Everything In This World
By Viv
*~*~ Part Eight ~*~*
Chloe felt herself slowly sinking into the dirt and mud. Her hands and knees squelched uncomfortably as she crawled through the small field on the outskirts of town, the site of a bizarre accident which she suspected (as always) had to do with the meteor rocks that were scattered around Smallville. She didn't know exactly what she was looking for; it had been a hunch to come to the accident site to look for anything that would indicate that something hadn't been quite right about Joe Miller's truck that had collided with a tree at breakneck speed - with him still in it. The police department had ruled it a suicide, but Chloe's dad had known Joe Miller when they were younger and he was certain that Joe would never have done what they said he had done.
So Chloe's hypersensitive reporter's instincts had kicked into gear, with the extremely unpleasant result of landing her - right here, wrists and ankles deep in mud or bog or whatever meteoric primordial soup this guck was.
Chloe screwed up her nose in disgust. Luckily she had come prepared, and she was decked out in an old t-shirt and a pair of overalls that she had found in the garage last night. Which didn't make being drowned in mud all right, but it helped.
She sighed. The things she did in the name of quality journalism.
Her summer job applications had been going well, and she was currently in a mood that would have resembled extremely good if not for the whole being stuck in bog thing. She knew that it had been a wild stab in anti-matter to go for any type of newspaper job at all, considering the fact that she was a high school junior, but she had been surprised at the few interviews she had managed to wrangle. Granted, they were for smaller city papers that didn't have the national prestige as the New York Times or The Daily Planet, but at the same time, they weren't the Metropolis Inquisitor either.
The sun was shining, and it left a pleasantly warm impression on her without threatening to burn the skin off the back of her neck. She and Clark and steadily been spending more and more time together trying to rebuild their friendship and if he was permanently lojacked to Lana, Chloe chose not to dwell on it too much.
She was glad she had Pete though. The four of them hung out quite a lot between school, the Torch and the Talon, and it would have been beyond awkward if it had just been Clark, Lana and Chloe.
So she was happy. Sort of. At least, she was thought she was getting there.
Rustling behind her snapped her attention back to the present as a shadow fell across her form.
It was Lex Luthor.
Damn it. Damn the fact that she was crawling around in the mud while he stayed pristinely clean just scant feet away from her. Damn the fact that she was currently decked out in the drabbiest, oldest, most degrading outfit in the history of Chloe time, while he was dressed in sleek fabrics from head to toe (well, maybe not head). Damn ... everything. Damn him.
He chuckled as he eyed her carefully. "Chloe, what in the world are you doing?"
She brushed an annoying lock of hair out of her face before she realised her hands were covered with mud and guck. She swore loudly.
Lex chuckled reproachfully. "Now, now, mind your language young lady."
Why did he insist on treating her as if she was twelve years old, Chloe raged internally. After all, he wasn't that much older than her.
Lex repeated his question as he bent down to her eye level. "Again I ask, what are you doing here?"
"I'm doing some investigative reporting." She sat up to a kneeling position.
"Aren't you going to ask me what I'm doing here?" He asked with a crooked smile.
"No." She said infuriatingly. Her good mood had just dissipated like morning mist in the sun.
"Well, I'll tell you anyway." He paused, while Chloe remained resolutely silent. "This is LuthorCorp land, you know."
That startled her. "What?" She exclaimed. "This is the middle of nowhere. What could LuthorCorp possibly want with this?" She gestured vaguely around her.
Lex shrugged, in that supremely casual yet elegant way of his. "My father obviously believes in accumulating land wherever he can. It'll probably come in handy one of these days." He frowned. "I came to see if there was anything strange about Joe Miller's accident here. Thought I'd check out the site. Which brings me to ask - for the third time - what are you doing here?"
His expression made Chloe gulp. She guessed that he wasn't used to not having his questions answered.
"I was trawling for any weird stuff." At his puzzled expression, she elaborated, "You know, with the accident."
His frowned deepened, although Chloe couldn't tell whether it was from puzzlement or displeasure. "What were you hoping to find knee deep in mud?"
She shrugged. "It was just a hunch." She sighed ruefully. "I don't think I'm getting anywhere."
