cloned | RP with Bart!

Bart wasn't having a good day. He couldn't find his other sock, for one thing, and for another, he just knew that if he was even a minute late, Kon would call and demand to know where he was.

In fact... Cue the phone buzzing it's little heart out.

Picking it up, Bart snapped a more curt than usual "What?" into the receiver. Did Kon really have to micromanage him that much?

"Hey, it's Kon," Kon said. "Where are you, dude?"

"I'm packing Kon, could you just give me a few minutes to finish getting my things together without freaking out?" Was that really too much to ask? Bart didn't think so.

"I'm not freaking out. What happened to you being the fastest boy alive?" Kon asked. He floated up to the window and looked vaguely eastward. "Want me to come help you?"

Bart sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. "No, Kon. I can pack by myself. I'm a big boy now, and big boys can pack. Their. Own. Clothes."

Kon rolled his eyes and floated upside down. "Stop being snappy. You are coming, right? And you know where the house is?"

"Yes, I'm coming, and yes, I know where your house is. I'm sorry for snapping at you, I'll be over soon. Is that okay?" Bart tried to keep from sounding pissy, but it wasn't the easiest thing to pull off. He wasn't really mad at Kon, though, just... well, he didn't really know how he was.

"Okay, okay, just be quick about it. See ya later." Kon snapped the phone shut and flew outside. He could practice throwing rocks at birds until Bart showed up.

Bart knew he should hurry. Kon was probably waiting for him, either somersaulting absently in the air or throwing rocks at animals. He was slightly predictable like that.

And yet he took at least five minutes to find all his socks, another five to arrange his photos and other mementos from his other life between his sparse collection of clothes, and then even went as far as to clean out the room as thoroughly as possible before checking out. After that, he took the long way to Hawaii, going to go see some caribou up North, before he decided that he couldn't put it off any longer.

So, approximately half an hour after he and Kon had finished their conversation, he blurred to a stop in front of Kon's house, immediately looking around for a flying teenager.

Kon saw Bart stop and dove towards him at a high speed tackle. Sure, it might scare Bart a little, but Kon could control his TTK enough that he knew Bart wouldn't be hurt. His clothes wouldn't get dirty, and Kon figured Bart deserved a little scaring for being so damn slow.

"What took you?" he said. "Some fastest boy alive you are."

Bart was almost prepared for Kon to come hurtling towards him like a falling jet, but obviously not prepared enough, as he let out a surprised "Oomph" just the same.

Patting Kon on the back, Bart chuckled breathlessly. "The caribou were being friendly."

"Caribou? There are no caribou in Detroit." Kon scowled and rolled off of Bart. "Why are you being so weird about this? Living with me's gotta be better than being in that dingy hotel."

Bart shook his head, grateful for the deep breath he was able to take in once Kon moved away. "No, Kon, there aren't. And I'm not trying to be weird about this, it's just... I don't do well with change, okay?" He sighed. "The motel was baby steps, this is like jumping off the Grand Canyon with no parachute or anything. I'm just a little nervous, that's all."

"I've jumped into the Grand Canyon without a parachute," Kon said. "You know either of us could survive that. Come on, it's not that scary." He stood up and offered Bart a hand. "Sides, we're Superboy and whatever-you're-calling-yourself-now. There's nothing we can't handle."

"You're invulnerable, Kon. Of course you could manage it. I don't know if I could, though. But that's not the point!" He accepted Kon's hand, clambering to his feet. "I don't actually have a code-name now. I don't think I'm really ready to go back out superheroing. Not right now, anyway." He looked away from where Kon was standing, brushing off the dirt that didn't cling to him at all. "I can't handle it."

"Yeah, that and I can fly." Kon grinned. "You could do something. Run down the cliff and then back up. Vibrate through the ground. Make a cushion of air. I dunno." Kon picked up Bart's bag. "You'll be able to soon enough. Come on, I'll show you the house."

"Well, I was falling, I doubt I'd be able to run down... you know what? This is pointless. Whatever."

