My head is spinning, but in the best way. The first chapter of this story was WAFFy, the second was poignant and angsty ... and by the end of the third chapter, we're back to WAFFy again.
"Ahh ..." Clark spread his fingers and thumb across his cheeks. "I ... ah ... tried to shave, but the razor broke."
Lois hadn't even thought about that. "The stubble looks good," she said. "It suits you." And it did. It gave him a slightly roguish appearance that filled her imagination with a parade of possibilities.
"I don't like it," Clark said shortly.
Sniffle ... probably brings back memories of how he was forced to look in the cell.
They'd overcome so much. And they'd done it by working together.
But now ...
Now she felt as if she were trying to evade him. As if she had abandoned him to grapple alone with the obscure cloud of nothingness.
I was *so* glad to see this. That's what felt off to me in the last chapter. Not in your writing, but in Lois's decision to keep all these secrets from Clark. It might be understandable in another story, in another universe, but in this universe, they MUST tell each other the truth. It's essential to their relationship, to who they are. So I was so relieved when Lois walked right out of the bathroom, even giving up her shower, to talk to Clark and answer some of his questions. And as you had her do here, she doesn't even have to answer all of them -- but when she's evasive, she needs to be honest with him about why, so he's not at an even larger disadvantage than he already is.
Oh, poor Clark! This is funny and sad, all at once. But definitely a relief, to know that this is what was bothering him. LOL, poor guy!
And I love how as soon as he learns that they are not related, he INSTANTLY changes back into the carefree, flirtly Clark from before. The guy has the weight of the world on his shoulders -- no memory, no family, no identity, no nothing ... yet the only thing that can upset him is thinking he can't have a relationship with the woman he's just met. That's just ... fabulous!
Kathy
