Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As far as Kon could tell, it happened because he had been careless. 

-

He ducked behind a chunk of concrete to dodge a blast, cursing as the world tilted on its axis. Robin shouted in his ear through the comm. Something about a weapon being fired. 

What weapon was being fired?

He hopped off the trembling ground and into the air. Everything was going off, every damn weapon was firing. Big and small didn't matter, not when a big weapon could hit like a pebble and a small weapon could hit like Supes on Super-steroids.

Superboy should have destroyed the weapons stockpile when he had the chance. That tiny little split-second when he had a shot mocked him.

Rob ordered them to fall back and regroup. Kon couldn't–

Kon couldn't focus.

Where was Rob? Where was Imp and Wonder?

The blasts made him hold back flinches of pain. They overwhelmed his senses. Fuck his shitty hearing.

He was weak.

Superboy spotted Rob and the rest inside a small opening in the rubble.

He was unobservant.

Kon landed and crawled into the tiny space, sagging against a wall of concrete debris.

"Superboy, are you hurt?"

Kon shook his head.

"Don't worry about me. What are you thinking?"

Rob immediately launched into the new game plan that he could barely hear over the blasts.

Superboy was a liar.

Kon froze as the sound of something new powering up cut through the rest of the noise. Something aimed right towards them.

He slammed his fist into the ground and their fragile shelter exploded into shrapnel.

"Scatter!" 

Rob grappled to a nearby building, Imp became a blur, and Wonder flew across the battlefield. Kon had leaped into the air to avoid the burst of light.

Superboy's eyes widened as a portal formed directly below him. It seemed to have some sort of gravitational pull, one that was stronger than the earth, stronger than Kon could resist. 

Wait.

Wait!

"Rob, don't you dare!" He screamed.

The end of the grapple wrapped around his arm, Kon held onto it on instinct. Two directions of pull threatened to split him into two.

Robin got closer, tugging on the grapple gun with all his strength.

The grapple line snapped.

Kon caught himself on the edge of the portal where wisp met solid pavement. 

Rob slipped with the force. His lenses had gone wide, his heart turned to a panicked pace.

Kon closed his eyes, grasped onto air, and slowed Robin's descent. He opened his eyes when Rob landed right under where the gravity shifted. 

Tim's face had turned blank, no displayed emotion in favor of thinking.

Rob grabbed onto Kon's hand with two of his own. He lost traction quick and Superboy quickly supplemented with his TTK.

"Come on." Robin grunted. "Come on!"

Kon gripped the edge of the portal with his other hand. His breath stuttered when it crumbled.

"Rob, no. Don't! You'll get pulled in too!"

Robin bared his teeth.

"Fuck you!" He yelled. "Fight it like you mean it!"

Kon glared at him.

"Get bitched you bastard! I'm trying!"

His control over Robin's stability slipped for just a second.

Just for one tiny moment, one small plate stopped spinning.

Robin crashed into him.

Kon let go.

They both slipped into the hazy abyss.

-

Pro-tip: Don't hit the side of a fucking building at full speed.

Kon twisted them to take the hit, keeping Tim's head stable with a protective hand as he slowed them down as best he could. They still made the side of the office building shatter.

He winced before getting them to the ground, dusting off the glass that stuck to him.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" Kon huffed as he looked down at Tim's unconscious body.

Alright.

What had Bats said? What were the instructions for situations comparable to this?

He poked his head out of the alleyway they had dropped down to.

Find out where you are.

"You're shitting me."

Japan.

They were in Japan, judging by the street signs. The civilians looked odd. A few of them had some sort of physical or animal based mutation that didn't seem to be commented upon or treated as out of the ordinary.

Change into civilian clothes.

Kon zipped up his jacket to cover the S-Shield and utility belt and tried to shake Rob awake. He groaned and tugged off the over-layers of the Robin costume himself. The undershirt and leggings would just have to do. Kon put the overlayers as well as the mask he carefully separated from Tim's face into an expandable bag that he had found in Tim's utility belt.

Find help.

Fuck that.

They'd be fine.

He carried Tim on his back and started walking.

They're fine. They just look like a teen carrying another sleeping teen.

...Ignoring the grime and dust and blood.

Yeah, they need to find a private bathroom or something.

Kon narrowed his eyes at a sign claiming that a store was specific to Kyushu.

Alright.

Kyushu, Japan.

Sweet.

There were also heroes here?

...Yeah, they were getting too many stares for how fucked up they looked. Kon snuck them onto a roof. People never looked up, right?

Tim wasn't waking up. He was still breathing, still had a beating heart, but he was firmly unconscious.

"Dumbass." He shook Tim's head from side to side after he took the time to wipe off most of his face with some alcohol wipes. "Quit worrying me."

Kon froze as he heard feathers. Footsteps–sturdy boots, not unlike his own combats– came from behind. Easy sounding laughter came from a guy with hollow bones.

Bird mutation?

He turned slowly.

The dude looked like some of the adverts on the buildings and posters. They claimed he was the Number Three Hero. He looked about Nightwing's age, if a bit younger.

Hawks, if he read it correctly.

His hold tightened on Tim.

"You two skipping school?" Hawks asked playfully. "Don't worry, I won't tell. It looks to be for good reason." He winked, holding a gloved finger to his lips. 

He shook out his wings as if it was nothing and a feather drifted to the ground.

Kon lept at the excuse to explain away Tim's state.

"My friend keeps getting bullied." He huffed, the Japanese choppy in his mouth. "Class is boring anyways, we're so tired."

Tim's fingers started twitching. Hand it to Tim to wake up at the worst time.

"Mind if I stay? Gotta make sure you two are safe and all that."

Kon glared at him, absently tapping an explanation to catch Tim up to speed when Tim tugged on Kon's sleeve.

"Go away, Hawks."

The man shrugged and gave them a two-fingered salute, flying off. He left the feather.

Tim opened his eyes, chuckling as he sat up and scanned the rooftop. The change to Japanese wasn't shaky like it had been for Kon.

"That was easier than expected. No one back home just fucks off like that."

Kon shook his head.

"His wings are cool as fuck." He looked pointedly at the unattended feather.

Tim frowned in thought as he studied the feather without picking it up.

The feather had a purpose. No hero just leaves something from their body around the city willy-nilly, not unless they were looking for someone to pop a clone baby out of a test tube. Both of them knew that fact intimately.

"Wanna keep the feather as a keep-sake?" Tim suggested, a certain spark in his eyes.

Kon side-eyed him.

"Don't tell me you're getting a new hero to obsess over." Don't tell me you want to hold onto a possible surveillance device.

Tim winked.

"I mean..."

He was going to fuck with the hero, wasn't he.

Kon snorted, picking up the feather and handing it over to Tim. 

"Little shit. We don't even know where it's going." 

They were functionally homeless, jobless, and former students. How were they going to keep up appearances when an unknown hero had a chance of listening? They didn't even know how long they were going to stay.

"I'll find a place." Tim promised.

-

Kon bit back his laughter as Tim tucked the feather into some kid's backpack at the mall. There was something electric about the guy, something that made him stand out and become an easy target.

Might just be the black zig-zag in blond hair.

-

They managed to forge documents and find a decent enough apartment. Japan was cheap compared to America prices.

Tim sold information that Kon overheard. It wasn't the best but the pay was good enough that they both agreed that they could set aside acting like heroes for a little. Blackmail wasn't blackmail when you just burst in with heat vision and projectiles.

They blended in. Tim registered himself as quirkless and Kon registered (and understated) his TTK.

They were chill. They were civilians and got Hawks plushies just to rep their city's hero.

Then Tim saw an advert for U.A. A hero school. They had applications open. Tim saw it while searching the internet for any events.

Kon looked over Tim's shoulder, humming.

"That cannot be real."

Tim smirked.

"It's real." He opened a new tab on the computer. "I'm applying."

Kon looked up where it was on his phone.

"We might as well just move." He sighed. "It's seventeen hours by train and I'm going with you."

Tim beamed like he did after a mission goes his way.

"Hell yeah! I'm going to go into the Support course with a goal of going into the Hero course. You should do the Hero course exam, you're bound to ace it."

Kon frowned.

"Why don't we do the Hero exam together?" He tugged on his hair. Kon really needed to cut it. "We've been heroes for ages."

Tim tilted his head back to glare at him.

"I'm quirkless. I need to go with the status quo before breaking it. There's no powerless heroes here like we had." Tim rolled his eyes. "Every single hero is a meta."

Kon bit the inside of his cheek.

"This feels demeaning."

Tim sagged, pausing his search for study materials.

"It is." He agreed.

It wasn't fair. 

They got the new apartment close enough to the school and Kon did the written exam easily enough due to the amount of studying that Tim did with him. The physical exam before that was something else, though.

Kon left Tim at the apartment, much to his distaste, and sat through the debrief. 

It was boring. Hell, the uptight dude in the glasses was the most exciting part of the debrief and Present Mic was doing all he could to make himself entertaining!

Four bots. Zero, one, two, and three points. The zero pointer was supposed to be the giant distraction. The thing that all of these civilian raised kids would run from.

Tim could get the most points in a heartbeat, not counting whatever other scoring shit that they did. The bot-sourced points were for the students. What else were they using to score them? 

Rescue shit wasn't exactly possible given that none of them would be acting like civilians in the test, but it wouldn't hurt to take that into account. Helping others was a stereotypical mark of a hero after all.

Kon grinned.

Take out the zero pointer at the beginning, take out the distraction.

Nah, that wouldn't be fun for the other kids.

He walked up to the testing area gates, weaving his way to the front of the crowd. Kon had to remember to restrain himself, of course. He couldn't just use more than what was recognized as his "quirk."

His bad for not expecting to study to be a hero.

Damn, that's a horrible statement. Study? For heroism? Bart would hurl.

The exam started in a rush. Kon immediately flew up to a rooftop. He said he could manipulate anything under–what–two hundred kilos on his quirk registration papers? Including himself? Damnit that was so low.

He crushed every robot he could make contact with, barely pausing enough to take in the number. 'Course he had to tug up some kids away from being collateral to some other kids' quirks, but that was just how it goes when you're not supposed to use your quirk in public.

What did he name the quirk again? It had to be something other than TTK.

On second thought, it was more like what did Tim name the quirk. His smart ass probably named it something like Super Telekinesis.

Kon crouched down behind some scrap metal when he went back to street level, snickering as some green haired kid ran around like a chicken with its head cut off.

The zero pointer hadn't come out yet.

Just how big would it be? He grinned. It could be as big as one of those Gundam mechs that Tim was always building at 1/60 scale. The real deal were tall enough to rival sky scrapers.

Kon's head jerked to the main street.

Giant caterpillar tracks, the noise was like listening to tanks. Wasn't the zero pointer the only one with caterpillar tracks that big? He laughed with glee, running towards it. There was this girl trapped in its path, he needed to handle that first before he could have his fun.

The green hair kid passed him in a blur, his fist glowing orange.

In two seconds flat the kid had a broken arm, a dent in the robot that was quickly making its way through its body, and he was actively falling from a fatal height.

Holy shit. That dumbass. The girl had been brought up into the air as well!

...Rob would do the same thing in a heartbeat if he thought he needed to.

Alright, the girl was slowing her descent enough even though she looked like she was about to be incredibly sick. He'd handle the green dumbass, then. There was no need for her to overextend herself.

Kon lept up and caught him. He brought the kid to the ground gently enough to not jostle his completely fucked arm.

Kid seemed to be in shock.

Kon frowned when he thrashed, crying out about points. He was about to speak when Present Mic announced that their time was up.

A little old lady in a white lab coat made her way to where they were. She motioned to put the kid down and he did. He winced at how even the slightest change made the resident dumbass whimper. She handed him a gummy and he sighed and ate it. She was the nurse from the looks of it, she knew best.

Then the old lady kissed the dumbass on the head.

He tensed up before sighing when it was just for the activation of her healing quirk.

Damn, that kid really had no self-preservation.

-

Kon picked up their letters when he came in from jogging in the local park. Tim was on the couch with some chips and he was... eating them with chopsticks. The freak. That was just more shit to clean.

"Rob, here." He tossed Tim's letter from U.A at him.

Tim caught it with ease, waiting until they sat down next to each other to open the letter.

Kon tore open his letter first, flinching back when it turned into a projection of All Might.

"What the fuck?!"

All Might listed his points. He'd ended up with a really decent score given that he was holding back. 

"Welcome, Conner Kent, to the U.A hero course!"

Tim squeezed Kon's hand as he laughed breathlessly.

"Open yours," Kon said eagerly. "Open it!"

Tim didn't get a projection of All Might, though he did get accepted into the support course.

"I'll probably just keep remaking Bat-tech until I can transfer over." Tim mused. "Our heroes don't seem to have ever existed in this universe. It's odd."

Kon looked at the required uniform and school supplies. He smirked at the lack of regulation around hair, shoes, and piercings. That was rare, especially for Japan.

"We'll go shopping for the supplies tomorrow." Kon shrugged. "I'll see if I can get some Gang Orca or Gunhead stationary."

Tim glared at him.

"I talked about how different they act in high stress situations versus how they act towards civilians and kids one time!"

"You like them!" He teased.

"I do not have a Pro Hero crush!"

Chapter Text

It was odd when the first day of school rolled around. The U.A campus was huge, and even though Kon had already seen how big it was during the exams, it was just plain weird that the high school was that big.

Honestly, he hadn't expected the uniform differences either. Tim had scolded him for accidentally getting their blazers mixed up that morning. Apparently the difference was in the buttons on the shoulders. Hero course had one on each shoulder, while Support had two.

They had just scrawled their initials on the size tags of their blazers to fix the issue.

At least they could tell clearly whose shoes were whose even though they wore similar combat boots. It would be a shame if their one pair of shoes each that actually fit them properly had to be fought over. 

Fucking quirked toe joints.

Tim and Kon split up at the stairs. Tim went to Class 1-F while Kon went to 1-A.

He tugged at his tie, giving in and unbuttoning the first two buttons of the uniform shirt. 

He slipped past the uptight glasses dude, the girl, and the green haired kid, all of whom were from the exam. He slumped into a seat near the back and settled his backpack by his feet, just watching the classroom.

...The kid they planted the Big Brother Feather on was there. He didn't change his bag.

Small world?

Kon resisted the urge to groan into his hands. He might as well try making friends with the guy, the electric dude reminded him of Bart.

Bart, who they left behind. Bart, who is stuck in their home universe, alongside Cassie, who must be worried sick.

Fuck, Clark. What was Clark thinking? Was he trying to get them back?

Kon scuffed his boot against the ground to recenter himself, watching as their homeroom teacher crept in after some commotion from the exam trio. He blinked in surprise at how tired the man looked. It was as if Tim was in his thirties. He lugged a bright yellow sleeping bag behind him. He remarked about how slow they were to shut up before introducing himself.

"Hello, I'm Shota Aizawa. Your teacher.'" The man said, obviously with no small amount of regret due to having to teach an entire classroom of kids. He tugged out a bunch of gym uniforms from his sleeping bag. "Right. Let's get to it. Put these on and head outside."

No orientation? Interesting. They likely were using the orientation time to get a head-start. 

Kon changed and fell into step with the green kid, Midoriya, if he heard the glasses guy correctly on the last name. They walked down to the P.E Grounds and Kon spared a wave at Tim when he spotted him.

"You good, Midoriya?" Kon asked. "You really got..." Don't say fucked up. Don't say fucked up. "Put in bad shape."

Midoriya chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"I got my quirk late and I'm still learning how to control it. I'm all good now, though! Recovery Girl healed me up really good." He tilted his head before his eyes brightened in true recognition. "Oh! You're the one that caught me, thank you so much! You kept tugging the other students out of the way of more destructive quirks!" He beamed, bowing down slightly in thanks.

Kon smiled.

"It's nothing, really. If you need any help controlling your quirk, my friend and I can help. Tim's really good at figuring out quirk limits without injury."

Tim wasn't the main strategist of Young Justice for nothing.

Midoriya nodded.

"You and your friend are American, right? I think, because of the accent and how you look and all, and you called your friend by his American sounding name." He rambled. "Not that I think you two shouldn't be here! You're in U.A just like the rest of us!"

Kon waved him out of the growing panic. God, the walk was seeming longer by the second.

"It's no big deal! Yeah, we were raised in America and only last year moved to Japan. It was for a student exchange at an international school. English was the most used language there so I haven't really had a chance to speak Japanese as often." He explained, thankful that he had sat with Tim and created a solid backstory. "I'm Conner Kent."

Midoriya grinned at him.

"My name is Izuku Midoriya!" 

They chatted for a bit more before they reached where Aizawa was. Kon had been setting the pace, so they were a little ahead of the rest of the class. 

"Strength enhancement quirk?" He asked. "It looks like hysterical strength taken to the extreme." Kon remarked, concerned.

Izuku nodded.

"Yeah, I'm working on it. Telekinesis? My bet is one hundred kilograms limit?"

Kon winked, thanking every single ounce of restraint in his body that he didn't visibly go over his legal limit.

"Double that, actually." 

Izuku's eyes lit up and his hands twitched as if he was yearning to write something down.

"That's so interesting! My mom has a minor object attraction quirk and that was the first quirk I've ever studied before I switched to hero quirks. I haven't really studied limits but I have studied uses and situations and you are really cool in how you use your quirk! It's like Uraraka's but weaker and with more control over the object!" 

Uraraka?

That was the girl from the exam, right?

Weaker? Wait, Uraraka has a higher limit compared to his legal one?

Kon wracked his mind for an example, and restrained himself from smacking himself in the face.

She was floating herself and a chunk of robot! Sure, she vomited afterwards, but that hunk of metal was still about three tons!

Regular people were that strong here?!

Hero society.

Fucking hero society.

It wasn't the same as back home. Here, anyone can become a hero and there are paths that support it. Paths that let you dip your toes in the water as if it were something like an engineering major.

Back home, it was rare. Hell, you ended up dragged in more often than you volunteered.

Kon didn't sign up. He was made to fill a vacant slot.

He signed up for the Hero course, though. What did that say about him? About what he was made to do?

Right, Izuku. He was staring at him with a concerned look. Quit the whining.

"That's really sweet." He managed.

How the hell did he fuck up almost immediately?

He focused on the Quirk Apprehension Test, ignoring what Aizawa said about expulsion. Expulsion was just to motivate them, Batman did that shit all the time.

Kon chuckled to himself as he did each activity. What Tim put all of YJ through when he wanted to know what he was working with was way harder. This felt like a field day at the end of a school year. 

It was fun, if fun was a test.

It went by in a blur until Izuku broke his finger on his second try at throwing the ball. The first try was intercepted by Aizawa erasing his quirk so he would know to try it properly.