He smiled as he looked at Chloe in overalls, mud splattered all over her clothing, looking up at him with her round, hazel eyes. The image reminded him of a child in a very dirty sand box. "You know don't take this the wrong way, but ... did you think of asking for any help with this?" He jerked his head down at her.
"Of course I did." She said indignantly. "Clark and Lana are meeting me here, and Pete's coming after practice." She glanced around the deserted landscape, half-praying for them to materialise soon. It was taking a surprising amount of energy to converse with Lex and to cover it up well enough from him. He seemed to unsettle her in a way that didn't allow her to recover too quickly, with the result being that she was constantly off-kilter, trying to regain her balance while keeping up her end of the conversation.
Lex grinned as he stood up, his eyes squinting in the bright sunshine. He held his hand out to her, "Let me help you up from there."
Chloe managed not to stare too hard at his proffered hand. This was precisely what she had meant about Lex unsettling her as no other person had done before. One minute he was being annoying and falsely ingratiating, the next he was playing the chivalrous gentleman, offering to help her up. She was definitely baffled, and it was an altogether uncomfortable feeling for Chloe, who generally liked to know where she stood with someone even before they knew.
She put her hand into his and gripped it tightly. It felt surprisingly warm; Chloe had half expected it to be as cold as the isolated image he sometimes portrayed, especially as the head of the plant where her father worked. It came as a shock to her that he felt like a living, breathing person.
He shifted his weight as Chloe allowed herself to be hauled up. If every damsel in distress got such chivalrous treatment, she wouldn't mind finding herself in trouble more often, she thought to herself.
Suddenly he slipped, and before Chloe could even think to regain her balance, she toppled backwards, taking him down with her. He landed on top of her, and for a moment their bodies were pressed tightly together, his weight on top of her surprisingly gentle as his body somehow melded into hers. She could feel the heat from him through the thin material of his shirt, and even more disconcerting was the heat coming from his eyes as they stared intently down into hers.
He was on top of her, she repeated incoherently in the recesses of her mind.
He sprung off her as if she had burned him and quickly rolled to the side. Catching their breath, they stared at each other for a long moment before they finally burst out laughing.
In between peals of laughter, she said, "I'm so sorry Lex ..." She brushed a muddied hand to his now equally muddied clothing. "Your shirt ..." She trailed off, as her attempts to clean him up resulted in him becoming even more dirtier.
It was a nice shirt, a grey micro fibre blend that made it shimmer and reflect the sun's rays as he moved, and even though Chloe didn't really have the faintest clue where it came to clothes, she at least had the good sense to appreciate the luxurious feel of the fabric against her skin.
What a minute, was she actually feeling Lex's shirt in the middle of a deserted field? More importantly, was she actually feeling Lex's shirt while it was on him?
Still grinning broadly, he looked down at the state of his clothes and said nonchalantly, "Well, I guess it's good I have other shirts like this." He reached out suddenly and ran one muddied hand down her cheek, brushing her hair out of her face before flopping onto his back in the muddy pool.
Chloe froze in partial shock and disbelief. What the hell?
But before she had more time to disseminate what had just happened, Lex recalled her attention. "You know I've never actually played in mud before?" He craned his neck up to look at her from his horizontal position. "It's interesting. Very ... squishy."
Chloe raised her eye brows sceptically. "You've never played in mud before? What kind of a kid were you?"
"The obscenely rich kind." His smile dropped of his face for a microsecond before it burst out again. Chloe had never seen him so relaxed. He continued, "It's nice down here Chloe. Come down and join me."
She blushed at the myriad of things that had sprung in her head at that comment, hoping to whatever God out there that he hadn't noticed her lapse.
Evidently he hadn't, or if he had, he wisely chose to ignore it. He reached out and gripped her arm lightly, tugging her backwards towards the pool of mud behind her.
"Lex ..." She said uncertainly.
"Come on Chloe." Chloe blushed more furiously at the suggestive lilt in his voice. "You know you want to ..."
Throwing caution to the winds, she allowed herself to be tugged down. The mud squished at her sides and into her hair with a gross squelching noise as she lay flat on her back, her gaze never leaving Lex's.
