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I. Impulse, Robin, and Red Tornado
It was after Robin, Impulse, and himself were relaxing in the old Justice League Headquarters that Superboy had gotten an idea. He looked at Impulse’s ceiling art again, with the three heroes all drawn in a cartoonish style with blue spray paint, and thought to himself, ‘Hey, it could use a little touch up.’
The problem? Well, he wasn’t really an artist, let alone a painter.
The others were currently out handling missions from their mentors, so it was only a matter of time until Impulse would come speeding back, so the Super had to think quickly.
C’mon, he had to come up with something. He was no Van Gogh. Think, think, think…
Wait a minute.
’Huh,’ he wondered.
Superboy was still getting a handle on some of the finer skills of his TTK, but surely if he floated to the ceiling, brought his hands near the art piece, maybe he could–
Well. Would you look at that?
Robin was going to be so pissed. Impulse, he wasn’t sure
Tim was on his way back from his mission with Batman when he noticed Impulse at the entryway, laughing at something in the cave. Curious, he peeked in, but didn’t see anything out of place. The HQ looked about the same as he left it, complete with Superboy reclining on one of the Justice League council table seats. It was just where the Boy Wonder last saw him before leaving.
He was about to ask Impulse what he was laughing at until he glanced at Red Tornado. The robot wasn’t the most expressive member of their little make-shift ‘team’, but he could tell something irked him. He stood staring at the ceiling, drawing Tim’s attention upwards as well.
It took everything in him to hold back his own laughter.
Up on the ceiling stood the paintings that Impulse had created, but it looked like some, *ahem*,revisions were made.
Where Impulse’s was crudely drawn, his mask/goggles now resembled glasses. His mouth also now had two buck teeth painted where his mouth was. Tim’s face wasn’t fairing much better, as his drawing now had fangs where his mouth was, and a silhouette of bat ears on the back. What was also interesting was that unlike Impulse’s spray paint, Superboy had the added features carved on, not painted or sprayed. The linework looked about as choppy as Impulse’s though.
He would have been a little more offended by this if he didn’t see the Red Tornado addition.
At least, Tim assumes that’s what was carved in the ceiling, he could barely tell. The face was unrealistic anyway, as Superboy gave the robot a giant smile and a bunch of swirls around it (were those mini-tornados?).
Beside him was a chat bubble that read out “Best. Team. Ever.” Tim let out a snort.
The sound caused Impulse’s and Superboy’s head to snap over in shock. Superboy in particular looked absolutely floored. Even mystified.
What? Yeah, he was a Robin, but he was also a kid. He can find these kinds of things funny, thank you very much.
This, however, did not amuse Red Tornado, who walked away quietly.
“SB, what–” Tim stuttered out, but couldn’t really finish.
“Look I was booooooored ” Superboy drawled out. “Look, I might not be an artist like GL, or even Impulse but with my TTK, I think–” Aaaaand that’s where Tim started to tune out a bit. Impulse was too, at a glance.
The sound of heavy footsteps alerted the trio back to where Red Tornado had walked away from. There, the robot was holding a bucket, mop, and towels.
“Now that you boys have had your fun, I assume you two are ready to clean it up. You all did just come back from seeing your mentors, correct? And Superboy, I’m sure you are more than capable of smoothing out those caricatures you just made.” Red Tornado asserted. Superboy’s and Impulse’s faces fell, and this time Tim didn’t even try to hold back a laugh, causing the two to glare at him.
Impulse grumbled out a ‘fine.’ Then, with no time to process, Impulse sped throughout the entire cave, the bucket, mop and towel gone. A second or two later, the paint was completely gone, but the carvings Superboy left behind still remained.
Just as Impulse stopped to dust off his hands, Red Tornado directed his gaze to SB. “Well Superboy, it’s your turn.”
Superboy looked ready to protest, but swallowed his complaints as Red Tornado continued his searing robotic glare. After he realized he couldn’t argue his way out of this one, Superboy let out an exasperated sigh, then floated up and used his TTK to start smoothing out the rock.
Tim couldn’t hold back a smile. Young, Just Us indeed.
II. Roxy
When Kon showed up at Roxy’s door to visit and stay the night, how could she refuse? It’d been forever since they last saw each other in anything other than crazy circumstances, especially after Kon had started working at Cadmus. While she understood his decision, Roxy missed seeing the kid fly across Hawaii.
Of course, she didn’t always miss his sense of humor.
