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Harvest Festival

Summary:

During the town’s annual tradition, The Lane-Kent family struggles with their connections to the people in Smallville, both with new relationships and with established ones.

Notes:

Well, I'm officially obsessed with this series. It's eating my brain! This latest story is only one chapter, but I hope you enjoy!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

*Seven Years Ago*

Clark shucked his jacket off as he made his way back inside the farmhouse, and a smile grew on his face as he saw his mom take a fresh batch of cookies out of the oven.

“That fence repair is all finished up,” he reported. “Was there anything else I can do while I’m here?” Reaching out, he snatched a piping hot cookie off the tray. It left smudges of chocolate chips on his fingers, but it tasted just as good as always.

His mom smiled indulgently. “No, that pretty much takes care of it. Thanks, Clark.”

“Any time.” He sank into a chair at the table, feeling very much like he was a kid all over again who just came home from school. “You know I wish I could come out here more often.”

“You still could. And bring the family.”

He shook his head. “That’s still complicated. We’re trying to get the boys into a school in town.”

That had been an unending battle. The boys’ public school was unfortunately unable to provide the security that the Lane-Kent family now required, but the tuition for any of the private schools was enough to break the bank when Clark and Lois had both been drawing in steady paycheques, let alone now.

Should he start using his unique position to earn money for the family? There had been an unending parade of job offers ranging from security gigs to brand sponsorships. He had turned them all down initially, but now with his family starting to suffer…

“Clark, you’re doing a good job with handling this.”

Scoffing, he raised his eyes to meet his mom’s. “Really doesn’t feel like it.”

“Well, there are no easy answers to any of this, honey, but keep being true to you and following your instincts and I’m sure it’ll all work out.”

It was times like this when Clark was convinced that his mom also had superpowers. The calm, collected sound of her voice drew the tension out of his shoulders and eased the doubt nagging within him.

“Now, are you sure you don’t want to come into town with me later today? It might do you some good to mingle with some of your old friends.”

Clark shook his head immediately. “Thanks, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. And I should get back home soon.”

That was true, but there was also another reason why Clark had yet to make his way into Smallville. So many people looked at him differently now that the world knew the truth about him. Most of it he was starting to get used to, but Smallville had always been this perfectly preserved bubble of childhood nostalgia. The last thing he wanted to do was head into town, face even more stares, and have that bubble burst.

Best to just let it live on in his memories.


*Present Day*

Lois knew that the world mostly saw Clark as a powerful hero who was removed from the mundane realities of life, but that had always struck her as ridiculous. At his core, Clark Kent was a sweet, smalltown guy who was just trying to do his best with the incredible hand he’d been given. It was so obvious to her, and she knew that all it would take would be ten minutes of listening to him talk about the Harvest Festival for the Superman illusion to be permanently shattered.

“So, we’ll need to hit up the chocolate covered bacon stand first,” he decided, not taking a single beat to look up from his corn-husking efforts as he spoke. “Then I’ll have to give your mom a few turns around the dance floor.”

That sounded great to Lois, but she didn’t miss the look the boys shared between them. Finally, Jordan shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“Uh, so, Dad, what would you think if we didn’t, uh… go together?”

Clark finally lifted his head. “What? Why?”

“Well…” Surprisingly, a blush rose on Jordan’s face as he fiddled with his corn stalk. “Uh, I was talking with Sarah yesterday about it and—”

“And he’s got a date,” Jon filled in, elbowing his brother supportively.

“Oh.” Clark blinked. “Well, Jordan, that’s great!”

“I mean, it’s not officially a ‘thing’ if our family’s gonna be all stuck together for the night,” Jordan shrugged off.

“You know, the guys from the team were talking about meeting up there, too,” Jon added.

Clark nodded, nonplussed. Lois winced in sympathy. She knew that taking the family to the Harvest Festival was something that he had wanted to do for a long time, but also, wasn’t it a good thing that the boys had people that they wanted to see there?

“We can compromise,” she decided. “You two stick with us while we make a tour of the food stands, and then we can split off for the rest of the night.”

“Aw, I was gonna show you boys how to two-step. You can bring Sarah, Jordan!”

