Hopeful Idiot - Chapter 05

Hope growled at her alarm going off at its customary 5.55 o'clock. "What's the o stand for? Oh my God it's early," Hope quoted Good Morning Vietnam under her breath as she threw a hand over her eyes before reluctantly getting up after barely five hours of sleep. "The human body may only require four hours of sleep, but I need more." She let out a jaw-popping yawn. "Definitely need to talk to H.R. about overtime. Or at least the ability to sleep in after such a looong day."

After a quick shower, which completed the waking up process, she grabbed a set of her customary clothes and headed for the kitchen. Then she groaned, faceplanting against the wall. No dinner last night meant no breakfast this morning. "Looks like a side-trip to McDonald's. I swear, if someone tries to rob the place, I'm gonna do something I won't regret."

Fortunately, there wasn't a stick-up and she went through the line (relatively) quickly, but the detour made her slightly late. When she reached her office at the astonishing time of 7.17am, she found her inbox already held five I.T. requests. "Good thing I got coffee…" she muttered and got to work. A chime sounded every time a new email request came; the list never stopped.

Three coffees and six hours later, Hope heard the chime as she was checking off her To Do List. Clicking the email, she swore, "Sonovabitch… I can't take her shit today. If she pushes me too hard, I'm gonna punch her." With extreme reluctance, Hope gathered a few bits and bobs she might need as she, once again, went to fix Lois Lane's printer.

She was in the elevator and halfway up before she remembered that Clark Kent shared a space with said Lois Lane…and the asshole had kissed her last night without permission! Sure it was a chaste brother-sister kiss, but that wasn't the point! Of course, she'd need Superman's help if she was to keep her job having to deal with Lane. What to do, what to do…

When she got off the elevator, Hope sniffed the air in surprise. "Smoke?" Why would she be able to smell burning? A feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach at the cause of the smell, Hope ran to the bullpen at a dead sprint. Seeing the blackened area around a certain redhead's desk, Hope cursed under her breath, "What has that crazy bitch done now?"

Clark's dark head popped up, his expression apologetic. He mouthed, 'Sorry' at her.

"Oh, I'll make her sorry alright," Hope growled/muttered as she stomped over. "What. Happened." she enunciated distinctly.

Lois waved her hands in the air as if in surrender. "I was trying to print the newest layout and it just blew up. I swear, I didn't do anything!" her expression was such that indicated she believed what she said, but Hope knew better than to believe a reporter of Lane's caliber. They took lying as an art form.

"Move," Hope almost shoved the woman away from the computer, but managed to stop herself barely in time. "Stay out of my way."

"Done. I'll be in the rec room." Lois flounced off.

Hope's fingers punched keys as she tried to figure out what went wrong. It wasn't long before Kent's tenor reached her ears. "How is it?"

More keys pounded. "She killed it," Hope announced after another minute. "Dead. Kaput. Don't suppose you have any powers over electronics?" her eyes slid to him with a small bit of humor in her eye.

"Ummm…no," he blinked at her, half-amused.

Long moments of silence as she knelt down to begin the process of unhooking the current printer from the system. Lois would need a new one. Bitch. She really should know better by now. "I still owe you for last night, you know."

There was distinct ribbing in his tone when he answered, "I was wondering when you'd bring it up."

Hope blinked, momentarily losing focus. His timbre, along with the comment, made her think they may be speaking of two different things. Either that, or she couldn't focus on Lois' ineptitude and Clark's hotness at the same time. Hope reached for a wire as she attempted to work and talk. "So what do you want?"

"What?" Confusion.

"As a thank you present? For saving my life? What would you like? The sky is the limit." She paused, then continued, "Not my bank account, but you can still ask." She tilted her head to grin at him, "I have electronic powers." She wiggled her eyebrows playfully.

He laughed softly but shook his head. "I didn't do it expecting reciprocity." It was an odd thought actually. Hope was the first person to even mention anything similar. Another way in which she was different. Oh, he'd been given a few keys to cities, but those were ceremonial; window dressing only. Hope was offering to give him something real, something he wanted.

