Chapter 11 - Pancake
"Fine, I guess we have been getting a lot of strange looks with you in that get up." She walked over to the door. "Let's just get out of here. I'm starving."
Lois stared at her stack of strawberry syrup coated pancakes, then at the food that wasn't in front of him, then up at his face. He knew he was staring at her. He knew it was making her uncomfortable, but he couldn't find it within himself to stop.
"You going to eat something?" She asked hopefully.
"I love you," The words slipped carelessly out of his mouth, without thought or warning.
Lois' eyes widened and her cheeks took on a slight flush. She then shoved a giant helping of pancake into her mouth, and proceeded to look at all the lovely posters hanging in the IHoP. Before she could even finish chewing her first bite, she shoved another giant wedge in her mouth. Lois loved pancakes, they were one of her favorite comfort foods, which had prompted the decision to bring her here, but she didn't love them that much.
"Lois, you cannot keep your mouth full forever."
"Oh yes I can!" she said with her mouth still extraordinarily full, so it came out more like 'aw yesh ah cahn!'
"I've seen you try it before," he told her as he felt a smile curve onto his lips, "it didn't work then, it won't work now."
Lois looked slightly confused, "When did that happen?" she asked with a still too full mouth.
"At work, when I asked you what you thought of Mandy," He grinned widely remembering that day. "You shoved everything on your desk, and mine, that could possibly be viewed as edible into your mouth." He chuckled slightly, "I think you ate my eraser."
Lois made a weird gulping sound as a very panicked look formed on her face. Faster then the eye could see, he was behind her and gently patted her on the back. Crumbles of pancake were coughed up onto her napkin. Not one to be daunted by a small thing like choking, Lois looked up at him.
"I ate an eraser?!" She asked.
"Yes," He moved to sit down across from her once more, "and you still had to tell me what you thought of Mandy."
"That bad huh? You must have really liked that Mandy girl for me to avoid telling you like that..."
"Well, no actually," he felt sheepish admitting this to her and absently scratched the back of his head. "I liked you," he muttered so low he hoped, for reasons he couldn't comprehend, she could not hear then spoke up again. "And you where always talking about guys to me, like I was you best girl pal or something, I hoped maybe talking about girl with you would... well, if nothing else, get you to stop."
Lois looked down right dumbstruck, with her jaw hanging slightly. He was quite thankful she hadn't begun eating again. He really didn't want to have to preform the Heimlich maneuver.
"And that worked?!" She demanded.
"Well we did get married." He said with a smart grin, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
Lois shifted uncomfortably again. Her eyes returned to her stack of pancakes and she cut herself off an reasonable bite this time, thank goodness.
"I meant it." He couldn't help himself, she might not feel the same way now but he couldn't hide his feelings, and even before he had really allowed himself to recognize her, he had done a poor job of it. "I really love you Lois Lane. Don't worry, you don't have to say anything."
And she didn't. Lois just stared down at her plate eating in total silence. Uncomfortable wasn't exactly the word... tense silence seemed a better descriptor. He wasn't sure what to say now, and Lois seemed to be at a similar loss, both waiting for the other to speak. He knew it wouldn't be too long. He had the advantage. 37 years of life in the arctic with little to do but wait for the world to need him had caused him to grow accustomed to tense silences.
"So... we worked together?" she finally spoke but still didn't look up at him. "You said our desks so..."
"Yeah, we worked side-by-side," he smiled at her, trying for his best reassuring look but since she still refused to meet his gaze it was lost.
"Guess I didn't make it then," she sighed.
"What?" Now he was quite lost.
"As a reporter, I mean." He wanted to laugh at that but she sounded rather upset so...
"Lois you made it," He reassured her. "All the way to top reporter at the Daily Planet. I was lucky to be your partner."
Lois looked at him now. Her eyebrows raised in disbelief, as if he had told her pink elephants had rained down on Metropolis.
"Look Smallville," Lois said in an annoyed tone."I've believed a lot of insane stuff up to this point. You being a flying alien not being low on that list, but you... a reporter at the Daily Planet? Please." she rolled her eyes before adding, "Don't push your luck."
He was glad that he wasn't eating just then, because he would have been the one choking. As it was he managed an almost strangled chuckle.
"Lois," he said through bouts of chuckles, "It couldn't be that long since you would have said you being at the Daily Planet was the impossible part of the story."
Lois huffed as he begin to really laugh.
"Fine, point taken. You can stop laughing now."
"No I can't." It was simply the truth but Lois looked less then pleased by it.
Her face tightened into a scowl as she spoke: "Fine laugh it up, Lois and her pathetic journalism career are hilarious." That got him to stop. It felt like a sharp slap to the face from Doomsday. Sure he would tease her but he would never...
