paradisalost | [Thread] Lois and Clark

"Be right there." Lois set down her pad of paper and pen, knowing she hadn't written anything since she'd been staring out the window wondering what was happening in Metropolis right now. Not that she could do anything about Metroplis, but the thought had snuck in despite her intentions otherwise.

Still, as she answered the door, she took a moment to remind herself she was here, in Paradisa. This wasn't, form anyone's current knowledge, about to change.

"Hey, Clark." She paused before she opened the door wide enough to allow him into her room. Not out of any paranoia concerning him, but rather a paranoia concerning anyone possibly being behind him. Things really had been... too quiet, lately.

Clark eyed her obvious wariness before stepping in, looking around nervously, before running a hand through his hair. "I-If you don't want me here, I-I can leave," he said nervously, peering at her through his glasses. He didn't want to upset her, and although he had a feeling he wasn't the reason, it never hurt to ask.

Especially since it was Lois, and well...he was terribly nervous around her, and the fact that they weren't married, but still were...in some form or fashion. He wasn't going to be dating anybody else, at least.

He was just that loyal.

And Lois would find a way to hang him, eventually, if he did stray. A few months was not an excuse - if an explanation. The worry and point was irrelevant.

"No, you're fine," she said, actually meaning the words even as she double checked the locks she'd installed since that morning. So far, they were allowed to stay.

"You said you wanted to talk about something?"

Clark blinked, and shifted nervously. Honestly, he really just wanted to spend time with Lois, but he didn't want to say as much. He wondered what she would say? He swallowed, and eyed the locks with a wry smile. Paranoid much? He wouldn't say as much, but even with him in bed next to her, she had favored several locks on the doors of their townhouse too.

Sighing, he just turned, and smiled. "What were our next articles going to be?" he asked.

She groaned. "I don't even want to think about that right now. Did you know the most remarkable thing, lately, has been a personality change? No, couldn't be he ate chocolate, or had a good day at the spa, probably has something to do with whoever," she gestured to the room as a whole, "Well, you know. Whoever."

Lois flopped down into her chair. "Haven't been able to get anything more with Gatts," she added, mildly put off by the fact. "Everything else seems to be running smoothly enough. Haven't seen hide nor hair of Farfarello or Neuro, and no one seems to have gone missing." She perked up. "Have you heard of anything out of the norm?"

Clark nodded, glad that mentioning work in some form or fashion got Lois going the way she should, and he smiled faintly.

"Other than a conversation I had with Gatt's 'guards', nothing, I haven't heard a thing," he admitted with a sigh. "And the other two have all-but vanished," he admitted.

Sure, he could use his x-ray vision...but that was against his standards too!

"All but," she agreed, "And hopefully would stay that way. Not likely," she said. "That would be convenient for safety reasons, and the people in the Cair are the least convenient aspect." Thus the one reliable thing around here, despite... personality shifts.

"What's been keeping you occupied?" If he'd been asking her for stories, well then, she could only guess."No transformations, no sudden... losses of anything?"

He shook his head, and shrugged. "Nothing like that, I've been feeling like you've been talking to me in my dreams lately..." he blushed, and shook his head. "S-Sorry...th-that was uncalled for!" he said, turning away, and running a hand through his hair.

What was the motivation behind that? Why had he brought that up?

He swallowed. "A-Anyways!" he said blushing and shaking his head.

Her lips twitched into a smile before Lois coughed into her hand. "There are a few people who mention hearing voices while they sleep," she noted. "Besides we were, well, married," she blurted, the word still so strange to say, "So it would make sense."

She looked at him, unconsciously down toward his hands to seek a reaffirmation that should be there. Lois was curious, and by this point, enough so to ask what had been part of a thousand voices in the back of her mind. "What's it like, being married, anyway? I mean, for us. I can imagine what marriage is like, of course. Everyone can imagine what marriage is like."

Clark unconsciously rubbed his bare hand, feeling embarrassed that he had lost his wedding Ring. At the question, his head snapped up, and his mouth was almost slack-jawed.

"Its..." he smiled wistfully. "Difficult," he said, his eyes sparkling. "Everything I thought it would be, certainly," he admitted, blushing faintly. Oh, Lois hadn't known that he had been...inexperienced before they had been married. Well, that would be a secret for now.

"Reassuring," Lois said, "Considering you're the eternal optimist. Most the time." A few noted occasions came to mind, though she wasn't holding them against Clark. Not in the precise meaning of holding something 'against' someone.