And then the human equivalent of an angry pomeranian and chihuahua mix standing in front of him lunged at the kid, hands popping with grip-sized blasts. The guy screamed about how Izuku was supposed to have been quirkless.

Izuku did say he was a late-bloomer.

Aizawa's scarf restrained the angry guy while his own hair raised on end and his eyes glowed. The blasts stopped. 

Kon stopped his absentminded hovering as someone beside him gasped about not being able to feel their quirk. There was a sinking feeling in his chest about how Aizawa's quirk worked.

It seemed to work like a wave, light possibly, extending from the eye and targeting anyone in his field of vision. It erased quirks until Aizawa blinked.

Kon didn't have a quirk.

He had powers. He didn't have a quirk.

He had to act like he did have one. Having a teacher with that quirk wasn't confidence inducing.

The teacher grumbled about dry-eye and they moved on with the rest of the fitness tests.

When it was time for lunch, Izuku went to Recovery Girl while Aizawa walked up to Kon.

"I need to speak with you." He stated.

Fuck. Fuck, he was so careless.

"Could it wait until after lunch?" Kon asked. He glanced over to where Tim was sat down and eating his lunch against a tree while he sketched something in a Gunhead notebook. Definitely some new and improved tech designs. "Please, sir?"

Aizawa tilted his head, following Kon's line of sight. He chuckled as if Kon wasn't about to walk to his death.

"I'm afraid not, Kent. Walk with me up to the classroom?"

Kon sagged.

"Yes, sir."

They walked back in silence. Kon didn't even try to slip from the Pro Hero's watch.

He curled his legs under him in the air once the classroom door closed, not bothering to hide the power usage. Aizawa leaned against his podium.

"You did well on your practical exam as well as the Quirk Apprehension Test." He praised. "Your quirk's limit, however."

Kon frowned.

"My two hundred kilo limit, sir?" He asked.

Aizawa shrugged.

"Seems a bit odd that it hasn't changed since your quirk manifested when you were five, isn't it?" He mentioned breezily. "You would think, since you're such a capable student that has such a handle on your quirk that you can fly without handling your own internal organs incorrectly, you would have a higher limit. Uraraka could only float a short ton when her quirk manifested, and look where she is at six tons."

Kon tensed while Aizawa smiled like a cat.

"I haven't seen a change in my time of training." He lied. "What is registered is still up to date, don't worry, sir."

"I see." Aizawa nodded. "Then you wouldn't mind going down to the nurse's office to update your quirk forms just for the sake of being thorough?"

"I– Teach, what are you getting at?" Kon forced his face to display confusion. "I swear to you, I don't need to do that."

His phone vibrated in his pocket. Tim.

"Alright, then. What are you running from?" He prodded.

Kon, running from something?

"Why would I be running when I'm flying, Silly?" He laughed, bringing up the Superboy persona around him like a shield.

Find help. Batman ordered.

A hero was right in front of him, asking if he needed help. His teacher was asking if he needed help.

"You tell me, Kiddo." Aizawa looked him in the eyes. There was concern–

Kon's phone buzzed again. Tim must've been getting antsy for him to try again so soon.

Kon just shook his head.

"I'm not in danger, sir."

Aizawa examined him for a few seconds before seemingly moving on.

"I have a theory. Care to indulge?"

Kon huffed.

"Sure, whatever. Order me around, Teach."

Aizawa chuckled.

"Turn around."

...This was the trap.

He turned his back anyways. Kon would just have to hope that Aizawa wouldn't use his quirk.

He stilled, just letting himself breath. One second. Two.

He heard the rustle of hair standing on end and twisted back around.

Aizawa used his quirk.

Shit.

"It's not a quirk," Aizawa tilted his head. His hair was floating and his eyes were like if Kon brought heat vision up into his eyes without releasing it. Kon was still floating, still had his powers. It wasn't like how Aizawa's quirk effected the rest of the class and they both knew it. "Is it, Kent?"

Kon let his boots touch the ground with a dull thump. Aizawa returned to normal, blinking hard as if he desperately needed eyedrops. He really should use some.

"Nah." He fingered the proof that Tim was with him in this dimension. The batarang's edge pressed against the pad of his finger, hidden away in the pocket of his gym uniform. He hadn't been able to be with him all day.

They stood in silence for a moment. Aizawa narrowed his eyes.

"...Care to share?"

Kon grinned at him, a shakey shakey thing.

"Nah."

He sent him a two fingered salute and ran off to join Tim for lunch.

Eraserhead didn't follow.

-

Kon put his head into Tim's lap for the rest of lunch, coming down from the high of almost being fully found out. Tim ran gentle fingers through his curls.

"Aizawa knows that my "quirk" isn't a quirk." He muttered.

Tim nodded, matching his volume.

"Eraserhead's your teacher?"

Kon nodded in reply.

"I'm sorry."

Tim shook his head fondly.

"Shut the fuck up. It was bound to happen eventually with his quirk." He responded under his breath. "We'll figure it out, won't we?"

Kon closed his eyes.

"Yeah. Yeah, we will."

Chapter Text

There was a definite change after Eraserhead found out.

For starters, Kon found out who the guy was in a relationship with. Present Mic was not subtle in the slightest about sending him concerned glances during English class. English was an easy class! Hell, he spent more time tutoring classmates than on his own homework.

So Aizawa told Yamada. It was easy to assume that he was the only other person he told, given that no one else had pulled Kon into a classroom to interrogate him. He wouldn't count on that, though.

Eventually, Yamada held him back after class when they let out for lunch, citing a want to revise his curriculum with a native English speaker. At least Yamada had a believable lie for the crowd of curious students.

Kon sat on his desk while Yamada sat in a chair beside him.

"You're not actually going to go over the curriculum with me for my input, are you?" He sighed.

Mr. Yamada shook his head.

"No, Little Listener. Can you guess the actual reason?"

Kon leaned back, texting Tim without looking.

"Quirk registration forms?" He tried. "I don't think it's as big of a deal as y'all are making it out to be. My quirk really hasn't changed since I was five."

Yamada chuckled and waved his hands.

"No, no, my husband already covered that." Fucking knew it. "What is more concerning is that we can't reach any of your emergency contacts."

There was a knock at the door before Tim slid it open just in time.

Oh, thank fuck.

"Tim! I thought you were in your Development class." Kon hopped off the desk and ran over to him.

Tim sheepishly waved his wrapped hand. His face was smeared with soot on one side, as if a minor explosion happened next to him.

"I burnt myself on the solder." He said. "Can you help me with my stuff? I have to go down to Recovery Girl."

Mr. Yamada blinked in surprise.

"Do you not trust your other classmates with your things?" He asked, concerned.

Tim smiled, an embarrassed flush rising to his cheeks.

"I'm quirkless and Kon is my one friend." He scratched the wrapping around his hand. "Sorry, Mr. Yamada, but can this wait?"

Yamada nodded.

"That's perfectly alright, Drake. Go ahead, Little Listeners."

With those words of permission, Tim grabbed Kon's hand with his free one and dragged him off.

"Sorry, Mr. Yamada!" Kon called out right before Tim re-shut the door.

-

"You're quite the celebrity." Tim snarked as they got his stuff from the Development studio before walking to Recovery Girl's office.

Kon groaned.

"I'm sorry! Did you seriously burn yourself for me?"

Tim nodded jerkily.

"And I'd do it again, shut the fuck up." He cut into Kon's interruption before it even started. "I need to get the heat off you or something, something that'll distract the teachers long enough to forget that they didn't fully look into you." He muttered.

Kon thought for a moment. Didn't some of the girls plan how to avoid this one kid? Mineta, the perv's name was.

"There's this guy that sexually harasses any girl he can set his sights on. Mineta, ball hair, looks like a toddler? He's in Gen Ed." He mentioned.

Tim grinned. There was something feral about how his teeth looked nestled between his lips.

"Oh, he's going to make for amazing entertainment." He snickered.

Kon shook his head fondly.

"Come on, look suitably in pain." He ordered. "Also, tell me. Were you over-exaggerating how little you trust your class?"

Tim grumbled, pinching his eyebrows together appropriately.

"No, it's actually that bad." He shook his head. "The teacher, Mr. Maijima, is good about shutting down the quirkist comments before it gets too violent or disruptive after the first time, but I don't trust any of them for shit."

Kon frowned.

"Are there any that need me to talk to them?" He stressed his words.

Tim side-eyed him.

"Don't even think about it." He deadpanned.

Kon rolled his eyes before tugging Tim into the office.

"Fine, get your burn looked at, dumbass."

Recovery Girl peaked behind a curtain to one of the cots before making her way over to them. She spotted Tim's wrapped hand and tutted, leading him to sit on a free cot.

"You Support students." She huffed. "Burn? Go ahead and unwrap it, Honey."

Tim nodded.

"Yes, Ma'am." He pursed his lips as he took off the gauze.

Recovery Girl nodded in approval at how it was treated.

"You seem good, Dearie, would you like for me to use my quirk so you can return to class as usual?" She asked.

"I would love that, thank you, Ma'am."

Recovery Girl pressed a kiss to Tim's wrist and the burn disappeared before Tim wiped off the ointment that lingered on his fingers with the offered alcohol wipe.

"You should be all set." She informed them. "Time for a gummy and you'll be on your way."

Tim blinked owlishly.

"Gummy?" He looked over at Kon questioningly while Recovery Girl went to her desk. "You didn't mention that to me after your exams."

Kon scratched his cheek.

"It's for raising your blood sugar, her quirk makes it drop so she gives you a way to raise it quickly." He explained before Recovery Girl could. "She's partial to hero shaped gummies."

Tim hummed. A small packet of All Might gummies hit him between the eyes before he could catch it.

"Have a nice day, Dears!"

-

Tim chewed on the gummies while they walked back to their classes hand in hand. Kon had their passes in his pocket since they ate lunch in Recovery Girl's office and she didn't want to rush them.

"Hey, I could just skip to hang out with you and watch you during Herorics." He tilted his head as Kon plucked a pink gummy from the bag and tossed it into Tim's mouth. Tim laughed and ate it. "Oh sweet, strawberry's my favorite– Anyways, I want to examine all of the quirks in person."

Kon raised an eyebrow.

"Power Loader won't care?"

Tim shook his head.

"Nah, he's chill like that as long as I'm ahead of the prompts." He shrugged.

Kon hummed, waving at Izuku when they walked into Midnight's art lecture.

"Sure, why not. Go talk to Midnight when she's done with instruction and mention that you're my boyfriend, she's a sucker for romance like that and she'll let you sit with me." He muttered.

Tim sent him a look. Seriously? Isn't Midnight ruthless? He seemed to beam into Kon's head.

Kon nodded and put their passes onto her desk before guiding Tim to Kon's seat.

Midnight met Kon's eyes and looked between him and Tim before she grinned and let them be. When independent work rolled around, Ms. Kayama didn't bother them.

Tim rested his chin on his fist.

"I wasn't expecting her to just leave us be like that."

Kon shrugged.

"We weren't subtle and she has shit to grade."

Izuku turned towards them, smiling.

"I was wondering where you went, Conner! It's been a while since Present Mic held you back and I didn't see you at lunch." He frowned. "What was that about?"

Kon shrugged again.

"He didn't get a chance to say since this one," He nudged Tim. "Didn't want to leave his stuff unattended while going to Recovery Girl for his burn."

Tim shook his head in exasperation.

"My classmates are mean about me being quirkless." Tim sighed. "If I leave my stuff, then it's going to get messed with. It's been like this since we were kids, Kon, you know that." He rubbed at his forehead in faux annoyance.

Izuku went quiet.

"Izuku Midoriya, meet Tim Drake: Quirk Analyst of the Support Course. Tim Drake, meet Izuku Midoriya: Quirk Analyst of the Hero Course." Kon gestured to each of them.

"I used to get bullied for that, too." Izuku whispered. "Now I'm a glass cannon."

Tim blinked.

"Kon, you were right." He stated with a grin forming on his lips. "We're eerily similar and I need to aid with his quirk."

Kon smiled.

"It would be awesome for you two to compare notes."

Izuku laughed with sudden glee, digging into his backpack for a beat up notebook, some pages near the back had been ripped out of it, where the cover met the spine had a noticeable gap. Three pages, possibly five, were missing.

"This is my most recently filled notebook." He held it out to Tim.

Tim got out his laptop and opened it to the latest folder of quirk entries.

"This is my most recent round of examination." He held it out to Izuku.

Kon leaned back and watched as the two nerded out over quirk analysis.

He might've created a monster.

Chapter Text

Izuku put his head in his hands when it was announced that his team would be up against Bakugou's team in the Battle Trials.

"This will actually kill me." Izuku groaned. "Kacchan will murder me in cold blood."

Kon grinned, patting Izuku on the shoulder before looking around for his teammate.

"Yaoyorozu! Bestie! I have an idea!" He spotted her hero costume and winced. "...Two ideas."

Yaoyorozu frowned, tugging at the costume in an attempt to get a more supportive position.

"What's with that look, Kent?" She asked.

Kon shook his head, shoving his hands into his leather jacket pockets. He had gone with his Superboy suit and went with Supernova. If it wasn't entirely broke, don't fix all of it.

"I'll show you alternative costume-to-skin surface area designs with better chest support later if you want me to. Your choice. It just looks painful and my dumb mouth ran." He said simply. "Anyways, wanna hear my idea for being unbeatable villains?"

Yaoyorozu smiled dangerously.

"Let's hear it."

-

Izuku's team won.

Kon laughed as he held Jiro and Kaminari in place and secured his own team's win.

The decoy had worked wonderfully. Yaoyorozu had materialized the peices and Kon had constructed it three floors below their actual set-up. It was convincing enough and quick enough that Kaminari had paused after touching it, surprised that they hadn't won.

Sure, Yaoyorozu had torn her costume in the process of trying to practically 3D print everything out of her at once to save time but it was nothing that sacrificing his jacket momentarily for her dignity as she fixed it couldn't help.

Honestly, he was just lucky that the team-up turned out awesome. If he had gotten a partner like Iida or Kirishima, he couldn't've guaranteed victory.

When they were walking back to the surveillance building, Kon knocked his shoulder against her's.

"How familiar are you with guns?" He asked, just out of his own curiosity and a vague yearning to go hunting again like he used to do with Pa Kent.

Yaoyorozu gave him a well-deserved look of suspicion.

"Be aware that Japan gun laws are very strict." She huffed. She then leaned in just to utter under her breath. "Very familiar, considering that I do airsoft to blow off steam." She crossed her arms and whistled innocently.

Kon beamed, something lightening in his chest.

"I'll keep that in mind."

-

The Quirk Analyst Duo got far enough into discussing Izuku's quirk that it was only natural that Izuku and Tim were jumping at the bit to test ideas. 

Problem: Kon didn't know the next time he would get absolutely bodied by a well-meaning teacher. It was bad enough that Japan didn't have a straightforward path to emancipation, so they had to put their unreachable parents down in the first place. Clark, Lois, Janet, and Jack didn't even exist in the dimension. Every new apartment meant forged permission documents in order to live on their own with "overseas parents."

And quirk testing meant adult supervision.

Izuku solved that problem when he snuck his phone into class to text the groupchat they shared. Kon almost died right there.

Cannon-kun: did i ever mention that All Might is my mentor? Since he was there when my quirk manifested? If it wasn't for him, my quirk would have killed me already.

Mech-kun: KWSK

Mech-kun: NO??? THE FUCK????

Tele-kun: WKTK KWSK YOU BASTARD

Tele-kun: THIS CHANFES EVERYTHING

Kon glared at Izuku, the dumbass who didn't tell them this shit earlier and who could only smile at him.

Tim texted again.

Mech-kun: ...is all might going to supervise then?

Cannon-kun: yes w

All Might glossed over what information he was given about the students, only wanting to see information as it spilled out of their pores.

Kon smirked.

All Might didn't question.

He could work with that, at least until Tim got a plan for Mineta big enough that it'll cover Kon properly.

After Heroics came and went, Kon tugged Izuku over to the training facility that they had planned on meeting at. 

Izuku's hand was calloused, not as much as Tim's were, or what Kon's were supposed to be, it was gentler. His knuckles weren't flattened like Tim's or dented into his skin when relaxed like Kon's were. 

He was a regular human with a quirk, studying to become a hero. His fingers will get fucked, his knuckles will start to flatten, scars will become permanent.

That was the mark of a human hero.

Kon let himself revel in the hands of a civilian for a little bit more.

He sighed fondly, tightening his grip around Izuku's ink splattered hand for a split second before letting him go when they finally got to Gym Gamma.

Tim smiled at them, bounding forward to press a kiss against Kon's cheek as if it was just for the hell of it. Kon snorted and pushed his face away, watching as Tim got this look in his eyes.

"You only ever bring out the PDA when it's useful, what's up?"

Tim glanced back meaningfully at the number one hero who suddenly gave off the impression that he wanted to be anywhere but there.

Ah, fucking with heroes. Of course.

Kon rolled his eyes and waved. All Might waved back.

Dude didn't even do anything to piss Tim off, not like Eraserhead or Present Mic or Hawks.

"Come on," Izuku beamed. "What are we testing first?"

Tim tilted his head.

"Your ability to accept your quirk as your own." He stated.

Izuku paused.

"What do you mean?" He frowned. "It's my quirk, of course it's my own."

Kon bonked him on the head, thinking of all the times that Izuku would talk about percentages and where to direct power.

"You're using it like it's a weapon that doesn't fit you right!" He scolded. "A quirk is an extension of your body, something that's so ingrained in you that if it gets taken away– it's like getting cut off from your body. That's why Mr. Aizawa's quirk is so effective. He disables the quirk, frightening the target and making them have to rely on something that they might not have as much experience with."

Izuku started pacing.

"I don't know how to think of it as part of me, not with how long I've been without a quirk!"

Tim cleared his throat pointedly and Izuku stilled.

Kon glanced over to him. He wiggled his fingers. Kon snorted before holding out his hand to Izuku.

"Lemme show you something."

Izuku took his hand hesitantly. When Kon let the TTK layer that he constantly had over his skin spread over to Izuku, his eyes widened. Tim had described it once as the sensation of pulling on the end of an electric shock gag chewing gum packet. It was comparable to a constant harmless electric shock.

"Interesting." Izuku breathed, questions absolutely on the tip of his tongue.

Tim cut in before he had a chance to ramble.

"Kon always has his quirk over his body in some way, it's how he makes himself fly and almost entirely invulnerable." He explained. "Try it with your quirk and fight me."

Izuku hummed before colored lightning slowly started creeping over his body.

"I don't–" Izuku stammered once he realized what came next.

Tim strided up to him, holding a staff to his throat in one swift movement.

"Fight me!" He demanded.

