Happy Birthday, KSaraSara. This one's for you. Hope you'll like it!
Inside A Fury’s Mind
Clark had his arm wrapped around Lois’ shoulder as they walked through Centennial Park. She felt the soft squeeze of his hand on her arm. After learning his secret the other day, she had mixed feelings about Clark. While her heart fluttered in delight at his touch, every muscle in her body was tense with anticipation. She knew that she’d ultimately have to address the issue, if Clark didn't do it himself, that was.
Lois did her best to appear calm. Inside, however, things were a lot more emotional.
“Okay, girls.” Joy giddily clapped her hands. “Lois' cold is getting better, the bad guys are taken care of and Clark’s parents are off to their second honeymoon. I’m betting he’s going to tell us his secret now!”
Disgust walked up to her, shaking her head. “No way. He’s still the same lunkhead. I think he’s going to find another excuse to stall.”
“I’m with you, Disgust. He’s so not going to tell Lois.” Anger flopped down on her chair. ”Again!”
Sadness heaved a huge sigh. “They’ve been through so much. I’m sure he’s so shaken that he’s finally seeing the light. Besides, I’m tired of turning all the romantic memories blue. I need a break. I’m with Joy! Clark is going to confess.” She sat down next to Anger and turned her head. “What about you, Fear? Which side are you going to take?”
“I’m not betting,” Fear muttered unhappily. She turned her back on the display. “And I’m not going to watch this disaster, either. There goes the next Relationship Island, and it was not even remotely finished. This will make a sorry picture for the Wall of Federal Disasters.”
"But what are the stakes?" Joy crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I mean, since we don’t have any money, we’ve got to find something else.”
Anger wrinkled her nose. “Easy. If you win, we will let you watch ‘Ivory Tower’ without complaining a single time.”
Joy and Sadness looked at each other, their faces lighting up. Both nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Yuck,” Disgust commented, but otherwise didn’t protest.
“And if we lose?” Sadness asked, her voice trembling as if the mere thought brought her to the verge of crying.
Disgust smirked. "Anger and I get to give Clark a hard time for the next week to come!”
"A whole week?" Joy gasped, wide-eyed.
Anger nodded with a look of grim determination. "He deserves a whole week. Take it or leave it."
Both Sadness and Joy were a little reluctant, but in the end all four emotions held out their hands.
“Deal,” they said in unison.
Suddenly, Joy pointed at the screen and jumped up and down with excitement.
“Look, look! He’s about to work up his courage!”
Immediately, four pairs of eyes fixed their gaze on the display as they heard Clark clear his throat. Only Fear clapped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.
“Lois, I've been thinking…”
Before any of the other emotions could react, Disgust pressed a button. “Me too.”
Joy glared at her and slapped her hand.“Would you stop that? Don’t interrupt him! At least, give him a chance to tell us his secret. You’re not playing fair.”
Disgust narrowed her eyes, trying to stare Joy down. “Am, too. Don’t you see that the guy needs all the encouragement he can get? If we don’t help him along, we’re going to have to wait till next year.”
Joy pouted. “That’s not true. He’s-”
Clark’s voice interrupted her. “What about?” He looked at Lois with an intense gaze that had Joy and Sadness sigh in quiet admiration.
Anger was less than impressed. She huffed, frustrated and pointed at the display. “Not true? And what’s this?”
She shared a glance with Disgust and a victorious smile spread across their lips. Behind Joy’s back they gave each other a ‘High Five’.
Joy did her best to ignore them and appear cheerful. “I’m going to show you that he’s not a complete lunkhead.” She operated the console with one hand while trying to keep Disgust at bay with the other.
“You first," Lois said.
Disgust rolled her eyes. "Good grief, at that rate we'll be here till midnight."
"A little patience, please,"Joy admonished.
Anger jumped up. "We've been patient since-"
"Shh," Joy broke her off. "He's talking again."
“Okay.” Clark led Lois toward a fountain. “Sometimes you think you're immortal and you start to think the people around you are, too. It can just take a second to realize how wrong you are about everything.”
