SquidgeWorld Archive

"Made up, huh?" Kon's eyes slanted away from the Wendy: The Werewolf Stalker rerun he'd been watching, and towards Robin. He'd actually been excepting for the other boy to have cornered him quite a bit sooner; like, say, yesterday, right after he'd made that pithy comment. But Bats liked the element of surprise, obviously. "What'd you say, man?" Kon asked, muting the tube. "You said my name was made up," 'Alvin' reiterated, arching one maskless brow as he dropped down onto the couch next to Kon. Kon wasn't going to get used to see Robin's bared face any time soon. His eyes were so blue... "Yeah, I did," Kon replied, forcing himself not to think about that. He shouldn't be thinking about that. He should be thinking about what kind of revenge Robin was going to get on him for the 'terminal zits' comment. Revenge was a more likely response than...well, than anything else. "Because it is made up." "And how do you figure that, SB?" 'Alvin' drawled, one corner of his mouth quirking up in that tiny little half-grin of his. "Because I know you, man," Kon said with confidence. "And I know that you're not nearly uncool enough that you'd go by 'Alvin' when you could go by Al, or Vin, or Vinnie, or hell, whatever your middle name isn't, because your first name isn't Alvin, and your last name isn't Draper," he finished up triumphantly, pointing a finger at Robin for unneeded emphasis. Yeah, that was it. Get angry, not horny. Or - oh, God - both. "So what if it isn't?" Robin said, appearing completely unruffled - except around his eyes. He had the little crinkles that meant if he were anyone else - anyone a non-Bat, that was - he'd be frowning. He was worried about Kon's reaction. He didn't need to be; now Kon was worried for him. "Doesn't it bother you that Batman won't let you tell us your real name?" Kon had to ask. He still wasn't quite used to having a real name of his own, but it made him feel, well, real. Sometimes he wondered if Robin ever felt the lack of same. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," Robin replied from seemingly out of the nowhere. He had the intonation in his voice that someone used whenever they were quoting something. By the slight smile Tim gave Kon in response to his obvious confusion, it was clearly something that he should have known, but didn't. Those scientists left a lot out of his programming. Or maybe he'd just busted out before they could get to it. Kon still wasn't sure if that was entirely a bad thing. "It's Shakespeare," Robin replied to Kon's unasked, yet palpable question. He shrugged. "I just...no matter what name I'm using, I'm still me." A flash of a frown crosses his face and he turned away, muttering so low that Kon had to strain to hear him, "I think." "I guess that makes sense," Kon said, because he had no idea how to handle an identity crisis with a Bat, for fuck's sake. "I mean, it's sort of like that with me." "Mm," Robin grunted noncommittally. A few moments passed in silence as they watched Topher perform the Snoopy Dance without musical accompaniment. When the show broke for a commercial - Trojan condoms, Kon noted, trying not to blush - Robin shifted slightly and ventured a tentative question. "It doesn't...bother you?" "What?" Kon asked, having lost the thread of conversation. Robin's eyes flicked away, and his whole face seemed to tighten. "Me not telling you my name," he replied. Kon shrugged. Yeah, it did bother him more than a bit, but mostly because he could tell that it bothered Robin. And, well, there was a whole long list - that he'd actually started writing down at one point before realizing how lame it was - of things that he wanted to know about Robin. Starting with whether or not Robin liked guys and ending with whether or not he had a thing for any of his teammates. "Yeah, well... I may not really know you - or know the real you - but I still trust you, man." Kon shifted, uncomfortable with baring so much of his true self. He suddenly had a flash of insight that maybe that was what it was like for Robin, when he took off his mask. Robin stared at him, eyes almost comically wide and completely unhidden by either mask or expression. "Oh." "Yeah, I, uh..." Kon shrugged again, having no idea what to say next. A hand reached out and wrapped around his. "I trust you, too, Kon," Robin said lowly, voice shaking slightly. Kon whipped around to stare at his friend. There was something in Robin's eyes, something that Kon thought meant that maybe Robin felt the same way. "Yeah?" he asked, a slowly grin spreading across his face. Robin grinned back, eyes sparkling. "Yeah." "Cool," Kon pronounced, and, heart in his throat, leaned over and kissed Robin. It took a long, heart-stopping moment, but Robin kissed him back, and Kon breathed a mental sigh of relief. He hadn't been reading Rob wrong. Kon didn't care if his name was Alvin Draper or not. Robin was trusting him with something of far more importance than his name. His heart.