I had this goofy idea after starting reading the Supersons comics, with how (as far as I’ve gotten anyway) none of their families besides the Robots of Clark and Bruce have appeared.
So this like long after the events of the Supersons run, Dami and Jon are still close and fighting crime together, and one night when Kara and Kon come over to the Kent’s for dinner, they catch Jon’s phone ringing, and they ask who it is, to which Jon says Damien. They ask who that is
Jon, who has had Damien go in several rants about secret identity and feels as though he would be angry if he found out he told his family his identity on a whim, tells them very awkwardly that it’s a school friend, and scurries to his room to answer. Kara and Kon share a look.
“Eavesdrop?”
”Eavesdrop.”
they go listen in on the conversation and loosely hear some bickering between Jon and Damien, and Jon groans at the end and tells the other “I’ll be there you jerk.” And promptly hangs up while grumbling about him being ‘bossy’
Now Kon and Kara don’t know much about this guy, but they both remember how Jon had previously mentioned how him and his friends would get picked on a lot at school, so they come to one simple conclusion:
This ‘Damien’ kid is bullying Jon.
And they won’t stand for that.
Meanwhile back at the Manor, everybody’s just talking after patrol, and Damien tries to scurry off to make a phone call. Dick is ruining such plans, ofcourse, he walks up behind Damien and squeezes his arms around him.
“Hey Dames! Where you going off too so soon?”
Damien rolls his eyes and loosely mutters something about ‘working on a case’. Tim chimes in and asks why he won’t just work in the cave and he says that he also has to make a phone call to Jon. Dick teasingly asks “who’s that?”
Now, Damien could very well tell them the truth. Say it’s Superboy and that he’s calling him for help with a case rather than breaking into his house through the window because his family’s over for dinner. He could…but then they’d also harass him for making friends. And tease him mercilessly. And then he’d actually never escape this cave because he’d be trapped in Richard’s embraced and have his hair ruffled into ruin. He’s not just gonna take such humiliation!
So he lies, ears flushed red at the previous thought and shoulders tensed, saying he’s a peer from school and says something about a school project for explaination. Then he wiggles free from his brothers arms and storms off upstairs.
unfortunately for Dami, his family are way to paranoid to just overlook his strange body language, and so they start discussing it.
Tim: “He seems really off back there.”
Dick: “He did…maybe this ‘Jon’ guy is like…a friend?”
Steph: “Hm…maybe. What do you make of it Cassie?”
Cass: “Lies. He wasn’t be honest. He was…embarrassed? No idea why.”
Babs: “So maybe it is the friend thing.”
Jason: “Or…”
Dick: “Or?”
Jason goes on to explain a story of how some guy used to bully him at school when he was younger, force him to do his homework, make fun of him, all that jazz. He somehow could never find the courage to stick up for himself. One day Bruce saw the boy following him out of the building, and when he asked who he was, Jason feeling ashamed lied and said the guy was a “friend”. Suggesting maybe that’s what’s going on with Damien.
Tim: “You really think Dami’s being bullied? I mean like…it’s possible, but Dami?”
Jason: *shrug* “I’m not saying it’s 100% or anything, but it just reminded me of that.”
Babs: “I mean, Dami is the secretive type, he’s got a lot of pride, I could see him being embarrassed about that.”
Dick: “But like- realistically, knowing him, wouldn’t he have just fought the guy by now? Not condoning his violent tendencies or anything but like, that’s normally how he deals with problems.”
Tim: “True that…”
Cass: “Well…little brother has been trying really hard to be…better.”
Duke: “Yeah, plus haven’t you seen him slowly getting a little kinder? He’s been doing really well at learning to control his temper better. Maybe the reason he hasn’t fought this Jon guy is that…he doesn’t wanna ruin all his progress.”
Silence brews in the cave.
Jason: “…Well shit this guy needs to die.”
Babs: *turns to computer* “Duke, grab my coffee mug, we’re going to be here for awhile.”