***
Lord Of The Flys: Lois Lane
***
Her breath catches. Her heart leaps forward, straining for the familiar form, the beloved face.
It’s not him. She knows it. She knows, but it looks like him. It could be him. It should be him.
She wants him back. She wants Wells or even Tempus to show up so she can go back in time and convince Clark to elope. Just grab him and kiss him until he’s not thinking of anything but her and drag him off to some never-before-discovered island, hold him there with her arms and her lips and her love.
She wants it, but it’s just an impossible fantasy. Even if she traveled back in time, even if she made Clark her husband, even if she took him far away to some forgotten corner of the world, it wouldn’t matter. Clark would hear that spaceshuttle in trouble, or something else in need of saving, and he’d go. And Ching and Zara would find him, and Lois could hold onto him forever, could kiss him until they lost the need to breathe, and she’d still lose him.
His heart is too big, his selflessness too strong, his goodness too enduring. As fast as they ran, they would never be able to escape his integrity.
And Lois loves him for that. She loves everything about him…but she still wishes he were here rather than lost to the vastness of space. Here, waiting for her on her doorstep. Come back to her, unable to bear parting from her.
“You’re not real,” she tells the dream-man. “You’re just an illusion.”
But then, Clark’s always seemed like that, hasn’t he? Too good to be true. Out of this world--and not because he’s alien. One of a kind.
Even from the beginning, when Lois thought he was just a second-stringer from a small town she’d never be able to find on the map if she could be bothered to try…even then, she couldn’t help but take another look, and then another, and another at him. Because he's innocent. Because he's good. Because she hadn’t thought guys like him were around anymore, if they ever had been.
The more she got to know him, the more unbelievable he’d seemed. Strong and kind and forgiving and a true friend. So amazing she’d never looked closer, never dug deeper, because she didn’t want to find out that he wasn’t real. She hadn’t wanted to let go of the fantasy on the off-chance it was actually true.
And it was. It is. Clark is the best man she’s ever known, and how he’s been able to keep his purity of heart in a world that constantly shows him the worst of itself, she’ll never know.
Superman or Clark, he’s her fantasy. Her ideal. The illusion so integral to her heartbeat that now that he’s gone, she keeps finding ways of dreaming him back to her.
She misses him so much, and he’s only been gone a few days. She’s already seen him dozens of times. Already dreamed up a thousand ways he could be back. But then, if she can get used to him talking to herself, maybe she’ll get used to imagining a Clark on her doorstep, in her apartment, lying next to her in bed. Maye she’ll get so good at imagining him that she’ll forget he’s not actually here to hold her and help her and complement her.
What really scares her about that possibility is that it’s actually incredibly tempting. To be given a choice between no Clark or an illusion of Clark? She’ll take whatever of him she can get, never mind sanity.
But then, she should have remembered that Clark’s always been a dream come true, and once again, he makes the illusion into reality.
She doesn’t know why she’s surprised.
He’s always been a little bit magic.
***
***
Battleground Earth: Kal-El
***
“Kal-El, of the charges of high treason and conspiracy, the Tribunal finds you…guilty as charged.”
All his life, even before his parents told him about his foundling adoption, he’d longed for acceptance. For inclusion. He wanted to belong. He wanted to be welcomed and enveloped and made a seamless part of a whole. Finding out he’d come from a spaceship, struggling to deal with each new power as it developed…it all crystallized those longings into a desperate yearning.
He could still remember just how captivated he’d been by that globe when he’d touched it and it had warmed to him, spoken in his mind and revealed its secret. Later, when it unspooled messages like gifts unwrapped so specially for him, he’d thrilled to know the names and faces of his birth parents, the reason for his ship being depositing on Earth. Each revelation had touched him deeper and deeper.
He was loved. He was cherished.
He was Kryptonian.
Kal-El, son of Jor-El and Lara, last son of Krypton.
No wonder he’d never felt he belonged here! Of course he felt somewhat removed from the people around him. He was a stranger in a strange land, a visitor from another world.
Sometimes that distinction terrified him, as if simply knowing that he was an alien would undo everything his parents--Jonathan and Martha Kent--had done for him, erase their love and the friendship of everyone who’d impacted his life…undo his love for the amazing Human Lois Lane.
Sometimes he thought he’d give anything to not be an alien.
But then Zara and Ching revealed themselves. Then there was New Krypton and a culture and ways and laws and a history of a place he knew only by name. Then there was a palace--a floating palace!--and evil soldiers and a militant tyrant.
Kryptonians everywhere. Kryptonians all around him. Kryptonian uniforms and Kryptonian drinks and Kryptonian rules binding him every which way, and he waited. He waited and waited and waited, as patiently as he knew how, to feel like he belonged. He was one of them, part of them, needed by them. He waited for that sense of inclusion, that one perfect moment when everything clicked into place and that long-burning yearning was finally fulfilled.
But even with the right DNA, he was still an alien. An exile. An outsider. Too Human, too different, once more removed and set apart.
Clark Kent was relieved, because he didn’t think he’d survive if he felt more at home among the Kryptonians than he did on Earth.
Superman felt caught between two worlds, pulled violently between two peoples who needed him, needed help and justice, needed a hero to save the day.
Kal-El, though, newborn and fledgling, actually flinched away from this ostracism and the verdict that condensed it all into a single statement.
Guilty. Rejected. Excluded.
He hadn’t even had a chance to learn this people and their ways before they turned their backs on him and sentenced him to be flung in a million pieces throughout the galaxy, never to be accepted anywhere, just alien matter traveling through the cold and dark.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. But Kal-El, Clark, Superman, he locked eyes with Lois, heard his parents’ cries of outrage and denial, and he didn’t mind as much as he’d thought he would.
