PART ONE (FRIENDS), CHAPTER THIRTEEN

For several moments, she almost believed that she'd misheard him, but the staid expression he maintained soon convinced her that she hadn't. Taken aback, she shifted her stance and tried more than once to form a response. But no words came.

After pausing long enough to clear her throat and re-collect herself, though, Lois did finally manage to squeak a question past her lips. "Exactly how, uh, 'divine' are we talking?"

Clark answered her as directly and concisely as possible. When he finished, she could only shake her head, take a few aimless steps in one direction, and then find the nearest seat. Once settled, she asked him to repeat himself word for word.

Obliging her request, Clark began again, saying, "Diana was never conceived. She was never born. She was never human. Her body was molded from the four elements of Paradise Isle. Her being was sparked and sanctified by the only medium between her world and its celestial plane. Her powers were bestowed by the pantheon that occupies that beyond. She is High Priest, High Champion of Themyscira… And she is heir apparent to the throne."

Lois sat in silence for a few more moments, soon musing aloud, "But all that time you said you spent with her mom… Hippolyta's not just that, then. She's…"

"The queen."

"The goddess queen?"

"Yes," replied Clark, joining Lois on the chaise longue where she was sitting. "As Hippolyta's successor, Diana will be deified herself someday. She'll be endowed with the ability to create and restore life. She'll be granted absolute authority over the elements. She'll become the medium that her mother is now. It's her calling, her destiny. But Hippolyta won't transcend their plane and Diana won't take her place until the last known patriarchal orders in the universe, this world especially, are set right."

Taking her gaze from Clark's, Lois stared off at nothing for a long while. Eventually, something occurred to her and she asked, "Why am I starting to think it's no coincidence that she's exactly as strong as you are?"

Clark acknowledged that the seeming extent of Diana's abilities was indeed by design. "She says that I'm perceived as a, um… a 'masculine ideal,'" he continued, recalling a late-night conversation he'd shared with his best man as they'd drifted along an enchanted river. "And she says that my influence puts me in a position to redefine that ideal, to change the way people relate to each other and to ultimately change the way this world works. That's why she presents herself as my equal; no more, no less. But in truth, she's… I mean, the way she tells it, no higher being is all-knowing or all-powerful; they have strengths, weaknesses, limitations. Still, the very nature of her existence means that she holds sway over the kinds of forces that mortals, even meta-humans and meta-everything-elses, never so much as tap into."

Glancing over at him, Lois asked, "She could wipe the floor with your superpowered ass, is what you're getting at?"

"Pretty much."

With a long exhale, Lois leaned back into the chaise, crossing her arms and legs. Clark sat with her in silence for several subsequent minutes, waiting as she reflected on the woman at issue.

He had known Diana for only an evening before he told Lois of his desire to introduce his now-best man to both her and his mother. The following weekend, Lois found herself lunching at the Kent farm, closely observing the four others with whom she was in company. As she'd expected, Martha was warm and welcoming toward her son's new acquaintance. And as she'd expected, her now-maid of honor occupied himself chiefly with engaging herself and their host. What she hadn't anticipated, though, was Clark and Diana's obvious and open captivation with one another.

The second Bruce and Diana, who'd arrived together, departed, Clark asked Lois and Martha about their impressions of the latter guest. The two women shared just one glance in response to his eager inquiries. Neither of them had seen or heard anything from Diana that gave them pause about his rapidly developing relationship with her. And as Bruce, whose judge of character they knew to be astute, had long maintained ties with her, they felt confident in granting Clark their respective approvals. Clark, of course, was thrilled.

Unlike Martha, however, Lois declined saying anything more of her personal opinion of Diana. It was enough for her that Clark's affection for Diana seemed both mutual and constructive. Beyond that, she'd been content to keep to herself the thoughts that he surely would've found discouraging.

The reconsideration of those unspoken thoughts, supposed Clark, were the focus of Lois's present ruminations. However, as time went by, he saw in his intended's expression not an increasing sense of understanding but a diminishing sense of tolerance. Confused, he leaned forward, placed a hand on her restless knee, and asked her what was on her mind.

