A/N: I own nothing you recognize.
So I thought the comic with the Team camping trip was really cute, but the general Team response to Superboy's confession bugged me, so basically Lark is responding as me.
Update (May 2023): so I changed Fireworks a little! It's not super major, and it doesn't change the trajectory of the story, but I think it gives a little more insight to the changes Lark is experiencing, and also I realized it didn't make sense that she would be electrocuted if Desmond wasn't originally planning on taking her DNA. Anyway, it's not necessary to reread, but if you are interested in seeing the new scene, it's the scene where Desmond is collecting their DNA.
(Also sorry, this will be going in the A/N for the chapters I have posted, just in case someone is in the middle of reading the posted chapters *sheepish smile*)
3.1 - What's the Story/Fears
Location: Mount Justice, Happy Harbor
Date: Sunday, July 18, 2010
Time: 2123 EDT
"Speedy was wrong," Wally grinned to Robin, Lark, and Kaldur as they walked down the hall that led to the kitchen and living room.
"This team thing," Robin continued.
"Might just work out," Kaldur finished with his own small smile.
"Which means: Team bonding time!" Lark declared. "Movie night?"
"Ooh, I'll get The List!" Robin exclaimed.
"And I'll start the microwave popcorn!" Wally chimed in. Both took off for the Cave's kitchen.
"List?" Kaldur asked once it was just him and Lark.
"Yeah," she nodded. "Rob and I started a list of the top movies we think Superboy should watch. Although..." She paused and tilted her head slightly as she stared at him, clearly deep in thought. Kaldur shifted a little under her intense, sunglassed gaze, but she looked away just as quickly as she had turned to him and finished, "you and M'gann might actually not know some of these movies, too."
"Movies?" M'gann asked, and Lark turned to see her and Superboy approach them. "Are we having a movie night?"
Lark nodded and smiled as M'gann grew visibly excited at the prospect.
"Ooh, with popcorn and sodas and chips and other snacks?" she asked with a wide grin.
"Knowing Wally, most definitely," Lark laughed. "Come on, before he eats himself into a coma."
"I didn't know that was possible," Superboy muttered and Lark snickered. He glanced her way and a flicker of a smile crossed his lips.
They arrived in the kitchen to see Wally a blur as he prepared bowls of various snacks, stacking boxes and bags of different candies and sweets, and in the microwave, the sound of popping corn could be heard.
Robin headed to the attached lounge area, perching on the back of the sofa while he consulted the holographic list he and Lark had compiled and added to over the previous ten days.
"We have plenty to choose from!" he said brightly, turning around to face the rest of the Team. "Superboy, any preferences?"
The black-haired teen shrugged as he sat on the large couch, and Robin scowled lightly at him as he had to hop out of the way.
"Anyone else?" Robin asked, glancing around at the rest of the Team.
"Ooh, how about a happy one? Like a musical!" M'gann requested as she floated the bowls and snacks to the large table in the middle of the sofas and chairs.
"No," Superboy said bluntly. "No singing."
"What's wrong with a little song and dance?" Lark questioned as she took a couple bowls of popcorn into the living room. She placed them on the round table in the center before dropping gracefully into the plush armchair beside Robin's.
"There's dancing, too?" Superboy asked dryly and Lark laughed.
"It's kinda a staple," she grinned.
"How about action?" Wally suggested as he zipped in from the kitchen and sprawled out on the loveseat across from Lark. "Action movies can have happy endings."
"Okay, what are you requesting?" Robin asked, turning to his best friend.
"How about...Fast and Furious!"
"No!" Lark said immediately while Robin groaned.
"Dude, you suggest those movies every time we get together!" Robin exclaimed.
"Not my fault they have my favorite speed in their title!"
"That doesn't even make sense," Lark said, clearly exasperated.
"Can we just start one?" Superboy called over the noise.
"Yes, yes," Lark nodded. "Someone call out a random number."
"Sixteen!" M'gann said.
From there, Robin pulled up the movie listed at number sixteen and after dimming the lights, started it up.
