In which I use the word "bro" eight million times
Title: The Bro Code
Fandom: Young Justice
Characters/Pairing: The team (mostly the boys)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,913
Summary: After a team visit to Atlantis, Robin and Kid Flash take it upon themselves to explain the bro code to Aqualad. Confused aliens and male bonding ensue.
A/N: I love Garth and Tula, but I was so unimpressed with their behavior. Also, can Kaldur just get some more love up in here, you know, in general?
When it came time for Young Justice to leave Atlantis, there were a lot of hugs.
Atlanteans, as it turned out, were big on hugging. Queen Mera, visibly pregnant and glowing with it in a way surface women only did in flowery fictional description and gentle compliments designed to smooth over an obvious fever, embraced each of the girls (Artemis was taken aback but not displeased) and laid hands on each of the boys' shoulders. Tula, having none of this royal decorum, hugged everyone.
Everyone pretended not to notice when Kaldur held on for a little too long. Garth conspicuously pretended not to notice when she let him.
If the team happened to commence swimming away before Kaldur gave the order, leaving him a moment alone to part with his friends, and if, when he did follow, he tugged Tula's hand up and away until the point where their arms were fully outstretched and he was forced to let go, no one commented on that either.
The transport gate was still in ruins from the recent battle - "It would be," Wally grumbled - so a long swim back to the surface it was. Kaldur went on ahead, leading the way as the others in their wetsuits paused periodically to acclimate to the depressurization as they climbed in altitude.
It was at one of these pit stops that Robin tapped M'gann's shoulder and then his own temple. He nodded to Wally, hanging at his side. <Yes?> she said into their minds.
<I'm not losing it, am I?> said Robin, nodding up at Kaldur. <What was that all about?>
<Nah, I saw it too,> Wally replied. He smirked. <Somebody's got it bad for the cute Atlantean babe. Not that she's as cute as you,> he assured M'gann.
<I think it's more than that,> M'gann said, sounding worried. <Kaldur, Garth, and Tula are good friends, but Garth and Tula are together…>
<My thoughts exactly.> Robin. <Something weird's going on with them. You remember last time he came back from here after Batman chewed him out? He kept even more to himself than usual.>
<Ouch,> Wally hissed. <I know where you're going with this, and I don't like it.>
Artemis waded over and rested a hand on M'gann's shoulder. Then, <What's up? Problem?>
<We're concerned about Kaldur,> M'gann explained.
<Is this about Tula? I noticed the…you know. The thing.>
<Pretty sure this is one for us guys, Arty,> Robin replied, gesturing between himself and Wally. <We've got it covered.>
<You call her Arty?>
Artemis crossed her arms, but nodded, eyes narrowed just a fraction. <Take care of it.>
<She listens to you!?>
A further moment of argument, and M'gann cut the connection before Kaldur could swim back down and ask if they were ready to continue. He looked puzzled at their hurried, grinning affirmation, but deigned not to comment.
Superboy, for his part, shot them searching and too-perceptive looks for the duration of the ascent.
*
"Kaldur," Wally said one afternoon, as serious as most would ever see him, "we need to talk."
Kaldur swept a slow and scrutinizing gaze between his teammates. Wally, uncharacteristically somber; Robin, half-hiding a mysterious expression that, alarmingly, wasn't a smirk; Superboy, wearing the demeanor of someone who'd been enlisted solely for enforcement purposes.
"All right," he said tentatively, because it looked as though he had no other choice. The boys led him into the living room and sat him down.
"It's about Atlantis," Robin opened, fingers steepled in a manner that was probably intimidating when Batman did it.
When no further elaboration came, Kaldur straightened his posture and schooled his face, just in case. “I am glad to have had the opportunity to show you my homeland, even if the circumstances were not ideal."
"And we're glad we got to see it," said Robin, reasonably. He opened his mouth again to continue, but Wally raised a hand, and after a hesitation filled with professional gestures, Robin motioned for Wally to take the stand.
Wally leaned forward, palms pressed together, elbows on his knees. "Kaldur," he said, so earnest and imploring that Kaldur had to work not to crack a smile. "We need to know if Garth broke the bro code."
There was a protracted moment of silence in which Wally and Robin stared oh-so-seriously into Kaldur's admirably composed face and Superboy knitted his eyebrows in an expression that could only be construed as confusion, though at the turn of phrase or simply regarding why he was here remained unclear.
