It only took the end of the world for one of them to finally shake up the status quo.

"Nothing could make me release a monster like Zod," Clark told Brainiac stoutly.

"Except maybe your one weakness: Humans. They're so fragile. They'll never survive without their technology. No matter how crude. Take that away, and they'll devolve back to the animals they really are. And you can't save all of them."

And you can't save all of them...

One face flashed into Clark's mind. Not Lana. Not even his mom.

Chloe.

He had to find Chloe. He had to make sure she was safe.

Unsurprisingly, he found her in the basement of The Daily Planet. She appeared to be the only person thinking instead of panicking. She held a case that proved to contain a radio. She tuned it for information about the chaos that had overtaken Metropolis. The city around them had gone mad and it was getting worse.

They both heard the screech at the same time and turned to see the car come through the basement window. Right at them. Right at Chloe.

Without thinking, he moved into super-speed and pulled her small form to him and whirled them around. He thrust out his hand and stopped the car dead.

He looked at her just long enough to see she was safe. This was all his fault. He knew he had to find a way to help. A way to stop this spreading madness.

Chloe seemed to read his mind. "Clark, there's no use. You can't save everyone."

Dammit!

She was right. He couldn't save everyone, but if he couldn't…maybe he should focus on saving the people he could.

Like her.

"What if something goes wrong? I don't want to leave you here..."

"You have to."

Why was she always so sensible? She should be safe here, right? He found her gaze, but broke it quickly.

If he lingered with her another moment, right or wrong, he would stay.

He turned away before he did something really stupid like run with her to some remote island.

"Clark."

Her voice was remarkably soft and slightly breathless. He turned back. Her hands were clenched in an almost nervous posture at her sides.

"I don't know if I'm ever gonna see you again," she burst out, moving towards him.

Then she was kissing him.

Without thinking, his arm wrapped around her and pulled her tightly to him. Her small, pliant body tucked wonderfully into his large frame. Her lips on his were firm and warm and filled with all the passion of her vibrant personality. He felt her burrowing a hand into his hair in a way that sent shivers down his spine.

It was the kiss they should have had a thousand times. It was the kiss that all their mind-wipes, disconnections, and false-starts should have been. They were both in their right minds, undistracted, and finally giving in to the fierce attraction that had been between them from the beginning.

Then it finally hit him. He was an idiot. Instead of trying to second-guess everything, instead of letting Lana twist and pull him, instead of thinking their friendship would be ruined and not deepened, he should have been doing this.

For a pair of reporters, words had always gotten in their way. It should have been about actions. He shouldn't have let a day go by that he didn't kiss Chloe. Since that first kiss when they were thirteen, he should have been showing Chloe exactly how he felt about her.

It all became too much. There was so much he wanted to say, to show, to do. And no time.

He tore himself away.

If he didn't, he wouldn't care that the world was burning down around them.

He would be too busy shredding their clothes and burying himself into Chloe in the middle of The Daily Planet.

A phone rang and he knew that time had just run out.

He wasn't sure why, maybe because the phone lines should be down, but there was something sinister about the jangling ring coming from the phone booth.

Chloe must have sensed it too, because she pulled his face back to hers. Her eyes were large and anxious. There was so much unsaid, unresolved, between them. So much they should have done that they never had, as they fought against themselves thinking they were doing what was best. Unrisked, unrewarded.

He wanted nothing more than to stay with her.

Which was why he had to go. The world falling apart around them was his mess, and he had to clean it up.

He had to find a way to fix it, a way to keep her safe.

He had to know she would be there next time.

Clark might be on his way to die, and she had thrown herself at him.

Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

The world was ending around them, Clark was going to face an alien mass-murderer possessing Lex, and she couldn't even keep the lid on her ridiculous crush on her best friend.

Though he had kissed her back...

No, that was just panic. Clark never had, and never would, feel that way about her.

Chloe didn't know what insanity had made her do it, but she found herself promising whatever greater powers might be out there, if they just brought Clark home safe she would never do anything so stupid ever again.

She just wanted there to be a next time that she saw Clark Kent.

When Lex/Zod was finally defeated, the first thing Clark did was tune his super-hearing for Chloe. He filtered out all the noise and distraction between him and her, until he heard her clearly through whatever distance separated them.

She was laughing.

He snapped out of the hearing focus, confused. He wasn't sure how long he had been in the Phantom Zone, but…she was laughing?

He felt sharply, suddenly, hurt. He had been fighting for his life and she was laughing - happy - without him! The need to return to her, return to their world, to defeat Zod, to keep her and the world safe, had consumed him.

She obviously didn't feel the same.

Maybe she had been overcome by the moment, and the kiss didn't mean what he had read into it - what he wanted to be in it.

