abetterlie | Stupid (for osborn

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Stupid (for osborn_heir)

ooc: after this

It was Peter's night for patrolling, so Connor avoided any areas where they could cross paths. He really wasn't in the mood for a chat with Spider-man right now. He just wanted to kill something, or at least beat it up and get beaten up in return.

It took a while before he found a vampire who obliged. As it turned out, this particular specimen was, like the late Russell Winters, whom Connor had never met, a business man, in town to check on some contacts, which made him perfect. He even had the requisite casual-chic-suit and two Fyarl demon bodyguards with him, and was dark haired to boot. Unfortunately for Connor, he was also far more intelligent than your avarage vampire and had dug up all the information he needed about the local superhero scene. Thanks to the recent Harry-Osborn-Comes-Out articles, he even made the connection between Kid Vicious and the guy Harry came out with. After observing the fight between his bodyguards and Connor for a while, he asked:

"Interested in a job opportunity, kid?"

"No," Connor said, managed to break off the first Fyarl's left horn and plunged it into the creature's gut.

"Pity. You have the right instincts," the vampire, whose name had been Arminius once upon a time but these days was simply and less flamboyantly Tony Chilton, commented. "And you'd be more more presentable than my current lot. I mean, considering the Osborn boy taught you how to behave in public. Hey, I could do with some private service as well."

Connor stopped wasting time with the second Fyarl and attacked Chilton directly, which turned out to be a mistake. Tony Chilton, aka Arminius, was a vampire going with the times, and, as mentioned before, prepared. He had a taser, and had gotten it ready while his bodyguards had done their duty.

The last person to taser Connor had been Peter, during the Griffin showdown, and Peter hadn't followed it up the way Chilton and his surviving Fyarl did, Peter had just wanted to stop him from killing a human being. Chilton, on the other hand, had long term plans, and a lesson to impart. Which made for the most thorough trashing Connor had received since Angel cut loose on him during Jasmine's day.

"Ts, ts," Chilton said while delivering kick after kick. "Overconfidence. Young people these days. Want to know why I don't just kill or turn you?"

"Not really," Connor gasped, trying to get a hold on Chilton's feet, but he couldn't move his arms properly, and then the surviving Fyarl's foot stamped on his hand.

"Because you cost me a daylight bodyguard, and I still want you to replace him. After you've learned your lesson. Stop playing around with humans, kid. You're not one of them, and you never will be."

By the time Chilton and his Fyarl left, Connor was a bloody mess on the ground. It took him two more hours before he could move again, but the advantage of supernatural healing still held. He made it to the subway upright, collapsed gratefully in the next train and nearly missed the right station to exit. It was three in the morning by now, but for one of the few times, he wasn't even tempted to take the short cut and climb up to the balcony. He took the elevator. Thankfully, everyone at the Osborn apartment appeared to be asleep or at least pretended to and remained in their rooms. Connor didn't go to the bathroom he shared with Harry, he took the one next to the guest room Illyria had used during her brief stay, and showered. Watching the blood disappear, he felt mostly numb.

As days and nights went, this was certainly not one of the better ones.

Rubbing the water stain away from the mirror, he checked his face. There were some visible bruises, but nothing spectacular. It would be healed by mid-morning. Next evening at the latest. It still hurt like a bitch, though, and so did his ribcage. Perhaps he had needed a reminder that enhanced powers didn't mean immunity from pain, and vampires weren't there as a convenient venting for one's issues and temper. And of course, it hadn't solved anything.

It had just allowed yet another smug bastard to triumph over him while Connor made an idiot of himself.

With a grimace and the taste of blood and bile in his mouth, he switched off the light and made his way to the bedroom to check whether Harry was there.

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Harry stayed behind at Mario's after Bruce and Connor left. Mostly it was to clear his head, and he felt like he should lend a hand to Mario after the table and scene. Mario was happy to put Harry to work, clearing table and doing dishes.

"You were happy earlier and now you are back to that frown you wear too much. Maria would worry about you, boy," Mario said as he busied himself in the back as Harry concentrated on getting the dishes clean. He rarely did manual work, but there was something satisfying in cleaning up this mess when there was no clear way to clean up the mess in his relationship.

"Sometimes things change quickly and you don't expect them too. I'll be alright. Just need to clear my head," Harry explained.

"Sometimes you just have to deal with the punches and let the bruises heal. If you keep walking into the fist, Harry, you will only end up with more bruises. I know these things so you listen to me, yes." His tone made it clear that he expected Harry to listen without questioning so Harry did just that. Even if he wasn't sure he agreed with him.

