A/N: I was watching "Lois & Clark" the other day and when this conversation came up between the two of them, I knew it needed a Smallville counterpart. The idea is the same and I don't own L&C either.
The gift-wrapped box is just sitting on her desk Monday morning, and she eyes Clark suspiciously. Ever since Perry promoted and moved him into her office, they've agreed to keep things as professional as possible at work, even though everyone knows they're engaged thanks to Cat Grant. But Clark, ever the romantic, still occasionally sends her flowers or other gifts just because he can, and Lois, ever the tease, still occasionally pulls on his favorite red garter belt under her pencil skirts and encourages him to put that x-ray vision to good use just to keep things interesting.
He looks genuinely surprised, though, when she punches him gently on the shoulder and tells him he shouldn't have.
"I didn't…" he says meekly and tries not to be concerned. It could be from Chloe or Lucy. There's absolutely no reason to assume that whomever sent this gift had anything less than Lois's best interests at heart. Even if she somehow has managed to piss off a lot of very powerful and very dangerous Metropolis residents.
"Lane, Kent, good to see you." Perry greets them jovially as he steps into the office. He beams at the box in Lois's hand. "You found it! Fantastic. I hope I'm not being presumptuous. I just thought you might need this sooner or later." He chuckles and elbows Clark. "Hopefully 'sooner,' right?"
Unable to stand the suspense any longer, Lois pulls the ribbon from the box and shakes out the contents. Into her hand falls a heavy nameplate, identical in every way to the one on her desk, with the exception of—
"'Lois Kent,'" she reads and holds up the nameplate so Clark can get a good look at it.
Perry watches her expectantly. "Well, what do you think? Won't be too long until we can run your byline as Clark and Lois Kent. Have, uh…" He lowers his voice. "Have you two set another date yet? I mean, I appreciate you being professional in the office and all, but I gotta tell you, Clark, I think your mom's getting the grandma itch and—"
"Okay, Perry!" Clark takes the older man's arm and steers him towards the door. "We all have lots of work to do today."
"See, that's what I love about you two—always focused, always ready. Real newshounds. God, I love the enthusiasm of youth! Adios, kids."
Lois waves goodbye half-heartedly but can't tear her eyes away from the shiny new nameplate in her hands.
"It does have a nice ring to it…" Clark says softly after he's closed the door and returned to her side.
"Huh?" she replies stupidly and shakes her head. She feels as if she's moving underwater. She can't understand how one tiny little word—four stupid letters—can throw her for such a loop.
"Your first name…" Clark perches on the edge of her desk. "And my last. They sound good together."
"Oh, yeah!" she replies quickly, too quickly, and tosses Perry's gift haphazardly back into its box. "I guess I'm just not used to seeing them together… Like that." She wrings her hands and wishes that she was better at hiding her true feelings. Or that he weren't so good at deciphering her every movement.
He narrows his eyes at her and watches her pace the small office space a few times before he speaks. "Lois, are you all right?"
"Mm-hmm. I'm fine, Smallville." She forces a smile but she knows he can see right through it.
If she's being completely honest with herself, she has no idea how she's feeling. She felt wonderful when he woke her with gentle kisses on her shoulders and even better after they made love in the shower. The perfect morning had capped off a blissful, easy weekend. Very few people had needed saving, a small miracle in Metropolis these days, so she'd gotten as close to an uninterrupted forty-eight hours with Clark as she's ever had. Last night, he'd only been able to coax her out of bed with a warm bubble bath for both of them. Hell, she hadn't even put on clothes until after their shower this morning.
And now in her hand, not even two hours after the most perfect weekend ever ended, is Perry's not so subtle reminder that they're going about this thing all wrong. She'd been kidding when she called Clark her "forever fiancé," for Christ's sake. Still… They've been engaged for two years and things are good, better than she'd ever hoped. It's not that she doesn't want to marry Clark, it's just that she already feels married to him… And why ruin a perfectly good thing?
