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Lois tried to ignore just how heavy the elevator doors finally opened, and she was enveloped by the cool air of the monochromatic elevator. She instinctively reached out to click the button for her floor, letting out a small, heavy sigh as the elevator whirred to life and slowly began its ascent. Her eyes darted all across the space, somehow taking everything in and yet not at the same time. Her mind was too fuzzy to focus on anything beyond the surface level details- the numbers on the buttons, the coloring of the wallpaper, the dingy ceiling tiles.
It hadn’t been a particularly pleasant day. Perry had been on all of them about deadlines, some of her sources had been especially difficult to reach, the coffee machine had refused to work, and it had started raining on her walk home: amongst many other little things that had piled up during the day, until she was an irritable, twitchy mess. It wasn’t particularly hard to get her going, but it seemed as though today had been out to get her from the start.
Lois let out another sigh as the elevator creaked to a stop, and the doors slowly opened to the hall. Only half of the lights were working, casting the hall in long shadows and low lighting. Lois’s lips ticked into a frown. Great.
She shook her head and pushed on, walking through the halls until she found her door and began to fumble with the keys. Her room key fell from its place and down onto the floor, and Lois let out a grumble as she bent down to pick it up.
All Lois wanted was to bathe herself in a nice, warm shower, put on some stupid but fairly entertaining movie and lie under a cozy blanket until her worries for the day disappeared. She had not then been expecting to open her apartment door to the comforting smell of maple syrup and pancakes, nor the telltale sounds of Clark messing around in her apartment kitchen.
Lois couldn’t help the way her head tilted to the side and a fond but exasperated smile crept onto her lips. They’d been together for eight months now, and coming home to Clark’s signature breakfast for dinner had become a welcome staple in her life- much more so than she’d ever expected it to become.
Lois could count on one hand the number of decent partners she’d had. In all her years of dating, she’d find herself coming home to several different sights. She’d come home to trash strewn across the apartment, or her latest partner on some phone call, completely uncaring as to how loud they were on the phone. She’d even returned home to immediate, vigorous questioning about why the hell was she so late, which often escalated into long, blow-up fights about her job, her personality, her attitude- everything.
Before Clark, she had never returned home to the sight of someone standing in her kitchen, humming along to a pop punk song as they fixed a delicious breakfast meal as though it were the easiest thing in the world.
“What’s on the menu this time?” She asked, stepping into the kitchen with a weary sigh. Clark spun around, a smile on his face as he greeted her.
“Buttermilk pancakes, with scrambled eggs and sausages,” He announced, showing off the meal proudly before pulling her up into his arms and kissing her. The kiss was short but sweet, as the irritation coursing through her slowly made way for something softer.
“You really know how to make random days into an occasion.” She spoke as they broke apart, a smile beginning to form on her lips.
Clark only grinned as he leaned forward and kissed her. “Every day’s an occasion when I’m with you.”
And fuck. If that wasn’t one of the cheesiest things she’d ever heard leave that man’s mouth- which was impressive, considering the sheer amount of saccharine things Clark would say as casually as breathing.
It occurred to her, in that moment, just how wildly different Clark was to every single person she’d ever been with. How Clark was so effortlessly kind. How he was so endlessly patient with her, even during their worst fights. How he met her every single step of the way with a sort of steadfastness she’d never seen before.
Lois gave Clark a broad, genuine smile as she wrapped one hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down into another kiss.
“Thank you.” She breathed, staring fearlessly into his strikingly blue eyes. Those eyes held so much adoration, more than anything she had ever seen- and the fact that it was directed at her, well, she was surprised she didn’t melt into a puddle on the spot. There was something about this man, powered each and every day by the sun, that made him feel like a living incarnation of the sun itself.
Warm, bright and all-consuming.
Lois felt Clark’s hands on her hips, felt the way she bucked into him as he lifted her up effortlessly. She moaned into the kiss as one of his hands curled around her side, caressing the skin there. Her hands clasped tighter into the fabric of his shirt as his tongue breached her mouth, careful and caring.
“Mm, Clark-“ She murmured, voice breathy, “As much as I’d love to continue this, I really want to have a taste of the pancakes you spent all this time fixing for me.”
Clark pulled back, his lips forming into a bright smile. He pecked her lips once more. “Of course.”
He placed her gently back down onto the floor and she walked around him, eyes never leaving his as she grabbed the plate he’d set aside for her. She moved to the couch as Clark fixed his own plate, and the sounds of utensils clattering softly against porcelain filled the otherwise silent expanse of her apartment.
Lois let out a small sigh and tilted her head back, simply staring for a moment at the ceiling above her. She heard Clark as he hummed to himself and turned, his footsteps padding through the apartment. She felt him kneel down, push a strand of hair out of her face and place a loving kiss to her cheek. She glanced back at him, eyes twinkling.
“Now c’mere.” She teased, grinning up playfully at him, the very last of her irritation fully fading away at the sight of his classic smile, bright enough to light an entire room. He stepped to the side, leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips, before finally moving to sit down on the couch next to her. She leaned to the side, momentarily resting her head against the broad frame of his shoulders, and listened for a moment to the steady beat of his heart and the sound of his breathing. As she speared a forkful of pancakes and brought it to her mouth, she thought of nothing else but Clark- standing in her kitchen, humming song after song from his playlist, as he cooked up a meal for her with the same dedication he used to drag people out from underneath rubble. And in that moment, the sweetness of the maple syrup paled in comparison to the sweetness of the man sitting beside her.