My first Clois Fest fic!
Title: Differences
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,635
Prompt: Flight
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Summary: Lois' birthday present for her teenage daughter doesn't sit well with Clark and Clark's reaction doesn't sit well at all with his wife.
Author's Notes: Written for Theme 3 in the dcu_freeforall clois_fest challenge, Married With Children. Set in my Revelations 'verse but can stand alone. Thanks to triadchild for the first beta and a huge thanks to kitkaos for the second opinion. *hugs*
--
"This one's from me," Lois told her daughter, handing her the present over the top of the pancakes and ice cream that was breakfast that morning.
Sophie, the birthday girl, pushed the wrapping paper in front of her onto the floor, careful not to harm the growing pile of presents that had come in it though. "What is it?" she asked, taking it from her mother.
"You could just open it," Lois suggested with a chuckle.
"Or look into it," her twelve year old sister, Lucy, suggested.
"That's no fun," the girls' brother, Dean, told his sister.
"And it's against the rules," Ella, also twelve, chimed up from her seat beside her two year old brother, Chris, who was asleep.
Sophie ripped open the card first. It was a pretty generic thing, a colourful 17 was emblazoned on the front and the inside simply said HAPPY BIRTHDAY! with Lois having only added the words, 'Dear Sophie' above and 'Love, Mom' underneath. Sophie didn't seem overly impressed with it but Lois wasn't known for her creative cards. It was the presents she was good at.
"No way," Sophie breathed, looking down at the box she had just ripped the paper off.
"You're kidding," Jason agreed. The twenty-two year old had taken the morning off to celebrate his sister's seventeenth birthday and looked just as stunned as her by his mother's present.
Clark frowned, still not able to see the gift. He briefly considered using his x-ray vision to peek but even now that it was opened he still felt like he shouldn't. Lois had told him she was buying Sophie something herself and he hadn't even really thought about it.
"This is so cool!" Sophie grinned as she reverently lifted the Beretta Px4 compact handgun from the box. "It's mine, really?"
Clark felt his jaw drop as he saw the weapon. Lois hadn't seriously just bought their daughter a gun? He quickly scanned it and felt his disbelief increase. His x-ray vision confirmed it was a real handgun, not some realistic prop or toy like he'd been hoping for a moment.
"Really," Lois told her, either ignoring or simply not noticing her husband's reaction and grinning just as widely as her daughter. "I mean, I wanted it to be a surprise so legally right now it's mine but as soon as you get an owner's permit we'll register it to you. But," she added, smiling even wider, "in every way that matters, it's yours."
"Oh my god, thank you!" Sophie carefully put the gun back in the box and put the box on the table before coming round to hug her mother. "I love it. Can we go down to the range today to try it?"
Clark couldn't help but be surprised by how happy Lois seemed in response to Sophie's question. "Of course," she replied without hesitation. "I'll pick you up from school and we'll go then. Jason, you interested?"
"Sure, why not?" Jason agreed, examining the gun his sister had left on her side of the table.
"Lois, can I talk to you in private?" Clark asked, deliberately keeping his voice low so he didn't upset the kids.
Lois gave him a look that said she had been expecting that and told the kids to get ready for school before heading to their bedroom. Clark followed her, the younger kids too distracted by their own preparations for the day to ask what was going on, though he caught Sophie frowning at them in confusion. All the kids knew how their Dad felt about guns but she'd probably assumed Lois had discussed her gift with him beforehand.
"Did you get any bullets?" Jason asked his sister, distracting her, as Lois and Clark headed down the hall.
"Two magazines," Sophie's voice drifted after them and Clark could still hear her excitement. "Look I got a holster too. Jealous much?"
"No," Jason responded, clearly lying, "Not of that, I'd want a Glock, or a revolver like Mom's Smith. But you know, I am older, I should have gotten one before you."
"You're so jealous- No, Lucy, don't touch that. It is not a toy. Go get your stuff for school, the bus will be here soon."
"Clark, I know I should have told you what I got her before," Lois started when the reached their room, "but-"
"You bought Sophie a gun?" Clark turned to his wife in disbelief the second the door closed behind them.
"Yes," Lois said calmly, not bothered by his interrupting her, "I did. I'm sorry I didn't warn you and I know you're a little upset but just let me explain-"
"Explain what?" Clark asked, trying to keep his emotions in check but failing rather badly, "You know how I feel about guns, what made you think I'd be okay with my daughter owning one? My teenage daughter?"
He knew immediately he'd overstepped then. He probably should have waited for her to explain her reasoning instead of interrupting her again.
