“Horribly,” she replied. “Do you want to move in together?”
Part 203
The toast shattered into pieces and went flying into the air, raining down onto Clark’s head.
Oops? So, did it explode or did he fold it up with his fingers?
She patted it down, but it was being as stubborn as a Kryptonian.
Also, aren’t Kryptonian females rather pliable? /points at the professional caregivers/
Perhaps this conversation should have waited until after she had showered. She put a hand to her mouth. And brushed her teeth. Too late now.
Sounds like she failed Marketing 101. This way, Clark will know exactly what to expect instead of having the brushed-up version of a roommate to make the offer more attractive.
CLARK:
It’s a Lois volunteering to share my bed. What’s the ER talking about?
“You know sharing an apartment.
Ooooh! I found the place where you took the comma from, three parts ago or so.
You. Me. Living together,” she said.
ELLEN: In sin.
GRAMS: Oh, shut it. She’s a grown girl and he’s man-pretty.
He was going to make her spell it out, wasn’t it?
Maybe ‘he’? Also, yes. After all, he’s a Kryptonian. They’re rather dense.
“No,” he replied. “This is about your fear of being alone. You’re worried that Luthor is after you, and you could very well be right, especially after everything that has…”
“This isn’t about me being afraid,” she growled.
Riiiiight.
She rolled her eyes. “Do you want to move in together?”
“What? Here?” he asked.
No. Not *here*. He really *is* stupid. She’s afraid of her place.
Here would give him the option to think that she meant as roommates. Her in her room. Him in Lucy’s old room.
. “No, Chuck. Your place.” It only had the one bedroom.
See?
Lifting his buttery fingers to her lips, she stuck one into her mouth to lick it clean.
A shudder passed through him. It was the good type of shudder, more of a tremble, as if he were losing control, which meant he was only acting dense.
No, he’s very…dense at the moment.
Lois moved closer to him. “And I wouldn’t have to call you to say ‘goodnight’.” She placed a different finger into her mouth.
/scratches head/ Is ‘tripping the patented Clark Kent overload switch’ your invention or was it some other author?
“It’s a little soon to be talking about moving in together, though, don’t you think?
But that way she’d be repeating the previous action 9 more times?
“I think that you’re trying to find a plausible reason to move out of your apartment and you’ve latched onto me as a good excuse,” he replied
So, he’s telling her that she’s acting like a golddigger trying to find a nice pad to stay at? Hmm…considering his place, actually, just a stereotypical ‘60s woman trying to snag a reasonably well-situated husband. Does he really think this is a wise insinuation to make?
She crossed her arms. “Oh, really? Because you’re making me sound needy and desperately chasing after you.”
See?
“Even after I confessed traveling back in time to have a second chance with you? Nope, sorry, Lois. I have already claimed the needy, desperate chaser role in this relationship, and I refuse to hand it over,”
Actually, he’s more the ‘creepy, stalker guy’.
LEX: Hey! What about me?
“I’m worried that you’re moving too fast for you. I don’t want you to rush our relationship… before you’re ready… and later on, have you feel as if you’re stuck or pressured or…”
Wouldn’t it be awkward if she broke up with him in a couple of months because of this?
Her gaze narrowed. “I said share an apartment, not a bed.”
But…but…but…she…earlier…she…what?
LOIS: Just because I want him to take me to bed once we move in together doesn’t mean he gets to spell it out first.
His responding gaze let her know that he didn’t believe her.
Is that his ‘your robe should be made of lead’ gaze?
Okay, she had meant that, but after what he said, she would never admit to it. Even if on the off-chance he could get her to admit to meaning it, he just lost out that ‘sharing a bed’ meant ‘sharing their bodies’ instead of ‘sharing a sleeping spot’ with that look.
Right. Because she’s going to not be all over him when he sleeps next to her.
CLARK: *Over* the covers.
LOIS: Makes him easier accessible…
Unless, of course, he kissed her while lying in that sleeping spot… or came to bed naked.
See? So, basically, any sort of ‘I’m available sign’ above his head.
Oh, hell. How did I become so easy? Lois thought, frowning.
Friends with Cat? Not having gotten any for several years of knowing Clark?
She was plenty ready to move to the next level of their relationship, especially if it meant leaving this apartment.
Yeah, sounds like she’s trading sex for a place to sleep.
Crap, I’m still going to have to be patient, aren’t I? I’m going have to ease him into this.
Afraid he’s going to fly off to an emergency as soon as she shuts off the light in the bathroom?