The look of horror that came over both of their sons’ faces was perfect parental vindication, and it was especially great that they missed the mischievous twinkle in Clark’s eye. Laughing, Lois ducked in for a kiss.

“But seriously, that’ll be fine,” Clark said. “We’ll just have a bit more family time together right now as we finish up this corn.”

The boys both groaned.

“Dad, you can do all of this in literally two seconds,” Jon complained.

Jordan scowled down at the corn in his hand. “I wish I got speed rather than crazy-ass laser eyes.”

Clark sighed. “Heat vision. And even if you get the speed one day, trust me when I say that there’s something nice about slowing down and taking your time.”

It didn’t seem to convince Jordan, but he and Jon still willingly stuck around until the job was done. Then they all took a ride into town together, Clark to drop off some donations at the community center, the boys to meet up at Tag’s house, and Lois to dig into a few things with Chrissy.

Although she hadn’t worked with a partner in a long time, she figured bringing in some good coffee couldn’t be a bad thing, so she stopped by the diner on her way. That’s when she noticed a man staring at her.

Her neck stiffened under his gaze. She had gotten really good at spotting a hidden reporter, but something about the way he was looking at her seemed different than that. As she paid for the coffee, he approached her.

“Lois Lane?”

“Yeah. You found me. But I’m not here to give you a quote or anything. You want to talk to me or Clark outside of a rescue scene, you email through the official account and wait like everyone else.”

“Uh, no, sorry, that’s not what I’m here for. My name’s Marcus Bridgewater. I’m an environmental scientist working on the Schuster mines.”

She paused, finally turning to get a good look at him. Had Luthor already started hiring staff to work there? Marcus was dressed well enough in a dark wool coat. There was an odd warmth in his expression despite the old scar that sliced across his right cheek. Maybe he was a scientist, but something deeper seemed to be at work inside of him.

“Okay…”

“I just want to say…” He took another step forward and placed his hand on the counter. “I know that it’s easy to feel trapped when you’re in the shadow of someone powerful. But there’s always a way out if you’re willing to take it.”

Stumbling backwards, Lois clutched the coffee cups tightly. “Excuse me?!

She had heard about these sorts of people online, of course; awful bigots operating under the assumption that Clark had somehow ‘stolen’ her and was taking advantage of her. This was the first time she had met someone face to face, and the wave of rage was almost impossible to control.

“Look, Marcus, it is none of your business what I choose to do with my life and for you to even think that Clark is somehow…” Her voice shook with the effort to keep from shouting and drawing the attention of everyone in the diner. “I don’t know how long you’re staying in town, but I need you to stay away from me. I’ve heard enough from you to last a lifetime.”

She left the diner soon after that, and even though she knew she had been perfectly clear, she could feel his eyes following her steps all the way across the street and into the Gazette.


Clark easily balanced a stack of boxes on one hand as he weaved his way through the community center. Even after seven years, it felt odd to use his powers in plain sight while wearing a flannel shirt, but of course everyone knew what he could do, and he had learned through experience that it was even more awkward if he purposefully worked within human limits.

Finally, he reached the check-in table and set his load down. “Hey, Lana, I’ve got a bunch of stuff from my mom’s old room here. We’re turning it into an office for Lois.”

“Oh. Thanks, Clark.” She gave him a shallow smile but kept her eyes down as she made a note on her page.

Clark swallowed. They had spent years apart, but he could still read her face plainly, even if she tried to keep some things hidden.

“What’s wrong? Are you still having headaches from, uh—”

“Killgrave? No, I’ve got a clean bill of health.”

“Good. Yeah, that’s, uh…” He nodded blankly, mind racing through anything else that might be the cause of her strange attitude. Nothing came to him. “Well, I wanted to say that if you guys need a hand organizing things here, I’d be happy to help. Either just as a peon you can boss around or something more, uh, ‘super’ if you need.”

But she shook her head stiffly. “No. Thanks, but we’ll be fine. There are a lot of volunteers here.”

“Sure…”

“And don’t you have other things you need to be doing?” Finally, she lifted her head, gazing at him with a sharp expression. “Either for the DOD or somewhere else in the world?”

“Well, I was going to get some work done at the house.”

“Great. Well, I wouldn’t want to keep you.”

