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.*･｡. AN ODE TO CLARK KENT .*･｡.
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054.
CHEAP THRILLS.
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——

Lois had never ridden on the back of Scott's motorcycle before, but she could easily say that it was a much different experience to sitting on the handle bars of his bicycle — that was for sure. She'd never experienced something so thrilling in her life.

   Perhaps it wasn't the best time for Lois to be seeking thrills and ticking her bucket list, but she couldn't find it within her to care.

   Her car had been left at the animal clinic in favour of Allison's when they left for the Argent's, and while Lois easily could have just hopped in the backseat like she had on the way there, she had a different idea for the way to the preserve. Well, Scott had the idea; it was unexpected, considering the rift that had wedged its way in the middle of them, but when he offered her the second helmet he kept under his seat, Lois couldn't bring herself to deny him. That might have been because she missed him, or because what Allison had done was so amazingly insane that it had given her enough of a serotonin boost to last her the rest of junior year, or maybe even because she really wanted to ride on a motorbike. Regardless, Lois accepted it and hopped on.

   It was all in an effort to win her back over.

   At least, that's what Lois was smart enough to assume. Scott was her best friend; he knew a lot about her, including a handful of the things written on her to-do list before she kicked the bucket. She'd been asking to ride on his bike for months, but he had always said it was too dangerous and he didn't want her to get hurt.

Maybe when I'm a better driver...

Maybe when we have time...

Maybe one day...

   Today was that day.

    "Holy crap..." she breathed, pulling the helmet off her head with a slight struggle. Scott hopped off the bike and turned to help her unclip the clasp beneath her chin, lifting it for her with much ease.

   He let out a chuckle as she smoothed out her messy hair with a careless hand. She was too busy reeling off of everything that had just happened in the last fifteen minutes. Allison pulling a smoke grenade on McCall, sitting on the back of his motorcycle, acting as if they were normal teenagers whose parents weren't missing and at risk of death. All of it had been so surreal. Lois hadn't found a spare second to stop and catch her breath. 

    "As great as you expected?"

    "Better," she said.

Scott pulled off his own helmet and looked down at her, where she still sat on his bike, and relished in the moment. Lois was sat on his bike as though he hadn't put their friendship on the line, as though he hadn't broken her trust in him, as though he hadn't been selfish and left when she had really needed him to be there.

He smiled softly, a silence between them, and Lois mirrored it with sparkly eyes. Maybe things could go back to normal. Maybe Lois and Scott weren't as ruined as they had thought they were. It would just take a little time and a little care.

Maybe it wasn't impossible for Lois and Scott to go back to how things used to be. Back when they would go on runs, and play bad card games, and go for food at random hours of the night. Back in the days where they would talk for hours, just Lois, Scott and Stiles in her bedroom, before it had gotten complicated and messy. Back when they didn't have girlfriends, back when he wasn't a werewolf, back when the weight of the world didn't sit on the shoulders of a teenage trio. Lois wondered if they could go back to that. With a couple of tweaks here and there, some new faces; maybe, with just a slight bit of adjusting, they could go back to how they were before all of this.

"Are you okay?"

Clearing her throat, Lois clambered off of the bike and hit the ground with a thump! of her sneakers.

Both of the teenagers turned to see Allison rushing over, her eyes fixated on Scott. It made his heart thump to see her look at him in that way. The way she used to look at him. He missed it.

"I didn't know what to say to him," the werewolf breathed out a laugh as he rounded his bike to meet her in the middle of the two vehicles. He shook his head in bewilderment, still not over any of the previous chain of very bizarre events, "I couldn't come up with anything, but what you did— that was awesome."

    "Totally badass, A." Lois piped up.

Allison breathed a light laugh, "Thanks,"

Taking the chance to look at her phone, Lois pulled the device from her pocket. She peered down at it as she flicked through all her messages and calls, and frowned as she found a grand total of nothing from Stiles or Luna. Something about it made her belly ache, pins and needles pricking her sides, and she chewed on her lower lip in worry. They should have been here, by now. The four of them had gotten held up by McCall — that meant they were the ones who should have been late, not Stiles and Luna. Unless they'd gotten caught up at Stiles and Lois' houses, but she hadn't had any texts from the duo since leaving for Allison's apartment. There was no response to her message saying that they were on their way and had managed to distract Scott's dad. Nothing. It made her feel sick with impending doom.

"Has anyone heard from Stiles?" She asked.

Isaac, who had just jogged over to them, glanced down at his phone and shook his head; "Nothing. I tried calling them, too."

"I don't get it," Scott murmured.

   Lois didn't get it either. Stiles never left them out of the loop. He was sporadic in his texting, and they usually made little sense, but it was uncommon for him to go radio silent. More often than not, he was sending too many messages. And Luna always answered her calls. Every single time. Together, they were an instant service of updates and notifications. Like their own person news channel. It was actually really impressive. The last time they hadn't answered the phone had been when Gerard had taken them late last year, a short few minutes after Stiles had won the championship lacrosse game. That made Lois worry more.

