trans_9 | [Locked to Paco and Jaime, and Later to Kon]

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[Locked to Paco and Jaime, and Later to Kon]

((Directly after this, before the Yeerk Trial.))

It took awhile to find him, just because the ship was so big, but eventually Paco found Jaime messing around in Special Weapons, tinkering with something.

"Dude," he said, knocking on the edge of the door. "I'm calling in best friend rights."

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"Millions," Paco repeated. "And yeah, a TV special, an internet memorial broadcast, the works. You saved the world, dude."

He doesn't quite get why Kon sounds so...surprised by all of it. He's freaking Superboy; he came, he saw, he pummeled evil in the face.

"You saved the freaking world. Why are you looking so shocked?"

Kon wipes a hand over his face and it pauses over his mouth, as he just...tries to take it all in.

Then that hand drops and he turns to Paco, and answers:

"Because I used to have my head on a pez dispenser."

Paco wasn't quite able to keep himself from laughing. "You are so lucky I didn't have anything in my mouth. You'd have been sprayed with coke."

The Superboy pez dispensers? Ridiculously expensive on eBuy now. Then. From when Stacy had grabbed Paco.

What Kon doesn't know is one of his busted jackets went for a couple grand.

"You know what I mean? It's just--I don't know. All those years I wanted respect, for people to see me like...like the Big Guy. After a while, I just kinda got used to the idea that it was going to take forever to happen, if at all. It's not even 'why couldn't it happen when I was alive?'--it's more not seeing myself that way, all the ego I used to have aside."

He does still have ego, obviously, but it's more vanity over being a good looking, awesomely fun dude anymore, not "I AM SO SUPER AWESOME THE BEST HERO EVAR."

He had gained humility over the years. Now, long after those early years of preening for the cameras, it surprises him that anyone could see him that way, when he has trouble seeing himself that way.

"It's kinda like I'm where I wanted to be when I first started without wanting it like I did back then."

He doesn't look sad--just thoughtful. He's still...just sorting out his life and what it means.

Paco wasn't exactly sure what to say to that, aside from maybe something about all those famous artists that only became famous after they died, or absence making the heart grow fonder, or the fact that Superboy saved the planet almost completely on his own and died doing it.

Although he's got to admit, if he's going to be struck dumb over the general weirdness of life, he's got awesome company to do it with.

"By the time you've earned what you wanted, you don't feel like you deserve it?" he summarized, tilting his head to the side. "Sounds zen-like."

"Is there a kinda zen where you're just used to weird crap happening and life stabbing you in the neck, and you kinda just learn to deal with it and make the most of the time you've got?" he asks, grinning. "If so, then yeah, I guess I'm kinda zen."

"If there is, I'm a zen master and nobody bothered to tell me," Paco said, grinning back.

Kon snorts.

"I guess you'd probably have to be. Sidekickin' it for a guy, having crazy crap like alien abductions fall on your head. This is kinda par for the course for me, but it's been my whole life. I've seen how you and whatshername--Brenda? Have been around Beetle--sticking to him like glue. That's pretty cool of you. I had--I had people like you, a long time ago."

Not really long, but long in his eyes.

"I saw them stick out through a lot of crazy crap for me, no powers or anything, just being tough-as-nails, you know?"

He bites his lip.

"Just--you guys should really be careful, though. You both seem pretty tough, but it's--"

He taps on his soda can.

"I tend to stick with the supercrowd now mostly. Other than the folks I live with. Who I can't really talk about--them's the rules." He looks up him. "Just...you guys should be careful."

"Hah. I knew I wasn't the only one who used 'sidekick' as a verb."

Take that, Brenda.

"We're as careful as we can get away with," Paco said with a shrug. "But I'm not going to leave Jaime to deal with the hyperventilating crime boss and the giant super villain by himself, for entirely-not-hypothetical example. Plus, when Jaime was missing, I wound up running with a crowd of metas anyway. The thought's appreciated, but we're good."

"Sorry, I'm not knocking your skills. It's just it didn't work out so well for the people around me, way back then."

He actually thinks about it. "Come to think of it, I haven't really had any...like, I guess 'normal' friends in a long time. I mean, Tim, yeah, but he's a Bat. He's a total freakboy."

"No worries, not offended," Paco said. "El Paso's a bit far from the usual super hero stomping grounds, so Jaime's just got us for the most part. Us and the Posse and Peacemaker."

He laughed, reaching out to give Kon a playful shove. "See, there's your problem. When you only hang out with super-types, it never occurs to you that while you're all comparing how many times you've each saved the world, the most exciting thing that happens in everyone else's lives is something they see on the news."

Kon snorts.

"I used to have friends that helped me with stuff. Uh, like--it's hard to explain--like how to be normal teenager. But then I just kinda gave up on it. I like a lot of people, but the ones in high school are jerkfaces. Seriously, I have to put up this fake weakling act, so they don't really match me to me, y'know? But it's not that different from who I am--it's just I can't play football or I could accidentally hurt somebody, and it's aaall about football at that school. If you're not on the football team, you're a loser. And I get towel-whipped in the freakin' lockers. Isn't that crazy? Didn't even seem worth it to bother with any of 'em."

He quickly amends, "But you seem cool and all. That's kinda my point. Makes it way easier to talk to you. Kal was all worried I had my head in the clouds too much and that I'd lose touch with people and think I was better, and Ma said--uh, Ma being my aunt, kinda--that the reason I have so much trouble is I can't really be myself around most normal folks. Kal grew up--well, Kal, I can't really tell you much about, but he sort of grew up way more normal than you'd think, for an alien. He fits in really well."

"Okay, your problem is that you hang out with super-types and morons," Paco amended. "Seriously. Wrestling is much cooler than football, just to start with."

He scratched his head. "Well, no offense, but sticking you with a bunch of people you can't be yourself around doesn't sound like a good way to make sure you're connected with people."

And it was so weird to think of Superman being normal. Or "fitting in".

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[Locked to Paco and Jaime, and Later to Kon]

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