Fanfiction for noellesullivan: Limits, Ch 1
A) title = Limits
B) type = fic, 8000 words
C) summary = There are things about Kryptonian puberty Clark never told Chloe. (Spans series, including middle school Chlark)
D) other pairings = Lois Lane/Oliver Queen
E) for whom = noellesullivan
F) prompt = middle school Clark abs Chloe, amusement park rides
Limits
September 3, 2000
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Chloe shouted, glaring back at the carny. “I’m this close to being five feet tall. Can’t I just ride on the Flaming Tornado anyway?” She narrowed her eyes at the guy and stuck her hands on her hips.
Clark thought the whole thing was ridiculous. The guy Chloe was trying to argue with was tall, had tons of muscles and more tattoo ink on his skin than normal parts. He also had some kind of bar through his nose. Clearly, he wasn’t going to be upset because a couple of eighth graders were mad at him.
“The ride says five feet. I measured; you and your boyfriend are too short. Those are the rules.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend. Second, let me see your yard stick more closely. I think you have faulty equipment.”
“You’re too small. The kiddie rides are a few aisles over, kids, so move on!”
The little blonde fury next to him was about to fling herself onto the guy, when Clark moved maybe a little faster than a normal guy would have and caught her. His parents could kill him later. He was trying to keep his new friend and the strangest girl he’d ever met from trying to beat up a carnival worker.
“Clark, come on! Let me at him!”
He blushed and stammered back at the other guy. “I’m sorry. She gets, uh, very determined.”
The carny snickered. “You have quite the spitfire on your hands. If she were a few years older…”
“Ewww!” Chloe said. “Figures. Come on, Clark, let’s just go back to your house. There’s no point in being here if we can’t go on the coolest ride.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. Good, since she’d heard about the Labor Day Carnival, Chloe’d been insisting they do all the rides and the Ferris wheel. Since he was terrified of heights, Clark had been dreading this day since Monday. Now that he could just go back to the swimming hole, he was more than happy. Besides, even if she’d kissed him two weeks ago and been all weird about that guy calling them a couple (and yeah they weren’t), swimming would be awesome. Then he’d get to see her again in a swimsuit, and she was awfully pretty.
It kind of made his eyes itch, which was weird, but what wasn’t with him?
“Alright, killer,” he said, taking her back to the farmer’s market section of the fair. He’d just get his dad to drive them back home for a while. “Let’s go swimming.”
**
“Seriously,” Chloe said, green eyes glittering back at him from where she popped up out of the swimming hole. “That sucked.”
“It would have sucked worse if you tried to beat that guy up.”
“I would have been fine. My cousin, Lois, she’s an army brat and I spend lots of time visiting her on the base. She taught me already how to break someone’s nose. I could have taken him.”
Chloe was short, even shorter than he was, and she probably didn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds. He was pretty sure she could not, in fact, break someone’s nose. Clark could. He never had, but he could lift the tractor and accidentally shattered his door slamming it last week. His parents had always taught him to be gentle, and it had been a long struggle to figure out how to hide his strength, especially when he was small, so that he didn’t hurt them or run the risk of hurting other kids.
It was why he’d never done things like scouts or little league.
Still, he couldn’t imagine bragging about breaking someone’s nose like that or any other bone for that matter. Yeah, he doubted Chloe could do it, but he had no doubt she’d wanted to try.
“You’ve got a really bad temper,” he pointed out, laying back in a dead man’s float in his pool.
“So? He was discriminating against the vertically challenged. That’s wrong!”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not a thing.”
“Anyway,” she huffed, splashing him a little. “You don’t have to act so relieved. I know you’re scared of the big rides, but they’d have been fun. I’d have protected you.”
He angled his neck enough to glare back at her. “Pete’s a squealer.”
“Yes, but you’re so obvious, Clark. You have no secrets from me at all.”
If only she knew…
“I don’t like heights so I don’t see what the big deal is about roller coasters or stuff like that. Look, it’s a nice day, the sun’s out.”
And that always made him feel awesome. He couldn’t explain that any more than he could explain his strength or speed. It was just true. He had so much energy in summer that he literally didn’t have to sleep. He’d tried it. He’d gotten through a week before Mom figured out what he was doing and told him he had to stop his experiment or face extra mucking duties for a year. He always got depressed in winter and slept extra long. It just was one of those him-things. Still, the best was a day like today when the sun was as warm and inviting as ever.
“I’m a Sullivan. We’re Irish and we burn. So we’re not staying out here all day.”
“We could try,” he pouted.
“I’ll humor you a little more. I just…one day, I’m going to be the best investigative reporter the Planet’s ever seen. Then I’ll take that stupid carnival down, expose the way they bait and switch kids. You’ll see.”
“There isn’t evil lurking around every corner. Gosh, were you this weird in Metropolis?” he asked, laying back in the water.
