Happy Ficlet Friday!
This is another part of my “Try Not to Change Anything” series and my answer to Kerth Challenge #3. Once again, we are jumping forward in the timeline to when Lois is in her Senior year of High School. Clark has already started college and can fly in this one. I’m totally fudging some science in this story. I did a little bit of research but not enough to make this fully plausible and I’m pretty sure what I’ve written would actually take longer than what I went with but I hope you can suspend your disbelief and chalk it up to holiday magic. Enjoy!
Challenge #3: dialogue prompt: Write a fic where the following dialogue appears somewhere in the fic:
"You didn't seriously...?"
"Yep"
"You just...?"
"Yep"
"Does that mean...?"
"Quite probably."
Seeds of the Season
By AmandaK
Lois leaned against the balcony railing and shrugged the coat tighter around her shoulders as she waited for Clark to answer the phone. It was bitter cold outside, but it was better than listening to her parents shouting loud enough to be heard through her bedroom door.
“Merry Christmas, Lois!” Clark’s joy-filled voice finally sounded through the phone and Lois couldn’t keep the smile off her face.
“Merry Christmas. How did you know it was me?”
“You always call on Christmas Eve.”
“And you always sit by the phone waiting for my call. I was surprised I had to wait three whole rings,” she teased.
Clark chuckled. “Yeah, sorry. Mom needed me to take the cookies out of the oven.”
“Mmm, I could go for some of your mom’s cookies right about now.”
“I could always bring you some.”
“I’d rather you come and fly me back to Smallville with you.” Lois couldn’t keep the wistful sadness out of her voice.
Clark was quiet for a moment. “The cabin’s that bad, huh?”
Lois scoffed and rolled her eyes, although he couldn’t see her. “The cabin is lovely and the view from the balcony off my room is gorgeous.” She stared out at the mountain vista under an overcast sky. The trees were bare but for a few stubborn leaves that didn’t fall with the Fall. “It’s the chaos inside I could do without.”
“Your parents again?”
“Yeah. Not that I’m surprised. There are somethings that just don’t change, even the second time around. I tried to talk them out of this trip – getting back together just to try and give me and Lucy one last ‘family holiday’ before I graduate? It was doomed from the start. Mom and Dad are better off in separate zip codes. And Lucy isn’t helping.”
“What’s up with Lucy?”
“Oh, she’s on this ‘Christmas snow’ kick. She convinced herself that, because we were going to the mountains, we were definitely going to get snow for Christmas. Doesn’t matter how many times we point out that there is no snow in the forecast. She keeps saying the weather man is wrong. She’s going to be so disappointed.”
“Poor kiddo.”
“She’s hardly a kid anymore, Clark. She needs to grow up and quit holding onto these silly hopes. She can’t make it snow, no matter how hard she wishes.” Lois sighed. “A little snow would be nice though. I bet these mountains would be even more beautiful dressed in white.”
“You know…” Clark hesitated, as though gathering his thoughts. “When farmers want it to rain, they send up planes to seed the clouds. I’m pretty sure they do the same to increase snowpack in the mountains during dry winters.”
“Oh, really? That’s fascinating.” Lois grinned. As much as Clark’s eidetic memory could be useful, he could sometimes be an encyclopedia of worthless information.
“It really is.” There was a pause and then, “Just… give me a minute.”
“What? Clark?” She blinked in surprise as her words were met by a dial tone. He’d hung up on her. It must’ve been a mistake. She frowned at the phone, waiting for him to call back.
A minute passed.
Then another.
Lois finally sighed and had turned around to go back inside when a familiar woosh and thump sounded on the balcony behind her. She spun back to see Clark, in a flannel shirt and jeans, casually leaning against the railing with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Lois opened her mouth to ask what he was doing there, when she recalled his words just before their conversation had ended so abruptly.
"You didn't seriously...?"
"Yep"
"You just...?"
"Yep"
"Does that mean...?"
"Quite probably."
Lois looked up at the clouds, wondering… waiting. As she watched, a single, tiny snowflake floated down out of the sky and came to rest on her nose. She gasped and looked back at Clark with a huge smile. “You made it snow!”
More snow began to fall as she flung herself into his arms. She hadn’t expected to see him for Christmas this year. With her parent’s impromptu trip to the mountains, it didn’t seem feasible to have him pop in for a visit. But now, surrounded by his warmth and his scent, with snowflakes falling all around them, she finally felt the Christmas spirit that always seemed to be missing without him.
“I’ve missed you,” Clark whispered as he placed a kiss top of her head.
Lifting her head, Lois stood on her toes to kiss him properly. A familiar warmth filled her belly as he deepened the kiss. For a moment, the world fell away, leaving only her and Clark and the snow in existence.
The moment was shattered by the sound of the front door slamming open and Lucy’s excited shouting coming from around the corner. “It’s snowing! It’s snowing!”
Lois laughed and shared a smile with Clark. “Thank you.”
Clark just shrugged. “I shouldn’t stay long. She’ll come looking for you soon. But I brought you something.” He produced a small package from his pocket and Lois’s eyes lit up even brighter than before.
“Cookies!”
