Table of Contents
From Part 1:She could tell him that he’d had no right to expect that she would return his feelings. She could also remind him that she’d been as tactful and caring as she’d been capable of - but then, he’d said he accepted her rejection. It was the rest which left him angry and bitter.
And, of course, he had a point. She had gone off and said she’d marry a man she didn’t love.
Biting her lip, she turned to him again. “I am sorry, Clark. I never meant to hurt you. And I guess I did think that you’d still be my friend, which was pretty naive of me, I admit.”
His anger seemed to be spent; he gave her a weary smile, though there still wasn’t much evidence of friendship or affection in it. “I could probably have coped with that, Lois. Even after that day... But you went off and got engaged to Luthor! How was I supposed to feel about that?”
Frustrated, she exclaimed, “But I never actually meant to marry him!”
*********
Now read on...What?
Clark stared at her, wondering if she had actually said what he thought he’d heard. He had. The words repeated over and over in his mind.
She hadn’t intended to marry Luthor?
“Then why the heck did you accept his proposal?” he demanded.
And then the answer to his own question came to him. It was obvious.
She was about to speak, but he cut across her. “Wait a minute,” he said, his tone sardonic. “You were hoping that Superman would find out and change his mind. You wanted him to come to you and tell you that he was wrong to turn you down. You wanted him to beg you to break your engagement and be with him instead. Isn’t that it?”
The immediate flush on her cheekbones and her guilty expression told him he was right.
“Lois, what the hell did you think you were doing?” he demanded, almost more appalled at this than he had when he’d heard that she’d accepted Luthor’s proposal. “You agreed to marry a man you don’t love, a man you claim to have absolutely no intention of marrying, to try to blackmail Superman into telling you that he loves you? Are you
crazy?”
Her gaze dropped to her knees and she nibbled at her lip, before muttering, “Yeah, I think I was.”
A tear glistened in the corner of her eye, and Clark’s anger faded as quickly as it had arisen. As irritated with himself as he was for being swayed by her tears, though, he reached out his hand and covered hers where they lay on her lap. She cast him a quick glimpse; he saw the misery in her eyes and all the protective, loving feelings he'd had for Lois over the past year, and which he'd thought he'd buried, came flooding back.
He still loved her. He still wanted her. He still needed her in his life.
The hatred, the bitterness, the feelings of betrayal - they seemed less important suddenly now that he was faced with a Lois who was distressed and who knew that she'd made a mistake in getting engaged to Luthor.
"What are you going to do?" he asked quietly.
She looked down at her lap again, and his gaze followed hers. Next to where his hand lay, covering hers, a large, ostentatious solitaire diamond winked. Freeing her hands, she tugged at the ring and removed it.
"I'm not going to marry him," she said, and although her voice shook there was determination in it. Then suddenly she smiled, and it was a smile of relief. "Oh, Clark, you don't know how good that sounds! I'm
not going to marry him! I'll have to tell him tomorrow. He's not going to be happy, but I'm suddenly happy again for the first time in weeks."
"I'm glad," Clark told her with sincerity. "Not just because I hated the thought of you marrying him, but because I really do think that he's dangerous."
She gave him a considering look. "I guess I should get you to tell me why - I never let you before. But - tomorrow? I think I’ve been through enough upheaval for tonight."
It was a start. They had taken a first, cautious step towards rebuilding their friendship. There was a long way to go yet, he knew; he had a lot of painful memories to bury, and she had to earn his trust once more. But he wanted to trust her again. He wanted to be her friend again. With that knowledge, it could surely be done.
And she had already edged past the barrier she herself had erected between them weeks ago by actually asking him to tell her why he didn’t trust Luthor.
Clark nodded. "Sure."
***********
Lois felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her mind. She wasn't free yet - she still had to talk to Lex and give him back his ring - but she'd taken the first big step. She'd climbed off the non-stop rollercoaster she'd been on from the moment she'd said yes to Lex.
No; probably from the moment she'd said no to Clark.
Stealing another glance at her one-time partner, she allowed herself to wonder, for the first time, whether she had actually been crazy to deny that she had feelings for him.
Clark, I just don't feel that way about you.She did feel something for him. Of course she did - otherwise why had his absence from her life over the past few weeks hurt so much? Why had she, every day, hoped for some form of contact - a phone call, a knock at her door, a reply to the wedding invitation? Why had Clark's silence mattered so much more than Perry's or Jimmy's or anyone else's?
