This Kiss

by Alicia U. <lxu2@cwru.edu>

Rated: G

Submitted: March, 2003

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It had been a long day. Actually, it had been a very long, final day of an exceptionally long week. It had been a horribly agonizing, atypical week since there hadn't really been much going on in Metropolis. It wasn't very often that Metropolis could go a whole week without anything exceptionally newsworthy happening. Consequently, all of the Daily Planet's employees were beginning to feel very restless waiting for something big to happen.

One reporter in particular hated the feeling of boredom. When she didn't have anything to do, she always felt completely useless. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't had any interesting story to sink her teeth into for days. Today, instead of focusing her energy on her current, boring story, she was sitting at her desk absentmindedly looking around the newsroom hoping and praying that something big would flash across the news ticker. Actually, she was almost ready to call out to her partner and tell him that she wanted to go out and search the city for anything that could possibly be construed as news.

Her eyes immediately traveled over to her partner who was leaning down trying to fish something out of one of the bottom shelves in the office equipment cabinet. Before she realized it, her eyes had drifted to look at something she had never noticed before. Wow, that was some butt on that man! How could she have not noticed it before?

Hmm, now that is one nicely sculpted man specimen," Lois Lane murmured under her breath. Then she sighed contentedly as her eyes gazed appreciatively at her partner's rear end.

Wait! What was she sighing contentedly about and what on Earth had she just said? Did she just scan Clark Kent's backside? Was she really that desperate? This was Clark Kent she was looking at! He had never struck her as a sex symbol before. Okay, so he had a nice butt. He was just her partner, her friend - definitely not her love interest, her potential love interest, or even flame-worthy.

Well, she didn't have a love interest - and she hadn't actually had one in a long time. But she didn't want a love interest, right? Maybe it was just her string of desperation finally reaching a peak value. Was she really that desperate that she was looking at Clark in a new way? It couldn't be! Okay, so she was getting older. Okay, so she didn't have any love in her life. But that didn't mean she would never find the perfect man of her dreams, and it certainly didn't mean that Clark Kent was the man of her dreams either.

It was almost like Clark knew she was looking at him because he turned around with a big smile on his face, almost like he was mocking her. He couldn't know what she had been doing, right? Oh no. If he had realized that she had been scanning his backside appreciatively, oh and still was, oops. She pried her eyes away from their target and tried to focus on something else. His face! Yes, his face.

But from the way he was smirking at her, she had a feeling that he had realized what she had been doing. And if he called her on it, she would never be able to live it down. Plus, she probably wouldn't be able to deny it. Clark had always seemed to have a way to make her tell him the truth. She wouldn't be able to lie to him.

"Were you talking to me, Lois?" he said with a mock innocence in his voice.

The voice in Lois's head was telling her to deny it, deny it, deny it!

"Oh, uh, no. I was just, uh..."

Oh no! She couldn't think of a good excuse. Since when couldn't she think of an excuse? She was an expert liar! It was obvious she hadn't been talking to him. She'd just been ogling him. There was a big difference.

"I was, uh, coming up with an introduction for our story. I mean, it isn't easy to try to describe the Metropolis Dog Show in a new and exciting way."

Clark's eyes gleamed with merriment. It was like he was taking pleasure from making her squirm.

"Of course you were," he said. "And if I come over there, I'll see the file open on your computer."

"Absolutely," she said.

Hopefully, he didn't notice her moving the mouse and double clicking the story that was on her desktop as he made his way over to her desk.

Clark stopped right behind her and looked over her shoulder.

"Uh, Lois. I don't think this is a story about the Metropolis Dog Show."

Lois felt her cheeks immediately flush. Had she chosen the wrong file? Her eyes focused on her computer screen and her flush became brighter when she realized what file she had opened. It was her book - her secret romance novel.

Out of fear and anger, Lois quickly slammed her hand down on her mouse and closed the file. She had just made the biggest fool out of herself. It didn't help that if Clark had read any of the text on the screen, he would have realized that the main character's love interest's initials were CK. He would probably construe that as a reference to himself even though it obviously wasn't.

She stood up and turned to face Clark feeling like smoke was about to come out of her ears. Today was not the day to mess with Lois Lane. She was bored, angry, frustrated, and caught doing two things she was highly embarrassed about. Anyone who messed with her was going to feel the full wrath of Mad Dog Lane!

Then she turned to her partner who was wearing that horrible, annoying, condescending, amused look of superiority again. Why did he always get that look when he caught her doing something? He couldn't have realized that she was looking at him - could he? It wasn't like it was *that* obvious! Okay, maybe it was obvious, but he didn't need to rub it in.

She shot him a stare of death and then strode past him with an air of indifference.

"Lois, where are you going?" He tried to catch up to her.

"Out! Away from here! Anywhere! I am going to find anything that might be more newsworthy than the stupid Metropolis Dog Show!"

"Well, wait for me!"

