Flashback of 2005
It was late when they arrived at the front of Kent farm .The lights were out telling that the Kents were still at the Walters' for a little poker game.
Not knowing what compelled him to do it, Clark cranks up the radio as a song comes on. He takes her hand and tries a different, slower kind of dancing right there on the porch. They laugh as they fumbled a bit. The punch was spiked after the fifth song they had danced to.
oh you, you, you, it's gotta be you
you, oh you it's gotta be you
true, true, true, it's gotta be you
you, oh you it's gotta be you
to lead me into the night...
And before they knew it, his lips were on hers, hands in her hair, and he smiles as he feels her return the kiss.
well I went to far, and I came to close
I drove away the first one and now he's a ghost
then I went adrift on a boat made of sand
it was leaking like a sieve but I made it to land
With long smooth legs wrapped around his middle, and limbs in a tangle, they stagger towards the backseat of the car, never once stopping, for fear that the sanity that escaped them would return. Tongues wrapped in their own little dance as their real one stood forsook. He reaches for her zip, and she, his shirt buttons. They were going beyond anywhere they were familiar with, both ignoring the fact that they have crossed a line.
The line.
The line they always knew was there, even if they affirmed they were only bantering and teasing friends and will ever only be reluctant friends. But they were always and ever aware of that unspoken border and sometimes even privately curious if they could cross it and what detriments could arise.
he leads me into the night
he drives away the light
he makes the darkness seem bright
and walks wih me into the night
She rids the coat from his back and shirt, leaving a smootj sculpted plane to trail her fingers over. Lightly, ever so lightly.
He groans and pulls away from her, both with bruised lips and heaving chests.
"We need to stop-"
And his words act as a rejection as sharp and fatal as a knife wound in her side. She pushes him off, and starts to leave.
"Lois I don't mean," He tries again and grabs at her wrist, only to feel the sharp sting of manicured fingers on cheek. He stares stunned at her, and fails to regain his speech until after she has slammed the door and heart in his face. "We need to stop, I need to breathe."
Away from the light.
Smallville, Prom Night REDUX, 2005
She watches as they dance. She watches each and every expression, noticing how every smile on his face seemed to grow bigger than the one he already had on.
With her.
For her, because of her.
She wishes she had a claim to him, wishes she could justify the way she is feeling now, like she needed to get away and cry and scream and cry some more. But she didn't have any entitlement, and maybe now, she never will.
Did he ever smile that much around her? How was it that he could look so happy now, and she wasn't the cause of it? It hurt to know that maybe, they really weren't meant for each other.
"Hey Lana."
She looks at her friend and smiles, even if it doesn't reach her eyes, even when all she felt like doing was rush into his arms and claim that his smile was hers. She knows that Chloe knows. That Chloe can see through her act, her act that used to be espoused by Chloe herself.
They were both, at one time or another, in love with him after all. She wondered if Chloe could feel her soul dying bit by bit every time he smiled.
"I know it hurts, trust me this is me a few months ago, but he really is in love with her. He may not know it now, but something tells me they're the real deal, Lana."
"I know, I just need to accept it, I guess. I still feel something for him. And I can't let it go, let him go." And she feels the sting of tears at the side of her eyes.
She feels the hand on her shoulder, and the hug that came after.
And the friendship that seemed so trite and superficial made a transition into something both girls would not need to question nine years from now, sipping their strawberry martinis and discussing the drab little things in their lives while sharing a few years worth of tears and laughter.
They came home a little before two, having to send Chloe and Lana - both superbly drunk and laughing like hyenas - home after having drunk from the spiked refreshment bowl. It was a coincidence that Clark had managed to get both Lois and himself drinks from the only one (out of five bowls) that was not tampered with.
They sat in the car, not speaking, both reflecting on the night and the first dance that seemed to lead them to six more after.
