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Title: In Stereo
Author: Mandy and P-chan
Recipient: Shana Jean

When Tim was a kid, part of his yearly Christmas tradition was to hunt for the presents when his parents were otherwise busy. He always found exactly one, and it was always small. The big ones were still surprises come Christmas morning. When he was nine, he'd realized that his parents had done that on purpose.

His team-mates were making him really appreciate his parents' method of dealing with curiosity. The girls were pretty good—which Tim was thankful for, because Secret could probably search the whole place pretty easily. Bart and Kon, on the other hand, were starting to drive him crazy.

Kon, at least, was pretty low-key about the whole thing, although he did seem to be grumbling about x-ray vision and his lack thereof more than usual. He restricted his searching to poking through closets and drawers when he thought no one was looking. Bart—well, Bart was horrible at waiting. No surprise there, really, Tim thought; it was a miracle he was doing this well. He was pretty sure Bart had managed to go through every closet, drawer, chest, and empty corner in the entire place at least four times so far.

"Hey, Robin," Bart said, appearing suddenly on the couch next to Tim, who was trying to read. "Robin. Robin. Robin."

"What?" Tim asked, carefully putting a bookmark in before closing his book and looking up at Bart.

"Is Batman any good at hiding presents? Because I bet he totally would be," Bart said, bouncing a bit where he sat.

Tim blinked. "I haven't tried to find any presents," he said. "But I guess he's probably good at hiding them."

Bart stared at him. "You haven't tried to find any presents? At all?" he asked, sounding horrified. Tim smiled a bit and wondered if it was too late to hide something somewhere fairly obvious.

"Not a single one," he replied.

"But how do you stand not knowing?"

"I like surprises," Tim said.

Bart thought about this for a bit. While he was thinking, Kon walked in and flopped on the couch on the other side of Tim.

"Robin doesn't try to find his presents," Bart told him. He sounded awed rather than horrified this time, which Tim supposed was an improvement.

"Well, Batman's probably pretty sneaky," Kon said. "Does he put traps up around them?"

"I haven't looked," Tim said, again. "I like unwrapping them on Christmas better than knowing beforehand."

"I'll unwrap you," Kon said, then paused. "That sounded better in my head, I think." Bart giggled.

Tim raised an eyebrow, but couldn't help smiling. "It isn't Christmas yet. You shouldn't be unwrapping anything."

Kon shrugged and pushed Tim back onto the couch, taking Bart down with them. "So we'll celebrate early. It's some sort of holiday somewhere, right?"

Tim pretended to think about this. "Well, I think they're celebrating—"

He was cut off by Kon kissing him, which was exactly what he'd been expecting. He smiled into the kiss.

"Ooh, can Robin be our present?" Bart asked from behind him. Kon laughed, breaking the kiss.

"Yeah, can you?" he asked Tim, looking down at him.

"Only if you promise not to rip my gloves this time," Tim said, looking at Bart, who looked sheepish.

"No ripped gloves," promised Kon. Tim smiled and tugged Bart down for a kiss while Kon started undoing various bits of their costumes. Sometimes his TTK came in handy for reasons other than the usual ones, Tim decided as his cape came unfastened at the same time as his pants.

He pulled back from kissing Bart for long enough to say, "Maybe we should avoid doing this on the couch."

Kon looked alarmed. "Yeah, we don't want anyone walking in."

"Again," Tim said, remembering the talking to they'd gotten last time Cassie had dropped by at exactly the wrong time. "Bedroom?"

By the time he finished saying it, Kon had scooped him up and darted up the stairs. Bart was already on the bed when they got to the bedroom. Tim would usually be a bit annoyed at being carted around like a damsel in distress, but he made an exception this time.

Kon deposited him next to Bart and got to work on his own outfit, which was a lot easier to deal with than Tim's. Tim rolled over and kissed Bart, distracting him from the Superboy strip show going on behind them. Bart was practically vibrating against him, so Tim rolled them over again and let Bart take control and set the speed. Trying to slow Bart down was fun sometimes, but Tim wasn't feeling very patient at the moment himself.

Once he'd stripped down to his boxers, Kon jumped on the bed next to them and pulled Bart over to him. Bart squirmed happily against him

as Kon kissed him pretty thoroughly. If they were dealing with anyone but a speedster, this might go on for several minutes - but considering who they were dealing with, it was a miracle that it satisfied him for more than a minute.

He might not be feeling patient, but he can take this minute to cool himself down, and try to gain more control of the situation. Tim's gotten used to this, the ebb and pull of dealing with two superpowered beings sexually, and the different needs involved in the matter - but that doesn't mean he doesn't like to assert himself whenever possible. Bart likes things fast and quick, and on a repeated basis. Kon, on the other hand, has a finely tuned control and the stamina of a stallion, something that might come as a surprise to those who hadn't experienced it. Each of these encounters is certainly an educational experience for Tim, and he's glad that he has the training to be able to keep up, although he knows that Batman would blow a gasket if he knew that all of his hard work was being applied here.

