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Where Do We Go From Here, chapter 6

When they returned home the next day, a surprise awaited them.

"Lois and Clark are here for a visit," Martha told them. "They'll be here for the rest of the week."

"Conner, Max, it's good to see you again!" Clark said as he clapped the two on the back.

"Hey Clark," Conner said.

"Hello, Clark," Max said.

"Max, you've never met my wife," Clark said. "Honey, could you-"

"In a minute, Smallville," a voice called out. "I'm filing a story right now."

"I thought you did that before we left."

"I got inspired on the way here. I made some changes."

Clark sighed. "You work too hard."

A minute later, Lois came into the room. "I'm all done. Happy now?"

She turned to the two teens. "Hey, Conner. You're looking well. You must be Max. I'm Lois Lane."

"You're the Lois Lane?" Max asked. "The same Lois Lane that wrote the piece on corruption in Lexcorp's microprocessor plant?"

Lois smiled. "Yeah, that got published a couple weeks ago. It took a lot of work, but I think it turned out well."

"That was a brilliant piece!" Max exclaimed. "You had to follow a tenuous link for what, months?"

"Yeah," Lois said. "Clark never mentioned you were a fan."

"I started reading the Daily Planet through before I came here. I still read most of it before I go to school."

"I write for the Planet, too," Clark reminded Max. "What do you think of my work?"

Max hesitated. "Your work is...good. It's very good, very solid reporting."

Clark looked slightly offended at Max's hesitation. Lois and Conner burst out laughing.

"He's got taste, Smallville," Lois said.

"I-I'm sorry," Max stammered. "I didn't mean to offend..."

"No, it's fine," Clark said. "Lois does devote a lot of time and energy to her job. I do too, but my focus gets split because of time in costume."

At dinner that night, Martha asked, "How was school today?"

"I got the physics test back today," Conner said. "I got a hundred on it."

"That's great!" Jonathan beamed. "How'd you do on it, Max?"

Max looked up from his plate. "Oh, I scored one hundred too."

"We have two very smart boys here," Ma said.

"I thought you only spent fifteen minutes on it," Conner said.

"That's correct. I already knew everything on it."

Conner sighed. "It's so unfair that you have better implanted knowledge than me."

"Have you told Lois and Clark about the play yet?" Ma prompted.

"Our English class is doing a performance of Romeo and Juliet as in the days of Shakespeare," Conner said. "So, it's an all-male cast. I'm Romeo."

"Congratulations on getting a lead role," Clark said, smiling. "What about you, Max? Did you get Tybalt, maybe?"

"I was assigned the role of Juliet."

There was a pause.

"Okay, that's just going to look weird," Lois said.

"Lois!" Clark said, shocked.

"No, look at it," she continued. "You guys look identical. When you're on stage, don't you think it's going to look that way more?"

"With my hair done differently and in makeup, I expect that I'll look different enough," Max said.

"How are you going to handle the kiss?" Lois asked.

"What do you mean?" Conner asked.

"It's Romeo and Juliet. There has to be a kiss."

"I haven't thought about it."

As Conner was in bed and Max was in the cot, Conner asked, "How are we going to manage the kiss?"

"Just pretend I'm Robin," Max replied.

"What!"

"You are Robin are so close, I just assumed that you, you know, experimented."

"Something like that's never happened! And, it never will!"

Clark opened the door. "Are you all right? I heard shouting."

Max apologized. "It's my fault. I'm sorry."

"He made an assumption," Conner said. "A very wrong assumption!"

"I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."

The next morning, Max was more skittish than usual.

Finally, Conner confronted him about it. "Look, I'm not angry anymore. You don't have to cringe every time I look at you."

"You must hate me."

Conner gave a frustrated sigh. "I don't. I was angry, but I got over it. It took me by surprise more than anything."

Max gave him a doubting look.

"Okay, I'm going to have to remind you that you have a backbone."

With that, Conner threw a punch at Max. He caught it and flipped Conner to the ground. Max then took a step back, horrified.

"I'm sorry!"

Conner chuckled. "You shouldn't be. I'm the one who threw the punch."

"Why'd you do that?"

Conner got up and dusted himself off. "I wanted to provoke a reaction. You over-think things too much."

Max shook his head and then smiled. "So you're my psychologist now?"

"Think of me as your hand to hand psychologist."

To be concluded

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist teasing the fandom a little.

Any and all comments welcome!