slayers_desire | Rested after a good night sleep

Clark goes to her, and takes her into his arms, and tries to ignore that he's trembling slightly. He feels the grief for a planet he never knew, and the heartsickness of an alien who will never go back to his homeworld, but he doesn't regret being here for an instant. He only regrets that eventually they'll have to leave.

"Krypton is gone," he says quietly. "It's not coming back. This is closer than I ever expected to get. Thank you."

His warmth is appreciated by April, and she cuddles close. A kiss on his neck at his slight trembling. "I am glad that I could give this to you."

He chokes back a slightly hysterical laugh, sounding more like a sob. "I don't... how can I ever repay you for this?" He doesn't know if she understands the magnitude of what she's given him today. This is more than just a gift. She's unlocked part of his identity. Given him normality. Shown him home. Things he'd never dared to hope for. "How long do we have?"

"Silly Clark. This is the sort of things people do for the ones they love. I don't expect you to pay me back. Your happiness is enough." April kisses his chin.

"An hour. Hope it is enough time."

An hour doesn't seem like a lot of time normally, but Clark never expected to see Krypton for even a minute. Every moment he stands on the surface of his world, simulated or not, is precious to him.

He reaches down to take her hand. "Walk with me?"

"Of course. I might walk close," April smiles. After all, the dress and heels wasn't made for walking in snow and ice. And Clark is warm. And handsome.

The possibility of her being cold occurs to him very shortly thereafter, and without a word he takes off his red jacket and drapes it over her shoulders. It's still abundantly warm from his body heat, and although it doesn't exactly go with her outfit, he likes seeing her in it. He's only wearing a blue T-shirt underneath, but his now-vulnerable flesh doesn't mind the exposure to the ice and wind.

He takes her hand again, slowly walking along the edge of the deep chasm with himself on the inner edge, looking down into the depths of Krypton.

"This makes me feel more like the cheerleader girlfriend of the star football player, wearing your jacket and all." April chuckled. She was glad for the offer, and felt quite comfortable in his jacket.

He smiles at her. The jacket is enormous on her, but he feels like it's doing what he can't manage physically, wrapping her up in warmth and keeping her sheltered and safe. "Not much good unless I get to show you off," he says, gentle teasing and yet serious. There's an alpha male part of him that wants to parade her around Smallville, shouting, 'Look at her! She's mine! You can't have her!'

Instead, he has a better idea, one he's been tossing around for a while. "You know, prom is going to be coming up in a few months. I wasn't planning on going originally, but things seem to have changed. Like having someone to go with, if she'd like."

April had about to ask if there were events he could show her off at, when he asked about prom. "I would be happy to attend it with you. Just answer one question -- what is a prom?"

He'd known she never went to school, but he'd thought that perhaps she'd at least have heard of prom before. Still, he's happy to introduce her to the concept. "It's a kind of formal dance towards the end of the school year, kind of as a big farewell party for the graduating class. It's one of the biggest graduation traditions outside of the actual ceremony itself. Which you're welcome to come to as well," he adds, making sure she knows one hundred percent that she's invited.

((Haha, both Clark's prom and graduation go disastrously in canon and I'm planning on following. Should be fun!))

"Formal hey? I think I could find something formal before then." April will enjoy looking for the dress, being the girly-girl she is. "It must be so exciting for you to be graduating. And I would be glad to attend both the prom and the ceremony."

((Awesome!))

"Very formal," he confirms. "Guys-in-tuxes-and-ties kind of formal." He's also kind of hoping that her presence will help deter any disaster from striking like it usually does at Smallville events of any kind. Bad karma must be just dying to hit the prom. And how can anything bad happen when she's with him?

"It is kind of exciting. And a bit scary, because I still don't know what I'm going to do with my life. Specifically, I mean. But that just puts me in the same boat as most of my classmates." He actually feels reassured by that. It's normal to not know what you're going to do when you've just left high school. Clark likes feeling normal.

And here, under the artificial red sunlight and with his girlfriend at his side, he feels more normal than he ever has in his life.

"Ohhh Clark in a tux." April gives an excited shiver. Hey at least if disaster does strike, Clark doesn't have to worry about abandoning his date without explanation. April would support his having to save the world.

