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Cassie had just been enjoying her day, scrolling through social media on her phone, when Kon burst through the kitchen door, grumbling about something probably having to do with Robin.
“‘You can’t just flirt with people on the side of the street, Conner’, ‘I think your earring is a little distasteful, Conner’, I swear to god, if I could, I’d shove him in a room lined with blue kryptonite, push Lex in there too, and leave him there forever.” Nevermind, it had to do with Superman.
“No, you wouldn’t.” Cassie replied, not looking up from her phone.
Kon flopped down on the couch beside Cassie. “Ughhhhh, no, I wouldn’t. Batman would probably kill me, and Jon would probably look so sad I’d have to exile myself into space out of guilt.”
Cassie just hummed in reply, finally looking up to see Kon flopped dramatically over the side of the couch. His slightly curly hair was messed up from how he was lying, and his eyes were closed underneath the sunglasses that he seemed to wear everywhere. She was about to comment on how he was being overdramatic and pouting when she noticed something oddly familiar, though she couldn’t place what it was. She stared for a moment, and then went back to looking at her phone.
Wait.
Cassie looked back at Kon, and then at her phone, and then at Kon again. The boy on her Instagram feed kinda looked like Kon.
“Oh my god, Kon, you look like an e-boy.”
Kon opened his eyes. “A what?”
“An e-boy!” Cassie thrust her phone in his face. “Look.”
Kon stared at the picture for a bit before handing back her phone. “I don’t see it.”
“Well, you do!” Suddenly, she had an idea. “You know what? Kon, get up, I’m turning you into an e-boy.” She grabbed Kon by the arm and began to drag him towards the cave’s exit.
"What?"
Kon was proving had to pull along, mostly because he was confused and refusing to move. "We're going to give you an e-boy makeover. Did you not hear me the first time?" Okay, Cassie hadn't really intended for that to sound mean, but he was apparently not picking up what she was putting down. She tugged on his arm again and he frowned.
“Cassie, wait,” Kon tried to say, “Can’t we do this another time? I’m-”
“Nope! This is happening now. Forget about anything Superman said, this is teenage rebellion at its finest.” Cassie saw Kon perk up slightly at the thought of teenage rebellion. Jeez, he had issues.
So Cassie dragged Kon to the closest Goodwill and got him very acquainted with striped shirts, dad shirts, cuffed jeans, chains, and chunky shoes. She even picked up a random lock in the hardware section to put on a chain for him to wear. She didn’t really know why, but all the popular e-boys had one, so Kon needed one, too.
They were at the changing rooms with a cart full of clothes, Kon trying on every item and Cassie handing him more in a sort of endless cycle. Kon had just put on a colorful button down when he quipped, “Hey, I used to wear these kind of shirts when I went to school in Hawaii.”
That was news to Cassie. “You went to school in Hawaii?”
“Yeah, not for very long though.” He chuckled. “ It was deemed ‘too dangerous’ because villains kept trying to come after me in the middle of class.”
“Oh.” He had issues . “Well, anyway, I think we’ve got enough stuff, so let’s hang the rest of this up and check out!”
Checking out didn’t seem to bring up any more of Kon’s tragic upbringing, and actually, was pretty great as the cashier was such a fan of Superboy that all Kon needed to do was flash a smile and she immediately let them use her employee discount. At least being put in the spotlight all your life scored you some pretty cool things.
When they got back to Mt. Justice, Kon seemed to be looking a lot happier than he was before. Which was great, since this was the best part.
“Are you ready for your transformation, Kon?”
Kon grinned, which Cassie took as a yes, so she shoved him onto a chair and began to get to work.
First thing was straightening the hair. Kon’s hair was nice, but e-boys usually either straightened it or got brazilian blowouts, which Cassie did not trust herself to do. Straightening it was, then!
As soon as Kon saw Cassie pull out the straightener, he grimaced. “Cassie, I don’t-”
“Shut it. This is part of the process.”
“But straighteners don’t-”
Cassie clamped a hand over his mouth, which he then licked. “Ew! Conner!”
“Don’t call me that. Only Clark and Lex call me that,” Kon pouted.
“Then don’t lick my hand!”
“I was just trying to tell you that straighteners don’t really work on my hair.”
Cassie sighed, annoyed. One step in and he was already chickening out. “This one will. My mom got it for me for my birthday. It’s like, the best thing in the world.”
“Ok, then. I tried to tell you…”
Kon was, in fact, correct when he said that straighteners don’t work on his hair. Cassie guessed that it was probably his Kryptonian DNA that kept his hair almost invincible, or he was just really lucky. It was probably the first one, though, because out of his two dads, one of them was already bald at thirty.
After about an hour of trying, Cassie finally gave up trying to straighten his hair. It was at the point where she was afraid her poor straightener would catch on fire from all the stress she was putting it through. It was ok though, he had cute hair, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
Next, it was clothing time. Cassie and Kon argued back and forth for a while before finally deciding on a white t shirt over a black & white striped shirt, black ripped jeans, and Kon’s leather jacket that he refused to go without. In return, Kon gave Cassie full control of all the accessories.
Of course, she decked him out in chains and a dangly earring (only one, though, because Kon apparently never thought to get his second ear pierced). She had just locked the lock onto the chain and was putting it around his neck when he suddenly backed up.
“Wait, hold on, is that just a lock?”
“Yeah,” Cassie replied. “It’s pretty popular. I don’t know why, but it is, so you’re getting one.” She made reaching motions, silently commanding him to come back to where he was.
Kon sighed and stepped back. “I feel like a dog.” He grumbled.
