"Clark, I don't see why I have to spend my one free Sunday before Christmas tramping out across all of Kansas in search of a Christmas tree," Lois grumbled as she tramped through the calf-deep snow behind her partner.
Clark shot her an incredulous look over his shoulder as he led the way to a distant stand of pine trees at the "Cut Your Own" tree farm fifteen miles out of Smallville. "I wasn't the one who rejected every tree at five tree lots!"
"They weren't good enough," Lois said. "I refuse to spend all my time and effort on something that won't look good in your mom's living room. Anyway, that's not what I meant."
As they crested the low hill and Clark led them into the orderly row of farmed trees, Lois explained. "You were supposed to get her a tree a week ago, remember? But you hared off god-knows-where like you sometimes do and ended up three hours late to dinner with no tree! So now she doesn't trust you to get the job done by yourself, ergo, Lois Lane is freezing her ass off, babysitting the mighty tree-hunter."
Stung by her complaint, Clark stopped in his tracks and Lois was following so closely, she almost fell into him. "Watch it," she snapped, stepping back into the deeper snow, almost losing her balance and definitely not enjoying the snow creeping down the back of her boot to puddle around her heel. When he reached out a hand to steady her, she snatched it violently and pulled herself upright.
As usual, Clark stolidly withstood Lois's manhandling. He just sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose while she tugged her white wool jacket back into position and blew on her gloved fingers to warm them up. "Let me," he finally said as he watched her try to keep warm. He cupped her fingers in his warm hands and blew on them gently. Lois sighed in pleasure as the warmth penetrated her cold flesh.
"Thanks," she said with a brisk smile, then stamped her booted feet. "Wish there was something you could do about the rest of me that's still freezing, though"
At that, Clark couldn't resist raising one eyebrow. Lois stared at him for a beat before her cheeks heated up at the realization of how that came out. "Never mind," she said and stuffed her hands in her pockets, turning to regard the row on row of pine trees. Clark decided to let it drop – Lois appeared to be in a better mood and given they still had to decorate the tree once they got it back to the farmhouse, he'd forego the teasing in order to enjoy a torment-free afternoon and evening.
"So, let's hope we can find a good tree here," Lois announced as she began to stride down the row of trees, eyeing each one consideringly. Clark thought she looked a bit like her father, General Lane, when he watched his troops drill at the army base but he chose not to mention that since he'd learned that comparing a woman to her father never seemed to be taken as a compliment. Instead, he turned his attention to the stand of trees, all six to ten feet tall, all fresh and green, identical in every way he could see.
"What's not to like, Lois?" Clark asked, gesturing at the seemingly identical trees with a frustrated hand. "They're Christmas trees. Any one'd be fine!"
Lois paused in her survey to favour Clark with an incredulous stare of her own. "Smallville, you are so wrong," she pronounced. "Picking out the perfect Christmas tree is a lot like picking out the perfect boyfriend."
Clark choked. "Not something I'd have a lot of experience or interest in," he managed finally.
Lois pursed her lips. "You know what I mean. All right, picking out the perfect girlfriend. Which you don't seem to have a lot of experience with, either!" Obviously feeling she'd pulled one over on her partner, Lois smiled triumphantly as she considered, and dismissed, the tree in front of her and stepped further down the road.
Clark stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket and shrugged. It was true since his abortive relationship with Lana several years back, he hadn't managed to keep a steady girlfriend. He could hardly tell Lois the real reason behind that, however, seeing as he'd managed, somehow, to keep his alter-ego a secret through the last two years of their partnership on the Planet as well as all the years of their acquaintance. So he just followed along in Lois's wake.
"What's wrong with that one?" he asked after the walked past what appeared to him to be a perfectly good eight-foot tall tree.
"Not tall enough," Lois said. "Once we cut it off, it'll lose a foot or more. It's kinda like with a boyfriend – you don't want a guy you're going to tower over in flats, let alone high heels. Not unless he's got a really secure self-image." Clark smiled at that explanation.
Clark stepped ahead to put his hands on a ten-foot tall tree. "Well, this one's tall enough."
Lois harrumphed. "And it's too spindly. That tree looks like a green stick! It wouldn't hold any ornaments at all. Just like a boyfriend – you don't want someone weedy and weak who can't keep up with you when the going gets tough."
Clark had to admit that Lois required some pretty serious "keeping up with". At times he thought that it was destiny that brought them together at the Planet because any normal guy would've been toast after being drawn into just one of Lois's investigative schemes.
They walked along in companionable silence for a while, Lois eyeing and dismissing tree after tree.
"This one?"
"Too bushy. We couldn't get any ornaments to stay on the branches. They'd pop right off. Like a guy who's too full of himself and doesn't have room for anyone else."
Clark laughed aloud at her explanation. Lois grinned at him before returning to the work at hand.
Finally, when they had come to the last row of trees, Lois stopped in front of a nine-foot tall pine. With her hands on her hips, she inspected it carefully. "Is this--?" Lois raised a hand to silence Clark and began to slowly walk around the tree, inspecting it from every angle. She crouched down to peer at the trunk, stood on her tippy-toes to run her hands around the top and then stepped forward to raise one branch to her nose, sniffing appreciatively.
"Yeah, this is the one, Smallville." At his doubtful look, Lois explained. "It just will fit perfectly. Like the right guy or girl. They fit right into your family, your home and your life as if they'd always belonged. They don't want to change you, too much. They may not be perfect in the world's eyes, but they're perfect in yours. Know what I mean? This tree is just right!"
With the cheeks glowing in the cold and her eyes flashing brightly in the sunlight, Lois posed by the tree, waves of curly brown hair escaping from her cap to curl around her cheeks and cascade down to her shoulder. She bounced, excitedly, on her heels as her gaze flashed back and forth from the tree to Clark and he found that he couldn't suppress his own answering grin.
Something about what Lois said about fit had struck a chord deep inside him. He realized that, for a long time, he'd been enjoying a perfect fit of his own with his partner, his friend – with Lois Lane. As he contemplated the woman in front of him, his smile widened impossibly. Maybe this I was /I his perfect fit.
As he stood, silent and smiling, Lois bounced on her toes again a little bit impatiently. "Earth to Smallville! Come in, Smallville!"
"What, Lois?" Clark asked with a start.
She nodded her chin towards the small hand-ax hanging from his belt. "Cut down the tree, fergawdsake! I'm starting to get cold again and we have a long way back to the car."
Unhooking the ax from his belt, Clark crouched and began to line up the ax at the tree's base. "I'll hold the top for you, Clark, so it doesn't fall in your face," Lois said, exhaling her breath in a puff of white frost. "Just don't chop me down by mistake!"
"Don't worry, Lois," Clark advised as he made a show of carefully cutting down the tree. "This'll be perfect." He wasn't looking at the tree when he said that, however, but up at her shining face.
She pulled a funny face at him. "You sure you're feeling okay, Smallville?"
Clark smiled reassuringly, "Just right, Lois. Just right."
THE END