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hobbitsetal · 3 years

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Superman and Lois: the Clark we've waited for

When my husband told me there was a new CW show he wanted to watch, I wasn't interested. The only CW shows I'm familiar with (Riverdale and The Flash) devolved into frustration and drama within a couple of seasons. From what I've heard on Tumblr, they kept spiraling into inanity.

But this one was a Superman show, my husband's favorite superhero of all time...and rumor said it was actually really good. Because I'm a loving wife and also a reasonably open-minded individual, I agreed to watch it.

It's really good.

It's really good. It's everything I could ever possibly have wanted from a Superman story. We watched the first two episodes on the CW app (admittedly, a sub-par experience, between the ads and the app glitching so that we had to restart the episodes at least twice each) and we're watching the next five on HBOMax. And it's really good.

The premise is that Clark and Lois move their 14 year old twins to the Kent family farm in Smallville, partly for family reasons and partly because a mysterious corporation is moving in on the stagnant little town and bringing what seem to be glorious new opportunities to the citizens. But Lois Lane has heard bad things about this corporation and she's determined to unearth the truth like the star reporter she is.

Add in mysterious super-powered people targeting Superman and one of his twins possibly manifesting Kryptonian powers, and you've got all the intrigue you need for a classic Super story.

What this show does particularly well, however, is the relationships written in. There's no stupid drama. There are family fights, there's teenage angst, there's an over-bearing in-law (hi, General Lane), but the drama is never allowed to become melodramatic. Instead, they communicate.

Tension between the twins over the manifesting powers and the unsettlement of moving from Metropolis to Smallville are handled through conversations and fights, but never at the cost of their relationship. Indeed, in one episode, one twin confesses feeling insecure about his brother muscling in on what had always been his thing...and then proceeds to coach his brother on that very thing.

Clark and Lois are particularly delightful. They flirt, they support each other, they work as a team, and they talk through issues.

The bulk of the tension comes from Clark trying to juggle family responsibilities with being Superman. And his priority, repeatedly expressed and acted upon, however imperfectly, is his family.

I cannot think of another show that has so blatantly and beautifully prioritized family like this. Certainly, other shows have had their family tensions and the workaholic parent realizing their error and resolving to do better. But this feels different, and Clark choosing his family is a driving force of this first season's plot.

Tyler Hoechlin is a fantastic Clark Kent. He's kind, he loves his sons and his wife unabashedly, he plays "dorky Clark" charmingly, and he plays the Man of Steel with righteous resolve. And Bitsie Tulloch plays off him perfectly as Lois, both as intrepid reporter and as his partner. They come across realistically as a couple who's been married for some 15-odd years, a couple who overall understands and knows each other intimately, yet sometimes needs a little reminder from each other on what to prioritize and how to prioritize it.

Overall, this is the kind of smaller-scale character-driven story that my husband has always wanted to see from a Superman adaptation. And having seen it, I have to say I'm a huge fan.

#superman and lois #tyler hoechlin #y'all seriously gotta watch this show #i have never loved Superman so much in my life #and his marriage to Lois!!#IT'S SO GOOD #and the communication in this show!!#UGH #this isn't touching on the mental illnesses a couple characters have #and how they seem to be handling that respectfully and with nuance

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fanta-ceo · 7 years

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Terms of Our Relationship

pairings: Yoongi x Reader, Jimin x OC

genre: established relationship, angst, workaholic!yoongi

word count: 3,096

description: It's the first time she's seen him in two days. And that's okay, except that technically, they share the same bed.

I'm busier than you think. Can you be okay with that?

A/N: Originally written in 3rd and I didn’t want to switch it to 2nd lol. Plz understand

It's the first time she's seen him in two days. And that's okay, except that technically, they share the same bed. He barely remembers to come home these days—when he's not camped in the office, analyzing complex data for his boss working overtime he won't get paid for, he usually finds what little time he has left in the studio. That was their agreement when they moved in together.

I'm busier than you think. Can you be okay with that?

She'd understood. She herself had passions and dreams she was aiming for—when she wasn't at work, she was still attending school, finishing her PhD and working long hours, agonizing over her dissertation. They were wrecks; she remembered to go to the gym more often than she remembered to eat, and she had a feeling Yoongi remembered to eat even less.

