The Sons of Liberty were idiots, that much could be gathered within a few minutes of meeting their so called leader. Ben was a vacuous cunt, in Max’s opinion, though more could hardly be expected of a useful idiot. Even one who thought himself the voice of a generation as Ben did.
Max would feed him money and men and with them Ben would create chaos and through that chaos Max would offer safety and much needed order. A perfect plan, even when it lead to hoards of men, blinded by fear and driven by rage, to boycott his company, as if any of them had the financial security to purchase one of his security systems as it were. Regardless of the ineffectiveness of their boycott the picketing was getting grating and, after an unfortunate incident at a clinic opening in Jersey that ended with a man spitting directly in Max’s face, he had had enough.
Yes, he would fund the complete fucking morons and fill their ranks with those much more competent than any of the homegrown militias could ever hope to be while shaking hands and kissing the weird, scaly heads of alien babies, but that didn’t mean he needed to be utterly disrespected whilst doing it.
He stepped onto his balcony, his hands cupping his mouth, though, in the aftermath he would laugh at how useless that probably was.
“Superboy!” he called, “I’d like to have a word if you’ve got the time!”
What: Lar has a plan. It involves four signatures and a really nice dinner. A.K.A. We all have to start somewhere, might as well start with the boys.
It had been an...adjustment, moving in with Kon and not too long after, Cassie. There was always this quiet voice in the back of his head making him second guess everything Kon said to him. Conner was a good older brother, the best he could ask for even, but there was always that loathing that Jon knew was there. How could it not be? He got to grow up with the model dad, the one who was there as much as he could be. Learning what he could from the secondhand knowledge his father had about Krypton, navigating growing pains while being half alien was made easier by his dad's guidance. Kon didn't get that. Some days Jon wondered if Kon only offered to let him move in to avoid any backlash from their father.
Jon did what he could around the apartment, did his part while hoping he could somehow silently make up for the shortcomings of their father. If that was even possible. It wasn't all too bad. Like currently, playing video games with his brother while Cassie was at work. His elbow shoved against Kon's side as he tried to get an advantage. "If you throw that green shell at me I can and will tell Cassie you shrunk her top she's been looking for in the wash—CONNER!" Jon groaned as Princess Peach spun out on screen, causing him to come in second place.
Before Jon could even suggest another round, there was a sharp knock on the door. Jon grumbled and sat down his switch joy con, moving towards the front door to open it up. "Lar?" He asked in slight confusion. "Hey, man. Uh, what's up?"
It was strange having Jon around all the time. Going from occasional lunches to daily flights to actually enjoying his younger brother's presence had been a whirlwind for Conner but they had settled into an easy groove, or at least that's what he thought. Sometimes he would glance over at the younger man and get the distinct feeling that Jon was walking on eggshells around him. Almost trying to make himself smaller in an attempt to... well, Kon wasn't really sure, but either way he tried to make Jon feel at home.
It was, after all, their home now.
"Too late, dork." He snickered. His shoulder shaking with barely restrained laughter as Bowser zoomed past Princess Peach as their last lap drew to a close. "Better luck next time." He teased, his hand reaching out to ruffle Jon's hair in the way he knew would annoy him.
"You wan- " a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts and with a grumble he rose from the couch, tossing his controller at Jon before he swung the door open, "Oh, Cornboy. What're you doing here?"
Lar wrung his hands together as best he could with the large, laminated stack of papers held in his increasingly sweaty grasp, something he didn't even know was possible until now. The front page held half a dozen lines, only one of which held a signature and given that it was his own it didn't exactly inspire confidence.
He had figured that the boys would be the easiest to convince. Jon was a sweetheart and Kon, while a bit short tempered, wanted Kara to be happy and at the end of the day, well, that's all Lar really wanted as well.
Hopefully that would be enough common ground for them to not laugh him out of the small apartment.
"Hello boys." He tried for a smile but it felt strained even to himself and he quickly cleared his throat, his eyes dropping to the reason he was here in the first place. "I wish I could say I just came by to chat but I actually, uh, well I'm here for something much more important. At least I think so and I'm hoping you'll agree."
He shifted his weight from foot to foot, his nervousness resulting in an odd creaking sound just below his feet that had him floating up just an inch to avoid putting his foot through to floor.
That probably wouldn't be the best way to start this.
He flashed a smile at Kon as he floated inside, steadfastly ignoring his unsubtle eye roll in favor of waving at Jon.
"You two aren't busy, are you? Because I'm sure I could come back another time maybe?"
Jon caught the controller and immediately glared at his older brother, trying to smooth his curls back into place. The Kent curls (or should he say El? He didn't even know.) were always wild and he knew Kon did this purely to irritate him. Setting the controller aside, he offered a friendly smile to the clearly nervous older man. There was an overwhelming sense of anxiety that made even Jon want to grimace. It wasn't every day that Kara's roommate (former stranger turned roommate? That story still confuses Jon) came to visit by himself.
