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Fraternizing With Fraternity
After sparring with Tim for several hours, Dick found himself pinned by his little brother. That wasn’t all that unusual as Tim’s training had advanced, but the fact that Tim kissed him once he had him pinned to the mat was.
Dick was completely baffled. “Huh? Muh… What are you doing?”
Tim, correctly interpreting that incoherent request, looked rather miffed and glared down at him, not having let up on his pin all through the thirty-four seconds of their kiss. “What, all this foreplay and you didn’t think I’d eventually get tired of waiting for you to make your move?”
“Foreplay, what foreplay?” Dumfounded was a really interesting and funny look on Dick.
“Um, hello?” Tim stared at Dick, never having expected him to deny it, let alone sound so confused. He had to know what he’d been doing to Tim. “All those hugs, and hair-ruffles, and arm-punches, and just… All the touching!”
“I’m a touchy person!” Dick protested, then flushed. “I mean, a touchy-feely person! And brothers do those things.”
“If all you felt for me was brotherly affection, then you wouldn’t have kissed me back.” It wasn’t until Tim said that that he realized he was actually worried Dick didn’t return his feelings. It was easy (comparatively speaking; nothing emotional was easy for him) to make the first move when he felt secure in Dick’s feelings for him.
Not so much with the secureness now, even though he was pretty sure Dick did like him, in a non-fraternal fashion.
Dick stilled, then blushed and looked away. “Y-yeah, I guess so,” he admitted softly.
Tim grinned a small, pleased grin, then sobered. “Then why all the protesting?” he asked.
Dick looked up into Tim’s eyes, his own filled with wariness and want. “Because…well, you’re young. And pretty much my brother. And I didn’t think you’d ever…well, do anything about it.”
“You felt safe acting on how you felt because you thought I was too much of an emotional coward to confront you over it,” Tim interpreted, a tad miffed. True, when it came to emotions, he was a bit of a coward, but Dick should know him well enough after the past five years to know that when it was important, he didn’t back down.
Dick’s sheepish smile appeased him a bit, as did his words. “Actually, it was less that than I didn’t think you’d figure it out. I mean, the touching could be considered brotherly.”
“All those leering looks couldn’t,” Tim shot back.
Blushing, Dick looked away again. Embarrassment chased chagrin across his features before taking a tumble with peevishness.
With a dawning realization that hit Tim with all the force and mental feel of a wet carp to the face at Mach 2, Tim’s jaw dropped. “You’re the one who was a coward,” he crowed, unable to contain his now not-so-secret glee at the role reversal.
Dick hung his head for a moment, before turning a reluctantly yielding gaze on Tim. “Yeah, I guess I was,” he acknowledged, voice so low and husky it sent shivers chasing up and down Tim’s spine. “I was just…I love you, Timmy, and I…I didn’t know how or if I should…tell you.” He swallowed visibly, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down like a message in a bottle being tossed upon the ocean’s waves. “That it was more than brotherly. And has been for a long time,” he finished in a near-whisper.
Tim’s head shook from side to side in disbelief. “I never thought you of all people would be scared of falling– of having feelings for someone,” he corrected himself, knowing that he would be jumping the gun by talking about falling in love. He loved Dick, and Dick had just said he loved him, but romantic love was different.
At least, so he’d heard. In his experience, all kinds of love were fraught with the pitfalls of feeling deep emotions, such as intermittent anxiety and worryingly large amounts of confusion.
“I’m not,” Dick protested, and it sounded mostly like the truth. “I just…I was scared you wouldn’t feel the same way.”
And the longing on his face hit Tim hard, and his amusement faded. “I do, Dick,” he promised, voice thick with emotion. Things had swung wildly from the almost campy humor of a near-prank to the delicate negotiation of Dick’s seldom-shown vulnerability, to this sudden seriousness that made his breath catch in a throat that was now as dry as Alfred’s wit. “I was just…well, I was waiting for you to do something about it.” His cheeks flushed with the admission. They were both cowards when it came to their feelings, apparently.
Tim just had a teenager’s impatience. And that impatience reared its lovely head, causing a little imp of mischief to commandeer his lips, and seek out Dick’s.
“Mff!” Dick made a noise of surprise, eyes going wide, before his lashes fluttered closed as he automatically leaned into the kiss. It only took a few light swipes of Tim’s tongue before he was actually returning it.
Tim grinned into the kiss as Dick became not only an active, but also an eager participant, hands roaming up and down and around on Tim’s back. His own hands started absently toying with the waistband of Dicks’ jeans, and the curls of hair on the back of his neck.
It was a good thing they weren’t related by blood, but…maybe it was better to keep it in the family.
Forget fraternal love, or even brotherly ‘bonding’…Robinly lust was where this hormonal teenager wanted to be.