"Clark! Hotdogs!"
Kara stopped dead in the street, yanking on the hand she held, and surprisingly, comically, the six-foot-four, 225-pound reporter nearly lost his footing in the attempt to continue walking in a straight line. Unstoppable force, meet immovable object.
"Kara!" Clark exclaimed, exasperated, his heavy-framed glasses slipping down his nose. A couple of taxis honked, edging stubbornly close to the pedestrians, and Clark turned a helpless smile of apology on them to little effect.
Rolling her eyes, Alex let go of Clark's other hand and grabbed her sister by the earring with the intent of leading her like an ox. "Kara, how many times have I told you, we can't stop in the middle of traffic."
Clark watched, still largely helpless, as Alex strode the rest of the way to the curb, his seventeen-year old cousin tripping along behind her. After an infuriated salvo of honks, he belatedly jogged after them both, narrowly dodging taxis all the while.
Alex released her once they were safe on the sidewalk, and raised a "how do you like that trick?" eyebrow at Clark when he joined them. Kara had had her ears pierced as a young girl on Krypton, he knew, as well he knew that impervious Kara was currently feigning the pain of a pinched ear. Whether it really was quite uncomfortable to be pulled around like that, or whether she had fully adapted to life as a younger sister, Clark couldn't quite figure.
"Imagine how hard it would be to explain to the insurance company if a car hit you," Alex was saying. She projected as much stern severity as any soon-to-be college grad could muster, but Kara only guffawed like a grade-schooler.
"I can fake a fall, Alex." She said so as if she had had experience in the act, and even cocked her head at Clark knowingly. He put his hands up, defensively. He wasn't about to accept that invitation to one-up Alex and Kara's family dynamic with his and Kara's.
Alex crossed her arms, dipping her chin skeptically. "Can you fake a broken hip? Because there will be paperwork to fill out explaining how the car got totaled and you didn't get a scratch on you."
The tone was gruff, all business, but Kara only laughed a sweet, innocent laugh and latched onto Alex's arm affectionately. "You're always so worried about me." Clark saw Alex's fed-up smile, even if she thought she hid it well.
Addressing Clark, her head nestled on Alex's shoulder, Kara continued, "How about hot dogs to wash our worries away!"
"Golly, Kara, you're worse than Lois when it comes to those things." He put a fist on his hip and smoothed down his tie with a nervous, repetitive motion. "I don't know what I'd do if I had to explain to Eliza that I let you make yourself sick on street hot dogs."
"Clark!" Kara leaned away from Alex and grabbed his hand again, but this this time she tugged more gently, his name invoked with an laughing pout. "I can't get sick on hot dogs. I can't get sick!"
He remained hesitant, even as the trio moved inexorably closer to the food cart. She had a hand on both of them, her winning charm just as (or possibly moreso) effective as her alien super-strength. "I'm not - I'm not made of money, either, you know."
That did it. Kara's face fell, and she quietly let go of the hands she held. "Oh, um…"
"We're here to hang out with Clark, aren't we?" As always, Alex preferred the bull-by-the-horns approach to problem solving, redirecting her Kryptonian's awkward energy down a more productive avenue. "You can have all the hot dogs you want at home. But you can't spend time with Clark at home."
Kara's mouth twisted, chagrined, as she tacitly agreed to this logic. Alex reached up to pat Clark reassuringly on the shoulder, "There's more to Metropolis than street vendors, right? I bet there's tons of stuff to see that only Clark can show us. A good reporter has a direct line to the heart of the city, don't you, Clark?"
"Well, um, let's see," Clark began eloquently, "I've already taken you to the Daily Planet, and Centennial Park and the Superman monument." - He gestured meekly to Kara's brand new "I Heart Superman!" t-shirt and needlessly adjusted his glasses - "Yesterday we toured the University, and we just came from Union Station, so that leaves … geez, I'm not sure what else I can make interesting for a couple of bright young ladies like yourselves. What - Oh!"
With no prompting at all, Kara had flown (figuratively, not literally) to lock him in an embrace, where "back-breaking" would have been an appropriate (literal, not figurative) qualifier had she exerted the same force on nearly any other person on the earth. Luckily, Clark Kent was as sturdy as they come and could survive a bit of home-world affection.
"Who cares about hot dogs!" Kara was telling his blue gingham shirt front, "Whatever you want to do is fine. Is great! Is more than great!"
Clark looked over his cousin to Alex, who just pursed her lips and shook her head. He patted Kara's back, and she released him with a sheepish smile. And maybe, if he stood a little straighter than Clark Kent normally stood, or spoke with more confidence than Clark Kent normally spoke, it was because his family brought out the best in him.
"This way, then," he directed, offering only a mischievous wink to hint at his intentions. Taking them both by the hand again - and he loved that they weren't "too cool" to hold his hand at their age - Clark lead them up the busy downtown street until he located a sufficiently out of the way alley.
"Okay, this isn't sketchy at all," Alex said, scanning the steaming grates and grimy, windowless walls with some small amount of distaste. She didn't let go of Clark's hand, though.
He stopped them behind a dumpster, beyond easy view of the street. "This might be a little tricky," he said, brows drawn, serious, "I usually only do this with one woman at a time."
