Does One Kiss Change Everything?

Chapter One – The Kiss

Okay this was bad.

Bad, Kent? Bad…this is your definition of bad?

“Clark,” Lois looked at him, growing impatient by the silence. “Did you hear what I said?”

Lois Lane. He had kissed Lois Lane. He had kissed Lois Lane, Ollie’s girl, Ollie who was his friend. He had kissed her to help Ollie convince the intrepid reporter that Green Arrow and Oliver Queen were not the same and all he could think about now, was how he could get to do it again. He was going to hell. The special hell reserved for morons who couldn’t tell their girlfriends the truth about themselves and took to kissing other guy’s girlfriends whilst wearing a mask.

“SMALLVILLE!”

Clark blinked and looked at Lois as she stared at him in his loft hideaway in the Barn. “Uh…sorry Lois,” he focused on her again, still trying to shake off the disorientation he felt from earlier this evening.

It had been a simple enough request. Just wear Ollie’s Green Arrow costume while he was with Lois and that would throw off any suspicions she had that the millionaire CEO of Queen industries wasn’t a vigilante Robin Hood, simple right? Wrong. How could he have known that Lois was going to plant one on him and worst yet; that it would be good?

Good Kent? Come on, it was more than good, it was amazing. Talk about the kiss that could knock your socks off, this sure as hell qualified.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he was dressed up like the Green Arrow, that revealing himself would have meant a hell of a lot of explaining and was just plain suicide, Clark would have made one kiss become two and possibly an entire make out session. God knows it had been long enough since he had that kind of release since Lana’s emasculating act of moving in with Lex Luthor.

“Jesus Christ on a crutch!” Lois stormed over and whacked him on the shoulder. “Are you even listening to me?”

Clark realized he had drifted off again. “Ow…WHAT?”

Lois expression fell with sarcasm, “I come here and tell you that I just had the most incredible kiss with the Green Arrow Bandit and all you can do is stare at me like you’re from outer space?”

Clark choked on his spit and stared. “Wh..what?”

Lois threw her hands up in the air. “I can’t talk to you,” she snorted. “I’m only here because Chloe is out with Jimmy at Make Out Point with her cell off. Following up on that park ranger story my ass…”

Clark watched her rant and rave. God she was so much work. Loud, aggressive, half the time he didn’t know if he want to strangle her or drop kick her to the other side of the planet. Being around Lois was like taking a ride in a barrel down Niagara Falls. Since their meeting she had driven him crazy. No woman got under her skin as much as she did and often so easily. It was like she knew where every button to push was in him. She was obnoxious, rude, stubborn, determined, fearless and ….incredible.

Clark blinked again, realizing where his train of thought had taken it and he shook his head to dispel the notion. You are so not going there Kent…really. She’s Ollie’s girl and she’s Lois. Remember? Lois, uses all the hot water, calls the dog Clarkie, Lane?

“Alright, alright I’m sorry,” Clark spoke up just to keep her quiet. “I just had things on my mind…” he said folding his arms and looking at her from his usual perch near the window of the barn. “So you kissed this Green Arrow guy and it was okay.”

“Okay?” Lois rolled her eyes. “You didn’t hear a thing I said did you? Honestly Smallville. I didn’t say it was okay. I said it was AMAZING. I mean talk about right cross to the jaw, my toes are still tingling! How am I gonna kiss Ollie without wanting that action again?”

“Really?” Clark started to grin, his ego taking a well deserve boost after his luck with women of late. “That good, huh” He was smirking like a teenager.

“Don’t be juvenile,” she glowered “I’m in trouble here.”

“What trouble?” Clark retorted. “You’re still going out with Ollie, you still like Ollie right? Is one kiss going to change everything?”

Lois met his eyes at that moment and for a moment her expression was unfathomable. “No,” she pretended to laugh but it seemed half hearted somehow. “Of course not. I mean I’m not one of those girls that put everything into that first kiss? I’m just saying that…I don’t know what I’m saying. Look Clark if you can’t make any sense, I’m not talking to you.”

His head was starting to hurt.

“I don’t know what you want me to say Lois?” Clark retorted but he was grinning on the inside because right now, she did look like one of those girls that put everything into that first kiss. “Go trolling the streets to find him so you can get a repeater?”

“Don’t be a jerk Clark,” she made a face at him.

“I’m not being a jerk,” he defended himself though somewhat half-heartedly. He was giving her a hard time and he knew it. How often did he get the upper hand with Lois? “I’m just saying that if you clearly aren’t one of those girls affected by the first kiss and you still care about Ollie, then what’s the problem? So he’s not as good a kisser as the Green Arrow.”

“Green Arrow Bandit.” She pointed out.

“Give it up Lois, its Green Arrow.” He retorted and continued. “So he’s not as good a kisser, does it make any difference? I mean come on; does one kiss change everything you feel about Ollie?”

