The Reunion

Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing to do with Smallville.
Potential spoilers: Up to S4 although I have changed some of the back story
Summary: Chloe and Lex meet on prom night and then again five years later at the reunion, a lot as happened in between.

Chapter One

A sliver Aston Martin screeched to a halt outside the High School and a well-dressed man sprang out of it. He tore up to the building, throwing open the doors and paying no heed as they banged against the walls, only taking a second to glance down at his watch. Fuck! He was running so late!

He sprinted through the halls, cursing his choice of footwear as he did so and praying that she would still be there.

"Have they announced prom queen yet?" He demanded of a senior that he seemed to know by sight.

"Yeah, ages ago".

"Fuck", he swore again. "Where is she?" He had no doubt that she would have won; no one could hold a candle to her.

The teen shrugged, "Back in there", he gestured to the gym behind him, seemingly unconcerned. "She and Clark went off for a while but she is back there now".

He breathed a sigh of relief; at least that meant that he had not completely missed her. He might still be able to make this up to her and he was sure that he would be able to find someone who had taped the coronation - so at least he would still get to see her, even though it was hardly the same. He ignored the comment about Clark, sure that it would be nothing and not having the time to dwell on that matter at that moment.

Without a word of thanks, he burst through the gym doors and was almost bowled over. The heat produced by a large gathering of teenagers huddled together was rather impressive, as was the noise coming from what they described in their broacher as a band, not to mention the sea of pink crape paper which covered what had been the gym merely a few hours before. He felt a shudder travel down his spine, he had never been so happy to have spent his teenage years in virtual solitude. If this was what it was like to go to High School dances, than all of those night alone in his dorm room had been well spent. If only he had known that he might not have worried about it so much.

That thought was put out of his mind as he scanned the crowd; he wasn't here for his own enjoyment, he was there for her. He searched all of the couples dancing on the floor but couldn't see her, he looked over the refreshment tables where some more people were socializing but again he could not find her. Finally, he started moving through the tables until finally he got to one almost empty tables and stopped.

Only the back of her head was visible to him but that was enough. He would recognise those blonde curls anywhere, even if they were tied back in a way that was unusual for her. He could also make out the creaminess of her shoulders between the hot pink of her halter neck and the rest of her black dress. He couldn't be sure, but he didn't think that he had ever seen her wear pink before. It wasn't his favourite colour, but she could pull it off.

He wasn't sure whether he should be pleased to see that no one else had taken the place which he intended to fill or sad that so far she had had no one to spend this evening with. She had been crowned Prom Queen, for goodness' sake, that was supposed to be something important in American High Schools. She should have been surrounded by friends and well-wishers and yet there she was all alone.

Wanting to see more of her, he moved around the side of the table and caught a glimpse of her face. He didn't know what he had expected to see but certainly not an expression of quite resignation. That wasn't her - she was young and brilliant and she had her whole life ahead of her, resignation had no place on her face or in her emotions.

She was looking down at her tiara, seeming far too calm considering what a big occasion it was. Then, every so often, she would prod it and a small, secretive smile would tug at her lips, before she glanced over at a couple dancing on the floor and it disappeared again. She hadn't even noticed that she now had company.

"You know, in a few months you won't even remember his name", he finally spoke.

"What?" She looked up in confusion, trying to locate the source of the intrusion. "Lex? What are you doing here?"

Lex smirked.

"Well I couldn't miss the coronation of Chloe Sullivan as Smallville's queen", he said, inviting himself to sit down.

"You did miss it", Chloe pointed out.

"You noticed that I was absent?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Well no, not exactly. But if the famous Lex Luthor had been present then I am sure that someone would have noticed", Chloe tried to explain, cursing herself for blushing.

"I like to think that I have a certain presence", he smirked. "So how was it, having all of those girlish dreams fulfilled?"

"This", she gestured to their surroundings, "is not my dream girlish or otherwise".

"I know, but I promise you that it is theirs", he looked around the room. "You realise that every single girl here tonight wishes that they could be you?"

Chloe looked incredulously at him.

"You were crowned Prom Queen, you were voted most likely to succeed/get out of here, you got scholarships to several very impressive colleges", he said seriously counting the items off on his fingers, before adding in a joking manner, "and you have the company of the best looking bachelor in the room".