Kon stepped back, letting go of Izuku's hand and pulling back his TTK.

All Might took a step forward, as if to intervene. Kon shook his head and the number one hero tentatively let them be.

Izuku was forced into the defensive, just barely dodging each of Tim's attacks. Izuku seemed faster, less impacted by the world around him. 

Then Tim got him against the wall.

Then Tim started poking at a quirked bear.

The guy looked defeated, just curled in on himself while his body pulsed with energy. His hands were busy keeping Tim's staff away from him.

"I've heard Bakugou call you Deku," He mused, leaning in closer. "I wonder, are you actually a Deku like he claims?"

Izuku grunted, pushing against Tim's insistent staff. The context was different from when they were deciding hero names. The mocking tone was still twisted within the word. Uraraka wasn't comparing it to Dekiru, not here.

"I'm not a Deku."

The whisper was so low that Kon could barely hear it.

Tim tilted his head, blinking innocently.

"You haven't shown it to be false." He goaded. "Show me."

For the first time in his life, Kon saw Izuku glare. He raised his head, his green eyes flashing with anger, and there was something inhuman about the way his eyes glowed. His fists clenched as the energy coursing through him became brighter and he actually broke Tim's staff.

"I am not a useless doll to be discarded!" Izuku screamed.

Both Tim and Kon grinned as Tim was forced back. Izuku began to retaliate in earnest. All Might had this look of pride, as if Izuku was his son.

Tim's eyes widened as Izuku finally got hits in, a lapse of expression control showcasing how powerful the hits became. It was only Tim's experience with fighting Bart and Kon that kept him standing. 

"This is cool as fuck." Kon breathed. "Tim actually has to try."

All Might sent him a considering stare.

"What do you mean by that, Young Kent?" He asked.

Kon waved a hand.

"Tim's quirkless, yeah? He's been training and fighting and shit since he was like, ten, back in America. It's been a while since he's had to fight someone on his level, even if only with powers."

All Might hummed, his brows pinching together.

"You would think he would have applied to the Hero course with his combat abilities, even quirkless."

Kon shrugged.

"He planned on transferring in from the start. He's in Support currently." His eyes got dragged back to the fight and he winced as Izuku got slammed onto the ground. Tim got slammed into the floor immediately after. "I think the transfer after the Sports Festival will go through."

All Might patted Kon's head while scanning the fight.

"I think so, too, Young Kent."

A split second before Kon was about to call it, All Might stepped in and plucked Izuku off of Tim mid-air like he was a kitten.

"Breathe." All Might ordered the practically vibrating teen. Izuku shakily gasped. Tim took a deep breath as well on reflex due to the tone.

Tim flopped over on the mat, laughing with glee. When All Might set a calm Izuku down, he knelt down before flopping over like Tim did.

"I didn't know I could do that." Izuku said after a long silence, the energy fading away into a slight glow and almost unnoticable tremble. "Using Kacchan to get a rise out of me was mean, though. Smart! But mean." 

Tim twisted to face Izuku.

"I'm sorry, I just needed you angry." He apologized.

Kon crouched next to them.

"That was awesome."

All Might chuckled.

"And utterly horrifying to perceive! Young Midoriya was blinded by rage and his first experience of combat was his battle trial!"

Tim wheezed, glaring at Izuku.

"What the fuck, dude! You should have said something about not knowing how to fight!"

Izuku giggled.

"I did good, right?"

"That you did, Young Midoriya. This has proven necessary for your growth."

Kon sighed.

"You did do good. You're still a little shit."

All Might sat down on the mats, settling a soothing hand on Izuku's head as the kid promptly took a nap.

"It is understandable that you two were unaware." He stated softly. "I only started training him, focusing on his body and strength, a few months before the entrance exams."

Kon hummed.

"Yeah, Izuku said it was because you were there when his quirk first manifested. If it wasn't for you, he'd be dead."

All Might frowned, as if remembering something.

"That is very true. It would have killed him if his body wasn't to a certain standard." All Might stood up. "Anyways, I must take my leave. Please check in with Recovery Girl before leaving campus."

And that was the end of that.

-

Kon messed with his gloves as they loaded onto the bus to go to the Unforseen Simulation Joint. Izuku had just kept muttering about how the press broke in earlier. 

Tim was suspicious about how they broke in, all three of them were. It wasn't normal and didn't exactly have a precedent. It caused so much panic for what amounted to be something so tame.

There was something wrong itching under his skin. Something off. It was the same feeling as when a mission was about to go south. The same feeling that he had that day with the portal gun.

He bit his cheek and texted Tim separately.

Kon: i have a bad feeling abt this

Rob: ok if you don't check in w me in by 1pm then im hauling ass over there

Kon sent a thumbs up, taking a steadying breath.

Honestly, it was refreshing being told that powers had as much potential for saving as they had for destruction. It was something that many of them needed to hear once they got inside with the Space Hero: Thirteen.

Then there was this noise that came from down the steps. Flecks of purple burst through the air, twisting into some sort of portal. People started pouring out.

"Is this part of the simulation? I thought we were doing rescue!" Denki exclaimed from beside him.

Aizawa shook his head.

"This is real. Stay back." Eraserhead's capture weapon started moving right before Aizawa ran down the steps and into the crowd of villains that appeared. "Thirteen! Protect the students!"

Kon's hands twitched.

...For fuck's sake.

Chapter Text

Kon ducked under Thirteen's arm, shedding his leather jacket when they tried to hold him back by it. He slid down the steps.

"Supernova!" Thirteen yelled. "Get back here! We need to leave!"

"Kon, please!"

Kon scanned the battlefield, narrowing his eyes at what looked like the ringleader. He looked crusty. Dust man needed some fucking moisturizer based off the look of his hands. ...The ones connected to his body, not the ones on his body.

Aizawa could handle himself. Kon ran further, ignoring his teacher's shouts at him to retreat. 

"I know what I'm doing!" He called back, dodging the tendril of Eraserhead's capture weapon that threatened to contain him.

Kon went on autopilot, smashing heads together while hopping from one small group to the next, never standing still.

The purple portal fucker disappeared before he had a chance to get close enough for firm control.

"Iida, run. Get through the doors." 

He twisted and punched his way towards Handjob. Kon narrowly avoided colliding with a random portal that sucked up most of the villains.

"Fucking Extras!"

Dust Bitch ran at Aizawa and Kon's eyes widened as after a few seconds of contact with the fucker, Eraserhead's elbow began to crumple to ashes. The man jumped back but the damage had already been done.

Were they fucking kidding?

Kon winced at the exposed muscle as he slotted in by Aizawa's side to cover the out of comission arm. His teacher absentmindedly adjusted to having Kon fight by his right side.

There was the splash of water and a gasp before Kon realized that Izuku had come back to the plaza after being teleported away. Izuku and Tsu, if he remembered what she sounded like correctly. 

There was a pause where Aizawa had his quirk active and was breathing heavily at the same time. He just stood there, Kon by his side.

"That annoying quirk of yours isn't suited for drawn out fights against big groups, is it?" Dusty Bastard croaked, muffled by all of the disembodied hands on him. "Don't you think you're a little out of your element, Eraserhead?"

Kon grit his teeth and stayed quiet, practically hearing the warning in Aizawa's stance.

He trusted the man, Kon realized. He wasn't dashing forward like he did with Thirteen. He was taking cues from the teacher.

Fuck, that's dangerous.

The Handsy Whore rambled on.

"You're much better at working stealthily; you're known for surprise attacks, not fighting head to head."

Aizawa's breaths became more labored and Kon resisted the urge to hold up the man.

Shut up.

"Despite knowing that, you didn't even hesitate to jump into the middle of this fight to put your students at ease, even if one didn't get the memo." 

Shut the fuck up!

Someone came up from behind right as Aizawa's quirk fell and Kon kicked one villain directly into the path of another. Eraserhead dealt with a few more dumbasses before facing Dusty Bitch again.

Phalanged Dick wheezed out a laugh.

"Look at you. You're still standing!" He spread out his arms. "You really are so cool!"

...Of course the villain was an Eraserhead fan.

Kon darted forward and cursed as Aizawa tugged him back protectively in order to fight Dust-Fuck himself.

"Stay behind me." Aizawa said gruffly before rushing the guy.

Kon shook his head, his gaze narrowed on where the villain was scratching at his neck. He heard something. Something big. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the guy who could turn his teacher into cigarette ashes.

"Like hell." He growled under his breath as Aizawa knocked the fucker onto his ass and the teacher didn't notice the fucked up creature creeping up behind them.

The creature raised up a hand to grab Eraserhead and Kon saw red.

Kon launched himself at the creature, ignoring Dust Cunt's screams about some "Nomu" or some type of crap.

"GET BITCHED, SHIT-STAIN!" He shrieked, barely recognizing that he shouted in English.

His eyes heated up, his breath became frosty, his fists clenched. 

Kon hadn't lost control in ages. He hadn't used his other powers in months.

It was like he was fresh out the pod again, slick with perfluorocarbon and shivering under red sun lamps just to be safe enough for the scientists to handle.

Supernova wrapped his hands around Nomu's head and gave it all he had. A sadistic smile spread over his lips.

Die.

Firey red and orange burst around him. Burnt flesh filled his nose with the stench. Condensation dripped down his lips. Brain matter squished between his fingers and there was a second where it rippled before it splattered everywhere.

Kon didn't notice when help arrived, only registering that Tim had also climbed up onto the Nomu and was setting off bomb after bomb in its skull while the fucker just kept regenerating.

"Just how tanky is this thing?!" Tim yelled over the blasts.

Kon grunted before planting his hands inside its skull and tearing the creature apart from the inside out. The noise of U.A students and staff fighting against the villains around them grew louder in his ears.

"It's still alive, ain't it?!" He yelled back.

Everything went quiet as Kon grabbed Tim and got them safely on the ground as the surface they were standing on no longer existed.

Tim leaned into Kon's side, his school uniform all torn up and dirty with brain matter and blood and guts. He snickered at practically nothing.

"You think Bruce'll be mad?" Tim asked, staying in English like they had on Nomu. "When he finds out, I mean."

Kon shrugged.

"I dunno."

Honestly, everything became a blur after that. Someone was yelling something about a game and having something killed? Who knows. The voice quickly stopped anyways.

He must've dragged them to a Pro Hero, since there was something over their shoulders that wasn't there before. Kon sniffed.

Lavender and some sweat. Midnight?

He blinked, clearing his blurred vision. Tim was still at his side, two fingers slipped underneath Kon's glove and sleeve combo in order to feel his pulse. Midnight was crouched in front of them. He didn't know when they sat down on the ground.

"Hey, Kiddo, you with us now?" She asked gently.

Kon rolled his tongue around in his mouth before answering in Japanese.

"It was fun going all out against that Nomu thing." He grinned at her. "That was awesome!"

Midnight laughed, though something was slightly off about it.

"You sure do bounce back! I thought we lost you in your head for a bit." She remarked. "We need to head back to the main campus once everyone's checked over. Are you okay?"

Kon wiped off his face with the back of his hand.

"I will be, once I've had a shower." He joked.

His fingers tugged on something red and heavy in the place of black leather. For a split second he thought it was Clark's cape around them.

Then he saw the tassels. 

Oh.

Right.

Snipe's shawl. 

Kon forced down whatever shit got swept to shore. Clark wasn't in the dimension. Clark didn't exist here.

Tim didn't say anything about the stormy look in his eyes. Good.

Midnight let them go outside, where everyone else was. Kon and Tim separated upon Kon's insistence. He had waved him off so Tim could go to the pink-haired girl that he had apparently made the bombs with.

Kon clutched the ends of the shawl in his hands, the majority of it still wrapped around his shoulders. It dwarfed him due to how long and wide the fabric was.

He spotted Snipe–distinctly shawl-less–and walked over.

"Hey, Snipe." 

Snipe looked down from where he was having a conversation with Cementoss.

"What is it, Kid?"

...Wow, he never thought about what a Texan accent would sound like in Japanese.

Kon huffed and took off the shawl, folding it up before attempting to hand it back.

"I don't know when you got this on me, but thanks. Here's it back." He said.

Snipe chuckled, pushing the folded up shawl closer to Kon.

"Keep it, Kid. It's yours." 

Kon frowned.

"It's literally part of your costume." He protested.

"A costume that I can always just get more pieces of." Snipe reminded. "Think of it as a reward for going nuclear on that Nomu."

Kon sighed before putting on the shawl properly and doing up the buttons at the neck. It was a bit oversized, since Kon went up to Snipe's chin. The tassels at the hem brushed the ground.

"I look like a mini-Snipe now." He laughed, ignoring the coiled feeling of wrong in his chest.

Cementoss hummed.

"Snipeboy." He suggested.

Snipe shook his head, amused.

"Super-Snipe." He countered.

Kon snickered.

"Snipe-nova."

Cementoss tapped a finger to his chin.

"Snipe Jr."

Superboy. His own head mocked him.

Shut up.

Snipe wheezed out a laugh.

"Hear that, Junior? You're my son now."

Kon hid his face in the neck of the shawl, groaning.

He cut himself off.

Wait.

No.

He twisted toward everyone who was sitting down on the pavement outside the USJ.

"Where the fuck is my leather jacket?!"

Chapter Text

It was a good thing he didn't keep anything sensitive or important in his leather jacket since it was kinda lost for good. Shit always fell out of those pockets since they didn't have zippers. It was hell when he flew around with Clark the first time, the man hadn't stopped laughing for almost an hour when it happened.

He had dropped the Gameboy Advance he had gotten from a secondhand shop into the sewers.

"It's not the same," Clark had said a week later. Kon had been curled up on his bed in Clark's guest room. The man sat next to him, dust had been in his hair and on the sides of his fingers. There had been a small satchel in his lap. The fabric gave way to reveal a red Gameboy and a cartridge case filled with three games. "But here's the Gameboy I found in the farmhouse attic. Wanna inherit my old Pokemon Blue cartridge?"

Inherit. Clark was always intentional with his words. He had to be as a Journalist.

Kon sighed and rolled over on his futon. He stared at Tim sleeping next to him, the red glow of the extension chord was the only thing illuminating the room.

Snipe's shawl was draped over his chair alongside his school blazer. Tim had bullied him into getting Snipe to sign the shawl, much to Snipe's amusement. Fabric marker on the inside of the neck was rather effective. 

Kon smiled as Tim woke up a little and reached out for his hand. Compression gloved fingers intertwined with bare and Kon brought their joint hands to his lips. Tim blinked sleepily at him, a smile tugging at his eyes.

"What's up?" Tim asked softly. "We haven't really had a quiet moment to talk in English since we got here."

Kon squeezed their hands.

"You know how you kinda battle bond with people? Like how Clark and my relationship with him has gotten more father-son the more we take down shit together?" He murmured. 

Tim nodded.

"Yeah, it's how we started dating. Mid-fight I asked you out." He reminisced. "Why? Is this about USJ?"

Kon nodded.

"I trust Aizawa." He stated. "He already knows that my quirk isn't a quirk and I'm half sure he's covering for my power usage during the fight. No one's hounded me about it."

Tim narrowed his eyes over Kon's shoulder, glaring at nothing.

"I don't like what you're implying." He shook his head. "I trust you and your judgement but..." 

"But not Aizawa." Kon finished for him. "We don't have to tell him everything everything. Just... enough for him to understand. You can still fuck up Mineta."

Tim searched his eyes, icy blue flicked over dark blue and steely grey.

"Luthor backstory?" He suggested. "Running from Cadmus? We're both products of human experimentation?"

Kon sent him a smile.

"You just want to shit on Lex." He accused with little heat. "I know he wasn't the best but he wasn't the worst either!"

"It's true, though! In part!" Tim laughed. "I don't want to tell him about the dimension travel just yet, or that we used to be heroes with our dads as our mentors."

Kon bit his cheek.

"If we don't word it right, we're going to get two Japanese teachers ready to fist fight an American government agency for their students." He groaned. He shoved his face into his pillow. "Fuck, this is a harder contingency to carry out than Bats said it would be."

Tim wiggled their clasped hands to get his attention back.

"Talk to Aizawa before Heroics. I'll talk to Yamada."

Kon sat up in surprise.

"Seriously?" He gasped. "You're sure about this."

Tim's face didn't change. The determined set of his jaw was visible even in the low light.

"They'll talk to each other reguardless. They're both heroes and they're husbands." He reasoned. "Divide and conquer. Control the situation. I can't dodge emergency contact stuff for much longer, not with what you're learning and with what I'm making. I don't want to bring an actor into this."

Kon ran his free hand through his curls, wincing as he ran into the growing ponytail at the back of his head.

"Alright. Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow."

-

Was it a little embarassing that he had taken to wearing Snipe's shawl over his uniform like a security blanket? Yes.

Was it so entirely understandable that no one bothered him about it? Also yes.

It was comfortable damnit. It smelled like gunpowder and ozone and it reminded him of Clark after a hunting trip.

Tim knocked their shoulders together in the hallway as they waited for all the other course students to clear out after the main classes.

"We're okay, we're getting help." Tim reminded him. "Maybe we can lean on these people."

Kon nodded, taking a deep breath that Tim mimicked.

"Rob, being optimistic? Where's my boyfriend?" He joked. 

Tim shook his head fondly.

"In the lab with Mei creating nukes." He deadpanned.

Kon snorted, watching as Aizawa joined his husband in the faculty room and banged his head against his desk in frustration. He set down his bag against the wall and Tim followed suit.

"Time to drop a bomb, I guess." He frowned. "How does it go again?"

"Pardon; bow; state name, year, and business; and the ending stuff isn't needed since we're going to secondary locations, but to be safe say a pardon again before leaving the room." Tim rattled off easily.

Kon hummed.

"Got it." He tilted his head. "I go first, you go second?"

Tim lowered his head as if he was bracing himself for battle.

"Oh, thank fuck."

Kon walked up to the faculty office and slid open the door. He knocked on the open door before bowing.

"Sorry for the intrusion. I'm Conner Kent in the year one Hero course and I was hoping to talk to Mr. Aizawa separately?" He straightened up, looking hopefully at the teacher who seemed unsurprised.

Aizawa nodded.

"Yes, give me a moment and I will talk with you in the 1-A classroom."

Kon smiled.

"Thank you so much. Sorry again for the intrusion."

Aizawa stacked a few papers and put them away before getting up and walking out of the faculty office with him. Tim walked up to the doorway right after Kon and Aizawa turned the corner to the Heroics hallway.

Aizawa only spoke when he was actively leaned against his podium and Kon was sat on a desk in the first row. 

"What is it, Problem Child?" He asked.

"I'm ready to talk to you about the whole quirk thing." Kon tugged the shawl closer to himself, feigning anxiety.

Aizawa blinked.

"Oh?"

Kon kept talking.

