Chapter Ten

Disclaimer: I don't own Superman or any of the DC characters, or the setting, I'm just playing in their universe for the first time. Also, as a reminder, my Lex Luthor's modeled after Smallville's Lex in my head (played by Michael Rosenbaum).

A/N: Welcome to the new readers, it's nice to see a few people following the story! Sorry this is late again, I blame the holidays and far too much sugar for making it hard to carve out the time to concentrate and get this down on paper! Merry Christmas, for those of you who celebrate it!

"Lois?"

"She's there with you on the farm?"

Uh oh. He recognized that tone. "Yes. Did I not tell you I was bringing her here?"

"You said you were going home for the holiday, I didn't realize she was tagging along."

"I needed to take her somewhere. It's actually been really good for her."

The silence stretched between them again.

"Lois, it's fine."

"I just don't see how this is a good thing. Or why you think this is your responsibility."

"I told you, it's my fault she's all alone. And she's not such a bad kid. If you'd only give her a chance…"

"To melt my face off again?" Lois snorted. "I hope you know what you're doing, Clark. I really do," she sighed and then hung up.

"So do I," he replied to the empty room.

I didn't sleep well that night, but that was nothing new. The dawn came with its usual sense of peace and wonder, but something troubled me. The longer I went without being able to classify it, the more it troubled me, like a nagging s'ditha under your suit that you can't reach. I went through the paces of the morning chores, and there was a satisfaction to be had from that, but my mood remained… subdued.

Kid. He'd called me a kid.

I was by no means a child. Not only was I far beyond physical maturity, I was well past the age of considering a mate and establishing my own domicile were I back on Krypton. Was that truly how Kal-El saw me? A child who was in need of mothering – was that why he'd brought me to his home? A child to be coddled and indulged. The thought bothered me, but I couldn't logically determine why.

Or perhaps it was the pity in his voice as he spoke of me being his responsibility because I was all alone. That was harder to swallow, that I was a burden to him, and it was the only reason for his kindness. Did he still fear me? It colored every word passed between us, and that troubled me more than I liked.

I sat in a corner of the coop, offering grains to the chickens from my hand as those thoughts swirled through my mind. They took what I offered, without judgment or fear, trusting blindly that I wouldn't lure them to their death with the promise of food. Which was ill-advised, considering that many of their brethren had met a similar fate in their plain sight. For a few moments I wished for such a simple life. To be cared for without worry of where the next meal would come from, sheltered from storm, surrounded by friends and family. Then again, I had no desire to be slaughtered for the farmer's table, nor to be caged and never know freedom. "Birds are stupid," I decided, standing and scattering the rest of the feed at once.

"Took you long enough. I thought you were going to feed them one grain at a time," Kal smirked, leaning against the gate post.

Yesterday I might've teased him back, but my mood was dark this morning. "Was there some other chore that needed my attention?"

His brows dipped as he studied me, and then said, "I think that's enough chores for the day. How about we go somewhere, like we talked about yesterday?"

"For your Christmas shopping?" Even that didn't fill me with much excitement. I had no money, and watching him shop for Lois made my stomach churn with something I didn't recognize and definitely didn't like.

"Sure, why not?"

"Alright," I replied without much enthusiasm, and his brows twitched closer together.

"We don't have to go if you don't want to. I just thought you might like to see more of the world."

"I can go anywhere I like, I don't need a chaperone." I stopped just short of insisting that I wasn't a child, catching the irony of it before it left my lips, souring them into a frown.

"I never said you did." His confusion grew more acute.

"It's not your responsibility to acclimate me to this world. I can manage on my own, you have no duty to me."

"Maybe I just like the idea of sharing some of the things I've seen with someone who can appreciate the beauty in them."

"Then take Lois," I snapped back irritably. "I'm sure she'd be overwhelmed with sweat to go anywhere you care to take her."

"Overwhelmed with sweat?" He stared back at me, baffled. "Kyria, I don't understand…"

How was I supposed to know what movie references were accepted culture and which were obscure? They seemed to have no rhyme or reason for their popularity. "Never mind, forget I said anything." Bringing Lois into the conversation was a mistake, that unpleasant churning had returned to my stomach.

