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Chapter Text

Conner did not know how to feel.

Wind passed by his face, drying the tears that rolled towards his cheeks, but all he could think was that it all went down because he wasn't fast enough.

He wasn't fast enough and now one of Metropolis biggest buildings is currently laying across the streets.

"𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮!"

Him.

Clark meant Luthor.

He wasn't, Clark was wrong. Conner was nothing like Luthor.

He refused to be anything like him.

Luthor was cruel and crazy and a horrible person. He was a terrorist and Conner was a hero, he saved people. He gave up his whole life to help people, to be different, to be more than just the test tube abomination that was supposed to kill Superman.

'𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘩?'

He just wanted to help, why can't Clark see that?

Yeah, he wasn't the best at following orders. Sometimes it was just too hard to not follow instinct, but he wasn't a villan, he fought so hard for people to understand that, to see that he is trying to leave his past behind.

Clark more than anyone should see that, he was Superman for fuck's sake! He saw good in everyone, why can't he see it in Conner too? Why was so hard to see that Conner was good too?

Why was Conner so different?

Ugh.

He should not be thinking about this right now, not when he was flying three times faster than the speed of sound. He was going to lose focus and crash into a random comercial plane and then Clark would be proved right.

He needed to find somewhere to go because there was no way that he was going to the Kent's farm on Kansas and he couldn't even think about going back to Metropolis. He didn't need the Kent's, he didn't.

(No matter how much he wanted Ma to give him the warm embrace that only she could, or how much he wanted Pa to say it was going to be okay or Jon to ask him to play because 'it's your job as a big brother, Kon!'. He didn't need Lois to say she was proud of him or Clark to apologize and comfort and take him to eat ice cream.)

He needs his family. He needs Tim, Cassie and Bart. He wants them. He wants Tim to kiss his forehead and Cassie to yell how much she wants to beat Clark and Bart to run to his quarter and get his dinosaur plushie.

They didn't care if he was good or not. They know he was nothing like Clark or Luthor and they didn't care because to them he was just Kon, and being Kon was enough.

Turning slightly northeast, starting to cross the bay, Kon realizes that Clark probably already called Bruce to see if he knows where Kon is, so Tim knows he needs them. Kon was on his way to Gotham City and Tim could decide where the went from there. He would know what to do, yeah

Tim always knew what to do.

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Kon felt that he was wandering Gotham's suburbs before he knew. The ever so present thin layer of mist brushing his dark locks from his face.

Flying over Gotham was easy. It always has been because flying to Gotham meant he was flying to Tim.

What wasn't easy was entering into the Manor without anyone noticing, like, come on, why did they need such professional security? They are vigilantes!

Finding the familiar window, the teenager floats towards the opening, his theory proved right when he heard two heartbeats instead of one.

Kon hears Bruce's muffled voice ask and instantly flinches, "Are you being honest, Tim?"

Tim hums and lets the lie fall from him easier than Kon would ever imagine, "Yeah, B. I don't know where Kon is. I don't even know where he would be right now."

Of course Kon knew Tim wouldn't rat him out, but listening to him made the knot on his chest lighter. Shaking his head slowly and focusing back into the task at hand, Kon hovers over Tim's window, waiting for Bruce to stop smothering Tim and get out of the room before gently tapping the glass three times.

"It's clear, come on in."

Opening the window, Conner puts his head inside the room first, glancing around the light blue colored walls, and meets Tim's concerned brown eyes looking at him from his place in the master bed, "Hi."

"Hi." Tim replied, smiling softly while opening his arms, "Come here."

Kon didn't need to be told twice, the boy quickly stumbled into the room, falling into the shorters boys arms. Hot tears polling out of his eyes before he could even think of hold them. He sighs, finally relaxing.

" 'm sorry." He whispers, clinging into the soft fabric of Tim's fluffly sweater. He vagely remembers being the one who gifted it to him last christmas.

"No, it's okay, let it out, darling, let it out," The other boy simply rubs his back, kissing Kon's soft curls and letting more sweet nothings fall from his rosy lups. God, Kon loves him so much.

"He- he said I am-" The taller starts, sobbing loudly at the crack of Tim's neck, " 'm not like Luthor. I, I'm not-"

"What?" He stiffened, bringing Kon impossibly closer to his chest, "You are not. You are Kon and we love you for being Kon."

"I'm no villain, you know it, right? I'm not," Kon back up a little to look at Tim's eyes, "I'm good, right?"

