Dr Caspian Crow. Here at your service.

When Clark saw your name light up his phone, his initial reaction had always been the same. His heart would swell, a smile splitting across his face as he would refuse to let it ring more than three times before sliding his thumb across the bottom of the screen; pressing his phone to his ear to hear the sweet symphonies of your voice; prepared to hear the events of your—as you would call it—mundane day in comparison to his. 

(It was never mundane to Clark. Kept him grounded.) 

However, nothing had prepared Clark for when he answered the phone to you, to be met with a tone he feared hearing from you. 

“I’m mad at you.” You said bluntly, without a greeting. 

Clark paled, “I’m thousands of miles away, honey. What did I do this time?” 

You sighed dramatically, head dropping onto the plush pillow of your bed as you looked up at the ceiling, “I had this…horrible dream. All this tension between you and Lex Luthor has clearly began to seep into my subconscious.” 

“Tell me more.” 

“He decided to use me as bait. Against you. I was tied up in a dark room with duct tape over my mouth. He would taunt you with videos, or photos of me. And—” you paused with your eyes narrowed, “—You just never came. You left me there. To rot away.” 

Clark frowned, “Oh, honey. You know I would burn the whole of Metropolis—” 

“Till death do us part, Clark.” You interjected sardonically, “Was this your way of parting with me?” 

“What? No!” Clark pinched the bridge of his nose and paced the floor of the Fortress of Solitude. Despite being Clark’s entire centre of gravity, you weren’t opposed to occasionally giving your husband a dull headache from your flair of theatrical display. He dragged a palm down his face, “Never, honey. It was just a dream. I promise I would save you. Even if it meant my life.” 

You hummed, “Tell your dream-self that then.” 

After that, you gave up the topic with ease, and to be quite frank, you were only toying with your husband—understanding that the dream was out of some deeply embedded fear within you, rather than Clark’s ability to protect you. However, the further you conversed about your day, and the gossip that had whirled around your workplace; the quieter Clark had become. 

His usual self was upbeat, keen to engage in heart-to-hearts with you seeing as you had been apart for far too long. (It had only been two days.) 

This time, Clark was quiet. Engulfed in his own thoughts whilst you talked his ear off about the fight that broke out over the coffee machine in the staff room. A new wave of guilt began to gnaw away at his thoughts, creating a three-headed monster that was growing to be a problem by the minute. 

All because you had brought up your dream, where he was incapable of saving you. 

But, that was his whole purpose? Saving people. Tilting the world upright each day at a time. Citizens looked to Superman as a beacon of hope, to bring them to justice and protect them from harm. So, why all of a sudden did it fall short with you? 

You had once told Clark over breakfast, that dreams meant something, if you had the time to look it up. This came after he sleepily mentioned that he dreamt that you had replaced all of his teeth with Kryptonite. Obviously, you were only prodding fun that it could’ve meant something deeper than it really was…but, Clark latched onto that piece of information.

And now, he was beginning to run wild with it. 

There was obviously some underlying cause as to why your mind would have ever conjured up such an absurd outcome to a hypothetical kidnapping by Lex Luthor. Clark didn’t want to dwell on the imagery of it all, because it made his stomach churn at the thought.

However, he could think of a million reasons as to why that particular scenario happened.

Clark had been more occupied than usual. Far away from the one-bedroom apartment in the heart of Metropolis, far away from the warmth of the kitchen with the toaster that nearly always burnt his toast in the morning, far away from the soft sheets and ambient lighting of the bedroom; and most importantly…far away from you.

Albeit, only being two days on this particular occasion. It still didn’t account for the four days from the week prior, and the month stretch when he had flown himself to Jarhanpur. 

It was evident what was needed. 

Clark needed to be with you. To regain the trust to make you believe that he would save you. (If you didn’t save yourself in all your strong-headed excellence.) 

“Clark?” Your voice tugged at his strayed thoughts on the other end of the phone. “Are you even listening to me?” 

“Yes, honey.” He swallowed the lump in his throat as he spoke. 

You paused, incredibly in-tune with your husband. Two peas in a pod. 

“You’re upset, aren’t you?” It wasn’t so much a question, as it was a statement; an accurate one at that. When your husband didn’t reply, you spoke again, “Clark, I’m not really mad at you. It was just a dream. It meant nothing.” 

“But, you said—” 

“—I said dreams meant something deeper. Yes. But…more along the lines of if you dreamt we had a baby!” You waved your hand about, “It means, you probably would like a baby. Or, if you dreamt about Ma’s cooking. You miss the farm. That sort of stuff. This was just me being subconsciously scared of Lex Luthor.” 

Clark’s jaw set at that. “I’m coming home.” 

“No you’re not.” 

“Yes. I am.” Clark gave a nod to Gary who was loitering around the area he had been pacing in, “I will be there soon, alright?” 

You rubbed at your eye with the heel of your hand, frustrated with yourself, “Why are you doing that? I promise, I was joking.” 

in the kitchen, clark busies himself with laying out all the necessary spices. he consults the recipe ma jotted down for him to double check everything and then grabs a cutting board to cube all the vegetables. you can faintly hear the knife knocking wood, in quick succession, and you try not to worry at how fast he's going. 

water bubbles on the stove top, at a steady boil as the vegetables and aromatics mingle. the smell streams into the living room, you picture a cartoon-like trail of steam floating in the air as your eyelids begin to grow heavy again. you let it take you, trusting in clark that he’ll get things set up for you.

when you wake, with a kiss to your clothed shoulder this time, clark is holding your bed tray table, bowl of soup perched carefully and slices of buttered sourdough that instantly has you sitting up and scooting further into the couch so he can fit next to you. the couch is surprisingly big enough. he fits the plastic legs over his lap and you lean into him.

“smells good. thank you,” you poke him with your nose, taking a respective sniff of his shirt as you go. your sinuses clear up with the upright position of your body, he smells good.

“gosh, you don't have to thank me, ‘know i'd do anything for you,” he huffs, bringing a cupped hand and spoon full of soup your way. he blows at it gently before tilting it into your waiting mouth. you adjust a little and lean forward so it's easier for him to feed you.

you immediately feel better, warmth soothing your throat and tastebuds being gently caressed by the spices, pleasantly similar to how clark makes you feel all the time. he takes the eager tilt of your chin as a sign to feed you another mouth. “god, this is-”

you kiss him on the cheek, “mmh- really good. i love you. thank you.”

you must not realise it. sure, the two of you haven't said it to each other yet, but it was implied. and now you’ve done it. you’ve said it out loud and he doesn't know what to do with himself except for spooning more of the soup into your mouth.

“you love me?”

“‘course i do, clark. i know you love me too, otherwise you wou’n’t be he’e.” toast obstructs your last few words but he gets the jist. he bites back the big toothy grin hiding behind his lips, but his dimples make an appearance anyway. when you look up at him, you’re very suddenly vulnerable, despite the confidence with which you delivered your previous words. he thinks you're sweet. “right?”

he breathes out a laugh against your forehead, “yeah, hun. i love you too.”

and poof your headache is gone.