads back to his class while repeating their conversation in hishead. Once he’s sat down again he shakes his thoughts away and tries to focuson what the teacher was babbling on about.

Tim hikes his bag up on his shoulder and exits the school.Another week over, another step closer to finally finishing this hell hole. Hesighs as he looks around for his eldest brother, this was something he wasn’tlooking forward too. His brother will see the bruises on his face, question it,then get protective and try to get him some help.

Too soon for his liking, there was a hand frantically wavingat him. Sighing, Tim makes his way over and sees his brother’s smile drop offhis face and as it’s replaced with a frown, “Timmy what happened?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

Tim doesn’t stop the hand that reaches out to him and gentlygrabs his face. He lets Dick do his examination before he slaps the hand away.“Can we go?”

Dick looks like he wants to ask more questions but wiselykeeps silent. Tim sees him look over his shoulder and then he cocks an eyebrow,“Who’s that?”

Tim turns to look in the direction Dick was looking at. Hesees the new kid, Conner he believes he’s called, standing by a truck lookingat them. Seeming to have realised that he’s gotten caught, he quickly advertshis eyes and climbs in the truck.

Tim turns back to face Dick, “He’s new.” Tim tells himreaching for the door handle of the car, “Just joined this week.”

“Oh yeah?” Dick says as he walks to the other side of thecar and climbs in, “He seemed to be checking you out.”

Tim snorts, “As if.”

Dick grins, “I dunno baby bird, it seemed pretty obvious.”

Tim decides to not say anything but that seems to encouragehis brother, “Oh! You like him!”

Tim snaps his head to look at him and glares, “No I don’t.”

“Yes you do!”

“No. I don’t.”

“Oh you do! Wait until Jay hears about this, he’s going tolove it.”

Tim gives up. If he opens his mouth again he’ll only beadding fuel to the fire.

Finally Dick starts up the car, “It’s okay to have a crushTim. There’s no need to be embarrassed about it.”

“When they see you beaten up and bleeding in the toilets,there’s plenty to be embarrassed about.” He snaps, glaring out of the window.

Dick seems to take this in consideration, “Okay, what didyou say to him?”

“I told him to stay out of my business.” Tim tells him, hethen quickly adds on, “And then he offered me to teach me how to fight and Ideclined.”

Dick face palms, “Why did you do that? That was a perfectopportunity to be with him and get to know him.”

“I panicked!”

“Have mine and Jason’s lessons been going over your head orsomething Tim? Just let him know that you’ve reconsidered and want to do it.Invite him over to the Manor, do whatever you’re going to do and then bam, it’sall sorted!”

Tim rubs a hand across his forehead, “No Dick, it’s notsorted. Things like that just don’t work out.”

“Why not? What have you got to lose?”

“He already thinks I’m an asshole.”

“So show him you’re not.”

Having had enough of the conversation Tim shakes his headand looks out the window. 

Later that night Tim brings up Conner’s Facebook account and starts tostalk through it. He wanted to see what the guy was like. From his Facebook Timgather’s that he seems to be pretty chill, often outside enjoying the sun orwalking his dog. He has lots of friends back in his home town, they had oftentagged him in lots of comical pictures of him.

Deciding, Tim sends him a friends request. He hasn’t got hisnumber to text him so this seemed to be the next best thing. He would speak tohim in school on Monday but that was two days away and he kind of wants to speakto him now.

His brothers had manipulated him into saying yes to Conner’soffer on the fighting lessons. They told him if he doesn’t ask Conner himself thenthey’ll do it and Tim doesn’t want that.

Half an hour later Tim gets a notification saying that Connerhas accepted his friends request. A minute after that he gets a message throughfrom him, “Have you added me becauseyou’ve reconsidered on taking my offer or because you want to have a go at meagain?”

Tim frowns at the message and replies back, “I didn’t have a go at you, I just told yousharply that it wasn’t anything to do with you. If the offer is still availablethen yes, I have reconsidered.”

“Yeah, the offer isstill there, that’s good to hear I guess. When do you want to do it?”

“How about Wednesdayafter school if that’s good for you. You can come back to my place.”

“Sounds good. See youthen I guess.”

“See ya.”

Tim sits back and looks at their conversation, well that waseasier than expected. Maybe Dick was right about it being simple after all.Though he can’t help but wonder what Conner is thinking right now, maybe he’sfreaking out over it, maybe he’s laughing at Tim and how pathetic he is,perhaps he’s just as confused about the situation as he is.

With that sorted Tim goes ahead and does his nightly routineand prepares for bed. Tomorrow he’s at his adoptive father’s company, so heneeds to not be over tired to deal with that.

