everylittlegirl

Entry tags:

- tss

PSL

Characters: Hayley & Kon
Summary: After Kon leaves the turtle, but doesn't realize it.
Warnings: None

Hayley didn't really have any plans for the day. She was walking around, taking in the sights and getting some fresh air, trying not to think about the people who had left and the people who still remained. It was the kind of day where she didn't want to think at all. Except then she saw something she didn't expect at all. It looked like Kon. It couldn't have been, of course, because he was gone. And he would have said hello if he had come back.. He wouldn't just show up and not say anything. Would he?

She followed the guy down the block toward the suite that used to be his. Her fingers lifted without thinking about it, running along the edge of the glasses on her head. Kon had given them to her before he left and, although she didn't use them often, she wore them nearly every day. It was a much needed reminder to her that it wasn't too late for her to be the hero they believed her to be.

The guy who looked like Kon disappeared behind the door of his suite. Not a moment later, Hayley found herself standing on the doorstep, knocking at the door. She dropped her hand, realizing that maybe it wasn't Kon at all. Maybe it was someone else entirely, someone who just sort of looked like the guy from behind. But what if it was him and he'd simply forgotten her? It was still better to see him, if that was the case.

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It was such an odd situation that would confuse him later when he would find out about it. In Kon's mind, he had been going about his usual daily life here on the turtle. At this moment in time he had just finished his shift at the bar and was on his way to his suite to catch a nap or something. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened, there hadn't been any time where he had gone home, yet again. There hadn't been any time missing from when he woke up and worked a shift to when he was going home. He'd been so wrapped up in his own head that he didn't notice any kind of differences, didn't notice the people, he just had bed in mind.

The suite looked the same, felt the same and smelt the same. The door had only been closed for a few seconds when there was a knock at it and Kon turned around, took the few steps towards it and opened it.

A smile broke out as he saw Hayley and he pulled the door open wider.

"Hey! Didn't know you were coming over."

To Kon, he'd only been back a few weeks since he'd...well changed. He had still been working on trying to rebuild the friendship he'd had with Hayley. So whenever he saw her, he always felt happy. Even if she was here to see Bart, it didn't mean he couldn't strike up some kind of conversation with her.

"Come on in. You want a drink?"

Just like he hadn't been gone. Just like picking up from where things had been left off.

Hayley gawked at the man inside the door, at her friend welcoming her inside. A million emotions flooded through her in the span of a second and she couldn't even begin to know what to say. He was back. He remembered her. He hadn't told her. He was acting like nothing was wrong. She was caught between anger and relief, excitement and fear, joy and confusion.

Even though he had looked older and more Clark-like for awhile before leaving, it was still strange to see. Hayley wasn't used to her friends being so.. chiseled. It would have made her uncomfortable if she had time to think about it right now. Instead, she was busy debating between whether to hit him or hug him and eventually decided on both.

The girl reached out to smack his chest. It felt like hitting stone, just as she knew it would. Then she shoved at him, only succeeding in sending herself backward a few inches. Her expression was contorted with anger and it actually took conscious effort not to cry as she saw him standing there.

"What the hell? Where have you been? And why didn't you tell me-" She cut off when her voice cracked and opted for the second part of the plan, closing the space between them. Hayley wrapped her arms tightly around Kon and immediately pressed her face to his chest, pulling herself against him and refusing to let go.

Confused was possibly the best way to describe the expression Kon wore at Hayley's actions. At her hitting him, he quickly tried to work out what exactly he had potentially done to warrant it. Not that it hurt, but people didn't tend to just suddenly look angry and hit others. Hayley would have had to have had some kind of trigger, but Kon just couldn't think of anything. Their last conversation was civil, they took it easy and Kon had reminded himself to not slip into old mannerisms around her like suddenly touching her, especially if she was facing away.

He was worried. He didn't know what was going on and his expression just grew even more confused as she asked where he had been. Without even thinking he replied.

"Uh...work?"

It sounded dumb, but to him, that's where he'd been. And then she was hugging him and he didn't even have to think. He wrapped his own arms around her, one hand going to the back of her head as he lowered his own so his chin just rested on the top of her head.

"Hayley? You okay?"

Kon's voice was quiet.

Hayley registered the confusion on his face and in his voice as she clung to him. He clearly remembered her, but he also clearly had no idea what was going on and why she was freaking out. A chill ran down her spine as he hugged her, a tension the girl had been carrying for months fading away with the feel of her friend and the knowledge that he was here again.

"You were gone," she replied finally, not moving away from him. She pressed her cheek against his chest, shifting slightly to fill the space along his neck and beneath his chin. "I haven't seen you for months. You or Bart or Mark.."

With a soft smile, her tone shifted from wistful to teasing. "You better have a good reason for not coming to see me."

Gone. But how could he have been gone and not known it? The other times he vanished he'd known he had been one. One he had even volunteered for. Although the first time he hadn't exactly known until he returned, but it had been different to this. Because Kon had just continued on with his life here. There hadn't been anything jarring. Nothing. But he trusted Hayley and he believed her, even if it was hard to grasp.

He had been gone for months...Bart was gone and that thought upset him. It was as if the pit of his stomach had just opened up and his fingers grasped at her tighter. Nothing uncomfortable, just the same as if she were to hold him tighter. She was close and Kon only held her closer because he was clearly the worst at making promises and this place was clearly just horrible.

