Everything In This World
By Viv
*~*~ Part Twenty-Two ~*~*
Try as she might, Chloe could not wipe the slightly goofy grin off her face.
She had been smiling so much that she could almost hear her facial muscles screaming at her, ready to stage a revolt at being made to work such cruel and demanding hours. It was true - Chloe couldn't recall any other time in her life that she had subjected herself to so much smiling. But then again, she couldn't remember the last time she had felt such undiluted happiness, which would sort of explain why she hadn't felt this ache forming from overusage of facial muscles before. She felt like the deranged Smallville version of the Joker, but with way less make up and was hopefully way less creepy.
The rational part of her still-functional brain continued to resist the thought that this was actually real, that she was sitting here at the Talon after the best date in the history of Chloe time and she modestly assured herself, in the history of everyone on the face of the planet.
She was, quite frankly, amazed that Lex hadn't commented about her peaked awareness and intense wackiness as yet. She felt like she was on hyper drive, her emotions and senses whirling and bouncing around inside her, ready to make her burst like some gigantic balloon that would spray giddy happiness to everyone around her.
It was starting to freak her out - this intense feeling of the good that threatened to consume every particle in Chloe's body. Her notoriously convoluted mind was beginning to wonder when all this giddy happiness would end. Something that she definitely didn't want to think about this early at night.
She pushed the unpleasant thought away. She and Lex had ended up at the Talon after a night which Chloe could only describe as 'magical'. So okay, that might have been a slight exaggeration on the quality of the evening, given that Lex had just taken her out to see the latest movie showing at Smallville's one and only multiplex followed by an enjoyable but hardly sumptuous dinner at a local restaurant, but Chloe figured that she was allowed to be moony and sentimental when taken out by her very rich and very sexy almost-boyfriend. It was written in the teenage girl's handbook of life somewhere - 'thou shalt smile goofily to complete strangers and appear to be completely insane'.
Chloe's smile widened. She was now officially and certifiably insane.
After she and Lana had re-bonded that afternoon, Lana had made the exceptionally brilliant offer of becoming Chloe's official fashion adviser for her upcoming date with Lex, an offer which Chloe gratefully accepted. After having agonised over her outfit for that fateful interview in Metropolis, she had been glad to accept Lana's offer. After all, two girls were better than one when it came to fashion manoeuvring, especially when one of the said girls was Chloe, notorious for her slightly wacky taste in clothing which had about a 50-50 hit-and-miss ratio.
Unfortunately for Chloe, she hadn't counted on the Clark factor. When Lana had showed up at the appointed time with Clark in tow, Chloe didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or cry. Talk about the melodrama that was masquerading as her life. Even though she and Clark and talked about their feelings and had cleared up some issues that day, Chloe thought it was going to be just a little too much to expect for the three of them to bond like some big weird happy family. Especially when the purported bonding event was her date with Lex.
But miraculously, the whole disaster-in-waiting failed to materialise. Lana had been apologetic about having told Clark about why Chloe wanted her help, telling Chloe privately that Clark had insisted on staying with her that afternoon because of her slight flu situation and that it had been impossible to shake off his suspicions without actually telling him what she was up to, going to Chloe's house when she was sick.
To say that Chloe had been taken by surprise to find Clark on her doorstep would have been the understatement of the millennium. While there definitely had been episodes of mutual consultation regarding fashion in the Clark and Chloe friendship saga, she thought that it was going to be asking a little too much for him to help in the whole fashion advice for her date thing.
But Clark had been surprisingly helpful by not offering his opinion at all. He had basically planted himself in the corner of Chloe's room and had stayed silent the entire time that she and Lana had been deciding on shades and hues, dress versus pants, hairspray or gel. It was only when Chloe and Lana had been satisfied with the 'final product' had he roused himself and offered his meagre opinion.
"You look beautiful Chloe." He had said simply, his eyes wide, conveying a world of emotion incapable of being distilled into words.
That was when Chloe understood why Clark had wanted to come along. It had been his simple, elegant way of making amends for the badness that had happened, of getting a fresh start with both her and Lana. That somehow by helping out in the production of a more polished Chloe for her date with Lex, he was in a way making up for the confusion and trauma he had put Chloe through over the past year.
She had smiled gratefully, feeling a warm fuzzy feeling course inside of her.
All of which had brought her to this point - the point where she was obscenely contented while draped over a couch at the Talon, waiting for Lex Luthor to bring her a tall mocha with extra cream and wondering why the hell he was taking so long, seeing as this was partly his coffee house and she hadn't seen him for a whole four minutes and fifty seconds.
Chloe looked down, idly straightening her sleeveless siren red satin top and hip-hugging black pants over her body. After careful deliberation, she and Lana had agreed that it had been best to go with what Chloe like to call 'casual sexy', since Lex had already seen her at her worst and therefore there had been no point in pretending to look like someone she really wasn't.