Everyone settled in for the impromptu movie night. M'gann sat hesitantly on the same sofa as Superboy while Kaldur took the remaining open seat, the comfiest armchair angled between the loveseat and large sofa.
After the first movie was finished, they agreed on another, and then another after that. Over the course of the evening, blankets and extra pillows were procured and shared among the teens, and eventually, everyone drifted to sleep in their seats.
Kaldur woke briefly in the middle of the night, and across the way he spotted Lark sleeping like a cat in her chair. He chuckled a little when he noticed both she and Robin had swapped their sunglasses for their masks, most likely to provide a more comfortable sleeping position while still protecting their identities.
As he settled into his own chair again, he wondered briefly if he would ever be privy to the identities of Batman and his protégés before his thoughts returned to Atlantis, or more specifically, one person in Atlantis.
Location: Wayne Manor, Gotham City
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Time: 2134 EDT
Bee-beep! Bee-beep!
Naomi exchanged a curious glance with Dick as she raised her hand to accept the call from the Team comm-unit.
"Wally has invited us camping!" M'gann said brightly.
Dick snickered, causing Naomi to roll her eyes at him. "Wally did, huh?" she said to M'gann.
"Yes!" the Martian said, oblivious to the obvious joy Dick was getting out of that little fact. "Are you interested?"
"Are you kidding?" Dick spoke up. "Of course! We'll head right over!"
"Great!" M'gann cheered. "See you in a few minutes!"
Naomi chuckled once she hung up with M'gann, while Dick's snickers grew into full-on cackles. "This is too good!" he gasped through his mirth.
"This is a little mean," Naomi corrected as Dick shut down Mario Kart and then jumped to his feet.
"I can't wait to see the look on his face!" he continued, skipping up to his room, Naomi following behind him.
Figuring she wouldn't be able to talk Dick into playing nice, Naomi just sighed and walked into her room, where she exchanged her summer dress for her standard Lark civilian-wear: dark jeans, a solid dark colored tank top, and her black leather jacket. She hooked her sunglasses into the collar of her shirt while she stumbled into the hall, still pulling on her boots.
As soon as Dick saw her, he took off for the Batcave. "Wait up!" she called after him, breaking into a sprint once her boots were on. She caught up as Dick reached the Batcave entrance in the game room: an old-school Pac-Man game pushed up against the wall.
Dick placed his hand flat against the side of the machine, which lit up under his palm. "Authorization recognized," the voice said as the game slid to reveal a circular elevator. He and Naomi stepped on and the metal gate slid in front of the entrance as they began to lower.
Dick bounced on his toes in anticipation, while Naomi ran her fingers through her hair to adjust the part.
When they reached Mount Justice, M'gann was eagerly waiting for them in the mission room with Superboy and Kaldur.
"Yay, we're all here!" M'gann said happily before flying down the hall. They finally caught up with her in the kitchen, just as Wally sped in, his arms full of camping necessities.
"—just the two of us?" he finished as he skidded to a stop, his face falling when he saw the others.
Robin smirked. "We're going to need a lot more stuff than that if we're gonna go camping!" he said.
"I hope you don't mind," M'gann said to Wally. "I invited all the others to join in the fun with the s'mores!"
"Oh...of course," Wally said, doing his best to not look too disappointed.
"Why don't we take this and you can meet us outside?" Robin suggested, reaching forward to take some of the supplies from Wally's hands.
"Right..."
"I'll help you, Wall," Lark offered. As she stepped forward, she jabbed her elbow in Robin's ribs.
"Ow," he muttered, sending her a glare, which she responded to with a raised eyebrow and a mouthed, Be nice!
When Lark and Wally found the others, a fire had been started, the tents had been set up, and M'gann and Kaldur were sitting on lawn chairs while Robin and Superboy sat on logs around the fire.
"Ah, finally!" Robin grinned, jumping to his feet to get some of the supplies from the speedster and his sister. "Hey, Supes, catch!" He tossed the clone the bag of marshmallows as Wally and Lark began passing out sticks for roasting.
