DC Vikings, chapter 2

Kon stared at his father in shock before getting up and storming off from the table, back towards the forest, causing his two younger brothers to burst into tears. The rest of the fathers stared at them in surprise, not knowing what to say.

Dick, Kyle, Jason and Roy started getting up one by one once they got out of the shock. Neither of them was actually expecting that.

"What was that?" Lois was fuming. Usually Clark always shut her up whenever It was about Kon saying that he was his son, not hers, but that was enough.

Oliver turned to glare at Clark. “You cannot keep treating that boy like that.” He growled at his friend. 

Clark sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “That was not intentional, it was a reflex.”

"What do you mean it was a reflex?!" Lois was pretty upset herself and trying to calm down her sons at the same time, "What on earth were you thinking?!"

“Look, I’ll go talk to the boy.” Clark said getting up, patting his two younger son’s on the heads to try and calm them down. He walked down to the forest where Kon was. 

Kon was sitting with his friends and glared at his father when he showed up. “What the fuck do you want?” He snapped at him.

"Don't speak to me that way..."

“Don’t hit me and I won’t speak to you like that.” Kon retorted. “I don’t want to see you, so leave.”

"Look, let's go back and we'll talk at home," probably that wouldn't happen, the adults usually ended up pretty drunk after every feast.

“No, I’m not going back. I’m done with you; I don’t want you as a father anymore.” Kon said, crossing his arms and looking away.

"Right... Calm down, that’s not something one gets to decide."

“Well I’ve decided, you’re just Clark now.” Kon said firmly. “I don’t want anything to do with you.” He loved his dad, and he wanted the man to love him, but it was exhausting trying to please him.

Clark sigued tiredly and ran a hand over his face. "I told you that's not something you get to decide. Let's go back, we'll talk about this later."

“Fuck off, Clark, I’m not going back and I’m not gonna talk about anything later.”

"Don't you four have somewhere else to be?" He turned towards the other boys.

“Nowhere else worth being.” Jason glared at him, causing Dick to roll his eyes and tug the other three boys away back to the feast.

"Listen, I may have... It could be that slapping you wasn't the... Best thing to do, but that was no way of talking to your father."

“Well, all you do is treat me like shit and criticize me. I’m not going to talk to you nicely after that.”

"I do not."

“Bullshit, the first thing you did when you got off the boat was start yelling at me for not being perfect at hunting. And you haven’t stopped yelling all damn day.”

"It wasn't about being perfect; it was about slacking around."

“I wasn’t slacking! You always accuse me of shit like that and it’s not true. We tried to find something and couldn’t, you just want an excuse to pick on me.”

"Stop saying those things! You are talking like if I hated you, and I'm your father."

“You do hate me! Or at the very least you wish I weren’t around. You never criticize Chris and Jon like this, you only do it to me, your fucking bastard kid.” Kon exclaimed.

"You're saying that because you're angry." He expected more from Kon, obviously, he was older.

“No, I say it because it’s the truth. No one else’s father criticizes them or treats them like you treat me. I’m done taking shit from you, you clearly don’t want me around,  so I’m leaving.”

"First of all, calm down. You can't leave, you're like 12," or 13, he couldn't exactly remember, "Second, I don't treat you in a bad way."

“I’m 13, asshole.” The boy had turned 13 while his father was away on the trip. “You don’t do anything with me other than yell and punish me. You adore Chris and Jon and spend all your time with them while you just lecture me and tell me I’m fucking stuff up.”

"Thirteen, I'm sorry," damn, "And you know that's not true, I like you all the same."

“No you don’t. Jon and Chris are your real kids and I’m the one you didn’t want to have. You never yell at or punish them like you do with me.” Kon felt his bottom lip wobbling, close to frustrated tears.

"The three of you are my real kids, Kon, stop it. And it's not the same, you are older than them."

“Roy’s older than Connor and Oliver doesn’t treat him like shit for it. Same with Jason and Damian.” Kon sniffled, crossing his arms and looking away from his father.

"I don't treat you like shit." He had never stopped to compare how he treated the three boys, it was naturally going to be different.

“Then what do you call yelling and berating someone every day? You never have anything to say to me other than about how shitty I am.” Kon rubbed his teary eyes. “It doesn’t matter now because I hate you and I’m not going anywhere with you.”

"You don't mean that," he frowned slightly. The boy was going to be obviously upset about the slap, but he didn't need to say that.

“I do mean it. You’re mean and you’re a bad dad and I hate you.” Kon tucked his knees up to his chest, hiding his face in his folded arms.

"I really don't think any of that is true." Who the hell was the kid to say he was a bad dad? He didn't even know the kind of responsibilities that came with raising three boys and leading a village. "Forget about the feast already, let's just go home and talk." It was about to rain.

Kon sighed, reluctantly getting up to go with him. “Fine. But if you’re a dick again I’m leaving.”

"I really don't appreciate the language."

“Well, you’re being a dick, so there’s nothing else to call it.”

That was it.

Without further warning, Clark took him by the arm and let fall his free hand heavily several times on the boy's thighs. One thing was being upset about being reprimanded in public, which was understandable, but another completely different was continuing with the disrespect.

Kon hollered, trying to pull away. “Let me go! Stop it!” He attempted to stomp on his dad’s foot, angry at being punished once more. “I hate you!”

"Did you just try to stomp on my foot?"

