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Clark’s ringtone is the most obnoxious, off-key beeping he has ever heard or imagined in his life, and it jolts him straight out of a dead sleep in an instant. He sits straight up in bed before his eyes fully open, blinking, and it takes him a second to even figure out what he’s listening to. Lois is snickering in her sleep, which means it’s actually her doing. That explains why he doesn’t remember changing his ringtone.
He fumbles for it. “Hello?”
“Clark. I need your help,” Conner says, fast. “I fucked up.”
Clark blinks. “Conner? What’s going on?”
“I fucked up, that’s what.” He breathes out unevenly. “Oh my god, Clark. I… I don’t know what to do. I need to talk to you.”
He’s already up, levitating so he doesn’t wake Lois, heart beating too fast. He can hear Conner’s heartbeat, now that he’s listening for it. It sounds like panic. “Where are you?”
“Um… the silo at the edge of town. On it.”
Clark lets himself out through the window and flies fast and high so nobody can see that he’s not in uniform— maybe he should— no, he can see Conner, and he’s in civilian clothes, too. He sets down in front of him, giving him a once-over for injuries. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“What? No, no—" Conner ducks away from him when he reaches for him, trying to feign annoyance. It doesn’t work when he has that anxious green tint to his face. “No. I can need to talk to you without being hurt.”
Clark blinks. Drops his hand, and makes himself breathe, properly. “You sounded bad.”
Conner grimaces and sinks down on the roof. “I’m not hurt, but… it is bad.”
Clark takes a second, trying to put pieces together now that the adrenaline is subsiding to something manageable. He doesn’t know what he was out doing tonight. Conner doesn’t usually tell him where he’s going, now that he’s (technically) eighteen and has earned his trust in spades. He gets the feeling, though, that it has something to do with his friends. Normally, he’d be going to them with non-life-threatening issues like this one.
He sits down next to him, leaving enough room that he doesn’t feel crowded. “Start from the beginning. Do I have to hide a body?”
Conner blinks and gives him a sideways, disbelieving Dad-you’re-not-cool look. That, at least, feels normal. “Like you’d hide a body.”
“Is that a no?”
“Yes! I mean, no. It’s not that. I…” He sighs, exasperated. “God.”
He’s breathing, now, at least. “Like I said. Start from the beginning. You said you screwed up? What did you screw up?”
“My life.” Conner takes a deep breath. “I kissed Tim.”
Clark blinks. “What?”
“I kissed Tim!” He throws his hands up, laughing hysterically. “Right on the lips! Out of nowhere! Who does that?!”
“You kissed Tim?” He’s trying to process and be supportive like he’s supposed to, but… Conner and Tim are friends. Best friends. They’ve been on the same team for years and they’re inseparable and they tell each other everything and… ah. In retrospect, he should have seen this coming. He laughs. “Oh.”
Conner turns a death glare on him. “What?”
“Nothing. Nothing. I’m happy for you.” Clark smiles. “You’ve never mentioned liking him before, is all.”
“I…” He hesitates. “I didn’t know. For a while.”
“How long is a while?”
“…I figured it out when I kissed him.”
Oh. Now he’s beginning to see why he’s panicking. “It was just… something you did on impulse, and it felt right?”
“Yes,” Conner groans. He slides sideways onto Clark’s shoulder, and that’s when Clark knows he’s really not handling this well. “I just… did it. And I don’t know why the fuck I did it.”
“Because, clearly, you really like him.”
“He’s my best friend! People don’t just kiss their best friends for no reason! With no warning!”
Clark rubs his shoulder comfortingly. “What did Tim say?”
“Nothing.” He sighs, heavy and forlorn. “He just… stared at me. Kind of started hyperventilating. I have no idea what he was thinking, but… he hasn’t called me.” Clark makes a sympathetic noise and he burrows his face deeper into his shoulder. “I fucked it all up.”
“You’re just assuming that. It hasn’t been that long. He was probably just… surprised. Like you are.”
“But what if I’m right? I can’t just pretend it didn’t happen. We can’t just go back to normal!”