"I'm wondering whether Princess Di has let Stevie in on all this," replied Lois, her voice tight, her eyes still forward.

"Of course she has," said Clark, despite being all the more perplexed by her response. "They've been together for the better part of twenty years. Stevie's the only person besides me who Diana's taken home with her."

"Was there a timetable or something to her telling her?"

"I doubt it. I sort of get the impression she told her early on."

"Does Stevie being born sans joystick have anything to do with that?"

Slowly, Clark asked, "Why would it? She's a part of Diana's life; that's why she knows. But I don't understand what you're getting at."

"I'm trying to figure out why Her Highness hasn't explained all this to the person at the other end of her romantic spectrum," said Lois, turning to look pointedly at Clark. "I mean, the woman's a god, a freakin' god, in all but name; that's kind of a lot, don't get me wrong. But I've yet to hear that she's, like, forbidden from owning up to what she is. And if that means that the decision to divulge is ultimately hers, then I gotta ask: Why hasn't she told Bruce?"

Clark paused, regretting his assumptions about the line of Lois's thinking. As he perhaps should've anticipated, she didn't regard herself as someone materially affected by what she'd just learned. And as a result, she couldn't but concern herself more with the predicament of another than with her own views and sentiments. He admired that about her - that selflessness, that compassion that he regretted failing to recognize for so many years. Nonetheless, he also knew those qualities inspired in her not only tenderness, and he accordingly braced himself as he reluctantly replied to her question.

"What the hell kind of a reason is that?!" shouted Lois, leaping to her feet upon hearing him. "'Because Bruce wants to know'?! Are you kidding me? Please, tell me you're just making a very unfunny joke. Please, tell me she's not putting him through the wringer just because -"

Clark stood up likewise and, hoping to head off her rant, interrupted her. "- That's just it, though," he calmly insisted. "In her mind, he's doing all of this to himself."

"How exactly? By giving a damn about her in the first place?"

With a sigh, he answered, "By asking for exactly what she's always told him to never expect."

"Things change!" countered Lois, storming off to the other side of the sitting room. "Five years! Five years! Do I have to go over this again? Time equals expectation - Actually, screw that! It equals obligation! Once you pass a certain point with someone, you owe it to them to come clean about anything and everything that matters. How you feel. Where you stand. Who you are! Am I the only person who believes that? That you can't just jerk people around? That you can't just shirk responsibility for the feelings you let them stay involved with you long enough to develop? That leaving someone up an emotional creek without a paddle is just wrong?!"

Worried by her dismay, Clark stepped into the distance she'd put between them and gently said, "Sweetheart -"

"- Do not 'Sweetheart' me. Not about this."

He halted his forward movement in acknowledgment of her demand. She assumed her characteristic stance of indignation, but didn't say anything more; she was at least willing to hear him out about the reasoning she couldn't at all understand. He availed himself of her restraint for the next minute or so, explaining as best he could why the point of contention between Bruce and Diana did indeed come down to the issue of want. By the time he finished, Lois's entire posture had changed. Her anger had become dejection.

She didn't respond for a long while. She simply stood in silence, hardly moving. When at last she started to speak again, Clark instinctively approached her, only then noticing how wrenched his insides had become as he'd watched her for the past several minutes.

"I can't even imagine what this must be doing to him," she said, her voice quiet and distant. "I mean, to have so much history with someone, to know that whatever problems you have come down to the things you don't know, and to have that someone still refuse to tell you the most basic things - that'd tear me apart. I'd resent myself for staying. I'd resent the person I was with for not letting me go. And it wouldn't matter if I got the truth eventually; I'd never let myself forgive someone for so totally screwing me over and screwing me up in the first place… It's like The General always says: 'You can't build a house on a foundation made of bull, 'cause you'll never escape the smell of shit.'"

As Clark reached the space directly in front of Lois, he replied with regret that he could indeed relate.

