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Knocks pound on Kon’s bedroom door, rudely jolting him into partial-wakefulness.
Kon groans, cracks an eye open. “Whozzat-?”
The door swings open, and Kon realizes he lives alone. And had locked the door. He’s on his feet in a second, TTK reaching blindly to neutralize the threat, before his senses catch up. “I dunno who you think you are, but-”
“Lemme go!” The figure thrashes. “Lemme go, Superboy, I didn’t-” a voice break, and a sob.
Why would an intruder be crying?
Kon blinks his eyes into focus in the dark. The pink hair registers first. Small. Pale face. Tear tracks.
Butterfly.
“Butterfly,” Kon says. He curses himself and sets her down on his floor, dropping down to her height. “Kid, I-”
She launches herself at him, clinging onto his neck and sobbing.
Oh. Kon carries her, stands, and searches his memory frantically for how to comfort crying kids. Remembering something Robin said in passing, he bounces the kid in his arms gently and starts pacing the length of his room using measured steps. Thank God for his TTK feeling out for anything in his path—he can’t see shit in the dark. “Butterfly, shi- shoot, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to-”
“Had a bad dream,” she sniffles into his shoulder. He thanks God he wore a shirt and pants to go to bed—it’d been a cold night.
“Okay.” Kon exhales, rocks her a bit. He keeps pacing. “Wanna talk about it?”
Kon expects a no, but she sniffles again, pressing her wet nose—gross—against his shoulder. “Dreamt you hated me.”
And, wow. There goes Kon’s heart, shattering into tiny pieces. “Kid-”
“Sorry ’m rude.” She sounds downright miserable. “Please don’t hate me.”
“Butterfly,” Kon says. He stops bouncing her, stops pacing. He strokes her hair carefully. “Nothing you do could make me hate you.”
“Promise?” Her damp face is now buried in his neck, forsaking his shoulder completely, and her voice is muffled and tentatively hopeful.
“Promise,” Kon swears. “Super-promise.”
“’kay.” Butterfly sniffs. He feels her smile a bit. “You don’t sleep nekkid.”
“Come on,” Kon complains, but he’s smiling too. There’s the kid he knows and grudgingly loves.