The much awaited (I hope!) chapter four is here! Just a reminder that parts outlined in (***) are flashbacks. Thanks again to Nancy for making this chapter to be so much better than it originally was. I hope everyone enjoys!
PART FOUR
Despite his hasty departure, Supernova came back the next night. And the next night. Each time, he brought some kind of exotic rock specimen; stunning geodes, ocean-smoothed pumice, dull grey rocks that were flecked with semi-precious stones. He would always try to brush off the effort nonchalantly.
“I was helping with the rescue efforts in Peru and…” He’d say. Or:
“I often go deep sea diving, and when I saw this I thought you might like it.”
I always had some kind of bizarre task that I desperately needed ‘help’ with.
“I have to get thirty of these done by tomorrow. And no, you can’t use super-speed because…” And:
“I’ve been reading this book on feng shui and I think that the furniture in my apartment would be better suited if…”
We played the game for over two weeks. The start of something I felt that night among the chemicals intensified. I was constantly aware of his presence in the room. He would accidentally brush his hand against mine and there would be a surge of heat rushing through me. Instead of wearing my typical sweats and pushing my hair into a ponytail I started putting extra effort into my after-work clothing. I went shopping and bought a pair of fantastic body hugging jeans and I paired them with low-cut camisoles and flattering yet casual t-shirts. When I turned around after getting something out of the cupboard, I would often catch Supernova guiltily lowering his gaze, and I knew that my efforts had paid off. Yet we never said anything. It was ridiculous really; two grown adults skittering around their feelings, afraid to be the first one to say something. Finally, I decided to work up the courage and say something.
Supernova was helping me make artificial fossils with papier-mâché at my kitchen table and I was being extremely virtuous in ignoring the fact that his knee was mere millimeters from my thigh.
“Supernova,” I asked, trying to disguise the shaking in my voice, “do they have flowers on Krypton?”
“Uh…”
“Or New Krypton, I guess.”
“Why do you want to know?” His expression was guarded.
“Well,” I began, my heart racing, “here on Earth when a guy’s trying to ask a girl out on a date he brings her flowers.” He stared straight at me with a frozen expression on his face. I should’ve stopped talking then, but my mouth had already run away with me. “Now, I love the rocks, don’t get me wrong, but we’re actually finishing off our Geology unit tomorrow. We’re moving on to Entomology and as much as I like you, the minute you start bringing dead bugs into my apartment, I’m locking my door.” He opened his mouth to say something, but I was so far gone by then that I barely noticed. “But you don’t even have to bring flowers if you don’t want to. You can just come. Just you. And I would like that too. Actually, I would like that a lot.” Finally, I stopped talking and just looked at him, holding my breath. There was a beat of silence before he grabbed hold of my head and pulled it towards his own, meeting me in the middle for one of those wild, passionate, bruising kisses that feature largely in romance novels. But I barely had enough time to absorb what was happening before a rush of air blew across the room, and I was left sitting alone. I looked to find Supernova standing on the opposite side of the room, looking horrified.
“Kaylie, I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have done that. I should’ve…” He jittered on the spot, and passed his hand through his hair roughly over and over again.
“What’s going on?” I asked him nervously.
“Look, Kaylie, there’s nothing more I would like to do than start a relationship with you right now. You’re smart and funny and charming and perfect and beautiful as anything.” I blushed at his praise, yet was still confused as to where he was taking this. “But I can’t lie to you like this!” he exclaimed. “There are things about me that you don’t know, and I can’t keep them from you and I can’t tell you either. It’s just too much of a risk. But we can’t have a future like this, I know that. I should’ve stopped coming over here; I should’ve done it differently. I really wish I had.” He paced frantically back and forth, and somewhere in all his confused ramblings something clicked.
“This is about your other identity, isn’t it?” I asked softly. He whirled around and stared wide-eyed at me.
“How did you know?” he asked hoarsely. I gestured for him to sit down again at the table. He cautiously lowered himself into his chair, never taking his eyes off me.
“First of all,” I began, “I didn’t know for sure until about two seconds ago when you asked how I knew.”
“Oh.”
“Now I’m sure you know that there are multiple theories as to the origins of you and your sister. The most popular is that you’ve been living on New Krypton until you came of age, and then traveled to Earth to join your father.” I spoke slowly, piecing the evidence together for myself as I continued. “But a much less popular theory is that Superman has a wife or lover here on Earth and that you were born and raised here, only making a public debut when you were old enough. Of course for that to work, you would’ve had to have another identity, one you used while you were growing up to appear just like everyone else.”
