Of all the questions she had ever asked him, this was the one that confused and worried him the most. He tried to squash the rising swell of panic in his chest that was threatening to suffocate him.
"What do you mean, 'what song would I listen to all the time if we broke up'?"
Lois looked at him. "It's a reasonable question, Clark. I'm curious."
He shifted on the couch, trying not to look as panicked as he felt. Was she thinking of breaking up with him and wanted to check the level of his devastation based on the song he would play on repeat?
"But why are you curious?...are you going to break up with me?" The question sounded sillier out loud than it did in his head, but he had to check for the sake of his sanity.
She giggled. "No! I'm a reporter; I'm allowed to be curious about lots of things, especially my boyfriend."
Clark wondered if every couple had this conversation on a Sunday afternoon watching the Superbowl.
"Did you have one to listen to after we sort of broke up when your Mom was here?" Clark rolled his eyes. "I was busy, Lois. Trying to stop Zod from enslaving the planet."
"Excuses, Clark. What song did you play after Lana left?
"Which time?"
Lois and Shelby exchanged a look. "I heard that, Lois."
She took a minute to consider her question. "Hmm…well, you weren't brooding when I came back from Star City, even Chloe said that there was a surprising lack of mopeage and-" He interrupted. "I don't brood. Or mope. I think."
"You brood."
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Do not."
"Do too."
What were they, twelve? Neither of them were backing down.
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Do no-fine, I do."
"Aha!" Lois grinned, victorious. "So come on, tell me what song you played when she left you that lovely 'Dear Clark' video." Clark started looking for all the exits. "You know what? I think I hear someone who needs help."
"I can't hear it."
He made what he thought was a very valid point. "You don't have superhearing, Lois."
"Clark, sit."
He sat.
Clark took a moment to consider the sheer impossibility of this moment. He could hold up an entire building with one hand and stop a runaway train with the other at the same time, but this 5'8" 130lb woman absolutely terrified him.
"The only reason you'd want to get out of answering that question is that you remember and you're really embarrassed about it. Did you wander round here in your underwear eating ice cream singing 'The Winner Takes It All'?" she asked.
Clark shifted in his seat again, looking very uncomfortable. Lois raised an eyebrow.
"I was fully clothed!" His defence was pathetic and he knew it.
Her other eyebrow went up.
"Not always in my underwear," he conceded, grudgingly amending his previous statement.
He expected her to mock him mercilessly for the rest of his entire life. Instead, she laughed. Not just a little laugh, but a full lie-on-the-floor-and-bang-your-fist-off-it laugh.
"It's not funny, Lois."
She continued to laugh. Even Shelby was making a noise that sounded suspiciously like laughing. He got up and walked to the window, trying not to let his annoyance show.
Almost choking with laughter, Lois said "I should run that in the Planet – what the Blur does in his free time." His response was short and to the point. "Not funny."
"I'm just teasing, Smallville." He was quiet and didn't answer. "Ok, not funny then."
He tried to explain why it annoyed him. Normally the teasing and the laughing bounced off him, but this...this was different. Not the song and the ice cream or even that it was Lana, but the way she left. It had affected him profoundly and truly changed his life. For the better, but still changed it. It had been a sad and lonely time before he realised that life went on, and he had to go and find it.
"It's just…watching all my hopes and dreams get taken away like that...it's like I couldn't stand upright. I didn't know where to go from there."
"Does it still hurt?" Lois's question was quieter, softer.
"No. But I remember what it felt like. I didn't know then that it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I had to go find out what I wanted from life, and I did."
She was behind him, resting her cheek on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Clark, I shouldn't have laughed at you for that. But Abba, really?"
He knew she couldn't be serious for too long, and turned to slide his arms around her waist. "Jimmy lent me the CD."
Lois smiled. "He used to sing 'SOS' in the shower. It even drove Chloe nuts."
They both laughed and he pulled her towards him, loving the way that they seemed to fit, like two pieces of a puzzle.
She rested her chin on his chest and looked up at him. "What do you sing in the shower?"
He blushed slightly, ever the boy scout. "You know what I sing. We don't really take separate showers any more anyway."
"I know" she said, her eyes sparkling. "But when you do shower by yourself you sing Sinatra, because it reminds you of your dad."
They stood in companionable silence, until Lois, her voice muffled by Clark's chest said, "you didn't answer my question."
"Which song would I play if we broke up? There wouldn't be one. I wouldn't be able to get out of bed."
"Why?"
"You mean so much to me. The life that I have now, I only have because of you. I don't want to lose it, that sense of purpose. I don't want to lose you."
"You have such a way with words, Smallville. You should be a writer."
"Haha."
"Ditto, though."
There was another pause as they absorbed the moment, broken this time by Clark.
"I don't want to find out what that song might be."
"Me either."
"Let's never break up."
Lois's answer, born of the confidence she had in him and their future, was simple.
"We won't."
The End