"What do we do with this?" Kaldur asked as Lark handed him a skewer.
"You put a marshmallow on the end and then stick it in the fire," Lark explained. "You can roast it as long as you like."
Kaldur continued to give her a questioning look and she chuckled. "Here, I'll show you," she offered. "Rob, toss me the bag, will ya?"
Without looking back, Robin threw the bag of marshmallows over his shoulder and Lark easily caught it one-handed. She grabbed one of the giant fluffy blobs of sugar and stuck it on the pointy end of the skewer and held out the bag for Kaldur, who followed her lead.
"Now, come on," she said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him after her as she headed for the campfire.
He hesitated as they got close, and Lark glanced back. "You don't have to get too close," she assured, remembering that Atlantean physiology was susceptible to heat. Kaldur nodded slowly and then stopped short of the fire's warm glow.
Lark continued forward a few steps and sat on the grass. "Now you just stick the marshmallow in the flames," she said, glancing over her shoulder at Kaldur. "You can roast it lightly, like Wally does."
"Hey, it's not my fault the fire's too slow!" Wally exclaimed, his mouth already stuffed with a s'more and three more marshmallows ready to go on his roasting stick.
"Or, you can like it completely charred, like a barbarian," Lark said, raising an eyebrow in Robin's direction, who was just pulling his blackened, smoldering marshmallow from the fire.
"How do you like your marshmallows?" Kaldur asked curiously.
"Somewhere in the middle," she shrugged as she methodically turned her marshmallow. After a few minutes, once her marshmallow had reached the desired doneness, she pulled it out of the flames and held it up for Kaldur to see.
"Now for the fun part," Lark grinned, reaching for the graham crackers and chocolate. "I love dark chocolate, so that's my chocolate of choice for s'mores," she explained. "But you can also get creative! You can use Reese's peanut butter cups, or Andes mint chocolates, or really, whatever chocolate you like."
She proceeded to place a large square of dark chocolate on one graham cracker, then placed the hot marshmallow on top, before finishing it off with the last graham cracker.
"And you're done!" She held up her s'more with a grin before taking a large bite.
"L, stop hogging the chocolate!" Robin whined, and Lark rolled her eyes and threw the bag at his face. Of course, he caught it before it could hit his nose, but he still stuck his tongue out at her.
"Anyway," she said, turning back to Kaldur, "wanna try?"
The Atlantean nodded and held out his marshmallow. His distance from the flames, though, prevented him from reaching the fire. Lark chuckled and grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward enough so that the marshmallow actually reached the blaze.
Kaldur let out a little exclamation of surprise as he was yanked closer to her back. His right arm was now over her right shoulder as she continued to hold his wrist, and his chest was hovering over her back. She didn't seemed fazed or at all aware of Kaldur's predicament, but the Atlantean gulped nervously at the sudden proximity.
Wally and Robin caught the uncertain look in Kaldur's pale green eyes and the relaxed expression on Lark's face. Wally snickered at Robin's scowl, because as great as Kaldur had proven himself so far, Lark was still his sister, and he would take issue with anyone showing interest in her.
Kaldur sighed in relief when his marshmallow finally showed signs of browning. He waited a few more moments before jerking back abruptly, causing Lark to glance over her shoulder questioningly at him.
"Um, I think it's done," he said. "Thank you for showing me."
"Of course," she smiled. "Who knows? Maybe you could show s'mores to a special someone back in Atlantis."
"Yes," Kaldur nodded, a soft smile crossing his lips as he began thinking about Tula.
He rejoined M'gann in a lawn chair a safe distance from the fire as Lark settled on the ground, her back against the log on which Superboy sat.
"This was a great idea, don't you think Wally?" Robin asked from across the fire from Lark as he roasted another marshmallow. "Camping in the great outdoors!"
"I don't remember inviting you," Wally grumbled around a mouthful of s'mores. "Besides, I didn't say anything about camping. I said a campfire. Big difference between just a campfire and the whole camping thing. I don't like camping...outside..." He glanced over his shoulder at M'gann. "Unless, of course, I'm camping with that special someone."
