Bad Day.

I'm going to be perfectly honest, and say that the only reason I was spurred into writing the next chapter of this is because someone told me, rather vehemently, that they didn't like it. Yes, I am overly stubborn and contrary. But hey, at least I wrote. But I know that plenty of people are reading it, so...

Clark knew that his day was doomed when he realized that he'd slept through the alarm.

If asked, he probably couldn't have told you how he knew this. Plenty of people sleep through their alarms and go on to have perfectly good days. But somehow Clark knew that this day was different, that this day was special in a really, truly, horrible sort of way.

He was right.

Because he slept through the alarm, he got up late. Because he got up late, he had to skip breakfast, since he was supposed to have been at work half an hour ago, and that put him in a really foul mood.

Unlike Lois, he didn't have to take the mass transit system or even one of Lex's really spiffy cars to get to work, so the fact that the distance between Lex's penthouse and the Daily Planet was longer than the distance between their apartment and the Daily Planet didn't bother him in the least. In fact, it was usually better for him, since there was a far greater chance of stumbling over a crime victim if he was coming from their apartment, and that delayed him far more effectively than a few extra miles possibly could. Usually, Clark could speed to work from the penthouse without any worry at all about possibly detours to save people.

Of course, today of all days would be the exception. Clark had barely made it out of the elevator before he heard the cries for help. Not Superman's help, just help, anyone, please help me, over and over and Clark was already on his way down the alley, several blocks over, because when had he ever been able to ignore a cry for help?

It turned out to be a well-dressed woman (like there was any other kind, in this district) being attacked by an equally well-dressed man. He was mugging her, and he wasn't raping her or threatening her with a knife, so her life probably wasn't in certain danger. But he'd slammed her against the wall and was holding here there and Clark could see a bruise forming across her cheekbone already, and the sight filled him with the same rage that it always did, when he saw someone hurting someone weaker than them. It used to be a helpless rage, because what could a simple farm boy do about things like that? But Clark wasn't helpless. Not anymore.

He was in the alley before an eyeblink of time had passed, about to lift the guy off the woman before he realized that he wasn't in his Superman uniform. At the moment he was plain Clark Kent, and Clark Kent couldn't pick grown men up by the scruffs of their necks. So he made a split-second change of trajectory and landed his closing fist on the man's jaw instead, carefully regulating his strength so that the man was stunned but not unconscious or dead from a broken neck.

He turned to the woman and said, "Are you okay?" and then realized that he knew her. She lived in the building next to the penthouse, and sometimes they would be leaving for work at the same time in the morning and they would nod at each other and maybe smile distractedly before going on about their separate days. He didn't know her name or anything about her, really, other than that she was obviously rich and that she had a pretty smile.

"Oh thank God you were here," she said, taking a hitching breath. "He would have- Well, I don't know what he would have done, but it would have been bad." She leaned gratefully against the arm he offered her.

"Who is he?" Clark asked. He wasn't usually here for this part, the cleanup of the crimes he stopped. Usually it was save and run, and someone else fixed things. He wasn't sure of the etiquette.

"My ex-boyfriend," she said. "I ended things because he was too controlling, and, well, he didn't like that very much. He was waiting for me when I walked past the alley, grabbed me and dragged me back here. To talk, he said." She shuddered.

Clark tried to look understanding. He was sure that he managed sympathetic, at least (how could he really understand, anyway? No one was ever going to be strong enough to abuse him like that) because she smiled at him.

"Thank you," she said softly. "I don't know how far he would have gone if you hadn't stopped him."

The object of their discussion suddenly stirred and groaned, and Clark stared down at him in distaste. "Do you want me to call the police for you?"

She nodded, but looked a little regretful. "I want him to rot in jail," she said. "But it's really too bad. I have to get to work or my boss will kill me."

And then Clark remembered. Work. He was already late for work. He could leave right now, call the cops and go and she'd be fine, the guy wasn't going to hurt her again so she didn't really need him to stay here with her…

One look at her face and he realized that there was no way he was going to be able to leave her to face this alone. "I'll stay, if you want," he offered, and her smile was so grateful that he knew he was going to be stuck here the whole time- which meant police reports and questions and far, far too much time.

He was doomed.

Lois shot him an irritated glance when he stalked over to their desk, almost an hour later. "Where the hell were you, Smallville?" she demanded. "We have to get this done by three or it won't hit the printers in time. Did you sleep in or something?"

"Bite me," he invited, and settled down in his chair with a thunk. "It'll be done. Just let me work."

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Lois muttered, and Clark glared at her.