She'd answered him instinctively, allowing the barriers she'd erected against him from the day they'd met to dictate her response. And yet Clark had sneaked under those barriers long ago. He'd become a friend like no other. She'd confided in him, trusted him, sought him out for companionship, run to him when she was scared.
She'd run to
him. Not Perry. Not her mother. Not Jimmy. Not any of the men in her contacts book. Not any of her friends from her NOW chapter. No; when she'd been in need of support or even just of companionship, she'd gone to Clark.
He wasn't just a friend. Was he?
"If only you'd kissed me that day in the park... then I might have known how I felt."
It wasn’t until Clark stared at her, his expression stunned, that she realised she'd said the words aloud.
Then, slowly, giving her plenty of time to pull away, Clark raised his hand to cup her face. Holding her lightly, he swayed towards her, and then their lips met.
With a sound which was almost a sigh of relief, Lois slid her hands into his hair and kissed him back, her lips parting as she instinctively deepened the embrace.
Lex's kisses over the past few weeks had left her cold - and his kiss that morning had repulsed her. Clark's kiss reminded her of what a kiss should be. The feelings he evoked in her were the same as before. The kiss on the plane. The kiss in the Lexor. The kiss when he'd left Metropolis.
It was all so obvious - why hadn't she seen it before?
She was in love with Clark.
But what about Superman?She and Superman had unfinished business; Lois felt that very strongly. And she needed to resolve that sooner rather than later. Even if she had just worked out where she’d gone wrong with everything in her life - even if she and Clark had just taken an amazing, blissful step towards something she wanted to explore further.
Breaking the kiss, she smiled at Clark, stroking his face with her fingertips. "I can't believe I was so stupid. That I didn't see what we had."
He gave her a wry look. "I thought you never would see it. That it was only me who felt it - this thing between us."
Lois bit her lip. "I did feel it," she admitted. "I was just... running away from it. It scared me, Clark. And plus... I was blinded by - I guess infatuation, though it feels like a lot more than that."
"Superman," he said, grimacing.
"Yeah, Superman. And when he rejected me, I think I just stopped acting rationally. I was so mad... I was so hurt. I just wanted to force him to realise that he was wrong. And I thought that if I could make him jealous..." She paused, shrugging. Now that she'd finally put into words what had motivated her to accept Luthor's proposal, it sounded so stupid. So juvenile, in fact. The behaviour of a silly teenage girl.
That unfinished business was nagging at her.
"Clark?"
"Yeah?" His expression was open, the look he gave her caring. Loving, in fact.
"Can we take this up again tomorrow? I... need to deal with Lex, and that's going to mean quitting my job at LNN too. But once that's over, you and I need to have a long talk."
He nodded. "Yes, we do. Like you said, it's about time I told you everything about why I think he's dirty - including what Superman knows."
Superman? Superman knew stuff about Lex and hadn't told her?
So he hadn’t just ignored the fact that she was engaged to marry someone else despite her declaration of love for him; he’d also failed to tell her the very important information that her fiancé might be a criminal!
But that wasn't Clark's fault. She stood, and he got to his feet as well. "So, I'll see you tomorrow?"
She nodded. "Count on it. Can I call you as soon as I'm free?"
"Great." He hesitated, then leaned towards her again. She met him halfway in another sweet, dizzying kiss which started to make her regret sending him away. But before she could think of asking him to stay, he broke the kiss and smiled at her. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay? And - you be careful."
She nodded. "I will. And, Clark?"
"Yeah?"
"I... I love you."
His expression lit up in a brilliant smile. "I love you too, Lois." Then, his hand on the door, he added, "Goodnight."
As the door closed behind him, Lois sank back onto her sofa.
Would it really have been that easy all along? Had all she needed to do was tell Clark that she was sorry, that she'd been wrong, that she wanted another chance? That she didn't want to marry Lex? For weeks it had seemed as if there'd been an insuperable barrier between them. Even when she'd been trying to persuade him to come over, she'd felt doubtful of the possibility of success. When he'd arrived, he'd been so cold and distant that she'd thought there was no chance of salvaging anything of their friendship.
Oh, she'd been so incredibly stupid!
But it was almost all over now. A great weight had been lifted from her mind. She had taken the decision to break off her engagement - and at last she'd opened her mind to the possibility that Clark had been right about Lex all along. She'd finally believed him, and that had clearly pleased him.
