The Gugenheim was vast, decorated in an art deco style that reminded Clark of the 1930s. Gotham had that vintage look to it, always had, it made the city seem even older and more decrepit than it already was. The foyer for the exhibit was brightly lit and it amused Clark and Kal both, thinking about how Bruce could possibly slink out of the shadows this time. Chloe hadn't talked to him on the way over, the ride in the cab had been pregnant with silence and with tension.

Sometimes, he wondered if it wouldn't be easier to just run again, to leave Gotham and Smallville behind him. For all her proclamations about understanding him, Clark doubted if Chloe could.

He didn't even understand himself, the split that left him always at odds with himself, the heritage he still didn't want or know.

It all left him alone, wandering the exhibit floors, staring absentmindedly at the lines of Degas's work. Sometimes he wondered if those girls felt like he did, worked over into the right shape, the right position, no matter how much it bent them. Maybe he wasn't cut out for the League either.

"Ugly, isn't it?" The voice beside him was smooth, sultry.

Clark turned and gulped at the woman next to him. She was beautiful. Taller than Chloe, though nowhere near Diana's six feet. She was older too, easily mid thirties, with long golden hair that fell in waves at her shoulders. Her skin was pale as porcelain and contrasted sharply with the dark rings under her eyes. She hadn't slept in a long time, even someone with human vision could tell that much.

"What?"

"Degas hated his subjects and it shows. If you want to see something of merit, at least try Gaugin. The colors he captured from the tropics were unreal, as if they hadn't existed before he painted them." She laughed and Clark let out an uneasy, forced chuckle. Kal, now Kal was intrigued.

"Who are you?"

She reached out one hand and he noted the ring on her left pinky finger, the golden face tiger with the jade eyes. "I'm-"

"Selina Kyle." He shook his head. "The ring gives it away. I should have known. You look different. All the news footage of you...you were tanner."

"And more rested. It really is amazing what six months in prison can do to someone. I'm leaner too."

"I...at least you're out."

"And on probation. I know who you are, Mr. Kent. Your story, now that is interesting."

"Excuse me?"

"If I'm on probation, having to be a good kitty. Then you're being watched even more closely, having to be a good little green man."

Self-consciously, Clark reached for the front of his shirt. The scar was there but hidden. She wouldn't have known what he was and what he wasn't, if not for Bruce. "Is nothing a secret around here?"

"Don't worry about it. I must say that aliens must be a step up. Humans can't seem to run an office, let alone a planet. Don't get me started on all the environmental disrespect. Did you know that species are going extinct at 1000 times the rate in this century than they have in any other. And they say I'm the criminal."

Clark sighed. "I don't know anything about my planet, just that it's not there anymore, and I have no idea where the rest of my people are, if they're even alive."

Selina's expression softened from sultry to concerned. "How old are you, kid?"

"I'm not a kid. I'm 27."

"Still young. I guess you can see where I'm coming from. There isn't much more to be said for an endangered species than one left."

Clark bristled at that. "I'm just like everyone else."

Inside Kal laughed, whispering to him that he wasn't just like anyone. He was better than everyone. Clark pushed that thought aside. The last thing he ever wanted to do was to rule them with strength, rule anyone with strength.

Selina shook her head and patted his arm. The gesture was condescending, as if he were a little slow or a small puppy, erm, kitten. "You don't really believe that, do you?"

"I..."

"I'm not even a meta but I know what it's like. I run wild and society punishes me for it, punishes us for it. You're something truly unique. I specialize in the unique and endangered."

"I'm not exactly a tiger either."

"No, but I wonder if that little kitten you have over there," she said, gesturing haphazardly at Chloe who, to Clark's annoyance, was chatting with Bruce. "I wonder if she gets you either. The straightlaced, the black and white brigade, they try, don't they?"

"You and Bruce are-"

"We're complicated. He's half my jailer and half..." she grinned and dropped her hand. "Well maybe that's a bit too explicit for you."

"Don't know much about that, kitten . I might know a hell of a lot more than you think."

She blinked. "Did I just pick up an AM frequency? A little UHF?"

Clark blushed and looked away. Sometimes that line, even without the ring, was so thin, that he didn't know how to keep it in place. "No. I...I'm sorry. That was rude."

"Now the farmboy blush and stammer. You, Clark, are even more interesting than your backstory. Something about you-"

"What?"

"Untamed. They want to put a Siberian tiger in a cage, make it do tricks, don't they. You're only roaring on command as long as you're amused by it."

"I love Chloe."

Selina nodded. "I've heard that song before. Same tune, second verse."

The bitterness there surprised Clark. From what few hints he'd had from J'onn and one snide joke by Wally, he'd always assumed that Selina had stolen Bruce away from Chloe. How the Hell could she be the jealous one?

Kal saw kindred. He turned and watched Chloe and Bruce. They stood too close together to be casual, her hand draped on his arm, her smile wide. Both of them hated it, still wanted to fry Bruce where he stood, the bastard.

