slayers_desire | taking Clark to Rome

The possum attack gets her. And the first flash is a rush of stupidity for falling for it.

Stuck in the headlock. Her weapon too far away, and knowing that physical attacks would be useless against him, April feels another sensation. Defeat.

"Uncle."

He lets her go immediately. He doesn't exactly feel good about winning. "Sorry." Not about defeating her, but because he only got the upper hand through trickery. Someone more arrogant might gloat about not assuming your opponent is out because he's down, but not him.

"You could've used magic against me."

"Don't be sorry. It was a good tactic." April runs a hand through her hair. "A good lesson to remember too."

"I only know a couple of spells. I am no wiccan, it is harder for me."

"It feels like cheating," he admits. "If I was in a fight for my life, yeah, but... I don't know. A good lesson for both of us."

"Can you learn more and practice using them in combat? Or does it not work that way for you?" They haven't discussed magic much besides her use of levitation to assist him in flying, and he doesn't know how magic works in her world. Or in his, for that matter; the three witches weren't very chatty about it.

"It wasn't cheating." April reassures him.

"The thing with magic in this world is while I can easily find a spell and cast it, as long as I can read the text of the spellbook, collect the proper reagents, and properly pronounce the magic words."

"The dangerous part is using magic improperly. Without the right profiency."

"I can do the ones with rituals. But the ones that come from the heart... the ones that belong to the witches are just not part of my gifts."

He listens to her explanation, nodding in the right places. "So combat magic is a natural sort of thing, you either have it or you don't. I guess we'll need to get some weapons pre-spelled before next time," he suggests with a small, hesitant smile. He wants to do everything he can to give her the advantage, and magic is one of the less painful ways to even the odds.

He looks down at the floor where his head struck, and frowns a little. "I think I cracked the floor."

"You have been able to learn more with an even fight, so we will have to utilize the enchanted weapons."

She laughed. "The floor gets a lot of damage. Don't worry about it."

Standing, she offers him her hand. "Shall we continue the tour?"

He laughs a little too. "What's one more dent amongst thousands, huh? At least it won't be hard to explain if someone notices."

He takes her hand, levering himself up off the floor. "Should we put the weapons back first? And, uh, I can try to straighten that sword we broke."

"Such a polite guest," April chuckles. She picks up the good weapons, sliding the bent sword his way. Putting them away, there is still some latent adreline in her body. It makes her feel alive.

She will turn to watch him fix the sword. Her attraction for him is fueled by the demonstration.

"My parents always taught me to clean up after myself," he says with a small grin. And it seems like the polite thing to do.

He picks up the sword, flipping it over to study the bend, before getting a close grip on it where the blade changes direction. Using the flats of his palms, he carefully bends it back the other way, then smooths it out as best as he can with his fingers, taking care not to leave fingerprints in the metal or touch the sharp edge. Not because it will cut him, because it won't, but to avoid it needing resharpened.

Just bending metal like this is easy. He could turn the sword into a pretzel or rip it into tiny bits like taffy. But precision work is difficult, and requires close attention and care.

It's not perfect, and the blade's structural integrity has been weakened from the stress, but it looks almost exactly how it did before it introduced itself to his ankles. He hands it over to her with a flourish.

There is a soft smile from April as she takes the sword from him, and returns it to the rack. Leaving the room as if no one had been here.

"Impressive." April means it too. "Well besides the other rooms, one of which is mine, the other main feature of the villa is the gardens outside."

Clark is quite interested when she mentions her room, but he smiles when she mentions the gardens. "Are they pretty extensive?"

There is a slight temptation to show Clark her room. But butterflies seem to appear in her stomach. "They are beautiful. And seem to go all the way to the ocean. I go out there to look at the stars some nights. And try to find the ones that are the same for our different dimensions."

He gets a warm sort of feeling at the idea that sometimes, they're looking up at the same stars together. Even across different universes. "That sounds fantastic."

"This way. We can reach it from just outside the kitchen. I am fortunate, I have a balcony that opens up to it."

Leading him from the gymnasium, to the kitchen, and then to the backdoor, April opens it into the garden. "Unfortunately it is not night now. But there is still beautiful sunbeams that seem to dance among the flowers."

Clark is totally fine with it not being night. He's very much a creature of the day, as one might expect from a solar-powered alien.

He breathes in deeply of the air, taking in a multitude of scents and sounds, and enjoying the warm sunlight on his skin. "Wow. This is so much better than cornfields."

"I have found that Rome is plentiful with different fruits and flowers." Going into the garden, April finds a grape vine, which is easy to do in Italy. She plucks one and brings it back to Clark.

Holding it out with her hand, "See?"

He smiles, and laughs a little as a sudden thought pops into his head. "We could set up a fresh food exchange. Multidimensional delivery service. And I can say we get our grapes imported directly from Rome," he teases.

"Grow the operations of the Kent farm, hey?" April pops the grape into his mouth. Her own mind thinking of feeding her super hero grapes under the sun.

She has to stop doing that.

"We are high enough you can see the cityscape from over here..."

"Mmm." He can't say he isn't thinking of the same thing, although the other way around.

Clark can't help but think about the windmill, and how they could sit on top and look down at the world and Metropolis far off in the distance. Here, the rest of the city isn't quite so far away, but that only helps to make it seem more real and immediate, with its own unique look and flavor that he's never experienced before. He showed her his world, and now she's showing him hers.

"This is amazing."

"I haven't been in the city-proper much, so unfortunately I can't show you all the sights. But there are plenty of historic sites I am familiar with."

She starts pointing them out. "That is the Colosseum, the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, the Piazza della Repubblica, the Castel Sant' Angelo, and the dome of St. Peter's Basilica."

Clark's telescopic vision gives him an up-close look at each one as she identifies it, and while it isn't quite the same as walking up to them, he gets a good long look at each one. "So many centuries of history, and they're still standing. It's all so different from back home. My family's farm is the oldest in Smallville, and it's only been around for four generations, including me. Here... it feels old. Ancient."

"History is preserved a lot better in Europe, than it is in the States." April moves to his side. Wrapping an arm around his waist. "There is so much history that sometimes it is overwhelming."

He puts his arm around her back, hugging her close to his side. "Well, it has been here longer." He watches the people far away, going about their daily business, like it's just an ordinary day. And it is. "Does Rome have a special significance for the supernatural community? I mean things that the average person wouldn't know about."

"I am not sure. But I have felt a strong power in this place. And there has to be a reason that the Slayers have come here. And other champions of the Powers That Be. And even dark forces."

"We could go to a place where Demons hang out. I could introduce you to a couple of ones that work for the good side."

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