"She's my daughter too," Lois reminded him in a hard, icy voice, levelling a glare at her husband. She crossed her arms, and raised an eyebrow in a posture that clearly said, go on, argue with me, I dare you. It was a look Clark knew very well, but it wasn't until right now he knew where his daughter got it from.
"Okay, I'm sorry for interrupting you, and you're right, she's our daughter but do you really think a handgun is an appropriate gift for a teenager?" Clark asked, trying to make her see his point, but not letting himself be intimidated by her.
"She's seventeen, Clark, a year older than me when I got my first gun."
"That's beside the point."
"Is it now?" Lois snorted, "a second ago it was the point."
"She doesn't need a gun," he said, "she has no one she needs to use it on, not that she should but-"
"Do you honestly think she's that stupid?" Lois snapped, "If that's the issue then, I'm willing to swear to you on my father's grave she will never, ever, in her entire life, point that weapon at an actual living thing. And I'll be the one taking care of it for her too, none of them know the code for the safe and it's electronic so even with your x-ray vision they couldn't get in."
"That's-"
"What?" Lois interrupted him angrily, "that's not the point either? Make up your mind, Clark. What is the point here? I wanted to discuss this calmly but you weren't interested in hearing my side, and now you can't even decide what your's is."
Clark did know what to say. He wasn't actually quite sure what was happening. He couldn't be upset that he wasn't included in the decision to buy their daughter a very dangerous piece of weaponry? He wasn't sure how he was in the wrong here. He hadn't been all too happy that Lois had taught their children how to use firearms in the first place but he'd tolerated it. She knew his feeling on this, yet she hadn't consulted him at all before buying Sophie her present?
Lois just rolled her eyes when he failed to reply and went to take the kids to the bus stop.
--
His wife didn't talk to him for the whole day.
Clark hated fighting with her- arguments he could handle, they were married after all, that happened. But actually fighting, the long, drawn out, bitter type of fighting that only happened when something was serious, was something he simply hated. They weren't quite there on this argument, and he was determined they never would be.
He wanted to make things right, he really did. The problem was he couldn't for the life of him figure out what he'd done wrong. And that was the most dangerous thing of all.
Because, clearly he had done something wrong. Or missed something very big. Lois wasn't the type to hold grudges over insignificant things like leaving the toilet seat up or drinking milk straight out of the bottle as some spouses were prone to do. Sometimes when she was really upset she'd give him the silent treatment for a few hours, mixed with glares that could rival his heat-vision in intensity, but this was just plain silence.
Maybe he was in the right though… his wife was stubborn as hell and hated nothing more than admitting she was wrong…
However, even though Lois avoided admitting she was wrong in an argument like the plague, after seventeen years and nine months of marriage she'd realised being too stubborn wasn't, in itself, a good thing. Clark had begun to find her buying him new ties or pulling strings to get her sister to baby-sit while they went to the most exclusive restaurants in town after they had argued and she knew he was right. It may have been rare, but it happened.
"I'm not right, am I?" He asked out loud at lunch, after Lois had pointedly ignored him several times already that morning.
"No," Jimmy answered immediately, "are you going to eat that?"
Clark sighed and pushed the rest of his fries over to his friend. "So you think a handgun is an appropriate present for a seventeen year old?"
"I value my life to much to disagree with Lois," Jimmy said by way of non-answer. "Did you even ask her why she bought it, or did you just tell her you thought it was wrong?"
Clark opened his mouth but Jimmy raised an eyebrow before he could say anything and the reporter just sighed again. Even if he did have a point about the present itself, he knew he should have let Lois explain before interrupting her.
"I'm pretty sure Sophie only likes firing handguns at cardboard cut-outs anyway," Jimmy continued, in between stuffing his face with Clark's left over fries, "and even Superman's kids are allowed to have hobbies not related to saving the world."
"Please, say that louder," Clark replied, a note of sarcasm in his voice as pushed his glasses up firmly, "I don't think they heard you across the street."
Jimmy shrugged. "Whatever, just talk to her- you know I'm right."
--
"Why did you by Sophie a handgun?"
Maybe he could have asked less bluntly. Maybe he should have started by asking if they could talk or something but the worst argument they'd ever had had lasted three whole days and he wasn't keen for a repeat. Besides, if they didn't sort it now then the kids would know something was wrong and he didn't want to ruin the rest of his daughter's birthday.
"Because I thought she wanted one," Lois replied, pulling off her work shoes and sitting on the bed to change into something more comfortable for Sophie's birthday dinner. "Turned out I was right."
"She also wants her own submarine," Clark retorted, "there has to be more to it than that."
"Oh, does there now?" Lois asked, sounding amused.
