A/N: Hey they true believers, another update here. A little bit of a filler chapter here to help flesh out character relationships. Be sure to let me know what think, and feel free to comment on any questions or concerns you may have, constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged. With all that said, here is the next installment of "It's Superman"
Clark! Hey, Clark over here!" the ever-chipper voice of Ruby rang out over the cafeteria. Turning towards the shouting Clark saw the little spitfire jumping up and down waving him over. Unable to suppress a grin he made his way towards her with his tray and suitcase.
"Hey there Kent, we missed you this morning, you must have been up before the sun," Yang teased lightly.
"Yeah, I had to go pick these up," he said gesturing to the case at his side, and he immediately noticed Ruby's eyes begin to sparkle.
"Your weapons came?! Can I see them?" she practically squealed with excitement.
"Well, I ahh, I don't think we're supposed to take our equipment out in the cafeteria," he said nervously and watched Ruby's shoulders slump slightly.
"Come on Kent, let's have a look, what the worst that could happen," Yang provoked him slightly and Ruby began to nod eagerly in agreement.
"Well, uh, I guess, so long as we don't really do anything…" he began as he pulled his case up only the have Ruby snatched it from his hands and throw the lid open.
"Oh, these are nice, really nice," she oohed and ahhed as she examines it. "Stable construction designed take high impact blows and utilizes...gravity dust, very high grade...masterwork quality," she ascertained quickly as she turned Clark's Graviton Dusters over in her hands.
"Yeah, they work with my semblance so I can hit harder," he said without really thinking.
"Oh yeah? What is your semblance by the way?" Yang inquired as she looked from her excited sister to him and Clark realized he had just inadvertently forced himself into a corner.
He had been thinking about it since he had left Ozpin's office and had thought something to do with durability would be the hardest thing to hide so that would be the best option, but he hadn't really thought about it in detail so he just started talking.
"Oh, my semblance? Yeah, it's a passive semblance, my uhh aura infuses my muscles and bones so I'm pretty tough and I hit pretty hard, I call it, uhh, Man of Steel," he rambled out quickly and was silently proud of what he came up with so quickly and making a note to tell Ozpin. He noticed Ruby looked starstruck but Yang quirked her eyebrow with a look that said "Really?".
"That is so COOL! Are you like bulletproof and stuff, can I test it?" Ruby cried eagerly almost jumping across the table before Yang pulled her down.
"Easy there Rubes, before we do anything we have a very serious issue to discuss here," she told her sister solemnly.
"What that's?" Ruby asked confused and starting to look concerned.
"That name, I mean come, dude, Man of Steel, that's pretty lame," Yang deadpanned casting a look at Clark who felt his ears start to burn.
"Well, I like it... let's see you do better," he mumbled the challenge back at her with a slight tone of embarrassment creeping into his voice, he saw a grin crack across her face.
" Happy to, you could have called it Dragon Skin, Ironhide, Hero Shield…"
"The Jackal!" Ruby interjected eagerly causing both of them to look at her with confusion.
"What?... It's a cool name," she mumbled slightly abashed as she looked down at her hands as she twiddled her fingers. "Never mind," she mumbled sounding embarrassed.
"Yeah, well, if you like it I guess that's all that matters," Yang said deciding, rather tactfully Clark thought, to drop the subject after seeing her sister's face turn slightly pink.
"Well, what's your semblance, Miss Xiao Long?" Clark inquired and she just grinned.
"First off, you can call me Yang. Second, well, you'll find out soon enough," she responded, her tone teasing.
"That hardly seems fair, I told you mine," Clark offered, but she just giggled and stuck her tongue out at him.
"Sounds like a personal problem," she mocked back in a playful sing-song voice.
Clark decided it was her business so he'd leave it alone, even if it wasn't all that important he still felt mildly irritated at how she had responded. But there was nothing to be done about it so he shifted his focus to his breakfast instead of the girl sitting across from him.
It smelled good enough and it tasted fine but it couldn't hold a candle to his mom's cooking. That woman's cooking could make a vegan eat ham Clark thought with a small grin as he began to smother his pancakes with butter and doused everything on his tray with syrup.
"Geez Kent, you gonna eat all that?" Yang said in mild disbelief.
"Huh?" Clark mutter as he looked up from his food at her and then back down at it tray. Clark had always had an extreme appetite but no one back home had ever felt the need to comment on it, perhaps because it was a farming community. But as he glanced around the cafeteria he did note he roughly five times the amount of food on his plate as anyone else.
"Yang," Ruby mumbled a hushed warning to her sister.
"What? I'm impressed, a guy that skinny, I mean where does it all go?" she responded, and she did sound impressed.
"Well my Pa said I must have born with a hollow leg hehe," Clark joked as he began to tuck in.
