How could she just act like nothing happened when she had broken my heart earlier today?
And twice over to boot. Poor Clark.
I never could stay angry with her.
And that's why we love him.
It was two months ago again. We were best friends and Lois felt comfortable coming to my apartment at any time of the night.
To her, yes. To poor Clark, however...
We didn’t work together anymore – heck, I didn’t even have a job. I had told her I loved her six hours ago. She had told me she loved me four hours later. And then an hour after that… she’d accepted another man’s proposal of marriage.
Yikes! I mean, I know it's canon and all, but to see it spelled out like that just sort of slaps you in the face a little.
And since I’d go off and live in a cave in the Arctic before I ever took a paycheck from Lex Luthor, that wasn’t happening anytime soon.
What, no crystalline palace in the Arctic? Caves are so last century, Clark!
I nodded my head, not able to tell her it was okay, but wanting to erase the look of pain from her face.
That's because Superman doesn't lie.
“Don’t hate me for this, okay?”
This is not going to go over well, it is? Is she going to ask her to be the Man of Honor?
Unless of course, the ordinary man was me…
<becomes hopeful>
Was she upset to learn that Superman kept secrets from her? Was she planning to find out what those were?
Yes? And yes???
Strangely, that didn’t leave me feeling the fear it once would have. Instead it made me feel… vindicated. I couldn’t help it. The idea of Lois discovering that Superman was just me, and it turned out she wouldn’t love him if he was just an ordinary man, made me feel strangely happy. Like I had won something. What, I had no idea. The right to point out to her that she had been wrong? Would that make either of us feel better?
I just love this.
“Not like you,” she said quietly, wondering. “Why couldn’t he be more like you?”
<heart breaks>
“I love you, Clark,” Lois said softly. “I know it’s not in the way you want, but I do love you. So much.”
<heart breaks again>
Who cared if she was marrying another man in a matter of days when she had shared so much of herself with me? What had I done in return to earn her love? Lie to her at every turn, tease her with promises from Superman and then rebuff her for preferring the superhero to the ordinary man? I didn’t deserve her, and her marrying the man I hated more than anyone I’d ever met was no more than I deserved.
Oh Clark, stop being so hard on yourself.
“Can I come in?” she asked softly.
Nice little parallel here to the beginning.
“I made a mistake,” Lois said as I came over to the couch, looking at me with tear-filled eyes. “I chose wrong, and now I’m afraid… I was stupid, and I don’t know if there’s a good way out.”
<perks up>
“Nothing. It’s not Lex. It’s me. I’ve been stupid.”
Um, actually it's both of you.
<sits back down>
“You thought Lex Luthor was safe?”
Too soon, though, way too soon – before I even had the smallest taste of her lips – I remembered.
Erm...this is the part where you share a soul shattering kiss with Lois, Clark.
“No,” I said. “I do love you, Lois. So much. But you were right. I can hurt you. And I have already.”
Revelation time?
“Oh,” she said suddenly, her face smoothing out. “’Oh,” she said again in consternation. “’Under the circumstances, I don’t see how I can,’” she quoted me. “Of course you couldn’t,” she said, mostly to herself.
Ding! Get the girl a cookie!
“For what?” she asked me through her tears. “For keeping what has to be the world’s most important secret from me? Or for being stupid enough to fall in love with someone as heartless as me?”
Love it! You definitely hit it out of the park with the combination of heart break and WAFFiness. I loved reading it, and seeing our heroes struggling with their mistakes. And I love how Lois sees that she has made mistakes too. Great work!
