Even heroes have the right to bleed

It's a lot easier these days to sneak out of bed in the morning to go help his father with early chores. Not only does Eirene fall asleep at the drop of a hat, which is seriously adorable, but she sleeps pretty deeply once she's gone, too. Clark assumes that's normal and tries not to worry, but who knows what's normal with this pregnancy? New territory is scary and sometimes, he wishes it didn't have to be them to go first.

Chores done, he heads back to the apartment with a doggy bag full of muffins for breakfast. Having dropped those off in the kitchen, he quietly makes his way back into the bedroom to see if his sleeping beauty is awake yet.

Eirene's been in town for a few days now; a few interesting, and almost difficult days for Clark, because let's be honest: it's hard to spend quality time with your fiancée when you're staying with your parents. And he's just not very good at sneaking out of his own room to go back to the couch.

So tonight, a little after dinner was over, he happened to catch her alone in a hallway and after giving her a quick kiss, asked her to wait five minutes and then meet him in the loft. Not that he actually thinks this will be fooling his parents for very long, but at least it's something.

It's been a hectic few months. A new superhero has been introduced to the public in Superman (thanks for that, Lois). Behind the scenes, Clark and Oliver have been hashing out the finer details, finally deciding it was time to bring in someone with even more social power than Oliver - Bruce Wayne. Oddly, Clark's starting to think he's not all that bad.

On the home front, Eirene's had to go back to her world a few times - but never for as long as she did the first time - which Clark understands, but that doesn't stop him from being lonely when she does. Jimmy's actually been pretty good about doing "guy's night out" to watch a game or something to keep him busy. Work's also been going well, making the leap from the file room to the assistant of one of the copy editors. Boring work, but if there's one area ion his life Clark can handle boring, it's work.

Tonight, it's been a pretty average day at work and Eirene's waiting for him at home, he knows, so he makes a point not to stick around for office gossip too long, even though his co-workers know he rarely participates; it doesn't stop them from trying to 'draw him out.'

He doesn't even bother with the walk, just speeds to the front door of their apartment and walks in, one hand behind his back. "Honey, I'm home."