Everything In This World

By Viv

*~*~ Part Thirty-One ~*~*

"What?" Chloe shouted above the obnoxious drumming of the rock music blaring from the speakers, which just happened to be located right behind her.

Their position hadn't been as noticeably bad during the confused pre-prom excitement, the traditional part of the evening's festivities when girls simply milled about admiring each other's outfits and catching up on last minute gossip, while guys weighed in on the dating scale depending on who they had managed to bring to the prom.

By the time Chloe, Lex, Clark and Lana had made their grand entrance into the slightly less lamer than usual high school gym, Pete and his date were already there. He was nervously sipping on the mystery punch and looking like a cross between the luckiest guy on earth and a harangued survivor from a particularly horrible natural disaster.

Chloe knew he was having a great time.

Chloe admitted that she had been unjustifiably nervous about the whole night. The snarky, confident part of her - a very small part admittedly - was horrified that she had managed to build this lamer than lame high school excuse for a night out as the social event of the season. Granted, she was a high school girl and this was a high school prom, and it was potentially the best prom she would ever go to but still, it shouldn't have given her the intense heeby-jeebies that ran rampant around the insides of her stomach every single time her mind unfortunately landed in the vicinity of The Prom during the past few days.

Chloe had been prepared for her carefully constructed prom-look to crash and burn into an orangy, flamy death. She had been prepared for some last minute disaster that only Smallville was capable of generating, because this was a weird, weird town where weirder than usual things happened.

What she hadn't been prepared for was the hushed silence that swept the crowded gym like a silent forest fire, and the intense stares that bored straight into her when she had walked into the room with Lex.

And not for one disillusioned millisecond did she think that the crowd had been blinded by her stunning non-beauty.

In the extreme wisdom of hindsight, she guessed that she shouldn't have been so surprised at the reaction. For the past two months she had been the target of some pretty personal variety of insults courtesy of her very much 'out there' and publicised thing with Lex. The Luthors had never been popular in any sense of the word in Smallville, but somehow, her dating Lex seemed to have been viewed by the general ma and pa's as something akin to murder - except with a heavier jail sentence and possibly more against human nature.

Which hadn't initially bothered Chloe, given her regular enjoyment of her controversial editorials on the Torch. She was used to ticking people off by the edge of her wit and opinions. But Lex seemed to have a huger than usual problem with it. Which was sweet, and sugary nice, and gave her the warmest of fuzzies, but she couldn't help feeling that it got a little too much sometimes to have your personal knight in shining Armani if he was going to so medieval about the whole 'protecting her' thing.

Chloe sighed, trying to draw her attention away from her thoughts by concentrating on the scene at hand.

The music blared loudly behind her, and she restrained the almost fatal urge to murder whoever had sat Chloe right in front of the speakers. She was barely able to hear herself think, much less hear Lex, even though he had managed to nestle his body right against hers as they sat together at the table and thereby reduced the need for actual talking. His electrifying touch notwithstanding, the mood was dampened by the fact that despite the dim pseudo-romantic lighting that the prom committee had kindly rigged, it did not hide the fact that they were clearly visible to the general viewing public - and what an interested public at that.

Not that she minded the touching thing because, really - could any girl mind Lex draping himself all over her?

Chloe was jerked back to reality by a strange, lightly creeping sensation rising up her leg. A second later she realised that Lex was skilfully weaving his hand up and down the length of her lower thigh, drawing lazy circles on her increasingly warm skin.

Wow, what did he just do with his those skilful, dexterous hands? Chloe reddened as she threw a surreptitious glance at Lex.

She didn't know what had come over him tonight. While they had officially been going out for the past two months, he had always been careful about the whole not pushing the limits thing around Chloe. He had treated her as if she was fragile and while Chloe was touched that he cared, she was getting increasingly frustrated by the exclusive first-base action.

She didn't want to come off sounding like the world's biggest slut but really, how many signals was a girl supposed to send to an experienced billionaire-to-be playboy to get to second base, or dare she dream it, third or fourth? And how many bases were there anyway?

But everything was different tonight. Lex was different, and it sent a spasm of excitement coursing through her body to just contemplate how different. She was definitely not daddy's little girl any more.

"I said -" Lana shouted above the confused cacophony around them. "Why aren't you and Lex dancing?"

