Marriage of State
By AmandaK

Chapter 2

Lois didn’t move as the doors slid shut, leaving her alone with her new husband. She couldn’t take her eyes off the large bed in the center of the room.

This couldn’t be right. They were supposed to have a reception, weren’t they? She was sure her father had mentioned a reception following the ceremony and the signing of the treaty. They should be eating hors d'oeuvres and sipping champagne right now, bumping elbows with foreign dignitaries, posing for photos, smashing cake into each other’s faces – okay, so that one probably wouldn’t happen, but all the rest… they should be there. Not here.

Anywhere but here.

Because she was definitely not ready for this.

She could feel her heart pounding so hard that she wouldn’t be surprised if Kal-El could hear it. That was one of their weird powers after all, wasn’t it? Super-hearing?

She tried to recall if anyone had mentioned the “honeymoon” beginning right after the ceremony. She had never finished reading that list of rules. It was probably on there – likely just before the one at the end which had first caught her attention. But she hadn’t read that part. And now here she was, in the Bridal Chamber, expected to submit and consummate.

Not ready at all.

Kal-El moved next to her, swiftly unwrapping the golden rope from around their arms, and stepping away. He carried the large cup of wine to a small table off to the side of the room and set it down. Then he stood, staring out into space through the room’s lone window. His shoulders were tense and he took several deep breaths.

He’s nervous too. Lois reminded herself. It made her feel minutely better. Then she mentally scoffed at her own thoughts. What did he have to be nervous about? This was his culture, his ceremony, his world. She was the stranger here. She was the one expected to submit herself to his every whim – not the other way around. And yet, here he was – ignoring her, dragging this out when they both knew what was expected of them.

Well, Lois wasn’t going to stand for that. She didn’t want this to take any longer than strictly necessary. The sooner they got this over with, the better.

Of course, she couldn’t exactly tell him that. She supposed she would have to learn to speak Kryptonian soon enough but right now, the language barrier was seriously hampering things. Maybe that’s why he was ignoring her. Maybe he didn’t know what to say to get things started.

Not that this needs words, she thought. She’d seen enough movies and read enough romance novels to know that talking was not strictly necessary for what they were supposed to be doing here. One of them just needed to make the first move.

After another minute of standing in complete silence, Lois realized it was going to have to be her. Her husband hadn’t moved save to taking a few more deep breaths. Come to think of it, she hadn’t moved at all either. She was still standing where he had left her, in front of the door.

She willed herself to move.

She took a few steps toward him and his head turned, looking back at her over his shoulder. Lois froze and gulped. He was staring at her now, his gaze deep and intense, his lips parted slightly as though he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure what to say.

Lois took another deep breath and nodded to herself. They’d be stuck in this staring contest for hours if she didn’t do something. As much as she would like to put this off indefinitely, she knew she was only delaying the inevitable. Eventually he would initiate and might become frustrated after waiting for so long.

Maybe if I just show him that I’m not going to put up a fight, he’ll take charge and get this over with. Even as she told herself that, another part of her rebelled at the thought of not fighting this. But she had agreed to the marriage and consummation was part of that. Maybe after today she could rebuff his advances, but if she didn’t do this now it might affect the treaty and all of this would be for nothing.

Don’t think about it, she coached herself. Just get it over with. But those thoughts didn’t stop her hands from shaking as she started to work the clasps keeping the front of her robes closed.

She looked down at her robes, grateful for the excuse to break eye-contact with her Kal-El. This was it. She was about to give herself to a man for the first time. At least she could say she waited until marriage… it was little consolation when she wasn’t in love with the man she had married. She didn’t even know him, had never spoken to him. Their very first interaction was going to take place on their marriage bed. If only she could get this darn clasp undone…

Suddenly, his hand was on her wrist. She froze, terrified. Had she done something wrong? Maybe he wanted to be the one to undress her. She felt a tear track down her cheek (when had her eyes filled with tears?) but didn’t dare try to brush it away. Slowly, she lifted her face, expecting to see anger in his eyes.

She couldn’t help the gasp which escaped her lips when their eyes met. He wasn’t angry. He was… concerned? Confused? His brow was pinched together in the middle and his lips pursed in a slight frown. He shook his head slowly and gently pulled her hand away from the front of her robes.

“No,” he said.

“What?” Lois breathed out the word, barely able to get it past the lump in her throat, and yet unable to not voice her confusion.

Kal-El shook his head again. “No. You don’t have to… I mean, I don’t expect… We don’t have to do anything.”

Lois blinked and allowed herself to feel a modicum of relief but kept her guard up. Was he really saying what she thought he was saying? They didn’t have to… consummate? But she was pretty sure that was required for all of this. “Aren’t we supposed to…?” she started to voice the question but trailed off as he stepped away and released her wrist.