"Excuse me," Kara deadpanned.
"Oh, I mean, well - what I meant to say is - um," never let it be said that Superman was unflappable, "Actually, just - do you trust me?"
Kara's nod was immediate, resolute. "Absolutely." Alex, on the other hand, expressed slight reservation with a telling hesitancy, which was displaced by sibling rivalry when Kara slugged her on the arm.
"Yeah, yeah," she said, rubbing her arm, "With my life."
Clark motioned for them to stand on either side of him. "Hold on tight, okay?" At their anxious-excited nods, he looped an arm around each one of them, double-checking on Alex before looking to the sky. "This is the only way to see the city, in my opinion."
He lifted off slowly, mostly for Alex's benefit, hearing her swallow hard the instant her feet left the ground. Kara trilled quietly with glee, eyes up, watching the rooftops in eager anticipation of the ascent. Up and up they went, gliding above the skyline, until they reached a safe distance where they could stop without anyone able to recognize them from the ground.
"Okay, Alex?"
She looked okay, mostly. Just wide-eyed and maybe just a little breathless as she admitted, "I'm fine. I've flown with Kara before."
Kara's face was already pinched by guilt when he swiveled his head to her in surprise. "It only happened once, I swear. Hey, isn't that the Planet?"
Clark rolled his eyes but succumbed willingly to the distraction. "Hold onto your hats. Or," he amended for the times, "your glasses and electronic accessories."
The aerial tour of Metropolis covered most of the city in a fraction of the time it had taken on foot and by train. They circled the Planet's rooftop planet, waving to a make-believe Lois; they skated over the trees of the Park and zipped past the windows of the high-rises; at their demand he even brought them close enough to snub their noses at the ostentatious LexCorp Tower.
The whole time, he felt Alex's heartbeat pound, felt every time she sucked in a breath when his maneuvers surprised her. He kept checking on her, ready at a moment's notice to touch down, but every time he looked she wore either giddy excitement or fierce determination on her face.
Then there was Kara, who anticipated every minute alteration to his flight path, sensing the wind patterns and reacting to eddies with the ease of a seasoned flier. Sometimes she felt lighter than air, her own gifts buoying her up, but he kept just as firm a hold on her as he did her earth-born sister. He was determined not to have to draft any awkward explanations to Eliza regarding either of her daughters.
Finally, as the show-stopper he knew from from experience it was, he landed them lightly behind the crown of the Statue of Liberty, just as the sun was starting to set. He let them adjust to their own footing, never letting go of a hand apiece as they tentatively explored the available vantage points.
"The city's beautiful, Clark," Alex breathed, eyes sweeping the backlit skyline. She had edged close to one of the crown's rays, using both it and Clark for support against the strong harbor winds.
"Thanks," he said. When she shot him a dubious, reproachful look over her shoulder, he added, "Well I do try to keep it that way." He squeezed her hand, gently.
His other hand, the one belonging to Kara, suddenly raised on its own accord. Rather, it was Kara herself rising a few feet higher, allowing his careful hold on her to act as an anchor while she turned lazily in the air, taking in the panorama.
This is really, really great, Clark," she sighed, the light golden in her hair, "Thanks for bringing us here."
"I'm happy to share it with you. With you both." He smiled up at Kara, who reflected his easy joy, fairly beaming back at him. She dropped to her feet and snuggled against his side. Alex, too, retreated from her point and allowed Clark to drop a brotherly arm over her shoulder.
"This is one of my favorite places in the whole world," Clark told them. He nodded out towards the city, its buildings glittering and streets so full of life. "Metropolis, of course, but Lady Liberty in particular. 'The New Colossus,' as it were. A symbol of hope for the hopeless, a beacon of light to guide people home. Especially if those people have no other home to return to, no other source of hope."
Kara's grip around his middle grew tight, a quiet acknowledgement of their shared history.
"For as long as I can continue to fight for liberty and justice for all, for as long as this symbol stands, I'll have a place where I belong," he concluded. He gave them both a little squeeze. "And if all else fails, I can just move in with you guys, right?"
"Clark!" Kara laughed. "Way to ruin the moment."
"I know, right," Alex joined in, leaning around him to catch Kara's eye, "Here I was all ready to enlist or something. But I guess I'll have to stick to bio-engineering after all." There was laughter in her words, but also a hint of chattering teeth in the wind-whipped twilight.
Clark raised his arms off their shoulders, waving off their banter. "Alright, alright, I think it's time to be getting home. Anyone for hot cocoa?"
Kara was practically in the air before he had repositioned his hold for takeoff. "Me! Me! Alex, you have no idea, Clark makes the best hot cocoa."
"I do have an idea," Alex retorted, indignant, "you wouldn't shut up about it after the last time you spent Christmas in Smallville. No offense, Clark."
"None taken." This time Alex hardly noticed that they'd drifted upwards, and as they coasted over the harbor, Clark noted that her pulse remained calm and steady. He held onto her as tight as he dared, though, and Kara as well. He had shouldered the responsibility of safeguarding his adoptive world, and with ease; even so, no sense of duty burned quite so keenly in his heart than that of keeping his small, perfect family safe and sound.