Chapter Four

Lana followed him out of the Talon. "Clark I have an idea!!"

He crossed the street to the truck, not wanting to talk. "Can we talk later, Lana?"

She caught up with him. "That was rude and so uncalled for and I can't believe you did that!"

"Please, no Lana-morals right now." He reached the truck and dug around in his pocket for his keys. "I'm not in the mood to do the good thing."

"I loved it!"

He frowned and turned to her.

"Don't get me wrong," she laughed. "It was one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever been put through, and you owe me big time, but I am getting used to that around you."

"Gee, getting used to being uncomfortable around me. Thanks."

She shrugged, unapologetic. "And I have an idea, but first I want you to promise me something."

He turned around and leaned up against the truck door, sighing. He didn't want to be here right now. "What?"

"That we'll talk about how you're different."

Oh, shit. Could his alien guts turn into cold steel? Is that what just happened?

"Clark."

"I don't know what-"

Out of nowhere she kneed him in the crotch. He was too stunned to do anything but double over and pretend, thinking he wasn't the only one to have grown a pair tonight.

He remembered the time that Chloe and he and Pete were all wrestling years ago and Chloe accidentally got poor Pete in the nards with her foot. He was out of activities that called for moving for the rest of the day.

Clark was trying to look pained but he was just too not involved to put full effort into it and Lana bent over and whispered in his ear. "Promise me or I let you try and get Lex by yourself."

He closed his eyes and leaned back up against the truck.

"I know the meteors affect you, Clark, I know they do. Come on, I might have my head up my ass a lot of the time, but I would have to be blind not to see it."

He was silent, praying no one else thought this.

"How many other people around here are odd, huh? Chloe's right about the rocks, I believe her now and people unnaffected by the meteors are in the minority." She waited. When his silence continued she became exasperated. "Do you really think I would hate you or tell someone?"

No, he didn't. "Fine, but not now, ok?"

"Whatever you want. I'll sit at the bottom of a well if it means you'll trust me."

"Lana-"

"I'll sit in an attic holding a grumpy, hyper Jack Russell and twelve snapping turtles listening to Bob Dylan CD's until my brain is convinced he's God, if it means you'll trust me."

Disturbing Images R Lana. "I do. I will. Ok? So what is this idea?"

The door to the Talon opened and they watched Lex and Vicky come out.

"Perfect timing."

"Lana you're downright giddy. What in the-"

"Shut up and kiss me."

He looked at her for a moment, his face scrunched. "Are you crazy?"

"You give every lucky girl that face before you stick it to 'em?"

"What?"

"Ex-lay ooking-lay is-they a-way. Iss-kay, ee-may."

"I'm horrible at Pig Latin, Lana."

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes." Resolute. No doubt there.

"Kiss me."

He did. He bent down and kissed her on the lips, trying not to get to intimate. He pulled back quickly.

"That was pathetic, but it got him intrigued. Now for the real show." She grabbed him by the belt and pulled him close, laying it on him. For a minute he tried to hold back. This was Lana and she was doing this for some unknown reason; not because she wanted to but because she wanted to help him. He tried to imagine this as someone else, as something else. As if he wasn't kissing the sexiest girl he knew, but he couldn't. She was stabbing his lips with her tongue and tugging on him insistantly so he decided to give in. She let this happen. This was her idea.

He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in closer, needing to feel body warmth. He'd kissed her a few times, knew she was good at it and while neither of them loved each other the way you would if you wanted to spend the rest of your life together, they were very much attracted to each other. And lonely.

He felt her respond, felt a hand dive into his hair. When she moaned he lost it. He pushed her up against the truck door, inadvertantly giving Lex a full view of the scene, and pounded her mouth with his. The back of her head beat a soft rhythm against the window and he let his hand delve into her hair. She bucked up against him and he growled on instinct.

After a minute Lana pushed on his chest. While he didn't want to, he stopped and looked down.

"Wow," Lana whispered.