Hope's smile became a touch sad, "Yeah, I know. No one who thinks like you does. But showing appreciation is still nice. I have it on good authority."

It was an interesting comment. Perhaps a relative of hers was in the military? The armed forces were similar in that approach. Instead, he redirected the conversation, "Actually, I was referring to your cabinets."

Hope paused, wondering at the shift, but continued. She pulled up and out from under Lois' desk, cords in hand, and blinked at him in confusion. "My cabinets?" she asked slowly. He nodded, a boyish grin crossing his features. He clasped his hands behind his back and rocked on his toes. A picture of innocence.

Her eyes narrowed. "Claaark… What did you do to my cabinets?"

His grin widened, "Oh, nothing much."

She crossed her arms and glared. "If I call up your mother, will she say that it wasn't much?" Such an expression demanded a parental investigation.

Clark's smile grew until it stretched from ear to ear. "My mother has no idea, and would be on my side if she did find out."

Suddenly, Hope really wanted to go home and find out what in the hell Superman had to do with her cabinets. And which cabinets? Bathroom? Hallway? Kitchen? Wait…he had looked in her kitchen cupboards last night… "What. Did. You. Do."

His form rocked, smile still wide. "I guess you'll have to wait until tonight to find out."

"I hate you." He froze, his beaming smirk falling instantly. Hope registered that he hadn't understood and quickly kept going, "It's going to take over my brain all day today! Making me wonder about all sorts of possibilities, and the probabilities of which is which given the likelihood with what I know of you, and I won't be able to get anything productive done. Do you know how much email I get all day? You are a mean, mean person who obviously cares nothing for the trials and troubles of the common I.T. guru." She gave a dramatic sniff.

The more she spoke, her words tripping over each other in a rush to explain, the more his grin returned. When she finally ran out of steam, he was smiling fully again. He stepped close to her, right into her personal space, making her still, eyes wide in surprise at this turn of events, and breathed into her ear, "You are many things, Miss Hope Kramer, but 'common' is not one of them." She shivered as he put a chaste kiss to her cheek, though it lingered longer than the one the night before. "Call my name and I'll come."

As he gently steered her (along with her dead printer burden) to the hallway, her brain was forced to re-boot itself. Or make the attempt. That close, she had been able to smell his aftershave. Clean and bright, just like him. "Oh Hope, you're an idiot," she muttered to herself. The way this was going, she'd end up kissing him in front of the entire bullpen and not give a damn.

(Of course, she'd only told him to distance herself from Superman, not Clark Kent, so technically it was fine. He hadn't gone against her wishes. But if they got any closer, then Lois was going to get involved. The woman was so weird, she'd probably get jealous or something. Not to mention, the reporter would probably start investigating Hope herself and that wouldn't be good. The woman would hit a brick firewall and go insane from unalleviated curiosity and may do something drastic. On second thought… Hmmm… )

Unheard by the redhead, Clark gave a soft, very satisfied, male laugh.

+++HOPEFUL+IDIOT+++

Hope stared at her kitchen cabinets. Her FULL kitchen cabinets. She pulled open the refrigerator. And stared at the FULL shelves of produce and meat. "Holy…" There were a lot of thoughts running through her brain. How had he done this without waking her? How had he gotten inside when the door had been locked? How'd he get so much food so quickly? And most importantly… WHY had he done it? Superman did NOT go around giving out food. He saved people from burning buildings or falling out of helicopters (his latest stunt with Lois), but he didn't give people food. So why her?

The two kisses flashed through her mind. How good he smelled. How warm his skin felt. The caress of his fingers against the small of her back.

Hope narrowed her eyes and began to gather ingredients. "I think…it's time to pull out Mom's cookbook…"

The title of the collection was The Kramer Family Arsenal. And across the inside cover of the family recipe binder were the words, The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Arm yourself well to ensnare your quarry.