Reese
2nd February 2005, 09:16
Title: Afterthought
Author: Reese
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: They're not mine...blah blah blah...wish they were...blah blah blah.
Summary: Chloe shares a truth with Lex over dinner.
Author's Notes: This is a fluffy little piece of nothing, I admit. I've been writing a lot of dark, angsty, unhappy stuff lately so this was an exercise in writing something that didn't end in death, madness or a broken heart.
Feedback: Yes, please! Either here or by e-mail or PM. I'll take it any way I can get it ;)
***
“You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I can be…and I am.” He smiles before glancing away from her to the man on the other side of the room.
“There’s just no way.” She seems almost defeated by his challenge, as though it’s beyond her abilities.
“Why not?” He leans back in his chair and focuses his attention on her. It’s unlike her not to rise to the challenge.
“He’s just…I mean, I can’t . Not him.”
Lex notices she hasn’t stopped staring at the man since he pointed him out to her.
OK, so it isn’t for a lack of interest on her part.
“What’s so special about him?”
Something in his words snap her from her reverie and she only glances back briefly at the other man before settling her attention on Lex.
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” She smoothes out the linen napkin in her lap and picks up her fork to resume eating. “I just don’t feel like playing this evening, that’s all.” She looks away and focuses her attention now on the meal before her.
He doesn’t say anything, just watches his dinner companion intently as she tries to skirt the issue.
“Lex. Stop staring.”
He doesn’t listen but rather leans in and rests his chin on clasped hands, his elbows supporting him now in his intense gaze.
“Lex. Please .” She doesn’t look up but stops eating and places her fork down on the table, still staring at the plate in front of her.
“Tell me why.”
“No.”
He leans forward a little more. “Tell me.”
“Please don’t make me, Lex. OK?” She snatches the napkin off of her lap and tosses it on the table before leaning back in her chair and looking away from him again.
“Oh, I see.” Lex leans back from the table and tears his glance away from her, tossing it in the direction of the man on the other side of the room to simply confirm his suspicions.
Yep. Tall, dark and handsome with an air of innocence.
“I’m sorry.” His tone is clipped and he doesn’t bother to look at her when he offers his half-hearted apology.
“Lex, don’t be like that.”
“Be like what?”
“Like that.” She gestures in his direction and the way his whole body’s tense and the smile that normally accompanies him on their dinners has vanished.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He glances up at her. “How is your meal?”
She doesn’t answer. He just shrugs and continues eating.
“I tried to talk to him on campus the other day but he wouldn’t stop…not to talk to me, at least.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He almost meant it. What he was more sorry about though was the fact that she still saw him at all. Wasn’t Metropolis University big enough for them to never run into each other ever again? Was that asking too much?
Apparently.
“He told me again that what was done was done and there was no going back.”
Lex looked up to see the tears forming in her eyes. He’d never heard what exactly had happened between the two of them because every time he’d tried to ask her about it over the last couple of years, she’d ended up either sobbing or shutting down on him like it didn’t matter.
And it most certainly did. Not only to her but to him. He always sensed that his burgeoning friendship with Chloe had had something to do with the downfall of her friendship with Clark.
He reached across the table and took hold of her hand, sorry that their typical dinner game of ‘who can pick up who’ had brought up such painful memories for her. “I’m sorry. If you want I can have him removed.”
Chloe’s eyes shot open and she started to pull her hand from his but he gripped it tighter, giving himself the chance to explain. “The gentleman on the other side of the room, Chloe. I could have him removed from the club if seeing him reminds you of unpleasant things.”
She took a deep breath and relaxed. He pulled his hand away and sighed to himself, resigned to the fact that she would always think he was capable of such things as she’d just imagined.
“I loved him.”
He hated this part. “I know.”
“But I loved you more.” He glanced up at her, surprise evident in his expression. “Don’t you know that by now?”
Her words washed over him and flooded him with emotions he’d never considered or, at least, had never allowed himself to consider.
