Title: "Midnights on Earth 2"

Rating: T

Genre: family, friendship

Character(s): Leo D., Val-Zod/Superman, Jay Garrick/The Flash, and a host of other LR and DC characters

Pairing(s): implied Dasha; the rest would have to be revealed later

Summary: It was definitely an interesting place to meet at a more interesting time. But preference had long been out the window, for it had been too long since they saw each other.

Notes: Inspired by another prompt from the last round of SYTYCW: a picture of a nearly empty street in NYC taken late at night. The setting in this is a bit weird, because it's compliant to both the Earth 2 comics and The Flash TV show. I guess the events and which earth this is somewhat follow the comics, but it follows the show regarding who Jay Garrick is. The same is true with the Supergirl part of this: Kara's and Jimmy's 'alter egos' are the same as in the comics, but their secret identities are one with the TV show.

It's a bit confusing, but don't worry—all of that doesn't really matter much in the long run. :)

Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Disclaimer: In my profile, yo.

01.

Stein's Diner had certainly aged. It still held its timelessness and grace, and it was definitely still one of the cleanest, most trustworthy food places in Gotham, but one couldn't deny that it was gradually showing its years.

Especially to Leo, one of the many who used to be a regular there. From the booth he occupied, he could pinpoint at least five things that told him the diner wasn't as it used to be. One that had got to be the most disappointing was the absence of the jukebox that used to sit in the far corner, just a short distance from the entrance to the kitchen. He remembered frequenting it when he was little. His mother would give him a quarter whenever boredom overwhelmed him. He would excitedly walk over to it, put the coin in, and then select his parents' favorite song: Embraceable You by Billie Holiday.

E8. That was its code from the selection.

He asked the only waitress on duty why the jukebox had been removed. She said the new owner, Orly Stein's son, didn't think it served any purpose. He wanted to upgrade the diner to bring in new people and to make sure the regulars would keep coming. The hunkering piece of machine being sold to a pawn shop had been one of the many results of that.

Leo looked down on the menu and noted the stain that managed to embed itself inside the laminated piece of paper. If Orly still oversaw the place, that wouldn't have been acceptable. The pudgy and very friendly man had always been tedious regarding the appearance of his diner. The menus had been as neat and tidy as the table and the floor.

But Orly was gone, taken away by something even Gotham's own Knight could neither predict nor fight. Now in his place was his son, a man whose eyes and mind were focused on the money coming into the register instead of the people walking into the door.

It slightly upset him, but then again he knew he had no real grounds to feel that way. Change was just a nature of life. Sometimes it was for the good, sometimes it wasn't. In Orly's and, apparently, his case, it just wasn't.

Someone sitting at another table coughed. Leo looked up and had to smile. The person refused to look at him. Still, that didn't change the fact that he knew he was there.

After a few more minutes of waiting, the bell on the entrance chimed. The newly arrived customer searched around then, once he found the one he came to meet, went to join him at their booth.

Leo lifted his eyes up at him, towering and more muscular even in his suit that must have been two sizes too lose. The man smiled as he sat down, but it was obviously strained. "I haven't ordered anything for you yet," Leo said, skimming through the menu for the fourth time. "I didn't know what you'd be in the mood for."

"What about you? Have you gotten anything to eat?"

Leo shook his head. "I wanted to wait for you."

The waitress got around to their table, but this time with a steaming pot of coffee. "Any of you gentlemen want coffee?" she asked.

The older of the two turned his mug upright.

"What can I get for ya tonight?" the waitress asked as she filled it.

"Do you still have the Stein's Special?" Leo asked. "The one with the three eggs and...what was that?"

"French toast and sausages made here? We sure do," the waitress said.

"Okay. I'll have that."

The waitress nodded. "What about you, sir?" she asked the other.

"The same would be fine."

"Okay. Two Stein's coming right up." The waitress then left.

Once she was gone and an allowable silence had passed, Val asked, "How was your trip here?"

Leo tilted his head slightly. "It's alright," he said. "Not very conventional, but these past few years hadn't been anyways, so."

There was a flicker of discomfort in Val's eyes, and immediately Leo regretted saying what he had said. He didn't mean to insinuate anything hurtful, but it unfortunately came out that way. To compensate, he smiled and explained, "My stepsiblings. You probably heard."

It relieved him when the shadow of hurt on his features mostly cleared. However, sadness replaced it. "Helena told me," Val said. Then, he asked, "Does – does she know you're here?"

