Hey, guys!

Sorry about the long wait, I've been sick since early October, lol. Hopefully there will be more chapters soon since NaNo is this month and I plan to work on this story a lot during that time.

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Eleven

Jordan was mindlessly scrolling social media when his twin knocked on the door.

He looked up from his phone and sat up. "Everything good?" he asked as Jon made his way over to Jordan's bed, then sat down beside him.

He was quiet though, too quiet. This wasn't how Jon acted. Something had happened.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jordan asked.

Jon bit at his ragged thumbnail. He had this faraway look in his eyes. Like he was thinking something, but it probably wasn't anything good.

"Jon-El talked to me," Jon told him. "He apologized for what he did."

Jordan tensed. Recently, Jon-El had been the cause of a lot of Jon's stress, and it was only worse now that their parents had allowed him to stay here.

And so far Jordan had to admit that Jon-El hadn't really tried anything, but it was only a matter of time. His brother's doppelganger had been Ally's second in command, he was a murderer, a criminal… Surely Jon-El could be a spy as well.

"And?" Jordan asked as he scooted a little closer to his twin.

Jon shrugged. "I dunno," he said. "The apology seemed pretty genuine… He still creeps me out though."

Jordan nodded. "Think he was acting?" he asked.

"Could've been, I guess…"

Jordan really didn't understand why his parents were doing this. Not everyone was good, not everyone deserved a second chance, not everyone was going to change. And would they really risk Jon's safety for Jon-El's sake?

Plus, with what had happened the night before…

"He ran away last night," Jordan told Jon. "Who knows how long he was gone for before Dad found him."

Jon looked up at him. "How do you know this?" he asked.

Jordan hesitated. He wasn't supposed to use his hearing abilities on other people, but this was for a good reason. Besides, what if he wasn't listening and Jon-El tried to merge with his twin? It was important that he kept an ear out.

"I overheard it."

Jon's eyes narrowed slightly. "You eavesdropped."

"Doesn't matter right now," Jordan said. "At least not with him."

"What do you mean?" Jon asked.

Jordan swallowed. He didn't want to scare his brother, but he was really starting to get worried.

"I think he's planning something."

Before Jon could interject, Jordan continued. "Just think about it. He's completely won over Mom, and Dad believes that everyone is good," he told Jon. "Plus, they didn't punish him last night after he broke the rules they had in place for him."

That was another thing that concerned Jordan. Not only had his parents seemingly fallen for Jon-El's act, but they were also letting him get away with things that he and Jon would have been punished for.

If he could get away with breaking rules like these, then what would keep him from hurting Jon?

Jordan felt his heart beat a little faster. He couldn't lose his brother, especially not to Jon-El.

"Boys!" Clark called. "Come downstairs!"

Jordan felt his stomach drop. If he was being honest, he had forgotten about the game night…

Family game night was fine, but the fact that his parents were okay with Jon-El joining them wasn't. He wasn't a part of their family, but they were pretending like he was.

"We should go…" Jon said softly as he once again bit on his thumbnail.

Jordan sighed, then nodded. He really didn't want to go down there. He didn't want to have to watch Jon-El continue to manipulate his family, he didn't want to see him get away with it either.

But he knew that Jon-El would get away with it if he didn't step in. Jon-El would destroy their family because his parents were blind to his actions, and Jordan was just supposed to let him?

No. He couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't let that happen. He had to protect his family.

All he had to do was find some way to get Jon-El out of their lives.

Jon-El lingered at the stairwell.

If he was being honest, he wasn't sure that he fit in at a family game night. Why would he? He wasn't a Kent, he wasn't even from this world.

So he tried to make himself invisible as the twins sat down on the sofa.

Suddenly though, there was a strong hand against his shoulder, and he looked up.

"Hey," Clark greeted with a warm smile. Even though Jon-El had been here for over a week now, seeing such a warm and genuine smile on his father's doppelganger was still jarring.

Jon-El shot back a weak smile. "Hi," he said softly.

"Wanna join us?" Clark asked. "Lois and I are gonna take turns so everyone can play."

Jon-El hesitated for a second. Clark was offering him an out if he wasn't comfortable. He didn't have to stay if he didn't want to.

But he wanted to see this. He wanted to see what happened during a family game night.

