WHO: Alex & Lois WHAT: Catching up over lunch WHERE: An outdoor cafe WHEN: Sometime not long after getting back from Ancient Vallo WARNINGS: Just some Klaus Talk™ and all that entails STATUS: Complete
Alex prided herself on being able to get through anything. Surviving in dire conditions, outside of the comforts of the modern world, along with a good dose of common sense and a general knowledge of the time-space continuum and how not to screw it up were all well within her wheelhouse. She’d managed to keep low for their surprise ten-day sojourn, doing odd jobs for people around town in exchange for food and room to stay. Her biggest venture out had been during the dragon attack; there was no way she could sit through that and do nothing. She’d stayed out of the fray, in the end, and helped out with immediate first aid in whatever way she could.
But being back in modern, familiar times was a comfort. Not only was her being home and within super-hearing range enough to calm Kara and set Lena back on a semi-normal schedule, but she had really missed all the conveniences and technology she’d come to rely on over the years. Being without a cell phone, indoor plumbing, air conditioning — it had been trying. She came back with a deep respect for how simply those people had lived but no desire whatsoever to do it herself.
Today, she’d decided it was time for a proper catch-up with Lois. They’d seen each other a few times during their stay in ancient Vallo, the most memorable being the first time Lois had popped up at the stall Alex had been working in the marketplace, but now that they had money and cafes at their convenience again, there was a lot Alex wanted to fill her in on that she’d missed.
A quick text exchange that morning led to an agreement for one o’clock lunch just down the street from the Gazette offices. Alex was there at one on the dot, saving an outdoor table with two glasses of iced tea already waiting on the table.
Lois had experienced her own share of time travel or universe hopping adventures and regular old adventures back in their world. Adapting to a new situation wasn’t difficult for her to do. Watching others and assessing the situation was something that she had learned long ago to do in order to be better at her chosen profession. Being able to see through what people were saying and looking at the changes in their body language had served her well in most aspects of her life and it had helped in the past as well. It’d been nice to get to know some of the others a little better as well. Especially Alexis. Lois had already been a fan of the Apothecary but she’d make sure to frequent it even more often going forward.
Getting back into the swing of things in present day Vallo hadn’t been difficult. Stories didn’t stop happening just because she’d been plucked into a different setting and she’d played catchup with her sources the first few days, making sure she knew all of the happenings for the few bigger stories that she was focusing on.
But a catch-up lunch with Alex was a nice break from the routine Lois had established for herself. It was nice having her and Kara around, a little bit of family even when she was still desperately missing her husband and sons.
“So how many showers did you take when you first got back?” Lois asked as she joined her.
“I managed a pretty thorough forty minute first go after Kara got through squeezing the life of me,” Alex replied with a fond grin, standing up to give her surrogate cousin-in-law a quick, human-level squeeze of her own. She wasn’t complaining at all. She hated being away from Kara just as much as Kara hated being away from her. Maybe they were a little too attached to each other sometimes, but it was a product of how they were raised. There was no one Alex relied on or worried about more than her baby sister.
“What’s new in the news? Any good scoops?” she asked, only a touch of teasing in her voice as she returned to her seat. She passed Lois a menu, stacked together off to the side of their table. She hadn’t so much as skimmed the menu yet herself and took the time to thumb it open.
Lois smiled at the answer, pleased that these two had one another around. She knew how important family could be. Especially for those two. It made her miss her own a little more, but she pushed down that layer of sadness as she took the menu.
“There was talk of a robbery while we were away. I’m still working to get all of the details and see if it's anything bigger than the simple smash and grab that’s common enough.” There were a few other stories that she had her fingers in, rooting around to see what might come of them, but she didn’t want to share those until she had more information. “Did you get right back into work?”
Robbery sounded reasonable. It was still a little odd to live in a world where aliens were such a non-problem, after all her years of dealing with them in her work with the D.E.O. back home. Thankfully, this place was very rarely boring. There were always some kind of dangerous creatures to deal with and regular old law enforcement to deal with regular old problems.
“I took a couple of days to make up for being gone,” Alex admitted. “Kara needed me, and it got Lena to take a few days off from the lab.” Not that it was their fault — their little trip was all thanks to the Time Stone — but she wanted to be around for Kara after her extended absence. She knew her sister hadn’t taken her absence well; there had been plenty of tears and cuddles since she got back, and everyone seemed just fine now.