Ever since she saved his life from the Agenda, Kon and her would occasionally mess with each other. Nothing serious, usually stuff like hiding their products for their morning routines (like hair gel or hairspray), or pulling little traps or pranks to get the other drenched or soaked from head to toe.
She hadn’t quite prepared for this however.
Roxy had just showered and put her PJ’s on. She was blow drying her hair for the night to get her ready to head down to the precinct the next morning. She had finished about one side of her blonde locks when suddenly the blow dryer wheezed and stopped blasting hot air. Grumbling about how she’d need to buy a new one, the girl examined the appliance, but as soon as she turned it around in her hands though, the entire thing fell apart!
What the hell?
The dryer wasn’t exactly new, but it wasn’t old enough to turn into a bunch of wires and parts! How did it all–
Oh.
Oh.
Oh he didn’t.
“KON!” Roxy yelled. She stormed out of the room, stopping once when she noticed that on the other side of her bathroom was Kon in the guestroom. She saw his hand right by the wall with a playful, but sheepish smirk.
“Kon,” she said again, this time more firm. “Kon, what did you do?” That tone seemed to drop that smile pretty quickly.
“Y-yeah, my bad. Y’see, I was only trying to switch it off– and I thought I had a handle on it!-- But I, um,” Kon stuttered out. “I didn’t mean to break it.”
The excuse still had Roxy fuming. She was glaring at him silently, body tense with frustration. The longer she glared, the more quilty the kid looked. Kon was starting to resemble a kicked puppy more so than the Superboy that used to confidently pose for the cameras.
Soon, Roxy’s shoulders relaxed, and most of her anger quickly dissipated. She wasn’t exactly happy, but knowing Kon, she knew the kid was playing one of their harmless pranks they used to do together.
Still, that didn’t make up for the broken hair dryer.
Making up her mind, Roxy clapped her hands in new-found determination, causing Kon to jolt and look puzzled.
“Well, if you’re going to interrupt my nightly routine, now you have to help me out for the night as payback!” She grinned. Kon looked initially shocked at the turn of events, but she could tell that the kid was probably relieved.
She could never stay mad at Superboy. How many times has he saved her back? And her the same?
She walked over to her lenin closet to grab a towel, about to wrap it up to dry, thinking everything over.“Why not help me with the rest of my skincare routine before calling it a night?” She asked. “Maybe if we have enough time afterwards you can also help me touch up my nails.”
Kon still looked a little stunned at this new development, but immediately nodded his head yes.
“Y-yeah, sure! What can I do to help?”
Roxanne grinned, grabbing enough products for the both of them.
This was going to be so much fun.
About an hour or two later, the two had freshly cleaned, beauty masked and moisturized faces (“Do you wanna’ try it?” “Huh? Uh well my TTK helps me prevent getting most of the crud off my face so-” “That didn’t really answer my question.” “...Sure, why not?”), as well as nicely painted nails just in time for bed.
Roxy was the first to wake up the next morning. Her hair wasn’t exactly to her preferences, but hey, the kid made up for it. She still definitely had a fun night, and she was sure Kon did as well from how much he joked around with a big smile to his face. As she tied back up her hair, Roxy’s eyes caught the nail polish in her bag from last night, the glass bottle glinting in the bathroom lighting.
Hm. Maybe she could make him a good farewell present.
It wouldn’t be until Kon had already landed back to Cadmus that he would see the bottles of nail polish Roxy had somehow snuck into his jacket pockets. Not only was there the black one that they had used on him, but there was red, blue, and yellow too. Superboy colors. A “Thank You for the Fun Night! :)” was stuffed in his pocket with the bottles, although it was crinkled from all the nail polish being tossed around with it.
Nonetheless, it made the kid smile brightly.
III. Serling
It was a late night in Cadmus’s main facility where Serling sat in her lab. She originally had the likes of Dubblix keeping an eye on her, but the telepath seemed to have fallen asleep in the process, leaving the girl to her own devices. Not that Serling minded. She used her time to look through a great deal of the files in front of her. Stacks and stacks of papers surrounded her, which dated back from Superboy’s origins to Cadmus’ latest scans. She’d been analyzing and reanalyzing the Super’s DNA and cells that were recorded, trying to find the specific ailment stopping him from aging. Based on their interactions, Serling could tell that while Cadmus was not putting this condition on the top of their priorities, it was driving Kon mad, even if he refused to state it to her outright. The young scientist studied the charts and observations gathered immensely, but she was still stumped on how to proceed, and nothing she scanned of him so far was helping.