"Uh, sure…" he answered, then allowed himself to be led into the living room.

Lois looked up from where she was sitting on the sofa before scooting over and making room for him to sit on the sofa. "We're playing some sort of racing game," she said. "Wanna join us?"

Jon-El sat down beside her, then reached out and grabbed the extra controller. He inspected it for a moment.

Admittedly, he hadn't seen many video game controllers throughout his life so he didn't have some sort of reference point to know if they were any different on this world.

It fit in his hands pretty comfortably, and there were a bunch of buttons that he didn't understand what they did.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jon and Jordan watching him and he felt his cheeks warm up.

"Can I sit out this first round?" he asked. Maybe if he watched Lois or Clark play, then he would understand how it worked without having to ask anyone.

"Sure," Clark said, and Jon-El gladly handed the controller over to him.

He wasn't quite sure that it was fair for the Kryptonians to be playing against the humans, but he didn't bring that up. He wondered what they did about any advantages with quick reflexes and the fact that they would be taking in the information faster than Lois and Jon could.

So he leaned back and he watched them play.

He watched as the four cars went around the long track, and he quickly realized something.

Jon and Jordan were pretty evenly matched, Lois was competitive enough that the skill didn't matter, and Clark?

Clark sucked at this game.

"Oh, you're going down, kid!" Lois said as Jordan's car passed hers.

"Not if I take you down first!" he answered back as Clark's car hit the siding and went out of bounds.

Jon seemed to stay pretty quiet though as his car pulled into the lead and stayed there.

Jon-El watched his doppelganger closely. He wondered if he felt the same way he did. Like he didn't quite belong here, or like this whole situation was kind of weird.

Over the past week, Jon-El had managed to piece together some of his doppelganger's past. Not only had his girlfriend been dealing X-K, but Jon had apparently been taking it. And along with that Jon was powerless.

Jon-El knew what had happened between him and his father when he had gotten powers, he knew that his father had instantly wanted to be a part of his life as soon as he had found out about them.

Was his father's doppelganger like that? Was that something that Clark would do? And if not, had it created some weird rift in the family because one child was powerless and the other one wasn't? His parents had always assumed that Jordan-El would get powers soon after he did, but as far as Jon-El knew, Lois and Clark didn't think the same thing. Or maybe they just didn't say it aloud when Jon-El was in the room.

He could tell that there was something going on with Jon, but he didn't know what it was and if it had anything to do with powers or not. He also knew that he couldn't ask though… Jon probably wouldn't answer, and he had the feeling that Jordan would freak out if he found out that he had asked Jon about his personal life.

He did wonder if they were more like each other than he had originally thought though.

Throughout the rest of the race, Jon-El watched the buttons that Jon would click. All he really had to do was make it through one round, then he could go or back out if he didn't want to keep playing with them.

Lois reached over and gently put her hand on his arm. "Don't worry, sweetie," she said. "I won't target you the way I do the boys. You haven't done anything to deserve it."

After she said that, she sent a pointed look at Jordan.

Jordan threw his hands up in defense. "It wasn't my fault that my car hit yours and you came in last place."

"Even Dad beat Mom on that round," Jon said. "For the first time ever."

"Hey!" Clark cried, but Jon-El could tell that his exclamation wasn't serious.

Jon-El wondered if there was a chance that his family ever could have been like this. The laughing, the friendly bickering… They just seemed so happy.

Had his family ever been happy?

He had seen his parents' faces once his powers had gone public. They hadn't been happy, they hadn't even been proud. Their faces had been full of the same disappointment that had always been there.

"Do you wanna play?" Clark asked Jon-El as he held out the controller. "I need to go check on the pizzas anyway."

Jon-El nodded, then took the controller in his hands once again. "Sure."

Clark stood up and placed his hand on Jon-El's shoulder. "Knock 'em dead, kiddo."

Jon-El looked up at him and smiled. "I'll try."

They were nice enough to let Jon-El customize his own car before they started the race.

He threw it together quickly so he wouldn't upset them, but he was kind of proud of it. It definitely wasn't perfect though.

It was a shiny black car with red decals. Some of them were a bit lopsided, but… It was his. His first video game car.

Not that they would ever know that of course.

"You ready?" Jon asked him.

