Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. Seriously.
A/N: A bit of oneshot fluff set sometime in the fourth/fifth seasons. Clark and Lana had just broken up. Again. The pairing is, obviously, Clois. But its just a hint, barely anything to write home about. This is my first Smallville fanfic, but be sure to check out all my Superman stuff (yay for shameless plugs). Oh, and please review. ;)
"Smallville!" the voice echoed out over the Kent Farm as a curly-haired brunette bounded down the well-worn steps off the porch on the front of the house.
Lois Lane looked around and sighed. "SMALLVILLE!" she yelled again, and then looked towards the red barn next to the house. "Of course," she muttered to herself. "Where else would he be?"
Sighing, she walked briskly into the barn and up the steps to Clark Kent's famous loft, dubbed the "Fortress of Solitude" by his father years ago. Spotting Clark in his chair, shoulders slumped, she rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what he was doing.
"Smallville!" Lois yelled again, causing Clark to jump slightly and turn towards her, a look of annoyance on his face.
"What, Lois?" he said exasperatingly. In his hands, he held a picture of his girlfriend- his former girlfriend- Lana Lang, the girl he thought he would spend the rest of his life with.
Lois spotted the picture and sighed even louder this time, once again rolling her eyes. "Sorry to ruin the brood-fest, Clark, but your mom's looking for you."
"I'm not brooding!" Clark protested, quickly putting the picture back into a desk drawer.
Crossing her arms, Lois raised an eyebrow and remarked, "Sure. You're just thinking moodily. Oh wait, am I wrong, or isn't that the exact definition of brooding?"
Clark just stood up and glared at Lois. "I'm sorry that I can't be happy all the time Lois," he retorted as he mimicked her stance, crossing his arms.
"If you were, that'd be pretty freaky. I'd wonder if something was wrong with you," Lois quickly shot back, leaning towards Clark. "But then again, its not like there isn't something wrong with you now…"
Clark rolled his eyes and made his way down the wooden stairs as he walked towards the house, seeing what his mother wanted. Lois just stood still in his loft, her pose like that of someone who knew they just won. Looking over at Clark's desk, she spotted a plethora of Lana pictures spread out over the top.
"Someone was a little obsessed," she murmured, scanning the pictures. All of them were of a happy Lana, or, at least, a posing Lana. Lois wasn't sure if the pink princess was ever fully happy with her life; it always seemed that Lana always thought something was wrong.
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Clark bounded up the stairs and opened the front door of his yellow farm house; the exact opposite of what Lois had done just a few minutes earlier.
"Mom?" he called out into the house, looking for his mother.
"I'm in here!" Martha's voice sounded from the kitchen. Clark walked into the kitchen, where he was met with the mouth-watering smell of cookies baking.
"I didn't know you were making cookies," Clark said as he peered into the oven, looking to see if they were close to be ready to be devoured.
Martha laughed. "Don't be eating any of these. They're for the bake sale tomorrow."
Clark gave a wry grin to his mother, "Aw, c'mon, just one?"
She smiled as she shook her head, taking off her blue plaid oven mitts.
Suddenly remembering Lois's request, he asked, "So, Mom, what'd you want?"
"I want you to take these," she said as she handed Clark a platter full of freshly baked muffins, "over to the Talon. People seem to be eating my muffins like they're candy."
"They sure taste better than candy," Clark said as he bit into one of the muffins he stole off of the platter.
Martha grinned. "That's the last muffin you have, okay?" she scolded Clark, who just grinned. "Goodness knows that I haven't seen that grin in a while," she remarked off-handedly.
Clark's grin faltered a bit as he remembered the reason he was brooding just a few minutes before. But after looking at Martha's face, he plastered the grin on as he turned away and headed out the door to his truck.
"Hey Smallville!" Lois's voice called out to him as he rummaged around his pockets for his elusive keys.
"What?" he called back as he found his keys and opened his car door with them, sliding the platter of cookies onto the passenger seat.