She wryly scoffed and, cocking her head at him, grabbed his tie to tug him down to her eyelevel. "You were a needy, naïve teenager too blinded by your own issues to see that you really, really should've cut that poor girl loose," she told him, her gaze fixed on his. "You were not a full-grown adult with thousands of years worth of relationship experience with men, women, and everything-in-betweens from all across the universe."

"…Doesn't excuse my selfishness, my mistakes. Doesn't excuse what I put her through… what I put you through."

"You're right, it doesn't," Lois matter-of-factly replied. "Once upon a time, though, that twenty-twenty hindsight of yours wasn't anywhere near as clear. Fortunately for you and me, you got it fixed before we made it to the point where I was asking and you weren't telling. Otherwise…"

She trailed off, letting Clark draw the conclusion for himself. He gave her a look of understanding and, after a few moments' silence, extended his arms halfway around her back. She let go of his tie and accepted his gesture, closing the remaining distance between them.

Her eyes closed, she relaxed into the comfort of his embrace. He rubbed her back, stroked her hair, and, without a word, conveyed his consolations for her maid of honor's predicament. She drew in a breath, held it for as long as she could, and then exhaled in resignation. As much as she wanted to help, she was in no position to at present. There was, therefore, nothing for her to do but to accept matters in their broken state.

"Things aren't all that bad, Lois," whispered Clark, discerning her thoughts from the inflection of her sigh. "Diana went a very long time giving only so much of herself to this world. But she's invited me into her home, her life. And in a way, she's doing the same thing with you. So just give her time. I think she'll come around with Bruce sooner or later."

Hesitantly, Lois asked, "Really? You're not just saying that?"

"I'm not just saying that."

Welcoming his assurance, she stretched up farther onto her toes and squeezed him tighter. He reciprocated, holding her more snugly until she eventually began to let him go. Upon lowering herself back onto the carpet, she absently said, "You know, if you're right, then someone ought to light a fire under her ass. She may have forever, but he doesn't."

Clark smiled a bit at her remark as he lifted his hands to cradle and caress her cheeks. "Something tells me fire wouldn't do the trick."

"What with her ass being made out of it?"

Chuckling, he replied, "Is that humor I'm hearing, Ms. Lane? Because an average man might take it to mean you're feeling a little better."

"And what would a super man suppose?"

"Not a thing. He'd remember his dad telling him that a gentleman compliments a woman by trying to understand her mind and that he respects her by never presuming to know it."

A smile stretching across her lips, Lois said, "Wow. Pa Kent really was a lady-killer, huh?"

"Mom always says so," returned Clark, happy to see his betrothed finally cheering up. "All joking aside, though… How are you?"

"Better."

"Good," he sighed, beaming.

Amused by his pronounced response, Lois lightly laughed, "Why so relieved?"

"Why else? There's this sort of important thing going on all around us. And I'm positive that what your maid of honor and my best man want more than anything is for you and me to leave their issues to them and to focus our energies on us, on enjoying our occasion."

Lois regarded him in silence for a long moment. After which, she glanced down at the time on his wristwatch and then behind him at the proximity of her bedroom. "Focus on us, huh?" she asked, her tone dark and meaning distinct as she returned her gaze to his. "…I can do that."

Author's Note: This concludes PART ONE, FRIENDS. Thanks so much to everyone who's made it this far and especially to all those who've been commenting.

For anyone concerned about Diana and Clark, allow me to say I've always considered the characters of Wonder Woman and Superman to share a strong bond, something of a romantic friendship. Yes, "romantic," as in warm, affectionate, devoted. Even so, I've also always considered attempts to pair them in the comics as misguided, because I imagine the characters as having incompatible expectations when it comes to romantic partnerships. Superman seems to prefer the conventional: monogamy, cohabitation, and so on. Wonder Woman strikes me as preferring none of those things. So, in my continuity, Diana and Clark have never been interested in pursuing anything other than friendship with one another.

Up next is PART TWO, LOVERS. Its latter half isn't finished, but I will begin posting what I have completed in the next few days. I'd greatly appreciate any and all feedback on what I've written thus far and any and all ideas/hopes/requests for future chapters.

Cheers!