Awkward Silence

Lois Lane dressed awkwardly. She felt fine, if a little hungry, with the kind of odd languor that came from getting an unexpectedly long nap. John Henry Irons, for his part, stood quietly at the door, his broad back to her. The reporter frowned as she pulled on her pants, recognizing an unexpected ache in her crotch—the kind of post-sex pain she hadn't experienced in months. Normally Lois enjoyed that kind of post-coital sensation, but now it was just...awkward.

"Ready," Lois said, breaking the silence, as her heels touched the ground. John Henry Irons nodded, and she followed him out the door. A word to the nurse pointed down the hall, and the petite white woman and tall, broad-shouldered Black man walked down the hall in silence, neither sure what to say to the other.

The exit led out to an alley behind the warehouse that held the club. Lois Lane breathed in the night air. Trying to find the words for what she felt in her heart. To know how to fix whatever was between her and John Henry Irons.

They were friends. Had always been friends. Now they had fucked, under the influence of Lex Luthor's weird technology.

"John," she said, and touched his arm. "I..."

The growl of her stomach interrupted her...and in the silence of the alley it sounded like some troll from the Lord of the Rings. That broke the mood. They both began to laugh, leaning against each other, unable to stop for several minutes...and when, at last, they both died down, Lois wiping the tears from her eyes, he said:

"Let's get some food in you."