Archive of Our Own

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Naked.  

Naked and tall and broad and –  

Hot.  

Really fucking hot.  

Sure, he hadn’t turned around yet, and all she could see was his fluffy dark hair, rippling back muscles, his broad shoulders, his smooth skin, his long legs and nice feet and pert, perfect ass. Even his skin was perfect. She wondered if he felt as silky and as smooth as he looked, feeling a surprising urge to reach out for him. If the back of him was any indication, the front of him was gonna be wonderful.  

It was almost enough to distract her from her self-assigned crusade to solve the mystery of what happened to Chloe Sullivan.  

Lois looked around, knowing that she wouldn’t find a damn thing in the middle of this random cornfield in the centre of this storm, wind whipping at them wildly, to help.  

“Are – are you okay?” Lois asked.  

The man before her looked around curiously; even from behind, she could see that his jaw clenched. Lois didn’t know where to look; as if the sharpest jawline she’d ever seen, the broadest shoulders and the longest legs weren’t all impressive enough, he was naked. And she kept looking down.  

Not my fault. That ass is tight.  

“What’s your name?” she asked, unsure of what to do, stepping closer.  

Was this some sort of trap? A trafficking scheme, maybe, where they run unaccompanied women off the road and then snatched them? The joke was on them, if it was. They wouldn't have any luck, between Lois being a third-degree black belt and the tiny tattoo she had on her right –  

“I don’t know,” the naked man interrupted her thoughts.  

At least he speaks English. She watched his head turn as he surveyed where he was, seemingly having no idea where he was.  

Probably not being kidnapped, then, she thought, hearing the confusion in his voice. Or he’s a really great liar and I’m about to get abducted. Maybe he’s an alien and he’s taking me to his home planet. Not that I’d mind.  

“I need to get you to a hospital,” Lois said.  

“I am fine,” he shot back robotically.  

Lois rolled her eyes. He was naked, in the middle of a cornfield, at night, in the middle of –  

She hadn’t noticed the storm had stopped. There was no more violent wind; it was all calm now.  

“You’ve just been hit by lightning, you’re stark naked, and uh, you don’t even remember your own name,” she listed. “You have a fairly loose definitely of ‘fine’.”  

Lois was wholly unprepared to see the front of him.  

He turned around, his eyes laser focused on hers, but Lois was a normal person whose eyes followed the natural movement of his –  

Big. Big, huge, thick, not even hard yet, uncut; so many adjectives flew through her mind. She looked away quickly, trying not to stare. It wasn’t her fault; he was standing there so proudly, like he wanted her to look.  

Look at his face, she scolded herself, looking back at the man and immediately dropping her gaze back to his hips. I wouldn’t even be able to fit my hand around it if he was hard. She finally looked at his face, embarrassed by where her thoughts had gone. He looked curious more than anything else, head tilted slightly as he stared back at her, seemingly waiting for something.  

Faces like his ruined lives, she knew from experience.  

If he’s an alien, God, I hope he abducts me.  

“I have a blanket in the trunk. Don’t move, I’ll be right back” she said, turning to her car.  

“Wait,” he called, his voice deep and curious. “Who are you?”  

“Lois,” she introduced herself. “Lois Lane.”  

She fought the cornstalks to open her car door, reaching into the backseat and grabbing the red fleece blanket she’d planned on using as her duvet that night, spending the day driving across Kansas to get to Smallville and checking out all the places her cousin Chloe used to hang out at.  

Lois walked back to the naked man, who hadn’t moved an inch, and shook out the blanket, stepping close to him to wrap it around his shoulders. He watched her as she grabbed his right hand and made him clasp the two sides together, covering him as much as she could.  

His skin was hot to the touch. Without thinking, Lois reached up to press her hand against his forehead to see if he had a fever. It did feel like he was burning up.  

This close, she could see that his eyes were a bright, earthy green, comforting and warm. A kindness in them that she didn’t see in most people. Somehow, even though he didn’t know his name and probably had total amnesia, she could tell there was a depth to them she’d never seen in someone’s eyes before.  

She expected emptiness, maybe. Blankness. But for someone with amnesia, there was a lot behind those baby greens.  

Lois stepped away, clearing her throat as she moved to the car, freezing when she didn’t hear footsteps behind her. She turned back, staring at him.  

He at least seemed to pick up on that cue, following her to the car. She opened the passenger door for him and shoved him inside, not even pretending to look away as he sat down, his dick swinging around carelessly.  

Lois did her best to reverse back through the corn stalks, driving back the way she came from the main stretch in town. She was grateful she passed the hospital the day before, at least.  

She could feel him staring at her as she drove. Lois dug around in the console for another stick of Nicorette, uncomfortable and stressed and annoyed and confused. She'd come to this sad little village to find out who had killed her cousin; she didn’t want to deviate to save some damsel in distress from himself.  

No matter how attractive this damsel was.  

His silence was unnerving. Lois hated silence, and she especially hated being stared at by naked men with intense eyes and big dicks who didn’t know their own names.  

“How did you get out into that field?” Lois asked.  

“I don’t know,” he said.  

“And where are your clothes?”  

“I don’t know,” he said again, inflection the exact same.  

“Do you know where you are?”  

“No,” he said, not taking his eyes off of her.  

“Well, you’re in Kansas,” Lois said. “Do you know where Kansas is?”  

“No.”  

Lois sighed, looking sideways at him. His head was tilted as he stared at her, barely blinking.  

“Me either,” she muttered. “What do you know?”  

“I’m waiting,” he said.  

Lois snuck a glance at him, raising an eyebrow at him.  

“For what?”  

He frowned slightly, his brows furrowing underneath the shaggy black curls falling across his forehead.  

“For the sign.”  

Lois shook her head; he must have hit his head. Maybe the lightning fried his brain. He sounded awfully sure of himself for someone who didn’t know his own name and what a cell phone was. Maybe he was attacked, or robbed? Men did sadistic shit to each other all the time, Lois thought. Maybe he was assaulted or something.  

“What’s the sign?” she asked.  

“I don’t know.”  

Lois sat up straighter as she finally saw the main street, relieved they weren’t far from the hospital.  

“How are you gonna know that it’s the sign if you don’t know what the sign is?” she asked.  

“I’ll know.”  

Again, full of quiet confidence. Like he was sent on some sort of mission.  

Lois was on her own mission – to find out what happened to Chloe. She wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that. Not even a super hot, super weird guy that she kind of didn’t want to leave behind.  

They were silent as she focused on getting them to the hospital, parking in the basement and getting out of the car. She made her way over to his side, flinching when she saw the side of it all scratched up, opening the door and pulling on his arm to get him out.  

She copped yet another eyeful of his – of him as he got out of the car, looking around curiously.  

“Keep it closed,” Lois instructed, trying to get him to hold the blanket together. “The last thing you need is to expose that third leg to an old lady and get put on some sort of registry. Not everyone will appreciate it as much as I do,” she smiled at him.  

He tilted his head, staring at her unblinking, saying nothing. Lois sighed and made her way to the hospital entrance, making sure he was following her. He looked curious as they entered the elevator, his eyebrows raising as the doors shut and it began moving upwards.  

With every step she took, she was closer to handing him off onto somebody else and getting back to her mission of finding out what had happened to her cousin.  

The elevator opened and she walked out, looking back and sighing when she realised he hadn’t moved.  

“Try and keep up,” she said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her.  

“Why are we here?” he asked.  

Lois took a deep breath and stopped in front of him, doing her best to be patient. The poor guy had no idea who or where he was; she could stand to be a little nicer.  

“To get you checked out,” she said.  

“I am fine,” he said.  

She took his elbow and began walking him down the hallway.  

“Do you know how many people are struck by lightning every year? Hardly any,” Lois said. “Do you know how many survive? Even less. And the number of them who get picked up by lost drivers? Zero. So far, you’re three for three. So how about a little less complaining, and a little more forward motion?”  

Lois pushed him forward with her hand on his back, doing everything she could to not stare at his chest. His big, broad chest, not nearly covered enough by the blanket.  

“Excuse me,” she called as she rounded the check in desk. “Got a guy here who needs immediate attention.”  

The nurse working the desk looked bored, not even looking at the butt naked man standing next to her. 

“Fill out these admission forms and include proof of insurance,” he said flatly.  

“Slight problem; I don’t know who he is, and neither does he,” Lois said.  

The nurse’s face dropped, and he managed to look even more bored.  

She looked back at naked man, who had stepped away from her, wandering around the waiting room and looking at the crap laying around.  

“He’s got amnesia, so I'm turning him over to you,” she smiled, stepping away from the desk. “You can keep the blanket,” she smiled as she began to leave.  

Lois took one last look at naked man; it was a shame to walk away from a man that attractive, but she was in Smallville for something bigger than good looking men. The nurse stepped out from behind the desk, blocking her.  

“Whoa, whoa. Does this look like an animal shelter?” he said, handing her a clipboard.  

Lois squared her shoulders, ready to argue. She could barely make out the writing on the form in the dark. You need to get tested for glasses; she could hear her father’s voice in her head. She didn’t need glasses; it was the adrenaline of nearly running over a man who looked like art. And maybe the writing was super tiny to all fit on one page, but thay wasn’t on her or her eyes.  

“Now, you have to stay with him until we find someone who can ID him,” the nurse said. “It’s hospital policy.”  

That could take days, Lois thought.  

She was mad at herself; she had been refusing to accept Chloe’s death for weeks. She should have come out to Smallville two months ago to try and work out what had happened to her. Maybe if she had, she wouldn’t be waylaid by a naked hottie who didn’t know public nudity was frowned upon.  

Or Lois would have solved the case already, and she’d have more time with the naked hottie and he’d have some company under that blanket.  

“Look,” Lois started. “I did the good Samaritan thing, but I can’t be responsible for this guy.”  

“You already are,” the nurse shot back. “Now, I have to call a deputy to get your statement.”  

That was all she needed; a paper trail of her time in Smallville.  

Lois heard a gasp and turned – she knew what it was about before she even looked.  

The blanket had fallen; he was standing, tall and proud, inspecting a statue of an angel. It was ironic; he looked just like the statue. She hadn’t noticed in the dark of the cornfield, but he had prominent back dimples, and a freckle on his shoulder.  

And muscles. So many muscles.  

If Lois had thought he was gorgeous in the dark, he was downright beautiful in the light. Fluorescent lights, no less.  

The nurse sighed, and Lois smiled.  

“I think you might wanna get him some clothes first,” she snarked.  

He smiled sarcastically at her. Lois handed him the clipboard; he took it, nodding at her to get naked guy and follow him to a room. Lois rushed to him, bending down to grab the blanket. She realised her mistake a moment too late when she was eye level with his – pelvis.  

And of course she looked directly at it. It was huge, how could she not.  

Lois stood quickly, looking at naked man, before she cleared her throat and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders again. He held it to his chest this time, seeming to learn from his error.  

“Come on,” she said, leading him back to the desk and following the grumpy nurse to an empty exam room.  

The nurse gave her some scrubs and shut the door behind him, leaving Lois alone with her stray.  

“You can get dressed,” she said, handing him the scrubs.  

A mistake, she realised too late, as the naked man dropped the blanket again to take the scrubs from her, looking at her blankly.  

“Put them on,” she said.  

Lois tossed her bag on the chair by the door, looking back at the man, who was staring at her intensely.  

“Do you need – help?” she offered awkwardly.  

Lois grabbed the scrubs out of his hands and shook out the pants before handing them to him.  

“Feet through the holes,” she ordered.  

At least he followed instructions. He managed to get the pants on without issue. Lois breathed a sigh of relief now that his penis was out of sight. She held out the shirt and motioned for him to put it on, which he managed.  

Lois said a silent goodbye to the two little freckles next to his left nipple, over his heart. Her grandmother used to say that freckles came from kisses from loved ones. Lois wondered who had left those freckles for him. He was clearly loved; she could see it on his skin.  

He looked to Lois, one eyebrow slightly raised as he stood there, finally dressed.  

“Good job,” she said, pushing him back to sit on the exam table.  

He let her move him around, straightening out his shirt and brushing the long curls by his neck out of the neckline before she sat down. Maybe Lois just wanted to touch his hair, and maybe it was so fluffy and silky and maybe she wanted to touch it again. Maybe she just needed an orgasm and a cigarette.  

“Do you have any idea where you came from?” she asked.  

He shook his head, his eyes still locked on hers.  

“What do you think your name is?” she mused out loud. “Michael? John? Ben? You kind of look like a John. Or a Joe,” she said, her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure it out.  

“I don’t know,” he said, staring at her.  

She didn’t understand how he was so calm; he had no idea who he was, where he was, and why he was naked, laying in the middle of a field. It was like he fell out of the sky, and he was completely unbothered.  

“Maybe you’re a Mack. You know, one of those real Midwestern names,” Lois tried. “Jack?  Burt? Kent? Dan? Harold?”  

He just stared blankly at her.  

“I’m just gonna call you Smallville,” she decided. “How you doing, Smallville?” Lois asked, testing it out.  

He just looked at her with bright, curious eyes, like he was trying to read her as much as she was trying read him.  

One time, when she was eight, she stumbled across a batch of stray kittens on the base in Sarajevo, all scraggly and damp and crying for food. Lois had smuggled them all into her room in her sweater, begging the cooks for chicken and tuna and milk to feed them. She’d managed to keep them hidden under her bed for nine days before the General heard meowing coming from her room while she was in class.  

She couldn’t smuggle this guy anywhere. Besides, kidnapping hot naked men was probably frowned upon in Kansas. And she was sure she wouldn’t be able to get away with it when he looked like that.  

>>>  

Clark Kent.  

The man she had found in Miller’s Field was Clark Kent.  

Lois couldn’t believe she had him in her grasp and let him slip away. Not that he would have been any help, having absolutely no memory of anything. He hadn’t so much as blinked when she’d talked about Chloe, let alone saw his first pair of pants.  

She looked up the Kent farm, resolving to go out there and try to track Clark down herself. Maybe if she shook him hard enough, memories of Chloe would fall right out.  

Not that she could shake him. He was six and a half feet of handsome, and he’d picked her up and quite literally moved her out of his way like she weighed less than a tissue. Which was insanely hot, and Lois was pretty sure that when she was in a better place, she’d dream about that.  

But something told her that a guy like Clark Kent might volunteer to be pushed around by a woman like her.  

>>>  

Going through Chloe’s belongings had been hell. Her uncle and her favourite cousin, just gone. Disappeared, without a trace.  

