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Kendall was ankle deep in spiders. The dirty concrete walls of the room that surrounded her felt impossibly high and impossibly cold. Heart pounding, she gagged as the furry creatures crawled over her feet. She wanted to run, to scream, to do something but her body was frozen on the spot. She had no choice but to watch as they crawled higher and higher on her until they—
Suddenly, they were gone. Only the ghostly memory of the sensation remained, and she let out a shaky breath, gently stretching her arms out now that she could once again move.
“Uh, sorry. I really didn’t mean to… I’m just gonna go, okay?”
Frowning, she spun on the spot and faced Jonathan. He was standing a few feet away from her, looking extremely uncomfortable in the small dirty room they were both standing in. She took another deep breath. There was only one explanation that made sense for what was happening.
“You’re still doing this?” she wondered. “Popping into people’s dreams?”
He took a shuffling step towards her. “Well, not as much anymore. You were having a nightmare, so that kind of influences me sometimes. But, uh, I think part of it was my fault, too. I’ve been kind of distracted thinking about things ever since we, uh, talked about Nightwing.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess I have been, too.” There had been a lot to process with learning the truth about Jon’s origins, and Kendall had spent many a distracted shift at work this summer dwelling on things. “Wait, so you’re saying that that’s why you’re here right now?”
Jon shrugged uncomfortably. “That’s definitely part of the reason. I really am sorry; I know you hate this kind of thing. I’m just gonna—”
“Wait! You don’t have to.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and straightened her shoulders, meeting Jon’s surprised expression with as much confidence as she could muster. “I’m, uh, okay with it. Really.”
He lifted a skeptical eyebrow at her, and she nodded resolutely.
“Besides,” she shrugged, “when else are we going to be able to talk about what’s obviously on our minds?”
A guilty wince passed over his face. “I know I’ve been really busy lately…”
“Yeah. Saving the freaking world and doing some pretty good PR about it.” It had been incredibly weird to watch him on the news over the last few weeks. His persona as Nightwing was so very different from the guy she knew, and the things he had been doing were so incredibly impressive. It was all kind of intimidating to think about. Kendall hated being intimidated.
He shrugged sheepishly. “I’m kinda trying to convince people that I can be trusted before they start to think too much about how creepy all the mind powers can be.”
Kendall felt a bubble of guilt rise up inside of her. It had taken a lot of convincing for her to be even a little okay with what Jon could do, and they still ultimately hadn’t been able to make a relationship work.
“Hey, do you mind if I…” He paused, eyes skittering around the grimy space hesitantly. “It’s just kind of creepy hanging out here.”
“You can change where we are?”
“Yeah. I can, uh, basically make anything happen here. And I, uh, didn’t know this when we were together, but I can also make an illusion like this happen when someone’s awake, too.” He watched her carefully, no doubt waiting for some negative reaction.
Her eyes widened. It was a weird revelation, that’s for sure. But there always seemed to be something weird and new with Jon; she was starting to get used to it.
“Go for it,” she encouraged. “Get us out of here.”
He blinked, and suddenly they were out in the Kansas fields, baby corn stalks growing up to their waists and bright sun shining down on them.
Kendall hopped up to sit on the rustic wooden fence that bordered the field. “So. It only took you four years of country living to become a hard-core farm boy, huh?”
He shrugged sheepishly. “It’s easy for me to picture.”
“Because you’re a farm boy.”
“Okay, fine,” he relented. “But that’s not all I am.”
She sobered. “No. It’s not.”
They had unexpectedly arrived at the big issue, and Kendall wasn’t really sure how to continue. The idea of his family being secret celebrities was still so weird, and she hadn’t had the chance to really organize what she wanted to say to Jon about it
“Do you, uh, have any questions that you thought about?” Jon asked hesitantly, leaning against the fence as they both stared out at the field together.
“I think I’m still trying to get used to the idea,” she decided. “It’s kind of a big freaking deal, you know? And it’s pretty weird to see you and Jordan and your dad all on TV like that.”
