[AU] SV Futureverse

[dovelike]

Metropolis Children's Hospital

Days like today are what keep Eirene coming back to this small hospital in the middle of Kansas. Watching a thirteen year old with once-inoperable pancreatic cancer walk down the hallway to her parents, who are standing with the resident cancer specialist and trying to figure out what happened.

Eirene knows and she glances down at her hands with a faint smile.Miracles. One 'twenty year old' volunteer can do more in the weekend mornings she volunteers than the vicious decease still trying to kill a host of other kids on this floor. If she's lucky, she can save another life today, but her energy reserves haven't been replenished by rest in the last few days.

She's settled into a booth at the corner diner not half an hour later, sipping an herbal tea and flipping through the Planet for anything out of the ordinary. For the curious: she looks like any other college student; a Met U sweater, jeans and Birkenstocks.

Comments

[hero_farmboy]

He nods at all her suggestions, although the art gets a bit of a face pulled at it.

"How about we just concentrate on the basics and we can leave esthetics for later." Remember, this is the man who was, in fact, raised in a barn. Then, oh so casually, "If you wanted, you could come take a look at it after lunch so you have a better idea. I do have a coffee maker." It was a house warming gift. Three guesses who from.

[eirenikos]

"Okay. I'll sneak paintings in later." She grins, falling silent as the drinks arrive, and inhales half of the tea in one go, proving she's stretched a little more thin that previously admitted to, and then blinks.

"Sure, I just gotta go back and try to heal that other kid tonight."

[hero_farmboy]

"Eirene," he says and then stops, thinking how best to put this. "I think you can take the night off to rest. You'll be better able to help him if you go in the morning with your energy back."

[eirenikos]

Sigh. He's going to be stubborn about this. Nevermind that's he's right, it's just that Eirene wants to save one more kid.

"Alright. In the interest of you not glaring at me," bright grin, "I'll take the night off." Beat. "Provided you keep me occupied for some of it." Or she'll go nuts without something to do in the motel room.

[hero_farmboy]

"I think I can handle that," he agrees, taking a sip of coke. Ah, sugar. He missed sugar.

He has the distinct feeling, however, that she'll be so mortified at the spartan state of his living quarters that she'll demand they do something to it immediately. Either that or she can help him with his "How I spent the last five years soul searching" as his first test article for Perry.

[eirenikos]

Clark should hope he doesn't live within easy reach of a paint store, then, if he thinks his apartment will horrify the girlfriend. Especially since she's in the sort of mood that might lead to full contact body painting. Maybe. The result would certainly be a conversation starter.

"Groovy." She'd be happy to help with either option, seeing as how she'd find out what the training was like.

[hero_farmboy]

Eirene may find out on her way there. They'll be walking, public transportation aside.

He grins at her in response, but then the food arrives and well, he hasn't had enough hamburgers to make up for not having one for as long as he did and she's momentarily forgotten in favour of red meat.

After a few bites, "So, what else do you do when you're here besides visit kids in the hospital?"

[eirenikos]

Walking is awesome. Or, rather, some walking and some blurring, though she'll behave since Clark's around.

Eirene politely waits until he's devoured most of his burger, sedately eating her own meal (one spoon of chowder at a time) and occasionally sipping at her tea until she deems it safe to actually answer that question.

"Oh, I've been bandaging up and providing moral support for a certain four-person team of idiots who repeatedly go up against bad guys."

[hero_farmboy]

"So I've read." Chloe might be respectful of Eirene's activities, but those records she's been keeping for Clark are detailed because they have to be. "Thanks for that, by the way." Anything that keeps Chloe out of the morgue on a regular basis is something he's in favour of.

[eirenikos]

"No thanks necessary. AC is family, Chloe's family, the rest of them are knuckleheads who need a keeper." Eirene is, when she's there, a very non strict keeper. "Besides, it's given me a chance to see another side to relatives that I never would have thought possible. Dad's kinda nice here."

[hero_farmboy]

"Yeah?" That's genuine curiosity. Clark sort of half-knew the gods existed here, but it's something else to have it basically confirmed.

"Must be kind of weird to see them, knowing they're not really... yours."

[eirenikos]

"You ... have no idea. There's a me here, only she doesn't look quite like this, and Athena looks different, so does Thanatos, and Poseidon. Dad? Exactly the same, only he's ... nice. Mom -- she accepted me right off, said she didn't care about alternate realities and that the world could use more peace anyway."

