Clark in Love (1/1)
Title: Clark in Love
Author: sandia_spring
Pairings/Characters: Clark/Bruce, Lois
Genres: Fluff, Very Mild Angst
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Spoilers: None
Summary: Clark's in Love.
Date Of Completion: July 13, 2007
Date Of Posting: July 13, 2007
Disclaimer: I don’t own them, DC does; but if I did own them, we'd never leave the house.
Word Count: 1020
CLARK IN LOVE
by sandia_spring
Clark Kent had been conducting research in Gotham City for two weeks. When he came back, he was in love.
There were plenty of little signs I could pick up on. His usually neatly-combed hair was rumpled, his tie was crooked, and, most tellingly, his goofy corn-fed grin was replaced by a distant dreamy smile. But the biggest clue were the cell phone calls. Clark had always been easily distracted, dashing from the office for any number of lame reasons, but the cell phone calls were a new intrusion. It was like sitting across from a Junior High girl. The phone would ring, and Clark would immediately hunch over his desk, phone to one ear, his other hand scrunched through his hair, a beaming smile on his face, blushing like a June bride.
The delivery came around 10:30 in the morning, when a gold-foil bag with the embossed stamp of Spiffany's department store appeared on the corner of Clark's desk. He stared at it and suddenly the dreamy smile he'd worn all morning turned into a deer-in-the-headlights look of alarm.
"Well, Clark," I teased, "Open it! It won't bite, you know."
He picked up the bag rather gingerly, as if he did indeed expect it to snap at him, and reached inside carefully to pull out a small rectangular wrapped package. Looking around furtively, he opened the gold wrapping paper and pulled out a small container of very expensive Italian after-shave. I whistled. "Wow, Clark. Whoever she is, she's got excellent taste!"
"And a platinum Visa card!" crowed one of our nosier neighbors. "That's some expensive stuff!"
Clark hugged the bottle to his chest and looked like he wanted to sink through the floor. He suddenly stuffed it back into its bag and jumped up, nudged me and said, "Can we go get some coffee?"
I jumped, set down the files I'd been thumbing through. "Uh--okay--geez, just a minute."
I followed Clark to the tiny, rarely used break room on the seventh floor. We poured cups of coffee and sat across from each other at a small table. He fidgeted uncomfortably.
"Clark, are you OK? That gift seemed to freak you out."
Though it seemed impossible, he actually flushed a darker shade of red. "It was just...I don't know...kind of public. I'm in this new relationship, see, but we haven't made it public yet."
I didn't have the heart to tell him he'd been making it public all morning, so I just nodded and listened.
"I met someone when I was in Gotham, and actually...I-I kind of wanted to ask your advice on something...if you don't mind." He looked miserable with embarrassment.
I set my coffee cup down. "Sure. I don't know how useful my advice is, but go ahead."
"Well, have you ever...you know...had a relationship with someone you...uh, knew through a professional capacity?"
"You mean have I ever dated someone I worked with?"
He jumped when I said that, and splashed some of his coffee into his lap, giving him an excuse to get up and fumble for paper towels.
"It's just that, I...I knew someone through a professional relationship, and then suddenly I got to know them outside of that relationship. And outside of work they're a totally different person. Well, not totally, but there are more sides to them, I mean, and the more I got to know them, we got...involved and now it's...complicated...." He trailed off, staring morosely at handfuls of paper towels in his lap. He looked up at me, helpless. "I don't know what to do."
"So are you saying your work relationship is strained now because of your personal relationship with this, um, person?"
"I'm afraid it could be." His cell phone began to ring, and he cast a shy glance at it, but clicked a button to mute it while we talked.
"You're afraid it could be but it hasn't been yet?"
"Yes--no-- I don't know." Now he was squirming, and almost whining, which made me want to smack him. I sighed, and tried a different tack.
"Clark--what exactly is it you're afraid of?"
He sat very still and stared past me, then spoke quietly. "What if, for instance, what if I had to make a professional decision, a decision in my work, that might hurt the person I love? What if my duty to my job and my duty to my loved one conflict? How will I know what to do? How will I know what decision to make?"
I thought about this, and I thought about the flush on his face, the crooked tie, the Italian after-shave, the boyish grin in his surreptitious conversations on the cell phone. I leaned forward, curled my hand around one of his that still clutched a coffee-stained paper towel.
"Clark, are you happy?"
The smile spread over his face like a rose in full bloom. "Lois...I'm completely happy. I've never been happier."
"Well, I know you, Clark. I know that you could never be happy with someone who didn't share the same values and ideals that you share. That makes me believe that if any difficult decisions ever were to arise, that the two of you could solve them together, based on those shared values and ideals. I don't think you should base any decisions on fear, but base them instead on the happiness you're feeling. That's a rare and wonderful thing, Clark. Most people don't get a chance for that kind of happiness. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Clark sat still for a moment, "a rare and wonderful thing..." he echoed. He stood, leaned over the table, and kissed me softly on the forehead. "Thank you, Lois,"
As if on cue, the cell phone began to buzz on the vibrate setting. He looked at me, then down at his phone longingly. "Oh, take the damn call," I said, and his smile when he put the phone to his ear could have lit up half of Metropolis. He headed for the elevator.
"Well," I thought to myself. "I can't wait to find out who the lucky girl is!"