Some of you will recognize that i've taken a lot of the text from Touring Clark's world and woven it in here. I think it works better being part of this story than it did standing alone!
I await your comments!
Part 7
It was bright and early when Superman landed softly on the floor inside of Lois’ living room window. He stepped forward and knocked softly on her bedroom door. “Lois, wake up sleepy head!”
He heard a soft moan from Lois with his superhearing. “Time to wake up. We’ve got a big day!” He knocked again and then opened the door. “I'm coming in to wake you up,” he warned her as he came over to kneel beside her bed. Her eyes flickered open as he lowered his lips to meet hers. Her arms slowly awakened then slid around his back as she responded warmly to his kiss.
Clark stood in the kitchen preparing coffee while Lois showered. Soon Lois came out and he offered her a mug. He put his arms around his sweetheart and nestled his face into her hair. She stood with her arms around his waist, feeling the comforting warmth of his love and his goodness. “You are so good, Kal,” she mumbled as he held her.
“Umm,” he responded in gratitude. He smelled the shampoo in her hair and rubbed his cheek gently up and down on its softness.
She leaned her head back and looked up into his eyes and smiled, her whole face radiating at him. He smiled back and drew her close again. They stood that way for awhile. Then she spoke. “There are so many things that I'm learning about you. You deal with so much death and destruction. Last night was the first time I’d ever realized how it all really affects you. It’s so far beyond me what you do in the course of a day.”
He squeezed her. “Thanks for listening to me last night.” He sighed, remembering yet another disaster he’d had to deal with last evening. He’d come over afterwards and poured his heart out to Lois who had comforted him even better than his arctic plunges had. Looking up at the ceiling, then back at her with a smile, he began, “What do you say we have some fun today? I think I could use a bit of fun.”
Lois smiled at him, wondering just what his idea was fun was, now that she had started to get to know the real Superman. “Sure!”
“Okay, how about we go on a tour?”
She raised her eyebrows in curiosity, “Okay. Of what?”
“May I take you on a tour of my world?”
“Oh yes!”
“Okay, here’s the plan. You’ll need to bring a bathing suit and a jacket. Do you have any snorkeling gear?”
“Yes. Okay,” she responded, enjoying his smile and his good mood, curious what he had planned. This was certainly not the distant man she’d come to know as Superman before. There was such a lot more to him than she’d ever imagined.
In a few moments, she returned to stand sideways in front of him, put an arm around his neck and raised a knee for his hand, “Up up and away?”
He scooped her up, a grin covering his face. When they were above Metropolis, he caught her lips in a tender kiss, which she happily returned. He put his head back up to watch where he was going. “Let’s see, it’s 6am here that means it’s the same in Jamaica.” He swerved to head southward.
Lois caressed the back of his neck idly with her hand, leaning her head against his shoulder as he carried her in front of himself. In a few minutes the city buildings had given way to the hills of the Appalachians and then the cotton fields of the south.
“Wow, they're so beautiful from here!” Lois cooed.
“Here, I’ll go down further so you can see them better,” Clark said, dropping in altitude. The haze covered smoky mountains gave a faraway feeling. The sun was dotting the tops of the mountains, lighting up the thick forest.
“Nice,” Lois breathed, snuggling into Clark’s neck a bit more.
“Okay, time to go,” he said, increasing his speed again and rising a bit higher. They passed the sandy flatland of Florida and then shot out across the Caribbean to Jamaica, landing on a secluded warm beach. He grinned and met her smiling brown eyes as her silky brown hair fell into place.
“Well?” He asked, awaiting her reaction.
“Kal, you’re amazing. I'm so lucky. I used to think of saving to go to far away places like this and finally settled on Tahiti. I never gotten there yet though, the money’s still in the bank gathering interest.” She unzipped her leather jacket. Superman was quickly behind her to help her out of it.
“Lois, it’s the most wonderful thing to be able to have you in my life. We’ve been through a lot together. I remember so many times when you cried for help, but never until you were sure you couldn't get out of the problem yourself. You’ve seen me do heroic Superman stuff, be depressed when I was in trouble and be weak or sick when I’d been near kryptonite. The list goes on and on.
“But it wasn’t until last night when you held me and let me tell you about the disaster I’d faced, that I had really been able to let you know that part me. You have no idea how wonderful it felt to have you, the woman I’ve loved from behind the mask of superhero for so long, love me back, even the most despondent, insecure, and hopeless part.
He gathered her in his arms and held her closely.
“Oh Kal,” she murmured, a tear slipped from her eye as her voice broke. “You’ve always been so good to me. You’ve always been there for me to rescue me from my stupid ideas and to point me in the right direction.”
