Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Favourite Revelations: Fanfic Quiz III

It was at that moment that she saw her partner's expression change. He
turned his head toward the windows of the room that overlooked the street
in front of the Daily Planet, and carefully lowered his glasses just far
enough to look over them. She frowned. Why did Clark do that?

On impulse she went to the windows and looked out. Clark followed, perforce.

It was past one a.m. The air was misty, with early morning fog blurring
the yellow light of the street lamps, and for a moment she saw nothing.
Then a flicker of motion caught her eye.

There were men down there--men in the gear of SWAT officers. Somehow Clark
had known they were there, but how? She had been aware for some time that
his hearing was acute, but that acute? It was impossible. Nobody had
hearing like that.

Except Superman. The thought popped unbidden into her mind.

"Do you want some coffee?" asked Lois finally, seeing that Clark made no further move towards her.

Clark agreed readily and seated himself on the sofa where Lois indicated, setting his certificate on the coffee table. Lois put the coffee on to brew and then came back and sat beside him. Clark cleared his throat a little nervously, intending to try once again to broach the subject of Lois's mystifying anger towards him in the last few months.

"Help!"

Clark raised his head, groaning inwardly. What a time for someone to cry for Superman. If he left right now, Lois was going to be mad at him again. He glanced at her to find that she was watching him intently.

"Go," she said.

What?

"Go," she repeated.

"Go?" said Clark, stammering a little in his confusion.

"Yes, *go*," Lois said, rising to her feet and tugging at his arm, which was slack with surprise. "Return the video or the overdue library book or buy your mint toothpaste or get your story notes from the taxi or find your lucky pen . . . ." She ushered him towards the door, ignoring his wordless look of inquiry. ". . . or visit your friend's mother's brother's uncle's daughter who's been lying in the hospital with pneumonia since Tuesday . . . ." She practically thrust him out the door, giving him a shove as he still stood staring slack-jawed. ". . . but come back when you're through," she finished, smiling cheekily at him. "I'll save some coffee for you." She touched his jaw lightly with the tips of her fingers before she closed the door, leaving him alone in the hall.

Her voice came to an abrupt halt when something clicked in
Lois' mind. As if someone had suddenly flicked a switch, light
flooded into Lois' previously clouded mind. She began almost
gasping for air as the pieces of the puzzle began tumbling into
place with amazing speed. And it all suddenly made sense. In
fact, it was the only thing that did.

"You can cut it down to two choices," she began softly,
although speaking to him, addressing herself more. "Superman
doesn't think I would love him as an ordinary man - an ordinary
man I've already met and rejected... You both tell me you love
me using the same words... I've never seen you together, but
you're supposed to be friends... You're always able to get in
touch with him... And that stupid disappearing act of yours...
Omigod," Lois finally gasped.

She ran a hand through her hair to try to tame it, tugged her robe tighter, and walked back the hall to her bedroom. Superman was still there, which she supposed was good, but he was restless, twitching a bit in place, and muttering to himself in his sleep. She leaned against the door jamb, frowning, and once again debated the wisdom of trying to medicate him.

As she stood there, some of his mutterings became clearer, and she listened with half an ear until one phrase brought her up short. Did he just say, "Mom, I got the job!"? It had sure sounded like it.

Funny, she'd never given much thought to the possibility of Superman having a mother, although she supposed there was no reason to think that he didn't have one -- and she remembered now, the first time she'd seen him, he had mentioned a mother; something to do with his costume. She'd been so much in shock at the time, that it hadn't registered. So that covered the mom part -- but a job?

Well, she thought whimsically, maybe he'd been back on Krypton, reading the classifieds, and had come across an ad taken out by the Intergalactic Peace Corps. "Needed: One Superhero for a picturesque, out-of-the-way planet called Earth...."

As she continued to listen, bits and fragments of words and phrases washed past her. Something about Perry, it sounded like, and Dr. Platt? No, surely she was imagining that, Superman hadn't even been around then ... the sound of her name caught her attention.

