A Future Sooner than Tomorrow

Spilling the Present

"Hey..."

Clark grumbles, not wanting to peel his eyes opens. Jimmy can wait. Whatever article needs to be handed in can stand to be a tiny bit late. Nobody is going to steal it in the five or so minutes that Clark needs to remove himself from his oddly soft desk.

"Hey, Kal..." There's a hand on Clark's shoulder, shaking him. Clark can feel the hand more acutely than his should through his heavy, woolen blazer...

Wait, did the voice say 'Kal'?

Clark blinks, finding his face not on a desk but rather on a matress. Instintively, he reaches out to where his bedside table should be for his glasses and instead his hand meets a knee.
He looks to the side and sees Green Lantern kneeling down beside him.

"Come on, it's time for dinner," Lantern gives Kal - becauce that's who he's meant to be right now and that's the name he needs to be responding to - another firm shake.

"Lantern?" Kal pushes himself and rubs his eyes. He feels oddly present. Everything in the room is clear, clearer than it was this morning.

Like when Clark first got his glasses and hadn't been in the habit of cleaning them. Only after they had been swiped by an older, spectacled gent and cleaned with theatrical disaproval had Clark realized how foggy the world had been.

Except this time, there are no glasses that have been cleaned. There is nothing that Kal can definitively say has changed to have caused the startling clarity he's seeing the world through.

"What do you mean its time for dinner? I don't think we're even had lunch yet," Kal asks.

"We got sidetracked. And you fell asleep," Lantern shrugs before looking around. He cringes at the sight of the state of things. "What's with this room?"

"Red room."

"I figured. I mean, why does it look like a child's bedroom in a horror movie?" Lantern jerks his head in the direction of the plushies strewn about the floor.

"For comfort is what Red Hood said," Kal stands up, stretching. Lantern follows, giving Kal a dubious look.

"Weird definition of comforting..." Lantern mutters. Then, tentatively, he adds, "You seem relaxed."

"I do?" His body feels loose; hands down by side, feet firmly on the ground, eyes lazily scanning rather than darting about. There's none of the sickening anticipation that he had gotten used to in this world. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I feel relaxed."

"Hood was right then."

They both leave the red room side by side. Kal closes the door behind him, feeling less apprehensive about the room than he was originally.

"Right about what?"

"About you not being rested at all. He said that-" Lantern cuts himself off, crossing his arms and looking towards the ceiling as though trying to remember the exact words.  He continues, "That sometimes the whole photosynthesis, sun thing you have going on covers up actual exhaustion. And then you're without and you crash."

Kal stares at Lantern. "Seriously?"

"Apparently, it's a kryptonian thing."

As much as Kal dislikes finding out new information about his biology, it's admittedly useful to know. So, he swallows his instictive frustration at the situation amd focuses on the issue at hand. "So that's why I passed out."

"Yeah."

"Do Bizarro and Kon get this too, then?" Maybe they have a solution.

Lantern nods.