Lois lane stood in front of superman, having just confessed her feelings to him. She had imagined this moment quite a few times in the last year, always picturing the two of them in a romantic setting when she finally told him she loved him. Not once had she expected that she would propose to him in her apartment, wearing a nightgown, hours after rejecting a similar proposal from her best friend and considering a marriage proposal from the man she had been dating for more than half a year. So, she supposed, the feeling of surrealism that seemed to permeate her senses was justified.
superman had arrived at her apartment a few minutes ago, knocking at her open window politely as usual. While on his visits to her apartment, he usually landed and come to stand beside her, this time he had simply floated to her living room and floated himself to a lotus position in midair in front of her couch he had gestured for her to sit and smiling his adorable half smile had simply said "clark said you wanted talk?"
Ever since superman had come to metropolis nearly a year ago, lois had made it her business to study him as thoroughly as possible. As a result, she believed that she knew him better than any one in the world, with the possible exception of clark kent. Today, while he had schooled his expression to his normal stoic features, she had realized that something was different about him. While through out her confession he hadn't even so much as raised an eyebrow, she could tell that his only reaction had been amusement. As such she was preparing to be gently let down by him, wondering if she would get the same platitudes that she had fed clark that very afternoon.
"Lois, I have told you before that you are special to me, and I have always admired your courage, loyalty and determination..."
'here it comes' lois thought, 'he's going to tell me that he can't possibly love me back'.
"...I would also be lying if I said that I didn't find you physically attractive, so I would have to say that a relationship between us is definitely something I can foresee.."
'I will not cry, I will not cry, HUH...did he just say... yes?'
lois, who had been staring at the floor near superman's boots, awaiting for the inevitable fall, jerked her gaze to his face seeing for the first time that his features had relaxed and smile had broadened to a seemingly careless grin. Happiness flooded her senses even as she prepared to leap into his arms, intending to kiss him senseless. Before she could act though, superman raised his hand and resumed talking.
"That said, I'm having trouble believing that you are truly in love with me.."
'HUH'
"What do you mean you can't believe it? superman do you really believe I would lie to you about something like this?"
"I don't mean to imply that your lying lois, And I do believe that you are very attracted to me, I am simply saying that you are mistaking that attraction as love"
'What's he talking about, of course I know the difference between attraction and love.'
Even as lois geared up to defend herself, superman, now with a slightly more grim expression continued to speak.
"Just hear me out lois. If you truly believe you know me, tell me, what's my name? my favorite color, musician, movie, hobby, anything at all"
'ok, put like that, he's got a point but still'
"Ok, you're right, put like that it seems that I don't know you as well as I should but still superman, I don't need to know these things to know that I love you. And these details are something I would love to discover with you"
"Honey, do you realize that you just told me that you love me for what I am instead of who I am?"
Holding up his hand superman continued "Before you accuse me of believing that you're shallow let me repeat this, I do believe that your attracted to me and I know that I'm attracted to you. That said I'm hoping that you wouldn't be averse to us getting to know each other better."
This conversation was turning into an emotional roller coaster for lois. Even as the mad dog lane part of her insisted that she was right about her feelings and that even superman didn't have a right to question that, the other voice in her head, the one that sounded like clark kent, pointed out that the man had made some decent explaining here and maybe, just maybe there was a kernel of truth here that she had tried to disregard. In addition he wasn't using his arguments to reject her, it in fact sounded like he was asking her out so it made sense to let the issue go and agree to whatever plan of 'getting to know one another' that he had come up with.
"Alright what did you have in mind?" Even as lois tried to keep her tone as casual as possible, her mind was dreaming up all sorts of romantic interludes, including <hopefully> lots of kisses.
"I propose that we agree to keep our relationship platonic for at least a two month period, in which I would like to visit you three evenings a month and we can alternately tell each other about ourselves. If after two months both of us still want to have a relationship, It'll be my honor to ask you out on a formal date."
'thoughtful, uncomplicated, protects us both from unnecessary emotional pain and <sigh> completely devoid of kisses.'
Still, lois had to admit, if she had known that superman would have made it this uncomplicated she would have asked him out ages ago.
"I agree"
superman's features lit up, but as he opened his mouth to speak, his eyes narrowed and he turned to look outside in the general direction of the window.When he spoke, his voice was terse.
