"Clark, son, now your mother and I have a few more presents to get and we'll only be at the Granville Mall," his dad started.
Clark sighed and repeated the rules, "I can't show off for Chloe and Pete. I can't let them know I'm weird. If we drink hot chocolate, I have to remember to not drink it right away because a normal guy would burn his throat."
"Also," his dad said, eyeing him carefully. "You have to stay in the living room, kitchen or outside. You know the rules. You can't have girls in your room or alone in the loft."
Clark blushed. Chloe was nice and she'd kissed him once when he'd given her the tour the first day of school, but she wasn't really a girl. Wait, no that's not what he meant. She was and she was really pretty and had nice hair and smelled like vanilla...wait what was he thinking about again? Right. Chloe and him alone. That would never happen. He knew he couldn't...that his dad would kill him. Besides, if he got nervous he shattered wood or cracked ceramic.
It was good that Chloe was just one of the gang. Hell, it was good she'd kissed him first because he might have hurt her.
"Dad, I wouldn't! We're going to go sledding by the McMurtry's hill and maybe snowball fight and then cocoa and movies."
"Did you pick them out, sweetheart?" his mom asked, handing his father a long scarf and giving Clark a pat on his shoulder.
Clark looked between his parents and frowned. He knew he was adopted. He wasn't stupid. After all, he didn't look like either of them, and they'd done this lab in sixth grade in science where you had to see if you could roll your tongue. Both his parents could do it, and he couldn't. Man, his dad had yelled a lot at Principal Anderson after and they'd had to explain things to him. It wasn't like the fact he wasn't some super strong freak didn't already have him curious.
It's not like Mom or Dad could lift the tractor over their heads, and he did that by four.
Still, he wished he was taller. He was barely his mom's size and one day, related or not, he wanted to be like his dad.
"Mom," he said, his blush reaching up to his hairline. "You don't have to insist on that. Pete always brings sports movies." Mostly cause Mom had some ESP powers and would clearly have caught him sneaky R movies from his brothers' collections. "Chloe has cool choices but I promised I'd pick this time!"
"Because why?" his dad pressed and some days Clark thought his parents still felt as if he were six.
Clark let out a long sigh. "Because she brought all these sci-fi movies that, even if they were totally cool, had a lot of swearing and stuff in them and I can't watch them."
Which wasn't really true. E.T. hadn't been like that, mostly he just drank some beer. Men in Black had some cursing and damns and stuff but it wasn't really bad either, no worse than some of the action stuff Pete loved, although, they'd had to stop E.T. partway through. The lab stuff had come up and Clark got so nervous he actually threw up, which he hadn't even done since he was seven at Greg Arkin's treehouse. His dad wouldn't let Chloe come over for almost a month and the condition was she could never bring the movies or books over again.
Clark thought that was kind of mean. Chloe didn't know he had abilities, and it wasn't like she knew he was scared of labs either. Like really scared of them.
"Good, now follow the rules," his dad finished, grabbing his keys. "You know you have to be careful. Chloe's not like Pete. She's from the city."
"And she wants to be a reporter, sweetheart. I'm glad that you and Chloe are friends, but she's not the best choice."
Clark tried not to huff. His parents had been on this for the last three months. His mom had been thrilled when he said he had a new friend and that Chloe and he got along so well. Then he mentioned that Chloe wanted to be a star reporter for The Daily Planet and that she was really into weird phenonema and Mom shut down quickly after that. Once she'd masterminded the alien films movie day, his parents were on him to avoid her outside of school. Well, tough. The other kids wouldn't even talk to him, not after he shoved a kid through a door at six and was almost sent to Belle Reve.
He was just too weird. Maybe it made sense that Chloe would actually hang out with him. She was sort of bonkers too.
"We're going to have a snowball fight, Mom. It's not like I'm going to lift the station wagon for her or run from here to Chicago to get her a hot dog. We're going to to do things all the other kids do."
His mom bit her lip for a long time, while his dad answered for both of them. "Son, you're not normal so just be smart and we'll be home in a few hours. You asked for more freedom so make us glad we tried this."
"Yes sir," he said, waving until he felt like his arm would fall off as they left out the kitchen door.
It took twenty minutes before there was a knock on his door. Chloe was there, her teeth already chattering. Her coat was fine, more than thick for the winter and Metropolis had its cold days, especially when the window cut through the buildings. She was in jeans, mittens, and a hat too but her boots were completely impractical. It was those showy Doc Marten things and not real boots for snow. She was about Mom's size, so she'd have to borrow if they went out at all.
