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Inspired by watching Superman Returns. Three times. No warnings, but it is headed in an OT3 kind of direction.
"…And he never lies."
It hadn't seemed important at the time, when he was distracted by Kryptonite and watching Clark trip over his chair. Richard had missed out on the Superman phenomenon the first time around; you didn't become leading international editor of the Daily Planet by staying in one place, and despite Superman's powers, there were a lot of places in the world where he was nothing more than a legend. Still, the guy was cool. Seeing through anything? Best power ever.
Later, though, Lois' words floated back into his brain. He never lies. Really? Was that a strength, or a weakness, Richard wondered. There would be no dancing around the issue with Superman, no half-truths designed to soothe everyone's feelings. You could ask anything, straight out, and get an honest answer. "Did you sleep with Lois?" "Are you still in love with her?" "Are you the reason she won't marry me?" "Is Jason really my son?"
Richard winced even as the last question formed in his mind. He could ask the questions, and Superman would have to tell the truth, because he never lied. But it was Richard who would have to hear the answers.
So he bit his tongue, because there were some things he just wasn't ready to hear.
Sometimes he actually had to kick himself to keep the words from popping out. When Clark suggested 'Superman' as the password for Lois' computer, "How stupid do you think I am?" was on the tip of his tongue, and he couldn't quite hide the grimace as his shin connected with the desk.
Other times, he couldn't force the words out no matter how much he wanted. "Is this what you came back for?" reverberated in his skull from the moment they fished Superman out of the water until the second he stepped out of the plane, but Richard couldn't say a word.
But sitting in traffic gave a person a lot of time to think. Especially standstill traffic surrounding the thousands of people who were surrounding the hospital that Lois and Jason had walked away from him for. Richard told himself not to be so melodramatic -- they weren't leaving him, they were just going for a visit. They'd be back.
And in the silence of a car surrounded by noise, but somehow separate from it, there was one more question Richard didn't ask. Not out loud, not even as a fully formed thought in his own consciousness. That part of his brain was full of other questions -- How was he going to get the car out of this mess? Would they reschedule the Pulitzer ceremony for Lois? Did they need to pick up another inhaler refill for Jason?
But deep in his subconscious, there was a sense of time running out. Yes, Lois and Jason would be back. This time. But for how long?
**********************************************
It had taken Richard less than an hour to guess, and less than a day to be completely sure. At times it seemed like the guy wasn't even trying to hide it. Broken glass in the picture frame? Knowing Lois' password? Looking exactly the same? First came surprise, then irritation. And then, somehow, it became a kind of game; a "who else knows?" game. After all, there were top-notch investigative reporters all around him; surely someone else had noticed something.
Jimmy totally knew. If Richard had to guess, he'd say something Superman had done while rescuing Metropolis from the shock wave must have clued the photographer in. Because before that, Jimmy wouldn't shut up about the guy, and after it, Jimmy clammed up and looked guilty whenever the S-word was mentioned. So either Jimmy and Superman were having an illicit gay affair, or Jimmy knew.
Richard was pretty sure Perry knew too. Because seriously, did Clark ever actually do any work? He might have super-speed, but there was a limit to how fast any computer program could accept input, not to mention the wear and tear on the hardware components. In the time they spent "collaborating" on the blackout article, Clark had mostly seemed to wander around, getting coffee and tripping on things. Richard thought he was laying it on a little thick, but maybe that was for Lois' benefit.
Richard still didn't know how Lois had missed it all those years. In truth, he still wasn't sure if she was really as clueless as she acted about the whole thing, or if she was willfully denying the facts in front of her. The second seemed more likely, given Lois' personality, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out why.
**********************
He was sitting at the bar, drinking … something. He hadn't really paid attention to what the bartender handed him; it was in a bottle, which he vaguely remembered being his stated preference before he left. Before he was gone for five years, and forgot how to be human. Out of all the places he remembered from five years ago, this was the only one that didn't make him feel like an alien. That didn't make him feel like he was trying to fit into a skin that didn't fit right anymore, and maybe never had.
It had shaken him, to see his mother cry. To hear her say she'd thought he was never coming back. Even after that, he'd thought he could do it. Slip back into his old life -- bumble around at the Planet, save the world in his downtime. Five years … it hadn't seemed like an insurmountable obstacle, not compared to what he'd seen out there in the galaxies.