"I'm sorry?" Kaldur finally ventured.
"Look," said Robin, palms resting on the coffee table. "None of this leaves this room, but we know you've got the major hots for Tula and that she's with Garth. We also figured out you guys have all been friends for approximately forever and then some, and that you've been crushing on Tula for about the same amount of time, and that she and Garth hooked up pretty recently. So what gives?"
Kaldur gaped. He considered himself the sort of person who pointedly didn't gape, but there he was. He closed his jaw with a snap that jarred his teeth and cleared his throat. "…This is all very personal," he informed them, not, he thought, too defensively.
"And we're your friends," Wally responded. "So, not to overstate the issue, what gives? You can talk to us, man. We're here to help."
Even Superboy nodded. A moment's pause to collect his wits, and Kaldur sighed. "…You are correct. There are…the issue is complicated."
Robin shrugged. "Take it from the top."
Kaldur averted his eyes, but only to raise his chin in a military fashion, he told himself. "You were right to assume that Garth and Tula have long been close friends of mine - we grew up together; attended to our studies side by side. We were…inseparable. You were also correct in your assumptions regarding my…affections for Tula."
"And?" Wally prompted.
This time, Kaldur chose to stare at a potted plant. "…A few months ago, when I last visited my home--"
"Told you."
"Dude, hold your questions and smartass remarks for the end of the class."
"…When I last visited my home," Kaldur continued wearily, "I was…uncertain about my position on the team. I briefly considered rejoining my friends at the conservatory. But when Tula told me that she and Garth were together…" He looked up, eyes sharp. "It was a moment of weakness. I was wrong to think of leaving the team."
Wally was already shaking his head. "That's in the past. You stayed."
"Right now," Robin added, "we're talking about you and your friends. You wanted to stay 'cause of Tula, but she was taken. Straightforward enough. So what's the deal; you never got around to telling her how you felt before you left?"
Kaldur was reassured to know that they didn't judge him for his mistake, but jarred by the persistent questioning. Still, he felt powerless to escape; maybe it was because they cared, because they were his teammates, his friends, and they wanted to know. Maybe it was because he didn't have anyone else to tell, and was glad for the opportunity - for the excuse - to communicate his problems with his team in spite of his position as leader.
Maybe it was because he had an uncomfortable suspicion Superboy had been bribed or coerced to tackle him to the floor and pin him should he attempt an escape.
Still, he hesitated. It was difficult to discuss; it made him feel somehow weak, somehow less. But the standing reasons still applied, so he sighed and decided to bear it. "No. I spent quite some time courting Tula before I made my decision to depart for the surface world. We had…progressed to a certain level of affection before the day that I came to live here."
Robin and Wally exchanged a look that Kaldur couldn't quite read. Wally glanced at Superboy, opened his mouth, seemed to think better of it, and turned back to Kaldur. "Courting?"
Kaldur had been led to believe, mainly via television, that Atlantean rituals of romance hadn't dovetailed with those of the human world for centuries. Unfortunately, that made it difficult to explain. "I…made my intentions known to her some time ago. She did not openly reciprocate in full, but made it clear that she held an attraction to me and would be willing to explore the relationship further should I prove myself worthy of her attention. It is customary in my culture; somewhat like your 'dating' but perhaps not as actively committed."
The others exchanged that look again - perhaps a different variation of a similar look. They both said, "Oh," at the same time. Superboy's unwavering stare was still fixed to the side of Kaldur's head.
Wally started to say something more, but Robin elbowed him in the side and spoke instead. "So this courting thing, does a girl usually have more than one guy courting her at once, and did you know if Garth was courting her too?"
Kaldur felt a sting in his chest that he'd hoped was buried deep by now. "…It is not customary for one person to have more than one suitor at once - at least, not in that manner. It involves a…special arrangement."
"One you guys didn't have?" Wally asked.
"No."
"So he did--" Wally began, but Robin unceremoniously slapped a hand over his friend's mouth.
"How long does this courting thing take, usually?" he asked.
Kaldur watched Wally try, without success, to pry Robin's fingers from his face for a long moment while he collected himself again. This was getting to be pathetic. "…I had been courting Tula for about six months before I came to live here. Six to eight months is common before a courtship develops into a stable relationship."