He blinked at me for a few seconds and then gave a resigned nod. "Alright, if you'd rather not come with me, I'll just go by myself."

His defeated expression did something to me, and I was suddenly keen to do anything to make it go away. "Kal… I'm sorry," I blurted out, catching his hand as he turned to go. "I would like to see more of the world. What would you like to show me?"

This time he hesitated, not sure what to make of my mood swings. "Are you sure? I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to."

"As if you could," I snorted. That made him smile, and suddenly the tightness in my chest eased up.

"Okay, go get cleaned up and change into your suit. We'll be going fast," he grinned.

"What do you mean you don't know how to swim?" he laughed, and I resisted the urge to knock that ridiculously appealing smile from his face.

"How was I supposed to learn on board the ship? There were no bodies of water large enough on the planets we encountered in our search for Kryptonian outposts." Not that we'd been there for very long in any case.

"Well, we can fix that. I know just the place." Changing direction, he took off, trusting me to keep up, which I easily did. I knew from the general direction we were headed to the northern tip of Australia, but instead of going straight to the beach, we landed on the roof of a building. The better to blend in to the populace, he'd explained earlier about his habit of trying to land in as unobtrusive a place as possible. There we stowed away the bag of purchases he'd made in Tahiti and Shanghai. He also changed out of his suit, but said my clothes wouldn't draw too much attention.

The building we'd landed on was a resort, and Kal led me to a shop in the lobby. "Go ahead and pick out something to swim in."

"I have no money," I frowned, fingering the shiny red fabric of one of the bikinis.

"Consider it an early Christmas present, along with the swimming lesson."

"Alright, thank you," I smiled, taking the first one off the rack into the changing room. Only the suit was impossibly loose. I realized I'd picked the wrong size, even though it'd looked quite small on the hanger. I was about to change back into my clothes to select another, when I decided it was foolish when my undergarments served the same purpose. Placing the bikini carefully back onto the hanger, I stepped out of the changing booth with it in one hand any my clothes draped over the other.

"Wha… what are you doing?" Kal's eyes bulged as soon as he saw me.

"The bikini was the wrong size. I'll just wear my own garments."

"You can't go out in your underwear," he choked, looking around to see if anyone else was watching. There was another couple in the store, and Kal grabbed a t-shirt and held it up to cover me.

"Why not?" I batted away the t-shirt, it was an unflattering shade of green.

"Because it's your underwear," he hissed.

"So? The material covers the same amount of flesh." I didn't see the relevant conundrum.

"But it's not as… lacy."

"Lacy is bad?"

"I wouldn't say that," he muttered, eyes dipping to my chest, before they shot up to my face again. "It's more revealing."

"I don't understand the nuances of human modesty," I sighed, completely baffled. It was acceptable to show my body, except for a few triangles of flesh, and it was okay to cover them with something thin, almost sheer, but not lacy.

"Just here, maybe one of these is a better fit." Dropping the t-shirt, he grabbed a few larger, single piece swimsuits into my hands.

"Alright, if it'll make you happy," I sighed, disappearing back into the changing room. There was one that fit fine, and it did allow for better range of motion which would be appreciated while swimming. The swimsuit met with Kal's approval, though he did insist on a small skirt-like cover-up for the short walk to the beach.

The swimming lesson did not go well.

No matter what I did, I seemed to sink to the bottom, lacking the buoyancy most humans possessed. With vigorous motion, I could propel myself through the water well enough, but under the water, not atop it. Since I didn't appear to need to breathe, I had no fear of drowning, but I couldn't get the hang of the proper amount of force needed to tread water without driving myself up and out of it.

We settled on the beach to dry off, which was quickly done thanks to the strong summer sun there. Even after we were dry, we both bathed in its balmy light, I soaked up the warmth and strength with a sigh of contentment, my earlier worries gone for the moment. There was a game of some sort going on in the sand nearby, and Kal spent some time explaining the rules of rugby to me and trying to justify why American football was far superior.

At one point the ball landed near my feet, and I picked it up and tossed it back to them without much thought. A rush of cheers erupted from the other players, and the one who caught it shook his hands as if they stung.

The guy next to him took the ball and lobbed it back at me. "Do that again, girlie," he cried out.

I looked to Kal, but he just shrugged with a big smile on his face.

