Chapter Text
The Byrne YMCA, Byrne YMCA, Lois reminded herself as she raced out of the Planet building on a blistering hot Friday afternoon and headed to where the boys had been spending the last two weeks at camp. Clark had promised to cover a press conference for city hall, which meant it was one of the rare times he was actually caught up for the Planet and not using it as a cover.
That had been how most of the summer had gone. At 9, they were absolutely too young to be unattended for any amount of time, but this past school year, they had attended an after-school program at the school instead of the daycare they had grown up at. Which meant, Lois and Clark had enrolled the boys in a smattering of day camps across the city.
When Lois arrived at the gym of the YMCA, she could instantly tell that something had gone wrong. Both the boys were sitting sequestered off to the side of the gym, sitting on the bleachers. Jordan was holding an ice pack to his right eye and Jonathan looked sullen. Seeing Jordan roughed up was unfortunately nothing new, but this past two weeks at sports camp had been Jonathan’s time to shine, so it was certainly odd to see him not running around, attempting to take in the last minutes of sports camp. Next week was an arts camp that Lois was sure was more Jordan’s style.
“Lois,” Coach Maze said as Lois walked into the gym proper, as the boys gave her a weary look but kept their seat. “Your boys got into a bit of trouble today.”
Lois glanced over to where they were sitting on the bleachers, attempting to avoid her gaze, “What happened,” Lois asked suspiciously.
“Denny Morten threw a basketball at Jordan, and hit his face,” Coach Maze explained, but Lois could tell there was more to the story.
“He threw a basketball at his face?” Lois pushed; her eyebrows raised.
“Yeah, there had been some sort of…um… verbal…altercation before, but I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I think Jordan said something mean to Denny,” Coach Maze continued, still not fully explaining.
“And what did Jonathan do,” Lois asked wearily, the exhaustion from running around all week, weighing on her.
“Jonathan pushed Denny after he threw the basketball at Jordan,” Coach Maze explained.
Lois let out a sigh, “Okay, I guess I’ll talk to them. Is Denny still here?” Lois dared to ask. The last thing Lois wanted was to run into his mother.
“You’re safe,” Coach Maze softened. “Look, Lois, between you and me, Denny had been pretty rough to Jordan all week. It’s the last day camp, so I think we just leave it be.”
“Thanks,” Lois replied, “I’ll talk to them tonight.” Lois added, even if this camp were over and she was not sending them back to this particular YMCA this summer, it still seemed like the responsible parenting thing to do. They boys needed to understand this behavior was not acceptable.
Coach Maze nodded as another parent came into collect their child and Lois nodded to where her kids were sitting, “Boys,” Lois said as they gathered their stuff and made their way over to their mom.
“Look, mom, I was just trying to help, I promise,” Jonathan launched his defense as they started walking out towards the busy city streets.
“We’ll talk about it when we get home,” Lois said as she navigated towards the subway station and pulled out everyone’s transit cards.
Lois shook her head in distress as they made it down the steps to find the subway station 30 deep with tourists waiting for the train. There was a baseball game today which meant everyone in the city was attempting to get down to Meteors Field. Lois was glad that the camp on this side of town was done. It was not particularly close to home, or the Planet and it required taking the train that went past Meteors field.
“I’m hot,” Jordan complained as he tried to shrug off the hand that Lois had placed on his shoulder. The boys had insisted a long time ago that they were too old for hand holding, but Lois still liked having some contact in the sort of crowded places that made it easy to loss children.
“I know honey, once we get on the train, everything will be cooler,” Lois promised as she pushed a stray curl out of his face.
“Yeah, if a train ever gets here,” Jonathan snipped back.
“It’s on it’s way,” Lois replied automatically, but she could not help but crane her neck to see if anything was coming down the tunnel. It had been a long week and two, cranky 9-year-olds was not helping the situation at all.
“Mom, I’m thirsty,” Jordan complained again.
“Do you have any water in your bag?” Lois asked, already unzipping the backpack on his back to see what was there.
Jordan shrugged as Lois riffled around.
“Jordan, where’s your water bottle?” Lois asked when she could not find anything.
