Bart Allen's mouth fell open in shock. Unsurprisingly, he'd been running late for the Young Justice meeting. Just because he was the team's Speedster didn't mean he was always on time. Young Justice had finally moved back to Happy Harbor so he had farther to travel, not that the distance was the problem. Bart had been expecting a lecture when he showed up, that would have been par for the course. The scene in front of him however was shock inducing. He never would have imagined it, even given the outlandish of all circumstances. Shocked, he did the only thing he could think to do. He blinked.

As Impulse, teen superhero, he'd seen a lot of strange things. Talking gorillas, homicidal maniacs with guns, busty blonde jewel thieves; okay maybe those weren't that strange after all. However, he'd seen them up close. Truth is, after all, life was stranger than fiction and nothing could be odder than watching Robin kiss Superboy in the middle of the meeting room. Bart took off his mask to rub his eyes, but the picture stayed the same.

Maybe there was some evil clone thing happening *again*, mind control, or something even more bizarre. Or perhaps, it was as simple a fact of not knowing his two friends as well as he thought he did. He'd walked in on Robin kissing Superboy. Even to think it sounded funny, like that old Christmas song.

Bart froze in the doorway watching with wide eyes. So far he had gone unnoticed. He watched as Robin broke the kiss and pulled away from Kon, all the while keeping his head bowed. After a moment of silence, the masked hero spoke. "I'm sorry, Kon," he offered. "You understand?"

Superboy, Kon-El to his friends, bit the side of his mouth and nodded mutely, as if he didn't trust himself to say anything. His posture seemed resigned to what had just transpired as if it were an eventuality finally put into motion. His eyes, contrarily, were almost smoldering. Kon watched Robin walk towards the exit, the shadows already started to fold him into them.

Bart turned his head as Robin walked past him. He should say something, shouldn't he, but he was too awestruck to form words. Kon turned on heel and stalked past the still dumbstruck Bart. Curtly, he spoke, "Meeting's off, Imp."

Bart blinked, finally snapping out of shock. In control of his faculties once again, he grabbed Kon by the arm. "What just...?"

"We broke up," Kon clarified keeping his answer succinct.

"Wait. But I thought... he.. you..." Bart stammered. Kon watched, his expression unreadable. Finally Impulse blurted out, "But I thought you liked girls!"

Kon smiled, very much despite himself, at Bart's confusion. "Nah," he shrugged. Nonchalance settled over his expressions like a comfortable mask. "I'm an equal opportunity clone."

Bart's eyes tilted upwards as he tried to assimilate this new information into his perception of the universe. Kon sat down on the table top and waited for the inevitable questions to start. He hoped they'd come at less than breakneck speed.

Bart looked at Kon's relaxed demeanor and tried to figure that into his newly altered perception. If people broke up, they weren't supposed to be happy. Not a bit, in fact, they were supposed to be the opposite. "Why aren't you upset?" he asked.

Kon quirked an eyebrow. "You *want* me to be upset?"

"No, not that. Well, you can be upset if you want to. Or not. I'm just wondering why you're not."

Kon sighed and started talking more to himself than to his teammate. "'Cause I knew this was coming." He hopped from the table to the ground and began pacing around it. Bart followed behind him step by step as Kon continued to speak. "I realized it was only a matter of time and -" He turned around to see Bart, who quickly sat down. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Bart watched, interested. Through a coincidence or not, he'd ended up sitting in with the chair with the Flash logo. Superboy continued to pace around. There was Supes chair, natch'. Green Lantern's. And instead of the infamous bat logo, a tiny taped pin up of the Robin symbol. In a purely self indulgent moment, Kon ripped it down. "Oh this just sucks."

Bart followed Kon's gaze to the crumpled paper. "I don't think you should have-"

Kon's gaze focused on Bart.

"-never mind," Bart finished.

Kon sighed and pinched the ridge of his nose. He wasn't upset. He was... angry? Disappointed? Dejected? Rejected? Hurt? Surprised? No, he wasn't surprised. He'd seen the signs but it still sucked. He smoothed out the crumpled paper on the table until it was reasonably recovered. He pressed the tape against the chair and frowned when it didn't stick. "Aw damn," he said retrieving the paper from the floor. "He's gonna kill me."

