Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville. I don't get any profit from this.
Summary: Lois and Clark are partners and best friends until, one night, things change from platonic to romantic. How will Clark deal with the 'physical' side of their relationship?
Author's note: I'm quite new to this fandom (I always wrote Jane Austen Fan Fiction) so please be kind. This story is already finished but I would love if someone volunteers to Beta this for me as I post.
Like a virgin
Chapter 1
It's been ages since Clark Kent found himself in this predicament. In fact, since he broke up with Lana Lang soon after they finished high school that he had not been faced with a certain, very private situation.
For the last years he had been alone. He was not happy with this but he had long learned to accept the fact that, given his powers and double identity, it was almost impossible for him to establish a normal relationship with a woman. It took him some time but he was finally able to overcome the feelings he once had for Lana and after 3 years of partnership with Lois , he had successfully kept the crush he had developed for her under good regulation.
But life had never been fair with Clark and was constantly presenting him with new challenges. Once he was becoming used to a certain circumstance –his loneliness, in this case- something or someone would show up and try mess up with his life. It was like a curse, as if his human upbringing would be constantly trying to boycott the isolation that his kryptonian heritage had imposed on him.
Like his relationship with Lois, his partner at the Daily Planet. They had been through so many phases. They both had outgrown the teenaged rivalry that had given him so many headaches and so many joys while he was still in Smallville; then came the separation and now they were together again, forging this extraordinary partnership as the star reporters of Metropolis' biggest newspaper.
For Clark, Lois was unique, magical. She was the only one capable of cheering him up when he was in moody, tease him to exasperation, understand him (or purposely misunderstand him) and make him laugh like no one else could. She was funny, loyal, vivacious and though he had tried to deny it for some time, Clark had fallen madly in love with her.
Still, he knew he would never do anything about it. He couldn't. He shouldn't. He had too much to lose. They were partners, best friends, the Planet's best team. He could not afford to lose her friendship by starting a relationship that had no future. His feelings for her were not a secret, though. Everyone knew he was a lovesick fool in what his partner was concerned. Even Lois, he suspected. It was some kind of unspoken agreement in which they both continued with their unconditional friendship while overlooking Clark's one-sided love. She still came to cry over his shoulder when she was in trouble or heartbroken after a bad relationship and Clark was always there for her, even if he was convinced that she was taking advantage of her condition of best friend/partner/love-of-his-life. What the hell, he loved her and he would never shut her out.
Of course, Clark's decision to leave things platonic with Lois didn't work out the way he had expected. One night, while working on a big story about corruption that involved the health department of Metropolis, something happened. The investigation ended being an award winning article –their first as partners-, but it also brought other consequences that neither had expected. The long hours together and the stress they were faced to only intensified the already extraordinary bond they had. And one night, relaxing over pizza and beer, they took the step that would change their relationship forever.
"Cheers, Smallville," Lois knocked her beer can with his in a toast. "I think we've got it. If Perry doesn't pee in his pants when he reads this article, then he doesn't know what good journalism is."
Clark took a long gulp of his beer. "To our article."
Lois let her head fall back and spoke reflectively. "You know something, if someone would have said to me, ten years ago, that I would be in my apartment drinking beer with you after writing the best article of my life, I would have said that they were crazy."
He chuckled and rested his back on the couch, adopting a similar position. They were both sitting on the floor, with their legs stretched and crossed, leaning on the couch. "Why, didn't you have faith in my talent as a journalist?"
"You wouldn't want to know what I thought of you at the time." She smirked.
"What?"
"I kind of liked that dorky farm boy thing of yours." Lois said with a smile that showed her own surprise for the revelation. "I used to find it sexy."
"Sexy?" He chuckled. Lois had to be drunk to admit something like that to his face.
"Don't tell anyone, or I'll kill you but I used to think that you were quite the hottie when you wore that blue t-shirt that you never seemed to take off. But now you have switched your preferences to brown and grey. Pity, you look great in primary colors." She finished while patting his thigh.
"I think those are appropriate colors to wear at the newsroom." Lois was right, since he became Superman, his wardrobe could not be more boring. But he had no other choice, he could not risk anyone making the connection and he doubted that a pair of glasses would make the difference.
"Yeah."
"If it lessens a little the humiliation, I also used to found you sort of cute at the time. Annoying, but cute." He smiled at her.
Lois laughed heartily. "Cute? That's a first. I know I've been described in many different ways, but I don't recall 'cute' being one of them."
"Whatever. I thought you were cute."
Lois always thought that Clark's smile was beautiful, but tonight, it was intoxicating. Or maybe it was the beer. "I guess we were so busy hating each other that we didn't realize that we could actually make a good team."
"Yeah," he let out an exaggerated sigh. "My life was so much easier then."
She punched him on the arm, then a second time when he laughed at her. He relaxed next to her, smiling tenderly into her eyes. And Lois couldn't resist him. She could drown in those blue eyes.
Getting closer to him, she boldly admitted. "Do you know something? You still have it."
"Have what?"
Lois bit her lower lip. Could he be any more naïve? "Your dorky, innocent, farm boy charm. Boy, you still have it."
Though flattered, Clark wasn't sure if he should give much credit to this alcohol-enhanced sincerity. "C'mon, Lois, I know you are more attracted to the heroic, dressed-in-tights, fly-with-me type."
Lois shook her head. "Maybe, but I'm more into 'earthy' guys now. They are more reliable. I'm done with emotionally unavailable protectors of the world."
Clark studied her features carefully. "You no longer have feelings for Superman?"
"It's just a stupid, inoffensive crush, Clark, don't be jealous." She teased and saw him roll his eyes. "I'm not saying that I'm completely over him, I mean, the man really pushes my buttons when I see him, but in a platonic sort of way. He's unreachable, you know, and that's what makes him so attractive."
"So you only like him because you can't have him?" He frowned smilingly.
"Something like that, yes. It's safe. I can drool on him without having to expect anything in back. Anyway, I've been looking at the sky for so long that I wasn't able to see what was right in front of me all the time."
He swallowed as she inched closer. Her eyes were fixed on his, staring at him in a way they never had before. Clark knew they were reaching the point in which he should pull back and adjust his glasses while stammering something about how late it was and then make a quick exit, but he just couldn't get himself to do it. Instead, he leaned in until their lips touched.
So that's when Clark's problems started. All those situations he had successfully avoided during the past years were happening again. Back to the lies, the unexplained departures, the lame excuses. But there was something that bothered him even more. He was no longer a teenager and Lois wasn't Lana. By the way things escalated the night they first kissed, Clark knew that, if the relationship progressed, there was something that he would not be able to delay and that, right now, he didn't have any idea how to handle.
Even though he was not a virgin, Clark's sexual experience was limited to those few weeks of mortal bliss he had shared with Lana when he was only eighteen. He had never tried his abilities on an intimate area yet. Now, ten years later, he was still living a life of self-imposed celibacy. He was not afraid of what would happen during the act, he had gained such control of his strength to be sure that he would not harm her while making love, but he was completely clueless of what might happen during the culmination. If his climax was anything like his sneeze, the woman with whom he made love would end being empty carcass.
Once he thought he could be close to someone and live a complete and normal life –normal according to his standards- he was once again faced with all the reasons why he should not. Double identity aside, there was one issue that had been the catalyst of his brake up with Lana Lang and that would surely put his incipient relationship with Lois at stake: Sex.
