Clark was sat across the table from Lois at his apartment on this dreary Friday morning. They were supposed to be at work in 30 minutes but here they were, sitting in his apartment with the air tense and feelings heightened. He'd tried so hard to not let it get to this point, he'd really tried hard this time but here he was, faced with the same problem as always. He hadn't meant to hurt her, he cared about her deeply but he knew it was over from the look in her eyes. He tried to argue that it was five years ago, before he even knew her, before he'd become the man he was today but she couldn't get past the fact that he hadn't told her, that he didn't tell her anything. She thought he was still as secretive as the day they started dating, he hadn't opened up to her in the two years they'd been together and Clark couldn't deny that. It wasn't easy for him to open up and although he'd tried to make it work, he'd tried to give her everything that he could give her but now he realised, it wasn't enough.

"I need to go," Lois spoke, gathering her belongings, "I hope I've made it clear that this is something that I can't look past, Clark"

Clark nodded, "You've made it very clear,"

Lois nodded back, "Good."

Clark got up, ready to open the door for her but Lois raised her hand, insisting he stay seated. He should've known that Lois wouldn't want any help, but he was being a gentleman by at least offering.

"Lois, I'm sorry, I'm sorry about everything," Clark apologised

"I'm sure that you think you are or I'm sure that you think that is the best thing to say, but you can't apologise for something you can or at least could've changed, I can't let you get off that easy otherwise you'll go through life thinking you can apologise for everything rather than actually changing things, I won't have that on my conscience."

After the door slammed behind her, the apartment filled with a stillness that Clark hadn't felt for a long time. Lois hadn't taken the tension with her, in fact she'd left it behind and he just had to deal with that. He'd add it to the long list of things he had to deal with, but right now, he had to get ready for work.

As he rushed, he thought about his relationship with Lois and the last year of that relationship in particular. It'd been a confusing and difficult year, full of disagreements, arguments and broken promises, mostly on his end and it'd culminated into this moment in his apartment. He hadn't lied to Lois, he was used to dealing with his problems internally, he wasn't the best at communication and he wasn't the most open person, she understood in the first year of their relationship but as they reached their second year, she'd expected more from him. He understood that when you're in a relationship with someone, you need to learn to share and he tried to share what he could, but he knew it wasn't enough for a woman like Lois.

He wasn't ready to bring Lois entirely into his world and she wasn't a patient person. She demanded things that he wasn't ready to give, that maybe he'd never be ready to give but he kept promising her that in time he'd be more open but she eventually realised that he'd been lying. Eventually, she saw him as a liar and nothing else. She found out that he'd slept with Cat Grant, his close friend and their colleague, but he'd never told her, instead he'd allowed her to be humiliated by a slip up by Cat. Lois hated a lot of things, but embarrassment was at the top of that list. In her eyes, he'd allowed her to be embarrassed, he'd embarrassed her by not telling her and the reasons why he'd never told her didn't matter. He was a liar and that was the end of the discussion. He couldn't argue with that.

As Clark walked to work, he heard his phone ring in his pocket. He forgot he'd made a few plans this weekend, first he was meant to meet Bruce for dinner tonight and then travel to Smallville tomorrow for dinner with Pa and an overnight stay. He wanted to cancel on both, spend the weekend in his head, but it'd be more stress for him to cancel than to go, he also hadn't seen Bruce or Pa in a few months.

"Hey Pa," Clark answered, trying to sound as upbeat as he could without it coming across as too fake

"Morning son, how are you?"

"I'm good," he lied, "How are you? Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine over here, don't worry, I'm just excited to have you home,"

Clark smiled softly, "I'm looking forward to coming home, I haven't forgotten about this big surprise you've got for me,"

"Yes, and you remember the time?"

"No later than 5 o'clock, I remember,"

"Good, I know you've got a great sense of time, I'm just never on the receiving end of that great skill you have, for someone who can travel as fast you can, how come I never see you? It doesn't upset you to think of your old man all on his lonesome here,"

Clark sighed, "Let's not do this today, please"

"Fine, I'll quit it, I just want you to know that tomorrow is very important to me and I want you to be there, on time,"

"I will be, okay, I promise,"

Pa scoffed, "Promise? That means you're definitely going to be late or not even show up,"

"I don't know what you want me to say, if I don't promise, it's a problem, if I do promise, it's a problem, I'm not in the best mood today but I'm trying,"

"I thought you said you were good? What's going on?" Pa sounded concerned

"I don't even wanna get into it, but we can talk about it tomorrow, I prom-," Clark stopped himself, he didn't want to hear anything else about his promises, "I will talk about it tomorrow,"

"Okay, I'm thinking of you son, always,"

"I know Pa, look I just got to work, I've got to go but I'll see you tomorrow at 5,"

"Tomorrow at 5."