"Aaand how long did Garth court Tula, then?"
Kaldur did his very, very, considerably powerful best to keep his expression from changing, his mouth from forming into a thin line and his eyes from narrowing, because he didn't think of Garth in a way that merited that treatment; he honestly didn't. Any scorn over the situation was directed at himself, now, and his teammates shouldn't see a crack in their leader's patient, composed exterior. "…Two weeks."
Simultaneously, the younger boys sucked air through their teeth in a gesture Kaldur had come to recognize as a sympathetic hiss of injury from his human comrades. He couldn't decide whether to feel better or worse.
"He broke the bro code," said Wally, in deepest tones of empathetic disappointment.
"He broke the bro code," Robin echoed, his voice a hollow pronouncement of incredulity.
"The bro code?" said Kaldur and Superboy in unison. They looked each at other, surprise and confusion both.
"The bro code," said Wally, in reverent tones. "It's the unspoken rule of law that binds all men together in kinship and defense against wily female ways."
"Commonly screwed around with on a regular basis throughout puberty," Robin interjected.
Wally elbowed him, hard. "The number one, infallible, golden rule of the bro code: Bros before hos."
A pause occurred. Kaldur exchanged another look with Superboy, and then transferred it back to the younger boys (though Superboy was the youngest of them all, Kaldur had trouble thinking that way of someone who rivaled him for size as the leading contender). "I apologize," he said patiently, "but this may require some explanation."
"Okay," said Robin. "For the sake of argument, a bro is a guy and a ho is a girl."
Kaldur nodded uncertainly.
"If you have a bro - a guy who's a friend, usually a really good friend," and here Wally raised a fist, against which Robin demonstrably bumped his own, "he's always supposed to come first. If one of you meets a girl and screws your bro over to get with her, you're violating the golden rule, and breaking the bro code. Got it?"
Kaldur started to nod again, and stopped. "I don't think - I actually met Tula first. Garth, I met shortly thereafter, but we were always close friends; a unit of sorts. I cannot consider Garth to be a closer friend to me than Tula, or vice versa, although my feelings for Tula are different than they are for Garth."
Robin and Wally shook their heads at each other. "He's not getting it."
"He's not even human; it'll probably take him awhile," said Wally.
"He's sitting right there," said Superboy, indignant, before Kaldur got the chance.
Wally winced. "Right. The It Factor." He turned back to Kaldur. "You're not getting it, but that's okay. We have a list somewhere."
"I'll print it out for you," Robin assured him.
Kaldur shook his head thoughtfully, because he may have been dragged into this against his will, but now he was confused, and that wouldn't do. As team leader, he had to be well-versed on important surface customs such as this. "I do not understand. Do you mean to say that I can only consider Garth, and not Tula, my 'bro', as he is also male?"
Wally and Robin shared a vacillating, kinda-sorta noise. "Not quite," said Wally. "Under some circumstances, one can have a female bro. Like Artemis, apparently," he added, shooting a dark look at a smirking Robin before he continued. "However, if at any point the relationship with said female friend mutates into one of romantic attraction on either part, the female friend remains a friend, but loses bro status immediately and for the duration of the attraction."
"In this case," Robin continued, "Garth is in bro code violation, but Tula isn't."
"She chose him," Kaldur pointed out weakly, and there was that unpleasant knot in his chest again.
"That's harsh," said Wally, all genuine sympathy, "but unfortunately, there's just not a lot you can do about it. This is all between you and Garth."
"It is?"
"Yep," said Robin, slapping his knees decisively. "There's only one thing for you to do in a situation like this, Kaldur."
"And that is…?"
Wally leaned forward again. "You're gonna have to punch him."
Kaldur paused as he attempted to process that. He was pretty sure he'd heard right, but around here, one never knew. "Punch him."
"Absolutely."
"Right in the kisser."
"…I do not think--" Kaldur began, but Robin held up a hand for silence, and Kaldur was beginning to feel so far out of his depth that he thought it best to fall in line.
"Look, it's right there in the code," he insisted.
"Frankly," said Wally, raising an eyebrow, "if he were a true bro, he would have offered you a free shot to the gut himself."
Kaldur blinked. "I'm afraid there is no such tradition among my people."
Wally slapped both hands to his forehead. "So what, he's just gonna get off scot-free!?"