For Clark, it was a night he would remember. More so than the other prom that seemed worlds away, even though, technically, he hasn't actually lived it yet. He shuddered to think of what repercussions he was going to have to deal with when he returned back, if he even did. He didn't want to.
The gem was still unfound, he had no clue where the devil he was supposed to be, where the Pyleans were and what he was going to say to a pissed off Wayne when he found out he did change things.
But all Clark was really focused on now was how he managed to change that dance card of his. The names of Chloe, Lana and a few others were replaced with only one name on it, and he was glad.
"So, tonight was fun, in spite of present company."
He laughs at her. She was the most amazing girl he's ever known.
"It was, especially because of present company." He corrects, his smiling growing wider as he saw the slightly uncomfortable look she had, and the slight blush that was probably growing warmer by the second, judging by how her heart rate has started to pick up. "I really had a good time with you, Lo."
She turns to him immediately, shocked that he admitted it, shocked that they weren't following their usually acerbic, if not fake, script. He doesn't know how to play it and suddenly, she finds that maybe she doesn't want to anymore. She was tired of pretending that they didn't feel anything whenever they were around the other.
Tired of knowing and having to play a role for the sake of others, and herself.
Not anymore.
"Me too."
Her soft admission was more than he could hope for. And more.
He feels the tingling again, the one he feels whenever he was near her, and doesn't hesitate in capturing her lips in a soft kiss.
His heart soars as he feels her return it.
But all too soon, she breaks it.
"Goodnight Clark." She smiles and leaves the car.
He stares after her and does the same when she reaches the door, with happier steps and thoughts.
P.Ross4Politik has been added to the conversation.
IwriteTru: Two words, Pete: Man slave.
IwriteTru: I won.
P.Ross4Politik: Wow. How? When? Where? HOOOOW?
IwriteTru: I'm not sure how. One minute Lois was telling me about how silly I was being. "Me and Him? Ha! Only when man can shoot lasers out of their eyes." and the next, she's being swept off her Blahniks by him.
P.Ross4Politik: Again. Wow. I never figured Clark had it in him.
IwriteTru: Yep, our regular Casanova. However, he's been acting strange lately. Completing my sentences and knowing what's going to happen next. You know, he even hugged me the other day, something about never ever having me leave. WEIRD. He also warned Lana and I about the punch. And even he doesn't have super smell.
P.Ross4Politik: Well, anything that works up that boy's courage to take his girl into his arms is ok with me. So how about them red socks huh?
IwriteTru: I guess so, and what red socks? Was there a match? Wait, don't even try! You can't escape a week's worth of man servant duties Ross!
P.Ross4Politik has been set as busy, he may or may not reply.
IwriteTru: What the…I am calling you right now!
IwriteTru: Pick up the phone you wuss!
You have just sent a nudge.
Sorry you cannot send multiple nudges. Please try again later.
IwriteTru: Pete!
Smallville, 2005
In all his life, he never figured he would be able to find that special someone to be with. Hoped and prayed for, yes, but to believe it was actually possible? Not so much. He figured Lana pining did not equate to Lana having. And the time when he actually did have her, he had and lost her so in aa expeditious moment ; it was as if whatever he had initially was but a chimera playing on his vulnerability.
And if Lana was unattainable – Lana, whom he had thought he loved for most of his life, could not stay - then what were the chances that someone could?
And it was then that he realized, Lois was and always will be the exception, the snowflake in the burning trenches of Hades. Lois was his. Smiling, he falls back into bed, and soon is lost to the world as deep slumber took over, with the image a woman in a pink prom dress floating at the edge of his periphery…
The cave was silent for most part of the time, till the faint buzzing sound wailed slightly louder, and made its final crescendo, ending as the gem shatters…
Now
Metropolis, 2010
Clark Kent opens his eyes, slightly squinted, as the sunlight that streams in through the window curtains blinds him for a moment. He remembers the dream and feels the slight vertigo that makes his stomach crawl and shift like sand in the Sahara.
