15348/The Breakfast Rush

The Breakfast Rush
Date of Scene:	16 July 2023
Location:	Lane-Kent Residence - Midvale Brownstone
Synopsis:	Lois and Clark catch up over a more emotionally charged breakfast conversation than either of them expected.
Cast of Characters:	Lois Lane, Superman

---

Lois Lane has posed:
The smell of breakfast cooking is unmistakable -- fresh coffee, frying bacon, burning toast. Even the sounds of it fill the kitchen, from the sizzling of the eggs in the frying pan to the little 'pop' of the toaster when it shoots up a couple of over-charred slices of bread.

"Damnit.. damnit.. damnit..."

Lois plucks the hot slices out of the toaster with her fingers, dropping them onto the top of a pile of more golden pieces and shaking her burned fingers after.

Behind her, the television is tuned to.. as one might guess.. the morning news. The volume has been cranked up to a level to carry above the sounds of cooking, allowing her to multi-ask by listening, burning the toast, frying the bacon, flipping the eggs, and guzzling her black coffee all at once.

And she's doing it all in slacks and a blouse, already dressed with her hair and makeup done, an apron tied around herself to keep the grease from splashing out onto her work clothes.

Superman has posed:
Clark is looking over a few spots in the bathroom. In his ears a pair of earbuds play a b-side track by the band Queen. It's a track unattached to any movie, or album really, just a song they released with a few singles toward the end. The song is called "Who Wants to Live Forever." What most people don't know is the inspiration. Freddie Mercury, after finding out about his illness, coincidentally spoke to an immortal. The two talked about mortality and immortality. Mercury left inspired by the talks and created a few songs. What Clark doesn't know, is the connection between the immortal he spoke very recently and Mercury's immortal, but that's a story for another time.

Clark is not dressed yet as he works in the bathroom in his favorite Smallville Crows hoodie and a pair of black jogging pants. Pausing for a moment, he pops out an earbud. "Are you okay Lois? I thought I heard cursing. More than normal, cursing," he clarifies and waits for a response.

Lois Lane has posed:
"I'm fine," Lois sighs. "Just some burnt toast and second degree burns."

She's fishing a couple of plates out of the cabinet, her eyes shifting to him with a small, frazzled smile. If one didn't know her, they might think it was just breakfast. But it was never just one thing. Lois's mind was constantly filled with processing what had happened the day before, the ten things she always had going on in the present, and planning for whatever was coming next.

No doubt there was a countdown timer running in her brain that constantly displayed how many seconds she had left until she needed to run out the door. That alone was enough to keep anyone on edge. Not to mention that she was on her third cup of coffee.

"Are you hungry? I made you breakfast. I probably should have asked first, but I know I've been so busy... I wanted to do something nice and just thought.. maybe we could talk."

2,100 seconds.. 2,099 seconds.. 2,098 seconds..

Her smile curls hopefully, but then she seems to remember the eggs.

"Shit."

And quickly spatulas them out of the frying pan, onto the plates.

Superman has posed:
Clark rushes into the kitchen seconds later. Although with him it's more like "wooshing" in. He's just happy none of the pictures fell this time.

"Breathe. We stll have plenty of tme," he knows about the countdown in her head.

He moved to Lois when she wasn't manning a pan, or other piece of cooking equipment, then holds her from behind. "We still thirty-four minutes and change," he whispers softly. Clark knows about the timers. However, Lois never clues him in on when exactly they start. One of the few exceptions are mornings before a workshift. Those are like clockwork.

She frees herself from his grip to work on the eggs. Clark doesn't bother to help cook because he knows Lois is trying this for him. "Tell me what you need me to do," but he will help with setup if she asks hm to plate something.

Lois Lane has posed:
There's a soft laugh and a gentle lean backwards into the chest that seems to appear behind her as if by magic, the only evidence of 'how' it happened being the little gust that blew past her and rustled her hair even though Clark had stopped. Lois turned her head slightly resting her cheek against him even as her one free hand not holding the spatula settled on his arms, pulling herself closer into that grip. It was incredibly rare that the feeling of being in his arms didn't make her feel just as invincible as he was, and this morning was no exception. It was like a balm for her nerves.

"I know. I'm just... out of practice."

