Author: KitKaos
Prompt: Sunset
Word count: ~1003
Summary: Lois and Clark have to make it through the night...
A/N: A HUGE thank-you goes out to Repmetsyrrah for the quick and simply awesome beta! *hugs* - This little piece was written for the April FicGrab round over at EyesSkyward.com, and since CK has posted her awesome story over here as well now...
Disclaimer: I don't own anything – I just like playing in other people's sandboxes
The Sun Also Rises
Just one more sunset – they only needed to make it through one more sunset...
And then what?
Then another. And another, and another... It felt like there were only sunsets without anything much in between – like all they had to do was to move their chair just a little and there was yet another one. And they had long passed the forty-four-sunsets record the Little Prince had set on his beloved little planet. Earth wasn't half as small!... But Lois had promised herself not to think of all this. One more, just one more... One by one, together, they'd get through all the sunsets they'd need to.
Think positive, Lane, think positive! Positive thoughts!
She would never get tired of the view from up here. It was breathtaking; the huge red orb of the sun in front of them hugging the horizon, painting soft, colorful anti-shadows of flaming orange, crimson and purple. The hero and heroine riding – or rather, flying – off into the setting sun toge—
A sharp turn whipped her hair around her face.
“Sorry...” she could hear his voice – soft, yet in it an edge of sheer exhaustion he couldn't quite keep from her. But warm, familiar. Clark's voice, not Superman's. Another place, another time, and she would have found it comforting, wouldn't have been worried about this fact; on the contrary. Like this, though...
But she didn't get around to finishing this line of thought, as she felt more than heard something big and dangerous whoosh by.
They were getting closer!
Whoosh! And another one...
If only he could fly faster with her in his arms. He could easily get out of the fighter jets' range if it wasn't for her... “You know I'm holding you back,” she shouted over the howling wind.
His gaze pierced through her, unwavering. “And you know I'm not having this conversation with you again.” Pighead.
Another volley, an eerie green glow momentarily illuminating the soft shadows around them.
And another sharp turn, downward. The first lights getting closer – streetlights, from windows and neon billboards. Sharp detail in the soft, comforting anti-glow of the minutes just before night fell.
The scariest part was, just a little while ago, she would have screamed, revealing her fear, letting him know she didn't trust him as completely as he deserved. Not anymore.
Lois could feel Clark's head turn around and back. Could see the small, relieved smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Looks like they've fallen back a bit. At least for a while.”
He slowed his free-fall flight and for a moment, they were just hovering there, hanging by invisible strings only a few dozen feet above a foreign city. Soaking up the last rays of the sun, the brief calm in the middle of all this mess. He drew his cape a little tighter around her, tugged an errant lock of hair back behind her ear, only to watch it come undone almost immediately. “Sorry this last turn was a bit... abrupt,” he whispered as he touched his forehead to hers. “Are you okay, dear? How are you holding up?”
What she wanted to do was comfort him, tell him she was okay and he should get some rest. Yet, she knew the situation would just barely allow them to catch their breath. So she just nodded, biting her lip but needing to look him straight in the eyes. “Put me down so you can shake them off,” she started with what she hoped sounded reassuring but determined.
Quickly, she continued before he could object, “We both know you could easily get rid of all the jets in the world if it wasn't for me. Do it! I'll go into hiding here, I promise I'll make it through. Then you can just come and get me once they're gone. Tomorrow.”
“But, Lois...” She could see fear in his eyes, even though he tried to hide it.
“No buts,” she said emphatically. She couldn't have anything that might persuade her to stay with him. He was, after all, the only constant she had left – but he would come back for her, she knew he would. “We need to end this cat-and-mouse game! Sooner better than later! And you can only do it when you don't have your hands full with little old me, you know that just as well as I do.” She met his gaze head on, saw all the hesitation, all the doubts there she hoped she was hiding well enough from him at this very moment.
It was now or never. They were running out of time. Lois could already hear the military fighter jets coming closer again over the blood rushing in her ears.
And she knew Clark could hear them as well. “I won't let you go,” he sounded as supermanly as she ever heard him. “What if they find you? What if they catch you?”
“They won't. I'm Lois Lane, remember?” She mustered a wry smile. “And even if they do, their general's my father. He'd never let anything happen to me.”
They were getting closer. Not in position to shoot again yet, but it wouldn't be long. She couldn't have Clark waste precious time by trying to talk her out of her plan.
“You need a break. It's our only chance!” And with that, she pulled his head down to her, pressing her lips against his in a hungry kiss.
Then she quickly wriggled out of his stunned embrace. And fell – toward the dark streets underneath her.
And felt his arms catch her, her feet softly touching ground. Smiled.
“Don't ever do this again. I'll see you at dawn.” And with that, he was gone, faster than her eyes could follow, nothing but the echo of a sonic boom remaining. Away into the dim light of the last rays of the setting sun...
