FIC: The Sound of Music
Title: The Sound of Music
Fandom: Smallville
Characters: Clark, Lex, Chloe, and Pete
Rating: G
Summary: Clark is different from humans in a hundred small ways.
Notes: Gen, alien!Clark, short
Chloe likes knowing random facts. It seems to Clark that she knows a little bit about everything, and she's always more than willing to share that knowledge.
Today they're walking next to the lake, and Chloe is talking about bees.
“And they can see in ultraviolet, too,” Chloe says. “A lot of flowers have UV patterns on them that we can't see, guiding the bee to the center of the flower.” She leans to the side of the bath and picks a flower, handing it to Clark. “Take this. Where we would see a boring yellow flower, the bee would see a pattern pointing it to the center.”
Clark looks at the flower. It's white around the edges, fading to dark purple in the middle. He crushes it in his hand and lets it fall to the ground.
Pete likes candy. Hard candy, soft candy, cotton candy, chocolate, he's not picky.
Clark doesn't share his fondness for it. Chocolate leaves a strange taste in his mouth, and cotton candy doesn't taste of anything at all. He doesn't like sweet things in general.
Pete used to make fun of him for that, when they were kids. Who doesn't like sugar? he asked. He doesn't do that anymore, though, because Clark eats it without comment. He knows humans taste something different than he does, and he's never wanted to be an alien.
Lex likes music. Rock music, mostly, but his taste in music is more than a little eclectic. So he's gotten in the habit of taking Clark to whatever concert is playing in Metropolis whenever Clark's parents allow. Occasionally he'll abruptly remember a prior engagement and suggest, unsubtly, that Clark invite Lana along instead.
Clark always goes.
It's not because he likes Radiohead, or the Eagles, or Mozart, or Pete Seeger, but because he likes Lex and Lana. He won't pass up a chance to spend time with either of them.
Still, he wishes Lex would get them tickets to a movie or something next time.
This concert is, apparently, by a band called Evanescence. Lana is nodding along to it with every sign of enjoyment. She's even chorusing along with the words.
“This one's my favourite,” she tells him. To Clark, it sounds remarkably like the one before it, and the one before that, and the one before that - all of which sound remarkably like all of the songs by Radiohead, all of which sound remarkably like all of the songs by the Eagles. (He can tell it's not Mozart because the words are in English.) The main difference, as near as he can tell, is in the type of drugs being sung about.
“Liiiiithium, don't wanna lock me up inside . . .” Lana sings along.
Clark never has understood music, and listening to it makes him uncomfortable. Watching all these people - including the girl he loves - enjoying it so much makes him doubly uncomfortable.
Clark understands the words, and he supposes it's a nice poem, but it would be nicer if half of the syllables weren't drawn out like that and there weren't crashing noises in the background. When it's classical music, there often isn't even a poem at all, just wailing and crashing.
But Lana seems to enjoy it.
Clark has lived on an alien planet for a decade now. It's only at times like this that he realizes it.
Fandom: Smallville
Characters: Clark, Lex, Chloe, and Pete
Rating: G
Summary: Clark is different from humans in a hundred small ways.
Notes: Gen, alien!Clark, short
Chloe likes knowing random facts. It seems to Clark that she knows a little bit about everything, and she's always more than willing to share that knowledge.
Today they're walking next to the lake, and Chloe is talking about bees.
“And they can see in ultraviolet, too,” Chloe says. “A lot of flowers have UV patterns on them that we can't see, guiding the bee to the center of the flower.” She leans to the side of the bath and picks a flower, handing it to Clark. “Take this. Where we would see a boring yellow flower, the bee would see a pattern pointing it to the center.”
Clark looks at the flower. It's white around the edges, fading to dark purple in the middle. He crushes it in his hand and lets it fall to the ground.
Pete likes candy. Hard candy, soft candy, cotton candy, chocolate, he's not picky.
Clark doesn't share his fondness for it. Chocolate leaves a strange taste in his mouth, and cotton candy doesn't taste of anything at all. He doesn't like sweet things in general.
Pete used to make fun of him for that, when they were kids. Who doesn't like sugar? he asked. He doesn't do that anymore, though, because Clark eats it without comment. He knows humans taste something different than he does, and he's never wanted to be an alien.
Lex likes music. Rock music, mostly, but his taste in music is more than a little eclectic. So he's gotten in the habit of taking Clark to whatever concert is playing in Metropolis whenever Clark's parents allow. Occasionally he'll abruptly remember a prior engagement and suggest, unsubtly, that Clark invite Lana along instead.
Clark always goes.
It's not because he likes Radiohead, or the Eagles, or Mozart, or Pete Seeger, but because he likes Lex and Lana. He won't pass up a chance to spend time with either of them.
Still, he wishes Lex would get them tickets to a movie or something next time.
This concert is, apparently, by a band called Evanescence. Lana is nodding along to it with every sign of enjoyment. She's even chorusing along with the words.
“This one's my favourite,” she tells him. To Clark, it sounds remarkably like the one before it, and the one before that, and the one before that - all of which sound remarkably like all of the songs by Radiohead, all of which sound remarkably like all of the songs by the Eagles. (He can tell it's not Mozart because the words are in English.) The main difference, as near as he can tell, is in the type of drugs being sung about.
“Liiiiithium, don't wanna lock me up inside . . .” Lana sings along.
Clark never has understood music, and listening to it makes him uncomfortable. Watching all these people - including the girl he loves - enjoying it so much makes him doubly uncomfortable.
Clark understands the words, and he supposes it's a nice poem, but it would be nicer if half of the syllables weren't drawn out like that and there weren't crashing noises in the background. When it's classical music, there often isn't even a poem at all, just wailing and crashing.
But Lana seems to enjoy it.
Clark has lived on an alien planet for a decade now. It's only at times like this that he realizes it.