Lois' gut told her that they weren’t dead, but she had no way of proving it. Everything about this just felt too off, too convenient, too wrong. She sorted through a box of Chloe’s things at the Torch, smiling when she came across a photo of Chloe with Clark and Pete.  

Chloe always talked about the two of them on the phone. Lois remembered when Chloe rang her when she was thirteen to scream about having her first kiss with Clark. Lois had asked if they were boyfriend and girlfriend now, and Chloe had gone all quiet and shy.  

And now that she’d met him – met all of him – Lois got it.  

She tucked the pictures away in the box and looked around the room, looking for clues.  

Chloe wouldn’t have disappeared without leaving breadcrumbs. Lois just had to find them.  

>>> 

Lionel Luthor was a bust.  

Lois had been sure that he had been behind Chloe and Uncle Gabe’s murder, but she saw it the second she looked into his eyes; confusion, stress, anxiety. Lois had been around enough soldiers to know when someone’s back was against the wall and they had no exit plan.  

Which means she was starting from scratch when it came to finding Chloe’s murderer.  

>>>  

“You’re not alone.”  

Lois knew that voice; that soft, almost melodic voice, strong and steady. She was almost surprised that when she turned to look at him, he looked exactly as he had when she’d found him the day before last.  

Calm and solid. And tall. So tall. And really, really beautiful.  

Lois had come to Smallville looking for Chloe and found Clark; as hot as he was, he wasn’t anywhere near a good enough consolation prize for her cousin. Lois was alone. She had always been alone when it came down to it. Just because some hot guy was hanging around, didn’t mean she was suddenly not alone.  

He’s not just hot, Lois thought, steeling herself before she looked at him.  

“I’m sorry, Lois, I didn’t know you were out here,” he said.  

Lois braced herself, trying to will away her tears, carefully standing up from where she was sitting next to Chloe, huddled as close to her as she could be, just like when they were kids. It was raining softly, which felt kind of comforting. Like the weather matched itself to her mood. At least if a tear slipped out, she could lie and say it was the rain. If he was anything like his mom, he’d be too polite to call her a liar.  

He was watching her carefully, the exact same way as he had the night he’d met her, as if he was observing her every movement. It was unnerving. Lois kind of loved the intensity of his attention.  

“I’m glad to see we’ve moved beyond the clothing optional stage of our relationship,” she joked.  

Lois didn’t like anyone seeing her cry; she’d actually prefer if the rumour at the base in Stuttgart about her not being born with tear ducts was true.  

Clark’s mouth twitched the tiniest bit as he watched her, not saying anything. It made her nervous; he was staring at her like he could see right through her.  

She didn’t like that.  

Lois was typically the person making people uncomfortable. But Clark didn’t seem all that bothered by her. She kind of wished he was.  

“I’m surprised you even remember who I am,” she said.  

“Chloe’s cousin,” he said, smirking as he moved closer to her. “Nicorette addiction, can’t stand uncomfortable silences.”  

Lois narrowed her eyes; she definitely didn’t like that he remembered their first encounter. She hadn’t been at her best. Not that she cared about impressing him. She just wished she hadn’t been so obvious about checking him out.  

“I guess this means your synapses are all firing again,” she deflected.  

Clark finally had the nerve to look sheepish – the first crack in his façade.  

“Look, I can’t explain my actions over the past few days,” he said, holding her eyes. “But Chloe was my best friend. You’re not the only one who misses her.”  

Lois moved aside as Clark stood at the headstone, looking down at Chloe’s name.  

Where had he been since Chloe died? Why did he only turn up now, when she showed up in town? She hated that there was something about Clark that felt so honest and sincere. She didn’t want to believe him. But when she looked into his eyes, she saw it – complete and pure honesty.  

Something told Lois that Clark Kent was a terrible liar, and that he’d be easier to read than any other man she’d ever come across.  

“I’m just the only one doing something about it,” Lois said, watching him.  

He turned to look at her, his jaw clenching.  

A second crack in the façade, she thought proudly as he frowned at her. He was gorgeous when he was fired up. She’d have to find a way to make him clench his jaw again. There was something about the way his green eyes flashed with frustration, a little anger maybe, that was so sexy. He had some fire in him, Lois could feel it.  

“I get the feeling you like to do things yourself,” Clark snarked, looking down at her.  

Lois briefly wondered how tall he was – she was nearly six feet tall in these boots, and he had at least six inches on her, maybe seven.  

“My dad raised me to be self-sufficient and independent,” she said, defending herself.  

“That’d be one way to describe you,” Clark shot back.  

Lois narrowed her eyes; she didn’t like how easily he was reading her. She liked to keep to herself, to only show facets of herself as she needed to, compartmentalising herself to protect her heart. And in less than an hour total spent with this guy, he seemed to have her worked out.  

“You know, the only thing I like about you at the moment is your mom,” Lois snarked back at him. “You can’t possibly be as weird as I think you are with a mom that cool.”  

He smiled. A real, dimple revealing, eye sparkling smile. Maybe the jaw clench wasn’t the most beautiful thing he could do with his face after all.  

Snap out of it. You’re not here for him.  

Lois knew Clark’s type; good little farm boy, went to church every Sunday, probably had a golden retriever that followed him around everywhere. Guys like Clark didn’t like strong, secure, independent, vocal women who knew what they wanted and went out and got it.  

They liked pretty girls, sweet girls, modest and pure, like cheerleaders or the girls on the student council, ones that got along with his parents and baked sugar cookies that she left in his locker and never went past first base or had much of a personality.  

Guys like Clark married the first girl they dated, only had sex in the missionary position, and had their first kid before they were of legal drinking age. Guys like Clark weren’t the type of guy that Lois typically liked. And she’d heard all about Lana Lang, listening to Chloe cry to her over the phone about how she couldn’t possibly compete for Clark’s attention next to her. Lois was not about to get caught up with a guy that wasn’t her type and wasn’t even available.  

“Look,” Clark said, snapping her out of her thought spiral. “Why don’t you let me help you find who did this to Chloe?”  

Lois looked into his eyes – he wasn’t like anyone she’d met before. He was so...real. Like an open book. If it were anyone else, she’d be way more suspicious of them, but Chloe had talked about Clark enough for Lois to believe what she was seeing with her own eyes.  

A good man.  

She looked down at his mouth before she could stop herself.  

“Come on, you can stay at our house while you’re in town,” Clark said.  

There is no way he knows I’m living in my car right now, Lois frowned, trying not to let her face give away how badly she could use a hot shower.  

“It beats living out of your car,” he said.  

How the hell did he know? Lois was not this easy to read. Maybe he was one of those meteor freaks Chloe had told her about, with some sort of mind reading ability.  

He was staring at her with raised eyebrows, looking at her sarcastically, like he’d just given her an offer she couldn’t refuse. And okay, maybe he had. But she would never let him know that.  

Lois realised she was staring at his mouth again. She squared her shoulders and held her head a little higher, trying to look like she didn’t care about the lifeline he had just offered her.  

“Fine,” she agreed. “But you should know I don’t pay attention to curfews, and I never make my bed.” 

Clark smiled at her as she winked at him, leaving him alone with Chloe.  

She’d go back tomorrow to talk to her cousin. As soon as she had a hot shower for the first time in three days.  

>>>  

Seeing the house Chloe and her uncle Gabe were murdered in hurt more than she would have liked to admit. It was why she hadn’t come out here yesterday when she’d first gotten to Smallville. She told herself it was because she didn’t want to bother going in the dark, but she knew she was just scared.  

Going with Clark wasn’t as scary, though.  

Lois knew Clark was right about Chloe being alive and that they were onto something the second she heard the helicopter blades. She recognised Dash from his crooked run as he came after her, his back injury still playing up, turning and punching him in the shoulder as hard as she could. At least Lois yelled sorry before she kicked him in the helmet.  

She saw the General watching her from the open side of the helicopter as she dragged Clark away from the safehouse, running to her car and getting as much distance between them as she could.  

If the General was monitoring her this closely and working this hard to keep her away from the safehouse, then Clark was right.  

Chloe was alive. And the General knew about it.  

>>>  

Clark was naked again.  

And this time, he was wet.  

He’d graciously let her shower first after they’d been attacked in the field where Chloe’s safe house blew up. Lois knew she was onto something if the General had an entire unit tracking her to try and deter her from going to the scene of the crime.  

Lois had been to the farm once; she’d cornered Mrs Kent in the kitchen and tried to find Clark to find out what he knew about Chloe’s investigation into Lionel Luthor, but Mrs Kent had promptly asked her to politely leave, and Lois had sheepishly left, tail tucked between her legs.  

Clark had brought her back after they were ambushed, leading her up to the bathroom to shower. It wasn’t until she got out of the shower that she realised everything she owned was still in her car and she didn’t even have a change of clothes.  

She wrapped herself in a towel and darted next door into Clark’s room, going straight to his closet and looking through his shirts. Lois grabbed a worn red and yellow flannel, throwing it on and holding her arms out to see how big it was on her. She knew Clark was a large guy, but Jesus he was massive.  

Just how big is he? She had to roll the sleeves up a half dozen times to get them to her elbows and opened the dresser next to his desk to look around. Lots of trinkets and a couple of books; she closed the drawer, opening the next one –  

Bingo.  

Lois stole a pair of his boxer briefs, pulling them on and shaking out her hair to try and dry it. She realised she had left her bag in the bathroom and sighed. The shower was running; she could just go in and grab it, no harm, no foul.  

He’d been in there for nearly ten minutes, and she was sure he was too nervous to do the things boys normally do in showers with her in the house. Clark didn’t seem like the type to do that around polite company, if at all.  

Lois opened the door, walking to the sink. In the mirror, she could see Clark’s shadow through the shower curtain, standing under the spray.  

“Nothing like a little North by Northwest action to get the blood pumping, huh?” she asked.  

Lois smiled as she watched his shadow jump through the shower curtain at the sound of her voice. The curtain jostled, and she saw one wide, green eye looking wildly at her.  

“Um, we usually take turns in the bathroom,” Clark said, voice unsteady.  

“Oh, don’t start with me, Smallville,” she said, teasing him. “You’re the one taking the marathon shower,” Lois said, grabbing her hairbrush out of her bag. “Besides, my delicate feminine sensibilities weren’t offended the first time I got a glimpse of – uh – Clark Junior.”  

Lois laughed to herself as she brushed her hair, reminiscing. She already missed three days ago, where he was naked and sweet and weird and quiet. The Clark of today was stock still in the shower, clearly feeling more vulnerable than he was used to.  

Good. She'd have to make sure she kept him on his toes as much as possible. Not as revenge for seeing straight through me, she justified. And because it’s fun.  

“My parents kind of missed the whole Woodstock phase,” Clark said.  

A joke? He didn’t seem to have a sense of humour, but Chloe had sworn to her in their emails that he was funny. Maybe she was right.  

The shower shut off as Clark talked, Lois watching him move gingerly through the shower curtain.  

“Besides, they freaked out the last time they caught me in a co-ed situation,” he shared.  

Lois bit her lip; she had been sure he was untouched pure as the driven snow, so this was interesting information. Clark seemed like the kind of good boy that was waiting for marriage. She tried not to smile as he peaked out from behind the curtain, reaching, as hidden as he could, for the towels on the rack against the wall.  

“Last time?” Lois teased. “So, the Eagle Scout does have a few secrets in the closet.”  

One day, when she had nothing left in her arsenal, she might tell him that she could make out everything from behind the shower curtain. Every large, swinging shadow. She waited as he shuffled out of the tub, still dripping wet.  

So fucking hot. And big. So wide. Tall. Properly tall, too, to the point that he actually made her feel small. Not a regular occurrence with other people, even the soldiers at the bases she spent all her time on.  

“Just forget it, alright?” he said, clearly agitated.  

Lois rolled her eyes as she turned back to the mirror, watching as he looked her up and down slowly. She hated looking like a drowned rat in front of him; she usually looked cuter, more put together, sometimes she even passed for hot. And Lois hated even more that she cared about how she looked.  

“That’s my shirt!” Clark said loudly.  

Lois turned to him, raising an eyebrow in defiance.  

“It’s the only thing I could find that was clean,” she said.  

Clark’s jaw tensed; she so badly wanted to tell him that she’d stolen a pair of his underwear too, maybe hike up her shirt just a bit to show him and see if she could cause that vein throbbing in his temple to burst.  

He seemed to try to temper himself, taking a deep breath and trying to sidestep her, but she got in his way, grabbing his arm and stopping him. Lois caught the way his eyes locked on her hand around his wet, huge, insanely hard bicep.  

“Hey,” she said, trying to put on her sweet voice. “Let’s keep this morning’s game of chopper tag a secret, okay?” she asked.  

She didn’t need anyone in Smallville to know that the General had her under military surveillance, and she definitely didn’t need Mr Goody Two Shoes here strong arming her and taking her to Fort Leavenworth to the General himself.  

Clark seemed like the type.  

He smiled at her sarcastically, sidestepping her properly and opening the door. Lois felt him half shut the door immediately, turning around curiously.  

“Right,” he dismissed. “Because I’m the one who can’t keep my mouth shut.”  

She narrowed her eyes to yet another smart-ass comment by Clark about her talking a lot.  

“Mom,” he said, his back to her. “You're home.”  

She couldn’t resist. It was too perfect.  

Lois grabbed onto his waist from behind and stood up on her toes, resting against Clark’s back slightly.  

“Hi, Mrs Kent,” she greeted.  

Mrs Kent’s mouth dropped, her eyes going wide. Lois would have paid good money to see Clark’s face, surely red and ashamed even though he did nothing wrong.  

“Downstairs, please,” Mrs Kent said, handing Clark the towels and turning to walk down the stairs.  

Clark whipped around angrily at her, his eyes wide.  

“What exactly is wrong with you?” he asked.  

Lois shrugged, her eyes catching on a drop of water moving down his neck, down his chest, sliding down his waist, down past the lines of the v of his pelvis, disappearing into the towel.  

“Why are you so skittish?” Lois asked.  

Clark blinked at her, looking at her incredulously.  

“We were just attacked by some random guys in a helicopter at Chloe’s safe house,” he sniped. “Why aren’t you more skittish?”  

Lois rolled her eyes.  

“First of all, Chloe's alive, so why would I be anything other than happy,” she argued. “And secondly, I’m tougher than that.”  

