***
One month later...
"Merry Christmas Eve, Clark," Clark muttered to himself as he sat down at his computer.
He was clad in sweatpants and a soft, old t-shirt, the battle armor of hardcore gamers everywhere. He took a bite of his cereal as he logged into his Warcraft account and waited while the game connected to his server. Tomorrow morning, he would fly out to Smallville to spend the holiday with his parents. Not that he felt like celebrating anything. Nearly a month had passed since he'd bumped into Lois at the launch party at Gamestop. As of yet, she had maintained complete silence. No phone calls. No emails. No late night knocks on his door. Clark's nerves were completely frayed from wondering and worrying about if and when she would contact him, and what she might say. The hope he'd carried about salvaging their damaged friendship had begun to sputter in a death throe.
He ate his cereal as he leisurely checked his in-game auctions, pleased to find that he'd won his bid on a rare piece of armor, but bummed that he'd lost out on an equally rare in-game mount. He joined up for a dungeon run with a couple of other members of his guild, and despite the difficulty of the instance, they handily defeated the bosses. Evidently, he was not the only one with nothing better to do on Christmas Eve. He was about log out of the game when purple text appeared in the lower left corner of his screen - a private message from another player, known as a "whisper."
Clark? it simply said.
Clark read it twice, blinking in surprise. The user name next to the message read WildRose.
Lois? he typed back with trembling fingers. It couldn't be her. She didn't even belong to his server!
Yeah. It's me.
But...how? I thought you were on another server, he typed, trying hard to steady his racing heart. He didn't yet know what she wanted. For all he knew, she wanted to invite him into a group to go kill some elite creature.
I was. The message took several long, nerve-wracking minutes to appear. I paid for a server transfer.
Why?
Because, came the words. I thought maybe...I don't know. Maybe it might be nice to be on the same server as you.
A spark of hope flared into Clark's long deadened heart.
"Just say the word, Lois," he pleaded to the empty air of his apartment. "Please, tell me that we'll be okay."
He knew he had no right to ask that of Lois. To be honest, he doubted that he was worthy enough to ask such a thing of even his furniture. But he wanted Lois' friendship back.
Lois? he typed after she failed to respond. He wondered if she was hesitating on typing anything further or if she was engrossed in battling some creature.
Yeah, I'm here.
A copper for your thoughts? he pressed when once more, the purple text stopped appearing on his screen. A copper was the game's equivalent to a penny - the lowest possible unit of currency.
A bit more than a copper, she responded swiftly. This time, she added a rudimentary smiley face.
Clark smiled a bit to himself. Fine then. How about thirty-six thousand, seven hundred and fifteen gold, eighty-one silver, and ten copper? I'd offer more, but that's all I've got at the moment.
Another smiley face from Lois lit up his heart.
I was wondering - did you have any plans tonight? she asked him.
No, he responded honestly. I was just about to log out and read before bed. Maybe a quick buzz around town. Why?
The thing is, she typed, sending each new sentence to him in its own block of priceless purple text, I've been doing a lot of thinking, ever since the launch party. A LOT of thinking. I was so furious with you that night - the culmination of fifteen years worth of hurt I'd stored up inside. But now, I'm seeing things a little more clearly. I was wondering if we could maybe get together to talk some more.
Clark's heart nearly stopped. Had he read that correctly? He checked it four more times, just to be certain that so many hours of game play hadn't messed with his eyesight. But there it was, just as true as the night was cold.
Absolutely, he typed back, needing to retype it several times due to typos. His entire body was trembling with excitement tinged with a healthy dose of fear. After all, she still hadn't said if she could accept his existence back into her life or not. Where do you want to meet?
Why don't you come over? she offered. It'll be faster that way.
I'll be there before you know it, he promised.
She typed in her address - one of the houses on Hyperion Avenue. Clark knew the place. He'd been in the area just two days before, responding to a domestic abuse situation just a few doors down from the number Lois had given him. He hastily typed a goodbye to Lois and logged out of his account.
Feeling grubby from so many hours spent in front of his computer that day, he decided to take a quick shower before searing the fine layer of stubble off his cheeks and chin with his heat vision. He dressed in his best jeans and a plain brown sweater before stepping out onto his terrace, his old landing and takeoff spot. In seconds, he was streaking across the night sky, faster than any human could ever hope to see.
In less than a minute since leaving his place, and less than five minutes from Lois' request to meet him, he found himself standing on the sidewalk before her home. Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, he mounted the steps up to her front door. He hesitated only for a second before he knocked on the solid wood, all the while battling his fear and elation. Lois wanted to talk to him. But he knew on a visceral level that the conversation ahead had the power to either cast a spell that would resurrect Clark Kent back to life, or to kill him for good, even if Lois herself did not realize the power she wielded.
***
Two years later...
"Clark?"
"Yeah, in here," he called back.
He finished laying the last strand of garland on the Christmas tree, in preparation of hanging the ornaments later on that evening. He stepped back and admired his handiwork. The tree looked perfect so far, almost a thousand multicolor lights throwing off a warm glow that seemed to almost physically warm the room around him. The golden garland reflected back the light, and he could all but see how it would look with the assorted decorative ornaments adorning the branches.