Lois frowned and looked at him through dark lashes. “No,” she pouted like a little girl, not entirely convinced. “Not much…it’s just that…”

“What?” He was a bastard. He shouldn’t be listening to this. Worse yet, he shouldn’t be trying to pump her for more information. Clark winced. Kent, I don’t believe you just went there. “I mean what is it?” He asked clearing his throat.

“It just felt…” Lois struggled to say it, not just to Clark but because saying it would make it more real somehow and harder to let go. “It just felt so right.”

Clark fell silent.

Oh hell, Clark Kent thought with an inward sigh of defeat, this was how it was going to be wasn’t it, from now on?

Lois Lane just found a whole new way to drive him crazy.

And the worst part was, Clark knew he was just going to let her.

Chapter Two – The Fight

“I don’t know if it’s going to work out with Oliver,” Lois Lane declared in Clark Kent’s barn a few weeks after her confrontation with the Green Arrow Bandit, where she had tried to expose his identity as Oliver Queen by kissing him. God, was that as dumb as it sounded? Lois asked herself as she sulked on the sofa, watching Smallville play with his toys instead of paying attention to her on this so important subject.

Ever since she had confessed her feelings on that kiss, Lois had been here, using him as a sound board. For some reason, speaking to a third party who wouldn’t care less one way or another who she dated was easier than talking to Chloe, who might be motivated by familial affection to convince her to stay with the millionaire boyfriend who so far had been really quite perfect.

Clark who was in the process of cleaning the lenses on his telescope, paused in midswipe across a lens and looked up at her, wishing she had said anything BUT THAT. The last few weeks had been a special kind of torture with Lois coming up here to tell him how the kiss had affected her, how she needed to find the Green Arrow, how it just wasn’t the same with Ollie. The worst of it was, she actually thought he was impartial on the whole matter when in truth he was anything but.

The kiss haunted him.

It haunted him for all the possibilities it seemed to open up. For the first time in ages, the woman on his mind was not Lana Lang but this irascible pain in the ass who always managed to do what no one else could. Piss him off royally. Now here she was, telling him things he frankly did not want to hear. Sure his ego had got a fresh infusion of confidence knowing how much he had rattled her cage and truth be known, the cage rattling had gone both ways. However when the dust had settled, Clark really had time to think about the implications of wanting Lois and it was actually quite daunting.

She really was a lot of work and then there was of course, the little matter of the white elephant in the room which was his Kryptonian heritage. How would Lois handle that because sure as hell Clark had been properly singed by his experiences with Lana and keeping secrets to go through all that again.

Lois couldn’t even shut up was she was watching a movie.

In all this, he had consoled himself with the fact that she as still going out with Ollie and while she was going out with Ollie, it was a moot point. Selfish as it might seem, Clark had reasons of his own for wanting Lois to remain with Oliver Queen. Sure it was the most incredible kiss he had ever had in his life and that kissing Lana had paled in comparison to that one moment with Lois. However, knowing that drove home the reality just how much under his skin and into his heart she could get and his gut clenched at the possibility at just how much worse than Lana she could hurt him.

“I thought things were going great with you and Ollie,” Clark managed to say after a moment.

“Great is relative,” Lois looked at him as if she were talking to a child. It was just her luck that Farm Boy was the only one she could feel comfortable about confessing this crap too. “Ollie’s great, he really is but there’s just something missing…”

“Like what?” He asked as he stopped working on the telescope and eyed her on his sofa.

Don’t say it, don’t say it, he pleaded inwardly. Clark Kent didn’t want to hear what was missing because he damn well knew what it was.

Lois fidgeted and was unable to meet his gaze as she said it because saying it would make her just like all those other girls, the ones that did put so much stock in the first kiss and Lois Lane had prided herself in never being one of those. However, this was Smallville so no real harm would be done by admitting it and while he might get a little mileage at her expense, right now she just needed to talk about it to make a decision.

“The kiss,” she met his blue-green eyes with almost guilty blush across her cheeks.

Aw hell, Clark swore inside.

“You said a kiss didn’t matter Lois,” Clark pointed out, once again swept away by that sinful tide of ego. The smirk stole across his lips almost unconsciously.

“Get that smile off your face,” she glowered and promptly chucked a cushion at him.

Clark laughed, forgetting the turmoil inside him for the moment and enjoying the game of one- upmanship they had started playing from the instant they met. “Sorry, can’t help it. So what next? Start kissing every guy in Metropolis until you find Mr. Right?”

“Oh you are just so loving this aren’t you?” She glared at him through narrowed eyes when she rose up from the sofa and stormed over to him.

“Absolutely not,” he said grinning.

“I have to break up with him, smart guy.” Lois declared. “I can’t continue to lead him on when I don’t feel the same way.”

Clark’s grin faded because now he felt like a real bastard because his feelings aside, Lois was Ollie’s girl and he was a friend. Guys didn’t steal other guy’s girls when they were friends. Of course technically he wasn’t actually stealing…

“Isn’t that a little rash?” He managed to force out, ignoring the possibilities surfacing in his head.

“No Clark it’s not rash,” Lois looked at him critically. “Because when you don’t feel for someone, you let them go. You don’t let it linger for years and years, generating enough angst to be the recurring theme in some really bad teenage soap opera.”