Clark huffed out a laugh before he turned to leave the bathroom, leaving her to stand there on her own. Lois went back to grab her jeans and take a moment to brace herself before she faced Clark’s parents.  

She wasn’t even sure if he’d told them that he’d offered to have her stay with them, and after this, they’d probably just ask her to leave.  

She shoved her jeans on and grabbed her bag, expecting that this would be the last time in their house. Lois was sure they wouldn’t let her stay.  

>>>  

Not only did the Kents invite her to stay, but Mrs Kent asked her what she wanted for dinner.  

Standing there dripping wet, wearing Clark’s shirt and no underwear wasn’t the first impression she was hoping to make for Mr Kent, but he seemed kind of amused at how under Clark’s skin Lois had already gotten. And Mrs Kent was easily the nicest person she had ever met. She didn’t want to get on their bad side, if they even had one.  

Lois couldn’t remember the last time anyone had made her a meal, let alone asked her what she wanted to eat. She had said that she ate everything, and that she would be happy to go and get her own food.  

“Don’t be silly,” Mrs K had said, and asked her to peel some potatoes for her.  

“I’m not – you know,” Lois winced, trying to find the right words. “It’s just fun to make Clark blush,” she tried to explain. “It’s just fun to annoy him.”  

Mrs K smiled before she schooled her face into gentle disapproval and nodded.  

“Just go a little easy on him,” Mrs K said. “He’s not used to getting back as much as he dishes out.” 

Lois raised her eyebrow at that.  

“I knew he was sassier than he let on,” she said.  

Mrs K laughed as she took some carrots out of the fridge.  

“Boys like Clark...they take a while to catch up to women,” Mrs K said. “He usually gets to where he needs to be at his own pace.”  

>>>  

She sat up with a gasp, trying to catch her breathe.  

Lois was in Clark’s bedroom, spending her first night with the Kents.  

He had given up his room without a second thought. Lois figured that Clark wasn’t bothered because she’d only be here for a few days, but she still felt guilty about it.  

Or at least, she felt guilty until she had rolled onto her side and properly stretched her back out, sighing in relief at how comfortable his bed was.  

Lois tried to recall her dream – she didn’t remember much. It was just her and a man, and she felt like she was flying. There were flashes of yellow light in her dream, and all she could see around her were stars. And maybe green eyes and abs and shaggy black hair, brushing gently against her face.  

She laid back down, looking around Clark’s room.  

His room was so comforting – a cross between a boy’s room and a man’s room. It was all deep tones, dark blues contrasted with deep wood tones and white, with plenty of knickknacks around. Photos of him and Chloe with Pete, post it notes, things you’d buy at a farmer’s market. The sheets still smelled like him, like firewood and vanilla and apple pie.  

And a photo of a pretty brunette, faced down on the bedside table.  

Lois tucked the photo under the bed, out of sight. She could feel the ghost of Lana Lang haunting her, and she hadn’t even met her.  

>>>  

Sneaking out of the Kent house was almost too easy. Mr and Mrs K were talking lowly to each other in their bedroom as Lois tiptoed down the hall, walking slowly down the steps and trying not to wake up Clark.  

Clark, who was asleep on the couch, shirtless, tanned, muscular...Lois stopped at the door as she watched him for a long moment. She wanted nothing more than to move towards him, to run her hands down his smooth, tanned back, to crawl on top of him, to feel him.  

God, he looked warm.  

Lois tore her eyes away and kept moving. She snuck into the barn and grabbed a shovel before she climbed into her car and headed for the cemetery. She was going to find out once and for all whether Chloe was dead or not. And no amount of shirtless Clark Kent was going to distract her from her mission.  

>>>  

Lois tried not to feel anything at the way Clark looked at Lana when she got out of the car. She watched as they stood opposite each other, Clark looking guarded, Lana looking guilty and nervous. 

Clark looked unbelievably hot, his tight white t shirt covered in grease, his green eyes so light and clear in the sun, his dark hair falling over his face – his face that was wary, if a little hopeful.  

Lois had only known Lana for about twenty minutes, but she could tell that something more intense than what Chle had described had happened there. Clark looked like he was crawling out of his skin as he maintained his distance, but Lana looked like she was staring at the guy who broke her heart, desperately angling closer to Clark. Their behaviour didn’t align with anything Chloe had told her about them. Either Chloe had been way off about what was going on with them, or Lana was way more into Clark than Clark was into her.  

Her interest was officially piqued when Lana stepped closer to Clark, and Clark immediately moved away from her, standing closer to Lois.  

She decided to do them both a favour and put them out of their misery. Lana was nice, but she didn’t strike Lois as particularly bold. And if Clark had feelings for Lana, he deserved to know that she was unavailable.  

“Who wouldn’t want a hot summer fling in the most romantic city on Earth?” Lois interjected.  

Lana immediately looked guilty, shooting daggers at Lois with her eyes, while Clark looked – whatever passed over his face disappeared fast. Lois wondered how used to this he was; being disappointed or hurt or left behind.  

It figured that sweet, kind, cornfed Clark would have had feelings for the pretty, delicate, popular girl who looked like a fairy. Right again, she congratulated herself for reading him at least somewhat correctly. Guys like that always liked the pretty, popular type. 

“I was going to tell you,” Lana said, not looking him in the eye.  

“It’s okay,” Clark said; Lois almost believed him.  

Lois could see that something was going on behind those green eyes, but she could see that he wasn’t going to let Lana know about it. So, Lois did what she did best; she made it worse.  

“Really? You two?” she asked.  

“We never –”  

“Not really,” Lana interrupted.  

“– had a thing,” Clark finished.  

“It’s complicated.”  

“A complicated thing. Never mind,” Lois surmised.  

Lois watched Lana stare at Clark as if she was committing him to memory; it almost looked like he was looking at him for the last time.  

“The awkward tension’s just getting started,” Lois joked as Lana got back into her car.  

Clark looked resigned – not sad, not upset, just resigned. Although, it had only been a few days. Maybe she was reading him all wrong.  

Nah, Lois corrected herself. She was right. She was sure of it.  

>>>  

“Lois!”  

She turned, walking over to Mr Kent.  

“Hold this,” he ordered, holding up a flashlight.  

Lois angled it to where he was pointing, smiling when he nodded and got to work servicing the truck.  

“How are you doing?” he asked, handing her a screwdriver.  

“Fine,” she said. “I think.”  

“Wrench,” he requested.  

Lois reached into the toolbox and handed it to him, moving the flashlight back to where she had it.  

“I’m sorry I’ve just barged in and taken over the place,” she apologised.  

Mr K laughed and shook his head.  

“Lois, watching Clark chase his tail around you has been the most fun we’ve had in a long time,” he said, smiling at her. “Just, you know. He's my son, which means he’s a bit slow.”  

“I’ve heard,” Lois joked.  

Mr K laughed. Clark was so lucky to have such a cool dad. Lois wondered what her life would have been like if she had grown up with someone like Mr K instead of the General.  

>>>  

“Chloe wasn’t in her grave,” Lois whispered.  

Clark grimaced, nodding as if he already knew that.  

“So, now the question we have to ask, is who would wanna fake Chloe’s death?” she said, thinking out loud.  

Clark walked straight out of the house as if he wasn’t even listening to her. Lois kept thinking out loud, hoping she would stumble upon the bigger picture if she kept rearranging the pieces of the puzzle.  

She followed him out to the loft, walked up the stairs as she kept trying to work out what had happened to Chloe.  

“I think we’re onto something here,” Lois said.  

Clark wasn’t listening to her. She was pretty confident that this would be their thing – her talking at him, and him ignoring her, but she was fine with that. It was actually nice to talk to someone who didn’t tell her to be quiet, or that her needing to verbalise her thoughts was annoying.  

But Lois was trying to find Chloe, and Clark’s doe eyed, kicked sad puppy schtick was wearing a little thin. Couldn’t he be all mopey and heartbroken once Chloe was home safe?  

“Clark?” she called, trying to get him to snap out of it.  

It seemed to work; he looked at her like he’d just realised she was there.  

“Wow. She didn’t take any prisoners, did she?” Lois murmured.  

Clark frowned at her like he didn’t know what she was talking about.  

“Lana?” she pressed. “Cute, smart, gutsy. And way too much for you to handle. I can see why you’re in love with her,” Lois teased.  

Lois was almost expecting Clark to argue, but he just looked annoyed and looked down at his feet.  

“Look, you’re not really the person I wanna talk to about this,” he said.  

Lois shrugged and called his bluff.  

“Suit yourself,” she said as she sat on the couch, pulling her computer out of her bag.  

Sure, she hadn’t known Clark too long, but she was working him out. He spent a lot of time in his head, from what she could see. He was a people pleaser, and he seemed to be the type that always put himself last.  

Maybe she’d stick around long enough to change that.  

“It’s just – I knew she’d be dating other people,” Clark said, not looking at her.  

Lois tried not to smile; she knew it. He wasn’t that hard to peg, despite what he’d said to her earlier. Naked amnesia walks in cornfields notwithstanding.  

“But?” Lois pushed, pretending she wasn’t watching the adorable blush spread over his cheeks.  

“I just don’t understand how you could feel like you know someone, so completely, like you know everything about them, and then just, all of a sudden –”  

“You don’t even know what continent they’re on,” Lois finished.  

She knew she’d nailed it when Clark puffed up a little, his jaw clenching.  

“Do you always have to finish people’s thoughts?” he asked loudly, frustration rolling off of him.  

“Well, am I right?” she asked.  

Clark deflated, and she knew she was right on the money. She knew she’d worked him out.  

>>>  

Clark was hot.  

Physically, hot.  

Lois hadn’t planned on hugging him, but the General was right there, watching her like a hawk, and she needed to get close enough to tell him they couldn’t give up the search.  

Lois had rolled her eyes; she didn’t have the nerve to tell the General that she suspected Clark Kent was more of a bad boy than he let on.  

Clark was rigid in her arms; she could picture the face he was making behind her back, confused and annoyed, probably. She could feel his heart race as she pressed her chest to his, closing her eyes at the feeling of him. He was comforting. His heartbeat, as erratic as it was, was soothing, somehow.  

“This is about Chloe,” Lois whispered into his ear. “Clark, find the connection to Luthorcorp.”  

He relaxed as she pulled away, and she hoped that the softened look in his eyes meant that he heard her.  

The General was about to put her on lockdown, she was sure of it. Even though Lois was nineteen and probably already under military surveillance by him, the fact that she’d manage to slip away from his team and go under the radar for three days before they found her was sure to have pissed him off.  

Lois was silent as she followed her dad out to the truck, climbing into the passenger seat without a word. He waited until they were out of Smallville city limits to start in on her.  

“I told you to stay away from this,” he said gruffly. “And you’re out here, digging up graves.”  

Lois scoffed.  

“I am gonna find out what happened to Chloe,” Lois warned.  

“Chloe’s dead, Lo,” he said.  

“No, she’s not,” Lois said, raising her voice a little. “She’s not dead, and I am not going to be like everybody else in this family and just accept defeat.”  

She didn’t say the quiet part out loud – she knew the General was involved somehow. He reached out for her, but Lois turned away, staring silently out the window, moving her entire body as far away from him as she could.  

She and Clark would find Chloe. She was sure of it. Something about Clark told her that she could have faith in him.  

>>>  

The only good thing about being dragged back to the base was that she could break into her father’s office and go through his things without anyone noticing.  

What she didn’t expect to see was Clark do the same. How he got on the base, she had no idea, but she was even more confused as to how he had gotten past all the soldiers milling around and found the General’s office. Or how he’d figured out that Lex Luthor was involved in all of this.  

He seems like a nice boy, Lois, the General had said, clearly warning her to stay away from him. If only her father knew how clever and sneaky Clark was proving himself to be.  

But maybe the most surprising thing was how she word vomited her deepest sadness about losing her mother, and how it was influencing how strongly she felt about losing Chloe, the only real family she had left.  

Lois had joked about her dad keeping her under heavy surveillance to lighten the mood, but Clark was staring at her so intently she was sure he saw right through the joke to something deeper. Maybe between the joke about the military escort to prom and realising that Lois was actually being monitored by the General made Clark realise that it wasn’t exactly a joke.  

“Wow, and I thought my father was overprotective,” Clark said. 

She smiled, trying to diffuse the moment, because Clark’s big, wide, concerned eyes were making her squirm, and she didn’t like it.  

“I guess when he lost my mom, he kinda cracked and ever since, he’s been scared of losing me, too,” Lois said.  

She watched Clark’s eyes flick to the photo of her and her parents on her dad’s desk, in the quiet days before Lucy was born, when it was just the three of them.  

“I can actually talk about her,” she said, looking at her mother. “She died when I was six.”  

“I’m sorry,” Clark said.  

His voice was softer, the way it had sounded days before when he had no idea who he was. But he was looking at her differently, like he understood her better somehow.  

She didn’t like it.  

Not for her sake – for his. Clark seemed too familiar with pain. Lois wished he wasn’t.  

“Don’t be,” Lois shrugged. “Unless you’re the one that got her hooked on cigarettes behind the gym during high school.”  

Clark didn’t say anything, still watching her. Lois had never felt more like someone was looking right through her in her life than Clark was right now.  

She both hated it and never wanted it to stop.  

>>>  

“Lois,” she heard from behind her.  

Lois turned, smiling when she saw Lana.  

“Hey,” she greeted. “You needed a four o’clock coffee fix too?”  

Lana nodded, holding up her own coffee and smiling.  

“Jet lag is killing me,” she said. “How are you doing?”  

Lois shrugged as she moved off to the side, Lana following her.  

“I think we’re getting closer on finding out what happened to Chloe,” she said.  

She didn’t want to tell Lana what she and Clark thought they had found, but Lois knew that Lana was close with Chloe and she deserved to be in the loop.  

“You and Clark?” Lana clarified.  

Lois nodded.  

“It’s handy to have someone that knows the ins and outs of the prairie,” she joked.  

Lana smiled, but Lois could see it; something tense in her eyes and her smile.  

“Clark’s a great guy,” Lana said.  

Lois shrugged.  

“I’m more partial to his mom to be honest,” Lois smiled.  

Lana smiled tightly again as she picked at the label around her takeaway cup. Lois didn’t really understood why Lana cared so much given that she had a new guy that she had said she really liked.  

“He’s just – Clark’s kind of complicated,” she warned.  

“No offense, Lana, but no man is that complicated,” Lois joked. “Not even Clark Kent.”  