Kon threw the paper to the table and continued to pace around the table. Bart looked at the paper and had an idea. He walked to the other side of the table, carefully avoiding Kon. He vibrated the tape and simply tapped it into the chair, effectively fusing it there. He could always fix it later -- that is, if anyone noticed -- but it was good enough for now. "Problem solved."

Kon stopped walking and looked at the back of the chair. "Thanks man. I think I've got to get out of here and just cool down for a bit."

He *was* upset, Bart realized. He watched as Kon started for the exit. Almost as an afterthought, Superboy turned around. He looked at Bart, who in turn looked behind himself. "Are you coming?" Kon asked.

"Sure!" Bart raced towards him. He already had a place in mind. If Kon wanted a spot to cool down, then Impulse had the perfect one.

'The Ice Cream Machine' was a tiny shop in Rhode Island located on Diamond Hill. It was relatively obscure, but each season, it made the best homemade ice cream. Situated across a State Park that held a Little League baseball field, steady business was never a problem. Even the graffiti clad hill made for tourist opportunities as they offered challenging hiking trails.

In the winter, the carry-out dessert place was boarded up and the hill behind the field open to any would be downhill skiers. However, on this bright day, to say business was booming would be an understatement. Having changed into civilian clothes, Kon and Bart waited for the line to move, one more patiently than the other.

It didn't take too long before each carried a Styrofoam container dripping with whipped cream as they tried to locate an open picnic table. Finding none, they opted to cross the road and walk through the park to get some privacy.

"Y'know," Kon stated as he used his plastic spoon to catching falling whipped cream, "this isn't exactly what I had in mind when I said I needed to cool down. Where'd you find this place anyway?"

"I've got an ice cream stop in..." Bart's eyes rolled upwards and he started mouthing numbers, obviously counting, "42 states. Two in New York."

They walked along an asphalt pathway that weaved back and forth, bringing them further up the hill. The sun played through the leaves creating delicate patterns and moving with the whim of the breeze. The park seemed to be lacking the stereotypical woodland sounds, but it was peaceful in its own way. Bart walked along shuffling his feet, staring mainly at his sundae, while Kon kicked little pebbles off the pathway, and looked out into the distance.

"That's really kind of freaky, Bart."

"Not really. Some of them give out free scoops to superheroes!"

Kon took a bite of his ice cream, savoring the warm hot fudge. "I thought Max wanted you to keep a low profile or something?"

"Yeah, but this is Impulse just getting ice cream. Max never said anything about free ice cream." Bart spooned up his whip cream covered with candy sprinkles, eating that before even touching the ice cream.

"Okay. Yeah. I see where your logic is and I totally agree. Free things rule."

Bart nodded. "Just have to save the world too. Not hard at all."

Kon smirked in reply. "Nope. Easy as pie."

"Exactly. So... you feeling better?"

"Sure why not? I was just blowing off steam before. Nothing big." Kon devoted his attention to his sundae. The level of attention he was devoting was more than even the best ice cream sundae in the world called for.

"Just asking. Cause you looked kinda... sad earlier."

"I *looked* sad. Totally a cover. Gets me attention from the girls, y'know."

Bart played with the remaining whipped cream, before spooning it up. "But Cissie was at home, and Cassie was at school-"

"So?" The word was defensive, maybe even a bit too defensive. The little pebble he kicked, blew up with a miniature bang. Damn, Kon was just overdoing everything right now. Where was subtlety when you needed it? Oh, that's right Robin was hogging it all. Kon ate more ice cream, the flavor dulled now.

Bart shrugged, part confused, part exasperated at Kon's reluctance to talk. He looked down at his sundae intent on mixing the various wet toppings as they dripped down each scoop.

They walked in silence content, for the moment, to eat ice cream and to meander any which way. The moment didn't come without effort. Silence wasn't exactly par for either of them.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about?" Bart asked. It had been only a minute, but had felt like more. He hopped in front of Kon to stand in the middle of the pathway. Kon shook his head and pushed past him. "Are you sure?" Bart prodded, he hopped further up the pathway. "Positive?" And again. "I mean like really really sure? Really really really sure?" And hopped again, causing the Kid to stop walking.

Kon looked up from his ice cream into Bart's eager yellow eyes. Bart looked at him expectantly. The nagging had to have worked. The nagging never failed. Well, maybe with Max, but that was different. Kon opened his mouth to speak, which was good cause he was running out of ice cream. "I... I'm having a bad day. Kind of."

