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Going undercover once again as Caroline Hill, she found she couldn’t help but feel a little more comfortable in her own skin when she was dressed and referred to in the way that matched “her disguise”. She still had a long way to go before she’d fully feel like she could be herself openly in this way, but getting a taste of “living as Caroline” made it harder and harder to deny these feelings. She seemed to want to dress as Caroline more than her other disguises when it came to undercover missions, she dreaded the end of a mission where she’d have to put away her disguise, and she often found herself longing for the next time she could don “Caroline’s” clothes long after the mission had wrapped up. She couldn’t hide her excitement when a new opportunity arose. It wasn’t anything too big this time, it was just a small mission to blend in and find out what was going on behind the scenes of an up-and-coming nightclub that Bruce had suspected to be harboring suspects linked to a new arms deal, as well as, an area with heavy drug-dealing activity. She had found some good information as she started working there as a server for the past two weeks and, even though she wanted to punch the lights out of some of the patrons, she was overall pretty happy with the job. She wore earplugs a majority of the time which helped her with the booming sounds of the packed club and her coworkers were pretty nice towards her to the point where some of them would even hang out twice a week after work. Having friends, the go-out-for-coffee friends and the game-night-invite friends, was new for her. Most of her friends before them were super-powered humans or aliens from another planet or genius detectives or masked vigilantes. She wasn’t the best at socializing, but the “bad” traits that made her less good at crime fighting and could be a risk to the safety of her other friends, didn’t seem to bother these friends too much — in fact, some of them were also autistic. Not just autistic, but proud to be, they didn’t see it as a weakness like Bruce or Damien might see it, they embraced it, and they accommodated themselves instead of pushing through it. The new friends, the way she was only referred to as “Caroline”, the pressure that was taken off from her in comparison from her regular patrols, it was nice. It was almost too easy to forget her original assignment, until one night.
She had found out that the owner was arranging an arms deal, big guns, big names, which was to go down at the docks in three days. She needed to head to the safehouse, the small apartment she’d been living in, to update Bruce and Oracle for the next step in her mission. The fastest way to the apartment was through an alley behind the club and then only a few minutes of walking afterwards. Unfortunately, the night had other plans. Her first problem getting “home” started in the alley — she was halfway down the block when a mugger popped out of nowhere, packing a pistol and threatening to use it. She knew she could handle him, it’s not like she hadn’t dealt with worse. It’s Gotham after all, it's not like plenty of other girls hadn’t had to deal with this sort of stuff before. There was a reason that bedazzled mace spray bottles were one of the most popular keychain items for Gotham girls. She brought her foot back a little bit as she reached in her bag for what she needed when...
Whoosh!
Coming down from the sky a familiar person floated down in between the mugger and her. Superboy looked over his shoulder as he put on his superhero voice. “Good evening miss, is this guy bothering you?” He was about to say something else when a bullet suddenly shot and crumpled against his suit. Conner slowly turned his head back towards the mugger, annoyance filled his face rather than any kind of anger or shock at the bullet. He moved his hand swiftly and crushed the barrel of the pistol, quickly moving to knock out the terrified would-be offender in one fast movement. He gently put him against the wall opposite from him and then pulled out an old Nokia out of his jacket and called it in to Oracle, letting her know about the knocked out mugger waiting to be brought in. He hung up and turned back to Caroline, “You ok?”
“Yes, thank you. Good night.” She sheepishly replied before trying to get out of there as fast as she could without running. She could hear him following her and she stopped after a few steps and looked back to see that he was indeed following, then she took a couple more steps and heard him again before deciding to turn around. She tried to ask in a stern but friendly way, keeping tabs on not escalating the situation. “Why are you following me?” She asked. “I’m sorry. I just thought you might want someone to walk you home. You know in case that happens again.” He answered, motioning to the passed out guy nearby. She rolled her eyes at him, she knew she could handle herself, but she also knew that if she doesn’t at least let him walk her “home” that he’ll probably follow incognito and find out her true identity and ruin the whole undercover sting. “At least walk next to me so I don’t feel like you’re creeping on me.” Conner's smile widened as he quickly hovered over to her and landed on his feet, putting his hands in his jacket pockets as he walked on the side of the sidewalk closer to the road. He stared at her, thinking she couldn’t see him, but she could feel his eyes burning holes in her.
“That is not helping you with the creep allegations, you know that? I can take care of myself. I know how to fight. Go and find some other girl to walk home.” His eyes widened at the accusation as he looked forwards for just a fraction before angling his body towards her and putting his hands up. “I believe you. It’s just… I don’t know, I feel like even if you can you shouldn’t have to feel like you can’t rely on help from others.” Carol smirked at that line, it was just like Conner to say something corny like that. “Do I know you by chance? You look a little familiar.”