"lois, I'm sorry but I have to go, someone's in trouble. We still need to talk and I promise you that I'll be back in an hour or so." By the time he'd finished his statement superman was already jumping out the window leaving a completely bemused yet a happy lois in his wake.
lois was practically skipping half an hour later as it had sunk in that she was now unofficially superman's girl friend. Even if they had to wait two months to start their relationship formally, lois was convinced now that she had finally found the man she was destined to be with. After all even in a conversation that was bound to be awkward for him, superman had handled himself with his usual dignity and while lois didn't agree with some of what he said, superman made his point without in any way putting her or her views down. The only other man who'd done this had been clark.
clark.
That was one bridge that lois really had to rescue. clark was important to her in a way even superman never was and probably never would be. He was her best friend, her confidante, her family even. clark was as important to lois as lucy and lois had practically raised lucy. Heck clark had supported her in ways on one ever had. Looking back, lois had to admit that she had probably hurt clark a lot in the last few weeks. Even if his reaction to lex had been slightly over the top, lois realized that she hadn't helped one bit. she should have tried to talk to clark instead of trying to slap him down. It was weird, clark had never reacted this strongly to any one before, not even when they had talked about claude. yes, she really had to talk to clark.
Also, she really needed to tell lex that she couldn't possibly marry him, after all it would be cruel to string him along now that she knew what she wanted to do. but still that would have to wait, superman was probably on his way back.
Maybe she should call clark, apologize for the afternoon and set up a lunch date so that they could clear out the air between them, let all the issues out of the bag. She really needed to make him understand that he was very special to her, she should have months ago.
Lois had just picked up her phone when she heard a knock at her window and turned around to see superman floating at her window holding what looked like take out in one hand and a bunch of flowers and another packet in another. lois motioned him in and superman, for the first time in the evening landed in her apartment. Casually walking in, superman went to lois and lent down to kiss her cheek and started arranging boxes of food on her table.
Lois in the mean time was trying not to jump up and yell 'he kissed me, he kissed me'. Superman walked back up to her and offered his hand to her in the universal gesture of a handshake.
"I belive we need to be reintroduced lois, I'm Kal El of krypton, last of the house of El and possibly the last son of krypton itself. My Home planet was destroyed due to instability in it's core harmonics and my parents lara and zorel sent me to save my life when they couldn't convince the high council of the impending doom of our planet. I was a child at the time."
lois was pretty sure that her jaw was probably bouncing around in the vicinity of the ground floor of her building. super... kal was still standing in front of her hand outstretched for a handshake, yet it was all lois could do to blink.
su..err, kal had certainly made his point with that statement. In one sentence, quite a few preconceived notions of kal in lois's mind were shattered. Interpreting her expressions correctly, the smile on kal's face broadened.
"I told you." The tone of his voice was mischievous, teasing. So much so that lois found herself relaxing even as the few dozen questions in her mind started making their way towards her mouth.
"uh huh" kal's index finger had found it's way to her mouth, stopping her from launching into the potentially longest babble in lois's life.
"I understand that you will have questions, and I intend to answer them to the best of my abilities, but we will never get anywhere if we keep going off tangents. so here's the deal, Today I tell you about myself, you can think up your questions and ask them the next time I come to visit. also, I want you to think up a few things that you could tell me about yourself for the next time too."
Still unsure of her ability to talk without going into babble mode, lois simply nodded, resisting the impulse to kiss the finger still on her lips. kal straightened up, walked to the table and started emptying the food from the cartons into plates.
"Chinese straight form shanghai, let's eat ms. Lane" kal aped his standard superman pose causing lois to snap out of her thoughts and giggle.waiting a moment for lois to begin, kal himself started talking between bites.
"So, as you've probably figured out, I've been around a lot longer than anyone's ever guessed and in that time I've roamed this planet more extensively than any one else I know."
Kal stopped, took a deep breath and continued "lois, in all this time you must have wondered why of all the people in this world, only clark knew how to contact me? Why it seemed that I'm closer to him than any one else?"kal continued with his explanation without giving lois a chance to speak. "clark and I have been together for a long time lois, we journeyed together, saw different places, experienced many cultures and.." <snorts>"Learned ballroom dancing together from a Nigerian princess."
