Chapter Text
“I’ll be going now!” Clark said from across the room, scrambling to gather his things with as he opens the door.
“Wait!” you shouted, rushing over to block his path. You quickly straightened his crooked tie, shaking your head.
“Next time, check yourself before leaving. I might have to nail a mirror on the door.”
He chuckled. “Well, that doesn’t sound so bad.” Leaning down, he pressed a quick kiss to your lips.
You pat him om the shoulder as you pushed him out of your apartment. “Go on, you're already late!”
“Okay, okay.” Clark grinned, backing into the hall.
“I love you!” he called out.
“I love you too!” you replied, watching him disappear into the building’s hallway.
It hadn’t been long since you and Clark started dating—barely three months. He asked you out on a date right before he spilled coffee on your shirt. You weren't mad, no, you were actually happy because this hunk of a nerd ask you out on a date and you didn't even care about the stain on your clothes.
You worked as a weather forecaster for Metropolis Weather, often spending your breaks at the café next to the Daily Planet. That’s where you always saw Clark. If you’d been a little more observant, you might’ve noticed the way his gaze lingered on you.
Today was quiet on your end, though Clark had his hands full. He mentioned an interview with Superman, which always made you wonder. You never pressed for details, but it puzzled you how he always seemed to land those meetings. His excuse? “I’ve got good connections.” You could only roll your eyes.
Before you could return to your couch and use your laptop to work. You heard your phone ring, so you picked it up and chose to answer when you saw your boss's name on the screen.
“You’d better have a good reason for calling me,” you teased.
He sighed. “Would covering for a sick intern count as a good reason?”
“Andrew again, huh?” you muttered, catching the irritation in his voice through the line. “Well, unless these emails don’t need to go out later—”
“They’d better be done by Friday,” he cut in.
You sighed, whispering a quick ‘yes’ under your breath before returning to the call. “Fine. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
𓆩✧𓆪
“Oh? Pulling in some overtime?” Clark asked. You smoothed down your uniform while glancing at the mirror.
“Yeah. I’ve got some extra work after six. I’ll be home once it’s done.”
“Do you wanna hang out at the cafe while you're doing your work?”
“Hm, tempting.”
“I won't distract you, I promise.”
You laughed softly. “Clark, you’re the definition of a distraction.”
“Hey, I can be subtle,” he teased. “You won’t even notice me.”
“Uh-huh. That’s what you said the last time, and you ended up reorganizing my entire spreadsheet because the font annoyed you.”
“It was Comic Sans!” he argued, his voice pitching higher in mock horror. “That’s a crime.”
You bit back another laugh, shaking your head. “You’re ridiculous. Just… fine. If you really want to, meet me there after work.”
“Deal,” he said warmly. “I’ll bring you your favorite food. Consider it motivation.”
“You always know how to bribe me.”
“Not bribe,” Clark corrected, and you could almost picture the soft tilt of his smile through the phone. “Just taking care of you.”
That warmth stayed with you even after you ended the call.
You slung your bag over your shoulder, locking the apartment door behind you. The air in the hallway was stuffy, the kind that clung to your skin no matter how many steps you took toward freedom. By the time you made it down to the building’s parking lot, you were already sighing.
If only you had a house.
Paying for a parking space every month was bleeding you dry, and the thought made you wince as you dug your keys from your bag. “At this rate, rent won’t be the end of me—it’ll be parking fees,” you muttered, sliding into the driver’s seat.
The familiar hum of your car’s engine filled the silence as you pulled out of the lot and merged into the late-afternoon traffic of Metropolis. Neon signs flickered on above cafés, sidewalks buzzed with chatter, and the skyline gleamed with glass towers reaching high into the clouds. For a moment, everything felt normal.
Until the ground trembled beneath you.
You gripped the wheel tighter, your heart leaping. It wasn’t a full-on earthquake—the vibrations were sharp, sudden, almost like the city itself had shuddered. Car alarms wailed, a few horns blared, and pedestrians stumbled, looking around in confusion.
