Chapter 5: "Secrets and Guys"

Clark had told Chris that he needed time to think about things, but it had been a month since the reveal and he still hadn't heard a word from Clark. Chris threw himself into his school work and demon vanquishing, trying to keep busy and not think about Clark. He was getting straight A's in all of his classes and between Wyatt and himself, they had dealt with over twenty demons in the past four weeks, which was a new record for them.

Chris couldn't understand why Clark's rejection was hurting him so much, after all, they had only known each other for a month and had only gone on one date. But he hadn't been sleeping or eating well, having lost about ten pounds that he didn't have to lose. His shirts were beginning to hang off his frame more so than usual.

Chris could tell that Wyatt was worried about him, but there was nothing he could do. He kept trying to tell himself that it was better that Clark found out about him earlier on in their relationship, because the rejection would have hurt even more if they had been seriously dating, but it still wasn't helping. He turned back to his Psychology textbook readings, trying to ignore the relevance of the material for this week's classes, which was on relationships.

xxxxx

It had been a month since Chris had told Clark he was a witch, and in that same amount of time, Wyatt had been researching and observing Clark Kent. It was slightly difficult, since Chris was pulling him away all the time to do demon hunts, but he was able to find out a lot of interesting information about his brother's love interest.

Wyatt had first started his research at the Metropolis University's library, looking up any mention of Clark Kent in the newspaper. He found an article in the Smallville newspaper detailing how Clark saved Lex Luthor from a car accident. There were several articles about weird occurrences happening in Smallville with speculation that they were due to the meteor rock shower, but nothing specifically relating to Clark. Realizing that he wasn't going to find out much through the papers, he decided to start following Clark.

At first, Wyatt's surveillance didn't yield any results. Clark appeared to be a fairly typical university student. He attended almost all of his classes and had frequent coffee dates with his attractive roommates, Lois and Chloe. That was until Wyatt was trailing behind Clark on his way home late one night. Wyatt and Clark both heard a scream from a woman down a nearby alleyway. Wyatt then watched as Clark super sped to the alley and used his heat ray vision to force the attacker to drop the knife that he held to the woman's throat. The attacker ran off scared and Clark helped the woman get to her destination safely. This settled it. Clark Kent was definitely not the simple farm boy that he pretended to be.

Since that incident, Wyatt had witnessed Clark using superhuman strength and saw him get shot and walk away without a mark. Wyatt couldn't figure out what Clark was as he didn't appear to have any magic. But armed with all of this knowledge, Wyatt planned to confront Clark the next night. Clark's response to their secret was hurting Chris and considering Clark had his own secrets, it was about time Clark smartened up and spoke to Chris again.

xxxxx

Wyatt was orbing from rooftop to rooftop, following Clark as he was walking back to his apartment after class. He planned to confront Clark that evening, if he could get the man somewhere alone.

Clark stepped into a nearby alleyway. He knew that Wyatt was following him, could hear the sound of his orbing with his hearing. "Well, are you just going to keep following me or are you going to come down and talk?" Clark said out loud, frustrated.

Wyatt orbed down into the alleyway. "How did you know I was following you?" Wyatt asked. He didn't know of anyone other than magical beings who could track orbs.

"Wyatt, I would think with the amount of information you know about me by now, you would know that I can hear quite well." Clark replied, rolling his eyes. He knew that Wyatt had been trailing him for several weeks. In all honesty, he was slightly relieved that Wyatt knew his abilities. That would make this conversation easier.

"True," Wyatt agreed, nodding his head slightly. He folded his arms; it was time to get down to business. "You need to stop hurting Chris." Wyatt said bluntly.

"I'm not hurting him," Clark retorted, bothered that Wyatt would think he would hurt Chris. He had been staying away from all of Chris's normal stops, not knowing what to say to the witch/whitelighter. Clark had figured it would be better if they didn't see each other, not until he figured out what to do.

"You're the first non-magical person that Chris has ever confided in and your rejection has hurt him," Wyatt explained to Clark. "I'm assuming, with all of your secrets, you realize how hard it is to tell someone who you really are."