I tossed it back, and the slight oof as the guy caught it told me I hadn't been too forceful, but the other cheered again.

"Oy, either of you two up for a game?" the first one called out, throwing the ball to Kal this time.

He caught it easily and turned to me with a lopsided grin. "Want to?"

"Is that a good idea? What if I hurt someone?" I had thrown the ball fairly lightly, but they'd been far too impressed, which made me think it'd been with some force.

"This will be a good time to practice control." He handed the ball to me. "Hold it like an egg, remember? And be careful not to tackle too hard. In fact, maybe don't tackle anyone but me at first."

He was inviting me to tackle him? "How can I say no to that," I grinned back.

We ended up on opposite teams. The other men were all very solicitous of me, especially when they found out we were American. I was about to tell them I wasn't from there, but Kal's subtle head shake made me keep silent. I took his words to heart and didn't tackle anyone, and neither did they tackle me either, only a few half-hearted attempts to slow me down, as I think they were afraid of putting hands on me inappropriately. All except for Kal. He had no problem stopping me in my tracks, and since he was stronger than me, he single-handedly kept me from scoring whenever I had the ball. Sadly, I hadn't the strength to return the favor, and he soon became the star player. Oddly enough, he did allow the humans to stop him some of the time, even though they were clearly weaker than me. What was the point of that?

The more points he scored, the more imperative it became to stop him at any costs. Until I finally tackled him with enough force to knock him from his feet. We rolled together, sand flying, limbs tangling, until we came to a stop with me victoriously straddling him, pinning him to the ground. "I did it!" I crowed, laughing in triumph, much as I had after melting the face off of his statue, and I felt him shaking with laughter beneath me. Wanting to see his acceptance that I'd bested him, I leaned up, my hair falling around us in a dark curtain, shielding his features from the sun.

"You did," he laughed, reaching up to brush the hair away from my eyes. "You sure did," he repeated softly, his face changing to an expression I couldn't fathom as he looked up at me, thumb feathering across my cheek. Something shifted between us, the laughter melting into something else. Neither one of us moved, we just gazed at each other, and for the first time… I started to think that not only wasn't this man my enemy, maybe he was my one true friend, the only man who could possibly understand me. And maybe I wanted more than friendship from him?

The sound of someone clearing his throat cut through the moment. "Ah… ball, mate?"

We both turned to see a small group of guys standing around expectantly, knowing smirks on their faces.

"Right, here you go," Kal replied, easily dislodging me as he sat up and lobbed the ball to him. His expression was cool, only the bright redness of his ears telling me he was in any way affected as he stood and held a hand out to me. "Guess we should stop holding up the game."

"Yes," I replied, taking his hand, though I didn't need it. No, that's not exactly true. I didn't need his assistance to stand, but in that instant, I needed to touch him, to find that connection again.

Kal didn't seem to share that need, dropping my hand as soon as I got to my feet. "Good tackle," he said with a faint smile, and jogged back to his teammates. He managed to dodge me fairly well after that, avoiding most physical contact, and letting me score a few points without attempting to stop me.

I thought about asking him why the change in behavior, but before I could draw him aside, he stopped, going very still, his ear cocked to the sky. "What is it?" I asked, and he held up a single finger. I heard it then, a deep rumbling I'd never perceived before from far below the Earth's surface. Some kind of quake? If so, it was too far away for me to feel.

"I have to go…" he mumbled, heading at a dead run for the resort where he'd stashed his suit. I followed, even as I heard the explosion from far away. Once we were away from the beach, he put on the burst of superspeed, changing in the space of a few heartbeats and launching himself into the sky. I followed without bothering to change, curiosity over what could be causing the seismic activity overruling all else.

We flew to a small cluster of islands, one of them spewing molten fire. A volcano, I recognized from my studies, placing the location as Bali. It was beautiful to behold, but I didn't understand the need for Kal's speedy retreat until I spied the village at the base of the mountain, directly in the path of the lava. Kal didn't pause for more than a few seconds to assess the situation, then flew down and ripped the metal roof off of one of the larger structures.

What good would that do as a barrier? The lava would easily melt through it in minutes. But he didn't use it to shield the village from the flow, instead, he bent it into a semi-circular shape and used it as a plow to carve a path away from it, in order to divert the lava to the side. It was a good idea, only it didn't work, the flow of molten rock was too heavy.

