Everything In This World
By Viv
*~*~ Part Thirty-Five ~*~*
Pete walked over to Chloe and handed her his cell.
She looked at it in confusion. "What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Call Lex."
She frowned dubiously. "What? Why? I thought you couldn't stand him." She shoved it against his chest. "As much as I'd to think that the two of you have bonded manly behind my back - somehow, I'm thinking that's not the reason why you want me to call him."
He shoved the cell back towards her. "Well, it's really his dirty name and even dirtier money I can't stand." At the brief look of hurt that flickered across Chloe's face, he paused. "Look, the last few months ... I've missed doing stuff with you Chloe." Off her look of protest, he hurriedly continued. "Not that I'm blaming - I mean I've still got my issues with Lex. I'm just not going to let that get in the way of spending time with my favourite girl any more." He smiled cheekily as he added. "Besides, if I'm getting roped into this painful mutant fish hunt, I figure he should suffer too just like the rest of us. The Luthors have it too easy anyway."
Chloe spluttered, indignant and emotional enough from Pete's touching admission to temporarily lose capacity for anything resembling normal speech. "Painful?!"
"And anyway," Pete continued, eyeing Chloe warily. "I bet he'd love to come. You know, the way you've been mooning over his ass, I'm surprised Lex wasn't the first one you decided to reel in, pun so fully intended."
Chloe waved her hands melodramatically. "Okay, can you not be using the words 'moon', 'ass' and Lex in the same sentence?"
Pete looked at her, wide-eyed and way too innocent. "What's the matter Chlo, seen a little too much mooning action for your comfort?"
Chloe spluttered, hoisting her bag up to her shoulders and walking away indignantly. She also had her hands in her ears for good measure, but that wasn't enough to drown out Pete's parting shot. "Mark my words Chloe. The way you two have been lojacked to each other, he'd probably drop everything and come running after you to help your crazy mutant fishing."
Chloe reflected that maybe Pete had been learning way too much snarkyness for her comfort.
* * *
"Mutant fish?" Lex's voice echoed doubtfully over the line. There was a slight pause, in which Chloe hoped that he was deep in thought and not smothering very well-concealed laughter. "Would you believe me if I said I absolutely had to wash my scalp tomorrow?"
"Lex." She whined, hoping her voice sounded more delightfully endearing than petulant.
"Okay, okay." He relented, sighing heavily in mock-martyrdom. "Remember Chloe, I'm only doing this for you. Not for any ... mutant fish. For you." She could almost hear him rolling his eyes over the line. "What time should I meet you guys?"
"Oh - not too early. You know me and early starts. Not a good mix. At least if you valued your health or anything and hey, who said anything about anyone else coming?"
"Come on Chloe. You and your crazy meteor theories? Clark and Pete have to be coming too, or else I'll feel decidedly short changed."
"Well Clark can't come because he's got to drive his mom to Metropolis tomorrow, but Lana's coming. So you won't have any shortage of people to snivel to."
"Luthors don't snivel Chloe." Lex replied indignantly.
"Whatever." She said infuriatingly. "11 sharp tomorrow, bring your own gourmet sandwiches and or fresh beverages. You know my culinary non-skills don't approach anywhere near your minimum standards of taste. It's best to bring something edible if you don't want to starve your billionaire ass off."
He chuckled lightly over the phone, and even after all these months Chloe still had to do a double-take when she heard one of those laughs. Especially when she was the lucky recipient of one. "I'll see what I can do Chloe."
"Thanks Lex." She hesitated slightly before continuing. Lately she had been finding the end of their phone conversations awkward, for the very precise trauma of whether to say the dreaded three words of romantic doom, known to other people outside her head as 'I love you'. It sounded unbelievably corny and really, you couldn't get mashed potatoes any more mushy, but there was an itch to say it roaming around her skin and it seemed that it wanted to be satisfied no matter how big of a fool it made her out to be.
She floundered awkwardly. "I, er ... thanks." She finished off lamely.
There was a slight pause on the other end of the line before he answered. "Love you too Chloe."
* * *
The next day dawned bright and sunny, with a faint hint of a summery breeze in the air, gently rustling the trees around her. It was neither too hot nor too humid and was excruciatingly pleasant for a Kansas almost-summer day.
It was perfect, Chloe thought, for what the others not-so-secretly referred to as their inaugural mutant fish hunt. Even though she felt a slight sting that no one else seemed to take the expedition seriously, she philosophically reflected that it was probably good practice for the future when she would probably have to say and do all sorts of seemingly silly and wacky things, all in the name of quality journalism and a by line that would blast all other by lines off the face of the page.
Besides, despite their outward reluctance and ridicule of the day's coming trip, the coolness of the fact that Lex, Lana and Pete had agreed to do this with her wasn't entirely lost on Chloe.
Chloe had readied everything in anticipation for the big day. No being caught out for not having enough sugary sustenance or lack of caffeine intake for them. It was nearly noon already and while Chloe needed all the sleep she could get, she didn't want to resemble some bizarre Stephen King sloth creature who slept all day and only awoke at night. Not to mention the fact that she still wasn't entirely comfortable with Lex seeing her in her variety of tatty sleep wear.
