Fic: Fluff and Doom | Superman Reeveverse | Clark Kent/Lois Lane | PG-13 | 1/3
Title: Fluff and Doom: Part 1/3
Fandom: Superman Reeveverse
Pairing: Clark Kent/Lois Lane
Rating: PG-13 (R for language)
Word Count: ~2,100 (this part)
Prompt: For dcu_freeforall: Atonement
Summary: In which Lois remembers everything, there are serious consequences to consider, and Clark has been spending his free time handing out kittens.
Disclaimer: DC and WB own everything, the schmucks.
Author's Notes: This is set firmly in mid-July, 1980, assuming that Superman II took place in March, 1980. Yep, it's a period piece. Also, happy belated birthday to my lovely kalalanekent. This is the other fic I started way last year, and now it seems to be taking on a life of its own. *hugs you tight*
Fluff and Doom: Part 1
For once, the chaos of the bullpen was a welcome state of affairs for Lois. With her mind tackling a dozen topics at once, her thoughts easily shifting from the current political landscape-seriously, Ronald Reagan running for president? How was that supposed to work?-to dual coverage of the Summer Olympics in Moscow and the “Liberty Bell Classic” in Philly, to the latest spree of robbery-come-homicides in Gotham that were threatening to spill over into Metropolis, it was easy to shove aside her anger and worry over the way things had changed since that ill-fated trip to Niagara Falls with Clark in the spring. It was easy to ignore the constant reminders that their trip to hadn’t gone the way he’d written it up.
With the TV news networks updating the death totals from the summer’s heat wave almost every hour, it was nothing to forget that so much had happened just four months ago, that she and Clark had come together after she’d discovered his secret, that he’d sacrificed his powers and his heritage to be with her, and then sacrificed their relationship to save the world from that bastard, Zod, that-
That there was more to deal with now, things Clark didn’t even know about yet, and Lois couldn’t bring herself to share with him. Not after he’d tried-and rather spectacularly failed at, by the way-to take away her memories of the whole weekend.
God, had it all really only happened over the course of a weekend? It still made her head spin, that so much could’ve changed so quickly.
Lois shook her head, drawing her focus back to her current article, that sat half-typed in her typewriter, her fingers still poised over the ‘a, s, d, f, j, k, l’, and ‘;’ keys. Dammit, how the hell was she still thinking about this? All the chaos of work should have been enough to drown it all out. It just wasn’t fair, that she couldn’t keep her mind on track for longer than it took for a network news anchor to switch from “Thirty-five people are dead tonight after a freak boating accident,” to “It’s pet adoption day at Metropolis Animal Shelter!” At the very least, the day’s police blotter should have kept her attention. Especially with so many alleged perpetrators being dropped on MPD’s front steps this week, thanks to-
Oh, hell. No wonder she couldn’t concentrate. No matter where she looked, there he was. NBC report about a fire in New York? Superman was there to save the day. CBS report on the the hostage crisis in Iran? Superman was there to offer his support to President Carter in his negotiations with the goddamn Ayatollah. ABC report on pet adoption day? Superman was there helping little girls pick out kittens. Jesus fucking Christ, the man was handing out kittens!
With a groan, Lois dropped her head down onto her typewriter, key-smashing and ruining her article. To hell with the article, it just wasn’t getting written. Perry would just have to deal. It wasn’t like it was anything important; who gave a crap about US gymnastics Olympic hopefuls keeping an eye on Moscow to see how they’d have compared to Nadia Comăneci if the US hadn’t boycotted? Sheesh! And why the hell had Perry assigned her such a snooze-fest of a puff piece for the sports section, anyway? Was she really slowing down that much these days?
Tugging the unfinished article out and balling it up to toss it in the trash, Lois stood, kicked her chair back until it hit someone else’s desk-with a resulting cry of, “Hey, watch it, Lane!”-and grabbed her purse. A quick duck into the Chief’s office to salute and tell him she was heading out for a long lunch, and she was out, hitting the elevator as fast as she could.
A long walk down Thirty-Fifth should clear her head, get her blood pumping, shake loose all the cobwebs, maybe get her mind off her current predicament. Yeah, that would do just nicely. It might even give her a chance to figure out this whole mess without having an aneurysm.
