Close to Home - chapter 14

[iesika]

Close To Home

14

Martha fussed over his hair and took a few dozen pictures and made him buff the shoes until they shone. She'd hosed out the truck while he was at school to clear the mud from the seats and floorboards, and after she'd made sure he had enough pocket money, she shoved the keys at him and pushed him out the door.

He'd have flown, but he wasn't sure how they were all getting from the diner to the dance, and he couldn't go fast enough not to be noticed without wrecking his new suit. He called Tim again on the way into town, but he didn't get an answer, so he just left a message with the location of the diner, trusting him to have a good reason for being incommunicado. The Bat-Jet only took about an hour to make the flight from Gotham, so Kon figured he had about thirty minutes before Tim arrived.

He wasn't sure what to expect, really. Tim liked making up his little characters, and they tended to be a lot more...outgoing...than Tim himself, as if Tim felt more free in costume than he did out of it. All Kon had given him was 'Tim from Gotham.' That could be anything from a quiet, geeky boy from the suburbs to Mr. Freaking Sarcastic - though Kon was really kind of hoping against the latter.

Oh, God. That's why he'd agreed so readily - why he'd been in such a good mood on the phone. He was going to embarrass the hell out of Kon, wasn't he? People were going to be talking about his wack-job boyfriend for weeks. Kon parked down the street from the diner and pulled out his phone again. Tim still wasn't answering, so Kon wiped his sweaty palms on the seat and then climbed out of the truck.

"Hey," somebody called, and he looked up to see Clarence walking toward him along the sidewalk. "Cowboy! Damn, you clean up nice."

"Um, thanks," Kon said. Clarence was dressed in a dark suit, neatly pressed, with a pink carnation in a spray on his jacket. "You look good, too."

"Come on in, man." He shooed Kon along, toward the diner, where Beth and a girl he didn't know were standing out front in long satin dresses, fixing their hair and makeup in the front window. Beth's flowers were pinned to the shoulder of her dress, but the other girl's were secured to her wrist instead. The girls smiled and greeted them as they passed on their way to the door.

The diner was all colorful chaos inside. The girls were all in bright colors - except for Delilah, who was mostly wearing black - and quite a few of the guys were wearing colorful shirts and ties, some of them under jackets. They all had pink carnations on, and Clarence led him through the crowd toward a table near the back so that he could get one of his own. Katie pinned it on for him. "You look so handsome," she told him, then sighed. "Mel wouldn't let me wear a pantsuit." She touched the tangle of golden curls swept up on top of her head, and Mel knelt up in the booth to smack her hand.

"You're going to mess it up!"

"I can't help it! It feels all weird every time I move my head-"

Kon laughed at them under his breath and turned to scan the restaurant. Not everyone there was from the club - there were a few straight couples standing around looking kind of awkward and left out, but mostly wearing flowers, too. There were also a few people there just to eat, including the same group of old farmers who had been there the previous weekend when he'd come to talk to Jake. They were starring at - Kon laughed out loud. At Chase, who was sitting oh so casually in Hamilton's lap, because there weren't any chairs left at their table. Kon walked over. "You're scandalizing the old folks."

"They could do with some scandalizing," Chase said, without looking up from his soda. He did glance up after a moment, and then he shot to his feet. "That is not a Giselle Giordano."

"What?" Kon said, taking a step back.

"Oh my god, turn around." He grabbed Kon's arm and forced him to waddle in a circle. "It has to be a knock-off. It has to."

"What?" Kon repeated.

"Who made your suit?"

Kon looked down at himself. "Um," he said. "I don't know?"

"You don't-" Chase sighed in exasperation. "Oh my god. Did your mother buy it for you?"

"His aunt," Hamilton corrected.

"No," Kon said, "My - my date." He couldn't bring himself to say boyfriend, even though he knew he needed to get used to it.

"Oh, well," Chase said, with a sly sort of smile, "we already knew he had excellent taste." He turned Kon around again and smoothed his hands over his shoulders and down his back. His touch vanished abruptly with an 'oof'," and Kon turned to see Chase struggling in Hamilton's lap.

"Hands," Hamilton said, and his voice sounded like he was reminding a small child of his manners.

"Where is your boyfriend?" Chase asked. "I need to meet this boy of the impeccable sartorial taste."

"He's, ah, on his way," Kon said. He scratched the back of his neck.

"From where?"

Kon coughed. "From Gotham. He got delayed-"

"Gotham?" Chase asked. "Gotham, Gotham?"

"That's a long way to come for a dance," Hamilton said.

"Wow. What did you have to promise him?" Chase leered. "I can't believe you've got a sugar daddy."

"I do not!"

