Fic: Perfect Fit
I got more peeved than y'all can imagine after reading far too much nonsense following 'Luthor', so I decided to write to distract myself. Seemed to work, so all is well. I figured since we didn't get to see Clark going ring shopping, I might as well fic it.
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No-one could ever accuse Clark Kent of being without a plan. Not these days anyway. Yet on this bright Thursday morning in Metropolis, Clark was, in fact, without a plan or purpose.
He loved Metropolis with its bustle and buzz and life. While he was a country boy at heart, the city had slowly won him over. Today he was wandering its streets on his lunch break - Lois having abandoned him for a meeting with a source - turning over a hundred things in his mind and listening for any sounds of trouble. He liked to do this now and again, just to breathe and think and be.
So it was while he was wandering down a street and thinking about a hundred things at once that something out of the corner of his eye made him stop short.
He had to turn to see what had grabbed his attention and was surprised at what he found - Cameo Jewellers.
Clark hadn’t been in the shop for two years. After Lois had recovered from the shock and embarrassment of what had happened the last time she and Clark had been in the shop, she’d wanted to barge into the shop and demand to know how no-one had spotted that something was up with their boss. He was, after all, torturing people to death in the basement. Clark had subtly persuaded her to take up another story that would absorb most of her time, and she had forgotten about it soon enough.
Instead, he had been the one to pay a visit to the jeweller’s. The staff had been terrified of him at first, assuming he was there to splash something about them all over the front of the Daily Planet. But when they realised he was simply there to see how they were, they told him everything they knew - which was nothing. Clark had reassured them that there wouldn’t be any follow up and left.
Now, standing in the street looking up at the window of the shop, he had the urge to go in, and with a purpose.
The bell of the shop tinkled as he pushed the door open, stepping inside. Nothing had really changed since Clark had been here. A sharp intake of breath somewhere to his right made Clark look in that direction to see a stunned shop assistant staring at him. Clark remembered his name; it was Brett, and judging by the way he fell over himself and landed with a thud on the floor behind the counter, Brett obviously remembered him. If Lois had been here, she would’ve been howling with laughter. As it was, Clark bit the inside of his cheek and reached round the counter to help the man to his feet.
After a minute of spluttering, Brett finally managed to speak (sort of) intelligible words. “Mm-mm-mm-mr Kent! We didn’t expect to see you back here,” the assistant said, pulling nervously at his tie. Clark smiled and shook his head. “I didn’t expect to be here,” he told him, trying to put the man at ease and adding, “I need your help, Brett.”
Brett stood a little straighter and stopped pulling at his tie. “Of course, Mr Kent, what can I do for you?”
“I need a ring.”
Saying it out loud surprised him, because so far he had only thought about getting a ring. But since he had the General’s blessing to marry Lois, a ring was the next logical and important step. He had his mother’s blessing too, judging by the way she had squealed down the phone at him when he told her what he was planning to do.
This was his plan now. He knew that he loved Lois, more than anyone he had ever loved in his whole life, and she was it for him. Telling her everything about himself had made him feel more free than he’d ever been; he’d shared parts of himself that not even his mother knew about. So marrying her? Yes please.
Brett motioned him towards the cabinets in the centre of the shop and started pulling out trays of rings for him to look at, extolling the virtues of what sounded what like every single ring. Clark had a brief moment of panic because he suddenly realised he had no idea what he was looking for, or what Lois would even like.
A quick glance over most of the trays told him that Lois would kill him for giving her one of those rings. Brett pulled out tray after tray round the shop, still talking, leaving Clark wondering if he was at all worried about someone just lifting one and walking off with it.
Ring after ring appeared in front of him until Clark’s head spun. He only wanted one, but that seemed to be impossible. He stopped following Brett and stood still, taking a deep breath to stop his head from spinning and tried to focus on what he wanted. Brett hovered beside him.
If he knew what ring Lois would like, that probably would’ve helped.
He sighed and stared balefully at the tray of rings in front of him, trying to imagine each of them on the third finger of Lois’s left hand, when one of them just stood out.
“That one,” Clark told the ever-hovering Brett, pointing it out. Brett frowned and said, “Are you sure sir?” Clark nodded and, curious at his reaction, said “I’m sure, Brett. What’s wrong with it?”
The assistant lifted the ring up and held it out to him. Clark let it drop into his palm, watching the way it sparkled as the light hit it. “It’s just… well, that ring has been there for a while,” he heard Brett say.
“How is that possible?” he asked, incredulous. It was a beautiful ring, and he knew that Lois would love it. Brett shrugged a shoulder and said, “Sometimes people look but don’t really see.”
Well that was irony or something like it. Clark grinned at the appropriateness of the statement to his relationship with Lois. Looking down at the ring he was cradling in his palm, he thought about how it look would on her finger, and what it would mean to have it there. This was the one he wanted.
“I’ll take it.”
Brett nodded at his decision and whisked the ring away, reappearing behind the counter with a black box and a polishing cloth. Clark mentally added up how much he could afford now as he walked to the counter, watching Brett polish the ring with care before putting it in the box. He held it out for Clark’s inspection and his heart almost skipped a beat - everything was falling into place; the next time the box with the ring in it was held out to anyone, it would be to Lois.
“Shall we discuss finance, Mr Kent?” Brett asked, his face sliding into smooth salesman mode. Clark nodded even as he looked down at the ring again, sitting on the counter, one thought uppermost in his mind.
It was a perfect fit.
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Lois’s quiet breathing was the only sound in the room. Clark slid out of bed as gently as he could and pulled on his boxers, padding quietly across the room to the chest of drawers. Even more quietly, he slid open the third drawer and pulled the box out from below his socks. Even in the moonlight, the ring sparkled and Clark smiled to himself. He had to keep moving it so she wouldn’t find it before he had the chance to actually propose, but it was safe enough for now.
He hadn’t quite rehearsed a speech, but he knew what he wanted to say to her. How he felt every time she smiled at him, or told him she loved him, or when she was just there. Why he wanted to marry her, because no-one else would do.
After all, his perfect fit was her.
Fin