“Um, I think I forgot it,” Jordan replied as he scuffed his shoe on the ground.
“You forgot it?” Lois questioned. There was no way she was going back to the YMCA for a plastic water bottle. This is why she and Clark refused to buy them the fancy Hydro Flasks they were always begging for. “You lost another one.”
“I didn’t mean too, but then, um…” Jordan trailed off as he gingerly rubbed his tender eye, absolutely milking the situation.
“Okay, can you just wait until we get home for water?” Lois urged.
“I guess,” Jordan responded defeated.
It was another five minutes before their train finally arrived and Lois pushed in with the boys.
“I’m thirsty,” Jonathan complained this time, once they were on board and it was way to crowded to shuffle through his bag to see if he had remembered his water bottle and if it still had water in it.
“Sweety, we’re almost home,” Lois said as she gently rubbed his shoulder.
“I’m hot,” Jordan added to the chorus.
“Me too,” Jonathan continued on.
“I know guys, we just have a couple of more stops until we are home,” Lois pleaded, the complaining was too much in the stuffy crowded train car after a week of running around the city for sports camp. Regardless of if the boys had gone out with a bang, Lois was not running all over the city again next year. They were going to camp closer to home.
The bulk of the crowd left the train when they made it to the station the ball field was on, and Lois was able to get the boy seats.
“Do you guys want to do Pizza for dinner?” Lois asked when they were just a couple of stops away.
“It’s too hot to think about dinner,” Jonathan responded as he opened his backpack only to find his empty water bottle. Jordan nodded along with the sentiment.
“Okay, let’s go home and cool down and then we can talk,” Lois agreed
They made if off the train and back to surface level. The cool breeze coming of the lake helped a little bit, but the city was still stifling, and Lois could feel the late afternoon sun beating down on her neck.
“I’m itchy,” Jordan complained as he scratched his arms, leaving red fingernail trails on his skin.
“Honey don’t scratch, you’ll feel better after you take a shower,” Lois tried to sooth, though she could feel her own patience waning after the trip home on the hot, crowded subway.
“Look, look,” Jonathan said, pointing to the sky, “It’s Superman!” He exclaimed excitedly as the legendary Man of Steel zipped by overhead.
Lois noted that the red and blue blur was headed in the direction of the brownstone, and she was relieved that she was not doing the solo parent thing tonight and that she would have her husband to herself, at least until he got called away again.
“Where do you think he’s going?” Jordan asked, his head tilted up in awe.
“I don’t know sweetie, maybe home,” Lois did not exactly lie, there was no guarantee that he was in fact heading home, just a strong likelihood that he was.
“Superman doesn’t have a home,” Jonathan insisted.
“Yeah, Superman just flies around,” Jordan agreed, as if he was an expert on the matter.
“This shirt is scratchy,” Jonathan complained as he pulled at the collar, closing out the conversation around Superman.
“Sweetie, you can put on fresh clothes when you get home,” Lois offered and then wondered if she needed to change detergents if both the boys were complaining. Or maybe it was just the cheap material of the oversized camp shirts that were causing issues. They had been running around in them all day.
“Ok,” Jonathan agreed but continued to pull on his shirt collar.
When they walked into the brownstone, Clark was standing on the kitchen counter, typing away at his laptop. Superman had in fact been heading home.
“Hey guys, how was camp,” Clark asked as he looked up from his computer, while his fingers continued to type away.
The boys shared a look and then suddenly got quite as they both avoided eye contact.
“There was a thing,” Lois said as she gave Clark a quick kiss and then pulled out two glasses from the cabinet. “Take a seat,” Lois nodded towards the kitchen table and both the boys took their normal seat.
Lois filled two water glasses up and set them in front of the boys.
“Denny threw a ball T Jordan,” Jonathan started as Jordan took a long gulp of his water.
“And what did you do to Denny?” Lois asked as Clark continued to watch the boys while he clicked away at his computer.
“I just shoved him away, so that he would leave Jordan alone,” Jonathan defended.