They stood holding one another in silence, then almost at once, they both said, “I love you. After awhile the sounds of the birds chirping, the breeze in the leafy trees and the roar of the ocean brought them back to the white sand and the turquoise waters of Jamaica.
With the sun on his body, Clark was feeling quite energized and hoped Lois was also. “Shall we take a swim? My way?” Superman challenged her.
She was about to jump in with both feet until her stomach growled. Lois instead asked, “What about breakfast first?”
“Oops, good point,” Clark responded. “Well, my princess, would you like to eat in a lovely restaurant, or shall we pick fruit from the trees and sit by a fire?”
Lois giggled and took his hand, looking around at the fruit trees growing near the beach. “Fruit by the fire?”
“Your wish is my command,” he replied happily. “We need a nice table.” He looked around and dragged a coconut palm leaf over, broke it in half and put one piece down like a large placemat.
“Okay, now we have to have something to drink.” He looked up into the coconut trees. He flashed her a grin, ready to show off, then hugged the tree, shaking it until a coconut fell. He picked it up, pulled the thick brown outer layer off as if it were just a leaf, then looked at the dents in the top. Lois had come over and was standing beside him, a hand on his shoulder. With a short burst of heat vision, he burned two small holes in the top. “Ladies first,” he said handing her the coconut with a smile.
“What am I supposed to do with it?” She raised her eyebrows, looking into his laughing brown eyes.
“It’s filled with coconut milk. You drink it. Well, half of it,” he teased. She raised it to her lips and laughed as some of it ran down the sides of her face.
“Umm, that’s good!” She said, offering some to him. He drank what she’d left him, then squeezed the shell to break it in half. Wiggling each half just enough, he made the soft coconut slide away from the shell. He put the halves on his table, then looked around at the other fruit trees.
“I’ll pick us each a mango,” Lois said as she dragged her toes in the warm sand and reached up to pluck two soft ripe orange-yellow mangos from the spreading leafy tree. She put them on the table beside the coconut.
“Hey, how about some breadfruit roasted in a fire?” Clark asked, moving into the jungle-like thickness beyond the coconut tree. He jumped up, hovered beside a breadfruit tree, and plucked a large ball.
Lois was standing watching him, amazed at his agility, his comfortableness with his powers, and with his loving attitude. “I’ll gather wood for the fire,” she offered, and pulled the discarded coconut palm a few feet away from their table. She found some deadfall branches beneath the bushes nearby, and dragged them to the beach where she broke them into campfire sized pieces, and piled them onto the discarded coconut palm. She was surveying the would-be fire when Clark came over with the breadfruit.
“Here,” he said, squatting down by the fire and lighting it with a stream of red heat from his eyes. It burst into flames. He broke a log in pieces as Lois watched in amazement at how much easier it looked than using a chain saw. He leaned them on their fire, then sat down on the sand. Lois sat down beside him and leaned back on her elbows, looking more content than he had ever seen her before the last few days. He stretched out and rolled onto his stomach and lay with his chin in his hands, looking into her eyes. “You’re so beautiful, Lois. Thank you so much for coming with me today.”
She grinned, “I can’t think of a better way to spend my day off than being with you, wherever you want us to go!” She giggled like a little girl. “I’ve always wanted to be on an island, alone with someone who loves me, who I love, having a campfire on the beach.” She looked at the waves breaking nearby. The water swelled, then rolled, then broke open as white water splashed down in front of it. “Have you ever been surfing?” she asked.
“Yup, but I don’t use a board,” he teased.
“Can you walk on water, too?” She asked curiously.
He grinned, “Well, I can keep myself from sinking if that’s what you mean, but the water doesn’t support me. I have to do a bit of hovering while I walk on it.
The smell of the cooking breadfruit was enticing, “Where did you learn to do this?” Lois nodded at the breadfruit which was blackening on the outside.
He smiled back at her. “I stayed in a lot of remote villages in my days of traveling. Breadfruit over the fire is a staple to many of the people who live in the tropics or on islands like this one.” He reached into the fire and squeezed the breadfruit while Lois gasped. He looked over at her again, holding it in his hand. “It’s okay, Lois, I'm invulnerable, remember.”
She pushed half of her mouth into a grin. “Habit, you know.” He was breaking it when he quickly looked up in distraction. A feeling of discouragement washed over her as she recognized that he was hearing a call for help. “What is it?”
He listened for a moment longer, then turned back to her and to breaking the breadfruit open. “A bank alarm and sirens. But it sounds like the police are on top of it.” Using a flattened piece of stick, he scraped the center out of the breadfruit, leaving the soft, bread-like meat clean. He tossed the seed into the jungle, putting the halves on their table and smiled at her, their eyes locking again. “Breakfast is ready, my dear.”