"Lo-Lois in trouble, gotta help ... Put down those guns or I'll ... Stupid, Clark, stupid!"

He sounded quite vituperative on that last phrase, which startled her. She'd always thought that Superman and Clark were friends ... although come to think of it, had she ever seen them together? Well, that didn't prove anything, Clark had never seen *her* with Superman either ... hey, wait a minute....

She sank to a chair, her eyes unfocusing, as the pieces of the puzzle began to fit themselves together with startling rapidity. Of course, it all seemed so obvious now. "Stupid, Lois, stupid," she muttered to herself. She gazed ruefully over to where Clark was lying on the bed -- lying being the operative word. So handsome, so strong ... and with so little time to live. "Hurry up and get better, you," she muttered, "so I can kill you."

"But Dr. Klein told me that Superman had found that latex," she said.

Clark stopped. Wasn't that what he had said? He thought back. Oh no! In his excitement about piecing together the case, he'd slipped and admitted that he had been the one to find the latex. "Uh... I mean, I was with him... err, he gave... told me..." he stammered. What was he going to do? She'd caught his mistake right away. "Um..." And now he couldn't think of a way out of this one!

Lois jumped on his hesitation, running down a laundry list of the incriminating evidence he'd just given her. "He couldn't have given it to you, and you couldn't have been with him. Dr. Klein said that Superman had found it last week. You weren't even in the country last week!" The story forgotten, Lois stood up and walked over to him. She was now looking at him strangely, almost as if she was seeing him for the first time. Slowly, she reached a hand up to his head, running her palm along his forehead and straight back, effectively flattening his hair along the way. Then with the other hand, she reached up and took his glasses from his face.

Clark stood there helplessly, unable to move. He felt as if the entire experience was beyond his control, and all he could do was wait for her reaction. He could feel the hand on his head trembling as understanding dawned in her eyes. That look only lasted a moment, though, before it was replaced with cold hostility.

One word was all she said, but one word was all she needed. "Superman." Her tone was low and accusatory.

“Lois, the reason that Superman flies in and out of my apartment on a regular basis is... is that *I’m* Superman,” he gasped on a single breath.

He watched her intently, anxious to read her reactions to his confession. She simply stared slackly at him. “You’re...?” He watched her run her eyes over his face, then down his body and back up again. “Where’s the suit?” she demanded, her features hardening.

The suit? He’d confessed his ultimate secret to her and all she wanted to know was where he kept the suit? “It’s underneath my clothes,” he answered. “But-“

“Under your clothes?” She shook her head slowly; incredulously. “Is that the best you can do? What about the boots? And the cape? Where do you keep those?”

He shifted uncomfortably. The truth was, he wasn’t too sure himself how exactly that worked. He just swapped back and forth between the two sets of clothes and somehow the boots and the cape always appeared right on cue. “It’s difficult to explain,” he began. “They-“

“I’ll bet it’s difficult to explain!” she retorted. “Why are you doing this, Clark? Why not just tell me the truth? – it can’t be any worse than this rubbish!”

“I am telling you the truth!” he exclaimed. “I’ve been telling you the truth all along, but for some reason you never want to believe me!” He placed his hands at her waist and gently levitated them off the floor. “Believe this, Lois,” he murmured.

At first, her face registered shock. Then fright – she glanced down to the floor and then back to him in alarm, grabbing at his arms quickly. He adjusted his hold on her so that he was hugging her close to his body. “It’s okay, Lois, I’ve got you,” he reassured.

Suddenly she froze. Something was coming towards her. It
was a brownish, greyish blur, hovering just above the
ground. She glanced around desperately, but there were no
doors, just blank white walls on both sides. Gulping, she
flattened herself against one wall, hoping that whatever it
was would simply pass her by. Just what on earth had Lex
created down here? As it grew closer, she screwed her eyes
shut, reliving that crazy childhood logic which dictated
that if she couldn't see the thing, it couldn't see her.