“Jon, we don’t use violence to solve our problems,” Clark started. “We use our words, and we talk it out.” Clark said as he stopped typing and turned his full attention to Jonathan.
“But…” Jonathan tried to defend.
“No buts,” Lois jumped in. “What are the other things you could have done instead of shoving Denny?” Lois questioned, using this opportunity to help her son problem solve.
“I could have gotten an adult, Jordan and I could have walked away,” Jonathan listed off.
“Exactly, look Jon, I commend you for trying to protect your brother, but there are better ways,” Clark took up the conversation.
“Yeah, okay,” Jonathan agreed.
Lois turned her attention to Jordan, “And what did you say to Denny before he threw the ball?” Lois questioned.
Jordan bowed his head and murmured something at the table.
“What was that?” Clark asked.
“I said, I called him a poopy head,” Jordan spoke up this time, his cheeks flushed red with embarrassment as having to explain his foul language to his parents.
“Jordan, that’s no very polite language,” Clark continued.
“But he was being mean,” Jonathan jumped back in to defend his bother. “He called Jordan a baby.”
“Jon, I understand, but let your brother talk,” Lois redirected gently. Jonathan sunk in his chair and brought his cup up to his mouth and took another drink of water before pulling at the collar of his shirt again.
“Jordan, what do we do when people say mean things,” Clark took up the conversation.
“We go high when they go low,” Jordan repeated.
“And what else could you have done?” Lois asked, giving Jordan his own chance to problem solve.
“I could have walked away and gone somewhere else, I am always allowed to walk away from bad situations,” Jordan repeated as he scratched at his arm again.
“Exactly, What Denny did was not right and not your fault, but that also does not mean we have to add fuel to the fire,” Lois confirmed. “Alright you guys, why don’t you go up and get a shower, you’ll feel better.” Lois urged, sending them upstairs. “And put on clean clothes and the dirty clothes go in the hamper.” Lois called as the scampered up the stairs.
Clark walked over the refrigerator and pulled a bottle of chilled white wine and then started peeling back the foil and working out the cork.
“How was the press conference at city hall?’ Lois asked as she accepted the glass of wine Clark handed her.
“Boring and also horrible,” Clark said cryptically as he took a sip form his glass.
“What happened?” Lois questioned as she leaned against the kitchen counter and peeked at Clark’s laptop.
“The mayor announced a major infrastructure initiative, a major overhaul of all the transit stations downtown” Clark explained. “And the Manahan Group is in charge of the project.”
“Well, it sounds like we’ll be busy reporting on corruption for about the next decade,” Lois replied dryly as she took another snip. “Of, better yet, if we can get Perry on board, we could potentially do enough reporting on the Manahan Group’s past mismanagement on projects like this and stop if before even starts.” Lois mused.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Clark said with a sly smile as he pulled up a draft of an e-mail. “I was just waiting for you to agree to taking this story on with me before I sent it to Perry.”
“It’s been a while since the famous Lane-Kent reporting duo has worked together,” Lois smiled at the prospect. It was not exactly the weekend away they kept promising each other, but it did mean more time to spend together.
“So, is that a yes, is the famous Lois Lane actually agreeing to take a story with a humble staff reporter?” Clark teased sweetly.
“Babe, I would follow you to the moon and back,” Lois smiled, “Though maybe not literally, before you get any ideas.”
“What, no second honeymoon on the moon,” Clark smiled as he pulled at the collar of his button up, letting out the first couple of buttons of his shirt and rubbing his neck.
“You okay?” Lois asked, noticing that he looked a bit uncomfortable. He never seemed uncomfortable.
Clark shook his head, “I’m fine, I think it’s been the heat this week, the city has been almost oppressive,” Clark commented.
“Yeah, it has been a lot, having to get the boys to and from the other side of town the past two weeks has been a lot on everyone.” Lois said, Clark had taken his share of the commute as well, but the wheels in her head where already turning.
Before Lois could continue, someone flipped the TV on in the living room and then a moment later the tinny sound of the Adventures of Superman TV show boomed through downstairs of their house as the boys repeated along with the television.
"Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound!"
"Look! Up in the sky!"
