A/N: So this one was a bit rushed because I wanted to get it out right away, but then I could never find the inspiration to work on it, and then wrote a oneshot instead. But since the next update needs to be up soon, I quickly finished this and didn't even have it beta'd. So I hope there's no problems with it.
Anyways, this is the first chapter with Oliver, Lex, and Lana. I hope they aren't too ooc, because well at least with Lex and Lana, I don't really have that much of a feel for the characters. I can watch them all the want, but I have trouble writing them, lol.
Well, I hope you like it. Please review.
Chapter 3:
After 6x04 - Arrow
For some reason, the Talon was crowded as Chloe and Clark got their coffees. Having just got off of work, Chloe felt entitled to a rather large dose of caffeine. Besides, between Chloe's work at the Daily Planet and Clark's frequent acts of heroism, this happened to be the only time they could find to meet up together.
They grabbed their coffees and began the desperate search for a table. It soon became clear that they were not going to find one, and Chloe did not want her coffee to get cold before she could drink it.
She turned around and looked at Clark, who was trailing behind her. "Maybe we should take these upstairs," she suggested.
Clark looked at her seriously. "Chloe," he said. "Are you sure?"
"Clark," she pushed. "You've been alone with me in my apartment millions of times."
"I know, but it's different now," he said. He had made it obvious that he wanted to do this right. It was the only chance their relationship stood in the sea of overwhelming odds. But there were some things in the past few weeks he had just been too coy about.
Sure, it would've been sweet and endearing, if they hadn't been friends for seven years. But now things he had done with her hundreds of times were off limits.
Last week, when they had gone to the movies, he had bought them two separate bags of popcorn, so that he wouldn't be constantly reaching into the popcorn on her lap. Earth to Clark, she shouted in her head. You've never given this a second thought before!
There had been tons of incidents like this, and now he didn't even want to drink coffee in her apartment. There was such a thing as too slow. Chloe had thought they would just advance their friendship into something more, but Clark seemed bound and determined to take it all the way back to the beginning and start an entirely new relationship. As if it were even possible for them to forget everything they knew about each other.
All these things that they knew, that they felt, had been built up through years and years of friendship. They had grown completely comfortable with each other, secrets and all, and Chloe simply could not go back to some kind of formal relationship with him.
"Nothing's going to happen," Chloe smiled assuringly. Then, in the tiniest voice, knowing full well Clark had superhearing and could probably hear her, she added, "Unless we want to."
Clark just stood there and smirked. She knew he still had a playful side, she just needed to drag it out of him, albeit kicking and screaming.
She went in for a quick kiss on his cheek before grabbing his hand and leading him up the stairs. He went willingly, but she continued to hold onto his hands anyways. In fact, there was a part of her that never wanted to let go. A rather large part.
When they reached the top of the stairs, Chloe let go of Clark's hand and handed her coffee to him. Then she started to dig in her purse for her keys. Before she could get to them, though, the door opened from the inside and out stepped a beautiful blonde man.
Even with Clark standing right next to her, Chloe couldn't help but stare. This man, with his sexy brown eyes, was obviously nothing shy of perfection.
It took Clark clearing his throat to break her attention. She looked from Clark back to the man again.
"I'm Oliver Queen," he said, extending his hand out for her. She shook it. It was not as nice as Clark's hand, she noted.
"Chloe Sullivan," she said.
Later on, inside, Clark and Chloe sat in the living room of the apartment. Lois was there, too. Not awkward at all, considering they had just ran into her boyfriend heading out from doing who knows what with her.
Clark tried to put it out of his mind, but he knew that Chloe wouldn't. She gave him a look that said, "We've been together longer them and they're already farther ahead of us."
Maybe it was because she was the one that had been waiting for him, but she didn't seem to understand the pressure he was under. If he went too far too soon, he wouldn't know if it was right. She kept telling him that the things he didn't want to do, they had done before when they were strictly defined as "friends." It was different now, though. The casual graze as they passed each other now had context. He didn't want to give her the wrong signals.
It wasn't just that he didn't know exactly where they were going yet, either. If he led Chloe on too soon, and things didn't work out, he knew what was going to happen. Chloe was going to get hurt. And that was about the last thing in the world Clark wanted.
"So that was Oliver," Chloe said to her cousin. There was something to her voice when she said this, just like there was something in her eyes when she first laid eyes on the guy.
Clark knew that he was jealous—he knew because it was the same feeling he had when he thought about Lana and Lex. Truth be told, it kind of scared him. Jealousy was always on Clark's mind whenever Lana would meet someone new, but he'd never really had the emotion for anyone else before. Least of all for his best friend.
"Yep," Lois said, almost giddily. "That was Oliver."
What was this guy? Some kind of superhero? Oh yeah... right...
But he was the only one in the room that knew that Oliver was the Green Arrow. And yet, he had these girls practically falling all over themselves.
Clark suddenly wished he had the power to read minds so that he could see who Chloe thought was more attractive—him, or Oliver.