Clark nodded, he did understand and that was why it was difficult to leave Chris that night. "We both have secrets, ones that come with big responsibilities. That's why I needed to think about things, to figure out if it would work out." He tried to rationalize.

Wyatt snorted. "Don't you think Chris deserves a chance to be part of that conversation?" He said pointedly. "Besides, he's been throwing himself into more dangerous situations against more powerful demons. You told him you just needed some time to figure things out but it's been a month Clark, a whole damn month." Wyatt concluded angrily.

Clark sighed, sitting down on a trash can that was in the alley. Wyatt was right. "I'll call him tomorrow." Clark promised, knowing that he at least owed Chris a proper conversation about their relationship. "Thanks Wyatt. I want you to know that I never meant to hurt Chris, I thought I was handling this the best way possible."

"Sometimes people don't think properly when it involves someone they care about," Wyatt said wisely, before orbing back home to San Francisco. Hopefully everything could get straightened out now.

xxxxx

Chris wrung his hands, anxiously waiting for Clark to arrive. Clark had called him late last night, asking if they could meet at the coffee shop and then go somewhere more private to talk. So here he was, twenty minutes early standing outside of the shop, with his stomach doing belly flops.

Seeing Clark's name appear on his phone last night was a bit of a shock. Even though Clark had said he would get back to him, Chris doubted that he would hear from him again as it had already been a month since they last spoke.

"Chris!" Clark called out, jogging up to the coffee shop. He too had wanted to arrive on time and ended up being early. He had thought about what Wyatt had said and realized that the only reason that he was worried about Chris's secret was because he was worried about exposing his own, which was a pathetic reason to break up their relationship. He really liked Chris and decided that if Chris was willing to forgive him, he wanted to try to make this work.

Taking a look at Chris, Clark's heart clenched. Clark saw that Wyatt had been right, Chris looked awful. He had lost weight, which being slender already, he didn't need to lose. He had dark circles under his eyes, indicating that he hadn't been sleeping well. And it was all because of him.

Chris looked up at Clark's shout. He couldn't help but let out a small smile at Clark's arrival.

"Can you do your thing and we can talk in private?" Clark asked, using his hands to try to mimic Chris's orbing.

Chris nodded, surprised that Clark was asking him to use his magic. Maybe that was a good sign of their conversation to come. Taking a look in both directions to make sure that no one could see them, Chris grabbed Clark's hand and orbed them to a small park nearby. Chris preferred the top of the San Francisco Bridge to think, but this was the next best option. And he wasn't sure how Clark felt about heights. He started to pull his hand away from Clark, but Clark only grasped his hand tighter.

Clark led Chris over to a stone bench, and sat down, Chris's hand still tightly held in his. "Chris, I'm sorry," Clark said. "You had the courage to tell me who you are and I just left. I reacted poorly. And here I am, sitting with someone that I care about and knowing that I hurt them with my actions." Clark hung his head. "Would you still be interested in trying to make this relationship work? I would completely understand if you say no."

Chris could only stare at Clark with his mouth open, Clark's comment about someone that he cares about repeating in his head. Of course he wanted to make this relationship work. But then he thought about how awful he had felt over the past month because of Clark's reaction. "Clark, I really want to make this relationship work too, but…" Chris trailed off, looking for the words for what he wanted to say.

Clark looked up into Chris's green eyes. Chris had started to say the words that he wanted to hear but then he added a 'but'.

"But you can't just leave like that again." Chris concluded. "We need to work things out, together, if we want a relationship to work." And Chris was confident that other issues would arise, having seen the issues that his mom and dad had to work through with their magic.

"I promise," Clark responded, reaching to brush a piece of stray hair behind Chris's ear. Clark leaned in and gave Chris a gentle kiss on the lips. "And I believe you owe me a date?" Clark asked cheekily.

Chris responded to Clark's kiss with another of his own. "I believe that can be arranged," he said with a grin.

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Author's Notes: Next up, meeting the parents!