trans_9 | Reunion Attempt Number 2 [closed]

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Reunion Attempt Number 2 [closed]

Sensoriums, right. Superboy got there first (superspeed, for the win). This time, instead of Hawaii, it was a hill. A hill with a blanket spread on the ground, looking out on fields as far as the eye could see.

He could've set it up like Hawaii again, but maybe it wasn't good to dwell in the past. It was better to stay in the present, right? Not get caught up in the feeling that came with hearing the surf, and the Hawaiian sun on her face, making him as scared and awkward as he was when he was fifteen.

So, hills it was. The present--or at least the recent past he'd left behind on Earth, which was much better than the present on Stacy. Letting her into his life, without dwelling on the time when she'd had a more intimate part of it.

The fields rolled like waves in the sunlight anyway.

He was sitting there, quietly, waiting for her, and turned to look when she finally peeked in, looking sheepish, and slightly ashamed. It wasn't an expression she'd never seen before, that boyish contriteness.

"Hey. So, we gonna give this another shot and see how many other ways I can screw it up?"

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Tana held up her old (new!) clunky cellphone. "I brought protection," she said and resisted the urge to smile, even though her tone was light. She stepped inside the sensoriums and closed the door, this time remembering that some people liked to come in and spy.

Anyway, if one of them did mess it up, at least it wouldn't be public knowledge to anyone but Stacy, and she wasn't telling any secrets. At for once, he looked... like he was sorry and not about to deflect things with humor or a teenaged tantrum. Tana smoothed her hands over the jeans that the sensorium dressed her in, the one pair she'd kept after moving from Metropolis, and sat down next to him. She kept the distance between them... professional, but friendly.

No need for him to get any ideas, right? Tana sighed and upset her bangs, ready for the update Maybe. "So, where are we?"

"I think we were at me apologizing for being a total idiot and jerking your emotions around."

Yeah, sounded about right.

"And explaining that I didn't mean to. And why that happened the way it did, so you understand I wasn't trying to have my cake and eat it, too."

Surprisingly mature.

"All possible euphemisms intended, given it's me we're talking about."

Okay, not that mature, but he still needed a little humor to take the edge off.

Tana laughed a little and felt her hand plop itself firmly in the grass to start pulling at it. A ridiculously nervous habit, but Tana knew that if they'd been on the beach, she probably would've dug her toes in the sand and wriggled them about. She needed something to ground her.

"Well, that's a good start. Apology accepted. But if you ever do something like that again, I reserve the right to find something to knock you into next year with." Tana looked away from Kon and out at the hills, "Where did you meet her?"

She had to know, she had to be able to pass judgment. If she was going to friendzone herself, then she had to know this person he was pining after, away in those goopods, was worth it.

"Young Justice. Wonder Girl. My team-mate. You met her, she was the girl there at the--you know, when--"

He didn't go into that.

"She was being dragged behind a car by a crazy guy. Long story. Had a killer crush on me even before she knew me, apparently, poster on the wall and everything. Compared to the hot guy in Teen Beat, reality...surprised her a little bit."

He chuckled a little to himself.

"All the fangirls who bought the autographs and stuff and fantasized about what it'd be like if I was their boyfriend--imagine if one of them actually got to know me, and you have Cass. Shocked, annoyed, and occasionally disgusted."

Edited 2011-01-27 15:31 (UTC)

She made a thoughtful noise, "But she stayed with you." One point for Cass, then. The grass at her hand was being picked to nothing, so she moved it and started on a new patch. "How long have you been together?"

Kon wrinkled up his face. "Geez, the thing with Secret happened, and--" A frown. "We hooked up like maybe a year before getting pulled here? But then things got all weird, and there was this thing and Donna Troy died, and Young Justice disbanded, and then we reformed as part of the Teen Titans, and--"

Superhero romances, Tana. You know how it goes. Personally.

"It's complicated. If you go by when we first realized we felt that way about each other, a year, if you go by us getting over all the crap from Young Justice disbanding and the baggage, like...it was right before we got grabbed to the ship and then the six months she was here."

Very recent, which meant it'd taken him a while to--

"She was the only one." There is that sincere look on his face, even if it wasn't directed at Tana. "After you."

A pause, and then came the rambling, in that "I'm-in-trouble-aren't-I" voice. There were some things that never changed, weren't there.

