"Takigawa! Sawamura!" called editor-in-chief Kataoka, "there's a breaking story over by Meiji Jingu stadium. I need you two to go and cover the story."

"Thanks coach! We won't let you down!" exclaimed Sawamura as he saluted Kataoka. The older man just stared at Sawamura, his eyes narrowing behind his sunglasses.

"Erm, I mean, thanks editor-in-chief, sir," said Sawamura sheepishly as he lowered his arm. Katoka just huffed and walked away.

"Did you hear that Chris!? The coach wants us to cover this very important news story. I wonder what's happening over there," said Sawamura as he turned to the man standing next to him. Chris, however, seemed to be concentrating on something else. That or he was just spacing out as he tended to do from time to time.

"Sorry, what was that?" Chris asked as he shifted the square glasses on his face.

"I said we need to hurry over to Meiji Jingu stadium, come on!" said Sawamura enthusiastically as he grabbed onto Chris' arm and started dragging him toward the exit.

"You better not mess the story up, Sawamura," called out Miyuki from the sports department as they passed by his desk.

"Of course I'm not going to mess up. Especially since Chris will be with me," said Sawamura as he childishly stuck his tongue out at Miyuki. The sports writer just huffed out a laugh.

As soon as they were in the elevator heading to the street Chris couldn't stay silent any more.

"Sawamura, I don't think I'll be able to make it to the news site."

"Huh? What are you talking about Chris? This is bound to be a big scoop!" Sawamura turned his golden, pleading eyes up at his mentor.

Chris ran his hand through his loose, wavy hair, wracking his brain for a plausible excuse he hadn't used yet. "I just, um, I just remembered that I have to pick up my cat from the vet before the office closes." Inwardly he cringed. He didn't even own a cat.

Sawamura narrowed his eyes at Chris, trying to figure out if what he saying was true or not. Whenever they had to go to a breaking news site where a criminal was causing mayhem and destruction Chris was nowhere to be found. At first he thought nothing of it. Chris would say that he was sick, he had to go pick up his car from the shop, his grandmother was sick, he had to go to his cousin's birthday party… now that Sawamura thought about it something was definitely fishy.

"Chris, can I ask you question?"

Chris made an affirming noise.

"Are you… are you scared of getting hurt?" When he saw the incredulous look on Chris' face he rushed to explain himself. "I mean, whenever something extreme like this happens you just have a very convenient excuse to not go. I don't mind covering for you in front of the coa..er the chief, but he's going to catch on at some point. I can't take the pictures and notes at the same time. Sure you end up still knowing so much about the situations that I wondered if you were plagiarizing your articles but I know you would never do that," Sawamura was quick to explain. "But you're always missing and I just wondered if it's because you're scared?"

Chris stared at Sawamura, somewhat bewildered. He never really expected his partner to actually call him out on his behavior. He mentored Sawamura and since they became partners it seemed that Sawamura would always follow his lead and was blinded by his respect for Chris that he would overlook all the idiosyncrasies. That turned out to not be the case and now Chris was berating himself for not coming up with a contingency plan.

So why should he?

"I'm sorry, Sawamura. I really have to go. Make sure you take good pictures and I'll write up my article tomorrow. Any notes you have would be great," said Chris in a rush as he took off down the street.

Sawamura just stayed there in shock. He couldn't believe that Chris just left like that. Did he really upset his mentor that much?

Sawamura shook his head and hailed a cab. Well, it looked like he was on his own for this one as well.

Chris walked as quickly as he could away from Sawamura. It wasn't that he didn't think he could trust his partner, it was just that he was so used to keeping his alternate identity a secret that he just didn't know how to tell anyone else aside from his Earth parents who were the ones that found him.

Chris came across a phone booth and closed the door. He quickly divested himself of his button up shirt and pants, taking great care to fold his glasses and put them away safely. Under his work clothes he was dressed in tight blue and red spandex. He threw on his cape that he had folded up in his bag. After that he also combed his hair back, only two little curls coming loose on his forehead. He quickly flew to his apartment and deposited his things before flying over to Meiji Jingu stadium.

When Chris arrived at the scene it was a total disaster. The sidewalk was cracked, somewhere a fire hydrant was broken as water spewed into the sky. Thankfully the stadium was still intact but the road and several cars were not.

He could see the police trying to subdue the culprit but were having a tough time of it. Before jumping into the fray he anxiously scanned the surrounding crowd trying to catch sight of Sawamura.