Your eyes darted upward instinctively.
And there he was.
A streak of blue and red blurred across the sky, faster than your eyes could properly follow. The iconic cape snapped in the wind, sunlight catching on the bright emblem of hope across his chest. Superman.
“Of course,” you breathed, watching the figure soar toward the far end of the city. “Because Metropolis can’t go a day without chaos.”
You pressed harder on the gas pedal. Chaos in Metropolis wasn’t going to be the reason you missed work today—intern or no intern.
The streets were a mess. People scrambled to get out of the way, car horns blared in every direction, and a few brave souls stood frozen, staring at the sky as though that would save them. You kept your focus on the road, weaving past stalled cars, willing yourself not to look up.
Then the shadow fell over you.
By the time you glanced upward, it was too late. A massive chunk of debris—concrete, twisted metal, you couldn’t even tell—was plummeting straight toward your car. Your breath caught, hands tightening on the wheel as your body braced for the inevitable.
But the impact never came.
A rush of air and a sudden jolt against the frame of your car made your head snap to the side. Inches from your window, a broad back filled your vision, blocking out everything else. The cape billowed wildly around him, the bright S visible against your car’s window—his shoulders pressed firmly against the side of your car as he held the falling debris aloft with one arm, steady and unyielding.
Your heart pounded so loudly it drowned out the chaos outside.
For a second, you could only stare. The emblem reflected in the faint sheen of your car window, bold and unshakable. You traced the line of his arm, the set of his shoulders—strong, steady, unmovable.
And then a stray thought slipped in, unbidden.
Clark’s shoulders weren’t too different from this, were they? Broad enough to fill a doorway, solid when he leaned in to kiss your forehead goodbye. Familiar in a way that made your chest ache.
You blinked hard, shaking your head. No. That’s ridiculous. Clark’s just… Clark.
Slowly, carefully, he lowered the massive wreckage onto the street. Then, with one hand still steadying it, he leaned his other arm against the roof of your car. The weight of him tilted the vehicle slightly, making you grip the wheel tighter as your breath caught.
He smiled at you, calm in a way that felt almost disarming amidst the chaos around you. “Are you okay, ma’am?”
Those damn dimples.
Your lips parted, but no sound came out for a moment. The cape, the symbol on his chest, the sheer presence of him—yet all you could think of was the solid breadth of his back against your car window just seconds ago.
You forced yourself to nod, clearing your throat. “Y-yeah. I’m fine.”
His arm still rested against your car, keeping it tilted ever so slightly as he studied you through the glass. The faintest curve tugged at his lips, steady and reassuring.
“Are you on your way to work?” he asked, his voice low but carrying easily over the chaos of the street.
You blinked at him, thrown by the casualness of the question. “Uh… yeah. Trying to.”
His gaze softened, though his brow furrowed just slightly. “I’d suggest you don’t. It’s dangerous out here right now.”
A nervous laugh escaped you as you tightened your grip on the wheel. “Don’t worry. I’ll just take a reroute. Being late isn’t a problem for me.”
Superman didn’t move right away. His eyes held yours, as if he was weighing your words carefully. Finally, he gave a small nod. “Okay. But… I still recommend you take my advice.”
Before you could respond, the weight lifted from your car as he pushed away from it. The sudden absence of his presence made the vehicle rock back into place, your heart skipping at the shift.
With one last look—and that impossible smile, he shot upward into the sky, cape streaming behind him vanishing as quickly as he’d appeared.
You exhaled a breath you hadn’t realized you were holding.
For a while, you just sat there with your hands still gripping the steering wheel, staring at the empty patch of sky where Superman had disappeared. Then, shaking yourself you muttered, “Work. Right. Still have to get to work.”
Twenty minutes later, you regretted every decision you’d made since leaving your apartment.
Your so-called reroute was a nightmare. Traffic barely crawled, brake lights stretching ahead like a mocking red river. Car horns blared in fits of irritation, drivers leaned out their windows to yell, and the occasional siren cut through the air.
