Everything In This World

By Viv

Author's Note: Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

I know I probably don't say this enough, but I really appreciate the immense amount of feedback and reviews I've gotten for this story so far. Every review is tremendously encouraging and I honestly appreciate the effort that people go to let me know they're enjoying the story. Thanks ;-D

*~*~ Part Forty-Three ~*~*

The heady beat of the music pumped loudly as it resounded all around her, threatening to shatter her ear drums in the process. The music, loud and obnoxiously grating as it was, had somehow acquired the power to almost compel her body to gyrate to the beat as she stood against the wall, patiently waiting for Lex to return from the bar.

Chloe had been to a few clubs in her life - fake ids were after all not the most heavily guarded contraband that a teenager could come across - but she had never felt so pumped and alive. The darkness, the sensuous swaying of closely sweating bodies, the intense unsuppressed atmosphere of desperation and excitement, coursed through her veins and begged for an outlet. Chloe felt like a particularly jumpy live wire, glowing and burning energy as it twitched for release.

Lex had taken her to Tangent, a club that wasn't quite as debauched as Chloe was half-hoping for, but still obnoxiously exclusive enough that Chloe knew if she hadn't been one of the lucky ones gaining admittance she would have snarked about the injustice of life for the rest of the night.

But she had been one of the chosen few, and not even the most insane part of her mind could glance over the tiny fact that it was all due to the fact that she had been hanging off Lex Luthor's arm. Or more accurately, in the interests of accurate reporting Lex Luthor had been draped all over her as they had sauntered past the velvet ropes curtaining off access to the already packed club.

There were injustices and there were injustices. But Chloe reflected philosophically that she could probably deal with this particular one quite well.

Chloe rocked impatiently, the thought flying briefly across her mind to just ditch Lex and get onto the dance floor. Which clearly would have been crazy, but where the hell was her knight when she needed him with a cool refreshing drink and a hot, sweaty body to dance with?

The noise was so great and created such a pounding vortex of noise inside her head that Chloe knew that when she woke up the next afternoon, bleary eyed and fatigued, she would have lost all sense of sound.

She was definitely having a colourful kaleidoscope of fun.

"You look ready to bolt." How Lex had managed to skirt her skittish attention and whisper tantalisingly into her ear in the midst of the pounding beat of the music astonished Chloe.

"I am." She turned around and manoeuvred herself so that she could snake her hands around his waist. His arm wrapped around her, cradling a Long Island iced tea in his hand which he offered to her. "I just need to let go of all this energy."

"One drink Chloe." He cautioned as she took the glass into her hands, prompting her to throw him a dirty look.

She gulped the deliciously cool liquid down, knowing that it probably wasn't the most practical way to get around Lex's sudden impersonation of her father. "Way to sully the mood Lex, masquerading as my dad and all." Her eyes glinted with defiance.

"I just want to make sure you don't get into trouble."

She deliberately ignored his somewhat superior tone, biting down the cutting remark on the tip of her tongue. She tried to ignore the flame of anger that seared through her by urgently grabbing his hand. "Come on." She gestured into the general direction of the crowded dance floor. "We should dance."

She saw Lex frown at her suddenly maniacal energy, but she tugged insistently and soon she was gyrating to the beat like a semi-crazed animal, wanting to dance and twirl and spin all the excessive energy out of her body that seemed to fuel her rampaging emotions. It seemed that all the intensity of emotions of the past month - her worry over Lex's injury, the constant tension during his recovery and the verbal assault from Lex's dad that she had willingly allowed herself to overhear today - had suddenly coalesced and converged on this one instant.

Chloe couldn't bear it any more, she had to let it go - she needed to let it all go.

And so she dance it out. And for a while it worked, as Lex took in her gyrating form and frenzied energy for an instant before he approached and began dancing to her rhythm.

They danced as one, heedless of stares or whispers or music or anything else that revolved around them. It was just her and Lex, dancing in a whirl of curtaining emotion. And if she hadn't been aching for that release, she was sure that she would have had the presence of mind to be astonished at the change in Lex - just as she had unleashed her energy and emotions, heedless of the curious stares around them - so had he. And the result was electrifying, in a non-Grease kind of way.

Chloe was sure that she probably wasn't the most stylish or the most gorgeously sinuous dancer on the face of the planet, but she really didn't care. As long as Lex was there and they were sharing this rare moment of unrestrained emotion, she was fine and dandy.

