25

Clark

It was August and Maddie was already moved into her new apartment just off campus. Clark approved. She had selected a single but it meant her bedroom was still twice the size of the sardine can she'd called a dorm room last year. It also meant that she had a double bed instead of a twin. It had been almost impossible to lay down with her on her barely-there-mattress. He was a large guy, had always been tall, but had apparently put on some bulk to him in the last two years. His shoulders were very broad and trying to squish himself anywhere was becoming a losing proposition.

No, he and Maddie had not started sleeping together, yet. Clark had found, though, that he could control his strength well even when Maddie was being as creative as she could be with her tongue. It was nice. The one thing he did like about his accident, even if he'd lost so much, the one thing that worked better was no heat vision. What a stupid power that had been anyway. When he'd had it, sometimes, just thinking about sex had made him melt things in his room on accident. Arousal had always left his eyes itchy and blinking. There was no way he'd have been able to date Maddie as he'd been. It was too hard.

Yeah, he and Alicia had gotten pretty far but not like this. On red meteor rocks, he could manage because that other side of him didn't care and had control. With Alicia, he'd not been with her long enough for the problem to come up. With Maddie, when things were so intimate and sometimes just her breath on his neck aroused him, he couldn't imagine having that ability.

It would have ruined everything.

Five months felt like such a long time. He felt like everything had changed, or maybe he just had. His mom, whom he loved dearly, and Davis, whom he might love even more, had been his whole world (well and Chloe too). But his mom and Davis had always had expectations for Clark that he hadn't realized. Mom, even if she were busy often in Topeka with senatorial business and then in Metropolis with the firm, still maintained a presence in his life and at the estate. When he'd made it official this spring and declared physics as his major, mom had been furious. It wasn't a shock. Everyone knew he had never had an interest in the law. Debate team in high school, sure, but not being a lawyer and following in mom's and grandfather's path.

But it was never about the law school avoidance.

Met U, endowed handsomely by a late graduate and communications mogul, had the best astrophysics program at any public university in the country. Clark was signed up for a full slate of classes in that part of the physics department this fall as well as put in applications to be a lab assistant for several of the professors. He was still waiting to hear if he'd gotten a position. Mom didn't want that. She was scared. Clark understood that. He had been hurt and weakened. They'd come off a horrible year with grandfather's death, near exposure, and Davis killing a human. But Clark wasn't three anymore and he wasn't just dealing with being blind. He was strong and competent and knew what he wanted.

He wanted to patrol and he wanted answers about what he was. He wasn't an adult yet, but he was taking on adult responsibilities and had been for a while, especially now that Davis needed more watching and support, since grandfather's death.

Mom didn't understand that. When they were both home, they fought often about his choices in life, about him risking his health further as The Blur and about how stupid it was for an alien to study physics at all, how it might get him exposed again.

She didn't understand what he needed to cope with what he was. He knew she meant well, but he was tired about the arguments.

If mom was hard to be around, Davis was impossible. He and Chloe were in a conspiracy to set Clark up with every normal, perfectly plastic girl from Chloe's dorm. Clark hadn't told Davis or Chloe that he and Maddie were still dating. Chloe didn't know because she couldn't keep anything from Davis, and Davis didn't know because, ironically, when it came to meteor mutants, his brother the sometimes-spiked-monster was a raging bigot.

So Clark was always being urged when he ran into Davis or his blonde accomplice to just go bowling or swimming or boating or who cared? He loved Maddie. She was weird, he was weird, and they were weird (and not crazy) together. It was as it was supposed to be, not that he could ever explain to his brother that not every meteor mutant was waiting to go on a murder spree starting with hurting Chloe and mom.

His mom and Davis loved him but they had a lot of conditions and a lot of ideas about what would make him happy and safe, none of which agreed with Clark. As a result, Clark spent a lot of time making up excuses to stay at his own dorm room on campus during the school year and, during the summer, had flat out lied about a lab job on campus starting early so that he could hang out with his girlfriend.