Lois collapses into her desk chair with a sigh, her feet already aching from her heels and her head already pounding from her own indecisiveness.
Across from her, at his own desk, Clark turns her new nameplate over in his hands. "You don't want to get married, do you?"
There's not much of a question in his tone and as much as she dreads what she knows she'll find in his eyes, she forces herself to look up at him.
He steals her breath. His green eyes are wide and worried, his jaw juts forward a little more than normal, as if he's holding back, and his hands form tight fists for a brief moment before relaxing and tightening again.
He's the most powerful man in the entire word and she can break his heart right now if she isn't careful. With one final look at him, her decision is made.
"Of course I want to get married," she exclaims and the weight that lifts from her chest is immense.
What they have is real and wonderful and she knows that a piece of paper and a ceremony won't change any of that. Except, of course, to Clark, who has always been the more traditional of the two of them. She never cared about the legality of the whole thing, but he does and she loves him enough to want to do this for him.
Clark eyes her warily. She can tell by the change in his posture that he believes her, but also that he knows she isn't being completely truthful. "Then what about this bothers you so much?" He sets the Lois Kent nameplate on her desk and she swallows hard.
"Well… How set are you on me changing my name when we get married?" she asks quietly and immediately starts picking at her thumbnail.
He doesn't respond immediately and Lois can't help but feel that she's destroyed every with one sentence.
"I know we've never talked about it. And I didn't mean legally," she clarifies. "I mean, legally I would love to be considered a part of the greatest family I know…"
He smiles a little at that and she takes it as a good sign.
"But…" She pushes herself to her throbbing feet and bites her lip as she resumes pacing. "I've worked really hard to make a name for myself as Lois Lane and it is what people know me as professionally and marriage is a big deal for women because they're the ones who do all the changing anyway. I mean, they change their name when they get married, they change their bodies when they have a baby, they change—oof!" Her speech is muffled by Clark's lips as they press gently to hers. He always was one of the only things that could make her stop talking after she got a verbal marathon running. His hands find the small of her back and press her tightly against his strong chest as he kisses her. "We're at work…" she murmurs around his mouth.
"Lois, shut up."
She follows her advice and loses herself in the moment, tangling her fingers in his hair, relaxing into his embrace. Professionalism be damned. No one in the world can hold her like Clark does, and that would be true even if he weren't also Superman.
He pulls away from her and cups her cheek. "You don't have to convince me of anything," he whispers. "I love you and all I want is what's going to make you happy."
"But what if it makes you unhappy in the process?" she counters.
Clark shakes his head. "That's not possible."
She shrugs. "I just… It took me a long time to make her who she is and I'm kind of fond of Lois Lane."
"So am I."
"Hmm?" She purses her lips, confused by his agreement.
"She is the woman I fell in love with, after all." Clark pulls her even closer to him. "Lois Lane: stubborn, hell of a left hook, can't stand awkward silences, sucker for stray dogs and naked men…"
She blushes. "Oh god…" Of course he'd bring that up.
"But also," he continues, "the most beautiful, sensitive, amazing woman I've ever met. And the woman I'm going to love with my whole heart for the rest of my life."
Lois smiles broadly, completely at a loss for words as she so often is when Clark is around and telling her everything she's ever wanted to hear. It's really not fair that he has such a command over the words he says, and if she didn't love him so much, she'd probably hate him.
"Be Lois Lane to everybody else," he tells her, "but just know that to me you'll be her and Lois Kent. My wife. My best friend. And, just between you and me, I think I'm getting the best deal."
"I guess I'll need to ask your advice," she says with a grin. "You are the master of maintaining two identities."
Clark nods, pondering her proposition. "Well, it's hard work having an alias. You might need private lessons."
"I think that can be arranged." She laughs as he presses a kiss to the hollow behind her ear and then her breath catches in her throat and she whispers, "I love you, Clark Kent."
"I love you more, Lois Lane," he murmurs into her ear before he kisses her long and hot and hard.