Before he knows it, it’s Wednesday and he’s waiting forConner outside of school. They haven’t spoken since Friday night over Facebookso Tim has no idea if this thing is still even on, he hopes it is and he hopesthat it wasn’t all just a set up. As nervous as he is for it, he’s lookingforward to it.

A few minutes Conner comes up to him, “Hey, sorry, I got heldback in class. The teacher was being a dick.”

“Who did you have?” Tim asks, he knows all the teachers andknows that about 90% of them can be dicks.

“Mr. Public.”

Tim makes a face, “Yeah he’s an asshole alright.”

“Yeah…”

They fall into an awkward silence for a minute before Connerclears his throat, “Um, shall we? I, uh, have my truck so I can drive us there or are you getting picked up?”

Tim shakes his head, no I’m not getting picked up. Inormally walk on Wednesdays anyway, so if you’re happy driving then we can go.”

“Okay then let’s go.”

Conner leads the way to his truck and Tim follows. They stayin silence for the whole ride, the only words shared between them is Tim givingConner directions on how to get to his home. They get there and make their wayinside. Tim is fully aware of Conner gaping at everything around them. Comingto Wayne Manor can be overwhelming for the first time, Tim remembers his firsttime arriving at the mansion. The shock and awe that falls over you at seeingeverything so grand can be overwhelming, just the size alone is enough to getpeople looking like gold fish let alone the interior décor.

Tim leads them through the halls and down to the Manor’sgym. It was a wide room full of a variety of equipment, ranging from cardio toweights and then in the centre there are floor mats. Tim turns to find Connergaping at the room, “Holy shit dude. I knew you were rich, but this is, this isreally, fucking hell…”

Tim lets Conner marvel at the room for another minute or so.It was entertaining watching how people react to his home, especially the oneswho go all speechless and gape at everything. After a moment of silence heclaps his hands, “So shall we?”

That seems to bring Conner back to himself, “We shall…”

They spent the rest of the afternoon in the gym. Conner wentthrough teaching Tim the basics of street fighting and how to executecertain moves. When Tim had questioned him on how he knows how to fight theother teen had shrugged and said, “I was involved in several fights at my old school,also I looked them up on YouTube.” Tim had left it at that, there’s no need topry into his life.

By the end of their session a few hours later Tim wassporting new bruises over his body and his crush on this guy had increaseddrastically. He walks Conner back to the front door, after making the samearrangements for the following week Tim waves him off. Once his truck hasdisappeared from sight Tim closes the door and leans against it with hisforehead against the cool glass.

In a rhythm Tim starts to smack his head against it. Whatthe hell is going on? He has a crush on a guy he doesn’t even know. Said guy isteaching him how to fight so he can fight off some stupid school bullies whodon’t really bully him they only occasionally beat him up like once or twice amonth.

Tim groans as his head hits the door again, when had thisbecome his life?

When his head hits something other than the solid glass ofthe door he looks up confused and finds Dick staring at him with a raisedeyebrow, “You okay there Timbo?”

Tim turns and faces him. He slaps his hands down on hisbrothers shoulders sags into him while exclaiming, “Help me, I’m feeling!”

Dick simply laughs and grabs Tim by the arms to keep him onhis feet, “Alright kid, you’re okay. Feelings are normal.”

“I don’t want them!”

“Well tough because you got them.”

Tim makes a whimpering sound and lets Dick carry him throughthe Manor to wherever the man is deciding to take them. Crushes suck.

It became a regular thing between the two of them. Everydayon Wednesday after school Conner would go to the Manor and teach Tim how tofight and every time they meet Tim’s crush grows on him as he gets to know himmore.

Tim has made a lot of progress since Conner had started toteach him how to fight properly, so at least his lessons weren’t being wasted andhe often goes on YouTube to try and improve on the days that Conner isn’t withhim. He has yet to use his new skills on the people they’re originally intendedfor, but he knows he’ll be ready for when he needs them.

It was their third week of meeting up and Tim is waiting forConner outside the school. Like normal on Wednesdays, Conner has Mr. Publiclast period so he’s always a little later, however this time Tim spots himcoming out a piece of paper in clutched in his hands and his head is dippedlow. Tim walks up to him, “Hey you okay?”

Conner looks up at him, “What? Yeah I’m fine.” He thenplasters a fake smile on that pretty face of his.

Tim rolls his eyes, “There’s something wrong because youlook like you have a rain cloud over your head.”

Conner sighs, “I, um, I failed my test.” He admits andshakes the paper in his hand, “which sucks because I actually studied for itand I still get bad results.”