It didn't seem fair that he had the first good thing for himself that he might have ever had, and he couldn't share it with the rest of his world.

Sighing, shaking himself out of his melancholy, Clark set the mattress down on Maddie's bed. "I'm sorry. If I could still see, I'd have all your knick knacks and crap unpacked before you could blink."

"Right, because I'm going to complain when you lift all the heavy crap and then lift the heavy-ass mattress on your own."

"It's not heavy!"

She giggled and he loved that sound, wished more and more than he knew what the face that went with it looked like. She'd described herself often and he'd felt her so many times, but it wasn't the same. He'd never know her face the way he knew Chloe's or Alicia's or Kyla's. He did, however, know her in a different way, the scent of her-that mix of lavender perfume and something deeper a human wouldn't be able to detect-the feel of her skin, the sound of her heartbeat. He loved that best, that resonating beat, the one he listened to in some way always, but most often if he was alone at night at the estate. She soothed him.

It also comforted him on nights she spent with her grandmother (her last remaining family since her father had murdered her mother during his spree), on nights they couldn't be near each other.

"Of course, not if you're from Tatooine."

He shrugged and reached for his cane. The room he wasn't used to yet, didn't have the layout memorized and it helped him navigate safely away to her desk chair while she put on sheets and her comforter. He couldn't help with that. He could stop bank robbers but matching sheet patterns was beyond him.

"I think I prefer Melmac," he said honestly. "At least Alf's cute."

"Point taken," she said and he could hear the rustling of cloth from here, the snap of the top sheet being shaken out. "Thank you. You didn't have to help."

"I wanted to. I'd be a shitty boyfriend if I made you move everything on your own."

Maddie sighed and didn't speak for a while. "You know what I mean, Clark. I'd have understood if this is hard for you."

"I can run from here to Alaska in a few minutes and stop muggings. I really don't think carrying boxes upstairs is a chore."

"I know. I just..."

"Really," he said, forcing himself to smile. "I got hurt in December. It's been, wow, I guess nine months. Things are hard for you to imagine doing. Going up two flights with a box in my arms...the way I feel air currents...it isn't dangerous for me or, you know, your stuff cause if I fell on it, I'd do it no good."

Steady heartbeat. "I know. I just...man I know. You saved my life, and I know exactly how strong and resilient you are. It still sometimes does feel like I ask you too much."

"I want to do it. If you ask me to go to the Home Depot, choose colors and paint your house, that'll be too much and I'd advise against it."

She laughed. "I'll remember that. Thank you."

"Again, it's not that bad-superstrength and never get overheated. Makes an August move perfect for me."

"No, the last six months or so. Mom's gone and I didn't even know grandma until the courts found her. You're like my constant and the whole 'dad in prison' thing doesn't freak you out. Me being a meteor mutant doesn't freak you out."

Clark nodded and stood up, he left his cane where it was, focusing his hearing on her heartbeat, finding her and giving her a hug. He felt her bury her face into the nape of his neck. "Well, me being an alien from who even knows where doesn't make you scream. I think we make a good duo."

"Would we make a good group?" she asked, forcing her tone to stay light. "Huh?"

She snorted and patted the mattress. "Sheets are on. It's already eleven and I have my first day at my work-study at the art library tomorrow. Strip."

Clark laughed. "I don't usually spend the night."

"I usually sleep on a postage stamp," Maddie countered. "It's not a sex thing-"

"Oh," he whined a little.

"I have got to get sleep, but stay with me. Unzip those jean and I have a few of your t-shirts in my drawer. I snuck them out of your dorm. Sort of a massive hint to just give in and move here too."

"I have to stay at the estate sometimes."

"I know and that's the group joke," she said and he could her the rustle of fabric, the click almost of wire on wire as she unhook her bra. A bit of cloth beaned him and Clark, with some effort, picked up what he realized was one of his shirts. Thief.

"Huh?" he asked again, shucking off his jeans and slipping on his shirt. Idly, as if it mattered, he wondered what color it was.

"You have the tag on inside out."

