Work Text:
Kal was poring over recent earthquake data at the Fortress when Kara tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, Kal, I'm going to be off planet for a couple days to get some stuff arranged for my birthday trip, do you mind watching Krypto?"
Her pleading face matched Krypto's, but he would have said yes anyway.
"How hard can it be? I've helped with him before. Go ahead and take care of it, Kara, I know how important this trip is for you. I've got this." He smiled reassuringly.
"Thank you so much!" Kara said, flinging her arms around him in a crushing hug. He hugs her back.
She pulls back and thump him on the shoulder.
"Ow," he complained, not for show for once. Kara was one of the few people whose hits he can't just shrug off, which is nice and annoying by turns.
"Be good for Kal, Krypto!" She addressed the dog.
"Wait, you're leaving now?" He said plaintively.
"Yeah, I gotta get moving. See you later!"
"Kara, hey -" Kal sighed as Kara rocketed out of the Fortress. "Bye, Kara, thanks for the nice long conversation we totally had. Why is it so hard for us to talk to each other?"
He planted his hands on his hips and looked at Krypto.
"Well, it's just you and me, buddy."
Krypto clocked his head and woofs softly. Clark smiled. He could handle this. What could go wrong?
**
"Krypto, drop it! My cape is not a toy!"
In Clark's enthusiasm to help Kara out, he'd forgotten what exactly Krypto was like most of the time.
Krypto growled and planted his paws firmly, his grip on the cape not faltering for an instant.
Kal kept a hold of his end, but at this point he was worried about the structural integrity of the cape if this kept up. "Please, Krypto, drop it!"
Krypto's tail wagged and he tugged harder.
"Superman, I -"
"WOOF!"
The sudden release of tension sent Kal crashing backwards through a wall. Dispirited, he sat up to find that Krypto had apparently dropped the cape to go hassle poor Four.
"No! Cease this!" Four yelped, dancing from foot to foot as Krypto tried to bite its mechanical ankles.
Clark intervened, but not before resecuring his cape to his shoulders to prevent future incidents. "Krypto, no!"
Krypto turned to him and whined piteously.
Kal sighed and ram a hand over his face. "Please don't bite at the robots, okay?"
Krypto, seeing that the lecture was over, bounded off into the depths of the Fortress. Crashing sounds ensued, undoubtedly of hard to repair equipment and artifacts.
"How am I going to do this?" Clark despaired out loud, flying after. He could not take this dog back to his apartment as is - there'd be a hole in the wall as soon as Krypto heard anything mildly interesting. His security deposit really couldn't take that.
And Krypto clearly needed near constant supervision and attention, something Clark absolutely could not provide. He couldn't call off work at the Daily Planet indefinitely to look after him, and there was no taking time off from being Superman.
At least here at the Fortress, it was a familiar space, and the robots were around to keep an eye on Krypto. It was a workable solution, until Krypto was better at listening to anything. Hopefully it would work.
He found Krypto curled up in a mass of who knew what, happily chewing away on a sparking electronic something. Hopefully it hadn't been too important.
Krypto deigned to let Kal pick him up, still curled up in a ball. He snuffled further into Kal's arms.
Clark gave him an affectionate headscratch. He really was a cute dog, just . . . excitable.
"Superman Robots, could you look after Krypto when I'm away?" He asked, traipsing back into the main area of the Fortress.
"Of course." Four said stiffly. If Four did not loudly and repeatedly state that the robots had no feelings, Clark would have said Four sounded apprehensive.
Kal settled down on the floor, setting Krypto in his lap.
"Alright buddy, how about we work on some simple commands, okay?"
Krypto woofed and looked at him with his ear cocked.
Kal gestured to the Fortress all around them. "This is home, got it? Home!"