Joy grinned as she pointed at the screen. “See. Like Sadness said, he’s shaken. He will tell Lois."
Disgust and Anger groaned in unison as Clark went on. “What I'm trying to say is, I almost lost you, Lois, and I'm ashamed.”
Joy nearly fell from her chair as she hurried to press the next button. “Ashamed, why?”
Clark lowered his head. “I kept pushing you away, even when I promised to stop. And if you died not knowing why, I'd never forgive myself. Because I love you, Lois, and…”
Joy's grin turned even broader. She eyed Anger and Disgust, cheekily sticking out her tongue. “Doesn’t look good for you, girls. I think you can already start searching for that episode where Charles finally admits he’s in love with Gwendolyn.”
A sudden flash of lightning caused all four emotions to jump on their chairs. And in the back of Lois’ mind, Fear let out a startled cry. She covered her head with her arms.
On the screen, rain poured down as if floodgates had opened up. Within seconds, both Lois and Clark were drenched.
Clark looked up into the sky, his whole body language indicating that he was cursing whatever deity was interrupting his speech. “Oh, come on, give me a break…”
Disgust giggled gleefully. “I guess that spells the end of this revelation.”
She reached out and took over the controls while Joy was still frozen in shock. “Do you want to go back?”
Joy quickly snapped out of it and shot Disgust a warning glance that was enough to make her back away from the console.
In reply to Lois’ suggestion, Clark shook his head. “If the Earth opened up at my feet, I wouldn't move till I'd finished saying this…”
Joy was biting her nails. Sadness furtively dabbed the corner of her eyes with a handkerchief.
“Finally.” She sighed with unusual happiness and looked around. “Is everything set? We absolutely need to keep a record of this, because this is going to be a core memory for sure.”
Joy nodded emphatically and wriggled on her chair while Anger and Disgust looked at the screen open-mouthed. Even Fear had, for a brief moment, stopped covering her ears with her hands and stole a glance at the screen.
“I don’t believe he's actually going to tell her,” Disgust whispered. “The guy’s better than I give him credit for.”
Five emotions watched Clark with bated breath, while he got to his knees and produced a ring from the pocket of his pants. “Lois... will you marry me?”
The air rushed out of all five emotions simultaneously.
"Nooo!" Joy let out a startled cry. “He can’t be serious! Did he really just ruin a perfect chance to tell us his secret? Why on Earth did he propose?”
"Revelation, huh? Core memory?" Anger stomped up to the console. “This better not be one, cause it will be so deep red it's almost black! What kind of sick, whacko-?”
Sadness stepped up to calm Anger down. “Easy there. He’s had a difficult few days. Perhaps he-”
“Yeah, perhaps he’s lost his mind,” Disgust growled and got ready to help Anger.
Joy shook her head. “No, I’m sure there’s another explanation. Maybe he’s got something stuck in his rational thought area.”
Anger fumed. “Yeah, as if. Just admit the guy’s another jerk, will you?”
Joy stood with her hands on her hips and tapped her foot. “Must I remind you that we had that problem more than a few times ourselves? Like when we agreed to marry Lex? Or when we slammed the door right in Clark's face after an absolutely amazing date?”
Disgust blushed, shrinking a little. “Fine! You handle him.”
Anger just growled, but took a reluctant step back.
Joy gave the others a tight nod and took a deep breath, before she pushed another button. “Who's asking? Clark... or Superman?”
For a time, Clark just stared at Lois, obviously taken by surprise. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, as if trying to find something to say. But no words came out.
Instead he got up and pulled her with him. They headed out of the park. Once they had found shelter in a lighted doorway, Clark reached out to take back his glasses.
He slipped them back on with an uneasy chuckle. “It's the new glasses, isn't it? They just don't work as well as the old ones.”
“Come on, this guy's really beyond salvation," Anger muttered, annoyed. "Let’s get Lois away from him.”
Clark spoke again. “I guess the first question is, 'How long have you known?'”
Anger tried to bully her way past Joy, who still stood at the console. “Get out of my way and let me give him a piece of Lois’ mind.”
