A.N. I'll make you guys a deal. The first chapter got 5 reviews. If I get 5 more on this one, I'll write another one. Deal?
He found her balanced precariously on the edge of her balcony's ledge, a glass of cheap gin resting on her bare knee. The bottle was half gone and had somehow been tipped on it's side on the ground beneath her body. Her hair was mussed and stuck to the back of her neck and, although he hadn't thought it possible, the dark smudges under her eyes had grown in size and deepened in shade. She was wearing nothing but a pair of unassuming underwear and the dress shirt he had somehow lost a few hours earlier, en route from the kitchen to her bedroom, coffee forgotten. She hadn't fallen asleep afterwards, which surprised him.
Her physical appearance and the jerky, adrenaline fueled way she had touched him left no doubt in his mind that she must be exhausted. They had settled together in a something similar to holding and being held. She was curled against him and his arms were around her, but it lacked the intimacy he had expected. When he glanced down at her, her body was relaxed but her eyes were wide open, darting back and forth, and her lips were twitching ever so slightly, as if she were engaged in an intense conversation with herself. He groaned inwardly when he realized what she must be doing. She was thinking. The damn women couldn't just lay there and enjoy the feeling of getting what they had both been building up towards for…nine years? Had it really been that long? The subtle shock of the epiphany left him dazed, he barely noticed when she slipped out of bed mumbling something about bathrooms and drinks of water.
It was twenty minutes later that he finally decided she had had enough time to consider her next move with him, with this, with …them? Was there a them to consider? He found her on the balcony with a tumbler of cheap gin resting on her bare knee. When she spoke, it was obvious she hadn't actually drunk any of it.
"This wasn't about the articles, was it?" She asked in a dead voice.
"No, this had nothing to do with the articles." He answered honestly. She shuddered slightly and folded her body down, moving the gin onto the ledge so she could draw her knees up under her chin. His first reaction was to go to her, to pull her inside and tuck her under the blankets of her warm bed, out away from the wind the whipped around outside. But something in her body language made him hold back, despite the fact that he himself was chilled in his current state of undress, the location of his pants, a mystery.
"Then if it's not about the articles, why now? It's been years, Lex"
"Nine years." He responded easily. "We met in September so that made it nine years two months ago"
"You kept track?" She sputtered.
He shrugged. "It's not really something I could forget."
She turned towards him, letting her legs dangle over the side of the ledge. "So for the last nine years and two months, you've been doing what? Sowing your wild oats? Convincing yourself that I'm nothing? Building up your empire?" She shot at him sarcastically.
"Yes." He shot back. "And what have you been doing? Smearing my name and dragging everything I involve myself in though the mud." It wasn't a question., it's what had started the evening after all.
He closed his eyes to regain his composure, and when they opened again, there she was, pressing herself against him. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and heard her mumble into his chest.
"I don't want to fight with you. At least not this kind of fighting. The banter is usually good. This is no good."
"No good indeed." He murmured. While the mood had taken a sudden and positive swing, it seemed that the short conversation had drained all the energy out of her petite body. He picked her up gently and began to pick his way past furniture back to the bedroom.
"What will people say when they see Lex Luthor and his biggest critic together?" He mused casually.
"Who said I'm going to be seen in public with you?" Chloe pointed out teasingly.
"You keep talking like that and I'll take my shirt and leave." He responded with mock outrage. He pulled down the covers and settled her in bed before joining her himself. She quickly rolled so he was holding her, not just something that looked like it, but an act that held the comfort and promises of waking up with someone there.
"You better be nice to me, Luthor." She said threateningly.
"And why is that?" He wondered, pulling her even closer.
"Because when I got up earlier I hid your pants."