Rating: T

Where else can I find this story? All five parts are on the first page of Part 5 of the original Young Justice Anon Meme on LiveJournal.

Hero

Masks, Part V

Chapter 15: At the First Sign of Danger

It's Jimmy who gives Conner the news the following Monday when Clark are in one of their meetings.

"Hey Supes, can you believe it?" Jimmy asks.

Can I believe how incredibly annoying you are? Conner wonders to himself, but to Jimmy he only asks a disinterested, "What?"

"You mean, you haven't heard? Weird. The Chief's ecstatic about it. He even threw an impromptu pizza party for the interns."

"Well, what is it?" Conner asks.

"This morning CK finally agreed to go be a war correspondent. The Chief's been after him to go cover the Middle East for ages, you know, since his coverage of the Darkseid stuff was really top notch, and 'cuz Clark's so great at that human interest stuff and has a much better self-preservation instinct than Lois does. The Chief says CK's bound to have a Pulitzer in the bag by year's end."

"I can't believe it."

"Yeah, I know. Neither can the Chief. He asked me to pinch him, you know, 'cuz he's been after CK to do this for ages, and CK always comes up with some reason or another why he can't."

"Wow."

"Right? Hey—would you go with him? Like, when does your assignment end? I'm thinking of asking the Chief to send me with him—I'd love to try and do war stuff, there's some real pathos there."

"I guess," but Conner's stopped paying attention to Jimmy. He goes to the conference room where Clark and Lois are and waits for the meeting to end. Clark's the last one out, which is lucky, since it lets Conner push him back into the conference room and close the door behind him.

"Hey Superboy, what's up?" Clark asks, confused.

"Jimmy Olsen just told me you're going to go be a war correspondent in the Middle East?"

Clark pushes his glasses up. "Look. I thought it was time for a career change. So that's what I'm doing. Perry's been after me to do it since forever and a day, and there's absolutely no reason for me to stay in Metropolis. There's literally nothing for me here."

"But Clark…" Conner begins to protest.

"No. I want to leave. So I'm leaving."

"It's because of Lois, isn't it? Because she told you to get that waitress's number…"

"No. It's because I called that woman up, and we went on a very nice date, and the whole time, I couldn't stop feeling guilty, because I couldn't get Lois out of my head. And you know, as long as I keep working with Lois, coming in every day into the office, I'm not going to be able to get her out of my head."

Conner shakes his head, because he can't believe it. "No! That's just so stupid."

"You're right, it is stupid, and you don't know the half of it Superboy, but that's the way it is. I know you're trying to help, but you're not helping. So, please, just, stop meddling with this. Stop trying to—

"But, no, I don't understand… Why won't you fight for her? I know you're not a coward. I know you love her. And I mean, if you're going to leave anyway, why not just try? March up to her and just take her in your arms, and show her that you're every bit as strong and confident as S—

"Didn't you hear?" Clark barks out a laugh. "Lois doesn't want to 'settle' for me, and you know what? I don't want her to settle for me either… I don't want her to hook up with dependable Clark because she can't have Superman. I don't want to be a consolation prize. And she doesn't even want me as a consolation prize! Bruce, him, she'll take as a consolation prize, but not dependable Clark! Not Clark the shy klutz who disappears at the first sign of—

"Danger…" Conner finishes the sentence for him, horrible realization dawning on his features. "She called you 'a shy klutz who disappears at the first sign of danger.' Those were her exact words… but you weren't there… there's no way you could have—unless…" Conner can't bear to finish the sentence, but the look on Clark's face tells him everything he needs to know.

"Oh fuck," he says looking utterly defeated. He takes his glasses off to rub his eyes, and then he looks Conner straight in the face. "Look, Conner, I swear I was going to tell you…"

But Conner's not really listening to what he's saying, because all he can do is look at the man's stunning blue eyes and wonder how he could have been so incredibly blind.

"Oh, wow," is all Conner can say at first. "You must think this whole thing is hilarious, huh?"

"Conner," Superman sighs, putting the Clark Kent costume back on.

