Mimosa and Tripping the Light Fantastic (R)

Here is a fic I posted at FanFiction - I also thought I would post it here. It is set in the future. It has a companion piece to it which I will post directly after this

Mimosa

Mimosa Plant; In the sensitive plant, the leaves respond to being touched, shaken, heated or rapidly cooled. The speed of the response depends on the magnitude of the stimulus. Hitting the leaf hard with the flick of a finger will cause the leaf to close in the blink of an eye whereas a gentle touch or modest heat source applied to leaflets at the tip of a leaf will result in a slower response and the propagation of the stimulus along the leaf can be observed.

Chloe has a routine. She gets up at 8 o'clock each morning and goes for a run. She began running when the dreams started. Running seems to shake up her insides enough so the dreams are forgotten for the rest of the day. She then goes through her mail before sitting at her computer to write. Breaking off for a quick lunch she continues writing until early evening when she sometimes meets friends. This routine only alters on Fridays when she works at the newsroom of a literary magazine, writing her acknowledged weekly column.

She writes another hidden column. A fortnightly venture highlighting some of the dubious practices of big business in the city. It is not particularly well-read but it has the desired effect on the people she targets. Makes them sit up just that little bit straighter and hide things just that little bit better. The hunt for the truth is what she covets rather than a burning desire to bring the truth out. She's doesn't do sweeping morality. She leaves that to others.
She writes it out of habit, like riding a bike. She tries not to dwell on the feelings of displaced belonging that it arouses in her. The kind of feeling that comes from the familiarity of doing something from your past in a present where that past has no place. She finds the experience painful and comforting in equal measure.

This is the only allowance to her old life along with her expresso machine and her snark with Justin. There was snark with Maya but they lost touch after college.

This has been a particularly difficult week.
________________________________________

She dreams she is alone. Truly alone and not of her choosing. She dreams that she is standing on the side of a football field shouting at Clark, Lana, Lois, sometimes her father, Maya and they are ignoring her. Sometimes they look over and give an indulgent half-hearted wave but they return quickly to whatever it is they are doing. They know she will never leave. She will stay there hoping until the end. She wakes up feeling such emptiness she doesn't know how she can make it through the day. Then she runs.
________________________________________

She loves this part of her week. After handing in her column she comes down here to forget. She sits, drinks alone and thinks. She finds it rejuvenating, and improbably the fuzz that comes with the alcohol gives her a clarity that she needs.

Taking a sip of her drink, Chloe sighs deeply. She flexes her shoulders as the warmth spreads through her body. Looking ahead she takes in the city lights. The bar of this prestigious, wealthy hotel is situated on the top floor and overlooks a complicated grid of lights. The city is short on skyscrapers, unusual for a city of its size, but Chloe prefers the flatness. It suggests uniformity, no-one wanting to stand out and be bigger than the crowd. The lights from this height give off a hazy glow, blurred and beautiful, like fireflies hovering in the night.

She feels a sense of anticipation that she cannot place.
There is no-one else in the bar and the barman keeps looking over to her and smiling sympathetically. She can hear herself being slid into the box marked "Lonely woman slowly sliding towards alcoholism" in his head. She is alone but she would not describe herself as lonely. She finds that the only company she can bear nowadays is her own.

She continues staring out of the window. It is a glass wall, high and wide. She sees her reflection in it and can see the elevator behind her. A way for her to look backwards whilst facing forwards. She doesn't need to analyse the reason why she loves this particular position. It is too similar to the way she leads her life.

Someone is walking towards her in long easy strides.

"Chloe." A statement not a question.

"Lex." She takes another sip and releases a small smile. "Fancy meeting you here." She says staring at his reflection ahead of her in the window.

He continues studying her in the glass before coming to sit down in the chair next to her.

"No Faith, Hope and Charity tonight?"

"Mercy and Hope. No. Sometimes I like to wander around alone. It makes me feel dangerous." He smirks, eyes glinting.

"And I bet sometimes you even wear denim." Chloe replies, easily slipping into her role. She hasn't seen him for 2 years. It feels like 20.

"I was wondering if I was ever going to bump into you." He says. "I've been here for about a month working on a deal."

"The Davis Cooper acquisition?" She plucks out of the recesses of her mind. Off his surprised look she smiles. She's still got it. "Well Lex, we don't really move in the same circles." Doesn't bother asking how he knows she lives here.

"That information was supposed to be confidential. You must have good sources." He motions to the barman. "And, our circles seem to have converged for at least one night."

One thing Chloe keeps from her high school days is a deep abiding interest in Lex. She has found an affinity in his slow descent past ambiguity into plain illegal. She has also kept one or two sources from Lexcorp who are only too willing to spill the beans when she asks. And she doesn't ask very often.