But somewhere out there, out in the vast depths of the space between stars, he'd lost something. Oddly, it was the plane that really bothered him the most. His first official act as Superman after a five year hiatus, and in a ballpark full of people cheering his name, he'd felt like a fraud. He'd torn the wing off, for goodness sake. What kind of idiot tried to stop a plane in free fall by grabbing the wing? And then he'd set the plane down in a baseball field. And left it there. He'd been so flustered by … all of it, that he'd just flown off and left the plane sitting there in the middle of the diamond.
Clark groaned, and put his head down on his arms. Why had he come back? Why had he thought he could do this? Why did he keep living, even after he had prepared himself to die?
It had seemed so clear, when he realized what Lex Luthor was doing, and what would need to be done to stop it. He'd thought about it before, of course -- how to almost exponentially increase his power for a theoretical sort of 'final strike.' Never expected to actually do it. Never expected to live through it if he did.
But he'd torn the wing off of the plane. His brain refused to stay focused on anything deeper, and stubbornly returned to his pathetic bumbling of the plane rescue. He'd torn the wing off, and then left it in a ballpark. Perry's question returned to him -- how were they going to get it out of there? He supposed he'd better offer his services, since it was his fault it was there in the first place.
Also, why couldn't he find an apartment? It's not like he had high standards. He didn't even need to sleep, which was the only reason storing his stuff in a closet at the Planet and super-speeding into a change of clothes every once in a while had worked so far. But it wasn't a permanent solution. And since he had, inexplicably, survived, he needed to find a place to live. He would admit only to himself that what he really needed was a reason to live. A reason to try.
He didn't remember it being this hard.
***************************
It was a victory, of sorts. In the days following Superman's recovery, when Clark's own life felt like it was falling apart, Superman asked for the case of Metropolis v. Lex Luthor to be reopened. This time it was Luthor who didn't show. His parole was revoked.
He was also tried, in absentia, for theft, weapons smuggling, reckless endangerment, kidnapping, falsifying a will, and assault. Even in Metropolis, there still weren't any laws covering things like 'tried to create a new landmass using alien crystal technology.' Likewise for 'climate disruption,' 'damage to oceanic ecosystems caused by introducing alien materials,' or 'being a jerk.' Lois Lane fought hard to see polluting and illegal dumping charges added to the list, but the city's lawyers had decided to stick with a sure thing.
Superman normally didn't get involved with the courts. It wasn't like another life sentence or two would stop Lex Luthor from trying to carry out whatever nefarious plan he came up with next. But it was a counter-move in the complex chess match they played with each other. A sort of 'anything you can do, I can do better,' move.
Superman even got himself a lawyer, and did all the paperwork required to keep any other criminals from escaping through what they were already calling the 'Luthor Loophole.' It felt … good. Petty revenge was a human emotion, right?
*******************************
He'd been prepared to like Clark. Jimmy mentioned him at least three times a day, and everyone at the Planet seemed to share the impression that Clark Kent was friendly, likeable, and an all-around good guy. Even Lois spoke about him like some kind of dorky little brother, which for her was high praise.
What he hadn't been prepared for was liking Superman. After all, Richard wasn't stupid. He'd known back when he first met Lois that anyone trying to win her heart would be competing with the "Man of Steel." He'd tried anyway, and won. Mostly.
But now Superman was back. He'd saved all their lives, Richard and Lois and Jason, without a hint of jealousy in his eyes. And Richard had checked. He had saved them, and then they'd gone back to save him, and then he left anyway, proving he really was the hero that everyone called him.
When it was all over, Richard was left feeling … guilty. He'd poached Superman's girlfriend. The guy saved the world every other day, never asked for anything in return, then goes away for a couple years and comes back to find some other guy has stolen his girlfriend.
It wouldn't have seemed so bad if Superman had been a jerk about it. But no, he had to be all heroic, and have a great sense of humor, and seem genuinely concerned about all three of them.
Plus, Superman was stalking his son. Richard wasn't stupid about that either. He lived in Metropolis, city of danger, with Lois Lane, the number one target of every psychotic criminal in the state. Obviously, they had security cameras. Every night, Superman would hover around outside Jason's window. Sometimes he came inside, and Jason always pretended to be asleep.
