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Lois took a sip of her coffee and grimaced. “How is this worse than the shit at the planet?”
“Ms. Lane! You’ll hurt poor Denny’s feelings!” Sitting in the booth across from her, Clark’s scandalized expression was so pure, Lois almost believed he was serious. Even if he was, she felt perfectly safe voicing her in opinion considering she, Clark, Jimmy, the cook, and the waitress/cashier were the only people in the building.
”He’s got millions of restaurants worldwide, I’m sure he’ll survive one bad review.” She set her mug down and contemplated her half eaten ‘Cali Club’. Why does everything with avocado have to have ‘California’ in its name? Her leg jiggled of its own free will and her fingers tapped out an aimless rhythm on the tabletop.
Clark smiled and gestured to the remains of his throughly devoured stack of pancakes. “Want a bite?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. You know, not everyone still eats like a highschool linebacker.” She smirked.
“I was a defensive end, thank you very much.” His expression then turned from playful to sympathetically concerned. He could give Superman a run for his money with that face.
“How long has it been since your last cigarette?” He asked.
She shrugged, trying for nonchalance and knowing she was utterly failing. “‘bout a week. I had some nicotine gum in my purse but someone” she glared over at Jimmy, who was too busy flirting with the cashier to notice. “Knocked it into the harbor.”
Clark winced for Jimmy. “Gosh, I’m sorry. I remember when Pa quit. We went through so many patches, Ma could have made a quilt.” He placed his hand on hers and looked into her eyes. Something in the air shifted like a seismic quake. The empty dining room contracted to just the two of them “Lois, I hope you know you can rely on me for anything you need.”
”I-I’m fine” she managed to stammer out when the oxygen returned to the restaurant. Those eyes should be illegal. How are they that blue?
“Even so, I’m here for you. You’re an amazing reporter, and I really enjoy working with you. I hope we can continue in the future.” He reassured with a smile. Any other man, she would have assumed it was just a line, but Clark was just so goddamn earnest. She felt her hand turning to hold Clark’s properly…
”All right, that’s the bill taken care of, hope the chief doesn’t mind! Lois, once again I am so sorry about your purse.” Lois crashed back to reality as Jimmy slid in next to Clark with his patented impeccable timing.
Right, gotta be professional. Can’t go mooning over your potential investigative partner, even if he is 250+ pounds of Kansas cornfed gentleman. She pulled her hand away from Clark’s and took another sip of her coffee.
”You should be Jimmy Olsen. You’ll definitely sorry when you’re buying me coffee for a month to make up for it. Premium coffee, none of that Luthorcup shit.”
Jimmy groaned and slip further down the vinyl booth, but Lois couldn’t enjoy it. She was still transfixed by the hyper blue eyes and the star bright smile of the man across from her.
Professional