Speed Dating

[sanalayla]

A/N: Part of the Jade/Sana Challenge Series. 
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“You’re doing what?” Clark asked, staring down at his girlfriend in disbelief.

“Speed dating, Clark. How many times do I have to repeat it?” Completely unaffected by his reaction, she continued to fill her bag with papers and various electronic devices. Clark frowned in confusion when he saw that one of the devices was a taser. His concern deepened.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to be more annoyed about,” Clark finally said, as he followed her to the elevators. “That you’re going on ten dates or that you’re setting yourself up for bait to catch a serial killer.”

Lois rolled her eyes as she jammed the elevator call button. “Smallville. You’re acting like I’m going to invite the guy up for a night cap. We’re going to be in a public place, surrounded by forty people.”

“Tell that to the four women who were killed by this guy,” Clark pointed out. It was amazing how Lois always managed to completely ignore the obvious. “They were also in a public place, surrounded by forty people. It didn’t help them any.”

“It’s totally different, Clark,” Lois responded, giving him that look where it was clear she thought he was the one overlooking the obvious.

“Why is that?” Clark asked, knowing full well he wasn’t going to like her answer.

“Because I’m me. Hello.” The doors to the elevator slid open and she stepped in. Turning back to glance at him, she added, “Look, I know what I’m doing. Those poor girls didn’t know what they were getting into. I do, so I can handle it.”

“Lois.” Clark tried one last time to get her to see reason. “I think this is a bad idea.”

Lois studied him for a moment, her finger on the button to keep the door open. “Concern duly noted, Smallville.”

“And duly ignored,” Clark shot back, with more than a little exasperation.

All he got for a response was a grin and quick wink from Lois before the doors shut between them.

~


Clark walked into the hotel room that had been reserved for the speed dating event Lois had signed up for. Looking around, he identified the people who seemed to be the organizers of the event. Keeping an eye for Lois – who was nowhere to be found – he tapped a petite, blonde woman on the shoulder.

He cleared his throat and asked, politely, “Excuse me, I’d like to sign up for the speed dating event?”

Before she’d even turned around, she said, “We’re booked. You should have signed up --.” Her words broke off when she turned to face him. Slowly, she looked him over and then smiled. “Um… well…” With a faint flush in her cheeks, she looked down at the clip board in her hand. “Number seven is a no-show. You could take his spot.” Her voice was a little breathless as she stared up at him.

“Are you sure?” Clark’s brows furrowed in confusion. “I mean, I don’t want to break the rules or anything.”

“Some rules are meant to be broken….” The woman answered, looking even more flushed, and Clark could hear that her heart rate was speeding up. A bit concerned, he wondered if he should tell her to call a doctor. It looked like she was coming down with something.

“Okay, well, that’s great,” Clark answered, finally, nodding slightly. After all, that was why he had come. “What do I need to do?”

The woman led him over to the registration table and quickly got him set up. Glancing down at the receipt in his hand, he winced when he saw how much he just paid for a series of dates with people he had no intention of dating. Not for the first time, he wondered how he managed to get himself into these situations. Then, his super-hearing kicked in and he heard Lois’s voice, clearly. “I am not wearing the damn badge. I can just tell them my name. It’s not hard.” And he remembered. Lois. That’s how he got himself into these situations.

He settled down at the table where all the men were gathered. The organizer had explained that the women would all stay seated at their respective tables and the men would be the ones who moved from table to table. There were a total of ten men and ten women. He watched as Lois settled down at her table.

His eyes widened when he saw what she was wearing. It was the red dress she’d worn on her date with Sebastian last year. Briefly, he wondered if that was her special “undercover on a date” dress, because she’d never actually worn it on any of the dates she’d been on with him. Did she keep it in the special closet she reserved just for her costumes?

The random thought made his mind wander and he started to think about all the costumes he’d seen in that closet. Or, specifically, pictured Lois wearing them. As he usually did, he tried to push those thoughts away. Because, frankly, the whole ‘taking it slow’ thing was going to be shot to pieces if he allowed himself to start focusing on those fantasies.

