Chapter Text
Superboy clicked to begin the download of all the information on the computer before him. Smiling as he remembered the exasperated look on Tim’s face as he had to keep simplifying the usb’s into being easy enough for Kon to use. He’d never bothered to improve at the tech stuff, it was an easy excuse to work with Red Robin as much as possible. So Tim had arranged this to just need to be plugged in, and click download.
He turned to look at where Superman was floating, looking through the vials and samples stacked on towering shelves.
“Anything?” He called up. They’d heard chatter about some new lab, GeneForge. Apparently it had a cover of specializing in gene sequencing, unraveling hereditary diseases. It was a cover for working to make compounds or devices to take down known superheroes.
“A tranquilizer dart for Wonder Woman, some sort of solar gun for Batman,” Superman spoke and Kon struggled to suppress the snort. He always found it funny that people always assumed that the Bats were anything other than human.
He was choosing to ignore how he'd also assumed the same.
“They do know that's illegal right?” Kon called up again, checking the download as images kept flashing across the page.
“If they’d labelled them as something else, we wouldn't have grounds to do this. Rookie mistake.” Superman said floating down with several samples to place them in the evidence box the government had given them.
At seeing what looked like fire in a syringe labeled Martian Manhunter, Kon wanted to smash the whole lot of them to dust.
“They’ll be more careful next time.” He pointed out.
“With all this evidence. There won't be a next time.” Superman said, gesturing to a vial of vividly blue liquid, labelled Superman (lethal).
“Are we talking actual prosecution or court of public opinion? Cause Lex has kinda ruined public opinion with his monkey farm.” Superboy said, moving away from the lethal substance, and over to the still unlabelled experiments.
Gloves that scuttled around their cage, a box full of pink dust, and something that looked like a solid cube of oozing black oil.
“Actual charges.” Superman informed him, grabbing more evidence. “They were experimenting on Meta's.”
“What!” Superboy snapped, whipping around furious. The mission brief had said information gathering and removing dangerous material, nothing had mentioned human experimentation.
Apparently his loud response had startled the gloves. They began to slam against the sides of its cage, Kon backed up at the violent motion.
"Sound activated, good to know." Konner said, turning to look back at where Superman was now approaching.
"What do you mean by experimenting on Meta's?" Kon asked again, anger bleeding into his tone.
"The Justice League is getting them out." Superman said, landing beside Superboy looking at the cage as well.
"If they're here now, then why are we going through vials? We should be helping get innocent people out of here." Konner snapped.
"The Justice League has it handled. We were sent to do this because the chance of them having anything that can harm a Kryptonian after only 5 months of operation is negligible." Superman pointed out. His voice was steady and calm, an ability that Kon hated at times.
"The Justice League is getting the meta's out. We are keeping them safe by getting these out of the hands of those that would hurt them. We are helping Super Boy." Superman said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
The moment was broken by a smashing sound. The gloves' frantic movement had shifted it enough to knock the box of pink dust off of its shelf, scattering it across the floor.
"Well fu...
***
They didn’t seem to have any negative effects to whatever the dust was, they weren’t having any positive effects either so it was decided that until the Bat’s combed through all the information gathered they were to limit power usage and be on the lookout for any odd symptoms.
So Kon had decided to visit Tim. He was lounging in one of the bean bag chairs in Tim’s room as he clicked around on his laptop.
“Is there a reason we didn’t just give you the pink dust to test?” Kon asked, lounging back to look at Tim. Something was different. Something about Tim was different.
“The Justice League doesn’t trust Batman with potential weapons against the other JL members. Especially after they learned about his contingency plans.” Tim explained, and Kon tilted his head to continue studying him.
“Can ya’ blame them?” Kon asked, noticing a second too late the Kansas accent from Ma and Pa that slipped out.
Tim smiled, glancing up from the laptop to smirk at his slip.
Kon didn't feel his cheeks flush like they had every other time that something similar had happened. He studied Tim's face as he went back to working.
He looked well rested by Tim standards, and wasn't actively drinking from a coffee pot so that was a good sign. His skin was pale but didn't have a sickly sheen to it, he wasn't biting his lip, his leg wasn't bouncing so he wasn't worried or stressed. What was off?
"I mean do you want to waste time having to think up a plan if someone gets mind controlled?" Tim posited.
"Martian Manhunter. Couldn't he just undo that?" Kon asked. Tim's hair was the same kind of too long, carelessly kept that it always was, not greasy or looking like Tim had been tugging on it.
