The first thing Lois registered when she awoke was her pounding headache, and overall hungover feeling. The next was the soft cotton sheets and distinct masculine scent that enveloped her. She slowly did a check of her immediate surroundings, she wasn't snuggled up against anyone, which was good, since she certainly didn't remember going to bed with anyone. She slowly reached her arm out and found nothing but cool sheets and no pillow on the other side of the bed. A bed large enough for two people, but she was the only occupant which meant one of two things, whoever she slept next to - hopefully not with, since the last 24 hours were a little hazy to her - had been up for a while, or whoever her host was, was a gentleman and allowed her the use of his bed to sleep off whatever combination of cocktails she'd clearly had too many of the night before.
Cracking one eye, then the other, she began to take in where she was, it didn't take long for the realization of just whose bed she was in to hit her. She sat up quickly, which only served to make her head spin, and groaned. She hesitantly looked down, relieved that she was at least clothed, but the dress she wore wasn't hers, it was one of Lucy's too-short dresses, which meant it would be way too short on her seeing as she was taller than her sister by a couple inches. Noticing a robe draped over the end of the bed, she quickly pulled it on and shuffled into the bathroom.
Her hair was mussed, and her vain attempt at finger-brushing it didn't do much to improve on the situation. She opened the medicine cabinet and found Clark's toothpaste, quickly brushing her teeth with her finger before shrugging off and hanging up the robe on the back of the bathroom door, debating if she should shower before trying to slip out unnoticed from Clark's apartment. Figuring that if she had to do a walk of shame, she might as well not look like a mess while doing it. Trusting that Clark would respect her privacy, she slipped the dress over her head, dropping it over the edge of the hamper that was tucked into the corner of the room. She'd been aware from the moment she'd walked to the bathroom that she'd either lost or neglected to wear panties under the dress, and since the dress had a built-in bra, she wouldn't have worn one of those either. Embarrassment over the whole situation washed over her as she turned on the shower and stepped under the warm spray, hoping to wash away the shame and bad decisions along with the rest of herself.
Thankfully, Clark's shower had body wash, shampoo, and conditioner tucked into a small corner of the stall that were clearly marketed towards women based on the packaging and fragrance. She sincerely hoped that they were to same products his mother used, rather than an ex, or worse, current, girlfriend. She made quick work of washing and conditioning her hair before picking up the body wash and pouring it into her hand to create a lather she then used to cleanse her body of the remaining effects of whatever she'd drank to be so hung over. Once she was fully rinsed off, she turned off the water and wrapped herself in a towel that looked like it was freshly cleaned.
Before she could even contemplate putting the dress back on, there was a soft knock on the door. "Lois?" Clark's voice called through the door.
"Yeah, Clark?" She tried not to sound as freaked out as she felt.
"I figured you probably didn't want to wear that dress home. So, I went by your place and had Lucy pack you a bag." He informed her, "I'll just leave it here by the door, if you want it."
"Thanks," She replied and listened as she heard him deliberately moving away from the door. She felt relief that not only had he not expected any tit-for-tat since she'd seen him in nothing but a towel back when they'd first been partnered together and had to attend the pitch party at Luthor's home, but that he'd gone out of his way to make sure she had something to wear home that she'd be more comfortable. She pretended to not notice her heart skip a beat at how he always seemed to want to take care of her. Tightening her hold on the towel, she walked over to the door, opening it just enough to see the vacant room and pull the bag inside. A quick inventory of the bag revealed that Lucy had packed her a clean set of underwear, a comfortable pair of jeans, a camisole, a comfortably oversized sweater, socks, and tennis shoes. She'd also included Lois' hairbrush and makeup bag. Lois breathed a sigh of relief that her sister could have just as easily sent something to make matter worse but chose to send some of her favorite comfort clothes, instead.
She quickly toweled off and dressed before brushing out her still-damp hair and putting on a light dusting of makeup. After packing her dress away in the bag with her makeup and hairbrush, she finally felt comfortable enough to make her way out to the living room where she assumed Clark had slept the previous night. Before she'd even made it out of the bathroom, the delicious aroma of fresh coffee, eggs, toast, and bacon wafted over to her, making her stomach growl from hunger. Stepping into the kitchen area, she gave Clark a shy smile when he looked up at her.
"Hi," She greeted him hesitantly.
"Hey," He returned the smile, "How are you feeling today?" He asked.
"A little better, but last night is kinda hazy to me," She shrugged, going to the cabinet, pulling down a mug and pouring herself a cup. "I didn't do anything embarrassing last night did I?"
"Nothing too bad," Clark shrugged with a bemused smile, "You said you had a secret and that you knew I had secrets of my own. You said you would tell me your secret if I told you mine."
"Oh my God," Lois chuckled uncomfortably, "That's not nearly as bad as I imagined. Based on how I felt and what I was wearing," And not wearing, she added silently, "I thought I got drunk or something and tried to seduce you."
"Um, well," Clark blushed, "You were kinda right on that part too. Do you remember that woman, Miranda Davies, who came in and sprayed us all with that terrible smelling perfume?"
"Vaguely," Lois shrugged noncommittally.
"The reason it smelled so awful is that instead of being plant based, like most perfumes and colognes are, hers was animal based," Clark explained the best he could, "I think she used animal pheromones in the perfume she sprayed everyone with, and it made everyone in the newsroom drunk on love."
"I guess that makes sense," Lois nodded, "At least it's a somewhat logical reason why I would hit on people."