"If he bought you that suit? You do, my friend. You totally do. Now fess up. I want to know what kind of sexual favors are worth a designer suit and a plane ticket from Gotham."

Kon could feel his face heating. "I didn't - I mean - I just asked. I told him I wanted him to come, so he's coming."

Chase gave him a dreamy sort of look. "You must be amazing."

"I - I'm going to - ah," he looked around. Where the hell was Jake when he needed him? "I need to-" he slipped away. On a hunch, he headed toward the tiny hall between the bathroom and the kitchen, where Jake's paintings hung. Sure enough, as he approached, he spotted him, standing with some guy Kon didn't know.

"Conner!" Jake exclaimed when he saw him, stepping forward to grab his hand, like they hadn't seen each other at lunch that day. "Hey, man. Wow. You look-" he looked Kon up and down a few times. "Wow. We were just - oh, this is Russell. Russell, this is Conner." Jake turned and waved a hand between them. Russell - Jake's blind date. Kon looked him over. He was reasonably good looking, in a rangy kind of way, with a scruffy little goatee and a pretty serious tan.

"Hi," Kon said, and held out a hand to shake.

Russell had a pretty firm grip. "Hey," he said. "Nice to meet you. You're a friend of Lilah's too?"

Kon nodded.

"We were talking about pigments," Jake said, and he sounded so pleased that Kon had to grin at him. "They're mostly mineral, right? Like titanium for white and cadmium for reds and yellows, cobalt for blue, copper for green..."

"So," Kon said, still grinning, "Rocks?"

Jake hit him in the arm with the back of one hand. "Where's Tim?"

"Late," Kon said. He pulled out his phone and shot off a text. "He's late, is where he is. It’s a long trip, though."

The door to the ladies room opened and Caroline came out with a small group of girls. She stopped and put her hand to her mouth. "Oh my god," she said. "Is that a Giselle Giordano?"

Kon dropped his head back and rolled his eyes at the ceiling.

"A who?" Jake asked.

"Beats me," Russell said.

Kon's phone pinged at him, and he glanced at it. "Leaving airport?" he read off, confused.

"He's not in Wichita, is he?" Jake asked. "That would take like forty-five minutes, and we're leaving in about twenty."

"There's a strip in Wellington," Russell said. "Is he taking a taxi?"

Kon frowned at his phone. Airport? What the hell? There was no way Tim had landed the Bat-Jet at the airport! Was he talking in code? Maybe he just meant he'd landed, and he was being careful in case someone was looking over Kon's shoulder, or something. "No clue," he said.

"Wellington just does, like, mail planes, though, right?" Jake asked. "Little planes."

"I really have no idea," Kon said. He let out a breath and stuck his phone in his pocket. "Where's your sister, dude? I'm starving."

"She's making sandwiches, I think." Jake stuck his head through the kitchen door. "You need a hand?"

"Jacob Lucas Jenkins!" Nell shouted from somewhere inside, "If I have to run you out of here one more time..." She pushed the door open, a huge platter of sandwiches in each hand. "You're gonna wreck your suit."

"I'm more careful than that!" Jake protested. "Anyway, I could be cutting the bread or something."

"You are on a date," she reminded him. When he opened his mouth to protest, she stuck a finger sandwich in his mouth. "Hello, Conner. You look lovely." She looked at him, and then glanced at Jake. "Jake tells me you have a boyfriend." she said. Kon hoped he was imagining the cool tinge to her voice

"Um," Kon said. "Can I, uh, have a sandwich?"

She let him take a few, and he quickly escaped to go stuff his face. Some of the girls made room for him to sit down, and he joined them, feeling a bit relieved he wasn't going to get hit on for a while, at least. Daniel arrived with the boy from the park and squeezed in beside Beth and her date. Kon was pretty sure he was the last person from the club they'd been missing, so it was probably almost time to go. He wiped his hands carefully on a napkin so he wouldn't get mustard on himself, and got up to head outside.

Chase and Delilah were smoking together by the door, and bitching at each in high spirits. There was young black man with his hair in short twists sitting on the bumper of a nearby car, and Kon realized he recognized him from Rebecca's Christmas photos. This was Carson, then, Clarence's cousin and Delilah's boyfriend. He figured Delilah would introduce them when she finished telling Chase what a prima-donna he was, so he leaned back against the brick storefront and closed his eyes.

Oh. He could hear Tim's bike, now that he was out of the crowd. He wasn't all that far away, and he was moving fast. Kon smiled to himself, and went back in to grab another boutonnière. The girls at the table cooed at him a little when he picked it up, and the sound apparently caught Jake's and Clarence's attention, because he quickly found himself with an arm around his shoulder and a hand on his arm. "So," Clarence said, "He's here?"