Lex orders a drink and motions for another of the same for Chloe.

"So, what are you up to nowadays?"

"I write... fiction." She clarifies. Lex eyes her with a look of mild interest. Continuing, wanting to provoke him, "I've stopped fighting for truth, justice and the American way." Weary with just a touch of venom.

"Have you heard from Clark recently?" Chloe looks quickly at Lex. Of course he knows. If she figured it out as soon as she saw the primary coloured wonder, Lex would have been right behind. Although Chloe had always thought Lex had numerous blind spots when it came to Clark.

"No. I think he's too busy saving the world or something. And I guess, I'm too busy observing it." She pauses, "And you....what are you Lex?"

"Thirsty." He says smiling as their drinks arrive.

Chloe finishes off her last drink in one gulp. She feels momentarily disorientated as the alcohol has its effect. She takes this opportunity to examine Lex.

"You look good. Being Master of the Universe must agree with you."

Catching her eye and keeping it, "I'm not there yet." Then, "you look better."

She arches her eyebrows at that. She looks ahead out of the window at her reflection. Blonde hair to her shoulders, crisp white shirt - top three buttons undone to reveal a gentle tan and a shock of bright red lipstick on her mouth. She is startled by her reflection, a pretty young woman, maybe even a hot blonde.

Clark she associates with a series of short, sharp cuts. Like paper cuts. The pain always taking her by surprise. Lex, she sees as a series of encounters each startling her with their kindness, their gentleness.

She has the opposite reaction to the two men that the rest of the world has. For her Superman is a hurtful presence in the corner of her life, reminding her constantly of betrayal, continuing constant betrayal, and what a silly girl she had been. Lex Luthor is her sporadic balm. Easing her pain when she feels at her weakest. Appearing in her life and taking her away from it for a moment. They have met twice since Smallville. The first in a club during her final year of college and the second when her father died. Each healing her just that little bit more. But not for long.

"I've read a lot of interesting articles by a Linda Lord recently." Chloe looks up sharply and then away, out of the window to the hazy lights below

"My colleagues at my meeting this morning were telling me that she's quite the thorn in the side of the Edge City corporate world. Very big on ethical business. She writes for the Edge Daily. You know her?"

She hadn't been able to help herself when it came to choosing a pseudonym. The initials were beckoning her, calling her. She wonders who else has figured it out.

"I never write anything about you, you know. Although I have material enough to fill a book."

"Any particular reason why not?"

Chloe looks at him and he seems to sense something and looks ashamed. "I just....wouldn't."

She's had enough of this. They both know how this will end.

She rises, drops her room key in his lap and walks slowly away.
________________________________________

The way she is, people expect something big to have precipitated the change. Yet it was the little things. Clark was an important part of that but not everything. She came to respect the fact that he needed to keep his secret. It was other things, the more mundane things that eventually wore her down. Being on the outside looking in has its strengths. You become perceptive, strong and self-reliant. Yet any confidence you feel is not real but illusory as there is no-one to nurture it but yourself. Eventually it will be broken as it does not have a strong foundation.

The fall-out from Smallville, the increased awareness of how she was gently battered there had changed her. She is a different person, yet Smallville continues to define her. She can't escape it. She doesn't want to escape it.
Yet...this is the best she has been. She feels calm and at peace. It is ridiculous to be feeling this way at 24, as if she has lived a lifetime of trials and tribulations.

She is a fighter though. Always was and always will be.
________________________________________

Lex is looking at her as she sleeps. She can feel him. She hasn't felt this safe in years. She knows he will leave soon and re-appear again, at another crisis point in her life, lifting her back up.

She opens her eyes and sees him leaning on an elbow staring. She smiles and feels like herself in the first time in years.

"I have a few more meetings today. Do you want to meet up afterwards?" He's stroking her hair.

Chloe has to think. This is unusual. They never spend the day together after the night before.

"I like this city." Lex says softly. "It's somewhere I'd like to have a reason to visit more often."

Chloe has to fight her every instinct commanding her to close off. But Lex is so gentle slowly stroking her, that she feels the threads of her being that have been so tightly bound until now start to loosen.

"I liked who you were in Smallville you know." Lex says looking at her. Then, more seriously, "but I like how you are now as well. Maybe more"

Lex. Who always knows exactly what to say. She mourns too much for her former self feeling that the present is an inadequate, poorer version when she sometimes, secretly, prefers it. There are times when she likes the person she has become.

She smiles, "Me too." She turns towards him and leans on her elbow, mimicking him, another thread slowly loosening "I'll clear my schedule for this afternoon. We can have lunch and you can tell me more about this acquisition you're working on."

