Hi!
A huge thanks to Kmar and Mona for their encouragement and BR-checking.
And to my dear readers: Thank you guys for having been such a wonderful audience through the first twenty parts.
Michael
Disclaimer: The recognizable characters and settings in this story are the property of D.C. Comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd Productions, and anyone else with a legal right to them, and I have no claim on them whatsoever, nor am I profiting by their use. It’s just the original stuff, that would be mine, written down to bring some entertainment to other FoLC.
The setting is right after “Season’s Greedings” in Season 2.
Blocks in >> << are literal thoughts by the character.
Rating: PG-13
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In part 20 had Lois and Clark got to do some major relationship talk, ending with Lois asking Clark where they are standing now.
Part 21 /
TOC /
Comments **********
When Clark didn’t answer, didn’t pass his judgment, didn’t react at all to her question, Lois realized she would have to look back at him eventually. She wasn’t sure why he was taking so long to come up with an answer. After all, it surely had to have been at least several minutes by now since she had asked him to decide their future. And he hadn’t answered yet! He just kept silent. Oh god, she had screwed it up, hadn’t she?
Lois’ eyes finally met Clark’s again and the sight that greeted her would be described best as a deer that found itself staring at the Loch Ness Monster as the mythical beast was just about to gobble it up in one huge bite. Yep, she most definitely had managed to screw up her last chance with Clark. And she even knew why.
First she had seduced Clark and dragged him into her bed without so much as even a passing reference to the vague concept of birth control. And now she had told him that she wasn’t taking the pill. Not that the probability of her getting pregnant after their encounters was *that* high. Or at least not as high as it would be if they were to be together like that in a couple of days, when she was closer to the middle of her cycle. But Clark didn’t know that. And what was she supposed to say to him? ‘Oh don’t worry, Clark. I’m sure we’re safe.’ Yeah, right, that would work wonders in reassuring him.
Lois nervously shifted on the couch, moving just enough so her knees no longer touched his thighs while her mind continued to work overtime in coming up with the most likely reason for Clark’s ongoing silence.
And she just knew it! Any minute now Clark would bolt. No matter how much he might be her good and innocent Clark, no matter his public persona as Superman, no matter that he had been raised as a Kansas farm boy, Clark was still a man underneath all that charm. And if she had learned one thing from watching the other half of the species, then it was that once it came to taking responsibility for their actions, they bolted. And right now, Clark surely felt trapped. Trapped by the responsibility for her and their child. Yeah, she really was a great icon of feminism right now. Trapping her man with a child sure sounded like she was a strong, self-assured woman. And he would never believe her if she told Clark that it wasn’t what she’d intended for them.
So why wasn’t he saying something? Or running away? Or flying away? >>Come on, Clark, I can’t stand the waiting anymore. Say it already! Tell me that I trapped you and that you’ve no intention of committing to a woman who has trapped you with a child.<<
“Where do we stand…,” Clark began slowly. “You’re right, Lois, it would have been easier to tell you two days ago,…”
Lois began to feel her muscles locking up, hardening her body for the blow that was about to come and silently congratulating herself for her *great* idea. >>See, that’s what you get for going with your heart. You tell a guy that you sort of… in a certain way think that he and you… that the feelings you harbor for him might be construed as being more than best friends… that you l… *like him*, like him, and you hand him over the tools to your own destruction. Brava, Lois, really smart of you,<< she heard her inner voice smirk as she swallowed the knot forming in her throat.
“But now after everything that has happened, I think what it comes down to is-”
Clark’s opening jolted her back to the here and now. And she wasn’t going to just sit there while Clark told her that she wasn’t what he was looking for.
“-that a pregnancy isn’t going to-”
She wasn’t going to beg him to stay, of course, but if he thought that she’d set out to trap him with a baby, that wasn’t really acceptable, either.
“-change the way I feel about you.”
“What?” Lois croaked. Now what was Clark saying? Hadn’t he just told her that he *loved* her? And now he was telling her that that wasn’t important and that he had no intention of being with her despite said proclamation of love? She should have known! After all, he *was* a man.