"I am sure you will find your groove in things. And having a high school diploma will help in the job market."

Clark's tux is only going to stay intact for about an hour before it gets ruined, through no fault of his own, but he's definitely going to enjoy himself before then, once they get there. "You've got a while to get ready. I'll let you know when it's coming up." He would just give her the date, but thanks to the Nexus and its bizarre timeflow, it would be very difficult for that to be helpful information.

"Whatever job that might be," he agrees. Superheroing doesn't exactly require a high school diploma or a bachelor's degree, but it doesn't pay well, either. He's sure he'll need to get a second job, to both earn money and cover up whatever use he employs his abilities for.

He looks back out across the chasm, through the gently drifting snow that never quite seems to make it down on top of them. "I wonder what education was like on Krypton."

"My friend said that the Krypton had a lot of scientific and technological advances, even those that humans had not reached." April snuggled close to him. "So I would imagine their education was very advanced. From our perspective."

Clark nods. From the Kryptonian technology he's seen and interacted with, not to mention the ship that brought him across the galaxy, he figures his people had to be lightyears ahead of Earth. "I wonder if they had school dances, and graduation ceremonies. Or maybe if men and women weren't allowed to be together until they were, I don't know, in an arranged marriage or something." He doesn't know that much about his people, and the closest thing to a fellow Kryptonian he's met so far is Jor-El, but when he was Kal-El he was cold and emotionless. He wasn't interested in women, or sex, or fun, or anything other than following orders. And he can't help but feel like maybe it wasn't all the brainwashing, but his Kryptonian heritage.

"Humans definitely have the right idea with this sort of thing."

"I cam't tell you much about social interaction. The comics change, depending on how old they are. And your best bet would be asking Jor-El about the culture and relationships."

"Needless to say, humans do have a lot of interesting concepts with intimacy. Things that I someday want to explore."

Clark frowns a little. Despite what she said, he still doesn't like the idea of talking to Jor-El about anything. He still hasn't been down to talk to the AI since he got his future self's message, but he knows he can't put it off forever.

At her next statement, however, he's glad that his powers are gone because otherwise his eyes would be threatening to flash gold. "That sounds... adventurous."

Her next comments are a little soft, because even she knows that they can talk about anything, there is still some nervousness. "Did you know that they made edible underwear? And that when I was shopping for costumes for a fall festival, that there were some very adult-themed cheerleading costumes?"

"And then there are those gels and oils and other things that one could add to the bedroom. It seems like a whole new bigger world."

Clark has to laugh, a little awkwardly. "I don't particularly want to eat anyone's underwear." Even if it is sexy.

He is rather intrigued, but the fact that he still hasn't done anything remotely like this is keeping him back. "You said eventually, right? I mean, maybe sometime, but I still want..." Clark's a very vanilla kind of guy. At least, for now. He hasn't had a lot of chance to experiment, for obvious reasons. And while he's not closed to the possibilities, he needs time to adjust.

"Oh I didn't... buy anything. I didn't know if it would appropriate yet. I was just floored by the options. The only thing that I would have buyed would have been the massage oils, to give me a legimate reason to touch you."

"But your muscles don't get sore." She teases slightly. Just to get past the slight awkward point.

"No, I don't," he says, a little quieter, and has to stop himself from touching that place on her neck where he deliberately burned her to stop the bleeding. "But you do." He attempts to put a little flirt into his voice. "And I have to practice my strength." There's still the risk of burning down her apartment, but he'll get to that.

"Yes. You do." April feels all fluttery and walking on air. "After we are done here, we could go back to my place?"

It is a suggestion. And a question.

Clark still isn't ready to take the Big Step, to go on to the Main Event, as it were. But he's pretty sure that's not necessary to having a good time, and there's plenty of other things they can do and still keep the evening PG-13. "Okay," he says, before he can talk himself out of it from nervousness. "Just... practicing touching, not... all of that." The corner of his brain labeled 'teenage boy' is gleefully jumping up and down at the prospect of making out, although the rest of him is reminding himself that he's never done something that blatant and bold without the aid of red kryptonite. Well, there's a first time for everything.

Not to mention he's going to need to figure out a way to not set her on fire. Hands over his eyes can only get him so far.

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