Lois jogged over to him, talking as she went. "I was wondering, after you get back from being your mom's personal UPS man," she raised her finger as Clark opening his mouth in objection, "if you want to go running with me?"
Clark's mouth, which was already open from the objection he was about to raise from being called a UPS guy, stayed open after he heard Lois's invitation. He was certainly surprised that Lois wanted to do anything with him.
Seeing his surprise, Lois quickly added, "Your mom wanted you to get out of the house and stop thinking about Lana. I figure, the best way to get some of your mom's cooking is through her heart, and so I decided to take it upon myself to respect her wishes," she joked.
Still surprised, Clark managed to stutter out, "I guess that'd be okay, Lois."
She nodded her assent. "Remember Smallville- as soon as we get back."
He just rolled his eyes and ducked his head as he got into his blue truck. Lois watched him intently as he closed the door, turned on the ignition, and drove off towards what could only be described as Smallville's version of a downtown- where the majority of the shops were located.
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When Clark arrived back at the farm, muffinless, Lois was sitting on the steps outside of the house, dressed in an appropriate jogging outfit consisting of extremely short shorts, running shoes, and a baggy old t-shirt.
"Took you long enough," Lois stage-murmured, making sure that Clark, even without the use of his super hearing, could hear it.
"I'm sorry that I don't break the law while I'm driving," Clark responded sarcastically as he walked towards the house, and therefore Lois, to get changed for the approaching jog.
Clark jogged up the stairs to his room so he could change into his jogging clothes. He sighed as he opened the door, seeing the mess left by the current resident, a certain Miss Lois Lane. Tiptoeing carefully through the mess of clothes and papers, he finally made it to his closet, which he opened with a flourish, only to find all of his clothes shoved into a corner while Lois's clothes and other items dominated the closet.
Clark bit back a yell as he rummaged through his clothes, finally finding his own running shoes along with a t-shirt and basketball shorts. Closing his door, he decided to hurry things along. With the help of his super-speed, he was able to change from his normal attire of a plaid shirt and jeans into his jogging outfit in the blink of an eye.
Smiling in triumph, he bounded down the stairs and out the front door to a slightly surprised Lois Lane.
"I knew guys were faster dressers than girls, but I didn't know they dressed this fast," Lois commented wryly, causing Clark to turn slightly flustered.
"I guess I was just a little, um, excited," Clark answered lamely. "So, um, where are we going to go jogging?"
Lois retied her shoelaces as she answered, "I was thinking that we could run by the cemetery, across the dam, around the back of the LuthorCorp factory, then back through town towards your farm."
As he heard the proposed path, Clark's eyes grew slightly wide. "Um, Lois, you know that's around ten miles, right?"
Lois just shrugged. "Yeah, so? What, are you not able to run that far?"
Clark quickly covered his mouth with his hand to muffle the small laugh he almost gave out. If Lois only knew how far he could really run… Well, that was a question for another day.
"No, I was just wondering if you could handle it," Clark shot back to Lois.
She grinned wryly at him. "I run at least five miles every morning."
Clark stared at her and crossed his arms, his face a picture of disbelief.
Lois sighed. "Fine. I used to run at least five miles every morning. I mean to do it, but, unlike some people, I like sleeping in."
Rolling his eyes, Clark started jogging down the path, leaving Lois behind on the porch.
Lois sighed. "I guess Farm Boy woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," she remarked to herself as she jogged slightly faster to catch up to the farm boy in question.
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The two jogged in relative silence for a half-hour; all that could be heard was the steady thumping of their shoes hitting the dirt path and their deep breathing from the amount of exertion.
Looking over at Clark, who looked surprisingly unaffected by the amount of jogging they had done so for, Lois gave a wry grin and started to jog faster and faster along the trail as they approached the Kawatche caves.
