Chapter 10 - Homefront
When Conner got home, carried by his father – he was so tired that Clark took one look at him and decided it would be better to just fly them over to the apartment – Claire was sitting on the sofa, watching some comedy that wasn't really getting her full attention. As soon as they got into the living room through the window, she was up – and fussing over him, of course.
"Conner! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just really tired."
"Didn't know you could get tired." She frowned.
"Neither did I, but I guess I can…" he shrugged.
"What are you doing up, Claire?" Clark asked, a lifted eyebrow showing his disapproval at her being awake at two in the morning with a school day the next day.
"I couldn't sleep! When you said you were going to pick Conner from his mission I got worried. So I figured it would be best to wait up."
"What about school tomorrow?"
"Oh come on, dad. Conner has school tomorrow, too; and besides, it's not like I need that much sleep anyway."
Clark frowned but let the subject go, urging both of them to their beds, since there would be school the next day, and both of them needed to go – even though Conner asked for a pass on that, he didn't get one, since it was only the beginning of the school year and he had a lot of new things to get accustomed to.
So, after the usual goodnight to his father and sister, he took a long and hot – and very needed shower – and fell on his bed, feeling like it was the best bed ever, and fell asleep right after his head hit the pillow.
~.~
The next day, he thanked whoever made kryptonians more durable on Earth for his fast recovery. Despite having barely four hours of sleep, Conner woke rested, and a lot better than he had been. He took a shirt from his closet and some clean jeans, dressed up and picked his school things, going to the kitchen where the smell of coffee was already getting into every pore in the room.
"Morning, bro." Claire said happily after seeing him.
"Morning, sis." He smiled.
"Sleep well?"
"Yeah. Thank god kryptonians don't need much sleep to recover."
She laughed. "Yeah, I like that part, too."
He helped her put the plates on the table and noticed that he couldn't hear their father at the apartment.
"Where's dad?"
"There was an emergency in Tunisia right before we woke up. He left a note in the fridge."
"Superman really doesn't take any breaks, huh?"
She shrugged, turning off the oven and putting the pancakes in a plate.
"He can't. He's the only one who can do what he does. There's a lot of heroes out there, but none with his power or stamina, you might say." She smiled. "It's a lot of work, but I suspect dad loves it. He loves helping people. It's why he became a hero in the first place."
Conner smiled back.
"Yeah, it suits him."
"It definitely does."
They started to eat, first in silence, and then Conner thought maybe it would be better tell his family he was dating with M'gann one by one. He was certain Claire would make a million questions and get all freaked out about it, and he really had no idea about his father's reaction, but he suspected he didn't want to tell them both at the same time.
Also, he had a feeling that as soon as they were in the same room, the Team would know (maybe not Wally), and he knew Claire and Robin were friends. Robin would totally tell her and she would be mad he didn't told her first.
He cleared his throat.
"Claire?"
"Hm?"
"Something happened on the mission that I need to tell you."
She stopped eating.
"It's not a bad thing…" he started. "But… I feel I should tell you first."
"Okay…"
"Remember when you made dad have the 'girl talk' with me? Because you said that I liked M'gann?"
"You like her." She corrected him. "But yeah, I remember."
"Well… You weren't wrong…"
She just looked at him.
He sighed and decided to tell the story from the beginning.
"In Belle Reve the prisoners have counseling sessions with a therapist. We were just pretending of course, but some things were said. And then, after, I was talking with Icicle Jr. who had a thing for M'gann – who he thought was actually Tuppence Terror – and then… I don't know how to say it, but it just… I just felt something click, I guess? And… After everything, I… M'gann and I, I mean… We… Ah… We kissed."
He supposed it could be worse. He had started well, and then gone horribly like a stuttering mess.
Claire blinked.
"You and M'gann?"
"Yeah. And… I think we're kind of together now. We didn't really talked about it, but…"
"Oh my god!" she squealed.
And there it was.
She got up and went to hug him. "I'm so happy for you!"
"Thanks…"
"That's so cute! In the middle of a mission! And no one saw?"
"Actually Icicle Jr. was there…" he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "But right after that was when we made ourselves known and the League came to take us out."
"I see. Anyway, that's so cute!" she squealed again. "You have to tell me the details when you two talk!"
"I will, I promise."
"Okay, okay." She was practically sparkling with emotion. "Now help me with the kitchen and let's go or we're gonna be late."
He ate the last of his bananas and did exactly that, while Claire looked at him and squealed in delight one more time.
~.~
They got into class right before the second bell, and then the teacher. The classes that day were surprisingly not boring for Conner, which made him think that maybe school wasn't going to be a total waste of time, after all.
At lunch, sitting beside Claire with her friends – Kyle, Marie, David and Lena – all around the table, one of them finally asked the question they have been preparing themselves to answer ever since it was decided that Conner was going to school.
"So, Conner… if you and Claire are twins… how come we never heard about you before?" Asked David, who were the friend that Conner disliked the most so far. He honestly didn't know why Claire was friends with him.
"David! That was rude!" Said Lena, sitting beside him, but you could see the sparkle of curiosity on her eyes.