“But I thought…”
“Did you actually think I wanted to tell you that Clark told me I had to choose? That he cornered me that day in the Torch office with stories of how you were turning into your father and that I shouldn't be around when that happened. That he offered to marry me if he thought it would save me from you.” She wiped away a tear that had escaped. “We had just agreed to come here to Met U. together, to share the same major and the next four years of our lives together and then I had to go and mention your name.”
She seemed almost disgusted with herself.
Or the situation, Lex couldn’t quite tell.
“I told him that he could come by and see me any time at the penthouse you’d offered to let me rent out while I was in school. I even said I’d bet he could stay there, too, and that we could be roommates. I was so excited about the idea of you two working out your problems and all of us spending time together, I didn’t even realize what I was doing.”
Lex looked at her, somewhat confused, so she explained.
“I was opening the door and asking him to step right in and let me have it. I think he’d wanted for some time to point out that the two of us were getting too close for his comfort but he didn’t really have any ammunition until I loaded the gun and said, ‘Hey, Lex is going to let me stay at his place…I’m basically living with Lex.’ Granted, you weren’t going to be living there but he didn’t care. It was all the same to him at that point."
Lex leaned back in his chair, his mouth slightly open before he spoke. “So that’s…that’s what happened between you two?” He’d suspected it all along but actually hearing it made it real.
She just nodded in response. She’d wanted to tell him for ages but it never seemed the right time. Also, she’d worried what her motivations were in telling him that he’d been the reason she’d lost her best friend.
But now? Now she was just too tired of pretending and trying to hide it that she blurted it out in the middle of their Saturday night dinner.
“Chloe, I’m so sorry. If I’d had any idea, I would have…”
“Would have what, Lex? Abandoned me first? Attempted some ridiculous act of selflessness in the hopes of preserving my friendship with Clark while in the mean time breaking my heart?” She was almost yelling at him. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. It was my choice to make. Not yours.”
They sat in silence together while Lex tried to wrap his mind around it all.
“Why me?”
“Because you were the only person in my life who ever treated me like more than an afterthought, Lex."
Her words were sad but true.
“My mother apparently didn’t think of me at all when she walked out the door all those years ago. My father, although he tried, never quite got the hang of the ‘family first’ concept when it came down to me vs. his job. To Pete, I was always the girl he could tell about his latest conquest or ask for advice on how to achieve it and Clark? Well, to Clark I was always the girl who could help him get to the bottom of whatever it was out there that might hurt Lana.”
“I appreciate it, Chloe, but still…you shouldn’t have had to choose.”
“I agree entirely, Lex. And that was another point in your favor. You never would have asked me to.”
“Because I never thought I’d be the one you’d choose.” He smiled at her and winked. “To be honest…”
“Well to be honest, Lex, if you would have asked me to choose, I can’t guarantee you would have been my choice either.” She winked back at him.
“So?” He leaned forward and flashed a wicked smile.
“So?” She leaned forward and flashed her equally wicked smile.
“Does this mean I’ve been wasting the last couple of years playing the role of the noble gentleman?”
“No, Lex. The last couple of years haven’t been a waste. They’ve been some of the best of my life.” She reached across and rested her hand upon his, trying to convey the sincerity of her words.
“They will pale in comparison to the future I’m going to give you, Miss Sullivan.”
“Miss Sullivan?”
“I figure I should use it as much as possible because its days are numbered.”
“Is that a fact?” She leaned in even closer.
“Yes, it is. I’m hoping for, at the very least, Mrs. Sullivan-Luthor in the very near future.”
“I think that can be arranged.”
“And Chloe?”
“Yes, Lex?”
“You will always be more than an afterthought to me. You know that, right?”
She didn’t respond, not with words anyway. Instead she got up from her seat and made her way to his side of the table. She leaned over and kissed him with a passion that had been simmering just below the surface for almost two years.
It was the only answer he needed.