"Which reminds me, you don't know anything about plumbing, do you? The drain's been stopped up in the tub ever since... Ever since." An affirmative ending to that statement. She nodded her head.

Clark blinked innocently, and pointed to himself nonchalantly, smiling at Lois lightly, before shaking his head.

"Plumbing?" he asked, wondering what brought that up before he lowered his glasses and x-rayed through wall and ceramic to figure out what was wr-

His ring!

He blushed furiously, and swallowed. "T-There's something...metal in there," he said nonchalantly.

"Metal?" Lois stood, walking into the bathroom, puzzled. Odd, she didn't have anything small and metal of her own to get lost in there? Lois didn't wear earrings in the tub, and most her jewelry wasn't actually here, or hers.

"Metal what, exactly?" She twisted the top half of the plug, working it out. "I didn't see anything last time I looked." Just mysterious backflow, as if something needed to get out in the open and be dealt with before everyone could come clean.

Clark blinked when she plowed headfirst to find whatever it was clogging the tub. He shifted back and forth, rubbing his hand nervously.

Would she say anything? He felt very uncomfortable. Ugh, what a mistake!! He shouldn't have forced himself on Lois! What was she going to think when she figured out what was in there?

Lois squinted. Had the light reflected off something down there? "You might be right," she called back, though of course he was correct - this was more for her benefit than his. "I think I see something-"

Her fingers fished downward, and she told herself she didn't need to know what exactly was sliding under her fingers. Eventually, she caught on something which resisted. A second tug, and the resistance was lss - by the fourth, the object was sliding up with Lois's fingers, barely caught between two tips.

She sat back, eying the slightly grimy ring in her hand. "A ri--," she said after a moment. "I believe I have, ah, found something of yours, Clark." She stood and turned abruptly, heading toward the sink.

Clark blushed, and remained silent. There was little he could say to make this situation better, and it was obvious how Lois felt about the situation in general. The lack of ...well...anything said it all!

He sighed, and rubbed his hand nervously, before flashing a weak smile at Lois. "T-thanks," he said nervously.

"Clark, how the hell did you lose this? Wait, better question - were you wearing this while you were a dog?" Lois was probably scrubbing what had already washed off the metal too hard.

Clark swallowed. "I-I don't think so...but it wasn't there when I turned into a dog either," he mentioned, shaking his head. "I-I think it just...happened," he admitted shyly.

The explanation was weak, but also probable. She knew Clark wasn't the sort of man to lose something this important arbitrarily. She knew that.

"Here," she said, walking back toward him, drying the ring with the corner of her shirt, "Give me your hand."

Clark blinked, and held out his hand to Lois, tipping his head slightly. Why didn't she just give it to him, so he could wallow in his embarrassment? It would make his life much simpler, and then Lois wouldn't be subjected to such things.

Although...this was awfully reminiscent of a certain thing he had lived through before...

He was crazy to think she would just randomly start to remember things.

Lois accepted his hand, sliding the ring back onto the finger where it belonged. She lingered longer than was necessary, covered it with words as she studied his hand for a moment. "Don't lose it again."

Clark stared down at Lois, and swallowed, before nodding slowly. "I-I won't," he promised her earnestly. He wouldn't break a promise to Lois.

He couldn't. He doubted it was even in his genetic makeup.

She looked up, studying his face. She believed him when he said he'd keep track of the ring. Realistically, she shouldn't have any sort of attachment to the ring. She couldn't remember giving it to him, but the symbolism was important.

Lois was a competitive woman. She wasn't certain of exactly when, but at some point that had come to include her partner's attention. And affections.

Woah, unfair thought out of left field. Still, Lois didn't move away, not right yet. "Good. That's what I want to hear."

Clark managed a smile, feeling the tension rise all around him. He remembered what it was like to kiss her, but also what it would mean if he attempted to force a kiss on her as well.

The familiar weight on his finger was comforting, however, and almost seemed to give him courage. He knew what would come, as long as he was patient and managed to remind himself...she would come back.

She had to...there was no explanation, but he knew she would.

There was as little explanation as to why Lois first bridged the gap between them, but she did. Maybe she knew she would, eventually. Maybe she didn't.

Either way, she was kissing him before she could give good backing to her mental protests against, leaving the convincing argument for. Simple and platonic, right? Well, as platonic as kissing a friend who married you got, but that couldn't be hard could it?