Well, if he thought he could just take his leave, he had another think coming, Lois decided determinedly as she jumped up from the couch and posed herself menacingly in front of him. “And just *what* is that supposed to mean, Clark?” she hissed with her hands stemmed against her waist. “First you tell me that you love me and then you decide that you don’t feel like there is a future for us? Look, I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, and it’s not like I’m actually pregnant yet, and there is still time to go and get an emergency contraceptive just to be on the safe side because, seriously, it’s not like *I* would be happy about getting pregnant right now either.” Lois’ right hand started to gesticulate wildly, underscoring her speech. “So you don’t have to wonder about me trying to trap you with a kid.”
“And how dare you even assume that I would try to do that in the first place?” she accused him, her index finger darting out and almost touching his nose. “You know, just for the record, if I were to decide that I wanted to snag myself some Kryptonian butt, I sure wouldn’t have to resort to such low-handed tactics, you know? All I would have to do would be to go to your apartment one evening, let myself in, and wait for you in your bed.” Lois’ hands rose in exasperation. “And don’t you dare deny it, because we both know by now that you wouldn’t have any defense against me when I decide to come to you out of my own free will. So don’t you *dare* tell me that you don’t feel that way about me, because we both know that it would be a lie and a very bad one at that. And to be frank, I think you’ve told me enough lies over the past year to last for a lifetime.” Lois’ eyes narrowed as her wandering mind picked up on Clark’s reaction. “And just why are you laughing like that, you… you… hayseed with a head full of steel-wool?”
Lois kept her gaze focused on her irritating partner. Or was it friend, boyfriend, lover? >>Never mind,<< she thought, shaking off the strange notion and deciding that she would have to revisit this later if she ever hoped to find some peace of mind. Right this moment though, Clark’s odd reaction to her speech was a far more pressing concern. And he was still shaking with laughter. This wasn’t funny! This was their *future* he was laughing about. Or was he laughing *about* their future, or to be more precise, the fact that she still thought they had one?
Lois growled. “Clark!” she snapped, her voice holding a menacing edge. “Do you think that our future is a laughing matter?”
That apparently managed to finally catch his attention, as his annoying outburst seemed to abate at last. “You’re right Lois. Our future isn’t something to laugh about. It’s just, well, I was just about to tell you-“
“Yes?” she probed warily.
“Would you *please* let me *finish* my sentence for a change without interrupting me?” Clark scolded her slowly.
Lois nodded, carefully biting her tongue to prevent herself from flying off the handle at his slightly condescending tone. But he’d better make it quick, because she wasn’t going to be able to keep shut for much longer.
“So, what I was *trying* to tell you is, that pregnancy or not, I’m not going anywhere.” Clark rose with the end of the sentence, standing once again close to Lois before he lifted her chin with a gentle touch of his right hand.
“And if you do get pregnant, I *will* be there for you and our baby, no matter what our personal relationship happens to be at that time.” Clark paused, and sought to fix her eyes with his, the deep brown gleaming with anticipation. “But make no mistake, I *do* love you. And I *do* want to try to formalize this thing we have had going for the last two days, just with less fighting and more loving.”
Lois’ heart caught in her throat, as the full impact of Clark’s words slowly began to penetrate into the murkiness of her scared-out-of-its-wits mind. Had she really just harped over him for dropping her like a hot potato only to have him tell her that since he was invulnerable, he wasn’t averse to holding on to the proverbial hot potato? No wonder he had degenerated to a laughing imbecile. “You’re staying?” she asked him in a small voice, heavy with trepidation.
“Yes, Lois,” Clark sighed. “I’m staying. Heaven help me, but I’m not going to go anywhere.” His eyes took on a determined glint as his hand dropped once again away from her chin. “But just because I’m not willing to give up on you doesn’t mean that I’m just going to happily accept that you’ve forgiven me for lying to you.”
What was he saying now? Why was he telling her that he wasn’t going to accept that she was willing to try being more than friends? She gnawed her teeth at the thought of Clark trying to be all noble and fall onto his sword on some crazy notion that he wasn’t good enough for her. Because if he told her next that she deserved someone better than him and therefore they couldn’t be in a relationship, she was going to hit him.
