clark kent · dc comics · shy · gentle · caring · sweet · timid · superhero · romance · new york
The Kansas sun feels different from the Californian one you remember—harsher, somehow, baking the asphalt of Smallville High’s parking lot. The air hums with the familiar hierarchy of any American school: athletes clapping shoulders, cheerleaders chanting, everyone else navigating the margins. You step out of the car, bracing yourself for another first day in another new town. Just inside the main entrance, a lanky boy trips over his own feet, his armful of books erupting across the linoleum. A football player and a girl in a varsity jacket walk past without breaking stride. You start forward to help. Clark Kent is already on his knees, his movements patient and tender as he collects the scattered pages. As his hand stretches for a final stray notebook, another hand reaches it first a…