It is with great trepidation that I begin posting this. I promised myself I wasn't going to post until after Kerth voting is over but, well, I'm a FDK junkie...
And it's done. Okay, mostly done. It's finished, but there's a couple chapters that need some moderately major edits, but those are closer to the end so I have some time to get them fixed
. I made myself finish this yesterday [was only about a chapter from being done and I had time] because the next one started floating around my head Friday...
Part of my trepidation comes from having written well over 2.5MB in first person and now switching back to third. [And yes, that means this isn't the promised sequel to OTOH/UP and neither is the one that started floating around on Friday.] Also that the main plot won't start for a few chapters but I have to set up the background first and I'm hoping it doesn't drag. In some ways it seems to go so slow and in others it seems like I'm flying through the background.
This is sort of set present day-ish. Something like that anyway. So don't be surprised at a digital camera or anything. Smallville, in my mind, is where Neodesha, KS is so towns/streets/etc are from around there.
Posting schedule? You want a posting schedule? Right. Um, probably EOD or ETD [every three days] for the moment, possibly faster after Kerth voting is over or if there's appropriate bribes involved [assuming it's worth bribing over of course]. I really don't want to post too fast given Kerth reading and all that so...
Thanks to Queenie, who you can blame for the idea. She's BR'd about the first 1/2-2/3 or so, but had to bow out. The title also came from her, but I'm still open to suggestions if anyone has one.
Thanks also to Nancy and Beth, who are some of the world's best betas and who have helped make this infinitely better. And to Alisha who has it all in her inbox but I told her she had several weeks before I was going to post so no rush, but then I decided to post anyway. Go figure right?
Fic?
What fic?
Oh, you want me to post the *fic*! Right.
Here it is.
Really. I'm going to submit this post. Really I am. And then start a FDK thread. Yep. And then go hide. Or actually make cookies. 23 years ago today, my mom went Home. She made the world's best cookies and now my children claim I do. So we're going to make cookies - for my mom, for 2 of my kids' teachers and, hopefully, to use as bribes for more Ricochet and Master of Disguise...
Oh right. Fic. Here it is.
*****
Shaken Not Stirred*****
"Get out." She stood with her hands on her hips and glared at him.
"Why?"
"Because I said so." Her brown eyes flashed at him.
He glared back. "No. You're *not* the queen of the sandbox."
"It's not a sandbox."
He crossed his arms in front of him. "It's a box and it has sand in it."
"It's my space ship and you're not invited."
"I don't want to go in your space ship. Only girls play space ships in a sand box," he informed her, a note of scorn in his voice.
She sighed. "Fine. You can stay. But if it's not a space ship, what is it?"
He thought for a minute. "It's a jungle I have to get across to save the princess. You can be the princess."
She glared at him some more. "I'm the princess, but I'm going to rescue you. Go sit on the other side. I'll be there in a minute."
"Why do you get to do the rescuing?"
"Why can't I? Because I'm a girl?"
He opened and closed his mouth, then sighed. "No. So who can we rescue together?"
She thought for a minute before turning. "*Lana*! *Come here*! *We need you!*"
The blonde on the swing set used her foot to stop herself and then trotted over.
"Sit there," she ordered. "We're going to rescue you."
Lana sat down and smiled up at him. "You're really going to rescue me?"
He shrugged. "I guess." He turned back to the brown-eyed girl. "Let's go."
They spent the next ten minutes climbing jungle gyms and traversing beneath the monkey bars. The one-minute warning whistle sounded and they headed back towards the sand box where Lana waited patiently.
"We rescued you!" they shouted together as they reached her.
"Does that mean you're going to kiss me, my prince?" Lana asked sweetly.
He wrinkled his nose. "No." He turned to the other girl and landed a kiss right on her surprised lips. "I am going to marry you someday, though."
The next whistle sounded and he ran towards the first grade line.
Lana stood with her hands on her hips. "Clark Kent is mine, Lois Lane. You leave him alone."
Lois glared back. "You can have him."