Beat.

"Ares is still a spoiled brat."

[hero_farmboy]

Clark doesn't have an idea and frankly, he doesn't really want one.

"I don't think Ares would be himself if he wasn't. Somethings can't be changed no matter how hard you try or hope they might." With that, he sighs and then finishes off his fries.

[eirenikos]

"That's very true." Eirene reaches forward and snatches the second-to-last fry before he can get it, offers a cheeky grin in return and proceeds to make it disappear. She's totally magic like that.

"You can order a second burger." That was a pretty rapid devouring of red meat there, Clark.

[hero_farmboy]

That garners an unabashed grin.

"No, I'm good. Actually, I'm kind of itching to get out of this suit," he admits, tugging at the collar, though it's more habit than actual discomfort. "I suppose I should get used to it but I don't really want to wear it any more than I have to."

Beat.

"It's sort of the only one I have."

[eirenikos]

"Aha! The rest of your closet is filled with plaid, isn't it? Or various colored t-shirts." All is now right with the world, if Clark only owns one suit. She'd been half afraid he'd gone corporate up in the artic.

With Jor-El as a father and teacher. Sorta.

Mentally shivering at the memory of her one visit up to the Fortress, and the voice that had managed to infuse itself with as much arrogance as her father, Eirene pulls a fifty out of her wallet and sets it on the table.

"That should cover lunch and tip, if you're ready to head out."

[hero_farmboy]

He shrugs, standing, that shy smile back in place now. "I haven't had much of an inclination to go shopping for much of anything yet, including clothes, so yeah. I've pretty much just got what I had when I left." Not for lack of his mother trying, though. And Lois.

The fifty is eyed. "I think that's more than enough, but maybe it'll cheer her up," he nods toward their waitress.

[eirenikos]

"Hey, I like your plaid. It's sexy." Eirene wiggles her eyebrows and stands up, slinging the purse across her shoulders. She glances around to locate their poor waitress and waves merrily.

"Twenty five or thereabouts for the meal, so it's a good tip." She's heading to the door and then holding it open for Clark a minute later.

[hero_farmboy]

"Well, maybe I'd be better off expanding my wardrobe then. I wouldn't want to cause a ruckus with my primary coloured sexiness," Clark snorts, following her out onto the street. And that's... funnier to him than her right now probably so give him a minute.

When he composes himself, he continues. "Lois has offered to help me go pick out a few things for the office. I figure she'll be brutally honest about what will work and what wont. Emphasis on the brutal."

[eirenikos]

He'll get a raised eyebrow and a patient girlfriend standing in the middle of the sidewalk while he gets himself under control. The bit where her lips are twitching too probably doesn't help.

"Yeah, Lois is good about that." Brutal, beautiful, and currently dating her alternative world cousin, which puts her firmly in Eirene's good graces. "You should see AC's closet. It's got two suits in it."

[hero_farmboy]

Yeah, it's something he's not ready to talk to anyone about just yet, so she'll just have to chalk it up to recent hermit-itis.

"Wet suits?" He quips back, reaching for her hand.

[eirenikos]

"No, he's got these tiny trunks you could use for a damn slingshot, but I don't think she's complaining. I mean actual suits. Trousers and jacket ensembles. He bitched about it for a whole week before giving in and letting her pick them out."

She fits her hand into his, and then pauses to sigh happily. "I missed this so much."

[hero_farmboy]

"I think that's something I didn't need to know." About the trunks, that is.

But he smiles again at her last comment. "Me too." And it's all he can do to resist the urge to pick her up and speed them the rest of the way, but discipline dictates he value discretion with his abilities over, well, adorable goddess girlfriends.

[eirenikos]

"Oh, good. I was starting to worry you'd found some Inuit girlfriend up there to trade eskimo kisses with." She's teasing, part of her attention centered on the stores they pass on the way to his apartment.

Discount clothing. Fabric. Hardware. Obviously, these are signs. And ... "Oh, wow!" Yep. There's a small arts and crafts hole in the wall not a block from his place.

[hero_farmboy]

It's not the highest quality store - nothing in this neighbourhood is - but it's clean, at least.

"Go on," Clark nods her toward the entrance. "You'll pout the rest of the night if I don't give you at least five minutes."