"Because of Rob," Bart stated bluntly. He sat down on a grassy spot, intent on listening closely.

"Well kinda. Rob's like the top of the pile. A sign of the problem." With a sigh, Kon sat down next to Bart.

"So what's the problem?" Not only content he had gotten Kon to start talking, Bart was always content that the toppings had been thoroughly mixed. He now had his attention on the green and purple ice cream. He lazily mixed them together creating a grotesque brown mixture.

Kon started at his friend's ice cream, horrified and a bit distracted. "He didn't like me."

Bart spooned the now brown ice cream over the white ice cream until that was fully coated. "You guys are friends, I thought you liked each other."

"Yeah, but... he..." Kon could say it. "Bart, he likes Cissie. He's liked Cissie for a while and he didn't... it took him awhile to, y'know, say anything."

"So what?" Bart asked distracted as his ice cream soup concoction was finally starting to achieve perfection. "I like Cissie too. And Cassie, and all you guys. What's the problem?"

Kon let the spoon drop lazily into the nearly empty bowl. "Never mind."

Bart stopped eating, looking at his friend. "What'd I say?"

And they trusted this kid to save the world, Kon thought ruefully. "Bart, I *liked* Robin. I *liked* him."

Bart seemed to reflect on that for a moment. Then he remembered the kiss he had walked in on. That, for most people would have been hard to forget, but then ice cream wasn't usually this engaging. It was a rare occasion when you could get just the perfect shade of green ice cream to... Finally, when his brain was on the right page, he replied sympathetically. "I'm sorry."

"And he didn't like me," was the soft reply. Kon sighed and laid back looking up at the sky. "Life bites."

"It usually gets better."

"I guess."

Bart stopped eating. "When Wally had problems, it got better. The same with Preston. And Helen. And Carol. And Max! It always works out, from what I've seen."

Kon closed his eyes, content to picture the white clouds in his head. "I'm not Wally and I'm not at all like any of your friends."

"Why not?"

"Look at me," Kon said as he sat up. "I'm not exactly normal."

"You're a superhero. You're as normal as Wally and Max and me."

"We're so not normal. We defy description."

"If you say so." Bart went back to eating his sundae, now almost done.

Kon tapped Bart's Flash ring that held his costume to punctuate his point. "Most people don't run around in costume saving the world with their super powers."

Bart smiled. "Most people don't have super powers to save the world with."

Kon nodded. "Exactly my point."

"Well, then most people are boring that way."

Kon chuckled. He had a point.

"Well, they are," Bart insisted.

"Yeah," Kon grinned. "Totally."

"'Sides if you have super powers you might as well use them. Now, having super powers and not using them that wouldn't be normal."

"I'll tell you what's not normal." Kon dipped his finger in his leftover hot fudge and motioned to Impulse's sundae bowl. "What you're eating. *That's* not normal."

Bart looked down at what once was a Mint Chocolate Chip-Butter Pecan-Black Rasberry-Cookies-n-Cream sundae. "What do you mean?"

Kon shook his head. "It's just gross."

"Look at what you've been eating." Bart motioned with his spoon trailing and odd mixture of peanut butter, caramel, strawberry, and hot fudge topping.

Kon looked at the empty sundae bowl. "What was wrong with it?"

"Vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream. Can you say boring?"

Kon adopted a stern look. "Bart. This is an ice cream sundae. When they advertise sundaes on TV, *this* is what they talk about. This! An all-American, old fashioned, cherry, and nuts topped sundae."

"Far be it for you not to be all-American right? I mean it's 'Truth, Justice, and the American Pie' thing right?"

"Um... kind of." Kon winced and went to take a bite of ice cream in avoidance but the ice cream was long gone.

"Do you ever think about it?" Bart asked. "Being normal that is."

"Hell no! I mean, I'm the next walking, talking Superman for the next generation. With the rep I've got, who's got time to sweat the details."

Bart watched as Kon leaned back once again to gaze at the clouds. He put a hand on the Kid's shoulder in an empathic gesture. After a moment he spoke softly. "It's okay," he started, "I think about it sometimes too."