Much to everyone’s surprise, it was Fear who firmly pushed Anger to the side. “Let Joy handle this. Trust me, this is not the best moment to yell at him.” She trembled.
Disgust snorted. “Says the person, who had the brilliant idea to push the 'Epiphany Button' right before he froze us.”
Fear shrunk in on herself. “I thought that we’d still have the time to talk about this. I didn’t think he’d really freeze us. I mean, he’s usually so careful.”
Disgust pursed her lips. “Yeah, but it was kind of obvious he was ruled by his own Fear, wasn’t it?” She threw an annoyed glance at Joy. “Why did you have to suggest this freezing thing, anyway? That was real stupid. Lois could have died!”
“Well, I thought…” Joy shifted from one foot to the other.
“You didn’t think,” Anger shouted. “That’s what happened. How many times do I have to tell you this? The manual precisely states that we’re never to push the ‘Jump in’-Button before the ‘Checking the water-level’ Button! And what did you do?"
“But he was looking so desperate,” Sadness took Joy’s side.
Fear tore at her hair. “Could we stop that argument and focus on the disaster at hand, please? Let Joy do her thing. I mean, the guy’s got superpowers. We better not upset him!”
Disgust threw up her hands. “That’s what you’re worried about? The jerk’s a lot of things. An idiot for example. However, he’s not the violent type. But fine, have it your way.” She walked away from the console.
Joy drew a shaky breath, her hand trembling slightly as it hovered over the controls. Then she glanced toward Sadness and waved her over. With wide eyes, Sadness took Joy’s place.
She pressed her lips into a tight line and straightened her stance, aware of how much responsibility rested on her shoulders. Slowly, her fingers reached for the controls.
“Really? I thought the first question would be, 'How'd you figure it out?" Lois said, sounding surprised.
Clark ran a nervous hand through his hair. “They're kind of neck and neck with,'How mad are you?'”
Anger tried to fight her way back to the console. “I’ll tell him exactly how mad I am.”
Sadness threw her a warning glance. “Drop it! You’ll get your chance! Remember, you already won the bet and get to make his life miserable for an entire week. Now, let’s cut the poor lad some slack, can we?”
Anger huffed in frustration. “We’re going to need a new set of knives for all the slack we’re cutting him.”
Sadness tried to suppress a grin, before she turned back to the console. “I let you talk to him later, all right?”
Anger stuffed her hands into the pockets of her pants. “Whatever.”
Sadness continued her work. “How about we save that one for last.”
Clark eyed Lois warily. “Oh-kay."
A sudden earthquake shook the Headquarters and all five emotions let out a startled cry.
“What’s going on?” Joy asked, looking at the other emotions with wide eyes.
“Lois is shivering,” Disgust grunted.
Like the others she held onto the console while more tremors rocked the Headquarters. Finally, a violent sneeze sent all five emotions to the floor, where they remained lying groggily for a moment.
“Oh dear, she already has a cold,” Fear squealed. “She’s going to catch pneumonia.”
One after the other Anger, Sadness, Joy, Disgust and finally Fear, her head tucked between her shoulders, scrambled back to their feet and straightened their clothing. They had trouble keeping their balance, though, because Lois was still shivering.
The screen showed a very contrite looking Clark. He lowered his glasses and let a spray of heat-vision wander up Lois’ body. “Here”
Steam rose from her clothes, temporarily clouding Lois’ view. But the tremors stopped. Five emotions sighed with relief.
"That was so sweet of him," Joy fawned.
She rushed toward the console, pressing the right button for a heartfelt “Thanks.”
"Yuck, any more cuteness, and I'm going to be sick." Disgust complained.
"He was being friendly, not cute." Joy said with all the dignity she could muster. "You should try that some time."
"I'm Disgust, I don't need to be friendly."
Joy stepped aside once more to let Sadness take her place. “So. How long have I known? Since yesterday. And how did I figure it out?”
Sadness let Lois reach for Clark’s hand to place it on her cheek. "This."
Joy did a little dance beside the console. “Aww, I love it when he touches Lois that. Well done, Sadness." She gave her a thumbs-up.