And they'd taken the first step towards making their own relationship closer. She'd finally admitted that she'd been in denial about her feelings for him, and miraculously he still felt the same way.
Clark loved her. And she loved him.
But before they could be together openly, she had to free herself of other entanglements. Lex she could deal with tomorrow. Right now, that other bit of unfinished business required attention - even more urgently in the light of what Clark had just told her.
She stood up and grabbed her coat and keys, then let herself out of her apartment.
**********
Clark walked down the steps from Lois’s building, still stunned. What the heck had just happened in the last ten minutes?
He’d been ready to leave right after she’d told him she wanted to talk about Luthor, but tomorrow. He’d been about to walk towards the door, relieved that she was no longer marrying the man, tentatively happy that they’d begun the path towards rebuilding, renewing their friendship.
And then...
That kiss.
No; that comment of hers, the one he knew he wasn’t supposed to have heard, about a kiss. That he should have kissed her when he’d told her he loved her.
He hadn’t even stopped to think what she could have meant by it. He’d just reached for her and kissed her.
And she’d swayed towards him, meeting his lips willingly, with yearning.
Their first real kiss, and it had left him weak at the knees, heady with sensation, aching with longing. The power of her kiss was as effective as Kryptonite - she’d left him drained. But blissfully so.
It had been hard to leave, knowing how much he’d wanted to kiss her again. Longer. Deeper. With everything that he had - and with everything that she had. It had been torture to pull away from that second kiss, just before he’d left her.
But he’d done the right thing. Lois had said she needed time, that she’d had a lot to deal with that evening - including making the decision to dump her fiancé. It wouldn’t be sensible to rush her into something she might not be ready for - something she might regret in the cooler light of day.
Something she might regret?
He paused in the act of starting to spin into the Suit. Something that she might regret. Now, only now, did it occur to him that her comment, their kiss, even her declaration of love could be explained by something as simple as...
Rebound.
She’d spent the last two months as Lex Luthor’s fiancé. Being with him. Spending all her free time with him. Kissing him. Probably doing even more with him.
He’d thought that she was happy, but on seeing her this evening he’d noticed the strain that she couldn’t hide. From what she’d said, from her admission that she’d only accepted Luthor’s proposal to put pressure on Superman, it was clear that she’d been under considerable pressure ever since she’d let the man put that ostentatious ring on her finger. It was only natural that she’d be relieved - hugely relieved - to be able to put the charade, if that was what it was, at an end.
So relieved that she’d tell her one-time best friend that she loved him? That she’d kiss him with longing?
He shouldn’t be having doubts, he told himself, and spun into the Suit. Taking off rapidly, he reminded himself that all he had to do was trust her. And not even for very long - just until the following day. Just until she called him and said she was ready to talk. He could do that, couldn’t he?
And then he saw her. Hurrying down the steps, walking rapidly up the street. To her car - that ostentatious, ridiculous convertible Luthor had given her. Unlocking the car. Getting inside. Starting the engine. Driving off.
She couldn’t have decided to deal with Luthor now, could she?
Alarmed, he followed her, flying high overhead so that she wouldn’t see him. But she didn’t take the turnings which would lead her to Luthor’s penthouse. Instead, her manoeuvres through the city streets were taking her in the direction of the Daily Planet. Or... what had once been the Daily Planet.
It didn’t make sense. Why was she going there? Why, at almost midnight, had she chosen to pay a visit to a burned-out shell of a building which had once been a thriving, busy newspaper office?
But that, he realised, was probably exactly why she was going there. He’d sensed, during their conversation, that she had a lot of regrets. Things - people - she had missed and perhaps had felt that she’d lost forever. And, of course, the Daily Planet was where all that she’d lost, all that she’d missed, belonged. Had once belonged.
A trip down Memory Lane? Exorcising her regrets? Making a promise to herself to try to put right at least some of what had gone wrong?
Still, he didn’t like the idea of her being here alone, especially if she intended to go inside - the building had been made safe by firefighters and the insurers, but only to the extent that it wasn’t going to collapse. It certainly wasn’t safe for entry by someone who knew nothing about dangerous buildings. On top of that, the electricity supply had been cut off, so it would be pitch-dark inside.
He hovered above as she went inside. Tensed in breathless fear as she climbed the damaged stairwell, gripping onto the handrail for support. Stared in puzzlement as she pushed open the door leading to the roof - and then froze at what she did next.