***
Author: Reese
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: They're not mine...blah blah blah...wish they were...blah blah blah.
Summary: Chloe shares a truth with Lex over dinner.
Author's Notes: This is a fluffy little piece of nothing, I admit. I've been writing a lot of dark, angsty, unhappy stuff lately so this was an exercise in writing something that didn't end in death, madness or a broken heart.
Feedback: Yes, please! Either here or by e-mail or PM. I'll take it any way I can get it ;)
***
“You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I can be…and I am.” He smiles before glancing away from her to the man on the other side of the room.
“There’s just no way.” She seems almost defeated by his challenge, as though it’s beyond her abilities.
“Why not?” He leans back in his chair and focuses his attention on her. It’s unlike her not to rise to the challenge.
“He’s just…I mean, I can’t . Not him.”
Lex notices she hasn’t stopped staring at the man since he pointed him out to her.
OK, so it isn’t for a lack of interest on her part.
“What’s so special about him?”
Something in his words snap her from her reverie and she only glances back briefly at the other man before settling her attention on Lex.
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” She smoothes out the linen napkin in her lap and picks up her fork to resume eating. “I just don’t feel like playing this evening, that’s all.” She looks away and focuses her attention now on the meal before her.
He doesn’t say anything, just watches his dinner companion intently as she tries to skirt the issue.
“Lex. Stop staring.”
He doesn’t listen but rather leans in and rests his chin on clasped hands, his elbows supporting him now in his intense gaze.
“Lex. Please .” She doesn’t look up but stops eating and places her fork down on the table, still staring at the plate in front of her.
“Tell me why.”
“No.”
He leans forward a little more. “Tell me.”
“Please don’t make me, Lex. OK?” She snatches the napkin off of her lap and tosses it on the table before leaning back in her chair and looking away from him again.
“Oh, I see.” Lex leans back from the table and tears his glance away from her, tossing it in the direction of the man on the other side of the room to simply confirm his suspicions.
Yep. Tall, dark and handsome with an air of innocence.
“I’m sorry.” His tone is clipped and he doesn’t bother to look at her when he offers his half-hearted apology.
“Lex, don’t be like that.”
“Be like what?”
“Like that.” She gestures in his direction and the way his whole body’s tense and the smile that normally accompanies him on their dinners has vanished.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He glances up at her. “How is your meal?”
She doesn’t answer. He just shrugs and continues eating.
“I tried to talk to him on campus the other day but he wouldn’t stop…not to talk to me, at least.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He almost meant it. What he was more sorry about though was the fact that she still saw him at all. Wasn’t Metropolis University big enough for them to never run into each other ever again? Was that asking too much?
Apparently.
“He told me again that what was done was done and there was no going back.”
Lex looked up to see the tears forming in her eyes. He’d never heard what exactly had happened between the two of them because every time he’d tried to ask her about it over the last couple of years, she’d ended up either sobbing or shutting down on him like it didn’t matter.
And it most certainly did. Not only to her but to him. He always sensed that his burgeoning friendship with Chloe had had something to do with the downfall of her friendship with Clark.
He reached across the table and took hold of her hand, sorry that their typical dinner game of ‘who can pick up who’ had brought up such painful memories for her. “I’m sorry. If you want I can have him removed.”
Chloe’s eyes shot open and she started to pull her hand from his but he gripped it tighter, giving himself the chance to explain. “The gentleman on the other side of the room, Chloe. I could have him removed from the club if seeing him reminds you of unpleasant things.”
She took a deep breath and relaxed. He pulled his hand away and sighed to himself, resigned to the fact that she would always think he was capable of such things as she’d just imagined.
“I loved him.”
He hated this part. “I know.”
“But I loved you more.” He glanced up at her, surprise evident in his expression. “Don’t you know that by now?”
Her words washed over him and flooded him with emotions he’d never considered or, at least, had never allowed himself to consider.