A tight frown pinched on his brow. “Yeah. But I swear, we’re exactly the same we’ve always been. Just with, you know, a little extra stuff on the side.”
“A little extra,” she repeated blankly. “It’s more than a little, Jon.”
He flushed. “Okay, but that’s why you just need to come over. You haven’t even seen Jordan since everything, and I promise it’ll only take a few minutes for you to realize we’re the same dorky family we’ve always been.”
He flashed a bright smile up at her, and she felt herself mirroring it.
“Okay. Let’s pick a day. For real this time.”
After some back and forth (and a double-check with Jon’s family once they were back in the real world) they settled on a day in about a week. Kendall tried not to psych herself out too much for it, but when she pulled up to the farmhouse, she noticed that Jon was standing on the porch waiting for her, shoulders hunched and jaw clenched tightly.
“Hey.” He didn’t exactly meet her eyes as he walked down the steps. “Uh, so, first thing I’ve gotta tell you is that we can totally cancel if you want. And maybe it’d be better if we did. I don’t even really know anymore.”
She stared at him, her car keys dangling from her fingers. “What’s going on?”
“So… uh…” He heaved a heavy sigh. “Something happened. Yesterday. Jordan and I were helping my dad with this… well, I guess the details don’t really matter. The important thing you need to know is that we were all exposed to Red Kryptonite.”
“There’s red stuff?” She knew about the green Kryptonite, of course, and had been vaguely aware of the X-K that had plagued Smallville a few years ago. This red version was new to her, though.
His feet kicked up a plume of dust as he shifted restlessly. “Yeah. It’s, uh, actually what I was exposed to that one time at the rock and gem show? When you found out about my powers.”
“Oh.” Kendall stiffened, willing herself not to back away. On one hand, it was nice to have that bit of weirdness cleared up; on the other, this wasn’t good news. She trusted Jon, she really did, but that day had been terrifying for both of them. The last thing she wanted was a repeat of that same thing.
“But it’s different this time!” he rushed to explain, eyes widening when he realized what she was thinking of. “I guess every piece has a kind of different effect. I’ve still got control over everything.”
“But it still did something to you?” She tilted her head. He didn’t look any different to her…
He flushed. “Yeah, I’m kind of keeping you from seeing it.”
“Oh.” She frowned. He had said he could make people see whatever he wanted. Still, she didn’t like the idea of him automatically using that power on her.
“It was just until I could explain what happened,” he said guiltily. “I don’t usually… Like, pretty much every other time what you see is what you get, I promise.”
“Okay. So, let’s see it.” She crossed her arms in front of her.
He dropped his eyes again. “I had kinda hoped it would go away by now,” he muttered. “My dad says this kind of stuff usually only lasts a day or so.”
“Still waiting.”
He sighed, dragging his eyes up to meet hers. “Okay. Here goes.” His figure warped before her eyes, fading in and out wildly before it finally settled back to normal.
Well, almost normal.
“You’re green.”
She knew she was staring rudely, but she couldn’t help it. Every bit of visible skin was now a vivid greenish colour. Stretching out his arms, Jon took in the sight of them, white teeth flashing distractingly as he grimaced.
“Yeah. Like I said, it’s temporary.”
“This is weird, Jon.”
“Yep.” He reached up and ran his hand through his hair which was now an even darker shade of green in comparison to his skin. “Now you know why I hid it when you first got here.”
“Okay, yeah, I don’t blame you.” She still couldn’t keep her eyes off him. The green colour paled on the insides of his wrists just like it was an actual skin tone. Unbiddenly, her hand reached out. “Can I…”
He rolled his eyes but held his arms out to her willingly. “It feels normal. Everything else is normal, too. It’s just the stupidest reaction to a space rock that I can think of.”
His arm did feel normal. She shrugged and stuffed her hand into her jeans pocket.