"You are. You are our amazing boy, Kon, and we are so proud of you for being who you are." Tim says, bringing a hand to cup Kon's cheek, "You fight so hard and it's Clark's own fault if he cannot see it."

Kon sniffs bring his forehead to rest over Tim's, "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Tim comfirms, clinging closer to the other boy and rubbing his back until Kon's sobs died out. Kon doesn't understand how or what he did to deserve Tim Drake, but he thanks the above for allowing him to have this.

Rocking back and forth, the brunette kisses Kon's soft curls again and whispers to him, "Do you wanna get Bart and Cassie and go to the Tower?"

"Bruce's gonna be mad at you," Kon starts, "He told you to tell him if you saw me,"

"I don't care, you are more important than Bruce's stupid order," Tim shruggs and locks his arms around Kon's shoulders, "He's already mad at me, anyways."

Chuckling quietly at the boy, Kon buries his face at Tim's chest and sniffs again, "What did you do?"

"I almost exploded a warehouse," The smaller smiles innocently, "Would you belive if I told you Ra's was misteriously there?"

"Oh, what a mistery, how did he get there?" Kon mocks, making Tim laugh and kiss his cheek. Pulling away, Kon saw the other boy stretch over his bed and pull his phone from under the blankets

"You were laying down?" He asks making Tim turns his head confusedly at him, "Before, you know, Bruce coming to talk with you."

Narrowing his eyes, Tim shuffles a little, "I was trying to sleep, but, you know, nightmares."

"Now we know what we are going to do at the tower," Kon smirks shyly, "I call dibs on How To Train Your Dragon!"

Smilling softly, Tim turns back to Conner, brown meeting blue, and whispers fondly, "Of course."

Chapter Text

Clark knows he fucked up.

He knows, okay? It was just that he lost his temper over something too stupid. It wasn't Superboy's fault that one of the oldest buildings on Metropolis didn't survive another rough battle, the building was almost falling over with a light wind.

𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦-𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩. 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨.

𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨.

"𝘒𝘰𝘯... 𝘒𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘰-" 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘮𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘴, 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘺 𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺.

"𝘐-𝘐'𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺. 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵- 𝘨𝘰." 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘣𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘰𝘱.

"𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘺!" 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳. 𝘏𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳.

𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘺'𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘧𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.

It was just that he lost his temper.

(And he tries to ignore the sly voice on the back of his head asking why it seemed that he always lost his temper with Conner everytime the boy does something slightly wrong.)

Clark and Conner always have these little arguments, it's just something integraned on their relationship. Lois always says something about how funny it is too see them bicker because of the littlest things

But this time something was different. Conner didn't fight back, he didn't yell or tried to change Clark's mind. Instead, he just stood there while Clark yelled at him again and again and again, without even looking at the boy.

It almost looked like Conner had given up.

'And would he be wrong for doing so?' Clark questions himself.

"Shit." Clark mutters and grabs his phone from his hiding spot on the pocket of his tight, Lois' number already on speed dial. The man sighs while the familiar phone dial rings, Lois picks up at the third ring,

"Smallville?" She asks, a tired tone wavering on her voice.

"Lois, I messed up."

"Uh, what?" He hears from the other side as she suffles around her office, "What happened, Clark?"

"We- Superboy and I were fighting- Not fighting exactly, he was so quiet and I was screaming at him and-" Clark rambles and shakes his head, still looking out, trying to find -his son- the boy, "I should've noticed, he was so, so quiet. God, I'm so stupid, Lois-"

"Clark, calm down." The woman cuts him off, her tone pressing, "I'm not understanding anything. Kon didn't say anything back? What happened for you to fight? What did you say?"

That makes Clark stop, hovering over a cloud as he tries to remember, "We were fighting Amalak and he managed to send a beam flying towards that one building next to 344 Clinton Street-"

"The super old one?"

"The super old one." Clark confirms, continuing, "Anyways, I sent Superboy to hold it. The thing is, the building wad going to fall over and it did and- I don't know why I flipped out. It was foolish, but I got mad and I snapped him. And I continued to scream at him until I notice he was crying." He stops for a minute and feels a disturbed whisper leave his throat, "I've never seen him cry before."

Lois is silent for a few seconds, making the turmoil inside Clark stir even more. He hears the woman sigh, "Where is he, Clark?"

"I don't know. When I tried to talk to him he flew away." He mutters, "I don't know to where he could've gone to."