That much was absolutely true. Lois wasn't a slouch in the kitchen, but she was no Martha Kent. And with moving and work, it had been a long time since she'd cooked... anything. Breakfast was easy, but it was also easy to get distracted and overwhelmed if you started feeling behind.

"Thank you." For the comfort. For offering to help. "Would you grab us some silverware? And whatever you want to drink? Coffee's made. We still have some juice. I'll bring the plates to the table."

She was already moving skillets off of the heat, using tongs to move bacon onto the plates.

Superman has posed:
"No. You're not. Just breathe. You got this lane," he figures it's less rust and more nerves. He figured between moving, stories and even their own troubles before anything, Lois didn't cook for herself. However, he doesn't believe it's been so long she has to shake off the metaphorical rust.

"You're more capable than you know," he says getting the silverware ready. Grabbing forks, knives and spoons. Setting those up at normal speeds, he grabs one of his favorite mugs. It's Ron Swanson's face that says "Never Half Ass Two Things. Whole Ass One Thing," beneath the pcture.

He goes to pour himself a cup. "You're counting again," he chides her just in case their disengagement caused the clocks to resume.

Lois Lane has posed:
"But time is lost, which never will renew."

Now Lois is quoting Virgil's Georgics. At least she wasn't reciting the original Latin (which she probably didn't have memorized).

She'd set the plates down on the table after he finished with the silverware, the she'd put the burnt toast on her own plate (placed in front of the seat she usually sat in) and the golden pieces on his. Then she grabbed her own cup and moved across to the coffee pot, leaning up to place a kiss on his cheek.

"Tempus fugit," she quips. Yes, in Latin, but that one was a gimmie. Everybody knows 'time flies' in Latin. Then she holds her cup out for him for a refill and moves back to the table.

"So, tell me what's been going on? What have I missed?"

Superman has posed:
Clark is quiet for a few moments until Lois actually speaks Latin, "Sed fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus," he quips back. Then adds, "Tuum futurum est, quodcumque feceris. Fac igitur bonum unum." Clark raises a brow and he smiles at her. He will kiss her cheek similarly to how she kissed his.

"Well, I talked to Conner. And I talked to an immortal," Clark says casually as if nothing is out of ordinary with that answer. Sky blue eyes looking at her as he sits down.

Lois Lane has posed:
"You know what? No one likes a show off."

That was as lie. Not only was Lois very proud of her own accomplishments (and not afraid to throw her Pulitzers in Perry's face when she needed to), the glow of her smile and the glint of mischief in her eyes made it obvious that she very much liked it when Clark showed off. Why was it so hot when he spoke Latin to her, anyway?

She'd just settled in, napkin in lap, fork and knife in hand...

"Oh?"

Was Lois actually used to hearing things like this talked about so casually, or was she just falling back on a lifetime of interview experience.

"How's Conner?"

Well, you had to start somewhere. She might be dying to know what immortal he'd talked to and what they'd discussed, but Conner was important to Clark.

Superman has posed:
Clark grins at her mischeviously, "Si me vis prohibere, dic ita." The sky blue eyes look toward Lois as he puts the napkin in his lap. He looks at her, working on the eggs.

"Conner is good," Clark says and shakes his head a little bit. "I'm just, I'm just unsure how to approach him. I wish I did," he says with a sigh. It's something that bugs him deep down. And it makes him worry about future children.

"And the immortal was interesting," Clark says knowing she is -dying- to ask about the immortal. His gaze locks onto her for a moment. "I asked what it was like to be immortal. I'm worried about how I age," he admits. So, he did some digging about immortals. It took a bit of time, but he got a lead.

Lois Lane has posed:
"I didn't say that." Was Lois /blushing/? No, no. Lois didn't blush, so she must have just been flushed from working over the stove.

She took a piece of bacon and nipped it off with her front teeth as she listened intently, watching Clark the entire time he spoke. Whether it was natural or trained, she definitely had that 'interviewer' look when she was paying close attention... words, tone of voice, posture, eye movements, lip movements.

She might not have had super powers, but she could read people like a book.

"Hey," she offers softly, reaching a hand over to touch the back of his. "Conner's a grown man that's going to make his own decisions. It's good of you to try so hard. I fully support that. But it says nothing about you if you can't get through to him."