Standing on the roof, hands on her hips, Lois - in no apparent danger at all - yelled, “Help! Superman!”
So that was it. That was why she’d sent him away. She’d wanted to talk to Superman - make one last attempt to win him for herself.
But she said she loves me...What other reason could she possibly have for wanting to see Superman right now? he asked himself bitterly. He’d been right after all; Lois hadn’t really meant the kiss or her declaration of love. She still wanted Superman.
How could he possibly have forgotten about her real reason for saying yes to Luthor? Or the way she’d thrown herself at him, in his Superman guise, on that horrible night?
She wanted Superman. But she wasn’t going to get him. He turned, ready to fly away.
But then a better idea occurred to him. Once and for all, he would make it clear to Lois that he was off-limits. Not interested. Completely unavailable so far as she was concerned.
Making his expression as stern as he could possibly manage, creating an impassive mask that even Lois Lane couldn’t possibly pierce, he floated down to land some feet away from her.
“You called for me, Lois. And yet you don’t seem to be in any sort of danger. I assume that there is some important reason why you required my presence?”
**********
Well, he’d come, but he wasn’t happy about it. The hostility was coming off him in waves. He stood some distance from her, his cape billowing in the light summer breeze, his arms crossed in front of his chest as if his expression wasn’t sending out enough ‘back off’ signals. He clearly wasn’t a happy Super-hero.
But nor was she a happy non-rescuee.
She didn’t give a damn about Superman’s mood. He was obviously mad at her for some reason, but she was just as mad at him. Probably even more so.
“Yes, I wanted to see you,” she told him tersely. “I want some answers from you. Now.”
He seemed taken aback by her tone, the mask slipping briefly to reveal a surprised blink of his eyes. What? Had he thought that no human would ever have the temerity to be annoyed with him?
“It would help if I knew what the questions are,” he said, not relaxing his stance.
“Okay. Let’s start with why you chose not to tell me what you know about Lex Luthor. You were prepared to let me marry a man who - according to Clark - you believe is... ‘dirty’, I think is what Clark said. A criminal.” She glared at him. “Just where do you get off not telling me about something like that?”
Again, she had the sensation that she’d completely floored him. But after a moment the distant expression returned. “I understand Clark tried to tell you.”
“Yes, okay, I should have listened to Clark,” Lois muttered, resenting being put in the wrong - after all, she was the one with every right to be mad at him! “But that doesn’t excuse what you did. You should have told me!”
“When, Lois?” he asked, his voice deceptively mild. “When you threw yourself at me in your nightgown? Or once you had the guy’s ring on your finger?”
Stung, Lois turned away. This wasn’t going as she’d expected. Superman was supposed to have been taken aback and ridden with guilt by her accusation. He wasn’t supposed to answer her back! He wasn’t supposed to be making her feel as if she was the one in the wrong.
“I don’t know why I even thought I wanted to talk to you,” she snapped, turning back to glare at him. “Just go. I’m sure there’s someone somewhere who wants you.”
“I didn’t say anything because you wouldn’t listen to Clark when he tried to tell you,” Superman said, sounding frustrated. Giving an expressive shrug - at last, he’d altered his stance from that off-putting arms-crossed posture - he added, “Why should I assume that you’d listen to me?”
“Of course I’d listen to you!” Lois exclaimed. What on earth was he talking about? She hadn’t listened to Clark because... oh, because Clark had just been jealous, she’d thought - and anyway, he’d never actually said anything very specific anyway.
“You would have?” There was genuine surprise and uncertainty in his voice now.
Lois sighed. She’d really been so incredibly wrong about Superman, hadn’t she? She’d thought she understood him, as he understood her. But their two last meetings alone, two months apart, showed her that he hardly knew her at all. He certainly didn’t think very much of her, either.
“You should have told me,” she said flatly. “I thought you were my friend, and friends should look out for each other. But I guess,” she added coolly, “you haven’t been my friend for a while, Superman.”
When he didn’t answer, she added, “I suppose you took Clark’s side when I turned him down. Not that I can blame you too much for that. But still...”
Suddenly, he moved. He’d been standing in the same place for so long that seeing him take a step towards her almost unnerved her.
“I am your friend, Lois,” he said quietly as he came to a stop in front of her - in easy touching distance. “I haven’t been a very good friend lately, that’s certainly true,” he added in regretful tones. “Maybe I can make up for that now? I know it’s kind of late, but do you want me to tell you what I know about Lex Luthor?”
