Satisfaction Brought it Back
Summary: Having overheard a conversation he shouldn’t have between Lois Lane and Cat Grant, Clark gets up the nerve to put his heart on the line once more to ask Lois out on a date. Set at the beginning of the episode “The Phoenix”.
Author’s Note: I thought of this idea when thinking about “The Phoenix” and how out of the blue it seemed to be that Clark would ask Lois out again, especially after being turned down so definitively in the season one finale. The title as the continuation of the popular saying which goes “Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back”.
This story is also a challenge response to the Kerth challenge “824 words” inspired by AnnaBtG. As per the challenge, the story is exactly 824 words long. HUGE thanks as always to KSaraSara who edits, cheers and pokes with her sharp pointy stick. THANK YOU!
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Clark Kent woke up with one thought and one thought only on his mind. Today was the day. He had finally decided he wouldn’t put it off any longer. Today he was going to ask Lois Lane out on a date.
He got dressed carefully, trying to choose clothing that he thought she might like. The trouble was, he had no idea what sort of clothing she liked on him — unless of course it was blue spandex and a cape. But he wasn’t asking her out as Superman.
Despite having told her he loved her before the Planet was shut down, he was going to try again. He was going to risk himself — and his heart — one more time in the hopes that Lois might say yes this time. And he should feel confident. He should feel bulletproof. After all, he was bulletproof.
But not where Lois Lane was concerned. She rendered him vulnerable in a way that no-one else ever had. When she'd turned him down that day in the park, he'd never known there was a part of him that could hurt so badly.
Until, of course, she confessed her love to him dressed as Superman not even twenty-four hours later. It had taken all the self-restraint he’d had not to throw her love back in her face in the coldest, cruellest way possible. As it was, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from making the comment about being able to see through her nightgown if he’d wanted to. It was petty and mean and completely unlike him, and he’d regretted the words the second they’d left his mouth, which is why he hadn’t been able to say anything else to her that he’d wanted to.
Because it turned out that hurting Lois hurt him too. It hurt him a lot.
And so he’d remained impassive and told her that he could never love her. He’d kept his distance and watched helplessly as she agreed to marry Lex Luthor. It had never even occurred to him to tell her as Superman that Lex was every bit the villain that Clark Kent had said he was. The part of him that would have thought to do that was too busy nursing his broken heart.
And so when the smoke had cleared and the Planet re-opened, Clark had seen his chance to make things right with Lois. After all, if she didn’t love him, he could at least attempt to restore their friendship. And so he’d lied.
In the most immature way possible, but he’d still lied. And things had more or less returned to normal. But…there were times — increasingly more common by the day — where Clark could feel the electricity between them and knew for once it wasn’t all in his head. He’d told himself he was imagining things, that she didn’t care for him that way. She told him that, after all.
But then he’d overheard the conversation she had with Cat Grant inside the diner a few days ago and everything changed.
He hadn’t meant to listen. After all, he tried not to use his abilities to infringe on other people’s privacy. But when Cat’s voice had cut through the din as he approached the diner, his curiosity had taken over. Especially since Lois had said his name.
Clark wasn’t normally prone to giving into curiosity, but this time he couldn’t resist. He’d never in a million years expected to hear Lois say she loved him. And that changed everything, didn’t it? Whatever reason helped her come to the realisation, she had come to it.
She loved him. Not Superman. Him. Clark Kent.
So now there was no good reason for him to wait. No reason he should feel this nervous.
With that thought in mind, he headed to work, where he spent the better part of the morning daydreaming about what their perfect date would look like — how beautiful she would look and how it would feel to lean in for a kiss — only to have Perry interrupt his daydreaming by barking at everyone, “We’ll never get this paper out by deadline!”
The fantasy shattered, and Clark got up to look for Lois. He found her at the coffeemaker. He approached her, his entire body buzzing with nerves.
“Uh, Lois, I wanted to ask you something,” he said. Good opener, Kent. Real smooth.
“I’m not gonna like it, am I?” Lois guessed.
“What makes you say that?” Get to the point, Kent!
“You've got that tone in your voice, you know the one that people get when they’re uncomfortable,” she pointed out. “Like when they want to borrow your car, or money, or clothes…”
He smiled at her, leaning into the banter. This was Lane and Kent. He could do this.
“Okay, you got me,” he said. “I want to borrow your clothes.”
She gave him a pointed look and he knew. Somehow he knew. This would work out.
The End
Last edited by lovetvfan; 04/07/23 10:11 PM.