"Dude, you can't just let him off the hook," Robin demanded. "He broke the code!"
Lost, Kaldur looked to Superboy, who, if even less likely to know what was going on, could at least stand with him in solidarity. Superboy shrugged. "I can punch him if you don't want to," he offered.
"No, no, it doesn't work that way," Wally lamented. "You can't call in a substitute to punish a code violator!"
"The only rule even similar to those conditions is when you have a female bro, who'd be obligated to punch Tula in your stead," said Robin.
"No one is going to punch Tula," said Kaldur, in his staunch leader voice that brooked no argument.
Wally held up his hands in yielding. "Okay, okay--"
"Or Garth," he added in the same voice.
"But--"
"No."
Robin and Wally exchanged a look. They both sighed.
"So what are you going to do about it?" Robin ventured.
"I am going to wish them happiness, remain close friends with them both, and move on with my life," said Kaldur.
The younger boys made twin noises of disappointment. "I guess there's only one thing left to do," said Robin.
"Start over from here?"
Robin nodded. "We're gonna make a pledge," he informed Kaldur, and looked at Superboy too. "From this point on, we're all bros, and that means we have each other's backs. The next time somebody screws you over, we let them know it's not cool, and if any one of us ever breaks the code, you get to punch us. No, you have to punch us. Got it?"
Kaldur chanced another look at Superboy, who was staring back at him with a sort of loyal determination. Robin and Wally were giving him the same look.
He still wasn't sure he was going to be okay with the prospect of punching his friends, but the fact that they were so certain made him believe that he wouldn't have to. And…they had his back. They were here for him, and vice versa. He had friends here. People who trusted him, cared about him, and wanted him to be happy. And he'd gone so long without truly seeing it…
Kaldur looked up to the others and nodded.
"Sweet!" said Wally.
Robin stretched his hand out to the middle of the room, and Wally stacked his hand on top of it. Kaldur took the hint and placed his on top of Wally's, and after a skeptical pause, Superboy added his own.
"Bros?" Superboy ventured.
"You know it," Wally said brightly.
Kaldur couldn't help but smile. "Bros."
"Young Justice style!" Robin crowed, and threw their hands in the air.
Fandom: Young Justice
Characters/Pairing: The team (mostly the boys)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,913
Summary: After a team visit to Atlantis, Robin and Kid Flash take it upon themselves to explain the bro code to Aqualad. Confused aliens and male bonding ensue.
A/N: I love Garth and Tula, but I was so unimpressed with their behavior. Also, can Kaldur just get some more love up in here, you know, in general?
When it came time for Young Justice to leave Atlantis, there were a lot of hugs.
Atlanteans, as it turned out, were big on hugging. Queen Mera, visibly pregnant and glowing with it in a way surface women only did in flowery fictional description and gentle compliments designed to smooth over an obvious fever, embraced each of the girls (Artemis was taken aback but not displeased) and laid hands on each of the boys' shoulders. Tula, having none of this royal decorum, hugged everyone.
Everyone pretended not to notice when Kaldur held on for a little too long. Garth conspicuously pretended not to notice when she let him.
If the team happened to commence swimming away before Kaldur gave the order, leaving him a moment alone to part with his friends, and if, when he did follow, he tugged Tula's hand up and away until the point where their arms were fully outstretched and he was forced to let go, no one commented on that either.
The transport gate was still in ruins from the recent battle - "It would be," Wally grumbled - so a long swim back to the surface it was. Kaldur went on ahead, leading the way as the others in their wetsuits paused periodically to acclimate to the depressurization as they climbed in altitude.
It was at one of these pit stops that Robin tapped M'gann's shoulder and then his own temple. He nodded to Wally, hanging at his side. <Yes?> she said into their minds.
<I'm not losing it, am I?> said Robin, nodding up at Kaldur. <What was that all about?>
<Nah, I saw it too,> Wally replied. He smirked. <Somebody's got it bad for the cute Atlantean babe. Not that she's as cute as you,> he assured M'gann.
<I think it's more than that,> M'gann said, sounding worried. <Kaldur, Garth, and Tula are good friends, but Garth and Tula are together…>
<My thoughts exactly.> Robin. <Something weird's going on with them. You remember last time he came back from here after Batman chewed him out? He kept even more to himself than usual.>
<Ouch,> Wally hissed. <I know where you're going with this, and I don't like it.>
Artemis waded over and rested a hand on M'gann's shoulder. Then, <What's up? Problem?>
<We're concerned about Kaldur,> M'gann explained.
