scifichick774
20th April 2003, 01:21
Title: Five Questions
Author: scifichick774
Rating: PG-13
Category: Drama/Angst Chloe/Lex
Spoilers: Sequel to ‘No Words’ – takes place right after ‘Fever’.
Summary: Lex tries to get more information from Chloe about her situation with Clark by playing a game.
Disclaimer: Not mine, no infringement intended, please don’t sue.
Feedback: YES!! REVIEW!! Geez, that sounded incredibly needy.
Archival: Sure – just let me know where.
Author’s Note: I really hadn’t intended to write a sequel to ‘No Words’, but what can I say? My muse needed an infusion of Chlexy goodness after last night’s eppy, so expect this one to be shippier and possibly angstier than the first. Why they insist on having Chloe continue to moon over Clark is beyond me.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“You’re quiet. Did I do something to upset you?” Lex asked as he watched Chloe pick at the food on the plate in front of her. Her eyes rose from her breakfast to look at him and she forced a smile onto her face.
“No, I’m just not in a talkative mood I guess.”
“You’re always in a talkative mood.”
“Not true,” she argued. “And it’s not as if you’ve done anything to contribute to my current state like you said you were going to.” Lex furrowed his brow, turning Chloe’s fake smile into a real one. “You said you would come up with a whole list of questions that didn’t have anything to do with Clark if I had breakfast with you,” she reminded him. Lex looked thoughtful and then gave her a curt nod of his head.
“So I did,” he agreed. “Did you have a number in mind?”
“Five.”
“How did you come up with that?”
“Five is just enough to keep the conversation rolling along, and not too many to get into uncomfortable details about things that we shouldn’t be discussing,” she answered. He leaned back in his chair and observed her carefully; she had obviously been talking about her situation with Clark, or possibly even the kiss they had just shared earlier. Chloe tried not to squirm under his gaze, but she found herself looking expectantly at him. Lex smiled.
“Alright, your favorite cartoon show.” Chloe arched an eyebrow.
“Was that supposed to be a question?” She asked snarkily. Lex chuckled and leaned forward.
“Allow me to rephrase. What is your favorite cartoon show?”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me that.”
“Does it have anything to do with Clark?” Lex countered. Chloe narrowed her eyes at him.
“Fine.” She paused for a moment while she thought about it. “I don’t have one.”
“It took you a good three seconds to decide whether you had a favorite cartoon show or not?”
“I like lots of things, you can’t expect me to narrow it down to just one,” she said. “Now, my turn.”
“Your turn? I wasn’t aware you got a turn.”
“You ask me questions, I ask you questions,” she replied stubbornly. Lex opened his mouth to speak but Chloe waved her hand to slough off whatever comment he was going to make. “I know, all questions about business are off limits. I’m not an idiot, Lex.” Lex smiled. That was the second time she had used his first name in the course of an hour, and he inwardly admitted that he liked the sound of it coming from her lips. “What’s with the doofy look?” Lex snapped out of his thoughts.
“Pardon?” He asked. Chloe smiled.
“I said: what’s with the doofy look?”
“Doofy?”
“You were looking at me, but you were zoning; and as it’s my turn to ask the question ---”
“You want to know what I was thinking about,” Lex finished for her.
“That would be nice,” Chloe said as she nodded her head. “Otherwise, I feel like I’m just talking to the wall, and I get enough of that with my other friends.” Lex grinned.
“You consider me a friend?”
“And yet again, you dodge the question,” she pointed out.
“Well, I’d hardly be the master at it if I didn’t practice, now would I?” He quipped. Chloe laughed.
“I suppose not.”
“To be honest, I was a little taken aback by the fact that you asked about something other than why I kissed you,” he said. Chloe suddenly felt uncomfortable and her eyes darted down to the table as she reached for her coffee. Lex noticed her reaction and eyed her pensively. “Or is that topic off limits as well?” Chloe choked a little on the sip she had just taken and she wiped her mouth with a napkin. She took a deep breath before facing him again.
“Look, we both know that you were just trying to cheer me up, and ---”
“I wish I could say that was true, but unfortunately, I’m not quite that noble.”
“How is kissing someone to cheer them up considered noble?”
“Because you’re doing it for someone else’s happiness, rather than your own ulterior motives,” Lex explained. Chloe quirked an eyebrow upward.
“Are you saying that you had ulterior motives for kissing me?”
