Broken Things

[cloned]

Sometimes Bart felt like running to Smallville was an automatic thing. He'd done it enough that he could just shut his mind off and go, which was always nice. But tonight he was worried about Kon. Kon didn't just offer pie. Pie had to be pried from Kon's cold, Kryptonian fingers. He could practically smell Mrs. Kent's (Martha's) apple pie from two hundred miles away, even though he knew that was just sense memory. By the time he got to the farm, he was practically salivating. "Kon!" He wandered into the farmhouse. "I"m here! Pie me!"

Kon wasn't having problems. And he wasn't jealous. He knew Cassie and Tim both loved him, and he was glad to have both of them, and any nagging worries about how maybe they preferred each other to him were unfounded and just Kon being stupid and paranoid, or whatever. And paranoia was Tim's job, anyway. So Kon was just fine and not worried about anything. He did happen to have some pie, and it had been a while since he and Bart had hung out, just the two of them. So it only made sense to call Bart and offer pie. He grinned when Bart ran in. "You are a dork. Here." He slid a pie over the counter and grabbed one for himself. Aunt Martha was good at cooking a lot of pies in one go. She knew who she was cooking for.

"Aweeeeeeeeeeeeesome." Martha's pies were in Bart's top five list of "things that make life great." The other four involved Cissie, Cissie, Cissie, and his friends. He dug in and ate a slice before hunting around for some milk. "So what's up, dude?"

"In the fridge." Kon grabbed two glasses and started on his own pie. "You know, not much. Just wanted company."

"Yeah." Bart went back to the table and poured them some milk before sitting down. "Okay. If you say so." He didn't believe Kon for a second, but he knew better than to push him. "Cissie says hi."

"Cool, tell her I say hi back." Of course Bart didn't believe him. Kon wasn't good at lying. Not that he was. Okay, he wasn't good at lying to himself either. "I dunno. I'm just being stupid."

Bart paused mid-bite and put his fork down. The pie was already half gone, it could wait. "Being stupid about what? Tim and Cassie?"

Kon gave him a look and shoved some pie into his mouth. "No, the other thing thing I'm angsting about," he said around the food.

"Dude, I don't know. You could be angsting about school, or New Krypton, or dead stuff." Bart sighed. "This about the two of them being, I dunno. The two of them?"

Kon swallowed and pushed his pie around on his plate. "So that's not just me being paranoid and seeing stuff."

Another sigh. Bart wished he could say it was. But he wasn't going to lie to Kon. "No. It's not. But that doesn't mean you and Cassie aren't you and Cassie. And, dude, I've even noticed you and Tim being you and Tim. I just think they're more intense than you. So it seems different."

"Maybe I wanna be intense too." Kon stabbed at his pie with his fork. "I don't know. I shouldn't be jealous of them. I mean, it's not like they're gonna cheat on me with each other. We're all dating!"

"No you don't. If you were intense you wouldn't be you." Bart poked at his pie in solidarity with Kon. "Look, they've got this weird survivor thing going on. I get it a little. After you died, it sucked. But they haven't been able to get past that. It's this trauma that they share, because they both loved you so much." Bart thought about what it was like for him when Kon died, how he reacted differently than both Tim and Cassie had. "We all did, but they... I don't know. They haven't gotten over it, and they're scared they'll lose you, and all they'll have left is each other."

"Yeah, no, I know. I wish I hadn't died." He laughed unhappily. "Is it dumb of me to wish I'd been there with them? I mean, like, I both feel like it's kinda my fault since I died and I couldn't tell them it's okay, and I also wish I'd been able to share the trauma and have that connection. And it's not like I'm any more likely to die than either of them! Just cause it happened once and didn't even stick!" He stabbed his fork into the pie so hard it broke the plate and drove down into the wood of the table. "Great, now Aunt Martha's gonna be mad at me, too."

Bart was quiet for a long minute, looking between the now-marked table and Kon's face. He hated when his friends were like this. "She'll be fine. I can sand that and refinish it in like ten seconds. And we'll get a new plate, no prob." He pushed his own pie plate aside and reached over to take Kon's hand off the fork. "I wish I hadn't died too, dude. But we did. And. We have to move forward, not backwards. Why don't you talk to them?"

"Cause I don't want them to think I'm having issues!" He let Bart take his hand off the fork and looked up at him. "Last time I had issues... Cassie tried to break up with us and Tim tried to shut himself off from all his emotions! And I don't wanna go through all that again. I feel like there's no way this'll end up working out, but it has to."

"So all three of you are emotionally immature. Awesome." Bart made a face, regretting his words as soon as they were out of this mouth. "Sorry. Just. Cissie and I talk about everything. Tabby, Mia, the Speed Force, Thad, her dad, I mean... maybe they learned from last time? You know? Maybe it won't go that way."

Kon shook his head. "It's fine. I know I should talk to them. But Tim still doesn't believe that I'm not just in it for Cassie and the second I seem to be having problems..." he broke off and shook his head. "I want them to be happy."
"Dude, I'd never give a guy a blow job unless I was into him. Can't you, like. Use that angle?" It wasn't that Bart thought it was gross, he just... thought it was gross.

Kon quirked an eyebrow. "You may not have noticed, but I'm kinda easy. I am into Tim, but that's not really proof."

"Oh. Right." Bart shrugged. It had been worth a try. "They won't be happy without you. The only reason they have each other is because of you."
"Yeah, cause I died." Kon scowled.

Bart blinked. "No, I mean now."

Kon looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean... the only reason they're together now is because you said okay. Tim wouldn't have ever done anything about his feelings for you or Cassie, and Cassie wouldn't have ever ever done the triple thing if you hadn't said okay." He started picking up the broken pieces of glass. "Dude, mend this with your heat vision."

"Oh yeah, that could work." Kon took two pieces of plate and held them together. He slowly trained his eyes on them and melted them together. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. "Yeah, that's true, I guess. And I know they love me and stuff. Like I said. Stupid."

"It's not stupid. The stupid part is not talking to them about it." Bart went back to his pie. He could sand the table later. "It's better to get it out than to let it sit and bubble up inside you."

"Yeah. That's a Batty thing to do." Kon sighed and scooped his pie back onto the repaired plate. "I called you over for pie and you get relationship angst instead. Sorry, dude."

"Kon." Bart put down his fork. "You're my best friend. You can talk to me about anything. Angst or whatever. That's why I'm here. Besides... I still got the pie."
Kon smiled at him. "Thanks. And yeah, I figured pie worked as good bribery just in case."

"Totally. When in doubt, offer me pie." Bart grinned. "Anything else you wanna talk about while I'm here?"

Kon shrugged. "Not really. Not much else is bothering me that much right now. Or if it is I can't remember, which probably means it's not important!"

Bart laughed. "Okay. Well, I guess let me know where the sand paper is. We can fix the table and then I can kick your ass at some video games before I go."
"In the barn, with the other construction stuff." Kon finished his pie and grabbed both the plates and the tins. "I'll wash this stuff."