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Every day when Colin gets out of St. Benedict’s Catholic School for Boys, Damian is there waiting for him. Rain or shine, the older boy sits on his bike in front of the stark iron fence that rings the school and refuses to budge even when the janitors (or the principal that one time) come out and tell him to leave.
Today is different.
Colin can feel it in his bones.
Damian doesn’t notice that anything is amiss (he rarely does unless they’re out on patrol) and the dark-haired boy all but shoves the motorcycle helmet at Colin when the other teenager manages to press through the crowd of his classmates milling around Damian’s tricked out Ducati.
Colin barely has time to jam the helmet on over his hair and climb on to the back of the bike before Damian is revving the bike’s powerful engine and speeding off of the sidewalk fast enough to make Colin long for solid -safer- ground. The redhead can’t decide whether to clutch at his knapsack or press as close to Damian as he dares but after nearly losing his bag to the treacherous Gotham streets, he inches forward on the bike and wraps his arms around Damian, pressing his clasped hands against the other boy’s muscular stomach as he feels the heat of the other boy’s leather-clad thigh through the thin fabric of his uniform pants.
They’re taking a different route than usual to get to the Batcave, and the tree-lined streets that blur past are unfamiliar.
“Where are we going?” Normally Colin and Damian keep radio silence on their trips, but this time curiosity wins over the comfortable silence that they normally share.
Over the radio, Damian’s voice is a tinny growl and Colin doesn’t have to look to know that his fingers are clenched on the handlebars. “Grayson and Father think that I need to spend less time on the Mission and more time being a normal child.” The disgust in Damian’s voice is palpable and Colin finds himself squeezing the shorter boy in a hug-that’s-not-quite-a-hug.
“They’ve threatened to lock me out of the Cave if I don’t do something with you,” Damian growls as he pulls up to what looks like an abandoned storage building and sets the bike to idling.
“And?”
Damian’s muscles tense up underneath Colin’s fingers and the older boy curses into the helmet mike before he flips a switch in the handle of his bike and the doors to the shed swing open to reveal a neat little safe house.
“We’re going to see a movie,” he grumbles. “Grayson’s orders. Either we do something together that isn’t training, or I’m benched.”
Colin blinks even though they’re still on the bike and Damian can’t see his face. “Just a movie? That’s not that bad.”
Damian snorts as he guides the bike into the garage and then shakes his head.
“You would think that...”
When he takes his helmet off and turns to Colin, there’s an almost fond smile on his face and the gray-blue of his eyes is softer than Colin has ever seen it. “Hurry up and change, the sooner we get to the theater the sooner we can get back to the cave.”
Damian doesn’t seem to notice that things are changing, but Colin does.
The theater is almost empty when the Colin and Damian finally get out of the line for the concession stand. It’s barely four o’clock in the afternoon and while there should be a packed house for this, a film filled with explosions and excuses to market half-naked bodies.
Instead, the only other people in the theater besides the two teenagers are a couple seated on the other side of the theater that keep glancing back at where Damian and Colin are sitting and before they start giggling to themselves.
“Can I hurt them,” Damian asks almost absently as the house lights dim and the giggling gets even louder. “Please, Colin, I can’t sit here for two hours listening to this.”
Before Damian can reach for one of the tiny smoke bombs that he keeps tucked into his boots, Colin grabs for his hand. “Just ignore them. Maybe they’ll get tired of the movie and walk away,” he says in a low tone as he tries to ignore the way that heat warms his face at the contact between their fingers. “We’re here to have fun. We can’t do that if we get kicked out of the movies.”
The scowl on Damian’s face lasts through two handfuls of popcorn and the first ten minutes of trailers.
And he doesn’t let go of Colin’s hand the entire time.
The movie starts out terrible and just keeps getting worse with every explosion.
It’s so bad, that the giggling couple that was sitting in the theater actually leaves ten minutes into the movie for parts unknown.
“Did we really waste thirty bucks on this shit,” Damian grumbles as he taps his fingers on the armrest just inches away from Colin’s own fingers. “I’d rather put up with Grayson’s incessant chattering than deal with any more of this.”
When their fingers brush, Damian tenses a bit but then relaxes. He shifts in his seat and then turns so that he can see Colin’s face. “You’re enjoying this?”
Colin shrugs and smiles. The light from the screen illuminates his face and makes his freckles seem a million times more noticeable to Damian’s eyes.
“It’s not that bad,” the redhead tries to say at first before the arch of Damian’s eyebrow makes him backtrack. “Well... I’m here with you and I like being with you and...” Colin trails off and presses his hands to his face to hide the blush that must be turning his face a brilliant red. “That sounded bad didn’t it. It’s not like I’m confessing that I have a crush on you or anything, but-”
Damian covers Colin’s mouth with his hand so that the other boy will stop speaking. “Grayson did this on purpose,” he states simply. “This is supposed to be a date. We’re supposed to be on a date.”
He’ll deal with Grayson later, but for now Colin is looking at him with a confused expression on his face and he has to think of some way to apologize for his family before he goes back to the Cave and murders everyone who knew what had been planned without his knowledge.