Clark sighed as soon as the phone went dead. His relationship with his father was a complicated one, although neither liked to admit it to themselves or anyone else. It'd been that way since his mother passed away when he was 15, it seemed as if she had been the glue keeping the family together and when she was gone, they slowly fell apart. Clark always had the feeling that Pa was disappointed in him, although he believed he was doing relatively well for himself. He had a small, but nicely decorated apartment in the middle of the city, he was climbing the journalism ranks at a good pace and his life was relatively normal but Pa always had something to say about what Clark was or wasn't doing. He either was doing too much of something or not enough of something else, so after leaving for college, he rarely went home. It didn't feel much like home anymore, not since Ma died and he broke up with Lana.

There was nothing for him in Smallville anymore except his father, Ma's grave and some old memories that served no purpose to his life right now. He and Lana had broken up soon after Clark had left for college and he would always have a soft spot for her. Even after they broke up, she used to visit him regularly to make an attempt at remaining friends but they both could never keep their relationship at just a friendship level so Lana decided it was best if they were nothing to each other. She was the only person besides his parents who knew where he was really from and she'd never been scared of him, all she had ever done was support him but ultimately he ruined that relationship too and they both moved on.

As Clark entered the office, he made his way to his desk, not stopping for his usual morning gossip with his friends, deciding to get started on the edit for the article he promised Perry would be on his desk by 9am on Monday. It helped him zone out all the voices in the world when he worked, it was why he loved journalism so much. He prided himself on being a good, honest journalist. He always found it weird and oddly funny how he could easily lie to his girlfriends but he couldn't lie to the general public. He'd never written an exaggerated or false article in his career, it was why he loved working at the Daily Planet because they never asked him to lie about anything, they never asked him to run click-bait articles, they were one of the few honest, investigative media outlets left he believed.

He'd been at his desk for a little over 20 minutes when he noticed Cat sauntering over to his desk, with a sad, pouty look on her face. Clark knew she was about to come over here and ask for forgiveness, without even apologising because he knew that apologies weren't exactly her style. Clark had met Cat in the first year of college, she was in his journalism class and she was nowhere as confident as she was now, she was shy but had always been calculated and Clark didn't mean that in a bad way. It just meant that she knew the right things to say or do to get what she wanted from people, which made her an amazing partner when they had been put in a group together for a project. She knew all the right questions to ask, she picked up on discrepancies almost instantly and she was an amazing writer.

From that day, they became close, at one point too close, but that was short-lived. They were young and they didn't understand at the time that just because they got on really well and cared about each other, didn't mean they had to sleep together or attempt to make a romantic relationship out of it. It was a lesson they both learnt quickly and they were able to move past it without it ever affecting their friendship. Since their college days, Cat had blossomed into an extremely good celebrity journalist, although she was essentially writing about gossip, Cat added her own flair to it and she was almost impossible to outscoop. It was Cat that convinced Clark to join her at the Daily Planet rather than the Daily Star and he'd never regretted the decision. She was a valued person in his life, she knew that and she also knew that she'd fucked up.

"Clark, I'm guessing Lois told you what I told her,"

Clark nodded, not taking his eyes away from his computer screen, "Yeah, she did,"

"I just want you to know that I didn't mean to tell her, it just sort of slipped out, you know she gets under my skin and I've held it in since she got here, but she pushed me too far that time,"

"I know why you said it, it doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't have said it,"

"You're right, the last thing I wanted to do was mess up your relationship, even if I hate her and think she is no good for you,"

"Cat," Clark warned

Cat rolled her eyes, "Sorry, so what happened?"

"She broke up with me," Clark said, with a small shrug

"Oh wow, I didn't expect her to break up with you, especially not because of that,"

"It's just another thing on top of a pile of things that we've already been arguing about, I knew it was coming as soon as she told me she knew,"

"Now I feel really bad, even if there were other factors at play, I only told her to shut her up but I didn't expect her to dump you,"

Clark turned to her, "Look, it's not your fault and I don't want you to feel as if you were to blame, but I also want you to know that I'm pissed with you, I thought you were more mature than that, using the fact that we slept together once as teenagers, something we hardly ever talk about as a way to hurt Lois, that is low and unprofessional."

Cat frowned, she hated it when Clark was disappointed in her, he was the only real close friend she had and she cared a lot about his opinion. She knew she'd fucked up, not just on a personal level, but on a professional level, not that Lois was the most professional person but Lois wasn't the standard, she had to be her own standard and Clark wasn't a pawn in the game of chess she and Lois were currently playing, she felt guilty for using him like that.