Another sharp blast of the whistle sounded and they both headed towards the kindergarten line and the rest of the day of school.
*****
Jonathan tried not to smirk as Clark took his tie off and started again.
"Big night?"
"You know what tonight is." Clark rolled his eyes as he tried to get his tie to work right.
"Ah. Lois' birthday."
"Yep. She's sixteen, which means that we can date now." He'd been waiting for this day for a long time. He'd known since she'd ordered him out of the sandbox that he was going to marry her. He'd told her so repeatedly, though less in recent years. He'd backed off and instead cajoled her into letting him be her first date – on her birthday. He just hoped she wasn't about to break his heart.
Jonathan sighed. "I do worry about you being so serious already."
"Dad, I just *knew*. When I met her, I knew. Jor-El said Kryptonians are like that."
"I know, but still. You haven't told her about all of that, but you're already planning on marrying her. What if she can't deal with that? With your differences? I think she'll be fine with it, eventually. That's not it, but I know what sixteen is like and we've talked about this. It wouldn't be fair of you to sleep with her – or anyone else – without telling her."
"Dad! I haven't even kissed her in ten years!" Clark was sure his face was bright red.
"I know, but I also know that you've been looking forward to this for a long time and I was sixteen once and I know how easy it is to get carried away. And, of course, we've talked about birth control."
"Dad!" Clark sighed. "I'm *not* going to have sex with Lois tonight!"
"Well that's good to hear."
Clark could hear the amusement in his mom's voice. He turned to her as she walked in. "Will you please tell Dad to stop worrying? I'm not going to have sex with Lois tonight. It's our *first* date."
"Well, you look very handsome," Martha told him, needlessly straightening his tie.
"Thanks, Mom." He gave her a hug. "But I'm going to be late if I don't get moving." He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back by midnight."
"What's Lois' curfew?" she asked.
"Midnight, but I'll have to have her home early if I'm going to be home on time."
"Well, why don't we make it 12:30 tonight then?" she said with a smile. "Wouldn't want you to have to cut your first date short."
"Thanks, Mom." He gave her another kiss on the cheek. "Don't wait up," he hollered as he headed out the front door.
He bounded down the stairs to his truck and tried not to speed on his way to town. This was it.
This was the night he had the chance to win the heart of Lois Lane.
*****
"Lois! Clark is here!"
Lois sighed and fussed with her hair one more time. "I'll be right down, Mom," she called back.
It had been nearly two years since he'd made her promise that her first date would be with him. He'd worn her down. It had taken two years to get her to agree to it and, after two years of trying to cancel, it was finally here.
She sighed. It wasn't going to get any better. She gave her clothes another once over. She'd spent hours deciding what to wear and then had changed four times anyway.
She grabbed her purse and headed down the stairs.
She tried not to let her astonishment show. Her heart actually skipped a beat when she saw him. He was wearing a long sleeved, black button down shirt that showed off his olive complexion perfectly. His tie was a splash of primary colors that almost warranted sunglasses. He was wearing blue jeans that she'd seen him wear before and knew that they fit him perfectly. Every girl at school knew that.
And she was the one he was going out with – the one he'd saved his first date for even though he was over six months older than her.
He was standing in the entryway, looking nervous. "Hey," he said, seeing her, a big smile lighting up his face. "You look great."
Her stomach flip flopped at his grin and she smiled back. "Thanks. You look nice, too."
"Have fun, you two," Sam said, leaning against the railing. "Home by midnight," he reminded her, giving her a kiss on the cheek as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
"I'll have her back by then, Dr. Lane," Clark promised.
"Wait!" Ellen hurried into the room. "Pictures."
Lois rolled her eyes. "Mom!"
"It's your first date, sweetie." She motioned Lois towards Clark. "Go stand by him and at least pretend to smile."
She sighed and went to stand by Clark, pasting a smile on her face. It wasn't that she wasn't looking forward to this – she was – but pictures were a bit much and, besides, she didn't want Clark to know that.
"Lo-is." Her mom's voice held a warning she knew better than to mess with.