She lets him get back to eating, though, picking up her cup of coffee instead.

"So.. what immortal did you talk to? What did they say?"

She managed to only let a /little/ of the urgency slip out in her tone.

Superman has posed:
Taking a piece of the bacon. He works on it slowly as he looks toward her. He can read the body language of everything. Although those words do bring him some comfort.It causes that smile on his face to soften. Taking another bite of the bacon, he savors the comfort of this moment.

"We talked abut immortality. What it's like to live from lifetime to life tiime," he says with small twinges of sadness in his voice. He fends those off for the moment. The bacon helps with that.

Lois Lane has posed:
"Details, Kent."

Lois takes another sip of her coffee and sets it down, still watching him.

"Who, what, where, why, when." It's a gentle prod. She obviously didn't think he was intentionally dodging her questions or she'd be digging into him even harder, but the curiosity in her was dying for answers.

"Who was it? Did they have any thoughts about your aging? Where did you talk? What did they say?"

Superman has posed:
"I won't tell you who, that's their story to keep. It's a woman. Her tme dates back to centuries ago," Clark says honestly ont hat one. He is treating ths as a source that wants to remain anonymous. It's to protect the source.

"Well, we talked about what I would do if I was immortal. There's a theory, and it's just a theory, the solar exposure could slow my aging. No one knows anything with me, or my powers, and I wanted perspective," Clark has no idea if the theory is remotely right or if it's underestimating the variables.

Lois Lane has posed:
The fact that Lois bristled surely wasn't unexpected. It wasn't like Lois told Clark about every single second of every one of her days. It wasn't like there weren't things he didn't know simply because it hadn't been relevant for her to talk about and their time was already limited.

But that was a little one-sided. She couldn't keep secrets from him. Between his super-hearing, super-sight, x-ray vision, and the fact that he could literally just show up no matter /where/ she was, there wasn't much of a point in trying to keep a secret from him. To say nothing of them being engaged.

So, silence lingers as that anger suddenly boils. It doesn't help that it's a woman, of course. But what woman doesn't love to hear /I've been sneaking off to see a woman you could never compare to, and I'm not going to tell you anything about her/? 'Anonymous source?' Bullshit. More secrets. More walls she wasn't allowed through.

"So.. what did the two of you decide you would do?"

Besides be convinced to abandon your fascination with a mere mortal woman to start a new life with someone more worthy?

She managed not to say that last part, but it's in her tone and the sudden tension in her jaw.

Superman has posed:
"Decide?" Clark asks clearly, and visibly, confused. "There may be a day there is nothing left for Clark Kent. I may outlive everyone I love and be forced to bury them, putting pieces of myself in with them. I wanted to know how to handle that loss," Clark says looking at Lois, visibly rattled.

"I don't like the fact that I could say goodbye to everyone. Pa was hard enough," Clark admits and looks down. "I have all of these powers and there will be a time, I can't save anyone I love," and he sighs deeply. "I wanted to know how to survive that day, if it ever happens," and Lois could see this is very much about her. But it's not about finding someone worthy. It's about him needing to say goodbye when he never wants to.

Lois Lane has posed:
Lois wipes her mouth with her napkin and blows out a soft breath. That utter sincerity in his voice softened the immediate heat of anger that had flared -- not to mention him finally revealing what he was actually worried about, what she had been /trying/ to get him to say the whole conversation (and, of course, wouldn't reveal until after she'd already gotten pissed off).

So, she was left to struggle for a moment, still wrestling with her own outrage at the audacity of the statement that she wasn't trustworthy enough to know what woman he was spending his time with.

But also... her sympathy. She couldn't possibly know what it was like to have those thoughts. She was already approaching forty years old. The closest she could come to was accepting the fact that she'd put her career above the chance at a family, and if things with Clark didn't continue going well, she would have to live with the consequences of that choice.