"On his way," Kon said quickly.

Jake didn't say anything - just followed them out the door. Kon was left feeling a little like an idiot, standing on the sidewalk holding a tiny spray of flowers, with a little crowd of people staring at him. He knew he was blushing, but he really couldn't help it. Tim was only a few blocks away, now. Why was he so stupidly nervous? It was just Tim. He saw Tim at least every weekend, usually more. He talked to him like every day.

The door opened behind him, and a couple of girls all but tumbled out, laughing. Kon caught Katie's arm and kept her from tripping over her heels, and beside him, Jake was picking Caroline's purse up off the ground. "Are you drunk?" Kon asked Katie, as he helped her steady herself.

"It's these stupid goddamn shoes!" she hissed, kicking her foot at the door. "I'd like to see you try and walk in 'em."

"Want to trade?" Chase asked, with a sly grin. "We'd make a hell of a statement."

"No," Mel said, tugging Katie by the arm. "No way. You promised."

Katie grumbled. "All I can say is, you'd better put out. Ow!" she cried, as Mel's purse smacked into her chest, but they were both laughing.

Tim turned onto the street. Kon knew just the moment everyone else heard the bike, because several heads turned and looked down the darkened avenue. A few seconds later the bike pulled right up onto the sidewalk beside them and Tim toed out the kickstand.

"I'm leaving you for that motorcycle," Katie said, solemnly.

Tim was wearing a leather jacket over a dark suit, with a white shirt and thin black tie. He reached up and tugged his cherry red helmet up and off, shaking his hair into place as he tucked it under his arm.

Kon froze.

Tim hadn't dyed his hair. He wasn't wearing a mustache or sideburns or eyebrow rings or a fake nose or tanner or... or anything. He hadn't even done his hair differently. He was just...Tim.

"Hey," Tim said, smiling at him like - Kon swallowed. He stepped off the curb toward him.

"Oh my god," Chase whispered, behind him. "Oh my god oh my god oh my god that's Tim Wayne."

"What?" Clarence said. "No way."

"Who?"

"I think it is!"

"What are you doing?" Kon hissed when he got close enough to do it without being overheard. "You - I thought you'd be in character or something. You-"

"Fix my hair," Tim breathed through his smile.

"What?"

"My hair," Tim repeated. He shook his head a little. "Helmet head. Be a good boyfriend."

"Oh my god," Kon breathed back. "I'm going to kill you."

When Tim just smiled pleasantly back at him, Kon gave in and reached out to tweak Tim's hair a little where it was mussed. "There," he hissed, "are you happy n-" he broke off as Tim caught his hand and tugged him forward to whisper in his ear.

"You asked me to be your date to the dance. If you didn't want Tim Wayne, you should have said so." He kissed Kon once, just in front of his ear, the touch soft and lingering. "Now," he whispered against his skin, "are those flowers for me?"

Index | 15

Comments

[merelymine.livejournal.com]

I HAVE TO MAKE A PIT-STOP COMMENT ON THIS CHAPTER TO TELL YOU THAT THE LAST BIT HAS ME GRINNING FROM EAR TO EAR LIKE A FREAKING MANIAC.

ILU <333

[ladymirth.livejournal.com]

I SECOND THIS COMMENT LIEK WHOA X INFINITY!

Also that I had to go and pick my brat brother up from school but I couldn't bear to stop reading so I am now reading it from my phone in the car. I have a splitting headache now. Trying to see how long I can keep reading before I get nauseus. I r genius.

I LU U TOO!! MARRY ME! I WANT TO GO ON HONEYMOON WITH YOUR FIC!

[iesika.livejournal.com]

It would have kept, you know. No sense hurting yourself! even thogh that's incredibly gratifying and I have a big grinn of my own on.

[iesika.livejournal.com]

^_______^ I'm so glad!

[jlvsclrk.livejournal.com]

LOL! The shock of Tim coming as Tim! Poor Kon is so totally clueless, I love it.

[snake-easing.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. That is excellent. Tim is making an entrance. Of course he is.

It's wonderful that he's being recognized, and I guess Tim wanted some way for Tim Wayne to come out of the closet? I love how well he's managing the situation.

[nitemea.livejournal.com]

holy crap! TIM. unf. I have no words...

[saaski-moql.livejournal.com]

GRINNING. MY. HEAD OFF.

Oh this is glorious. Next chapter!

[mommy]

Tim liked making up his little characters, and they tended to be a lot more...outgoing...than Tim himself, as if Tim felt more free in costume than he did out of it.

And then Tim decided to make his out-of-costume self into one of those little characters. The identity porn here is delightful.