They lapsed into silence, letting everything they couldn't change remain unsaid. They glanced at each other, eyes meeting as they half smiled in commiseration. The sky had darkened with the mood, the sunlight barely breaking through the trees. Finally, Kon stood and gathered the Styrofoam container.

"It's getting late," he stated as he started to walk back down the path. Bart grabbed his assortment of napkins and everything else and followed in step. The trip down was decidedly more silent than the trip up. The twenty minute walk afforded each teen a rare moment of introspection with nothing to distract them.

Kon stopped at a clearing. From this high up, they could see the traveling cars as they changed interstates and hi-way routes. Straight down, sat the ice cream place, the large wooden cow sign swinging gently in the breeze. To the left, they could see the few rock climbers scaling the cliff that babysat the hill, and beneath them, ambulances and fire trucks galore.

"What's going on?" Bart asked pointing to the odd assemblage. Not waiting for an answer, he already changed into costume and sped down. Not to be outdone, Kon flew done after him. Super hearing would be a good thing, he thought ruefully.

He arrived in time to hear Impulse finish saying "-canwedotohelp?" to a uniformed officer. The man held up a hand keeping Kon's teammate behind the police barricade.

"Look kid, we've got three hikers up on that cliff with broken lines. So costume or not, unless you can fly..."

Kon floated down and waved nonchalantly. "Yo."

The officer's mouth dropped open at the jean-clad teenager hovering in the air. He pointed dumbly to the top of the cliff.

"Thanks," Impulse supplied and dashed off after Superboy who was already heading skyward. Kon shook his head wondering how exactly a state with only one area code could attract so much trouble. But that train of thought, as well as the post break up brooding, faded into the background. Right now, the only thing he had to concentrate on was being a hero and that felt comforting.

Crisis was averted with little fanfare, leaving most of the civil servants dumbstruck with the anticlimactic nature of it all. In not even ten minutes, everyone had both feet firmly planted on the ground and thanks to Bart's extra effort, all the hiking equipment as well. The youngest girl, a tiny brunette shyly rewarded each hero with a kiss on the cheek. Through his smile, Kon shrugged nonchalantly. Perks like that definitely came with the job, even if he had to tell everyone who he was. And people wondered why he always wore the costume.

Once the shock factor wore off, everything fell into the standard, familiar routine. Sirens switched off and some of the vehicles, even a few news vans, were already starting to leave the scene. The boys got the complimentary "Thank you Citizen" type speech from the police, and a round of applause from the bystanders. Once that had died down, they wandered about the ice cream parking lot getting a moment of reprieve. The spotlight had shifted from them to the survivors. So they sat atop a picnic table waiting for the hustle and bustle to stop hustling and bustling.

"So," Bart started, still in his costume for secret identities sake, "still want to be normal?"

"Eh." Kon leaned back and smiled for a tourist snapping a picture. "I've decided I can deal with this for a while longer. Y'know, can't disappoint the public."

Kon spooned some Black Raspberry-Butter Pecan ice cream up. He examined the two colors as they sat together on the plastic spoon. They'd been awarded free ice cream for life and Bart had dared him. He put it into his mouth. It wasn't... that bad. Conversely, it wasn't that good. To his credit, Kon didn't make a face.

"So, you're feeling better?" Bart dug into his own colorful sundae.

"Yeah, thanks. For... cheering me up, I mean."

"No problem. I didn't have anything better to do."

"Oh thanks a lot," Kon retorted lightheartedly.

"I didn't mean that. I meant - no, not that either -"

Kon ruffled Bart's hair. "I know what you mean. And you know you do have a point... about a lot of stuff." Bart smiled with pride as he disentangled himself from Kon's grip. Then Kon frowned, Bart seeing the expression frowned as well. Kon pointed to the sundae. "Except this! This is the grossest thing I've ever eaten!"

"It is not! It's good!"

"Good? Just look at it!" Kon held the spoon up eye level. "Those colors wouldn't even go together on the worst super villain outfit."

"Yeah, like you can talk about costumes."

"What do you mean? I'll have you know that those are sharp threads."

"Uh huh, according to who?"

"Why who said they weren't?"

"Who said they weren't what?"

"Argh! Never mind. I'm going to get more ice cream."

"Fine be that way."

"Want anything?"

"Sure. Your treat right?"

"Bart, it's free, remember?"

"Oh yeah, kicks to be a hero."

"Most definitely."

~stories~