After all, he was her best friend and he had been going into probable death. Maybe she had just panicked. Maybe the kiss had just been a fluke.

He needed time to think, to calm his confused feelings. He decided to check on his mother, Lois, and Lana before going to find Chloe.

Finally, Clark couldn't bear it any longer. He had to go find her.

Not surprisingly, she was back in the basement of The Daily Planet. His eyes found her instantly, even amongst the small army of employees trying to put the building back to rights.

Chloe spotted him as well the moment he was through the door. A look of profound joy and relief shone on her lovely face. "Clark!" She was rushing toward him. "Oh my God, I thought you were dead!"

Then she was in his arms. It wasn't the hoped-for passionate embrace of a lover, but a deep and overwhelming need to confirm his solidity.

"Hi. Um...so did I... for a while there," he replied to her burst comment, holding her tightly. She did care. Maybe not in the way the kiss had indicated, but she was still his best friend. She was here, she was safe, and so was he.

He tried to not to feel lost and let-down.

She pulled back at the admission. "What happened? Where did you go?"

"A place I never want to go again." I never want to go anywhere you aren't ever again… "Are you okay?"

She gave him a warm and relieved smile. "Yeah. Everything's great now that you're here." Then she was hugging him again.

His mouth suddenly felt thick and clumsy, but he had to ask. He had to know. "Um... Chloe…" He pulled back from the hug. "Before I left... there was this moment that we, um..."

He heard the stupid unsurety and confusion in his voice. He had just defeated the destroyer of Krypton! Why was he suddenly so scared and tongue-tied with Chloe?

Maybe because, even when kneeling before Zod, he hadn't felt this vulnerable.

Then she cut him off with her typical bluntness. "You mean when I laid one on you?"

He gave a slight shrug, and tried not to let too much of what he felt show in his eyes.

Then she brushed it all off. "Don't worry, Clark. It was the end of the world. It's not like I'm expecting us to hook up."

He searched her careless expression.

His heart sank. Was it true, then? Was it true she didn't really want him...? He had a horrible flashback to the conversation in the woods on the day after the spring formal.

He had apologized for leaving her and asked about making it up to her. He had thought things were…going somewhere he wanted to explore then too, but she had shut him down.

Actually, you know, I've been thinking. It's funny how a natural disaster puts your life in perspective, but I think that it might be better if we just stayed really good friends. Anything other than that just gets too complicated.

It was like déjà vu.

Really good friends. That's all. He had promised he wouldn't get his hopes up again. Promised himself he wouldn't put more into a single almost-kiss, or now, actual-kiss than there was.

Really good friends.

That's all they would ever be.

He'd remember that next time.

His heart tore a little more, but he put on a false front. "Um... yeah, me - me neither." He smiled, but he feared it looked a bit sickly.

Then a doofy-looking guy with a large camera around his neck walked up. "Hey, bright eyes."

"Hey!" Chloe answered him brightly.

Who the hell was this?

The boy finally noticed Clark standing there. "Oh, bad time?" he asked.

"No, uh... I was just talking to a friend," Chloe replied.

A friend. That is all you are.

Suddenly, a sick feeling churned in his gut as he watched Chloe and the boy start to banter and chuckle together.

"You want to grab some dinner at the vending machine?" Jimmy asked Chloe.

Chloe smiled back at the boy.

No! This was all wrong!

"Love to...James."

Clark's heart started to thud. Images began to flash through his mind.

This boy kissing Chloe. This boy pawing at her beautiful body in a car. This boy stretched out on a couch with her. This boy taking her dancing. This boy chasing stories with her at The Daily Planet. This boy waking her up with breakfast-in-bed.

This boy making love to Chloe.

This boy at the end of a flower-strewn aisle, watching Chloe walk toward him in a long white dress.

Suddenly, Clark realized There might not be a Next Time.

"Clark, are you hungry?" Chloe was asking him brightly.

Clark snapped back to himself.

He could stand back and let that future happen, or he could take the risk. No matter what she said now, she had kissed him and dammit, he had felt something from her in that kiss! It hadn't been just him! He had almost been lost to her, but he had made it back. Made it through hell, made it back to her. All the need he had been repressing came rushing back to him.

He could finally expose his own naked heart and show Chloe what he had been burying for so long. She might say yes and she might say no, but either way he'd know once and for all.

He didn't think. Didn't plan. If he did, he'd never take the risk. He was just… "Ravenous."

Then he pulled her to him and kissed her as if his life, his soul, everything depended on it. He put all he felt for her into the kiss. She wasn't just his friend. She was his partner, his lifeline through worlds, she was everything he wanted and needed.

