AN: This popped into my head last night and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it out. I just needed a bit of Clois to hold me over until March 12. Random, fluffy goodness!
********
A Domestic Superman
********
It had been another busy day for Clark, Lois, and Superman. Perry was breathing down his and Lois' necks for an article that simply wasn't coming together for either of them. Lois had sent Clark out to hunt down sources and kept on calling to direct him to other places while she worked up at the Daily Planet. He knew how frustrated she was with being stuck desk-side while he was out trying to pump leads for information, but at seven and a half months pregnant, the whole building was on the lookout to keep Lois Lane-Kent from leaving before the end of the day.
As if he didn't have enough to do with regular work, it was a busy day for Superman as well. There had been an apartment complex fire in the early morning. A tanker truck had caused a huge accident during rush hour on one of the busiest commuter highways. There had been a small string of lunchtime robberies in the jewelry district that he had to clean up instead of surprising Lois with her favorite pregnancy craving: spinach-tomato pizza with extra garlic. After lunch, while still trying to track down information, there had been an earthquake in California that had called him away from Metropolis for the rest of the afternoon.
By the time he got back to the Daily Planet, Lois had already left. She had left him a note that Chloe was coming over for dinner and that he could either be there or not. Clark wasn't sure if that meant she was frustrated with him or just frustrated in general. He checked in with Perry to let him know that the story was still drying up and got yelled at for his trouble because Perry himself was having an all-around bad day.
After the day he was having, he was only too glad to fly back home and hope no more emergencies bothered him. The window to the living room was open, which meant Lois wasn't completely annoyed with him. There was nothing worse than not knowing what he had done to make her close that window on him. A pregnant Lois could be a moody and quite fickle Lois.
Clark breezed in through the window to see her sitting with her back to him at the kitchen table. Cookbooks were spread over the table and something was cooking on the stove. He could only hope it was something simple like pasta and sauce. While her cooking had improved, she could sometimes overstep her limits and get a bit too ambitious. With Chloe coming over, though, she probably hadn't tried to be too fancy.
He snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, resting them on her expansive belly and burrowing his head into her neck. "Oh, I've missed you," he sighed.
She chuckled and patted his cheek. Her other hand moved down to hold his arms around her while she kissed the top of his head. "Me too, mister."
"Has it really been eleven hours since I've seen you?" he asked. He kissed her cheek and rested his chin on her shoulder lightly.
"It's been a busy day," Lois agreed.
"You certainly kept me busy," Clark said. "Not giving me enough time to come back to the Planet. And all those problems kept popping up around the city…"
"I know, I know," Lois said. "But Perry was on my case all day and I had to make it look like we could possibly be getting somewhere. Nothing was working over at the office, either. My computer kept crashing and it seemed like every lead I could find just vanished into thin air. Jimmy was having a bad day, too, so I had to spend half of lunch talking to him to keep him from quitting the Planet."
"You ate, didn't you?" Clark said quickly.
"Of course," Lois said. "I get hungry every four or five hours anyway. I guess that's what happens when you're carrying the child of an intergalactic traveler."
Clark smiled and moved his hands down to her belly. It only took a second before he felt a kick. The baby always seemed to be glad when he came home. "I guess that is what happens. How's my baby?"
"Oh, it's been doing cartwheels all day," Lois sighed. "Won't give me a moment's rest."
"I still think it's going to be a girl," Clark said.
"Clark Joseph Kent, have you x-rayed our child? You promised you wouldn't!" Lois exclaimed.
"No, no, I haven't, Lois" Clark said, holding her tight so she wouldn't be able to push him away and swat at him. "I want to be surprised just as much as you do. Believe me, it's not easy. I haven't looked, though, I swear. I just think it's going to be a girl."
"Mmhmm," Lois didn't sound convinced. "Do you really need another girl to spoil and to give all your attention to?"
"Only if she looks just like her mother," Clark said. He kissed her cheek again. "What's cooking?"
"Just spaghetti," Lois said. " I didn't feel like doing anything else after today, even with Chloe coming over."
"I'm sure Chloe won't care what the food is." A timer went off on the stove. Lois moved to get up, but Clark pulled her back into the chair. "I'll get it. What do you need me to do?"
He walked over the stove and glanced back at her. Lois smirked at him. "You better put an apron on, Superman. You know how impossible it is to get food stains out of that suit. Everything else comes out fine, but not food."
Clark grinned and followed her directions. He tied her apron around his waist. "Just stir everything?"
