Chapter 3.

Early dawn crept over Smallville. Clark didn't feel the chill as he stood in the pale morning sunshine, silently watching. Watching her house. He didn't know why he had come here. Usually he didn't have time for anything after doing his chores. Usually he even missed the bus. But now he stood here watching her house in the gray light of dawn. Thankfully the talk with his mother had exorcized some demons and he had been able to sleep a little. Her face hadn't left him much rest however, since he had dreamed of her the entire night.

Suddenly he heard the bus coming around a corner, ripping him from his contemplations. And no Chloe in sight. As if thinking her name had summoned her, she appeared in a window, both hands clutching a giant coffee mug and hair still wet from the shower. In the brief moment before she noticed the bus arriving he drank in the sight of her. Hair plastered to her face and a serene look in her eyes, the new vision of her replacing the one plaguing him. Giving a startled yelp she dropped the mug and disappeared from view. Clark nearly laughed as she appeared outside the front door, slamming the door shut behind her as she ran to the bus stop. For the first time since the sudden realization yesterday he felt like himself. Chloe never ran. That were one of the two facts everyone soon learned about Chloe Sullivan. One, she never ran. Two, she drinks coffee like it was the only thing keeping her alive.

Suddenly something hit him. As she dropped the mug it had been full. Chloe hadn't had her morning coffee.

Realizing he still had a couple of minutes before the bus reached his stop he started running.

Leaving the Sullivan residence behind him he crossed a couple of fields so fast the corn rippled behind him in the sudden draft. Reaching the Kent farm he sped into the kitchen without slowing, causing his mother who had been in the process of scrambling eggs for breakfast, to drop her frying pan, the hot iron falling towards her feet. Absentmindedly catching the hot frying pan in his hand, inches from her fingers, he started looking for a mug.

As his mother took the frying pan, mumbling something under her breath as she did, he found an empty Beanery mug he could use. Pouring coffee as fast as was humanly possible he heard the distant bus. Finishing the coffee he rushed, normal speed, out the door. Turning back he took the sandwich his mother, smiling amused at him, silently held out towards him. Returning her smile with a beaming grin, he crammed roughly half the sandwich into his mouth, grabbed his backpack, and ran on. Reaching the bus stop seconds before the bus he smiled, still chewing, at the driver. Smiled at the passengers who were closest and made his way back to where his friends sat.

Seeing Pete smiling at him he smiled back, and silently offered him half the sandwich. Pete gratefully took it, not wanting to pass up the chance to sample Martha Kent's culinary skills.

"What's up with her?" Clark asked, pointing to Chloe who sat hiding her face in her hands next to Pete, even though he already knew the answer.

"Didn't get her coffee this morning." Pete answered, grinning around the sandwich he already had taken a bite of.

"Please stop saying that. I'm fine; I just need time to wake up." Chloe said from beneath her hands. As she did she broke out in a huge yawn.

"No, you need coffee. I can tell since you nearly dislocated your own jaw yawning." Clark said smiling, the troubles of yesterday momentarily forgotten.

Groaning Chloe pressed her face harder into her hands. Claiming the empty seat in front of her Clark chuckled. Pete just chewed; Martha Kent's food tends to occupy the mind.

Frowning he asked; "Doesn't Chloe get a sandwich, too?"

"Yeah, why not me?" A whisper came from under Chloe's hands.

"Because I've got something better for her." Clark said, taking the steaming coffee cup and moved it in front of Chloe's face.

A green eye peered out between her fingers. Slowly she lowered her hands looking unbelieving at the cup in front of her eyes. The focus and the expression made both Clark and Pete grin.

"You got coffee?" Chloe asked unbelieving. Then her face broke out in a huge smile. "I Love you! Give me!" As he held it out of her reach, laughing, she pouted. This made her look both stupid and so beautiful that it seemed unreal. Freezing mid-laugh he realized possibly for the first time that his best friend was beautiful. Shaking of the surprise this realization brought him let him relax just in time to meet her question.

"How did you know I didn't get my coffee?"

He knew he had to lie, which usually made him stiffen up and avoid meeting people's eyes. But looking into those green eyes and having her smiling at him made everything seem easy. Lying seemed natural, no stammer, no hesitation, nothing. The only thing that was hard was keeping his head above the surface as he drowned in her eyes.