Bart politely didn't say anything when Kon took over his luggage--even though he could have managed just fine on his own--and even refrained from pointing out that he knew Kon's house already, so the grand tour wouldn't really be necessary. Then again, Bart's visit had been after it had been destroyed, so it wasn't exactly the same as it looked now. But Tim had plenty of pictures. Tim could be a pretty creepy stalker if he put his mind to it.

"You could manage," Kon insisted. "Anyway, the house has been renovated a lot while we were, uh, rebuilding it. You can have Roxy's old room."

He carried the luggage over both of their heads on one finger, partly because he could and partly because it helped focus his TTK better than a more stable position.

Bart just nodded absently, looking at the passing rooms, tactfully ignoring Kon 'working on focusing his TTK'. He had often found that ignoring his boy's more ridiculous antics usually had them stopping sooner rather than later. No audience, no fun. Or something like that.

"So... What have you been doing since you--came back?" Bart asked, only choking slightly over his words. "You were back for a while before I returned, weren't you?"

"You know, this and that," Kon said, putting the suitcases down on Bart's bed. "Mostly laying low at Clark's place, but it was getting a little cramped there. Plus, Lois scares me."

Bart sank down on the bed beside his suitcase, staring at a small spot low down on the opposite wall. "Yeah, Lois could scare anyone," he replied with a small laugh.

He scrubbed both hands through his hair, scrunching up his face in the hope that it would feel different... better. More familiar. Being a teenager still felt... wrong. He grabbed a fistful of his hair, bringing it in front of his face, peering at it accusatorily. "I need to cut my hair," he declared, apropos of nothing they had previously said. Then again, Kon was used to following his random tangents, so he didn't bother explaining.

"Don't go too short though." Kon grinned. "You'd look weird with too little hair."

Kon sat down next to him, after a moment. "You okay?" he said.

Bart shrugged. "I looked okay with short hair," he replied. But then again, his thirty/forty year-old self looked okay with short hair. He hadn't cut it for so long after he got throw into the Speed Force that he had been able to tie it back like Nightwing when he first started. It hadn't been a particularly good look for him. Any change from that would be a good change.

Bart shifted slightly, angling away from Kon as if, by presenting his back instead of his more vulnerable front, he could protect himself from whatever mental pain he was scared would come his way. "It's just--" he began, then sighed explosively, tugging his hair one last time for good measure. "This whole thing, me being so damn young... it's all wrong!" He stood up, practically flinging his arms out to the side. "I mean, look at me!" After a second, he shook his head. "Stupid. I don't look any different to you. Well, I am. This," he waved a hand in front of himself, "is all wrong. I'm not supposed to look like this! And now, not only do I look like a teenager, I get to deal with all the hormonal bullshit I had to get through first on my own and then with my sons. D'you think I really wanted things to be this way? You know, it's funny. For a few minutes when I wake up, I don't remember. I think I'm back to being fifty, old and gray, getting fat around the middle and slow, in bed with my wife, and then I realize that I'm alone. Where's Shannon? The boys don't live at home anymore, she can sleep in. And then..." he laughed bitterly. "Then I wake up, and it hits me all over again. I'm back to being a child, I will most likely never see my family again, and I'm stuck in a world where no one remembers me for me. All they see when they look at me is the immature, naive person they used to know. That Bart doesn't exist anymore, Kon. Sometimes I can fake it, but it gets so tiring. I don't want to pretend anymore." He sighed, scrubbing at his face. At least he hadn't started crying yet. He seemed to be doing that with alarming frequency lately. "I don't want to lie anymore."

"Then don't lie," Kon said, reaching over to squeeze Bart's shoulder. "I mean, the idea of a mature Bart is weird, but I can get used to it. We all can. And we'd much prefer you to be yourself than to pretend to be someone else just to make us happy. We love you, Bart. We'll help you get through this."

Bart snorted a laugh out his nose. "Stop saying that, Jesus. Don't you have any settings other than 'sympathetic?'" He reached up and covered Kon's much larger hand with his. "It makes it so much harder to be irrationally angry with you." He sighed, squeezing Kon's fingers. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to yell at you. It's just... this whole thing is so frustrating. I don't know what to do sometimes."

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