stay with me | conner kent
Pairing: YJ!Conner Kent x Gender Neutral Reader, implied almost poly--tension with M'gann
Genre: Slight angst, comfort
WC: 2.3K
Warnings: Slight mention of canon violence--reader has a concussion, brief appearance from La'gaan (I'm so sorry it's very brief I promise)
Takes place in Season 2.
Feedback and reblogs very much appreciated! <3 let me know your thoughts!
Floating. You’re floating.
Your eyes are so heavy and your ears are buzzing. You’re not sure if you took out that last goon or if he took you out. Maybe both, judging from your back against the damp floor beneath you and no other sound besides the heavy breaths going past your lips.
You don’t have the energy to formulate any helping thoughts. All that goes through your brain is how much you’d like a blanket over you. Shivering at a slight breeze that brushes past, you let out a groan as a pain pulses through your skull.
There’s so much fog over your brain that you barely register the thump of someone landing a few feet away from you. But the vibrations that rack through the ground make your head hurt more.
“H/N.” Superboy’s arms go under your body as he hoists you up into his hold. One of his arms is under your shoulders and the other is under your knees.
“Con…ner.” The sound is hard to force out of your lips and it comes out in a whisper that his super hearing picks up clear as day.
I found H/N. Seems like they’ve got a concussion. Superboy’s voice filters through your brain and it’s then that you register the buzzing in your ears as the voices coming from the mindlink.
Bring them back to the bioship. We got the intel we needed. Robin said.
“Hold on tight, H/N. I don’t want to hurt you.” Superboy held your head against his chest as he jumped towards the direction of the bioship.
Of course you were glad that you had been found, but maybe someone else who wouldn’t jostle your skull around so much would have been more appreciated. Maybe someone like M’gann.
By the time Superboy made it to the bioship you felt one step away from puking and half another away from passing out. He wanted to put you on a seat but you just wanted to lay on the floor with your head on the ground. But it was hard for you to protest when you lost footing after he set you down, and so in the seat you went.
The bioship materialized a seat closer to yours for Conner and he grabbed one of your hands after sitting down to rub comforting circles on the back of it. It didn’t take very long for your heavy eyes to stay closed and for sleep to take over.
-
You woke up in the med bay with a pressure in your head and a dry throat. Looking around the lightly furnished room, you saw a rolling cart placed by your side and reached for the glass of water on it. However, the heaviness in your head was also in your limbs and as soon as your fingers brushed the glass of water it was falling to the floor. You flinched in preparation for the loud crash, but it never came.
The next thing you know, arms were wrapped around your shoulders and a wet face pressed into the crook of your neck. “M’gann,” you croaked.
“Sorry! I’m just so glad you’re okay, N/n. I really wish I had been there for you. I heard,” M’gann tensed and released you from her hold, “that Conner found you.” She handed you the cup of water she had saved from your concussion clumsiness and watched you as you gulped it down.
After drinking all of the water, you placed the cup down and tried to ignore your heart dropping in your stomach as information began to reclick in your brain. Conner and M’gann were no longer together. M’gann was not the same girl you both loved from years ago.
A heavy feeling sunk into your gut and tears began to line your waterline, as nostalgia settled itself deeply in your bones. Of late movie-nights with half burnt cookies and pizza, and three bodies pressed together on a bed. Nights that would never happen ever again.
“Oh, Y/n, did Conner hurt you? I swear he better not have or I-” “No, he didn’t hurt me, I promise… I just… miss how things used to be,” you said.
M’gann’s expression softened and her hands immediately cupped your cheeks, her thumbs wiping at your tears. “None of us could have predicted this, Y/n. But this is our reality and we have to keep living in it. We can’t let the past blind us from the future.” She pressed her forehead against yours and your eyes instinctively closed, relaxing against her, pretending she understood you. Of course, Kaldur’s absence hurt you too, but he had slipped into a foggy area of your concussed mind. All you could currently think about was M’gann and Conner.
You let your right hand rest over hers, pressing your cheek further into her hold as your left hand went up to rest at the nape of her neck, gently twisting at her short locks. “You’re right.” You whispered. She was so close you felt your own breath come back at you, and you winced at breathing morning breath straight into her face.
But before you could apologize, La’gaan’s voice cuts through the moment like a knife stabbing through cupid’s pathetic little heart. “Wow. Up and ready to steal my girlfriend, are you, chum?”
Both of you drop your hands away from each other and a bitter smile pulls weakly at your lips. “Well I’m actually still in bed, but thank you so much for your support, Lagoon Boy.”
He scoffs at your words and steps into the room to wrap his arms around M’gann. “Are you done checking on them, babe? I’d love to have dinner with you.” He presses a kiss to her cheek, not breaking eye contact with you.
“La'gaan, Y/n is my friend and they have a concussion. Can’t you be a little more considerate?” M’gann pries his arms off of her, but turns to face him as she holds his hands instead.
He smirks. “Alright. Sorry you have a concussion, Y/n. Would you like to join us for dinner? Wouldn’t want to be mean to my girlfriend’s friend.”
M’gann grimaces, but nonetheless turns to you with soft eyes that beg you to come.
“Nope. Not at all. Thank you for coming, M'gann. You can take your dog out now.” You lay back down and close your eyes. A satisfied grin pulls at your lips as La’gaan curses and M’gann rushes out after wishing you a speedy recovery. You were usually the bigger person, so your current state gives you a pass.