Clark’s jaw clenched. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” she turned her back on him, a smile following her as she did. Lois knew how to play the game too. “Just saying…”

“Well I don’t want to hear it if you’re referring to Lana,” he said coldly and suddenly, the kiss became the furthest thing in his mind and Clark decided there and then that she really was too much trouble. She didn’t play fair and that just pissed him off.

“Hey did I say Lana?” Lois shot back turning around to face him again.

“You know damn well you did,” he said pointedly, his blue eyes stormy.

“Well it’s true,” she retorted, realizing she had crossed the line but natural attrition wouldn’t let her pull back but ride this train wreck wherever it led. “I mean you two danced around each other for years, unable to make your minds up, making yourself miserable and still continue to I might add, all because you cling to the belief that you have to make it work. Has it ever occurred to you Smallville that if it’s that hard, maybe it’s not meant to?”

“Hey you don’t know anything about me and Lana,” Clark bit back harder then he intended because her words struck so close to home, they practically drew blood. “So don’t judge me when the whole reason for this is because you’re hot to get into some other guy’s pants.”

The minute Clark said it, he knew he had crossed the line too.

Lois’ face showed her hurt but Lois being Lois, hid the pain quickly. She was her father’s daughter after all. “Well you give as good as you get Smallville,” she answered, her voice a little sedate after that return serve. Retreating and it was the first time, she was on the defensive, she realized, Lois grabbed her handbag at the edge of the sofa.

“I better get going, it’ getting late.” She turned her back to him.

“Lois…” Clark started to say, feeling terrible that he had lashed out with an accusation that crass. Especially when what she said had a kernel of truth to it, no matter how painful it was for him to admit.

“I got an early start,” she started jabbering away, switching into survival mode. “You know how your mom can be when she’s got a full day. Must be that farm schedule she keeps, I’ll see you later.”

It happened so quick that he didn’t even know how to stop her and this was saying something for a guy who could make it to Metropolis in ten minutes on foot.

“Lois, come on,” he stood up to follow but she was already making her way down the stair and Clark had a feeling that she wouldn’t stop even if he asked her too.

Taking her advice for a change, Clark let her go.

Chapter Three – The Apology

Clark knew he was going to feel bad after he chased Lois out of his loft that night but what he was unprepared for, was just how bad he would feel.

Even though she appeared regularly at the Kent farm over the course of the next week, she made it a point not to drop by and see him like she had in the days following their kiss. Oh they came across each other of course, it was impossible not to when Lois was Martha’s Chief of Staff, but instead of the friendly banter that had marked their relationship since they had wandered into each other’s orbit, Lois attitude towards him was somewhat aloof.

She wasn’t rude or insulting, just aloof.

And Clark hated it.

The Lois he knew, liked to give him crap and while Clark had always told himself, he could live without Lois’ brand of sarcasm, the thing of it was; he kind of missed it. He liked listening to her ramble on about stuff, he liked listening to her on her soap box, screaming out in defiance at all the things that was wrong in the world or just plain pissed her off. Lois just didn’t believe in taking it and Clark who spent most of his life, doing nothing but taking it in one shape or another, either because of his secret, his responsibilities to the people he loved or his Kryptonian heritage, admired her for that.

Martha noticed of course, the shift in their relationship and had actually asked Clark if anything was the matter. Fearful at how she might react to him telling her that he may or may not have accused Lois about being promiscuous, Clark feigned ignorance on the subject and then proceeded to feel even worse. Not only about Lois but also about having to lie to Martha.

Sometimes, Clark wondered how he ended up hoisting his own petard from the highest frigging yardarm without even trying.

He let this go on for a week until it threatened to stretch into two before Clark came to the conclusion it had to end. The memory of that kiss was still livid in his mind and yet he couldn’t think of it, savor it or decide what to do about it until he dealt with the superimposed image of the hurt in her eyes when Lois walked out of his barn.

Clark was out of line that night and he knew it. Lois hadn’t said anything that wasn’t the truth and it was time he admitted it or at the very least, apologized. As far as Clark was concerned, she was still Ollie’s girl and he wasn’t apologizing to change that fact.

He was apologizing because she was his friend and he missed her.

*********

Lois Lane appeared at the Kent farm to drop rewrites of Martha’s speech that morning before she made the drive to Metropolis for her job at the Inquisitor. The plan was to drop the pages off and get to the car before she ran into farm boy, whom she really didn’t want to see this morning. Her mood was lousy, her conundrum about Ollie nowhere solved and to top it all off, she hadn’t slept all that well lately.

So the last thing she needed was to deal with Mr. Judgmental as well.

Clark heard the car drive up the road and was grateful that Martha was out of the house visiting with one of the neighbors who had come down with a case of the flu. Martha Kent’s chicken soup was a thing of legends in these parts and it was testament to her kindness that even as a State Senator, Martha felt compelled to visit Mrs. Langstrom with some.