Maybe he’d never truly belong anywhere, but he’d done what was right, he’d helped where he could, and he’d been loved.
So he would die to save the only people who ever had fully accepted him, and consider his life a worthy trade for theirs.
***
***
Swear To God, This Time We’re Not Kidding: Various
***
“Lois and Clark, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Clark Kent:
They kiss, and it’s right, it’s good, it’s very near perfect. Her warmth in his arms, her lips against his until her smile breaks the kiss--not that he minds. He’s smiling too, incandescent with happiness, and he hopes all their kisses end in a smile. He loves her, oh, he loves her, and now, finally, with their matching rings and legal license and her own vow, he is free to love her unreservedly, to protect her unashamedly, to take care of her in every way she will let him. Finally, they are married.
This is the best day of his entire life.
Martha Kent:
They kiss, and she laughs. Finally, her son is loved and accepted and known. He is as happy as she’s always wanted him to be, that shadow of isolation that’s so long lurked at the edges of his eyes now banished entirely. All his fears and insecurities, everything arrayed against them, the multitude of obstacles they had to overcome, but here they are, and Clark is happy and defiant and married.
This is the moment her laughter is joined by her tears.
Perry White:
They kiss, and he’s so happy he could burst. His two star reporters, the best investigators he’s ever seen, and so much more. He’d like to think he always knew this moment would come, but to be honest, he’s as surprised as anyone that they’ve finally made it. Oh, sure, he saw the way Clark lit up around her, but in those early days, he would have bet every penny he’d ever earned on Lois’s stubbornness beating out over Clark’s adoration. He’s never been so glad to be wrong.
This is the kind of partnership legends are made of.
Jonathan Kent:
They kiss, and he quietly beams. He’s always known Clark could make it here--he has patience in spades and more desire to give love than any person he’s ever known--but he’s so happy that the woman his son loves is who she is. Her fierce idealism and innate desire to fight for truth no matter what are the perfect counterparts for Clark. And finally, they are united together, and he has faith that Lois will never let anything hurt Clark.
This is what he’s always wanted for his boy.
Ellen Lane:
They kiss, and from all that she knows of marriages, she should be terrified for her daughter and for the betrayals that lie in her all-downhill-from-here future. But strangely enough, she’s not. This young man who smiles so openly down at Lois didn’t back down at all when that horrible Wedding Destroyer threatened to kill his fiancée. He stayed strong and risked his life and was somehow compassionate through it all. And if he can face up to all that and her daughter’s strength…well, maybe he won’t actually end up breaking her daughter’s heart.
This is an admission she’d never thought she’d make.
Jimmy Olsen:
They kiss, and it’s exactly like a movie. The setting’s gorgeous enough his hands are itching for a camera, the light’s just right for romantic mood-setting, everyone’s here and nothing dangerous or strange has interrupted. Not to mention the smiles on Lois and CK’s faces, wider than any actors could make seem believable. Finally, after all this time, against all the odds, Lois and Clark are married.
This is so awesome because he’s just realized that he’s won the office pool.
Sam Lane:
They kiss, and he is instantly relieved. His little girl’s grown and successful and now happy and smiling with her husband. He tries to tell himself he’s just relieved that the ceremony went off without a hitch, but he knows the truth. It’s because she’s no longer his responsibility. It won’t be him disappointing her anymore. She deserves better than him, anyway, deserves to have someone who’ll put her first.
This is, he tells himself, a good thing.
Lois Lane:
They kiss, and she’s sure she’s dreaming. To be here, in this dress, with these witnesses, with this man finally hers. She never thought she’d be here, never thought this was a life she’d have—first because she didn’t want it, next because she thought she’d messed it all up with a wedding to a different, far unworthier man, and then because it seemed that everything in the entire universe was trying to prevent them from reaching this point. But she’s always been a fighter, and here they are, husband and wife.
This is everything she never knew she wanted.
***
***
Soul Mates: Lois Lane/Clark Kent
***
Lois Lane:
You’re warm and heavy over me, a weight I gladly accept and never want to be without. I’ve loved you for so long, you know, even longer than I admitted to myself at the time, and yet now, looking up at you and feeling the dimensions and contours of your heart in my trembling hands, I love you more than I ever have before. I didn’t even know it was possible to feel this much for anyone.
You’re good and kind and noble and you look at me with that look in your eyes, and I don’t need the idea of soul mates or past lives to tell me that we are meant to be here, together, united as one.
You’re mine, Clark, and I’m yours. I’ll protect you from everything that seeks to hurt you--your body of steel or your heart of gold. I’ll comfort you when your compassionate soul is bruised and remind you that you’re a hero when your conscience is a bit too conscientious. I’ll do anything for you, and I wish I could tell you all that, but it’s too many words. Too big to be distilled down. So I settle for these five words.
“I love you, Clark Kent.”
Clark Kent:
“I love you, Lois Lane,” I say teasingly back, because this is something you should never doubt. You’re my wife, mine to care for and protect and cherish. Though it wasn’t technically in the wedding vows, I’ve sworn my own personal oath that I will never let you doubt my love for you.
You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, all my fantasies and desires fulfilled and exceeded by your zeal and your certainty and your faith.
You inspire me, Lois. You make me want to be better, to be more, and you always make me feel as if I can attain all that. As long as you’re in my life, I can face anything.
So I tell you I love you, and I cover your body with mine as the world fades away. Because you, Lois, you are my world.
***
