Close to Home - chapter 7

[iesika]

Close to Home

7

Sunday


They spent most Sunday on a team-up with the new Blue Beetle, who Kon thought was pretty cool, and Zachary fucking Zatara, who Kon thought was an asshole. Still, when Texas was being invaded by demons from the bowels of hell, you didn't get to be picky about your backup, and they needed magic in the line-up, so Kon managed not to punch him in the face, even when he was rude to Cassie and condescending to Bart.

Tim seemed to like the guy - who knew his name, to Kon's surprise - and that made it worse, somehow. And even though Jaime was nice, it was strange hearing him and Tim joke around in Spanish, once the demons were vanquished and they could stop to breathe. He didn't even know Tim knew Spanish, though he wasn't sure why he was surprised.

Sometimes he'd have moments like that - weird pauses where it would hit him, all at once, that he'd missed almost two years. It hadn't felt like anything to him, but Tim was taller and broodier, and Cassie didn't skateboard or play video games at all anymore, and the team'd had new members join, quit, come back, and die, which…

Screw It's A Wonderful Life. It was a hell of a thing to have proof that the world would go on without you.

Zatara was still a jerk, though. Kon was pretty confident he'd still think so even if he wasn't all chummy with Tim. Stupid smug fucking East Coast boys.

*

When he got back to Smallville, he went straight to the diner. It was mid-afternoon and there were just two old guys drinking coffee by the window, so when Jake came out from the back in an apron and grinned at the sight of him, Kon didn't feel bad about yanking him into a booth. "I need your help, man," he said, in a low voice - not a whisper, though, because nothing got attention in a small town like whispering.

Jake set his order pad down and leaned across the table toward him. "You in trouble?"

Kon shook his head. "No, man, it's good. I'm good." He grinned. "We're good."

Jake relaxed a little. "You just sounded so serious-"

"No, it's - I talked to some people. I've got-" he glanced around. The guys by the window were talking about soybean prices, and probably weren't paying any attention, but Jake's sister - he thought it was his sister - was slowly wiping down the counter and watching them from under her lashes, her head bowed. "Uh, wanna come over?" He asked, a little louder.

Jake smiled and shook his head. "Lemme ask Nell. Oh," he stopped, then got to his feet. "Nell, this is Conner."

Nell smiled at him and leaned over the counter, resting on her elbows. "Hi, Conner. You're Martha Kent's boy?"

"Nephew."

"I thought so. You look a lot like your cousin. He was a few years over me, coming up."

Kon fought the desire to roll his eyes. It was like there was a script - 'this is what you say when you meet Conner Kent.' Next would be-

"Good to see Jake making new friends," she said, and went back to wiping the counters.

Okay, maybe not.

"Run on now. Just be back for the dinner rush, Jake."

Jake tossed his apron on the counter and hustled Kon out the door. "Oh God," he said, once they were outside, and grabbed Kon's arm for support. His face was pale and his heart was pounding. "Oh God, she knows."

"What?" Kon asked. He put a hand on Jake's back to keep him upright. "Breathe, dude."

Jake let go of his arm and tried to stumble away. "Sorry-"

"No, man!" Kon got an arm around Jake's shoulders and tried, as subtly as he could, to take some of his weight. "You okay?"

"Fuck," he said, and then took a deep breath and stood up. "Yeah. I. Yeah. I'm good."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," Jake said again. His color was improving, but he still looked a little shaky, and Kon could feel the skin of his back hot and damp through his thin cotton shirt. "Where are you parked?"

"Uh," Kon glanced away up the street. "Ma dropped me off earlier…" he lied.

"Oh. Well, we can take the truck, then." Jake turned and headed down the street toward Jenkins’s Feed.

Kon hurried after him. "Are you sure you're good to drive?" he asked when he caught up.

Jake laughed deprecatingly. "Just a little panic attack. It kind of hit me all of a sudden - I'm going to have to tell them, aren't I? I mean, how long can you really keep something so huge from your family?"

Kon snorted. "You'd be surprised. I've got this friend-" he broke off and tried for a moment to translate from superhero to normal boy in his head, but nothing would come. How weird was it that he could do it for his own life, but apparently not Tim's?

Jake looked at him curiously.

"Nevermind." Kon ducked his head.

They waited for a car to pass - the occupants waved at Jake, who waved back - and then crossed the narrow street. "So…" Jake prompted, when they were almost across.

"Oh!" Kon turned when they reached the curb. "I need to make posters. But I can't draw for shit."