“Kaylie-”
“I’m not finished yet!” I took a deep breath to gather my thoughts and then continued. “Now your conduct in public leaves nothing to raise suspicions, don’t worry about that. But the way you act around me is decidedly different from the way you act in public. I can only assume that when we’re spending time together you’re acting like your true self, the way you are when you hang up your cape.” He nodded reluctantly. “Not to mention the amount of time you’ve been spending here in the last few weeks. If you have time to spend hours on end at my apartment, then you obviously don’t spend the entire day saving people. You must have somewhere to go when there are no emergencies.” Supernova looked me sheepishly.
“Are you mad?” he asked. I suppose he assumed that any normal, well adjusted girl would be flipping her lid right now, but I’d pretty much grown up around secret identities and undercover agents so this really held no shock for me. But of course I didn’t tell him all this.
“Of course I’m not mad.” I rolled my eyes. “But this doesn’t mean we can’t date.”
“Kaylie, my other life is more than just a name I use to blend in. It’s who I am. I have a job, an apartment, friends, and a whole life. My sister, my dad, and I all have lives outside of our hero work, but that’s who we really are. If I were to start dating you as Supernova it would be a dishonest. I can’t have that kind of relationship with you.” I shook my head.
“Look, you’re going about this the wrong way. You are being honest with me; you’re just not being entirely open.” He looked at me skeptically.
“I don’t see how there’s a difference.”
“I don’t need to know what your name is, where you live, what your job is, and all that stuff in order to have a relationship with you. That’s all just trivia compared to your personality and your character. And that I do know.” Supernova chewed on his bottom lip.
“I don’t know Kaylie…”
“Well I do. I know that we can give this a shot.”
“And how exactly does ‘this’ work?”
“Well, you ask me on a date. And I know we can’t exactly go to the Italian place down the street, but you’re Supernova, I’m sure you can think of something.” He gave a small smile.
“And then?”
“And then we go. And then we take it from there. If the time comes when you want to tell me who you are, then you will. But I promise I won’t try to investigate you or invade your privacy in any way. I’ll wait for you to be ready.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you Kaylie…”
“I know. It’s not about whether or not I can keep a secret. This is the kind of secret that can only be told to a few people no matter how trustworthy the other ones are. It’s too big of a risk to tell people. Both for yourself and for the other person. I know that. And I also know that if you were to tell me right now it would put too much stress on us. I don’t need to know right now, and I’m willing to wait.” Supernova gave me an amazed smile.
“How can you be so understanding, Kaylie? It’s incredible.”
“Everyone has secrets.” I licked my lips nervously “You don’t know everything about me either. I have… secrets too.” But my comment must’ve been too cryptic for him. He just grinned mischievously at me.
“Ah, yes. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of skeletons in your closet. Multiple complaints of trespassing, assault charges from the local criminal population. You must have quite a record. But don’t worry; I’ll learn to deal with any curveballs you throw in my direction.” I should’ve told him then that my curveball was going to feel more like a massive blow to the head that would leave him seeing stars for weeks after. But I didn’t.
“I’ll hold you to it,” was all I said quietly. I would tell him everything later. “There is one thing…” I began.
“What?”
“Well, I feel kind of silly calling you Supernova now when we both know that’s not your real name.”
“What’s wrong with Spaceboy?” he teased. I shook my head.
“I need something that you can give me. It doesn’t have to be your real name or anything,” I rushed to explain. “Just something I can call you that means you.” He paused, thinking.
“You can call me Jor,” he suggested. “It’s the name of my Kryptonian grandfather, and since I was named after my grandfather here on Earth it kind of parallels.”
“I like Jor,” I told him. I reached out and tentatively touched his hand. He picked my hand up and laced my fingers through his. “So there’s something else we need to settle between the two of us, *Jor*.”
“And that is?”
“When are we going on our first date?”
“Mmm… A very difficult conundrum.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Is tomorrow evening too soon for you?”
“Nope,” I smiled. “Oh. No, wait. I have a thing tomorrow evening. I can’t get out of it. How about the day after?”
“All right. I’ll pick you up here at seven?” I nodded. “Now is everything settled to your liking or do you have any other requests?”