"That'll do," Lois said, looking quite comfortable watching him cook.
"What were you reading?" Clark said as he lifted the lid over the noodles.
"A new baby name book," Lois said. She placed a bookmark in the book and closed it.
"Find anything good?" Clark asked with interest. They'd been searching for months for baby names. They had already read about a dozen books but hadn't found anything that really grabbed their attention.
"More of the same, for the most part," Lois shrugged. "I just got distracted looking up the origins of our friends' names again."
"Like who?" Clark said.
"Well, the meaning of 'Oliver' is elf army," Lois said.
Clark laughed aloud at that. "I'll make sure to tell him that the next time I see him."
"Besides that, usually just more of the same names," Lois said. "I have been thinking more about the name Jonathan, though."
"After my dad?" Clark said, stirring the sauce now.
Lois nodded. "Plus, it's just a good name."
Clark smiled and nodded. "I do like it. We've got plenty of back-up names. I mean, with all of our deceased parents between us, we've got more than enough people to honor with a name." He put the lid back on the sauce and turned to lean against the oven. "But we're having a girl. So maybe the first back-up name should be Lara."
"Who says that your parents' names get to be first?" Lois said. "Maybe the first back-up should be Ella."
"Ella or Lara," Clark acknowledged.
"By that logic, we'll have to have four kids before we even get to new names," Lois said. She looked like she just realized what she had said and she busied herself with closing cookbooks and not looking at Clark.
"At least five kids?" Clark said, not letting her get away with avoiding it. "You sure you can handle that?"
"We've never really talked about a number of children," Lois said, still not looking directly at him. "We were just so surprised that I could get pregnant once. I thought we weren't talking about any more until we know how this goes."
Clark walked over to sit in the chair across from her and take her hands in his. "We don't have to talk about more if you don't want to now."
"I'm not saying that more aren't out of the question," Lois said slowly. Her eyes searched his face as she spoke. "I just don't want to count our kids before they've hatched, so to speak. That doesn't make me a chicken."
"You'd be just about the prettiest chicken I've ever seen," Clark said, rubbing her hands. "And we don't have to count anything at all."
"Sweet talker," Lois muttered.
Clark chuckled. "It's not my fault you seem to look more beautiful every day."
Lois smiled a bit at that, even though she was trying to not look pleased with him. "I only seem to be getting fatter every day."
"Nonsense," Clark said.
The doorbell rang. Lois didn't give him a chance to get it. "I'll get it. I need to move around anyway."
Clark stood up to help her out of the chair. She kissed his hand that was still holding hers before she dropped it moved off to get the door. Clark noticed the baby name book on the table and sat down, opening it to a random page.
"Lois!" Oliver's voice rang from the front door. "You're positively glowing today. I can't believe how good pregnancy looks on you."
"So I've heard," Lois said. "Are you looking for Clark?"
"Well, if I have to have a reason to be here, then sure," Oliver said.
Lois laughed. "He's in the kitchen, Ollie."
"Thanks Lois," Oliver said. He appeared a moment later, as usual full of his boyish charm and delight in the world. He looked at Clark, who just looked up from the book with a welcoming smile. Without saying a word he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and took a picture of Clark sitting at the table, wearing an apron, and surrounded by cooking books while reading a baby name book.
"What was that for?" Clark said.
"Well, uh, Superman," Oliver said with a big grin. "Bart and A.C. won't believe me when I tell them about this. A picture, on the other hand, is worth a thousand words."
Clark looked around him, realizing what Oliver had found so funny. "Oh," he simply said. "I know you're just jealous, Oliver, it's ok."
"You're absolutely right. Sometimes I don't know which is more amazing, how much you've tamed Lois or how much she's tamed you. You got her pregnant and she's got Superman in an apron." Oliver sat down across from him and looked at the cover of the baby name book. "The two of you are sickeningly suburban. And now you're looking at baby names."
"And when are you finally going to settle down?" Clark said.
"Oh, soon enough, my friend," Oliver said. "I don't know why you need to look at a book for names. I've got two choices for you: Oliver and Olivia, or any variation on those. See? You're all set."
"Oliver and Olivia?" Clark repeated. "Did you know the meaning of Oliver is elf army?"
"Elf army?" Oliver said. He shook his head. "That doesn't sound right. Oh well, at least I have an army. And your son will, too. Oliver Kent. Great name." He grinned at Clark again.
"I'm surprised you're not suggesting something like Queenie," Clark said.