When the elevator hit the first floor and the doors slid open, Lois nearly bowled over the very last person in the universe that she wanted to see, her haste to get going was so great. A hot flush spread out over her face as she realized just who she’d run into, and she backed off and out of the way quick. She didn’t even acknowledge him as she tried to duck past him then, just turned her focus toward the revolving doors of the lobby, and kept on going.
Damn him, she cursed silently. Not thinking about this. Not thinking about him. Not-
“Lois?” his voice called after her. “Lois, wait, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
Despite herself, Lois whirled on him before she could reach the safety of the revolving doors. “Didn’t mean to what, exactly?” she spat, a violent rage spreading over her in a wave that she felt powerless to control. “Run into me? Lie to me? Sacrifice everything for me, then turn the tables so quick that my head didn’t even have time to spin? Try to steal my memories? Take your pick. Go ahead, I’ll wait.”
Crossing her arms over her chest-that hurt like hell, dammit-she clenched her jaw and eyed him hotly, waiting for a reaction. She might have even started to tap one foot as she waited, she couldn’t be sure, she was so wound up.
To her satisfaction, Clark looked like he’d choked on a hot dog, his face turning quickly pink, then settling somewhere in the purple range as it seemed he’d finally caught on. “Wh-you-you remember?” he croaked out, his voice barely above a whisper.
Lois narrowed her eyes. “Oh, yes. Boy do I ever. Your little trick didn’t work, Clark,” she said, spitting his name at last. “I might have been feeling selfish, but you take the cake, mister.” Whirling away him then, she stalked to the revolving doors, reaching their relative safety at last. But before she could step into them, she called over her shoulder, “Why don’t you go hand out more kittens, huh? Don’t want you to strain your conscience too badly.”
The hurt look on his face sent a surge of satisfaction down Lois’s spine, and she grinned darkly as she stepped into the doors and emerged on the other side. Served the bastard right, she figured as she headed down the sidewalk. He could stew for all she cared. Let him deal with all this crap for once, instead of going on his merry way and forgetting it even happened.
Goddammit, she swore it had been like he’d been the one with the memory loss. How could he even do that? She’d never known him to be callous, but the last few months had eaten at her so gradually that she couldn’t help wondering just what kind of man he really was beneath all that-that ill-fitting dorky persona and that damn bright cape and tights. It was like he was a totally different person. Like he didn’t even care that she’d gone through hell. That-
Halfway down Thirty-Fifth, with her fingers trembling with righteous anger around a cigarette she was just about to light-she needed some nicotine, STAT-Lois realized just what she was about to do. Good God, she couldn’t even smoke anymore. What the hell was she supposed to do, then? Knit? Like hell! She wasn’t some old biddy that could be a domestic housewife. She wasn’t her sister, for God’s sake. Three kids, a mortgage, and a cat? No thanks! It just wasn’t her style. It-
A cat.
Kittens.
Stopping in her tracks in the middle of the sidewalk, Lois groaned in utter defeat as she realized just what she’d said to Clark in the lobby.
“Oh, fuck.”
She was utterly screwed.
~*~*~
Long after his partner had disappeared out the revolving doors, Clark still stood there in the Planet lobby, dumbfounded.
Lois remembered. She knew.
He couldn’t even begin to process what that meant yet. What exactly did she know? Obviously, that he’d tried to remove her memories of that long weekend-turned-disaster, that he’d sacrificed his powers for her, and then gone back on that sacrifice to fight Zod. But … did she remember … everything?
Realizing belatedly that he was staring at the doors with his mouth hanging open, passersby giving him odd looks, Clark cleared his throat and turned to head up to the bullpen. Obviously, Lois wanted her space, otherwise she wouldn’t have charged out the way she did, so he wasn’t about to run after her. Especially not with the mood she was in. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen so much fury in her. The Lois he knew had never been so cruel, not even at her most forceful, not even when she’d interviewed the President himself.
Besides, Clark was … well, he knew already that he was as good as dead the next time he saw her. She’d probably rip out his spleen and eat it in front of him. Or at least his heart. It’d serve him right; what he’d done was inexcusable, and he knew it all too well. All these months later, and the memory of that fateful morning refused to fade. It haunted him, a vengeful spirit that wouldn’t rest, that wouldn’t be appeased.
