This was written for the November Slash Fanfiction Superman Returns Challenge on LiveJournal. The prompt was the first sentence.
Seems So Far Away
He couldn't believe that Jason had already outgrown the pajamas.
They'd fit last week. He was sure of it. But now he was watching Jason summarily devour a bowl of cereal—a strange sight in itself, since last week, he'd also been allergic to cereal—and the pants were practically halfway up his calves.
This couldn't be right.
The doctors had said that Jason would always be behind in his growth, even after his strange and sudden remission, because he'd missed important development periods and it had been difficult to get him all the proper nutrients as he was growing. They theorized that he'd be about normal by the time he hit puberty but not to expect much.
But here he was, defying every edict of medical logic that had been applied to him, eating wheat without needing to go to the hospital and bursting out of the pajamas that should have lasted him another two months, at least.
"Look, daddy," he said, raising up a towering spoonful and crunching down on it, chewing with his whole face.
Richard laughed, reaching over to wipe up the stray crumbs and milk on his chin. "Still hungry, kiddo? Better hurry, though, the Andersons will be here soon."
Jason raised the bowl to his mouth with both hands, gulping down the last of the milk in one huge slurp. He then ran with it over to the fridge, re-filling it with surprising quickness and accuracy, back at the table with a full bowl in record time.
Watching his son practically inhale his third bowl of cereal, the pieces started to fall together—Jason asking Richard to leave the window unlatched the past few nights, Lois skirting around the questions the doctors were asking, her sidelong glances at the balcony and the breathless "we really need to talk" this morning just before she'd run out of the door, briefcase clutched at her chest like armor, eyes averted.
He hadn't understood why she'd told him that Jason would need a sitter. Perhaps because Jason wasn't ready to hear what she had to say.
Richard wasn't sure if he was, either.
He wasn't sure he'd ever be ready to hear that Jason was outgrowing his humanity.