"He probably went to Ma and Pa's. They are close, aren't they?'' Lois suggests.

"No. Ma and Pa are in that vacation to Mexico." Superman shakes his head, running a nervous fingers on his scalp, "Maybe he's at the Watchtower."

"No, Kon hates going there." Lois rebuts and wasn't that a shock? Until now, Clark solemnly belived that Conner liked the base. The boy always seemed so excited to go to the Watchtower with him, inquiring which heroes were there at the moment, what they were going to do. How was Clark not aware of that? And a even better question, how did his wife know that?

Yeah, he had noticed how close the two had become because of Jon's total adoration towards the teenager. The kid is always talking about how cool and kind and strong Conner is, always asking to go to the farm so that they can play. But how close had they gotten that Conner felt so tranquil on confiding that information?

Lois hums, taking Clark out of confused thoughts, "Maybe he's with his friends. Young Justice has been more inseparable than ever."

Young Justice! How could he forget about them? Even though Clark hasn't had the chance to really talk with Superboy, he, and possibly the whole cape community, knew about how attached the four teenagers were, "You're right. I'll go over Gotham. See if he's there and also ask for Bruce's help."

Lois hums again, "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'll call Helena and Iris. Kon told me that because of summer break, Bart has been sleeping over in the Allens."

"Okay, okay." Clark nods, turning his body towards the familar direction to Gotham City, "Thank you, Lois."

"Don't sweat it, Smallville." The woman deflects then remarks serious, "Don't fuck this up again."

"I won't." The man nods and then hangs up, focusing on the task at hand with a new-found dedication.

He would set things right. He would talk to Kon, apologize not just for the events that went down today but for all the other times he berated the kid for no reason. Because that was what Kon was, just a kid.

His kid.

Because even though Kon was made in a less than moral way, the kid was Clark's son as much as Jon was. And because of that Clark needed to start acting like his father. Clark owed him that. 𝗞𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁.

Speeding towards the dark clouds of The Dark Knight's city, Clark can only hope that Kon has it on his heart to forgive and let him try to be his father.

"I won't."

Chapter Text

The next couple of weeks were weird, to simplify it. Conner was sort of, kind of, totally and utterly avoiding Superman.

Maybe he got more apprensive after he found out that the older man came looking for him at the Tower and Cassie had to sick Bart to confuse him. Superman ever tried to engage in unnecessary interactions before, so obviously Kon was screwed, to say the least. He knew he was going to get the lecture of his life for something he did.

If it was because of the building or an entirely new reason? That he didn't know.

Superman was scary enough when he was mad and Kon did not want to deal with the end of the stick. Not yet at least.

So judge him all you want, but at the end of the day his eardrums are still intact.

But like everything in his life had to go south at some point, his peaceful avoidance act had to come to an end in a ridiculous hot tuesday evening.

Kon was in a bad mood already.

I mean, who likes hot nights? Not him, really. And it was just his luck that the Tower's AC had broken down the weekend prior.

Anyways, he was holding an ice cube to his foreahead and flicking his shirt up and down to try to creat some cold air when he noticed Superman standing at the kitchen entrance, wearing a expression mixing between amusement and costipation.

To be fair, Kon didn't know how to read him very well.

"Hey, Conner." Superman says and there was something that Kon was unfamiliar with on his tone, "Bruce told me the AC was broken."

"Yeah." Kon mumbles, letting his shirt fall down completely. Hearing his name by Superman was weird. The older man usually called him Superboy and Kon could recall only one time when he reffered to him as his first name and it was literally to write a file.

"How are you holding up? It's pretty hot." Superman hums, staring at him as if he was trying to read him.

"I'm fine." Kon nods awkwardly, not really knowing how to reply. Heck, he didn't even know how to interact with Superman on their normal, Superman-scolding conversations, much less in this calm, almost friendly interaction.

"You know, it's way too hot in the Tower. Specially at night." Superman says tentatively and Kon finally notices how the man wouldn't stop moving since the conversation started. His hands shaky, like he had too much nervous energy to hold inside, not to mention the change of footing every few seconds, "It's way too unconfortable."

"I'll be fine, I guess." Kon shrugs, leaning against the counter and frowning when the ice cube melts totally on his hands. Reaching for a kitchen cloth to dry his hands, he mumbles casually, "Not like I have somewhere else to stay."

"You could stay with me." Superman states, his tone practiced like he had been saying that over and over again in his head, "Lois and I just bought a new AC. Jon loves it."