"Ugh," he finished redoing it, making sure he had the t-shirt on right this time, feeling for the tag. "What group, Maddie?"

"You and me and Chloe and Davis, you know? We could all hang out as friends."

"We can't," he said, sighing and reaching out with his arm, waiting patiently for Maddie to show him where the lip of the bed was. "We can't."

"Why?" she asked, more fabric sounds and he reached to her stomach from where he'd taken his seat. Her nightgown was silky and smooth. He liked that, enjoyed that girls had stuff like that and even if he couldn't see how pretty it was, he could feel the quality of the gown.

"Davis doesn't like meteor mutants. He thinks you're dangerous."

" The Ultimate thinks I'm intimidating?"

Clark felt his blood rush to his face, felt himself blush. "I have a type, maybe a talent for it. I dated two meteor mutants before and they went bad."

"And I'm not them."

"Davis doesn't know the difference or he doesn't want to. Maddie, it's not you. Davis is the jerk about all of this. I...we're private."

"You mean I'm your lie."

"You're my home," he amended. "Davis ordered me to stop dating you. I can't...he doesn't understand. I love you and I love my family, I just wish you could both work together."

She sighed and slipped onto the other side of the bed. He laid back and spooned with her, letting her head settle under his chin. "I want to. It's your mom and Davis who are so regimented on everything. Would Chloe like me?"

He laughed. "I think so. She's really cool. I mean, we've been best friends since we were fourteen. And, just so you know, mom still is hard on her sometimes. Mom's spent sixteen years protecting me and Davis and it's hard for her to turn the paranoia off. Davis...he found mom after Alicia pushed her. It really scared him and it's not like mom ever recovered. Her legs are really badly scarred. I...they have reasons."

"And I'm not a killer, Clark. You have to tell Davis some time and your mom. I love you, but I'm not a dirty little secret either."

"You're not!," he said, holding her more tightly and kissing the crown of her head. "I love you. I just know Davis will make me choose."

"And you'd choose your family."

"No, Maddie, I don't know what I'd do and that scares me. I'm not really ready to cut ties and be on my own if this doesn't pan out, but I'm not...I don't want to lose us either."

"Alright, well, maybe we just need to get Chloe on our side. She knows what it's like you said to be the odd one out of the Clark Family Cabal. Maybe she can put in a good word?"

"I...I know this makes no sense coming from an alien of all things, but Davis doesn't see each mutant on their own merit. They're all killers or ticking time bombs to him, okay? He's never gonna be eased into anything."

"Then," she said, sighing. "He's not a very good brother if you have something that makes you happy and he doesn't get it."

"He's the best, Maddie. The very best. He's just confused."

"I hope," she said, before growing silent.

They both fell into a fitful sleep.

When Clark woke up, he groaned. He knew without having to reach out with his hands, what he'd done. Reaching up, he touched the ceiling a few inches above him. Perfect. Freakshow. "Uh, Maddie?"

There was tossing and turning beneath him, a pillow even thunked on the floor. "Clark, five more minutes."

"Maddie, you're gonna wanna wake up and like move very slowly. I...can you do that."

"Clark," she started. "My alarm didn't go off so it's not awake time and whoa!"

He snorted. "Yeah, I know. I've done this since I was in high school. It just happens. I didn't forget exactly, but sometimes it doesn't happen every night. I can't control it so I guess I was hoping it wouldn't be today?"

"You can fly!"

"I can float ," he countered, feeling himself bob with every breath he took. "I'll probably land in a few minutes but sometimes it can take twenty minutes."

"And you tell me this now because?"

"Sometimes there's crashing and I'm a big guy?"

"You'll break my bed! Stay up there!"

"I'll buy you a new one, and, just move. We have to wait me out."

Below him, she muttered and he could hear her gathering up her heavy comforter and half tumbling-half sliding to the floor with it. "Unbelievable. You're a very high maintenance boyfriend."

"I think so," he said, sighing again and waiting for his body to do whatever it did to make him land.