Jon-El sat up a little bit so he could see the screen better. "Yeah."

With that, Jon pressed the button to start the game.

Jon-El tried to shake away the nerves as the game blared through the speakers. It was just a game. It didn't mean anything.

Then suddenly, the cars were racing down the track.

Just like last time, Jon's car quietly made its way to the front of the pack.

Unlike the last race though, Jordan seemed to have forgotten any rivalries he had with his mother and went straight for Jon-El's car.

Jon-El tried to speed up, he tried to dodge, but Jordan seemed to have pinned him in the perfect spot. His car went straight into the wall.

He tried to turn it around as the other cars passed him, but it was slow. There was no way he was going to catch up with anyone now…

He didn't want to seem like any sort of sore loser though, so as soon as he got his car off of the wall, he pushed his banged up little car to the limits.

Jon-El kept his eyes on Jordan's fourth of the screen as the race continued. After what had happened earlier with Jon-El's car, Jordan seemed to remember the rivalry with his mother and made it his mission to at least place higher than her.

Lois was more of a fighter than Jon-El though. When Jordan pushed, she pushed back until both cars were more dented and damaged than Jon-El's car.

"They always play this dirty," Jon said as he looked up from his car for only a second, he didn't let up on the speed though, which Jon-El assumed kept him from suffering at the hands of Jordan or Lois.

"Always?" he asked.

Jon nodded. "Yep."

The race ended almost as quickly as it started. And somehow, Jon-El's little car managed to beat two of the AI cars.

He didn't beat any of the Kents, but at least he didn't come in last place.

"Wanna go again?" Jon asked.

Jon-El shrugged. "I think I'm good," he said. As much as he loved his little car, he wanted to get in some practice before he had to play with Jordan targeting him again. "I'm gonna go see if Clark wants any help with the food."

He didn't wait for a response. Instead, he just stood up and left the room. He wasn't trying to seem like a sore loser, because he really didn't care about that, he just wasn't interested in playing another round of racing. Not with a lot more practice first.

"Hey," Clark greeted as he looked up from the pizza. "How was the race?"

Jon-El shrugged again and he walked over to where Clark was rolling out a pizza crust. "It was okay," he said. "I came in 8th place…"

Clark looked over at him, and once again Jon-El couldn't believe that those happy eyes were aimed at him. "That's great!" he exclaimed.

Jon-El raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

He nodded. "Sure!" he told him. "It was your first race, after all."

Jon-El looked down at the pizza crust. "Thanks…" he said, then cleared his throat. "Um, anything I can do to help?"

Clark looked around the kitchen, then shook his head. "I think I've got it," he said. "But you're welcome to stay in here."

Jon-El smiled. "Thanks."

"How are you doing?" Clark asked. "It's only been about a week since you started staying with us, and I won't pretend like it's easy to live this kind of life."

The smile faded from Jon-El's face. There was so much he could say, but what did he actually want to say? Did he want to talk about how Jordan had been treating him? About how weird it was that Lois called him Sweetie even though his mother had never called him anything like that? Maybe that things were starting to go okay with Jon and he was feeling like he could maybe work past the guilt of everything he did to him one day.

Or maybe he could talk about the fact that it was so unnerving to see a smile on Clark's face that was aimed at him. Something his own father had never done, not even for a photoshoot.

But Jon-El couldn't say any of that. He didn't want to say any of that.

So he shrugged. "Just a bit of an adjustment."

Clark nodded. "Yeah," he said, then cleared his throat. "So, are you done playing video games?"

Jon-El hesitated. From where he stood he could hear the other Kents laughing and shouting at each other.

"I know that you're probably not used to all of that," Clark said softly. "And that's okay."

"It is?" he asked.

Clark leaned against the counter, and his eyes seemed to focus towards the living room. A fond smile glowed on his face. "I mean, they are a bit much," he said, then lowered his voice. "I blame the Lane genes."

Jon-El's eyes widened, but he couldn't stop the chuckle that left his mouth. "Really?" he asked.

"Oh, for sure," Clark said. "Lois was quite the troublemaker when she was young. The boys are the same way."

Jon-El thought of the way Lois played those games with the twins, and the way he had interacted with her in the past week. He could definitely see it.

He wondered if his own mother had been a troublemaker.

