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Kon's sitting on the ground, leaning against the back of the couch. He's staring at the wall. It's pretty interesting, for a wall. White. Devoid of any markings. Which is ... okay, maybe not very interesting. But it's not, is the important thing, his teammates. It's not asking any weird questions, or unintentionally making him feel inferior by, like, flying around.
The couch rocks slightly; that's the feel of Bart hitting it at very high speed. This is not, normally, a feeling that Kon is familiar with. Normally when Bart runs into something he's pushing up against, the wake doesn't even move it. Then, normally he's not sitting behind the couch.
"Hikon," Bart says. He peers over the couch -- virtually projects himself off it, really, leaning most of the way over in order to properly get in Kon's face. Kon reaches up to bat at him, but Bart's face, of course, is gone by the time Kon's hand gets there.
Bart launches himself over the back of the couch and lands next to Kon -- right next to him; someone should explain to him the concept of personal space sometime. "What's up?" Bart says. He pulls his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms around them, mimicking Kon's position (though whether intentionally or not was up for grabs; you never knew, with Bart), and taps one foot rapid-fire against the floor.
"Nothing," Kon says, and Bart scowls -- he doesn't understand the concept of doing nothing, which all the others are so familiar with. Bart's always doing something -- several things at once, usually.
"Is it about your powers?" Bart asks, and it's Kon's turn to scowl; he hates it when Bart's perceptive. He hates it when Bart's right, which happens upsettingly often -- luckily though, Bart doesn't usually notice. He does this time, though, because when Kon says "No," he really doesn't sound like he means it.
Bart just looks at him, and he says "No!" again, a little more forcefully this time.
"Kon," Bart says.
"Maybe," Kon says, grudgingly. "A little." He's just ... he likes Bart, he really does, but he's just ... not inclined to pour his heart out to Impulse.
Bart's foot stops its tapping, and Bart sighs a little. It's the most quiet and still Kon has seen him in ... days, at least, if not ever. Finally Bart says, "It's okay, you know. I know how you feel. Everyone thinks I'm useless, too."
Kon starts to protest, but Bart's talking again by the time he's even opened his mouth.
"No, it's okay. I get it. It's like ... well, I don't know what it's like. But it's cool. But my point is, everyone still wants you on the team. Everyone wants you around. Everyone likes you."
Kon takes his eyes off the (really, quite fascinating) wall for the first time in what must be hours, in order to really look at Bart. Well, the side of Bart's head, because now Bart's staring at the wall, but still. "Bart," he says, and then, "Everyone likes you."
"No, no." Bart sighs, or Kon assumes it's a sigh; it sounds more like a particularly heavy, fast exhale. "Everybody likes you, Kon."
Before Kon has a chance to react, or blink, or anything, Bart's on him, a hand on the side of his face turning his head just a little closer, and lips fastened onto his. And before Kon can react to that, Bart is gone.
*
The first thing Cassie says is, "Hold up a sec, Ciss," which isn't very helpful at all.
"Hi Cissie," Kon says, and waves a little. Which is dumb, because she can't see him, but he does it anyway.
"Kon says hi. And, yeah, one sec," Cassie says into the phone, and then shrugs her shoulders so that the mouthpiece of the speaker is away from her mouth. She looks up at Kon. "Cissie says hi back. You need something?"
Kon shifts his weight from one foot to the other. How to phrase this. Delicately. Tactfully. Non-incriminatingly. "Have you seen Bart?" he asks.
"Nuh-uh," she says, and shakes her head. She brings the phone back up to her mouth: "Ciss, have you seen Bart?" A pause. "Well, he could be, I don't know." A pause. She looks back up at Kon. "Cissie hasn't seen him, either."
"Okay," Kon says. He shifts his weight again. "Um. Thanks."
*
"Last I saw him, he was on the roof," Robin says.
Kon blinks. "Dude, how did you know? I didn't even ask you."
Robin shrugs. "You asked Cassie."
"You weren't even in the room, man!"
"I know." Robin just smirks, in that infuriating way of his.
Kon just sighs, and runs a hand through his hair. "Okay. Thanks, man."
Robin is just turning back to ... whatever freaky Robin thing he's doing when a reddish blur streaks through the room. Oh, Kon thinks. Not on the roof anymore. Right then. He takes off after Bart, the fastest he can go is still infuriatingly slow.
*
A few minutes later, he collapses onto the couch. If Bart doesn't want to be found? There's no way to find him. No need to waste hours searching. He should know this by now.
"Hi, Kon," Bart says.
Kon swivels his head around -- where did that ... oh. He turns around, on his knees to peer over the back of the couch. Yep. Bart.
"Hi," he says. Bart's got his arms wrapped around his knees again, but his head's tipped up to peer at Kon. It's kind of eerie to see Bart sitting so still, but Kon figures he better take advantage of it while he can.
"So," he says. "Everyone likes me, huh?"
"Yeah," Bart says. "Or, well. I do."
Kon considers this for a moment. "Cool," he says, finally.
Bart's eyes widen, which looks kind of funny upside-down. "Really?"
"Yeah."
And then before Kon knows it he's on his back on the couch, with Bart's hands pressing down on his shoulders and Bart's knees digging into his thighs and Bart's lips pressing against his.
"Woah, woah." Kon laughs a little, and pushes Bart up off him; he's still strong enough to do that at least. "Don't you think you're moving a little ..." He trails off.
"Fast?" Bart grins wickedly, and leans in to kiss him again.