After over two years and mediation and research, he realized he wasn't going to be able to find some magic breath technique or answer to make his body listen to him on this one. Either he'd grow into controlling it, or he'd have to find his people so they could show him. It might really be the latter. Eventually, with Maddie snoring somewhere on the floor below, and him exhausted and wishing he were still asleep, he crashed. The noise he made thunderous and the slats of her bed broke from under his weight.

Maddie giggled. "Maybe we should just stick to a mattress, no box springs from now on. You suck at landing."

"It's falling with style," Clark corrected. "I...I'm sorry. That was embarrassing."

"It was really cool, Clark. I've never seen anyone float before."

"Yeah," he said glumly.

Soft steps on carpet and then Maddie was sitting on his lap, her hands running over his face for once. "It was really cool. I...when we realized that us making out made me crack windows at your dorm, you didn't get mad."

"Of course not, just worried. Cracked glass could hurt you!"

"Yes, well, my bed aside, I'm not mad, okay? I...god I wish we did know where you came from. The stuff you can do is so amazing."

He was so embarrassed, so keenly aware this morning about his differences. It made it hard to speak and he was so glad he couldn't see, couldn't see her scrutiny. "I'd settle for just being a guy most days."

"Well," she said, kissing him. "I don't date just any guy, so you're lucky you're from Melmac, Alf."

Chloe

"And! And he never comes home. He's always at the lab and if he's not there, he's at his dorm. I see him to patrol and for like Sunday dinner with you and mom. What does he do all day with scientists , Chlo! Scientists! Do you think he'd mind if I lightly coated a chain with some green meteor rocks and stuck him at the estate?"

Chloe giggled and shook her head on the other line. She was waiting for Clark at their usual spot by the student union for their first pizza lunch of the new school year. Davis had called her on his break to complain again. "Davis, Clark's not a little kid anymore. I had to learn time management with school, the Planet, and our little town and city-saving venture. Clark's got a difficult major, lab work, and a night job to deal with. He's learning."

"But he's never around anymore. It's not fair!"

She sighed. "You'll get used to this new, improved Clark, the one with a very active work and social life. Davis, come on!"

"But it's not the same."

"You can't stay kids forever," she countered. "He's gonna be here in a few minutes. I don't want him to overhear you fretting like a mother hen. It'll only hurt your dignity."

"Ha-ha, Chlo. Yeah, my break's ending. What about Cheryl?"

"Davis, give it up. Your brother doesn't want a date."

"I know but I feel bad. He couldn't keep dating Maddie, but he's super dedicated to working now. I didn't want to ruin his social life."

"Uh-huh. No more blind date even inquiries. He hates it. Go save some lives, Davis, and I'll call you after your shift."

"I...thanks." He clicked off then and she wondered if he'd been thinking of saying something else.

Chloe sighed and slipped her phone back into her backpack. She was getting tired of waiting for Davis to get over himself. She loved him, all of him, spikey red-eyed parts and all, but if he was determined to be the martyr, she didn't know if they'd ever have a future together. She could tell he still loved her. Hell, Clark could and he was blind. Everyone knew the feelings had never faded on either end. But she couldn't wait forever either. Every phone call, every hope that he'd say 'I love you and come back to me,' all that hope only to be driven back every time a phone call or a conversation ended like this.

Shaking her head, Chloe took a sip of her iced tea and almost choked. Clark was coming. That wasn't unusual. The fact that it was Maddie Wilson , smiling up at him and leading him by the arm was. She cursed under her breath, feeling stupid for having been lied to. There had never been a lab job. There had been Maddie.

"Oh Clark, what have you done?"

His shoulders sagged even as he reached out to make sure he was sitting down correctly. "Chlo, not you too."

"I..." she fumbled, sighing at Maddie who was sitting next to Clark and across from her at the table. "You brother's going to kill you. It's not personal, Maddie. Davis is just-"

"A neanderthal? Maybe a raging bigot? Which word works here?"

"I...we've had bad experiences before."

The other girl nodded and took Clark's hand. "I know, Chloe."

"Then you understand after how Alicia almost killed Ms. Clark that Davis is leery of, well, people of your persuasion."