Which, Chloe discovered, had been an extremely good call when Lex had arrived at her house precisely at seven to pick her up. Lex had sauntered into her house after an obviously worried Gabe Sullivan, dressed in his customary black pants and expensively cut grey micro fibre shirt, similar to the one that she had dirtied after their foray in the deserted field just outside town.
Talk about getting a good start to the evening. It seemed that since her trip to Metropolis, everything had been working out for her, which made her queasy to the extreme. Chloe was kind of perverse that way, and she prayed to whatever god was listening that her amazing luck would continue - at least, she hoped that her luck would hold for the rest of the night.
She fidgeted, smoothing down her top for a second time in as many minutes. Her sexy bald-headed guy had been gone for five minutes and thirty seconds now, and she was starting to itch with restlessness. Exactly how long does a rich billionaire-to-be need to get his really impatient blonde date a cup of coffee around here?
Chloe's gaze flittered impatiently across the room. It was a Saturday night, so naturally the entire under-30 population of Smallville seemed have chosen the Talon as the place to hang, even though it didn't look all that much like 'hanging' given the fact that almost everyone was sitting and probably drinking way too much coffee for this time of night. Although for Chloe to pass judgment on others for excessive caffeine intake was rather like a really black pot calling some plastic white kettle from Wal-Mart black.
Generally people seemed to be enjoying themselves, and Chloe was glad because it would have been way too much weirdness to handle in one night if she couldn't see evidence of other people besides her having a really good time tonight.
Chloe caught a group of jocks staring at her, second string players on the football team by the looks of them, although she had to rummage around her fuzzy brain for a while to dredge up exactly who they were. They were seniors who had occasionally threatened to cramp her editorial style with their inane jockulinity, but Chloe had never paid any attention to them. So what if they randomly tipped her books over or made sure they 'accidentally' knocked into her in the halls? It was worth it for the scathing editorials she had the pleasure of writing about them; the icing on the Torch cake was that most of the time, they didn't even understand what she was saying.
But they were all staring at her, which Chloe found very uncomfortable and disconcerting. Soon a group of girls joined them at their table, and one of them pointed in her direction, sniggering slightly as he did so.
Chloe's eyes narrowed. She would recognise that face, put a name to it, then made sure something bad happened to her.
Which sounded like she was going to put a hit out on her, and she shook the mental image away. It was way too inane a thought to be having at a time like this, especially at the next instant when she was startled by Lex as he snuggled up beside her.
His closeness made her entire body tingle. "That's the second time in two days I've caught your attention wandering in my company." His leg slid up hers playfully. "I don't think anyone since my nanny has done that."
"Huh?" Chloe asked, her attention still hazily making the transition between unpleasant murdering a jock's skanky girlfriend thoughts to accepting the reality of Lex sliding his leg up her calf. It kind of tingled and made her shiver at the same time. She shook herself out of her daze. "Way to take the spark out of the moment Lex. Bring up the nanny imagery."
He smiled playfully, his leg slowly retreating down to the floor. "Well I could have brought up my mother, but then that would have been too oedipal."
Chloe broke out into a smile, somehow understanding what he was saying despite the fact that she had no idea what oedipal was. "Let's not be having those thoughts right now." She leaned forward out of his reach and scooped up her mug. "This is a mocha right?"
Lex mirrored her movements and sipped at his mug. "Extra cream."
"Good." Chloe leaned back again, snuggling closer to Lex's chest as she sipped contently. Hey, if she was going to have her very own sexy bald guy, she might as well get used to enjoying the perks, right?
She let her mind ponder that for a while as she savoured the taste of the creamy mocha in her mouth. Was he 'hers' in the way that she already thought of herself as 'his'? Although the idea of belonging to someone seemed a little too medieval, Chloe found herself surprisingly liking it. She knew that it was probably a little too sentimental for her normally snarky everyday self to admit for long, but it kind of felt good to be part of something instead of being crusader reporter gal all the time. While Chloe liked to think she was strong, independent and free-spirited, she might more than occasionally appreciate having someone there by her side to take care of her when she most wanted it. Chloe might not have been a damsel in distress in need of protection, but it was a nice thought to know that if she wanted the protection it could be there in the form of Lex.
She glanced up at Lex, trying to picture him in a shining suit of armour or at the least, making her laugh and smile in her time of need. Did he think of her the way she thought of him, she wondered, as the question echoed in the still silence of her mind.
Lex didn't seem to have the need to fill in the gap in conversation with inane small talk, and Chloe was more than willing to just absorb the utter comfort that existed between her and Lex.
She sighed happily. "What did you get?" She asked at last, breaking their silence.
Far from looking disconcerted at having his reverie broken, it seemed to Chloe that his gaze didn't shift at all. It was as if he had been in the moment all along, trying to absorb as much of the calmness and serenity as he could before it inevitably dissipated. "Just a short black."
"Lex?" She asked quietly, looking up at him with shining hazel eyes.
His pale blue eyes looked down at hers solemnly, although a hint of a smile graced his pale face. "Yes Chloe?"
