001 - First Article - Video (post-sirens)
[The brunette on the video sports quite a few cuts and bruises; it looks like someone didn’t take her first night out seriously enough. From the scene behind her, she’s in the shelter-dugout, for those who would recognize it.] Okay, newsflash of the hour: humans totally have parental instincts coded into them, and it sucks
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She doesn't.
On the one hand, there's not a doubt in her mind she'd do anything to stay with him the rest of her life. And she refuses to believe that he's dead, back in their own world--refuses to believe that they don't have a future in the world and city they both love so much. On the other... she's barely arrived, she's confused and a little lost. She wants nothing more than to go home to Metropolis, with him--and he doesn't seem to think he has a future anywhere but here.
It's a lot to take in.
So she just closes her eyes and rests her head on his chest, over the shield she loves so much.]
I love you too.
[There. Good start. Also, true, so.]
And you're not dead. I won't let you be.
[That part's said more fiercely, and her arms tighten around his waist reflexively as she remembers the sight of him with that knife in his chest.
And hell. He's the one who keeps leaving her, and it keeps scaring the crap out of her.]It's-- ( ... )
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...Smallville.
Maybe it should have made a little more sense before now, as she thinks about it.]
Yeah. I remember.
She didn't... grow up on Earth.
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[Oh Lois.]
--Big. Lois, you don't look so great. You didn't run into any of those things with horns, did you? Or clubbed hands?
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I'm fine, Smallville. Geezes, you don't need to play nursemaid, okay? I really can take care of myself.
[And then she bites her lip again, and her voice is tinged with excitement and that fascination with the unknown.]
You have a space ship? Really?
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[You know, he really wishes he hadn't touched that subject with a four mile bargepole now. He swallows down the resentment and pain from so, so long ago and instead just smiles at her, blue eyes meeting hers across the table.]
It was just big enough for me and a few things from home. A blanket. I was literally the baby at the door. Except, well, I wasn't a baby, and I rolled over the Kents' car.
[Maybe digging her teeth into a story is what she needs.]
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However, something about the way he phrased it--not elaborating on what happened to the ship--pings her as something being distinctly wrong with this, which is why her smile fades a little.]
Clark? Are you... okay?
[She takes a sip of coffee, entirely planning to attempt (and probably fail) to be the Understanding Supportive Girlfriend.
And promptly sputters and chokes. Glancing down into the cup, she eyes him with incredulity.]
Okay, what? How the hell do you manage to murder coffee? You never did before.
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[Never, ever discussing the red Kryptonite vacation and his mom's lost baby and his dad's coma to Lois. Never ever. Unless she asks. But not now and not like this, and god, he's so glad for the distraction he almost can't believe he didn't make the coffee badly intentionally.]
I guess at home there was sort of a no powers in the house rule. Er... [Which he has been flaunting for years, but he was never allowed to make coffee his way before for a reason.] Is it really that bad?
[How did he make it through conversations before without being able to tell Lois about his powers?]
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Bad? Smallville, you can't taste the difference? Seriously, what did the coffee do to you to deserve... whatever the hell you did to it?
[She glares at him and eyes her coffee again dubiously and rather regretfully before sighing.
And, funny thing is, she's taking this totally in stride, even internally--because Clark being enough of a dork to somehow mess up making coffee with his superpowers (that he uses to save the world on a regular basis) is just so in character for him. It doesn't even cross her mind to think it's odd. It would if she stopped to think about it--but not at the moment.]
Okay. That's it. New house rule: unless you use the coffee machine, you're forbidden from making coffee that anyone else has to drink. You can pour cups, but it had better be from pre-made coffee in the pot, capiche?
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Well it's just so weak when the machine makes it... Alright, alright. Here.
[He takes the mug back and stands up, heading over to remake the coffee in front of her so that she can judge every part of the process. He uses the coffee machine.
A few moments later he returns with a properly made cafe latte, setting it down in front of her.]
That's probably better.
[Said as though he isn't sure.]
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[She rolls her eyes more, crosses her arms and watches him carefully to make sure he's not doing anything stupid to the poor, innocent coffee. As he does, she asks idly,] Anyway, what did you do to that poor cup, anyway?
[Lois takes the cup of coffee cautiously and sips, carefully, and sighs.]
Yes, much better. Thank you. [Beat.] So what happened? To your ship.
[And the only thing making this not how Lois ambushes interviewees is her tone, which is quite friendly.]
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[A tilt of his head.]
Ask me about anything else, okay?
[Literally anything would be better than discussing that.]
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And then she nods once.]
Okay.
[She studies him a minute longer, and then heads to the couch to curl up and regard him over the rim of the mug.] You mentioned a name. Earlier, I mean. Kal-El?
[Her voice is almost tentative. It's... almost like meeting him all over again, getting this side of him.]
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It is a little like that.
He tries to work out whether there's a way to say too much, whether actually she was asking a simpler question, starting it off easy so that she didn't have to dive headlong into 'Wait, your planet was destroyed?' so he starts off gently too.]
Kal-El--it means 'star child.'
My father's name was Jor, my mother Lara. El is my family name--and it's also the crest that I wear on my chest. A reminder.
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So, the [she mimes drawing the S-shield] is... like an initial, or a coat of arms or something? That's actually kind of nifty.
[And then she smiles a little, wryly, because the irony of his name is not lost on her.] Poetic name--all things considered. Did your parents pick it because they... knew?
That... they'd be sending you to Earth, I mean. [And oh god, this sounds so weird talking about this, but... well. It's his family. He's put up with her rants about the General, and Lucy--and frankly, they're probably still weirder, for all they're human.]
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[He doesn't even know how to explain to her that he's technically nobility, it'd sound sort of arrogant spoken out loud, and he doesn't really count it as important. What does it matter how he was born? It's how he's lived his life which matters.]
My parents knew before I was born. They made sure that the family that found me would love me, and they left behind ways for me to learn about my people and my powers; a huge computer - a fortress in the Arctic - programmed with all of Krypton's knowledge and history.
[He hesitates for a moment.]
I'm not going too fast, am I? It probably all sounds crazy.
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[Lois is hot on a story, as usual: this history of Clark's people and family is absolutely fascinating, in a way. There's this whole side of him she's never known, and getting to know him... god, it's everything she's wanted, these last few weeks.
And it's a heady feeling, too.
At the last question, however, Lois just gives him a wry, sidelong look.]
Clark, in the last... what, eighteen, twenty four hours? I have nearly died, discovered my boyfriend's a superhero--and apparently from another planet--been ripped out of my dimension, dropped in a bizarre city filled with monsters, and run across alternate versions of our history with people who apparently know who I am even though I don't know them at all. I'd rather just get through it all.
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