“Yes because you’re a big jerk and I hate you! I’m gonna runaway and live in another village and never see you again!” Kon cried, angry tears falling down his face.

Clark let fall another succession of swats before turning the boy to look at him. He leaned down un order to look at him face to face. "Don't you ever think about saying that ever again. It's a very inconsiderate thing to say."

“It’s true! You’re the worst dad ever because you hate me and you’re mean! I’m gonna go live in a rival village and find a new dad.” Kon sobbed, trying to pull away from him.

"Find a what?" He couldn't help the expression on his face.

“I’m gonna find a new dad who’s better than you and nicer and cares about me.” Kon glared at the man through his tears.

"Now stop it right there! You can't just decide you're not part of my family anymore..."

“Yes, I can, you don’t love me and you’re never gonna, so I’m gonna find someone who will.”

"Stop with the nonsense already, Kon! I love you and I do care about you, so stop talking like that."

Teenagers were really exhausting...

“You never say you love me and you never show it either.” Kon cried. “I just want you to want me like you want Chris and Jon.”

Clark barely contained an exasperated sigh. He spotted a fallen trunk nearby and sat there, ignoring the protesting child. 

"So... Fine," he tried to figure out what to say to the kid in front of him. "I really don't know what you mean, I want you just like I want my other children." Maybe not at the beginning, of course that are arrival of a child from other woman couldn't mean anything but trouble when you already had a stable family, but he had obviously had to handle the situation. "And there's no reason for you to believe that I don't love you."

“Well then why do you yell at me all the time? Oliver and Bruce and Hal don’t do that. They’re nice to their kids, you’re only nice to the younger ones.” Kon sniffled.

He didn't usually stop to observe how his friends handled their children, that wasn't worry for him.
However, all that insistence was starting to become too much for a simple excuse... He knew he didn't have the best of relationships with his eldest son, there was just something about the child that always managed to get on his nerves... Could it be that...

"I... Do not know..."

Kon’s lip wobbled at the admittance. “You don’t like me because I showed up and messed everything up. You look bad when you’ve got a bastard kid and it made Lois mad at you. I get in the way here.”

"I didn't say I didn't like you, and you don't get in the way." Couldn't really deny the rest of the child's words.

“You don’t have to say it, I can see how hard I made stuff and you don’t like it. I’m sorry for ruining the life you had going; I didn’t mean to bother you, guys.” Kon rubbed his eyes, crying still.

"No, wait, you... It was... Kind of complicated at the beginning, but you didn't ruin anything."

“Well I didn’t mean to make things harder, either. I just wanted you to like me and you never seemed to like anything I did.”

Clark cursed under his breath. He had never even considerate the possibility of not liking his own child... And maybe it wasn't even that, because he wasnt really a bad kid, lazy and smart ass maybe, but not bad... But could it be possible that he had been taking it out on him? 

"I do, it's just... Look, it's not your fault."

“Doesn’t matter if it’s not my fault, you still don’t like having me here and Lois is nice but she doesn’t like having your kid with another woman around either. Chris and Jon are the only ones who seem to want me.”

"Look, it doesn't matter how it was when you first arrived, right now I wouldn't be able to just keep on with my life knowing you are not home."

Kon looked at him suspiciously, not really believing he would care. “You mean that? You’re not just trying to look like a good dad so no one thinks you’re a dick?”

"What did I tell you about the language?"

The boy rolled his eyes. “Fine, ‘so no one thinks you’re a jerk’, happy?”

"I do not have to care about what people think. At the end of the day, I'm one of their leaders, not just one of them."

Kon still didn’t fully believe him, but sighed, crossing his arms. “Fine. I won’t leave or find a new dad. But you’re still not a very good father, at least to me.”

"I'm sorry." He didn't even know what to say.

The kid shrugged, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. “It’s okay, I guess. Are you gonna stop yelling at me as much?” He really wanted to have a good relationship with his dad, and he really wanted the man to love him.

Clark looked at him and for the first time he actually felt bad for his first born. "I had never even considered that I yelled at you so much."

Kon looked down. “You do a lot. Sometimes when I see you coming home, I’ll run out the back because I don’t want you to get mad when you see me.”

Damn... 

"I'm very sorry..." He had never intended to make him feel that way... And he certainly hadn't wanted him to think it was because he had arrived to 'mess things up'.

Kon nodded, sitting next to him. “It’s okay. I’m sorry for being rude sometimes and not always listening.”

Clark looked at him, feeling even more guilty every second that passed. The more he thought about it, the worse he felt... "That's not good, but it's normal... What I... Think I did to you... You don't deserve it, never did."

Kon shrugged, leaning his head on Clark’s arm. “It’s okay if you promise to be the kind of dad you are for Chris and Jon.” The boy was very willing to forgive him in hopes of having a good relationship.

Without thinking too much about it, Clark pulled him to sit on his lap and wrapped his arms around his first child. He couldn't believe that after how he had made him feel time after time, his son still wanted him.

Kon hugged his dad’s middle, cuddling against him. “Do you love me?” He asked hesitantly.

The man held him tighter and securely, as if wanting to protect him from all harm... Except the greatest harm to ever reach the boy had been him. "Of course I do, and I like you and want you with me. I still can't believe I made you think otherwise."

Kon smiled, resting his head on his dad’s chest. “I want to be with you too.” He was more than happy to start fresh with the man and pretend like he hadn’t been so cold in the past. Hopefully, his dad would really try too.


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