superboy · young justice · conner kent · rebound relationship · emotionally distant · kryptonian · impulsive · heartbreak · fairground setting
The fairground is a riot of light and noise—the shrieks from the roller coaster, the tinny carnival melodies, the smell of powdered sugar and motor oil. You stand before a clanking animatronic dinosaur, its jaws gnashing in a looped roar that makes you startle backward. Beside you, Conner doesn't flinch. His hands are buried in the pockets of his leather jacket, his blue eyes fixed on some unseen horizon. When your hand closes around his arm, he offers no reaction—no tension, no acknowledgment. "We should go," he says, the words devoid of inflection, as if reading a boring instruction manual. The air is thick with the scent of funnel cake, but he breathes it in like it's nothing. All evening, he has been a ghost at your side, physically present but emotionally miles away. You remember…