"I'm from the U.S, right? I'm–" He messed with the buttons on Snipe's shawl as he made his voice shake. "I'm the product of a dissolved government program that did human experimentation. I got my–er–powers out of it. My telekinesis is stronger than I registered and I also have freeze breath and heat vision that I used at USJ, even though I'm–by most diognostic markers–quirkless. I met Tim at the lab right when I broke out and we've been together ever since."

Aizawa kept his face frustratingly blank. Protocol for sensitive information being shared.

"Thank you for telling me this." He said. "I'm guessing you two don't have real guardians?"

Kon winced, glad that Aizawa brought it up first.

"No, sir." He replied. "We forged permission papers from our 'overseas parents' and we are living in an apartment near the school together."

Aizawa nodded slowly. His eyes bore into Kon's own. The scar on his cheek twitched.

"You do know that we can't let you two live alone like that anymore, yes?" 

Kon sighed.

At least they didn't have that much stuff.

"Well aware of it." He grumbled. "What's going to happen to us? The lab doesn't exist anymore. You can't send us back."

Aizawa sent him a baffled look.

"In what world– Don't answer that." 

Kon gripped the edge of the desk he was sitting on.

"So?"

Aizawa pulled out a flask that smelled heavily of caffeine. He sipped at it.

"Call Tim. I'll call my husband. We're going to figure it out together."

Kon chuckled.

"Well, they're having the same conversation as us." He admitted.

Kon's phone started vibrating in his pocket and he grinned at his teacher. He answered it, putting it on speaker.

"Hey, dumbass."

"Love of my life, curator of explosives, are you calling for what I think you are?"

"...Of course. Custody?"

"Custody."

Aizawa cut in, apparently not having his own conversation with Present Mic.

"Get to the 1-A classroom, both you and Yamada."

Tim hummed over the line.

"Yes, sir."

It only took a few minutes, since the classrooms were so close together. Kon laughed when Tim slammed the door to Class 1-A open.

Yamada trailed in behind him, looking more than a little overwhelmed.

"He's a terror and needs to be in your Hell Class." He said to Aizawa.

Kon bristled.

"We're not that bad!" He protested.

Aizawa leveled him with a flat stare.

"You fucked up a Nomu so thoroughly that no one other than Bakugo and Midoriya wants to spar with you at the moment."

Tim shrugged.

"It was a team effort, at least."

Yamada gestured between Aizawa and the two teens.

"See?!"

Aizawa sighed, rubbing his temples.

"You are not helping your case, Drake."

What did Tim even say to Yamada?

Kon shook his head.

"Anyways," He gripped the edge of the desk to keep himself from floating off the damn thing. "Custody."

Tim sat next to him on the desk, making both of them snicker as they fought over who got more ass space. Kon eventually just tugged Tim onto his lap for speed's sake. Tim's legs dangled over one side of the desk.

Aizawa cleared his throat.

"Indeed. I suggest that you two become wards of U.A." He waved a hand. "Nedzu would have to become involved but the U.A dorms that are under construction will be better than our apartment built for two people."

Tim frowned. He squeezed Kon's forearm like a stress toy. 

The Kryptonite. The stuff from Tim's belt that he transferred to the safe.

How would they transport it underneath multiple noses?

They'll figure it out. They had to.

"We already have an apartment. I'm willing to bet that it's better than your apartment."

Yamada shook his head.

"Even if you had a luxury apartment in the best part of town; we still can't let you stay there alone. You two are only fifteen."

Tim had been Robin for, what, four years? He became Robin a little later than the two other Robins, that was for sure. Tim's parents left him alone more than they were there, that had to count for something.

Kon, admittedly, had only gotten out of the lab three years prior. It wasn't much but it was nothing to scoff at. Clark trusted him alone with roommates almost immediately.

They weren't helpless children.

"We get it." Tim replied dryly. "We're minors. What else? We've been entirely self-sufficient for a long time and the only snag is the subject of guardians and emergency contacts. Will we or will we not find the solution within you or the other staff members at this school?"

The adults glanced at each other, having a conversation wordlessly that Tim seemed to understand.

The teen in his lap went eerily still.

The teachers didn't know them. They knew how they were as students, as children. They didn't know them like Clark knew Kon, or like Bruce knew Tim.

Like how they knew each other.

Clark knew the ache that built up in his ears, behind his eyes, in his lungs. He went through the same thing. Growing pains, he had described them. Tim knew the spasms in his hands from the electric shocks, before Kon coiled his TTK around himself like a layer of skin.

Bruce knew how Tim jumped at shadows, how easily Tim could kill someone with just a toothpick, Bruce was the same. Kon knew that they all shared the ability to kill people with just a slip of control.

Control was a fickle thing.

Clark could give someone frostbite, Kon could squeeze too hard, Bruce could make someone bleed to death, Tim could explode a building with someone trapped inside.

Kon breathed, steady.

"It's okay. We'll become wards of U.A." He agreed, thinking of what he had read on the school's website. "There's a sponsor system, right? Can I call dibs on Snipe?"

Tim let out a startled laugh.

Aizawa nodded, something amused about his face.

"Yes, Snipe is a sponsor option. Drake, do you want to pick a sponsor?"

Tim responded almost immediately.

"You."

Aizawa hummed.

"Alright, that's settled." He shrugged. "We'll get the paperwork taken care of, there'll be a meeting with the principal, and then you two will live with me and Snipe respectively until the dorms are complete."

Kon frowned. He squeezed Tim's hand.

"We'll be separated, then." It was more of a statement than a question.

Yamada waved his hands.

"No, no, not at all! Most of the teachers here live in the same apartment complex for ease. Snipe's apartment is right down the hall from us, Little Listener."

Tim gripped Kon's hand, his fingers twitching in a way that Tim always despised. It was a tell that Robin training couldn't beat out of him, something so small that Batman had told Tim to just keep it hidden instead of phasing it out entirely.

"Not good enough. We stay in the same apartment or in our own." Tim insisted.

Aizawa didn't even look taken aback.

"My apartment it is." 

Kon grinned, shifting Tim off him so he could stand up.

"If this is done, I'm going to catch the tail-end of Heroics."

Tim flicked his eyes towards the clock on the wall.

Aizawa coughed.

Kon groaned when he caught sight of the clock.

4:15 p.m.

Five minutes past hero course dismissal.

"Damnit."

Chapter Text

Kon never expected to see Hawks face to face again, not since they moved far away from his patrol route.

When Tim had gotten a chance to observe him, back in the old apartment, he had said that Hawks was like Nightwing in all but name and face. The man soared, flew around with those red wings of his, but he held himself close. Restrained. Hawks was concious of how exactly he moved and how he presented himself. Kon couldn't see the tension in every line of his body over the faux casual stance he took, but Tim did.

Tim had torn the man apart in an instant, bursting with glee at every familiar habit and patrol pattern.

Kon had leaned over Tim's shoulder, blinking at the information and graphs on Tim's computer.

"Whoever handled his training is like Bruce, with some mix of military and assassin training. There's multiple different distinct people I can pinpoint, even if I can't tell who they are." He had muttered. "He had to be young when he started. Solo agency at nineteen? Dick wasn't much older when Nightwing debuted, hell, barely twenty. Hawks must've been training at eight or nine at the very oldest. A decade or more of experience..." 

Kon had narrowed his eyes at the picture next to all of the information. It had been from the first Hero License to bear the name of Hawks. The license that didn't have a traditional name.

Hawks had that–that feeling about him. The feeling that Kon had when he looked back at old pictures of himself from right out the pod.

"He's backed by the Hero Public Safety Comission, right?" Kon had heard himself say distantly, only focusing on the emptied expression on the former eighteen year old's face.

Tim had nodded hesitantly, as if wondering what that had to do with anything.

"Yeah, people say he's an HPSC implant. Rumors say that they planned his debut."

Kon had glared at the screen.

"Remember when I first debuted as Superboy? Lex Luthor's new Superman, backed by Cadmus?" Kon had clenched his fists. "It's..." He couldn't bring himself to say it at the time.

"...The same." Tim's eyes widened, he had scrambled to close the tabs and grasp onto Kon's hand. "We can't escape shitty government agencies, can we?" Tim had huffed.

Kon had nodded into Tim's hair.

Well.

Think of the fellow government project and he'll appear.

Hawks was staring directly at him as he went on an errand. The hero's sharp eyes narrowed slightly for a split second before he looked away, seemingly in a scan of the area.

"Oh, fuck no."

Kon ducked into a Visual Kei store, weaving between the aisles and grabbing a few articles of clothing that looked about his size. Hawks pursued, jumping off from where he was perched outside on a lamp post. Hawks had to slow down at the entrance due to fans and general courtesy.

He smiled at the worker in charge of the dressing room, greeting them before tugging aside the curtain to an empty stall, stepping in right before Hawks walked by. He lost the guy in the crowd, however momentarily.

The clothing he grabbed was just a bunch of croptops, some intentionally torn and others with skull patterns. Kon laughed to himself quietly, shaking out one of them and holding it up against his broad chest. The rest of the croptops were stacked on the provided stool.

He'd look damn good in the thing, that was for sure.

He sent a quick text to Tim to update him before letting himself care about clothes for the first time in months. The clothes they had picked up in the first week in Japan had been plain and nondescript. They had been focused on survival.

Kon ended up walking out of the Visual Kei shop with three new outfits, ten different accessories, and a plan to revisit with Tim by his side.

Sure, he saw Hawks again later that week, after Aizawa had announced the sports festival and when they were starting the move to Aizawa's apartment after the paperwork went through. Hell, he had been expecting it at that point.

Hawks had taken an interest. It was only natural.

Kon stared at the Pro Hero outside the apartment, a moving box in his arms to take inside. The Hero already knew his school based on the way he didn't even glance down at the U.A hoodie that Kon had pulled on just to be presentable.

Hawks sent him a grin, taking his hands out of his pockets.

"I'm here since I'm meeting with a friend of mine." Hawks offered. It was a bold faced lie, their apartment complex was so utterly sleepy that even if a Pro Hero's friend lived there, it wasn't something that would be broadcast to some random teenager. "I remember you, months ago, from the rooftop. Your hair looks cool, Kid." He commented.

Shit.

Kon smiled back, leaning against the closed door of their apartment.

"Yeah, I remember you too. I've been growing my hair out, wanted to have something to mess with." He gestured to the Hawks branded hair stick in his curls. The longer it got, the more the unnatural blue undertone became apparent. It was usually pinned up in some form or another for ease since Kon couldn't exactly bring his TTK down long enough to cut it, between school and everything else. Lucky him that the hair stick had been what he grabbed first.

Hawks nodded, amusement in his eyes.

"Sweet. What's your name? I can't keep calling you Kid forever." He joked. 

There was no point in lying, Hawks probably knew already due to being with HPSC and his own surveillance.

"Conner Kent." He stated. "I saw you went to that Visual Kei store down the street. Your fans are very dedicated to your time, based off your posts."

Hawks chuckled, waving a hand.

"I can't exactly be sneaky with these wings of mine." The man lied.

Tim was sneaky even while being famous, even while being a Wayne.

Hawks could hide.

From the sounds of what he could have been trained in, he could hide well. Hawks just didn't choose to, not often.

Kon shrugged anyways.

"I would love to talk more but, sadly, since we're moving and you probably have better places to be, I should probably get going." Kon feigned a helpless sigh. "Can't be helped."

Hawks stepped away, but not before winking.

"It's alright. See you at the sports festival! Who knows, I might offer you an internship if you're a hero student." He waved. "Have a nice day, Kent."

Fuck no. With the HPSC project? Everything within Kon recoiled at the thought.

"You too, Hawks! Hopefully I impress." Kon said absently.

The man walked off, turning the corner to go down the stairs instead of going to the elevator.

Kon sighed. He got back into the apartment. His fingers buzzed against the cardboard, threatening to destroy the material. Clark really meant it when he said that the world was like wet cardboard and that they had to be careful. One wrong twitch. He always winced as he said it, as if he had been on the other end of the lecture enough times to recite it by heart. 

One stray spark.

"Hawks is definitely interested in me, specifically." Kon breathed into the empty hall beyond the genkan. "Like calls to like?"

Hawks saw something. Something that either caught his eye or caught the HPSC's eyes.

Tim wasn't in the apartment; he was at Aizawa and Yamada's apartment. He wanted to check the place out and get their futons and half of their shit in place.

It was a blessing. A slight one, given that he would have to report the encounter to Rob later, but a blessing nonetheless.

Fucking Christ, these heroes never left shit alone, do they? No hero did. Giant meddlers, Kon included.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and two seconds later he was staring blankly at the horrible sight of what Yamada deemed house keys.

How many keychains and charms were attached to that thing? Hell, all of the Pro Heroes from school were likely represented if he squinted, most likely five times over.

Kon: that looks loud af

Rob: i shit you not they sound as loud as they look

He couldn't contain his snicker.

Kon: as loud as the man himself?

Rob: somehow L O U D E R

Apparently, Tim had been trusted with the hero's house key since their current guardians were coming back for Kon and he was still going back and forth between the spare car and the apartment.

Kon sped up packing his shit.

Thank fuck Tim already snuck the Kryptonite, since if Kon had handled it he would be 'carsick' and puking the entire way back.

Kryptonite poisoning sucked with prolonged exposure in yellow sunlight and since Tim couldn't get rid of the shit safely, Kryptonite box it was.

When he had gotten the last box situated, there was a knock at the door. Kon opened it to greet a civilian-clothed Aizawa, grinning.

"Hey, Teach, where's your man?" He teased.

Aizawa snorted.

"Ha. Ha." He deadpanned. "My husband got recognized and became occupied. Kami knows why." His teacher rolled his eyes at that before walking into the apartment to help with the boxes.

After an hour, Yamada rejoined them, in civilian clothes and his distinctive hair because he had patrol earlier, and got the last of the boxes in the car. Kon grabbed his bag and they were off.

The car ride to the Aizawa-Yamada apartment was quiet. Well, as quiet as a car ride with Present Mic in the passenger's seat could be. Kon rested his head against the window, idly watching the streets go by.

It was... weird.

The last time he moved with adults was when Clark had moved their stuff from Clark's old apartment to a joint apartment with Lois and Jon while Jon had been moved from the farm. It had been eventful, to say the least. Jon had been so hyper and excited that he had crushed three thick scraps of rebar from Superman's latest fight. 

Kon smiled a little at the memory. Jon had been so small back then, first grade if he remembered correctly. 

Man, he missed the kid. 

He refused to think more about it. What had Tim said? Back when they were crying messes in the dark of night when no one could see or hear them, back in a sketchy hotel? Back when it fully hit the two of them that they were alone and foreign in a different world and a different country?

The memories only have to matter when they make you strong.

"Kent, we already asked what Tim wanted for dinner, but what would you like?" Aizawa glanced at him through the rearview mirror, breaking through his thoughts.

Tim must've insisted that they could call him by his first name. Drake must've grated too much.

Kon shrugged.

"Call me Kon. I have a craving for spicy enoki and tteokbokki." He replied.

"Tim said the same thing." Yamada supplied with a loud laugh. "Almost word for word." 

Aizawa grunted, turning down a street that led to somewhere more residential. The sun was going down. The street lamps lit up their faces.

Kon grinned as they stopped by the convenience store on their way back, Yamada getting out of the car and back in just as quickly with a bunch of stuffed plastic bags in tow.

"Today's dinner will be buldak ramen with spicy enoki mushrooms and tteokbokki!" The man crowed once the car was in drive again. "Pray for my sinuses!"

Aizawa laughed.

"You and your chronic sinus conjestion will thank you, Hizashi. This is the reward for asking what teenagers want for dinner."

Kon snickered at their antics.

"Man, I miss living with the others." He sighed wistfully, keeping their names out of his mouth so the heroes wouldn't go digging too far, with his damned loose lips. "It was fun, even when we fucked up. We handled everything together, you know?"

Aizawa softened, if he wasn't soft already, and nodded. Something in his eyes flared, though, like a candle flame.

"Yeah, we get that. It's easy, to a point, when you're living with people you'd give your life for. Letting your guard down is freeing." He parked the car in the garage before pausing for a moment in thought. "...Bastard's probably out and trying to get into the med cabinet again."

Yamada groaned, immediately getting up and getting to the direct accessway to the apartment and taking the groceries with him.

"Let me handle it, I'm his favorite." 

Aizawa chuckled fondly and got out of the car, making sure that he and Kon got the rest of his stuff and telling him the access code to the apartment.

"This isn't an apartment we're likely to burn." Aizawa admitted when they carried the last of the boxes up. "We haven't moved in years, haven't changed the code either. It's... strange, after Hizashi's name being on everything before and constantly moving to dodge being found by fans."

Kon knew. Kon knew this was a way to connect with him, a way to put Kon more at ease than he was already. 

Kon let him loosen his lips even more.

"The move couldn't have come at a better time." He leaned against the wall, near the door leading from the garage, right before they were about to enter the apartment again for the last time. "The... what were they called, again? The HPSC. I'm pretty sure they're trying to recruit me, Teach." Aizawa's eyes snapped to his.

"The HPSC what?" Kon held back a flinch at the barely restrained fury in his teacher's voice.

"Don't quote me on it. I haven't even told Tim yet." He muttered. "Hawks was right outside the apartment. Third encounter. You know the whole English saying?"

Aizawa inclined his head.

"Vaguely. Once is chance, twice is coincidence, thrice is a pattern." He narrowed his eyes, red pooling behind the dark irises. "Hawks has been approaching you, you say?"

Kon should have bit his tongue while he was ahead. Just– He felt safe, safe in a way that Lex never managed and Clark had.

"It's probably nothing." He said after a few seconds. "I'm just overthinking things. I need to leave that shit to Izuku. All Hawks did was be the HPSC's Project." Kon couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice when calling Hawks by Kon's old designation. "It isn't... fair to him, not at all. He's a good hero."

It felt weak to his own ears.

Aizawa dropped it, the red dissapating from his eyes until his right eyelid twitched rapidly and he had to squeeze his eyes shut. He rubbed at his temples, his jaw clenched.

"Get settled in with your boyfriend before Hizashi finishes dinner, yeah, Problem Child?"

Kon smiled and Aizawa's face relaxed in return.

"Of course, Teach."     

Chapter Text

Of all the things that changed when they moved into the Aizawa-Yamada apartment, including sleeping separate from his boyfriend, Kon didn't think that having his homeroom teacher wake him up for breakfast would be the most jarring. It didn't even enter his mind until Aizawa–Shouta's fine, Kon– knocked on the door before opening it a sliver so Bastard had the opportunity to jump onto him and smack his face.

By design.

Shouta was an asshole and Kon loved him for it.

