Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: Breaking Up is Hard to Do (8/30ish)

Interesting flop... with Lois being in on it so the lame excuses aren't usually present.... and her reaction is interesting too... can't wait to see what happens with their re-evaluation and, when it comes up, how Chad will react... and lol @ Superman moving a piano!

And, coincidentally, I have a piano waiting for my first house from my grandparents... its a Steinway & Sons Grand... it currently lives in my parents' house.

Clearly something is going to happen when Rachel is in Metropolis this next visit.

Sounds to me like Clark is going to have to go be Superman standing up Rachel, Lois, and Chad.

Perhaps at that point Chad and Rachel will compare notes and put it all together.

This is going to sound really harsh. Are you ready?

Chad has to die.

Sorry! How else can we detach him from Lois? Lois and Clark are meant to be. This is fate. This is pre-ordained. This is destiny. There's not supposed to be a Lois and Chad!

Lois is so happy with Chad right now, they're not going to get divorced or anything. (Or are they? hmm....look at the title of the fic? Is there non-lethal hope for Chad?)

Otherwise, the fic was great. I can sympathize with moving the piano - I know from personal experience it's a major pain. Plus, you have to get it tuned up again (another $75-100 or so, depending) whenever you move it. I would have loved to have had Superman move my piano the forty miles it had to be moved on a cold snowy slippery winter day, with the piano guys tracking wet snow all over the clean carpeting and charging me several hundred dollars...

(Wait....bad flashback....OK, it's over now.)

This explains a lot about our Lois. With such a family to model....no wonder she turned out the way she did on the show! (In your fic, she might be a more affectionate, friendlier Lois.)

Back to the piano....by the way, what kind of a piano is it? Upright? Baby grand? Grand? Or just a modest spinet? And what manufacturer? Now you've got me wondering.

IolantheAlias said:

Nononononono!!!! Don't kill Chad! I like Chad!

It is so weird that I like Chad so much, and that I like Lois with Chad even better. I don't think I've ever liked seeing either Lois or Clark with anyone else before. Of course, I've seen Clark with others so many times before - Clark with Lana (hello, Smallville), Clark with Mayson, Clark with Wonder Woman, Clark with Lori Lemaris the Mermaid, Clark with Zara of Krypton. I've always hated it. Recently, creators of various Superman incarnations have tried to make it up to Lois by putting her in relations with others (Lois and Ollie in Smallville, Lois and Richard in Superman Returns). I so don't like it.

But Chad, well, I just like him. And he and Lois are adorable together. I mean, how can you not like this?

Aaaaahhh!!!

As for Clark, I wish him happiness with Rachel. I've always liked Rachel, too. I don't normally want Clark to end up with her, of course, but seeing that Lois is so happy with Chad, how can I begrudge Clark happiness with Rachel?

Of course, there is the secret identity thing causing problems again. Clark shared his secret with Lois, but now he can't bring himself to telling Chad. All I can say is that is is so typically Clark. I very much hope Clark will tell Chad and Rachel before this fic is over, Nancy!

Ann

Thanks for the comments!

Sara - Nice of your parents to hold on to that for you! My parents wouldn't have even considered it - and we don't really have room for a piano in my apartment.

Patrick - You always have so many ideas for how things are going to go, but there aren't enough to choose from this time. I will say this - I see Rachel's next visit as important enough that it gets almost two chapters (one full one and parts of the one before and after it), but it's not for awhile yet. I think chapter 11 is the first part that has it in it.

IolantheAlias - Sorry, no plans to kill Chad. I worked very hard on this and it was important to me that Chad not die in any more stories. I'm still playing with ideas for what will happen to him in the next one, but I like him and I don't want to keep killing him. Sorry.

Hmmm... I didn't give a lot of thought to the piano type, but I have to admit, most of that story was not fictional. The story of the piano and how Chad got it (and how his grandmother got it) is all true. I inherited my grandmother's piano two years ago. I mentioned the story to Carol at some point and she said it made good fic material. Then at some point, I realized I could completely the see the piano as a bonding tool between Chad and Clark, so it got put in this fic.

So, presuming Chad inherited the same one I did, it's a spinet (small upright). It is in fact, the very first model of spinet ever made according to research my husband did, which means it has nicer sound quality than the average spinet (although since we never bothered to tune it - I'm not good enough to notice, sadly - you can't tell). The brand is Acrosonic, which I believe is a line of Baldwin pianos.

Ann - See above. Chad is not going to die. I promise.

And as for telling Chad and Rachel... well, all I'll say is that Chad and Rachel both know long before the fic is over. Whenever that ends up being...

Sorry for the late feedback! I'm still reading this fic, but got caught up in other things, so I didn't get a chance to leave my usual note.