Lois was right in that respect, of course; with guilt as his constant companion, what else could he have done but throw himself into his other work? It had been a pleasure to hand out kittens at the animal shelter, but with the world in constant chaos these days, all the unrest in Iran, tensions mounting between the US and the Soviet Union, and the rising crime rate here on the east coast, he’d certainly been kept busy. The relentless heatwave alone-
The heat wave.
Before Clark could board the elevator to head upstairs, he stopped in his tracks, realizing that Lois had disappeared into Metropolis on one of the hottest days of the summer so far. The last thing he wanted was for her to get heat stroke because of what he’d done. Lois could certainly take care of herself, but he’d seen her when she was hyper-focused on something; the rest of the world fell away, leaving only her and her goal. This would be no different. The anger she seemed to have been hoarding and nursing for so long would be more than enough to hold her focus tightly, and the heat would be quick to take its toll.
He just couldn’t let that happen, even if Lois might be okay for now. And if it meant that he had to face her, face up to what he’d done, well, so be it. He couldn’t be a coward any longer.
A deep breath to fortify himself, and Clark turned back from the elevator, heading out the revolving doors as fast as he could without giving himself away. Striding down the sidewalk in the direction she’d gone, he scanned ahead of him, hoping Lois hadn’t made it far, with the searing midday heat.
But she was nowhere to be seen.
Mild panic began to rise in Clark’s chest, and he had to force himself calm as he extended his range of hearing, trying to zero in on her. She couldn’t have gone far, really. She-
She was inside Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour, three blocks down, the sounds of wound-up kids and bells and whistles and frustrated parents surrounding her like a cocoon. And she was mumbling under her breath around bites of ice cream.
“… unbelievable … gonna kick him in the shins next time I … so what if it’ll hurt … worth it … selfish jerk … doesn’t even know … blind, deaf, and stupid…”
Wow. That … that sounded to Clark like something more was wrong than just him having done what he’d done. But she was okay. She was in a cool space, and even though it was filled with the sort of chaos that Lois loathed, she was out of danger.
Pacing himself to give her time to wind down, relieved that she was safe from the intense summer heat, Clark made his way to the ice cream parlor to talk to Lois.
~*~*~*~
Fandom: Superman Reeveverse
Pairing: Clark Kent/Lois Lane
Rating: PG-13 (R for language)
Word Count: ~2,100 (this part)
Prompt: For dcu_freeforall: Atonement
Summary: In which Lois remembers everything, there are serious consequences to consider, and Clark has been spending his free time handing out kittens.
Disclaimer: DC and WB own everything, the schmucks.
Author's Notes: This is set firmly in mid-July, 1980, assuming that Superman II took place in March, 1980. Yep, it's a period piece. Also, happy belated birthday to my lovely kalalanekent. This is the other fic I started way last year, and now it seems to be taking on a life of its own. *hugs you tight*
Fluff and Doom: Part 1
For once, the chaos of the bullpen was a welcome state of affairs for Lois. With her mind tackling a dozen topics at once, her thoughts easily shifting from the current political landscape-seriously, Ronald Reagan running for president? How was that supposed to work?-to dual coverage of the Summer Olympics in Moscow and the “Liberty Bell Classic” in Philly, to the latest spree of robbery-come-homicides in Gotham that were threatening to spill over into Metropolis, it was easy to shove aside her anger and worry over the way things had changed since that ill-fated trip to Niagara Falls with Clark in the spring. It was easy to ignore the constant reminders that their trip to hadn’t gone the way he’d written it up.
With the TV news networks updating the death totals from the summer’s heat wave almost every hour, it was nothing to forget that so much had happened just four months ago, that she and Clark had come together after she’d discovered his secret, that he’d sacrificed his powers and his heritage to be with her, and then sacrificed their relationship to save the world from that bastard, Zod, that-
That there was more to deal with now, things Clark didn’t even know about yet, and Lois couldn’t bring herself to share with him. Not after he’d tried-and rather spectacularly failed at, by the way-to take away her memories of the whole weekend.
God, had it all really only happened over the course of a weekend? It still made her head spin, that so much could’ve changed so quickly.