Vallo was a different sort of crazy to the one they might have been used to, but Lois had learned it was crazy all the same. Just different players in the messes that were created and far more magic than she was used to, but even that wasn’t difficult to adjust to considering they were thrown headfirst into dealing with it from the onset.
“Hopefully they’re both doing better now that you’re back.” Being separated was difficult, she knew that firsthand, but at least those three were able to keep in touch between the two times. Lois didn’t have that same luxury for those she was missing. Though hopefully, what others said was true, and Clark and the boys wouldn’t know she was gone at all.
“Everyone seems fine now.” Alex nodded, looking up as the waiter approached their table. She ordered a BLT wrap with a side of chips and passed her menu over before he turned to take Lois’s order next. A light spring breeze filtered beneath the cafe’s awning; it really was a pretty day.
“And how are you holding up?” she questioned, once the waiter had walked away again. “I know being without Clark and the boys has been tough.” She reached across the table to give Lois’s hand a little squeeze. She was lucky to be able to come home to her family, but Lois didn’t. She had Alex and Kara, always, but it wasn’t quite the same.
“Throwing myself into work helps.” There wasn’t much else to do. It wasn’t like she could do anything to bring them there to join her and Lois wasn’t sure if that was something she’d want to happen anyway. They had lives back home, a purpose, and while Vallo might be pretty accepting with all of the differences that people seemed to have, she knew one move had already been enough for the boys. She couldn’t imagine what a whole new reality would be like for them.
“I focus on what I can actually change: making friends, work, exploring this city.” It didn’t help late at night when she went to sleep in an empty house, but it seemed to do the job during the day.
That was smart and pragmatic; Alex had taken a similar approach. She threw herself into research, into the possibility of a way home or at least discerning some sort of pattern in arrivals, but she wasn’t set on going home. Vallo was a haven compared to the type of world they could have ended up in. They had their issues here, this foray into the past had made that clear, but it could have been worse. It was best to just accept this was how it was right now.
“There’s always something new to find here,” she acknowledged. “It seems like this place is constantly changing. And even the types of people - I’ve never seen so many different species in one place.” It was beyond aliens here, veering into species she’d never thought had actually existed.
“The constant changing is pretty nice, all things considered.” Lois liked how it kept her on her toes, never quite knowing what would happen day to day even if she had established a routine for herself. She paused as their food arrived, waiting until the server had headed off.
“We should all get together again soon though. Maybe do dinner or just drinks.” Maybe they could even make it a weekly thing.
“I would love that,” Alex agreed at once. She adored Lois, always had, and she wanted to be as close to the little family they had here as possible. They’d spent Easter together last month which had been, inevitably, kind of weird but kind of nice, too. It filled that hole in her that was tugging her toward Midvale and her mom — neither of which she could reach from an entirely different pocket universe.
“But, uh, we might have Kara’s boyfriend to contend with sometimes,” she sighed. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t do it, but it was a reality she needed to face. And one that Lois needed to be looped into at long last. Maybe she would have some insight outside of Alex and Lena having the same hopeless conversations.
Lois was thankful to have the two of them there, to have something familiar and the cousins definitely helped ease the ache that was always in her heart. The more they could end up doing together the better, though she knew they both needed to live their own lives as well. So did she and she thought she was on the way toward carving out a space for herself in Vallo.
Lois arched a brow at that, sensing there was a story there. “So what’s wrong with Kara’s boyfriend?” It had to be big for Alex to be sighing and using words like contend.
“Nothing I can really do anything about. He’s been good here,” Alex explained. She didn’t waste time hemming and hawing and trying to change the subject. She wanted to get this off her chest, and she knew Lois wouldn’t stand for that kind of avoidance, anyway. “But he has a history - a bad one. Like, murdered, tortured, and ate people for a thousand years. He’s a vampire. And a werewolf. Apparently reformed now that he has a teenage kid.”
She had only encountered Klaus personally once, back in Ancient Vallo. And it had been fine, but she hadn’t had much time for it to be anything else. It had been in the middle of the big dragon incident and he’d brought some scraped and bruised up people over to be tended to. She could give him a scrap of credit for helping out there, but she still wasn’t very comfortable with him.
