Work Text:
Clark wakes to the sound of chickens. And cows and shifting hay and the crunch of dry food as it's ground beneath teeth.
Clark wakes to the sounds of the farm coming alive for the day and it’s too close. He hears the animals. He hears the creek that runs at the back of their land, overlapping with the stutter of an old tractor turning over, the chitter of squirrels. He hears everything and it's loud, all so loud.
He covers his ears, trying to block out even just some of the noise and the farm sinks below something rushing past his ears like river rapids. A thumping sound joins it, keeping time with his heart pounding.
It's too much. The cows and the chickens and the creek and the rushing and the thumping. His breath quickens— it sounds like storm winds whipping about. A whine escapes him. There's just so much. It's too much. He can't— he can't—
Cool hands no bigger than his own press over his, and it’s another rush of noise, but mostly it’s relief.
Clark opens his eyes to Danny in front of him. He looks pained. He looks concerned. He opens his mouth and it’s like listening to someone under water, the words slip just past comprehension. Some of his confusion must show on Clark’s face because Danny just grimaces and gently tugs him down. They shift so his ear rests on Danny’s chest just above his heart. The beating against his cheek matches the thumping in his ears and it’s something Clark can anchor himself to. The farm becomes distant again— the animals and the tractors and the creek fade away back to where they belong.
Beat by beat Clark relaxes. It feels weird to be comforted by someone younger than him. Once he calms down he realizes the rushing had been his own blood running through his veins. He can hear Danny’s too.
“Hey Danny?” Clark mumbles after a moment. He feels more than hears Danny’s questioning hum.
“Hmm?”
“Why is this happening?”
Danny takes a long moment to reply. Clark doesn’t mind, he just listens to the calming sounds of Danny’s heart.
“I don’t know,” he finally says.
They sit there on Clark’s bed. Danny shuffles them so he can sit against the wall without dislodging Clark. It's awkward— Danny's a little smaller than him, but it's also comfortable. Cozy. At some point Danny starts running his fingers through his hair. It’s nice. It’s just them, the bed, and Danny’s steady heartbeat.
It’s so quiet now that Clark hears it. An echo, a second beat just under Danny’s regular heartbeat. Much slower and it almost hums to his ears.
“Hey Danny?”
“Hmm?”
“Why do you have two heartbeats?”
The hand in his hair hesitates. Clark moves to sit but Danny presses gently to keep him in place.
“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
Clark frowns. Something is clearly happening to him and something is clearly different about Danny. But the steady double heartbeat tugs at him and pulls him under and back asleep before he can figure it out.
Clark’s hearing continued to act out after that. One moment it was normal and then the next he could hear everything. In those moments he listens for Danny's heart. Just like that first morning, the double heartbeat eases his senses back to normal. It had taken time to learn how to pick it out from all the others, but the hidden, second heartbeat gave Danny away every time.
As he gets a hang of his new hearing, Clark learns a lot of things. He learns that chickens are overwhelmingly loud. He learns that there are fish downstream in their creek. Most importantly, he learns that some wasps are building a nest on the backside of their barn. He can hear them, buzzing and humming, the rapid flutter of wings as they build.
Clark is young and Pa only lets him and Danny do so much around the farm. Small things, “age appropriate” things for kids like them.
He's pretty sure knocking down a wasp nest isn't on that list. But Danny sneaks around all the time to help fix Pa's things! And he should be able to reach it with a hop and a broomstick! It's his turn to help out!
Clark arms himself with Ma’s porch broom and heads to the back of the barn. No one’s watching so there’s no one to stop him. He tries to reach it from the ground first— too short. He hops and swings once, twice, and misses both times by a hair. He crouches, hoping to get just a little more power for just a little more height.
He jumps and goes up higher! He goes higher and higher, right past the hornet nest. He drops the broom so he can catch the lip of the roof with both hands and swings himself onto the shingles, panic blooming in his gut
Clark is well and truly stuck.
Tears well up in his eyes. He doesn't understand how he ended up here. He doesn't know how to get down. He wants Pa just as much as he doesn't want to get in trouble. It doesn’t make sense that he jumped this high, and his heart hammers in his throat.
