"R-A-V-I-N-O-U-S," Lois spelled out loud to herself as she jotted her thoughts on this headline down. She stared at the word on the paper. Ravinous. That was right, wasn't it? "Ravinous Looters Stamped Out by Superman," she read matter-of-factly. It seemed fine. If it wasn't, well, that's what copy editors were for.

Lois sighed as she tossed the notebook onto her desk. Her heart wasn't really in this story anyway. She'd been energized by the blackout story, but that had quickly been deep-sixed once she had an eye-witness account of Luthor's more grandiose crimes.

But Luthor was last month's news. And now Perry had eagerly sent her back to her once niche spot, the Superman beat. Five years ago, she would have been thrilled. But now it was just… way too complicated.

Superman had been gracious enough to grant her a few exclusive interviews, but it had all stayed very professional and brief. Lois had the feeling he was trying hard to give her some space, which was either the first or last thing she wanted. She supposed the fact that she couldn't decide which it was probably meant he was right.

And Richard hadn't been making things any easier by somehow managing to both give her space to sort out her feelings and lavishing attention on her. How was it possible to have two wonderful men looking out for her, even when she didn't know what the hell she was doing?

In a burst of impulsive frustration, Lois snatched her notepad off her desk and scratched out the headline she had written down. She closed her eyes for a moment to regain her focus.

"Lois?"

The tentative address caused her to open her eyes and look up to see Clark. His lanky form towered over the desk and he was holding a cup of Starbucks coffee. "Hey," she replied, scooting towards her desk to get back to her computer. She preferred the old-fashioned way, but at least this had spell-check.

"Another hectic day," Clark commented.

"Yeah." She had logged on and opened a text file, but he was still standing there, silently. Lois slowly turned her head up towards him, giving him a questioning look. He smiled timidly but said nothing. Lord, he could be so awkward. "Did you need something, Clark?" she prompted, in a tone she hoped was friendly.

"Ah, no, I just…" he thrust the coffee cup towards her. "Here."

"Oh," she was surprised. "You don't want that?"

"It's for you. Non-fat latté with cinnamon… I don't know if it's still your favorite, but I thought you'd take it anyway, seeing how tired you look," he rambled.

Lois took the cup from him, genuinely surprised and grateful. "Thanks," she said, taking a sip. This was just what she needed. "It is still my favorite. How on earth did you remember that, though?"

Clark shrugged and shifted his weight. "You must have drank a thousand of those when we used to work together."

Lois thought that estimate might be a little low, but he had a point. Still, she didn't remember a single thing Clark had liked to drink. "Well, I appreciate it," she said with a smile.

He adjusted the side of his glasses in that nervous way he did. "Good. You always seem too busy to go out for coffee so I just though I'd bring some to you."

Lois felt a pang of guilt. She had been busy, but not too busy for coffee and a chat. He just kept asking her if she wanted to catch up and she kept finding excuses not to. There was a lot on her mind right now, and she didn't feel up to hearing about Clark's extended vacation.

Clark cleared his throat. "Well, I don't want to keep you from your story." He turned and started walking back towards his desk across the room. Lois guessed he'd given up on trying to have that chat.

After a moment's hesitation, Lois shot out of her chair and strode after him. "Hey Clark, wait," she said, getting him to stop and turn around.

"Do you need something else?" he asked. "Because I don't have a lot to do. I could go-"

"No," she cut him off. "I just realized I'm ahead of my deadline for once. And I was wondering if you wanted to go have lunch, get caught up, tell me about your trip…"

His eyes lit up. "Sure!" he replied enthusiastically. "That'd be great. I mean, as long as you're sure you don't need to stay here."

Lois smiled and shook her head. "Nope. I'm all yours, Smallville."

She had already turned and headed for the door, missing the way Clark's jaw tightened at her comment.

"Sheep heart and lungs," Lois said skeptically.

Clark nodded. "Well, cooked, obviously… in a sheep's bladder."