And more than anything, he wanted to be the man with her in those visions.

Oh, god. He had finally got it right.

She had given him the out again, but this time he didn't take it. He had finally pushed through all her hopeless defense mechanisms to the truth she hid. He finally stopped playing it safe and accepting they were never meant to be more than "just really good friends." He was finally taking the chance, not letting her back away to her safe and lonely hidey-hole.

He was kissing her like the world was still about to end. Right in front of a gaping Jimmy and the entire staff of The Daily Planet.

His mouth was slanting hard over hers, and she let her lips slip open. Then the taste of mint as Clark's tongue entered her mouth.

Her knees went weak with shock and lust and more than a little disbelief. This was happening. This was actually happening. Clark had kissed her. Not just kissed her back, but he had made the first move.

Clark was kissing her like she had always hoped to be kissed. The kiss was desperate, full of heat and need.

Good thing his large, strong arms were securely locked behind her. Pressing her into him. Hard.

And she could feel…something. Something large and very insistent pressing into her belly.

And he still wasn't pulling away.

Holy crap!

She vaguely heard someone talking to her, but she couldn't filter the words through the haze in her mind. Clark was kissing her in a way that made her think of movie stars and expensive pyrotechnics going off in the background.

She wanted it to never end.

Except…

With an effort, Chloe tore her lips from his. Clark's eyes fluttered open partially. He looked as dazed as she did.

She was still having trouble thinking, but she was sure of one thing. It had to be now or never. No going back. This was the moment when the door would slam shut or they would risk it all.

Before she lost her nerve, she panted "Clark, stop."

"Clark, stop."

The words hit his brain like a shotgun blast. A kryptonite shotgun blast.

She wanted him to stop. He had finally kissed her, and she wanted him to stop.

A sudden wave of fear crept over him. Had he hurt her? He ran his eyes over her. She didn't look harmed. At least no more than she had before with that nasty bruise on her head. She looked...

He pushed away thoughts of how exactly she looked and what it was doing to his body.

A thought hit him like a cold bucket of water. Had he been wrong? Had he made a mistake kissing her?

He released her quickly, backing away and running a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, Chloe. I shouldn't have..."

Her voice was firm and full of dire warning. "Clark Kent, if you run away from me now, I will hunt you down and pelt you with so much meteor rock, people will start calling you Saint Stephen."

He blinked in surprise, then she was grabbing his hand and pulling him through the Daily Planet basement.

As they passed Jimmy, Chloe called out, "Rain check on snacks, Jimmy."

Clark just caught a glimpse of the boy's wide eyes as they dashed past.

Well, Chloe dashed. Clark was just pulled along behind her.

The boy's voice fading behind them, Clark heard Jimmy reply. "Uh, yeah, sure."

When they were finally outside, Chloe released his hand and turned to confront him. "Are you on red kryptonite? Possessed? Mind-controlled?"

"What? No!"

"Then why did you kiss me like that?"

Clark found he suddenly had no idea what to do with his hands, now that she had released him. He put them in his jacket pockets. He couldn't meet her piercing gaze.

"Because I wanted to." Suddenly he felt foolish. "Look, Chloe, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have -"

"I swear to God, Clark. Don't you dare apologize for that." Then her voice turned very soft. "You know how I feel about you."

He finally met her eyes and they were wide and vulnerable, full of some emotion he couldn't quite determine. He searched, trying to see what it was she felt.

Friends? Or...more?

Finally he decided to go with the truth. "Actually, Chloe, I'm not sure I do. You kiss me when I'm about to die, then when I don't, you make excuses. You start making plans with another guy in front of me, and when I kissed you, you kissed me back. Then you drag me out here, grill me about being mind-controlled, and expect me to know what is going on." Frustration was building in him now as the words poured out. He began to pace back and forth in front of the Daily Planet building. "I have no idea what you feel. I never seem to. I think you want me, then you don't. You just want to be 'really good friends.' Then you get mad at me for being with Lana. Then you decide to tell me you have feelings for me, but I can't lose you and I'm still hung up on Lana. And you know this! Then, when it looked like all was lost, you were there, kissing me with...I don't know...something way more than friendship. So much so that even in the Phantom Zone, I...I don't know. I just don't understand. I keep telling myself I'll know next time, but I never do."

He finally stopped pacing and glowered down at her.

She surprised him by giving him a teary smile. She moved forward, and reached a hand up to his cheek. Her smile widened. "I'm crazy about you, Clark Kent."

"You...are?"

"Yes. I'm just...afraid. Too much rejection. I've been left behind too much."

"Chloe..."

"No, let's not talk about that now. If you mean it, Clark, kiss me again."

That he could do, and without any hesitation, did.