"Maybe," Leo said. He chuckled. "She and Grayson seem to know everything that goes on in this city."

Val smiled. "You know you can always call him by his first name."

"No. He scares me. I'd rather stick with the formal names. That way I won't end up with a," then whispered, "batarang somewhere on me."

Val laughed. "He's a very serious man, but he's a good man. He may not be too cordial with many of us, but he makes exception with children," he said.

"I'm sixteen now, Dad. He may not give me too much of a leeway anymore," Leo said.

"Yeah. I guess so."

Again, Leo felt terrible when he saw his father's expression diminish into something less mirthful. He knew it was unavoidable (what happened had already happened, and along with it were consequences), and he knew he would never be obligated to keep everything always positive. Still, he didn't want his father to feel terrible. Jimmy had told him everything that his father went through when he was younger, and it resulted into him being a little reclusive and slightly introverted.

Yes, his father could accomplish many incredible feats. He was Superman, after all.

That didn't change the fact, though, that the Man of Steel could still be hurt by things concerning him and the people he loved.

"Does your mom know you're here?" Val asked.

"I think so. She may have had an idea of why I left. I don't know. I told her about you. She didn't really say anything. I told her I wanted to take off for the weekend and that I'll be safe. She said okay."

Val said nothing. He glanced at his coffee and thought about making it to suit his taste, but he eventually lost interest. "Who told you we've come back?"

"Marella." Leo smirked upon recalling the night the Queen of Atlantis came to meet with him at the shore. "I had to sneak out to see her. It was a bit hard getting to the spot she chose, but it was alright. She looked like she's doing good. She seemed happy to see me."

"I can imagine. When you were younger, she held you and played with you whenever she visited."

Leo grinned. "I wonder what she'd think if I told her I don't like being by the ocean. It's kind of boring."

"I doubt she'd take offense. Unless you're talking about Atlantis."

"No. The beach in Atlantis is pretty cool. It's probably the only exception." After a moment, Leo commented, "If only they could see the things I've seen. They'll probably be as stoked as I am."

"Who?"

"My stepsiblings," Leo said. "I mean, they're incredible, too. Then again, anyone with abilities will always be cool to me. Unless they're bad guys. Then that's just not good."

Val chuckled. "Do they know? About me and the rest?"

Leo shook his head. "All they've ever known about me and mom is that we're ordinary. Mom is a reporter, and I'm a normal high school kid. That's all."

"What do they know about me?"

"None. Mom told my stepdad that you died," Leo said, his words thickening the somber mood descending upon them. "Aunt Lois gave us our cover story. They bought it."

"Did your mother believe it? That I was dead?"

"She didn't know what to believe at first, but after years of not hearing anything about you or Alan or all the others that had vanished, she stopped hoping you'd come back," Leo replied. "She knew what happened before with Uncle Kal. She knew she shouldn't hope."

Val said nothing. Instead, he looked out the window. From a distance, red and blue lights dispersed through the skies, ambulances wailing right behind it, fire trucks angrily honking not too far. He thought he had missed Earth, with its urgent sounds and beats of life—the home to his family. Now, he wasn't sure anymore. "You're probably mad at me," he said. "I ruined our lives."

"You did what you did to save others. It was just one of those things that would happen one way or another."

Val looked at him. "You're not angry?"

"I missed you, if that's what you mean. I've never thought you were dead."

"You didn't answer my question."

Leo turned his eyes towards the container half-filled with packets of synthetic sweetener. A faint smirk pulled at an edge of his lips. "Jay does know I know he's here, right? I saw him the moment I walked into the door."

Though discouraged, Val said, "He just wants to make sure you stay safe while I make my way here."

"What about his city?"

"It's just a few hours. The police has it covered," Jay Garrick said from his seat, his eyes trained down on the newspaper he 'read' from.

Leo narrowed his eyes as his father smirked. "Is he eavesdropping?"

Jay picked up his mug then sipped loudly from it.

Val chuckled.

"Is nothing private nowadays?" Leo muttered as he distracted himself with the menu.

Val smiled. Remembering then the item in his jacket pocket, he pulled it out then slid it towards his son.

"What's this?"

"Kara asked me to give this to you."

Leo opened the cream-colored envelope. Inside, he found a decorated piece of card, embellished with a beautiful, romantic border. After reading the invitation, his brows hitched. "Huh. I see she and Jimmy's decided to tie the knot." He scoffed. "It's about time."

"She said she'd really love to have you there. If you can come and you're interested, the role of being the ring bearer is yours if you want it."

