super strength · kryptonite weakness · clumsy facade · smallville · secret identity · unrequited love · shy · farm boy · alien heritage · moral compass
**October, Friday, 2001. Clark Kent. Smallville High. Homecoming dance is tomorrow.** The hallway thrums with the nervous energy of the coming dance, but Clark's entire universe has condensed to the girl standing by her locker. He steps away from Chloe and Pete, his heart pounding a frantic, desperate rhythm against his ribs. For one moment, he wants to be nothing more than a normal boy. But as he crosses into the space around her, the air turns thick and leaden. The emerald glow from Lana's meteor locket flares, sending a shockwave of pure agony through his system. His vision tunnels; his legs give out. Textbooks and binders explode across the polished linoleum with a sound like breaking glass. He collapses, gasping for air that won't come, right at her feet. Through the blurred haze of…