Two hands - its hands - grabbed her shoulders, and she
twisted her face blindly away, terrified of whatever it had
planned for her.

"Lois!" it said. "Thank God I found you!"

She opened her eyes and snapped her head around in shock.
"Clark?"

"Come on, we're getting out of here," he urged.

"Clark?" she repeated, still trying to process what she'd
seen. How could Clark possibly have moved so fast? And he'd
hovered...

"Sup...erman...?" she demanded suddenly, in a low whisper.
It was the only explanation which fitted the facts.
Superman was *Clark*.

Lois lay back on the bed, unmoving, her body limp. There was no rise and fall of her chest. Clark was beginning to panic when suddenly Lois coughed and drew in a long ragged breath.

Clark cradled her head in his hands, the worry clearly etched on his face.

"Clark? What happened?"

"Oh Lois, I'm so sorry, I sometimes forget myself."

Lois tried to shake the confusion out of her head as she focused on the clearly upset partner of hers. "I can't believe it. You nearly suffocated me with that kiss! I've never known anyone who could hold their breath that long." Lois reached up and pulled off his glasses. "No one, that is, except... Superman." Her voice betrayed the wonder of her own recognition.

Lois was touched by his statement. "Yeah, I wish we could have met too -- properly, I mean." At her words, his expression became abstracted, as if he were straining to listen to something, but after a moment he shook himself out of it, and began setting up boxes in front of her bookcase.

He moved with an easy grace, but was obviously in no hurry. She stood across the room, watching his muscles ripple and flow beneath his dress shirt. It really wasn't fair. The best-looking, nicest guy she'd seen in ages, and he literally didn't know she existed.

Methodically, he packed up her books, beginning with the lowest shelf and filling two boxes before he got to the top shelf. He was able to reach a shelf higher than she could, but there was another one above that. She saw him look around the room, and wished she could tell him where she stored her step-stool. It wasn't in sight, however, so he shrugged. And then noiselessly rose into the air, his feet dangling a foot above the floor as he calmly gathered an armful of books.

Lois felt her mouth drop open. Was it possible this was all just a bizarre dream? Everything and everyone else was behaving normally. Even her imagination wasn't lurid enough to create a floating man, was it? Meanwhile, Clark had cleared out the top shelf and filled the third box. His feet were once again on the floor, and she doubted her own memories. Except that the top shelf was empty. And, come to think of it, those boxes would be heavy, yet he was carrying them with ease. Not to mention his amazingly fast arrival at her apartment, when he'd been in Perry's office scant moments before. This definitely called for further observation.

He moved into the kitchen and began working on her meager collection of cookware. Nonchalantly floating when necessary to reach items on the top shelves of her cupboards. It was the contrast of using such an unusual method to accomplish such a mundane task that finally convinced her that what she was seeing was real. Normal men didn't float, but somehow, Clark Kent did.

"So. ***. Care to tell me *exactly* what went on up there?"

He tensed, all the nerves in his body jangling in warning. Breathing heavily, he answered, "You know. The pulley must have given way. And they'd already loosened the wires to your harness so - "

"I don't mean that," she interrupted fiercely. "I mean, what the hell did*you* do?"

He stared at her. What did she mean... could she have guessed?

She continued. "One second we were in free-fall, the next we were... floating. I can't think of any other way to describe it. We went *up.* And we weren't being pulled up. And I know I didn't do anything, so that just leaves you, ***!"

*** swallowed. She *had* noticed. And it was time to stop pretending to himself that these things weren't happening. He'd done that for too many years now. He took a sip from his glass and sighed heavily. "###, I don't have a clue what happened, except that *something* was telling me to concentrate on not falling. Then we were - flying. Or something. And I have no idea why, or what caused it."

"Superman flies," ### said inconsequentially. *** stared at her, puzzled. "Superman is strong, too. And Superman has super-hearing."

*** took a step backwards, as if trying to ward off the meaning of her words. "###, what on earth are you talking about?"