"Up. Hizashi's experimenting with pancakes." Shouta grimaced in a way that gave Kon the sinking feeling that the pancakes were not able to be called pancakes anymore. "Tim's already making a green abomination in the blender and prepping bentos for today."

Kon groaned, putting the dumbass cat in air-jail. The little shit kept wanting to play with Kon's hair and he was not having it. He had curlers in for a reason.

"Tim does know about Lunch Rush, right?"

Shouta chuckled.

"Get up. Our partners, our health nuts."

Kon sat up reluctantly as Shouta walked out to let him change.

"If Tim tries making a chara-ben of Hawks, I will actually scream." He grumbled while pulling on his uniform.

He left Snipe's shawl on his desk chair, stopping at just the blazer. The curlers found their place in a drawer and he tugged his hair up into a secure style that wouldn't move during school and training as he went to the kitchen.

That didn't stop Tim from glancing between Kon and Shouta before pointing at the two with the chopsticks he was using to plate the bentos, distinctly none of them were Hawks.

"I wish Eraserhead tied his hair up."

This, again?

Kon sighed, messing with the whole wheat pancakes on his plate.

"You're bringing this arguement into his house?"

Shouta massaged his temples as he got his mug from the grips of the coffee machine.

"I do tie up my hair, it doesn't last long due to the nature of my quirk making my hair float."

Tim was unrepentant. He simply gave the man a glare that Kon was constantly on the other end of.

"Learn a stronger hairstyle, then."

Kon took pity on the man due to the early morning. He cleared his throat.

"Tim." Was all he had to say before Rob softened and waved them off.

"Get our teacher up to protocol, yeah?"

Kon nodded before tugging Shouta into his room, digging through his bag.

"What do you plan on?" His teacher asked.

Kon got out some plain hairpins and a few hair ties.

"You'll see, eventually." He replied breezily. "Sit down at my desk, you're getting a makeover."

Shouta let him fix his hair, though he kept rubbing at his jaw.

"What's the protocol that Tim mentioned?"

Kon chuckled, thinking about how it came to be.

"Well, we used to have a team. We were all the same age, and if we were good with just a supervisor, we were mostly left alone except for missions and debriefs." He began to explain. "We had two long-haired members, back then. Imp and Wonder."

Shouta didn't respond other than with a hum. His face was calm, nothing exposing what he was thinking.

"Imp's hair kept getting stuck in his uniform and Wonder's hair kept getting targeted. They were getting hurt outside of missions due to it, at the base during training, more than the rest of us. Tim created the protocols for our team, contingencies, everything he could think of. You name it, we've done it. What helped most in that situation was hairstyling that could survive a nuclear war, my hair right now?" Kon gestured to his own head. "This was standard for longer hair. Wonder's hair looked like this whenever she didn't cut it for a bit."

Shouta glared into the wall.

"You were children."

Kon shrugged, tightening a few braids before pinning them to Shouta's crown.

They'd heard it all before, even from their own mentors.

Too young. Too innocent. Too frail.

"We were heroes. Undercover ops. Underground, you could call it." He let out a fond huff. "We trusted each other as much as we could trust anyone. Tim and I had to leave them behind, abandon them during a mission where everything went wrong. We ended up here, eventually."

Shouta went quiet and Kon patted his shoulder after he was finished.

"Can you tell me more about your team?"

He was fishing for more info, of course he was. It was soft, calm, no pressure. He just wanted to listen, to hear Kon.

Kon shook his head, stepping away. He inwardly cursed how much Shouta put him at ease.

"I've already said too much. I'm sorry. As leader, that's for Tim to decide."

Shouta nodded his acceptance. He stood up.

"Let's eat. We leave for U.A in thirty minutes."

The coil in his chest burned.

–

Tim's hand twitched against his own. The tree behind them was stable, firm. Comfort.

"Hawks is likely to be at the sports festival." Tim stated. He was blank-faced. His eyes were sharp, ready to strike. "You said he was intending to offer you an internship?"

Who knows? I might offer you an internship if you're a Hero student.

Kon nodded.

"I don't want to accept it, if he offers."

Tim shook his head.

"You will accept it." He ordered. "I can't find much on him. His quirk is shittily described. Earn his trust, earn his words, earn the information of his superiors."

Kon took a deep breath. He calmed the energy that threatened to suffocate them both.

"I'm compromised." He protested. "My emotions are in the way, my past, everything that brought me to the team."

"Do you trust me?" 

Kon blinked, recoiling in surprise.

"You haven't asked that since..." Since the lab. Since when they met for the first time. Since when he was being held under red sun lamps, shivering. Always shivering.

Tim squeezed his hand, uncaring of the TTK that pulsed wildly in return. He spoke slower, enounciated his words in that clipped way that he had to train out of his normal speech.

"Do you trust me?"

Kon shut his eyes.

He knew it was true.

"You're all I have." He breathed. "Walk me through this."

–

The crowd threatened to deafen his senses. Kon internally cackled at the opportunity to put on a performance.

He stepped forward to the podium as the highest entrance exam scorer, beaming. He leaned towards the mic.

"Get out there and win." His smile turned feral, bloodthirsty, everything Superboy wasn't. He raised up his fist. "I won't make it easy. Plus Ultra!"

His grin widened as the entire crowd responded.

"PLUS ULTRA!"

This. This was what he missed, this was what he craved.

An audience. Applause. Expectations to go beyond.

This was all he could hope for.

–

Between one segment and the next, Hawks had tracked him down. The hallways were tight, barely enough for two teenagers side by side. Hawks's wings took up most of the hallway.

He couldn't get past him without flying.

Kon closed the door to the arena's infirmary and waved at him. Izuku would be fine, now that he had checked.

"Hey, Hawks!" He grinned. "Nice to see you!"

Hawks smiled, his sharp eyes lingering on Kon's hair for just a second too long. Critical.

He hadn't had a chance to tuck back in the few curls that had freed themselves during the calvary battle, his hair was a mess and it was all because he went for looks and not stability. Look where that got him.

He got kicked in the brain in a way that his TTK couldn't help.

"Hey, Kent!" Hawks's wing wrapped around Kon's shoulder as they leaned against the wall, curling protectively against any cameras from the arena itself that might catch a glimpse if they zoomed in. "I couldn't resist coming. Good speech! I liked how you soared over the competition in the first two rounds."

Kon tilted his head into the wall, cursing as that made a pin dig into his skull.

Seriously?

"Thanks, no one can resist it looks like." He said, taking down his hair before shaking it out. "Izuku says that the crowds are even bigger this year."

A feather tickled his cheek.

"Class 1-A did have a villain attack." Hawks sighed. "U.A bounces back quick." 

"The Nomu was fun to fight." Kon mumbled absently, getting a pin out that got tangled up in his hair. "Seeing your teacher all... messed up? Not so much."

Hawks tilted his head.

"You fought the Nomu?"

Shit. Was that unusual?

"Yeah, my friend and I." He shrugged. "I don't remember much. Just that one second we were facing against it and the next, Snipe's shawl was around our shoulders and I was being calmed down by Midnight."

Hawks whistled, impressed.

"I'm glad you're all okay."

Kon ran his hands through his hair, starting to tie it up.

"It's fine." He assured him.

He froze at a vibration from his phone. A call.

Rob?

He dug his phone out, frowning. His hair met his shoulders, having tumbled out of his own grip.

The contact appeared as Robbie <3.

"Sorry, I have to take this." 

Hawks nodded and Kon weaved through the hallways to somewhere more private.

He accepted the call, pressing his phone up to his ear.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, question."

"Shoot."

"May I kiss Shouto Todoroki on the mouth?"

Kon wheezed.

"Yeah, go for it. You two made a plan to fuck with his old man?" 

"Obviously. Thanks, Babe, bye."

"Bye, Sunshine." He sighed fondly as Tim hung up.

Hawks peaked over Kon's shoulder at his phone, appearing out of nowhere with no indication of where he was in a way that had only been duplicated by the Bats. Kon flinched, turning off his phone, but Hawks still saw Rob's contact which didn't really reveal anything but their relationship and a nickname and he probably overheard the brief conversation.

What the fuck-what the fuck-what the fuck–

"You have a boyfriend?" Hawks teased, seemingly unaware of the heart attack he caused.

"What do you think?" He shot back with just enough of a grin to show that he was joking instead of being rude.

"I'm wondering who your boy is." Hawks chuckled, tilting back out of his space.

"A menace." Kon deadpanned. "You're getting nothing out of me, Mr. Number Three. Also, there's a kid, same class as me, Tokoyami? Look out for him, he's cool."

With those parting words, he ran off to get ready for his next match.

Tokoyami had very strong principles, he could get what he needed out of a Hawks internship unscathed.

Also, he needed a buddy.

Sue him.

Chapter Text

He didn't know what the organizers were thinking when pitting Kon and Tim against each other in the semi-finals.

Kon didn't care.

Tim's smirk and sparking eyes in addition to a deceptively calm heartbeat told of plans to give a show.

They shared that, no matter how much Tim craved the shadows while Kon couldn't help but to crave the sky.

He grinned back.

They've sparred, they've fought. Hell, they've even tried to kill each other.

Standing face to face, in front of a crowd and cameras? Tim, showing off to prove himself and having had taken down all of his opponents with a few smart moves? Kon, with his claim of not making wins easy and those who opposed him needing to have fought tooth and nail?

He knew why they were paired up, now.

The second Midnight announced the start, Kon could see when Tim turned to a Bat Kid. Rob likely saw when Kon turned to a Project.

Rob didn't hesitate. He never hesitated. Kon cursed his inability to handle his TTK without an accompanying movement, it was what he had been working on in training before they left.

He had to twitch his finger, take a breath, something. 

Kon tilted his head and Robin laughed as the battle field tore apart when Kon tugged on the ground beneath his feat. Dust swirled around them. 

Intrigue.

Rob didn't have his domino mask on, no white-out lenses to protect his eyes. He would have to go blind.

Not that the loss of sight would stop him, not by a long shot. Tim could probably hit him in the eye with a Kryptonite infused needle half a mile away while blindfolded and drugged, with incredible accuracy no less.

Oh, how he loved that about him.

Kon forced out a cackle when Tim enacted an attack from behind, the screen of dust parting due to Rob's speed. He evaded the staff, easily taking control of it in order to force him back but Rob doesn't take a defeat laying down, he never has. Rob abandoned the staff and the second that his fingers left the metal was when it exploded apart in Kon's grip.

Oh, that was cool.

Oh, fuck, that was terrifying!

Kon couldn't keep an explosion contained for long, not without pouring all of his focus in on it. There were too many moving peices, too much force. It was already hard since he wasn't directly touching it. He had to let go and ignore the instinctual need to protect Rob from the blast.

Rob was the origin of the blast, he could protect himself. Tim just wanted team training to begin to override what Kon knew of the match.

Rob wasn't the leader here.

Fucking, easily programmed peice of shit. Kon's brain was a disaster and Tim knew it. It was a blessing that the Shinsou kid didn't face off against him. Brainwashing quirk against an easily controllable mind?

If Shinsou was weaker in his convictions to become a hero than like he'd overheard, then Kon would be fucked the moment that Shinsou decided to upturn society.

Kon would shudder if he wasn't fighting the most intense combatant he knew.

Time passed in a blur until he heard something on the field.

He resisted the urge to stiffen as Rob let out the Robin Giggle. The one that toys with the opponent, makes them think that the user is younger than they are.

Shit. Tim knew how to be silent, how to not be registered by Kon, even during an active battle.

This was psychological warfare.

"Timothy Jackson Drake, you bitch!"

There was that laugh again, in a different direction. He didn't waste energy turning to face it.

"Connie! Don't you want to play?" Tim squealed in his ear, overly loud and irritating to his enhanced hearing.

Kon snorted, letting the dust settle. Tim blew air onto his ear before retreating when Kon tugged on Tim's P.E uniform top with a quick hand.

"The field is clear for the first time since the match began! Drake seems to be putting space between them, just what is his strategy?"

Right, Present Mic.

Anways.

Two could play at the infantalizing shit.

"Aren't we already, Timmy?"

Kon took control of the batarangs thrown his way, hopping up into the air before throwing them back down. He knew how to throw a batarang accurately without his TTK, he wasn't an amateur. Everyone on the team knew how to throw them. The weight distribution was distinct, recognizable even without vision. They had to be.

The crowd screamed.

Tim followed him up into the air, grabbing onto Kon's ankle and it was almost like that day except Tim wasn't in uniform, and metal and wire wasn't around his arm.

Kon, despite himself, grabbed Tim's hand and twisted.

Tim's responding scream was louder than the crowd's. Faked. He could take harder than this.

But should he?

Canary's influence. Smart.

Kon winced and ignored it, tightening his grip and throwing Tim aside. The goal was to get the dumbass outside the boundary without killing the shit.

He barely landed inside of the boundary.

"Scared of losing control?" Tim taunted hoarsely, pulling himself to his feet with a frantic quality to his heart that didn't take Kon by surprise.

Batman's voice echoed in their ears, after all.

If you are down; you are compromised. 

Tim's fingers twitched. There was something up his sleeve. 

Kon focused his vision, spotting the metallic glint of a needle weaved within the cuff of Tim's uniform.

If you are compromised; you are dead.

Tugging on old trauma. Tim's really pulling out all of the petty stops due to the short notice. The contingency plans for Kon in this dimension were likely dependent on the smuggled Kryptonite.

Which they couldn't use.

Kon clenched his fists. He laughed loud enough to reach a mic and the reverb bounced throughout the stadium.

"I was wondering when that mouth would really run." He grinned. "What if I already have? Point it out for me." 

Kon tugged the sewing needle from Tim's uniform right before Rob went for it. He spun it between his fingers, twisting it with his TTK. 

"I'm really close to just challenging you to Janken. We know each other too well." Tim sighed. "I want this festival done today."

Kon snorted.

"Getting scared?" He teased, dancing out of the way when Tim lunged for him.

"Todoroki is in the stands with his father within a quarter-mile radius. I need to deal with Endeavor." Tim scowled. "I'm already fucking with him by kissing his kid, but he's angrier than Todoroki's ever seen him and I need to be there to take the heat off."

Kon huffed. He let himself hit the ground the next time Tim grabbed at his ankle.

"Throw me at the wall, I'll compensate."

Tim rolled his eyes.

"Get over yourself. Janken, today, one game."

They wordlessly got their hands ready.

Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.

"Tim Drake wins!"

–

Tim sprinted over to where Todoroki was in the prep room that Kon had used, curling his hand over the guy's right wrist. It was warm, due to the minor mutation that had to have happened since one side running hot and the other side running cold without interference from the opposite side before quirk usage was a medical marvel.

Focus, he was drip feeding the teen touch for Todoroki's obvious touch starvation, not for his own examinations.

"I'm going to get all of your dad's anger at you focused on me." Tim told him. "Get ready. You said your father was prowling the tunnels?"

Todoroki nodded.

"My father has already tried to speak with me individually again but Kent intervened with... colorful language and excessive foreign habits." 

Tim knew there was a reason he was dating Kon.

"Good, I'm glad that Kon was there." Tim squeezed Todoroki's wrist gently before letting go. Too much too soon wouldn't help him any. "Remember, your quirk; your choice, yeah? Just make sure you don't weaken yourself in the process; you'll die in the field like that."

He left Todoroki alone, waving before closing the door behind him.

Time to poke a quirked bear.

...Again.

–

Kon made his way back to the student stands, pausing when a hand wrapped around his wrist before he could step out of the tunnels. Gloved with the slightest pinch of talons beneath. He didn't even have to turn around but he did anyways.

This again?

"Hawks." He greeted him, taking his hand back. "What's up?"

Hawks laughed, grinning.

"That was quite a show. You were up against your friend, right?" Information gathering, of course.

"Yeah, he's great. I was lucky to even be able to go up against him when we were taking it seriously." Kon shrugged. "We know each other too well to actually win against each other in a fair fight."

Hawks tilted his head, smirking.

"Fair, it's like Miruko and I. Also, I didn't know you fly!" 

Kon waved a hand.

"It's really nothing. I learned and then just never really forgot." Hawks kept quiet, trying to get him to go on. Kon stared at him, smiling.

The question was:

Which of them would break first?

Minutes passed. Kon took pity on the man and turned back around.

"My friends are expecting me." He waved. "Have fun!"

Kon left before Hawks could reply.

Huh, yeah, Hawks felt like a novice. Tim could do better than that drugged out of his mind.

Anywho.

Chapter Text

"Did you have to strangle him with your thighs?" Kon sighed exasperatedly from the third place stand. "We're on live TV."

Tim snickered, glancing to the side at Todoroki who was on the second place stand.

"Doesn't seem like he's angry about it."

Kon snorted, peaking around Tim and spotting a flustered Todoroki. He was staring intensely at the ground, steam and frost coming off him in equal measure. He didn't seem to take in anything from his surroundings.

"Midnight went feral." He deadpanned, keeping the laugh off his lips as best he could. "Do you know how much it takes to get Midnight to break character?"

Tim waved a hand dismissively.

"I'm a trained professional."

Kon broke. He wheezed so hard that he could've thrown up had Tim not drilled it into every Young Justice member's heads that throwing up was for little bitches and subsequently taught them how to never upchuck valuable resources.

"A trained professional who strangled a guy with his thighs on live television!"

They quickly shut up as the mics turned on.

All Might gave them their medals and Kon had to drag Todoroki off the stand afterwards.

Poor guy, Tim never showed any mercy.

–

Immediately upon Tim's transfer to 1-A, they had another hero names segment to their classes. It was their last chance to secure their hero names before they had to really use them.

Tim just scrawled out The Quirkless Hero: Robin and called it a day. He had known exactly what he would call himself, epithet and all, for months. He had it ready like a pack of explosives ever since he returned to conciousness in a society of metahumans with the same ruthlessness he always had during missions that would shatter anyone else.

Izuku, once again, just put Deku. All Might didn't have a true epithet, why should he?

And Kon?

Kon put, again, The Superstar Hero: Supernova.

It was easy, expected. He didn't want to be Superboy. It grated on his nerves, all raw and awful like the reddened skin around someone's eyes that happened after a crying session. Clark had taught him how to use freeze breath to alleviate the symptoms, with a small laugh as if the only people he would ever need to use it on were civilian children and not himself and his teammates in the kitchen during sleepless nights for the entire base.

Clark didn't really expect Kon to be naturally human, as wonderful as Clark saw human nature. All Clark had were human morals, a human childhood, and a drive to do good.

And wasn't that what really made someone human? 

For all that Lex cursed Kon's weak lungs and inherited allergies, Kon's humanity wasn't his body. It wasn't anything that Cadmus manufactured.

It was seeing someone, world-weary and panicked, and reaching out a shaking hand to help.