“I know you like to jump into things with both feet, but with this… with us…
He’d prefer her not jumping into things with both feet? Kryptonian physiology this, invulnerability that.
Every step? She didn’t want to be fifty before she got him naked.
“Sometimes ripping off the bandage quickly is the best way,” she countered.
She wants to rip his clothes off?
She leaned back so she could look him in the eye. “Do you regularly hover around your apartment?” she asked.
He kinda does. For instance, he sleep floats.
“Oh.” She watched him butter toast and wondered if he recalled that she always played to win. “We’ve slept together before, you know,”
What?
she said as he snapped another piece of toast into smithereens.
“And as I recollect, it was quite nice… sleeping together, that is.”
Oh, when she was shot. You evil, evil writer.
“Do you want to go out for breakfast?”
***
Lois slid her fork through the last bite of Uncle Mike’s fudge raspberry torte.
Breakfast, huh?
LOIS:
It had been just what she needed to take the edge off being patient with her dear, sweet, ever-annoying Chuck.
She going to spend her days on a treadmill if she moves in with him, huh?
LOIS: The reason why I lobbied for sharing the space underneath the covers. Also great for taking the edge off, plus, extra bonus calories burner, too!
It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Perry had announced that Clark had garnered a Kerth Award nomination for Investigating Excellence, while none of her stories over the last year had.
Oh, it wasn’t actually breakfast. Also, she a bit jealous that Clark’s a better reporter than she is?
LOIS: No, I’m not jealous. But I will be starting an investigation into the malpractices of the Kerth board’s members.
or that there was a secret government agency trying to kill Superman and willing to kill innocent Kansans in the process.
Can someone hiding an alien invader be considered ‘innocent’?
No, Clark Kent had been nominated for some boring story having to do with conditions at retirement homes, or some other rot.
Ooooh! It’s from canon!
Also, why she’s stuffing herself at Mike’s!
Just before Perry’s announcement, her illustrious partner had rushed off on some emergency and told her just to not expect him for lunch because he had to meet a source afterwards.
Maybe he scanned the envelope and realized he’d have to make like a tree and leave?
Was Superman so busy that he was scheduling his rescues in advance?
Maybe it’s a prearranged meeting that combines companionship with a blonde with food and some legal exchanges?
She also didn’t have to worry that she would jump her partner’s bones out here on the sidewalk.
What if he showed up dressed as Superman?
LOIS:
She placed the last bite into her mouth and sighed, picturing equally delightful but entirely different sins in her mind.
Lois! Not out here n the open.
Clark is standing up at the Kerth Award podium announcing to everyone, as he accepts his award – because of course, he’d win – that he wants to share his award with his partner Lois Lane and that she should join him on the dais.
Oh, those kind of sins. Envy. Not Lust.
Then he hands over his crystal teardrop trophy and insists that she take it, saying he could never have earned it without her love, assistance, and journalistic mentoring.
Oh, look, it’s gluttony that combines envy with lust :p
Hmmm… ‘her’ instead of ‘Lois’ since it’s present tense imagination?
professing that he will never be able to be happy until he makes love to her so thoroughly that she passes out from exhaustion and pleasure every night for the rest of her life.
BARON TEMPOS: So, just once, then?
When she reluctantly agrees, as she would never show eagerness in her fantasy,
Yes, it’s a fantasy that she’s modest and possessed by a modicum of decorum instead of wanting to jump him right then and there.
“I don’t know. Gerald’s still waiting for them to show up.”
Lois sat up straighter. “What?”
Well…that means he still has hope they will show up eventually. Isn’t that worth something?
She wouldn’t put it beside Clark to have placed a tracer on her.
She craned her neck around her uncle and saw that Clark wasn’t alone. He had just exited a cab with…
Lois stood up. “Mayson Drake, how good to see you,” she said through a forced smile and gritted teeth.
Ooooh! I was right about the blonde coming earlier!
LOIS:
“Mayson and I met this summer. She was helping the team working to put Luthor away,” Clark replied. “She’s been very helpful.”
Didn’t you say they hadn’t met yet?
Maybe his denseness wasn’t an act. Couldn’t he see how bad this looked? Especially how much Mayson looked at him?
CLARK:
But Kryptonian lord are entitled to multiple professional caregivers…
Not sure about that bit of lint there… /tries to clean screen/
you didn’t believe me when I told you he was a criminal mastermind?” Lois said.