She sighed again and smiled a genuine smile as Clark put his arm around her shoulders – at her mom's direction, of course. Now if only she could get him to do it for real later...
"Okay," Ellen said, checking the pictures on the screen. "Clark, tell your mom I'll email them to her."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Have fun," her parents called together as they headed out the door.
"Sorry about that," Lois told him as they walked down the steps. "Mom's a little crazy."
He laughed. "Mom told me to make sure we took a couple pictures. She'd really like us to stop by the house so she can take some. I think moms are just like that."
She shrugged as he held open the passenger door of the truck. "I guess. Thanks," she said as he shut it behind her.
"My pleasure," she heard him say as he headed to his side of the truck. "So, do you want to stop by? I was thinking we could go to dinner in Parsons so it's on the way, but only if you want to."
She shrugged. "Do you want to?"
He grinned at her. "I kind of don't want to share you tonight."
Lois blushed slightly and ducked her head so her hair fell in front of her face. She didn't want him to notice. "Okay."
"Is Italian okay for dinner?" he asked, suddenly sounding nervous. "There's a great little restaurant there."
"Yeah. That's fine. So just dinner?" She tried to still her nervous hands by holding her purse in them.
He shrugged. "Well, probably not. I doubt they're open until 11:30."
"So where else? A movie?"
"We could," he said slowly. "But we can't really talk at a movie."
"And we're going to talk all night?"
He grinned. "Not *all* night. I have to have you home before midnight."
She rolled her eyes. "We see each other all the time and we're going to talk all evening?"
"It's different tonight. We're on a *date*."
"I know that. How is it different?"
Clark shrugged. "It just is."
They chatted idly about school and friends as they drove to Parsons.
Clark pulled into the parking lot of DiGiacinto's Family Italian Restaurant. He leaned slightly towards her as he turned the truck off. "Don't move."
She rolled her eyes as he headed towards her side of the truck. "Gentleman," she muttered as he opened the door.
"Hey, my dad raised me right," he told her. "He opens doors and stuff for my mom all the time."
"My dad does, too," she admitted reluctantly. "For all three of us."
He offered his arm. "Shall we?"
She rolled her eyes at him again, but tucked her hand in his elbow, her skin tingling from the contact.
Dinner was good and they lingered over chocolate cake for dessert.
"I think they're going to kick us out," Clark whispered conspiratorially as it neared ten.
She laughed. "I think so." He'd already paid the bill, so they stood and headed towards the door. "Where to now?"
"The lake?" he asked after thinking for a second.
She raised an eyebrow at him. "What exactly do you think is going to happen?"
He shrugged. "We can sit in the back of the truck and star gaze. That's it." He grinned at her again. "I'm a gentleman, remember?"
She nodded reluctantly. She really didn't think that Clark would try anything untoward, but there was that little voice in the back of her head that wasn't sure any teenage boy should be trusted.
Of course, there was also no way she was going to tell him how much she was hoping that he was going to kiss her before the night was over.
Sure, she'd played hard to get, but she'd known since he kissed her on the playground that they would eventually end up together, but she didn't want to him to know that. Not yet.
They drove towards Big Hill Lake and one of the fairly secluded parking lots.
Clark climbed into the bed of the truck first, spreading a blanket out over the bed liner. Lois sat and leaned against the cab, wiggling a bit to get comfortable. Clark sat close to her but not too close.
"Lois," he said suddenly, "can you be completely honest with me?" His head rested against the window of the cab and he was staring at the sky.
"Sure," she told him, a bit surprised.
It was a long moment before he spoke again and when he did, Lois could hear apprehension in his voice. "Are you just here because I annoyed you into accepting two years ago?"
"What?"
"I mean it. I want to be here. I think there could really be something between us, but if you're just here to humor me..." He sighed. "I could really fall for you and I need to know if you're going to break my heart."
She moved slightly towards him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I know I've given you a hard time about this, but I really have been looking forward to tonight for a long time. I don't know if we're going to be one of those childhood, high school sweetheart love stories or whatever, but I don't want to break your heart. I'm willing to see if there's something between us if you are."