    "Alright," Isaac scratched his head. "We can't wait for them."

    "What?" Lois frowned, grabbing his wrist when he tried to get them to follow his movement. She narrowed her eyes at him as he looked down at her, "We can't go!"

    "Why not?"

    "Because it's Stiles and Luna!" She stressed the fact that they were their friends, even if Isaac didn't think so. Lois had known Stiles since before she was born — she wasn't going to ditch him. Not now, not ever. "And I'm not leaving them behind,"

    "We don't have time to wait, gumdrop." Isaac responded. Her expression didn't change, and he let out a sigh. "Look— we have limited time to find your parents, okay? I'm sure Stiles and Luna would be more happy that we saved everyone, than they would be sad that we started without them." He noticed her eyebrows start to un-furrow, "They'll catch up, anyway."

   While everything he said was reassuring, none of it managed to make Lois feel significantly better. There was a gut feeling that she had. An uncomfortable feeling of dread that she couldn't shake as she glanced between Isaac and her phone. Lois yearned for Stiles to send her a message, to tell her that they were on their way, that they were alright, but nothing came. Not a text, not a call. Maybe it was her anxiety making her feel this way. Her mind playing the usual cruel tricks on her. Lois hoped so. She really, truly hoped so.

    "Lois."

   Her eyes travelled back to meet Isaac's.

    "They'll catch up," he said gently, hands on her shoulders in an effort to ground her. "I promise."

Time was ticking. Each of them knew it. Time had yet to be on their side, and it was slipping away from beneath their feet. Lois didn't have time to contemplate whether his promise was a good enough one for her to leave them behind. They had lost enough of the time they had, as it was.

And perhaps he was right. They would catch up, because this was Stiles and Luna. A pair who never strayed far behind the rest. Stiles was the one leading them, most often, right beside Scott and Lois at the very front of the pack. Stiles was the one who got them into some of the craziest stuff they had ever done, after all. But, above any of his insane ideas and unbelievable plans that always seemed to work out in the end, Stiles was loyal. As was Luna. There wasn't a doubt in Lois' mind that they would catch up; Stiles wasn't going to miss out on saving his father, nor would he be angry if the other four went ahead and didn't wait for them. If it meant they wasted less time in saving their parents, Stiles wouldn't mind. But, despite knowing that, Lois still couldn't shake the idea that something had happened to the two of them. Something bad.

Stiles never missed out on a plan.

Nonetheless, Lois looked into Isaac's blue eyes and found herself believing him. She found herself sinking into the crystal waters, no objection or denial, and she realised she trusted him.

She trusted Isaac.

Enough to follow him willingly, blindly.

    "Okay," she nodded.

   The beta mimicked the head movement and let his hand slide down her arm, fingers finding their way to intertwine with hers as he carefully pulled her with him, so he didn't manage to lose her at any point.

    "C'mon," Isaac said to the other two, Allison following with a firm nod while Scott lingered at his bike. Noticing his hesitation, a whiff of it catching Isaac's nostrils as it hung in the air — though a lot of that could have been from Lois — and floated around the four of them, Isaac turned back to look at his friend; the boy who had taken him in; his new brother. "Scott? C'mon, we gotta go."

   A beat passed, but the boy didn't move an inch.

   "Scott?"

   His head finally moved to face Lois, who was looking at him in the way she always looked at him in times like these. Like she was lost without him, like she needed him or she would break. That was how Lois felt about Scott: she couldn't live without him, even if it was still awkward and uncertain between them.

   With a light sigh, Scott nodded and shoved his cellphone into the back pocket of his pants.

He spared a final look as Isaac, Lois and Allison rushed off to the meeting point he had arranged, and wasn't far behind them.

It didn't take them long to get there. Or, maybe Lois' anxiety of foreseeable events made it feel much quicker. All of it gave her a weird sense of déjà vu — it was the same place that herself, Scott, Isaac and Derek had met with Chris Argent to prevent Boyd and Cora from killing anyone on their first full moon out of the vault in the old bank. A cliff that overlooked Beacon Hills in it's entirety, the scene they had looked over right before creating equilibrium as it had been previously.

Beautifully poetic.

"Cutting it a little close..." a voice sounded from behind them.

It made Lois' stomach churn, and she clutched Isaac's hand a little tighter. Since the man had served her warning for not joining him through the murder of her cousin, he scared her. She didn't want to be scared of him, Lois was stronger than that, but she was. The alpha struck fear right within her heart.

"...aren't we, Scott?"

"We got a little delayed," Scott said.

Deucalion hummed under his breath and pulled a wry grin, as if he knew Lois was staring at him with hatred in her eyes. She may be scared, but she still loathed the man with every fibre of her mind and being. He nodded, "Good to see you, Lois."

"Wish I could say the same," she quipped in a fast snap.