Running through all the things he wanted to say before she actually got to the door, Clark spied Lois emerging from the vehicle and pretended to make coffee in the kitchen while he waited for her arrival. This took place a few minutes later when she stepped inside the house. Knocking was still one of those social niceties that hadn’t caught on with Lois yet, Clark thought with a little smile as he heard her enter the house.

“Mrs. Kent?” she called out, not seeing him yet.

“She’s out,” Clark responded emerging from the kitchen with coffee mug in hand. “She went over to Mrs. Langstrom down the road with her chicken soup.”

Lois looked at Clark for a fraction of a second before she averted her gaze and headed towards the nearby dining table. “Well just tell her I got the rewrites for her speech at the Luthercorp fund raiser tonight.”

Like a mini twister, she moved fast across the floor with every intention of getting out before another exchange of conversation between them was required.

She didn’t look at him once as she spoke, Clark noticed.

“Lois,” he called out as she headed towards the door without saying anything else. “Lois, can we talk?”

“Nope,” she said abruptly and shut the door on her way out.

Cursing under his breath, Clark set down the cup and knew that this time, he was going to have to go after her. In a few easy strides he caught up with her in the middle of the front walk.

“Lois, please, hear me out.” He implored.

“Nope I don’t think so,” she said in typical Lois indifference.

“Lois…!” Clark growled with exasperation. “I’m sorry, okay? I was out of line that night.”

Lois paused and turned around to face him. Eyes narrowed, hands on her hips, in a stance Clark had come to recognize after two and half years with her as battle mode, Lois looked him in the eye and said, “oh you mean about implying that I was some kind of tramp?”

“I didn’t say that…” Clark started to protest but knew better. He didn’t say the words but the implication had been there. “I’m sorry.” He said helplessly.

“You know what hurt Clark?” Lois said taking another step towards him. “You and I haven’t had the best relationship and our finest moments seem to be how much we can piss each other off but I at least thought I rated a little more better than that in your eyes.”

Aw hell, Clark swore silently again.

“You do Lois,” Clark insisted. “Look you said it once, Lana took no prisoners and you’re right, she didn’t. I couldn’t be honest with her and now she’s gone to Lex and everything you said, was right on the money. I messed up and it hurts having my face rubbed in it. I lashed out at you and it wasn’t right or fair. I know what you’ve been going through since this whole thing with the Green Arrow, I know its not easy to shake off something that feels right.”

Tell me about it, he snorted inwardly.

The Lois thing to do would be to take his head off and tell him that he deserved her harsh words but the past two weeks, Lois too had felt the void of his absence. She couldn’t explain it but it was there and it was space neither Chloe or Ollie could fill. Sometimes, she didn’t know what to do with Clark, where he fit into her life. Not lover or best friend, he was just…just Clark.

And she missed him.

She was going to turn around and keep walking, Clark decided because she had that look on her face again, the one he couldn’t read, the one where she was about to surprise him with something ridiculous or worse yet, something totally unexpected.

She was so much work.

Thank God, he had the stamina.

However, Lois didn’t walk away but took a step forward and closed the distance between them. Clark wasn’t sure what she was going to do and for a brief second, just a brief second, he entertained the notion that she might kiss him. As always, his expectation was way off the mark from the reality.

She punched him in the shoulder.

“Ow…?” he grumbled looking at her with question. It didn’t hurt but hey, appearances right?

“You hurt me,” she stated with that infuriating pout on her full lips. “Don’t do it again.”

Looking down into those eyes, the ones that saw right through him at times, he nodded. “I’ll try.”

“Try Smallville?” She looked at him exasperated. “Try?”

“Yeah,” he smiled, guessing that he was somewhat forgiven. She hadn’t called him Smallville since this all began. That she was doing it now was a good sign. “Try. You’re pretty obnoxious you know…”

“Me?” Lois exclaimed as she pulled away, a small smile on her lips. “I’m not the one whose in trouble here Smallville.”

“So you keep saying,” Clark grinned, his eyes dancing with hers as she smiled back. “Its not my fault you’re a high maintenance woman. How does Ollie put up with you anyway?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she teased and turned back to the car. Climbing into it, Lois looked at him though the window. “What am I gonna do with you Smallville?”

As Clark looked at her, he honestly didn’t know but he was okay to wait and find out.

Chapter Four – The Break Up

Lips against lips. A gentle exploration that soon moved into more passionate territory. The scent of him, the taste, she tried to commit it to memory, tried to remind herself that but a few short weeks ago, these kisses were all that she needed from him, that they were enough. Hands over hard flesh, feeling, caressing but lacking the fluidity of instinct. She prayed he didn’t notice that she was forcing the illusion of pleasure when all she could feel was this… emptiness.

*********

Dinner had gone great with Ollie making reservations for them at an expensive restaurant which required use of her good pantyhose. As always, Ollie was charming, funny and everything a rich, millionaire CEO should be and shouldn’t. He was an anomaly she didn’t understand and Lois supposed that was why she was still here, because to a degree he intrigued her.

