Author's Notes: I always seem to have a habit of leaving my work in the office. When I do, you'll won't see updates in the weekend. Sorry about that, but I'm refreshed now and after so many pretty darn cool stories has been popping up, I've been re-energized. Big whoop to all you fic writers out there.

Act 4 of 6

For the next couple of weeks, Lois steered clear away from Clark Kent as much as possible. She didn't want another repeat impromptu counseling session. She was still giving her cousin Chloe a hard time about that, using it against her every chance she gets.

It also doesn't help that it was getting harder to get away, especially since Clark had an uncanny way of finding her.

Lois sat below the base of the golden Daily Planet Globe, studying for an exam. She discovered this place one evening when Chloe was busy fielding calls and she accidentally found herself by the dock. The stair doors were locked of course, but many years of misspent youth taught her a way around those pesky things.

So now, there she was, reading silently underneath the beautiful starry night – no, not the Van Gough painting, just the sky. She liked it there. It was peaceful. She could put the world aside and just be. She had to admit, it's a really nice way to pass the time when she had sleepless nights, and there were plenty.

Suddenly, Lois hears footsteps.

She stuffed her books in her bag and slowly got up. She saw nobody else around, but then she saw a shadow. It started out small but as the figure neared, it grew. It looked like a man.

Tall.

Muscular.

When the man came into view, she became annoyed. "Clark?"

"Can we talk?"

She couldn't figure out how he could have found her. Another mystery into Clark Kent she wasn't all that interested in discovering, not so much anyway. "How did you find me?"

"Chloe mentioned something about you being up here"

Lois frowned. "She wouldn't have because I've never told her." She grabbed the remainder of her things and headed for the stairs. "Goodnight, Smallville"

"Lois, wait!" Clark ran in front of her, effectively blocking her from the exit. He just wanted to speak with her for a few minutes. "Please. I just want to talk"

"Coming from the same guy who once told me I talked a lot," she said skeptically. "Look, Clark. It's been somewhat amusing and all, but I'd like to get back to my life now, so if you could excuse me – "

"No," he said definitively.

"Stop with the crybaby routine. I'm seriously not in the mood." She dropped her bags. "I'm exhausted, overworked and I'm running on only two to three hour sleep every night. I am really not in the mood, Clark. Please."

Clark stepped back. He hadn't realized that. Come to think of it, the past few months, he has often seen her tired, but he's often chalked it up to staying out late with friends, and though he didn't like to think about it, Arthur.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you"

Lois lifted her head back, sighing at the sky. "I'm sorry too. I've just had a lot on my mind." Clark remained silent. "Believe me, my head's filled with things that aren't you and I related"

"Oh." Clark's voice betrayed disappointment, but Lois ignored it. "Do you want a ride home?"

"I can walk just fine"

"It's four hours away, Lois"

Lois smiles. "Not that home. The General owns a condo a few miles from here. It was rented out for a couple of years until a few months ago. I'm staying there whenever I come and visit Chloe"

Clark nods in acknowledgement. So that's why she was always away from Smallville all the time. "Oh," he responds despondently once again.

Lois didn't know whether to laugh or hit him in the head. "You still want to walk me home?"

Clark's eyes lit up, hope filling him again and Lois couldn't help but find it a bit cute, but she'll never admit that. Not especially anytime soon. "Here, let me take that." He takes her bag before she could refute.

"Um… thanks"

Clark smiles triumphantly. "You're welcome."

A few minutes later and stepping down over a couple dozen stairs, they started walking along the city sidewalk when something that's been bothering Lois prompts her to ask, "How did you find me?"

"What?" the sudden question caught him off-guard. "I… was in the neighborhood"

"Yeah." That didn't fool her in the least. "That doesn't explain how you found me though"

"I saw you"

Lois raised her eyebrows. "Where?" she pointed upwards. "Just by looking up?"

Clark nods shyly.

Lois looks up herself, and though it is dark, she can't imagine seeing herself from that high up without a pair of binoculars.

"Impossible. I should've been practically invisible to the average eye"

"Not my eyes," he says with a grin.

Lois stopped and wondered who this man in front of her is and where has he been since that fateful day she met him in those corn fields a couple of years ago. She noticed that he stood with his back straight now and not a droplet of angst was falling out of him. Most of all, he didn't look depressed.

"You're different," she observed.

Clark smiles. "How am I different?"

"Well," she paused. "You don't make me want to hurl like most times."

Clark laughs. "Was I that terrible?"

Lois doesn't lie. "Yeah, pretty much"

Clark's smile turned into a frown. "Come on, I couldn't have been that bad"

"Hey, you were the one who pulled a Freaky Friday, what did you see?"

"Well, I saw you for who you really are and not the person you want everyone to see," he stated.

Lois sighed. He just had to go there. "Clark, please, not now"

"What?" he didn't know what it was that's keeping her at arms length from him. "Why do you push me away like that? Am I really that bad of a friend to you that you can't even talk to me?"

"It has nothing to do with you"

"I don't believe you"

Lois rolled her eyes. "You can believe whatever you want to believe; I rarely say anything I don't mean, and I meant what I said. It has nothing to do with you. When did you suddenly care?"

Clark stopped. "I wasn't trying to be insensitive. You picked on me so I picked on you back. Besides, that was then, this is now – "

"And nothing's changed," Lois says conclusively but Clark believes otherwise.