Sawamura seemed to be taking photos of the chaos and all the destruction around him. He knew that his partner would not miss a single detail and after some training was finally able to take more than just your typical candid shots.

Trying to keep a mental image of where Sawamura was, Chris now felt more comfortable joining the battle.

"Hey, look it's Superman!" cried someone from the crowd. Other people's voices rose up as the public cheered for him.

"Make sure you beat the bad guy, Superman," called another fan.

It honestly surprised him whenever the people would cheer for him. It wasn't as if he did this to get rewards or recognition, it just happened to be the right thing to do. Besides, he knew that Sawamura would always find his way into these types of situations and being 'Superman' seemed to be the best way to keep his eye on his partner.

Eijun scanned the sky as he took in the hero. He always admired the superhero as he fought the bad guys and saved the day. He hated to admit it, but on more than one occasion he had to be saved from some stray rubble or a bullet. Eijun felt that Superman had been looking out for him – why else was he always saving him?

It wasn't as if Eijun planned on getting in harm's way, it just happened to be an occupational hazard in his line of work. Plus someone had to do it since Chris was always missing whenever something of this magnitude happened.

Eijun after first didn't enjoy getting saved, but after the fourth time when he was carried away in those strong arms and he stared up at that handsome face it was hard to stay mad. Sometimes he would stare at Superman intently, trying to guess who he was. Something about his features were familiar, but he could never pinpoint the likeness.

He could admit that Superman was very intriguing and handsome, but he wasn't Chris. Eijun had lost his heart to Chris a few months into their partnership. No matter how nice Superman was to him and no matter how often it seemed the hero sought him out Eijun could never do that to Chris, even if the other man was unaware of his feelings. Besides, it wasn't as if he ever acted on his attraction to Superman, but that didn't mean he couldn't stare at his spandex-clad butt or sweet little curls around his forehead.

Chris went on to attack the creature that was wrecking havoc. It looked as if someone's science experiment had gone wrong. The creature resembled that of a giant lizard crossbred with a frog. What came out was a large, green creature with a nasty temper and an even nastier tongue.

"Thanks for your help, Superman!" shouted one of the cops as he scrambled away from the scene to a more safe distance.

"No problem, officer," intoned Superman as he landed a solid punch on the creature's' jaw. Soon most of the officers realized that they were outmatched and smartly moved to do more crowd control. It looked as if Superman had the fight under control.

Superman would dodge, kick, and punch while the lizard frog would try to swipe him out of the sky. Every now and then the creature would get in a good hit but Superman was quick to recover.

The creature, realizing that if it didn't do something quick it was going to lose. It dodge Superman's next incoming attack, ducking under the kick and ran toward the crowd.

Screams filled the air as people realized that the creature was heading toward them. They scrambled over one another, trying to get away from the beast.

However, one person was not so lucky. Before Superman could turn around and grab the creature's tail, it let out its long, slimy tongue and wrapped it around Sawamura, dragging the photographer closer to its mouth.

"Ugh gross! Let me go!" yelled out Sawamura as he struggled. However it was useless as all it did was cause the creature to get more annoyed. The more Sawamura moved around the closer his body was dragged to the beast's' mouth.

Chris could feel his heart stop. This wasn't the first time that Sawamura was in danger but it always scared him that he would be too late to save him. And unfortunately that seemed to be the case this time around.

Before he could shoot the lasers out of his eyes, the tongue was quickly retracted and Sawamura along with it.

Sawamura was now inside the creature's mouth and Chris wasn't sure if his partner was alive or not.

A sudden cry of "Eijun!" was ripped from him as Chris launched himself toward the creature. He had never been this afraid nor this angry. He aimed carefully into the creature's belly and delivered a punch with all the strength he had.

A hole was torn through the frog lizard's stomach, making a small crater into the street under it.

Chris scrambled toward the creature's mouth and forced it open. Inside was Sawamura, the tongue still curled disgustingly around him. Without a care Chris took the tongue and yanked, freeing Sawamura from it's confines. The other man was unconscious but didn't look like he sustained much damage, although his camera would have to be fixed.

He took Sawamura into his arm and put him into a princess carry. "Please take care of the rest, officers," said Superman as he flew into the sky away from the scene. He did what he came for and had no intention in helping in the aftermath.

Superman would usually take Sawamura to a hospital to be looked after but he was still too scared to leave his sight. In a panic Chris flew back to his apartment and laid Sawamura on his bed, uncaring that his sheets would get dirty.