He shrugged. “Technically, yes. But you and I are the only ones in here. No one else needs to know what does or doesn’t happen.”

“So… what happens in the Bridal Chamber stays in the Bridal Chamber? That kind of thing?”

“More or less.” Kal-El smirked as though he understood her vague reference to Las Vegas and that’s when her brain finally caught up to her.

“Wait a second – you speak English?!” Lois asked, pointing an accusing finger at her husband.

Kal-El looked taken aback for a moment. “Well… um, yes?” He offered her a sheepish grin as though he hadn’t realized that she didn’t know he spoke English.

For some reason, that small smile seemed to break the tension which had built between them the moment they’d stepped into the room. Lois threw her hands in the air and began walking around the room (what little space wasn’t occupied by the bed). “Well, that’s good to know. Here I was thinking that we would have to spend our first year of marriage miming to each other. Might have been nice if someone had mentioned to me that my future husband actually spoke English.”

She finished her speech and turned back to him. He was still smiling, but his mouth had parted ever so slightly and his eyes were wide, giving him a look of wonder which somehow made his handsome face even more charming. Lois shook her head. This wasn’t the time to ogle at her husband’s face.

“What you were saying before,” she jumped back in as though she had never stopped talking. “You mean we really don’t have to…” she trailed off, waving a hand in the general direction of the bed.

Kal-El shook his head. “No, we don’t.”

“No one is going to be looking for… I dunno… blood on the sheets or something like that?” she pressed the issue.

“I certainly hope not,” he replied, grimacing. “Although we might want to toss some pillows around and throw back the bed spread at least… just to keep up appearances for the cleaning crew.”

Lois stopped pacing and considered her new husband for a moment. He wasn’t anything like she expected. For one thing, he had an excellent grasp of English with something like a midwestern lilt to his accent. None of the other Kryptonians spoke English so well. Even Jor-El was more stilted and formal in his speech. If she didn’t know better, she’d think Kal-El was human.

And then there was the whole not consummating the marriage thing. She had thought she was supposed to submit herself to him. She’d been prepared to do it… sort of… okay, so prepared was a strong word. But now he was saying all that mental anguish she put herself through wasn’t necessary?
“Why?” she asked, without elaborating.

Kal-El raised an eyebrow. “Why what?”

“Why don’t you want to…” she waved her hand at the bed again.

Both of his eyebrows shot up this time. “Do you?!”

“No!” Lois insisted. “I’m just surprised that you don’t.”

“I’m not really comfortable with the idea of being intimate with a complete stranger,” he admitted, looking away.

“Really?”

“Yes.” His eyes shot back to hers. “Why is that surprising?”

Lois shrugged. “Isn’t this what you Kryptonians do? Arranged marriages and all that? Being intimate with a complete stranger is kind of how that goes.”

Kal-El shook his head and wandered back to the window. “That’s not how it usually works. Most of the time marriages are arranged at birth. The bride and groom grow up together and are often good friends before the bonding ceremony. And not all Kryptonians have arranged marriages anyway. Mostly just the upper class and even among them, there are exceptions.” He paused as though contemplating his next words. “I never wanted one for myself.”

Lois scoffed. “Really? Then why are you here?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, glancing back over his shoulder.

“Why marry me?” She lifted her arms, gesturing to the room and their entire situation. “Why go through all of this if you never wanted an arranged marriage?”

Kal-El turned slowly, considering her for a moment before replying. “I should think for the same reason that you married me. For peace.”

Lois’ eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed skeptically. “I didn’t think Kryptonians cared about peace.” She paused barely a moment and didn’t give him a chance to respond before she barreled into another tirade. “I mean, you appeared out of nowhere and without so much as a ‘live long and prosper’ or ‘take us to your leader’ you start attacking our cities and towns, killing our people, claiming our world for your own. If my father hadn’t weaponized Kryptonite when he did, we’d all be kitty litter. And you only stopped attacking because, what? Your dynasty changed? If Kryptonians really cared about peace you ought to have risen up against Nor years ago instead of letting so many people die. And now you’re finally agreeing to leave us alone but only if we get married?! What kind of backwards, misogynistic society is this anyway? ”

Lois took a deep breath to calm herself down. She hadn’t meant to unleash all of her pent-up frustrations on Kal-El. He’d actually been very kind and friendly towards her and probably didn’t deserve the full force of her anger against his people. She was fairly certain that he hadn’t had a direct role in the war and, given his young age, probably didn’t have any political sway either.

But he was still Kryptonian. He was one of them.

