slayers_desire | things to do with child-Clark

Clark is absolutely fascinated by his new surroundings, moreso than the books. Although he does like to read, he's more interested in looking around first, sucking down the milkshake as he goes. He doesn't touch anything though - one of many lessons drilled into him by his mother.

He cocks his head at her question, confused. "I thought there was only one kind."

"Well, I like my burgers loaded with all sorts of stuff. But you could only like cheese. Or ketchup. Or mustard." It is more of a fixing question.

For the most part, April's apartment is pretty normal. She does have a lava lamp in one corner. And a snowglobe that seems to twirl without being shaken beside that.

Her apartment may be normal, but it's an apartment and therefore a totally new experience. Clark's used to a big two-level farmhouse with lots and lots of open space and windows where he can look out and see the farm. The lava lamp and snowglobe, by the way, further cement his idea that April is magic.

He thinks about it for a minute. "Ketchup and mustard and pickles and cheese." That's usually what Mom puts on his burgers, but he doesn't know what else there is, so he feels compelled to lay down one restriction, just in case. "No peas!"

April laughs at that. "I wouldn't worry about that Clark. Even I would not par peas on my burgers."

She has the french fries in the oven, and the grill cooking up the burgers soon enough.

He is pleased that she doesn't like peas either. (At least, that's how he interprets it.) "Peas are icky," he asserts with a nod.

Mom never lets him in the kitchen when she's cooking because she doesn't want him hurting himself, so he returns to the books and flips through them a little, keeping an eye on the lava lamp as he does. It's floaty and colorful and weird.

It doesn't take long for April to soon have a plate of burgers and fries for both of them.

With everything off in the kitchen, she places the plates on the living room coffee table. "Were a lot of people trying to help you find your parents?"

Clark makes a bee-line for the fries. He doesn't get them much because his mom says they're unhealthy, but occasionally she takes a few potatoes from the harvest and makes fried potato chips.

"A couple. One lady was really grouchy." Poor Leon, forever doomed to be known as the grouchy lady.

"A couple is good." It means Clark has other friends, who were there for him. April nibbles her own fries. And her burger (not completely as cooked as his is).

"I am sure any of them could help you back to Smallville." She does it again, mentioning something about him that she had not been told.

Clark makes a noise that can be best described as a meep. "You are magic!" She knows his name and where he lives and she can make clothes appear from nowhere and she has moving things in her home. What else could that possibly mean?

Another laugh from April. She will accept being magic for the time being, if it keeps Clark safe during the LOL.

"Shush... don't tell anyone. I am sort of like your fairy godmother."

Clark nods quickly, eyes wide. "I'm super good at keeping secrets." Of course, since she already knows so much about him, he's wondering if she knows his secret too. Not the alien part; he doesn't know that yet and won't for eight years.

"...what's a fairy godmother?"

"Your mother never read to you Sleeping Beauty? Or Cinderella?" April took another bite of her burger. "A fairy godmother is a magical friend who takes care of a person in their time of need. And have been known to grant wishes."

Fries gone, Clark starts in on the burger, elbows planted on the table to keep his head above the plate in case it drips. He may have learned his manners on a farm, but he was also taught how to eat and not make a mess of the table and floor and everywhere else. Most of the time.

"You can do wishes too?" He looks fascinated and a little amazed. "Mom and Dad got me in a wish."

When Clark wakes up, he has the distinct feeling that something is wrong somehow. He frowns at the ceiling. This... isn't my bedroom.

He sits up and immediately clutches the blanket to his chest, because apparently he's gone to sleep naked in an unfamiliar place. Then he notices the remains of child's clothes, looking very much like he'd been wearing them.

Oh.

He spots his adult-sized clothes and superspeeds into them, fighting down a blush even though there's no one in the room to see. At least I wasn't floating in my sleep.

He briefly debates superspeeding off and leaving a note so he doesn't have to deal with the lingering embarrassment of knowing he just spent the night in her bed, seven or not, but he knows she deserves more than that. So he runs a hand through his hair while slipping into x-ray vision mode, seeking out her location.

April can be found on her couch. Fast asleep. A quilted blanket covering her. All her regular blankets were on her bed, on Clark.

Her breathing pattern tells him immediately that she's still sleeping, so he moves extra quietly on his way to the kitchen. Being raised on a farm, he's a relative early riser, but it seems to be coming up on something resembling a decent hour.

He has no idea if she drinks coffee, but he's going to do his best to find some and make breakfast. Kind of a "thanks for taking care of me when I was a kid for a day" gesture, since Hallmark doesn't exactly make cards for that.

There really should be a Nexus Hallmark created for those sort of cards. Clark will find some eggs, bacon and bread in the fridge. No coffee, as April doesn't drink it.

There is an unidentified reddish-brown liquid in the back of the fridge. That does smell like blood if he is curious.

And despite his attempts to be quiet, the heightened sense of the vampire cues her out of deep sleep. She is still half-asleep that she figured seven-year-old Clark is in the kitchen. "Be careful..." She mutters.

Clark can totally deal with eggs, bacon, and toast. Not so much with the pitcher of maybe-blood - he doesn't know what to do with that, so he just leaves it alone.

X-ray vision makes finding her frying pans as easy as opening the cabinet, and he sets the eggs cooking.

He pauses at her mumbled warning, peering into the living room at her. She doesn't look fully awake yet, but her breathing sounds like she's heading that way. "Don't worry," he says quietly, voice pitched just enough that she can hear him. "I am." His voice is definitely deeper than it was when he was seven, but depending on how awake she is, she may or may not notice.

He doesn't bother looking for a toaster, lasering the bread to perfection with his heat vision instead. It's always tasted better to him that way.

She notices the deeper voice. And sits up and rubs her eyes. April had enough foresight to wear PJs to bed last night (instead of her normal attire).

"You are you again." She stretches.

"Must've happened sometime during the night," he agrees, giving her a slightly nervous smile. He is not going to mention the part where he woke up naked.

He holds up a piece of toast. "Uh, I'm making breakfast. Hope you don't mind. You did make me dinner." Of course, he was incapable of cooking for himself at the time, and it's still her food, but it's the principle of the thing.

"Always wanted breakfast in bed." April chuckles.

"So yesterday, was an instant memory, or a faded one? I was not sure how the LOL that effected you worked."

Clark dumps the eggs onto a plate and puts the bacon in the pan. "I think I remember everything. I wasn't sure when I woke up whether it had been a dream or not, but being here was a big give-away. I definitely wasn't expecting to revisit my childhood quite so literally." And he hasn't missed how casually she handled the whole thing. "Does that sort of thing happen a lot?"

"LOL's? Oh yes, they happen. I think the only reason I was not completely caught off guard, is because of seeing an alternate and younger version of myself."

"And you couldn't go home like that... so..."

"If it helps, there were others effected. During my own conversations on a question I asked, I ran into a woman who had been aged older."

He cheats a little with the bacon, using heat vision to crisp up one side while the pan does the other. No need to flip it over to get both sides.

"It was that camera," he says thoughtfully as he transfers the bacon over to the plates. "That's the last thing I remember messing with before I was swimming in my own clothes."

Breakfast done and distributed equally between two plates, he carries them out to her and hands her one, setting his on the coffee table. "Thanks for not letting me wander home - that would've been hard to explain to my parents, never mind anyone else who stopped by."

"From the sounds of it, you had other people giving you help. And besides, I knew you had not told your parents about the Nexus yet, so didn't want to have the LOL their first experience."

April moves to take her plate, the food smells good. "Another example of being in the right place at the right time."

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