Supernova could do that, not just Superboy.

Tim passed out some comm units to their classmates before walking directly up to Shouta and giving him one.

"Just in case." Tim said to anyone that questioned him. "Give one to your mentor if they don't give you one of their own. Keep it with your suit."

Kon raised an eyebrow at him. When everyone was distracted with figuring out the comms, Tim elaborated under his breath.

"Iida's about to do something stupid. I'm going with him to intern under Manual."

Hosu.

Ingenium's retirement.

Iida just announced that he would be the new Ingenium.

Stain.

Kon held back his groan.

"Seriously? Do you need me to go with you?" He whispered.

Tim shook his head, passing him a comm.

"You'll know when I need you. I'm planning on having Iida and I on channel three."

Kon put it in his ear out of habit, hiding it under his hair.

"Understood."

–

Kon walked with Tokoyami to their platform. Their cases were in their hands and they were both in uniform with their bags on their shoulders. His hair was held back by a Hawks hair stick for the fun of it. He was interning with the man! It was on theme!

The train ride was nice, they filled it with small talk about what they thought Hawks saw in them. Kon recognized where they were from when he used to live nearby, so he led them to the agency.

It was nice to point out metaphysical shops that Tokoyami might've been interested in.

Hawks met them at the door, grinning.

"Didn't take you long! Come on in Chickadees, let's get your stuff settled and get you familiar with this place!"

The agency had this clinical air to it, even with all of the fanart and merch prototypes on display. They went up to the accomodations to drop off their bags and they put their cases in the assigned lockers in the locker room. 

It was odd, to be in this space. Hawks's agency was the last place Kon normally wanted to be.

The tour was chill, Hawks was chill. Honestly, all of it was a little too chill for a hero who never took on interns until them.

They were left in their room to get fully situated at the end of the day.

Tokoyami flopped back onto his futon and pet Dark Shadow. The quirk chirped and nuzzled into Tokoyami's hands all cutely.

"I believe that this light shall prove to be a worthwhile persuit within my darkness."

Kon sat down on his own futon and took down his hair, running his hands through it.

"Yeah, this'll be a good learning experience. Did you figure out how to get the comm in?" He asked. "I know Tim made it custom."

Tokoyami shook his head.

"I require assistance. I know not what he meant when he advised me on it." He dug through his bag to get the comm out. He took it out of the case and held it out.

Kon took it and knelt down next to Tokoyami.

"Sit up, this'll feel a bit odd but I need to find your ear." 

Tokoyami did as told with Dark Shadow looking on curiously.

Kon parted his feathers and located Tokoyami's hole of an ear before he put the comm in, clipping it to a feather. He settled the feathers back into place, nodding when the comm dissapeared from view.

"There. Basically, put it in your ear and clip it to a stable feather so it won't randomly fall out." He stated. "No one should be able to see it."

"Thank you, Kent." 

Kon shrugged, sitting back on his haunches.

"No problem. It was made with you in mind, it would be really silly if you couldn't use it."

Hawks poked his head in. He was out of his costume and in some sort of sweatpants and muscle shirt combo. His wings were tucked behind him.

"You two should get ready for bed. We're getting up at dawn tomorrow and I can't have my interns be dead on their feet." He told them.

Kon smiled at him.

"Yes, sir!"

Tokoyami nodded, unclipping the comm and taking it out in order to put it back in the case.

"Understood, sir."

Hawks winced.

"New rule! Do not call me sir. I am not much older than you two. Good night, Chickadees!"

The man practically sprinted off to who knows where without waiting for a reply.

Kon snorted, grabbing his stuff so he could change in the locker room.

Dark Shadow nudged Tokoyami.

"Nightlight time! Nightlight time!" Dark Shadow crowed, as if it was a ritual that they'd had since they were young. They probably did, given that the ritual in question was based around a nightlight.

Tokoyami blinked in surprise.

"Ah, indeed. Kent, will it be an issue if I set up a nightlight?"

Dark Shadow went kinda feral in pitch black if he remembered right. Tim would know more from the testing he got in with all of their classmates but that was the gist.

Kon shrugged, stopping in the doorway. He didn't mention the off switch that he could toggle in his brain, the one that was trained into all of Young Justice over the many missions where they had to sleep in any condition. 

He didn't mention a lot of things to his classmates. Honestly, none of it mattered. Kon could bring up more past shit when Tim finally breaks and spills everything to Eraserhead in a rush of words triggered by the phrase Robin, report in a specific gruff tone that was only ever matched by Batman.

Old habits died hard.

"Nah, it's to help you right? If it's a problem, then it's my problem. I can deal." 

When Kon came back, a Fatgum nightlight was plugged into the electrical socket near the door and Tokoyami wasn't in the room.

Kon smiled and got into bed. He set his phone to charge before curling up and facing the wall. He didn't think to turn off the overhead lights.

He shut his eyes and woke up to Dark Shadow's panicked screeching. 

Kon had jerked up, headbutting Hawks after he ran in with a fluffy robe around him to check out what the fuck was making one of his interns' quirk freak out.

Safe to say that Dark Shadow cared very loudly.

It was nice, to be cared for loudly.

Chapter Text

Hawks hadn't been kidding when he said they would be getting up at dawn.

Kon picked at his food, in full costume and with his hair properly tied up. Tokoyami sat across from him in the cafeteria, pointedly not looking at the sun barely peaking through the skyline.

He slid one of the canned coffees from the vending machines across the table, not batting an eye when Dark Shadow swallowed the can whole.

Hawks arrived in all of his windswept glory and Kon raised an eyebrow at him. The man was twitchy and his wings were tucked tighter to his body than usual.

"Hey, Chickadees! I managed to get my handler to approve me not being on-call for today, so we can do a modified version of my old patrol route." He grinned at them. "We're leaving in a bit, twenty minutes tops."

Handler.

Kon nodded absently, carefully changing his grip on his chopsticks so he wouldn't snap them.

Right, Hawks was still firmly under the control of the HPSC, even more-so than the other Pro Heroes. That was the whole reason Kon was there: to get information.

Neither Kon nor Tokoyami questioned the mention of a handler.

Wasn't his old patrol route restricted to street-level? Four years prior was when Hawks made his debut, with only a year between being a fully fledged hero and opening an agency. Hawks only started flying when he got his agency, it was something that Tim pointed out and couldn't exactly pin down just a singular reason why.

"Sweet!" Kon grinned. "I'm really excited about going out and about. I've always wanted to go on a limelight hero patrol!" He gushed, inwardly cringing at how he sounded.

Tokoyami nodded.

"It shall be an interesting experience."

Hawks had just smiled and walked away to grab something from the buffet.

Kon got up with a mutter to toss his trash out. He wasn't that hungry anyways. The sickly sweet artificial face that Hawks always had on was nausea inducing at best. It settled wrong on Hawks's features, something that Hawks wasn't, not entirely. The id photo from Hawks's first hero license came to mind. Blank face, dull eyes.

At least something was filling up the space, right? Even if it was way too similar to how Kon used to be before he learned what it meant for him to be human and not a weapon. Before he could afford to slow down and let go of the teen girl appeal routine.

Kon shook himself out of it. He crouched down in front of the vending machine dispensing energy drinks with Hawks's wings wrapped around the can, grabbing his prize after he swiped the card that Hawks had given them during the tour.

It was funny, in a way.

Kon stood up and popped the tab, taking a sip.

Hawks was always just around the corner.

The rustle of wings, a footstep. He wanted to be heard.

"Hey." Kon spotted him in the corner of his eye. "We're leaving in ten, right?"

Hawks blinked at him, his sharp eyes stared directly into his soul.

"Yeah, we are." He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "Though, that doesn't seem to be the only thing on your mind."

Kon snorted before tossing him a bone.

"I used to have a handler, back in the US, that's all." He shrugged. The words slid easily out of his mouth. "It's nothing, really. You just reminded me. Weird to think about, now that I have actual guardians."

Hawks tilted his head. He hummed. If he was surprised, he didn't show it.

"Why did you need a handler?"

Kon waved his hand dismissively.

"Old government program thing. It dissolved before I moved here. I doubt there's anything on it now, I don't even remember the name." He sighed. "Human experimentation, basically."

Hawks's lips twitched down before thinning out.

"Ah, alright." He took a deep breath. "Well, you can talk to me anytime. Okay, Kent?"

Score.

"Thanks, Hawks."

Kon started to walk away, to get something that he forgot in the room. Hawks stopped him with one question. It was rushed, as if falling out of Hawks's mouth without permission.

"What was your name?" He asked. Kon turned to look at him. "Before the program?"

Hawks had a life, a family, before the HPSC.

It was worse, having something to be taken away from.

"I don't think I had one before the lab. I've chosen to take on the names other people have gifted me." Kon's hand tightened around the can. He swallowed. "What was yours?"

Hawks's face fell. His eyes shut. He was so unbearably young when the training had to have started, damn Robin ages to hell. How old was he, when he had to let go of a parent's hand and walk into the arms of a handler?

"My name was Keigo." He whispered. "I haven't been called that in a long time."

Keigo.

Kon repeated it in his head, as if mere repetition could make it so that Hawks never had to give it up for a program.

So that Keigo never had to disappear.

He chugged the rest of the energy drink, crumpling the can after he was done.

"We're losing ourselves." Kon took himself out of his own thoughts. "We don't have time for this."

His throat was tight, his eyes prickled painfully.

He tossed out the can and escaped the hallway as fast as he could.

–

Kon: his name was keigo

Kon: his name was keigo and he had a family before going in. Did he have a favorite hero? A favorite movie? How much of a childhood did he have before he got handed over? Im abt to be sick

–

Kon: im compromised in every way except physical

–

Patrol was nice. It was mostly walking around and stopping to talk with civilians. Being street-level was the only major thing weird about it. That, and the amount of publicity they got.

Supernova smiled at a little kid who got his attention while they were already stopped due to Hawks's fan club. The kid had tugged on Kon's spiked cuffs.

He crouched down to be eye level with them. The kid was young, elementary school aged, and had flowers intertwined with their curls. No obvious signs of anything wrong.

"Hey, my name's Supernova. What's up?"

The kid tilted their head.

"Do your friends eat other birds?"

That was such a Jon question that it almost made him laugh.

Kon hummed.

"I know Hawks loves fried chicken. I'm not sure about Tsukuyomi, though." He responded. "Why don't we ask him?"

The kid nodded eagerly.

"Let's go together!" They beamed.

Supernova held the kid's hand as they walked over to Tokoyami. He turned around and tilted his head, his feathers ruffling with the movement.

"This one has something to ask." Kon gestured down to the flower kid.

Tsukuyomi crouched down in front of them, Dark Shadow made itself a little smaller for the child's sake.

"Do you eat other birds?" They asked again.

"I do. I love eating eggs, too. Protein makes us heroes strong." He stated simply. He leaned closer, hushing his voice as if telling a secret. "They're not my favorite thing to eat, though."

The kid's face lit up with curiosity.

"Then what is?" They asked eagerly.

Tsukuyomi smiled with his eyes.

"Apples."

Kon could see the exact moment that the kid started to emulate their new favorite hero. It was something in their eyes, something that matched whenever he saw a kid start to idolize Superman.

When the kid ran off to rejoin their parents, Supernova nudged Tsukuyomi.

"You officially have one fan."

Tokoyami buried his head in his hands. It was able to go unnoticed due to how much attention was on Hawks.

"I will let the light consume you, do not think I won't."

Kon laughed.

"You get to send two kids my way as revenge, okay?" He bargained. "For what it's worth, you're good with kids."

Tsukuyomi sighed with all of the exasperation that his lungs could hold.

Hawks waved them over when the crowd thinned out.

"Hey! Chickadees! Let's get lunch and then I can show you another side of heroing!"

Kon eyed a poster on the window of a shop, Hawks's face plastered onto it.

"Sponsorships and modeling?"

Hawks grinned. It was wide and shit-eating.

"Sponsorships and modeling." He confirmed.

Both interns groaned.

Chapter Text

When Hawks mentioned that Kon could talk to him anytime, he might not have meant at three A.M. That did not negate the fact that Kon was knocking on Hawks's door, in his pjs, and had a question burning his tongue.

He shouldn't've been doing this. He shouldn't have a tremble in his fingers when he ran it through his tangled curls, he shouldn't have been out of the room in the first place. It was only three hours until they all had to wake up. 

But he just couldn't rest.

Mission objectives and his own emotions swirled around in his head, mixing. It made his chest heavy and mouth dry. 

Cadmus blended with the HPSC.

Was Keigo. Hawks had told him.

Was. Was. Was.

Something had been stripped from him during that training. Something vital. Something human.

Shut up.

Hawks opened the door. His eyes were bleary and his hair was falling into his face. The tanktop and sweats he had on seemed crumpled and without his gear on he looked younger, somehow. His face softened when he saw Kon.

"Hey, Chickadee. What's going on?" He asked softly. His voice was a bit rough from sleep.

Kon swallowed back his guilt.

"I– You know how I'm–" It was harder to say, compared to when he told Shouta. He wanted to tell the truth. He wanted to talk about Cadmus, not just the lab. "How we're similar?"

Hawks nodded. He held out a hand. His gloves were off. His fingers had talons on the ends instead of fingerpads and fingernails.

"How about we sit down, yeah?"

Kon was lightly tugged through the boundary between Hawks's room and the hallway. He sat down at the edge of Hawks's futon, with Hawks sitting beside him.

They were quiet for a moment.

"Could I touch your hair?" Hawks asked suddenly. "My instincts have been going crazy about it ever since we met. I need to fix it." He explained, his lips quirking up into a laid-back smile.

Bird instincts, right. Hawks never really showed his instincts, or his talons, or anything but his wings.

Kon turned his back to the man.

The Comission must've made him suppress anything not suited for publicity, Cadmus would've done it.

"Have at it." He agreed. "I've never had it this long. It's just... I have a forcefield around me at all times. I haven't been able to drop it in order to cut my hair, not since I moved to Japan."

Hawks hummed. The sensation of tangles being gently pulled apart was welcome. 

"Why don't you have a name from before the lab?" Another gentle tug at his scalp.

Kon closed his eyes.

"There is no before." He stated simply. Honest, in comparison to what he told his teachers. "I got my name when I got picked up by a group of dumbass teenagers that were under the jurisdiction of one of the heroes that unwillingly had a part in creating me." Kon took a breath. "One of those dumbass teenagers is my boyfriend. The hero is... I was a brother to his young son, before I had to leave." He cleared his throat to ask his question. "What did they turn Keigo into?"

Hawks stilled mid-action.

"The HPSC turned him to ashes. I was born from them, like a phoenix." He joked. "I don't regret anything that I was put through. I knew what I was getting into. My mom is taken care of and I'm a hero like I wanted to be, what else could I ask for?"

Keigo was gone, then? Just like that? If Jon were in Hawks's place, being taken in by a government agency to train him and use him, Kon would have torn the world apart. 

Kon shook his head, subtly enough that Hawks's hands didn't fall from his head.

"How old were you when you made that choice? Was it even a choice?" He pressed. "I was made to be a replacement. What are you?"

The last word was practically spat into open air to cover how he wavered. Hawks snorted out a laugh regardless.

How could he still laugh? How could he still laugh when he was under someone else's thumb?

"I'm an optimistic guy, you could say." Hawks sighed. Kon could hear his smile. He kept detangling Kon's curls with his talons. "I made my choice when I was five, maybe six. I knew the training I was signing up for. I knew what they had planned for me. I have a future with the HPSC, Conner. I didn't have that, before."

He had been younger than Jon. He had been younger than any of the Robins.

Frost crept up his spine for a split second. Kon sagged into the warmth of Hawks's hands despite himself.

"Alright." He replied, hushed. His words jumbled together. His numbed focus was on easing Hawks. "I never had much of a future in mind for me, s'all."

The room fell silent. The only noise was Hawks's talons against his scalp.

It was calming. The motions almost made Kon fall asleep.

Minutes passed but they felt closer to hours. He might've dozed in and out during that time.

Hawks finished with Kon's hair, messing with it a little before he stopped touching it entirely.

Kon opened his eyes gracelessly, unsure of when exactly they closed.

"Why don't you go back to bed? Two hours is better than nothing." Hawks encouraged. "We're sparring later, I'm planning on kicking all of your asses."

He nodded absently. He knew he stumbled back to the intern room, but it was mostly a blur. He was sure he typed out a quick report for Rob on his phone during the walk, enough that he could add on later.

The Fatgum nightlight was the only thing illuminating the room when he got back. He didn't expect Tokoyami wake up when he set a singular foot past the door.

Tokoyami sat up, Dark Shadow nowhere to be seen. His blankets were all in disarray.

"Where were you?" He whispered as Kon sat back down on his futon.

Kon braided his hair clumsily, just to keep Hawks's detangling efforts secure.

"I was talking to Hawks about something, I'm fine." He whispered back.

Tokoyami's displeased expression was visible in the low light. The face aimed his way made him wince.

"At four A.M?"

Kon laid down, twisting so he could face Tokoyami.

"Personal shit. Stuff like what's making me live with Mr. Aizawa and Mr. Yamada." He explained. He stifled a yawn. "Come on, bed, Hawks is going to kick our asses in sparring later. He'll probably do it with just his feathers." The last part came out as a tired mumble.

Tokoyami nodded before he shut his eyes. Kon followed suit.

Their 'alarm' woke them up far too soon for their likings.

Kon resurfaced from the depths of sleep to find Dark Shadow pecking at his face obnoxiously. Laughter burst out from between his lips.

"I'm up! I'm up! Mercy!" He squealed, pushing Dark Shadow's face away from him.

Tokoyami snickered and promptly got a pillow to the beak for his slight.

Chapter Text

They had been flying that evening when Kon's comm crackled to life in his ear. Channel three. Hawks paused beside them, only flapping his wings enough to keep him in one spot. His comm must've activated too, the one that Kon gave him on the first day tour. Tokoyami looked between them curiously. Hawks had already gotten some sort of alert for Hosu, but he had been told to be akin to a last-resort because of his interns.

"Hero Student Robin asking for assist in Hosu. Hero Student Ingenium went rogue and is tracking down Stain. Pro Hero Manual got swept up with evac and isn't responding. Ingenium's tracker hasn't moved in five minutes." Robin stated over the line. The rush of wind was a familiar sound. Rob was going by rooftop. He cursed before he rattled out an address, quieter. "Student located. Ingenium down. Pro Hero Native down. Stain is monologuing–"

Hawks looked at Supernova and Tsukuyomi before grabbing onto their arms and rocketing off into the direction of Hosu. Kon kept a handle of Tokoyami with his TTK as he had been for the entire flight.