"Dude, kinda bordering on creepy," Robin muttered to Wally.
"Well, I think all of us camping is a wonderful idea!" M'gann said brightly, her eyes wide as she held a marshmallow in one hand and a stick with a s'more on the end in the other.
"She doesn't seem to think so," the speedster smirked back at Robin.
"She's probably on a sugar overload," Robin shrugged off and Lark gave a bemused, if slightly worried, smile as M'gann shoved another s'more in her mouth before levitating another stick full of marshmallows to the flames.
"Thanks to Wally, I get to try s'mores for the first time!" M'gann said, her mouth still full of the sweet treat.
"What can I say?" Wally said with a grin. "I'm a sweetie! Ha! Get it? 'Cause s'mores are sweet?"
"Wally, even the campfire got that," Lark deadpanned, biting into a square of dark chocolate.
"So, this is what you do when you go camping?" Superboy asked from behind Lark. "Sleep in these flimsy things called 'tents' and sit around the fire?"
"Yeah, that's pretty much about it so if you feel like heading home, I can sit out here with Miss M...alone," Wally tried.
Robin snickered. "You're about as subtle as a train wreck, you know that?"
"You're not going to catch any fish unless you go fishing, dude," the redhead retorted. Lark glanced up at Kaldur, who looked uncomfortable at the metaphor. She cleared her throat and Wally winced. "Sorry," he said. "No offense."
It didn't seem to make Kaldur feel any better, but Robin cut in and said, "No, usually you sit around the campfire and tell stories."
"Oh!" M'gann said, turning to the Atlantean. "I would love to hear your story, Kaldur! Could you tell us how you became Aqualad?"
"I was thinking more of a ghost story type of thing, but I guess...whatever," Robin shrugged. Lark silently thanked whatever higher being there might be that they skipped the scary stories. Dick, Wally, and Roy teased her all the time about being scared of ghost stories and scary movies when she fought some of the most gruesome creatures as Lark, but something about it being in her imagination made spooky stories so much worse.
"Oh," Kaldur said, sounding a little surprised. "I suppose I could do that if you do not think it will be too boring."
"Not at all!" M'gann assured. "I would love to hear it!"
Kaldur cleared his throat and began: how he started his mandatory military service at age twelve, the transfer to the Conservatory of Sorcery in the capital of Poseidonis, the two years he spent there before an attack on Poseidonis which nearly saw the end of Aquaman, the intervention of Kaldur and his friend and fellow student Garth to aid their king with no thought to their own safety, how they were nearly killed at the hands of Ocean-Master before Aquaman was able to gather strength and defeat the ocean villain. The great burden on Aquaman's shoulders by being a king and leader underwater and a hero to many on the surface world, the inspiration of Lark and Robin and Speedy as apprentices to the heroes Batman and Green Arrow and the offer to Kaldur and Garth to become his protégés.
"Both Garth and I seriously considered the king's offer," Kaldur said. "Garth ultimately chose to continue his studies with Queen Mera at the Conservatory of Sorcery. For me, however, the chance to visit the surface world was a dream come true." A slightly wistful look came over his face. "So, at the age of fourteen, I became Aqualad. I miss my friends, of course, but the chance to work with my mentor and king was an opportunity I could not pass up. I like to think the work I am doing makes a difference."
Lark smiled at him. "It is," she confirmed. "It may not be obvious all the time, but it is."
Kaldur bowed his head a little in gratitude and finished, "The rest of the story you know. Aquaman brought Aqualad to the surface world...and now I am here with you."
"Wow," the green-skinned girl said in awe. "So you wanted to be Aqualad?"
"Yes," he confirmed. "The opportunity arose. I could think of no other path."
Looking over his shoulder at the Martian, Wally smirked. "Yeah?" he asked. "If you think he wanted to be Aqualad so bad, let me tell you about how I got started."