"Chloe, you okay?"
She rolled her eyes and walked past him, her usual tornado of energy. "My boots are not doing it! There must be eight inches of snow outside. God, no wonder Pete 'has the flu.' I think I would too if we're going to be trudging the Yukon."
Clark blinked, trying to keep up with how fast she talked which was fast even for him. "Wait, Pete?"
She nodded and slipped off her soaked Docs and the cotton-really Chloe?-socks that were as wet. "God, my feet are going to be ice cicles!"
"Mom has wool socks and some real boots for winter. You can borrow her spare stuff if you still want to sled and no Pete?"
"I said that!" she chimed, sitting down on the sofa. "He has the flu. I actually have a cell so he called me and said he was sorry. I'm not. I got to bring movies instead. You've seen The Princess Bride and The Neverending Story, right?"
"Um no."
"You, Kent, would be culturally deficient without me. Anyway, he owned the sled so that sucks, and I can't throw anyway. However, I had another idea. So go make it so my feet don't freeze and I'll teach you things."
"Wait, but no Pete!?"
She sighed and blew a flippy bang out of her eyes. "Clark, seriously? You don't need a buffer. We're just friends. It's not like I'm taking you up to the loft to ravish you, big boy."
Clark gulped and, oddly, for a second felt like his eyes were starting to itch but then that passed. "No!" Ugh and his voice cracked. It had been doing that a lot lately, usually when Pete or Chloe tricked him into saying the word "Lana." Jerks. "I just...Mom and Dad might not like if it was just us."
"We'll avoid the wild monkey sex," she huffed. "Now move and grab the boots!"
When she ordered him like that, for all his powers and abilities, Clark felt like he had no choice but comply. How weird for one normal girl, right? Hell, maybe she had powers too...
"This is great!" he said, spreading out his arms and legs for at least the sixth time. "I love this!"
Chloe was sitting on the steps to the house, smirking back. She'd made about four snow angels and felt the snow melt through her jeans and onto her legs and called it quits. She'd started begging to go in, and Clark begged her to wait for a bit, that he was getting the hang of it.
"Clark? God! It's like twenty outside and you're in jeans and a sweater. You threw your coat off to get more authentic angels you said. You should be freezing!"
Clark stopped, mid-angel. "What?"
Chloe narrowed her eyes at him and he sat up as fast as a normal person could, suddenly understanding a little more why his parents didn't want him near a reporter. She was smart. The look she was leveling at him now, well, he'd seen it before when he'd miraculously made her book appear in the loft. "You're not cold? I wasn't going to say anything but you took off your coat like ten minutes ago and your teeth aren't chattering and you don't have goosebumps. I'm here in a parka and freezing my butt off!"
Clark wrapped his arms around himself. He knew he didn't feel heat like other people did. It was why he could help his parents take food out of the oven without mitts or why they always had to remind him to drink normally. It hadn't really occurred to him that the winter and snow should feel that cold. Cold, sure, and he could tell that it was different than hot, but it just didn't bother him. In fact, there was something calming in it, as if he should be there.
He didn't understand why he felt that, but he did. It was something oddly comforting, like coming home, to roll in it as he had to make the angels, but now with Chloe scrutinizing it, Clark realized he'd messed up and this comfort was a "him" thing.
Slowly, he stood up and stalked into the house, maybe his parents were right and Chloe Sullivan was more trouble than she was worth. Not oblivious to his mood shift, she stayed silent as she followed him in and started microwaving some Swiss Miss for them both. Clark sat down at the island after he shed his sweater, leaving him in just a wet blue tee and jeans. He didn't feel much like talking.
Finally, after long, awkward silence-and he wasn't even sure that Chloe could do that till now-she sat down next to him and handed him his drink. He waited for a while, blowing on it and waiting until she'd successfully sipped hers before he did his. Be normal, right? It was all his parents ever said to him when it came to hanging out with other kids and he'd messed that up by just making stupid snow angels.
God, they'd never really let him go to college or maybe date some day. He could hardly be normal for forty minutes, just himself and himself was a disaster.
"I said something. I did a Chloe-thing," she said, her voice low and quiet, the way he'd heard his mom talk to colts on the farm.