She paused a moment in horror, the warm feeling she’d just been having leaving her, shook her head at the question trying to come off as nonchalant. “No.” She said a little too fast. She slowed it down, “But I can introduce myself. I’m Caroline, It’s nice to meet you...” She reached out her hand while letting her sentence fade. “Superboy or Kon-El” He replied “...but real cute people call me Kon. So, you can definitely call me Kon.” He shook her hand as he looked at her eyes. It was too much for her and she quickly averted her gaze and started tapping her fingers together subtly after pulling her hand out from the soft handshake. She fumbled over her words a bit “Kon, wow, real smooth making it a compliment for me to call you your name.” Conner started to walk backwards as they continued. “Hey, you don’t have to call me Kon, you could stick with Superboy or Kon-el, I’m just saying you have options. Woa-”
She couldn’t help but smile at him as he almost tripped over his own feet, pausing and turning back around with his hands in his pockets again. “Yeah right, I think that you think because you saved me — the dainty damsel in distress — from being mugged, that you’ll get my number.” Conner’s brows scrunched at the remark. “I never thought about that at all. If you want me to leave I can absolutely leave but do I think you’re very pretty and from our little talks I think you have a great personality? Yes, and if you said you were hungry I know this really good place that a friend of mine recommended.” She thought about it for a second, about how the longer this would go on the more likely Conner was to find out who she actually was, but at the same time she couldn’t help but be pulled in more as her crush called her pretty and wanted to spend more time with her. She’s not sure if it’s just the euphoria or her longtime wish to go on a date with Conner, maybe both, but she reluctantly agreed.
“Ok, but I can’t stay out too late and if I say it’s over and I want to go home, then I go home.” She said setting the terms. He gave a mock salute at the statement. “Yes ma’am.” Again a smile crept on her at both being with him and how he was referring to her. They walked a little bit longer and actually went past her safehouse as they made their way to Bat Burger. “Wait right here if it’s alright with you, they already know my order so it shouldn’t take long, anything you want in particular?” She told him her order, and then asked him an important question. “Are we not eating inside?” He shook his head. “Oh I have a better place that’s a little quieter-” he looked at her fingers for just a moment before looking back at her face. “-as well as more beautiful if you’ll let me take you.” She gulped at the answer knowing probably where he would take her to. “Uh yeah, ok.”
He quickly grabbed the order and went back outside to her. “Do you mind waiting just one more second as I bring our food to the place? I promise I’ll be right back.” She nodded at the request and he flew off. Less than a minute later Kon was back on the sidewalk next to her. “Are you ok with flying with me or do you want to walk there?” She gulped at the opportunity to get close to him and have him hold her. “Yes, I would like that- I- I mean yeah you can.” She stumbles over her words as she steps closer to him. He put his hands on the small of her back still keeping a small distance between the two but not so much that people could think that they were about to start dancing instead of flying. “I promise it’ll be gentle.” They softly floated up as she kept her feet on top of Kon’s. They stayed upright as they were both lifted in the air and gently brought over to a clocktower. He brought his arms out a bit and carefully lifted her up as his feet met the floor so he could walk backwards onto the tower and then bring her down.
Momentarily lost in his eyes, she quickly remembered that she was staring too much and decided to take a second to straighten herself out and look around. He had put their bags on the edge of the building like he usually would do when they worked together. “A special place if I’ve ever seen one.” She looked down and saw that he was still holding her waist, making her blush a little bit. He stopped looking around and saw what her attention was aimed towards making him blush as well. He backed up, taking his hands off her waist and put one nervously on the back of his head and the other on his hip. She put her hands behind her back in the absence of his closeness. She kept her head down as he tried to salvage the moment. “Very beautiful-” He said looking at her. “- uh, the view I mean.” He scrunched his face and looked away from her thinking of how stupid his slip up was. “You know the beautiful city and all.” He tried to back up his remark by turning to the view of the city.
