7

"Kal-El, do you want more lemonade?" Martha asked, holding out the pitcher.

He smiled broadly and pushed her glass toward her, wobbling a little beside her in the porch swing as he did it. "I would, mother, it is most refreshing."

Martha smiled and poured before sitting back down herself. "You seem better."

Kal-El looked down at his glass. "I feel much improved. I am sorry for my behavior and I assure you that what I stole has been returned. It was not my intention to break any laws."

"I know you weren't thinking, sweetheart."

Kal-El stilled at the endearment but recovered quickly. "I know. It is all most disappointing. I have tried so hard for you to both trust me. I did not mean to make so many errors in judgment."

"And these things happen in Smallville," Martha conceded. "Don't worry, Chloe and I were on the case."

"And as always, I have chosen well with whom I should trust," he replied, his eyes straying down to Clark's old wristwatch on her wrist even as he reached out his fingers to encircle it.

Martha's smile stiffened. "Kal-El, we wanted to talk to you."

"No more about my Clark Kent leanings. I am most embarrassed by all of it."

"Never, Kal-El," she replied. "And I know you didn't do it to dredge up anything."

"No, I did not. If I hurt you, mother-"

She shook her head. "No, you didn't. I miss him very much."

Kal-El ducked his head and nodded. "I understand."

"But," she replied, reaching out and stroking the bangs back from his forehead. "It hurt worse to watch you pretend. It worried me for you."

He swallowed and didn't look at her. "I am fine."

"You don't ever have to pretend for either of us."

"I know that now," he replied, still avoiding her gaze.

"Do you? Kal-El, look at me."

He swallowed and turned his face up to her. "Mother, I understand. I will not try to be him again. It was cruel."

"No, it was self-defeating. I think I'm with Chloe. I must admit that you grow on people."

"Like mold," Chloe riposted, lightening the mood and elbowing Kal-El gently. "Welcome back to the land of the lucid."

"Thank you, Sull-I-Van. If I am mold, then I must confess you are like a cockroach and will not go away."

"Oh, true love," she joked, winking at him, grateful when he played into the joke.

"Can I ask you something, earnestly, Kal-El?" Martha said, leaning back on her bench.

"Yes."

"What does it mean that Chloe is your intended. I don't mean for her. She still has a choice in everything."

"Of course she does."

"But we all saw how true the depth of your feelings are. What does it mean for you?"

Kal-El clenched his hands. "Even I do not fully understand it. I think that things did not transpire as they typically do for my people. The split between Clark and myself is part of that, the fact that we chose different intendeds. But I do not think that human and Kryptonian customs match, exactly. I think that we were more sensitive to acts of physical affection. We rarely showed it where I came from. It was discouraged."

Chloe's eyes widened. "I kissed you the day we met."

He nodded. "Yes, that coupled with what you are, what I recognized in you. I believe it may have precipitated some of the more obsessive aspects of my bond to you. It is not that I do not choose you, I do. I believe, however, that things moved faster than my people would have done it."

"Oh."

"Yes."

"Kal-El, if Chloe...if you two somehow agree to only be partners, to have her serve as the monitor for the Fortress, what happens to the bond?"

"It does not fade from my end. I merely learn to accept the limitations of our relationship and to move on."

"Can you?" Martha prodded.

He shook his head. "I cannot, but I will not emotionally blackmail you, Sull-I-Van." He smiled sadly. "I am used to loneliness. Ironically, it is my constant companion."

"Kal-El-"

"It shall be alright, I promise you. What is the expression? Mother henning? You two worry about me far too much." He sighed and set his glass down on the table. "I have survived many things and shall endure many more. I will be fine. Just-"

"What?"

"Let us never mention this week again. It is far from my proudest moment," he finished, standing up. "If you will excuse me for a moment." And with that, he headed inside.

Martha shook her head. "I wish he wasn't so resigned to everything. Things take time."

"Maybe they don't on Krypton," Chloe finished. "Maybe they just fall hard or not at all."

Martha sighed and looked through the screen door. Kal-El was clearly X-raying the old oven in the kitchen, waiting to see if the pie had finished. Some things never changed, after all. "Then that sounds just like us, doesn't it?"

Chloe nodded and looked back to the fearsome would be overlord licking his lips in anticipation of cinnamon goodness. "Yeah, it really does.