"Queenie?" Oliver frowned. "Seriously Clark, this isn't the 1800s and we're not in the south."
"Did you have a particular reason for dropping by or did you just want to laugh at me?" Clark said wryly.
"I didn't know you normally hung out in the suit," Oliver said, avoiding his question. "I mean, I can understand if Lois liked it…"
"I just got home," Clark said before Oliver could go any further. He untied the apron and placed it on the table. "I was about to change."
"Uh-huh," Oliver said. "Well, I do actually have a purpose for my visit. I wanted to let you know that we're all set to go ahead on that raid on the LutherCorp warehouse you wanted. You just say the word and we'll put the team together to go in."
"Great," Clark said. "That should help get to the bottom of that chatter we've heard. I'm tired of hearing about something big and not knowing what it is or how to stop it."
"Looks like it'll be fairly in and out," Oliver said. "We might not even need you on it."
"It was my idea," Clark said slowly.
"I know," Oliver said. "And I'm not trying to take anything from you. But Bart's been working on a whole insertion plan and I don't know how much longer I can hold the kid back."
"He's not much of a kid anymore," Clark said. "We should probably let him lead more things."
Oliver nodded, "That's what I was thinking. Let him stretch out a bit. Gives you a bit of a break, too."
"You think I've gone soft? You think I need breaks?" Clark asked, trying not to sound hostile.
"Of course not, Clark," Oliver said. "You're still the Man of Steel and all. I just know that you prefer going solo anyway. And it's not like you need to devote your whole attention to one raid. I know you've got other things on your mind."
Clark looked at him carefully. Oliver wasn't trying to edge him out. He was just trying to give him some breathing room. "You know I've been worried about this pregnancy." It wasn't a question, although he and Oliver had never really discussed it.
"Yeah," Oliver said. "And that's totally understandable. You're not exactly from the same background as Lois and you're wondering if everything will be ok. She's your wife and this is about your family, anyone would be distracted."
"When it comes right down to it, she's carrying the baby of an alien," Clark said. "It might not be like one of those horror movies, but for so long we weren't even sure that we could have a child at all. I just want her and the baby to be alright."
"My doctors are on constant stand-by for her, Clark," Oliver said. "Anything I can do to help is yours if you need it. You know that. This isn't a horror movie and Lois knows that. You've made it this far and everything will work out."
"Thanks," Clark said. "You've been a big help to us."
"Yes, Oliver's wonderful, Clark, we know that," Lois said as she entered the kitchen. "But you really need to get cleaned up before dinner. You've still got ash in your hair."
"I'll just let myself out," Oliver said.
"Stick around," Lois said. "We've got more than enough."
"Oh, no, I couldn't interrupt you two," Oliver said, standing up. "I'll just head back home and eat there."
"You wouldn't be intruding," Clark said. "Chloe's coming over."
Oliver stopped moving towards the door. "Chloe's going to be here for dinner?"
"Yep," Lois said, hiding her smile as she bustled around finding dishes. "You should stay."
"Oh, well, I wouldn't want to be rude," Oliver said. "I'll stay."
"Good," Clark said. He gave Lois a peck on the cheek before he sped upstairs. He jumped in the shower to rinse away the grime of the day and was back downstairs wearing jeans and a flannel shirt in seven minutes.
Oliver was working on setting the table while Lois was doling out the spaghetti. The doorbell rang. Clark chuckled as Oliver's head popped up from laying out forks. He was going to have to talk to his friend about that settling down idea again. Preferably after Chloe was gone. Clark went to the door and welcomed Chloe inside.
She handed him a bottle of wine as they went to join the others in the kitchen. "I know you said you weren't drinking, Lois, but I read something today that said a little wouldn't hurt the baby. Oh, hi Ollie."
"Hi Chloe," Oliver said smoothly. "I came over for some business and these two roped me into staying."
"The more the merrier," Chloe said. Clark looked carefully at her and wasn't surprised to see that she indeed did look a bit happier. Yes, he would have to talk to Oliver.
"You all can certainly have some," Lois said as she gestured to the wine that Clark was opening. "But I'm not taking any chances."
"You sure?" Chloe asked her. Chloe went to find the wine glasses in the cabinet for Clark.
"Positive," Lois said. "This kid has enough going against it. It doesn't need a stupid mother to add to that."
"You mean she, not it," Clark said.
"It's a girl?" Oliver and Chloe said together.
Lois shot Clark a look. "No, we don't know what it is. Clark is just hoping for a girl."
"Aw, a sweet little Chloe," Chloe said.