Lois shook her head, drawing her focus back to her current article, that sat half-typed in her typewriter, her fingers still poised over the ‘a, s, d, f, j, k, l’, and ‘;’ keys. Dammit, how the hell was she still thinking about this? All the chaos of work should have been enough to drown it all out. It just wasn’t fair, that she couldn’t keep her mind on track for longer than it took for a network news anchor to switch from “Thirty-five people are dead tonight after a freak boating accident,” to “It’s pet adoption day at Metropolis Animal Shelter!” At the very least, the day’s police blotter should have kept her attention. Especially with so many alleged perpetrators being dropped on MPD’s front steps this week, thanks to-
Oh, hell. No wonder she couldn’t concentrate. No matter where she looked, there he was. NBC report about a fire in New York? Superman was there to save the day. CBS report on the the hostage crisis in Iran? Superman was there to offer his support to President Carter in his negotiations with the goddamn Ayatollah. ABC report on pet adoption day? Superman was there helping little girls pick out kittens. Jesus fucking Christ, the man was handing out kittens!
With a groan, Lois dropped her head down onto her typewriter, key-smashing and ruining her article. To hell with the article, it just wasn’t getting written. Perry would just have to deal. It wasn’t like it was anything important; who gave a crap about US gymnastics Olympic hopefuls keeping an eye on Moscow to see how they’d have compared to Nadia Comăneci if the US hadn’t boycotted? Sheesh! And why the hell had Perry assigned her such a snooze-fest of a puff piece for the sports section, anyway? Was she really slowing down that much these days?
Tugging the unfinished article out and balling it up to toss it in the trash, Lois stood, kicked her chair back until it hit someone else’s desk-with a resulting cry of, “Hey, watch it, Lane!”-and grabbed her purse. A quick duck into the Chief’s office to salute and tell him she was heading out for a long lunch, and she was out, hitting the elevator as fast as she could.
A long walk down Thirty-Fifth should clear her head, get her blood pumping, shake loose all the cobwebs, maybe get her mind off her current predicament. Yeah, that would do just nicely. It might even give her a chance to figure out this whole mess without having an aneurysm.
When the elevator hit the first floor and the doors slid open, Lois nearly bowled over the very last person in the universe that she wanted to see, her haste to get going was so great. A hot flush spread out over her face as she realized just who she’d run into, and she backed off and out of the way quick. She didn’t even acknowledge him as she tried to duck past him then, just turned her focus toward the revolving doors of the lobby, and kept on going.
Damn him, she cursed silently. Not thinking about this. Not thinking about him. Not-
“Lois?” his voice called after her. “Lois, wait, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
Despite herself, Lois whirled on him before she could reach the safety of the revolving doors. “Didn’t mean to what, exactly?” she spat, a violent rage spreading over her in a wave that she felt powerless to control. “Run into me? Lie to me? Sacrifice everything for me, then turn the tables so quick that my head didn’t even have time to spin? Try to steal my memories? Take your pick. Go ahead, I’ll wait.”
Crossing her arms over her chest-that hurt like hell, dammit-she clenched her jaw and eyed him hotly, waiting for a reaction. She might have even started to tap one foot as she waited, she couldn’t be sure, she was so wound up.
To her satisfaction, Clark looked like he’d choked on a hot dog, his face turning quickly pink, then settling somewhere in the purple range as it seemed he’d finally caught on. “Wh-you-you remember?” he croaked out, his voice barely above a whisper.
Lois narrowed her eyes. “Oh, yes. Boy do I ever. Your little trick didn’t work, Clark,” she said, spitting his name at last. “I might have been feeling selfish, but you take the cake, mister.” Whirling away him then, she stalked to the revolving doors, reaching their relative safety at last. But before she could step into them, she called over her shoulder, “Why don’t you go hand out more kittens, huh? Don’t want you to strain your conscience too badly.”
The hurt look on his face sent a surge of satisfaction down Lois’s spine, and she grinned darkly as she stepped into the doors and emerged on the other side. Served the bastard right, she figured as she headed down the sidewalk. He could stew for all she cared. Let him deal with all this crap for once, instead of going on his merry way and forgetting it even happened.