“So, I guess your dad and Jordan look like this, too?” It would be a strange evening, that’s for sure, but Kendall had already counted on that, anyway. What was the difference if the world-renowned celebrity she was about to come face to face with was unexpectedly a different colour?
“Uh… no.” The shifty look was back on his face. “So, Kryptonite always seems to affect me differently than my dad and Jordan. This one especially was kind of a weird opposite. Like, for me it affected my body, but for them it kinda messed with their heads a bit.”
“How?”
His eyes strayed back towards the house, shoulders hunching up again. “Well, it’s really weird and I don’t even know how it works exactly, but they, uh, can only speak and write Kryptonian.”
“Kryptonian.” The word felt awkward for her to say. “Like, where—"
“Yeah like, uh, the planet my dad’s from?” The green colour in his cheeks darkened.
Kendall shook herself out of her daze. “I knew that. Pretty much everyone does. I guess I just didn’t think… I mean, of course an entire planet has their own language and culture and all that.” She was actually a little embarrassed she hadn’t thought about it before. Superman had been a staple of her life, but she was still getting used to the idea of thinking about him as a real person as opposed to this cardboard cut-out of a hero.
Jon was nodding in confirmation. “Jordan and I started learning about that stuff a couple years back which is a good thing now because I’ve been doing a lot of translating over the last couple days.”
“Sounds like me translating for my stepdad when my grandma comes to visit.”
He huffed a soft laugh. “Yeah, I guess. This is a little further afield than that, though.”
“So?” There was a weird expression on his face that Kendall couldn’t quite read. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to come clean about what was really bothering him about this whole thing.
Finally, he gave a short sigh of defeat. “It’s just that I can tell you’re still nervous about this whole thing,” he confessed.
“Well… yeah.” She scuffed her shoe on the ground, feeling a prickle of irritation well up inside her. Having Jon able to see right through whatever confidence she was trying to project was always a little annoying. “It’s still a big deal,” she defended.
“I know. And I just kind of hoped that we’d be at least a little more normal tonight and not so… uh, alien.” He dropped his eyes down to his green arms and winced.
A flash of amusement sparked within her. “Oh my god, I never even put that together,” she realized. “You’re literally a green man right now.”
“Yeah. Trust me, it was, like, the first thing that came to mind for me.”
She sobered in the face of his discomfort. “Okay, look, obviously you’re right that I’m nervous. But the whole, uh, alien thing really doesn’t matter to me.”
“Really?”
“Didn’t even make a blip.”
He tilted his head curiously. “So, then why…”
“It’s because your dad’s kind of a huge deal, Jon! He’s, like, the most famous person in the world and has been saving people since before I was even born!”
“Oh.” Jon scrubbed his hand through his hair. “I wasn’t really thinking about that. He’s kinda just my dad. Although, yeah, I remember what that was like when I was fourteen and I first found out.”
“You didn’t know until you were fourteen?”
He gave a wry smile. “Yeah. Maybe a story for another day? If you’re sure you’re okay with everything, we should get inside.”
Despite her best efforts, she still felt her nerves ramp up as she entered the house. Jon’s family was intimidating enough when it was Lois Lane as his mom and just one of them with superpowers. Now, Kendall felt woefully average in comparison to everyone there.
When Kendall finally laid eyes on Jon’s parents, they both looked uncharacteristically frustrated and distracted. They stood in the kitchen frowning at each other. Clark was pinching the bridge of his nose and Lois was kneading her temple.
“Jon! You came in at just the right time. What is your dad trying to tell me?”
Jon tilted his head as he listened to his dad rattle off a sentence in a language that was unlike anything Kendall had ever heard before.
“He wants to know what kind of wine you want,” he translated.
Lois’ eyes widened, the tension draining out of her instantly. “Oh! Don’t worry about it, babe, I’ll grab something while you finish up here.” Pivoting, she faced Kendall directly for the first time. “I’m so glad you can make it! Sorry things are a little stranger than we expected. Jon filled you in on everything?”
