Happy Super Bowl, Valentine's Day and for Americans, President's Day! Yeah... I'm very behind on this. And only one more chapter after this! :(
Hope y'all like this very late Christmas story
~Lil'H
"Christmas! Everyone get up!"
Conner groaned as the sound of Wally's voice echoed throughout the cave. He had been having such a nice, dreamless sleep, which was hard to come by when you lived on call with a bunch of pranksters. He turned onto his stomach and grabbed his pillow, holding it down over his head in an attempt to block out the ruccus happening. Luck wasn't on his side, for in a matter of seconds his door hissed open and someone tore the warm pillow from his grasp.
"Wally, all I want for Christmas is to sleep in peace," Conner groaned, shielding his eyes with his hands from the bright light filtering in from the hallway.
"Wouldn't we all like that," Robin said with a smirk as he leaned in the half-Kryptonian's face. Superboy looked at him a bit sheepishly.
"However, we are not Wally," Kaldur added from beside him, an amazing display of emotion showing with the chuckle he gave. Conner sighed, defeatedly pulling the sheets off of himself and swinging his legs over the side of his bed.
"Um... Conner?" Robin asked through badly smothered snickers as the boy started to make his way out of the door. He tried to make his face straight as Conner looked at him. "You might want some pants on."
Conner looked down, realizing that he was wearing only his boxer, which happened to be clad with Superman's S shield. He shut his eyes, hoping it was a dream. When that failed to happen, he swore under his breath, stalking over to a pile of disorganized clothes that occupied one corner of his simple room. Pulling out a pair of black sweatpants, he hastily stepped into them before walking out of his room. He didn't really notice the absence of a shirt on himself, nor did he care.
Superboy stopped walking as he entered the main part of the Cave, silently marveling at the 15 foot(ish) tall tree. The girls had decorated it earlier this week, glimmering silver and gold tinsel draped over the branches while strings of popcorn and dried cranberries (at least that's what he assumed they were) wrapped around the conifer. There weren't any lights or candles on the tree- something about Dinah saying they were "fire hazards"- so instead, Zatanna had used her powers to envelop the tree in a shimmery golden light. (Wally said it was cheating.) He knew they had put a star on there at first, but someone apparently thought it would be hilarious to switch it out with a (hopefully) fake bat. Robin and his sense of humor.
"Merry Christmas, Conner!" he heard his girlfriend's voice cheer as she launched at him, enveloping him in a hug. He returned it after regaining the breath she had knocked out of him unknowingly.
"Merry Christmas to you too, M'gann," he replied, glaring at Wally over M'gann's shoulder, who had run into the room and was now making kissy-faces behind her back.
He was distracted as she smiled widely, pulling him over to sit beside her next to the tree, where a good number presents were piled into nine stacks. Each pile was wrapped with a different hero's emblem on the wrapping paper, making it easy for once to tell which were for who. Conner smirked a bit, knowing that Wally and Robin would have probably got into a fight over presents otherwise. They might still, but at least the rest of them would be able to know who was lying. Unless, of course, Robin had pulled one of his little tricks.
Artemis' voice snapped him out of his thoughts as she took a seat next to Wally. He was amazed, the kid who was constantly moving had actually stopped. Artemis had managed to train him. "Everybody ready to start?" the rest of the group nodded eagerly, even Roy (who Conner hadn't seen come in at all.)
Wally and Robin didn't even wait for Artemis' word before they dove into their presents. Conner almost felt like he was watching on of those silly kid cartoons, with the paper and bows flying everywhere. He sighed, watching the two along with the rest of the team. None of them dared to open theirs yet; getting too close to the hyper boys could prove to be bad for their physical health.
"Yes!" Wally shouted as he held a shiny new PlayStation above his head, running over to give M'gann a hug and Artemis a kiss. "You two are the best!" His expression fell a bit as he realized something that Connor didn't understand, but the girls obviously did, as he saw them share a grin. "There's no controllers or games."
"That's because I've got them!" Robin yelled, backflipping to land in front of Raquel and Zatanna, pulling them both into a hug.
Zatanna raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you forgetting something?" She laughed as Robin pecked her on the cheek before bounding over to the Zeta Tube with Wally in his wake, going off to wherever Robin and Wally went to do whatever Robin and Wally do.
Raquel laughed, gesturing to the tree. "Now that we've got them out of the way..."
They didn't need to be told twice.
Well, Connor did.
He hung back uncertainly as his friends rushed forward, thankfully not as crazily as the two boys who had just left. Roy looked over his shoulder and tipped his sunglasses down so he could stare at Superboy. He beckoned Conner with a jerk of his neck before pointing at M'gann, who was steadily opening the present that Conner had given her. The Kryptonian nodded in silent thanks as he walked over to stand behind the Martian, catching sight of Roy's responding shrug. Conner slid his arms around M'gann's waist just as she held up a small, thin black box. She took off the lid with a gasp, the light from the Christmas tree reflecting onto the emerald-looking gem that hung on a silver chain.
"Oh Conner, it's gorgeous!" she gushed, staring at it with joy. "Is it an emerald?"
Conner smiled, a bit proud of his gift. "No. You know how Luthor made that Synthetic Kryptonite?" He waited for her to nod. "Well, turns out that it's effect wears off after a few months. This is a bit of it." M'gann turned around to face him, happy tears brimming in her eyes as she kissed him.
That was the best present Conner could have asked for.
