This was *not* an usual occurrence. The half-life of pizza slices in Young Justice's kitchen table oscillated between a pair of minutes and two tenths of a second, depending on whether or not Impulse was conscious and somewhere on the planet.

Right now the speedster ---along with most young heroes--- was on Mars, going through some sort of off-planet fighting drill Robin had talked them into. The only one left behind to "mind the store" had been Superboy, a decision Robin was probably having doubts about, even as he dodged the telekinetic sand traps the Martian Manhunter had kindly provided for the training exercise. Everybody still remembered "The Party Kon Organized The One Time He Was Left To Mind The Store", even if they tried very hard not to. Robin had had to apologize to the NY Fire Department, two parents associations, the U.S. Olimpic Committee and the state legislature of Alabama. And then to Batman.

Yet, against expectations, Kon wasn't doing anything particularly dangerous or illegal at the moment, unless you count not eating the last slice of Mario's Italian Special pizza as an immoral waste of culinary goodness. He was just...

Well, you could say that he was meditative. Maybe tired. Or perhaps showing a typical case of teenage "apathy/angst/teenageness". If he had been one of the bat-people you would have said that he was brooding, but only because they get snippy when you accuse them of sulking. Be it as it may, Kon was slumped on a chair, eyeing the pizza with dulled eyes bereft of dark glasses, and if that wasn't a clear enough symptom of his emotional state, let me add that he was dressed on conservative jeans and shirt that seemed out of Tim's closet (admittedly, from its seldom-used and badly named "wild party" sector).

On the kitchen TV Superman was addressing the United Nations on the need for a globally funded, JLA-operated deep space anti-asteroid defense system. Every time the camera focused on one or another of the delegates you could see them trying to distrust the guy as a matter of professional habit and failing miserably. What were they going to do? He was _Superman_. People who had made a career of knowing exactly how many bags of cocaine were consumed on each peace disarmament conference looked at him and couldn't but feel that he was a Good Person. Diplomats who wouldn't drink an unanalyzed glass of water in their own homes trusted him implicitly not to do any of the thousand terrible things they knew his powers would have allowed him to, and were in fact considering giving him control of fusion lasers capable of vaporizing entire cities in seconds.

Kon sighted and rose from the kitchen chair to grab a can of Zesti from the fridge. Taped to the fridge door was a list titled "Kon's Don'ts & Don'ts While J'onn Is Kicking Our Asses In Mars". It was a long title, but then, it was a long list. They had felt the need to include pretty much everything, from "Don't organize a female volleyball tournament in our heliport" to "Don't try to fix the drains or fight Darkseid without calling Robin first". It was, Kon reflected, a somewhat insulting list. He wasn't stupid. He _knew_ not to do those things. Except maybe about the volleyball thing, which sounded like a good idea --- not that he was in the mood for that anyway.

Kon opened the fridge door, took out the can of Zesti and... just stood there, feeling but (of course) not really bothered by the cold air. He was aware that he should close the door, but it was an impersonal awareness, disconnected from himself. It seemed too hard to collect the "giving a damn" necessary to convince his muscles to move, and it didn't feel like it was his problem anyway. He wondered what the others would say if they found him standing seemingly frozen in front of the open fridge.

Live from New York, he could hear the UN giving a vote of confidence for Superman to protect the planet from utter destruction. Sighting again, he closed the fridge door and scanned the list taped to it. Yep, there it was: "__Don't__ leave the fridge door open!". For some reason Robin had felt the need to underline the item with a red pen.

Kon left the kitchen, leaving the unopened can on the table. There was a rousing ovation coming from the TV.

.finit.