She didn’t answer right away but he did notice a loud amount of splashing and then the sound of her feet slapping across the stones by the hole where they’d left their clothes.
“Huh?” he sat up then and noticed she’d already shoved on her t-shirt and her jeans. “What did I do?”
“Really?” she said and now her chin was jutting out defiantly in that way she had, and Clark wondered if she wanted to break his nose. “That was really rude, farmboy. I’m not weird. Dad says I’m ‘eccentric.’”
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I was just frustrated. You’re still on the same thing and it’s been like two hours. You can learn to let things go.”
“That’s not what reporters do, dummy. We follow the lead until we prove everything.”
Clark slid out of the water and went over to where she was gathering up her towel. Even if he was mostly scared she’d leave, a small part of him was nervous about what she said. He’d already done something his parents would kill him for by getting that book for her, but she hadn’t seen him speed, just kind of doubted he’d had it laying around. Still, he wondered if that meant she might one day try and prove things about him too.
Sighing, he took her towel back out of her hands. “Chloe, I’m sorry. I was rude.”
“Yeah, you really were, and that sucks. The guy was mean to you, too. I’m sure you’ll have a real growth spurt too, and then you’ll be just like your dad. He’s practically a tree!”
He swallowed and dropped her towel. “Uh, yeah, about that.”
“Huh?” she asked, her anger abating. Chloe got that way when she sensed something interesting was coming. The girl was obsessed with hoarding information.
“I’m adopted. I thought I mentioned it by now.”
“Nope, pretty sure I’d have filed that away.”
See, definitely obsessed with facts and stories.
“Oh, well, I am. My parents got me after the big shower when I was three. So I could just end up short. I really don’t know much about my birth family at all. Mom and Dad say even when I get to be eighteen that my records are sealed so there’s no point.”
Chloe frowned and patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be. I love my parents. They’re the best, and I really don’t think I could have better ones out there.”
“Your mom does make great pie,” Chloe conceded. “And your dad’s mostly nice.”
Clark blushed. His parents were kind of weird with Chloe. They’d been super nice to her when she came over to see the farm. Then she mentioned she wanted to be a reporter like her mom had been before she’d left her dad. Then Mom and Dad got all quiet and kind of short with her. Not rude, just not saying much.
He got it. Okay, he definitely did. He was weird but Chloe wasn’t going to write some expose on him right this second, either.
“Yeah, exactly,” he said, deciding not to focus too much on the odd tension that happened whenever Chloe came over. “So I just honestly forgot to tell you because I never think about them.”
“Never?” she asked. “I mean, my mom left five years ago, but sometimes I still wonder where she is or what she’s doing. Mostly, I hope her life sucks without me and Daddy, but I wonder.”
Clark sighed and picked up his own towel. He wasn’t in the mood to swim anymore. “Nah, Chloe, they’re gone so what’s the point?”
“It doesn’t have a point. It just happens sometimes. I don’t want to think about my mom but I do because she’s just not there. Besides, I dunno, I’ll do something or say something and Daddy will say it reminds him of Mom. I kind of wonder how much like her I am. It’s just something I can’t quite stop even if I hate her.”
“You can’t hate your mom!” he shouted, shocked that anyone could feel that way.
“She left so why wouldn’t I hate her? Your parents could be like Lana’s, though, maybe they died. Mom left because she wanted to, and your birth parents probably didn’t want to let you go, especially if you were that old. I mean, aren’t you ever curious?”
Clark swallowed. Hard. Of course he wondered about his parents. He thought about them every day, not that he’d tell his Mom and Dad that. It would just hurt their feelings, and they really were the best. After all, they’d brought home a defective kid. They had no idea he was fast or strong or just weird when they adopted him. They never once made him feel bad or different, just protected him and loved him. He was super lucky.
But he did wonder all the time anyway. Chloe wasn’t wrong. Were they like him? Were they strong and fast too, at least one of them? Is that where he got it from? Worse, though, were they normal too but knew what he was? Is that why they gave him away? He was very worried, deep down even if he never told his parents, that his biological ones had known exactly what was wrong with him, and that’s why he wasn’t with them anymore.
“Clark?” Chloe asked, and her voice was quiet and soft. “I’m sorry. I talked too much. I, uh, do that a lot.”
He grinned. “No really?”
“Well, you don’t talk a lot so we even out,” she admitted. “I won’t talk about my mom again if you don’t want to ever talk about being adopted. It’s okay. I just sometimes I think too much.”
He shrugged and gave her a quick side hug, just slung his arm over her shoulder the way he would Pete. “No, I do too, and, honestly, Chloe? I worry they sent me away.”
“Nah, that’s nuts,” she said, breaking away and picking up her bag. “Why would anyone do that?”
Because I’m not normal, and I really hope you’ll never really notice that.