"I meant…" Clark frowned, he had meant that but not quite how it came out. Why did he have to marry someone so frustrating? Well, because he loved her of course, frustrations and all- but that was beside the point right now.
"I meant there has to be a reason why you didn't discuss this with me first," he continued, finally putting his finger to what was odd about the whole episode. She had apologised for that, sure, but there had to be more to it, he knew there was.
"I knew you wouldn't like it."
"And you didn't think you could win if we argued about it?" Clark asked, extremely skeptically.
Lois could win almost any argument. Clark often thought if she hadn't had such a passion for journalism she'd have done very well as a politician. Or maybe a negotiator, as a mother of six she was well used to navigating the intricacies of making peace with multiple parties in disagreement (if not outright war).
There was no doubt in Clark's mind Lois wouldn't have won that argument.
Suddenly Lois sighed, her shoulders slumping and her hands coming up to cover her face. Clark was startled by the sudden dramatic change in her demeanour but he didn't know what to do.
"She can fly," Lois said finally, her voice muffled by her hands.
Clark frowned. He wasn't sure where that had come from, or what it had to do with the conversation at hand.
"She can fly, okay?" Lois sighed, drawing her hands down over her face and turning to look at him like those words would explain everything. "I mean, when Jason started it was okay, I had the others and then Chris came along and that was a distraction but…"
Clark still didn't see where this was going. Of course Sophie could fly, they hadn't been entirely sure the kids would be able to but when Jason had defied gravity for the first time Clark just assumed the rest of the kids would follow him once their powers developed too.
"You get to take them flying," she said, turning to look at him, "and running across water and out to the desert so they can practice turning sand into glass with their eyes or play catch with rocks bigger than houses… Shooting is the only thing I can claim as mine that's even half as cool or exciting as what you get to do with them."
Something slid into place in Clark's mind, so loudly and suddenly and completely he was almost surprised there wasn't an audible 'clunk' as it fit itself together.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"That's why you bought Sophie a gun. You wanted to spend more time with her."
"I bought her her own gun," Lois corrected him. "And not just so she would spend more time with me but… She always gets so excited coming to the range with me but lately-"
"Lately she's been more interested in coming flying with me," Clark finished for her. How had he not noticed before?
"And she never really liked taking turns with me when I take the Sig, or borrowing the older ones and I've always thought she'd suit a little Beretta. And I thought maybe…"
"It would make her want to come with you more often. If she had her own one. So that she'd want to spend time with you."
"It's not easy to admit you're jealous of your husband," Lois told him, "I kept meaning to tell you after I bought it for her but… I just put it off too long then suddenly her birthday was here and, well… you were there."
Clark nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance to really explain properly," he said, "but I was really surprised and-"
"I know how strongly you feel about guns," Lois told him, "I probably should have expected your reaction a bit more than I did, you had every right to be upset but I just got a bit too annoyed with you too quickly," she admitted.
Clark sat down next to her, and pulled her into a hug, glad they were finally talking it out. At least the fight hadn't been as serious as he'd feared.
"You do spend a lot of time with them though," He pointed out after a bit. "To be honest I was a little jealous of you."
Lois snorted, "Yeah, because waiting at home with Mom and doing homework is just as exciting as flying lessons with Dad, or learning how to write your name in sheets of metal with your laser-eyes."
"At least they can tell people about what they do with you," Clark reminded her, pleased to see her smile at that.
"And how much more fun do you think Sophie's going to have now that she can boast she's got her own gun?" Lois asked.
Clark sighed. He felt awful.
He'd never, even for a second considered that Lois would feel so left out. He and the kids always included her as much as possible but no matter how much they tried the fact would always remain that one day Lois would be the only member of the family still bound by the laws of gravity.
"They don't-"
"I know," Lois interrupted before he could really even start.
He wanted to explain to her that, yes their children would all get his incredible abilities and that, yes, they might fly away and leave her standing on solid ground. Yes, they could hear things she couldn't and see further and more than she would ever understand. But she was their mother, no matter how many of their father's abilities they inherited Lois was always just as an important person in their lives as he was.
She knew though. Even though his words ended up remaining unvoiced he was glad to know that, even though she worried about it, she knew, deep down her children would always fly home to her.
A few months later, when Jason unwraps his Glock 22, Clark sighs but doesn't say a word.
--
A/N: Okay, before anyone complains, artistic license is in play here. Though I somewhat follow DC's lead and try never to actually mention the state Metropolis is in, the state I usually model it on has quite strict gun laws but given Metropolis is a fictional city to start with, I've bent them a bit.
Reviews are love!