"Clark." Lois's voice is softer, though she doesn't reach for him at first. She watches him, the anger and jealousy for the moment pushed behind the sympathy and the overt amount of love she had for him. "We all have to deal with that. None of us want to lose the people we love. Whether or not you're immortal, we all have to find our ways to cherish the memories of the people we've loved... we have to be prepared to lose our parents, our spouse, even. You may be Superman, but I've felt that loss. I've had to accept the fact that I could lose you. I may not understand what it's like to live hundreds or thousands of years, but I know that worrying about that loss is /very/ normal. Saving us doesn't mean helping us to live forever. We're human. We're not meant to live forever. Saving us just means helping us live and love as much as we can in the time we have, and we've all loved you, Clark. Your Pa, Martha, me. You've given us /you/, and we're so much better for that."

Superman has posed:
"I know dying is inevitable with life. It's different when you might outlive someone by a lot," Clark admits honestly. Sky blue eyes looking at her and they're filled with sadness. His gaze stays on her for a moment. "Like seeing a loved one die before there time, I suspect. An immortal would have that perspective," he admits and sighs a bit.

"And Clark Kent can't live forever. So, if I don't have a normal longevity, he has to go too," he tries not to sound rattled. This is part of his powers he wished didn't exist.

"I always just pictured having normal longevitiy. To find out that it might not," he sighs a bit. This is something he has no clearcut answer for. It's new, it's raw and he's trying to deal with it.

Lois Lane has posed:
"Clark!" Lois's laugh is incredulous, shaking her head at him in disbelief. "You're the only person in the world that would sound /sad/ at finding out he might live forever. That's like being upset because you're bulletproof. /I'm/ not bulletproof, but you still get out there and do your job. And so do I. Do you see me moping because I can't fly or because I have a normal lifespan? You are who you are, Clark, and if you can live forever, think of all the /good/ you can do."

She pauses, then, lifting her eyebrows slightly at him.

"Would it make you feel better if I started calling you Kal?"

It's a serious question.

"Because yes, Clark Kent can't live forever, but Clark Kent is only part of who you are. You're still the same man we've all loved, whether or not you're wearing those dorky glasses."

There, she allows a small smile to touch her lips.

"You're incredible. You always have been. You always will be. You may out live me, but I will always love you. And I will always expect you to get back out there and do what you do. Because, I swear, if you sit around and mope over my grave, I will /find/ a way to come back and haunt you."

Superman has posed:
"I like being Clark Kent,"Clark says about his answer about names. Then he looks at her for a moment. "I like those glasses," and he smiles softly.

"I love you," and he shakes his head a little. "I'd fear you'd put yourself in a robot body to haunt me instead. Just in case you think I couldn't see you as a ghost," he says thinking Lois would do a lot to boot hs backside from the great beyond.

Still, everything makes him smile and starts to pull him out of it. "I guess I just want this to last forever. All of it," and maybe that's the trouble. He doesn't want it all to end. Yet, this new wrinkle reminded him how much it could.

Lois Lane has posed:
"And I love /you/, the man behind those glasses, whether you're wearing them or not," Lois replies earnestly. "I'm not hung up on things like names, glasses, or costumes. I care about /you/."

She reaches out, then to touch his chest with her finger as if she was trying to drive the point home.

"You have enough /real/ problems. Don't invent things to worry about. Trust me, if you're completely out of everything else to fret about, I have a mountain of work I can hand off to you." Not that she would. "You're worrying about something that may not even be a thing. Even if it is, you won't need to face it for /years/, and by that point, who knows what might have changed?"

She rolls her eyes, slipping that hand back down to rest on top of his.

"I'd say it's like worrying about an asteroid wiping us all out, but you'd probably just fly up and move it. So, I need a better example.. but maybe that /is/ the point. The rest of us... we all have to accept a certain amount of helplessness for the problems we can't solve. You don't have many of those. So.. if you want my advice? Just enjoy what you have while you have it."

Superman has posed:
Clark gives a nod at the talk of worrying. And she's right he doesn't need to worry about it for years. "I guess it's because don't want to lose what I have. Whether it's tomorrow or decades from now," and even he's hard press to admit that changes could make this attachment larger than before.

A hand goes over her her and he gives a light squeeze. Then he reaches out to snag another bacon piece. Sky blue eyes looking at her, "I guess I just want to enjoy t all," and then he leans down to kiss the top of her hand after his slips away. Sky blue eyes look back toward her for a moment.