No matter how she looked at it, Serling just couldn’t pin-point what exact part of Kon’s DNA was causing his aging to freeze, even with all of the data Cadmus gathered on the incident so far. Serling knows she could do this. If she couldn’t, she wouldn’t be in Cadmus in the first place! Genetics is her main expertise, something like this should be child’s play! Yet, as it stands, the girl was frustrated in how she had not found a solution to aid Superboy.
Going over the same set of numbers the gazillionth time, Serling couldn’t help but notice she was having a hard time reading the numbers in front of her. Instinctively, she blindly grabbed for her glasses on either side of the desk, but after an embarrassing amount of time, realized they were still on her face.
Oh, it can’t be that late already, can it?
She futility wiped the sleepiness away from her eyes. While she could see a lot better,the exhaustion finally hit her. Oh, if she could just look at one more piece of data, maybe she could–
That thought was severely halted as the piles of papers she was reading were suddenly blown right into her face. She jumped right out of her seat, baffled by the sudden interuption.
As Serling backed away from her seat, she suddenly realized who the culprit in front of her was.
Kon.
She was about to question the Super’s antics, but before she could even get a word in, Superboy spoke.
”Sleep,” he said firmly. Serling struggled to process the abrupt chain of events; it felt like Superboy appeared out of thin air.
“Huh?”
“Sleep,” he repeated, this time sounding more insistent. Kon didn’t give Serling any time to answer, however, as she was promptly guided out of her office. The girl could do nothing but follow along, the movement relatively gentle. In fact, she felt almost like she was floating as a light pressure surrounded her, stemming from the palm of Kon’s hands.
That was about as much as she could process before the young scientist felt her eyelids droop and everything go black.
When Serling woke up, she found herself resting comfortably in a room surrounded in what looked like posters, but she couldn’t tell; she needed her glasses. The young scientist rose from her bed sluggishly, rubbing her face and stretching her limbs, trying to process what happened last night. She brought her hand to the counter and felt for glasses, put them on, and observed her surroundings.
The first thing she noticed was there were all sorts of movie and TV posters. Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and look at all those bands! How quantum!
There were CD’s scattered throughout the room. Honestly, she was half tempted to browse through the collection, but this wasn’t her room, and she could still feel the tell-tale signs of exhaustion from last night.
Speaking of…
It didn’t take her long to figure out whose room she’s in. Still clad in yesterday’s uniform, Serling walked out of the room, making it her mission to seek Kon out. He was not going to get away with shoving her around that easily!
Some of the Cadmus staff tried to gather her attention for one endeavor or another, but Serline would not be dissuaded.
As soon as she spotted Kon, the Super met her glare and waved excitedly to her with a big grin on his face.
“Sup, Serls! You should check out this cool trick Guardian taught me. When he- woah woah woah!” Superboy was swiftly cut off when Serling took a hold of his arm and marched them back to her office where she hoped it would be just those two. He could have halted their movements at any point, Serling knew he had the ability to if last night taught her anything, but luckily there was no protest, only the occasional question of concern.
On any other day she’d be ecstatic to see a new trick from both Superboy and Guardian, but now was not the time!
Once they got in, Serling ushered everyone else out and made sure the door was shut and there would be no disturbances before she rounded Superboy.“Don’t act like you don’t remember what you did last night, Kon!” She accused, raising a pointed finger at the Super.
Kon put his hands up in mock surrender. “Hey, I was just doing you a favor!” He defended. Serling was having none of it.
“Blowing the documents to my face was ‘a favor’?” she questioned sarcastically. Kon looked away with some remorse in his features.
“Yeah looking back, not my best way to get you out of bookwork, but-!” he emphasized, “It got you to finally go to sleep, which is what you and Dubbliex seemed to be lacking when I saw you two.” He then pointed a finger to Serling’s way, almost imitating her. Serling would have fumed about this further, but she had another pressing question on her mind as Kon explained himself.
“Well, then what were you doing up?”
The question caused the Super to pause anxiously. Serling rose an eyebrow suspiciously at the change in demeanor.
“Just had trouble sleeping last night is all,” Kon responded. Despite his defensive stance, he wasn’t looking Serling in the eye. She immediately softened, seeing past the mock confidence.
“Heh, I suppose I was having trouble too…” Serling trailed off. She earned a snort from Kon in response, which caused her to tense. Hey, what was so funny about-!
