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Title: Toss Me Some Bus Fare (I thought you said printer! Why the fu-), For Old Times Sake

Summary: Kara has a soft spot for Garth and Clark hates how much it reminds him of old times.

...

Clark didn't enjoy working with most heroes, and he especially didn't like working with Kara's friends (they always gave him these… looks. Like he was the one in the wrong when Kara was destroying buildings on live TV), but one perk was that heroes never tended to ask questions, in or out of mask. Clark can walk up to Kara and the small child that was clearly Aqualad in the fight against a giant squid half an hour earlier and not be afraid of being outed.

Kara looked up, scoffed, and halfheartedly swatted the kid's shoulder. "Garth, this is Clark. My cousin."

Clark gave the kid a smile. "Car got blown away in the fight," he lied. "Got room for one more at the bus stop?"

(Bus stops are so dang lame. He'd rather fly, honestly. But if Kara of all people was waiting for a bus, he could only assume she had hit a rough patch, and it was his duty as her little cousin to rub that in.)

Garth blinked at him. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

"Uh," said Clark, intelligently, feeling his well-planned soliloquy flying out the metaphorical window.

"He writes nerd stories for the nerd paper," Kara said.

"That's it!" Garth cried, snapping his fingers. "Are you here to write a story about the squid?"

Clark looked at Garth, his eyes glowing with earnest excitement, then Kara. He raised an eyebrow. Is he really this clueless? Kara raised hers back. What do you think, smart guy? He clapped him on the shoulder. "Sure am, buddy! It's not every day Superman gets to destroy an evil space squid. It's more like a… once a month thing."

"He usually saves the seafood for Supergirl," Kara said, quite pointedly.

"Oh, come now, cuz," Clark replied, enunciating for irritation, "it's not Superman's fault they always seem to land in Supergirl's part of town. She's the one who made such a big fuss about separating Metropolis for patrols, isn't she?"

"Maybe if Superman didn't hog all the front lines-"

Garth grabbed her elbow and Kara stopped, but only because he was pointing. "The bus is here!"

She squinted at the large object as if it deeply offended her and tossed a disgusted look at him over her shoulder. "Either join us or don't, Clark. I'm not covering your fare." Garth went to pat his pockets but she stopped him, slightly shaking her head. The boy looked relieved.

Clark frowned. Something unfamiliar gurgled up inside him as he watched the blonde help Garth up the step into the bus and paid his fee for him.

It was stupid of him to feel jealous. Immature. But Kara always managed to turn him back into that snotty brat he used to be. She was the iceberg of his childhood- never changing, stuck in the age he'd last seen her in thanks to that glitch in space stasis.

But here this kid was, confidently crawling up on the seat next to Kara. Shoving his phone in her face. Showing her a video of some weird toy robots. And here Kara was- not only allowing it, but encouraging it, nodding along and bumping their shoulders together. Eventually the kid hunkered down and fell asleep, snoring into her shoulder, and Kara still showed none of her usual irritation, throwing an arm around his back.

The same way she'd treated him, back in the day.

Maybe he'd just assumed that those days on Krypton- before the resentment, and the superheroing, and the constant noise of Metropolis threatened to overwhelm Kara's ears- had been special to both of them.

It dawned on him with the same, slow creeping sensation one got sinking into a bathtub. He leaned over Garth's head and murmured in her ear. "Are you taking the bus for him?"

Kara rolled her eyes, then shrugged. "He gets motion sick when we fly."

As if this was common sense.

As if Kara had ever listened to or abided by common sense.

"Bit clingy, isn't he?" Clark said, with some distaste.

"He's got one of those velcro-grip control moms," she explained. "Hanging with me is a lot less pressure."

"Ah, yes." Clark rubbed the back of his head, more lost than ever before. "I hear that's a problem that the youth are facing. Moms. Being velcro."

Kara didn't seem too put off by his attempt at humor. "Wouldn't know."

"Kara-"

"Don't give that lecture, Clark. The Danvers' and I cohabitate just fine, but I'm not like you. The Kents made your their son before you were old enough to get a pimple."

"Jeez, relax. I wasn't gonna go there," Clark said, having absolutely intending to originally go there. "It's just… surprising. Seeing you like this again. It's been awhile since you were so… thoughtful."

Kara scrubbed a hand through Garth's hair. It wasn't gentle, but it wasn't hard enough to stir him, either. "Yeah, well," she answered, staring out the window. "It's been awhile since someone needed me, I guess."

Author's Note: Another one from my tumblr lol. I constantly think about how Clark was babysat by Kara and how, in the flashback, one of the first things Kara asks her mom is "Where's Kal?". Really gives me the vibe that they were close before all the mix-ups and weird age stuff went down. And now that Kara has a new little buddy in Garth, Clark is like 'wait. that was OUR thing. that's illegal.' but is too proud to just say it.

Also when Garth says "don't I know you from somewhere?" I 100% hear that vine kid going "wait a minute. who ARE you?"

-Mandaree1