As Clark flew back to the farm, he played the interaction over and over in his head. Clearly, he had done something to upset Lana, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what it was. Maybe she had just been busy and stressed? He should sit her down for a good talk after the Harvest Festival was over. Instead of dwelling on it, he sank himself into getting the new office sorted out.

The job was making him lose himself in memories. Even though he had the AI consciousness of his Kryptonian parents, he had still shared a special bond with his mother that had been strong all the way until the day of her death. Should he have made more time to visit her? It had gotten even harder to pull that off once the world knew about him, but maybe that was only a shallow excuse.

He was sorting through framed photos when the shouts coming from the community center broke through his concentration. It took him less than a second to change into his suit and get down there, but by then the damage had already been done.

The whole building was in flames, and already the structure was starting to crumble. Hastily, Clark smothered the fire in a layer of frost and then dropped down beside Kyle Cushing and another firefighter.

“His breathing is laboured,” Clark reported.

Kyle nodded. “Yeah. He, uh, got stuck in here—”

“I’ll get him to the hospital.” Lifting the man into his arms, Clark took off again. It didn’t take long to get him taken care of, and Clark made his way back to the scene of the fire to see if there was anything else he could do.

“Nothing much anyone can do,” Kyle replied as he pulled his helmet off. “If you had gotten here a few minutes earlier…”

Familiar guilt nagged at Clark. This was his hometown and Kyle was right; he should have been here sooner. “I know. I’m sorry. I don’t always hear everything and—”

“How’s Mitchell?”

“He’s, uh, in rough shape still,” Clark admitted. Sugar-coating it would make things even worse with Kyle. “But they’re doing all they can for him.”

“Hmm.” Kyle frowned.

There was something else that he seemed to be worried about, and Clark decided to dust off his reporter skills and do some careful digging. “Do you have any ideas what caused the fire?”

That certainly got a reaction. Kyle stilled and then slowly lifted his head up to face Clark.

“Yeah… but you’re not going to like it.”

Nodding with what he hoped was an open, encouraging expression, Clark leaned his shoulder against the truck.

“Okay, fine.” Kyle’s eyes skirted around the scene before they settled back on Clark. “Some of the debris in there had almost… almost straight lines of fire ripped through them. Like, lasers or… or—”

“Heat vision,” Clark finished with a heavy feeling in his stomach. “Kyle, you know that I—”

“Well, yeah, Kent, I know Superman’s not gonna blow up the Harvest Festival donations. But look, I saw what your kid did that at party. Even if it was an accident, he’s clearly got enough power to do something like…” He nodded towards the charred building.

“Jordan was with friends the whole time,” Clark replied.

“You sure about that?”

The beginnings of irritation simmered within Clark, but he tried to keep it tamped down. Jordan didn’t have a clean record with all this, and it was only natural… Tilting his head, Clark zeroed in on Jordan’s location. His heartbeat was coming from Tag’s house, and it was steady and sure. The sound of laughter filtered through, and Clark pulled back before he caught something he shouldn’t.

“He wasn’t here. Look, I get what you’re saying, Kyle. Superpowers as a teenager are a lot to handle and Jordan’s made a couple mistakes. But this isn’t one of them. I hope you can trust me on that.”

There was a beat of silence as Kyle stared at the ruined community center.

“Yeah,” he finally agreed, shoulders slumping. “I believe you. But, okay, so it wasn’t you or your kid. Your brother makes no sense, either. So that means that it was someone else.”

Clark nodded, his own eyes searching over the burned shell of the building. Could there really be some anonymous superpowered person in or around Smallville? How was that even possible? And why hadn’t they made themselves known? Whatever it was, it couldn’t mean anything good.


Jonathan officially loved the Harvest Festival. It wasn’t that the activities were all that great, and the food didn’t exactly live up to his dad’s high praise, but having the freedom to wander around by himself or with friends wasn’t something he had gotten to do at all before moving to Smallville.

It was a couple hours after the obligatory ‘family time’, and he had spent the rest of the evening roaming the festival grounds and messing around with Tag and Malcolm. He was about to suggest they take another pass by the food stations when Malcolm caught sight of the high striker game.

“Oh, hey, look, man, you can see if you can measure up to your dad!”