“Like hell you were,” Kon shot back, teasingly. “You practically passed out! I had to use my TTK to carry you the rest of the way over. What were you even doing in here that needed ya’ to stay awake?”
Serling pouted. She opened her mouth to counter back, but paused cautiously. She wasn’t sure if bringing up her plan to investigate what part of Kon’s DNA was causing him to not age was a good idea, at least not yet.
Her silence must have caused Kon to turn suspicious in return because he started to look at her more curiously.
“Well? What is it? Is it about me? Something Cadmus assigned you?” He asked, imploring her to speak further. Serling shook her head decisively.
“Ah, it’s just a little side project. It’s nothing you should worry about!” she assured him.
Serling has debated telling Kon the truth, not just now, but before too. After everything he’s gone through (from both what Cadmus had collected and what she’s witnessed first hand), she decided not to get his hopes up. Until she could without a doubt undo the complications that arose from Superboy’s time with the Agenda, she didn’t want to worry him or let him down.
Kon’s frown didn’t waver, and looked ready to press further, but Serling assured him by saying, “I promise it’s something good, I just need more time.” After a couple more seconds of quiet stares between the two, Kon later gave in and sighed.
“Fine,” he muttered, then resumed his more confident charm from earlier. “Either way, you should be thanking me from last night! If not, you'd still be passed out in this office!” Kon pointed out, earning a giggle from Serling.
“Well, I can’t say I’m a fan of the method, but I suppose you did help me get my night’s rest,” she agreed. “Perhaps I can make it up to you on a later date.”
Kon tilted his head quizzically at the comment, but before he had a chance to press further, Serling yet again grabbed a hold of his arm and shoved him to some of her old finds for music in one of her office’s drawers. She can pay back for his mischievous kindness by expanding the Super’s music library.
The two would be listening and commenting about Serling’s tracks for about an hour until the Guardian would find them and chastise them both before debriefing Kon on his next task for the day.
IV. Cassie and Cissie
Kon thinks not only himself, but most of the team were starting to get fed up with Cassie and Cissie’s antics.
Well, maybe ’antics’ was a little harsh. The Super was pretty sure it may not exactly be intentional, but still!
Initially, he thought that maybe him and Cassie could be a thing, and hey, they’re still getting along well! But the more he and Cassie got to know each other, the more they realized they should stay just friends. It’d been working well so far, why ruin it now?
Also, as Kon was getting to know Cassie more, he’d started to suspect there may be another team member (or former team member) that would be a better match.
After Cassie had initiated a short and sweet closure to their “what if” romance (to which Kon took in stride, no team issues, no drama, Rob would be proud), he started to notice in the flipside that Wonder Girl was paying a lot of attention to Cissie. Kon has always been sort of aware that the two always had this big “BFF” kind of friendship, but after the whole thing between the two, Kon wasn’t sure. Recently, the Super could help but think how Cassie acted with the former archer wasn’t too far off from how she would act with him.
Most of their interactions that Kon could observe were usually ways to convince Cissie to join Young Justice again, but Kon wasn’t so sure that was just it, if the constant gossip, talk behind closed doors, and giggling with pink faces was anything to go by..
One day, Kon decided maybe he should go to his other teammates to ask.
“Do Cassie and Cissie seem like a thing?”
Robin gave a deadpan look, while Secret and Anita were a little more thoughtful. The Boy Wonder was about to respond until Impulse interjected.
“Oh those two? Probably,” He responded as if this was a completely normal conversation to have. The answer caught both Robin and Superboy off guard.
“Really?” They both said in unison. Anita chuckled.
“Well I know there was a lot of tension when I first joined the team between Cissie and I. While Wonder Girl did try to have my back then, I knew she always still considered her as Arrowette well after she quit the team. Wouldn’t be surprised if Cassie thought of her as her Arrowette as well,” she replied.
“They always felt… off at the beginning,” Secret trailed off, while Superboy and the rest of the team looked at her in shock. Really? Did Wondy and Cissie really not get along at first?
Secret was quick to add, “B-but that was before we all really became Young Justice. Ever since then, I think they’ve gotten pretty close.” Everyone hummed in thought or agreement. Kon glanced at Robin and noticed even he seemed to be thinking. Kon smirked. Rob never seemed good at picking up on romance anyway.
Ever since then, Kon was sure it wasn’t just him that noticed all the things that made the two look like lovebirds. Like how frequently Cissie would stop by HQ, how Cassie always seemed to be there, even if the visit was different from either of their normal schedules.