"Posters?" Jake frowned and looked around. "Cross was pretty clear, man. No more meetings, no more posters-"

"I've got it," Kon said. He let a little of his Superboy swagger into his walk. "It's under control, dude."

"Yeah?" Jake caught him by the elbow. "Conner…"

Kon stopped.

"Look, don't - don't get yourself in trouble, okay? You butt heads with Cross, people are going to know. You'll make yourself a target."

Kon smiled a little. If it would only be that easy… "I can handle myself," he said.

Jake looked skeptical, and then his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. "You-" He stopped.

"What?"

Jake just kind of stared at him for a second, but then he shook his head. "Nothing. I - Hey, if we're making posters, we'll need supplies and stuff. We should head by Max's-"

Kon blinked. "Who's Max?"

"I mean the craft shop," Jake said. "I'll spring for the paints and all."

Kon frowned. "Nah, dude, I got it."

Jake shook his head again. "Let me do this, okay? If you're gonna be fightin' The Man… I just want to do something. Anyway, I get a discount."

Kon took in his stance, the serious set of his mouth… "Okay," he said. Jake looked relieved. Together they turned and crossed the street again.

*

"Wait."

Kon stopped at the top of the porch steps and turned around. Jake stood at the bottom, his arms full of art supplies. "Yeah?"

Jake's gaze cut to the side, over toward the chicken-house. "Does your Aunt know?"

"Know what?"

Jake looked back at him, incredulous. He shook his bag of paintbrushes. "About-"

"Oh!" Kon said. He opened the door and stuck his head into the living room, where Martha was knitting something Superman-blue. "Hey, Ma. I'm starting a support club at school for gay kids. Jake's helping. Do you mind if we take over the kitchen?"

Behind him, Jake made a strangled little sound.

"Go ahead," she told him. "I've just got a stew on. There's lemon cake. But don't you ruin your supper!"

"No, ma'am," Kon said, fervently. He held the door for Jake with his foot, struggling with his own armload of supplies as convincingly as he could. When they were both inside, he dropped his burden on the couch and bent over her chair to kiss her cheek.

"Go on, save the world," she said dryly, her eyes sparkling.

"Always," Kon murmured back as quietly as he could.

Martha patted his hand, and Kon stood to get out of her way. "Oh," she said when he was almost to the kitchen, where Jake was waiting in the door. "That reminds me. Tim called for you just a little while ago."

"But I just-" Kon froze, and looked between her and Jake rapidly. "Uh," he said. "Jake, I need to - I'll be right back. Get some cake." He hurried up the stairs and into his room. Once he'd shut the door, he pulled out his phone and dialed Alvin Draper.

Tim picked up on the first ring. "Would you care to explain why my lab is full of dirty gym socks?" he asked by way of greeting.

Kon sat down on the bed. "Because clean ones would be useless for a DNA test?"

There was a long pause, then Tim said, "Come again?"

"I got to thinking," Kon said as he toed his shoes off and kicked his feet up onto the bed, "Matt died in the locker room, after school, right? So, who would have been in the gym after school?" He paused for a second to let Tim process, and then said, "football practices year round, here. It's jock heaven. And - I checked - they had practice on Tuesday."

Tim was quiet. Kon didn't hear him moving around at all, even though he was always multitasking. "You brought me DNA samples from the entire team."

Kon wasn't sure what Tim's tone meant, so he started to babble a little. "I labeled them by locker number. If anybody comes up meta, I just have to find out whose locker it is, and we've got a suspect we can tie to the scene of the crime. I mean, it's not proof or anything, but it would tell us where to start looking..." Tim didn't say anything, so he added, "...right? And everybody loses socks anyway, so they probably won't even realize…" he trailed off.

"That’s…" Tim started, and Kon flopped over sideways to crush his face to the pillow. It had been a dumb idea after all. He'd thought it was- "…really clever," Tim finished. He sounded genuinely impressed.

Kon peeled himself off the pillow. "Yeah? I mean-" he coughed, "I am a pretty clever guy."

"You really are," Tim said. He was smiling - broadly. Kon could hear it in his voice. "It makes sense. A low level meta would make a hell of a linebacker."

"We were sixteen and oh, last fall."

"Hm," Tim said, and Kon smiled at the obvious pleasure in his tone. "This is going to take me awhile. It's a lot to work through. I'll call as soon as I get a result. And Kon?"

Kon sat up. "Yeah?"

"Good work," Tim said.

Kon's heart leapt a little, and he grinned. "Well," he said, "I was trained by the guy trained by the World's Greatest Detective."