You drummed your fingers on the wheel, jaw tight. Two kilometers away. Just two. The commotion from whatever fight Superman had flown toward was clogging half the city, and now every single person in Metropolis seemed to be funneling down the same streets you’d chosen.
You slumped back in your seat with a groan. “Late isn’t a problem for me, huh?” you muttered, throwing your own words back at yourself. “Yeah, well, it’s starting to feel like one now.”
Still, as much as frustration prickled at you, a sliver of relief snuck in too. Dangerous or not, at least Superman had been there when that debris came down. If he hadn’t—
You cut the thought short, your gaze flicking up to the rearview mirror. For a heartbeat, you imagined seeing a familiar pair of glasses, a dorky tie, broad shoulders that belonged to someone else entirely. You blinked, shaking your head.
“Get a grip,” you whispered to yourself. “Clark’s at the Daily Planet. Not flying around the sky in a cape.”
You bit your lip.
I wonder how’s he doing right now.
𓆩✧𓆪
Meanwhile, across the city, chaos was no longer confined to falling debris.
The ground shuddered violently as a massive foot slammed down, crushing asphalt and shattering the front of a department store like it was made of paper. The beast towered over the skyline, a hulking kaiju covered in jagged scales that gleamed under the sunlight, its roar rattling windows for blocks.
Panicked screams filled the streets as people scattered, desperate to flee before the creature’s tail swung again, demolishing another row of parked cars. Sirens wailed, helicopters circled overhead, and Metropolis felt like it was on the verge of breaking apart.
And in the middle of it all, a blur of blue and red shot forward.
Superman caught the kaiju’s swinging arm before it could topple another building. His boots dug furrows into the street from the sheer force, concrete cracking under the strain. Muscles coiled, cape whipping violently in the rush of displaced air.
“Not here,” he gritted, his voice low but firm as he pushed back against the monster’s weight. “Not my city.”
The kaiju roared, snapping its jaws as it tried to shake him off. Superman twisted, forcing its arm upward, redirecting the force away from the crowded district. Glass shattered, dust rained down from the nearest skyscraper, but the structure remained standing.
Every ounce of focus was on containing the destruction, keeping Metropolis from becoming rubble under the beast’s rampage. He didn’t have the luxury of thinking about how close the falling debris had come to you—how your wide-eyed gaze had lingered on him through your car window just minutes earlier.
The kaiju thrashed, its roar shaking the skyline as it jerked free of Superman’s grip. With a wild swing, its massive arm slammed into the side of a towering office building.
The structure groaned. Cracks spiderwebbed along the facade before the entire frame buckled. Glass shattered overhead as the building split apart. Metal beams and concrete slabs peeled away from its spine, the entire structure groaning like a dying beast before gravity yanked it down.
Superman’s head snapped toward the sound. In an instant, his telescopic vision zoomed past the chaos, tracing the building’s collapse. His stomach clenched—
Your hands trembled as you fought the seatbelt. Yank, twist, push—it wouldn’t budge. The lock jammed, the strap biting into your shoulder as your chest rose and fell in frantic gasps. Around you, people screamed, abandoning their cars. But you were stuck. Trapped.
The shadow loomed.
The fall trajectory was exact—he measured it instinctively, every collapsing slab and beam aligning in his mind’s eye. He had seconds. No margin for hesitation.
Without a beat, he lets go of the kaiju and flew towards your street. He pushed harder, faster. The shockwave of his acceleration rippled down the street, flipping loose papers and rattling windows.
Debris broke loose, chunks of concrete raining down like missiles. He tilted his body, weaving between them, each fragment scraping past by inches. One boulder-sized slab plunged toward you car roof— he struck it mid-air, fists smashing it to rubble before it could reach you.
And still you struggled with the seatbelt, your lips trembling as you muttered something—prayer, curse, plea—he couldn’t hear.
The entire tower buckled forward. Cars jolted on their suspensions as drivers abandoned them, fleeing on foot. The street clogged in panicked chaos—horns blaring, voices shrieking—yet you sat frozen in your car, still yanking at the cursed belt that held you prisoner.
