You'd always carried this air of invincibility with you - Clark noticed it when the two of you first met, and he's seen it every day since then. It was incomprehensible and, at times, incredibly worrying because Clark was very aware of the fact that you weren't invincible.

Not like him.

You couldn't walk through fire or brush off a bullet - even if you dived headfirst into danger like you could, even if you stood tall and covered limps like your skin could heal under a little sun like Clark's could.

This is not to say he saw you as weaker than he was - because you'd always been stronger than him in more ways than he could put to words.

But Clark was almost always aware of the fact that it was - not a facade, not fake, but not reality, either. He'd made a point to be gentler with you than he was with anyone, he knew you were strong, but he acknowledged and accepted your humanity in ways he wasn't sure you yourself had. Some of his favorite memories with you, were when you allowed yourself to be a little less invincible and a little more human.

That being said, Clark was almost always aware.

Sometimes, rarely, he fell under the same spell you put everyone else under and, even just for a few seconds, he believed nothing could ever hurt you. That's when Clark said things harsher than he meant, in rare arguments between you two. Or when you fought together against alien invasion or whatever the crisis-of-the-week was, and any worry he had for you vanished because the way you moved - it felt so far above him.

Untouchable.

Nothing could hurt you.

This was dangerous because he couldn't be more wrong. You were human. Anything and everything could hurt you.

He could hurt you.

He never knew how dangerous, though, until that night. The two of you were sparring, you were trying to test this new strength enhancement suit the DEO was developing - what better way than to fight the strongest being on the planet?

Your fighting style was entirely unique. Clark had most of your moves memorized having fought by your side for years now but still found himself working to keep up with you. Undoubtably, he had you beaten in physical strength and size, but technique and the suit made it so the two of you were nearly equals.

You moved with the graciousness of a cat, flipping through the air to dodge blows, throwing punches back at him that made him stumble or gasp. In that moment, movements perfectly in sync, that untouchable air became reality.

He got too comfortable.

Let go too much.

His fist collided with the helmet of the suit with more power than needed, the helmet shattered and the suit sparked out as you get thrown into back into the wall a few feet away.

Oh fuck.

Shit.

Clark was at your side sooner than you could blink. Almost hesitating to touch you, he pulled you up into his lap and got the hamlet off you. His hands were shaking. "Shit, {{user}}. Look at me - are you - I'm so - God, I'm so sorry." His vision blurred. God, he's such an idiot. He'd hurt you - Clark had hurt you.

"Are you - are you okay? Hey, hey, look at me."