"You, ***!" she yelled. "*You* can do all these things! Have you never wondered about it? Never thought it was strange that you can do things
other people can't?"

She had made her revelation, and now it was time to
make his. The rational part of him told him it was only
fair. There was a time when he would wonder what such a
revelation would mean to her, what she would think of him
if she knew his secret, but he no longer cared. It didn't
matter, anyway. Their relationship was over.

"Lois," he said, his voice calm and authoritative. He
clenched his jaw and placed his hands on his hips, striking
the posed that Superman was famous for. As he gazed at her,
he molded his face into an expression that left no doubt
that there would be no escaping her fate this time.

She stared at him for a moment, her expression unchanged,
before she narrowed her eyes and turned her head ever so
slightly. She gazed at his face for what seemed like an
eternity, then slowly shifted her attention to his chest.
The realization of who and what he was set in slowly,
revealing itself in her eyes, which widened as far as he
thought they possibly could, before widening even further.
Her shoulders hunched over and her chest heaved with heavy
intake of breath before she let out a whimper, and the gun,
once clenched so tightly in her hands, fell to the ground
with a dull clatter.

"Clark...." she whispered, backing hastily toward the wall.
The revelation seemed to have jarred her back into reality,
chasing away all the bad thoughts that she had once held.
In their stead came an irrational, almost child-like fear.
In all the scenarios that he had run through in his mind,
he had imagined her reaction to the fact that he was
Superman to be severe, ranging from anger to hurt to shear
disbelief. But never had he envisioned the raw fear that
she was feeling.

"Lois, Clark tells me you need to see me."

She couldn't remember when she had last felt so
uncomfortable. Damn Clark for suggesting this.

"Superman, I'm really sorry to take you away from whatever you were doing, but..." She had to get this right, and every way she thought of to say it sounded galactically stupid. "I'm sorry if this sounds crazy, and I know the only reason you kissed me yesterday was because the pheromones were affecting you, but, Superman, would you mind kissing me again, just once?"

She had barely gotten the words out when he stepped toward her and wrapped her in his arms and kissed her. It was intoxicating. It was smoldering. She could barely stand up, so it was just as well that he had her molded to his body
and was holding her firmly in place.

This was awful. This was the worst possible reaction she could have had. This was exactly how she had felt when kissing Clark.

He separated from her just enough to speak. "Was this what you had in mind?" And his lips were on her neck, working their way down her nearly bare shoulder as he slipped off her robe.

Lois felt as though she were falling into a pit of pain and pleasure. This was solving nothing. She wanted Superman every bit as much as she had wanted Clark. How could she feel the same way with two different men in a matter of minutes? She could hear herself telling Clark that his idea had indeed backfired.

Then something happened. Lois was aware that her heart was racing, her breath was short, and her brain was beginning to glaze over. Not to mention that an aching longing to get naked with this man was gnawing at her. So it was not surprising that she barely recognized the sense of deja vu that was playing at the edge of her consciousness, aroused by her sense of smell. She forced her brain to confront it.

"Clark!" she gasped.

The intriguing concept occupied her for a few moments, then she decided probably not. Such an experience would be etched on his face, she thought, as her eyes studied every inch and plane of the features in question intently. And he looked so at peace. He looked so...

She stopped in her tracks.

He looked so...

Familiar.

Not...not *Clark* familiar. Familiar in ways she had never expected to....

She found that she was trembling.

The light in the room had brightened as she'd been lost in her thoughts and she could see his features more clearly now. She had smoothed his hair back from his forehead as she'd sought to relax him back into peaceful sleep, undisturbed by whatever dreams had made him restless. Sometime during the night he had apparently taken off his glasses....

He looked...

No...

No, that was...that was impossible.

That couldn't be.

Lois eased herself clear of the arms enfolding her, as carefully as though it were a sleeping tiger she sought to escape and not a man -

/Man?/

The shaky thought interrupted as she slipped over the side of the bed and rose to her feet. She backed up slowly.

