[ help ] for your muse to lean on mine for support
Jon was so tired. It had felt like one thing after another. He had gotten a bad grade on his paper, someone had run into him and spilled his iced coffee all over him, he had gotten so frustrated over his algebra homework that he had crushed the armrest of his desk chair between his fingers without realizing. Jon was sensitive, and he knew that. There was nothing more that Jon wanted than to just curl up in bed and not move for a day, or two. For as optimistic as he was, Jon had been struggling lately to stay optimistic. He felt so alone. There was a heavy weight sitting on him. There was only so much he could do in a universe he wasn’t from. Roy understood the loneliness that came with it, but it wasn’t like Jon could constantly go to the archer when he felt like he was being held together by a thin thread. Jon was a social creature and thrived on being around people he cared about, so to have that taken away from him was taking its toll on him.
Naturally, Jon had sought Kon out upon getting his bearings in this universe. He wanted to get back the relationship with the man he had seen as his big brother, even if the other Kryptonian had no idea who he was. Jon didn’t want to freak him out and constantly badger him despite the pair getting to know each other once more, but it wasn’t a surprise to the younger hero when he found himself taking off from his apartment’s roof building and was outside the restaurant Conner worked at. Tugging the hood of his hoodie up over his unruly curls, Jon stepped inside the restaurant and hesitantly approached where Conner was. “Hi. Sorry to, um, just pop up like this. I just–I needed–” Jon hesitated, unsure of what it was he even needed. “Can we talk outside? I’m sorry to bother you at work.” He settled on instead, overly apologizing like he tended to do.
Jon was silent as the pair of them stepped outside, shoulders deflating. “I guess I just…needed my big brother.” He whispered weakly, wiping at his face when the tears started to escape and roll down his cheeks. “I’m sorry. I know this is probably weird for you and I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I just–” He sniffled and shrugged, not even able to finish his train of thought.
At first, the idea of having a brother had kind of terrified Conner. He didn’t know how to take care of people. He barely knew how to take care of himself. And from the moment he first met Jon, he had the sinking suspicion that the Conner from his world was not only someone Jon felt he could rely on, but someone who was good enough at supporting him that he’d warranted a good bit of love and affection. It was... surprising. Kara considered him family, of course, and Clark sometimes also did in a faintly begrudging sort of way, but it had always felt like there was kind of a line between them and him.
And the existence of Jon, the child of Lois and Clark, also titled Superboy -- well, he would’ve thought it made his presence a little redundant.
But there he was, standing outside his place of work, standing face to face with living (sniffling?) proof that maybe he really did have a family. As scary as the responsibility was, there was no part of him that wanted to shirk it. Even though he hadn’t known Jon for that long, he felt a pretty strong protective instinct over him.
“It’s not weird,” Conner shook his head. He tossed an arm around Jon’s shoulders, giving them a brief squeeze. “Hey, listen, my shift’s basically over anyways, so I was gonna head out. You can walk me back to my apartment, we can put on some TV, order a pizza, the works.”
There was pretty clearly something wrong, and Conner didn’t want to press the issue too hard, but he also wanted to leave the door open. If Jon felt like talking.
“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” he started, “but I gotta ask, kiddo. What happened?”
