Here´s the one-shot which has helped me win July´s Naughty-Seduction Fanfic Challenge.
Enjoy!
TITLE: "On a Day Just like Today..."
CHALLENGE: July ´09- Challenge #2- The Safe House
RATING: PG
PAIRING: Chlex
AUTHOR: Lexie
SUMMARY: Chloe reminisces one very special birthday
SPOILERS: Season 8
WORD COUNT: 1,000
Today she was turning twenty-two and still, she felt as if she´d lived a lot longer. Five years ago she´d been full of dreams and projects- an idealist who believed the world could be changed by the power of her pen and her unquenchable thirst for the truth. She wasn't that gullible girl any more.
As she looked at the Metropolis skyline from the balcony of the Ace of Clubs- away from the loud music and the inane talking and laughing she couldn´t find the heart to join in tonight- she found herself reminiscing that summer, the summer that had changed it all.
The green-eyed monster can make you do the most foolish and reckless things, and she´d fallen prey to it at seventeen. She´d been lured by the most cunning of devils and let herself be trapped in a mirage which almost cost her and her dad their lives.
Salvation had come from the most unexpected knight in dented armour, and she´d let herself be rescued only to be trapped in a different way. Two strong-willed and independent souls had come together under the oddest of circumstances and a strange alliance had been forged to slay the dragon which was threatening them both.
Her oppressive dungeon was changed for a secluded safe house on the beach and her dangerous jailor for a young man whose purpose in life had always been to break out of his own prison- a destructive iron maiden forged in the same hellish foundry as her cage.
The traffic was slimming down and yet, the sound of blaring sirens and distant shootings- so ubiquitous in a criminal-infested city like Metropolis- pierced her ears and made her wish she could obliterate the world around her and go back to that beach.
"If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again," she remembered quoting one very special sunset- the last one they´d shared sitting side by side barefoot on the sand.
"I didn´t know you were so fond of Du Maurier," he´d told her after a long pregnant silence.
"I´m not, but I ran out of books to read... And that passage for some reason kind of stuck in my mind."
"You should have told me the last time I came. I thought the box I´d brought you a fortnight ago would last you until the end of the month."
"So did I, but I haven´t been able to sleep much lately," she´d confessed, staring at the horizon, too overwhelmed by emotion to look him in the eye.
"It´ll soon be over, Chloe," he´d said softly, covering one of her hands with his as she wrapped her arms around her bended legs and rested her chin on her knees.
"I know, " she´d whispered in a strangled voice, wondering if those words meant what she hoped.
"The trial´ll be over the day after tomorrow and he´ll be put away for life. He won´t hurt you, Chloe. I won´t let him," he´d promised fiercely, fighting the urge to thread his fingers through her hair and bring her closer to him.
"I know," she´d said, feeling the tears well up when she realised he hadn´t meant his words that way.
"Chloe, " he´d said, resting his hand on her back only to feel her tremble. "Come. You´re cold; we should be getting back to the house."
"No!" she´d exclaimed, pulling him down by the hand." I´m fine. Let´s just stay for a while longer... until the sun sets. I want to remember this moment."
"Are you sure everything´s all right?" he´d asked, wanting nothing more than to embrace her and never let go. "Chloe?" he´d insisted.
"I´m a year older today. Seventeen," she sighed, trying to keep her lips from trembling.
"I know. I got you a present. I was going to give it to you before I left."
"You were?"
"I am."
"Will I like it?" she´d asked softly, blinking away some treacherous tears.
"I think you will. I wish I could give you more, but..." he´d begun responding.
"So let´s go and see what you got me, Mr Luthor," she´d scrambled to her feet, cutting him off before he could say something that might make her heart ache deeper.
"Chloe," he´d called, trying to catch up with her, his bare feet sinking in the sand of the dune on his way up.
"So... where is it? I want to unwrap my present," she´d told Lex on crossing the threshold, her eyes unnaturally bright, feigning a cheerfulness she was far from feeling.
"I´ve left it on the coffee table," he´d said quietly, cursing Lionel Luthor and fate for bringing them together much too soon.
"Tales of the Weird and the Unexpected," she´d read aloud.
"There´s an inscription inside," he´d told her, putting his hands deep in his pockets.
"Let there always be a mystery to solve and a story to write."
"You OK?" asked Oliver´s voice, bringing her back to the present.
"Yeah. Birthdays make me a little reflective. What´s that?"
"I´m sorry to say it isn´t mine. Clark must have left it on my desk when he visited LuthorCorp this morning. Aren´t you going to open it?"
`Tales of the Weird and the Unexpected´ read the cover of the book she unwrapped.
"Isn´t there a dedication on the first page?"
"Yes," she answered softly.
Happy birthday, Chloe. Here´s what I wish I could have said that summer: Will you wait for me?
"Someone´s told me you´re the birthday, girl," Zatanna, a gorgeous woman in a top hat, told Chloe. "Make a wish. Ready? Blow the candle on the cupcake, then."
Take me back to that summer. I won´t let him leave the safe house this time.
"Do you like it, Chloe?"
"Tell me the words you really meant to write, Lex."
THE END
A/N:
Chloe´s quotation in her conversation with Lex in the flashback corresponds to Daphne Du Maurier´s "Rebecca".
The first two lines of her conversation with Oliver are taken almost verbatim from "Hex" (8x17)