**************************
Lois was sick and tired of all the men in her life ignoring her. Richard spent all his time watching Clark, and Clark spent all his time watching Jason, who was spending his days at the Planet while his school was closed for repairs. Perry was hounding her to get another exclusive from Superman, who seemed to want to talk to everyone except her. Even Jimmy, who normally could be counted on to have all the latest gossip, had been avoiding her lately.
She really wanted a cigarette. Why couldn't Superman have stayed away? She'd moved on; things were fine. She had Richard, and Jason, and a normal life. It was what she'd always wanted, right?
She managed to keep herself convinced for a week. Then Jason went back to school, and Clark disappeared -- someone told her he was working on some fluff piece about animal shelters, not that she really cared. Richard went back to his office, and the worldwide furor over Superman's return dropped to a dull roar.
Everything was back to normal, but it still felt wrong. Five years ago, she'd mourned the loss of Superman, but gained something wonderful in return. She'd loved Superman before, she loved Richard now -- secretly, she'd been glad she never had to choose. Now Superman was back, but seemed further out of reach than ever, and the happy family she'd thought was finally within her grasp felt like it was slipping through her fingers.
**********************************
When Richard finally did the math, he was shocked. It took him a while to work through all the time zone differences, and he didn't know exactly how fast Superman could fly, but still -- did he ever sleep? Eat? Watch a movie? Some surreptitious checking showed that Superman hadn't been nearly as active before he'd gone on his five year break. Maybe he was making up for lost time?
Or maybe, Richard thought, he just didn't have any reason to stop.
Turnabout seemed to be fair play -- Clark stalked Jason, so Richard stalked Clark. What could he say, he'd always had a thing for glasses. Plus, for a superhero with a secret identity? Pretty predictable. There were two times of day when he could be fairly sure of catching a glimpse of his quarry. One was Superman's nightly visit to Jason. The other was Clark's nightly visit to the journalists' bar next to the Planet.
Of course, there was always the traditional 'stand somewhere precarious and scream for help' technique as well. Richard thought Lois was doing a fine job handling that aspect, though, so he went with the second option. He didn't want Clark to be able to fly away from this conversation.
Because Richard was finally ready. He had a list of questions, and Superman never lied.
*******************************
"Hey Clark."
iPods, Clark thought, were the best invention he'd missed while he'd been away. Not only did they play music, they provided an excellent excuse for ignoring people that you didn't want to talk to. See, Clark Kent was polite, that's what everyone said. He'd never ignore someone who was trying to get his attention. But when he was listening to his iPod … well, Kent had always been a little absentminded, right? Probably just had it turned up too loud and didn't hear you.
"You here to take Kent home?" It was the gruff voice of the bartender. Probably talking to Richard.
Clark ignored them. He didn't want to talk to Richard. Wasn't it enough that he had Lois and Jason? Clark wasn't interfering; he was leaving them alone, to be a happy family, live the American dream. Okay, he was still checking in on Jason, but only when the boy was asleep, and he was going to stop, really, any day now. He'd been avoiding Lois like the plague -- neither one of them seemed willing to play the game anymore, and it was easier to not have to pretend.
"Why, is he giving you trouble?" Richard again, sounding disbelieving.
Clark resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He still wasn't sure why Richard hadn't confronted him before this, either to interrogate or to gloat. He really hoped it wasn't the gloating -- as much as Clark wanted to hate the man, he seemed nice. Lois was lucky to have him.
"Nah, not me," the bartender responded. "But he's depressing the other customers."
The bar was almost deserted. It was hard to tell if the few customers remaining were seated far from Clark by choice or coincidence. It was almost closing time, after all.
"Hey Clark."
Much closer this time, and Richard sat down on the stool to his left. Too close to ignore. Clark pulled the headphones down from his ears.
"Oh!" he said. "Uh, hi Richard -- what are you doing here? Where's Lois?"
"Lois is at home, with Jason. Can I give you a lift anywhere?"
"No -- no, I'm good. I'll just walk … you know, clear my head a little."
Richard's eyes were full of knowledge when he spoke again. "Come on, how many ties have you gone through this week? How many pairs of shoes? You can't have an endless supply in those suitcases of yours. Which are already in my car, by the way."
Clark just stared at him. What?
