Nothing Like You And I
By: trory-goddess

DISCLAIMER: If I owned anything associated with Smallville, it wouldn't be sucking right now. Know that.

A/N:Alright, I was going to add more to the end of this chapter just so it wouldn't be so...unfinished. But I figured that the only way to get my muse to cooperate would be to have a clean chapter to start with. So...here it is. Hope you enjoy. :)

SHOUT-OUT(S):Tanya, my Chlark beta and SV cynical sista...what up. Thanks for always being around for a good rant.


CHAPTER III: The Beauty of Conflict


Well, from the looks of things, Clark had paved himself a nice long road to redemption, riddled creatively with broken glass and hot coals and other pain-inflicting objects. Nothing he did from that moment on would be right. He was in the doghouse.

How could he have just forgotten to tell his parents? As excited as he'd been about…well, okay, granted he wasn't going to tell his parents that, but at least he'd have said something about how he'd gone from being friends with Chloe to dating her. But no, he couldn't even do that much. He was a failure. A complete and utter failure. And as bad as he felt at that moment, he didn't envy himself being in the position of Chloe's slice of cherry pie – the poor thing was taking such harsh jabs and pokes from her fork. Great, now he'd gone and ruined the pie slice's life too. He should just take a quick run around the world and jot down everyone's name so he could be sure to find some way to disrupt their existences and fill his quota.

"Are you enjoying your pie, Chloe?"

Chloe took a break from shooting eye daggers in Clark's general direction to smile pleasantly at Martha. "It's delicious, Mrs. Kent – I'd love to take some home with me, if you don't mind."

"Oh no, not at all. I'm sure Clark won't mind setting some aside for you before we leave."

Clark's interest was peaked. "You guys are going out?"

"Oh yeah, Clark, we meant to tell you," Jonathan jumped in, taking his plate to the sink, "your mother and I are celebrating the anniversary of the first day we met. The spot's about an hour or two from here, and there's this great bed and breakfast nearby, so we thought we'd stay overnight, just for kicks. We'll be back, at the latest, by tomorrow afternoon."

Chloe gasped a little too enthusiastically. "Aw…that is so cute. I just love couples, don't you Clark?"

He forsook the opportunity to see her subtle glare of disdain and pressed on. "Yeah…well that sounds great guys. Um…I guess I'll hold down the fort 'til you get back?"

Martha beamed and immediately began clearing the table and preparing to leave. "We'd really appreciate it, sweetie. We won't be gone long, I already called someone about covering my shifts at the Talon, our produce delivery got moved to Wednesday so there's no need to worry about that tomorrow, and there's waffles in the freezer for breakfast if you want – all you have to do is pop them in the toaster oven, no need to turn on any other appliances and burn the house down…oh Clark, we got a couple movies from the video store earlier. You're welcome to invite Chloe to stay and watch – just so you won't be lonely."

Clark met Chloe's fixed stare uneasily and gulped. "Uh…"

"I'd love to stay, Mrs. Kent – besides, Clark and I have a bit more studying to catch up on. We won't be too late though."

Jonathan held Martha's coat open for her before grabbing his own. "Believe me, Chloe – I know all about late night study sessions. Good thing Clark'll have you around to make sure he doesn't fall asleep on the job."

There it was again…the stare. That carnivorous, intimidating, blood-curdling stare. Dammit, he was almost a head and a half taller than her, not to mention immeasurably stronger and faster – what the hell did he have to be afraid of?

"Good thing," she chimed, the stare unwavering. He almost chided himself for thinking about how hot she looked when she was trying to pretend she wasn't angry.

Quick, find a distraction. "Hey Mom, you can leave the dishes and stuff – I'll get it later."

She smiled gratefully. "That's great, honey, thank you. And be sure to use the microwave popcorn this time – I don't trust you one iota around my stove."

Clark made a face as he showed them out the door. "I'll be sure to remember that, Mom. Have a great time, you two." And with a few more muddled last-minute orders and goodbyes, they were gone.

No sooner had the door been shut than he turned to find Chloe bustling around the kitchen, doing all his chores. The chores he'd clearly said he'd do and knew she'd heard him say he'd do. "Chlo, you don't need to do that."

"Don't worry about it, Clar – besides, what are friends for?"

He leaned wearily on the counter, scrubbing his fingers through his hair. "Alright, how long are you going to keep this up?"

"Keep what up," she inquired, turning to face him, arms crossed and eyebrow hitched.

"This being mad at me thing…I get it, okay, I'm an idiot, I screwed up, I should've told them and I didn't…so…what, are you just never going to give up all the 'friend' references?"

Something in her face changed, and he assumed he wasn't going to like it. "Back up, Lord of the Barn – when did this become about me? I never neglected to mention to my dad that I was dating you and you'd be around more often. In fact, I was actually excited enough about it that I couldn't wait to tell him since he'd been wanting to hear something about for, oh I don't know, five or six years maybe!"

"Well what exactly did you tell him, Chloe? 'Oh hey Dad, how are you, by the way, remember Clark? Yeah, well I gave him a blowjob today and now he's my boyfriend. Isn't that just peachy keen?'…I bet it went over real smooth."

"Don't be such a bastard, Clark, okay? You know that's not what I said and you know that's not what you would've said either."

"To be perfectly honest, I don't know what I would've said! Believe it or not, I don't have a way with words all the time, like you do, and maybe I find it a little harder to express myself because of that, I don't know. But I do know that them not knowing about us has nothing to do with how I feel about you."

Shit. She knew he'd deliver one of those lines at some point, she just didn't expect it to work. She even felt her eyes welling up. Why couldn't he just stay on his side of the counter? Why did he have to walk over to her with those concerned eyes of his and those hands of his shoved in his pockets, accentuating those arms of his that happened to be attached to that torso of his, which connected beautifully to that lower half of his…holy hell, was she ever far gone.

"I'm sorry that you think that I was trying to hide you from my parents. But believe it or not, there are some things that I just don't tell them right away, if at all…not a lot, but some. And maybe I didn't want something that's just starting and as special as this is to be everyone's business by the time we got to school tomorrow…I mean, you can understand that, can't you?"

Toying with the hem of his T-shirt, she grinned and blinked away a few tears. "Yeah…I'm sorry. I kind of overreacted and jumped to conclusions a bit. I just…I got so caught up in our change in status, I didn't really stop to think about what you were feeling…and I should have. I mean, you may be as big as a house, but you have feelings too, right?"

He rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Right. Besides…maybe it's better that they didn't know."

She became intrigued with the mischievous air his expression had taken on. "How do you figure?"

"Well," he sighed, wrapping his arms around her waist, "if you seem to recall, they just left us in the house…all by ourselves…all night. I could be wrong, but that sounds like a good thing."

Chloe felt her knees weaken at the smoky look in his eyes and grinned warmly. "You, Mr. Kent, are a lot more devilish than I've ever given you credit for."

He shrugged. "What can I say…I'm full of surprises."

"I bet," she said, before pulling him into a heated kiss.



So try not to hate me for ending it there, but it was necessary for plot progression, and also for my ever-waning sanity. Thanks to the reviewers:

Guppy3, clibby, TimelessLove, The Satyricon (does peace sign), Kirsten-B, Izzie83, Erin-21, gerdieSI

You guys give me some much-needed ammo to keep going, so thank you. :D Ch. 4 soon I hope, but no promises. R&R!