Lois could underestimate even herself, time to time. The same went for her estimation of Clark. (Or in cases like this, attraction.)

Clark was downright surprised to find himself kissing Lois...or rather, her kissing him, since he had a slightly delayed reaction to the forward motion.

As soon as he realized what was happening, all former attempts at containing himself were lost, and he was responding to Lois in kind, although he had no delusions of it being platonic. How could it be? This was the woman he had been married to, and she still kissed as fantastically as the last day he had seen her.

Sighing contentedly into the kiss, he wondered if he was going to get slapped soon...and the restraint was thrown away, because since she kissed him...he didn't care.

The idea of platonic slipped away for Lois as well, giving way to, "Oh my," which was a thought directly related to the realization Clark was not at all bad at this kissing thing - actually, he was rather good.

Rather amazing. Which was irrelevant - she wasn't supposed to notice these things. Lois wasn't going to be carried away. She had far too much sense to ---

Deepen their kiss and run one hand up his arm while the other ran over his shoulder.

Clark released the softest of uncontrolled moans when Lois managed to deepen the kiss. He was losing any semblance of control...he was literally a starving tiger in a cage while the zoo-keeper dangled meat right outside the bars.

Of course, this Lois was from a different time period. Before their marriage and consummation, but he couldn't help himself. He responded to Lois in kind, tasting the first food he'd really had in months.

Her reaction had far less basis on past as it did on what had not happened in the past - Lois had avoided doing many things with Lex which as her finacee might have been different.

The last one, which he'd grudgingly allowed, was what did allow her to draw back, despite her own moan of pretest. "Clark," Lois said, "Clark... I really wasn't expecting that," and she sounded surprised, the good sort, "I don't know what I was expecting, just... not... "

She looked at him, really looked at him, before kissing him again, more firmly this time. "I think it would be a good idea for us to have dessert."

Clark released a soft, starved groan, and somewhere in his foggy brain, he heard the word 'dessert', and he nodded numbly at Lois.

Normally, he wouldn't have let something like this transpire with Lois. It was below him to start something so...heavy with someone he wasn't even dating...but with Lois...he always went mad. She had such an effect on him that he couldn't control...

An effect Lois was aware of, if not acknowledging. She withdrew, not as gracefully as she would have wanted, nor as collected as she needed herself to be. She shook her head and resolutely set toward the door.

Dessert was just the excuse which had come to mind. Lois knew it, and knew she was trying to alleviate a potentially serious situation. For whom, she wasn't entirely sure. Both of them.

Whatever their relationship would become, to her, it was still like a newly discovered friendship which had touched upon something deeper. Lois rushed into many things, admittably, but all for good reason. There wasn't a good enough reason here. At least not one worth the second guessing which was already starting in her mind. "Exactly, dessert. How could I have forgotten dessert? Silly me. Wouldn't want to trouble the ghosts with such a silly thing which is all my fault."

Clark had been in too much of a haze to really react much to her pull away, other than a slow opening of his eyes, mouth still parted, hand pulling away from the caress on her face he had just tried to pull through with.

When Lois started into full babble mode, he realized just how close he had been to doing something so against his morals that he would have not even realized it. He sighed deeply, and practically wished there was an arctic...somewhere around here...somewhere he could just leave and go to, so he could calm down what was raging...

"L-Lois," he started, almost panicking. "I-Its okay...I-I'm sorry, this is all my fault, I shouldn't have..." he trailed off, running a hand through his hair.

He was so stupid! How could he have attempted to push such a thing on the woman he loved? He swallowed, and forced himself to calm down, and start thinking of anything but the woman in front of him...

...which, of course, didn't work.

Clark's words cut through her dessert babble, causing Lois to turn around and look at him not quite gaping. (Lois didn't gape.) "Your fault? Yes, it is your fault," she said, going on with, "And my fault. I shouldn't have done that - not that it was bad, I mean it didn't feel bad, it felt good, but that's not the point. Neither of us should have done that. It's not fair to you. Or me. Yeah," she said, "It's not fair to either of us. You miss your... wife, and I miss... all the things which happened between now and then."

Odd conversation to have when standing in your own doorway.

Clark would have looked at Lois with horror if he hadn't been completely still in a daze with Lois's change of attitude.

"My...wife?" he asked, blinking widely. "Lois, I hate to broadside you, but you are my wife...or you will be...b-but...you are still the woman I love," he said with certainty.

No matter what, he still loved her, and that was all that mattered to him was that he hadn't forgotten that love...it was...all he could hold on to in this hell.