That made Jon pause. Never ever in his whole short life he would've thought that he'd hear Superman - The Superman - ask him if he'd like to stay over at his normal apartment, with his kind-of normal family, like normal people. Like Clark actually liked him and not just tolerated him while passively hating him.

It felt unreal, in a sick kind of way and Kon didn't know how to feel about it.

"Kon?" Superman calls and Kon looks at him. Something was wrong. Something was really, really wrong. First this weird passive, normal conversation, then he literally asked if Kon wanted to spend the heat wave with him and his family at Metropolis and now he called Kon by, well, his actual name. Something was off.

Narrowing his eyes, he turns his head to meet the same identical blues he looked at when he looked in the mirror, "Something happened."

"What?" Superman blinks, his head tilting slightly, "What are you-"

"You're being... nice. Way too nice. Something happened. Did someone die?" Kon blurs out, glaring at him.

"What?" The older man repeats dumbly and then shakes his head, bringing him hands up in surrender, "What, no!"

"Then what happened?" Kon crosses his arms and tries to ignore the burn in his chest, "Because I know something happened. You're not like this with me so the answer is that someone died. Is it Cassie? Or Bart? Oh, God, is it Tim? It is Tim, isn't it? Fuck- fuck- what the fuck- if you're trying to soften me up with this bullshit excuse-"

"Nothing happened Kon! Nothing!" He almost yells, his voice in a desesperate tone, "I'm serious, nothing happened. No one died!"

"Then what the hell is happening? Why are you being nice?" Kon snaps, his arms flying up in frustation and taking a deep breath. He wasn't understanding a dang thing, it was hot and humid and Superman was being weird in a way that made him frustated out of his mind.

"I'm nice because you deserve it." The older man says quickly and Kon freezes, his eyes nice, "You deserve to be treated nicely, specially by me.",

"Why?" Kon mumbles, his bravado cracking slightly and his shoulders drawing in.

"Because you're my kid. You're my son." The man states, so certain that Kon almost belives him. Almost wants to belive him.

"You said I was your clone." Kon muttered, staring up at Superman.

"Forget what I said, okay? You're not that, okay? You're my son just as much as Jon is." Superman sighs and steps closer, "I wronged you. I was rude, ignorant, offensive, unkind and just plain cruel and unfair to you. I was scared that you'd turn out to be like Luthor but you're not. You're nothing like him. You're kind, thoughtful, gentle, even if you're a bit impulsive sometimes. You're you. entirely you. And I'm so sorry. It's not an excuse, far from it, but I wanted to explain why I acted the way that I acted."

Kon takes in a breath, his fists curling around his shirt as he gulps, his mind turbulent with quick, out of step thoughts, "What, uh, what changed?"

"A lot. Well, you know what happened." Superman grimaces and looks at him sheepish, "Also, uh, Lois kind of berated me. A lot."

"That's why you asked Bruce to ask Tim to find me?" Kon blurs out.

"How do you..." The man trails off, his eyes narrowing and a brow raising.

Kon blinks and looks at him sheepish, "I was hiding behind his window covers."

Superman stares and Kon stares back before the man cracks up and start laughing. Laughing really hard, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah." Kon cracks up a bit, a small smile creeping on his lips and his expression softenimh up a bit. This... weird. God, Kon found a lot of this weird in this conversation but kind of laughing with Superman was quite nice.

"Well, answering your question, yes, that was why I asked Bruce to ask Tim about you." Superman chuckles and reaches to ruffle his hair. Kon blinks, staring at him with an awkward, small smile on his face, "I guess I should've known that you were there."

"It was kind of obvious, yeah." He huffs another chuckle and then turns more serious, but still soft in a way, "I know that you can't forgive me just with a couple of words, but I will try to earn your forgiveness... if you want me to."

Kon stares at him. A part of him wanted to just run away as fast and as far as he could from the older man, to hide under a rock and never see the light of the day again. But another part, the small, hopeful and vulnerable part of him wants to say yes, to hug him and call him dad. He feels like he's in a dream and a nightmare at the same time, with nowhere to escape.

But maybe they could try. Maybe it could work out. And if it doesn't he knows he will be okay because he has his friends. His friends who will be really mad when they found about all of this.

"Okay." Kon mumbles and stands still, but not as tense as he would've been, when Superman- Clark hugs him, "Yeah, okay, Clark."

His friends will understand, he thinks.