"We're going to name her Chloe?" Lois said with amusement. She chuckled and rolled her eyes at her cousin.
"Why not?" Chloe said. "Chloe's a great name."
"They're obviously going to name their daughter Olivia," Oliver interjected. He began taking plates from Lois to the table.
"Olivia?" Chloe said. She raised an eyebrow and laughed. "Chloe is a much better name than Olivia."
"Chloe Kent or Olivia Kent? Which one, Clark?" Oliver said.
Clark was finished pouring the wine and had picked up the baby name book to look at the two possible names. "Well, Chloe means young shoot, like a plant or something. Olivia means elf army, like Oliver does."
"Elf army?" Chloe laughed. "That's ridiculous."
"At least I'm not a plant," Oliver said sarcastically.
Dinner was all ready so the four sat down around the dining room table. Lois had poured herself a giant glass of milk, which she couldn't seem to get enough of these days. The rest of them would be enjoying Chloe's wine. Clark had loosened up over the years and now actually enjoyed alcohol, especially when it didn't really affect him at all.
"Uh, Lois, I know you're supposed to be eating for two and all, but that really looks like you're eating for about three and a half," Chloe said. Everyone looked at Lois' portion and Clark had to agree with Chloe's assessment. She looked like she was eating as much as Oliver and Chloe combined. Clark's large portion didn't count because he had, well, an inhuman appetite.
"This is Mrs. Kent's recipe," Lois said sheepishly. "I can't get enough of her food. And today was a really rough day, so I figured comfort food was just what I needed."
"Milking this pregnancy thing that lets you eat more than a normal person?" Chloe said.
Lois shrugged and dug into the pasta. "It certainly has its benefits."
"You are glowing," Chloe said sincerely. "Gives me hope for my own future."
"Don't worry about that," Oliver said nonchalantly.
It was a bit quiet after that as Oliver and Chloe worked not to look at each other. Clark caught Lois' eye across the table and they smiled at each other. They both had noticed and discussed what could possibly be happening between their two friends. There definitely was something there that hadn't been there before a few months ago.
"I don't want to take sides," Clark said, breaking the silence. "But I think Olivia Kent sounds better than Chloe Kent."
"Thank you, Clark," Oliver said. He shot Chloe a victorious smile.
"But I'm pretty sure our baby won't be named either one," Lois added.
Oliver scowled at her. "What little girl doesn't want an elf army, Lois?"
"Ours," Clark said easily.
"You're no fun," Oliver said as he twirled his fork in his spaghetti. "Neither of you."
Lois sighed. "Think about it, Ollie. Her father can shoot fire from his eyes. I don't think she needs an army of elves for protection."
"Yeah. I think we're all sort of expecting her to be able to shoot fire from her own eyes, anyways," Chloe said. When the table grew silent she looked up from her plate to see everyone looking at her with strange looks on their faces. "Sorry. I just figured that we had all thought about that."
"Well, sure, we've thought about it," Lois said. She shoved a large forkful of noodles in her mouth and looked to Clark to say something.
"Just didn't think you'd say it," Clark said. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
"Right," Chloe said. "No need to worry about that now."
"These noodles are great tonight, Lois," Oliver said, taking it upon himself to steer the conversation away from super powered babies. "Much better than the last ones I had here."
"That's probably because Clark took over at the crucial point before I would normally burn them," Lois said. Clark couldn't tell if she sounded glum over her lack of cooking skill or if she was thinking about something else.
"Then it was a successful collaborative effort," Chloe said. "Hey, Clark, how'd that earthquake go this afternoon?"
Clark sighed and ran a hand through his still damp hair. "It was a mess, but it could have been a lot worse. It wasn't in a heavily populated area, so it was mostly just structures that were collapsing. Lots of survivors, which is always good."
"I was watching some coverage on that," Oliver said. "They said it was only magnitude 2. Lucky break."
"Much better than that typhoon in Japan two months ago," Chloe said.
If he was with any other group of people, Clark realized, it would be strange to be talking about natural disasters this much.
"That was a nightmare," Oliver agreed. "Queen Industries still has people working over there now. We're trying to clean up the industrial sector and get everyone back on their feet again. Just trying to help everyone, ya know?"
"Doesn't hurt that twenty percent of your manufacturing takes place over there," Lois said.
"Well, sure," Oliver said, not sounding offended. "We like to take care of our own."
"At least they're mostly just dealing with clean-up these days," Clark said. "I was over there for five days when it first happened. Complete chaos. I went a few days ago to help with a few major projects, but the officials said they could mostly handle it now."