"Come on, you're all wondering the same thing."
"But I bet none of them would have asked that in a way so brutally rude, Dave." Claire said, and then sighed. "You never heard of him, because I didn't knew he existed until last July."
Which was true.
"How is this possible?" Lena whispered, but the whole table could hear.
"When our mother had us, she kind of hid us from dad for a while. She couldn't raise twins, so she gave me to dad, and stayed with Conner." Claire said easily. "I was a week old, I guess, when dad heard about having a kid and picked me up in the hospital. My mother told him she didn't want me."
A lie, but believable.
"She told him I was premature because of a tea she took to abort. A lie, but dad bought it at the time." She shrugged, putting enough masked hurt in the movement to not warrant any further questions about it. She was a genius at this. "She took Conner and raised him separately from me, and without dad knowing about him, until she died in a car accident in June."
"That's when Social Services found a will my mother left," Conner filled in with his part of the story, playing the part of the boy who just recently lost his mother. "amongst other things, there was the name of my father and where he used to live. The social worker contacted him and he went there to meet me. And then he took me to live with him and Claire without a second glance."
"You didn't have any other family?" asked Marie.
"No. My mom's family never wanted anything to do with me because I was born out of marriage. They were a very traditional family. They signed me off when mom died and gave me to adoption. If it wasn't for the will saying who my father was, I would be at an orphanage now."
"Thank god at least that your mother had the decency of doing." Claire said, cutting her salad with a little more force than needed.
"Isn't she your mother, too, Claire?" Kyle asked, although it looked like he knew the answer to that.
"No, she's not."
And that was the end of the subject. Soon, Kyle himself changed the talk to football and the game the school was going to have against a rival school soon, which prompted the boys in the table – except for Conner who wasn't a fan – to talk about it.
Conner was honestly waiting for the school day to end. He couldn't wait to see – and kiss – M'gann again.
~.~
He went to the Cave almost straight after he got home from school. He helped Claire with a few chores at home, and then made his homework. One hour later, he was ready, so he bid her goodbye, ignored her giggles and knowing look and got out of the apartment, walking the few streets until the hidden and old telephone booth that was a disguised zeta-tube.
He set in the destination and tried to ignore the pounding of his heart and the prospect of seeing M'gann in the next seconds… It didn't work, but at least he tried.
Recognized: Superboy, B, zero-four.
The world became a blur and his stomach made a lot of unpleasant flips, and then everything ended. Zeta-trips weren't very good, but at least they ended quickly. He opened his eyes to see himself at the atrium of the cave, that was empty. Well, almost. Sphere came rolling to greet him, and he pat him lightly in return.
"Where's everyone, Sphere?"
He walked around, and found Kaldur and M'gann in the kitchen. Kaldur was reading something in Atlantian, and M'gann was – not surprisingly – cooking. It didn't smell very good, but he'd rather not tell her right now. She was still learning.
"Hey." He greeted them.
"Hello Conner."
"Conner!" M'gann blushed furiously seeing him, which only told him that she was as nervous as he was with their impending 'confrontation' after their kiss.
"What you're doing?"
"I'm merely trying to keep my studies." Said Kaldur. "Otherwise I will be behind my colleagues in Atlantis."
"I'm trying to make a cheesecake. I don't think it's working."
"Keep trying." He encouraged her.
She smiled and turned back to the oven. He sat there beside Kaldur and helped occasionally, until the recipe could no longer be saved, and then he went to comfort her. Kaldur excused himself to meditate in the pool, and then they had the space for themselves.
Which became weird, because none of them said anything.
And then it wasn't weird anymore, because they were kissing again.
It seemed that Conner knew how to say things better by kissing M'gann than trying to talk with her. She relaxed in his arms and when they separated, she smiled.
"Does that mean we're dating?" she asked. "We're boyfriend and girlfriend? I'm new at this."
He laughed.
"I'm new at this too. But, yeah… I think we're dating."
She smiled and went to kiss him again.
It was only luck that made them hear the "Recognized: Kid Flash, B- zero-three" and separate before Wally caught them at each other – which would have been embarrassing. They weren't ready for that yet, and they both knew it.
The rest of the day they spent between their friends, training and talking. Nothing much happened, until later. When out of nowhere, two red robots appeared by the docks of the cave, pouring fire and bouts of unforgiving water, and demanding they surrender themselves – all of them. Except Robin and Artemis weren't there. And they couldn't surrender. They didn't even know who these robots were, who they were working for.
After a fight that trashed the main dock, M'gann and Kaldur were trapped in a fire cage, making Conner's heart twist with worry. M'gann couldn't take the fire for long. He and Wally managed to evade for a while longer, but then were also trapped in something hard made of the water, and nothing – not Wally's speed, not Conner's fists – could take them out.
They weren't dead because the robots were waiting for their friends. He didn't know how to contact the League. Sphere was out somewhere, being knocked down too. No one knew what was happening.
And then, after what it looked like an eternity, he heard:
Recognized: Robin, B-zero-one. Artemis, B-zero-six.
He didn't know if he should be relieved or scared. His friends had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
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