"Race you to the caves!" Lois cried out, now in a full-out sprint towards the caves, her arms and legs churning and screaming from the strain Lois put upon them, urging them to go faster and faster.
"Hey, not fair!" Clark cried out to the steadily increasing Lois. He shook his head and grinned conspiratorially.
He looked around, an instinctive action brought on from years of concealing his powers, and quickly sped up, soon running faster than the faster human alive, but still not full-speed.
Grinning as he passed Lois, he soon arrived at the entrance to the caves and stopped, feigning a pant so as not to make Lois more suspicious than she already would be.
Seeing Clark pass her, and so fast, Lois couldn't help but have her eyes widen in shock. But then they narrowed, as she couldn't resist a challenge. Ignoring the screaming protests in her legs and sides, she sprinted faster and faster until she saw Clark leaning on the cave wall, barely panting.
She slowed down, breathing heavily and holding her sides which were cramping up.
"Gosh Smallville, if I knew that you had rocket shoes, I wouldn't have tried to race you," Lois said sarcastically, exhaling heavily after every word. Putting her hands on her head, she turned to face Clark. "How'd you get so fast? Its not like baling hay has anything to do with running."
Clark shrugged, and tried to keep the red from coming to his face. "I dunno. Good genes, I guess."
He almost sighed in relief when Lois nodded, accepting that answer as the truth, and not asking any more questions.
"So, Smallville, ready to head out yet?" Lois asked while stretching out her sore muscles, wincing slightly while stretching her legs.
Clark took a quick peek at her legs with his x-ray vision, and found her hamstring was slightly pulled. "Um, Lois, I think maybe we should rest here for a little while. You know, to catch our breath."
Lois rolled her eyes but then attempted to stretch her hamstring and winced. "You know what Clark? You're right. Lets stay here for a while."
Clark's eyes widened in surprise at being called his actual name, and not Smallville or Farm Boy as she usually calls him. Even more surprising was that she actually agreed with him.
Lois mistook his surprise for that as his surprise that she would actually want to rest. "Gosh Smallville, I'm not some kind of Superwoman," she retorted as she limped slightly into the cave.
He opened his mouth to fire off what he thought was a witty response, but was silenced when he heard the boom of thunder, followed quickly by the flash of a lightening bolt.
"Lois, I think we should get inside the caves," Clark suggested nervously, glancing at the sky as rain started pouring down.
Lois followed his gaze to the sky, which decided at that moment to let loose a torrent of rain onto the two young adults. She wiped her eyes of the unexpected rainwater and looked at Clark. "I guess you're right."
Clark smirked. "Wow, Lois agreeing with me twice in a row? What is it, the sign of the Apocalypse?"
"Well, Smallville, seeing how this was the first time your suggestions actually made since, no duh I agreed," she said as she limped slightly into the cave, finally getting out of the hard rain. "Oh, and the sign of the apocalypse joke? Really? Hasn't that been over-done by just about everyone?"
He sighed. Looking at the sky, he noticed that the rain didn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. It was going to be a long wait.
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"Hey Smallville, why not you be a good male and go get some firewood for a fire, will you? I'm freezing my butt off here," Lois said while rubbing her hands together.
"Well, we wouldn't want that now, would we?" Clark said dryly as he peered out the entrance of the cave, looking for any available wood. "By the way, how do you expect to light a fire without matches?" he asked while glancing over his shoulder at Lois.
"The General made me go through Basic Training. I can light fire without matches," Lois said confidently, but Clark just raised his eyebrow and shook his head, not believing her.
"Whatever," Clark said dismissively as he jogged out of the cave entrance and gathered up an armload of firewood from the immediate surrounding area.
He jogged back to the cave, hunched over his collected pile of wood. He dropped the wood loudly on the dirt floor of the cave, causing Lois to slightly jump.
"Geez, Smallville, warn me next time, will ya?" she said as she sat down next to the fire, her injured leg extended out. Choosing two pieces of wood, she plucked them from the bunch and immediately started rubbing them together.
