Shoot for the Moon
Superboy liked September. What season was it again? Fall? Or was it autumn? He liked the sound of autumn better. Who would name a season after falling? That's stupid. It was September 30th, and he didn't know what time it was. So it could be October. It wasn't important. Nonetheless, it was cooler—respite from the oppressive summer heat sweltering that had extended from August through much of September. Temperature didn't really bother him one way or another. But then again, he hadn't experienced extreme frozen temperatures yet. Whatever. The clone had more pressing matters before him. He was disturbed, or 'turbed', (he could never keep Robin's unique words straight) by the stiff figure looming at the edge of the Mount Justice's back entrance.
He was motionless. Not a tremor or single vibration told of his presence. In mimicry of a gargoyle, Kid Flash perched like Gotham's Dark Knight overlooking Happy Harbor. His expression grim. The similarity ended there, as KF's costume was an electric yellow and vibrant red lighting up the dark backdrop. Only the slow sweep of eyelashes against pale freckled skin and the thump-thump-thump heartbeat accompanied by a steady breath gave indication of life.
The raven-haired teen closed his eyes to assure himself that the thump-thump-thump heartbeat was really there. Strangely enough, Kid Flash's heartbeat fluttered quickly like the steady hum of an antique fan's brass blades; it sometimes sounded as if there was no heartbeat at all. Just a consistent pulsation and flutter of white noise. His heart sped up so alarmingly fast during battle it almost disappeared completely as if the steady fan became a jetliner taking off. A frantic tambourine heartbeat thrumming move, move, move! into a crescendo of dissonance. Such were the irregularities of a speedster.
Kid Flash's stillness did not sit well with him—it caused his chest to tighten uncomfortably. What was up with that? Artemis would probably praise Kid's lassitude, offering reprieve from his normal 'antics'. The Kryptonian clone only saw his silence as a disruption. A fracture of his neatly categorized boxes. Robin, Aqualad, Miss Martian, Artemis—they each fit neatly into an organized box of characteristics. They were fairly predictable. Sure, they often confused him, and on occasion, it frustrated him. But most of their actions and words could be connected to a previous, underlying trait. They stayed nicely compartmentalized in the files of his mind. The genomorphs had taught him how to theorize and logically predict an individual's actions and thought patterns based on observations and personal consistencies.
As well as this theory worked with the others, it was disastrous when considering Kid Flash. Every time he tried to place the redhead in a pristinely packaged box, wrapped up in colorful paper, secured with a string, and tied off with a bow—the speedster had the indecency to rip up Superboy's perceptions about him to shreds. It was…irritating. And endlessly frustrating. KF was a conundrum. He never took the same path twice; he never said anything remotely logical. It made Superboy's carefully organized, clutter-free mind threaten to burst.
Kid Flash was a vibrating, disruptive twister leaving a flurry of mayhem and crumbs in his wake. A happy, loud intrusion upon Superboy's solitude. Not this moping, serious imposter in front of him. Superboy briefly entertained the idea that perhaps KF had been abducted by aliens and replaced by a fraud…just like that movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers they had watched Friday night. Nah, couldn't be. Technically he and M'gann were aliens, and they would never kidnap Wally. That made sense, right? Meh. Close enough.
Robin had once tried to explain that Kid Flash didn't just move fast; his mind was running an errant stream of consciousness—constantly. Hence, his inability to predict what might happen at any given moment where Kid was involved. It also meant several lines of thought were vying to be heard at once in the speedster's head, and maybe, it wasn't always the most appropriate thought. But Wally didn't have time to regret a word choice when insulting Artemis, or feel remorse that he probably shouldn't have asked Kaldur if he knew of any sponges that lived in pineapples. For KF to sit still like this, it indicated the probability of many troublesome thoughts circulating at once. Loud and crushing, all plaguing him to be heard and dealt with first.