>>>  

Chloe was alive.  

Chloe was alive, and Lois was holding her in her arms.  

Lois couldn’t believe it. She had known Chloe was alive this entire time. And Clark was the only one that had believed her and helped her find Chloe. Her Chloe, who even through her tears, was so bright eyed and alive.  

“Let’s get you out of here,” Clark said, wrapping an arm around Chloe and ushering her out of the warehouse.  

“You’re kinda blonde,” Chloe said, flicking her ponytail.  

She smiled nervously; Lois had bleached her hair on the floor of her friend’s bathroom at three a.m. the day after she found out Chloe had died, sobbing into a bottle of vodka and refusing to accept it. Chloe had always been her first call whenever she was upset, but without Chloe to call, Lois was left to her own devices to make terrible hair choices.  

Maybe she didn’t do so well when she was left alone to her own devices.  

Lois bundled Chloe into her car, turning to look at Clark as he shut the car door behind her. She looked around, frowning when she didn’t see another car. How did Clark even get out here?  

“Thanks,” she said, unsure of how to really thank him for helping her find Chloe alive.  

Clark looked at her and tilted his head as if he was reading her mind, his green eyes staring unblinkingly into hers. Lois hated how intimate eye contact with Clark felt.  

“Thanks,” he said back as he smiled at her.  

Lois grinned as she nodded at him to get in the car. Maybe she didn’t have to say more than that, for once. Maybe Clark could actually understand what she was trying to say without her desperately trying to clarify herself, like she had to do with everyone else.  

Maybe Clark was right, and she wasn’t alone.  

>>>  

Lois was frantic as she packed, throwing every tank top she owned into a duffel bag.  

“Lo, you’re being dramatic.”  

She whipped around to look at her father, disappointment overcoming her anger.  

“You told me Chloe was dead,” Lois said. “You let me grieve her for two months. You left me behind, again, for some stupid mission. And for Lex Luthor, of all people.”  

The General sighed, leaning against the doorframe.  

“You’re being emotional,” he admonished. “Where are you going to go.”  

His condescending tone just about set her off.  

“The Kent’s,” she said, grabbing the tiny photo album she had of her mother.  

“You can’t just take over that poor family’s house,” he warned.  

“I was invited to stay,” Lois said. “Unlike some people, they’re actually happy to have me there.”  

“Is this about that boy?” the General asked gruffly. “Clark?”  

Lois grit her teeth, staring furiously at him, trying to work out whether to curse him out for even suggesting that. But she grabbed her bags and left without another word, walking past him without even looking at him. It was offensive that he was trying to reduce everything he had lied to her about to her wanting to be around Clark, trying to deflect from the fact that he’d faked Chloe’s death.  

He didn’t try to stop her.  

>>>  

Lois watched Clark watch Chloe; they’d gotten her back two days ago, and they hadn’t let her out of their sight since. But Chloe seemed thrilled with the attention from her two favourite people.  

She could understand It; having Clark Kent’s undivided attention made her buzz a little bit, too. He had a way of making someone feel like the centre of the universe when he looked at them with his earnest green eyes.  

Lana had come by earlier that day too; Lois had watched her and Chloe and enjoyed getting to know her. She was sweet, but there was something about Lana that struck Lois as odd. As if she was projecting an image of sweet but tough that didn’t feel sincere. It was in her eyes – they were a pretty hazel colour, but there was something empty in them. Something dishonest, something cold. 

When Clark had shown up in the afternoon, she had watched him awkwardly avoid Lana while Lana had stared at Clark expectantly, hoping to get his eyes on her, just once. But Clark was completely focused on Chloe, and Lois was completely focused on the way that Chloe was the only person who could make Clark smile like that. Big and dimpled, his eyes clear and happy. Lois tried to push down the jealousy she felt at not being the one to inspire that smile.  

Chloe had ignored it, but when Lana left, Lois’ curiosity got the better of her.  

“What happened with you two?” Lois asked Clark.  

He looked uncomfortable, looking between her and Chloe when he answered.  

“It just – it didn’t feel right,” he said.  

Lois could tell by Chloe’s face that his response was a surprise. She hadn’t known what had gone down either, but she’d told Lois yesterday when they were catching up on all of Lois’ Smallvillian exploits that Clark always seemed to have one foot out the door with the people around him, ready to run. That had confused Lois; she didn’t get that feeling from Clark at all.  

“How’s it supposed to feel?” Lois asked.  

Clark shrugged, frowning, but Lois could see that he was thinking about it.  

“I mean, I don’t know,” he said quietly. “But I don’t think it’s supposed to feel the way that it did.”  

“Good for you, Smallville,” she smiled as Clark looked at her, confused. “Not enough people follow their gut.” 

>>> 

Lois sighed as she burrowed into the sheets, warm and cosy, slyly dressed in one of Clark’s undershirts.  

The pillowcases smelled like Clark, like summer sunshine and firewood. It was a scent that was fast reminding her of home, whatever that was. Lois thought about the last few weeks of her life, and how insane it had all been.  

Losing Chloe. Finding Clark. Then finding Chloe. Leaving her father. Finding a temporary home with the Kents, who actually seemed happy to have her there.  

Lois thought about Clark, and the way he’d come through for her, over and over, for no other reason than he seemed to want to. She thought about how he seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, and how she had made him smile, hopefully relieving the weight, just a little.  

She thought about his arms, and his abs, his back, his hair, and his green eyes and his lips, so red and plush and pretty –  

Her hand drifted between her thighs before she could stop herself, stroking her clit as she closed her eyes and let her mind wander.  

Clark coming out of the shower, wet and annoyed at her. Clark towering over her, his big, green eyes curious. Clark in that tight white t shirt, covered in grease and dirt as he worked the farm. Clark clenching his jaw like he was annoyed with her, but following her around everywhere anyways. Clark butt naked in that field, his frankly ridiculously large cock hanging soft and heavy between his legs. She wondered what he would look like hard and aroused, and how he would feel, how she would feel. She pictured his dimples, his back, his shoulders, his hands –  

Lois gasped quietly as she came, imagining what he would feel like inside her. She pulled her fingers out of her underwear and wiped them on her pyjama pants, rolling over and shutting her eyes.  

Sometimes she wished Clark was wearing pants when she found him in that field. Having a real idea of what he was working with was taking up too much of her waking thoughts, occupying her for hours at a time.  

She had to get over this crush on Clark.  

>>>  

Her hands were aching.  

She'd stopped at the first mechanic she saw in town and laughed in the guy’s face when he quoted seven hundred dollars to fix the scratches on her car. Lois went to the store instead and grabbed baking soda, toothpaste and some microfiber cloths, ready to fix it herself.  

She just didn’t realise how tedious it would be.  

Lois dropped the cloth on the ground, sighing as she laid down in the dirt on the driveway.  

“What are you doing?”  

She turned her head to look at Clark, who was coming in from the fields. Lois wondered what his shoe size was – his feet were huge.  

“Trying to buff out these scratches,” she said.  

Clark came over to her, stepping over her exhausted, lifeless body to inspect the scratches.  

“They’re deep, Lois,” he said. “You need sand it, and then you’ll need to repaint.” 

Lois closed her eyes and shook her head. She wasn’t doing all that.  

“This is your fault, you know,” she said.  

Clark frowned at her as he towered over her.  

“It’s my fault you drive like a Nascar driver?” he asked.  

"You know, it’s your fault that I drove off the road and scratched up my car,” Lois said.  

“It’s my fault lightning hit?” Clark asked flatly.  

She could feel Clark roll his eyes even without seeing him.  

“Fine, it’s not your fault,” Lois acquiesced. “But that lightning strike drove me off the road and I scraped the shit out of my car before I nearly ran over you.”  

Clark raised his eyebrows.  

“Fuck it,” she shrugged, tossing the cloth onto the ground and holding out her hand for Clark to help her stand up. “Scratches give it character.”  

>>>  

Lois sat on the porch swing as she looked out onto the Kent farm. Clark was out in the paddocks, tossing bales of hay off the back of the truck with practised ease. Lois had gone out to the barn and tried to lift one; it was easily over a hundred pounds.  

She admired his arms as he moved, thinking about how strong he had to be to not even break a sweat after a whole day working the farm. How Clark and his father ran the farm on their own was a mystery Lois was yet to solve, but something told her that it wasn’t her business.  

She loved it out here. The farm was peaceful, even if Smallville was kind of a crazy place to be. Lois could see herself growing old out here one day. She wondered if she could convince Mr and Mrs K to let her build some sort of studio apartment on the other side of the barn so she could hang out here forever.  

>>>  

Repeating senior year should have felt more humiliating, but Lois couldn’t help but be grateful that she got more time with Chloe. She had been looking forward to going to college, but there was something kind of nice about living with the Kents and getting to live out the all-American apple pie childhood that she never had.  

And she got to watch Clark, which was quickly becoming her favourite pastime.  

The way he moved when he thought he had an audience was completely different to the way he moved when he thought nobody was watching. It was fascinating. Lois would watch him swan around the farm, tossing footballs through tiny spaces, to slouching to make himself look smaller out in public. Clark had so much confidence, such a quiet sureness about him that he second guessed when he was around certain people, it made Lois want to physically attack the people that made him shrink in on himself.  

Like Lana.  

Lois had watched them around each other – the way Clark would curl in on himself around her, going quiet and working overtime to never react to her snippy, rude comments. She could see the tension in his jaw and the way his eyes would flash with annoyance when she spoke.  

It was utterly bizarre. Lana barely seemed to tolerate Clark. She was almost contemptuous towards him. And Clark didn’t seem as though he liked the person that Lana was, either.  

At least if Lois was around, she could distract him from Lana and cheer him up with the help of Chloe.  

>>>  

Watching Clark blush as he talked to Abby annoyed Lois more than she thought it would. Abby seemed nice, and she was adorable, like a little Kelly doll.  

Chloe was saying something about plastic surgery, but Lois was only barely listening. She was too focused on the way Clark was leaning over Abby at her locker, his cheeks as red as the time she’d bothered him in the shower.  

“I think she looks great,” Clark cut in from behind her.  

“What a shocker,” Lois couldn’t resist saying.  

Of course Clark thought Abby looked great – all teenage boys loved a pretty, delicate blonde who wore mini dresses and heels to school.  

Too-tall brunettes with a propensity for never shutting up, dressing practically and being annoying, not so much. Maybe Lois really couldn’t hack it for a whole semester at Smallville High, watching Clark chat up pretty girls right in front of her.  

>>>  

Lois nearly laughed as the needles came at her face.  

She'd gotten sucked into investigating Chloe’s story for the Torch, tracking down Abby’s mother, Dr Fine, and actually putting effort into writing this article. Nobody was more surprised than she was.  

Now she was trapped, this Morgan Fairchild wannabe threatening to make her unattractive. Lois wasn’t vain, but she liked her face, and she didn’t want to change it. She struggled against the bindings on the table, trying to find a way out of this, but she realised that this might be the end. There was no way she could escape this.  

Green liquid filled the needles above her, and Lois felt hysteria rising in her chest. Of course she would come to Smallville to find Chloe, only to end up dead herself.  

The sound of glass shattering echoed through the room as the pod lifted off of her. Lois blinked through the green fog that began to fill the room.  

“Clark?”  

He managed to unhook her hand as he stumbled backwards in pain. Lois untied herself as she heard Dr Fine knock Clark down, kicking her in the face when she started advancing on her.  

She slid out of the pod, rushing to Clark, who must have taken a hit to the head by Dr Fine.  

“Clark! Are you okay?” Lois asked, reaching to pull him up.  

“Get me out of here,” he mumbled.  

She pulled him up with her, knocking Dr Fine down as she tried to step around the shards of glass on the floor. Clark was heavy. Lois had to brace herself to try to balance him. But he stood up straighter the closer they got to the door, his head starting to clear.  

Lois stopped, calculating how she was going to get over all the glass shattered around the door, when Clark wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her with ease, carrying her for a few long strides before putting her down past the glass. Lois briefly thought about the first night they’d met, when Clark had picked her up and moved her like she weighed nothing.  

Just how strong is he?  

She had touched herself once or twice to the memory of those arms, how he’d not even blinked as he lifted her up.  

“Are you okay?” Clark asked.  

She nodded, looking at the broken door.  

“Did you break that?”  

Twice in two weeks he’d saved her and Chloe, like he was some sort of hero. Lois shouldn’t have been surprised, though. He always came through, just like Chloe had said.  

Clark shrugged, and Lois noticed the way he looked her up and down quickly before looking away. He grabbed a lab coat and tossed it to her, pulling his phone out of his pocket to call Chloe while she covered up.  

That bitch cut up my jeans, Lois fumed, seeing them in tatters on the floor by the door.  

>>>  

It was like a blur. One moment, she and Clark had been taunting each other. The next, she had her hands in his hair, ruffling it, and Clark was smiling at her even more happily than she’d seen him smile at Chloe.  

Like I've never seen that before.  

That’s what Lois had said to Chloe before she dragged her out to the pep rally, pretending that she didn’t care about seeing Clark in the dunk tank.  

She’d lied, obviously.  

Lois had spent a lot of time looking at Clark. The night she’d met him, she’d done nothing but look at him. How could she not? Looking at Clark was like looking at art.  

Sexy, naked art.  

But Clark Kent in a wet t shirt? Clinging to his body, abs visible, nipples poking through the soaked material? Clark Kent in shorts, the strong lines of his thighs on display for everybody to see, making her kind of jealous that she wasn’t the only one who got to see him like that?  

Clark Kent smiling at her like he was in a toothpaste commercial, so bright and happy and uninhibited? Clark Kent looking like a literal angel, backlit by the sun, his hair and his eyes looking brighter than ever? Clark Kent splashing her with water and winking at her?  

Lois needed a new word for that.  

He'd teased her, made fun of her for being left-handed and unable to throw a football, intimated that she’d learned a thing or two from the boys on the base, and yet, the second he smiled at her, she’d melted.  

Lois worked three fingers inside of herself as she thought about all the times she’d already seen Clark naked, or in various states of undress; too many times for the short time she’d known him.  

She thought about the many times she’d already seen him dripping wet, his hair curling at his neck, his big green eyes staring right into hers like he could ready her mind. Letting her talk about her family issues, letting her get inside his head. The freckle on his cheek, the one by his eyebrow that was usually hidden by his fluffy hair.  

The way he looked at her, his eyes always curious and soft and amused.  