"Look, you haven't found a place to stay yet. We have lots of extra room. Come stay at the house for a couple days." Richard actually sounded sincere. He even reached over to tug on Clark's arm. "The invitation is from all of us," he said firmly. "It'll be great, I promise."
It must be the interrogation, then. Of course Richard wouldn't want to do that where other people could hear; it made perfect sense. Although paying Clark's tab wasn't typically a part of the scenario. The car ride was an uncomfortable silence, at least on Clark's end. He kept waiting for the questions to start.
But Richard didn't ask. Didn't say a word, except to tell Clark his bags were in the trunk, and show him a room. He pointed out where the towels were, and wished Clark a good night.
And for the first time since arriving back on Earth, Clark slept.
**************************************
Richard didn't generally consider himself to be a very introspective person. He was a doer, not a thinker, and he was happy not to waste a lot of time comtemplating potential ramifications. It just seemed weird, sometimes, that they never talked about it.
****************************************
Perry thought it was great. Between the three of them, he usually got about a day and a half's worth of work, but that was a hell of a lot more than he'd been getting before Clark came back. Lois and Jason both attracted trouble like magnets, and between Richard, Clark, and Superman, they managed a tag-team that averted the worst of the crises. Plus, there was just something totally cool about having a superhero on the payroll.
*****************************************
Clark slid into his seat at the meeting five minutes late. He'd meant to be on time, but there had been a traffic pileup, and a warehouse fire, and … well, five minutes late didn't seem too bad, considering.
From his right, he heard Lois whisper, "Glasses." Oops. He kept forgetting -- after five years, not wearing them seemed more natural than having them on. Clark's mind raced to come up with a solution. He'd used the spare pair in his desk on Tuesday, after the bomb threat, and the ones in the car on Wednesday when that bank had been robbed. He could fly home, but Perry was expecting him to have an article finished soon, and it was his day to pick Jason up at school.
There was a nudge from his left, and Richard passed him something under the table. Clark's hand closed around a familiar shape, and he ducked his head to hide a smile. He slipped on the glasses, and went back to pretending to take notes on whatever Perry was saying.
"Thanks."
************************************
"…And he never lies."
It hadn't seemed important at the time, when he was distracted by Kryptonite and watching Clark trip over his chair. Richard had missed out on the Superman phenomenon the first time around; you didn't become leading international editor of the Daily Planet by staying in one place, and despite Superman's powers, there were a lot of places in the world where he was nothing more than a legend. Still, the guy was cool. Seeing through anything? Best power ever.
Later, though, Lois' words floated back into his brain. He never lies. Really? Was that a strength, or a weakness, Richard wondered. There would be no dancing around the issue with Superman, no half-truths designed to soothe everyone's feelings. You could ask anything, straight out, and get an honest answer. "Did you sleep with Lois?" "Are you still in love with her?" "Are you the reason she won't marry me?" "Is Jason really my son?"
Richard winced even as the last question formed in his mind. He could ask the questions, and Superman would have to tell the truth, because he never lied. But it was Richard who would have to hear the answers.
So he bit his tongue, because there were some things he just wasn't ready to hear.
Sometimes he actually had to kick himself to keep the words from popping out. When Clark suggested 'Superman' as the password for Lois' computer, "How stupid do you think I am?" was on the tip of his tongue, and he couldn't quite hide the grimace as his shin connected with the desk.
Other times, he couldn't force the words out no matter how much he wanted. "Is this what you came back for?" reverberated in his skull from the moment they fished Superman out of the water until the second he stepped out of the plane, but Richard couldn't say a word.
But sitting in traffic gave a person a lot of time to think. Especially standstill traffic surrounding the thousands of people who were surrounding the hospital that Lois and Jason had walked away from him for. Richard told himself not to be so melodramatic -- they weren't leaving him, they were just going for a visit. They'd be back.
And in the silence of a car surrounded by noise, but somehow separate from it, there was one more question Richard didn't ask. Not out loud, not even as a fully formed thought in his own consciousness. That part of his brain was full of other questions -- How was he going to get the car out of this mess? Would they reschedule the Pulitzer ceremony for Lois? Did they need to pick up another inhaler refill for Jason?
But deep in his subconscious, there was a sense of time running out. Yes, Lois and Jason would be back. This time. But for how long?