"Someone's alarm didn't go off, because someone's girlfriend turned it off when she got up way too early and someone's boyfriend didn't turn it back on. And then someone had to save a girl from her psychotic ex-boyfriend and had to deal with police reports. And someone hasn't had breakfast and is in a really bad mood. So if you could just leave that certain someone alone, Lois, and let me finish the damn article, all will be golden in this person's life. Understood?"

She'd listened to his recitation with wide eyes. "Sorry, Clark," she muttered, and he knew she was actually sorry because she was using his given name, which never happened. Not when they were at work. Which reminded him that hello, they were at work, where as far as anyone knew they were both just dateless losers who happened to be good friends and certainly didn't know the billionaire Lex Luthor, so what the hell was he doing talking about girlfriends and boyfriends where anyone could hear him? A quick look around assured him that no one actually had heard, but still. It was stupid. Careless. He and Lois had been playing this game of secret-keeping for years now, just for the hell of it, and it was unforgivably careless that when they actually had someone's reputation to protect (Lex's, not theirs) he would just blurt something out like that.

Scowling to himself and hating the world, he turned back to his monitor and reached for Lois' coffee mug. He took one absent-minded sip, then made a horrible face and set it back down. Cold.

His day just kept getting better and better.

He did finish the story, and sent it off to the printers with about thirty seconds to spare. Speed-typing did come in handy once in a while, and Lois had a lot of practice covering the fact that his hands were, in fact, moving faster than the eye could see. Having their desks in a dark corner helped.

He'd no sooner hit "send" then Lois was leaning over his shoulder, telling him about some corrupt government official who was taking payments from the CEO of petro-chemical corporation to look the other way while they dumped hazardous waste into the water-supply systems in the suburbs outside of Metropolis. She wanted to go spy on him, (she called it "surveillance") and would probably skewer his weaselly little heart with her pen, but this surveillance was going to take place on the alley in Suicide Slums where he picked up his payments from the CEO. Not the best neighborhood for any woman to be walking around alone, especially one who dressed as neatly as Lois did- she might as well have a bull's-eye painted on her back. So she needed backup, and a super-strong, invincible alien who just happened to be her partner suited Lois' needs perfectly.

Clark was actually opening his mouth to agree when his pager went off. Not just any pager, but that pager, the one that was actually a direct line to the Fortress, who monitored the globe for natural disasters and other such Superman-needing occasions. The pager going off meant that he was needed somewhere, in uniform, right that instant, no delays possible.

He sent Lois a despairing glance, and she just sighed and shook her head. She knew what the pager meant. "Get out of here," she said. "I'll cover with Perry."

Sometimes, every now and then, he was tempted to kiss her. Just kiss her, and to hell with what anyone thought. This was one of those times. "Thanks, Lois," he said, giving her hand a grateful squeeze instead. "I'll try and make it back before your spy mission if I can." He fixed her with his fiercest Superman glare. "But if I can't, then you won't go down there. Alright? You know damn well that it's too dangerous for you alone."

"Yeah, yeah, alright," she said, waving her hand. "Just go, would you? Some of us have work to do."

Clark mastered the impulse to stick his tongue out at her and went.

It was bad. It was the worst he'd seen in- a long time. Not never, he'd seen worse than this during his time as Superman, but it had been several months. Definitely before they'd taken up with Lex, possibly months before that.

A dam had broken, somewhere in Africa. Clark didn't even know what country he was in, much less what dam had just burst. All he knew was that the Fortress hadn't found out about it till after it had started to flood the little valley that was filled with little, fragile huts that held even more fragile human lives. Clark had made it there as fast he could, probably even scorched some ozone on his way, but he hadn't made it there in time to save the village. All he could do was try and clean up the mess.

He'd probably saved hundreds of lives. But it had been a big village, and he'd lost hundreds more. He knew that he couldn't do everything, that he was faster and stronger than any other living thing on the planet but he still wasn't perfect, but it didn't make it any easier when he couldn't save everyone.

So he slowly flew home, soaking wet and miserable, and did his usual fast change in the phone booth outside of the Daily Planet before going back in to work. It felt like the entire expedition had taken hours, but in fact it was still only four or five o'clock. The end of the workday for most other businesses, but this was journalism, and almost everyone was still at their desks.

Clark stopped when he got to his own desk, however, because it, unlike the others, was empty. Lois' computer screen was dark and still, and the usual clutter was neatened away, like she did every day before she left for home. Except they didn't usually head home till almost seven, which meant…

He swore, and ran for the exit. He could only hope that she hadn't gotten herself in any trouble before he got there, but in the back of his brain, the part that wasn't so subsumed with panic that it was actually able to remember all the things he knew about Lois, wasn't counting on it.

She was already in trouble when he got there. Big surprise. Apparently, the guy delivering the cash had spotted her spying, and when Superman arrived on the scene, the thug was holding a gun to her head.