Tim looks at him for a moment and decides on something, “Ifyou like, I could tutor you?”

“You would do that?”

“Yeah sure, think of it as pay back for teaching me how tofight?” Tim smiles at him, while inside his head it’s like a bomb had gone off. What the hell was he doing? This is justsetting himself up for a disaster! Abort! Abort!

Conner gives him a small smile which makes his heartflutter, “Yeah okay. If you don’t mind. What day?”

“How about Fridays? Wednesday’s, we carry on fighting andFridays we can study.” Tim suggests.

“Yeah okay, sounds good.”

“Awesome let’s go.”

So that became their routine for the next couple of weeksand yet again every time they meet Tim’s crush grows more and more and it’s atthe point where it’s killing him. His brothers tease him about it on a regularbasis and often try to ‘help’ him get hooked up, they unhelpfully leave him newpackets of condoms and lube around his room and even in his school bag. What makesthis crush even worse he doesn’t even know if Conner likes guys, knowing Tim’sluck he’s straight as an arrow.

It was their fifth week of meeting up that Conner’s lessonscome into use. It was Tuesday and school had just ended and Tim was outsidewaiting for Alfred to pick him up. He silently watched as students mil about aroundhim, talking excitedly in their friendship groups, some waiting to be picked upand others already walking away.

Tim was minding his own business as he stood waiting forAlfred, books in one hand, his bag over one shoulder and listening to somelight music through his earphones. Then out of no where he lurched forward as something collided against his back.Tim stumbles a few paces before he gains his balance, he spins around to find someof the footballers standing there sinisterly smiling at him and Tim knew whatwas coming. Was it that time of the monthalready?

“You know what Drake, I’ve had a pretty bad day today. Youknow what’ll make me feel better?” Peter asks him.

Tim looks at him, completely bored of the situation, “I don’tknow Peter, perhaps a facial lift maybe?” He quips unable to help himself.

The first punch he didn’t see coming. The strike collides withhis right cheek and knocks him down onto the floor. He’s aware of laughinghappening around him as he tries to comprehend on what just happened. At thesame time he hears a voice break through the laughter, “Tim!”

Conner. Tim starts to pick himself up off the floor when twohands are suddenly on him helping him up. He looks up to find the other teen looking athim with worry, “You okay?”

Tim brushes Conner off him, “Fine.”

“Got the new dog as your bitch now have we Drake?” Peter comments.

Tim turns around and glares at him, it’s one thing to punchhim and call him names but calling Conner a bitch was not okay.

“Tim?” Conner frowns at him.

Tim ignores him and pushes his books into Conner’s hands anddrops his bag by his feet, “Hold these for me.”

With that Tim launches himself at Peter and proceeds topunch him in the face twice and then knee him in the stomach. When Tim stepsaway Peter smirks at him, “Oh, the dogs learnt how to bite.”

Tim snarls at him and launches his own attack again but thistime the other was ready for them and dodges them, he then starts to throw outhis own punches which Tim is able to dodge.

Normally Tim would let them beat him until they were satisfiedso they would then leave him alone, but this time he’s fighting back. With Conner’straining and his pent-up anger, he throws punches and kicks at the bully  and is able to beat him onto the floor. Seeing that he isn’tgetting back up Tim steps away and wipes the blood off his lips with hissleeve, “From now on you aren’t going to touch me anymore. I’ve had it with you’reconstant bullying. Next time I’ll beat you until your unconscious.”

Breathing heavily he turns away from the teen on the floorand the gaping mouths of his friends to face Conner who is also gaping at him. Ignoringat how badly he is shaking Tim smiles at him, “Looks like your lessons cameinto use after all.”

“Apparently.” Conner supplies still looking at him withshock.

Tim watches him for a moment and a sudden wave of boldnessrolls over him, he leans up and places a kiss to Conner’s slightly open mouth. Ashe goes to pull away he feels a hand capture the back of his head and force himback towards Conner’s mouth. Their lips meet again and this time Conner iskissing him back.

Tim can’t help but moan at the warmth of Conner’s mouth. He figuresthat it can’t be that great of a first kiss because he can taste blood in hisown mouth and no doubt that Conner can taste it too. Soon enough they breakapart and look at each other, “You are so hot.” Conner comments with a grin.

The smile is contagious and Tim grins back, “Not so badyourself.” He looks back to find all the footballers staring at them turningback to Conner he says, “Come on, lets go. Alfred is picking me up and you’recoming along.”

Conner lets Tim drag him away to where Alfred was nowwaiting. Tim smiles, getting beat up that day weeks ago wasn’t such a bad thingafter all.