Author's Notes: You know, I originally posted this on the Plot Recommendations thread inside the Writer's Room, but then I realized, nah, I'm taking this to the mattress. wink

Act 5 of 6

Lois stood in front of Clark Kent who claims he's really Arthur Curry in Clark Kent's body. You'd think for a girl who's been possessed twice, this was something she would take with absolute seriousness, but instead, she breaks out into fits of laughter.

Clark, who really is Arthur underneath all the plaid he disliked, frowned. "That's not funny"

She tried to control her laughter. "I'm sorry… it's just… you can't honestly think I could believe something so ridiculous, I mean, come on!"

"I'm serious, Lois. If I was really Clark, would I say something like this to you?"

"YES"

He's forgotten how much those two like to torment each other. "All right. Bad example"

"This is what we do, Clark. We try to get each other when we least expect it. Now you're telling me that a thunderstorm somehow caused you and A.C. to switch bodies. Seriously, I've got to draw the line somewhere"

"He's not lying," said someone else. Arthur stepped out from the shadows. "He's telling you the truth. We've switched bodies and we have no idea how to switch it back."

Lois stepped back, processing the new information.

"Tell me you're joking"

Neither of them does.

She pointed to Arthur. "So you're Clark Kent?" Then she points to Clark. "And you're Arthur?"

They both nod in response.

As the implications sank, she held in her anger as she recalled everything that's happened since the morning. It all made sense to her now in a warped-out sort of way. She looked at Arthur's body with incredible disdain. "You pretended to be my boyfriend?" Before Clark could even answer, she turned to the other Clark with her real boyfriend in him. "And you let him?"

"We didn't want you involved," Arthur said truthfully.

She pointed to Arthur's real self. "I kissed him," she suddenly blurted out, a sudden acknowledgement hammering at her without a moment's hesitation. She looked at Arthur… Clark… whoever. "I kissed you?"

Clark puts his hands up. "Only briefly"

"She was there, Kent. I'm sure she knows that," said Arthur, crossing his arms sternly across his chest. He didn't like this anymore than the next person.

Clark is slightly annoyed.

She puts a hand to her forehead and Arthur (as Clark) immediately worries. "Are you okay, baby?" he reaches to touch her but she flinches back.

She felt weird to hear her boyfriend call her affectionate names in Clark's voice. "Please don't call me that." And she wasn't upset over the body switching, it was more the fact the real Clark played with her emotions. She didn't know if she could trust herself around them right now without the call for violence. She was kidding with the last part.

"I'm sorry," Arthur said, hurt that she pushed him away.

Clark stood in the background, now unable to utter even a single word out. He wasn't sure if he should. Maybe they should've told her sooner, that way nobody would've gotten hurt. It was too late now, the damage has been done, and a lot of the trust that he and Lois have built for the last couple of years are suddenly unraveling.

It scared him to think he was losing her friendship.

So that's when he finally found the courage to speak.

"We're sorry for misleading you," he said in Arthur's voice. He still won't get used to it but he'll work with it anyway. "And I'll be honest… with the both of you"

Lois looked at him, concern and skepticism mixed across her features. Arthur on the other hand didn't know what Clark was planning.

It's worried him.

"The plan was simple," he began while he calmed his nerves at the same time. "I was suppose to see you this morning and tell you that I had to go back home for a few days to give me and A.C. some time to figure out how to fix this, but then, but then you kissed me and I panicked."

She digested the information. "You panicked." She recalled what happened earlier in the morning. "Because I kissed you?"

That didn't seem so bad, she thought.

"I panicked because I liked it." He lowered his head, fearful to see their reactions. As far as he's concerned, at the moment, he wasn't the most powerful person there.

She takes that back, it was worse.

Arthur turned, upset over the changing events. He came to Smallville to spend time with Lois, but instead, he was fighting for her affections against an opponent he hadn't had a clue was even there.

"I'm sorry," Clark said finally.

He turned around and walked away, but that didn't matter, because even though he left, a part of him stayed, and it's her boyfriend wearing his face.

Lois slowly fell to rest on the curb, her mind bustling at a thousand directions. Arthur stood a good foot apart from her. He sat down as well, unable to make himself leave.

"Not the weekend I hoped for," he uttered despite the situation.

She looked at him and for the first time since she met him, Arthur, not Clark, she couldn't see past the face he wore.

"It's just weird, that's all." She turned her face away. "He asked me things, when he was pretending to be you. And it confused me. I kept thinking, why would you ask me that? Now I know why"

"He's not really me"

"I know"

"We'll figure this out. I promise"

"Take it back"

"What?"

"Don't ever make promises. It's something I learned not to do a long time ago. I know you guys will figure it out. You two have got this hero-complex thing going on." He chuckled as she continued. "I have all the confidence in the world that you'll figure out a way to fix this"

The entire time she said that, she kept her face looking anywhere but his. Arthur reached out and cradled her chin with his finger, guiding it back to face him. Even though he wore Clark's face, she has to know that it's still Arthur beneath it.

"Please don't kiss me," she pleaded softly but without much conviction.

He kissed her anyway.

Once their lips touched, Lois found herself reciprocating it without the tiniest bit of reluctance.

He is Arthur Curry in Clark Kent's body, and he's kissing her. She's Lois Lane and she's kissing Clark Kent.

Not good.

"What the HELL is going on?"

Lois and Arthur broke apart to find a very angry Lana Lang standing behind them that you could almost see her burning up in flames.

"Lana?" Lois choked out, words caught on her tongue.