Chloe gave up the vain of hope of hearing above the noise and shrugged. There really wasn't a sane person reason why she wasn't dancing right now. Maybe it was because of the excessive gawking by the entire gym population when she had first entered the room with Lex. Call her insane, but somehow that just made her slightly too self-conscious to even contemplate an attempt at bopping gracefully in rhythm on her million inch heels.

Lex caught Lana's eye and shrugged, jerking his head in her direction. Which was his not-so-subtle way of saying 'totally not my fault'.

"Come on Chloe, since when did you care what people think?" Lana asked, standing up and attempting to pull Chloe's limp form up. Which Chloe secretly thought was an absolute waste of energy because really, Lana was an almost-waif who looked like she was light and airy enough to traipse on water, while Chloe could probably pass for a very small, very blonde Mack truck in heels. Not to mention the fact that Lana would work up an unseemly excess of sweat that no amount of super-absorbent Kleenex would be able to counteract, thereby ruining her prom queen look enough so that not even Clark the clueless could fail to notice it.

But Lana didn't seem to care for any of those consequences. She had a surprisingly strong and tenacious grip, and eventually she dragged Chloe to her feet against her will.

"Hey." Chloe protested, although the frown eased from her face as Lex's warm arms circled around her. "What -"

"This is a prom Chloe." Lana chastised her through a beaming smile. "You have to dance. It's like a law or something."

"Who's not dancing?" Clark's booming voice suddenly materialised behind Chloe, making her visibly jump despite the fact that she still had trouble hearing herself think. "Punch?" He grinned his patented million-watt smile at her, as Lana slid into his waiting arms.

Chloe glowered darkly at him. "So none of your business Clark." She found herself snapping, taking the proffered punch in spite of herself.

"Come on, Chloe." He grinned almost insolently down at her, clearly enjoying the normally unflappable Chloe flapped. "It isn't a contest, no one's going to mark you on style. I mean, look at me." He gestured sheepishly at himself, his large blue eyes twinkling with enjoyment. "I'm the biggest, dorkiest one here. If I don't mind making a fool of myself, you shouldn't either. Besides, I think Lex is getting kind of bored." He added playfully, earning a half-hearted whack from Lana.

If it had been possible for her brows to leap off her face in a dance of incredulity, they would have been boogieing on the crowded dance floor even now. Chloe very much doubted that anyone considered Clark the dorky, awkward Freshman he had been last year. At least, not since he had achieved superjock stardom and started dating Lana Lang.

As for Lex being bored, that wasn't possible ... right?

Chloe turned and found Lex's clear blue orbs firmly fixed on her. "What?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, the gnawing dread that Lex couldn't be having less fun tonight making her tone colder than an Antarctic breeze. "Are you bored?" She asked Lex pointedly. "And why are you staring at me like that?"

"You're kind of ... cute when you're defensive." His sly, insolent grin made her simultaneously want to hurl a very blunt object in his direction and jump him like there was no tomorrow. Both of which would have been very, very bad things to do, given the number of witnesses around.

She stared owlishly at him for a few moments, indecision racking her mind and making her resemble a very hot and marginally sweaty statue. She laughed sheepishly despite herself. "Are you bored Lex?" Chloe asked again, much more sincerely this time. She gestured around the modestly decorated gym. Balloons and garishly coloured ribbons already showed signs of wear, hanging limply as the jocks starting pulling them down for entertainment. "I mean, who could blame you? It's really not even mildly interesting for you, is it?" She sighed a little wistfully. "You'd probably have more fun at one of those monthly fertiliser productivity meetings, right?"

"Well -"

She turned to Lex dramatically. "Honestly, we don't have to stay if you don't want to. We could go back to your place -" At Clark's slightly shocked expression, she added, " or mine. Or we could -"

"Chloe." Lex cut her off gently, leaning in until their noses almost touched. Which nevertheless sent shock waves of anticipation careening down her spine. A crooked smile stole onto Lex's face, replacing the dry expression that had been present the whole night. "Do you want to dance?"

"Okay." She blurted out despite her squeaky anxiety. Obviously the fearless, stubbornly individual part of Chloe had won out against the scared, loser caring what pathetic small minded individuals thought part. Which should have been a good thing, except why the hell was she so nervous about parading with Lex in front of the entire grade?

"Relax." Lex whispered tantalisingly into her ear as he tugged her insistently out onto the dance floor behind him.