"Meteor freaks," Maddie hissed. "Yeah, I was aware. However, that's not what I meant. I know , Chloe. All of it. I have for months."

"There's nothing to know, not really. Davis and Clark...they're not meteor infected. They were born the way they are. Clark's not like you."

"Clark's not human," Maddie replied, her voice hushed. "He and Davis aren't from here."

"Clark Kent! How could you do that? Your mom is going to murder you and then Davis and I'm gonna help!"

Her friend blushed and adjusted his sunglasses. "Chlo, I didn't want to lose her after everything with the death serum. I told her. She's known since March and notice how Davis and I are not in labs."

Chloe was staring between Maddie and Clark. It wasn't...the three of them worked so hard to keep this secret. What right did he have to endanger his brother by telling a girl he'd barely known at the time. "How could you?"

Clark shrugged. "I told you, didn't I? When everything came out, I told you. Davis never wanted me to talk about my abilities. Mom and grandfather told me not ever use my powers, but I did. I kept you from breaking your back. I argued over and over for you to be part of our family. I've saved your life more than once. Why is this different."

Maddie nodded. "I've known for five months, Chloe. I've never hurt him. I'd never tell on him or Davis. I...if they told people about me, I'd be a social pariah. Everyone knows this. We all have our secrets."

"I don't about myself," Chloe replied. "I just...Clark...your mom and brother are going to be so mad!"

"I don't care," he said, clenching his jaw and stroking Maddie's hand. "I love her, Chlo. Everything I ever thought I felt about you? It's not even close."

Chloe was torn between breathing a massive sigh of relief, happiness for her friend, and fear. Clark had made so many mistakes before. What if he'd regret telling Maddie he wasn't human? "Do you really?"

Clark was smiling and she realized she'd never seen him that happy except the day she'd said yes to freshman formal. "Yeah. I get it, what you and Davis have-"

"Had," she corrected.

"I don't care what mom or Davis want. She makes me happy and I like being happy. I haven't felt like this ever."

Chloe sighed and looked between Clark, his joy so naked on his face, and Maddie who was quiet but still cuddling close to him. "Alright, what do you need me to do?"

"Thanks, Chlo. I knew you'd be on our side."

Maddie, who's smile was a little stiffer since realizing Clark had once crushed on her, also nodded. "We owe you one."

Oh they had no idea.

Maddie

She was beginning to get the feeling that dating Clark Kent was akin to entering into the CIA or NSA. She almost felt like she was supposed to bring her birth certificate and social security card with her to see Chloe on her lunch break at The Daily Planet . The other girl, though hesitant, had promised to help figure out a way to explain their situation to Davis, get him on their side, and then go to Ms. Clark.

Maddie definitely had the impression the new senator was about as easy to deal with as Darth Vader, probably as reasonable.

She was half way through a bland panini at the coffee shop beside the Planet's offices, when Chloe came in, her laptop slung over her shoulder in a bright orange carrying case. "Maddie, sorry, I was running late with this story on pigeons and, well, it was rude of me."

Maddie nodded and shook Chloe's proffered hand. "It's your meeting. You said you wanted to talk to me without Clark. I assumed this is one of those 'Clark's my best friend, if you hurt him then no one will ever find your body' speeches."

"Kind of."

"Kind of?"

Chloe nodded. "I...how much did Clark tell you. I need to know everything."

"They're both not from here. It's why Clark's The Blur and Davis is The Ultimate . No one but you, his mom, and he and Davis knew. I mean, his grandfather too but he died. I thought that was it."

Chloe shook her head and cursed. "I am going to have to sit Clark down and explain 'back story' to him."

"Me too. He never mentioned he was in love with you."

"I was never in love with him. I've been in love with Davis since the day I met him and, for a while, we did date."

"What happened then with you and Davis?"

"He's not human."

"Well that's very limiting. There are a lot of good people out there who aren't technically human anymore because of the shower, people like me. Clark and Davis might be E.T. but they've saved a lot of people in Lowell County."