Clark was forced to snap back to attention when the organizer began the event. As he was directed, he went to table number seven. All the men would start with whatever number they were assigned until they’d made a full rotation around the room. After the speeding round was over (five minutes for each couple at each table), there would be a reception and dinner following the speed dating round. Clark sincerely hoped that he’d figure out who the serial killer was before they got to the reception.

As he settled down at the table – opposite a dark-haired and blue-eyed woman named Maggie, according to her badge – he glanced towards Lois’s table. She still hadn’t noticed he was there. She was shaking hands with the man who was joining her at her table and smiling at him. He resisted an urge to go up to her and tell her to stop smiling. And, then, wondered where the urge had even come from.

Letting out a heavy sigh, he looked across at Maggie. “Hi. I’m Clark.”

Maggie smiled at him. “I’m Maggie.” She gestured towards her badge as she said so. And Clark was struck by the fact that Lois had been right. What was the point of the badge?

“Um… so….” Clark struggled to figure out what to say to the woman. There was a timer on each table and, surreptitiously, Clark glanced at it and saw that there were still four minutes out of the five left.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you here?” Maggie asked him, suddenly. She looked him over and added, “I can’t imagine you find it hard to get a date.”

Clark focused on her for the first time and asked her, with some confusion, “What do you mean?” Before he could stop himself, he looked towards Lois’s table again, and saw that she was leaning over the table to talk to her “date”, which gave her “date” a glimpse of her black bra. His jaw clenched and he almost shot out of his chair.

Maggie’s brows rose and then she shook her head. “Never mind.” Then she glanced back at Lois’s table and turned to him, wryly, “I think… I have the answer to my question.”

Clark turned back to Maggie, with a frown. “Sorry. What question?”

She let out a sigh and leaned back in the chair, crossing her arms across her chest. “Forget it. Let’s just… we only have three minutes to go.”

The next two “dates” went pretty much the same for Clark. The women tried to engage him and he truly tried to be polite, but it was really hard when they kept asking him out. He wanted, so badly, to just say he had a girlfriend, but that would have defeated the purpose. It didn’t help that Lois seemed to be having the time of her life, casting flirtatious looks at every single guy that sat her table and letting them hold her hand. Okay, well, maybe that guy had only touched her hand for two seconds before she’d pulled it away, but it was still a really long two seconds.

Then the point came where he had to sit down at Lois’s table. And by that point came, Clark was not in a happy mood. He sat down and said, somewhat tersely, “Hi, my name is Clark. What’s your name?”

Lois stared at him for a moment and then rolled her eyes. “Lois Lane.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t even notice I was here,” Clark answered, completely dropping the pretense.

“Oh, I noticed,” Lois shot back, in a low tone. “I was just ignoring you.”

“Why?” Clark asked, feeling, as usual, that he couldn’t keep up with her.

“Because I’m undercover as a single person!” Lois replied, in a loud whisper. “It’s kind of hard when your boyfriend is sitting right there.” She glanced around and must have realized that folks were starting to look at them and she plastered on a fake smile. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I wanted to help you with your story,” Clark answered, trying to keep his voice even. He didn’t bother to tell her that he was worried about her and wanted to make sure she was safe. That would just irritate her further. “Thought we could share the byline.”

“Huh….” Lois nodded slowly. He winced when he saw her eyes flash – a clear indication that a tirade was forthcoming. “So, let me get this straight. There are all those times when I ask you to help with a story and you completely blow me off. And, now, when I told you I wanted to take this one solo, you decided to barge in and share my byline? You’re unbelievable!” By the last word, she’d completely forgotten about the people around them and her story, because she shot to her feet and grabbed her bag, heading out the door before he could respond.

~


Lois sat across from him, at her desk, completely ignoring him. As she had been doing for the past twenty-four hours. He had never thought he’d think this, but he would much rather have her yelling at him than giving him the silent treatment. He watched as she got up and went to get something from the printer, letting out a muffled curse when she saw the printer was out of paper. Without a backward glance in his direction, she took off – presumably to go get paper from the supply closet.