So she felt reasonably good when Lex stepped warily out of his silver Porsche and walked up to her front door dutifully armed with a basket of deliciously edible gourmet goodies and sweetly enough, a flask of what Chloe suspected to be freshly brewed Talon coffee.
She sighed in delicious ecstasy. Score one for Lex on the extremely thoughtful boyfriend scale.
"Hey." She greeted as she ran to him, giving him an excited kiss. She knew she was behaving just a little too grade schoolish for her liking, but she didn't care. The thrill of chasing after a potentially amazing story always sent her into a buzz of not entirely caffeineated induced excitement.
She was about to say something when she stopped herself abruptly, taking in his unusual appearance in barely concealed astonishment.
Chloe had never seen Lex dressed in anything else beside the seemingly endless array of designer suits, ties and tailored pants that he habitually wore around town. She had seen him decked out in greys and blacks and purples of every conceivable and expensively woven hue, and she supposed, had seen him in nothing at all, but she didn't want to dwell on that tantalisingly salivating thought at the moment. She was also somewhat acquainted with the 'hot and sweaty from exercise' Lex, as she had seen him once or twice after he had just completed a work out.
But this was entirely different. Today he had on a comfortably fitted white t-shirt that, while not tight, definitely accentuated the curves of his upper body and arm muscles in a very aesthetically pleasing way. He had on equally comfortable khaki pants and sensible, though extremely pricey looking, hiking shoes. A Metropolis Sharks cap topped off the outfit.
Lex looked very outdoorsy, relaxed and comfortable - in short, very not his usual Lex-self.
His eyes twinkled brilliantly in the bright sunshine, and Chloe suspected that he had probably guessed the general drift of her thoughts regarding his appearance. "Hey." He smiled down at her, frowning in bemusement at the same time. "What are you doing?"
Chloe had the good grace to blush. Rich and charming boyfriend or not, it probably wasn't a good idea to stare so unabashedly at someone without giving them a sane person reason for it. "You look ... different." She said lamely, trying to shrug further explanation off.
"You mean this?" He gestured, holding out his hands to present his outfit to her. "I admit it's a little different to what I usually wear, but I guess when in Rome ... " His frown deepened as he contemplated her still slightly shocked expression. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing. It's just ... you look younger. More like ... us."
"Us?" He frowned.
She rushed on. "Oh not that - well, I didn't mean it like that. Just ... more our age. I mean, sometimes I forget that you're supposed to be 22 and not, you know, older."
"I'm not really in my dotage just yet, but thanks Chloe." He stared dubiously at her. "You really know how to make a guy feel special." He added, with a sarcastic twinkle in his eye.
"You know you're special." She said, before cringing inwardly at the innate cheesiness of the remark. It was so not a good idea to spout that much cheese in the morning. But Lex didn't seem to mind the drippiness of the cheese as he smiled openly back at her.
They sat outside together, sharing the flask of freshly brewed coffee in the late morning sunshine while they waited for Lana and Pete to show up. Chloe had to work very hard to conceal her continued amazement at the stark change in Lex's appearance. It probably made her a very shallow person, but until today she hadn't realised how important clothes and presentation were to her perception of someone. Lex's boutique store variety of designer outfits had always emphasised the fact that he was from a different world, a world where people didn't travel in cars but limousines, who didn't cook but had in-house chefs, a world where ... well she got the idea.
But today, decked out in these casual hiking clothes, Lex looked almost normal. Which was an extremely unpolitically correct thing to say but then really, if a person couldn't even think unpolitically correct things then what was the point of thinking at all? Which was a really lame justification for her innate shallowness, but it was her mind, so Chloe decided to accept that particular fact and move on before Lex discovered that she was capable of carrying on entire conversations with herself inside her head.
They had a name for people like that - stark, raving mad.
"This is nice." Lex commented quietly, gazing out at the house across the street. A gentle breeze rustled the overhanging trees, sprinkling a mixture of freshly mowed grass and greening leaves over them. The fresh smell of hay mingled with the musky scent of summer, a promising sweetness almost humming in the air around them. "I wouldn't mind sitting out here all day. Maybe even sitting out here for the rest of my life."
"You'd get bored."
"Yeah, probably." He conceded with a smile. "But sometimes I think it'd be nice to ... have a different life. I wonder what I would be if I had grown up ... here."
And not with Lionel Luthor as a father, Chloe added silently. She sipped quietly on her coffee as she contemplated his profile, calm and still in the wind that was gently rustling his clothes. She was suddenly pierced by a white hot shaft of sympathy for him, coupled with a bizarre need to wrap her arms around him in a clearly idiotic and nonsensical attempt to protect him from his past. Which was of course, humanly impossible but really, could she help feeling that she wanted to claw the eyes out of anyone who had ever hurt Lex in this life?
He seemed to sense a little of what she was thinking, because she found herself the lucky recipient of one of his rare, unguarded moments as he smiled reassuringly back at her.
