Aww your feedback makes me feel so gosh darn good. *blushes*. Heh. Sorry. A little loopy from seeing "Music and Lyrics" a few hours ago... Hugh Grant in tight pants singing bad eighties songs... well... I highly recommend it.
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When the car rolled to a stop in front of the farmhouse, Lois couldn’t stop the sudden bout of nervousness that roiled in the pit of her stomach. Clark was inside… after those amazing kisses they had shared, would it be awkward?
Jonathon came around the side of the house and grinned when he saw the two.
“Hi Martha, Lois. Clark’s back in the barn if you need him,” he jerked a thumb behind him and went to help Martha and Lois with their purchases.
“Rough day?” he said dryly, hefting out three large bags while Martha and Lois each struggled with their own large one. The three dragged their purchases to the front and deposited them in their respective rooms.
Martha and Jonathon began a conversation about the Irig’s recent crop failure and Lois took the opportunity to beat a hasty retreat. Grabbing one of Clark’s thick coats, she trudged outside to the barn. As she took a deep breath, she suddenly blew it out and laughed, the sound lost in the chilly wind. This was silly; Clark was a friend first and foremost.
Lois pushed open the door and stepped inside the cavernous shelter. A high loft, nearly fifteen feet high spanned one large wall and the rest of the floor was covered in farm machinery, stored for the winter. The air was thick with dust, and the natural light from one large window provided a cool, clear illumination. Lois squinted for a moment as her eyes adjusted to the new lighting and saw Clark pacing at the top of the loft, near the edge. She watched him for a moment, as he seemed unaware of her presence.
About to call out to him, two things happened in very rapid succession: Clark walked clear off the platform and Lois let out a harsh cry of warning.
At this voice, not his father’s as Clark had been expecting, Clark looked up with horror filled eyes. For a moment it seemed to Lois like he hovered in the air before he fell, their gazes locked. And then Clark, finally sending the message to his brain to stop floating, fell like a rock to the floor. But instead of the soft wood to cushion his fall, which Clark could have conceivably explained, directly below him was the sharp pronged edge of the tractor.
And Clark was headed straight for it.
Lois watched in abject horror as Clark’s body plummeted toward the sharp metal. He landed sharply, slipping onto the floor after the steel collided with his skin.
“Clark!” Finally able to regain some semblance of control over her body, Lois sprinted toward Clark’s fallen form, her mind creating dozens of terrible, uncontrollably awful scenarios.
Clark felt the cool touch of her hand on his shoulder and sighed. He couldn’t explain his way out of this one; he had clearly fallen straight onto the jagged metal edge. And besides, hadn’t he just been pondering the merits of telling Lois his secret? Well, yes, he had, but to have the choice ripped from him... He growled in frustration at his carelessness. He had never had to be on the alert at home before, and he was failing this first time miserably. Before Lois could open her mouth, he caught her hand in his own and met her worried gaze.
“I’m okay, Lois,” he said softly.
Lois’ eyes were frantic as they roved over his seemingly uninjured body. “No, you can’t be. Did you hit your head? Did you cut your side?” Before he could stop her, she was lifting up the hem of his T-shirt, exposing the wide expanse of smooth, uninjured skin.
“B-but…” He voice trailed off as she met his harrowed gaze.
Clark tightened his grip on her hand slightly and took a deep breath. He could lose her; there was a very strong possibility that he might. His insides revolted at the thought of the words that were about to spill out from his mouth. This was ingrained in him not to say. She might reject him. Fear him. It was the fear that terrified him the most. If she did… he had gotten through it with Jeff, but those scars were ready to be freshly torn open by one askew look from the woman sitting across from him.
“Lois…” Clark hesitated, having never put his situation into words before. “I was adopted, I don’t know if you knew that.”
Lois wordlessly shook her head and he fiddled with her hand for a moment before continuing.
“Everyone was told that I was mom’s cousin’s kid, but I’m really not. My parents… for lack of a better word, sort of stumbled upon me. I’m a foundling.”
Lois nodded at this. She appreciated that he was confiding in her something so personal, but it didn’t explain why he was uninjured after that fall. As if sensing her confusion, Clark rushed on.
“When I was younger, I was just like everybody else. Normal.” For a moment Clark looked wistful. “But when I was about 10, I realized that I could run fast. Very fast. Faster than any of the kids in school. And about that time if I fell, it wouldn’t hurt.”
Lois was staring at him wide-eyed and he continued before he lost his nerve.
“When I was eleven I climbed this huge tree in the backyard. I was twenty feet up before I even realized it and when I looked down. I was terrified. Just then, as my mom came running out of the house to tell me to get down, the branch holding me up snapped. I fell straight out of that tree onto the solid ground. My mother was nearly beside herself. I thought I was going to die. But when I hit the ground… nothing… no pain, no scratch, no bruise. My mom insisted I go to the emergency room and they thought I made up the whole scenario for attention.” Clark’s voice cracked slightly. It was difficult, much more so than he had ever anticipated saying this. “You know I was a foundling, and it’s true. But what I didn’t tell you, what I’ve never told anyone…” Clark’s heart thundered in his ears; he felt like he was on the precipice of a staggering cliff. “But my parents found me in a field… in a spaceship.”