This got her to smile and he felt really good for the first time in a long time.

"So what has me puzzled is why you are sitting here all by yourself", he continued. He had to tread carefully unless he wanted her to tell him to fuck off and mind his own business, which past experience had told him she was quite capable of doing.

"The coronation didn't exactly go as planned … not that I actually had it planned at all. I was meant to come here as a reporter, look at what was going on, write an article, spend some time with Clark", she tried to keep the pain out of her voice, "but it didn't work out like that. I got possessed, got a crown, you know how it is". She tried to shrug the entire night off.

"Just a normal Friday night in Smallville then", he smiled.

"Pretty much", Chloe smiled back.

Lex didn't ask about the possession, and squashed his desire to find out not only what happened but also who was responsible. He reasoned that he had no reason to feel protective of Chloe Sullivan and that he would probably read about it pretty soon and it wasn't what that night was supposed to be about. He cared about Chloe, he hated to admit it but he did. Things hadn't been easy between them and he was willing to bet that after last year she hated him, but a few weeks ago she had smiled at him for no reason when he had seen her out and about. He couldn't believe it. Until that moment he hadn't thought that anyone would ever continue to care about him or even think that he was still a human. He had been battling to hold on to his friendship with Clark but could feel it slipping away from him. It had been after a particularly tense meeting in which Lex had worked out that it was only a matter of time until he lost Clark completely – based on the way that he had stared at him – that he had run into Chloe, in the park of all places. She had just been walking along, had seen him and had said hello and given him a friendly smile. To most people it would probably have been nothing more than a common courtesy but to a man as deprived of true affection as he was, it has been manna. That was when he had vowed to make an effort. Chloe was going to have the perfect prom night.

"I meant what I said", he said.

Chloe looked at him inquiringly.

"In a few months you won't even remember Clark's name", Lex reminded her of what he had said before, helpfully.

She snorted, not bothering to deny that she had been thinking about a certain flannel clad farm boy.

"Take it from someone who only had one friend in the whole of High School and didn't go to a single dance or have a single girlfriend", he admitted, "college is a completely different world".

"If High School is so unimportant then what are you doing here? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you did graduate a long time ago", she stressed the long and grinned at him cheekily. She could never resist trying to bait him, whatever her mood was.

"Because I wanted to see you", he replied honestly, "and because of that little fact I won't destroy your entire family's prospects because of that little slip of the tongue".

Chloe scoffed at him. They both knew that he wouldn't do anything like that; when Lionel had demanded that he fire her father he had come straight to her shaken the truth out of her and then protected them. He had finally stood up to his father, found out the truth about his grandparents' death and had put him in prison. He wasn't going to threaten her for real now.

"Why are you really here?" Chloe asked him, again.

"I told you, I wanted to see you", he poured himself a glass of punch.

"Why?" Chloe asked, "Was the thought of me getting crowned so comical to you that you had to come down here and see it for yourself?"

"Actually", he took a sip of the pink liquid and grimaced – it tasted much as it looked, pink! -, "it restored my faith in this town. I know that Clark suggested you to everyone as the alternative candidate – the one to vote for it they wanted to take a stand against the whole Prom Queen thing -, but they still voted for you. They saw their superior and for once chose that person to lead them rather than trying to squash them. I'm impressed".

Chloe pulled at face at him.

Lex took a flask out of his pocket and put some in his drink and in hers, "This will liven it up a little bit".

"I'm not 21 yet, Lex", Chloe reminded him, not having any real objections.

"Please, I know that you have been into clubs before now", he said, hoping that she wouldn't ask about how he knew that.

"Cheers", Chloe said, choosing to ignore that he knew about her clubbing as she figured that Clark had told him about how she found him when he was in Metropolis, and because she liked having someone there to talk to. She supposed that she could have gone up to one of the groups of boys of her own age – it wasn't as if she hadn't had offered to dance that night – but she just didn't feel like it. She seemed thoughtful as she sipped her 'grown up' punch with appreciation; he had brought the good stuff, although as it was Lex she supposed that she shouldn't have expected anything else. After a few seconds had elapsed, she asked, "College is really different, huh? I mean, friendships change. The person that you thought you loved … you might find out that they weren't the one?"