Clark winked at her in that charming, insufferably superior farm boy way of his, as if he had had something to do with Chloe's capitulation. He and Lana melted into the background of the other dancing couples. Pete floated by with his date, and Chloe could see that even he was in a sufficiently happy mood to give Chloe and Lex a once over that didn't plainly telegraph to Chloe that he wanted to murder Lex on the spot. In fact, he gave Lex a casual nod, which Lex tacitly accepted.

Maybe fairy tales did come true after all.

The insufferable whine of the pseudo alt-rock music suddenly fell away, replaced by a slow, melodious ballad. Chloe cringed inwardly, although the high school girl part of her felt a thrill of anticipation. Instead of having to bop in non-rhythm trying to balance on a pair of heels that Chloe wouldn't normally be able to walk in, much less dance in, she now had the opportunity to slow dance with Lex. In front of the entire grade.

But suddenly Chloe found herself not caring either way. Here she was, dressed up to within an inch of what in her mind pretty much qualified as the Chloe look of the millennium, Lex was here with her, voluntarily enduring a lame junior prom just so he could make her one of the happiest crazy people in Smallville. If he could withstand scrutiny by appearing here with her, couldn't she brush away the cobwebby constraints of small-minded judgments?

After all she was Chloe Sullivan - intrepid reporter and snark queen of Kansas, who could probably disassemble any amount of small town opinion with her lightning-quick tongue.

Chloe smiled, satisfied that she could at last allow herself to enjoy what was left of the evening. She sighed happily as she sank into his arms, allowing herself the luxury of revelling at the unique sensation of having Lex's arms wrapped tightly around her.

They danced in absolute silence, and Chloe found herself becoming lost in the tranquillity of the moment. She couldn't believe she had been silly and irrational enough to have let the possible narrow minded judgments of her fellow students delay the achievement of this wonderful experience - the being in Lex's arms, feeling his soft, even breaths brush tantalisingly against her hair experience.

Well, there wasn't going to be any more of that non-courage any time soon. This was America, the land of the free, where truth, justice and the American way pervaded every inch of life. Which meant that Chloe could do whatever she wanted, including dating a certain handsome follically challenged billionaire-to-be who had the unique ability to satisfy her thirst for knowledge and make her laugh insanely at the same time.

Chloe concluded she was a soon-to-be reformed idiot. But an extremely happy idiot at the moment. She seemed to have sunk into a very pleasant daze, where anything irrelevant to the fact that Lex's arms were around her and making her feel like the only girl on the face of the planet was briefly forgotten.

She felt Lex's grip on her shift slightly as his hand snaked down to her hip, prompting a shiver to course down her spine. She tilted her face up to catch him as he smiled quizzically down at her, an amused sparkle in his eyes. She wondered if she had drooling.

"Are you really enjoying yourself Lex? Or are you just saying it to not crush my already fragile feelings?" She murmured hazily, a hint of worry creeping into her voice.

Lex chuckled ironically. "Believe me, this is the best prom I've ever been to."

Chloe did a double take in her mind trying to register the thought of Lex going to another prom. It seemed like an absurd idea that he would willingly subject himself to another one of these non-extravaganzas. "How many have you been to?" She asked incredulously, caught off-guard enough for the surprise in her tone to explode from her in full force.

He looked down at her, amusement shining from his enigmatic eyes. "Believe it or not, they had proms when I went to high school too." He looked pointedly at her as she berated herself for her stupidity. Of course, Lex had to have gone to his own prom - at the very least. God, she was the ditziest blonde on this side of the planet, maybe even on this side of the galaxy. Maybe it was the dress, and the way that it seemed to restrict her ability to breathe. Non-ability to breathe meant oxygen deprivation which meant a clearly non-functioning brain.

Because she really didn't want to think about the fact that she was naturally this clueless.

"Oh." She said faintly, still cursing herself for looking so completely brainless in front of Lex. Sometimes she really couldn't understand why he liked her at all, given her propensity to overreact to narrow-minded small town opinions, her occasionally caustic attitude and just making a special appearance now, her apparent stupidity. "Did you enjoy it?" She asked lamely, trying vainly to recover a modicum of respectability in her own eyes.

"No." He said simply, his gaze suddenly fixed to a spot somewhere in the vicinity of the crook of Chloe's neck.

Chloe snapped to attention, instantaneously forgetting her own feelings of insecurity as the door into Lex's sometimes heavily guarded psyche creaked opened in front of her. "Why not?" She asked softly.