Oliver Queen could have turned out like Lex Luthor. If anything, he had better excuse for it but Ollie had somehow managed to hold on to himself, to be aware that there was a world out there that wasn’t so fortunate even if he could be a bit blasé about it.

Following dinner they had made their way back to his penthouse suite where for the first time, Lois didn’t think about staying the night. As they fell into familiar patterns of seduction, Lois felt constricted and needing to escape. She knew what lay at the core of this but trying to explain that to Ollie was impossible. How could she tell him that the Green Arrow had sparked something in her that made his kisses pale in comparison?

Not only was it ridiculous it was also embarrassing since she had been shouting the loudest for the vigilante’s head. There were times when Lois truly believed she was paying karma at a vastly accelerated level.

And now she was here, feeling him touch her, feeling his lips on her neck, her fingers clutching at his muscled back, sensing that he was ready to move to the next level and she…she just couldn’t.

*********

Oliver was no fool.

He had been sensing something for quite some time now but had not been able to put his finger on when exactly it was he had lost her. And he knew he had lost her. Tonight, the sensuality of their earlier sessions was gone. He felt her hesitation and that was enough for him. No wasn’t a word that had to be said for Ollie Queen to know when to stop, just the idea of it sufficed. He cared for Lois too much to force her into a situation she would undoubtedly go through out of sheer stubbornness.

Slightly hurt, he pulled away at last and sat up straight on the leather sofa, his eyes drinking in the crown of dark hair splayed against the fabric and how deliciously beautiful she looked with her smudged lipstick and rumpled dress.

“This isn’t working for you is it?” He met her gaze with a sad smile.

Lois closed her eyes, unable to look at him upon hearing his question and supposed that was his answer.

“I’m sorry Ollie,” she sat up after a moment and ran her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know what it is,” she fixed her gaze upon him, allowing a rare vulnerability to show itself. She owed him that.

“It just doesn’t feel right.” Her face showed her anguish, her despair because she wanted to love him, she truly did but everything inside Lois Lane told her that she wasn’t for him.

“I guess maybe there is a little sugar and spice in there after all,” Ollie said quietly, reaching for her chin and rubbing a thumb across it tenderly. “Its okay,” he stood up and walked away from her. “I’ll survive. I’ve always been the one giving these kinds of talks. I supposed it was just balancing the karma gods that it was my turn.”

“Ollie…” Lois started to speak.

“Lois, don’t,” he said stopping her with a pleading look. “Let me get out of this with some dignity okay? I’ll have the car take you home.”

For once, Lois didn’t argue with him.

*********

Someone was in the house.

Clark Kent sat up in his bed and glanced at the clock. It was past midnight and he knew his mother was staying over night in Metropolis. Climbing out from under the covers, Clark grabbed a t-shirt as he scanned the floor boards to see who had intruded his home at this hour. To his surprise, Clark saw that it was Lois. Puzzled as well as concerned at what would bring her here at this hour, he left his room and descended the stairs to the living room downstairs.

Lois was lying on the sofa, almost in fetal position. Her heels lay on the rug and still dressed in the black cocktail dressed she had gone to dinner in, Lois wasn't asleep nor did she move when she heard his approach.

“Lois?” Clark asked immediately, something striking him about the way she looked. Fragile almost. “Is everything okay?”

“I’m sorry Smallville,” she made no attempt to sit up even when he brought the lights on. “I just didn’t feel like going to my place tonight and this,” her hazel eyes swept across the room, “always felt like home.’

“You know you’re welcome here,” he said hastily and lowered himself into the arm chair across her, his concern mounting. What had happened to her? Clark was unaccustomed to seeing her like this, vulnerable. It alarmed him. “What’s happened?”

“Nothing,” she sighed, wiping her eyes of the tears she had shed not too long ago. “I just needed to be here for awhile.” In truth, she had hoped Martha would be around and supposed it was a testament to her state of mind that she didn’t remember that the Senator was away this evening. Martha had a way of making these things better, the way her mother used to when she was a little girl and sometimes, even Lois Lane needed that.

“Lois?” Clark looked at her, his eyes showing her that he knew it was more than that. “Talk to me, please?”

“Its not a big deal Smallville,” she sat up. “I just broke up with Oliver.”

Silence.

Clark didn’t trust himself to speak. So much for not having to cross that bridge for awhile, he told himself. Moving next to her, he reached over and put her arm across her shoulder, intending to pull her in for a hug because she did look like she needed one at present. It was meant to be perfectly innocent, more like a big brother comforting his sister after a bad breakup, just before he tore the guy a new one that is.

“I keep thinking I just hurt this great guy because of something I don’t even understand,” Lois complained, feeling fresh tears. “I mean Jeez Clark, why do I always have to screw it up by being so damn picky?”

“Lois…” Clark tried to be understanding and impartial but it was impossible and he knew it. Even now, he was thinking how well she fit next to him, how her head against his shoulder felt like the most natural thing in the world. He was resisting the urge to lean down and smell her hair. The girl was in a state and all he could think about what how he felt, to say nothing of the fact that other wounded party in this was his friend, Oliver.

