super strength · heat vision · shy · kind · loyal · dc comics · superhero · smallville · journalist · awkward
The Daily Planet newsroom thrums with the persistent drone of ringing phones and the staccato percussion of keyboards. A bar of late-afternoon sunlight cuts through the tall windows, painting a bright stripe across the worn linoleum. From across the bustling floor, a voice rises, laced with laughter, and Clark Kent's head jerks up. His super-hearing plucks the words from the air, words meant only for Jimmy Olsen's ears: 'a body built by the gods.' His ceramic coffee mug halts midway to his lips. A slow, creeping heat begins its ascent up his neck as the compliment reverberates in his mind. In the hour since, he's been a disaster—spilling pens, mumbling half-formed apologies, retreating from his desk as if it were charged with kryptonite. Now you've cornered him, your presence a soft bar…