It was a little after one when he got home and as expected no sign of Connor. He knew he'd show up before sunrise so Harry went straight to the workout room and took his frustration out on the punching bag. Wild punches with no thought to where they were landing and he didn't stop until he was ready to hit the floor in exhaustion. A long, hot shower followed and then he let Bailey into the room where she could get comfortable on the foot of the bed.

He's reading the paper when Connor enters the room. Only Harry's reading lamp is on so the room is mostly shadows, but he can see the bruises on Connor's face. It pisses him off even more that Connor obviously went out looking for a fight when he walked out on the brewing argument with Harry.

"Next time you want to get beaten on, just say the word, and I'll slap you around. It's been awhile and even Peter would say I have a mean bitch slap," Harry says in a bitter tone and shoots a withering glare in Connor's direction. He isn't even sure how hurt Connor is, but he's aggravated that it screams a reckless stunt. Just like the original offer to race against Bruce had been reckless.

"There is a problem with that," Connor says, walking slowly, because quick movement still hurts, towards the armchair next to the bed, andnot denying that there was some truth in the charge. "I wanted to beat someone up in return."

No matter how angry he is with Harry - and it's not just Bruce and himself who were the targets of his anger tonight - he can't imagine hurting him.

Physical. Make that physically hurting him,, his mind comments. He wasn't completely wrong earlier, and you know it. This is his friend who came to town, and you knew how much that meant for him.

He wants to apologize to Harry, he does, but then he thinks again about Harry completely siding with Bruce and behaving as if Bruce had done nothing whatsoever, and he thinks about Bruce's hand in Harry's hair and the words just won't come out.

"But if you still want to have a go, go ahead," is all he manages. "I guess I did enough for one night."

"You're such a fucking idiot, Connor," Harry says in an angry tone and immediately gets out of bed the moment Connor sits down. He wants to slap him and make him hurt, but what point is that if someone isn't going to hit you back?

Harry didn't want to side with anyone. He doesn't get why this is such a big deal and why he couldn't have had just one night with an old friend and his boyfriend.

"All I wanted was for you and Bruce to get along for one dinner. One fucking dinner because god knows I've sat through situations with your friends and family, but no you just had to turn into a jealous jackass and embarrass me. Thanks for that, Connor. I really appreciate how gracious you were tonight and how important my feelings are to you because you completely humiliated me tonight and for what? To alienate Bruce? To make me not want to see him or make him want to stay the fuck away from me?"

His tone is barely above a whisper and it's icy cold. Harry Osborn normally yells and throws things when he's pissed. This is an entirely new level of angry. But he hasn't missed that Connor is in pain and he sighs, "Do you need anything? Pain pills, a first aid kit?"

"Sure," Connor says between gritted teeth. "You totally sat through similar situations. Like when Cordy was baiting you every third sentence and fondling me throughout dinner and you kept your cool. Or wait, she didn't."

He closes his eyes and tries again.

"I screwed up. I know that. But don't claim you didn't notice your friend Bruce was goading me."

And then, with a whisper: "I don't know. I think I have some broken bones in my hand or something."

"What? Connor you kept tossing comments at him and then yeah he did the same, but he wasn't goading you. You know, whatever, because the difference with Cordy and me was she actually attacked me when I was incapable of defending myself physically and you still took her side. So, yeah."

He's stressed out and honestly he's just frustrated. Connor doesn't get it and it's driving him up the wall. "You don't understand. You're never going to understand because there are always people fighting for..."

He lets his words trail off because he doesn't want to go into fathers. Not after the incident in the cellar. The broken bones comment alarms him so he goes straight to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and takes out two pain pills and fills a glass with water before bringing it to Connor.

"Take these. Do you need a doctor?"

So he really didn't notice. Which provides an odd sort of comfort, because it means at least there had been no intention on Harry's part. On the other hand, "you're never going to understand" goes straight to the core of Connor's fears, which aren't about intimate gestures or Bruce Wayne being a poisonous mafia don".

"That's what he said," Connor mutters, and he doesn't mean Bruce Wayne. When Harry comes back with the pain pills, he takes them, sight unseen. He has no idea whether they'll work on him - the one time Cordy patched him up when he was in a similar state, after round 1 with the Beast, they didn't have any pain pills at hand - but well, ecstasy had worked, too. There is something he wants to make clear, though.

