"There you go!"
Circa Fall 2019.
Clark and Lois were in Smallville for the weekend. They had the house to themselves as Martha was away in Washington, not in a work capacity but to stay with an old friend for the weekend. She often made little weekend trips to visit and stay in touch with people she'd gotten to know well during her term in the capital. Sometimes, she'd have friends come over to Smallville to stay at the farm and sample the delights of rural Kansas. It kept her active.
So it was with that that Clark had come home with some groceries. Most of the stuff was for Lara - diapers, wipes, some new bibs and so on - and he set it down to one side. He could hear Lois upstairs talking to her baby girl. Any second now, Lois would be bringing Lara downstairs, or so he thought. He walked over to the bottom of the stairs to get a closer look.
At first he saw Lois reach the landing at the top. She didn't have Lara in her arms, but instead was speaking to her and cajoling her. And then Lara toddled into view.
The girl on the stairs never failed to put a smile on his face no matter what trials and tribulations he'd faced during the day. He'd see some traumatic scenes when out rescuing people as Superman and while he endeavoured to make things as painless as possible for those who needed help, sometimes it required people to break beyond their pain threshold in order for Superman to save their lives. Grateful that his help was always taken at face value instead of people claiming for liability, he still had to think about the repercussions of anything he did as Superman. He was bringing his work home with him, although he always tried to leave it at the front door. The reason? The girl on the stairs.
"There she is! There's my little princess!" he said as he stood at the bottom of the stairs.
The beaming smile slowly spread across Lara's face as she heard her daddy's voice and saw him standing there waiting for her. She'd be rewarded with a cuddle and a series of raspberry kisses on her cheeks once she reached him, and she seemingly couldn't wait.
"Hey pumpkin," cajoled Lois. "Wanna show daddy what you can do?"
Lara could only utter a few words at the moment, but she'd been walking for a few months now and loved to run around. Lois would pretend to chase her, making her laugh as her little legs carried her wherever she wanted to go. She would occasionally bump into things but generally brushed it off as nothing, unless it was a pretty big booboo. Then she would burst into tears and demand to be picked up, glaring and pouting at whatever object had caused it once the sobs had died down.
Lois sat on the top step and encouraged Lara to follow suit. Lara was dressed in a cute lemon yellow dress with a cuddly bear on it. Her dark brown hair had been arranged with two little pigtails on either side, with her bangs out front. She had beautiful big hazel eyes, a cute-as-a-button nose and very chubby cheeks. Lois thought she looked like the character Boo from the movie Monsters, Inc. she remembered seeing as a teenager many years ago. Adorable, simply adorable.
"What you gonna show daddy, huh?"
Lara sat on the top step beside Lois before shuffling on her bottom, manipulating her legs out of the way and back as she took the next step down, holding onto the edge with her tiny hands. Lois sat down every couple of steps to make sure she could stop Lara from falling if need be. Clark watched, rapt and swelling with pride as the apple of his eye worked out how to make her own way down the stairs. Her face was a picture of concentration, right down to sticking her tongue out every once in a while. Throughout, Lois gave her words of encouragement as they continued to negotiate the staircase. They had done this for the first time while Clark was out, and Lois was eager for him to see the latest new thing Lara had learned how to do.
As Lara made her way down to the final couple of steps, Clark moved back to give her some space and let her come running to him. Lara did look up at him once or twice and it seemed to give her the motivation to continue. There was a reward at the bottom of those stairs.
"There you go!" said Clark, cajoling Lara to make it all the way down as she got faster at descending each step.
Lara reached the bottom step but because she'd been doing the shuffle and leg tuck routine for the past few minutes, it hadn't occurred to her that it wasn't necessary on the last step. So with that, she plopped onto her bottom on the floor, eliciting a "Whoops!" from Lois. Lois and Clark both laughed. When she realised there was nowhere for her legs to go beneath her to shuffle, she propped herself up by her arms and gradually forced herself into a standing position.
"Yay!" Clark and Lois both cheered and clapped in unison.
Now that she was on solid ground that she could run about on, Lara did just that, waddling over to Clark's waiting arms. She'd earned her reward, and it was raspberry kisses and cuddles all round, making her giggle happily. She was daddy's little girl alright.
"Hi gorgeous!" said Clark as he embarked on yet another round of kisses and cuddles.
The girl on the stairs was learning something new every single day, and he was loving every second of watching her grow. To hear her, to see her and to touch her were things he longed for whenever he was away from her, and cherished when he was there. There would come a time when these little moments would disappear as Lara grew older, but why not enjoy them while you can?