**
Chapter 2...
B) type = fic, 8000 words
C) summary = There are things about Kryptonian puberty Clark never told Chloe. (Spans series, including middle school Chlark)
D) other pairings = Lois Lane/Oliver Queen
E) for whom = noellesullivan
F) prompt = middle school Clark abs Chloe, amusement park rides
Limits
September 3, 2000
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Chloe shouted, glaring back at the carny. “I’m this close to being five feet tall. Can’t I just ride on the Flaming Tornado anyway?” She narrowed her eyes at the guy and stuck her hands on her hips.
Clark thought the whole thing was ridiculous. The guy Chloe was trying to argue with was tall, had tons of muscles and more tattoo ink on his skin than normal parts. He also had some kind of bar through his nose. Clearly, he wasn’t going to be upset because a couple of eighth graders were mad at him.
“The ride says five feet. I measured; you and your boyfriend are too short. Those are the rules.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend. Second, let me see your yard stick more closely. I think you have faulty equipment.”
“You’re too small. The kiddie rides are a few aisles over, kids, so move on!”
The little blonde fury next to him was about to fling herself onto the guy, when Clark moved maybe a little faster than a normal guy would have and caught her. His parents could kill him later. He was trying to keep his new friend and the strangest girl he’d ever met from trying to beat up a carnival worker.
“Clark, come on! Let me at him!”
He blushed and stammered back at the other guy. “I’m sorry. She gets, uh, very determined.”
The carny snickered. “You have quite the spitfire on your hands. If she were a few years older…”
“Ewww!” Chloe said. “Figures. Come on, Clark, let’s just go back to your house. There’s no point in being here if we can’t go on the coolest ride.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. Good, since she’d heard about the Labor Day Carnival, Chloe’d been insisting they do all the rides and the Ferris wheel. Since he was terrified of heights, Clark had been dreading this day since Monday. Now that he could just go back to the swimming hole, he was more than happy. Besides, even if she’d kissed him two weeks ago and been all weird about that guy calling them a couple (and yeah they weren’t), swimming would be awesome. Then he’d get to see her again in a swimsuit, and she was awfully pretty.
It kind of made his eyes itch, which was weird, but what wasn’t with him?
“Alright, killer,” he said, taking her back to the farmer’s market section of the fair. He’d just get his dad to drive them back home for a while. “Let’s go swimming.”
**
“Seriously,” Chloe said, green eyes glittering back at him from where she popped up out of the swimming hole. “That sucked.”
“It would have sucked worse if you tried to beat that guy up.”
“I would have been fine. My cousin, Lois, she’s an army brat and I spend lots of time visiting her on the base. She taught me already how to break someone’s nose. I could have taken him.”
Chloe was short, even shorter than he was, and she probably didn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds. He was pretty sure she could not, in fact, break someone’s nose. Clark could. He never had, but he could lift the tractor and accidentally shattered his door slamming it last week. His parents had always taught him to be gentle, and it had been a long struggle to figure out how to hide his strength, especially when he was small, so that he didn’t hurt them or run the risk of hurting other kids.
It was why he’d never done things like scouts or little league.
Still, he couldn’t imagine bragging about breaking someone’s nose like that or any other bone for that matter. Yeah, he doubted Chloe could do it, but he had no doubt she’d wanted to try.
“You’ve got a really bad temper,” he pointed out, laying back in a dead man’s float in his pool.
“So? He was discriminating against the vertically challenged. That’s wrong!”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not a thing.”
“Anyway,” she huffed, splashing him a little. “You don’t have to act so relieved. I know you’re scared of the big rides, but they’d have been fun. I’d have protected you.”
He angled his neck enough to glare back at her. “Pete’s a squealer.”
“Yes, but you’re so obvious, Clark. You have no secrets from me at all.”
If only she knew…
“I don’t like heights so I don’t see what the big deal is about roller coasters or stuff like that. Look, it’s a nice day, the sun’s out.”
And that always made him feel awesome. He couldn’t explain that any more than he could explain his strength or speed. It was just true. He had so much energy in summer that he literally didn’t have to sleep. He’d tried it. He’d gotten through a week before Mom figured out what he was doing and told him he had to stop his experiment or face extra mucking duties for a year. He always got depressed in winter and slept extra long. It just was one of those him-things. Still, the best was a day like today when the sun was as warm and inviting as ever.
“I’m a Sullivan. We’re Irish and we burn. So we’re not staying out here all day.”
“We could try,” he pouted.
“I’ll humor you a little more. I just…one day, I’m going to be the best investigative reporter the Planet’s ever seen. Then I’ll take that stupid carnival down, expose the way they bait and switch kids. You’ll see.”
“There isn’t evil lurking around every corner. Gosh, were you this weird in Metropolis?” he asked, laying back in the water.
