Things inside of Lois' car were still awkward, a feeling that neither reporter liked very much. They sat in silence, both wishing to speak their minds, neither daring to.
"Hey, uh, Lois. Do you...? Are you...? Is everything okay, between us I mean?" Clark stumbled through the words, unsure on the best way to ask the question. It was the closest he could come to being truthful.
"Umm... I'm okay. Are you okay?" The awkwardness remained in her voice, creating an answer that didn't really make much sense.
"I'm okay." His brief reply showed how uncomfortable he was, resorting to two simple words, that also happened to be a lie. He wasn't okay, they weren't okay. They weren't like themselves. Things had changed.
Yesterday had been the best day ever. Okay, he had appeared naked in front of Lois again, but it's not like it's a brand new occurance. No, there was definitely one clear moment that had made that day stand out from the rest. He'd done it. He'd finally done it.
He'd kissed her.
And it hadn't needed perfect planning, it hadn't been on his checklist for the day. It had just happened, spontaneously. And you know what? It had been perfect. For him. Now what he needed to know was whether she had felt the sparks he ahd, whether she had had that urge to forget about the story and just kiss some more.
But what if she didn't? What if she saw it as it appeared, a cover to keep them from getting found out? He didn't need to know that. He didn't want to know that. He sighed as the battle on whether to ask her raged on without sign of coming to a decision.
"What you thinkin' there Smallville?"
Clark snapped back to reality, and faced a curious-looking Lois. She always seemed to be able to read him and was never afraid to ask him anything thanks to those reporter instincts of hers. She knew his general moods from his facial expressions. At that moment, he had his most common mood. He was pensieve, thinking deeply as he often did in his barn. In his grown man's clubhouse he often gazed out of the window, with Dthe very expression he held right then.
It was Lois' second favorite of his emotions. He just seemed to look so majestic, so heroic. Yet he had this part of him, this small part of him, that seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. His eyes, they let that part of him out. It was subtle, true, but Lois could always see it hinted in every aspect of Clark Kent. That part of him that she'd never question, or investigate, the part he hid away from everyone. Almost everyone anyway. She had her suspicions on who was let into this little secret of his, but she knew that one day he may choose to let her in. But until that day came, she would just ignore it. It was the least she could do for him.
Clark blushed, flustered over her question. "Nothing." He'd been reliving it. The kiss had been replayed in his head so many times he was sure that it was an imaginary occurance by now. No kiss could be that amazing, could it? He glanced at Lois. Maybe it could...
Lois wasn't satisfied with the answer, but from the red flush on the farm-boy's face, she could tell it was something to do with a girl. Or in that general area. She focused on driving, knowing that Clark was thinking about girls was the type of knowledge that made her a bad driver.
But she definitely wasn't jealous.
She didn't feel any attraction whatsoever towards that devilishly handsome guy sat next to her. No way, no how. Well, she wasn't saying that he wasn't attractive, because he was in that drop-dead gorgeous kind of way. But cute, smart and funny weren't really her type. Not if he happens to be Smallville anyway.
Damn it. She wasn't even convincing herself anymore.
A brick through the car windshield snapped Lois away from her thoughts. Her car swerved on the road before comig to a stop. Glass spattered everywhere. Clark bolted upright and looked around, using all of the abilities in his arson to work out what was going on. But it was too late.
"Miss Lane, Mr Kent. Nice to finally meet you." The velvet voice came from the very man Lois and Clark had been out to stop. Harry Wright, the villain of the story. He wore a dark Armani pinstriped suit, the color matched the ten other gorilla-sized men stood with him. They all surrounded the vehicle, guns aimed at the ready.
"I think it would be in your best interests to get out of the car and follow me."
The man gave a small chuckle, a chuckle that enraged Clark more than ever. He could have taken them all out in a blink, if Lois hadn't been there. But her sitting next to him meant that things were so much more complicated. He could hear her heart beat faster as she eyed the gun barrels currently aimed at her vital organs, though she showed no visible signs of her fear. Lois Lane: a fighter 'til the end. She was stuck with what she thought was a simple farm-boy. But she wasn't the only one who was stuck.