“I thought it was my turn to ask a question?” Lex asked.
“You can’t just skip over an answer for that one Lex,” Chloe replied. Lex opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it when the bell on the diner’s door chimed. He looked up to see who was walking in and gave the person a nod of his head. Out of curiosity, Chloe turned to see who it was, only to wish seconds later that she hadn’t. Lex mentally noted Chloe’s reaction to seeing the other girl. Whatever had happened with Clark obviously involved her.
“Hey guys,” Lana greeted as she walked up to their table. “What are you two doing here?” Chloe plastered a fake smile on her face.
“I could ask you the same question. It’s a little early for you to be up on a Saturday morning, isn’t it?” She tried to keep her tone light and non-accusatory, but she wasn’t quite sure she pulled it off. Lana started fidgeting with her hands.
“I wanted to talk to you about ---” she trailed off as her eyes glanced over at Lex and back. “Your dad said that you’d be at the Talon, but Rachel said you left already, and then I saw you through the window, and ---”
“Lana?” Chloe interrupted. Lana looked at her with wide eyes and Chloe smiled gracefully. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with Clark, would it?”
“Uh ---” Lana’s eyes went back over to Lex in a silent plea for him to leave, but Lex relaxed into his seat.
“I’m afraid that particular topic of conversation is off limits for the rest of the day,” Lex said with a straight face. Chloe could see the grin lifting the corners of his mouth and she smiled.
“It is,” she agreed with a firm nod. “Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?” Lana stared at the two of them in confusion. Something was going on, she could tell that much from their body language, but she couldn’t place her finger on what it was. Why would Chloe be eating breakfast with Lex in the Smallville diner? And why didn’t want to talk about Clark? Lana took a breath and looked at Chloe.
“I told him about your letter.” The words came rushing out of her mouth and both Chloe and Lex stared at her blankly as they tried to process what she had just said. Chloe paled and Lana frowned. “I’m sorry, I had to.”
“Letter?” Lex questioned. Lana kept fidgeting with her hands while she answered him.
“She ---”
“I wrote a letter to Clark,” Chloe interrupted. “Telling him how I felt about him. I even read it to him when he was unconscious.”
“Oh,” Lex said. He felt like someone had punched him in the gut. He knew that Chloe liked Clark, but he didn’t think her feelings had progressed so far as to express them in writing. “I should go pay the bill.” He stood up and made his way over to the register. Lana looked at Chloe expectantly. She didn’t know what she expected her to do, but sit there in stilled shock wasn’t it.
“I’m sorry,” Lana said. Chloe took a deep breath and turned to face her.
“I’m not going to say I wish you hadn’t done it, because I think that’s obvious, but there’s nothing that can be done about it now,” Chloe said.
“I know he’s going to try and talk to you about it, maybe you could go over ---”
“Do you need a ride?” Lex asked Chloe as he came back to the table. She grinned at him.
“I have my car, remember?”
“So you do,” he said.
“And I might not need to go see Clark,” she said. Lana and Lex both looked surprised. “But it all depends.”
“On?” Lex asked.
“What were your ulterior motives?”
~*~*~
Ch. 2
~*~*~
The pieces clicked into place for Lana the second she saw the smirk on Lex’s face. Chloe and Lex were flirting. She didn’t know if it had gone beyond that, but the fact that Chloe was flirting with Lex and he seemed to be responding to her, surprised Lana so much that she took a couple steps back from where she was standing. In retrospect, she should have looked behind her before doing so, because the simple movement caused a chain reaction.
She stepped back and bumped into a customer who was heading toward one of the tables with his coffee after getting up to get the paper. The hot coffee went flying into the air; some of it landed on Lana, and some of it landed on the waitress who was coming from the opposite direction, carrying a tray of food. The waitress yelped at the burning sensation the coffee left on her skin and her tray fell, flinging its contents all over Lana and the other customer.
Chloe’s eyes grew wide and Lex bit his tongue inside of his mouth to keep from laughing. Lex saw his opportunity and extended his hand to Chloe. Lana was so absorbed in what had happened that she didn’t see her friend leave with Lex. She picked large pieces of scrambled eggs out of her hair as she made a face.
“I can’t believe that just happened. I ---” she trailed off when she looked up and saw that Chloe and Lex were no longer there. ‘Ooh, dang it!’