A slight blush tinted the cheeks of the blue emotion. Hastily, she let Lois continue. “You've touched me before.... both of you... but something about almost dying sharpened everything, all my senses, like putting on a pair of glasses.”
Disgust started coughing, but it sounded more like she was trying to cover up that she was laughing. “Something about dying sharpened everything? Where did you get that line, Sadness? It would be more honest to tell him that Fear finally helped Lois see the light. And at the worst possible moment, I might add.”
Fear shot her an angry look. “Are we going to get into that argument again? What’s done is done.”
Disgust grumbled. “I know. So, could we please take a break from the touchy-feely stuff and start giving him a hard time?”
Before anyone had a chance to give her opinion, Disgust darted to the console and quickly pressed a button.
Lois looked at the street and noticed that it was no longer raining. “Hey. It stopped.”
She stepped out of the door way and onto the street.
Joy and Sadness both crossed their arms in front of their chests. “What did you do that for? It was going so well.”
Disgust held up her hands. “What? I just kept you two from having them kiss each other senseless before it was too late. Remember? We won a bet.”
Clark had followed Lois. “So how mad are you?”
“Finally the right question,” Anger cheered.
Followed by Disgust she sprinted to the console. But despite their best efforts, Sadness somehow managed to get there first.
She gave her fellow emotions a smug smile as Lois said. “Not at all.”
Anger was about to explode. “Are you freaking nuts? You promised I would get my chance to lash out at him.” She started stomping with her feet like a child throwing a tantrum. “I want to use that console and I want to use it now!”
Anger almost missed that Clark was talking again. “Pardon?”
Again, Sadness was quicker than Anger. “I'm not mad at all, Clark.”
Anger let out a growl. “If you push that button one more time, I’ll -”
Joy raised her hand. “Give Sadness another minute. I think I know what she’s aiming for - and it will have a much deeper impact than anything you could possibly throw at him, Anger.”
Anger had narrowed her eyes and her forehead was creased in a deep frown. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and tapped her food. “Well, well, this better be good.”
Joy nodded. “Trust me, it is.”
Clark took a deep breath. “Look, don't hold back.”
A smirk appeared on Sadness lips as she waited until the despair in Clark’s eyes became clearly visible.
“I'm not,” Lois said with irritating calmness.
“You sure, you know what you’re doing?”Disgust asked.
“Not getting us killed?” Fear suggested.
Anger rolled his eyes. “I told you he’s not going to kill us. But I sure hope they’re not going to mollycoddle that lying, no-good-”
“I’m certainly not mollycoddling him,” Sadness protested. “I’m-”
She was interrupted by Clark, who was speaking again. “I'm sorry, I was talking to Lois Lane? You might know her, she was standing here just a second ago…”
Anger fumed. “That’s the best he’s got to say? I’m done waiting. Let me get to that console now or I’m screaming bloody murder.”
“Just one moment,” Sadness said, holding up her finger. With a grin, she pushed another button.”
Lois’ voice trembled slightly. “I'm hurt.”
“Oh,” Clark looked like someone had landed a hard punch in his gut.
The faces of Anger and Disgust instantly lit up, echoing Clark’s exclamation, but sounding a lot happier than he did. “Oooh.”
Sadness strechtched her arms before pressing another button. “Really, really hurt.”
“Good grief, she’s aiming for the kill,” Disgust muttered in awe.
Clark swallowed hard. “This is gonna be worse than mad, isn't it?” He stared at Lois, quite obviously at a loss for what to say and ran a hand through his hair in obvious discomfort.
Sadness let Lois walk away.
“Aww, this is fantastic, Sadness,” Disgust cheered, embracing her fellow emotion and placing a kiss on her cheek. “Forget I ever doubted you.”
Sadness blushed even more.
Clark followed Lois. “Okay, I've been rehearsing for months, let's see if I can get it right:” He stopped her. “Lois, I know this is a shock and I wanted to be the one to tell you... so you could understand how hard this has been... how long I've carried this secret by myself and how much I wanted to tell you but... when I decided to become Superman, I -”
Lois interrupted him. “-became a target, so anyone close to you would be a target, and then it got more complicated when you realized you loved me."