What...who...was it who lay there on her bed? Man? Or...

...Superman...

The silence in the car shook him out of his reverie, and he realised that they were parked outside the Apollo Hotel and Lois was giving him a quizzical look. “Earth to Clark!” she said as he blinked and looked at her. “Falling asleep?”

“Uh... no,” he admitted. “I was just distracted for a minute. Sorry.”

“Good,” she said decisively. “We need to talk, and I think we'd better do it now.”

Startled, Clark stared at her. Had he been wrong? Did she want to discuss their kiss after all? Or... was it just that she was regretting her near-deathbed confidences and wanted to make sure that he'd never breathe a word of any of it?

“You don't have to worry, Lois. I won't say a thing...” he began.

But she cut across him, her words striking fear into his heart.

“You did some pretty amazing things tonight. You thought I didn't notice, but I did. Just who - or what - are you, Clark Kent?”

Perry quickly lifted the chunk of kryptonite out of his briefcase and snapped it shut. Before he realized what had happened, Clark let out a weak "No!" and collapsed back against the corner of the couch, his head hitting the carved wood and twisting away from the edge too late. He hit the floor with a sickening thud, crumpled up between the protruding edge of the sofa and the legs of the armchair that Lois was sitting in. Lois gave a little cry and jumped out the chair faster than Perry thought possible. She was kneeling on the floor next to Clark in an instant, her hand going to the blood seeping into his hair on the back of his head. His face was turn away from the edge of the sofa and his skin was paler that Perry had ever seen it before. He was still holding the chunk of kryptonite out above the desk when Lois suddenly looked toward him, her face almost as white as Clark's.

"Get it away!" she hissed. Seeing Perry was still staring at Clark's fallen form in front of his desk, she leapt up, grabbed the chunk of kryptonite, went around the desk, and stuffed the chunk in his coat.

<snip...>

He quickly moved over Clark and put the piece of kryptonite in the small pouch. Almost immediately, Clark's breathing returned to normal, and he groaned slightly. Lois bent over him and turned his head farther to the side. She took out some dripping wet paper napkins from her shoulder bag and began to wipe the blood from the back of her husband's head.

Perry, still somewhat in shock, watched Lois kneeling on the floor. He looked at Clark's face, the color now fully returned to it, and back up to Lois' calm one. Clark opened his eyes a crack and looked at the base of Perry's desk. He tried to move, but Lois' hand prevented him from turning his head. Perry watched as Clark closed his eyes again. Suddenly, the strangeness of seeing Clark without his glasses struck him, and he gasped. He looked closer, and suddenly all the strange pieces fell together for him. Why Lois was so calm...why she wasn't in tears, why Clark was so strangely calm, too. Why everything had happened so fast. Perry blinked to confirm that he was, indeed, not dreaming the whole thing.

"Great Caesar's Ghost!" he breathed, plopping back down into his chair, in one hand, Clark's broken glasses, and in the other, the lead-lined pouch.

He took on hand and began to remove his glasses. He almost stopped because he was afraid of losing the love he saw in her eyes. However, he knew that for them to share that love he needed to do this. He placed his glasses on the table beside the couch.
At first she was confused, then it hit her all at once. The excuses, taking off at unexpected moments, Clark never being around when a major news story broke. He was Superman! She felt all kinds of emotions at that moment, hurt, anger, relief, and finally love. Hurt because she was supposed to be his best friend, why couldn't he tell her something like this. Anger, mostly at herself for not being able to figure it out sooner. Here she was, Lois Lane, ace reporter, the other half of the best investigative reporting team in Metropolis. To think, two identities separated by a simple pair of glasses. Relief began to set in. She was relieved to know he wasn't running from her. This thing keeping them apart had been set free. She felt a surge of love for him, knowing what it must have done to him to bring himself to
finally tell her. Finally! They could finally love each other, open and honestly.

Her eyes flew to his in astonishment. "Well, that's
just..." she began. "I had no idea..."