Her eyes. He was looking into her eyes, and he wasn't afraid. Because he saw no pain as he looked into them and he knew he wouldn't. Not now. Not because she hid it and not because he couldn't see it. Simply because, right now, there weren't any pain. And he realized he would do anything to keep it that way.

"Disturbance in the Force." He said grinning widely, giving her a full dose of what she with affection called the Kent charm. Grinning in answer, she gave him a glowing laugh that made his spirits lift.

"No seriously. Why coffee today?" She was still smiling but her eyes showed him she wouldn't drop it. And that look in Chloe's eyes always led to her getting her answers. Always. He actually had nightmares of that look and some pointed questions about his origins.

"Actually, it's a peace offering. Since I was such a jerk yesterday and didn't help you with the English paper…" His rather smooth lie was abruptly cut of by Chloe's panicked voice.

"The English Paper." She didn't even scream. She managed to convey a full dose of screaming panic with three calmly spoken words. And, of course, a grimace of jaw dropping horror.

"You forgot?" Chloe just nodded. "No problem. We still got mine. Ten seconds in the Torch copy room and a name change and no one will ever know." Smiling he handed her the coffee. She just stared at him, momentarily stunned speechless. He chuckled; if Chloe was speechless for any reason, even if it was a simple lack of caffeine, you enjoyed it, simply because of the rarity of the moment. That was probably the third thing you learned about Chloe, she was never speechless. In fact she was nearly never silent at all.

"Or you could go with mine you know." Pete said, obviously feeling a little forgotten. Clark looked at him and grinned.

"That's a great idea. Then you won't even have to change the name." At Pete's confused expression he continued; "Oh come on Pete. You know she never bothers to read your papers." Looking at Chloe he added. "She does like any sensible person would. Gets rid of them as soon as possible." Flicker of a smile on Chloe's lips. All of them knew that there were no love between the English teacher and Pete. Feeling encouraged Clark waited for Pete's obvious reply.

"Hey, my papers don't go in the trash." Pete said defensively, even though they all knew there was a good chance they did.

"Trash? Who said anything about the trash?" Clark smiled, it weren't often he got the best of either of his friends, and now both of them at once? It felt good, even though in Chloe's case his advantage was probably caused by the lack of coffee more than any impression his joke had made. "She doesn't use the trash for your work. Yours get the full-blown vampire treatment. Stake trough the title page before burning it and spreading the ashes. No chance of resurrection." Chloe laughed at that, and after a while even Pete joined in. Spirits lifted Clark simply smiled, making it as comfortable as he possibly could in the slightly too small seat.

Leaning against the window, one arm hanging over the back of the seat and one leg lazily stretched out on the seat next to his, Clark felt content. The laughter had cleared the air and a lot of the tension he hadn't even known he felt had eased.

He was surprised to feel the soft touch of Chloe's hair on his neck as she leaned against his arm, probably half asleep. He let her lean against him for a while simply because it felt good to have her leaning against him. Suddenly she dropped the coffee out of a limp hand. He caught it in midair and looked down on her. At the movement of his arm she snuggled in closer and he realized she had fallen asleep on his arm. Pete looked at her and chuckled softly.

"Let her sleep for a while. She told me she spent half the night on the damn English paper."

With a pang of guilt he realized he couldn't wake her now. After all, it was his fault she was so tired. Trying to relax he settled in to wait for the bus to reach school.

After ten minutes, and the school was coming up on the horizon, he was nearing insanity. Chloe had snuggled even closer, putting her head on his shoulder, and her even breath on his neck was… pleasant. The truth was he enjoyed it to much. It felt unbelievably good, and the fact his arm was pressed to her body in an effort to keep her from falling of her seat didn't help things.

Five minutes earlier he had tried moving his head into a more comfortable position. That had been a mistake. Big mistake. First her breath had hit his neck, and made the small hairs on the back of his neck rise, as well as sending shivers down his spine. Trying to redeem that he had moved to far the other way, getting an incredibly sexy moan from Chloe and a warm breath down the front of his shirt as her face fell forwards unto his chest.

For the last five minutes he had sat unmoving in his seat trying to will down an erection, and hopelessly failing, with her moan echoing in his mind. And to make matters worse he was now afraid to blink, as everytime he closed his eyes he saw her. Saw her moaning, gasping and calling his name in a multitude of different situations.

He involuntarily blinked. Groaning he realized he now had no chance getting rid of this erection, ever. And also that he could never look at syrup in quite the same way.

