I wrote this for the Secret Santa fic exchang on DI. Enjoy!
Title: A Firelite Night
Author: catilla
Assignment: The Bloody Countess; Season 10, PG-13
Picture: #48-fireplace
Spoilers: Icarus
Author's Note: My story has a high amount of Shelby in it because I miss Shelby on the show. Shelby is a boy. Thanks to souplover9 for beta-ing this.
The sun rose across the snow covered fields on its way to brighten the yellow farmhouse. It shined through the window landing on the two figures wrapped around each other asleep in the bed. Lois turned away from the sunlight and snuggled closer to the warm body next to hers. The light, however did manage to wake up Clark.
"Lo, it's time to wake up."
She just burrowed farther into his side and sighed. Clark laid his head back on his pillow and rolled his eyes at Lois's actions. He felt the end of the bed dip as Shelby jumped up. He walked up to Lois and started licking her face.
"Smallville, five more minutes", Lois mumbled into Clark's chest.
"That's not me, Lois."
Lois opened her eyes and sneezed.
"Shelby, get off me!"
Shelby just whined and continued to lick her face.
"I do believe that he wants you to get up, Lois"
"Fine, Smallville. You and your dog win. I'm getting up."
Lois climbed out of bed and pulled on Clark's plaid shirt that had draped across the chair on the previous night.
As she was walking out the door to the bathroom, Lois looked over her shoulder at Clark and stated, "Last one in the shower is a rotten egg."
Clark sat in bed for a few more seconds then he super sped to the bathroom. Thirty minutes later, Clark was downstairs, with Shelby, fixing breakfast while Lois finished getting ready for work. Clark fixed the dog his breakfast and began preparing his and Lois's breakfast. Lois came into the kitchen right as he was finishing up.
"That smells good," Lois said while inhaling the aromas wafting off the food.
Clark looked over his shoulder from in front of the stove where he was finishing cooking their breakfast. Lois walked up behind him wrapping her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his shoulder. Clark turned off the stove and placed the eggs that he was cooking in the bowl by the stove. After he put the eggs in the bowl, Clark brought Lois's left hand up to his lips and kissed the ring on her third finger. Lois smiled at Clark's new routine in the morning. He had been doing that since the first moment he put the ring on her finger. Clark turned around, smiling, and put his arms around Lois's waist. Lois smiled back at him as she put her arms around his neck.
"What do you need me to do?" Lois asked
"For you grab the plates and silverware and take them to the table please." Clark replied.
Lois gave him a quick peck on the lips, before grabbing the plates and silverware and heading toward the table. Clark followed her carrying the eggs and toast. He placed the rest of the food on the table with the bacon and sat down next to Lois. Shelby took his usual spot underneath the table at their feet. Clark stole a tomato slice off Lois's plate while Lois stole a piece of Clark's bacon. Shelby kept a constant eye both of them to catch any food that they might drop. They talked about their story and which sources Lois was planning on meeting with that day. When they finished eating they carried their dishes to the kitchen and Clark went to grab what they would need at work that day.
"Are we going the slow way or the fast way?" Lois asked when he came back with their stuff.
"The slow way is probably safer with everything that has been going on recently." Clark replied with a pensive look.
Lois knew that Clark was thinking about what happened with Slade that lead to Hawkman's death. Clark was still trying to save people in spite of everything that was happening with the VRA. Lois was positive that there were people that still believed in the Blur and the other heroes like she did. The only problem was getting the citizens to speak up about it because when someone spoke up in favor of the heroes they would get attack by the hero-haters. Lois herself had been threatened multiple occasions the past month since the government had classified the heroes as terrorists.
She shook her head to disrupt that particular train of thought and stated, "Well since we're going the slow way the only thing we still have to decide is truck or car?"
Clark grinned as Lois held up both set of keys. He reached out and took the truck keys from her hand.
"We'll take the truck. The car needs gas and we won't have time to stop and fill up the tank before work."
Clark helped Lois put on her coat, and then she walked out the dour to the truck. Clark put on his jacket, picked up the research they needed for work that he had placed on the counter when he came back into the room from getting it, and followed Lois out the door.
When they got to the Planet, Lois once again complained to Clark about the new security measure that the government put in place against the supposed "terrorists." Clark was grateful that his skin was not actually made of steel when it got to his turn. They both made it through the new security check point and walked to their desks. Lois and Clark had both sat down and turned on their computers when Cat showed up.
"Hi. Hi," she stated when she walked up to them. "So how's the wedding planning going?"
Cat asked the same question every day since she found out that Lois and Clark were engaged, and every day Lois gave her the same answer along with anybody else who asked about it.
"It is going the same as it was yesterday."
"Well if you need any help just let me know."
Clark could see that Cat was starting to grate on Lois's nerves because she was gritting her teeth and clenching her fists so he intervened between the two.
"I think that we have it covered, Cat."