"We're flying to Hosu. When we get there, Tsukuyomi: evac; Supernova: with me." He briefed, serious. "Full permission to use quirks and engage. Use your jugement."

"Understood." Tokoyami breathed.

Kon nodded.

"Got it."

–

Iida was such a fucking dumbass. 

Robin scowled, glaring down at the predicament in the alley that he had a front-row seat to.

"Hawks and Co. on route."  Was all but a mutter in his ear compared to the loud ramble that Stain was on.

He couldn't jump in, of course he couldn't. Tim knew the laws and regulations of this backwards world's hero work like he knew Bruce's protocols. He didn't have a license. Essentially, he couldn't do shit. He had no grounds to engage.

That was, if he had a quirk.

Robin grinned.

Based off his observations of the little fight he saw and Stain's gear, the guy just needed to injest his own blood in order to be harmless for a while.

Easier said than done, especially nonlethally, but do-able.

His phone buzzed in his utility belt.

Then Deku turned into the alley a few seconds later, slamming into Stain with the force of a battering ram.

Fuck, Kon was right when he called Izuku the green-haired dumbass from the exams. He just broke Stain's ribs, which was just another thing that Robin needed to track in order to get out of this situation with zero casualties, including Stain.

"Deku's engaging. I'm going in. Get here quickly damnit!" He whisper-yelled into his comm, acting like every bit of the panicked student that the Pro Heroes on the other end of the line expected.

Supernova definitely knew better than to believe it.

Robin wasn't scared or panicked when he dropped down to street level. 

He was pissed.

Ingenium was compromised, Native was compromised, Deku was on the way to being compromised if he didn't stop hopping around super fast like a bunny with no heed to what the hell his body was telling him.

Could people just stop dropping like flies for two fucking seconds?

"This is not your fight! Leave!" Iida rasped out through numbed lips.

Robin rolled his eyes underneath his mask.

"Shut it, I'm talking with you later." He sighed, studying Stain for any sudden movements. "Deku, take Ingenium, Native, and go. Pros are on the way."

Deku shook his head, lightning crackling around his fingers and twitching through his body.

"I'm not leaving you, none of you." He insisted.

Stain tilted his head, a smile stretching across his lips. His sword was lazily gripped in his hand.

"What will you do, then, little heroes?" 

Wow, his voice had nothing on Joker's nails-on-a-chalkboard sounding ass.

Robin smiled back, holding Deku back by his hood's bunny ears and shoving a first aid kit into the teen's arms.

He might not even need to make Stain choke on his own blood. Maybe he could just, you know, make him bite his cheek or something small like that. 

Quirks were bullshit and he despised working against them in battle. Why the fuck did the serial killer have to have a blood-tasting based paralysis quirk?

"Let's have a conversation. Former vigilante to former vigilante." Robin suggested sweetly. "What made you into a simple serial killer, Stendhal?"

Tightened grip. Clenched jaw.

"You're calling me simple?" 

Robin walked closer, pleasantly at ease.

Tenser, tenser–

"Yes, sir!" He chirped. "Killing doesn't make people learn their lesson, it's not much of a punishment. You're just picking off the weak ones that the system overlooks. Heroes become victims, you become Stain." 

Stain lashed out and Robin laughed as he ducked and got an opening.

Deku gasped from where he was helping Native and Ingenium as Stain fell forward, unconcious. Robin let his face go back to neutral after the sedative did its job.

"Rob, you couldn't have went according to protocol?" Supernova pouted from above them. Hawks was beside him, studying the alley and quite a few feathers lighter than usual.

Tim leaned his head up and blew a kiss at his boyfriend just to embarrass him slightly.

"I'm dealing with a special case." He smirked.

Hawks snorted.

"Well, I had to turn around Shouto and Tsukuyomi is on evac with Manual." He briefed, gathering Native and Ingenium with his feathers. "I'm getting these two to the ambulance and keeping watch of Stain. Supernova, you can go with your friends."

Deku stood up and Robin patted him on the shoulder.

"Hawks! Permission to fuck up the Nomu?" Supernova called out to Hawks before he left the alley.

"Granted! Go get 'em, Chickadee!" He replied, not even glancing back at him.

Robin sighed fondly as Kon took him by the hand and tugged him out of the alley. Deku stayed behind with his mentor who had caught up to them.

Something just didn't sit right. Any Pro using their common sense wouldn't let their interns do hero work without a license, not without risking themselves in the process with the Comission.

"Hawks is just setting his interns loose in Hosu?" He questioned.

Kon blew up a Nomu and contained its guts to a small pile on the street. He shrugged, understanding what Tim was getting at.

"He once said that he's too important to be replaced all willy-nilly. Hawks can do shit like this and he's able to back it up with his faith in us as interns." Supernova twisted, keeping some falling rubble from hitting a little girl. "He's fully responsible for us this entire week. Good for me, right? Manual's probably going to get fucked over by the stunt that Ingenium pulled as well as your involvement, even with your lack of a quirk."

The stunt that wasn't stopped by multiple warnings, both from Tim and Manual himself.

"I'm talking with him later." He hissed, falling into a near sprint. "Is fifteen actually the age where we think about homicide or is Iida the exception that proves the stereotype?" 

Kon wheezed out a laugh, keeping up easily.

"Who the hell knows?"

Chapter Text

Internships kinda resumed as normal, though they were under firm orders to keep quiet about what happened in the alley.

Kon just shrugged at the announcement before turning around in his seat and snickering at how Dark Shadow was fussing over Tokoyami's feathers with such an intensity that put All Might's voice to shame. Hawks left them to their own devices for the moment, so they pretty much had nothing to do.

It made him restless. His hands were all twitchy and he just had to move. He needed to be useful.

Kon never did well post-mission. He never could sit still during the debriefs in the mornings after they got back. The war-room was always too bright, too big, too loud.

"I'm going to get something from the buffet, do you two want anything?" Kon asked. 

"Check if they have apple pie today, please?" Tokoyami requested. 

"I crave crunch." Dark Shadow added on.

Kon nodded, getting up.

"Apple pie and something crunchy." He confirmed. "Coming right up!"

The path to the cafeteria was familiar after four days straight of interning under Hawks. He grabbed an apple pie and a bag of chips before pausing near the giant fried chicken station. 

The sight of Hawks absolutely demolishing a large pile of fried chicken was not a new one by any means. The timing of it, though?

"Man, it is eight in the morning. It is too early for this shit." 

Hawks's eyes snapped to Kon's own from where the Pro was curled up on the floor with the big bucket grasped between his arms.

"Let me have this, I have so much dumbass stuff to deal with." He replied with his mouth full. Red sauce was dripping down his chin like blood. If Kon was any newer to Hawks, he would have screamed.

Kon just turned away and grabbed five bags of spicy chips for himself.

Freaks of nature, all of them.

Except Tokoyami. Tokoyami was a sweet teen of darkness who had an apple addiction.

"We have a photo shoot in an hour!" He reminded him as he passed by in order to get back to the conference room that they had been in.

Hawks's chewing stopped.

"...Fuck!"

–

The night before internships officially ended, Kon had been alone in the bathroom. He stared at himself in the mirror.

Tim had once said that hair held memory. He had joked about how he cut his often enough to be considered an amnesiac.

Kon tugged at one of his curls, a frown on his lips.

"There's... not much I can do to get us back, is there?" He mused. 

The realization made him pause.

Honestly, one of the only things he could control was his hair. The very thing that he had been dancing around getting cut.

He didn't exactly have an excuse anymore.

He got the stray batarang from his pocket, set it on the edge of the sink, and let the TTK slip from his skin. The sensation of the surrounding air made him shiver. Stupid fragile human body. He didn't like being reminded that he was human. 

He cleared his throat and grabbed for the blade. He held it up to a curl. The blue mocked him. The blue sneered and screamed and cried not human enough. Not alien enough. Never enough.

Kon glanced up when he heard Tokoyami enter the bathroom. He had his spray bottle with him. The TTK layer yearned to spread back over Kon's skin.

"Hey."  Tokoyami tilted his head in greeting. "Kent, perfect timing. I was wondering if you could help me understand something?"

That wasn't concerning at all.

"Oh?" Kon slipped the batarang back into his pocket before turning to face Tokoyami. Dark Shadow wasn't floating next to the teen like they had been earlier in the day. "I'll try. What's up?"

Tokoyami put down his spray bottle on the edge of the sink beside Kon. He normally used the spray bottle to clean his head, misting above himself and moving his feathers around to truely get them all. It was how Lois bathed her canary back when it was still alive. Spritz, wait, spritz, wait. 

Tokoyami's feathers ruffled slightly in thought, dry and needing a wash.

"Hawks is... Unprofessional, right? That's his deal?"

Ah.

"Did you go to him for something after nine in the evening and he offered to preen you?" He asked, point blank.

Tokoyami blinked.

"This is a common occurrence?" He asked. Disbelief was clear in his voice. "I knew it was common enough to happen multiple times but still."

Kon snorted.

"Course it is. We're his Chickadees and he's responsible for us. His quirk isn't just wings y'know. Mutation aspect, multiple. What, did you say yes and you relaxed too much and fell asleep on him? I've seen you get tucked back into bed by him, it's adorable."

Tokoyami's feathers stood up on end. There was a flustered twist to his beak.

"No comment!"

Kon raised his hands in surrender, laughing.

"I've done it too and you know it! He's comforting." 

That was oversimplification to the highest degree. Hawks could be creepy as shit, Hawks could be absolutely feral or completely serious, and he would still somehow–someway– make Kon comfortable enough to pass out on his shoulder.

Scary as all hell.

Tokoyami sighed.

"Are you aware that you snore? Dark Shadow has taken to dancing to the rhythm."

Kon blinked blankly at him.

He snored?

Tokoyami wasn't one to lie. Far from it. He was painfully truthful. Painfully open in that roundabout way of his.

Kon didn't snore, though. He wasn't supposed to. He wasn't made for it. It was supposed to be a defect that had gotten fixed.

"Dude, I thought I got that trained out of me." Was out of his mouth before he could stop it.

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Kent, that's concerning to hear stated in such a way."

Kon grinned at him sheepishly.

"You heard nothing. I'm perfectly chill, and normal, and–" Tokoyami narrowed his eyes harshly and Kon looked to the side, into the mirror. Tired eyes and a blankening gaze met him, as consistent as any other small mention of Cadmus that suddenly slipped out. "–and I'll go to Hawks or Hound Dog about it, don't worry."

Tokoyami nodded.

"Alright," it was as if the word came easy, now that he had an assurance. "I saw you had one of Drake's support weapons in your hand, near your hair? I thought you liked it long." 

The observation wasn't accusing by any means. It took him by surprise all the same.

"I did." The past tense coiled around his body, like a bind. "It has something attached to it, something that I used to find comfort in." He explained, stuttering slightly. 

Broken project.

Not human, not Superman either.

"I like playing with your hair, Connie!"

"It's a liability, is what it is." The words had came dark, self-deprecating.

Jon needed something to play with if someone ever found a way to get them back.

He couldn't just...

Give up.

Supers don't give up.

Heroes don't give up.

Rob's poking at it in the background, looking at how far along technology was, how well he could adapt it to make it advance quicker. Dead end after dead end.

There wasn't much hope left. They both knew that.

Rob was dangerously close to pivoting, going towards something different. Something that would be more reckless, more terrifying to see him carry out.

"Did the comfort trap you in its grasp?" Tokoyami asked, unaware of Kon's thoughts.

Kon shrugged, hiding the way that his hands twitched and trembled due to the amount of time without being covered up by TTK.

It was like how Izuku's hands shook after the Sports Festival, broken and bent and not listening to the brain any more than it needed to.

Physical, instead of straight up electrocuting the nerves into disrepair.

Why was he thinking about that now?

"Something like that. It's not something I can verbalize properly." He shook his head. "My quirk makes it a task and a half to cut my hair, since I need to fully let my guard down and take off the telekinetic layer between me and the outside world. I don't know how it hasn't gone back up yet." He replied.

Tokoyami hummed. He held out his hand, as if for the batarang. His pjs made him look soft, gentle, disarming. Nothing like Tsukuyomi, even when they were the same person.

"Would you like to utilize the opportunity?"

Kon resisted the urge to shoot back with a "I don't know when the next one'll be."

He just let his head hang limp, clenched his fingers against porcelain gentle enough to not damage, and dug into his pocket for the batarang.

As dark blue curls hit the tile, he closed his eyes and stopped thinking.

He wasn't giving up. 

He wasn't.

Chapter Text

"Kon, please stop drooling. You're becoming emotionally compromised." Tim snickered, leaning away as Kon pouted. 

They were in their dorms, having moved in after their internships.

"It's not my fault that Izuku looks really hot when angry." Kon's eyes were locked onto the footage that Tim had managed to get access to after the exams. "I think it's the eyes."

Tim sighed fondly. He was watching Shouto's footage.

"It's definitely the eyes." 

"I forgot to ask after the Sports Festival–"

Tim punched his shoulder.

"Do not ask me about Shouto's lips."

"Come on!" Kon whined. "Kiss and tell! I'm your boyfriend!"

"My boyfriend who does not need to be a secondary source on how Shouto Todoroki's lips feel." He retorted. "Kiss him yourself if you're that curious."

Kon got that thoughtful look on his face before he sat up.

"I know a challenge when I hear it. What's my deadline?"

Tim smirked.

"No deadline. You do have secondary objectives."

Kon nodded sagely.

"Yes, the Fuck With Endeavor Agenda. I shall do my best."

–

He had a tail.

Tim smiled and made Izuku go with some of the others, practically shoving him into the elevator.

"I'll see you in a bit! I just want to explore a little, you know?"

Dark hoodie, pale hair, some sort of skin condition.

He slowed down and let the tail get close. An arm wrapped around his shoulders.

"A U.A kid? How cool! How about an autograph?" A masculine voice rasped by his ear. "I heard you had a run-in with the Hero Killer at Hosu. Didn't you strangle a kid at the Sports Festival?"

This guy knew something that didn't have a chance to get out. He also wasn't holding out anything for an autograph, obviously.

Tim hummed.

That voice tugged at his memory, but he wasn't sure who.

"Who am I talking with?" A bit of amusement, perfectly polite. No confirmation or denial. Just a student who's indulging a random guy. "I have to know who I'm giving an autograph to."

The guy pressed against his back and his head dropped over his shoulder and into his line of sight. The hood moved. Tim saw his face.

Red eyes, scratched up skin, and an unhinged grin.

It took a bit to place him.

Shigaraki. He didn't have the hands all over him anymore.

"This might be destiny." Shigaraki's hand moved up to Tim's neck, his middle finger hovering while the rest press against his throat. Choking. "Why don't we catch up, hmm? I want to have a talk with you, Timothy Drake."

Tim forced out a breath, it shook satisfyingly.

"Let's sit down."

Shigaraki moved his finger threateningly close to touching his throat, the edge slightly catching against his skin in a way that made small sparks of pain race down Tim's spine. Kon had told him about the five point activation. Fingerprint-based. It was so long ago, the beginning of term.

"If you try anything, your trachea and vocal chords will be the first to go. All it would take is just one wrong move." A giggle hit his ear in erratic puffs of air. Manic. "You don't want to get cremated, do you?"

"You'd cause mass panic." Tim breathed, making sure to have his voice crack on his next words. "One person, three, twenty? I thought a conversation was what you wanted, Shigaraki. You're getting it."

Shigaraki steered him towards an empty bench. When Shigaraki sat down on the edge, very much about to sit Tim beside him and keep the threatening position, he resisted the urge to berate the man. He just twisted and sat on a lanky thigh. 

"What are you–" 

Tim leaned his body into Shigaraki's, curling up to make it look like they were together. The man was nothing but skin and fucking bone.

"This is so you can keep your hand on my neck without looking outwardly threatening." Tim stated quietly. "Now you just look like a possessive older boyfriend. Let's hope no one takes an issue with a highschooler on an adult's lap and thinks to intervene, yeah?"

Shigaraki's eye twitched.

"Thanks, I hate it."

Tim glared at him, glad that fear explained the sudden switch-up.

"And I can feel all of your ribs. The sooner you say your peice, the sooner we can fucking separate."

Shigaraki scowled and his fingers tensed and untensed wildly.

"Fine. What the hell is the difference between me and the Hero Killer, huh? What makes him someone to obsess over and not me?"

What kind of dumb question was that?

"Stain's ideology backs up All Might's status as paragon of truth and justice, since everyone is positive that All Might wouldn't get culled. It's stupid, yeah, but it's either against All Might or for All Might in this age."

Shigaraki started shaking.

"All Might." He seethed. "I want him dead."

And Tim got his opening.

"What stopped someone from poisoning the guy during the school day? You could obviously break in before. I heard from Midoriya that All Might literally cannot have anything other than his meal replacement shakes and he keeps them in the teacher's lounge."

Shigaraki went still. His face went from shock, to glee, to pure anger.

"I could have killed him months ago?!" He whisper-yelled.

Tim nodded into Shigaraki's shoulder, making a note to himself to have Izuku move All Might's stash just in case Shigaraki wanted to actually attempt it.

"Yeah, you could have left a note and everything as a sort of calling card." He snorted. "Hero society would have crumbled within the hour."

Tim knocked his foot against the bench twice, as a signal for Kon to step in.

Via call, obviously. The guy was at a shooting range with Snipe.

Tim's phone started ringing in his pocket.

He made his eyes go wide and his body tense.

Shigaraki rolled his eyes, nicer than earlier. He took his hand away from Tim's throat.

"Answer it, I'm done here. Enjoy your call, or whatever."

Tim got off Shigaraki's lap and answered the call as he tracked Shigaraki's attempt to get lost in the crowd.

"Thanks, Handjob chilled out once I started dunking on All Might and the call got me out. How are you?" He smiled.

"Good. I'll let you call in the villain sighting."

Kon hung up on him and Tim snorted out a laugh. 

Guess he couldn't just keep it quiet after all. Lucky Shigaraki.

Chapter Text

It was weird, seeing the intern accommodations empty. Hawks had gotten used to them. He had failed in separating professionalism and personal interest.

He... cared.

It was terrifying, exhilarating, against protocol. His fate had been sealed the moment he locked eyes with grey-blue heterochromatic irises on that rooftop. That lack of recognition until the kid studied him a second longer than most people, his friend unconcious in his arms.

That warning in the kid's tone when the feather was noticed, a certain knowledge that didn't come from knowing about a highly confidential quirk.

Hawks had pursued Kent as if he was a lead, as if he could be the key to solve a case.

That was all he knew how to act like.

Report after report back to his handler, and yet, when he was prodded for any information about his random detours, about his unscheduled social media posts that he hadn't cleared in advance–

He couldn't bring himself to say anything more than "I wanted a change."