"There were those two room-mates, but that didn't mean anything, and we didn't really...and I'm going into too much detail, aren't I--but what I want you to understand is that it took a long time, and it was hard, and she was so patient with me. She cared enough to be patient, she didn't push, she let me just...figure it out on my own. She knew what you meant to me--even though she liked me, she talked to me talk about it, a little. Not that I ever really wanted to. I did the most talking with Robin about it, anyway--he understood, with losing Spoiler, he got it--but she still..."

Deep breath.

"She's something, Tana. She's brave, and she cares about people, and she's tough, and she's willing to take on the world to do what's right, and she's a lot of things you are, and some things that are just her. I didn't just move on like it was nothing, it took time, and it nearly killed me, and it was someone special."

His face, the look on his face was heart-breaking.

"And she was patient with all the guilt."

From moving on. He had felt so guilty for loving someone again.

"I almost didn't want to, y'know? Care about anyone again. She made me want to."

Tana did that nose crinkle she sometimes made when she was trying to say something important, but didn't like it. It was ultimately flattering to her that he'd taken so much time (two roommates not withstanding) to figure it out and get over her. She understood that. He was too young to pine forever, and she was too dead when he was from to care anymore. (Though it was kind of morbid to think of herself as dead when she clearly was not.)

That didn't mean she somehow stopped caring, like turning off a switch, though. So maybe that was why her words felt a little bit like thickened poi when she did talk, "She sounds like a winner, Kid. I'm glad you found someone who love you as much as I do... er, did." It was a compliment to him, and her that Tana meant.

And she did. Whomever Cass was beneath the Wonder Girl mask, she sounded like a good, honest person. Good for Kon, like she had been, even if the admission made a little part of Tana want to curl up and bawl like some sixteen year old. That, and she was a superhero, too. Maybe that would make her a little bit less likely to have her face melted off.

That second patch of grass? Gone. She needed to change the subject pronto or risk making him feel guiltier with a show of tears. Tana reached over and unwrapped the necklace from where she'd stuck it around her wrist. It seemed a little bit better than to wear it.

"Now, can you do me a favor?" She held it up between her fingers, the innocent-looking red stone glinted in the Kansas sunlight. "Get rid of this? It was in my stuff, but I don't want to keep it. I don't even want to wear necklaces again."

There was fury in his voice.

"Why would Stacy even--?"

It was sick! Sick!

He was so furious he couldn't even finish the sentence. He snatched the necklace out of her hand, stood up, and fueled by his anger, tossed it into the distance. As it made its long arc through the air, his eyes glowed bright red, and the blast set the necklace off, a bright explosion sparking off in the air. It felt like killing death itself, but blowing the damn thing up wasn't really enough to take away the edge off the anger, to dampen the thought that it wasn't good enough if he hadn't been able to prevent it the first time.

Kon stood there, breathing hard, fists clenched at his sides, anger all coiled up in those taut muscles. Then the expression on his face softened and relaxed and he fell back to sit on the blanket, looking drained.

"I never stopped loving you."

That's what it all came down to.

"I know that probably hurts to hear, knowing that I moved on, but I never stopped. I just...I just got a little lost for a second, when I kissed you."

Kissing her had...it had just been that. Love. Losing himself for just a moment.

"But I can't hurt her like that. I just can't. Not while she's alive, asleep. I might move on someday, if enough time has passed and it feels right, but it'd have to be long enough that she'd understand, that it wouldn't break her heart, and then I'd have to deal with the fact that it probably would anyway. Right after I kissed you, I remembered that."

Edited 2011-01-27 17:44 (UTC)

"Hey, whatever happens, happens. I'm an adult, I'm pretty sure I can handle this without you worrying about hurting my feelings or apologizing." Bravado? Well, maybe a little bit.

Maybe after they parted ways, Tana could go drown her sorrows in make-believe Häagen-Dazs. But for now, she had to make him believe she was going to be okay.

"I still loved you when I went to Alaska, and I still love you now. But, I'm okay with putting that aside." She didn't want to, not an iota, but she didn't have much of a choice, either. "We were friends before, weren't we? It'll be fine, and if you try to kiss me again, I'll just bash you with my cellphone until you learn." she assured him (and herself). Tana reached out and touched his shoulder. "Sound good?" No, not really.

"Not really," he outright admitted. "But I think that's the best we can manage."

His smile was bittersweet, and then a little happier.

"But I am glad you're back in my life again. And I think it goes without saying, but I'm glad you got another chance to live your own."

"It is," she agreed. Tana sat back on her elbows, and looked up at him. "And I'm kind of happy that I'm still, well... you know. Even if it is on some creepy spaceship with pulsing clothes."

Something told her she would never get used to the plantsuit. "Jeka's nice, by the way. Thanks... for sending her over."