She moved her glance from the ground and to Superboy as he stood on the edge of the building. “Yeah and all that.” She replied longingly. He sat down with the food and started to pull it out of the bags. “So... do you normally take all the girls you rescue to dinner?” She joked. As he took a second to compose his thoughts, he handed her the food. “Not usually. But for you, I thought it might make an exception and ease the tension.” She laughed as she took a seat next to him. “Oh tension?” He nodded along with a smile. “Yeah, the tension.” He took a bite of his fries. “When we first met back there you seemed a little pissed off that I wanted to make sure you were getting home safe, you called me a creep and I wanted to make it up to you, you know, for making you feel uncomfortable.” She scoffed at him. “Of course I was pissed, I told you I can take care of myself-” She took a sip of her drink and continued. “-and anyways isn’t taking a girl to the rooftop of a building all alone a little bit of a creep thing to do.” His eyes widened at the words realizing that that is exactly what a creep would do. “Oh my god, I am so sorry if that is what this is coming across as. We can head straight to your home, you can even take my meal as well or I can just bring you down from here and let you-” He rambled on and started to stand but she stopped him from getting up by holding onto his wrist lightly. “Kon, it’s ok. I’m just messing with you.” She smiled at him and he couldn’t help but stare at her smile and how it created the cutest dimples.
“I’m sorry.” He sheepishly added, complying with her silent request for him to sit back down next to her. They ate in silence mostly, sitting together side by side. They finished up with their food and he put the small amount of leftovers in one of the bags for her. He excused himself as he floated down below and threw away their trash in a bin nearby. He reunited with her shortly afterwards. “You ready?” He beamed, only for it to be returned back from her. “Yeah. But I do have something to confess.” He cocked his head at what she said. “What?” She pointed back the way they came. “We actually passed my place back there before Bat Burger. You wouldn’t mind walking a bit more would you?” His smile answered for him. He floated them both down the clocktower back to the streets below, and they walked more and talked a bunch, having a beautiful rapport back and forth, it was so much easier to talk now. That was until they made it to the safehouse. They both stood outside of her apartment, she was leaning her back against the door as they said their final goodbyes. “This was a really good night.” He said, looking for the right words to say.
“It really has. Thank you for that.” She took a moment. “Thank you for saving me Kon.” She knew she could’ve saved herself but deep down it felt good for once not having to. She turned and put the key into the door, unlocking it as he panicked to try to make the date last even a little longer or to try to plan a second one, anything! “Hey Carol-” She’s not sure what came over her but she quickly turned around and kissed him. Followed by her freaking out and closing the door right on his face. He was freaking out as well, he couldn’t stop thinking about how soft her lips were just a moment ago. She was on the other side of the door breathing heavily as her heart pounded out of her chest at what she just did. He hesitantly raised his hand to knock on the door before pacing down the hall and then back with his hand still up to knock the whole time. She listened as he went away and then back to her door. He reluctantly gave a soft knock three times.
“Hey, Carol. I was- I mean if you wanted to I was gonna say that tomorrow night I’ll be playing with some guys at this underground show in Metropolis if you wanted to go.” He thinks to himself how much of an idiot he is not just leaving the night on a high note with a girl kissing him as he leaned up against the wall next to her door. She thinks about it and one more night wouldn’t hurt her too much, she’d handled tonight gracefully besides the kiss. She opened the door a crack and answered his question. “I would love to go.” He smiled looking into the small crack of the door with a vertical beam of blue lighting (from all the computer screens in her apartment) illuminating the small part of her face in such a beautiful way. “Could I maybe get your number and then I can give you the details, sometimes with underground stuff they change the venue at the last minute.” They both knew that was a lie but neither said anything. She opened the door a little bit wider. “Give me your arm.” She said. “Arm?” He asked, utterly confused.
“Give, me, your, arm.” She enunciated each word making him bring his arm out to her. She took her one hand and grabbed his wrist lightly again, and with the other hand she grabbed a marker from her purse. She held it between her fingers, sliding his jacket sleeve up his forearm, and taking the cap off with her mouth, she began writing her number on his arm. He couldn’t help but look at her lovingly as a strand of hair fell down in front of her face, he took the moment as she wrote to move it out of the way for her. Which got him a shy glance back as she finished. “There.” She said warmly, taking the cap out of her mouth and letting him go as she put it back on the marker. “Great.” was all he could say as he looked at her. “Thank you for the lovely night.” She blushed and gave a single nod as she sneaked back into her apartment with a sly curl of her lips.
He felt lighter than air, practically floating off the ground through the halls, before he zipped off that energy with a flight as soon as he left the building. He doesn’t care whether or not his suspicions are true. After talking to her, he’d figured pretty quickly that the beautiful Caroline might just also be his best friend and Batman’s current Robin. It didn’t matter if she was, it wouldn’t change a thing to him. He was in love and he couldn’t stop from showing it. Flying up above the city and looking at his arm, he couldn’t believe it — he had her number and she was going to be at his show! If she really was Robin and her new name is Caroline then so be it, he finally got to kiss a pretty girl.