Meant To Be

Shoveling hay. He hated shoveling hay. Out of all his farm chores, it was the one he most dreaded doing. Far down in Smallville and standing inside the stable of a the ranch was Clark Kent, who was wearing a red flannel shirt and blue jeans while holding a metal shovel in his hands and throwing the yellow straw aside from the huge pile in front of him. It was early in the morning, the misty, chilly air that roamed around showing so, as fog traveled in the sky and the sun stayed lowered down away from view. Gray clouds were in the atmosphere though, and wet musk laid on top of the grass and corn fields in the small town.

The crack of dawn showed clearly on Clark's face too. With his eyes droopy and his face weary, you could tell that it was morning by his expression. And as he threw hay into another pile far away from him, he continued to deliberate on how much he hated shoveling hay. He had been living on a farm all his life, which meant seventeen years, and still he hated throwing the straw that was in front of him into another pile every dawn of every day. Usually he would always do it in super-speed, but at the moment, he was too drained to even keep his eyes open.

"Mornings sucks." He mumbled, flinging more of the hay to the side as he stopped to rub his eyes jadedly. All his other farm duties were done besides the one he was doing now. And he had all the time in the world to do it. Instead of being slow like he was now, every sunup he would quickly do his chores and have at least two hours left to go back to sleep. However, it was early in the morning. Too early for him. So, he didn't have enough energy to use his powers to get out of this one. It wasn't that bad actually. This way he got a lot of time to think and collect his thoughts.

A lot had happened in the past few weeks. It was three months ago he had ran away from his home, and about fourteen days back that he returned. During that time, he had actually gotten shot and his parents had to take the bullet out themselves, or what he would just say 'perform ER on him' since that's pretty much what they did. All he wanted was a day where he could take it easy and not worry about anything but himself. All he wanted was to not shovel hay. The smell of horse's and misty, chilly air flowed into his senses as a slight early morning coldness rushed through his body. You could tell fall was coming just by the weather. Even if the draftiness didn't really get to him, it still bothered him a little bit to where he wanted to go inside and change into a heavy jersey.

Sighing loudly and tossing some more hay to the side once more, Clark closed his eyes tightly to try to wake him up some as he leaned his hands on the top of the shovel and placed his chin down on it. Sometimes he wished for an easy life. He could almost picture it. Having two parents who never worried, a nice, town house that was still big. A swimming pool in the back and a brother or sister to hang out with. He didn't have a secret to be troubled about and he didn't have to stress over what was going to happen next. Most of all, he would never have to shovel hay. Coming back to reality though, the teen knew that he was going to have to get this done, and sitting around wasn't going to help.

As soon as he picked the spade up again and shoved it under the straw, a familiar voice entered his ears and caused him to snap his head over to the sound. "Hey farm boy!" Chloe chirped with a heavy, fake Tennessee accent, jogging inside the stable and smiling broadly when before she knew it, she was two inches in front of her friend. Darting his eyebrows down and placing the scoop aside, he chuckled lightly when he saw the blonde at the same time as rubbing his frozen hands together to get them warm.

"Chloe? What are you doing here? It's, like, four in the morning." Clark informed her, immediately seeing the grin on her face slowly fade as she pouted and backed into the stakes of hay that was squeezed together and tied in a square. "Oh, so suddenly I can't come see my friend?" She asked, titling her head to the side as Clark closed his sleepy eyes and shook his head as he exhaled heavily at her words. It was in the wee hours of the day and at the moment, all he wanted to do was go back into bed, pull the covers over his body and clutch them in his hands while falling back into sweet slumber. Sweet, sweet slumber.

"No Chloe, that's not what I said. It's just the fact that it's four forty-nine, freezing outside, two hours before we normally have to get up, and you're here to see me, something you never do." Clark reminded her, watching her jump up on the quadrangle hay stacks and kick her legs up and down as she placed her arms up to her chest to keep herself cozy. He was right. It was to early for her to be awake, sub-zero outside, and she was at the Kent farm visiting her friend. For that very second she didn't even remember why she came here. Then, it hit her. She woke up after having a certain dream and wanted to see the boy so badly she actually got dressed and drove over to his house.