Lois Lane has posed:
"Then stop worrying so much," Lois chides, smiling faintly at him after that kiss of her hand, letting her fingers linger on his. "You're stuck with me. For a very long time, still. What you /should/ worry about is the fact that we promised we would stop keeping secrets from each other, and I -- for one -- would very much like to avoid us falling back into the habit of keeping parts of our lives separate from each other."

There's something less angry and more... worried.

"Is that.. what we're doing, still, and I just didn't realize it? Are we going to start keeping things from each other again?"

Superman has posed:
"I didn't keep secrets from you. I was actually looking for an immortal named Nash. He dates back to before the second world war. Name's different. I went to a bar in New Jersey, a place he's known to frequent. Then I met a different immortal there instead. I was getting ready to leave, they flagged me down," he admits honestly sky blue eyes looking at her.

"I met a different immortal. The only thing I ekpt is her name simply because I don't know if they want me telling their story. I'm not sure how immortals feel about names, but the bar was Mac's," he says soo she knows the place he was at. Everything. "I'm not keeping secrets. Just protectng a source in his view." His gaze stay on Lois for a moment.

Lois Lane has posed:
"Reporter's Privilege protects you from revealing your sources to the court, Clark. Not your wife -- or future wife."

Unfortunately, this wasn't a bone that Lois was intending to drop any time, and though she didn't pull her hand away, her expression did get cold.

"You should take some time and figure out where your loyalties are -- with her, or with me. And exactly how much you're comfortable with me keeping from you in the future. The answer to that question changes a lot of things for us... and what I understood our agreement was going into this."

It's only then that she draws her hand back, going back to her eggs -- apparently prepared to drop it, though that worried expression never faltered.

Superman has posed:
"Her name is Amanda," Clark says honestly as he looks at her. It's easy to him to pick where his loyalty lies when she puts it like that. There is a difference. "I never got her last name and she probably has twenty aliases at minimum," he says honestly on everything. His gaze stays on the woman for a moment.

Lois Lane has posed:
Surprise. Relief. Lois's utensils still when her eyes lift again, and that frosty, worried exterior melts away as quickly as if someone had thrown water in her face.

She sets the knife and fork down, sliding out of her chair and moving to Clark's. She slipped down between him and the table, nestling into that narrow space and perching on his thigh, her hands going to his cheeks.

"Thank you."

She couldn't have been any more sincere. Not even when she leaned in to place her lips against his, lingering there for a long moment before leaning back.

"That gives me a place to start in case something happens to you. You tell me you're worried that in forty years I might be old when you're not, but I'm worried that /tomorrow/ some ridiculous immortal power that I have /no/ control over is going to take you away from me -- by hook or by crook. You know I won't use it unless I have to. I /hope/ you trust me that much. All I ask is that, while I have you, we don't keep secrets. The only way I have to help you if something happens is with things you tell me."

Superman has posed:
"It was a conversation, Lois. And I went there to meet a man," Clark raises a brow at her for a moment. His gaze stays on her, "Are you worried some super-powered person is going to steal me from you? Because I can answer that question for you. Look at your left hand. You ignored me. We fought. We didn't know where we stood. I had ample time to leave, so did you. What did -we- chose?" Clark asks her honestly in retort.

"You have never been a buyer's remorse like decision. You have never been second place. Or the consolation prize. Do I think -you- could do better? Yes, but you're a sucker for mid-westerners, I think," he teases a little bit.

"Point is. I made my choice. I literally talked to Goddesses about artifacts without any inkling of a crude thought. I'm sure one non-serious conversation at you. . .it's hard to stay a boyscout. Understand? To me, you're the Goddess. The immortal. And all the other things you worry about," and then he flashes away and comes back in a light blue suit with a red tie. There is still a countdown afterall.

"If I'm the alien that makes you exotic to me by default. Stop selling yourself short, Lane. Look at your finger when you do. And remember I talked to -immortals- about how I can stand the thought about losing -you-. I can mourn colleges. I can mourn family. You. . .that's a thought I don't want to think of. And I know time travlers. I would be tempted to do some major abuses to keep you alive," Clark is trying to make something abundantly clear. Lois is basically the driving force for those conversatons. It's because one day he has to outlive -her-. That's the pill hardest for him to swallow.