"And what if he gets mind controlled?" Tim asked, grabbing a notebook to copy something down, he was still capable of multi-tasking. What was different?
"Miss Martian. And she can't get mind controlled." Kon pointed out, too distracted to be proud of his own win in this argument. It was Tim, Kon had memorized his heartbeat from the second that he realized that was a thing he could do. He was wearing a shirt Kon had seen him wear at least seven times before and his favourite jeans, so it wasn't new clothes.
“Other things can happen, Konner.” Tim said, rolling his eyes, but he was smiling. It was a real smile, not tense around the edges, or brittle like it was a task to hold it in place.
“Well, tell me about the other stuff we found. Maybe we can process of elimination some things off the list.” Kon said, reaching out to grab a notepad off the stack of empties Tim kept on the corner of his desk to be used as ideas came to Tim.
He looked up, Tim was staring at him.
"What?" That seemed like a pretty good suggestion to him. Mark off the stuff they already had, should at least narrow the numbers of tests needed, and if they revealed it was something to... maybe dehydrate Atlantean's, then Superman and him could come off restricted duty.
"That's actually really smart." Tim said, and Kon frowned at the tone of surprise.
"Wow, thanks." He said, slipping the notebook open and getting ready for Tim to start rambling.
"Sorry that was…" Tim cleared his throat, moving past it. "So there was a device that absorbed moisture from the air, and would be very effective at combating Atlantean's."
So Kon's internal guess about the pink dust was wrong, but he felt an odd spike of pride that he had even come close to one weird mad science device. He supposed genetic donor number two's genes had to be good for something.
Tim kept talking, Kon flipping between heroes to add things to their lists as Tim mentioned them, and it was only when he was flipping the page to continue adding to the Wonder Woman list, which Tim apparently found hilarious that Kon realized what was different.
It wasn't Tim at all, or rather it was, but more his reaction to him. He wasn't distracted. He'd written nearly three full pages of notes, and hadn't looked up. Not even once.
He forced himself to pause and turn back to Tim. He was still talking, explaining the intricacies of how the device to slow down projectiles that had been designed to combat Green Arrow, would have worked much better, if given a wider parameters, against speedsters.
He had the focused furrow on his face, the look in his eyes where Kon didn't know if Tim even remembered he was there sometimes. Only to glance at him, make some wild arm gesture and then go back to rambling. Kon was used to getting caught up in those rambles. To get so lost in just watching Tim's mind work, watch as his mind raced far, far past where Kon's would stop and run wild. To watch the gestures as ideas filled Tim's entire body, listen as Tim shared every thought in his head, getting lost in that privilege. It was one of Kon's favourite ways to pass the time.
He got to see Red Robin on his A game every time they worked together. Red was nothing if not efficient and tactical, skilled and remarkable. It was like watching all of the Bat's fighting methods boiled into his own personal performance of perfection. But Tim was different.
Tim held so much doubt and insecurities about his abilities and position in his family that to see him unburdened at letting himself do what he did best was even more remarkable. And Kon usually soaked up every moment of it that he could get. But he'd been steadily focused on note taking for the last half hour instead.
Kon forced himself to focus on Tim instead of the words he was saying. It was easy, similar to when Bart and Gar were talking back and forth about something. Easy to push the buzz of words to the background and focus on something else. But Kon had never been able to do that with Tim before. Everything about him usually held Kon's attention. The cadence of his voice, his mannerisms, the way he'd flick his hair out of his face when he really got going, the blaze of intelligence in his blue eyes, the flex of muscles as Tim remembered to stretch after long stretches. Kon had never been able to force his attention to those details to the background before.
That's what was different!
He stood moving forward, starling Tim mid-rant as he leaned against his desk to look closer at him.
"Repeat that last bit again." He asked.
Tim looked at him, those sharp eyes focused scanning over him to try and detect why he was acting strangely.
Usually Kon would feel vulnerable and flattered at having the full attention of Tim Drake focused on him, but now nothing. He needed to test one final thing. So Kon just waved his hand in a beckon for Tim to start talking again.
"Umm, that they managed to create a form of synthetic kryptonite but it broke down and became inert after 2 minutes. It seemed like they looked into using it as a potential power source after. At least those are the files I'm looking at right now, which honestly isn't that impressive, considering Queen Industries has completely green energy devices that don't start from radioactive products that are readily available.”
