Semi Adult With Responsible Like Tendencies

Almost Adulting

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Nope."

"Yeah, I'm not doing this."

Tim turned on his heel and started to walk away, but Kon caught his wrist and pulled him gently back.

"Yes, you are." Tim pouted up at him, but Kon ignored it. "Red Robin-" yes Red Robin, because they had just finished fighting a giant robot and this was what Kon wanted to do to celebrate- "you are a grown ass adult living on his own and you still don't know how to grocery shop."

Tim glared up at the chain store grocery sign like it had offended him. "I know how to grocery shop," he grumbled, barely restraining his foot from stamping.

Kon snorted. "No, you don't. I've seen your pantry babe, it looks like the candy display in a corner store. The only thing you keep well stocked is coffee."

"Okay fine, maybe I don't go 'grocery shopping'," Tim put air quotes around the offending words to emphasize his point, "but I'll have you know I keep a supply of Alfred's frozen lasagna at all times. It's not like I'm starving."

"Oh yeah?" His eyebrow cocked challengingly. "What did you have for dinner last night?"

Tim's answer died on his tongue. Okay, so maybe he'd neglected his baser needs a little, but he'd been working on a case! He didn't have time to eat. "Fine. You have one good point."

Smiling triumphantly, the half kryptonian said, "This is happening birdy. Make it easier on yourself and come willingly."

The bickering couple was starting to attract a small audience of curious shoppers, but no one dared come close. Superboy and Red Robin may be friendly, but a Superman clone who showed up out of nowhere with anger issues and a standoffish personality (no matter how long ago that had been) didn't exactly invite approach. Red Robin was better, but not by much considering he was 1) Batman's protege and 2) from Gotham.

"If it helps convince you, plan A was to hand you over to Nightwing and Agent A."

Tim involuntarily flinched. "Fine," he whined, dragging out the word. "But do you even know how to grocery shop?"

"Well, no," Kon admitted. "I've never even set foot in a grocery store, but I figured we could learn together."

Time narrowed his eyes. "I hate you for being so adorable."

"Nah, you love me." He kissed Tim's cheek and laced their fingers together easily.

How was Tim supposed to stay angry at that? They entered the store hand in hand.

By silent mutual agreement, Tim pushed the cart. It was trickier than he'd anticipated because the front wheel wobbled and made it damn near impossible to keep it going in a straight line, but better him than Kon who might accidently crush the thing.

When they stepped into the actual store, Tim nearly got whiplash from the tonal shift. It reminded him of the first time he'd stepped through a portal, and suddenly popped up in a completely different part of the world, if he'd even ended up on Earth at all.

Rows and rows of food seemed to sprawl in every direction. He'd never quite imagined a grocery store would be this big. He supposed he'd never thought about it at all. The fluorescent lighting kept the place well lit in an artificial sort of way and Tim had to imagine it would look the same day and night. In fact, an apocalypse could probably be raging outside, and those lights wouldn't change in the slightest. It didn't help that they made the already tired patrons even paler.

Tim fought the instinct to reach for his weapons. They were civilians, not zombies. Probably.

"Did you make a list or something? How exactly does this work?" Tim asked, partially out of curiosity and partially to break the awkward silence that had fallen as they took in their new surroundings.