"Not people," Clark shook his head before smirking at her, a teasing glint in his eyes, "Just me. I think deep down you just might be attracted to me, Lois."
"Oh, get real," Lois rolled her eyes, "It was probably more like a cupid's arrow thing where the first person of the gender your attracted you, you fixate on."
"Perhaps," Clark shrugged, "But if your theory were even remotely true, you would have fixated on Jimmy or Perry since they were in your direct line of sight after you got hit with that stuff. I think you got to admit it Lois, you think I'm hot stuff."
"Dream on, Kent," Lois chuckled, "I'm going to head home and get changed into something more work appropriate. Meet me at the Planet in an hour and a half, we'll check in with Perry and then go look into that pheromone theory of yours."
"Sure," Clark nodded, knowing she wasn't ready to admit the truth just yet. "I'll see you in a bit."
"Bring coffee," Lois ordered as she grabbed ducked into the bedroom to retrieve her bag and headed toward the door, shrugging on her trench coat, before taking her leave.
Two hours later found the reporters at the perfumery of Miranda Davies, looking around as they interviewed her. She had seemed quite impressed that Clark had been able to recognize that 'Revenge' was animal based. She also seemed intrigued when they told her about the effect it had on their coworkers the previous day. Although when it came to answering their questions, she was only truthful to a point, when pressed on her motivation behind the love-drugged scent, she became evasive. Clark noticed her heart rate sped up as she attempted to redirect their inquiries, outright lying in some of her answers, until the writing duo finally gave up on getting any new information from her and left.
Lois had hoped that the weirdness of the past 24 hours would be over and done with, but it seemed fate had other plans. That afternoon, she received an anonymous tip regarding the story and excused herself only to be ambushed at the airfield by Miranda who sprayed her with some concoction that made her pass out. The next thing she knew, she was trussed up and hanging over a vat of something that certainly didn't look good as Miranda admitted she was jealous of Lois. Apparently, she had tried to dose Lex earlier that day, but it failed in spectacular fashion as not only did he not immediately fall in love with Miranda, but instead fixated on Lois. The jealous woman then went on to explain her nefarious plan to dose the whole city with the 100 percent solution, as opposed to the two percent solution she'd tested at the Daily Planet, because if she couldn't get her way in love, she felt no one should.
Lois watched helplessly as Miranda climbed into the cockpit of a biplane that would normally be used as a crop duster and took off. Not knowing what else to do, she called out for Superman, praying that he would hear her and rescue not only her but the whole city.
Clark had noticed that Lois was taking a long time to return but didn't stop to think she might be in trouble until none other than Lex Luthor came rushing in looking for her. The multi-billionaire seemed genuinely concerned for Lois' safety, ranting about Miranda Davies and how she was a threat to Lois. Lex then divulged that Miranda was planning to dose the whole city, when Clark countered with the fact that the effects eventually wore off, Lex informed him that Miranda was going to use the full-strength variant of her solution which was permanent. Neither man realized how Miranda planned to achieve this until Jimmy came in, making a glib comment about making sure to pull all pets inside as the fruit fly spraying was going to start soon.
Clark and Lex's eyes met for a moment before Lex dashed out of the newsroom, heading to the field where the crop dusters meant to distribute the malathion were being staged. Clark likewise made his excuses and, once out of eyesight of the public, changed into his Superman costume and flew towards the airfield. He found Lois tied up in a hanger and saved her only to narrowly miss Miranda's take off. Once he was sure that Lois was steady on her feet, he took off after the errant perfumer.
He did his best to reason with Miranda, but she was not interested in listening to anything he had to say. Within moments, they were at altitude and Miranda tried to release her full-potency version of 'Revenge,' only to be thwarted by Superman who closed off the distribution tanks and sucked up all of the aerosolized formula and redirecting it, in a lesser potent form toward Miranda. Thankfully, she, like many, found the man of steel attractive and he was able to use it to his advantage to get her to return back to the field where she was then arrested.
Lois had been watching from the hanger as the plane, and then Superman landed, ignoring the recently arrived Lex to run to the superhero. When she second guessed about if 'Revenge' had any affect on Superman, Clark decided to have a little fun at her expense and told her that he loved her. Much to his delight, Lois admitted she'd been waiting for him to tell her that for a long time but didn't want to take advantage of him, only to change her mind and impulsively kiss him. Neither Superman nor Lois paid attention to Lex's protests as they enjoyed their moment. Unfortunately, their moment was interrupted by Lex interrupting them, demanding to know if Miranda was going to permanently be love-drunk. Superman assured him that he'd diluted the solution and Miranda should be back to her normal self in a day or so before bidding goodbye to Lois and taking off.
Later that evening as they were discussing their article over coffee, Lois made the point that with the 'Revenge' solution, you could fall in love with any random person. Clark agreed but pointed out that she still hadn't admitted why she had fixated on him. It earned him an eyeroll and a much-diminished admission that there was an extremely remote possibility that she might have a small inkling of an attraction toward him.
"That's all I asked," Clark smirked, "I just wanted you to be honest with yourself."
"Wait, you were sprayed with that stuff," Lois pointed out, "Why didn't you…"
"Why didn't I succumb to your feminine charms?" Clark challenged. "I guess I'm just not attracted to you," He shrugged, before standing and heading back to his desk.
"You rotten liar!" Lois accused, following him, "You are too attracted to me!"
"I guess not," Clark shrugged, turning to his computer, and beginning to write the article, as Lois watched him, aghast at his blatant lie.