He frowned. Usually he was worried about doing a Clark-thing. That was so weird she had to worry about herself. Didn't normal people have a lot less problems? Wasn't fitting in easy without strength and speed? "I don't understand."
"Like when I pressed the first day we met about how you got the book or when I brought all those movies over your mom and dad hated. It's how I made Lana start ignoring me by asking for a follow up quote regarding her Time cover."
Clark's eyes went wide. "You didn't?"
"See, Chloe things. Sometimes I'm more curious than I should be, I know that. I know other people, normal people, wouldn't ask, but I can't help doing it sometimes. I shouldn't have asked about why you don't get cold, right?"
Clark sighed. "I do get cold, Chloe. Everyone does."
She hesitated for an instant and then nodded. "Of course they do. I shouldn't have asked. I just do these things that I-"
"-can't control. I know how you feel."
"Yeah right, you never say things you shouldn't and make people hate you."
"I do things, sometimes, and I know they, uh, frustrate my parents."
Chloe surprised him by putting her hand on top of his and it was so soft and warm. Some days, okay every day, Clark wished he wasn't so weird, that he didn't remember being six and accidentally crushing a barn kitten in his grip. He couldn't bare to ever do that to her; he'd never hurt Chloe.
"Then at least we're weird together, Clark. That's good, right?"
He nodded. "So let's watch your movies and drink more chocolate. I...maybe we can do snow angels again some other day."
And I'll remember to feel cold.
"Mom was busy again, huh?" Jonathan asked as Clark picked him up from Smallville elementary.
They'd moved back to the Smallville area about a year ago. Chloe'd spent time as a foreign correspondent for a few years after her divorce in Singapore and getting noticed for a series on human trafficking running through Southeast Asia. Still, she'd missed the States or so she'd said and after Lois had left for greener pastures with the DP's Kenya desk, she'd come home. Now she and Clark shared byline work together. He'd bought the farm back recently after less than subtle complaints from his mother, and Chloe and Jonathan lived nearby in Luthor Estates.
It was, in some ways, almost as if the intervening decades hadn't happened.
Okay, a lot of things had changed. He was Superman, she was Perry's star reporter and still a big help as a Watchtower consultant, and she was raising a third-grader on her own. No, not on her own, as his mom often reminded him. Clark was helping out a lot as the godfather. It annoyed him in a lot of ways that was what they had at her insistence-just friends with him as a mentor for Jonathan now that Oliver was clearly interested in a certain Canary and not doing much of that father thing.
Hell not since before Asia.
Still, it could be more. Maybe one day it would be. Being heroes meant their lives moved fast and where they were this year probably wouldn't look anything like where they were going to be in three years or five.
Clark offered a tight smile to his godson and took his hand. "Your mom wasn't finishing up on this side thing for your Uncle Perry."
Which was actually code for, at least this time, Tess needed an extra eye on some pattern analysis for the latest trouble Brainiac had been causing. Chloe, Batman, J'onn and Tess would be working overtime all night to try and figure that out, and he'd be hearing the complaints all morning over coffee at the DP. That much Clark knew.
Jonathan rolled his eyes. God, he was so very much Chloe. "Sure but she works lots and lots, Clark. I wish Mommy wasn't busy as much."
Clark nodded and helped Jonathan buckle into his seat. He couldn't just speed the kid to the farm, not with witnesses. It wasn't because Jonathan didn't know. Chloe'd told him quite a bit about Clark's history and powers (the kid friendly stuff, not his bigger mistakes growing up). Clark had never actually said to Jonathan that he was Superman, but his godson did know he was strong, fast and could fly. He'd taken Jonathan flying as a "Welcome to Kansas" present when they'd come backk from Asia. It was just like Chloe all over again, back their final year of high school. There was this secret between them, where Jonathan never ever said "Superman" outloud but they all knew he'd figured it out, seen enough of enough.
It felt nice.
That for all he could do and how famous his alter ego was, that to Chloe and Jonathan he was always "just Clark."
Hell, sometimes it was hard to impress Chloe period. She was so similar to Lois in so many ways and, yet, so different. The big difference, that same eye rolling attitude and normalcy they'd had between them since she was taller than he was ended up being something he needed and craved a million times more than Lois's insecurities and fawning appreciation. Some people could be friends or allies, just not partners.
Maybe they'd all figured that out.
Maybe he'd figure something better.