Anger grinned, holding up both thumbs. “Sadness, do your worst!”
Joy looked a little panicked. “Hey, hey, let the poor guy live - I mean, remember that we helped him keep his secret. And that he did have good reasons for not telling Lois."
“We only helped him because we didn’t want Lois to freak out and have a nervous breakdown,” Disgust pointed out. “Besides, we weren’t dating him, then.”
“If you keep torturing him like that, I’m the one who is going to have a nervous breakdown,” Fear whispered.
Sadness looked at her fellow emotions. “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”
Clark blushed as he replied to Lois. “Which was about two minutes after I met you.”
Anger, Fear, Joy and Disgust watched in anticipation as Sadness operated the console, pressing buttons in quick succession to get the tone of Lois’ voice right and control her body language.
.
“Don't try and score points,” Lois said sternly.
Clark cast his eyes down. “Sorry.”
She folded her arms in front of her chest. “I get all the reasoning, I really do. It's logical, it's even thoughtful. But when you get right down to it, you made me believe you were two people and you did it by lying and that makes me wonder if I even know you and that hurt me and you know what?”
Sadness stepped aside, waving Anger over. “It’s your turn,” she said quietly. “Now, he needs you.”
Anger beamed with pride as she stepped up to the console, flexing her fingers before she got to work. “I am mad.”
“Okay…” Clark said with the expression of a hurt puppy.
Anger tore at her hair, letting out all her frustrations “I'm... mad. I'm really mad. I am really, really, really mad! I am furious at you, Clark, I am just….”
“Is that all you’re going to say, or did one of the buttons get stuck?” Disgust asked. “I have to say that Sadness was a lot more creative. It’s almost a pity she’s not on our team when it comes to torturing the guy.”
Clark on the other hand seemed almost happy about Lois' outburst, even if the pain was evident in his gaze. "All right, that's good, just get it all out -" He cut himself off. His head tilted to the side.
A scream rang through the night, loud out enough that Lois and her emotions could hear it as well.
“Oh no, that was to be expected,” Sadness whispered.
“Dang, I was just getting warm,” Anger complained.
Joy laid a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m sure he’s coming back to get another round of your wreath. He’s patient like that.”
“Not sure I’m that patient,” Anger grumbled. But she gave a tight nod and let her hands fly across the console.
“Go,” Lois said.
Clark looked at her, the concern and indecisiveness in his gaze earning him a collective sigh of approval from all five emotions.
“All things considered, he’s not that bad,” Disgust conceded.
Five hands tried to press the same button. “ GO!”
A brief smile of relief appeared on his face. He took off his glasses and stuck them into the pocket of his jacket. Then he became a whirl of colors. Seconds later he stood before Lois, dressed as Superman.
“Whoa,” five emotions and Lois said in unison.
“Do we have a recording of that?” Joy whispered. “I think I might want to watch that again.”
As another scream tore through the night, Clark disappeared with a ‘whoosh’.
Joy let out a long breath. “Okay, girls. That didn’t go so bad. I’d say we’re going to give him the promised week of trouble. But then we absolutely have to forgive him! I can’t wait to find out how this relationship will develop now that the cat is finally out of the bag. Just imagine, what it will be like if they’re not just kissing but making love!” She jumped up and down giddily. “We’re going to find out what it’s like to make love to Superman.”
Disgust snorted. “Don’t expect too much. The guy is clearly a virgin.”
Joy whipped her head around to look at Disgust. “No way! A guy who can kiss like that and has a body to die for can’t be a virgin.”
Disgust smirked. “Sure he is. You want to bet on it?”
Joy nodded emphatically. “A hundred episodes of ‘Ivory Tower’ say that Clark’s an experienced lover. What do you think, Sadness? You’re with me?”
A small smile crept onto Sadness lips and she nodded.
“I’ll take those odds.” Disgust shook Joy’s hand. Then a wicked smile played around her lips. “And if you lose, we get to invite Mom to the wedding.”
The End
Last edited by bakasi; 11/11/22 09:28 AM.