Kon was glad for the change in atmosphere even if it wasn't going to last, though he hoped it did.

"Well clearly this place just put me on auto pilot. Damn, guess I've missed out on months of wages."

Hayley tightened her grip on him in mirror to his clinging. It was a moment some part of her never wanted to give up, and that thought by itself made her want to stop right then. She didn't miss that inner turmoil, but it was always worth being with him.

She reached up a little to smack him lightly in the back of the head before finally loosening her grip and withdrawing halfway. Her hands slid from around his back to rest on the front of his chest instead as she looked up at him. A stray thought told her to kiss him right then, forever associating he and Bart. She quickly dismissed it and gave a smirk instead.

"You abandon me for weeks and you're worried about your money? I'm hurt, Kon." More teasing. It was how they communicated.

Kon let Hayley pull back and create a gap between them and grinned as his head was smacked, ducking it with the hit. Even though Hayley could be so complex at times, it was always amazing and refreshing how quick and easy things could just flow. How one moment there cold be tension and irritation and then jokes and sarcasm and teasing. It was never predictable and that's what made their friendship so exciting.

He kept a hand on her shoulder and cocked his head to the right just a little as he kept the grin on his face.

"Just thinking on how much food that could have been."

The grin faded slowly and he gripped her shoulder lightly.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm just bad at sticking around."

Despite not being aware of his disappearance, he still felt like he owed her an apology for leaving her. For leaving her alone and that's the part that hurt him as well. The alone part.

Hayley's fingers lifted away from his chest to his hand on her shoulder. She gave him a tight but sincere smile, tracing her fingers over his for a second before realizing what she was doing. She tensed and dropped her hands away, taking a half-step back. His arm could easily stay on her shoulder if he wanted, but it was enough to bring her body away from his. Hayley found him too comfortable and that was something that needed to be avoided.

"So are you going to let me in or should I go back where I came from?" She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder in a demonstrative gesture, glancing in that direction as an excuse to look away from him. When she looked at him again, she was wearing her default smile. It was the one he and Bart recognized was fake, but not many else did and thus it had become easier to wear in their absence.

Everytime he felt Hayley tense up it was like what they had between them took a small step back. They both weren't out right affectionate people, heck there had only been two people he'd been affectionate with in his life. Well...four, but two of them didn't count and one of those had been drug induced.

Kon didn't stop her from moving back, he gave a smile and a small squeeze to her shoulder before he let his hand slowly drop away.

That smile had the same reaction as her tensing up and it made his own one fall until only the corners of his mouth looked like they were more upturned. Kon stepped back and gestured for Hayley to come in. Was this still his place even though he had apparently been gone? Or was what he thought was his room, actually someone elses? Sometimes he missed having his treehouse back in the Wood sector.

"If everything's still in the same place in the kitchen, I can brew up some coffee if you want?"

"Yeah, that would be cool," she replied lightly as she slipped past him and into the apartment of sorts.

Now that Hayley had had some time to get over the initial shock, the memories began to set in. She was struck again with how he looked now, how much older and more attractive. He looked strong, less like a friend and more like.. well, Clark. Who kind of reminded her of a weird mentor. It was weird to find herself thinking of Kon as both a brother and a hot close friend.

"I'm sorry," she added, following him into the kitchen. "You know I'm glad to see you. I'm just not good at.. you know, hugging and all of that. The only reason Bart and I were even a thing is because he kissed me first."

It was meant to be reassuring, but the reminder that Bart was gone almost made her flinch. Not to mention that talking about she and Bart in general was kind of awkward, since she still wasn't entirely sure what had happened between them. She wondered if Kon knew that Bart was gone or if he'd somehow slept through that whole everyone leaving thing.

He showed her a smile as she spoke. Kon knew, he'd know Hayley long enough to know what she could, and often was, like. He also knew that there was a lot there that he didn't know that had come up since he'd changed. With Bart, he had guessed he was gone, but then Hayley could have holed herself up for some length of time again, so it was more of an educated guess rather than outright knowing.

Once he was in the kitchen, things were straight on to autopilot and he wasn't surprised to find things were still in there place, Kon would have been more surprised if he found things to have actually been moved. He grabbed two mugs and got the water boiling along with the coffee.

"Don't be sorry about any of that stuff. Temporary forgetfulness."

The smile he had was a little stronger than it had been before and he set about making their drinks once the water and everything was ready. Holding out a mug for her to take.

"So...I was gone? Like genuinely gone?"

Hayley leaned on a nearby counter, watching him work. The familiar movements of a friend, the unfamiliar body of a stranger. She had witnessed profound transformations of some actors back home, those before and after pictures where people credited 'puberty' as being responsible for transforming an awkward kid into a sexy young man or woman. Usually woman. It was kind of like that with Kon, only without seeing any of the middle and without him being that gangly or awkward before.

She smiled at his reply and his immediate forgiveness of her actions. That was the familiarity that she missed more than anything, someone who understood her at levels she sometimes wasn't even sure she understood herself. Not in some deeply philosophical way. Just in that it had become intuitive at some level.

"Yeah. It felt like forever." She straightened and accepted the mug from him, holding it between her hands to warm them. "And trust me? You guys were the only ones who thought I was super hero material. It sucked without you."

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Finally free enough to taaaag!

Wooooooo!

And then the shit hit the faaaaan!

sorry rp has been hard <3