There was a moment of awkward silence, which Lois noticed, because she excused herself with some lame excuse about having to do some work. Because, apparently, the Inquisitor was very demanding of its employees.
But now that Chloe and Clark were all alone, they would finally get an opportunity to talk.
"So," he said.
"So..." she echoed. Yeah, they were having a great conversation already.
"So," he said again. "It feels like there's been a little bit of friction between us lately. Kind of like we're not exactly on the same page."
Chloe merely bit her lip and nodded.
"I mean, I thought we had it figured out," he continued. "We said we were going to go slow. And for some reason, I thought that was all we needed to know. But obviously it's not." Clark paused, but when it was apparent that Chloe didn't quite know what to say, he continued. "I think we need some common ground about how slow to go."
"Clark," she said. "I think it's great that you want to go slow. Of course we can't just jump into a relationship. But I can't give up everything we've already built up while I wait for this to become more. After everything we've been through..."
"I get that Chloe," he said. "I just don't know what I'm doing here."
Chloe looked a little hurt, so he decided to elaborate. "It was never this way with Lana because I always knew how I felt, but with you... I don't know. It's like I'm starting to develop these feelings, but I'm not sure that I like you as much as you like me."
With this, Chloe looked a little downtrodden.
"This is coming out wrong," he said. "I do like you, Chloe. I just don't want you to get hurt. I need to know... if things... don't work out between us... we're still going to be friends, right? This isn't going to change anything?"
Chloe still looked a little hurt, but she just looked into his eyes and said. "Of course. Nothing will ever destroy our friendship."
After 6x07 - Rage
She didn't like keeping secrets from him, but this was Lana's secret. He just kept walking, pushing the cart, obliviously.
She wanted to tell him. But she couldn't.
Chloe and Clark were at the grocery store filling the cart with all the junk food they could afford. It was going to rain the next day and they were going to stay in at Clark's house and have a movie marathon.
Chloe was actually really excited about this. Things were finally becoming comfortable again between the two of them. It had seemed like that was never going to happen when Clark was being evasive, but after they cleared the air, and Chloe had assured him their friendship would remain intact, things started returning to normal.
And now that they were back to normal, they could maybe start exploring the something more part of their relationship.
Except for the fact that Chloe was keeping a secret from Clark. It was killing her. Before she had found out his secret, she had hated being in the dark. Now she was the one keeping him in the dark. Sure, it wasn't her secret to tell, but it still felt like a betrayal.
Just as she was reaching for a bag of bugles, she thought she saw a familiar face coming down the aisle.
Shit, it was Lana.
Clark didn't seem to notice, as he was too busy looking at the nutrition facts on some bag. What did he care? He could eat as unhealthily as he wanted and didn't have to worry about the consequences. What Chloe wouldn't do to be able to do the same.
As Lana noticed them, she shouted down the aisle, "Hi!"
Clark looked up, and looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Sure, Clark and Lana had talked since things had started, but somehow the three of them had never been in the same room together since then. And quite frankly, Chloe wasn't sure if he was acting this way because he didn't want Lana to see him with Chloe, or he didn't want Chloe to see he might still have feelings for Lana.
This look, however, soon turned into a different look. One that Chloe couldn't quite peg.
Just as Lana was almost reaching them, all hell broke loose.
"Lana, I said no junk food," Lex practically yelled as he came barreling down the aisle. Chloe knew that he was only trying to look out for her during her pregnancy. And if she didn't know what she did about Lex, she might've thought he was chivalrous.
Then she remembered that Clark didn't know about the pregnancy and figured this must look absolutely crazy to Clark. She tried to signal to Lana with her eyes, and the way Lana looked at her, she knew she got the message.
"Lex, I can eat whatever I want," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. She grabbed a bag of chips and put it into the cart Lex was pushing around.
Lex, too, figured out what Chloe and Lana were trying to do, judging by the way he looked from Lana to Clark. "Whatever," he said, obviously fighting back a smile.
"Nice to see you two again," he said, obviously amused as he started to walk away.
"You, too," Clark said, just sounding confused.
"Bye guys!" Lana waved as she quickly followed behind Lex.
Clark couldn't figure out what was going on with Lana and Lex, but within the past couple of minutes he had figured out something much more important.
When he had first seen Lana, his initial reaction was panic. Having Chloe and Lana together, Clark had just known he was going to screw something up somewhere, because of his feelings for both girls.
But when he saw Lana, when he took her in, something felt different. Of course he still had feelings for her. These things didn't just go away right away. But they felt less.
Wondering if his feelings would have changed like this had he not decided to go for Chloe, he got the feeling that he would have been spending all his time moping over Lana had it not been for whatever this was with Chloe.
And, for the first time, he knew he had made the right choice. He knew that the direction Chloe and Clark were heading was the right one.
As Lana and Lex disappeared, Clark turned to Chloe.
"You got everything you want?" he asked.
"I think so," she said. "No promises, though."
He laughed a little and put his arm around her as he turned to walk towards the cash register.