And movie night.
Honestly, if he hadn’t known the two, Kon would have thought the two were a full blown couple! The team would tend to get close and huddle together, but at better inspection, the two were all over each other! Without a care in the world!
He would look over to his other teammates knowingly, and they’d shrug, not sure what to make of all of this. After their last movie night, the team weren’t even sure if Cassie or Cissie were already dating or not. Superboy tried to ask Cassie her opinion of the other, and vice versa, but both instances resulted in a long monologue. Mostly praise, a few words of frustration, but it sounded like an old married couple arguing rather than actual complaints.
They sounded just like Clark and Lois and Kon didn't quite know how to feel with that thought.
This kind of behavior soon stretched to over a month, and at that point Kon (and based on the facial expressions that would show on Young Justice, everyone else) had had enough.
It was a pretty uneventful Tuesday. Most of Young Justice were busying themselves with their own tasks, and Cissie and Cassie were hanging out, doing their usual routine. From what Kon could gather, a lot of it sounded like gossip from Cissie’s life, and Cassie’s adventures with Wonder Woman.
Kon noticed the two got up from the couch to grab something to eat. Now was his chance.
Trying to appear nonchalant, Kon made his way over. He made sure to walk over to a blind spot just by the kitchen (he’s pretty sure the two were too busy making heart-eyes at each other to notice anyway), and that his feet were securely planted for his next trick. Peaking over, Kon noticed the two had snack bars on hand, caught up in some conversation based on the giggling. Cassie was barely leaning on the counter, balancing herself with just one leg as she stared dazedly at Cissie.
Go time.
Spreading out his TTK field from past his feet took a great deal of effort, but he was able to move Cassie’s foot just a couple of inches on the ground. Usually something like this would have little to no effect of actually causing Wonder Girl to lose balance, but he was hoping that being so distracted might help Kon’s odds here.
It looks like for once the Super was in luck because the result had the desired effect.
Her hands gave way from the counter, and as she waved her hands frantically for support, Cissie held her hands out in support on instinct, alarmed.
Now, if this was Wonder Girl doing the heavy lifting, she would have been able to help Cissie bounce right back with little incident. While Cissie was certainly strong enough to hold someone else like Cassie up, she doesn’t exactly have super strength, so there was a sudden gasp and some stumble as Cissie held Wondy up.
Kon immediately shot his head over to the other side so as to not get caught as soon as he heard the gasp. Part of him wanted to see the aftermath to see what exactly happened next, but the young Super also knew one wrong move and he’d have Wonder Girl and a former Young Justice member after him, and he didn’t like his chances in that kind of fight.
After that there was nothing but silence for a couple of seconds, absolutely nothing. Kon took a second to gather his bearings, internally yell screw it, and just take a look over to see the after match.
What he saw was the two girls, their faces just a few inches from each other due to the catch, and both of their faces beet red.
He shot his head back, barely holding in a snort. At this point, while he still wasn’t fully sure about the two’s relationship, Kon decided he wasn’t going to stand there like a creep long enough to get his answer. Once his little prank was done, Kon headed back to his usual endeavors, trying to be as sneaky as possible.
When the team would later regroup, Kon would notice that the two still looked a little pink to the face with smiles that made it look like they were high on cloud nine.
It wasn’t until a particularly harsh training session with Wonder Girl, followed by both a thank you and threat to do bodily harm if he did the same thing again that he realized Kon did not, in fact, get out of the situation scot-free.
Well, based on the lovey dovey couple’s behavior the next movie night, Kon thinks Cassie isn’t that unhappy with the outcome.
V. Krypto
It was early in the morning when Kon was suddenly woken up from his peaceful slumber by a couple of licks to the face. Once when Kon was able to process that he jolted, standing up abruptly. The source of the disturbance plopped on the floor, followed by non-stop barking at the Super.
Kon groaned. He loved Krypto, but he doesn’t think he could ever get used to this kind of wake up call.
“Alright, alright, boy, just gimme’ a sec,” Kon mumbled as he stretched, rubbing his eyes a bit. Krypto ignored his words, proceeding to bark and try to run circles around his bed, even occasionally pawing at him. Despite the dog’s own strength, Kon’s TTK helped the young Super stay largely unphased.
Just as he went to stand up, Kon walked over to the cabinet where they kept Krypto’s food. The superdog barked excitedly, and Kon couldn't hold back a smile.
