Rating: K+
Disclaimer: I don't own anything Smallville, etc.
Summary: A shared kiss. A broken heart. An uncertain future. Clark/Lois. Set in S8.

Note: This is my first attempt at Smallville fiction and I plan on it being a short one. Loosely based on a few spoilers I've read about Lana coming back. Hope you enjoy! Would love feedback! R&R please!

I need you now and forever

So stay right here with me

Don't ever leave

Love was kept from me like a secret

And I swore that I was through

Until you…

Until You

Chapter 1

Clark Kent hung up the phone with a disillusioned sigh.

"So?" An eager Chloe Sullivan-Olsen asked from her perch on the edge of his desk at the Daily Planet.

Clearly frustrated, Clark leaned his head into his hands and began to massage his temples. "Another dead end."

"Well, what did he say?" Chloe pressed.

"It doesn't matter." Clark answered with an edge to his voice. "The woman he knows clearly isn't Lois."

"I don't understand this." Chloe pushed herself off Clark's desk and began to pace in front of him. The animation in her voice made it to her hands. "How can one person as obvious as Lois simply go missing for a month?"

"Chloe, we have looked for her everywhere. Thought of everything. Maybe…" Leaning back in his chair, Clark's trouble gaze met hers. "…maybe it's time for us to consider the possibility that Lois just doesn't want to be found."

"No, Clark." Chloe shook her blonde head. "I will not accept that Lois chose to leave without saying a word. Not now. Not from here. She was…happy, Clark. For the first time in her life, Lois finally found a home. Here at the Planet. And with us." There was a pause of consideration, then Chloe once more rejected the idea. "No. She would not leave us voluntarily."

Clark's jaw worked with agitation as a silent thought assaulted him. She would not leave you. Me, on the other hand…

Weeks of fruitless searches came crashing down on Chloe. She sank into a seat next to Clark and leaned forward. "Tell me again. What happened that night?"

Restless, Clark began to distractedly organize files on his desk. "Chloe, we've gone over this." As if filing the mile-high stack of folders on his desk was suddenly the most important thing in the world, he jumped up and made his way to the file cabinet.

Chloe followed him. "Then let's go over it again."

Shoulders rising and falling with a deep sigh, Clark's head lowered as he placed his hands on top of the cabinet and leaned in. His eyes drifted closed hiding the guilt he'd been feeling for the past four weeks. Slowly, he began. "It was the night of your wedding. At the reception, I asked Lois to dance. And we took the floor."

Clark swallowed hard as the memory of that dance haunted him. The way those beautifully shaped eyes gazed up at him. The softness of her smile. The sensation of her body tightly molded against his. He could still feel the scorching heat of her hand where it rested against his bare skin. In his left hand. Around his neck. It was as if, in that one dance, she had seared herself into his soul.

"I remember." Chloe prompted softly when Clark paused, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. "Jimmy commented how good the two of you looked together. I noticed how intense you were."

"We were…talking." Saying so much more than mere words. "About you and Jimmy. About life and…love." Admitting too much. Admitting everything. And nothing at all. "About finding our soulmates." Finding ourselves in each other. Recognizing. Realizing. "And then…"

"Lana walked in." Chloe supplied for him.

"After that…" Clark nodded solemnly and turned to her. "…Lois just…disappeared." As if trying to hold on to the memory of that dance, the hand that had held hers that night reflexively clenched into a fist by his side. His blue eyes grew distant and lifeless. "I haven't seen her since."

"Clark." Knowing her friend as well as she did, Chloe knew he was holding something back. "Is there anything else…anything…you haven't told me?"

A gasp. A whispered "No…" The sound of tears. Her tears.

Like a song on repeat, the sounds his super-hearing had picked up that night had disturbed every sleeping and waking minute of the past four weeks. They were sounds that had broken a kiss between he and Lana. Sounds that had prompted his leaving Lana's side. Sounds that had driven him into the night in search of her.

Sounds that were slowly driving him insane.

"Clark?" Chloe prompted.

Clark's gaze met hers, saying more than he could voice.

"Hi, guys." Lana Lang's voice broke the silence.

Chloe bit back a groan. As much as she loved her childhood friend, Lana simply had the worst timing of anyone on the planet. She glanced up and Clark and instantly knew he felt the same. She plastered on a smile and stepped around him, hoping to give him time to compose himself.

"Hey, Lana! What are you doing here?" She was sure Lana would see through her forced sweetness.

She didn't. Her gaze shifted eagerly to Clark. "Clark and I have a dinner date."

"Really? Is it that late already?" Chloe asked as she glanced down at her watch. She could sense Clark's attention had shifted. "So, uh…where are you going?"

Lana was looking past her with a gaze of blind adoration. "Wherever Clark wants." The subtle double-meaning of her words was not lost on Chloe.

Or Clark. He cleared his throat and entered the conversation. "Well, I thought we could try out that new place on Saturn Avenue. The food is supposed to be out of this world."

Lana chuckled as the lame joke. "Sounds heavenly." Eyes dancing with anticipation, she held out her hand to him.

Clark hesitated, swallowed, then took her hand. Mumbling a hasty good-bye, Clark allowed Lana to lead him out of the Daily Planet, all the while clenching his left hand by his side.

"Wow." Lois Lane's hazel eyes widened as she beheld the elegance and expense laid out in front of her.

For her.

The expansive ballroom seemed to shimmer and sparkle. Consistent with the celestial theme of the evening, beautiful women in silver gowns floated across the room in the arms of beautiful men cloaked in the colors of midnight. Beneath them, a raised glass floor contained the elements of the universe. Tiny lights twinkled through a fathomless ocean of Prussian blue like stars in the night sky. A light fog seeped through the darkness like puffy clouds of white. Above them, a ceiling of crystal stars.

"You like it?" His smooth, culture voice sounded low in her ear as one strong arm slipped around her waist. His very presence warmed her from head to toe. It made her feel cherished.

"Like it?" Lois breathed, the awe in her eyes increasing with each new registered detail. "It's like a dream from a fairy tale."

"That may or may not be a good thing coming from you." He teased.

"It's better than good." She turned to him with a bright smile. Her hands gravitated to his chest and despite the layers of clothing separating their skin, she could feel his well-defined muscles beneath her fingers. "It's perfect."

He smiled a rare smile, the shadows in his chocolate eyes disappearing for a moment.

"How did you do all of this?"

He chuckled, sending a rippling dimple into his cheeks. "You'll soon discover, when your last name is Wayne, the whole world tends to move for you."

"Hmmm…" Lois leaned into him, her grin widening. "…something to look forward to."

"Why wait?" Gotham City's dashing and illusive playboy, billionaire Bruce Wayne, had clearly been captured by the spitfire ensconced in his arms. He sent a heated whisper across Lois' skin as he lightly, deliberately brushed her lips with his thumb. "Utter a wish, I'll make it a command."

"Are you going to always be this wonderful?" Lois asked suddenly.

"Depends."

"On what?"

"If you'll always be with me."

"I think that's the purpose of this." Lois answered as she flashed a diamond ring in front of him.

"And I think the purpose of all this…" Bruce indicated their surroundings with a tilt of his head. "…is to announce that." His eyes lowered to the ring firmly encircling Lois's finger. A soft smile played on his bowed lips as his intense gaze met hers. "So, what do you say, Lois Lane? Are you ready to tell the world you're mine?"

"Only if you're ready to claim me." Lois answered back.

"Ready?" Bruce grinned. "Lois, I've been waiting for this my entire life…"

Tbc…