And yet... despite their busy schedules, despite the hundreds of reasons why they couldn't be a normal couple and cuddle on the couch and eat dinner together and go on dates, something still stung in his absence. Whenever she laid in bed, trying quiet her anxious thoughts, she'd remember the few times she'd done it in his arms. The times back when things were more intense and less serious at once, back when her hold on him had appeared tentative at best, and he'd gone out of his way to assure her that she was on his mind, that he wanted something from her.

She isn't less in love with him. If anything, she's only fallen deeper. And she doubts he's changed his mind about her—he's not the type to sleep with women he doesn't care about, to sign a lease with someone who he plans on losing interest in. She only wished that in the hundreds of priorities on their lists, their own relationship would be a bit closer to the top.

She wishes this wasn't the first time she's seen her boyfriend in two days. But more than that biting sting of loneliness and aching of missing him, there's gratitude—that he's in her life, that he's here, that he thought this was important enough to take time off of his busy schedule to come to this frivolous group date.

She doesn't know how it ended up like this. Yoongi got along with her friends okay, but if they were going to go out together, they usually hung out with Namjoon or Hoseok. Yoongi could charm the pants off anyone, but he found it a drag to hang around her friends and their boyfriends. Except Soojung and Jimin.

Yoongi was different from her other friends—a kid with dreams who had lived off the streets for too long before regaining his footing, passionately fighting and scraping his way to what he had now. It had been a coincidence—blessed luck—that they'd met at all, that he'd seen something in her worth sticking around for. He had a group of friends of his own, a small collection of people he considered worth keeping track of and visiting with every few weeks, so of course he didn't need anything from her friends' boyfriends. If he was an outsider, it was something he was familiar with.

But Jimin didn't seem to mind if Yoongi was closed off to friendship. They could spend a night together, Jimin chatting cheerfully and laughing at Yoongi's banter, and both would leave utterly content even if they didn't see each other for another month. Jimin didn't think Yoongi was rude if he dropped off the face of the earth for weeks at a time.

She hasn't seen him in two days, but he could be in the studio right now, doing what he really loved but instead he was here at this restaurant, looking painfully gorgeous in a black suit and a little too tired for her taste as he stood by the front door, checking his phone and scanning the room simultaneously for her and her friends. The feelings she feels bubbling to the surface surge with painful intensity—longing the foremost, warm affection mingling with the aching emotion in a way that twisted her stomach.

She doesn't like living like this.

When he sees her and something in his eyes solidifies—something distant and anxious that becomes warm and solid when his eyes meet hers—she feels that wrenching longing. I'm busier than you think. Can you be okay with that? She couldn't ask for more time. She had asked for this as well, hadn't she? She was busy too. Wasn't that why it had made so much sense, back then? Being with him meant they were both free to pursue their passions, and she needed that because she'd worked for over a decade to get to this point in her life. This is what she had wanted.

The thought rang hollow to her. Worked a decade to live with a man you barely see, to lose your mind in work that can't satisfy your heart, to long for someone who's just always out of reach. Somehow, along the way, he'd become something even more important to her than all of her goals and ambitions. A younger her would have been horrified to hear it, and Yoongi... she couldn't admit that kind of weakness to him. To admit that in their precious time together, she had changed, that the terms of their relationship were beginning to twist and break inside of her.

Their relationship was built off of how much they liked one another but how fiercely independently they lived—a loving relationship of how much they didn't need each other. Loneliness, longing—it all amounted to selfishness. She wasn't going to hold him back like that.

She could never admit that, for her, the scales had tipped. That she needed something he'd told her he wouldn't give her, and she had agreed. She wouldn't do that to him.

Something about that cut inside her, deep like the other emotions he inspired that wrecked havoc within her. But it was just another emotion to keep to herself, waiting for a time when their relationship could be more than these wisps and shadows.

~*~

He smells so good.

She's half out of her mind, trying to focus on the conversation when he's so close, when he's warm and so handsome and smells so good, and his hand is on her thigh under the table—he's watching Jimin with sharp eyes, his lips curved like the smirk of a predator, but Jimin's lips are twitching into a smile all the while so she thinks they're really having fun—but his thumb is tracing small circles on her thigh, and of course all she can think about is him.