"I thought the use of Queen Industry components in other products that were being sold had to pass an ethical review?" Kon questioned, vaguely remembered Tim laughing about how Batman hadn't been able to get approval to add the new power sources to his own gadgets. Having to resubmit the request through Nightwing (for his escrima sticks) and Wayne Enterprises in order to get the approval.
"GeneForge's cover was diagnosing and aiding those with hereditary diseases, all they had to do was find a way to use it for diagnostics and they would have gotten approval. But instead they were so focused on trying to use this fake kryptonite for the same thing." Tim continued attention being pulled back into the puzzle that was the files.
But there was the answer- nothing. Passive interest at the words kryptonite, and because it was a case he'd also been working on. But no interest just because it was Tim talking.
"Unless, they may be attempting to use the synthetic kryptonite to power devices that diagnose someone as Kryptonian." Tim continued, looking through key words to prove his hunch.
Usually this wild fervour would captivate Kon but now... nothing.
Huh?
“Can you just look at me for a sec?” Kon asked leaning even closer, and Tim obliged and looked at him.
Still the same spike of grey in each eye, still the same faded scars at the corners of his mouth, still the same perfect face, but Kon didn’t find it attractive.
What was up with that?
Tim was objectively handsome, and he knew him better than most, knew the heart of Tim behind the pretty face, how could he not be attracted to a handsome, smart, fun, driven person like Tim.
“Huh?” He said leaning back at that realization.
“Konner? You okay?” Tim asked.
“Yeah, well no. I’m not attracted to you at all right now.” Konner blurted out and was rewarded with the rare sight of seeing Tim completely flabbergasted.
“I mean I’m usually a little attracted to you, sometimes a lot but right now- nothin.” Kon admitted. He wasn’t ashamed of his crush, from his discussions with other sidekicks, most of them had been attracted to one of the Robins at some point in time.
Kon leaned forward, and Tim flushed at the proximity. “You’re even wearing the cologne I like and nothing. How is there nothing?” Konner wondered, standing to go call Clark. He was gonna blame this on the pink dust cause why else was he not attracted to Tim Drake?
“Like- Attracted? What do you mean sometimes a lot? Kon!” Tim called after him, “I need answers right now.”
“You’re hot, but dating Bernard.” Kon said, having reached the top of the grand staircase.
“Bernard dumped me two months ago.” Tim said, continuing to rush after him. And while last week that statement would have both upset him, cause why would anyone break up with Tim, and make him happy, because that meant Tim was single again. But now he was just feeling upset.
“Is he stupid? Cause like your hot, funny, smart. And last week I appreciated it a lot more.” Kon sighed in frustration, holding his phone to his ear as it rang.
“Appreciated?” Tim asked, voice choked, “Kon I really need you to stop and explain.”
As the phone continued to ring Selina Kyle walked past at the bottom of the stairs. And Konner felt all the attraction usually reserved for attractive men, rush through him as she smiled and waved.
The dust had turned him straight! In JUNE!!
The call connected, Kon speaking before Clark had a chance, “The pink dust is homophobic!”
***
Across the country Clark was having a very different problem.
He hadn’t been paying attention to this meeting for the past 30 minutes. Because Batman had turned around and all of Clark’s attention had remained focused just below the belt.
Has it always been that perfect? What was Bruce’s workout routine? He wasn’t sure which urge was stronger. The urge to attempt to see if a coin bounced or bite-
Snap out of it Clark. He is your friend, and co-worker, you cannot be thinking about how perfect his butt looks or the defined muscles of his thighs.
Stop it!
This meeting was important; it was about the status of the meta’s that had been rescued from GeneForge.
But Clark had checked up on all of them in person yesterday, and he needed Batman to put his cape back on!
He fought the groan, how did everyone just avoid looking at it. And why couldn't he? Batman didn't ask to have people ogling him, in fact he was asking that everyone focused on the update he was giving them.
“Sadie Richards, has a light based metal ability and looks to be recovering well. She has not been able to turn off the ability but she has confirmed that is a defensive measure and not due to the experimentation.” Batman spoke and Superman remembered the doctors and nurses having to do reinforced sunglasses before entering her room.
But that merely brought to mind the candid shot of Bruce out with Cass, smiling with his sunglasses on.
The headline on the picture had literally been heart throb and Clark was failing to see the flaw in that. He’s always loved seeing Bruce or Batman with any of his children, but for some reason he had never fully appreciated how attractive that was until now, which he could recognize was the worst possible time to realize this.
