Superman

Friggin Superman

Superman the hero of Planet Earth was renting off him and living upstairs.

Good job he wasn't the type to seem star struck but of all the alien fugitives on the planet and he got the one who was proud to show himself and use the powers he gained from being here to help others.

And he moved into THIS house.

Fate was clearly playing with him.

Somewhere in the astral plane. Dr Fate chuckled.

Things began to smooth out after the move. With both Clark and Kara getting to sleep through the night they both became healthier and a lot less paranoid. But Clark still didn't allow Kara outside unless he went with her, which meant every errand that normally took him less than 15 minutes took a whole hour. Especially grocery shopping.

It was a usual Monday. Clark had gotten up early and had zoomed about getting the house ready for him to leave it. Making many sandwiches for him and Kara and leaving it out for her on the side. This was so she could eat and not have to use any utensil he hadn't taught her yet and at least keep her diet vaguely okay, okay it made him feel better but really the more calories the better for them on this planet.

Hence the chocolate spread sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly. Human advertising and healthy living forced down his throat meant he felt guilty for every burger somehow.

Hopefully that marketing would never affect Kara too much. The adverts on the kids channel though were not so damaging.

Having made Kara and himself food and set the dishwasher to clean dishes and the washing machine that had washed clothes overnight set to dry there wasn't much left to do except wake Kara up. Which he enjoyed because for nearly a month and a half she had awoken him from all kinds of sleep

Knocking on her door softly then slowly louder he heard a groan from inside "Time to get up!"

He turned and headed back to the kitchen to organise his briefcase then wandered back with them in hand to witness Kara slowly floating herself duvet blanket and all to the sofa.

"Thats'... so much cheating" Clark commented but far too amused to hate on Kara

He moved into her eyeline. "Please work today?" he asked and motioned to the work books on the coffee table in front of him so that Kara could understand his meaning

"Yes Kal" Kara responded in a sleepy moan

Happy she was vaguely awake at least and had found an amusing way to skip his "On the sofa at least before I leave for work" rule

He used superspeed to get to work from there. Zooming straight into a nearby street to the subway exit he would use if he was a human and he walked to work from there. In case anyone might wonder why they never saw him on the way into work he always made the effort to at least human walk the few blocks to the daily planet.

At home Kara waited a few minutes and then flew up off the sofa, she had been getting bored and had been planning on doing some stuff in the garden she had read about in one of her many books.

She had never interacted much with the natural element which made up her planet. She had to keep to the main city plaza which was all raised up and away from the ground. Like a giant building that you could never leave. Kara had loved it during her time there but with the option here to explore the garden she had asked for a few books so she could find out what to do with it. She had been ignoring her work books and english lessons as she got Kal X to read the books to her but the pictures she saw were fascinating and one of the books she had came with seeds.

And Kara wanted flowers as she had seen in many of the tv shows on this planet flowers were a traditional earth gift and she wanted to give Clark some for being such a good cousin and looking after her and caring about her learning. Despite having to leave nearly every day… and night. But Kara didn't need him in the night so much anymore so the Superman jaunts she didn't miss but very much enjoyed watching them on morning television.

Kal X had't told her Clark had been out last night so she was straight onto the garden. And Flower growing.

Selecting a patch of ground Kara dug with her hands making a 15cm deep hole. Using a ruler Clark had gotten her she looked for the numbered symbols that matched what was written in the book. She could understand parts of the book and was annoyed Kal X couldn't come outside with her to read it to her to make sure she wasn't doing anything wrong. After spending a good few hours like that she went inside to finish the workbooks.

It didn't take her long to finish those and it was still many hours before Kal El would be home.

Having tired of daytime television she could barely understand and not in the mood to try reading her other books with Kal X switched off for the day (To encourage her to work herself and not cheat by asking him all the questions)

Kara booted up the PC. It was a difficult machine to use with the english keyboard but she had memorised a few program icons that were fun to use and there were a few cool games through one icon in particular Kal ' El said he had 'bookmarked' for her.

Kara knew she would come to understand it all eventually it's just getting to that eventually point that was so frustrating. Kal ' El had said it might be another year before she could attend school with humans her age as she had just missed the start of a calendar school year.

Kal ' El hadn't quite explained the yearly calendar to her yet he sometimes seemed to forget she didn't know or understand basic things about human life that came naturally to him.

With the PC booted up Kara found the icon she needed and clicked it. Excited and all thoughts of boredom were gone as the page loaded.

But it didn't load onto a page she recognised. Featuring a big red X Kara attempted to decipher the english on the page but some words she hadn't come across often enough yet for the translation to have stuck. But she got the jist from the icon of the broken wire. Error in connection.

Lowering her glasses she took a quick sweep of the PC with her X Ray vision and found all the wires to be connected properly. So that wasn't the problem.

Following one of the wires with her usual vision it led out the living room across the small landing with the stairs leading to Kal' El's room and out under the inner front door.

She wasn't supposed to go outside Kara knew that but technically there was another door after this?

Opening the inner door as quietly as possible so that Kal X wouldn't hear from where he was on sleep mode in her bedroom she stepped out into the corridor and followed the wire under the carpet to a white box that was plugged into the wall on top of a small table.

Looking at it with both normal and X ray vision there didn't appear to be anything wrong. Kara sighed and was about to give up when the front door opened.

A little too startled to move the door opened all the way to reveal a man who didn't seem that surprised to find her in the corridor.

"Hello" he said pausing before stepping inside and turning to shut and lock the door behind him.

Kara concentrated for a second before replying in english, "Hi"

The man spoke again and Kara found she didn't have any trouble understanding him like when Clark spoke english sometimes.

"I'm your neighbour from downstairs, you must be Kara?"

