Salvaged
By Bren Ren
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Summary: Clark has a surprise for Lois after the Talon goes KABOOM!
Rating: All Audiences Approved
Disclaimer: Start showing the good stuff on air and we won't have to fix it in fic!
Author's Notes: This story exists for one reason and one reason only: BUTTONS!
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"Can I open them now?"
"Not yet." He could hear the impatience in her voice ringing louder with every plea, so this time Clark moved behind Lois and covered her eyes with his own hands right atop hers as he continued walking her into the barn.
"Oh, come on, Smallville, this is getting ridiculous."
"I just want your surprise to be perfect," he answered as they finally came to a halt in the center of the barn. He knew he'd said the right thing when he felt her melt ever so slightly in his arms. Clark glanced around one last time to assure himself he'd set the stage just right. With a satisfied nod to himself, he let his own hands drop. "All right. You can open your eyes."
Clark moved to her side so he could watch her face as she took in his surprise. She let her hands drop first, then her lids fluttered open as she slowly refocused her vision. She saw the table straight ahead of them first, and her eyes began to widen. Then she turned to look around and realized the entire ground floor of the barn was full of make-shift tables, all strewn with… her stuff.
Her worldly possessions, given up for dead following the demise of the Talon, laid out on table after table. Cleaned up good as new, not a hint of smoky aroma wafting through the air. He had truly outdone himself this time, and Lois found her eyes welling up with tears as she slowly turned to face Clark.
"So… you like?" His voice and eyes both were tinted with a hint of shyness, and she couldn't believe that he'd have any doubt just how much this gesture would mean to her.
She opened her mouth to reply, but couldn't get a sound out, she was so completely choked up with emotions. So she nodded instead and reached out to clasp his face, his beloved face, in both hands to pull him down for a long, tender kiss. After they parted some moments later, she mouthed a silent "thank you" before moving away to examine her salvaged treasures.
The first table she came to was layered with all the garments he'd rescued from her costume wardrobe, and it might have sparked a fresh wave of tears had he not been wise—or should that be wiseass?—enough to have laid a certain star-spangled bikini front and center on the top of the pile. She trailed light fingers along the sequins of the scant bust. "Good to know you have your priorities straight, there, sailor," she murmured.
"Aye, aye," Clark answered with an amused chuckle.
Lois moved to another table, this one full of random trinkets and knick-knacks and baubles she'd collected over the years. She also spied a few of Chloe's things mixed in, things Lois hadn't had the heart to pack up after her cousin's abrupt and unexplained departure. She kept moving through the room, taking in each set of saved treasures slowly, some eliciting chuckles, some sighs, and more than a few tears. When she found an oversize mayonnaise jar full of buttons, she stopped and picked it up. Of all the things Clark had saved, she could hardly believe this particular item had survived intact.
"We worked so hard to fill it up, it would have been a true crime to lose it," Clark told her as she turned to him with delighted eyes.
"This is too much, Clark… I can't believe you managed to find all this stuff… and it all looks good as new, even!" Clark beamed with the pride of a job well done. "You are absolutely amazing. Definitely Boyfriend of the Year material," she finished with a teasing grin.
Clark crossed the room to her at last and took the jar from her hands. "And would this be my trophy?"
Lois snatched the jar back. "Oh no! My buttons, my trophy!"
"I'm pretty sure at least a few of those buttons are mine."
"But the vast majority are from my shirts, thank you very much."
"So what do I get?"
"You've got me! Isn't that enough?"
"Always," he answered with a grin. "But I'd kinda figured you'd sock me if I called you my trophy."
Lois blinked a few times, startled she'd walked right into that one. "You're right," she answered with a soft laugh a beat later. "You know me well."
"After all these years, I should hope so."
Lois turned away to survey the remains of her worldly goods as saved by Clark one more time. "All these years… all these memories… and you saved them. I don't know how I could ever thank you enough for this, Clark."
"Well, I have a few ideas on how we could get started," he told her in a sinfully sexy low voice.
Lois returned her precious jar of buttons to the table and turned back around to face Clark directly. She reached up and wound her arms around his neck to pull him in close. "And how many of them involve a certain 'salute the flag' costume?"
"You know me well," he answered with a smirk.
"After all these years, I should think so!"
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Fin~