Lois didn't respond to Clark, but she knew that he was going to follow her anyway. He always seemed to follow her everywhere even when she obviously didn't want him to. He sort of reminded her of a little excited puppy. Most of the time, as much as she hated to admit it, she actually liked having a partner. It gave her someone to talk with and to bounce ideas off. However, at moments like these, she just wanted to be alone. Clark definitely never listened to the 'I want to be alone' argument. For some reason he always assumed that whenever she wanted to be alone, she was putting herself in some sort of grave danger for a story. Okay, so maybe she usually was. And that was what the plan was today. However, she still wanted to be alone when she was doing it!

They rode down the elevator in an icy silence. Every few seconds, when she thought Clark wasn't looking, she shot him a glance. He was still wearing that annoyingly superior expression like he was ready to taunt her. Okay, that was unfair. Clark didn't usually act superior towards her nor did he usually taunt her. If he did taunt her, it was usually good natured teasing and not malicious taunting. But she didn't want to accept that reality right now. She just wanted to be angry with him for a while. It was definitely a good outlet to burn out all of her frustration.

When they got out of the elevator and made their way into the lobby, Clark broke their silence. "So, Lois, are you ever going to answer my question? I know you weren't working on the dog show story."

Lois's cheeks reddened again when she realized that Clark had not dropped the issue. And she felt her anger growing anew.

"Oh, get over it, Kent. Do you really think I'm always talking to you? Do you really think that everyone is looking at you? If you do, you probably need to get over yourself!"

"Lois, I only think someone is looking at me when someone is obviously ogling me! You were looking right at me, and I think I saw a little trickle of drool coming out of the corner of your mouth."

"You give yourself way too much credit, Clark. You must have been seeing things. I was certainly not ogling you! Maybe I was thinking about Superman."

"Oh, you were thinking about Superman when you were looking right at me?"

"Right, Clark, like you could even compare to Superman."

"You don't think I compare to Superman?"

"Please, Clark, you don't really expect me to answer that question."

Then Lois noticed just how much that statement had hurt him as soon as those words left her mouth. His jovial teasing had stopped abruptly. At first, she had thought that they were just exchanging their usual friendly banter, but at the mention of Superman everything had changed.

They both stopped talking and starred at each other. Lois had to admit that she really had been ogling her partner. In fact, she had been noticing more and more just how incredibly good looking he really was - as much as she tried to deny it. Each day, she caught herself thinking something about him that she had never imagined. Today, right at this point, it was like something had clicked in her mind. Clark was no longer her 'hack from Nowheresville' partner; he was her drop dead gorgeous best friend. The thoughts, however foreign they had been, were now overtaking her mind.

Was she noticing this for the first time today, or had it been building for months now? Was it the lack of news this week that had made her notice the other things in her life? His eyes, his face, his body, his personality, himself - everything about him was attractive to her right now.

Somewhat impulsively, Lois threw all caution to the wind and added, "Clark, what I meant to say is that Superman can never compare to you."

She grinned at him and was thrilled when she saw the look of shock in his eyes. Obviously, he hadn't expected her to say something like that to him. But he definitely seemed overjoyed to hear her say it.

Then Lois did something completely out of character. She closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around him. Then, like she was in the middle of a dream, she slowly raised herself up onto her tiptoes and leaned in towards him until her lips gently brushed against his.

She felt his arms encircle her and pull her closer. Then their lips met and she gently pushed her tongue into his mouth. When they kissed, it was like the whole rest of the world went blank, like everything else in the world was put on hold. In her life, she had kissed many men, but this was the first kiss that had ever made her feel so alive. It was like something deep in her soul had finally been awakened after a long slumber.

When the kiss broke Lois looked into Clark's eyes, completely amazed at what she had just done. Unfortunately, Clark's eyes looked troubled. Had she done something wrong? Why was he looking at her like that?

"Oh my God, Lois," Clark breathed. Then he clutched his ear and exclaimed, "Oh no, not now!"

"What?"

"Lois, I am so sorry, but I will be right back."

What? He was going somewhere? But she had just kissed him. Now he was running away from her?

"Clark! Where are you going?"

"I promise, I will explain when I get back, but I really have to go. Please believe me that I really don't want to go, but I have to."

Before Lois could reply, Clark was already out the door. She tried to run after him, but by the time she had regained enough of her wits to get outside, he was already out of sight.

Somehow, Lois made it to her Jeep without running into anything. The only thing she wanted to do was go home and curl up in bed. Her mind was swarming with thoughts about just how stupid she had been. She had just completely humiliated herself. Now Clark was going to leave her just like every other man in her life. What a loser. What an idiot. Had she taken more than her usual dose of man repellant this morning? No man she had ever kissed had run away that quickly before! What a lame excuse! He was clutching his ear like someone was telling him that he had to go. What was he doing, trying to convince her that he was schizophrenic?

She was so stupid! How had she ever thought that Clark would be different? If anything, he had proved that he was the worst of any man that she had known. What a coward!