Lois came thinking about Clark laughing as he sat in the seat for the dunk tank, picturing the way his face lit up when he smiled at her, at the way he looked when he was soaked, the white t shirt clinging to his body, lithe and lean and muscular and so tall and big and muscular and warm, so warm every time she touched him, the way he’d let her mess with his hair, his eyes lighting up as she ran over, biting his lip slightly when she touched him before he smiled so big his dimples –  

She gasped as quietly as she could as she came down from her orgasm, not wanting to disturb the perfect midnight peace in the farmhouse, absentmindedly wishing she had a cigarette.  

Lois felt guilty as she thought about the look she’d caught on Chloe’s face when Lois had run back to her after she’d tousled with Clark’s hair. Lois knew it was too risky, and that she couldn’t hurt Chloe like that. Not to mention, she had no desire to get mixed up in whatever was going on between Clark and Lana.  

This crush was starting to occupy way too much of her mind and time. Why was she so obsessed with measuring how big he smiled with her versus anyone else?  

This is a waste of my time, Lois thought as she closed her eyes and brushed her fingers through her folds again, imagining what Clark would look like hard and desperate and needy as she buried her face in the pillows. They still kind of smelled like Clark.  

>>>  

“What really happened with Clark and Lana?” Lois finally dared to ask.  

Chloe grimaced, handing her the bowl of popcorn.  

“Honestly, I don’t know,” she said. “They spent three years pining for each other, but every time Clark opens up, Lana shuts him down, so when he finally gets closer to her, he bails before she can crush him again.”  

Lois hadn’t expected that. Clark was so open, so sweet. Lois could see it in his eyes, how much he was ready and willing to connect with people. How Lana could push him away, Lois had no idea.  

“So, he’s the one that’s not into her?”  

“Yeah, but I don’t think Clark knows that yet,” Chloe said.  

Lois was quiet for the rest of the movie as she thought about Clark and Lana and Chloe and all their weird, tense friendships. Clark and Chloe were close, but she could see where Chloe still carried a torch for him. Chloe and Lana were close, but she could see where Lana was jealous of Chloe having Clark’s confidence and attention. And Clark seemed to care about Lana, but Chloe was the person he would always run to like a reflex, the two of them always making each other smile and laugh like no one else could.  

And Lois didn’t fit in anywhere.  

>>>  

The Dean of Admissions at Met U was stonewalling her at every turn. Not only did he refuse to talk to her about her rejection status, but he had clearly instructed his secretary to hang up on Lois whenever she called.  

She snapped her phone shut, willing herself not to throw it clear across the school hallway, freezing when she heard Clark’s voice, begging for her attention behind her. He gestured down to his new letterman jacket, posing for her.  

He's so ridiculous, Lois thought as she looked him over. It was more ridiculous how good he looked. No man should glow in primary colours the way Clark did.  

Not that she would ever tell him that.  

“They're not really your colours,” Lois lied.  

There was something satisfying about knocking Clark down just a little bit. Because Lois knew Clark knew he looked good in his letterman jacket, and she knew he knew that now that he was the quarterback, he was officially one of the cool kids, and that would get to his head eventually.  

So, she may as well do her best to keep him humble.  

Besides, she loved his little flannel shirts and dusty jeans. The farm boy thing really worked for him. Lois didn’t think the letterman jacket suited him all that much. She’d bet he could work a suit, though. Maybe some thick framed glasses that would make his eyes look even greener...  

Walk away, Lois instructed herself. Do not start dreaming up scenarios of Clark Kent looking even hotter in public.  

She’d have to head to the back of the gym later and take a walk through where the smoker’s hung out to see if she could get a contact whiff to calm herself down.  

>>>  

There was something about watching Clark making out with Mandy that made Lois want to pull her hair out.  

Or Mandy’s hair, preferably.  

She and Clark had cracked the love potion nonsense, which she still couldn’t believe was a real thing. They'd worked out that Mandy was the ringleader of this whole thing, and that the cheerleaders were essentially drugging their football player boyfriends.  

Then Lois had stupidly sent Clark in as sexy, hot, sweet, naive bait to distract Mandy with while she looked for their science report to try and undo their love potion.  

Clark had looked dead in the eye and said Mandy isn’t going to want me. Lois had laughed in his face and asked him if he knew what he looked like. Clark had looked confused, and that was when the missing piece of the puzzle that was Clark Kent fell into place.  

He didn’t know the effect he had on women. He didn’t know how attractive he was.  

How hot he was.  

Mandy was all over him, moaning and heavy breathing and stripping his shirt off of him.  

And Clark was hating it, making wide, desperate eyes at Lois to get him out of there.  

Lois had thought any teenage boy would be thrilled to make out with the head cheerleader, but everything about Clark kept subverting her expectations. He was right; she hated that she couldn’t work him out.  

When they confronted Mandy, she wasn’t surprised that Clark had run behind her and Chloe like a little boy running to safety from something scary. She was starting to get him, she thought as he pulled his shirt back on, his hair fluffed up as he bickered with her.  

He really was kind of...wholesome. Pure.  

Lois kind of wanted to ruin absolutely any innocence Clark had left.  

>>>  

Lois had never seen a high school kid as athletic as Clark. She briefly wondered if Clark was some sort of Jump Street situation, an undercover adult pretending to be a high school kid to solve crime. 

How else do you explain those arms? Lois had watched him working the farm, so watching him play football wasn’t a surprise at all.  

Lois cheered with Chloe and Lana as Clark scored touchdown after touchdown. She committed his little white pants to memory, knowing that she’d be thinking about them later tonight.  

“Who knew Smallville could move like that,” Lois said, smiling at Chloe.  

“Why do you call him that?” Lana asked.  

Lois shrugged; she wasn’t really sure how to explain it.  

“I don’t know, he’s just Smallville in a nutshell, isn’t he?” Lois deflected.  

What was she supposed to say? That Clark just felt like someplace she could call home?  

>>>  

“Lex Luthor,” he introduced, holding out his hand.  

“Lois Lane,” she returned, shaking his hand.  

There was something about Lex that Lois immediately didn’t like. He was like the anti Clark; his touch made her blood run cold. Being around him felt like being under a raincloud that was threatening to break at any moment.  

Chloe was smiling and Lana was looking at Lex in a little bit of awe, but Lois wasn’t falling for it. There was something off about this guy. His blue eyes were blank. Cold, snake like, calculating.  

Lois could feel the way he was looking her up and down, watching her closely and checking her out. It would have unnerved her if she hadn’t come across men like him before; men who don’t naturally command attention to but desperately wished they did. Men who threw their money around because they lacked charisma.  

“Lois Lane,” Lex smiled at her. “Clark’s told me all about you.”  

She made sure not to move her face, looking serenely at him. Clark hadn’t seemed too fond of Lex from how he had talked about him when they were looking for Chloe, and Chloe had told her enough about how shady Lex was to know he didn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt from her.  

“Congratulations on Met U,” Lex said.  

Lois raised her eyebrow, and Lex looked pleased that he’d caught her off guard.  

“Clark didn’t tell you?” Lex said.  

Something about the way he was looking at her made Lois think about a cat batting at a mouse, trying to make it play before it tried to eat the mouse.  

“He asked me to call in a favour to my old alumnus,” Lex said. “Looks like you’ve been accepted as a late admission.”  

“How generous,” Lois said.  

She didn’t like this. She didn’t want to owe Lex Luthor anything. Lex just smirked at her before he turned away to talk to Lana.  

>>>  

“Because that’s what you wanted...right?”  

Lois looked at Clark intently; he was glowing in the golden sunlight, his eyes lighter and greener than she’d ever seen them, a nervous, earnest expression clouding his face. Sometimes, looking at Clark felt like staring into the sun itself. Like she was looking directly into this beacon of light that might blind her.  

He’d called Lex Luthor and asked him to pull some strings to get her into Met U. Chloe had told her that something had happened between the two of them and that they weren’t friends anymore, but Clark had gone to him to help Lois anyways, and Lex had done it.  

Lois had almost been disappointed – she realised that after everything, she didn’t actually want to leave Smallville.  

She'd come to love it. Chloe was here. The Kents....Clark.  

Lois knew a lot of men that talked a big game about wanting to do good and help people, but Clark was the first one that walked the walk. Hell, he didn’t even talk the talk. She was pretty sure that Clark didn’t even realise how good he was.  

“Yeah,” she smiled. “Don’t get all broken up about it.”  

Clark smirked as she kept going, almost like he enjoyed listening to her talk.  

“You know, if I could describe my time here in one word, it would be ‘weird’,” Lois said. “I look forward to the relative normalcy of the big city.”  

He smiled like she amused him, but she could see he was holding something back. Probably some smart-ass comment.  

“But don’t worry,” she smiled. “I’ll visit.”  

She'd have to. She could already tell that she would miss him. And Chloe, of course.  

“Is that a promise or a threat?” Clark teased.  

As if I could stay away.  

Lois smiled first, Clark smiling back easily, his dimples digging deep into his cheeks.  

He liked her too – she could tell they were friends. Real, proper friends. Even if they would never admit it to anyone else. Lois kind of wanted to hug him, to try and show him how much what he’d done meant to her, even if the idea of leaving Smallville kind of made her feel a bit like she had been pushed off a cliff she didn’t know she was standing on and now she kind of felt like she was falling.  

She punched him lightly in the arm instead, getting a small shock at how warm that tiny bit of contact felt.  

She'd miss the way Clark felt like summer.  

“I’ll see you round, Smallville,” she promised.  

>>>  

“We’re gonna miss you around here, Lois,” Mr Kent said.  

Lois laughed in disbelief.  

“Oh, please, I'm sure it’ll be much more peaceful without me around,” she said.  

“It’ll be a lot more boring, that’s for sure,” he smiled at her, spooning more scrambled eggs onto her plate.  

“I’m gonna miss it here,” Lois admitted.  

“Well, we’re not going anywhere,” Mr Kent smiled at her. “You’ll be back to visit.”  

“Count on it,” Lois promised, eating in comfortable silence at the sturdy Kent dining table with them.  

>>>  

Packing up to leave sucked.  

She hugged Mrs K one last time, feeling a little sick at the thought of leaving them behind. How these people had felt like her family in only three months was shocking. Lois didn’t want to leave them. Even the idea of leaving the house made her feel sad. She was going to miss it all, even the creaky step in the middle of the staircase that made that weird sound like someone was screaming at her.  

Lois rounded the car, checking one final time that everything was packed, stopping when she saw something that looked different.  

The scratches on the side of her car were gone. It was freshly painted, looking perfectly brand new. She looked over at Clark, standing on the porch, who just looked blankly at her like he had no idea what she was looking at, but Lois could see the smirk on his lips. It freaked her out how much she wanted to run back and give Clark a hug.  

She climbed into her car and took one last look at the Kents, standing at the stairs, waving at her as she drove off.  

Lois hoped she’d end up back in that house one day.  

>>>  

Lois sat cross legged on the bed, listening to Chloe talk about Clark scoring the winning goal at his game tonight.  

“It was amazing, Lo,” Chloe gushed. “Our very own hometown hero is saving the football season.”  

Lois smiled. She had loved getting to see Clark play his first couple of games, and she kind of wished she was there tonight, too.  

She missed Chloe. She missed Mr and Mrs Kent.  

She missed Smallville.  

College was lonelier than she’d been expecting. Lois had always been kind of a loner; Lucy was sent away to boarding school when they were young, and as much as she’d always been able to easily make friends with other kids or soldiers on the bases she’d bounced around at, it had been different than being in Smallville.  

Being with Chloe, her favourite person in the world.  

Even being with Clark.  

“Sounds like I missed a good game,” Lois tried to smile.  

“You okay?” Chloe asked. “How are your classes?”  

Lois shrugged, before realising Chloe couldn’t see her.  

“They’re fine. I don’t know, Metropolis just doesn’t seem as exciting as Smallville,” Lois admitted.  

She could hear Chloe laugh softly on the phone.  

“Lois, there is no way that’s true.”  

“Well, we don’t have any meteor freaks out here,” Lois countered.  

“Not that you know of.”  

>>>  

“Hey,” Lois greeted, glad that Clark had answered the home phone.  

“What’s up, Lois?” he said.  

He almost sounded pleased to see her.  

“Well, you know how Chloe’s birthday’s coming up in a couple weeks?”  

“Yeah, I’m still trying to find her a present,” Clark admitted.  

“Okay, well, I actually had an idea for that, but it’s kind of expensive, and I wondered if you wanted to go in on it with me?” Lois asked.  

“What is it?” he asked.  

Lois laid down on her bed as she began to describe the typewriter she had seen in the antique store window.  

“That’s – actually, that’s perfect,” Clark said, sounding impressed.  

“So, halves?” Lois asked.  

“Yeah, count me in,” he said. “Are you okay to get it? They're pretty heavy.”  

“Please, Smallville, I might not be able to throw a bale of hay one handed like you or your dad, but I’m pretty sure I can carry a typewriter to the car,” she scoffed. “And we can give it to her at her party.”  

Lois was hoping he’d let it slide –  

“What party?”  

“The party we’re gonna throw her in your barn,” Lois said, sounding as cheerful as she could.  

“No,” Clark said flatly.  

“Fine,” she sighed, knowing she was going to do it anyways.  

>>>  

Lois stared at the cigarette in her hand, eyes flitting between it and the lighter in her other hand.  

She'd come back to Smallville for one weekend and had been possessed by some crazy sixteenth century witch with some sort of vendetta over a rock who thought dressing like a Stevie Nicks impersonator was sexy and apparently had enough time to dye washaway black streaks into her hair.  

This town was beyond stupid.  

But she’d spent the weekend at the Kent farm, in Clark’s bed that smelled like firewood and cinnamon, warm and cosy, and she’d taken Chloe out for breakfast with Clark the following morning. Clark clearly lied to them about what they had gotten up to, not telling them the whole truth about what had happened, but Lois found that she didn’t mind the lie.  

Not when it came from Clark, who bought them mochas with extra whipped cream to try and distract them from whatever embarrassing nonsense they’d gotten up to.  

It had been a hard week, between the witch possession and the date. Especially with both her father and her sister dodging her calls, because neither of them wanted to talk about it.  

“I thought you’d quit,” Clark’s voice came behind her.  

She smiled as she turned away from the loft window, looking at him.  

“I did,” she said.  

“That’s a new packet,” he said, nodding to her bag as he made his way to the window with her.  

