The Double K Farm for At Risk Youth - How it Starts

[stands_for_hope]

It had been a hard year for the Kents.

The loss of a father, a husband, had hollowed out mother and son, though thankfully they'd managed to make due on the farm between the both of them. But that was just the financial parts. The farm felt empty without Jonathon Kent, their home felt empty, and Clark...

Clark was so angry with everyone, with everything. It wasn't fair.

He could do so many things, so many things, but he hadn't been able to do anything when his father's heart had given out. He hadn't been able to do anything when Jonathon Kent had dropped dead in a field while Clark was at school. He'd just been there to get pulled into the office, take the phonecall from his mother.

It was doubly hard to go through his days now. Before, there'd been a bit of a barrier between the people who liked to tease him; Jonathon Kent had been respected and folks had looked out for Clark because of it. They still looked for him, but now it was more about sympathy and less of a willingness to put themselves between him and trouble.

That's why he was here. Twelve years old, pushed against a chain link fence, holding onto the fence pole for their sake as much as his own. Anger boiled up inside him, anger enough to make his eyes start to lighten to red, anger enough to make him want to do things he couldn't do, shouldn't do. Because people were mean and cruel and they picked on weakness like a pack of jackals, even if the weakness was feigned.

I can't do it. I can't hurt anyone.

It was like a screen door trying to hold back a tidal wave. He was shaking and his eyes were so hot. He just hoped he could hold on long enough for them to get bored. Long enough for someone to wander by. He just had to hold on.

Comments

[justakidfrombrklyn]

Steve sounded like he was going to say something before deciding against it and just holding on a little tighter.

Clark walked over a few minutes later and gestured to his room. He could come get him when he and Steve were done.

[kolodnoykovki]

Bucky nodded over Steve's shoulder, then held on tighter, kissing his forehead and stroking his hair. They were going to be okay. They were going to be together. It was going to be good from here on out.

[justakidfrombrklyn]

Steve looked up at him and hugged him tight before sighing just a little and tilting his head towards the door.

"We should go meet Clark. He's been anxious all day about showing us whatever it is."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Yeah, and you can always come back up here. It's not going away." For once. They all had a place that was theirs. Steve had his mom and Bucky had Steve and Clark, and now they all had Sarah and Martha, and...

And it felt good.

"C'mon, let's go see what Clark wanted to show us. I'm curious, and I know he's antsy."

[justakidfrombrklyn]

Steve looked at Bucky for a moment, something complicated in his eyes, before nodding and shoving himself up and away to go run for Clark. He was knocking on the other boy's door before Bucky got there.

[kolodnoykovki]

Bucky was still smiling, hand coming to rest on Steve's shoulder after he'd knocked. "I didn't peek or anything, Clark - not all day. We're ready to see!" he said through the door.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark opened the door with a complicated expression on his face. It was clear he was nervous but he was also just as clearly excited.

"You would have had to known where to look anyway," he pointed out before trotting out the door and down the steps.

[kolodnoykovki]

He took Steve's hand and followed Clark, a little careful down the steps - he didn't treat Steve like he was porcelain, but he did stay careful of some things. The last thing he wanted was for Steve to fall down a flight of stairs or worse.

[stands_for_hope]

Steve's jaw clenched just a little as they made their way down the steps. Then something clearly occurred to him and he settled as little as Clark led their way out of the house to the barn. He went to a back corner of the building and pushed aside some hay to reveal a door. The door was opened up easily enough before Clark reached over and flicked on a line of lights. Then he gestured for them to follow him down into the little basement area.

[kolodnoykovki]

"...You're right," he said, watching the whole process. "I never would've found it." In fact, he had to stare a little as the door was revealed, but then he followed, careful of his steps. He knew better than to think they'd be rickety, but he had yet to let go of Steve.

[stands_for_hope]

As they descended down into the basement, there was a corner to turn and then...

Then something completely out of their experience: a large metal vessel, like a tiny personal submarine, made of strange, alien looking metal with swirls and etchings all along it.

Clark was clearly nervous now as he trotted down into the open area below, watching Bucky and Steve to see their reaction.

[kolodnoykovki]

Once his feet, and Steve's, were on firm ground, Bucky looked up. And then he stared, jaw slowly dropping until he was gaping at the sight before him. "...Whoa..."