However, when Lois got home, she couldn't just get her tub of ice cream and curl up in her bed. When she opened the door to her apartment, she tossed all of her stuff down onto her couch and made her way into the kitchen to get her ice cream. To her great shock, Superman was waiting for her outside her window.

She opened the window and exclaimed, "Superman! What are you doing here?"

Then he flew into the apartment without her inviting him in.

"Come in?"

He seemed really troubled about something. Usually he was much more polite. He definitely didn't usually burst into her apartment without an invitation.

"Lois! I am so sorry!"

"What are you talking about?"

"About before, I'm sorry I had to leave."

Was Superman smoking something funny? She hadn't seen him today. Actually, she hadn't seen him in weeks. What was he talking about?

Before Lois could say anything else, Superman had quickly closed the gap that separated them and wrapped his arms around her.

"For this," he said just before his lips captured hers.

Something felt so familiar, first in his embrace and then in his kiss. It was like the rest of the world just vanished around her and the only things that mattered were his lips, his embrace. However, when Lois came to her senses, she stepped back so she was out of his clutches.

"Superman! What are you doing?"

Then when she reflected back on the kiss, she was hit with an amazing realization. The only person whom she had ever kissed who had made her feel that way was...

"You're... You're... No! You can't be!"

It couldn't be, though. Could it? Well, they both had dark hair, amazing deep brown eyes, incredible physical attributes.

She turned to look at him and he was looking at her with a very familiar expression. It definitely wasn't an expression that she had seen Superman wear before. There was only one person who had ever looked at her like that before - Clark. It was all making sense.

"I am," Superman said softly. "I am so sorry, Lois. I should have told you before, but I can't explain why I didn't. And when I heard the cry for help coming from the chemical fire on the wharf, I had to leave. Lois, as much as I didn't want to, I had to leave. And that's when I knew that I had to tell you."

Lois felt her gaze shifting away from him. She couldn't believe how stupid she was. After all the time she had spent with both Clark and Superman, why hadn't she figured it out? It was all making sense, though. Of course it didn't fit Clark's personality that he would run away from her the first time she kissed him. Then again, it didn't fit his personality that he had hid such a huge secret about himself from her.

"Lois! Lois, look at me."

She had stopped paying attention to him, and he was probably trying to tell her something, but she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes.

"No, look at me. Not the floor. I know you don't believe it, but I am Clark."

"There's no way. You can't be."

She couldn't bring herself to acknowledge the fact verbally. Of course she believed it. All of the pieces fit. However, that was the most obvious reaction - utter disbelief.

"How can't I be?"

Right in front of Lois's eyes, Superman began to spin. Actually, he looked surprisingly like the Tasmanian Devil from the Loony Tunes when he spun. When he stopped spinning, Clark Kent was standing before Lois, glasses and all.

"Oh my God," Lois breathed in disbelief.

Then Clark again crossed the short distance between them and again pulled her into a long, tender kiss.

When the kiss broke, Lois was even more confused than before. What was he trying to prove? How did he want her to react? It was improbable, but she knew exactly how she was going to react.

She broke from his embrace and began to pace around the room.

Suddenly, she exclaimed, "Do you expect me to fall in love with you just because you kissed me? I'm sorry, Clark, uh, Superman, uh, whoever you are! Life is not a fairytale!"

"Lois! I am so sorry! I know..."

"Clark, how could you possibly know?"

He shrugged his shoulders, obviously baffled at her reaction.

"I mean, Clark, I don't even know how I feel!"

"I know, Lois. It is a huge shock. I don't expect you to do anything..."

Lois, however, ignored what he had said and continued, "Do you expect me to see fireworks, to feel my heart flutter? Because I do."

Clark opened his mouth as though he were going to say something in response, but Lois didn't give him the chance.

"Do you expect that this is a fairytale romance where the princess expects to be lifted away, out of her tumultuous life by a white night on a fast horse or with a red cape, whatever fits the situation? Clark, do you expect me to feel like I am on a roller coaster experiencing a massive centrifugal force? Clark, I have never held a man in my arms whom I have felt so strongly about in my life. I am completely torn. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone in my life, but right now, I can't even look at you."

Lois paused to catch her breath, but Clark didn't say anything in response. He looked absolutely shell-shocked. She had to admit, she was really completely shell-shocked, too. After all, she had just discovered two things that she had never thought possible: Clark was Superman and she was madly in love with him.

"I've never known anyone who's the most important, most wonderful person in my world. My job has always taken that place. Clark, I was always content with that. Until you kissed me. Now I know that I've wanted it all my life."

Then she crossed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around Clark's solid body. She felt him squeeze her tightly, and as soon as their lips touched she was transported into a different world, a world where everything was suddenly bright and wonderful. In this world, there was only love. Of course they still had many, many issues to sort out, but that was not important now. When they were in the midst of their first real, uninhibited kiss, they were completely lost in the world of happy endings.

The End

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