It was a lighter-haired Clark that scanned the huge ballroom in a manner that he considered inconspicuous. The dye was a special type that his master had had manufactured so that it would come out after only one washing with the application of a certain type of shampoo. While Clark watched the guests with eyes like a hawk, he chatted politely with a few people, not wishing to stick out like a sore thumb.
That was when he saw her.
She was dancing with his master and smiling charmingly. She had bright, beautiful brown eyes, as well as fine brunette hair that was fashionably held up with silver barrettes, delicate tendrils of it hanging down.
To put it simply, she was his dream come true.
He gave himself an inward shake, belatedly realizing that he was hovering a few inches above the floor. He grounded himself, throwing quick glances around to make sure no one had noticed him. Clark instantly berated himself for even thinking about her. It was obvious that Luthor had some kind of interest in her, and it wasn't Clark's place to fall instantly in love with someone.
It was sort of humorous, actually. Women had always been the last thing on Clark's mind...But then, he had never seen her before.
Clark noticed a man—who appeared to be the woman's sniffling date—butt in on Luthor, and he saw her give the man a stern talking to after his master stepped aside in a dignified manner. He suppressed the urge to listen in on her conversation, sensing that it wouldn't be pretty. He did catch a name, though. Mitchell.
After thoroughly chewing him out, the brunette began meandering up the stairs, alone...And in the direction of his master's office.
Uh oh, Clark thought. He slowly followed her, making sure that no one spied him in the process of doing so.
Mitchell's an idiot, Lois thought to herself as she tried to inconspicuously climb the stairs. She had been trying to get close to Luthor, but unfortunately her hypochondriac of a date had a jealous side to him. She knew she should have asked someone else to come. Heck, Bobby Bigmouth would have been a better choice than Mitchell!
She wiped the scowl off her face as she entered Lex Luthor's office, trying to exude an innocent air in case anyone was nearby. Fortunately for her, the office was empty. She began to quickly sift through the papers on Lex's desk. Surely there would be something noteworthy in the pile...
Clark found himself a little amused by the brunette woman's attempt to appear innocent. Simply by watching her for a few moments, he could tell that she had a lot of experience in going through other people's personal files. She was also thoroughly engrossed in her work, which led him to believe that while she was experienced in snooping, she wasn't very good at it.
He stood in the doorway for a few more moments before he cleared his throat pointedly. "Excuse me, miss?"
The woman froze in mid-motion, a hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar expression on her face.
He continued, "Have you lost something?"
"Excuse me, miss? ...Have you lost something?"
Lois felt like throwing something in frustration. She had been caught!
She couldn't help but appear a little guilty as she looked up, her mind frantically buzzing with different cover stories. "I ah, was just...admiring...uh, Mr. Luthor's materials. He has quite a little...museum...here...." The excuse sounded lame, even to her own ears, but, to be fair, she hadn't been planning on being found so early on in her...investigation.
She had hoped that she would be able to find some newsworthy information that Lex hadn't told her about, but her chance was gone now. She had been caught by this...man.
She looked him over briefly, filing aspects of him away in her mind. He wasn't bad-looking, he didn't seem to be a hypochondriac, and he appeared to be kind. He would have made a much better date than Mitchell, that was for sure...
She then wiped all thoughts of the man from her mind. Since when did she check out guys like a giggling schoolgirl?
Clark smiled. The woman had made an amusing attempt at recovery. It wouldn't have worked with most guards, but then, he wasn't like most guards. "Perhaps Mr. Luthor will show it to you sometime. Right now, however, he is about to present something that I am sure you will find quite intriguing..."
Nodding, the woman—he wished he had thought of asking her name—followed him back to the ballroom. His master had just turned out the lights and revealed a blue hologram of what he was presently introducing as Space Station Luthor.
Clark checked around with his X-ray vision to ensure that no one else had tried sneaking around, gave a last brief glance at the woman, and then disappeared upstairs, not wishing to hear Luthor's suck-up speech. He didn't approve of his master's plan to sabotage Space Station Prometheus and put his own space station in orbit. It wasn't ethical. But then, since when had his master cared about ethics?
Lois Lane still felt a little embarrassed that she had been caught snooping through the third richest man in the world's personal materials (a man that she had been on a few dates with, incidentally), but she was oddly pleased that the man who had caught her red-handed wasn't angry at her.
The man.
Lois sighed dreamily, thinking back to the man even though she had reprimanded herself earlier for thinking like a schoolgirl. She just couldn't help but notice how well-put together he had been—after all, she was only human...
He had broad shoulders, a strong chest, a handsome face...His hair color didn't seem to fit him, but that wasn't the important thing...
And his eyes...
They were deep, brown eyes that held kindness and gentleness...But her reporter's instincts told her that there was something else hidden within their depths. Fear, perhaps? Loneliness?
She tried to shrug it off. Who was she to care? She would probably never even see him again.
And yet...
For some strange reason, Lois couldn't stop herself from caring...
Annoyed with herself at her concern for someone whose name she didn't even know, she shook herself inwardly and tuned back in to Lex's proposal.