Soojung is watching Jimin in his element, bubbly and relaxed and almost child like. He leads the conversation easily, leading them sideways and backwards in ways that make them laugh. When Soojung does speak, it's to antagonize her—which, with Yoongi so close and with her losing her mind over emotions and hormones, she could barely handle. She usually sputtered out generic responses because she was utterly brain dead, something that would make Soojung snicker and Yoongi chuckle as he glanced at her.

He's just so... well, there's a lot of words. Handsome, confident—but really, he's just insanely hot when he's like this. The last time she'd seen him, he'd looked half dead in a giant, over-sized t-shirt and shorts as he'd stumbled blearily to the coffee she'd made a half hour earlier. She'd been rushing out the door to get to class, and they hadn't even kissed goodbye.

The contrast was ridiculous. She loved him sleepy and half-dead before he got his caffeine fix. This side of Yoongi was just another favorite.

The pressure of his thumb into her skin is hypnotic. She feels her eyes drifting shut. She wants to be alone with him. But she couldn't even ask him to come home for herself—she had to wait to ask for a little time until this group date opportunity. Why was she so scared of asking for more time with him? Why couldn't she just be honest, that she needed him at night when her anxieties and fears started to overwhelm her? She needed the comfort of his touch to remind her that there was more to life than exhausting and endless assignments and projects.

She needs him. She misses their dates when they would talk, when he would laugh and tease her, when he would listen, when he would share some of the incredible thoughts banging around in his mind, the things he too often kept inside. She missed connecting with him, feeling like he was apart of her as well as her own beating heart. Why does it feel like she's been so utterly stupid, like she's made a terrible mistake by waiting so long to ask him on a date? Why did she wait for a group date if he was going to say yes so easily? Wasn't all of this her fault?

She can't get her mind off of him, and Yoongi must notice because he leans over then and murmurs in her ear, "Do you want to get out of here?" She can see Jimin and Soojung obviously watching the exchange, but she can only nod in relief.

"Keeping secrets?" Soojung asked, smirking into her drink as she took a sip and eyed them coyly.

"I think I should get my girlfriend home," Yoongi said, going for his wallet. Jimim shook his head, smiling. "I invited you guys to my favorite restaurant, and you think I'll let you cover the bill? You guys should get going. Return the favor later."

She knows Yoongi hates owing people, and she knows Yoongi hates letting other people pay, and she knows Jimin is doing it just to toy with them in a harmless way. But She couldn't concentrate on the exchange long—her focus dissolved to Yoongi's hand that remained resting on her thigh. She found herself wishing she'd worn a dress, that maybe his hand could have made contact with bare skin—it was a shadow of a thought, an impulse or desire with no substance for her rational mind to challenge. She was so on edge. All she really wanted was to hug him.

She missed her boyfriend. A lot.

It had been two days since she'd seen him last, but the last conversation they'd had had been over cereal, and that was four days before—and the last deep conversation they'd had had been two and a half weeks back, over a stupid TV show. The last time they'd fallen asleep talking together was... six weeks?

Jimin ended up paying for the bill, but that gave she and Yoongi the freedom to leave at their convenience—immediately—and as she glanced over her shoulder, she noticed Jimin and Soojung smiling at each other with an affection so intimiate, it felt like intrusion to glimpse it. It made her happy. At least her friend was doing well.

"I took the bus," she says when Yoongi starts scanning the lot for her car.

Yoongi answers by pulling her waist and walking to his with a casual yet firm hand that suggests it's instinctive and utterly natural. She doesn't mind that he's quiet because communication is more than just words and after two years, she understands that it's enough for him to be near her, and if he didn't want her, he wouldn't be touching her.

He opens her door for her like he always does—chivalry made her antsy at best when she was younger, but Yoongi did it so naturally, she figured it was simply apart of who he was. And there was no part of him she didn't adore. When he gets into the driver's seat, it's natural for him to take her hand in his and hold it as he drives.

Does he know what these simple touches mean to me? She'd had a string of past boyfriends whose proximity had left her buzzed but empty. His touch was like a slow burn, solid and warm at first, but it sparked a fire that burned hotter and hotter in the pit of her stomach. She just wanted to curl up in his arms and lose herself in the reassuring calm of his presence.

Does he need me like I need him?