"clark told me about this, though he never mentioned you" Lois was fascinated, wishing she had paid more attention when clark had been trying to tell her about his travels."
"well I bet he also didn't tell you that aebo, that's the princesses name by the way, was twelve years old and that she had informed clark that she would expect him to return in six years time to ask her father for her hand in marriage. It had taken clark hours to talk her royal highness out of walking to her father and demanding an immediate betrothal."
Lois had started giggling halfway through that story, she could just imagine a precocious twelve year old, standing with her hands on her hips, informing clark that she would be marrying him and that then they could play together for the rest of their lives. "How'd he get out of that one?" Whizzed lois.
"Didn't have to" Kal replied, "Next day she informed clark that she had been mistaken about her feelings about him and her true soulmate was mel gibson."
They continued talking for a good while and all in all lois mused, it was a perfect frst date. kal had told her about a few more of his and clark's traveling adventures, followed by lois interrogating kal about some of his tastes and preferences over washing dishes<he washed, she dried.> Unlike his superman persona, kal was an animated conversationalist, with a wicked sense of humor and a way with words that kept her engaged through out the evening. Lois was now admitting at least in her mind> that kal had been right, and what she had been feeling may have been borne out of her preconceived notions about superman. what she had found instead was a man who was even better. She could literally feel herself falling for him, so much so that she had checked once or twice to see if he wasn't discreetly levitating her or something. It took all her self control not to jump him.
"Lois" Both kal's posture and face had turned slightly forbidding all of a sudden, "We need to talk about clark"
It had been obvious from kal's stories that the two mwn were as close as brothers, and for a moment lois wondered if kal was going to call 'whatever their relationship was' off. She need not have worried.
"Clark asked me today to drop him off at smallville, you must understand that the events of this afternoon shook him up badly."
Lois had caught her breath, being with kal was wonderful, but she wasn't going to take it at the expense of clark. she had realised only a couple of hour's ago that clar was the only thinng resembling a family that she had. Even as she searched for words to express this sentiment, kal put a gentle hand on her sholder and continued,
"Hey don't worry, it's not that bad, clark has asked to be given some space that's all. he's told me that he'll contact you in a week or so himself, and that he only needs some time to gather himself."
A knot lois didn't know existed loosened in her chest, and her breathing seemed to ease up. She had found the love of her life and while it seemed possible for a while, she hadn't lost her best friend either. At that moment, lois could have sworn that if she tried,she could probably fly like kal.
"Now before I leave, I'd like to ask a favor from you lois"
"Anything" Oh my god..did I just purr? god kal leave, I need to call jimmy and flay his ear skin off for some offense or other. At this rate, lois was going to have to retire mad dog lane.
"Clark usually helps me investigate the people I don't trust and with him gone indefinitely, I was wondering if you could take over for him.." Even as he talked, kal opened the parcel he'd brought with him extracting fifteen or so slim files and putting them on the table.
Lois vaguely remembered answering kal in affirmative and kal leaving. As soon as kal had taken out the files, mad dog lane had reasserted himself and her complete attention had been focused on the file.
'no wonder some of clark's hunches had been that accurate, he'd been sitting on the best source in town.' not that lois resented it, no it would be unfair to the highest degree. If anything, lois's respect for clark as a reporter had jumped up several notches in the last few seconds. He had a good source and he had protected it.
Her feet on auto drive, lois filled herself a cup of coffee and sat in front of the files. All information of the files was handwritten, so either these files were for personal record or he had included stuff which he couldn't prove. She decided that first she should Check the titles for each file, so she knew what see was dealing with and then dive into which ever file that seemed most interesting.
'Hmm the heat wave incident'
<God that was a terrible week, it seemed like she was going to lose both clark and super man that week>
'Superman testing'
<Huh, what was that, she'd have heard if kal had submitted to testing, wouldn't she>
'cybernetic boxers'
<Oh yeah that was fun....or maybe not>
'Smart kids'
<UH,huh>
'Miranda's perfume'
<Please oh please don't include the incident of the seven veils>
<Huh, always knew this one was dirty.>
<Hey, I could have sworn that this guy was squeaky clean>
Lois reached for the last file, which co incidentally was also the thickest and let her eyes roam over the title, And her heart skipped several beats.
'Lex Luthor'