She briefly wondered whether she had gone completely insane. Here she was, out in the middle of nowhere lying in a pool of mud and guck with the richest man in Smallville - who was now actually playing with the mud that dripped off his arms. Had she accidentally tripped into an alternate dimension where Lex Luthor wasn't a sophisticated, immaculately groomed playboy, but instead an extremely juvenile 21 year old guy with a penchant for getting down and dirty?
After what seemed like an indeterminably long time, she blurted out, "This is - and I can't emphasise this enough - completely insane." She looked askance at him. "What are we doing?"
Lex laughed - an honest to goodness hearty laugh that Chloe had never heard from him before. "I don't know." He turned and looked at her, his head and side already completely covered in the wet, gooey mud. "But I've never had so much fun."
"Really?" Chloe asked, naked surprise in her voice.
Lex nodded in the affirmative. "We should do this more often." He said casually.
"Ah ..." What could Chloe possibly say to that? "That'd be ... nice. I think." He chuckled, as if suddenly aware of the craziness of that idea.
He suddenly flipped to his side, propping his head up with one hand and absently drawing circles in the mud with the other. "I never asked you how you were doing today."
She had to swallow a few times from astonishment before she could reply. It took all of Chloe's energy to keep up with Lex's swift change in moods. "I'm ... I suppose I'm okay." She pause, before adding, "I guess you can even say I'm feeling pretty good."
"Oh." He said thoughtfully, bringing his leg over his body. "And why's that?"
Chloe was still astonished that he actually cared about what she wanted to say. "I guess ... well, I heard today that I got an interview with the Metropolis Beagle, you know, for a summer job. I have to go up there for the interview next week."
Lex looked genuinely impressed. "Wow. That's a big deal for a junior, isn't it?"
She nodded, forgetting her slight awkwardness as she warmed to her favourite topic. "Yeah. I was really surprised ... but I figured I'd just give it a shot, see what happened." She shrugged nonchalantly. "I still have ages to go before I crack the big time anyway." Chloe smiled infectiously, adding, "You know, before I become a hot shot reporter."
Lex grinned back at her. "Well, let me drive you to Metropolis next week."
"Oh, you don't have to do that." She said quickly, hoping it didn't sound like she was ungrateful for the offer. Which she was, because wow, Lex Luthor offering to be her chauffeur? A priceless memory if ever there was one.
He waved her objections away. "I've got business in Metropolis anyway." He added devilishly. "I'd like the company."
"Well ..." She said dubiously, "if you're sure ..."
"I am." He reached out and for a fleeting moment, Chloe thought that he was going to touch her cheek again - or possibly do something more. Her whole body tensed with anticipation.
His hand was scant inches from her face when he suddenly scooped a handful of mud from the ground and unceremoniously dumped it on top of her head. To add insult to injury, he was smirking in that patented-Lex way of his.
For a few seconds Chloe froze with shock. She blinked several times, as she wiped mud from her face. Her eyes glinting dangerously, she said quietly, "Lex Luthor you are going to regret that."
He cocked a single eyebrow at her, and smiled infuriatingly. That was it - Chloe lost all sense of propriety. She would have revenge, LuthorCorp heir or not.
She took two handfuls of dark, dank mud and threw them, straight at Lex's face. She quickly followed up her assault with another two blistering handfuls, this time aimed at his chest. Mud splattered all over his face and clothes.
His eyes widened. Lex looked shocked and stunned and speechless at the same time.
A treacherous glint rose in his eyes. Quick as lightening he scooped up two handfuls of mud and smeared it over her hair and face. She grabbed his wrists in a vain attempt to stop him, but unfortunately for Chloe, her small build was no match for Lex's lean strength.
Chloe couldn't help laughing as streams of mud rained down on her. She felt like a kid again, playing outdoors and getting dirty for no sane person reason at all. The air was warm and a fresh breeze blew through her hair, making her feel so delightfully free - as if the drama of the past few months were of no consequence at all.
And that was the way that Clark and Lana found them - two lunatics sitting out in the middle of a deserted field, covered in dark, murky goo, and laughing insanely as if there was no tomorrow.
(c) July 2002