Disclaimer: DC Comics owns all rights to the characters within. They are used without permission and not meant to infringe on copyrights or meant to generate income.

Rivals or Friends, chapter 2

"You know, you're being watched," Conner told Max.

Max paused before taking a bite of his lunch. "I know."

The one who was turning every so often to keep an eye on Max was the new student who had done a double take when he saw him at orientation. He was a bit shorter than average, but Conner noticed that he practically strutted when he walked. He hadn't been able to find out the new student's name yet.

"Do you know why he's watching you? Is he just a student, or is he some sort of secret agent sent to spy on you?"

Max smiled briefly. "He's no agent. If he were, he should be sent back to training. He's not very good at keeping his reactions in check."

"Why do you think he's watching you?"

"I have my suspicions. From the way he walks, I'd say he's a martial artist. He may have identified me as one from the way I walk."

Conner thought about it. "You don't walk the way he does. It's more of a glide than a strut."

Max nodded. "Most people don't notice."

"Ah, here he comes," Conner said as the boy approached.

Up close, Conner could see that the new student was a little broader in the shoulders than he originally thought. His baggy clothes concealed this, but it was more apparent as he got close. He also noticed that the boy's blond hair was cut short, but spiky.

"I want to fight you," the boy told Max.

Fortunately, his voice didn't carry far; otherwise they would have been at the center of a spectacle.

Max smiled and held out his hand. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Max Kent. Who are you?"

The boy blinked in confusion, and Conner kept his expression neutral. Max was at it again, being unpredictable and throwing the new student off balance. Conner sympathized with him; Max still did the same thing to him.

He took the hand carefully. "I'm Dan. You did hear me, right?"

Max nodded. "It's a pleasure to meet you. This is my brother, Conner."

Conner nodded in acknowledgement when Dan looked at him. Dan nodded back and turned to Max.

"I want to fight you," he repeated. "I know you're a martial artist."

"I can tell that you're one too," Max said. "But do you always go around challenging other martial artists? It's not really that great of a hobby. It can be dangerous."

"I want to see how good I am. The way to do that is to test myself against other martial artists. Will you fight me?"

Conner shot Max a startled look as he said, "I will. However, I don't want to fight on school grounds. I don't need this to give me a reputation as a troublemaker."

"Where, then?"

"How about we go to our place after school? There shouldn't be anyone there to interfere."

"Max, you can't be serious," Conner interjected.

"Jonathan and Martha are always telling us we should bring people home. Plus, there are medical supplies if we need them."

"That sounds great," Dan grinned. "You better not try to slip away."

After Dan left, Conner turned to Max. "What are you thinking? You could seriously hurt him. I expected you to find some way out of it. Instead, you encouraged him."

"It just would have gotten him angry if I tried to avoid it. When he confronted me head on, I didn't have a lot of room to evade. It would have been insulting. Besides, he seems like a nice guy."

"I can't believe you said that. The first thing he did was challenge you to a fight. How do you get 'nice guy' out of that?"

"I know two people who fought when they first met," Max recalled. "It was a pretty intense fight, but they went on to become very close."

Conner made a face. "I don't think that it's a parallel situation."

Max shrugged. "We'll see. You could be right."


Max found Dan after school ended, and the three walked back to the Kent's farm. Conner was amazed that Max acted like nothing was unusual and did his usual further explanation of what was taught at school. He also asked Dan how his day was and whether he found Smallville High acceptable. Conner could tell that it was getting Dan a bit angry since it looked like Max wasn't thinking him seriously.

"We're here," Max announced, as they came to the Kent's farm. "Let's go behind the barn; there's no reason to give the neighbors something to gossip about."

"Or to let them see something to tell Jonathan and Martha," Conner said dryly.

They went behind the barn, and Dan dropped his books and took a fighting stance. Max calmly placed his backpack on the ground and turned to face him, bringing his hands up in a guard that Conner knew from experience looked casual, but offered him flexibility and a nearly impenetrable defense for someone of Max's speed.

"Until someone's down?" Max asked.

"Yeah," Dan replied. "Ready?"

"Go," Max said.

Conner was impressed at Dan's abilities. He was probably a bit more skilled than Conner and pretty fast. Some quick punches were blocked or dodged by Max.

"Pretty good defense," Dan acknowledged. "But, I'm just getting started."

Dan threw a flurry of punches and kicks, but Max blocked or evaded them all.