“Too bad. This is the style. I actually think you’re gonna like it when you look in the mirror.”
“I better! This took wayy too long.”
“Dude, you were gonna spend your day moping about how your dad doesn’t love you. Anything is better than that.”
Kon’s face suddenly dropped, and Cassie realized she probably shouldn't have said that.
Kon slumped against the wall. “Do you really think he doesn’t?” He put his head in his arms, and a little voice in the back of Cassie’s head was screaming about how he was gonna mess up the hearts under his eyes.
The rest of Cassie, though, just sighed and sat down next to him. “I mean, I wish I could say he does or he doesn’t, but I don’t really know.” That seemed to make Kon’s mood worse, as she saw his eyes start to become shiny. “He probably does, though!” She fumbled. “I think he doesn’t know how to talk to you, and treats you a little like his parents treated him, even though it’s kinda obvious that that isn’t working.
“But even if he doesn’t love you, we still do! Tim, Bart, and I are always gonna be your friends, so screw Superman.”
Kon snorted. “You know he could probably hear that, right?”
“I don’t care. Screw you, Superman! You’re a shitty dad!” Cassie shouted into the air.
Kon burst into laughter, “Dude, don’t say that!”
“Why not? It’s true,” Cassie said, giggling. Standing up, she stuck out her hand for Kon to grab. “You know, your look is pretty much finished, you can look in the mirror now.”
Kon pulled himself up using Cassie’s hand and immediately went to the bathroom. “Aw man, this is so cool! I love it! But what are these little black smudges under my eyes?”
The little voice in her head was screaming “I was right!” , but Cassie honestly couldn’t bring herself to care. “They were supposed to be hearts,” she said, walking up to the mirror,”but you cried and it messed them up.”
“Aw, jeez, sorry Cassie. You can redo them if you want-“
“Nah, leave them like that. I think it looks kinda cool.”
“Huh, yeah, I guess it does.” Kon was full on grinning right now.
“We have to make you a Tik Tok now.”
“A what?”
An hour later, Cassie found herself recording videos of her and Kon lipsyncing to stupid songs, laughing, and generally just having a good time. They were in the middle of dancing to a Childish Gambino song when they heard the front gate slide open, and in ran Bart, with Tim following soon behind.
“Hey- OH MY GOD!” Bart screamed.
“Hey Bart! Cassie gave me a makeover! Do you like it?” Kon smiled, lifting his arms up slightly as if to show off the look.
“I made him look like an e-boy!” Cassie said, grinning at Bart’s reaction.
“Whoa, dude, you look HOT! Right, Tim?” Bart turned, suddenly alerting Kon and Cassie of his presence in the room. Well, the little presence that he did have, since he seemed to be frozen in place, with a slight flush on his face, and his mask directed slightly towards Kon’s direction.
Not that she knew if he was really looking at Kon, what with his dumb “privacy” rules and all.
At Bart’s question, however, he seemed to have snapped out of whatever stupor he was stuck in and looked away, clearing his throat.
“Ye-yeah, Conner, you look… good.”
“How many times do I gotta say to not call me Conner! You guys aren’t my dads! Stop being so formal!” Kon said, exasperated. “Also, thanks, guys, for acknowledging my hotness.”
At that, Tim (probably) rolled his eyes.
“I made him a Tik Tok, too.” Cassie said.
Bart excitedly ran up to Cassie and tried to grab her phone. “Oh my god, no way! Let me see!” Cassie giggled and handed it to him.
Immediately, he started laughing. “Kon, dude, this is so funny!”
“What? Why?” Kon asked, slightly offended.
“You’re trying so hard to look like a bad boy. I mean, it works if they don’t know you, but I really can’t think of any time you would actually act like that.”
“Hey! I can be a bad boy if I wanted to!”
“No, you couldn’t,” Tim and Cassie said at the same time.
Kon glared at them for a second before deflating. “Probably not, but it’s fun to pretend.” After a second, Kon’s face becomes devious. “Oh my god, I hope Clark sees this.”
Cassie burst out laughing. “Oh, no way. I feel like if anyone saw it, they’d do their best to make sure Clark didn’t see it.”
“Well, screw him, right?” Kon joked, leaving Tim looking a little shocked that Kon would say that about someone he was trying so hard to get attention from. Kon turned to him, ”Tim, do you think you could get that video to Clark somehow without him knowing it was you?”
Tim seemed to be still processing Kon’s new look, and Kon addressing him directly startled him, again. “Uh, sure, easy.” His face was still a little red, which Cassie found interesting, and decided to stow away for later, probably as blackmail. “Can I ask why all of a sudden you want him to kill you?”
Kon and Cassie grinned as they said, in unison, “Teenage Rebellion.”
It happened around two days later, during movie night. They were watching Jurassic Park for what seemed like the tenth time, when Kon suddenly shouted, “Oh shit!” and ran out of the room.
Less than a minute later, Superman burst into the room. “WHERE IS HE?”
“Who?” Bart asked, feigning innocence.
Superman’s eye twitched. “You know who.”
“Voldemort?” Cassie asked.
Superman’s eye twitched again, and he stopped silent for a moment. “Goshdarnit, he’s on his way to Hawaii.” He left as quickly as he had come.
Tim pulled out his phone and immediately started texting. After a moment, his phone buzzed with a notification. “I warned him about Clark coming after him. I don’t think we’re gonna see him for a few days.”
“Grounded or in hiding?” Bart asked.
“It’ll probably be a mixture of both, knowing him.” Cassie replied.
The trio sighed, before starting the movie again.
“Good luck, Conner,” Tim said, mostly to himself. He felt his phone buzz again.
Don’t call me Conner!