While it’s still taking a bit of adjusting after Superman brought him into the Kent’s home, their dog is certainly one of the highlights. Clark mentioned how the combination of Krypto’s super-like abilities plus his normal dog behaviors have made it difficult for Ma and Pa Kent to manage without hurting themselves, especially when Clark was busy, so Kon was more than happy to help manage it all.
It’s the least he can do, frankly, for the home they’ve given him.
Once Kon started pouring out the dog’s food, Krypto was eating it gingerly, leaving the young Super to just stop and stare at the scene, spacing out in the process. Once when his sleep-riddled brain was finally starting to perk up, Kon had an idea.
He made sure to hide his smirk so Krypto wouldn’t somehow notice.
After finishing up his food, Krypto looked to Kon with excitement, to which the boy gestured for the dog to head outside. Krypto, jumping around with excitement, all but lept out, with Kon following soon after, making sure they all had their hero attire in the off chance the two get spotted outside. Just before flying off, Kon made sure to grab Krypto’s “toy” with him. It’s actually a metal scrap from an alien spaceship Kon ripped off during one of his adventures, where he mended it into as much of a solid ball as possible. Clark was apprehensive about using the material a dog toy, but it seemed to be Krypto’s favorite, and with the SUper dog’s puppy eyes Clark was powerless to throw the gift away.
Clark should honestly be thankful that of all of the stuff they’ve gotten for Krypto to play around with it was this thing that has stood the test of time.
The two soon took off, with the dog doing what Kon assumes is a canine version of a large smile. Krypto is always as happy as ever when he gets a chance to play with Kon or Clark. After spotting Krypto’s favorite (as well as Kon’s considering it’s uninhabited and won’t have to worry about any passerby) spot in a largely uninhabited field, both Kon and Krypto landed.
The Super dog immediately took a stance that screamed he was ready to play. He kept looking back and forth to the ball and to Kon, eager. Kon smiled warmly at the dog’s entire demeanor.
Let’s get ready to play.
Kon readied himself, winding up his arm in an exaggerated manner. This got Krypto reallyexcited, barking non-stop. Kon’s grin widened further.
As soon as Kon launched his arm, the ball immediately dropped only an inch or two away from Kon, any momentum he built up in the throw only for show.
Krypto at first shot his head to the other side, but after noticing nothing was thrown that direction, looked back and forth between the toy and Kon in mild confusion. Kon motioned for the ball.
”What’s wrong, boy? Come get it!” At the command, Krypto snapped out of it and walked to the ball. The little dog's face still looked confused as he went over to bite for the toy.
He won’t be confused for long.
Just before the Super dog got a hold of it, the ball suddenly moved a couple of feet from him. Krypto looked surprised, causing Kon to snicker, his eyes full of mirth.
The sound caused Krypto to look back, so Kon did the same thing as last time, motioning at the ball and encouraging Krypto to bite for it. Krypto looked back and tried again.
This time, the ball rolled a few yards away from its original spot, and much faster too. Krypto must have caught on, because as soon as this happened, Krypto barked and started running for the ball. Still, despite Krypto’s speed Kon’s TTK was able to keep up, with the ball rolling faster and faster around the open field. It took some mental strain when Kon rolled the ball in incredible distances, but he was really getting a handle on using his powers more indirectly, and was glad to use it in this situation. Their little game spanned miles past the initial field ground that they were situated in.
After a minute or so of this, Kon knew that this was probably enough for messing with the Super dog, so he used his TTK one last time to flick the ball high off the ground (maybe Clark would be proud of that distance, woooooaaah), finally giving Krypto the satisfaction of flying up to actually catch the toy.
The result? Krypto almost immediately sped back, where Kon swore he heard a giant boom in the air at the dog’s speed. As soon as Krypto was in front of Kon, the dog dropped the ball and tackled Kon gingerly, all too excited to get in the young Super’s face.
Normally, Kon could handle the brunt of the force, but he hadn’t quite expected that reaction, so Kon did end up falling to the ground at Krypto’s actions.
The young Super then had withstand plenty of Krypto’s ‘attacks’, those attacks being dog kisses to the face.
’Krypto’s ultimate form of revenge,’ thought Kon humorously while fanning out his arms to try and deflect the dog for the next minute or so.
”I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Never again!” Kon finally shouted through Krypto’s ‘onslaught’ and Kon’s own roars of laughter. As soon as the young Super yielded, Krypto did one last big dog kiss to the face before finally relenting, backing up and readying himself once more for another round of play ball.