He was going to the special hell alright.

“Lois there are some things in this life where second best just isn’t good enough,” he found himself saying. Inevitably, he thought of Lana and his love for her. Or was it the idea of her him that he liked so much, rather than the girl herself? He had always been drawn to women who shared some common ground with him. Alicia because she was special like him, Raya because she was from Krypton. Did Lana fall into that category?

Lately Clark didn’t know anymore.

“But that’s just it Clark,” she said holding onto him, not looking up as fresh tears came. “It wasn’t second best before that kiss. I liked Ollie, I liked him a lot. How did things changed that fast?”

“I don’t’ know Lois,” he answered, taking to brushing her hair with a thumb the way one would soothe an uneasy race horse. Liar, the inner voice inside him accused. “But you did the right thing.”

“I did?” She asked.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “You stepped away before you hurt him even worse by lying to him about feelings you don’t have. Trust me Lois,” Clark said looking down at her. “In the long run, this was better than letting him go on thinking you two had a chance.”

Clark thought about Lana and wondered if it would have made any difference if he had heeded the same advice. It seemed a moot point but it was one of those persistent memories that returned on occasion to remind you just much you screwed up. Still, holding on to Lois now, Clark couldn’t deny that in a way he was glad that it was finished with Lana.

At least they both knew where they stood.

He felt her cheek cant up and down, an indication that she was nodding in agreement. More than anything Clark wished his father was still her with them because right about now, Clark could have surely used the man’s guidance.

Lois didn’t say anything further, content to merely stay where she was, snuggled against his shoulder, taking the comfort he offered. After awhile, Clark heard the gentle tremor against his chest as she felt asleep. A small smile quirked his lips when he noted she was snoring a little.

Quietly, he picked her up and if but for one stirring, Lois remained asleep as Clark placed her under the covers of his bed, pulling the sheets over her shoulders as he watched watching her sleep for a moment.

So much work, he told himself not for the first time. However as he looked down on her right now, Clark knew it was worth it.

Chapter Five – The Shower

There were moments when Clark Kent wondered if everything in his life was meant to be a struggle.

It was bad enough that he came from Krypton, a dead world with more last survivors than he knew what to do with, a father who kept throwing him curve balls from a crystal fortress in the Alaskan tundra and an ex-girlfriend who was now pregnant to his former best friend. Now he had to contend with the fact that he might …Clark couldn’t even say it without wincing…be falling for the most irritating female in creation.

As he stood in the shower, letting warm water try and convince him that today was going to be better than the last, Clark wondered whether or not if it would have been better if the space ship carrying little Kal-El had taken a left turn at Albuquerque. So far, Smallville had proven to be one heartache after another. No sooner than the thought had coalesced in his head, Clark knew he was being petulant. His mother and father were here and he could not have imagined his life without then, despite the heartache.

Still, Clark knew the source of his guilt and he had no idea how to rectify the situation. Technically, he had nothing to be guilty of. Lois had decided to break up with Ollie of her own volition. He had done nothing to encourage it, he had not taken advantage of the situation nor given her any hint that the kiss she shared with the Green Arrow was actually with him.

Nope, on paper, Clark Kent had been pretty much innocent.

However, if he was being judged by what was going on in his head, Clark had a feeling he’d facing the firing squad at sunup.

How could he face Oliver, who was his friend, who had no idea that the reason Lois had broken up with him was due to the kiss they had shared while Clark had been helping Oliver by impersonating the Green Arrow? The first time they had met, Oliver had inferred more going on between him and Lois although at the time, Clark had balked at the idea. Even Lana had made statements to this effect when she had first met Lois years ago.

Was there a memo that everyone but he and Lois didn’t get?

When Lois had shown up last night, Clark hadn’t known what to think. All he knew was the way was clear and yet, it wasn’t. She still had no idea that he was the amazing kisser she kept going on about. An involuntary smirk crossed Clark lips as that thought flashed in his head. How did he tell her without blowing Oliver’s cover and worst yet, his? Because knowing mad dog Lane, no explanation but the truth would satisfy the woman.

Jeez, it was like being in love with a bulldog.

And as that thought surface in his head, Clark found himself stopping short in the shower. Steady there Smallville, Clark imagined Lois’ voice snort. Who said anything about love?

“For crying out loud Smallville! How long you going to hog the shower?”

“Lois!” Clark exclaimed, soap slipping out of his startled hand to fall on the porcelain floor just as he made a grab for the shower curtain to peek through. His foot landed on the said bar and he went flying and not Kryptonian style either.

Cheap plastic hooks were no match for 6ft 3 farm boy as the shower curtain Clark had grabbed hold of to break his fall and the curtain rail it was attached to came crashing down in the tub. Lois Lane who had been in the process of squeezing toothpaste onto a brush she had left here sometime ago, clenched the tube in shock and sent a stream of white through the air.

