Solnishko, я нашла тебе "чтиво перед сном"
2 шт., альтернатива Infamous'a/ говорю сразу - сама не читала...
That ending in Infamous was so unsatisfying, wasn't it? Well, here's how it should have ended. I Stayed
By James Thomas
Chasing a lead, won't be able to make it anyway.
Clark stared down at the phone, reading the words hundreds of times over. Then he looked back up to Lois. One hand was covering her eyes. He knew what she was going through. What he was putting them through.
Questions floated through his head. Why was it so hard to be in a relationship? Why had it been so hard with Lana?
The entire time he thought it had been her. Maybe it had. But this, this was him.
He was putting her through the ringer. And why? For what reason? To keep her safe?
She had been loyal and trustworthy. She had believed in him. She always believed in him. And he continued to let her down.
But he was still surprised when his foot stepped down off the sidewalk to cross the street. He passed a few people but never knew what they looked like. And then he was right behind her.
“Liar.”
She froze. Her hand wiped quickly across her eyes and then fell to the hot cup of coffee in front of her. “Yeah, well, you lied first. That wasn’t even funny by the way.” She didn’t even turn around.
He sat down. Some truths needed to be told. “I wasn’t going to come. I…” he sighed. This was so much harder when he couldn’t tell her the truth. He had loved being open with her for those few hours in his past future. “I changed my mind though.”
So he had some decency in him after all. At least he could let her down in person. “I see.”
Clark studied her, saw her brow wrinkle, saw her eyes moisten. “No, I don’t think you do.” He reached across and took her hand. It was so cold against his warm one. “But I want you to.”
She bit the side of her bottom lip, trying to puzzle together everything he was trying to tell her. “I’m here.”
Maybe coffee wasn’t the best idea. Clark stood up. “Let’s get you somewhere warm.”
Huh? “Wha… what?”
“Come on. I’m taking you back to your apartment. I’ll make you some hot cocoa and we’ll talk, watch movies, ya’ know, have fun. Relax.” He smiled, warmly. “Come on.”
She studied him for a moment and, then, accepted the hand he offered. She thought they were going to get right down to the issue. She guessed wrong.
She moved, gripping his arm as they walked. “So, what movie are we watching?”
“I dunno. I suppose I could put up with Tarzan again.”
She needed to put what they weren’t going to talk about out of her mind. “Oh, shut up.” She hit his arm and smiled. “You know why I like that movie.”
“Me love… Lois?”
She laughed at his silly impersonation of the man-gorilla. “You’re such a dork.”
They reached her building, climbed the stairs, and went inside. “Yeah, but you love my dorkiness.” He noticed a pair of glasses, picked them up. Put them on. “What do you think.”
He had a hopeful smile and wonderment in his eyes. “Adorable.”
And then he chuckled, deeply. His eyes were cast downward, his hair fell around his face. And just like that, he was anything but adorable. He was sexy. He was a man.
“Well, glasses might just be in my future.” Chloe was making sense. Perhaps a second identity wouldn’t be a bad idea. He smiled. “So, Tarzan?”
“Naw. No TV.”
“Okay. Now, that cocoa.”
Lois watched him move into the kitchen. She watched his movements—his muscles twitch, the concentration in his eyes, the movements of his hands, the forgotten and tousled hair around his cheeks, the dark stubble along his hard jaw, his swift, controlled movements—she watched everything. And she found it all irresistible.
He may not want to talk about it. But she saw the way he looked at her. He even showed up tonight. He held her hand. She would push things in the direction she wanted.
So she moved towards him. And, while his back was to her, placed her hand on his hips. She gave a soft caress, a squeeze, and smiled at the twitch of muscle under her fingertips. He didn’t move though. So she slipped a hand under the hem of his shirt and moved towards his side, running her finger, wispily, across his low back. “With marshmallows?”
“No.”
She turned quizzically. “Have you ever had it any other way?”
“Not yet. But sometimes change is good. Better.”
She looked up at him. The look in his eyes was too intense for the simple answer he gave. “Sometimes it doesn’t take.”
“Sometimes. And then other times it does.”
Her breath caught when he pulled out a bag of chilled cherries from her fridge. “For some reason I’ve taken a liking to cherries.” He turned to her, a sarcastically confused expression on his face. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
She smiled. “I might, but it was not my fault.”
Sarcastically. “Of course not.”
“So, are these cherries a phase or do you think they’re… sticking.”
He turned, crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter to face her. He was relaxed and she liked it. “Oh, they’ve been stuck for a while. Without my even knowing, in fact. Just kinda snuck up on me.”