"Yeah." She turned and blushed. His eyes followed hers in time to see Lex standing alone and looking away quickly, as if he'd been caught watching. Vicky stormed out of the Talon again, this time with her purse and jacket.

Clark turned back to her. "Now. Please explain what that does. Other than make me horny."

She smiled. "You're very open tonight."

"Well, you just kicked me in the crotch and demanded that I tell you everything."

"Earlier too, though."

"You mean with the golddigger."

"And with me, when you told me about how you felt for Lex."

"Yeah. I had plans. Then that vulcher with breasts came and ruined it all."

"You refusing to say her name?"

He nodded.

SHe giggled. "It was awesome watching you verbally attack her. I mean it wasn't anything big, but for someone like you, that was almost full-out bitch fight."

Vicky got into the Porsche. "Hey, you two!" called Lex. "Get a room, huh?" Lex called out good-naturedly, but to Clark it sounded strained.

"See?"

Clark looked at Lana as Lex drove off. "See, what?"

"You heard his voice. The disappointment."

Clark backed away. "He's going home with that. I'd be disappointed too. She'll probably bitch all the way there."

Lana shook her head, smiling gently. "He's jealous."

A flash of hope entered his heart. "You think?"

"I know, Clark. When you told Vicky she didn't deserve Lex... Oh, man, you should have seen his reaction."

"Why?"

Lana was quiet, thinking for a moment. "You know Chloe reads romance novels, right?"

He smirked. "Do I ever. Pete and I were over one night studying when she went to the bathroom. Pete had me use my x-" He broke off.

"What?"

"I have to tell you some of this later, but we searched her underwear drawer." Lana looked disturbed. "Not like that. Pete wanted us each to have a pair on our heads when she came back which I thought was great."

Lana rolled her eyes, but he saw humor there.

"So we found her stash of romance novels. We each took one and started reading it. When she got back it was better than if we'd had the underware on our heads. She was mortified."

Lana nodded. "I went in there to borrow a bra one time."

Clark's eyes widened. "Girls actually borrow each others undies?"

"Some of us. Not all, but Chloe and I are both anal about keeping ours clean and we are really close so-" She stopped, narrowing her eyes. "What? What's that look?"

"That's really hot."

"Clark."

"Are you wearing hers now?"

"Clark, Lex's jealousy, his expression, focus."

He blushed. "Sorry."

"Anyway, I found her stash and wasn't surprised. We started sharing them. We are both addicted. We love to trash the horrible ones and we die when there's a good one. So we are attuned. For some girls, me not Chloe, life is like this one long romance novel. And I couldn't give a crap about what people think about that. I like my life. But I'm attuned to the presence of unrequited love."

"Because you've read about it in books." He couldn't hide the suspicious tone in his voice.

She nodded. "Tons. You can make fun of me, but when you read enough, you see it everywhere."

"Even where there is none."

"What does Chloe see everywhere, Clark? The meteors. Has she been wrong?"

He shrugged. "Only once and all of us thought he was smoking the stuff."

"When you said 'You don't deserve, Lex.' I looked right at the man. His breath hitched and his face got... it went soft and really vulnerable. His eyes got all heavy-lidded. All symptoms of lust, sure, and if you were blowing in his ear and licking his neck, then I would say it was just lust. But you were standing up to some bitch that has walked all over him before that has just decided to drop in on him unwanted and uninvited-"

"Uninvited?"

"You were being the knight, Clark."

He smirked. "Does that make him the damsel in distress."

"No," she shook her head. "That just makes him a guy in love that happened to be there when his best friend slash object of affection tried to stand up for him."

"In love?"

"Don't you think that's what you feel?"

He shrugged. He knew he was but it was a little intense to tell Lana.

"Clark?"

He turned and unlocked the truck. He had to go home and think. "Yes, I think I am."

"Good."

"Lana?"

"Yes."

"Are you wearing Chloe's panties?"

"Clark-"

"Just say yes, it doesn't have to be the truth."

"Go home."

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