Never had her 'feelings' for him been this bad. And she knew she couldn't tell him she was here because her love was so strong that she needed to see him. Therefore, using her quick way of lying, she sighed and shrugged unwittingly. "I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. I called and no one answered. Before I know it I'm here. Sorry if you don't want company while you do your crappy farm chores." Chloe teased him, showing so with the smile as Clark nodded his head at her words. He really only heard the last three ones though. Crappy farm chores. They were crappy farm chores. Hurling the silage in the pile that wasn't even six inches tall, he licked his lips as he listened to the beating of Chloe's shoes hit the hay mound she sat on.

"So, you get your biology paper done?" She questioned, looking around at the ranch with a wandering mind as the teen suddenly froze at what she had inquired. He had all last week to do his term paper and yet, it wasn't even finished yet. Mentally hitting his head, he bit his lip and threw some hay to the side as the girl looked back over at him, waiting impatiently for his answer as she shot her eyebrows up and giggled when she knew what was coming next.

"I'll finish it during lunch." Clark muttered, trying to push all the thoughts that made him miserable and panicked out of his mind as Chloe shook her head and heaved a sigh. That was Clark Kent for you. Always putting things aside. She hated it. Occasionally she would wonder when the day she needed saving would come and he wouldn't be there because suddenly, precious Lana Lang broke a nail and she needed comfort. But as soon as she contemplated that, she told her self that it was wrong to think that of her friend. It didn't change the fact she thought it was true, but it did keep herself from thinking it anymore.

"That's just like you Clark." Chloe told him, pulling some hay from the square she sat on out and threw it at his back right when he wasn't looking. However, he did crock his head over to her with a angry look, causing her to whistle innocently and turn away with her hands folded together. Shaking his head and grabbing some straw from the huge pile in front of him, he flung it at her face and instantly went back to shoveling before she could even spin her head around.

"Hey!" She exclaimed, hearing him chuckle as he whirled around at her yell. "Yes, it's hay." He joked, seeing her shake her head and point her finger at him. Right as she opened her mouth though, she realized what he had actually said and sighed exasperatedly at her friend while throwing a some more fare at him that was next to her.

"You are so lame Clark." Chloe said, lying back on the stacks she sat on in hope to at least catch two seconds of sleep. The question of why she came here again flew in her mind not because she was confused, but because she was annoyed. Yeah, she loved him. She felt pure affection for the boy. But sometimes he just crossed the line. Just as darkness started to creep over her eyes, she felt the sudden feeling of prickly silage strike her face and cause her to jump up and slap it off her cheeks while spitting whatever got in her mouth on the floor.

"Kent!" Chloe shouted, her hands balling up in first as Clark turned around and shrugged with a know it all grin. To her though, it was famous Kent charm that showed his pearly white teeth and his strong cheek bones pulled back.

"You started it Chloe." He informed her, striking her last nerve as she got up from the mass of hay and lunged forward to him to threw him into the large pile of hay that he was trying to shovel, hearing him cry out in surprise as she pressed her arms on his shoulders to keep him down.

"You think your going to get away with throwing hay in my face!?" Chloe yelled while grabbing handfuls of straw with one of her hands and laughing malevolently when she saw the fear in the boy's eyes. What she did next was unspeakable though. Stuffing her hand down his blue jeans, she cackled loudly, throwing her head back and feeling amusement run through her veins like crazy as she continued to cram the fodder down into his slacks and feeling some even go into his boxers.

"Chloe! Hay is not suppose to go there!" Clark screamed at the top of his lungs, not jumping up cause he knew that would throw Chloe into the wall and with his strength, killing her. It was the only thing holding him back since the feeling of the straw on his thighs and down other places was pure hell. It felt like something crawling on his skin. Still hooting rowdily with an vice laugh, the blonde stuffed the hay down his khakis until it looked like they were about to burst, and even then, she kept doing it. She was having the most fun of her life at the moment listening to him cry for help with a little chuckle in his voice.

Eventually however, she ran out of breath with all the laughing she had done, and getting off of him to catch air, she bent down and placed her hands on her knees with chortles still escaping from her lips. If she didn't breath soon, she was going to pass out. She could feel it. Every time she tried though, she ended up bursting into more laughter from the way the Clark was slowly trying to stand up with it overloaded jeans. Getting of the square piles of hay, he gave Chloe a dirty look as he tried to pull some of the straw out of his pants, but closing his eyes shut and yelping in startle when he did. If he pulled it out, then he was going to feel the worst experience of his life. Not even super-powers could save him from hay down his underwear.

