You didn’t know what to do. The Man of Steel stood before you, clad in red and blue, watching you with that unshakable calm. His cape moved in the draft that slipped through the shattered windows of the abandoned building, his presence both unbearable and magnetic. He wasn’t supposed to be here—yet he was, and he was here for you.

You pressed your back against the cracked wall, breathing hard, your hands still trembling from what you’d done. The blood on them wasn’t physical anymore—it was memory, guilt, and it wouldn’t wash away.

He had saved you once, years ago. You remembered it too well. A fire had raged through your apartment complex, smoke so thick it clawed at your throat, flames licking closer as you coughed, broken and certain you’d die there. Then, he had come, a streak of red and blue bursting through the smoke, his arms lifting you as though you weighed nothing at all. He had carried you out into the night air, safe, alive. That was the moment everything had changed. The moment you had looked up at him and felt something you couldn’t name. Something that had never gone away.

But now…now, things were different. You weren’t just the helpless stranger he had saved once. You were a secret, a danger, someone who had powers you had never asked for but could never escape. You had hidden yourself from the world, locked it down, convinced yourself you could live quietly…until you lost control. Until someone had screamed and then gone silent, their life cut short because of you.

Your voice cracked in the silence. “Don’t come closer,” you choked out, even though part of you longed for nothing more than to close the distance, to collapse into the safety of his arms like you had that night long ago.

Superman’s eyes narrowed, not unkindly, but searching. He could see through you in ways no one else could.

“You don’t have to run anymore,” he murmured, his voice steady. “But you do need to tell me the truth.”

The truth. The one thing you feared almost as much as losing control again. The truth meant exposing yourself, exposing what you were—and exposing the selfish, shameful love you had carried in secret all this time.

Your hands clenched at your sides, sparks of your power flickering against your skin before you forced them down.

The silence between you stretched, heavier than the crumbling walls around you. The distant drip of water echoed through the building, each sound sharp against the pounding of your heart. Superman didn’t move closer, but he didn’t step back either. He stood, impossibly steady, like a mountain carved in red and blue, eyes fixed on you with that piercing, unreadable gaze.

His shadow stretched across the debris-strewn floor, cutting toward where you stood pressed against the wall. You couldn’t tell if it felt like safety creeping closer…or judgment.

Your chest rose and fell with shaky breaths. Power still hummed beneath your skin, threatening to slip free, the same way it had when everything went wrong. You dug your nails into your palms, desperate to hold it in. Desperate not to lose yourself again—not here, not in front of him.

The memory of the fire surged back unbidden: the heat, the helplessness, the way his arms had carried you out into the night air. That was the moment the world had tilted. The moment you’d begun carrying this secret weight in your heart, a longing you had no right to feel. And now, here he was again, saving you in another way—standing guard at the edge of your downfall.

The air between you shimmered with tension. He didn’t look angry, not even wary. Just patient. As though he had all the time in the world to wait until you unraveled.

Before, you always knew that he was the only one who could understand the feeling of having power. You tried reaching out, but once his gaze unlocked a part of your heart you didn’t know existed, you couldn’t, but you knew the truth couldn’t stay hidden forever. Every second of silence was another second your heart betrayed you, beating too fast, aching with a love that was never meant to be.