Then Clark gently grasped her shoulders, and turned them both around so she was standing in front of the couch, ready to sit down. “You see, I do understand that you tried to blow off steam and get even, and I can accept that. I *know* you, Lois, and I know that you could have done much worse things to me if you really wanted to do more than just put me in my place.” He pushed her down on the couch. “But this doesn’t change the fact that you actually seduced me – twice – and without wasting a single thought on birth control.”
“Oh,” she whispered, her eyes following Clark’s face as he lowered himself to crouch in front of her before clasping her hands in his larger ones.
Now what was she supposed to tell him when she didn’t even know the answer to that question herself. Temporary insanity, perhaps? Of course, how extremely convenient would it be for her to have *two* momentary lapses of rational thought within just three days, and both of them resulting in the two most satisfying releases she had ever experienced.
“Um, yeah, I…,” Lois began to put together an attempt at explaining herself as she pulled her right hand from his to pin a strand of hair behind her left ear, only to notice that her tresses were too short to successfully accomplish this demure gesture. “Would you believe me if I told you that my entire body was humming with desire and that my mind had been knocked out from stimulation overload?” she whispered shyly even as she felt a fierce blush creep into her cheeks.
Clark snorted, but his eyes twinkled in mischief. “So, are you saying that it was *my* fault that you dragged me off to your bed?”
Lois briefly contemplated whether she should be affronted by Clark’s retort, only to decide against it. They had had enough fights in the last two days to last them at least until the next serious issue popped up, and Clark teasing her about their raging libidos wasn’t what she considered a serious issue anymore.
And besides, she was fairly certain that it had been just such a fight about who had seduced whom that had led to their *second* bout of love making – or crazy wild monkey sex, depending on who was writing history. And she was quite certain that getting into another fight with Clark would result in their *third* attempt at a *very* intimate impromptu rendezvous. Lois quickly filed that thought away in a newly reserved corner of her mind. This particular box would be labeled ‘crazy wild monkey sex’ and contain all the ways she knew of getting some with Clark. Sure, she knew that starting a fight just to get their juices flowing in the bedroom department wasn’t all that healthy on a permanent basis. But this didn’t mean that they could never try to go for make-up-sex if she felt tense and was itching to blow off some steam. And it wasn’t like they weren’t squabbling over all sorts of things now, either.
She shook herself out from her disturbingly libidinous thoughts and back to the topic at hand. Clark had just implied that she had been the one to drag him off to bed. And while he might have sort of a point to his allegations, she surely wasn’t just going to admit that he was right. Because if she did admit to it, it would tell Clark that he could have her right then and there with just a single word. Any word, actually. She wasn’t going to be picky and ‘Superman’, ‘Pulitzer’, and ‘Now’ were just a small selection of those words.
Lois felt her mouth getting wetter instead of dryer and quickly focused on the other possible answer: She could always tell Clark that he had been just as much the aggressor in their encounters as she had been. Of course, if she told him that, she just knew where they would end up five minutes from now. After she swallowed audibly, she felt her mouth grow drier by the second, confirming to her just how much her desires were still at odds with her earlier suspicions and – to some extend – fears.
Nibbling on her lower lip, Lois finally decided to simply redirect his attention instead of treading into this particular minefield. “Um, no. I’m just saying that you haven’t been an innocent bystander in this affair. And it’s not as if I’d planned for us to sleep together that first night. Or today, for that matter.”
Clark eyed her suspiciously. “So all you had intended to do was to engage in some heavy petting, then? Perhaps even leaving me unsatisfied before sending me away?”
“Yes!” Lois exclaimed, ecstatic that Clark had finally understood her original intentions, no matter what they had degenerated to in the end. It was only when she saw all sorts of emotions flicker over his face that his apparent conclusions began to settle in. Oh god, had she really just told him that she had been trying to be a manipulating, conniving bitch?
Clark sighed. “You know, I really should be mad at you for that stunt, Lois.”