<Is this about Tula? I noticed the…you know. The thing.>
<Pretty sure this is one for us guys, Arty,> Robin replied, gesturing between himself and Wally. <We've got it covered.>
<You call her Arty?>
Artemis crossed her arms, but nodded, eyes narrowed just a fraction. <Take care of it.>
<She listens to you!?>
A further moment of argument, and M'gann cut the connection before Kaldur could swim back down and ask if they were ready to continue. He looked puzzled at their hurried, grinning affirmation, but deigned not to comment.
Superboy, for his part, shot them searching and too-perceptive looks for the duration of the ascent.
*
"Kaldur," Wally said one afternoon, as serious as most would ever see him, "we need to talk."
Kaldur swept a slow and scrutinizing gaze between his teammates. Wally, uncharacteristically somber; Robin, half-hiding a mysterious expression that, alarmingly, wasn't a smirk; Superboy, wearing the demeanor of someone who'd been enlisted solely for enforcement purposes.
"All right," he said tentatively, because it looked as though he had no other choice. The boys led him into the living room and sat him down.
"It's about Atlantis," Robin opened, fingers steepled in a manner that was probably intimidating when Batman did it.
When no further elaboration came, Kaldur straightened his posture and schooled his face, just in case. “I am glad to have had the opportunity to show you my homeland, even if the circumstances were not ideal."
"And we're glad we got to see it," said Robin, reasonably. He opened his mouth again to continue, but Wally raised a hand, and after a hesitation filled with professional gestures, Robin motioned for Wally to take the stand.
Wally leaned forward, palms pressed together, elbows on his knees. "Kaldur," he said, so earnest and imploring that Kaldur had to work not to crack a smile. "We need to know if Garth broke the bro code."
There was a protracted moment of silence in which Wally and Robin stared oh-so-seriously into Kaldur's admirably composed face and Superboy knitted his eyebrows in an expression that could only be construed as confusion, though at the turn of phrase or simply regarding why he was here remained unclear.
"I'm sorry?" Kaldur finally ventured.
"Look," said Robin, palms resting on the coffee table. "None of this leaves this room, but we know you've got the major hots for Tula and that she's with Garth. We also figured out you guys have all been friends for approximately forever and then some, and that you've been crushing on Tula for about the same amount of time, and that she and Garth hooked up pretty recently. So what gives?"
Kaldur gaped. He considered himself the sort of person who pointedly didn't gape, but there he was. He closed his jaw with a snap that jarred his teeth and cleared his throat. "…This is all very personal," he informed them, not, he thought, too defensively.
"And we're your friends," Wally responded. "So, not to overstate the issue, what gives? You can talk to us, man. We're here to help."
Even Superboy nodded. A moment's pause to collect his wits, and Kaldur sighed. "…You are correct. There are…the issue is complicated."
Robin shrugged. "Take it from the top."
Kaldur averted his eyes, but only to raise his chin in a military fashion, he told himself. "You were right to assume that Garth and Tula have long been close friends of mine - we grew up together; attended to our studies side by side. We were…inseparable. You were also correct in your assumptions regarding my…affections for Tula."
"And?" Wally prompted.
This time, Kaldur chose to stare at a potted plant. "…A few months ago, when I last visited my home--"
"Told you."
"Dude, hold your questions and smartass remarks for the end of the class."
"…When I last visited my home," Kaldur continued wearily, "I was…uncertain about my position on the team. I briefly considered rejoining my friends at the conservatory. But when Tula told me that she and Garth were together…" He looked up, eyes sharp. "It was a moment of weakness. I was wrong to think of leaving the team."
Wally was already shaking his head. "That's in the past. You stayed."
"Right now," Robin added, "we're talking about you and your friends. You wanted to stay 'cause of Tula, but she was taken. Straightforward enough. So what's the deal; you never got around to telling her how you felt before you left?"
Kaldur was reassured to know that they didn't judge him for his mistake, but jarred by the persistent questioning. Still, he felt powerless to escape; maybe it was because they cared, because they were his teammates, his friends, and they wanted to know. Maybe it was because he didn't have anyone else to tell, and was glad for the opportunity - for the excuse - to communicate his problems with his team in spite of his position as leader.
