001 - First Article - Video (post-sirens)
[The brunette on the video sports quite a few cuts and bruises; it looks like someone didn’t take her first night out seriously enough. From the scene behind her, she’s in the shelter-dugout, for those who would recognize it.] Okay, newsflash of the hour: humans totally have parental instincts coded into them, and it sucks
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So when he actually heard her voice... He almost didn't believe it. And then she kept talking. Six words in, he knew he wasn't imagining it, and picked up his NV. The crystal came to life, flickering the video image on as the recording continued.
Lois.]
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[Kneel before Zod, Kal-El.]
I didn't want you to have to wait forever, not if I was never coming back. I wanted you to be happy.
[Where did they go from here? Damn it, she needed to look at him. If she just looked at him, it might stun her for a few seconds long enough to catch her off guard, but on the other hand it might not get all this out in the open. It'd sit, and stew, and be resentful and horrible.]
I still might die, Lois. I fell. I was stabbed, and I fell.
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[So maybe she's not maintaining quite as much of her equanimity as she'd like to believe. Nor is she quite sure how they went from being so goddamn happy to be together to her being tempted to throttle him in so little time.
Lois is pretty sure it has to be a new record for them or something.
And, in the spirit of people who don't say the things they should, Lois opts against telling him she knows about the fight--or the end of it, anyway--and about his fall, and the knife. But it's why, despite the sheer magnitude of the news, she takes almost no notice of that part of what he said.
Instead she just sink down onto the bench in the dugout and sighs, resting her head in her hands and rubbing her eyes. It's been a long day.]
Look. If we're going to have this fight, can we not do it in the sketchy field-side shelter
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I had to save the world.
And he knows Lois. Saving the world isn't worth it if you hurt the ones you love in the process. But there's always been a bit of Clark - especially recently - that doesn't think he should be grounded. That thinks that if he really loved the people he said he did, he wouldn't be around them.
So he doesn't answer. Instead he steps forward, moving quietly to sit beside her, brushing his cape out of the way awkwardly.]
If I'd died...
[He'd been terrified. He hadn't slept. He'd sat up thinking about leaving, thinking about the book of Rao, dreaming of faraway, distant worlds--New Kandor. He'd had nightmares about Zod being left behind and turning Metropolis into the capital city of his worldwide dominion, with Lois at his side. He'd dreamt of him slaughtering the world's heroes ( ... )
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Love, Lois decides, still sucks a little.
And it hurts, too, that Clark would do this--Clark, who knew better than anyone that she couldn't take being left behind again like Oliver had done. And she gets it, she does, that heroes sometimes need to have other priorities. She gets that there are things they have to do. It doesn't change the fact that he was willing to deliberately hurt her because he thought it was best for her.]
I would never have known. Do you really think anyone was ever going to tell me what happened?
[She doesn't know if he understands that's the worst part of it: the idea that he didn't even want her to be able to mourn.]
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[Someone would have told her. He has to believe that. But he can see why she's furious with him, and even if she said nothing he'd know. His eyes didn't rest, flickering back over her face, her shoulder, her hands, letting her lean against him.
After a moment he raises one hand, brushing it across the wound on her cheek, then brushing her hair back away from her face. He leans in to brush a kiss to her cheek.
There's a more important question in his mind now.]
When... When did you find out? [Had she always known? Had someone told her?]
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Lois actually looks up, finally, eyes open now--she hasn't really taken a good, long look at him yet, but at least she's looking up into his face now. Her smile is a mixture of fond and sardonic surprise.
Seriously? That is what he's worried about?]
Just a hint, Smallville--next time you're trying to keep a secret identity? Don't kiss me.
[Even as she says it, her eyes widen slightly and she looks away again--saying that out loud somehow makes it a lot more real that it's out in the open now.]
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She'd worked out who he was based on a kiss? Everyone else had had to have it spelled out to them in big bold letters, and she'd worked it out because of a kiss?