Lark and Robin shared a look over the fire and a sigh; every single time Kid Flash revealed his secret identity, he always told the story of how Kid Flash got his start. It was funny at first, but now it was just so predictable: the accident that turned Jay Garrick into the first Flash, young fanboy Barry Allen who recreated that accident, and then young nephew Wally West who discovered his uncle's secret.
"Does this sound confusing to anyone else?" Superboy asked after only a few minutes into Wally's story.
"Just let me finish and you will be confused no more, Supey!" Wally exclaimed. "So, having seen his journal just like he saw the previous Flash's, I try to re-create the experiment with my own chemistry set. And what do you know? I was able to do it!"
"The experiment actually worked?" Kaldur asked curiously.
Lark and Robin snorted as Wally said hesitantly, "Well...not at first, actually."
He went on for another few minutes finally reaching the end. "The Flash was beyond ecstatic! He couldn't contain his excitement!"
Lark rolled her eyes; Barry Allen had definitely not been overjoyed at Wally's new-found speed.
"It was the greatest day in the history of the world! Why, you ask?"
"Just for the record, we didn't," Robin retorted with a smirk.
"That's the day the world got Kid Flash!" Wally finished, ignoring Robin completely. He looked smug as he finished. "You. Are. Welcome," he smirked.
"Yeah, we're all thrilled you're so speed-capable," Robin snarked.
"What's the matter? Jealous?" Wally taunted.
"Sheeyeah, right!" Robin cackled. "Jealous of you?"
"Can you tell us about how you got started, Robin?" M'gann asked, and Lark wasn't sure if it was to break up the ego contest or because she was genuinely curious. Perhaps it was a little of both.
Wally burst out laughing before Robin could even open his mouth and the raven-haired teen scowled at him. Turning to M'gann, Wally mimed Batman's pointy-eared cowl and said, "Are you kidding me? Bats won't even let him tell you his real name!"
"Is that the same for you, Lark?" M'gann asked, looking at the girl in question.
Before she could reply, Wally laughed again and said, "You bet! I mean, you'll probably get a better origin story out of Supey over here!"
"But you already told me his story," M'gann reminded. "Didn't you? You said that the four of you rescued him from Cadmus."
"Yeah, we did," Wally agreed.
"Yes," Kaldur confirmed. "Chronologically, Superboy is only sixteen weeks old."
"And you have no memory of things before being rescued?" M'gann asked the clone hesitantly.
"I have some memories...from the G-Gnome," Superboy corrected. He stared into the fire and Lark stared at his profile, his expression distant. "It would teach me about the world outside while I was in the containment pod."
"So, you can remember things?" the Martian asked. "When you were in the containment pod, they would feed you information and you could remember it, right?"
"I guess so," he shrugged.
"Well, if you can remember what they taught you, you must've been thinking about things as they fed you information," she continued to prod. "What did you think about?"
Superboy was silent for a moment, and a humorless smile made his lip quirk slightly. "When I was in the containment pod," he said slowly, "I was fed...information. I really didn't start thinking for myself until after I got out."
M'gann looked at him intently. "Well, what kind of things do you think about now?"
This time, the silence from Superboy was longer and heavier, and Lark remembered what he had said to them when he stood outside their pods: his sole reason for existence, his sole purpose of being, was to be the only thing protecting the world from an unstoppable, an unbeatable force. The Man of Steel, the Big Blue Boy Scout, the Last Kryptonian. Superman.
"The one thing that's always on my mind," he said slowly, "...is...destroying Superman."
Silence settled over the campesite as Superboy stood and turned his back to the group. Lark saw Wally's green eyes go wide as Kaldur and M'gann looked on in shock. Robin remained unmoving, and Lark wondered what he was seeing.
"Rob," Wally said nervously. When he got no response from his best friend, he tried again. "Robin!" he yelled. "Did you hear what he said?!"
"Huh? What?" Robin asked faintly.
"Did you hear what Superboy said?!" Wally exclaimed.
"Wallace, take it down a notch," Lark hissed, scowling at the redhead. "To him, it's like you're screaming in his ear, and he doesn't need a reminder of what I'm sure he hated to admit out loud," she finished in a barely audible whisper.