Lois made a face. "Not exactly my idea of fine dining." She made a mental note to never, ever touch this haggis stuff if she was in Scotland.

"Actually, it was pretty good," he insisted, "Kind of like a sausage, only with some oats rolled in…"

"Ok, I regret asking that question," she replied, taking a bite of her eggplant sandwich, delighted that it was completely free of farm animal organs. Clark was watching her, a small smile on his face. He kept doing that every time he thought she was too distracted by something else to notice. But she definitely noticed. She went on chewing quietly, trying to pretend she didn't.

"Water?" the waitress asked, appearing suddenly at the table.

"Yes, please," Clark said, sliding his glass over to her. She filled it up and handed it back. "Thank you," he replied, ever polite. Lois waved that she didn't need any more water and the waitress went to her next table, leaving them in a sinking silence.

Lois needed something to talk about before this became more uneasy than it already was. It wasn't that she disliked Clark. He was a nice guy, extremely well-mannered, like a Gregory Peck character who had stepped right out of the 1940s. Her grandmother probably would have loved him.

"What was the most dangerous place you went?" she asked, having finally found a question she felt was safe to ask without too much risk of a strange answer.

Clark finished swallowing a bite of his sandwich, thinking on his reply. "Probably Uganda," he said. "There's this fanatic military group there, the Lord's Resistance Army, that kidnaps children and enlists them as soldiers." He frowned. "Not a nice thing to see."

"No, I image not," Lois replied gravely. Then a thought occurred to her. "Clark, how many countries have you been to now?"

"I don't know. A lot." He licked some sauce off his thumb, and Lois tried not to cringe. So much for manners. "I got to every continent, except Antarctica of course. It's a little too cold," he said with a smile.

"You know," she began, "you should talk to Richard about doing some work in the international section for him. Finding good reporters who know anything going on outside Metropolis is hard."

Clark chewed his food rather slowly. "Sure. You're right, that's a good idea." He gave what appeared to be a rather forced smile.

"Hey!" a voice called from across the restaurant. Lois and Clark both looked to see that Richard had entered, right on cue. As Richard approached the table, Clark gave him a sidelong glance while dabbing his face with his napkin.

But Lois couldn't have been more happy to see him. "Richard, fancy seeing you here."

"Same to you," he replied, smiling down at her. To both of them, he said, "I was just walking by to go down to Starbucks when I saw you guys in the window. All right if I sit down?" the question was really only aimed at Clark. Both Lois and Richard looked at him.

"Absolutely," he said, with a bit too much mustered enthusiasm.

Richard and Lois exchanged glances as he sat down beside her. "Clark was just telling me all about his travels," she explained.

"I heard about that," Richard said, nodding. "Five years? That must have been some trip."

"It was," Clark replied. "I used up a lot of my savings on it, too, so it's a lucky thing I got my job back. I really missed the Planet and…and everyone. Perry and Lois and Jimmy and just…everyone." Clark's eyes fell back to his plate as he took another bite of his sandwich.

Lois jumped in before the dreaded awkward silence could creep back in. "Clark is interested in doing some international pieces," she told Richard. He perked up at the idea.

"That would be great," he acknowledged. "It's been a tough road getting it back into shape, and we could use someone with field experience."

"Well, I don't know that I'd call it-" Clark began, only to be cut off by Lois.

"And Clark really does have a gift for words." On paper, anyway, she thought. Almost unconsciously, Lois took Richard's hand and started drawing circles on it with her thumb. It was a comforting gesture that was almost second nature with Richard at this point. He smiled at her sweetly, then turned to Clark.

"Yeah, I'll see what I might have for you when we get back to the Planet," Richard said.

Clark set what remained of his sandwich down. "That's very nice of you," he said graciously, before pausing for a moment. "Pardon me," he said, standing. "I need to go use the restroom." He pushed in his chair neatly, and headed for the men's room.