The smile caught her breath. Although Chloe was getting slightly hot and sweating like a very well boiled lobster in the almost midday summertime heat, she found Lex's smile mesmerisingly brilliant. Not because it was the brightest smile she had ever seen from Lex - far from it - but because it pierced through her normally cynical armour with such frictionless ease. It felt for a moment like a two-way channel of wordless communication had suddenly opened up, allowing an effortless connection between them that almost knocked Chloe senseless with its sheer force. It was like a meeting or joining of souls, except for the fact that Chloe would never have uttered anything so ridiculously romantic and therefore couldn't own up to feeling it, even in the depths of her mind.
She instinctively shifted closer to him, threading her arm around his and weaving her fingers through his long slim ones. She looked up to find Lex studying their entwined hands, as if it held the key to all the answers in the universe.
They sat in comfortable, drifting silence as they waited. A truck roared past, laden with fresh produce before quickly disappearing from view.
Lana and Pete soon arrived, and the four of them set off. Pete had offered to drive since the four of them in no way could have fitted comfortably into Lex's Porsche with all the extraneous gear that they were collectively lugging. Lana had evidently been under the mistaken impression that they were going to trek to Nepal or somewhere equally as arduous and distant, because she had landed on Chloe's doorstep resembling a very well-equipped camping and hiking travelling salesperson.
Chloe teased Lana when she first glimpsed the other girl. "Lana, you do realise we aren't going on an expedition to the south pole or anything?"
"It never hurts to be prepared Chloe." Lana said firmly, dragging her very fat and probably very heavy back pack in the boot of Pete's car laboriously. She slammed the top down firmly, a look of satisfaction gracing her face.
The drive to the reserve was uneventful and soon they found themselves in a clearing, unloading the boot full of stuff from Pete's car.
Lex puffed somewhat ungracefully as he attempted to half drag, half pull Lana's bag from the boot, with Pete valiantly helping when it became clear that it was well and truly stuck. "Lana, you know that you're going to have to carry this around with you when we actually start walking?" He said facetiously to her. "I mean, you do realise that Clark's not going to suddenly fly in and help you carry all this stuff while you walk beside him looking delicate and feminine?"
"It's not that heavy Lex." Lana protested. "I don't hear Pete complaining."
"That's because I've got no breath left to complain." Pete leaned against the edge of the car, visibly panting. "I don't want to be agreeing with a Luthor or anything, but are you sure you need all this crap?"
Lana scoffed in indignation. "Clark and I go hiking all the time and he never complains. And this is almost as much stuff as I usually pack with him. Besides, I was the one who put it in the car in the first place."
Pete and Lex looked dubiously at each other. Glancing at Lana's annoyance, Lex offered. "Pete and I will drag it out for you. But maybe you should just try to walk with this. See if you can, okay?"
"Fine." Lana huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.
Chloe watched the whole exchange in silent amusement. She was probably in the unique position of appreciating the irony of having a Lex and Pete double team on Lana, who incidentally was now deprived of her tall, dark and handsome safety blanket of yore.
With much grunting and flexing of actually quite healthy looking muscles, Lex and Pete managed to get Lana's bag out of the car. Pete doubled over and rested his hands on his knees, panting for breath while Lex allowed himself to lean against the side of the car, grimacing with exertion.
Chloe silently offered him a Kleenex. She actually wanted to wipe the beads of perspiration from his face herself, but she thought that would have been a little too much of a display for the others to stomach.
He took it from her gratefully. "Did you bring a box of that? Because I don't think I've sweated this much since I accidentally fell asleep in the sauna."
"What, you couldn't find an empty boiler room to crash in?" She smirked, enjoying his discomfort. She was a very, very bad person - but who cared?
Chloe watched Lana as she struggled to get the back pack onto her shoulders, while Lex and Pete unloaded the rest of their gear. Eventually Lana accomplished the task, managing to look only slightly irritated that the back pack wasn't as light as she obviously thought.
But she couldn't stand up. Try as she might, Lana could not obtain lift off with her very heavy looking back pack. Pete smirked and Chloe rewarded him with a heavy whack on the chest. Despite her obvious effort - and Chloe suspected that Lana was trying very, very hard -
she was actually kind of really stubborn that way - the ex-cheerleader just couldn't stand up with it. She could probably walk a few metres with it, or carry it if she didn't have to walk, but since both walking and carrying were going to be essential functions for them in the next few hours, it looked like she had a problem with a capital P.
"Oh fine." She muttered at last, clearly breathless from exertion. She threw the bag on the floor of the clearing in disgust ."I guess I could take out the portable gas stove."
Chloe came forward and helped Lana take out all the extraneous equipment from her bag - clearly Lana would *not* be needing an emergency flashlight the size of Kansas, amongst other things - and zipped everything back up into its neat little compartments.
"Okay." Chloe slapped Lana's back playfully, her enthusiasm for a potential news story coming to the fore once more. "Here we go. This is it! We're going to find some mutant fish!"
She pretended not to notice the silent though very palatable groaning behind her as she quickly forged ahead of them., disappearing quickly with a rustle into the thick foliage beyond.
(c) October 2002