The Ordinary Man


I set my tea down next to his and turn back to look into his eyes. “Clark, I know my signals haven't been very clear... Well, in the beginning, I guess they were certainly clear enough.” My cheeks feel warm again. “But that's because you—you, *Clark*—are something that I was afraid of...am still afraid of.” He looks troubled. I take a deep breath. “Superman was just a fantasy who couldn't hurt me, but you...you're real. I realized early on that if I let my feelings win, that if I even acknowledged I had them, I'd be giving you the power to completely break my heart.”

I scoot closer to him on the sofa, and it's a little relieving when he shifts closer to me as well. “When Miranda sprayed us all with that pheromone that made everyone lose their inhibitions, all those disaster scenarios in my head suddenly didn't seem so important compared to what I could have if I let myself love you. It was you I wanted, Clark: not Superman, not Lex.” His eyes grow large and seem to glimmer, slightly. I press on.

“When I almost married Lex, the thought of losing you—even as a friend—was agony. I started to realize that trying to keep my heart safe wasn't worth it; if anything, it was back-firing.” I'm not sure when our hands linked, but I give his a light squeeze. “Then, when Dillinger shot you...Clark, I was a wreck. That's when I finally realized that I couldn't just keep denying this: I...I love you, Clark. Even though I'd been fighting it, I've loved you all this time.”

“Lois...” His voice is hoarse, and he pulls me into a tight embrace and covers my lips with his. It's a long time before we break apart from each other. “I love you so much...I've never wanted to hurt you...”

“We've been hurting each other though, haven't we?” I think back once again to the sight of Superman—Clark—flying out of my window; just as heart-broken as I was, I now realize.

Clark runs his thumb over my cheekbone and cups my face in his hand. “No more,” he whispers. “I love you, Lois Lane.”

I close my eyes and kiss him again, letting myself jump into the deep end of whatever this is that's been growing between us for the past couple of years. There's still a lot to talk about, and we'll probably have to figure out how Superman fits into everything, but there's no real rush—it's not as if we're going to make it to the party tonight, anyway. So for now, we're just two people in love with nowhere else we need to be.



An Ordinary Couple


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