Colin blinks his big green eyes and then blushes so hard that his freckles are rendered invisible for a moment. He pulls Damian’s hand away from his mouth and even though it takes a while for him to speak around the lump in his throat, he forces himself to get the words out.
(He’s only lied to Damian about one thing in their entire friendship, and he isn’t going to do that again.)
“I like you.” He manages to get it out with no stuttering on his part and he forces himself to meet Damian’s blue gaze. He can do this. H can be brave. He’s faced down lots of bad guys before without panicking. “I don’t mind if this is supposed to be a date. If you want it to be, I’m cool with it”
And Damian isn’t anywhere near as terrifying as some of the criminals that they’ve went up against.
...Or is he?
The thud of Colin’s heartbeat in his ears is nigh unbearable and watching Damian and hoping for a positive answer claws on his nerves and makes him fidget in the seat.
A tiny smile curves at the sides of Damian’s mouth and Colin lets out a breath of air that he hadn’t known he was holding.
Waiting might be a bit more bearable now that Damian is actually smiling at him for real.
“I know.”
“Well we can-” Colin shakes his head as though he can’t believe what he had just heard. “Can you say that again?”
Damian nods once. “I know you like me.”
“What? How?”
Damian shrugs and it’s so casual that Colin isn’t sure that this isn’t some horrible nightmare. “I’m the son of the world’s greatest detective and you’re not very stealthy at all.”
Colin’s fingers clench into a fist and he doesn’t know why Damian’s statement hurts so much but it does and he doesn’t know what to do about it.
The touch of callused fingers easing his fist open snaps him out of his momentary bout of melancholy and when Colin swings his head up, he has a moment to wonder why Damian is so close before there are lips on his and a hand cupping the back of his head.
When Damian pulls back from the chaste kiss, he looks so smug that Colin just wants to shake him.
“Why did you do that,” he asks as he stares at Damian in shock.
Damian shrugs. “Isn’t it obvious? If I didn’t like you, I wouldn’t have let you near my bike after you got one of your own.”
“That’s not how that works.”
Damian’s smug grin doesn’t fade. “It worked for us didn’t it?”
“Seriously, Damian,” Colin breathes as he frowns at his best friend. “We’re going to have a long talk.”
After they get out of the movie, there’s a lot of tongue, but not a lot of talking.
Damian’s idea of flirting is a mix between coy offerings of candy as they watch the movie and being blunt as hell as they walk back to the safe house where his bike is parked.
Colin can’t take it.
He’s been dreaming of something like this since puberty hit and he’s spent the better part of the past five years, messing his sheets at the thought of Damian’s callused fingers touching him anywhere and life can’t possibly get any better.
Until it does.
The second that the doors shut behind them, Damian is there pressed against him. The shorter boy kisses as though he hungers for Colin’s mouth and he gives no quarter as he works a thigh between the redhead’s legs and his hands go for the hem of the other boy’s shirt.
Colin finds himself moaning into Damian’s mouth before he realizes it.
He’s been waiting for this for years and having Damian on him, pressing him back against the wall of someone else’s safe house shouldn’t be getting him as hot as he is but then Damian turns his attention to his throat and all logical thought just flies out of his head.
“Aren’t we moving too fast,” Colin gasps out in the direction of the ceiling as Damian pinches one of his nipples and he didn’t know that he could be so hard without coming all over the inside of his pants.
Damian tears his mouth away from Colin’s throat and looks up into his friend’s eyes.
“I’m not trying to fuck you or anything.” Profanity always sounds strange coming out of Damian’s mouth and Colin blushes and ducks his head instinctively. “Normal teenagers make out all of the time. It’s obviously not a big deal.”
When he makes to go back to sucking hickeys into the pale skin of Colin’s neck (and boy does Colin not want to think about what’ll happen tomorrow when his classmates see those), the younger boy holds him off by raising one hand and frowning. “We’re supposed to be talking, and-”
Damian frowns. “If you don’t want to make out, we can go back home.”
The idea of spending another half-hour pressed against Damian’s body with the erection currently making his spare set of jeans terribly uncomfortable makes Colin blush all the way up to the tops of his ears.
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” he forces out as he takes in Damian’s slightly swollen lips and the hunger in the other boy’s eyes. “But, we haven’t even talked about this. I don’t want it to be just a one-time thing.”
Damian shakes his head. “It won’t be. You’re my best friend, Colin. I won’t let you go for anything.”
And Colin knows Damian well enough not to question the strength of his promise.
This time he initiates the kiss. He cups Damian’s face in his hands and leans forward and everything (from the way that Damian groans into the kiss to the hand that wriggles underneath his shirt to torment his nipples) is perfect.
He wants Damian so much.
He’s wanted nothing else for so long that he can taste his own want on the back of his tongue and the only thing that stops him from dropping to his knees and taking Damian into his mouth is the knowledge that they’re still in someone else’s safe house and that someone may very well have cameras all over the room.
“Just making out is fine,” he admits against Damian’s cheek when they break apart to breathe. He rests his forehead against Damian’s forehead and grins because he can and he’s here with he best friend in the universe and they’re a thing. “For now.”
Damian nods and reaches for Colin again.
“For now.”