Chloe shook her head. "No, you don't understand. Davis isn't really even humanoid."

"I've met him. Looks normal to me."

Of course, she hand't even known Clark could defy gravity until three days ago. She still didn't know how he'd managed to become blind. Clark had never offered to tell her, and she'd never pressed. Maddie got the impression it had been an accident he'd brought on himself and not as fall out from a fight on patrol. She just didn't have the details. She was beginning to realize that was something that happened often with the Clark family.

Chloe nodded and looked like she was going to cry. "Davis is only sometimes human. Sometimes he's like you know him and sometimes he changes."

"How?"

"Seven feet tall, grey skin, bony spikes all over, red eyes, claws and fangs. We, well he calls that part of himself, 'The Beast.'"

Maddie gaped. She'd never even thought Davis and Clark didn't even look human. She thought of her boyfriend and then tried to imagine him spiky and fanged too. She shuddered. What did it say about her that she wasn't sure she could love him that way?

"Davis is older than Clark. Will Clark change too?"

Chloe wiped at her eyes and her voice grew quiet. "Clark used to think it was him, they he was The Beast. For the longest time, his whole family believed it was him. Clark got the strength first, back when he was just three and they'd barely landed. There was an accident on the farm and everyone assumed he'd shifted and done it. Clark lived for years in terror that he changed into a monster at night."

"Years?"

"Until our senior year of high school. Then Davis started having weird memories and Senator Clark installed cameras in the mansion. They caught Davis instead. I...Davis didn't even start to have abilities or be odd at all as far as we could tell until he was about to start college. He and Clark don't grow alike."

"But they're brothers?"

"No, I don't think they are. I think they're from the same planet, but I don't think they're blood relatives, or at least not full siblings. Clark has a few scattered memories of a woman called Lara but Davis remembers a Faora. They might have the same dad, but it's probable that whatever The Beast is that Davis got it from Faora."

"Oh so Clark isn't-"

"A spiky, giant monster, no. But he grew up thinking he was, Maddie. He was kept sheltered until he was fourteen with tutors at home. I'm the only friend he's ever had."

"What?"

"He had to beg to go to high school and when he got exposed saving my life, his mother was going to yank him. Shortly after, he found out about The Beast and assumed it was him, that he was killing pets and livestock and things when he changed. He spent over three years in terror thinking he'd keep changing and being more alien until he wasn't able to pass for human. He never had other real friends, the two girls he did date turned out to be murderers, he just...he's been horribly sheltered and his sense of self is tied to the fact that while he's not The Beast, he always thought he was, was raised and sheltered as an abnormality. Martha didn't mean to stunt him but she didn't really know how to protect him either."

Maddie blinked, unable to understand so much at once. "Clark didn't really go to school until he was fourteen and until basically college he assumed he was like a werewolf but worse?"

"Basically. He's always wanted to fit in so badly, Maddie. He tried so very hard when we were kids to get me to love him and I couldn't. Kyla and Alicia turned insane. I just...I think this might help you understand his family's attitude more. He's always been the one who needed so much protection and consideration, the one who keeps getting kicked in the face by the universe."

"Because of the too strong too young, the thought he was the beast, the crazy exes."

"Yes and, well, even this last year. He blinded himself."

"How?"

"He and Davis develop differently. I don't understand it, none of us do. Clark can't shift but, slowly, Davis has developed similar abilities-heightened senses, insane speed and strength, invulnerability."

"Okay?"

"But one thing they never shared was what Clark called 'heat vision.' He used to be able to shoot fire from his eyes or a bit more like laser intensity heat."

"But he hurt himself with it?"

"It reflected off of something and back at him. He burned his eyes, everything into nothing useful," Chloe said, her voice wavering. That was four months before he met you. I...almost no one has had worse luck than Clark, and almost no one deserves a shot to be happy more either. Yes, Martha and Davis are overbearing but Clark's had a very sad life and he falls so hard for girls who show him any attention. After all this time, I think you mean well. I just want you to understand he's fragile and he's suffered so much."

