Title: Epic Love Stories
Category: Smallville/Batman (Crossover)
Rating: T
Genre: Romance/Drama
Pairing: Chloe/Bruce
Prompt: Love Hurts by fran06
Word Count:
Summary: Beyond dreams of Pulitzer's and working at the Daily Planet, Chloe had strived for something much deeper.

Epic Love Stories
-Drabble-

Beyond dreams of Pulitzer's and working at the Daily Planet, Chloe Sullivan had strived for something much deeper. She first thought she'd found it with Clark; that theirs would be an epic love story. But apparently that tale was best made for him and Lois. Then there was Jimmy, a quirky man who even proposed, vowing to love her for a lifetime. But he too wasn't who she wound up with. It took her years of heartbreak; of dating men that often wound up hurting her. Since moving to Smallville it seemed like one long list of men that were infected and in being so, often threatened her life because of it. By her mid-twenties, relationships were far too complicated given her life, where neither dreams outside of the emotional were possible anymore. So she gave up, wrote off men entirely and decided to devote herself to the betterment of the world.

And then Bruce Wayne turned her life upside down, never letting her constant refusals of his proposition of dinner deter him. And she could admit that his easy smirk and dark persona were entirely too attractive, but she remained firm. The last thing she needed was a broody superhero that would only make her fall in love and never really catch her. So she kept him at a distance, as much as she could when he was so adamant that they could be something more than partners against crime.

He was suave and charming and made her feel like the entire world compared nothing to her. So while it took some time before she gave in, by their first kiss she knew she was done for. It wasn't all romance and heart attack worthy sex though. Although, she had to give it to him, theirs was a relationship that satisfied her like no other before it. But along with the good came a hefty balance of bad as well. Being Batman made things even darker than usual. He had to be suspicious and careful and going out each night reminded her that he may not come back. She'd patched up so many wounds, she was sure to chew her lip off with worrying. He wouldn't let her heal him and so he suffered through it and she was sure to kiss each and every scar.

It was hard; loving a man she knew was walking the thin line between life and death each day. Knowing that while he was helping his city, he was also sacrificing a great deal of himself. She never ran away though; never packed her bags and told him she couldn't keep doing it. And she knew he was scared that one day he'd return home to find that she'd finally given up on him, and them, but it never happened. She learned that loving him meant sacrificing some things; a certain level of security and reassurance. She could either live the easy and safe life, with somebody who would never know her or love her quite like him, or she could let herself have her own epic love story with Bruce Wayne. Chloe Sullivan was now coward, so she accepted that love hurt and she patched her heart up each time, leaving it wide open for the Dark Knight that held tight to it. Her dream could sometimes appear as a nightmare, but she wouldn't trade it in. She was where she was meant to be; with him.