“Don’t you think we should have stayed in there to help her?” Chloe asked, her head halfway looking back toward the restaurant as Lex quickly hurried them to her car.
“No.”
“Lex ---”
“Do you want an answer to your question or not?”
“Actually, I was going to say it’s my car, so I’m driving,” Chloe said snarkily.
“I can drive faster.”
“I can drive fast.”
“I can pay for the speeding ticket if anyone pulls us over,” he said. Chloe pursed her lips and Lex took the opportunity to slide into the driver’s seat. He flashed a smile at his victory and Chloe rolled her eyes and got into the passenger’s seat. Lana left the diner just in time to see the back of Chloe’s car speeding down the road.
“I have to tell Clark,” she said aloud. She looked down at her now stained appearance. “But first I have to go home and change.”
Chloe leaned back in her seat as Lex drove.
“So, how does it compare?” She asked. Lex glanced at her and then looked back at the road.
“It doesn’t,” he answered truthfully. She smiled.
“I don’t know if I believe you. I think I might need to test drive your Jag to make sure,” she said. Lex smiled broadly and let out a chuckle.
“I think that could probably be arranged,” he said. Chloe’s face lit up.
“Really?”
“You seem to be in a better mood,” he observed. Chloe gave a partial roll of her eyes and looked out her side of the car at the passing fields. He noticed that she had become quiet and glanced over at her again. “And apparently I just ruined it by mentioning it,” he said more to himself than to her.
“You didn’t,” she said as she looked over at him.
“Liar.”
“I was just thinking.”
“About my ‘ulterior motives’?” He asked with a cocky grin.
“No-oo,” she strung out, “but now that you mention it ---” she trailed off as Lex pulled her car to the side of the road and turned off the engine. He unbuckled his seat belt and looked at her carefully. “What?” She undid her seatbelt as well and waited for his response.
“He’s going to want to talk to you,” Lex said after a brief pause.
“Clark?” She asked. Lex nodded once. Chloe sighed and relaxed back into her seat, forcing her eyes to stare straight forward instead of at Lex. “I think Lana was overreacting.”
“I’d say that’s a safe assumption, but I do think he’ll want to talk to you,” Lex said. Chloe turned her head and gave him a questioning look. “You’re his friend and he cares about you.”
“I think that’s debatable,” Chloe grumbled under her breath as she folded her arms across her chest. Lex reached over and tucked some hair behind her ear, letting his fingers linger on her skin just a little longer than necessary. Chloe met his eyes and Lex leaned over toward her. He was going to act on Clark’s behalf and tell her that Clark really did care about her as a friend and she should think about forgiving him for whatever it was that he did wrong, but the scent of Chloe’s shampoo hit his nose and he found his gaze stuck to her lips.
Chloe leaned forward and their mouths barely brushed in a soft kiss. His hand swept into her hair, gripping her head at the back and pulling her toward him. The kiss deepened and Chloe’s hands rested on his shoulders and they sought to get closer to each other. She reluctantly pulled away to breathe and blinked a couple of times as if she was expecting him to say something. When he didn’t, a serious expression crossed her face.
“What are your *ulterior motives*?”
“I like you,” he said quietly and uncomfortably looked away, finally releasing his hand from her hair at the back of her head. Chloe arched an eyebrow.
“That’s it?”
“What do you mean?” He asked in surprise. It had taken so much courage for him to admit to himself that he liked her, let alone to tell her.
“I mean, when you said ‘ulterior motives’, I thought maybe you wanted help on something business related that you couldn’t figure out for yourself. Or information about your dad, or ---” Chloe was cut off by the sound of Lex’s laughter.
“You thought I was trying to seduce you to get you to help me gather information?”
“Well, it sounds kind of stupid when you say it out loud like that, but yeah,” she said. Lex laughed again and pulled her to him to kiss her. When they pulled apart for the second time, Chloe furrowed her brow slightly. “So, you like me?”
“Is that hard to believe?”
“A little.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For liking me?”
“For the fact that you’ve been through so much to make you think I don’t,” he said.
“Oh.”
They leaned toward each other and kissed again.
“He *will* want to talk to you, you know?”
“I know.”
Lex nodded and started the car up again, and then turned the car around in the middle of the street. Chloe could tell from the surroundings that he was driving directly to the Kent farm, which she was surprisingly thankful for. It would be nice to have someone there for moral support.