Cat, seemingly satisfied with Clark's answer, walked away from their desks. Lois let out a sigh of relief after Cat got far enough away from their desks.
Lois looked across her desk at her handsome fiancée and asked, "Why does everyone constantly ask about what we're doing for the wedding?"
"I think that with everything that's been happening lately, people want something happy to think about. I'm glad that we can make some people happy even if the constant questioning is slightly annoying."
"That still doesn't make it any less annoying. I don't care if it is making people happy. The next person that asks or makes a suggestion about the wedding that is not related to either one of us, I am going to deck them."
Clark rolled his eyes at Lois's antics and started on his work for the day. He had to be extra careful every time he left to make his saves as the Blur. Luckily so far, no one had seen Clark when he was making the saves, but the day was not over yet. Lois was also spending a lot of time away from her desk chasing down leads for the big story that she and Clark were working on. The next time Lois and Clark saw each other was when they stopped to eat lunch at their favorite deli. Clark arrived at the deli before Lois, so he went inside and placed their orders. He had just finished ordering when Lois walked in the door. Clark walked over to her, and together they walked to their favorite booth in the corner of the deli and sat down across from each other.
"How are the leads going for the story?" Clark asked once they had sat down.
"They're going fine. We just need a little more evidence and then the story will be complete and we can take down Paul Sinclair."
They continued to discuss their story while waiting for their food to arrive. Once they got their food, they discussed the wedding.
"The first thing we need to figure out is where we are actually going to have the wedding," Clark said.
"I can't tell you where I think we should have the wedding, but I can tell you where we are not having it, and that is in the barn. I don't want to have a fiasco like the one that happened at Chloe and Jimmy's wedding."
"I agree. I don't think that our parents would agree to us getting married in the barn. We can figure out the location later once we start looking at possible ones."
Lois started eating her remaining fries as she tried to figure out a possible location for their wedding. While she was pondering the first question, she thought of another question that tied in with the first question.
"How many people are we planning to invite?" Lois asked
"I don't know. I'm sure that there are people that our parents would want to invite as well as the people we decide to invite. I never knew that this much effort went into planning a wedding." Clark said.
The pair spent the remainder of their lunch discussing wedding details. They continued their discussion even as they walked back to the Planet. When they got to the Planet, Lois got a call from one of her sources, and Clark heard a situation that needed the Blur. They went their separate ways, but not until they gave each other a kiss first. Lois and Clark only saw each other a few times after their lunch together until it was time to head home for the day. At the end of the day, Lois and Clark gathered up all their stuff and headed to the truck.
When they got back to the farm, it began to snow again. Lois got out of the truck before Clark and ran to the door. Shelby was there to greet her when she opened the door. He jumped up one her and began to lick her face. Clark walked up and helped Lois push Shelby off her, so Lois could walk into the farm house.
Once they got into the house Lois asked, "Hey Smallville, do you want to go play in the snow for awhile because I think that it would be perfect after the day we had at work."
"Sure Lois, but I think we are going to need to change out of our work clothes."
They went upstairs and put on jeans and sweaters. Clark found Lois her hat, scarf, and gloves and they headed back downstairs and out the door. As soon as Clark got the door open Shelby went bounding out the door and jumped into a massive pile of snow. Lois and Clark built a snowman and after they finished the snowman they argued about what type of face that the snowman should have on it. As they were arguing Shelby came up behind Lois and knocked her legs out from under her. Clark laughed at first then Lois glared at him. When he put his hand out to help her up, Lois pulled him down in the snow next to her and they started wrestling with each other. Clark managed to get snow down Lois's shirt and Lois retaliated by shoving snow down Clark's pants. Lois and Clark both jumped to their feet and started throwing snowballs at each other as Shelby ran between them trying to catch the snowballs in his mouth. After Lois was thoroughly frozen, the trio went back inside to sit in front of the fire. Clark started the fire using his heat vision and then went into the kitchen to fix him and Lois hot chocolate with marshmallows. When Clark walked back into the living room, he saw Lois bundled up in a blanket with Shelby's head in her lap. He handed Lois her hot chocolate and patted Shelby on the head.
"Helping keep her warm, boy?"
Lois smiled at Clark as he sat down and put his arm around her. She snuggled into his side as she sipped her hot chocolate. Clark grabbed the T.V. remote and turned on the television. They watched a movie that was playing as they drank their hot chocolate. Shelby jumped off the couch about halfway through the movie and laid down in front of the fireplace. Once Shelby moved in front of the fireplace, Lois climbed into Clark's lap and began pressing kisses along his neck. She pushed his shirt collar out of the way to give her more access to his neck. She eventually made her way up to his soft, full lips. The heat radiating off the fire helped warm them as they began to take over each other clothes. Clark picked Lois up and carried up the stairs to their room where they could continue what they started without an audience. Back down in the living room the fire still blazed in the fireplace as Shelby went into doggy dreamland.