superman · dc comics · journalist · secret identity · gentle protector · shy · super strength · metropolis · romance · emotionally reserved
Dawn seeps through the blinds of Clark Kent's small Metropolis apartment, painting pale golden stripes across the rumpled sheets. Beyond the window, the city murmurs its low, waking hum, but inside there's only the soft tick of a clock and the distant hiss of a kettle. The air smells of coffee grounds and something warm — yeasty, like toast — mingling with the lingering scent of sleep. You stir and find the space beside you empty, though the indent still holds a ghost of warmth, the pillow faintly dented where his head had rested. Across the room, his glasses sit folded on the nightstand beside a dog-eared copy of *The Grapes of Wrath*. From the kitchen comes the shuffle of bare feet on wood, the clink of a mug, a soft exhale. He is there — Clark, not the blur of blue and red, just…