Arthur Curry's hearty laugh resonated through Oliver's apartment. The 'Justice League', as Bart Allen had taken to calling this band of superpowered crusaders, were relaxing after their highly successful mission.
"Man, CK, you have really got to come with us more often," AC called across the apartment. "This shit is so much more fun when we also get to corrupt you in the process." Clark grinned. He really had had a good time tonight, even accounting for the kryptonite poisoning. He wasn't sure how he felt about having actually blown up Lex's facility, but in restrospect, it still seemed like the best course of action.
Bart, Victor, and AC were sitting together in the sunken interior of the apartment, while Clark and Oliver were leaning against the railing, in front of the clock facade that disguised Oliver's secret gear room. Chloe had left early, begging off celebrating by claiming she had a term paper to finish.
Oliver broke out a six pack. "Hey, who's up for a cold one? Bottled yesterday in the farmboy's hometown!" There was a mad rush for the beer, and Oliver managed to rescue a pair of bottles. He opened the first one and offered the second to Clark. "No thanks. I don't drink," Clark said. "Are you kidding?" Oliver scoffed. "Come on, Clark. We just blew a top-secret genetic testing facility off the map! That's worthy of a little celebration." Clark sighed and took the beer.
Somehow or another, Bart introduced the idea of a drinking game, and several more six-packs emerged from various stashes around the apartment. Clark raised his eyebrows. Oliver shrugged. "Hey, I knew what was going down tonight. Figured I'd better be prepared." Victor snorted.
"Hey Clark, think you can outdrink Impulse here?" Victor said. Clark grinned. "You bet." "You sure? With his metabolism..." AC said. Clark folded his arms and twisted his mouth in a cocky smirk. "My metabolism's pretty awesome too, AC," he said.
Twenty shots later, Bart was asleep on the couch and Clark felt dizzy and faintly sick. "Damn, Oliver. What the hell kinda beer IS this? I've drunk ten times this much and not even been tipsy!" he said. Ollie grinned.
Clark groaned softly. The room was spinning. This was absolutely not normal. Maybe for other people, but alcohol didn't affect him.
"Good guess, Clark. It's... special. There's a secret ingredient. Gives it a little extra zing, More of a punch, y'know?" Clark put a hand up to his face. His vision was telescoping. "What exactly is this secret ingredient?" he asked. "Just the tiniest bit of Smallville meteor rock," Oliver said. "Oh, shit," Clark had time to say, before he passed out cold on the rug.
When he opened his eyes, AC and Victor were bending over him. "Dude, you have no tolerance for alcohol, do you?" AC asked. Clark groaned and clutched at his head.
"It's not the beer. Alcohol doesn't affect me," he hissed in a pained voice. "It's the damned meteors. They're like poison to me. Bart knows that... Bart, dammit, why didn't you say something? Those things are deadly."
Victor helped him up and supported him as far as the sofa, then he and AC sat down on the other sofa across the coffee table. Clark collapsed onto the couch and sighed. "Ollie, a little warning about the damn kryptonite would've been nice. I mean, you know that stuff turns people into freaks. Doesn't the beer come with some kind of disclaimer?" he asked.
Ollie shrugged. "There's not much in there. Just enough to magnify the effect." Something seemed to occur to him. "What did you call it? The meteor rock, I mean?" he asked. Clark sighed. "Okay guys, drunk confession time. I'm not human."
Bart, bleary-eyed, sat up and managed to look interested. AC shrugged. "Well, that's no big deal. I'm not entirely Homo sapien either, if you know what I mean." Clark shot him a withering look. "No, that's not what I mean. I'm an alien. My home planet exploded when I was a baby. I crashed down in Smallville during the first meteor shower. And I'm the last of my kind." The kryptonite in his system, plus the beer, seemed to be having a kind of stupefying effect on him, and he giggled slightly.
"Heh. When I die, my species goes extinct. Which is cool. 'Cause I did die once. And then my dead father brought me back to life. That was weird." He was gazing off into space, smiling and nodding to himself.
Oliver and Victor looked at each other, clearly unsure whether to laugh or not. AC just stared at Clark, and Bart had passed out again. "Yeah... the meteors are called kryptonite. 'Cause they're little pieces of Krypton. Krypton was where I was born. And then it exploded. And then Smallville got attacked with it. And then my parents found me." He began giggling uncontrollably.
