Daughter of Superman

Kon-El

"You too, Clark." he answered.

"I already told you to call him 'dad', Conner!" came the bright voice of Madine, when she reappeared at the living room. "If he is my dad, and you and I are twins now, then he is your dad too!"

Clark and Conner laughed at her statement, and her eyes were sparkling with amusement.

"Hey sweetie. Good job with the name."

"Thanks, dad. Con likes it."

He frowned.

"Con?"

"Nickname!" she explained. "It's when we shorten one's name out of affection."

He felt his cheeks getting hot and smiled.

"Ok." he said simply.

"Get used to it," Clark laughed. "She loves putting nicknames on people."

Madine ignored him and went to the kitchen, saying that she needed to start dinner. Clark took out his tie and jacket, unbuttoning the first buttons of his shirt to be more comfortable. Conner could see a little piece of blue fabric under the shirt, and couldn't help but comment.

"Your suit?"

He pointed to the blue fabric peeking out of the shirt, and Clark looked at it, smiling and nodding.

"Yes. When I go to work I usually use my suit under my clothes. Since it's long sleeves..."

"And when you're not wearing long sleeves?" he asked.

"Well, then I have to take it with me somehow. I usually think about something on the way." he said timidly.

"Good to see you don't have everything planned." Conner said, finding this was true. It was something to ground the Superman in reality, he supposed.

Clark laughed out loud at that, and his answer didn't really surprised Conner.

"Oh no. The one who has everything planned is Batman, not me."

They laughed a little, and then Clark turned the TV on, and both of them relaxed for a while, watching the news, listening to the sounds Madine was making in the kitchen.

After almost ten minutes of just that, Clark started talking again.

"So... I don't know how much Cadmus told you about me."

Conner turned to look at him, and he seemed genuinely curious. He decided to answer truthfully.

"Well... I think everything the world knows about you. Your powers, where they come from, the times you saved humanity from natural disasters..." he trailed. "About your personality... I think just what the media says."

Clark hummed, seeming to process this information.

"I was wondering if you knew that I have another name. Besides Superman."

"Besides Clark too?"

"Yes. The media doesn't know, and I'm pretty sure Cadmus doesn't know either, about me being Clark Kent. But a few years ago, the Planet published a story with my kryptonian name on it."

He looked at him, curious.

"I don't remember being taught that." Conner said.

Clark smiled.

"It's Kal-El. Kal is the name, and El is for the House of El, my kryptonian family."

"Wow. So you have, like, three names."

Clark laughed, nodding.

"Yes. Kal-El, however, is a name people can know it's mine, I mean, Superman's. Just Clark is a secret."

Conner nodding, suddenly understanding the reasoning behind all this. From what he had seen earlier, secret identities where important; not only for the hero to have a somewhat normal life, but for the people he (or she) cared about. Just what Madine had said to him when she first talked about that.

"Makes sense, I guess." he answered.

Clark smiled.

"Yes. And on the spirit of you being part of the family, I want to give you a kryptonian name, too. You are kryptonian, after all."

Saying Conner was surprised was an understatement. He was absolutely shocked. Clark didn't seem to care, though, as he smiled and kept talking.

"Maybe this is all a little too fast, but Madine was right, and... You are kind of my son. You may not have been planned, or born in the common way, but you have my DNA. You are part of me. I realized this afternoon that I want to be your father, Conner. I want to teach you how to use your powers, how to face the world both as a hero and as a person. I want to teach you everything that I taught Madine over the years, everything that I still need to teach her. And with all that... You're kryptonian. You're also part of the legacy of the House of El, and you deserve a fitting name."

Conner felt his eyes stinging, an emotion he did not know how to name in his chest, making him gasping a little for air. He felt more than saw when Clark put his hand on his shoulder, his voice calm and... loving, towards him.

"Madine has a kryptonian name, too. Kara Kal-El. The girls in Krypton used to have their father's name as a surname. Don't know exactly why, since I don't even remember Krypton." he shrugged, making Conner laugh a little.

"Kara Kal-El is a beautiful name." he said, and he mean it.

"Thank you Conner!" they heard her replying from the kitchen, and he wasn't really surprised that she had been listening.

Clark smirked with Madine's voice, and then looked right into Conner's eyes, that he knew it were the same color as his.

"I was thinking of naming you Kon-El." he said. "It's a name of one of my ancestors in Krypton, and from what I read, he was an incredible man. Also, it kind of matches your human name, so it's a bonus. What do you think?"

Suddenly the sting in his eyes turned into moisture, and then what Conner knew in his head to be tears, streaming down his face. Clark frowned, but Conner stopped his doubts by doing what Madine loved to do: he hugged him.

Clark was surprised for a second, before he circled his arms around Conner too, and he could feel the acceptance, the sense of safety, the sense of family seeping through his muscles and into his bones, all because of a few words and a new name.

"I love it." he answered, his voice strange, a little rough and rocky.

Clark giggled, and hugged him tighter.

"That's good. Welcome to the House of El, Kon."

"Thank you... dad." he murmured.

Clark hugged him tighter, and he knew in that moment that he would never call him by his name again. From now on, he had a real father, and was going to treat him as such.

Who knew, when he first got out of that pod, still in Cadmus' control, that he would end up, just barely three days after, with two names and a family? He certainly didn't, but he was not about to complain.