New Years Football Seasonby BlindPassenger
Lois Lane was, to put it mildly, frustrated. And the worst part was that there wasn't really anyone to blame. It certainly wasn't Clark's fault that there were always some idiots on New Year's Eve who couldn't properly handle the fireworks they had bought. And now such a situation had escalated again and there had been a small fire at first, but it quickly spread and required Superman's help.
Which would have been fine if she and her husband hadn't had an appointment with some colleagues from the Daily Planet at the Metropolis Football Stadium in half an hour.
Not that she was particularly interested in football. She had never understood the appeal of watching a bunch of sweaty men fight over a ball.
The fact that her father was a sports doctor and was often absent during her childhood because he had to treat some stupid football player who had overdone it again certainly didn't help fuel any potential enthusiasm for football.
And she could certainly think of...more pleasant ways to spend the last evening of the year with Clark than sitting in a crowded stadium and listening to her colleagues holler.
Unfortunately, the football season was in the winter months this year - and on New Year's Eve, of all day, there was going to be an unusual clash: The Metropolis Meteors would actually be playing against the team from Clark's hometown, the SmallBalls.
And Clark, the lover of his hometown that he was, had made the mistake of publicly announcing in the bullpen that he would, of course, support “his” team.
Obviously his competitive wife couldn't just let that happen. She may not have cared about football - not at all - but she was a true Metropolis girl, born and bred, and there was no way a team from somewhere in the middle of nowhere was going to beat HER city. Which she had made clear to Clark!
It happened as it had to happen: they agreed to a bet. The winner was allowed to decide the rest of the evening’s planning - and (that had been Clark's condition) had to publicly admit to the loser that they were in the wrong.
Lois was...less enthusiastic about that in particular, but eventually agreed. Anything else would have been far too close to conceding a possible defeat, after all.
Lois looked at the clock nervously. Only 25 minutes left. "Clark, where
are you?" she murmured to herself.
As if he had heard her (which, she had to admit, was entirely possible), she heard the familiar "swoosh" sound, and Clark stood - in the Superman suit - in the living room of the house.
And he clearly needed a shower. Damn it! And she couldn't even come join him because that would inevitably mean a massive delay. Life simply wasn't fair.
"I'm almost ready!" she heard Clark call from the direction of the bathroom.
Five minutes later, Clark emerged from the bathroom, clean and dressed for the evening.
“Honey, it’s a little late,” he remarked.
"Oh really? I did not notice at all." She couldn't resist a little sarcasm.
“Well, I'm afraid we won't be able to do it with the car anymore. We'll probably have to resort to the air alternative, if you don't mind..."
Lois didn't. It was the simplest, most practical solution. She agreed - which had nothing at all to do with the fact that she was able to snuggle particularly close to Clark's chest and bury her hands in his hair for the next few minutes. In no way.
***
After a few minutes, Clark landed them both on a side street next to the football stadium. Shortly afterwards they met their Planet friends in front of the building. Perry had collected the tickets for everyone and showed them at the reception so they could directly enter.
The stadium wasn't as full as it could have been - and almost everyone in attendance, as evident from the clothing and other fan accessories, was there for the Metropolis team.
Clark refrained from commenting that it wasn't really fair to pit a big city against a small one whose fan base was on the other side of the country, but oh well. That's life.
Lois and Clark sat down next to Jimmy, who’d saved two seats for them. "Hey Lois, CK," the younger man greeted. "I see you had some... fun and that's why you're almost late?" He grinned and pointed at Clark's inexplicably disheveled hairstyle. Which had to be solely due to flying...right? Not that Lois could tell Jimmy that. Darnit!
At least Jimmy dutifully wore his Meteors shirt. An ally in her corner, good. So she would let him get away with that sassy comment – just this one time.
Sometimes it took a while for the game to actually start - but today it really seemed to take forever. Lois checked her watch annoyed - it should have started twenty minutes ago, but not all the players were still on the field. Almost the entire top squad of the Metropolis team didn't show up.
Others in the audience had also noticed and were starting to get nervous. Some were visibly upset. It seemed like she wasn't the only one who might rather be somewhere else.
Another five minutes later it still wasn't any better. Finally, a nervous-looking man came to a stop on the field with a microphone in his hand.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I, um, unfortunately have to inform you that today's football game unfortunately cannot take place for...logistical reasons!"
Angry murmurs and boos came from the audience.
Lois, on the other hand, was slightly intrigued. Finally something interesting happened. A mystery that had to be solved. Well, certainly not the pinnacle of her journalistic career, but you had to take what you could get.
"Lo-is, no." Clark, who had noticed the sparkle in his wife's eyes and had now known her long enough to know what she was about to do, tried to stop her, but it was already too late.
Lois jumped up from her seat and spoke directly to the manager on stage.
“Excuse me, Lois Lane, Daily Planet. May I ask what “logistical reasons” these could be that lead to the fact that the Meteors’ best and most successful players are not on the field, but everyone else is?”
The man seemed to be visibly sweating. “No comment,” he stammered hastily and left the stage as quickly as possible.
“Hey, now wait a minute, you...”
A mob of angry football fans tried to storm up to the management representative and security had to intervene to hold them back.
“Lois, stop it, don’t shoot the messenger!”
"But Clark, this guy knows something, and I want to know it too!"
"I understand that. And I'm sure you'll figure it out -" He corrected himself "*WE* will figure it out, like we always do. But now may not be the best strategic time to do this.” As if to prove his point, he pointed to the spot where the manager was being escorted out of the “danger zone” by two security guards.
“Hrmph!” Lois grumbled, but had to agree – albeit reluctantly.
It certainly helped knowing that her husband had a photographic memory and that she would get Jimmy to later hack into the Meteors' database and get a management department employee list for her. They would find out who the guy was and then investigate from there.
“Oh man, if I had known that, I could have spent the evening with Penny. She wasn’t happy when I told her I had a work-related commitment,” Jimmy whined.
“Well, son, I wouldn’t describe attending a football game with co-workers as work-related. It's not like you're Elvis putting Priscilla off because he has to socialize with other big shots in the music industry at an event..."
“Not helpful, Chief!” Jimmy grumbled angrily.
Lois, Clark, and their fellow journalists walked out of the arena along a large crowd of disappointed, irritated, confused, and angry football fans - until Lois suddenly realized something horrifying.
"Clark, what do we do now?"
“Huh?”
"Well, we agreed that whoever's team wins would get to decide how we would ring in the new year together - and now the game has been canceled and so we don't have a winner! So what now?”
"Well, it wasn't my team's fault, so..."
“Don’t you dare, Kent!”
"Calm down, it was a joke Lois!"
Lois glared at him. "Not! Funny!"
“OK, OK,” Clark relented. “How about we try to use the extra time and find a compromise that we can both live with?”
Lois thought for a moment. “Sounds fair. I think that can be arranged.”
She ignored the fact that she didn't really mind not having to watch a football game. Who cared if she got to spend an evening alone with Clark instead?
So it happened that the Lane-Kent couple enjoyed dinner together in a nice restaurant and a good glass of wine (which was more like lunch if you cared about the time change from Metropolis to Paris, but who looked that closely?) and then started the countdown together back home in Metropolis at midnight.
And then they moved on to, let’s say, activities that showed the respective other how much they valued and needed them and would continue to do so in the coming year.
THE END
-------------------------------
Prompts by CarrieRene
Want:
-Football (US)
-Married life
-A Mystery
Don’t want:
-Lex
-Divorce
-Au
CommentsTOC2023 Fictathon Master List