"Look," he says to Harry, "I meant what I said about him. All of it, not just the part where I don't trust him, which, sorry, I don't. I also meant the stuff that if he is what you think he is, then maybe I - Harry, it's not about being jealous. Well, maybe a little, because he did do that with your hair intentionally, there's no way he didn't. But I know you don't want to have sex with him. I know that. It's just, he's a part of your world. If he's genuine, he can give it back to you, all which you've missed because your father was a bastard, and maybe then what you don't need is someone with old issues and all the craziness of the world holding you back."

He looks at Harry. The corners of his mouth twitch. "I had a vampire propositioning me tonight. Sometimes life really sucks."

Harry is quiet for a moment as he processes what Connor has said. The hair is what set Connor off? Surely he didn't think it was the same kind of gesture that Connor made when playing with Harry's hair.

"Baby, he was teasing and trying to make light of the Lionel talk by tugging at my hair to check if it was a wig. There was no intimacy in that touch, at least not the intimacy you are imagining. It was just teasing, really. I'm a kid to him. I'm always going to be a kid to him because before he took off I was still a teenager desperately trying to learn to be who he and Lex seemed natural at."

He drops to his knees in front of Connor and places his hands on each of Connor's legs so Connor looks at him. The fitting in and all of that stuff, Harry understands. The truth is, Harry doesn't think he fits in all that well either.

"I do trust him and I'm going to follow my instincts here. Because if you're right then it means no one reaches out to me in that sort of way without wanting to hurt me. I either take a chance with Bruce or I shut down and stop letting people in. That's a pretty isolated existence and I already lived that way for a long time. But even if I'm right and he can be something like I've always needed and desperately wanted, pretty boy, he can't be to me what you are. I'm going to need you no matter who else comes into my life. It's not a revolving door where if I let someone else in I have to kick another person out."

He shakes his head at the comment about the vampire wanting him. Sometimes life is just too ironic and dangerous and like Connor said, it really sucks.

"He wasn't groping me or propositioning me and I really think he's being straight with me. It's not like it wouldn't benefit him to get me on stable ground and get OsCorp fixed since it would give him a leg up on Lex, but that doesn't mean he has to crush me in the process. I already offered to sell and he didn't take it. If he was using me, he would have taken the easy offer and left. Please, Connor, please just stop trying to alienate him from me because I am not going to stand in the middle of you two. Just treat him with respect or agree to stay away from him when he is around."

Connor has no idea how Norman Osborn or anyone else ever managed to deny Harry something he really wanted and needed, especially when he's like that. Suddenly, he feels ashamed about hoping to prove Bruce was up to no good, because Harry is right: that would mean yet another person to screw him over when there were already too many. And Connor knows, better than most people, what it feels like to find out someone you care about lied to you. He remembers looking at an ice pick, Angel's words about what Justine did, what his father must have told her to do still ringing in him, and - no. He can't go there, but he does know he would do anything to spare Harry that feeling. Which Norman must have dealt out in overplus already.

"Okay," Connor whispers and traces Harry's face with his good hand. "Promise. No more arguments, open or hidden insults, and I'll be polite, I will."

Though he'll probably start with the staying away from Bruce when Bruce was around part, because he also meant what he had said about Bruce's smug and overbearing manner. He'll work on that self possession thing in the face of smugness, though, and graduate to "treating Bruce with respect".

And if Bruce does betray Harry, well. All promises are off. Except now, looking at Harry, he can't wish for that. Not anymore.

He makes another promise to himself, as a test of will power and a punishment for losing it tonight: he'll stop researching Bruce Wayne. No matter how many odd things about him don't fit, he won't continue the research.

"You never said and neither did he, though," he says to Harry, and there is concern as well as some slight teasing in his voice. "How likely is Lionel Luthor to declare war on you? Because that's not just a matter about protecting you, Harry. If he does, it could spill over to Kara, if she continues to date his son."

Just like that, Connor is conceding enough to allow Harry to see this through. It's all Harry wants, and he's grateful that Connor will let him have the chance. He is happy with Connor and he appreciates the relationships he has with the other people in his life, but Harry so desperately wants someone who can fill just a tiny bit of the void Norman left long before he died.

He leans into Connor's touch while he looks down at Connor's bruised hand. It doesn't look as bad as Harry's would if he had broken bones, but it's still pretty nasty. "There is a medicine at OsCorp that is safe and it can help you. Peter can explain it to you, but it's what I used to help my knee caps get better fast."

Then he hears the question about Lionel and his entire body tenses. Lionel Luthor has always made Harry so uncomfortable. Back when he was a teenager and following Lex like a good little puppy, it was Lionel who decided to test how short Harry's leash was. He isn't going to go into those details.