“Clark?” Danny calls. He sounds close. Clark can peer over the ledge but he can't see Danny from here. He shifts his foot and it slips down the slanted roof. A whimper escapes. He just wants down.
“Clark?” Danny sounds closer. Clark gathers his courage.
“I'm up here!” He calls, desperate. Danny rounds the corner and relief floods through Clark.
“Hold on, I'm coming.” Danny disappears back out of Clark's view. He curls inward, he hopes Danny finds a ladder soon. Or an adult.
A cool breeze blows past him, sending shivers down his back. He should have never tried to knock down that wasp nest. He thought, he hoped, hearing was the only power he’d have to deal with. But now he has two. And he doesn’t even understand this one! How is he going to learn when he doesn’t even know what happened?
“Hey—” Clark startles at the suddenly close voice. He slips but a kid-sized hand steadies him. “Hey, woah, it’s just me.”
Somehow, Danny’s on the roof with him. Clark could cry from relief. Danny smiles. “Did’ja jump and miss the ground?”
Clark doesn’t get it. He knows it’s a joke by the teasing tone, but not what he’s being teased about. And honestly? He doesn’t care as long as Danny can get them down.
“How do we get down?” Clark asks, trying not to think about how tall the barn is.
“We jump!” Danny declares way too happily. Clark just stares. Danny offers him a hand. “Trust me.”
Clark stares at the hand. It’s small, no bigger than his own really, but steady. Since the moment Pa brought Danny home he’s always been odd. Quiet, strange, and mature. But so far he knew how to help Clark with his hearing, so maybe he knows something about this that Clark doesn’t.
He uncurls his fingers from the edge of the roof. One inch at a time Clark puts his hand in Danny’s. He’s slow and careful about it. He doesn’t want to slip again. Once Clark’s hand is fully in his, Danny shifts so he’s crouched on the edge of the roof and beckons Clark to do the same.
“Don’t tell Pa?” Clark asks.
Danny winks. “Of course, what are brothers for?”
Brothers. Clark likes the sound of that. Before, Danny was just some kid Pa brought home late one night. But now they share not just one, but two secrets. That totally makes them brothers.
Slowly, carefully, Clark shifts to his feet so he’s crouched next to Danny. They share a nod and jump together. Just before they hit the ground Clark's stomach swoops and he feels weightless. It almost feels the same as when he’d jumped before, only more controlled. They land much softer than he expected.
Clark looks back up at the roof. The fall was much nicer than he expected for that height. He tilts his head to the side, noticing something.
“How did you get up without a ladder?”
Danny hesitates just a moment too long, a look of panic briefly crosses his face.
“I'll tell you if you catch me!” Danny taunts. He shoves Clark lightly and takes off running.
“Hey. Hey! Get back here!” Clark chases him with a laugh.
By the time Ma calls them in for dinner the day's excitement is all but forgotten, including the mystery of how Danny got onto the barn roof.
Clark's eyes itch. They've been itching all day— to the point where the skin around Clark’s eyes are red from him rubbing with his hands in a futile attempt at relief—but here, in the hay-filled barn, his eyes burn. But Ma needs his brother and when he's not tinkering, Danny can be found in the same back corner of the barn. Pa gets weird about them being here, but it doesn't stop Danny.
Clark finds Danny taking a nap leaning against a stack of hay bales, a couple of the barn cats curl up with him. They look so cozy that Clark briefly feels bad for what he's about to do. He touches Danny's shoulder to lightly shake him awake, but Danny stirs easily.
Danny stretches with a yawn, scattering the cats. As they leave, one jumps from a hay bale and wacks Clark in the eyes with its tail. It makes the itchy burn worse. He rubs his eyes with a displeased noise, hoping that this time whatever is irritating his eyes gets out.
“Clark? Are you okay?” Danny asks, that same concerned tone Clark’s grown used to hearing.
“I think something got in my eyes. They itch and hurt,” Clark answers, still rubbing.
“Open up, lemme look.”
The burning feels like it's reached a peak, but Clark opens his eyes anyway. His vision tints red. He sees Danny's expression jump in surprise before red overtakes everything. He's not sure if Danny got out of the way in time. Panic jolts through his system, even as the itching finally starts to fade.