“How are you going to handle this?” Lex asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” she admitted.
Clark was standing out in front of the barn when they pulled up. He looked baffled at first as to why Lex would be driving Chloe’s car, and then he just looked amused. He walked toward them as each of them got out of the car.
“Hey guys,” he said unsurely. He looked back and forth between them with some suspicion. “What’s going on?” Lex and Chloe looked at each other.
“Looks like Lana hasn’t called him yet,” she said. Lex nodded in agreement and Clark’s face fell into an expression of understanding. He ran a hand around the back of his neck and looked at the ground.
“Oh. Yeah. She did,” Clark said. “Listen, Chloe, about the letter ---”
“Forget it,” she interrupted. Clark looked up at her in surprise.
“What?”
Chloe took a deep breath and faked the best uneasy smile she could.
“Clark, I wrote the letter, but it was a long time ago,” she lied.
“Lana told me she found it in the trashcan at the Torch,” he said.
‘Stupid Lana,’ she thought. Chloe started fidgeting with her hands, which if Clark had been paying attention during their friendship, was a sure sign that she was about to start lying. “She did, but it was a print out.” Clark looked at her for a further explanation. “I wrote it last year before you asked me to the dance – you know, before we decided to just be friends. I actually forgot it was even on there. And then, my computer started wigging and printing out some of my old files instead of what I was trying to print.” She paused for a second and gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry.” Clark was silent for a few seconds while her lie sunk in. He finally smiled and Lex tried his best not to smirk at the fact that Chloe had pulled it off rather admirably.
“Oh. It’s okay,” he said. “I figured Lana must have gotten it wrong somehow.” Chloe nodded.
“So, everything’s okay with us?” She asked. Clark nodded and gave her a hug. They pulled away from each other and Clark tilted his head at Lex.
“So, what are you doing here?” Clark asked. Lex shrugged.
“Chloe was kind enough to let me test drive her car,” he said. Clark’s eyebrows shot up in surprise and he lightly shook his head.
“I’m sure it doesn’t compare to all the cars you have, Lex,” he said. One corner of Lex’s mouth curled upward as he looked at Chloe.
“You’d be surprised at the advantages it has, Clark.” He looked back at his friend with a lopsided grin. “I was.”
The End
Author: scifichick774
Rating: PG-13
Category: Drama/Angst Chloe/Lex
Spoilers: Sequel to ‘No Words’ – takes place right after ‘Fever’.
Summary: Lex tries to get more information from Chloe about her situation with Clark by playing a game.
Disclaimer: Not mine, no infringement intended, please don’t sue.
Feedback: YES!! REVIEW!! Geez, that sounded incredibly needy.
Archival: Sure – just let me know where.
Author’s Note: I really hadn’t intended to write a sequel to ‘No Words’, but what can I say? My muse needed an infusion of Chlexy goodness after last night’s eppy, so expect this one to be shippier and possibly angstier than the first. Why they insist on having Chloe continue to moon over Clark is beyond me.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“You’re quiet. Did I do something to upset you?” Lex asked as he watched Chloe pick at the food on the plate in front of her. Her eyes rose from her breakfast to look at him and she forced a smile onto her face.
“No, I’m just not in a talkative mood I guess.”
“You’re always in a talkative mood.”
“Not true,” she argued. “And it’s not as if you’ve done anything to contribute to my current state like you said you were going to.” Lex furrowed his brow, turning Chloe’s fake smile into a real one. “You said you would come up with a whole list of questions that didn’t have anything to do with Clark if I had breakfast with you,” she reminded him. Lex looked thoughtful and then gave her a curt nod of his head.
“So I did,” he agreed. “Did you have a number in mind?”
“Five.”
“How did you come up with that?”
“Five is just enough to keep the conversation rolling along, and not too many to get into uncomfortable details about things that we shouldn’t be discussing,” she answered. He leaned back in his chair and observed her carefully; she had obviously been talking about her situation with Clark, or possibly even the kiss they had just shared earlier. Chloe tried not to squirm under his gaze, but she found herself looking expectantly at him. Lex smiled.
“Alright, your favorite cartoon show.” Chloe arched an eyebrow.
“Was that supposed to be a question?” She asked snarkily. Lex chuckled and leaned forward.
“Allow me to rephrase. What is your favorite cartoon show?”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me that.”
“Does it have anything to do with Clark?” Lex countered. Chloe narrowed her eyes at him.
