Lois?" A sob escaped her, and she covered her mouth with both hands. "Are you okay there?" She struggled to bring herself under control.
"Are you really here?" Clark chuckled.
"I'm really here. Want to get out of the bunker and have breakfast?"
"No!" But by God she was hungry.
"Ok." She didn't hear him go.
"Smallville?"
"Yes?"
"Did we kiss last night?"
"Yes."
"Oh god!" Sitting on the bathroom floor, her back to the door, Lois buried her face in her hands.
"I didn't think it was that bad. I enjoyed it." Is he laughing at her now? "Lois? Are you there?" She didn't answer. "Am I the only one who had fun last night?" He sounded concerned and Lois lifted her head from her hands. "Because I didn't mean to take advantage of you and if that's how you feel..."
"You didn't take advantage of me."
"But you were drunk and..." she got up and opened the door. He looked at her embarrassed. Gone was the smile and self-confidence.
"Smallville, you didn't do anything wrong last night." He nodded; relief clearly written on his face. "It's just that..." She didn't look at him.
"What?"
"Was it real? The kiss in the club was a show for idiots and the kiss when we got out of the cab was because I was drunk. None of that was real, was it? It's not like you really have feelings for me, is it?"
Clark was debating how to answer her. He could lie and say there was nothing wrong with it and she'd probably breathe a sigh of relief and they'd carry on as if nothing had happened or he could be brave and tell her the truth and take the risk that she didn't feel anything for him and that it really was the alcohol last night. He didn't want to lie to her. He loved himself as he was with her yesterday. Free, liberated, someone she found attractive. Telling her the truth was a serious risk, but Chloe managed to be his friend despite her feelings for him, surely he would be able to do the same with Lois?
"It was real for me, Lois." She looked at him in surprise, "I don't know what's between us, but I want to find out. I know that..."
"What?"
"That you make me a better person. I'm stronger next to you, more myself."
"How can you know that? You only came back yesterday, and I was so drunk. How do I know it wasn't the alcohol?" He smiled.
"Well, there's only one way to tell." and kissed her.
This kiss was not like yesterday's kisses. It was better. Clark tried to convey in this kiss everything he felt towards her and was unable to express in words. For Lois, time stopped. She felt as if she had lived in the cold for years and Clark with his kiss flooded her with warmth. She held him tightly; afraid he would disappear. He hugged her. Lois was the one who stopped the kiss, her eyes filled with tears and tried to distance herself from him.
"I can't..."
"Lois."
"You'll disappear again and I..."
"I'm not going anywhere and if I do I'm taking you with me." He looked at her. "That's assuming you want to come with me." She buried her face in his chest and he stroked her hair. "I shouldn't have left." Lois swallowed back the tears.
"No, Clark, you only came back a few hours ago and I can already see how important your journey was to you, how much you've grown. You shouldn't feel guilty because for once in your life you did something for yourself."
"But you..."
"I told you to go then. I'm an emotional mess and it has nothing to do with you." He looked at her in confusion. "It's been a rough week and yesterday I had a bad day and now I have a headache not to mention that my best friend is back and he's the world champion kisser." He smiled. "And he hid it from me, the bastard!" She hit him on the chest.
"I didn't really have a chance..."
"And now you'll take me to breakfast, Smallville, and woe betide you if anything burns!" His smile grew. "And Smallville?"
"Yes?"
"If you call me Fudge in public again, I have a very embarrassing picture of you to put on the internet."
"Promise. Without calling you Fudge, Fudge." She looked at him with hostility. "What? Just the two of us here." She giggled involuntarily.
Lois swallowed the last bite of her pancake and nudged Clark with her foot. He drank the orange juice and ignored her. Lois took her foot out of the slipper and nudged Clark in the thigh. Without stopping to drink the juice, he grabbed her foot and pulled her to him. Lois let out a small exclamation of surprise.
"Let go of my leg!" She tried to pull her leg back.
Clark placed the empty glass of juice on the table and began massaging her leg. Little moans of pleasure escaped her mouth. She placed her other leg on his thigh and Clark began massaging it as well with a small smile on his face.
"Then?"
"Hmmm?"
"What happened this week?" Lois opened half an eye and looked at him. He held her legs hostage. she sighed.
"A story with more twists and turns than a wet rope."