When she was sure Clark was out of earshot, Lois heaved a huge sigh. "Oh, God, Richard, please save me."

"That bad?" he asked, chuckling a little.

"He's a really nice guy, but I can't believe he still has that schoolboy crush on me."

"Yeah, I'd noticed that," Richard replied, much more amused than aggravated.

Lois rubbed her forehead with her free hand. "It's not exactly a state secret. I'm just surprised that after so long…"

Richard tilted her chin up and smiled at her. "Well, you're Lois Lane. Can you blame a guy for falling hard for you?"

She returned his smile, feeling a surge of affection, and leaned in to kiss him lightly on the lips. When they parted, she sat back in her seat, and he let go of her hand. "It's just that from the way he acts, you'd think we had been in some sort of serious relationship instead of on one date."

Richard's brow furrowed in confusion. He acted as though he hadn't heard right. "Wait… did you say a date?"

Lois groaned, regretting that she had mentioned that. She felt like it was something Richard could now tease her about endlessly. "It was when he first started working at the Planet," she explained. "I hardly knew him, he asked me out, and I said yes. I was trying to be nice."

"What happened?" Richard asked, leaning forward onto the table. Lois got the sense he was enjoying this too much.

"Nothing," Lois replied coolly, giving him a hard stare that said she was not nearly as amused as he. "I don't even remember where we went. After all, it was-". She stopped herself short of saying 'the first night I interviewed Superman'. That part, she definitely remembered. "It was a long time ago," she finished.

"Well, judging by the way he follows you around the Planet like a lost puppy, I'd say that's not how he sees it."

Lois sighed. "To be fair, we did use to be partners. We worked on a lot of stories together. I don't blame him for wanting to catch up. And he's always had a crush on me, but I've just been able to ignore it. Since he got back, though, he's just seemed… different."

Richard paused, his expression turning serious. "You want me to talk to him?"

Lois thought about it for a moment as she took another bite of her sandwich. Maybe it would be best to just get things out in the open, as uncomfortable as that kind of conversation would be… She glanced towards the restroom, but saw that Clark had still not returned. "No," she started slowly, looking back at Richard. "That would probably just make things worse. And it's not like he's dangerous or something. I could have much worse admirers. Actually, I probably do."

"You're right. But let me know if Clark gets out of hand and you need me to beat him up for you." He winked, then leaned over to give her a longer kiss.

Just as they were pulling apart, a voice from across the table them spoke up. "Ah…" Lois pulled back and looked up to see Clark standing with his hands in his pockets, looking extremely ill at ease.

"I remembered that I have an interview with the head of the water processing plant at 1:30," Clark said, rather quickly. "I thought it was 2:30 but I just remembered that he changed it to an hour earlier, so, um…" he pulled out his wallet and took several bills out, laying them on the table. "Hopefully that's enough for all of us. You too, Richard, if you want something."

"You don't have to…" Lois started.

"It's ok. My treat," Clark replied, He seemed like he was trying to avoid making eye contact with Lois, but that proved impossible. It was like his eyes were magnetically drawn towards her. He glanced at her for a moment, then looked away. "See you both later, then," he said, turning promptly for the door. He nearly tripped over a chair, and Lois almost thought she heard him curse under his breath as he pushed it in then continued on his way.

"Hey, wait, your change…" Richard tried to tell him, but Clark was already out the door and headed for the sidewalk.

Richard turned back to Lois. "Ok, that was weird," he admitted.

"That's Clark. He always does that," she replied.

"Tripping over things or bolting in the middle of a conversation?"

"Both, actually," Lois said, taking a sip of her water.

Richard glanced out the window, eyeing Clark as he disappeared into the crowd on the sidewalk. "You don't think he heard any of what we said, do you?" he asked, concerned.

She hoped not. There were some things that had to be said but couldn't be said to a person's face. Yet now she felt a little guilty. Clark seemed to take everything she said to heart, and she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"No," she replied slowly. "I don't think he heard us. How could he?"