“I didn’t think it was relevant to bring that up,” Mayson replied.
It is so Clark knows that his new professional caregiver doesn’t believe his other professional caregiver.
JIMBO: Cat fight!
CLARK:
“I thought you hated her because she convicted you on that Eugene Laderman thing.
Uuuu… ‘convicted’? Wouldn’t she have to be a judge for that?
“I saved this country because I helped Eugene and the thanks I got was a felony conviction!” Lois returned.
Well…given how Ms Lane here is a professed carrier of a scarlet ‘A’, maybe Mayson is a tad touchy about Ms. Lane here touching her boyfriend.
Lois set her hands on her hips and waited. That had to have gotten through even Clark’s skull.
CLARK: Lois doesn’t like my other friend. Maybe Lois isn’t such a nice person after all? Plus, Mayson won’t die of some horrible 24-hour bug when we consummate our marriage. Also, blonde, so bonus!
Clark took Mayson’s hand off his arm, patted it, and turned her towards Lois’s uncle. “But the reason… Mayson, this is Mike Lane. Mike, this is Mayson Drake. Mayson works for the District Attorney’s office.”
Awww, he’s trying to play matchmaker. Isn’t he adorable?
“Clark, why are we here?” Mayson asked under her breath, yet they all heard her.
Threesome with Lois?
“It’s not a date, if that’s what you were thinking,” Lois said, stating the obvious to all but clearly Mayson.
Apparently, Lois doesn’t know about it yet, either.
“Of course not, Lois,” Clark said, his eyes widening at her words.
CLARK:
She knows how to get Kryptonite. I really have to tread carefully now if I want to live past tomorrow morning.
“What?” This time Mayson’s question was a bit sharper. “What do you mean ‘this isn’t a date’?”
Lois set a hand on Clark’s arm. “Clark,” she said firmly, interrupting him. “Mayson thought you two were on a date.”
She really has to put it into small words for him, huh?
Clark’s cheeks went redder than rosy this time. “Oh, gosh, Mayson, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to… I never…” He cleared his throat. “I thought everyone knew.” He glanced at his partner. “I’m in love with Lois.”
MAYSON: So? Doesn’t mean she reciprocates. Or has the emotional competence to do so in the first place. Did you know that I have a cabin in the woods with a big bed?
“Our first official date was for your birthday last September,” Clark rebutted and then gasped. “Why, Lois, it’s almost been a year.”
“Thank you for reminding me,” Lois grumbled.
Doesn’t like to be reminded that she’s almost a year older? Or that it’s been a year and they still haven’t moved to the ‘third-date’ stage of their relationship?
LOIS: Yes.
“Mike, Death by Chocolate is my favorite cake, but really, I don’t celebrate it.”
Not ‘uncle Mike’?
“You’re dating Lois Lane?” Mayson repeated, apparently having still not moved on from that point.
To be fair, it *is* a bit unexpected.
“But… but… she’s a convicted felon!” Mayson said. “She was engaged to marry Lex Luthor!”
That second one really did almost wreck things.
CLARK: Cooties!
Clark glanced at Lois and raised a seductive eyebrow. “Oh, really?”
Sounds like he’s hoping for a threesome.
LOIS: Fine by me.
Lois gave Clark a look that read, 'Hey! She said it, not me.'
“You’re very pretty, Mayson, and if I...” Clark started before choosing very wisely not to continue that train of thought. “Maybe Lois knows a nice man she can introduce you to.”
How about Superman?
“Nope. Sorry, Chuck.” Lois shrugged. “You’re the nicest man in Metropolis and even you’re a horrible liar.”
“That’s not true!” he snapped.
It is. He can’t lie to keep Superman’s identity a secret.
“He’s a vigilante. He struts around town, thinking because he’s got all these powers that laws don’t apply to him.”
GRAVITY: I’d like to file a civilian suit for that, too.
“Clark is Superman’s best friend,” Lois said with a grin.
“I am not!” Clark retorted.
Lois placed a finger to her lips. “That’s right. He’s not.” Then she winked.
He’s probably his worst enemy.
LEX: Hey!
“I know you’re not, Chuck,” she replied, pulling him closer. “Just do me a favor and stop asking women out without me.”
She really does want to go and pick up a nice blonde in a bar together with Clark!
“Never again,” he promised, and this time she believed him.
Uh-huh…
So, will the blonde make a second appearance with a vengeance?
MINDY:
ER: No, you’re scheduled not before part…350?
Michael