Lois looked out to the sunset, surprised at how happy she felt to not be alone right now.  

“It’s my mom’s birthday,” she said flatly.  

She could feel Clark’s eyes on hers.  

“How old is she?”  

“Forty-seven,” Lois said, smiling at the way he worded that.  

Not how old would she have been. How old is she. The sweetness of that made her want to cry.  

Clark was silent while they watched the sun set, waiting for her to say something. Lois just wasn’t sure where to start.  

“Her birthdays are harder than the day she died,” Lois admitted.  

Clark finally looked at her, his face soft and patient, his hair ruffling in the slight breeze.  

“Do you remember her?” he asked.  

Lois smiled.  

“Yeah, I do,” she said. “She smelled like apples, and she had this ratty grey sweater that she wore all the time, and we used to have dance parties every morning to make sure we always started out day right while we had breakfast.”  

Clark smiled as she talked, his eyes not once looking away from hers.  

“And then she got sick really fast. It was only five weeks,” Lois said.  

“I’m sorry, Lois,” he said.  

Lois shrugged.  

“That’s life,” she dismissed.  

They were silent for a long moment as they watched the sun disappear in the horizon.  

“Did you know I’m adopted?”  

Lois blinked – she hadn’t known that. He looked so much like Mr Kent and acted so much like both his parents, she would never have known if he hadn’t told her.  

“It’s not really a secret. My parents – my birth parents – they died,” he said.  

Lois felt her heart drop for him. She'd lost her mother, but he’d lost two parents. She couldn’t even imagine how painful that would be to live with.  

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.  

Clark looked at her and smiled sadly.  

“I just wanted you to know that, it’s not the same, but I understand,” he said.  

Lois smiled.  

“I wish we didn’t,” she said. “Do you remember them?”  

She looked over to him, regretting her question when she saw his tensed jaw. Lois was about to apologise, but then he spoke.  

“My mother, she had really long, blonde hair,” Clark said, looking up to the sky. “I have this one memory of it falling over my face. It tickled.”  

Clark laughed softly, his eyes dropping to her hands. He held his hand out.  

Lois gave him the cigarette and the lighter, a zip of heat racing through her as she grazed his hand. Clark sat with her for a while, not saying anything. She thought about how Clark had once made fun of her for hating uncomfortable silences, and thought about how much had changed.  

How much she loved sitting in silence if it was with Clark.  

She wasn’t even mad when she realised the next day that her fresh packet of cigarettes had disappeared out of her bag.  

>>>  

Lois laughed as she tried to kick the door shut behind her, kissing Brandon or Brad or whatever his name was. He was cute, tall with black hair, super cocky and annoying, and exactly what Lois needed; not her usual type, not shy and blond.  

“You’re so fucking hot,” he said, unzipping his jeans.  

Lois just shoved him back onto her bed, kicking off her own pants.  

“No talking, just fuck me,” Lois demanded as she climbed into his lap, stroking him through his boxer briefs.  

Brad/Brandon nodded, reaching for her shirt. Lois let him take it off as he kissed her neck, rolling his hips up to hers. Lois threaded her hands through his shaggy black hair and sighed as she thought about someone else’s shaggy black hair and how much softer it was than the knotted hair she was trying to get her fingers through.  

>>>  

“Mrs K, can I ask you something?”  

Mrs Kent nodded, smiling as she poured them more coffee.  

“What did being nineteen feel like for you?” Lois asked.  

Mrs Kent looked taken aback by the question, but seemed to really think hard before answering.  

“I felt young,” she smiled. “Like, I hoped I had all the answers, but I knew deep down that I really didn’t know anything. It was a lot of reacting and hoping for the best.”  

Lois smiled; it was comforting to know that not everyone had the answers all the time.  

“How do you feel being nineteen?” Mrs Kent asked.  

“Like I’m all alone and I’m falling into quicksand, and I’ll never get out,” Lois said honestly.  

“You’re not alone there,” Mrs Kent said kindly, reaching out for her arm, a motherly gesture that felt as comforting as a hug.  

Something about it finally made the mystery that was Clark Kent click into place.  

“You know, Clark is exactly like you,” she said. “I think he and Mr K think he’s like Mr K, but he’s all you, through and through.”  

Mrs Kent looked at her thoughtfully.  

“You know, Lois, I’ve always thought so, but you’re the first person to ever say that to me.”  

Lois smiled proudly; she knew had Clark Kent all figured out.  

>>> 

College was harder than Lois would have liked to admit. Her classes were boring and not at all engaging, and trying to hold herself to a homework and study schedule sucked. There weren’t any real deadlines, which meant she could just do whatever she wanted until it came time for a test or an exam.  

Lois did her best work under pressure, and college had no pressure.  

She hadn’t wanted to go to college. She didn’t even know what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. Chloe knew she wanted to be a reporter, and Clark had the farm to inherit. All Lois had was an absentee father, a sister who never returned her calls, and a note from her third grade teacher that recommended she be tested for ADHD.  

Lois had no idea what kind of path awaited her career-wise, but she doubted she was going to find it at college in the next four years. She might have been better off at Smallville High. At least there, she was with Chloe.  

>>>  

Alicia Baker was beautiful.  

She was sweet and she was funny and she was smart, and Lois could see why Clark liked her so much. Even if she had a touch of the meteor crazies.  

Chloe had filled Lois in on Alicia’s breakdown last year; how she’d become obsessed with Clark, trying to kill Lana so that he could finally move on. If Lois were being honest, she kind of got that line of thinking. Not that she would say that to anyone.  

Hearing that Clark and Alicia had run off to Vegas and tried to get married was...not as shocking to Lois as it should have been. Chloe had seemed baffled, but it made sense to Lois. Clark seemed so isolated, so alone in so many ways. So much weirdness surrounded him that he never addressed, which made Lois curious, but she didn’t want to push him if he clearly didn’t want to share.  

Alicia seemed to get him in a way that nobody else did. Even if that hurt Lois to admit.  

If Lois thought about it for too long, she might come to some conclusions that she wasn’t ready to about Clark. Conclusions that Clark himself seemed to be working hard to make sure nobody else came to.  

At best, he was also meteor infected. If Lois had to guess, he had some secret ability to burn super-hot. Maybe he sucked up the heat from the sun or something. Maybe he could blast fire out of his eyes, but he was also pretty strong. But then, so was Mr Kent.  

None of this was Lois’ business, though. Not unless Clark told her himself. If he decided there was something to tell.  

But Alicia seemed to see, and inspire, a side of Clark that nobody else did. Lois figured that whatever Clark was keeping to himself, he wasn’t hiding it from Alicia.  

And it was nice to see Clark smile the way he did with Alicia. Lois wanted him to be happy, she really did.  

Even if it made her burn with disappointment that it was someone else that made him light up like that.  

Maybe I should dye my hair a little blonder, Lois considered, inspecting her already bleach fried ends.  

>>>  

Clark stared at Lois intently as Tim asked her out.  

It made her nervous. Tim was perfectly pleasant, but Clark was staring daggers at him and Lois as he asked her out for a coffee. Lois was prepared to politely reject him, but Chloe intervened and accepted on her behalf.  

Clark looked amused until Lois politely accepted. She looked over at him, but he was already frowning at her. She had no idea what that meant, but Lois knew she was probably going to dream up a dozen different explanations for that face he made at her when she smiled and nodded at Tim and accepted his coffee date.  

>>>  

Lois had never seen Clark like this.  

Shattered.  

She'd found him cradling Alicia’s body, and then had gotten to him in time to stop him from killing her murderer. Clark Kent was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a killer.  

Lois had recounted the whole story to Chloe and Lana at the Talon the next morning, telling them how horrible it had been, but leaving out the details of how Clark was. That was his private business, and she wasn’t about to share that without his permission.  

“Well, Alicia got what she deserved,” Lana said coldly.  

Lois shared a frown with Chloe.  

“She was troubled, Lana, but Alicia wasn’t a bad person,” Chloe said. “She just wanted to be accepted for who she was.”  

“She was a meteor freak,” Lana dismissed.  

“Oh, and all meteor freaks are bad?” Chloe said, her voice rising. “Just because a couple of them had some issues adjusting all of them are terrible?”  

Lois looked at Chloe, confused and worried. She hadn’t expected Chloe to defend Alicia, but she was proud of Chloe for being so compassionate. Sometimes she worried that she was becoming a little jaded.  

Chloe knew something, that much was clear. Lois wasn’t going to ask her about it, but it lent credence to her private theory about Clark.  

“You know what, I’ve gotta go,” Lois said, standing from the table. “I’ve gotta get back on the road for class tomorrow morning.”  

Chloe hugged her tightly goodbye, Lana waving as she left.  

Lois drove straight to the farm, up to the loft where Clark had stayed all last night, not coming into the house to eat or sleep after he’d found Alicia.  

He was right where she’d left him that morning; sitting on the floor against the red couch, barefoot and stone faced, tossing a ball against a wall.  

Lois didn’t say a word as she sat next to him, her arm pressed to his. She watched as he threw the ball again and again in complete silence.  

He didn’t need to say anything for her to know how he felt.  

>>>  

Lois ran to Chloe, wrapping her up in a big hug. Chloe laughed and hugged her back, excited to see her.  

“Hey!” Lois greeted Lana, hugging her too. “I’m so glad you guys ditched for a shopping day.”  

“We honestly could not do another day listening to our Lit teacher talk about the Scarlet Letter,” Chloe said, nodding to Lana.  

“Yeah, I needed a break from the public slut shaming,” Lana grimaced.  

Lois felt awful for Lana; she had met Jason in Paris a couple of weeks before she turned eighteen, and the town was acting like Jason was fifty years older than her and had coerced her into a relationship.  

Nuance didn’t exist in small towns.  

“Well, let me show you around Metropolis,” Lois said, sweeping her arm out around her. “I know all the cutest stores and a bar that doesn’t card.”  

“Lead the way,” Lana smiled.  

They spent nearly four hours shopping, stopping at Joey’s for a lunchtime cocktail before Lois took them a block out of the city centre.  

“A psychic, Lo? Really?” Chloe asked, sceptical, looking up at the storefront.  

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” Lois said, opening the door for them.  

Her aunt Moira had taken her to a psychic for the first time when she was seven. Lois had cried that she had missed her mom, and Aunt Moira had said that there were people who could speak to people who had died and taken her to a psychic to talk to her mom.  

Lois had no idea to this day whether the psychic was real, or whether she was just saying kind things to a little girl, but Lois had chosen to believe that some of them really did have a gift. That her mom really did speak to her from the beyond, telling her to brush her teeth every night and to stay in the light. And after spending some time in Smallville, she was more sure than ever that some people really did see more than what was right in front of them.  

One of the girls in her college dorm had told her about this place, and Lois figured she may as well come with some company. Lois smiled at the older woman behind the counter, walking up to buy three readings. 

“Just back behind that curtain,” the woman said, taking her fifty-dollar bill.  

Chloe and Lana followed her through to the back room; she was surprised to see it was relatively bare aside for a bookcase full of thriving plants.  

“Afternoon,” someone greeted from behind them. “I’m Jill.”  

Lois jumped, smiling at the middle-aged woman that walked in and introducing them. She looked like an art teacher with her dyed pink hair and denim overalls over a brown knit. She didn’t look particularly mystical at all, which probably meant she was the real deal.  

“Who wants to go first?”  

Chloe volunteered. Lois flanked Chloe with Lana, both of them sitting back and watching Chloe get her reading.  

“That sweater is lovely on you,” Jill said, smiling at Chloe. “Green is definitely your colour.” 

Lois side eyed Chloe – that was her sweater Chloe was wearing. But it does look better on her. She'd let Chloe keep it, Lois decided. She wasn’t that attached to it, anyways.  

“You have an interesting fate,” Jill said, looking at Chloe’s hands. “I’ve never seen anyone carve out their own destiny the way you are.”  

Chloe's eyebrows shot up.  

“Is that good?”  

“That’s up to you,” Jill said. “You’re going to be responsible for a lot,” she warned. “Stay your course. You are the anchor.”  

Chloe smiled in confusion as she looked at Lois, unable to work out what it meant. Lois knew that it was vague enough that Chloe might find a way to apply meaning to it one day, even if it was bogus.  

Jill looked to Lana, taking her hands. Lois watched as she frowned.  

“Oh, no,” she muttered. “You need to let go.”  

Lana looked confused.  

“Of what?”  

“Of all if it,” Jill said softly. “It’s trying to break free, but you won’t let it. It only hurts so badly because you won’t let go.”  

Lana looked at them, unsure.  

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” she said.  

“Your pain,” Jill said. “It’s holding you back. The universe keeps trying to get you back onto your natural born path and you refused, again.”  

Lois looked at Chloe, who looked worried.  

“Let the universe do its job,” Jill said to Lana. “Stop fighting her. She's trying to help you.”  

Lana nodded, letting her hand slip out of Jill’s. Jill smiled and Lois, and for the first time ever, she was nervous for a reading.  

“Oh, you’re gilded by sunlight,” Jill said, staring into her eyes with wonder.  

“I am?”  

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jill said, looking at her hands. “The universe has you right where you’re supposed to be.”  

“That’s cool,” Chloe said, smiling at Chloe.  

“He needs you as much as you need him,” Jill said, gripping Lois’ hand tightly.  

Lois frowned, pulling her hand away. There was only one person Lois wanted that to be about, but she wasn’t delusional enough to think that Clark would ever need her the way she needed him.  

>>>  

“Hey! Happy birthday,” Lois smiled, handing Clark his gift.  

He smiled and took it, looking confused.  

“Thanks. You didn’t have to,” he said.  

“Open it before you thank me,” she warned.  

She waited as Clark unwrapped it, smiling as he saw what it was.  

“The Man Who Fell to Earth,” Clark read.  

"It reminded me of you,” Lois shrugged.  

Clark turned it over to read the blurb, frowning. She figured that he wouldn’t have read it.  

“It’s about an alien trying to save his home planet. The bad guy’s a real Lex Luthor,” she explained. “Hey, why didn’t you have a party or anything? Eighteen’s a big birthday.”  

Clark shrugged.  

“My parents just picked a date out of the calendar,” Clark said. “I don’t really know when my birthday is.”  

Lois felt awful. She grimaced, feeling guilty about not realising that Clark might be grieving today more than other days.  

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.  

Clark smiled at her and shrugged, looking up into the sky. Lois looked up, trying to see what Clark did.  

>>>  

Lois loved alcohol. She really did.  

