Happy Ficlet Friday!
Today’s story is a standalone fic (for now… maybe), unrelated to TNTCA. It is an AU where Clark, and the world as a whole technically, had a different past than in the series. Much will be revealed as you read but don’t expect everything to get wrapped up neatly. It’s something of a no context story. I don’t know if or when I’ll continue it. But I’ve had these scenes in my head for awhile just begging to be written, so here they are.
Special thanks to QueenoftheCapes and CarrieRene for helping me hash out a title.
District K: Injustice
By AmandaK
Clark Kent allowed his eyes to wander as Perry White silently perused his portfolio. He was slightly bemused by the abundance of Elvis memorabilia, but he did not comment on it or otherwise distract the Daily Planet’s editor-in-chief.
His gaze finally came to rest on the large windows which graced the back wall of the office, or rather on what lie beyond them. It was a beautiful view. Metropolis was a beautiful city. He would love to stay there, to finally have a place he could truly call his own. But finding a permanent home hinged on being able to find permanent employment – a goal which had proved nearly impossible for him over the last four years.
He had decided to apply to the Daily Planet at the insistence of a friend, whom he had met at a journalism conference a few months ago. It was a long shot. He knew that. But the prospect of working for the top newspaper in the country was too tempting to pass up.
“Well, son,” Perry White said, drawing Clark’s attention back to him. “This is some mighty fine reporting you’ve done here.” He tapped the sheaf of papers on their end to straighten them out. “You’ve got a knack for conveying the facts, while still drawing the reader in an holding their interest.”
“Thank you, Mr. White.” Clark tried not to fidget as he awaited the editor’s verdict.
“The Daily Planet could certainly –” the editor’s next words were cut off as his office door slammed open and a human whirlwind blew in, pushing aside Clark’s portfolio to lay her own sheaf of papers front and center on the desk.
“Perry, you have got to look at this. There is a big story here. I just know it!” The small tornado gesticulated wildly as she spoke, effortlessly making herself the center of attention.
Clark bit his lip to keep himself from chuckling. She hadn’t changed a bit.
“Lois! Haven’t you ever heard of knocking? I’m in the middle of an interview.” Mr. White gestured to Clark and the woman reported tossed a glance over her shoulder before opening her mouth once more – to argue that her story was more important, no doubt.
But she didn’t get that far.
She froze suddenly, her mind finally processing who she had seen behind her. Then she spun around, her eyes wide with excitement and a brilliant smile gracing her face. “Clark! You’re here! You applied? Oh, this is just perfect! I need you on my team for this. Perry, you have to hired him.”
Clark had stood up but didn’t bother trying to get a word in edgewise. He just grinned.
“Hold up, Lois.” Perry interrupted. “You know Mr. Kent, here?”
“Of course, I know him.” Lois said. “He was my partner at the journalism conference back in February. You remember. I told you about him.”
Perry blinked a few times, digging back for whatever memory she was referencing. “Ah, yes. I seem to recall you saying he was the only reporter who could keep up with you, the only one you’d accept as a partner.”
The editor’s eyes danced as he repeated her words and Clark suddenly found himself hopeful that he might actually get this job. He hadn’t wanted to mention his connection to Lois Lane, wanting to earn his position by his own merits. But, well, since she decided to interrupt the interview, he might as well let it play out.
“That’s the one!” Lois replied and her hand suddenly came to rest on Clark’s chest, causing his breath to catch in his throat. He had to force his mind not to wander back to those delightful evenings they had spent together at the conference. He’d never met anyone like her. She fascinated him on every level. But this wasn’t the time or place for reminiscing – or daydreaming.
“Well, then,” Mr. White continued. “Why don’t you get out of here and let me finish my interview?”
Lois nodded. “Right. But I still want to talk to you about this story.” Then she looked up at Clark and smiled. “Meet me at my desk when you’re done in here.”
She left just as swiftly as she had arrived, the door slamming shut behind her. Mr. White shook his head. “Sorry, about that. Lois is a force to be reckoned with.”
“I know it.” Clark replied. He suddenly realized that he was still staring at the spot where Lois had disappeared and swiftly readjusted his focus back to the editor.
