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[not_the_s]

It took Kon a few days to work up the nerve to go over to Anatoly's and Lex's. Clark might have been one of his so-called parents, but he didn't feel like it. Still, he needed all the advice he could get. He'd heard about how Clark showing up again had been for Clark and now he needed to see the other end. Now he needed to hear from someone who was in his shoes, kind of. Not that he thought Lex was in love with Clark or anything. That would just be weird. Right?

Still, it took longer than he really wanted to work up the courage to knock on the door. It wasn't that hard, right? Just ask a question. He didn't even have to bring Tim into this at all. He sucked in a breath and tried to ignore the fluttering in his stomach. Maybe neither of them was home.

Comments

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Fortunately, or unfortunately, for Kon, Lex was home. Anatoly was off playing chess in the rec room and Lex was working on lesson plans while keeping an eyes on his watch for when he had to go get the Russian for dinner.

While Lex smiled at seeing Kon, his eyebrows narrowed as he picked up on the mood surrounding the teenager. "Hello Kon. What brings you to our humble abode?" He asked lightly, not sure if asking what was wrong right out was the best idea.

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"I…" Kon took a deep breath. Of course it had to be Lex. It'd been easier to have the conversation in his head than it had been in real life, but now he was here and he refused to turn back. He had never been called a coward. Except maybe once or twice.

"Can we talk?"

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Lex looked at Kon for a long moment and then nodded. "Alright. Would you like to come in or walk as we talk?"

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"Walk," Kon said definitively. He had to do something with his nervous energy and it was either that or punch something really hard. He was pretty sure that Lex wanted to keep his walls intact.

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Nodding, Lex momentarily went back inside to close up a few books and grab Aeneas from where the small dog with napping, figuring he'd benefit from the walk as well. He carried the dog outside and then placed him down on the ground once he'd fully woken up. "Alright, let's go."

He waited to ask what was wrong, figuring Kon might need to work out some energy first.

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"So," Kon said after a few minutes, "I had a hypothetical for you." He looked ahead and not at Lex. Krypto had showed up and was playing with Aeneas and that gave Kon the opportunity to watch them instead of saying something. Still, he knew that eventually he had to fess up about why he had come in the first place. "On a scale of one to ten, how, uh, how screwed would I be if I were head over heels for my best friend?"

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Sensing Kon's need to distance himself from the issue for a moment, Lex too let his gaze linger on the playing animals. It wasn't uncommon to see the two dogs playing, usually with their third Golden playmate, and it always managed to bring a smile to Lex's features. Oh if life were truly that simple...

But as Kon asked his hypothetical question, Lex couldn't help glancing over at him in surprise, both at the question itself and that he was asking it of Lex. Then he sighed. "Honestly...twenty." He'd never spoken with Kon about how much he'd been in love with Clark, still was to a point, and he wasn't sure he really wanted to now. But if Kon needed help...Lex couldn't find it in himself to say no.

"Which best friend are we talking about this time?"

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"This time?" Kon said, glancing over Lex. "There never was another time, unless you count Cassie and no, I don't have a thing for Cassie again." He sighed. Because of course that meant that he either had a thing for Cissie, Bart, or Tim. It's not like he had all that many best friends.

"Fine. I have a thing for Tim, happy? And I told him in the most ridiculous, idiotic way that I think I possibly could and now he hates me for it."

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"You have so many, I had to be sure." Lex said simply in explanation. For anyone else, he would have made the statement sarcastic but he didn't genuinely want to help and Kon clearly wasn't in the mood for joking. And considering Lex had only ever had one best friend before the island, four was a lot.

"At least he didn't kidnap you. That whole situation was far more ridiculous I'm sure." Lex said offhandedly, wondering if Kon would get the reference. But he continued on before explaining. "I'm sure he doesn't hate you. What happened?"

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Kon shrugged. "I've known them most of my life. Since back when I was in Hawaii. For a while it was just the five of us." They'd acquired more team members along the way. Anita, Lil' Lobo, Snapper, but it had been just him and Tim and Bart and Cissie and Cassie and Red Tornado at the start.

His lips turned up the barest hint when Lex mentioned the kidnapping. "No, I'd be doing the kidnapping. I, uh, kind of told him about him and Dick."

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"You should consider yourself lucky, despite all your problems." Lex said simply. He didn't want sympathy or anything but he hoped Kon realized how lucky he was to have that many friends, much less best friends. Lex didn't make his first true best friend till he was 21.

"I think you mis-heard what happened." This was said almost under Lex's breath. Clark may have proposed but it was Lex who had snapped and told Clark he loved him. But at a normal volume he replied with a skeptic look, "And what in the world made you think that was a good idea?"

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"I didn't think it was a good idea! I said it before I could think about what I was saying. I didn't mean to tell him at all." Kon rubbed at his temple and shook his head, trying to clear it. "He was reading these books. On sexuality. It's kind of ridiculous when he was dating both Bart and Dick here and he was dating that Spoiler girl back home and..."

Fine, so it wasn't this Tim who was dating Dick.

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"I realize this is redundant to point out," Lex said simply, giving Kon a considering look out of the corner of his eye. "But it wasn't him who dated Bart and Dick. I know it's difficult, deciding what is alright and what isn't to tell people who have been here before. I think poor Clark still wonders why Anatoly gives him odd looks." Because if Clark was going to hear about the kidnapping and marriage, it wasn't going to be from Lex.