"Is she gonna pair me up with a flower girl? Because I really, truly believe she and Aunt Lois still see me as a six year old."

Val laughed. "No, I don't know their plans, but I doubt they'd do that."

"I hope not." The scent of their late dinner wafted through the diner. The aromatic smell of sausages sizzling richly on the grill filled the air, and with it, the sweetness of the toast browning in butter and eggs cooking to perfection. Leo's stomach clamored for these, but his mind was distracted by something else. "The wedding was beautiful, but I didn't like it," he commented.

Val didn't ask whose; he knew.

"My stepdad's nice, and he really tries to do his best for Mom and me, but…" Leo trailed off. "Aunt Lois said leaving was for the best. We would be safer with them. Because they're keeping their own identities from the world, they were the best people we could be with. But he has his own kids, and it just won't ever be the same."

"So you are upset with me."

"Dad, that's four years you were gone. Of course I'm upset," Leo said. "Don't get me wrong; I know things like that can and will always happen because that's just how it is to be who you guys are. But it's kind of hard pretending I don't have something I do have. I mean, I'm not mad mad at you, but—"

"Leo, stop," Val said patiently. "It's alright if you're angry with me. You don't have to tell me you don't when you do. It's okay. I'm angry, too, because after everything that happened, after everything I've done, what I came back to earth to is this, your mother married to someone else and you in a different family. I've lost Tasha, and I missed the years in your life that I should've been in. I've never wanted what happened to me to happen to you, but that's exactly what happened. And I'm sorry."

One glance at the kind expression on his father's face melted Leo's frustrations. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lose it," he said. "And I know about what happened; Marella told me about that, too. She did say only a few months had passed…wherever you guys ended up in. You didn't know Earth's a little speedier when it came to time." Then, to Jay he jokingly said, "How was that pun, Jason? I made it just for you."

Jay pointedly ignored him, only took another sip of his coffee.

Val smiled. "Still," he told his son. "I'm very sorry."

Leo returned with a small but sincere smile. He may have been mad, but he knew he could never stay that way for long. His father would never do anything intentionally to hurt him and his mother. Plus, he missed him much more. "If you can talk Mom into letting me stay in Metropolis with you this summer, we can call it even," he said.

"I don't know if she'd even want to talk to me."

"I can always try to convince her. Mom's reasonable; she'll listen."

Val nodded, hoping that everything would work well.

The waitress came to their table then, both arms loaded with trays bearing their food. After serving the plates to them and checking to see if they needed anything else, she promptly left to check on the few other patrons in the diner.

"So, bionic technology, huh?" Val prompted as they prepared to eat. "I heard it's impressive."

Leo scoffed. "Oh, it is, Dad. Very. My oldest stepbrother, Adam, has the same ability as you, Kara, and Uncle Kal."

"You sure he's not Kryptonian?" Val kidded, smirking.

"Nah. Although, I imagine it would be nice to have another person from our planet." Leo frowned. "I can say that, right? Our planet?"

"You're half-Kryptonian, Leo. Of course you can say that."

"Oh. Okay."

"Kara told me about the situation you've been having at school. That Trent kid," Val noted more seriously. "Why didn't you tell her about it sooner?"

"Come on, Dad. You know what Kara and Aunt Lois would do. The last thing I want is," and he whispered again, "Power Girl and Red Tornado showing up at my school just to deal with this kid."

"What about your stepsiblings? Don't they say anything for you?"

"Adam and Bree barely say anything for Chase. Why would they do it for me?" Seeing the shadow that briefly passed by his father's eyes, Leo amended, "They're there for me when it counts. Don't worry; I've been in worse situations."

"Lois told me about the android."

"Yup. Handled that pretty well, if I could say so myself."

"Using the devices your stepfather has?"

"Yes. Using what he has." Leo grinned. "If you see the things he keeps in his basement, you would think he's Batman, too."

Val said nothing, only smiled.

The night continued on with both the father and the son catching each other up with what they had missed. Sometime during their conversation, the Scarlet Speedster left the diner, knowing his purpose there was already complete. As minutes rolled into an hour, the city outside continued to pulse with activity. Leo believed he caught a brief glimpse of the distress signal calling for the assistance of the Knight of Gotham. Nonetheless, it eventually vanished from his mind. No doubt, Batman and Robin would have everything taken care of.

Plus, his father's account of what happened on the planet they had been taken to was admittedly a bit more interesting.

Any constructive criticism is welcome.