The shift was so abrupt, and Kendall shook her head to try to follow Lois’ train of thought. This all felt like more than ‘a little stranger’ to Kendall.
“Uh, yeah,” she finally replied. “It seems like there’s always something going on with you guys, huh?”
Lois grinned. “You have no idea.”
Kendall’s stomach clenched a bit tighter as she turned to face Jon’s dad. He had started slicing up vegetables and he gave her a friendly wave as their eyes met.
“Hi, uh, Mr. Kent.” Her eyes drifted across his face, trying to pick out hints of Superman now that she knew to look. It was kind of hard to find. He really just seemed the same he always did, and Kendall found herself starting to believe what Jon had been saying this whole time.
Then a string of strange words came out of his mouth, reminding her again of the bizarre situation. Despite appearances, the man standing in front of her was incredibly unique and was dealing with an incredibly weird reaction to a remnant of his home planet.
“He, uh, says ‘hi’,” Jon translated. “And wants to know how you like your steak.”
The question was so bewilderingly normal that Kendall had to take a moment to refocus. The crazy juxtaposition was still throwing her for a loop. Freaking Superman was standing in the kitchen speaking an alien language to his green coloured son and Kendall was about to sit down at a table with him to eat a meal that he had cooked.
“Um, I guess you can tell him medium?”
But he was already nodding his understanding, saying another short sentence to Jon before grabbing a set of tongs before heading out the door to the porch.
“He can understand English,” Lois explained helpfully. “He just can’t speak it.”
“That’s… How does that even make sense?” She searched both Lois and Jon’s face for an explanation.
Jon sighed as he dumped the vegetables his dad had been working on into a nearby salad bowl. He grabbed a bottle of dressing and started tossing everything together. “I don’t really get it, either. My grandma can explain it better. Something about receptive and expressive language centers in the brain?”
“Your grandma?”
Jon winced. “Oh. Yeah. I haven’t told you about— Oh, hey, Jordan.”
Kendall turned to see the last member of the family come slouching into the room. He nodded at her cautiously in greeting. She did her best to show that she was rolling with it.
“Jon filled me in on everything,” she told him supportively. “Sounds like it sucks.”
He shrugged and then nodded again. Then he turned and asked Jon a question, speaking that same strange language that his dad had.
“Yeah, she can see me in all my weird glory,” Jon replied, eyeing his green hands again. “We’re all suffering equally tonight.”
“It should be over soon,” Lois reminded them.
“I’ve been telling myself that for the last three hours,” Jon muttered.
Kendall winced sympathetically. “There’s no way to know when it’ll finally wear off?”
“Not really. It’s more of a ‘wait it out’ situation.”
The door swung open, and Jon’s dad stepped back into the house, this time with a plate full of steaks.
“Jon, can you ask your mom if— Oh! Hey, look at that.” He set the plate down on the table and then turned to his wife. “Back to normal.”
“And glad for it.” Lois gave him a tender kiss before grabbing a handful of silverware to set out.
Jordan opened his mouth, spoke a few cautious words, and then scowled when there was no change. He turned and asked a pointed question to his dad in the same Kryptonian language he had used before.
“I don’t know, bud,” Clark shrugged guiltily. “Could just be that I’m recovering from the exposure faster. It’s good news, though. You two probably aren’t that far behind me.”
Jon shook out his hands and sighed heavily when his skin remained the same.
“I guess you’re not getting off that easy, huh?” Kendall gave him a teasing look as they all settled into place around the table.
“No. But at least I’ve got a few people in the know. We’re not trapped in isolation.”
Kendall smiled at his words, and then turned to face the rest of Jon’s family. “I just wanted to say thanks for trusting me with all this,” she told them. “I know it’s a really big deal, and it maybe wasn’t what you had planned…”
If she had never found out about Jon’s powers, would she be sitting here right now? It was doubtful. She knew his secrecy would have got to her eventually, even if she was completely in the dark about everything else. This way, their friendship had been preserved, and she found herself to be very glad for it.