"We could explain," added Arthur, but to Lana, he was Clark and what she just saw him do was a slap to her face and to the relationship they worked so hard to have.

"Don't!" She pointed at him, hatred in her eyes. "I can't believe this! All this time, and with her!"

Lois wanted to say something until the sight of Arthur, no Clark, stood hidden in the alleyway, shaking his head, telling her silently not to refute Lana's claims. For a moment, she thought he had gone absolutely crazy when she realized that his relationship with Lana has been on the rocks long before any body swapping happened.

Guiltily, she didn't say a word and continued to take the heat from Lana even though, technically, it was unfounded.

She was the one being lied to all day and now she's covering for Clark. When did her priorities suddenly get screwed up?

"I don't ever want to see you guys again," were the last words she heard.

Lois spent most of the beginning, middle and end of Lana's outburst by tuning them out. Words like lying cheat and selfish bastard somehow snuck their way out of her sound barriers.

When Lana was finally gone, Clark appeared onto the sidewalk.

Arthur looked at him uneasily. "Bro, were we just responsible for breaking up with your girlfriend?"

Lois shook her head, chuckling a little at the sudden turn of events. The only positive thing that's coming out of this at the moment was that she gets to see less of Lana Lang, and that's always a good thing.

The negative, besides that her boyfriend is Clark and Clark is her boyfriend… confusing much? Anyway, Lana is no doubt calling her cousin Chloe right now and telling her how Lois Lane practically cheated with her boyfriend in broad daylight.

She could only imagine the impending phone call she will no doubt receive from her dear younger cousin.

On second thought, pissing Lana off isn't that that bad of an idea, especially when she didn't really do anything wrong. It wasn't like she kissed Clark…err… Arthur first.

"Lois?"

"Huh?" she answered absentmindedly. "Did you say something?" She had totally missed out on the boy's conversation.

"Clark figured maybe we should head to where this happened, and maybe we'll find something we may have missed"

"Sounds like a plan," she agreed, surprising them both.

"So you're okay with this?" Arthur asked, hopeful.

"I can't ignore it anymore than you can." She eyed them both. "But I want to clear some things up before any other misunderstandings occur"

"Okay," said Arthur.

"Sure," said Clark.

"There will be no kissing of any kind…" she does a horizontal circle in mid-air, indicating that she was pointing to everyone. "… between the three of us. Accidental, boyfriend or otherwise. Is that understood?"

Arthur starts to protests by raising his hand but Clark pushed it down. "You're gonna lose," he said with obvious experience.

Arthur relented. "Fine"

"Good." She looked at Clark. "You?"

He shrugged which was followed by a weak nod.

Lois walked ahead of them while Arthur and Clark followed behind. "That wasn't a very convincing no, bro," Arthur whispered to him.

"Enough with the bro?"

Just so Arthur could irritate him more, he replies, "Sure thing, bro."

Clark ignored him. Sometimes he'd wonder what it is about Curry that Lois finds so attractive.

Upon arrival, the clouds crowded and the sun disappeared. It starts to rain. The three of them searched for anything that would indicate what caused the lightning to switch them.

So far, the boys have found nothing.

Lois on the other hand, couldn't stop looking at the spot where the lightning hit. There were cracks lined along the road. Curious, she lifted a loose chunk of asphalt from the ground. When she saw nothing peculiar underneath, she got ready to put it back when she caught a glimpse of tiny green speckles from under the piece she held in her hand.

"Guys, I think I found something"

Arthur ran to her side, but halfway to her, he collapsed in pain.

"A.C!" Lois dropped what she held and went by his side immediately. "What's wrong?" She held his head on her lap. "CLARK!" she screamed.

Rain kept pouring, drenching them wet.

Clark appeared out of the cornfields and saw Lois on the ground with Arthur on the ground, moaning in pain. He rushed to his side.

"What happened?"

"I don't know," her voice covered in worry and panic. "He just collapsed." She pressed her lips on his forehead and whispered. "It's gonna be okay"

Clark froze as he watched Lois care for himself. It was hard for him to differentiate the fact that Arthur currently resided in his body, but just seeing her there, by his side, giving words of strength, it brought out something in him.

A longing.

A dream.

Lois' panic stricken voice pushed him out of his frozen state.

He realized that there's only one thing in this world that could hurt him. He searched around and found it.

Kryptonite.

He grabbed it and threw it as far as he could and ran back to their side.

"Are you okay?"

Letting out a cough, "Yeah. I think so"

"What was that?"

"It doesn't matter"

"Like hell it doesn't matter, it nearly killed you – him – Dammit!" With everything that's just happened, she could barely get the two straight.

"I'm okay, Lois"

"I'm gonna call an ambulance," she leaves to grab her cell phone in the car.

"Lois wait!" She didn't know that Clark, the physical Clark wasn't human. He doesn't need an ambulance.

Then suddenly, a lightning bolt appeared out of nowhere, hitting the ground between Clark and Arthur, the remaining meteorite fragments beneath their feet giving off a charge, throwing them apart like it had before.

"Oh my god." Lois raced out of the car and to the nearest person. "Are you okay?" she held Arthur up kneeling from the ground. She hugged him tightly, making sure he was okay.

As she wrapped her arms around him, his own arms made it around her, and he didn't want to let go. "I'm okay," he whispered, squinting his eyes to see the real Arthur Curry in his real body approached them slowly.

He didn't say a word.

Even though the envy between them had become thick, Arthur let Clark hold Lois this one time.

That was almost enough, until he realized he had to let her go.

To be continued…