Kon gritted his teeth and turned over in his bed. His senses were becoming more and more heightened every day, and the soft skritch skritch at his door every night was seeming louder and louder.
He pulled the pillow over his head and clamped it tightly against his ears. He knew Bart was barely touching the door. Sometimes he didn't even do that, sometimes the shuffling of his feet on the carpet was what made Kon realize he was there. It still sounded like a dog scratching against a screen door. Sometimes, when his X-ray vision kicked in and he could see Bart standing outside, making that face, he could almost hear soft puppy whimpers.
How annoying.
Kon gritted his teeth and repeated that to himself over and over again. Bart was just annoying. He always had been an annoying little kid who got underfoot and screwed stuff up. Once he'd read all those books it had gotten even worse, with him reciting facts about all these things you'd never given the slightest hint you wanted to know about. And now he was following Kon around like a lost pet, and bugging him and Cassie about where they'd gone and what they'd done, and what did it matter to Bart what Kon did and with who, anyway? So what if he's told Bart they'd see a movie and took Cassie instead? So what if he no longer wanted to waste his time playing mind-numbing video game for hours on end? Plans change, people change. Bart needed to just get over it.
Especially since the quicker Bart gets over it, the quicker Kon can get over it. He couldn't even have a normal conversation with Bart these days, because when he'd try, Bart would look so happy, like he'd just walked into a candy shop. Then, a moment later, without warning, he looked like he was about to cry. And Kon couldn't take that. He couldn't. It was like someone had shot him in the chest. With a kryptonite bullet. Coated with lemon juice, just for good measure. He liked Bart. He didn't want to see Bart hurt, and the fact he was responsible for that pain just made it worse. He wanted to talk to Bart. Wanted to stay up late with him to catch reruns of "Wendy the Werewolf Stalker" and play Trivia Pursuit and... and feed him and hold him and hug him.
Kon groaned. That was why he couldn't even talk to Bart. Kon liked Bart. Wanted to take care of him for the rest of their lives and goof off and have fun and... He couldn't do that. Even if Bart felt the same way, which Kon doubted, Kon had a purpose, he had a goal. He had family to think about, he had Superman to deal with. He just...couldn't be Superman and be dating a boy.
No one would have a problem with it - no one would say anything about it, but it would matter to them. Kon knew he would be supported, but he also knew he would be treated differently. Aunt Martha had always talked about him meeting a nice girl and getting married. He'd brought Cassie over once - just as a friend - and after she'd left, Aunt Martha had acted as though they were engaged. When he'd brought Bart over, it was different. Not a hint that this could be the person Kon needed to settle down with. If Kon brought Bart home and said they were going to go to Canada and get married, the Kents wouldn't protest, but...it wouldn't be what they'd wanted for him. He wanted to make them proud of him. And Cassie's perfect. They got along okay, well, for the most part. She got bonus points for not being psycho or evil, unlike some of his other choices. And she was hot. Seriously hot. She was polite and well-mannered, and feminine, but not in a way that implied she couldn't handle herself in a fight.
Bart... Bart was spastic, spacey, and a bit self-centered.
He was also male. Kon couldn't do it. Cassie was the person he was supposed to like, and supposed to date. And maybe, maybe, if Bart hadn't been there, he would have ended up wanting to date her anyway. So he'll date her, and she'll be happy, and the Kents will be happy, and everyone will be happy. Bart will find a new friend, and he'll be happy. Eventually, Kon will be happy, too, because he'd done what he should do. The pain he was feeling now would subside, he just knew it.