And worst of all was the fact that amongst all the thoughts that had been circulating in his mind for the last ten minutes; She's your Best Friend, you got to stop! had been suspiciously absent, while thoughts about how beautiful she looked sleeping in his arms where uncountable. And he desperately needed the best friend thought, because he felt himself slipping further and further away from being able to look at her and only seeing his best friend.

As the bus pulled up next to the school parking lot he breathed out a sigh of relief. Gently trying to remove his arm failed when her sleeping form grabbed it in a rather determined grip. Chloe obviously didn't want to lose her pillow. Seeing her clinging to him Pete grinned and, without a word, left him, along with everybody else in the bus.

Alone in the back of the bus he once again tried to disentangle his arm from her grasp, without success. Whispering her name, likewise, proved unsuccessful as it didn't get her to wake up, although it seemed to make her smile. Looking into her half-closed eyes he cupped her cheek carefully with his free hand and fought the urge to trace a finger along her jaw line.

"Chloe, wake up. Please!" the last word came out almost a soft shout. But it had the desired effect. Still smiling Chloe's eyes fluttered open. Hiding a small yawn behind her hand she looked up at him, still half asleep.

"Hi." Looking around she seemed confused. "Where's Pete? Where is everyone?"

Her head still on his shoulder Clark shuddered. Every word she spoke in that half asleep breathless voice, breath brushing his neck, was like a file against his spine. I swear… if she decides to stretch…I don't even know what I'll do…probably faint.

"They left. We're kind of the last ones." He swallowed past the lump in his throat, she still hadn't moved. "You were asleep and I…well, I was your pillow." She really has to stop the deep breathing…

"My pillow…I like the sound of that." Yawning she closed her eyes and lowered her head to his shoulder again. Still more than half asleep she mumbled;"I love you, you know…"

Clark smiled. Suddenly her eyes snapped open and her head shot up so fast she nearly fell of her seat. As he saw the look of panic spread across her features he couldn't help but grinning widely. She seemed to be in genuine panic, even though she hadn't let go of his arm.

"I didn't mean…I…Please forget I ever spoke." Looking away, not willing to meet his gaze, she blushed. Seeing her discomfort he decided to let her of the hook.

"Look… You haven't slept, you haven't had your coffee yet and I bet you haven't eaten anything either." She looked warily at him as he nudged her with the cup. "Drink some. It's cold and it comes in a plastic cup, but the caffeine may help clear your head." She took the cup and drank some; even if it was accompanied by a grimace he could swear she looked better afterwards. As if it is possible she could look better right now…

Grinning from ear to ear she drained half the cup, and soon she looked like the usual slightly hyper Chloe he knew and lov…liked. Mumbling into the cup she nonetheless managed to convey the words; "Yeah, it definitely was the lack of coffee talking." The words cut trough the jumble of emotions clouding his mind like a knife. It made him wonder if he had wanted her to mean it.

In an effort to hide his confused emotions he helped her to her feet.

"Okay, now we have made sure that you are in no way responsible for what you say when not on the influence of caffeine, I guess we should get off the bus. Since by the look of it the drivers kind of pissed to be kept waiting." Taking her unresisting hand he led her of the bus.

"But if you think I will forget what you said…You realize I could this over your head for, like, forever?" Clark said as they emerged into the fresh sunlight, grinning widely once again.

With a groan she hid her face in her hands, and the sight of this made him laugh. Hearing him laugh she elbowed him in the ribs, which only made him laugh harder. She made a sound of mock anger and kept punching him lightly until he wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close to his chest, pinning her arms against him. Arms flailing she kept up the resistance for a few moments, but now she was smiling, and as she gave up she said with a sigh; "I liked you better as a pillow."

"Is that how you see me? Pillow and bringer of caffinated beverages?" Clark said in mock surprise, easing the embrace a little so he could look her in the eye.

"That sounds about right. If I could fit in personal spellchecker and carrier of heavy stuff you could be the ideal man for me." Leaning her head against his shoulder she sniffed loudly. "That is, if I could ever get you to smell like something besides hay." But he did notice she didn't lift her head from his shoulder until they had entered the schools hallways.

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As usual, R&R!

If there is something I've learned since starting this, it is that I really can't write angsty Clark, so if thats what your after...

Next Chapter should be mainly Chloe's view on the same morning, but it's not really finished.

Hopefully I'll update soon.

//TheUnwelcomeVisitor