(no subject)

[dovelike]

Six months ago, Eirene became engaged to an alien.

Fix months ago, she returned to her own world for almost two months, to make arrangements with Time himself so that she could pass through the Bar into Clark's world without things falling apart in her homeland without her presence.

Three months ago, the goddess returned to Clark's world with an agreement to go home twice a month to keep abreast of things and never leave her realm without a symbol of peace, barring any childbearing in which it would not be safe to travel.

Two month ago, she met with Senator Kent (and her future mother in law) and agreed to take cooking lessons when Martha had time.

An hour ago, Eirene completed her first solo dinner preparations, an early Halloween meal for herself and Clark. Except he's not returned from the office yet. Being late is generally an assumed thing with her fiance, and she's used to it. Really, it would just be nice if he called.

So she doesn't start panicking.

Comments

[hero_farmboy]

The cigarette is given a brief but distasteful glance and then he does sit down, but at the very far end.

"I won't. It's gone now. Whatever you did, it got rid of it."

Beat.

"And the last thing we want is me sneezing. Trust me."

[eirenikos]

It gets put out after a noticeable hesitation, ground underneath one of her sandals. She's not completely sure she should believe him, but the expression he's wearing is enough to punch her in the gut.

Eventually: "What was 'it'?"

[hero_farmboy]

"Red K. Chloe and I went to check out a construction site that hit load of unusual rocks. I should have known better, but by the time we got there it was in the dust and the air and I..." He trails off and sighs, gaze steady on his hands in his lap. "I didn't realize what it was until it was too late."

Pause.

"I'm sorry." He'll be saying that repeatedly for a while yet.

[eirenikos]

"I whammied you. It was the only thing I could think of that didn't involve violence."

Eirene takes a shallow, shaky breath and fights down the nausea.

"Red K removes your inhibitions, not what you think. Am ... Am I really just there to 'cater to your needs'?"

[hero_farmboy]

"Of course not." He answers that automatically and then takes a long, slow breath to try and work out a reasonable - and honest - explanation.

"Eirene, I love you and you're going to be my wife soon. And part of that involved having those... needs. And when I do, I want you to be the one I have them with, but that doesn't mean that's all I see you as."

He sighs. "You know, the first time I was exposed to red K, I accused my parents of treating me like nothing more than a piece of free farm equipment. And yeah, there were times I wished I didn't have so much work to do, or that they didn't rely on me so much, but I never honestly hated or resented them for it. It just all gets exaggerated."

[eirenikos]

Eirene scrubs a hand through her hair, and listens quietly, trying to sort through the last few hours and what happened, exactly.

"I didn't like what you became, Clark. To the point where I was ready to stay at HQ or ask Dinah if she'd mind a roomie for a while. But I still love you, and I don't know what that says about me."

She looks back down at the ground, a hand lifting to wipe away falling tears.

[hero_farmboy]

"I don't like what I become, either. And I wish I could control it, or better yet that it didn't exist, but I can't and it does."

He doesn't really know what else to say. There isn't anything he can do to erase the genuine hurt he caused her, and he knows it. "Thank you for what you did. I don't want to think about what might have happened if I'd had to wait for it to work its way out of my system."

[eirenikos]

"Neither do I," Her voice is quiet, with a certainty that she knows exactly what would have happened. "I ruined your dinner," Eirene adds after another span of silence. She sounds guilty about it, and her voice cracks on the last word.

Her fist hits his shoulder about three seconds later. "You scared the hell out of me, Clark!" It seems they've moved into the anger portion of tonight's escapade.

[hero_farmboy]

He takes it, and compensates so she doesn't hurt herself, but doesn't shield himself from any of it either. She has a right to be angry.

"I'm sorry. I never wanted to do that to you."

Pause.

Softly, "Do you want me to go to a motel or something?"

[eirenikos]

"I don't know."

Another shaky breath while she rubs at her face, trying to get rid of the one emotion she was never meant to house inside of her, and then springs off of the bench backwards (once she's checked to make sure all the kids are gone) to be sick in the bushes.

[hero_farmboy]

It doesn't matter how much Clark respects her space and the right to have whatever feelings she has about what happened, but there isn't anything that could keep him from her side right at this moment.

Even if he's not exactly beside her, but a few feet away. "Can I get you anything?"

[eirenikos]

She sits back after a minute, conjuring a bottle of water to wash her mouth out with and get some liquid inside her. There's a shrug of her shoulders, head kept down, but Clark will probably be able to figure out she's trying to cry quietly.

Eirene really does not know what to do.

[hero_farmboy]

"Please don't cry," he's practically pleading. Because... he may start himself. "Can we just go home and talk about this in private?"

[eirenikos]

"Take me home." Her voice is somewhat strained, but she offers a shaking hand without hesitation. In this, at least, she does trust him, and is willing to show that.

[hero_farmboy]

Slowly, he reaches out to take her hand-- and then they're in the apartment. Clark lets go of her immediately, and starts pacing in front of the couch.

"I don't know how to fix this."

[eirenikos]

It takes under three minutes of watching him pace for Eirene to reach out and tug him down onto the couch with her.

"There are issues that need to be talked about. So we talk, or yell. Whatever works."

[hero_farmboy]

He allows himself to be tugged and sits down, rather pathetically.

"I'm so sorry. The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you, especially like this. Just-- please don't leave me. I need you. I wasn't lying when I said that."

[eirenikos]

Damnit.

She's still really angry at him, but Eirene finds herself crawling into his lap anyway, and hugging him as tightly as she dares.

"You deserve to sleep on the couch for the next eight years, but I'm not going to leave you. Not, like, leave leave, although I was serious about crashing with Dinah for a few days if you ... if my whammy hadn't worked. I love you. Don't you get that? Good or bad, poor or rich, and everything in between. I'm yours and you're mine."

[hero_farmboy]

He clings back just as tightly. "I'll do whatever you want. Just-- love me and don't leave me. Please."

[eirenikos]

"Don't you dare cry on me, Clark Kent. Don't you dare." Because she's crying too now, stroking a hand down his hair and wincing against the onslaught of emotions that he's letting loose.

And that's how she figures out exactly how sorry he is in a way that words can't express.

"Oh, my heart. I'm not going to leave you. You're stuck me with me."

She might brush her lips across his forehead, then his nose, and eventually his mouth.

[hero_farmboy]

"Promise?" Suddenly he fees like he's five years old again, making sure his parents aren't going to get tired of him and take him back to the orphanage.

[eirenikos]

"Yes." Her response is instantaneous. "With one exception, and this is non negotiable. If you ever beat me or abuse me in the bedroom, I will, no matter how much I love you. Aside from that, I promise I won't ever leave you. You're mine for the rest of eternity, and I'm going to marry you, and have your children, and we're going to protect the Earth. You and me and our friends."

Beat.

"But we still have to sort out some of what happened tonight."

[hero_farmboy]

"I won't. I won't, I promise." Which isn't really something he can make, because things like today just keep happening, but for the moment, he truly means it.

"Yeah, I guess we do. Although I think it's pretty well covered by 'Clark was a jackass.'"

[eirenikos]

There's a difference now. Eirene knows she can affect him while he's under the influence of one form of meteor rock, and there's a chance that could include the others. It's a slim hope, but at least it is something.

She reaches back and removes one of his hands from her waist, lacing her fingers with his. "It does. So talk to me. Somewhere, deep down, you meant some of that stuff. Tell me what I'm doing wrong."

[hero_farmboy]

There's a pained expression on his face at that. "You're not doing anything wrong, Eirene. I love you - all of you - just the way you are and the way we have things going right now."

Beat.

"Tonight aside."