"I understand and I agree, so I am genuinely sorry," Cat apologised, patting him softly on the back before returning to her desk.

The day had flown by pretty quickly, Lois had turned up shortly after his conversation with Cat, shouting on the phone about a case she'd been following for the past few weeks. He recognised the names she was shouting, the story had almost completely taken over her life as she was sure this was the piece that was going to take her to the next level, that was going to show everyone that Lois Lane was not just one of the best journalists' in Metropolis but in America.

Clark wanted that for her, that was why he'd encouraged her to take the job at the Daily Planet four months ago, it was better pay, more freedom and it was a quicker commute from her home, it was also much better suited for her than Daily Star was, which was slowly becoming a click-bait newspaper, interested in serving the ideas of the 1% but feeding it to the 99% as the way life had to be, as the way life just was. As soon as Lois got the job, Clark saw her fly creatively but working at the same paper meant that it was more difficult for their work lives and personal lives to remain separate. Everything became cloudy and more intensified, there were more expectations and less room to breathe.

This was how he was going to spend the next few days, going round and round in his head about everything that happened, but deep down, he knew he wouldn't change. The fear of change was much stronger than whatever it was that he was feeling now. He couldn't even put a finger on what he was feeling, it wasn't heartache, it wasn't sorrow, it wasn't anger, maybe he was just numb. Clark had spent a lot of his life feeling numb, how could he feel anything different when he spent his whole life having to be in control.

He was the last one to leave the office, making sure to finish the article as he wouldn't have time to do it over the weekend. As he began packing up his stuff, he got a text message from Bruce, letting him know that he'd be outside at 8 pm. Bruce was always on time, it was almost like an obsession. He was never early nor was he ever late, he was always right on time, even when they were in college. Bruce was another person he'd met in the first year of college, they'd met at a party on the roof of the house, both needing to escape what was waiting for them downstairs. Bruce was easily the most well-known person at their college, but he kept himself to himself, he didn't really have a friendship group and he lived off-campus. Clark never thought that he'd have anything in common with Bruce Wayne, billionaire and heir to WayneCorp, but that night he realised that they had a lot in common and they'd been best friends ever since.

Despite Bruce being a billionaire, when they were together, they were just two friends. Clark never felt inferior to Bruce because Bruce never made him feel that way. Sure, Bruce was elaborate when it came to material things, he liked nice watches, fast cars, expensive dinners but he was generous too, giving away millions to charities in Gotham and worldwide. Once they left college, they didn't see each other as much, Bruce moved back to Gotham and rarely ever left. He'd venture out every few months to visit Clark or invite Clark to a Wayne Manor party but it was a tough adjustment, especially as they'd lived together for their last year of college but Clark was an understanding friend, just as Bruce was. They never pushed each other further than the other one was willing to go, so their friendship worked.

As soon as Clark got home, he showered and laid out his outfit for the evening. Bruce always took them someplace fancy so he decided on a cream shirt, slim-fit black trousers, a black leather jacket and smart black shoes. His hair was quite short, almost a buzzcut, so it didn't need much styling. Lois loved his hair short, said it made him look more mature and commanding. Clark wasn't that bothered, but he'd kept it short because she loved it. He couldn't give her the larger gestures that she wanted, so he allowed her to feel influence over the smaller parts of his life. It was sad when he thought about it, how calculated he'd become to avoid opening up to his partners.

He shook his head. He had to snap out of this, he was going to have a nice dinner with Bruce and laugh. He was going to laugh all night, drink expensive wine and eat some damn good food with his best friend. He didn't need to think about anything else right now, not Lana, not Pa and certainly not Lois. He had plenty of time to think about all of that but for one night, he wasn't going to live in his head. It was one of the things he loved about spending time with Bruce, they always had a good time together and in the six years that they'd known each other, they hadn't fought once, only petty arguments about dirty dishes and other minor things that were always forgotten about minutes later.

Cat always said that they were almost the same person, but Bruce was just the rich version. Whenever she said that Bruce and Clark would laugh to each other because that was far from the truth but only they knew that because they knew each other like nobody else did. From the outside looking in, they could understand why and how people would think that even based on their similar heights and dark features, but there was a darkness that surrounded Bruce, the same way there was a detached aura surrounding Clark that made them very different. They both acknowledged this about each other, but they never spoke about it and they weren't even the least bit curious. They were both just grateful that someone respected what they were willing to give, without pushing for more. That way they could just be friends, with no expectations and no pressure, they could be who they wanted to be and whether that person was who they really were, didn't matter.

