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Kon wasn't expecting much when he and Clark both found themselves at the farm that day, the winter snow clinging to the ground. The teen had planned to go there to help with some of the upkeep that weekend, the cold hard on Pa's bones, before heading back to the tower the next morning after a nice breakfast. Maybe con Ma into making a pie with him and bringing it back to the tower, con Tim into having Alfred do the same and they can finally compare.
That wasn't what happened, not really.
When the teen got to the farm he almost immediately turned around as he saw Clark already out at the fence, but he knew that he had lost his chance to do just that as the man looked at up him and their eyes met.
It was with silence that he flew down and stopped before the other on the ground.
"I just came to…" he started but trailed off, gesturing at the fence that they stood beside.
The older hero nodded awkwardly, understanding what the teen meant even as he hadn't even thought that Conner or his parents would be close enough for the kid to come and do this sort of thing.
It wasn't like he knew much about him.
"I can go," the teen offers, being hit with the not so subtle urge to be anywhere but where he was right then.
But the older hero shakes his head.
"Help me with the fence?" Clark asks, hating that he was the reason that a child looked so defeated, even if he knew that he wasn't in the wrong for it. "It will go faster if they're is two of us."
The teen doesn't say anything, only moving to hold the plank of wood in place as Clark hammered in the nail. It was enough for right then.
"Any plans for Christmas this year?" the older hero asked latter as they had moved down the fence, doing everything the human way as they got closer and closer to the road. He wasn't expecting the complicated sort of expression that passed over the teen's face when he did.
"I've never really had a Christmas before," Kon admits, not looking at the other as he did so. He didn't know what he would find on the man's face when he said that and he wasn't sure that he wanted to. Bart and Tim had complicated relationships with their families as well, and even the detective and the boy that needed his every curiosity answered before boredom struck once more both sometimes agreed that sometimes it was better not to have to see people's reactions when they said something like this.
He still noticed all the same that it took longer than it should have for the other super to move to add the next nail.
"What about that year that you spent it with Young Justice?" Clark asked instead of anything else that he might have wanted to. Whether out of consideration or not feeling that he had the right to do so, the man wasn't sure right then.
He wasn't sure that he wanted the answer for that particular bit either.
Kon almost wants to laugh at the timing of that, it was crazy considering the conversation that the founding members of that group had not long before this. Considering that they were all on plotting duty right now as they spoke, each of them trying to come up with an idea of just how to meet their goals without having to find another giant bomb thing. Plus, they were looking to spare the reindeer this year.
The younger super still answers all the same, keeping the old hint of bitterness out of his voice as he does so.
(not well enough)
"We were all in costume that year," Kon says, hating himself a bit for doing so, "on the clock."
Clark nods a bit awkwardly at that. Not liking the sad reality of it.
Kids were supposed to spend Christmas in pajamas, opening gifts and arguing with their folks on if Die Hard is a Christmas movie or just a movie that takes place on Christmas. Not that.
Kon figures that he's been spending a bit too much time with their resident bat when his next question is a leading sort of one, one built upon the discomfort that he can all but taste pooling off of the other hero.
Damn Rob, corrupting the masses.
"So," he says the words with more energy than he feels, the sort of voice that someone uses when not so subtly changing the conversation, "what are you and Lois planning on telling Jon about Santa Claus, now that he's older?"
It was the sort of question that made him feel slimy for asking right then after what they had all agreed to do, but he wasn't sure what the rest of the caped community out side of bloody Constantine knew of the mythical being, so he figured that now was as good a time as any to figure out what Clark knew. To see if he knew any weakness of the jolly man at that.
Once again, Tim's fault.
He was expecting a lot of things when he asked about the super's real son. Awkwardness, maybe a rare display of anger, a measure to get them to rework the conversation once more. None of those are what he got.
The teen watched with a raised brow as the man all but light up at the mention of the mythical being, a puppy like smile stretching across the other super's face as if Christmas was already here.
Well, fuck.
"Tell him that he's real, of course," Clark answered truthfully. Happily. Too much so, if Kon's opinion on the matter had any weight in it right then. "Cause he is."
The longest conversation that the two of them had ever had outside of a mission was right then as the older super spent the rest of their time in the yard talking about all of the times that Clark had met the jolly old man, speaking quickly an innocently as if he was a kid that had caught him on Christmas and it had made his whole world.
Kon didn't think that he had ever felt more like a Luthor than a Kent then he did right then as he listened to the wholesomeness that was Superman talking about god damn Kriss Kringle as if he was Santa's number one fan boy when Kon was planning on killing the man.
Still, Kon can't help but think that Santa couldn't be all that great if the man had been killed by a meteor the first time around.
"You should come to Christmas," Clark says a while later, the sentence feeling a bit like a non - sequitur to them both, but it was an honest offer all the same, "with me, Lois, and Jon. I know that he would like to see you."
The younger super didn't know what to say at first, not right then. But, he thought about those complicated families of his friends again. Thought about how Cassie and her mom were making it work…
"Okay," he agrees, hoping that neither of them would regret it.
He decides right then that Clark could never find out what they're planning to do.
In the end, the two of them do end up going inside to house together, Ma smiling as she welcomed them both into the warmth of it, happy to see them together outside of the suits. The four of them spent the rest of the day drinking hot chocolate and making pies, one of which Kon did manage to claim for the Tower, taking it the next day after sending their Robin a message to do the same. The two are placed together, unlabeled, and the titans asked to judge which was best.
The team refuses like the cowards that they are, none of them wanting to be the ones to piss either of the bakers off, but still eat the pie all the same.
Traitors.
"So, Big Blue was a no go?" Tim asked when it was just the four of them left in the living room of the tower, Beast Boy, Raven and the others off to do whatever it was that they needed.
"Yup," Kon confirms, stabbing into the baked good, "but at least we know that some of them are aware that he's real as well."
"There is that," Cassie agrees, looking out the window and the world down below.
"We knew that C - man would be a long shot though," Bart reminds them all, all of them knowing just how good the man was, down to his bones.
Long shot indeed.
Still, as Kon thought of his invitation to a real Christmas with the man that was sort of his father - brother - mentor - avoided him at all cost person, with his sort of stepmom/ in law and brother - nephew, he couldn't help but think that it was a job well done at the end of the day.