Mr. White had an indecipherable look on his face. Clark wondered what the older man was thinking. Did he realize that Clark was attracted to his top reporter? Just what was the Daily Planet’s policy on interoffice dating? Would Lois even agree to go on another date with him?
Clark mentally shook off his wayward stream of questions and tried to put on an air of professional confidence.
“As I was saying, before we were interrupted,” Mr. White shuffled through the new pile of papers on his desk, relocating Clark’s portfolio. “The Daily Planet could certainly use a writer with your strengths.”
Clark breathed slowly, stifling the urge to celebrate prematurely.
“That, combined with Lois’s, ahem, glowing recommendation, brings me to a fairly solid conclusion.” Mr. White stood up and reached across the desk to offer his hand. “Welcome to the Daily Planet, Mr. Kent.”
Clark couldn’t hold back his smile as he shook the editor’s hand. He could hardly believe it. This was really happening. He was going to work for the top newspaper in the country – and with Lois.
He was so excited that it took him a moment to realize, Mr. White had stopped smiling and was frowning pointedly at Clark’s extended arm.
Clark dropped his gaze to his own forearm, where his shirt sleeve had ridden up farther than he would normally allow. The band on his arm wasn’t so different from that of a wristwatch, except that it had no discernable clasp and the medallion at its center wasn’t a watch. A glowing, green letter K stood out plainly against the otherwise black metal.
Clark sighed and slowly dropped his hand, pointlessly pulling his sleeve back down as he did so.
Mr. White sat back down heavily, opening and closing his mouth a few times before finally breaking the silence which had settled over the office. “Is, uh, is that what I think it is?”
Clark sighed again but forced himself to meet the editor’s gaze steadily. “Yes, sir.”
“So, you’re a… uh…”
“Yes, sir.” Clark repeated, not waiting for the man to finish his question. There was no point. Everyone knew what the green K stood for. Taking a deep breath, Clark asked the question which had the potential to shatter his hopes. “Will this…” he lifted his arm slightly. “…affect my being hired?”
Mr. White leaned back slowly and let out a heavy breath of his own. “You know, son, I really wish I could say it doesn’t. However, the newspaper board…”
He trailed off and Clark suddenly found that he didn’t want to hear it. Not again. He stood up and gathered his things, taking his portfolio off Mr. White’s desk. “I understand,” he said. “Thank you for your time, Mr. White.”
He forced himself to keep his steps even as he left the office and headed for the ramp up to the elevator. He didn’t want to stay any longer than necessary. He couldn’t bare to face Lois now. She would want to know why. And if he told her… she’d look at him differently. They all did.
“Clark!” her voice caught him halfway up the ramp. His steps faltered, torn between running the rest of the way out of the building and turning to face her one last time. “Where are you going? I need you with me for this story. Perry better not have given you something else.”
She grabbed him by the arm and steered him back down the ramp and towards her desk before he could protest.
Sighing heavily, he figured he ought to bite the bullet and tell her before she got started into whatever she was working on. “Lois, I…. I can’t work on this story with you.”
“What do you mean, you can’t? Listen, whatever puff piece Perry gave you can wait. I’ll handle the Chief. Now, this is what I have so far –”
“No. Lois, you don’t understand. I didn’t get the job.”
She paused, blinking up at him as though his words didn’t make any sense. “You didn’t…” Then she frowned sharply. “What?! How could you not get the job? Perry was practically salivating over the idea of my finally accepting a partner.”
Clark shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “It doesn’t matter why. I just didn’t.”
“No.” Lois jabbed a finger at his chest and repeated herself firmly, “No. You are going to march back in there and demand an answer. There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t have a job here.”
“No. Lois, it’s fine. I don’t need to –”
“It is not fine! Let’s go.” She grabbed his arm again and propelled him back towards Mr. White’s office. The moment they were both inside, she slammed the door shut and turned on her editor-in-chief. “Perry, what is this? Why didn’t you hire Clark?”
Clark wished the ground would just open up and swallow him. “Lois, please don’t.”
