Okay, Smirky, you've earned yourself a big smirk now!
What a lovely, lovely chapter!
I think it was Jessi who thought that this was a small WHAM:
Clark went quiet, clinging to Lois and crying as he recognized her presence, her touch. She was there. His frazzled mind clung onto that thought. Lois was there. Everything would be all right.
I disagree. This is how I love my Superman best. When he needs two things to survive - sunlight and Lois.
And there are so many things here that I love:
She walked back into her bedroom and sat down in a chair there, eating the ice cream slowly as she stared at the sleeping man, who had turned slightly on his side. His unwashed hair stuck up at odd angles, and his mouth was open slightly. If not for his pale coloring and the circles under his eyes, he would have looked positively childlike.
Aaawwww.....
He had almost died this morning.
She knew it. She had felt it—like she could feel the strings of his spirit floating above hers and threatening to take off. The slightest bit more and it would have been too much for the both of them.
He was doing much better, now. His recovery even so soon was astonishing, though if anyone else were to see him they would wonder what recovery she was thinking about. He still didn’t even look like a shadow of the man—of the hero—that America knew him as.
But Lois knew. She knew that there was no way that he should have been able to attempt to stand even as much as he did, even before his latest exposure to kryptonite. There was no way Lois could have carried him up the stairs without the strength that Superman had used to help them both up to her apartment. Yes, it had been weak and pitiful, but it had been there.
Wonderfully written. Lovely.
Moving to the windows, she opened the blinds, allowing the afternoon sunlight to stream in and set the soft brown colors of the blankets alight.
Superman shifted, even in his sleep, as the light brushed him, letting out a sigh that would have been one of pure pleasure if it had been a little stronger. Now it just sounded relieved—like the kind of sigh a man makes who had been dying of thirst and finally found a pool of cool, clean water to drink from.
Lois looked at him, to the window, and back to him.
She didn’t know. But it was as good a try as anything.
I adore his unconscious reaction and Lois's realization.
There seemed to be nothing on, at first, but after only a few minutes that normal hubbub of Metropolis city life broke way to pictures of Superman. Lois shivered as a picture of him came onto the screen. It was blurred and not entirely in focus, but he was smiling in it, his hand lifted in a slight wave as he lifted off.
His eyes were so innocent.
She turned it off right then. She couldn’t bear the sight of the change in his eyes—not now. She needed to remember the victory, not what they had lost.
So incredibly poignant.
He felt surprisingly--well, not good, but not terrible, either--despite the lingering pain, and he didn’t need to think beyond that. He wasn’t in the white room any more. He was alive. Lois was there. He was content, for now, just to drift.
It was funny, a vague thought floated through his mind. He couldn’t fly, but right now he felt like the first time he had woken up to find himself drifting a few inches above the ceiling. Weightless.
So adorable.
“Sunlight.” It was ridiculous. He was a…well, if not a human, then at least a mammal. Or, if not a mammal, then at least an animal, even if that meager thought hardly made him feel any better. But he wasn’t some sort of…grass, or…or weed that soaked up energy from the sun.
Like somebody - Jessie? - already pointed out, this is just lovely and so funny. Of course, it is sad too, as it underscores Clark's alienness.
“Wouldn’t the…they…” Clark swallowed. “Wouldn’t they have…found something? You know, like…like…chlorophyll, or something? In…in my blood.”
Don't worry about the chlorophyll, Clark. A science teacher at my school tells me that the first sunlight-processing life forms on the Earth had no chlorophyll and were red instead of green. Perhaps you have the same red stuff in your blood that these ancient biological solar panels used to capture and extract energy from sunlight?
Seeing his continuingly dubious expression her own expression was beginning to sour. “Don’t give me that look! I just figured it out. And you’re very welcome, too.”
She stood abruptly, striding stiffly to open the window further. “So soak it up, little daisy. I want you flying by next week.”
Love her reaction. Love her calling him "little daisy".
He slept most of that first day. For most of the morning and into the afternoon, they just lay on Lois’s bed, hardly moving, dozing off now and then or just looking out the window, or at the walls, or just sitting with their eyes closed. It was enough to be together—to feel human presence without the fear of impending pain and blood and tears…
Oh, the peacefulness, the sweetness of this....
As the afternoon began to wane Clark fell into a deep sleep, and Lois untangled herself from his arms and managed to sneak out of the house, disguised with sunglasses and an old hideous coat that Lucy had left during her stay at her apartment. She stocked up with the basic necessities at the local grocer—coffee, ice cream, more ice cream, a large box of chocolate bars…oh!
Lois, too, must survive on other things than ordinary food. Because the way that girl is eating, she can't get any vitamins and minerals that way.
She opened the many locks to her apartment with practiced speed despite her many burdens, and opened the door to find Superman on the floor, literally dragging himself with his good arm and leg towards where the phone sat on the coffee table. He was pale and sweating, and he looked up sharply at the sound of her entrance.