"It's a bird!"
"It's a plane!"
"It's Superman!"
They screamed the last part and Lois was already sure they were standing on the sofa. When they got really excited, they still tended to play act along with the TV.
She looked around the kitchen to the living room and unsurprisingly, both the boys were dressed in too big t-shirts and shorts, standing on the sofa as Superman and Kelly Kline, an intrepid reporter went on an adventure.
“Hey, no standing on the sofa,” Lois said, loud enough to cut through the raised volume on the TV.
Both of the boys went still before falling onto the sofa with a plop. Losi shook her head as she walked around to stand in front of the TV.
“Mom, we were watching that,” Jonathan whined as he laid down on the sofa, with his feet point straight towards the celling on the back of the sofa.
“I just wanted to ask if Pizza was okay for dinner?” Lois said with a shake of her head. Usually, the boys were sweet and nine seemed to be a good age, but they were still kids and they still had grumpy kid moments. Especially after a week running around at a sports camp and a twice daily commute through the hot city that had tested all of them.
“I guess,” Jordan huffed as he tried to look around his mom.
“You’ve seen this one before,” Lois shook her head. It’s not that she wanted an encyclopedic knowledge of the Adventures of Superman, but it played enough in the background that she had a working knowledge of the episodes.
“It’s my favorite,” Jonathan insisted, still inverted on the sofa.
“They’re all your favorite,” Lois said with a shake of her head, Lois gave up on pushing further on Pizza and instead just made the decision to order their normal from Mario’s just down the street. Once the Pizza arrived, she had no doubt that the boys would eat their fill before being ready for an early bedtime. At least she hoped that was the case, because she was certainly ready to settle down early tonight.
When the pizza arrived, Lois interrupted New Adventures of Superman to get the boys to sit at the table and eat dinner.
Jordan took exactly one small bite of a slice of pepperoni and mushroom before declaring, “I’m not hungry.”
“Honey, are you sure you don’t want to try for another bite?” Lois prompted. Joran had been the kid that was more likely to come home with an uneaten lunch. Lois always struggled with how much to push and how much to let it go.
“I’m too hot to eat,” Jordan complained, even though the house was comfortable enough with the A/C running.
“Me too,” Jonathan agreed as his slice of pizza sat mostly untouched.
“Babe, it has been pretty warm out today,” Clark added having not even taken a slice of Pizza from the box. “Maybe we save the leftovers for breakfast.” Clark gave a crooked smile. That was inside joke between the two of them. When Clark was new to Metropolis, when they had just started dating and Lois suggested how magical cold Pizza was in the morning, Clark gave her the most perplexed look. Coming from the farm, he had never heard of something scandalous as eating cold Pizza for breakfast. The farm had always been about a propre breakfast with enough calories for a long day in the fields.
“I guess,” Lois said as she finished off a slice. The rest of her family may be feeling the appetite suppressing effects of the heat, but she certainly was not.
***
Later that night, long after Lois and Clark had gotten the boys to bed and long after Lois and Clark themselves had gone to bed, Lois woke to find the bedroom a bit chilly and Clark’s side of the bed empty. It was not exactly a rare occurrence for Clark to get pulled away in the middle of the night and slip out to go after they had gone to bed.
Lois pulled on a sweatshirt over her pajamas and headed downstairs to adjust the thermostat back to something reasonable. It had been 90 degrees and there was no reason they needed to pay for their house to feel like the artic.
When she got downstairs, she was surprised to see the kitchen light on and Clark standing at the counter, tapping away on his computer.
“Hey,” She said as she wondered into the kitchen, “What’s up.”
Clark looked up from his computer, “I couldn’t sleep and I figured I would get to work on the Manahan Group.”
Lois moved in closer and wrapped an arm around his waist and looked at the computer where he was working through research. “You didn’t eat dinner, neither did the boys, you can’t sleep…” Lois worked through the evidence.
“I think it’s just the heat,” Clark countered, knowing where Lois was going with the thought processes, they had delt with solar storms before.
“This house is freezing,” Lois said suspiciously, as she leaned in closer to borrow some of the heat her husband was radiating. “And I’ve seen you dive into a volcano without a second thought.”