Clark stood motionless as he watched the effect his words
had on her. His skin still tingled where her fingers had
been. He was afraid to move, to breathe, to blink an eye
for fear of unsettling her completely.

"But... if this is Superman..." she stammered, holding the
calendar in one hand. "And you posed for it, then
you're..." Her eyes wandered from the glossy photograph to
the man standing before her and back to the photo. "It's
you," she whispered. "You're him. He's you."

Lois pounced on his last comment. "Superman and Clark? Uncle Mike,
they don't look alike. Well, okay, they both have dark hair and brown eyes, and I think they're about the same height and weight, and Clark does have lots of muscles - I saw him half-naked once; don't worry it was perfectly innocent - and we know that Superman has muscles, too, because the suit does nothing to hide them, and ...Oh, my God! They do look alike!" She looked up at her uncle with an appalled expression on her face. "Oh, my God! Clark... and Superman... and they both... Oh, my God!" Much to her uncle's dismay, Lois started to hyperventilate.

"Sweetie, calm down! Take a deep breath ... That's good. Take another."

Lois complied with her uncle's suggestion, taking deep breaths until she was able to sit and look at him relatively calmly.

"Are you okay?" Mike asked in concern.

Lois nodded, her eyes still looking a little wild.

"Let's look at this logically, honey. Have you ever seen the two of them together?"

She waited there for a few minutes before heading to the
restroom with the letter clutched tightly in her hand.
There she could be alone to read the all-important note.
She walked into a stall and latched it behind her. She
would not be interrupted now. She opened the letter and
began to read.

"Dear Lois,

I'm sorry, but I have to leave Metropolis. What I told you
before about going to Smallville isn't true; I really don't
know where I'm going. Please believe me when I say that I
don't want to leave you.

Lois, before I leave, I want you to know that I love you. I
have loved you from the moment I saw you in Perry's office.
I know that you probably want to know the real reason that
I have to leave. Here's my answer: I am Superman. If I
stay, I put the entire city in danger. More importantly, I
put *you* in danger. I can't stand the thought of somehow
hurting you. So I'm leaving. I love you, Lois.

Yours Forever,

Clark Kent

A huge wave of voices rose as the doors shut behind the man in blue and
red. Then the lights went out, the uproar quieted as they were plunged
into complete darkness. It wasn't long before you could hear the hum of
power returning and the lights flickered a bit as they came back on, Lois
saw a very suspicious grouping at the side door as she looked around.
Walking over to the three men it clicked in her head why she thought the
grouping was suspicious. So, when she reached them and their conversation
stopped abruptly, she was ready to step into the awkward silence with a
simple sentence, "I know you know."
Clark was the first to recover from this statement and
checking to see if they could be overheard asked, "You know what, Lois?"
She just smiled sweetly, and by that smile Clark
knew what her next words were going to be. "Oh, just who everyone is in their
skivvies, their long underwear if you
know what I mean, that's all."

He gulped. "Hi," he said, wrenching his gaze back to his wife and keeping his eyes fixed on her face. Maybe if he pretended not to notice
the cape ... "Sorry I'm late. Is Superman still here?" He craned his neck to look into the room, ostensibly not seeing the discarded clothing.

"Not any more ..." said Lois huskily, stepping back to let him enter. She was holding the cape closed with one hand.

"Sorry I missed him," said Clark, wondering why Lois was wearing that cape. She was angry, he could see that.

"That's okay," said Lois coolly. "We ... got started without you."

Lois was watching him closely, clearly expecting something from him.

Apparently not getting the response she anticipated, she ran one hand down her arm, caressing the cape where it touched her and drawing Clark's eyes.

Clark shifted his weight, wondering what the wisest course would be--should he keep on pretending he didn't see the cape?

Yeah, sure. A guy can't walk into a hotel room to find his wife wrapped up in Superman's cape and not notice, Kent.

Especially when he'd like nothing more than to put his hands on it and open it ... slowly. Visions from an old fantasy came back to him and he felt a drop of sweat roll down the back of his neck.