Batman crossed his arms over his chest, and Clark really wished he could just slap his hands over his eyes so that he would stop recognizing how attractive his friend was.
He needed Batman to put the cape back on. The shapeless, lead lined cape. That hid biceps, broad shoulders, muscled thighs and an ass you could bounce a quarter off of so that Superman could focus on this meeting and stop objectifying his coworker.
“Tina Beckett was the youngest meta we rescued, at just 15. We’re still trying to locate next of kin.” Batman continued.
“Try not to adopt this one Bats.” One of Flash’s said as he chuckled.
“He can’t, no meta’s in Gotham, you know that.” Green Arrow said, always smug about the fact that despite the dislike between him and the Bat he’d never been denied access to Gotham.
“That applies to Superpowered heroes that, if exposed to some of Gotham’s rogues, would become too much of a problem for Gotham’s heroes to deal with. Superman infected with Joker Venom could become a worldwide threat. It does not apply to traumatized children.” Batman spat the last part, Clark knowing that the last thing Bruce would ever do was turn away a child.
He tried to focus on that and not the fact that Batman recognized his strengths. Even though that was equally as distracting, and completely pointless as he was literally one of the strongest men on earth. He did not need to feel the need to preen at the fact that Batman was recognizing that fact.
This was worse than staring at Batman’s ass!
“Red Robin is still going through the files downloaded from the main computer. His report on all the findings will be shared with you all as soon as he completes it. Does anyone have anything else to share?” Batman asked, and Clark cursed how deep his voice was. He needed to go. He needed to go and have a cold shower and remember that Ma had raised him better than this.
He was up and out the Zeta tube before Batman could turn around again. He didn’t think he could handle it if he turned around again.
He knew he was probably going to get a message from Batman or Wonder Woman asking about his hasty exit but right now he just needed space so that he could get his head out of the gutter.
Clark knew Batman. Knew the doubts and fears that haunted Batman’s steps. Knew the pressure he put on himself and his robins. Superman had been there in Batman’s darkness hour when he was so broken he almost crossed his one line. Clark knew Bruce too, had seen his joy in his children, and had written articles about the good work that Wayne Enterprises did. And Clark also knew the Brucie Wayne side of him, and would rather not contribute to the over sexualization of his friend.
He barely remembered to throw the super suit off before stepping under the frigid water. At least it was something unpleasant to focus on. He couldn’t remember being this distracted since he met Lois.
He huffed out a breath scrubbing hands through his hair, as he focused on making his muscles jump in a pattern that mimicked a shiver. One of the things his parents had taught him to do so that he could blend in. But it was something to focus on other than Bruce’s muscles jumping, Damn it!
The keys turning in the lock signalled that Lois was back from work, likely to freshen up for that dinner she had tonight. They had barely seen each other in the past week, each too busy with their own articles.
“Clark?” She spoke, knowing that he’d hear her without added volume. Usually he was touched by that sign of knowing but right now he needed to remind himself that he had been raised to be respectful and stop lusting after Batman.
Knowing that the water did little due to his resilience to temperature, he turned the water off and moved to get redressed in the bedroom.
“I’m in here Lois.” Clark said, smiling as Lois entered the room with a smile of her own.
“So how was the meeting? Anything I can report on?” She asked, teasing lilt to her voice. She was working on a corruption case, having dinner with the whistle blower, and he had been assigned to write about Geneforge.
“Nothing you can’t read about tomorrow morning.” He replied, he wondered if Bruce would read the article. He was friends with Lois and him, did he read their reports, or did he only read the Gotham Gazette. If his only source of news was Vicki Vale then he'd pay for an additional subscription to the paper and drop it off himself. Just to spite Vicki Vale not because his desire to have his friend read his articles seemed to have doubled.
"No sneak peek. Behind the scenes info?" Lois said, entering the bathroom and the scent of her makeup remover wafted out.
Clark bit his lip, should he tell her about staring at Bruce's butt? He felt awful that the idea that his wandering eye could hurt Lois had only just occurred to him. Granted he had been directing most of his attention to try and stop the attention, instead of enjoying the view. Though he had enjoyed the view.
Clark groaned, dropping his head into his hands.
"You okay? Clark?" Lois asked, and he heard her moving closer. He had to tell her. She was his wife and this wasn't something he wanted to keep from her.
"I think I have a crush on Bruce." He said, looking up when her heartbeat didn't even change.
She was still wiping at her eyes, "Okay. And?"
