Soft Morning | Superman

“This is nice.”

Clark hummed his agreement, too sleepy to add a comment of his own.

Lois’s voice trailed off as she eased herself closer, curling in against her husband’s side. One arm slung across his chest, the hand intertwining with his own.

“…just us.”

He smiled, staring sleepily out of the nearby window. The sunlight streaming through the open window indicated a late morning hour, but he was too content right where he was to bother checking a clock. It wasn’t as if it mattered what time it was anyway. They had nowhere to be. And he couldn’t think of any better place than lying here beside his beautiful wife.

This vacation had been the best decision ever. Even though the newlywed couple had managed to sneak a brief honeymoon in between work and world-ending disasters, they hadn’t found the chance for much togetherness since then. Lois had first proposed the idea of this weekend getaway, and it hadn’t taken much persuading to get Clark to agree.

“Any plans for today?” Lois asked, voice soft and content in a way Clark rarely heard it. She tilted her head up slightly, smiling teasingly at him. “I heard there’s a wonderful marketplace down the road from here.”

Clark shook his head, sinking further into the pillows behind them. The arm that was wrapped around his wife tightened slightly, drawing her even closer against his side. “As tempting as that sounds,” he said, “I think I’m good right here.”

Lois smiled and buried her head into his shoulder, sighing contentedly. “Yeah. This is really good.”

Almost right on cue, the cell phone on the bedside table began to vibrate.

“Why didn’t I remember to turn that off?” Lois groaned.

Clark didn’t bother answering the device. It was a special one that only one man in the world had the number to. Tilting his head slightly, he tuned his hearing to filter out other sounds until he was zoned in on the familiar gruff tone of the General’s voice.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Situation in Oregon,” Clark told her, still trying to catch all the details. “Your dad has it contained for now, but…”

“But, he’d like you to come save the day as soon as possible.”

Clark sighed, leaning his head back against the pillow again. “You know, I do have a cousin who can also fly at the speed of sound,” he commented.

It wasn’t a complaint. Not exactly. More like wistful contemplation. To anyone else, he wouldn’t have said anything. But Lois was different. She knew both Superman and Clark, and seemed to understand them both better than anyone else.

“It’s okay,” Lois murmured, stretching to plant a kiss on his temple. “We can still have the whole day to be lazy and ignore the world. A day to just be Lois and Clark. But right now, they need Superman.”

He nodded. She was right, as she often was. He’d accepted this responsibility the moment he first put on the suit. But Lois hadn’t. He wished there was a way to keep Superman from interfering with her life, too.

“I knew what I was getting into,” she said, somehow once again reading his mind. Part of him often wondered if she had some hidden superpowers of her own.

One ear still trained on the situation in Oregon, he could tell it was fast approaching the critical stage. He needed to leave. Now.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She stole one more kiss before rolling away to let him up. “You have to go. You wouldn’t be the man I fell in love with if you didn’t have to.”

Warmth swelled in Clark’s chest. That was the best answer he knew for the question as to which of them was the better journalist — the way Lois could say so much with so few words.

He placed a gentle kiss on her head and stood up. “I’ll be back soon. I promise.”

“I’ll be right here waiting.”

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