It was complicated but simple to them so whenever anyone made that comparison, they just went along with it because it was more complicated explaining what their relationship really was. Clark had never told Bruce about his background, about Krypton, maybe one day he would, he'd know when it was the right time but the right time hadn't come and he didn't want to scare Bruce off or open a door to questions he himself wasn't ready to answer so tonight, they were just two human friends, going for a nice meal and a catch-up.

Clark made his way downstairs just seconds before 8 o'clock. As he walked towards the car, Bruce's driver, who wasn't Alfred stepped out and opened the car door for him with a smirking Bruce sitting in the back watching him carefully. Tonight was going to be interesting.

"You look very nice tonight, Clark," Bruce smirked

"Wow, a compliment straight away, I'm shocked," Clark laughed

"You deserve it, you even ironed your shirt, I'm impressed,"

Clark rolled his eyes playfully, "I just don't see the point in ironing shirts and I never will, Cat told me the creased look is very chic right now too, so when all your little socialite friends start showing up to your fancy parties with creased shirts, what will you do then?"

"Cat is definitely lying to you," Bruce smiled.

The drive to the restaurant was mostly full of small talk, playful exchanges and laughter. It felt good to laugh for the first time today and the laughter that reaches your stomach, forcing you to catch your breath. To many, Bruce was a charming, emotionally distant billionaire but he had such a sarcastic sense of humour that Clark loved.

As they arrived at the restaurant, Bruce made sure someone escorted them through the back entrance and provided them with a private table to avoid the press hounding Clark or accusing him and the Daily Planet of getting scoops on Bruce Wayne or people associated with him due to their friendship. Clark had never asked Bruce for help with a story and he never would. Some people knew that they were friends from college but they avoided keeping it out of the tabloids as much as possible so a larger audience wouldn't find out. Clark's career as a credible journalist was important to him and he didn't want to jeopardise that.

He'd introduced Lois and Bruce under a year ago, as Lois was applying pressure about wanting to meet the Bruce Wayne. It upset him that she never wanted to meet Bruce in an informal setting, knowing that they were best friends, she just wanted to have his number in her contact book as a possible information source. They'd argued about that for almost a week, well, Lois argued with herself, deciding to block him on social media and ignore him for an entire week - she was childish like that sometimes but she always apologised. She wasn't afraid of an apology or being wrong. Even though they made up, if Clark thought about it deeply, that was the moment he knew he didn't love Lois, despite the fact that she was dropping hints about an engagement. He knew he didn't love her, but he stayed, maybe due to the fear of loneliness or something else, but he knew he shouldn't have stayed.

"Where have you disappeared off to?" Bruce asked, looking over the menu he was skimming

Clark sighed, "Lois and I broke up this morning,"

Bruce put his menu down softly, "I would be lying if I said I wasn't expecting this, but just not so soon,"

Clark scoffed, "Thanks for your confidence in my relationship, it means a lot,"

"Let's be real here, she's daddy's little princess, she hadn't heard the word 'no' until she met you, it was only going to be an amount of time before she got tired of hearing the word 'no'."

Bruce was very good at reading people and had always been a good judge of character. He was right about Lois; she was her father's pride and joy who'd grown up getting everything she wanted. She had gone through her adult life getting everything she wanted, including Clark but that was to an extent. She had pursued him even though he told her he didn't want anything serious, but he hadn't met anyone as persistent as Lois Lane. They started hanging out casually, informal dates at lowkey restaurants and local bars, then they started sleeping together with no strings attached and before he knew it, she had clothes and skincare products in his apartment and he missed her when she was gone. Eventually, she bagged her man like she always knew she would.

"That's not even why we broke up, well it played a huge role obviously, but Cat told Lois we slept together and I'd told her that Cat and I had only ever been friends, I lied and Lois can't stand liars, which I understand, we've been arguing a lot lately too so I just sat there and accepted it,"

"I'm surprised Cat kept that information a secret for so long, but I'm curious, why didn't you just tell Lois? You and Cat slept together when you were 19, it shouldn't have been a dealbreaker,"

"I guess we've been arguing a lot lately, Lois and Cat didn't get on from Lois' first day at Daily Planet, so I thought if I admitted it, it would just cause more arguments, especially with Cat and I being so close,"

"Well, you don't have to worry about arguing anymore,"

Clark shrugged, "I guess I don't, I miss her though,"

"Yeah, but not because you love her, it's because you don't know how to be single."