He checks his clock and realizes it was time for work.
Or potential work.
He had an interview with the Daily Planet in an hour.
With his daily ablutions done, he fixes his tie and remembers the women who used to help him with it. His smile vaguely falls as he thinks how he's managed to let one of them leave. He turns to go but picks up the letter he finds on the floor. The letter he was reading the night before, the one he keeps with him in his wallet. He wonders how he gets by with his masochistic nature, the love of self torture as he never fails to throw it away.
No matter if the words on the scented paper tastes like ash in his mouth.
He leaves it on the table for the first time since he has it and flies off to the planet.
Smallville,
I don't know how to say this, but what we have now, feels wrong. It's wonderful, but sometimes it feels like it isn't supposed to be.
I'm sorry to spoil our vacation, and I'm sure when Chloe and Lana realizes what's in my letter to you (they have a way of knowing it's content so its ok if you just surrendered and showed them at the first instigation) they will probably want to do to me what Texas Chainsaw have to those silly over-sexed teenyboppers traveling in their Podunk marijuana motor trap.
I'm leaving, Clark.
Maybe one day, we will find each other again and we could continue what we had, but for now, I need to figure out who I am and why I can't do it, do this right now.
You need to know who you want and what you want to be. I love what we have and I might even say that I love the person, but seven days in Vegas and three under the stars hardly constitutes evidence enough that we're mature enough to go through your plans of elopement (I know you weren't exactly kidding, even with all that tequila in MonteLago.) and taking a flat in far out Gotham.
Please, don't try to look for me. I want us to live out our lives and when we meet again, and feel that same tingles (I always knew you felt it too! But telling me halfway past Vegas and the desert while we were at the backseat with Chloe driving is much more the confirmation I needed, and not to mention, very romantic) we'll see where it goes. If it's anything like I am hoping for, it'll go straight to you know where.
But for now, I need you to understand that I cannot be with you. And if you find me, you will only get sent back.
I love you. However, until I can sort out what all these things I'm feeling mean and where I'm supposed to be, I will love you from afar.
Don't wait for me, Clark.
Lois
He was late, with all that flying, he still manages to be ten minutes late. He curses the slight run in with the bank robber. He wonders if it can be his fault that he did take a slight sadistic pleasure in manhandling the errant thief a bit. He was very inconsiderate.
Without thinking he runs for the closing lift and manages to further annoy himself by crashing into someone, running in the same direction.
"OW! God, watch where you're going why don't you!"
"I'm so sor- Lois?"
She was there. Lois Lane, so near him he could reach out, hand on her cheek. And a thousand memories surfaces in his mind's eye. The pink dress, the white two-piece, the curve of lips, her smirk, the warm brown eyes... The kiss and the kiss. Their song, the nights camped under the stars, their drunken games with Chloe and Lana…
She was beautiful as ever. And surprisingly quiet.
"Hi Clark." She looked nervous and he notices the irony. The letter, his connection to her, the one he had left at home has been now replaced by the woman herself. Destiny, he vaguely thinks, but neglects as he also realized how destiny also took her away all those years ago.
He smiles seeing her flustered. It was an anomaly and something he hopes to see more often.
If he could help it, everyday of his life.
"Here for an interview too?" he asks, studying her face. It was now. Now or he didn't know when else. Love me now, love me here, love me near. Do not love me from afar anymore. Love. Me.
Now.
She nods, too flustered to do anything but. Aside from stealing sly glances at the man she had left, albeit unwillingly to find herself and give him the space she thought he needed.
He was as she remembered and so much she could have hoped for. He seemed ready. Regrettably, she realizes she was ready, five years ago. But insecurity led her to write the letter anyway. But now… they could be great.
And as they both reached for the button, their fingers touched.
Skin on skin and their synapses goes on overload.
It was without a doubt that the tingles were still very much there…and, they knew, the time was now.
Finis.