Title: Finding a Home
Author: Yami no Kaiba
Beta: Irihi Safaia
Fandom: Teen Titans
Rating: G
Characters: Kon-El, Bart Allen, Tim Drake

Summary: Sometimes saving the kitten from the tree isn't the last part of the job.
Note: Continuity through Robin #133, Teen Titans #20, and Identity Crisis #7.
Disclaimer: All characters are owned by DC comics.

*---*---*---*---*

Sometimes Kon thinks that the whole drama of certain scenes would be better if it wasn't for the fact that TTK takes away the whole need for him to walk on the ground. So it's not like he was tip-toeing or anything, but still, the idea that he is, essentially, doing the same thing in trying to sneak into the Tower by hovering off the ground is still there.

And he still jumps/floats higher when Tim's voice comes out of nowhere.

“Kon.”

He's seen Tim melt out of the shadows thousands of times. It's still really, really freaky. Especially since, considering the lighting in the Tower, there shouldn't *be* any shadows that dark in the outer hallways. “Uh, yeah?”

Even if he wasn't trying to sneak something into the Tower, Kon's positive that the prolonged silence before Tim's reply would still make him sweat from producing a guilty conscious. “You're late.”

“Yeah, my Chem teacher was being way mean today. Gave me detention for answering some questions wrong-”

“You failed another quiz, didn't you?”

“Dude, that one from last week was totally *not* my fault. Who ever heard of teachers actually *giving* pop quizzes anyway?”

Score, that line made Tim smile ruefully. “Only you, Kon.”

“So, anything else you wanted to talk about? 'Cause I have, like, a *ton* of homework to finish before the next big situation pops up...”

“Yes, but it can wait.”

“'Kay then. Speak to you later?”

“Yeah.”

The Mission Impossible theme is going on in his head while he floats farther down the hallway. He's just about to turn a corner when Tim calls out again.

“Yeah, Rob?”

“Whatever it is that's in your bag? Keep it away from Starfire's garden and Vic's room.”

Busted. “Gotcha.”

*---*---*---*---*

“HeyKon!Doyouhaveaspare-” The yellow/red blur that came out of the wall resolves itself into Kid Flash for a quarter of a minute before Bart pops up right in front of Kon's face where he's sitting on his mattress. Bart's rocking back and forth on his heels causing the small kitten in Kon's right hand to sink in her claws, flip back her ears and hiss at the resident speedster. “A kitty! Can I hold him? Please? Pretty please?”

“Ow.” Kon winces and carefully removes the sharp little claws from his skin.

“Um... Sorry? I didn't mean to scare him.”

“Don't sweat it. Danger of cats, ya know?”

“Not really. I have a dog, but I guess it's the same principal.” Bart perks up. “So anyway, can I hold him?”

“First of all, the kitten is a she. And only if you promise not to take her out of the room.”

Bart frowns and holds out his hand for the kitten while sitting on the edge of the bed. “You didn't get permission from Vic or Kory to bring her here, did you?”

“Umm.... no?”

Picking the kitten up, Bart starts petting the coarse dark fur lining the spine and dipping down the skull to curve like a mask around the greenish-yellow slitted eyes. “You really should have...”

“Bart, Vic told me straight out not to bring Krypto around for a month after what he did to the kitchen last week. Don't you think he'd think that I'm trying to circumvent his authority by bringing a cat instead?”

“Hmm... Yeah, you're probably right. So why did you bring her then? And what's her name, anyhow?”

Kon shrugs, digging into his backpack for his English homework. “She doesn't have a name, she's just a stray I saved from the roof of a house on my way here. Since I was already late I didn't want to waste time stopping off at a branch of the Humane Society to drop her off.”

“Oh.” Bart continued to pet the kitten to the point where she started purring. “You know, this gives me an idea.”

“Hmm?” Weird, he knew he packed the worksheet for the assigned story in the purple folder...

“You could give her to Tim.”

Kon stops digging through his backpack to stare at Bart. “You know, sometimes I *really* want to know what goes on in that head of yours.”

“Well, you know what with his Dad gone, and him living all alone over in Blüdhaven, don't you think he'd get kinda lonely during the day? Pets are renown for curing loneliness. And it's been scientifically proven that pets tend to increase the lifespan of single people.”

Okay, that actually hadn't sounded that bad. “You don't even know if he's a cat person. What if he has allergies or something?”

“Well,” Bart said, standing up and handing the kitten back to Kon. “I'm sure Tim will tell you when you give her to him. It's not like you won't always have the option of taking her to the Humane Society if he refuses, you know?” With that Bart's off, vibrating through the wall again.

Kon thinks it over, petting the little mock-masked kitten. “Easy for him to say. So what do you think?”

The kitten just looks at him, “Rrrowe.”

“That's what I thought.” Kon continues petting the kitten, ignoring his homework and waits for Bart to come back after whatever it was he had originally wanted.

Kon gives it two minutes at the most.

*---*---*---*---*

“Hey, Tim, you got a minute?”

“Hm... Just let me save this, Kon.” Tim taps a few keys in sequence and shuts down his laptop before looking up at Kon. “What did you need?”

“Can you come to my room? There's something there I want to give you.”

“Alright.”

It doesn't take them long to move through the hallways and before long they're in Kon's room.

“Just give me a sec to find it, 'k?”

Nodding, Tim sits down on the bed, avoiding the general mess that pales in comparison to Kon's real room back in Smallville. “You know, I can recommend some online resources for some of your classes if you wanted.”

Peering behind the set of drawers, Kon replied off handedly, “Really? That'd be nice.”

“Although, if you think you'd do better with an actual text, I could get a list together-”

“Tim, I think the only way I'm going to pass some of those courses is by getting a tutor. Unless you can come up with a list of those over in Smallville that wouldn't get suspicious if I had to go zip off to handle some big crises, I doubt you can help me on the education end of things.” Ok, how the heck did she get up to the back of the shelf of his closed closet?

Blocking the view from Tim by floating in the air, Kon picks the kitten up and cups her in his hands. Moving over to the bed, Kon sits down and faces Tim. “Look, Tim, you don't have to accept her, but I thought I'd try, ya know?”

“...” Tim gently picks up the kitten. “Kon, explain to me why you think I need a cat.”

“In all fairness, Bart's the one who suggested it.”

“Kon.”

“All right, don't go Bats on me. Bart brought up all these distilled facts about how pets are good for single people and, well, it sounded like a good idea at the time.” Spying Tim unconsciously petting the kitten, Kon tries not to smile.

“Pets are big responsibilities, Kon. Who's going to feed her if I end up getting kidnapped or have to go undercover for more than a day?”

“Uh... You could get the rest of the Bats to help with that?”

“Don't you think they'd have better things to do in that case?”

“You won't know unless you try, Tim.”

At that moment the kitten started purring, startling Tim a bit. “... Fine. Just for the weekend. If things don't work out, you'll take her back, got it?”

*---*---*---*---*

Tim had to admit, it wasn't actually as bad as he had thought it would be. Sure, Stalker (and sometimes he wonders if Cass had meant that to be directed at him) could be annoying sometimes, walking over some of his printouts when he was working, but he still loved her anyhow.

Scratching Stalker behind the ears, Tim finished pouring the cat food into her dish before setting out for another night of patrol.

--Fin.