nope

"Conner," Tim's voice says quietly from behind him but Kon isn't listening. Usually he always listens to Tim but right now he doesn't really want to listen to anyone. He knows what they're going to say, but they're wrong. He doesn't need a break, he's not tired and he's certainly not giving up hope. When that building came down there was 3,852 people inside according to the records. They've only been able to find, dead or alive, a little more than 2,000. Some only in pieces.

There's so many people still buried under the rubble, people he might be able to save if he could just get to them. He can't stop now. It's so quiet at the site, the only heartbeats he can hear are on the surface. He grunts as he moves another broken beam, he tells himself that it's the lead in the building preventing him from hearing them.

"Conner, please," Tim says, stepping a little closer this time. "I know this is hard to hear, but there's nothing you can do. Mongul crashed into this building pretty hard, wiped out 8 floors immediately before he flew out and destabilized the whole building." He takes a few more steps closer. "We've had multiple people confirm that there's no life beneath the debris Kon, everyone we could save, has already been removed. There's no one left." Tim finishes quietly, setting a light hand on Conner's shoulder.

"Well what do you know?" Conner demands, shrugging off Tim's hand to glare at him. Both of them are covered in soot and grime not just from digging through the crash site but from the fight earlier. "You're just a stupid human, you can't possibly know for sure that there isn't someone down there! They could be dying this very second while you're here wasting my time." Conner turning his back on his friend and continuing his frantic digging. He realizes that he hasn't looked over Tim for injury but he knows without looking that Tim isn't badly hurt, his vitals are too steady. The only reason he's probably still here is because Kon won't leave.

"I might not have your super strength or your keen senses," Tim begins softly. "But I've been in enough graveyards to know what one feels like." Conner pants as he comes across a large section of wall that refuses to move. He puts his whole body into it, struggling and straining to move the damn thing but it won't budge. He leans against the wall, pounding angrily on it. Why won't it move? Why can't he find any survivors? He was a hero, it was his job to save lives. So far he hasn't really done much of anything. Again, he feels Tim behind him, soothingly rubbing circles on his back as Conner sinks to his knees in despair.

"I'm sorry Kon, sometimes, as much as it hurts, sometimes there's just nothing you can do. When my folks were kidnapped, when Jason came back as a killer, there are so many bad things we can't prevent, no matter how hard we try." Kon turned up to face his best friend, his rock, the one person who makes sense in his life.

"It's not fair," he says lamely, rubbing at his eyes. "We're supposed to save people." Tim kneels down next to him and leans into Conner's shoulder.

"I know Kon, we saved everyone we could. You helped tremendously, there's so many people who owe you their lives. Celebrate their victory, not this defeat."

Conner squeezes his eyes shut as he no longer wants to look at this twisted mess of metal and mayhem. He pulls Tim closer and replaces the smell of metallic death with the comforting aroma of Tim's hair and the underlying scent of coconut from his shampoo. Tim's heartbeat, breathing and quiet murmurs of assurance are the only sounds he allow himself to hear. He holds his friend closer to him, because he couldn't save these people today but he'll always be there to keep Tim safe. Because if he didn't have Tim there to steady him, Conner would never know when to stop digging for hopes that will never be fulfilled.

If it hasn't been completely obvious that I have a hard bias for the YJ/TT team, especially Tim Drake, here's your sign. Looking over the remaining stories, I'm noticing how most all of them star or feature Timmy so... sorry about that. This one ended up pretty heavy, I think the original prompt was 'Tim comforts Kon' and it got kinda dark. Still, hope you like it.