"I do. We both... I do."

Selina quirked her head at him, the cat watching the canary. Despite his abilities, he felt suddenly outclassed. "Interesting indeed. I know you're like me, that the League is giving you one last chance before they turn you over to the Asylum and throw away the key."

"That's not exactly-"

"Surveillance, distrust, the whispers. At least you're allowed at Watchtower. I'm even more out on the frontier than you are. You ever wonder what happens if you fuck up? If Chloe finally gives up on you?"

"She won't."

"Which one are you, Clark? The thug or the farm kid? The alien or the regular Joe?"

"I'm just Clark."

She laughed and it grated on him. "No, you're anything but that."

"So did you like the exhibit?"

Clark nodded and hesitated again. He had stripped down to his boxers, but hadn't yet made a move to take off his undershirt. Doing that revealed his scar, the reminder that he was what Selina had said, unique.

Might as well have said freak .

"It's okay, Clark. I glow. It's just a thing. You can't help what the ship did to you."

Clark nodded and pulled off his shirt. He wanted to turn away from her, from the look of pity in her eyes. "I hate it."

Chloe smiled sadly and traced her fingers over the concentric circles of the figure eight on his chest. "I know that you do."

Nothing made that insecurity go away. No amount of red K could take those feelings from him. Kal hated it; he hated it. Jor-El had been sure to label him as a Kryptonian for the rest of his life, branded him like cattle, and he never wanted to see it, to remember. The ship had deformed him and then killed part of his family.

Why the fuck would he want to follow it now?

Why the fuck did he still fear he would?

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't look like that."

Chloe laughed bitterly. "I can't ask you to take care of yourself. I can't tell you I'm sorry about your scar. I can't touch you. What exactly can I do?"

"You don't have to take care of me. I'm fine ."

She snorted. "Why don't I believe that?"

"I met Selina tonight," he said, slipping under the covers and letting her spoon against him. He never pulled her to his chest, never wanted her to feel the stretched skin. She respected that.

"I saw," Chloe replied, her tone clipped. "She and I have met."

"I know that everything got so fucked up between you and her and Bruce. I don't know the details, but I can guess it."

Chloe tensed behind him. "There's nothing to tell. She's prettier, worldlier, and half psychotic, totally Bruce's type. Sometimes you can get kicked to the curb, you know?"

"Did he cheat?"

"You can't cheat if you're not officially dating. Bruce and I didn't go out, we didn't have class rings, Clark. We fucked after a patrol, rutted around. I thought...what I thought didn't matter. It certainly wasn't much more than a distraction for him."

He took her hand in his. Comfort was Clark's strong point. Kal had nothing delicate about him. "Then he was an idiot."

"Selina's Selina. Like I said older and more experienced, beautiful."

"Rude and cutting," he snarked.

"Was she mean."

"No, but I don't think she understands me as well as she think she does."

"Understands you?"

Clark sighed. "Bruce told her about me. Everything that you know, some of the things I told him in confidence, he told her. I guess fair is fair. I probably know a lot more about Selina than she'd like because you have the backstory. I just...I didn't like how she looked at me was all."

"How did she look at you?"

"Like an exotic pet, like a curiosity."

"Because you're an alien?"

"I doubt she'd treat J'onn that way even though he's the only Martian around. I guess that I feel like she, nevermind."

"She what?" Clark closed his eyes. He didn't want to tell her, to admit that Selina saw what Chloe wouldn't and what made Bruce afraid. There was something wild underneath all of it, something that had been shattered apart the day he'd slipped on the ring and left Smallville forever. Gentle hands gripped him more tightly. "You can tell me anything, you know that."

Only what you want to hear .

"She just intimidates me is all. I hate when people know where I'm from or, you know, not from before they meet me. Just because I'm an alien doesn't make me alien ."

She squeezed his shoulder. "I know."

"Sometimes, I wish Fawkes and Superman could find their own city. Gotham's too small for the four of us."

"It's been my home since I was small. Dad's here. I might have mixed feelings on Bruce but he's still like family and, of course, how could we leave Alfred? It's not fair to leave him in charge of the Dark Knight like that."

He rolled over and kissed her temple. "I have this feeling something will happen."

"Premonitions aren't in your power description."

"No, but I can tell when things are bad. Bruce is tailing me. Selina's-"

Kal wanted to prod that coming onto him was the best euphemism for what she'd been doing. Clark shoved it aside.

"What?"

"She's pestering me. There's meta criminals everywhere and danger in every big city. Let's go home to Metropolis for a while. The Angel of Vengeance is pretty swamped there."

"I love Gotham, like I love you."

He nodded. "I just..."

She kissed his lips and traced a pattern on his shoulders, very careful not to touch the scar. Chloe was considerate like that. "It's fine, Clark. Everything is going to be just fine."

Inwardly, the Kal part of him snorted. Optism wouldn't cure this fucked up mess and what Chloe had said? That was a kiss of death if there ever was one.