“Lois!” he gasped.
“Kal-El!” Lois was torn between exasperation at him and utter relief to see that he was still there—that he was not dying somewhere, alone. “What are you doing?” Lois dropped the bags she held on the ground and moved quickly to his side.
“You…you were gone,” Clark said in a small voice as she knelt down and helped pull him into a sitting position against her.
And I just love this, too.
“What have I told you about apologizing?” Lois said, but it was not sharp.
“You st-started it,” Clark said with a shaking attempt at a smile. It failed miserably.
“That’s my prerogative,” Lois said with a firm nod, though her hands wrapped around his shoulders. His very presence seemed to calm her still-frazzled nerves.
Aaawwwww.... *loves*
“Um. Call the police?” Clark said. In truth he hadn’t really gotten that far. He had just woken up from a nightmare, and while he had been able to begin to calm down on his own, he had suddenly realized what it meant that Lois had not come to his side yet. He hadn’t been able to hear her moving around in the kitchen, and he had suddenly felt so terribly, horribly alone. The apartment was cold and silent, and he could just feel that Lois wasn’t there. He had called her name, then in a shaking panic had struggled from the bed, falling ungracefully after the first shaking steps. Panic hadn’t really let him think clearly after that.
Aaaawwww... I want to hug him, but I like it even more when Lois does the hugging part.
Lois resisted the urge to roll her eyes. The man was hopeless. Who would have thought that the man of steel would be so cursedly…apologetic? He probably spent as much time obsessing about the things that he couldn’t do anything to fix in the world as he did trying to save it, if not more.
Lois, you have figured him out.
“Are you okay?”
Clark nodded slowly. “I…I’m fine.”
Lois snorted.
“I could have told you that, flyboy,” she said, pushing his hair back from his eyes so it somewhat resembled his usual Superman style, though it was considerably more tussled. “No need to get so full of yourself.”
Clark blushed. It made Lois grin.
The man of steel. In her bed. Blushing.
Aaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!
Who would believe it?
Not anyone she knew. And if Lois had her way, no one would ever find out.
No one would ever know that Superman and her even cared about each other any more. It was too dangerous. For him.
But this sounds
very bad. As if Lois has decided to break up with Clark for his own good. Don't even think of going there, Lois!
The rest of the day they spent trying to return to some form of normalcy. Clark tried to convince Lois that he could bathe on his own, but Lois was emphatic—he wasn’t leaving her sight, especially in the dangerous area of a tub full of water. He could relapse and drown, or something equally horrible, and Lois wasn’t going to risk that. Still, to save his dignity she allowed him a few seconds alone to struggle into the single pair of boxers that she had been unable to resist buying—with the Superman ‘S’ shield printed boldly on the front. As for the rest, she figured he was a briefs kind of guy.
I would have liked to see those boxers. Preferably when he was wearing them. I would have liked it even better if I could see them when Clark had taken them off, so I could see what was hidden behind the 'S' on the front. Actually I'm more anxious for Lois to see him that way, de-boxerized and de-briefed, and for her to familiarize herself with that, hmmm, naked truth of him. I wonder if your story is ever going to take them there. Yes, yes, yes, I know, this is the PG folder.
“Are you okay?” Lois questioned, concerned. “I know it’s a bit small, but you need all the sunlight you can get…”
“It’s fine, Lois,” Clark said, leaning back and closing his eyes. He felt wonderful, despite the aches and pains throughout his body. His mind was still floating in a world of vague fog, but this was so much better—warm, and soft. Even with the highly uncomfortable couch that he was laying on.
Aaaawwww... *loves*
“Thank you,” he murmured.
Lois grunted. She stood and turned away, yawning herself despite the short hours she had been awake. The stress and lack of sleep of the week was going to take some time to get over.
“You…you’re supposed to say, ‘you’re welcome.’’
Lois paused in the middle of stretching and looked back at him.
“What?”
“It’s polite, Lois.” Was that humor in his tone? Lois thought so, and it lifted her spirit. His voice most of the time today had been soft, grateful, apologetic…but he had spoken little beyond what he deemed necessary to be polite. Too often she had seen dark shadows and fear cross his face, and his eyes shoot open quickly as if expecting to find himself back in the white room. This was the closest to a sincere smile she had heard in his voice all day.
“Whatever, Kal-El.”
Aaaahh!!! His sense of humour is returning!
She crawled onto her bed, foregoing the covers. It was warm enough without them. She lay on her side, but all she could see of Superman was the mop of his dark hair sticking out from one side of the couch, and his feet hanging over the other end.
She smiled and let herself relax.
Aaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!
So, Smirky, did I love this chapter or did I love it? And am I a WAFF fan or am I a WAFF fan?
Just so you know, you put a big smirk on my face when I read this!
Ann