But she hated boys. College boys. Frat boys, specifically, who tried to follow her back to her room and imply that she just needed a good fucking to make her day.  

And she hated being accused of murder.  

Lois had driven straight to Smallville to see Chloe and try to get her on board with clearing her name. Chloe had jumped up to help her, and Lois had hoped that Clark would tag along, but he was busy with Geoff Johns and living out his quarterback recruitment dreams.  

It sucked. She had really hoped Clark wouldn’t succumb to the high school jock douchery he was destined for once he wore that stupid letterman jacket.  

But he’d questioned her a little more harshly than she was expecting, and it knocked the wind out of her sails more than she’d like to admit.  

Chloe followed her out to the car, taking the keys from her and jumping into the driver’s seat.  

“Clark doesn’t actually think you did it,” Chloe said.  

Lois shrugged.  

“I don’t care what he thinks,” she lied.  

>>>  

The amount of high-pitched giggling echoing up the stairs was sickening. Lois had no idea what it was about a guy wearing a giant number over his chest that made grown women act like little girls in an effort to be sexy, but she was glad she’d steered clear of sororities during her time at college.  

She'd broken into Coop’s girlfriend’s room and found her diary, looking for any clues about someone that would want to hurt Coop. Lois froze when she heard loud voices outside the door, running and hiding in the closet.  

Lois stayed as quiet as she could, listening carefully at the painfully exaggerated flirting happening in the adjacent room. It caught her off guard when she heard Clark’s voice.  

“Really? Someone said that about me?” he asked.  

Lois rolled her eyes. Of course he’d fall for the sorority girl, mini skirt and pigtails act. Mr K was right; Clark was an idiot.  

She jumped when Clark opened the closet door, cowering as out of sight as she could. He slammed the door shut immediately, and Lois had to stifle a laugh at the way he didn’t even seem surprised to see her in there.  

She listened as he got rid of the girls, opening the door back up once they had left. Lois looked around, surprised to see his pants still on.  

But Lois could tell that she piqued Clark’s interest when she read out the part in Monique’s journal that mentioned the football team.  

She'd get him helping her clear her name any minute now. Lois was not going to end up cellmates with Lionel Luthor at nineteen.  

>>>  

Everything was cold and dark – and wet.  

Lois couldn’t keep her eyes open, but the worst part was that she couldn’t cough up the water in her lungs. The panic truly set in, then; she was going to die.  

But then she was being pulled out of the water, and she was warm. Lois knew without looking that it was Clark.  

“Lois, can you hear me?” she heard him say. “Lois?”  

She tried to say his name, but nothing came out.  

“You’re gonna be okay,” Clark promised.  

He held her closer, and suddenly her whole body felt warm, like she was leeching all the heat out of him. Or like he was somehow sharing it.  

She could feel him lift her up, cradling her in his arms; she wished she could have looped her arms around his neck, but she couldn’t even blink.  

Lois must have passed out, because it felt like she was flying. The world rushed by her in a blink, and before she knew it, Clark was placing her gently on a hospital gurney. She whimpered as he let her go; she felt so cold again.  

Clark must have sensed it, because he held her hand and appeared before her eyes, looking at her, worried and frantic.  

“I’m not leaving you,” he promised.  

She believed him.  

>>>  

Getting kicked out of Met U was humiliating.  

Lois had been called into the Dean’s office where she was told that she’d brought too much attention to the campus and that they couldn’t keep such a troublemaker around anymore. Lois had argued with them, saying that she was one of many people at a party where underage drinking was going on and that she was framed for murder, but the Dean had shrugged and said she had until the end of the day to move out of her dorm room.  

She'd panicked and called Mrs K, because she didn’t know who else to call.  

“You’ll come back to the farm, Lois, it’s okay,” Mrs K soothed her over the phone.  

Lois tried to ignore the tears welling up in her eyes; she didn’t cry in front of anyone, and she wasn’t going to start now.  

“I feel like I’ve let everyone down,” Lois admitted.  

“Lois, this is a hiccup, it’s not the end,” Mrs K said. “Just pack up and come home tonight, and we’ll work it all out tomorrow. I'm going to make a pie for you.” 

Home. Come home.  

Because that’s really what Smallville was now. Home.  

Lois sniffled and nodded. She felt guilty taking advantage of the Kents’ kindness, but Lois really had no idea where else she was going to go.  

There was no way she was calling the General and telling him about this. The school could do her dirty work for her.  

>>>  

“Do you wake up every day looking for a new way to disappoint me?” the General asked.  

Lois closed her eyes, putting the phone down on the bed. He hadn’t even asked if she was okay after Greg tried to murder her. She didn’t say a word as the General started yelling, telling her all the ways he’d let her and this family down.  

As if Lois didn’t already know.  

>>>  

If you want, I guess you can stay with us.  

Lois had already been invited by Mrs K to stay, but it was fun to make Clark say it.  

She wasn’t happy to have been kicked out of college, but Lois would be lying if she said being back in Smallville didn’t feel like the best thing that could have happened to her. She hated the campus life, her classes were boring, and she didn’t like a single person that she’d met in Metropolis.  

But being back on the farm and making Clark make that face at her, like he had no idea what was going on? That was the best thing to happen to her in months.  

Lois smiled at him as she walked down the stairs from the loft, trying not to laugh out loud as she heard him say what just happened?  

>>>  

Out of all the things Lois had hit with her car – poles, mailboxes, naked men, hitting a sweet little dog was easily the worst.  

Well, he wasn’t little, but all dogs were puppies, no matter how big or how old. Even someone as allergic to dogs as Lois knew that.  

Lois must have hurt him, because he was whining, sad and curled up in the road.  

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” Lois said, getting low and moving slowly to the dog.  

He had such a sweet face; he looked like a golden retriever, from what she could see in her taillights.  

“Hey, come on baby, let’s go get you inside,” she said.  

Lois reached for him gingerly, relieved when he let her pick him up.  

God, he’s heavy.  

Lois got him tucked into the passenger seat of the car and headed back to the farm, hoping the Kents had a fridge magnet with a nighttime vet or something plastered to the fridge.  

>>>  

Clark latched onto the dog fast. Lois felt terrible that they’d have to return him and leave Clark without him.  

“That’s gonna be a problem,” Mr K said, joining her on the porch with a cup of coffee as he watched Clark play with the dog next to her.  

“I’m sorry, I know it’s the last thing you need,” Lois apologised. “As if me staying here isn’t enough of an imposition.”  

Mr K shook his head as he looked at her.  

“Lois, you are no imposition,” he said firmly. “You’re practically a Kent.”  

She smiled – she wished she was a Kent. Maybe if she was a part of a family like this, she wouldn’t have grown up so alone.  

“Besides, that’s what a farm’s for,” Mr K said, watching Clark and Shelby chase each other in circles. “What better place for a stray than a farm with all this land?” he winked at her.  

>>>  

“Come on,” Lois whispered, trying to get Shelby to follow her by waving a treat in front of his face.  

He didn’t move an inch, laying down next to the couch where Clark was sleeping face down and just staring at her.  

She had found him. She had brought him home – to the Kent’s – and kept him safe. She had gone looking for him and rescued him and made sure he was okay. She had given him a bath. She was currently trying to lure him upstairs so she didn’t have to sleep alone even though she was allergic to him.  

And somehow, Shelby had decided that Clark was his favourite person and only wanted to hang around him all the time. Like Lois was chopped liver or something.  

All Lois wanted was to not be alone tonight.  

The General had called to tell her she was his biggest disappointment for getting kicked out of Met U again, completely unprompted, and Lois could have really used a warm body next to her tonight.  

But Shelby already preferred Clark to her, and he wasn’t budging.  

It made her think of Lucy, and how her dad liked her better than Lois. How Chloe used to follow Lucy around when they were little, and not Lois. How her grandmother still sent Lucy money on her birthday, but not Lois.  

She sniffed. Shelby looked at her for the first time, but Lois knew it wasn’t because he actually wanted to hang out with her.  

“Fine, I love being alone anyways. Who needs you,” Lois whispered rudely at Shelby as she tossed the dog treat onto the ground since he didn’t want it.  

She was halfway up the stairs when she could have sworn she heard Clark whisper something softly. By the time Lois had made it to her room – Clark's room – Shelby was on hot on her heels.  

Lois scoffed as she undressed for bed, leaving the door ajar for Shelby to leave. But he just climbed onto the bed with her and curled up into her side, closing his eyes as she wrapped her arms around him.  

>>>  

Getting a phone call from Lucy felt like a sign of the apocalypse.  

Lucy never called her. Lucy didn’t even like her. But Lucy was on her way to Smallville, and Lois felt sick to her stomach.  

This was going to end terribly, Lois could feel it. Lucy was going to breeze into town like a hurricane, probably try to sleep with Clark, and take Chloe away from her.  

Lois couldn’t compete with Lucy. She never wanted to, but Lucy always found a way to make it like that.  

If Lois survived hurricane Lucy, she was definitely having a cigarette.  

>>>  

Friends.  

Clark had called them friends.  

Lucy Lane had swanned into town, taken all the attention, flirted with Clark right in front of her, taunted her about not making a move on him and said it was for the best since Clark wouldn’t ever go for Lois, told her that the blonde in her hair looked awful and aged her, casually dropped that the General made time to call her twice a week while Lois was lucky to get one call a month, gotten them kidnapped, and conned Lex Luthor out of fifty thousand dollars.  

But Clark had backed Lois the entire way, telling her to have faith in Lucy, and helping her at every turn. Just like Clark always did.  

He hadn’t been mad at the lost money. He hadn’t been mad that they’d trusted Lucy when they shouldn’t have. He hadn’t even said a word about Lois being the one to cause all these problems by letting Lucy stay with them.  

He'd tried to comfort her when he’d heard her fighting with the General. He'd called her a good sister. He'd told her that she was loyal.  

And he’d called them friends.  

It was evening, it was freezing cold, but standing in front of Clark when he called them friends, Lois could have sworn she was standing in bright sunshine, her whole body warming from the inside out. 

“Oh, we’re friends now?” Lois asked.  

Clark pretended to consider it.  

“Well, I won’t tell anyone if you don’t,” he smiled.  

Lois wanted to throw her arms around him, but she wasn’t that girl.  

And Clark wasn’t that guy.  

She had to remember her place.  

She smirked at him, punched him in the arm and turned to leave the loft, forcing herself to be content with the limited contact that was slowly becoming routine; the little punches that Clark let her throw. Lois had noticed the way he would smile when he saw her wind up, already beaming at her before she smacked him.  

The way he sometimes even dropped his shoulder and relaxed his body, sometimes even angling towards her so she could reach him better.  

She turned to look at him before she went down the stairs, but he was already looking at her.  

Lois went to bed earlier than usual that night, desperate to touch herself, pressing two fingers inside her and circling her clit with her other hand, screwing her eyes shut and picturing Clark’s smile, his dimples, his eyes sparkling when he called them friends.  

>>>  

Clark was dancing with Lana.  

He'd been so down about prom for the last couple of weeks, refusing to go even though his parents were chaperoning. But then Lana had walked in, and his attention had diverted completely to her.  

It was like the light went out of the room when Lana was around, this heavy shadow that attracted Clark’s attention completely, like a moth to a flame. In the few short months that she’d known Clark, Lois had found herself weirdly addicted to the warmth that came with Clark’s attention, his eyes on her. She needed to head this off at the pass; she refused to be the kind of girl that pined for a boy that didn’t even know she existed.  

Lois wasn’t going to let some boy that she wasn’t even sure liked her hurt her heart, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let some boy walk away from her for another girl. Another girl who Lois was sure wasn’t anywhere near as nice and innocent as she pretended to be for Clark.  

So, Lois cut him loose. She rejected his offer to dance, even though she’d spent the better part of the year wondering what being in Clark’s arms would be like. She just smiled and told him to go and dance with the girl he really wanted to dance with.  

And like always, he listened to her.  

Lois made her way to sit with Chloe, who was watching Clark and Lana dance.  

Another reason Lois couldn’t have a crush on Clark. She couldn’t hurt Chloe like that.  

Lois had told Chloe that soon, high school would feel like a lifetime ago and that she would outgrow this world sooner than she realised. Chloe smiled at her softly, reaching over to hold her hand.  

Chloe grounded her; she made her feel safe. Her closest family, aside from the Kents.  

Not that the Kents would call her family.  

>>>  

Sometimes Lois thought that she missed Clark with amnesia, but seeing him forget all his memories again just sucked. But unlike last time, where he was calm and curious, he was angry and impatient.  

And, sadly, clothed.  

He was stressed, and Lois couldn’t quite work out why.  

“Trust your gut. Like, what’s it say about me?”  

Clark smiled softly, his dimples obvious as he looked at her.  

“That we don’t like each other very much.”  

Lois couldn’t help but laugh. Even with amnesia, again, Clark couldn’t help but still tease her. At least this time, her Clark was still in there. Like busting her chops was muscle memory for him.  

“You’re on the right track,” she winked before she walked away.  

>>>  

“You don’t have to tag along,” Chloe said, grabbing Lois by the arm.  

“What are you talking about?” Lois asked in confusion. “We have to help Clark.”  

Clark smiled at her before he took off for the car. Chloe looked curious, but she nodded.  

>>>  

Lois poured two cups of tea as Clark sat at the kitchen counter, frowning.  

“What happened?” Clark asked in a guarded voice.  

“Well, the Talon got robbed,” she started. “You went to chase the guy down, and he memory zapped you, I guess. Wiped your whole life. You had no idea who you were,” Lois told him.  

Clark reached down to pet Shelby, who hadn’t left his side since he came home and had remembered him.  

“But hey, at least with this little amnesia episode, you remembered your pants!” she joked. “You know, amnesia sucks, but at least I got to say that to you twice,” Lois bragged.  

The corners of his mouth turned up, but his eyes were still closed off, his shoulders still tense.  

“Then what?”  

Lois shrugged.  

“Honestly, you were stuck to Chloe the whole time,” she said. “You two were the same as you always are, joined at the hip, not letting anyone else into your little best friends club.”  

Clark's brow furrowed as he looked at her.  

“We're not –”  

“Shelby was sad that you forgot him,” Lois cut him off. “And you were in your loft looking at a bunch of pictures,” she continued, not sure she wanted to have that discussion. “You were frustrated, so I gave you some excellent advice.”  

“Which was?” Clark sassed.  