Lois gasped, unsure whether to laugh at the absurdity of what he was saying or to meet the pained and haunted look in his brown eyes. If she hadn’t just witnessed the impossible, no injury after the fifteen foot fall, she would have immediately disregarded it. But with the facts standing up as they were, could she?
“A spaceship?”
Clark ran a hand through his hair nervously. “Look, I know I sound crazy but--”
Lois cut him off.
“And you’re saying that… you’re invulnerable? Can nothing hurt you?” She couldn’t keep the incredulity out of her voice.
“Nothing so far,” Clark replied honestly.
“Even… a bullet? If you got shot, you wouldn’t feel anything?”
Clark couldn’t keep the dry inflection from his voice. “Well Lois, it has been a while since I’ve held a gun up to my head to determine if it’d hurt me, but I’m fairly certain it’s safe to assume that it wouldn’t.”
Stung by the sarcastic words, Lois withdrew her hand from his and sent him a scathing glare. The emotions flooding his system were almost great enough to not notice the significance of such a look, but not quite.
She hadn’t left; she hadn’t run away, repulsed. She certainly wasn’t afraid of him. In fact, Clark had a feeling that Lois would still challenge him a fist fight if he crossed her. Duly chastised, Clark hung his head and sighed.
“I’m sorry Lois; I didn’t mean to be so flippant. I’ve just never said this before,” Clark explained, the words pouring from his mouth. “You can’t tell anyone, nobody in this world knows except my parents and now you.” He stopped himself before he childishly started to ask her to cross her heart.
“You know I wouldn’t, Clark. But why did you tell me?” She asked quietly. “You could have made up an excuse, nobody would have believed me if I had said anything. You didn’t have to say anything at all.”
“Isn’t it obvious, Lois?” The words tore from Clark’s mouth before he could snatch them back. “Haven’t you guessed?”
Clark was kneeling on the cold planks of timber on the floor and Lois knelt down in front of him, their knees touching. She reached for his hand again, winding their fingers. His grip was loose, nearly shaking.
“I’m in love with you,” he finally gasped out. “I don’t know if I just ruined any chance we could have, or what you think of me right now. But it’s the truth. I’ve only known you a few days and I’ve never said this to anyone else. I can’t understand how I have this connection with you, but it’s there and I can’t pretend like it’s not.”
The words hung in the still air of the barn as Lois took it all in. This passionate declaration riding on the heels of her incredulity… it was mind bending and yet… it seemed unbelievably right.
“You can bend steel… but you’re so gentle. How is that?” Lois asked softly, examining his hands.
Clark blinked, slightly perturbed. “I-I’m not sure. But I’ve always been able to control myself. It’s never been a real issue.” Suddenly Clark’s warm gaze darkened. “Except once,” he finished.
Lois shifted, slightly uncomfortable on her knees and Clark pulled her close to him, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
“Does this have to do with your yearbook?”
Clark nodded and sighed. As he told Lois the story involving Jeff and their animosity, Lois tightened her grip on his hands.
When he had finished, Lois had tears in her eyes as she imagined the long, lonely years. “Oh Clark,” She impulsively hugged him and kissed the side of his neck lightly.
Clark responded eagerly, inhaling the soft scent of her, wintry air and something else he couldn’t place. It was intoxicating. After few moments, Lois pulled back and they simply looked at each other for a moment.
“I’ve never said this before either… but I think I love you too.”
Clark’s eyes widened slightly and he reached a hand up to caress her face. “You mean that, you’re okay with…” he held up his other hand in a vague gesture toward himself “my… freakishness?”
“Oh Clark, you’re not a freak, do you really think that about yourself?” Lois reached out to brush back his slightly too long bangs. She let her hand stray to run her fingers lightly along the hair at the base of his neck.
“Come on Lois, I could lift this tractor with one pinky,” Clark said self deprecatingly. “If that’s not unnatural, I don’t know what is.”
“You’re normal for you, Clark, you’re an incredibly wonderful man,” Lois said softly. “And you’re not a freak.”
“Actually you should probably reserve judgment on that, Lois.” Clark grimaced slightly and stood. He proffered a hand and she took it, giving him a puzzled glance. “I haven’t told you everything.”
“There’s more?” Lois raised an expectant eyebrow and Clark fought down a slightly hysterical laugh. Lois had been taking things well… unbelievably well. If he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, he wasn’t going to be held in limbo too much longer.
“So you know that so far, I’m invulnerable as you put it,” Clark began thickly, “And that I’m pretty strong.”
Lois ran her fingers over one tense muscle and murmured that that was an understatement. The words were so soft, so quiet, that though the sounds filtered through clearly as if Lois had shouted them, her mouth had barely moved. Clark ran an exasperated hand through his hair and decided to zero in on this unexpected angle.