The words only made him chuckle.

"Acting so very brave," he pouted, mockingly. "But you and I both know I can smell your fear; it's practically oozing from you. A lot of fear for such a tiny person."

"Not as tiny as your—"

"Where are the others?" Scott swiftly took back the floor, having an awful feel that Lois may say something she wouldn't be able to take back if she came to regret it. Not that she would. After all, this was Lois Lane — she didn't tend to regret any of the insults that'd passed her lips, over the years. She meant them.

"Occupying themselves with other pursuits," Deucalion said.

If the teenagers hadn't known what Kali and Aiden really were up to, and if they didn't already have a plan to put a dent in said pursuits, then they might have believed him. Or, in the very least, they might have been more concerned about what he was up to on the side. However, the teenagers were incredibly lucky. They knew as much as Ethan had told them, which was enough to risk his life by helping them, and their cadets were rolling in as they spoke. He wasn't as slick as he thought he was.

"So, it's just you and me against her?"

Lois frowned.

"You'll be surprised at what a good team we make."

Understandably, Lois didn't trust Deucalion alone with Scott for a minute. The man was a callous murderer, with intentions to kill and rule, and from what she knew, leaving him alone with Scott'd be precisely what he wanted. He had wanted Scott under his thumb from the second he arrived in Beacon Hills, and even long before that. His successes were cut short with the denial of Lois Lane, but he still had Scott. And, truly, Scott was what he needed. Of course a hand from the Nemeton reincarnated would have bene helpful in the process of taking Jennifer Blake down, but Deucalion would just have to sink his claws into her when they got back. Not all was lost if he had Scott McCall.

That was only one reason that Lois didn't trust him. Plenty others existed, but she supposed that was probably one of much greater importance. Either way, Lois didn't want Scott alone with the man who had been after him for months. The man who had killed Erica and Boyd, who had tried to kill Derek, who had almost killed Peter Parker. She wasn't letting that happen.

"Okay—" Scott breathed, "—get Stiles and Luna, and then get to the root cellar. Okay?" He told his friends as he turned around.

Scott barely made it an inch, because a hand latched onto his wrist, small fingers curled around his forearm. Brows furrowed, he peered down at the hand and immediately recognised the chipped nail varnish, as well as the ring on her finger that he and Stiles had both pitched in to buy for her fifteenth birthday. That day seemed so long ago, now. It made him purse his lips tightly as he looked at her; he knew what she would say.

"I'm coming with you."

"No, you're not." He told her, calmly.

"Uh— yeah, I am." Lois retorted.

"You're going with Isaac and Allison, you're gonna find Stiles and Luna, and you're gonna save our parents." Scott spelled out, like she was a child.

"Are you really gonna baby me, right now?" She narrowed her eyes at him, "You seriously wanna do that, McCall?" The words were a reminder that he was already on thin ice, "I'm like Jennifer, I might be the only who can stop her. You need me,"

"I don't—"

"I say we let her join us," Deucalion commented. "I always did find great interest in the art of water bending. Perhaps we'll even learn a little more about Lois Lane's connection with the Nemeton and such— hm?" He received nasty looks from not only Lois and Scott but from Isaac and Allison too, which he couldn't see but he could feel them perfectly. It satisfied him, greatly. "Not keen on it?"

"Shut up," Scott growled.

"Please, Scott..." Lois grabbed his hand and laced their fingers, shuffling closer to him so they were chest to chest. He went to say something more but she cut him off, "I'm not leaving you alone, I can't do that. If I can stop Jennifer, then you need me." When he sighed, she whined; "I can help. Why won't you let me? You need me, Scott."

A tense silent coated them. They could have been stood there for hours, or seconds, but time seemed to blur together when it was an intimate moment between Lois and Scott.

Isaac glanced at their hands and then at his empty one, and then at Allison whom stood by his side. She met his gaze halfway and, once again, the air felt thicker and more tense — the world felt so cold when they saw Lois and Scott; so empty and meaningless, so lost and wasted. Isaac wished he didn't feel that way, he wasn't so sure why he even did, but it didn't appear to ever go away. There was something about it that hurt. And, no matter how hard Isaac tried to look away, he couldn't quite manage to pry his eyes off of them; Lois and Scott.

Always Lois and Scott.

"What I need is for you to stay with Isaac and Allison," the teen wolf eventually verbalised what he felt. "I need you to find Stiles and Luna, and save our parents." They were a repeat of what he had already articulated, but they held different meaning. When it was combined with the look in his eyes... it was just different. The words meant something. They meant he wanted her safe. "Can you do that for me? Please, Lois?"

Could she?

Could she stand by and do nothing?

She licked her dry lips, "Fine."

"Good," he nodded. "We'll keep Jennifer away long enough for you guys to get them all out of there."

"How are you gonna do that?" Isaac spoke up, eyes flickering between their still joint hands and their faces. "You've got a good plan, right?"

"Well, I have a plan."

——