"Come on, I'm listening." She sighed again and looked at him hesitantly.
"Okay. Remember Green Arrow?" He nodded. "So, he's not alone. Sometime in the last few years he created a whole group of heroes."
"So far, it doesn't sound so bad."
"I thought so too but about six months ago something changed. They became violent. I don't know if everyone is like that or just Green Arrow, but people were really hurt."
"Has anyone been killed?"
"No, but it came really close to it. So, my source at the hospital informed me about it. I researched very carefully and when I found out it wasn't the only case I told my editor, Randall Brady, about it, and he gave me permission to go ahead with the story."
"Ok."
"Then I found out the discovery of the century. Someone called Watchtower, she's their coordinator. And then I started having problems."
"What problems?"
"Not something I could prove. You know that when you walk into your room, and you feel like someone's been there?" He nodded. "So exactly that but on my computer at the Daily Planet and my laptop at home. It happened a few times and I decided before I became paranoid that I would check the computers. So, I took the laptop to a friend of Olson's. He was working on the computer really hard. It was important for him to make it clear to me because he wanted me to be careful."
"What did he find?"
"Spywares, buried so deep in the computer that he believed they had been there since I bought the computer."
"So, someone can break into your computer whenever they feel like it."
"Exactly. He also found a virtual address, but he was too scared to use it on his computer so this week we snuck into LutherCorp Labs and made it straight to the Watchtower before the computer crashed." Clark's hands tightened on Lois' legs. "Ouch."
"Sorry." He gently rubbed her legs.
"So I wrote the story and submitted it to Lex. And yesterday morning he called me into his office, scolded me for crushing his expensive computer and fired me."
"Lois, I'm sorry."
"He already managed to blacklist me. Even the Inquisitor isn't ready to hear from me." He looked at her laptop and gritted his teeth. She followed his gaze. "Oh, don't worry. I took that computer and gave it to a homeless person." Clark raised an eyebrow with a smile. "If this Watchtower wants to follow him let her!"
"So who is Watchtower?" Lois made a sign as if she was zipping her mouth and throwing away the key. Clark chuckled.
"I want an explanation, Smallville. You owe me!"
"Isn't a foot massage enough compensation?"
"No!" He smiled at her.
"What do you want to know?"
"How did that security guard know you?"
"Hmmm, the summer before we met I ran away from home." She straightened up.
"No way!" He laughed. She threw a napkin at him. "I don't believe you!"!"
"Do you want to call my mother for confirmation?"
"I'll do it, don't you think I won't!" He handed her his phone and she shook her head no. "What happened?"
"It's part of a very long and complicated story like anything in adolescence. I'm not really proud of my behaviour then."
"What happened, Smallville?"
"There was an accident on the farm and mom got hurt and I blamed myself. I believed I was hurting everyone around me, so I ran away from the home..." Lois pulled her legs away from him and stood up. "What do you do?" He looked at her apprehensively. She sat on his feet and hugged him. "I'm fine, Lois. It was a long time ago."
"Where did you run away? To Metropolis?" He nodded and hugged her waist, supporting her.
"I wasn't really behaving like myself. The Atlantis club was a place I used to hang out a lot and there I was known as Cal. In the end dad found me, kicked my ass and brought me home."
"Good!" She leaned on him and swung her legs.
"That's it? No more questions?"
"I know I demanded the whole truth from you last night..." she tapped his forehead, "and I know there's a pinnacle of secrets here, but I don't care."
"Who are you and what did you do to Lois Lane?" she giggled.
"I can't believe you have a secret that would hurt me." He moved her hair away from her face and caressed her cheek.
"I'll tell you but not right now. I think there are more pressing issues."
"Really?"
"Really. I need your help to find an apartment."
"Aren't you going back to the farm?"
"No. And we need to get you back to the Daily Planet."
"Lex made himself clear. I should have listened to you five years ago."
"Fudge," Lois hit him and he smiled, "I don't like the fact that Lex owns the Planet or that you work for him but you've been there for six years and nobody fires their best journalist. It doesn't make business sense and Lex is all business."
"You haven't been here for five years, how do you know I'm his best journalist?" He looked at her seriously.
"I know you." She kissed him. "I have a meeting in an hour but how about I come back here this afternoon and go apartment hunting?"
"Do you have to go?"
"I have to if I want to help you get back to work."
"Ok."