**********************************************
It had taken Richard less than an hour to guess, and less than a day to be completely sure. At times it seemed like the guy wasn't even trying to hide it. Broken glass in the picture frame? Knowing Lois' password? Looking exactly the same? First came surprise, then irritation. And then, somehow, it became a kind of game; a "who else knows?" game. After all, there were top-notch investigative reporters all around him; surely someone else had noticed something.
Jimmy totally knew. If Richard had to guess, he'd say something Superman had done while rescuing Metropolis from the shock wave must have clued the photographer in. Because before that, Jimmy wouldn't shut up about the guy, and after it, Jimmy clammed up and looked guilty whenever the S-word was mentioned. So either Jimmy and Superman were having an illicit gay affair, or Jimmy knew.
Richard was pretty sure Perry knew too. Because seriously, did Clark ever actually do any work? He might have super-speed, but there was a limit to how fast any computer program could accept input, not to mention the wear and tear on the hardware components. In the time they spent "collaborating" on the blackout article, Clark had mostly seemed to wander around, getting coffee and tripping on things. Richard thought he was laying it on a little thick, but maybe that was for Lois' benefit.
Richard still didn't know how Lois had missed it all those years. In truth, he still wasn't sure if she was really as clueless as she acted about the whole thing, or if she was willfully denying the facts in front of her. The second seemed more likely, given Lois' personality, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out why.
**********************
He was sitting at the bar, drinking … something. He hadn't really paid attention to what the bartender handed him; it was in a bottle, which he vaguely remembered being his stated preference before he left. Before he was gone for five years, and forgot how to be human. Out of all the places he remembered from five years ago, this was the only one that didn't make him feel like an alien. That didn't make him feel like he was trying to fit into a skin that didn't fit right anymore, and maybe never had.
It had shaken him, to see his mother cry. To hear her say she'd thought he was never coming back. Even after that, he'd thought he could do it. Slip back into his old life -- bumble around at the Planet, save the world in his downtime. Five years … it hadn't seemed like an insurmountable obstacle, not compared to what he'd seen out there in the galaxies.
But somewhere out there, out in the vast depths of the space between stars, he'd lost something. Oddly, it was the plane that really bothered him the most. His first official act as Superman after a five year hiatus, and in a ballpark full of people cheering his name, he'd felt like a fraud. He'd torn the wing off, for goodness sake. What kind of idiot tried to stop a plane in free fall by grabbing the wing? And then he'd set the plane down in a baseball field. And left it there. He'd been so flustered by … all of it, that he'd just flown off and left the plane sitting there in the middle of the diamond.
Clark groaned, and put his head down on his arms. Why had he come back? Why had he thought he could do this? Why did he keep living, even after he had prepared himself to die?
It had seemed so clear, when he realized what Lex Luthor was doing, and what would need to be done to stop it. He'd thought about it before, of course -- how to almost exponentially increase his power for a theoretical sort of 'final strike.' Never expected to actually do it. Never expected to live through it if he did.
But he'd torn the wing off of the plane. His brain refused to stay focused on anything deeper, and stubbornly returned to his pathetic bumbling of the plane rescue. He'd torn the wing off, and then left it in a ballpark. Perry's question returned to him -- how were they going to get it out of there? He supposed he'd better offer his services, since it was his fault it was there in the first place.
Also, why couldn't he find an apartment? It's not like he had high standards. He didn't even need to sleep, which was the only reason storing his stuff in a closet at the Planet and super-speeding into a change of clothes every once in a while had worked so far. But it wasn't a permanent solution. And since he had, inexplicably, survived, he needed to find a place to live. He would admit only to himself that what he really needed was a reason to live. A reason to try.
He didn't remember it being this hard.
***************************
It was a victory, of sorts. In the days following Superman's recovery, when Clark's own life felt like it was falling apart, Superman asked for the case of Metropolis v. Lex Luthor to be reopened. This time it was Luthor who didn't show. His parole was revoked.
He was also tried, in absentia, for theft, weapons smuggling, reckless endangerment, kidnapping, falsifying a will, and assault. Even in Metropolis, there still weren't any laws covering things like 'tried to create a new landmass using alien crystal technology.' Likewise for 'climate disruption,' 'damage to oceanic ecosystems caused by introducing alien materials,' or 'being a jerk.' Lois Lane fought hard to see polluting and illegal dumping charges added to the list, but the city's lawyers had decided to stick with a sure thing.
