This had started out as a Conner x Megan fic, just a little drabble, and now it's more group centric. Still, I like how it developed, even if it wasn't how I had expected.
Conner might not have understood, but he tried.
He tried to understand the look Megan had given him, that day while they were preparing dinner. He had attempted to fathom why she had suddenly become so quiet, and why he could feel his heart beating erratically, and why oh why she had suddenly gotten so close (and why hadn't he done anything about it?).
He could have attempted to contemplate why it was she had abruptly turned away and went back to cooking, her voice not returning, aloud or otherwise, for hours. But he didn't.
He attempted to figure out why he had allowed her to wear his jacket on their way home from school. Why he allowed their knees to bump on the couch or why he didn't mind when she fell asleep, curled up against one half of his chest while Wally drooled on his pants leg.
He supposed it was something faulty with his cloning process. After all, he had not originally been this way. He screamed and bit venomous words out at his team, but as time wore on, it seemed the fault came out and eventually showed itself to him. The others didn't notice - how couldn't they, he asked himself - but he knew. He knew, and as time wore on and the fault didn't fix itself and none of the others seemed concerned, it only bothered him more.
"Why -"
Superboy's voice suddenly coming into the kitchen, the sound of the wooden door frame crunching under his grip seemingly mingling with the popping of the corn in the microwave. Artemis turned, taking in Conner's questioning gaze. He never came to Dick or Wally for help. It was always her or Kaldur, and she didn't know why, but she was glad he was opening up to someone, at the least.
A breath was sucked in through his teeth, and he tried again, attempting to calm himself.
"What is wrong with me?"
"What do you mean, Superboy?" Artemis asked, tilting her head, her hands on her hips. "Nothing is wrong with you. You're normal."
"...Normal? All of this is normal?" His voice was nearly a growl, but it was not from anger, but confusion. His hand suddenly clapped onto his chest and balled into a fist, straining the fabric of the shirt he was wearing. His eyes were searching, deep, staring into Artemis's dark irises, as is hoping for answers she could not give. "Feeling all - all this - these things can't be normal. I'm a machine, a monster. I'm not suppose to feel all of this."
Her expression softened, and she walked over, ignoring the beeping from the microwave, placing a hand on Superboy's shoulder. "Conner... you're not a monster. You're not a machine. You do not malfunction in the way that our computers do. What you are feeling... we all feel it. Just because we are superheroes does not mean we are superhuman. We still have the luxury and the pain of feeling emotions."
He hesitated, eyes staring into hers, before he straightened. The words - the single word, to be specific - was familiar to him. Emotions. It was something he had learned, rather a range of things than an item, and seemed to cover a wide range of... of feelings.
Artemis smiled as she watched the gears turn in his eyes, deep in thought, and as she turned back around to get bowls out for the popcorn, Superboy snagged her and pulled her into a hug. It was brief, almost painfully constricting, and then he was gone, walking back to the common room.
When she returned with the large bowl of popcorn, Conner was sitting back on the couch, slouching, his feet propped up on the coffee table. One of his muscular arms was wrapped around Megan's shoulders and the other was on the back of the couch.
"-Dude, not cool!" Wally's voice, disapproving, attempting to look past Megan and Conner on the oversized couch to look at Dick. Conner's thick hand reached out and cuffed Wally on the back of the head, and then Dick.
Artemis stopped in her tracks when a smile bloomed onto the boy's face, just watching, observing. It was amazing how much he had grown since she had met him - broody, angry, avengeful. But no longer. Megan and Wally - Dick and Kaldur - and even herself, had worn down his icy exterior.
"Hey, babe. You bringin' the noms or you just gonna stand there?"
The blonde rolled her eyes, walking over and dropping the bowl of popcorn into Dick's lap - he had to scramble to catch it before it tumbled to the floor - before sitting herself in the small space between Wally and the couch arm. It was a tight fit, the six of them - Kaldur crammed into the very end, next to Robin, and all their limbs seemed to mingle and touch at one point or an other.
She watched as Megan shifted, putting her hand over the one on her waist. Their gaze met, and there was no longer any hint of hesitation, wondering, in the boys eyes.
It appeared to her that they had all grown as a team, but Conner had grown the most as a person, even having come from so little as one. The thought brought a smile to her face.
"Hey, Dickhead, gonna pass the popcorn or what?"
It was short lived.