Author's Note: Inspired by a squeaky chair in Odyssey.
The woman sat at the desk adjacent to his tap-tap-tapping her pen on her own desk, eyes directed up, clearly in thought.
Grimacing, he attempted to finish typing his own piece, aware of the upcoming deadline. He had until that night, midnight, to turn the draft into the editor. When the tapping increased in volume and quantity per second, he almost lost it. Only she had the ability to drive him so completely insane.
"Lois," he said, voice low. "Would you please quit tapping your pen?"
Glancing his way, eyebrow arched, she regarded him coolly. After a few moments of silence, she tapped her pen against the desk repeatedly. "Was I tapping like this?"
"Yes," he responded, grinning as good naturedly as he could. "I'm trying to complete this article…"
"Oh, well, Smallville, you should've said so in the first place." Smiling a million watt smile, she placed her pen on the desk, her fingers dancing to her keyboard before going clickety clack on the keys.
Silence reigned again, apart from the soft noises made from their finger pads pressing against the keypads and the background hum of the living organism that was the Daily Planet. And then - TAP TAP TAP.
He snapped his eyes her way, watching as her pen, once more, made that awful and distracting noise, only this time it was louder than before. "Lois…" he growled.
"Clark?" she queried, eyes feigning innocence. Lois was rarely ever genuinely innocent.
"You're doing it again."
"Oh am I?" Her hand ceased the action of pen to desk. "I'm doing it absent mindedly, you know. I would never do anything to purposefully bother you."
He narrowed his eyes at the blatantly untrue comment. "Of course not. You? Never."
Pretending to be offended, she raised a hand to her chest. "Smallville, I am deeply wounded. The sarcasm in your voice insinuates that I do, in fact, bother you on purpose. I don't bother you, do I?" Her eyes widened as if truly insulted, watering a little to add to the act.
A grin pulled at the corners of his mouth as he watched her performance but he willed himself not to laugh. "Lane, you are the definition of bothersome."
The act fell away and a radiant smile burst forth upon her face, causing a mild reaction in Clark that Lois, fortunately, did not see. "Well, Smallville, that's my job in life. To be a thorn in your side. But…it's only because I care." She winked at him, tapped her pen on the desk once more, than faced her computer screen, seemingly forgetting about the whole exchange.
Leaning back in his chair, Clark turned his own gaze on his own computer screen, mind numb. That she cared… Well, he knew that but it meant so much more when she said it. Swallowing hard, he slowly placed his fingers over the home keys. He had just begun to type the story again when he heard tap, tap, tap.
Glowering, he moved his eyes in her direction, watching as she tried to hide the glee on her face.
Yes, Lois Lane had the knack to make him want to rip his hair out but, in the end, he didn't mind.
Because, deep down, he liked it.