Superman normally didn't get involved with the courts. It wasn't like another life sentence or two would stop Lex Luthor from trying to carry out whatever nefarious plan he came up with next. But it was a counter-move in the complex chess match they played with each other. A sort of 'anything you can do, I can do better,' move.
Superman even got himself a lawyer, and did all the paperwork required to keep any other criminals from escaping through what they were already calling the 'Luthor Loophole.' It felt … good. Petty revenge was a human emotion, right?
*******************************
He'd been prepared to like Clark. Jimmy mentioned him at least three times a day, and everyone at the Planet seemed to share the impression that Clark Kent was friendly, likeable, and an all-around good guy. Even Lois spoke about him like some kind of dorky little brother, which for her was high praise.
What he hadn't been prepared for was liking Superman. After all, Richard wasn't stupid. He'd known back when he first met Lois that anyone trying to win her heart would be competing with the "Man of Steel." He'd tried anyway, and won. Mostly.
But now Superman was back. He'd saved all their lives, Richard and Lois and Jason, without a hint of jealousy in his eyes. And Richard had checked. He had saved them, and then they'd gone back to save him, and then he left anyway, proving he really was the hero that everyone called him.
When it was all over, Richard was left feeling … guilty. He'd poached Superman's girlfriend. The guy saved the world every other day, never asked for anything in return, then goes away for a couple years and comes back to find some other guy has stolen his girlfriend.
It wouldn't have seemed so bad if Superman had been a jerk about it. But no, he had to be all heroic, and have a great sense of humor, and seem genuinely concerned about all three of them.
Plus, Superman was stalking his son. Richard wasn't stupid about that either. He lived in Metropolis, city of danger, with Lois Lane, the number one target of every psychotic criminal in the state. Obviously, they had security cameras. Every night, Superman would hover around outside Jason's window. Sometimes he came inside, and Jason always pretended to be asleep.
**************************
Lois was sick and tired of all the men in her life ignoring her. Richard spent all his time watching Clark, and Clark spent all his time watching Jason, who was spending his days at the Planet while his school was closed for repairs. Perry was hounding her to get another exclusive from Superman, who seemed to want to talk to everyone except her. Even Jimmy, who normally could be counted on to have all the latest gossip, had been avoiding her lately.
She really wanted a cigarette. Why couldn't Superman have stayed away? She'd moved on; things were fine. She had Richard, and Jason, and a normal life. It was what she'd always wanted, right?
She managed to keep herself convinced for a week. Then Jason went back to school, and Clark disappeared -- someone told her he was working on some fluff piece about animal shelters, not that she really cared. Richard went back to his office, and the worldwide furor over Superman's return dropped to a dull roar.
Everything was back to normal, but it still felt wrong. Five years ago, she'd mourned the loss of Superman, but gained something wonderful in return. She'd loved Superman before, she loved Richard now -- secretly, she'd been glad she never had to choose. Now Superman was back, but seemed further out of reach than ever, and the happy family she'd thought was finally within her grasp felt like it was slipping through her fingers.
**********************************
When Richard finally did the math, he was shocked. It took him a while to work through all the time zone differences, and he didn't know exactly how fast Superman could fly, but still -- did he ever sleep? Eat? Watch a movie? Some surreptitious checking showed that Superman hadn't been nearly as active before he'd gone on his five year break. Maybe he was making up for lost time?
Or maybe, Richard thought, he just didn't have any reason to stop.
Turnabout seemed to be fair play -- Clark stalked Jason, so Richard stalked Clark. What could he say, he'd always had a thing for glasses. Plus, for a superhero with a secret identity? Pretty predictable. There were two times of day when he could be fairly sure of catching a glimpse of his quarry. One was Superman's nightly visit to Jason. The other was Clark's nightly visit to the journalists' bar next to the Planet.
Of course, there was always the traditional 'stand somewhere precarious and scream for help' technique as well. Richard thought Lois was doing a fine job handling that aspect, though, so he went with the second option. He didn't want Clark to be able to fly away from this conversation.
Because Richard was finally ready. He had a list of questions, and Superman never lied.