"Chloe Susan S-Sullvain." Clark uttered out, moving one leg forward and abruptly crinkling his face up in discomfort, which caused the blonde reporter to just rupture in more laughs. In his mind, he was telling her how lucky she was that she wasn't dead yet as he tried moving his right leg with his hand on his thigh as straight away he closed his eyes gently while opened his mouth all the way in irritation. The snickers were really getting on his nerves now. His friend was having fun in his pain. Shaking his head, he chuckled lightly and rubbed his hands together wickedly.

"You want something to laugh about? I'll give you something to laugh about." He enlightened her, running towards her even with the horrible inflammation that was caused, knocking her over on the stacks on hay squares and hearing her screech in alarm. With his strength, he took one of his arms and held the girl down and the other to pull out loads of hay from the straw cubes to stuff them down Chloe's blue sweater with a large, evil smile on his face.

"Clark, no! That itches!" Chloe shrieked, trying to get away but having no luck at doing so as she continued to yell in skin complaint.

"Oh, so now it's not funny anymore? You can go ahead and stick hay down my pants but I can't do the same down your shirt?" Clark joked with a false mad grin, talking all while stuffing silage inside her shirt and listening to her squeals that sounded like a mouse being caught by a cat flow in his ears. He started to feel bad though at what he was doing, which made him curse in his head for having been raised by suck good parents.

"Say Uncle!" He demanded, hearing her just cackle hoarsely since she was all out of screams. With her eyes shut forcefully in fear of what was going to happen next, Chloe felt air leave her body and her cheeks go redder then they already were from all the laughing and ear-piercing cries she was doing. She was having fun however, and didn't want any of it to stop. The laughs anyway.

"U-uncle Johnny down in Washington." She said out of breath, opening up her eyes when she felt the hay stop coming down her shirt as she saw Clark get off her, smiling gently while she sat up on the stacks of fodder. It only took her three seconds to regain catching her breath, and as soon as she did, she leaped onward and pushed her friend down to the ground with her arms on his shoulders.

Falling down with him, she watched his back hit the hard ground as he placed his head against the floor softly, his arms sprawled out and a blonde haired girl laying on top of him. Silence flowed the stable as they gazed into each other's eyes, and instead of chuckling nervously and getting off him, for some reason Chloe felt as if she should just stay where she was. Nervously bringing one of his arms up, the farm boy sniggered to himself as he put his hand on the girl's head with amusement.

"Y-You got some hay-I-In your hair." Clark told her, hearing her laugh embarrassedly as he picked the few strands of straw out of her blonde hair and beamed warmly to her.

"Thanks." Chloe whispered, slowly rolling off of him so she could move backwards and lean her body against the large pile of feed that they were playing in. Also doing that, Clark gradually picked the large amounts of silage out of his pants when suddenly his friend started to laugh and try to hold it back with her hand, causing him to snap his head over to her and dart his eyebrows down confused.

"What?" He asked, seeing her shake her head as she tried to hold back another chortle, which simply ended up coming out in a snort since her palm was blocking it from coming out of her lips. Taking a large inhale and calming herself down, she looked over at the boy again and ended up letting another guffaw escape her mouth as she closed her eyes firmly.

"You look like the bottom of a scarecrow Clark." Chloe informed him, watching him look down at his stuffed pants and see that she was right. Before he could have the time be self-conscious though, he looked up and chuckled himself while pointing at his comrade in divert.

"Well, you look like the top." Clark teased her, making her stroll her eyes down her body and throw her head back in a silent laugh. She did look like the top of an old, torn up scarecrow. Hay was sticking out of the bottom part of her blue sweater, where they sleeves were, and even up by the neck. Unexpectedly smiling however, she turned her head over to Clark and shrugged it off contentedly.

"So, together we're one whole scarecrow. We're meant to be." Chloe beamed brightly, watching him slowly nod his head at first before move it up and down in a positive attitude to her words.

"Yeah….yeah." He said, watching the girl lean against the hay squares exhausted as she closed her eyes for a second before opening them up and looking in front of her blankly. The boy stared deep into her face while she did even if she didn't know it as she watched the sky move, his head titled to the side as he kept nodding it.

"We're meant to be." Clark whispered, a soft grin creeping onto his lips as he sighed loudly and turned his head over to the sight Chloe was looking at, which was a creation of a beautiful sunrise over the white clouds that were in the heavens. And suddenly, during that time, shoveling hay wasn't so bad anymore.

The End