Chapter Text
Kon is so out of his depth, and has been ever since he got the weirdest feeling that someone was with him and, on a hunch, reached out with his TTK to find a girl. Because he’s great at rescuing damsels in distress (hello? Superboy?), but no one really taught him how to deal with the long, drawn-out emotional stuff that comes after, and Tim’s just… really fragile sometimes. Not in a weak way, because holy shit he has no idea how she survived as long as she did when everyone in the world just suddenly forgot she existed. But like she’s been broken or cracked a bunch of times and had to put herself back together with whatever she had on hand. He’s scared that, if he tries to mess with it, he’s going to fuck up something worse.
Apparently no one else is scared he’ll mess up, though, because the second time they try to turn off her powers, it’s just him and Tim in a room – even the telepath figured he could work just as well through a wall, and the fewer people around, the better.
It’s not like she just appears out of nowhere, more like she was always there, out of focus, and suddenly he can focus on her again. She’s sitting on a chair across from him, with her legs pulled up against her chest, and staring at him like she’s ready to bolt at any second.
“Hi again,” he says with a grin and hopes that she doesn’t freak out this time. One of the STAR Labs scientists gave him a crash course on what to do if she had a panic attack or something, but he’s not really confident he’d know what he was doing.
“Hi,” she says, and her lips curve upwards in a tentative smile. Her fingers twitch like she wants to reach out and grab his hand but is too scared to, so he makes the first move, putting his hand on top of hers. And then he thinks screw it, pulls her forward and turns it into an actual hug, because she looks like she’s going to cry again.
This close, it’s practically impossible not to notice how tiny she is. Kon’s genetics are amazing, but he’s not even close to full Super-height yet and she already pretty much fits under his chin. Plus, she’s thin. Really thin. Actually-looks-kind-of-sick, it’s-a-little-scary thin. It feels like he could snap something by accident just by holding her too tight.
“I don’t really know what to say,” she says, voice slightly muffled by his shoulder.
“That’s cool. We can just stay like this for a while, if you want.”
“Okay,” she whispers. She’s shaking, shivering like she’s freezing, although he can’t imagine how she could possibly be cold in the huge STAR Labs sweatshirt she’s wearing. He wraps his TTK around her anyway; people tell him it feels warm and tingly, like touching sunlight, so maybe it’ll help.
Eventually, she pulls back and tries smiling at him again. It makes her look cute, even with her face all splotchy and teary.
“How do you feel?”
“I don’t – “ She stops for a second and tugs on a lock of hair that’s fallen into her face. It’s long and black and kind of messy, but he figures there isn’t much opportunity to get stuff like regular haircuts when no one knows you’re alive. “I don’t know. I feel… I don’t know.”
“The doctors wanted to talk to you. You know, when you’re ready.” He stops, because she’s starting to look a little panicky. “It’s cool if you don’t want to talk to anyone else today. We could just hang out. You could tell me some stuff about yourself, maybe?”
“What – “ She breathes out, like she’s steadying herself. “What would you want to know?”
“Anything. Like, uh – “ He tries to think if she’s ever told him anything about her home, but he doesn’t think so. If she has, he’s pretty sure he can’t be blamed for having forgotten. “Where are you from?”
“Gotham. It’s not perfect, but it’s…” She shrugs, which is pretty much the same kind of thing Robin does when Kon asks her what she and Batman even see in Gotham that’s worth sticking around for.
“Cool,” he says, because he can be tactful. Sometimes. “You ever seen Batman and Robin?”
He’s prepared to leverage the heck out of some name-dropping like hey, I could get you in with Robin sometime, but she ducks her head and says, “Um, yeah. I used to follow them around. No one knew I was there, so…”
“So maybe you can answer a question Robin won’t,” he says, partly just to keep the conversation going and partly because he has a bet going with Impulse and he’s not sure if he can use a girl who erases her existence from everyone’s memories as a source but this is his chance. “Is Batman really that dark and grim all the time, or have you seen him pick his nose like the rest of us?”
“Kon!” She bursts into startled laughter, and it’s pretty much the first time he’s seen her look really happy, at least that he can remember. It doesn’t last nearly long enough, so he figures he’s just going to have to figure out ways to make it happen again. “I’m not even answering that.”
“Everyone knows denial is the same thing as saying yes,” Kon says, and makes a note to tell Bart I told you so later, even if he can’t explain his credible source.
She just shakes her head, like she wants to tell him he’s being an idiot but can’t bring herself to say it out loud.
“Can you tell me any embarrassing stories about what he does when he’s alone? Cause Robin keeps shutting me down, and – are you okay?”
She lifts her head a little from where she’d just dropped it into her hands, still grimacing slightly. “I. No. I don’t know. I’m not sure what…” Her face goes blank for a second, maybe talking to the telepath in the other room. “I think it’s time for me to… go. Again.”
Stupidly, the first thing that pops into his head is already? But you just got here. But he gets it, kinda; this whole thing is a strain for her. “If that’s what you gotta do.”
She looks like she’s going to start crying, and he really, really wants to give her a hug or something, but she’s already – not fading. But, like, flickering, here and gone for a few seconds, and then it’s a struggle again to remember that he hadn’t been alone in the room. He tries to reach out with TTK again, look for her, but he guesses he really is alone in the room now cause he can’t find her.