He only got to hear Tim laughing for about a second before the line disconnected, but it was enough. Kon had to make a conscious effort to keep his feet on the floor as he headed down into the kitchen.

Jake was already halfway through with the first poster when Kon breezed through the door. He looked up and watched as Kon cut himself a piece of cake. When Kon sat down next to him, he went back to carefully outlining letters. "Who's Tim?" he asked.

"Um." Kon took a bite of cake while he thought about how to answer. "A friend," he finally said. "From out of town."

"Oh," Jake said without looking up. "Metropolis?"

"No," Kon said, "Gotham."

"That's kind of a long way away. You must not see each other all that often."

"We, ah, see each other most weekends," Kon said awkwardly. "We've been friends for a really long time." He looked over Jake's shoulder at the poster in progress. Jake still didn't look up, focused instead on the letters he was painting, his jaw tight with concentration. It looked good, except - "Um... I think you spelled 'alliance' wrong."

Jake cursed violently under his breath and crumpled the poster into a ball.

Index |
8

Comments

[ladymirth.livejournal.com]

Kon would get on like a house on fire with Blue. They're so alike! I've always wanted to see that team-up!

Zatara was still a jerk, though. Kon was pretty confident he'd still think so even if he wasn't all chummy with Tim. Stupid smug fucking East Coast boys.

Aw, jealous much, Kon?

Jake suspects, doesn't he? Or maybe the penny just dropped for him.

Yes Jake, Ma Kent IS just that cool! And oh, Kon's euphoria at having made Tim laugh. I wonder if he knows that he's the only one who can make that happen anymore.

When is Kon going to clue on to the fact that Jake thinks he's gay? And that he just might possibly have a crush on him? XD

[iesika.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're goood. You pegged Jake quick. Did you catch the mug?

[ladymirth.livejournal.com]

The mug was a little hard not to catch. =)

Wait a minute. Did Jake have a crush on Clark too, when he was younger? Did he figure it out and thats why he's a Superman fan? Is Jake the Tim-Drake-secret-stalker-boy of the Superfamily?

[iesika.livejournal.com]

*GLEE*

i deliberately concieved his character as a foil for Tim. Initially, I was writing him very much *as* Tim - albeit a more honest version of a Tim who hasn't been around for a long while. It took me a while to build a more distinct character under that. I hink that's why people seem to like him okay, though, even if I don't think most readers have caught the parallels.

[ladymirth.livejournal.com]

Hee! I feel smart now. =D

I started suspecting when Jake started talking about how he'd known Clark and looked at Tim speculatively. His questions seemed to indicate that he knew something. Of course, the way he warned Kon that his eyes were glowing red clinched that he knew the secret (Kon never caught onto that, poor boy) and the matter-of-fact way he did it reminded me of little Tim in Kings Among Runaways.

I wonder whether Jake knows who Tim is. He might've had his suspicions when Kon said he was from Gotham.

[iesika.livejournal.com]

...and the matter-of-fact way he did it reminded me of little Tim in Kings Among Runaways.

Interesting! Well, I already said he started out as a version of young Tim. Hmm... Do I have a type? Maybe?

Kon didn't catch it because he was very upset. He doesn't even remember, really.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Poor Jake is jealous. *pats him* Go with that instinct, hon.

[iesika.livejournal.com]

Well, Kon was just so *happy* when he came down! He was practically *floating*!

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Hee hee hee~

Btw this: They spent most Sunday on a team-up with the new Blue Beetle, who Kon thought was pretty cool, and Zachary fucking Zatara, who Kon thought was an asshole. ...is so awesome I immediately spammed everyone I was talking to in IMs when I first read it. That whole section is awesome. I frequently want to kick Zachary -- he's so like Zatanna's dad, it's kinda freaky! What a bitch.

Still, I wish they'd gone with his original design. There needs to be more guys in fishnets in comics. ;3

[iesika.livejournal.com]

This is absurdly late, but I'm replying to old comments today. ^_^;

That whole section was for faile_neume, who adores Zatara (but acknowledges his asshole status gleefully - she's also a little in love with Tim Wayne as I've written him here, lol)

[ne0nlazytights.livejournal.com]

despite how much I love this, I have never commented o.O
but after my nth time reading it, I just have to say

Tim was quiet. Kon didn't hear him moving around at all, even though he was always multitasking. "You brought me DNA samples from the entire team."
^That is the best "omg he does love me!" and "omg he does listen when I speak!" moment ever.

...just saying.