alwaysroomforhope | (no subject)

Entry tags:

kon,
room 44

(no subject)

[After this.]

Steph is so not going down to the bar today. Maybe not ever again. It's bad enough that her boyfriend's dumped her for another guy - did it have to be so public? And Dick didn't even tell her. So much for family. And Tim ... is ... He looked so damaged. And he was still turning to someone else. She'd never thought that would happen. He'd seen her pregnant, even. And he hadn't left then. It wasn't fair.

And she can't go downstairs, anyway, she's got no clothes except the Robin suit, and that's ... it's too much of Tim for her to even want to touch it. It's currently crumpled into the corner, as far away as she could throw it, and she's hunched on her bed in underwear and an oversized t-shirt, trying not to think.

It's not really working.

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And Kon is trying to find her. He doesn't know if he should, he doesn't know if it's -right-, but.. he feels he needs to do something here.

She wasn't downstairs, she wasn't out by the lake. She wasn't in the rafters... so he can only assume she's upstairs.

But he has no idea what room number.

So he wanders, and he listens for sounds that he thinks are close to hers. First door he tries is not her, and the person looks a bit annoyed at being interrupted. Second door isn't either, and... he really -didn't- want to see that. Okay. Maybe this isn't the best thing. But third time's the charm, right?

He steels himself and knocks on what he doesn't know is the right door.

At the knock, Steph lifts her head only long enough to yell "I'm asleep. Go away!" before dropping it back to her knees. Who'd be knocking for her, anyway? She's pretty clearly got nobody here she can trust. Not any more.

You know, sometimes Kon feels like a one man Robin intervention workshop. He's done so much for Tim, and -- and now he's trying to do something for Steph. But that's okay, because he has the experience now. He doesn't kid himself that it even dips the surface of knowing how to handle a bat, but at least he won't be lost in the dark.

"No you're not," Kon calls back, and knocks again, very persistently.

"Yes I bloody well am," Steph snaps, not even bothering to look up. She doesn't recognise the voice, but it's young and male and she does not want anyone young and male around.

...and, she remembers, she did not lock her door. Bugger. Too caught up in her own problems to pay attention to her surroundings. Bloody typical, Steph.

"You -are-, and I'm coming in." Normally in this kind of situation, Kon would inform the girl to get decent first, but he kind of forgets here, and just opens the door.

Steph looks up, and sees who it is, and forgets to care that she's not really wearing much. "Oh, fuck. If you've come to gloat, Superboy, you'd better get the fuck out, tactile telekinesis or not."

Kon notices she isn't wearing much, but forces the 'ack nearly naked Timmy ex girlfriend!' out of his head. He can deal and -not- be a teenage boy right now. "I did -not-. I came to see fi you were okay."

Steph curls up tighter, the wall a reassuring presence at her back. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be? It's not like the only boy I ever loved just dumped me for some flyboy who looks good in tight jeans, or anything."

And okay, maybe that's not exactly fair, because she was dead. But right now? It hurts too much to care. Because she knows Dick said it's been months, but to her, it's still only a little over a week. And that is not enough time to deal with starting a war, getting killed, and getting dumped in.

Flying that looks tight in jeans? Okay, Kon is going to repress feeling complimented by that, because it makes him feel like a stupid shallow jerk in the middle of a bunch of angst.

And Kon has no idea how to deal with this, so he's just going to be upfront. If the truth doesn't help her, what will, really?

"But would any of the alternatives really made you any happier?"

"Yes. Not being fucking dead would definitely be an improvement." Her voice breaks a little. "Why are you still here? What do you want me to say? That's it's all okay and we can all be happy jolly friends now?"

Kon takes the fact she's actually interacting with him as indication she's not just going to throw him out, and steps in, shutting the door behind him.

"No. I know that's not going to be it. I came to see if you need to talk."

It's not, really, Kon who Steph's angry at. It's not even Tim. It's herself, for being so stupid, for causing this stupid war in the first place, for dying and not even having the sense to die properly, for ending up in this stupid bar and still having to deal with life. It's really not Tim's fault, and it's really not Kon's. He waited until she was dead before making a move on her boyfriend. You can't say fairer than that.

It still hurts.

And she's still not-dead enough that Kon's standing in her room, looking awkward and earnest and being such a boy about it, and she can't really work up the energy to be horrible to him, even though she does sort of want to.

"Bats don't talk," she says, instead. "You ought to know that by now."

Kon snorts. "Are you kidding me?" Bats liked to -pretend- they didn't talk, but when it came down to it, they could be convinced to if it was really needed. "Besides, you're half bird." Robin, yaknow.

"Never heard birds talk much either," Steph says, but she almost-sort-of-smiles. "I used to try for ages to get Tim to tell me things."

"You too?" Nice to know some things hadn't changed. "You don't have to be as stubborn as him, though. It's better to talk, -really-."

"What do you want me to talk about?" Steph asks, resigned. "I just ... I'm a complete mess, SB. I'm all over the place. It's just really hard to deal with." She will not cry. Admitting difficulty is not the same as admitting defeat. And besides, he really doesn't seem to be here to gloat.

"First off, call me Kon," He says, walking over to her bed. "Secondly, can I sit down?"

He'll deal with the rest once that's dealt with.

"Go ahead," Steph mutters, and makes a shruggy sort of gesture to indicate that the bed is quite large, and she herself is taking up only a small corner portion of it. "You look silly hovering by the door anyway. Like a giant black-and-red mother hen."

Kon sits down. And... that isn't a pleasant mental image. "I'm kinda missing the feathers."

Don't take that as a hint for a trick, Steph.

"Look, I know it hurts... but it'll get better, yaknow?"

"Yeah. 'Cause that helps so much." Steph doesn't throw her pillow at him, because she needs it, but it's a near thing. "You don't know what it's like." She doesn't specify what it she means. Probably applies to lots of things.

"Tell me another one." Kon steals the pillow she's not using. "I know -exactly- what it's like."

Okay, maybe not all of it, but some of it.

"Yeah? Well, you're a Super, not a Bat. So you talk. I don't know anything about you except what your stupid fanclub put out."

"So, what you want to know?" Is that even productive to the point here?

"I don't know. Anything. Are you a nice guy? Are you going to be good to Tim? Because if you hurt him, ever, I'll break you in half."

She pauses, hearing herself, and laughs bitterly. "I'm so not going to be over him any time soon."

"Dude," Kon says, "If I hurt him, -I'll- be the first one to get retribution on myself. Everyone else will have to get in line."

He'd intentionally throw himself to Batman or something, that's how serious he is.