little girls always grown up

Laura was outside on the porch bench, watching as the sunlight slowly disappeared from the world for another night.

She had come home for the weekend to cram for the finals. But there was another reason, and she was trying to find the right words. The right way to express the thoughts on her mind.

Her mother, April, was inside working on supper. Giving her daughter time on her own until Laura was ready to talk. It was nice to know that her mother would be there for her... but Clark should be home soon, and Laura was sort of waiting for the arrival of her father.

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One thing that Clark is grateful for is that, since he officially took the name Superman, petty crime in the city has dropped to record lows. Sure, there might be the occasional enormous disaster from natural causes or alien invasions or mad scientists' experiments gone wrong, but on the average day, there's not much that keeps him from going home to his family.

He patrols the city one more time, before turning towards home, leaving Metropolis in the care of the Justice League night watch until morning, or until duty calls.

The farm comes into view almost immediately, and he descends.

Laura looked up as her father descended down towards the farm. She stood up, giving a soft smile.

"Hey dad."

"Laura," he greets her as he touches down, just in front of the house. "Out catching the last sun of the day?"

She nods with another smile. "I like to see the sun set, and knowing that it offers light and life to others on the other side of the Earth."

"That's a good way of looking at it. Everyone who lives on Earth owes a lot to the sun, not just us." While he prefers the rush of sunrise, sunset has always been a good time for thinking, and it seems his daughter is using that to her advantage tonight.

"It can't be sunny all the time. Not everyone enjoys that." Laura smirks slightly.

"True enough." He blurs for a moment, concealing his costume underneath the ordinary clothes of Clark Kent, and putting his alter ego away for the time being. At home, he's free to be himself, and he doesn't have to put on a false face for his children.

It is a bit of a relief when he changes. Laura is pretty nervous as it is... and it would be more unnerving to talk to 'Superman' about her problems.

"I was hoping for a moment of your time."

"Of course." He moves to sit on the same bench she'd been occupying before he flew home. "You know you can always talk to me, or your mother, about whatever's on your mind."

"I know."

It makes it easier knowing that they are here for her.

"I have started dating. A bit."

He smiles a little bit at that. It took him so long before he dared to reach out to other people like that, and it's encouraging to see one of them take that first step into unknown territory. "Someone you met at school?"

"Yes. We were in the same study group. And we just started getting a little serious."

"Serious, huh?" He's not psychic, like April is, but it sounds like the feelings are mutual on both sides, and that's a big plus in his book. Though it doesn't mean that whoever Laura's dating is going to be her one true love, so he'll encourage her to be careful, but you never know. And it's her choice whether or not to take the risk for a great reward.

"Serious enough that I have a problem..."

Laura bites her lip. "When we get a little too second basey... my eyes start to get heated."

...oh.

His smile falters just a little. When Jon passed that age without showing a single sign of his hormones fueling the literal fire, he'd begun to wonder if he hadn't passed along that particular power. That maybe Connor only got it because he was cloned, and natural-born half-Kryptonians might not develop it. Clearly, that isn't the case.

"How bad does the burning feel?"

"I have... set a lamp on fire."

Okay. So she's progressed to actual flame. He supposes he can't be surprised by that, since he did his first time too. But this... this is going to be a very awkward conversation to have, and he suddenly has a great deal more sympathy for his dearly departed dad.

"I'm sorry, I should have warned you that could happen."

"You knew that this would happen?"

"Not for certain," he clarifies, not wanting his daughter to think that he deliberately hid this from her. "Jon never did, so I thought maybe you wouldn't either. I didn't want to worry you if you weren't going to develop that ability."

"This is a Kryptonian ability?"

"Yes. It's the start of your heat vision, once you learn to control it."

"Heat vision? I have heat vision?"

"But why does it only bother me during... well those moments."

He'd hoped to never have to have this conversation with any of his children. Why can't they stay young forever? And here Laura is, becoming a young woman right before his eyes, and he couldn't be more proud of her. Even if the subject matter is embarrassing, moreso to her.

"When it first manifests, heat vision is hormonally activated," he says, and only years of control of himself is able to keep his voice steady and measured, trying to avoid embarrassing her more.

"Horomonally activated." Laura repeats. She knows what that means, since she is majoring in biology.

"Oh..."

"It might be hard for you to control at first. I set several fires when mine first started. But I didn't know what to expect." His hope is that, since he's been through this before, he'll be able to help guide Laura to control her new ability. At least give her some pointers and let her figure out what works for her.

"But you were able to work through it." She assumes. Because otherwise none of them would be here.

"Yes. The way my dad had me learn, he encouraged me to activate it on purpose, while looking at something I could destroy freely. Once you learn how it feels, physically, it makes it easier to understand how to stop it from happening. It takes practice." Maybe it's easiest to stick with the scientific approach. She's always responded well to that, and giving her an experiment to run, data to analyze, that should help.

"I could do some experiements to help control it."

"But what should I do about my relationship with Nathan?"

He hesitates for a moment. He doesn't know this young man just yet, and if things are just starting to get serious between them, she might not know him as well yet either. "Did he see you start any fires?"

"No. Not yet."

"Then don't let this scare you away from dating him, if that's what you want. See if you can practice and get some control over your new ability before you see him again." He let his fears drive him away from ever having a relationship with Lana, and while he can't imagine his life without April at his side, it was a hard lesson to learn not to let his doubts and fears keep him silent and alone.

"So how did you handle that whole... I have powers conversation?"

"It depended on who I was telling, how well I knew them, what kind of attitude they had. Your mother... we met in the Nexus, so it was easy to bring it up in conversation, and it was something we had in common."

"With other people, a lot of times, they saw me in action before we talked. Sometimes it was accidental, but not all the time, if I thought I could trust them."

"I am definitely not rushing into anything with Nathan. I guess I will have to wait until I feel it is right."

Clark smiles at his daughter. "You've got a good head on your shoulders, and you can trust your own judgment. But if you want me to meet him sometime and give you some tips on how to best break the news, I'd be more than happy to."

"I was thinking of bringing him to meet the family after finals are done."

"You could invite him over for dinner. There's more than enough room."

"I am sure mom wouldn't mind cooking for an extra person too."

He chuckles, thinking fondly of his wife. "You might not be able to get her to stop."

"She is going to be incredibly happy to hear this."

He gives her a hug, just to show how much he loves her. "I'm pretty proud of you, you know."

"I know. Thank you for being here."

((CL thread is up, here))

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little girls always grown up

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