A quick blow dispatched the thug into unconsciousness, a glare reduced the weasel into a gibbering pile of terror, and one arm was more than enough to pick up Lois and get the hell out of the alley. He waited till they were up in the air, high enough not to be seen from the ground but not so high that she couldn't breathe or she froze to death, before he started yelling at her.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he demanded. "I told you to wait for me, or if I couldn't make it back, then to just not go. Do you ever listen to me at all, or am I just constantly wasting my breath on you? You could have been fucking killed! Would have been, if I hadn't gotten back in time. Do you never fucking learn!"

She actually looked contrite, which was a rarity in and of itself. The apology that followed was almost unheard of. "Clark, I'm sorry. I do listen to you, and I know I almost got killed and I'm sorry, but I got the bastard on tape! I got enough to fry him and maybe even enough to implicate the CEO. It's just what I was hoping for!"

Clark discovered that he was just too tired to yell at Lois anymore. It wouldn't change anything, anyway- she was always going to be rushing headlong into danger, and he was always going to be rushing after her, trying to save her neck. It had been like this since the beginning, and normally it didn't bother him as much because, well, that was just the way it was with Lois. He knew that it was only his miserable mood and the really bad he'd had that was causing him to get upset about it now, so he just sighed and said resignedly, "Alright, Lois. You want me to take you back to the Planet?"

"No, take me home," she said. He nodded and started drifting towards the north, away from Suicide Slums and the other less-pleasant districts of town.

"When are we going to talk about it?" she said suddenly, and he tilted his head down so he could see her face.

"Talk about what?" he asked.

"About the fact that when I said take me home, you headed straight for Lex's."

He closed his eyes. Fuck. "Sorry," he said, his voice strained. He craned his head to see if she looked pissed. "You want me to go to our place?"

"No," she said. "The penthouse is fine. But we still need to talk about it."

He closed his eyes again (didn't need to see to make it to Lex's, because he knew the way by heart) and rested his cheek against the top of her head. He'd saved her so many times that carrying her like this, cradled against his chest, felt natural. So far he hadn't had to save Lex since he'd become Superman, and he didn't want to think about it. He knew it would happen. Lois found trouble all on her own, but Lex- well, Lex just sort of called trouble to him. Like a magnet. Or a particularly demented Pied Piper.

He wasn't flying all-out, was in fact just drifting slowly across the sky, so they hadn't covered more than half the distance between the alley and Lex's penthouse. "You know how I feel about it," he said.

"Tell me anyway."

And that was just like Lois, demanding an answer she already had. Oh, well. "I think it's pointless keeping our apartment since we almost never see the inside of it," he said. "Most of our clothes are already at the penthouse, anyway. We've moved in already, we just haven't made it official. And until Lex says something, then things are going to stay the way they are, because it's his home and I'm not going to rearrange his life more than we already have."

"That's not why you won't say anything to him about it," Lois said shrewdly. He sighed.

"You've got me all figured out already, why don't you explain it?"

"You won't ask him because you think it's his turn," she said. "We practically forced him into this relationship- you and I both know it- and you're gonna sit back and wait till he makes a decision about us. Am I on track?"

"Closer than I like," he admitted. "As always."

"You know that he isn't asking because he thinks that we don't want to move in, right?" she asked. He glared at her.

"Actually, I know that he won't ask because he knows that you don't want to move in," he corrected. "Mine is not the only opinion he cares about, Lois. You mean a lot to him. Don't act like you don't know that."

She ducked her chin, hiding her eyes from him with uncharacteristic shyness. "I know," she murmured, and neither said anything till they got to the penthouse.

Lex was waiting for them when Clark landed on the balcony, an angry scowl on his face and a glass of scotch in one hand. Clark knew from experience that this was a bad combination, and he managed to excuse himself before Lex could pin him down and rushed to the bathroom to strip out of his wet uniform and take a hot shower. Even he got chilled when wearing wet clothes at high altitudes.

A few minutes later he pulled on a pair of jeans and went back into the living room, where Lois was sitting on the couch with a mulish expression on her face, and Lex's lecture was still going. Clark didn't catch much of it and had deliberately tuned out his hearing in the shower, since this lecture had been given more than once already. Lois was too reckless; one of these days she'd get herself killed; what was she thinking? The content never changed, just Lex's level of frustration, which went up steadily every time Lois pulled another stupid stunt. He didn't understand yet that yelling at her made no difference- or maybe he did, and he just ranted to make himself feel better.

Lex stopped lecturing when Clark slipped onto the couch next to Lois, but his glare, if anything, increased. "Don't think I didn't see the damn news coverage about you and that dam," Lex snapped.

Clark gave him his mildest expression in return. "Well, it wasn't like I was going to leave them there to die," he said.