"Why did him reading about sexuality affect you?" Lex had a good idea before he asked, but he wanted to hear the answer from Kon.

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"What is and isn't all right to tell him?" Kon shook his head. "Like I have much of a choice. He's the one who knows pretty much everything about me. He was the first one that knew about, uh, me? He was the one who originally got that email that was sent to you. He was the only one I trusted to know."

He hedged around answering the next question. "Because. Bart, Dick, Spoiler. I'd think it'd be kind of obvious by now." He wasn't answering the question Lex was asking and he knew it.

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"So, because he knows everything about you at home, you feel he needs to know everything about you here?" Lex asked for clarification, even if he'd already made up his mind before he asked. The answered was obvious after all. "And how does whether or not telling him about Bart and Dick have anything to do with you? Yes, it happened, but it didn't happen to you."

"Obvious that he's bi-sexual?" Lex asked pointedly, unable to stop a small smirk at Kon's obvious discomfort on the subject.

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Kon scowled when he noticed Lex's smirk and he shook his head and didn't answer. Of course it had something to do with him. He'd had a reaction to it. It was affecting how he was reacting now. Not that Tim knew that. Not that Lex knew that. But it was true. He also wasn't going to answer when it felt like Lex was either attacking him or making fun of him.

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Kon not answering was answer enough.

"So, now that you know your best friend is just as bi-sexual as he was last time he was on the island, what are you doing to do about it? Because as far as I can see, there is no Mr. Grayson or Mr. Wells to get in the way and Mr. Allen is infatuated with Ms. King-Jones. Not to mention I've seen Ms. Sandsmark on the arm of another boy at quite a few of the recent gatherings."

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Kon's scowl deepened. "He's not bi and I'm not going to do anything about it." He shook his head and snorted. "And that's it, okay? I'm not jealous of Cissie and Bart and I'm definitely not jealous of Cassie. Not anymore." He was glad of that, at least. It was nice that he didn't have to worry about being jealous of Cassie.

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"I didn't say you were jealous." Lex pointed out, amused that Kon had gone there. He'd meant that everyone from the island past was taken or gone. That Kon didn't really have an excuses.

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"Whatever it is you're thinking, don't. It's just not like that, okay?" Kon shook his head. It wasn't like that and it would never be like that.

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"Then how is it Kon?" Lex asked simply, giving him a slight look of challenge. "Explain it to me."

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"What does it matter?" Kon said. He was beyond frustrated and he wasn't sure what Lex wanted from him. He wasn't sure what he was doing here in the first place.

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"I want you to tell me the truth. What did you come to my door to ask me? And no hypotheticals." Lex asked simply, before turning to Kon, stopping and putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know I'm not the best at advice, given I never dared asked my father's opinions on, well anything, but I can try."

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"I asked what I came here to ask," Kon said. He didn't need to know anything else. He really didn't. Especially now that it had turned awkward and he wasn't sure what he'd really wanted to say in the first place. Maybe it was best to say nothing and he could figure it out on his own.

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"And did you get the answer you wanted or needed?" Lex asked with raised eyebrows. It wasn't awkward for him, he was more amused at Kon's dilemma. In a fond, fatherly way.

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"Yes," Kon lied. Maybe it was the amusement that was getting to him. It wasn't like Lex was outright lying to him, but there was definite amusement there and it was getting to him a little. Or maybe he was just being oversensitive.

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Lex would count on oversensitive. From what he understood, it was normal for teenagers so he wasn't too worried.

"So what are you going to do?"

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Kon shrugged. "Nothing, I guess." Or wait and see. Maybe waiting and seeing was better.

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That sounded like a Clark way of dealing with things and it took everything Lex had no to roll his eyes, since he knew Kon would misunderstand.

“And if nothing happens? Are you going to keep up in this mood of yours?” Now the concern was more real than for amusement, because he was concerned for Kon, even if the conversation hadn’t really shown it.

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"When do I ever stay in a mood?" Kon asked. There were times, of course. Like when Cassie had broken up with him, but that was more because he hadn't gotten over her. It was, apparently, with good reason because she hadn't gotten over him either. It was like - what was the phrase? - two ships passing in the night.

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Lex really didn’t want to dignify that with a response, since he’d seen proof on the island that Kon could brood just as well as Clark. It must be a Kent thing. Finally, he just sighed and let all his amusement drop. “Kon, what is wrong? You’re upset about something but you also don’t seem to want to do anything about it.” And he was getting tired of this going around in circles.

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"Nothing, okay? Just forget about it." He wished he could. He wished he hadn't come here in the first place. Maybe this was his own issue that he had to deal with. It wasn't like Lex really understood what he was going through, right?

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Kon would be surprised.

But Lex wasn’t going to make it easy on him either. If Kon couldn’t admit what was wrong, then he probably wasn’t ready to do anything about. “Well, if you’re going to insult me by coming to ask my advice and then insisting nothing is wrong, what can I do for you, Kon?” This run around was starting to bore him frankly, being fatherly be damned. “Or did you just want to join me for a walk down the beach.”