"Actually, you probably just think it's all really annoying…"

"No, Conner…" Superman reaches out for him, but Conner pulls back.

"You know what?" Conner asks, shaking his head wildly, "I am really sorry I 'meddled' in your life. But I guess, that's what Luthor made me for, huh? So maybe it was inevitable. Don't worry—I'll stop. Lois deserves way better than you."

"Please, Conner… you need to let me explain," Superman pleads.

"No. I don't need to do anything and I don't need anything, at least not from you." That reminds him: Conner reaches into his pant pockets and pulls out his car keys. "I don't care how much M'gann likes this hunk of junk! You can keep it!" He hurtles the keys at Superman as fast as he can—Superman catches them and doesn't even stumble back under the momentum. "I hope you're very happy driving it in Afghanistan."

That's really all Conner can think to say, so he turns around, opens the door and marches out. He wants nothing in the world more than to run as fast as he can away from Superman, but he knows it'd be incredibly disruptive in a closed space like this, so he makes due with marching quickly while blinking back the bitter stinging at his eyes.

Superman follows of course, but Conner's moving too quickly for him to keep up if he's to pretend that he's the pathetic mortal Clark Kent.

After an eternity and a half, Conner's finally outside, but Superman is just a few steps behind him. Superman reaches out for Conner, and if Superman weren't lying, if he were wearing the goddam El-crest, there wouldn't be a damn thing he could do about it. But right now, it's broad day light and it looks like a mild mannered reporter is trying to restrain Superboy.

All it takes is one good tug, and Superman has no choice but to let go. Conner just needs to get away. Without even really knowing what he's doing, he pushes off, leaving Superman stranded on the ground below.

He hears Lois run out after them, "Jesus Clark, what the hell did you say to the kid?" she asks.

But Conner doesn't stay long enough to hear Superman lie through his teeth to Lois. He doesn't turn back to see the look on Lois's face. In fact, he doesn't turn back at all. He doesn't even fall.

To be continued...

Original Author's Notes:

So, this is a weird little chapter. I always meant for Conner to have a really bad reaction upon learning that Clark was Superman. I always meant for him to run off and leave Clark in the dust, unable to fly up after him because he was dressed as Clark Kent. What's gone through a bunch of revisions was how and why he found out. Before the Smallville detour, the idea I had had in my head was for Superboy to spend a lot of time and energy trying to get Lois to think that Superman was lame, and that this would upset Clark enough (for a variety of reasons) to get Clark to blurt out something really hurtful, along the lines of, "The last thing I need in my life right now is for some science fair project gone wrong to interfere with my love life." For obvious reasons, that was probably always a bad call, but it became really obvious to me after Smallville, and especially after that visit to Luthor that no matter how frustrated Clark could get with his stupidly complicated love triangle with himself, he wasn't going to be cruel to Superboy that way.

So, basically, I freaked out, because I didn't have a climax anymore.

Then, I came upon such a stupidly simple solution, I wasn't sure why I hadn't thought of it before, why it was Plan B rather than Plan A. Clark would just eventually get to the point where he'd really like Conner, and he'd tell him. Maybe he'd even be encouraged by seeing how well Lois reacted to finding out Bruce was Batman. And then Conner would freak out and run away.

But then, this is what I wrote instead, and it's all Lois's fault. Clark was going to tell Conner (and if he had, Conner still probably would have freaked out and run away), but he got sidetracked with the Lois stuff. So, oddly, I ended up going with something closer to my original idea, and I hope replacing cruelty with despair and carelessness works.

I wrote the "Conner finds out Clark is Superman" dialogue first, and then I went and powered through the intro stuff... I didn't really want to write all that stuff, so I hope it isn't total crap. As I said, I powered through it.

Mostly, what's left is denouement, though I do have a couple of cards left to play.

New Author's Notes: I've just posted a bunch of chapters. I'm going to take a break now, because, well, a climax just happened, and it seems like an opportune moment to leave you hanging. Also, I have exams to study for.

If you want to cheer me up, a review would be nice. :)