Lois blinked. She had to have heard that wrong. Kara was dating someone who used to eat people? Obviously some sort of supernatural person with the thousand years part, but less than two decades of good behavior didn’t exactly right all of the debt he’d racked up. She’d always thought Kara had an incredibly strong moral compass…
“Are you sure? Because that doesn’t sound like the kind of person she’d attach herself to at all.” It wasn’t like there weren’t plenty of available bachelors in Vallo that Kara could have picked from.
“I’m sure,” Alex grumbled, brows furrowed and lips turned down into a concerned frown. “A friend told me and Caroline at the DOA confirmed. Plus added in all of her own experience with him, none of which I’d call good. She did say he’s from a point farther into the future than she is, but.” She picked up a single chip and popped it into her mouth, shrugging her shoulders before continuing. “Kara knew nothing about any of it. I had to tell her before the Time Stone incident.”
That was still the most frustrating part of it all for her. Kara was so good and so determined to believe everyone else was just as good as her that sometimes, it made her oblivious. Alex hated that. She may not be in any physical danger around this guy, but getting into a relationship with so little knowledge of a person’s past was dangerous in its own way.
“Well. That’s definitely an interesting development.” Not one Lois had ever expected to encounter. They would just need to watch and step in if needed. Hopefully the guy really had turned his life around, but she wasn’t sure how anyone who’d lived a thousand years hurting others could simply stop doing so. Kid or no kid.
“I’m guessing you’re keeping an eye on her?” At least the two sisters lived together. It could be a little trickier if Kara moved in with the guy.
Interesting was the mildest word Alex could think of to describe this particular guy, but it was accurate. Klaus was interesting in a scary, concerning way. She was trying her hardest to give him the benefit of the doubt because of the good deeds she’d witnessed from him in Ancient Vallo, but it was no easy task. Giving up worry about Kara, for her, was an impossible task.
“Yeah, I am,” she confirmed. “Not that she couldn’t handle herself if it came down to it. I’m just - I don’t like it, Lo. Even if he’s changed, I don’t think I can trust him.”
“I don’t think you need to trust him, but you don’t want to isolate her either.” It never ended well when people were isolated with crazy partners. Even if Kara could handle herself physically, Lois wasn’t so sure about emotionally. She really did try to see the best in people when sometimes there wasn’t anything good in them.
“So just keep doing what you’re doing. Be there for her, be cautious around him and then watch. If she needs you, you’ll know.” Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that though.
“Right, good idea,” Alex nodded and took another sip of iced tea. “God, I’m glad you’re here.” There was something soothing about having Lois here, doling out advice. She and Lena had been stuck in the anger and disbelief phase of this whole thing for a while now, and having a more grounded, slightly removed voice of reason was very much needed.
Not that she needed to be told not to isolate Kara because she would never. Her sister was the most important person in the world to her, and no matter what stupid decisions she made looking through rose-colored glasses, Alex would be there having her back. No questions asked.
“Maybe it’ll fizzle out into nothing.” Though, hopefully that wouldn’t cause jealous ex issues. Breakups could be the most dangerous parts of a relationship. No point in dwelling on the what ifs though and better to look for any actual signs in the present.
“Anything else I should get looped into?” Lois nodded toward Alex. “Like is there anyone you’re seeing?” Preferably without the thousand year past of torture and killing.
“Oh no.” Alex shook her head, perhaps a little too vigorously. “Still just Kelly for me. I know she’s not here, but I couldn’t just - you know?” She had committed herself to Kelly back home, and she genuinely did love her. They may not be married, like Lois and Clark, and it may not be quite Maggie-levels of love, but it was real and important to her. Even if Kelly wasn’t actually here, it would feel like a betrayal to just give up a couple of months in. The possibility was still there.
Lois understood that feeling all too well. There wouldn’t be anyone else for her either. The amount of effort that went into dating and random hookups was out of her wheelhouse anyway. “Then we’re definitely going to need to go out for drinks soon. Just the two of us.”
Alex was a little conflicted about the whole situation, but she wasn’t quite ready to spill all that to Lois yet. She was still parsing through it herself after her conversation with Catra and — well, right now, it was easier to just brush over it. She had enough to focus on with Kara and Lena to keep her distracted.
“You’re on. Drinks on me,” she agreed, finally reaching for her wrap to take a bite. Commiserating over alcohol was never an offer she would refuse.