Kara nodded

"My names J'onn" he introduced, what brings you into the hallway?" he asked

Kara not quite sure what to say just pointed to the box she had been trying to figure out

"The internet down again?" The man sighed and he crouched next to Kara putting his shopping on the floor between them as he picked up the white box.

"When that happens" he explained to Kara who was rather fascinated by every word the man said just because she could understand, "Flip it over and hit the reset button" he showed Kara and pressed the reset button

"Then wait for all the lights on the front to turn a solid green" he finished putting the box back down and Kara watched fascinated as all the lights flashed before one by one they turned solid green

"Hoi- Thank you" Kara said nearly speaking Kryptonian for a second

"No problem" J'onn replied as he picked up his shopping from the floor and then himself. He stood studying Kara for a moment before heading towards his flight of stairs at the end of the hallway. Kara stood there for awhile longer before scampering back to her PC closing their inner front door silently behind her as she dashed for the PC.

The next few weeks were relatively the same except Kara developed a fascination with talking with the downstairs neighbour whenever he came in or out of his basement flat.

She could understand every word he said and she had yet to be able to figure out why that was, at first she just thought it might be his accent vs Clarks but no she had found a similar speaker on the television and she understood him just as little.

She didn't speak to him much other than a few questions she had been able to say in english for quite some time. How are you today ect and she asked Clark on exactly how to say 'Can you help' so she could occasionally ask him questions from her workbooks.

He was very kind towards her and always helpful and Kara was learning more from him about human life than Clark. Until one day when Kal X ratted her out.

Normally the small robot happily remains on sleep mode during the day to conserve power. But this had been the day after he had been in the fortress of solitude for a battery charge and the robot hadn't entered sleep mode and witnessed an interaction between the pair.

J'onn had just come back from doing something outside and Kara had been waiting as she had heard the gate open and dashed to open the inner front door and sit down and make it look like she had been there all along.

"Hello J'onn" she said as he came through the door

"Hello Kara" he replied as he turned inside to lock the door again, "Still busy with schoolwork i see" he said

"Yes" Kara replied, "learning cycles today" she continued in broken english, Turning the page of the work book around so that J'onn could see what she meant where it showed a diagram of the the plant life cycle

"Ah plant life is rather fascinating isn't it" J'onn replied, " It used to be one of my studies at university, are you having trouble with any of it?"

Kara shook her head, "But what does" she started to ask before slowly reading out the rest "'precipitation' mean?" she asked

"Rainfall, like the weather we had yesterday" J'onn replied

"Thanks" beamed Kara

J'onn smiled to, "Well if that is everything I must beg your leave"

Kara nodded, "Bye J'onn!"

"Bye Kara" he half shouted from down the hallway to his own set of stairs.

That was when Kara slipped back inside the inner front door and then was stood face to face with Kal X

"Doh" she muttered

Clark was mad when Kal X ratted her out but not at Kara like she suspected he would be, I mean she hadn't technically even broken the rules about leaving the house - the hallway was still part of the house. But she hadn't even needed to defend herself with these reasonings as Clark wasn't directing his anger at her, just the neighbour.

"How long have you been talking with the neighbour?" Clark asked he seemed less angry now and more worried so he was talking fast and Kara was relying on Kal X to translate

"Weeks" Kara replied in her english

That didn't seem to have been the answer Clark was looking for as colour from his face seemed to drain and he talked quickly with Kal X too fast for Kara to understand and she was getting frustrated

"I understood!" she tried explaining in english to get Clark's attention

"What?" Clark asked looking at Kara stopping his rapid fire conversaytion with Kal X

"I understood him" Kara replied

Clark just continued to stare at her in confusion before rapid talking to Kal X again who asked her to clarify in Kryptonian what she meant

"I understand him when he talks to me… everything he says in english i can understand" Kara tried to explain

Clark just looked even more confused and spoke to Kal again who spoke to Kara and he told her that Master Kal El did not want her to speak to the neighbour again even if it was an emergency

Kara was furious then she hadn't done anything wrong! She did her work and he was happy to help her learn and she made sure she never bothered him by interrupting his day if he was busy or talking on the phone on his way through.

Letting Clark know her frustration through actions rather than the words that didn't seem to be getting through she stomped from the kitchen through the hallway into her room and slammed the door.

She heard the wall crack a little and felt a little guilty but very satisfied at the same time.

At dinner that night which was a silent affair as Kara refused to speak either language and Clark banned her from the television for a week. Kara didn't respond at all aside from to stare her cousin down.

She didn't resent her cousin, after all he had done a lot for her in taking care of her and trying to teach her about earth but what Kara had noticed a trend of was a slow resentment in both him and herself. She resented him pushing earth on her so hard and not to be a kryptonian on earth but as human like as possible he even had never bothered to even try to learn Kryptonian the language of his own people!

She could also feel some resentment against her since he had been going off to work more often and returning home later than usual not smelling like work but more like he had already eaten which was normally proven as he had takeaway for her in his hand.

Kara couldn't understand the resentment and it had only fueled her own small amount more as far as she could tell she was a model cousin and houseguest and she had followed the rules.

Kara was right Clark did have some underlying resentment toward her, it wasn't a lot but he had been getting closer and closer with a woman at work, Lois. He had been able to go on dates with her after work but nothing more than that. He couldn't invite her over for dinner because even if he explained Kara as his cousin she wasn't earth enough yet. She could speak some english and understand some and was getting far in her studies but she had gotten used to using her powers so freely being stuck at home she often didn't think, excursions outside to the stores ect had been getting less and less as work piled up at the daily planet and he just stopped off on the way home to avoid the hour it took to go around with Kara.

Things were very tense in the alien household, and they were only going to get worse.