I can see that keeping Clark's secret from Chad is really eating at Lois. I know that she's waiting till Clark feels comfortable, but given how close Lois and Chad are, and how much this secret is bothering her, I'm not sure why she just doesn't tell Chad. Your Lois is loyal, but I wonder whether she and Clark are close enough for Lois to keep this secret.

I won't ask you about Chad dying. I've done that enough, and I'm trying to be open minded about who'll be breaking up in the story. The way you've written Chad, I wouldn't mind Lois staying with him, and that is saying a lot about how well-written your story is.

That being said, I think you could further explore the Lois and Chad relationship. I know he was her first true love, but I get the sense that she's still "in love" with him. What do they have in common and why does she love Chad? I want it to be more than, well he was the first guy I was with...

Even with Lois and Chad, Clark seems so lonely. Does he not talk much with his parents? Also, the last we saw Lucy, she was living with Lois and Chad. Is Lucy at college now?

grinch

First off, apologies. I completely intended to post the next chapter yesterday, but didn't end up online all day. I'll be posting it within the next couple of hours.

grinch - Lois is struggling. She really doesn't want to tell Chad when Clark doesn't want her to as she wants to be a better friend than that. But she's not above pressuring Clark a little bit since her loyalty clearly lies with Chad.

I'm curious if others have the same question you do in terms of Lois and Chad's relationship. I have to admit, I don't have a lot written on what they have in common mainly as I no longer look for that when I'm meeting new couples. Often, I think, you have things in common when you meet, but over years, you both grow and change and the things you have in common fade. What I find makes a good couple now has less to do with commonalities such as liking the same music or interests as with a shared past, common values, and feelings for each other that grow even as your interests may grow apart.

So, for example, when I met my husband, we had quite a bit in common - we went to the same college, had majors that while not the same were very related, listened to the same type of music, etc. Since then, our musical tastes have diverged and aside from the things we both liked when we met, there's little we have in common. We have gone in completely different paths in terms of careers. And of course, we no longer are in college. But we do still have similar values in life and that transcends things like which music we listen to. And we love each other. Early in a relationship that wouldn't be enough to bind you as you don't know each other, but I know him now and while I admit that we have different ideas of what makes a great weekend, I still think he is the best man I know and I'd rather spend my days with him than someone else who might be more likely to agree with my idea of how to spend a weekend.

I've written Lois and Chad in this way. I think we have some sense that they have similar values - one of the key parts of Lois' values that is true in LnC is that she wants to make the world a better place. I hope I have portrayed Chad as someone who is a doctor not because he knows that in a few years he'll be making a lot of money, but because he sincerely cares.

And I've tried to show through their daily interactions that they love each other. I think, based on my experience, that this goes a long way towards enjoying time together. Even though on any given day one of us is likely not doing what we'd want to do if given the choice - today my husband really wants to go out shopping, but we did that yesterday, so today he's stuck inside, but everyday is still fun as we enjoy each other's company. I hope I've shown Chad and Lois that way as well - they laugh together and are happy together for reasons that we can't see.

But I've seen that with friends as well. One of my closest friends has been married for twenty years and I just met her three years ago. Presumably, when she and her husband met they had things in common, but I'd be hard pressed to tell you what they are now. She has a master's degree, he never attended college. She has had two successful businesses of her own, he's still working in the job he was when he left high school with only minor modifications.

Still, when I watch them interact, it's clear that they love each other. They tease each other, and touch each other in ways that make that clear.

So, I guess in a way, Lois is in love with Chad partly because he was her first love. But you can easily fall out of love with someone and in that way, it's not just that. Chad and Lois are not together because they used to be in love and they just never responded as they grew apart. They are still together as they are still in love - because as their interests may have grown apart, their knowledge of each other meant that they fell more in love with each other.

Clark does talk to his parents. Part of his seeming lonely may be the POV. I've struggled with this a lot. I really wanted to write this from Lois' POV, but we do miss a lot from that point of view. We never see Clark talking to his parents or Rachel.

I don't think he's that lonely, but he is still trying to navigate the Clark/Superman thing. I felt like he just did it in the show without many issues, but I'm not sure that's realistic. He's still coming to terms with what this means for his life. And of course, there is an element of loneliness involved in being in love with someone he rarely gets to see.

Lois is putting the guns back on Clark about his secret

Michael

PS: Okay, I know this is short but I read the last 4 parts in one go and now I have no idea what happened when

Michael - you weren't supposed to do that - read several parts at once!

Yes, Lois struggles with the whole Clark-secret thing and so she gets a bit pushy. Not too pushy, I don't think and perhaps not pushy enough, but just a little bit...