She doubted it. He missed her, probably—he usually did after spending so much time isolated in the studio. But being wanted... that was better than need. She knew that. She'd had a few boys who had used her, for her heart and her body and for her reluctance to walk away. Yoongi wasn't like that. She knew for certain that he had everything he needed in his friends and his music and his work. She was lucky to get any of his time, his affection.

She didn't know what he saw in her. But she was desperately grateful for it. He has no reason to use her, and all the reason in the world to walk away—that's why it means everything that he's here.

When they get back to their apartment, she unlocks the door and steps in. Exhaustion from the long day—the four hour lab, the next three she'd spent in the library until her six hour shift at work—it's all beginning to settle in, and she's planning on falling in bed without the shower she should probably take, all with the hope that he'll follow her.

He catches her hand effortlessly as he closes the door behind them, pulling her so that she stumbles, right into his arms. She freezes as he buries his face in her neck—no, nuzzles her. "I love you," he mumbles.

Her heart melts, and her fingers slide to his back, clinging to him. Do you know how much I need you? "I love you," she sighs in a mumble. It's something like a physical relief, expressing even a fraction of the need she feels tearing her apart.

They stand there long enough that her own exhaustion returns in a wave. "Let's go to bed," she sighs, making to move again.

But Yoongi unexpectedly kisses her neck then—but instead of pulling back, she feels a hot swipe of his tongue on her skin. She's jarred into alertness, pulse beginning to race. She wants to laugh at herself. Honestly—with his hand on her thigh at the restaurant so long, did she really think he just wanted to sleep? But he'd still been holding her at the door for almost ten minutes, making no move to initiate. As if a simple embrace was as important as sex. She doesn't understand him, but she adores him.

He continues to suck in a way that will leave a mark, a way that undoes her, and her fingers press into his back. He laughs—a low, husky sound—against the skin of her neck. "Move to the bed?" He suggests.

She nods, brain foggy, but he doesn't tease her because this is a side of her he accepts just like all the others. It's okay that her brain shuts off sometimes—what did he say once? You're a kind of girl who thinks a lot of thoughts, so I think it's cute when you're like this.

Sex isn't sex when it's with Yoongi. Sex used to be something she dreaded, something scary and sometimes painful and something she did because she was scared to be alone, to watch them walk away because she couldn't make them stay.

With Yoongi, it's love. It's gentle, and fun, and intoxicatingly deep, and through his kiss, through his touch, she feels all of the frayed edges of her emotions begin to reconnect inside of her. It's not everything, of course—but it is something, that they can still come together like this. And when Yoongi asks for this, she knows him enough by now to know that it's just not hormones or impulse. He does it because he loves her, because he misses her, because he wants the emotional connection as much as the physical.

The best part is right now, though—just after they've cleaned up together in the bathroom, when Yoongi is just a little too sarcastic, and she's a little too frazzled to think straight, so they tease each other. But their bickering easily shifts into conversation, easy exchange of ideas with an openness and ease they don't usually employ. And they cuddle in the night; she was so tired, weary from the day, and if anything she should be more tired—he should be the same of course—but this is more important than even sleep.

She'll stay awake for days if it means just a little more precious time with him. "Let's make breakfast together tomorrow," Yoongi mumbles sleepily as they both begin to drift off.

"I hope it's lunch," she quips.

"Let's sleep for a long time," he agrees, kissing her forehead.

"Are you going into the studio tomorrow?" she asks.

"No," he says. "Let's just stay in. I miss you."

"Okay," she agrees.

It's not a promise that they'll spend their nights together like a normal busy couple. He'll still work late into the night and pass out on the couch at the studio, and she'll still work nights and days for work and camp out in the library to get her studying done, but that's okay.

I'm busier than you think. Can you be okay with that?

It was okay, because she'd known going into this exactly what it would be. And even though it would be so easy to overlook her, to forget about her when their passions pulled them in such different directions, he still made time for times like these. She was his priority, no matter how the signs might have indicated otherwise. This, right here, being in his arms after weeks of distance, was enough.

She couldn't doubt it for a second. He loved her. Remembering that, feeling that, was enough for her.

#bts fanfction #bts fanfic #bts scenarios #bts suga #bts yoongi #yoongi #suga #suga fanfic #yoongi fan #yoongi fanfic #yoongi x reader #suga x reader

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