“Fine.” She paused for a moment while she thought about it. “I don’t have one.”
“It took you a good three seconds to decide whether you had a favorite cartoon show or not?”
“I like lots of things, you can’t expect me to narrow it down to just one,” she said. “Now, my turn.”
“Your turn? I wasn’t aware you got a turn.”
“You ask me questions, I ask you questions,” she replied stubbornly. Lex opened his mouth to speak but Chloe waved her hand to slough off whatever comment he was going to make. “I know, all questions about business are off limits. I’m not an idiot, Lex.” Lex smiled. That was the second time she had used his first name in the course of an hour, and he inwardly admitted that he liked the sound of it coming from her lips. “What’s with the doofy look?” Lex snapped out of his thoughts.
“Pardon?” He asked. Chloe smiled.
“I said: what’s with the doofy look?”
“Doofy?”
“You were looking at me, but you were zoning; and as it’s my turn to ask the question ---”
“You want to know what I was thinking about,” Lex finished for her.
“That would be nice,” Chloe said as she nodded her head. “Otherwise, I feel like I’m just talking to the wall, and I get enough of that with my other friends.” Lex grinned.
“You consider me a friend?”
“And yet again, you dodge the question,” she pointed out.
“Well, I’d hardly be the master at it if I didn’t practice, now would I?” He quipped. Chloe laughed.
“I suppose not.”
“To be honest, I was a little taken aback by the fact that you asked about something other than why I kissed you,” he said. Chloe suddenly felt uncomfortable and her eyes darted down to the table as she reached for her coffee. Lex noticed her reaction and eyed her pensively. “Or is that topic off limits as well?” Chloe choked a little on the sip she had just taken and she wiped her mouth with a napkin. She took a deep breath before facing him again.
“Look, we both know that you were just trying to cheer me up, and ---”
“I wish I could say that was true, but unfortunately, I’m not quite that noble.”
“How is kissing someone to cheer them up considered noble?”
“Because you’re doing it for someone else’s happiness, rather than your own ulterior motives,” Lex explained. Chloe quirked an eyebrow upward.
“Are you saying that you had ulterior motives for kissing me?”
“I thought it was my turn to ask a question?” Lex asked.
“You can’t just skip over an answer for that one Lex,” Chloe replied. Lex opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it when the bell on the diner’s door chimed. He looked up to see who was walking in and gave the person a nod of his head. Out of curiosity, Chloe turned to see who it was, only to wish seconds later that she hadn’t. Lex mentally noted Chloe’s reaction to seeing the other girl. Whatever had happened with Clark obviously involved her.
“Hey guys,” Lana greeted as she walked up to their table. “What are you two doing here?” Chloe plastered a fake smile on her face.
“I could ask you the same question. It’s a little early for you to be up on a Saturday morning, isn’t it?” She tried to keep her tone light and non-accusatory, but she wasn’t quite sure she pulled it off. Lana started fidgeting with her hands.
“I wanted to talk to you about ---” she trailed off as her eyes glanced over at Lex and back. “Your dad said that you’d be at the Talon, but Rachel said you left already, and then I saw you through the window, and ---”
“Lana?” Chloe interrupted. Lana looked at her with wide eyes and Chloe smiled gracefully. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with Clark, would it?”
“Uh ---” Lana’s eyes went back over to Lex in a silent plea for him to leave, but Lex relaxed into his seat.
“I’m afraid that particular topic of conversation is off limits for the rest of the day,” Lex said with a straight face. Chloe could see the grin lifting the corners of his mouth and she smiled.
“It is,” she agreed with a firm nod. “Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?” Lana stared at the two of them in confusion. Something was going on, she could tell that much from their body language, but she couldn’t place her finger on what it was. Why would Chloe be eating breakfast with Lex in the Smallville diner? And why didn’t want to talk about Clark? Lana took a breath and looked at Chloe.
“I told him about your letter.” The words came rushing out of her mouth and both Chloe and Lex stared at her blankly as they tried to process what she had just said. Chloe paled and Lana frowned. “I’m sorry, I had to.”
“Letter?” Lex questioned. Lana kept fidgeting with her hands while she answered him.
“She ---”
“I wrote a letter to Clark,” Chloe interrupted. “Telling him how I felt about him. I even read it to him when he was unconscious.”