"I totally didn't tell all my superhero friends to look out for you or anything," he said with a casual sniff. "She just needed a room-mate."

Tana gave him a long look, and sighed at him. Sure he didn't. She'd believe that like she'd believe Luthorcorp gave free kittens to every orphan in Metropolis. "Well, she's a great roommate, too. For the whole... week or so it's been." She turned onto her side to look up at him, resting her head in her hand.

"Actually, that reminds me. Why does it feel so... weird on the ship. I swear I look at this omnicom thing one minute and it reads one time, and the next, it's like, hours later. Makes keeping appointments hard, let me tell you."

"Interdimensional travel. We're kinda in between space and time. I'm not even sure how it works, but you figure time and space kinda exist connected together, right? So if we're outside of space, we're outside of time, too. Stacy must have to do some major mojo to create some semblance of time on the ship itself, but it's weird. Hard to track. Clocks don't always work or keep the same times."

While not dumb, he was also not the brightest bulb in the odds n' ends drawer either, but he'd dealt with enough time and hypertime travel to get some basic concepts nailed down.

She pursed her lips in thought, and looked up at him.

"I guess that would be why no one seems to be in much of a hurry to do anything around here." The most proactive people, they were not. At least, not unless something (or someone) was chasing them down like an angry bull. She still looked like she wanted to get up and continue her hunt for The Truth, but at least Tana hadn't marched off.

"So, you never told me where it was we were," Tana looked around at the serene and rolling hills, the farm not too far off in the distance, back at Kon.

"People get stuff done, and know how to hustle when it's needed, but it's not war 24/7. Everyone's trying to make lives here, too," Kon said. "Still remember what fun is."

He gestured to the room.

"These rooms are good for that. The Sensoriums. Think the holodecks on Star Trek. You can even eat in here--it's still the slop, but it doesn't taste like it."

Looking around at the great expanse of fields, he said, "This is home." He leaned in and said the following like it was a secret, because to many, it was: "Kansas."

Not Hawaii. Hawaii wasn't home anymore.

Edited 2011-02-18 06:43 (UTC)

Too close, Kid. Tana moved her head away, just subtly enough. Obviously, they were going to need to work on the friend-space thing. Anyway, his voice had grown up too, which dumped straight into her ears and made her legs like jelly. Tana reminded herself that what didn't kill her (or made her do stupid, stupid, stupid things) would make her stronger and smiled. "Home, huh?" It wasn't Hawaii, but then, that was like no where else on Earth.

"So, this is square-dance central?" she asked, remembering their last talk. "It's... cute." In that American Gothic, Norman Rockwell sort of way.

"All jokes about square dancing aside, the people are pretty nice in Smallville. Bored the hell out of me when I was there, but now? On the ship? I think I miss it. Good, hard-working folks, decent to their neighbors--Ma and Pa are especially great. It's not like I never had a family before, you know? Or even someone like a parent. I had you guys back in Hawaii. I had the people at Cadmus. And Dubs was there those first few years, until--"

Until she'd died, and Dubbilex left, to sort himself out, blaming himself for his unintended role in her death.

"I had Guardian, too. Always had Kal."

They'd gotten closer over the years.

He picked up some hay and started picking it apart just like she had, less nervousness, more like it was something he was used to doing. Habit. He wasn't sure why he was blathering on about Smallville, but it was like...she'd fallen out of his life and he wanted her back in it again, and that meant her getting caught up, knowing about it all the things he'd wanted to share with her as they happened, when she'd been gone so he couldn't.

"But the Kents--" Yes, she got their names. Like the Titans had them. The secrecy rules were that they had to be people he trusted implicitly. "They're like... they're not parents anymore than Dubs was and just as much as Dubs was. I get presents on Christmas and my birthday--well, Cadmus-busting-out-day. I have chores, and Ma checks my homework sometimes--they're pretty smart. Simple people, like they have this quiet kinda life, but they're smart, and they talk to me about all kinds of things sometimes. Aunt Martha, especially, always wants to know what's going on in my life, at school, with the Titans. Uncle John's kinda quiet, but he's more a 'show, don't tell' kinda guy. Like he'll show me how to fix stuff, how to do stuff, how to make stuff. Toss around a football with me and Clark sometimes, even if we have to go easy on him."

Yes, Tana, Clark Kent is Superman. You know, the reporter? Very mild-mannered?

Edited 2011-02-18 08:02 (UTC)

That little tidbit of information got Tana's attention. She turned her head so fast, she nearly got whiplash and bumped against his nose. "Whoa. Sorry."

