Lois interlude

[moonshadows]

“Lois? It’s Clark.”

She shifted the phone to her shoulder and finished spreading mayo on the bread. “Hey, Smallville. What’s up?”

“Listen, I…there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

Oh. This was serious. Maybe in a good way, probably in an awkward way. “Alright, I’m listening.”

“Not over the phone.”

Oh-ho. The plot thickens, she thought, already getting that There’s A Story Here And I Will Find It feeling fluttering somewhere below her heart. “Okay, where?”

She listened intently as Clark specified three-fifteen in the park, a section where the visibility was excellent and no one could come within earshot undetected.

“I’ll be there,” she promised fervently. This, whatever it was, was going to be good.

 

Quarter after three. Lois looked around, noting the absence of anyone else in sight, and checked her watch. Again. If Kent had stood her up, she was going to give him a piece of her mind the next time she saw him.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Somehow, it wasn’t a surprise that Superman was floating behind her. He looked nervous under his usual I Am A Young And Carelessly Handsome God expression, and like lightning she connected the dots. Bam, call from Clark. Bam, nervous. Bam, Superman nervous.

Lois crossed her arms. “So, you finally decided to tell me?”

He nearly fell out of the air at that. “You knew?”

“I’m a reporter. Of course I knew. It didn’t take long to figure it out.” Oh, he was flustered now. This was getting good. “C’mon, how stupid do you think I am?”

“But…you never…”

“Yeah, I never said anything.” In a show of deliberate nonchalance, she studied her nails and hid the manic grin trapped in her throat like a rabid bat. “Silly me, I thought you’d man up at some point and tell me yourself. Maybe after you saw me kiss your doppelgänger and I asked you out to dinner. That would have been a good time. Who knows what he told me, right?”

“Lois, I…”

She looked up to see him wearing a hangdog expression that wouldn’t be out of place on a high school would-be boyfriend and crossed her arms. “Yes?” she asked, not giving him any openings at all. No, he could damn well work for this.

“Batman’s not the only arrogant one,” he muttered, and her eyebrows shot up. He took a deep breath, visibly bracing himself. “I should have told you, and it was arrogant of me to assume you didn’t know. I was afraid of what you’d say when you found out. Lois…this…” He gestured to his costume. “This isn’t me. It’s not who I think of myself as. If there was going to be anything between us, I wanted it to be without the cape.”

Well. She couldn’t really argue with that. A man who didn’t want to trade on his good looks and fame, who’d have thought? “Alright,” she said, letting her crossed arms fall to her hips. “I’ll give you that. But you kind of made it impossible for Clark Kent to get anywhere when everyone knows that Superman has a thing for Lois Lane and wonders exactly what’s between them. I mean, you’re not exactly Mr. Average out of the costume.”

He winced. “I know. And I don’t blame you if you don’t want things between us to go any further. I’ve got some dangerous enemies.”

“You make it sound like I’m some sort of shrinking violet who’s never been in danger before Superman showed up.” She grinned at him. “Come on, Smallville, why do you think you have to rescue me so often?”

Superman looked startled. Then he laughed. “I never thought of that,” he confessed, chuckling. “Boy, have I been an idiot. I should have known better. You dumped Lex Luthor, of course you’re not afraid of danger.” He stopped to think for a few seconds. “Do you suppose that’s part of why he hates me so much?”

“The one man in Metropolis he can’t intimidate away from me? Yeah, probably.” Lois grinned. “He really hates it when someone has something he can’t have. Bruce drives him crazy.”

“He does?”

She smirked. “Bruce is a financial and technological Superman. It galls Lex that he nixed the military applications of the first robot they built together, and it galls him even more that he had the chutzpah to waltz back in and suggest they work together on that second robot, but what really gets his goat is that he needed Bruce’s team for that.” Smugly, she examined her fingernails again. “I can’t wait until he figures out Bruce is maneuvering for a quiet takeover. I’ve already got the story half-written, I just keep it updated. By the time Bruce makes his move, all I’ll have to do it get Lex’s reaction and have Perry stop the press.”

Superman became suddenly aware that his mouth had fallen open at some point, and closed it with a snap. “How-” he started to ask, but thought better of it. “You keep in touch with Bruce,” he half-accused. “Even after he left you hanging.”

Right, the transfer to Gotham that never happened. Lois grinned to herself; if he didn’t know this one, she wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. Still, she couldn’t exactly say Oh, it’s okay that he spontaneously broke it off and forgot my number because neither of us wants to be the one to say that I know he’s Batman and he owes me for keeping my mouth shut. “I admire his cunning,” she said after a minute. “If I burned that bridge, I’d be killing the goose with the golden eggs, only instead of gold I get inside information.”

“So, uh…” Again, the Man of Steel braced himself. “Are you and he…?”

Lois laughed; there was no other choice, it was really too funny. “He asked me the same thing about Clark Kent,” she said finally, arms crossed low. “You don’t have anything to worry about. We’re just good friends.”

“I have to admit, I’m glad for that,” Superman said with relief that transmuted into concern and alarm as Lois prodded his chest with one finger.

“You should be glad I’m a good journalist,” she snapped. “A fine, upstanding reporter with ethics too strong to allow me to go straight to the tabloids with this because I’m too good a friend to gather the evidence I’d need to write the biggest story of the century and have it published anywhere but alongside stories of Elvis getting married to Bigfoot.”

“I’m very glad.”

There was no hesitation at all, and only the barest breath of warning before he stepped forward and put his arms around her. Then he hesitated, because he knew Lois would go for the family jewels in a heartbeat if she objected, and even on the Man of Steel, that would hurt. That hesitation was the reason she didn’t. Superman he might be, but he was still Clark Kent from Smallville, and Ma Kent would have tanned his hide if he’d even thought about treating a girl poorly. So she smiled, and draped her arms around his neck, and went on tiptoes as he bent his head, and tried not to wonder if Lana Lang had ever kissed these lips.

“So,” she murmured as they parted, “no objections to playing it cool with Clark?”

“I still wish we didn’t have to,” he sighed. “But you’re right.”

“Hey, cheer up, Smallville. At least you know it’s not that I’m not interested.”

Superman laughed ruefully. “I should have known, really. Nothing in my life is ever simple.”

Lois smiled, and he smiled in response. “And if it ever gets safe for things to heat up…”

His smile flickered out, and she wondered what he knew that she didn’t. “I’ll let you know,” he promised. “For now, there’s something else I have to take care of.”

The hands went right back on her hips. “Oh?”

“Yeah.” Superman smiled abashedly. “The timer on my laundry just went off.”

She wanted to not laugh, really she did. Well, no, that was a lie. She wanted to feel guilty about laughing, but she didn’t. By the time she could breathe, straighten up, and wipe the tears from her eyes, he was gone.