[Closed]

[cisskabob]

Who: Cissie King-Jones and Kon/Superboy
Where: Kon's room
When: 4/19, after Georgia's return as a clone
Rating: G, probably
Summary: Cissie'a Friend Senses are tingling, so she brings Kon ice cream to make him stop sulking. And to talk about icky feelings. It's the kind of friend she is.
The Story:

Cissie hasn't seen Kon all day. This maybe is not a cause for alarm, because she has definitely gone a day without seeing him when she's been annoyed with him, but his room is directly next door. It's strange not to see him even once in a day.

The fact that this happens the same day Georgia Mason returns to Wonderland as a clone after dying? Well. Even if Kon hasn't died yet in his time, Cissie knows better than to think this is a coincidence. And while he might snap out of it on his own, she doesn't want to chance it, especially given the cryptic warning they just received.

If any of them had anything resembling responsible parents in their lives, it would have been way past bedtime when Cissie shows up at Kon's door and knocks. She's got two pints of Dan and Terry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream, two spoons and a mission.

"Kon? I know you're in there. Open up."

Comments

[cloned]

Kon is floating a half foot from the ceiling bouncing a ball off the wall and most decidedly not sulking. When he hears Cissie knocking, he tries to look through the door with his x-ray vision to see her and... accidentally blasts the door with his heat vision.

"Shit, hold on!" Great, he's not even an effective clone. He can't even get his stupid powers to work right. He pats out the smoking wood with his hand and opens the door, taking in Cissie and the ice cream. "Cissie? What's up?"

[cisskabob]

Cissie stares between Kon and the door, eyes wide. "...Did you heat vision your door?" She looks back at him incredulously, holding up one of the pints of ice cream. "What if you had hit the ice cream?"

[cloned]

"I was trying to x-ray vision the door. It's not as easy as it looks! And it didn't go through." He scowls, then looks at the ice cream curiously. "...did you break up with someone?"

[cisskabob]

Cissie rolls her eyes skyward, sighing. "Why is that your first assumption? Who, exactly, would I break up with? If that's the only time I ate ice cream, I'd never eat it. And I'd want an explanation for all the times you ate my ice cream."

[cloned]

"I have a Kryptonian metabolism." That's a thing, right? He's gonna go with it's a thing. "And I don't know, why else would you bring this much ice cream?"

[cisskabob]

"For your Kryptonian metabolism," she tells him dryly. "I brought one for you and one for me, silly. Friends don't let friends binge watch sitcoms and eat entire pints of ice cream alone. Feel like binge watching some Friends or something?"

[cloned]

"Cissie, I'm fine." Not that she'd asked, but people don't show up with tons of ice cream and Friends DVDs because they think you're doing okay. Still, he holds open the door for her to come in. No sense in having any conversation that's about to happen in the hallway. And he does like ice cream.

[cisskabob]

"Mmhm." Cissie rolls her eyes, but goes in anyway, offering Kon one of the pints of ice cream on her way in. "You do know that you don't have to be fine all the time, right? Like you don't have to be Superboy twenty-four/seven here, even though that's how you introduced yourself."

[cloned]

"I am Superboy twenty-four/seven." He isn't exactly like the rest of them, not even Bart. He's been Superboy since the moment he first opened his eyes. Having any kind of life outside of that came second. He takes the ice cream, then floats over to his bed, letting himself fall onto it with a thump. "And fine, why am I not fine?"

[cisskabob]

Cissie resists the urge to sigh or roll her eyes again, although it's a near thing. She follows him and climbs up to sit next to him on the bed, handing over a spoon. "You're not fine because you're Superboy twenty-four/seven. I would like to hang out with my friend Kon for a little while."

She nudges him with her elbow. "Also you wouldn't be so defensive if you weren't fine. You read the posts on the network today, didn't you?"

[cloned]

"Sure," he says noncommittally, shoving a spoon into the ice cream with perhaps more force than necessary. Yes, she will have to drag it out of him.

[cisskabob]

Cissie takes a bite of her own ice cream, raising an eyebrow. "You're going to push that spoon through the carton and then it will drip all over you when it melts," she points out. Then she sighs and nudges him again. "She's not the same kind of clone you are, Kon. Your situations are totally different."

[cloned]

He sighs, scooping out a spoonful. Fine, they're gonna actually talk about it. "I know that. She's a full clone. I'm only half-Superman."

[cisskabob]

Cissie makes a face. "Yeah, I know. But that's a good thing, Kon. You have your own identity, and were able to make your own memories and become your own person. She's not just a clone, she's a clone with implanted memories. You get to figure out who you are on your own, and make your own identity." She leans to bump shoulders with him. "I'm pretty fond of the one you've made, by the way."

[cloned]

He huffs out a sigh, glancing over at her. "I know all that, Cissie. I've never been Kal. I don't even want to be, not really."

Maybe he wants to be like Kal, but he's hardly unusual that way. He'd rather be like Kal than like Luthor. But there's wanting to be like him, then there's wanting to be him, and the fact is, Clark's a total square.

