Ninth Flight - Clark Kent - Video

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[ Clark gets straight down to business when the video feed starts up. ]

This is going to sound like a really odd request no matter how I put it, and the explanation is almost as weird as the rest of it, but here goes nothing anyway. I need clothes--small people's clothes. Like...kid's clothes, for someone about three foot tall, say.

I know there's

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[under_thehood]

I'll see what I can steal find. [Being subtle because he's pretty sure Bruce will be hacking this.]

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[under_thehood]

[Yeah, Jason's not the best on making sure he eats. Sure, he used his time the past couple days to get things for Clark's new guest, but not to get food for himself. Still, the vigilante makes sure to note that hey maybe the pain in his stomach isn't guilt: it's hunger.]

It wasn't on my list of priorities. [Giving Clark the Bat!pokerface as he pauses.]

How late does he keep you up? [Jason knows from experience that even tough kids cry over the loss of a parent.]

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[ Clark pushes the plate toward the empty chair opposite him. ]

I made too much if he's not hungry.

[ And inclines his head slightly. ]

We sat up for three hours last night drinking hot chocolate and watching cartoons. He fell asleep with Maskie in his lap, licking milk off his shirt. Fortunately I don't sleep nights anyway.

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[under_thehood]

[Jason doesn't even acknowledge the sandwich with a glance.]

Good. [Pause.] He needs that.

[The kid needs something of a normal childhood, someone to love him after such a loss. The vigilante clenches his jaw again before moving toward the front door again. No need to dawdle and make small talk. ]

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[ Clark shifts slightly, twisting his hands together. ]

We can't adopt him, Jason.

[ It's not what he wants to hear, and Clark only hesitantly raises his eyes to look at the back of Jason's head. ]

I know that's how you want this to go, but my citizenship is just paper, and he's a nativeborn kid. He deserves to have a native family to raise him, people who might not disappear by the whims of the Core.

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[under_thehood]

[Jason pauses as his hand touches the doorknob. He took away the kid's nativeborn father and from what he'd learned his mother had never been in the picture. It's too familiar to the vigilante and he wants it to be different, he wants Clark to be able to adopt the kid, to be able to stay here forever, no matter how selfish that might be.]

I'll get on it.

[And pulls open the door.]

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Take the bag with you. If you don't want it, there's a charity collection bin on the corner where you can leave it.

[ Jason is already half way out the door, but Clark catches him with another piercing look. He didn't force the sandwich issue; the least he can do is take the bag. ]

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[under_thehood]

[Jason pauses in the doorway and half-turns to pick up the bag when a coughing attack strikes him. It's a deep cough in his chest and it has him turning back into the apartment to try to find a glass of water. No this can't be happening now. He can't be getting sick, especially not in front of someone who will badger him about it. ]

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[ And Clark is there in moments, a glass of water in his hand, pressing it into Jason's, the other arm across his back. ]

That cough doesn't sound right.

[ And now he was touching him, he could feel that Jason's skin was hot--positively burning. ]

Sit down.

[ An order, not a request. ]

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[under_thehood]

[Jason accepts the glass of water and greedily gulps it down, trying to quell the fit. He'd started feeling like crap a couple nights ago on patrol but almost wholly ignored it. Taking time off for the flu was stupid and a waste of his time. When he can properly breathe again, the teenager firmly shakes his head.]

No. [His voice is far more deep and hoarse than it usually is as he's trying to push Clark's arm off of him.] I've got things to do.

[Setting the glass back down on the table, he's about to attempt to leave again.]

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[ Clark is ready, twirling the key to the door around one finger. He's also digging through the medicine cabinet. ]

Yeah, and so have I, but there's a child in the other room that takes priority over both of us. I'm not having you dying of hypothermia and leaving me to tidy this whole thing up.

[ A moment later a bottle of cough medicine is placed on the table in front of Jason. ]

Two capfulls every four hours, starting now, and not including when you're asleep.

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[under_thehood]

I know how to take care of myself. [Well normally that's mostly true, but the cough and not having eaten in a day or so states otherwise. He's been busy and his mission has come first before personal health. Cough syrup, the vigilante knows, will make him drowsy and drowsy means mistakes. He can't make mistakes. ] Stop trying to be motherly.

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[ Too bad, because he's already made the chicken soup, and now he's dropping into Jason's lap like an anchor. ]

Fine. Stop being motherly, check. How does irritating won't-take-no-for-an-answer older brother sound?

[ Because all that Kryptonian muscle that is ever so beautifully light when he's feeling himself, is converted to human bulk, and it's like Jason having three men his own weight suddenly dropped on him. ]

You're taking this medicine, and then you're going to drink the soup, and if you don't I'll just stay right here until you get tired--or until Lois comes home and starts asking awkward questions. Or I guess I could feed you like a baby, and I'm pretty sure you're older than that boy in the other room, even if you have trouble acting like it sometimes.

The medicine and the soup, Jason. You owe me, and I'm never going to let you forget it.

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[under_thehood]

I already have an older brother and he doesn't give a shit.

[While Jason doesn't outright hate Dick, he's gotten a glimpse of just how much the older man seems to hate him in the future and Dick was one of the few people that Jason really looked up to as a kid. Still, his thoughts are interrupted by Clark sitting on his lap. Wait, what? There's no way this is happening. Anger takes over his expression quickly darkening his gaze and he does his best to act like the incredibly close proximity doesn't bug him.]

So it's blackmail.

[Still not even touching the medicine or the soup.]

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You already have an older brother, Jason, who is currently younger than you, and a decade out of his comfort zone. The roles are reversed here, and so far you've been doing a horrible job of being an older brother all on your own.

[ He picks up the bottle, and raises it between them expectantly, and then he's down, sitting at Jason's side--still close enough to stop him if he tried to leave. ]

I never had brothers, younger or older. It was all I wanted for years, and then one day, when my mum was pregnant and it looked like I might finally not be an only child any more, my spaceship killed him. He was never born, never cried. I never got to see my mum hold him and smile, or teach him to play ball with my dad. And I felt like such a monster. I wasn't their real son; he was. I was just an alien freak who'd ruined all their lives and killed the real Clark Kent, and they couldn't possibly love me

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[under_thehood]

[Jason ignores as much of the story as he can, set on disrespecting Clark as much as possible. As it is, the vigilante doesn't really consider anyone here family.They all hate him and he hates them. Convenient. Not even Bruce anymore, especially after getting such a disturbing look into the future. Things never get better. Why try here? Not the real son. Well, there's some small connection there; Jason's wildly jealous of Damian some days. He got to be acknowledged by his former father. Jason had to be bleeding or dead to get the same attention. Clark's mention of turning into 'someone like him' makes the vigilante bristle internally but clamps down on the external reaction. Jason didn't have people who came to talk sense into him, except Clark. Plan to get to the door first. Ignore the boy scout.]

It's just a cold, Superfreak. [He wishes he could just leave already. Jason knows all about what can take a person down and he knows how to deal with a cold like a normal person.]