“See, that’s one of the things. I can hear you.” Clark noticed the lack of clarity in his sentence almost as soon as Lois and hastened to explain. “I mean when you just whispered, I could hear every word. I can hear things from miles away. A whisper, a yell… anything.” Clark’s voice trailed off as he caught Lois’ expression.
“So that’s how you heard my father…” Lois couldn’t finish the sentence, her anger from the time quickly rebuilding. “You were spying on me!”
The hangdog look on Clark’s face quieted her would be rant in an instant.
“Oh Clark, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean… well actually I did,” Lois managed to give Clark a small smile. “But I’m not still upset with you.”
“God, this is incredible…” Lois turned away from Clark for a moment and blew out her breath. He placed a hand on her shoulder, the poignant moment calling for sobriety. Lois felt the hand and looked down at her feet, a wicked grin flitting across her features. In a soft mumble, so quiet Lois barely registered the words in her own mind, Lois whispered something slightly obscene about the things she’d like to do to him.
Clark jumped a mile and let out a sharp gasp.
Laughing in delight, Lois turned around and threw her arms around his neck. “Got ya, Farmboy. What other talents do you possess?” She wound a finger through the slightly curly hair at the base of his neck.
“Well actually…” Clark proceeded to give Lois a demonstration of his heat vision and freezing breath. When it came time for him to pull out his next trick, x-ray vision, Clark froze and begged heavenward for some guidance. Please don’t let her kill me.
Because Clark had no doubt in his mind that Lois Lane could kick his butt to next Friday, invulnerability or not.
“Well, ok, this next one… You have to know that I would never abuse it,” Clark stuttered slightly as he tried to phrase it. He decided to go the blunt route. “I have x-ray vision.”
Lois stared at him, her expression unreadable.
“It’s… well it’s a bit of an awkward trait, especially when I first found out about it, but I’ve learned to really control it,” Clark finished a bit uncomfortably.
Some of the tenseness left Lois’ body as she looked on at Clark. He looked like he wanted to die. Suddenly she had to fight the urge to give him a chaste hug. How many other guys wouldn’t relish having a talent like that?
“It’s okay Clark, of course I trust you.” Clark visibly relaxed and shot her a happy smile. “So Mr. I’m Full of Surprises, any more I should know about?”
Clark had to keep his grin in check as his small smile threatened to become a full fledged laugh.
“Well there’s one more…” Taking her hand, Clark led Lois out of the barn and into the bright sunshine. After scanning the area to make sure that they were indeed alone, he placed his hands firmly on Lois’ waist.
“Clark what are yo—AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
As the two shot in the air, Lois’ scream faded, but she clutched Clark tightly.
“We’re—FLYING!”
Clark gave her a sideways grin for stating the obvious and she reached up to thwap him on the head before immediately thinking better of it and holding onto him firmly.
“I won’t let you fall, Lois, you’re safe,” Clark said quietly, noticing her anxiety. “I’m sorry if I frightened you, it was never my intention.”
“You… you can fly!”
Some of Clark’s insecurities arose with the simple statement.
“Well… yes, I can, but…”
“Do you know how cool this is?! We’re flying! You actually defy gravity! This is impossible! I mean the hearing stuff and the bullet whatnot was pretty cool, but this… you could go anywhere! Do anything you could think of! Why on earth are you living in Kansas?”
At this slur on his beloved hometown, Clark burst into relieved laughter. There was the Lois he knew and loved.
“I happen to like Kansas, Lois.”
Lois waved off his sentiment and finally looked away from his face to stare at the world the hovered over.
“This is incredible…” Some of the frantic excitement had left her voice and she was reverently surveying the scenery. “You’re incredible.”
Clark blushed, and for a moment Lois wondered how on earth the strongest being on the planet could be undone by such words from a mere city girl. And then… then Lois remembered the Clark she had spent the last few days with, who had won her a bear at the carnival, who had kissed her so gently. Clark was Clark no matter which way she skewed it.
“You’re you, Clark. I finally know the real you,” Lois said softly, dragging her gaze back to his face. “This,” she waved her hand, finally feeling safe enough to release her death grip, “this is the real you. A farm boy who flies. You’re not the monster you think you are, Clark. I could cheerfully murder anyone who ever put those thoughts in your head.”
Clark tried to give her a lopsided smile, but his breath had caught in his throat. How had she… how did she know exactly what to say?
They were high above the clouds, the setting sun painting the sky a golden yellow tinged with bright red. The illumination from the sunset highlighted the snow below, and sometime later Lois noticed that she should by all rights, be freezing. When she voiced this thought to Clark, he looked perturbed as well.
“I’m not exactly sure,” he mused. “I believe I have some sort of ‘aura’ I suppose you could call it. All I know is that when someone is close to me, very close to me,” he amended wryly, indicating their entangled bodies, “that they’re sort of protected from things. I’m really not sure of the logistics.”
Lois nodded and nestled her head on his shoulder. “Thank you for trusting me with this Clark.”
Clark had to swallow before he could speak, emotion clouding his throat as he tightened his grip on Lois. “You’re welcome.”