"Look. There's a 24 hour café across the street. Let's get some coffee, my treat." Clark began to walk to the direction of the coffee shop, Lois's bag still hung over his shoulder.

Lois sighed. He knew she wasn't going to go anywhere or leave without her bag. That sneaky son of a .

She strutted into the dim lit café, the establishment was bathed in soft but dark orange-reddish light. The place was small but homey, comfortable, and dammit, it looked a little too romantic. Lois was beginning to think he planned this all along.

Clark sat at the back corner in a high circular table with tall stools for sitting.

"Nice place," Lois says blankly. She wasn't going to let him get even the tiniest benefit of the doubt.

"Thanks. I found it a few years ago"

Lois quirked an eyebrow. So this wasn't just a coincidence. Sneaky!

"Oh yeah, how?"

Clark shook his head, looking very hesitant. "I don't want to talk about it."

"And suddenly the tides have turned"

He gazed at her intently. "It happened a few summers ago"

"Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense to me now," she remarks sarcastically.

Suddenly, a waiter comes up. He looks at Lois, looking entranced. "Good evening. What can I get for you?"

Clark felt like knocking the wind out of him but he held himself back. That wasn't the way to impress Lois, not the way at all.

"I'll just have a coffee." She looks to Clark but he doesn't answer. He just stares dangerously at the waiter. "He'll have the same," she tells the waiter with a forced smile.

"No problem. Two coffees coming up." He leaves smiling, and Lois good-naturedly winked back followed by a 'thank you.' She looked back at Clark disapprovingly. "What the hell was that?"

"He was ogling you"

Lois leaned forward. "Ogling me?" she repeated in a whisper. "You're guys. You all ogle women all the time"

He grunts. Upset. Then they sat in silence, watching the flame inside the 4x4x4 frosted glass candle holder with a metal rack dance in every direction. He wanted to strike up another conversation, and perhaps this time, he could keep his jealousy in check. "What were you doing up on the roof?" he asked out of curiosity knowing that she may not answer straightly.

She breathed out. "I was studying"

Clark was surprised she answered at all. Could he ask her more? The worst thing that can happen is that she says 'no comment,' so it can't hurt, could it?

"Anything interesting?"

Lois shook her head, almost wary. "Kind of"

"I didn't know you were back in school. Did you finally get the Kangaroo Court off your back?"

Lois smiles, recalling how she got kicked out of school a couple of years ago.

"No."

Clark waits for further explanation, making Lois growl in reluctance. She really didn't like to share with him, and that hurts him more than she'll ever know.

"I've been taking a couple of nightly classes a week at a local community college and online courses at the University of Phoenix to make up for last year. I've killed any chance of getting back into Met-U a long time ago"

Clark understands. "What are you studying?"

A grin spreads across her face along with a twinkle in her eye. "Journalism."

Clark is pleasantly shocked. "Chloe finally rubbed off on you, huh"

Lois shrugs. "What can I say? Not to sound arrogant or anything, but I'm pretty good at it. I think I could actually have a future in journalism."

"I think so too," Clark says with a warm smile.

The waiter returns with their coffee and they both thank him, his pleasantry was a bit more forced than hers but at least he's trying.

"Have you heard from Arthur?"

Lois wonders why he cares. "He's back in Florida," she answered simply. "Why?"

"Just making small talk, that's all." He paused. "What are you planning to do after you finish journalism?"

"Travel"

Clark's heart sank. "Really?"

Lois ignored the way his voice lowered. "Well, Chloe's really loving it at the Planet, so I was thinking of going overseas and do some freelance work for a while. It's not like I don't know my way around. There's a civil war rampaging in central Africa, dangerous for tourists, but I've been there before and know a few people who could show me around. If you look past the disease and poverty that overtakes their lands, it's quite beautiful."

"Don't you think that's a little dangerous?" he asks, concerned. He didn't want any harm coming to her. Not a graze, bruise or even a scratch.

"No more dangerous than Smallville, Kansas and Metropolis, or has it been so long that you've forgotten our constant brushes with death." She takes a sip of coffee. "I do recall a time when I almost drowned because of a crazed university football player"

He frowned. "That isn't funny"

"It wasn't then, but now, it kinda is"

"How do you look at life so easily?"

"I don't. Life isn't easy, I'm a college dropout, remember. You and your parents have been great, but in reality, it was hard. A part of me felt easy to live with you because I didn't really like you at first, but then your parents... it made living in your home more difficult. They didn't have to take me in, but they did anyway, and I don't even think they did it for me"

"My parents love you," he assured.

She smiles. "I love them too," she admits for the first time.

"So you're just going to pick up and leave anytime you like?" he asked rather bitterly.

"I have no obligation to stay here"

"What about Chloe?"

"She's a big girl, Clark, who also happens to have a life of her own. To be honest, I felt like an intruder"

"Don't say that. Chloe's has been happier since you came to Smallville. I don't think I've ever seen her so relaxed and upbeat before you came"

Lois smiles, appreciative.

"When do you plan on leaving?"

"I don't know"

"Do you a date in mind?"

"Clark?" she touched his hand but pulled it quickly back, and when she did, his hand moved so fast, she barely even saw it move, taking her hand back. Either the night has gone on for far too long or she's just plain tired and didn't see straight.

"I personally don't want you to go," he tells her honestly.

Lois didn't know what to say.

"I – "

Clark stopped her with an urgent kiss to her lips. Passion, need and exhilaration coursed through them.

It was their first real kiss and Clark had no intention of stopping.

To be continued...