"Your technique is defensive," Dan remarked. "I guess I'm too quick for you to counter."

In an instant, Max charged forward, landing a single blow in Dan's stomach. Dan's eyes glazed over.

"Not really," replied Max. "I was just waiting for an opening."

Dan fell over, unconscious.

"That was it?" Conner asked. "One punch?"

Max shrugged as he picked Dan up. "It was a good punch."


Dan woke to a wonderful smell. There was something very being cooked that almost distracted him from the fact that an ice pack was on his stomach. He groaned as he remembered what had happened; Max had taken him down with one punch!

His groan must have been louder than he thought it was, because Max came out of the kitchen.

"How are you feeling?" the white-haired teen asked. "You've been out for about an hour."

Dan shifted to see than he had been laid out on a couch and someone had removed his sneakers and socks.

"I can't believe you took me out with one hit," Dan said. "That was incredible!"

Max took the ice pack off of Dan's stomach and gently ran his fingers over it. He nodded.

"You should be fine," Max said. "You might be a little sore, but it should go away in a few hours. Would you like to stay for dinner?"

Dan gawked at Max. "I challenge you to a fight, you floor me with a single hit, and now you're inviting me to dinner? I really don't understand you at all. Is this some sort of cruel joke?"

For some reason that Dan could not figure out, Max flinched at that last statement. "It's no joke. I'm cooking now, so if you'd like to stay, it's no problem to make more."

Dan nodded in confusion. "Sure. I'll need to call my dad first, to let him know where I am."

Max smiled. "The phone's in the kitchen. Follow me."

Dan entered the kitchen which was full of wonderful smells. Max handed him the phone and then went back to the stove, mixing the contents of a few pots.

Dan dialed a number. He let his father know where he was and how to get in contact with him. He considered what sort of reaction he'd get from the adults of this house.

Conner stopped by. "Hey, you're up. How are you feeling?"

"Fine, I guess," Dan said. "I'm kind of confused why your brother's being so nice."

"If you ever figure him out, let me know. I'm still surprised by a lot of what he does. By the way, I don't think I ever caught your last name."

"It's Reiner. Is this going to be okay with your parents?"

"They're our uncle and aunt," Conner corrected. "It should be okay with them; they've always been on us to invite people over. I'm not sure they expected it to be like this though."

Dan looked a little guilty. "Will they get angry at you for fighting? I don't want to get you in any trouble."

Max chuckled. "You say that now. You wanted to kick my butt earlier."

"That's not- I mean- okay, you're right. I wanted to see how good you were. You're a lot better than me. I've been training for a few years, and I thought I was pretty good."

"You are," Max said as he continued to stir the contents of one of the pots. "It's just that I've been doing this for my whole life. But, to answer your earlier question, the Kents will be disappointed. I'll probably get lectured."

"You don't have to tell them, you know," Conner told him. "You don't tell me stuff all the time."

"That's because I have a good idea of what you'd do. A lecture isn't so bad. There are far worse punishments. Besides, I have to uphold my part of being the bad one."

"Will you quit with that? You're not the 'bad one.' You're just Max."

"Will you train me?" Dan blurted out. "I want to get better, and you're the best I've ever seen. Please accept me as your student."

Max stared at him for a second. "You cannot be serious."

Conner blinked. That could cause all sorts of problems if Dan hung around them a lot, but Max would get contact with someone else, which was good.

"You'll want to watch out," he said. "Max made me meditate under a waterfall. Who knows what other teaching techniques he has?"

"If you've already taught your brother, then you can teach me as well," Dan reasoned. "Please, sensei, accept me as your student."

"First of all," Max began, as he returned to tending the food, "we do not use a few Japanese words in a sentence. If you want to speak entirely in Japanese, you can do so; I'm fluent. Second of all, I'm not much of a teacher. I learned...in a highly unconventional way that I can't and wouldn't repeat."

Conner briefly wondered if implanting knowledge would ever catch on or whether it was ultimately limited to clones.

"You didn't teach Conner this way, did you?" Dan asked. "If you taught him a certain way, then you can teach me the same way."

"He's got a point," Conner said. "It wasn't for what you'd be teaching Dan, but there are other ways. You know them."

Max sighed. "I can't believe you're ganging up on me."

Dan frowned. "Is it that you don't like me? I'm sorry if I came off as a jerk; I don't make good first impressions."

"You're not the only one," Conner said, dryly.

"I thought you had let that go," Max said. "I did apologize for that. I'm better than when we first met."