Jon’s eyes crawled up the tower until he saw the word ‘Superman’ emblazoned at the top. He snorted. “You know my dad would just break this thing if he actually went all out on it, right?”

Malcolm shrugged, already heading towards the attendant. “Yeah, well, us simple humans can still dream, right?” He handed over a dollar bill and then grabbed hold of the heavy hammer.

Pulling back with decent form, he struck the bottom pad and sent the dinger racing up the tower. It fell short of ‘Superman’ but he still managed a respectable ‘Olympic’ level, and he nodded in satisfaction as he passed the hammer over to Tag. There wasn’t much difference between them, but Tag managed to eke his way to ‘Hercules’. Then it was Jon’s turn.

“Don’t expect anything miraculous,” he warned. Not only was he completely powerless, but he was younger than both Tag and Malcolm. Probably, he wouldn’t even reach the same level as them, but it would still be fun to try.

But before he could get a swing in, Jordan showed up with Sarah at his side.

Malcolm waved him over excitedly. “Hey, Jordan! You’ve totally got to try this! I bet it’ll be nothing for you to get to the top.”

The hammer was pulled out of Jon’s hand and held out towards his brother before he had even realized what was happening. He felt a flutter of… annoyance? Somehow? Even if it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Jordan eyed the hammer cautiously. “Yeah, I probably could get it up there.”

“Okay, but do you think you should try? Remember what happened at Wellnitz’s party?” It was maybe a low blow to bring that up while Jordan was on a date, and Jon regretted it as soon as he said it.

But although Jordan gave a cautious glance over the Sarah, he still managed to shrug off the comment. “I’ve been practicing lots since then. I think it’ll be fine. Maybe I’ll have to take a couple tries to figure out the right level.”

He took hold of the hammer and stepped forward. The first try brought the dinger barely halfway, but it was the way that Jordan did it that stood out. There was none of the big swings and deep breaths that Tag and Malcolm used. Instead, he was restrained in his movement, and gave the bottom pad of the game what looked more like a tap that a full-fledged hit.

Nodding to himself, he geared up for another attempt. This one shot high immediately and made the bell ring out over the fair grounds. Both Tag and Malcolm gave a whoop and slapped Jordan’s back. Even Sarah looked impressed.

“You can pick the prize,” Jordan offered to her gallantly, and Jon couldn’t restrain from rolling his eyes at the cheesy move. Apparently, Jordan had inherited their dad’s dorky moves as well as his powers.

“Oh, hey, I guess Jon still needs a turn,” Tag remembered. “You wanna take a go?”

A heavy lump settled in Jon’s chest. He had been willing to take the L earlier, but now the idea of going after his brother’s display…

“Nah, that’s okay. You know, I think I’m gonna call it a night.”

Jordan frowned. “Wait, really? It’s not even that late.”

Jon prickled, wishing his brother would just shut up. “Whatever. I have a headache. I’m gonna walk home.”

It took a couple more brush-offs before he convinced everyone that he was okay, and then he trudged away from the festival grounds. The simmering, sick feeling within him wouldn’t settle.

He knew it was dumb to be jealous of Jordan. It wasn’t like either of them had chosen what was happening with the powers. But the idea of putting on a very lame display of human limits after his brother had crushed that game just…

It sucked.

It’s not that he wanted powers, though. Those came with a ton of other issues, and he liked that he could actually blend in with all of his friends despite the differences in biology. Plus, there’s no way he’d be able to play on the football team if he was having to handle increasing superpowers at the same time.

No, it was for the best that things were the way they were.

He just needed to keep reminding himself of that.


As far as Jordan was concerned, this was the best night ever. The enforced ‘family time’ had actually been surprisingly fun, and his first official date with Sarah had sent things off the charts. They had thankfully avoided the dance floor but had spent some enjoyable time touring the booths and playing carnival games. Sarah had a small collection of prizes from his efforts and Jordan felt a warm glow as he watched her hold them tightly. A couple months ago, there was no way he could’ve got any of those, but his growing powers were really starting to settle in and become something. For the first time in his life, things were really clicking.