“Oh,” Lex said. He felt like someone had punched him in the gut. He knew that Chloe liked Clark, but he didn’t think her feelings had progressed so far as to express them in writing. “I should go pay the bill.” He stood up and made his way over to the register. Lana looked at Chloe expectantly. She didn’t know what she expected her to do, but sit there in stilled shock wasn’t it.
“I’m sorry,” Lana said. Chloe took a deep breath and turned to face her.
“I’m not going to say I wish you hadn’t done it, because I think that’s obvious, but there’s nothing that can be done about it now,” Chloe said.
“I know he’s going to try and talk to you about it, maybe you could go over ---”
“Do you need a ride?” Lex asked Chloe as he came back to the table. She grinned at him.
“I have my car, remember?”
“So you do,” he said.
“And I might not need to go see Clark,” she said. Lana and Lex both looked surprised. “But it all depends.”
“On?” Lex asked.
“What were your ulterior motives?”
~*~*~
Ch. 2
~*~*~
The pieces clicked into place for Lana the second she saw the smirk on Lex’s face. Chloe and Lex were flirting. She didn’t know if it had gone beyond that, but the fact that Chloe was flirting with Lex and he seemed to be responding to her, surprised Lana so much that she took a couple steps back from where she was standing. In retrospect, she should have looked behind her before doing so, because the simple movement caused a chain reaction.
She stepped back and bumped into a customer who was heading toward one of the tables with his coffee after getting up to get the paper. The hot coffee went flying into the air; some of it landed on Lana, and some of it landed on the waitress who was coming from the opposite direction, carrying a tray of food. The waitress yelped at the burning sensation the coffee left on her skin and her tray fell, flinging its contents all over Lana and the other customer.
Chloe’s eyes grew wide and Lex bit his tongue inside of his mouth to keep from laughing. Lex saw his opportunity and extended his hand to Chloe. Lana was so absorbed in what had happened that she didn’t see her friend leave with Lex. She picked large pieces of scrambled eggs out of her hair as she made a face.
“I can’t believe that just happened. I ---” she trailed off when she looked up and saw that Chloe and Lex were no longer there. ‘Ooh, dang it!’
“Don’t you think we should have stayed in there to help her?” Chloe asked, her head halfway looking back toward the restaurant as Lex quickly hurried them to her car.
“No.”
“Lex ---”
“Do you want an answer to your question or not?”
“Actually, I was going to say it’s my car, so I’m driving,” Chloe said snarkily.
“I can drive faster.”
“I can drive fast.”
“I can pay for the speeding ticket if anyone pulls us over,” he said. Chloe pursed her lips and Lex took the opportunity to slide into the driver’s seat. He flashed a smile at his victory and Chloe rolled her eyes and got into the passenger’s seat. Lana left the diner just in time to see the back of Chloe’s car speeding down the road.
“I have to tell Clark,” she said aloud. She looked down at her now stained appearance. “But first I have to go home and change.”
Chloe leaned back in her seat as Lex drove.
“So, how does it compare?” She asked. Lex glanced at her and then looked back at the road.
“It doesn’t,” he answered truthfully. She smiled.
“I don’t know if I believe you. I think I might need to test drive your Jag to make sure,” she said. Lex smiled broadly and let out a chuckle.
“I think that could probably be arranged,” he said. Chloe’s face lit up.
“Really?”
“You seem to be in a better mood,” he observed. Chloe gave a partial roll of her eyes and looked out her side of the car at the passing fields. He noticed that she had become quiet and glanced over at her again. “And apparently I just ruined it by mentioning it,” he said more to himself than to her.
“You didn’t,” she said as she looked over at him.
“Liar.”
“I was just thinking.”
“About my ‘ulterior motives’?” He asked with a cocky grin.
“No-oo,” she strung out, “but now that you mention it ---” she trailed off as Lex pulled her car to the side of the road and turned off the engine. He unbuckled his seat belt and looked at her carefully. “What?” She undid her seatbelt as well and waited for his response.
“He’s going to want to talk to you,” Lex said after a brief pause.
“Clark?” She asked. Lex nodded once. Chloe sighed and relaxed back into her seat, forcing her eyes to stare straight forward instead of at Lex. “I think Lana was overreacting.”
“I’d say that’s a safe assumption, but I do think he’ll want to talk to you,” Lex said. Chloe turned her head and gave him a questioning look. “You’re his friend and he cares about you.”