Clark could admit he was confused at Lois' lack of reaction, "I- well, um at the meeting. He wasn't wearing his cape and-" Clark couldn't figure out how to politely word his behaviour when Lois started laughing.
She ducked back into the bathroom, still laughing "Do you have nothing for your article cause you got distracted by Bruce's ass?"
Clark felt heat rise in his cheeks, "Well, umm. I already submitted the article but... yes. Are you not upset?" He asked.
"No. Bruce has an exceptional ass." Lois said and Clark stood in the bathroom doorway, watching her reapply eyeshadow.
"He does." Clark agreed softly, "But I've never noticed before."
"Really?" Lois paused to look at him, her tone incredulous, "Never? Wasn't his old suit tighter?".
She went back to her make-up and Clark awkwardly cleared his throat as heat rose in his cheeks as he remembered the older uniform that had less kevlar more spandex.
"It really was." He cleared his throat again, he couldn't have another shower, his hair was still wet. "But you aren't mad?"
"Are you mad that I noticed?" Lois hit back hands steady as she applied eyeliner.
"Well, no. But my thoughts weren't exactly respectful." He said, flushing further as he remembered the moment he had imagined biting. He shook his head , focusing on Lois' makeup routine. It hadn't faltered, neither had her heartbeat.
"Did you act on them?" Lois asked, holding up two shades of lipstick toward him.
"Of course not." He said pointing to the one on the left.
"Then I'm not mad. Are you mad that I have had daydreams about Wonder Woman's thighs?" Lois asked, running a brush through her hair again to fluff it.
"Well, no. Diana puts a lot of work into her physical strength, I think she'd like that someone appreciates them." Clark said.
Lois just paused to look at him, "Not all of the daydreams are that wholesome, Sweetie. The last time a toxin made you drunk you cried that they were better than yours."
"Well that was before I noticed Batman's today." He said, and Lois laughed walking back into the bathroom,
"So let's be clear. I will not be mad at you for appreciating your Super Human, incredibly attractive co-workers bodies as long as you don't act on the thoughts, will you be mad if I do the same?" She asked, popping open a jewelry box to begin to riffle through it.
"Of course not." Clark could be mad at Lois for something he was also guilty of, and he knew neither of them would ever act on them and most of the time when he admired the appearances of the Justice League it was like one would admire art, Batman had just slipped past that.
“Then we’re fine. Oh you can have Bruce Wayne as your hall pass if you get me an exclusive interview.” Lois said, turning to him as she swapped her earrings.
“My- what?” He asked, voice high. Because he heard her and he understood what she meant, and he was trying really hard to not allow fantasies to take form in his mind. Because had Bruce even been with someone stronger than himself? Not in a restraint or control way but in a rip his shirt off clean across the shoulders, and be carried to the bed way. Had Bruce ever been thrown on to a bed, or had he always been doing the tossing?
Lois was not helping!
“Your hall pass. The one pass you get where you can sleep with someone and it won’t count as cheating.” Lois said, her smirk revealing that she knew exactly how much she was torturing Clark, and was enjoying it.
“Who’s yours?” Clark asked, not out of blind jealousy, more ideal curiosity and a frantic need to stop thinking about Bruce without a shirt.
“Nellie Bly.” Lois answered easily.
“I think she’s dead.” Clark pointed out.
“You say that like it’s something that’s permanent.” She said, pulling a dress out of the closet.
“How many people do we know that have come back?” She said, beginning to get changed, “She’s my hall pass, and Bruce can be yours as long as I get the next exclusive instead of Vickie Vale.” She said spitting the name like poison.
“I don’t think Bruce would want to be a hall pass.” Clark said, because Bruce had a questionable history with romantic partners, but had recently promised his children that all of his future romance partners had to get approval from at least three of the children. And while Clark was close to the collection of Robins it was because of that closeness that he didn’t want to try to explain that their dad was hall pass.
“Mmm.” Lois hummed, “Are you willing to give up those thighs without even asking?”
“You can just ask him for an interview.” Clark pointed out.
“No, because you always insist on being there because you insist that we’ll get put on a watch list, or destroy the democratic structure of the United States if we’re left alone together. If you have either just rocked the world of or had your world rocked by Bruce Wayne, you’ll be too awkward to look us in the face for at least two hours.” Lois said.
