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“Clark. Wake up, Clark.”
The voice that interrupted Clark’s sleep was small and soft, as was the hand on his arm, shaking him awake. Clark turned over and opened his eyes slowly to see Kara standing beside his bed.
“Hey,” Clark whispered, trying not to wake Bruce, who was snoring softly beside him. “What’s wrong?”
Kara wrinkled her nose and looked toward the window. “I… there’s a storm out there.”
“Yeah, I guess there is,” Clark agreed sleepily. He had gotten caught in the rainy and windy weather earlier that evening, but it had gotten nastier since they’d all gone to bed.
Just then, thunder rumbled outside, and Clark could see Kara shudder at the sound. “Can I sleep with you?” the little girl asked softly.
Clark looked at Bruce and hesitated. Would he find it strange to wake up and discover they weren’t alone in bed anymore? Was it even appropriate for the three of them to share this bed? But then he thought back to when he was a child and his super hearing had come in. The amplified hearing flickered in and out, and he hadn’t yet mastered controlling his powers and blocking out certain sounds so his world would switch from constant cacophony to an almost eerie silence. It was one of the most terrifying times in his life… and it had only gotten worse during the first rainstorm he sat through. He’d been so startled by the first clap of thunder that he’d wet himself and ended up crying from the shame.
He was just about to pull back the covers and tell Kara to get in the bed when lightning illuminated the room so clearly it looked like daytime. The girl didn’t wait for an answer then and climbed over Clark, into the bed between him and Bruce. There was a sigh from Bruce’s side of the bed and Clark winced. Kara curled against Clark’s side, and Bruce turned over.
“Thunder scare you?” he asked softly.
Kara nodded, though Bruce wouldn’t have seen her in the dark. “How did you know?”
“Wasn’t too hard to guess,” Bruce replied.
“I feel like such a big baby,” Kara said softly, her cold little feet touching Clark’s leg as she got under the quilt. She looked over to Bruce. “Do you mind?”
Clark could see that Bruce’s features were soft as he glanced down at the little blonde. “Not at all.”
“And don’t feel bad,” Clark added. “Everyone gets scared sometimes.”
Kara looked like she might smile. “Thanks.” Bruce rolled onto his side and moved in closer to Kara, probably to make her feel safe and secure. It was the kind of thing that would have been a happy accident in anyone else, but everything was calculated with Bruce. He always knew what he was doing.
Clark smiled softly to himself. Kara made herself comfortable between the two of them, and before long, her breathing was shallow. Clark wondered how new all of this must be to her – if it had rained on Krypton when she was little and if she remembered any of it. Her memory of her life before she came here was spotty at best, but from what she said, some memories were as clear as day. She had once told him that she remembered holding him when he was barely a day old, and he’d hardly known what to say. She had lost so much and he constantly worried that he wasn’t going to be able to give her enough to make up for it. When he’d told Bruce that, Bruce had simply said, “That’s ninety percent of parenting.” He guessed Bruce was right. That was the way they were parenting anyways. Clark still didn’t exactly know what he was doing where this whole parenting thing was concerned, but things somehow made a bit more sense with Bruce’s help.
Clark allowed himself to drift back to sleep and hoped that anything tomorrow could bring him would compare to the feeling of warmth that spread through him when he was this close to two of the people that meant the most to him.