Clark tossed those thoughts over in his head as they drove down Main Street and eventually out to the farm. Jonathan played with the radio and settled on a classic rock station. Clark had learned long ago not to ask. His nephew was as eccentric in his own way as Chloe had ever been. He was a second generation obsessive of the weird, except he knew it existed and hung out around it every day. Chloe just believed she'd find it; boy had she.
The got out of the car and Clark eyed his godson. "You do have mittens, scarf, hats, gloves, real boots, and a good coat, right?"
Another eye roll. God, he wasn't looking forward to going through more Sullivan-patented teenage snits with Jonathan instead. "Yes, Dad."
Clark swallowed hard and kept the smile planted on his face. No, he was many things but he wasn't that, had lost that chance probably forever.
"Well if you catch a flu, your mother will murder me."
"Can she?"
Clark shrugged. "She knows all my weaknesses so she can just make me miserable. Never underestimate her, right?"
Jonathan considered that and nodded so hard he looked like a bobble head. "Okay! So we make snow angels now?" Clark nodded and sat on the steps, letting Jonathan make a few before he stopped and sat down next to him. "Don't you want to?"
Clark sighed. He'd already shucked off his coat. There was no one for over a mile now, and no one to hide from. He was just sitting, watching his godson go to town in the piles of snow as he sat around in a t-shirt, soaking up the sun. He knew now that Krypton would have been like this, even colder still from what Kara had said, but like this. No matter his ups and downs with the Fortress or the things that followed him here like Zod or Doomsday, he couldn't help feeling his happiest in the snow.
"I'm good."
"Mom said you make the best ones, that you used to have contests over it even in college and when you were bigger."
"I can stay out here longer, so I can make more. Your mom's more creative."
"Do you want to show me?"
"You're doing great on your own, buddy."
Jonathan frowned back at him, familiar green eyes greeting him with that same intensity. "I know you're special. I see all the things you do all the time and you take me flying. It's okay too if you don't feel temperatures the same. I mean, you never sweat in summer-"
"You noticed?"
"Um, yes. Have you met me? I'm going to be editor of the Planet by thirty."
Oh God, maybe he should warn Perry now.
"Well I know your mom told you a lot-"
"Duh, you're Superman and she helps the League alot."
Clark's eyes widened and he wished an eight year old hadn't caught him off guard, but he was Chloe's kid so he shouldn't be that ashamed. "She told you that?"
"Well about Superman and, duh, you're fast and strong and fly and make toast by looking at it, even if she didn't tell me, I'm not stupid. I just know it makes you feel weird to talk about it, so I don't. Mom never says anything about the Justice League but I'm not dumb either. She helps them cause she helps you. So sometimes I know she's not 'just reporting.'"
"Oh."
"Yeah but I figure you both would tell me all these things about the Justice League when you wanted. I just...do you want to make angels? You can do weird stuff around me, Clark. I mean, if you feel weirder about liking snow and stuff than flying which I dunno how one outweirds the other."
"That's a lot of weirds there, kiddo."
"You're weird but that's okay," Jonathan said, grinning a large toothy grin back at him, wide enough to show the tooth he'd lost recently. "I think I'm weird too."
"Well, I know you're smart and-"
"No, watch!" he said, and before Clark's eyes Jonathan's hand started to glow.
Clark's chest felt heavy but he was impressed with his ability not to react. He hadn't seen anything like that since Chloe had saved Lex. "Wow, how long could you do that?"
Jonathan shrugged and the light winked off. "A few weeks. I just make a glow. It doesn't do more than that. I...can Mom or Dad do that? I thought they were normal."
Clark sighed and hugged his godson. "Your mom has always been very special, just like you. Let's make the angels now and get cocoa later. Your mom and I have a long talk later."
"Cool, and Clark now that I let you know I'm not dumb and know about Superman stuff, then Mom can show you the comic books."
"You look wrecked," Chloe said as she walked in the kitchen door. Clark noted the flash of red streaking through the sky and assumed that J'onn had dropped her off. "I know you're the Man of Steel here, but Jonathan has a lot of energy."
"I wonder where he gets that from," Clark said, handing her a plate of spaghetti. "Now I can heat it or we have a microwave."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Oh please. You overheat and it gets burned every time. It's a waste of some damn good home made alfredo." With that she marched over to the appliance and shoved in her food. "So was he well behaved?"
"He was fine. We made snow angels for a long time."
"Clark, he can get a cold. Tell me it wasn't hours."
