snippet of my WIP currently titled "loopy clark," bc i need a dopamine rush rn. inspired by this post
Premise: Clark has to go under for a surgery, and he comes out super loopy and affectionate and overwhelms Hal with a bunch of physical affection and priase. Then, still loopy, Clark lets it slip that he purposefully avoids being too affectionate with Hal so that he doesn’t overwhelm him, and Hal has feelings about that.
Finally, finally, fourteen hours since Clark had gone in, Dr. Leslie Thompkins stepped out of the surgery room. Ever the fastest to react, Barry shot up from his chair. “How is he?” Barry asked. The rest of the Justice League watched Leslie with bated breath, but she was, as ever, unreadable.
“Why don’t you see for yourself?” Leslie said. Bruce came out of the surgery room, pushing Clark—whole, conscious, alive, beautifully, beautifully alive—in a wheelchair. Clark was wearing a hospital gown with bandages poking out from underneath, and he was a bit pale, but otherwise he looked barely worse for wear, and he was smiling weakly.
Hal stood up, shakily, just staring at Clark, as the other Leaguers rushed to him, warmly welcoming Clark back to the land of the living, clapping him on the back, being generally boisterous and annoying like the people they were. Meanwhile, Hal hadn’t moved from where he stood, ten feet away from the operating theater. He felt floored by the relief rushing through him. It was genuinely a miracle he didn’t fall.
“Don’t crowd him,” Batman growled, batting away some of the rowdier JLA-ers (Ollie and Shayera, mostly) from Clark. Leslie said something about how Clark was still under the influence of a lot of anaesthesia and painkillers and still needed yellow sunlight to help him heal, but Hal only had eyes for Clark, or at least, what little he could see of him behind Diana’s broad frame and Shayera’s wings. Clark was still smiling, taking everyone’s well wishes graciously even despite being high as fuck probably, because that was just the sort of person he was, but there was something just a little bit off about his expression. He was looking around at all the faces of the Leaguers around him, before he turned to Bruce behind him. Bruce bent down a little so Clark could whisper in his ear, and then Bruce bent down further so he could have his head right next to Clark’s, and he pointed, in their shared eyeline, directly to Hal.
Hal watched, as if in slow motion, Clark’s eyes follow Bruce’s finger. Clark lit up the moment he finally spotted Hal.
“Hal!” Clark exclaimed, just pure joy radiating from his face to his voice. He reached out with grabby hands towards Hal, and the rest of the JLA-ers parted to let Hal slowly walk up to Clark. As soon as Hal was in range, Clark scooped up Hal’s hands, which had been resting at his sides, and nuzzled them like a cat.
Hal laughed, if only because he was surprised. Clark was pretty touchy-feely, but he had never done that before. “You okay there, big guy? Still a little loopy from the anesthesia, huh?”
“I love you,” Clark said, immediately and completely sincerely, and whatever quip Hal had lined up died on his tongue. Clark peppered Hal’s hands with kisses, innocently oblivious to the fact that he had made Hal speechless. Distantly, Hal could feel the eyes of the rest of the JLA on him.
“Was that…the first time he said that?” Dinah asked hesitantly. Next to her, Oliver burst into braying guffaws.
“No,” Hal lied at the same time Clark said, “Yes.”
Half the JLA loudly gushed and cooed, and Hal was mortified for a reason he couldn’t explain to himself.
“I love you so, so much, darling,” Clark continued. “You’re the most beautiful thing in all of the universe, which I know because I’ve been to a lot of places in outer space, and I wish I could tell you I love you more…” He sighed. “I can’t believe you’re my boyfriend. I love you, I love you, I love you.”
“Hal,” Barry said with an amused smile, “you’re bright red.”
