Kiss Me, Take My Breath Away (A Superbat AU)

Nice to meet ya

Looking over the side of his boat, the light glinted off the water, making it resemble a green or turquoise colour from one angle, or bluish grey from another. The water could be deceiving, and that was the first lesson Jonathan had taught Clark of the ocean. They used to spend hours out on the seas of coast side Metropolis, fishing, sailing, star gazing or just talking. Sometimes being on the sea made Clark miss him so much that it hurt; a sharp pain in his heart that would ebb for a while then go away temporarily.

Over the years, he found it harder to forget about everything- and he sometimes woke up in a cold sweat hearing his father's voice as he fell overboard- but Clark decided to leave his ghosts in Metropolis, still opting to take his father's catamaran and go on a sailing expedition, hoping that the sea could either fix his aching heart, or take it with her. He had been on the seas for two years and seven months, and would send a letter to his mother Martha at every port he stopped in.

The first few months, he travelled around South America, before heading to Africa, and spent time with tribes near the coast, learning to speak Xhosa and Swahili. Clark became so enamored with the sea and everything with it, and was sad to have to head home, but there were things that needed his attention in Metropolis. His mother would need him sooner than later, and though he would miss the sea, Clark set course from Russia to return home.

-

Two weeks later, and Clark is approximately five days travel from Metropolis. He took a while to say goodbye to his new Russian friends and to collect all his belongings, as well as arrange supplies for his journey, but his mother was expecting him home approximately a month thereupon her letter, so he was making good time. He adjusts his sails and heads inside for a nap. The weather is nice, but he'd tired himself out a bit from keeping the ship steady through heavy waves the night before.

When Clark wakes up, it's to his the sound of his own screams. It was just another bad dream. It was always the same thing- Jonathan falling over the hull of the S.S. Krypton, which had been destroyed with the storm.

The S.S. Krypton was the ship he had been born on, and it had been owned by his birth parents before they died, leaving Clark to be adopted by the Kents. When the storm came, he had only been eight years old, and it was by God's good grace he had managed to hold on to a floating brandy barrel; still -he had watched as his father struggled to stay afloat, and eventually got pulled down with the suction of the sinking ship, too obstructed by debris to help.

Clark often saw Jonathan's face in his dreams, and could vividly remember his blue eyes, and greying hair, with the last wan smile he gave before he stopped kicking and starting sinking. The dreams happened less often when he was at sea, but once he was on land, they became hell, plaguing his mind and poisoning his sleep. It was for this sole reason he started his sailing expedition, hoping to gain peace by taking his father's catamaran around the world, hoping that once he fulfilled is father's wishes of seeing all the sea, his soul might finally rest in peace.

Clark sits up on his cot, rubbing his face to get the sleep out of his eyes, and walks out of the cabin to see that it's mid-afternoon. He decides he'll go for a swim rather than use up his clean water, and it really shouldn't be too cold anyways. His coordinates says he's about ten miles west of Gotham Bay, and he immediately sets out to drop anchor, not wanting to get any closer to those waters than need be. He's not superstitious, but when even the most stoic people tell you to keep your vessel from those waters, you listen.

Old sailors on the pier in Metropolis told tales of sea monsters lurking those water, and old witches who lay curses in the coves, and honestly, Clark doesn't believe any of it. Logically, there is a bit of truth to all the rumors. Almost everyone knows that there were Spanish ships that crashed in Gotham Bay years ago, so the gold must be what lures foolish men into the water where they could either get trapped in rock clusters or drown, not ridiculous 'sea monsters'.