There was, of course, one thing that Batman had always taught him that Tim sometimes forgets. That you can think too much and jeopardize yourself in the middle of action. That taking too much time to analyze things can cause outside situations to develop that you might not expect, and in his thoughts about the past, he's missed a fact about the present - that both Kon and Bart have ceased their actions, and are now Staring at him.

"He's thinking too much again, isn't he?" Bart asks, sounding as if it's not really a question at all.

"Yep," Kon replies, and gives him this Look that makes all of the hair on the back of Tim's neck stand on end. "And I think we should do something about that."

Does Tim even have to consider whether he wants to get out of this? "You can go ahead and try," he says, and smirks. "But us bats never stop thinking. You'd be better off trying to ask Lex Luthor to turn over a new leaf."

"I dunno," Kon says, casually. "I think we know pretty well how to blow your mind by now." He glances at Bart, the two's eyes meeting; some unspoken communication is passed between them, before they both flash him disturbingly similiar smirks of determination. Tim would be spooked, if he didn't know that it was only going to mean very good things for him for a long while.

He's a Bat, and he doesn't usually let control of a situation slip to anyone else, but he finds that he's trusting these two more and more. Perhaps it comes along with sharing a bed, or perhaps it's something deeper. It's not something that comes easily, although he's not sure they understand that fact. Really, it's something like trying to pull off each nail on his body, one by one by one. He secretly talks to Dick about this sort of thing a lot, and while he's learned things about Dick and the Titans that he'd rather have never found out, it helps him learn to deal. One area that Bruce would never be a help in.

But there's no time to think about that now, is there? Tim can feel tendrils of Kon's TTK creepily up his body, somehow finding their ways into all the most sensitive places. In addition, as if that wasn't enough, Bart has pressed himself lightly against Tim's side, and he's turned his vibration up higher, but the only place where he really connects is his mouth to Tim's neck. It's maddening in a way, and Tim's just as quickly forgetting the idea of havng control as he'd come across it in the first place.

But. "Nope," Tim says defiantly, because he -is- still a Bat, and no matter how much he forgets of that idea, it still hovers in the background, waiting and waiting. "Still able to think." His tone is almost sing-song, one that would never be used as Robin, and one that the rest of the team has probably never heard. But then, the rest of the team isn't exactly fucking him, either. "Is that all you've got?"

"What about here?" Kon asks, and he reachs out with his actual hand, this time. He places it on Tim's bare back, sliding it down over his ass, and pressing a finger against a certain entrance. Sometimes, it seems, TTK isn't enough - and Tim shivers, almost ready to give in now. But this is where his control is needed more than ever, and he reassesses himself stubbornly. "Not without protection," he says, and predictably, it makes both other teenagers cross their eyes in annoyance.

It's an old argument, and it's one he hates to rehash every time, because it brings about a pause to what's generally otherwise a good experience. They don't think it's needed, Tim does, and it's led to more than one missed opportunity. But he'd like to avoid that if possible, and so he leans in to give each boy a firm and hard kiss in turn. "It's not like we're not stocked," he points out. "It'll just take a few more moments."

"Um," Bart says, and he sounds pretty nervous. His voice is even a little faster to match the new emotion. "I-kind-of-forgot-to-buy-more."

Tim's rarely tempted to stare at someone with his mouth open, but he's tempted to do so now, while Kon just groans loudly. That was not what he wanted to hear, and for once, it actually shows on his face. Here in the bedroom, he's the most vulnerable, and the Bat mask can slip. Kon gets hopeful, seeing the look on his face. "Maybe -- "

" -- No," Tim says firmly, and reachs for the bedside table, opening the drawer. "There's got to be something left in the back." He'll -make- it appear if he has to. He'll fashion something out of whatever's around, if he has to. He's a Bat, he can apply his skills some --

"I thought you said that you forgot," he says, his brow furrowed. The evidence is to the contrary - in fact, the drawer seems to be stocked more than usual, and with some sort of variety that none of them have thought about.

"I did," Bart says, and quick as a shot, he's moved from the bed to the drawer, reaching inside to pull out some 'goodies', so to speak. A note flutters out, and Tim reachs for it, looking even more puzzled.

In a moment, that puzzlement turns to horror, as the note reads:

"I SAW YOU WERE OUT, BOYS. PLEASE REMEMBER: SAFETY FIRST! IF YOU'RE NOT GETTING HURT OUT THERE, I DON'T WANT YOU GETTING HURT IN THE BEDROOM. PS: I INCLUDED A FEW SPECIAL THINGS. HAVE SOME FUN, AND MERRY CHRISTMAS.

XOXOXOXO, BONNIE KING"

There's a collective "...." in the room, before Kon hits his head intentionally against the headboard, Bart looks horrified, and Tim just stares blankly.

"Okay," Kon says, "There's no way in hell I'm using any of that. I don't even know what most of that -is-."

"I don't think I want to have sex for fifty years," Bart says.

Tim may have been feeling defiant before, but now, for once, he's inclined to agree.

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