She stared at him, his bright green eyes. There was so much there.
She turned back to the stove and fiddled with the cocoa. “I think it’s done.”
He moved towards her. “You’re right.” His hands came out to rest at her waist. He smiled at the twitch of firm, tiny muscles beneath his fingers. He dipped his lips to her ear. “You pour, I’ll get the whipped cream and cherries.”
Then he moved from her, leaving her shivering.
Lois could hear her heart thudding in her ears. This is… crazy. This… is actually happening. She turned, and watched him move through the fridge.
Clark couldn’t believe how this evening was turning out. It was everything he had denied himself and everything he had so wanted to hope for. He had thought he had lost her. For that one moment, as he read her words on his phone—he had thought he’d lost her. But she was here. With him. Smiling up at him, heart racing. He hadn’t been young and crazy-in-love in a long time. And he was on a high he never wanted to come down from.
“Ow!”
He turned as the hot cocoa fell to the floor. “Shit. I can’t believe I did that.” He checked her over in an instant. She was holding her hand and one super-look over told him she had burned it. The cocoa was to blame for hurting her. He hated hot chocolate.
He moved towards her.
“I’m sorry about the hot chocolate.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He watched her; she was fretting. Worried and anxious. Her hands weren’t staying still. But why?
“But now you can’t have your cherry. There’s no hot chocolate,” she said.
He took her wrist gently. “You burned yourself.”
“What about the cherries!”
He smiled, then lifted her to sit on the counter. He dipped a washcloth in cool water and pressed it to her wrist. She took the cloth from him and held it herself.
“Clark, what about the cherries.”
Clark’s now-free hands moved to her waist. “I don’t need hot chocolate to have cherries, Lois.” He watched relief flood her features. She was beautiful. He lifted her slightly, bringing her to the edge of the counter.
“What about Lana?”
He had expected this. He was actually surprised she hadn’t mentioned it earlier. “Lana and I ended things.”
“Just like that. Once and for all? I don’t believe it.”
Clark stepped back from her. His hands moved to her knees. “We were together when she was here. For a brief time.” He watched her quirk an eyebrow. “I have no secrets from you, Lois. If you ask, I will tell. Everything.”
She nodded. She wasn’t stupid, she knew what he was referring to: Lana, his secret, and especially, the Kent nonverbals.
“Okay. Lana.”
“Lana.” He sighed. “There’s a story behind it. A long one. And you will eventually hear it all. But the short, abridge version is we had a choice to make concerning our future. We were forced into a decision with time constraints. The choice we made depended on other people, on their lives. It was either them, or our relationship.”
“And you chose the people.”
“I chose the people.”
“But that doesn’t mean you’re not in love with her.”
“I thought so too, for a long time. But while you were gone I was alone… for an even longer time. I had time to think. And the one conclusion hitting me in the face was the simple fact that, after everything, after all we had been through, if we were truly meant to be together, if I truly loved her, I wouldn’t have been able to let her go. And especially not as easily as I did.”
Lois wore a face of confusion.
“I mean, I didn’t even hesitate. I told her what had to happen. I said goodbye. But I never thought twice about it. I never thought about sacrificing those people. The thought should have been my first. But it was never there. And for that, I had my answer.”
She could read him. It had taken so long, but she could. “You don’t love her.”
Clark stepped to her. “No. I don’t. But that’s not all.”
“No?”
“Tonight. Tonight I almost walked away from you Lois. But your words, that simple lie to protect yourself? It compelled me to stay. For no other reason than the fact that, somewhere along the way, I fell hopelessly in love with you. And the thought of losing you, in those simple words, was enough to confront it.”
“You love me?”
Clark gulped. The moment of truth. “Yes.”
He watched her face crumple and crumble. She dropped into his chest. His arms came up to support her as she released her heart-ache into… his blue t-shirt. She laughed despite herself. “I’ve been through the crappiest relationships with the greatest guys. And I thought, for a moment I hadn’t been good enough for the best one of them all. You’re my Jonathan, Clark. And I’m your Martha. And I thought you would never realize it.”
Clark paused. “I like that. I’m you’re Jonathan.”
She gripped a fistful of t-shirt, pulling him down. Their lips met, hard against soft, demanding against pliable. She wanted all of him and he was too happy to oblige.
“You’re other secret is a killer, but it’s going to have to wait unit we’re done making out.”
“Ever the romantic, Lois.”
She laughed, then pulled him back down.