But Lois wasn’t listening. She barreled on – “You’ve read his work. Surely you can see that he’s perfect for the Daily Planet.”
Mr. White cleared his throat and looked awkwardly back at his top reporter. “Well, Lois, it’s really not my place to say…”
“You must have a reason.” Lois pressed. “What is it?”
Mr. White’s gaze shifted to Clark and he lifted a hand in a helpless gesture. “Kent?”
Clark bit back another heavy sigh. He didn’t want to do this. But Lois wasn’t going to stop until she had an answer and Mr. White was too good a man to out him without permission.
Lois looked back at Clark and suddenly seemed to realize that he knew perfectly well why he didn’t get hired, but didn’t want to tell her. “Clark, what is it?” she asked, gently.
Just do it, he told himself. Reaching across his body, he pushed his right sleeve back just far enough to reveal the black armband emblazoned with the letter K. He watched her face as he did so, waiting for the kind look in her eyes to devolve into fear and hatred. He didn’t want to see it and yet, he couldn’t look away either.
Lois blinked twice and her mouth parted in a silent gasp as she registered what she was seeing. Then her eyes flew up to his and her head tilted to the side, curiously. “You’re Kryptonian?” she whispered.
Clark found himself unable to speak, so he nodded mutely. He could hardly believe that there wasn’t a trace of fear or revulsion in her eyes. He’d already know that she was unlike any woman he’d ever met, but this was something else. He’d never expected that any human woman could accept him for what he was – an alien.
Before he could let his thoughts wander too far down that path, the kindness vanished from her eyes and a fire lit behind them.
Clark shut his own eyes. Of course, it was too good to be true.
But when Lois spoke again, her ire wasn’t directed at him. “That’s why you won’t hire him?!” she turned on Mr. White like a dragon ready to strike. “Because he’s Kryptonian? Perry White, I can’t believe you! I never imagined that you, of all people, could show such prejudice!”
“Now, Lois, you know that’s not me.” Mr. White stood up and laid a calming hand on his irate reporter. “I don’t care if he’s human, Kryptonian, or Martian so long as he can write well and bring me headlines. But the suits upstairs… well, you know as well as anyone how prevalent anti-Kryptonian feelings are on the board and among our readers too. Ever since the invasion –”
“What invasion?!” Lois cut him off. “The Kryptonians came in peace. Just because a few hotheads thought they could mount an insurrection and take over the world, doesn’t mean the entire race should be held accountable. Yet, they’ve all been confined to District K for the past fifteen years.”
Clark felt he should at least make an attempt to smooth things. “We’re not confined anymore,” he began, but Lois ran over the top of anything else he might say.
“Oh, yes. How could I forget? Now you can leave, but only if you wear an armband laced with a radioactive substance – the only substance known to hurt Kryptonians.” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm and she wasn’t finished. “And if that wasn’t bad enough, they mark it with a glowing, green K so that everyone can tell who’s an alien and who’s not. I’m sorry, but how can we not all see the injustice going on here?!”
“Lois, I’m not saying that any of it is right,” Perry said. “It’s just the way things are.”
“It’s racism! We should be holding protests to put a stop to this, not taking part in it with discriminatory hiring practices. The Daily Planet ought to be leading the charge, like they did during the Civil Rights Movement. And you!” Lois suddenly spun around, turning the full force of her fervent tirade on Clark. “How can you just stand there and accept this?”
Clark took a step back, ill-prepared to defend himself in this. “I… it’s no use. This is why I’ve stuck to freelancing. No one will hire a Kryptonian.”
“Then why aren’t you and the other Kryptonians out there fighting for your rights? Do you all just accept being permanently unemployed?”
Clark shook his head. “As far as I know… I’m the only Kryptonian who lives outside of District K. Everyone else works the mines or has Kryptonian jobs within the colony.”
Both Lois and Perry looked taken aback at this revelation. “Wait,” Lois said. “I thought they made enough armbands for everyone. I thought the Kryptonians could come and go as they please.”
“We can. And some do come and go. But, for the most part, everyone stays in or near District K.”
“Except you.”