Clark turned his head in a familiar motion, looking up.
“What?” Lois asked.
“The boys are up, they’re in Jordan’s room, on the Gameboys,” Clark explained, cautiously.
Lois shook her head, “If they’re being quite and content, we should probably leave it.” Lois said. It was a departure to how she usually reacted to this sot of thing, but there was no way the boys would sleep tonight or likely for the next week.
Clark opened up a new browser window and pulled up an article on the ongoing solar storm. “It looks like this one is here for a while.”
“It’s going to be a long week,” Lois sighed as the thought of dealing with two sleepless nine-year old’s as she schlepped them off to camp during the heat of the summer.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Clark said cryptically.
“Wait, what do you mean?” Lois pushed.
“What if we took the week off and went to Smallville, we both have a ton of vacation and Perry would probably let us go on such short notice as long you still turn in your column, I give him a whole small-town slice of life op-ed about returning home with my nine-year-old twins, and we promise to get some of the research going on the Manahan Group.” Clark proposed, carefully.
“How about your mom, you think she’ll be ready for us on such short notice?” Lois asked, even though she knew the answer.
“Are you kidding me, every time I talk to my mom, she tells me how we can just come, we don’t need to give any notice, and that she has a long list of things she needs my help with around the farm,” Clark explained.
“It would get us out of the heat of the city, and it would give the boys a place to run off their energy without getting in a fight at every day camp in the city.” Lois entertained the idea. “A change in routine would also mean the boys are less likely to notice something weird is going on.”
“So, it’s settled, we head to Smallville to ride out the solar storm. I’ll call my mom first thing in the morning,” Clark said excitedly.
Lois nodded, “Alright, I’m headed back to bed, as we have a long drive in the morning. Can you keep an eye on the boys, make sure they don’t start practicing wrestling moves or something?”
Clark nodded, “Yeah, I’ll intervene if it goes past late-night video games,” Clark agreed easily.
“Thanks,” Lois said as she stood up in her tippy toes and planted a kiss on Clark’s lips before walking back upstairs.
***
“We’re going to Grandma’s for the week, we’re leaving in a couple of hours,” Clark said to the boys as they took a seat at the kitchen table. Usually, the boys were slow to wake up in the morning, but they were wide awake today.
“What, why, we have art camp next week,” Jordan said, disappointed at the news. “We just did Jon’s stupid sports camp last week.”
“Your mom and I were able to get some time off of work last minute and I figured we could get out of the heat of the city,” Clark explained even as Lois was on the phone, explaining why they should get time off with literally no notice. Perry tended to listen to Lois more about this sort of thing, given she was more reliable and the more noteworthy reporter.
“It has been so hot,” Jonathan agreed as he pulled at his shirt, even though the house was over chilled from the turned down AC.
“Will Sarah be there?” Jordan asked, thinking about his Smallville friend.
“Likely,” Clark confirmed.
“And Grandma always plays the piano with me,” Jordan considered the possibility.
“And there is so much room to throw around the football, dad can we play catch?” Jonathan asked, excited at the prospect of having near endless space to run around. The closet thing they had was a nearby neighborhood park that was often too crowded to truly let loose.
“Sure,” Clark agreed easily, “Do you guys want breakfast,” Clark asked, even though typically, when he was home on a weekend like this, he would just start cooking without asking first.
“No,” Jonathan spoke first, “I’m not hungry.”
“Me neither,” Jordan agreed.
“Alright, I’ll pack snacks for the car. Why don’t you guys go upstairs and get your stuff together. We’re leaving in an hour. Make sure you get whatever you need, Gameboys…”
“It’s a DS,” Jordan interrupted, “Gameboys haven’t been a thing in like a really like time,” Jordan explained with authority.
“Yeah Dad, only old people call them game boys,” Jonathan added.
“Ok, fine, get your DSs, books, whatever you want for the week,” Clark corrected. “I’m finishing up laundry now and your mom will help you pack your suitcase.”
That seemed to be enough of a conversation as the boys ran upstairs.