Happy Birthday, Smirky!
Superman had been trying to talk to her, and she had brushed him aside carelessly.
She had pushed him away.
She had snapped at him and made him wince and cringe, and she hadn’t given it a second thought.
She had insulted him to his face in both guises, and for some reason he had stayed with her.
He had been hurting, tired, uncertain, and Lois had done nothing but push him back down whenever he tried to lift his head from the hard, cold ground.
No wonder he had left her yesterday.
I love how Lois realizes her actions are really hurting the one person she cares about most. However, I do think she is being a little hard on herself - he *has* pretended to be two separate people - and she did get his pocket knife back for him.
She loved him so much. But how must he feel about her?
Why hadn’t he told her? Why had he left her, and not even told her who he was?
and
“L-Lois? R-remember how we were going to have lunch today? You know—so we could talk?”
He hadn’t looked her in the eye. He had been hiding something. And what a big something that was.
But he had been going to tell her!
I was glad to see that Lois realized that Clark wanted to tell her, but I also hope that soon Lois will realize that it wasn't all about her treatment of him as Clark. His fears from his experience, his need to protect his secret added to his dad's sickness and death were completely overwhelming.
On the other hand ...
It was his cape—the whole torn, faded, and still horribly stained scarlet length of it.
What was it doing in her bed?
The question was, of course, completely inane. She had been sleeping with it—bundling it up close to her pillow—close to her face, to her heart.
Clark wasn’t sure if he could use words to describe how he felt as the implications of that.
It couldn’t be healthy, harboring such a thing as that. It should be thrown away, burned, lost—forgotten like the nightmare of the white room.
But she had kept it. Cherished it. Tried to clean it, clearly, and slept with it.
Her only companion after awaking from the terror-filled nightmares that Clark knew all too well.
Her only comfort, when the very sight of it made him go cold and still.
Clark stilled as his superhearing caught the sound of Lois shifting on the couch in the other room. He carefully folded the old cape and set it back on the bed.
That's right, Clark. Don't you see how much Lois needs you? Don't you see that by isolating yourself from her, from humanity, you're doing more harm than good? If you give yourself to Lois, she won't need the cape for comfort.
“Please.” It was not pleading. She couldn’t let herself plead in front of Kent . . . but . . .
“Please,” she repeated softly, her eyes unwavering in his. Please.
Curse her stubborn pride. It was that that had gotten her into this mess—that had blinded her so long.
She would beg. She would beg on bended knees if she had to, as long as he didn’t leave her.
Lois giving up her pride to be with him, Clark or not, is a beautiful thing.
Like others, I loved their experience with the sunrise. It was so well written that I hate to point out - -
Clark had always loved to catch sunrises. The first time he had seen it from the sky he had flown away from it and watched it again, and again, and again—he had enjoyed over three dozen sunsets
I think you meant to say sunrises again here.
Thanks for the extra-long, chapter. I don't think I've seen many revelations scenes that ended up being WAFFy, but you did it (at least for me). It'll be interesting to see how she interacts with him as Clark now. Will her change in attitude give him the courage to tell her quickly? I hope so. I think his decision to go to Lois' apartment means that he decided not to follow Jor-El's advice and hold himself separate from humanity. I guess we'll see.
Soon.
Really soon, I hope.
I'm not above begging either.
BJ