He ran his fingers through his hair, loosening the strands as he paced through his apartment back and forth. He didn't know what prompted him to bring Sawamura back to his place but after seeing the unconscious body lying on his bed he knew that he didn't want Sawamura to be anywhere else at the moment.

A small groan filled the air as Sawamura shifted, regaining consciousness.

Chris rushed over to the bed, hovering over Sawamura. Golden-brown eyes soon opened and tried to focus at the figure atop of him.

A slurred "Chris?" escaped his mouth as Sawamura tried to get his eyes to focus.

He could hear the man take in a sharp breath as the figure tried to move away from him. With quicker reflexes than he should have he snagged an arm before the man could leave.

The more his eyes focused the more he realized that it wasn't Chris at his bedside, but Superman. But Superman looked different – his hair was out of it's slicked-back style and instead hung softly and messily around his head.

His brain struggled to comprehend what he was seeing. He knew that it was Chris' face he was staring at, but then why was Chris dressed as Superman. The pieces were slowly coming together.

Chris dressed as Superman, Chris making excuses to never be at a disaster site, Superman always watching out for him during a fight, Superman calling out 'Eijun' as he was swallowed into the frog's mouth, Superman taking him back to his apartment(?) and worrying about him, Superman having Chris' face…

"Holy cra-!" shouted Eijun in surprise, his cry stifled by Chris' hand over his mouth.

"I can explain!" hastily said Chris, his nerves getting the best of him. "Will you let me explain first and then you could ask your questions?" asked Chris, his eyes trying to pin down Sawamura's reaction.

After a moment Sawamura agreed and nodded his consent.

Chris took in a deep breath and sat at the edge of the bed. Sawamura shifted around to make room for him.

Chris looked to the ceiling and began recounting his story, starting with what his parents told him about finding him in a crater in their backyard. His dad had been a professional baseball player and so when they bought the farm he just had to have a baseball field. The way his dad told it, his life-pod had landed right at home plate, leaving the rest of the diamond undisturbed.

Chris continued to his story, telling Sawamura all about finding out his powers, training himself so he wouldn't break things too easily, how when he was a teen he damaged his shoulder trying to lift something that was too heavy for his body to manage and his subsequent rehabilitation. He told him how he wanted to have a normal life and was swayed into the journalism world. How seeing all the destruction happening around him had prompted him to create the 'Superman' persona so he could help people.

Throughout all his storytelling Eijun remained quiet – taking the story in with increasingly widening eyes.

It was all so surreal and felt a bit like fate.

He knew that basically Chris was telling him that he was an alien from outer space who has super powers and dresses in spandex under a secret identity – but all Eijun could concentrate on was the fact that the two people he fell in love with were in actuality the same person.

When Chris finished the story and warily turned back to look at Sawamura, he did not expect to see the calm and accepting face before him.

"Superman...no, Chris, can I ask you one thing?"

Chris braced himself, but nodded regardless.

"Why are you always saving me?"

And that wasn't the question he was expecting. Before he could answer, Sawamura continued.

"I mean, I know that you try to save everyone but I always felt that you would take a little more extra care with me… am I reading that wrong?"

Chris could feel himself flush. It wasn't as if he was unaware of his feelings, it was just that he never expected to be able to come clean as his complete himself before.

"No, you're not reading that wrong."

Sawamura searched his face and finally finding what he was looking for he leaned forward. He put his palms on Chris' cheeks and moved closer, placing a kiss on Chris' lips. Chris closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Eijun's waist, pulling the body a little closer. Eijun let out a happy sigh as he shifted and deepened the kiss.

Before things could get any more heated Chris moved away and let out a small chuckle.

"What's so funny?" asked Eijun with a pout.

"Everything just feels so surreal. I never intended on anyone finding out my secret identity and I never thought that you would be the first to know about it and that you would kiss...all while covered in frog spit."

Eijun just stared for a second before he bursted out laughing.

"You have a point there. Do you think I could borrow your shower?"

"Sure, it's this way," said Chris as they both stood and maneuvered around the place.

"Are you okay? Maybe I should take you to the doctor to get your head examined after you take your shower," added Chris when he noticed a small bruise on Eijun's collarbone.

"I'll be fine," said Eijun, "but if you want to make sure I don't fall and make it worse you can always join me in the shower," he added impishly.

Chris looked startled for a moment, but then he grinned.

"I think I just might."

THE END