The dark-haired teen clomped forward in his large black boots from the back entrance of the mountain closer to his teammate. Unceremoniously, Superboy sat down on the ledge beside KF breaking the tense silence. "Hey."
Kid Flash did not physically react. "Hi."
They sat without words or movement for a few moments. The clone shifted uneasily.
"Wanna talk about it?" Superboy offered gruffly.
"Not really, man," KF said with a snort.
"Okay."
More silence. Superboy did not like Kid Flash's Batman impression. Superboy didn't care much for the Bat. The Batman was a dark, moody dude. This heavy, oppressing shadow over the speedster was suffocating him. It didn't fit. The Kryptonian rolled his shoulders and dropped his head back in frustration. He was not good at this. The others made it seem so easy to communicate with one another.
"You sure?" Superboy tried again, awkwardly looking at the ground. While the genomorphs had taught him many things, social skills were sorely lacking from Cadmus' core curriculum.
"It's no big, Supey. Just some family junk," Kid vaguely replied, flicking an imaginary speck of dust from his shoulder.
The speedster released a heavy sigh. He didn't understand why Superboy was outside sitting next to him. He didn't understand why the clone was pressing him to talk—the guy wasn't exactly Mr. Chatterbox. Where were the rest of their teammates? He gazed sidelong at the other boy in contemplation.
Kid Flash and Superboy hadn't spent an inordinate amount of time together since the formation of the team. But they had bonded, in a way. The speedster had certainly taken it upon himself to give Superboy a 'proper' education. After a month of useless flirtation, Kid gave up on winning the sweet Martian's affection so he'd let Supey in on the reason Miss M's face turned red around him. He taught him about Robin's subtle nuances of sarcasm, so he wouldn't be the butt of a joke…too often. He told him how to rile up Artemis the fastest way possible to make sparring more interesting. He instructed him how to sidetrack Aqualad during a lengthy lecture.
Okay…so the Fastest Boy Alive had had an influence, good or bad he'd let others decide, on Superboy.
But the boy rarely said much, and on even rarer occasions, he would offer a subtle quirk of his lips in what might be called a smile. Kid Flash liked when Superboy smiled. It didn't always quite reach all the way up to his devastatingly blue eyes. That was okay though. And KF liked it best when he made him smile, even for a fleeting moment.
The clone was trying to help him for some reason, and he obviously meant well...in his own clumsy, awkward fashion. Kid Flash stretched out his legs from his hunched position. "I appreciate the offer, dude. I just gotta mull over it for a while."
With what he hoped was a noncommittal shrug, Superboy just stared out at the night sky. This wasn't going at all the way he planned. He felt his hands clench in annoyance. Why did this have to be so hard?
Kid Flash turned to him once more. "Why do you care so much?"
Superboy turned to him with blue eyes shining in surprise. He had thought it would be obvious.
"Because you promised me the moon," he said softly, gesturing with a nod to the white orb above. "And then you gave me something better."
The redhead stared in astonishment before breaking out into a silly grin. "Yeah, what's that?"
"Your trust. Your faith in me. Your friendship."
"All that, huh?"
"Yeah."
Superboy stood and outstretched his hand to Kid. That sweet, small smirk on the redhead's lips caused his chest to loosen up inexplicably in relief. Much better. Certainly an improvement from the vacant Bat-like expression.
"Thanks, Supey," Kid Flash murmured.
He gasped as Superboy pulled him up from the ground and drew him close in a tight hug against his chest, burying his face into the speedster's neck. Massive arms tightened around KF with a subtle squeeze. Slowly, he pulled his head up from its warm resting place and looked into stunned green eyes. Superboy leaned in and gently bumped their foreheads together and whispered, "Thank you, Wally."
A/N: Originally written for a prompt on the yj_anon_meme on Livejournal. It is a bit longer than the initial fill I wrote and has a few revisions. Prompt: "Why do you care so much?" "Because you promised me the moon. And then you gave me something better." SB/KF Gotta love the fluff and Supey's awkwardness!