“Except me.” Clark acknowledged. He watched Lois open and close her mouth a few times, clearly wanting to ask more questions – most of which he had no desire to answer while standing in the office of his might-have-been employer.
Fortunately, Lois seemed to realize they were getting off on a tangent. She shook her head. “Regardless, you ought to have the right to seek gainful employment. We have laws about that.”
Clark shrugged. “But do those laws apply to Kryptonians? We’re not exactly considered American citizens.”
“You’re not here illegally either,” Lois countered. Then she turned back to her boss. “Perry are you sure you can’t go over the Board’s head on this. They don’t even need to know he’s Kryptonian.”
But Mr. White was already shaking his head. “If they find out and learn that I knew and hired him anyway, I could lose my job. I’m sorry, Lois. My hands are tied.”
Lois frowned and was quiet for a moment. “Well, I’m not afraid to risk losing my job over this,” she finally said with an uncompromising edge to her voice. “I may not be able to give Clark the job he deserves, but you can bet I’ll be writing an editorial about this. And if the Daily Planet won’t print it, I’ll find someone who will.”
Mr. White opened his mouth as if to protest, but shut it again without speaking. He merely sighed and waved his hand dismissively, clearly aware that nothing he said would stop Lois once she set her mind to something.
With a sharp nod, Lois turned and grabbed Clark’s arm for the third time that day. He followed along mutely as she led him out of the editor’s office and up the ramp towards the elevators. As they waited for the car to arrive, Clark wondered at the amazing woman by his side. He’d never imagined that anyone, aside from his parents, would fight for him with such passion and determination. Lois Lane was a force to be reckoned with and, while he didn’t think she would be able to make much of a difference in this particular case, he looked forward to seeing her try.
The elevator doors opened and they stepped inside but Lois didn’t select a number. The moment the doors were shut, she wrapped her arms around his chest in a tight embrace, causing Clark’s breath to catch in his throat. They’d hugged before, at the end of the conference when they’d said goodbye, but this was different.
“I’m so sorry, Clark,” she whispered into his chest. Then she leaned back to look him in the eye. “This isn’t fair. And I swear to you, I will find a way to make it right.”
Clark sighed and shook his head. “Thank you, Lois. But it’s not worth it. I’m just one man. No one is going to care whether or not I can get a job.”
“I care.”
Somehow, those two words gave Clark the courage to believe that maybe she could make a difference. Maybe not for him, right now, but for Kryptonians in general, in the long run. If anyone could change the world, it was this small woman, right here in his arms.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked.
Clark shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve only got enough money for a few more days in Metropolis. If I can’t find a job by the end of the week, I guess I’ll be headed back to Smallville.”
Lois tilted her head to one side, a thousand questions shinning behind her eyes. “Not District K?”
“No. District K was never my home.” Sighing again, he cut her off before she could continue her questions. “Listen Lois, I don’t want to give an interview or be the subject of a story.”
If she was disappointed by his words, she didn’t show it. She shook her head and looked down at her feet. “I’ll admit, I’ve always wanted the chance to interview a Kryptonian. So little is known about your race, your culture, your home world.”
“I’m not your average Kryptonian,” Clark pointed out but didn’t elaborate.
“I’m starting to see that.” She looked up and smiled gently. “And I do want to know everything about you. But you were my friend first, Clark. Anything you tell me is strictly off-the-record unless you say otherwise.”
Clark found himself smiling back at her, somehow no longer so upset that he didn’t get the job. He still had Lois. And he couldn’t ask for a better friend. “Thank you.”
Before either of them could say anymore, the elevator doors slid open again, revealing a frantic copy boy who stopped short and looked between them. “Uh… hi, Lois,” he said nervously. “Are you still using the elevator? Cause the Chief needs me to get down to obituaries and uh…”
“It’s fine, Jimmy,” Lois said to the younger man before turning back to Clark. “I need to get back to work myself.”
Clark nodded. “And I should probably see if I can find some.”
“Call me tonight, okay?” she said as she stepped off the elevator, making room for Jimmy to step in.
“I will.”
The elevator doors closed between them but, for the first time in years, Clark no longer felt completely cut off from humanity.