At the thought of his mother, his heart squeezed. Even if his mother wasn't a troublemaker, he certainly was one. And this time, the trouble landed him on a different world.

How could he have been so stupid?

It wasn't right. He had left his own world in pieces, and was now playing video games with some family that reminded him of his own?

Maybe Jordan had been right during their fight. Maybe he was just some spoiled brat who decided that the end of both worlds was just a game to him.

There was something Jordan was definitely wrong about though.

He would never forget the damage he had caused to the other world, to his family.

Suddenly, the guilt was too much.

"Um… I think I'm gonna head to bed," Jon-El said softly. "I'm not feeling too great."

The smile that had been on Clark's face fell, but he nodded in understanding. "Okay," he said. "Goodnight."

Jon-El nodded. "Night."

He made his way up the stairs, the guilt of everything he had done made his stomach ache and his chest hurt.

Jon-El could still make out the sounds of the family game night as he shut the door behind him. Maybe he would get another chance to play with them one day. Maybe when the world wasn't ending and it was all his fault.

Sometimes he wondered if Ally would have gotten as far as she did if he had never helped her, if he had just walked away during that first meeting.

When she drugged him.

As he laid down on his bed, he thought back to what he had seen on this world. Things seemed different now.

He knew that Jordan was acting the way he was because of everything that Jon-El had done to Jon when he had first arrived, but Jon had changed a lot.

He had seemed so happy in that vision. He had been engaged with his family, and at one point, Clark had pulled him into a tight hug.

Jon wasn't like that now.

He shook his head. He couldn't fix Jon's life, he couldn't even fix his.

He'd been stupid to think that he could fix that ever-growing hole inside of him, that he could be happy again.

Instead, he had just ruined the worlds and the lives of everyone in them.

Jon-El laid in bed long after the sun went down. He didn't get up for dinner, he wasn't hungry.

Instead, he let the guilt eat away at him. He let it eat away at him until he felt numb inside.

Feeling nothing was better than feeling everything.

After awhile, he heard the sounds of the twins going to their rooms. It was a sound that he had become weirdly familiar with, and as soon as the two doors clicked shut, Jon-El stood up.

He made his way across the room and down the stairs as quietly as he could. From the top of the stairs, he could faintly hear the sound of Lois and Clark talking in the kitchen.

He hesitated in the stairway for only a moment before walking into the kitchen.

Lois was the first one to notice him this time. She smiled at him, the same warm and loving smile that she had been giving him for days now. Even if he had skipped out on most of the family game night.

"You okay?" she asked him.

Jon-El shrugged as he sat down at the table. "I guess," he answered. "Sorry about earlier…"

"Oh, it's okay, sweetie," she said. "There will be more family game nights when you're feeling better."

Jon-El froze at the blatant implication of her words.

There would be more family game nights, more chances for them to bond and spend time together.

They wanted him here. They weren't just housing him here because of Ally.

He swallowed, unsure of what to think about her words. "Uh, thanks…"

"No need to thank us, sweetie," she told him.

"Are you hungry?" Clark asked. "You went to your room before dinner."

Jon-El shook his head. If he was being honest, his stomach was still doing little flips. "Not really…"

"That's okay," Clark said. "Do you wanna talk?"

"I dunno…"

"Maybe a good night's sleep will help you feel better?" Lois suggested.

Jon-El nodded, but he knew the truth. It wouldn't help at all. Nothing could fix the guilt that he was drowning in. "Yeah, maybe."

"Goodnight, Jonathan," Clark said as he gently placed his hand on Jon-El's shoulder. It was a gesture that Jon-El was slowly becoming more comfortable with, but it was still so unlike anything his father had ever done.

"Night," he said, then turned to Lois.

Before he could say anything, she wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.

At first, Jon-El tensed. Of course, he knew what a hug was, but they weren't a familiar feeling to him. Not at all. If he was being honest, he wasn't even sure when the last time he got a hug was.

Then slowly, he began to relax until he melted into the hug. He wrapped his own arms around Lois and squeezed gently.

She held on until he pulled away, then she smiled at him. "Goodnight, Jon-El."

Jon-El tried to smile back, but he could hardly see her through his tear-filled eyes. She had hugged him. Lois Lane had hugged him.

"Goodnight, Lois."

I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!