“This is so nice, Kal. I just love it! I guess this is what camping with you would be like!” They sat and ate their coconut, mangoes, and breadfruit, savoring the delicate flavors of the freshly picked foods. She lay back onto the sand, resting her head on his leg. He looked down at her, brushing a stray bit of hair out of her face and sighed.
“It’s wonderful, Lois.” He leaned back onto his elbows and looked out over the ocean and at the birds flying over the waves.
Lois stood up. “I'm going to go put on my bathing suit,” she said, pulling her one piece suit out of her carrying bag and heading into the undergrowth.
He watched her go, pleased that she’d chosen a modest suit, then walked down closer to the water, stooping to watch the marine life.
They waded out into the warm water. Lois put on her gear and grinned at him and dove into the waves. They swam out for awhile, then Clark came over and caught Lois. “Look down here!” He didn’t have to wear a mask or snorkel to see clearly to the bottom. They swam along holding hands, their faces in the water. He pointed to a large rock at the bottom. For a moment, it didn’t look too interesting, but then Lois saw movement beneath the rock. Two huge sea turtles were beneath it. One was moving itself forward, pushing with its long flipper legs against the sand, pushing the other turtle out from under the rock. Once successful, the powerful turtle took a moment to slide in beneath the rock and settle down for a nap. Meanwhile, the other turtle angled upward, and slowly rose in the water, its powerful flippers moving gently back and forth. When it reached the surface, it put its head out of the water, opened its large mouth and floated, breathing. Lois and Clark uprighted themselves in the water and Lois pulled her goggles up to watch the sea turtle’s head above the surface. It was olive green with dark eyes on its squarish face. The sides of its open mouth looked sharp on the edges. They were treading water only about two yards away from the big animal, but it took no notice of them.
“It’s so strange, Kal, to see it in it’s own world, then to come up here and see half of it in ours!” He squeezed her hand and grinned.
“There’s more over there,” he pointed underwater. Lois put her goggles back on and followed his finger, pulling him along as she began to swim over to where he was showing her. Sure enough, there were more sea turtles either sleeping on the bottom, or pulling at underwater plants.
“How old do you think they are?” Lois said without raising her head from under the water, her snorkel tube still in her mouth. She knew Clark would be able to hear her clearly under the water. He held up one finger for her to see, released her hand and dove down to the turtles at the bottom. He looked under the rock and paused to count the shapes on the turtles’ backs.
Lois was startled to hear a flock of gulls overhead. She rolled on her back as she took off her gear and watched the birds fly to the trees near where they’d had their campfire. A thin trail of smoke rose from the small fire. She floated on her back for awhile, watching the flock land. One landed on the beach and walked over to their breakfast table. The others were close behind.
Soon a splash announced Clark’s arrival beside her.
“The turtles are over a hundred years old.” He stated, nodding back down to the water where he’d been.
He flashed her a grin. “Okay, are you ready for some adventure?”
“You mean a different one?”
“No, just, well, this is a tour of MY world, remember?”
Lois smiled. “How could I forget?”
“Okay, well, after I have to deal with some pretty dirty places when I'm doing rescues, or when I'm just really frustrated, or something, I often come here for a swim.”
Lois’ face lit up as she shook her head in disbelief. “I feel like the part of you that I know is just so tiny!”
He grinned. “Well, want to take a fast swim? I mean, I won’ t go as fast as I usually go, but I think you’ll like it.” To her nod, he hugged her to his stomach. “Now, when you need to breathe, just squeeze me, or something. I’ll probably be able to tell by how your body feels in my arms, but just to be on the safe side, let me know if I'm not fast enough to get you some air.” He took her snorkeling gear and tossed it way back to the beach where it landed beside her bag.
“Okay,” she said, breathing deeply. He leaned them sideways in the water, and shot out into the distance beneath the waves, watching her face. The water rushed past them, massaging their bodies as they sped out into the vast ocean. As he began to feel Lois’ body need air, but long before she was desperate, he shot them out of the water and above it, flying just above the tops of the rolling waves. “Wow!” Lois said slowly, grinning from ear to ear as she watched the whitecaps blur beneath her. “Was that ever fun!”
He smiled and leaned in for a kiss, “Want to do it again?”
“Um hum,” she responded as he flew in a circle to face the shore.
“Okay, deep breath!” He watched her inhale and hold her breath before he slowed down their flight to break gently through the water’s surface. He grinned at her underwater and hugged her tightly. Without moving much, Lois brought her lips to his, not in a real kiss, but just a safe underwater touch as they sped along. He smiled beneath her lips and kissed her in a real kiss that she didn’t dare return, not while she was holding her breath underwater anyway.
As they came within surfing distance of shore, he rolled onto his back, and floated up to the surface of the water. She raised her head up and took a good breath, then laughed, “You’re so funny! Kissing me like that when I can’t kiss you back!”