"Chloe, I do love him. I'm not going to go on a rampage and, even if he had been spiky, I think I'd have stood by him. More than you at least."

Chloe shook her head. "No, I didn't break up with Davis after we realized he was The Beast."

"Huh?"

Her voice cracked as she spoke and Chloe started to cry a little, prompting Maddie to dig in her backpack for extra tissues to hand to her. "He broke it off with me. He can't deal with it, with being what he is. The Beast has killed a human before, and it is dangerous. None of us can deny that."

"Jonathan Kent."

She nodded. "He and Martha found the boys together. He was running to get access to the National Guard and contain them. He threatened Clark and almost killed him. Davis, well, The Beast didn't like that. Davis can't even control it. He blacks out and just wakes up God knows where, covered in blood."

"Jesus Christ. Davis hates me!"

"That's a problem. He killed Kyla when she was shifted, technically just a wolf, but he doesn't like when girls hurt Clark. I...if you want to run, now would be the time. You're very powerful but you saw yourself. Glass can't hurt either Davis or Clark. It can't do shit against The Beast. If you join this family, The Beast might still come for you. I honestly don't know."

"I-"

"Don't promise something you can't keep now, Maddie. I just wanted you to understand things are very complicated and aren't about your mutation. They're about secrets so deep that no one can be allowed to know them and live."

"Except apparently I can?"

"Clark's never been this happy in his whole damn life. I trust that. If you can't deal, I understand. If you have to make a break, I understand. If you think of betraying them, The Beastwill come for you, not because Davis wants it to but because it's in its nature to protect its family, its pack. If you break up with Clark, you can never tell anyone what you know. It won't end well for you."

"Like a threat?"

"Like the truth. I just...I'll back you and Clark up however you need, alright? But you deserve to know how damaged Clark really is emotionally and the burden this family bears. We keep The Beast at bay, most of the time, but it's very, very hard."

"Yeah, my dad is a psycho who murdered my mom and went to prison for one of the biggest robbery-murder sprees in Kansas state history. I know hard. I know people judging you before they know you. I want to try, Chloe. I...don't ask me to hang out with The Beast, but I want to try."

Chloe nodded and took the offered tissues and swiped at her eyes. "I love him, you know. He doesn't think it's fair...he's made these horrible jokes about giving me baby beastlings. Okay, so sure, we're not going to have kids like that and I am only nineteen anyway. I just...he keeps pushing me away. I've waited for years for him to get over his self-hatred, to come back to me and he won't. He wants me to have a normal life."

Maddie laughed and pushed her plate away. "I understand that. You're the only one of us who has that option. Davis, Clark, and I? We're aberrations. We'll never really belong anywhere. You're one hundred percent human. I understand why he wants you to run, to have a chance at the fairy tale."

"I-"

"He's being a pigheaded guy, sure, but his intentions are noble," Maddie finished, sighing. "You know though, if you want to get him back, you just have to follow his advice."

"I'm not in love any other guy."

"Pftt, Chloe, you don't have to be in love with a guy to go out on a date or make out with him."

"Whoa!"

"I'm serious. You go back to your office, ask out the first guy who gets on the elevator with you-as long as he's not like fifty-five or your boss or something-and I'll take care of the rest. If you help me get on Davis and Senator Clark's good sides, I promise I'll help you get Davis back."

"You'd do that?"

Maddie nodded and shook Chloe's hand. "My meteor power aside, we're two mostly normal girls thrust into a lot of weirdness way over our head in this family, because of the guys we love. We're gonna need each other to get through it. Besides, I'm a sucker for a fairy tale."

Chloe sighed. "I am too, but Davis would be the first one to tell you that The Beast doesn't get the happy ending."

"Well then call me Uncle Walt because I'm on it."

"Clark?" Maddie asked, smiling to herself when he was already lying in bed when she got back from her long day of lunch with Chloe and then a late night at the art lab.

Her boyfriend looked up from where he'd been reading his Braille edition textbooks. "Oh, hey! I didn't even realize, I was getting really into the intro for my astrophysics class."