"Lois, I'm not-"
"So the Inquisitor isn't the Daily Planet, or even the Herald, but it's something! And while chasing after chupacabras may not be the most dignified work, My name is in print! I named the Green Arrow!"
"Lois-"
"I have worked hard and you can make fun of me all you want but I found that fighting-"
"Lois!" that got her attention.
"What?" she still looked steamed.
"I wasn't making fun of you." he said sincerely, "I wasn't laughing at you." She still looked... well... less then convinced; if this wasn't going to end up a disaster he would have to do some quick talking. "Really I wasn't! At least not in that way... I was laughing because... you make me happy," He reached out and grasped her left hand, "Just being around you, and what you said it reminded me a lot of something you've said before, when we met up again at the Daily Planet."
Lois stared down and bit her lip. She was very openly nervous, "Smallville," she began with a somewhat pained voice.
His first thought was to confess just how much he loved it when she called him that, but looking at her face he knew it would be a bad idea. Lois wasn't in the mood to hear it. "Yeah... I know." He stopped her before she could continue. He didn't need to hear another 'letting him down gently' speech. He let go of her hand, feeling slightly pained at the absence of it's warmth.
Lois tried and failed to hold a smile. "Well," she said simply.
"Well," he replied in turn.
His immunity to the awkwardness of the situation seemed to have run out because the silence was becoming painful to his ears. He searched through his memories of their conversation, trying to find some point to return to that was less tense. Of course since he was trying to find something else it was all he could think of, but thinking of all the tension between them was not entirely unpleasant.
"So..."
He began to feel guilty for the amount of times he had reduced Lois to this state today. If only he knew what she knew he could have a jumping off point... He cursed himself for not thinking of that two 'umms' ago.
"So, when exactly are you from?" Well that was down right eloquent.
"What?" Lois looked slightly confused but before he could explain what he had meant the clouds of confusion parted from her face. "Oh! Right," she sounded ready to laugh at herself. "Well lets see... yesterday was Tuesday the... 19th of April." She reasoned out, "Oh! Two-thousand-seven. You think, with this being the year twenty-one-eleven, I'd remember to put that first." He was about to tell her that it was understandable but she continued, "Everything is so weird and different, and I have no idea what is going on. But it's like... it's like... well I know you. In fact, you're the only thing I know here." She looked straight into his eyes then, and he could swear she saw deep into his soul. "Your the only thing that makes any sense, so when you're around I keep forgetting how crazy it is... I guess that really doesn't make that much sense either, just forget it." Except that it made perfect sense to him, because it basically summed up his feelings.
"No, it does. I know exactly how you feel," he confessed slowly. She raised a brow slowly. "Well maybe not exactly... but I get it, I do." He smiled at her perhaps a little too hopefully because Lois looked away from his face again.
"So April," He tried restarting the conversation he had intended to begin. "Hundred and four years ago in April.." He tried to think of what exactly had and had not happened by then but his mind seemed stuck on the slight flush that he could have sworn Lois had worn when he smiled.
"Right," Lois seemed to grasp his problem, "well lets see... Big memorable events." He stopped himself from saying that he remembered every moment of his life with her. "You, me, and a Cage Match to the death?" She broke out into a grin then and chuckled lightly. "Sounds a lot funnier then it was."
He smiled back, "You're right, it does." So she remembered fighting Titan together. That meant that Oliver was history, and had been for months within her mind. There was a great amount of satisfaction within that thought. She may not love him back yet but he had no competition within her heart.
"That was about a week ago. I showed you the article I wrote. You looked like you were trying really hard not to laugh." She had sounded very casual until the end when a very accusing tone formed in her voice.
Thinking back he knew she was right. He had been trying very hard not to laugh. It wasn't her article in and of itself, that had actually been really good. I was just an article, in The Inquisitor, without a single mention of aliens that had actually been all about aliens. Well, an alien. He hadn't actually been mentioned in the article, for which he was highly thankful.
"Please, Lois-" that's when he heard them. People were screaming, crying out in pain and fear. He jumped up out of his seat and drew his briefcase to him. "I have to go. I uhh... I need..."
"To put on the crazy suit and fly somewhere?" Lois stood up, seeming unsurprised.
"Yeah..." He felt really stupid. He had been so caught up in the past. He had subconsciously started listening for emergencies like he did then, and was even going to spit out some pathetic lie about leaving the oven on or something.
"Okay. Let's just put down some money and we can get out of here."
"No, Lois, we aren't going anywhere." Lois now looked quite confused.
"But you..."
"I'm going, alone. It's too dangerous, I'm not taking you." At that Lois looked down right pissed.
"You don't need to wor-"
"This isn't a discussion, I don't have time." With that he left all the money he had on the table and was out the door before anyone could blink. Within a few seconds he was changed and in the air headed for danger.
