Chapter two, just like the first!
Many thanks to my reviewers, Super Chocolate Beardragonchic, and Kasuchi! Thanks to the people who read this, and to Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, for making these characters dynamic.
Just saw the last episode of the season. Completely mindblowing. Full marks.
Bored! - Chapter Two
Chapter 2, wherein our protagonist displays mad bantering skills.
The duo hurried out of the building, walking down Fifth Street toward Clark's apartment. Spring had begun to rear its head in Metropolis, but that didn't mean it wasn't still cold. It meant that the sun would come out, but produce no warmth whatsoever, as though it was taunting the freezing residents of the city.
For her part, Lois was glad she had forgone the usual skirt in favor of a smart pant-suit (of course, still with a purple coat, because some things just couldn't change); Clark, who really didn't need warmer clothing but did so in order to avoid any kind of disturbing questions, elected to wear a nondescript brown trench coat over his white button-down and black slacks. Tempting fate today, he decided to wear a tie with the infamous Batman logo on it (Dick had gotten it for him for Christmas, and, to Batman's credit, he only threatened Superman with mild Kryptonite poisoning when he'd first seen him wearing it).
The streets were full of citizens going about their normal lives, unaware that their greatest hero was walking among them, gabbing away with his friend (girlfriend?) Lois Lane.
"...and that is reason #62 as to why I am a better writer than you." She finished, a satisfied grin on her face.
"What really gets me is that you had time to enumerate 62 different reasons as to why you think you are better than I am, and then order them in terms of strongest versus weakest argument, and then memorize them!" Far from seeming insulted, it seemed Clark was genuinely amazed that she had actually thought this through. He was also somewhat flattered, and let it show through in his tone.
She fixed him with a coy grin. "Well, what can I say, Clark, I was very bored, and you are an easy target."
"If you will allow me a counter argument?" He asked.
She nodded her assent, and he said, in a faux British voice, "It shall be brief, for I have only one point to make: I have two Pulitzers, and you don't." As an afterthought: "Nyah, nyah, nyah."
She glared daggers at him. "You're a cold man, Kent. Didn't think you had it in you."
The pair walked on, in silence: not the cold silence of two people who'd just had an argument, but the companionable silence of friends who needed no words to fill any awkwardness.
Clark, sensing this an apt time, slipped an arm over Lois' shoulders, mumbling that "it's just too darn cold out here."
Lois raised an eyebrow at the un-Clarkishness of the move, but didn't voice any opposition. I didn't think he had that in him either.
The two had walked in this way for a couple of minutes when a man in a brown trench coat and fedora brushed past the pair. Clark froze, and so did the man; under his breath, Clark whispered, "J'onn?" He'd hoped it was low enough so that Lois didn't hear.
Fat chance of that.
"John?" She asked. "Who? Him?" The stranger saw fit to finally turn around at this point, and Lois got a good look at him. What she first noticed about him was his height. Clark was one of the tallest men she knew, and this guy had about two inches on him. She looked at his face, and saw a completely average one staring back at her. It was as though it had been designed not to be called attention to.
"Clark. How are you?" the stranger asked, in a voice that seemed much deeper than a person should sound, and somehow abnormal.
"I'm fine, John," Clark said, careful not to use the alien pronunciation. "Why didn't you tell me you'd gotten into Metropolis? I could have set you up at a hotel, or you could have stayed with me." Clark's tone didn't indicate hurt, but surprise.
"Its quite all right, Clark. I'm only here for a day to set some affairs in order, then...I haven't the foggiest idea." A small smile found his lips. "Perhaps China."
He turned his attention to Lois. "And is this the Ms. Lane that I hear so much about?"
She smirked. "'So much about', eh? He talks about me?"
He laughed, a small chuckle. "Incessently. I used to think that the League meetings were just an excuse to talk about-"
Clark's eyes went wide, and J'onn stopped at once. "Clark, what is wrong?"
Clark mouthed at him, League meetings?
J'onn sent telepathically back, Yes, the meetings. What are you-Ah... A mental chortle sounded. She knows, Kal. She's known for months, apparently; there's no need to dance around it.
"Really?" Clark asked, not meaning to voice the question aloud, but unable to stop himself.
The smile on the unreal face of the Martian, combined with the wide grin on Lois' face, gave Clark his answer.
"Just figured it out, Mr. Two-Pulitzers?"
Good a place as any to end the chapter!
It was brought to my attention by a friend that there is no entry on Wikipedia for the Source Wall. Yeah. My bad.
Next chapter, Clark and Lois talk about secret identities, relationships, and food from the farm!