He let out a deep sigh of frustration. That was it, he’d had enough. He shot up and followed her to the closet and when he got there, he locked the door behind him. Lois, for her part, continued to ignore him. She placed a chair next to the desk and stepped on the chair to climb onto the desk, in an effort to get to the paper on the highest shelf. He studied her for a moment, wondering if he should offer to help, since it didn’t look safe for her to be standing on the desk in her high heels and tight skirt. His eyes travelled up the length of her long legs and came to stop at her lips, which were pressed into a tight line.

“Lois.” Clark finally said, when it was obvious she wasn’t going to say anything. “You have to talk to me at some point.” When she didn’t respond, he went for broke. “For the record, I was right.”

As he’d expected, that earned him a dirty look and a gasp of outrage. “You were right? What the hell does that mean?”

At the knowledge that he knew her so well, he bit back a grin. And reminded her, “Well, you were drugged and kidnapped. So, I was right.”

Lois put her hands on her hips and stared down at him in disbelief. “The only reason I was drugged and kidnapped was because I was in that alleyway. The only reason I was in that alleyway was because I was trying to get away from you. So you were NOT right. I was right, because I knew it was better to fly solo on this one.”

“Wait, you’re telling me it’s my fault you got kidnapped?” Clark gazed up at her and shook his head in exasperation. “Come on. You’re being ridiculous.”

“And you’re being an ass,” Lois retorted.

Clark’s jaw dropped. “I can’t believe you just said that.” It was such a foreign concept to him to be called that – the guy who was basically considered the nicest man in the world – that he didn’t even know how to react. Finally, he just said, “You’ve never called me that before.”

“Don’t act like one and I won’t call you one,” Lois shot back.

“No one’s ever called me that before,” Clark added, with a frown.

“Really?” Lois answered and one brow rose as she peered down at him, her arms crossed. “Because, trust me, I’ve thought it plenty of times.”

There was no doubt about it. She had rendered him speechless once again. And, in spite of himself, he felt his lips begin to turn up into a reluctant smile. “Only you would say that to me.”

Lois didn’t smile back. She let out a sigh. “Smallville. You got in the way of my story. For the record? That’s not okay.”

“I’m sorry.” Clark swallowed and gazed up at her, deciding that he might as well tell her the truth. “I was jealous.”

“Jealous?” Lois repeated, looking incredibly confused. “Why?”

“You were sitting there, flirting with all those guys. They thought you were single,” Clark explained, feeling each word get stuck in his throat. Because it was physically painful to be admitting this weakness to her. He avoided her gaze and focused on a point near the window. “You were wearing that dress,” he added, under his breath.

“That dress?” Lois shook her head. “That’s my going undercover on a date dress.”

Even knowing he had been right didn’t make him any happier about it. Meeting her eyes again, he said, firmly, “I want you to put that dress in retirement, Lois. ” Before she could say anything, he held up his hand. “I’m not telling you to not chase after these sorts of articles. I’m just saying… next time… go undercover as a nun.”

Lois’s eyes twinkled in amusement. “How, exactly, could I have gone undercover as a nun to a speed dating event?”

“You’re very creative,” Clark informed her. “I’m sure you would have figured it out.”

At that point, Lois let out a slight laugh. She stared down at him for a second and then said, in a casual tone, “I’m sorry. For… you know… calling you an ass.”

“It’s okay….” Clark looked at her suspiciously. “Does that mean you won’t do it again?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Smallville,” Lois answered, in a teasing voice, with a grin.

With more than a little bemusement, Clark shook his head. What was it about Lois that he could never stay mad at her? “So… does this mean that we made up? You’re talking to me again?”

“Yes,” Lois answered, decisively.

“Good.” Clark kicked the chair out of the way and then stepped closer to her. Grasping her around the waist, he picked her up and effortlessly brought her down from the desk, so she was right in front of him.

Lois looked up at him in surprise, as though she couldn’t believe he did that. “What are you doing?”

“Making it official,” he answered, with a grin. And then he captured her lips with his own, muffling any sounds of protest.

Lois broke away and said, “Wait. I have a meeting with a source in five minutes.”

Clark stared down at her with dismay and let out a groan. He couldn’t very well stop her when he’d just essentially promised to not get between her and a story. “Okay… fine….”

“Just kidding.” Lois giggled at the expression on his face. Her hands came up and tangled in his hair as she brought him down for a kiss. “Let’s make it official some more.”