Lois Lane has posed:
"No!" Lois protests, even if it /was/ a blatant lie. "That's not..."

But soon she was back on her feet and he was zipping out of the room, then zipping back in with that familiar breeze. At this point, she didn't even flinch, anymore.

The whole thing, though, leaves her sighing softly. Once he's reappeared, she reaches up to straighten his tie more out of reflex than the fact that it actually needed to be straightened. Plus it gave her an opportunity to look up at his face directly.

"Okay.. yes. /Maybe/ I still worry about that. Some. But I worry about who it is more when you make it seem like /their/ secrets are more important than /our/ open honesty with each other -- whether it's a woman, man, or a child. I don't like secrets. You know that. And I especially don't like the thought of you not trusting me enough to tell me everything. I understand your worries about the possibility of being immortal. /I/ need time to process the thought, too, and then we can talk more about it. But it's not just someone stealing your heart, Clark. If something happens to you, I will rip this universe apart to find you. And the next dimension. And the next. I just.. want to know who you're talking to so /I/ know who to go looking for if I need to. Does that make sense?"

Superman has posed:
"I just worry about aliases and identities. Immortals don't have costumes, so I don't know what I can call them that keeps them safe yet not," and that's the gray area for Clark. He doesn't know -how- to address them while protecting them. Again, they don't tend to wear spandex.

And maybe she could see he's not exactly protectng her. Clark has to walk a line and he may not tell Lois the identities of people. However, she would know every hero name he is around. Immortals ae new, even for him. Well, except for one, but he seems to be the exception.

"Don't rip apart the universe for me Lane," he says thinking of the literal implications. However, he could understand the drivet o do so. "Let's not try to destroy the worlds looking for each other."

Lois Lane has posed:
"With me, you can call them whatever you know them by," Lois says. And, for better or worse, this was the line that Clark would find with most anything he withheld. She had a nose like a bloodhound for sniffing out half-truths and missing details. Big things like names had a tendency to stand out even more.

"And if we need to fly to Antarctica or up into outer space so you can feel more comfortable telling me -- granted, I'm not exactly looking forward to that second one -- that's what we'll do."

The mention of not ripping apart the universe, though, has her rolling her eyes. "Oh, you should have thought about your precious universe before you proposed," she teases, turning to collect the plates from the table and stack them. Hers wasn't nearly as finished as his was. It seemed like, at some point during the conversation, she'd lost her appetite. Or at least gotten too distracted to eat.

"Now the best you can do is everything in your power to keep me from having to come looking for you."

There's playfulness in her eyes, but also more than a little brutal honesty. He wanted a partner -- a wife -- and she'd accepted the role. There weren't many things she wouldn't do to come to Clark's aid.

Superman has posed:
Clark nods knowing the seriouness in her voice. Sky blue eyes rest on her. He straightens his tie a little bit. "No lies or anything like that Lois," he assures her knowing she's a bloodhound. It's why he didn't lie, just didn't know how to give a name.

Then he nods knowing Lois -would- do that. Sky blue eyes looking at her for a moment. "I will give you things to find me. I told you it was at Mac's," she would know where to find him. "That's where future meetings will happen at. Neutral ground in the magical circles," he says honestly. The sky blue eyes rest upon her. He knows Lois would look and question -everyone- inthe place.

Lois Lane has posed:
Lois sighs softly, carrying the dishes in and setting them beside the sink. One at a time, she scraped them off into the trash. Hers, unfortunately, still had most of the food on it. Then the empty plates go into the sink. "I know it's not a lie, Clark. And if we keep going around in circles, I'm going to be late for work. The omissions bother me as much as the lies. That's all. I don't want breadcrumbs when I ask you who you've been with. I want details."

She turns, then, and looks up at him. "Open. Honest. Communication." Each word is punctuated by a little poke in his chest with one finger. "No. Secrets."

She smiles faintly. Well, this whole breakfast had been more of an emotional roller-coaster than she's really expected.

"But thank you for keeping the venue consistent. That will help."

When she turns back, she's collecting the pants she used and putting them in the sink as well. Dishes would have to wait until she got back home.

"Maybe we can talk more over dinner, tonight?"