Watching her, Clark felt a laugh coming on. "That really works?"
Lois glared up at him, her eyes blazing. "Yeah, well, do you have any better ideas?" she asked, challenging him.
He took the sticks from Lois, brushing against her hands gently in his haste. They both froze, and their eyes locked on each other's, neither of them daring to look away.
Finally, it was Clark who broke the spell. "Let me try," he mumbled as he crouched down facing the pile of wood, his back to Lois.
She peered curiously at him, almost blushing from the bit of unexpected contact they had earlier. She tried to look over his shoulder from her spot on the ground, when all of the sudden the pile of wood burst into flame, much to her surprise.
Clark, of course, had used his heat vision. He turned back to Lois, who was looking wide-eyed at him. He suddenly got very nervous, wondering if she had seen the display of power.
"Okay, Smallville, you have got to teach me how to do that some time," Lois said after the two sat in an awkward silence for a minute.
He sighed in relief, happy that Lois hadn't seen him do anything too much out of the ordinary.
Lois scooted closer to the fire, and put her hands out to it in an attempt to get warmer. She looked around the unfamiliar cave, and noticed the cave paintings.
"I didn't know that Smallville had its very own cavemen," Lois commented dryly.
"They're actually the Kawatche tribe cave paintings about an old legend," Clark said, answering her question offhandedly.
Lois sat up straighter and turned towards Clark. "Wait, you know about these paintings?"
"Yeah, I sorta discovered these caves. I was, um, friends with one of the Kawatche people who told me about the legend these paintings tell," Clark said, slightly blushing when he mentioned Kayla.
Noticing his reddened cheeks, Lois grinned slyly and said, "Did that person happen to be a girl?"
"So what if she was?" Clark said, getting defensive.
"Did you like her? Did Clarkie have a little crush on her?" Lois teased.
Clark smiled faintly as he remember Kyla, his eyes watering as he remembered holding her in his arms as she lay dying from a cut to her abdomen. He couldn't save her, and he carried that with him always.
Lois noticed the change in attitude in the farm boy, and her teasing grin was wiped from her face. "What's wrong, Smallville?"
Clark looked down, trying to conceal his tears. "She… She died. In my arms. I couldn't save her."
Gazing at the normally broody boy, Lois scooted over to him and wrapped her arms around him, comforting him. "You know, Smallville, you can't save everyone. Nobody can."
"But what if you could do things others can't? What if you could save everyone?" Clark mumbled, his chin resting on Lois's shoulder as she hugged him.
Lois drew back and grabbed Clark by the shoulders. "Just because you can doesn't mean that you have that responsibility. No one deserves to have such a punishment to have the weight of the world rest on their shoulders."
She took him back into her embrace, almost sighing in contentment from the warmth Clark was giving off. Wait a minute, she suddenly awoke from her contented state. Me? And Smallville? Cuddling? Uh, no.
Lois quickly scooted away from Clark, to his surprised disappointment. Looking around the caves, she once again noticed the cave paintings. "So, Smallville, do you know the legend these cave paintings tell?"
Clark tore his eyes away from Lois and pointed up to the two-headed creature on one of the walls. "The two-headed figure is actually two people. One is the mythical Naman, the savior of the Kawatche people. The other is Sageeth, Naman's best friend, who turns against him. Together they make the balance between good and evil."
She looked at the painting inquisitively. "Backstabbing at its best," she turned back towards Clark, and pointed towards another painting. "What's with that one?"
He followed her finger to the painting of Naman holding ten men along with other great feats. "Naman is supposed to fall from the sky in a rain of fire. He's supposed to have the strength of ten men and have fire come from his eyes."
Lois looked at him confused. "Wait, fall from the sky in a rain of fire?" She was slowly piecing it together. "That could be meteors, right?"
Clark bit his lip and his gaze rested on the painting of Naman's soul mate. "Yeah. I guess so."