Oliver heaved himself up off the couch. "Okay, Clark. I think you've had enough talking. You are going to sleep until I can find somebody to take you home." Supporting his friend by the shoulders, he helped him up off the sofa and off to the bedroom. As they disappeared around the corner, AC leaned over to Victor and whispered, "Man, CK's life is seriously fucked up." "Hey! I heard that," came Clark's slurred voice from the bedroom. "I've got superhearing, man!"
Some hours later, AC slipped into the bedroom where Clark was passed out on the bed. "Hey man, I got something to ask you. You awake?" AC whispered. After several seconds of silence, he shrugged. "Guess not."
Just as he was about to leave the room, Clark shifted in his sleep and muttered. "Lois?" he whispered. AC's ears perked up. Clark continued to talk in his sleep for several seconds, and Lois's name came up several times. Well, this was interesting. AC was long over the beautiful and inquisitive woman, but he knew that Oliver and she were involved somehow. So why was CK the one whispering her name in his sleep? He'd have to probe this situation, because even if things were over between himself and Lois, he still cared about her, and there was just too much potential for her to get hurt in this situation...
Clark opened his eyes to see faint streams of sunlight sneaking past the curtains, AC sitting next to the bed, apparently waiting for him to wake up, and a splitting headache. "Oh, damn." he groaned. "Freaking kryptonite beer. Who'd ever figure?" AC shrugged. "Never had a hangover before?" he asked. Clark shook his head, and got up to open the curtains.
"You're not going to want the curtains open. Kills your eyes," AC advised. "Nah," Clark replied. "I'm solar powered. Probably the sun's the most likely thing to make me feel better." Arthur grinned. "You're a really weird guy, y'know that CK?"
After a few minutes of simply standing before the window absorbing the sun's light, Clark turned around, now feeling much better.
"I take it by the fact that you were waiting for me to wake up that you had something to say?" he asked. AC nodded. "Last night I popped in here to ask you something about the... the kryptonite stuff, but you were out cold. And talking in your sleep." Clark groaned silently. His dreams had, once again, been filled with visions of a certain brunette reporter, and he had a feeling he knew some of what he'd said.
"Yeah?" he said as casually as he could. AC glanced around, trying to find the best way to say this. "Look, you mentioned Lois's name a couple times. I know it's really none of my business, but... aren't she and Oliver an item?" Clark nodded. "I've never seen her this serious about anybody," he said unhappily.
AC couldn't help but smile. CK had clearly fallen hard for his friend. Well, he could certainly understand the attraction. And CK was too good a guy to butt in on Ollie's relationship. "You're in love with her, aren't you," he said simply. Clark fell backward onto the bed, then nodded.
Despite having known that fact already, AC was stumped for something to say. But he didn't have to. Clark started speaking on his own. "A couple weeks ago, she was really close to finding out about Ollie's green-clad alter-ego, and he asked for my help in misleading her. I don't know why I bothered. Keeping secrets only hurts a relationship."
AC could relate. His own secret had destroyed any chance he'd had with Lois. But Clark was continuing. "I dressed up as the Green Arrow and rescued her from this gang of street thugs. And right as Ollie was coming around the corner and she hadn't seen him yet, so she just... kissed me." He sighed. "Maybe I was in love with her before that. I think I was, but I wouldn't let myself see it. And now that I've finally figured out what I want, she's going around mooning after the 'Green Arrow'. It's like torture, only worse."
AC nodded. "I haven't got a clue what you mean, but I'm going to nod sympathetically," he said. Clark smiled half-heartedly. "Well, I've got chores to do. I should probably get home." He stood up, picked up his red jacket, and turned back to AC. "Thanks for listening AC. It means a lot to me." "Not a problem.
Clark supersped home, suddenly feeling much lighter, now that he had told someone his latest secret.
Lois placed her latest purchase from Victoria's secret in her suitcase. Chloe lay sprawled across her bed, grinning at her. "So... going all out for Ollie?" she asked casually. "Yeah. Don't think I'll ever be able to wear that green lace one-piece, though," she said sadly. Chloe chuckled. "What? Would thoughts of Clark interrupt an intimate moment?" she asked, mock-seriously. Lois sighed. "More or less. Why does he just bust in here like that?" she said huffily.