Seeing his expression she laughs.
________________________________________

Sitting at her desk, she looks out of the window. It's late afternoon and she feels lazy. She hasn't even started writing yet. She thinks of this morning. She never considered that Lex got something out of their encounters as well as herself. Increasing their frequency frightens her. She hasn't depended on someone for a long time.

And then there's Lex. She trusts him with herself but with nothing else. She knows enough of his business dealings to know that he's ruthless to the point of immorality. She shudders involuntarily at the thought and feels a chill close in on her. The phone rings and jolts her.

"Chloe speaking"

"It's me. I'm outside your building but no-one seems to want to let me up."

"Probably the cat burglar look you've got going." She says with a smile. "Hang on, I'll buzz you in."
________________________________________

They have been sitting looking at each other for about five minutes. This is all new. Daylight where they normally meet in the darkness. It starts to rain outside and the room is momentarily darkened by the clouds as if sensing her awkwardness and dulling the light. Chloe searches her mind for a sentence and finds none. Her courage from last night is failing her.

"I'm not sure I can do this" she starts. Responding to his wordless prompt she continues, "Share. I'm not sure I can share myself, even a little part of it, with someone right now."

A loosened thread weaves itself back against her being.

"Chloe." Lex looks slightly unsure, for once uncertain as to what will come out of his mouth. He leans forward, elbows on his knees.

"I didn't come here expecting to meet up with you, and then when I did, I didn't expect to want to see you again," Chloe looks up in surprise, a sliver of hurt creeping into her gaze. Lex goes on, false reassurance is not his style. "I like who I am when I'm with you. It's as simple or as complicated as that."

Lex is blurred through her tears. This is good for her. Lex is good for her. She smiles suddenly. That is one thing she has never been able to change - her smile. It always comes out wide and bright. "Blinding" Maya used to say.

"I don't know if you noticed Lex, but I'm a little messed up."

"Well Chloe, as the poster boy for all things sane, pure and uncomplicated..."

She stands up and walks around to where he is sitting. They kiss and she's sinking into him, long deep sighs into his mouth. She looks at him and he strokes her hair, whispers her name like a promise, an incantation.
For now, this will be her life. Writing and healing bursts of Lex.

Simple and complicated.

Here is the companion piece, it is the encounter that is mentioned in Mimosa, where Lex and Chloe meet at a club.

Tripping the light fantastic

12am

Chloe is so high when she enters the club that she can't see straight. Tripping over herself she leans into the wall trying to balance, too gone to notice the grime coating it. She feels good. She feels fucking fantastic. The kind of drunk where everything is shiny and everybody is interesting. She hasn't got this kind of a high from alcohol in a very long time. Wiping her hand across her forehead she steadies herself before entering the main room where the dance floor is. She can already feel the heavy beat in her bones, making her blood jump in time to the song. And God, she loves this song. Taking a final look in the mirrored wall facing her she walks slowly, regally, into the room.
________________________________________

12.05am
She sees Maya to the left, blurry and sparkling, wearing a long line of tinsel around her neck - her cheap alternative to a boa. Raising her hand in a greeting to Chloe she falls backwards, landing on a suited man. Score.

Chloe takes a moment to listen to the music and remembers that she freakin loves this song. She fucking loves Metropolis. Why did she ever go to Shitville?

*"Chloe, I wanted you to hear it from me, it wasn't planned....I am sorry." Lois sounding so fucking mournful.*

Oh no. Not going there. This is a night for fun, frolicking and beautiful drunkenness. And so she dances.
________________________________________

1am
"Chloeeeeeeee" Chloe turns, trying to see where the screech is coming from. Warm, wet, glittering arms engulf her from behind lifting her off the ground.

"Mayaaaaaaa" Chloe replies turning around and somehow escaping her grasp.

"How are you feeling babe? Seeing only one of me I hope?" Maya asks with a smile.

"Actually, the both of you look very pretty." Taking a lung full of air she continued, "I need water. Lots and lots of water."

Dragging her to a suddenly available sofa, Maya leaves her there on her quest to the bar. With the kind of concentration only normally required to finish an essay on the Rights of Man, Chloe hauls herself up to what she hopes is a dignified sitting position. This night is beginning to slightly suck. The high of an hour ago is slowly fading to a distinct nauseous feeling.

"There you go." Chloe looks up to find Maya placing a....cocktail jug on the table in front of her.

"It's water." Off Chloe's sceptical look, "Trust me." The first two glasses go down her like a couple of sips.

"So, how's the whole drinking through the pain going for you? It's the fifth night and there should be some sort of result by now shouldn't there?"