Clark had to admit she had a point, but also Bruce couldn’t be alone. His army of children was proof of that. How he unravelled after Jason, how only Tim’s presence helped to heal that void. Bruce couldn’t handle not being needed, and Clark couldn’t do that to him. Because a hall pass was the opposite of commitment, it was literally the person that wouldn't break the permanent commitment you had with a spouse and as much as he was realizing that he would really like to be with Bruce he also cared about him too much to be with him in these circumstances.
"I can't be another person that won't stay for him." Clark said, and Lois just nodded.
"I think we need to call him." She said suddenly.
"Lois please." He began before Lois waved her hand to cut him off.
"Not because of your crush, or well maybe because of your crush, but more because you got exposed to a mysterious substance and are now acting strange." Lois said.
"You complimented his ass too." Clark pointed out.
"Yes, but I have also had my top off for the past minute and you haven't looked down even once." Lois pointed out and Clark glanced down to confirm that she was telling the truth. And where the sight of that was usually highly arousing to him, and was now not, was enough for him to nod.
"Yeah, umm make that call." He said before his own phone was ringing. Kon's name displayed across that screen.
“The pink dust is homophobic!” Kon's voice started as soon as the call connected.
"We're having the opposite problem here." Clark corrected, scrubbing a hand over his face.
"It's Pride Month and that fuckass lab made me straight!" Konner continued, and Clark could hear Tim flustered babbling about attraction in the background.
"It seems to have had the opposite effect on me." Clark revealed.
***
It hadn't been hard for the Justice League to whip up a 'cure'. They were calling it Pink Kryptonite and the cure simply bonded with the small fragments that they had inhaled or had been absorbed through their skin, and allowed their body to naturally flush them out.
Kon had accepted the cure as soon as a dose was available, simply stating that he finally had a chance with Tim Drake and he wasn't letting the wrong sexuality mess that up for him.
The only time it had been free to meet up with Bruce to get his dose was at the Metropolis Pride Parade. Which would have been fine except for the fact that Clark was still hopelessly gay and Bruce was standing in front of him wearing only a strategically draped pride flag and a full face of rainbow makeup that had to have been applied by Stephanie.
“Would you prefer the nasal spray or the tablet?” Bruce asked, and Clark was trying to remember how words worked. He’d been distracted by the Batman suit, and now he was looking at a lot of sparkly skin.
“Which ever will look less like him doing drugs at Pride?” Lois said, and Clark might not be sexually attracted to her right now, but he loved her.
“Tablet.” Bruce said pulling out the small bottle with a single pill inside and Clark was trying really hard to not think too deeply about where he had been keeping that. He also couldn’t look away because the street was full of very attractive men in very little clothing.
Clark accepted the pill, as Lois began a conversation asking why he’d chosen to attend Metropolis Pride.
“Tim’s attending with Konner. I'm showing my support.” It was a simple response and Clark knew he couldn't take the pill yet.
“Can this wait an hour?” He asked and though Bruce was now frowning at him, but he nodded.
“I've been asked to fly over for the parade. It’ll mean more if I'm gay. Right? Instead of just an ally?” Clark asked, because as much as he was enjoying the rainbow booty shorts peeking up from under Bruce’s flag, he didn't feel like he had the right to speak as a member of the community.
But that had to mean more. He’d been asked because it was his city, but as far as anyone knew he was a straight ally, and that's not what this was about. This was about queer people finally having the voice and freedom to be themselves and find that community.
He knew that Superboy was also asked to fly over the parade but he had refused, wanting to spend the day with Tim as civilians.
So Superman was the only option they had. And though he wasn't always gay, right now he was, and it felt right to give this parade a fly over by a gay superhero.
He grabbed the edge of his cape, “I think I'm gonna need something a little different.”
“Way ahead of you.” Lois said, pulling a large inclusive pride flag from her bag.
***
“Is Clark gonna be able to handle the flag all by himself? I know they were expecting you to fly with him?" Tim asked, and Konner was still stuck on how perfectly Tim fit under his arm.
"He's Superman, he'll figure something out." Konner said, unconcerned. The whole parade could catch fire and he wouldn't care as long as he got to keep holding Tim.
Tim looked up at him, a streak of chunky glitter spread across his cheek, Kon gave into the urge to lean down and press his lips to Tim. They'd already shared their first kiss, and second, and so on. But Kon had learned that every time he kissed Tim he smiled, he felt Tim's joy every time they connected and it always made him smile in response.
Cheering started, and Konner knew what they were seeing. Superman draped in a flag, pulling a sign declaring Love is Love; Metropolis Pride. Kon didn't care, Tim was still smiling against him.