“No,” Clark has to agree. God, he wished he was better at this. Conner sounds so miserable and he just wants to fix it. “But… it’ll work out. You’ll see.”
Conner huffs. “You’re required to say that. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Superman’s required to say it. I’m not. And I’m telling you—" He hears, from home, the window opening, and pauses. It’s too light to be Lois, which means Jon woke up… and then he hears him flying toward them. “Heads up."
“I hear it.” Conner lifts his head, staring expectantly in the direction of home, and barely blinks when Jon is suddenly hovering in front of them. “Hey bud.”
“What’s wrong?” Jon has none of the tact that Clark has learned to use around Conner so he doesn’t feel uncomfortable, doesn’t have the reservations to know when he shouldn’t ask questions. He’s frowning, wide-eyed. “You’re upset!”
“It’s nothing.” Conner forces a smile, and Clark realizes abruptly that his eyes are shining like he’s holding back tears. No wonder he suddenly decided to accept a hug.
Jon sees it, too, and tackles him in a forceful hug. “It’s not,” he says, looking up at Clark with an oddly intense glare. It’s his Dad, fix it look. “What’s going on?”
“Friend problems,” Clark says as Conner smiles at him gratefully. “What are you doing up? Did you hear me leave?”
“Heard Conner,” he mumbles. “Your heart’s beating too fast.”
Conner blinks. “You hear my heartbeat now?”
Jon looks insulted. “You’re my brother.”
Conner laughs dryly and swipes at his eyes, trying to be casual and failing. “I kissed Tim,” he admits. “And I don’t think he liked it. I think he’s mad at me.”
Jon frowns further, cuddling into the side that Clark isn’t on so that they’re all sitting in a row on the edge of the silo; Clark can feel, through his side, when Conner starts to lean on him, too, the muscles that are wired by stress starting to unwind. Clark ruffles his hair, making his bangs lie down flat— he combs through his hair when he’s upset, and only doesn’t fix it when he’s really upset— and he sighs and hunkers in further down. He’s not quite crying, he doesn’t cry for next to anything, but his eyes are still shiny and his heartbeat still sounds like fear.
“He’ll still be your friend,” Clark says, partially because that’s what Conner needs to hear and partially because he knows it’s true. They’ve been through too much to let even something this big tear them apart.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that. He’s your best friend, and when you both calm down in the morning, you’ll still be best friends.”
“Like me and Damian,” Jon offers. He’s basically clinging to Conner’s arm. It looks like it scares him, to see Conner upset, since he never is. “We fight all the time. And he’s still my best friend.”
“Yeah, but there’s something wrong with Damian.” Conner nudges his shoulder. “You’re right. I… I’ll be okay. I’m just… not. Yet.”
“And that’s okay.” Clark can feel a smile tugging over his face, just to see him trying, and gives him an actual hug. Conner relaxes into it, breathing deep, and Clark gives Jon a conspiratorial nod over his head when he checks whether that’s improvement. “It’ll look better in a few hours. I promise.”
“You’re required to say that,” Conner mumbles. He likes to say that when Clark is being cliché, as if that’s a bad thing. But right now, he at least sounds like he’s laughing. That’s a good thing.
That means he’s going to be okay.
“I might be, as your dad,” Clark admits. “But I also know it’s true. Now, how about we go home and…”
“Play video games,” Jon offers, nudging him so Conner will look at him when he smiles. “I’ll let you pick! And you can have the lucky blue controller!”
“And we have ice cream.” Clark picks up where Jon is leading. Smart. He’s good at this. “I won’t tell Lois if you don’t.”
Conner rolls his eyes. “You’re ridiculous.” He swipes at his eyes again, breathing out heavily, and then stands up. “But you’re on. Clark? You want to play with us?”
“Absolutely.” He stands, too, and pulls Conner up so he’ll fly with him. “But I’m going to win. You’ve been warned.”
Conner shakes his head again, but he’s smiling, and that’s when Clark is sure.
It’ll be better in the morning— and then, his biggest problem will be how he tells Bruce about all of this.
And that's a good problem to have.