Goddammit, she swore it had been like he’d been the one with the memory loss. How could he even do that? She’d never known him to be callous, but the last few months had eaten at her so gradually that she couldn’t help wondering just what kind of man he really was beneath all that-that ill-fitting dorky persona and that damn bright cape and tights. It was like he was a totally different person. Like he didn’t even care that she’d gone through hell. That-
Halfway down Thirty-Fifth, with her fingers trembling with righteous anger around a cigarette she was just about to light-she needed some nicotine, STAT-Lois realized just what she was about to do. Good God, she couldn’t even smoke anymore. What the hell was she supposed to do, then? Knit? Like hell! She wasn’t some old biddy that could be a domestic housewife. She wasn’t her sister, for God’s sake. Three kids, a mortgage, and a cat? No thanks! It just wasn’t her style. It-
A cat.
Kittens.
Stopping in her tracks in the middle of the sidewalk, Lois groaned in utter defeat as she realized just what she’d said to Clark in the lobby.
“Oh, fuck.”
She was utterly screwed.
~*~*~
Long after his partner had disappeared out the revolving doors, Clark still stood there in the Planet lobby, dumbfounded.
Lois remembered. She knew.
He couldn’t even begin to process what that meant yet. What exactly did she know? Obviously, that he’d tried to remove her memories of that long weekend-turned-disaster, that he’d sacrificed his powers for her, and then gone back on that sacrifice to fight Zod. But … did she remember … everything?
Realizing belatedly that he was staring at the doors with his mouth hanging open, passersby giving him odd looks, Clark cleared his throat and turned to head up to the bullpen. Obviously, Lois wanted her space, otherwise she wouldn’t have charged out the way she did, so he wasn’t about to run after her. Especially not with the mood she was in. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen so much fury in her. The Lois he knew had never been so cruel, not even at her most forceful, not even when she’d interviewed the President himself.
Besides, Clark was … well, he knew already that he was as good as dead the next time he saw her. She’d probably rip out his spleen and eat it in front of him. Or at least his heart. It’d serve him right; what he’d done was inexcusable, and he knew it all too well. All these months later, and the memory of that fateful morning refused to fade. It haunted him, a vengeful spirit that wouldn’t rest, that wouldn’t be appeased.
Lois was right in that respect, of course; with guilt as his constant companion, what else could he have done but throw himself into his other work? It had been a pleasure to hand out kittens at the animal shelter, but with the world in constant chaos these days, all the unrest in Iran, tensions mounting between the US and the Soviet Union, and the rising crime rate here on the east coast, he’d certainly been kept busy. The relentless heatwave alone-
The heat wave.
Before Clark could board the elevator to head upstairs, he stopped in his tracks, realizing that Lois had disappeared into Metropolis on one of the hottest days of the summer so far. The last thing he wanted was for her to get heat stroke because of what he’d done. Lois could certainly take care of herself, but he’d seen her when she was hyper-focused on something; the rest of the world fell away, leaving only her and her goal. This would be no different. The anger she seemed to have been hoarding and nursing for so long would be more than enough to hold her focus tightly, and the heat would be quick to take its toll.
He just couldn’t let that happen, even if Lois might be okay for now. And if it meant that he had to face her, face up to what he’d done, well, so be it. He couldn’t be a coward any longer.
A deep breath to fortify himself, and Clark turned back from the elevator, heading out the revolving doors as fast as he could without giving himself away. Striding down the sidewalk in the direction she’d gone, he scanned ahead of him, hoping Lois hadn’t made it far, with the searing midday heat.
But she was nowhere to be seen.
Mild panic began to rise in Clark’s chest, and he had to force himself calm as he extended his range of hearing, trying to zero in on her. She couldn’t have gone far, really. She-
She was inside Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour, three blocks down, the sounds of wound-up kids and bells and whistles and frustrated parents surrounding her like a cocoon. And she was mumbling under her breath around bites of ice cream.
“… unbelievable … gonna kick him in the shins next time I … so what if it’ll hurt … worth it … selfish jerk … doesn’t even know … blind, deaf, and stupid…”
Wow. That … that sounded to Clark like something more was wrong than just him having done what he’d done. But she was okay. She was in a cool space, and even though it was filled with the sort of chaos that Lois loathed, she was out of danger.
Pacing himself to give her time to wind down, relieved that she was safe from the intense summer heat, Clark made his way to the ice cream parlor to talk to Lois.
~*~*~*~