Chapter 7: Come to Talk to You

Clark ran to Metropolis faster than he intended stopping just a couple of miles from Metropolis University. He had no game plan, no preconceived thoughts on how he was even going to remotely begin their conversation, if in fact he even gets that far. All he knew is that he had to make the first move.

He decided to walk the rest of the way there in hopes that maybe he could figure out a way to tell her without sounding too childish or too desperate. When he reached her door, he felt both incredibly nervous and incredibly excited.

He knocks.

When no one answers he was tempted to x-ray his way through the door but quickly changed his mind when his hearing picked up movement happening on the other side. He tries to relax when the door aggressively opens.

He was greeted by a very tired, very agitated looking Lois Lane.

"Hi," was all he could let out. Not the way he intended his greeting to go, but in her state, he thought it was the safest route.

Lois rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing what see thinks she was seeing. Clark? Oh my god, what the hell was he doing here? Her eyes suddenly came into focus, a worried look spread across her tired features.

"Is Chloe okay?" Was the first question that popped in her mind.

Clark couldn't help but smile at her concern for her cousin. It was one of Lois's most endearing features.

"She's fine," he answered.

He let himself in before she could even respond.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she looked at the calendar hung next to the entrance. "On a school day no less?"

"I needed to talk to you." Clark's voice was serious and she knew that whatever it was, it must be important.

"I'm all yours... ears" She quickly corrected. She eyes Clark once more. "You caught me at a lousy time," she adds, leaning back on the door she just closed for support. Of all the days to suddenly appear, he just had to choose today.

"I figured," he answered, amused at her earlier reply.

He stood in the middle of her dorm room and looked around, it was a mess. There seemed to have been a gathering of some sort the night before. He picks up an empty beer bottle and dangled it lightly in front of her. "Party?"

She shrugs. "I wouldn't know"

Clark looked confused, his eyes going back and forth from the bottle to her room to Lois and then back to the bottle.

Lois sees into Clark's skeptical look.

"I was at the library all night studying," she finally explains. "My roommate apparently decided to use my absence to have a party"

Clark expressed shock.

Lois rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on Smallville... I don't party ALL the time"

"No, no, it wasn't that," he assured her with that look of shock still in his face. "You were at the library?" He knew he could expect a kick in the abdomen for that, but the idea of Lois at the library was revealing in and of itself. He didn't even think she studied.

If Lois's mind wasn't so filled with an overabundance of information, she would've decked him. He had a point though.

She shook her head and just walked passed him.

Clark looked suddenly guilty. "Sorry"

"Don't be," she replied, she understood that she didn't give the impression that she was a book worm. "We both know you're not." She finds herself looking at him in a way she never looked at him before. She glanced away quickly in hopes he hadn't noticed. Bruce's words were sounding off loudly in her head, maybe you genuinely like him.

"Oh god, not now," she whispered to herself. Unfortunately, Clark still heard her. He didn't quite understand what she meant by it, but it looked like he wasn't the only one thinking in his head.

Then the silence came. If you could use a knife to slice through silence, this would be the moment to use it.

"All right Smallville, spill it," she suddenly spoke out. "I thought we worked out the whole 'uncomfortable silence' issue last year"

Clark smiled briefly before remembering why he was there.

"I'm trying," he starts off softly. He had no idea where else to start so he said the first words that came into his mind.

Lois watched him closely. She was more flustered now than she was minutes before. Somehow, his answer seemed to relate to something entirely different. Now that constricting feeling is back; and she felt she needed to run somewhere far, far away. There's a reason why she had avoided him all month, but now of course her efforts had been futile since he's right there in front of her, in her dorm room, in Metropolis. She swears that some force out there doesn't want to cut her any slack.

"Have lunch with me right now," he suddenly asks her.

His confidence surprised Lois. Did he just ask me out, I got to hand it to him, I totally didn't see that coming. She watched him walk towards one of her closets, taking out her favorite jacket. He continues to surprise her.

Mildly shaking her head. "We've got to stop hanging around each other," she commented, not really taking the comment seriously. Until this moment, she hadn't really realized just how much time they've spent together. Oh Lois, what did you get yourself into this time? This isn't some guy that comes with a receipt that you can return anytime you get bored with it, this is Clark Kent. You value his opinion, though you'll never admit that to him.

Clark flashed her a smile. "I don't mind." He raised her jacket to her level and waited for her to agree. To his relief, she allowed him to be the gentleman that he is and followed his lead.

"Shall we?" Lois says nodding to the door.

Clark opens the door for her, gesturing her to exit first. He's going to get this right even if he fell face first doing it.

An hour later, Lois and Clark are walking around the park, the lunch 'date' they had just finished left little to be accomplished, both were hesitant to touch any sensitive subjects, so instead they conversed in idle chit-chat.

Clark finally had enough of pretending nothing was going on and decided to bridge the gap sort of speak, break the ice, take the plunge, make that leap of faith that older people seem to encourage on younger people.

He faced Lois. He knew that once he goes through with this, the possibility of friendship was out of the question. He looked into her eyes in deep nervousness and saw himself falling, and it scared him to death.

"There's something I've wanted to tell you," he started with a glint of hesitancy. Lois studied him carefully and saw the difficulty he had trying to express his thoughts into words. All of the sudden she felt nervous, that something was about to happen that neither may never they be able to take back.

"Whatever it is, Smallville, just say it. Neither one of us here are benefiting from the silence," she immediately regretted the encouragement. Lois Lane is charting unfamiliar territory, and she wasn't even prepared for the consequences.

Clark took a deep breath. "You overwhelm me, Lois," he expressed deeply. Lois looked at him in genuine surprise, his choice of words taking her out of her jagged mind.

She listened to him continue. "You have ever since we've met. It's just - now - everything is different. I feel different." Lois tries to say something but is stopped by Clark's two forefingers resting on her lips. Insistent that she let him finish so she adamantly lets him continue. "These last few weeks I've been confused. More than confused, actually. And so I thought if I ignored you, the feeling would pass, that it may have just been a crush, an infatuation, something short term... a feeling that eventually goes away." He reaches to touch her face but pulls back before making contact. "Don't think I haven't tried NOT to think about you," a pause. "… but I just can't stop. I don't even think I want to."

Lois remained speechless. A first for her. Clark continued.

"I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that I want you to go out on a date with me," he finally said, the nervousness not subsiding. "You know, a date that has me wearing something other than plaid," he smiled. "... and you in a dress with us in a restaurant having dinner of food we can't pronounce." This garnered a small chuckle out of her. "... and in the interest of the future, it actually goes well that it warrants a second date, and then a third, possibly a fourth," he was babbling now. He doesn't recall ever really being the babbling type, but this girl is driving him crazy.

He stops talking when he notices Lois smiling. She hasn't said much of anything since he insisted she didn't interrupt while he poured his feelings out, at first he worried that he was scaring her off, but then he noticed that she hasn't left him. That she was real and still very much there, listening to him. That he saw glimpses of her hiding her smile in various moments.

He looked at her, the moment feeling absolutely perfect. Where earlier, merely looking at her made him nervous, now he just couldn't look at anything else. He could lose himself in her eyes. Maybe he already has.

Now all he waited for was an answer, and Lois Lane's continued silence wasn't calming the already tight knot in his stomach.

"I…" she began.

To be Continued...