"Your Pa?" Yang asked a small level of mirth was present in her voice.
Clark stopped chewing and looked at her. He didn't quite like how she sounded. With his mouth full he slowly nodded at her, not quite sure what she found so humorous.
"Where did you say you were from?" she asked unable to suppress a little snicker.
"...Uh...Smallville?" Clark answers his voice having a tone of trepidation. As it turns out his concern was well founded as Yang was no longer able to hold back a laugh.
"Pffft, no way. No way, there's actually a place called Smallville?" she guffawed and covered her mouth in a vain attempt to stifle her laughter.
It was at this point Clark had decided he had had enough. He was used to being teased and being the butt of jokes, but laughing at his home and his parents was just a bit too much. So without making comment on her actions Clark stowed his Dusters, closed the case and picked up his tray.
"Well it was nice seeing you again Ruby, but I think I'll eat my breakfast somewhere else this morning. I hope you do well today, you too Miss Xiao Long," he finished the last part with a much cooler tone than he would have normally used. He wasn't about to be rude, but that didn't mean he had to overtly kind either. With that, he turned and left the table and proceeded to the back corner of the cafeteria which was relatively sparse in terms of people. As he left he could hear Ruby talk to her sister.
"Yang! Why would you act like that?"
"What? He's a farmer from a town called Smallville? How could I not snicker?"
"That's not the point, he's the first friend I made here and you just basically laughed at his home and family,"
Clark tuned them at this point and decided he would just focus on what was coming later. He realized he may have been a little over sensitive, he didn't think Yang was trying to be malicious, as a matter of fact, he knew she wasn't but that didn't make him feel any better. His mother had often told him people could be there meanest when they weren't trying. But it didn't matter all that much right now, he had to make sure his mind was on task for the coming test and so and just focused on his food. He sat alone eating for about fifteen minutes before someone wandered over and sat down.
"Hey there Smallville," Yang said as she plopped herself down unceremoniously directly opposite him, he only gave her a mildly confused look but did not respond as he returned to his breakfast. "Oh come on Smallville, don't be like that," she said teasingly as she reached over and stole a piece of bacon from his tray before popping it in her mouth.
"Can I help you with something Miss Xiao Long?" he asked coolly.
"What's wrong Smallville, did I hurt your feelings?" she teased with a smile, but when Clark leveled a steely look at her the smile fell.
"Did you just come over to keep making fun of me and my home, or did you want to mock my parents now too?" Clark asked his irritation clearly showing.
"Okay, I get it, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to upset you," she responded, her cocky tone having disappeared and been replaced with one of...not quite shame, but something similar.
Casting her an appraising look and listening closely he could tell she was telling the truth. But that didn't do a great deal to make him feel any better. She still had been rather rude to him, and he hadn't done anything to her to warrant it. After how she had behaved last night and this morning Clark wasn't particularly sure he liked this girl all that much.
"You gonna say anything?" she asked, starting to sound irritated.
"Thank you for the apology, Miss Xiao Long," he responded in a very clinical tone, that clearly did not convince her.
"Look, I said I was sorry, what more do you want?"
"I don't want anything, you apologized and I accepted it," he responded spearing some eggs on his fork before dipping them in ketchup and syrup, trying determinately to act disinterested.
"Well it sure doesn't feel that way," she deadpanned at him, and Clark just shrugged.
"Okay, if that's how you want to be. I did feel bad for laughing at you but hey, whatever, you do you," she said trying to sound aloof as she began to stand, but the cadence of her heartbeat told Clark she was actually upset about his response, and Clark suddenly felt ashamed of how he had acted.
He knew that she hadn't been trying to be hurtful, and she had come over here to try and make peace and he had essentially thrown it back in her face. What she had done to him hadn't been right, but neither was the way he acted just now. His parents had raised him better than that. Treat others with kindness even when they aren't always kind in return, two wrongs don't make a right, and to give people a second chance. Letting out a sigh he made the conscious decision to defer to his better attributes.
"No, It's okay, It's just...Well, I've never really been away from home like this before, and I guess what you said just struck a nerve, I'm sorry I responded like that," Clark told her calmly, all the previous displeasure having disappeared, and he noticed that Yang actually seemed to relax a bit as she sat back down.
"Hey, I get it, it can be hard to be away from home, and I hope you know I didn't mean anything by it, I was just giving you the business," she said back, her grin returning.
"It's alright, I can tell, I might have just been a little oversensitive," Clark said, feeling just a little embarrassed. His mother had told him before that at times he could be a little too sensitive, but Yang seemed to disagree in this particular instance.
"No, you were right, I didn't know you at all and I shouldn't have...well, I shouldn't have been so…"
"Rude?" Clark finished for her and she flushed ever so slightly as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her head.