"Why do you like me?" Her eyes widened as she realised that she had actually said that out loud. Talk about a loaded question squared to the power of infinity.
His expression reflected the right-fieldness of the question. Chloe sensed his body tense slightly before relaxing, again allowing it to melt into hers. Chloe was suddenly assaulted by the way Lex smelt tonight. He smelt nice ... clean and fresh but with a hint of something else, a slightly spicy, exotic aroma that lingered long after he was gone. It reminded her of something safe yet dangerous at the same time and was Chloe that far gone into the world of Lex adoration that she was waxing lyrical about his aftershave slash expensive imported cologne now?
Get a grip Chloe. She was exhibiting way too many signs of teenage infatuation for her comfort. She was above all of that, wasn't she? She was Chloe Sullivan, investigative reporter on the rise, that was, once she learned to behave properly at interviews.
Her momentary obsession with eau de Lex had distracted her from her initial question, which Lex still hadn't answered. An apprehensive gnawing sensation grated at the bottom of her stomach.
"You know that was a question, right? Feel free to jump in at any time with, you know, an answer."
He smiled almost whimsically, and Chloe was caught by the spark that ignited behind his normally controlled eyes. The force of emotion in his gaze almost seared her with its intensity, and Chloe had the uncomfortable feeling that Lex was in the process of funnelling his considerable energies into one single thing - her.
The feeling made her itch.
Finally he broke the silence, his voice soft and silky in her ear. "I like you because you're unlike anyone I've ever met in my entire life." He paused, and Chloe was slightly amazed to realise that she was leaning so far into him that she felt every vibration of his body as he breathed. Their intimacy threatened to shatter her composure. "You ... live life for yourself." He continued. "You don't care what I think. You say what you want to say to me and it's refreshing, to have someone like that in my life. Refreshing and exciting."
"Okay, so far you've got me and Lana running the Lex race neck and neck. Why ..." Chloe asked uncertainly, hating the tell-tale trembling in her voice, "I mean, why me and not Lana?"
Lex actually laughed, and for one blinding moment of panic Chloe thought she had read the situation completely and utterly wrong. It subsided when he said simply. "You're vivid."
"Vivid? Like ... colourful?" He thought she was colourful? Chloe absently fingered an errant strand of hair in confusion. Maybe Lex was colour blind, seeing as Lana, with her pale skin, dark raven hair and eyes the colour of some magical element that transcended mere mortal description was probably the very embodiment of colour and vitality. Whereas Chloe was more the every day run-of-the-mill blonde with occasionally nice hazel eyes. There was nothing overly colourful about her.
"No." He smiled indulgently. "You're vivid. Lively." He paused. "In Latin it's 'vivere' - to be alive ... " He entwined his slender fingers around hers, stroking a strand of her hair fondly. "You're like the colour I've lacked for most of my life. I lived in muted shades before I met you. When you're near me I feel ... alive. Awake to the world." She felt herself melting in the wonderful afterglow at those beautiful, magnetic words.
Chloe couldn't help but roll her eyes in mock horror at her own sentimentality. She was giving teenage cynics the world over a very bad name.
She tittered quietly, feeling the need divert attention away from the fact that she was well, feeling so overly emotional. It was a very strange sensation to say the least. "That isn't like a very unique line you've just thought up, right? 'Cause I got to tell you, that would pretty much have all the girls lining up to get a piece of that famous Luthor charm."
Evidently Lex agreed, as he laughed despite himself. "Okay, that might have come out a little too ... strong."
The humour fell off her face as Chloe was assaulted by the almost tangible wave of emotion she was feeling for Lex. It battered her with its intensity; she felt adrift in a sea of her own making. She swallowed, before she whispered quietly. "I like strong."
Lex must have caught the emotional lilt in her voice, because he tightened his hold on her, nuzzling into the crook of her neck in response. He chuckled, sounding surprised by his admissions. "I guess I saw enough Lana Langs to last me a lifetime in Metropolis. Not that any of the girls - or women," he corrected himself, "were anywhere near as nice as our Lana is. They were urbane, polished, sophisticated - and manipulative. They were ... beauty without substance." He paused, and Chloe was surprised that she had been lulled into a sort of half-daze by his mesmerising words. Talk about incredible voice modulation. Chloe knew that she would have found Lex supernaturally sexy even if he was reading the phone directory.
Her brain lurched back to attention as he continued. "You are ... all substance Chloe. Beauty and substance."
She giggled, inhaling the unique smell of Lex that exuded from his body. God this man was sexy. "You know you have a way with words, Lex Luthor. Slightly heavy on the cheese, but ... good all the same."
"I know." He said quietly, his playful side coming out again. "A certain gorgeous blonde reporter-in-the-making told me so." With that he reached out and smoothed his hand over the contours of her face, making Chloe ache for the incredible warmth that his touch brought to her being. This just felt so comfortable - and so right.
She could definitely get used to this, she thought, as she lost herself in the magical tranquillity of the moment.
(c) August 2002