“But…?” she probed carefully, holding her breath in trepidation.
“But after everything that has happened and everything I already managed to work through or accept, well, getting seduced by you doesn’t rank very high on my list of things worth getting mad at you for.”
Lois let go of a relieved breath, thankfully grasping at the straws offered by Clark’s easy acceptance of her somewhat deplorable behavior.
Clark had obviously noticed her relaxing as he followed up on his earlier statement. “But I would very much appreciate it, if you could refrain from drugging me in the future.” A sly smile played over his lips and his eyes began to sparkle with wicked mischief. “Although, given the newly intimate state of our relationship, you can consider yourself lucky that I don’t have any samples of ‘Revenge’ left.”
Lois’ eyebrows immediately vanished from sight as she bristled. “You wouldn’t dare. You wouldn’t sleep with me while I was incapable of saying no.”
Clark’s right eyebrow rose as he answered. “If I remember correctly, Lois, we’ve already established that you wouldn’t say no either way, and there are quite a lot of ideas left from the first time you came onto me clad only in a harem’s costume. And considering how you had your fun teasing me all day long day before yesterday, don’t you think I would deserve a little payback?”
With her mind warring between jumping him and slapping him, Lois tried to muster enough anger to put Clark back into place. And if his performance in the courthouse hadn’t been proof enough already, this would have convinced her. Clark most certainly had lost a lot of his ‘innocent farm boy from Kansas’ behavior after their first night together; never before had she seen him act this sexually assertive, and she wasn’t sure if she preferred this new and improved Clark. Oh, not that she minded him acting like he knew what he wanted. Having her own, personal Superman in the bedroom certainly held some appeal. But first and foremost, there was a time and a place for everything, and having a lovesick, sex-crazed Kryptonian for a partner wasn’t going to help her in focusing on her work instead of how their bodies completed it each other in the eternal dance of the yin and yang.
Lois rose and sidestepped Clark before she quickly made her way around the couch to put some distance between them. “Clark, I’m not going to play your love-slave just so you can get something out of your system. But if you behave yourself, well, there could always be Valentine’s Day, your birthday, our honeymoon, or a nice, cozy weekend away from Metropolis.”
Clark was standing himself by now, and Lois was immediately aware of how much interest Clark still had in a little *payback* and to her chagrin, she felt that a reciprocal interest had come alive within her own body. Warily, her eyes followed Clark’s steps as he traced her earlier path around his couch. Perhaps she should remind him now of the fact that they still had to go and shop for protection. And besides, was right now really the best time for finding out just how well his couch was suited for making love? Perhaps she should suggest that they relocate to the bedroom?
“Uh, Clark,” Lois began as she turned sideways to face him, stretching out one hand to keep him at a distance. “I think you’d better not come any closer, because as much as certain parts of my body might disagree with that statement, I’m still convinced that we should first decide where we will go from here and *then* you can go and buy some protection. Got it?”
Her partner immediately froze mid-step, a deep flush quickly rising to his cheeks. He looked down for a moment; then his eyes returned to her face. “I… I’m sorry, Lois. Of course, you’re right. I don’t know what has possessed me just now. I… I never felt this out of control before. Do you think it’s a side effect from Winninger’s drug?”
Lois flinched at the implied reprimand, but she resolved not to feel guilty about it. Besides, while her father might not be the most reliable person when it came to taking care of the emotional wellbeing of his family, his *inventions* usually worked in the way he intended them to. And Clark seemed to react quite humanly to drugs. “No, Clark, I really doubt it.”
Clark looked back at her, the lust she had seen earlier in his eyes had abated somewhat. “Are you sure? Because I could swear that I’ve felt this way the whole time on Monday and today in the courthouse, too.”
“You did?” Lois mused, her thoughts racing. “That’s strange because the drug should only affect you… your… well… it should just make it easier for you to respond properly to… well… me. And it should wear off after a few hours, anyway.”
“Well, I’m not human, so don’t you think I might react differently than your average test subject?” Clark had stepped back half a step, breaking contact between her outstretched hand and his chest.