"So that could mean that Naman is already here. In Smallville," Lois continued on, not noticing Clark's obvious growing discomfort.
"I guess," Clark answered nervously.
She looked back at Clark, finally noticing Clark's discomfort. "Relax, Smallville. I don't really believe it. It's a good story, though," she said as she followed his gaze to the picture of this soul mate. "Who's that?"
Clark blushed and looked down, an unconscious response. "Its supposed to be Naman's soul mate, the one he is destined to live the rest of his life with."
Lois gazed at the painting for a while, examining it. She looked back at Clark, who seemed to be staring at the painting with even more vigor. "Do you believe that everyone has a certain destiny, that their life has already been decided?"
"Wow, Lois, that was so… random," Clark said, looking back at her.
"I'm serious. Do you believe in destiny?" Lois said seriously, scooting closer to him once again.
"Sometimes, I really hope that there is no such thing as destiny," Clark answered.
"But that's not the question. Do you believe that everyone, no matter what they do, will always be the same people?" she asked again.
Clark paused a moment, thinking. "I guess… I mean, if I hate something, then I must believe in it."
"Hmmm," Lois pondered that thought. "I don't. I believe that everyone has the chance to choose for themselves what would happen."
The two sat, a heavy silence falling on both of them as they thought about the future. Lois, uncomfortable with the silence, spoke up again.
"Besides, then all those movies like Back to the Future would be wrong," she said, breaking the tension between them.
Clark laughed, the first since he had broken up with Lana. Smiling at Lois, he said, "Thanks, Lois. I needed that."
Lois couldn't help but smile back. "No problem, Smallville."
Clark looked down at the fire, staring at it. Lois bit her lip, studying him.
Clark looked back at Lois, noticing her studying him, he smiled, the famous Kent grin appearing on his face. Lois smiled back, and felt an uncontrollable shiver course through her body.
Noticing the shiver, Clark scooted towards her, and wrapped his arms around her, thinking she was cold. She didn't bother to correct him; it felt nice to be in his arms, like she was protected and nothing could harm her.
"Thanks Smallville," she murmured, cozying up to the farm boy she was verbally sparing with only a few minutes before.
He smiled, surprised that Lois would even stand him touching her for more than a few seconds. They sat there, watching the fire in perfect silence, content.
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Clark was the first to stir; they had fallen asleep against all odds in each other's arms. He listened for a moment, and realized that the storm was gone, punctuated by the chirping of the birds that always follows a rainstorm.
"Lois, wake up," he said, taking his arms away from her as he stood up, stretching.
Lois yawned and stretched her arms as she looked around, her eyes half-opened. All of the sudden, her eyes widened, and she winced slightly as she stood up, her leg still hurting.
"What? What happened?" Lois asked, slightly dazed.
Blushing, Clark answered, "I think we fell asleep."
Lois whipped her head around towards Clark, her eyes narrowing. "And you just so happened to be cuddling with me?"
"You were the one cuddling with me!" Clark retorted, leaning towards Lois.
"Yeah, but you didn't try to stop it. That makes you equal in blame," Lois rationalized as she walked towards the cave entrance. "Hey, it stopped raining."
"You think?" Clark said sarcastically, easily reverting back to the verbal sparring routine he and Lois had partaken in practically since the day they met.
"What I mean, Smallville, is that we can go home. Your mom's probably worried sick, and her being worried does not help her cooking," Lois said, hiding from Clark behind her words.
Wordlessly, Lois and Clark slowly jogged the rest of the way home, unable to deal with the slight change that had taken place between them while in the caves. Both rather chose to ignore it, to pretend that it never happened.
It was a small change, but one that could not be ignored. Both Clark and Lois were oblivious to the importance of the change, the one that pushed them away from merely being acquaintances and temporary annoyances to being friends, friends with possible romance in the distant future.
And it all started with muffins, a jog, and a long-told legend that just might be carried out.