"She just didn't have to be so sure about it."

[cisskabob]

Cissie sighs a little to herself, but leans in against Kon's side. "She only sounds sure, Kon. She's definitely not. I think she's trying to convince herself, but she'd never admit it. Besides, our worlds are completely different. The same rules don't apply."

[cloned]

"What, they're more effective at cloning there?" It's petty, sure, but he knows if they could have pulled it off, he'd be a full Kryptonian duplicate of Superman. Would he still be himself then? Does it matter?

[cisskabob]

"Hey." Cissie elbows him, hard, because she knows it won't hurt him--it'll probably hurt her more than him, but she doesn't care. "Stop it. You're you. You have no idea how important you are."

Normally she wouldn't want to inflate his ego too much, but hearing him sulk and brood about how he was created bothers her. 'More effective.' That gets under her skin in a really uncomfortable way, and she's not sure she can explain it to him without having to dodge around a lot of 'you died and everyone fell completely apart without you.'

[cloned]

Don't worry, he's used to using his ttk and motion to keep people from breaking their arms when they elbow him. "What, cause I've saved the world a few times? Who hasn't?"

...a lot of people, Kon.

[cisskabob]

Cissie turns to stare at him, mouth open in surprise for a moment before she snaps it shut and clenches her jaw. "Why are you being so ridiculous? Don't you dare come and tell me you're fine, because you're obviously not. You're brooding worse than Tim right now."

[cloned]

"Fine, I'm not fine, but it's dumb, and I don't want to talk about it."

The problem isn't that he's Kal's clone. It's never that he's Kal's clone. Being a clone of Superman is great. But he doesn't want to be Luthor. That's the part that keeps scaring him.

[cisskabob]

"It's not dumb if it's bothering you," she points out. She reaches over and puts a hand on his arm. "I know you don't want to talk about it, but it's not going to go away if you ignore it or keep it all to yourself. Maybe if you do talk about it, we can help you work through it."

She pauses, and adds, "Plus, you know. I am from the future. I might know things you don't, yet."

[cloned]

"It's not something people would just know, even in the future." He hopes so, anyway. He doesn't know how people would find out. "I didn't know til recently, and none of the other Titans know." Except Tim, but that wasn't exactly Kon's choice.

[cisskabob]

"Well..." Cissie says slowly, eyes on the melting ice cream in her lap. "I'm not and never have been a Titan." She looks up with a small smile. "Maybe an outsider's perspective would help?"

[cloned]

"Come on, you're not an outsider." Sure, they hadn't talked much lately before Wonderland, but she's still one of them. Except for the whole not being a superhero thing. "And it's not like people outside the Titans know either."

[cisskabob]

Cissie can't help her response; she laughs, and it's not a nice laugh. It's a bitter, old wound kind of laugh, and she shoves her spoon into her ice cream carton, giving it a rough stir.

"Maybe I'm not yet," she concedes, but she can't help being a little hurt at how hard he's working at not telling her whatever's bothering him. That, combined with how much she's apparently not actually at all over not being even remotely a part of the Titans?

She's wondering if maybe this wasn't her best idea after all. She can't make him tell her anything.

[cloned]

He frowns, turning towards her. And this might be a little deflecty but... "Hey," he shifts, getting an arm around her. "Are you okay?"

[cisskabob]

"I'm trying to help you, you know." Cissie sighs, but leans into him. "...Things change. The Titans aren't Young Justice. I wasn't kidding about that outsider's perspective thing. And I just--I just want to help, if I can."

[cloned]

He's quiet for long enough that it might seem like he's not actually going to answer. But finally, he does speak up. "So you know half my DNA is from Superman. It's... it's about the other half. The human half."

[cisskabob]

[Cissie nods, waiting for him to continue... and then she realizes that this is the problem. It's what's bothering him, and she remembers again that Kon is from what feels like ages before her time. She pulls back to sit up and look at him.]

Oh, my god. Did you just find out? Is that what's bothering you? Kon You are not Lex Luthor, okay?

[cloned]

Wait... you knew?

[He looks over at her, eyes widening.]

How? Nobody knows. Except Tim, and that's cause he was with me when we got the weird email and stole some hair for a DNA test.

[cisskabob]

[Cissie shrugs. She's not about to get into the mind control business right now.]

Cassie told me. After you told her. Her dad is Zeus, by the way, if you want to talk about weird genetics.

[cloned]

What?

[Look, he's always thought Cassie was pretty amazing, but he wasn't going to guess demigod.]

Like... Zeus-Zeus? Not just... some guy named Zeus or something?

[cisskabob]

Mmhm, [she hums her agreement, nodding.] As in Zeus-Zeus, the Greek god to end all Greek gods. And Cassie was pretty hung up about it, which I told her was ridiculous, because it doesn't matter who are parents are. They don't define us.

[Have a pointed look, Kon. She dares you to argue with her.]

[cloned]

Yeah, you say that, but Wonder Woman already threw me off a roof. I'd rather not add "struck by lightning" to my list of accomplishments.