“One more thing.”
“And that is?”
“Don’t you think it’s about time we kissed?”
Have you ever experienced that fantastic moment when you’re working on a jigsaw puzzle, and you suddenly fit together two pieces that previously seemed impossible to match? You try them in every which way, and nothing works until suddenly with a twist of one and a turn of the other they plunk magically together in the exact way that they were originally cut.
That’s the way that that kiss felt. It fit.
* * *
***Jon swung the axe over his shoulder and brought it down hard on the chunk of wood which splintered sharply. He worked at normal speed as he always did. It made him feel more human, even though the lack of sweat and his ability to keep his breath betrayed his Kryptonian heritage.
“I still don’t understand why you insist on doing it the boring way,” a voice remarked from the trees. He glanced up to see his sister perched on a branch, looking down on him.
“Ellie!” he exclaimed. “Happy Birthday! Where’s Dad?” Their father had always insisted that he accompany Ellie on any cross-country flying expeditions in case she got lost or ran into trouble. He didn’t need to worry about such rules with Jon because Jon hardly ever flew anywhere.
“I came solo,” Ellie announced. “It’s a birthday perk. Now that I’m sixteen, Dad’s letting me fly alone anywhere in the country.” Jon shook his head incredulously. His sister’s eager acceptance of superpowers was never something he could understand.
“Most girls at sixteen are hoping for a car, you know.”
“Well then I guess it’s a good thing I’m not most girls. Otherwise, I’d be disappointed.” She gave Jon a cheeky grin and floated down to his level. Jon continued his chopping at his previous speed.
“So you get national privileges at sixteen. What happens at eighteen?” *Thwack* The axe bit into the wood.
“World-wide passport, my dearest brother! Imagine being able to fly to China or France or Antarctica whenever I want to!” She gave an extended sigh of longing. “Then when I’m twenty, I’ll start working with dad in the ‘family business’.” Jon paused in his chopping and looked over at Ellie.
“Really? You’ve decided you’re going to do it?”
“Yep! The only thing left to decide is what name I’ll pick. Mom says she’ll print whatever name I want when she writes up the exclusive. What do you think about Shooting Star?”
“I dunno…”
“I think I want something from space. Dad thinks it’s a good idea too, cause then people are more likely to associate me with space rather than Earth. How about Nebula? Or maybe-”
“What about Uranus?” Ellie gave Jon a well deserved smack.
“Really mature, Jon. Thanks a lot. Aren’t you supposed to be setting a good example for me or something?”
“I’m just being a good brother. What kind of brother would I be if I didn’t tease you incessantly?”
“Speaking of being a good brother…”
“Yeah?”
“Are you coming tonight?” She looked hesitantly at him. Jon felt a stab of guilt in his gut.
“Of course I’ll be there, Ellie. It’s your birthday party.”
“It’s just that you hardly ever come to visit us in Metropolis. And you’re moving away to college next month.” She scuffed her shoe in the ground. “I guess I’m just afraid I’ll never see you again.”
“Ellie, of course we’ll still see each other.” Ellie lifted her head to meet his gaze as he continued to reassure her. “We always get together for holidays don’t we? And now that you have your flying license, do you really think I’ll be able to hide from you?” She grinned shyly.
“I guess not. And you can always fly home to us,” she remarked pointedly. Jon sighed.
“Ellie, you know I don’t like doing that. I only fly when I have to.”
“I know you do. It’s just silly that you don’t want to you your natural abilities.” She looked at him slyly. “I think I know the real reason why you won’t fly.”
“Why’s that?”
“I’m faster than you and you’re afraid of being beaten by a girl.” Jon scoffed. Old feelings of sibling rivalry began simmering in his stomach.
“Yeah right. I’m older than you; I’ve been able to fly for longer.”
“Yeah, but I’ve had much more practice,” she said smugly. “I’ve flown across the globe. You only fly between Smallville and Metropolis.”
“Sorry, Ellie. In this case, age rules over experience.” Ellie stood with her arms crossed, examining Jon critically.
“There’s only one way to settle this,” she announced with a gleam in her eye.
“No way, Ellie. I don’t do that remember?”
“Wow, you really are a chicken, aren’t you?” Her taunting face egged him on. Finally, he gave a small nod of assent. Ellie’s face split into a grin. “First one to the Grand Canyon wins. On your mark… Get set…***
