Chapter 25

Lois threw the last bit of crust back into the cardboard box and rolled over on the floor. They had both preferred lounging on the scattered throw pillows rather than the couch; it was easier to reach the pizza.

"I'm so full," she groaned.

"Me too," Clark said. "That was good."

"As opposed to that disaster still laying up there on the table?"

"Well, it was a little more ordinary. Maybe I'm just not the beef whatever-you-called-it type," he admitted.

"Ordinary," she said thoughtfully. "Yeah, you don't even like it when they put bell peppers or—"

"'Belongs on a salad, not on a pizza,' to quote one of the copy boys, and I think I agree with him."

She let out another exaggerated groan. "And to think I need to go in there and throw away all that hard work…"

"I'll do it," he offered, and he jumped up before she could even protest.

"Smallville, don't be silly. This was all my fault. I'll do it. It should be my punishment for ever thinking I could attempt something like cooking," she said to the ceiling, still not able to gather the energy to get up from the floor. "What was I thinking!"

Two seconds later, Clark was standing over her. "Don't worry about it," he smiled. "It's all done."

"What do you mean 'it's all done?'" she laughed. "Smallville, there's a ton of stuff to—"

She looked over at the table and thought she was seeing things. The food they'd left on the table was gone. Looking through the open door to the kitchen, from what she could see of it, the mess she'd left in there was missing as well. "Clark, what—?"

"Lois, we need to talk."

He pulled her up from the floor and stood facing her, but she couldn't, no, she wouldn't look up at him. Somewhere inside her, alarm bells were going off like mad. Something was wrong. Something was different. Everything was about to change, and she didn't know if she could take it.

The evening had been a huge disaster, and then somehow it had changed blissfully to one of complete pleasure. It had been so … normal, just enjoying a pizza and watching television with her best friend in the world. The only problem was her best friend was the one guy in the world with whom she didn't want to just be "best friends" anymore.

And that's what she feared. Underneath the surface, Clark had been acting funny all evening, all day really. No, the change had begun in him even longer ago than that. He had changed when they'd been thrown together as partners and been given the new office.

He'd changed. She had pretended to, but she really hadn't, and he didn't know that.

And now, he was going to pull the "just friends" card. She knew it.

"Lois?"

She didn't say a word and closed her eyes, wondering with dread just how he was going to deliver the death blow to all her hopes.

"Lois," he took her hand and placed something in it, "here."

She looked down and saw that she was holding his glasses. It took a few seconds for the meaning to come to her.

Then without looking up at him, she asked, "Clark, if I look through these, am I going to be able to tell how blind you are, or how blind I've been?"

"I don't think you've missed much. You know me better than anyone, Lois. I've always known that."

She fumbled with the glasses. To hold them to her eyes seemed like a betrayal of sorts. She knew these lenses were just glass. Plain, old, clear glass. She didn't have to see for herself.

"I don't want to look." She still couldn't make herself look up and into those blue eyes, but, just to be sure she didn't, she closed her own. "I want you to just say it."

"Okay. But I want you to know … this is the first time I've told anyone this of my own free will, without any other reason for doing it other than just wanting that person to know. I want to tell you because you're you, and you're special. I want to tell you because I want you to know. I need you to know."

She nodded and swallowed, but still didn't look up at him, so he lifted her chin with his forefinger and waited until she opened her eyes and met his gaze.

"Lois, I'm Superman."

"Superman," she breathed out, saying the name she'd given him at almost the same time.

"You did know?"

"I wasn't one hundred percent, absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt sure, but … yeah, I thought—"

She swayed slightly on her feet and he caught her. "Lois, are you—"

"I'm fine. Just fine." Her hand went to her forehead as if she were trying to make sense of something impossible. "Oh, my god, Clark, you are Superman!"

Clark raised his eyebrows. "That is what I'm trying to tell you."

"I knew there was a reason he, I mean, you wouldn't let me see your face clearly, why you always rescued me without letting me really see you. It had to mean I knew you, and I knew you," she pointed at his chest, "Smallville, had something that you were hiding. I thought you must have been affected by…" She searched his eyes and a fact she had also thought she had known crystallized into a new reality. Her eyes grew rounder. "You were the Red/Blue Blur! I was talking to you on the phone! All those calls!" she whispered as her heart plummeted to somewhere around her ankles.

"Lois, it was the only way I could really talk to you. I didn't mean to…I'm sor—"

"Stow it, Kent! I'm thinking here." She pushed him away and turned her back on him, still clutching the glasses to her chest. She was going over every conversation she had had with the Blur and trying to remember how much she could have embarrassed herself, not knowing she was talking to Clark… her Smallville. The calls had stopped only a week before Superman had made that fateful first appearance, and then they had moved to the new office.

"The new office!" She whirled around to face him. "Oh, my god, Clark! Perry! All those odd things he's been saying lately. He moved us to the top floor, and that skylight in the bathroom! It's a way out for you, isn't it? He has to know! Perry knows!"

"Yeah, I think he does," Clark agreed.

"You're not upset that he knows?"

"Lois, more than a few people know. At first, I worried about each and every one of them knowing. It can be dangerous knowing about me. I could be putting you in danger by telling you. But then, the people that know now…well, it's worked out for the best in a lot of ways. And you, I couldn't keep it from you any longer. I needed to tell you. I needed you to know."

"Oh, Smallville." She ran to him then and threw her arms around him.

"That's not all I wanted to tell you. Lois, I'm going to have the tests," he whispered into her hair. "I – we need to know the things they'd tell us."

"The tests?" Lois let him go, took a step back and looked at him blankly. Surely he'd just started speaking another language. "What tests?"

"The tests you wanted Superman to have? The tests to find out…Lois, please don't make me finish this sentence," he begged.

"Oh. Those tests." She couldn't help it; her eyes traveled down his body.

"Lois!" His cheeks went red, and this time, it was he that turned away from her.

"We could do our own testing, Smallville?" she said impishly.

"No." His voice was firm and he shook his head. "Not with you. I can't risk that. I won't. And besides, I promised myself that, with you, the first time would be special. Very special."

They shared one long look, before he abruptly turned his back on her and walked towards the door. He looked over his shoulder as he opened it, and said, "And, besides, we haven't even used the 'L' word yet."

The door closed even as the word "yet" reached her ears. She ran to it.

It opened as she got there and he was standing there smiling. "Lock the door."

"Clark! Did you just—"

"Lois, I'll see you in the morning. Get some sleep." He bent down and kissed her very quickly, and very softly on the lips.

Then he was gone.

Author's note: One little thing…I know TW has green eyes, but historically Superman has blue eyes, so I can't break away from that. Even SV has tried to make us believe those eyes are blue at times with special effects or lighting and even a line about them being blue.