Superman drove himself harder, lungs burning with the air he ripped past. His every instinct screamed at him to be faster, faster—because he could already see it. The angle. The path. Where it would land.
Right on you.
“Not her.”
He hurled himself through the smoke, cutting a brutal path. His fists shattered a rain of steel girders, his shoulders smashed aside slabs of concrete, but there was no slowing down. It was coming, and you were dead center.
Your head snapped up as daylight vanished above you. For a heartbeat, the world went silent—no cars, no screams, no chaos. Just the deafening crack as the skyscraper split the sky.
Then the roof crushed inward.
The impact was merciless—steel and concrete slammed down, flattening the car with a sound like thunder. The windshield exploded into a thousand shards, the frame caved under the monstrous weight, metal shrieking as it collapsed around you.
Clark landed a second too late. His boots cracked the asphalt, his cape whipping in the whirlwind of dust and fire.
“No!”
He ripped his hands into the debris, tearing chunks of concrete aside like wet paper. Dust seared his throat, his heartbeat roared in his ears, but none of it mattered. He threw girders the size of trucks into the street, clawing through the wreckage with terrifying desperation.
And then—
Your car. Crushed, mangled, unrecognizable beneath the ruin.
Through the warped glass and twisted steel, he saw you.
Your head slumped forward. Your arm limp against the door. Blood trickled down your temple, a smear too bright against the gray ash around you.
Superman froze. His chest caved in on itself. For all his strength, his speed, his power—he had been too late.
His greatest fear had found him.
And it had your face.
“No no no no no no—”
Clark’s voice cracked, the words tearing out of him as he ripped the mangled frame apart with a single wrench of his arms. Metal screamed in protest before he hurled it aside, falling to his knees against the wreckage.
Your body slid into his arms, limp and terrifyingly still.
His breath shuddered as he cradled you close, brushing debris from your face with trembling fingers. Dust streaked across your skin, your hair clinging to you forehead where blood had matted it down.
He pressed his ear against your chest, his hands shaking as he used his hearing, his vision—anything. X-ray sight cut through the fragile shield of your ribs, desperate for the flicker of life.
There. A heartbeat.
But it was faint. Faint and fading.
His throat closed. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to soothe him.
“No, stay with me—please stay with me,” he begged, his voice raw, all composure shattered. Superman’s steadiness was gone, leaving only Clark—the man who had laughed with you in the mornings, kissed you by the door, held you like you were the only thing tethering him to this world.
And now you were slipping away in his arms.
Without wasting another second, he surged into the air, clutching you against his chest. The city blurred into streaks of smoke and light beneath him as he pushed faster, faster, the sonic crack of his flight rattling windows in his wake.
Hospitals. He needed a hospital. Somewhere—anywhere. His vision scanned in every direction, locking onto the nearest trauma center, its roof crowded with evacuees and medical staff waving down helicopters.
He dove. His landing split the asphalt, dust pluming outward as he dropped to one knee, shielding you from the shockwave.
“Help! I need a doctor—now!” His voice boomed across the lot, every ounce of his power laced with panic.
But even as hands rushed toward him, as gurneys rolled into view, he didn’t loosen his hold on you. His jaw clenched, his eyes burning with the sting of tears he wouldn’t allow to fall.
Because for all his strength, Clark Kent had never felt so powerless.
They rushed you inside. The sound of your gurney wheels squealing across the tiles echoed in his skull, each turn of the wheel dragging you farther from his reach.
He stood frozen at the entrance, his cape heavy, dust still clinging to him, every part of his body begging to follow. To tear down walls if he had to. To not let you out of his sight.
But he couldn’t.
For the first time in years, Clark Kent—Superman—was forced to stand still. To trust others with the one life he couldn’t bear to lose.
And as the hospital doors swung shut, sealing you from view, guilt clamped its talons deep into his chest.
He had saved the city a thousand times.
But today, he wasn’t sure if he had saved you.