Authors' notes:

Welcome back, all!

This is the sequel to Little Secrets, the epic fanfiction novel that took two years and 485,000 words to write. If you haven't read LS, we strongly suggest that you do so before beginning Heirs to the House of El.

For those of you who have already read LS, this is your hall pass to skip directly to the next chapter, where the real story is. Just know two things. FIRST, the posting schedule will be biweekly this time around. You can expect a chapter every other Saturday, barring extreme extenuating circumstances. And we do mean extreme – we made LS' weekly posting schedule while on vacation, while without an internet connection, and while stoned to the gills on pain meds (back injuries are not our friends). We even managed it while suffering from writers' block, although we did have to skip a week every now and then. SECOND, this story has two first-person prologues, one from the perspective of each Heir. The rest of the fic will be in third-person perspective.

For the rest of you, hello and welcome! To catch you up with the rest of the class, here is a brief (hah!) summary of Little Secrets. The backstory and plot is drawn from a blend of STM, SII, SII:DC, SR, and unused scenes from the scripts of the above movies, as well as our own original ideas.

Lois unmasked Clark Kent as Superman by shooting him (with a blank) while posing as newlyweds in Niagara Falls, and while in shock at that unexpected confirmation of her suspicions, she blurted out that she was in love with him. They flew to the Fortress to discuss matters, Kal-El surrendered his powers to be with Lois, and unexpected passions arose, along with unforeseen consequences. The end result: three Kryptonian villains imprisoned, Kal-El with his powers restored, and Lois with her memories erased.

Superman left the planet shortly thereafter, unable to deal with having to give up Lois, and pursuing the possibility of a still-existing Krypton. While searching for him, Lois discovered she was pregnant. With twins. And with no memory of how that could be possible. In dealing with that traumatic revelation, Lois recovered her memories of the night in the Fortress and was righteously furious with Kal-El.

When Superman returns six years later, now knowing for himself that his home planet has been transmuted into the one substance that can kill him, he finds things very changed. Lois is engaged to Richard White, Perry's nephew, and she has two children, Jason and Kala, whom Clark assumes are Richard's. Lois is also very angry at both Clark and Superman, though he does not yet know that she remembers everything. Lois reveals this, very painfully, to Clark while they are attending the award ceremony where she accepts the Pulitzer Prize for her editorial Why the World Doesn't Need Superman. A bad night is made even worse by Lex Luthor showing up at the ceremony to threaten Lois and her children.

The revelation causes Clark to attempt to resign on Monday morning, but Perry convinces him to transfer into International, which is presently run by a seemingly-oblivious Richard White. Things are very awkward for everyone except the twins themselves, who know more than any of the adults suspect. The situation is not helped by the reappearance in Clark's life of his high school crush, Lana Lang, now a wealthy and successful designer. Lana knows on meeting Clark again that his heart belongs to Lois, and she is desperately trying to deny her own attraction to another of Lois' men: Richard.

The kidnapping of the twins by Lex Luthor forces all four to work together. While trying to rescue Jason and Kala from the villain's diabolical scheme, everyone's strength, endurance, and courage will be tested to the limit. Lives are threatened, secrets (including Superman's identity and the twins' parentage) are revealed, and Lois' grudge against Kal-El is finally rescinded.

The battle against Luthor ends with Lois and the children safe, Richard and Lana enlightened, and the Man of Steel in a hospital in a comatose state after flinging an island made of kryptonite out to Saturn. Lex Luthor is, sadly, still at large, and Metropolis seems as though it will never be the same.

From there it's a (not-so-)simple matter of healing bodies and hearts for everyone concerned. All the adults are guided by their desire to do what's best for the twins, and this prompts Richard to make a heart-wrenching decision. He breaks his engagement to Lois to allow her to be with the true love of her life, Kal-El. He also reveals that he and Lana not only know the truth of Clark's identity, they have been covering for his absences and will continue to keep his secret out of respect for him and his children. Clark, in turn, promises that Richard will never be shut out of the twins' lives; he knows better than most how important the people who raised you are, even if they're not your biological parents.

Other minor details are worked out in the final arc: convincing everyone those are Clark's kids, letting Lois' mother in on the secret because she knows they aren't, explaining to Martha Kent why she's never met her six-year-old grandkids, and Richard and Lana succumbing to the inevitable and getting married.

By the end of LS, Clark is part of a much larger family, comprised of relatives in both blood and newsprint. The Last Son of Krypton is no longer alone, and the new heirs to the House of El can count on the love and support of two sets of parents. Things seem nearly perfect by the wedding that closes the story…

…but life is never that simple. And so the saga continues…

As always, the source works for this universe belong to Warner Bros, Richard Donner, Tom Mankiewicz, Bryan Singer, Mike Doughtry, Dan Harris, etc. Now get off your butt, WB, and give us our Man of Steel.

Class dismissed!