Does One Kiss Change Everything?

CHAPTER TWO

“I don’t know if it’s going to work out with Oliver,” Lois Lane declared in Clark Kent’s barn a few weeks after her confrontation with the Green Arrow Bandit, where she had tried to expose his identity as Oliver Queen by kissing him. God, was that as dumb as it sounded? Lois asked herself as she sulked on the sofa, watching Smallville play with his toys instead of paying attention to her on this so important subject.

Ever since she had confessed her feelings on that kiss, Lois had been here, using him as a sound board. For some reason, speaking to a third party who wouldn’t care less one way or another who she dated was easier than talking to Chloe, who might be motivated by familial affection to convince her to stay with the millionaire boyfriend who so far had been really quite perfect.

Clark who was in the process of cleaning the lenses on his telescope, paused in midswipe across a lens and looked up at her, wishing she had said anything BUT THAT. The last few weeks had been a special kind of torture with Lois coming up here to tell him how the kiss had affected her, how she needed to find the Green Arrow, how it just wasn’t the same with Ollie. The worst of it was, she actually thought he was impartial on the whole matter when in truth he was anything but.

The kiss haunted him.

It haunted him for all the possibilities it seemed to open up. For the first time in ages, the woman on his mind was not Lana Lang but this irascible pain in the ass who always managed to do what no one else could. Piss him off royally. Now here she was, telling him things he frankly did not want to hear. Sure his ego had got a fresh infusion of confidence knowing how much he had rattled her cage and truth be known, the cage rattling had gone both ways. However when the dust had settled, Clark really had time to think about the implications of wanting Lois and it was actually quite daunting.

She really was a lot of work and then there was of course, the little matter of the white elephant in the room which was his Kryptonian heritage. How would Lois handle that because sure as hell Clark had been properly singed by his experiences with Lana and keeping secrets to go through all that again.

Lois couldn’t even shut up was she was watching a movie.

In all this, he had consoled himself with the fact that she as still going out with Ollie and while she was going out with Ollie, it was a moot point. Selfish as it might seem, Clark had reasons of his own for wanting Lois to remain with Oliver Queen. Sure it was the most incredible kiss he had ever had in his life and that kissing Lana had paled in comparison to that one moment with Lois. However, knowing that drove home the reality just how much under his skin and into his heart she could get and his gut clenched at the possibility at just how much worse than Lana she could hurt him.

“I thought things were going great with you and Ollie,” Clark managed to say after a moment.

“Great is relative,” Lois looked at him as if she were talking to a child. It was just her luck that Farm Boy was the only one she could feel comfortable about confessing this crap too. “Ollie’s great, he really is but there’s just something missing…”

“Like what?” He asked as he stopped working on the telescope and eyed her on his sofa.

Don’t say it, don’t say it, he pleaded inwardly. Clark Kent didn’t want to hear what was missing because he damn well knew what it was.

Lois fidgeted and was unable to meet his gaze as she said it because saying it would make her just like all those other girls, the ones that did put so much stock in the first kiss and Lois Lane had prided herself in never being one of those. However, this was Smallville so no real harm would be done by admitting it and while he might get a little mileage at her expense, right now she just needed to talk about it to make a decision.

“The kiss,” she met his blue-green eyes with almost guilty blush across her cheeks.

Aw hell, Clark swore inside.

“You said a kiss didn’t matter Lois,” Clark pointed out, once again swept away by that sinful tide of ego. The smirk stole across his lips almost unconsciously.

“Get that smile off your face,” she glowered and promptly chucked a cushion at him.

Clark laughed, forgetting the turmoil inside him for the moment and enjoying the game of one-upmanship they had started playing from the instant they met. “Sorry, can’t help it. So what next? Start kissing every guy in Metropolis until you find Mr. Right?”

“Oh you are just so loving this aren’t you?” She glared at him through narrowed eyes when she rose up from the sofa and stormed over to him.

“Absolutely not,” he said grinning.

“I have to break up with him, smart guy.” Lois declared. “I can’t continue to lead him on when I don’t feel the same way.”

Clark’s grin faded because now he felt like a real bastard because his feelings aside, Lois was Ollie’s girl and he was a friend. Guys didn’t steal other guy’s girls when they were friends. Of course technically he wasn’t actually stealing…

“Isn’t that a little rash?” He managed to force out, ignoring the possibilities surfacing in his head.

“No Clark it’s not rash,” Lois looked at him critically. “Because when you don’t feel for someone, you let them go. You don’t let it linger for years and years, generating enough angst to be the recurring theme in some really bad teenage soap opera.”

Clark’s jaw clenched. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” she turned her back on him, a smile following her as she did. Lois knew how to play the game too. “Just saying…”

“Well I don’t want to hear it if you’re referring to Lana,” he said coldly and suddenly, the kiss became the furthest thing in his mind and Clark decided there and then that she really was too much trouble. She didn’t play fair and that just pissed him off.

“Hey did I say Lana?” Lois shot back turning around to face him again.

“You know damn well you did,” he said pointedly, his blue eyes stormy.

“Well it’s true,” she retorted, realizing she had crossed the line but natural attrition wouldn’t let her pull back but ride this train wreck wherever it led. “I mean you two danced around each other for years, unable to make your minds up, making yourself miserable and still continue to I might add, all because you cling to the belief that you have to make it work. Has it ever occurred to you Smallville that if it’s that hard, maybe it’s not meant to?”

“Hey you don’t know anything about me and Lana,” Clark bit back harder then he intended because her words struck so close to home, they practically drew blood. “So don’t judge me when the whole reason for this is because you’re hot to get into some other guy’s pants.”

The minute Clark said it, he knew he had crossed the line too.

Lois’ face showed her hurt but Lois being Lois, hid the pain quickly. She was her father’s daughter after all. “Well you give as good as you get Smallville,” she answered, her voice a little sedate after that return serve. Retreating and it was the first time, she was on the defensive, she realized, Lois grabbed her handbag at the edge of the sofa.

“I better get going, it’ getting late.” She turned her back to him.

“Lois…” Clark started to say, feeling terrible that he had lashed out with an accusation that crass. Especially when what she said had a kernel of truth to it, no matter how painful it was for him to admit.

“I got an early start,” she started jabbering away, switching into survival mode. “You know how your mom can be when she’s got a full day. Must be that farm schedule she keeps, I’ll see you later.”

It happened so quick that he didn’t even know how to stop her and this was saying something for a guy who could make it to Metropolis in ten minutes on foot.

“Lois, come on,” he stood up to follow but she was already making her way down the stair and Clark had a feeling that she wouldn’t stop even if he asked her too.

Taking her advice for a change, Clark let her go.