"Wait, didn't the two of you grow up together?" Dan asked. "I thought you were twins."

"We are," Max replied. "Different people raised us. We only met a couple of years ago and have been under the same roof for about nine months."

"You are avoiding his question," Conner said. "Why don't you teach him? He seems like a nice guy, even if he is a little too enthusiastic."

Max chopped up some beef and put it in one of the pots before answering. "I'll give it a try. However, if I don't think it's working out, I'll stop it."

"That's great!" Dan said, grinning. "You won't be sorry!"

Conner gave Max a half-smile in approval. He could tell that having a friend would get his brother to loosen up.


After introducing Dan to Jonathan and Martha, dinner began as it had for the last couple of months: Max revealed the dishes and explained what it was and where it came from. This night's dish was a beef recipe from the south of France.

"This is really good!" Dan exclaimed after taking a bite.

"Excellent as always," Martha said with a smile. "You're spoiling us with these gourmet meals."

Max shrugged. "I had the choice between making meals with lots of flavor or ones that are plain. I'm not going to let flavor scare me off."

"I wouldn't have expected you to make something so fancy," Dan admitted. "I guess I thought since you're a martial artist, you'd eat a lot of plainer things."

"These dishes are all quite healthy," Max explained. "They may have a lot of flavor, but that's irrespective of their healthiness. I'm being very careful about that."

"You don't have to do that," Jonathan grumbled. "I'm a lot better than I used to be. Minding the store is a lot easier than keeping the farm going. But you make everything taste so good that I wonder what an unhealthy dish you made could taste like."

"I think that's a curiosity best left unsatisfied," Martha said. "I've seen some of what Max puts into the healthier versions of dishes he makes, and I know that he's substituting for less healthy ingredients."

"Like what?" Dan asked.

"I use yogurt instead of cream," Max said. "There are also a few things I substitute for lower salt versions. I'm also forced to use vinegar for wine because the stores won't let me buy any, and neither Jonathan nor Martha will buy it for me."

"You'll be able to buy it when you're older," Martha said. "You're doing just fine without it."

"I could make my own," he stated. "I can get all of the ingredients to do so. There are a few additional items I would need to affect the taste and coloring, but I think I could manage a substitute."

"You're forgetting that we know all the places you can hide things," Jonathan said with a smile. "Clark helped point out where he used to hide things he didn't want us to see when you boys started to live with us."

"Who's Clark?" Dan asked.

"He's the Kent's son and a cousin to Max and me," Conner answered. "You'll see his face and name attached to all sorts of awards at school. He's around twenty years older than me."

"He now works for the Daily Planet in Metropolis," Max added. "He's a reporter there and is married to Lois Lane, a Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter. I think that covers the short version."

"I have photo albums if you're interested," Martha volunteered.

"Um, maybe another day," Dan said. "I'm going to have to go home soon."

"What about your family?" Jonathan asked. "Any brothers or sisters? What do your parents do?"

"It's just my dad and me," Dan said. "He's a mechanic."

"Oh, he must be the new mechanic at Fred's garage," Jonathan said. "I've heard good things about his work. Where did you live before and what brought you to Smallville?"

"I've been all over the Midwest," Dan said. "I've spent time in Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Chicago. Dad's pretty much gone where the work is. He came here because he got a recommendation from a friend of Mr. Steadler's. I'm hoping that he'll have this job long enough for me to finish high school."

"If you ever need anything, just ask," Martha said. "We'll be happy to help."

"Thank you," Dan said, smiling.

Max got the feeling that there was something else behind that smile. It didn't seem to be that sincere compared to the smile on his face after he had successfully argued to be trained. He had the feeling that there was something left unsaid.

"When do you wish to begin training?" he asked. "Do you have anything in your schedule that I should avoid?"

"Any time is fine with me," Dan said eagerly.

"What sort of training is this?" Martha asked.

"Martial arts training," Dan answered. "Max is going to teach me."

"I'm not sure I like the idea of that," Martha began.

"I think I might join you," Conner said. "Dan looks like he's better than me, but I should learn some more techniques too."

"Bring workout gear here after school," Max said. "We'll start then."

-----

That went on a little longer than I originally thought it would.

There are generally two different kinds of stories that I do with these characters, the "Superboy and Match" ones where they're taking an active superhero role, and the "Conner and Max" ones where the story is more internally focused. This is a Conner and Max one.

Any and all comments welcome!