"But he just said he wants to take down Superman!" Wally yelled.
Lark rolled her eyes and huffed at the speedster before turning to Superboy, who was clenching and unclenching his fists. She could see the way his muscles tensed, and she got to her feet before slowly approaching him.
"Are you serious?" M'gann asked quietly. "Superboy?"
"It's how I feel," he snapped. "Sometimes..." He sighed heavily and glanced over his shoulder. "What if that's why I was created?" he whispered. "What if that was the only reason I was created?"
"That's not possible!" M'gann said stubbornly.
"Yeah!" Wally agreed enthusiastically, quickly changing his tune. "Look at all the good stuff you've done so far!"
"What would be the possible reasoning behind this thinking?" Kaldur asked calmly.
"I just feel..." Superboy sighed harshly. "I don't know what I feel," he admitted. "Sometimes...thoughts happen."
"Those would be silly thoughts!" M'gann said brightly. "You should put them out of your head!"
Lark found herself scowling at M'gann, though she didn't turn around to face her or the others. It was terribly naïve of the Martian to believe one could simply put thoughts out of one's head.
"Superboy," Lark said softly, reaching out and placing a tentative hand on his shoulder. "We don't think any less of you because of what you think."
"L, I hate to say it, but he has a valid point," Robin spoke up as Lark retracted her hand and then returned to her spot around the fire, though she kept her gaze on Superboy's back. "We really don't know anything about what they did to him yet."
"We know he's one of the good guys," Wally argued. "And we know he's part of this team!"
"In my world," Kaldur said, "actions speak louder than words. Superboy has proven his intentions with actions."
"Yeah!" Wally said brightly, speeding up to Superboy's side and handing him a s'more. "You put those thoughts outta your head, Supey! Here, have another s'more."
Superboy took the treat from Wally. "Thanks...everyone," he said slowly.
Lark stared at him for a moment longer, making a mental note to speak to Superboy once everyone was asleep. She could tell that the Team's insistence to simply forget those thoughts was eating at him, and it didn't really sit well with her either.
"Hey, what's with you?" Wally asked Robin as he rejoined the raven-haired teen, raising an eyebrow. "Not like you to zone out like that."
"I guess Superboy isn't the only one lost in thought tonight," Robin said, his voice still sounding distant, and Lark realized with all the talk of origin stories, Dick must've been remembering his own.
She groaned quietly to herself as her own memories came flooding back, uninvited.
Growing up with her mother and older brother in Gotham's Chinatown, only to be abandoned at the age of six.
Feeling unloved and unwanted even after being adopted by Arthur and Irene Williamson, who were kind and caring and gave her everything she wanted except for actual love and affection.
Having her world come crashing down again when she came home to find her new parents murdered in their home at the age of eight.
Then were was a man, the man of Gotham City: Bruce Wayne, the billionaire with a reputation, who swooped in and gave the girl her third home in eight short years. A kindly butler with a pleasant accent who gave her a room, who cooked the meals, kept the house, and did the chores. Because Bruce Wayne was never around.
And then learning Bruce's secret. That Gotham's White Knight by day was also the city's Dark Knight by night. How he had taken her under his wing in more ways than one, giving her the means to execute justice on the man who was responsible for the Williamsons' deaths, who while always busy with their own things, had taken her in and given her a home.
The pride and sense of right that had swelled in her chest as she watched that man be carted away, the man she had helped take down, and how she wanted to feel like that always.
The birth of Lark. The arrival of Dick. The expansion of her new family.
Wally's loud, "Three hundred?!" broke through Lark's thoughts, and she realized M'gann had started her own origin tale.
"Yes," M'gann replied as Wally leaned in close.
"Are they all hot girls like you?"
Lark's nose wrinkled in distaste while Robin smirked and drawled, "Wow. You are a class act."
"Dude!" Wally whispered, looking over his shoulder. "Three hundred girls that look like her? That's a planet I want to visit!"