Kon, taking some time to brush himself off, grabbed the ball, and once again readied himself for real this time.
They would continue playing for a while before heading back to the Kent farm.
+1. Clark and Lois
God, Kon was so tired.
The moment he woke up this morning, the young Super had been non-stop on the clock. It all started when he was first greeted with an early morning Young Justice training session lead by Cassie, to a sudden emergency that had Young Justice, the Titans, even the Justice League reeling.
And Kon knows neither he nor his friends or family have any control of that. He does! But with his current predicament, it was really starting to get Kon upset, because he was really hoping to stop by and visit the Kent farm, especially today.
You see, today marked the closest thing that Kon would call a “birthday,” where he first left the test tube in Cadmus and attempted to make a life of his own. Cadmus was no more, at least as far as the young Super knew, and while Kon has been moving forward with the help of his friends and family, he still considers his time having been broken free by Newsboy Legion as his birthday just as much as he did when it was his first birthday celebrating it in Hawaii. Since then, the young SUper usually celebrates it with different friends and family members who aren’t dealing with a crisis at the time.
He did get a couple of sentiments wishing him a happy birthday throughout the day from his team, and even got a call from Ma and Pa wishing as such and to confirm his visit, but so far, no calls or anything from Clark or Lois, which left him a little confused. And maybe a little hurt?
Before he got to the point of panic, Kon was able to find the courage to confide in Tim about this, his saint of a boyfriend tried to ease his worries by frantically assuring him that they were probably just busy. Superman and Lois have a tendency to be in the frontlines when the world is recovering from a close call, so there’s nothing to worry about, since the couple has yet to do something like that, let alone on his 5th (“Also, even if they did, Ma and Pa didn’t forget, did they?” “Well, no.. but still!” “Nah ah ah ah! You’re overthinking it.” ‘Yeah? Well pot, meet kettle.”) Kon knows Tim is probably right, but that bubble of worry has started to fester as time went on.
That was how Kon now found himself with Tim in their shared apartment, where Tim had multiple times insisted that he needed the Super to help him with various tasks, much like how Young Justice was acting throughout the day. The weird part is, like right now, Tim and the team had many times tasked him things based on his TTK abilities like strength, flight and the like, but it never felt like it had to be him. When he pressed people about that to try and see if he could find time to visit the Kent farm, he was also quickly shot down, and of course Kon was going to help where he was needed.
Tim’s increasingly shifty demeanor also was not helping ease his worries.
Kon was about to finally press about Tim and the entire team’s behavior today until Tim suddenly let out a small gasp looking at his phone. The Super looked to Tim urgently, dreading for whatever the next emergency would be. Tim caught his involuntary reaction and immediately readjusted his posture.
Weird…
“Sorry, it looks like Dick and the Titans have things covered for the rest of the day. Once I get things finished up here, we can spend your birthday however you want,” Tim breezily replied, finalizing his work on his computer much to Kon’s relief.
The young Super internally pumped his fists to the air. Finally! He knew exactly where he wanted to be, and also knew Ma and Pa Kent would be nothing but excited to see Tim as well!
Just as Tim finished shutting down his computer, the moment he turned to Kon, the Super sped up to his boyfriend (jacket in hand so the Boy Wonder doesn’t get cold), lifted him up bridal style with a little twirl and quick peck to the lips (probably an overreaction, but it’s his birthday, who cares!), then flew them out in the direction to the Kent farm.
Tim gave out a loud shout at the speed of events, but it soon turned into a loud chuckle.
“That eager to get out of here, huh? I’m assuming Smallville?” Tim asked with a playful lilt to his voice once they were traveling at a slower pace. Kon expressed the sentiment enough throughout the day that he’s not surprised Rob figured it out.
“What gave that away?” Kon responded with just a pinch of sarcasm, earning chuckles between the couple.
Once when their laughter began to die down, Tim sobered up. “I’m sorry you’ve been all over the place during your birthday. I had no idea we’d have those last minute emergency missions when we did. I hope those didn’t ruin your big day too badly.”
Kon shrugged. “It happens, Rob, I can’t blame anyone for that, especially you! Although…” he trailed off with a smirk, causing Tim to perk up. Kon used a bit of his TTK to pinch Tim’s cheek just a little, enough for Tim’s face to scrunch from both the action and mild annoyance.