...And then mentally kicked herself for not having noticed it before. Even in his editorial pictures, all he wore were glasses. And she'd seen him up close on numerous occasions! Why hadn't she put two and two together?

"They sound great, Kid. Really great." They really did sound a lot better than the Leeches, who might've liked the Kid, but... They did leave a little to be desired in the choice making department. The urge to touch him and let him know that she was happy for him was there, but she held it off.

"Not that I even really need to tell you, but keep the Kent thing hush-hush. Stacy plays it pretty fast and loose with the secret IDs and just blathered them all over the place, but it's like a privacy thing for Kal. Same with the Bats--Rob and Nightwing still even wear their masks all the time."

"I realize that, and you don't have to worry." Really, Kon, she wasn't that ruthless in her quest to find The Facts. "Secret's safe with me," Tana smiled and held a finger up to her lips.

"Speaking of secrets..."

Here, he looked a little nervous and shifty.

"Think you could keep another one under your hat?"

There was regret on his face, maybe some sadness, too. Bitterness, even if he'd stopped thinking he was doomed to turn evil. Such bitterness.

"It's pretty big."

Edited 2011-02-19 13:32 (UTC)

"Might have to buy a bigger hat," Tana replied. She edged around so she could look him in the eyes, and lifted her hand. It hung in the air a second before she put it over his, trying to keep him anchored. "Talk away, Kid. That brooding-and-bitter look you've got isn't really that great on you."

He clasped her hand in his own but it was gentle and just... a touch. Nothing said he couldn't touch her sometimes right? You could hold hands with an old friend when telling them your dark secret.

"This is the big one, Tana." Deep breath. "I found out I really am half-Kryptonian. Westfield and Cadmus didn't realize all their hard work had been tweaked. What they told us, about me being mostly human and augmented with Kryptonian DNA--not true. I'm half-Kryptonian, half-human. Half my DNA's from Kal, and the other half, other than what Roxie gave me to stabilize me the one time, is from a single human donor."

Another deep breath.

"And it's not Westfield."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back the bus up, Kid. If it isn't Westfield, then who?" Her eyebrows drew together and her lips thinned, trying to parse it out before he told her.

Tana bit the inside of her cheek, thinking, though she never took her eyes off his and gave his hand a bolstering squeeze.

It'd be okay. It was Tana.

"So, apparently...apparently I'm the clone of both one of the greatest heroes in the world and one of the worst villains."

And he hated it.

"Lex Luthor. He messed with the project--he was the human donor from the start."

"I'm sorry, what?" In Tana's defense, that was a perfectly acceptable reaction.

But wait, there were more important things to think of first - "What about the Luthor here?" How close of an eye was she going to have to keep on him? "He doesn't know, right?"

"Not yet, but he knows I'm hiding something and he's really intrusive; he's kinda been in my face a lot. Like when he was listening in on us."

To be fair, Kon was sometimes in his.

"What I'm worried about is..." Oh man, he did not want to tell this part. "There was a reason Cadmus's programming didn't take."

"What was it? Come on, Kid, be direct. This is big - huge, even- and it's not like you to beat around the bush like this." Tana reached up and pushed some of his hair off his forehead.

Okay, she wanted honesty? He'd just give it to her straight.

"He programmed me. When he said these code words, I lost control of my own body. I obeyed his every command. He made me hurt the team." His voice got a little raw. "I nearly tore Cyborg apart. I shattered Tim's arm. I--I hurt Cassie. My entire life, that programming was lying in wait in my head. He made me for that, planned to use me to hurt, to kill--he wanted me to kill all the sidekicks so Superman would--"

He sucked in a breath through his teeth. "STAR labs said I was clean, the triggers we cleared out, but my brain's just...geared for that. Like a machine. Luthor made me that way."

Not something that had an easy fix, then. Tana looked down between them for a minute, thinking, and then hugged him. "Are you worried this Luthor might take advantage of this if he finds out? Because you don't have to be. I will personally find an airlock and escort him out of it."

Vivisection and Violations be damned.

He hugged her right back. Friend hugs were okay, right?

"Yeah."

Admitting fear--that was new.

Friend hugs were totally okay. And she found herself oddly proud that he wasn't putting on some mask of bravado.

Tana pulled back and looked at him, "If he tries anything shady, we'll get him." One way or another.

"That's the plan. Hopefully before I...you know."

Yeah, no, he was not thinking about that.

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Reunion Attempt Number 2 [closed]

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