Chloe looks up from her jug, carefully considering her response. "Shut up."
________________________________________

2am

The room is standing still and there are now only about 100 people in the club instead of the 200 she was seeing before. She also seems able to walk for a considerable amount of time, okay five minutes, without needing to grab the nearest available body for support. She is feeling better, possibly even 10 per cent sober which of course means she is feeling worse.

Maya has loaned her her tinsel and applied some bright pink sparkly monstrosity to her lips, fully taking advantage of her inability to move her limbs half and hour ago.

"I need the bathroom" Chloe realises, out loud. To no-one in particular.

Pushing open the doors out of the main room she enters a dark corridor, lit up in blue. Stopping outside the first door she concentrates very very hard. There is a picture of someone. With Trousers.

"The Men's" She exclaims triumphantly

"Yes. I noticed" comes a disembodied voice from behind her.

Only one person can stand in a dark porn lit corridor filled with various forms of human fluids and sound as if he is in a board meeting.

"Oh God." She leans her head against the wall.

"Please, Lex is fine"

"My night is now complete."

Chloe turns around and stares. She hasn't seen Lex since graduation. Their joint efforts against his father had given them a sort of bond for a couple of months but that had slowly disappeared with life taking its place. She has kept an eye on what he was up to out of habit but that was a part of her life she wanted to not think about for another 30 years until she could remember it with rosy nostalgia and forget about actual facts.

The very last thing she wants to see tonight are reminders from Smallville. Especially now.

"I never pinned you for Hot Pink Revlon Glitter, Chloe"

"And the fact that you know it's brand name tells me more than I ever want to know" she replies leaning straighter against the wall.

Blinking, she studies him, "What are you doing here Lex?" Off his raised eyebrows she laughs. "Seriously, this is like a normal club with normal people." "It's so weird that you're here." She says more softly, more to herself.

Looking carefully at her he seems to be searching for the words, sifting through what he can and cannot say. "I guess I was looking to remember something."

Chloe smiles then, bright and wide, "And I was looking to forget."

"Smallville."

"Smallville."

Lex is studying her again and she can just tell that he knows. She can see him formulating the words, the sympathy, the meaningless encouragement. Rushing to stop him before he gets it out she doesn't have time to control the crack in her voice that comes with it, "It's ok. I'm over it...him. I have been for a long time." Her eyes proving the lie in her words.

Lex nods absently and Chloe suddenly feels foolish, like he hadn't been thinking that at all.

"You need a lift back home?" And something has shifted. His voice has dropped and Chloe is suddenly aware of atmosphere where there had been none before.

"Yes."
________________________________________

4.00am

Lex is clawing at her. High above him against the wall she has her legs wrapped around him. In her mind there are just explosions after explosions. She is trying desperately to think, think about what she is doing. He is moving so achingly slowly that she has to reach down and grab him by the shoulders and move him faster against her. There have been deep languid kisses before and now this. She finds that she prefers this. This brutal coupling, like they are trying to fuck things out of each other. Chloe feels a rapid tingling in her body coming at her like waves hitting the shore, and suddenly all those songs about passion were making sense. This is sex in its purest and most undiluted form. Chloe had always suspected that the best sex came from being with someone who you didn't completely care about and this experience was proving the point.

She comes with a deep shudder just after Lex. She looks down and smiles in wonder, happiness and relief. Lex smiles back, an expression of genuine surprise in his eyes. They are still clinging to each other.

"I always knew you would be good." She says laughing. Suddenly, this whole situation is hilarious. She is straddling Lex in the hallway of the penthouse, both still half clothed and she can see the distinct outline of pink glitter on his lips.

Lex smirks and kisses her.

I'm so glad you posted these here. As I told you on FF net I adore Mimosa. Dagney

I´m pleased you´ve decided to start posting your fics here. And, just like a told you on ff.net, I´m looking forward to reading more from you. Welcome.:blinkkiss

Hi! these are great. Mimosa is so sweet, with a hint of bitterness, and Tripping the light fantastic is just that so fast. I really like that you posted mimosa first, I adore that these two have come together after such a bitter shag previously. Without it being one of Lex's uber obsessive things. Unplanned for further contact that desire to begin to know one another.

It made me squee.

thanks
N

Well, lookee here, I've found a hidden gem on NS! Except that I found it on FF.net and then came looking for it here. Either way.

I love when I manage to come across an author I've never read before who can grab my attention like you just did. Let me tell you it doesn't happen very often. So when it does, it's cause to celebrate.

:nsparty:

Seriously though, I love this fic and I love your writing. You have a style that is very engaging, it pulls me right into the story, right into the character's lives, their emotions, their thoughts. You remind me a lot of Cy in that way.

The only downfall I see is that you simply don't have enough stories for me to read. You should definitely fix that problem, and soon. *nods*