*******************************
"Hey Clark."
iPods, Clark thought, were the best invention he'd missed while he'd been away. Not only did they play music, they provided an excellent excuse for ignoring people that you didn't want to talk to. See, Clark Kent was polite, that's what everyone said. He'd never ignore someone who was trying to get his attention. But when he was listening to his iPod … well, Kent had always been a little absentminded, right? Probably just had it turned up too loud and didn't hear you.
"You here to take Kent home?" It was the gruff voice of the bartender. Probably talking to Richard.
Clark ignored them. He didn't want to talk to Richard. Wasn't it enough that he had Lois and Jason? Clark wasn't interfering; he was leaving them alone, to be a happy family, live the American dream. Okay, he was still checking in on Jason, but only when the boy was asleep, and he was going to stop, really, any day now. He'd been avoiding Lois like the plague -- neither one of them seemed willing to play the game anymore, and it was easier to not have to pretend.
"Why, is he giving you trouble?" Richard again, sounding disbelieving.
Clark resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He still wasn't sure why Richard hadn't confronted him before this, either to interrogate or to gloat. He really hoped it wasn't the gloating -- as much as Clark wanted to hate the man, he seemed nice. Lois was lucky to have him.
"Nah, not me," the bartender responded. "But he's depressing the other customers."
The bar was almost deserted. It was hard to tell if the few customers remaining were seated far from Clark by choice or coincidence. It was almost closing time, after all.
"Hey Clark."
Much closer this time, and Richard sat down on the stool to his left. Too close to ignore. Clark pulled the headphones down from his ears.
"Oh!" he said. "Uh, hi Richard -- what are you doing here? Where's Lois?"
"Lois is at home, with Jason. Can I give you a lift anywhere?"
"No -- no, I'm good. I'll just walk … you know, clear my head a little."
Richard's eyes were full of knowledge when he spoke again. "Come on, how many ties have you gone through this week? How many pairs of shoes? You can't have an endless supply in those suitcases of yours. Which are already in my car, by the way."
Clark just stared at him. What?
"Look, you haven't found a place to stay yet. We have lots of extra room. Come stay at the house for a couple days." Richard actually sounded sincere. He even reached over to tug on Clark's arm. "The invitation is from all of us," he said firmly. "It'll be great, I promise."
It must be the interrogation, then. Of course Richard wouldn't want to do that where other people could hear; it made perfect sense. Although paying Clark's tab wasn't typically a part of the scenario. The car ride was an uncomfortable silence, at least on Clark's end. He kept waiting for the questions to start.
But Richard didn't ask. Didn't say a word, except to tell Clark his bags were in the trunk, and show him a room. He pointed out where the towels were, and wished Clark a good night.
And for the first time since arriving back on Earth, Clark slept.
**************************************
Richard didn't generally consider himself to be a very introspective person. He was a doer, not a thinker, and he was happy not to waste a lot of time comtemplating potential ramifications. It just seemed weird, sometimes, that they never talked about it.
****************************************
Perry thought it was great. Between the three of them, he usually got about a day and a half's worth of work, but that was a hell of a lot more than he'd been getting before Clark came back. Lois and Jason both attracted trouble like magnets, and between Richard, Clark, and Superman, they managed a tag-team that averted the worst of the crises. Plus, there was just something totally cool about having a superhero on the payroll.
*****************************************
Clark slid into his seat at the meeting five minutes late. He'd meant to be on time, but there had been a traffic pileup, and a warehouse fire, and … well, five minutes late didn't seem too bad, considering.
From his right, he heard Lois whisper, "Glasses." Oops. He kept forgetting -- after five years, not wearing them seemed more natural than having them on. Clark's mind raced to come up with a solution. He'd used the spare pair in his desk on Tuesday, after the bomb threat, and the ones in the car on Wednesday when that bank had been robbed. He could fly home, but Perry was expecting him to have an article finished soon, and it was his day to pick Jason up at school.
There was a nudge from his left, and Richard passed him something under the table. Clark's hand closed around a familiar shape, and he ducked his head to hide a smile. He slipped on the glasses, and went back to pretending to take notes on whatever Perry was saying.
"Thanks."
************************************
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"I'll be strong as Superman
We'll be just alike, hey won't we dad?
When I can do all the things you do
'Cause I've been watching you"
--Rodney Atkins, "Watching You"