"How are you feeling now?" Clark asked as he opened the door to the farmhouse a little later that evening.
"Hmm? Oh I'm fine." she replied distractedly. Clark watched her carefully, she seemed to be looking for something as she walked into the kitchen. Her eyes fell on the stairs and her expression darkened for a moment. But by the time she turned around to face him, she was smiling again.
"So…what exactly happened here earlier?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, swallowing hard as she sauntered up to him, and laid her hands on his chest.
"We kissed. What was that about?"
Standing this close to her, smelling her perfume, was seriously making it hard for him to think let alone speak. The buzz that he'd felt in the barn with her earlier, was still there, and if possible, it was getting stronger. He bunched his hands into fists at his sides to keep from wrapping them around her waist. "Uh, well, it was…I don't know Lois. It just sort of…happened."
"Just like that? There was no motivation on your part?" she asked, and he could swear she was smirking at him. Was she teasing him?
He rolled his eyes and stepped back. "Well of course there was. I wanted to kiss you, Lois and from what I remember, you wanted it just as much."
"Really? Well, I seem to have forgotten all about it, so…how about a little action replay?"
Her eyes locked onto his and as she zeroed in on her target, Clark lost the ability to think. Her lips attacked his and he responded, drawing her body flush up against his as he fell back against the kitchen sink. What was it about Lois that made him forget to think? To breathe?
He gently cupped the back of her head, but his kiss matched hers in its intensity. He'd never felt anything like this before. She was turning his world upside down and he suspected she knew it too. There was a fire in her kiss that hadn't been there before.
Before it had been sweet, tender, passionate but full of emotion. This kiss, it was…something else entirely. Desire and longing crawled its way into his body, making it tighten in response to her. What was she doing to him?
"Lois…" he said, his breathing heavy as he broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers. "We should stop."
"Why? Don't you like it?" He was pleased to note that her breathing was also fast.
"Of course I do, its not that. I just think maybe…we're moving too fast."
She winked at him. "There's no such thing Smallville. It's obvious you like me, and I like you. What's the point in wasting time discussing it?"
"But when did this happen? You can't stand me."
"Don't be so sure Smallville." She swatted his chest playfully as she turned and sat down at the counter in the middle of the kitchen. Clark stayed where he was, unable to move for a moment until he'd calmed himself down.
"See this is your problem Clark, you think way too much. First it was with Lana, and now it's with me. Do you ever do anything spontaneous?"
His brows rose. "Spontaneous?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "Yes, you know, throw caution to the wind, never look back…fun?"
Clark bristled a little at that. "Yes."
"Really? Like what? And tipping cows doesn't count." she laughed.
"I've done spontaneous things." he said, very aware that his tone had become defensive.
She folded her arms and sent him a challenging look. "Okay, name one."
"Well…I…uh…" He frowned, trying to remember something, anything he could tell her. Unfortunately, the only spontaneous things he had ever done was when he'd been on red kryptonite. Although, he probably could tell her, he just didn't need to mention the red k.
"Can't come up with anything can ya?" she smirked.
Okay, that was really beginning to irritate him. What was she so smug about anyway? And how could she be so calm after that kiss? It was all he could do not to grab her right now and plant another one on her. He dug his fingers into the wood of the counter behind him, not even caring right now that he was splintering the wood.
"It's not your fault you've led a sheltered life Smallville. But…"
That was it, enough was enough. He couldn't take anymore of her teasing, because while she talked, she was slowly but purposefully shifting in her seat, making her already too short skirt ride up a little more. The exposed creaminess of her skin, combined with her constant jabs were taking their toll and Clark finally snapped.
"A couple of years ago, you and I did something rather spontaneous…"
He had the brief satisfaction of seeing her eyes widen for a second, before she regained her composure. Why did she always have to goad him into revealing things that were better left buried? What did Lois Lane have that made him want to impress her so much?
Because he now knew that's what it was. He'd never had to impress anyone before, but Lois, she had always seen him as a geeky farm boy and he really wanted to change that image. He was going to have to, if he had any chance at all with her.
"What exactly do you mean by spontaneous?" she asked, her expression sobering a little now.
"Well, let's just say that we…had a great time together." he replied, starting to regret his sudden outburst now. There was no way he was going to be able to back track on this, he would have to tell her what happened between them.
She scoffed. "Don't you think I would remember if we'd done…anything like that?"
Then her jaw dropped. "You're not talking about Valentine's Day are you? Because if you are, I'm going to start swinging. You told me nothing happened!"
Shoot, he'd forgotten about that. Now what? "Uh, nothing did happen. But something almost happened."
She abruptly got off her stool and smacked him in the chest. "Why wouldn't you tell me about something like that?"