"Like forty minutes and he was bundled, you nervous mom."
Chloe sighed and pulled out the food once it dinged. Setting it down on the counter, she dug in with gusto. "Good, and then you did homework and he was asleep by nine?"
"Eleven. There was this documentary and-"
"He conned you. I swear, you melt for him."
"Well he's very persuasive and how many times have I ever said no to you."
"Point," she countered slurping up a string. "So was that it?"
Clark sat down and put his elbows on the counter. "He knows I'm Superman."
"Well I assumed as much. How many people fly, Clark?"
"And knows you weren't at The Planet. I don't know how he figured out you moonlight for Watchtower some but he did figure that out. He just said he figured we'd tell him when we wanted to."
She sighed. "Oh, I thought I'd been better about that."
"Sullivans are snoops. Welcome to my life story," Clark chirped. "Chloe, that's not too huge. I mean, I thought he'd never piece things together about you, that he'd never get you were our best consultant."
"But?"
"He mentioned there were comics about me? I know the ones that Ollie puts out for charity about all of us aren't tied to us at all, just misinformation." She blushed and pushed her plate away; Clark's sensitive hears caught her heart pouding and, confused, he leaned forward. "What? How did he-"
Chloe sighed and started picking at the counter. "I photoshopped some things. They were just bedtime stories for him in Singapore. I wanted him to know all about you."
"Why? And he was like four!"
"Because you're my best friend and his godfather and I just wanted him to love you like I do."
Clark sighed. If only.
"Can I see them?"
She shook her head. "They're silly and self-indulgent and mostly about Smallville and before you had the name. You'd probably just laugh your head off. They're not exactly Warrior Angel."
Clark reached over and squeezed her hand. "I think they must be pretty amazing. You never do anything half way and clearly Jonathan loves them."
"He's eight. He loves pizza and ninja turtles."
He reached over and cupped her chin, forcing her to look at him. They were so close that he felt her breath on his cheeks. It would be so easy to...but he had something bigger to talk about. "I'm sure they're great, but secret identities blown all to Hell isn't really about us."
She blinked. "Well he's never told anyone about who you are so I doubt he'd tell anyone now about me as consultant."
Clark sighed but kept her chin in his fingers. "Can you heal again?"
"No," she said, pulling away. "Why would you even ask that?"
"Because Jonathan was talking about how he knew I was different more than even the flashier powers and that he thought we never talked about the Superman stuff because I was embarassed."
"Are you?"
"No, I just like being normal here, well, for me. With you two, I'm Clark and I like that."
"Good because Superman is the dumbest name. I don't know what I was thinking when I coined that."
"Probably because Conner claimed Superboy first and I'm older."
"True," she said, leaning against him. "Did he heal?"
"Not exactly. He just said he knew what it was like to have powers too and showed me that he could glow, just make his palms gold like when you could heal. I asked if he did anything else but light up, and he said no."
She started to tear up at that and he held her tight and rocked her, letting her gather her composure. "I wanted him to be normal."
He kissed the crown of her head, well aware just friends wouldn't do that. "Well, Chlo, we were never really normal, even before everything else started happening."
"I had a big mouth," she sniffed, pulling back a little.
"And I could do a million things other kids couldn't. We turned out okay?"
Chloe laughed even if she was still crying a little. "Well we do have the Pulitzers and the world savage under our belts to say we're fine."
"Exactly, besides, I'd never let anything happen to him, not ever."
"That's why I made you godfather. I...maybe it was calculating but I always wanted you in his life, and I always wanted him safe. A bomb squad right?"
"Not always the best one," he admitted and then, well, he'd been tired of waiting. He'd spent years dancing around everything with her, and years since her return staying 'just friends.' It was his turn to make a move.
After a while, he pulled back and she was gasping. Clark was scared she'd reject him as she had after the dance or Dark Thursday. Just once, they could really make this work, he knew it.
"Clark?"
"Yeah?"
She smiled and kissed him back. "Do you remember the first time we ever made snow angels? When we watched The Princess Bride?"
"Sure?" he said, not sure where she was going.
She leaned up and kissed him once more, hands trailing down over his neck. "Well I think we just blew their kiss away. I...tomorrow, tonight help me figure out how to help him."
Clark nodded and stood up, but he still let his hands rest over her shoulders. "Always, but I still say we match, the three of us. We'll always be weird together."
"Better when you finally accept it?"
He grinned back at her. "Definitely."