serendipity. [superbat]

error i.

a/n: might need a lil editing.

Clark's concerned. He's been feeling off the past week. He'd felt this way immediately after stepping off of the ship and it had only grown increasingly more apparent as he tried to go back to life as it had been before. Everything was agitating him, from the clack of his colleague's keyboards to the way his tie sat around his neck. His pants felt too tight, his shirt felt too stiff, and his shoes felt as inexpensive as they were. His mind kept wandering and racing and he felt like something had changed. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, or why it was making him feel like a madman. 

He felt like he'd been doing a pretty good job of hiding. He kept a relatively blank face when he was at his cubicle, trying his hardest not to focus on the way his clothes felt like sandpaper against his skin. He tried so hard to be as polite and cordial as he could when he was in view of his peers. He'd clamped down on his tongue so hard one day, to keep from chewing Jimmy out, that he could taste traces of blood. 

Of course, Lois notices. Lois seems to notice everything.

She saunters up to him when it's time for their lunchbreak and he pushes down the groan that's bubbling up in his throat. He wants to be alone, wants to strip out of his clothes and just feel his mind slow down as he lets out a sigh of relief. Instead, he finds himself cooped up in a too small booth wishing he was anywhere else as the table digs into his ribs.

"Maybe you should talk to him," Is the first thing Lois says after the waiter places their food in front of them. 

Clark peers up, trying his best to pretend like he has no clue who she's referring to, but she only rolls her eyes at him. She'd kept pretty quiet since making her discovery of Bruce's existence in his life. Though, he can tell by the way she looks at him, she's fed up with the supposed melodrama. 

"C'mon, Clark. I understand holding a grudge, but not if you're like this when you're not with him." Lois says pointedly, and honestly, he should've known better than to ask her to clarify, but his head feels as if it's on backwards.

He arches an eyebrow in question and watches as she tilts her head to the side and arches an eyebrow of her own, asking without words if he thinks she's stupid. 

"You've been flip-flopping from depressed to looking like a dog in heat." she hisses across the table, and the observation makes him choke on his water.

"Snapping at Jimmy, glaring at Perry, and gliding through people like they don't even exist," Lois says with a huff, "Brenda was almost in tears when you didn't speak to her yesterday. Poor thing thought she'd done something to upset you." 

"Lois..." he starts, but he doesn't know where to go from there. 

"You miss him. That's normal. It's also normal to forgive and make up," she says, crossing her arms and waiting for him to say something that she can refute. 

To be honest, he could see how this would look from the outside. He supposedly breaks up with someone and now he's acting a bit erratic, but Clark's more concerned that this is a bigger issue, an alien health issue. There might be something seriously wrong with him. 

He placates Lois by agreeing to talk it out with Bruce before requesting a couple of days off, ignoring the way Perry seemingly lets out a sigh of relief.

He takes off that afternoon, shooting through the sky with such an urgency, that he makes it to the ship in record time. He steps on board and immediately heads for the main area of the ship, slipping out of his uncomfortable shoes as he goes. Then, he unbuttons his button up and tugs his undershirt over his head before tossing them into a random corner and he's contemplating abandoning his pants when the ship finally speaks.