"All those poor people," Chloe said. "Homes and businesses destroyed. Must be terrible."
"They should be able to recover a lot," Oliver assured her.
They had all pretty much finished their food by that point. Clark grabbed the bottle of wine and refilled glasses.
"Who wants dessert?" Lois said. She stood up and began to collect plates.
"Me," Chloe and Oliver said at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed.
"I'll give you a hand," Clark said. He put the bottle down and took the plates from Lois. He followed her into the kitchen and placed the dishes in the sink. He grabbed her arm before she could open the brownies. "Hey, what's going on?"
"What do you mean?" Lois said. She tried to pull her arm back but Clark didn't let her go.
"Something's wrong, Lois," he said. His eyes looked deep into hers for an answer. "I can tell."
"I'm fine," Lois said quietly. "Just tired."
"That's not all," Clark said. He let go of her arm but only readjusted so that both his arms were around her. "Just tell me what's bothering you. I'm not letting this go, so you might as well just tell me so we can get back to our company."
"Fine," Lois huffed. "I'm just feeling anxious about things after today."
"What things?"
"Oh, just life in general. Work, the baby, everything," Lois said. She wiped her eyes, which had teared up slightly. "It's probably all these hormones."
Clark kissed her forehead. "I know. You've been under a lot of stress lately. I wish today hadn't been so crazy."
"Things are just hard right now," Lois said. "You've had so much to do lately and I've got to drag this around all the time." She rubbed her belly. "I just want to have this baby and have everything be alright."
"Everything will be alright," Clark said forcefully as if his own willpower would bring about the desired result. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you or our baby. We'll handle everything. We'll do it together."
"I know, Clark, I know," Lois said. "I was just reading all these baby names today and it just struck me that if something bad happens a name won't even matter."
"A name will matter," Clark said. "We've talked to Kara and Jor-El, and neither could think of any major complications that would come up for a human-Kryptonian baby. Oliver's special doctors have you checked you over and haven't seen anything worrisome. They're available at a moment's notice, too."
"I don't want to ruin this for you," Lois said, her eyes tearing up again. "We've waited so long and wanted this so bad. I don't know what I would do…"
"Shh," Clark drew her close to him carefully. "Don't think about that, sweetheart. We'll handle whatever happens, no matter what. Nothing would be your fault, in any case. But nothing bad is going to happen. In just a little while we'll just be worried about keeping enough diapers in the house."
Lois sniffed at his shoulder. "I hope so."
"I know so," Clark kissed the top of her head. "We are going to be parents, Lois. I guarantee you that."
"I know we are," Lois said. She pulled back from him and kissed him passionately. "You're going to be the best father in the world."
"Only because I'll have to compete with the number one mother," Clark said. He let her go so she could open the brownies while he pulled down plates. "We've already had so much practice dealing with those two kids out there now."
Lois rolled her eyes and nodded. "We are so not wrong about them."
"That'll be good for her," Clark said. "After the divorce with Jimmy and everything that fell through later with Bruce Wayne."
"He needs someone stable, too," Lois said as she put brownies on plates. "Just let it happen in its own time, Clark. I know how much you would like to play matchmaker."
"Me?" Clark said innocently.
"Yes, you," Lois said, giving him a knowing look. "You think everyone should find what you have."
"Everyone deserves to get everything they've ever wanted," Clark said. "How can I help it if I just want my friends to be as happy as you've made me?"
"You can't help it," Lois chuckled. "That's the problem."
Clark smiled guiltily. "I'll try and hold myself back."
"Don't worry," Lois said while she handed him a couple plates. "I'll hold you back if you can't quite contain yourself."
"Thanks, partner," Clark said. "You've always got my back."
"That's the idea," Lois said. "C'mon, let's get back to laughing at them."
"Brownie time!" Clark announced when they re-entered the dining room.
At the cheers from Chloe and Oliver, he couldn't help feeling that their child, whatever sex it turned out to be, was going to be in the most loving atmosphere possible. He and Lois were already completely in love with their baby and he knew their friends would be, too. They could handle this parent thing. They could handle the pregnancy. They were going to be just fine.
He was a fully domesticated Superman. And he wouldn't have it any other way.
************
AN: Wasn't exactly sure how to end that one, but hopefully that's wrapped it up well enough. I just liked the whole idea of Lois and Clark all married and happy. Gives me hope for their future. Reviews are great and much appreciated!