He shrugged imperceptibly as they continued to sway to the music, his grip around her hips tightening. The Lex-sense in her that had been carefully cultivated in the past couple of months suddenly flared to attention, telling her that this was one of those things about himself that he didn't feel comfortable enough to reveal.

But she wanted him to reveal it. She wanted him to know that it was okay for him to tell her this stuff, to give her something of himself that may have been fragile, that she could hold and have him feel like it was perfectly safe in her possession. She craved to know a part of him that no one else had ever seen or touched before, a part where no one had been close enough to see or touch through his iron-clad defences. She couldn't explain it - all she knew was that she needed it, craved it, to satiate a hunger that she only realised now had been welling up inside her for the past two months.

Chloe drew slightly away from him so that she could tilt her face up to meet his gaze more forcefully. "Tell me?" She asked again, a note of raw pleading in her voice that for once, she made no effort to cover up.

She heard him sigh, the expression of guarded amusement falling from his face, like a smooth velvet cloak unveiling to reveal hardened stone underneath.

"There isn't really much a story." He stated simply. "Not anything dramatic, you understand." A bitter smile played on the edge of his lips. "I never really fitted in anywhere after the meteor shower. People treated me differently because of this." He ran his hand subconsciously through his bare scalp, before wrapping it around her again. "As I grew up I grew to resent it, resent the stares and the whispers everywhere I went. Of course I was at boarding school so there wasn't really any chance for escape." He smiled deprecatingly, and Chloe had to resist the tug of sympathy that almost compelled her to wrap her arms around him and somehow make up for the loneliness that he had lived with for so long. "Long story short, I didn't have many friends. And you don't really enjoy a prom night, or any other night, if your friends aren't there to enjoy it with you."

Chloe followed his gaze as it rested on Clark and Lana, before turning back to sear intensely into her. His pale blue eyes, now fixed sedately onto hers, shone with the intensity of his slowly unveiling pain and loneliness, and Chloe had to blink rapidly to keep the tears that were now welling in her hazel orbs from falling and unceremoniously ruining her carefully applied make up. It wasn't really what he had said; it had been the way he looked when he had said it.

Because for the first time she had known him, she could see that he had unfettered his emotions and displayed them openly to her. She could see the pain and loneliness that had been eating away inside him, and she marvelled at the way he had been able to control his emotions so well that they were so comprehensively hidden from even his closest friends.

But now they were no longer hidden, because he was holding it out to her. Offering a part of himself for her to hold.

She wanted to say a million things to him, to commiserate and comfort him, but she rapidly discarded each of them in succession.

She really sucked big time with the milk of human kindness sympathy thing.

"Hey." He tilted her chin up, scrutinising her rapidly crumbling expression. A faint look of worry crossed over his face. "Shit, was that too much?"

"No." She laughed through the few tears that fell down her face. It was refreshing to hear the note of panic in his voice, assuring her of his status as part of the human race. "I'm just ... really glad you told me." She squeezed out. "And also, if you haven't noticed this already, I can get kind of emotional sometimes. Put it down to the craziness of me."

Lex expelled an explosive breath as he said incredulously. "But you're crying." His fingers gently wiped the trickling tears from her face.

"Not really." Chloe responded, wondering if it was against the laws of make up nature to wipe the tears away with the back of her hand before she remembered her mascara. Damn her lack of foresight for applying mascara. Of course she should have known that she would be bawling like a lunatic in the middle of the dance floor with not even a Kleenex in sight, although she wasn't technically bawling per se. "I mean, not good in terms of potentially making me look like a blond raccoon, but ... I don't know. Call me crazy but I'm really glad you told me. You know, all that stuff."

"Okay." He seemed marginally satisfied with her more-than-usual lame explanation. Chloe wanted to judo kick herself for her total lack of articulation. Did she seriously want to be a reporter one day? If she did she really needed a vocabulary transplant, because she could anticipate that somehow her current range of 'glad' and 'stuff' wouldn't cut it in the long run.

But Lex didn't seem to mind. He drew her even closer to him and leaned into her, pressing his cheek against her hair. Through the drumming of her rapidly pumping heart, Chloe realised that he was holding onto her almost as tightly as she was holding on to him. It was a crystal moment of pure emotions, and Chloe was determined to hold onto that for as long as possible.

Lex had promised her that she wasn't going to be disappointed with tonight. And she wasn't, because they were here, holding tightly onto each other as if they were the only two people in the room.

(c) October 2002