“It is a big secret,” Clark agreed. “But we’re glad Jon’s got a friend like you.”
His sincere smile was exactly like Superman, even with the glasses, and Kendall blinked dazedly, trying to collect her thoughts. Then, his head suddenly snapped to the side, and an urgent, focused expression fell over his face.
Jon was frowning. “Dad—”
“Sorry, you two are still benched,” Clark told him firmly as he stood up from his chair. “You know, I can handle this on my own.” He caught Kendall’s eye, smiled, and then disappeared from the room with a blast of speed.
“Holy—” She snapped her head around, looking for any hint that he was still in the room.
“You get used to it pretty quick,” Lois told her, offering another serving of mashed potato. Then she turned to her sons who were moping over their plates. “Oh, come on, you two, you can take a night off. I’m sure Kendall appreciates it, and I really don’t want to have to write an article trying to explain away why Superboy isn’t talking and why Nightwing’s turned green.”
She said it all with such authority, and Kendall found herself once again in awe of Ms. Lane. How was it that she could just master all of the chaos that seemed to follow their family? It was just as much of a superpower as what any of the others in the family could do.
Jonathan and Jordan reluctantly agreed with her, and the family continued with their meal as if one of their members hadn’t just flown away at superspeed.
They had already finished up dinner when Clark came back into the house.
“Sorry I had to run out,” he apologized, grabbing his covered plate and bringing it to the microwave.
Kendall tried not to stare at the sight of Superman waiting for his food to heat up. “I’m guessing it was pretty important.”
Jordan sighed, and then said something to his dad.
“Maybe,” Clark replied hesitantly. “We’ll keep talking about it.”
Jon turned to fill Kendall in. “We’re trying to convince our dad to let us give him a night off every once in a while. Like, not tonight because we’re still messed up, but at some point. We can handle all the easy stuff on our own by now.”
“Yeah,” Jordan chimed in. “And, Dad, obviously if something’s really bad, we can… Oh, finally!” His eyes lit up in realization as the English words came out of his mouth. “I gotta text Sarah quick. I’ve just been sending her emojis this whole time.”
“Oh, come on!” Jon glared at his relentlessly green skin.
It stayed that way for the rest of the evening, much to Jon’s dismay. Although Kendall knew better than to mention it, she found it fitting in a way. For the longest time, she had thought that the strangeness in this family centered around Jon. Now, she knew that they all had a part in it. Both Jordan and Clark were even more strange in some ways, and maybe Lois was the most different of them all, somehow managing to keep her head above water despite whatever turmoil entered their lives.
“So, at what point do you start to really worry?” Kendall wondered as Jon walked her out of the house.
“Not until another day at least. Although Jordan’s gonna have to cover my shift for me at the diner if this doesn’t go away by the morning.”
“Well, at least you’d get to sleep in?”
Jon gave a soft laugh. “I guess I just need to take what I can get, huh?” They had reached the steps of the porch, and he turned towards her hesitantly. “So… everything okay with you? I know it wasn’t exactly normal…”
“Well, I feel like with you guys it never is,” she smiled. “But, yeah, this was good. It feels a little less weird now. Thanks for letting me in on all this, Jon. I know it’s not always easy for you.”
He shrugged uncomfortably. “No, it’s not. But this was good. I’m glad it’s like this.”
“Me too.”
She drove home after that, catching the last bit of twilight as she pulled her car up beside the house. There were still too many thoughts in her head for her to want to get inside right away, so she pulled out her phone.
Jon had sent her a selfie. To anyone else, it would have looked completely unremarkable, but Kendall immediately noted that his skin had returned to its familiar colour.
‘Back to normal’ the message read.
A smile twitched on Kendall’s lips as she typed out her reply. No matter what he said, she knew there was no way he’d ever be completely normal.
But she didn’t actually mind it all that much.