"Hehe...yeah, I guess that's a pretty good way to put it," she mumbled in a markedly different tone than anything Clark had heard from her before.
"Well, it's alright, I'll start fresh if you do," Clark offered kindly as he extended his hand to her. She examined him for a moment before letting a broad grin spread across her face.
"Sure thing Smallville," she said cheerily as she took his hand and shook it. Clark gave her questioning look at the use of the nickname. "What? I can't let you get off too easily," she said with a smirk and Clark found himself grinning in spite of himself.
"I guess I can't expect you can't fix everything all at once," Clark teased back and Yang took on an expression of mock shock.
"Mister Kent!" she exclaimed in a gasp of false surprise, placing her hand delicately on her chest as though she was trying to catch her breath from sheer audacity of such a statement, and Clark chuckled in spite of himself which cause her to snicker in response.
"Well, what can I say? The truth can be unpleasant sometimes," he teased back and they laughed together for a moment.
"Yeah, that's true I suppose, so...do you want to come back to our table? I'm sure my sis would be happy. She seems to like you for some reason," she jibbed back and Clark let out a small snort of laughter before nodding and picking up his things and stood to follow her.
"Honestly, I was sure you were gonna stay pissed, you were pretty quick to get over it," Yang said over her shoulder as they walked.
"Well, life's too short to stay mad about little things, and I was raised better than to hold a grudge, especially when you weren't really trying to be mean, "
"Huh? Guess your right, well it makes my life easier. Ruby was not particularly happy with me hehe,"
"I can imagine not, she seems...excitable," Clarke joked and Yang laughed.
"What a polite way of saying what I was thinking," she said through a small chuckle as they arrived at their destination. "Hey Rubes, look who I brought back," Yang said chipperly as she sat down next to her sister.
"OH! Clark, she actually was able to bring you back," Ruby said in a surprised tone although her was clearly quite happy.
"Yep, we had a real heart to heart, and now we're best friends," Yang said confidently as she reached over to Clark's tray and snatched up a sausage link before dipping it in his maple syrup before popping it into her mouth and chewing happily.
"Are you just gonna keep stealing my food?" Clark asked with a mildly sarcastic tone to his voice, to which she just gave a noncommittal shrug.
"Well, great! Glad to see everything worked out!" Ruby exclaimed happily.
"No point in making enemies, at least not this early, right Ruby?" Yang said jabbing her sister in the ribs with her elbow and grinned as she focused her eyes on thing on the other side of the cafeteria. Turning around Clark followed Yang's glance and his eyes fell upon a young lady with long white hair sitting by herself. Turning back to the sister he noticed Ruby looked a little abashed and he gave the duo a questioning look.
"Umm, should I ask?" Clark said a little wary.
"Yeah Ruby, should he ask?" Yang said wrapping her arm around her sister and giving her a little shake.
"It's nothing, just a little disagreement...a misunderstanding," Ruby said quietly.
"Ruby blew her up," Yang said as though it were the plainest thing in the world. Clark let out a snort halfway between laughter and shock, and Ruby looked downright mortified as the color drained from her face before turning bright red.
"Why would you tell him that!?" she practically shrieked and her older sister, who could only laugh.
"What? It was pretty great. You blew up the heiress to the Schnee Dust company, plus she was acting like a brat and nobody got hurt so yeah, pretty great," Yang sounded downright proud, but Ruby still did not look all that happy.
"Well it could be worse, lord knows I've had my share of embarrassing moments," Clark offered kindly.
"Really?" she said almost timidly.
"Sure, one time when I was little I accidentally ran through a wall and right into the girl's locker room of a gym. My parents were not happy...neither were the owners, or the women in there at the time," Clark shared his ear turning slightly pink. It was embarrassing, but it was an accident and if a little-shared mortification helped Ruby feel better, it was worth it.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure it was an accident," Yang interjected her voice dripping with sarcasm, and that made Clark's whole face turn beet red. A small grin on her face let him know she was only teasing.
"Well Yang, what about that time dad caught you…" Ruby started but she was cut off as Yang slammed her hand over her sister's mouth her own face turning beet red and that made a sly grin appearing on Clark's face.
"What's wrong Miss Xiao Long? Can dish it out but can't take it?" Clark teased her and she sent him a sour look. To which he only chuckled.
"Not the same thing Smallville," she said bitterly.
"Hehe, maybe not. It's alright you don't have to say anything if you don't want to."
"Darn straight I don't," Yang half mumbled before turning to her own tray.
"Gonna eat your own food now?" Clark teased.
She looked up at him and sent him a glowering look before sticking her tongue out at him. He laughed, then Ruby started to laugh, and before long Yang joined them.