A waitress appeared from nowhere, a nervous smile on her face and with a shaky voice, asked if they were ready to order. Clark never looked at the menu when out with Bruce because he always insisted on ordering for the both of them. When they first became friends he objected but now he accepted that it was just something his friend loved to do. At first he thought Bruce did it because he'd been to the restaurant before and knew what was good but Bruce even ordered for them in places that he'd never been. The only time he allowed Clark to order was when they both visited Smallville for a weekend. He'd be a very controlling boyfriend, Clark thought.

As the waitress left, with their order scribbled down. Clark thought more about what Bruce had just said, it was true, he'd been in consecutive relationships since he was fourteen years old. One or two relationships had even overlapped, which Clark wasn't proud of but it was true, he had a hard time being alone. He always felt like bad company was better than no company, it was probably why he'd dated some crazy women in his college years.

"A year of no strings attached would be good for you," Bruce added

"Single for a whole year? I guess I could do that," Clark wasn't even convincing himself

Bruce raised an eyebrow, "I can tell by your face that a whole year is going to be impossible for you."

Clark silently agreed but he wasn't going to let Bruce know that.

"I could at least try,"

"Just because you'll be single doesn't mean you have to be celibate, Clark, it's not that difficult,"

"I don't like meaningless sex, I thought we established that a long time ago, meaningless sex is your thing"

"It might be meaningless but it doesn't mean it can't passionate and sexy, but I've given up trying to break your traditional farm boy values,"

"We both know I don't have traditional farm boy values, if I was a real traditional farm boy, Lana and I would be married with at least one child right now,"

"Are you saying you don't and have never wanted that?"

"At 16 I did, in fact, it was the only thing I knew I wanted but as we got older, I realised that we were slowly outgrowing each other,"

"Do you think you and Lois have outgrown each other?"

"I don't think we ever matched,"

"I agree, and deep down she knows that too."

The waitress returned with a bottle of wine, offering to pour it into their respective glasses. She kept sneaking looks at Bruce and Bruce smiled politely back, causing her heartbeat to skyrocket. This was something they were both used to, Bruce just attracted attention wherever he went and not just because of his last name.

"How have you been? Even though I know you're going to say okay," Clark asked, taking a huge sip from his wine glass

"Don't drink this wine like its water, it's $550 a bottle plus it tastes better with the dishes I've ordered!" Bruce shouted, with a hint of shock and playfulness in his voice

"$550 a bottle? You made that back in the second it took me to drink one sip from that glass" Clark responded

"You're always my most expensive dates, Clark Kent," Bruce smirked

"You always order for us so that is your own fault, but you do have great taste in food and immaculate taste in wine"

"I might blush," Bruce said with a wooden tone

"Anyway, back to my question, I haven't seen you in months, we've hardly talked and you show up in Metropolis out of the blue looking like you're on a bodybuilders diet,"

Bruce smiled softly, "I've been working very hard in Gotham, it keeps me busy but I think you'll be happy to know that I plan on spending a little time in Metropolis,"

"As in you're sticking around for longer than a night?"

"I'll be staying at the Penthouse for a few days, possibly a week,"

"Business? Or have you finally admitted that Metropolis is better than Gotham," Clark enquired

"Over my dead body," Bruce growled teasingly

"How is everything in Gotham? I've been hearing rumours,"

"There are always rumours about Gotham because most are too scared to come check them out personally, even the media outlets in Gotham are too scared to check them out, so they mostly remain rumours,"

"You must know though, I'm guessing that the Prince of Gotham would know everything going on in his city,"

"I know enough."

Clark could sense a change in Bruce's mood and this always happened whenever Gotham was brought up in conversation. Clark sensed that Bruce found it hard to fall in love with anyone because Gotham was his only love. He'd once told Clark that he hadn't planned to go to Metropolis University but his father had written in his will that if anything was to happen to him, he wanted Bruce to attend a college outside of the city so he didn't get pulled into the destructive cycle Gotham had been under for years but it was a lost battle. Bruce was tied to that city the day it took his parents from him.

His father feared that Bruce would become a victim to the city just as he had but Bruce was stuck in Gotham's chokehold and there was no way out of it. He would happily die for his city with a smile on his face, Clark was sure of it. Clark wished he felt so strongly about something, but he was too scared to feel anything.

"Well, it'll be nice to have you around for a few days or week, I hope you find time for me in your busy schedule,"

"Just in case I don't, let's enjoy tonight,"

"You wanna go out out?" Clark enquired

"Why not? It's been a long time since we've been out together, I've had a stressful week at work and you are newly single, I think we could both use the distraction,"

"I've gotta be up really early to catch a train to Smallville tomorrow,"

"Don't worry, I'll get you home at a decent time and you can sleep on the train, problem solved,"

"Okay, but if I miss my train and piss off Pa, you can be the one to explain to him what happened,"

"That is a risk I'm willing to take."