He moved and wrapped his arm around her. "Thank you."
She smiled to herself; she hadn't even had to pretend to be cold. She shifted again, trying to get comfortable. "But you're going to have to find some way for us to be more comfortable back here if we're going to star gaze very often."
"I suppose I could get a back seat from the junk yard in Independence and stick it back here," he said thoughtfully.
She pulled away from him, a look of disgust on her face. "Then this is over now."
He laughed and turned to reach through the opening in the window. He dug around behind the seat and pulled out another blanket. "Try sitting on this." He hesitated slightly. "You can lean on me if you want."
She took the blanket from him and moved until she was sitting in front of him, leaning against his chest. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she settled in. This was her first date – their first date. Was this okay? Was this too fast for something like this? She trusted Clark, didn't she?
He stretched his legs out and wrapped his arms around her. "Is this okay?"
Lois nodded. "It's nice."
"I think so, too."
They sat like that, enjoying just being together, for a while.
"So, if we're going to see if there's something between us," Lois finally said. "What does that mean?"
"It's up to you," he told her, moving his hands to cover hers. "If you want to go out on occasional dates... that's fine with me, but if it was my choice, by the time I got you home tonight, you'd be my girlfriend. But I don't want to push you. I'll take this as slow as you want. I can't explain how I've known since we met that we'd end up together, but I have. That doesn't mean I want to rush things or push you for anything you're not ready for."
"You mean sex?" she asked in a rush, glad that she couldn't actually see his face as she asked.
"Partly," he said slowly.
"I know I'm not ready for that."
"Me either," Clark told her softly. "My parents always taught me that, um, well, *that* should be reserved for a couple in a serious relationship, not necessarily married, but committed and monogamous. They've always told me that they didn't think most kids were mature enough to really make that kind of decision in high school. And even if you did tell me tonight that you wanted to be my girlfriend and neither of us were planning on dating anyone else, it's way too soon."
She relaxed slightly in his arms.
"Does that really worry you? That I'd push you?"
Lois shrugged. "Isn't that what most guys want?"
Clark chuckled. "Believe me, Lois, I'm not most guys. I won't push you to... sleep together, ever, but..." He paused, as though sensing her uncertainty. "Can you believe that?"
She nodded. "I think so."
"But you're not sure?"
Lois sighed. "I want to, really I do but..." She paused for a long moment and Clark gave her time to decide to tell him whatever it was. Finally, she spoke again, her head leaning back on his chest as she stared at the sky. "My parents were high school sweethearts. Dad moved from Metropolis to this little town in upstate New Troy their junior year and they broke up. Mom dated this other guy – and by dated I mean they went out like four times total. This other guy had promised her on their first date that he'd never push her but a week later... On the second date, he did push her to sleep with him and she gave in. She and my dad hadn't at that point so this other guy was her first. They went out a couple more times and they... well, you know, both of them. They broke up or she refused to go out with him anymore or whatever and then she found out she was pregnant. Before she even told him, she got in my grandpa's car and drove to see my dad."
She paused again. "He was still her best friend, even though they'd broken up. He offered to marry her and they were going to, but she had a miscarriage before they did. They did the long distance thing and Mom moved in with Dad's family when they started college together. Dad promised her that he would never push her and eventually they agreed to wait until they got married. He proposed after their freshman year of college and they got married the next summer." She sighed. "Anyway, they both fell in love with small town life and that's how we ended up here, so I guess that's good, but..."
"You're afraid I might be like that guy?" Clark asked softly.
"Most of me knows you're not, but there's a part of me that's afraid every guy is – or will be once he's in a relationship of some kind."
"Look at me." They moved until he could look in her eyes. One hand cradled the side of her face, his fingers tangling in her hair. "I will *never* push you for... sex, ever. Or push you past whatever limits we decide to put on our physical relationship, once we have one. I think I've been falling in love with you for a decade now and I can wait until you're ready – until we decide *we're* ready. This is too important to me to screw up because our hormones get the better of us."