Lois would never say that she hated their entire race for what they had done. That wouldn’t be fair. But it was very difficult to not be angry with every last one of them. And to be finally able to vent her anger and tell one of them what she really thought – well, it felt pretty good.

Kal-El, for his part, took her rant in stride. His eyebrows were drawn together and his mouth was turned down. He closed his eyes briefly, when she seemed to be finished, and took a slow breath. “I can see why you feel that way. You’ve seen the suffering on Earth, just as I have. And you’re right. The Kryptonians had no right to try to take Earth the way they did.” He sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Jor-El, my father, was furious when he learned what Nor was doing. He tried to rally the council against Nor and there were many who might have been willing. But we are fairly certain that Nor threatened their families – not directly of course. He didn’t do anything which might be traced back to him. But the threats were real enough. Several assassins were sent against our family as well, though they were all captured or killed.”

He glanced up at her, as though to gauge her reaction. Lois simply crossed her arms in front of her chest and frowned. It sounded to her like most of the council were a bunch of cowards. Surely if they had all stood together against Nor…

“You see, Kryptonians are scared.” Kal-El continued almost as if he’d been reading her thoughts – though she was fairly certain mind reading wasn’t one of their powers. “Less than one percent of the population was able to escape when Krypton exploded. They are terrified that any fighting amongst themselves will lead to the complete collapse of Kryptonian society and they will become scattered – homeless travelers through space with no people to call their own. The council believed that, so long as Nor was in power, any dissension would lead to just such a collapse. It was only as his reign was coming to an end that they felt secure enough to stand against him.”

Kal-El shook his head before Lois could speak again. “It’s not an excuse. They never should have attacked Earth. I’m just saying – Kryptonians aren’t usually a warlike people. They value peace and fellowship. Unfortunately, fear can make people go against everything they stand for.”

Lois dropped her arms and let her immediate anger roll away. Staying angry wouldn’t do either of them any good. He was right about fear – human history was also full of occasions where fear drove people to do horrendous things. It was never an excuse but maybe it could at least bring… understanding? Closure? She wasn’t sure there was a right word for it.

Tilting her head to the side, Lois took in the form of her husband. He sat on the bed, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together. His gaze was fixed upon some spot on the carpet and his mouth drawn in a thin line. He looked sad and maybe… maybe a bit angry as well, as though his speech had been as much for himself as it was for her.

She thought back to his words and suddenly realized that he seemed to distance himself from the Kryptonians in the way he spoke about them. It was subtle but… “You speak as though you aren’t one of them.”

Kal-El looked up, surprised, and then smirked self-depreciatingly. “Sometimes, I wish I weren’t.”

Lois took a deep breath and crossed the room to the window Kal-El had been looking out of before. There was nothing to see but empty space but it gave her a moment to rearrange her thoughts. Here she was, talking to a relative stranger who was now her husband – though not fully, thank goodness – and berating him for a war he’d had no part in. None of this was his fault. She was sure they’d talk about this subject more in the future, but for now they still had the rest of their wedding to attend to.

Turning about to face him once more, she offered a small, hesitant smile. “So, since we’re not going to… you know,” she began, gesturing to the bed once more. “Should we go to the reception?”

Kal-El stood and shrugged with a smile of his own. “We should probably wait a bit longer… for appearances sake.”

“Right… and we should mess up the bed too, you said,” Lois reminded him.

“I can take care of that,” he replied. Then, in a blur, the throw pillows were tossed to the floor, the bedspread crumpled at the foot of the bed, and the sheets sufficiently mussed. A moment later, he stood before her again, as casually as if he had never moved.

Lois blinked. She’d seen Kryptonians use super speed before but never for anything so… domestic. “Wow… that’s useful.” Kal-El just shrugged in reply. “So, what should we do now?”

“I figured we could get to know each other a bit,” he answered.

“Being married to a stranger is a little odd,” Lois agreed. “So, I guess we could start with… well, what do I call you anyway? Milord Kal-El?” She mock curtsied causing her husband to wince and grin at the same time. “Or perhaps Your Grace? Your Highness? Your Majesty?”

At this point he laughed but his face looked pained. “Please stop.” He chuckled and shook his head. “I’m not a prince.”

Lois shrugged but grinned. She decided right then that she really liked his laugh and his smile. Those were two things she could definitely get used to. “You might as well be. Your father is the First Lord. You live in a space palace and wear fancy clothes. All you need is a horse and you’d be just right for a Disney movie.”

“I don’t think a horse would do well out here.”

“You’re probably right.”

“As for what you can call me – Kal is fine or…” he paused a moment, then shook his head. “No. Kal works.”