Lois shook her head. She wanted to hear it from Clark now, not Superman. Apart from feeling that she owed it to him to listen to what he had to say, after her previous treatment of him, she didn’t really like the thought of the full extent of her idiocy exposed in front of the Super-hero.
“No. Thank you,” she added, almost as an after-thought. “Clark’s going to tell me tomorrow. I take it he knows everything you know?”
Superman nodded.
“And I’ve already broken off the engagement, by the way.”
He inclined his head. “I... noticed the absence of the ring. I’m glad.” Somewhat awkwardly, after a moment, he added, “I hope it wasn’t too painful a decision...”
Lois shrugged. “I wasn’t in love with him, Superman. But you know that anyway, I guess,” she said, remembering with excruciating clarity the way she’d behaved when he’d come to her apartment. She winced then, realising that she’d given him an opening to ask just why she had accepted Lex’s proposal - an explanation she really didn’t want to have to go into with him.
But, to her relief, he didn’t ask. He took an awkward step towards her, reaching for her with one arm extended. The hug was brief, but warm, and when Superman stepped back he smiled at her for the first time since he’d landed in response to her call.
“Friends again?”
“Sure.” She returned his smile, realising that it felt very good to have got past all that awful stuff with Superman, then remembered the other reason she’d wanted to talk to him - the bit of ‘unfinished business’ which had been on her mind earlier. “Actually, there’s something else I wanted to ask you - if you don’t mind?”
“I have a few minutes. So go ahead.”
“It’s...” She hesitated, awkward about referring again to that dreadful night. “Look, I’m not going to embarrass either of us by repeating what I said to you the last time we... talked. I just wanted to ask you about something you said.”
He looked abashed. “Uh... Lois, I said some things I didn’t mean, that night. Specifically... I’m sorry for that crack about your robe. I should never have said that. I
would never...”
Lois waved his apology aside. “I know that. I mean, it’s nice to hear you say it, because I was pretty shocked at the time, but it’s not important. That’s not what I wanted to ask you about.”
Now he looked wary again. “What’s that?”
“Remember you said that you didn’t believe me when I said I’d love you even if you were an ordinary man? You said ‘under the circumstances’ you didn’t see how you could,” she reminded him.
He nodded; she noticed a muscle twitching in his jaw.
“What did you mean by ‘under the circumstances’, Superman? What circumstances?”
*********
What circumstances?
Oh, he knew what circumstances, all right, but that wasn’t something he’d had any intention of telling Lois.
And yet...
Lois had proved him wrong time and time again tonight. She’d surprised him at her apartment, and she’d done it again here, now. He hadn’t trusted her. He’d been so sure that she was about to throw herself at him - Superman - again, but instead she’d berated him.
Now, she wanted an explanation for something she was quite rightly puzzled by.
It wouldn’t be too difficult to explain away - but did he really want to?
If Lois really loved him - Clark - then he’d have to deal with this anyway, wouldn’t he?
He took a deep breath. “Under the circumstances... that you’d already turned me down as an ‘ordinary man’, Lois.”
It was only as he said the words that it occurred to Clark that he really should have rehearsed this speech. Or at the very least spent some time preparing to deal with her reaction. This was Lois, after all. She was every bit as likely to fly off the handle and rage at him as she was to storm off in disgust. Or throw things at him. Or play it cool but spend time thinking up an appropriate form of revenge.
She did none of those things.
Instead, she went pale. Her jaw slackened. She actually took a step backwards. And, although she opened her mouth after a few moments, no words emerged.
“Lois!” Worried, he caught at her arm. “Are you okay?”
“I...” Her voice cracked as she tried to speak, and she took a shuddering breath. “As... as well as I could be when you spring something like that on me!”
“Uh... yeah, I guess I should’ve led up to it a bit,” he said apologetically, slipping his arm around her in case she did the unthinkable for Lois and fainted.
“I guess I know now why you didn’t tell me about Lex,” she said, her tone still strained. “I mean, I’d already refused to listen to you... but surely you knew I’d be more likely to listen to you as... well, when you’re like this!” She gestured at his costume.
“You’re right, and I should have thought of that,” he admitted. “But, you know, Lois, I’ve always hated the fact that I could say something to you as myself and as Superman, and you’d only take me seriously as Superman. I... guess I was partly being stubborn by not talking to you as Superman.”
