Instinctual

Chloe hadn't noticed it at first. She really hadn't, but it had been a long summer, full of stress and labor for both her and for Clark. He'd stopped Fine and Zod, managed to return from the Phantom Zone, thanks to the help of a portal left for the El family there (thank God), but there was so much left to do in Metropolis. The city had been left reeling, billions of dollars of damages since Dark Thursday, and, around his farm work, Clark spent hours at night cleaning the city as best he could, taking the brunt of his responsibilities.

Even if she knew he shouldn't have blamed himself. Fine played the chess game out expertly and almost won, almost overpowered the world and let out a despot to ruin it all. Clark i had /i stopped that. He needed to be less harsh on himself; she kept reminding him of that every day.

She was busy as well. Met U would be starting back up soon, getting on track for the fall even if the summer classes had, for obvious reasons, been a bust. She had made headway with the invisible assassin headline and was now firmly a basement reporter, not an intern or a tip line girl and, while Clark spent his night rebuilding the city, she spent hers tracking leads,, working her way steadily up to the ground floor.

It was nice to have a cubicle near natural light, actually.

But late at night, after the world was saved or the story put to bed, they had each other. She'd never wanted anything more so when he'd asked her upon his return to go out, she'd wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, almost wondering if he'd developed telepathy. He'd always been so dense before. Of course, she'd never kissed him as she had before either.

Maybe she should have been more aggressive at thirteen, wait ,i definitely /i.

So they were busy and tired and overworked and she'd not really noticed that, well, Clark was a bit odd. It struck her first, truly, when they were lazing by Crater Lake, the old red kite fallen by their sides and picnic basket empty. They'd lapped into snuggling together, after a bit of making out, nothing too heavy it was a family place after all, but still something comfortable and sweet. But it was then that Clark, who rarely if ever rested his head on her shoulder or the top of her head post "action," began to rub his head against her hip.

It occurred to Chloe then, that he i always /i did that after kissing or the other things they did, even if they hadn't gone quite i that /i far yet. He just would angle his long body, bend it in such a way that he could rest his head on her hip, no matter how awkwardly, and nuzzle her. It wasn't that she hadn't liked it. She actually enjoyed it quite a bit, but, thinking over her few affairs freshman year, it was not something any other guy had done.

After ten minutes of this and of her noticing the stars of the mothers on the shore, it apparently wasn't seemly or kosher. Sighing, Chloe pushed at Clark's head, annoyed at first when he was too far gone into his movements to acknowledge her. Clark had the strength to crush coal to diamond; one human girl nudging him wasn't going to make him move ever, if he didn't want to.

So she coughed. And coughed. And finally shouted, "Clark!"

Her tone was sharper than she'd intended as her embarrassment had risen. It was enough to snap Clark out of whatever it was he'd been doing. "Chlo?"

She sighed. Clark was a work in progress. For probably the strongest man on Earth, he had a lot of insecurities.

A lot.

She forced herself to smile and her breath to be even. "Hey, let's take a walk, don't worry about the stuff."

"I-"

Kissing his lips, she stood up and reached down her hand. "Come on Big Boy, for Truth and Justice and all that."

Nodding, he rose and walked with her. She was grateful he'd taken her hand and they walked like that, in silence, until they were far from prying eyes i and /i ears. "Chlo? What's going on?" He must have been aware on some level that he'd been doing something odd because he was blushing ferociously.

Sighing, she kissed his cheek before she began. "Clark, you're a nuzzler."

He nodded, shuffling from foot to foot. "Well yeah."

She giggled. "I hadn't really noticed. I…it just seems so i us /i at home, but you can't exactly nuzzle against my hip like that in public! It's not really…I think the moms and other people were getting a little mad."

Dropping his head, Clark let out a large sigh, big enough to ruffle her hair. "It was weird."

Squeezing his hand, she sighed back. "It was you. I i like /i it."

"You do?" he asked, daring to look in her eyes.

"Oh definitely, or I'd have complained somewhere in the last five months, Goofy. I just, maybe not in public, of course, luckily, we are in a nice thick copse of trees."

Clark grinned and almost seemed to growl. Within seconds he was on top of her and Chloe really, really hoped she wasn't screaming i that /i loudly.