Kon continued. “I did feel a little dragged around at the end. Are you sure it was necessary to do everything that was asked? I feel like I could have dipped out for at least some of that to do list you and Cassie were giving me.”
Tim tensed. It was barely noticeable, and maybe Kon wouldn’t have been able to catch it if the boy detective wasn’t literally in his arms. “Yeah, sorry again.” There was a level of quiet afterward, leaving Kon a little anxious at Tim’s sudden change in behavior. Then suddenly, the Boy Wonder looked back to him much more chipper as he beamed, “But hey! We still have plenty of time to stop by the farm, where you can celebrate however you want.” Kon gave an equally bright smile in return.
“Awesome!” Kon exclaimed, and they sped the rest of the way to the farm.
Kon’s phone in his jacket pocket still felt heavy with the lack of response from Clark or Lois, but he chose to ignore that until he made it to Smallville.
Once when Kon landed, Tim looked ready to jump out of Kon’s TTK hold with excitement written all over his face. Kon found this charming, but odd, because while Tim has always loved visiting the Kents, it’s usually Kon that’s the most eager to greet the old couple at the door. As Tim grabbed his arm and tried to guide him into the house, Kon could feel some of the puzzle pieces of this odd day start to slowly piece itself together.
Before Kon could put it all together, however, the two stepped into the Kent’s dark house, where all of the sudden the lights flickered on.
Kon was greeted with the faces of both of his families: The Supers and Young Justice, yelling “Surprise!” with grins to their faces. Clark and Lois held a cake with the words “Happy 5th Birthday” (Kon would have laughed at the lettering and toddler decorations if he wasn’t so taken back by the scene in front of him), Natasha, Cassie, and Bart launched their party poppers, and John, Ma, and Pa stood near Clark with gentle smiles to their face. The young Super could do nothing but blink back at the group’s display as he mentally replayed everything that happened that day.
The morning training, the ridiculous to do list, the lack of phone calls, the missions wait-
“Wait, that close call earlier wasn’t actually-” Kon asked in alarm, but was swiftly cut off.
“No, those were unfortunately real,” Cassie piped up, easing some of his worries. “Although it was Superman and Ms. Lane that told us to keep you busy, that part wasn’t quite so planned,” she added, rubbing the back of her neck.
“You’ve always mentioned that you have a hard time spending time will all of your friends and family, so Lois and I tried to gather as much people as we could to have one, big birthday for your 5th,” Clark explained, lowering the cake on the counter as he sheepishly added, “We had to keep you away from the farm for a while though, especially since your team wasn’t the only group on call today.”
Kon could do nothing but stare at Clark throughout his explanation. He was grateful, god, this was a welcome surprise! But it was so overwhelming, he started to feel his eyes getting teared up.
“Are you alright, kid?” Lois asked, concerned. Just as her and Clark looked ready to try and help comfort him, Kon suddenly reached out and hugged them both, smiling with tears in his eyes.
“Thank you guys,” He spluttered, earning him firm hugs from the couple in return. The three stood like that for a couple of seconds, with the rest looking on with warm smiles until someone spoke up.
“Although, next time, maybe a quick call of ‘Happy Birthday’ may ease some worries and clear up any confusion,” Tim chimed in, voicing Kon’s concerns from earlier. Kon let go of the couple and was about to dismiss it until Clark piped up.
“Ah, that wasn’t the intention! Lois and I get so caught up between the calls addressed to the League today and setting everything up. We should have called,” Clark said. Lois matched the same empathetic look.
“We’re so sorry if we kept you waiting today, Kon,” she said, guilt appearing on the couple’s faces. And god he was worrying about this so much but with everything now Kon just couldn’t have that.
“No, no no I understand, just maybe next time,” Kon stuttered out, then quickly recovered. “C’mon! It looks like I have a couple of things waiting for me today huh?” Kon wiped his face and gave the best, sincere smile he could give both of his families. Based on their matching expressions, Kon thinks he was successful.
“You sure do, now come on, let’s at least get started with- BART!” Cassie hollered, causing the speedster to pause. He was inches from cutting a slice open of the cake that was still on the counter where Clark left it.
“What?” Bart asked innocently, to the point where Kon could practically see the mock halo on his head.
The scene caused Kon to let out the biggest cackle he has made in a while, eagerly joining Bart as they started to cut the cake, handing out the sweet treat to everyone.
As far as ‘surprises’ go, this would probably be marked as Kon’s favorite one.