Slight-Romance(if you squint reallyreallyreally hard)/Angst/Hurt/Comfort
Conner/Tim
Rated K+ or T (depending on your ability to handle the word blood...there isn't much...like a drop)
Best of You
It's real, the pain you feel
You trust, you must
Confess
Is someone getting the best
The best, the best, the best of you?
- Foo Fighters, Best of You
When they worry -
- it's because Conner is mostly indestructible. He's the clone of Superman. Faster than a speeding bullet -
It's a bird.
It's a plane.
It's Superman!
- and he can take a punch from some of the strongest super-villains out there and still get up and give it his all. No one has ever really had to worry about Conner. He could handle his own.
It's always the one they don't have to worry about, isn't it?
It's because Lex Luthor has apparently manufactured everything that could possibly harm a Kryptonian. Because he apparently sends out these weapons in a goddamn gift basket, because there is apparently a goddamn kryptonite knife sticking out of Superboy's goddamn stomach and, oh god, Tim doesn't think he's ever really seen Conner bleed and the red substance (somewhere in the back of his mind, and he'll laugh about it later, he had doubted it was red) is suddenly coming out of the wound and his mouth.
It's worrisome (terrifying, horrible, nauseating) to watch Conner curl around the wound, gasping and shaking and grabbing whatever he could around him. And despite the fact that the green rock weakened Conner, Tim still felt as if his hand was going to break.
It's because Tim has never seen Superman so scared, so willing to step towards his greatest weakness for the sake of the clone who he refused to acknowledge in the beginning. How Nightwing is obviously the one to take control of the situation, apologizing with a strained voice before pulling out the knife, Conner grunting, biting his tongue and Tim knows that he'll have three fractured fingers as soon as Nightwing races away.
It's because it's Conner who had reached his other hand across his body, grabbing the spandex of Robin's uniform, releasing the pressure from the younger boys hand, gently rubbing a thumb across the back and -
Are you okay?
- is the first thing out of Conner's mouth and Tim almost smacks him because, you just got stabbed, and it broke skin, SB.
It's because even though Tim sees his wound closing up and he spits the last of the blood out of his mouth and Superman helps his almost-son up, he stares over at Dick who is talking just out of range of the two ignorant Kryptonians and probably in code to Bruce, twirling the offending object in his hands, staring intently at the still dripping blood.
Tim can't help but grab the pant leg of Conner, still kneeling on the dirt, and rub his hand across Conner's abdomen, oblivious to the shudder that runs through the other boy.
When they worry.
I'm full of happy angst, aren't I?
Eva