"He's a dangerous man, but he will not come after me. I'm not a threat to him. Lex will kill him before he lets him hurt Kara or anyone that Lex cares about. He's just a bastard, Connor, a cruel bastard who can make my father look like the world's most caring parent. At lest my father ignored me most of the time and the rest...it wasn't so bad. Lionel has fucked with Lex from day one and tried to twist his mind up, but Lex is strong and he comes out on top. He's beat Lionel and he isn't going to hand the power back over to him. Really."

"I'll ask Peter if it's not healed by tomorrow," Connor said. Peter probably just got home from patrol now, having done actual protecting of the city instead of wasting his power on a temper tantrum. The responsible, human thing. The right instincts, that vampire had said. He shivers.

Then Harry tells him about Lionel, all tensed up. Talk about instinct. Connor's is is insisting that Harry is not exaggarating and Luthor Senior is as bad news as any new vampire in town. Probably worse. What Harry says also pushes another button of Connor's. There have been arguments between total strangers at airports he got into because it looked like there could be some parent abusing their children going on. It's not that he's particular invested in Lex Luthor, but the idea of a child stuck with a worse version of Norman the Bastard for a father -

Angelus, his mind helpfully supplies,

- is sickening.

"Why hasn't Lex killed him already?" Connor asks, and is entirely serious.

"I'm not sure. I imagine it's because there is a part of Lionel that loves Alex. He shows that part just enough to keep Lex from crossing the final line, but Lex has managed to keep him at a distance now. He fought him head on and he won and I have no doubt he can protect himself and Kara from Lionel."

Plus, Kara is a slayer. Lionel tries anything with her and Kara could break him with her pinky. He has no doubt Kara would take Lionel out if she caught him fucking with Lex anyway.

"Fathers are a funny thing, you know that. No matter what happens, we're their sons, and that comes into play. Mine made an appearance tonight and I know you and I heard him. I have no idea if he targeted Bruce or not, but damn it Connor, do you realize you basically told Bruce you aren't exactly human?"

Thinking about what his own grand attempt at giving Kara her father resulted in, Connor has no doubt she can take Lionel out, but then again, smart cruel bastards usually don't fuck with people in an obvious way. As for Lex, well. Somehow, Connor never managed to kill Angel, even before admitting to himself he didn't want to anymore.

"Yeah," he says, "we are." Then Harry's last words hit home, and he makes a sheepish face, because that hadn't actually been intentional. At that point, he had just seen red and wanted to get out of the restaurant. "And in conclusion," he says with a grimace, "I didn't think. Remind me never to drink red wine again. I mean, I didn't think anyway, but that didn't help. Sorry."

Though what will the suspcious - no, stop that, you promised! - the saintly Bruce Wayne do with that information?

"Maybe he chalks it up to me being rude and insane?" he suggests hopefully. "I don't think he believes in vampires and ghosts and stuff."

Harry tried to exorcise his father once and that didn't turn out so well. He isn't sure he could go through the ceremony again. No matter how creeped out and emotional he was after a visit from the ghosty father.

He isn't sure what Bruce will say or thinks about Connor's outburst. One can hope he will ignore it. But who knows at this point.

"If he brings it up, I'll just remind him that we both had wine and you hadn't had food earlier. Hopefully that will work. For the record the only reason I'm freaked is that I know you are kind of weird about letting anyone know about you. It's your story to tell, not mine, but I don't think Bruce will scream it from the roof tops."

He yawns suddenly as the late hour catches up with him. Connor has to be tired too. Bailey has already slipped into sleep.

"Let's go to bed, ok. Tomorrow is a new day and we'll take it from there." He leans forward and careful, so not to hurt Connor's hand or ribs, kisses Connor gently. "If you're still hurting tomorrow we'll call Pete."

Connor, too, is too tired to worry about what Bruce Wayne could possibly do with such information, if he were to take it seriously. Besides, he gets a kiss. Getting kissed is nice after the entire disaster that was this day, and he gratefully kisses Harry back. He doesn't expect that everything will be different from now on and that he'll be thrilled each time Mr. Wayne comes a-visiting, but he is determined to keep his promise, and maybe given time, it won't be an effort anymore.

"See, I knew you'd make the perfect Scarlett O'Hara," Connor says, puts his arm around Harry's shoulder and winces a bit as Harry pulls him up. There are only a few steps to the bed anyway.

"Right you are. Tomorrow is another day."

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Stupid (for osborn_heir)

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