A Future Sooner than Tomorrow

The Past is Kind

Kal wakes up slowly. The first thing that comes back to him is the sensation of the couch against his back and a warm weight on his side. The next thing is the sound of jazz music, an upbeat sort of song.

He opens his eyes and finds that the movie had gone back to the menu screen at some point. Twisting his head slightly, he can see a dark head of hair sandwiched under his arm and on the side of his chest. Affectionately, he runs a hand over the boys forehead, pushing back the hair so he can see Kon's face.

The sight of Kon's smiling, content face warms Kal's heart. Kal tucks some of the hair behind Kon's ear and not for the first time, his eyes are drawn to the hole there.

Kal can't help but wonder how Kon managed to get pierced, what with how resistant kryptonian skin is. Curiously, Kal turns the boy's head slightly to check the other ear. Not pierced.

It seems strange to only get one ear pierced but Kal doesn't have any piercings, so maybe it's more common than he thinks. He knows Lois has her ears pierced (he's seen her with studs in a couple of times) and Jimmy has pinprick scars on both of his earlobes but other than that, Kal doesn't know many pierced people.

Or maybe he does and he's just never noticed. He tries not to stare and the only reason he had noticed Jimmy's was because of how often they had sat at the same wall facing desk to chat. Maybe he'd ask the other heroes, one of them might have had experience getting their ears pierced. Who knows, he might just learn enough to start up a conversation with Kon about it.

Slowly, with one hand steadying Kon, Kal moves out from under the boy. Kon stirs slightly and the hands fisted into Kal's suit tighten weakly but Kal eventually manages to completely untangle himself. Kon's now empty hands grope at the couch cushions for a moment before stilling and coming to rest just in front of the boy's chest.

Kal watches him curl up and shift for a moment, before unclasping his cape and laying it over Kon. Something about it doesn't look right though; it's messy, the corners rest awkwardly against the backrest or hang over the side of the couch and touch the floor, and it just doesn't look secure.

Kal tuts. Wracking his brain, he tries to remember the last time ma or pa had tucked him in and how they did it. There was a process to it, he was sure.

He'd been in the middle of his teens at the time and had just gone through his first breakup. That night, ma and pa had sat with him in the kitchen - listening to him mourning his first ever relationship - until it was late. Kal closes his eyes, trying to remember how it had gone.

First, they had put him to bed.

Kal looks at the sleeping teenager in front of him and decides that that will have to be close enough, at risk of waking the boy up.

Second, ma had pulled the blanket over him length-wise.

Kal eyes his cape - it's width-wise. Its still covers Kon, his cape is large enough that it dwarfs a curled up child, but it probably would be better to have it length-wise. So, Kal grabs the cape by two of the corners on the nearest long side and pulls it over Kon like that.

Third, pa had tucked the edges into the seam where mattress met bed frame.

Kal supposes down the sides of the cushions would have to do. Slowly, he tucks the edge of his cape down the sides of the couch - smoothing out any creases as necessary.

"Sleep well," he whispers to the boy before turning off the TV and creeping out of the room. A warm feeling of satisfaction settles in his chest as he closes the door.

__________________________________

"It's infuriating! They can't keep him swaddled in bubble wrap forever," Kid Flash furiously scrubs at a plate, soapy water flying off like a broken sprinkler.