"No! No, you're totally fine, dude. No worries at all. We were just playing Mario Kart, so like nothing too exciting. If it's important, we're all ears." He could only imagine how important it had to be to have Lar literally floating through and looking like he'd rather be anywhere else than talking to the two of them. "What do you need to talk to us about, man?" He asked curiously, moving to stand near the older man, already peering at the stack of papers in his hands. "Anything to do with those rando papers?"
Lar laughed softly, his head dipping as he settled into a plush chair in the boys' living room, or the boys' and Cassie's he supposed was more accurate. His eyes darted to their tv, his smile widening as he caught the loop congratulating the winner of their race.
Kon, he could only assume. Given the character choices.
He shot a grateful smile at the younger brother. He had always been the sweeter one of the two. Less steely-eyed and more open than his older brother, something that was only all too apparent by his bright-eyed and sincere interest in comparison to Kon's single raised eyebrow and crossed arms.
Oh to be young and cool again.
"This is uncomfortable for me, but I think that's part of the point of all of this," he sighed, handing Jon the stack of papers, "look boys, I think you know how much Kara means to me and I think you know how much tradition means to her, well to both of us, but she's what's important right now so," he rolled his eyes at himself.
Rao save him. He was making a fool of himself.
"I'm going to ask your aunt on a date. Can you sign this and just leave it at that?"
Jon took the papers that were handed to him, his brow furrowing slightly as he looked down at the stack. "Hmm." He said in a falsely thoughtful way, moving to stand beside his brother and show the papers to him as well. "No, I don't think I will." He quipped. Sure, he was the lesser...intense one of the Superboys, but he wasn't entirely too innocent. He did have his tendency to be just as much of a nuisance as Kon, especially when he was feeding off of Kon's own actions as well.
"Why exactly do you need us to sign papers to ask Kara on a date? Just do it how Kon asked Cassie out—he was very embarrassing and blurted out his feelings after she told him first. He's very bad at this—don't let him fool you. Cassie is out of his league—" Jon broke off into laughter and immediately darted out of the way from the hit he was sure that Kon was about to give his arm.
Lar sighed. He should have expected this, in all reality. Did he think he would be just able to walk in, get the signatures and walk out?
Apparently not.
"Look, boys, I-it's hard to explain."
He bit at his lip, watching the boys look over his proposal with a huff and a roll of his eyes. "Unless you two would like a history lesson. I can provide one, of course. Given that you try to keep your shenanigans to a minimum."
He raised a challenging eyebrow. That seemed unlikely to say the least.
"What really matters, or what should really matter, or- I'm getting my words twisted up." This would be easier if he could speak in his native tongue. He never got this tongue-tied with Kara. She just got him.
"I care about Kara. So much. You can see that, can't you? Can't that be enough?"
Jon cocked an eyebrow and glanced back down the papers with a skeptical look. His words had enough to garner pause from Jon. He didn't really remember the last time he had seen Kara so...well, happy. Sure, she was happy, she had always been a happy person, but...this was different. It was the same different he had seen in how Kon and Cassie looked at each other and interacted. How even, well...how he interacted with Damian. There was a difference in how one interacted with their person.
Oh.
A small smile bloomed on Jon's features and he nodded, "of course it's enough. It's more than enough." He moved to grab a pen off of their coffee table and paused before signing to look up at Lar, "I hope you realize if you hurt her then we will get to throw you into the sun, dude. Just a note." Jon grinned and looked down at the papers, pausing for a moment before signing 'Jon-El'.
Lar swallowed harshly, his eyes wide as he watched Jon and then Kon sign the paper. He glanced down, his face lighting up at Jon's signature and then falling at Kon's. Or at Kon's lack of a signature.
You can't win them all. The fact that they signed at all. That was what was important.
"Of course. I-I would never hurt her. But, yes. Noted." He tore his eyes away from the paper, his hand falling to squeeze Jon's shoulder. "Thank you. Really."
Kon shuffled on his feet, or at least he did so as much as one could while floating high above the city, his leather jacket flapping slightly in the breeze as he unwrapped his second burger.
He had told Jon to meet him up here twenty minutes ago, a rare white flag between the two Superboys. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Jon, he would go as far as to say he loved his little brother but he knew there was tension between them.
A big, red, blue and yellow elephant in the room, if you would.
He wasn’t exactly stoked to talk about it but, well, he wanted Jon to stop awkwardly stopping in the middle of sentences that included the dreaded C-word and making excuses to fly out of the room whenever he began to talk about the big blue teaching him how to ride a bike or ducking camp or whatever it was the guy did when he actually wanted a son.
He shook his head. Thinking like that wasn’t going to help anything.
“Hey, dude,” he grinned, his eyes squinting enough to make out the red cape billowing in the wind as his brother flew toward him, “I got you some burgers. Ate your fries though.”