Maybe it was because he had an uncomfortable suspicion Superboy had been bribed or coerced to tackle him to the floor and pin him should he attempt an escape.
Still, he hesitated. It was difficult to discuss; it made him feel somehow weak, somehow less. But the standing reasons still applied, so he sighed and decided to bear it. "No. I spent quite some time courting Tula before I made my decision to depart for the surface world. We had…progressed to a certain level of affection before the day that I came to live here."
Robin and Wally exchanged a look that Kaldur couldn't quite read. Wally glanced at Superboy, opened his mouth, seemed to think better of it, and turned back to Kaldur. "Courting?"
Kaldur had been led to believe, mainly via television, that Atlantean rituals of romance hadn't dovetailed with those of the human world for centuries. Unfortunately, that made it difficult to explain. "I…made my intentions known to her some time ago. She did not openly reciprocate in full, but made it clear that she held an attraction to me and would be willing to explore the relationship further should I prove myself worthy of her attention. It is customary in my culture; somewhat like your 'dating' but perhaps not as actively committed."
The others exchanged that look again - perhaps a different variation of a similar look. They both said, "Oh," at the same time. Superboy's unwavering stare was still fixed to the side of Kaldur's head.
Wally started to say something more, but Robin elbowed him in the side and spoke instead. "So this courting thing, does a girl usually have more than one guy courting her at once, and did you know if Garth was courting her too?"
Kaldur felt a sting in his chest that he'd hoped was buried deep by now. "…It is not customary for one person to have more than one suitor at once - at least, not in that manner. It involves a…special arrangement."
"One you guys didn't have?" Wally asked.
"No."
"So he did--" Wally began, but Robin unceremoniously slapped a hand over his friend's mouth.
"How long does this courting thing take, usually?" he asked.
Kaldur watched Wally try, without success, to pry Robin's fingers from his face for a long moment while he collected himself again. This was getting to be pathetic. "…I had been courting Tula for about six months before I came to live here. Six to eight months is common before a courtship develops into a stable relationship."
"Aaand how long did Garth court Tula, then?"
Kaldur did his very, very, considerably powerful best to keep his expression from changing, his mouth from forming into a thin line and his eyes from narrowing, because he didn't think of Garth in a way that merited that treatment; he honestly didn't. Any scorn over the situation was directed at himself, now, and his teammates shouldn't see a crack in their leader's patient, composed exterior. "…Two weeks."
Simultaneously, the younger boys sucked air through their teeth in a gesture Kaldur had come to recognize as a sympathetic hiss of injury from his human comrades. He couldn't decide whether to feel better or worse.
"He broke the bro code," said Wally, in deepest tones of empathetic disappointment.
"He broke the bro code," Robin echoed, his voice a hollow pronouncement of incredulity.
"The bro code?" said Kaldur and Superboy in unison. They looked each at other, surprise and confusion both.
"The bro code," said Wally, in reverent tones. "It's the unspoken rule of law that binds all men together in kinship and defense against wily female ways."
"Commonly screwed around with on a regular basis throughout puberty," Robin interjected.
Wally elbowed him, hard. "The number one, infallible, golden rule of the bro code: Bros before hos."
A pause occurred. Kaldur exchanged another look with Superboy, and then transferred it back to the younger boys (though Superboy was the youngest of them all, Kaldur had trouble thinking that way of someone who rivaled him for size as the leading contender). "I apologize," he said patiently, "but this may require some explanation."
"Okay," said Robin. "For the sake of argument, a bro is a guy and a ho is a girl."
Kaldur nodded uncertainly.
"If you have a bro - a guy who's a friend, usually a really good friend," and here Wally raised a fist, against which Robin demonstrably bumped his own, "he's always supposed to come first. If one of you meets a girl and screws your bro over to get with her, you're violating the golden rule, and breaking the bro code. Got it?"
Kaldur started to nod again, and stopped. "I don't think - I actually met Tula first. Garth, I met shortly thereafter, but we were always close friends; a unit of sorts. I cannot consider Garth to be a closer friend to me than Tula, or vice versa, although my feelings for Tula are different than they are for Garth."
Robin and Wally shook their heads at each other. "He's not getting it."