"Nice work," Lois said from behind him, a smile in her voice. "But you forgot the star on top."
"No, I didn't. I was waiting for you to get home," he replied, turning to meet her and kissing her as soon as he was facing her. "How was it out there?"
"Not as bad as I thought it would be," she replied, shrugging out of her thick winter coat and laying the bags, laden with gifts, on the floor. "How was it here? Did Michael give you a hard time?"
"He was as good as gold. We watched The Grinch and Garfield's Christmas, then had our bath and bottle. He fell asleep pretty quickly."
"I'm glad," Lois said, smiling brightly. "He's been so fussy lately at night."
"I think the colic is finally over," Clark agreed. "At least, I hope so. Poor guy had such a rough time last month." He reached into the storage box filled with Christmas ornaments. "Now that you're home, I can add the star," he said, fishing for it. "Maybe after Mikey's midnight feeding, we can put on some of the decorations."
Lois shook her head. "Tomorrow. I'm too beat tonight."
Clark found the star and carefully extracted it from the box. "Remember when I gave you this?"
"How could I forget?" she said in a soft, awe-filled voice.
It had been just before he'd left Metropolis, really just a few days before the heat in the city had started to increase at an alarming rate. He and Lois had been discussing their upcoming holiday plans and Lois had mentioned that it was looking more and more like she'd be spending Christmas alone for the first time in her life. Clark had promised that she could spend the holiday with him, if she wanted to. The next day, he'd presented her with the star he now held in his hands - a perfect, multi-rayed star shaped out of a piece of clear crystal he'd once come across in his world travels. He'd spent most of the night carefully creating what he'd considered to be his masterpiece, though he'd given Superman all the credit when he'd given Lois his gift, though it had been more than a month before Christmas.
"The night you gave that to me was the last night I was ever truly happy," she continued, as he floated gently upward to place the star on the top of the tree. "At least, it was until that Warcraft release party, when I knew you'd come back home. I didn't see it that way at the time, but in looking back...I wish I'd never taken that month to think about things. I wish I hadn't wasted any more of our precious time together."
Clark landed softly and looked at his handiwork before looking at Lois. "That month was harder than all of those years spent apart from you, because I knew that whatever happened, it would make or break me. When you whispered me on the game that Christmas Eve...my every prayer felt answered, even though I wasn't quite sure what you would say to me when you asked me to come meet you."
Clark thought back to that night. He'd gone to Lois' house - the house they now shared as a married couple and family - hoping for the best and expecting the worst. As he'd anticipated, she'd had tons of questions for him, most scribbled down on a pad of yellow legal paper, some in ink, some in pencil, some neatly and deliberately written, some barely legible scrawls written in haste. He'd answered them all to the best of his ability, feeling for all the world like he was being interviewed for the big expose piece that would alert the world to Clark Kent's penchant for flying around town in Spandex, saving people. Dawn hadn't been far off when he'd finally answered the last of her questions.
But the sleepless night had been worth it. Lois had chosen to forgive him for the lies he'd told and the crimes he'd committed against her, as he still viewed his actions. They had parted that frigid Christmas morning as friends, and by Valentine's Day, Clark had asked her out on a date, once he'd known that they truly could be comfortable around one another again.
Dating had gone over better than Clark could have ever dared wish for, and by the end of the year, they had married in a small, intimate ceremony - just their families and the closest friends they had. Shortly after their Hawaiian honeymoon, they had been shocked to discover that a baby was on the way. Lois had fretted the entire time, wondering if her age would negatively impact their unborn son. But the pregnancy and birth had gone smoothly, and their child was absolutely perfect in every way.
For Clark, that Christmas Eve had given him even more than the family he'd always yearned for, the wife and child his heart had bled for. It had given him his entire life back. Clark Kent had been found worthy of his continued existence. Lois had wanted him, needed him. Superman had been allowed to continue his mission to better the world, but it had been Clark who'd been granted a stay of execution. As soon as Lois had forgiven him, he'd set to work reclaiming the things he'd lost, including returning to the Daily Planet. Perry had been overjoyed to see the younger reporter, and had needed no convincing to give Clark his old job - as well as his old partner - back.
"Clark? Did you hear me?" Lois asked, jarring him out of his memories.
"Huh? Sorry, I guess I got a little lost in thought for a minute there," he apologized. "What did you say?"
"I asked if you wanted the newest Warcraft expansion. It's coming out in a few days," she repeated as she snuggled into his side, still admiring the undecorated tree.
"Oh, that. I guess so. It could be fun to check out, I guess. It's been so long since we last played though. Part of me misses the game. It was a big part of my life for a while there. It was the only thing that kept me sane in my self-imposed exile. On the other hand, it's been so nice to not need it - to have you and Michael in my life. Part of me doesn't miss the game at all. Why? Did you want to get it?"
"I thought about it," she admitted, "but I think, maybe for now, I'll pass. Michael is still so young and we're still so sleep-deprived as it is. Plus, I feel like maybe our new family is adventure enough."
"I couldn't agree more."
The End.