"You really mean that?"
"Yeah, I do." He grinned suddenly. "But once we get married, all bets are off."
Her stomach flipped over again as she smiled back. She'd known for a long time that Clark was the guy for her, even if she'd tried not to let him know it. It was nice to know that he was still thinking long-term too. Her heart could be broken as easily as his and, even though he'd proclaimed for years that he was going to marry her, she wasn't sure when the last time he'd mentioned it was. "I'd hope so."
"Would that put your mind at ease?"
"What?"
"If I promised you now that we'll wait until our wedding night to, you know, be together?"
She looked down so that she wasn't looking in his eyes any longer. "Can you really make that promise?"
"Yeah, I can," he said softly. "I can't promise that I won't *wish* I hadn't promised that from time to time, but I swear to you, we won't... make love until our wedding night."
Lois looked back into his eyes and could see his sincerity. She ducked her head slightly again. "I think I'd like to be your girlfriend," she said shyly. She'd thought about it off and on for a long time and had decided that if he asked, she'd say yes – if she could bring herself to ask him about that; if he could reassure her. And he had.
"Are you sure?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure."
"If you ever feel like I'm pushing you for something you're not ready for, tell me. And if I keep pushing, kick me to the curb."
"Don't worry, Kent." She moved until she was leaning against him again. "Can we keep the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing between us for now?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I want to be your girlfriend, but I'm not sure I'm ready to be fodder for the Smallville grapevine and I think a few more dates might be in order before we start telling everyone we're exclusive."
"I think that's probably a good idea if we don't want tongues wagging." He glanced at his watch. "But we better get going if I'm going to get you home on time."
"Yeah."
They climbed out of the back of the truck and Clark stuck the blankets back in the cab. He took her hand and pulled her towards him, until he held both of her hands in his. "I'd really like to kiss you, but I don't think I want to do that with your parents inside or Lucy peeking out the curtains in her room."
She nodded. "I don't think that's a good plan."
He lowered his face to hers, his lips brushing against hers before they both came back for another long, sweet first real kiss.
A minute later, they both pulled back, slightly breathless.
"Wow," they both whispered in unison.
They laughed lightly before Clark turned and held the door open for her. "Your chariot awaits."
She groaned. "You're so corny."
He shut the door and leaned in the open window. "It's one of the reasons why you're going to love me."
She laughed as he walked towards his side of the truck. "We'll see about that."
The drive back to Smallville was a quiet one, but he held her hand the whole time. They pulled up in front of the house and he walked her to the door.
"I guess this is good night," she said, looking at the ground and not at him even as he took her hands in his.
"I guess so." He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "I'd like to kiss you again but I think I someone's watching."
She nodded and he kissed her cheek instead.
"I'll call you tomorrow?"
"I should be home all day. At least until it's time to go to the football game."
He grinned at her. "I guess I have a bit of extra incentive to play well now then, don't I? Gotta look good for my girl," he added quietly.
She laughed. "Sounds good."
"Want to get a bite to eat afterwards?"
"Sure."
The door opened and Sam poked his head out. "Sorry to interrupt, kids, but it's midnight."
Lois blushed and ducked her head. "Da-ad."
"It's okay. I'll talk to you tomorrow?"
She nodded. "Okay."
He gave her another quick kiss on the cheek. "Happy birthday."
"Thanks." Lois went inside, but turned to watch Clark for a minute as he went back to the truck.
"Did you have a good time, Princess?" Sam asked, his arm going around her shoulder.
She sighed. "Daddy, I had a super time."
He laughed. "I'm glad."
"Um, he asked if we can go out after the game tomorrow. Is that okay?"
"Of course. Clark's a good kid." He turned and looked at her. "If he ever hurts you..."
Lois laughed. "I don't think Clark has any intention of hurting me."
They headed up the stairs. "Oh, I doubt he'd mean to, but if he does he has me to answer to."
She laughed again. "I know, Daddy. I know."
*****
TBC