"Because you were so freaked out by the idea, so I thought as long as you didn't remember, it would be kinder to let you think nothing happened."
That seemed to do the trick, she still glared at him, but she seemed to calm down and then returned to her seat. "So come on, spill it. I want to know."
"We just…kissed, mostly." he replied, feeling his face heat up, and wishing he could start this day over. He seemed to have caught Lois' foot in mouth disease today and he still had no idea why she'd taken off earlier when she'd said she would stay one more night.
"Mostly? Oh there's more to it than that. I can see it on your face."
"We almost…look does it matter? It was in the past and that's where it should stay. Nothing else happened and…"
"So why didn't we?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Why didn't we do it?"
Blinking at her candidness, Clark faltered for a second. "Because uh, I got sidetracked by something else."
Lois rolled her eyes. "Or someone else. I remember that party we gate crashed, I remember looking like a total idiot in that outfit. And I remember being jilted."
"I'm sorry…" he started, but she huffed and got up again.
"See, there you go again! Stop apologising Clark, I can handle the truth, I'm a big girl."
"You're not mad?" he asked, surprised.
"Nope, not really. But next time, don't keep all the juicy details from me, deal?" She moved over to him, throwing him a wink along the way and Clark was right back to being confused.
He frowned. Juicy, really? "Deal." Wait, did she say next time?
"Okay, so I guess that's one spontaneous thing you've done. What else?"
Clark smiled at her, marvelling at how easily she just shrugged things off. He wasn't used to that. He was used to having to explain a thousand times, then apologise a thousand times more. But Lois was different, she didn't need him to do that.
"I've got one." she said, a wicked smile on her face.
"Oh you do?" he asked, eyebrows raised in amusement for what she was about to say.
"Mm-hmm. This." She grabbed his head and kissed him again, and this time, he didn't fight it. He wrapped himself around her, and lost himself in her kiss.
Back in Metropolis, Lois was freaking out. She sat on her bed, clutching her phone in her hand and keeping her eyes peeled. She almost shrieked out loud when she heard a bang on her apartment door.
"Lois? It's me, open up." Oliver's voice yelled, muffled through the door.
Breathing a huge sigh of relief, Lois lunged off her bed and out into the living room, where she threw open the door and launched herself into his arms.
"Thank God you're here. I was freaking out!"
Oliver put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back so that he could take a look at her. What he saw, he didn't like. She was terrified, shaking and shivering. He guided her over to the sofa and sat down with her.
"What happened Lois?"
"I came home, and I found some things were missing. Mostly clothes from my closet and some of my jewellery. Someone was in here Ollie, in my home."
"Hey, it's okay. You're safe," he said comfortingly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. This was not like Lois at all. Okay sure, if she'd had an intruder, she'd be scared, but not this badly. This was a side of her he'd never seen before and he'd known her for years.
"What if they come back? I don't want to be here by myself." she sniffled.
Was she crying? That sent alarm bells ringing in his head. He glanced at the band-aid on her forehead and remembered she'd taken a pretty hard knock to her head a couple of days ago. Maybe this was part of that. He didn't know and he was a little confused as to what to do about it too.
"Okay, get some things together, you're staying with me tonight." he said.
"Really?"
"Yes, I won't leave you here alone when you're obviously…afraid." He hesitated to use that word, fearing a lashing retort, and was even more surprised when one didn't come.
Instead she just nodded. "Okay, thanks. I really appreciate this Ollie. I'm sorry to call you like this."
"No problem, isn't that what friends are for? You know you can always call me Lois."
She smiled gratefully and kissed him on the cheek, then headed into her bedroom.
"So how come you're not at the farm? I thought you were staying with Clark." he said, standing in the open doorway and watching as she grabbed a small overnight bag and started packing it.
"That didn't work out. And I really don't want to talk about it, please."
Whoa, touchy subject there. "Okay, sorry. Are you ready?"
She finished zipping the bag and glanced around the room again, her eyes landing on her closet. Whatever had happened here, it had seriously freaked her out. And that was enough for Oliver. He took her bag for her and they walked out of the apartment.
While he waited for her to lock up, he quickly sent a message to Clark. "Dude, what is going on with Lois? She's not acting like herself. Something's wrong. Get back to me ASAP!"He didn't get a reply, so he pocketed his phone and turned to Lois.
"Thanks again Ollie, I don't know how this could've happened. I always lock my door." she said, walking beside him.
She appeared to be a little calmer now, which Oliver was relieved to see. But he made a mental note to talk to Clark as soon as possible. Something had obviously happened at the farm, and if Lois was not willing to talk about it, it must've been bad.
"Come on, let's get you back to my place, I'll call the police, then we'll figure out what to do in the morning. It's late, you need to rest."