"Well, half of my cousins are males," M'gann said slowly, "but yes, most Martians look very similar...mostly green, like myself," she added quickly, "and Uncle J'onn. But there are others with...differences.
"There are also Martians that are red and white," she explained, glancing at them nervously. "Some on my planet do not see the whites as equals.
"My parents were both green," she went on, "and I was raised in what you would call a 'liberal' type of environment. My family...I...had no issue with white Martians, but others were not as tolerant. And the treatment of the white Martians were especially horrible." M'gann looked sad, almost haunted, and Lark wondered what she had seen, witnessed, perhaps experienced?
"How did you happen to come to Earth?" Kaldur asked lightly, pulling a marshmallow off his roasting stick as he did.
M'gann went on to explain about the broadcasts the Martians had seen of the Martian Manhunter fighting for justice on Earth, how his return to Mars was partly because he had seen his fellow heroes take on protégés and he decided to introduce a young Martian hero to Earth. J'onn set up a contest to determine who he would bring to Earth with him, and M'gann, having fallen in love with Earth from all the broadcasts, was determined to be the winner.
"And I won!" she cheered. "The whole competition!" She spread her arms wide as she recalled the victory. "I was coming to Earth! This was the most exciting time of my life! Now I am here with all of you, and I am part of the Team! I truly love it!"
"We are happy you're here with us as well, M'gann," Kaldur smiled kindly.
"You can say that again!" Wally said brightly.
Robin stood and stretched, and Lark yawned widely. "Well, I don't know about you guys," he said, "but I think I've had one s'mores too many. I'm going to hit the old sleeping bag."
"Yes!" M'gann agreed. "This has been such a wonderful evening, but I am excited to sleep in a tent!"
"I'm right behind you!" Wally said immediately.
"Yeah, but you're sleeping in this tent, right over here," Robin smirked, grabbing Wally's arm before he could hurry after M'gann.
"Lark?" M'gann asked the dark-haired teen as she began gathering supplies.
"I'll be right there," she said with a small smile. "I just want to tidy up some." In truth, she wanted to speak to Superboy but noticed that Kaldur had hung back too, so she decided to stall.
"Okay!" the Martian said brightly before ducking into the blue tent.
When Lark returned from putting the supplies back in the Cave, she found Superboy, alone, still standing by the fire, staring blankly into the dying flames.
"Superboy?" she asked softly as she approached him.
He inhaled sharply like she had startled him from a dream and he raised his head to look at her, his blue eyes intense, but she didn't falter as she stepped closer to him.
"I know M'gann said to just put those thoughts out of your head," she continued in the same soft tone, "but I wanted you to know that no one expects you to brush off what happened to you so easily."
"But it's supposed to be easy, right?" he asked quietly.
Lark gave a dry chuckle that made Superboy turn to her in confusion. "No," she said with a small smile. "It's not easy to forget our origins, to forget what brought us to this point."
"But why not?" Superboy asked stubbornly.
"Because it reminds us where we started, it reminds us the reason we do what we do," Lark explained patiently. "It reminds us that there is still goodness around us, even when the world seems the darkest."
Superboy snorted. "That's easy for you to say," he grumbled. "You always knew you were supposed to be the good guy."
"But you thought you were the good guy, didn't you?" Lark countered softly. "In your mind, you saved the world. You were the hero. Just because the villain you were fighting turned out to be fake doesn't make you a fake."
He remained silent, but Lark could tell he was thinking about what she had said. She gave his shoulder a slight squeeze and him a slight smile before saying, "I'm planning on sleeping out here tonight; not often I get to lay under the stars. Just letting you know."
She turned toward the tents and grabbed one of the sleeping bags before returning to the fire. She unfurled the sleeping bag and lay on top of it on her back, hands clasped over her stomach, staring up at the stars through the trees. Lark heard Superboy shuffle about a few minutes later and heard another sleeping bag being unrolled. She didn't turn to look at him, but she smiled a little; hopefully, this was a steppingstone on Superboy's way to feeling like he truly belonged here.