A rush, a new infiltration mission, and then all of a sudden Conner was leaning into his hands and giving a fountain of information and it still stunned Hawks when the new generation trusted the hands that have killed so many. Fully believed that his talons could be used for something as– as soft as gently detangling unruly blue hair. 

It might have been a fluke, but Hawks could have sworn that his talons buzzed with the contact of finger to hair, stronger the closer he got to the scalp. When Conner dozed off, it went away entirely. The forcefield, Hawks guessed.

It scared him, just how easily he could have snapped the kid's neck. How a leak of the American government's practices could be stifled so easily and permanently. 

Fumikage's instant slumber wasn't any better.

Torture, murder, assassination. 

"What did they turn Keigo into?"

Hawks took off his goggles, checked his burner phone, and focused on his next meeting with Dabi.

Keigo didn't exist.

Keigo Takami died the moment the boy's mother signed the contract.

Tracking Dabi when the man came in close enough range was easy, falling into step with him more-so. 

Ash clung to Dabi's very being, as if he was made from it. They were alike, in that sense.

A phoenix and the ashes swirling around its being, that made up its body.

Dust to dust.

Hawks grinned at him, bouncing on his heels as he walked. He was dressed-down. Civilian clothes instead of his costume. Dabi scowled back, steering them towards quieter streets that weren't as lined with Hawks's face.

"We're picking up a kid, right?" He asked playfully. "Which one?"

Dabi narrowed his eyes at him but didn't threaten him, which was progress.

"Your... insight is needed before we can reach an actual decision on which brat." He said, practically spitting out the words.

Hawks tilted his head, his smile turned slightly sharp in a way that he was sure that Dabi could tell. They stopped in a narrow alleyway and leaned against the walls to face each other.

"Someone who could be persuaded to our side, right? I have some ideas but I want to know what you think. Which kid was your first thought?"

The word choice was intentional. He was on their side, the side wasn't separate from him. Ours.

Dabi shrugged.

"Bakugou? Fuckin' feral. If we could get our claws on him, then we'd have a really powerful villain. Shigaraki keeps mentioning Drake."

Hawks wheezed as he remembered what Conner had said about him when asked.

"The only thing that would make 'Kacchan'–as Izuku calls him–stop striving to be a hero would be if there is no competition." 

Hawks had blinked.

"Doesn't he want to be the greatest? Why would he want competition?"

"He wants to be Number One. There have to be others in the running–actual competitors and not weaklings–for it to be a well-earned win." Conner had shrugged. "Hell, he forces everyone to take better care of themselves just so he has proper opponents that can fight him at full throttle. Dude shoved Todoroki into Hound Dog's office all 'Fucking air out your shit before you fight me, you distracted glob of diarrhea!' It was rather sweet."

Dabi glared at his laughter.

"What?" He hissed between burnt lips.

"The kid's whole reason for being a hero is to compete for top spot. He pitches a fit whenever he thinks that something is just being handed to him. He craves what's within the current system." Hawks got out before he calmed himself. "He has a certain way of going about it, sure, but he personally makes sure that his classmates are at their best when they go against him. He's more likely to just turn around, quirk blazing, the second you all try to establish trust."

Dabi groaned. His scars stretched around his mouth and neck.

"So no Bakugou because he's practically a more feral All Might with a different fuel source. What about Drake?"

Hawks hummed.

"Did you see the match between Kent and Drake? Sports Festival." He questioned suddenly.

Dabi rolled his eyes.

"What about it?"

Hawks poked Dabi's chest, his grin growing wider. It was easy to have his mouth run, to have two kids be damned. It was for the mission.

Conner and Drake could handle the situation. They were heroes in their own right, anyways. They just weren't recognized by Japanese law yet.

"Didn't you see how brutal they were? They pulled out every single stop they could, and then got bored over how long it was taking because they knew each other so well. Kent and Drake trained together, fought together, I just know it."

Dabi raised an eyebrow.

"They're American hero brats, we know. Why do you think they'll join us? I know that Shigaraki wants Drake because he already showed 'The right thinking.' Whatever that means."

Hawks shrugged.

"Kent was my intern, yeah? We're... alike, you could say. Government program, training weapons to be passed off as heroes. Kid said it dissolved after he booked it to Japan. Wouldn't tell me the name, so I doubt it's actually gone. Offer to help him get revenge." 

A flash of interest.

"Oh?"

"Do you know the kicker?" Hawks snorted. "Where ever Kent goes, Drake will follow. Vice-versa. They're disgustingly codependent and dating. Perfect two for one deal. All you need is one and then give an opportunity for the other to join them. Throw in another kid as a hostage..."

Dabi smirked.

"Three for the price of two."

–

The training camp.

A test of courage.

Unknown heartbeats.

"Give them back!" Snarled in the night. A bright blaze in the trees.

Two classes worth of students, two transfers. 

"They aren't owned."

Kon stumbled when he got let out of the marble, all wide-eyed. Shinsou was beside him, vaguely nauseated-looking.

They were in a clearing. The sky was dark.

To the students with them, it was a nightmare come to life.

"Kon! Hitoshi!" 

A portal opened. Purple and dark and swirling. 

Shouts. 

Desperation.

Fear.

Some kids went to intercept.

"Don't!" "Stay back!" The teens spoke over each other, panicked. 

Both were dragged inside by forceful hands. Burn scars, gloves, bare.

The forest was still for a second after the portal blinked out of existence.

Quiet.

Timothy Drake screamed. 

Chapter Text

It wasn't often that Hitoshi saw Conner Kent up close. 

Kent probably preferred it that way, since his face always tightened whenever he got within a certain radius. It wasn't with disgust, or with nerves.

No, it was fear. This terror that was deeper than what quirkist classmates had felt about Hitoshi before. Drake had assured him that Kent just had... unpleasant connections to what Brainwashing could do.

Understandable. 

Kent didn't go out of his way to interact, content to leave him alone while managing his fear the way he knew how, and Hitoshi was fine with letting him.

Choppily cut hair curled around tanned cheeks, poking up every which way in a short burst that didn't go past his nose. The blue strands were dirty, unkempt. Hitoshi's hair was likely the same way.

Purple eyes tracked as Kent stared at the ground that was likely sticky with alcohol and soda and riddled with dirt. Blue and grey flicked this way and that, erratic. The bar around them wasn't that well lit, but it was enough that he could see Kent clearly.

He was shaking, Hitoshi realized, trembling with something that couldn't be described as anxiety or panic. The chains around them and the threats kept both of them in place well enough.

He didn't know how long it had been since they were shoved into a corner of the bar. The League of Villains had them on a rotation of babysitters, the current one being Dabi.

Hitoshi had dozed off for just a second, trying to pass time, but he woke up to the odd sight of the burnt man crouched down in front of Kent, who had been untied. His face was soft, as much as it could be with skin grafts and staples.

"–If you gave us a name, we could help. Hell, just a handler, a scientist, something." The guy murmured, clearly intending for the words to not be overheard. "They tortured you, Kid."

Kent shook his head. His fists clenched at his sides. There was a weird expression on his face, as if it was stuck between touched and annoyed and amused.

Who was they?

"I keep telling you that it doesn't happen anymore. What part of that don't you understand? They can't get me, that's all I ask." Kent whispered, mouth twisting. "I'm not– I'm not some specimen anymore. I'm human. I'm a hero."

Kent's voice was so full of wonder, as if he almost couldn't believe that he was actually in the Hero Course.

Hitoshi watched as Dabi frowned and rocked back onto his heels.

"Is that who you are, or who you've been built to be?" He asked.

Kent rolled his eyes, though he twitched visibly at Dabi's words.

"Wow, glad to know that you think so poorly of my recovery progress that you believe I'm still under conditioning. I have free will, you know." He snarked, louder. "Your face looks familiar. Did I happen to kiss your little brother?"

Dabi reeled backwards. His staples pulled the scarred skin of his eyelids taut.

"What the fuck?" He blurted out. 

Kent tilted his head, his eyes sparkling with mischief. Hitoshi had seen this in group homes. Kids lashing out the only way they knew how.

With their words. They sharpened them like blades, aimed at any weak spot.

"Yeah, you have the eyes, the facial structure, the wide-eyed shock. You're a Todoroki for sure. Touya, right? I kissed Shouto; with tongue. My boyfriend also kissed him. Your dad was so pissed!" He laughed. "Shouto is adorable! I could just gobble. Him. Up." His eyes went half lidded and he punctuated his words with a sleezy smile.

It was obvious that Kent was fucking with the guy, no matter how true Hitoshi knew the statements to be.

Hitoshi could only bear witness as Dabi bluescreened for a few seconds before he just stood up and walked over to the counter where all the booze was.

Kent snickered as the long dead Todoroki chugged multiple glasses of whatever was in the cabinets.

"I'm too old to deal with this." Dabi groaned into his burnt hands, his quirk slightly flaring out in his anger. "I can't. I just can't. Fuck Birdy to hell."

Kent stiffened when the man said Birdy. 

Birdy.

Didn't Kent intern with Hawks?

He shoved that line of thinking to the side and lightly kicked Kent's leg as best as he was able.

"Shinsou." Kent breathed, easily keeping his voice down but not low enough as to where Hitoshi couldn't hear it. The prior fear that the other teen had in UA's halls wasn't there. It was completely absent. "Act like you're gonna join when they prod you, yeah? You're more accessible. I'm going to play hard to get for a little while longer." He winked.

Something swooped within Hitoshi's chest that he did not want to unpack right that very second.

Fuck Hawks to hell indeed. His interns were insufferable.

"Alright." He muttered back, forcing back his own stubbornness and bringing his anxiety shakes to the forefront.

Kent was acting. The bar was a stage.

Hitoshi could act, too.

A tall woman swapped with Dabi. She smiled at them and sat down in front of them.

"I'm big sis Magne." She introduced herself. "Dabi let out Kent because he promised, and that's working out so far. We didn't exactly say to not mouth off. You two are teenagers." Magne shrugged before gesturing to Hitoshi's bonds. "Promise not to revolt or use your quirk offensively?"

Hitoshi nodded eagerly, making his eyes wide. He didn't have signs of quirk withdrawl yet, so he couldn't utilize that, not much.

He could utilize, however–

"I promise. I know the rules, ma'am." He agreed weakly, expertly making himself appear meek. "No questions or I get– I get muzzled."

Kent's hands tensed beside him but he didn't pay it any mind.

Magne's face fell.

"You're not getting muzzled here." She stated firmly, tugging the chains off. "Did they muzzle you at the school?"

Act like they did or act like they didn't.

Hitoshi flinched. He brought his arms around himself in a hug.

If he acted like they did, he would never be able to look Vlad King or Present Mic or Hound Dog or Eraserhead in the eyes ever again. The lie would stain his teeth, stain his very being. 

"No! Never! They have a use for me, there, a use that I don't get at home. I get to train my quirk, I get to ask. I get to be a hero!" He stated breathlessly. 

Magne looked at him sadly. Not with pity, but with a maternal sort of oh, honey look that pained him to have directed at him.

"You can ask here, sweetie. We'll take you at your word, okay? If you joined, we can make sure that no one gets muzzled like you were."

The part of him that wasn't entirely convinced that he was putting on an act ached with hope at the manipulation. This dizzying thing that he had felt once before, back when Present Mic had taken one look at Hitoshi's bare and scarred face with his damaged tongue and sat him down with the simple question of "who did this to you, Little Listener?" all full of retribution.

He didn't need that hope. He was out of that house, he wasn't even with the same social worker. Present Mic took care of it. All of it. The only thing stopping the man from taking Hitoshi in himself was that Hitoshi said no.

He took that painful hope and directed it. Hitoshi's eyes filled with tears, though he didn't let more than one fall.

"Really? No one else?" He trembled, his voice full of relief and hope and fear. A kid testing the waters. He skipped over saying if he'd actually join. "I can actually ask? What if–" Hitoshi cut himself off abruptly.

Magne encouraged him. She fell for it.

"Ask, Kid."

Hitoshi rubbed at his throat, at the quirked muscle within that was prone to triggering quirk withdrawl far too soon than what was normal.

"I get quirk withdrawl easily." He admitted quietly. "I was working on it, with my teachers and councelor. It's abnormal for my age. What if I get quirk withdrawl here? I don't– I can't–"

Working himself into a faux panic was easy. Seeing Magne so affected by it was harder.

But he had to guarantee that he would be able to use his quirk.

Magne bundled him up into her arms, soothing him with gentle motions. He got himself to melt, to accept the affection. 

"We'll figure it out as it happens, alright? We won't just make you tough it out. You're one of us, now, Hitoshi."

Kent caught his eye over Magne's shoulder. He grinned.

Hitoshi grinned back.

Chapter Text

It took a while to have full mobility of the bar, especially since Kon had to keep up appearances. The few private conversations that he shared with Shinsou–"We're co-hostages. You prefer Kon, right?"–Hitoshi were mostly about joint acts or rehabilitation plans to bring up to the Pros for the villains that were so genuine in their compassion towards them that it hurt.

After Hitoshi stopped attempting time travel via sleep, it was easier to get over the bone-deep irrational terror of losing himself.

They were a team, now.

At least they had actual places to sleep.

"Magne needs to be needed." Hitoshi whispered one night, as they sat together at the empty counter. Everyone else had already gone up to their rooms. "Dabi needs to be locked in a training ground with Endeavor under a time limit."

Kon snorted into his can of soda. He raised an eyebrow.

"The timer so that Dabi has to choose between killing his dad or just taking out all of the pent up rage?" He clarified.

Hitoshi nodded, messing with his lit cigarette.

The guy got smoking privileges, complete with a lighter and a pack of cigs. Kon would never understand it, how someone so human could compromise their lungs in that way.

Hitoshi had also gotten closer to Magne, in a way that mirrored how Kon had gotten closer to Hawks.

"Toga is probably the easiest to get adjusted. Magne and Toga go hand in hand, after all." He admitted.

Kon hummed.

"You've said before that Magne would be a good foster mom." He remembered. "Put Toga in her care once she's certified and have Vlad King as the Pro on her case?"

Hitoshi flicked off some excess ash into a stained ash tray before putting the cig to his lips.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking." He replied around the thing. His expression twisted into something wistful, something sad. Something that only being in a kitchen-like setting in the dead of night would trigger. "Is it wrong? Is it wrong to want something you'll never be able to have? Present Mic offered to foster me and I refused because I know it's too late for me. I'm never going to have a family like I wanted when I was a kid."

The feeling was familiar to Kon. Of course it was, he felt it all the time. The second that Kon stepped out of The Lab was the second that Kon would never have a normal life. He was cursed the instant that he was created.

Clark came to mind, with his biological kid being raised on Ma and Pa's farm and the apartment's guest room down the hall that Kon had practically taken over. The tentative dance that was getting ready in the mornings and getting breakfast at their favorite cafe before their days started.

"Is it wrong for Toga to hope? Is it wrong for her to want? To crave?" Kon rubbed his thumb against a groove in the countertop, likely caused by Toga's knives. "Is it wrong for me to want?"

Hitoshi smiled wryly at him.

"There's my answer, then."

It was stated simply, as if nothing had hinged on Kon's reply. But something did, something vital. Something that Kon still wasn't sure that he fully understood.

"Say–"

"Did anyone ever tell you that you have nearly the same exact eyes as Todoroki?" Hitoshi tilted his head as he studied Kon's face. "The grey's a little lighter and the blue's a little darker, but it's the same placement."

"...Shut your bitch-ass up."

The shit-eating grin on Hitoshi's face was almost worth it.

"Shutting up."

–

Tim held up an earpiece, a phone, and a thumb drive. Bargaining chips, in all honesty.

"If you want to have a live feed of the conversations being had where they're kept, tracking data, and past audio files; I'm going to be put onto this case." He stared down all of the heroes around the staff table.

"Yaoyorozu has already shared the data connected to the tracking device on the Nomu from the camp." One of them challenged.

Tim snorted.

"You think they're keeping weapons where they're harboring potential recruits?" He held back the rest of his laughter, not wanting to sound too insane. "They're separate. I know this because I have multiple trackers on my boyfriend. He's microchipped to hell and back. Kon and Shinsou already have near total mobility because they're acting like they're going to join. I'm going to get lured in anyway because the League wants to recruit me using Kon. Don't you want some control?"

Eraserhead didn't look surprised. He likely suspected this.

The longer Tim went without Kon by his side, the more intense he got.

The sickly sweet smile he wore was already pushing it.

"Robin is being added to the case. I will be the Pro in charge of him." He intoned. Shouta just raised an eyebrow at the raised protests that the other heroes blurted out. "He either does this with us or he goes rogue. Do you want a rogue UA Hero student?"

Tim leaned into Shouta's side and hid his smile as the Pro ruffled his hair. The hospital gown was uncomfortable, but he would change in due time.

"How do you know I'll go rogue?" He asked playfully.

Eraserhead rolled his eyes.

"You and I are fully aware of the reason." He grumbled.

Tim just snickered and tossed his contributions to the center of the table.

He had spares.

–

Izuku sat up, squinting into the dark.

Kacchan crawled through the hospital room window, quickly followed by Todoroki.

"Todoroki, did you get the extra tracking device off Yaoyorozu?" He asked in a whisper.

"I did."

Right before they all moved to sneak out, the door slid open.

Tim stepped in, wearing sweatpants and a hoodie that Izuku recognized as Conner's. He had his phone in his hand, opened to Aizawa's contact information.

"Give me one reason why you won't die tonight." He hissed. "A singular reason that would allow me to not call our teacher."

Kacchan scowled.

"You're just going to sit to the side?!" He burst out. "That's your fucking boytoy that's being held hostage!"

Tim glared at Kacchan so harshly that Izuku flinched back and Kacchan wavered.

"I bullied my way onto the raid team. I turned over my audio logs, my tracking data, my files." He bit out. "I am being smart about this. I know how Kon is! He's not helpless. He knows how to twist this situation in his favor. We're both trained in situations similar to the one he's in."

"If you know so much, then why haven't you gone after the shitty extras!"

Tim's grip around his flip phone became white-knuckled. A hysterical laugh tore apart his throat and chilled everyone else to their cores.

"I would be forced into a tough spot because Shigaraki wants me so damn much it makes him look stupid." He snarled. "That's part of the reason I'm even allowed on the raid team. I'm bait. You're not fucking this up for me. You're not ruining my chances of getting my boyfriend and our classmate back."

The room went quiet. Only heavy breathing filled the space for a moment.

Izuku got off his cot.

"What can we do?" He asked, settling a hand on Tim's shoulder. "How can we help?"

Tim studied Izuku's face, then Todoroki's, and finally Kacchan's. The sides of his mouth twitched up at what he found.

"I'll find a use for you three." He promised. "Just don't be scared at what I'll say, yeah?"