“And - ” She broke off, looking up at him with an apologetic look. “You had every right to be mad at me for that. I wasn’t fair to you, Clark.”
“I don’t think I was fair to you either.” He dropped his arm from around her shoulders and moved a few feet away. “We had too many secrets between us, Lois. I’m glad we’ve got them all out into the open now.”
Clark caught her gaze, taking note of the interested curiosity which had replaced her initial shock. “I’ve wanted to be honest with you for a long time, Lois. And so...”
In a deliberately exaggerated movement, he went into a spin, coming to stop a few moments later in the jeans and polo shirt he’d been wearing just half an hour earlier when he’d left her apartment.
“...I want you to know the real me. Clark. Not Superman, and I guess not really an ordinary man either - just me. Superpowers and farmboy all in one,” he added with a self-deprecating grin.
*********
The shock of discovery was just about dying away - but Clark’s little spin manoeuvre almost caused Lois to faint once again. How had she missed just what her partner was hiding? How had she failed to notice that Clark Kent was no ordinary guy?
Oh, she had a long list of epithets and descriptions which she could apply to herself for missing the real Clark Kent. Though, strangely enough, she wasn’t berating herself any more strongly than she had been earlier, when she’d finally admitted her feelings for him to herself.
She had dozens of questions for him. Hundreds, probably. But top of her list was just one: she needed to know that he still loved her. That Clark, now having revealed himself as Superman, the man she’d made such a fool of herself over, hadn’t changed his mind about her because she’d been so idiotic.
“Lois?” His concerned voice broke into her thoughts.
She met his gaze again.
“Are you mad at me?”
He seriously thought that she was mad at him? While she was actually wondering whether he still loved her?
Well, she probably could have been, she thought on reflection. But then, she’d been so stupid, so idiotic herself over the past couple of months that any transgressions on Clark’s part seemed miniscule next to hers.
“Are you mad at me?” she countered.
“Lois!” he growled at her. She raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay,” he said. “Yes, I was mad at you. But that was earlier. You know I’m not mad now. How could I be?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she drawled, trying to hide her fears from him through the apparent casualness of her tone. “Maybe me telling you I’m not in love with you and then throwing myself at you a few hours later? And claiming that I’d love you if you were an ordinary man... and then accepting Lex’s proposal because you turned me down?”
Clark shrugged. “I haven’t behaved much better, Lois. You know that. I could have told you all this a long time ago - including why I think Luthor’s dirty. And I didn’t have to be so mean to you that night.”
She took a step towards him, hope in her heart again. “So we can kiss and make up, then?” she asked cautiously.
He grinned, reaching out for her and swinging her into his arms. “That sounds like the perfect idea.”
Up on the roof of the Daily Planet, the building where it had all started, Clark wrapped his arms around her, lowering his lips to hers as she took his face between her palms, bringing his face down to hers. The lights of the city, spread out around them and beneath them, paled into insignificance next to the explosion caused to her senses by Clark’s kiss.
Not Lex. Not even Superman. She was being kissed by the only man she ever wanted to kiss her again. And if she’d thought that Clark’s kisses were amazing before, this one took her breath away. She felt as if she was floating.
And then she realised that they were actually floating.
Breaking the kiss, Clark grinned crookedly at her. “Sorry. That happens sometimes when I’m not concentrating. And you kind of make it difficult for me to concentrate!”
Lois laughed. “I’m not sorry about that!”
“Good.” He smiled again, then bent to brush his lips across hers once more. “I always hoped you’d see it too, Lois,” he added softly.
She reached up to kiss him quickly before answering. “You did? See what?” She knew what he meant, but wanted him to tell her once more the way he felt about her.
“The way that we belong, Lois.” He touched his forehead to hers. “The way I’ve felt we’ve belonged since the day I first saw you.”
“I’m sorry I was so slow to see it,” she told him. “But I love you now, Clark. It might have taken me a while to see it, but I got there in the end.”
“And that’s what matters,” he assured her, before claiming her lips again and at the same time, she realised a few moments later, swooping upwards with her in his arms.
“I always wondered which was better: kissing or flying,” he explained when she broke the kiss and looked at him quizzically.
“And...?” she asked, curious.
He grinned again. “Neither. Flying
and kissing is the best of all.”
And, as he suited action to words, Lois decided that she wasn’t going to argue with that.
~ The End ~
