Title: Giving Up: Not an Option
Author: lanaclarkdevoted, Kiraa-Miroku-Forever aka DracoShapedGoldfish
Rating: R
Summary: Clark is an unhappy man in a hopeless marriage.
Timeframe: future
Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own any rights to Smallville or any of its characters. Only the plot and original characters of this story are semi owned by me. Part of it is also Lauren's.
Dedication: My youngest sister, thanks for all the help! Also, of course, Lauren for helping beta and Akki for helping me manage my raging plot bunnies!
Clark lay on the couch of his dark living room. Lois slept in the bedroom on their king sized mattress. He groaned, running his hands through his curls. Sighing, he pulled the blanket up to his chest. He glanced down at his watch; 3:47… work in 3 hours. It wasn't looking like he was going to be getting any sleep tonight.
He got off the couch and pulled on his jeans and walked across the room to the shut door of the bedroom. The door opened with a loud creak and he froze as Lois stirred. When she settled, he made his way carefully to the closet and pulled out a fresh shirt. He pulled the dark gray shirt over his shoulders and buttoned it up as he sipped on his shoes. Clark pulled on his jacket, and stuffed his wallet, and cell in the pockets and headed out the door.
He handed the keys to his black Porsche to the valet guy and stepped inside the club. Loud music boomed from the huge stereos and strobe lights scanned the crowd. He nodded to the security men and turned into the darkly lit staircase. Clark almost tripped over several couples making out in the corners but managed to reach the second floor without falling down the stairs.
Clark drank through 2 hours of strip girls, poker and dancing until he finally decided to head to work. If he missed another day of work he would lose his job, as Perry had told him just yesterday when he has showed up 20 minutes late. Fortunately this joint didn't own any toxins strong enough to drug Clark and he drove soberly to work listening to the radio on the way.
Work was tough, "no lunch breaks or anything of the sort today," Perry told him. "As great of a man you are Kent, you're lucky you have the best god damn connections with Superman, or you'd be gone!" Clark shook his head with a slight smile. He happened to know for a fact that his Superman articles did help, but Perry treated him as his own son.
When work was finally over he retired home to an empty house. Clark didn't even bother to look for a note for he knew it was nonexistent. Lana would have left a note, he heard echo through his head. A small tear fell down his cheek as he sunk onto his couch with a strong cup of coffee; Chloe sure had got him addicted to this stuff.
Things with Lana had all ended once again with him playing the never-ending role of the heartbreaker. He was lucky if he saw her twice a year, mostly just during Christmas. It always broke his heart to see her gaze sadly at him from across the room when she thought he wasn't looking; and the split second expression of disgust and remorse whenever he was with Lois, before she covered it with a bright smile that only she could pull off and that tugged at Clark's insides.
Clark thought he had convinced himself that he had fallen out of love with Lana, but every time he saw her, his heart beat a little faster. 'Love is a strange thing,' Lana had told him when he was leaving her to go to Metropolis to fulfill his destiny as Superman. 'You get to the point where you don't think you can take life anymore and then someone comes along and sweeps you off your feet. Maybe it only lasts for a little while or maybe a lifetime, but you always remember it.'
Of course he always had remembered her, forgetting wasn't possible. Not that he wanted it to be…