You lay with your eyes closed for a good ten minutes before the nostalgia from before begins to seep in again. You take a deep breath in and exhale. Then another and another, until it’s not enough and you have no choice. The tears are already down your cheeks anyways. You try to take another deep breath but a choked out sob is the exhale. The crying makes the dull pain in your head stronger, but you sit up anyway. You don’t want to be alone.
Your sock clad feet touch the floor, and the cold seeps into them as a shiver wracks down your spine. You take one slow step and you hear footsteps rushing towards the room.
Blue eyes lock onto yours disapprovingly, before you’re being gently forced back into the bed. “You’re supposed to limit your movement for two days, Y/n.”
“I know Conner, but I don’t want to be alone right now.” You wince at the pain that crying brings.
Conner is quick to pull pain relievers from the second shelf of the rolling cart and hand them to you after filling your cup with the pitcher of water that rested behind the cup. He waits for you to gulp the pills and water down, then takes the cup back from you to refill it.
“I’m going to fill the pitcher back up, but I’ll be right back.” Conner said. He sees the slight pout in the jut of your lip and he looks away. “I have to, Y/n. We have to keep you hydrated or you’re going to feel worse.”
He gives the back of your hand a gentle pat and picks the pitcher up to refill. Conner was right. He was right back in under two minutes and placed the full pitcher back on the cart.
He takes a look at your dried tears and lets all the possibilities run through his head. “Did M’gann come in here?”
Conner’s voice is no longer as soft as it was before, and it causes your heart to jump and skip a beat. His eyes soften--no doubt hearing it--and he hesitantly grabs your hand. You spread your fingers and welcome his own to interlace with yours, and he happily takes the invitation.
“She did. So did La’gaan. After.” You squeeze his hand, sending him signals to relax, you’re not done speaking. “I was just thinking about the old days. I let them take over my emotions. I wish… I wished we could have one of those days again. Just one more time.”
Conner grabs a tissue from the second level of the cart and hands it to you.
“Damn, I don’t look for anything.” You chuckle.
The corner of his lips lift up, but he remains silent.
“Do you… ever think about the old days?”
Conner closes his eyes and after a moment, he nods. “Yeah. There’s a lot of memories. A lot of moments I would want to rewind just to see if I missed the warning signs.”
You let out an appreciative hum at his words, and wonder if he, too, misses her. “And if you could go back in time; would you do it?”
Conner’s eyes bore deeply into yours, unblinking and as if searching for any piece of your soul that he does not yet know. “No.”
Raising an eyebrow at his response, you figure that’s as much as he’s going to tell you and you close your eyes.
“I wouldn’t do anything different if it meant risking our relationship to each other.” Conner picks up a chair and sets it down by your bed. He sits on the edge, his elbows resting on his knees and his face closer to you than before.
Your eyes snap open at his words and an uneasy heat rises to your face. The only response you can muster comes out in a whisper, “What?”
Conner sighs and runs a hand down his face. “You’re really going to make me say it?”
You can only blink in response.
‘Y/n.. you know how much you mean to me,” he raises his hand up to stop you from interrupting, “please, if I have to be the one to say it, at least let me finish.”
You close your mouth and reluctantly give him the ‘go ahead’.
“We’ve spent so much time dancing around the obvious attraction when it’s clear it was meant to be us all along. Me, you… and M’gann. But the switch in her and the break up--it drove me behind boundaries that were never set. M’gann’s change scared me into thinking I would lose you too. I can’t. I can’t lose you too.” Conner’s head hangs, his eyes on the floor beneath him.
There’s a moment of deafening silence, but his hand has not left the warmth of yours. Although Conner’s recent hesitations and insecurities have made a thin air of tension around you both, you can’t help the fact that everything he said was true for you too. Raising his hand in yours, you place a kiss to the back of it. A gentle and firm press that lets him know what’s going on in your head--a start.
Conner raises his head, and it's then that you notice the look in his eyes. Has he always looked at you that way?
His pupils are dilated, and everything from his body language to facial expressions is welcoming. He scoots closer to the bed and rests his forehead on your stomach. “Are you… do you want to give this a shot?”
“We’ve always danced along this line, it’s about time we gave in to the possibilities.” You bring your other hand to his head, running your fingers gently through his dark hair. “Because I agree with what you said… and I never put a word to it, but I feel so much for you, Conner.”
He smiles up at you, and his gaze is soft and his aura peaceful. You tug on his hand and begin scooting over on the bed.
“What are you--” “Sleep with me?” you ask. His cheeks go red and he opens his mouth to speak but no words form properly as he gapes at you. “Come on, Con. You know what I meant.” You smile at him and let go of his hand to pat the space next to you.
He groans with a shake of his head, but lightly lays beside you. “Are you tired again?”
“Mmhm.” Your eyes are closed, but you can feel his eyes on you.
Conner presses a light kiss to your temple and laces his fingers through yours again. “Alright, I’ll be here when you wake up.”
You raise an eyebrow. “Even if I sleep the whole day?”
Conner grunts. “I’ll try. Might need a bathroom break.”
Laughing, you ignore the slight vibration of pain, “It’s okay if you’re not. I appreciate you laying here while I fall asleep. After that, I want you to go about your day. Don’t be restricted to this bed just because I am, Conner. Besides, we’ll be around each other all the time right after--nothing new.”
“Alright. But you’ll call for me if you need me?”
“Like we always do, my love. Like we always do.”