“Hmm, no. I mean, you did react quite normally to other drugs before, didn’t you?”
“What are you talking about?” Clark asked her, a suspicious frown adorning on his face.
“Well, there was the Space Rat’s goo,” Lois began to tick off prior examples of his getting impaired by a drug. “And before that, ‘Revenge’, although I’ll admit, it took the one hundred percent solution to get you going. And you did seem to have it quite under control even then,” she added with a hint of disappointment.
“Lois, ‘Revenge’ never affected me and I got over the Space Rats long before you did.” Clark looked faintly amused. “It’s actually quite strange that it affected me at all. Perhaps some weird coincidence,” he finished, shrugging in helpless acceptance.
Lois’ thoughts were racing. Clark hadn’t still been sporting a headache that morning while she had felt like dying? The *fink*! And what was that about his not being affected by the pheromone compound? He had *kissed* her for crying out loud. Growling, she stepped forward, and slapped him across the chest, her fingers grazing over the slick spandex and the rough material of his crest.
“Hey, what was that for?” Clark wailed with mock hurt heavy in his voice.
“You know perfectly well what that was for.” Lois blustered. “You pretended to be drugged just so you could kiss me at the airport.”
“So?” he asked innocently.
“So instead of just kissing me when I could be certain you meant it, you hid behind some ruse. And what would you’ve done when I’d decided to actually not show restraint and take you home to live out my ultimate Superman fantasy?” She huffed, folded her arms over her chest and eyed him menacingly. At least she hoped it was a menacing stare and not doe-eyed adoration as she remembered her feelings for the caped hero at the time. Or even worse, let the wanton need shine through that she was feeling right now. Yep, falling into bed again just now surely wouldn’t be a good idea. They still needed time to heal some wounds. Perhaps after they went to dinner tonight…
>>Arrrgh!<< she screamed silently, pulling away a few steps as her arms flailed in synchrony with her eyes rolling in derision. She really needed to find a way of controlling her libido or she was going to go nuts. Or turn into something that resembled a monogamous Cat Grant with a Clark Kent fixation. And that was *not* going to happen.
“Seducing Superman is your ultimate Superman fantasy?” she heard Clark’s smirk from behind her before she felt him press into her, his arms snaking around her belly. “You know, at least now I understand what happened that evening two days ago,” he breathed huskily against her neck before gently kissing her sensitive skin, slowly walking upwards to her ear.
>>Uh-oh!<< the alarm bells went off in her head. She knew were *that* would lead to if she didn’t put a stop to it *right now*. Lois twisted around in his embrace, immediately aware of how close she was to him right now before she pushed against his chest. “No, Clark! You’re either going to learn to behave yourself or you can just forget that sort of recreational activity until our wedding night, got that?”
“Lois,” he growled. “Do you know just how much you teasing me with our wedding is affecting me?” He underscored his point by pressing her against him, deftly kneading her backside in the process.
Lois swallowed, immediately aware of several things, and Clark’s interest in her wasn’t the most disturbing one among those. Had she really mentioned marriage? She quickly thought back to her comebacks to him, and with growing trepidation she realized just how naturally those words had come to her. Nonononono, this wasn’t happening. This was too fast. She wasn’t ready. *They* weren’t ready. Well, except for one particular aspect of marriage, and apparently even there they still had to learn a lot about caution, or rather, taking precautions.
“O-kay, Clark,” she scolded him, making sure to put an annoyed edge into her voice, the better for him to understand she wasn’t just playing hard to get. “I think that’s enough for now. How about you go and take a cold shower and when you’ve learned to once again think with your *head*, we will talk about this like adults.”
Her left hand grabbed his, the digits still massaging the pliable flesh of her rear, and pulled it away before she slipped out of his embrace. Finally free of the close contact, she let go of a relieved breath, wondering if she might not just need a cold shower herself. Of course, as long as she was stuck in his apartment, taking a shower might not be the safest thing to do. Or perhaps she should just concede defeat and take the shower together with him. Yeah, like that wouldn’t send him mixed signals at all, she sighed dejectedly.
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tbc