“Fuck!” Danny exclaims.
“Danny!” Clark admonishes on reflex. City kids.
The red fades and takes the burning feeling with it. Sunlight filters through the pair of new holes in the barn wall highlighting the smoke coming from the burning hay bale.
“Fuck!” Clark exclaims, stomach swooping. Pa’s gonna be so upset!
“Clark!” Danny admonishes on reflex, although he seems way too amused for this situation.
Both boys work in tandem to put out the fire. Danny dashes to get a bucket and some water and Clark takes off his shirt and tries to smother the fire. The fire doesn’t get a chance to be a problem with both of their efforts.
“We're not telling Pa,” Danny says as he carefully picks smouldered hay from the bale.
“Or Ma,” Clark agrees, examining his singed and damp shirt. Danny looks at it too and grimaces.
“Sneak in through my bedroom?” Danny offers.
“Yeah. That's a good idea.”
They both forget about the holes in the barn. And the hay.
It ends something like this:
Even with Danny’s guidance, Clark cannot get his heat vision under control. If he stares at something too long? Fire. If he tries to see something in the distance? Laser. If he blinks wrong? Holes in the wall. It is frankly a miracle he lasts more than one day before Pa does something about it.
“Now, I can’t help but notice some weird things going on around the farm lately,” Pa starts after dinner one night. Clark glances nervously at Danny. Danny stubbornly looks anywhere that isn’t at Clark or Pa.
“Danny did it,” Clark blurts out, guilt curdling the second he speaks.
“HEY!”
“While normally he does—”
“HEY!!” Danny interrupts. Pa raises a hand, Clark and Danny settle back down.
“—I know it was Clark this time.”
“What did I do?” Clark asks nervously. Pa levels him with a look. Clark caves immediately. He slumps in his chair. “I don't understand what's going on.”
“I think I just might.” Pa gets up and beckons Clark to follow him. Danny gets up halfway and sends Pa a questioning glance. “You too, Danny.”
The boys follow Pa outside. The sun is setting over the corn making their shadows stretch across the lawn. It's beautiful in a way Clark would normally bask in but he's too nervous to enjoy it right now.
They head to the barn. Pa flicks on some lights and takes them to Danny's favorite corner. The holes in the wall have been patched. Danny and Clark exchange a glance, neither know what’s going on.
Pa has them move some hay bales. They're stacked deep, deeper than anywhere else in the barn. A couple of the bales are old, clearly unusable, and Clark doesn’t understand why they weren’t cleaned out ages ago.
Eventually they reveal a hollow. Inside, something metallic glints in the light.
Pa hands Clark a flashlight and motions him forward. He flicks it on and ducks inside. What he sees stops him dead in his tracks.
Since his second power developed Clark has had questions. Why did he have more than one power? Why him? Was he even human?
Now, looking at what’s clearly a spaceship only big enough for an infant, he wonders where did he come from?
He feels Danny peek over his shoulder and gasp. “That's so cool!” He exclaims in Clark's ear. He pushes past and starts running his hands all over the ship.
“We found you out in the cornfields, nothing more than a babe.” Pa speaks softly. “We don't know where you came from, but we reckoned your parents wanted you alive. And you're human enough it's been easy to keep you that way.”
“I was human enough,” Clark grumbles.
“Are human enough,” Pa insists. He pulls Clark into his side. “You're just… maturing. Everyone does that.”
Clark tucks into Pa's embrace. He's so unsure about everything except that Ma and Pa want him. And Danny too.
Speaking of Danny…
“What about Danny? Didn't you find him in the corn too?” There’s only one spaceship, but maybe—
“Well—” Pa begins. Danny interrupts him.
“I'm half ghost, not alien. Pa, I'm borrowing your tools!” Danny darts off, going slightly through the hay instead of around.
Pa and Clark both stare where he had been moments before.
“Did know he could do that?” Pa asks, mystified.
“Nu uh,” Clark answers. Well, it did explain why Danny has been so good with his powers. But being half ghost didn't explain anything else. At least Clark’s got something else to focus on, since he’s not even close to processing that he’s apparently an alien.
“He's still your brother though.”
Now that had never been a question.