"I think I got most the broadsiding out of the way a few weeks ago," Lois said, in what she thought was a reasonable tone, "But I have to say I'm sort of missing out on the whole 'Let's woo Lois' stage of things, and for various reasons, I'd at least like to pretend I have one of those going for me, since otherwise it's like skipping to the end of the book to see what happens because you just can't take the mystery anymore." She inhaled deeply, then looked somewhat ashamed of herself.

What? Could this be possible?

"I'm sorry, Clark, I... care for you. I just can't pretend what hasn't happened for me yet has. I don't fill in blanks in my life like that, and it wouldn't even be fair to you." Actually, Lois was fairly certain none of this was fair to Clark.

Great. Now she felt like a bitch. An old, naggy whiner. "Gah! This is so frustrating!" She tried to expand on that, but ended up with a flurry of handmotions before just standing there, prior mood lost, fuming.

Clark sighed, and wanted to hold her close, tell her it would be okay, especially when she started to fume, flinging her hands everywhere...She had to know that it would be okay, right? They were here...together...and even if she didn't remember, he would be patient, and he would give her as much time as she needed...as painful as it would be for him.

Clark sighed, and swallowed. "Lois, I'm willing to help you catch up in any way I can...I..." could he say such words to a woman who didn't remember loving him? He felt the connection with her...that love that would prevail through anything...he could feel the tight constrictions in his chest that made him know for certain that this was his Lois.

Soulmates...it was the word that would forever bind Lois to him, erase all doubt...but just like he had felt with the fact that he was Superman...it was the cheap way out...he needed Lois to discover everything on her own...he needed to show her that he was for her...and...

He honestly hated living through all of this again.

Lois crossed her arms over her chest, slightly defensive, before rubbing her arms in the absent way of the not quite cold, but fidgety. She eyed Clark, deliberating over something. When she reached her decision, her face had softened. "Friday," she said. "Do you think, I, mean. Do you have any open time this Friday?" Not that time felt like it meant much here, but at least it was a day. Time; Lois was good at grasping at straws of the very thing.

Clark blinked, dumbfounded. What was she asking? He swallowed, no, he had to be calm in this. She probably wanted to work on a story, or investigate something. This was Lois, and he knew she was always all about work. Well...work and Superman...which was essentially him, but she hadn't known that until she arrived her.

He swallowed. "Yeah, I'm open," he said nonchalantly, trying to squash what hope he still had about her request. He couldn't help it, Lois surprised him time and time again, who was to say that it wouldn't be a surprise...that she wouldn't completely broadside him...she already had once today.

"Great," Lois said, as lightly as she wanted to keep the current thread of conversation. "There was part of town I wanted to take a look through, but I figured after that why not sample the local cuisine? I mean, we've got all sorts up here at the castle, but no idea what the local culture is, and it might be nice, don't you think?"

A date, if you wanted to construe it that way. Lois did, but she knew she might need to make that clear. "Like a... date of sorts, I'd say."

Clark looked at her with wide eyes before his face broke into a wide smile. "A-A date?" he practically choked, before smiling. "Y-You mean it!?" he asked excitedly.

He couldn't believe it! She was asking him out! Lois was willing to try! He couldn't help but feel elated, like flying, but he didn't, oh but he definitely wanted to!

"And if you're a good boy, Santa will bring you lots of toys!" Lois did not actually say this out loud, but when she smiled in surprise at how earnestly happy he seemed, the thought did go through her mind. "Yes, I do. You just show up, and I'll make sure I don't regret having asked." No, wait, wasn't he supposed to make sure of the latter? "Or you. Whichever's the case."

With that, Lois turned and started down the hall, before realizing something else and shooting back to the doorway. "Three, in the courtyard. Be there." She moved away again, then was back again. "And that's in the afternoon. Just to be clear."

She'd make it to dessert, eventually.

Clark blinked numbly, and nodded at her interjection numbly, the brightest smile on his face a man could have.

He had a date!!

He nodded, and Lois nodded, then really headed down to dessert. "Don't stand me up," was her parting comment, muttered to herself and down the hall from her room. "Oh, and close the door when you leave."

Just in case he was listening.

Clark shook his head numbly. "I wouldn't dream of it," he murmured softly.

He was glad he had super hearing again. He smiled almost giddily, and closed Lois's door and made his way to the roof. He needed to do some flips.

[Thread] Lois and Clark

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