He turned his head to look at the waves that were beginning to form ahead of them. “Now, how about some surfing?”
“You may not need a surfboard, but I do!”
“I’ll be your surfboard. When the wave comes in beneath me, I’ll tell you when to stand up on my chest! Right here on the S. Don’t worry about falling, you won’t hit the water as long as I'm around!” He grinned again.
She raised her eyebrows. The thought of standing on someone’s chest was bad enough, but to stand on someone who was floating in the water was pretty dumb! That is, unless he was Superman. She seated herself on his stomach. “You’re sure about this. I know it sounds dumb, but I don’t want to hurt you.”
He chuckled. “Okay, stand up!” She climbed up on his chest trying to balance. “Here, I’ll hold your ankles so you don’t fall off me. I’ve watched people tie their surfboards to their ankles with a long line so the board won’t get away from them if they fall, but I’ll use my hands!” He tickled her ankle a bit beneath his fingers briefly till she gave him one of those ‘not now, Buster,’ looks.
“Okay, here it comes, get ready,” he said just before a swell rose up beneath them, moving them toward the shore. The wave rolled beneath him, while Lois used her leg muscles to maintain her balance and to subdue the wave beneath. Clark watched her determined face, which broke into a grin as the wave grew beneath them, crashing just up beyond Clark’s head.
“This is SOOOO cool!” She shouted, “Oh, Kal this is SOOO amazing!”
“Welcome to the world of Superman!” he called up to her, enjoying the feel of the muscles in her feet as they pushed against his solid chest, maintaining control of her ‘surfboard’. The wave rushed them toward its dry goal.
She bent her knees slightly as the force of the wave beneath her moved Clark up and down. Experimenting, she pushed downward on her back foot, as if to turn the board to go along the length of the wave. It worked. Well, with Superman’s probable cooperation. The ‘board’ turned sideways, and suddenly they found themselves in the midst of a wave tunnel, skimming the water of the bottom of the tunnel, the smooth water rising in a wall beside and above them, with a roaring white waterfall on the other side. It seemed like a long time that they surfed in the tunnel, before the wave disappeared from around them and they found themselves being washed ashore. She jumped off his chest onto the beach as he jumped up to his feet.
She could hardly contain herself. Grabbing his arms by his side, she bent over in laughter. “That was so incredible! I can’t believe we did that! I can’t believe we stayed on the top of the wave, then were inside it! Oh Kal, I can’t believe what a fantastic date you are!” She flung her arms around him in a hug, laughing, then stumbling down to the warm sand. “Can we do it again?”
“I thought you’d like that, Lois! I figured you’d be up for the challenge. You’re good, too. It’s not many people that can stay up on their first time! And certainly not the way you managed to ‘control the board’,” he said, inserting a wink.
Lois pulled her knees up to her chest, a grin filling her face. “ I can’t believe I did that! I’ve never surfed before. I’ve skied a lot, but never surfed. That was so incredible. How much of that did I do, and how much were you doing?”
“You were great, the way you were using your muscles against me was exactly right. I did help a bit, I didn’t let the wave get control of us. It’s nice to be able to hover when you need to. I tried to stay just on top of the wave. I also kept us in the tunnel without going too fast or slow so it wouldn’t break on us. That was pretty neat wasn’t it!”
“Darn right!” She patted his leg beside her.
“Ready to go again?” he asked. In moments they were shooting out through the water to await the next wave, and the next and the next.
She jumped off his chest as the waves beached him on the sand yet again, falling to the ground in her exhaustion.
“Lois, this is so wonderful for me!” His eyes were so filled with happiness and sincerity. “I’ve always wanted to show you my world. It’s one thing to have a wonderful world of your own, but if you can’t share it with anyone, it’s just not much fun!”
“Yeah, I don’t suppose you take too many people surfing!” She teased.
“Nope, you’re the only one. There are some things that are far more fun when you’re with your girlfriend!” He winked at her, “Like kissing underwater!” Lois blushed and turned her face towards the crashing waves, digging her toes into the sand.
They began walking, hand in hand along the deserted beach, the sun having dried them off, Clark’s cape flapping in the wind. He stopped walking and turned to face her. “Lois…” he began, “you have no idea how much fun I'm having with you today. It’s so good to be with you.” He leaned down and kissed her. She smiled beneath his lips and reached her arms around him, running her fingers through his soft hair.
“How can I ever let you know how much I appreciate having you in my life?”
“You already have,” he said, leaning back in for another kiss. Sometime I’ll show you how ‘I’ go surfing. My feet are the board. I think it would work for us to hold together and both surf on our feet. It feels pretty neat.”
“I bet it tickles your feet!”
“I guess so,” he grinned.