“What on Earth?” Martha Kent demanded as she opened the door and gaped at the sight of her son in the tub, the demolished shower curtain and accompanying rail on top of him, Lois wearing Clark’s shirt with toothpaste all over the floor.

“Mom!” Clark managed to clamber to his feet in the slippery tub only to find Lois smirking and Martha clearing her throat as she tried not to look. Blank at first, Clark suddenly realized that he wasn’t dressed and grabbed the shower curtain for cover. “This isn’t what it looks like!”

“No, not all,” Lois was smirking, tilting her head slightly as she took in the view. “Actually it sort of looks like you’ve been working out since I last saw Clark Junior.”

Clark’s face turned red and he growled at her. “Next time you can sleep on the couch.”

“Really?” Martha eyed her son, starting to see this whole situation as the usual farce that anything to do with Clark and Lois in a shower tended to be.

“No!” Clark realized what he said. “That’s not what I mean.”

“Its okay Smallville,” Lois started to laugh as she decided to leave this scene. “You were wonderful. ”

Clark could only glare.

*********

“Stop smiling,” Clark grumbled as they sat at the breakfast table a short time later. “How many times do I have to tell you that we take turns in the shower?”

“Hey, is it natural for men to have hour long showers?” Lois retorted over her cup of coffee.

“I was not in there for an hour,” he stabbed at the piece of egg on his plate. “You were asleep when I left you.”

“Yeah about that,” Lois set down the cup and looked at him. “How did that happen? I could have sworn I was on your sofa.”

Clark dropped his gaze from hers. “I put you in there last night.” He replied. “You were a bit upset and I didn’t want you to sleep on the sofa…”

Lois’ expression softened. “You carried me to bed?”

Clark rolled his eyes. “Well I was going hit you over the head with my club and carry you back to the cave but I thought that might be a little extreme.”

“Very funny,” she made a face at him before her adding. “Thank you Smallville, for last night.”

”What are friends for Lois?” he gave a little as well, reaching that rare place in their relationship when both withdrew to the 39^th parallel and regarded each other as something remotely resembling friends. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, reminded now of what she had done to bring her to the Kent Farm weeping like a schoolgirl. “As okay as one who has broken up with a gorgeous billionaire over a kiss from arrow shooting, hooded leather freak with a taste for theatrics, can be.” Lois frowned.

Clark tried not to chuckle since he was privy to the inside joke that she wasn’t. “So what are you going to do? Try and find this guy?” Clark asked innocently.

“Yeah Clark,” Lois snorted. “I’m going to hang around rooftops in the middle of the night, hoping he’ll just drop by and plant one on me again. I don’t think so. If this guy felt the same thing I did, he’ll find me.”

“What if he doesn’t?” Clark asked, unable to think of any opportunity where he could meet up with her as the Green Arrow without her requiring an explanation.

Lois’ expression fell and that look came across her lovely face again, the one he couldn’t read.

“I don’t know.” She said sipping her coffee, looking thoughtful as she considered the possibility. “I mean what would happen if he does show up? Do we date? Does he pick me up in the Arrow Car and meet the General for Sunday dinner? I can just picture it, the General will ask what he does for a living and he’ll say ‘I rob from the rich and give to the poor’.” Lois laughed self depreciatingly before she met Clark’s eyes and her expression softened. “I don’t know what I’m going to do Clark.”

“You’ll think of something Lois,” Clark said gently but inside, he was just as much at a loss as she.

Where did they go from here?

Chapter Six – The Cemetery

Two weeks after Lois had arrived at the farm to reveal that she had broken up with Oliver; Clark had stuck to the promise that he wouldn't make a move towards her until he figured how he could manage that little hat trick without breaking Oliver's confidence or having to reveal his secret. Oliver hadn't stuck around long after his break up with Lois and following the realization of the man's project to start a super team, the CEO of Queen Industries has announced that he was returning to Star City. Saving the world could be done from Star City just as easily as Metropolis and as Oliver had stated during their last meeting,

"Metropolis has you Clark."

Clark didn't know what to make of that but he was starting to understand his destiny if not the shape it would take. Seeing Oliver go was harder than he imagined because for a time, the man had filled the void left by the dissolution of his friendship with Lex and the loss of his father. However, he was becoming more and more accustomed to the idea that solitude was something he would be facing a great deal in his life.

Or not.

Lois had been sent by the Inquisitor to follow up on story about people who were disappearing after last being seen at the Smallville Cemetery. It was pure tabloid fodder but the weird seemed to be the Inquisitor’s bread and butter. As anticipated, the police was not taking the matter seriously since a thorough search of the area had uncovered nothing out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, Lois, incapable of taking anyone or thing on their word, decided to investigate on her own.

His first impulse had been to follow her because like no woman alive, Lois had a tendency to attract trouble. He used to think that this was Chloe's forte' but in  truth, Lois left Chloe in the dust with just how many people she could tick off enough to want to kill her. Having dealt with Lois himself, Clark could almost sympathize. However the woman also knew how to take care of herself and she would not appreciate learning that he was following her. Knowing Lois, she'd accuse him of stalking and demand to know why and Clark had no explanation that did not involve that damned kiss.