"You're the one who gave him the key to your apartment," Chloe pointed out. Lois shrugged, examining the rather... exotic... apparel laid out on her bed. Chloe followed her gaze, and noticed a theme. "Um... Lois, last time I checked, your favorite color was yellow. Did I miss something?"
Lois sighed. "I guess I've just had green on the brain lately," she said. Sudden understanding passed through Chloe's mind. "Two guesses why," she said, a hint of irony in her voice. "It is not like that and you know it, Chloe," she said defensively.
"If you say so," Chloe said, waiting for the outburst. "Okay, so... so it was the best kiss I've ever had. So what? Is it so wrong to have a little crush on the guy? I mean, you have to admit, the whole Robin Hood thing is kind of intriguing, don't you think? What girl doesn't like a little mystery?" Chloe smiled wickedly. "The best kiss you've ever had, huh?" she teased.
"Aargh!" Lois cried. "Will you just drop it, Chlo?" Chloe nodded. This was interesting. Even Lois didn't usually get this worked up about something so seemingly unimportant. Especially when she was on her way to Monte Carlo with her billionaire boyfriend. Her reporter instincts told her that there was more going on here than met the eye...
Lois flung her suitcase in a corner and herself onto her bed. A single tear coursed down her cheek. She wasn't sure whether or not she could find her way back to life without Oliver. It was like she didn't remember who she was, who she had been.
There was a faint creak as the door opened. "Lois?" came a soft male voice.
For half a second, Lois thought Oliver had come, to try and win her back. But then, as she turned around, she found herself staring up at Clark, who was standing beside the bed, gazing at her with concern. "Are you okay?" he asked.
She bit her lip and shook her head. Then she lowered her head and turned away so he wouldn't see that she suddenly couldn't contain her tears.
He sat on the bed next to her, and she risked a glance at her. There was such a look of tender concern in his eyes, that she completely lost control of herself and began sobbing hysterically.
The next thing she knew, he had enfolded her in his arms and was rocking her gently, whispering something into her hair. She sobbed and sobbed until she had cried herself to exhaustion, and released all the pain in her soul at losing the one person she had thought she might be able to really love.
When she finally drifted away in an uneasy sleep, Clark gently lowered her down onto the bed and pulled the blankets up over her shoulders. Then he quietly crept out of the apartment.
When Lois woke up, though she still felt the loss of Oliver keenly, she was able to put it in perspective. She had known that they'd never have a future. She'd known it from the beginning. He was a billionaire, and she was a nobody reporter. But she had felt so strongly for him, she had let him slip through the cracks in her armor and catch glimpses of who she really was.
But there had been times when she was reminded that it was an impossible relationship. Every time he disappeared, or canceled dates without warning, she remembered the miles between them. But somehow she had still allowed herself to be weak. She had given someone the front door key to her heart, and he had come in and trashed it.
Well, never again, she decided. Heartache was all that ever came from relationships. "That's it. I've sworn off men," she said aloud. And then, remembering the night before, she grinned half-heartedly. "Well, except for Smallville of course," she mused, staring at her reflection in the toaster.
To be continued...
N/A: Yeah, I know, this probably wasn't my best work, but I needed to get through Lois and Ollie's breakup, and I'm never great at that... So I think this chapter kind of needs an explanation.
As it's my plan to have a "Lois" and a "Clark" section in each chapter, I thought, 'well, what did the baby Justice League do after they blew Lex Luthor's warehouse up.' And it came to me, 'They're a bunch of young guys, they're gonna go have a drink.' And of course, this is Smallville. There can't just be normal beer. There has to be kryptonite beer.
Plus it's always bothered me that while Clark knows the origins of all the other members of the Justice League, they clearly know nothing about his. So I thought 'well, he gets drunk, tells them all about it. And then he confesses to Arthur how he's madly in love with Lois. Because he's drunk.'
So that's where my head was on this chapter. Like I said, it's not the greatest, but I promise you this will pick up in Chapter Three...