Chlexville

Season 1

Episode 2 : YOUR METAMORPHOSIS STUNS ME

Holding the phone by the crook of her shoulder, Chloe's walked through the halls of Smallville High after class hours. She had expected that she would be going to the Beanery to work on her article, but the call coming in just ruined that plan.

"Why can't you meet me at the coffee house again?"

Lex sighed on the other end of the line. He had been explaining himself for the past five minutes, and never explained himself to anyone. "I'm surprised your bloodhound nose didn't sniff the pertinent fact that the entire town hates me, Chloe."

Chloe snorted in a very unladylike fashion. "So they hate you. Big deal. You won't get kicked out of the Beanery when you're bringing business."

"I just don't want everyone to be associating you with me. They're going to think up lewd scenarios, especially when they find out you've been hanging around me since you were just knee tall."

She chuckled. "I have never hung out with you when I was tall as your knee, Lex! You're not that much older. We grew tall at the same time."

"I beg to disagree." She could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Fine. You grew tall. I grew semi tall." Chloe pushed open the door of the Torch office. "And lewd? This town would never associate me with lewd. I'm not attractive enough to get the resident billionaire playboy to lust after me."

Lex shook his head to remove the image of her on his first night in Smallville, bending low above him that he could have drowned in the halo between her… He shook it again. If Etch a Sketches were erased this way, so could a shiny disproportionate bald head."I hate having to correct you again, because I know I won't hear the end of it, Chloe. But you are a very nice looking girl."

"Right. That's why you kept taunting me all those company picnics before you were booted off to Excelsior!" Chloe settled down on the chair in front of her computer.

Lex scoffed at that. "You don't understand, Chloe. You were a kid and I was a growing young man. If I didn't make fun of you, I'd have been gay."

Chloe grinned at that. "A valid point. One that has not been debunked yet."

He let out a soft chuckle. "Seriously, Chloe, seeing you again was a wonderful surprise. Your metamorphosis stunned me. You've grown very pleasant looking."

Chloe scrunched her nose. "Pleasant looking. Good. As opposed to the downright scary I was back then." She picked up some of the documents she had been looking over that morning and started typing. "That would give me so much advantage over the ethereal Lana Lang."

"Lana is pretty. That's true."

"Oh thanks," she replied sarcastically.

"Chloe, Lana Lang is a damsel in distress. You, on the other hand, are a woman of the world. You would never have to depend on someone to take care of you."

"Lex Luthor, men, you should be aware, are forever looking for someone to take care of. They seem to think it would reinforce their masculinity."

Lex shook his head before he remembered that Chloe could not see the action. "That might be true for the men that populate this town, Chloe. But believe me, in the real world, out in the city, you will be thankful that you're what you are. Men who need someone to baby are insecure. That's the only way they can reaffirm their superiority."

Chloe put her reading material down and leaned back in her chair. She propped her feet beside the keyboard. "You're saying that men like you, who are advanced and cultured and educated, want someone strong?"

"Exactly," he answered swiftly.

Her voice grew just a notch louder. "You're saying you would prefer someone like me over someone like Lana Lang?" she asked breathlessly.

He paused a nanosecond. "Yes," he replied easily.

"Well that's a first!"

"I'm sure that's not true."

"You calling me a liar, Luthor?" she demanded half-teasingly. "But no kidding. That's really a first. Lana is the Beatrice of this entire town, Lex. I swear that if I don't get out of this town, I'll end up like Emily Bronte and write in isolation, never falling in love, never marrying, dying alone, while Lana Lang alias Beatrice will flourish here, being place on a pedestal and worshipped for the goddess that she is!"

Lex remained quiet until he was certain that she would not be exploding with another rant. "First of all, step off the soapbox, Chloe. If you want to be elevated so much, I'll just order your own pedestal made for you and put you on it myself." Chloe felt her lips curving upwards against her will. "You'll discover I'm right eventually, Chloe. Don't worry about it."

"Hey wait a minute. You've met Lana?"

"Earlier. And apparently, if she's to be believed, we've also met back in Metropolis when she was ten."

"Oh she's to be believed. Lana Lang never lies," she said snarkily. "You didn't remember her? That's another first. I like that you're debunking all the usual male reaction to her."

"According to her, I was busy giving swimming lessons."

Chloe bit her lip. "Okay, okay, shame on you! Even I remember that. So she's the girl in that jockey costume."

"Aaahh." The exact day suddenly flashed back on Lex. "That was right after you came in to watch me and ran away screaming when you saw…"

"I had my arms over my head yelling that you were hurting… umm… Jenny Glover." Chloe smiled in remembrance. "I sat on the stairs and saw jockey girl, who now we know as Lana, go to the pool."

"Why didn't you didn't stop her?"

"And keep the nightmares all to myself?"

Lex laughed out loud. "So did I hear typing earlier? What are you doing?"

"Well," Chloe sighed, "if you're not meeting me in the Beanery anyway, then I'm just gonna work for the paper."

"That's the one you're doing with Clark Kent, right?"

"Yep. Clark your savior."

"Clark your crush."

"Still remember that?"

"How could I forget? You emailed me detailing your first kiss. I must admit, I was impressed with how you took the initiative."

"Well forget about it," she replied defeatedly. "We're very good friend. Just that. And he will never outgrow me except vertically."

"Now you believe me when I say you're short?"

"Way to change the subject, Lex."

"Yeah. Don't think about your unrequited love. What are you working on?"

"Oh!" Chloe's excitement level rose. "I'm writing about a bug boy. I made Pete and Clark go with me to follow the story. I went to his house and—" She droned on about her masterful search and discovery of the cocoon.

"Chloe," he groaned. "You have to stop this. It's only going to get you into trouble."

"Stop what? What trouble?" she asked in mock innocence.

"Remember when you wanted to prove that the pool boy was actually a merman during the night? You crept to the pool in the middle of the night when your dad took you to my house because he couldn't find a sitter, and my dad called an emergency meeting."

"I already thanked you for that. No fair bringing it up!"

"Chloe, you fell in and nobody even knew you were there. You could have drowned."

"Again, thank you for passing by and finish me out."

"I jumped in and ruined my new Italian loafers," he corrected her.

"Well I was worth it," she retorted. And then her voice grew softer, "Wasn't I?"

Lex grinned. "You still are, Chloe. Just don't follow leads that are going to get you in danger."

"Oh. Whatcha gonna do, Luthor?"

"Donate a library and get your principal to shut down the Torch."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Try me," he murmured.

Chloe rolled her eyes upwards. And he'd do it too. Asshole.

end