She didn’t answer right away but he did notice a loud amount of splashing and then the sound of her feet slapping across the stones by the hole where they’d left their clothes.
“Huh?” he sat up then and noticed she’d already shoved on her t-shirt and her jeans. “What did I do?”
“Really?” she said and now her chin was jutting out defiantly in that way she had, and Clark wondered if she wanted to break his nose. “That was really rude, farmboy. I’m not weird. Dad says I’m ‘eccentric.’”
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I was just frustrated. You’re still on the same thing and it’s been like two hours. You can learn to let things go.”
“That’s not what reporters do, dummy. We follow the lead until we prove everything.”
Clark slid out of the water and went over to where she was gathering up her towel. Even if he was mostly scared she’d leave, a small part of him was nervous about what she said. He’d already done something his parents would kill him for by getting that book for her, but she hadn’t seen him speed, just kind of doubted he’d had it laying around. Still, he wondered if that meant she might one day try and prove things about him too.
Sighing, he took her towel back out of her hands. “Chloe, I’m sorry. I was rude.”
“Yeah, you really were, and that sucks. The guy was mean to you, too. I’m sure you’ll have a real growth spurt too, and then you’ll be just like your dad. He’s practically a tree!”
He swallowed and dropped her towel. “Uh, yeah, about that.”
“Huh?” she asked, her anger abating. Chloe got that way when she sensed something interesting was coming. The girl was obsessed with hoarding information.
“I’m adopted. I thought I mentioned it by now.”
“Nope, pretty sure I’d have filed that away.”
See, definitely obsessed with facts and stories.
“Oh, well, I am. My parents got me after the big shower when I was three. So I could just end up short. I really don’t know much about my birth family at all. Mom and Dad say even when I get to be eighteen that my records are sealed so there’s no point.”
Chloe frowned and patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be. I love my parents. They’re the best, and I really don’t think I could have better ones out there.”
“Your mom does make great pie,” Chloe conceded. “And your dad’s mostly nice.”
Clark blushed. His parents were kind of weird with Chloe. They’d been super nice to her when she came over to see the farm. Then she mentioned she wanted to be a reporter like her mom had been before she’d left her dad. Then Mom and Dad got all quiet and kind of short with her. Not rude, just not saying much.
He got it. Okay, he definitely did. He was weird but Chloe wasn’t going to write some expose on him right this second, either.
“Yeah, exactly,” he said, deciding not to focus too much on the odd tension that happened whenever Chloe came over. “So I just honestly forgot to tell you because I never think about them.”
“Never?” she asked. “I mean, my mom left five years ago, but sometimes I still wonder where she is or what she’s doing. Mostly, I hope her life sucks without me and Daddy, but I wonder.”
Clark sighed and picked up his own towel. He wasn’t in the mood to swim anymore. “Nah, Chloe, they’re gone so what’s the point?”
“It doesn’t have a point. It just happens sometimes. I don’t want to think about my mom but I do because she’s just not there. Besides, I dunno, I’ll do something or say something and Daddy will say it reminds him of Mom. I kind of wonder how much like her I am. It’s just something I can’t quite stop even if I hate her.”
“You can’t hate your mom!” he shouted, shocked that anyone could feel that way.
“She left so why wouldn’t I hate her? Your parents could be like Lana’s, though, maybe they died. Mom left because she wanted to, and your birth parents probably didn’t want to let you go, especially if you were that old. I mean, aren’t you ever curious?”
Clark swallowed. Hard. Of course he wondered about his parents. He thought about them every day, not that he’d tell his Mom and Dad that. It would just hurt their feelings, and they really were the best. After all, they’d brought home a defective kid. They had no idea he was fast or strong or just weird when they adopted him. They never once made him feel bad or different, just protected him and loved him. He was super lucky.
But he did wonder all the time anyway. Chloe wasn’t wrong. Were they like him? Were they strong and fast too, at least one of them? Is that where he got it from? Worse, though, were they normal too but knew what he was? Is that why they gave him away? He was very worried, deep down even if he never told his parents, that his biological ones had known exactly what was wrong with him, and that’s why he wasn’t with them anymore.
“Clark?” Chloe asked, and her voice was quiet and soft. “I’m sorry. I talked too much. I, uh, do that a lot.”
He grinned. “No really?”
“Well, you don’t talk a lot so we even out,” she admitted. “I won’t talk about my mom again if you don’t want to ever talk about being adopted. It’s okay. I just sometimes I think too much.”
He shrugged and gave her a quick side hug, just slung his arm over her shoulder the way he would Pete. “No, I do too, and, honestly, Chloe? I worry they sent me away.”
“Nah, that’s nuts,” she said, breaking away and picking up her bag. “Why would anyone do that?”
Because I’m not normal, and I really hope you’ll never really notice that.
**
Chapter 2...