"Well, that's good," he said cheerfully. "I hope you got some questions answered."

"I didn't ask questions," said Lois. "We ... didn't get around to that." She wrapped the cape around her more tightly and looked down at herself, clearly waiting for him to notice her apparel.

He searched for something to say about it. "Uh, nice cape, Lois," he said finally.

"It's Superman's," she confessed, meeting his eyes squarely.

"Oh ..." he said faintly. "Uh ..." recovering, "nice of him to lend
it to you."

"I would be cold otherwise," she said, looking pointedly at her clothing on the floor.

Could a guy, assuming that he's *not* really Superman, catch his wife wearing Superman's cape and not get mad?

Probably not.

She must be trying to make him jealous.

Wanting to speak, and yet not knowing what to say, how to express her confusion and shame, and yet still carrying remnants of anger over his manipulation of her, she was taken by surprise when his hands tightened around hers. "Lois..." His voice was husky. "I... I can't lie to you.
Not any more. But... first... I have to do this..."

Uncertain. Vulnerable. So completely unsure of himself and of her likely reaction... she stared at him, barely able to believe that the man standing so close to her was the invulnerable, powerful, confident Super-hero she thought she'd known so well.

Now it all made sense. He'd wanted her to love Clark, the ordinary man, when all she'd been able to see was the extraordinary powers and the flashy Suit.

Her initial rage subsided as she took that in. And that explained so much - including his manipulative behaviour earlier. He'd behaved like any man she'd ever known... but that was because he *was* just an ordinary guy, with fears and vulnerabilities just like anyone else. Just like her. It didn't completely excuse what he'd done, but it did explain it, at least in part. Yes, Superman had feet of clay; but then, he was just a man, after all.

"What?" she asked in a soft whisper.

"This..." One hand freed itself and came up to cup her chin lightly. "Because once I tell you the truth, you're never going to let me anywhere near you again..."

He was scared. He was terrified of what her reaction might be to the disclosure of his identity! Incredulous, Lois stared up at him.

Okay, she might well still be angry that he'd deceived her. He had, after all, pretended to be two different men for the past year, weaving his way into her life and her affections as both of them. Making her care about *both* Clark and Superman. On the other hand, she knew without a
shadow of a doubt, what choice had he had? If he'd told her right at the start, wouldn't she have seen it as the story of the century? And if he'd told her later...

Oh, she understood all right. Now his words to her earlier made perfect sense. If he'd told her later, wouldn't she have been delighted? After all, she'd been making it clear that she was romantically interested in Superman. And Superman, in the shape of Clark, would have been there for the taking.

And it was obvious, from what he'd said to her earlier and from his skittishness in the past half-hour, that he wanted her to love him as Clark. Not as Superman.

And he loved her. He'd told her so, in both guises, even though it had almost killed him to do so.

And now he was afraid that she was going to reject him. And why wouldn't he think that? She'd given him no reason to believe anything else.

Quickly, before caution could get the better of her, she brought her hands up to slide over the smooth planes of his face. "Kiss me, Clark," she whispered.

Clark bent down silently and captured my lips with his own. Our kiss started out slowly, each of us exploring the other's lips, then it became much more passionate. I felt a bolt of electricity between us as soon as our lips met. When I parted my lips, his tongue slipped into my mouth and we explored each other's mouths for a long time. Clark kisses so well, I can't believe I hadn't taken advantage of this talent before. Now that all of our inhibitions were gone, I turned to lie on my stomach on top of him. His hands had somehow found their way under my shirt, and I shook when I felt his hands against my bare skin. I untucked his shirt and began to unbutton it. As suddenly as we started, Clark stopped me while I tried to undo the first button. Oops, I had forgotten, Clark didn't know I knew about Superman yet. He was probably worried that I would find the Superman suit under his shirt.

I finally had to get this out into the open. I covered his hand with my other hand and declared, "Clark, don't worry. I know."