Only some of the lava was diverted, the rest continued its slow path to the village below. Face twisting with dismay, Kal swooped down to evacuate the villagers out of harm's way, but even with his mighty strength, he could only manage two or three unwieldy, panicking people at a time. There weren't that many villagers and the flow of lava was slow, he'd likely be able to save them all, but it would decimate the village itself. As I watched, Kal shot me a look of such anguish… I couldn't just watch any longer.

Flying down to what was little more than a thatched hut, I picked up the woman and her crying child, and flew them to a place of safety where the rest of the villagers looked on in fear as the first of the houses began to catch fire. Two more homes I evacuated before realizing – we were going about this all wrong.

Instead of flying to the next group of refugees, I planted myself in the path of the molten rock and blew. Icy cold breath stopped the lava in its tracks, instantly hardening and cracking at the sudden temperature change. Seconds later Kal joined me, first putting out the homes on fire and then helping to cool the lava that continued to flow. When the immediate danger was over, I flew higher, blowing as I went, intending to try to cool the source enough to cap it off. As I reached the crater, Kal laid a hand on my arm to stop me.

"No, you have to let it keep releasing the pressure, or it'll build and detonate with far more force. But we can keep on top of it thanks to you," he smiled, dazzling me into forgetting to ask how he knew such a thing. For the next several hours we watched the volcano continue to erupt, cooling the rock before it posed any danger to the village below or any of the neighboring villages. Quite a crowd amassed to watch, as well as a television crew from one of the larger cities on the island, but eventually they dispersed as the sun dipped from the sky.

My energy flagged without the restoring power of the sun, but I kept it up, inspired by Kal's dogged refusal to let the volcano claim even a single life. It was very late when we finally left the sky, collapsing on a nearby hill to quite literally catch our breath.

"How did you know to do that?" he asked after several minutes of deep breaths.

"It's one of the powers we discovered when Lex was exploring my abilities. Didn't you know we could do that?"

"It's never come up before." He rolled onto his back and stared up at the stars. "What else did you discover in your time with Lex?" Kal sounded a bit peevish, and I wasn't sure which part of that troubled him, that I knew of abilities that he didn't or that Lex had known it before him?

Before I could answer, we were interrupted by the villagers, who approached carrying fruit and drinks, singing in a rejoicing tone, despite the late hour. Kal immediately sat up with a kind smile and a nod for everyone who greeted us, trading words in their native tongue, which wasn't one I'd studied. I smiled and nodded my thanks as well, quite thirsty all of a sudden. I was also presented with a skirt of brilliant pink, woven with strands of gold, and a matching cloth to wind around my chest as the local women wore.

The singing continued, and then a spokesman gave a short speech. "He says thank you, and we're invited to a feast in our honor in the village," Kal translated.

"Thank goodness, I'm starved."

"We can only stay a short time, and try not to eat too much," he said softly as we stood to follow them back to the village.

"Why not? Wouldn't it be rude not to eat their feast?"

"These people have very little, and you and I can easily eat as much as an entire family gets here in a week. We eat enough to be polite, but we can pick up a bite to eat on the way home."

"Oh." Until then, I hadn't given much thought to the way they lived. The shacks were primitive, but I realized for the first time they lacked power or running water. Most of them were clothed, but they were frayed and few wore shoes other than worn sandals. The clothes I'd been given were far nicer than anything they wore, most likely kept for ceremonies and holidays.

The feast was meager by American standards, I saw that plainly, but it touched me all the more for their genuine gratitude. From bits of conversation that Kal relayed to me, I understood that they had been saving up to have a feast for Sinterklass, since that region had once been ruled by the Netherlands, and had decided to celebrate early to combine the holiday with this miracle. I smiled until my face hurt, moved by the kindness they showed us, many of them wanting to touch my hair or skin, as if to prove I was real flesh and blood. But inside, I wanted to cry. How could so many have so little while others, like Lex, had so much? Didn't he realize it? How could he not help? I couldn't do nothing about it.