But of course it couldn't last. There was some proverb that lyrically said as much, but Chloe couldn't quite pluck it from the whirling jumble of thoughts from her mind.

Her mind was jerked from its almost psychedelic daze by a hand being placed forcefully on her behind, snaking aggressively up. Chloe's eyes widened as she rounded on the culprit, giving him a slap that stung her palms senseless.

"Hey." The man protested, clearly less than pleased at her reaction. "Bitch."

Lex quickly stepped around Chloe to confront the man, his eyes fixed and steely in the darkened room. "I think it'd be better if you left this woman alone."

The man swallowed heavily, glancing between Lex and Chloe before he shrugged. "Hey man, no hard feelings." Taking one last glance at the steely look in Lex's eyes, he scampered off into the crowd.

"What did you do that for?" Chloe screamed at him, thankful for the music that blared around them.

"What did I do that for?" Lex whirled incredulously, his eyes starting to shoot sparks of anger. "I was making sure you don't get hurt."

"In case you've forgotten, I'm reminding you of the tiny of significant fact that I am not a kid." She emphasised each word, her voice crescendoing towards hysteria. "I haven't been a kid for a very long time. And also, I can take care of myself."

"I hate to break this to you Chloe, but you can't. Smart words and an attitude can only do so much. You can't always take care of yourself, which is where I come in. You're 17, you don't know everything. There are things out there -"

"I'm not hanging around to hear this." She barged past him and rushed for the exit, suddenly knowing that if she didn't get out of the cauldron of hazy smoke and heat, she would probably end up saying something horrible and nasty to him, which would have been so very, very bad.

Once Chloe was outside she glanced behind her, knowing with her Lex sense that he wasn't going to let her get away so easily. As Lex charged past the bouncers and fixed onto her position, she began to quickly walk away in the opposite direction.

Unfortunately for Chloe, and as much as she wanted to walk quickly away from Lex and disappear mysteriously into the hazy, foggy night, the universe remained obstinately against her. The night was crisp and clear and Lex apparently overtook her without breaking into a sweat, newly recovered from his broken leg and all. Not to mention the fact that Chloe was hardly the type to outrun an angry Lex.

"Don't walk away from me." Lex forced her to a stop, gripping her arm and refusing to let go. "We were having a conversation."

Chloe rounded on him, her murky hazel eyes blazing with wrath. "I'm sorry, we were having a conversation? You mean you weren't giving innocent little Chloe a lecture on the dangers of the big, bad world? I'm sorry, I must have missed that showing - you know, the one where you're actually a rational human being."

"Why is it such a problem for me to want to protect you Chloe?" They were both shouting now, Chloe a lot more than Lex, which would have been a gigantically embarrassing problem if not for the lucky fact that the street was utterly deserted. A police car rolled by but paid them no heed. "Why does it have to be such a big deal with you?"

Chloe looked down onto the pavement, unable to look into his simmering yet earnest eyes. She felt a part of her animosity draining away, but as it did so it left a curiously numb sensation in its wake. It was like being churned relentlessly in a rip of a wave and then being spat out, breathless and fatigued and never wanting to go back.

She opened her mouth to apologise, but clamped it resolutely shut. "You know what, just drop it. We should head back ... I'm tired." She began to walk away from him, still careful to avoid looking into his no doubt injured as hell eyes.

"Chloe -" Lex began resignedly, sounding as suddenly as tired as she felt.

"What?" She bit back, feeling another surge of anger thread through her body.

"My car's this way." He gestured in the opposite direction, his voice coolly cutting in the suddenly still night air. "Or were you planning to walk through the secure streets of Metropolis by yourself to show your independence?" He added sarcastically.

Chloe's pride recoiled from his tone and for a split second she really considered walking to the nearest Greyhound station to buy herself a ticket back to Smallville, and then hiding out in her room for the rest of her life. Lex had suddenly gone from concerned and injured high moral ground Lex into sharp, cool and absolutely in control Lex, and for some reason Chloe found that the change really hurt.

But she just didn't have the energy to dissect the flux of feelings inside her at the moment. She was drained and tired and all she wanted was to sleep and forget the night ever happened. Which naturally would entail accepting Lex's ride back to his apartment.

She watched injured as Lex rounded and began walking towards his car without a backward glance, his posture stiff and erect.

Chloe silently followed, her eyes shining with unshed tears as their steps echoing in the still night air.

(c) January 2003