“I think that’s debatable,” Chloe grumbled under her breath as she folded her arms across her chest. Lex reached over and tucked some hair behind her ear, letting his fingers linger on her skin just a little longer than necessary. Chloe met his eyes and Lex leaned over toward her. He was going to act on Clark’s behalf and tell her that Clark really did care about her as a friend and she should think about forgiving him for whatever it was that he did wrong, but the scent of Chloe’s shampoo hit his nose and he found his gaze stuck to her lips.
Chloe leaned forward and their mouths barely brushed in a soft kiss. His hand swept into her hair, gripping her head at the back and pulling her toward him. The kiss deepened and Chloe’s hands rested on his shoulders and they sought to get closer to each other. She reluctantly pulled away to breathe and blinked a couple of times as if she was expecting him to say something. When he didn’t, a serious expression crossed her face.
“What are your *ulterior motives*?”
“I like you,” he said quietly and uncomfortably looked away, finally releasing his hand from her hair at the back of her head. Chloe arched an eyebrow.
“That’s it?”
“What do you mean?” He asked in surprise. It had taken so much courage for him to admit to himself that he liked her, let alone to tell her.
“I mean, when you said ‘ulterior motives’, I thought maybe you wanted help on something business related that you couldn’t figure out for yourself. Or information about your dad, or ---” Chloe was cut off by the sound of Lex’s laughter.
“You thought I was trying to seduce you to get you to help me gather information?”
“Well, it sounds kind of stupid when you say it out loud like that, but yeah,” she said. Lex laughed again and pulled her to him to kiss her. When they pulled apart for the second time, Chloe furrowed her brow slightly. “So, you like me?”
“Is that hard to believe?”
“A little.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For liking me?”
“For the fact that you’ve been through so much to make you think I don’t,” he said.
“Oh.”
They leaned toward each other and kissed again.
“He *will* want to talk to you, you know?”
“I know.”
Lex nodded and started the car up again, and then turned the car around in the middle of the street. Chloe could tell from the surroundings that he was driving directly to the Kent farm, which she was surprisingly thankful for. It would be nice to have someone there for moral support.
“How are you going to handle this?” Lex asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” she admitted.
Clark was standing out in front of the barn when they pulled up. He looked baffled at first as to why Lex would be driving Chloe’s car, and then he just looked amused. He walked toward them as each of them got out of the car.
“Hey guys,” he said unsurely. He looked back and forth between them with some suspicion. “What’s going on?” Lex and Chloe looked at each other.
“Looks like Lana hasn’t called him yet,” she said. Lex nodded in agreement and Clark’s face fell into an expression of understanding. He ran a hand around the back of his neck and looked at the ground.
“Oh. Yeah. She did,” Clark said. “Listen, Chloe, about the letter ---”
“Forget it,” she interrupted. Clark looked up at her in surprise.
“What?”
Chloe took a deep breath and faked the best uneasy smile she could.
“Clark, I wrote the letter, but it was a long time ago,” she lied.
“Lana told me she found it in the trashcan at the Torch,” he said.
‘Stupid Lana,’ she thought. Chloe started fidgeting with her hands, which if Clark had been paying attention during their friendship, was a sure sign that she was about to start lying. “She did, but it was a print out.” Clark looked at her for a further explanation. “I wrote it last year before you asked me to the dance – you know, before we decided to just be friends. I actually forgot it was even on there. And then, my computer started wigging and printing out some of my old files instead of what I was trying to print.” She paused for a second and gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry.” Clark was silent for a few seconds while her lie sunk in. He finally smiled and Lex tried his best not to smirk at the fact that Chloe had pulled it off rather admirably.
“Oh. It’s okay,” he said. “I figured Lana must have gotten it wrong somehow.” Chloe nodded.
“So, everything’s okay with us?” She asked. Clark nodded and gave her a hug. They pulled away from each other and Clark tilted his head at Lex.
“So, what are you doing here?” Clark asked. Lex shrugged.
“Chloe was kind enough to let me test drive her car,” he said. Clark’s eyebrows shot up in surprise and he lightly shook his head.
“I’m sure it doesn’t compare to all the cars you have, Lex,” he said. One corner of Lex’s mouth curled upward as he looked at Chloe.
“You’d be surprised at the advantages it has, Clark.” He looked back at his friend with a lopsided grin. “I was.”
The End