"He's not even human; it'll probably take him awhile," said Wally.
"He's sitting right there," said Superboy, indignant, before Kaldur got the chance.
Wally winced. "Right. The It Factor." He turned back to Kaldur. "You're not getting it, but that's okay. We have a list somewhere."
"I'll print it out for you," Robin assured him.
Kaldur shook his head thoughtfully, because he may have been dragged into this against his will, but now he was confused, and that wouldn't do. As team leader, he had to be well-versed on important surface customs such as this. "I do not understand. Do you mean to say that I can only consider Garth, and not Tula, my 'bro', as he is also male?"
Wally and Robin shared a vacillating, kinda-sorta noise. "Not quite," said Wally. "Under some circumstances, one can have a female bro. Like Artemis, apparently," he added, shooting a dark look at a smirking Robin before he continued. "However, if at any point the relationship with said female friend mutates into one of romantic attraction on either part, the female friend remains a friend, but loses bro status immediately and for the duration of the attraction."
"In this case," Robin continued, "Garth is in bro code violation, but Tula isn't."
"She chose him," Kaldur pointed out weakly, and there was that unpleasant knot in his chest again.
"That's harsh," said Wally, all genuine sympathy, "but unfortunately, there's just not a lot you can do about it. This is all between you and Garth."
"It is?"
"Yep," said Robin, slapping his knees decisively. "There's only one thing for you to do in a situation like this, Kaldur."
"And that is…?"
Wally leaned forward again. "You're gonna have to punch him."
Kaldur paused as he attempted to process that. He was pretty sure he'd heard right, but around here, one never knew. "Punch him."
"Absolutely."
"Right in the kisser."
"…I do not think--" Kaldur began, but Robin held up a hand for silence, and Kaldur was beginning to feel so far out of his depth that he thought it best to fall in line.
"Look, it's right there in the code," he insisted.
"Frankly," said Wally, raising an eyebrow, "if he were a true bro, he would have offered you a free shot to the gut himself."
Kaldur blinked. "I'm afraid there is no such tradition among my people."
Wally slapped both hands to his forehead. "So what, he's just gonna get off scot-free!?"
"Dude, you can't just let him off the hook," Robin demanded. "He broke the code!"
Lost, Kaldur looked to Superboy, who, if even less likely to know what was going on, could at least stand with him in solidarity. Superboy shrugged. "I can punch him if you don't want to," he offered.
"No, no, it doesn't work that way," Wally lamented. "You can't call in a substitute to punish a code violator!"
"The only rule even similar to those conditions is when you have a female bro, who'd be obligated to punch Tula in your stead," said Robin.
"No one is going to punch Tula," said Kaldur, in his staunch leader voice that brooked no argument.
Wally held up his hands in yielding. "Okay, okay--"
"Or Garth," he added in the same voice.
"But--"
"No."
Robin and Wally exchanged a look. They both sighed.
"So what are you going to do about it?" Robin ventured.
"I am going to wish them happiness, remain close friends with them both, and move on with my life," said Kaldur.
The younger boys made twin noises of disappointment. "I guess there's only one thing left to do," said Robin.
"Start over from here?"
Robin nodded. "We're gonna make a pledge," he informed Kaldur, and looked at Superboy too. "From this point on, we're all bros, and that means we have each other's backs. The next time somebody screws you over, we let them know it's not cool, and if any one of us ever breaks the code, you get to punch us. No, you have to punch us. Got it?"
Kaldur chanced another look at Superboy, who was staring back at him with a sort of loyal determination. Robin and Wally were giving him the same look.
He still wasn't sure he was going to be okay with the prospect of punching his friends, but the fact that they were so certain made him believe that he wouldn't have to. And…they had his back. They were here for him, and vice versa. He had friends here. People who trusted him, cared about him, and wanted him to be happy. And he'd gone so long without truly seeing it…
Kaldur looked up to the others and nodded.
"Sweet!" said Wally.
Robin stretched his hand out to the middle of the room, and Wally stacked his hand on top of it. Kaldur took the hint and placed his on top of Wally's, and after a skeptical pause, Superboy added his own.
"Bros?" Superboy ventured.
"You know it," Wally said brightly.
Kaldur couldn't help but smile. "Bros."
"Young Justice style!" Robin crowed, and threw their hands in the air.