Martha Clark and Martha Kane both started at the same prestigious all girls preparatory school in the same year. One of the older girls, Lillian Evans-Summers, immediately insisted that a distinction be drawn, especially once it was known that 'the Marthas' would be rooming together.
Martha was unsure how she felt about that, she thought the distinction was pretty obvious no matter what their names were. As it turned out most people just called them Clark and Kane, and Martha was fine with that, most of the time. Just like the boys up the road at Excelsior, the girls at St Athena's quickly learned that names meant everything, family names most of all. In the world of the very rich, names came with expectations. Unlike the boys though, the girls at St Athena's would get to pick another one someday - or have one picked for them. It made them even more aware of what those expectations might be. They had to know how heavy a burden a name and a fortune can be. Martha wasn't sure how she felt about that idea either.
Despite sharing a first name, Martha and Martha shared very little else. Kane was tall, dark and sharp boned where Martha was small, red-haired and rounded in all the wrong places. Kane had eyes that sunk ships, and Martha felt ordinary in her presence.
Eventually Kane became Kiki and it stuck. It suited her better than Martha, even Martha could admit it. Martha Clark was a proper Martha, soft and warm and a little doughy, but Martha Kane had always been made for more. Martha just stayed Martha and occasionally Clark if someone was annoyed with her.
Kiki was good at poetry and dance, while Martha was good at math and daydreaming. Martha played checkers and Kiki played chess. It was probably symbolic, and Martha Kane probably understood why. Kiki had friends with names like Kazantkakis, Martha had friends with names like Martha.
They both loved horses, there was that. Sometimes Kiki wrote poems about fields and grass and hay, they made Martha's daydreams turn golden.
~o~
When Martha was invited to the Wayne wedding she wasn't surprised. When Kane, soon to be Wayne, asked her to be a bridesmaid she was flattered. It was a lovely wedding. When they drifted apart, Martha wasn't surprised by that either.
When Martha married Jonathan Kent she invited the Waynes, but had only one bridesmaid. It was a smaller, but still lovely wedding. Being disinherited could do that to a girl's expectations.
~o~
Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent met exactly once. Bruce was too old to play but too young to care about a toddler. It was dangerous, anyway. Kiki had always been observant.
"He's a very special boy," Mrs Wayne said when they were leaving.
"They both are," said Martha, hoping her secrets didn't show like they used to.
~o~
When she read about Martha Wayne being shot, it was Kiki Kane she cried for.