“But I thought…”
“Did you actually think I wanted to tell you that Clark told me I had to choose? That he cornered me that day in the Torch office with stories of how you were turning into your father and that I shouldn't be around when that happened. That he offered to marry me if he thought it would save me from you.” She wiped away a tear that had escaped. “We had just agreed to come here to Met U. together, to share the same major and the next four years of our lives together and then I had to go and mention your name.”
She seemed almost disgusted with herself.
Or the situation, Lex couldn’t quite tell.
“I told him that he could come by and see me any time at the penthouse you’d offered to let me rent out while I was in school. I even said I’d bet he could stay there, too, and that we could be roommates. I was so excited about the idea of you two working out your problems and all of us spending time together, I didn’t even realize what I was doing.”
Lex looked at her, somewhat confused, so she explained.
“I was opening the door and asking him to step right in and let me have it. I think he’d wanted for some time to point out that the two of us were getting too close for his comfort but he didn’t really have any ammunition until I loaded the gun and said, ‘Hey, Lex is going to let me stay at his place…I’m basically living with Lex.’ Granted, you weren’t going to be living there but he didn’t care. It was all the same to him at that point."
Lex leaned back in his chair, his mouth slightly open before he spoke. “So that’s…that’s what happened between you two?” He’d suspected it all along but actually hearing it made it real.
She just nodded in response. She’d wanted to tell him for ages but it never seemed the right time. Also, she’d worried what her motivations were in telling him that he’d been the reason she’d lost her best friend.
But now? Now she was just too tired of pretending and trying to hide it that she blurted it out in the middle of their Saturday night dinner.
“Chloe, I’m so sorry. If I’d had any idea, I would have…”
“Would have what, Lex? Abandoned me first? Attempted some ridiculous act of selflessness in the hopes of preserving my friendship with Clark while in the mean time breaking my heart?” She was almost yelling at him. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “That’s exactly why I didn’t tell you. It was my choice to make. Not yours.”
They sat in silence together while Lex tried to wrap his mind around it all.
“Why me?”
“Because you were the only person in my life who ever treated me like more than an afterthought, Lex."
Her words were sad but true.
“My mother apparently didn’t think of me at all when she walked out the door all those years ago. My father, although he tried, never quite got the hang of the ‘family first’ concept when it came down to me vs. his job. To Pete, I was always the girl he could tell about his latest conquest or ask for advice on how to achieve it and Clark? Well, to Clark I was always the girl who could help him get to the bottom of whatever it was out there that might hurt Lana.”
“I appreciate it, Chloe, but still…you shouldn’t have had to choose.”
“I agree entirely, Lex. And that was another point in your favor. You never would have asked me to.”
“Because I never thought I’d be the one you’d choose.” He smiled at her and winked. “To be honest…”
“Well to be honest, Lex, if you would have asked me to choose, I can’t guarantee you would have been my choice either.” She winked back at him.
“So?” He leaned forward and flashed a wicked smile.
“So?” She leaned forward and flashed her equally wicked smile.
“Does this mean I’ve been wasting the last couple of years playing the role of the noble gentleman?”
“No, Lex. The last couple of years haven’t been a waste. They’ve been some of the best of my life.” She reached across and rested her hand upon his, trying to convey the sincerity of her words.
“They will pale in comparison to the future I’m going to give you, Miss Sullivan.”
“Miss Sullivan?”
“I figure I should use it as much as possible because its days are numbered.”
“Is that a fact?” She leaned in even closer.
“Yes, it is. I’m hoping for, at the very least, Mrs. Sullivan-Luthor in the very near future.”
“I think that can be arranged.”
“And Chloe?”
“Yes, Lex?”
“You will always be more than an afterthought to me. You know that, right?”
She didn’t respond, not with words anyway. Instead she got up from her seat and made her way to his side of the table. She leaned over and kissed him with a passion that had been simmering just below the surface for almost two years.
It was the only answer he needed.
***