"I know," Lex sighed. "That doesn't make it easier to watch on television, though."

Clark winced. "Sorry," he said, though he wasn't sure what he was apologizing for. Like he said, it wasn't like he could have done anything different. But he was sorry that Lex had been worried.

A lot of his misery over not being able to save everyone had melted away knowing it, though. Lex was worried about him, had obviously not even thought about Clark's self-perceived failure, which meant that it was all in Clark's head anyway. Lex always had all the facts, and if Lex thought that he hadn't done enough, he would find a way to let Clark know.

Lex finally gave up pacing and just sat down in the chair across from them, slumping into it like a puppet whose strings had been cut. He buried his face in his hands, a more obvious sign of real upset than several minutes of straight lecturing had been, and Clark and Lois exchanged worried glances.

"This is insane," Lex told his palms. "I never asked for this. It just happened."

Clark and Lois turned their worried gazes directly to Lex, this time. He lifted his head up and looked them both straight in the eye.

"I want you to move in with me," he said. "You're practically living here as it is, but I want you to really move in. It's stupid for you to keep your apartment when you're never there. And I want to make this official." He looked nervous but defiant, and he was looking straight at Lois.

Clark smiled to himself. He'd known from the start that Lois was only going along with it because she wanted Clark to be happy, and that Lex was only there because it was his only chance to have Clark. But over the months the two of them had connected more and more without him there, and he'd hoped… Well, they were alike in so many ways. Both were stubborn, sarcastic, ambitious, sharp-edged, quick-witted, brilliant, complex people. Except for him, both had always dated people very much like each other. He'd always secretly thought that if the two of them had met without him in the middle that they would have either killed each other or fallen in love. When Lois had come up with her crack-brained plan, he never would have gone along with it if he hadn't thought that they'd get along to option two eventually.

And now, it seemed, they were at the crunch point. Not of declaring love, no, not with those two. But Lex's question was aimed at Lois, who'd always been the one with protests against moving in, and his question was as good as a declaration. To Clark's ears, anyway. He had no idea if Lois understood all the ramifications behind his question and her answer. Nor did he know what her answer would actually be- she hadn't given him a clue during their earlier airborne conversation. If she said no, then as far as Clark was concerned, this whole three-way relationship was doomed.

Which would be fairly disastrous to Clark's life, because he didn't know who he would choose to be with. Lois was his partner, his compliment in every way, and they'd been together for years… But Lex, well, Lex was the first person he'd ever fallen for, and the only person he'd never, ever been able to get out of his head. He never worried about Lois half so much as he did Lex, even though she got in more trouble, because he knew that Lex could twist himself up in knots over the most simple emotional problems.

He loved both of them equally. And he wanted this to work out.

The silence had stretched between them almost too long, and Lex's face was starting to shut down, the same way it always had when his father had insulted him or Clark had lied to him. When he was feeling rejected by someone he cared about. But then-

"Yes," Lois said, a small smile on her lips. "We'll move in."

Lex's eyes lit up first, and his face was slow to follow, like he couldn't actually believe she'd said yes. But Lois was still smiling, and Clark knew that he was grinning like a loon, and so Lex started to smile. It was the smile he'd never had for anyone but Clark, the, I'm-so-happy-I-can't-breathe smile, but he was smiling at both of them now, and Lois was smiling back.

Clark wrapped one arm around Lois' shoulders and pulled her tight against his body, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I'm so proud of you," he said, too low for her to hear, then turned his attention to Lex. He grabbed him and hauled him down on the couch next to him, half in his lap, and wrapped an arm around him too.

"I love you," he whispered to Lex, and Lex looked up at him, and his smile this time was the most beautiful Clark had ever seen. Clark couldn't resist the urge to kiss him and he didn't even try, and when he pulled back after a moment it was to see Lois waiting her turn.

Clark knew she'd heard his declaration to Lex. She wouldn't be offended that he'd said it to Lex and not to her. Lois knew he loved her, it wasn't something she'd ever questioned, and not hearing the words didn't make it any less true. Lex, though- Lex was the sort of person who needed to hear it for himself, because he couldn't ever believe that someone could love him. Especially not when he loved them back.

As for Lex and Lois, well… Clark leaned back, his arms still around both their waists, and watched with a grin as they kissed in front of him. It looked almost like they'd forgotten he was there and that… Well, to Clark, that meant everything.

They pulled apart a moment later, and almost in tandem they settled against him. Clark was always in the middle, always the one between them and holding them together, but tonight, for the first time, he wasn't the bridge between two separate relationships. He was just there, a part of their relationship, and it was the fulfillment of all that Clark had ever let himself hope for.

He settled back with a contented sigh, his lovers in his arms. It looked like it was a good day, after all.