“Okay…” Lois said slowly, confused by the weird pause, but she shook it off. “And I’m Lois.”

“I know.” Kal grinned. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

***

Kal couldn’t stop looking at his wife. He’d thought she was beautiful the moment he saw her. In another universe, he might have approached her and introduced himself, perhaps invited her for coffee and taken the time to get to know her. But their first meeting had been hindered by immediate matrimony and duties to state. He had forced himself not to stare at her, to at least appear focused on the ceremony while his thoughts vacillated between how worried he was about his impending marriage and how utterly breathtaking his bride was.

When they’d first entered the bridal chamber, he hadn’t known what to say. He’d busied himself with the rope and the cup and staring out the window just to give himself time to gather his thoughts. They hadn’t gathered very well. And then he’d heard her move and looked back at her. She was gorgeous. His mind had gone blank again.

It wasn’t until her pounding heartbeat broke through his sensitive hearing that he had realized how frightened she was – she did a fairly decent job of hiding it. But her hands had been shaking ever so slightly as she tried to open her robes. That was when his brain finally registered what she was doing and why she was so afraid.

After those first awkward moments of conversation – her uncertainty about what he expected and confusion over his speaking English – she had suddenly bloomed into a vibrant force to be reconned with. Even her rant against all things Kryptonian had been something to behold. She was so full of life and passionate about what she believed in.

And once she had moved past her anger and begun teasing him about his title… Kal couldn’t help the dopey smile he was sure was plastered over his face. She was fun. She was smart. She was a breath of fresh air.

The Kryptonian women he knew, outside of his immediate family, were all the same – quiet, polite, always in control of their emotions. But Lois… Lois was something else.

“So, what do you do?” she asked, continuing the task of getting to know each other. “Besides being ‘not a prince,’ I mean. Do you have a job?”

Kal shook off his distracted thoughts and focused on what she was saying. “Uh, no. I’m actually still completing my studies back on New Krypton. What about you?”

“Just finished my freshman year at Metropolis University.”

“What do you study?”

“Well, mostly core classes this past year but I’m majoring in journalism.”

“You want to be a reporter?”

Lois nodded and smiled confidently. “I’m going to be an investigative reporter for the Daily Planet.”

“That’s a great newspaper.” Kal replied.

“You’ve read it?” Lois looked surprised and with that surprise seemed to come a reminder of where she was and why. She wilted. “Well, that’s what I was going to do anyway… I don’t suppose they have newspapers on New Krypton.”

Kal sighed and shook his head, already missing her smile. “No. They have regular reports put out by the government but nothing like the newspapers on Earth.” He wished he could say otherwise, if only to make her smile again. “I’m sorry. You’re giving up so much. It isn’t fair.”

Lois shrugged and seemed to close herself off. “It’s what I have to do. For peace, right?” The smile she offered then didn’t quite reach her eyes and the confident light in them had gone out.

Kal felt an ache in his chest as she put on that brave face and he wished there was something he could do to make this right. But before he could come up with anything else to say on the subject, Lois plowed on.

“What about you? What are you studying?” she asked, sitting down on the edge of the messed-up bed.

Kal hesitated a moment before sitting down beside her with a fair amount of space between them. “Oh. Uh, political science, with a focus in foreign affairs.”

Her head tilted slightly and Kal had to force himself not to smile at the cute mannerism. She seemed to want to know more about his choice, so he continued. “It’s my intention to become the next ambassador between New Krypton and Earth.”

Lois blinked rapidly as she processed his words. “Wait, really?”

Kal nodded.

“So, what does that mean?”

“It means that when I finish my studies in three years, I will apply to become an aid to the current ambassador and then, a few years later, I will take over his position.”

“You’ll come back to Earth?”

Kal nodded. “Only the ambassador and his aids are allowed to stay – per the treaty. Becoming the ambassador, myself, will allow me to return and, since you are not Kryptonian, there is no reason why you wouldn’t be able to come with me.”

He watched as hope seemed to kindle itself behind her eyes and he longed to give it another push and see her fiery spirit reignite. “There’s also no reason why you couldn’t resume your own studies when we return. You don’t have to give up your dreams forever.” He reached out to touch her hand, reassuringly.

As soon as their hands touched, a spark seemed to jump between them. Lois lifted her gaze to meet his and he was sure she had felt it too. He smiled and, after a moment, she did the same.

“Three years,” she said finally. “I guess I can put my studies on hold for three years – like an extended gap-year.”

Her confidence was back.

Kal was glad. He still didn’t know how being married to Lois was going to work out, but he was certain that he wanted to try to keep her smiling. At the very least, he was quite certain that they would become very good friends.