It was so nice to see this sweet little story pop up on Valentine's Day!
You have to accept the strange, the unusual, and the seemingly impossible when it’s staring you right in the face.
I love this opening so much!
According to him, an imp from the fifth dimension had swapped several details of her past just for fun, and so she had to travel through time with him to fix the mistakes before they caused some kind of crazy butterfly effect in the future.
Oh no! What a fun combo - and this is so cleanly, efficiently phrased for such a complicated thing!
Lois sat beside him in the supposed machine, ready to yell for Superman at the first sign of a kidnapper emerging from behind the cans and trash bags, but she was definitely not ready for what followed.
I love the layers of this - from her skeptical POV that changes here to the idea that she's mentally leaning on Superman.
348 Hyperion Avenue. The homeowner was Clark Kent.
Oh man, this is going to get interesting...
Desperate, she rummaged through the coffee table.
Love that she's investigating him (them)!
Honey? Clark called her that? And she let him?
That's hilarious.
“Ah, feeling nostalgic for the early days today?” He nibbled her skin right there, and Lois melted into a shiver, impressed by how easily he disarmed her.
This is so well done, because it's really a conceivable scenario that Clark could play right along into. And it would totally confuse someone without all the information! I just love the detail that she's aware that he can utterly disarm her, that he knows her so well.
“Clark isn’t due back from Canada until tomorrow,” he replied, sounding smug. “I don’t think it’s right that he left you here alone, so I thought I’d keep you company.”
This is such cute flirtation, even if it's giving Lois palpatations!
“Whew, I lost you for a moment there!” H.G. Wells’s voice reached her through the fog in her head.
That's such a rude awakening!
at night, she wondered how she’d become such a despicable person. When she spoke to Superman, she sounded restrained and distant; when she spoke to Clark, she tried to dodge his concerned looks and questions at every turn.
Oh, that's so heartbreaking.
Not Clark Kent, the most understanding and sweetest person she had ever met, and one of the few decent men left on Earth.
This is such a clever structure, because it's like we're watching her fall in love with him in reverse, somehow. She's falling for him because she thinks she doesn't deserve it. If she hadn't ever gone to that future, she wouldn't have gotten to this point so early.
Anyway, that was the day she decided to limit their interactions to the Daily Planet only.
That's crushing. This is really nicely tied in to her seeing him propose in her mind's eye, and pushing back even harder against that future.
Lois wanted to burst into flames and throw herself at him and order him to never touch her again and also to never stop touching her.
I feel like you've managed to put her in the same kind of a cage that Clark put himself into when he created his second identity; really fascinatign to watch this mirroring effect.
Lois had decided to approach Clark. He’d had the same idea, which almost made them collide in the middle of the rapidly emptying conference room.
That's perfectly in character - it feels like a moment straight out of the show!
"You’re always hurting yourself,” he explained,
This is sweet little moment, but I also found it rich for a man who cannot be hurt to have this perspective on her being injured all the time.
May God help him, because the truth was that she did want him. She wanted this gentle, patient, attentive man in her life, even if he were kneeling on the filthy sidewalk of Butcher Street in old clothes.
Awwwww.
“Lois, I’m sorry,” he said, his voice pained. “Forgive me, please, forgive me.”
Of course this is his reaction. Perfectly in character!
He cleared his throat, sounding deflated. “I see. It was that bad, huh?”
Poor Clark!
"Sorry. I forgot you needed to breathe,” he said, though his bright — and ridiculous — smile revealed he wasn’t all that sorry.
So cute that he says the same thing that Superman said in the future - great callback.
Her partner remained oblivious, busy cheerfully kissing her all over her face. "Lois, go out with me tomorrow."
This is SO cute. And she's gonna be SO mad!
"Lois, trust me, we don’t have to worry about that, honey."
This is also a great callback to the beginning, since it's only like a month later, and he calls her 'honey,' and she lets him.
So cute and sweet!