Their pace slowed as they neared her house, as if they both silently agreed that the night was coming to an end all too soon. Jordan felt anticipation starting to jangle inside of him. Were they gonna kiss before he left? He had messed up so badly the last time he had tried that, but at the same time he desperately wanted to do it again.

“So, uh…” He scuffed his shoe on the sidewalk. “This was really great.”

A smile grew on her face, skin glowing in the warm light of the streetlamps. “Yeah. It really was.”

He wished he could hold her hand, but both of hers were caught up with her prizes and putting his arm around her felt too… close, somehow. Instead, he leaned towards her as they kept meandering down the sidewalk.

“You, uh, up for meeting at lunch tomorrow? The school cafeteria’s not as exciting as the Harvest Festival, but…”

Her eyes lit up. “Yeah! That sounds great!”

They were right at the edge of her driveway now, and there was no way they could drag it out any longer. Jordan’s palms were sweaty as he turned to face Sarah square on. Did she want him to kiss him? It was officially a date; it’d be lame if he didn’t, right? Gathering his courage, he leaned in closer to her and—

The light from the porch suddenly switched on, making Jordan wince.

“Sarah!” Her mom stood in the doorway, arms crossed in front of her.

“Mom!” Sarah shot a furious look towards Mrs. Cushing. “What are you doing?”

“You didn’t tell me that you were going to the Harvest Festival with Jordan Kent.”

“So?” Her chin jutted out stubbornly. “Last time I checked you don’t run a prison. I can spend time with whoever I want.”

Mrs. Cushing sighed. Then she walked across the drive until she was right beside Sarah. “Can you just head inside, sweets? We’ll talk about it together.”

“No! Mom, c’mon, it’s not like you’re one of those idiots online that’s scared of Superman.”

“I’m not scared of Superman. But…” Her eyes cut over to Jordan, and a small muscle on her forehead jumped. “Jordan, I’m sorry. There are just some very real dangers that your family faces and I don’t want my family getting caught up in all that.”

“What?” A hot flush of shame rose up, and he felt himself sinking into it. His pulse thudded in his ears and his palms itched.

“Mom, that’s BS! Jordan’s got Superman looking after him. And he has powers, too!”

“Sarah!” Mrs. Cushing glared and then caught herself, taking a deep breath before a smile forced its way onto her face “We’ll talk about it together, okay? For now, we should let Jordan get home.”

Sarah scowled. “I’m going to text you tonight, Jordan.”

There wasn’t anything Jordan could bring himself to say, so he just swallowed heavily as he watched her get dragged into the house. Then he set his feet on the way home.

The whole thing made him feel so confused. Wasn’t Mrs. Cushing supposed to be a friend of his dad’s? She had been hurt by Killgrave, but Sarah said she was feeling better by now. Although maybe she was still upset about it. Remembering that other people’s moms didn’t get put into danger regularly was sometimes harder than remembering that other people’s dads couldn’t break the sound barrier.

At least Sarah still seemed into the date. And they could talk at school. Maybe his dad could try to mend some fences with Mrs. Cushing? It had to all blow over soon and then they could—

A heavy, dark shape dropped out of the sky and slammed into Jordan, pinning him to the ground. He wheezed, trying to force air back into his shocked lungs.

What the hell? He hadn’t seen or heard anything and then suddenly—

Whatever it was, it was made of slick metal, and even though Jordan pushed with all his might he couldn’t get the thing to move. He also couldn’t reach the ELT that was stashed in his pocket.

“Dad—” His voice barely made any sound as he choked out the world. “Help—”

There was movement, and then Jordan felt his head slam back down on the ground with enough force to make a dent in the hard dirt.

“None of that, son of Kal-El.”

The voice startled him, and then Jordan finally realized that the thing pinning him down was a person wearing a metal suit. Was it the guy who had it out for his dad? It had to be, right?

He had heard a few things about it, of course, but there always seemed to be someone after his dad and it honestly hadn’t made much of a blip for Jordan. Until now, that is. Now, this person had come after him.

And Jordan already knew he was woefully outmatched.

Notes:

Sorry/not sorry for the cliffhanger! Jordan getting attacked on his walk home was one of the things on my "has to happen no matter what" list as well as the boys getting sucked into more danger than Lois and Clark want because of Jordan's powers. 😂

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