“To follow your gut,” she said. “That just because your mind didn’t remember anything, doesn’t mean your intuition and your body did.”  

Clark raised an eyebrow.  

“So, I followed my gut and stuck with you and Chloe the whole time,” Clark surmised.  

“Why do you assume amnesia you would have trusted me?” Lois teased.  

“Because it’s good advice, and – I don’t know,” Clark said. “It doesn’t sound like I forgot everything.”  

Lois must have been as caught off guard as Clark was, because he blinked awkwardly and looked down at his tea. She briefly thought about the way he’d gone and chased Lana down, even in his amnesiac state, and how it probably didn’t mean that much that he had listened to her. She threw him a bone and reached out to punch him in the arm, winking at him.  

"You should remember that for next time,” Lois said, punching him in the arm lightly as she passed him. “Since you didn’t get your pants off for me this time.”  

“Geez, sorry,” Clark said snarkily. “Remind me to strip for you next time I have amnesia.”  

Lois laughed as she walked up the stairs.  

He trusted me both times, she smiled to herself as she got ready for bed.  

>>>  

“You never asked me to sign that,” Lois teased.  

Clark rolled his eyes and held it away from her.  

“You aren’t a student,” he said.  

“I went to Smallville High for like a month!”  

“And you showed up for like eight days You didn’t even make it to picture day,” Clark said dryly.  

Lois pouted until he handed his yearbook to her and tossed her a pen. She wrote her message next to his solo picture in the class list, wondering if he would remember saying it to her in the first place. 

She didn’t sign her name, slamming it shut and handing it back to him with a wink. Lois had no idea what possessed her to write what she did. She wanted to write a joke, to make fun of that photo of the football team where his eyes were all squinty in the sun maybe.  

But it wrote itself.  

Lois softly punched him in the arm as she passed him to the couch to watch the news with Mr Kent, listening as Clark flipped through the pages of the yearbook to try and find her message.  

>>>  

“Hey, Lois,” Lana smiled at her from over the counter.  

“Hey,” Lois smiled back. “What can I get you?”  

“A double cap?” Lana asked, handing her money.  

Lois handed her her change, chatting amiably as she made her coffee.  

“How is it living at the Kent’s?” Lana asked as she took the takeaway cup from her.  

“Pretty cruisy,” Lois smiled. “I think Mr K drinks even more coffee than I do.”  

Lana smiled, but Lois was familiar with that look. It was tight, tense.  

“How’s Clark doing?”  

“Honestly?” Lois asked, not willing to lie. “He’s doing great. I know I don’t know him as well as you do, but I think he’s grown up a lot this year.”  

There was that smile again; fake, forced. Lois had no idea what she had said that was wrong, but it wasn’t her business to get involved. She had heard what that psychic had said to Lana – she had to let go of the things that were hurting her.  

Even Lois could tell that Clark and Lana were hurting themselves trying to hold onto something that was so clearly toxic for the both of them.  

>>>  

Lois woke up with a start, feeling around for the lamp to try and get herself situation. She tried to remember her dream; she couldn’t remember much, except for the feeling of flying and flashes of yellow light. She stretched as she sat up in bed, seeing the hallway light on under the crack in the bedroom door.  

She looked at the clock and frowned when she saw one forty five a.m.  

It was never a good sign if the entire family was awake this early. Lois made her way down the stairs, hearing Mrs K talk to Clark about a nightmare.  

Guess I’m not the only one.  

Lois made her way to the fridge, pouring herself a glass of orange juice and bracing herself for the announcement she was about to make. The General had told her last night that they were going to find Lucy, and Lois was to join him.  

She didn’t want to go – she didn’t want to leave the farm. But Lois knew this might be her last chance to make amends with her father.  

Lois braced herself as she looked at the Kents, huddled around the kitchen island, and told them that she was being shipped off to Europe. Mr and Mrs K looked sad, but Clark looked thrilled.  

And that annoyed her.  

“Clark, I know how devastated you must be,” she teased. “But I f you could just keep your tears to a minimum, I’d appreciate it.”  

The smile he gave her was blinding.  

“I’ll try,” he joked.  

She caught the look Mr and Mrs K gave each other, knowing and amused. Lois was going to miss this; she loved these people. Even Shelby.  

Even Clark.  

>>>  

Lois hadn’t been so close to Clark in a while.  

He had rolled his eyes as she looped the tie around his neck, smiling at how cute he looked in his graduation outfit. Clark hardly ever wore black – in fact, she wasn’t sure he even owned anything in black.  

She resolved to get him in a black suit one day. He’d look hot – like a government agent or Christopher Reeve in Somewhere in Time.  

She smiled and whistled and clapped as Clark stepped onto the stage to accept his diploma, actually proud of him. Lois had watched him develop and heal from amnesia twice, deal with multiple witch possessions, handle an exploding baby, gone to China, saved Chloe from multiple kidnappings, reject multiple football scholarships so he could stay on the farm, lose Alicia, and deal with Hurricane Lucy Lane.  

And he was still just a kid.  

Lois was just making a graduation wish for Clark when the sirens went off.  

Panic ripped through the crowd immediately as army vehicles drove up and hijacked the announcements. Lois tapped her pockets and realised she had left her phone in the car – the General might have been trying to call her and warn her, and she missed it.  

All she could hear was Mrs Kent breathing panicked and saying not again. Mr Kent grabbed both of them and began pulling them out of the stands, yelling for Chloe.  

“Lois, get Chloe, grab your documents and get on the road, okay?” Mr Kent ordered, rushing them across the field. “We’re gonna get Shelby and do the same.”  

Lois nodded, completely blank. She had been trained to be okay in these sorts of situations, so why was she blanking right now?  

Mrs Kent grabbed her arm and pulled her in for a hug.  

“We’ll see you when this is over, okay?” she promised.  

The hug grounded Lois for a moment, letting her catch her breath, her vision clearing a little. Lois hugged her back and nodded.  

“It’s going to be okay,” Mr Kent promised, rubbing her back as Mrs Kent held her.  

>>>  

It wasn’t okay.  

Smallville was burning.  

Chloe had gone back to look for Lana, and Lois had gone to the Kents to make sure they were okay. The meteor shower had come and gone in a matter of minutes, but Lois could tell that the impact would last years, just like the first one had.  

Lois' heart nearly stopped when she got to the farm and saw the truck still parked out front, loaded up with stuff, the house half destroyed.  

“Mrs Kent?” Lois yelled as she ran into the house.  

Their kitchen was nearly gone; her favourite place in the world, where she sat with Mrs K every morning and had coffee and talked. Lois looked through the house, trying to find them.  

“Mr Kent?” she called.  

He came into view, barely looking at her as he tried to shift the broken wood and plaster, calling for Martha.  

Lois refused to think about what losing Mrs Kent would do to her, instead getting to work, shifting the debris on the floor and looking for her. She found her quickly, buried near the television under a pile of cement sheeting and an entire bookcase.  

Lois couldn’t hear anything through the panicked ringing in her ears, the sight of Mrs Kent covered in blood, unconscious, her hand tightly gripping a small, butter yellow blanket.  

Until Mr Kent spoke up so quietly, Lois almost didn’t hear him.  

“Can you help me? Get her out of here?”  

He sounded so small, like a little boy.  

He sounded so much like Clark.  

Lois nodded, getting to work. Mr Kent didn’t look away from Mrs Kent once as they cleared the debris off her, carefully splinting her leg before Mr Kent carried her out to the truck and tossed Lois his keys, climbing into the passenger seat with Lois on his lap.  

The last thing she saw as she drove away from the farm was Shelby protectively standing where the door used to be.  

>>>  

Lois had picked up the blanket Mrs Kent had dropped in the car, sticking it in her handbag for safekeeping and while leaving nearly thirty messages for Clark and Chloe. She watched through the window as Dr Scanlon checked out Mr Kent after he’d been thrown across the room by Emo Barbie and Ken, dialling the Sheriff to report the attack.  

“Lois.”  

She snapped the phone shut without a second thought, running to his voice.  

“Clark,” she breathed, throwing herself into Clark’s arms. “Are you okay?”  

He hugged he tightly for a moment before he pulled away, looking at her then around frantically, probably for his parents. Lois missed the warmth of his arms immediately, wishing he’d pull her back to him.  

“Yeah, are you?”  

She rubbed her neck, his eyes following the movement, but she smiled. Her neck wasn’t an issue in the grand scheme of things. Not with Mrs Kent still unconscious.  

“Yeah, fine,” Lois dismissed.  

“Have you seen my parents?” he asked.  

“They’re going to be fine,” she tried to assure him.  

“Where are they?” Clark asked as he moved past her.  

“They actually, um,” Lois wasn’t sure how to tell him they were attacked in the hospital. “We have another problem. Kind of a big problem, really.”  

Clark stopped as he rounded the corner, staring at the carnage Mr and Mrs Universe had caused.  

“A happy, loving couple came through here with superhuman powers and a really bad attitude. Got pretty ugly,” Lois explained.  

“What’d they want?” he asked.  

“They were looking for some guy named Kal-El. You ever heard of him?”  

Clark’s energy changed, tensing as he turned and looked at her incredulously. He knew that name somehow, Lois was sure of it. She'd file it away under things that didn’t make sense about Clark Kent and worry about it another day.  

“Can you stay with my parents?” he asked, his eyes nervous and frantic.  

“Yeah, of course,” she said softly.  

As if I'd leave them, she resisted snarking at him.  

Clark grabbed her arm for a second, somehow comforting and thanking her all at once, warmth coming from him at the contact before he ran off, leaving her alone again.  

Not alone, she tried to tell herself. Trusting me with his parents.  

>>>  

Lois woke up to a hand in her hair, gently brushing it out of her face. She sat up in surprise, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw Mrs Kent was awake.  

“Oh, thank god,” she said.  

Mrs Kent smiled – grimaced, really.  

“Are you okay?” Lois asked.  

Mrs Kent nodded, looking to the chair on the other side where Mr Kent was asleep, his head resting on the bed, just like Lois’ must have been.  

“I’ll be fine,” Mrs Kent said unconvincingly. “Are you okay?”  

Lois nodded.  

“Clark came by, he’s coming back soon,” Lois promised. “I’m waiting to hear back from Chloe and Lana.”  

“Clark’s okay,” Mrs Kent breathed. “I can’t lose another baby.”  

Lois blinked as she took that in; she had figured that there was a reason the Kents had adopted Clark, but hearing that hurt her heart.  

She reached for her bag and pulled out Clark’s baby blanket, handing it to her. Lois wondered how old Clark was when he came into the Kents’ lives and how they found him. The fact that they had this little piece of Clark’s early life was amazing.  

Lois wondered if Clark even knew his birth name.  

“You saved it,” Mrs Kent said, her eyes filled with tears.  

Lois didn’t say anything; she just kept her hand on Mrs K's arm, finally relaxing now that she could see she hadn’t lost her secondary mother figure just like she’d lost her first. At least this time, Lois was brave enough to sit vigil at the bedside of her loved one.  

>>>  

“You didn’t have to do this,” Lois said.  

He'd driven her to the airport near Metropolis, paid for short-term parking, unloaded her suitcase and duffel bag and walked her to the flight attendant’s desk, hoisted her bag up to get weighed and checked in, and accompanied her to security.  

Clark just shrugged, smiling at her.  

“I just wanna make sure you actually get on the plane,” he teased.  

“Oh, of course, you just want me gone,” Lois said, reaching out to punch his shoulder.  

Clark nodded as he didn’t even move when she hit him, his dimples brightening up his face.  

“You know, if the General is giving you hell, you can call,” he offered, looking serious.  

Lois raised an eyebrow.  

“What, you’d actually pick up for me?”  

Clark pretended to nod reluctantly before he smiled at her.  

“I’ll be fine, but thanks,” Lois smiled. “The General is at the gate, and I've already pushed this out as late as I could.”  

She didn’t know what to do – she wanted to hug him, but she and Clark didn’t really do that. Once after the meteor shower, but that was practically life or death.  

Lois smiled and turned to leave, but Clark grabbed her wrist, making her stop. She turned to look at him as Clark pulled her to him, hugging her tight. Lois rested her head against his chest, closing her eyes and listening to his steady, firm heartbeat as he squeezed her. She hated how much she was going to miss him. Even if he felt a little different now.  

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to work out what felt so different, frowning when she realised what it was.  

“You feel cold,” she said.  

Clark tensed and let her go, looking at her weirdly.  

“I do?”  

“I mean, not cold. Just, less warm than you normally feel,” she said, splaying her hands against his chest, not thinking about what she was doing and whether it was appropriate.  

Clark didn’t so much as twitch or move away from her touch, but the look on his face told her that it had something to do with his secret. That whatever it was that Clark was keeping to himself, probably because he thought he was protecting everyone around him, was only hurting him. Lois had figured by now that Chloe knew whatever it was, but she figured that Clark wouldn’t be letting her in any time soon.  

Lois shook her head when she realised she was still touching him and took her hands off him, letting them trail down his chest just a little before she moved away, taking a small step back. Clark’s face cleared and he smiled, looking at the security line behind her.  

“Thanks for everything, you know, helping my parents and everything,” Clark said, his eyes lingering on the bruise on her neck.  

“Oh please, it’s the least I could do. I mean, after everything they’ve done for me, you know," she shrugged.  

Clark frowned slightly, and for a moment she thought he was going to argue with her, but he seemed to stop himself.  

“Have a good summer, Lois,” he smiled.  

“Are you sure you guys are gonna be okay?” she asked. “I can stay if your parents –”  

Clark smiled and shook his head, gently pushing her by the hip to start walking away.  

Lois smiled back, heading to the security line. She looked back at Clark who was watching her, waiting for her to get through the security check to the other side of the barrier before he left, waving goodbye one last time. The older woman who was in line behind her joined her as she grabbed her bag and watched as Clark left, raising an eyebrow at Lois.  

“You are one lucky duck,” the woman said. “How long have you been together?”  

Lois could have told the truth, but where was the fun in that?  

“A few months. I'm only away for a couple of weeks, he’ll be fine,” Lois smiled.  

“I don’t know, men that look at their women like that tend to mope until they come back,” the woman said.  

“Well, we’re still pretty young –”  

“Nonsense,” the old lady smirked at her. “You two will be married within the next five years, you mark my words.”  

Lois tried to smile; Clark was back with Lana now. She was sure Clark wouldn’t think about her once now that she was gone. She wouldn’t constantly be on his mind, the way he was always on hers.