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Even after three months of working with him, even after six months before that of knowing that he existed, it never failed to stop Clark in his tracks when he saw Conner’s face. It was startling—like looking into a warped mirror. Intellectually, he knew that half of his DNA was Lex Luthor; instinctively, when he looked at him, the voice in the back of his voice said he looks just like you. Only, not completely. There wasn’t much of Lex in his face. His eyes were a little lighter, especially in shadow. His nose was a little sharper, his mouth thinner. When he frowned, there was a spark of fury that Clark was sure he had never seen in the mirror that gave him pause.
Right now, though, there wasn’t a trace of Lex in his face. It was all open wonder, when he tipped his head back and stared at the towering crystals and the snow falling and the cold sunlight slanted onto them through the top of the Fortress. He just looked like a kid—a kid with his face, maybe, but only a kid. Nothing dangerous about him at all.
In time, he hoped he would stop remembering that Lex had any hand in his creation at all. There was certainly no way that he wanted anything to do with him, after the disaster at Cadmus and the shields that they had given him to use. He had given them up, and there was naked honesty and shame on his face when he told them what he had been offered. Clark had nearly taken off to shake some sense into Lex, right there. It was so cruel, to tell a kid he wasn’t good enough and try to use it against them when they didn’t know better.
This was a step in the right direction, at least. Clark smiled, waiting for him to speak. They had time for him to take it all in before they went inside.
Finally, Conner exhaled a puff of vapor, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Wow. It’s… bigger than I thought it would be.”
“It’s even bigger inside.” And then he stopped short, backtracking. “Wait. What do you mean? I only told you about it a few days ago.”
Conner looked sheepish, shrugging. “The failsafe accident. We went here, to see if you had survived and made it here to recover. We didn’t get close like this, though. And it might not have been accurate, since it was just… a mindscape.”
There was so much to unpack there. “You went here to see if I survived?” he echoed, feeling a little faint. They had only given him a cursory update about the failsafe ‘accident,’ as Conner referred to it, since he wasn’t considered Conner’s mentor at the time. Incident, Batman had referred to it as, which sounded less serious, but he remembered how fast his heartbeat had gone just at the sound of the word. He’s avoided it in conversation as much as possible since. He might need to look into it.
“In the scenario we were given, the Justice League was all killed.” He sounded so matter-of-fact about it, but he also wouldn’t meet his eyes. “So we had to try to take over for you. It… didn’t go very well.”
“You were kids!” He was going to have to speak to Batman about this. Was it hypocritical, to get angry over something that happened to his student when they weren’t calling it that at the time and they wanted him to be involved? He didn’t care. That was not the kind of thing you put a kid through, much less one who was so new to the world.
“We don’t have to talk about it,” Conner said quickly. “Just… sorry. It’s bigger than I imagined. That’s all.”
Too much for barely knowing someone, Clark realized. He could ask later, when Conner was more comfortable, after he had worked out some of the details from Batman or Black Canary. They were still taking baby steps.
It just didn’t feel like it sometimes, when the light caught the awe in his eyes as a snowflake landed on his nose, and that little voice in the back of his head said he could be yours. It was as natural as anything, now, to speak to him like they had known each other forever.
“Like I said,” Clark said, opening the door easily, trying to ignore how Conner watched his every move. He trusted him, now. That was why they were here. So they could move forward, without thoughts of Lex lingering and clouding his judgment. “It’s even bigger inside. I have a zoo in here.”
Conner visibly brightened as he followed him inside. “You do?”
“Mm-hm. Creatures from around the universe that don’t have home worlds, anymore, and are too dangerous to relocate to populated worlds. Don’t worry, they have lots of room—”
“Can we go inside?” Conner interrupted. “What are their names?”
“Um.” Clark had to bite down a smile. It was difficult, when he looked at Conner and found that he looked like a kid on Christmas morning. He was shining with excitement. “They all have names, and some of them aren’t so dangerous we can’t go inside. We might not have time to see all of them today, but I can show you some. You like animals?”
Conner raised an eyebrow at him. “You know I have a pet wolf, right?”
“Right. I just, uh… that might just make you a dog person. Not an animal person.”
“I also have Sphere. She’s not really a pet, but I still brought her home.”
He had briefly heard about the circumstances of Sphere, too. Something about Conner being captured, used for experiments, and bonding with the sentient alien machine that they were experimenting on in the same facility. Another million questions he needed to have with Batman. There was no way these were all things that he planned for the team to do. Maybe that was why his eye twitched now.
Maybe he would start to twitch, too. Maybe that was just what happened when you had a… sidekick.
“Not all of them are friendly. Or safe. But we can at least look at all of them.” They were nearing the main room, finally, and he could hear… a tail thumping. It made him smile, thinking of how Conner was going to react. “There’s only really one animal that’s out and about that you can pet today, though.”
Conner’s brow furrowed. “Really? Which one—”
A streak of white shot out of the room and into his arms with a happy bark; Clark only caught him because he was prepared for it, and Conner jumped nearly a foot in the air. He laughed, scratching him behind the ears, and backed up a bit so Conner could see him. “This is Krypto.”
Conner’s eyes were wide. “You have a dog,” he breathed, as if this was the best thing he had ever seen. He hadn’t looked this excited to see the actual fortress, Clark realized with amusement. “A flying dog.”
“Yep! He’s actually from Krypton, too. He was my childhood pet.” Here was the moment of truth. Krypto wasn’t crazy about strangers, but hopefully he would be nice to Conner. He turned him around. “Krypto, buddy, meet Conner.”
Krypto blinked from his arms at Conner warily, but Conner didn’t look nervous at all when he held out his hand for Krypto to smell. “I didn’t know there were other animals from Krypton. Are there a lot?”
Before Clark could answer, Krypto yipped in welcome, tail starting to wag against his arm rapidly, and then leaped from his arms into Conner’s. Conner laughed brightly, struggling to adjust so he didn’t drop him. “Hi, boy.”
“He likes you,” Clark said, and he had said he was going to play it cool and not come on too strong but the smile was impossible to tamp down. “I can’t remember the last time he did that to someone.”
“You’re just saying that—” He sputtered as Krypto reached up and licked his cheek. “Hey—”
He laughed just like a kid, Clark thought wondrously. Bright and innocent and kind. A boy and his dog, just like when he was younger. What in the world had he ever been so scared of?
“Can he play fetch?” Conner asked, looking at him over the armful of squirming, licking, yipping dog. “Do you have something I can throw for him? Do I have to go outside or is it big enough in here?”
The rest of the tour could wait. His dog liked his new family member. That was what was important, now. Clark’s smile felt completely natural. “Inside is definitely big enough. I’ll show you where we can go. Bring Krypto.”
Conner’s grin was bright enough to make all the uncertainty evaporate.