Damn it. That smug, smug bastard. He was right, and Clark was never going to live it down, was he? Thinking of Bruce centers him, robs away the shock and he focuses on the moment again and sets it aside. Nothing should surprise him any more.]
There's not going to be a next time, Lois. I'm not going to hide anything from you--not any more.
Let's get out of here, okay? There's something I want to show you.
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...Although now there's this running question of what's going on with that that she remembers. Last she knew, they'd broken up--except according to a certain rather irritating billionaire, Clark's been talking about her as his girlfriend.
Lois is honestly getting more and more tempted to throttle Clark until whatever brain cells that are misfiring to make him totally illogical die or something.]
Sounds fine. I wasn't exactly looking forward to sleeping on this bench anyway.
[And there's that absolute trust in him to keep her safe.]
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Especially when he's a smug bastard.
He stands up, looking down at her quietly.
His apartment is out, he suddenly realises. She'd kill him when she saw how he'd been living, so that means either the starter apartments or one of the safehouses, and while he'd prefer to take her to the safehouse...
It's not that great when Batman sweeps in out of nowhere, half stripped out of his armour. No, it's a bad idea.
Of course now she has a better opportunity to get a look at him. All red and blue and wearing that thick, luxurious cape.]
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He looks-- spectacular, really. Clark's always been attractive, she's never tried to deny that (after all, her first look was pretty thorough), but... Her heart skips a beat and she bites her lip, eyes widening. Some part of her brain is still sane enough to point out that this is Clark Kent, dorky farm boy, and he's wearing tights and a cape, and-- is that seriously briefs on the outside?
But damn if he doesn't look amazing. Her fingers are already itching to play with the cape.
Lois swallows and tries for a smile--and to avoid showing that she's definitely looking him over. Goddammit.]
It looks better in technicolor. Black's way too emo for you--it's a sign of unhealthy hours in the boy's playhouse brooding.
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It's instinct more than anything.]
I wasn't sure you'd like it that much. It's a little...dated.
[He looked like a circus gymnast, honestly, with a touch of honest-to-god-alien. He's much gladder for the new version of the suit now; tougher and stronger, and less flimsy looking, it gives a better first impression by far.]
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She smiles a little, wryly, at his comment.]
Dated is one word for it.
[She's smiling a little--it is a little ridiculous, really, but... it works. She's not sure how.]
You look good. Not many guys can pull off tights.
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[But he's leading her back, one step at a time, his hand closed over the back of hers. As hard as he tries to be light and fluffy, they did start off with a falling out and another argument, and he wanted to make it up to her--even if he knows that he's not going to get out of dodge no matter what he pulls out of his cape-pockets.
So when they step into the Darkness he closes his arm around her back and gently takes off. It's still jumping rather than flying, but the quality of it is significantly closer to the latter now, due to having two months with literally nothing better to do than practice how to float, and also thanks to Bruce's leant grapple line. He doesn't actually need that back, does he?]
Hold on tight.
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[Besides her tendency to kiss the hell out of him at every chance she gets. She's ignoring that. It's said playfully, though. She's just teasing.
When he closes his arms around her, she reflexively wraps her arms around his waist and holds on tight--almost unconsciously stepping forward a little. She's not quite standing on his feet, not yet, but then he didn't exactly suggest it. There is definitely a faint sound of startlement--might be a bit-back curse--and she glances down, then back up again.]
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I think it's showing, Lois.
[It's alright. His resistance to gravity is more transmitted than her holding onto him and him jumping. He could touch his fingers to hers and they could glide easily at arm's length, her flying as much as he was. But he's not going to try that because, well...he's enjoying her clinging to him.
It makes him feel like he's all she needs.
Their ascent is gentle, and Clark touches down on top of the apartment building, letting her feet touch the floor just after his own.
And since they just flew, this is the perfect time for an important question:]
Are we still on that break?
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