"I'll be right back," I said, excusing myself when Kal was deep in conversation with one of the villagers. Not wanting to cause a stir, I wandered off into the trees before launching myself into the sky, heading for Australia, one of the bigger cities, where I found a series of trucks unloading behind a Coles, a store that boasted of carrying far more than groceries on their signage.

"Load it back up," I ordered, landing lightly on the dock in front of the truck that was still the fullest. The men stared at me stupidly, as if they didn't understand English. "Load it back up now," I insisted, using my heat vision to obliterate one small stack of boxes that sat on an isolated pallet. They scurried to do my bidding then, falling all over themselves to be quick about it.

"Out," I ordered the driver, who'd climbed into the cab, as if I wouldn't notice him there. After he scrambled out, I climbed under the rig and lifted it with a grunt. Almost immediately, the driving part of the truck tore free, but that didn't bother me, what I needed was in the trailer. Launching into the sky wasn't all that difficult, but keeping the load balanced was trickier than I'd thought it would be. I was forced to fly slower than I'd have liked back to the island, setting the trailer down on the hill where Kal and I had first rested.

All it took was for one of the villagers to notice my approach, and then they came to the trailer en masse, curious to see what I was doing. "Here, this is for you," I called out, pushing up the rolling door and pulling out a box at random. I had no idea what was inside, but anything was better than nothing, right?

The villagers seemed to think so, quickly catching enthusiasm for unloading the trailer by forming a long line.

"What did you do?" Kal asked by my elbow, brows pinched together in a single dark line.

"You said it before, these people have very little. I wanted to help them."

"Where did you get this stuff?"

"From a store in Australia. Don't worry, they had plenty of other trucks, I'm sure they won't miss it."

"I'm sure they will. Kyria, you can't do that."

"Why not? They have nothing." A woman let out a happy cry as she opened a box and found a case full of gingerbread tins. Another three had other variations of cookies, and then a box of decorative cloth napkins was found and caused a ripple of pleasure in the crowd. "And look how happy they are."

"But it's not okay to steal, even for a good cause," Kal insisted, and I turned to him in confusion.

"Why not? They have plenty to share."

"Because stealing is never right."

"What about Robin Hood? Rob from the rich and give to the poor."

"That's a story."

"He is touted as a hero by Disney, they emblazon his images on everything from clothing to crockery. Does this mean that The Pooh was also not a hero because of his theft of honey? Or is it only thieving animals who are revered?"

"No…" Kal pinched at the bridge of his nose, taking several seconds before he came up with a reply. "Robin Hood stole back the money that the evil Sheriff had already stolen from the poor people of Sherwood Forest. He was sort of… reclaiming it for them. But it's never okay to steal from an innocent party. Do you understand?"

"Not entirely."

He took both of my hands and led me away from the trailer. "I think it's sweet of you to want to help, but there are other ways we can make a difference."

"Like saving a village from a volcano?"

"Yes, like saving a village from a volcano," he smiled. "Those people have homes to sleep in tonight because of your quick thinking. That's worth more than a box of cookies or a stack of napkins. Now come on, we'd better get this truck back to where you stole it from."

"You're going to make them load it back up?" That would be even more crushing than not having anything in the first place. I'd only made things worse for them!

Kal let out a long sigh. "No. We'll figure out a way to pay the store back later. But they certainly don't need the trailer rusting out here on the hill. We'll take it back after it's unloaded."

In the end, we stayed well into the next day, while Kal performed some basic repairs to the building he'd torn the roof off of, and other chores like he did on his own farm to help them out. I did my best too, helping fell trees so that new homes could be built to replace the ones that'd burnt down, learning a bit of their language as we went along.

He was the one to take the trailer back to the Coles parking lot, I was too embarrassed to show my face there. After a brief stop to get our belongings from the beach resort, we flew back to the farm, bone tired. Due to the time difference, the sun was still up over Kansas, and that was the only thing that kept me going. All I wanted now was a meal, a bath, and a bed.

The moment we entered the house, Martha greeted us with a grim smile. "We have a little problem," she declared, pushing the morning edition of The Daily Planet across the kitchen counter to us.

The front-page article held a grainy picture of me flying away with the trailer in my pink Balinese costume, with the title: Kryptonian Crime Wave?

A/N: So, what do you think? I'm afraid this article is going to attract the wrong kind of attention for poor Kyria.

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