"Sure, it happens all of the time", Lex answered easily, as he followed her gaze onto the dance floor.

He saw what had captured her attention and scowled. Clark and Lana were wrapped in each other's arms, neither of them really knowing how to dance but just enjoying being together. He shouldn't be angry he supposed; they weren't doing anything wrong – although he thought that they could have been a little more sensitive to Chloe's feelings, but he wasn't really one to talk on that subject - and they were in love after all. He didn't know if they would stay together, but it was almost certain that Chloe would get over Clark very quickly, once she was away from Smallville.

"When you go to … are you going to Yale or Harvard?" He wondered, he knew that she had got scholarship to both Universities and to several others but as they were the best they were the only real possibilities.

"I'm not sure yet, I got into MetU and …"

"No!"

"I beg your pardon", her head snapped back around to look at him, her broken heart and its cause temporarily forgotten.

"I said no. Chloe you can't throw your future away for some guy", Lex sounded truly disgusted.

Chloe looked down, she wanted to be angry with him but she couldn't. Well, that wasn't entirely true; she could be angry with him very easily – no one could make her loose her temper as quickly as Lex Luthor could – but not over this. "I know", she admitted and took another swig of her drink. "It needs more vodka", she informed him holding it out to him expectantly. Lex acquiesced.

"I don't know where I want to go really. I applied to MetU because as my safe backup option, the one I had to get into whatever happened. I then applied to every Ivy League school that I could think of just on the off chance that one of them might give me an interview, I never honestly thought that I would get into all of them – especially not with scholarships to most. It is a great opportunity, I know that, but I have never visited the campuses, I don't know the areas … I guess …" She trailed off and shook her head.

"Tell me", he coaxed.

She looked over at him, as if trying to calculate the risk involved before giving in. "I can hear myself, you know. I have full scholarships to the best schools in the country, my Dad isn't going to have to worry about anything and I am going to get a great education whichever one I go to. I am going to have the chance to have a new start and go to a new place. I should be so excited. I am excited and Met U shouldn't even still be on the list but … I'm scared", she finally admitted.

Lex nodded, but remained quiet to let her continue.

"I feel like I am on the edge of this huge precipice, it is what I have been waiting and working for for years, but now that I actually have the option … I'm scared. It would be so easy to stay in Kansas, to go to MetU, to stay near Clark", she fiddled with the straw in her drink.

He wanted to tell her that she was wrong, tell her that she couldn't throw everything away for Clark. He mentally tried to work out how much he would have to pay to get Clark into one of those Ivy League Colleges.

"But I won't", her voice was low and calm.

He looked up.

"I'm just feeling sorry for myself", she gave shrug, "I have done all of the research, I'm in the process of making pro and con lists and when I work out which one is the best I will choose it but it won't be MetU. I will not throw everything away. Not really". She was decided.

"Thank God for that", he heaved a sigh of relief.

"You know a lot about these things right?"

Lex nodded. Strictly speaking he didn't really know a lot about it, but he wasn't going to tell Chloe that. If he didn't know the answer he would call the deans up, get them out of bed and get the information from them.

"Which one has the best looking men?" She asked, with apparent seriousness. "That is the one thing that the internet refused to tell me". He stared at her and she broke into a wide grin at the expression on his face.

"I haven't really noticed but I know quite a few people who have sisters who are still in those schools so I could always call and ask", he said as a better plan formed in his mind. He fingered his phone in his pocket, he would have to put his plan into action as soon as they entered phase two of his first plan.

"So, now we know that you are about to go to college and be a huge success, what do you say we make sure that you celebrate prom night correctly?" He suggested, trying to sound calm so as not to give the rest of the night he had planned out away.

"And how do we do that?" Chloe asked, wondering if Lex knew about the prom night tradition. She blushed slightly at that. Of course, he didn't. That was a thing that only girls knew about.

"Well, we start with dancing", he stood up and offered her his hand. "As it seems that none of the boys here know their right from their left, I suppose that the task falls to me. Chloe Sullivan, you would the Prom Queen do me the honour of dancing with me a former geek?"

"Ewww! You were a geek? Sorry no go", Chloe said in her best valley girl imitation as she got to her feet.