"You would," she said, going to her closet and pulling out an old t-shirt of Clark's to slip on.

It dwarfed her and she liked being enveloped in it. It wasn't every girl who got her own superhero to come home to. She winced, thinking of how much pain that had followed Clark. He was the kindest, most selfless man she'd ever met. It hurt her to think he'd only had one friend in his life, that he'd spent almost two decades hating himself and thinking of himself as a monster.

He wasn't.

He never could be even if he woke up Kafka.

He grinned and set his book with some effort on the night stand. "You coming to bed now?"

She nodded and rolled her eyes when she remembered he couldn't see her. "Yes, of course," she said, slipping into her side next to him. Clark didn't sleep in sunglasses. Sometime during the last week, he'd bought one of those black sleep masks. It covered his scars. It occurred to her that after months, she'd never seen them.

"I had lunch with Chloe. She's going to help us, you know, explain ourselves to your brother."

"Good. I told you Chloe would. I'm glad you two are getting along so well. Chloe doesn't have that many female friends anyway. I think you're right. Us being a real group would be cool."

"She told me a lot, Clark, about how you guys grew up, about Davis's condition, about The Beast."

"She told you that I thought it was me, didn't she?"

"I can't even begin to imagine how lonely you were, how hard it was."

Clark smiled with some effort and drew her to his chest. "But I'm not now. I...I'm happy."

"I know but I want to...you can tell me anything. You don't have to be ashamed that you thought you might have been The Beast once or that you haven't had a lot of friends, considering your secret that even makes sense. You don't have to..."

"To what?"

"Take off that thing around your eyes, Clark."

He stilled beside her. "I...fucking Chloe."

"It's true, isn't it. I knew you hadn't always been blind, even if you hadn't mentioned it or been obviously adjusting to new arrangements. I mean there were interviews and things with you back in November when your mom started running and you were fine. I just assumed a mugger did it or a meteor mutant. I also assumed we'd talk about it some day."

"Chloe explained. I don't have heat vision anymore. It's moot. I fucked up and now I pay the price, Maddie. I'm ugly. I know that. I don't know what it looks like, but I've felt it. Often. I know it's hideous." His voice broke and his shoulders shook. She wondered if he'd be crying even a little if he still could.

Reaching up, Maddie worked the mask off. Clark objected weakly at first but she shushed him, holding his hand with her right one as the left took off his disguise. Maddie forced herself to stay breathing when she was done. The mass of scars and melted flesh made her want to cry, the criss-cross of ruined skin over his eye sockets mocking her.

"Oh Clark," she said, reaching up and stroking what was left of his temple gently. "Does it still hurt?"

"No," he said, his voice almost inaudible. "It only hurt when I did it. I...I've learned to deal and because of what I am, I adapted better than a human could. My sense of smell and hearing and even how I feel air currents, it's almost like I'm not blind at all. Chloe and Davis have to remind me a lot in public that I do things based on my abilities that a blind man wouldn't actually be able to do."

She nodded. "Like you're so good at pouring drinks by sound and not touch."

"Yeah, I'm sloppy with you and at home because you know. I try more in public. I don't want people to realize that random blind dude is both The Blur and you're friendly neighborhood alien."

"Don't."

"Don't what?" he said, reaching back for the sleep mask. She touched his hand so he'd stop.

"Play it off. You're not just an alien to me or the blind man. You're not deformed."

He sighed and rolled over, his back to her. She wondered if this was how Chloe felt with Davis. She might have to get the other girl a trophy for having dealt so long with two this stubborn.

Maddie slipped up to him, holding herself to his back. "I love you, Clark, all of you. You're not weird to me or ugly, promise."

"I...thank you," he said, shaking just a little underneath her grip. "I love you too."

She nodded and leaning up, kissed first the sides of each temple and then his mouth. "Cool, then let's get some sleep. I'm plotting with Chloe tomorrow and that takes sleep."

And, if in the middle of the night, she no longer felt the mattress beneath her but only Clark's strong arms, well, that was even cooler.