He remembered what Clark had said. If he'd been a demon or a mutant or an alien, and... it looked like the answer was alien.

"Wow."

[stands_for_hope]

Steve was practically mesmerized by the swirls and shapes and designs on the vessel but Clark was watching the both of them as he spoke, looking wary, ready to bolt.

"It's the ship I came in. There's no metal like it on Earth. My dad--" he swallowed hard, "before he died, he took a piece to some scientist at Kansas State and they said it wasn't anything on the periodic table."

[kolodnoykovki]

Slow, and a little careful - he wasn't sure if he was allowed to touch it - Bucky walked toward it, not quite able to take his eyes away. "Not on the periodic table? Wow... That's wild. And you came in this? How old were you? Do you remember it?"

The eager tone was probably not what Clark expected, but he'd learn as time went on how much Bucky loved to know the hows and whys, just like how he'd chosen mostly scientific toys when he'd been at the store with his newly-adoptive Aunt Martha.

"This is so cool."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark started to smile just a little at the questions.

"Yeah, I came in this. I was just a baby, I don't remember it... I didn't even know this was why I'm so different until my dad told me a couple of years ago after the bus thing."

And that made Steve stand up a little straighter, knocked him out of his fascination. He'd heard about the bus incident, because kids at school talked and Bucky'd wondered why in the hell people would call Clark Kent a freak when he was a relatively handsome boy who just liked to read.

"The ship's beautiful," Steve noted as he reached out to touch it, unafraid, long fingers tracing the swirls of the design. Clark didn't respond to Steve touching it, so it was probably fine.

Clark shuffled a little, but he looked a little more secure as he saw Bucky's delight.

[kolodnoykovki]

"Just a baby," Bucky echoed, soon doing exactly what Steve was doing, tracing the patterns and... wondering. "These don't look like they're just decorations. This part here looks like writing. More like..."

He frowned. Now his dislike of history (except for some parts) was coming back to bite him in the butt. "Some of those symbol writings, not quite like hieroglyphics." But damned if he could remember which one he was thinking of.

"Have you ever tried to translate it, Clark?"

[stands_for_hope]

He shook his head.

"I've never given it a shot. It's no language here on Earth."

He blushed just a little.

"I... I know most of those already."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Well, it wouldn't be an Earth language. It'd be a language from where you were from," Bucky agreed, "and we don't really have anything to properly compare to, do we..."

He screwed his mouth to one side in dismay. "Damn. It would've been neat to figure out what these say." But then, smiling, he added, "But I'm sure that won't stop Steve from practicing them. Privately."

[stands_for_hope]

Steve looked up at that, his fingers pausing in their tracing.

"What?"

Clark just chuckled before turning to Bucky.

"I know it's not from here, but I'd always hoped maybe there was some other sign. Some other information. Cause I can't crack it, no matter how hard I try."

[kolodnoykovki]

"And even if we could know what sounds they made, they wouldn't be in words we know. ...But that doesn't mean we have to stop trying." It was so interesting and so cool. Bucky started to circle it carefully, thinking about the rockets he'd seen, and the shuttles, and the old satellites. Clark really was an alien.

[stands_for_hope]

He frowned a little and reached under his shirt, pulling out a long diamond-shaped metal object before reaching forward to press it into a slot in the ship. There was a sound like a pressure cooker and a portion of the ship opened to reveal something that looked like a tablet of some sort. Clark pulled it out and held it up.

"I've got more, but it's all images. No sound."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Huh..." He came over to look at the tablet. "Well, that means it looks like whoever sent you wanted you to learn things when you could." And that was good, but... it made him think.

"I wonder why you were sent here. I'm glad you're here, and won't ever be upset that you are, but I wonder."

[stands_for_hope]

He shrugged and pressed a button, a hologram rising from the tablet to show a full color image of a proud alien people, all sporting the same symbol that was on the vessel.

"I can see them, though. That's the nice part."

[kolodnoykovki]

"...I wonder if one of them's your birth mom," Bucky mused, peering at the image. "They have your symbol here." But then he stopped, paused, and added, "One of them might be your dad, too. We don't know how aliens work."

[stands_for_hope]

"I don't think so," he admitted. He pressed a few more things before another image glowed in front of them.

"I think this is them."