![[I saw three ships]](../img/2011icon.png)
I really like the idea of these three together as a result of the pairings that existed before, during and after Kon's death. I wasn't happy that they all just fell apart in DC continuity so this is my fix-it. Sorry it wasn't longer!
Cassie is the one to come to the realization—and the decision.
It only makes sense.
First there was she and Kon. Then he…died…and it was she and Tim, always with Kon's ghost between them, with them, and it only took her a few weeks of being with the incredibly depressed Robin for her to realize it could easily have been Kon and Tim, too, or, instead, even if they'd been too short-sighted to realize it.
Then Kon came back and they tried, the two of them, to go back to what they'd been, but Tim was still there, and not a ghost. He backed off, gave her back to Kon like she was some kind of gift—and she was going to have words with him about that—but she could see the need in him, even when his face was bat-blank.
Need for both of them.
So, it only makes sense to choose them both, to make them three. Not she and Tim and she and Kon and not just Kon and Tim, but all of them, together.
It's not like it's unheard of, especially on the immortal side of her family. And she knows Kon has never had any sexual hangups—he can just be dense sometimes—and, maybe if she wasn't there, it might have been Tim and Kon years ago.
And, Tim? Well, Tim is pragmatic if nothing else.
So, why are they both looking at her like she's lost her mind?
"Uh…Cassie?" Kon stammers.
Tim simply folds his arms over his chest and blinks at her—she insisted he remove his mask because she wasn't going to let any of them hide—and there's a bit of a deer-in- headlights look in his blue eyes.
"I love you both."
"Um…yeah, okay. That's…well, I'm not surprised you and Tim, y'know, when I was…gone. It's okay and it's still okay because he's my best friend and he's the one I would have wanted you to be with if I'd have thought about it ever, but…"
"And you love each other," she interrupts strongly, determination in every inch of her body.
Tim flushes. He actually flushes.
Kon just gapes.
She moves to Tim, first, because she's most sure of his feelings. Every kiss he gave her revealed that. "I know you love him. You wouldn't have been so desperate to get him back, so broken without him," she says gently, reaching out and brushing her fingers over his reddened cheek. He doesn't draw back and she takes that as a positive sign. "It's okay, Tim. I think I probably always knew, even before we lost him, even if you didn't know, and I'm okay with it. I really am. I want us to be…happy, and, gods, we haven't been. We tried to make it work but it just was never going to…" She smiles over her shoulder at Kon who is still gaping. "Not without him."
"I…I never wanted to come between you," Tim grinds out hoarsely.
"But I want you between us. What we had while he was gone wasn't a lie, Tim. Not for me."
"Me neither," he swore quickly, his eyes flickering past her to Kon. "I just…I didn't know you…knew."
"I'm not sure I really did, consciously at least, until we got him back. Gods, Tim, the joy on your face…I've never seen it and then you just shut it down."
"Because Kon loves you, not…"
"Did you ever think about asking me?"
Startled by the hint of anger in Kon's voice, they both turn to him and he's no longer gaping, but glowering.
Cassie catches a glimpse of Tim's lips drawing tight and nearly rolls her eyes as she realizes he's going to close down again. "Of course he didn't. He's a bat."
"And, you, Cassie, you're jumping to a lot of conclusions here."
"No, I just know you. You love him. Maybe just as a best friend, right now, but you're open to it. I know you," she stresses, moving to him and placing a hand on one of his crossed arms. "For one, you'd never want him to be unhappy, and, oh Kon, he's been so unhappy. I couldn't make him happy, and I tried. I'm not embarrassed by that. I wasn't betraying your memory by being with him because I knew he loved you as much as I did and our grief was the same."
"Yeah, sure I love him," Kon replies, scratching the back of his neck as a bit of red colors his fair skin. "He's my best friend, like you said, and, no, of course, I don't want him to be unhappy, but I just never…I never thought about it because…"
"You had me?" she offers.
"Um, yeah, I guess."
"No hangups about homosexuality?"
"No, course not, and I have no problem admitting I've had thoughts about guys. You do know me, Cas, I just…I guess…Rob and I have always been best friends,, even when he was keeping secrets from us, so I just set aside any thoughts other than that."
There's a hint of triumph in her voice. "But you had them."
"Well, yeah. I mean, look at him."
They both do, and Tim's face is actually betraying emotion—kind of wonder and shock and a bit of fear. Cassie reaches across the space between them, takes his arm, and tugs, and Tim comes easily, until the three of them are standing close together, a triangle almost quivering with questions and a long buried need.
"Kon?" Tim whispers.
"When did you realize you wanted more than friendship?"
"When I lost you, but it was always there, I think."
And, oh gods, there are tears in his eyes, and Cassie feels her own fill up as she leans against him, pressing her face into the crook of his shoulder—and when did he grow to her height?
"Then we might have had a chance before," Kon says, not really a question.
"Maybe," Tim replies bravely. "We'll never know, but…"
"You want it now."
"I never…" He swallows hard, blinks away the tears. "I wouldn't have ever come between you and Cassie."
"You damn bats and your suffering in silence," Kon yells and reaches out and jerks Tim against him, dragging Cassie with him by default as she's still holding onto his arm, pressed against his side.
"Well, you never said anything either," Tim grumbles against his best friend's broad chest, as his hands dig into Kon's bicep and Cassie's waist.
"Stupid boys," Cassie laughs through her tears and holds them close.
There are a lot of details to work through, a lot of talking to do, but they have time.
They're together and they have time.
And she's not letting either of them go ever again. She'll fight death itself for them. Heck, she's a demi-god; they do that all the time.
![[fin]](../img/2011banner.png){kind=small}