So he remained at the farm after she had stopped by to drop Martha's schedule for the next week before driving away in that little mini of hers to the cemetery, even if the urge to follow her around like a puppy was becoming more and more difficult to fight. Before he used to twist up in knots after an encounter with Lois but these days, their fighting actually made him smile. She made his life interesting if nothing else. Clark had also come to the conclusion that with Lois, there was never any doubt about where he stood. If he put a foot wrong, she’d let him know about it. Such was the beauty of her.

A beauty he was becoming fonder of each passing day.

Clark had been in the barn when he heard the kitchen phone ring and in a blink of an eye Clark had run down the steps, across the walk before picking up the phone amidst the sound of a slamming kitchen door and fluttering curtains behind him.

"Hello...."

"SMALLVILLE!" Lois' frantic voice cried out. "Thank God you're there! I'm in trouble! This psycho used his mojo on me and I think he's buried me alive! Get help!"

"Lois!" Clark's heart started pounding. "Where are you?" He demanded.

"I'm at the Smallville cemetery!" She burst out, clearly terrified. "Hurry Clark, I can't talk long, my battery's almost flat!"

"I'm on my way!" He hadn't even let go of the receiver before he was out the door, the phone bouncing above the floor by its cord. Clark moved so fast that he was little more than a blue streak rushing through the cornfields bending stalks of green and making sign posts spin as he took the shortest route to the cemetery. It was a route he had committed to memory after years of trudging to the place at night in the vain hope of catching Lana there, when she carried out her nocturnal conversations with her dead parents.

Less than two minutes after he had left his phone conversation, Clark arrived at the Smallville Cemetery and saw no signs of Lois. Her car was in the lot but of her there was no trace. Scanning the ground with his x-ray vision, he sought out Lois whose words had indicated she had been interred like the deceased occupants of the cemetery. It took him but a moment to find her and Clark's eyes widened at the sight of Lois struggling in a space no bigger than a coffin, at least ten feet beneath the top soil.

Racing to the spot, Clark saw undisturbed grass above the space where her body was interred. There was no indication of how Lois had been buried alive except that he could see her with his enhanced vision.  If she had not managed to call, no one would have guessed either. He wondered if this was how those people she had been tracking had vanished too. Had they simply been buried alive with no one the wiser as to how it could have happened?

"Lois!" He called out. "I'm coming!" He didn't know if she could hear him or not but he could see her kicking, so she reasonably sure she was still conscious.

Preparing to dig her out, Clark was about to tear into the earth when a young man stepped out of nowhere and glared at him. "You want her so bad, join her!" He sneered.

Suddenly, the ground beneath Clark's feet started to give way. It took a second for him to realize that he was sinking and fast. He saw the young man's eyes radiating with green energy and Clark cursed inwardly because with all his efforts concentrated on finding Zones, he had forgotten the homegrown dangers that Smallville was infamous for. Struggling to grab a hold of something to keep himself from sinking, Clark saw the young man grinning, his eyes glowing with malevolence as Clark continued to sink.

The speed of his descent through the earth was such that Clark didn't have a chance to react before he could feel soil scraping against his cheek and he disappeared past the grass. There was a moment of disorientation of moving through dirt before his feet dangled for an instant in empty space. Then his boot touched something solid again and the force driving him into the soil compelled him to bend his knees. Before he knew it, his whole body was flattened horizontally; moving through the soil like his body had turned to smoke. Finally, he was free falling against something soft.

"OW!" The voice was female, loud and irate.

Clark gulped. Lois.

"Lois!" He looked down and saw the crown of her chestnut colored hair as he landed right on top of her. "Are you alright?" He asked stupidly.

"I'm buried alive with an idiot! What DO YOU THINK I’M DOING?" She bit back furiously.

She’s fine, Clark thought.

Rolling his eyes, Clark tried to push up, only to hit his head on something hard. A clump of dirt broke loose and landed on Lois's face. She sputtered the soil off her face.

"Quit moving!" She ordered. "And quit talking, there was barely enough air for me, there's going to be even less now that you're here."

Oh hell, Clark swore soundlessly. He could get them out of here in a minute but that meant using his powers.  Thinking quickly he looked up at the ragged ceiling of the small space and used his heat vision to burn a hole through the dirt. The air with the crisp smell of burning soil but the result was a fissure that peeked into the outside world wide enough to give them a fresh air supply.

"What's that smell?" She complained in his chest. "Is something burning?"

"I was cleaning out the fire place when you home when you called," he covered quickly, hoping that was enough.

"Terrific," she growled, shifting uncomfortably because his entire body weight was pressing down on her and there was barely enough room for her in this space, let alone two of them. Worse yet, their positioning was violating all her personal space and Lois was having a great deal of trouble maintaining her composure or her typical bravado like this. "Smallville we need to change positions."

"What?" Clark asked, looking down at her from his ruminations on how they were going to get out of here without him giving himself away.

"I mean get offa me!" She barked. "You're heavy."